Omega

Chapters

Ch. 2: Welcome to Harmony City
Ch. 3: Necessities
Ch. 4: Last Chance
Ch. 5: Cardinal Direction
Ch. 6: Perspective
Ch. 8: Wild Life
Ch. 9: Flight
Ch. 10: Employment
Ch. 11: Dreams of Nightmares Past
Ch. 12: New What?
Ch. 13: General Illegality
Ch. 14: Reunion
Ch. 15: Alpha Wolf
Ch. 16: Quick, To Harvest!
Ch. 17: Arrivals
Ch. 18: In Search of Counsel
Ch. 19: The Earth Seer
Reboot
Ch. 1: A Little Adventure
Ch. 7: First Time For Everything

Ch. 2: Welcome to Harmony City

Omega

Chapter 2: Welcome to Harmony City

I stood in the cargo bay, eyeing the little metal crates before me.

“Don’t open ‘em. Don’t even touch ‘em till you get ta Harmony City. If even da slightest ting is wrong when ye arrive, ye’ll have da law on yer tail.”

I turned, stepping out into the hallway and then the lounge. The music that usually leaked from the navigation floor above was strangely absent, replaced by a loud, persistent banging. I flopped back onto a couch, bending my neck to get a better view of the landscape passing below.

The clop of hoofsteps reached my ears, and I raised my head to see Stormslider approaching. She sat on the couch next to me.

“Brings back memories,” I said.

She nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ll be done with this soon.”

“It’s not all bad. Things have been pretty dull ever since we quit smuggling.” Maybe we’ll get some excitement out of it.

“Smuggling is dangerous. Surely you haven’t forgotten the time we were shot down?”

I frowned. “I think we came out of that better than before. We would’ve had to get rid of that dinky little airship soon anyways.”

“Just be careful we don’t end up outside the law again,” she said. “I didn’t graduate from the Royal Air Academy so I could run from royal patrols with you and Silver.”

I chuckled. “Trust me; I’m trying to avoid that.”

She looked up, eyeing the ceiling above us. The banging had stopped. “What could they possibly be doing up there?”

As if in answer, Silver Feather came tumbling down the stairs with a stupid grin painted on his face. He flicked his goggles up into a mane even more spiky than usual. “Dissy! Storm! We’ve done it!”

Stormslider cocked a brow. “What?”

Ember tripped down from above, falling on Silver clumsily. She lifted a weary head and squinted at her surroundings. “Marvelous,” she whispered.

“Dissy, come look!” Silver beckoned to me with a hoof, pushing Ember off of him with the other. Hesitantly, I approached the staircase. What in Equestria did they do?

Silver flew behind me, pushing his head against my rump and forcing me upwards. Surprised, I barely managed to prevent myself from falling upon landing on the navigation floor. I looked around warily. “What is it?” I called.

“In the cockpit!”

My eyes focused in on the door at the end of the room. Closed.

Ever so cautiously, I stepped up to the door. I paused, searching for defects. Traps. Anything out of the ordinary. I pushed the door open. My jaw dropped.

The cockpit was unoccupied. It looked exactly how it was supposed to, to my suspicious surprise, with the exception of a vastly intricate network of ropes winding through it. They were everywhere, integrating every lever, chain, and somehow even button into their dominion. Ropes took mind-boggling routes in, out, over, and between walls. If the cockpit had been a confusing room before, it was now a puzzle that would challenge even the most analytical of detectives.

“Isn’t it great?” I jumped at the sound of Silver’s voice in my ear.

“Silver, what is this?” I asked.

He giggled like a foal. “It’s an autopilot, Dissy! Ember helped me make an autopilot! Now I can hang out with you guys instead of sitting up here all day!”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s good, I guess.”

Ω Ω Ω

“Hah! Good round!”

I flinched as Cleaver yelled his satisfaction, reaching out to pull the pile of chips in the center of the table closer to him. Frowning, I silently pushed my cards forwards. Another loss.

“Let’s go, Storm!” Silver said, grinning. “One more hand before we break.”

Stormslider swept the cards up off the table and shuffling them back into her deck. With the smooth confidence of plentiful practice, she dealt two cards each to Silver, Cleaver, and I.

I squinted down at my cards. King and Ace of magic. A good hand. I pushed a portion of my pitifully small collection of chips forwards to stay in the hand. With a flash of blue fur, the flop slid out onto the table. Seven of magic, Five of magic, Jack of harmony.

I bid a few bits, confident I could get a flush. All I needed was one more magic card. Cleaver frowned, but called anyways. Silver, however, raised, pointedly fixing me with a hard, emotionless stare.

This won’t go well for you, it said. How he managed to put so much message and so little emotion in a stare, especially while wearing goggles, confounded me. I called, and Cleaver folded.

Storm dealt the turn. Five of destiny. Lot of good that does me. I tapped a hoof to symbolize a check. Silver bet five bits. I hesitated, but called nonetheless. Just one more magic card…

Silver let a tiny little smile onto his visage. I ignored it, determined not to let him bluff me out again.

Storm flipped the river onto the table. Nine of magic! A flush! I tried to contain my emotions, pushing ten bits forwards in what I hoped looked like a last ditch bluff. Silver stopped smiling and cocked his head at his cards. He raised me another ten bits. I called, broke out into a wide smile, and slapped my hand onto the table face-up.

“Take that!” I exclaimed. “A flush!” I eyed the huge pot in the middle of the table greedily, already planning my future hands. Leaning against the couch behind me, I looked to my side and grinned at Ember smugly. She raised her eyebrows, quietly nodding towards the table. My eyes followed hers, focusing in on the cards that Silver had silently slid forwards.

A Six and Eight of magic. He had gotten a straight flush on the river. He beat me. Again.

I looked down at the five measly bits that remained before me. They looked so tiny. So insignificant compared to the hoard that blocked my view of Silver. Cleaver and Storm chuckled, exchanging humored glances. Silver offered me an irritating smile.

“Nice try, Dissy,” he said. “but I think you need some more practice.” He got to his hooves and flicked his goggles up. “So how about we take a break, and when we come back we can start betting on coin tosses or something?”

I stayed seated as Silver, Cleaver, and Ember headed for the bar, the stallions chatting enthusiastically about the card game while the mare followed behind quietly. Stormslider collected the cards, neatly arranging them into the deck.

“It surprises me that you’re still so bad at cards,” she said.

I shot an exasperated glare her way. “It’s not that I’m bad. It’s that he’s good.”

She raised a brow, shuffling the deck absentmindedly. “You’ve known him longer than any of us. I imagine he would’ve taught you something by now. I learned how to play at least competently when we were still at the Academy.”

“You never play against him though,” I said.

She grinned slightly. “Yes. I decided that dealing was easier. And more fun than losing all of my bits.”

Ω Ω Ω

The rest of the trip passed in much the same way. After losing a sizeable amount of bits at the poker table, I begged Stormslider to take my place and teach me to deal. The games passed remarkably slow as I fumbled to shuffle the cards correctly, but it was better than going broke.

It took us a week to reach Harmony City. I had been relaxing in the lounge, idly levitating a deck of cards over my head, when the city’s major landmark came into view: a massive wall of rolling thunderclouds, stretching up as far as I could see and off into the horizon to either direction, serving as a backdrop to the city itself.

I had heard of the Cloudwall, of course. It was impossible not to, with all the traveling that I did. Still, I had never actually seen it before. I shivered as I took in the behemoth, thinking of the stories. At least two hundred airships had fallen to its might, struck down by lightning storms and ripped apart by harsh winds as they tried in vain to discover what was on the other side. Even here, at Harmony City, where the Wall was weakened enough by age for the most skilled pilots to fly through, a dozen wrecks could still be seen lying under the clouds. It was too dangerous to retrieve them. Those who died amongst the storms stayed in them for eternity, their bodies left to the elements.

From what I knew, the Cloudwall had surrounded Equestria as long as anypony remembered. Even Princess Celestia was uncertain about its origins.

Harmony City was situated on the base of a peninsula, jutting out through the Cloudwall. The lack of water weakened the massive storm as it passed over the land, forming a narrow corridor where a talented airship crew could pass through.

If anything could be said of the city, it was that it capitalized on its placement. Its architecture was devoted almost exclusively to trade with the exotic lands outside Equestria. Even from our distance, miles away, towering skydocks could be seen rising up to touch the clouds, each one surrounded by a swarm of airships waiting for their turn to dock.

As we came closer, I began to pick out more detail. The city was practically bursting at the seams, with a plethora of new buildings halfway-built along its edges, all vying to get a share of the profits. Abundant skydocks gave every district the ability to trade directly with the aerial merchants that filled the sky. The three roads leading up to the western side of the city, opposite the Cloudwall, seemed to come alive with the colors of all the ponies coming to and fro. The central part of the city, protected by a tall wall, was so darkened by the shadows of the ships above it that it was impossible to pick out any detail.

Pushing myself off the couch I’d been relaxing on, I trotted up to the navigation floor and entered the cockpit.

“We’re here?” I asked.

Silver nodded. “Yeah. I’m gonna park us near one of these smaller skydocks. Hopefully somepony will come out to talk to us.”

After about half an hour of floating near one of the smaller skydocks near the city’s edge, staring awe-struck at the Cloudwall, a pegasus flew out to greet us. A knock sounded on the hatch.

I made my way down to the lounge and into the hallway which connected it to the crew quarters, engine room, and cargo hold. Ember, Cleaver, and Stormslider were already there, waiting in front of the hatch. Clearing my throat, I opened the hatch. A clipboard-wielding pegasus hovered on the other side.

“Wat’cha carryin’?” she asked.

I hesitated, suddenly realizing that I had no experience with the black market in Harmony City, or with how one went about as to announcing the wish to take part in it.

“Uh, stuff. From Manehattan,” I added. Hopefully she knows what I mean.

“What kinda stuff?”

“Y’know. Stuff.” I glanced at Cleaver with a silent plea for help. He knew more about the underground here than I did.

The big stallion lumbered up to the door, almost pushing me aside with his girth. “We are here to deal in local black market,” he stated.

“Ah, okay.” With a flap of her wings, the pegasus alighted inside the ship. She looked to Cleaver expectantly. “Lemme see what’cha got, then.”

“He is Kaptain,” Cleaver said, nodding in my direction. The pegasus raised a brow at me doubtfully, but nonetheless fell in behind me as I led the way to the cargo hold. Flicking on the light, I waved a hoof at the boxes.

“Some guys in Manehattan told us you’d be interested in these,” I said.

She nodded, scribbling a note on her clipboard. “Right. Good. You’re gonna want ta make for the Central Domestic skydock, in the central city.”

“What’s inside these?” I asked. “I’m just curious.”

“Don’t you worry about that. Do what yer told, get yer pay, and get out.” She began to walk out, before stopping and glancing back. “Just gimme half an hour to tell ‘em you’re coming.”

She left, and we waited. Silver set the ship to hover, and we each passed the time trying not to look nervous about our first black market trade in two years. Except Cleaver. He remained implacable.

After the allotted time had passed, we began the approach on the designated skydock, a smaller one just inside the shadow of the main swarm of airships, dwarfed by the titans of architecture that towered above it. I didn’t see any other airships docked on it. Stormslider tapped my shoulder with a wing.

“Silver wants to see you,” she said.

It didn’t take me long to enter the cockpit, unusually devoid of music. The silence was eerie, broken only by the occasional hiss or clank of the airship’s machinery. “What’s up?” I asked.

“I don’t like this,” the pilot said. “Look, some other ships are drifting in around us. Surrounding us. We won’t be able to escape if something goes wrong.”

I squinted through the cockpit glass, picking out the ships forming a vague circle around us, and the shape of the cannons on their sides. “They’re probably just watching for cops.” I hope.

I heard a noise behind me. The rest of the crew had joined us.

As we neared the skydock and details emerged, it began to look more and more dilapidated. Visible rust covered every surface, and some of the piers looked ready to fall off, or even completely gone.

“There’s no way those piers can hold an airship,” Stormslider observed.

“Yeah,” Ember agreed. “That structure hasn’t had maintenance for years.”

“I have bad feeling on this,” Cleaver rumbled.

“Would you all shut up, please?” I hissed. I felt myself beginning to panic. Looking out the cockpit glass, I saw a group of pegasi flying towards us. A chill ran down my spine as I saw the sunlight reflecting off the blades strapped to their feathers. “Ah, horseapples. Get ready for a fight, everypony!”

Cleaver shook his head, reaching for his bottle. “Is no use. Too many to fight. No way to escape.”

Silver turned around, opening his mouth to offer a retort, but was cut off by a determined knocking on the hatch.

“Open up!” a gruff voice commanded.

Ember grabbed me, pushing me back against the wall. “What the buck have you done to us?” she hissed.

Stormslider pulled her off. “Ember, calm down! Now isn’t the time.”

“How about you shut the buck up and come to grips with reality?” Ember shot back. “We’re all gonna die if we don’t do something!”

“You don’t know that! They have no reason to kill us yet!”

“Besides the fact that we know about their operation!?”

“We can work something out!”

“Open the bucking door before I have to open it for you!”

The mares fell silent, cowed by the roaring coming from just outside the hatch.

“I’ll get it,” I said.

Slowly, I stepped down the stairs and stood before the hatch. My crew followed behind me. I flinched at the metallic echo of another barrage of furious pounding. My crew positioned themselves around me. All eyes were on me.

I creaked the hatch open. “Yes?” I asked politely. Like a complete idiot.

The stallion on the other side fixed me with an evil grin. “Welcome to Harmony City,” he said.

And then his hoof slammed into my face, and reality slipped away.

Ω Ω Ω

I woke up, lying in a bed and full of pain.

It wasn’t a very comfortable bed, either, which I supposed was a good thing. If I was dead and woke up on a bed it would probably be like sleeping on a cloud, which pegasi always told me was wonderfully soft.

I opened my eyes to the sight of a neglected ceiling, with a few rays of filtered sunlight passing over its numerous chips and holes. A shadow moved at the edge of my vision. I tried to move my neck to get a better view.

Bad move. A wave of nausea overcame me, eliciting a pained moan. I decided to leave physical movement for later.

“Oh, you’re awake!” a gentle mare’s voice said. An earth pony stepped into my limited line of sight, wearing a tired but reassuring smile. She looked exhausted, with a worn magenta coat and a dirtied red mane. “We thought you’d be out longer. You seem like a delicate pony.”

I tried to ask the mare what had happened. Where I was. Where my crew was. But all that came out was another pathetic moan.

“Don’t worry, you’re in good hooves,” she said. “My name is Phoenix Down.”

Ω Ω Ω

“What happened?”

“You’ve been tricked, sold into slavery for somepony to make some extra bits,” Phoenix Down answered. She stepped into another room. I heard the sound of running water.

“Where am I?”

“The inner district of Harmony City. You’d better get used to it. You’ll spend the rest of your life here.” She returned with a damp towel on her back. Crouching over the only other patient in the room, she began to clean his wings.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“Your pilot,” she said.

My heart sunk. I rolled over, fighting off the nausea to get a better look at Silver Feather’s softly breathing body. “How?”

“He tried to fight those pegasi in the air. He fell. I don’t…” she hesitated. “His left wing is bad. I don’t think he’ll ever fly again.”

My body went weak. I fell back, staring up at the holes in the ceiling blindly. A terrible feeling of dread, of disgust, of shame welled up within me.

Because of me, Silver Feather would never fly again. My best friend, who had always been there for me. In a desperate attempt to distract my darkening thoughts, I turned to ask more questions.

“Who are you?”

“You can call me Nix. Lots of ponies get hurt in this place, and I heal the ones that I can. Make them good and ready to work again. Keep them from dying. This is my home.”

“How did I get here?”

“Your crew brought you two.”

Of course. My crew. “How are they?”

“Fine. Physically, at least. I don’t know how they’re dealing with the… change. They should be out working. It’s their first day.”

Oh, Sweet... no. No, don’t think about it. I stared at the ceiling, mind blank, mouth open. A few minutes passed. “How long have I been here?” I asked.

“Just one night.” She walked over to a set of drawn curtains and pulled them open. A sliver of sunlight peeked around the silhouettes of the massive airships hanging in the sky.

“And I’m some kind of slave now?”

“Yes.”

“Any chance of rescue? Escape?”

“I’m afraid not, Dissy. I’ve lived here my whole life. Other ponies have been here longer. Nopony has ever gotten out. We all die in here.”

“How is that- how is that possible?” Surely the Princess, the Royal Guard! Somepony has to know about this!

“The Inner City is a well-kept secret. The Outer City handles all the trade with Equestria. Nopony knows the truth.”

Just then, I came to the full realization of the sheer weight of my mistake. My crew, the ponies that had become my family, that I’d been closer to than anypony else for years, were now slaves. And it was all my fault.

Silver would never fly again, by airship or wing. Stormslider would probably never get to tinker with the cloud engines she loved. Ember and Cleaver might be lucky enough to end up working as mechanics or cooks, but never as anything more than a slave to another’s wishes.

What must they think of me right now? I had just practically thrown their lives away. Destroyed their dreams. Realized their fears. In a world where everypony was happy, everypony fulfilled their destinies, and everypony got along, I had managed to find the one city that enslaved ponies and tossed them into it.

I should’ve fought, back in that alley in Manehattan. Ember was ready. Silver was ready. I was the only one that wanted to avoid a conflict. Even if they had gotten me, Silver could’ve flown away, and Ember was never an easy mare to contain. They would have been free.

I had been selfish, afraid for my own hide when it was theirs I should’ve been looking out for. Why did I try to take a shortcut? Was the ten minutes it would’ve saved worth all this? I could’ve waited for daytime before I went to see Masquerade.

Rage boiled within me. A terrible, all-consuming rage at the world that would do this to my friends. At myself, for letting it happen. Where was Princess Celestia? How could she let this happen?

I raised a hoof, punching the wall by my side as hard as I could.

“Buck!” I screamed. The wall shook from the impact. My body trembled with emotion. It wasn’t enough. I needed to shout my fury out at the world, to let all the emotion out with a barrage of violence, but I was too weak.

“Hey, stop that!” Phoenix Down ordered. She tossed a sharp stare my way.

Slowly, I lowered my hoof to reveal a new crack in the wall. A sudden exhaustion washed over me. I barely had the energy to speak anymore.

“How do you know my name?” I didn’t remember telling her. And if I had, I wouldn’t have given her my pet name.

“Your pilot told me, when the rest of your crew brought you two in. He was delirious, but awake.”

“Hmm. Okay.” I returned my gaze to the ceiling, examining its pockmarked surface absent-mindedly. “Tell me more about this place.” I hadn’t lost all hope yet. I couldn’t lose hope yet. Maybe we can still get out.

“Many years ago, an earth pony named Robber Baron took control of the city.” She rinsed the towel in a bowl of water. “Nopony knows exactly how he did it, but it’s likely that he started off as just another merchant, and used gold and underworld connections to either buy or replace every official that resisted him. He built the Inner Wall, and turned the Inner City into his own personal work force.”

“Why doesn’t the rest of the city do something about it? How has nopony found out about this yet?” I asked.

“It’s a well-kept secret. Outer City ponies think the Inner City is a glorious metropolis, where only the richest tradesponies are allowed. They even throw parties, whenever one of them is selected for the ‘privilege’ of joining us.”

“And the Princesses? Don’t they ever visit?”

She shook her head. “No. In all my life, I’ve never seen them anywhere but a poster.”

“What about the ponies in here?”

“The Baron is cruel, Dissy. He’ll freely kill you if you disobey him. And those are the lucky ones.”

I lay back down and closed my eyes. A life of servitude? Great. My crew was to spend the rest of their lives in this dark corner of Equestria, slaving their health away in the literal shadows of the world’s wealthy.

My ears twitched as the door opened, and Ember stepped through.

I shrunk away from her angry glare. The fire in her eyes was dampened only be the sweat soaking her coat. With an angry flick of her tail, she turned to talk to Nix.

“How’re they?” she asked.

“Dissy should be fine,” Nix answered. “Silver Feather needs more time.”

“Great. C’mon then, captain.”

I climbed to my hooves and fell in behind her as she stepped back into the hall. “Where are we going?”

“I’m showing you to your room.”

She began to walk, half-heartedly stomping her hooves like a mare that was too tired to act as angry as she wanted to. We ascended six flights of stairs in absolute silence, with nothing but her fury to fill the void.

“Ember, I- “

“Shut up.”

I closed my mouth. She was angry enough as it was. I didn’t want to provoke her, lest she turn around and try to set me on fire.

She was practically shaking when she led me down another hallway, past simple unlabeled doors draped in shadow. Our hooves clopped against the wooden floor, lit only by moonlight leaking through the single window at the end of the hall. Suddenly, she stopped.

I stopped behind her, confused. She showed no sign as to whether this was my room, or hers, or if she was just too tired to walk anymore or she just wanted to talk. A few silent moments passed.

“Ember,” I began.

With a sudden whirl of movement, she twisted around and bucked the door, hard. It broke straight off its hinges, collapsing inwards to bang against the floor loudly.

“Save it,” she said. “Enjoy your room.”

She took a dozen more steps down the hall, opened a door two rooms down from me, and stepped through.

Standing there, I had never before felt so ashamed. I’d known she would be angry, but that hadn’t made it any easier. Will the rest of my crew be like that? Silver Feather?

I jumped as a wizened old chuckling sounded from behind me. Twisting around, I was treated to the sight of an aged stallion, pulling at his pipe as he sat in the wooden chair placed up against the wall.

“Mare problems, eh?” he croaked.

Wordlessly, I turned to face my empty doorway.

Stepping over the threshold into my prison, I levitated the door back into position.

Ch. 3: Necessities

Omega

Chapter 3: Necessities

“Good morning, sir.”

Robber Baron turned around, pulling the cup of tea from his lips as he greeted the newcomer. “Ah, good morning.”

Pen Knife bowed ceremoniously, the fire in the hearth casting his flickering shadow over the varied collection of priceless furniture in the room. Sofas made from fabrics that only a select few Equestrians even knew existed, paintings of vistas thousands of miles away, and display cases containing strange technologies Equestria had not yet discovered decorated the room. It could be said with certainty that, out of every room in all of Equestria, Robber Baron’s personal lounge was more exotic and foreign than any other. The only thing in it that could be called Equestrian was the very pony who owned it.

Baron took a final sip of his tea. He set the cup down regretfully, wishing he could’ve had just a few moments longer to enjoy the taste. But alas, such is the life of the richest pony in Equestria. He smirked.

“Okay then, Pen, what’ve you got for me?” he asked. Rising from his seat, he walked past the visiting unicorn and began out the door.

Pen Knife followed behind. “Would you like the items in need of your attention first, sir? Or the general reports?”

Baron mulled over the decision briefly as he walked. “General reports.”

The aide nodded, levitating a sheaf of papers out of the folder on his back. “Very well then, sir.” He cleared his throat. “The shipyards report that the prototype chassis was recently finished, and they will be sending it out for test runs shortly.”

Baron smiled, ignoring the sights of the city as he walked past a window. They had gotten old after the first decade. “Excellent. How long until it will be ready for shipping?”

“A few months, sir.”

“Good. Carry on.”

Pen Knife adjusted his glasses. “Reports show that our recent gem deal with the Jackal is proving to be extremely lucrative. Besides the increase in gold flow, the Jackal himself is also quite pleased with the trade.”

“Good. Invest half of the new income into public relations. Take a third and put it towards the politicians. Save the rest.”

“Very well, sir.” The conversation stalled momentarily as Pen scribbled something on the clipboard floating by his side. “Also, sir, it seems that the rebels raided one of our warehouses last night.”

Robber Baron arched a brow. “What did they take?”

“Moonstone, sir.”

Baron came to an abrupt halt, nearly causing Pen Knife to bump into him. He twisted his neck, a dangerous look in his eyes as he turned to face the other pony. “How much?”

“A whole shipment, sir.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. “An entire shipment?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have we reacquired it yet?”

“No, sir.”

“You know how I hate wasting money, Pen.”

“Yes, sir.”

Baron returned his eyes forwards, looking down upon his city. There was an entire shipment of moonstone hiding down there, out of its rightful place. And it was expensive. It required contacts amongst the Moon Princess’s highest lieutenants, a daring smuggler to pull it out from under her nose, and a skilled moonsmith to put to use without her knowledge. Such a theft was a massive financial loss.

And if there was anything that the Baron hated in this world, it was an investment that didn’t return.

“Arrange an execution, Pen. Do we have any rebel prisoners?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Two of them, and their families. If you can’t find a family, pick another one,” Baron said.

He walked away without another word. The only sound was the scribbling of pen upon clipboard.

Nobody steals from Robber Baron.

“You’ve ruined my life.”

“There are some acts which cannot be forgiven.”

“This is all your fault!”

My eyes shot open as I was jolted awake, second-hoof sunlight dripping in through the curtained hole in the wall trying to impersonate a window. I heard a dulled wooden knocking, followed by shouting, somewhere in the hall outside my door. I lay in bed for a few more moments, my mind blissfully blank.

A sharp knock brought me back to the present. I rolled over in the bed, just in time to see my precariously balanced door slam into the floor.

I squinted up at the muscular indigo earth pony that stepped over it. His lip curled as he caught sight of me.

“You!” he shouted. “Up! Foundry duty starts early, and I won’t have my shift late for some sulking piece of first-day shit!”

I returned my gaze to the window, blearily trying to evaluate what time it was. I was so tired. Everything was happening so fast.

The bed shook with the impact of a sudden kick from the stallion, knocking both me and the mattress down to the ground.

“Up!”

Buck you.

I remained on the ground, silently resisting.

“Ugh, not this shit again,” I heard him mutter. I felt a sharp pressure on my neck as he pulled me up with his mouth. My hooves scrabbled over the floor as I fought to regain my balance.

“Work starts at dawn, six days a week! You will return to your lodging at sunset! You will call me Boss! You will report to Foundry Two every damned morning or I will personally drag you out into the street and whip your flank! Now go!” He punctuated the order with a heavy stomp.

To my embarrassment, the stomp startled me into stumbling forwards. I glared at him as I walked out into the hall, meeting his stern gaze with as much defiance as I could muster.

Several other ponies were making their way up the hall, towards the staircase. They all looked just as exhausted as I was. Their coats were dull and their eyes empty, in a way that I had never seen before amongst the happy, pastel-colored ponies of Equestria.

Boss shoved me from behind, sending me stumbling forwards. I caught myself on the opposite wall and, resisting the urge to turn and try to tackle the larger pony, fell in with the others.

I was swept downstairs and out into the street by the ponies around me, where we all joined a large crowd gathering in front of the building. Squinting upwards, I got my first look at my new home. It was a plain construct: a brick-and-mortar building with curtained holes marking each room. A simple white “12R” was painted on it, just above the door.

“Move!”

The crowd lurched forwards, spurred onwards by the command. Together we shuffled forth through the streets of the Inner City. The simple residential buildings around us were soon replaced with the architecture of industry: steel mills, ironworks, foundries, and manufacturing plants. Smaller groups of ponies broke off from the main crowd as we passed them, filtering into their respective workplaces.

I looked up, and was treated to a sight unlike any I had seen before. A dozen massive skydocks towered above me, each behemoth connected to its neighbors by sturdy steel bridges. The sky was almost completely blocked out by the fleet of trade ships floating above the city; what little light reached the Inner City itself was forced to slip between the ships, putting the district under a state of perpetual twilight.

As I returned my gaze forwards, I noticed guard towers built around the path. Each one held a pair of ponies within, their faces hidden by grim, dark suits of armor. I shivered as one of them gazed down on me. There was something inexplicably… unnatural about them.

“Halt!”

I almost bumped into the mare in front of me as the crowd shuffled to a stop. Glancing around, I suddenly realized that most of the crowd we had begun with was gone; only about thirty ponies remained.

Before us was a large brick-and-mortar building. A pair of tall smokestacks poked out of its roof, identifying it to be of industrial purpose. I stood up to my full height, straining to see the words painted on its front over the shoulders of the pony in front of me.

“Foundry Two,” I read aloud.

The line advanced quickly, and I soon found myself standing before Boss, frowning at me through the glass of the booth he occupied.

“Name?”

“Dissero.”

He made a fierce scribble upon something out of my view. “Race?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Can’t he figure it out himself? “Unicorn…”

Another scribble. “Previous occupation?”

“Merchant.”

One last, vigorous scribble. I began to doubt the legibility of his writing. “Step aside and wait.”

I complied, removing myself from the line to allow another stallion to advance. He gave his name, waited while Boss marked something on his paper, and then continued onwards, around a corner and into the depths of Foundry Two.

I noticed another pony standing by my side. He had an inky black coat, and was drawn so far into himself, huddled against the rough wall behind us, that I almost didn’t notice his wings. He glanced up at me shyly, looking away when he realized I saw him.

“You new here?” I asked.

He nodded. He looked young, like a colt fresh out of the home. We were both relatively small compared to the large, built-up ponies that lived here, but he was even scrawnier than I was. An image of a paintbrush trailed by stars adorned his flank.

“My name’s Dissero,” I said.

“Moon Dream,” he replied.

I looked around. The line was almost gone. “How’d you end up here?”

“I came to draw the airships,” he said. “I got closer than I wanted.”

Boss’s harsh voice cut through the air. “You two, over here!”

The line was gone, leaving only Boss, now outside the booth, tapping a hoof impatiently. I stepped forwards, and Moon Dream followed nervously behind.

“Welcome to Foundry Two!” he barked. “You will be working with the furnaces! Come with me!”

Is the constant yelling really necessary? He marched down the hallway, and we followed into the central structure of the foundry. It was dark inside, with narrow slits supplying sparse daylight. Large casts were stacked against one wall, and giant iron cauldrons hung suspended from the roof, slowly lumbering around the room as a few ponies labored over the pulleys attached to them. Two large doors on the other side of the building rumbled open as I followed Boss, revealing a pair of massive pony-drawn carriages, the stallions pulling them straining against their yokes.

Boss led us down a narrow flight of stairs tucked into a corner. We emerged in a much more compact room, somewhere beneath the main one. Eight brick furnaces were aligned in two columns of side-by-side pairs, with two ponies waiting expectantly beside each pair.

Boss stopped besides an unoccupied pair. “You two will be operating these furnaces!” he explained, still shouting. He pointed to me. “You will supply each one with coal!” His hoof turned on Moon Dream. “You will supply them with air!”

He narrowed his eyes, glancing over us one last time before marching back to the stairs. He shot a look over his shoulder, a snarl already prepared for the rest of the room.

“Get to work!” he roared.

I jumped at a sudden bang by my side. A chute in the wall I hadn’t noticed before had slammed open, dumping a pile of coal onto the floor.

Gingerly levitating a piece to look at it closer, I suddenly met eyes with Moon Dream. I saw my own misery reflected back at me. He opened his mouth to mumble something.

“I suppose we should get started.”

Ω Ω Ω

The sharp shriek of the whistle rang in my ears.

The hard stone floor rose up to meet me. I lay there, drenched in sweat, and vaguely aware of Moon Dream collapsing by my side. My magic sputtered and died in much the same way that my body was trying to. A few pieces of dropped coal rained upon my coat, adding to the already thick layer of coal dust on it.

I stared straight forwards, panting, and cherished the next few seconds of peace. My ears registered the sound of hooves clopping past. How can they still be standing?

A shadow cast itself over me. With a gargantuan effort, I rolled over and looked up, to be rewarded with the sight of Boss grinning down at me.

“Hard work, eh, newbies?”

If I hadn’t been so exhausted I would’ve frowned. For a moment, I thought I’d heard a distant second cousin of sympathy.

“Take tomorrow off. You’ll be working every other day until you can manage two days without dying. You’ll get used to it,” he told us. “If there’s one good thing about foundry work, it’s that it makes you hard.”

The journey home was almost as hard as the work itself. The sun had both risen and set during my time in the foundry, and my tired hooves stumbled over every bump in the path as I dragged myself back to my building. Moon Dream staggered next to me. During the day we had determined that his room was just down the hall from my own.

By the time we reached our rooms, we were too tired for any kind of real goodbye. We exchanged half-dead glances of acknowledgement. He opened his door and stepped through.

I stepped over my door and collapsed into bed, not even bothering to levitate it into place.

Ω Ω Ω

Oh, sweet.... damn. My whole body ached like it had never ached before. Even my horn ached. I couldn’t even levitate my sad excuse for a blanket off of me without summoning a massive migraine all too reminiscent of being punched in the face.

Maybe... yeah. No magic for today.

I stumbled out of my room to find the building mostly deserted. Everypony must be out working. I spied the old pegasus that had laughed at me when Ember bucked my door down, sitting in his chair and smoking a pipe.

The old pegasus looked up and cracked a toothy smile my way. “I see Sword Breaker has elected to give you a day off,” he laughed. “Hard first day?”

I nodded uncertainly. Who’s this guy? “Why aren’t you out with the others?”

“Hah! Work, an old pony like me!” he exclaimed. “I’d break my back out in that foundry. Sword Breaker may be tough, but he cares. He’s just as much a slave as the rest of us.” He winked at me as he said the last few words, taking a long pull at his pipe.

“Who’s Sword Breaker?” I asked.

“Oh, well he probably introduced himself to you as ‘Boss.’ He likes that kind of thing.”

He released a puff of smoke, leaning back contentedly. A shaft of sunlight lit up his face, revealing a veritable army of wrinkles and spots.

“You’re the oldest pony I’ve seen in this place so far,” I said.

“And probably the oldest you’ll ever see, until the day I die!” He chuckled. That’s starting to get on my nerves.

“Why doesn’t anypony make you work? I didn’t think the Baron was the kind of pony to allow retirement.”

“He’s not, boy. The good Baron would never let a pony rest as long as his hoof can still be raised, and even then he finds a use for us.” He smiled to himself. “But when you’ve survived here as long as I have, you find ways.”

I nodded. “Suppose I’ll go look around then.” I began to make my way down the hall.

A cane flashed out, slapping me on the knee as I tried to pass him. “Ow!” Where the hay did he get a cane?

“Now listen here, son. I’ve heard about you and your crew. Unfortunate business, but don’t you worry: they’ll come around. Friends are hard to find here, and sometimes harder to separate. What’s your name again?”

“Dissero.” I rubbed my knee with my other leg. I really don’t need ancients beating me with sticks right now.

“Ah, yes. Dissy! I remember now.” He chuckled again. “My memory is not what it once was.”

Remember? I had never told him my name before in the first place, let alone the pet name Dissy and my parents used. The old stallion looked behind me and smiled. “Ah, Moon Dream. I see you too have been graced with a free day.”

“Yes, sir,” Moon Dream said. He stepped up to my side.

“Always sad to see a young pony like yourself caught up in this hell.” The old stallion released a series of hacking coughs before taking another pull at his pipe.

“Y’know, that’s not very healthy, sir,” the younger pegasus said.

“Bah, don’t worry about me. I would’ve been dead years ago if it wasn’t for some lucky placement.” He winked at us, and shifted so we could see his cutie mark: a glowing hot ingot. “I have a talent for metal work, you see. Kept me alive longer than anypony else in the foundries. I’ve lived through generations here, seen many of these skydocks being built. A few years off my life won’t hurt. Oh, pardon my manners!” He took another pull on his pipe. “M’name’s Old Ironhide.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said. Moon Dream murmured agreement.

“Hey, where is Nix’s room?” I asked. Old Ironhide chuckled.

“It’s not too hard. You go down to the second floor, and her room is the second door on the right as you leave the stairwell,” he said.

I excused myself, leaving the two pegasi to talk amongst themselves. I followed Ironhide’s directions to a nondescript door on the second floor and knocked lightly.

“Come in!” Nix called. I entered to find her tending to Silver Feather’s hurt wing. The pegasus was awake, and his face scrunched up in pain. He bit down on the towel in his mouth as Nix set the broken bone in his wing and tied it in place with bandages and tape.

Silver spat out the towel. “By Celestia, that hurts!” he hissed. “And itches!” he added, rolling his back.

“Stop that, and try not to scratch,” Nix ordered. “Actually, you’d better not move your left foreleg much at all,” she said after a moment’s thought, easing him back into a lying down position on his bed.

Nix looked up to see who her visitor was. “Oh, hello Dissy,” she said. “Silver Feather is well enough to talk now, as you can see. I’ll be right back.” She got up and walked into the adjoining room, leaving me alone to face my best friend.

Silver fixed me with a hard look, similar to the kind he‘d used on me at the poker table. I approached him meekly, trying to figure out how to apologize, already anticipating his rejection.

“Silver,” I started, but he cut me off with a wave of his hoof. Here it comes. I was about to lose my best friend.

“Save it,” he said. I was doing a lot of apology saving recently, it seemed. He stared at me for a full minute, and then he said, “I already got my revenge.”

I cocked my head, unsure if I should be happy or depressed. What?

Suddenly, he broke into an evil, playful grin. “I was conscious as I was being brought here...” he started, “and I made sure that everypony thought your name was Dissy.”

“W-what?” I had been expecting anger. Sadness, scorn, contempt. This was literal foal’s play.

I gathered myself together enough to smile. “Thanks.”

I sat by his side, and spent the rest of the morning there. Nix, Silver, and I talked about whatever came to mind, when she wasn’t tending to him or the one other, unconscious patient in the room. Every now and then she asked for my assistance, and I gave it freely. It was my only way to repay her.

Eventually, I dozed off. Despite last night’s sleep, I was still exhausted, and Nix’s room was full of unused beds.

I was roused by the sound of heavy hoofbeats out in the hall. Nix came out of the side room to eye the door, ears twitching curiously. Silver was in the midst of a deep, herb-assisted slumber.

Suddenly, the door burst open.

Three ponies rushed in, carrying the moaning form of a fourth between them. “Phoenix Down!” one of them called.

Nix rushed to the corner of the room where her satchel was placed. “Place him on the table! Gently!”

The ponies cleared a space on the wide metal table that dominated the center of the room and placed their companion upon it. They all wore thick, dirty clothes and caps. One of them had a strange device slung about his neck, vaguely stick-shaped and covered with strange runes. “He’s been shot!”

“What happened? Give me some space.” Nix brushed the others away as she bent over the moaning body. Two of the dirty ponies went to watch the windows, while the one with the rune-covered thing stayed near the table.

Nix beckoned to me with a flick of her tail. I leapt to my hooves. Grabbing a pair of scissors in my magic, I carefully cut away his clothes. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. The wound was bleeding badly, and the fur around it was matted with dirt. Nix grabbed a damp towel and began to gently clean the filth.

“We were smuggling supplies when the Baron’s ponies ambushed us. We had a few casualties, and most of us escaped, but there’re some too weak to take back. We need you to care for this one until he’s good enough to make it home,” the pony with the rune-covered device said. I gave the wounded pony something to bite as Nix poured cheap alcohol over the wound, eliciting a muffled scream.

“I’ll care for him. You’d best go before you’re found here,” Nix said authoritatively. “We don’t want anypony else hurt.”

The two near the windows pulled back, filing out into the hallway. The third followed after them, stopping in the doorway to speak. “We’ll send someone to check him every Sunday.” Then he was gone, as suddenly as he appeared.

“Dissy, hold him down,” Nix ordered. She reached for a pair of tongs, and I put my weight down on the pony’s chest. He moaned in agony as Nix reached into the wound with the tongs, biting the towel so hard I thought he might pop a vein, and passed out.

The tongs came out red, with a bloodied stone sphere covered in runes between its fingers. Nix dropped it into a nearby tin.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a bullet, Dissero,” Nix said as she continued to remove shrapnel from the wound. “The Baron’s ponies shoot them out of rune guns. They’re kinda like hoof cannons. One of the ponies that was in here had one.”

“How do they work?”

“Ancient lunar magic, from the Nightmare Wars. We don’t know much about it, as the Baron keeps it a closely guarded secret. What we do know is that unicorns can store their magic in runes written on moonstone, to be released with command words from other ponies. The Baron knows somepony real high up who gets him the moonstone.”

“And who were those ponies?”

“They were rebels. Surely you didn’t think that the Baron could be running Harmony City like this for so long without some kind of resistance?”

Huh. “Are they recruiting?”

Nix shot me an alarmed look. “Surely you aren’t thinking of joining? Rebels die every day, Dissero. If you think life under the Baron is hard, you can’t imagine life against him.”

“I can’t just sit by and let him own me,” I pushed.

She glared at me. “Nopony lives long as a rebel, they all die eventually. If you join them, your fate will be no different.” She turned back to her work, looking away from me. “If you truly want to throw your life away, then feel free to sign up.”

“How?”

She shook her head. “I’m not telling you how to kill yourself. I’m sure if you walk around outside they’ll run into you eventually.”

Ω Ω Ω

Wow, it’s dark out here.

I walked up to another alley, peering down it curiously. The sun was setting now, and with the stars blocked by the airships above, only the sunlight that reflected off the taller buildings reached the surface.

Where are they?

I squinted, straining to pierce the darkness. Nothing. Come on, did you really think you could just walk out and find rebels in one night?

My ears twitched at a scrabbling sound to my left. I turned, just in time to be knocked over by something that ran between my legs.

“Hey!”

“Get back here!”

“Stop it!”

I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding being trampled by four thickly clothed ponies. They galloped past me, into the alley, and were swallowed up by the night.

“Hey, wait!” I ran after them. They look like rebels!

I darted through the pitch-dark alleys, following the sound of chasing hoofbeats. I heard a loud metal clash, the sound of scrambling hooves, another shout, and then silence.

It was so dark that I could barely see. I slowed to a stop in an empty courtyard, unsure of where to go next. A pair of trash cans had fallen over and were knocking into each other in a corner. My ears twitched.

A rough pair of hooves wrapped themselves around my neck.

I gagged, gasping for breath as I waved my legs around haphazardly. Things started to go dark.

“Wait!”

I fell to the ground, my neck finally free to breathe again, retching. I rolled onto my back, to be rewarded with the sight of three stallions looking down on me.

“He doesn’t look like one of the Baron’s.”

“I thought work didn’t end in this district for another half hour?”

“Well, what’s he doing out here then?”

“Well, he doesn’t look like- “

“I’d like to join you!”

They stopped talking. A frown, a raised brow, and a grin looked down on me. I waved them away with a hoof to give myself some room to stand up.

“Who is it?” The fourth rebel, a mare, pushed her way into the circle. She eyed me over suspiciously. She was holding a struggling, grey-furred filly in her magic. “What are you doing here?”

I swallowed. Here we go. “I’d like to join the rebellion.”

She raised a brow. “Well, you don’t look like much, but... Just let us deal with this scrap and then we’ll head for the safehouse.”

The filly bobbed up and down. “Let go of me! I have to get to my brother!” She flapped her legs around wildly, as if trying to swim out of the magical grasp and escape.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, little one,” the mare said. “We gave you a chance, and you didn’t take it.”

“I have to get to my brother!” the filly repeated.

“What are you doing with her?” I asked.

One of the stallions glanced my way. “She’s a Baron spy. Seen too much, and since she didn’t agree to join us...”

A second stallion finished for him. “We kill her.”

I blinked. “Wh- what? You can’t kill a foal!”

The mare fixed me with a hard stare. “We have no choice. It’s the life of this filly or the good of the rebellion. We have no place to put her.”

I gaped. “No! That’s not right!”

One of the stallions pulled me aside. “Look here, recruit. The rebellion is the only thing here that’s fighting back against the Baron. We can’t afford to take any risks. She has to go.”

“No! Find another way!”

He frowned. “There is no other way. She thinks the Baron will give her her brother back, and she won’t give in to us. She needs to be silenced.”

“Listen to yourself!” I growled. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping these ponies? You can’t kill their foals!”

“There are certain unfortunate necessities that must be seen too. Are you sure you have the drive to join us?” The stallion punched my shoulder lightly. “Have you got what it takes to serve the greater good?”

“Well, yes, but-”

A high-pitched squeal rang through the night.

I looked at the rebel before me, terrified. He nodded at me grimly, patted me on the back, and began to walk back to the rest of his group. My eyes followed after him.

I focused in on a trickle of blood, and a foal-shaped shadow on the pavement.

I turned and ran as fast as I could.

Ch. 4: Last Chance

Omega

Chapter 4: Last Chance

“Now, let’s see if you can get this one. Hrm... what is the name of the earth pony leader that helped unite the three tribes?”

“Chancellor Puddinghead!”

Robber Baron smiled. “Yes, that’s right.”

He reached out a hoof and rustled the filly’s mane. “Now go along and pack your bags. You have a long journey ahead of you.”

“Yes, sir, Mister Baron!”

The filly nodded enthusiastically and snapped into a mock salute. With a giggle, she twisted around and ran down the hall, disappearing out of sight around a corner. The Baron turned to Pen Knife, who was standing by his side with his ever-present clipboard.

“How much longer until that one’s ready, Pen?” he asked.

“The filly, sir? Another decade, I believe.”

“And what position is she being groomed for? Baltimare?”

“Minister of Commerce for Baltimare, sir.”

“Ah, excellent.” Baron took a moment to mull over his mental notes. “Is the current minister with us?”

“No, sir. Claims to be unbuyable.”

“Well, make sure his assassination is clean.”

“Yes, sir.” Pen Knife made a small scribble on his clipboard.

How the hell does that clipboard of his work? Robber Baron had never once seen him turn to another sheet, and yet somehow he managed to always have a relevant page on it. Boggles the mind.

Baron glanced out the window. “Is the execution ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Give the Inner City a day off. I don’t want a single one of them to miss it.”

Without any real conscious direction, my panicked hooves eventually brought me to the closest thing I had to home: my little apartment in building 12R. I crashed through the still unsecured door and tossed myself into bed.

How could they kill a filly?

Ω Ω Ω

I woke up the next morning to the pleasantly surprising sound of laughter out in the hall.

Rolling out of bed, I took a minute to stretch. My body still ached, despite not having to work yesterday. I hate this place.

Poking my head out my room, I glanced up and down the hall. Old Ironhide was in the same position as always, squinting down upon a few mares playing at cards from his chair. Levitating my door back into place, I trotted down the hall.

“Morning,” I said.

The mares looked up briefly, nodded acknowledgement, and returned to their game. Old Ironhide greeted me with a puff of smoke. “Morning, Dissy! Have you heard the news?”

I cocked my head. “No. What’s happened?”

He frowned. “The good Baron has decided to grace us all with a holiday.”

I blinked, taken aback by the foreboding tone. “Well, that’s good... right?”

One of the mares coughed loudly. The other two exchanged condescending looks as Ironhide shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. The good Baron only grants us his ‘holidays’ when he wants us to attend something. And when he wants us to attend something, it’s never something good.” He punctuated the sentence with a meaningful pull on his pipe.

“Oh.” I ran a hoof through my mane, suddenly self-conscious. “Well, thanks for telling me then. I’ll be off.”

None of them offered a farewell, and I left them in silence. I climbed down the stairs to Nix’s floor, found her room, and knocked twice.

“Come in.”

“Hey, Nix. Just thought I’d come and—”

I stopped, halfway in the room. Silver Feather and Nix were there, as I had expected, but so was Stormslider. My mind debated whether or not to slip back out before she noticed, but it was too late anyways. She had me now, eyeing me with that cool, collected look of hers.

“Hello, Dissero.”

Might as well get this over with. I stepped the rest of the way into the room and shut the door behind me. “Hey, Storm. I just wanted to say—”

“Save your apologies and listen,” she interrupted. At this rate I’ll have enough apologies saved to open a small business. I glanced at the clock and mentally noted the time. No doubt she had prepared a debilitating series of accurate, detailed jibes.

“I’m a rational pony. I like to judge ponies by their intentions. I know you had good intentions. You didn’t want this; you’re not evil.” Her brow furrowed with well-controlled anger. “As such, I will forgive you, and instead direct my anger at the bastard that runs this city, and has me cleaning the only sewers in all of Equestria full of disgusting, foreign shit.”

I blinked. I smiled. Perhaps Old Ironhide is right after all. Storm gave me a curt nod and turned to Nix.

“Do you have a towel I can borrow?” she asked. For the first time I noticed the dampness dripping off her mane.

Nix grabbed a neatly folded towel and tossed it to her. “If you have sewer duty, you’ll have to keep it.” She looked to me. “And Dissy, Old Ironhide tells me you have foundry duty. You’ll need this.”

She hoofed me a plain, yellowish-white bandana. I held it up quizzically.

“To tie around your muzzle,” she added. “It’ll protect you from the smoke and fire.”

“Ah, of course.” I draped it over my neck experimentally. “I don’t know how to tie one of these.”

“I’ll handle it.” Nix crossed the room and tied the bandana around my neck before I could open my mouth to protest.

“Uh, thanks.”

“No problem. Can you help me with this poultice?”

Ω Ω Ω

Clang! Clang! Clang!

My ear’s twitched. I drew the curtains on the nearest hole in the wall aside and glanced down the street. “Nix, what is that?”

“Whatever the Baron called the holiday for is about to happen. We all need to get to the display yard,” she said. She grabbed a fresh roll of bandages and wrapped it around Silver’s bad wing. He mumbled something irritably.

I narrowed my eyes. There was something coming around the corner, down the street. What is that...?

As it rounded the turn and came into full view, I realized what it was. A small airship, slowly working its way down the street. A bell was fixed to the top of it, being rung by a stern-looking unicorn.

As it passed by, Nix put her supplies back into her bag and stood up, stretching. She looked down to Silver. “Get up. You can walk now, as long as you take it easy, and you’re better off not staying here.”

He climbed to his hooves, rolling his shoulders experimentally. “Why not?”

She frowned. “The Baron doesn’t like it when we miss things. Sometimes he raids buildings, and if he finds somepony skipping...”

Silver nodded. “Right, I get the picture.” He flourished a hoof towards the door in mock ceremony. “Shall we go, then?”

The street was crowded. Every pony in the Inner City lived in the same compacted residential district: twenty buildings over five blocks, and they poured out of their residences like trickles meeting a river. The bell ship passed over me, casting my world into a second layer of shadow even deeper than the one cast by the tradeships above. I scanned the crowd, looking for my other crewmembers. In the distance, a team of the Baron’s police broke into a building.

The sun was just starting to set as we arrived at the display yard. It was the only truly open space in the Inner City, which usually made an uncomfortably efficient use of space. The wide, circular yard marked the very middle of Harmony City, gently sloping down from the edges. At the bottom of the yard, where it flattened out, a wooden scaffold had been erected. The hooves of hundreds of enslaved ponies kicked up a thick cloud of dust, making it difficult to see. I coughed. Despite being called a yard, there wasn’t a single blade of grass in sight.

On the opposite side of the yard, surrounded by a clear and cleanly paved courtyard, was the Baron’s Tower. I craned my neck, awed by the sheer height of the behemoth of architecture. The ships were thicker here than anywhere else. The shadows were, too.

I looked over to Nix. She had a rag wrapped around her muzzle. I coughed again and pulled my bandana up, waving the dust away with a hoof. “What are they going to do?” I asked.

She met eyes with me. She looked worried. “It looks like an execution.”

My eyes widened. “An exe—a what?”

“RESIDENTS!”

The crowd quieted. I looked back to the scaffold as the dust settled. A grey pegasus paced the length of the makeshift stage.

“A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED.”

I stretched myself to my full height, straining to see over the ponies in front of me. A bespectacled yellow unicorn was standing in the scaffold’s shadow, horn glowing. He must be amplifying the voice.

“TWO NIGHTS AGO, ONE OF THE BARON’S PERSONAL WAREHOUSES WAS RAIDED BY A GROUP OF THUGS CALLING THEMSELVES ‘REBELS.’ THIS ACT CANNOT GO UNPUNISHED.”

I heard movement behind me, and turned around. Two lines of the Baron’s police were marching through the crowd. I stumbled as the crowd was pushed and shoved to clear a path.

“THESE SO-CALLED ‘REBELS’ MUST LEARN THAT THEIR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. THEY HAVE STOLEN YOUR FOOD AND ENDANGERED YOUR LIFE. THIS CANNOT GO UNPUNISHED.”

The double line emerged from the inner circle of the crowd. Between them was another line of ponies that I hadn’t noticed before. Stallions, mares, and foals. Silver cursed under his breath.

“THESE NINE RESIDENTS, WHO ONCE ATE THE BARON’S FOOD AND SLEPT IN HIS HOMES, WERE CAUGHT WITH THE STOLEN GOODS. THIS CANNOT GO UNPUNISHED.”

I narrowed my eyes. No, that can’t be right... there are foals in there! There were only four adults; two mares and two stallions. The other five were just foals, stumbling as the police pushed them, eyes wide with fear.

I leaned towards Nix. “I don’t understand. There are foals down there,” I whispered.

She nodded somberly. “They’re just examples. The Baron doesn’t care if they’re truly guilty.”

Silver scratched at the ground angrily. “Guilty?” he spat. “The Baron is the only guilty one here.”

“AS SUCH, THEY HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH, BY THE JUSTICE OF THE BARON.”

The nine were on the scaffold now. Nooses had been placed around their necks. The foals were sobbing uncontrollably. Even from a distance their shaking was visible. The adults stared forwards in silence.

With a wooden rattle, the bottom of the scaffold fell away. One of the foals, a small colt, shrieked as he fell. In an instant the nooses tightened, and he fell silent. In the quiet of the yard, the sound of the nine victims gagging carried far and clear. Not a single pony in the crowd moved a muscle.

Silence fell. The yellow unicorn made a mark on his clipboard.

Ω Ω Ω

Time passed. Moon Dream and I grew stronger, hardened by our work in the foundry, and the days began to run together. I woke in the morning, marched to Foundry Two, donned my bandana, and slaved until past sundown.

Dream and I grew close. Our mutual hardships drew us together, and soon I began to see him as a little brother of sorts. On Sundays most of us were given a day off to rest after the week’s toil, and he and I spent hours in the small courtyard behind our building. He drew the airships on whatever rags he could find, using pieces of charcoal and chalk that had been smuggled in or scavenged from factories. He even drew a makeshift map of Equestria on my bandana. I began to wear it more often. It became more of a part of me, like Silver’s goggles and Storm’s necklace.

Ember eventually came around. Storm and Silver managed to convince her that I truly was sorry, that I hadn’t meant for any of this, and that being mad at me would only make things worse and, honestly, it would make more sense to be mad at the Baron. I don’t know if she completely accepted it, but she did fix my door as a token of friendship. It was nice to have a working door.

With the help of Old Ironhide, I made contact with a rebel smuggler and got hold of a bottle of what Cleaver would call “the good Stalliongrad vodka.” I knocked on his door and presented it to him one Sunday, and after sweeping me up into a grateful bear hug, I was forgiven. If only all of my problems were so easily solved.

My life fell into the pattern of an Inner City slave. I worked Monday through Saturday. On Sunday I relaxed. There was a roughly two-hour long period where my crew, Moon Dream, and I were all free at once, and we spent it relaxing in the courtyard. Sometimes Nix joined us, when she wasn’t busy. We spent the day complaining about our jobs and daydreaming about escape. Sometimes it even felt like being free. Still, a passing patrol of the Baron’s police always yanked me back to reality.

“That one’s my favorite,” Moon Dream announced one Sunday. He pointed with his pencil, at a relatively small ship orbiting the Baron’s Tower. It didn’t look familiar, and it wasn’t docking or departing like every other airship was always doing. “It has such nice aesthetics.”

He returned to his pad, a pitiful collection of bound together papers that Stormslider had found in the sewers and saved. Silver peered up into the sky, squinting as a beam of sunlight landed on his face.

“She does look pretty slick,” he said enviously. “Look at those wings. And thrusters, too. Bet she can pull some sick tricks.” His wing had stopped healing after two weeks, but it still wasn’t any good for flight. It never quite closed at the proper angle, and it could only be extended stiffly for some quick, pained gliding. A pang of guilt ran through me as I looked at it.

“Our old ship was nice,” I said. It had been my ship, after all. Sure, we pooled our bits to get it. But my name was the one on the false license.

“Our old ship was worth nineteen bits,” Ember stated. “Trust me, I was there when we scrapped it.” Silver and Cleaver laughed.

Stormslider lowered her magazine. “I wonder what kind of engine it has,” she murmured. She was always reading magazines on Sundays. She found a few in the sewers every now and then.

And then Ember had to return to her room. Her job began at midnight, and she needed to start sleeping early in the day if she didn’t want to risk punishment. Cleaver left soon after, mentioning that he would be expected to pull supply carts for the next day’s work soon. Silver climbed to his hooves, claiming he had an appointment, and trotted away. Stormslider wrapped up her magazine and headed for the street with some words about the night shift. Moon Dream glanced up at the setting sun and decided to go scavenging for supplies. Left alone, I made my way to Nix’s room.

I became a sort of assistant towards Nix. I helped her care for stable patients, and watched over them when she went out for supplies. The rebels ran a black market in some factory too decrepit for working, where ponies traded whatever they could find. The rebels gave out smuggled goods, speaking about “destabilizing the system.” Useful bits of trash drifted in through the sewers. Sometimes things would fall off the airships. Those were always worth a lot, if they didn’t break.

Nix and I talked about whatever came to mind. We discussed recent events, and plotted escape routes and coups. It wasn’t anything serious, of course. We didn’t have any real hope of getting out alive.

More time passed. I glanced at a calendar and idly noted that almost two months had passed. I looked in a mirror. My coat was getting dull, though it still wasn’t as bad as those who had been here for years. Moon Dream heard rumors about the rebels planning something big. His work was becoming popular; makeshift paintings now adorned the halls and walls of building 12R.

Cleaver hadn’t lost his impeccable ability to find alcohol along with his freedom. Stormslider told me that he had managed to gain access to some kind of underground bar. I wasn’t sure whether or not to be surprised. The Baron didn’t approve of alcohol, or really anything that he didn’t give us, and as such the rebels decided that running bars helped to destabilize the system, and set one up. Cleaver talked his way into discovering it. Apparently he was surprisingly charismatic when booze was at stake. The rest of the crew often went there on Sundays, but I wasn’t much for drinking. Dream was too young, and Nix was too busy.

I was forced to attend a few more executions. Another hanging and two firing squads. Each time foals were involved, and each time the true culprits were replaced with pointless “examples.” The second hanging moved me almost as much as the first.

After that, the effect started to wear off.

Ω Ω Ω

It was a Saturday. Besides the approaching relaxation of Sunday, there wasn’t much else to say about it. Nothing out of the ordinary to warn me about what would happen. Perhaps if I had paid more attention, I might have seen something.

I was given the privilege of leaving the foundry early. Boss liked to give us each one day of early leave per month. Normally Moon Dream and I used ours on the same day, but for some reason I used mine that Saturday without telling him early. He was surprised, but since Boss made us tell him our day a week in advance, he couldn’t do anything about it. I think Nix might have needed me for something, or perhaps I’d decided to go drinking with Cleaver.

I left the foundry in high spirits. As high as they get with the constant presence of the airships and the Baron’s police. I looked up to the sun, trying to gauge the time of day, when—

Boom!

I was knocked to the ground with an explosive force. My horn jabbed itself into a rock, causing a jolt of pain to race through my body. My ears rang. I rolled around in a state of semi-consciousness, mind blank, overcome with confusion.

When I finally regathered my thoughts, I looked behind me.

Foundry Two was up in flames.

I sat there for a few moments, staring blankly. Then my mind kicked back into gear. I staggered to my hooves.

“Moon Dream!” I yelled as loud as I could, hoping against hope that he might come stumbling out of the flames.

Clumsily, I ran towards the burning building. “Moon Dream!” I pulled at a piece of rubble with my magic, but it was too heavy. I couldn’t lift it. I couldn’t focus. Another stab of pain ran down my side. I tripped and fell, vision blurring as tears welled. He looked up to me. I was supposed to protect him. He was like a little brother. I pictured him in the courtyard, pointing out an airship he liked as he sketched with his charcoal and scavenged paper.

I noticed the bandana, still covering my muzzle. I tore it off, staring at the map he’d drawn for me. Just like the old map I’d had, in my old airship. Not quite accurate of course, and missing some important features, but...

I was vaguely aware of ponies running frantically around me, screaming, but I ignored them. I don’t know how long I sat there, gazing at the flames. Time slipped away.

“Dissero! Dissero!”

A small sliver of hope awoke within me. I turned around. “Moon Dream?”

Nix ran up and pulled me into a shaky hug. She looked over me, hooves searching for wounds. “I came as soon as I heard! Oh, I was so worried! Are you okay? Where’s Moon Dream?”

I turned back to the fire, slowly. Silently.

She raised a hoof to her mouth. “Oh.”

“Nix, what just happened?” I asked. She didn’t respond. I jumped to my hooves, grabbing her and shaking her to get her attention. “Nix! What just happened?”

“It’s the rebels!” she cried. “They’re trying to cripple the Inner City, or draw attention from the rest of Equestria. They’re blowing up buildings all around the industrial district!”

I gaped. “How do you know about this?”

“Old Ironhide told me as I passed him in the hall. He’s known for weeks, but he hasn’t told anypony.”

Rage. Anger coursed through me. That old pegasus killed Moon Dream. He’s killed hundreds with his silence. “Let’s go,” I barked. “We’re going home. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.” Or my hoof.

Nix followed close behind as I led the way to building 12R. Other fires raged across the city, contrasting against the sky of the setting sun. It seemed the rebels had planted bombs everywhere. I heard battle in the distance. Ponies screaming, pegasi crashing into the ground, and rune grenades detonating. Night came, but the sky was still red. I coughed as a gust of ash blew into my face. The ever-present airships began to evacuate, running for the safety of the countryside. One of the huge, towering skydocks that so defined the city toppled over, groaning, and crashed into the ground. The rebels must have killed hundreds of innocents with the bombs alone.

The route was longer than usual. We were forced to detour around streets blocked by battles, rubble, and paranoid police. It took us two hours to reach building 12R, eerily unchanged by the day’s events. If it wasn’t for the sound of fires burning and ponies screaming in the background I could have almost forgotten about it all.

I bucked the door off its hinges and stormed up the stairs. Nix trailed behind.

I burst into the hallway. The silhouette of Old Ironhide sat in front of a window at the end of the hallway, framed by a fire in the building on the opposite side of the courtyard. I charged forwards, shouting my grief.

As I drew closer, I picked out detail. The silhouette picked up color, and I found the old pegasus dead in his chair, a rusty old wingblade attached to a feather. Blood ran down his neck, puddling around his pipe on the floor.

Coward!

My vision went red. I began to tear the hallway apart, smashing my hooves through the weak drywall and magically tearing doors of their hinges. I focused in on the corpse, raising my hooves, ready to beat it into a pulp.

Nix jumped in front of me. “Stop it!” she shrieked.

I caught myself. Calm down. I fell into a sitting position, breathing heavily, hooves still raised. This isn’t solving anything. I had lost control.

Moon Dream...

“Nix!” I grabbed her, pulling her close. “We can use this as a diversion! To escape!” I need to distract myself. I can’t think about it right now.

“I... I don’t know...” Her eyes strayed to the body before us.

I was trying to think of words to convince her when Stormslider came flying up from downstairs. “Cap—Captain!” she stuttered, landing heavily. She squinted at me. “C’mere... we got shomthing for you!” she slurred.

What? Is she drunk? Then I remembered. Cleaver had arranged for the rest of the crew to drink with him today. Cautiously, I followed Storm as she stumbled down the stairs, Nix close behind me.

“You... you are gonna like thish!” Storm bragged. She tripped on the last step as we reached the ground floor.

We stepped outside, and my jaw dropped.

Hovering in the street, quietly and somewhat leaning to one side, was Moon Dream’s favorite airship. It was even more gorgeous from up close. And hanging out of a hatch near the bottom, looking down the street, was Cleaver.

“Kaptain! We have found you a ride!” he exclaimed. He reached out and swept me off my hooves like a foal, pulling me into the ship.

“Wait!” I shouted. He dropped me, and turned back to the outside. “Nix! C’mon, we can escape!”

She hesitated, looking back at the building that she had spent almost her whole life within, at the city she had come to call home despite its hardships, at the sky full of fire and airships full of armed ponies, shooting down at the rebels below.

Stormslider pushed her drunkenly from behind. “Lesh go, Mish!”

Nix jumped, startled out of the daze. Wordlessly, she galloped up to the hatch and leapt inside. I smiled at her, and she returned it nervously. Storm tumbled into the ship as Cleaver shut the hatch.

A door to the side led to what looked like a cargo hold. Cleaver led us up the stairs, past a recognizable engine room, and out the door at the top.

We passed through a short hallway into what looked like a building still under construction. Some thin walls, more for separation then structure, were placed about half-heartedly as if to outline rooms. We walked past them into an open lounge startlingly similar to my old ship in arrangement. At the far side of the lounge, against the front of the ship and behind a bar, was a kitchen area.

We went up one more story, using a thinner and shorter staircase between the half-done rooms and the lounge, and came out onto what I assumed to be the navigation level. A long, wide table filled the middle of the room. At the end of the room, past a short hallway, was the cockpit. It was much larger than the one in my old ship, with enough room for my whole crew to stand in it. And they were.

Silver was at the helm, goggles on, trotting about in a distressingly drunk fashion as he piloted a ship which, as far as I knew, he had never entered before. Ember was slouched in a corner, squinting at her surroundings and mumbling to herself, trying to light her lighter but lacking the sober focus needed to cast her spell. Storm leaned against the wall in the hallway behind us, smiling lazily. Cleaver stood straight, like he always did, as if he had not just taken part in a series of drinking that had left the rest of my crew nigh incapacitated, and Nix planted herself outside the cockpit, so out of her element that she could hardly move.

In the time that we had taken to climb the stairs up to this level, Silver had guided the ship up to a flying altitude. I gazed down on the city through the cockpit’s bubble of glass. Sparse pockets of fire and fighting were spread throughout the city, leaving the space in between largely undisturbed.

I looked to Cleaver. “How did you get this ship?”

He gave me a knowing smile. “Kaptain, let it simply be said that the good Stalliongrad vodka gives a pony great heart and courage. But for record, it was Ember’s idea.” Silver and Storm nodded, murmuring drunken agreement.

“Did you steal this ship?” Nix asked incredulously.

“Well, yes. Did I not make this plain?” Cleaver replied. He sounded offended.

“Are we being chased?” I asked. Please say no, please say no, please say—

“Yesh!” Silver exclaimed. “Look, there’sh a few ships closing in behind ush now!”

My heart dropped. “How can we escape? The rebels have got the whole place up in arms. There’s no way we’ll be able to get out to Equestria.”

“That’sh just it,” Silver said deviously, a wicked grin stretching across his face. “I’ll take ush through the Cloudwall! It’sh our last chance to get out of thish hellhole!”

I leapt forwards and grabbed him forcibly. “You can’t be serious!? You realize that hundreds of ponies have died trying to cross that, sober and extremely well-prepared?”

“Yesh, but they weren’t me,” he bragged. I began to feel very much like a pony who, after the conductor of the train he was riding in fell asleep, was watching a very, very hard and fatal wall approach at an alarmingly fast speed.

Nix poked her head into the room bravely. “He’s right, it’s our only way out.”

I turned on her. “Don’t you be supporting this! I thought you wanted me alive!” Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic!

“Don’t worry,” she reassured me, “I’ve heard that pegasi inside the Breaks simply know what to do. Luckily, we have a pegasus pilot. But he should really wear a blindfold, or his eyes will get in the way.”

Celestia help me. My heart was jumping out of my chest. “You want a drunk pegasus to fly an airship he has no experience with through the most dangerous path in Equestria, with a blindfold on?”

“Pegasi are the only things that can navigate the Breaks, and Storm is too drunk to even stand up straight. The Baron’s ponies go through here all the time, we can too!” she argued.

Stormslider rose from her position to put in a comforting statement. “It’sh all good. Back at the Academy, boozsh hash only made him a more recklessh flyer.”

“That doesn’t make me feel anything close to better!”

“But, you shee,” she added, “although he flied more recklesshy, he shtill didn’t crash, so he wash actually kind’ve a better pilot.”

“What is wrong with you, Stormslider!? You’re supposed to be the voice of reason!”

“Wait, guysh... I don’t have a blindfold,” Silver piped in.

Apparently roused by an instinctive desire to bother me, Ember suddenly mustered the magic needed to untie my bandana and wrap it around Silver’s goggles. Satisfied, she smiled and promptly passed out.

A few cannon balls flew past us, shot from behind. I weighed my options. Death at the hooves of the Baron, or the Breaks? Certain death, or near certain? Looking ahead, the maze of thunderstorms and tornados swirling around eachother in a seemingly random dance of death didn’t seem very inviting.

My stomach lurched. We were moving forwards. Silver was smirking dangerously under his blindfold. The Breaks approached.

Silver raised a hoof in excitement and pushed a slider forwards. “Here we gooooo!”

The first thing that I noticed was the constant roar of thunder. The lightning struck out from the black clouds surrounding us so frequently that the thunder made a constant, rolling boom.

The second was the shaking. The entire ship shook so violently that I was worried it would fall apart. Stormslider was much too drunk to support herself amongst the vibrations. Nix and I both staggered about trying to keep our balance. Cleaver was impeccably still. Silver danced about, pulling levers and slapping switches, unbothered.

The third thing I noticed was the massive storm cloud that suddenly appeared in front of us, ready to send us down to our doom amongst all the failed travelers of ages past.

But Silver was already moving to avoid it, even before it was there. “Thish ish an excellent shhhip!” he shouted over the thunderous roar as he flew, informing us on the pros of the ship as if we were just walking through it as it sat in the dealership. “It’sh ash much a thought to fly ash I dreamed it woul’ be!”

I was shaking. Not because of the wild vibrations, but because I was so scared shitless that we were all about to die in some fiery lightning explosion. Luna save me, not fire. I hate fire. I noticed Nix clinging to the floor, eyes squeezed shut.

“Don’t worry, he’s a very good pilot!” I told her, raising my voice to be heard over the local weather. I wasn’t sure if she noticed, so I turned back to face the front, closed my eyes, and repeated that sentence to myself over and over.

I heard Silver let out another whoop and begin to hum a tune which I recognized as Flight of the Valkyries. All of a sudden my stomach was falling behind. I peeked open an eye to find that we were literally falling, the storm clouds racing past us as we rapidly approached the ground.

“Ach!” Silver exclaimed in a surprisingly good Germane accent. “Even her falling isht grasheful!”

I heard an explosion behind us that didn’t sound like thunder. “It seems one of our followers has hit a storm cloud!” Cleaver cackled in an entirely unhealthy way. Hay, this whole thing is unhealthy. Oh, Princess, by the Elements of Harmony help me!

A large tornado descended to the ground, not in front of us, but actually around us. For a few brief moments, we hovered in the eye, moving along with the walls of the tornado as it tore across the landscape.

How did I get into this? Have I written my will yet? I haven’t spoken to my parents in years! Why, why, why!? I just want all of this to be over!

To the side, I saw another of the ships that was chasing us come crashing through into the eye, decorated as a big burning ball of flaming wreckage.

Silver let out an alarmingly happy shout that made my heart skip three beats. The ship bolted for the wall of the tornado. I braced myself for impact, but as we were about to collide with the barrier of wind, the tornado dissipated around us.

“Look Dishy!” Silver cackled maniacally, “no eyesh!”

“Silver! Stop toying with my instinct for self-preservation!” I swear if we get through this alive I’m going to wring his neck and break his other wing!

Storm clouds closed in on each side, over and over again. But each time, Silver was already moving the ship to avoid them. Tornadoes and storms appeared and dissipated at incredibly distressing speeds, moving to intercept us and then simply blowing apart after they missed. And all the while, the thick walls of the Breaks were visible on each side, marking the point where the Cloudwall once again turned into the impenetrable net of thick electrical death.

I yelled as loudly as I could, for what it’s worth.

I felt the ship lurch forwards as if struck. Silver let loose an evil laugh, reassuring me by saying, “Don’t worry! Mosht airshipsh can handle a shingle lightning shtrike!”

“Were we just hit by lightning!?” I shrieked like a little filly. I noticed that Nix had passed out from terror. Stormslider was lying on the floor, laughing her flank off like there was something terribly funny about imminent death. Cleaver was sitting in a corner, discreetly humming what sounded to me like a funeral dirge.

“It’sh okay! It wash jusht one!” Silver called. As if to disprove him, the nearby clouds unleashed another wave of lightning bolts, and I felt the ship shake violently as it was struck several more times.

“We’re loshing altitude!” He cheered as if that was just the best thing in the world, and was so unspeakably, delightfully happy to experience it that there was no way he could ever properly express it.

We’re going to die. I just know we’re going to die. We’re all, going to die. Die die die! All of us! Dead! Aaaaaaaaagh! We’re all gonna die!

Silver’s maneuvers were slowing down. Without a fully sealed balloon to sustain the ship, he had to divert the maneuvering thrusters to keep us up, and couldn’t turn, rise, or fall as fast. It seemed like everything was over when, finally, we broke out of the clouds and into clear, precious sunlight.

I looked up into the glorious sun of Princess Celestia, cherishing its rays. I hadn’t gotten a clear view of it for so long. Hadn’t been able to really feel its light. But I was free now!

Free at last! We were free! I began to pass out right there. The last thing I felt was my joy at being free. Free!

Ch. 5: Cardinal Direction

Omega

Chapter 5: Cardinal Direction

“Okay, so now what?” Silver Feather asked.

I tried to ignore the question. Spread out on the table before me was a standard map of Equestria that we had found on a wall elsewhere in the airship. The shadows of the rest of my crew played across the table along with my own. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nix sitting next to a window, staring out at the Cloudwall behind us.

Stormslider cleared her throat. “I think it would be best if we figured out what is happening now before we decided what to do for the future, if we want to make a good and logical decision.”

Quiet murmurs of agreement passed around the room.

“Well then, if I may,” she began, “we’re hovering above the Great Sea, in an unfamiliar airship stolen from the most powerful crime lord and connected merchant in Equestria, with no known stores of food or water, and almost all under massive hangovers. Can we agree?”

Everypony agreed.

She continued. “So, our top priority right now is survival. The airship will provide shelter, but we still need food and water. We have two choices as to where we can get that. One is Equestria. None of us know what the other is, or how to find it.

“To return to Equestria, we must pass through the Breaks. They are most likely to be heavily guarded by the Baron. To get elsewhere, we must cross the Great Sea without any knowledge of other landmasses or a reliable source of food. So which is it?”

I closed my eyes tight as a heavy silence descended upon the room. We don’t really have a choice. Returning to Equestria means death at the hooves at the Baron. Leaving means a slow death from starvation in the middle of nowhere.

But at least we’d have a chance.

Or a better chance, anyways.

“I say we leave.”

There was no response, at first. Everypony looked away as I raised my eyes from the map. None of us wanted to go. Even if we survived, we’d be going somewhere so distant, so unknown that we couldn’t even begin to imagine what we might come to.

“I agree,” Silver said. We exchanged glances, and I gave him a thankful nod. A wave of relief washed over me. Even to the ends of Equestria, he had my back.

The rest of the crew was quick to follow, nodding assent. I could tell they were glad to have the decision made by someone else. They didn’t want the responsibility. That was mine to take on.

“Okay. First, we need to explore this ship and figure out what it can do,” I said.

Ember narrowed her eyes. “And who made you captain?” she challenged, flicking her tail aggressively.

I looked down, flinching away from her challenge. Why should they let me lead them again? I had already led them into slavery. I hadn’t been the one to break us out. Now we were embarking on a journey to nowhere with no plan, no map, and no food. If I can’t handle one trade stop at Manehattan, how can I lead them into the unknown?

Cleaver stepped up. “We have already forgiven Kaptain,” Cleaver said firmly, raising himself to his full height. Ember wasn’t deterred.

“He’s already led us to slavery! He didn’t even help to get us out. He just lay in the corner and screamed like a filly!” she yelled.

“Ember!” Stormslider snapped. “We all have our jobs. His is to coordinate us, and we’ll need it in this ship. Would you prefer to lead us and leave the ship unrepaired? Or give Silver control and let us crash into the sea? We’ve already been hit by lightning several times. You need to focus on keeping the ship working.”

Phoenix Down rose from her position, sitting along the outside of the room and gazing back at Equestria longingly. “Let him try again,” she said softly.

Ember grimaced, ears back with hostility. “Fine,” she growled. She glared at me. “This is your last chance. If you buck up again, I’ll torch you myself.”

“Well, then.” Silver placed his hooves on the table, offering an easy smile to diffuse the tension. “Now we’ve got that settled, I suppose we should pick a direction, yeah? I’m thinking east,” he suggested. “It’s never done me wrong, and I’ve got a nice feeling about it.”

I cocked a brow. “Any more rational reasons you may wish to grace us with?” I asked.

“No. You got a better idea? I’m the pilot anyways. Trust my intuition.” He winked at me. I was not reassured.

I glanced around the room. Nopony offered any opposition to the direction. I sighed. “Fine. We head east and pray to Celestia we find land. But before we go any further, we need to search this ship for anything of use.”

“And name her, too,” Silver added.

Stormslider eyed him skeptically. “Name it?”

“Well yes,” he asserted. “Can’t fly around in an unnamed ship. What happens if we meet another crew and have to distinguish between our ship and theirs? I don’t see a name anywhere.”

I shrugged, sitting back half-heartedly. “Well, he’s got a point.” This is gonna be our new home anyways... “Any suggestions?”

“Pride of Stallions?” Cleaver suggested.

Five incredulous looks were shot his way. He glanced around hopefully, saw he wouldn’t be getting any support, and looked back down to his last bottle of vodka, crestfallen.

“I think Omega would be a rather fitting name,” Stormslider said.

“Is that even a word?” Nix asked.

“It’s the last letter of the ancient pegasus alphabet,” I supplied. “It represents the end, or the last of something.”

Silver grinned, nodding. “Well, here we are at the end of the world, and this ship is the last chance we’ve got. I can’t think of a better name.” The rest of the crew murmured agreeably.

“It’s settled, then. We’ll name it the Omega. Now, can we please get to searching it?”

We divided the ship into sectors, with one pony assigned to each. Silver Feather handled the navigation floor. Ember and Phoenix Down split the cargo bay. Stormslider explored the engine room. Cleaver and I split the main floor.

We didn’t find anything very inspiring at first. There was nothing useful in the engine room, besides the engine, which was beginning to show damage from the lightning. The kitchen lacked any food, despite our hopes to find some. The cargo hold was empty, besides a few beds, construction supplies, and tools Ember was happy to get her hooves on. We all picked one of the unfinished rooms on the main floor, and Ember began building and removing walls to make six larger rooms.

Surprisingly, the navigation floor contained the best find.

I had been half-heartedly sorting through debris from the chase, brooding over our inevitable deaths, when Silver called out from above.

“What is it?” I asked, poking my head into the cockpit. He was standing before a small, narrow hallway that I hadn’t noticed before.

He grinned. “So here I was, looking for shortcuts, just tapping around, and bam!” He pointed to the hallway with a flourish of his hoof. “Secret passageway!”

I raised a brow. “Shortcuts?”

“Well, yes. Airships are mechanical creatures, full of all cogs and chains and stuff. They’re compactly designed, too, so there isn’t much room for all the machinery. A tap in the right place can do the same thing a lever on the other side of the room does, or even something entirely new. Our old airship had a few. I was just looking for this one’s.”

I nodded. It makes a kind of sense. Peering into the tiny opening, I squeezed myself inside. It was only a couple meters long, and just big enough to walk through. It was pitch black with my body blocking all the light from the cockpit.

Lighting my horn, I scraped through it with a burst of claustrophobic energy and came out into an unlit room. Dim shapes surrounded me, lining the edges of my vision. I fumbled around blindly, found a string hanging from above, and pulled it.

With a static buzz and a strained flicker, the bulb above me turned on. The dim light wasn’’t much, but it was bright enough for me to get a better look at the room.

A pair of shelves lining the wall held several rune guns, like the ones I had seen in Harmony City. A crate of rune grenades and boxes of ammunition were stacked up on the far wall. I smiled. A weapons stockpile!

Grabbing one of the guns with my magic, I squeezed myself back into the cockpit where Silver was waiting. “Look, it’s a bunch of rune guns!” I exclaimed. “This ship must have been important enough to have weapons stored here for defense, but nopony reached it in time.” Amazing.

“Sweet!” the pilot said. “Let’s get the others and test it out on the deck.”

“Deck?”

“Oh, yeah. There’s a ladder in here to the top deck, too.” He pointed towards a ladder at the rear of the cockpit. “It’s flat enough for walking, but the railings are kind of short.”

Trotting forwards curiously, I clambered up the ladder. The wind whipped at my mane as I pulled myself up onto the smooth steel of the ship’s deck, carrying the salty scent of ocean sky. Cautiously, I raised myself to my full height and looked around. My jaw dropped.

I blinked, stunned by the sight of the empty, endless horizon. The air was clear, and the clouds sparse. An infinity of water stretched out before me, its size matched only by the equally infinite sky. I turned, my hooves clopping gently against the metal deck. I turned more. The water and sky showed no sign of any end. And then I saw the Cloudwall.

A massive wall of rolling black clouds, stretched up and to each side as far as I could see. Flashes of light and distant rumbles marked the presence of lightning as it arced through the gargantuan storm. If the Cloudwall had seemed big from inside Equestria, it looked absolutely massive from the outside, large enough to compete even with the ocean and sky.

I was struck with a terrible sense of loneliness, even as Silver’s shadow came into view at the edge of my vision. In the course of a single day, my world had been both massively expanded and frighteningly contracted all at once. Now I only had my crew, myself, and my ship, in an endlessly empty world.

“Hey, you alright?” Silver’s hoof laid itself firmly on my shoulder.

I shook my head, managed to close my mouth, and swallowed. “It’s just... so much.”

“Yeah,” Silver said. Even though he was behind me, I could easily hear the adventurous grin on his face. “Great, isn’t it?”

I turned, meeting eyes with him. “You’re crazy, Silver.”

His wild grin only stretched wider. “What tipped you off?” He glanced back to the ladder. “Anyways, what do you think about showing the others those guns?”

I gathered the crew, handing out guns and a few bullets to each as they arrived on the deck. Soon the six of us stood in a rough circle, manes and tails flapping in the breeze, and only occasionally turning to get another glance at our new world.

Now that I held one of the guns before me, I could examine it more closely. A bolt on the side could be pulled to open a slot to stick another bullet into the gun, and it had a simple scope on top. It wasn’t a very large or long weapon, being mostly barrel, and had a firm, smooth stock.

“So, does anypony know how to shoot one?” Ember asked sarcastically.

“Oh, well that’s easy,” Silver said. “You just uh… just… hrm.” He pulled the bolt on his gun a few times, only managing to eject an unspent round uselessly.

Cleaver held his gun up to the sky, squinting at it suspiciously. “I see no trigger.”

I waggled the scope with a bit of magic experimentally, to no avail. “Have any of us actually shot a gun before?” I asked.

“Many times,” Cleaver said. “But this gun lacks trigger.”

Nix spoke up, standing a little ways away from the rest of the crew. “I think… I think it’s voice activated. You use a trigger word to turn on the magic in the runes. I’ve heard the rebels using it when they practice.”

“Well, what is it?” Stormslider asked.

“I think the word is… ignus.”

With a sudden burst of dim light, the gun in her hooves began to hum. She let out a startled squeak, dropping it and backing away. The gun rattled loudly as it vibrated on the metal surface, the humming and glowing steadily growing more intense until, with a surprisingly quiet woosh, a bullet shot out.

The bullet ricocheted off the deck, zooming away and bouncing off the railing.

Ember leaped out of her shocked crouch, advancing on Nix angrily. “Are you crazy? You could’ve killed us!” she hissed.

I rushed forwards, pushing her back. “Hey, calm down! Nopony was hurt, and now we know how to activate them! No harm done.” I glanced around in search of some way to change the subject. My eyes alighted on the clouds floating past us. “Why don’t we try some target practice?”

“On what?” Cleaver asked?

Silver scoffed, using his wings to balance on his hind legs. “The clouds, of course.” Wobbling slightly in the heavy wind, he balanced his gun on a foreleg, took aim, and spoke the trigger word.

A glowing purple round shot out of the barrel, streaking through the sky far wide of every cloud in the sky.

Stormslider laughed as the other pegasus fell back, dropping the gun in alarm as he lost his balance. “Some shot you are,” she said, raising her own rifle.

A single spoken word later, a bullet punched straight through the center of a nearby cloud, leaving only a gentle purple haze and a whiff of vapor to mark its path.

“Wow,” Silver said, climbing to his hooves. “She’s pretty good at that.”

Ω Ω Ω

And so the days stretched on, and the Cloudwall gradually drifted out of view.

As we traveled, the constant need for food, water, and maintenance drove us into a strict schedule. Stormslider flew circles around the ship all day, gathering the sparse clouds that hovered above the waves, stopping only to trudge down to the engine room for a few minutes. Silver Feather spent long hours in the map room, squeezing every cloud dry until he was dripping just as much as the clouds themselves. Cleaver spent his time finding food with a makeshift spear, made from a sharpened piece of deck railing and tied to a rope we found, throwing it into the ocean from the bottom of the low-flying ship and heaving anything he caught back up. Phoenix Down spent her days helping whoever needed aid with their various duties, and Ember trekked up and down the length of the ship, taking pieces from the sturdier areas to reinforce the increasingly severe structural wounds that had been inflicted upon the ship during the chase.

As for me, I was left with a guilty few tasks. I couldn’t help the pegasi with the water, I didn’t know enough about mechanics to maintain the ship, and I couldn’t really cook. All I had to contribute was my horn, and I put it to work levitating whatever needed levitating. I held pieces for Ember, helped Cleaver with his makeshift harpoon, and supplied Silver with a steady flow of buckets.

By the end of each day, when we gathered in the lounge and collapsed exhausted on our sparse collection of furniture to eat and drink what we’d managed to collect, we barely had the energy to speak to eachother. My hunger was so ravenous that I devoured my ration of fish within minutes, both relishing and hating the food at the same time. I could barely swallow it, disgusted as I was at the concept of eating meat, but I was so hungry that I couldn’t stop.

For the first week or two, my dreams were plagued by darkness, fire, and ash. I relived Moon Dream’s death, the discovery of Ironhide’s corpse, the harrowed escape from Harmony City, and all the other atrocities I’d witnessed firsthoof over and over, countless times. Eventually though, the constant exhaustion of the days built up to the point where I was too tired to dream, and I would collapse into a blissful unconsciousness every night, given a few moments of rest before rising to begin again.

The concept of time began to fade. There was nothing to mark it except for the sun and moon, and trivial thoughts like the day of the week simply disappeared. There was nothing to discern one day from the next; everything ran together. I began to ground myself not in the passage of time, but in the worsening state of my crew. We grew lean, with only a few fish to split amongst ourselves. Heavy bags formed under our eyes. Our coats became ragged and dull. Despite being free, I still felt like a tired slave under the Baron’s control.

Only one day managed to stand out from the others. I had been trudging up the central stairwell, exhausted as usual, the feeble glow of my magic surrounding a collection of recently emptied water buckets, when I heard a low roar from the back of the ship.

My ears twitched. I paused, raising my head from its half-asleep position near the floor, and was suddenly knocked off my hooves as a great force pushed me down. The stairs shifted around me, and my stomach knotted as I was caught in a brief moment of freefall before my back slammed into the hard steel landing behind me, four steps down.

I groaned, raising my hooves to protect myself from the onslaught of dropped buckets raining upon me. A few moments passed as I lay there, being pushed down by the mysterious force, until my mind finally clicked into gear and I realized what was happening: we were ascending, and fast.

I clambered to my hooves, leaving the buckets behind, and raced as fast as my tired body would let me up the stairs.

A minute later, I burst into the cockpit, gasping. Silver was there, gazing downwards at something underneath us from the swept forwards glass screen at the front of the room.

“What was that?” I asked, walking up to his side.

“Look,” he said.

I looked down, following his gaze.

“Sweet Celestia...”

Far beneath us, half-submerged in ocean spray, a behemoth fish was rising out of the water. It’s massive jaws were wide open, revealing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, each one the source of its own waterfall of dripping saliva and saltwater. The teeth slammed together as the beast’s ascent slowed to a stop, and it began to fall back into the water.

I watched wide-eyed as its body rolled to the side, showing dozens of aged scars from battles past and a ridge of sharp barbs along its spine. A pair of small, sinister eyes rolled into view, full of hatred and intelligence. It wasn’t the look of a predator stalking prey, it was the look of a killer, a murderer that had failed to entrap his target.

A shiver ran down my spine as it splashed back into the water heavily, disappearing underneath the waves.

Silver stepped back from the glass and flicked his goggles off. He let out a heavy sigh of relief and gazed up at the roof.

“We won’t be flying low anymore,” he said.

Ω Ω Ω

More time passed, more water passed, and more hope of finding land passed away. I knew that continents usually had some distance between them, but airships were fast movers, and it felt like we’d already traveled the distance of a dozen Equestrias already.

Ember finished with the renovation of the quarters, giving us six decent-size rooms for us to call our own, even if there wasn’t anything to put in them. Now she spent most of her time on the increasingly flimsy balloon, trying to hold it together. We began to travel slower and slower as Silver was forced to divert forwards propulsion to upwards propulsion. Worse still, after the appearance of the sea monster, it was too dangerous to fish. Luckily we had a few days of fish stockpiled.

I just hoped we found something before we ran out.

We did.

I was sitting with Silver in the navigation room, trying not to get too wet as he filled buckets from a fresh harvest of clouds.

“I don’t understand this ship,” he said. “I thought we would’ve crashed into the sea a week ago, but somehow it manages to stay up.”

I yawned. “I thought you were keeping us up by directing our engines to push upwards?”

He shook his head, brow furrowed. “Yes, but we shouldn’t have enough power to keep the ship up like that. The balloon is practically empty and our engines are faltering, yet somehow we still float. It’s like the thing is made of air.”

I shrugged, climbing to my hooves. “The important thing is that we survive. I’m gonna go get some fresh air.”

Fresh air.

For the tenth time that day, I climbed up onto the deck to get another glimpse of the sky. Nothing had changed since last time, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The Omega was a small ship, and being stuck inside it for so long was driving me crazy. I stepped up to the railing and peered down into the ocean. How much longer until it all ends?

Sighing, I turned around and began to walk slowly back to the ladder. I paused. What was that?

I returned my gaze to the sky, squinting. There was a shape out there. A silhouette in the sky that was distinctly un-cloudlike. It had wings, but it was too small to be a pegasus. Surely Stormslider isn’t out that far...?

My eyes widened as I came to the sudden realization. My heart soared. I twisted around, practically fell down the ladder in my haste, and bowled Silver over. Water buckets went flying, spilling their contents all over.

“What are you doing?”he growled. He tried to wriggle out of my grip, splashing more water from his soaked mane, but to no avail. I grinned at him stupidly.

“Bird.”

He cocked a brow. “What? Have you finally—” he paused, locking eyes with me as if he had heard me for the first time. I stepped back and allowed him to rise into a sitting position. We stared at eachother.

“Bird?” he asked.

I nodded. “Bird.”

“Bird!”

“Birds!”

Silver leapt to his hooves, flapping his good wing excitedly as he let out a cry of elation that could be heard all throughout the ship.

“We’ve reached land!”

Ω Ω Ω

Land was close at hoof, and we began to hope again.

The birds were a beautiful gift. Not only did they herald land, but they also gave us a new source of food. On the day of the discovery we had only had two fish left in our stockpile, and they were the least savory specimens I had ever seen, even with my limited experience with meat. The birds were still meat, of course, and they didn’t taste anywhere near good, but they were food.

We would survive. We had survived the journey, though it had been hard. Sitting in the lounge the day after the discovery, forcing myself to nibble at some bird as I looked over my crew, I could still scarcely believe it. We were all exhausted. With the arrival of the birds, the stress of the journey was finally lifted. Our manes and coats were disheveled and dirty, but we were alive. We’d made it.

“Hey, why don’t we do something fun?” Silver suggested. He was lying on the end of one of the old, broken-in couches that had been in the lounge when we stole the ship.

Nix perked up from her spot leaning against the wall. “Like what?”

He shrugged. “We could try some target practice with the rune guns.”

She relaxed back against the wall, apparently uninterested in the idea, but the rest of the crew all nodded their agreement.

We spent the rest of the day on the deck with the guns and some bullets, able to work on something besides survival for the first time in weeks. Stormslider was a pretty good shot. She hit her target cloud more than anypony else, and even managed to hit a nearby bird. The bullets had some heavy punch to them, and the bird went flying away from the force of the impact. She kept looking at her gun as she fired, as if trying to figure out how it worked, and later went into her room with it and a clip of ammunition to tinker.

I was, of course, a terrible shot. I couldn’t hit the long side of a cumulonimbus.

As the sun began its descent, we came upon what I took to be the mainland. For the first time in what felt like forever, something besides blue occupied the horizon.

Our shadow came ashore on some kind of wasteland. I scanned the land beneath us from a window, but deep fog made it difficult to pick out much detail. A gust of wind blew a hole in the mist, and I glimpsed grey, lifeless earth. A mountain range ran parallel to the coastline in the distance, and the faint silhouette of some sort of city lay far up the coast.

“What do you think lives out here?”

I jumped, looking behind me. Nix stepped up to my side, eyeing the window anxiously. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“Something has to be living here,” she said. “I doubt they’re ponies.”

I turned back to the horizon thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I know dragons and griffons are from outside Equestria. Maybe there’ll be some of those.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. She looked at me and smiled. “As long as you’re with us, I think we’ll be safe.”

I furrowed my brow, confused. How can she say that? I’ve never led my crew anywhere but slavery and exile.

The wasteland passed below us. Sparse clumps of trees and bushes surrounded shallow pools of water, but I saw no animals. I found my mind drifting. Thoughts of Moon Dream, the rebels, and the fate of Harmony City passed through my head as I looked down upon the unknown world.

Suddenly, Silver Feather came bounding down the stairs. “Hey, Dissy. Get everypony upstairs. We may have trouble.”

Ω Ω Ω

“What is it?”

We were all assembled around Silver in the cockpit. He pointed upwards, towards another, smaller ship that I hadn’t noticed before circling above us.

“There’s another ship there,” he said. “They’ve positioned themselves above us. I don’t like it.”

Cleaver squinted up at the ship. “Those markings, what are they?” he asked.

Three distant, distinct booms sounded. A second passed. With a loud crunch, a massive bullet impacted the cockpit glass and ricocheted away.

Ember shouted an expletive, and Cleaver almost dropped his bottle in surprise. The crew crouched instinctively as two more bullets whizzed past us.

“Evasive maneuvers!” I shouted.

“Oh really, you think so, genius?” Silver replied. He leapt for a group of four large wheels, turning them two at a time. “Hey Diss, turn that slider all the way up!” He pointed with his good wing.

I ran to obey, shoving the slider forwards with both hooves. The ship shot forwards like it had been fired from a cannon, and we began losing altitude fast. I heard our attackers fire another salvo.

Silver shoved me aside, goggles down. “Thanks! Step aside now, please!” He lunged for a chain hanging from the ceiling and pulled it with all his weight. Our downwards motion slowed dramatically as three more bullets flew underneath us. He turned two of the large wheels, and we began to rise.

“I’m gonna put us into that mountain range,” Silver said, indicating a group of mountains ahead of us.

“Don’t we have any guns on this thing?” Ember asked. “What kind of crimelord makes a ship with no guns?”

“Storm, the engines!” I said. The blue pegasus nodded and sprinted down the stairs to the lounge. Shortly afterwards we picked up speed, gliding smoothly between two mountains into a narrow valley. More bullets flew past, bouncing off of mountaintops.

“Ideas, anypony?” Silver tugged on the chain again, and a bullet flew right past our noses..

“I dunno, ram them or something.” Ember suggested. The pilot found the time to turn and glare at her.

Luckily, our pursuers weren’t very good shots. Another bullet flew wide, hitting a mountainside ahead of us and spawning an avalanche.

The sound of tearing metal announced the arrival of a heavy metal ball as it slammed through our hull and into the navigation room. It ricocheted off two more walls, broke the table, and rolled to a stop, hissing quietly.

Ember’s eyes widened. “It’s a bomb!” Nix slid under the wreckage of the table, shaky hooves over her head. Cleaver dashed for the explosive, twisted on his forehooves, and bucked it cleanly back out the hole it had made. Half a second later, I heard a loud boom. The ship rocked to the side slightly.

“They are shooting explosive bullets,” Cleaver explained.

“Hey, thanks for telling us Sherlock,” Silver muttered.

C’mon, think think think. An idea came to my mind. “Get the rune guns and head for the deck,” I ordered.

“First good idea you’ve had in awhile,” Ember quipped. She squeezed into the hidden armory, and guns and bullets began to float out.

With weapons in hoof, Cleaver, Ember, Nix, and I climbed out onto the deck. Silver stayed in the cockpit. “I promise not to throw you off!”he called.

Our attackers had a much smaller, more makeshift ship than ours. It looked like somepony had taken a sea vessel, welded an engine to each side, and tied it to a balloon. The Omega was four stories tall and around 200 feet long; the hull of our pursuer’s ship could probably fit in the lounge, minus its engines and balloon. I spied several shapes moving around on its open top, including a griffon, idly spinning a grappling hook.

They fired another volley. The Omega dipped slightly, and I almost lost my balance as the cannon balls flew a few feet over my head.

“Shoot the engines!” I commanded. We all raised our guns, and the soft hum of rune magic and trigger words filled the air. The wooden hull of our pursuer’s stood no chance against the heavy rune slugs, which ripped through it easily. The ship listed to the left, and was then thrown into a wild spin as the failed engine suddenly exploded. The propeller flew upwards, cutting their balloon in half.

Bereft of propulsion and with no means to keep it in the air, the little wooden ship plummeted out of the sky. It crashed into a mountainside, rolled briefly, and burst into flame as the second engine followed the lead of the first.

I rocked on my hooves as the Omega slowed to a stop.

Cleaver leaned on his gun like a cane. “Perhaps we are lucky, and all ships here will be made of wood, yes?”

Silver’s hoofsteps sounded behind us. “Nice shooting, guys! Who needs ship-to-ship cannons when you have these babies, right?”

“Don’t get too cocky, I think some of them survived.” Ember pointed at the five winged shapes flying towards us from the wreckage.

“Oh, great. They fly. I’mma go get my own gun.” Silver turned and rushed back down the ladder.

As they approached I began to pick out detail. The closest two I recognized immediately as griffons, but the other three were completely foreign to me. They looked like the gargoyles I’d seen in paintings of the time before the Princesses, with sharp claws and wide wingspans. As Silver returned to the deck, brandishing his own rune gun, the five attackers flew up into the sun and dove down at us.

They slammed into the deck, weapons ready. Nix and I were separated from the rest of the crew, who had gathered into a rough line. They managed to fire off a quick volley of shots, killing two, before another two fell upon them.

The remaining griffon turned to me. He approached slowly, with a wicked grin painted on his beak. His wings flared, revealing the array of deadly blades fastened to them.

Nix dropped her gun and fell over in fear. I raised my weapon, finding myself at a sudden loss as to how to fire it. I desperately searched for some kind of trigger as the griffon charged forwards.

The griffon was only a few feet away when I remembered. “Ignus!” I screamed. The gun began to charge, but the griffon knocked it aside before it finished, and the bullet sped into the sky harmlessly as he continued to tackle me, driving me back.

“Stop! Please stop! I don’t want to fight you!” I beat his back with my forehooves as I fought to get a grip on the floor. The wind was knocked out of me as he pinned me down at the edge of the deck.

“But I do,” he hissed. He raised a wingblade for the killing blow. I struggled vainly to break free.

A bullet suddenly exploded out of his neck, splashing blood all over my face. His body went slack as the force of the round propelled it through the railing.

The griffon tumbled off the deck, and the claw stuck in my shoulder dragged me with him. I screamed as the weight pulled me over the edge.

I slid down the side of the ship, flapping my good leg wildly in search of something to grab.

My body spun sideways.

My right hoof slipped off the edge of the ship.

I scrabbled for a hold with my left.

The ship fell out of reach.

The griffon’s claw ripped free of its host.

My heart stopped. I found myself in the sickeningly empty, screaming abyss of freefall.

I thought I heard someone calling my name, but the wind carried it away. The ship dwindled rapidly above me. Silver’s head poked over the edge of the ship.

Don’t you jump. You can’t catch me with that bad wing.

And then a cloud blocked my view of the Omega, and there was nothing left but me and the wind. I fell past the clouds, surprisingly calm, tumbling head over hooves. I closed my eyes...

They shot back open. No! No giving up!

I twisted my neck, somehow turning my body to face the swiftly approaching ground. There was a lake beneath me. I felt my horn leaking magic as adrenaline surged through me. Time seemed to slow down.

I focused all my magic onto my body, but I couldn’t slow myself. It was impossible to overcome the mental barrier that stopped all unicorns from levitating themselves. On a frantic whim, I tried an alternate technique.

I reached out with my magic and grabbed the air, pushing it under me. The air resisted, escaping my magical grasp through every little hole it found. Nonetheless, I felt myself slowing down.

The lake was almost on me. I waited. I only had one chance, and the timing had to be perfect.

I put all my magic into one massive upwards push, from the lake up to me. The surface of the lake rose up underneath me like a fountain, slowing my fall.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop me completely.

And then the hard surface of the water hit me, and my world went dark.

Ch. 6: Perspective

Omega

Chapter 6: Perspective

“It’s getting late.”

“No, we can’t give up yet.”

“Silver, the sun is going down.”

“I’m not giving up on him yet!”

Silver Feather turned back to the cockpit glass, straining his eyes. He knew that Stormslider meant well, and that he shouldn’t have snapped at her, and that she was probably right, and that...

No, not yet.

He felt her place a hoof on his shoulder. “Silver, nopony can see in this darkness. If you keep searching through the night, we might pass right over him.”

He took a deep breath and leaned back, reaching up to feel the reassuring presence of his goggles. She’s right.

“Dawn, then. Tomorrow.”

She gave him a little smile. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

The two pegasi spent a few silent moments together in the little room, amongst the machinery. Silver glanced up, and his eyes met hers.

She pulled him into a comforting hug, looking over his shoulder, out the glass, to the tapestry of foreign stars beyond it.

“We’ll find him tomorrow.”

“Daddy?”

My father looks up from his newspaper, smiling at me. “Yes, son?”

“When I grow up, I want to be an airship captain, just like you and grandpa!” I exclaim proudly.

“Hehe, is that so? Well maybe if you study hard and try your best, you’ll get into the Royal Aerial Academy. Then you’ll be well on your way...”

Ω Ω Ω

Consciousness returned to me in much the same way that a piano returns to the ground after being launched from a ten story window.

The first thing I noticed was the pounding ache that had established dominion over my body, followed shortly afterwards by a soft but scratchy surface against my back. What happened?

I opened my eyes slowly. I flash of pain shot through the back of my head, and I moaned loudly.

“Ooooh! He’s awake!” a high-pitched voice announced.

“Someone go get Colonel. The pony’s awake,” another, deeper voice added. I heard the sound of receding hoofsteps.

All at once, I remembered. The Baron. Harmony. The Breaks. The Great Sea. The attack. My fall.

My eyes shot open. In front of me was a hard, rocky surface. I tried to take a step forwards, and was alarmed to find gravity push my hoof back against the wall.

You’re lying down, idiot.

Ah, yes.

Consulting my prior experience with waking up after severe hits to my face, I decided not to try moving my head. The apparent presence of someone waiting for me to wake up was comforting. I relaxed. I was probably safe, for now.

They could be saving me for some kind of sacrificial ritual, after all. I don’t know what these ponies are like.

My pounding migraine was making it difficult to attribute any serious thought to the issue. I decided to cross that bridge when I got there.

The sound of multiple hoofbeats reached my ears. I assumed that one of them was the ‘Colonel’ I’d heard about, whoever that was. Hopefully he wasn’t some raging cannibal shaman.

A dull brown mare with sharp red eyes stood over me. Thank Celestia! Ponies!

On closer inspection though, she didn’t look like any pony I’d ever seen before. Her snout was wider and longer, and her ears had distinctive tufts of fur on the ends. Her mane was long and wild, half green and half black, and on what part of her neck I could see there were spots of darker brown and green fur.

“Greetings,” she said. “My name is Colonel. We saw you fall, and recovered you from the lake.” She glanced down the rest of my body. “Your survival is somewhat... miraculous, Equestrian.”

Lacking the ability to form a coherent response, I moaned my agreement.

“You’re injured and in need of rest, but don’t worry. We will take care of you until you get better. Then you’ll have to pull your own weight, or we’ll let Blood have you. You don’t want that. Her collection lacks a unicorn horn.”

Who are these ponies? I couldn’t decide if I wanted to feel safe or threatened. I let out a neutral croak of acknowledgement.

“Good, so we have an understanding.” She beckoned off to one side, out of my view. The movement revealed a pair of wings on her back.

“This is Pyrestripe. She will care for you until you can do so yourself,” she explained. Feeling strong enough to try movement, I twisted my neck to get a view of my caretaker.

Unfortunately, it was hard for me to get a good view of things. I was on one of a few empty bedrolls spaced over the surface of some cave, with water buckets and tables spread around. I couldn’t see much else though, as most of the room was blocked by the small throng of ponies watching me with varying shades of interest.

None of them looked like any pony I’d seen in Equestria, though. They were winged like pegasi, but they all had thinner, leaner bodies, with skinny bellies and prominent chests. Their legs were taller and more limber, and they had wide cheeks with large snouts, small eyes, and tufts of fur on their ear tips. But what stood out most about them were their coats.

All of them had some kind of markings in their fur. Most of them had stripe patterns running up their legs and necks, but I also saw large, scattered, spots and long stripes that crossed their entire bodies.

Colonel was pointing at a brown-furred one at the fore of the group. She had a deep red mane and a short tail, with bright scarlet eyes that glowed like fire. Inky black stripes ran up the fronts of her legs, neck, and cheeks, tapering off to sharp points at the ends.

Colonel trotted away, followed by most of the other ponies. Only Pyrestripe and one other remained.

Pyrestripe cocked her head. “What are you doing all the way in the Outer World, Equestrian?” she asked.

I don’t even know. She stared at me as I lay there for a few moments, too beat up to speak.

“Hm. I’m sure you can tell me later, if you don’t die. I’ll be taking care of you. I’ll bring you water and whatever you’re capable of eating, and make sure Blood doesn’t get you,” she said.

“My name is Blood!” the other pony exclaimed. She was a tiny thing, with white fur and blood red mane, eyes, and tail. She had patches of red fur on her knees. I couldn’t tell if her cutie mark was just a simple red splash or if she had a stain on her coat.

Blood brought her eyes right up to mine, smiling ear to ear as she focused in on my horn. “You have a very nice... horn! I don’t have any. Horns, y’know. I’ve never met a unicorn before! Can I have it?” she asked hopefully. Her quirky, high-pitched voice threatened to raise my migraine to new levels of pain. Her ecstatic shaking was starting to worry me, too.

Pyrestripe pulled her off like a mother restraining her filly as they passed through the toy section. “Back off, Blood. You can’t have him unless he dies or turns out to be useless. If that’s the case, maybe then I’ll let you have him.”

Blood pouted dramatically, watching me with a wistful eye.

Pyrestripe turned back to me. “Now you may have figured this out already, but Blood wants your horn. Watch your step. She doesn’t take things from living creatures.”

I nodded slowly. These ponies are crazy. I began working on escape plans. I could feign weakness while I got better, and slip out when their guard was down. But I don’t know this place. There could be anything out there. I couldn’t risk getting caught. Even if I escaped, what then?

I decided to let them care for me and try to earn their trust. Once I knew this ‘Outer World’ better I could come up with a better plan.

Pyrestripe raised a brow thoughtfully. “I wonder... what do you have for a lifemark?” She walked around me to get a better look at my flank.

“A scroll? A closed scroll? You’d better not be some kind of diplomat, for your own sake. That doesn’t work too well in the Outer World.” She turned to speak to Blood. “I bet you’ll end up getting your horn after all.”

Blood nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, finally!” She fell onto her back and began rolling around, giggling.

Sweet Celestia... save me.

“Hey, let me fill you in on something.” Pyrestripe leaned closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You’re not in Equestria anymore, pony. You won’t find love nor tolerance here, just war and betrayal. Everyone in the Outer World is for themselves first, and if you can’t help them alive, they’ll find a way for you to help them dead. Unicorn horns sell pretty well, and the folk here aren’t much for Equestrians. You’ve never been popular, with what you did.”

She smiled, and a shiver ran down my spine. I felt my heartbeat speed up. “You’d better hope you can help us out, Equestrian. Or we’ll kill you ourselves and sell your hide to the nearest rich goyle.”

Ω Ω Ω

Time passed. It was impossible to really tell how long, but I guessed it to be around a week or two. Pyrestripe kept up a constant presence, mostly because whenever she left Blood would come in and fix me with that creepy stare of hers. I didn’t like Blood.

I became well enough to walk and talk, but tried to hide it. Despite the earlier plan to earn their trust, I wasn’t confident enough to disturb the peace. So I stayed where I was, and pretended to be too weak to do anything.

But they didn’t fall for it.

Colonel came into my room, followed by a stallion I hadn’t seen before. He had dark, smoky fur and harsh yellow eyes. Most of his small, jagged blue stripes ran up the front of his legs, except for one on the side of his face and another across his snout. His wingtips were blue, and his thick, bushy mane alternated between blue and white. His cutie mark depicted a sharp, blue lightning bolt.

“It’s been two weeks, Equestrian,” Colonel began. “You show no sign of improvement, despite what our healer forecasted. She said you would be well by now, but Pyrestripe tells me you behave like a lame stallion. Do you know what we do with lame stallions?”

The new stallion stepped forward. “We kill them. So get the fuck up before I crush your skull.”

I jumped to my hooves, reserving no doubts as to the validity of his threat. I had a feeling my play for time had gotten me off on the wrong hoof.

“We aren’t stupid. I could tell you were stalling,” Pyrestripe said.

“Your name,” the stallion demanded.

“Dissero.”

“Hrm. Dissero.” Colonel eyed me over. “Well, Dissero, we’ve saved your life. Now what can it do for us?”

“Answer wisely,” the stallion sneered.

“Hey, calm down, Blitz. Equestrians panic easy,” Pyrestripe said. She trotted to his side and put a restraining hoof on his shoulder.

“Uhh...” What do I tell them? I had no idea what these ponies did. Would a trader be of any use to them? If what Pyrestripe had told me was any indication, peaceful professions weren’t much good. I opted for something more open-ended. “I’m a quick learner.”

Colonel raised a brow. “Quick learner? Very well, Dissero. We shall see just how quick you learn. Come with me.” She turned and made for the empty doorway carved through the cave wall. I fell in behind her, with Blitz and Pyrestripe behind me.

I took advantage of the opportunity to orient myself. Leaving the small cave that had housed me for the last two weeks, I came out in the corner of a much larger one. I spied several other tunnels carved into the cave walls, and spotted some of the strange ponies flying between them or chatting amongst themselves. Sunlight filtered through a wide hole in the ceiling, capable of fitting three ponies shoulder-to-shoulder.

I was led to a shallow, sandy pit directly beneath the hole. A pair of rocks formed a sort of broken circle around the pit, with shelves and racks leaning against them displaying a varied collection of weaponry.

Colonel stepped confidently to a rack and picked out two spears, holding them with her wingtips. I was grateful to see that the sharp steel points had been replaced with simple wooden balls.

She trotted into the center of the pit and turned to face me.

“Choose your weapon,” she said.

“Wh—what? I don’t know how to fight,” I stuttered.

“You say you’re a fast learner? Here’s your first lesson: you must fight if you’re to be of use in the Outer World. Now pick up a weapon, or I’ll beat you to death.”

Buck. Buck buck buckity buck. I looked over my choices. Practice weapons of all kinds presented themselves to me. Swords, daggers, spears, maces, hammers, and even wooden flails and blunted arrows. I didn’t know a thing about fighting, but I had knew that every Royal Guard was trained in the usage of a sword. It must be a good, balanced, weapon. Committed to the choice, I levitated a wooden sword to my side.

Colonel seemed to be surprised, but she quickly recovered. “I had forgotten that unicorns can levitate things. A sword? Very well, then. Come into the pit.”

I stepped out hesitantly. She spread her hooves and flared her wings. The sword hovered shakily between me and her.

“Defend yourself.”

She flapped her wings hard, raising her hooves off the ground and covering the distance between us with alarming speed. I stumbled backwards, slapping one of the spears away haphazardly and falling beneath the other one.

In an instant, she had both spears at my neck.

“Well, that was a pitiful display,” someone said behind me. I looked back to find Blitz, Pyrestripe, and several others watching. Blitz was shaking his head in disgust, and Pyrestripe was laughing quietly. I felt a push on my neck, and turned to face Colonel.

“Up. You’re trying again.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to come?”

“No, I’ll just... I’ll just watch the ship.”

Stormslider frowned, watching as Silver Feather stared out at the horizon. He was leaning against a wall coated with gauges, goggles down, no doubt remembering some old adventure from his foalhood with Dissero.

“Okay, then,” she said. If he wasn’t up to it, there was no point in forcing him. “We’ll be back before sunset.”

She left him like that, pushing the worry from her mind. It’s understandable. Give him time.

It wasn’t that she didn’t grieve, too. Dissero had been an old friend of hers as much as his, but she was well aware that there wasn’t time for grief right then. Survival came first. Emotion is a flaw in the mind of an engineer.

She passed through the lounge, down the rear stairwell, and joined the rest of the crew before the main hatch. “He isn’t coming,” she reported.

Ember rolled her eyes as she opened the hatch and stepped outside. “He’s starting to get on my nerves,” she said.

“Give him time,” Cleaver consoled. “His loss is not easy.”

The crew minus it’s pilot filed out into the fresh air, and Ember’s magic closed the hatch behind them.

The rest of my day was just more of the same.

Colonel beat me senseless, over and over. Worse, she somehow pinned me in a different way each time. She pinned me up on the wall, pinned me with my own sword, and even hung me from the ceiling. Then she cut me loose and let me fall to the sand.

“You’ve a month to learn. After that, we stop holding Blood back, so you’re fucked if you can’t fight.” She trotted away.

I lay on the sand, coughing and covered in sweat. Colonel hadn’t even been out of breath. Pyrestripe and I were the only ones left at the pit. The others had left one by one, each eventually growing bored of the beatings.

She walked up and poked me with a hoof. “Get up, Equestrian. I’ll show you where to find food, and where you’ll sleep.”

I rolled over and stumbled to my hooves. “Thanks, Pyrestripe,” I mumbled.

“Just call me Pyre.”

I trudged to the nearest rack and put my sword away, too exhausted to do it magically. Pyre led me to a relatively flat, open part of the cavern. A few other ponies were lounging around there, eating and chatting on mats and cushions spread over the rocks. In the middle of the cushions, a flat rock had been decorated with food and plates. My mouth watered at the sight.

“Serve yourself,” Pyre said. “One meat, one drink, and some greens. Don’t be too greedy.” She stepped forward and began to serve herself.

Meat? Ponies didn’t eat meat. It was an atrocity. Sure, we do it in times of great need but... this is different. They eat it voluntarily. I looked around. Three of the strange ponies were laying on a group of pillows, ripping big chunks of meat with their sharp teeth.

Ponies don’t have sharp teeth, either.

I grabbed a plate and stacked some recognizable fruits and vegetables on it. Apples, oranges, carrots, potatoes. I surreptitiously avoided the meat and unfamiliar stuff. I searched the table for water, but found none.

“No water?” I asked.

Pyre laughed. “Water’s harder to come by than booze, Equestrian. It does just as well.”

I settled for a thick brown liquid that, as far as I could tell, was mud. “Isn’t there a river or something around here? What about the lake I fell in?”

“That water is fucking terrible. Trust me, this shit is better.”

There were three distinct groups of cushions in the cavern. Most of the strange ponies there were eating in the one nearest the food table. The other two were further away. One was completely vacant, and a lone pony ate at the other.

Pyre and I sat at the vacant one. She began to eat quietly, glancing up to make sure I was still there every now and then. I was famished, but couldn’t really get into the eating mood. I nibbled at my food half-heartedly.

“So, what do you ponies do around here?” I asked.

Pyre stared at me, apparently amused at something. I cocked my head at her, and realized that the chatter had suddenly gone quiet. I slowly looked behind me, wondering what had happened.

I found myself nose to nose with Blitz. My eyes widened as his narrowed. This close, his strong scent was overpowering. “What did you just fucking call us?” he growled.

“Uhm...” I began. He grabbed me by my bandanna, managing to somehow pull me closer even though our snouts were already touching.

“Get this straight, pony,” he spat, “we’re not like you. We’re recusants. And don’t you fucking dare call us ponies again.” He glared at me harshly, and I did my best to look submissive and compliant. What’s the big deal with being called a pony? They looked like ponies, more or less. Meat-eating, razor-toothed, somewhat bent out of shape pegasus ponies. Deciding that now was not the time for questions, I nodded enthusiastically.

Blitz let go of my bandanna, and I fell to my knees, eyes down, praying to Celestia that he wouldn’t change his mind and kill me right now. These ponies—no, these recusants, are crazy.

“I’ll let you go this time, since you’re new around here. But next time, I won’t be so easy,” he said.

I noticed some of the other recusants giving me harsh looks. Trying to avoid their gaze, I turned to face Pyre. She was biting on some meat absentmindedly, smiling.

“You’re a real charmer,” she said.

I ignored the comment and crawled a little closer, lowering my voice. “So... what do you recusants do around here?” I asked.

She shrugged. “We’re bandits, more or less. The Outer World doesn’t take kindly to us. They think we’re thieving, merciless, immoral mercenaries. Which most of us are. But really, they don’t give us much choice.”

We continued to eat in silence.

I was happy to get my teeth on some vegetables again, but the sounds of the recusants tearing into their meat sickened me. I felt like if I looked up and saw one of them take another bite I would vomit.

It didn’t help that Blood came to sit next to me. I wasn’t sure if she was even eating anything. I tried not to look, but I felt like she was just staring at me the whole time. Staring right at my horn with that ridiculous, creepy smile of hers. Every few minutes she would creep closer, until I could feel her breathing on my ear. Then Pyre would give her a stern look and she would back off. The whole time I was worried I’d commit another social crime and everyone would come beat me up.

It was not the most comfortable dining environment.

It had without a doubt been the strangest day in Stormslider’s life.

The four ponies had ran a circuit of the small town they’d landed near, only occasionally looking up to make sure the Omega was still parked in the neighboring plain. They had passed bears and griffons and bartered with wolves, zebra, and some of those strange gargoyle creatures for supplies, but had lacked the financial might to get much of anything. Still, it was better than nothing.

Stormslider had her eyes fixed on the side of the road, watching the buildings pass by. She saw a trio of griffons examining a message board of some kind completely plastered with papers. She was too far to read them, but the words “dead”, “alive”, “pay”, and “job” seemed to be popular choices for the large print of the titles.

“Have we got everything we need?”

Storm wrenched her gaze away from the curious town to look to Ember, who was shuffling through the cart of goods being hauled by Cleaver. The big stallion glanced back with mild curiosity. Nix was hiding practically under his hooves, looking around her frightfully at the strange inhabitants of the town.

“Is there a chisel in this cart?” Storm asked.

Ember frowned. “No. Uh... there. That stall has one.”

The two mares made their way over to the stall, manned by a panting wolf. Storm noticed Ember looking at the same message board she’d seen earlier.

As they arrived, Storm set her mind to the twin tasks of haggling and not getting freaked out by the wolf’s fangs. Or by the fact that she was talking to a wolf.

“Mares! Good day! What are you looking for? My stall has everything you could ever need!” the wolf lied.

“Yes, yes.” Ember brushed his claims aside with an absent-minded hoof. “How much for the chisel?”

“Chisel? Ten coppers! A fine price! Discounted!”

Stormslider rolled her eyes. Every one of these merchants sounded the same. The only difference was the price. Would be nice if we actually had some copper.

“We don’t have any copper,” Ember said. “But I can offer you a piece of moonstone.”

Storm rummaged through her saddlebag and picked out a rune slug, presenting it for the wolf’s greedy eyes. She could tell that the wolf saw it as an object of value, as everyone else in this town seemed to. However, he didn’t seem to know that she knew.

“Ach!” He smiled. “Moonstone! For fifteen pieces, I will give you the chisel.”

Now it was Ember’s turn to roll her eyes. “I don’t have time for this shit.”

A small, almost impercetible glow encased her horn. With a soft clink, a candle on a shelf at the rear of the stall fell over. The cloth walls of the stall burst into flame with such speed that Storm wasn’t sure if Ember had stopped at merely knocking over a candle.

The unicorn levitated the chisel off the countertop, ignoring the wolf’s cries for help, and curtly returned to Cleaver and his cart. Stormslider hesitated, looking back. The wolf had left his stall and ran for the building with the message post outside. He barked at the trio of griffons and tossed a pouch at them. They caught it, nodded, and headed for the stall, wings at the ready.

She shouldn’t have done that. Still, Storm followed her to the cart. They’d got the chisel. That wolf was trying to scam us. He probably deserved it anyways.

She tried to ignore him as he lamented the loss of his precious stall.

After we ate, Pyre led me to a deep indentation in the cavern lined with bunk beds. “You sleep here. Pick a bunk that doesn’t look lived in.” She trotted away, leaving me to myself.

A lantern hanging lopsided from the ceiling struggled to spread some light around, to little effect. There were four beds, spaced equally along the cave wall. I tiptoed past a sleeping recusant and picked out a bottom bunk that looked relatively unused.

I crawled in and lay down, exhausted.

“Hey there!”

I jumped. Another recusant had been on the bunk above mine, and was now leaning over the side. He fixed me with a friendly smile. His long blonde mane hung beneath him, sprouting from a coat the color of dry hay.

“Uh, hello,” I replied.

His deep green eyes flashed as they caught a burst of lantern light. “My name’s Hunter, and you must be the Equestrian. Dissero, right?” I nodded.

“I saw you get the shit kicked out of you by Colonel. Don’t worry, if you fuck up enough she’ll give you hints,” he said helpfully.

I ran a hoof through my mane self-consciously. “Yeah, I don’t really know much about fighting.”

“Well you’d better shape up fast! You’ll get killed by the first fucker who sees you, waving sticks around like that.”

I heard hoofbeats, and Hunter turned his head to greet a recusant mare approaching us. “Hey, baby,” he said playfully.

She had a deep red coat and inky black mane. She was slender, even for a recusant, with black stripes on the fronts of her legs, a black snout, and a splotch of black around her tail. She’s gorgeous.

“Hello, Hunter. And hello to you, Equestrian. I am Navery.” Her voice was silkier than a filly’s mane.

I grinned like a fool, looking away from her soft amber eyes. “I’m Dissero.”

Hunter jumped down from the bunk above me, and I saw that he had brown stripes running up the fronts of his legs and another across his snout. He and Navery embraced briefly, rubbing snouts affectionately, before turning to face me.

“So, what’s your story? What’s Equestria like? How’d you end up in that lake?” Hunter asked. Navery sat by his side, seemingly bored.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I said. I had had a hard day, to say the least. Leaving a bed for the first time in weeks only to be beaten to an aching numbness and threatened one way or another multiple times. Right now I needed time to think. I needed a plan. A way to learn more about the Outer World, enough that I could survive on my own until I could get back with my crew. I needed to learn to fight well enough to defend myself in what, from what I’d heard since arriving, was a hostile and dangerous land.

You’ll never find your crew. You’ve got a whole world to search.

I pushed the nagging thought to the back of my mind.

“Okay, if you insist. We’ll be leaving you, then,” Hunter said. He nudged Navery, and the couple trotted out into the main cavern, around a corner, and out of sight.

I stared after them blankly, lost in too many ways for comfort. My crew is gone. My ship is gone. Even my home is gone. I set my head down and closed my eyes, dreading what the next day might bring.

Ω Ω Ω

Fire. A building covered in fire. The flames lick out the windows and the smoke fills the air. Screams and sirens in the distance, the sounds of conflict and death. A young, inky black pegasus walks out of the flames, his eyes fixed to mine. His mouth is open in silent agony. The screams steadily grow louder. I rush to hold him, and the skin starts to melt away from his bones.

My heart was pounding. My fur was covered in sweat. I shook myself as I rose from the bed and put a hoof to my forehead, trying to push the image away. I could hear Hunter snoring above me, and the sounds of others sleeping nearby.

I also heard screaming, somewhere else in the cave.

I slid out of the bed, warily trotting out of the sleeping area to follow the faint sound. It led me to another cave, halfway up the wall of the main one. I climbed up using a makeshift staircase of rocky protrusions and poked my head inside.

Colonel was sitting there, calmly watching as a scrawny griffon cried. He was tied to a post jammed into the ground near the back of the cave. His ribs were visible through thin feathers, and prominent bruises covered most of his body.

What the...? I moved to back away, but one of my hooves hit a rock behind me. It fell down to the cavern floor, making an echoing crack that felt like it’d wake everyone around for miles.

I cringed as Colonel turned to me. Her eyes were covered by shadow, and her face somber. “Oh, it’s you. I was just thinking of you. Come, I want you to watch this.”

I hesitated, but she beckoned me closer. Her voice held a quiet authority that was hard to resist. I walked to her side, eyeing the griffon nervously.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“I don’t like griffons,” Colonel said nonchalantly. She ignored my question. “I’ve lost many good mares and stallions to them. They’re cruel and heartless killers.” She glared at the sobbing figure in the darkness. “They hunt us down and present our severed wings and heads to those who would pay. They don’t even do it for the money. They enjoy it.”

The griffon looked up and saw me. He reached out with a bloody talon. “Please! Let me go!” he begged. I took a step back, unsure of how to react.

“Silence!” Colonel snapped. The griffon shrunk back as if struck, returning his gaze to the floor and sobbing quietly.

“Griffons have a very interesting idea of reputation, Dissero. When one of them is captured, they refuse to acknowledge that they failed to protect their own. They leave them behind. And yet, the captured griffon still feels loyalty to his flock. It takes considerable... encouragement... to get him to reveal any kind of information,” Colonel said.

Blood stepped out of the shadows, from another entrance I hadn’t noticed. She was smiling like a little filly, pushing a bloodstained, wheeled table before her. I saw scalpels, corkscrews, knives of all sizes, tongs, pliers, and a myriad of other devices. A cold chill ran down my spine.

“Please! Just let me go! I’ll never bother you again! I’ll pay you! Please!” the griffon shrieked. He staggered away from Blood, pulling at his chain faintly.

“Come here, silly griffon! We’re going to have some fun!” Blood giggled. She ran a hoof along the surface of the table thoughtfully. “Lets see, what do you want to do first? I don’t think I have a beak quite like yours yet... it’s cute!” she squeaked. She grabbed a scalpel and approached the griffon merrily, beaming with excitement.

I averted my gaze. I’m never getting out of here alive. “Look at it,” Colonel commanded. I silently begged her to let me leave the place, let me go back to my bed and forget about this. “Look at it!” she repeated, more harshly this time. I obeyed.

The griffon was weakly trying to fend off Blood with his arms and wings. “Hey, stop that! That’s no fun!” Blood said playfully. She grabbed one of the griffon’s wings, pulling hard. He shrieked, flapping frantically to try and get away as she reached for a rusted bonesaw.

I leaned closer to Colonel. “You’re not gonna let her do this, are you?” I whispered frantically. Why is it so damn hot in here?

Colonel stared straight ahead. Her eyes were dull and her face blank. “I’ve killed many in my life. I’ve killed with my hooves, killed with my orders, and killed with my mistakes. It’s too late for me.”

Blood brought the saw down upon the griffon’s shoulder, humming to herself as she cut through his wing joint. The sound of the saw scratching across the bone made me sick. The griffon shrieked louder than ever before, his voice breaking as tears ran down his face. The severed wing fell to the floor with a soft thud, and blood squirted from the wound. I staggered to the side, caught myself on a wall, and retched.

“A long time ago, I was different. I had ideals. I believed that there was right and wrong. Those beliefs got others killed. Now I know that there is no right and wrong. There is only perspective,” Colonel continued.

Blood stepped back to admire her hoofwork and grinned briefly. “Wait a minute! You’re all uneven now!” she said, frowning. The griffon lay on the ground, feebly grabbing at his missing wing. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up real quick!” She grabbed a dull knife and pulled the griffon up to a sitting position with her mouth.

I tried to close my eyes, or turn my head away, but I couldn’t move. Colonel continued to watch, her expression unchanging. “I decided that, regardless of what it took, I would do anything to keep my recusants alive. I vowed to stop at nothing to protect them. Since then, I’ve come to realize exactly what that means. Exactly what I’ve had to sacrifice.”

Blood sunk the knife into the griffon’s wing joint. I heard a sickening crunch as she twisted the blade and pulled it out, stabbing the flesh around the wing over and over again. Blood squirted out of the wound and onto her face, dripping onto the rock below.

“I’ve done terrible things for my clan, Equestrian.”

Blood grabbed the griffon’s wing, now hanging limply from his side, and pulled it loose with a quick turn of her head. The sound of the bones cracking was drowned out by the griffon’s blood-curdling scream. I could see his broken bones hanging out. The torturer licked the blood off her snout and smiled.

“Now, how about that beak?” She grabbed a pair of pliers.

“No... please.... please let me go...” the griffon whimpered. He was beyond screaming now. Colonel calmly walked up to him and lowered her face to his.

“You know what I want,” she said softly.

The griffon shuddered. I stared into his eyes, transfixed, unable to look away despite wanting more than anything to run from the room. I saw his survival instincts struggle with his drive to protect the flock. He shook his head and closed his eyes. His feathers were stained with tears and blood.

“Very well, then. Have your fun, Blood.” Colonel turned her back on him and stepped past me slowly.

“I admit, I envy you, Equestrian. You come from a land where murder is nigh unheard of, and your only brush with death is at the funerals of the elderly. If I was you, I would do everything in my power to return to it, before you become something you’ll regret.”

Colonel’s hoofbeats receded to nothing as I continued to watch the grisly scene before me. Blood had pulled the griffon’s beak off with the pliers. It lay on her table now, cracked and bloodstained. The griffon was lying in his bodily fluids, his tongue hanging out of the hole in his face, as Blood cut his belly open. With an enormous effort, I managed to wrench my gaze away, but I could still hear his guts fall to the floor as Blood sang merrily.

I ran from the room, but the screams ran faster.

Ch. 8: Wild Life

Omega

Chapter 8: Wild Life

Five ponies gathered in a simple room, far above the ground.

They all faced the far wall, gazing somberly at the array of candles. They would have put up pictures, too, but they didn’t have any. Any pictures they may have had had been lost a long time ago, when they were enslaved by Robber Baron. They didn’t have any keepsakes to use, either. After their escape, everypony had just carried everything with them; they didn’t have enough stuff to really need to put it anywhere. So when Dissero had fallen off the Omega, almost a month back, he had taken all of his life’s possessions with him.

Instead, a simple sheet of paper was propped up on top of the shrine. Stormslider had written his name on it in her best writing. It was horribly inadequate. It was the best they could do.

Ember watched the ceremony with an almost detached attitude. What had the unicorn been to her? An employer. An escape. Yes, he had done much for her by taking her into his crew, and she had lived with him for years, but in the end he was just another boss. Not even a very good one at that. Although she did feel the loss, she wouldn’t exactly call it grief. He had always lacked backbone. With him gone, maybe the crew could now truly go somewhere.

One by one, they stepped up to say their last words. Silver Feather was first to approach the shrine. Tears flowed freely from his face, and his goggles hung limply around his neck instead of their usual spot in his mane. Even they were saddened by the loss. He bowed his head, whispering softly to the written name. His body shook, and it seemed to take all his strength to step away and rejoin the rest of the crew.

Stormslider didn’t cry. It wasn’t like her to show that much emotion. Nonetheless, her eyes reflected her sorrow. Phoenix Down could barely make the walk. She had bid everything on Dissero, following him out here into a strange and hostile world, abandoning all she knew, and now he was dead. Ember wasn’t sure if the gentle earth pony was troubled more by his death or by the prospect of having to live with four ponies she barely knew, in a world she had never seen.

It was Ember’s turn. She stepped somberly before the sad excuse for a shrine. No tears wet her eyes, but she still felt something for the dead. She had never really respected Dissero as a leader, but she had known that he always did his best. She bowed her head.

“Goodbye, Dissero,” she whispered. “Thanks for... everything.”

She took her place amongst the crew, and Cleaver stepped forward. He gave his last words, and then turned to face the rest of the crew. He filled the little room with his deep baritone as he sang a simple Stalliongrad funeral dirge. Nopony understood the words. None but him knew the thick language of Stalliongrad. Nonetheless, they felt them.

He finished, and the survivors dispersed quietly. Ember waited for the others to leave, silently listening to the words of the ship as it floated through the air. It sounded somewhat subdued. Even his ship, it would seem, mourned Dissero’s death.

Silver hung back, eyes fixed to the hard metal he stood upon. The floor was wet beneath his forehooves. He looked up and took a deep breath, glancing towards Ember.

“He can’t be dead,” he said.

Ember sighed patiently. She had been through this before. A part of her wanted to walk out on the pegasus, to go and talk with the engine, but she knew that he needed her right now. “We’ve searched for over a month, Silver, with no signs of him.”

“I know, but... I just feel like if he was dead I would... feel it.”

She cocked her head. Ponies never made any sense to her mind. “I think you’re definitely feeling something. Face reality, Silver. Dissero is dead, and we need to move on. You need to move on. If not for yourself, then for us. We need you to fly the ship.”

He stomped a hoof down, his good wing flapping angrily. “What about him?” he snapped. “We can’t give up on him! He could be out there, lost and afraid, and we’re going to just... move on?”

Ember stepped forward, coming nose to nose with the distraught pegasus. “What do you expect?” she shouted. “Do you think we can just spend the rest of our lives searching for a body, to get some fucking peace of mind?”

“He would have done it for us!” Silver replied, raising his voice to match hers. She didn’t need this yelling, she hated yelling. How she longed for the calm reason of machinery!

“He was a fool! A goddamn fool that led us into slavery, and then to this! We’re better off without him!”

Silver leaped on Ember, pinning her down, teeth bared. “How dare you!” he snarled. “After all he’s done for you! You would be dead if it wasn’t for him, and now you want to abandon him!”

“Silver, get the fuck off of me,” she said calmly. Her cool voice made a stark contrast to the fury within her. Pounce on her, will he? Lucky for him that she wouldn’t hit a grieving ally! A tense moment passed between the two.

Trembling, he backed off. The tears had returned to his eyes. Ember climbed to her hooves, listening to the sound of Silver’s hooves as he walked out of the room. He closed the door behind him.

Ember shook her head. She would have to get these ponies under control. Their grief would be the death of them. Her ears twitched as the engine hummed a little louder, at the rear of the ship. It was worried about the crew.

“Yes. I know,” she said, patting the wall affectionately.

She snuffed the candles on the way out.

I was exhausted.

Where am I?

I was starting to get tired of this thing with the unknown beds and the waking up and the lack of memory. Where was I? What would I face when I opened my eyes?

A massive headache, that’s what. Sweet Celestia, that hurts.

Focus. I ran through what I could remember from last night. There was the raid, and then the party, and then the drinking, and then… Oh. Oh no.

Drinking was bad. I had never been the type to hold my booze in well and Silver Feather wasn’t around to play wingpony anymore. I prayed that I hadn’t done anything I might regret, let out a hoarse moan, and rolled over.

I came snout-to-snout with Pyrestripe.

“Why hello, Dissero,” she purred.

Well, that was unexpected. I felt my cheeks warming as my pulse quickened. My eyes darted side to side in search of escape. I was in one of the recusant’s rooms, probably one of the mares, but I wasn’t sure which and was in no way capable of reasoning it out right now. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind and yet at the same time I found it impossible to think. I desperately grasped for something to say, and leaped for the first thing that came to mind.

“Uhm… good morning,” I croaked. I noticed her tail wrapped around one of my hind legs.

She smiled sweetly and slid out of the bed, offering an excellent view of her flanks as she stretched.

“You enjoy the party?” she asked.

“I’m… not… sure…” I managed to say. I was starting to have some trouble breathing. I didn’t know if I was pleased or ashamed, but I was certain that I wanted to remember what happened. I just felt so let down about it all, kind of like reading a great book, forgetting the whole plot, and missing out on all the juicy details.

“I know I did.” She licked her lips. “You Equestrian stallions are… so much more satisfying.”

“What happened, exactly?” I asked. A triumphant sense of satisfaction sparked within me as I stifled my stutters. I spotted an exit, but Pyre was standing in my way.

“Oh, you know. You got drunk. You really open up when you’re drunk, Dissy. A real party animal.” She giggled and looked away wistfully.

“Oh…” I rolled over again, too shy to look at her, and noticed Faerie sleeping next to me. I almost fell off the bed.

She raised her head groggily. “Wha… time for round six?” she asked.

Round six!? What the fuck! “Uhm… No, thanks I was... just…” I crawled out of the bed and stumbled for the doorway. Wow, the air was really thick in here. And dark. The ground started moving in a way I found to be disturbingly un-groundlike.

“I was… just leaving…” I said, having some difficulty figuring out which way was gravity.

Hunter appeared in the doorway. “Hey, Dissero, wanna go hunting?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. I almost fell on him, and I took some time to steady myself. “I love hunting! Favorite thing ever,” I added enthusiastically.

He cocked his head, raising a brow. “Okay… well, come on then.”

He turned, and with a breathless farewell to the mares I shuffled after him. My knees were shaking, and I kept falling to the side, having to catch myself on the walls.

“Uh, you okay, buddy?” my savior asked as we emerged into the main cave.

“Yeah,” I said with the voice of someone who was completely not okay and was trying desperately hard not to look like a total wimp who can’t even handle waking up with two mares he hardly knows.

He grinned. “So, guess you had an exciting night, huh?”

I shook my head, wide-eyed and confused. “I… I don’t even know. I think I’m gonna… I dunno.” I moved to walk away, but he blocked my passage.

“Whoa, now. You promised me we’d go hunting,” he said, pushing me back. “And hunting we will go.”

I just want to lie down, really, I protested silently.

“Grab your stuff and meet me at the sandpit in ten minutes.”

Ω Ω Ω

“What do you know about guns?”

Hunter and I crouched in the undergrowth, hiding under the shade of one of the many trees that covered the Stygian clan’s home valley with green. We both wore our barding and weapons of choice, but Hunter had added a bow to his repertoire, as well as the gun which was lying before me now.

“Well, you point them at things, and shoot them, and it kills them. That’s about it,” I said. I had calmed considerably since my distressing morning, putting my mind into the intricate climb down the mountain. It felt good to be out in the woods. I hadn’t done anything like this for a long time.

He nodded. “More or less. Do you know how they work?”

“Not really. We have something like this back home. It uses a spell to propel the bullet.”

“Ah, magic. I hear you Equestrians are big on that, but you won’t find much of it over here. Anyways, our guns are somewhat different. When you pull the trigger, it lights a spark, creates an explosion in the barrel, and pushes the bullet out.”

I raised a brow skeptically. “That sounds dangerous. And dirty.”

“It is. You have to be careful you maintain good guns, and you shouldn’t try using any unfamiliar guns you happen to come across. They’ll blow up in your face.”

"Is the technology flawed?”

“Not exactly. It’s just… new, kinda. Most guns are just clobbered together wrecks made by amateurs. You’d be better off if you only took guns with this mark.” He pointed to the butt of the gun, and I picked out an emblem of a shining sun, with a single line through the middle.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Means its a good gun. One you can trust. Anyways, we best get going if we want to catch anything. Here.” He held the gun out, and I levitated it into a sheath strapped to my side.

With a flap of his wings, Hunter was in the trees. He leapt silently from branch to branch, using his wings to aid his travel, while I followed on the ground, body low and eyes scouring the forest.

After some time, Hunter landed next to me. “There’s a herd of deer in a clearing to the south. You creep up to the north edge, and I’ll fly around and drive them to you.”

I nodded, and soon I was trotting through the woods on my own. The walk to the clearing’s edge only took ten minutes, and soon I was hidden amongst the bushes. I pulled the gun out of its sheath, taking a moment to watch how the sunlight gleamed off the strange emblem, and set it down before me. I was ready to fire.

My ears twitched at the sound of thundering hooves. I squinted as a small herd of deer turned a corner, sprinting straight towards me.

With a glimmer of magic, I took aim.

I was so intent on the shot that at first I didn’t notice the hissing coming from the trees behind me. I turned around, curious, just in time to see something lunging for my face.

I threw myself away, rolling into the clearing and holding the gun out before me. From the corner of my eye I noticed the herd of deer turning away. Shit. The hunt was ruined.

“Hunter?” I called, eyeing the creature nervously. Ten more just like it emerged from the trees, spreading out to surround me. I began to take cautious steps backwards.

“Hunnnteeerrrrrr?” A little louder this time.

I almost couldn’t hear him over the wind. “Raptors! Run away!”

Good enough for me.

I fired the gun, flinching as it kicked back and struck me hard on the shoulder. The raptor's scream barely reached my ringing ears as I sheathed my gun, turned tail, and ran through the smoke left by the shot.

It took all of ten seconds for one of them to catch up and pounce on me.

I screamed as the talons dug into my sides, reflexively bucking the creature off of me. It fell off, tearing away my flesh with it. I drew one of my swords and impaled its neck before it could get back up.

My sides burned. I could barely walk with the pain. I turned around, drawing my other two swords, and tried to figure out how I was going to defend myself against nine of these ravenous Outer World beasts.

Hunter fell from the sky, cracking one’s spine with his landing and leaping onto another, knives bared. He rolled away from it, turning towards me for half a second.

“Go! I’ll distract them!”

I limped away as fast as I could, trying to ignore the searing sensation in my sides as I made for the trees. Upon reaching them I skidded to a stop and looked back, hoping Hunter could handle the beasts.

He was doing fine. But four of them had broken off and were heading straight for me. Time to run again!

I galloped through the forest, dodging trees and jumping over fallen logs, slowed by my attempts to keep weight off my injured leg. The soft sound of raptor claws tearing through the earth behind me spurred me on, but they were catching up. I couldn’t outrun them. My heart pounded as I searched frantically for a way out. I couldn’t climb trees. I couldn’t hide. I couldn’t fight. They would surround me and pounce all at once.

Unless I could find a way to funnel them to me, and take them on one at a time.

I angled my path towards the mountain closest to me. The raptors didn’t look like they were very good climbers; their claws may get grip, but their tiny forelegs wouldn’t be able to grab anything. I could climb up onto a ledge, and pick them off as they tried to follow..

Bursting out of the trees, I stopped before the mountain to briefly catch my breath. There was nothing to climb. The mountainside here was nothing but a sheer and steep cliff. I cursed under my breath.

I spied a cave, and made for that instead. They wouldn’t be able to surround me in there. It wasn’t what I had been hoping for, but it would do.

Stepping over a fallen sign and entering the cave, I turned around to face my attackers. I slid into a defensive crouch as I drew my blades, ready to fight to the death.

The raptors didn’t seem nearly as eager. The squawked in alarm and skidded to a stop at the treeline. They chattered to each other nervously, pacing side to side but refusing to come any closer.

I grinned. Smart little bastards. They were too afraid to attack me! Weren’t willing to take me on in a fair fight! I stepped forward, snarling.

“Well? Come at me, then!”

They quieted down, backing into the trees as they eyed me warily.

Wait… they’re not looking at me… Oh, fuck.

I glanced down at the sign. Beware of Baron. Slowly, I turned to face the inside of the cave, coming face to face with the largest and most terrifying mouth I had ever seen.

Rows upon rows of gleaming white teeth lined a massive wet hole at least twice my size. Saliva and disgusting green fluid dripped from the teeth on top, and formed into little puddles around the teeth on the bottom. The monster let out a breath, and the nauseous scent that emerged from the shaded depths made me gag. Then, it roared at me.

The sound alone was bad enough. It was the sound of imminent death. Even without the mighty wind that accompanied it, it still would have pushed me back onto my rump from fear alone. It was like being in the Breaks all over again, like the roar of a thousand thunder clouds. It engulfed my entire being. I felt a warm liquid pooling around my rear.

Saliva flew out of its mouth with the roar, and when I came to my senses I was covered in the sticky slick stuff. I would’ve thrown up right there if some wiser part of my mind hadn’t decided that there were more important matters at hoof.

The mouth reared back, and my eyes widened.

“HUNTER!” I leaped to the side as its mouth slammed into the ground where I had just been standing. I shrieked, backing up against the cave wall. I looked out through the exit and saw the raptors waiting patiently for dinner to be served. My heart sank.

The cheeky bastards had known the whole time!

The monster rose for another strike, and I turned my focus to survival. It lunged, and once again I rolled away with just a few inches to spare. I could feel the thing’s mouth as it flew past, and the shockwave as it hit the cave wall pushed me off my hooves. This was not the time to be thinking about the raptors.

As the monster struggled to recover from the miss, I was able to get a clear look at it for the first time. Some of it was underground, with what I was fighting now rising from a burrow in the middle of the cave, but from what I saw it was some kind of giant worm. Jumping up, I sprinted to its side and stabbed a sword through its armored sides.

No, wait. The sword broke.

Well, fuck.

Luckily, it didn’t seem to notice my attack. I ran back to the cave wall, preparing myself to dodge another strike. Just like before, it lunged straight at me, and I was able to jump away. The monster may have been strong, but it was hardly an innovative beast.

I dashed to its side, gritting my teeth through the pain of each step. This time I stuck the sword under one its massive scales, working it back and forth to try and loosen it. But I took too long, and the monster rose up and tried to smash me with its heavy body.

I leapt forwards, barely making it out. I pulled my tail out from under the great weight and moved away. If it lunged for me again, I could get back at the scale.

Predictably enough, it did. I was getting the hang of things. I managed to jump away at the right time to put plenty of space between me and its fearsome ring of teeth. I almost chuckled! I got this! As long as I didn’t let it tire me out or hit me, I could win.

I rushed back to the same scale, prying it up with the sword. The blade broke. I tossed the pieces aside and grabbed the scale with my hooves, pulling with both might and magic.

I felt something give, but I couldn’t pull it all the way off. Panting, I ran back to the cave wall to prepare for another strike.

Hunter grunted as he pulled his daggers out of the corpse of the last raptor.

He had killed five raptors. Excellent. Even if the deer had gotten away, he at least had these. He rolled his shoulders and cleaned his blades on some grass. Something was nagging at him. He cocked his head thoughtfully.

Weren’t there nine raptors at first?

He glanced around. There were definitely only five bodies, but he was certain there had been nine of them.

Off in the distance, faintly, he thought he heard someone calling his name.

His eyes widened. Where’s the Equestrian...? Damnit.

With a powerful flap of his wings, he was off. He simply would not allow that naive bastard to get himself killed. That wouldn’t be any good at all.

So the fight went on. Over and over, the monster lunged for me, stupidly smashing its head into the rock behind me, and I would rush up and do whatever I could to loosen the scale. The wound on my shoulder wasn’t helping. I felt myself slowing down. This is taking too long!

Again, the mouth smashed into the wall. Again, I ran up and tried to pull the scale off. I braced my hind legs against its body, pulling with all the power I could muster from both body and mind.

A crack echoed through the cave, and it finally broke away.

I fell back, landing hard on the rocky ground, and raised my last remaining sword. It plunged easily into the monster, slipping through the exposed skin like butter. The monster roared and reared up, seeming surprised that I had managed to hurt it.

The movement pulled the sword out of my reach, and I scrambled back for the cave wall. I waited for it to topple over. For it to bleed out, release a moan of agony and die.

It roared the roar of a beast that had been stabbed by a tiny little sword and was starting to get pissed at the little pony that simply refused to be eaten.

My heart sank. All that work for nothing. It reared up again, and I prepared myself for another dodge. My mind raced as I tried to figure out some kind of plan.

But it didn’t lunge this time. Instead, it spat. I was so surprised I almost forgot to dodge. Too slow. Some of the green spit landed on my flank as I jumped away. I yelped as it began to sizzle and burn. Now the thing is spitting acid!

It lunged again, and I just barely avoided getting chomped. The acid hurt one my good legs, and it wasn’t able to hold weight. I toppled over, trying to drag myself away, but something was holding my tail!

I screamed as I was lifted into the air. The monster hissed in delight, pleased that it had finally managed to capture the pesky little pony.

“HUNNNTTEEERRRRR!!”

Suddenly I was falling. I shrieked and closed my eyes, waiting for thousands of teeth to sink into my flesh.

“Oof!” My face slammed into the cave floor. I spent a few seconds lying there, dazed from the impact.

I looked up to see Hunter flying above me, daggers bared, brow furrowed, flashing a confident smile. “I see you found our resident baron!”

“Just kill it, for the love of Luna!”

The monster roared in fury, expressing great disappointment towards the tiny recusant that dared to interrupt its meal time.

With a flap of his wings, Hunter dove into its mouth. My heart stopped. That stallion is insane!

A few scales exploded off the monster’s side, and Hunter popped out, covered in blood and gore but otherwise unharmed. He took a breath and dove back in. The beast roared in pain.

Suddenly, it went quiet, moaned softly, keeled over, and died.

Tentatively, I climbed to my hooves and looked into its gaping maw. I squinted, trying to pick out details through the darkness.

Hunter flew out lazily, daggers bloodied and body coated in all colors of the gore rainbow. He landed next to me and slapped me on the back. I cringed as all sorts of inside parts were rubbed into my coat.

“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” he asked cheerily.

I looked over to him, mouth wide open, and managed to get out a grunt of resigned agreement.

“You must be tougher than I thought, to survive that long against one of these babies.”

I poked one of the monster’s teeth with a hoof. I drew back, hissing. The tooth was razor sharp, and coated with the burning acid.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you. Baron teeth still make acid, even after death,” he said.

I shook my head in disbelief. “What is this thing?”

He chuckled. “It’s a baron wurm! It’s what you get when you leave the local wurm population untended. One of them rises to dominance, and pretty quickly grows into something like this.”

I pointed to the exit, where the raptors were lying dead. “What are those things?”

“Raptors. Pretty common in the Outer World. You can find them almost anywhere you can find prey.”

I nodded sagely, taking a few seconds to work it all out in my head. “This place is fucking insane…”

“Yeah, you could call it that. Too bad we missed out on the deer. Bad luck, with the raptors. But hey, we still caught something!” He gave the dead wurm an appreciative kick.

I sat down and sighed. I took a big breath, and then another one. I lay down on my back and looked up at the rocks above me. I had thought I was dead back there.

“Yeah. Sure.” The Outer World was definitely not the place for a pony like me.

Ch. 9: Flight

Omega

Chapter 9: Flight

“Blitz isn’t gonna believe this,” Hunter said, dragging the now-removed heart of the baron wurm behind him.

“Why not?” I asked. We jumped down a small drop, and I hissed as the impact made my shoulder flare up.

“He’s always kinda thought that you’re just some Equestrian wimp who’s gonna die his first day outside.” He stopped momentarily to look up and stretch.

“Well, I almost did.”

Hunter grinned. “Good thing, too. He and I had a bet over whether or not you’d survive the hunt. Thanks.”

“What?” I shook my head in disbelief. “I almost died back there!”

“Well, yeah,” he said. “But you didn’t, and I made some money. An even trade. Hey, we should go hunting more often!”

“No thanks.”

The recusant chuckled. “Don’t worry, buddy. I wouldn’t want to lose my bet!”

I sighed. This place is going to be the death of me. I took a second to reflect on the thought, and realized that I had never used that phrase before and actually meant it. Disturbing.

Somewhere in the distance, an eagle called. Hunter’s ears twitched, and he suddenly leaped off of the ground, flying up above the treetops and leaving the wurm heart on the leaves.

“What is it?” I asked, peering upwards.

“Never ignore an eagle’s call, Dissero.” He poked his head back under the leaves. “Griffons found us! Hurry up and get back to the cave. Try not to get killed!”

At that, he flew away, leaving me alone amongst the trees. I looked around nervously. So far everything I’d run into out here tried to kill me, and I was getting the creeping feeling that some new predator would leap out of the bushes, teeth bared.

I suddenly realized the full weight of Hunter's words. Griffons had found us!

I broke into a gallop, sides burning. My mind raced. I could stay away and avoid the battle, but then I’d probably get killed by some Outer World beast. I could join the battle and hope the Stygians would protect me, but then I’d have to fight the griffons. I wasn’t exactly the best fighter, and I only had one sword left!

By the time I clambered up over the edge of the small landing around the cave entrance, I had been running for an hour. My lungs burned and my body ached. I was, to summarize, not at all in fighting condition.

The scrape of swords and yells of the wounded rose up from the cave. I pulled a rope out of my saddlebags, tied it to the lone tree that grew nearby, grabbed hold, and peeked inside.

Most of the clan was gathered on one side of the cave, fending off the griffons as they dashed in and out in quick hit and run attacks. On a ledge halfway up the wall, Colonel was giving orders and brandishing a rifle, shooting at any griffons that exposed themselves as the clan fought around her. On the other side of the cave, Blitz and Shatter moved amongst the griffons, attacking any that broke from the group or dared to raise a gun.

One of the griffons passing through the sand pit saw my shadow and looked up. My eyes widened. Shit.

I scrambled backwards as the griffon flew out of the hole and landed before me. Rolling under his sweeping axe, I came up behind him and bucked hard. He recovered so fast that I barely had time to grab the rope before he shoved me into the hole.

I screamed as I fell, coming to an abrupt stop a couple meters above the sand pit. I shook my head and looked up just in time to see the griffon cut the rope.

“Oof!” I plopped into the sand. Rolling over, I tried to regain my bearings or get up, but the world didn’t want to stay still, and my shoulder wound burned from the landing. I idly noted the griffon standing above me, blade raised for the kill.

A dark blue blur slammed into him, knocking him aside. I crawled to my hooves, bracing myself on a nearby rock and gritting my teeth at the pain. Blitz was shouting something at me. I turned to see him wrestling with the griffon. “Go, Equestrian! Get somewhere safe! We’ll handle these bastards!”

I wasted no time, stumbling out of the sand pit and drawing my last remaining sword. Pitiful. I was barely able to fight one person with three weapons. What can I do with one?

“Stygians! Charge!” Colonel’s command rang through the cave, and the clan let out a fierce warcry as they galloped forth. A griffon reared up before me, deadly sharp steel claws worn on his talons, and I leaped to the side. I brandished my sword, but the griffon easily knocked it aside with his beak, charging forwards and wrapping his tail around my neck. He snarled at me and flapped his wings. I gagged as the tail tightened around my neck and pulled up.

Luckily for me, the griffon wasn’t used to fighting unicorns. I levitated my sword above my head and swung wildly, cutting the tail away. I fell down to the hard rock, trying to both gasp for breath and call for aid at the same time.

“My tail!” The griffon hissed in fury. Faerie flew by, wingblades dripping red, and suddenly there was blood spilling on me as the griffon plummeted from the sky, lifeless.

I gagged. What the fuck is happening!? Noise everywhere. The stomp of hooves, the flap of wings. Fire burns as smoke pours out the windows. I squinted as the sunlight shone into my eyes and the shadows danced around me. The sky fills with airships and smoke. I crawled to my hooves, barely noticing as the griffon raising his sword before me was knocked away by Flintlock. A massive tower collapses, crushing hundreds beneath it. I managed to pull my gun out of its sheath and pointed it at something, stuttering as I tried to get out a trigger word. Nothing happened. Thunder, lightning, wind in every direction. The world was a roar.

I felt something pull on my neck, and suddenly I was looking into Colonel’s eyes. “Pull yourself together, Equestrian! Get the fuck up!” She disappeared as abruptly as she arrived.

I shook my head, eyes wide, and looked up. Another griffon stood before me, a bloodied axe hanging over my head. The axe fell to cleave open my skull as I lay there, paralyzed with fear.

Then some instinct took over. My horn glowed, and the axe veered off course, stinging my cheek with a glancing blow instead of spilling my brains. My attacker recovered quickly, stepping back to narrow his eyes and figure out what had just swayed his blade. I heard a bang! above me, and I choked on gunsmoke as the griffon keeled over. I scrambled to my hooves as Colonel landed next to me, hastily shoving another bullet into her rifle’s breech. I looked to her for guidance.

“Just try not to get killed, for fuck’s sake,” she said.

I nodded like the innocent little Equestrian I was.

With a quick glance I saw the griffons flying away, chased by Blitz and Pyre. We were winning the battle. I noticed my heart pounding and the wall holding my weight for the first time. I almost lost it back there.

Colonel had a hoof on my shoulder. “You okay?”

“Y... yeah.”

She nodded, turning to face the rest of the clan. “Pack light, Stygians! We’re bugging out!” she shouted.

They didn’t need to be told twice. Within seconds, every member of the clan was in motion, flying through the caves, filling saddlebags, and throwing everything else into a big pile in the sand pit.

Colonel beckoned to me, and I fell in behind her. “Hunter! Blight!” she called. The two stallions were by our side in a blink.

“Blight, take Faerie, Flintlock, Pyrestripe, and Blood with you. I’ll lead the others. We’ll meet at the planned rendezvous. If I’m not there in two weeks, move on.”

The old recusant nodded curtly and broke off.

“What are we doing?” I asked tentatively. I wasn’t sure if I could take much more of this.

“We’re bugging out,” she replied. “The griffons found us, and our only hope of survival is to be somewhere else before they get back with something bigger than a scouting party.”

“You plan for this?” I had just assumed the clan was safe here. Still not used to the Outer World, I guess.

“Of course. The griffons are relentless, and frankly, I’m surprised it took them so long to find us. Usually, we can easily fly away on our wings and start over elsewhere. But as for you, Dissero...” She stopped to size me up briefly.

“Uhm,” I stammered, looking over my wingless sides self-consciously. An idle thought drifted through my head, and I dismissed it immediately for being stupid. That hadn’t been flying. That had been falling with extra grace!

She raised a hoof. “Do not worry, the clan leaves none behind. At least, we won’t completely abandon you. You won’t, unfortunately, be able to accompany us. You would slow us down too much, and I won’t endanger the rest of the clan for you.

“But Hunter here has volunteered his services. Come.”

We followed her to a high, table-like rock. She pulled a map out of a pocket in her barding and spread it out. After a cursory examination, she jabbed her hoof at the worn out image of a mountain range.

“We’re here,” she said. She traced a line west, towards the ocean, and stopped over a sketch of a city. “You’re going here.”

I scanned the map. The mountains we were in seemed to form a circle around some region to the east labeled as ‘The Bare Lands,’ where the map ended.

“After we leave, you and Hunter will wait here. When the griffons arrive, he will lead them away to the south, allowing you to travel safely,” she explained.

My eyes widened, and I looked over to Hunter. “Are you sure about that? What if they catch you?”

He shot a confident smile my way. “Don’t worry, I can handle myself. You can’t.”

I nodded quietly. “Thanks."

“We never abandon a clanmate,” Colonel said, pushing the map towards me. “You can keep the map. Any questions? Good. I must go lead my clan. In the meantime, I recommend you start packing. Hunter can help you with that.”

She trotted away, leaving Hunter and I alone together. Recusants were flying, galloping, and planning all over the cave, filling it with an atmosphere that was both calm and hurried. Hunter beckoned to me with a wing, leading the way to the large pile of supplies that was being made in the middle of the sand pit. Faerie, Navery and Flintlock were busily looting the cave and piling everything up, and Hunter and I began to sort through the pile and pick out everything I would need for the journey.

Within five minutes, the pile was complete and the clan was gathered around the sand pit. Hunter and Navery were clustered together off to the side.

“Be careful,” I heard her say.

“Only for you,” he replied. They embraced, and Hunter joined me at my side.

After a brief glance over her clan, Colonel looked down to us. “Fly safe, Hunter. Take care, Equestrian. If you manage to find us again, we’ll welcome you.”

Hunter nodded to his clanmates. “See you soon.”

“Thanks again,” I said.

The rest of the clan offered me brief farewells. As one, they flew up and out of sight.

Hunter stared after them a few seconds and then turned to me. “You got everything you need? Food, map, barding, swords, a bit of gold?” he asked.

“Yeah.” The butterflies were coming back.

He flew out of the hole, and I clambered up after him on a rope he let down. He cut the rope with a dagger, motioning for me to step back. I backed up against a nearby rock, and he tossed a match into the hole. He stepped back and shielded his face as a wave of heat rose up. I heard a brief sizzling, and then a huge explosion. A few smoking items landed at my feet.

Hunter turned to me and grinned. “Flintlock’s work. No doubt he’s proud.”

We were on a wide, gently sloped ledge. Above us was a steep rise up the mountain and below a similarly steep drop down into a forested valley. The ground was rocky, with sparse soil that allowed a few mountain bushes to grow. A lone tree grew right on the edge of the cliff, hanging out, and a few large boulders rested together where they had fallen, hugging the mountainside.

I carefully walked to the edge of the cliff and scanned the horizon nervously. I had the feeling that the griffons would be here any moment now.

“Hey, get out of the open!” Hunter said. “They’ve got eagle eyes, for fucks sake. They can draw your lifemark before you even see their shadows.”

“Oh, right.” I stepped back and, after a short search for a decent hiding spot, tucked myself away in a small hole under the fallen boulders.

“Good. Now they’ll see me first, and I’ll be able to lead them away before they see you,” he said. “Oh, by the way, I’ve got a little something for you to help you with the walk.” He reached into his saddlebags with a wing, rummaged through it, and pulled out a small, metallic object. He held it out to me.

“A harmonica?” I asked. I grabbed the instrument with my magic and held it before my eyes, watching the way the sunlight reflected off its shiny surface.

“Those things are great. Whenever you’re out in the wilderness alone, at night time, with your imagination creeping up on you from every direction, a little bit of music does a lot to drive it away.”

“I can’t take this.” I held it back out for him. “You’ve already done too much for me.”

He pushed it away. “No worries, Navery got me eight of the things awhile back. Something about one for every key or whatever. I won’t miss it.”

Reluctantly, I levitated it into my own saddlebags. Honestly, I had hoped he wouldn’t take it back. I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep at nights, alone out in the strange and hostile Outer World, without something to calm my mind.

“Thanks again, Hunter.”

He grinned. “Yeah, sure. Now I probably better stop talking to you before the griffons see me staring at these rocks and figure out you’re here.”

I nodded, and he turned away from me. He flew up and perched on the top branch of the tree, looking out into the distance.

Within a minute, an eagle’s call sounded from somewhere further down the valley. Hunter’s ears twitched, and he surreptitiously tilted his head towards my hiding spot.

“That’ll be them,” he hissed, barely moving his lips. “Once they get close enough to see, I’ll fly away. Wait until you can’t see them anymore, and then wait an hour more. Don’t worry about me. I’m confident I’ll live for our paths to cross again.”

I offered no response, and he expected none. He knew I could hear him. My heart was starting to beat faster. What if something went wrong? What if they caught him before he could get far, and came back to search the cave? What if they ignored him and came straight for me? What if I left too early, and all his effort was for naught?

Stop being so fucking selfish. His life is in danger too.

Hunter saw something outside of my view, and flared his wings. He leapt off the tree branch and flapped hard, rising up and circling lazily. I heard another eagle call, and he flew out of sight.

I heard wings beating the air, and tucked myself further into my hiding place, pushing my tail up against the rough stone. Ten minutes passed, and the first griffon came into view. My heart was pounding. More griffons followed, until there was a whole flock of at least forty flying past. I was sweating. Some of the griffons were scanning the mountainsides lazily, and I tried to push myself further back, but there was no more room. I felt something give, and heard some pebbles falling as my weight shifted the balance of the rocks.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

I froze. None of the griffons seemed to notice. I closed my eyes, thanking Celestia I had a brown coat that blended well with the shadows. I dared not move, waiting for the sound of the wings to leave.

After what seemed like an eternity, the deadly sound drifted away. I strained my ears to ensure no noise escaped them. Nothing. I fought the instinct to run right away, to dart out of the rocks and break for the mountain path as fast as possible before the danger returned. The silence was more terrifying than the sound. Everything I heard made me jump. I was shaking. I watched the sun travel across the sky, counting the passage of time.

I heard a pair of wings.

Terrible things drifted through my mind.

The scratch of talons on rock.

I drew a knife. Slowly, quietly.

I saw something land in front of me, and lunged outwards, tackling it and fiercely stabbing it over and over, eyes shut tight from fear. Any moment now, greedy talons would reach out and grab me, competing for the right to tear me to pieces.

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, and saw the hawk bleeding out beneath my hooves.

I released a shaky breath of relief and looked around. No griffons. I rolled onto my back, dropped the knife, and began to chuckle. It grew into a hysterical laugh. It felt magnificent, but I knew that now was not the time to relax. I picked myself up, cleaned the knife, sheathed it, and started for the mountain path.

Ω Ω Ω

Panting, I stopped to rest in the shade of a scrawny tree. I put up a hoof to support myself on the cold stone beside me and looked up. The sun had almost set, and I was running out of energy. I had been climbing down the mountain for at least two hours now, and had lost count of how many times I’d wished for a pair of wings to carry me down on a gentle wind. No wonder the clan had hid up here. It was fucking impossible just to climb down, let alone climb up. I had managed to descend the mountain before, when I joined in on the raid of the other recusants, but I hadn’t been laden with long-distance traveling supplies, and had been allowed more frequent rests. Now, I couldn’t afford a stop. I had to get to the concealing safety of the trees at the foot of the mountain by sunset, in case the griffons returned.

I shook myself and levitated a canteen to my lips. Thank Celestia the cave is only halfway up the mountain.

Pushing off the mountain, I continued the descent. I was at a relatively easy point right now: a series of switchbacks that led to the final stretch of the path. A small part of me smiled knowing that I was almost there, but the rest of me was too tired to join in. I took a moment to watch the snow fall. The hike went on.

For the first time, I allowed myself to think about what just happened. Big mistake.

What hopes does a pony like myself have out here? In this hellhole? To think, that I had been so confident after I almost beat Colonel in a spar! She had probably been going easy on me, anyways... I doubt I could really defeat her, even with three blades. Now I realize how weak I really am...

My time in the foundries had been easy. Had been nothing. A bit of manual labor! Levitating coal for the furnace! Technically not even manual... to think I’d felt tough from the experience. Toughened, maybe. But nothing compared to the Outer World. Everywhere I went, someone else had to save me. Fuck, my whole life, I needed someone to save me. Silver ever since I was a colt. My crew back in Harmony City. The Stygians, ever since I arrived. Poor old Dissero can’t do shit for his life.

A pair of eyes.

Lost in my thoughts, I almost forgot to watch my hooves. I suddenly found my forehooves skidding down the cliff before me. Eyes wide, I scrambled back onto the path, shaking my head. I’m not giving up yet. Continuing down the mountainside, I searched for a more practical endeavor to occupy my mind. It didn’t take me long to find one.

Now what?

It wasn’t a question I had really needed to answer until now. Back in Equestria, I had a routine I could follow. In Harmony City, the Baron dictated my daily activities. When I escaped, I knew that I always had to be pushing forward, running away from the Baron and searching for land. While I was with the clan, I set myself to learning how to defend myself and repaying them for saving my life. Although I did still have a concrete goal right now, getting to the city alive, I had no idea what I would do when I got there. Where I would go. What I would find.

I still had to find my crew. I wonder how they’re doing? I hope they’re okay. If there was anything I had learned since my arrival, it was that the Outer World was a dangerous place. It changed ponies. It had changed me.

I felt kind of bad that I hadn’t thought about them for so long. Have they given up on me already? It had been at least a month since my fall. How long could I honestly expect them to look for me? They had their lives they had to get on with. They had to survive too. Maybe they had given up, and found their own way back to Equestria. Or maybe they were hundreds of miles away by now. Or maybe they had found a new life in this place already.

Or maybe they’re dead.

The wind picked up, and some of the falling snow blew into my face. I pulled my bandanna up as the biting wind and damp seeped into my fur. My barding did nothing against the weather, which seemed just right for a lost and lonely unicorn. I shivered.

A slip, and I lost my balance, falling right on my face. I had to stop with the deep contemplation for now and focus on the task at hoof. It was too wet, cold, and slippery for me to be climbing down a mountain with half of my head somewhere else.

I came to the end of the last switchback. All that was left now was to climb down one last snowy descent, and I would be off the mountain and into the safety of the trees. Then I could find somewhere to spend the night and rest. The climb was physically exhausting; the wet and cold had sucked my stamina, and the constant threat of griffons was mentally draining. Even though I knew that Hunter had led them away and I was probably safe, my body didn’t seem to want to believe it. Every little noise made my heart skip a beat.

I tentatively placed a hoof on a loose looking rock and tested it. It seemed secure enough. I placed my full weight on it as I went to take another step, and it suddenly gave out beneath me.

The rock tumbled away, and I fell face first into the snow. Again.

My momentum carried me forward against my will, and I began to roll. I picked up speed, hit a pile of snow, and felt myself launched into the air.

I curled up into a ball to protect myself, but I landed on more snow instead of the hard stone I had been expecting. I rolled all the way down the slope, hitting hundreds of little rocks and hard things on the way down, until I finally slammed into a tree.

I screamed in pain, clutching my side. For a few moments I lay there, holding myself. It felt like I had broken a rib. Or maybe two. Or three. At least I was alive. Hunter’s efforts wouldn’t be in vain. Or at least, they wouldn’t yet.

It felt like every inch of my body was covered in bruises, cuts, and scrapes. I had to get up, had to move on, find shelter! I knew my scream would attract predators. Raptors. You can find ‘em wherever there’s prey...

Fuck, that tumble hurt. I felt the sun beginning to set, the warm light drifting away from my coat. It was getting dark. Got to move.

Finally, the pain faded enough that I could open my eyes. I lifted my head, hissing in pain from the movement, and looked around blearily.

My head fell into the snow.

Ω Ω Ω

The sound of a basketball bouncing down the sidewalk. My tormentors arrive to bother me once more.

“Hey, Sissy, what’s up?” They laugh at me. Mocking.

I look away. Tired of the ridicule. Father won’t help. He’s out on his ship. I don’t even contemplate running to Mother. They already think I’m weak enough as it is.

“Oy, look at me when I talk to ya!” The larger one approaches. I close my eyes and send a prayer to Celestia. Why doesn’t she ever help? I hear them getting ready to throw the basketball at me, and brace myself. The impact never comes.

“Hey, leave him alone!”

A savior? A pegasus colt with a striking silver mane runs up and tackles one of the earth pony foals. With a fierce growl and hard kick, he sends them on their way.

I look up tentatively. “Why did you help me?”

“I don’t like seeing other ponies get picked on. Just isn’t right!” he offers a hoof and helps me up, flapping his tiny wings.

“What’s your name?”

“Silver Feather.”

Ω Ω Ω

I woke with a start. My eyes darted side to side. My heart slowed to a regular pace. My body felt like it had just rolled down a mountain.

I tentatively raised a hoof to block the bright light of the rising sun as it shone in my eyes, and was rewarded with a stab of pain.

“Aaagh, fuck!”

I clutched my side. I’d have to be more careful.

Delicately, I climbed to my hooves. I needed shelter. Somewhere I could spend a night without fear of what hunts in the night. Or even what hunts in the day. I stumbled along, holding my chest with a hoof.

Following the mountain, I came across a shallow cave, half-buried in snow, and wormed my way inside. The dim glow of my horn didn’t reveal anything particularly murderous. Good enough for me. I sat back against the cave wall and levitated my saddlebags off, thankful that I didn’t actually have to move to grab them.

“Let’s see what we’ve got then,” I said. Opening the bags, I rummaged through them in search of medical supplies. Map... harmonica... canteen... rope... ah, there we go.

I pulled out a small flask, holding it closer to better read the label. ‘Healing Draught: Accelerates regeneration for a day.’ Just what I needed. Pulling out the cork, I briefly contemplated the wisdom of drinking a health potion made by a poisoner before downing it all in one gulp.

Hrm. Tastes like... like...

It occurred to me that I had no idea what the hell that tasted like. There was simply no taste I could relate it to. It was kinda like... yeah. Like that. Hard to put into words, really. I looked down to the empty flask and considered drinking another, to get another taste. Idiot. This isn’t Equestria Cooks. Survival is more important!

Good point, brain. You’re a fine companion.

“Urhk!” I grabbed my stomach and keeled over, dropping the flask to shatter on the cave floor. I was overcome with the sickening sensation of things moving around inside of me. Things that should stay still. It wasn’t a fast movement, either. It was a slow one. It was like all of my bones were getting into a race with each other, but were playing to lose. My bones are a bunch of jerks.

I wheezed and coughed, lying on the hard rock as my body rearranged itself. Time slipped away. There was nothing but the strange half-pain that occupied my mind. My thoughts drifted, and then altogether stopped. The world escaped my notice, and the seconds passed away.

Stormslider looked over her work, and allowed herself a slight smile. Silver will love this, she thought.

Of all the crew, Silver had taken Dissero’s death the hardest. An understandable notion, considering their friendship. The others had gotten some semblance of normalcy back in their lives. They were moving on. Silver, however, still sat idly in the cockpit, listening to whatever orders he was given, occasionally making an unenthusiastic joke while looking out into the distance sadly.

Storm knew that Ember had been trying to cheer him up, but she wasn’t going about it right. The fiery engineer had more or less assumed command, being both the loudest of the five and the only with any idea about what they should do. She ran the ship with an iron hoof, trotting up and down halls, pushing ponies with forceful suggestions. Ember saw Silver’s depression as an obstacle. A prime pilot running at half efficiency, as Storm would put it.

The cloudgineer picked up her most recent creation and slung it around her shoulder, making for her door. She knew Silver well. They had known eachother a long time, ever since playing against each other in a cloudball game back at the Academy. He was a good pony.

She walked out into the main room, where Cleaver and Ember were busily sorting through some stack of papers or other. She wasn’t sure what they were up to, but she hazarded a guess that it was probably one of Ember’s plans to make themselves at home in this land. She seemed set on becoming a permanent resident of the Outer World.

Flying onto the navigation level and trotting into the cockpit, Storm was treated with the sight of Silver Feather, goggles around his neck, leaning on a wall coated with gauges as he stared out into the sky.

“Hey,” Storm said. “I want to show you something.”

Silver’s ears twitched. “I’m busy.”

“It’s cool.” She held her work out before her and shook it enticingly. If she could just get him to turn around...

He sighed and turned to face her. His eyes widened, and he almost broke out into one of his trademark grins. “What is that?” he asked.

“I made it for you. Come up to the deck and I’ll show you,” she said, pleased with his reaction.

Once they were on deck, Stormslider went into more detail. “It’s a lightning gun,” she said. “I’ve been fiddling with the rune guns since we escaped, and it turns out that the runes accept all kinds of magic, not just unicorn.”

Silver cocked his head, taking the gun up in his hooves. “How does it work?”

“It’s just like kicking a thundercloud. You pull this lever here, with a wing or a hoof, and the pressurized thunderclouds inside will zap whatever you’re aiming at. I designed the barrel to direct the thunder forwards. At close ranges it’ll even daze anything in front of you.”

He grinned, balancing the barrel on a nearby railing as he stood on his hind legs. With a magnificent flash and a thunderous rumble, lightning arced out of the gun, annihilating an unlucky cloud.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed. “Thanks, Storm.”

She smiled. “No problem.”

“Hey, you two!” Ember called from the cockpit ladder. “We’re having a meeting!”

Storm looked to Silver. The two pegasi shared a brief but warm embrace before walking down to the navigation room. The large table in the middle, previously broken by an intruding cannonball, had since been fixed with some glue and nails they’d bought from the locals. Cleaver and Nix were sitting beside it, with Ember standing confidently at the front of the room.

“Now, then,” she began. “If we’re going to be staying in the Outer World, we need to find a way to make gold.”

“Why?” Silver asked.

“Because, we don’t know the plants that grow out here. We have no supplies. I’m tired of eating meat and doing what we can to stay afloat with dried paint and scrapped drywall. We need a job of some kind, to support ourselves. The ship isn’t even repaired yet!”

She spread some papers out upon the table. “Normally, we would make money from trade, but this world is different from Equestria. We don’t know the routes, goods, customers, or land. Splitting up isn’t an option. Together, there’s not much we can do for money.”

“What are you proposing?” Storm asked cautiously.

“I say we become mercenaries. You all saw when we went into that town. There were jobs everywhere. Jobs of every kind. We could capture criminals, escort caravans, anything we can get! What do you say?”

Suddenly, I was back.

Sunlight was filtering into the cave. Looking up, I was disturbed to find the sun was lower in the sky than it had been before. Did I just go back in time?

I pulled myself up and came to a more reasonable conclusion: I must have been out for at least a day. I stretched gingerly, feeling my body as I moved. The aches were still there, but the thousand sharp pains had faded into dull throbs. I felt along my sides. It hurt to touch them, but not nearly as bad as before. I could walk now. It seemed that the potion had at least put my bones back in place, though I didn’t think they were mended all the way yet. It would do.

I nosed through my saddlebags and pulled out a roll of bandages. Unbuckling my barding, I carefully wrapped the material around my chest, tying it tight with my magic. As much as I would’ve liked to stay another night, I had places to go, and ponies to find.

I climbed over the snow piled up at the cave entrance, sliding down the other side and back into the trees. I had a long journey ahead of me, and it was already getting kind of hard to breathe with layers of bandage and barding constricting my lungs. I had already lost a day. Every second I was out here was another second that my crew might give up. Or that I might die. In all honesty, the latter was more probable.

With a sigh, I took the first step of the day.

Ω Ω Ω

I hate hills.

Panting, I crested yet another of the seemingly endless series of hills. I paused to wipe the sweat off my brow and take a drink from my canteen. Empty.

What kind of world is this, where the rain is hard enough to bother, but not to fill a pony's canteen? I held the container up to the sky, vainly hoping that the gentle rain which had plagued me for the last ten hours might fill it up. It didn’t. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, because that’s exactly what happened the last nine times I tried it.

I scanned the horizon. To my left was the river which I had been following ever since I got out of the forest. It ran from somewhere up in the mountains, west to the coast, and according to my map the city I was looking for was right on it. I had been walking all day now, stopping only to curse the rain and check my map.

Putting the canteen away, I walked down the other side of the hill, letting gravity do most of the work while I contemplated finding water. Sure, there was a river right next to me, but the recusants had warned me about the cleanliness of said river. Full of shit, they had said. Might get you drunk, too, they had said. I needed to find a lake. Or some puddle that was deep enough that it wasn’t all mud.

Suddenly, I had an idea. It was the kind of idea that made me feel proud to have come up with it, and at the same time somewhat ashamed that I hadn’t thought of it earlier. Taking out my canteen again, I held it up to the rain. But this time, I used my magic to direct the rain into it. Success! Now I just had to wait a bit and... there!

I took a drink before putting the canteen back. I was about to get back to walking when I heard a branch snap behind me. I whipped around, shaking my saddlebags off and drawing my three swords so fast that the pains in my chest flared up again.

An adorable little bunny stood before me, standing as high as he could in an effort to get his head above the tall grass.

I chuckled to myself, sliding my swords away. A bunny! How cute. Surely a loveable little bunny couldn’t be dangerous.

I levitated my bags back on and turned back, glancing towards the river to get my bearings, and started walking again. I smiled to myself at the concept of the bunny. Soft, light steps followed behind me.

I stopped, twisted my neck to look back. Two bunnies. Hrm.

Probably nothing.

On a whim, I looked back again a few minutes later. Ten bunnies. I cocked my head, narrowing my eyes. This was getting very suspicious. Deep inside me, my innate Equestrian innocence battled with the Outer World caution that had been slowly developing.

It’s just a bunny.

It’s ten bunnies. Suspicious bunnies.

But they’re bunnies! Adorable little bunnies! Who’s ever heard of dangerous bunnies?

This is the Outer World.

I drew my swords, sliding into a defensive stance as the ravenous bunnies bared their teeth, hissing. Twenty more bunnies rose from the grass behind them, showing sharp fangs and claws. My eyes widened. All at once, they pounced.

I waved my swords wildly, managing to kill a few in the air, but soon they were all on me. They crawled over my barding, gnawing and clawing at it in an attempt to get to the soft pony flesh underneath. It was like drowning. Drowning in adorable, ravenous, lovable, murderous bunnies.

Luckily I didn’t need my hooves to get them off. I closed my eyes and hunkered down, using my swords to swipe them off my sides in droves. When I got back up and looked around, tiny pieces of adorable bunny were scattered all around me. I let out an exasperated sigh and went to clean my blades when a little plume of earth suddenly shot up in front of me.

And out came a bunny.

Everywhere, bunnies were popping out of the ground, claws bared, hissing. There were dozens of the things. It’s bunny hell! I took a cautious step back, realized that now was not the time for cautious steps, turned tail and ran away as fast as I could.

But I didn’t hear them giving chase. I looked behind me and realized that they weren’t even chasing me. No, they were quite content eating the diced bunny I had left behind. The whole scene would be a lot less disturbing and a lot cuter if they weren’t cannibals, really.

I shook my head and continued my journey, muttering to myself.

“This place is fucking insane...”

Ch. 10: Employment

Omega

Chapter 10: Employment

Robber Baron took a sip of wine. He closed his eyes, rolling the liquid around in his mouth, treating his senses to a drink that no other pony in Equestria could even afford to know about.

He turned to face the delegate sitting in his office and offered a calm smile. The deal was ready to be struck. The zebra shifted nervously in his seat, glancing down to the papers on the desk before him. Amongst his own people, no doubt he was the pinnacle of wealth. Here, he was just another rich zebra, in the office of a god.

“Is everything in order then?” the zebra asked.

Baron made a show of going through the papers, as if checking matters over one more time. He allowed his eyes to narrow ever so slightly, and laughed a little inside as he heard the zebra holding his breath.

Finally, he looked up and smiled again, reaching for a pen. “Yes, I believe it is, Mr. Laksmi. I’ll send out a few breakrunners to your fleet. As long as you honor your end of the agreement, I think we will both find great profit in our business.”

The zebra relaxed visibly as pen was put to paper. He rose, offering many bows and thanks, and was escorted out by one of Baron’s everpresent guards. Baron sat back, relishing the feel of negotiating a deal. He hadn’t had the opportunity to forge any new agreements in a long time, but the recent rebel uprising amongst his slaves had… opened up… a few slots for new trade partners. He frowned, briefly disheartened at the thought of the rebels, and leaned forwards. There were still more reports to be reviewed.

He disliked paperwork. It was boring stuff, and it always made him want to go and do something. To go supervise workers, chat up mercantile giants, strike deals, and plan expansion stratagems. But an uprising was just one of those things where the utmost care had to be taken. Not a single mistake could be allowed, and as such he had temporarily shouldered the burden of sorting through every single boring report that had been written that night. It was taking forever.

He glanced over some notes. The rebels had focused most of their efforts on being noticed. The explosions of the foundries and factories had been their first move. They had then moved on to collapsing Tower 17. An expensive loss, to be sure, but the tower could be rebuilt better. In a way, they had saved him money. Normally he’d have to pay to demolish an old skydock. The smoke and fire had, admittedly, caused a disturbance in the Outer City, and even his best interference runners had had difficulty keeping troublesome officials away. Despite their efforts. though, the rebellion had been for naught. Facilities were rebuilt, slaves were replaced, and eyes were turned.

With another sip of wine, he grabbed a pile of reports and walked out onto his balcony. Up here, high up on the central tower of Harmony City, he was above the ponies of Equestria, the trading giants of the Outer World, and even the clouds themselves. He could see everything from atop his tower. As much as he would have liked to enjoy the view, though, there was work to be done. He looked down to the paper in his hooves.

He skimmed it to see if it was of great importance, taking another sip of the wine. Halfway down the page, his eyes widened. He read through it again. He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and read it another time.

“Fffffuuuuuuuuuuucckk!”

He stormed back into his office and read the report a fourth time. Those damn rebels! Imbecile slaves! A dozen curses raged through his mind as he furiously pulled on a bell hanging nearby. A flustered orderly stumbled into the room, scrambling to stand before the Baron.

“Get me Apricot Seed, now!” he roared.

Within ten minutes, the unicorn stood before him. He was shaking, eyes down as a soft whimper escaped him.

“Apricot…” The Baron began softly. He took a few seconds to organize his thoughts. He didn’t want to seem like he was out of control. He had to make sure that his message was conveyed with crystal clear clarity.

“What, the fuck, were you thinking!?” He rose out of his seat, slamming his forehooves down upon the desk. Thankfully, it didn’t break. That wood was priceless.

Apricot flinched away from the outburst, stammering out a quick apology. “I’m s-sorry, sir—“

“Sorry!?” Baron shouted. “Sorry!? You get my prototype stolen and cost me three frigates, and you say you’re sorry? Oh, well I guess that makes everything better then, you stupid shit!”

“The r-rebels, sir—“

“Rebels!” He tossed his hooves up in frustration. “Fucking rebels! I give you, one, task! Are you truly so incredibly incompetent that you can’t stop four drunk slaves from stealing an airship?”

“The g-guards were asking for r-reinforcements at Tower—“

“Then you should have said no! Idiot!” he screamed. “Do you have any idea how expensive it will be to replace that ship?”

“I—“

“Shut up!” Baron cut him off with a raised hoof. He took a deep breath and looked down to his desk, shuffling papers about. “Someone is going to have to fix your mistake,” he muttered.

Apricot looked around nervously, shaking. He started to back away, eyes fixed on the ground, but Baron was not the type of pony to let failure of such magnitude go unpunished. A pair of guards stepped from the shadows, grabbing Apricot roughly.

“No!” he screamed.

Baron looked up casually. “Take him to the channel pits.”

“No! Please! I’m sorry! I’ll do anything! Please!”

With a signal from Baron, the guards delivered a harsh blow to Apricot’s head. He fell silent. Baron kept his eyes fixed on his papers as the unconscious unicorn was dragged from the room.

He let another sigh pass through his body, and lightly brushed the jewel hanging on his necklace. He looked over to the orderly standing silently by his desk. He’s one of the good ones. Always knows when I’ve things for him to do. Baron made a mental note to reward him for his service. Sometime later, though. Right now, there were more important matters at hoof.

“Get me Pen Knife and Ash Fall,” he said. “Put Order 94 into action. It’s time to bring civilization back to the Outer World.”

“There’s just one.”

Stormslider lowered the rune gun, pulling her eye from the simple scope that she had yesterday attached to it. She looked to Ember, who was standing behind her.

“Take him,” she said. “We can’t let him warn the others.”

Storm nodded, and slowly brought the sights back up. The crew was gathered behind some rocks on the edge of a shallow plateau, looking down on a cave below them. Storm and Ember were outfitted in zebra armor, tight fitting leather with bronze plating, modified to fit their forms. Silver Feather sat nearby, wearing an unzipped tan flight jacket with a small omega symbol drawn on the collar as he cradled his lightning gun. Cleaver stood tall near the rear, scanning the horizon and holding a heavy hammer in his teeth. Phoenix Down was shaking nervously as she sorted through a pack of primitive medical supplies.

Casually noting the long shadows cast by the sun setting behind her, Storm focused her scope upon the lone form guarding the outside of the cave. He was of some species she had never seen before. Some strange, half-striped variety of pegasus. But he was a pony nonetheless. And here I am, to take his life.

“Is this really necessary?” she asked. She had never killed before, and even she was having trouble containing her nerves behind her usual calm.

“We’re stuck here, Stormslider. This isn’t Equestria; you have to fight to survive in the Outer World. We took this job, and you have to do your part,” Ember replied.

No, Storm thought, you took this job. She had felt that something like this might be asked of her ever since Ember walked in brandishing a wanted poster.

“We don’t have to kill anyone. The poster said alive.” She moved her crosshairs off the half-pegasus’ head and down to the legs.

Ember sighed. “Yes, but I doubt his friends will step aside and let us tie him up, and nobody cares if they die. We can’t do this without killing someone. It would be too risky.”

Stormslider took a deep, shaky breath. She didn’t like this. Every part of her being was telling her to put the gun away. Say no. Step back. But she could see the logic of Ember’s claim. This wasn’t Equestria. This was a matter of survival. They needed gold, and right now, the gold rested upon somepony’s head.

Resolved to take the shot, she focused back on the scope and adjusted the gun’s position on the rock. The strange pegasus was asleep, dozing against the cave entrance outside. She narrowed her eyes, body tensing, but couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger. She whipped her tail in frustration.

“Storm, what are you waiting for?” Ember asked. “We’re losing daylight.”

Cleaver put a patient hoof on her shoulder. “Do not rush her. She is not used to this life.”

Don’t think about it. Stormslider took a deep breath and pushed her conscious thought away. She cleared her mind. All body and no mind, she whispered to her gun.

“Ignus.”

She immediately regretted it, but found that she couldn’t pull the gun away. The same force which had stopped her from firing before now held her in place. She watched in terror as the gun charged, and the telltale glow of rune magic seeped out of the barrel.

Silently, the heavy slug was ejected from the gun. The world seemed to slow down, and she found herself unable to tear her eyes away. The target’s head exploded into a gory bouquet.

She fell back, barely reserving the conscious thought needed to grab the gun and stop it from toppling down the cliff. The gun had shot silently, but her ears were still ringing. It had given no kick, but she felt as if someone had just bucked her hard in the chest. She shook her head, breathing strained.

“Storm, get back in position! We need you to cover us,” Ember ordered. She peered at the bloodied cave entrance cautiously.

Cleaver pushed her away. “Calm yourself, Ember! It was her first kill.” Storm nodded to him thankfully. She had never heard him raise his voice like that before.

Finally, her usual calm demeanor restored itself. Calm, cool, collected. She recited the words to herself like a mantra, fighting to control her emotions. Emotion is a flaw in the mind of an engineer. It clouded judgment. It had to be contained.

A shout rang out from the direction of the cave, and Ember’s ears twitched as she searched for the source. She let out a curse and flicked her lighter on. “Fuck! They saw the body. Storm, stay up here. Rest of you with me.”

Silver stayed behind as the rest of the crew cantered away. Storm gave him a small, reassuring smile and climbed to her hooves. He nodded, turning to gallop after the others.

She numbly returned to her firing position and set up the rune gun, putting her eye to the scope. She had killed once. She wouldn’t lose control again. She would do what had to be done.

Silver Feather skidded to a stop next to Ember, Cleaver, and Nix, all huddled together behind a large rock in front of the cave.

“Here’s the plan,” Ember said. “Silver will start off with a few rounds from the lightning gun, and then Cleaver and I will charge in, doing our best to flush them out into the open for Storm. Phoenix, you back us up with your rune gun. Try not to kill us. And Silver, keep the lightning soft. We don’t want to accidentally kill the target.”

Nix nodded shakily, holding the rune gun tight to her chest. Silver slid his goggles down. He had no qualms over killing things. Not anymore. He would kill everyone in that cave if it came to it.

Ember waved him forward with a hoof. He sprinted out from behind the rock, rushing up to the side of the cave’s entrance. With the lightning gun strapped to his chest under his good wing, he peeked around the corner and pulled the trigger with a feather.

His pent-up grief came out in a furious scream that matched the heat of the lightning before him. One, two, three, four times he pulled the trigger. Four times thunder roared down the cave, leaving all inside with their ears ringing. Four times lightning illuminated the stunned shock on the faces of his victims as they were blinded and deafened all at once.

Ember and Cleaver wasted no time charging into the cave, and in his rage Silver almost forgot to stop shooting. Heart pounding, he watched as Ember pulled a mighty fireball from her lighter and cast it into the back of the cave. At the same time, Cleaver ran through everything before him, toppling those who opposed him with a single mighty swing from his hammer. The strange ponies broke easily, deafened and blinded, with a raging inferno behind them and the two Equestrians smashing through them. They screamed in panic and took wing, flying as fast as they could to get out of the restricting cave. A few stayed behind, determined to fight to the death, and were rewarded with a fiery holocaust from Ember’s horn.

Silver spotted the target as he rose out of the cave and prepared to take a shot at him. He knew that the lightning would probably kill him, but he hardly cared. He was relishing the release of the battle. He would get his revenge on this world.

He was too slow. Stormslider’s rune slug punched through the target’s wing, and he spiraled into the dust.

Silver turned his attention to the others fleeing from the site, a sick smile spreading across his face as he imagined shooting them out of the sky.

Suddenly, Nix slammed into him from the side, pinning him to the rock. “No!” she shouted. “Can’t you see that they’re running? Let them go!”

“Get off!” Silver struggled, surprised at her strength, but it didn’t take him long to realize the weight of what he had just done. Of what he had been about to do. Kill out of spite. In cold blood. He shook his goggles off and looked to the gentle earth pony.

“Thanks,” he said. He could barely believe himself. “I owe you one.”

Nix stared into his eyes, searching. She nodded, and gave him a weak little smile before backing off and returning to her rune gun, lying in the dust. She hadn’t fired a single shot.

Stormslider was the first to reach the target, and the rest of the crew was quick to follow. Nix held back shyly while the others circled the one-winged, half-striped pegasus lying in the dirt.

He coughed. “What’d I—What’d I ever do to you? Fucking Equestrians. You come to finish the j-job? Huh? Well get the fuck on with it!”

“What are you?” Stormslider asked. “Some kind of pegasus pony?’

He let out a strained chuckle. “Thank the—the hells I’m not. I’m a fucking recusant! And my kind are- are going to h-hunt you all down! I swear—I swear by my mother’s mark!” Blood was starting to pool in the dust below him, and Ember beckoned Nix forwards.

“Keep him alive. We don’t want to ruin the contract,” she ordered.

Nix approached slowly, her tail dragging through the dust. Dropping the medkit at her hooves, she rolled the recusant over to reveal the bloody stump on his side. The high caliber rune slug had torn right through the bone, shearing the wing off with a single strike.

Silver’s bad wing twitched sentimentally. He knew how it felt to be grounded.

“Here, bite down on this,” Nix said, holding a thick rag before the recusant. Confused, he eyed her nervously. Such kindness, in the aftermath of such ferocity? He spat on her hoof.

Nix frowned, but left the rag by his mouth. He cried out, glaring at the Equestrians around him furiously, as she poured cheap booze into the wound. Luckily, the bullet had passed through before the secondary shrapnel spell went off. Within a few minutes, Nix had cleaned, dressed, and bandaged the wound. Cleaver hogtied the recusant, and Ember levitated him behind the crew as they returned to where they had parked the Omega.

Ω Ω Ω

Silver fidgeted nervously as Ember released her magic, and the recusant fell to the ground with a deep thud.

Their employer, some kind of wingless, long-eared gargoyle, stepped forwards slowly and put a claw under the recusant’s chin.

“A pleassure to finally meet you, bandit,” the gargoyle hissed. He raised the recusant’s head to look him in the eyes, and a wicked smile spread across his face. The recusant glared at him and struggled vainly against his bonds.

Ember cleared her throat. “Our payment.”

The gargoyle looked up, seemingly displeased at the interruption to his gloating, but nodded appreciatively anyways. “Yess, of coursse,” he said. “Thiss pesst and hiss clan have cosst me greatly. Thank you for your help, Equesstrian. ‘Tis but a ssmall price to pay for ssuch a sservice.”

He pulled a bag of gold out from his cloak and tossed it to Ember, who caught it in her magic.

“A pleasure doing business with you,” she said. With a nod to the others, she turned to leave.

Nix hesitated, staying behind. “If I might ask, what will you do with him?”

The gargoyle grinned evilly. “Oh, I’ll think of ssomething.”

Finally.

I practically jumped for joy as I reached the bottom of what was, as far as I could tell, the last accursed hill I’d have to climb. The only thing that stopped me was the bleak path ahead.

Before me lay a wide, flat expanse that I could only describe as the definition of wasteland. The brown, dead earth was pockmarked with small, water-filled craters, and the river’s water turned dark and murky. The horizon was swallowed up by the thick fog hanging over the land. All I could see through it was the distant silhouettes of stunted, leafless trees.

I swallowed, trying not to imagine what creatures lived in this part of the Outer World.

I looked up. The sun was setting. I didn’t feel like trekking through that foggy wasteland at night, so I searched for a place to set up camp. There wasn’t really much to choose from. Amongst tall grass and a few small rocks, only one lonely tree dared to grow so close to the fog.

I dropped my saddlebags against the trunk and began to unpack, rolling a thick blanket onto the grass and constructing a simple firepit. Although I had trouble finding the wood needed for the fire, having only one tree to supply me, there were plenty of stones to keep what little flame I could muster from spreading.

The sun drifted below the horizon, leaving only my tiny fire to light the world. Pitiful. I doubted it would last through the night. I would have to try and sleep in the tree if I didn’t want to get eaten.

My stomach grumbled, and I returned to my bags for something to eat. Nothing left. I was all out.

I sighed. Left with no other choice, I got to grazing. I didn’t like Outer World grass very much. It was just as rough as the people that inhabited it, and it would cut me sometimes when I swallowed. Didn’t taste good, either. It was all dry, and lacked any real taste. It was a chore just to chew.

As I ripped a mouthful of grass out of the ground, I heard a noise coming out of the fog. I perked up, ears twitching, chewing quietly as I strained to place it. Nothing. Cautiously, I lowered my muzzle to take another bite.

I heard something running, somewhere in the dark. My head shot up. What in the name of love and tolerance…? I spent a good ten minutes listening to the soft crackle of the fire, searching the night.

With the sun now set, it was practically impossible to see anything. My fire did nothing but cast flighty, mysterious shadows over the ground. Everywhere I looked, the waving grass formed itself into deathly apparitions. The extra light I cast from my horn served only to amplify the effect. A gust of wind breezed past.

With a dismal little sputter, my fire went out.

A chill ran down my spine.

I trotted back to the tree, resisting the temptation to break into a gallop. Just noises, Dissero. Noises and wind. You’re not afraid of the dark anymore, remember?

I drew myself back against the tree, chewing quietly at what grass I could reach. My eyes darted side to side. My ears twitched. The unknown of the dark and silence was more terrifying than any Outer World beast that might actually inhabit it. My mind took every noise and imagined a demon of death and destruction.

Whenever you’re out in the wilderness alone, at night time, with your imagination creeping up on you from every direction, a little bit of music does a lot to drive it away.

I levitated the harmonica out of my bags, tentatively putting it to my lips. I trusted Hunter, but was having trouble convincing my body that playing music was a good idea right now. I sat there for at least thirty silent minutes, mouth upon the cool metal, working up the courage to do it.

Finally, I managed to push out a breath. A shaky note slid out. Nothing came to kill me.

Encouraged by my success, I played another note. Stronger this time. Then again. The noise cut through the night like a beacon of light. I paused. A little smile emerged.

I played the note as loud as I could, daring my nightmares to come for me. Suddenly, the shadows didn’t seem so scary. The harmonica filled the gloom like the talk of friends in a dark old house, and I felt my heart lifting.

I slid my mouth an inch and puffed experimentally. A higher note. I shimmied in the other direction. A lower note. I breathed in and discovered a whole new range of sound.

I took a deep breath and played freely. The music swelled out from within me, and my eyes widened as I noticed that I was playing a happy little jig. These things are easy to play! Pulling the harmonica away, I let loose a loud laugh. Scared of the night! Who had ever heard of such a thing?

A pack of wolves howled from somewhere within the fog. It took me all of a minute to levitate the bedroll up into the tree and climb up after it.

Still scared of wolves.

Ω Ω Ω

Holy shit, my back hurts.

I practically fell out of the tree, back aching from the awkward positioning and hard surface. My bedroll did its job decently when applied to the ground, but no matter how soft and comfy it might make a tree branch, soft and comfy still hurt when it was grinding up into your side.

I spent a few minutes just laying in the grass, eyes screwed up in agony at the pain in my back. It seemed I simply couldn’t touch a tree without spending the night next to it and waking up with extra pains.

My gaze drifted over the tree disdainfully, and I was presented with the disturbing sight of claw marks on the trunk.

Those hadn’t been there before...

Time to head out!

I packed my bedroll, made sure everything that belonged in my pack was there, and grabbed a mouthful of grass for the walk. I had a feeling that it might be hard finding something green in that wasteland.

With another glance at the river, I stepped into the omnipresent fog.

It didn’t take long for me to lose myself within it. After a minute of walking, the tree I had spent the night in was gone. The thick fog and lack of landmarks gave the impression of going nowhere. The silent void surrounding me made it easy to believe that I had simply fallen into limbo, cursed to wander endlessly until my bones faded away. The world stood still here.

I tried to look up and steal a glance at the sun, but even it couldn’t break through the heavy mist. The way that the sunlight dissipated through it all evenly, I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to where it might be. I was, essentially, in the middle of nowhere. If it wasn’t for the river, I would’ve lost my way and probably never gotten back out.

For hours I walked, with nothing but the quiet passage of the water to assure me that anything still existed at all. In the distance, I could see the dark shadows of strange shapes as I passed them by. Some of them looked like uprooted trees. The rest brought forth images of impaled bodies, skeletons, and broken machinery. It was all I could do to keep my eyes forwards.

I heard the gentle roar of waves ahead of me, and sped into a trot. I must almost be there. I could hardly wait to get out of this creepy place and amongst the living once more.

I broke into an all-out gallop. I really couldn’t wait.

Suddenly, my hooves were sinking into sand, and then splashing through water. I looked down, perturbed, to find foamy waves swirling around me. Returning my gaze forwards, I realized that I had reached the ocean.

Shit.

I backtracked, spreading my map out on the driest piece of land I could find. Even so, I could feel the paper starting to fall apart from the humidity.

According to the map, the city I was supposed to be heading to should be right here. On the mouth of this river. I looked closer, squinting to try and figure out the name of the city.

New...

I couldn’t tell what came after that.

What was wrong? Had I found the wrong river? That made no sense! There was only one river immediately southwest of the Stygian’s old cave! Had I made a wrong turn? I didn’t remember the river forking anywhere. I traced my path across the map ten times. It should be here!

I felt myself beginning to panic. What was I going to do? I had nothing to do! I had no food. I had no home. I had no idea where I was. The old map in my hooves only included a small region around New Whatever, and it didn’t even seem to know where the city was!

Okay. Think, Dissero. Think. You have the river...

I could use the river! Settlements need water. They grow next to rivers. I would just follow the river, eating the grass that grew next to it, and hopefully I’d find some town or village that wouldn’t want to kill me.

Without warning, a bear roared from somewhere in the fog. I crouched down instinctively. I had to get to a hiding spot.

The wolves were howling again. I ran for one of the shapes, half-obscured through the fog, and hid behind the upturned chariot that coalesced before me. One of the wheels was shattered, but the remainder was outfitted with deadly sharp blades.

It sounded like the bear and wolves were fighting. And the fight was getting closer. Hoping for a better look, I peeked through a hole in the chariot’s broken carriage. I was rewarded with the sight of the beasts fighting each other, their shapes blurred by the haze.

The smaller, more lithe shapes I took to be the wolves ran circles around the lumbering bear, sweeping in to nip at his paws before ducking away. He roared his fury at them, and one of the wolves leaped onto his back. The bear reared up and reached back, picking the wolf off of him, pinning it to the ground, and slicing into it with his claws. The wolf whined and fell silent.

Then, the bear did something I had never seen a bear do before. Remaining on its hind legs, it unsheathed what looked like some sort of weapon, brandishing it in its forepaws. It was hard to tell through the fog, but it looked like a giant axe.

The wolves were surprisingly uncoordinated, too. I had never known of any wolf pack that didn’t know how to work as a team. They knew how to distract the bear, but they didn’t know how to take advantage of it. They leaped for him as individuals, and he easily swatted them aside before ending them with a single slice from his axe.

Soon, the whole pack was dead or dying. From my vantage point behind the wrecked chariot, I watched through the mist as his blurred shadow sorted through the bodies. Deciding I would wait for him to finish his business before doing anything else, I carefully moved away from my peephole.

I stepped back, but didn’t feel anything behind me. Surprised by the lack of ground, I stumbled, falling into a pony-sized crater full of water with a deadly loud splash.

Shit!

I heard the bear stop. His heavy steps lumbered towards me.

I lay paralyzed with fear as his shadow fell upon the chariot.

Ch. 11: Dreams of Nightmares Past

Omega

Chapter 11: Dreams of Nightmares Past

“You, behind the wreck!” the bear called. “Get out here!”

Did that bear just talk? I was so shocked that I almost forgot to get back to my hooves.

“Now!” he roared.

My heart skipped a beat, and I almost fell down again. I shook my head, desperately trying to dislodge some idea from my subconscious.

Bluff.

Yes, I could bluff him. He’d probably never seen a unicorn before. What would he do when faced with one?

“I won’t ask you again! Come out, coward!”

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what was to come. Confidence. Confidence is the key to bluffing. I had to look confident. I had to look tough. Pulling my bandanna up and standing tall, I stepped out into the open.

“Yes?” I asked. I leaned against the chariot nonchalantly, praying that my poor terrified heart wouldn’t betray me.

The bear narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here, unicorn?”

Well, there goes that plan. It took all my will to keep myself from falling over. As such, there wasn’t any leftover to maintain the cocky facade I’d put up.

“I c-could ask- I could ask y-you the same thing, b-bear.” I mentally kicked myself. Stuttering idiot. Get a grip!

The bear sat back and released a mighty, heart-stopping laugh. “Are you really trying to be threatening, pony?”

Okay, this isn’t working. I levitated my swords out of their sheaths, hoping some magic would scare him off. I was having trouble keeping my bladder under control. Hopefully both it and my magical focus would last long enough to keep my bluff going.

“Oh, put those toys away.” He waved me aside with a paw. “I’m not here to fight ponies. It’s beneath me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I challenged. How dare he condescend!

“It means that I could crush you in an instant. There would be no honor in it.”

I hesitated. He was probably right, but I didn’t want to look like I was taking orders from him. I had to at least make it look like we were negotiating something.

“How do I know you won’t kill me?” I asked.

“Other than the fact that you’re still alive?” He sighed. “Very well. I give you my word, as one amongst the Fallen.”

Okay. I figured that had to mean something, from the way he said it. It sounded like this bear put great emphasis on honor. Satisfied, I sheathed my swords.

“There’s a good little pony,” he said. “Now, what are you doing out here? This is hardly a safe place for you.”

“I’m, uh...” Tell him the truth? Risky. From what I knew, the Outer World wasn’t the sort of place where telling strangers about your business worked out well, and this bear could kill me in an instant. At the same time, he hardly sounded like he was looking out to get me. But then they almost never do, do they? I weighed my choices.

“I’m trying to find a city.” I couldn’t come up with an adequate lie anyways. Maybe he could help me out.

The bear cocked a brow. “And what city might you be searching for?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” I said. “The only name my map offers is ‘New’, but there’s nothing after that. Are there any cities around here with a ‘New’ in their names?”

He smiled, and I shifted uncomfortably. His fangs were really bothering me. “Yes, actually. I was just heading there now.” He glanced over to the wolves lying dead in the mist. “Though, I was forced to stop and deal with some unwelcome tails.”

I pulled my bandanna down. It was hard enough to breathe around here as it was, with all the thick air, and I was starting to suffocate a little under the material. “Where is it? My map said it was on the mouth of this river.”

He pointed his nose into the mist, in a direction that was distinctly not towards the mouth of the river, or even the river at all. “It’s north, a day or two’s walk. Your map is outdated.”

“What?” That didn’t make any sense. “Did the city, just, move?”

“No, pony. The city was burnt down.”

Oh. An awkward silence established itself over us as I looked around. In retrospect, it did seem pretty obvious. The dead land. The figures in the mist. The broken chariot. The noticeable lack of a city. Once again, I was reminded of the fact that I was no longer in Equestria. Over there, back across the Great Sea and on the inside of the Cloudwall, war was a word of history books and fiction. It was arrows and numbers on the surface of a board game. It was something of an age long past, before the Princesses had lead ponykind to peace and prosperity.

Out here, it was a broken chariot at your hooves, lifeless land for miles around, and a city completely wiped off the map. Suddenly, war became much, much more real.

“What happened?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Ask a historian. All I know is that there was a great battle here some time ago. The mist is even older. Some magic from centuries back that preserves the dead and stops things from growing.”

I found myself shrinking back towards the upturned chariot. This place was starting to scare me in ways much worse than simply ‘creepy’.

The bear pushed himself back to his paws heavily, sniffing the air. “Since we’re both going the same place, and you seem to lack a reliable map... Would you like to travel with me, pony?”

Thank Luna. Despite myself, I had been hoping he would let me join him. This fog was bad enough on its own; the history lesson didn’t do anything for the ambience. The bear turned to a nondescript direction and started walking with that slow, ponderous gait that bears have.

I had to trot to catch up with him. “So what’s your name?” I asked.

“They call me Exe.” He didn’t even spare me the courtesy of a sideways glance. I waited expectantly for him to ask what my name was, but it never came. I looked away awkwardly. Apparently bears aren’t big on names.

Another question came to my mind. I opened my mouth, but hesitated. I couldn’t really think of a polite way to ask it, and I didn’t want to offend this bear. Especially since he could stand on two legs and wield an axe. Luckily, he broached the subject for me.

“I suppose you’re wondering how I can talk?”

“Uhm- Well, no- Yes. I’ve never met a talking bear before,” I admitted. “How did you know I was thinking that?”

“Every Equestrian I’ve ever met gives me that same look. Apparently the bears in Equestria are just animals. In the Outer World, we’re above that.”

I nodded. So bears out here are sentient. Interesting. “What other races are there?”

“Goyles, griffons, zebra, recusants…” He growled. “Wolves.”

I had more questions, but he didn’t seem to want to talk anymore. I decided to focus on the path ahead of us instead.

The shapes in the fog were growing thicker. As we put distance between ourselves and the river, they almost became a solid wall of shadow, encircling us like a crowd of spectators as we walked. Strangely, we never seemed to actually reach them. Every time I thought one of them was getting close, it would just… dissipate. Occasionally, we passed some dilapidated war machine or an uprooted tree, but I never saw them in the mist as we approached. It was like the shadows were in another world. Some parallel universe. It was an eerie experience, and I perceived the mist to be pushing in on me. I felt as if I wasn’t supposed to be here. As if it didn’t want me to be here.

I felt something. An almost imperceptible tug on the tip of my horn. Then again, a second time. It pulled at me softly, yet consistently. Something was… calling to me. I turned my head, curious.

To my left, there was a break in the shadows. In the mist, surrounded by the mysterious remnants of a battle past, a single, perfectly round, pony-sized sphere rose from the ground. Suddenly, Exe’s voice rang through the silence.

“Pony!” he called. I jumped, startled, and looked back. I was surprised to find that I had started walking away from him, towards the shape. The tug on my horn grew stronger. I have to see what that shape is.

“There’s something over here,” I explained. “I’m going to see what it is.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked into the mist ahead of me. “There’s nothing there. Just the mist and its shadows.”

I looked back. The orb was closer. “Just give me a few minutes.”

I blinked, and suddenly I was standing right in front of the enigmatic orb, now half-buried in the ground. I ran a hoof over it. The surface was incredibly smooth. Some kind of… stone? I heard a noise behind me and started, glancing back. There was a bear there, with something in its paws. What is a bear doing following me?

“Are you done yet? You’ve been staring at nothing for an hour,” it said. It was chewing on something red.

I shook my head. Right. Exe. The tug on my horn was irresistible. It seemed to pull on the strings of my very soul. It cried out for me with the voice of great loss and sorrow. It needed me. I needed it. More than anything, I needed it.

I stepped closer and softly put my muzzle up to the cool stone, comforting it with my presence. I’m here, now. I felt my horn tingling. Suddenly, a spark of magic shot out of it, connecting with my horn and flowing into me with a stab of pain.

“Aagh!” I shrunk back, and the orb was gone. In its place was the form of a pony, carved from the same familiar mist that covered everything here. It was a pegasus. It was kneeling, head down, cradling something in its forehooves with its wings spread wide.

With a gust of wind, the mist blew away, and the spell was broken.

Exe was standing in front of me. “We’re leaving. Now.”

He bent down and grabbed my bandanna, dragging me behind him as he marched us away. I looked back to where the obelisk had been, mouth agape. Wait... obelisk? Where had that word come from? I got my hooves under me and pulled, breaking free from his grasp.

“Wait! What was that?” I asked.

The bear shot me a harsh glare. “I don’t know. I don’t care. Probably the curse on these mists. Now come on. The sun will be setting soon, and we must prepare a fire if we’re to spend the night here.”

Sitting in the lounge, looking out a window at the Outer World landscape as the gentle noise of the Omega’s engines played in the background, Phoenix Down let out a tired little sigh. She was beginning to regret leaving Harmony City.

No, she already did regret it.

She closed her eyes, lost in memory. The dull ache of another day’s dawn. The breathless reprieve at the sun’s setting. The terror of the first explosions. Her frenzied gallop to the foundry where Dissero worked. Relief that swelled within her when she realized he was alive. A cautious walk back to their rooms and her fear as Dissero broke into a violent rampage. The shock of his old friends showing up with an airship and a plan of escape. Her uncertainty when Dissero called her to join. The excitement of the chase and the heart-stopping terror of the Breaks.

That endless happiness that had overcome her when she saw the sky after a lifetime in the shadows.

The anxious search for land. Wondering at discovering a new world, at the idea of finally being free, long after even her dreams had given up on it.

And then the shock of watching, eyes wide, as Dissero fell off the ship.

She opened her eyes, feeling the tears starting to well up again, and fought to keep them inside. I won’t cry anymore. The others already thought she was weak and useless. She was always at the back, quivering in paralyzed horror as they did the real work. She would show them. I can be strong too. She would cry no more.

She raised a hoof and put it to the glass of the window. Was she really free, after all? For fear of her life, she couldn’t leave this ship or its crew any more than she could’ve left Harmony City. What had changed? Now she was in constant danger, lost in all the worst ways, and what had she gotten from it? A change of scenery, from the dark alleys of Harmony to the tight quarters of the Omega.

She didn’t even know these ponies. Sure, she had spoken with them some before, but it was always in passing, on the side. They were just acquaintances. Dissero was the only one she felt like she had actually known, and now he was dead.

No more tears.

She turned away from the window and looked back to the medkit at her hooves. She mustered up the energy to check its contents, organizing it, memorizing it. Bandages, dressings, disinfectant, airway adjunct, tweezers, butterfly strips... weird healing potion thing. She pulled the little vial out and held it before her eyes, swirling the dim red liquid about curiously. They didn’t have such a thing as a healing potion back in Equestria, and she still held some doubts about how helpful this drink could be for healing anything.

With a familiar dull thud and a gentle shake, the airship came to a stop. They had landed. The sound of hooves approached as the rest of the crew assembled in the lounge. With another sigh, she packed her medkit, slid it onto her back, tightened the straps, and turned to join the others.

“Okay, we’re just doing a simple find and retrieve job this time,” Ember said. “Think of it as a break. Some kind of parcel, lost in an airship crash. Shouldn’t be too hard, but everypony be ready for trouble anyways.”

Sounds of acknowledgement filled the room, followed by the sounds of last-minute preparations. Silver buckling his lightning gun to his chest, Storm checking her scope, Cleaver sliding his hammer’s hilt into his belt, Ember flicking her lighter experimentally.

Phoenix Down, flipping the soft leather cap of her medkit and trying to work up the courage to ask for a gun of her own.

“May I also have a rune gun?” she asked politely.

Ember cocked an eye at her. “You sure about that? So far you’ve never managed to shoot one towards the bad guys.”

Silver stepped forwards. “Hey, go ahead and give her the gun. She wants to help, and she needs to learn to fight anyways.”

Nix let out a sigh of relief as Ember shrugged and levitated a gun to her. She gave Silver a little smile, and he nodded in return.

“Is that all then?” Ember asked. “Let’s go.”

The five ponies trotted out of the lounge, down the central stairwell, and out the hatch in single file, emerging at the bottom of a hill. Cresting the top, they were treated to the remains of a crashed airship, lying in an open plain.

It looked like it had been smaller than the Omega, just a simple courier ship. It had largely shattered on impact, with the main body sliding forwards nose-down and various bits and pieces falling off as it went.

Without a word, Stormslider began to set up her rifle as the others approached the wreck. She would cover them if something went wrong. Entering the main body, the four Equestrians searched the site for the lost delivery they’d come for, overturning rubble and half-burnt furniture. It didn’t take them long.

“Found it!” Nix said. She held the little package up proudly. Not so useless after all!

Suddenly, a piece of wall near the front of the crashed ship was ripped away. All four ponies froze, eyes locked on the unwelcome intruders that stepped through. Nix’s knees began to shake.

A wolf and a bear, each festooned with sharp objects and armor, stood confidently at the helm of the wreck. The wolf was wearing multiple layers of hard leather pads, covering almost every part of his body. Steel claws protruded from his gloves, glinting in what light shone through the shattered ship’s chassis. The bear was completely consumed by his own armor, made of precisely worked steel plating with the scars of many past battles. A varied array of sword sheaths lined his back, each one holding a quality instrument of death. Blood-red glyphs were painted on to their armor, with matching tattoos engraved onto what parts of their bodies were visible. Their muscles looked unnaturally large, even under their heavy armor, and their eyes were actually glowing red.

A tense few moments passed. Nix took a nervous gulp. She looked to Ember expectantly.

“Who are you?” Ember asked, spreading her hooves aggressively. Silver and Cleaver followed suit, one sliding his goggles down while the other adjusted his posture to better reach his hammer.

The two warriors looked at each other. They looked at Ember. They looked at Nix. They focused in on the little box in her hooves, and their eyes narrowed.

“Give us the artifact!” the wolf commanded. Nix jumped in fear and lost her grip on the package. It clattered to the floor some distance behind her.

Cleaver stepped forward. “The object is ours. We were here first.”

They seemed somewhat taken aback at his denial, and exchanged glances. They looked back to the four ponies and seemed to simultaneously come to the same conclusion. They each took deep breaths.

All at once, the scene burst into violence.

The bear charged for Ember. She leapt back, drawing a stream of fire from her lighter and throwing up a line of flames before her. Silver stepped up to take her place, and when the bear burst through the blaze, he was met with the shock of lightning and roll of thunder. Amazingly, he kept on charging. Silver stumbled aside, just barely avoiding the attacker with a flap of his good wing. With only one target left, the bear angled himself for Cleaver.

With a mighty swing of his hammer and a loud clang!, Cleaver smacked him right on his steel-plated forehead. The bear flinched back, but didn’t collapse lifeless to the ground as expected. Instead, he rose up on his powerful hind legs, letting loose a fierce roar, and drew two long swords with his front paws. Cleaver, Silver, and Ember simply stared in amazement, broken out of their shock only be the bear’s renewed, two-legged attack.

Meanwhile, the wolf headed straight for Nix. Her eyes widened, and she leapt to the side, scrambling over a charred couch to avoid the deadly armored canine. It skidded past her, steel claws carving deep gouges into the wreck.

“Fall back! Get outside!” Ember called. Silver pulled Cleaver back from where he wrestled with the towering bear, and by the shine of Ember’s horn a wall of fire erupted all the way across the airship’s interior. Nix rushed to her hooves, picking the parcel up from where it had conveniently landed, and ran for the open air. She heard the thunder of the lightning gun behind her, but didn’t dare look back. She was too busy running for her life.

Stumbling to a stop in the grass outside, she looked back to see the terrifying image of the wolf sprinting straight for her, claws ready and eyes glaring with fury. She squeaked, dropping the rune gun in fear and falling to the ground. She closed her eyes, ready for the final blow.

It never came.

Opening her eyes, she saw the wolf picking itself up off the ground, a still glowing rune slug half-drilled into its unarmored head. The wolf howled in fury, glaring past Nix to where Storm was perched. In response to his challenge, another bullet soared right into the first one, pushing it even further in. They both detonated inside his brain. Amazingly, his skull managed to hold itself together, but it wasn’t enough to save his life. Blood and brain alike seeped out of his fractured skull, and he toppled over.

He let out a vengeful little snarl and reached out a paw to drag himself forwards, and then he died.

“Phoenix!”

Nix shook her head, rising out of her stunned reverie and up to her hooves. Silver was calling out to her from where he stood next to Cleaver, who was lying in a patch of blood stained grass, screaming... why was he screaming?

“Phoenix Down!”

She gasped and sprinted for his side, dropping her medkit next to him. There was an angry gash running across his chest, and he was starting to bleed out. His eye’s locked to hers.

“I was too slow,” he hissed, tense with pain. “Veles calls to me.”

“Hush! You’ll be okay!” Nix pushed down on the wound with a hoof. He cried out at the touch.

As she pulled dressings and gauze from her pack, Silver, Ember, and Storm fought to hold off the massive bear. His armor was ablaze from Ember’s inferno, and the thunder from Silver’s lightning gun became a constant roar as he fired shot after shot. Lightning crackled over his steel armor and still he stepped forwards, roaring a mix of pain and anger. Bullets from Stormslider’s gun veered by periodically, ricocheting off the bear’s curved helmet.

Cleaver was starting to fade away. He was losing too much blood. Nix pulled out an epipen and jabbed it into his coat. His vision cleared, and he blinked in confusion.

“Hold this in!” she commanded. His heavy hooves tightened around the syringe, holding it in place. She pulled out another dressing and slapped it on, but there wasn’t enough time! He would bleed out before she could cover the long cut, and she couldn’t put a tourniquet on his chest! What do I do? What do I do!? She wasn’t used to gashes! She was good with bullet wounds!

Desperate, she pulled the so-called healing potion from her medkit. How do I use this thing? She searched for instructions, but they were nowhere to be found. No time! She emptied the vial right onto Cleaver’s chest, trying to get it into the wound itself.

And the bleeding began to slow.

Nix hesitated, appalled at how well that worked. No time for that! She shook her head and returned to treating the big white stallion, covering the wound with dressings and securing it with several layers of gauze.

She let out a relieved sigh. She had saved him. He was unconscious, having blacked out from the bleeding, but she knew he would live. That red potion was miraculous, to speed up clotting like that so quickly. She would have to get more for her kit.

Her ears twitched. She hadn’t noticed it become quiet again. She looked over to the others. The bear was lying dead in the grass, still smoking, with little zaps of leftover electricity arcing across his armor. Blood pooled underneath his head, smoke wafting out of a wide bullet hole in his helmet. Ember, Storm, and Silver were standing around her and Cleaver, looking down expectantly.

“He’ll be okay,” Nix said. She let out a nervous little laugh. Silver joined in, followed by Ember. Stormslider allowed a grin to show on her face. Nix smiled. She had earned their respect, and saved a life. They weren’t just protecting her because she was weak anymore. Now, they did it because she was useful. She was part of the team. One of them.

With his usual poetic elegance, Silver managed to sum up the team's thoughts. “Well, that was somewhat harder than expected, wasn’t it?”

Wind. Wind and mist is everywhere. Everywhere is wind. There is nothing but wind. I am wind. I am everything yet nothing.

Reality begins to piece itself together. The wind slows to a mist and begins to thicken, to coalesce, as if piling up on top of itself. It forms shapes and brings out detail.

I suddenly find myself inside a small stone hovel. The roof is a simple construction of thatch, the floor only packed dirt. A dozen earth ponies of every age huddle together on one side of the room, eyeing the only door fearfully. I follow their gaze. Something is on the other side of the door.

The edges of reality seem… blurred. It is as if it will all fall to pieces, burst back into the storm of wind and mist at the slightest push.

The door slams open, and the earth ponies scream in fear. A single pegasus runs through, clothed in the uniform of a Royal Guard, and shuts the door behind him.

“Quiet!” he hisses. The screams fade away as the ponies calm themselves. A couple of foals cry softly in a corner.

“Be silent, and they may yet pass us over. I shall protect you.” The pegasus turns to face the door, kneeling. He pulls a hoof-sized pendant from his armor and caresses it somberly before placing it on the ground before him.

The room is quiet once more, and I take the opportunity to look out the hole in the hovel wall that serves as a window.

Smoke, fire, and screams.

For the first time I become aware of the sound of war just outside. Metal strikes metal. The dying call for aid and the living call for battle. The smell of burnt flesh reaches my nose and the smoke stings my eyes.

Heavy steps come to a stop outside the door. I hear a harsh command, spoken in some foreign language. The foals try to stifle their tears. An old mare begins to whisper a prayer.

The door is ripped off its hinges, revealing four angry gargoyles. Each one wears bloodstained armor and a wicked grin. They carry jagged weapons dripping blood, and equine heads roll from a sack dropped in the dirt behind them.

A few tense moments pass. A filly squeals and pushes herself back into her mother.

“Gather close!” the pegasus says, glaring at the intruders.

With a vicious warcry, the beasts charge forth. The pegasus cries out and stomps hard upon the pendant. A flash of light erupts from his breast, and when I look back, the ponies are surrounded by a perfectly round glass dome.

The gargoyles grunt in annoyance. One smashes his hammer down upon the glass, to no avail. With a visible shockwave, the dome absorbs the blow. The pegasus kneels within, cradling his glowing pendant as he whispers quietly.

“I am the servant of the Empire, the wings that shelter it from the storm, the blade that strikes down those who would harm it, the wind that carries its wishes to the edge of the world, the light that shines its emblem through the darkest nights…”

The gargoyles hiss in fury, beating upon the glass relentlessly. From outside a cry of fear rings out.

“The fort is lost! Flee! Abandon your post, lest you lose your lives! The fort is lost!”

Out the window, I see more armor-clad pegasi flying away, a flock of griffons giving swift chase. The chanting pegasus’ ears twitch, but he does not falter.

With a mighty blow from the largest gargoyle, a crack appears in the glass. The pegasus grunts, flinching, and raises his voice.

“Through the blackest hour and deepest storm I shall fight to defend the honor of the Empire. Against the mightiest demons of hell, I shall hold my line!”

The dome heals itself, but three more cracks have already formed. As each seals itself closed, five more are made. The pegasus is panting hard now, his eyes shut tight. With his wings, he draws two swords and places them at his sides. A colt looks up to his mother and cries.

“Make them go away, Mommy! Make them go away!” He speaks with the demanding tone of a foal who still thinks his mother can do anything.

The mother pulls her foal closer, weeping. “It’s okay, my child. Oh, I love you so much!”

The pegasus shivers. His ear twitches, and suddenly he is looking right at me. He knows it is hopeless. He had known since the instant he rushed in here and closed the door behind him.

“Though the others may have fled, let it be known that Thunder Shield held his line. Do not falter at your own, wielder.” His soft whisper rings clear in my mind, though the earth ponies show no sign of hearing it. I open my mouth to reply. To offer aid.

The glass shatters.

The earth ponies shriek in fear as the gargoyles rush in, bloodthirsty eyes shining with sadistic glee.

Thunder Shield rises to his hooves, grabbing the swords with his wings as he rushes forwards to meet them. One of them deflects his first blow, and he barely manages to block their counter before leaping back with a flap of his wings. The walls of the hovel box him in.

He slides under a hammer swing and comes up behind the gargoyles, shoving a sword into one’s back. The gargoyle collapses, and Thunder is forced to leave one sword behind as the others push the attack. He puts his back to the wall, his last remaining sword held out before him.

He’s breathing hard now, his eyes daring the gargoyles to come closer. One of them slashes down at him with a sword, and as he raises his sword to block the other rushes forward, running him through with cold steel.

Blood stains the wall of the hovel as the servant of the Empire falls to his knees, his eyes fixed to the ground with despair. He topples over, and with one last gasp, the life leaves his body.

The gargoyles turn to grin at the earth ponies, fresh blood dripping down their faces.

All at once, the world shatters, and I am the wind once more.

Ω Ω Ω

I rose from my bedroll so fast that it hurt my neck. I found myself searching frantically for my swords, thinking to help the defenseless ponies, but there was nothing I could do. It was too late for them.

I heard Exe drawing his axe, and turned to see him scanning the horizon. “What is it?” he asked.

I ran a hoof through my mane, embarrassed. Only foals are afraid of dreams. “Nothing,” I said. “Sorry.”

He grunted and put his axe away. “Well, since you insist on waking up early, we might as well get going.”

The mist was reaching the color that meant the sun was rising. I looked back, to where the obelisk had been. Somehow, without any frame of reference or landmarks to guide me, I knew exactly where it was. That place… that had been where Thunder Shield died. I felt it in my bones.

Luckily for me, bears ate more than just meat, so I was able to eat some bread from his pack. He, on the other hand, satisfied himself with large chunks of meat. I wondered what animal it came from. Despite over a month with the carnivorous recusants, I still felt awkward and nervous when others ate meat around me.

We packed our bags and doused the fire, making sure to save any wood that hadn’t been burnt overnight. There weren’t many trees in the mists, and we mostly used what firewood Exe had brought with him for the journey.

After a quick check of my saddlebags and one last glance to the site of the noble pegasus’ death, I followed Exe into the mist.

Ch. 12: New What?

Omega

Chapter 12: New What?

“Wait, what is this city called again?”

“New.”

“New what?”

“Just New.”

I cocked a brow skeptically, following Exe down the packed dirt path before us. After emerging from the mists around midday, it had taken us only an hour to come across the simple road, and we had been on it ever since. We had passed a sign a few minutes ago, with one arrow pointing west labeled simply with ‘New,’ and I’d been questioning him about it since.

“That makes no sense,” I said. He’s gotta be pulling my hoof.

“It makes perfect sense,” he sighed. I got the feeling he was getting tired with me. Are bears much for jokes?

I repeated my previous reasoning. “But it has to be New Something! New is an adjective. Where’s the noun?” Are bears good with grammar?

“It’s just New, pony. For fuck’s sake.” He sounded a little exasperated, but I wasn’t about to give up anytime soon. I decided on a different approach.

“So then, why is it called New?” I asked. He twisted his neck to glare at me, but I refused to back down.

“Because nobody remembers the rest of the name,” he admitted.

“Hah!” I stomped a hoof in triumph. “So there is more to the name!”

“Not anymore!” he shot back. “The city is called New, and just New! There’s nothing else to the name, so shut up about it!”

He seemed somewhat… annoyed. Another question rose to my mind.

“Why does everyone speak Equestrian out here?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me to wonder before, since I had always thought of the recusants as mostly pony. After meeting a bear that spoke it though, it had started to nag at me.

“Stop it with your fucking questions! By my blade! We all speak Equestrian, because everyone speaks Equestrian! There!”

I hushed myself. I might’ve crossed some kind of line there. I must be bothering him. Maybe bears didn’t like talking?

We passed another sign. A larger one, this time. Welcome to New! It exclaimed in the bright and friendly colors of worn out and chipped paint. There was something else written under the greeting, in smaller, sloppier letters. JUST NEW.

I guess it’s a pretty common question. I could see why someone would get annoyed over it.

Turning the corner around a thick wall of trees we’d been walking by, the city finally came into view. It was situated on a cliff on the coast, with an open plain leading up to it. To my left, which was south, the mists swirled around themselves in the distance. To the north, the cliff gradually sloped down to the beach.

New was a city unlike any I’d ever seen before. Most of it was made up of a ramshackle array of simple homes or large tents, interspersed with the occasional shop or inn. Five groups of skydocks rose up in distinctly separate parts of the city, each hoarding its own herd of airships. At the top of the tallest tower in each group a massive flag waved in the wind, proudly displaying its color of choice. Black, red, white, green, or brown. Around the base of each tower group, a smattering of extravagant palaces frowned down upon the little constructs around them.

Stretching around the city from one cliff edge to the other was a thick necklace of camps. Each one seemed to have at least thirty tents, going up to as many as a few hundred. In the middle of every camp, a larger tent rose above its brethren, flying distinctive flags and displaying brightly colored stripes.

As we climbed the gently sloping hill to the city perched on the cliff, the traffic began to thicken. Our simple dirt path grew into others, and soon we were walking on the only paved road I had ever seen since leaving Equestria. A few wagons passed by, pulled by chained up wolves and bears under the careful watch of their masters. Most of the passerby was on foot. All of them wore some kind of armor and displayed some kind of weapon.

We entered the ring of camps, and I treated myself to a closer look at them. The camps were full of almost exclusively griffons. Griffons eating, sparring, chatting, gambling, planning, and arguing. I shrunk back towards Exe, averting my eyes. Would they still be chasing me?

“Who are they?” I asked.

He snorted. “Merc flocks. Almost impossible to find a griffon that’s not part of one.”

I nodded. “What are they doing here?”

“Looking for a job. Plenty of gold flows through this city. And where there’s gold, there’s work.”

The griffons that attacked the clan have probably forgotten about me already, I reasoned. No need to hide anymore. I straightened up, feeling a little silly about my previous suspicions. What were the chances that every griffon in the Outer World was out to get me, anyways?

We reached the city proper. The buildings here were small, sparse, and run-down. Half of them looked abandoned. The road quickly split into five directions, each heading towards one of the skydock clusters that dominated the clouds above. At the entrance of each road, a couple of griffon guards stood, eyeing their counterparts suspiciously. There wasn’t much uniformity between them, with each one showing his own arms and armor, but each pair had some kind of identifying equipment in common. The pairs wore either green sashes, white armbands, brown bandannas, black capes, or red caps. Do they have five different guard companies here or something?

Exe went for the road occupied by the two with black capes, and I followed suit. After we passed them, he twisted his neck to look back at me.

“Why are you still following me, pony?” he asked.

I blinked. “Well, uh...” I guess we did only agree to go to the city together, didn’t we? “I’m not... sure?”

“What is your business in New?”

I cocked my head, mulling it over. “I’m looking for my friends. They’re somewhere in the Outer World, probably near this coast, and I thought I’d try this city first.”

He stared at me disapprovingly. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

I sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

We walked in silence for some minutes. I eyed the foreign cityscape around me. I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing. I didn’t know the Outer World. I didn’t know its people. What chance did I have finding my crew? I was grasping at straws here.

“I will help you,” Exe said.

“Wha- wha...?” Didn’t see that coming. “Why?”

“Just a whim.”

Well, uh... okay. I sped up, coming to heel with his head. “So where are we going?” I asked. Now I had a guide of sorts, I was starting to get excited. I have a chance!

“Inn. The Hub. We’ll rest there the night,” he stated.

I nodded, walking alongside him contentedly. It seemed that as we got closer to the nearest skydock, the city grew more packed and better maintained. The alleys between each building grew thinner, and the open space in the crowd became sparse. Despite the run-down atmosphere, the city was full of life. Merchants hawked their wares from simple stalls on the side of the street as black-caped griffons eyed the horizon from the rooftops. Wolves sat together in small groups, discussing recent news and watching passerby. Wingless gargoyles walked by, pulling carts filled with food. Zebra rushed past, saddlebags bouncing on their backs. I spotted a small group of bears lumbering down the street, displaying heavy armor and weaponry, given a wide and respectful berth by those who walked past them. I saw a few recusants, huddled together in an alleyway as they eyed the pockets of everyone close by. Everyone, regardless of race or job, had a weapon.

We came to an intersection, and Exe turned down a street going away from the black-flagged skydock. The buildings began to spread out as we put distance between it and us, and I even saw a team of wolves and gargoyles building a new one. We eventually arrived at our destination, a relatively large construction just a few buildings down from a large courtyard. A wooden signpost advertised its name: The Hub. Pushing past a group of drunks laughing in the street, my bear companion led the way over its threshold and into chaos.

The defining feature of The Hub was the volume. It was loud. Half of the main room was dominated by griffon mercs, exchanging stories, drinking, eyeing any females they saw suggestively and the members of other merc flocks suspiciously. I saw a couple of recusant mares dancing on their tables, false smiles painted over their disgust as the mercs howled their approval. At one table in a dark corner, three bears drank together quietly, offering Exe a respectful nod when they noticed him. The rest of the place was a mixture of gargoyles, zebra, and wolves. They ate, they drank, and they were generally rowdy.

I stepped closer to Exe. This crowd was making me nervous. Sure, the inns in Equestria had a similar air of relaxation and wildness to them, but here I felt a tense undertone of violence that I’d never felt in any of the Equestrian inns I’d frequented. The sound of metal on wood was from the weapons of the patrons just as much as their mugs, and the three fires crackling in the hearths reminded me more of burning villages than a friendly respite.

We stopped at the bar, where a long-eared and wingless gargoyle was busily eyeing the room disdainfully. He brightened a little at the sight of Exe, and a sincere smile leaked onto his face.

“Exe! Long time no see, my friend. How was the South?” he asked.

“Dangerous, as usual,” Exe replied. “Though not enough to stop me.”

The gargoyle nodded, and his eyes fell upon me as if noticing me for the first time. “And who is this little snack, hrm? This is no place for a pony!”

I shifted nervously under his gaze. It seemed cold. Calculating. Not at all like the warmth they had held for Exe.

“Call it a charity case, Sinnel. Have you got a couple beds?” Exe asked.

Sinnel bent into a shallow bow, pulling a quill out from under the bar and making a mark on a sheet of paper on the wall beside him. “Certainly, certainly. Number ten. Anything else, my friend? A drink? Some food?”

The bear shook his head. “Maybe later. For now I want to get the pony settled in and relax.”

Sinnel nodded understandingly, sliding down the bar to greet a trio of wolves. Exe beckoned to me with his snout, and I fell in behind him. We made our way across the wide room to a sturdy staircase built into the wall, climbing up to the second floor. It was much quieter there, with the noise of the main room deadened by the thick wood. Passing a few silent doors and one that exuded some passionate thumping, we stopped before our room. There was no lock or handle on the door, the only decoration being an engraved number ten. I didn’t feel very secure when it closed behind us.

The room was simple and the furnishings spartan at best. A couple of beds, a wardrobe, a small table and three chairs, and a window was all it had. Exe dropped his axe on one of the beds and pulled off a dark green hood before doing the same with it as well. I hadn’t even noticed the hood earlier. He didn’t wear anything else, and it was practically unnoticeable against his brown coat.

A few silent moments passed.

“So, now what?” I asked.

“I’m relaxing,” he said. “Leave me be.”

I looked around awkwardly. Well, okay then.

Lacking anything else to do, and curious about the first Outer World city I’d ever seen, I decided to try some exploring. I dumped my saddlebags on the empty bed, but kept my swords and barding. If everyone else here walked around armed and armored, I’d do the same.

I trotted out the door, down the stairs, through the drunken rabble, and out into the street. I looked left, and then right. Which way to go?

I decided to head left, towards the large courtyard. Although I hadn’t noticed so before, it was surprisingly empty for what seemed to be, as far as I could tell, the center of the city. The circle was dominated by griffon guards, each group wearing the same colored apparel I’d seen before, each standing at one of five streets, and each staring eachother down. There was a thick sense of challenge in the air, and what few citizens dared to cross the courtyard did so hurriedly and with eyes down.

I decided that perhaps left had not been the best direction to go.

I turned around, opting to explore along an alternate route, and began walking towards the cluster of skydocks flying the black flag. There was some kind of emblem on it, but I couldn’t make it out from here. I guessed that it was made to be visible from incoming airships, rather than those traveling by ground.

The sun was low in the sky now, and much of the street was cast in shadow by the buildings. The crowd was thinning, and stall merchants were packing up. I noticed more black-clad griffons arriving, landing on the roofs or patrolling the alleys with watchful eyes.

My ear twitched, and I looked to my side. There was a recusant there, being harassed by one of the griffons. He had a grey coat and brown eyes, with dull bronze stripes running down his legs and a short but styled brown mane. Still believing in the Equestrian notion that guards were there for the people, I didn’t think twice about approaching them.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” I inquired.

The griffon turned, a cocky sneer already painted on his face as he held the recusant with one claw. I suddenly remembered that I was in the Outer World, and that the guards here probably didn’t care about random passerby at all. Shit.

With his mouth already open and ready to offer some insulting challenge, he focused in on my horn. He faltered, his eyes widening. All at once, he wiped the contempt off his face and replaced it with respectful subservience. He straightened himself into attention and cleared his throat.

“Yes, sir?”

I blinked. What? I realized that he thought I was some kind of superior. “What’s going on here?” I demanded, trying to speak like the rough and derisive officer he clearly thought I was.

The griffon pulled the recusant forwards. “This recusant, sir. He was stealing, sir.”

“He most certainly is not!” I scoffed. I fought to contain the laughter building up within me. I couldn’t let myself smile! “This recusant is my personal aide. Release him this instant!”

The griffon nodded, bowing as he backed away. “Yes, sir.” The recusant wrenched himself from his captor’s grasp, stepping to my side with his nose in the air. Cowed, the griffon bowed one more time before taking to the skies.

I looked to my ‘personal aide.’ He looked to me. He grinned, offering an extravagant bow. “And who might you be, oh savior of mine?”

I cocked my head. He was nothing like the Stygians. “I’m Dissero. You?”

He waggled his eyebrows at me knowingly, scanning what remained of the daytime crowd. “Eh, I dunno if I can tell you that just yet. Why did you help me?”

“Some recusants have saved my life before. I thought I’d return the favor,” I explained.

He was staring right at me, right into my eyes. He squinted. I faltered, taking a step back. I waited for some kind of response. Nothing. We passed a few awkward minutes like that, and finally I looked down, scratching at the ground with a hoof. When I looked back up, he had a wide smile plastered on his face.

“Well, okay then!” he exclaimed. “I’m Slick. Thanks for helping out, but really, I had it handled. You’re not working for the Baron, are you?”

I felt my heart skip a beat. I was surprised that the Baron had an influence in this city. Then again, I suppose it makes sense. All the Equestrian trade flows through here after all. Luckily, I maintained enough composure to answer the question.

“Uhm, no.”

His eye’s brightened. “Hey, cool! C’mon buddy!”

Grabbing me in the surprisingly strong grip of a wing, he walked into a nearby alleyway. Still somewhat surprised by the sudden change in attitude, I completely forgot to ask where we were going as I was pulled behind him.

Soon I found myself following him through the alleys of New. They were an amazingly intricate and equally disgusting spiderweb of tiny little pathways, darkened by the constricting buildings that made them. We were near to a skydock, and the buildings were so close together that sometimes we could barely fit between them single file. Our hooves splashed through stagnant rainwater that, lacking anywhere to go, had no doubt been sitting in the alleys for weeks. Every now and then we broke out of the claustrophobic tunnels onto wider paths that might, in a Canterlot slum, have been worthy of calling a road, only to delve back into the alleys a few seconds later.

An obvious question that I should’ve asked earlier suddenly occurred to me. “Where are we going?” Stupid. Why would you just follow him like that? Too trusting of recusants... My head was starting to spin from the labyrinthine route.

Slick didn’t slow down as he called back an answer. “To our place! I think you can help us out!”

I skidded to a stop, splashing filth everywhere. “Help you? When did I agree to that?”

He slowed down, looking back to offer me an innocent smile. “I thought you wanted to help. Because I’m a recusant.”

“What? No!” I sputtered. “I already helped you with the guard.” I began to walk away, regretting the lost time and chastising myself for my idiocy. It took me all of two steps to realize that I had no idea where I was.

“You from around here, Dissero? It’s easy to get lost in all these twists and turns.”

Shit. Why did I let him pull me into this? Into here? I narrowed my eyes at him disapprovingly. He did this on purpose!

“Fine,” I said. “Lead the way.”

Ω Ω Ω

New, I learned, was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.

It was full on night time now, and I was panting behind Slick as we trotted along. We had dodged griffons of every one of the five factions that seemed to control the city, and once even been caught by a patrol. Slick had stalled loudly, drawing another patrol from a different faction, and we had escaped while they fought over who got to apprehend us.

“What’s up with the guards in this city?” I asked.

“Well, New doesn’t really have, strictly speaking, any singular ruling power,” Slick explained. “As a matter of fact, it’s not, strictly speaking, a single city. I’m sure you’ve noticed the five skydock clusters, and the five flags?”

I nodded, then remembered that I was behind him and he couldn’t see me. “Yeah.”

“Those are all owned and maintained by five different companies, who’re all competing for the trade with Equestria, Harvest City, and the west. It just so happens that this is the closest point between the Outer World and wherever those Equestrian ships come from, and the only place west of the Bare Lands in reach of Harvest, so they all set up here. They all claim to be in charge, and they all hire their own mercs to act as guards. It’s really quite nice for those of my profession.”

“And what profession might that be?”

“Illegality. General unlawful behavior. Robbery, thievery, tomfoolery, smugglery, littering. It’s really nice. Got a guard hot on your tail? Draw him past a rival patrol! Works every time.” He looked back to wink at me.

Oh, great. Criminals. I cocked my head ponderously. “Are there any recusants that aren’t outlaws?”

“There’s a few of us, but it's tough living inside the law. Everyone is always expecting us to break it.”

Slick came to a stop, pulling a key out of his mane and slotting it into a nondescript door. We had finally arrived at our destination. I looked up at the stars, wondering if Exe was worried. No, that didn’t seem like him. Maybe aware would be a better term. Yeah. I wonder if he’s noticed my absence.

The door opened up to a ladder in a narrow shaft. I went down first, and Slick closed the door behind us.

A few rungs down, the ladder ended, and I found myself in a simple stone basement. Three bedrolls huddled together near a vent that radiated heat, and a couple of lamps on the wall provided some dim light. There was another recusant there, leaning over the wooden table that served as the room’s centerpiece. He had the same grey coat as Slick, with a single green stripe running down his spine

He looked up, somehow taking notice of me through the thick green mane that hung over his eyes. “Ey! Who’re you?” he demanded.

I heard Slick landing behind me, and felt him put a hoof around my shoulder. “Relax, brother. I got us the unicorn we needed!”

I stifled a groan. What have I gotten myself into...?

The other recusant’s eyes brightened, and he rushed up to shake my hoof. “Really? You’re gonna help us?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Slick interrupted me. “Yeah!” he said. “Dissy, this is Pick. He’s my brother. Pick, this is Dissy. I picked him up off the street.”

I shot him an appalled look, debating between whether his usage of my foalhood pet name or his insistence that he had ‘picked me up off the street’ bothered me more. I shook my head and started to offer Pick a greeting.

He interrupted me. “Hey, cool! I’m gonna go upstairs and get Trick. Hopefully she’s not busy.”

That is really frustrating. How many times had I been interrupted today? Were they doing this on purpose? Would I be spending tonight in a jail cell? While Pick trotted up the stairs built into the far wall, I turned to Slick, hoping to find some answers.

He was standing over the table, beckoning to me. “Come over here. You can’t help if you don’t know the plan.”

Well, good enough. I stepped up to the table. A creased map of the city and its surroundings was spread out upon it, pinned down by a small box of colored pencils. The city was split into five sections, with each one being outlined in either red, green, brown, black, or white. A few other markings were on the map as well, all centered around a large building in the red district, built close to the cliff’s edge.

Slick circled the building with a red pencil. “Our goal, basically, is to get into this warehouse, open the safe, extricate the Equestrian gemstones within, and get them out of the city to a safe place in the woods.”

I squinted at the map skeptically. It was hard to see in the dim light. “And what would you need me for? Aren’t you all experienced with this stuff?”

He shook his head. “No. Well, yes. But no. You see, this warehouse is special. The Jackal keeps most of his Equestrian gemstones there, waiting to be shipped out across the continent. We need you to help us with distracting the guards, and with getting the gems out.”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “I don’t see how I could help you with that...”

He grinned. “Oh, don’t you worry. I do.”

With a dull thud, Pick returned from upstairs, leading a lithe recusant mare behind him. Her long, flowing red mane made a stark contrast against her light grey coat. Narrow pink stripes ran up her neck and cheeks, tapering off at her shoulders and under her gentle pink eyes. Carefully applied makeup accentuated her facial features, and a colorful but loosely buckled saddle bounced on her back. I swallowed nervously.

She was giving me a weird look. Suddenly, I realized that my mouth was open and I had stopped breathing. I shook myself, blushing as she approached me.

“So, you’re our unicorn?” she asked. Wow, that voice. I closed my mouth again, nodding mutely.

She extended a hoof. “I’m Trick. Nice to meet ya.”

We shook, and Trick unbuckled her saddle, letting it fall to the floor carelessly. Slick beckoned us all over to the table.

“Come on now. We’ve gotta review the plan with Dissy here if we’re gonna do this tonight,” he said.

“Wait, what? You want to do this tonight? Doesn’t this type of thing usually take months of planning and practice?” I asked. Everything was just going downhill. I should’ve stayed with Exe.

Pick stepped forwards to explain. “We’ve actually been planning this for a while now. Slick’s already scouted the place and Trick’s already got the safe code. We’re all ready, and we kind’ve need to do it tonight.”

I stepped back, face screwed up with denial. “Wha- Why? Why can’t you just give me some time to think about this?”

“Because one of Robber Baron’s lieutenants is out of town tonight, and we can’t do it while he’s here. If we wait another day, we’ll have to wait until he cycles out to Equestria, which would be months more,” Trick said. “Besides, I’m tired of paying for this shithole.” She gestured to the cold stone walls of the room, disgusted.

I cocked my head. “What do you mean you’re tired of paying?” Don’t recusant clans usually stick together anyways?

“It’s been a slow couple of months,” Slick explained. He put on a strained smile. In the silence that followed, a brief burst of passionate male moaning leaked through the ceiling. I looked at Trick’s saddle where it lay on the ground, and noticed for the first time the unusually sensual cut. My eyes widened as I made the connection. Oh.

“Okay, fine. What’s the plan?” I couldn’t turn them down now. Not after realizing the truth behind their predicament. Despite myself, my heart was getting the better of me.

Slick and Pick both grinned widely. “So you’re in?” they asked.

I sighed, closed my eyes, and nodded. When I opened them, Trick was smiling at me. “Looks like you’re our unicorn after all,” she said.

Slick pulled me closer. “Okay, listen up. We don’t have much time.”

I paid rapt attention as he explained the plan to me, pointing and marking on the map with the colored pencils. I nodded, asking questions when necessary for clarification. If I was going to do this, I wanted to have a good idea of what was happening.

I hadn’t even been in New for a whole night, and it was the first Outer World city I’d ever entered. There wasn’t much law out here, but I was already ready to break what little could be found.

Ch. 13: General Illegality

Omega

Chapter 13: General Illegality

I admit, I was beginning to harbor some serious regrets about this plan. Even after the hour spent reviewing it while Slick and Trick made final preparations, I found myself faltering.

No, I already do regret it. My nerves were getting the better of me. The rain and fog wasn’t helping, either.

I felt a little push on my flank, and twisted my neck back to glare at the offender. Slick was standing behind me, waving a hoof forwards with a reassuring smile. I narrowed my eyes at him. I was not reassured.

Nonetheless, there was a schedule I had to stick to. There was a job to be done. According to the recusants, who apparently could sense weather, the fog and rain would last only till a little bit after sunrise. All the more reason to strike now.

Pulling my bandanna up, I stepped out of the sheltering alley and into the rain. I tugged at my recently bought black cape nervously, making sure it was still there. It was an interesting fact that while black capes couldn’t be found anywhere within the Baron’s district, they were sold everywhere else in the city practically free.

I trotted across the empty street, stopping before a tall wooden building that advertised itself as The Baron’s Keep. Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I placed a hoof on the door and pushed.

Where The Hub was an inn, The Baron’s Keep was a full-on tavern. It was also the main hangout of the many black-clad griffons charged with defending The Baron’s hostile border with The Jackal. The patronage was almost exclusively griffon, all laughing and drinking loudly, with the only exception being a small band of vicious looking bears, sitting at a corner table and giving mean looks to any drunk griffons that tried to harass them.

I stood in front of the door a good minute, overtaken by a deadly relative of stage fright. Slick’s instructions ran through my mind.

“Some of them will be skipping night patrol because of the rain. Most of them will be drunk. All of them will be ready for a fight. You just have to give them a direction.”

I gulped. “Hey, guys,” I said weakly. The bandanna muffled my voice, and all that came out was a sort of dull mumble. Nobody noticed me.

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat. No results.

“These are gonna be mercs. They deliver and deal with death every day, and if you’re not of their flock, you’ve gotta be rough to gain their respect. Be loud. If you talk like you own them, then you’ll soon find that you do.”

I closed my eyes. Talk like you own them. I needed to speak like an officer of the Baron. Like I didn’t give a shit about what they thought. Like I had paid for them, and I wanted my money’s worth, and I felt like going out on raid. Yeah! These are your mercs! I pulled my bandanna down, opened my eyes, and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, I felt a strong hoof wrapped around my shoulder, pulling me into a tight embrace.

“Change of plans,” Trick whispered. Keeping her hoof around me, she gently pushed me forwards, walking us towards a curtained off area in the back.

“Wai- what?”

“Old plan isn’t gonna work. We need to get hold of one of the real lieutenants.”

“Can’t we just bail?” A crowd of griffons in front of us parted respectfully. Wearing a black cloak had its perks when you were a unicorn.

“No. Slick’s working onnit. Just gimme some time,” she breathed. “Now be quiet!”

I was forced to withhold my protests as she walked us through the curtain. Five ponies and a griffon sat around an oval table, eyeing eachother over their cards. A cloud of smoke hung in the air, stinging my eyes, and a zebra mare was gently playing harp in a corner.

The ponies looked up from their cards. With the exception of a single pegasus, they were all unicorns. One of them, with a dull bronze coat, cocked an eyebrow as he smoked his cigar.

“Who’re you?” he asked.

I resisted the urge to look to Trick for help, instead going off what I remembered from the old plan. “Just sitting in for Gem Lights.” Please tell me I remembered the name right.

A green one with a brown mane choked out something that sounded vaguely like a laugh. “Heh. I told y’all she was jus’ outta town. Worryin’ over nothing!”

The pegasus twitched his ears thoughtfully. “Not like her to get somepony else to cover, though.”

Another unicorn, a mare, squinted at me through the smoke. “Hey, I don’t recognize you. Anybody know this colt?”

I felt myself starting to sweat nervously. “Oh, uhm, I’m new. Just came in last week.” I stretched my mouth into a smile.

“Last week? There weren’t any unicorns in last week’s replacements. Saw ‘em myself,” the last unicorn said. He had blue fur and a white mane.

“I was late!” I improvised. “Left something on the ship.”

The pegasus played with the poker chips before him idly. “What’dya leave?”

“Just…” I trailed off, thinking. “My bandanna! I left my bandanna. It’s very important to me.” I ran a hoof over the cloth, in case they hadn’t seen it yet.

The whole table shared a little chuckle at that. “Sentimental value? Hah! Welcome to the Outer World, newbie,” the unicorn mare said.

The bronze unicorn nodded to Trick, who was slumped over my shoulder. “Who’s the mare?”

I looked at her, unsure as to how to respond. Luckily, she spared me the task of having to make up an explanation.

“Just a lil’ present for you colts!” She smiled sweetly, tossing her mane. “Mind if we join you?”

The stallions wasted no time in accepting, quickly levitating a chair up to the table for me and clearing a space in the middle of the table. The unicorn mare, meanwhile, rolled her eyes with exasperation and fiddled with her cards.

I sat down in the offered chair as Trick climbed up onto the table, the thin dress she wore sliding over her curves as she moved. The pegasus stallion next to me jabbed me with an elbow.

“Buy-in’s ten bits.”

I opened my saddlebags and floated the required fee out onto the table. The griffon deftly snatched them up before pushing a pile of chips my way. “Enjoy your game, sir.”

I nodded, organizing the chips before me like Storm had taught me to. My heart clenched briefly as I thought of my crew, but I pushed it aside. Now was not the time.

Trick began to dance, much to the delight of the stallions at the table. Another hand was dealt, and I took a peek at my cards. A seven and a two, unsuited. Great.

Worse yet, I had the big blind. I pushed a solid tenth of my chips into the pot, grumbling to myself inwardly.

The unicorn mare cleared her throat. “So, what brings you to the Outer World, newbie?” She levitated a few chips forward.

I shrugged. Luckily, I had worked out my story ten minutes ago. “I like going where other ponies haven’t gone, and I don’t really have any ties in Equestria.”

She nodded as the griffon dealt the flop. Nothing good, of course. Though there wasn’t really much I could hope for with the hand I had. I tapped the table with a hoof. Check.

The pegasus nudged me again. “How’d you find the Baron?” He folded, leaning back and focusing on Trick’s barely veiled flank as he puffed on his pipe.

“I think it’d be better to say that he found me,” I said. Some nods of appreciation went around the room, accompanied by the restless clicking of chips.

“Former slave, then?” the blue-coated unicorn asked. The griffon slid the turn onto the table. No luck with that card either.

“Yeah, you could say that,” I said. I ran a hoof through my mane. I had nothing in this hand. Yet, I still felt confident that I could win. Bluff like Silver does. I leaned forwards as if I had seen something interesting, levitating a small pile of chips forwards.

By now, most of the table was more interested in Trick’s body than the cards. Three of them had simply folded, contenting themselves with the recusant dancing before them.

The green stallion folded, joining his companions in the ever-popular task of eyeing the swaying mare. Only the unicorn stayed in the game with me, looking at her fellow lieutenants disapprovingly as she called my bluff.

Out came the river. A two. My hand now summed up to a grand total of a pair of twos. I pushed half of my chips forward, struggling to keep a straight face. Silver always told me I was too easy to read.

“So, what’re your names?” I asked, hoping the small talk would keep my face from revealing any information about my cards.

The stallions at the table didn’t seem to hear me, too engrossed in Trick’s dance. One of them reached out a hoof to pull at her dress, and she kicked him away coyly. The unicorn mare, to my chagrin, called my bluff. My little pair of twos didn’t stand a chance against her full house.

She reached out to scoop the pot from under Trick’s legs. “Don’t worry about names just yet, newbie. We’ll introduce ourselves next week, if you’re still alive.”

I gulped. Well, okay then.

Another hand was dealt. I had a queen and jack suited. I failed to stifle a little smile. Better. Reluctantly, I paid the small blind and pushed some extra chips forward to stay in the game. I looked down at my pitiful little pile regrettably. How am I supposed to stall for Trick if I can’t even survive three rounds?

We continued to play in silence, with all but one of the stallions once again folding so they could focus on the dance. By the time the griffon dealt the river, I was feeling pretty confident with my hand. I had a flush. Unfortunately, the unicorn mare had used her winnings from her last win to outbid me. I would have to go all-in if I didn't want to fold. Risk it? I narrowed my eyes at her.

Trick suddenly spoke up. “Hey, sweetums, you runnin’ outta chips?” she asked me. I looked up at her, surprised by the question.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.

She stepped off the table, inspiring a slight moan of dissatisfaction from the watching stallions, and slid up to my ear. “Why don’t you bet me instead, then?” she whispered loudly.

My ears twitched. Thank Celestia I’m wearing something. I looked around the table. “Are you guys okay with that?”

The bronze stallion, who was also in the hand, nodded enthusiastically. “Yessir, Ah’ll take that deal!”

The unicorn rose out of her chair. “Hey, wait! That’s not fair, I’m not interested in her!”

The other stallions rose their voices, quickly talking over her as they expressed their approval of the new betting chip.

“Let ‘em do it!”

“It’s fine!”

“I wanna see what she can do!”

The mare glared at her opponents before spitting on the floor in disgust. “Fine! Fine! Be that way. I’m out of this one.” She tossed her cards away spitefully.

That left me and the bronze stallion. He narrowed his eyes at me with such complete, savage bloodthirstiness that I found myself slowly sliding under the table. In the background, the zebra continued to play her harp. Trick probably wants me to lose this anyways, I reasoned. I valiantly folded.

My competitor broke out into a wide grin. “Hah!” He laughed. “The mare is mine!”

Trick walked around the table, her hooves clopping loudly in the stallion’s anticipating silence. She reached out with her neck and, ever so softly, bit the bronze stallion behind his ear. He visibly relaxed, snorting with pleasure.

“You’re comin’ with me then, big boy.” Wrapping a seductive wing around the stallion’s trunk, she gently led him towards a door in the far wall. She opened it, revealing a simple bedroom on the other side and, with one last flutter of her eyelashes, disappeared them both within it.

The unicorn mare stomped a hoof on the table angrily, snapping the remaining males out of their envious reverie. “Hey! Control yourselves, for fuck’s sake! I’m tryna play a game here!”

Ω Ω Ω

The moaning had been going on for half an hour straight now.

I was sitting on the floor in the curtained off section of The Baron’s Keep, leaning against the wooden wall as I divided my attentions between the ongoing card game and the constantly vibrating door. I looked down at the bottle of vodka in my hooves idly. The other lieutenants had decided to order a round of drinks, and I hadn’t wanted to look like some soft Equestrian and blow my cover, so I’d ordered the only drink I knew: Stalliongrad Swan Song. Cleaver’s vodka. Luckily, I’d been having trouble drinking it and, despite half the bottle being empty, I still wasn’t even slightly buzzed.

I raised it to my lips, hoping to take a sip, but was rudely interrupted by a loud banging from the other side of the wall. The bottle swayed uncontrollably, spilling more of its insides into the little puddle it had already made on my lap instead of my tongue.

Luckily, nopony else noticed. With the exception of the unicorn mare, who was still futilely trying to keep the game going, everyone was focused on the commotion inside the nearby bedroom. Except the griffon and zebra. Whether from a lack of interest or an excess of discipline, they stalwartly kept to their respective tasks.

Finally, the bedroom fell silent. All of the stallions hurriedly turned their attention back to the game. Some of them abandoned their eavesdropping positions and returned to their seats at the table. When Trick emerged from the bedroom, mane slightly ruffled and dress somewhat dirtied, it almost looked like they had actually been playing poker the whole time.

She walked by me without a word, running her tail over my muzzle as she passed. My ears twitched. Climbing to my hooves, I set the vodka down and turned to follow her, trying to ignore the jealous stares I felt boring into my back. Bunch of horn dogs, is what they are.

We soon found ourselves outside of the tavern and back into the rain. As soon as the door closed, she shook the dress off and pulled a brush out of her saddlebags, running it through her disheveled mane.

“What was all that about?” I asked.

She began to walk towards the nearest alley, and I followed. “Just needed to incapacitate somepony for ya to impersonate,” she explained.

I frowned. “Incapacitate? You had sex with him!”

She looked back, grinning. “Yeah. I call that one the Balmer Series. He won’t be getting up for at least six hours.”

“What? But what was the point?” She stopped walking, turned to face me, and sat down. We were in the alleys now, out of sight from the street.

“So he couldn’t interfere. Here, put these on.” She reached into her bags, pulling out a nametag, wallet, shoulder patch, and badge. She held them out to me one by one, and I grabbed them with my magic.

I looked at them awkwardly. “Uhm…” I began.

She rolled her eyes. “For blood’s sake.” She pulled me closer, picking a needle and thread out of her mane. I stood there silently, trying not to look at her disconcertingly close face as she worked with my barding. After a few minutes of fussing, she stepped back.

I looked down. The patch newly stitched onto my shoulder displayed the image of a crossed horn and wing. On my chest was a badge of a black pony on a red background, rearing up, and the nametag had the name “Apple Waffle” printed on it.

I looked up, mouth already open for questions, and found the wallet being held aggressively close to my face.

“Here,” Trick said. “This is you. Head towards the warehouse and pretend you own it.” She flared her wings, bending her knees in preparation for takeoff.

“Wai- wh- why!?” I raised a hoof to protect my eyes from the dust she kicked up as she flew away. I looked after her, lost and confused. What the fuck?

I sighed. Only one thing to do now. Not yet familiar with the alleys of New and not wanting to get lost, I retraced our path to the street. I closed my eyes briefly as I reviewed my mental map of the city. The Jackal’s district is… northeast.

Looking up to the nearest skydock, still swarming with airships even at this hour, I set off for my new destination. There were black-caped griffons everywhere, eyes peeled for trouble. There was a patrol on every street corner. This close to the border of the Baron’s district, there would be a curfew in place, but my patch and badge seemed to excuse me from it. Some of them even raised a talon into a casual salute, and I responded with a polite nod as I passed.

It’s too quiet in this city…

Turning a corner, the checkpoint between the Baron’s and Jackal’s districts came into view. There was a roadblock set up, stretching across the street and manned by both black-caped and red-capped griffons alike, each side leering at the other suspiciously. I slowed down, uncertain of what to do.

Suddenly, I felt a tug on my collar. I opened my mouth to shout, but the hoof over it only let strained mumbles through. The hooves turned me around, and I saw Slick’s dark brown eyes looking into mine.

“What are you doing!?” he hissed.

“I’m going to the warehouse!” I whispered defensively.

“Through the checkpoint?”

“Well, ye-“

“Are you crazy?” He shook me for extra emphasis.

I pulled myself away from him. “Well, why not? Aren’t I some type of officer or something?” I gestured at my badge.

He sighed, putting a hoof to his forehead. “No, no, no. Well, yes. But you can’t go through the checkpoint.”

“But why not?”

“Because they’ll catch you! You’re not supposed to be here. Or over there, either.” He looked around suspiciously, checking to see if any of the guards that patrolled the alleys were nearby.

“I thought I was an-“

“Yes, but the Jackal and the Baron are not friends!” he interrupted. He narrowed his eyes as he looked off into the middle distance. “They are enemies.”

I took an incredulous step back, confused. “But then, why am I disguised as-“

“Because nobody is supposed to know about this whole thing,” he explained.

My brow furrowed with bewilderment. I shut my eyes tight, taking a few seconds to try and figure things out. “But isn’t that what the disguise is for?”

He sighed the sigh of a professional working with a foalish amateur that couldn’t even understand the plan. “No. No, that’s not right. You, like disguised you, are not supposed to be there either.”

My ears twitched as I worked it all out. I perked up. “Oh! So I still need to be sneaky!”

He smiled, nodding. “Yes, that’s it! Stick to the alleys.” He flared his wings, and I my eyes widened as I recognized a pegasus about to take off.

“Wait, stop!” I jumped on him, knocking us both into the mud.

He pushed me off and climbed to his hooves, looking over his mudstained outfit with disgust. “What do you want?” he demanded.

“I don’t know these alleys,” I hissed.

“Ugh,” he sighed. “Fine. Listen up.” He closed his eyes briefly, tracing out a mental path through the alleys with a hoof. “Go right, then left, left, right, right, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, back, across, right, right, straight, up, across, down, left, right, straight, and corner. Got it?”

I blinked.

“Okay, great!” He flapped his wings, and he was gone.

I blinked again. Looking up to the night sky, I raised a muddied hoof to block the drizzle.

“What?”

Ω Ω Ω

I breathed a sigh of relief as, cresting the angled roof of yet another building, the warehouse finally came into view.

Squinting, I scanned the area around the structure. A wide street surrounded it, making it the only building I’d seen in this city that wasn’t suffocating under the weight of its peers. Sizeable patrols of griffons led by winged gargoyles, or wahrgoyles as the recusants called them, guarded every entrance. A small tower in the center of the building lit up the dark streets with a collection of fiery spotlights, and a line of steel obstructions spread across the courtyard prevented any unwanted vehicles from approaching the main entrance.

I ran a nervous hoof through my mane. The warehouse wasn’t the sort of building to be trifled with.

I felt a hoof tapping on my shoulder and jumped, twisting around.

Pick was crouching behind me, black stripes painted on his face. “What took ye so long?”

“I got lost in the alleyways. A few times,” I explained.

He cocked his head. “I thought Slick gave ye directions?”

“He gives terrible directions!” I hissed.

He waved me away defensively. “Okay, okay. Ye know the plan?”

“No, I don’t know the plan! Nobody ever told me anything!”

“Ey, ey, calm down. Ye gotta get me in there ta meet our contact.”

“Contact? What contact? When did we get a contact?” I asked. I ran a hoof through my mane again, shaking my head incredulously.

He peeked over the roof again, scanning the warehouse and its surroundings. “Listen. Ye’re here on a secret deal. Ye’re gonna exchange me fer some of the Jackal’s gems.”

“Wha-“

He put a hoof to my mouth, shushing me. “No time fer questions. We’re behind schedule already. Follow me.”

He trotted to the edge of the rooftop and jumped into the alley, bracing his hooves against the constricting walls to slow his descent. I followed, looking down after him reluctantly. Scraping my hooves against the walls like that looked like it would hurt.

I hopped off the rooftop, clumsily sticking my limbs out and sliding down in a sort of sideways half-tumble. Holy fuck, it does hurt! With a strangled yelp, I landed face-first in the mud.

“Yeegh, gross.” I climbed to my hooves, shaking some of the clingy mud off, but most of it stayed stuck to my coat. Pick beckoned to me from where he stood deeper in the alleys, his black clothing and body paint making it hard to pick him out amongst the shadows. I nodded, and together we made our way through the intricate network.

“Why are we doing this?” I asked.

“Cause I need a wey to get in,” he responded.

“What about Slick and Trick?”

“Trick will talk ‘er wey in. Slick is, well, slick. Don’t worry ‘bout ‘em.”

He suddenly stopped, blocking my path with his body as he stood at alert. Slowly, he raised a hoof to his mouth, signaling for silence. I strained my ears, and just barely picked out the sound of someone splashing through the muddy alleys ahead of us.

He carefully positioned his wing over the sheath strapped to his side and, taking care to not make a sound, drew a long and curved black dagger. He tiptoed forwards, turning the corner ahead of us and out of my sight.

A minute passed in relative silence. Only the occasional sound of griffon wings overhead and the quiet splash of a guard in the alleys broke the calm.

The sound of racing hooves sprang into being, shortly followed by a brief shout and a strangled groan. Pick poked his head out from around the corner and beckoned to me. I followed, and was treated to the sight of a red-capped griffon, bleeding out into the mud.

“You killed him!” I hissed.

Pick looked to me curiously, cleaning his blade on the griffon’s feathers. “Well, ye, I did.”

“Why did you kill him?”

“Was in our wey. Had ta be taken care of.”

“But you didn’t have to kill him. You could’ve, I don’t know, choked him out or led him away or something!” I protested.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Ye, I guess I coulda. Jus didn’t occur ta me. This is quicker and easier enyways. Now c’mon.”

He trotted away, and I had no choice but to follow. Still, I was careful to walk around the griffon’s corpse. I didn’t want any blood on my hooves.

We soon reached our destination. Pick peeked around the corner briefly, squinting, before turning back to me.

“Now remember,” he said. “I’m yer prisoner. Yer here fer gems. Ye don’t care what they want wit’ me, and yer not supposed to be here. The guard in front of the door there is expectin’ ya, but thas it. Don’t let enyone else see ya, and stay in character!”

I nodded, preparing myself. Pick pulled a rope and a set of hoofcuffs out of nowhere, quickly tying a noose around his neck and slapping the cuffs onto himself. He bent down and rubbed his face in the mud before signaling for me to proceed.

Grabbing the noose’s lead in my magic, I stepped around the corner with feigned confidence. Before me was one of the streets that surrounded the warehouse, and on the other side was a simple door with a pair of griffon guards. One of them was sound asleep, and the other was eyeing the alleys nervously. He jumped when he saw me and, glancing up and down the street one more time, beckoned to me furiously.

I trotted forwards briskly, crossing the street in the span of a few seconds and stopping before the fidgety griffon. He examined my nametag, badge, and patch briefly before breaking into a wide smile.

“Hey. So you’re Apple Waffle? I imagined you being more… country,” he said.

“Heh, yeah. Ah get that a lot,” I said. I did my best to improvise a southern accent.

“What happened to you? You look like you got in a fight on the way here.” He poked at my cloak curiously, pointing out the mudstains that had accumulated over the past couple hours.

“Uh, nothing. Nothing. Ah just tripped, is all. Are yo- y’all gonna let me in?”

He jumped into action. “Oh, right. Right! Yeah. Go ahead and check out the gems. I’ve got ‘em laid out for you. Take ‘em and leave the recusant tied to one of the shelves.”

He nodded, more to himself than me, and opened the door with a bronze key. I stepped through, pulling Pick after me. The griffon kicked him as he passed, and he made a big show of stumbling over the threshold.

The traitorous guard closed the door behind us, and Pick quickly slid out of the noose and cuffs. They weren’t even small enough to stay on his hooves unless he spread his legs out. He scanned the dimly lit warehouse interior, squinting.

“They should be here. C’mon, follow me,” he said. He trotted away on sure hooves, and I took in my surroundings as I followed.

The warehouse had a very basic design to it, being nothing more than a large rectangle. Starlight shone through the skylights spaced across the ceiling, providing all of what little light there was. Row upon row of wide crates and barrels were stacked on top of eachother, splitting the room into a grid of pathways, all branching off of a larger one that stretched through the middle of the room.

Pick led the way to the main path and glanced down both sides. He quickly ducked back, and my ears twitched as they picked up the sound of hooves and talons approaching in tandem.

“Oooh, you’re so sweet, and just the cutest feathered friend I’ve ever seen. What kind of things do you keep in here?”

“Oh, hehe, y’know. All sorts of stuff. Hey, have you ever held an Equestrian gemstone? I can get you one.”

“Aww, that would be simply amazing. C’mon! I wanna see them!”

Trick skipped into view, leading a flustered griffon as they walked down the central path. She picked us out from where he hid in the shadows and winked at us, but the griffon was too caught up in his fantasies to notice.

“Hey, you wanna do me a favor, baby?” Trick asked.

He grinned. “Sure! Anything.”

She smiled at him coyly. “Then close your eyes. It’s a surprise.”

The griffon wasted no time, obediently closing his eyes in trembling anticipation. Trick didn’t waste any time either. With one smooth movement, she reached out and snapped his neck.

Gently, she lowered his lifeless body to the ground. “Good boy,” she whispered.

Pick smiled, walking up to his sister and pulling her into a quick embrace. “Ye’know how long till Slick arrives?”

She shook her head. “No. I think he’s arranging something else somewhere. An escape plan or something. Hey, what’s wrong with our unicorn?”

I’m stuck with a bunch of psycho murder-burglars, that’s what’s wrong! I was crouched in the dark, trying to keep myself from panicking. Two! That’s two now! Why do they keep pointlessly killing people? The Stygians weren’t like this; they only killed when they had to!

“You okay, partner?” Trick was standing over me, a distant cousin of concern in her eyes. She placed a kind hoof on my shoulder, and I twitched nervously.

I rose to my hooves, stepping out her reach. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said.

Picked walked over. “Ye still good fer the job?” he asked.

They’re just worried about the job. They don’t even care about me.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” I waved a hoof reassuringly. “It’s just… I wasn’t expecting you to just kill the guard.”

Trick cocked her head at me. She looked back to where the griffon lay curiously. “Wait, do you think we’re gonna do that to you?”

I scuffed at the floor nervously.

Pick laughed. “Please! We’re partners. We’d never betray a partner.”

“What about him?” I nodded my head at the corpse aggressively.

Trick shrugged. “He was an entry point, nothing more. Not a partner. A liability, if anything. Don’t worry, you’re safe with us.”

They walked away without another word. Apparently the matter was settled. I followed, hesitating by the griffon’s body. I cringed. She didn’t have to do that.

My ears twitched at a small, barely audible squeak above me. I looked up to see a familiar recusant closing a skylight panel behind him as he hovered beneath it. With a quick few flaps of his wings, Slick landed before us.

“Are we good?” he asked.

“We were just waiting on you,” Trick said.

He nodded. “Alright, great. Trick, we need two more boyfriends. Dissy, go with Pick.”

“My name is n- ugh, fine.” It doesn’t really matter anways.

I followed Pick as he walked towards the back of the warehouse. There was another room there, a smaller area in the corner sectioned off by a couple thick walls and an intimidating steel vault door.

Pick crouched before the door, pulling a small sheet of paper out of his collar. He looked to me expectantly. “Hey, kin I get some light over here?” he asked.

I walked closer, lighting up my horn for him. He squinted over his paper, mumbling to himself as he carefully rotated the a dial on the door. His ears twitched at the soft click that came from the other side, and he proceeded to the next part of the lock.

Within a few minutes, he had it cracked. The heavy door swung open ponderously, revealing the shiniest, most expensive collection of jewelry I had ever seen.

Three shelves lined the walls, with two more built in the middle of the room. Each one was crammed full of glittering gems. Sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, all the colors of the rare stone rainbow were represented.

“What does he do with all these?” I asked. I stepped into the room and spun around in awe, trying to take it all in.

“I dunno. E’s an arms dealer. I think ‘e uses ‘em for barter or investment or… something,” Pick said. “Help me unload these.”

Reaching into a small pocket on his shirt, he pulled out a carefully folded sack and shook it open. He looked to me expectantly.

“Oh, right.” The light brown magic of my horn was reflected a thousand-fold as I grabbed the gems, levitating them into the bag in groups of twos and threes. “Are these very valuable?”

He shot an appalled look at me. “Are ye stupid? They’re gemstones!”

“Well, yes, but you can find these practically everywhere in Equestria…” I trailed off, feeling like I was saying something completely stupid.

“Ye well, this inn’t Equestria.” He shook his head, muttering to himself. “Damn Equestrians…”

The bag was by then full to the brim with sparkling gems. He tied the top off and pulled out another. Once again, he held it open while I levitated our loot. With the help of my magic, we were able to fill six bags within twenty minutes.

“Okey, time to bail.” He grabbed a pair of bags and tied them together, sliding into them like a saddle. With visible strain evident on his face, he rose to his hooves and began to walk away. At the same time, I grabbed the remaining four bags with my magic, trying my best to keep them in one easy-to-manage bunch. They were heavy, and I almost couldn’t handle the load, but my horn had been strengthened from my time working the furnace under the Baron.

We made our way down the central path, stopping before the main entrance. Three large, wagon-sized doors waited in front of three similarly sized wagons. One of the wagons had a team of three wolves and a zebra strapped into its harness, with Trick slumped over the driver’s seat delicately.

Slick approached us, grinning. “Good! You got it. C’mon, load her up.” He grabbed one of Pick’s bags in his teeth, taking the weight off the tired recusant, and tossed it into the back of the wagon. Pick shoved his own bag in, and I levitated the remaining four in last.

I glanced over to the males strapped into the harness. “Who’re they?” I asked.

Trick looked back to grin at me. “Just my boyfriends,” she said. The wolves wagged their tails enthusiastically.

I bent my head closer to Slick. “Why are they helping us?” I whispered.

He grabbed me, pulling my eyes up to his. “You have no idea how good she is in bed.” He let go, leaving me off balance. I stumbled backwards, brow furrowed.

“How good could she be?” I asked.

“It’s my special talent, dearie,” the mare called back.

Slick tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, over here.” He led me to a stack of red barrels, labeled with yellow letters that spelled out CAUTION.

He pointed to them. “Get about ten or twenty of these. Put ‘em in the wagon. Then put five more in that garage over there.”

“Why do I have to do all the heavy lifting?”

“Because you’re not actually lifting anything.”

I followed his instructions, levitating some of the barrels into the back of the wagon and a few more into the garage area he had indicated, furthest from where our wagon was parked.

“Okay, you better get in the wagon,” Slick said. “This is where things get iffy.”

Pick held out a hoof to help me up, and I climbed into the back with him. It was a fairly large vehicle, designed for carrying trade goods across the Outer World. The deepest part of the wagon was dominated by the six brown sacks full of gems and the collection of red barrels. With the exception of a small space left for Trick to look back through, the entire back half of the wagon was full. My eyes widened as I noticed three crossbows piled together in one corner, next to a bucket full of bolts.

Pick grabbed one of the crossbows and loaded it, holding another out to me. “Here,” he said. “Ye’re gonna want one o’ these.”

I grabbed it in my magic, running a hoof through my mane. My heart was starting to speed up. What are we doing?

Slick hopped into the back of the wagon with us, pulling the tailgate closed. “Alright, everyone get ready,” he said. He grabbed the last crossbow and loaded it.

“Slick, what did you mean when you said things this is where things get iffy?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Well, I figured out how to get us in and how to get transportation, but this is about where I drew a blank.”

“What!?”

He leaned back, fidgeting with his crossbow. “Our escape plan goes something like this: drive this wagon out of the city. That’s it.”

“Oh, shit.” I sat down. My heart was pounding. Why couldn’t we stick to the first plan? The first plan was good! Sweet Celestia, save me!

Pick put a comforting hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, e’s better with plans ‘e makes up on the spot. Less subject ta sudden changes, ye’know?”

Cleaver woke up.

He reached out a hoof, blindly searching his end table until it closed around a fresh bottle of vodka. He sat up, popping the cork on the bottle, and took a deep, long drink.

He sighed with satisfaction as the bottle left his lips, and grabbed the little clock that had been next to it. Marvelous things, those clocks. Didn’t have those in Equestria. Little gears everywhere instead of the magical devices he was used to.

He squinted down at it, struggling through his morning stupor to work out the time. His eyes widened. The sun doesn’t rise for another hour! Why am I awake?

He shrugged and put it back in its place. He would take advantage of the unexpected early morning by making a large breakfast. Something nice. He wasn’t sure about what to make yet, though. He needed some thinking time. Some drinking time.

Holding the bottle with one hoof, he walked out of his room with the three-legged gait he’d perfected many years before. He came out in the hallway that connected the six crew quarters Ember had carved out of the airship’s interior. Taking another sip, he walked into the lounge and up the stairs into the navigation room. It had been some noise that had woken him, he was sure of it. But what was it?

He climbed up the ladder to the roof. The roof was a good place to think. Quiet, and just him, his drink, and the stars. A good place to come up with a breakfast meal. He squinted slightly at the edge of the airship. He couldn’t see the city from here, as it was blocked from his view by the ship’s body, but the light rising up from the settlement seemed wrong. Off, somehow.

He walked up to the railing and looked down. He cocked a brow and took a ponderous swig of his vodka.

“Hrm.”

Why is that building on fire?

“Luna save me!”

I was having trouble breathing. I had to calm down. Calm down! Now! Why couldn’t I calm down? Because you’re about to die!

I almost fell as the racing wagon hit another bump. The rickety banging of the wheels was overpowering. I could barely think. I pulled myself up and looked back at the warehouse, rapidly shrinking in the distance as a team of griffons splashed the newborn fire with buckets of water.

The wagon turned, and I rolled sideways, powerless to resist the inertia. Pick was crouched behind the tailgate, loading his crossbow. He beckoned to me, and I desperately crawled to his side.

“What’s happening?” I had to shout to be heard over the wheels.

“Get ready! They’ll be sending some teams ta chase us!” he yelled back.

“What?”

I was flipped over by a strong hoof, and found myself face-to-face with Slick. “You can lift those barrels, right?” he asked.

I nodded. In my current state, coherent speech was out of reach.

He grinned wildly, and I closed my eyes in terror. I recognized that grin. That was Silver’s grin. The grin he grinned when he was about to do something terribly, terribly stupid and he knew it.

I opened my eyes again as I was pulled violently to my hooves. Slick pointed to the back of the wagon, and I looked to see a pair of smaller, open-topped wagons behind us. One was pulled by a chained up bear, and the other by a team of zebra. Both of them were occupied by bloodthirsty griffons and wahrgoyles, weapons drawn as they howled for our blood.

“Throw one of the barrels at them!” he shouted.

Stricken with fear, I rushed to obey. I squinted, having some difficulty focusing amongst all the noise and movement, and levitated one of the red barrels to my side. With a heroic effort, I tossed it out the back of the wagon.

It hit the ground and bounced, spinning through the air as it flew for the chasing vehicles behind us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pick raise his crossbow, take aim, and fire.

Boom!

The barrel exploded as the bolt hit it, engulfing one of the wagons in fire and sending the other veering off to the side as half of the zebra pulling it were killed. I stared in shock at the carnage. I didn’t mean to do that! I didn’t want to kill them!

Slick pat me on the back. “Good job!”

I transferred my stare to him, mouth open. “Good job? I just killed ten people!”

He nodded, smiling. “Yeah, good one!”

I felt Pick’s hoof poking at me. I turned to face him, and he nodded up to the sky. I followed his gaze. A flight of six griffons was flying above us, ready to dive down upon us.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Shoot ‘em!”

I looked down at the crossbow in my hooves. I had almost forgotten it was there. I looked up and shook my head furiously. “No, it’ll kill them!”

“Thas the idea!” Pick fired a bolt up into the air. With a loud squawk, one of the griffons fell out of the air.

Slick shot his crossbow, but his aim was thrown off as the wagon hit another bump. “You gotta shoot ‘em, Dissy! It’s them or us!”

I dropped the crossbow, curling into a panicky fetal position. This isn’t right! I can’t shoot them! Why is this happening to me!? I ran my hooves through my mane over and over, trying to calm myself.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and Slick bent down to talk to me. “I’m sorry, partner, but you have to take life if you want to make your own. That’s how it works in the Outer World!”

I peeked an eye out from under my hooves. He was right. I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to accept it. The Outer World was changing me, and it was changing me too fast and too much. I have no choice. I have to do it.

Climbing to my hooves, I shook myself. I can do it. I’m not some weak Equestrian. I can survive. I grabbed the crossbow in my magic and shakily rose the sights to my eye. There was three griffons left, and they were closing fast. Any moment now, they would land on the wagon and tear it apart.

I pulled the trigger.

The crossbow didn’t have much kick, but nonetheless, it felt like I was shooting myself more than I was the griffon. I watched as the griffon tumbled out of the sky. I had killed him. Another life lost. What is one amongst two dozen? Plenty others had died tonight anyways. What does one more matter? I’ll take my place in the chaos.

Pick cheered as he and Slick killed the last two. “Good shot, Dissy!”

I turned on him. “My name is not Dissy! It is Dissero, for fucks sake!”

He backed off, shaking his hooves defensively. “Alright, alright, gee.”

“Your name’s not Dissy?” Slick asked. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I did!” I shouted. “I told you my name was Dissero the first time we met!”

He shook his head. “I didn’t hear you, sorry!”

“Then where did you get ‘Dissy’ from? Where did you get ‘Dissy’ from if you never heard me say ‘Dissero’?”

“I just thought you said Dissy, I’m sorry!”

Trick’s voice floated back to us from the front of the wagon. “You three stop arguing and get to fighting or I swear on Mother I will turn this thing around right now and we’ll all end up dead!”

We quieted down, each of us focusing on reloading our crossbows. A few mumbles drifted around, but nobody dared to challenge her out loud.

A few minutes later another wagon came onto our tail. We dispatched it just like we did the first two, with an explosive barrel and a crossbow bolt. I tried to not think of it as me killing them. I wasn’t the one shooting the bolt, after all. Every now and then another flight of griffons would appear from the fog, and I would help shoot them out of the sky. I tried aiming at their wings or legs, so as not to kill them, but I didn’t feel any better for it.

I didn’t like how easily I was shooting them, either.

The sun began to rise as we reached the outer perimeter of the city. We raced past the merc camps, and a few griffons stepped out of their tents to watch curiously. Thankfully, they didn’t try to catch us. It wasn’t their job. It wasn’t their place.

Slick dropped his crossbow and let out a wild whoop as we escaped the city. “We’re almost there! Once we get to the treeline and hide it there’s no way they’ll catch us!”

He and his brother shared an ecstatic hoof bump while I grinned weakly, breathing hard. I hated myself. I hated this world. I hated everything.

The trees engulfed us, and after another ten minutes the wagon rolled to a gentle stop. Slick and Pick hopped out, and I followed suit as they trotted to the front of the wagon.

The three recusant siblings embraced in celebration of their success, laughing. Trick turned to me.

“Hey, Dissero, you better head back to town. We’ll finish up here with hiding the cart and uh… tying up loose ends.” She winked at me as she said the last bit, nodding at the panting wolves and zebra that had pulled us throughout the chase.

I stepped closer. “What’re you gonna do with them?” I hissed.

She frowned. “You know what I’m gonna do. Same thing I do to all my boyfriends.” She lowered her voice. “We can’t let them snitch, or be caught. All the mercs in New have seen their faces.”

“Ugh! So why can I go back to town, then? Won’t they have seen me too?”

She shook her head, smiling. “Nah, you were in the back of the wagon. You had a black cloak on and were wearing that bandanna of yours. It was a foggy night. Nobody knows you.”

I closed my eyes, straining to keep calm. I didn’t want to break right in front of them. I had to fight the urge to fall to my knees and cry. How could I have killed so many?

“Fine,” I said. I turned back towards the city and began to walk away, ears down. I would head back to The Hub and take a nap. Or cry. Or maybe try my hoof at getting drunk. Whatever. Maybe Exe knew something that could help.

“Meet us at our hideout in a couple days!” Slick called after me. “There’s still a little more to be done before we’re finished!”

I heard him, but I didn’t respond. I walked on in silence, lost in thought. Colonel’s warning was coming true.

Ch. 14: Reunion

OmegaChapter 14: Reunion

As I trotted through the streets of New, heading for The Hub, my mind wrestled with the question of how to escape the Outer World. I definitely couldn’t stay in it. I didn’t belong in it. It was a land of murderers and despots and, despite my efforts to the contrary, I felt like I was turning into one of them, too.

I stopped in front of the tavern, still preserving the presence of mind to remember the disguise sewn into my cloak. Walking a few steps to a nearby alley, I pulled the black cloak off and tossed it into the ever-present mud. With a quick burst of magic, I ripped the badge and nametag away from my barding, dropping them with disgust.

Returning to the door, I raised a hoof and pushed my way through into the loud main room of the inn. This early, the usual din was somewhat subdued, but it was still far from quiet. As I walked, searching for an empty table, I overheard the patron’s gossip.

“You hear about that fire in Red?”

“Yeah, heard it was some kinda theft. Killed thirty guards!”

“No, that’s not it. The Baron’s mercs launched a raid. Whole forty griffons attacked that warehouse.”

“Either way, the Jackal’s furious. Heard he’s callin’ up a team to get revenge.”

Stopping at an unoccupied table against the wall, I pulled up a chair and sat down heavily. I ran a shaky hoof through my mane and untied my bandanna. Spreading it out on the table, I looked over the makeshift map of my homeland. I want to go home.

A zebra waitress walked by. I waved her down.

“Get me a drink. Triple-S.”

“Sure thing, hun.”

She returned a few minutes later, a tray carefully balanced on her back. With practiced ease, she grabbed one of the bottles she was carrying and placed it on the table. Stalliongrad Swan Song. Cleaver’s drink. She walked away without another word.

I eyed the bottle. Cleaver drank the stuff every day, and he always seemed fine. He always seemed happy. I levitated the bottle up for a closer look. I’m going to drink you for real this time.

“Finding yourself at a loss, Equestrian?”

I turned, glaring at the uninvited newcomer to my table. “What do you want, gargoyle?”

He drew back, eyes wide with mock shock. “Me? Gargoyle? Pleasse!” he scoffed. “I am no ssuch rabble!”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you, then?”

He stroked one of his long, pointed ears with a clawed hand. “I am a tsergoyle. The mosst noble and intelligent of the goyle casstess.”

I grunted noncommittally. I returned to my bottle, raising it to drink, but the tsergoyle swiftly reached out a hand and held it down. I fixed him with a menacing stare, furious at the interference.

He smiled, displaying an array of sharp, carnivorous teeth. “I assk again. What’s wrong, Equesstrian?”

I wrenched the bottle from his grasp. “What do you care?”

“Try me.”

Putting the bottle down, I sat back in the chair resignedly. “I’m just... not sure what to do with myself. I don’t belong here. I want to get home, but I’m not sure how to... and I don’t know if I’ll still be me when I do.”

The goyle nodded sagely, stroking his chin with one claw. “I think I may know what you need, pony. Advice. But not jusst any.”

With a flick of his wrist, a folded piece of parchment appeared in his hand. “I have in my possession a map. On the map iss directionss to find the hideout of a certain well-reputed sseer. Though sshe doessn’t ussually take requestss, I think that, conssidering your... position, sshe might make an exception.”

I considered his offer suspiciously. From what I knew, the Outer World wasn’t the type of place where one was simply approached with free opportunities like this.

“What’s in it for you?” I asked.

“Nothing, for now. I assk only that, sshould you be ssatissfied with what the sseer tells you, you agree to aid me later, sshould I have need of your sservicess.” He waved the map about tantalizingly.

“That seems too easy.”

He chuckled. “Ah, sstarting to losse the old Equesstrian trust? Well, don’t you worry, pony. A tsergoyle ssuch as mysself would never lie over a matter of business, and I ssee this agreement to be as binding as a written contract. If you’re not ssatissfied, you’ll never have to talk to me again. If you are, and you jusst happen to be around when I need help, then I assk only that you return the favor.”

He stood up, leaving the map on the table. “I can ssee you ssusspect I am playing you. Don’t worry, pony, there iss no deception at play here. I am merely expanding my assetss. Tell me, what’ss your name?”

I kept my eyes fixed on the folded up map. “Dissero.”

“Ahh, interessting. Dissero. Well, Dissero, my name is Drizlyn.” He bent down into a quick bow. “I think I’ll leave my map with you. If we cross pathss again, I do hope you’ll be willing to help me out.”

He turned on his heel and walked away, giving me no opportunity to respond. I watched in silence as he pushed his way through the crowd and out of the building, disconcerted by his strange bipedal gait.

It didn’t take me long to grab the map and pull it over to my side of the table. I unfolded it, scanning its contents with the trained eye of a pony who, several years ago, was the best student in his cartography class at the Academy.

Unfortunately, the map didn’t cover a very large region. Worse yet, I couldn’t find any sort of compass on it. It was centered on a large city, built just to the side of a mountain range and a large lake. In the mountains there was a thick black X, which I figured marked the location of this supposed seer.

“Harvest City.” I mumbled the name under my breath as I read. If I got to Harvest City, I could find the seer and ask her what to do. If she was as good as that tsergoyle had said, then I might actually have a chance at finding my crew and getting back to Equestria. I didn’t like the idea of striking out on an adventure to some unknown city so I could pin all my hopes on some mysterious seer, especially in a world where everyone has some ulterior motive, but it was all I had. It was better than nothing. I couldn’t just mope around and drink vodka.

I glanced at the bottle before me. The map had spurred the explorer within me, and the sense of being so absolutely lost was starting to fade now that I had a more concrete goal.

Still, I didn’t feel any better about all the killing I had done last night.

Grabbing the bottle in my magic, I took a shallow sip as I rose from my chair. It burned as it went down, but the gentle warmth it brought on did wonders for my anxiety. I felt myself relax as my worries started to slip away, and I raised it to my lips for another, longer drink. I smiled. Yeah, that feels good.

I tucked the map into the collar on my barding and headed for the stairs, resolved to enjoy the drink in the relative solitude of my room. I would feel better after a good nap.

Ω Ω Ω

“Ah, Dissero. Welcome. Please, take a seat.”

I take a few steps forwards, nervously sitting in the expensive wooden chair before me. Through the wall I hear the quiet ambience of the administrative building. I squint briefly as bright sunlight leaks through the tall window on the far side of the room, eyeing the banner above it that dominates the room.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

He leans forwards, pushing a few papers around with his hooves. “Yes. Now, Dissero, I’m sure you know that the Royal Aerial Academy is the most prestigious aerial college in Equestria, yes?”

I gulp. I know where this conversation is going, but I don’t want to admit it to myself. “Yes, sir.”

“And you know that we keep that reputation by enforcing only the most stringent of performance requirements amongst our students, yes?”

I feel myself starting to tremble. My life is falling down around me. “Yes, sir.”

“And you’re aware of the current... state... of your grades? Of your academic probation which started last semester?”

I hang my head and try to hold back the tears. “Yes, sir.”

“Well, Dissero... how can I say this? You simply aren’t holding up to the standards which the Academy sets for its students. I’ve been looking over your scores, and you just don’t seem to be up to it. I’m sorry, son, but... it’s just not working out.”

A choked sob escapes my mouth, and I struggle to keep it all in. “I can do it, sir. I swear. I know I can. If you’ll just give me another chance, I can—”

He shakes his head somberly. “I’m sorry, son. I’ve given you all the chances I can. This school has rules, and I have to enforce them.”

My vision blurs as my dreams begin to shrivel up. The future before me fadesaway. “But sir, you don’t understand, you have to let me stay! M-my father, and my grandfather, t-they both—they both—”

“There’s nothing I can do for you anymore, Dissero. Every lineage has to end somewhere. You just aren’t cut out for this school.”

He takes his stamp and pushes it onto one of the papers before him. He hoofs it to me, and I force myself to take it. I hold the letter that spells my failure and fight the urge to crumple it up. To tear it apart. To shout and scream and cry until I get my way. I had known it was coming. I had known, I just hadn’t wanted to admit it.

I stumble out of the chair and run out of the office, leaving the administration building at a half-gallop, half-trot pace. The double doors of the Royal Aerial Academy close behind me, and I break out into a full gallop, racing across the green surface of the floating island. Wide shadows cross my path as the Academy’s airships fly above me. The tears flow freely now.

I come to a stop under a lonely tree, falling to my knees and curling up into a little ball. All those years of hard work. An entire foalhood dreaming of getting into the Academy. The pride in my father’s eyes when I brought my acceptance letter into our home. A lifetime planning out my future in the Princess’s Royal Air Force.

What had it all come out to?

Failure.

Ω Ω Ω

Perhaps drinking a bottle of vodka and then falling asleep hadn’t been the wisest of decisions.

My head was pounding. My tongue retained all the humidity of dry sand. My bladder was bursting. My bed was not nearly as comfortable as it had been when I fell asleep. The alcohol may have helped me with some of my problems, but one of the unwelcome side effects was the addition of new ones.

I groaned, opening my eyes as I rolled over. Thankfully, it was nighttime. I was greeted by not the harsh white glare of the sun, but instead the gentle yellow glow of candles. My head hung limply off the side of the bed, and I focused in on a bucket on the floor beneath me.

Water.

I fell off the bed, somehow managing to not tip the bucket over and spill its precious contents. I climbed to my hooves, stopping momentarily to rest on the edge of the bed before dunking my muzzle into the bucket and drinking the warm water within in one long sip.

The bucket tipped over as I lifted my head, scanning the room like a starving stallion stumbling into an oasis. Exe was sitting before the window calmly, looking out into the street. His axe was lying on his bed where it had been before, and my saddlebags lay haphazardly at the foot of my own bed, contents strewn about chaotically.

“How long was I asleep?” I asked. I didn’t want to miss my meeting with the recusants. I had helped them, and I was expecting to get some kind of share for my efforts.

“About seven hours,” the bear said.

I relaxed, falling back onto the bed. My stomach rumbled, but I wasn’t in the mood for eating anything. Half an hour passed in silence.

“Aren’t you gonna ask where I was?”

“I’m not your mate, pony. Where you spend your nights is of no concern to me.”

I cocked an eyebrow at the ceiling. “But aren’t you my guide, or something?”

"I said I would help you find your crew. I have no advice as to how.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “Do you know where Harvest City is?”

“Of course,” he scoffed. “Is that where you intend to go?”

I nodded, even though I doubted he was looking at me. “Yes. But first I need to take care of some business in New. Would you be ready to travel with me in a couple days?”

He grunted. “I think we may need to leave sooner than that.”

“Why?” “Didn’t you say you used to be a slave for the Baron?” “Yes…” He narrowed his eyes at something in the street, a soft growl rising from his throat. “Let’s go downstairs.” He grabbed his axe, slipping it into his sheath before walking out the door. I hesitated, confused, and followed him down the stairs to the main room. It was unusually quiet, despite being just as full as it always was. Exe paused to raise his hood before taking a silent position at the bottom of the stairs, and I stopped behind him. Straining to see over his sizeable girth, I saw the patrons all focused on a group of three ponies standing in the center of the room. They weren’t like any ponies I had seen before, in Equestria or the Outer World. They each wore heavy steel barding, stained with the marks of several battles. Rune guns were strapped onto their backs, with packs of bullets hanging beneath the swords and shields on their sides. “Have I got your attention yet?” one of them roared. He kicked a small pile of guts by his hooves, and I noticed the five griffon corpses lying in puddles of blood around him. Nobody in the inn dared to challenge him. He had a single grey wing extended, the blade attached to his feathers dripping blood. Silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of the red drops breaking against the wood as he scanned the crowd with hard bronze eyes. “Listen up this time! I’m here to spread news, not kill you.” “My name is Ashfall,” the pegasus said. “I am here as the direct representative of the Baron. Anything I do is done with his blessing. If you question me, you are questioning the Baron, and I will strike you down just as quickly as he would.” He paused, daring any brave souls present to challenge him. Exe locked eyes with Sinnel, who was trying to remain unnoticed behind the bar, and they exchanged a brief nod. “The Baron has recently had something stolen from him. Something precious. It was taken by a group of escaped slaves, and I am here to bring it back. My search begins here. You’re going to help me.” I heard a small noise by my side, and glanced down to see Sinnel standing with his back to the stairs. He was holding a key in an upturned palm, shaking it gently to get my attention. Ashfall nodded to the unicorn standing beside him, and he levitated a rolled up sheet of parchment above the crowd. With a flourish of magic, the scroll opened itself, revealing a carefully sketched picture of an airship. Ah, fuck. “If any of you have any knowledge of this ship, you will come to me immediately. If your tip proves fruitful, you shall be rewarded! Whether you want for gold, trade, or power, the Baron will deliver!” The unicorn walked up to the message board hanging near one of the hearths, grabbing a nearby hammer and some nails. The room watched in silence as he pounded the nails into the cork, pinning the image of the Omega up for all to see. I bent down, using the banging of the hammer as cover while I fumbled for the key with a hoof, afraid that magic would give me away. He probably knows all the unicorns that are supposed to be outside Equestria. Each strike of the hammer felt like another nail in my coffin. With another swipe, I grabbed the key, quickly tucking it away in my mane. I nudged Exe with a hoof, and he glanced back to nod his acknowledgement. The crowd was pushing closer to the message board now, muttering amongst themselves. Exe and I were beginning up the stairs, quietly slipping away, when one of the patron’s rose his voice. “Hey, I know that ship!” I froze, looking back. A wolf had stepped forwards. “I recognize that ship. It docks in New, at the Jackal’s tower.” Ashfall smiled, and I felt a chill. The expression didn’t reach his eyes. “Is it there now?” he asked. The wolf shrugged. “I’m not sure. If not, it will be!” The grey pegasus nodded, putting a wing on the wolf’s shoulder and guiding him to the door. They began to speak, and the wolf’s tail started wagging happily. I slid closer to Exe. “We need to get to that tower, now!” I hissed. “I presume you think your crew to be there?” “Yes! We have to get to them before the Baron!” I levitated the key before my eyes. “What does this key do?” “It leads to the Out Tunnels,” he said. “Meet me out back.” I nodded, trotting for the door. Exe headed for the bar, and I overheard him exchanging a few words with Sinnel. “How much for the room?” he asked. “Half off for you, old friend. Go redeem yourself,” the innkeeper replied. The door closed behind me. I paced nervously in the streets, looking up to the Baron’s skydock. There were a few more ships than usual floating around it, silhouetted by the moonlight. I switched my gaze to the Jackal’s district, searching for a familiar shape under its red flag. There! I wasn’t sure how to feel about the sight of the Omega tied to one of the piers. I had found my crew, but so had the Baron. How have I not seen that ship until now? Exe emerged from the inn, beckoning to me with his head as he made for the alleys. I sighed. I hate the alleys. “So what are these Out Tunnels?” I asked, coming up to his side. He pointed at a heavy metal door built into the side of The Hub. “It’s dangerous owning an inn or tavern in New. They’re burnt down often, and innkeepers are often subject to interrogation by the factions in this city. They’ve all built a system of tunnels under the city, to flee to other inns when they’re in danger.” He smirked. “I hear they also play cards there.” I slipped the key into its slot, triggering a loud click. I pushed, and the door creaked open to reveal a staircase, descending down into shadow. Exe pushed me forwards, closing the door behind us and engulfing us in darkness. Lighting the way with my horn, I led us down the stairs. “Why are they called the Out Tunnels? Do they lead out of the city?” He snorted. “No, unicorn. They lead to other inns and taverns across New. They call it the Out Tunnels because they thought it would be too obvious if they called them the Inn Tunnels.” I spent a few seconds working that out. We arrived at the bottom of the staircase, coming out onto a circular room with crude stone halls stretched off in every direction. There were signs nailed to each path, but the writing on them appeared to be in some kind of code. I looked to Exe hopefully. “Can you read these?” “Don’t worry,” Exe said. “I know how to read Sinnel’s atrocious scribblings.” He started down one of the tunnels, and I followed. With the exception of my horn, there weren’t any light sources to be seen. It was pitch-black ahead of us, and pitch-black behind us. I found myself walking close to Exe, eyeing the shadows nervously. The only sound was the scrape of claws and clop of hooves. Nothing to see and nothing to hear. It was enough to make one doubt their very existence. We came out to another crossroads. The signs here were written in the same code as the last ones. After a quick glance at the signs, we plunged back into the dark. We passed through several more crossroads, each time taking a path just as dark and silent as the one before it. I had no idea where we were relative to The Hub. I felt the paths sloping down and up, but in the infinite dark of the tunnels it was difficult to perceive any concept of direction at all. It was just walking. We stopped in another of the dim underground chambers. I waited patiently for Exe to lead the way down another path, but he just stood in the center of the room, squinting at the signs.

“Are we lost?” I asked.

“No. We’re here.” He started up a rickety ladder leaning against the wall, and I followed. We came out in a small stone construct, with nothing in it but a single door.

I squinted against the light filtering through a large crack in the wall. After so long with nothing but hornlight to see by, my eyes were almost painfully sensitive. “Where are we?” “The Jackal’s District. We should be close to his main tower,” Exe replied. He pushed through the door, and we found ourselves in the middle of a narrow street. I peered up, raising a hoof to block the rising sun, and spotted the Omega. It was on one of the higher levels, floating between two larger airships. Merchant ships, no doubt. “How do we get up?” “We walk.” Exe pulled up his hood. “Stop fidgeting.” I obeyed as best as I could, stifling my nervous energy while we turned a corner and headed down the street. The city was drastically different so close to a major skydock. Aging wood apartments and thrown-together shacks were replaced with stone palaces and marble statues. Tight alleyways draped in shadow had been forsaken for open plazas, the sun shining on the wealthy merchants who made their home here. The silky robes and elaborate dresses of the rich made a stark contrast against the worn leather armor and weaponry that was the norm in the rest of the city. “I’ve never been close to one of the skydocks before,” I said. “It’s different from the rest of the city.” Exe grunted. “Many people come to this city in search of quick riches off West Coast trade. Few of them succeed. These extravagant homes are displays of wealth from the rich, right under the towers that their gold flows through. Everyone else lives in their shadow.” “Hrm.” I scanned the crowd. There wasn’t a blade in sight. “They seem more civilized here.” “Don’t believe the show, unicorn. This place is just as dangerous as the wilderness. The only difference is the means of your death.” He stopped, pausing to eye the tower ahead of us. A gargoyle and a zebra sat to either side of the gate, two additional guards on each side of it ensuring that nobody broke through without permission. “Let me handle the talking,” Exe said. He took a step forwards. Suddenly, a familiar grey pegasus landed a few feet away from the gate, a black cape now adorning his armor. He pulled a scroll out from under a wing, hailing the tower’s guards as several black-clad griffons landed behind him. “Shit!” I hissed. “He got here first.” Exe grunted. I looked up to him expectantly, but to no avail. He stood there silently, eyeing the griffons thoughtfully. He grinned. “Luckily for us, unicorn, it seems the Baron’s pegasus has decided to try and take your crew by surprise.” He scraped a few claws against the road. “How is that lucky for us?” “It means that, should we warn you crew, we would be able to escape before that pegasus can get back to his own ship, which is no doubt tied to the Baron’s tower.” “But they’re ahead of us.” “Yes, they are, aren’t they?” He grinned. “I suppose we’ll just have to fight our way through, then.” I blinked. “What?” “To battle!” he roared. His claws scraped against the stone as he sprinted forwards, charging for the freshly alerted group of griffons scrambling to form a defensive line. They were too slow. He slammed into the mercs, bowling them over as he tore at them with his claws. With a quick lunge of his teeth and a pull, a griffon’s head went soaring through the air to land at my feet. My mouth fell open. Exe stood, rising up to balance on his hind legs as he pulled his axe out of its sheath. Two of the griffons launched themselves at him, and he swept them both aside with a single swing. Blood spurted onto his face as he turned to face me. “Go, unicorn! I will follow!” I jumped into action, drawing my two swords as I galloped for the gate. Two of the gargoyles that had been guarding it stepped in front of me, brandishing their halberds. I narrowed my eyes. I won’t let you stop me. Kill or be killed. They weren’t used to fighting unicorns. They had their blades pointed at my chest, which made it easy for me to reach out and slit both of their necks. They grabbed at their wounds, dropping their weapons as they fell over, and I leapt over their squirming bodies. Now inside the gate, I sprinted for the lift built into the center of the tower. The zebra clerk occupying the desk in front of it drew a dagger, holding it shakily in his teeth. I easily shoved him aside, skidding to a stop on the lift. “Exe!” I called. “Patience, unicorn!” The bear tossed a griffon off his back, twisting around and chopping the merc in half before he hit the ground. Sliding his axe into its sheath, he fell back to all fours and ran for the lift. “Up, mongrels!” Ashfall barked. “Kill them!” I slammed the lift’s gate closed, smacking the lever on its control panel forwards. With a strained groan, the lift began climbing up the tower. I sighed in relief, leaning against one of the railings. “Fool!” Exe snapped, causing me to jump. “What are you doing relaxing? They have wings!” A trio of griffons swooped over us, wingblades extended as they wove through the skeletal structure of the tower. I ducked, and Exe reached up with a claw. One of the griffons squawked in pain, losing control and slamming into a steel beam with a sickening crunch. Four more landed on the lift with us, accompanied by Ashfall. “You four get the bear! I’ll handle the pony!” he snarled. My eyes widened as he pounced for me, and I just barely rolled out of the way of the claws strapped to his hooves. “You’re one of those slaves, aren’t you?” I raised my swords, clumsily parrying the flurry of steel claws reaching for my face. “Leave my crew alone! We just want to be left alone!” He spun, sweeping me off my hooves with an outstretched wing. “You stole my ship! That ship was supposed to be mine!” My horn glowed as I grabbed one of his hooves in my magical grasp, desperately pushing it away as he strained to slide a claw into my face. “We needed that ship to escape!” He roared as he put all his weight into the claw, and I just barely managed to shove it aside. I rolled away as he struggled to pull it out of the metal surface of the lift, bouncing back to my feet and grabbing my swords. I took advantage of his temporary immobility, raising my swords to stab them into his spine. He twisted out of the way, using his wings to evade the attack and pull the claw out at the same time. Scowling, he glanced to the side. Exe was standing on his hind legs, a single bloodied griffon held in his claws. Another griffon was crawling limply for the edge of the lift, axe buried in his back. The other two mercs were scattered around the lift in various states of dismemberment. The griffon screeched as he was ripped apart. I staggered, catching myself on the railing. So much…blood. “Fuck!” I looked back to Ashfall, eyes wide. With one final scowl, he turned and leapt off the lift. With a few flaps of his wings, he swept through the tower’s structure and began flying for the Baron’s skydock. Exe came to my side, offering a red paw. “You okay, unicorn?” I grabbed it, allowing myself to be pulled to my hooves. “Just a… a lot of…” I trailed off, dazed. He looked up and walked to the control panel, pulling the lever back into the neutral position. "I believe we’re here,” he said. I turned around. A wide circular platform surrounded the lift, with thick metal piers jutting out into the sky. Twenty airships floated on this level, gently swaying in the wind, held in place only by the thick ropes tying them to the piers and the ship-sized balloons they rested upon. I focused in on one ship in particular. For a few seconds the bloody mess behind me faded away as the sight of the Omega, finally back within my hoof’s reach, brought a smile to my face.

The single wolf standing on the platform glanced over us idly. He looked away. He looked back, eyes wide as he took in the body parts scattered around the lift and the blood dripping from Exe’s fur.

I took a step off the lift, heading for the Omega. The wolf shrunk down, whining as he cowered in the shadow of a heavy trade ship.

Stopping before the hatch, I raised a hoof and knocked. Exe’s heavy steps came to a lumbering halt behind me as I waited. Looking down, I suddenly noticed the blood sticking to me and hastily tried to wipe it off with an equally bloodstained hoof.

I heard the hatch opening, and looked back up to offer a wide smile.

My face screwed up with surprise.

What the fu-

Ch. 15: Alpha Wolf

Omega

Chapter 15: Alpha Wolf

My ears rang. The world was nothing but searing, bright, white. My eyes burned. My head hurt. I felt nauseous. I couldn’t tell which way was up, or down, or which way was even a direction at all.

“Dissero!”

A faint call reached through the ringing. The white began to fade. The world was visible once more. The wind rustled my mane as I stared blindly at the entirety of New, stretching beneath me. With a stab of vertigo, I realized that my head was hanging off the pier.

“Ahh!” I pushed myself away from the ledge and rolled onto my back as quickly as I could, breathing hard.

A pair of silver eyes looked down into mine. I smiled weakly.

“Hello, Silver.”

He was grinning wider than the day he got banned from the Academy. “Dissy! You’re alive!” He pulled me off the floor and into a tight embrace. “I’m so glad you’re alive!”

I pushed him away. “Silver, I’m glad to see you too, but this isn’t the time. Is the crew in the ship?”

He frowned. “Diss, why are you covered in blood?”

“We need to get out of this city.” Ignoring his question, I glanced to the Baron’s tower. None of the ships had moved yet. “Come on.”

I began to stumble into the ship, but he didn’t follow. I turned back. He was still outside.

“Dissy,” he nodded his head at Exe. “What’s up with the bear?”

“Don’t worry about him, he’s with me.” We don’t have time for this!

Silver shrugged and stepped into the ship. “Sorry for almost shooting you with lightning,” he said. “I didn’t recognize you with all the blood.” Exe poked his head inside ponderously before entering the airship.

Shutting the hatch with my magic, I began to lead the way up the stairwell. “Yeah, no problem. Wait, lightning- no, I’ll ask later. Get up to the cockpit, we gotta get out of here.”

I stepped into the engine room as Silver rushed past. Stormslider was there, standing before the large glass tube full of swirling thunderclouds that powered the ship. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of me.

“Dissero?” She rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “Is that really you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s me. How’s the engine?”

She cocked her head curiously. “Well, it’s running. How did you survive the fall?” She frowned. “You’re covered in blood... why is there a bear behind you?”

Is everyone going to bring that up? “Don’t worry about the bear. Or the blood. Get the engine revved up, we’re gonna need it.”

I left her without another word, ascending the stairs two at a time. Reaching the lounge floor landing, I galloped out of the stairway and crashed into Phoenix Down.

“Oh! Dissy! Silver told me you were alive and- “ She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes passing over my blood-soaked coat. They focused on something behind me. The beginnings of a shriek took form in her throat.

I covered her mouth with a hoof. “The bear is with me!” I hissed. She flinched, and I did my best to soften my voice. “Nice to see you again! Can’t talk now! Gotta go!”

Picking myself up, I stepped over her and into the lounge. Ember was there, waiting patiently. She locked eyes with me, stepping forwards aggressively.

“What do you think you’re doing barging in here and talking about leaving this city? You’re not the captain anymore, don’t you understand? You can’t just- “ She flinched, eyeing something behind me nervously.

Oh my sweet fucking Celestia. “The bear is with me!” I roared. “Please, we do not have time for this shit!”

Ashfall had realized several moments ago that he was coming in too fast. Landing on a small target like the deck of his airship required precision and patience, but he wasn’t about to slow down; he was on a schedule. And he was running late.

He slammed into the deck, digging in with the claws strapped to his hooves. Still, he skidded and bounced across the entire length of the ship. If not for the claws, he would’ve fallen clean off the opposite side.

He shook himself, glaring at the prototype ship the slaves had stolen. Take my ship, will you? A crewpony opened the hatch that led down into the ship and was promptly rewarded by a kick to the face. Ashfall jumped down the hatch, ignoring the earth pony moaning next to the deck ladder. He had no time for such courtesies. The pony had been in his way.

“Battlestations! To your battlestations!” he barked, the ping, ping, ping of his claws echoing down the halls. The Alpha Wolf was at least twice as big as the stolen prototype, and was outfitted with ship-to-ship cannons, redundant vital systems, and barracks capable of holding a full platoon of the Baron’s soldiers. As such, it took him five minutes longer than he would have liked to storm all the way to the command room.

Luckily for them, his officers were already on station by the time he burst in and took his position on the raised dais in the middle of the room.

“Cut the moorings! Prepare the cannons! The slaves have been alerted to our presence!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir!” The three officers before him immediately began to distribute his orders throughout the ship, speaking into the brass tubes before them. The pound of well-trained hooves leaked through the walls as his crew scrambled to follow his orders.

Ashfall pulled a slip of paper out of his barding. He scanned it briefly, reviewing its contents. “Messenger!”

A lightweight pegasus appeared before him, trembling. Ashfall waved the paper before his muzzle, careful not to cut anything open with the claws. “Take this to the Eagle’s Shadow. Now.” The messenger saluted, grabbing the message in his mouth, and flew out of the bridge.

The ship gave a sudden lurch as it pulled away from the pier. Ashfall wasted no time. “Fire upon the prototype!”

His officers paused in their order giving. One of them turned to him, eyes wary. “But sir, the Baron said-”

“I don’t care what he said!” His claws clicked upon the floor impatiently. “Those slaves stole my ship! Shoot them!”

“But the prototype, sir, the shields-”

“They’re slaves!” he roared. “They don’t know the slightest thing about that ship! Now shoot them or I swear I will gut you right here and now!”

The officer was sweating. He gave Ashfall a sloppy salute before turning back to his station.

The grey pegasus sat down, claws scraping against each other as he brooded. He had a schedule. And he was running late.

I practically jumped up onto the navigation floor, propelled by a mixture of self-preservation and annoyance. Cleaver was there, leaning against the wall just outside the cockpit with a bottle in hoof. He raised it in greetings.

“Hello, Kaptain.”

I waited. Exe’s heavy steps announced his arrival on the navigation floor. My teeth ground with the built-up annoyance attainable only during times of crisis. I looked to Cleaver, mentally daring him to-

“Hello, Kaptain’s bear-friend.” He waved nonchalantly and took a swig of vodka.

A great sense of relief came over me. I almost smiled. I could have kissed the cook just then, if it wasn’t for the pressing need for time. And for my sexual alignment.

“Hey, Cleaver. Get Ember’s help and untie the moorings,” I said. He nodded. Trotting past him into the cockpit, I found Silver grunting as he pulled on a chain near the back of the room.

“Now what’s this you’re saying about leaving?” he asked.

I glanced towards the Baron’s tower. “We need to get away from here. The Baron’s sent ponies after us and-”

Oh, shit. One of the new ships hovering around the Baron’s tower was moving. Pulling away from the pier, turning, presenting its side to us...

Silver waved a hoof in front of me. “Oy, Dissy, you there?”

A series of distant bangs sounded out. I grabbed Silver and shoved my face into his. “The Baron’s ponies are here and we need to leave now!”

“Did you hear that?”

Ember scanned the five towers of New as she held the hatch open for Cleaver. She could’ve sworn she had heard something.

Cleaver shook his head. Ember shrugged and joined him in the task of untying the heavy chains that moored the Omega to the skydock. There should have been dock workers here to help, but for some reason there wasn’t a single one to be seen.

And then, with an ear-splitting screech, a cannonball ricocheted off the pier, right next her hooves.

“Ahh, what the fuck!” She practically jumped off the pier in her surprise. Two more cannonballs smacked into the side of the pier, bursting into flame upon impact.

“Cleaver, hurry!” Ember called. A dozen more of the deadly iron lumps soared past the ship, trailing fire and purple magic. Metallic pings rang through the air as she and Cleaver scrambled to release the moorings. She looked around frantically. A wolf was cowering in the shadow of one of the ships next to them.

“You!” Ember roared. “Get over here and help us!”

The wolf slinked away, whining, and was promptly turned into a red streak by a passing cannonball. Ember cursed. Fuck this shit!

She ran back to the hatch. “Cleaver, c’mon!”

The cook put down the chain he had been frantically pulling upon to protest. “We have not unmoored the ship yet!”

She was halfway inside now. “Just get the fuck in here! I’ll blow the chains off!”

Cleaver hesitated, nodded, and galloped for the hatch. As he leapt inside, another volley of cannonballs zoomed past. Several of them hit the pier they were tied to, spilling magic fire over the skydock. A loud metal groan filled the air as the structure started to sag.

Ember poked her head outside, eyes narrowed against the heat. Her horn glowed, and the seven chains attaching them to the pier burst into flame. She ducked back inside as a cannonball ricocheted off the edge of the hatch.

“Fuckin’- Cleaver! Tell Silver that we’re having some trouble here!”

“Go! Why aren’t we going?”

The Omega rumbled as more cannonballs slammed into the hull. I gritted my teeth. We’re a sitting duck here!

Silver stomped a hoof in frustration. “They haven’t unmoored us yet! I can’t leave while we’re still tied to the pier!”

Cleaver poked his head into the cockpit, panting. “The moorings are tough. We are having trouble getting them off with all the shooting.”

Silver cursed. I turned to Cleaver. “Well have you made any progress?”

He shrugged. “Mechanic has set them on fire.”

A dark orange hoof pulled me back. “Go tell Storm I’m gonna need some juice,” Silver said. “I’ve got a plan.”

Cleaver nodded and ran out of the cockpit. My heart went out to him. “We really need to get a better communication system,” I said.

Silver was at the front of the cockpit, hoof waiting intently on a slider labeled ‘Throttle’. He was staring at a gauge next to it, not even flinching as another volley of cannonfire sounded.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He fixed me with a dangerous look. In the background, the sound of the engine roared louder. He flicked his goggles down over his eyes.

“This is my plan,” he said.

He pushed the slider all the way forwards.

Fucking Silver!

Ember held on for dear life as the ship began to shake madly. Her fire had only burnt through one of the moorings so far, melting the chain at its midpoint, but the other six didn’t look like they were in any hurry to follow suit.

And now she was hanging out the hatch of the ship, having been tossed out by a sudden jolt.

“Cleaver!” she screamed. She lunged forwards and pulled herself in a little bit. She heard one of the chains snap. Is that fool trying to leave with the moorings still attached? She shrieked as a hoof slipped.

A deafening metal groan filled the air, coming from somewhere behind her. She heard the engines roaring, crying out, begging for rest. The ship lurched. It was still for one brief instant.

With an ear-splitting crack!, the skydock itself leaned to one side.

Another volley of cannon fire soared past. Some of them hit the tower, coating it in fire.

Ember’s ears hurt. The metal was being stretched to its limit. She could barely stand the noise. The constant, high-pitched screech of breaking steel, going on and on and on. The sound built up to a crescendo of pain, layered on top of the crackling of the flames.

Silence. Ember’s stomach lurched as the airship burst into movement. Her hooves slipped. She opened her mouth to scream.

A clawed paw tightened around her hoof. She looked up, still screaming. The claws dug into her coat, piercing her skin as they hauled her up, back into the ship.

She collapsed onto the comforting cold metal floor of the Omega, shaking. She shut her eyes tight, cradling her injured hoof, and resisted the urge to vomit. The quiet click of claws approached her.

“Are you well, unicorn?”

Ember opened her eyes and looked up. At the bear who had saved her. “Y-yeah... Thanks.”

He nodded, closing the hatch, and began up the stairwell. Ember picked herself up, still shaking, and tried to pull herself together.

“Fucking Silver...”

“Yeehaw!” Silver’s hoof pumped the air ecstatically as the Omega finally broke free of the skydock.

I stumbled. The balance of the airship felt off, as it was leaning to one side. “Silver, what did you just do?”

“Not sure,” he said, keeping his focus on flying the ship. “I was trying to break the chains mooring us, but I think I may have just broken the pier we were moored to.”

The ship turned, and the Jackal’s skydock came into view. The top part was wreathed in flames, leaning dangerously to one side. Several airships were struggling to break free of the wreck and escape from the inferno, causing it to teeter even more. Some were dangling beneath it, balloons popped. A raging inferno had taken root near the base of the dock, where one of the airships had fallen and crashed into the city.

“Well, shit.” I looked back to Silver, who was gazing open-mouthed at the destruction. “Get us out of here, Silver!”

He shook his head in disbelief. “Damn, this ship is even more awesome than I thought.”

The ship rocked as a volley of cannonfire hit us. “Silver!” I shouted.

“Alright, alright!” The Omega picked up speed, heading east. “Guess I’m not paying my tab here, then.”

Ember burst into the cockpit, eyes wild, practically foaming at the mouth with rage. “You bastard!” She lunged, grabbing Silver and pinning him to the floor.

“Hey, get off!” His hooves and wing flapped about uselessly as she screamed at him.

“You could’ve fucking killed me, you cocky bastard! I was still trying to get those fucking chains off and you go off and start trying to fucking rip them out? What the fuck! What the actual fu-”

I shoved her off of him. “Ember! Calm down!”

She glared at me, breathing hard. I glared at her, mouth set in a firm line. “Silver, get us out of here,” I said.

The pilot complied quickly, leaping to his hooves. I locked eyes with Ember, silent, as the airship rocked into motion. Gradually, her breathing slowed. She pushed past me and stomped away.

“What the fuck!” Ashfall exclaimed.

His officers jumped in surprise. “Sir, the prototype has broken free of-”

“Yes, yes! I know!” he interrupted. “What are you waiting for? After them! And you!” He trained his hoof on the officer in charge of the weapons. “What are you doing, pussyhoofing around with the smallest cannons we have?”

The officer looked like he was about ready to have a heart attack. “Sir, the Baron said not to harm the-”

“I, already, fucking, told you! I don’t care about that!” With each word, his claws slammed into the ground. “Fire everything!”

Ember stormed through the Omega, into her quarters, and slammed the door shut. A small part of her whispered that this was not the time to throw temper tantrums. The rest of her told it to shut up.

“Fucking, Silver! And Dissero! Fucking, fuck fuck fuck!” I don’t get any respect in this damn ship! She swept a hoof over her worktable, knocking a few mechanical knicknacks onto the floor. I’m the one that kept them alive! And now he’s back and he’s brought the Baron upon us and they all go right back to him! “Fuck!”

She paused. That had sounded like more cannons, but different. It was louder. A decidedly stronger blast.

The wall burst inwards and deposited a ball of roughly hewn iron onto her bed. She glared at it with the burning hatred of a thousand suns. The intricate white runes drawn onto its surface began to glow purple.

In an instant she had knocked over her worktable and crouched behind it. With a loud pop!, the ball shattered. She flinched as dozens of sharp pieces of shrapnel peppered the walls of her room and slammed against her makeshift cover.

Her ears twitched at the sound of the engine straining. The hull screeching as it was pounded with cannonfire. The ripping of the metal as the rune-enchanted weaponry shattered into deadly shards. She felt its pain. Her ship needed her. And she was going to need some help.

She grabbed her toolbelt and magboots, galloping out into the lounge. Cleaver was there, looking out a window. The bear was there too, calmly staring straight-ahead.

“Cleaver!” she barked. “Come on, we need to keep the ship together!”

“This isn’t working!” Ashfall exclaimed. “Send a landing party!”

One of his officers looked up. “The Baron’s troops, sir?”

Ashfall scoffed. “They aren’t needed here, no. Send the mercs instead. I’m sure even those degenerates can handle it.”

“Yes, sir.”

I cringed as a pony-sized ball of iron glanced off the cockpit glass, cracking it.. Silver grinned. “This is why I wear goggles!” he informed me.

“Just be quiet and fly!” I hissed. He shrugged, turning back to his controls.

A collection of slams sounded above me, on the deck. I frowned. They didn’t sound like cannonballs...

Poking my head up onto the deck, I was rewarded with the sight of ten black-caped griffons, folding their wings. They snapped their heads around, eager eyes focused on me. I gulped.

“Exe!” I climbed rest of the way onto the deck and drew my swords. I can’t let them get to Silver.

A trio of crossbows trained themselves on me.

“Oh.”

I leapt back into the cockpit as quickly as I could, narrowly avoiding the volley of barbed bolts. “Silver, we have a problem.”

“What is it?” he asked. The crack in the cockpit glass was growing wider.

“There’s griffons on the deck. To kill us.” I glanced up nervously. One of them peeked inside, and I rewarded him with a jab to the face. He flinched back.

“Well, okay. I have a plan for that.”

My eyes widened in fear. Sweet Celestia.

Ember grunted as she pulled a hoof up from the surface of the ship, moved it forwards, and put it down. It stuck to the metal hull with a magical hiss. She narrowed her eyes against the wind rushing into her face, examining the hole in the hull.

“Cleaver!” she called. “Nails!”

A white hoof poked out of the hole and supplied her with a collection of nails. She levitated them to her side.

“Patch!”

The hoof retracted back into the ship. A large square of metal was pushed out in its place. Eyes narrowed with concentration, she carefully aligned it over the hole.

“Hold it there!”

A strong gust of wind blew over her, and she crouched closer to the ship. She pointedly kept herself from looking to her left. If she looked to her left, she knew she would see just how high up she really was.

With a burst of magic, she pounded the nails into the newly patched hull. She scanned the ship before her, identified another hole, and began to make her way to it. It was slow going, walking along the hull of an airship as gravity tried to pull you off. Her boots stuck to the hull with a powerful magical charge, and wrenching each one free over and over required more than a little endurance.

Suddenly, the ship began to roll. To the left. She pushed herself closer to the ship as the blood rushed to her head. Fuck! The boots weren’t strong enough to hold her upside down! She pounded on the fresh metal patch, cursing.

“Cleaver, kick the fucking patch out! I need to get in!”

No response. She turned around. He was at the next hole already, looking out at her expectantly.

She gestured towards the patch as much as she could without lifting any of her hooves. “The patch!” she screamed. “Kick out the fucking patch!”

The wind must have carried her words away. He shrugged and went back inside, no doubt planning on coming back out once the rolling was stopped.

“Fuuuuuck! Fucking Silv- Eeeeuuugh!” She ripped the patch off with a burst of panic-fueled magic and climbed in. She was starting to get very, very, pissed.

“Sweet Celestia, I love this ship!”

“Just hurry up and right us again!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.”

I flinched as a cannonball slammed through the roof, which was now on my left, shattered the table, which was now upside down against the starboard wall, which was now the floor, and exited out the floor, which was now on my right.

Things were starting to get very confusing.

Two of my hooves were on the roof. Two were on the starboard wall. Silver, somehow, was still piloting the airship, despite most of the controls being out of reach high up on the floor-turned-ceiling. From what I gathered, the ship was almost completely upside down, gently rolling to the left.

My ears twitched at the sound of the landing party sliding off the roof. Hopefully we could outrun them in the open air once they were off.

And then something flashed into the room, through the fresh hole in the roof.

One of the Baron’s mercs.

Shit! I leapt forwards, swords out. He raised his crossbow, blocking my attack and pushing me back. The uneven surface of the rotating airship took me by surprise, and I stumbled, rolling down into the corner between two sides of the room. I pushed off with a hoof, barely avoiding the bolt that bounced off the hull where I’d fallen.

The ship was completely upside down now. I rushed to take advantage of the level ground, jumping to my hooves and stabbing up with one of my swords. Predictably, my opponent pushed it away with his crossbow. My second sword came up from the opposite side, slipping through his exposed guard and penetrating his armor. It sheathed itself hilt-deep into his body, hitting the armor on the other side of his body with a sharp clang.

“Don’t worry, Silver, I got ‘em!” I said. The corpse fell from its hovering position in the center of the room, slid, and fell out the hole in the roof-turned-floor. With my sword.

Ah, fuck. I looked to my last sword and frowned. This is no good.

Nine more griffons flew in the hole, arranging themselves on the far side of the navigation floor, and leveled their crossbows.

“Ah, fuck!” I twisted on my hooves, sprinting for the cockpit. My eyes widened. Silver was there, facing me, and he had his own gun out.

“Duck!” he yelled. I threw myself down, scraping my legs, and pushed my hooves into my ears. He twitched a feather.

Boom!

Lightning arced across the navigation floor. My vision went white. My ears rang.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I couldn’t see. My head pounded as the ringing grew worse. Gradually, the light and noise faded as my senses recovered from their trauma.

Before me lay the smoldering, smoking corpses of nine black-clad griffons. Afterimages of the four shots lingered over them, showing every scene of their death overlaid on top of the next. I shook my head and tried to ignore the scent of burnt flesh.

I failed, gagging. The airship tilted more, and gravity dragged the bodies down. One of them fell on top of me. I pushed it off and took a gasp of air, but it only led to more gagging as the burning smell hit me full force. My mane and tail flapped in the wind that slipped through the many wounds in the hull.

“Dissy! Dissy, get a hold of yourself!” Silver tapped my shoulder urgently. I pulled my bandanna up with a flick of magic and made eye contact with him. He was holding his gun out.

“Here, take this to Storm! Tell her I need more juice!”

The brown glow of my magic wrapped around his rifle. He nodded and ran back to the cockpit. I climbed to my hooves as the ship finally righted itself. Bodies littered the navigation floor, strewn amongst the wreckage of the table and broken hull. Two more cannonballs smashed through the wall. I flinched.

Doing my best to ignore the bodies, I stumbled down into the lounge. There were holes everywhere. A couch was on fire. Exe stood in the middle of the room, near the kitchen, wiping his axe with a cloth.

I beckoned him over, pointing upstairs. “Protect him from any attackers!” I called. He nodded, and ran for the stairwell. I galloped down the steps two at a time.

Fuck! I skidded to a stop. The stairs before me had collapsed, leaving a long gap from this landing to the next. Fire reached up from the floors below. I heard a methodical thumping behind me and turned around. Ember poked her head in through a hole in the hull, eyes squinted against the wind. She focused in on the gun floating by my side.

“What are you doing with that?” She yelled to be heard over the wind. “Are you taking that to Storm?”

Luna save me. I ignored her, turning back to the gap in the stairwell. With a short galloping start, I jumped. The heat singed my coat. My hooves slammed into the landing outside the engine room. My momentum carried me forwards, slamming me into a rickety, burning hot wall.

The engine room was in bad shape. Rays of sunlight shone in through the broken hull, and I saw metal patches on the glass cylinder that housed the thunder reactor, a blue glow leaking out around the edges. Something was on fire in the rear in the room. Magical blue sparks burst from a console to my side. The sound of thunder filled the room, bursting from the unsealed reactor.

Stormslider flew into view, covered in sweat, lugging a heavy black cube underneath her. She grunted as she dropped it in a rough pile with several others, all radiating intense heat.

“Storm! Silver sent this!” I wiggled the lightning gun in the air. She frowned at it and landed by my side.

“Did Silver send that?” she yelled.

I nodded. “Yes! He says he-”

“Needs more juice, yes.” She pulled it from my magic and began to fasten it to her wing. She nodded towards the reactor. “Pull off one of those patches!”

“What?”

“Pull off one of the patches!”

I obliged, gingerly stepping forwards and pulling at the closest patch with my magic. It popped off, propelled by a shaft of lightning. I flinched.

I looked to Storm. She had the lightning gun strapped on now, with all four hooves firmly planted on the floor. She wiped her forehead with a wing. “Do you know the first rule of thunder reactors, Dissero?” she shouted.

“What?”

“Never expose the reactor to exterior lightning!”

She cracked her lips into a strained grin, teeth clamped together. Blue light shone out of the unpatched reactor, joined every few seconds by a bolt of wild lightning.

Storm’s wing twitched.

Lightning arced out of the barrel of the gun, shooting through the hole and into the mass of rolling thunderclouds that powered the ship.

I squinted, raising a hoof to block the overpowering blue light that began to fill the room. It grew brighter and brighter, mimicked by the pounding of the thunder. I could barely see through the flashing blue. My mane stood on end as a bolt of lightning flew past me. The air buzzed with electric charge.

A blast of concussive force pushed me off my hooves. I felt myself sent flying back.

My head hit something hard, and all went dark.

Ch. 16: Quick, To Harvest!

Omega

Chapter 16: Quick, to Harvest!

I’m standing in my ship, a clipboard floating before me. I glance into the cargo bay and briefly examine the carefully labeled crates inside. Clockworks, from Fillydelphia. With a glimmer of magic, I mark a check on the paper. In a couple weeks I could be in Stalliongrad, trade them out, and get some vodka for Canterlot.

“Are we all ready to go?” I ask.

Silver and Cleaver look up from their cards. “Sure thing, Dissy,” the pilot says. Cleaver takes a swig of vodka and raises it in agreement. Stormslider finishes dealing and gives me a quiet nod.

I smile. “Alright, then. To Stalliongrad. Excited to go home, Cleaver?”

The cook shrugs. “Home is where I lay my head.”

Putting the clipboard into its bin on the wall, I begin to walk towards my room. A course would have to be plotted. My ears twitch at the sound of frantic hoofbeats outside.

The unlocked hatch is pushed open, and a white unicorn mare bursts inside. She turns and slams it shut behind her, chest heaving.

“Who are you?” I ask. “What are you doing?”

She jumps, startled, and scans the room. “Oh, buck.” She grabs me. “Please, let me hide here! Don’t let them find me!”

Silver pushes his way in between us. Her fiery red mane shakes as she steps back. “Hey, slow down, miss. You can’t just come barging in to our ship and ask us to hide you. Who’re you running from?”

She’s shaking. “It’s the mob. Please, I can’t stay here! Just hide me somewhere, at least until they’re gone!”

I hear more hooves outside. A metallic knocking that sounds like it’s coming from the ship next to us. The mare jumps in fear and begins to cry. “Please, please, they’ll kill me!”

The hooves are approaching our ship now. I reach out with my magic and lock the hatch, frowning. The hooves knock from outside.

“Open up, in the name of the Royal Guard!”

Quietly, I step past the mare and look through the peephole. Three massive ponies stand outside. None of them wear the golden armor of the Royal Guard.

I look down as the mare pulls on my hoof, silently pleading. “Please,” she mouths.

My horn glows. With a brown glow, a barely visible trapdoor in the lounge opens. I nod to her. She beams at me, wasting no time as she scampers to the trapdoor and climbs inside. I close the smuggler’s hold, locking it.

The pounding on the hatch is insistent. I look to Silver. He nods. The moment I unlock the hatch, the three ponies burst inside.

“Who are-” They shove past me, ignoring my question, and storm through the ship. Cleaver eyes them calmly over his vodka. Stormslider focuses on the cards. Silver and I stand to the side.

“She’s not here!” One of them calls. The other two grunt agreement. They leave without a word.

With the airship locked and secure once more, I open the trapdoor and peer inside. A lighter floats in the darkness, the tiny flame wrapped in the red glow of magic.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

Orange eyes look up to me, reflecting the light of the fire. “Ember.”

Ω Ω Ω

The wind howled in my ears, punctuated by the roar of thunder. I felt my mane and tail flapping wildly. Groaning, I cracked an eye open.

I was tucked in the corner formed by a pair of consoles. Sunlight shone in through the increasingly shattered hull of the engine room. Lightning arced out of the thunder reactor and across the room, occasionally blowing something up on contact. Water poured out of a broken pipe running out of the reactor, practically glowing with electricity.

I felt my body being pushed back into the consoles. Stormslider was on the landing just outside the room, back up against the doorway and wings splayed out. My stomach lurched.

We were moving very fast.

With a methodical thumping, Ember climbed in from outside, magboots holding her to the wall. She clambered down to the floor, brow furrowed in a mixture of fury and concentration. Her tail whipped out behind her as she made her way to a relatively undamaged console, using her boots to keep the wind from ripping her off her hooves.

I blinked blearily. Stormslider was shouting something. Ember yelled something back. I couldn’t tell what they were saying under the thunder, wind, and nausea.

Ember turned back to the console, pulled one hoof out of its boot, and slammed it down on something. A loud hissing pierced the cacophony of noise. With considerable effort, I reached up and climb to my hooves, bracing myself on the consoles.

My eyes widened as I located the source of the hissing.

The glass that held the thunder reactor was moving, retracting down into the floor. The dark clouds fled eagerly, rushing out through holes in the ship’s hull and falling out of sight. Within seconds, the reactor was nothing more than an empty glass cylinder, dripping water. The thunder and wind had been replaced with a gentle buzz.

I watched as Storm marched up to Ember, pushing her with a hoof. “What are you doing?” she demanded. “We needed that power to escape!”

Ember ignored her accusing tone, running a hoof over the console softly. “You heard it as much as I did. The ship was in pain.”

“Damnit, Ember! When will you learn the difference between a ship and a pony?” Storm trotted to another set of consoles, eyes sweeping over them. “How are we supposed to escape now? We have no power!”

“I did what was right!” Ember shouted. “How would you feel if I made you run until you could run no longer, and then killed you instead?”

Storm paused, frowning. “Ember, it’s just a ship.”

“Just a ship!” Ember’s lighter flicked on with a burst of magic. “It was falling apart! I did what I had to do to save it.”

Silver ran into the room, panting. “Hey, what happened? I got some crazy speed and then the pressure just—” He stopped, gaping at the empty reactor. Cleaver stepped into view behind him and raised a brow.

“What happened to engine?” he asked.

Storm leveled a hoof on Ember. “She vented it! She’s trying to kill us all!”

“I’m trying to save the ship!” Ember snapped. “You were destroying it!”

“I was saving us!” Storm shot back. She gestured at the empty reactor with her hoof. “Now we don’t even have an engine!”

“And what would we have had if I had done nothing?”

“I would’ve fixed it! I know how to fix an overloaded reactor!”

“It was in pain!”

“It is a ship! What is wrong with you?”

“Shut up!” I shouted.

The two mares fell silent, mouths still open. I felt there eyes on me as I climbed unsteadily to my hooves. “For the love of Celestia, stop arguing,” I said. I looked to Silver. “Are we away?”

He shrugged. “Well, we put some good distance between them, but now we’re just gliding. They’ll catch us eventually.”

I cursed. “Where is Exe?” I received four blank looks in response. “The bear! Where is the bear?”

Cleaver spoke up. “He is in lounge.”

I stumbled across the engine room. “I need to speak with him. Try not to kill eachother.” Fuck, my head hurts. My legs weren’t feeling very sturdy either. When was the last time I slept? It felt like I’d been awake for ages.

Cleaver and Silver stepped aside to make a path for me, and I stepped out into the stairwell. The broken flight had been bridged by a piece of the shattered table. I grimaced, looking down into the gap, to the fire that was still going on below.

“Somebody get the fires out,” I ordered. “This ship is practically falling apart.”

Ignoring any response they may have offered, I warily crossed the makeshift bridge and started up the stairs. My coat was sticky with dry blood, and little fragments of hull poked at me with every step. I took a breath. Sweet Celestia, I reek.

Exe was in the lounge, as promised. The bear was lying down quietly in the middle of the room, his head bowed over his axe. He was murmuring to himself, too quiet for me to hear.

“Exe,” I called, approaching him. He showed no sign of hearing. “Exe!”

He cracked an eye open. The blade of his axe shone, unfettered by the blood and filfth that tarnished both of our coats. “Yes, unicorn?”

I collapsed onto the tattered remnants of a pillow, exhausted. “What are you doing?”

“I am making amends with my weapon,” he said. He closed his eye and resumed his murmuring as if the matter had been settled.

“No, Exe, we need to talk.” He ignored me. “Now.”

The bear stopped speaking and let out a deep, exasperated sigh. He opened his eyes and raised his head. “What do you need?”

I frowned. “I still don’t know what you were doing.”

He stared at me silently for a few seconds. I adjusted my position on the pillow uncomfortably. “If you interrupted me merely to ask what I am doing, then I will tell you once I am done.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not that. Well, I am curious but—no, forget it.” I ran a hoof through my mane, remembering too late that it was covered in blood. So much blood. “I need to know how to get to Harvest City. Can you show me?”

More silence. He climbed to his paws and sheathed his axe in one smooth, practiced motion. “Very well, I will show you.”

We made our way up to the deck. Scratches and holes stained the metal, testifying to the ferocity of the onslaught of Ashfall’s attack. Exe scanned the horizon ponderously. We were hovering almost directly above a curving mountain range, with wide, arid plains on one side and a sparse forest on the other. I thought I saw the Stygian’s valley, further down the range, where the mountains grew apart for a few miles before coming back together.

Exe raised a claw, pointing at a mountain that towered above its peers. “That is the Urmount, the tallest mountain in the Boul. It can be seen from anywhere in the Bare Lands,” he said. His claw moved towards the east, to the empty plains stretching before us. “You will find Harvest City there, across the Bare Lands, under the shadow of the Claw.”

I nodded, orienting myself. My horn glowed briefly as I cast my a spell to determine the headingl. “Okay, thanks.”

He nodded and began to lumber back to the ladder. “Please do not interrupt me again. If you are curious, I will speak with you later.”

I watched him go in silence. Once he was out of sight, I returned my gaze to the Bare Lands, and to where I hoped to find Harvest City. Sighing, I looked down to my bloodstained hooves.

Showertime.

On a tower on top of the Alpha Wolf, three ponies lowered their binoculars.

The first one, an older, grizzled pegasus with a clipped wing, look to the other two. “They got away,” she said.

The second one, a unicorn mare, not as rough as the pegasus but not exactly green, grimaced. “Fuck.”

The third, a young, wide-eyed earth pony looked between his companions. “What happens now?” he asked.

The first opened a saddlebag on the floor and began to rummage through it. “One of us has to tell Ashfall,” he explained. “He’ll want the report to be delivered personally.”

The third frowned, picking up on the grim tone of the others. “Is that bad?”

The second nodded. “Very bad. He doesn’t like receiving bad news.”

The first pulled out a cup. A couple dozen straws poked out of the top. He held it up, and the unicorn floated it between the trio. “Now we draw straws,” she said.

The three lookouts drew their straws in silence. A whimper came from the youngest, who held up a straw three times shorter than the others.

“Uh...”

The unicorn patted him on the back apologetically. “It’ll be okay. You’ll be fine,” she lied. The grizzled pegasus nodded her agreement.

“Uh, okay.” Encouraged, the rookie slowly walked to the ladder and climbed down.

The remaining two ponies exchanged grim glances. “How many of those rookies have we sent to die now?” the older asked.

The other shrugged. “I don’t know.” She deposited her straw back into the hidden compartment back in her uniform, dropping a much shorter one back into the cup.

“Well,” the first one said. “It’s gonna have to be one of us next time.” She slipped her own straw into her feathers. “And we both know I hold the longest straw.”

I didn’t really realize how heavy the blood was until it all came washing off.

My whole body was shaking. Cold water ran through my mane, down my hooves, and puddled beneath me, mixed with the blood of the dead. The red mixture had almost clogged the shower; I was standing an inch deep in the stuff.

Whose blood is this? It was hard to imagine that every drop had come from another living thing. That it would never go back.

That they had all died.

I turned the water off and climbed out of the shower, doing my best to ignore the gaping hole in the wall where a cannonball had flown in. Levitating a towel around my body, I found my mind drifting to Moon Dream. To the little filly snuffed out silently in the shadows of Harmony City. To the families pointlessly executed by the Baron. Deaths that had shaken me, to see how easily rebels and tyrants killed, without even a second thought.

Why didn’t I care, when I cut down that griffon that had flown into the ship?

I rush out of the bushes, heart racing, the wire between my hooves.

I raised a hoof to my eyes, blinking.

He falls to the dust, coughing.

Tears fall as I push the wire into his neck.

I shook my head, eyes squeezed tight as I tried to rid myself of the sight.

His eyes stare into mine.

The life leaves them, and his body goes slack.

“Ugh, fuck.” Finally, the flashback faded. Surely nobody would mourn for that recusant. He had been nothing more than a greedy bandit, too lazy to even guard his own clan properly. Then why can’t I get him out of my head?

Deep in thought, I tossed the towel aside and wandered to my room. My crew had made a little altar to me against one wall, and I hadn’t had the time to take it down yet. I tried not to look. It was strange, walking next to my own funeral.

There might be a dozen more out there, because of me.

I flopped down on the little mattress I was forced to call a bed and covered my eyes with my hooves. My whole body ached. What am I even doing out here?

What had I done since I arrived in the Outer World? Almost fallen to my death, barely learned how to defend myself, almost gotten eaten, almost gotten stabbed, met a bloodthirsty bear, helped a trio of sibling burglars kill a bunch of guards just doing their jobs, and almost gotten killed, again. Yay.

Rolling over, I eyed the little altar adorned with my name. Why even take it down? I’ll probably be dead in a week.

No, stop thinking like that. You can make it home. Just keep yourself together.

Ugh, I hate this place! My vision started to blur.

Keep it together! As long as you keep it together you can make it home!

I climbed out of bed, started to leave the room, and almost walked right into a grinning Silver Feather.

“Dissy, hey! We never got to catch up, what with all the—” He paused, his excited expression faltering as he looked into my eyes. “Diss, you alright?”

Blinking, I raised a hoof to wipe away the wet signs of my near-breakdown. “Yeah, I’m fine, Silver.” I mustered up an uncertain little smile. “What’s up?”

The pegasus frowned, putting his good wing over my shoulder. “Hey, what’s up? You don’t look good.”

I shook my head. “It’s nothing, really. Just... this place.” I tried to step past him, but he moved to block my way.

“Dissero, c’mon. What happened out there? You can tell me, you know that.”

“No, I can’t, Silver. I’m sorry.” I shut my eyes tight, burying the memory of that recusant deep, deep down before opening them again. “I have to keep looking ahead, or I’m afraid what’s behind will chew me up and spit me out a shell of what I once was.”

He frowned, his face uncharacteristically serious. “Diss, you can’t just keep it all inside.”

I pushed past him. “I’ll tell you everything, once we get back home. Until then, let’s just focus on getting through this.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Ω Ω Ω

I was feeling tense.

The Omega flew with the speed and grace of a pair of tied-together bricks. Holes, dings, and scratches were everywhere. Ember ignored most of them, choosing to focus her time on the balloon and other important systems. At the very least, her near-maternal drive to keep the ship running had pushed any anger she had at how it got into such critical condition out of her mind.

The engine wasn’t in good condition. With the reactor essentially nonexistent, Stormslider was forced to fly out, grab thunderclouds from whatever storms we happened to pass, and try to stuff it into the system.

“The weather out here is weird,” she told me when I went to check on her. “The clouds won’t listen to me, and they keep losing their charge and turning into normal clouds.”

At that instant, the pitiful ball of thunderclouds floating in the reactor split into pieces with an audible pop. The pieces drifted around idly, gradually returning to the soft white color of an empty cloud.

“Ugh, great.” Flying in the reactor through a hole in the glass, she shooed the clouds outside. “Now I have to get new ones... again.”

I shrugged. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Just keep us up a couple more days. Exe says we should be at Harvest soon.”

“Wait, Dissero.”

I paused halfway out the door, took a couple steps back, and tilted my head quizzically. “Yeah?”

She had turned to face me, hovering in the middle of the room. “Why are we going to this Harvest place, anyways?”

Because I’m laying all of our lives on a seer that may not even be real. “I think I know how to get us back home,” I lied.

Storm nodded, flying back to the rear of the engine room to resume her work. I looked after her briefly, sighed, and started up the stairwell. Please, Celestia, let that seer be what I need.

As I climbed the steps, I tried to decide what to do next. For the past five days I’d been skulking up and down the ship in a desperate search for tasks to occupy my mind. I helped Ember with the repairs, helped Nix and Cleaver clean up wreckage from the chase, and sat in the cockpit checking and re-checking Silver’s course until he sent me away in disgust. Anything to keep my eyes ahead.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I decided to go up to the deck and look around. Despite all it’s flaws, the Outer World did have a certain beauty to it, only amplified by the mystery of its unknown expanse. Perhaps I might find something to lose myself in within the landscape passing below.

When I arrived on the deck, Exe was already there. The bear was sitting at the aft of the deck, stoically gazing out at the Urmount passing in the distance. I quietly stepped up to his side.

The Bare Lands stretched out around, beneath, and before us. Wide rolling plains of tall, brown grass dominated the land, interspersed with patches of trees here and there. Lush green surrounded a small lake, the plant life waving gently in the wind. Further away, I saw a pack of raptors chasing after a flock of ostriches. One of the birds fell in its haste to escape, and within seconds the raptors were upon it. In the distance, the Boul rose, the mountains encircling the grasslands like a natural stone wall.

I looked over to Exe. Eyes closed, he took in a long, deep breath of the air.

“So,” I began, “Are you from here?”

His eyes shot open, showing a brief flicker of annoyance that was quickly replaced with his usual calm visage. “I was.”

I returned my gaze to the grasslands. “But not anymore?”

He shook his head, the movement so small that I barely noticed it. “No, unicorn. It is not for me to have a home any longer.”

Hrm. I dropped the subject. The sun beat down upon us, its heat reflecting off the metal of the deck. A few minutes passed in silence, as each of us, for our own reasons, lost ourselves in the sight before us. A new topic came to my mind.

“What were you doing with your axe, earlier?” I asked.

“Making amends,” he stated.

My tail flicked with annoyance. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”

He cocked his head, thoughtfully. “Tell me,” he said. “If I was to pick you up, carrying you into battle, and use you to smash another being until it could no longer draw breath, how would you feel?”

I balked, mouth open. What? It took me a few seconds to get my thoughts out. “What?”

The bear went on, unperturbed by my confusion. “Would you feel that, at the very least, I owed you an apology?”

“Uh...” I paused, uncertain. “I... suppose?”

Suddenly, he had his axe out of its sheath, cradled in his paws like a foal. “This axe has seen me through many trials, unicorn, just as I have it.” He ran a claw over one of the many notches in its blade. “I often find that I must give thanks for its service.”

This bear is crazy. I took a few moments to put together a coherent statement. “What?”

He sighed, gently sliding the blade’s hilt back into his sheath. “I have answered your question,” he said. “That is what I was doing.”

Another thought rose up from my mind. “Exe, why were you traveling to New alone?” So far, every other bear I’d seen had always been with at least two others, and had kept their distance from strangers. Except for Exe. If it wasn’t for me, he would probably still be on his own.

A paw rose from the deck, touching the black hood hanging from his neck as if to ensure it was still there. “It is not my place to be of a tribe,” he said. “I am One Amongst the Fallen.”

I recalled that he had introduced himself as that before, when we first meant. I still didn’t know what significance it held. “What does that mean?”

His ears twitched with annoyance. For a minute he sat silently, looking straight ahead, and I started to worry that I might have gone too far. His eyes squinted.

“Do you see that, unicorn?”

Curious, I followed his gaze. My heart sunk.

In the distance, the barely visible form of Ashfall’s ship was approaching.

“Shit,” I said. I started pacing across the deck nervously. “If they get within firing range, the way we are now, there’s no way we’ll survive.”

Exe nodded solemnly. “We should reach Harvest soon,” he said. “If we get there before they catch us, we will be safe.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked. “I don’t want to take any chances here.” I chose to ignore the fact that we were taking a chance merely by going to Harvest. I had no other choice.

His small eyes looked down on me knowingly. “The Simple Council does not condone piracy,” he explained. “It’s bad for business.”

Ω Ω Ω

A day later, Exe and I stood on the deck as both the city and our pursuers grew closer. Silver Feather, Cleaver, and Nix were all in the cockpit, weapons ready. Stormslider and Ember were still hard at work around the ship.

I shivered. As the Omega strained to gain the altitude needed to cross over the Boul and out of the Bare Lands, the air grew chill. Here, the mountains of the Boul were tall and steep, their snow-capped peaks devoid of any green. I peeked down the deck hatch, into the cockpit.

“Can’t we climb any faster?” I asked.

Silver shot me a dirty look. “No, Dissy, for the fifth time. Don’t you realize the condition this ship is in? It’s hard enough to stop us from falling out of the sky!”

Nix cringed at that. She was huddled against the wall, eyes wide with fear. It occurred to me that, considering how close we were to dying, I should probably feel some kind of fear too. But despite myself, I was finding it hard to muster anything but exasperation, anger, and annoyance. The Outer World is changing me already.

I looked to Exe. “You’re sure we’ll be safe?”

The bear kept his eyes trained on the mountains before us. “As long as The Simple Council is still in power, we will be safe.”

“As long as?” I glanced behind us, at the now much closer warship giving chase. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“The governments in these cities are somewhat... unstable,” he explained. “The Simple Council has been in power for six decades. Its predecessors all fell to coups within two.”

I blinked. “When was the last time you were in Harvest, Exe?”

He continued looking ahead, ignoring me.

“Exe!”

The bear let out a sigh. “Seven years.”

“Damnit!”

Silver looked up alarmingly. “What?” he demanded. “Are they in firing range?”

I shook my head, waving a hoof to signal for him to get back to his piloting. “No, don’t worry about it. We’re still good.”

After a brief hesitation, he returned to his controls.

I looked back again. Ashfall’s ship was starting to angle away from us. No doubt when it got closer it would present us with a full broadside.

The pitifully small engine left to us strained to carry the ship over the mountains. Silver was flying us dangerously close to the mountainside in an effort to speed things up. Almost there... For a moment I felt as if I could step right off the deck, into the snow. I shivered again as a gust of wind blew snow over my coat.

A cannonball plopped into the snow to my left. My eyes widened. Silver cursed. Nix whimpered. Cleaver sipped booze.

Finally, we were above the mountaintops, and I got my first look at the city.

Harvest City was massive, nestled between the small line of mountains which arced out of the Boul known as the Claw and the narrow lake Exe had called the Relief. The city was larger than any I’d ever seen, in Equestria or not, with at least a hundred skydocks scattered across its body. A flock of airships was spread above its surface, coming and going, carrying trade from around the Outer World.

Surrounding the city was an equally massive stone wall, the height of a small mountain. I counted sixteen straight segments of wall, encircling the entire city with their girth.

And on each corner of the wall, where the segments met, sat a truly massive gun, each one larger than an airship in itself.

I was pulled out of my awed reverie by the arrival of more cannonballs on the deck. A series of dull thuds sounded out as Ashfall’s ship pounded the Omega with the strength of a full broadside.

“Fuck!” I threw myself to the deck. Lumps of iron tore through and bounced off the hull all around me. My ears rang with the sharp ping! of metal striking metal. Red-hot shards stung my coat as they burst through the air. I shut my eyes tight, curling up into a little ball, and prayed to Celestia and Luna alike to keep me alive.

After what seemed an eternity, the onslaught faded. I raised my head blearily. There were holes all over the deck. I peeked into the cockpit.

“Are we still good?” I asked.

“No!” Silver yelled back. “We are not good!”

My eyes widened as I felt a sickly falling sensation. The wind rushed through my mane as we picked up speed. “Fuck!” I looked to Exe. “Get inside! We’re falling!”

I tumbled into the cockpit, Exe close behind me. Nix was still in her corner, screaming. Silver was yanking at a chain furiously with his teeth, all four hooves set on the floor, his good wing out in an attempt to keep him grounded. Cleaver was nowhere to be seen.

“What do we do?” I shouted.

“Brace yourselves!”

Outside the cockpit, the ground approached with terrifying speed.

And then, with an ear-splitting metallic screech, we crashed.

Ch. 17: Arrivals

Omega

Chapter 17: Arrivals

My head throbbed. My horn ached. My ears rang. Gradually, I figured out which way was up.

I was lying amongst the four wheels sticking out the wall of the cockpit, each one jutting out at an unusual angle. The ship must’ve tipped over in the crash. The omnipresent hum of the engines began to wind down. Blearily, I raised my head.

“Is everyone okay?” I called.

Silver raised a hoof and waved it around. He was splayed out against the cracked cockpit glass, eyes screwed up with pain, his bad wing hanging limply. “I’m... alive,” he said.

I stumbled to my hooves. Nix wasn’t moving, her body halfway in the secret compartment that contained the armory. A little jolt of panic stabbed through my heart. I practically fell on her, putting my ear up to her chest. Her heart was beating. She was alive.

Exe climbed into the cockpit, covered in scratches. “We must get outside,” he growled.

“The hatch is at the bottom of the stairwell,” I moaned. “I don’t think any of us feel up to that journey.”

The bear ignored me, carefully picking his way across the cockpit. With a sudden burst of speed, he smashed through the cockpit glass, landing heavily in the dirt on the other side.

I crawled over to Silver, placing a hoof on his chest. “You gonna be alright?” I asked.

He nodded weakly. “Yeah. For now, yeah.”

Satisfied, I followed Exe out into the dirt, making sure not to cut myself on the shattered glass. He was looking up. I followed his gaze.

Ashfall’s ship was hovering above us.

“Exe, what now?” I asked. “We can’t get away from them.”

“Yes,” he replied. “Now we hope that the Simple Council is still in power.”

I looked to the walls of Harvest City, rising high above the green plain we’d crash landed on. I couldn’t tell for sure from so far away, but it looked like something was moving on them.

“What will they do if they are?”

He glanced up to the walls. For a moment, I almost thought he was smiling. “They will fire the Deck Guns.”

Booooooommmmm.

Light and noise erupted from atop the walls. A giant cannonball, at least ten feet across, soared through the air. My ears twitched at the high whistling sound of its flight.

With pinpoint accuracy, the cannonball slammed into Ashfall’s ship. It ripped through the hull like a rock thrown at paper, punching clean through to the other side. It smacked into the mountains behind its target with a dull thud, lodging itself into the stone.

My eyes widened as Ashfall’s ship lurched to one side, almost capsizing from the force of the impact. It recovered, starting to turn back to the mountains.

Booooooommmmm.

Another cannonball, just as large as the first, arced through the sky. I blinked into the sun as it flew overhead, cutting a shallow gouge through the top of its target, before landing next to its kin on the mountainside.

I raised a hoof weakly. “Yeah!” I weakly shouted, still too disoriented to truly raise my voice. Ashfall’s ship, smoking and leaning to one side, passed back over the Boul, into the Bare Lands, and out of sight.

My legs went weak, and I stumbled, propping myself up on Exe’s sturdy form. “We’re safe,” I breathed. Relief washed over me. “We got away.”

Exe nodded, still looking to where the ship had vanished over the mountains. “For now, at least.”

I looked up to him, frowning. “What do you mean, ‘for now’?”

“Harvest City is a city of trade first and foremost, unicorn,” he explained. “Though they may punish any piracy within sight of their cannons, that does not mean that they engage in charity.” He turned, eyeing the walls of the huge city grimly. “The Simple Council has saved our lives, and they will expect that we pay for them.”

Ω Ω Ω

Knock, knock, knock.

“Hello? Open the door, please. Council business.”

I jumped, startled by the voice outside my room. Running my hooves through my mane tiredly, I grabbed my last remaining sword and fastened its sheath around me with some simple magic. Briefly glancing at my scratched and bloodstained barding, which was in a roughly assembled heap in a corner, I debated whether or not to strap it on. Nah. The sword will do. Harvest doesn’t seem quite as bad as New.

The knocking returned, slightly more insistent. “Council business!”

Stifling the urge to grumble something rude, I reached out with my magic and opened the door. A small gargoyle stood on the opposite side, tapping a hoof impatiently. “Yes?”

The goyle cleared her throat. “You are Dissero, the Equestrian, captain and owner of the Omega, airship of Equestrian origin, which currently resides under the care of the Council Shipyards?”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

“Very well, then.” The goyle beckoned to me as she began to walk down the hall.

Closing the door behind me, I followed her past three other doors and down two flights of stairs. The ground floor of the building was a quiet little tavern, with a simple bar and a few tables occupied by unusually somber patrons. We passed through the room and out the door on the other side, coming out in the wide streets of Harvest City.

Where New had a dirty, unstable feel to it, Harvest held an atmosphere of cleanliness and order. Uniformed guards, all wearing the same steel armor with a red stripe painted down the legs, patrolled the streets. Wolves, zebra, and goyle alike walked up and down the avenue, some of them not even displaying a weapon. The streetside stalls common all over New were replaced by proper stores, the merchants calling out from their doorways. A pair of wagons was pulled down the street by chained recusants. Square, carefully planned buildings lined the street, all fitting neatly within the protective walls that rose all around the city. Harvest City was the very picture of organization.

I followed my escort down the street wordlessly. According to Exe, the city was not always like this, and had become so mostly due to the efforts of the Simple Council. The Council consisted of nine of the richest merchants in the city, and therefore in the Outer World, who had risen to power through shrewd investment and patience sixty years ago. They had carried the same gold-driven focus and organization of their business into the management of the city, organizing a stunningly effective system for squeezing every drop of gold out of every visitor and citizen.

I sped up, drawing abreast to my escort. “Where are we going?” I asked.

She barely spared me a glance as we slipped through the crowd. “The Council Shipyards,” she stated. “Your ship requires repairs. Repairs require payment.”

Just as Exe predicted. After spending almost two hours lying exhausted in the wreckage of the Omega, a team of goyles had come out to greet us with wagons full of tools, offering to repair our ship enough for it to fly to the city’s shipyard. Once it arrived, my crew and I had been ushered to the Council-owned inn and given rooms to spend the night. Exe hadn’t come with us, slipping away and muttering something about not needing any more debts. We hadn’t been asked to pay a single penny for the service, and I was getting the creeping feeling that I was about to be charged.

The crowd thinned and the buildings changed as we moved through the city. The mercantile buildings that dominated Harvest were replaced with workshops, and then warehouses. The sun approached its apex in the sky. My stomach grumbled. I knew I should’ve eaten breakfast sooner.

We approached a series of buildings much larger than any I’d seen in the city before, hangars that held airships too damaged to float next to a skydock. Most of them were larger than the Omega, sporting guns and armored plating.

The goyle led me to the hangar that contained the Omega. My heart clenched at the sight of the ship, beaten and shattered as it was. The balloon had been repaired so that it could get to the hangar, but besides that the ship was in pieces. The hull was in tatters. The navigation level had collapsed in on itself. The broken reactor lay quietly in the engine room, visible through the ship’s many wounds. How can anypony ever repair this kind of damage?

I looked to my side, mouth open to ask, but my goyle escort was gone. Huh. The soft sound of hooves and claws approached from deeper in the hangar, and I turned back to see a zebra and wolf approaching me.

The zebra dipped its head. “Greetings. You are Dissero, captain of this ship, which now lies in the hold of the Simple Council?” she asked.

“That’s me,” I said carefully.

The zebra nodded. “Good. You are aware that your ship is not at all in flying condition, and that in most cases any sane investor would scavenge it for parts and toss aside the wreck?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Where are you going with this?”

“Normally, we would not waste a hangar on a wreck such as this,” she began. “However, your crew seems to insist that they can repair it.” She accompanied the statement with a skeptical glance behind her. “As such, we are willing to rent the hangar to you, until it is in suitable condition.”

Here we go. “What does that mean, exactly?”

The wolf spoke up. “It means that the hangar and the workers assigned to it are yours,” he said.

“That is not all,” the zebra interjected. “There will be a fee for the rental.”

I sighed. I can’t lose that ship. “How much?”

“Twenty thousand gold pieces.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Twenty thousand!?” I repeated. They nodded solemnly. “That’s ridiculous! I can’t afford that!” I barely have a hundred!

The wolf grinned, pulling back his lips to reveal a set of sharp fangs. “There is another way,” he said.

I raised a brow. “What is it?”

The zebra pulled out a pocketwatch, eyeing it briefly. “In lieu of gold payment, you may also pay in bodies.” She raised a hoof, cutting off my response before it started. “Not slaves, mind you. You will merely be asked to support the Simple Council in battle.”

I narrowed my eyes. “More specifically?”

The wolf rolled its eyes. “Once your ship is in fighting condition, it’ll be drafted into our fleet until we feel you’ve paid our gold’s worth. Whether you volunteer to crew it or not is up to you, but the ship will become an asset of the Simple Council.”

“What!? I—ugh.” I ran a hoof through my mane. “Can I have some time to think this over? Run it by my crew?”

“I’m afraid not,” the zebra stated. “Time is money, Dissero. Every minute your ship occupies this hangar, the city loses gold. If you do not decide now, we will simply keep it for ourselves.”

“That’s not fair!” I snarled, stomping a hoof in frustration. “It’s my ship! You can’t just take it from me like that!”

The wolf snorted. “Actually, we can. And we will.”

“Fuck!” I glared at them, barely containing the surge of obscene insults swirling around inside me. They had me, and they knew it. The wolf wasn’t even bothering to hide his smug expression. A few moments passed in silence as we stared eachother down. “Fine,” I snapped. “We’ll fight for you. Not like I really have a choice.”

“Excellent,” the zebra said. “The hangar is yours, then. If you require supplies, the quartermaster will attain them. We will calculate your debt once you are done.”

With another glance at his pocketwatch, the zebra trotted away. The wolf turned to follow, pausing only to shoot me one last smug grin. “And don’t worry, we’ll make sure you pay it.”

Ω Ω Ω

“You did what?”

“They didn’t give me any choice!”

I was at a table in the tavern beneath our rooms, with my crew seated before me. Their shocked faces covered a variety of emotions, from betrayal to anger to surprise, as I told them about our new debt.

Stormslider, eyes calm, cleared a throat. “Dissero, you realize that you’ve basically sold us back into slavery, right?”

I balked at her, mouth agape. “What—no, I didn’t! They saved our ship and are giving us the tools to repair it. We have no gold to pay them with!”

Nix spoke up, voice shaking. “S-so, you sign us up to f-fight for them?” she asked. “I don’t want to fight anyone.”

“Ugh. I did what I had to do to save the ship! It’s all we have left. Don’t you understand that?” Don’t they see that I had no choice.

Ember shook her head, forelegs crossed before her. “He’s right, you know.”

I blinked. Of all the ponies in my crew, she was the last one I’d expected support from.

“That ship is all we have,” she continued. “We simply cannot afford to lose it.”

“Well, what’re we gonna do when we’re stuck flying it into battle?” Silver asked. “It doesn’t even have any guns on it!”

Cleaver put down his bottle, the glass making a dull thud against the table. “We have no knowledge of that kind of fighting,” he stated.

“We can put guns on it!” Ember asserted. “Think about it, we can make the ship better than it ever was.”

Stormslider nodded. “She’s right. We need the ship, and this is the only way to keep it. Dissero’s choice may not have been ideal, but there was no better option.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back in my chair. That’s one catastrophe averted. “Well, now that’s settled,” I began, “there’s another matter I need to tell you about.”

Five pairs of eyes turned to face me. Hesitantly, I pulled the map that led to the seer’s home out of my saddlebags and spread it out over the table. “There’s a well-reputed seer that lives in the wilderness around this city. I’d like to go speak with her.”

Five skeptical expressions eyed me over the table. “You want us to risk our lives out in this Celestia-forsaken land to find some seer?” Ember asked.

I raised my hooves defensively. “Look, we’re all out of ideas on getting back to Equestria. We’re in over our heads, here. A little guidance couldn’t hurt.”

Silver frowned, a hoof propped under his chin. “Dissy, the Outer World is dangerous. You should know that better than all of us. Is it really smart to go and try to find this seer without the ship?”

“Look at me.” I bumped a hoof over my chest. “I was out in that wilderness for over a month. I lived with a clan of bandits, one of which was obsessed with cutting my horn off. I survived a griffon raid and crossed the wilderness, alone. With you all by my side, I’m confident that we can find a seer hiding in the woods.”

Stormslider nodded thoughtfully, and Silver gave the shrug I recognized as his way of saying I was right. Cleaver took a ponderous sip of his vodka. Nix’s eyes brightened, and she straightened in her seat.

“Either way, I’m staying with the ship,” Ember stated.

I raised a brow. “What? Why?”

“Would you leave our ship all alone in this city?” she asked. “From what I’ve seen, they’ll milk that repair for every coin, and probably do a half-ass job, too. I’m staying with the ship.”

Stormslider leaned forwards. “I will stay as well.”

Ember shot her a look, mouth open, but Stormslider cut her off before she could retort. “You may care for the ship, Ember, but you don’t know everything. It’d be best to have another, trained specialist on hoof.”

The two mares locked eyes, Ember’s hostility met with Stormslider’s calm certainty. I gulped. Ember looked away with a spiteful grumble.

Silver leapt forwards to fill the silence. “Well! Now that we’ve got that settled, I guess we’d better make some plans for finding this seer.”

Ω Ω Ω

“Well, here we are.”

Silver, Nix, Cleaver, Exe, and I stood before the northern gate of Harvest City. It wasn’t quite as large as the east or south gates, which were avenues for heavy trade, but to an Equestrian like myself it was just as impressive. Spiked steel points hung above us, ready to drop at a moment’s notice should invaders appear. The heavy shadow of one of the Deck Guns rested on the wooden drawbridge that led out to the wild, warning of just how much power this city could bring to bear.

I looked around. “Is everyone ready?” My crew nodded, the heavy saddlebags at their sides bouncing with the movement. Exe gave a quiet grunt of confirmation, his axe gleaming with careful polish on his back.

With a deep breath, I took a step forwards.

“Hello, there!”

My ears twitched. After a brief search for the source of the greeting, I caught sight of a zebra poking his head out of a small building to the side. He slipped out into the street, trotting towards us with a wide smile.

“Uh, hey,” I said. The zebra looked like almost every other zebra I’d ever met, with the black and white stripes running down his side interrupted only by the tribal symbol painted on his flank. He stopped before my crew and offered a deep bow.

“Are you travelers?” he asked eagerly. “Where might you be headed?”

I cocked my head thoughtfully. No harm in telling him. “We’re searching for a seer.”

His eyes brightened. “Ah! Is it the Earth Seer you seek?” He began to trot back to the building. “Wait just a moment, I will be right out!”

The strange zebra disappeared behind the door. I looked to Exe. “Do you know what’s going on here?”

“I think he is hoping to guide us,” the bear mused. “No doubt he would seek payment.”

Nix frowned. “But we don’t have any gold.”

The zebra chose that moment to return, equipped with a worn outfit of thick cloth, a sheathed sword hanging from one side, and a single saddlebag bouncing off the other. “Very well, then. I am ready to go.”

I scuffed at the ground with a hoof, looking away. “Uhm, we don’t have any gold to pay you with. We can’t hire you.”

The zebra scoffed, waving a hoof as if to push the denial aside. “Pay? Hah! The Earth Seer has told me of you. She will pay.”

“Oh.” I looked to my crew, and they nodded for me to accept. “Well, okay then. Who are you?”

A wide, confident grin spread across the zebra’s face. “I am Jabari, the finest guide of the north gate! I know this land as I know my stripes, from the walls of Harvest to the mountains of the Claw!” He bowed again. “You shall travel true, with me at your service.”

I nodded, offering a small smile. Jabari’s energy was infectious. “Well, welcome to the party, Jabari. I’m Dissero. This is my crew.” I turned, introducing each of my crewmembers by name. For the sake of convenience, I didn’t mention how Exe wasn’t actually part of the crew.

Jabari bowed to each of them in turn. Silver bowed back playfully, and Nix gave the zebra a sincere smile.

“Very well, then,” Jabari said. “Shall we depart?”

Amongst the flame and ash of a burning city, three recusants galloped.

Slick led the way, sliding into an alley so fast that his hooves skidded. He glanced back anxiously, peering through the dust.

Trick and Pick sprinted out of the shadows, the flickering light of a burning building illuminating the fear on their faces. Heavy saddlebags bounced off their sides as they slipped into the alley after their brother, panting.

Slick nodded. “Okay, we gotta get out of the city. You two ready?” He ignored the sound of their old hideout collapsing in on itself. If we hadn’t left in time...

“Yeah, we’re good,” Trick said. Pick grunted his agreement.

“Okay, follow me.”

Slick took off down the alleys, turning left and right without hesitation. He knew these alleys like the feathers in his wing. Nothing could catch him in here.

With an ear-splitting groan, a building collapsed, dropping a flaming pile of wood into his path. He cursed. They’d have to risk the rooftops.

He flared his wings, flying up onto the roof of the building. Fires burned across the city, the heat buffeting him from every direction. Glancing upwards, he caught sight of another airship, moments before it crashed into the ground. He stumbled as the shockwave of the explosion pushed him back, the flames reaching up into the night sky.

Slick glanced upwards nervously. Two of the five distinctive towers of New were covered in fire, the piers breaking off one by one to slam into the city below. The Jackal’s tower was nowhere to be seen, having collapsed almost as soon as the attack began. Above him, heavily-armed warships circled around the Baron’s tower, bombarding the city and shooting every other ship out of the sky. The city was almost done. The last defending airships clustered under the green flag of the one tower that wasn’t yet in flames.

But it wouldn’t last long. Slick knew that the Baron’s troops would win. And when they did, he and his family had to be out of the city.

With a quick look to see that his siblings were behind him, Slick started across the rooftops, leaping over alleys and avoiding the rapidly growing infernos raging across the city. The heat buffeted at his coat as he galloped, pushing him onwards. A shadow of a memory flashed through his head.

“Run.”

There, the border of the city. Slick leapt down to the street, slowing his fall with a flap of his wings, and sprinted for the exit. Just a bit further...

A high-pitched whining filled the air. Suddenly, he was lifted off his hooves and pushed forwards, landing hard on the hot surface of the stone. He jumped to his hooves, frantically scanning the street for his siblings. “Is everyone okay?” he called.

A cry of agony pierced the darkness “Slick!”

“Oh, no. No no no no.” Slick ran to the source of the scream, practically throwing himself to the ground next to his little brother.

Pick looked up at him, face screwed up in pain as he cradled the bleeding stump of his foreleg. “Hurts,” he moaned.

Slick nodded. “Right. Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up in no time! And then we’ll be out of here, safe, and we’ll go live with our cousins in Southshore, and...” He trailed off. He was rambling. Calm down. Don’t break down now. Your family needs you.

He shook his saddlebags off, searching through them for the medical supplies. No, that’s not right. Trick had all the first aid stuff. She was the best at healing. Trick. His eyes widened. Where’s Trick...?

Raising his head, Slick caught sight of his sister. She wasn’t moving. “Fuck. Fuck!” He turned back to Pick. “I’ll be right back. Right back!”

Slick scrambled over to his sister, breathing fast. As he grew closer, he saw his fears come to harsh reality before him. Trick’s blood stained the street, pouring out of her headless corpse. A deep, bloody gouge marked her back. Her head was nowhere to be seen.

He fell over next to the body, sobbing as he frantically ripped her saddlebags away. No time for grief. Got to stay together. For Pick.

He returned to his brother with her saddlebags in hoof, dumping their contents on the ground. Picking a dressing out of the pile of supplies, he did his best to hide his tears as he began to work.

Pick hissed, tensing as the wound was treated. “Where’s... where’s Sis?” he asked. When Slick didn’t respond, he tried again, his voice high with fear. “Slick, where’s Sis?”

Slick wrapped a bandage tight around the wound, ignoring the question as he swept the supplies back into their bloodied container with a wing. He slipped into them shakily, leaving his own saddlebags, full to the brim with as many Equestrian gemstones as he could fit, lying on the street.

Pick reached out with his remaining hoof, grabbing his brother roughly. “Where is Sis!?” he demanded.

“Do you remember what Mother told us?” Slick asked. He locked eyes with Pick, doing his best to keep his voice from trembling. “What’d she tell us?”

Pick hesitated, face blank. “She told us to run.”

Slick nodded, hoping his brother couldn’t see the tears running down his cheeks. “Yeah, that’s right,” he murmured. “And that hasn’t changed. Now c’mon! Get up!” With a grunt, he pulled Pick back to his hooves, allowing his brother to lean on his left side for support.

They stumbled a few feet further down the street. Slick kept his eyes focused dead ahead, on the darkness beyond the holocaust that was the city. His ears twitched at the sound of another explosion behind him.

A cannonball fell from above, lodging itself into the ground. To his left.

Slick’s eyes widened. His heart clenched.

With a flash of purple, the ball of iron detonated, sending deadly sharp shards out in every direction. Slick shut his eyes tight, cringing at the wet smacking of metal cutting flesh. He felt no pain.

His heart felt about to burst at the idea of what that might mean.

He opened his eyes. His brother was dead weight upon him, his body having shielded Slick from the murderous fragments. Slick backed away, shaking as his brother’s shredded corpse fell to the ground.

Anger welled up within him. Anger and rage and great, overwhelming grief. He glared up at the warships above and screamed his fury.

“Why the fuck are you doing this!? Why must you take everything from me!?” he screamed. His wings flared, daggers unsheathed. He would show them. He would kill them all for what they had done to him.

“Run.”

Slick blinked, shaking his head to dislodge the memory of Mother’s death. A fresh layer of grief rose up as he remembered that day, four years ago, when griffons had raided his clan. When he and his siblings had first come to the city. Mother had told them to run.

He galloped out of the city. He didn't dare look back.

With an ear-splitting metallic groan, the green-flagged tower toppled over. A yellow unicorn made a mark on his clipboard.

Ch. 18: In Search of Counsel

Omega

Chapter 18: In Search of Counsel

“Would you just look at that?”

My tail flicked in irritation as I looked up to Jabari. The zebra was standing on top of a rock, gazing at the forest stretched out beneath us with a wide smile.

“Yes, it’s great,” I said. I did a quick, cursory glance over the woods. It didn’t look particularly impressive to me, but then neither did the last ten ‘vistas’ he had stopped to ogle.

Silver Feather walked up to my side from behind, grimacing. “Does he really have to stop at every little high spot and stare at nothing?” he grumbled.

I shrugged. “He’s a free guide. It’s better than nothing,” I whispered.

Looking back, I saw the rest of our party carefully picking their way up the slope behind me. According to Jabari, we could reach the ‘Earth Seer’, as he called her, within four days. I’d asked if there was a faster route, worried about leaving Storm and Ember alone in Harvest, and so he’d shown us this path. I raised a hoof to block the sunlight as I squinted upwards, eyeing the mountains to our left. It was a rough climb, but as far as I was concerned the extra day was worth it.

“Jabari, can we get a move on?” I called. The zebra jumped, as if he had forgotten we were there, and gave me an enthusiastic nod. He bounded off the rock, wincing slightly as he landed.

“My apologies, Dissero, but I cannot help but to get lost in the vista of the wilds.” He smiled before he turned away, briskly starting up the slope.

“We’re ready to work, ma’am.”

Stormslider nodded curtly, frowning over the schematic spread beneath her. A dozen recusants stood before her in varying states of awakeness. Storm faintly registered the sound of Ember’s hooves in the background, clopping against the stone as she inspected the Omega.

“Okay, then,” Storm began. “Might as well get started.” She waved a hoof towards the ship. “Go through and remove all the shrapnel and wreckage, please.”

The recusants dipped their heads, speaking in unison. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ‘ma’am’,” Stormslider said. “It’s not needed.”

One of the recusants flinched, his eyes darting side to side. “It is needed, ma’am.”

Storm cocked her head, curious, but resisted the urge to ask more. She shrugged. “Okay, if you insist. Get to work, please.”

She turned back to her schematic as the laborers trotted away. Rebuilding the Omega from it’s current state was not going to be an easy task. She’d have to find a new engine, practically reconstruct the chassis, add weapons and communication systems, and a dozen other things. Worse, she’d have to get Ember to agree.

Pulling out a pencil, she got to work.

This zebra was starting to get on my nerves.

The climbing on it’s own would’ve been bad enough. The slight chill in the air as we ascended into the mountains I could handle. But Jabari’s unending parade of talking was unbearable.

“I see so many gorgeous things outside the wall,” the zebra shared, oblivious of just how little anyone cared. “Flowers blooming in spring, and purple mountains at sunset, and...”

I tuned him out, slowing down to let Silver catch up with me. “So what do you think of this seer business?” I asked. I knew that he was willing to follow along with me, and that he had agreed to come. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he had held something back, when the crew was discussing the idea.

He shrugged. “I dunno, Dissy. This is your thing. I’m more worried about the ship.”

I bumped into him good-naturedly. “I’m sure Storm and Ember will keep it under control. They should be able to stop killing eachother a little while, for the sake of the ship at least.”

He nodded. “Yeah. If we’re lucky, the seer will help us out.”

“I just feel like—uff.” I grunted as I ran into something warm and furry. Looking forwards, I saw Jabari before me, stock still, eyes up to the sky, seemingly unaware of the contact.

Silver stepped in front of him, waving a hoof over the zebra’s face. “Hey, Jabari? You there?”

Jabari jumped, gazing at Silver as if he’d just grown stripes. Suddenly, he grabbed the pegasus, pulling him close and fixing him with a wide, unseeing stare.

“Tell me, pony,” he hissed. “Have you ever seen someone blown to pieces before your eyes?”

I put a cautioning hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, Jabari—”

He whirled, shoving my hoof off of him and planting his own on my chest. “Have you ever heard a soldier cry as he holds his guts in?” I flinched at his accusing tone, his breath hot on my face.

Exe came up from behind me, pushing his heavy girth between us. “Have you forgotten your task, zebra?” he rumbled.

Jabari stared at him in wonder, blinking. He shook his head, raising a hoof to his eyes. “Ah, yes. My apologies.” He looked up, the empty stare replaced with a wide smile. “Shall we continue, then?”

He trotted away as if nothing had happened, dexterously moving over the rocky terrain. Confused, I squinted up at Exe.

“What was that?” I asked.

He grunted. “I think our guide is lost in his past.”

He lumbered after the zebra without another word. Silver and I stared after him, eyes wide. Behind me, I heard the rest of the crew catch up.

I turned to them. “Careful with that zebra,” I cautioned. “He seems dangerous.”

Ω Ω Ω

A cold wind blew snow across my coat, sending a shiver down my spine. I looked up, straining to see beyond the light of the campfire. The darkness of the moonless night was impenetrable. I turned to Jabari, who was lying on a sleeping roll across the fire.

“What’s left?” I asked.

The zebra blinked, looking away from the depths of the flame. “Now is the hard part. We will follow a path alongside the mountain ridge. It will take us to a slope just below the Earth Seer’s home.”

I nodded. Most of my crew was asleep around the campfire. Silver Feather was snoring loudly, sharing a shallow dugout in the snow with Cleaver. Nix was curled up next to me, having crawled towards the warmth of the fire in her sleep. Exe dozed near the fire, a bone sticking out of his jaws.

“I’ve always liked camping out in the snow,” Jabari mused. Another gust of wind blew past, stirring the fire in its wake. “It feels safe, to have a fire warm you while all the world freezes.”

I let out a neutral little murmur of acknowledgement. I wasn’t really interested in a conversation, but it would’ve been rude to just ignore the statement.

He didn’t seem to pick up on the hint, continuing on. “I still remember the first time I came up here,” he said. “Harvest was in the midst of civil war. I deserted and came here to hide.”

That caught my interest. “A civil war?”

He nodded, eyes still lost in the fire. “Yes. The Thieves Guild had a falling out with some merchant house. They took to murder in the streets. The Simple Council put an end to it, of course.” He looked down, sighing. “I was expected to do my part.”

Silence fell over the camp, broken only by the crackling of the fire and the whistling of the wind. To my disappointment, he didn’t explain any further.

Gradually, I drifted off to sleep.

Ω Ω Ω

I move my gun to a more comfortable position, peering out into the night lazily. The sounds of clan life rise from the sinkhole behind me, making stark contrast against the silence of the open land.

A bright red light flares into existence above a nearby cloud. My ears twitch at the sound of hooves, to my left. I whip around, just in time to see a shadow slip behind a bush.

I raise my rifle, bringing it to bear on the night.

There’s a sound behind me. I begin to whirl, too late.

I can’t breathe. I gag as a constricting force tightens around my throat, cutting off my windpipe.

I buck hard, and the force vanishes. As I fall to the dust, coughing and gagging, I barely register my attacker hitting the ground in the corner of my eye.

My attacker recovers quickly, pouncing on me as I roll onto my back, gasping for air. My neck stings. The wire pushes into my neck as my vision darkens. My lungs burn, screaming for air. My heart pounds, fighting for life.

I try to slap him away, but there’s no strength left in my body. He doesn’t even flinch as he pushes down harder. I silently plead for life. He shows no mercy.

I can’t fight back any longer. The red light hanging in the air paints deep shadows over my killer’s face. As my hooves fall to the dust and my life fades away, a burst of light brings my murderer’s visage into terrifying clarity.

A pair of dead, unseeing eyes look down on me.

Blaming me.

Ω Ω Ω

“Dissy?”

My eyes snapped open, focusing in on the magenta hoof gently grabbing my shoulder.

I rolled onto my back, horn glowing. With the soft ring of unsheathed steel, my last remaining sword hovered to my side, blade at the ready.

Nix let out a little whimper, eyes wide. I frowned, breathing hard. My eyes darted from her, to my sword, to the trickle of blood on her neck.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” I shoved the sword back into its sheath as I climbed to my hooves. As I rose, Nix fell, sitting back on her haunches. I ran a hoof through my mane. “You, uh... surprised me.”

She leaned forwards, laying a shaky hoof on my shoulder. “Are you okay, Dissero?”

“I’m fine!” I snapped. She flinched, drawing away. Doing my best to calm my rapidly beating heart, I lowered my voice. “Just a... bad dream is all.”

“R-right.” She averted her eyes. “Well, we’re about to leave. I thought I’d come wake you up.”

She turned and walked away without another word, hastily slipping into her saddlebags. I scanned my surroundings, wary for any sign of danger. Silver and Exe were waiting under a tree, the pony eyeing the bear curiously when he wasn’t looking. Cleaver was munching on some grass, graciously washing it down with his favorite drink. Jabari was perched on top of a snow-covered tree, examining the horizon with a wide smile.

After a quick check to make sure everyone had everything, we set off down the path. To my chagrin, Jabari’s idea of a ‘path’ seemed to be no more than a narrow cliff jutting out of the mountainside, covered in snow so deep that it came all the way up to my barrel.

The going was slow. The thick snow turned every step into a chore. Silver got off easy with the snow, as apparently his natural pegasus magic allowed him to step on it without sinking in. Lucky him.

The snow picked up, swirling around us angrily as we pushed onwards. My heart sank as I glanced up to the sky.

“Jabari! There’s a storm coming!” I called.

He grinned back at me. “Yes! Truly one of nature’s great beauties!”

Oh, Luna save me.

Within minutes, the full force of the storm was upon us. For once I was thankful for the thick layer of snow; I was certain that without it to hold me down the winds would rip me right off the mountainside.

It became nearly impossible to see through the whirling blizzard. I could just barely make out Jabari’s silhouette ahead of me, blurred by the snow. I ducked down as another gust of wind threatened to throw me to my death. A flash of lightning briefly pierced the flurries, followed soon after by rumbling thunder.

I struggled to get within hearing range of Jabari. Taking a moment to work up my courage, I reached out and tapped him on the flank, quickly returning my hoof to the ground out of fear of falling. Jabari turned, squinting at me, a wide smile still on his face.

“We need to find shelter!” I screamed. “This storm is too strong!”

He shook his head. “It is fine!” he shouted. “I have done this before!”

“Damnit, Jabari! Find us somewhere to wait out this storm or it will rip us off the mountain!”

The zebra frowned, squinting down the mountainside. His eyes widened as he realized the full might of the storm, as if he was seeing it for the first time.

He nodded. “Yes! Follow me!”

We pushed onwards, hugging the cold stone of the mountainside as the wind buffeted at our coats. I looked behind me. Cleaver was wading through the snow, gritting his teeth. Behind him, the world faded to white.

When I returned my gaze forwards, I was alarmed to find that Jabari was nowhere to be seen. I looked down, frantically searching for his tracks in the snow. Nothing. They just stopped. Where did he go!?

I yelped as a hoof pulled me to the side, into a thin crack in the mountain. Jabari was there, his eyes reflecting the soft flicker of a lantern he’d placed on the stone. “We will wait here,” he said.

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll go help my crew in.”

By the time I squeezed back onto the narrow ledge, flinching as the wind and snow slammed into me, Cleaver had reached the end of my trail. He raised a hoof to his eyes, peering forwards into the snow.

“Kaptain?” he called.

“Cleaver! Over here!” He turned, eyes brightening as they fell on me. I beckoned to him. “Jabari found shelter.”

Once his tail had disappeared into the mountain, I turned my attention back to the path. Eventually, Silver’s dark orange coat came into focus, his mane practically invisible in the weather. He was no longer trotted lightly along the top of the snow, instead opting to slog through it like the rest of us.

“Nice weather, yeah?” he shouted. I grinned, pointing him into the little cave. Between the blizzard and the shadows of the stone, it was nearly impossible to pick out without help.

Exe came after him, his thick brown fur barely visible under the snow covering every hair. With a nod of thanks, he squeezed into the cave.

Nix was last. Despite the rest of the crew pushing most of the snow aside before she got to it, she seemed barely capable of walking any further. She stumbled forwards blindly, eyes wide with terror. She didn’t even notice my presence until she bumped right into me.

She looked up. I pointed to the cave. “We’re taking a break!” I explained, yelling to be heard over the blizzard.

Her legs wobbled. She seemed about ready to collapse with relieved exhaustion. As she turned to enter the cave, an especially strong gust of wind blew past us.

She shrieked as the wind pulled her off her hooves, casting her over the edge.

“Nix!” My horn burst into light as I grabbed her in my magic. I grit my teeth in concentration, struggling to keep her from being blown away. “Help!” I shouted.

Celestia help me! The wind was so strong. It was all I could do to hold her in place, let alone levitate her to safety. I narrowed my eyes. My horn glowed even brighter. A trickle of sweat ran down my cheek. No!

Just as I felt my magic begin to break, Silver Feather came sprinting past me. “I got you!”

He jumped off the cliff, hastily unwrapped bandages trailing from his bad wing. A rope was tied around his barrel. I risked a glance back and saw Exe, Jabari, and Cleaver, hooves and paws clamped over the rope.

Nix shrieked even louder as Silver spread his wings, his face contorting with pain as the right unfurled, and wrapped his forelegs around her. He flapped frantically, struggling to fight the wind.

“Pull us in!”

I rushed to grab hold of the rope, helping the others reel the two in. Silver’s bad wing gave out, and he plummeted downwards, out of sight. The rope stretched taut.

“Heave!” Together, we pulled on the rope. A magenta hoof reached up from over the cliff, scrambling for a grip.

I leapt forwards, planting myself in the snow and grabbing Nix’s hoof in my own. With a roar, I pulled her up. We fell backwards into the snow together, her on top of me, the both of us breathing hard.

She hugged me like her life depended on it, shaking. “Oh, thank you! You saved my life!” I felt my chest fur dampen with her tears.

Weakly, I raised a hoof to pat her on the head. “I’m—” I coughed. “—glad you’re okay,” I breathed. “Silver helped too.”

Just then, the pilot clambered back onto the ledge, panting. “Fuck, my wing hurts!” he hissed. He looked down to us, the beginnings of a grin on his face. “Hey, lovebirds, you gonna come inside?”

He trotted past us, moaning and rubbing his bad wing. Nix stayed where she was, face buried in my coat. Hesitantly, I gave her a little push.

“Nix. Nix, you need to get off me.”

She hugged me even tighter.

“Nix!”

Stormslider frowned over her papers, tapping a hoof against the table thoughtfully. It was just like Ember to request for quality materials, with no thought to the cost. Sure, the thicker hull may make the ship sturdier in the long run, but Ember seemed to have forgotten that with every extra coin she allowed the Simple Council to spend on the ship, she dug the crew deeper into debt. Storm didn’t like the idea of even going into a single battle. At this rate they’d might as well start a career.

She glanced upwards as one of the recusant laborers glided past, a bucket of sharpnel held in her teeth. Storm returned her gaze to the paper, chewing on a pencil. She had to figure out how to cut the ridiculous fees Ember was racking up, preferably before she sold them all into slavery.

Wait a minute. Storm looked back up, eyes wide. Dropping the pencil, she spread her wings and flew out of her seat, flying towards the large dumpster that even now was being filled with shrapnel and wreckage.

The three recusants hovering around the dumpster fluttered out of her way as she approached, buckets swinging in their hooves as their moved. Stormslider squinted down into the wreckage, scanning its contents. With a quiet “Aha,” she reached down and plucked out the object that had caught her eye. She leaned over it curiously. Moonstone, as she had suspected.

She turned to the three laborers by her side, brandishing the shard. “Do any of you know who found this?”

One of them, a mare, waved a hoof nervously. “I did, ma’am,” she squeaked.

“Show me where you got it,” Storm said. “You’re not in trouble.”

The mare nodded, eyes averted. Hesitantly, she led Stormslider to a section of the hull where little more than the ship’s skeleton remained. Steel beams, some twisted from trauma, formed the framework of the chassis.

And running alongside the beams, engraved with exotic runes, was moonstone.

Storm’s mind raced. What is that doing built into the hull? Theories formed, were disproved, and evolved. An idea took shape. Answers for past questions were evaluated.

A plan took form.

She turned to the recusant hovering nervously at her side. “Tell the others they are not to remove this material from the hull, and they are to save any broken pieces they find,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.” The recusant flew away.

Stormslider held the little chunk of moonstone up to the light, examining the runes carved into its surface. A flicker of a smile passed over her face. Science was at hoof.

This was going to raise the repair costs.

“Nearly there, now!”

“How much further?” I paused under the shadow of a tree, shivering from the cold. The blizzard had lasted longer than expected, and we’d been forced to spend the night in the tiny cave. It hadn’t been a very comfortable night. My bedroll did little for the rough stone, and due to the cramped quarters I’d ended up sandwiched between Silver and Nix. Still, it was better than braving the storm.

Jabari turned to face me from his position several feet higher on the slope. “We are almost there!” he exclaimed. He raised a hoof and pointed to a small outcropping, some distance up the mountainside. “We can reach it by sunset!”

I nodded, doing my best to fend off the weariness. I began to grumble sourly, panting. “We’ve gotta... climb up... this Luna-damned mountain... in the snow... all day...?”

“Great, isn’t it?”

Silver Feather trotted lightly up to my side, once again abusing his pegasus powers to avoid sinking into the snow. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Shut up... Silver...”

He grinned. “Sure thing, Diss.” He dipped his head insolently, trotting to catch up with Jabari.

I shook my head, returning my focus to the climb. One step at a time. I raised a hoof, pulling it out of the thick snow, and took a step. Such is progress. My ears twitched as a gust of wind sent a shiver down my spine. As soon as I can, I’m adding fur padding to my barding. I frowned. Back in Equestria, thoughts like that would label me a freak and a murderer.

Sweet Celestia, what is happening to me?

“Kaptain!”

I looked back. Cleaver was several steps down the slope, pointing up into the sky. Following his hoof, I picked out ten recusant silhouettes flying our way.

“Get to the trees!” Jabari called. I rushed to comply, cursing the snow as I struggled to reach the relative safety of the treeline.

Silver reached the trees first, fluttering his good wing anxiously as he watched the recusants. I reached his side soon after, with Nix hard on my tail.

Silver rolled his shoulders, leaning back and pointing his lightning gun up to the sky. “Storm’s gun would sure be useful around now,” he said.

My eyes widened. Reaching out with a hoof, I grabbed the barrel of his gun and pushed it down. “Are you going to shoot them?”

“Yeah, of course. They’re bandits.” He wrenched the gun from my grasp. “We’ve gotta hit them before they hit us.”

“They’re recusants, not bandits,” I corrected. “You can’t shoot them out of the sky because of how they look.”

Exe and Cleaver arrived from further down the slope, having climbed it after they got to the trees. “Let him shoot, unicorn,” the bear rumbled. “Would you risk our lives for your hesitation?”

“No!” I snapped. “I’ve lived with recusants, and they’re not mindless bandits! Let me speak to them.”

I stepped out from under the trees, ignoring Silver’s protests. The recusants were closer now, hovering. One of them landed on top of the snow before me.

“Greetings.” She was bundled up in thick layers of clothing from head to tail, her voice muffled by the material. The wingblades strapped to her feathers glinted in the sunlight. She wore no saddlebags.

“Hello,” I replied. Glancing back, I saw that the rest of my party had disappeared. They must’ve hidden in the trees. A slight pang of worry hit me as I wondered where Jabari had gone.

When I returned my gaze to the recusant, I saw that she’d flared her wings, prominently displaying the carefully sharpened edges of her blades. “I’ll take your coin or your life,” she stated. “The same goes for the rest of your party.”

I narrowed my eyes. Fuck. “Can’t you just leave us alone? There’s no need for a fight.”

She grinned. “You’re right. So empty your bags, and we’ll leave.”

“Or maybe you fly away and leave us be.”

“My clan must eat, pony.” She flexed her wings meaningfully. “You still live only because it’s more convenient than killing you right away.”

This isn’t going anywhere. My eyes darted side to side as I tried to work out a plan. I had to get back to the trees before the rest of the bandits could fall on me, and with only one sword I was hardly in fighting shape. Her hoof tapped against the snow. Running out of time...

With a fierce battlecry, Jabari came galloping out of the trees. He drew his sword, mouth clamped firmly over its hilt, and slashed at the recusant as he ran past her.

She ducked smoothly out of the way, coming back up with wingblades at the ready, and was rewarded with a hard buck from Jabari’s iron shoes.

With a sickening crunch, the recusant crumpled to the ground. Above me, I heard several cries of furious grief as the rest of the bandits began to react. I drew my sword as a crossbow bolt flew down from above, punching through my barding and sticking into my back.

“Agh!” I looked up, hissing. Three of the recusants were wielding crossbows, while the remaining six came diving down upon Jabari and I.

I ducked as the first recusant swooped over me, trying not to think about how close his wingblades came to my body. Looking up, I saw another bandit diving towards me.

I stuck my sword out, to no avail. The bandit pulled a wing in at the last moment, snapping to the side and landing hard in the snow to my right. Ripping myself out of the snow with a gargantuan effort, I pounced on him, shoving my sword into his neck.

Blood spurted from the corpse, splattering against my bandanna. The world turned white for a brief instant as Silver fired again, and a smoking recusant crashed into the snow besides me.

I looked up. The four remaining bandits were circling above us, bombarding us with crossbows. I flinched as one of them bounced off my horn. Silver’s thunder roared in the background, growing gradually louder, rolling on and on.

What?

With a quick glance to the side, I verified my suspicions: Silver wasn’t shooting. He was taking cover behind a tree. Then where’s that noise coming from?

The answer came a few moments later, in the form of a galloping white wall of snow, crashing down the slope towards us.

“Hah! See ya in hell, you bastards!” One of the recusants taunted. With a few strong flaps of their wings, they flew high, far out of danger.

Exe ran past me, blood dripping from his sheathed axe. “Avalanche!” he bellowed. “Get to the trees!”

I waded through the snow as quickly as I could, my back screaming in agony as the crossbow bolt dug itself deeper into my flesh with each movement. I’m not going to make it. I heard Jabari’s hooves crunching the snow behind me. The thundering of the avalanche grew louder and louder, overcoming every other sound. I tripped, falling face first into the snow.

Silver sprinted out from the relative safety of the trees, teeth gritting together as he flapped his wings for speed. “I got you!”

He clamped his teeth down on the collar of my barding and yanked hard. I stumbled as he practically dragged me through the snow, exploiting his wings and pegasus magic for all they were worth. A white mist approached from the corner of my eye.

White hooves wrapped around my chest. Cleaver lifted me onto my back like a doll, carrying me the rest of the way to the trees as Silver ushered him on.

Just when I thought the deadly avalanche was certain to hit us, Cleaver tossed me onto the ground. He and Silver fell down next to me, panting. Lifting my head, I watched, awestruck, as the avalanche barreled down the open slope, right past the trees.

Nix was on me in an instant, hooves searching all over my body for wounds. “Oh Celestia, are you okay? Did those bandits hit you? Is there any pain? Where? Do you need help?”

Weakly, I raised a hoof to wave away her onslaught of questions. “I’m good, Nix... Where’s.... where’s Jabari?”

Exe stood over me, blocking the sun. “The zebra did not make it,” he stated.

I gaped. “What? But... he was...” Right behind me...

Silver found the energy to climb into a sitting position. “Sorry, Diss. I could only save one of you.” He looked down to the ground, planting a hoof in the snow. “I wasn’t gonna lose you again.”

“Agh, fuck!” I covered my eyes with my hooves, furious with myself. The movement sent a sharp jolt of pain up my back. “Agh, fuck!”

“You’re hurt!” Nix rolled me onto my stomach, examining the wooden shaft embedded in my back. “Oh, Luna. We need to get you out of this barding.”

“I’m cold enough as it is, Nix. Can’t we get it out later?”

“No!” she snapped. “You’ve driven it in enough with all this running. Now strip!”

Reluctantly, I complied. With some exhausted magic, I disconnected the straps that held the top and bottom halves of the barding around my barrel together. I sent silent thanks to Celestia that the armor’s design let me levitate it off without disturbing the bolt any further.

“On your side,” Nix commanded.

“Why, what are you going to do?” I rolled onto my side, eyeing her apprehensively.

She rummaged through her saddlebags, pulling out a nearly empty bottle of vodka and a pitifully wrinkled dressing. “Hold him down.”

“Wait—what!?”

Exe and Cleaver grabbed my hind and fore legs, respectively. I struggled, but to no avail. They were simply too strong for me.

“Stay still, Dissero,” Nix said. “For your own good.”

With a quick, precise movement, she snapped the tail off the bolt, sending painful vibrations up my back. I didn’t have any time to recover before she began to push on the shaft, driving it through.

I screamed. The world slipped out of focus as pain racked my body.

I saw the head of the bolt come out my belly. The pain became too much to bear. My eyes rolled up into my head, and I fell into blissful nothingness.

Ω Ω Ω

“Silver! Silver, we’ve got the money!”

“Huh, what?” My best friend looks up to me, blinking blearily.

“We’ve got the money! We can afford a ship!”

Ω Ω Ω

“Awake at last, I see.”

Moaning, I cracked my eyes open. The world was rocking, swaying side to side nauseatingly. I squinted down at the snow, some five feet or so below me. Raising my head, I discovered that I was draped over Exe’s back. The bear was looking back at me, a smirk on his face.

“What... where...?”

“The bolt is out,” he informed me. “You’re lucky it didn’t rupture anything.”

For the first time I noticed my barding was missing. Wearily, I scanned my body. A thick layer of bandages was wrapping around my barrel, white stained with red. “Where are we?”

Cleaver trotted into my field of view. “It is good to see you are well, Kaptain.” He nodded to something out of my sight. “We are at the Earth Seer’s doorstep.”

I followed the direction he indicated, my eyes alighting upon a small cave in the side of the mountain. It was shallow, allowing most of it to be lit by the setting sun. In the back of the cave, I picked out a crude tunnel.

And next to it was a sign. A simple message had been painted onto it.

“Closed. Please come back later.”

“Come the fuck on!”

Ch. 19: The Earth Seer

Omega

Chapter 19: The Earth Seer

This is fucking ridiculous.

I let out a heavy sigh, trying to ignore the pulsing ache in my side. Glancing up into the daytime sky from the cave floor, I listened to the sound of my crewmates arguing.

“Who cares if she says she’s closed? We can just go in anyways,” Silver grumbled.

“We will respect the seer’s wishes,” Exe asserted, ignoring the pegasus’s frustrated snort.

Cleaver peered into his bottle, frowning. “Would be unwise to ignore sign,” he agreed.

Restless, I climbed to my hooves and trotted to where Nix was sitting, looking out into the snow outside. I settled down next to her, tensing as the wound in my side flared up.

She blinked, glancing towards me momentarily before returning her gaze to the slope below. “We should be out looking for him,” she said. “He could still be out there, trapped in the snow.”

But that may get us killed. Survival comes first.

“Nix.” I put a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s not worth the risk. It’s too dangerous.”

She frowned, brow furrowed. “What if it was you down there?” she snapped. Her eyes met mine, reflecting my own worry back at me. “Freezing to death with barely room to breathe and half the bones in your body shattered? Would you want us to just leave you, without even thinking to look?”

“No, of course not.” I sighed, immediately regretting it as another spasm of pain racked my body. “But I’d understand if you did.”

She was shaking, staring out into nothingness. I pulled her into a sympathetic hug. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “We’re all just trying to survive.”

“Hey, Dissy! Look!”

I turned to look at my best friend. “Yes, Silver?” I quipped.

He was standing next to the sign, waving towards it with a hoof. Frowning, I examined it for anything interesting. My eyes widened as I read the message.

“Please enter. Leave you weapons at the door,” it said. There was no trace of the previous message. It was as if someone had snuck out and replaced the sign with an entirely new one. Next to the sign was a crude wooden bin, also having appeared out of thin air.

“Well...” Nix raised her head, eyes red. I looked to the rest of my party. They all seemed just as surprised as I was. “Shall we go, then?

Cleaver unslung his hammer from where it rested on his back, dropping it in the bin. Silver was next, unstrapping his lightning gun and, after a brief pause, laying it down. He cocked his head in thought for a moment, before drawing a knife out of a neck sheath and adding it to the pile. I levitated Nix’s unused rune gun from her side, placing it into the bin along with my last remaining sword.

The rest of us looked expectantly to Exe, who was standing off to the side, axe still firmly in its sheath. “I will not part with my blade,” he growled.

I ran a hoof through my mane, smiling nervously. “Uh, Exe. The sign says—”

“I will not part with it,” he repeated.

“Dissy, this sign is really creeping me the fuck out,” Silver hissed.

I turned, narrowing my eyes at the sign. Another line had been added to the bottom of the message. “The bear may keep his axe.”

“Okay, what the actual fuck?” I said.

Cleaver shrugged, tossing his now empty bottle to the side.

“Guess we go in, then.” Shaking my head, I trotted carefully into the tunnel, the claws and hooves of my companions following behind me. The tunnel was long, and soon I found myself walking through pitch dark. My heartbeat echoed in my ears, every breath and step audible in the stillness.

Fwoosh!

The tunnel suddenly filled with flickering light as torches, placed high up on the walls, burst into flame. I jumped, glancing back with alarm. My party was still there, all but Exe looking equally surprised. Doesn’t anything get a rise out of that bear?

When I returned my gaze ahead, I saw a veil of hanging beads before me, swaying lightly in some imperceptible wind. Well that’s... cliche.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed my way through the curtains. A homey little room waited on the other side, carved smoothly from the stone. A bookshelf took up a corner of the room, dominated by a collection of curious trinkets and dusty old tomes. There was a fireplace next to it, providing heat for a sturdy iron cauldron as well as the room. The rest of the space was largely occupied by a simple wooden table, surrounded by a collection of stools.

My ears twitched at the sound of hoofbeats, coming from one of the two other entrances cut into the room.

Into the room stepped an earth pony mare, with an off-yellow coat and a dull red mane. She tilted her head, smiling.

“Hello, Dissero,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Are you ready, Ember?”

Stormslider looked up to where Ember was perched, on a catwalk ringing the walls of the shipyard. Her fiery mane shook as she nodded, peeking around the rune gun levitating by her side.

Storm returned her gaze to the ship. The hull had been mostly repaired by now, with the only holes remaining on the navigation and cargo floor, where she had planned certain renovations. She’d finished a new rune device last night, consisting of a piece she was fairly certain transferred magic and a copy of the trigger she’d made for Silver’s lightning gun. It was leaning against her now, looking like a very poorly designed gun.

“How is the balloon?” she called.

“Drained. Completely empty,” Ember replied.

Here we go. Tensing, Storm lifted the device in her hooves and planted its tip against the hull, over one of the nodes where the lattice of runestone came together. She rubbed a wing over the trigger. If her theories were correct, it would send the magic right into the ship’s system.

A soft purple glow drifted out, starting from where she was standing and expanding out, following the runestone lines within the hull, until it encompassed the whole ship. Stormslider grinned, the purple light illuminating the excitement on her face.

Storm continued to inject more magic into the ship, pulling the trigger over and over with her wing. A soft humming built up, and the ship began to float off of the ground. She scribbled onto a notepad with her free wing. “Levitation spell built into ship.”

She waved a hoof. “Okay, shoot!”

Ember muttered the trigger word, and her rune gun began to charge. It expelled a rune slug from the barrel, the glowing projectile covering the distance to the ship within in an instant.

With a small purple flash, the slug bounced away from the ship. It never touched the hull.

“Yes!” Storm pumped a hoof in the air. Carefully laying her new device aside, she turned to her notepad.

“Shield spell also present. Investigate possibility of adding new spells.”

I blinked, mouth agape, as I stared at the mare standing before me. The mare completely lacking in wings, with a single-color coat unmarred by stripes, and a very Equestrian body shape.

“You’re an earth pony!” I declared.

She rolled her eyes. “And you are a master detective. Please, come in.”

I didn’t move, still trying to wrap my head around the situation. “You’re the only other Equestrian I’ve met outside New!”

“Your observational skills are no match for me,” she quipped. “Would you please come in? The stew will overcook at this rate.”

Cleaver pushed against my flank. “Are you well, Kaptain?”

I shook myself, stepping the rest of the way into the room. My crew filed in behind me, each one in turn gaping at the earth pony. Exe entered last, planting his bulk in the only unoccupied space left, right in front of the entrance.

The earth pony offered a wide smile to her new guests. “Welcome,” she said. “I am Ambrosia.”

Silver stepped forwards. “Are you the seer?”

She shrugged, calmly collecting a stack of bowls from the bookshelf. “I’ve been known by many titles over the years. I can only tell you that I am the one you search for.”

I cleared my throat, making sure to carefully arrange my words before I spoke. “We are from Equestria, seeking a way home.” I dipped my head. “Can you help us?”

She smirked, setting the six bowls down on the table. “I can, yes. Are you hungry?”

Cleaver tilted his head, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because.” She waved a hoof towards the cauldron, drawing my attention to the enticing aroma filling the room. “I just made all this vegetable stew, and I’d hate for it to go to waste.”

Ω Ω Ω

“This is the best thing I’ve eaten in months!” Silver leaned back, holding his bowl up. “Is there still more?”

“There’s as much as you can eat,” the Earth Seer replied, refilling his bowl with a fourth round of the delicious stew.

I had already eaten my fill, having taken only two bowls of the delicious stew. I had to agree with Silver: it really was the best thing I’d had in months. I don’t think I’ve even seen a decent vegetarian meal since I left Equestria.

Nix was sitting next to me, eating with unusual vigor. She flinched as Cleaver let out a loud belch from across the table. He leaned back, rubbing his belly contently.

“Excellent meal, seer,” he said. “My thanks.”

She dipped her head. “You’re welcome. It’s only polite to feed house guests.”

I winced as Exe took a hearty bite out his slab of meat. He was sitting at the end of the table, a plate of practically raw meat piled up before him.

“So, is there a charge for your services?” I asked.

“Normally, yes,” she said. “But you all are a special case. It is rare that true-bred ponies come to see me. What are your names?”

Silver paused in his eating, broth dripping from his chin. “Shouldn’t you know that?”

“Yes, Silver Feather, I already know your names.” She turned to him sharply. “But most people enjoy a certain set of traditions known as polite conversation.”

His eyes darted side to side, and I sighed inwardly. “My name is Dissero,” I supplied. “This is Phoenix Down, Cleaver, Exe, and... you already know his name.”

The seer nodded to each of us in turn. “Pleased to meet you all. Nice to see you still alive, bear. You may call me Ambrosia.”

Ambrosia beckoned to me, climbing to her hooves. “Come, Dissero. I would speak with you first.” She turned, stepping through a cloth veil into another room.

I exchanged a glance with my crew before rising from my seat. They offered assuring nods. Exe took another bite of meat. Slowly, I followed Ambrosia through the veil.

We came out into a much smaller, darker space. Candles burned from carefully placed holders along the walls, the tiny flames flowing together into gently curving shapes. In the center, barely visible in the flickering candlelight, a circular table and two chairs awaited.

Ambrosia took a seat in the far chair, and I sat opposite her. She fixed me with a hard stare, rubbing a hoof silently over her muzzle. I found myself wondering how old she was, and strangely unable to place a guess. Her face was young, without any of the wrinkles and spots of age, and yet didn’t have the shine of youth. And her eyes. Her eyes were far older than the rest of her.

“Well, then, Dissero. Where shall I start?” She leaned forwards, resting her head on her forehooves. “What do you know of Equestrian history?”

I cocked my head. “Well, just the same stuff most other ponies know. Hearth’s Warming, the Lunar Wars, the Legends of the Elements.” I shrugged.

She nodded. “And what do you know of the history of the Cloudwall?”

“The Cloudwall has surrounded Equestria for as long as anypony can remember. It’s always been there,” I recited.

“They would tell you that, wouldn’t they?” She shook her head, smiling as she leaned back in her chair. “Listen up, and I will tell you the true history of the Cloudwall.

“Over a thousand years ago, before the Royal Siblings began their reign, the recently united Equestria sent explorers over the ocean, borne on primitive airships made almost entirely from cloud. When they discovered the Outer World, they saw a wild and untamed land, ripe for the taking.

“The natives stood no chance. Equestria easily swept the quarreling tribes aside, establishing its own settlements in their place. The Equestrian Empire ruled over all of the Outer World for hundreds of years, growing off its resources.

“It didn’t last. Under the oppression of the Equestrian Empire, the Outsiders finally found the inspiration they needed to unite. Driven by their hatred, they drove the Equestrians back across the water and earned their independence.

“Fearful of an invasion from across the sea, the Equestrian military hatched a plan to protect their home. Over the course of a year, every pegasus capable of flight took part in the project, working to weave a massive shield around Equestria.” She looked up. “The Cloudwall.”

I frowned, brow furrowed. “No, that can’t be right. Nopony would ever even try to rule over other beings like that.”

“Hmph,” she grunted. “Equestria was different then. before your princesses. Less love, less tolerance, and much less equality.”

“Every pony is born equal in Equestria. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, griffon, and zebra alike all live in harmony, side-by-side,” I insisted. “It’s always been that way.”

She scoffed. “Have you ever heard of the Equestrian Genocides, Dissero?”

I blinked. “Wh-what?”

“When the Outer World rebelled, the pony nobility were the first to leave. They left via teleportation portals maintained by a dozen unicorns each, leaving everyone else behind. By the time the Cloudwall was sealed, only a fifth of the colonies had escaped.” She paused. I had to lean forwards to hear her next words, as quietly as she said them. “They left everypony behind.”

We sat in silence. When Ambrosia’s eyes refocused on me, they held a barely contained rage. “Hundreds of thousands died,” she hissed. “Ponies were hunted down like animals, massacred. The pegasi fled their posts, leaving the towns they defended helpless.”

I shook my head. “That’s not true.” It can’t be true.

“It is true!” She reared up, slamming her hooves down onto the table. “Just because it doesn’t match your idea of the perfect Equestria doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! Whole cities were burnt to the ground. You can see the remains everywhere!”

“Okay, okay!” I raised my hooves defensively, leaning back. “I believe you, alright?” I made a mental note to learn more of the Outer World’s history on my own.

She relaxed back into her chair. I nodded, more to myself than anyone else. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “I came for advice on the future, not a lesson on the past. I just want to get back to Equestria.”

She smirked, still breathing a little hard from her outburst. “Because it’s something you need to know. But before I give you the knowledge you seek, I have a question for you.” She leaned in, the candlelight casting a shadow over her face. “What was that name you said earlier?”

I blinked. “Uh, Thunder Shield? Nothing. Just... something I saw in a dream.”

She cocked her head. “Oh? Was it a dream you had after discovering an obelisk? Perhaps in the mists south of New?”

“Yes...” I frowned. “How did you know that?”

She winked at me, sliding out of her seat. “It is my business to know things. Stand up.”

I complied. As I stood, she walked to the far side of the little room, her hooves clopping quietly on the stone. She turned to me. “Hold still.” For a brief instant, I thought her eyes flashed purple.

A purple spear materialized before her, hanging in the air. My eyes widened. The spear flew towards me.

I dove aside, and the projectile shattered harmlessly against the wall behind me. “What are you doing!?”

She rolled her eyes as three more spears appeared. “Just hold still! I want to see something.”

I threw myself at the veil, opening my mouth to shout for help. “Oof!” The shifty cloth had become hard as stone. Terrified, I turned around just in time to see the three magical missiles hurtling towards me.

I shut my eyes, waiting for their sharp tips to pierce my flesh. My ears twitched as I heard a low grinding sound in front of me. I felt the stone shift around my hooves. I cracked an eye open, wary of what I might see, and was pleasantly surprised to find my body in one unmutilated piece.

Looking up, I noticed a pony-sized piece of glass floating in the air before me. A blue sheen covered its surface, as if reflecting sunlight, despite the shady dimness of the cave.

Ambrosia stepped around the strange glass, eyeing me appraisingly. “You can turn that off now, if you like.”

“What?” For the first time I noticed the glow surrounding my horn. I felt myself channeling magic, but I didn’t remember casting any spells. Confused, I severed the flow.

The glass fell, shattering into dozens of glittering pieces. One by one, the shards faded away, leaving only a short-lived patch of purple mist behind.

“What was that?” I asked, gesturing at the pile of rubble. I looked to Ambrosia for guidance, and then remembered that she had just tried to kill me. “What was that!?”

She shrugged. “Relax. I was testing a hunch. You obviously weren’t consciously aware you had the spell, so I had to get your subconscious to step in.”

I stomped a hoof. “What spell?”

“The shield spell which you just cast. Angust. It’s been a bit distorted, but the spell is recognizable nonetheless.” She rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Tell me, have you had any strange dreams lately? Centered around the deaths of ponies you never knew?”

I tore my gaze away from the spot where the glass had simply faded away. “Yes, I’ve had... one. Do you know what it meant?”

She nodded. “What do you know of lunar magic?”

“Uh...” Despite myself, I couldn’t muster much knowledge. “All I know is that they let non-unicorns cast spells.”

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s the gist of it, yes.” She returned to her seat, motioning for me to do the same. Cautiously, I complied. My heart was still racing.

“Moonstone is a very special material, Dissero,” she said. “The ability to channel magic is extremely rare. It’s a trait that can only be found in the flesh of a pony, the blood of a dragon, and the substance of the moon itself.

“It is also very unstable. Thousands of ponies died to discover the runes needed to safely channel the raw power that is magic. There’s still much more to learn about them, an activity I have taken up myself, though with somewhat more emphasis on…” She let out a little giggle. “Safety.”

“Early advances were made via trial and error. Characters from every ancient language were collected and carved into the stone, tried over and over, until runes capable of channeling magic without exploding were discovered. Due to the nature of these experiments, all runes are built in with a sort of…” She rolled a hoof in the air. “Black box.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If the wielder of a rune dies, the rune records it, and passes the recording on to the next wielder.” She rubbed her muzzle thoughtfully. “Somehow, the runes are precognizant. They can forsee death, and inform their wielders. They can even detect their future wielder. There’s a brief moment when both wielders seem to exist at the same time and place, but only to eachother.”

She frowned. “It is a strange, impressive, and completely inexplicable feat of natural magic.”

Slowly, I nodded. “Uhm… yeah…” Starting to regret coming here.

“Anyways, I suppose I’ve given you enough backstory. Would you like to hear my advice for you now?”

“Ah, yes. Please,” I added. Finally.

My vision flashed purple, and suddenly there was an orb on the table between us, resting on a garish bronze frame.

She peered into it, silent. Several minutes passed. I shifted in my seat.

Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, a faint purple glow receding into their depths. “You have quite the journey ahead of you, Equestrian,” she announced.

“Do I get back to Equestria? Can you tell me how?”

“Yes, yes... you could.” With another flash, the orb was gone. “It isn’t going to be easy for you, but... you can get where you wish to go. Though you will need help.

“East and a little north of Harvest City there is a great pit. It leads down into the network of caves frequented by many of the more traditionalist goyles. At the bottom of that pit you will find something you need.”

My ears twitched. “Well, can you tell me what it is?”

She shook her head. “No, that wouldn’t do. I can guide you, but to tell you too much will change your future to something else entirely.” She stood, stretching. “I perceive only possibilities of what will pass. Do not let what I’ve told you influence your decisions poorly. You’ll make it back home, if you make the right choices. No foretelling can save you from your own stupidity.”

With that, she left, slipping through the thin veil behind me. I looked after her for some time, lost in thought. It’s so quiet in here...

Why can’t I hear my crew?

Cautiously, I pushed through the veil. Me ears popped as I passed over the threshold, and I was treated to the sight of my crew, safe and sound, still eating. I frowned. It’s been at least an hour...

“Kaptain!” Cleaver raised his bowl. “What news?”

Silver looked up, broth still all over his muzzle. “Oh, hey. That was fast.”

“Fast? I was in there for—”

“Ten minutes,” Ambrosia finished. She winked as she came to a stop by my side. “We only took ten minutes.”

“Uh... yeah,” I agreed.

She turned to the rest of my companions, smiling. “Well, then, who’s next?”

Reboot

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Ch. 1: A Little Adventure

Omega

Chapter 1 : A Little Adventure

Equestria.

Equestria is a big place. Vast horizons stretching from one coast to the next, dotted with settlements of pony, griffon, and half a dozen other species in climates of every kind. The map on my wall did its best to explain the majesty of the land, but nothing really ever compared to traveling it myself. Never has.

The map was old, the paper worn to a brown hue from age and trauma. Notes and sketches were crammed into all the empty spaces that could be found, and even more filled the sheets of paper pinned to its surface. I had stared at and labored over the map for pretty much all of my adult life. I could tell you the best way to get from any city to the next, including landmarks and shortcuts, plus all the towns nearby it important to my trade. I made my bits buying low and selling high, taking advantage of any difference in supply and demand that I could find.

The sunlight filtering through the window suddenly moved from the map to my face in a way that was very, very, bright and antagonizing. How does such a filthy glass let so much light through when I don’t want it? Whenever I actually needed it, it was never there.

What was I just doing…? I sighed inwardly. I get lost in maps too easy.

“No! I’m telling you, the problem isn’t the delivery system! It’s the electrolysis matrix!”

Nothing like the sound of arguing mares to clear the morning fog. I remembered what I was doing: checking over my logs to make sure everything was still in order. It was unlikely that anything had changed since last night, but it never hurt to be safe. It would bother me all day if I didn’t check it, anyways.

“By Celestia’s sparkly mane, you’re gonna kill us all! Just let me look at- “ A loud slam cut through the ship.

“I don’t have time for your foalish ideas! Do you have any grasp of how difficult it is to maintain this rusty old engine!? Your idiotic meddling doesn’t help!”

“Maybe if we didn’t have you working on it, it wouldn’t break down so friggin’ much!” A frustrated equine scream followed by a worrying metallic groan emerged from the ship, and I prayed that nothing too expensive had been broken.

We were traveling to Manehattan with my share of the latest harvest of Ponyville zapapples. They were regularly one of my most lucrative runs, even with my admittedly small hold in the market.

“What do you mean ‘we’? It’s my job to maintain the engine! I’m the cloudgineer! I’m the one who understands how this works! You get back to your plumbing or whatever it is you do!”

“You break everything!”

“I break everything!? Go set something on fire and stick your mane in it!”

The sound of a furious tussle leaked through the walls.

My stomach rumbled. Time for breakfast. Pouring over charts does no good if I die of starvation, after all. I glanced at the map one last time before leaving my quarters, entering a combination of a hallway and antechamber. Here, the three quarters, cargo bay, engine room, lounge, and stairway to the navigation floor above all came together. The sounds of conflict continued to leak out of the engine room, while the faint pounding of dubstep drifted down from the navigation floor.

I strolled into the lounge, a wide open room lined with a few sofas, tables, and portholes. A bar on the far side of the room separated it from the kitchen. Behind it stood a noticeably muscular giant of a stallion with a white coat and short-cropped, blonde mane and tail.

“Morning, Cleaver,” I mumbled. I trotted up to the cook. Apparently the mares’ screaming hadn’t completely woken me up yet.

“Hrm? Ah, Kaptain! Good afternoon. Have been up for hours, listening to angry fillies argue.” He spoke with a heavily accented baritone, turning on the stove to heat a pot of what I assumed to be leftover breakfast. “Why have you slept so late?”

I shrugged, glancing out the window idly as I sat at the bar. “I was reading late last night. Some books are hard to put down.”

The sound of angry hooves announced the presence of one of the loud mares from the earlier argument. “That pegasus is impossible! She has no idea how to treat that machine!”

A white unicorn mare stomped her way into the lounge and flopped down on a couch. Her short fiery mane and tail looked more ruffled than usual, and I could feel her anger even from my position across the room.

“Cleaver, food!” she commanded.

Cleaver made a small grunt as he shuffled about his kitchen. “Little pony should calm head. Stormslider knows her job. She is best trained member of crew.”

“Best formally trained, maybe!” she shot back. “That machine is suffering because of her. She has no idea how to treat it!” She pulled a lighter out and lit it with a burst of magic, holding the tiny flame close.

I turned to face her. “Calm down, Ember. She has only the best intentions for our engine. She’s hardly going to break the one thing keeping us up here.”

“How can I be calm when she’s in there tormenting that machine?” Ember said heatedly. The engine revved up for a few brief moments, as if agreeing with her.

Cleaver served me a bowl of tomato and bread soup from the pot, and brought Ember a fluffy omelet.

“Eggs again? Really?” She sighed.

“Enjoy meal. Calm yourself. You are no good to ship in distress,” Cleaver said. He returned to his kitchen and the bottle of vodka on the counter, reaching down to take a quick sip. Ember grumbled something under her breath.

“Thanks, Cleaver. I’m going to go check things with Silver,” I said. He pushed a small plate of vegetables towards me, and I levitated it to my side before trotting back to the antechamber.

The faint pounding of the dubstep was dramatically louder once I reached the navigation floor. Despite being played from the other side of the door which led to the cockpit, the music seemed to fill the entire level with an audible fog, blurring my vision. My pilot enjoyed playing dubstep when he flew, and he played it loud.

One couldn’t truly appreciate the volume until they opened the door.

Despite years of experience to temper my ears, entering the cockpit remained an exercise in incredible willpower. The vibrations in the air were so intense that passing over the threshold was like physically penetrating a wall of bubble wrap.

The cockpit was a room that seemed designed to confuse anypony inside as quickly as possible. Various levers, chains, pulleys, and pedals were crammed into the small space with no discernible pattern. The walls and dashboard were decorated with switches and gauges so worn that any identifying colors they might have had were long faded, and any labels that may have indicated their purposes were gone as well. In the center of the room, sitting before the bubble of glass at the front of the ship, Silver Feather bobbed his head to the beat. His tall silver mane, dark orange coat, and long tail bobbed and swayed in perfect tandem with the music as he eyed the instruments before him.

With some quick magic, I turned off the stereo in the corner that was so busily dropping the bass. Silver jumped, his hooves losing their beat, and flicked his head towards me in such a way that the goggles he had been wearing flew up his forehead and lodged themselves comfortably in his mane.

“Oh, Dissy. Hey there.” He glanced at the stereo to ensure it was still there.

It should be noted that Dissy is not my name. Dissero is. It’s just a familiar he picked up from my parents. Normally I wouldn’t respond to it, but as a longtime foalhood friend, I let him slide.

“Morning, Silver. How are we doing?” I asked him. My ears were still ringing, but I was used to the sensation.

“You mean afternoon, right? S’all good, though… we seem to be losing some engine output. I presume our mechanically minded fillies were debating on the best course of action, yeah?” The pegasus grinned, leaning to one side to eye an abstractly placed gauge.

“Yeah. Stormslider won, I think.”

“As she should. It’s her job, after all. She does it well, despite the trouble. Mind bringin’ me a snack? I haven’t eaten since soup this morning, and sitting here staring at the walls is hard work.”

“Beat you to it,” I said, floating the plate I had brought to him. He grabbed it with a wing and tucked it neatly by his shoulder.

“Thank our fine chef for me.” He stuck his snout into the plate. As I left, he flicked his music back on with his tail.

Ω Ω Ω

I’ve always disliked moments like this…

The vast majority of my crew’s time was spent lounging. All we really had to do was fly, after all. We had an engineer, Stormslider, but all she ever had to do was fix the engine. Once it was in working condition, she wasn’t really needed unless a particular burst of speed was required. Bursts of speed aren’t really high in demand in the trading business, and I wasn’t trying to set a world record or anything like that. Ember worked on other myriad machines and devices, but she also had just a maintenance role unless she was tinkering with something in her free time.

Cleaver’s only real job was to cook and save us the hassle of arguing over who was the worst chef. When he wasn’t preparing some massive meal, he relaxed and drank his vodka. As for myself, I walked around and gave them orders, but if nobody had any jobs to do I had no orders to give. Even Silver Feather had told me that ninety percent of his job as a pilot is staring at gauges.

We were all in our usual positions. Ember was brooding over her lighter and some complex geometric puzzle in one corner, deep in thought. I lay on a couch next to a window, reading some historical fiction set in the Lunar Wars. Cleaver relaxed at the bar, lazily humming some Stalliongrad folk tune to himself as he sipped from his bottle.

Stormslider was sitting in the opposite corner from Ember. She had her eyes closed, with music playing loudly enough through her headphones to serve as entertainment for the whole room. She had deep blue fur, with an unkempt mane and tail made up of a mix of lighter blues and reds. The ruby pendant on her necklace swung back and force as she bobbed her head. Luckily she didn’t listen to annoying music.

What we really need is… some excitement.

I still fondly remembered the days of my venturesome foalhood. Silver Feather and I used to have wild journeys together, only some of which were imaginary. We fought pirates, explored strange new lands, and led the legions of the Princess into battle.

We had become airstallions in the hope of living those adventures for real, but they had always just been pipe dreams. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, either…

Now I was stuck behind a desk, smiling false smiles at falsely smiling faces in an attempt to negotiate an extra bit out of a deal. It was some consolation that I still got to travel Equestria with exotic goods from every province, but it still wasn’t the life I had hoped for as a colt.

Suddenly, an abnormal groan shook the ship. The normal easy swaying motion of a well-piloted airship abruptly transformed into a rough vibration.

Ember and Stormslider immediately perked up, putting away their respective forms of entertainment. I could see each of the rival mares racing to mentally figure out what had gone wrong, who could be blamed for it, and who was going to have the skill to fix it first and best.

“Oy, Dissy!”

I briskly rose off my seat, leaving the book where it had been lying between my hooves. I could finish reading later.

“What happened?” I asked, making my way into the cockpit. A slightly annoyed Silver Feather was busily tapping at a gauge and holding onto a half-turned wheel.

“Well, I can’t say for certain, but my expert opinion says that that piece of manure we welded onto the hull in Canterlot is falling off. It’s bucking up the ship’s aerodynamics. Get one of the mares to fix it, yeah?” he said. “Maybe I’ll take a nap or something. We’ll have to stay hovering till it’s fixed or the hull’s gonna get all ripped up.”

“Ah, horseapples,” I said. “I better go tell them before they kill eachother over who’s to blame.” I could already hear the beginnings of a fight brewing in the lounge. By the time I got downstairs, Ember was searching for the magnetic boots she used to traverse the hull, and both the mares were sporting goggles. When it comes to competition, they sure do dress fast…

Ember approached me expectantly. “Hey, Dissero, where are the mag-boots? I’m going out to check the hull.”

Stormslider stepped in. “She’s the one who put it on last time. I told her, ‘add extra reinforcement to the rear edge,’ but she wouldn’t do it. Let me handle it, I have wings anyways.” The pegasus slid her goggles over her eyes and made for the hatch in the main hallway of the ship, near the cargo bay.

Her fiery competitor jumped in the way. “Look, I told you the first time that extra reinforcement would’ve bucked with the ship and that it was gonna fall of no matter what, remember?” she explained. “Dissero, now would be a great time to show me the mag-boots.”

Silver Feather glided down the staircase. “Fillies, c’mon. Why don’t you both go?” He jabbed a hoof in Stormslider’s direction. “I’m sure that if you defer to our mechanic who’s here to fix the ship, your aid would be greatly appreciated.” The blue pegasus bristled, but said no more. He trotted past the mares, satisfied that the matter was settled.

“Try and be more assertive, yeah?” he whispered to me as he passed.

I let out a tired sigh. “Go on, then, you heard him.” Ember and Stormslider exchanged suspicious glares as they turned to the hatch.

In the kitchen, Cleaver found where his vodka had rolled off to during the shaking and let out a small exclamation of joy.

Ω Ω Ω

I stood in the cockpit eyeing the Manehattan skyline, silhouetted by Celestia’s sun as it set on the horizon. The city was situated on the Marissippi, which flowed all through Equestria, and also home to one of the few bridges on the river suitable for trade caravans by land. Furthermore, small airships docked there from several local settlements. It was an important stop on my routes, and not just because of the plentiful bits I made off the zapapple trade.

We soon reached the Manehattan Skydock: a tall, thick tower with several aerial piers sticking out on each level like a metallic porcupine, hanging over the nearby port. Beneath it, ponies were hard at work loading and unloading boats, transporting goods between warehouses, and trying to cut the perfect deal in their quest for coin.

With night approaching, we hardly had to wait before one of the few remaining pegasus guides flew up and directed us to an empty pier. Silver eased the ship into position, and more of the local pegasi flew close with ropes ready to moor us to the tower. He turned off his music, flicked his goggles up into his mane with a smooth head motion, and nodded. We were ready to go.

We headed down into the lounge, where the rest of the crew were waiting. Stormslider and Ember both had on their personal saddlebags, and Cleaver waited by the hatch with his vodka in hoof.

“It’s too late to do any trading,” I announced. “Silver and I are going to go renew my license. We’ll be back and locking the door at midnight.”

“I need to go pick some things up. I’ll find a club to hang out at for a few hours before I get back,” Stormslider said. I nodded. She had mentioned something earlier about replacement parts for the engine. She trotted outside.

“I will follow engineer. Perhaps will find trinket to buy as well.” Cleaver took another swig of his vodka and stepped outside. No doubt he thought a crate of vodka to keep him going another week would be the perfect trinket. How the hay is he always so sober?

Ember stood alone, hesitating momentarily as she debated her choices. She was clearly still angry with Stormslider, and I doubted she wanted to roam the crowded city all alone. She turned to me.

“Guess I’ll go with you two, then,” she said.

She followed me and SiIver out of the airship, and we walked across the thick metal pier to the central tower. I looked down on the city, orienting myself with my destination. It never paid to get lost in Manehattan.

I stopped before a small booth jutting out from the tower’s structure. A young, and by the looks of it extremely bored, clerk accepted my license and squinted at it. I felt myself tense as he clicked his pen out and made a scribble on a paper by his side. Yawning, he hoofed the license back and waved us on to the elevator.

After a short ride down to the surface, we emerged into the trade district of Manehattan. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of fish assaulted my nostrils, drifting off the boats in harbor and overpowering any other scent that dared to resist. Warehouses dominated this part of the city, with tired stallions pulling carts filled with goods in and out of them, rushing to complete their jobs before the sun set. A few well-dressed ponies made their ways around the carts, walking as fast as they could without losing the laid-back, friendly air they needed to cut another deal.

I led the way at a brisk pace. Silver Feather followed close behind and Ember brought up the rear, eyeing the road nervously whenever we passed a crowd. We soon put distance between us and the tower, and the traffic began to thin. The buildings became less colorful and more run-down, and the ponies we passed began to lose the shine in their coats.

The sky darkened as we slipped down a dim alleyway, stopping before a shady staircase. A heavy and imposing metal door awaited us at the bottom, spotlighted by the rusty little lamp that hung above it. I raised a hoof and knocked once. The metallic bang echoed up and down the alley as we waited.

The small peephole on the door slid open violently, revealing an annoyed pair of eyes. They glanced over me for a few seconds. They disappeared. A long, intricate series of clicks and bangs sounded from the other side of the door. It swung open slowly.

A heavy and imposing stallion stood on the other side. He didn’t seem very pleased by our presence. He waved us in with the air of a merciful god. As Ember began to cross the threshold, he stepped in her way.

“Who’s she?” he asked. He narrowed her eyes at her as if he had just spotted her kissing his daughter.

I turned. “She’s with me,” I said. Ember stood her ground, glaring at the stallion. Should’ve seen this coming. She hasn’t been here before.

The stallion eyed her suspiciously. He stepped aside, returning to the heavy and imposing pose he liked to take next to the door. Ember trotted inside defiantly, sticking her nose up as she passed him. He closed the door, turning his gaze to take in the rest of the room like it was a blight upon Equestria.

“Thanks, Bite,” Silver said. His comment was ignored with extreme prejudice.

With the conflict solved, I led the way forwards. The room was dim, with most of the light coming from the neon lights that blinked and flashed across the floor, matching the heavy bass beat that shook through it. Ponies gambled in every corner, loudly exclaiming at a fall of the dice or a turn of the cards. A group of stallions in business suits exchanged masked threats over a table as they eyed the dancing crowd that filled the far half of the room distastefully. A circular bar surrounded a series of raised platforms, each one holding a couple pretty mares dancing suggestively, much to the approval of the watching stallions below.

Silver led the way through the crowd, using his wingspan to break a path. Ember stayed close behind him, eyes down, flicking her lighter on and off furiously. We came up to a simple door on the far side of the room, where we were greeted by a pair of reproachful, rugged bouncers.

“We’re here to see Masque,” I said. The two stallions frowned down upon us from atop their muscular necks, opening the door and stepping aside like a pair of carefully sculpted glaciers.

I took the lead as we crossed the threshold, emerging into a simple hallway. The efficient lighting contrasted harshly with the darkness of the club, and only the bass leaking through the wall destroyed what could have been a peaceful silence.

Ember shook herself as the door shut, standing up straight and stepping away from Silver, who she had been practically hugging during the walk through the club. I walked down the hallway, past a door that was busily radiating a squeaky thumping, with my two crewmates behind me.

My ears twitched as I heard the sound of a scuffle further down the hall. Without warning, the drywall exploded outwards. The rubble was quickly followed by a wide-eyed pony who seemed just as surprised by his ejection as we were. Silver fluttered his wings, leaping back just in time to avoid impact.

I looked down awkwardly. The pony looked up painfully.

A tall, muscular stallion lumbered through the doorway, closing it behind him with surprising gentleness. Ignoring us, he stepped past the new hole in the wall, grabbed the groaning pony with a wing, and dragged him away.

“And don’t come back!” shouted a mare with one hoof out the door.

Her accent quickly identified her as a native of Prance, and her expertly coiffed green mane and neatly combed yellow coat hinted at an uncommonly acute sense of fashion. Two contrasting masks, one laughing and the other crying, served as her cutie mark.

Her eyes passed over us, and she immediately switched from angry to welcoming. “Ah, Dissero! What a pleasure to see you!” she said. She extended a hoof to sweep me into her room.

“Hello, Masque,” I said. I allowed myself to be pulled in.

Her apartment was, to say the least, colorful. Costumes, hats, and clothing with enough variety to rival the crowd at the Summer Sun Celebration were strewn all over. Not a single inch of floor was visible through the mess, and the walls weren’t much better off, with the only bare patches being the door and the freshly made hole. A rectangular shape I took to be a bed occupied one corner, buried underneath reds and yellows. Next to the bed, a hideous rainbow blanket was draped over what seemed to be a lamp, if the light filtering through it was to be trusted.

“So I presume you’re here for your new license, dearie?” she asked. She swaggered to the one remotely neat part of the room: a desk covered in little pieces of plastic, glue, scissors, and other crafting supplies.

“Yes.” I eyed a shade of blue that seemed to be developing life. “I won’t be staying long, though. It’s late.”

She smiled. “Yes, I’ve already got it done! It’s around here somewhere,” she sang as if finding small pieces of plastic in an organizational apocalypse was one of her favorite pastimes.

Then again, she probably does end up doing that a lot…

She began trotting around the room, sifting through the upper layer of fabrics. Ember slid up to my ear. “She doesn’t seem like she’d be good at… something like this,” she whispered.

Masquerade’s ears twitched as she turned to Ember, wearing a bright smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Is that so, dearie? I suppose you wouldn’t know. One doesn’t get much recognition as a master of disguise.” A dangerous undertone lay beneath the words, offering a silent threat before it slipped away.

“Why, back when I was still into thieving I once stole a dragon’s hoard by disguising myself as discarded tape! You can only imagine what –“ She suddenly tripped over a stuffed snake, landing headfirst into a giant chicken.

Ember stifled a giggle.

She bounced back to her hooves as if nothing had happened. “And then, I took the money from selling the loot and disguised my vacation home as a peacock! That dragon was searching for years and never found me! Oh! No… maybe? Nope!” She laughed, tossing a few ID cards aside to be lost to ponykind forever. Or at least until she had to find them again.

Ember looked up from the disturbing blue filly doll at her hooves. “You disguised a house as a peacock and yourself as tape? Is that even possible?”

“Of course it is, dear! You just have to start thinking as the box,” she said. “Ooh, I think I know where it is!” She climbed over a fallen showcase and picked up an envelope on the bed-shape, pulling it out from beneath an overturned cash register full of purple socks. “Here we go!”

I levitated the envelope to my side. “Thanks again, Masque.”

“Not a problem, dear! Why, if you had actually gotten a real license, I’d be out of my favorite customer!”

I grinned half-heartedly. “Heh, yeah. I’ll be back after I make some sales tomorrow to chat,” I said. Silver snatched the envelope from my magic and fished out a pilot’s license with his picture on it.

“That’ll be fine, Dissero. I can’t wait to tell you about this time last year I used a cup of tea as an –“ She was interrupted as a pile of ridiculous hats collapsed, burying her alive.

Ω Ω Ω

We retraced our steps out through the club. The bouncers frowned as we passed, expressing their divine disapproval at our existence.

Stepping out of the alley, we emerged into an open plaza, surrounded on all sides by rundown buildings and occupied by a pitiful attempt at a park. The few citizens on the streets moved past at a quick canter, eyed greedily by groups of rough-looking ponies huddled together in the moonlight. I nodded to Ember and Silver, briskly heading towards the skyport where ship and safety alike awaited.

Unfortunately, we were intercepted.

As we trotted down a narrow shortcut, a burly stallion stepped out of a side alley and blocked our path. The flutter of wings announced the arrival of two pegasi landing behind us. We were surrounded.

“Horseapples,” Silver hissed, flaring his wings. Ember pulled her lighter out and flicked the fire on. I took a step back, and we formed ourselves into a compact, defensive triangle.

“Hold it!” one of the pegasi called. We froze, each one of us glaring at one of them.

A much smaller pony, his horn barely visible in the dark, emerged from the shadows. He sported a dirty bowtie and old fedora, commanding an aura of respect despite his size. A greedy gleam shone in his eyes.

“Youse merchants?” he asked. I nodded. Hopefully all he’s looking for is bits…

“Mmm.” He looked me over. “I got some cargo I need shipped. Real quiet-like,” he said.

I see where this is going. I prepared myself to refuse. Silver slid his goggles down with a quick nod of his head. Ember’s hooves slid over the pavement.

“It’s good stuff. Need it brought to Harmony City. Why don’tcha be a lil’ neighborly and ship it for me, hrm?” the little unicorn sneered. He smiled with mock friendliness.

“We don’t smuggle,” Ember growled. The unicorn frowned.

“Yeh don’t smuggle, just use false licenses, eh? Strange…” He narrowed his eyes. “Wouldn’t want anypony getting’ wind a’ that, would we now? Doubt they’d hold up to heavy… scrutinization.”

I glared at him. Masque was good, but she couldn’t get my name on the list of licensed captains kept by the Royal Aerial Society. An anonymous tip would make things difficult, at the very least.

I weighed my options. We could probably take them. They only had one pony more than us, and the little unicorn didn’t look dangerous. Still, I wasn’t much of a fighter, and the big stallion in front of me looked tough. Celestia knows if that unicorn has any fighting spells…

“What kind of cargo are we talking about here?” I asked. I had some smuggling experience. One run wouldn’t hurt. If it was a commodity I knew, I could handle it without too much hassle and avoid the fight.

“That don’t matter to you, now. All youse gots to know is it’s light, small, and pays well. There’s a buyer at Harmony City who’ll pay nice, and da customs there won’t even stop you. Just sneak it outta here and don’t get caught on the way there,” he said.

Silver Feather stepped up to my side, bristling. “I dunno about this, Diss. It’s too easy. There’s gotta be a catch.”

I furrowed my brow, deep in thought. Ponies didn’t usually blackmail others to help them make a profit. Silver looked like he was ready to pounce on the big stallion; he had some experience with fighting. I tensed, preparing my words to refuse and my body to fight.

A shadow flew by, barely visible out of the corner of my eye. With a furtive glance up, I saw more pegasi on the rooftops, watching, at the ready in case I resisted. I had no choice.

“Fine, we’ll do it,” I said.

Silver flicked his goggles up, shooting an appalled look to me, while Ember continued to glare. The unicorn smirked confidently, nodding to the pegasi on the rooftops.

I figured we could get it over with quickly and cleanly. Besides, a little adventure never hurt anypony, right?

Ch. 7: First Time For Everything

Omega

Chapter 7: First Time For Everything

“You sleep well?” Pyre asked me.

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I had not slept well. I had barely slept at all. Any semblance of sleep I might have gotten had been shattered by gory, bloody nightmares.

“Good. You’ll be busy today,” she said. She beckoned with her head, and led me towards the eating area for breakfast.

I didn’t feel like eating, but I managed to finish an apple.

“Colonel wants you to meet the others. I’ll be showing you around the place,” she said. I nodded. I wasn’t really in the mood for meeting people.

“Hey, something wrong, Equestrian?” Pyre asked.

“I’m just feeling kinda... out of place,” I said.

She smiled. “Nothing wrong with that. You are.” She winked at me and flicked her tail suggestively. I ignored the hint.

We trotted to another unfamiliar side cave. This one looked much more artificial than the others, with a clean-cut doorway and a relatively flat floor. “This is where the clan eggheads pass their time,” Pyre explained. She led me inside.

The first thing I noticed about the room was the long table filling up one side, festooned with alchemical tools and containers of every size and shape. Burners, flasks, tubes, and a furnace competed for space. Most of them were shoved up against the sides of the table, with a select few given the privilege of being neatly arranged in the middle. The place felt like a chemistry class. Two recusant stallions were debating about something, standing before an empty flask and waving chemicals around at each other.

“This is a lesson. Not an experiment. Right now we’re making poisons, put the octaazacubane down and pay attention,” the green-furred, gray-maned one said patiently, waving a bottle of something in the face of his student.

“But Blight, just imagine what we could get if we substituted some into this process instead of the lipopolysaccharides!” the student implored, holding another bottle up. He was the biggest recusant I had seen so far, with grey fur and an orange mane. He kind of reminded me of Cleaver.

“That is not a toy, Flintlock! One false move with a sample that size and the whole clan will come down with—”

“Hey, ladies, you meet the Equestrian yet?” Pyre interrupted casually. The two arguing stallions turned to face us, surprised. Flintlock accidentally knocked down a flask labeled with a dreadfully long name, spilling a bright yellow liquid on the floor. It hissed and steamed as it touched the ground. They both flinched as the glass broke and put down the chemicals they had been brandishing a few seconds ago.

“Oh, hello. Giving him the tour, Pyre?” Blight asked. He glared at Flintlock. “Clean that up right now before you kill us all.”

Flintlock smiled sheepishly and grabbed a broom leaning on the wall nearby. “Hey, Pyre. Hey, new guy,” he said.

“Hello. I’m Dissero,” I offered, glancing at the hissing liquid nervously. I wasn’t a scientist, but the stuff looked like it was about to explode.

Blight walked up and shook my hoof. “Greetings. My name is Blight. I’m the poisonmaker around here. Over there is Flintlock. He’s supposed to be my student, but he seems more interested in...explosives.” He shook his head disapprovingly.

I nodded. “So, uh, what does that... stuff, do?” I asked.

“Don’t you worry about it. It’s very stable,” Blight said. Part of it burst into flames. “Do you mind if I get a few shavings off your horn sometime? I haven’t really been able to procure any samples of unicorn dust and I’m curious to see what it can do.”

I blinked. Why is it everyone around here wants a piece of my horn? You’d think that they had never seen a unicorn before. “Uh... sure?”

“Oh, great! I’ll be right back,” he said. He trotted through a doorway on the other side of the room.

“Blight was Colonel’s best friend when they were younger,” Pyre said. “They built this clan together. He could boss us around if he wanted, but he’s more interested in his poisons.”

Flintlock finished cleaning the spill. “So, Dissero. Unicorns can cast spells, right?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yes, but we’re limited by our cutie marks.”

Pyre stepped between us, grinning. “Woah, woah, woah, slow down. What the fuck did you just say?” she asked.

“We’re limited by our... cutie marks?” I repeated. Do they get pissed off over cutie marks too?

“Cutie? Cutie?” She fell over laughing. “You call them fucking cutie marks! That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”

I blushed and looked away. Flintlock was snickering too.

Pyre recovered and sat up, wiping a tear off her face. “Listen. Dissero. If you want to be taken seriously in the Outer World, don’t call that stamp a cutie mark. Out here, we call them lifemarks.”

Right. I guess it is a pretty silly name for something to base your whole life on. Flintlock pushed past Pyre.

“So, what spells can you do?” he asked. “Anything explosive?”

I scratched at the ground shyly. I didn’t really have any spells to speak of, besides a simple navigation spell to determine an airship’s heading. But I didn’t want to look like a pansy. “No, nothing explosive,” I said.

He frowned. “Oh, that’s too bad. Do you mind if I get some shavings off your horn? I’ve never worked with unicorn dust before and I’m curious about what it could do.”

Deja vu. So far, three of the six recusants I’d met wanted my horn. “Sure,” I said.

He smiled. “Great. I’ll be right back!” He trotted away towards where Blight had gone. I heard him talking to someone else in the hallway, and an elegant orange mare stepped out into the room.

“Hey, Pyre!” she said. The two mares embraced briefly. “What’s up?”

“Just showing the Equestrian around,” Pyre said. The orange mare looked to me and smiled widely.

“Hey! I’m Faerie!” she said. She trotted up to me and gave me a hug. She took me off guard, and I didn’t react fast enough to hug back before she pulled away. Great, now I look like an idiot. “What’s your name?”

“Dissero.” I really needed a name tag. I was getting tired of introducing myself over and over. At least the mares here are pretty.

“Oh, that’s a cute little name,” she said. “How are you liking the Outer World?”

I fell off an airship the first day I got here, got ‘rescued’ by a band of crazy warped ponies, am constantly being threatened with a gruesome death, shadowed by a creepy little sadistic mare, and beaten by wooden sticks. Oh, and I just saw a helpless griffon get torn to pieces for nothing.

“It’s... wonderful,” I said.

She giggled. “I could show you a few little cubbyholes I know sometime, if you want,” she purred. She walked past me, briefly rubbing her flank against mine, and flew out into the main cave. I found myself looking after her, heart beating faster.

Pyre stepped into my vision. “You like what you see? I’m sure you’ll get your chance eventually. Just don’t die or piss us off first,” she said. “Anyways, knowing Flint and Blight, they’ve gotten distracted with something and it’ll be hours before they get out here. I dunno about you, but I’m not up for the wait. Let’s go meet Shatter.”

We left the room. Pyre led the way towards the sandy pit in the middle of the cave. “Shatter is our best martial artist. He usually spends all day practicing at the pit and sparring with whoever’s around. You didn’t see him yesterday, though. Colonel didn’t want him around, with you fumbling all over the place,” she said.

“I wasn’t fumbling,” I muttered half-heartedly. She laughed.

As we approached the pit, I began to hear the sound of metal striking metal. Ping, ping, ping, ping. It grew in volume as we got closer, never settling into any one pattern. I saw Blitz fly into the air, wearing a pair of wingblades, and then dive back down.

Coming to the edge of the pit, I found the source of the noise.

Blitz was flying, rolling, and running around his opponent furiously. He moved faster than any pegasus I had ever seen, striking, moving, and striking again. He ducked low, lashing out at his opponent’s legs.

The white recusant he was fighting moved even faster. He held a rapier in his feathers, expertly dancing away from Blitz’s attack and riposting, but Blitz was already out of the way, moving to attack from another angle.

“There he is. Looks like Blitz managed to coax him into a spar,” Pyre said.

Holy hay, I thought. I stared in awe as Shatter danced away from another attack. His hooves were a blur, each step precisely placed, measured, and purposed.

Blitz skidded to a halt in the sand, panting heavily. Shatter planted himself opposite, holding the rapier out in front of him confidently. They stared each other down.

Blitz flapped his wings, kicking up sand as he dashed forwards for another slash. Shatter dipped his head, slid underneath the wingblades, and lightly nicked his opponent on the neck with his blade.

Drops of blood stained the sand.

“Your loss, Blitz. Blood on the sand,” Shatter said. He slid his rapier into a scabbard on his back.

Blitz spat into the sand, ignoring the cut. “It’s no big deal. Let’s go again.” He flared his wings and slid into a fighting stance.

Shatter sighed patiently, but nonetheless reached to unsheath his sword.

“Hey! You two!” Pyre said, trotting between them. I followed slowly, getting a closer look at Shatter.

His ears twitched as he turned to face us. His slow, measured movements spoke of a calm composure and quiet confidence. His white fur contrasted with deep blue eyes and similarly colored patches on his legs and wingtips.

“Yes?” he asked politely. Blitz scratched at the ground impatiently.

“Cool off, Blitz. Go patch yourself up while I introduce Shatter to the Equestrian,” Pyre said. He snorted, looking to Shatter for backup.

“Go ahead, Blitz. We can do more later,” Shatter said. Blitz snorted and flicked his tail, flying away angrily.

“So, you met the Equestrian yet? His name is Dissero,” Pyre said. She waved a wing in my direction. I stepped forward, dipping my head politely.

“Hello,” I said.

“Greetings,” Shatter replied. He looked me over carefully, and I fidgeted nervously under his gaze. I got the impression that he was sizing me up for something.

“Want some advice?” he asked.

My eyes widened in surprise. “Uh... sure.”

He grabbed a practice sword and tossed it to me. I reflexively caught it with my magic and held it out in front of me.

“Colonel’s idea of teaching consists of swamping you with experience. She’ll beat you a thousand times and expect you to figure out what’s wrong by yourself. If you fuck up bad enough, she’ll give you a hint. I subscribe to more conventional methods,” Shatter said, taking a position opposite me in the sand pit. I braced myself.

“Loosen up,” he said. “The first key to surviving in combat is right frame of mind. You won’t fight well if you’re tense or worried.”

Makes sense. I tried to push away the terrifying image of being beaten by the best fighter amongst a clan of insane outlaw bandits.

“Second: stop thinking of your weapon as a weapon. Think of it as part of you, like your hooves. Think of it as just another feather on your wing. A feather you can use to protect yourself.”

I looked at the sword awkwardly, unsure of how to interpret the advice. Pyre spoke up from the sidelines. “Hey Shatter, in case you didn’t notice, he doesn’t have any wings.”

He cocked his head. “An extension of your... magic. Just another spell.” I nodded.

“Third: never allow your focus to slip. You must be aware of everything around you at all times. You must know the terrain under your hooves before you step on it. You must know where every immediate threat is and where your weapons are, always.”

I nodded again. This is getting complicated...

“Fourth: Practice. Fight imaginary opponents at whatever speed you require, until fighting becomes instinct.”

So is he gonna attack me or.... are we just gonna stand around and chat or what?

“Fifth. Stop thinking. Clear your mind and let your body think for you.”

What? “How am I supposed to focus, think of this sword as part of my magic, and be constantly aware of everything without thinking?” I asked.

“You’ll get it, eventually,” he said.

Okay then... “So, now what?” I asked.

“Now, you pay attention.”

Ω Ω Ω

Time passed. Over the course of a month I learned the lessons the recusants taught me. Shatter’s training session helped immensely in my bouts against Colonel. They became more than a desperate struggle to stay on my hooves. I even came close to winning once.

We began as we usually did, circling each other slowly from opposite sides of the pit. Only Shatter was watching at the time; the rest of the clan were off doing whatever it was they liked to do.

I levitated my practice sword in front of me confidently. I no longer feared her assault as before. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep her off forever, but I felt... prepared. Unlike before, now I was ready for it.

“Remember,” she said, “Don’t limit yourself.” She had been telling me that for the last few days now. She had been repeating the tip over and over, before each bout, and I knew she would keep repeating it until I learned the lesson she wanted.

Relax. I felt my muscles loosen up. My hooves slid through the sand. I waited for her to spring into motion.

Colonel flapped her wings. Sand rose into the air as she dashed towards me, hooves just inches above the ground. I held my sword out in front of me. Not a weapon. Just another spell.

A spear flashed for my neck. I sidestepped, and raised my sword to deflect the second spear. She flew past me, and we both whipped around to face each other.

I charged forward, swinging for her neck from the side. As expected, she blocked it easily, using her other spear for a rapid counter attack. I ducked underneath it, rising up inside of her range. She leaped back before my sword reached her, and it swept through empty space. I stumbled briefly, unbalanced.

She came running back the instant her hooves touched the ground. Her spears flashed in and out towards me with practiced expertise, and I stumbled backwards. I couldn’t find any opportunity to regain my balance amongst the fierce assault. My steps became uncertain and I found my sword lagging behind my thoughts. I could barely get it up to block each attack by the time I reacted.

Stop thinking so much.

I cleared my mind. My body took over, and my sword caught up to Colonel’s attacks. I gained confidence. We continued to exchange blows, blocking and countering as we traversed the sand.

Don’t let your opponent lull you into a pattern.

Fuck, I thought. I tried to break away, but I was too slow. She lashed out and tripped me. I fell onto my back and crawled away, frantically deflecting her spears. My sword was too slow. I couldn’t move out of the way when her spears slipped past my guard. I began to falter.

Don’t limit yourself.

Okay, how the fuck am I limiting myself? What assets did I have that I wasn’t using? Magic? I was already levitating a sword, and I lacked any other useful spells besides telekinesis. I didn’t even have a very strong telekinetic grasp or range. I just had a knack for levitating a few things at once.

Wait...

I risked a glance towards the weapon rack where I knew the swords were kept. I noticed there were two more practice swords waiting—

A spear grazed my cheek and slammed into the sand by my head.

I turned back, diverted a spear headed for my neck with my sword, rolled out of the way of her other spear, and directed my magic towards the sword rack. Unable to look for fear of getting a spear to the face, I groped around with my magic and managed to grab a second sword.

I brought the sword around just in time to block a spear slash to the head. Colonel jumped back, eyeing my new weapon. I climbed to my hooves, grinning at her.

Now I was on the attack. The second sword added a whole different dynamic to our fight. I was no longer forced to block two attacks at a time with a single weapon. I was pushing her back. It was fair now.

Why stop there? As we passed by the sword rack, I grabbed a third sword for my arsenal. It was hard to divide my magic three ways, and for a split second it faltered, but I recovered before Colonel could take advantage of the weakness.

She danced away from me, but I kept up the attack. Now she was scrambling to hold off my assault. I stopped aiming and started to just swing the three swords at her as fast as I could. It took all my focus just to stop them from hitting each other.

Then it happened. A sword broke through her defenses. She fell back, and within the second I had all three practice swords at her neck.

“My win!” I shouted. My heart was racing. Adrenaline filled my veins. My mind filled with images of my superiority.

She nodded approvingly. “Impressive, Dissero. But you seem to have forgotten the fundamentals again.”

I cocked my head. “What?” I asked. She gave me an evil little smile, and I saw her wing twitch. I looked down just in time to see one of the hard wooden tips of her spears hit me in an obscene place.

I yelped in pain and keeled over. She got up and dusted herself off, still smiling at me as I shuddered in the sand. “Be aware of your surroundings at all times.”

Ω Ω Ω

Despite the pain and embarrassment, the fight had still proven my worth to the recusants. Colonel declared that I was now capable of being useful to the clan, and then immediately put me to work.

It had been just a day since my martial breakthrough, and I was trekking through the mountains with most of the clan. We were all wearing barding or heavy clothes for protection. My barding was made of hardened leather, strapped around the legs and chest in separate pieces to maximize flexibility and movement, which recusants often relied on to survive. On my back I had three scabbards holding three arming swords. A pair of empty saddlebags bounced off my sides as I walked, ready to carry any loot back to the cave. My bandanna hung around my neck as always, with a backup knife strapped to my neck underneath.

At first I had cringed at the concept of wearing the skin of another creature, but Pyre convinced me that it was necessary.

“Why do I need this? How is this going to protect me?” I had asked. “I can cut right through this.”

“Trust me, Dissero. You can’t block or dodge everything. When you mess up, you’ll be thankful you had some extra padding to save your skin,” she had said. I tried not to think about it too much.

After a few hours of walking, we reached the bottom of the mountains. The wasteland I had first seen upon arriving in the Outer World stretched across the horizon before us. Navery looked up at the night sky briefly before taking the lead. The rest of us fell in behind her.

I walked between Pyre and Hunter, near the back of the group. Blight and Flintlock were in front of us, heads together as they argued over some chemical. Blitz and Colonel took up positions at our flanks, watching warily for any sign of life. Shatter followed quietly from behind. Blood had stayed to watch the cave, though I suspected that Colonel probably didn’t want her going out of control on the mission.

“So, where are we going?” I asked. Nobody had told me before we left. They had only said that we were going out on an “expedition,” and that I should be ready to fight.

“We have rivals, Dissero. There’s only room for one recusant clan around here, and we need to drive another one out. They came in a week ago and started fucking the place up, raiding every caravan that comes within ten miles. If they keep it up, the merchants will complain and before you know it there’ll be fucking mercs swarming all over the place,” Pyre explained.

“But don’t you guys raid caravans too?” I asked

“Yes, but not so much that we become a major nuisance. As long as only one caravan out of fifty goes missing, they won’t complain too much,” Pyre said.

I nodded, glancing up at the sky in the hopes of seeing the Omega. Nothing. “So why aren’t you flying?” I asked.

“Besides the fact that we have to take care of you? The sky is dangerous. You can be seen for miles around when you fly,” she said.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Colonel will tell you when we get there,” Hunter said.

We walked in silence for a few more hours, stopping only for a quick water break and a short conference between Colonel and Navery. After climbing to the top of a nondescript hill, Colonel called us to a stop.

She beckoned us closer, and we gathered around to listen.

“You all know what we’re here for,” she began. “This other clan cannot be allowed to continue as it is... but I would prefer to avoid a fight.

“Me and Blight will try and talk to their leaders. If they do not agree to leave, then we will be forced to kill them.”

I blinked. What? They wouldn’t... no. No, they wouldn’t kill a whole clan just like that.

“Pyre will wait on a nearby cloud for a signal from us,” Colonel said. “If they refuse, she’ll drop one of Flintlock’s flares. Then Hunter and Dissero are to kill the lookouts while we stall. They will have five minutes before I call for the rest of the clan to attack. Any questions?”

The recusants had no questions, and I didn’t give any voice to mine. We piled up our saddlebags and anything else we didn’t need to fight on the hill. Hunter pulled two cloaks out of his bags, colored in a dark brown and green pattern, and hoofed one to me. “You know how to be sneaky?” he asked.

I gulped. I was starting to get butterflies. “Don’t step on anything noisy and stay in dark corners, right?”

“Pretty much. Keep movement slow and minimal. Oh, and no magic. That horn of yours gets pretty bright,” he said.

“Then how am I supposed to... uh... deal with the lookouts?” I asked. I never really got a handle on the way earth ponies held things in their mouths. Or with their fetlocks. It was like... impossible.

He pulled a wire out of his bag. “Here,” he said, handing me the wire. “Sneak up behind them, and choke them with this. Once you start, don’t let up.”

Gingerly, I floated the wire into my upturned hooves. It suddenly occurred to me what the clan was asking me to do. I might have to kill someone.

An image of a bloody griffon flashed through my mind, and I barely managed to hold back the bile rising up my throat. I had never killed another person before. If Old Ironhide had been alive... would I have killed him?

I wasn’t sure.

Colonel and Blight trotted down the slope. The foreign clan was camped in a sinkhole in the middle of a shallow depression. A path leading down into the camp was guarded by a pair of watchers, armed with simple rifles and swords.

Hunter beckoned to me. “C’mon, let’s get in position,” he said. He led the way towards a patch of bushes near the sinkhole, raising the hood of the cloak. I saw Pyre fly up towards a nearby cloud as we crept forwards. The guards caught sight of Colonel and Blight and trained their rifles on them.

“We come to parley!” I heard Colonel shout. One of the guards yelled something down into the sinkhole, waited for a reply, and lowered his rifle. Another recusant trotted out to escort the diplomats inside.

Hunter and I reached the bushes, and we picked up the pace, making sure to keep our hooves on quiet surfaces. He beckoned me closer and pointed towards a small bush near one of the guards, and then to me. I nodded, pulling up my bandana and hood, and he disappeared into the darkness.

I crept forwards, placing my hooves with excruciating detail. I heard a twig snap behind me and froze. Nothing grabbed me, killed me, or shot at me, so I pressed onwards.

I positioned myself under the bush Hunter had pointed out. The guard closest to me was sighting down his scope at the stars as I settled into place less than three meters away. He looked bored.

The guard looked over to his buddy. “Hey, Pendulum. What time is it?” he asked.

Pendulum looked up at the stars and squinted momentarily. “1:43,” he said.

“Fuck, that’s it? Feels like it’s been hours.”

“Shut up and do your job. If you don’t pay attention we’ll both end up dead.”

“Hah! Yeah, right. What do you think of those recusants?”

“I’ve heard of ‘em. Stygian Clan. Leader is one of those ‘hide and survive’ fuckers. No balls, no gold, I like to say.”

“They’re just afraid we’ll cut into their trade routes. Greedy bastards.”

“Didn’t I just say to shut up?”

The guards lapsed back into silence. My snout itched, but I didn’t dare move a hoof to scratch it. A light drizzle began to fall, but the cloak kept me from getting too wet. I heard a loud exclamation from the sinkhole, but no flare fell from the clouds. Glancing upwards, I saw that the stars had moved halfway across the sky.What’s going on down there? It’s been hours, I thought. Did they manage to kill them before Blight could signal? For a moment I wavered between fear and relief. Maybe I won’t have to do this after all.

Then I saw it. A fizzling green light, falling from the clouds, shining briefly before sputtering out. The guards saw it, too.

“Hey, what was tha—” Pendulum’s voice suddenly cut off. Quiet scuffles and choking noises came from the shadows. The other guard drew his sword, backing towards me cautiously.

Here we go. I steeled myself. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Don’t let them down.

Despite myself, I didn’t move.

Go! Go go go! Shit! My body refused me. I looked down at the wire, between my hooves. Do it! The choking noise died down. Stop thinking! GO!

“Pendulum?” the guard called. “You alright?”

I rushed out of the bushes, heart racing, the wire between my hooves. The guard was peering towards the darkness where Pendulum had been just moments before when he heard me.

He tried to turn and raise his sword, but he was too late. I wrapped the wire around his neck and pulled hard. He gagged, rearing up, and managed to shake me off. I sprawled on my back. He fell to the dust, coughing.

I quickly recovered and leaped towards him. He rolled onto his back and raised his hooves to fend me off, but he was still fighting to breathe. I straddled him, pinning him on his back, put all my weight onto my forehooves, and pushed the wire into his neck. The guard flapped his wings frantically, scratching at my face.

His eyes stared into mine. I saw him realize that he was about to die. I saw him fill with regrets. Truths gone untold, dreams never accomplished, wrongs left unrighted, opportunities untaken. I saw him think back and realize hundreds of things he should’ve done better. I pushed down with the wire relentlessly as tears streamed down my face. I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted to let him live, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. He started to weaken. His hooves fell into the dust. One moment he was staring straight at me, and then suddenly he wasn’t. I heard the last breath leave his body.

The life left his eyes, and his body went slack.

I fell over. I just killed someone. Fuck. I felt sick. The griffon flashed before my eyes. He’s dead. I stumbled to my hooves and into the bushes, retching. I was shaking. I couldn’t hear anything but the pounding of my heart. The rush of my blood. I was having trouble breathing. I started to hyperventilate. Fuck. I just killed someone. I couldn’t get his eyes out of my head! Dead. I couldn’t see anything else. I closed my eyes and curled up on the ground, but the terrifying image wouldn’t leave. Fuck! I heard Colonel call out, as if from far away, and the rest of the clan flying into battle.

Whimpering, I calmed down enough to notice Hunter standing over me. He looked worried.

“First time?” he asked softly.

“Yeah.”

He nodded grimly. “We’ll handle the rest.”

I just killed someone.

I looked back at the guard’s body warily. His eyes stared back at me. Those eyes. His mouth was open, as if still struggling for breath.

Murderer.

Crawling, I crept up to the body and tentatively reached out a hoof. I closed his eyes and mouth. Somehow he seemed less... I wasn’t sure. It felt right. I felt like I would shatter if I didn’t do it. I had to get out of their sight.

It didn’t help. Even closed, it felt like they were staring into my soul. Blaming me.

Murderer.

Ω Ω Ω

The festivities felt out of place.

The expedition had been a success. The clan leader had refused to move away, and we had killed them all without a single casualty. I had sat out most of the battle, curled up in the dirt, too disturbed to take part in it.

Now we were back at the cave. Although Colonel had disapproved of the foreign clan raiding so frequently, she had set no limits on what loot we brought back. The sinkhole had been full of booze, food, gear, and valuables. We didn’t have enough room in our saddlebags to carry even a third of it back.

Upon our return, Colonel had announced a gathering in the training sands. With the rest of the clan sitting in the sand, Colonel called me up to the top of an outcropping in the cave wall.

“You have learned our lessons well since your arrival, Equestrian. Tonight, you killed for the clan. You are now one of us. If you are ever in need of aid, the Stygian Clan will be there for you,” she had said.

Cheers and applause. A small, shameful feel of pride. I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. If I could go back, I would’ve asked to stay in the cave with Blood.

Now I sat on one of the pillows in the eating area, staring at nothing. The rest of the clan was celebrating the successful mission with booze and food. Blitz was engaged in a one-sided bragging contest with Shatter, Blight was explaining the intricacies of some poison or other to Blood and Faerie, and Hunter and Flintlock were in the midst of a drinking contest, with Navery watching silently. Colonel was nowhere to be seen.

Pyre trotted up to my side, holding a bottle in her feathers. “Having fun, sitting off to the side all alone?” she asked.

“I killed someone,” I said. Murderer.

She frowned. “Oh. First time?”

“Yeah.”

A few silent moments passed. She smiled. “Hey, cheer up and have a drink. Those recusants had some of the good stuff,” she said, holding out her bottle.

I grabbed it half-heartedly. “What was your first like?” I asked. I suddenly realized how personal my question was and rushed to take it back. “No, don’t answer that.”

She hesitated with her smile. “It’s alright. I... you get used to it.”

“Right.” I nodded and took a drink from the bottle. It burned on the way down, but the warmth that followed was surprisingly satisfying. “This stuff is pretty good.”

“Yeah, I think it’s some of that... what is it, Stalliongrad? From Equestria. Home sweet home, right?”

Despite myself, I managed a small smile. “Yeah... sure.”