Chapter Seven: Relevance

Silence can tell a pony many things. While it could mean nothing, it is a great way to know if the weather is calm. In silence, things have stopped dead, and there is room for thinking. That is why I hate silence. It lets me think about what happened on that day. It reminds me that in what I have done, I am alone.

However, the absence of silence can say just as many things, if not more. With the variations in pitches and volume, sound can be a cacophony or a simple hum. It can both be there to comfort or to hurt. I’d like to think that the sound of my companions in this fool’s errand was comforting, but it wasn’t. It was merely damning.

With the bickering between them, all I could consider was how insane we all must be do keep going. To any outside observer, we would appear crazy. I sincerely considered giving up that morning, but whatever was left of my old personality screamed at me to continue. I would, but not happily, and not without resting.

So it was in that moment, lying on the cold ground that I listened to Lyra and Twilight whilst pretending to be asleep. I wanted to stretch my wings, but the conversation currently happening seemed pertinent.

"Lyra, stop dodging the question! How did you find out so much about me? I have barely seen you before yesterday."

"I can't tell you! It revolves around Dash! Everything does! Something is happening that is going beyond what we can even comprehend. She explained it to the degree of what we need to know and nothing more. If there was something you needed to know, it would’ve been in your radio."

She. The infamous being that seems to be plotting around our every move. I had thought maybe Lyra would shed more light on the issue, but it appears that Twilight couldn’t get anything out of her.

"I don’t enjoy being played like a pawn! I didn’t listen ahead because I’ve already been there. This is indefinitely more complicated than you know. Why did you listen ahead?"

We were being played. If only I knew by what, or to what end.

"So you haven’t learned about… Never mind. I figured she would know that I went ahead anyways. The only thing I don’t understand is where…"

"I think I know. I can’t tell you yet, but you’ll figure it out eventually anyways. I should probably get some firewood, could you…?”

"Yeah, yeah. Don't touch the radio. Don't let Dash touch the radio. Got it. Go."

I could hear the huffing as Twilight trotted into the woods. Lyra gave an exasperated sigh, most likely indicating that Twilight was gone. A set of hooves slowly approach where I lay.

“You are horrible at pretending to be asleep Dash."

Dammit.

I opened my eyes and saw her minty face looking at me, slightly amused. Standing up, it was easy to quickly glance at the surroundings. We were in a small clearing in the forest surrounded by large pine trees and small bushes, a campfire sitting in the center. The trees seemed taller than any pines near Ponyville, but given that they were not Everfree trees, they likely wouldn't attempt to kill me in my sleep. The canopy was sparse, and the afternoon sky emitted a light glow. Twilight's supplies were on an overturned log on the other side of the fire, and poking out of her saddlebags was a familiar metal device. Lyra caught my glance and frowned.

"Uh, uh. Not gonna happen. I don't even really want to know. If I needed to, I already would’ve. Leave it be."

I looked at her. How could she be so certain? She couldn't possibly expect me to not pursue something of such vital importance. She sat about two feet from me, her eyes skimming me over several times before glancing away, her bangs hanging over her left eye. I needed to get some information out of her and I wasn't in the mood to dance around the subject.

"The fuck Lyra?"

She looked at me, at first angry, then amused. Suddenly she rolled around on the ground laughing.

"AHAHAHAHAH!"

Her laugh was loud and infectious, but I was not going to… do much but giggle a little. Regardless, I attempted to level my gaze and establish some sort of control. Seeing me act seriously, she gave a little roll of her eyes before sitting up and bringing herself under control.

"Ah, well. That question about sums it up, eh?"

I kept staring, almost with a pleading look. "I need something here. Anything."

She lowered her eyes. "Well, I can't tell you most of what I know right now, but I could tell you about the night you two got drunk. Would that suffice?"

Finally, here was someone willing to give me information. "Could you include what happened after we jumped off the building – yesterday I’m assuming? – and what you can’t tell Twilight?"

Her mouth grew to a large grin. "Luckily, I can! And if I enjoy one thing, it's making a mare happy. Let me grab a drink first."

She walked over to her pack and pulled out a flask with her magic. She took a small sip before turning around to face me.

“Well I should probably approach this chronologically, so I’m going to start with when I woke up in New Appleoosa. Give you a bit of background to explain how I came to know what I do. I awoke surprised to find that some guards were pulling me on a cart down the main road of New Appleoosa. I tried to get up but I was really hurt. Once I got to the hospital, they bandaged me up. Luckily enough I just had superficial wounds and I turned out just fine. I asked around but nobody told me how I got there in the first place." She stared at me, searching my face.

My mind churned, absorbing the information. She wasn't aware that I had brought her there. I wondered if she had even seen Ponyville yet after the event. I wasn’t about to tell her I ’saved’ her; she didn’t really need to know.

"Anyways," she continued, "I was let out of the hospital pretty quickly. I was told to apply to the military but I don’t fancy serving someone I’ve never heard of, so I stayed at the Rickety Sprocket. The barkeep there was nice and let me stay, gave me the midnight shift, but I worked the day morning shift usually to earn extra bits. I was glad to have him on my side, because I didn't really know anyone here except Braeburn, who I met once on a visit with Bon Bon." She sighed nostalgically. "I think she had a crush on me. I remember when things were happening in Ponyville she led me to the bathroom, shoved me in the bathtub and laid on top of me. Told me not to worry, even though I was half awake and scared to death... She's dead isn't she?"

I looked down, my eyes starting to water. This is just one more sin to atone for.

She smirked sadly. "Thought so. It’s okay, from Twilight told me, it wasn't really your fault."

I looked back at her. "Yes it was. If I hadn’t slept in that morning, wouldn’t have accepted the deal…”

"Coulda, shoulda, woulda.”

She sat down on the ground next to me.

“You can't dwell on what was Dash. There's a time and place to repent, and unfortunately now’s not that time. If you are trying to do better now, then that should be enough. The worst thing you could do is wallow in self-pity and do nothing."

I didn't make eye contact with her, rubbing my eyes with the back of my dirty hooves. She looked at me with some pity before continuing.

"So I tried to figure out what happened. On my first day on the job at the bar there were lots of ponies going in and out amidst all the construction in town. Despite asking around no one seemed to want to discuss the events that had transpired barely two days ago. Paid a guard about half the bits I earned and he filled me in. Rainbow Dash, bringer of the apocalypse and traitor of pony-kind. They really love you," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm and laden with slight intoxication as she stumbled over the larger words.

I rolled my eyes. "I could tell from the potshots the guards took last time I passed here.”

She raised her eyebrows before chuckling. "No kidding. I take it the disguise was a recent addition?"

I nodded.

"Anyways, I spend that night scrounging around for more information. I don't know why, but there was this nagging sensation that something wasn't right in New Appleoosa. Everyone seemed too happy. I mean one day after most of the country is wiped out you don't expect to come across a settlement full of smiling ponies unless they've all completely lost it. I found out with a couple of scans for any magic to see if I was being tracked that there was a city-wide aura that kept spirits high. And if you weren't affected by it you were taken in for questioning. This was meant to keep an eye out for changelings but wasn't completely accurate."

"Wait, why did you need to check if you were being tracked?"

She smiled. "I may or may not have been in a restricted access facility. It was where the emissary's quarters were. I really needed to know more about what was going on, especially considering that I had received a radio device at the Rickety Sprocket right after being told how evil you were.”

“You also have a radio? Where did it come from? What’s…”

She waved a hoof at me. “Slow down there, I’m getting to it. I do have a radio, but it appeared on my bed without a note or any evidence of someone being in my room. As for what’s on it…”

I held my breath in anticipation.

“I’ll get to it as well. Suffice to say I spend my time listening to it, then I grabbed some bits from Flask and left to find out more information.
The emissary was my best bet considering her proximity to the Princess of the Dawn and Dusk. She knows just about everything, and remains the only enigma other than this Endless Dark we are dealing with. I can't figure out who it is. I have an inkling that it might have something to do with..." She glared at me with a smirk. "Never mind. Point is, there are a lot of things that don't make sense about this princess."

I looked at her and seriously asked, "Are you some kind of spy?"

She laughed loudly. "Not even close. I'm lucky I didn't fall over my own hooves. Knowing how to pick locks and teleport is quite the advanced skills though. Not many considered breaking and entering a vital thing to learn in pre-apocalyptic Equestria."

"But you did. Why?"

"You'd be surprised how many riches were only behind a single locked door. We aren’t here to talk about my past transgressions however. Anyways, the radio had a plethora of information on it. I think some of it was either incorrect or intentionally misleading - still not sure which – because it told me to wait for you two and help you out, but it was completely wrong when it said we would escape without incident.

Back to my story about the emissary. When I checked out the emissary's quarter I couldn't find a single bit of info on the princess. I left with nothing but a more intimate knowledge of her personal belongings and a few sacks of bits. It was extremely disappointing.

She certainly didn’t like us though, because she sent an entire company after us once we escaped.”

“How did we all get away from them after I blacked out?”

“Twilight stayed a bit behind us to ward them off and I carried you. Good thing you are in such good shape, any heavier and we would’ve been caught. Eventually Twilight got back to me and we traveled for almost all day, ending up here.”

I looked around again. “Where exactly is here?”

She looked around as though taking in the small clearing between the trees for the first time. "Somewhere north of New Appleoosa and southwest of Stalliongrad. Stalliongrad is apparently our next destination."

"Why are we heading there?"

She glanced over towards where Twilight had gone. "She found out the name of a bomb maker located there. Not surprising considering the crime rate in Stalliongrad, really. Twilight is convinced that using the bomb will either kill the creature outright, or weaken it enough for us to finish the job.”

I frowned. “That's the plan.”

“Regardless, Twilight seems to have gotten a signed order form from the princess to pass all the law enforcement and probably blackmail the guy. More importantly, she won't let me look at it! I was hoping the signature would give me a clue to her identity."

"Well your guess is as good as mine. Trying to get Twi to explain what the heck is going on is like trying to wrestle a full grown dragon. I doubt she'll give us any information until she's ready.”

There was a pregnant pause during which Lyra took another swig of alcohol. She appeared to ponder something for a bit.

“So… the night I found you two was pretty easy going at first, but it soon became very hectic”

I turned to look at her. “How so?”

"I was serving you two, and by then I already knew who you were and carefully watched you from afar. You two drank so much I would be hard pressed to compete. After a while, you acted like complete idiots. The only part of the night that held any significance was that Twilight's robe fell off and her identity was revealed. Everyone came from the town to talk and see her like she was a celebrity, which isn’t that surprising. I know her reasons for not wanting to be seen, and I don’t like them, but there would be trouble if ponies knew about her.

You, Flask, and I all dragged her away after a bit and hid her in her robe again, almost pointless seeing as she collapsed in a booth minutes later. The locals talked about her for quite a while, and when the authorities heard about it they didn't take kindly to the knowledge of her presence. They assumed that she was a changeling seeking to cause riots. I saw something similar happen before you two came to town. It’s like the government is so afraid of things it is rapidly jumping at shadows, and innocents get hurt in the process. So I asked you to wake me up before I thought the authorities would get here; I guess it slipped your mind and now we are all wanted fugitives."

I frowned. "The emissary didn't seem to question Twilight's immunity to the aura but did call her an impersonator. So all changelings are immune to the aura?"

"Yeah, it doesn’t affect them. There are also those that cast spells to remove the effect of the aura from themselves, but they are branded as traitors.”

"Traitors? Who in their right mind would help the thing that’s killing everypony?"

Lyra gave me a sad glance. "Those not in their right mind. Persuasion of money or power, sometimes forced deals, more often trickery that involves possession. It's pretty depressing that many ponies are being forced to coerce the downfall of their own race. Once again, however, not all that remove the aura are traitors. The established protections have too many cracks in them."

I sat, solemn for a moment. The birds in the trees tweeted happily, as though nothing was wrong with the world. But if someone carefully glanced at the trees the truth was shown. They sat deep within branches near the tops of trees, practically invisible. They had just as much fear of the world as we did; they just had a better facade than we could conjure.

"What happened at the emissary's place that knocked me out?"

"Ah. Well after we fell two stories to land on a pile of hay, Twilight and I noticed you missed the hay and fell on your back, hitting solid earth. You must’ve gotten some whiplash and hit your head.”

Ouch. “So what is it that you can’t tell Twilight?”

Lyra frown, swirling her drink around. “I think that the source of the information knows us all very well, but I don’t know her at all really, not yet at least. She seems to know what is going to happen before it happens, which means she either broke the laws of time travel, or…”

I quickly caught on. “Or she is the one setting it up.”

Lyra chuckled. “Is it so impossible to think that the Princess of the Dawn and Dusk is using us? She seems to be fighting the Endless Dark, maybe she thinks that we can be utilized as weapons.”

"Do you know what is on Twilight’s radio?" I asked quickly, hoping to catch her off guard.

She smiled as she had done so many times before. "Sorry, but that is outside your questioning parameters. Unless you want to talk about how much I hold Twilight in contempt or your obvious psychological problems, let's just sit in silence until she returns, okay?"

So we sat. I brooded over my lack of knowledge. She just jumped into our journey knowing more than I did, and as it seemed to some degree, more than Twilight did. So I thought about the only thing that I could think about that was knowledge I alone possessed, my dreams.

The most obvious conclusion was that some kind of force wanted me to do something. But what? The phrase 'How do you not know' rang in my head with almost painful echoes. How do I not know what? It had to be something about Twilight or Lyra. Twilight wants to 'be free of her future'. What is her future? How do I help her? Maybe this has to do with the fact that she seems to know more than she lets on. Lyra does too. 'Her smiles couldn't have gone unnoticed by you'. Of course they don't, I'm fairly sure she is putting up a facade to mask some deeper problem like the rest of us. But what is the significance of her smiles? I thought back to earlier.

She slowly got up from the bed.

"Oh my head."

She reached up to her head with her hoof and slowly turned to the door where Twilight and I stood. Her eyes glazed over me and she smiled. She spoke to me, not Twilight, and seemed happy with every word. Then Twilight responded and her face changed to one that matched the usual of any pony seen after the event.

I made her smile, I realized.

I stood up. Lyra had trotted over and sat on a log, shifting some supplies around. She looked up at my sudden movement.

"What's up Dash?"

I trotted over to her and sat next to her on a log, glancing at her seriously. She gave me a warm, but nervous smile, and asked, "Need something?"

I looked deep into her eyes and simply said, "Why do I make you smile? Don't you hate me?"

She gave a guilty smile and looked right back at me. "I lied. I know how you saved my life."

"From a disaster I caused." I countered.

"That wasn't your fault."

“That's debatable."

"I don't care. You didn't have to save me. And you want to know why you make me smile?"

"Yes!"

"You give me hope. The few days of hell make it clear that we will not win. That's the sad and uncomfortable truth. Each outpost not in direct protection of the princess is being slaughtered. There is only a handful left. Soon even defended places will be under siege and the world will become a barren waste. But something about you, being near you, makes me want to try anyways."

"But I don't even know what I'm doing; Twilight is the one doing everything! I'm not even sure how to get to Stalliongrad, where to find the weapon thing, or how to use it! Why do I give you hope?"

"Because you have more reasons to give up than any of the rest of us. The immense trauma you must have suffered is probably making you crack at the seams. I have no idea how you are capable of standing with the entire world screaming for your blood. Both the good and bad forces want you dead, and yet here you are. The river is flowing to the ends of Equestria and you are swimming upstream. Plus… ya know… you never truly stop liking somepony…”
Then I felt her breath on my lips. We had gotten closer to each other with every comment. I broke the brief silence with an intelligent, "Oh."

She leaned slightly forward, "Yeah."

I glanced at her slowly approaching mouth and half lidded eyes in awe. I couldn't believe the scenario before me. Suddenly, amongst the cesspool of my life, there was a glint of light that saw me as something more than a murderer. I didn't know how I felt at the moment and maybe I was making a stupid decision, but any glimpse of happiness was enough for me. I leaned forward a bit more, ready to feel her lips.

“I found some firewood!"

We broke apart, scuttling away from each other to sit at a more appropriate distance when Twilight, following her voice close behind, burst through the foliage levitating a bundle of logs and twigs. She glanced over at us, seeing us breathing heavily with our faces tinted slightly more red.

"Everything okay you two?"

I looked back and forth between Twilight and Lyra. "Yeah." I responded.

That was no normal dream. It knew things. And it knew something about Twilight too. As I watched Lyra start to fetch some food from her pack and Twilight start a large fire, I lingered on Twilight, thinking. What is your future? And how do I fix it?

There are things that are considered irrelevant in life. No one talks about the rock that they stepped on or the bug that flew into their face. But there is importance in everything we do or avoid. Action have impacts upon us, and I couldn’t help but think that by getting involved with Lyra, even if briefly, I have intertwined our paths and set something in motion that none of us could stop.