The rain lasted for days this time. We made a mud wall in the cathedral door to keep at bay the worst of the sky's gifts at bay. Somewhere along the line we found something dry enough to make a fire. Old planks, scattered about in one of the side rooms, stuck together to resemble long chairs. Of all the things I first feared when I first awoke, being cold and wet wasn't one of them.

Sturdy was a pillar of strength. When I couldn't walk, he was there. When I couldn't climb, he was there. I'll never forget his answer when I asked him why he would do something like this for almost a complete stranger.

"I can still see it."
"See what?" I asked, shivering by the fire as per usual.
"The end of all of this."

Then he got up, walked over to me and lay down next to me. It was warmer that being alone. That was the end of the second day. When I say day, I mean sleep cycle. The light here never changes. It's always a dull glow of lightning bouncing off the formerly sterile clouds. The first time we found darkness was in the cathedral basement. Unfortunately, it flooded after the storm that washed away our resident bones.

Sturdy was the one who suggested waiting the storm out. Exploring the cathedral, as soon as I was well enough to run on my own. The main chamber was nothing but a cold stone floor and a raised dais at the far end. Several chambers split off, all of which he'd been in, searching for food. The first thing he supported me towards was the storage room, and gods was it a sight for sore stomachs.

It was packed. Packed with cans of food. Beans, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, pickled everything you can pickle. Anything you can stuff in a can and make last forever. There was even a jar of honey. Opening it we found it to be crystallized. Completely solid. It was sweet and sticky and wonderful. There were other things I didn't recognise. Pink banana shaped fruit the size of a...small thing. Half the size of a banana. I don't really have many points of reference right now.

Further on down that dry-storage was a great metal door. Sturdy wasn't able to wrench it open, so he didn't know what was inside. There was a bar on a circle in the middle of it, just out of his reach. I turned it. Inside was the light smell of decay and a memory of cold air long past. I'm not sure why, given that there was a flourishing plant and mushroom colony inside. The plants were an odd shade of reds, oranges and browns, and the mushrooms were a pale, almost luminous white.

We later found out they glowed. Huh. And that you shouldn't eat them. Ever. We awoke the morning after out first fresh dinner in Tartarus to the sound of rustling leaves, strangely hallucinating that the rain had grown faces and the plants inside the metal door had migrated and covered the cathedral in leaves and flowers of every colour.

Sturdy, or at least what I thought was Sturdy suggested sleeping this off like a bad hangover. Not his actual words, but I'm paraphrasing. So we slept. I'm not sure about Sturdy, but there was something speaking to me in that dream. Made of lightning and silent, but speaking. I tried to understand, grasped desperately at his words but, no. It was all crackles and a faint song that sounded like home and loss, hope and the future.

When I awoke, Sturdy was still asleep, the rain was no longer looking at us...but there were still red vines growing across the ceiling. It was both intensely disturbing and strangely comforting. The rain continues to beat down. No luck there.

The next room we happened upon was what looked like an old armoury. Or it would have been, if there were swords and suits of armour where there were only small piles of rust and slightly larger piles of rust. Faded pictures lined the walls behind glass screens, encouraging us to...I couldn't read it, but they looked encouraging and terrifying. A large white horse towered menacingly with an outstretched hoof towards a cowering pony working on a field. Others were ponies working together holding strangely shaped jars and glasses. Some even depicted ponies with wings, posing strongly for some kind of artist.

I didn't get it, but by the look on Sturdy's face, he did. I tried asking him about it, but he just mumbled something about radicals. There were more symbols on the wall, faded and red. Sturdy wouldn't translate them for me either. The look on his face read disgust, the first time I saw that express cross his usually benevolent deadpan.

We left that room quickly.

The next and penultimate room we found was full of...nothing. Nothing useful, anyway. Just shelves upon shelves of books. All the same. They seemed like...books. I opened one to see if I could...nope. Can't read it. I briefly contemplated burning it, but something within me just said no. I put it back, and left the book room.

On the fifth day, we heard something thump outside. At first we thought it was one of the walls breaking after so much abuse, but a shouted screech soon knocked us out of that. We scrambled to the mud wall, eyes darting around for the source of the noise, desperate to find another like us. Another survivor.

Sturdy spotted it first. A newly formed crater in the earth, quickly filling with the endless rainwater. He may have seen it first, but I acted without thinking. I jumped over the wall, the rain stinging and making the already cloying mud worse, and darted to the now frantic screeching.

Damn that was a large hole. In the middle was a small black looking insect thing I don't care about that it's going to drown. I jumped in. I could climb, but I wasn't sure about it. It flailed in the mud, sinking up to its neck, sending red splashing everywhere.

As I slid down, time began to slow to a crawl. I thought. Lightning flashes overhead, catching the mud and lighting it up like the land's blood pouring from a thousand unseen cuts. The insect screeched, it's fangs a pearly white and it's eyes utterly terrified. What was I doing here? Why was I going into danger to help something I never met?

"I can still see it."

I stood up, still sliding, still slowed. Somehow, I walked. Sturdy was beside me. I didn't care how. As time was still nothing, we walked like we always did. We pulled the squirming insect out of the mud, throwing mud up into the air where it caught and stilled. The light of the lighting began to fade and we, calmly as you like, scaled the crater like it was flat ground and placed the rescuee down. The flash ended, and time resumed it's normal march.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" I screeched, the insect silencing itself in shocked disbelief. Sturdy just looked at me. We were silent in that rain for a long time. Nothing moved but the flows and rivers of mud sweeping past our feet.
"Inside?" he asked, still stunned.
"Yeah, let's...let's get dry." I picked up the unresisting beetle-pony.

It was a beetle-pony, now I got a good look at it. If you cross a pony with a black-shelled bug and give it the look of a kicked puppy, that is what I was looking at. Wait...if that was made the crater, where did it come from...I spun around, searching the skies for...there!

A hole. A big, fluctuating, circular hole in the sky. Through it I saw green fields, tall ivory towers and one other thing. A great white horse, mane of striped pastels, golden regalia and an expression like she just saw something impossible before it's eyes. The hole began to close up as her horn began to glow a cool gold. I just had time to do one little thing.

I pointed at my eyes. I pointed at her. Given her step back, I think she got the message.

We took the small black pony-thing inside and sat it by the fire. It curled into a ball. I guessed it was exhausted. I turned to Sturdy.

"You know what he or she is?"
"That is a changeling. A shape shifting creature that feeds on emotions."
"Huh. So why is a changeling here?"
"Changelings are sent to the wastes or Tartarus as law."
"But, why?"
"They are deemed a menace to Equestria and universally known as vampiric thieves which have neither emotions of their own or remorse."
I pointed to the curled up traumatized ball of pony trying it's best not to cry in front of our fire.
"I never claimed it was accurate."
"Are we having doubts about the Equestrian legal system, Mister Gaffer?"
"I have had doubts about the Equestrian legal system since my farce of a trial and incarceration."
"I'd say exile rather than incarceration. In jails they traditionally feed you."
"Indeed."

It was a long day that would only get longer as time passed. Thinking that, I realised something.

"Hey, Sturdy."
"Yes, Ayre?"
"You know how you said Celestia was the pony-god of the sun, right?"
"Princess Celestia is the mover of the sun."
"And Luna is the same thing of the moon?"
"Princess Luna is the mover of the moon, that is correct."
"And there's no sun or moon here, right? Just the storm."
"Indeed, that-" He stopped. You could read the revelation on his face. Not only was he exiled, but his living gods had literally abandoned him. Even their symbols were lost to him and all the others that were thrown into the nightmare of dust and storm. "Celestia and Luna have abandoned us." His voice came like the last breath of a dying man, stabbed in the back by his closest ally.

So I hugged him. For good measure, I picked up the changeling and hugged that too. That thing was light. Must be the starvation and the lightweight exoskeleton. After a while, we noticed the rain had stopped falling. No-one moved.

"T-thank y-you." the grateful squeak came from ball of chitin that had curled itself around my leg.
"Not a problem. We've got to stick together, you know. Can't do anything on our own, not here."
"Indeed." Sturdy half grumbled, still lost in his revere.
"Seriously though, you have a name? I'm not just going to keep calling you 'Adorable Ball of Chitin'."
"Um..." it looked around. I recognised that look. I'd worn it two weeks before. The mental scrambling to find something to call yourself before settling on "C-crater."
"Crater. Alright Crater the changeling, this is Sturdy Gaffer the pony and I'm Ayre the undisclosed."
"Un-undisclosed?"
"We don't know what I am. Probably something with a silly name."
"You're warm."
"He is cold."
"You're both wrong. I am perfect." We shared a chuckle.

We left that morning after scavenging whatever we could. Vines made net bags for food. Half rotted wood and some more vine made terrible but better than nothing sandals. Before we could go, however, Sturdy asked me to help him with something. Together we pulled all the wood into the center chamber, then the posters, then the books. The pile was so very high. Then he brought a log from the fire and set the entire thing ablaze. We watched for a time, until the very top caught the wooden rafters.

The ceiling began to buckle. The flames quickly caught the vines and raced away along the creepers. Soon, the entire building was up in smoke, falling masonry crashing down where we once stood. Thankfully we were gone by that time, the inferno of what was once a great structure warming our backs.

"Pax Celestia." Sturdy spat the words of peace like a curse. I didn't want to disturb him, so I just patted him once on the haunch and kept walking. The changeling was confused and terrified. I knew what both of them felt.

The three of us walked away from the dilapidated cathedral, leaving naught but red dust and smoke in our wake.

Author's Note

So, that was a chapter. Questions and comments welcome. Also people have actually liked this. Four. Which is about five more than I was expecting.