Barley dreamed. She was hungry as she fell asleep, the rations gone, but in the darkness her stomach burned with pain. Shifting restlessly, she found herself back in the wasteland; yet her love for Thess was gone.
Thess? That miserable woman? The one that wouldn't go away?
Barley scowled, clutching her stomach, limping along in the horde.
She was hungry, that much she knew. Everything else was a forgotten blur.
Barley was not the only wretch to be consumed by hunger. She looked around her at her tiny view of the vast horde, saw humans and creatures once human weak and stumbling, limp on the ground, murmuring. The inhuman ones seemed the least affected by the ardour of the march. A few ragged humans gnawed at their own limbs.
The sound of the fight and the roaring of machines was hardly diminished when a figure sloshed through the pool, shoving aside the few creatures miserable enough to take refuge in it. Barley sunk deeper into the noxious sludge when she realized the figure was heading for her, carrying something in its arms.
Thess staggered up to her, and crouched down. She looked more awful than usual, her cracked skin cut and bruised, leaking blood and a lumpy ochre fluid.
Barley regarded the human warily. "You get in a fight?" she asked,
"Yeah, some bright little pet with a cargo-wagon drove up with some ration boxes. Thought he'd get some kind of reward, maybe. Yeah, we'd all stand around him and say he was a very useful worker," Thess laughed sharply. "Hey, I got some food."
"You probably didn't ask." Barley observed sardonically, aware of how ridiculous a response like that must sound coming from a a wretch half-submerged
"No, but I didn't kill him. 'Least I think he's dead, that beast-thing with the axe didn't look like he was gonna do much else, climbing into the control-compartment like that." Thess smiled a little, shrugged, "I think I'm talking better now, pony."
"Yes. Thank you." Barley said quietly. "Stars above, I'm hungry."
"Eh, you'll still probably hate it," Thess said, bending down and offering the thing in her arms to Barley; if the pony hadn't been soaking in industrial wastage, she might have recoiled at it. The food was a lump of meat, bloodied and cracked much like Thess' skin.
"Grox meat," Thess said offhandedly, "though something's weird with it. Used to get a little bit of grox every week back in the factory."
"I-" Barley hesitated, searching her exhausted self for words, "...thank you, Thess." Barley eventually sighed, salivating at the disgusting meal.
"Thought you might want some food." Thess said as she cut the grox meat in half with her knife, adding streaks of rust to the meal. Barley took the offered chunk, closed her eyes, and bit down.
As Barley chewed, gagged on, and swallowed the meat at a quite slow pace, she had plenty to think about. There was little doubt now that Thess did feel something for her. There was an attachment there. Barley didn't want to think too deeply on their relationship, but at least it meant she had the tiniest bit of dependability in this utterly insane world.
The second thought was bringing up warm memories of home, better meals and happy times. She was breaking bread with Thess - not literally, but the concept was one of the few metaphors earth ponies used. She was sharing a meal with the human, and sharing a meal was a sacred thing.
"You know," Barley said suddenly, between squelching bites, "I didn't like a lot of things about unicorns."
"Huh?" Thess mumbled, eating methodically.
"Yeah. They were so weird, nothing about them made a mite of sense. I couldn't stand Canterlot, especially when I had to follow some special little lovely unicorn around for a day to represent the Expeditions, or something. Stars above, I hated it," Barley said, practically spitting out, "It's a city and a race of lies." Barley sighed and sat back, chewing on her food, shifting restlessly.
Thess raised her eyebrows, muttered something unintelligible.
"But the thing that I really couldn't get over was how they ate," Barley abruptly said, "They ate with enemies! They shared meals with ponies who were obviously their rivals, broke bread with ponies they didn't have a dusting of care for - i couldn't understand it, still can't."
Thess paused from her food. "That's thinkin, pony. Those 'unicorns', r'they the nobles?"
"Yes. Well, most of them, at least. The merchants were just as bad. How'd you guess?"
Thess shrugged, gestured at the Hive in the distance. "Arrogant, don't make any sense, don't give a damn about us filth. Sounds familiar. I hope they died in their spires," Thess grinned, "I'd bet a year's rations they did, too."
"Yeah, all that. Didn't say anything about what the nobles thought of me." Barley looked down into the pool, her mirror image unrecognizable through the mire and filth and ripples. She was almost glad she couldn't see what she looked like at the moment. Part of her thought she would look at home in this city, and she ever want to confront that.
"Didn't think much of you at all," Thess said.
"Probably." Barley turned her gaze up to Thess, streaked blood and crust, smeared with filth, staring with a wry smile. It amazed the pony that Thess should even be a living thing, with the indescribable horror that was this world, that the human was very much a part of. Impossible at times to believe this creature had a current of humor and a beating heart.
Thess' smile faded into a blank expression. "Not much to think about, we are." The smile returned, twisting to the corners of the human's mouth, "But damn it all, feels like something when you're covered in the blood of a militia worker. Feels like something important, bringing the Hive spires down and killing the nobles and marching across the wastes with an army," Thess gestured around at the ragged horde around them, the tumult and inhuman noise of uncounted voices.
"An army?" Barley was disbelieving, shook her head. "All this, just makes me feel small."
"Took all this just to figure that out?"
"Maybe." Barley said without confidence. "I don't know anymore. All I've got is this meat, these rags, and you."
"Imperials aren't gonna spare you just for bein' here, not wanting to be part of this," Thess said, "and why wouldn't you?"
"Everything about this is horrifying." Barley said flatly.
"No," Thess shook her head, "this is the most exciting thing to happen in my life, pony."
"I can imagine."
"C'mon, you're saying you've done greater things than be a part of stupidly big army, killing blue-blooded bastards and working for yourself? To be anything? Go anywhere? Get out of the damned manufactorum and scraggin' live?" Thess' eyes were narrowed and her body shaking.
"Who told you that?" Barley asked, returning the stare, "the sack of flesh?"
"I figured it out," Thess snarled, "I love this. Feels good. Feels like something that's worth doing."
Barley looked on with something approaching pity.
Thess took a bite from her meat, then threw it away, shaking again. She sunk to her knees, slid forward into the muck, prostrate. "Damn it all, Barley. What the hell else am I gonna do? Damn the governor. Damn the prefects. Damn the foreman. I'm not gonna explain everything." Thess crawled over and sat down heavily beside Barley, and slung an arm over the pony.
"I don't know, human. I don't want to know," Barley said, yet her voice was not as hard she would have liked.
They sat in silence.
"Damn this world." Barley said finally, spitting into the puddle.
"Damn me?" Thess asked, unsmiling.
"You don't need me for that." Barley sighed.
"No, I don't." Thess agreed, and eventually they closed their eyes.