//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Tucana // Story: Hour of Twilight // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Riding across Equestria wasn’t the worst thing Star Orchid had ever done. So long as she kept the window shade down, she could pretend she was on an extended circuit of Concord, without ever quite reaching her destination. There was just one problem with that: Star was too curious to leave the shade down.  A pony without her substantial academic background probably wouldn’t have had any idea that what she was seeing wasn’t the way things had always been. Vast swathes of forest transformed into sparse shrublands, with only the occasional gnarled bush braving the surface. In a way, riding the train was a trip through time, watching the destruction that Concord left behind be slowly reclaimed by the environment.  A day into the trip, and erosion had begun to cover up the irregular chunks of rock with something that looked less horrible. Still, there was almost no perfectly flat ground, and exposing so much stone to the elements meant irregular erosion, sweeping lumps and bulges in the land. “What the buck is that?” she asked, early into the third day of their trip. She’d found by now that Geist was most responsive in the mornings, since that was right before bed for him. He hadn’t even made much of an effort to overlap schedules with her during the trip. Which might be a good thing, if they expected anypony to try and do something to them while they were both asleep. He looked up from his reading, snapping the dark brown folio closed and landing on the window beside her. He squinted out the window, then rolled his eyes. “That’s a farm, Star. It’s where ponies grow food they want to eat.” It wasn’t like any farm she’d ever seen. Instead of perfect rows, it used the irregular lumps of ground each like their own little field, with fences made of sparse scrap wood. “We’ve got to be hours from the nearest hallowed foundation,” Star muttered. “Why would anypony be farming out here?” He sat back down, picking up his brown book with its strange-smelling cover. “Probably because there’s a town out here. Remember what I told you, Star. The surface isn’t black and white, it’s gray. Living in a hallowed foundation means you can leave an inheritance for your foals, because Concord won’t tear it to pieces one day. That’s great. But it comes with the Commissar watching over your shoulder for disharmony. These ponies probably figured it was better to give their children a childhood without any public executions than leaving them a house.” He spoke so flippantly, it was almost enough to make her sick just listening to him. How could he mock the princess’s sacred responsibility to keep the world free from disharmony? Did he want the sun to go out and all the plants to die? “You’re… getting into character,” she suggested. “We’re going to be playing rebellious ponies who ran away from Concord. That’s it.” He flipped his book closed. “That’s my secret, Star. I’m always in character. Acknowledging the reality of our princess’s world isn’t the same thing as questioning her sovereignty. If you’re going to live on the ground, you need to understand that not everypony will see things the same way you do. Other creatures have other priorities, that would probably horrify you living up in Concord.” He gestured out the window with a wing, and she looked back. They were slowing into a train station, one that wasn’t on her map. Geist had been right, there was a town out here. Though the structures she saw outside weren’t exactly familiar to her. Not perfect wooden houses with little windows and electric lights—no two structures looked the same. Most were made of irregular adobe bricks, with cloth-covered windows and scrap metal roofs.  She couldn’t make out any division between districts either. These ponies weren’t sorted by Harmony, or anything else. Griffons walked alongside unicorns as though they were equally likely to be kind to each other. And clearly the lack of planning was having a measurable impact on the unfortunate creatures living here, because even from the train she could see signs of want and pain. Ponies with dirt coats limping through the streets, others huddling on street corners and begging for handouts.  “Creatures come here instead of living in a city of Harmony and love,” she whispered. “It doesn’t make sense. The princess just lets these places keep existing? I bet a pony like you could find half the population were defying Harmony in some way or another.” Geist met her eyes, silent so long that the train actually started moving again. Finally he said, “For a pony in the court, your knowledge of history has some serious gaps. Or maybe it’s just… living somewhere with all your needs accounted for. Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing you’re here. Most creatures live outside Concord, Star. You can’t make a city large enough for everypony, not with all the magical gemstones on the planet. And for every city block of Concord, there’s a dozen acres of little towns growing crops to send up to Concord to sustain it. If you think ponies’ harmony gardens are enough to keep the city fed, you’re clueless.” She flopped back into her seat. She wanted to cover the window again, but she couldn’t take her eyes from it. It was like watching an execution, but backwards. Instead of being mercifully killed before a pony’s soul could be corrupted, they were being forced to live on until they were an empty, miserable husk. “I thought we were closer to reaching Harmony,” she said. “The Magic district… everypony is so kind to each other. And the capital is so… perfect.” Geist reached across the car, patting her gently on the shoulder with a hoof. It might be the first compassionate thing she’d ever seen from him “I worry that the princess might’ve picked the wrong pony for this job. The things we see in Hollow Shades are going to try your faith, Star Orchid. Even if you do make it back, you’ll never see Harmony the same way again. That’s part of why the princess created Concord in the first place. It lets her keep ponies pure from the stains down here. Now your hooves will get as dirty as mine.” “The princess made it sound like this rebellion was the last. Or…” No, that wasn’t quite right. “Or… it will help her find the last one. We follow it back to the Devourers’ last ruins, and destroy them. Then maybe disharmony like that town won’t exist anymore. Everything will be like Concord, everywhere perfect.” “Who am I to question the princess?” Geist said, his tone entirely emotionless. “No creature is as wise or as powerful.” He clambered up into his cot, pulling the hood back down over his face. Soon enough, he was snoring. Star Orchid watched the nameless town vanish from the window, until even its most distant fields were replaced with the shattered rocks and uneven canyons that Concord had left long ago. In retrospect, Jamie probably should’ve listened when the pony just told her to ask someone else for help. The temptation to make her own impression and finish this mission sooner had been powerful—more powerful than her common sense. Her legs hung limply out below her, body straining on the straps to her saddlebags. And below—a hundred feet of nothing at least, followed by sharp rubble and the canopy of a rainforest. If she was quite lucky, her corpse could keep rolling onto the rooftops beyond. “Free repel line,” she commanded, her voice feeble against the wind all around her. “Please. Lower me down.” Her vest clicked a moment, and she jerked another few feet down. Her saddlebags strained against her legs, pulling her tighter for a few seconds before jerking still. “Emergency stop.”  “Uh, pony?” Shy asked, poking her head out the opening before drifting towards her. Her wings flapped gently, more like the leisurely flight of a condor than the size her wings actually seemed compared to her body. But how strange it was to watch hardly mattered. “Jamie, you said?” She wrinkled her nose as she said it, not hiding how strange it seemed to her. “What are you doing?” “Hanging helplessly in the air,” she squeaked, her legs kicking out uselessly under her. “With… no hope of escape. Until my harness gives out…” “I guess I can pay you back for saving me,” Shy said. “Sooner than I thought. But, uh… I’m not a rescue flyer or anything.” She flew over to her, inspecting the line holding her there. “How can I get this to let you go?” Jamie twitched instantly, her limbs curling up under her in horror. “Wait, what? Let go? If it lets go, I’ll fall! I don’t know if you looked, but I don’t have wings and I really don’t want to feel a fall this bad. I survived thousands of years in an ice chest and I’m not going out like this!” “I’m not going to drop you,” Shy snapped, sounding sharper than she had before. Actually angry, if only for a second. “But if I’m going to carry you down, I need to get this to let go. Looks like there’s a button here…” “Quick release,” Jamie said, her mouth going dry and ears flattening on her head. “Press and hold for three seconds, then it… pops out.” Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything, except… this pony was clearly flying on her own. Questioning her ability was stupid. Shy flew up close, wrapping her forelegs around Jamie’s neck tightly. “Grab onto me,” she said. “But not too hard! You’re an earth pony, and I can’t fly if I’m crushed. Just help me hold on, okay?” Three seconds later, the line clicked, and they were falling. She screamed again, and probably would’ve started kicking and flailing madly in the moments before death, except the weight of that other pony was still there. She took a few deep breaths, watched as the ground got closer, and fought the instinct to kick. At least there’s one advantage to this stillsuit. Nobody knows I pissed myself. “You… sure brought a lot of stuff…” Shy said, her face strained and contorted as they dropped. Now her wings fought desperately, flapping so fast they almost disappeared. “Maybe pack a… little lighter next time?” She didn’t get a chance to respond. They fell for a few more moments, until Shy spoke again, a little louder. “Get ready to, uh… roll and stuff. We’re coming down faster than I’d… here comes!” Right as they came down, Shy pushed away from her, spreading her wings and gliding over the surface of the ground. Poor Jamie had no such protection, and so she tumbled, bouncing and rolling on the rough jungle floor. She smacked painfully with each turn, but at least she didn’t turn to a red smear in the dirt. Finally she slowed to a stop against a tree. She felt damp—water leaked out the side of her stillsuit and onto her trousers. Not just water, because soon she started smelling smoke. Her clothes were smoking now too, with an odor she could only describe as “flaming piss.” Ew ew ew ew ew… Jamie kicked and struggled, shoving free of her saddlebags before yanking and pulling on her clothes. Apparently she had better leverage than she thought, because she tore the jacket clear down the middle with just her teeth. The plastic stillsuit resisted a little better, stretching and going clear before finally snapping and spraying its contents onto the ground around her. She tore it away, sliding backward through the smoking mud until she was finally in the grass, naked and filthy. “Are you, uh… okay?” Shy asked from behind, her voice fearful. “You really… took those off fast.” She spun, ears flattening and tail tucking between her legs. True, the other pony was naked herself, and didn’t seem to even notice. She looked at Jamie with pity, not any kind of embarrassment. “It’s the desiccant. They’re bad for your skin. They can burn if you leave them on.” She stared at the little smoking pile, sighing deeply. “I should probably bury that, just in case. I wouldn’t want it catching anything on fire.” They’d landed in a clearing filled with green shrubs, just far enough away from the canopies overhead that they hadn’t been skewered on the way down. Probably too green to burn, but just in case… Jamie hobbled over, then shoved with her bare hooves in the dirt, pushing onto the smoking pile. “At least I’m… not going to be the ambassador who burned your forest down. That wouldn’t be a great first impression.” She turned back, wiping her hooves off in the grass as best she could. “Thanks for saving my life, Shy. Guess we’re even.” “Yeah.” The pony smiled faintly at her. “Sorry I couldn’t give you a more comfortable landing. I probably should’ve practiced more… but it just never felt like the most important thing.  Compared to the way I used to be, I’m practically an expert now. I never could’ve brought you down safely when I was younger.” That’s a strange way to put it for a horse that doesn’t look older than me. Of course, Jamie didn’t actually have a clue how horse ages worked, so she didn’t dare say anything that would make her seem ignorant of it. This wasn’t the one she’d come to negotiate with. She needed a government office. Jamie bent down, sliding the saddlebags back on. The harness now seemed permanently stretched, and it jostled a little from one side to the other when she moved. But at least it hadn’t dumped all over the floor. She’d take the little blessings where she could. “So, Hollow Shades. I think I might’ve seen a town through the jungle when I was… hanging for my life. Maybe you could tell me about it on the way there?” Shy seemed eager to set off. Even if they started out in the middle of the jungle, she pointed and soon they were back on the trail. Probably they’d just skipped miles of switchbacks and mazes, but Jamie wouldn’t complain about that. Less walking was always better. “I haven’t been here that long, honestly. Every time I move somewhere else, it’s like… starting my life over again. But I guess it’ll be the same way for you, if you’re here from some weird… colony of earth ponies who live wherever they want.” She nodded. “Weird doesn’t begin to describe it with me. If my town ever does get built, you can come over for lunch and I can tell you just how crazy it was.” She trailed off, looking up as she walked. “I didn’t even see the ground until I was fifteen. Too much poison, too much crime. And pretty much the instant I landed I wanted to be back where I came from. But big cities make big targets. I always knew I’d want to find a shelter eventually. And now…” The pony was staring. “Right, you have no idea what I’m talking about. Thank God that you don’t is all I’m saying. The world really sucked there at the end. I’m sure the new one you’ve built is better.” Shy stopped walking abruptly, her ears flattening. She seemed to deliberate for a moment, before circling slowly around her. “You keep saying things that…” She lowered her voice suddenly, speaking right into her ear.  “Listen, Jamie. I don’t know anything about you, and I’m not the kind of pony who goes around telling everything. I don’t want you to get in trouble, I promise. But I gotta warn you. If you walked up to a royal ambassador and said things like that to her… it would be really bad. The princess has been hunting for a long time now. I can tell you can’t be what she’s looking for… but you can’t let her find out about you.” Jamie raised an eyebrow. She didn’t push Shy away, even if being so close while completely naked made her feel all sorts of uncomfortable. Her curiosity was too powerful. “What is the princess looking for?” “Uh…” Shy tilted her head to the side, so flabbergasted she didn’t even seem to know how to reply. “Where did you come from that you don’t know about the Unification Crusade, or… Harmony’s Judgement, or…” She reached over, tugging on her saddlebags. “Is that Darktech?” Now it was Jamie’s turn to laugh. “I have no idea what a Darktech is. It’s a few basic survival supplies, that’s all. Dried food you’d think is gross, some water purification tablets, a flashlight, my tent”—a gun I can’t use—“and some money. That’s it.” “Listen.” The pony advanced on her, no longer seeming quite so shy as her pretend name implied. “You saved me, so I’m trying to help you. Hollow Shades isn’t Concord. There aren’t inquisitors on every corner. But there’s at least one in the town all the time. It doesn’t matter how far south you go. If you’re some kind of… separatist cult, you should go back to them. You won’t be safe here.” Epsilon said something into her ear, but suddenly Jamie wasn’t even listening. “I’m not,” she answered reflexively. “I’m just trying to find somewhere to live. My world ended and I got frozen in the ground. Now I want to be… alive.” She gestured vaguely around with one hoof, resting it on a nearby tree. “Living plants. Birds, insects, blue sky. How amazing is that? I don’t want to go back underground.” Shy sat back on her haunches, horrified. “You’re… one of them. All the ponies Twilight murdered looking for you… and you’re real. Devourers.” “What?” She laughed, voice bitter and panicked. Her headset was hanging loose on her ear now, Epsilon’s words lost to the air around her. What do I care what you think? It was be a stupid horse or be dead, of course I said yes. “You wouldn’t even tell me what a ‘Devourer’ was.” Shy stared. For a moment it seemed she thought Jamie was mocking her, but then she answered, voice skeptical. “An ancient evil that used to rule the world. They murdered the first ponies long ago, before our ancestors finally beat them. They can’t know friendship, only greed and hatred…” Jamie’s eyebrows went up. “I mean, there are dicks in the world, sure. But is that really what you think? I’m sorry I wasn’t very good at saving you.” She started walking again, right around where Shy sat in the center of the path. “Thanks for not dropping me I guess.” At least the pony had put her on the right path towards town. She could keep following this, and eventually she’d reach the settlement. Maybe Hollow Shades would work out better for her than anything had so far. “Wait!” the pony squealed, then hurried to catch up. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t… it wasn’t very kind to say those things. They’re just stories—and they’re being used to justify some pretty bad things. They’re probably not true.” “You’re damn right.” Jamie didn’t stop walking, though she did occasionally glance to see if she was being left behind. If anything Shy said was true, there might be some… totalitarian authority waiting for her in town. Her mission could be instantly destroyed if Shy decided to whisper into the Stazi’s ear. She slowed a little, reaching up with a hoof to settle her headset into place. The instant it was back, she heard Epsilon again. “Headset functional, Jamie Sanders. Have not received a response.” And it wouldn’t receive one, not while Shy was staring at her like this. Talking to some mysterious voice in the distance would certainly not make herself look sane and trustworthy. “If you can hear this message, abort your current mission. Return to the colony. The information you have gathered indicates we must iterate. Your discovery is an unacceptable risk.” And just like that, the mission was lifted from her shoulders. But that didn’t mean she was going to stop pretending she couldn’t hear. “Maybe you’d like, uh… maybe you’d like to think things through before you go to the Magistrate?” Shy said. “I… I’ve got a pretty big place, thanks to… well, it’s a long story. But no soldiers are going to search it in the night, if that helps.” “Yes,” she said, almost a little too quickly. “That sounds great.”