//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Between Two Worlds // Story: Shadows of Eden // by RoccoRoccs //------------------------------// Blinding white light filled the room we were in. Everywhere we looked was white, the walls, ceiling and floor, all white. Jet blended in nearly perfectly with her surroundings, save for her black mane that was a mess in my lap. She was passing out more and more often with her waking moments filled with agony. How long have we been here? Hours? What did they plan on doing with us? There were so many questions in my mind, but the one that kept coming to the forefront was always the same, how are we going to get out of this. Giving up wasn't an option, dying wasn't an option and going quietly wasn't an option. Ponies needed to know what happened here, they deserved to know what was going on. "D-Dingy?" Jet mumbled from my lap. "I feel cold... Am I dying?" She asked in a hollow tone. "No... It's just really REALLY cold in here." It wasn't a lie either. It had to be nearly freezing in this room and all we had to keep warm was each other and my hospital gown made into a makeshift blanket. I did my best to insulate her from the cold floor in her state, but the growing puddle of blood at my hooves was a clear sign that we needed to make something happen and fast. The cold concrete floor was rough and felt like ice under the both of us. "They must have us in cryostorage. It's near the testing lab, by my office. They must be doing a slow pull down." "What's a slow pull down?" "It's this process where we would test the endurance limits of a pony on Equaal under duress over 24 hours. It's designed to zap their energy and find their limit. Over the time period the temperature drops below freezing and they are made to stay active. We usually have them hooked up to a port in the wall to monitor body functions... but there are no wires attached to us." She said as she fell back asleep. So that is what they were doing. I bet they were going to play this off as a lab accident, maybe even blame Egress for it somehow. The thought of these bastards getting away with murder like this played hell with my emotions. I began pounding my hoof into the wall behind me in anger, but drew it back after it hit something hard other than the wall. My Cuff, the device was still attached to my foreleg. Why hadn't they taken it off? "Jet... Jet! Wake up." Jet only groaned and drew herself up into a ball. "Jet, I still have my cuff. Why didn't they take it?" "Your what?" She said, rolling over in a shiver. "My cuff! I still have it!" "Why would they... Oh. They can't take it off, they would need the key to take it off. It's a long chain of numbers and letters." "Wouldn't they have that information?" I asked, looking it over. "They would have had I not nuked the OS that was holding it. Heh." Jet said defiantly. "They would have to take your whole arm if they wanted it now... not much good it would do them either. The code is programmed to fry the data the second the host dies. Call it a fail safe." She said as she tried to pull herself up, failed and landed right back in my lap. "Sorry. It just... hurts." "I know, it's ok. Just lay down and try to rest." "I can't. I think I'm turning toxic." She said, pulling at her flank to see the wound swollen and red with infection already setting in. "Dingy, if we don't get out of this, there is something I want you to know." "Don't talk like that! We are going to-" "Dingy, please. When I first saw you up there on the platform, waiting for me to cast the spell... I thought you were just some scared mare going through what she had to to get paid. I have seen a lot come before you. But over the last week I got to see the strong, brave mare you truly are. It made me jealous. I started to envy you even... But it's taken until now to realize, that... what I was really feeling was longing. I wanted you from the moment we first spoke on coms. I wanted to know you more than just a test subject... but a friend... maybe even more, if you would have me." "Jet, what are you saying?" I asked, looking down at her. "I'm saying that... I think I fell for you. Hard." She rested her chin on my chest, those big purple eyes looking up at me with every bit of hope in the world looking back at me. I didn't know what to say. What could I say to mirror the thought, I knew I felt the same but... how do you say it to a mare you barely knew? So I did what I did best, something stupid. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers and did what came natural. With her head in my hooves and my lips on hers I gave her my answer and oh did it ever feel so right. "I think I fell for you too." I said with a smile. Who cares if we were about to die, I wanted to feel this... this moment. Jet slumped back to the floor at my hooves. No. No, this was not happening. I didn't just have a mare pour her heart out to me like that and start dying. Hell to the no! Well, that settles it. I'm getting us out of here, even if I have to gnaw my way through the locks. I need more of that in my life and a little less of all... this room. I had a plan, but I didn't want to speak it out loud just yet. It was stupid, crazy and thought up in a haste. So the chances of this working were 50/50. If they couldn't get my cuff off without a key, then they couldn't get the data. If the data wipes when its host dies... Then they couldn't kill me to get it. But with me near death from pneumonia... "Jet... Does this room have microphones? Cameras?" I asked, looking around. "Microphones... and there is a camera in the corner." I looked up to where her hoof was pointing in the far corner of the room. I took my hoof and began pawing it at the ground, watching the little flakes of hoof come off like little wisps as I sharpened it as best I could. I did the same with the other, I would need something pretty sharp to make this work. In the far corner there were a few items, a white crate filled with balls and a single dumbbell, presumably for exercise. Once I had shuffled my way around the room a few times, I reached for the dumbbell and carried it to the center of the room. "Dingy... What are you doing?" Jet asked from the floor. "Where does that feed go?" I whispered to my left. "Security station. It's a closed circuit." I reached up a hoof holding the dumbbell and rolled it to see the soft underside of my leg. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "You want the data? You think you can wait me out? Let's see who gets here first, you or blood loss!" I shouted as I dragged my sharpened hoof across my fetlock hard enough to draw blood. "Better come quick..." I said as I used what little strength I had to hurl the dumbbell at the camera on the wall, shattering it and leaving it to hang by a wire. "DINGY! NO!" Jet said, scrambling to my side, her legs failing her every step of the way. "Why? Why would you do that!?" She asked with tears in her eyes. I reached my leg down and took the gown and ripped off a length of fabric. "Here, help me bandage this up! Quick!" Jet did as asked and I grabbed the dumbbell once more, taking a place by the door. Com'on you greedy bastards... com'on. Ok, Dingy. Just like the Blats. I waited for what felt like an eternity before I heard the buzzer sound and the door crack open. I slid my body behind it, waiting to see how many ponies came through the door. Imagine my surprise when just one lonely buck stepped in and allowed the door to shut behind him. "Against the wall! Where is she!?" He shouted as I drew back with my leg. With as much anger as I could throw behind it, I brought the weights down on his head with a satisfying crack, denting his skull and sending him to the floor in a pile. Blood began to pool around his muzzle as I reached down and took his ID badge and baton. "Jet, quick! Can you walk?" I asked as I slid to her side. "Not without help." She said, never taking her eyes off the downed guard. "Is he?" I looked over at his lifeless body. "Yeah... He is." I said quietly. I pushed my shoulder into hers and helped her to her hooves. "Better to worry about it later. Where do we need to go to get you help?" "My office... I have a-ow- a surgery pod there. I think it can remove the bullet." She said with a groan. I poked my head out the doorway and saw... nothing. To my right was a long hallway, the same I had trotted down when I first came here. The other way was a jungle of doors and hallways but the darkened labs suggested that we were the only ones down here. On the wall to my right was a timer that was slowly ticking down from two hours and forty five minutes. "We were there for five hours. The next drop in temperature is in a few minutes. You got us out of there just in time." Jet said, nudging me to my left. "My office is four doors down... I think I have a spare med kit there too." The two of us hobbled our way to the office labeled 'Doctor Egress & Jet' where we both paused. Jet stared at the etched glass for a moment before nosing the door open and letting us in. Both her wounds were still fresh, both the bullet hole and the one in her heart from her lost mother, but she was holding it together well. She looked back at me, seeming to fall apart at any moment. "Not yet. There's still work to do." I said as I started looking for anything to help us. Jet locked the door behind her and hobbled to a corner of the room where she began punching numbers into a keypad for a locker. Once opened, the little locker was packed full of bags and boxes that nearly spilled out onto the floor at her hooves. It wasn't long before a small box was pulled from the wreckage labeled 'Experiment 471: Robotic Surgeon REV. 3' . She opened the box and pulled an oval shaped apparatus from within, took a seat on her side and placed it over the wound. "I designed this to help with bee stings in hyper allergic foals. It extracts the stinger and drains the sting site..." "Jet... That's amazing! Why have I never heard of something like this?" "Well, it has a flaw in the anesthetic- OW!" She clinched her eyes shut as the device bit into her hide as a little barb shot down into the wound. Flaw indeed. Jet shrieked in pain and buried her head into the cushion on the small chair beside me. I ran to her side and took her hoof into mine. "Oh wow that sucks!" She screamed into the cushion. She bared down on my hoof as another wave of pain began to rock her body when the little machine began extracting the bullet. Soon, a glittering crimson chunk of copper and lead was hovering in the air above her thigh. "It got it! Look at that!" I said in joy. "Yeah... woohoo... Thank Equestria this thing never made it to market." She said as it lowered itself down and began draining the wound. "It should drain the wound and administer antibiotics and seal the wound with a pug." After a few moments it had done just that. The little robot removed itself and hovered in place for a moment before landing at her side. I was holding back a snicker. "That's better. Amazing little- what? What is it?" She said, looking down. "Oh for peach's sake!" The little robot had done its job alright. Left a mouth sized hickey on her rump and patched the wound with a little bandage with the image of a pony blowing a raspberry. It was, by all accounts, adorable and hilarious given our situation. "Feeling better?" I asked as I examined the wound on her flank. Hilarity aside, this thing was amazing! I ran my hoof over the spot where the bullet had entered and it wasn't even raised anymore. Science was amazing, Jet was an amazing scientist and this thing was a product of both. I looked back at Jet who was wearing a deep shade of red and realized that this whole time I had been basically copping a feel on her. "Sorry. I was... Sorry." I said as I pulled the hoof away. "No. No... It's ok." She said sheepishly. Ok Dingy, mind out of the gutter. What's your next move girl? Do we try and escape? Burn the place down? What? "You know that spell you cast to get me back here? Is it on the mainframe thingy? Like is it, private or something?" I asked, my brain not wanting to get the thought of what just happened out of my head. "No, it's all on my cuff. Most of the spell is something of my own design so I know it, but the ability to cast it... That's all on my cuff." She said, pointing to her desk. "I need a second." She said, slouching to the floor. "The pain was really bad huh?" I asked as I retrieved her cuff. "No. Just... need a moment." She said, stuffing her face into the cushion further. She really is a strange one. "What if I told you... I have a plan. It's really stupid and we might die, but it could get us out of here. Would you trust me enough to try it?" I asked sheepishly. Part of me really wanted her to say no, or fight me. But another part of me really wanted to see what would happen next. "Yes. I trust you. What's the plan?" "Here, put this on. You will need it. What if we took all the supplies we needed and just. Left. This town. This place... This time." "Dingy, I don't know about that. Why don't we just... make a run for it somewhere?" "Hear me out. If we take the data, they can't follow us. It would take them forever to undo the damage we would cause them. They may never recover from it. It could be the catalyst for change. Either way. What we need right now is some time. We need time to think of a plan to make this all work for us." "W-where is this coming from? Since when do you think like a mercenary?" "Didn't you read my file? We used to do stuff like this in the rain forest... against Spark... who we are being held captive by, look, do you think it will work or not." Jet took a moment to think about the matter. I personally loved the idea, as crazy as it was. We jump forward in time, even back to 6300 if it came to it and hide out. With the Blats gone, I hope it will be relatively safe there. Food will be hard to come by, but if the Blats are gone then maybe we can forage? This was all on the notion that those two rats were the only ones in known existence. But hey, it could work... right? "If the spell is still loaded in the chamber then it could work, but Dingy it will just send us right back to where you came from. With all those... Blat things." "Ah ha! But I killed said blat things in your mother's lab." "But... what if that is not where they came from!? What if they are just an example of forced evolution?" "What choice do we have? I have seen this place, no way it's not on lock down. Jet, if we don't try then we might as well go and hide out and wait for them to find us. It's now or never." I said, trotting over and passing her her Cuff. "You and me babe, we got this." It was false confidence but it was all I had. For all I knew, there would be worse things out there after the Blats were gone. "If it makes you feel better, we will take a weapon. A gun or something." "Oh... I got something better! I just remembered mom was working on..." She paused, shook her head and looked back at me. "Not yet. Soon, I promise." "Here it is. The Atomic Silent Slicer!" She said, holding up a large rifle looking thing. "Able to separate material on a molecular level! We made it for the rain forest harvesters... Sorry about that." She said sheepishly. "Ass... You named it Ass... Why the hell do you ponies have access to tech like this and name it Ass?" I was floored. Every moment with Jet was a new adventure, I swear. "What did you want us to name it, Ms. Judgy Pants!?" Just then we heard a guard coming down the hall. The unmistakable hoof steps on steel grating echoed off the walls as he made his nightly rounds. Judging by the slow movements they were not in a rush as of yet, so I assumed we were in the clear. "Crap. It's the guards. Quick! Hide in here!" Jet said, lifting a floor panel. "Why do you ponies have so many of these places!?" I said as I slid down inside. Jet pulled the lid back into place just as the guard unlocked the door. She quietly did up the latch and made a motion with her hoof to keep quiet... As opposed to what, screaming? We listened for a moment as he trotted around the room before coming to the pile of boxes we had created in the corner. "Huh... not where I left you... Damn it Nightstick, I'll have your flank for going through company property!" He shouted to himself as he ran out the door and after somepony named Nightstick. "Great! Now two of them are coming! What are we going to do!?" I said, crawling from the hiding spot. "We have to get to the platform. It's back from where we came from. Quick, grab that bag. It has some snack bars and a med kit in it." Jet said, gathering her things. I watched as she slung the rifle over her shoulder and made for the door. In the hallway we could hear talking between other ponies. Just around the corner a small group had assembled by the door to the cryostorage. Well, if they weren't in for a surprise. Jet and I hid behind a crate in the hall just down from them. Of course the door to the platform was right next to crystorage... Why wouldn't it be! "Now what?" I whispered. "We can't shoot them all. This thing needs time to recharge between shots! By the second shot they will be all over us!" Jet said, looking beside her and trying her luck with a door knob. Just as she did, a little voice came from just under the threshold. "Jet. Is that you?" She whispered. "Yes! Clicky!?" "Yes! What's going on? There is security everywhere. They are saying that you died in a house fire! Did you find Egress?" "Yes. Clicky... She's gone." Jet said softly. She was playing this so tough, but I knew deep down she was being torn apart. "Oh Shady... I'm so sorry!" "Thank you. Can you help us? We gotta get out of here!" The door cracked open and a grey mare's head came into view from the shadows within the room. If it had not been for her blue mane, I might not have seen her at all. Slowly the door opened and we crawled inside behind her. Jet reached with her magic and locked the deadbolt behind us where we were hiding under the control panel. Jet and Clicky shared a brief hug before finally turning to me. "How can I help?" She asked. "We need the spell to fire off. If we can get some distance between us and them, time wise, we can come up with a plan to fix all of this. We have a way back, but we need a way out." I said, peering over the console. There were more of them now, gathered around the door seemingly trying to override the security system. "You want me to shoot you forward in time!? But last time-" "Last time I was almost eaten by giant rats with no eyes. We got that covered." I said, pointing at the rifle. "Is that the A.S.S!?" "Yes, the ass. We have the ass, the ass is coming with us! Please! Can you help us or not?" I said, trying to snap her out of the shock she was in. "But with two ponies it's even more dangerous! You could be killed!" She said, biting her hoof. "Clicky... listen to me very carefully..." Jet said, pulling her head in close to hers. "My mother was shot a few hours ago. The bullet went through her and right into my leg. I nearly died from toxic onset and I just had my first kiss ever... If you think I'm worried about dying here, the spell is the least of my concerns." Whoa... Easy Jet... No need to go bragging or anything... it was just a kiss. I drew myself up into a ball in the corner. Partly out of fear and partly from embarrassment. "Jet... I didn't know... I can charge the spell from here, but you will have to trigger the matrix from inside the chamber. You are leaving everything up to the automated system doing it that way and you know how buggy that thing is. You will have to override the administrative access code 47-0 if you want it to work at full capacity, even then, it's dodgy at best. After that you will have to set the time delay, synchronize your Cuffs and hold on tight. There will be no walking backwards into the portal. It will pull you in by force!" "Charge up the system, override admin control, synchronize Cuffs... maybe die." I said, looking down the hall. "One more thing... the moment you trot in there they are going to see. The lights are automatic, they will turn on the second you walk in. I can lock down the cell, but as soon as they get in here, it's over. They can shut it down." "Got it, no time... Wait, what about you?" I said, sitting back down beside Jet. "I will... Make it all work. For as long as I can." She said as her horn began to glow, her magic began punching buttons. "Wait, you can't just set it on auto and bolt out of here?! When the guards get here-" I started but I was cut off. "They will get here." She said with a soft unsure smile. All of a sudden it became painfully clear the position I had just put her in. There was no way she could get out of this unharmed. At best she was going to spend her days in a jail cell for this and that was the best possible outcome. "Clicky... Are you sure you want to do this? You know what this will mean." Jet said, reaching for her hoof. "When your mother left. We were devastated. I was as close to her as anypony else here. Not long after I found this under my terminal." Clicky pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her lab coat and passed it off to Jet and I. The scribbles on it were barely a letter, but the name in the top corner of Dr. Egress was embossed heavily enough to be made out. 'If you are reading this. They found out. Clear your data and be ready to leave at any moment. There may come a time where you are asked to do something, something selfless and unfair. Just know that whatever you decide in that moment, I will always care for you. Initium novum. Egress.' "She left me this... I think she knew. I think she knew this would all come down to this. Please, I loved your mother. Let me do this, for her. Jet I worked with her side by side to see this through, we all did. We all knew, aside from all the data and the profitability, we were doing it to bring a stop to all of this. We want our world back and Spark won't give it up without a fight. So please... Let me fight. Let me do my part." Clicky said with tears welling up in her eyes. I had never seen such conviction in all my days of fighting for what I thought was right. It was humbling, taking me aback for my own thoughts on why I was doing this. I just wanted to save my marefriend and avenge her mother's death... But this mare... Her heart had to be made of solid gold to offer to do this. "Ok... Ok. You charge up the spell. Dingy and I will get everything ready." Jet said as she pulled her in close for a hug. "I love you, even if you do type like a jackhammer." "I love you too, even if you are the teacher's pet." Clicky said, wiping a tear from her eye and looking over the control panel. I watched as she used her magic to fry the control panel to the door behind her and then, she went to work. Jet trotted out of the room and into the cell's air lock. I was close to follow, checking one more time for anything we could use for this trip. Just as I was about to walk out, Clicky stopped me with a tug on my tail. "I know you don't know me. You might not even care who I am. You don't owe me as much. But if I had one wish it would be that Jet come first in your life. She means the world to me, to all of us. I watched her nearly kill herself to get you back here... You owe her as much love and protection as you can give. She's going to need it." Click said, without looking up at me. The words bit deep, inspiring fear and worry that if I made one wrong move, there would be hell to pay. "Clicky?" I asked, trotting closer to her. "Yes, Dingy?" "That mare is too good for me. She has something I could only ever hope to have. She has a heart of gold and a mind brighter than the sun. I would rather die than let something happen to her." I said, giving her a hug. "I promise, I will always protect her. Thank you. You will never understand just how much this means to me." And with that, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and trotted to the doorway. Jet stood there smiling, already suited up, looking out over the vast amounts of... science stuff? "You ready to do this?" I asked as I pulled on the old blood stained suit. "With you? I'm ready for anything." She said, turning to me with a smile. "You know, we might die, right?" I said, offering a hoof. "Yeah... but it will be a cool death at least. Ready? Set? Go!" The two of us bolted into the room, instantly the light flashed on and it wasn't long before all eyes were on us from the hallway. Jet ran to crack the control panel as I... Did nothing. I tried to access my Cuffs sync function but it was I was coming up short in the knowledge department. I had only used the thing to cast a few spells and scan things. How could I know how to set this thing up? 'Spell matrix charging, twenty-five percent. All non-essential ponies please clear the area.' The voice boomed through the speakers into the room. I watched as a very angry Dr. Wolfbain entered the viewing area beside the control room. His stern glare was a far cry from the soft loose lipped buck I had met before, if anything I would say he was ready to break down the glass and strangle me. "Dingy! Jet! Stand down at once! You are Spark property and possess sensitive data that is not yours! Open the doors at once or we will use lethal force!" He shouted through the intercom, 'Spell charges at thirty-seven percent.' "Lethal force? Is that what it's called now? I thought you called them unfortunate accidents. No, I won't open the door. I won't sleep until the whole world knows what you did!" I screamed back at him. "Guards! Break down the door!" He bellowed. I had never seen a pony so mad in my life. I was really good at getting under somepony's skin, but that had to be some sort of record. 'Administrative override sequence 47-0 initiated. Directing full power to spell matrix. Spell charges forty-nine percent.' "Dingy! Keep him talking! It'll slow him down!" Jet screamed as yellow lights flooded the room. Behind Clicky an army of guards had assembled and were trying to break down the door. They were throwing their shoulders, crates and anything they could get their hooves on at it, but it was no use. The thick steel just kept taking any abuse they could throw at it. "You know Wolfbain. You fooled me. You had me thinking that I was going to save Equestria with this clinical trial. But I guess the joke is on you!" I said smugly. 'Spell matrix charge at seventy percent' "How dare you mock me!" He screamed. "All this time I thought I was helping to better pony kind, but you just wanted to make a quick buck. I fought my entire life to save this shithole of a planet you made, while ponies like you did nothing more than rape and burn it." "So help me if you do not stop this right now..." "You'll what? Kill my family? You already did that through years of toxic labor and poison. What more could you take from me? What more is there left? My life? You took that the moment you mailed that letter." I said trotting in place. Jet ran from her terminal to my side and grabbed my hoof for a moment, punched in a few numbers and ran back to the terminal. 'Spell matrix charge at eight-four percent...' "Get that door down NOW!" He screamed as he left the observation room and began helping the guards. The door behind Clicky was holding, if only just, but I watched in horror as the glass pain behind her began to show cracks from the constant pounding. We didn't have much longer before it gave way and this was all over. "Clicky! You have to hurry! If they get through that door it will all be for not!" I shouted through the open control room door. But she closed it in my face hard enough to send me stumbling backwards on my hind hooves. She looked up just long enough to mouth the words 'Just a minute' and went back to work. Cheeky mare... "Jet! How are we looking?" "Almost there! Setting the time delay now!" 'Spell matrix charge ninety-seven percent." Come on! Hurry! There is still time for Clicky to make a run for it if it would just hurry the hell up! Just then, the glass gave way, filling the room with a shower of broken shards, raining down across the control board. I watched as hooves poured through the open gap, reaching for the doorknob that was being held firm by a corona of magic from Clicky's horn. Her voice came over the loudspeaker, strained and terrified. "I can't hold them much longer! Get to the platform!" "GOT IT!" Jet screamed and she ran to my side. 'Spell matrix one hundred percent. Firing spell in T minus 20 seconds.' With the spell charged, Clicky abandoned the terminal and ran to the wall beside her and paused near a large red box. She was just standing there. What was she doing!? "Clicky! Get the hell out of there! There is still time!" I shouted. "Go! Get out while you still can!" Jet screamed. We both watched as she flipped the box open and began punching in a code to the small panel. She then closed the box and sank to the floor beneath it. "What is she doing!?" I screamed. "No... Clicky no! Don't do it! There is still time!" Jet cried. "What is she doing!?" "She activated the emergency containment function!" "What is that!?" I looked at Clicky, who was crying on the floor, but looked up for just long enough to give us both a nod as we listened to the timer tick down to seven seconds. What was that crazy mare doing!? But I didn't have to wait long to find out. The moment she released her magical grip on the door it opened. The guards rushed in, but not long after that, the room exploded. Fire poured from the ceiling with enough force to blow out the windows and rip body parts from the guards. Wolfbain was engulfed in a fireball that reached out into the hallway and enveloped everything in its path. In an instant, Clicky had given her life to save us. I had said she would never understand how much all this means to me. I stood corrected in the worst possible way. She willingly died to save Jet and I, she didn't just risk her life. She gave it up willingly in the hopes that what we were doing was right. Jet screamed beside me and tried to run to her, but even I knew it was too late. Nothing could survive that blast. Nothing. "NO!!! Clicky Why!?" Jet cried as she fought to leave my side, but I held fast to her. "It's too late! It's too late, Jet! She's gone! She's gone..." I cried back as I wrapped my hooves around her and listened to the countdown hit zero. 'Firing automated spell matrix.' With a bright flash that filled the room, I felt the portal open behind me and the force it generated begin to pull. I gave one last look back at the control board where Clicky lay motionless, just barely out of view, and saw a figure walk into the smoky room. Wolfbain. How the hell did he survive!? The speaker boomed through the static of magic and conjure. "See you soon." He said as he trotted out of the room. "Not if I see you first." I mumbled as I held on to Jet while the two of us began to slide backwards. "Next time, you die." The vacuum became too much for me to hold back and the two of us were in free fall. oooooooooooooooooooo0000000000oooooooooooooooooooo The landing was anything but soft. For me at least. Jet found comfort in landing atop me. I was not so lucky. The two of us stood up and gave each a once over for broken bones and blood. I recognized this place... I slept here one night with Rocket. Jet took a moment and looked around the lush, green landscape, taking in the smells and sounds around us. The sun was just setting on the ridge top where we landed. You couldn't ask for a better place than this. Jet looked at me, the whole world in shambles in her eyes, begging me, pleading with me. "Ok, now." I said as I sat down in front of her and let her fall into me. And just like that, she broke. She had held in every emotion, every tear she could, like the strong mare she was. But even strong mares break and everypony cries at some point. She buried her face into my chest and screamed. She was shaking with agony and loss, her every sob drawing one of my own. Every scream she gave rocked through my body, shaking my very soul. I wrapped my hooves around her and pulled her in as tight as I could, feeling nothing but guilt and regret for everything that had happened. I didn't say it, but I was feeling every wave of pain she was having in that moment too. Call it a bond, call it magic. Whatever it was, it was something we would have to go through together. Just two ponies, alone in a forgotten world, but together nonetheless.