In the end, the salvage team from Mum's Diner was able to haul away one of the large machines and several smaller tools. They broke away from the ruins immediately and made for the hills in the south, traveling at a careful pace to not kick up too much dust and give away their escape. Nobody spoke at all until it was well into the night and Jade said to make camp.
All at once that deadly silence gave way to a quiet murmur as everyone set to work. Starry Night stayed by Jade's side while the old mare took a slow stroll around the dusty, dry-packed earth where they'd stopped. Occasionally she would kick aside a small pebble.
"Anchor." He had been hanging back from Jade a short distance away and she already had his attention when she called for it. "I drove your team hard today. Take what's left of the moonshine in my bag and do with it what you will. You did good. Thank you."
The towering earth pony's eyes lit up and he ran off with a joyous spring in his step. The sight reminded Starry of a young child being let out to play with his friends and she made a quiet chuckle. Her laugh was cut short with a single glance from Jade. It was not her turn to say anything.
"Hoist." Jade called and the rigging team leader quickly showed up at her side. She was a petite unicorn with a blonde coat and a grease-smudged pink mane. "How heavy is that machine? Was there any damage from the lift?"
"We used the five ton winch to lift it and it wasn't scary, but I am worried the cart will break before we get home, so I'd put it at two tons. Lift was clean."
"Is the cart going to break tonight?"
"We're cribbing it now to keep weight off the axles. Tonight will be safe."
"Good work. Thank you. We're gathering around the fire when you're finished securing it."
"Starry. Come sit next to me at the fire."
The two sat in silence while the camp went up around them in a matter of minutes. Jade turned her head slowly as she listened. She could hear a group of three foals taking turns chasing each other behind the lead wagon. Anchor's team was already drunk and trying to roughhouse quietly, and were doing a surprisingly good job at it. The campfire crackled.
Anchor was boasting to his team about the showdown he'd had that day.
"There was thirty of them. All running straight at me," he told them.
"Were they big like you?"
"These ones? Nah." He snorted. "They were puny. I gave them one look and half of them just fell over on top of the other half. But then there was this other half that showed up. They were big. Big as that back-breaker Hoist saddled me with."
"You're welcome!" piped the small mare. "Can you even fight that many at once by yourself?"
"I'd love to find out." He shrugged. "Boss said fall back."
"Children, gather around the fire," Jade called out. It was the first time anyone had spoken above a whisper since they'd stopped to make camp. All the foals came running and pressed in around the circle near their friends and parents. Everyone was quiet and waiting for Jade.
"Today was a success. You all did your jobs and we're all still here. Thank you. And thanks to Starry Night, we were able to dodge a fight." At that, everyone shifted their attention to her. "Starry Night. Your quick assessment of the situation bought us time to finish the salvage, but you acted recklessly with your own life and identifying yourself as an officer of Precinct One-Seven-Three may cause us other problems in the future. I can't be too hard on you, because I might have agreed to your plan anyway, but we'll never know because you didn't ask me first."
"Take out your badge," Jade said. "Pass it around the circle so everypony can see it."
The small silver shield sparkled in the light of the campfire. A bright beacon that slowly wandered around in the darkness where Starry could see it but not reach it.
"Tell everypony what an officer of Precinct One-Seven-Three is."
"Precinct is where I came from. In Precinct there are two types of ponies: officers and civilians. Officers are elite squads whose job is stamped into that shield: 'Serve And Protect'. We—" Starry halted. What she was saying didn't sound right. She knew the words. She'd said them dozens of times.
Jade leaned close and whispered, "Continue the story."
"They round up rebellious gangs who don't want to share salvage rights with them. And they buy most of the food and best salvage from from every trader in the region."
"And who are the civilians?"
"Everypony else."
The wandering flicker of Starry's badge completed its way around the circle and into Jade's hoof. She tucked the badge into her own pocket. "Starry Night, are you an officer of Precinct One-Seven-Three?"
"No."
Jade looked out over the circle of ponies gathered around the fire with her and she smiled. "Enjoy dinner and get a good night's sleep. We still have a long drive home with a wagon that may not make it that far. And Anchor: I counted six. If you ever find out how many bruisers you can fight at once, let me know." A hushed laughter rippled around the circle followed by quiet conversations, their attentions now released from Jade.
She and Starry stayed up, waiting for everyone else to get up from the campfire and go to bed. The fire was down to mostly glowing coals by the time Anchor drunkenly staggered his way over to say goodnight. He mentioned to Starry that he had fun being on the other side of the circle before Jade shooed him away.
"What was all that?" Starry asked.
"When I call the children to gather around the fire, it's because we have a story to tell. Stories are how we understand each other and ourselves. As their leader, I have to listen to their stories. To make them a good team, I have to help shape their stories so they're all telling the same one. I have to show you how to do this before you can take over."
Starry quietly stared into the fading embers while her hoof reached into her pocket for a flask that wasn't there.
"I've listened to a lot of stories in my life," said Jade. "One story everypony loves to tell is their cutie mark story, but I've never heard you tell yours."
Starry forced a laugh. "It's not that I don't like telling that story, it's just that I don't like having to explain my special talent after I tell it."
"Then don't explain it. Tell the story."
Starry closed her eyes and took a deep breath while she turned her face toward the night sky. "I wasn't originally from Precinct. My family was a small tribe, and we spent most of our time traveling. I learned to navigate by the stars from them. One day we heard about a city ruin along the coast where somepony had gotten an old desalination plant running. With that much fresh water, we could build a real home. But one night on the way there, we were caught in a thunderstorm and got lost. There was lightning and hail and the best shelter we had was to huddle together against a steep hillside. We tried to ride it out, but the storm was only getting stronger. So I made a break for it. I flew up into the freezing rain and somehow didn't get blown away by the wind." She opened her eyes and smiled. "When I broke through the top of the clouds it was unbelievable. Everything was suddenly so calm. It was like I was floating along with all the stars in the sky. I found my bearings and when I got back down to the surface, I was able to guide everypony to an abandoned settlement I knew was nearby where we were able to find proper shelter."
There was a quiet pause after Starry thought she had finished.
"Continue the story," Jade said. "What happened after that?"
"After? Well, we made it to the city and—"
"You can stop," Jade interrupted. She leaned closer and spoke quietly. "Before I can teach you how to shape everypony else's stories, you have to understand your own. Earning your cutie mark isn't a magical moment that happens around you. It's a moment of clarity that happens inside you. It's how you tell that story that makes it magical. Forget how you got there and where you were going. In that moment there above the clouds, as you stared into the dark sky, what did you see?"
Starry hesitated. "I saw . . . I saw every path I ever took—could ever take. It was all there written in a million tiny specks of light. I knew where I was, and I saw myself. I was so small and so insignificant, floating through the sky, just watching everything unfold."
Jade hummed. "We'll work on it. But that's your story now. The next time you tell it, build on what you saw and the path you take after that."