//------------------------------//
// Balance 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"From the east, huh?" Corsica asked around a mouthful of breakfast salad. "You look like you had a field day. What did we learn?"

I swallowed my own food, practically upside-down in my chair, my hind legs on the table and my eyes on a corkboard diagram hung from the wall. The diagram held a map of the known world with pins on all our best guesses for the locations of historical events that coincided with the formation of fault planes, and I had spent many a day slaving away to get it as intricate and accurate as it was now. "Pretty much everything," I said with a lazy glance, not in a mood to do any real work until it got a little later in the morning. "Vivace and the fourth one whose name I forgot didn't really want to talk about it, but Rondo invited me to their airship and told tons of stories. Folk tales and stuff. Not a lot to do with the war, unfortunately. I think that's a sore subject for everyone who remembers it. But you should have heard him going on about all the feuding lords and border fights they used to have! I wouldn't want to be there in person, but they make awesome stories."

Corsica gave me a look. "You're never this excited after hitting a dead end."

"I'm not such a workaholic that I need to be doing something productive to have a good time. Even if it's just folklore, I always wanted to hear about my homeland." I shrugged. "And it's still not a total wash. I took notes, and learned plenty I was curious about. But most importantly, that Rondo guy knows my face, and I think he'll put in a good word for me being able to come along. Imagine that, if we both get to have our first real trip outside Icereach together?"

"We were both born outside of Icereach, you know," Corsica pointed out. "Father only took the position here when I was two years old."

I waved a hoof. "Yeah, but that doesn't count! Come on, aren't you excited?" I leaned over, grinning in her face. "Tell me you didn't spend all of yesterday nerding out about how cool this is going to be. A whole new access point to the ether river! Imagine if it's got ruins, too. Maybe they'll be more intact than the chapel here, even!"

"Actually, I spent yesterday getting a lecture from Elise," Corsica replied dryly. "She found out about this deal too, and wanted to warn me it wasn't going to make things better with Father. Also told me I shouldn't be getting you dragged into this because you were too young."

"What the...?" My eyes slowly crossed, and I rolled to my hooves. Elise was usually on our side! "Oh, that little killjoy! I'm not too young! And it's not like things are gonna get any better with your dad if you don't go, right? Not if you're serious about all that stuff with his mistress."

"I don't even know anymore," Corsica huffed. "I had another chat with Father too, behind closed doors, and he actually sounded supportive for some reason. Maybe he doesn't want to see me make accomplishments, but he's perfectly fine with me being gone."

I kicked back again. "Weeeird. Mega weird. Anyway, I don't officially work for the institute, and I've got Mother's blessing, so it's not like anyone can tell me not to go, right?"

"Ansel?" Corsica raised an eyebrow.

"Right." My slump returned. Not like I hadn't spent the last night dreaming about the days when we weren't friends and I could act without a care for what he thought, or anything. Friendship was hard work... "I totally probably might need to go talk to him, still. Hey, how mad do you think he would be if we snuck off without telling him?"

"I think he'd deface all the carvings in the chapel with mustaches just for revenge. If he was feeling merciful."

Well, Corsica might do that, but Ansel tended to be a lot more direct... "Eh, then I've probably gotta go talk to him. Better sooner than later." I tossed my empty cafeteria tray onto the pile in the corner, which really was supposed to be returned someday when we stopped being lazy about it. "Hey, here's my notes from Rondo's stories, by the way, if you've got nothing better to do and wanted to catch yourself up. See ya around."





I finally tracked down Ansel after several hours of searching, up in a seventh-level corridor between work areas for the coolant compound synthesis and coolant flow loop teams. Colored lines traversed the walls in flaking paint, intended to help ponies find their way around, and some of the lights didn't flicker. The steel support girders that held up the roof were encased in rugged concrete, and there were no distribution pipes bolted to the ceiling - this had once been one of the fancier workspaces in the bunker, but after reorganizing a dozen times over the years, the ponies who currently worked in this wing were here more by chance than design.

"You know," my brother greeted as I approached, "when you promised not to go running off the very next day, I wasn't expecting that to mean you'd just wait two days instead."

I grinned limply. "Guess I'm not that good at seeing the future, eh?"

"Seeing the future has nothing to do with it," Ansel replied, voice quiet. "Nobody's making you do anything, here. You just got an unexpected opportunity. Still up to you whether or not you take it."

And just like that, I was already trapped. Why did I have to make that promise? Trying to finagle with definitions and precise wording didn't matter. Thinking for myself and choosing a path for my own future without trying to please everyone was one thing, but directly and immediately breaking a promise to one of my best friends?

I sat down against a wall and hugged myself with my wings. "You, err... really feel that strongly about it, then."

Ansel sat down beside me and thought for a moment. "I'd ask the same, but from the look on your face, I already know the answer."

"I promise I'm not just gonna break my earlier promise and run off without your say-so." I nodded. "Even if it's just a day trip, and it's not like I'm flying off forever. But, yeah. I really wanna go."

The silence resumed. I had spent the entire time I was searching for him thinking about what to say, and I was sure he had spent his time much the same, lurking and trying to think of anything before I found him. Apparently, both of us had drawn blanks.

"Bitter irony," Ansel eventually said. "Back before the accident, we were constantly at each other's throats, at least to hear you tell it. And yet in those days, we didn't yet have much in the way of goals for the future. Now, we're close friends. And yet our aspirations couldn't be more opposed. I don't know what to make of that."

"Ponies are complicated," I said with a shrug. "Maybe that's just part of growing up. You get more complicated, so some things are bound to be harder, right? But you get better at dealing with the things that used to be hard, too."

"If that's true, I wish Aldebaran would shove off and go darken someone else's doorway for a year or three," Ansel grumbled. "And that Corsica's dad would stop being such a prick. And that you could find something you really enjoy here for a change." He stared across at the opposite wall, where a doorless entry led into a side room that had once offered drinks and refreshments, and now stored fold-up portable seminar tables. "If growing up can magically give you answers to conundrums like these, I'd like a few more years under my belt before I tackle this one."

"You could always come with us," I offered. "I dunno what scares you so much out there, but if you're worried for my safety, nothing like being there in person."

Ansel lowered his eyes. "What I'm scared of is change, Halcyon. Can you truly not relate? Discarding a known present in favor of an unknown future... I like this present. It's the best way things have ever been for me. Stepping out our door, looking beyond our city, prodding at our horizons... Don't you worry about losing the way things are now?"

"I like the unknown," I replied, rubbing at a booted foreleg. "Love it, even. Stuff you don't know, you don't need to worry about. And when you find something new? If it's bad, you run away, but if it's good, good for you! Yeah, this is the best my life has ever been too. But I can't stay this way forever."

"Can't you?" Ansel asked. "Because I sure wish I could. Maybe my standards are lower than yours, but if I'm happy, is that so wrong?"

"It's not about standards. It's..." I hesitated. "Well, I'm not happy. Actually, maybe that's not the right word. I'm happy, but I'm restless. I can't sit still, here. There's something out there I've gotta find, and I dunno what it is, but there's definitely more to life than whatever it is we do down here."

Ansel shook his head. "Alright. Suppose for a moment I'm worried purely for your sake and this has nothing to do with me being selfish and not wanting you to whet your wanderlust even harder. What if you go exploring, and what you find is some gruesome accident that kills or maims you? Need I remind you, we have a precedent."

The accident. Two years ago. "Do you really think it's that likely, though?" I probed. "I'll be careful, I swear it. Not like I wanna see myself in a weeklong coma, or forgetting everything about the ponies I know. And besides, Leif and her friends are professionals. They should be able to keep me safe."

"Exploring an unknown cave system?" Ansel raised an eyebrow. "Cave-ins, falling rocks, flooding, asphyxiation, nothing you can possibly think of that could go wrong?"

I flexed my wings. "Batpony, remember? I'm pretty sure I could swim through a cave-in the same way I sneak under my bedroom door every day. As far as caving goes, I'm probably in a whole lot less danger than most ponies would be. But even if I do get hurt, that guy Vivace? He's got a talent that can heal injuries, just like that. You should go meet him. Everyone else was saying he can even bring someone back from the brink of death, if he's fast enough."

"All the same, my heart would sit much more at ease if you were far removed from that danger in the first place."

I frowned. "See, I'm still not that sure we're unprepared for the danger. But if you are, why not talk to Corsica about it instead of me?"

"Because talking to Corsica is awkward," Ansel complained, sounding strained. "Or need I remind you that not only am I her ex, but I have no memories of our time together? Never trying to fake a relationship is a personal rule of mine, and it's put a world of weird into our interactions. So I apologize if this sounds harsh, but she is a few rungs lower on my priority ladder than you, Sis."

"Well." I fixed him with my most pointed stare. "I have had one too many experiences in my life where you and Corsica were comatose and I got off without a scratch. I'm not exactly keen on doing that again. So if you want me to stay at home because it's dangerous out there, then you're gonna have to convince her, too. I still think these Aldebaran ponies know what they're doing and it'll be fine, but if I did think it was going to be dangerous, my reaction wouldn't be to make everyone stay home, it would be to come along too."

Ansel blinked, realizing what I was saying, and groaned.

"...Sorry if that was a bit short," I added, sitting back down. "This is just the kind of thing you never really get over."

"Well, scratch that argument, then," Ansel sighed, rolling his shoulders. "So here's a different angle: what if Aldebaran aren't so altruistic as they claim? Think about it for a moment. They're an unknown third party trying to hire the daughter of the head scientist out for an off-site job with far too much money up front and a rather wobbly explanation for how this whole thing benefits them. Assuming our physical safety has absolutely nothing to do with it, which I still very much doubt, what if we're getting rolled into some racket or con job? And don't say this is Icereach and that stuff is par for the course."

"They sure looked like they were doing things their own way, I'll give you that," I replied. "But who says it's nefarious? I mean, look at them! Small band, tight-knit, custom themed names and matching garb, cool airship that probably cost a fortune... I'll bet you they pull in so much treasure, it's not worth the opportunity cost to be picky about getting the best value out of every last thing. Maybe they invited the rest of us along because they're free spirits and can do what they want. Which is exactly what Corsica wants, and what I want too. Ansel, these are professional adventurers." My eyes shifted back to the folding-table storage room. "I don't think it's suspicious. I think it's cool."

Ansel nodded. "All that could completely fit what we've seen, yes. My hypothesis does too. So can you really be certain?"

"You've spent like fifteen minutes with them in Graygarden's office," I pointed out. "I introduced one to Mother at lunch and hung out at their airship for hours. I'm pretty sure I've got more interactions to base my take on than you. But even if they had formal certificates of purity and honor, would it really make you feel any better? I feel like we're just skirting the real reason, here."

"Well, I suppose you've got a point there," Ansel admitted. "That said, even if this is only one of the reasons I'm worried, it is still a reason. And me having not seen as much as you doesn't mean I haven't seen what I've seen. Halcyon, is it too much to... What if we just did decide to skip this opportunity and do something later? What if both of us talk to Corsica, ask her to turn down the job, and in return, I'll promise that the next such opportunity you have to leave Icereach, I'll come along too? I know it's a gamble, given how unexpectedly this one turned up, but just tell me what if."

"Are you actually offering that?" I asked, the back of my mind still thinking about Ansel's suspicions and reminding me that Elise hadn't liked this job offer either.

"I don't know," Ansel sighed. "I don't know if I can offer that, but I'm trying my best, here! Just tell me what you think would happen."

I looked at the floor. This might actually be what I wanted most - I couldn't stay in Icereach forever, but like Ansel, I badly wanted the three of us to stick together as friends. Could I sacrifice this present opportunity to... to put him in the same situation I was in now, later? Right now, I was torn between what I wanted and a promise I had made to do what he had wanted. And I hated it. Was he offering to let me turn the tables?

Who said our next opportunity might be remotely as good as this one, though? This was the perfect baby step. We wouldn't be gone for long, we'd be in the care of some very competent ponies, it was immediately relevant to Corsica and my research, and of course I was very eager to hear more of Rondo's stories...

But it was a way to keep our vastly different goals from making us grow apart.

"I suppose..." I began. "I suppose I'd say yes. But you'd have to be the one to talk Corsica out of it now. I'm not staying home while she leaves if there's anything I can do about it. But I don't have it in me to throw cold water all over our plans. You want this so badly, the dirty work's on you."

I stared at the ground. The concrete was slightly sloped, leading to a small grate in case the floor got wet. Letting go of Leif's offer and resolving to keep my promise and stay home was like watching my hopes drain away through that grate, a bright, shrinking puddle on the floor. It occurred to me that this might be how ponies who dreamed normally felt - a dream could come out of nowhere, vanish just as quickly, leaving you awake and sober. Most ponies, I had heard, weren't nearly as lucid in their sleep as me.

What a strange sensation.

"...Having to see that look in your eyes sure makes this victory ring hollow," Ansel said.

"Had to happen to one of us," I replied. "Besides, I'm older. It's my responsibility to look out for you. It'll be fine, anyway. Not like I'm losing anything I didn't have two days ago. So, you wanna make that promise?"

Ansel looked away. "...No. No, go on your adventure with Corsica. Get some money to your name. Take care of yourselves, and prove me a fool for worrying. My utopia isn't worth it if everyone but me is paying the price."

"Ansel..."

"See you when you get back, chum."

He had already gotten to his hooves and was walking away.





I slouched into the lab, hardly feeling like I had won a fight. Ansel thought victory felt hollow when he got his way? Well, he was noble enough to give me his blessing on the journey, but not quite enough to spare me from the same fate.

"Mmmphu uu?" Corsica guessed, a box of take-out from the shopping district open on her desk next to a topographical map of the world and all my notes from Rondo.

"Your mouth's full," I said, tossing myself onto my chair and letting it spin from my momentum. "But yeah, I found him. We had it out a little."

Corsica had the sense to swallow. "And?"

"We butted heads until it got so obvious how much both of us care about it that neither of us could walk away with a victory without feeling like a jerk," I sighed, rotating. "Anyway, I've got his blessing. Even if it cost me a good chunk of enthusiasm. How much longer until they want us there?"

"An hour or two. They just said evening." Corsica lit her horn and grabbed the base of my chair, forcing it to stop spinning. "So, things got awkward because neither of you wanted to accept a sacrifice the other was making on their behalf, huh."

I frowned and paddled the air with a wing, trying to start the spinning again. "Yeah, that's a good way to put it."

"Gross." Corsica made an overexaggerated face. "That stuff's too sappy and intimate for me. Tip from a pro: if you ever find yourself in that situation again, the best thing to do is tell a bad joke or start bragging like crazy to kill the mood. Nothing gets you out of trying to make up with someone you disagree with like reminding them why they disagreed with you in the first place."

Manipulating how ponies saw me in conversations to avoid things I didn't like was a tactic I was perfectly used to, but... "He's Ansel. Maybe if it was some random goon I bumped into in the hallway, but I care about him."

Corsica stretched, getting up and arching her back before walking over to one of the room's many shelf racks of things. "That just means he'll forgive you. That's what family's for, right?"

I rubbed at the back of my neck, watching as she floated out a giant duffel bag and settled it across her back. To a normal Icereach scientist, it would probably have been unimaginably heavy, but she managed it without even straining.

"What's in there?" I asked, tilting my head at the change of subject.

"My stuff." Corsica glanced at me. "Don't tell me you waited until the last second to pack."

"Oh. No, it's in a bag at home." I got the door for her, stopping to discard the last few remnants of her lunch before following her out. "I guess this is really happening, then, isn't it? Hard to believe how long I've been daydreaming about this day."

Corsica adjusted her duffel bag, leading the way. "Assuming you made a good enough impression, it's happening alright. Now come on! Let's go get your things and make it to the ship before Graygarden changes his mind and tries to crash our party."





On the surface, the sky was a soupy gray devoid of texture and feature, and not even the slightest wind blew to ruffle my mane. Ansel was still on my mind; I felt I owed him an apology, though I had a feeling that right now it wouldn't help. He had let me off the hook in a way neither of us were perfectly happy with, and I had a good hunch that the best way to clear up the awkwardness between us was for me to do as he asked, go on a very short adventure and then present myself back home, safe and sound. Me fumbling over words by trying to be sincere instead of pretending wouldn't make his waiting any easier.

My satchel and a duffel bag - much smaller than Corsica's - rode at my sides, stuffed with all sorts of utilities. A spare copy of my coat and boots took up the most room. If we were going spelunking, I wouldn't be surprised to find puddles of ice water, and falling in without a backup would be very bad for my habit of never being seen without my clothes. Behind that, there were my notes, or more accurately the equipment for taking a lot of them. Then there were more mundane things, like an ocarina - I couldn't bring my piano, of course, and you never knew when an instrument might come in handy. My cosmetics kit was along for the ride too, because I felt more secure having it around, and I had even brought a chess set in the event that I did lose my coat or otherwise need to convince someone of the cover story for why I had an upside-down crown as my cutie mark... but also because I liked playing chess. Even the inertial stabilizer rotor was along for the ride, just because. If I got to see the world, why shouldn't it?

"Hullo, ponies!" a dutiful Nicov greeted, saluting us from his post guarding the gate.

"Guard duty?" Corsica raised an eyebrow as we approached, giving him a cheeky grin. "In trouble for something? They don't usually post anyone here."

Nicov shook his shaggy, pear-shaped head. "Gate was damaged in big storm last Friday. Builder pony look at it and say leaving it open in snow not good for moving parts until gate can be repaired. So Nicov stand watch to close gate in case of snow." He motioned to the cloudy malaise with a curved horn. "Probably not big deal. Yak damage walls all of time during brawls. And what is to keep out? Flying science ponies not care about walls. Nicov think builder pony have too much Sosan moonshine."

"Sounds like a real important job you've got there," I added with a grin of my own, hearing the distant sounds of sparring coming from the adjacent training field. "Sure would be a shame if someone smashed the gate entirely. No reason to protect it from breaking if it's already broken, yeah?"

Nicov turned away, muttering under his breath and leaving us to enter. "Science ponies think strangest things..."

"Squishy science ponies!" a familiar voice called out as we began crossing the compound. It was Balthazar, flat on his back and bench pressing a roughly spherical yak I felt like might have been called Milton. Million-ton Milton, right... "Setting off on epic voyage beyond skies?"

"That's the plan!" I called back, strolling up to the not-very-unusual spectacle. Milton almost looked like he was meditating... "Wish us luck?"

Balthazar sized us up, Corsica stepping up beside me. "No Ansel pony. Hmm. Unfortunate."

"Just the way the cookie crumbles." Corsica gave an exaggerated sigh. "If he spends too much time loitering and asking are we back yet, throw Milton at him for me. Apparently Hallie gave him every chance to join us..."

Milton gave her the most serene of all glares. "Yak using yak for weapon is secret technique passed down through Yakyakistan for two whole millennia, invented by founders themselves," he muttered stoically as he bobbed up and down with Balthazar's hoof pumps. "Cannot be used without terrible price. Balthazar throw Milton at pony and forfeit dessert rations to Milton for entire week as decreed by ancestors. This is price of power."

Corsica winced. "Steep."

Balthazar burst out laughing. "Hopefully Ansel pony does not loiter! Balthazar will heed Corsica request, but ponies owe week worth of dessert as service fee. Now go enjoy sky."

His blessing received, we strode on into the tower, my mind a little lighter. Balthazar was someone I trusted intrinsically, almost like the dad I never had growing up... if he was looking out for Ansel on our behalf, that made running off like this feel a little lighter on my shoulders. We'd have an adventure, make the money to finance more, get some leads to pursue on those further adventures, and give Ansel hard proof that we could take care of ourselves out there, all in one little trip. This was going to be great. Perfect, even!

We tromped up the staircase, the lower floor a cross between a barracks, barn and tavern for the yaks to hunker in during storms. It struck a sharp contrast with the upper floor, a cushioned lobby filled with seats and scientific posters that served as the entry point for all dignitaries and officials visiting Icereach. We barged out onto the airship dock, a lengthy, suspended pylon of wood, our hoofsteps perfectly in sync. I gave Corsica a victorious grin, the elation of the situation finally getting to me, and she returned it, the two of us breaking apart and me taking the lead on the narrow gangplank to the entry. I raised a hoof and punched the door, giving it my most enthusiastic knock.

It wasn't closed properly, and bounced off its frame with a hefty clang, swinging outward and hitting me in the nose.

My eyes watered in pain as I fell back on my rump and bit my tongue to avoid saying anything uncouth. Slowly, the door swung open, giving me line of sight to Vivace, who was sitting in a chair and pointedly reading a book while watching me with one very raised eyebrow.

"Errr..." I rubbed my nose, trying to ignore the fact that Corsica had almost fallen off the gangplank from laughing. So much for not taking a scratch... "Hi there?"

Barely a second passed, my nose itching from the impact and the chill mountain air, before Rondo appeared before us. "Well hello, kids!" he greeted with a salute, his face, mane and the better half of his body absolutely caked in black grease. "What can I do for you? Pro tip, it's a bad time to ask for a hug."

With a will stronger than Balthazar's biceps, Corsica forced herself to stop laughing and offered a little curtsy, stepping again up beside me. "Yesterday morning, you said tomorrow evening. Here we are, right on schedule."

"Oh. We did?" Rondo blinked, looking slightly awkward. "So we did! One moment, please!" He bolted back inside, and we could hear him distantly call out, "Leitmotiiiiif?"

A minute later, Leif appeared, the mare looking doubly embarrassed. "You really showed up now?" Her cheeks reddened, and she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "My bad! Absolutely my bad for not being more clear. I meant we weren't leaving before tonight, not that we were setting out now... Wanted to give you a guarantee on the time you'd have to make your decisions, since you wanted to think about things and all. Are you really ready to shove off now?"

I gave Corsica a sly did you really not triple-check this look. She whistled innocently.

"So, err..." I straightened my shoulders, seeing that she had no intention of speaking. "We did just prepare and everything... Dare I ask how much longer?"

Leif shrugged. "Well, we've been flying for a while before we got here, and I think everyone's enjoying stretching their legs for a bit. And there's this noodle place Vivace has been going on about that he wants to stop by at least once more..."

My ears folded. For real?

"And Rondo's been doing some engine maintenance work," Leif finished, pointing over her shoulder at the stern of the ship. "The ship's brand new, so she deserves a little fine-tuning as all the components break in. That's the only hard blocker, if you're really raring to go. Hey Rondo, how fast can you get the thrust back online!?"

"You ask much of me, Leitmotif!" Rondo's voice called from out of sight. "But say Halcyon can join us, and I can do it by this time tomorrow!"

Oh. Right. I still wasn't officially cleared to go. But Rondo had just thrown down the gauntlet in my support! But we were delayed at least a day, meaning at the very least I would have to prolong Ansel's discomfort, if not have another awkward conversation before we could take off for real... My mood tried to rise and fall at the same time, and the whiplash left me reeling.

"A full day," Corsica repeated, nodding.

"Yeah... Sorry about that!" Leif apologized again, stepping aside and beckoning us through the entrance. Giving me an additional glance, she added, "And I don't see why you're not on board. Come in, though, you're welcome to leave your things here now so you don't have to carry them back up again."

"I was just about to ask." Corsica tossed her mane and accepted the invitation, her back laden with at least twice as much gear as I was carrying. Probably legitimate science equipment... I bowed and followed her inside.





"Impressive place," Corsica remarked as she looked around, reminding me that I was the only one so far to see the inside of the ship. It was still royalty among aircraft, more of an edgy princess than a dignified queen, yet with a sharp and capable air that suggested its station was earned and not inherited. Idly, I noted it was still hanging in midair with no obvious lift apparatus even with Rondo in the middle of an engine job... My eyes wandered to the stern, where a ladder near the rear cabin doors had lights flickering and sparking from above.

"Any chance Rondo went that way?" I asked, glancing at the ladder. If we really were delayed, no reason not to make the best of a poor situation and listen to some more stories...

Leif followed my gaze. "Looks like it. And she's a beauty, right? We fly in some knowledgeable circles, and get our hooves on all sorts of tech that no amount of money can normally buy. Wait until you see her when she's fired up!"

I nodded in thanks, bounding over to the ladder and leaving Leif and Corsica to discuss the ship. Not too enthusiastically, though; I had just bonked my nose, and really didn't need anyone to see me fall off a ladder after that...

Up the ladder I went, sticking my head up into the room above. "Hey Rondo-"

I should have expected it from the rest of the ship's quality, but the sight of the engine briefly took my breath away. Apparently, the Aldebaran's curved roof wasn't just for show: in the domed enclosure over the rear, a machine unlike any I had ever seen stood, a convoluted, twisting cloud of thick metal rails that sparked and crackled with cold teal energy. I rubbed my nose, still aching from the bonk, and stared out of the rimmed hole in the floor at rack after rack of meters and equipment the metal cloud was connected to, several of their case fronts open. In front of one of the open ones, a trolley was parked, Rondo on his back and using it to reach deep into a machine's workings.

"Woah," I breathed. Whatever science this was made from, it wasn't known in Icereach.

Apparently, he heard me. Wheels squeaked, and the stallion rolled himself out from the case, a wrench in his mouth and the source of his grease stains now obvious. He waggled his eyebrows in greeting.

"Uh... hi," I greeted in return. "This place is crazy."

"Yo," he mouthed around the wrench. "Car oo wmff me worr?"

Oh. Right. Rondo wasn't a unicorn, so he had to use his mouth to work... So much for an extra day of story time. But the engine room looked far too cool for me to slink away in defeat just yet, so I nodded and took him up on the offer. "Sure. Look don't touch, I'm guessing?"

He winked, rolling back into the machine frame.

Well, now I had an awesome machine to look at, and no idea how it worked. Time to spend some guesswork fixing that... The setup had three obvious components. Most striking was the twisting cloud of metal rails suspended from the ceiling, energy crackling between them. It was fairly homogeneous in design despite its chaotic shape, with no distinct areas or components. Something single-functional... It could be an energy core, if the ship didn't run off mana. Or some kind of reaction chamber, or even a lifter... but probably not the latter, since it wasn't located at the ship's center of gravity. But it was bigger than the rest of the engine put together, so it was clearly the most important part.

Then there was a box on the ground, cubic and about the length of a pony in each dimension, made from a smooth, purple, faintly rainbow-tinged metal with thick wires linking it to the machine rack. If anything looked like a power source, it was that. But how did anyone get in to service it, and where was the fuel input? I circled it curiously, wondering if this was somehow a perpetual machine that didn't need fuel. That would defy science, but my incredulity had already been thrown out the window long ago. If there was ever a place for doubting the limits of technology, this had to be it.

So then that left the machine rack Rondo was servicing, which was covered in dials and meters and had to be the processing component that took whatever the rails and the science box did and made it functional. Probably the most conventional stuff in there. It would almost certainly be the interface to the ship's controls, and provide power for heating and lighting, wires branching from it to the other components and out to the rest of the ship. Maybe it could provide some clues to what the other two parts did...

"H-Metal core temperature. Comet injector internal pressure. Comet stabilizer integrity for stabilizers one through twelve. Antiharmonic weather dissonance? Harmonic plasma temperature..." I tilted my head, reading off the labels on some of the case meters. Disappointingly, they all seemed to be disconnected at the moment, with a zero reading on everything. "I have no idea what any of these mean. Comets? The only comets I know are from space, and what does harmony have to do with plasma? For all I know, even temperature has a second meaning, here. Wonder what H-Metal is. This stuff?" I turned, focusing on the shiny box I guessed was the fuel source. Or maybe it meant the mesh of metal rails...

"Careful!" Rondo warned from inside the machine frame. "Might be a nasty static shock coming if you're near those when I hook this baby up."

I jumped back just in time to see all the dials spasm and briefly freak out. "Eh heh..." I giggled nervously at the sight. Okay, maybe it would be better to just ask him how it functioned when he was finished...

With a thud, I landed at the base of the ladder, glancing around. Corsica was nowhere to be seen, Vivace was still reading, and Leif was just standing there, staring off into the distance.

She focused on me quickly, though. "Hey," she greeted, spinning around with a flip of her yellow mane. "Your friend just left. Said to tell you to find her at her lab when you're done, but not to rush on her account." She quickly sized me up. "Starstruck? I'm guessing you're the kind of pony who knows enough about tech to be more impressed by that thing than a normie who just thinks it's magic."

"Yeah, I sorta do, and it's pretty impressive," I admitted. "But it still kind of looks like magic."

"Trust me, it is magic," Leif assured me with a wink. "A priest would have an easier time understanding it than a mechanic. You just have to belieeeeeeve it works." She reared up and spookily waggled her forehooves. "The tech's been around for two decades or so, but it never became mainstream due to some major challenges with mass production. Don't ask me what all's going on with it, though; all I've got are jokes."

I relaxed a little. Vivace and Rondo I had met properly, but I had yet to get a read on her, and from what I was seeing, she was easily a pony I could be friends with. Might as well ask to be sure while the going was good... "So, err, earlier you implied I could come, yeah? Just making absolutely certain..."

"Oh, you're in." Leif waved a careless wing. "We were only like 'Hmm, maybe we should think about this' because your Head Scientist was giving us the stinkeye earlier and I totally thought he was listening through the door after pretending to leave so he could find an excuse to throw us out. Ponies in charge, right?" She rolled her eyes. "Kid, bureaucracies have no home here. There's four of us and three of you, and we don't need a complicated power structure to get by. You know who to listen to in an emergency, you know not to mess with whoever's on cooking duty, and you're good. Still no extra pay, of course, but you don't strike me as the kind of pony who's in this for the money."

"That's pretty cool of you. I get it," I agreed, nodding thankfully. I had suspected as much, but it was good to hear it made explicit. Still, Ansel's earlier worry was just a little on my mind, so it wouldn't hurt to ask... "So, not like I'm complaining, but why bring me along? Corsica's your expert, and you've said twice you're not paying me. Aren't I just gonna take up room?"

Leif gave me a knowing grin. "Because you're a scientist who believes in ghost stories. How cool is that?"

I slowly blinked. "What's that got to do with anything? And says who?"

"You, just a minute ago." Leif shrugged. "You were up there ogling our engine, trying to figure out how it worked, no? I said it was magic, and you just took it in stride."

A confused frown crossed my face, and I glanced back at the ladder to the engine room. "Yeah, but so what? And I just did that now, not yesterday when we were meeting in Graygarden's office."

"Call it a hunch confirmed," Leif glibly replied, stepping up and staring at the engine room hatch with me. "It's your eyes, though. You've got this look of restless dissatisfaction, like someone who thinks the status quo is for losers. Well, maybe not that arrogant, but you get the idea? You've got places to go and things to see. So, I thought you were interesting and that maybe it would be fun if you tagged along."

"...Seriously." I smirked a little, realizing just how right I had been about this being a group that did what they wanted, because they wanted to. "You're letting some kid come along on a business trip just because you think it would be entertaining. Come on, flex your freedom a little harder. Who said I was jealous?"

Leif pursed her lips and sized me up, then leaned over to whisper in my ear. "Full disclosure mode? My crewmates aren't the most... socially normal ponies. You probably noticed. Cabin fever has been an eternal thorn in my flank since we started flying together. So, I see someone who has a fresh, interesting set of stories to tell, and it's not like you're raring to ditch us..."

I grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I'm more of a story listener."

"What a coincidence, so am I!" Leif straightened up and winked. "Which is how I know you've got something good to say. Ponies who are all talk and no ears never pick up anything new to tell. But the more you've listened, the more you've got rattling around in your brain."

I raised an eyebrow.

Leif returned it. "What? Think I'm bluffing? That there's no way a chatterbox like me could be the attentive type?"

I looked away, reddening slightly at being called out. What was wrong with her being a chatterbox? I really was in a mood to listen, so this was a good thing!

"...I get the impression you get teased a lot," Leif eventually decided, sizing up my expression. "Well, worry not. Thing is, when you want ponies to talk to you and tell you their stories, the best way I've found is to strike up the conversation yourself. Nothing against being the quiet type, but I make of myself what I must to get what I want. Being friendly pays, yeah?"

"That's pretty cool," I replied, feeling vaguely like I was being propositioned. "I bet you're about to offer to trade stories, aren't you? I tell one, I get one back. Fair's fair, or something?"

Leif grinned an innocent, hungry grin. "Right on the nose! You first. Give me Icereach's finest local lore."

I thought about it for a minute. Badly curious about this place she had never been to? Working her demeanor and self-presentation like a tool to get other ponies to treat her the way she wanted? Leif really was like me, even beneath the superficial similarities like us both being fans of heavy clothing. And yet she had so much I wanted, too. An airship. Freedom to follow her whimsy. That genuine confidence...

She was swiftly becoming my favorite of the Aldebaran ponies, if not adding herself to the elite list of ponies I looked up to, like Corsica, Mother and Elise. Alright. If this was the game she wanted to play, I was in.

"Sure," I answered. "But gimmie a prompt. We've got a lot of local lore."

Leif stared out the window in thought. "Ansel and Corsica. Tell me about my new shipmates from their friend's point of view. How much have we gotten ourselves into?"

Well, time to think about Ansel again. "Ah..." I looked away. "Ansel might be bailing on us, by the way."

"Seriously? Drat," Leif sighed. "He get cold hooves, or something?"

I loped over to one of the cushy chairs by the table where I had listened to Rondo yesterday, hoping this wouldn't become the story of why he was staying behind. "Why? You wanted him to tag along that bad?"

"I just told you, didn't I?" Leif took the opposite chair, putting her booted hooves up on the table. "We've got a little cabin fever, and you've got bright eyes and fresh new perspectives. Personally, I was looking forward to meeting a non-batpony with a batpony mother. Vivace might have mentioned it, but that doesn't happen where we're from. Ever."

"Oh yeah, that's what they were on about." I leaned forward, curiosity piqued by mention of my homeland... Clearly deliberate on Leif's part, but did I care? "Yesterday when I introduced Vivace to my mother! Is it taboo there for batponies and other ponies to... you know... get it on?"

Leif chuckled. "About as bad as you could get. The Night Mother and Garsheeva, rival goddesses? That was the one thing they could agree on. No inter-racial kids. Always did wonder why. My best guess is they didn't want any romances causing their constituents to have split loyalties. What an upstanding pair."

"You're not that fond of them, then?" My ears perked. "Have a bad history with their followers?"

"Ah ah ah!" Leif waggled a hoof and flashed an evil grin. "Particularly juicy stories like that one are far from free. If you want to hear it, pay up." She pulled a coin out of her robe and started flipping it repeatedly with a wing.

I gaped, mouth slightly ajar. This was starting to feel like extortion! Be the bigger pony, Hallie, don't use your talent just to figure out how to impersonate her tactics and give her a dose of her own medicine...

"Or, if talking about your friends is awkward, why not tell me a little about yourself?" Leif shrugged, reading my reticence. "I dig your fashion. You dress like this often? What's the story behind your look?"

Well, there was something I could talk about. "All the time," I answered, shifting my oversized coat on my back. "You really think it looks cool? The point is to make it look like I'm trying too hard to be cool. There's no better way to get left alone than by overdoing it when fishing for attention."

Leif grinned and nodded. "Wicked smart. But do you think it looks cool? You make it sound like it's an invisibility cloak, or something. I bet it would feel cool to go around in an invisibility cloak."

"Isn't that kind of personal?" I flicked my ears. Yes, as a matter of fact, I did think it was a cool coat, but I wasn't just going to go out and say it... "I'm not all that concerned with impressing other ponies."

"You fancied up your mane when we met at Graygarden's," Leif pointed out. "And you kept wearing the coat. Come on, it was a job interview. Don't tell me you weren't trying to make a good impression."

I tilted my head. I had dressed up in spite of the need to look professional, not for it... "What are you angling at, here?"

"Oh, nothing." Leif leaned back casually. "Just feeling out whether I could get you to strike a dramatic pose and say something edgy in a foreign language. Most folks who dress like us have always wanted to do that, deep down."

I tried to say something and trailed off, my mouth half-open. "Do you think I've never heard of dignity?"

Leif shrugged. "Who needs a sense of shame when you have an epic longcoat? It's fine, you're not there yet."

"Oh yeah?" I narrowed my eyes and pointed a wing. "Prove it. Why don't you strike a dramatic pose and say something edgy in a foreign language?"

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but Leif reared up on her hind legs, crossing her forehooves in front of her face and stretching her wings around herself like a shroud, causing her armor-robe to billow dramatically. "Padruge!"

Barely a second later, the sun came out, reflecting low off the glacier, so close to the horizon that it shone in under the cloud cover and cast her in a blinding silhouette.

"...That's cheating," I meekly complained, sitting back down.

"No. It's called being aware of your surroundings and having a sense of dramatic timing. You could have done it too!" Leif got back on all fours, fixing her robe. "So, how long has this been your style? Any good stories behind how you picked it up?"

"Err... At least ten years..." My eyes still followed the sun. I was outside, wearing no special cold gear, and the moment it disappeared below that horizon, things would start getting chilly.

Leif followed my gaze. "Oh. Let me guess. Curfew?"

"Nah, just the cold," I sighed, getting back to my hooves. "Listen, you owe me one for next time. I gotta get inside before it gets too nasty out there, unless you've got an industrial welding torch I could carry with me for warmth."

Leif stuck out her tongue. "No way! I did that pose for you, so now it's your turn again. Hold up, though, I've got a present before you go."

"A present?" My ears perked, and I watched as she moved to the ship console and started rummaging around in a drawer. "What kind?"

"Here." Leif withdrew something small and shiny, offering it to me with a wingtip. "Half token of friendship, and half consolation prize so we're not technically hiring you for nothing. Take it."

"An... earring?" I sized up the little gem curiously. It was very small, and a faint light seemed to gleam from within...

"An enchanted earring," Leif corrected with a wink. "You're from the east, right? Probably got a short coat like us." She tilted her head and parted her fur, showing me a similar one in her own ear. "This little doohickey will help a smidge with the symptoms of cold and high altitude. It doesn't actually warm you up, so don't abuse it and get in danger because you misjudged the conditions, but it could make the trip a bit more pleasant. Keep it, it's yours."

I stared at the thing, giving it a sniff. Properly-cut gemstones could hold standing mana waves in stasis, I knew, but that could only act as a catalyst or it would gradually lose energy... Did this really work? That would be surprisingly functional. I clipped it on to see what would happen.

All of a sudden, there was a faint draining sensation in the back of my throat and nose, and a scratchiness I had written off as an after-effect of banging my nose on the door lifted entirely. "Wow," I remarked. "This thing actually does make a difference. You seriously just have these laying around to give away? It's awesome."

Leif shrugged. "It was cheapest for us to get them in bulk, so we have a lot of extras." She nudged me toward the open drawer, where I saw at least a hundred earrings massed together. "You want spares for your friends?"

"Eh, why not?" I held open a pocket on my coat. "Corsica's pretty much impervious to cold, though, and like I said Ansel's not coming."

"Well, here, help yourself." Leif dumped at least five into my pocket, then closed the drawer and moved to get the door for me. "Think hard about your stories, now! The more you give, the more you get!"

"Yeah, yeah," I complained, stepping out. She was the kind of pony I wanted to be like, but that only meant she knew how to run me around in circles.





The earring wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Having a control variable was pivotal to any good experiment, and when I tried to reach up and remove it to get an unbiased idea of how cold it was outside, my wings were already too frosty to support that level of fine motor skill... Fortunately I was already most of the way to the elevator entrance by that point, and I made it back underground without turning into a pony popsicle.

Another long soak in Corsica's bathtub left me feeling properly warmed up, and my hooves carried me to the lab, remembering the message that I should go there but forgetting precisely why. Maybe I had forgotten to ask in the first place... Yawning heavily, I reached up and tapped a hoof on the lab door.

It slid open, and Corsica greeted me with a weary smile and a silly little nightcap with a big puffball on the end. "You showed up!"

"Uh... hi," I replied, my brain catching up with the situation. She told me she slept in the lab, right... "What's up? I got your message from Leif, but I hope it's not too-"

"Perfect timing, come on in." Corsica grabbed me, yanked me inside, and closed the door, leaving us in total darkness.

Frowning, I turned on my bracelet, bathing the room in emerald. Corsica was there, looking pleased with herself. There was an open crate of junk food, but someone had returned our collection of used cafeteria trays and taken out the garbage, and stacked our chairs out of the way on the desks, and a bunch of other things I knew were different yet couldn't put my hoof on that made the lab look that much cozier and tidier. Oh, and there were two sleeping bags tossed out on pads on the floor.

"Slumber party?" Corsica whispered in my ear.

"I..." I stared at the setup. Was that what this was?

"Awkward conversations with Ansel, remember?" Corsica shrugged. "Not that I'd support shirking your sibling duty, or any wild ideas like that, but you looked like you'd be happier if you didn't have to go home and tell him takeoff's been postponed. So, I thought I'd offer to let you crash here tonight."

"You know what?" I glanced at the sleeping bag that was closest to me, feeling cozy after the bath and down to give new things a try. "Sound logic. So what does one do at a slumber party? This might, err... be my first time."

Corsica raised a skeptical eyebrow, then decided I wasn't bluffing and gave me a pitying look. "We're probably too old for braiding each other's manes and talking about who we have crushes on, but if you missed the opportunity when you were younger..."

"Crushes?" I stuck out my tongue. "No thanks. I kinda like my privacy, you know? Having friends is nice, but someone closer than that? I like the idea of keeping myself to myself."

"Just as well," Corsica said with a shrug. "I wouldn't have anything to say except complaining about Ansel, anyway. Forgetting everything changed that colt so much... Hard to believe he's still the same smooth operator I used to pass cheesy poetry to in school."

I gave her a sideways glance. "You actually did that?"

"Of course!" Corsica didn't look as if she felt this the least bit unnatural. "We were kids having fun pushing the rules and doing things that used to gross us out, like making kissy fish-lips at each other when the teacher wasn't looking. What else are you supposed to do with a flirting buddy?"

"I dunno." I frowned, squinting in thought. "I thought you were supposed to, like, share everything and stuff. Carrying each other's burdens and all that."

Corsica chuckled. "That only happens in too-fluffy romance novels, or when you get married and live sappily ever after. You wouldn't catch me dead doing that. But I'm too old for whatever I was doing with Ansel. Guess we'll have to settle for being a pair of bachelorettes instead, huh?"

"Happily married to science instead of flesh-and-blood ponies," I agreed. "Much nicer that way."

"Speaking of science," Corsica said, "I hunted down a projector. Movie night? I brought snacks." She levitated the crate of junk food I had spied earlier and set it down between the two sleeping bags with a crunch.

"Yeah?" I paced over to look inside, dipping a wing in and pulling out three different flavors of unhealthiness. "What have you got?"

"An old horror flick about eighties Ironridge." Corsica made a show of backing into her sleeping bag, snuggling in and laying atop her hooves, floating her ear ornaments and dainty shoes away with a shimmer of blue. "Come on, let's get comfortable."

I probably should have followed suit, but instead I stared, munching absently on something carroty and sweet. It was almost never that I got to see Corsica let her guard down and her mane forward like this, and I knew her guard was down because she suddenly looked visibly tired. In all fairness, it was the end of the day and I probably looked the same, but still. Never mind that she'd probably have a bedhead in the morning-

"What?" Corsica gave me a bemused look. "Coming?"

I looked again at my sleeping bag, then shuffled off my coat onto my own desk. Then I looked back at the sleeping bag. And then at my boots.

Corsica smiled innocently.

"Ugh, seriously?" I snapped my head around to face her. "You set this whole thing up because you wanted to see if I really did sleep in my boots, didn't you?"

Corsica coyly tilted her head. "Not my fault you made me curious. Well? Come on, filly, let your mane down and relax! We trust each other, right? Half the fun is to forget about appearances and go without your regalia!"

Suddenly, I felt very awkward for thinking about how unusual it was to see her like this when I wasn't prepared to do the same. "It's... real personal," I sighed, hanging my head. "I really do sleep with them off, I'm serious. And I'll take off my coat, which I don't do all that often either. But I just... don't like ponies looking at my legs. For reasons."

"I get it." Corsica held up a hoof, stopping me. "The whole point of a slumber party is to ditch your worries for a night. I promise I won't judge, but if that won't help, you'd know better than me." She turned off her horn and faced the other way. "There. No peeking while you undress and get in the bag. If that's not good enough, then get your own bedding. Mine isn't rated for spiked combat duds."

I turned down to the sleeping bag. Yep, this definitely wasn't material I wanted to wear boots inside of... "Thanks," I mumbled, quickly extinguishing my own light, doffing my decidedly not-spiked boots and crawling rump-first into the sack, now wearing only my bracelet and Leif's earring. Eventually, after a moment of shuffling in the dark, I nodded and turned it back on, light projecting like an emerald beam from the front of my sleeping bag. "All good now."

Corsica was still looking away when my light came on, but turned back to me soon after. "If you're certain. But whatever. Look at this!" She switched the projector on, pulling a thick pattern card from its case and tossing the case my way. "Major Rockbellows and the Green Menace. Horror, unrated. A patriotic stallion finds himself in a new job to which there's more than meets the eye... Looks like the good kind of cheesy, right?"

I caught the case with a wingtip and looked it over, a dramatic pasted-together cover with lots of camerawork shot from below and big, cartoony letters. "Looks more like a comedy. Sure. Let her rip."

Corsica's telekinesis fiddled with the projector once more, and a rectangle of light appeared across the lab's chalkboard wall, overlapping with dozens of figures and calculations outlining triangulation principles and methods for determining margins of error, sound slowly kicking in as a troupe of hooded stallions marched through a nighttime jungle in the middle of a rainstorm...





First came the deja vu. The movie wasn't very good - kind of offensive, actually, as the sole batpony was the 'monster' - so I wasn't paying the keenest attention, but I was starting to feel like someone had shot certain scenes twice, or there was a time loop plot point I had spaced out through the introduction of, or even Corsica's recording was broken and it had skipped back a ways.

When I tried to ask her about it and couldn't move my mouth, I realized the truth: I had nodded off, and my brain, ever the comedian, had decided to give me a replay dream of literally less than an hour ago. Internally, I sighed. Time to tune out the projector and sit alone with my thoughts for a while. There were dozens of things I had filed away over the past few days to think about later, after all. And there was no time like the middle of a very boring dream...

Then again, dreams this recent happened about once a month, and I could never figure out if there was rhyme or reason to them. Could this be important? Sometimes, I felt like my dreams were showing me something I had forgotten or needed to recall, but just as often they were completely unrelated and random. Occasionally they could be triggered by me being worked up about something before bed, reliably enough that I doubted it was a coincidence but rarely enough that it was hardly a useful correlation. Once or twice, they even seemed to predict the future, but the confirmation bias was heavy on that one, and I was practically accredited as a superstitious pony. This time... It was supposed to be a horror movie, right? Maybe I could scare myself awake.

The problem was, it wasn't scary. Despite waves of artificial smarminess, despite heavy-hoofed foreshadowing that felt like bias in disguise, the batpony villain was a far more relatable character than the chauvinistic protagonist. Jump scares and sinister clues came and went, lighting flickered ominously and villainous cackling filled the speakers, but all I could see was some director or screenwriter standing behind the camera, calling the shots. And if I was alone, with no one to stop me from doing what I wanted, where non-batponies thought I would make a good monster for a horror film just from a casual glance? I would be tempted to embrace my dark side, too.

In fact, I probably would have, and I probably would have been a lot more frightening than the mare in the movie, thanks to my talent and a proper understanding of how shadow sneaking worked. Honestly, they hadn't even done their research on how batponies functioned! What would that writer think if I made a movie where unicorn horns were short, inert spikes only usable as swords?

No, it wasn't scary, it was sad. If I could talk, I would have been openly rooting for the so-called monster, but alas. And so my thoughts drifted, settling on a conversation not two days ago where Mother and Vivace had first met, and the topic of the treatment of batponies came up.

Anyone who remembered the Griffon Empire before the war had strong feelings on batponies, Mother said.

Don't worry, Vivace had assured, we're on your side.

After talking so long with Leif and Rondo, I had no doubts we were in good hooves, if slightly eccentric ones. But even if this movie was fiction, it had been produced by a real pony in Ironridge. Mother wasn't kidding, I knew for a fact, and here was evidence of it, right before my eyes.

Maybe Ansel was right to worry. Not that I was dissuaded from going, but I quietly resolved to take his advice a lot more closely in the future.





"Well, that was terrible."

Corsica's words cut through my sleepy mind, the trigger my brain was waiting for to stop that redundant dream and regain waking consciousness. I grunted incoherently, wondering if it thought it was helping, making me skip half the movie just to watch the other half twice.

"Sorry I made us watch that. I thought it would be a different kind of bad when I found it at-" Corsica cut herself off. "Are you sleeping?"

"Sure was," I made my mouth say, not sure if I even wanted to kick my body back into wakefulness. "Snooze fest, I guess. But isn't that the point of a slumber party?"

"You catch on quickly," Corsica declared, approval in her tone. "Staying up too late, eating too much junk food, watching terrible movies? It's all about indulging yourself by making bad decisions so you can laugh it off in the morning."

"I meant sleeping."

"...Oh." Corsica hesitated. "Should I let you sleep?"

I forced my eyes open. "Nah, it's fine," I yawned. "I wanted to wake up, anyway. You'll never guess how bad of a dream I was having."

"Bad enough to want to wake up to that movie?" Corsica looked genuinely concerned. "Are you alright?"

For a moment, I managed to keep my face grave. And then: "I was dreaming about watching that movie."

Corsica stared for a solid two seconds before she burst out laughing.

"Wow, thanks," I snarked, rubbing my eyes with a wingtip and yawning again. "You're all apologetic until I tell you that you pranked me good, aren't you...?"

"Sorry," Corsica managed, not sounding particularly remorseful. "Well, I had to watch the ending, so there."

"Dare I ask?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Probably better if you don't." This time, she really did look serious.

I set my chin on my pillow, my hooves all tucked very thoroughly inside the sleeping bag. "Kind of a wake-up call," I muttered, offering my earlier hypothesis. "I guess there really are some strong feelings about batponies out there after the war."

Corsica nudged the movie case with a frown, still sitting by me where she had left it. "Actually, this was produced in 982. Three years before the conflict in the Empire."

"...Oh." I stared at the case. "I guess... we might have been unpopular before that too. Sure makes you feel dandy, doesn't it?" My thoughts instantly went to my disguise kit, sitting in my luggage aboard the Aldebaran. One of the items in there was a set of colored contact lenses, including ones that could round out the slit of my eyes. I didn't have feathered wing coverings, but getting them wouldn't be impossible. If we did go on an adventure to see the rest of the world, maybe it would be more convenient for me to disguise myself as a...

"Like I said, I'm sorry I chose this one," Corsica sighed. "I-"

"Leif is a batpony in disguise."

"What?" Corsica stared at me sideways. "Say that again? Where's this coming from?"

I shrugged. "It just makes too much sense. I was thinking about what I'd do if I was flying around, meeting a lot of ponies who might think like that movie producer. What else but disguise myself as a pegasus?"

Corsica frowned, not buying it yet, so I continued. "Her group seems almost excited to meet us, too. Which is weird, since I'm a batpony and you're not, and if they're from the east, you'd think they'd be solidly on team batpony or team everyone else. Besides, Leif reminds me enough of myself that I'll bet you she knows a thing or two about disguises. And I'm guessing her instead of anyone else because she's the only pegasus. It's no proof, but I'll bet you anything they were friends before the war, felt like they couldn't be after, and flew away because of it."

"Or," Corsica gently suggested, "I found this movie in the free junk basket at the pattern disk shop because the producer was a pig, and not because the world is so full of his ilk that batponies have to wander around in pegasus costumes."

I stared at the case, noting the complete lack of awards or decorations... and pouted, letting go of my fantasies. "Yeah, you're probably right... Boooring."

"Boring?" Corsica giggled. "You'd prefer to live in some sort of chauvinistic, speciesist dystopia?"

"No." I stuck out my tongue at her. "What kind of question is that? But it'd make a good story."

"Go on, then," Corsica pressed, grinning. "Tell me a story about a place like that. Staying up late and telling stories is a critical part of slumber parties. Ball's in your court."

"Once upon a time," I began without missing a beat, "there was some batpony called the Green Menace who rolled around a place where literally everyone had it coming and scared the you-know-what out of 'em. Boom. Awesome story."

Corsica rolled her eyes. "Did you just try to turn the villain of that awful movie into a self-insert?"

"She was the most relatable character!" I shrugged innocently. "And the only one I could root for. Don't tell me you didn't want to see that guy get what-for."

Corsica just snorted. "Unbelievable..."





The conversation carried on in much the same fashion well into the night, any pretense of heavy topics getting shamelessly brushed aside in the name of lighthearted, excited banter. I didn't remember falling asleep, and the movie thankfully didn't return to haunt my dreams. But waking up, however, was memorable, because it came far too early and courtesy of a knock on the door.

Who even did that? My room was my room. Ansel knew I didn't like to be disturbed, and Mother didn't care enough to bother me, and I especially didn't want to be disturbed right now because my stomach felt like trash after all of Corsica's junk food, so... Oh. Right. This was the lab, wasn't it?

Seconds later, a very asleep Corsica stumbled past me, grumbling about how early it was with words that made me blush. I lifted my head to track her, some always-on portion of my brain reminding me that I wasn't wearing my boots and shouldn't come out of my sleeping bag, and she had better not open the door-

She flung it wide open, light from the hallway falling squarely on my face and blinding me, and stared out like a saggy, scruffy, raspberries-and-cream gargoyle. "...Can I help you?"

Staring back, holding a characteristic clipboard and cup of tea, her mane blowing quietly behind her, was a very wide-eyed Elise.

For a moment, they stared in silence, and I started to frown, wondering exactly what Elise thought this looked like. Eventually, she was the one to break the silence: "It is one in the afternoon."

"This is my lab," Corsica croaked, "and in my lab, I say what time it is."

"I shall update my notes on your business hours accordingly." Elise bowed and took a step back. "Will you still be here if I return in an hour?"

"...Make it three hours." Corsica blinked owlishly.

"Duly noted." Elise turned to retreat. "I merely thought not to put you in a time crunch for your endeavors this evening. Please both be present, if possible. I will write a primer and slip it under your door for you to read before I return. This concerns your job with the Aldebaran ponies. Sweet dreams..."

She stepped away, leaving Corsica standing blankly in the doorway before closing it and slumping inside.

The lights were off with the exception of Corsica's horn, and half of my friend's usually-meticulous mane nearly blocked her face. Her barrel sagged on her shoulders, the ends of her mane hairs hung limp and uneven, her fur was scruffy and matted from laying on her side, and her eyes were probably just as cloudy with sleep as mine. She shuffled towards her sleeping bag like a pink zombie. A small part of my mind wondered if her offer from earlier to braid each other's manes was still good.

Equally tired, and maybe a little resentful that she had actually opened the door instead of waiting for Elise to go away, I decided that if I wasn't going to go that far, at least I'd run my mouth a little. "Who would have thought pretty Corsica looks so cute with a bed-head?"

"Shut up," Corsica grumbled, crawling facefirst back into her sleeping bag and leaving her rump sticking out. "You're cute. I ate too much junk food and have a stomachache. Need a nap..."

Victoriously, I smirked, drifting off again. I'd probably get bludgeoned awake with a pillow for that in the morning, but it was totally worth it.





"Hallie..." Corsica was the one to wake me, but it was a lot more gentle than I had feared. "Halcyon, get up and read this."

"For real...?" I rolled over in my sleeping bag, somebody shaking me gently. "What time is it...?"

"Four thirty," Corsica replied curtly. "Elise isn't back yet, but whatever. Read this letter Elise left and tell me I'm not hallucinating."

Seriously? We must have stayed up past the crack of dawn. I yawned, lifted a wing to scrub at my eyes... and blinked, Corsica's sapphire aura holding a clipboard right up to my nose. "Back off a little," I mumbled, "that's too close for me to see."

Corsica moved it into better focus, and I started scanning it, reading aloud under my breath.



Corsica, Halcyon and Ansel,

I have been looking into the legal basis for your contract with the Aldebaran group. Ironridge maintains an employment contract with Icereach administered by the Ironridge Fair Employment Commission and Regulation Authority, with which I am affiliated. In recent years, the commission has begun conducting regular audits targeted specifically at moonlighting and third-party subcontracts. While these audits are meant to catch unlicensed work that may be leaking trade secrets or interfering with paid employee time and thus contributing to delays, neither of which concern your situation, I am worried that the unusual nature of this contract you are taking will raise flags and create trouble for you that would better be avoided. As such, I am conducting my own audit to try to head any illegalities off at the source.

Corsica, section 6.7 of the employment contract concerns requirements we place upon third-party vendors with whom we subcontract employees, among which is a background check conducted by the commission in Ironridge for vendors with no prior history of dealings. Halcyon and Ansel are likely exempt from this as they have no legal employment affiliation with Icereach, but your ceremonial Chairmare position puts you into a legal gray area that would almost certainly cause this case to be flagged for further review. Getting a background check to resolve this safely would likely take in the realm of six weeks.

Halcyon and Ansel, section 5.3 concerns special cases in which employment contracts are to be placed under extra limitations. Title VII in particular would apply to you, and as it specifies residents of Icereach instead of employees, the previous loophole would not apply again.

All legal bases aside, I am personally concerned by the unprecedented circumstances surrounding this employment. Between your collective ages and level of experience, the opacity and unfamiliarity of Aldebaran, and the advertised nature of this excursion not requiring as many of you as are being hired, this is not an endeavor I will put my stamp of approval on. Understand that as this business is being conducted entirely outside of any affiliation with Icereach and I am not your mother, I have no real authority to stop you. However, this is not the time for such a job, no matter how much you may want a source of further funding for your research.

As I believe you are likely to ignore this missive and depart regardless, I will be conducting my own background check of Aldebaran. It may not hold conventional regulatory standing, but a legal hazard is better than a safety hazard. Whether or not the result changes my opinion on the matter, I will talk with you in person once it is finished. I hope you choose to pursue a safer line of funding, and firmly believe that despite your relationship with Head Scientist Graygarden, this will not be your last opportunity.

Elise



I read the full thing twice, yawning and flashing my fangs in the light. "Fancy legalese... Pretty much nothing new I haven't heard from Ansel. Hey, could you turn that light back out? Gotta get just ten more minutes..."

Corsica pulled away the clipboard and raised an eyebrow. "Halcyon, I think she might be serious."

"Well, yeah..." I rubbed at my eyes. "At least give me some privacy to get out of this sleeping bag?"

For a moment, Corsica blinked in confusion, before catching on and extinguishing the lab's lights. "Fine. I'm not looking..."

Moments later, I was on my hooves, my boots back where they belonged and my fur smoothed out enough to start the day. Corsica was half-groomed too; she clearly had done something, but not used a bathroom or a mirror. The lights were on again, the letter was face-up on a desk, and we were both standing over it, reading it repeatedly.

"You know, you said she was being a killjoy about the job, but this sort of still sounds like she's on our side," I remarked. "All this lawyer stuff isn't 'Oh, it's against the law, so I'm going to kick your tails,' or anything. It looks like she's trying to head off bigger trouble."

"I can handle an auditor or two," Corsica replied, slightly huffy. "Who do you think I am? My genius intellect could run circles around paper-trail sniffers. What I want to know is if she actually has a point about this being a bad idea."

"You mean for safety reasons?" I tilted my head. "I dunno, what are you asking me for? She's Elise. Second ranking pony in Icereach, and the best friend we have in the administration! You want me to second-guess her?"

"Know what your problem is?" Corsica said stiffly. "You put too much stock in what other ponies think. You cost yourself that paper because you put Father's opinion of me above our own success, you wear those boots everywhere because you don't want ponies looking at your legs, your entire personality does a one-eighty whenever you're around someone you're not friends with. But..." Her brow shadowed. "I-I'm the opposite. I don't care about lawyers and I don't care about Elise's objections, but I do care about not having a repeat of the accident. So given the unique circumstances, I'm deferring to the expert."

I stared, jaw slack. In all the time I had known Corsica, even the two years we had been friends, I had never seen her put more stock in my judgement than something she wanted this bad before... let alone do so before my judgement had been delivered. I reached back and rubbed an ear. "Uhh... Wow. I dunno what to say."

"Ideally, you would tell me your read on things," Corsica replied, not meeting my eyes. Was that a hint of embarrassment I detected?

No. I pulled my head out of the clouds, dragging my thoughts together and taking a breath. "First off, that's not really fair," I began. "I want to go just as much as you do, and you know it. Second, I've spent the better part of the last few days hanging out on the Aldebaran, and I feel like I've got a pretty good read on those ponies and what they're like. Maybe not Tempo, but Leif knows exactly what situation we're in and she'll have our backs no matter what. Also, Vivace has this crazy special talent that can heal injuries just like that, so even if there was an accident and even if it hurt us, we might not have a scratch by the time we made it back to Icereach. So by my assessment, it's practically even safer than it is here in the bunker. We get in brawls with yaks all the time, remember."

I wasn't finished, though. "But that's my take on things. Elise... doesn't know half of what I do about them. Might not even know about Vivace's power. So from her perspective, she might be right to be concerned. I told Ansel the same thing. This is an unusual situation, after all. So. I'm in a position where I'm certain I know better, but... saying you know better than your superiors is always a recipe for chaos. And I really don't like betraying the ponies I look up to." I hung my head. "And I'm sick of pretending to be impartial in debates where I really care about one side. I know you're looking to me for guidance, but I don't wanna choose. Please don't make me."

Corsica sat down and sighed. "Well, this is a mess."

"So what was that rule about me and Ansel, anyway?" I asked, glancing back at the letter and changing the subject. "The law that supposedly could get us in trouble for going?"

"Haven't the foggiest." Corsica shrugged broadly. "You curious? She's more than half an hour late, so I don't see a problem with leaving a note and heading down to the library to look for that contract."

"Sure." I got to my hooves. "Give me one minute to fix my mane, and let's go check it out."





"Here we go." Corsica approached me at a low, round reading table nestled in an intersection between several back aisles in Icereach's main research library, a hefty tome carried in her aura. "The Icereach-Ironridge employment contract, as maintained by the Ironridge Fair Employment Commission and Regulation Authority, revision 1.0.1. Doesn't look like it gets perused often."

With a dusty slam, she set it out on the table across from me, took a seat and started paging through.

"Section three... four... Here we go." Corsica paused her leafing through to read. "Section five, hiring criteria for Icereach employees. Point one, two... four, too far... Three. Special exceptions that may limit the scope of a contract."

I leaned in close, curious to see exactly what Icereach had on the books that could bar an unimportant, easily-overlooked little mare like me from wandering off to do her own thing. Corsica gave an annoyed grunt, trying to separate two pages that were stuck together, which just so happened to contain the law we sought. With the sound of peeling paper, they came free, falling open to reveal... a hated little word that I had seen far too many times in my life.



<REDACTED>



I stared. I blinked. I scratched the back of my head. "Is this a practical joke?" Unless it wasn't, which would mean...

Corsica was a lot less civil. "Who even does this!?" She slammed her forehooves on the table, eliciting a sharp clack from her noise-making shoes and instantly making my angry librarian sense wince. "Hallie, slap me and tell me Icereach doesn't refuse to tell its ponies the very rules they expect them to abide by."

"Err, you might want to put a sock in it..." I whispered earnestly, hearing approaching hoofsteps an aisle over. "Can we please not get thrown out? We need to consider the implications of this!"

"Does Elise know about this?" Corsica wasn't listening. "Does she have some privileged version unfit for the lowly masses? I'm half tempted to say we are going anyway, since someone obviously wants there to be no reason you-"

A pony rounded the corner. It was Ansel.

We stared at each other with surprised expressions, Corsica too busy ranting under her breath about Icereach's state of affairs to notice. "Ehhheheh..." I feebly waved, caught entirely off guard. "What's up?"

"...Well." Ansel slowly nodded in greeting, slogging through his surprise. "It seems to be my sister and charismatic ex. I must admit, a heated study session between you two wasn't the first thing I expected to find down here today. Delayed, canceled or already home?"

"Crazy coincidence, isn't it?" I shrugged. "One of the former two. Dunno yet. Look, about yesterday-"

"Water under the bridge. Next time, at least come home for the night, then, so I know you're fine?" Ansel dusted his shoulder with a hoof, giving me a look that clearly said we'd talk later when Corsica wasn't around. "So what's the present bout of consternation about?"

"Long story short, Elise told us there's a law that could get you and Halcyon in trouble for going, and apparently it isn't on the books." Corsica huffed, apparently having noticed him after all. She still didn't look up, though.

Ansel leaned all his weight on one leg. "Which I'm sure has only been taken as a taunt and boosted your resolve to fly. What's the latest date of departure?"

I glanced at a clock. "Well, it would be in about an hour, but I'm kinda... maybe thinking we should take her seriously."

This was enough to shock Corsica out of her glaring match with the redacted page. "You are? This changes your mind in that direction?"

"Depends." I nodded, moving to take a seat before the book. "I've got an experiment I want to try."

Both of my friends moved aside. I bookmarked the redacted page, closed the volume, and opened it completely at random.

"Nothing censored here," I announced after a quick glance. "Apparently procedures for resolving conflict-of-interest disputes aren't interesting enough for them to strike from the books. Let's try again." Close. Open. "Nope. The official job listing used for hiring interviewers isn't either." Close. Open. Same result.

I flipped through the book like this about ten times, each time finding multiple pages covered in laws that hadn't been stricken or modified in any way. Finally, I opened to section 6.7, the home of the rule that Elise had mentioned for Corsica's sake, scanned every single entry, and determined there was no foul play there either.

"Yep. See for yourselves." I closed the book, stood up and stepped away. "It's not random, and if it is, it's really rare. Someone must have gotten rid of that particular rule for a reason."

Corsica and Ansel stood, waiting for me to elaborate.

"Now read Elise's letter again," I pressed, picking up the document and showing it to them. "She was way more specific about the contents of the rule about Corsica than the one about me and Ansel, right? And think about how she approached us and what she asked us to do. I'm guessing us going to the library to look all these up wasn't high on the list of things she thought we'd be doing. We're supposed to be waiting for her in the lab, after all." At a look from Ansel, I added, "Still would be, if she wasn't way tardy."

I started to pace. "Basically, what I'm getting at is that I think Elise knows this law is censored. Furthermore, not letting ponies know about a rule makes no sense if they're expected to abide by it, which means it probably only applies to ponies who are important enough to need to know about it. In fact, it would probably be the kind of rule big-shots would know off the tops of their heads, without needing to look it up." I turned to Corsica. "Now why would a rule like that apply to an unemployed little nobody like me? The more I think about it, there's only one thing I can conclude: somehow, completely by accident, we've poked our noses into something really, really big."

Corsica's eyes widened, and she whistled. "You're good."

"Just doing my job," I replied with a shrug. "So? What do you think?"

"I think you overlooked some things, but they might support your idea," Corsica carefully replied, taking the ledger and tapping it. "Remember when I was commiserating the other day about Elise trying to be a killjoy? She showed up about an hour or two after we first took the job, and one of her points was specifically that you were too young for me to get you tangled up in this. But she didn't make any legal arguments, which means she hadn't hit the books yet. But she still had a reason to want you specifically to stay away, off the top of her head. The point is, whatever they redacted here is important enough that she knew it without needing to look it up."

I blinked, staring. "Now that you mention it, I remember you saying that..."

Ansel stared to. "Does... this mean it's safe to conclude the job is canceled?"

"The only conclusion I have is that I want to talk to Elise," Corsica replied, shutting him down. "Yes, I'm taking this seriously, no, I'm not walking out on a huge bag of cash just because someone smells a fish." She turned back to me. "Although... What's that self-deprecating catchphrase of yours? You know, the reason you started us researching the chapel in the first place?"

My ears prickled at the jab. "Because I'm a very superstitious pony...?"

Corsica nodded. "And remember what you were telling me yesterday about an idea for the reason Icereach censors things? What was that reason again?"

My pupils slowly dilated. "They censor things that are... supernatural..." My butt hit the ground. "Oh."

This wasn't just really, really big. It was even bigger. Like a sleepy dragon, my curiosity reared its indomitable head.

Ansel groaned aloud, giving Corsica a death glare. "Why did you tell her that!?"

Corsica gave him her smuggest smirk. "Because she had a point, but I still want my job."

My breath caught in my throat. "You know what? Just for that, no. I'm absolutely going to harass the daylights out of Elise until she tells me what this law's all about, but I'm not gonna do a one-eighty just because this got more personal than it already was." I lowered my voice. "You asked me my opinion because you know I'm the more cautious of the two of us. Well, there it is."

Corsica frowned, and eventually nodded. Ansel looked immeasurably relieved.

"Tell you what," Corsica said. "We'll need to tell Aldebaran we had a change of heart, and our luggage is up there anyway. Besides, that's where Elise said she'd be in her letter. So what say you we head up there, grill Elise about it if we find her, and base our final decision off that? And if she doesn't show up, we do what you said."

"Yeah, that's probably smart," I agreed. "Wouldn't want them flying away with my stuff. Ugh, this is gonna be awkward, isn't it...?"

"When in doubt, blame everything on Elise." Corsica put back the treaty book with its redacted rule, strutting towards the library exit. "If she's costing us this opportunity, she's the one who gets to talk us out of it. Just let me handle this once we get there."

Ansel bowed, following. "Getting out of this suspicious gig, regardless of the means, is all I ask."





"Well," Ansel remarked, the three of us standing on the surface, "would you look at that."

"Guess we won't be flying tonight no matter what Elise says," Corsica added, staring at the sky.

Up above, near enough that it looked like you could touch it from the roof of the guard tower, a boiling carpet of black clouds raced north, rumpled and heavily textured and laced with sheet lightning. I picked a point and watched, and in less than ten seconds it was gone from the tall horizon: these clouds poured like frothing water toward a waterfall, an ultimate storm ready to unleash the fury of the mountains wherever it decided to break. No snow yet fell, but Nicov the gatekeeper hadn't waited around: the fortress gate was closed and abandoned, lights shining from the guard tower within.

"Hello, inclement weather," I breathed, craning my neck at the ferocious majesty. Something about the storm seemed to reach deep into my heart, and I might have gotten lost staring if Ansel hadn't bumped me to get me moving again.

We reached the gate, locked and closed. "...Wonder if Elise got locked inside?" Corsica guessed, eyeing the sturdy construction with a shrug. "Telekinesis is hard when you can't see what you're looking at, but you think I can find the opening mechanism?"

"Don't bother. They've probably got it closed for a reason." I eyed the crack between the wood and the ground. It was plenty dark out here, the sun thoroughly blotted by the river of clouds... "You know, actually, I've got another way I wanna try."

My friends both looked at me, so I explained. "You know about shadow swimming, right? I've heard batponies can take passengers, but never had reason to try. Wanna give experimental magic a shot?"

Corsica shrugged, walking up to me. "Okay."

I swallowed, putting a booted hoof over her back and quietly hoping that this would work. "Alright, hold your breath, don't think too hard about what you see, and kind of lean forward when I do. Okay?"

"Ready."

I fell forward, feeling the familiar sensation of dipping into the darkness, like a strange little ripple that was forced to accept my body. Corsica hit the ground with a smack.

Instantly, I surfaced again, realizing I had failed and wincing at the result. "Err... experimental... sorry..."

For a second, Corsica lay there with her eyes closed and a grimace on her face, before she picked herself up and dusted herself off. "Whatever. Better to find that out now than when we actually need it."

"Well, time for a new idea." I looked around, studying the gate. "Hmm. Maybe we do need to use your telekinesis to-"

The gate cracked open, and Ansel beckoned from the other side.

"Hey, how'd you get there?" I trailed off, seeing Corsica ask no questions and just slip through.

Once we were on the other side, Ansel closed the gate again and explained. "There's a hole in the wall that got knocked out just yesterday during a scuffle. Repair crews being what they are around here, it was only covered by a flimsy bit of plywood."

"The more you know..."

I gazed around the empty compound. It was thoroughly deserted, the sounds of an uproarious yak party breaking through the storm from the tower. Not like I could blame them. What else was there for them to do?

We got a glimpse of the nearby training area as we walked across to the tower entrance. It was completely taken up by Icereach's official institute airship, a vintage junker dubbed the Navarre. Everyone I knew who had flown on it said it was three decades old and several technological revolutions out of date... Why we still had such a bucket of bolts was a true testament to just how much Icereach's leadership cared about the sky, I supposed. At least they were smart enough to moor it on the ground for the storm.

But no, I looked up and there was the Aldebaran, floating free with its windows shining, right up scraping the clouds. Either Leif liked living it on the edge, or Rondo had some seriously impressive stabilizer tech in his engine and was taking the opportunity to show off.

Not a word was said as we navigated the tower's upper story, its panoramic windows giving a perfect view of the clouds tearing past overhead. Ansel coughed; I was reconsidering my opinion on Leif's earring now that we were actually in a storm and I could see how my brother was faring. Corsica didn't seem bothered as usual, but only by the cold: we stepped out onto the swaying, raised airship dock, and I had a feeling it was mostly the lee of the Aldebaran that kept us from being blown away.

"Maybe she just didn't want to make the trip back underground in this weather..." Corsica gritted her teeth, lifting a hoof to knock.

The door preemptively swung open. It was Elise.

"There you are!" Her eyes surveyed us, making important note that all three of us were here. "Get inside, quickly. This isn't weather for standing around talking under the elements."

Not like we needed an invitation, though I was hoping we could get back in the bunker before the storm got any worse...

The moment we were all inside, Rondo stepped over and bolted the door, testing the seal with his cheek and looking pleased when he didn't detect any flows of cold air. To my surprise, almost everyone was here: Leif and Vivace were both lounging around, with only Tempo visibly absent. It didn't look like a tense conversation had been taking place, either. Everyone kind of looked like they had been... hanging out.

"Hey, kids!" Leif greeted with a wave of a wing. "Ready to shove off?"

Ansel blanched.

"What?" Corsica looked taken aback. "Hold on, what's she doing here?" She pointed a hoof at Elise. "I thought you said we needed to talk, and that this could mean legal trouble for us. What's the deal with that one contract term? You know the one... And that aside, have you seen the weather out there?"

"Forget that! Have you seen the weather in here?" Rondo countered, slapping the floor. "Rock-solid, this ship! We've got her sturdier than the inside of that tower! This kind of engine, weather immunity comes with the technology. Not resistance, kid. Immunity."

I stared at the floor, which really did feel as steady beneath my hooves as the inside of Icereach's tunnels. Not like I was perfectly confident, but he seemed to have a point...

"My little pony, please." Elise cut in, her face serious. "I said I would be conducting my own check on the nature of the ongoings here, and that is what I have done. But it seems I substantially misread this situation."

"Eh?" I twitched my ears. "How so?"

"These are, in fact, ponies we have done business with before," Elise continued, standing at her full, petite height. "They work for Ironridge, and it is a matter of national interest that this expedition goes through in a hurried and timely manner. As such, I am coming with you."