"I have not forgotten."
Jon woke abruptly, reaching for his sword to find a hoof on its hilt, blocking his intended action. "Stay under the cotton," urged the voice. Female, Zecora? He was under a blanket, and she was partially on top of him, a hoof on his sword's hilt, her face by his ear. "This is a mild censure, but it remains your fault, this adventure." She nudged him, hoof pressing against hilt, which pressed against his side. "You seem very relaxed. What are your true intentions, I asked?"
Jon set a hand on her leg. She was warm, fuzzy, but smooth despite that. "We're here to get you back home," he spoke softly in the darkness. "I'm sorry if you're having a bad time, that isn't the goal."
"It never was." She came in closer, the hairs on her snout tickling his ear. "You have a singular cause."
Singular cause? "I'm doing my level best to get you home."
"And what of you?" She jostled the sword she was already touching. "Of all we went through. Does not your home appeal? Or does this world match your ideal?"
"In some ways, yes," he admitted with a roll of his shoulders. "I'm living a big adventure, like... a story."
"Ah ha." Zecora sat up against him, her tension ebbing. "Are you like a child? No wonder you smiled. When the grim consequences arrived, seeing it, you were deprived."
Jon pushed upright, facing Zecora, though he could barely see much of even an outline of her in the darkness. "Is this about... Yeah, that was sad. It was, but even his sad end is better than a life that just wasn't lived."
"I see." Zecora's hoofsteps could be heard, retreating. "Good night, Jon."
The part that bothered him the most, perhaps, was that Zecora hadn't rhymed that.
"You're going to have to trust me." Sonja jostled, even if the sound was off. "If we're right, as soon as this is ash, this mission will be complete." She leveled a hoof up at the sleepy stallion. "We just need to keep you from joining it."
"That'd be--" He couldn't hold bag the enormous yawn escaping from his depths. "--good."
Sonja turned to her side against the pile of bedding. "Get on, then this shot's getting taken."
The stallion hesitated, hooves pressing against the stack of pillows he was on. "You sure?"
"No." Sonja turned an ear to him. "But it's the best shot we have."
The stallion snorted in an equine way, clearly unhappy at that outlook. Despite that, he slid off towards her, landing on her heavily, along with several pillows that tumbled with his already unconscious form. Sonja grunted under the sudden additional weight, but she was already grabbing the fallen pillows in her teeth, hurling them back up to where they came from. "And they say there's no point in powder when you have bullets." She popped the top off a horn and began scattering gunpowder around the bed in a wide circle.
"Did he fall--" There was the bouncy mare from before. "Oh, no! He did. Let's get him back--What are you doing?!"
Sonja was completely ignoring her. With a strike of a flint she held in her mouth, she set the powder on rapid fire, circling the bed and combusting it in a cheery blaze. "Put him back," demanded the mare, approaching with a prowling step instead of that cheerful bounce. "He has to be up there."
"Time to go." Sonja had meant to gallop, but what came was more of a manic cycling of her hooves with a strange sound effect. She wasn't going anywhere, until she suddenly was, as if that moment of cycling was storing power that was unleashed through mechanisms unknown to her, accompanied by a swooshing sound. "I hate this place." Sonja was not a fan of animation, least of all living inside one.
But she was moving, jinking and bobbing as other ponies reached for her, hands or hooves or hooves that somehow were also hands grasping for her in untold numbers and from every direction as she scrambled for safety, the fire she lit burning ever brighter and larger, as if that pile of pillows had become a huge pillar in the center of that little world, lighting it with its fire.
"Rude!" The bouncing mare was in front of her, as if she'd always been there, waiting for Sonja to catch up with her instead of the other way around. "Sleepy boy has to go back to his resting place." She nodded to the pillar of fire. "Let me have him, or we'll get upset."
"Get upset all ya want." Sonja wrenched to the right, charging in a new direction. "Not letting you misfire." Her ears were pinned to her head, imagining the lamentable fate of that sleeping stallion if they tossed casually him on top of the burning pile. "You're all mad."
"Of course we're mad." That mare was bouncing alongside Sonja, keeping up too easily. "You're kidnapping our friend. Wouldn't you be mad if someone took your friend while he was trying to get a nap? Rude!"
Sonja threw herself to the side, crashing against the mare and sending her tumbling as Sonja took off in a new direction. "You're ready to cook your 'friend'. That's an aim I can't accept." She had to duck under a living bridge of reaching ponies, skidding on the ground that seemed far too slippery for its own good. A sudden leap propelled her over a carpet of wailing ponies that were reaching up for her, but she touched down past them, running forward, even if she did not know what she was running towards, just clear what she was running from. Sometimes, that was good enough.
Sonja's torso was moving forward, but her hooves were not. She looked back to see her legs were stretching out behind her. The hooves were caught on a wire, embedded in the wall at one point, the other held in the hoof of the bouncing mare, sneering at her.
It was as if her realization of the situation were the problem. Sonja smashed into the ground, her hooves catching up only as she gave up to the influence of gravity. Her passenger slip up and over her with the momentum, turning as he hit the too-slippery ground.
"You can't just take him away." She was on top of the stallion, despite having been far behind Sonja just moments prior. "You're a mean pony. Time for a punishment." She drew a wickedly sharp dagger that did not fit in the whimsical nonsense of that mini world at all. "Make it easy on yourself, stay still, and say you're sorry."
"Shove off," grunted Sonja as she sat up dizzily, her head spinning from that rough landing. "Looks... like you're not being very nice."
"W-what?!"
But the other ponies noticed this. Another simply drawn stallion pointed. "Why are you being mean with that? That could hurt someone."
"Make them cry," agreed another mare. "Put that down."
"No! She's the one ruining everything!" The bouncing mare waved her dagger at Sonja. "Get her!"
"He just wanted to get some fresh air." Sonja nodded at the slumbering form. "He really wanted to try sleep running."
"That makes sense," agreed the stallion. "Why are you being so mean?" The crowd was turning against the dagger wielding mare, closing on her with cries for her to stop being so very mean.
A great bang robbed them of hearing for a moment. The mare collapsed, wheezing. Sonja had never been disarmed, and the true culprit seemed clear. She had taken the shot, as was one of her habits. The untold number of ponies looked at her in shock, only to collapse as one to the floor. The world around them bent and shifted, coming undone. They were suddenly in a house far too small for how many people were in it. "Damn it." And she could smell fire coming from upstairs. "Damn it!"
It was all Sonja could do to start grabbing the nearest pony by the scruff of their neck in her teeth and as hurriedly as she could, drag them outside. "Damn it!"
Their arrival had not gone unnoticed. The soldier that had sent her inside was busy commanding other ponies, several weaving magic with glowing horns that sprayed the building with water or conjured elementals of living water to help combat the blaze. "You're alive," he noted. "How many are still inside?"
"Too many." Sonja dropped the pony she had hauled out. "Can you get the fire out?"
"We're on the task." He waved away. "And you're done here. Join your friends."
"Belay that order," grunted Sonja, turning back to the house. "I don't leave the range until the shot's landed." She stormed back inside to grab the next pony she could find.
Fortunately for all involved, the military response was swift and efficient. The fire was brought under control and the injuries kept to a minimum. Sonja was one of the most injured, coughing and wheezing from the smoke she had inhaled in her efforts.
The armored leader thumped her, forcing another cough free. "Damn mercenaries!" He took a slow hissing breath. "I appreciate the sentiment, I do. You were trying to rescue my people. I can't fault that, but the way you did it wasn't helping them, in the end. Just hurting you." He threw a hoof at Sonja. "Get her to triage." Several ponies saluted, moving in to grab her with glowing horns and haul her away.
"Sun Queen watch gently over brave fools," he muttered in prayer, watching her get hauled away. "I want a body and casualty count. When she's recovered, I want her back in front of me to answer some questions." He thumped the ground with a great dull thud of metal on stone.
"Sir." A soldier approached rapidly. "Confirmed. The rift is closed. One dead located."
He leaned in on the soldier. "One of ours?"
"Negative, sir! We're trying to identify them, sir. Cause of death: firearm."
"Hm." There really only was one thing that could be... "How large was the bullet?"
"Sir? I'll check, sir!" And off he ran to get that information.
"We failed, somewhere..." Someone that wasn't a part of the town had managed to get in, and be involved in a rift? Still.... "She performed her part." He set off in a new direction, marching down the street with a purpose. He had a commander to petition.