Twilight hated the desert.
That was unsurprising, she shared that sentiment often, sometimes quite vocally. But on the seventh day of their travel, the hate reigned stronger than the normal sizzling resentment she saved for that sandy and rocky place.
The constant glaring sun, the way it sucked moisture from everywhere. How it made her sweat in her padded under armor, which stuck to her fur and made her feel just disgusting. Having fur at all in the mind-numbing hotness of the desert made her seriously consider shaving at least parts of it. How her damp mane consistently managed to get into her eye.
“Hi Ho Diddly Bop, I wish I was back on the block.”
And then, when it couldn't be possibly worse, Crown started singing.
“With my sixteen in my hand, I wanna be a - soldier man? No… a fighting man!”
Three days have passed since saving the thrumbo foal, the calmest days of their travel so far. The only things of note was them reaching the shrubland of Hobo Weed and the grudge between her human companions continued unresolved. The two were luckily able to work with each other just fine, but otherwise King and Crown still refused to talk to each other in more than one-word sentences, interrupted with guilt filled looks from both sides.
As infuriating as the silence between them was, Twilight decided it would be much more preferable to this.
“Hi Ho Diddly Bop, I wish I was back on the block. With my woman in my arms, I wanna - what I wanna? Oh! - show her all my charms!”
Her frustrations didn't end there, sadly. The night terrors were back at full force, preventing her from talking to Dawn in her dream library. Whatever power the ancient sword used to shield her from the night terrors before must have hit its limit. The nightmares struck every time she managed to get some sleep, which wasn't that often now.
They were being followed.
Crown noticed the signs first. The remnants of hidden campsites and trash left behind, the gloss coming from a pair of binoculars being held in the sun.
Whoever was following them wasn't very good at it, so she devised the very cunning plan of luring the mysterious tracker into a false sense of security by pretending to be oblivious to their presence.
By being loud.
Twilight looked on the bright side. The tracker will either take the bait and hopefully make a mistake, or they hear the singing and go insane. Win-win for the colonists in her, unfortunately metaphorical, book.
And at least the food got better for the purple equine. After the explosion of greenery caused by the sudden flood, Twilight was able to supplement her poor diet of desserts and corn crackers taken from the carnivore packaged meals with some flowers.
But that also had one side effect.
The day prior…
Twilight stood outside a small bush, where she did her morning business.
A haunted look on her face, her gaze distant and clouded.
Too late she realized she didn't do the full business since starting the journey and subsequently survived only on the packaged meals.
That realization came only when it kept going and going and going…
"Howdy Twilight, how's this fine morn?" Crown snickered.
That smug look on his face. There was no mistaking this, that bastard knew!
"H-how am I doing? Did you know this was going to happen? You traitor?! I thought you were my friend!"
A prank, it must be! How could he do this to her? Vengeance on him and on his bloodline! Retribution for his crime! He would pay! Pay!
"Hold your horses Twi, it's a normal side effect. We all went through it,” he said.
"Went through it?” Twilight nearly growled. Her mane was wild, flying to the sides as she gestured wildly. “The problem is it didn't want to go! I can't believe that… thing came out of me! It's thicker than my hoof! It's basically a fire log Crown. A fire log! I may have punctured my internal organs! I will die because of this!"
"Twi, common, it ain't that bad."
"It weighs half as much as me! It's bigger than a newborn foal!"
He shrugged. "Well, there is a reason we call them Meals Refusing-to-Exit sometimes."
Twilight shuddered at the memory.
Turns out that the lack of most helpful bacteria in the survival meals makes them cause severe constipation.
At the moment, she felt deep pity for her human friends, who still depended on the rations, but then she remembered they didn't warn her about it for a joke and the feeling was suddenly gone.
“Hi Ho Diddly Bop, I wish I was back on the block. With my bottle in my hand, I wanna be a drinking man.”
Me too, buddy.
She was again riding the alpaca. Lydia, sworn to carry their burdens, turned out to be a godsend during the cold nights, now that they didn't have a tent to use as shelter against the elements.
Twilight raised her head, measuring time by the movement of the sun. About ten in the morning, high time to stop and find cover.
"Okay, it's getting too hot now. Let’s find some shade and wait out the heat."
"Okay.” "Yup" were the uttered confirmations.
Finding shade turned out to be easier than she expected. The shrubland offered a small grove of crooked and twisted trees around a rare sight, a natural spring. One that did not dry entirely. Definitely worth jotting down onto their map for later.
King waddled dead last, apparently deep in thought.
His healthy hand was playing with a case of red pills. King took one pill out and swallowed, then hid the case in his pocket as fast as possible. Hoping no one noticed.
He sat down in the shade, the rim of his ten-gallon hat covering his face. "Nice place."
"Yeah," answered Crown.
And there it was. Awkward silence, my old friend. How were you? What about the kids? Jarring pause and A-joke-you-make-but-nopony-laughs-so-you-try-tell-it-again-but-now-they-are-staring-at-you? Oh, to university you say?
Neat.
With not much else to do but sit and wait out till the evening, Twilight started doing the one thing she did every time she got the opportunity.
Twilight found a clearing and readied herself. Hooves spread out in a fighting posture, Dawn clasped in a telekinetic grip.
Training.
Stabbing, slashing at the air, moving her legs just right and not overstepping. Paying close attention to keep the blade alignment correct and be maximally efficient.
Doing drills alone isn't recommended, but luckily for her, she didn't have to do it alone.
She felt the corrections, the subtle guiding of her sword through the pull on her magic surrounding Dawn. Changing the angle of her strikes, yanking her more to the side for her practice sidesteps.
Lounge forward, stab at chest high, one step left, swing at the throat, fain left and attack right. Repeat.
There was a rhythm to it, a method built on biomechanics and their skillful use in combat. Your body and your weapon as extensions of each other to attain a goal, a singular purpose - survival.
She tried to add more to her drill routine. Pushes with her magic, creating shields and projectiles. Her magical might was her primary advantage over most foes. But she left out her more magical intense moves out today, preferring to conserve her limited reserves if their pursuer shows themself.
Both of her companions were watching her train. Twilight didn't mind her focus completely on her training.
It didn't take long for her to pant and struggle for breath. Training in her armor, as much as it helped her move in it better and build stamina, definitely wasn't pleasant.
King, done with letting his mind wander and watching the clean running water, got up.
“Crown, keep watch, okay?”
“Kay.”
With little ceremony, King undressed and started washing himself in the stream, with only a towel from a piece of their old tent around his waist to keep his sense of human decency. His revolver and flak vest were kept near for safety's sake.
The water was refreshing, and the sensation of being clean after being covered in sweat and filth was simply glorious. He had to be careful around his still healing arm, making sure it wouldn't become wet and ruin the splint and bandages.
Twilight watched him curiously. Because of their tendency to stay clothed most of the time, she never really saw much of the human unique biology. Humans were certainly like nothing she saw before. Their colors, for instance. All of them were just… dull. It was extremely hard to spot two ponies with the same fur and mane color in a crowd, but for humans it seemed they had much less variety in their color scheme.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. On King’s shoulder, there was a picture. Tattoo, was it? Lilith mistook one of those for her cutie mark. His was a circle, half black with a singular spot not coloured.
With a rising sense of utter confusion, she realized she saw a similar picture before. It was a common piece of iconography connected to the two royal sisters.
"Is that a Sun and Moon mark?"
Why would humans have those? Sun and Moon marks were strictly connected to the Alicorn sisters. Describing how their opposites complement and complete each other. It would have to be another giant coincidence to share philosophical concepts like that up to the same iconography.
"This thing?” He pointed a finger at his shoulder and she nodded. “That's yin and yang. They are like… opposites that are interconnected halves of one whole? I dunno, I almost forgot I had it. Nothing more than a drunken mistake I got when I was young and stupid, well, stupider."
… How? Did humans just think so similarly to ponies that they just discovered the same abstract concepts and then attached the same picture to represent it, or did their civilization meet in ancient times and this was simply cultural bleed over? Argh! Why can’t anything make sense in this place?!
"Ya drink?" asked Crown. “I never saw you touch a bottle.”
"No, I don’t." He said darkly. "Discovered that alcohol and despair is a bad combination. Got a problem with that?"
Crown gave a non-committed shrug. "Nah. If it means more left for me, I ain't complaining." He then laughed, as if a great idea came to his mind. "Y'know, maybe if we find some of the good stuff, we may get purple smart here drunk again. If one beer can get to her head so fast, I wonder what few shots of whisky would do "
Twilight scoffed, her internal musings forgotten for the moment. "I resent that nickname. Also, it's not my fault I got tipsy so fast.” She accused the twin. “Knight served me a human sized beer, but I weigh only slightly above one third of what you do! For me it was like drinking the equivalent of three beers, so I actually have great endurance! See?"
King smirked, now was his turn to add fuel to this particular fire.
"Sure Sparky, I definitely believe you and know that you didn't just barely touch the beer before pouring first your heart out and then lunch.” he paused, finger tapping on his chin. “Well, no, sorry. The launch came after the dancing. If that spazzing out you did can count as dancing. We were this close from bringing in the first aid thinking you had some sort of seizure.”
"I did what?!" Twilight stammered.
Crown cocked his head, what would be described by his brother as a’ ‘shit-eating grin’ on his face. "Ya don't remember?"
She could only blush, feeling her ears redden and trying to hide her muzzle and embarrassment. They were just messing with her, right? She was Princess Celestia's prize pupil! There was no way in Tartarus she would get drunk in front of some aliens.
"... No? I just woke up with a headache the next day. In my own bed."
Wait, why did her memories suddenly end after the toast in the dinner!
Fiddle sticks, she got drunk, didn't she? Well, if there was ever a time to become a lonely desert hermit, this was it. And who knows, maybe living alone in the desert won't be so bad?
King continued his bath, the joy of teasing Twilight gone from his voice. "Yeah, Sun Glory carried you to bed after you passed out."
Crown gave a long sigh. "Fuck."
Twilight nodded in acknowledgement. She would probably choose different words but the sentiment stayed.
"We will get them." she said. “They won't get away with it.”
King gave a bitter laugh. Will they? Or have they failed once again. "Yeah, but that won't bring him back. Will it?"
"It won't,” said Crown. “But hell if it isn't gonna make me feel better."
Twilight sat down, her muscles tired from the training session. The air of weariness was almost tangible around the trio. What would Celestia say? Something wise, something that would make things make sense. But nothing made sense here.
What insanity was a world, where being good made you the mad one?
"I don't think that's a healthy attitude.” The two humans turned to her. She spoke slowly, weighing her words “Revenge is a double edged sword."
King continued scrubbing himself. Finally, feeling clean after a week of trial after trial. "That may be so Sparky, but I would rather settle for a double edged sword than no weapon at all."
Twilight pondered it silently.
Let's think of something less morbid.
A bath would do good to her matted coat. Her last proper bath, not counting almost drowning in the murky water of the flood, was more than a week ago and it was showing. Not only on her.
“Crown, after we are done, wash yourself too, please.”
She started putting her armor on the withering grass. Without the plasteel plates weighing her down, she suddenly felt agile and fast.
“No problemo. Just don't contaminate the spring too much.”
“Contaminate?” said King. “What do you think we are? A corpse left upstream for a week? We don't smell that bad, do we?”
“Nope, but we are filling up on water here and I don't want to spend days fishing out suspiciously purple hair outta mine water bottles. Again.”
Twilight crossed her hooves. "That's slander and you know it."
"Whatever ya say, commander fluffy puff."
Twilight let herself relax, laying in the shallow spring, her wet fur feeling fresh in the breeze and sun shining through the leaves kept her warm. At times like these, this place seemed almost tolerable.
Splash.
To her surprise, she found out that her mane and muzzle were both soaked by a wave of water sent by King. The man wheezed together with Crown at the sight of her wet, over long mane, obscuring her vision and granting her the look of a living mop.
Oh, now it's on!
With a pulse of power, a perfect sphere of water formed from the spring and slowly floated above the stunned King.
"Oh bugger."
The water came down, eliciting a howl of laughter from all of them.
"Deserved. Well, I needed to change the bandages soon anyway.”
Crown gave her a strange look. Maybe, she didn't see very well on account of the mass of hair in her face.
“Twilight, don’t ya want to do something about that dead animal on yer face?”
Using another piece of cloth, she tried to dry herself. “You mean my mane? Unless you have a pair of scissors with you, you are not allowed to make me a mane cut.” She searched her pockets. Where did she put her hair brush? She definitely put it in here, she triple checked it before leaving their camp. “No knives near my mane, mister.”
“Nah, not cutting,” he said. “Braids. Should help with, ya know, not obscuring your vision? Kinda important.”
That actually wasn't a bad idea. “Are you sure that you know what you are doing?”
“Yup, I'm sure. Done it enough times to know. Even on horses! Should be a piece of cake.”
He sat down next to her. “What would you say, wanna a ponytail?”
“Crown, I don't know if you noticed, but I already have one.” She swooshed her tail, pointing at it.
“That's kind of a hairstyle, Twi. But I could braid your tail too, if ya want.”
The builder worked, his hands moving deftly and with experience. Twilight, not for the first time, started to feel a bit of jealousy. Hands were truly a divine gift. A unicorn would have to train a long time, or be lucky with their special talent, to allow them a fraction of the precision the humans were able to use when manipulating small objects. Not even taking pegasi and earth ponies to consideration. Hooves, mouths and even wings simply don't allow for the range of motions needed.
Or maybe it was just Crown being really good at making braids. Rivaling professionals like Lotus or Aloe.
“Aaand done. Have a look. What do ya thing?”
She observed her reflection in the water. And for the first time in a long time, it seemed like staring back at her was a pony, not a disheveled monster. The eye patch was still jarring, ruining her style a bit, but she had to admire Crowns handiwork. The braid pulled her mane away from her eye, a practical thing when in constant danger and with her already limited sight. It also helped that now her mane wouldn't sway everywhere when she galloped or simply moved.
Her tail was also braided, completing the look.
It looked good; the pattern was simple, but hid a lot of detail. And as pleasing to the eye as it was, he made it all practical. It seemed like something Applejack would do to her mane if anypony ever persuaded to change her style.
“Thank you, where did you learn, let me guess. The farm?”
“Yup,” he confirmed. “My little sister liked,” he paused. “Likes her hair braided. Had to learn after… after ma passed. Little rascal always wanted to try new ones. Hah.” His laugh was humorless, look wistful, even so, there was a spark of hope in his voice. “She will be alright, I tell myself. It's been a year and… she is alright. Have to be.”
“Company,” said King, as casually as he managed through his excitement. Doing his best to keep his cool and appear nonchalant. “South, don't look.”
Adrenaline shot through her veins. Now the second phase of their plan.
If someone sent a scout after discovering their little caravan, it was probably to gauge their strength, maybe even prepare an ambush up ahead.
Getting rid of the scout was out of the question. These were lands of the tribals, not all of them hostile. For all they know the one following them only wanted to make sure they would do anything bad when on their land.
Keep tabs on them, be prepared. Gather information and act accordingly.
"Okay. I suit up and stand guard with King. Crown, pretend it's your turn to wash. But sneak up on the scout and see where they have a camp if possible. The rock formations should give you ample cover. Do not attack. Just search it out and keep your guard up, okay?"
"Will do."
Crown took his time, undressing and with clothes in hand, he went behind a large rock, where he dressed again and sneaked under the cover of withering foliage, the beige duster helping him blend in.
In their time of respite, King began to change his bandages.
Except the injury didn't seem right. Or more accurately, too right. Twilight saw it. His hand was broken in several places, swollen and with pieces of muscle pulled from the bone. But now, it was basically healed, no scars, no complications. Only smooth, new skin replacing the missing parts.
Which was impossible. No creature healed that fast. Humans definitely didn't at least. After she accidentally shot Knight, ehm, after Knight had his incident, it took him a few days to heal his… scratch.
King's injury was much more severe, and the environment and physical strain weren't really helpful either. So how did he heal already?
“King, how is your arm? It looks… good?”
“That's the luciferium, Sparkle. You probably don’t know what it does, do you.” he facepalmed. “Of course you don’t, you wouldn’t give it to me otherwise.”
He mumbled the last part, making it hard for her to understand. There was a hint of sadness in his voice, why would he mention it? Was something wrong?
“I only know that it helps against infections… but the side effects are a dependency on it. I guess it effectively replaces your immune system if that's the case, but why would it speed up the healing so much?” she asked.
He reaplied with the splint and the sling for his arm. The surface level injuries were gone, but his bone still needed time to heal properly. Having to break it again just for it to align right wasn't exactly pleasurable, and he wanted to avoid such a fate.
“Huh, you are kinda right, but not entirely. Back home, drugs like these are a problem. You see, it… it….” he hesitated, stumbling over his words then waving it off. Clearly conflicted about something, the indecision in his eyes speaking for itself. “It doesn't matter. A detail. Trust me, nothing to worry about.”
Twilight wasn't convinced. Tartarus, King himself, didn't sound convinced.
“Okay, but you know you can tell me if something is bothering you.”
He smiled, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone like this. But it didn't matter much.
“Thank you. But it's nothing, really.”
His hand reached the bottle of luciferium. Patting It down as if making sure it did not vanish.
From the brush, Crown reappeared, a happy look on his face.
“Hey," King said. "Look who is coming back. Let's see if he found out anything about our follower, shall we?”