As we stepped outside I immediately looked up to see an aurora. Beautiful dancing hues of orange and blue. Rose trotted up next to me.
"They're the only good thing about this place. Most nights I just sit out here and stare...it helps me forget."
"You're lucky. I wish I had something like this."
The pony looked up at me and smiled.
"As long as you're here, you will."
We sat there, in the snow, gazing at the heavens for what seemed like an eternity. Such finesse. Such power. This wasn't a frozen wasteland. It was a snowed in paradise. The trees glowed in pinks and purples, the waters shone like wet streets in a city, reflecting the show above.
I could live in this moment forever.
"Yeah...about that firewood." , I heard Roseluck interject. She nudged me along to a small stump by the side of the cottage, "I'm not too good at cutting...and the machine I usually use is frozen over. All I have is an axe..."
I blew into my hands to ready them for the work ahead.
"That's fine."
Rose smiled and ran off to a small shed. My eyes returned to the landscape. It was impossibly enchanting. The mountains in the distance appeared as if they had been painted with delicate and powerful stokes from a master artisan's brush.
I heard Rose come trotting up and saw her drop a wood-handled axe by my feet.
"Here ya go. I hope I don't seem pushy or anything...I just don't want us to be cold tonight."
I took the axe from the ground and a log from a pile adjacent to the stump. With as steady a hand as I could manage, I sat the log on the stump and stepped back to raise the axe. Rose watched on as I struck the log; splitting it. For the first time in a long time, the cold wasn't here to kill me. It was just present to remind me that I am alive.
- ... -
I picked up logs and placed them into a saddlebag that Roseluck had gotten from inside.
"That should be plenty." , she said with a warm smile.
I smiled back, returning the kind gesture.
Roseluck finished putting as many logs in the bag as she could, as she walked under the straps and hoisted it up.
"Ryan, I'm really glad you're here. More than glad, I'm blessed. You've done more than you know. I know it's been a hard road, but I think you were meant to be here. With me...", she grinned, tossing her mane out of her eyes, "Sounds a bit mushy, but, I believe it one hundred percent. I'm sure you'll see why soon. I'm sure we both will. This can't be pure chance. Nothing in this life is, you know. Everything happens for a reason. We're here for a reason. I can't wait to see why."
I dropped the axe and stretched a bit as Roseluck trotted off into the house. My back hurt like hell, but it's always been that way. At least, ever since the rebellion. Ever since I had been thrown from a building. Ever since I had been tossed around by earth anomalies.
Thoughts that I didn't want to think. Thoughts of terror. Pure fear. Trying to fight off an oppressive government while surviving the collapse of reality. A situation I didn't care to be in again. A situation that I wasn't in now. This place was a reprieve. This place was an answered prayer. Roseluck was an answered prayer. A patch of desolate northern Equestria to hide away in. My own little slice of heaven. I couldn't help but happily sigh at the prospect that maybe...maybe this was it. Maybe Equestria wouldn't be subjected to the...no...I can't think like that. I know better.
As soon as I say that it won't happen, it will.
Fate has a funny way of wanting to prove us wrong. If you say a ship won't sink, it will. If you say a plane will never fall, it will crash and burn. If you hope that your current situation won't go sour, it will end up in people dying.
Murphy's law.
Old Murphy couldn't have been more right. I'd seen it too many times in such a short span. It had cost me a lot, and hoping had become more and more of a foreign concept to me.
I turned to face the cottage. I only wish that this would be the end. I'd been so many places and done so much. DEA said that she would take me back to Darkarska so we could sort out the cause of all of this, but hadn't even attempted to contact me in any way for almost a half a year. Where had she gone?
Maybe it had gotten to Darkarska. Maybe she was dead. Maybe it was over. Maybe whatever started all of this, had decided that it was time that it stopped.
Was this victory? I had no home to return to. No Terra. No nothing. Maybe this was it. End of story.
Done.
There I was, telling myself the same old story. It was stupid to put all of my hopes into one world, one cottage, one pony. I knew better.
Or did I?
I would love to live here forever. To finally put down my guns and rest. To not have to worry about where I might wake up tomorrow, or if I'd wake up at all. No more pain. No more fear. Just a warm fire and a friend. Just some drinks in our hands, well, and her hoof, as we laughed. Laughed about everything. As we just didn't care. As we allowed the past to stay in the past, and the future to be what we made it. Splitting logs, stoking fires, strolling through the snow. It didn't matter. I was done.
I was sick and tired of trying to forget. Sick and tired of moving. Sick and tired or seeing people die.
I was done with it all.
Done with the Terminus, done with whatever caused it.
Fuck all of them.
I just want to rest.
I tried to keep myself from thinking that this was a peaceful ultimatum to a tragic story, but it was getting the better of me.
Then I saw it. There in the snow. The axe and two logs.
Sitting perfectly.
The double barred cross.
The symbol of DEA.
Her warning.
Her omen.
It was coming. It was on its way.
She was trying to tell me.
No time.
No hope.
It was coming...
My head swam with fear and pain. I felt it constrict my happiness and flush all warmth from my body.
Not now...not so soon. Please not now...
No choice.
Not even a prayer.
Terminus.