It had not exactly been a sleepless night for Twilight – the preceding evening’s stresses and revelations had taken their toll, superseding her mind’s resulting state of overdrive.
But the quality of her rest left something to be desired. Rainbow Dash snored.
Their return journey had finished late, but the pushy pegasus expressed no desire to leave her friend’s side even once they were safely back in Ponyville, and was not satisfied with the posting of mere Royal Guards outside of the unicorn’s library home. Twilight couldn’t tell if Dash had emphatically taken the Princess’ personal assignment for her to heart, or whether it was just Dash being Dash.
In any case, she was grateful for her friend’s presence, and the snoring had been a source of comfort as much as a hoofpath to sleep deprivation.
But now, with the arrival of a new day, it was time to pack.
Rainbow Dash lay back in a nonchalant pose against a bookshelf, muzzle entrenched in a copy of Daring Do and the Fate of Tacklantis. Books sailed this way and that above her head, caught in a lilac glow. Twilight had been too exhausted to consider tidying up after her deranged research practices the night before, but there was no way she was leaving the library looking like that for even a day or two. Besides, what if she needed to pack one of these books? They needed urgent re-alphabetisation and/or categorisation!
Dash yawned and stretched, then flicked a page across.
“How can you possibly be tired, Dash,” Twilight said with her eyes focused on yet more floating books. “Napping all yesterday afternoon, sleeping like a foal all night...”
“Yeah uh, it’s hard work organising a thunderstorm, y’know?” Dash looked up, and rolled her eyes. “‘Specially when someponies’d rather bounce on storm clouds than gather’m all up together in one place. Y’know, I think they actually like being electrocuted.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, and with a sparkle from her horn, immersed The Complete Foal’s Guide to Transfiguration in a glowing spell. Several scattered pages from across the library leapt up in unison and fed themselves neatly back inside.
“Anyway, storm rolled over Ponyville as planned and faded on schedule. Executed perfectly, of course! Least I deserved was a nap. Doesn’t mean I should have to give up sleep the night after!” She lowered her gaze to her book once more. “Takes a lot of energy being awesome, y’know.”
Twilight smiled and shook her head. Her progress in clearing the floor of the scattered books had brought her to the pile nearest to Dash. All Daring Do, of course. On second thought, that was probably why she was here. With a cast-iron excuse to avoid admitting it, of course.
“Soo. Found any books you’re going to take? The boat trip is going to take a couple of days each way at least.”
Rainbow flicked her eyes to the pile aside her. “Think I found one or two I’ve only read twice. They’ll have to do.”
Twilight shook her head again. “If you’d paced yourself...”
Dash didn’t even dignify that with an upward glance. “Two ways to do something, Twi. Fast, and don’t even bother.”
The unicorn knew an unwinnable discussion when she saw one, and that might as well have been the example from the textbook.
“Well, speaking of not bothering, have you packed anything yet, Rainbow?” Twilight hadn’t seen her lift a hoof since dragging herself out of bed muttering something about breakfast. The pegasus subsequently settled down in that corner to read her way through the books she was supposed to be taking with her.
“Eh, I’m already taking the most important thing.”
“Oh?” Twilight couldn’t even see a saddlebag, much less an item of critical importance.
“Yeah. Me!” Dash put the book to one side and rose to her hooves, trotting out a circle inside the library’s largest room. “I’m the pony who’ll keep you safe out there, no sweat! Even the Princess knew it,” she beamed, fighting the urge to perform an excited little tap dance on the spot. “Not some snooty Outlander ponies who hate our Royal Family just ’cause.”
She flapped her wings a little, so fit to bursting with energy that it vented in any way it could. She trotted on a little further, and then came to a halt. She began to rock back and forth, mouth twitching as though she was wrestling with the wisdom of enunciating what was on her mind.
“Oh, but they’ll be so cool too!” she blurted, as if broaching a forbidden subject. “Special Operations ponies! Secret missions! Infiltration, stealth! Staying hidden, creeping up on some filthy Outland criminal, and then... wham!”
She somersaulted forward and kicked herself airborne, bouncing from wall to wall at blinding speed. Then she cannonballed towards the table in the centre, flipped in mid-air to avoid hitting it by a feather’s breadth before landing on her forelegs, spinning in a vicious bucking kick, finally rearing up and beating an imaginary assailant to within an inch of its life with her forehooves. “Yyyyaaaah!”
Twilight peeked out from behind the wall of books levitating in front of her.
“Rainbow, they’re coming to interview me, not attack somepony. I think that’ll call for a little more... restraint?”
“A little more boring, you mean!” Dash placed a hoof on her chin as she considered. “Yeah, guess they’ll have at least one unicorn pony to talk to you. Hold a quill and parchment ‘n’ things so she can write, and snooze-fest stuff like that. Rest’ve gotta be pegasi though! No offence Twi, but those glowy horns aren’t exactly stealthy. And what’s an earth pony gonna do? Farm someponies to death?” She chuckled a little at her own joke. “Nah, they had the right idea with Daring Do. Brave! Fearless! Cool! Oh this is gonna be so awesome!” She danced around on the spot, spinning her forelegs in a cascade of punches. “We’re gonna make the best team! I’m gonna show them all what a Cloudsdale pegasus can do! Wait ‘til I show them a sonic rainboo- oh! Sorry Twi!”
The unicorn rubbed her nose as Dash put a foreleg round her. “Dun’t wurry abud id.”
“Sorry…” Dash said again, grimacing. She checked her friend for blood, finding none. Twilight sniffed and examined her hoof, then dropped it to the floor, giving her friend a reassuring smile. The pegasus closed her eyes in relief, and then smiled back. The moment stretched.
Then Dash jumped away, back into the middle of the room. “I wonder what their talents’ll be! Do you think they’ll be able to do anything as awesome as a rainboom?” she beamed, starry-eyed. “Whatever it is, I bet they can do some really cool stuff! Hay, I bet they’ll have all sorts of really cool stuff! Special weapons, like, like retracting spiked horseshoes! And, and, jetpacks!”
“Just like the Wonderbolts, huh?” Twilight couldn’t help shaking her head once more at the ebullient pegasus, a wry smile completing her expression. “How do you ever come up with this stuff.”
Dash didn’t miss a beat. “Aw shaddup Twi. A Spec Ops pegasus like that would be awesome and you know it! Better than awesome! Super-cool and awesome! Awesomely coo-”
“Well now,” came Applejack’s voice from the library’s doorway. “Ah never thought Ah’d find mahself thinking ‘y’all should get a room’ about two ponies when ya ain’t even met each other yet...”
Dash froze up and flushed a little. “Uh, I, I dunno what you mean,” she sputtered, “I don’t need a room- NO! I didn’t mean- darn it, Applejack!”
She groaned and buried her face in her hooves, reddening even further in response to her distinctly unhelpful protestation.
Applejack chuckled as she paced inside the room and put a hoof on the pegasus’ shoulder. “Ah see y’all prefer outside where yer more likely ta get caught...”
Dash just shook her head, giving her best effort to the exercise of disappearing completely into her forelegs.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Ready to go then, Applejack?”
“Yup!” Applejack patted her saddlebags, although the word failed to do justice to their size. Twilight and her friends were going away for a few days, tops. Applejack had packed enough food to last them for what looked like weeks. “Harvest was pretty-near done anyhow. Mighty kind of the Princess to send down some Royal Guardin’ ponies to cover for me, too. Ah can’t see mahself bein’ sorely missed fer just a couple days, mind, but still a real nice gesture all the same.”
“She offered help to everypony, didn’t she?” Twilight responded. “I know she did to me. I thought Spike did such a fantastic job pet-watching last time that he’d be annoyed if I brought in some other ponies to assist him, but he actually insisted.”
If you could call it that. Other ponies might call it ‘clutching onto her leg like a scaly limpet and begging her to bring in Celestia’s own guards to help him’.
“Right ya are, Twiligh’. Ah think Fluttershy’s actually helpin’ ta train them ta look after all her animals right now.”
“Heh.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes were visible above her forehooves, which she apparently considered safe enough to withdraw. “Gotta feel sorry for those guards. Gonna be there a while!” She grinned.
“That’s fine, though. I can’t see her wanting to bring much anyway, and her animals are more important.” Twilight cocked her head. “Rarity, on the other hoof...”
“Yeeaahh.” Applejack grimaced. “Can Ah say she’s thinking about the clothes she’s gonna take, and leave it at that? Ah’ll probably have ta drag her outta there when it’s time ta go.”
Dash rolled her eyes. Twilight bit her tongue.
“So that leaves...”
“Mee!” Pinkie’s head poked through the library’s doorway, and retracted before anypony could say a word.
The three friends shared a look. Outside, there was a shuffling, grunting sound. A heavy object was being dragged closer at a torturous rate.
“The hay?” Dash leapt to her hooves and trotted to the doorway, craning her neck to see the source of the noise. “Pinkie, what are you do- Aagh!”
She shot backwards in a flurry of wing-beats as a ginormous brown sack jammed itself in the library entrance, and landed on her hooves once more.
The ponies all stared at the obstruction. The doorframe had splintered and cracked under its weight, and the library’s interior felt strangely dark now that the doorway no longer served as an additional light source. The sack jutted out in random places, stuffed to bursting point. It began to tremble even as a prolonged grunt of strain could be heard, muffled on the other side-
“Back! Dash yelled, speeding at Twilight and Applejack and pulling them further from the shuddering mass, seconds before it popped through the doorway and the string binding it shut came undone, scattering multi-coloured party fare across the floor.
Pinkie Pie, face-down and riding a small wave of bonbons, slowed to a halt just before reaching the open-mouthed trio.
“Oops!” She giggled, looking up at Twilight and the others, a fruit drop stuck to her cheek. “Maybe I should grease it next time!”
“Pinkie, what’s...” Twilight stared down at the assorted pile of confectionery, games, streamers, balloons and party hats. “You can’t possibly be taking all of this?”
“Oh noo, that’s silly!” Pinkie shook her head in a vigorous blur, frizzy mane tossing lollipops across the room. “I still need to pack but I don’t wanna pack all by myself cuz that’s no fun so I thought I’d bring all my stuff here and pack with all my friends!” She extended her tongue to snatch up the sweet glued to her face and chewed it up, smacking her lips at a decidedly antisocial volume. “Mm! Strawberry!”
“You packed all of your stuff so you could bring it here and, oh, you know what, never mind...” Twilight turned and tried to levitate the scattered mess into something resembling a coherent pile.
Pinkie grinned up at the items passing over her, shadows rolling across her face. Without warning, she leapt and grabbed what must have been her saddlebags, although it was difficult to tell under the stickers and balloons, never mind the lollipops. She set herself down next to the newly-created heap, and began to pick things out of it, one at a time.
“Got to have some yummy stuff! Nothing helps meeting new ponies like super-scrumptious party food!” Pinkie gasped. “I should bring some cakes! Equestrian baking is to die for!” She began to scoop an assortment of tins and plastic containers into her saddlebags.
Applejack stared at her, but Twilight was distracted by the sight of Spike making his way down the stairs.
“Got your tickets,” he said, waving a curled-up scroll. “The train’ll take you as far as it can go, then it looks like you’ll swap onto a boat.”
“Thank you, Spike,” said Twilight as she collected the parchment from Spike’s claw with her telekinesis. She unfurled it, expecting to capture the tickets in a separate field of levitation, but no such items were forthcoming. She squinted.
“…Do you think they’ll have time to play some board games with us? Ooooh, Equestria-opoly’s a good one! Dibs on the hat!”
“Okay, maybe ‘tickets’ was the wrong word,” said Spike as he caught sight of Twilight’s expression. “It’s more of an identity paper on how you’re all really important diplomat ponies and how everypony in Equestria has to help you however they can or somesuch,” he said, rolling his eyes. “The ponies operating the trains and running the boat already know you’re coming.”
“Oh right,” said Twilight, levitating the document into her saddlebags on the table. The ‘spur’ was already housed inside, wrapped in velvet. With Canterlot’s finest vouching for its inert state, Twilight and her friends were much more comfortable carrying it around. Dash had argued that she herself should carry it, of course. Twilight managed to convince the pegasus that if the trinket turned out to be tainted in some fashion, Rainbow couldn’t very well save anypony if she was at the epicentre of some malicious spell. In truth, Twilight was not going to risk the life of one of her friends to protect herself. If the spur was intended to harm her, so be it.
“...and we need party hats for everypony too! How many ponies are we meeting again? Oh it doesn’t matter, I’ll just pack a few of each colour…”
“Well, we are important,” Dash said from her sitting position, back in her favourite reading spot once more. “Sooner we get out there and help these Lodestar ponies, sooner we can stop ponies getting hurt.”
“…and you can never have too many balloons!” Pinkie was saying, stuffing more items into a saddlebag. “And a disco ball? Hmm...” Pinkie glared at the object in question, balanced on a hoof, her eyes narrowed as though the sheer Fluttershy-intensity of her stare could yield the answers she sought. “Well! I often find if you need this stuff, you really need it!” She stretched the bag’s opening to what should have been an impossible size, and dropped the glittering ball inside. There was no sound – at least, not for a few seconds. Only then was there an impossibly-distant, echoing clang.
“Pinkie, you’ve got to be able to carry those bags as well as fit what you want to bring in them,” Twilight said, trying to keep the sigh out of her voice.
“Oh, I know! That’s why I’m packing so many helium balloons!”
Twilight blinked. Like with a lot of Pinkie Pie logic, that pronouncement occupied the bizarre sweet spot of utterly ridiculous and just-crazy-enough-to-work. The unicorn decided, as she often did in these situations, that further inquiries would lead to only one thing – a headache.
“So, yeah…” Rainbow Dash soldiered on. “Faster we get there, the better. Too bad we couldn’t all fly in a pegasus chariot – doesn’t get much faster than that!” she said, leaping to her hooves once more and stretching out as if flying through some imaginary wind-shear. “But weather’s a bit too unpredictable over the sea. Pegasi don’t exactly waste time managing it where nopony lives.”
“Ah think Ah can live without flyin’ all the way over,” said Applejack, looking somewhat fidgety. “Better to keep all four hooves on the ground, Ah say. Gimme a boat any day over – Pinkie, no!”
Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked around at Pinkie as Applejack made for her with an urgent trot. The bubbly mare’s forelegs were wrapped around a pile big enough that it obscured her face. Twilight could see bottle rockets.
“Whaaat?” said the cluster in a pouty voice.
“Ah draw the line there, darlin’. Y’all can’t be serious packin’ that.”
“But, but, what if, what if we really, really, need-”
“We’ll take the risk Ah think, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she tried to steer the offending cluster back towards the Pinkie Pile.
“Fine!” Pinkie dumped everything she was holding back with the rest of her belongings, her pout now visible as well as audible. A wheel-like object began to roll away across the room. “On your own heads be it!”
Pinkie’s friends rolled their eyes as she chased the rogue item out of the library door.
“So… you’re off soon, huh?” Spike looked down at his feet. “Gonna be real quiet without you…”
“Oh Spike, I’m missing you already…” Twilight leant down and hugged the baby dragon. “I don’t think you’d like it anyway. It’s going to be mostly travel, all for the sake of me talking for an hour or two to some ponies I’ve never met.”
“Yeah, s’pose,” Spike said, rocking back and forth. “Just, stay safe out there, won’t you.” He gave his unicorn friend a sad smile.
“Oh, we’ll be fine. We’ll be in Equestria for nearly the whole time, after all.” Twilight brightened. “I’ll see if I can pick you up a souvenir! Maybe they have unique gems out there! New flavours!”
“Alright! Now you’re talking!” Spike’s mind shifted gears onto the subject of food with well-oiled, practiced precision. “I’ll have my best cake recipe on standby for when you get back!”
Twilight grinned. Spike successfully baking a cake using irresistible new gems? It’d be a safer bet to try to understand Pinkie Pie.
“Well, Ah’ll leave y’all ta finish up here,” said Applejack, dumping her saddle-crates on the floor. “Ah need to go get started on Rarity if’n we’re gonna catch our train.”
Twilight nodded. “Leaving at six.”
Applejack frowned. “Ah’d better start runnin’ then. Later, y’all!” She took off through the library door at a gallop, passing Pinkie on her way back in, the recovered object clasped in her indignant mouth.
Twilight turned back to the floor as Applejack’s galloping hooves receded into inaudibility. “Well, since you’re here Spike, how about helping me finish clearing up?”
“Urgh. I take it back. When are you going?”
The unicorn looked around, throwing her best visual daggers at the stupid giggle-heads she called her friends.
* * *
The train journey was largely uneventful, although this was in truth a welcome respite from the panic the ponies endured. They had arrived far too late, yet the locomotive was still waiting at the station when they emerged, panting, onto the platform. It left only once they were all accounted for and seated – much to the irritation of their fellow passengers. Twilight didn’t know what to make of that.
They were the only ones travelling to the end of the line. More accurately, they were only ones who were permitted. The train was held for several minutes at the penultimate station as Royal Guards combed the carriages for anypony else, checking and re-checking Twilight’s diplomatic waiver. When the friends were finally waved through, the sun had long gone and it wasn’t possible to see much of Equestria’s Eastern Military Port. Not that it mattered – the six ponies were past caring by that point. All they wanted to do was find their cabin on the galleon and sleep for about a year.
* * *
Neither Twilight nor her friends had taken much in the way of time to consider their eventual destination. Their task had been thrust upon them at short notice, after all. There were far more important things on their minds than the dock at the end of their journey. But now, as they stood on the top deck of the ship, straining to make out any signs of Sanctuary, they were thinking of little else.
They were mere minutes away now, the Captain had told them. Rainbow Dash leant over the edge of the bow, a hoof pressed against her forehead as she tried to make out their destination through the fog that clung all around them. Flying was pointless in this visual soup – not that she hadn’t tried it. After nearly losing her bearings, something that would have resulted in her being stranded alone in zero visibility above a frigid ocean, miles from the nearest land mass, she decided that she could suffer remaining on her hooves this once.
Rarity was dressed up in her best waterproof fare, of course. Her umbrella was angled in a strategic first line of defence against any spray coming over the bow. Fluttershy was standing close to her, although nearer the centre-point of the forward deck – the better not to look overboard at the ocean swell. Fog or no fog, the only view she was benefiting from was that of her forehooves. Twilight was closer to Dash than most, also curious to see the first hint of the outpost. She kept one eye on Applejack, though, who was slumped with her back against one side of the boat, a forehoof placed on top of the railing. Her cheeks were puffed out, and as she made eye contact with Twilight again, her eyes went wide and she threw her upper half over the railings once more, her body stretched and shuddering. After a few seconds, she went limp and slid back down onto the deck, one hoof still holding her stetson in place, the other wiping her mouth. Her eyes said ‘don’t ask’, and Twilight readily assented.
Pinkie, who as far as anypony knew was still sitting atop the mast, now made her presence known. She had somehow moved past all the other ponies to sneak up behind Dash. There is a subset of high-pitched squeaks that the pegasus would never dream of vocalising voluntarily, and Pinkie managed to elicit a particularly juicy example by tipping Dash forward over the water, gripping her by her splayed forelegs. “Hee! You’re the Queen of Equestria, Dashie!”
“Pinkie!” Dash gasped. “What the hay!”
“No, no, you’re supposed to say, ‘I’m flying!’”
“You idiot, this isn’t flying!” said Dash as she wobbled, flapped her wings and stared wildly down at the waves beneath her. “More like – attempted murder!”
“Aw. You’re no fun today!” Pinkie pouted, and let Dash down gently. She then bounced back in the direction of the stern, a tuneless hum diminishing in her wake.
Dash un-crumpled herself from where Pinkie had dumped her, and glared around at the others, far too late to spot them doing anything other than looking in random directions, their neutral expressions strained.
She turned back, huffing, and then froze. “Hey, I think – yeah, I see something.”
Port Sanctuary was situated on the tiny lip of Equestrian soil that represented the sole area of royal jurisdiction on the Outland border. At present, it was still shrouded in the persistent fog, and only the mustard glow of torches through the murky grey soup hinted at its presence. The sea was calm, and the lack of wind meant eerie quiet, made all the more acute by the poor visibility. The occasional faint exclamation or tone of steel hitting steel carried across on the salty air, increasing in intensity as the port continued to emerge from the mists.
Twilight let out a low breath through her teeth as she began to recognise shapes. The slimy jetty was closest, extending out to greet them from the sea-blackened stone of the harbour. Beyond, a pair of towers stood to either side, pony-sized flames burning atop them. Balconies jutted out from them, occupied by crossbow-toting Royal Pegasus Guards.
Twilight looked over at the others, locking eyes with Rainbow Dash. Even the pegasus’ enthusiasm seemed somewhat dampened – they had hardly expected a champagne reception, of course, but Port Sanctuary would have looked at home in a swamp. One that lacked the reassuring chirping tones of the local insect and amphibian population.
A foghorn rang out from somewhere above the ponies’ heads, jolting them. A sequence of shouted exclamations came in response, and soon a group of armoured pegasi had swooped out of the fog onto the jetty. They stood to attention in a line as the boat drew up alongside, and saluted the new arrivals. The two ponies at either end were already moving again as the ship came to a halt, snatching up the deck ropes in their jaws. With practiced agility, they began to loop the mooring lines around the jetty bollards, securing the craft in place.
More came, eight of them. They swept across from behind one of the sentinel towers, each with a rope knotted around their waists, affixed at the other end to the same large wooden board. They flew to the boat, stopping the instant one end of their cargo was aligned with its side, and then landed with military precision, forming a ramp between vessel and jetty.
“Twilight Sparkle and friends! Welcome to Port Sanctuary!”
* * *
Seaweed, as it turns out, stinks.
“Oh, I do believe I’m going to be ill…”
“Urgh, Ah’d tell ya ta button it, Rarity...” Applejack’s pace was a far cry from her usual confident strides. “But Ah don’t think Ah got nuthin’ left ta give. Next time… Ah’m gonna swim it.” She shook her head, and then thought better of it. “Give me a place ta stand that don’t h-heave.”
It hadn’t taken long for the guards of Sanctuary to collect the six ponies’ luggage from the depths of the vessel they had disembarked. Protocol seemed to demand the guards continue to bear its burden even as they escorted Twilight and her friends through what was beginning to look more like a military outpost than a port. Visibility was much improved here, as the fog had not penetrated a great distance into Sanctuary beyond the jetty. Whether it was due to the diligent work of pegasus guards carving out a small haven of clarity in the impenetrable grey, or just a natural feature of the local geography, the ponies could not say.
Regardless, with their first view of the sky in at least a day, they could see that the sun was already making its way towards the horizon.
They passed by patrols of spear ponies, of crossbow ponies. To the left, a multitude of barracks. Several pairs of guards were dressed in full battle armour outside them, swinging swords at each other with their unicorn magic. The loud clangs of steel were the only sound aside from the hoof-falls of patrolling ponies. To the right, storehouses intermingled with low-set structures resembling living quarters. The boarded-up windows, insufficient to mask the full intensity of the lights burning inside, betrayed a darker purpose.
Soon they were able to see the perimeter wall ahead of them, a dark shape whose details were lost in the dazzle of the low sun that had yet to sink behind it. They had seen a wall of that height before, but it had been a miniature, threaded around the scale projection of the Lodestar Republic they had seen a few nights before. It was far more imposing in reality, and not just for its physical attributes – the ponies knew that here, as with Lodestar, it represented the final barrier separating civilisation from the anarchic lands beyond it. Once they left its protection, they would be without Equestrian support until their return.
Four guards appeared around a low-set storehouse, approaching from the direction of the wall. It soon became apparent that a bedraggled pegasus was being carried in their midst, wings strapped to his side and legs bound with ropes. He was looking around in fear, and fighting to keep his breath under control. The six friends stared as the guards brought him past without so much as a sideways glance – he raked his eyes over Twilight and her friends, but maintained his desperate silence. The guards marched him into one of the buildings with boards on the windows, and shut the door with a thud.
“They, they’re not going to hurt that pony, are they?” Fluttershy kept pace with her own guards who had not slowed, but her head was turned in the direction of the metal door through which the pegasus had disappeared.
“No, Ms Fluttershy,” said the nearest guard, still looking straight ahead. “Just standard procedure.”
Fluttershy fell silent, but her expression made it clear she was not entirely reassured.
They reached the wall, and the stone staircase that led all the way up onto it. The guards climbed without a word, and the ponies followed.
The top surface of the wall had every characteristic of a battlement to it, with a parapet running along the side farthest from the top of the staircase, embrasures carving crossbow firing slits at regular intervals. Twilight pressed a hoof to her forehead, shielding her eyes from the sun’s dazzling intensity. She nevertheless trotted with determination to the far side of the wall, hoof still held aloft, to see for herself at last: the infamous Outlands.
She squinted. Had she been expecting a desolate wasteland, a place of blackened, calcified, leafless trees and sickly, yellowed grass? Brackish rivers and mudflats?
She hadn’t anticipated so much forest, that was for sure. In fact, it was difficult to see much else. But it was lush and verdant, and in the few places without trees, green fields asserted themselves.
It actually looked… pretty okay. Perhaps not too surprising in retrospect, she thought, her brain engaging with the data as it was wont to do. A land untouched by civilisation is unlikely to suffer very much from deforestation.
“Stand back from the wall.”
The rumbling voice came from Twilight’s right, and she took a hoof-ful of instinctive backward steps. The ponies all turned to face the hulking mass as it approached. Clanking towards them along the wall’s hoof-path, in full-body heavy combat barding, was a dark grey earth pony stallion that could have seen eye-to-eye with Big Mac.
Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind Applejack and Rarity. Most everypony else stared. Rainbow Dash shuffled towards Twilight, but seemed to show little desire to be confrontational.
The stallion reached the group and halted, his chain-mail rattling with the change in momentum. He gazed down at the ponies, orange light from the evening sun highlighting his scarred face. Only one of his eyes, the left, was trained on them – his milky, glassy right eye never moved from its blank, centralised stare.
“Twilight Sparkle. Celestia’s chosen. And companions.”
Twilight had no time to open her mouth before the ironclad pony sank forward in a deep bow.
“It is my honour to host you here tonight.”
“Th-thank you,” Twilight replied, now finding herself having to look down rather than up. “You… you can stand up, you know.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Bulging muscles hoisted the giant pony and barding to a standing position once more.
“It’s... nice to meet you,” Twilight said, trying her very best to look the stallion in his good eye. “May I have your name?”
“Of course, Ms Sparkle. Please allow me to introduce myself formally.” The boulder pony stomped into a military stance – was it Twilight’s imagination, or did the cobblestones crack? “I am Bulwark, Commander of the Port Sanctuary Garrison. I have been told to expect you, and my orders are to give you any help you may require, to answer any questions you may have, and then to unseal the Outland gateway for you to pass through.” Bulwark had kept his rigid pose, staring straight ahead above the ponies’ heads the entire time, but his deep baritone took on a harsh edge at these last words.
“I think we’re okay for supplies, aren’t we?” Twilight said, turning her head towards her friends, who responded with a combination of nods and shrugs. “I’m sure we have some questions, though.”
Bulwark tipped his head. “Ask.”
Twilight gazed at the scarred, dead-eyed stallion, and knew instantly which subject she’d be avoiding.
“What is this place?”
“Port Sanctuary. It has been operational on the cusp of the Outlands for centuries, Ms Sparkle. Its name has changed many times, to mirror that of the pony commanding the garrison.”
“Um, but…”
“With Princess Luna’s release and redemption, a number of changes were instigated here at her personal behest. One of which was the dissolution of this naming tradition, and the permanent rebranding of the port as Sanctuary.”
“Aaww but that’s sooo sad! Now you can’t call it Port Bulwark! I like that name! Bulwark! Bull-wark! Bee-yew-el-dubbleyew…” Pinkie bounced, a smile on her mouth and her eyes closed, oblivious and in full flow. Her friends screwed up their faces, hoping against hope that the mountainous stallion before them was possessed of a degree of patience. “…kay!” Pinkie finished, beaming up at him.
“It is my honour to do my Princesses’ bidding, Ms Pie,” Bulwark replied, Pinkie’s antics apparently invisible to him. “I had, and have, no interest in promoting my own inconsequential title. My duty is to serve, nothing more.”
Bulwark let that hang in the air for a few seconds, before continuing. “This outpost serves as a hoof-hold on the continent, for the occasional exchange of diplomatic cargo between the Lodestari and ourselves, or for the removal of a pony deemed fit only for exile. It is far safer to land a ship in a port under Equestrian dominion than to attempt landfall on a beachhead over which we have no control.”
Silence. No two ways about it, Bulwark’s emotionless responses were a definite damp blanket over proceedings.
“What… what are your guards doing to that pegasus,” Fluttershy asked.
“I assume you refer to the pegasus we have just taken in, Ms Fluttershy. Please be reassured that we do not harm anypony if we can avoid it.” Bulwark moved to the other side of the wall, looking down on the squat constructions of Sanctuary. “It has been a long-standing policy that any Outlander willing to foreswear the life of a criminal may approach us in search of Equestrian citizenship.” He looked up at the orange sky. “Princess Luna, shortly following her return to us, commanded that we redouble our efforts to communicate this policy across the border. Ponies born in the Outlands do not always grow into savages without scruples. The Princess of the Night was crystal clear: they deserve an opportunity for redemption.”
“So that pony came to y’all ta come and live in Equestria?” Applejack asked, looking confused. “Can’t say he seemed all that happy about it.”
“Not all attempts to bypass the gateway into Sanctuary are sincere, Ms Applejack. Until an interrogation has been performed, we do not take chances.”
The tank-like pony elaborated no further, and stood in readiness for the next question. Twilight found herself hoping that the word ‘interrogation’ was no euphemism. From the looks of her friends, they were thinking much the same.
“‘Our cutie marks do not define us. A pony may useth their talent for both good and ill.’” Bulwark quoted, continuing to look across the port to the horizon. “We are blessed to count a mare possessing her wisdom amongst our number once more.” He looked around at the ponies. “A sincere defector is treated with the rights of a full citizen, make no mistake. Some are so loyal, in fact, that they volunteer to venture back into the Outlands to spread our offer of redemption, often at great personal risk.” He sighed. “I desire nothing more than to join them in this noble endeavour,” he said as his expression darkened.
Dash looked sympathetic. “You gotta stay here and command stuff rather than go out on missions?”
The massive pony nodded. “There was a time when we liaised with Lodestari Special Forces. We do not any more, and even if we did, I would no longer be one of those chosen to go,” he almost growled. Rainbow Dash, biting her lip, lingered perhaps too long on his injuries. “They are fools,” he said, glaring at Dash. “Our Princesses may exile ponies as a last resort, but the Lodestari see fit to cast out their own for even minor transgressions. It is absurd,” Bulwark grunted, shaking his head.
“I have seen the bitterness of those fortunate enough to make their way here. We offer them the second chance that the Lodestari denied, and to a mare they become loyal, upstanding subjects of Our Royal Highnesses. Those who remain lost in the wilderness... are not so blessed,” he said, his tone flattening. “They continue to seethe at their maltreatment. And they are out there,” he swept a hoof out across the forested lands stretching to the horizon.
“Out there in the company of true criminals who are only too happy to capitalise on their resentment. For too long now, the Outland ponies have grown in number, swelling the ranks of despicable gangs and cabals, even as the Lodestari grow more insular. They will not acknowledge it, but the problem is starting to become untenable. They have no love for anything save their own interests, and-”
A yell pierced the air, a screamed command. Friends and guards alike spun in its direction, somewhere further along the wall. Even as Twilight spotted the shape of the pegasus flying towards them from the Outlands, the harsh glare of the sun behind it, a blast of coloured light erupted from the battlements and hit it dead-on. The flying pony crumpled instantly, plunging towards the ground.
Fluttershy was screaming even before she saw the dropped colt falling alongside it.
Seconds from impact, the two ponies erupted with light, and their descent slowed. They settled down on the grass, in full view of the ponies patrolling the wall, motionless.
“What’s, what’s, what did you do?!” Fluttershy had barely made it off the ground before Bulwark grabbed her.
“It’s just a paralysis spell, Ms Fluttershy,” Bulwark grunted, his discomfort at his own actions manifesting in a grimace. “It will wear off. Please, for your own safety, let us deal with this.”
Beams of light shone out from an array of horns, focusing down on the prostrate pair. Four pegasi vaulted the parapet and swooped down in front of them, spears at the ready. “Remain where you are!” one of them bellowed.
The expressions on the Outlanders’ faces were just visible – pure terror.
“That ain’t right,” Applejack said as she glared down in distaste at the spectacle of two spear ponies moving in to frisk both mare and colt alike.
“I am sorry you had to see that,” said Bulwark, himself watching the activity with an expression of determined neutrality. “Two in one evening is rare, and pegasi are the worst.”
“What. How come?” Bulwark turned to see Dash’s narrow-eyed expression.
“They often do not realise how close their flight brings them to crossing the border, and sometimes do not stop in time. Some of the factions in the Outlands desire our destruction. The Resurgent do not base themselves nearby, but they engineer the occasional attack, I’m certain of it. An approaching pony could be carrying weapons, poisons, even explosives. The safety of the outpost is paramount.”
He turned back to watch the guard pegasi, still illuminated by the unicorn spotlights, dragging the bound mare and her colt back towards the wall, disappearing out of sight. There was a creaking, grinding noise, which ceased after a few seconds.
Bulwark turned and moved in silence to the other side of the walkway, his eyes following the group of guards as they took the limp pair of ponies towards one of the vacant interrogation rooms. The grinding resumed, and stopped again after a short delay.
The stallion let out a heavy breath as the door to the interrogation room thudded shut.
“More and more. It gets worse out there every day.”
“You said,” Twilight began, “you said you get ponies trying to attack here. Are they trying to hurt anypony in particular?”
“I am conscious of these assassination attempts, Ms Sparkle. None have hit here.”
“Do any ponies get past the garrison?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Bulwark swivelled and fixed Dash with his remaining eye. “No.”
“But what,” Twilight tried to interject, “what about unicorns? Couldn’t some of them know how to teleport?”
“Ms Sparkle, a pony capable of magically crossing the breadth of the sea from outside Sanctuary would be unprecedented. In any case…”
He waved a hoof over at the towers at the far end of the port.
“We have runes and a projected magical detection webwork centralised in those towers. We can detect the point of origin of any teleportation that crosses this wall, and from there divine the intended destination.” He looked directly at Twilight once more. “After we were informed of your encounter, Ms Sparkle, we consulted those operating the runes. No such teleportation was recorded.”
Twilight frowned. Sounded like a ‘no’ for the teleportation camp, then.
“Is there anything further you wish to know?”
Twilight looked at her friends. Their expressions seemed to mirror what she was thinking. The sooner we get going, the sooner we can leave this place and never, ever come back.
“Can you tell us how to get to this old train station? We’re meeting these Lodestar ponies there.”
Bulwark let out his breath in a grunt. “It is directly north-east of here, Ms Sparkle. It is often used for such meetings, and not difficult to find. Walk in that direction – it is mostly downhill. The train station stands proud of the trees, and your pegasus friends will be able to see it without a problem, should you not know a direction-finding spell.”
Twilight nodded, and proffered a hoof. “Thank you very much, Mr- Commander Bulwark,” she said, shaking a hoof the size of a dinner plate. “You’ve been very helpful. I suppose you have to ask somepony to open the gate?”
Bulwark nodded, but he made no attempt to move from looking directly at Twilight. “One more thing.”
Twilight almost didn’t want to know. “Yes?”
Bulwark sighed; a low, deep rumble. “The place you are about to enter is untamed, and uncontrolled. You will not be venturing much farther beyond this wall, but it would still be remiss of me not to offer you the best advice I can, for your own safety.”
The stallion commander looked at each and every mare in front of him in turn, ensuring he had their full attention. “Do not trust these ponies. You have seen a hoof-ful of Outlanders who might bear us Equestrians no ill will. But they are the exception. Outlanders are almost all self-centred criminals to a mare, and from my dealings with them, the Lodestar Republic is no different, just with a banner and an anthem. And they are still the best ponies you could hope to meet out there. Organised criminal gangs are far more common – like The Resurgent, who are the perpetrators of these assassinations – or so the Lodestari claim. But on some matters I cannot say which acts are those of criminals, and which are Lodestari. Some of the ponies we’ve interrogated…”
His eye drifted off to the side as he became lost in thought, and Twilight’s imagination did some very unwelcome gap-filling. Bulwark looked back. “I’ve heard tales. Tactics of fear. Of intimidation. Raiding parties that attack a settlement, kill the leaders, and then vanish into the night. Giant metal ponies that cannot be killed and show no mercy to any pony they set their sights on. Settlements deep inside the Outlands being washed out of existence, there one day, and nothing but scorched earth the next. Hearsay and rumour, perhaps. But if so much as one is true – it is no random act of marauding raiders.”
Bulwark stood tall, and pierced the ponies below with a gaze.
“Were it me? Make your delivery, little ponies. Discuss what needs to be discussed. Then flee that place. Come home.”
Twilight tried not to betray the butterflies in her stomach. Oh, please let us go!
“You should leave immediately,” Bulwark said as he turned. “Lodestari Special Forces operate at night. In the Outlands, day would be little safer for you. And do not use illumination spells unless there is no choice.” Without a further word, he began to clank down the steps. The six ponies followed, although Rarity had to nudge Fluttershy to get her moving.
The garrison commander walked along the base of the wall, passing torches overhead. No flames crowned them, although surely this would soon be rectified. Twilight dully wondered if there were special extended lighters for the earth ponies to light them. Maybe they just got a pegasus to hover up and do it.
Soon they came upon a unicorn, standing at attention alongside a portcullis set into the masonry. Here it was much easier to appreciate the thickness of the wall; any pony viewing the archway from an angle could easily have mistaken it for a tunnel.
“Raise it. These ponies are going outside.”
The unicorn gave no hesitation before saluting. His horn erupted with light, and his companion on the opposite side of the gap mirrored his motions. Two spoked wooden wheels, each set into the wall alongside the two unicorns, glowed with near-light, and began to grind and rotate. A loud creaking filled the air, one that Twilight and her friends had already heard twice before. The crisscross of shadows climbed everypony’s face as the portcullis retracted into its housing, rays of light from the setting sun flickering through the archway. Twilight looked away from the glare, at one of the unicorns – who flicked his own eyes straight ahead once more.
The guards who had accompanied the friends for the entirety of their time in Sanctuary now offered them their belongings without a word. Twilight and the others took their bags and strapped them to their sides, responding to their guards’ silence in kind. Only Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie displayed anything resembling enthusiasm.
“Good luck to you, Twilight Sparkle and friends. Stay together. Come back soon.” Bulwark sank into another bow. “I dearly wish I could accompany you. Only my orders prevent me.”
Twilight gave a stiff nod. In truth, she was relieved to be leaving the brusque stallion’s presence.
“Let’s go, girls.”
Rainbow Dash was the first to move, trotting into the light with determination. Her elongated shadow, wings and all, bounced under the hooves of her friends following closely behind.
Springy grass. Dazzling orange light. And a treeline just a minute’s trot away.
With a squeal of rusty friction, the gate behind them began to close once more. The ponies looked back. The giant stallion stood behind it, saluting.
Then with a thud the gate was shut, and just like that the ponies were on their own.
Twilight swallowed, and gave a nod in the direction of the deep forest, away from the towering wall, from Sanctuary.
Bulwark’s words still rang in the unicorn’s ears as the group moved past the first trees, and then further into the unkempt woods. The grass continued underhoof, wild and untamed. Clusters of heather and shrubs jostled with the trees for space, and lush vegetation tickled the ponies’ knees. There was little sound other than the rustling of the wind through leaves. The sun was now touching the horizon – not that anypony could see it – and the light was fading fast.
Twilight grimaced. She almost wished there was something scarier about this place. Then her imagination wouldn’t have such free reign.
* * *
Bulwark clinked his way back from the gate, allowing his head to droop now that his guests were gone. Truth be told, he would never have let those ponies out of his sight were it his decision to make. The politics of the situation, those that dictated he would not be able to escort those brave ponies personally or even send his finest soldiers in his place, were infuriating to him. There were plenty who would willingly, gladly volunteer. But no, we avoid bucking the hornet’s nest of Outland scum, city dwellers and otherwise, he fumed. Maintaining this pretence that they’d extend us and our fellow Equestrians the same courtesy.
But – he had enough self-awareness to admit – he was biased. Especially after the incident.
He nodded at two passing guards, who saluted as they went by.
Bulwark looked up at the two towers at the opposite end of the outpost. Doppler could usually be found there. She would be sending one more message tonight. Bulwark had done his duty, for Princesses and Patria.
“Commander Bulwark, sir!”
The large pony halted, and shifted position in the direction of the voice. One of the unicorn interrogators, floating a debrief report alongside him.
Bulwark saluted, and the unicorn did likewise.
“You have a report?”
The saluting pony swallowed. “Yes Commander Bulwark, sir! From the first Outlander we took in this evening.” He paused, reflected hornlight glistening from his forehead. “H-he refused to speak to us until we guaranteed we would not be hoofing him over to the surviving Lodestari,” he said, blinking. “Sir, you need to read-”
Surviving Lodestari. Bulwark’s expression twisted, showing his teeth. “Another terrorist murderer who thinks we offer free diplomatic immunity. Very well.” He looked over towards the row of interrogation prefabs. “Tonight, I am in a mood to explain to him personally why any promises we made are null and void.” Bulwark raised an eyebrow as he noticed the unicorn’s military bearing was somehow addled. His eyes were twitching, his neutral expression forced. “I understand if you are not comfortable doing it yourself. It is of no consequence. I fully intend to take responsibility on this occasion.” The large pony began to pace towards the buildings. “I tell you, I am not in the mood for nonsense. If he argues enough I’ll be throttling him before we throw him back outside.” He turned back towards the unicorn. “Take me to him.”
The pony kept his hooves rooted to the spot. He screwed up his eyes. “Sir… you shouldn’t do that.”
Bulwark’s ears stabbed out. He stomped back to the unicorn and fixed him with a cyclopean glare. “What did you say?”
The guard flinched, but held his eyes fast on his superior officer, his horn still glowing. “C-Commander Bulwark sir, I would not be doing my duty if I did not… implore you, to read the debrief first.”
Bulwark’s glare mutated into a stare. The pony’s lip was trembling; he looked on the verge of tears.
The debrief continued to hover in place. The ponies were still locked in their mutual stares, but the item in their peripheral vision was suddenly the only thing either of them could see.
The earth pony commander kept his eye trained on the unicorn as his head began to pivot towards the floating paper. Without another word he took it, and read.
His eye moved back and forth across the words. It grew wider. He read faster, his eye now darting from side to side.
And then he was gone, the paper wafting down to the ground, with only the thunderous sound of his galloping hooves to mark his exit.
Guards dived aside, as the speeding tank of a pony flew towards the wall with terrible momentum. He leapt for the stairs and charged up them three steps at a time, then turned and skidded, bleeding off just enough kinetic energy to avoid completely winding himself as his chest slammed against the parapet-
“Ms Sparkle! Twilight Sparkle!” Birds flapped up from the black shapes of the trees into the blood-red sky. But nopony answered.
“MS SPARKLE!”
The unicorn had caught up with him now. Staring in fear, as were several other nearby guards.
“Princesses… damn it!” Bulwark screamed, rearing up and slamming his forehooves down on the solid rock of the wall. A chunk the size of a foal’s head cracked off and fell to the ground below, cement dust saturating the air nearby.
He sucked in deep, growling breaths as he stared down at the crumbling piece of dislodged masonry.
“Should we send out a search party, sir?” the interrogator-unicorn asked.
“No,” Bulwark grunted at last. “They’ll find out soon enough, and if they have any sense at all, they’ll turn around and come straight back the moment they know.” He scanned the horizon. “We don’t have enough ponies here as it is. We’re going to have an equitarian crisis on our hooves before long. By the Princesses, they’ll swamp us.”
Bulwark stood up to his full height, casting a long shadow across the entire length of the port. He beckoned the unicorn and the nearest two pegasus guards over.
“Swiftsure: I’m cancelling all patrols – find them and tell them. Wake any pony currently on a sleep shift. I want every available combat pony standing on this wall.”
The pegasus nodded once and took to the air above the port.
“Slipstream: Find Farrier. Get him to unseal the entire armoury. As soon as he’s done that…” Bulwark’s eye lingered on the port for just a second, then focused back on the pegasus mare. “Distribute the combat gear spares to every nonessential member of staff. They are to stand on this wall with the others.”
“But sir,” the unicorn interjected, “you must know not every pony garrisoned here has combat training. Some of them are practically civilians.”
“Yes,” Bulwark nodded at the unicorn, and his single animate eye was over-bright. “I want the non-combatants here as well, dressed as guards. We have to look as defended as we can.”
Even if that’s more than we really are.
“Tell Farrier to hoof-pick some ponies to assist him in converting all the barracks into suitable refugee camps, and get the rest on this wall as soon as possible. Dismissed, Slipstream. As for you, Syphon…” Bulwark checked that the pegasus mare had indeed gone before leaning in towards the unicorn, murmuring down to him. “I need you. Doppler will, too.”
Syphon swallowed and nodded. “Thank you, sir. Don’t worry about me. I left Lodestar behind years ago.”
Bulwark bowed his head. “Then find me the names of every unicorn we have that can perform area-of-effect paralysis spells. Then go to Doppler – I think you should be the one to break the news to her. But don’t take long – I need her to contact the mainland at once. We need more soldiers, more supplies, more boats. Everything...”
He let out his breath as he began to see black shapes moving across the sky towards them.
“Celestia preserve us.” He turned to the growing number of guards posted along the wall. He took a deep breath, and shouted: “When Twilight and her friends reappear, I want them moved to the front of the mob and taken inside this wall as soon as possible, do you understand?!”
As one, the guards saluted their response.
Bulwark just swallowed.
“Tell Doppler to wait for me before transmitting, Syphon. I need to decide how we’re going to tell the Princesses.”
* * *
The temperature was dropping too, now. The tree canopy above was robbing the six ponies of what little light and warmth there was left in the day.
Still, wouldn’t be long, Twilight reassured herself. They’d meet those ponies soon, and they could go home. She shivered. It had been one thing to hear Bulwark’s grim assessment of this place from behind a solid wall guarded by Equestria’s finest, but out here, despite the obscuring foliage, she felt exposed. Terribly exposed. This was no place for them, and Bulwark had known it. She found herself regretting how eager she had been to get away from the stallion. All he had wanted was for them to be safe. And now they were alone. Or appeared to be. Were there assassins here, now, camouflaged in the undergrowth? Would she or her friends react in time to stop them? Would-
“Shh.”
Rainbow Dash, leading the group, had halted, foreleg outstretched to hold the others back. She gave Twilight a pointed look, and tilted her head twice in succession. Back. Now.
The friends stood in dead silence.
Dash moved her wings in slow arcs, just enough to reduce her weight to the point where she could move forward without a sound. She seemed particularly interested in a mass of shrubs a few hooves away. Was it Twilight’s imagination, or did they seem to be bending less with the breeze than the surrounding plants?
The pegasus stared at the dark foliage for a few seconds. Then she shot forward in a blur, there was a yell, and Dash had traced a tight curve, landing with a thud just in front of her friends. She was standing; the dishevelled earth pony was not. Instead he was pinned, looking around in fear, a cyan hoof on his throat.
“Whoa-oh hey, okay, y’got me,” he stuttered, hooves held either side in a limp posture. “D-Don’t…”
Rainbow Dash glared down at him. “Who are you?!”
“L-Look, you don’t gotta…” He swallowed, a gesture made difficult by the pressure on his neck. “My saddlebags. S’everything I have. Take it all, yeah? Y’got no need to h-hurt me. Jus’ take it, an’ let me go…”
Dash blinked, and then the implication dawned on her. Her lip curled, and she leant in towards the Outlander’s face. “We. Are not. Criminals.”
The tattered pony’s mouth opened in confusion. “Huh? Then…”
He stared at Dash. Then, with an expression of deepening horror, he looked at the other ponies grouped around, heads tilted down towards him. He looked back at Dash’s snarling face, and his eyes widened even further.
“Lodestari! Oh darkest Luna, no!” He began to hyperventilate. “Please! I had nothin’ t’ do with it!” he moaned, tears beginning to stream down his face. “Oh please believe me!” he wailed, sobs wracking his body, “I don’t want t’die…”
Now it was Dash’s turn to gape, slack-jawed, at the hysterical pony pinned beneath her. She looked up at Twilight as he whimpered and cried, sharing her best look of confusion.
The unicorn felt only an icy chill.
“Nopony is going to hurt you. Nopony.” Twilight didn’t recognise the voice at first, and she turned – only to discover it was Fluttershy. Her voice was iron, and almost unrecognisable for it.
“She has the right of it, of course,” said Rarity as she looked down in sympathy at the wretched grey-brown stallion. “If you mean us no harm, we have no intention of bestowing harm ourselves.”
The pony lay and shook a while longer, eyes screwed tight. Dash removed her hoof from his throat, allowing him to breathe more freely. Eventually, it became clear even to him that no vicious murder was forthcoming, and he blinked an eye open. A final tear rolled down his cheek.
“Who are you ponies?”
Twilight paused, wondering what was best to say. Applejack had no such qualms.
“Well howdy! Nice ta meet y’all! Sorry fer the scare an’ all. Ah’m Applejack,” she said, with closed eyes and a hoof on her heart as if reciting. “Ah work a small farm in Ponyville, where we buck-”
“Pony-Ville. You… you’re Equestrians, yeah?” He pushed himself with delicate care into a sitting position, one eye on Dash still looming over him.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, mah bad, not really used ta bein’ on the outside lookin’ in! Yer right, it’s-“
“Does this mean I’m near th’ border?” The stallion’s face was beginning to light up, to display the first hint of warmth the ponies had seen.
“Yes indeedy!” chimed Pinkie. “I’d say ten minutes trot, over thataway!” She gestured behind her. “Five if you bounce it. Nopony except me ever tries to bounce it.”
The stallion let out a gasp of relief. “Oh, thank you, thank you. I knew t’was somewhere in, in, whuh.” He stared around at Pinkie and her friends. “What are you doing out here?”
Twilight shook her head. “Can’t say. But we’re heading to the old train station. Is it nearby?”
“What?!” he gasped in shock this time. “Don’t go there, yeah? Nopony goes there. It’s, it’s, haunted.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Oh but s’not important,” the stallion said, waving a dismissive hoof. “We can’t stay here. We have t’leave before more come, yeah?”
“More what?”
“Ponies, whassit gonna be?” He blinked up at Twilight. “There’ll be loads. Fightin’ over each other t’get inta Equestria soon enough. Let’s go before th’ border gets swamped.”
Twilight looked up, from pony to pony. They seemed just as lost as she was. It provided minimal reassurance.
The stallion’s expression faltered as he followed Twilight’s gaze.
“You… you don’t know, do ya?” he said, frowning. “The news can’t be travellin’ any faster thanna pony can.” He flicked at a tuft of grass. “Means s’probably true.”
“Spit it out, will ya?” said Applejack.
“Wait wait listen listen,” said the stallion in a sudden panic. “We’re not all th’ same out here! It was them ‘Ree-Surgent’ ponies, everypony I’ve seen since said so!”
“Enough!” said Rainbow Dash, her patience stretched likewise.
“Okay, okay!” said the pony, wincing at the mare that had so effortlessly disabled him just a few moments earlier. “I dunno really how to tell ya all this – Th’ Equestrians and the Lodestari were allies, weren’tcha…”
Twilight’s blood iced in her veins. The stallion looked around in deep discomfort.
“Whatever the ‘Ree-Surgent’ ponies were doing… the… the weapon they were makin’… they just used it.”
He bowed his head.
“They wiped th’ entire Lodestar Republic from the surface of th’ Outlands. It’s gone.”