"Whoa..." Pinkie Pie said breathlessly, hanging on to Dashie's multicolored mane. They had made it to the 'dot' by the time night fell again, Dash was panting and was barely able to keep flapping her wings. She kept them open as they caught a warm air draft, gliding towards the strange giant object before them. It was a large circular metal ring, the walls seemed to stretch up high in the sky, taller than the windmills back home and taller than Canterlot Castle's highest tower. Dash gulped, seemingly uneasy about this strange thing before them. As they neared, they noticed that the walls were made of heaps of scrap metal, either bolted in place or welded.
"I don't think we're in Equestria anymore Pinkie." Dash shouted over the wind. The rainbow maned pegasus looked down into the giant metal ring as she passed over it. "Hey!" Pinkie gasped. "I see ponies! And buildings! Water! Food! We're gonna live!" She pointed down to each different thing she had called out. Rainbow Dash grunted in pain and shook her head lightly. "Careful! You're pulling on my mane!"
"Sorry..." Dash ignored Pinkie, circling around in the air, looking for an empty spot to land where there wasn't anypony around. She didn't want to cause a problem, not after that random stranger that had attacked them hours ago. This was a strange place, she didn't feel as safe as she used to be in Ponyville. Suddenly Dash noticed an old well far off away from the central part of the cluttered town and dived down. It was dark, mostly because of the large wall that loomed over it and that the well was behind a big metal shack. There was a wooden house several yards away from the shack. Dash realized that she was about to invade someone else's property. She thought about flying off somewhere else instead but the pain coming from her sore wings disagreed. Dash would have to stay here for the night.
"Why did you come over here?" Pinkie asked as she jumped of Dashie's head, landing on the ground and shaking herself to get her wind blown mane back to being poofy as cotton candy. Dash sat on her haunches and then fell down on her backside.
"I need to rest. I don't have any bits or any kind of money they have here." She coughed. "My wings are sore... we can find somepony to help us in the morning." Pinkie climbed on her stomach, leaning her rear up to keep her new blade body part from cutting Dash accidentally. She didn't want to hurt her, not like last time.
"Okay!" She said and laid down on the pegasus's chest, gently and slowly moving her tail blade down until the flat side rested against the blue short hairs on Dash's chest. Rainbow Dash shuddered. "You're really c-c-cold Pinkie..." Pinkie lifted her head up from where she had rested on her hooves. "Huh?"
She got up, rubbing her forehooves and sides. "I don't feel cold..." She muttered.
Dash raised an eyebrow and picked up Pinkie, lifting her up to the moonlight.
"Whoa!" Pinkie started squirming, giggling. "You're... Hee hee! You're tickling me!" Dash opened her mouth in amazement. "Pinkie! You're completely made out of metal!"
"Well, duuuh! I got turned into a knife, remember?" She said, rolling upside down in Dash's hoof and staring at her, a big grin on her face.
"Yeah... but... I only expected part of you, your tail... thing, to be made of metal..." Dash explained. She frowned and got up, crawling over and reaching up to the stone well, tapping Pinkie's head over it. "Hey! What're you doing now!?"
The sound of metal on stone made a loud clinking sound. Dash chuckled. "Did you feel that?"
"No. I'm a metal pony." Dash slammed Pinkie against the well again. Pinkie yelped. "Hey! Stop it! Just because I can't feel it doesn't mean I'm fine with you doing it."
"Alright alright. I'll stop." Dash snickered. "I just wanted to see what really happened to you."
Pinkie crossed her hooves and glared at Dash with an annoyed expression on her face. "Bashing my head against a well is your way of trying to find out why I'm like this?"
"Don't you think it's strange that you survived a magic spell aimed to kill?" Dash mentioned, trying to avoid the earlier mishap. Pinkie started to tap her hoof, pondering. She looked up, skyward as she thought deeply. After a while, she raised her hooves in a shrug. "I don't know."
Dash got up and slowly made her way to the metal shack with Pinkie following close behind. The shack was made of out those wavy aluminum trays, all welded together into one solid wall. "Something tells me that this isn't stable." Dash muttered worriedly, tapping the door with her hoof. The entire makeshift hut rattled and swayed. Rainbow Dash backed away, half expecting it to come down. To her luck, the shack became still.
"You want to sleep in here?" Pinkie asked, concern was evident in her voice. The pegasus looked downward, once again reminded by how small and probably defenseless the earth pony was now. Dash extended a hoof, the one that had the cut back when she had tried to pick up Pinkie while she was unaware she had transformed into a knife. It was no longer bleeding but the wound was still there. Pinkie looked at the cut for a moment and then at Dash, regret in her small little eyes.
"It's okay. I'm fine down here." She said. Dash knew she felt guilty for hurting her and decided not to remind her of it anymore. It was only an accident... if only Pinkie could see it that way.
With a heavy sigh, Dash opened the door then cringed as the door squealed as it slowly swung open. She quickly went inside, leaving the door open just long enough for Pinkie to hop inside before silently closing it. Dash llooked around for a window, hoping that nopony had seen her enter or heard the door open. She found one, near a door high above, letting in little moonlight from the outside world. Knowing she would regret it, Dash flew up to it, grinding her teeth as her wings screamed in pain. The glass fogged up from her ragged gasps and to her frustration, it was too dark outside to see anypony or anything.
Suddenly her sore wings gave and Rainbow Dash flopped on the ground. "I'm too tired Pinkie." She said weakly, her eyelids slowly closing. Pinkie crawled up to the exhausted pegasus and wondered what she could do to help. Dash's wings were still splayed out, crooked and erected oddly. They were still tense and Pinkie realized that the muscles must still be flexing themselves after moving for so long at a constant pace. She climbed up on Dashie's back and started to rub her hooves against the poor painful looking appendages.
The pegasus twitched and she let out a pained cry that shattered the silent night.
"Sorry!" Pinkie cried out and put less pressure in her massage.
They were silent after that; the only thing that broke the silence was Dash's breathing as Pinkie tended to her wings.
Slowly but surely, the wing muscles relaxed and the pegasus attentively folded them.
Pinkie fell back, her hooves had gone numb from the effort. Now with Dash finally sleeping peacefully and free of pain from her aching wings, Pinkie was alone with her thoughts. She couldn't sleep... not after what they had gone through.
Leaving Rainbow Dash to sleep on the dirty floor of the shack, which seemed to be unused due to the layers of dust on all of the farming equipment scattered around the small shed; Pinkie started her search for a mirror or shard of glass... anything to have a closer look at herself. The little knife found a group of barrels cluttered around a corner. Pinkie looked down at her hooves, glinting from the moon's ethereal-like light.
"What am I?" She whispered to herself; lowering her arms.
The little knife pony dug her hooves into the weak wood, her hard steel hooves made it easy to penetrate it. She climbed up, her blade wiggling to the left and right. With a small grunt, Pinkie pulled herself up to the top of the barrel and turned to look at her surroundings.
She wasn't home... that's for sure. As far as she knew, they also weren't in Equestria. Pinkie remembered Dashie saying deserts did not exist in Equestria. A cold empty feeling entered the little pink pony's heart and she huddled up in a ball... or at least attempted to. The blade that was made out of her tail was stiff and would obviously not curl up like her old tail used to; without the comfy bushy pink tale, Pinkie would have to rest her head on the solid wood that she rested on. I wanna go home. I miss throwing parties, I miss Gummy, I miss everypony... I don't want to be a knife! Knives hurt ponies... I don't want to hurt anypony.
Pinkie froze, recalling that she was the one who put that nasty cut on Rainbow Dash's hoof. I hurt Dashie. I'm not a good pony... I didn't mean to hurt her. It... it was an accident! I hope Dashie knows I didn't... Oh,
A small tear escaped her closed eyelids, dripping down her snout and fell off, splashing on the dead wood. I hate being a knife.
Pinkie wanted to sleep next to Dashie but her guilt won over, keeping her up on the barrel; she shut her eyes hoping for sleep to come and whisk her away to dreamland to sweep her away from her troubles.
* * *
Far off from where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie took shelter in an abandoned farm, miles from the protected city in the middle of the desert, towering high above on the edge of the land stood an ancient castle. Built along the craggy cliff along the continents edge, facing towards the endless sea. The castle had been carved from the stone by the salted winds by the hooves of a goddess. Inside, the throne room was large and empty, decorative pillars filling up the space and giving the noble territory an aging feel with a touch of simplicity.
The Empress laid across a stone lovebed, carved by the fluttering gales she produced from her powerful wings. Her gleaming white body was strewn lazily as the queen of this land dozed. Her mane was of many colors and flowed gently as the morning breeze. The Empress's evening nap would not be disturbed. Not for the likes of any-
"MY QUEEN!"
The white pegasus's eyes snapped open, anger was evident in them. "For what purpose does anypony have to disturb us?" She cried, lifting her divine body and sat up on the lovebed. The pegasus guard stumbled in and bowed before her, doing all that he could to avoid her searing gaze.
"Answer me!" She snapped, the gentle swaying of her mane flickered into flames, heating the air around her rapidly. The guard whimpered and brought himself to the floor. "It's the zebra! My queen, forgive m-m-my intrusion but the zebra who see's the p-p-past, present, and f-f-future bids and audience with you!"
The Empress calmed herself with a patient sigh and her fiery mane settled back into a gentle swaying light. "She may enter after we rest. As you-"
"But she must see you now! It's urgent!"
The queen snapped again, the flames returned with twice the scorching ferocity and she leaned forward towards the frightened guard. "YOU DARE INTERRUPT US?" She roared. The guard pegasus wailed as the flames enveloped him and burned his body. She pulled back and let the guard topple, the air hissing with cooked flesh. A pungent burnt odor filled her space and with a beat of her mighty wings, The Empress fanned the smell away.
"That was not necessary, my Empress."
The large doors before the Empress opened, the two guards exchanging nervous glances at each other as they realized that their fellow guard had been roasted alive. The tyrant queen huffed and stepped off her seat. The granite door gritted against the floor as it closed, a boom echoing in the gigantic throne room.
"What is your business... Zecora?" The Empress queried, angling her head downward slightly.
The zebra enchantress said nothing as her hooves clopped against the tiled floor, the sound of her steps echoing like a clock, ticking closer to the message and warning she had discovered.
She stopped before the large pegasus before her looked up into her red eyes. "Empress. You have defeated Celestia and the Elements of Harmony many years past. You have raised an army mightier than any king or queen who once rule this land of sand."
The Empress let a slow triumphant smile grow on her face as Zecora listed each and everyone of her victories. It was hard work taking control of this pitiful dry land. Now that she ruled it, life was easy... for her.
"And yet I have foreseen something that will change this world."
"Excuse us?"
Zecora did not flinch when the queen leaned in, the smile replaced with a disapproving frown. "You, my Empress, will die by your own hoof."
"Preposterous! Why would we end our lives at the prime of our rule? Ease off the herbal fumes, my seer, for they are getting into your brain."
"It is not a warning to be taken lightly, my queen! The living blade will end you! Take precaution against knives... Do not travel alone! Your era will end soon if you do not protect yourself better."
The Empress turned her head to the side, staring at the zebra with suspicion. "There is something else you are not telling us... spit it out."
Zecora returned the gaze, hesitating before she spoke again. "I saw nothing else. My Empress... My queen."
The white pegasus turned away from the zebra seer and stepped forward, her eyes looking out into space. "We see... very clearly now. In that case, be on your way."
"My Empress."
"Get out of our sight." She snapped. Zecora dipped her head and began to leave. The echoing sounds of her hooves sounded again for a few moments before they became silent. The doors did not open.
"Yes?" The Empress inquired, not averting her gaze from the moon.
"There... there is one thing I must say."
"Speak."
"What will you do now that you have Celestia and her rebellion in hiding."
The Empress laughed then, filling the throne room with her voice. "Oh. We shall find them and everything that they love... everything they cherish... we will rob it form them and watch them suffer before we give them their deaths."
Evil filled her laughter as she envisioned it. Soon, soon it would happen and her rule would be eternal.