Spike woke up that morning to find Pith Helmet already outside the infirmary, sorting through a collection of saddlebags. The stallion glanced up as he approached and offered a somewhat tired smile.
"Still no gems," he said, holding up one of the now-familiar cans of rations that the military personnel used. "But we've got enough regular food to last for a few weeks, assuming we don't mind eating light."
"I'll be fine," Spike answered. He was trying to ignore the growing feeling of gnawing hunger in his stomach. Pony food was all well and good, and he could probably survive off of it for quite some time, but a bit of turquoise or emerald wouldn't go amiss all the same. "What all do we have?"
The pain from his wounds had finally faded enough that he could walk on all fours, though he still suffered from lances of pain if he walked too quickly or moved his forelegs too far. He limped over to sit by Pith and examine the supplies.
"About the usual," the stallion said. He opened one of the saddlebags and began to sift through its contents. "Helmet lamps, obviously. Just a localized light spell, so we don't have to rely on oil. Blankets, bedrolls, rations, machetes, some rope, hammer and pitons, lanterns... It's not much, but it's best to only take the essentials anyway, or you'll wear yourself out lugging the equipment around."
Spike nodded. "I imagine I can carry a bit more than most ponies, though. Even you."
"Probably." Pith stood and slung one of the sets of saddlebags over his own back, then turned a serious expression towards the dragon. "That's why I want to ask you to carry Tailspin."
"I was planning on it." Spike laughed and shook his head. "I don't think she'd be able to walk the whole way."
Pith nodded, still looking grim. "Thank you. I just couldn't imagine leaving her behind right now."
"Neither could I," the dragon said truthfully. "She wants to come, she's your partner, and, honestly, I think she's probably one of the ponies we need for the Elements. I'd rather have her with us, even if we do have to take care of her."
The stallion gave him a quizzical look. "First it's me being one of two, or possibly both, of these Element things," he said. "Then it's Compass being Magic, and now Tailspin being... something. What makes you think all of this?"
Spike shrugged. "That's how it worked last time," he said. "Twilight and I moved into Ponyville, met the rest of our friends, and as it turned out, they were all the ones who could use the Elements. They all came together to face Nightmare Moon. I don't know if the Elements just choose ponies who all know one another, or if the ponies who get chosen just get drawn together, but it's as good a lead as we've got right now."
Pith exhaled slowly, then nodded. "If you say so," he muttered, as he flipped one of the helmets onto his head. "You're the expert here. We're just tagging along, really." Then he looked away and blinked. "Oh. Morning."
Spike turned to see Compass Rose approaching from the doorway behind him. The mare wasn't alone; Tailspin was walking along at her side. Or, perhaps more accurately, Tailspin was shuffling along as best she could while Compass supported her. The pegasus still looked shrunken and graying, but she did smile when Spike and Pith turned to see them.
"I thought you said you'd wake me up when it was time to go," she said, without any rancor in her voice. She was obviously just teasing Pith, but the stallion blanched anyway.
"I just wanted to get things set up so-"
"So I don't have to be out of bed so long, yes." Tailspin laughed. "Relax. I'm grateful. To all of you." She glanced at Compass, who shook her head.
"Don't mention it," the unicorn said quietly. "I want to do what I can to help."
Tailspin rolled her eyes and gave a mock-exasperated huff. "I swear, you ponies act like saying 'thank you' for helping me is an insult. I can't walk and I'd like to show my appreciation to the friends who are helping me out while I heal. Is that really so hard to wrap your heads around? I mean, I'm used to him being a bit thick-" she stuck her tongue out at Pith, who smiled sheepishly "-but I expected you to be more intelligent, Compass. Speaking of helping me, though..."
The two of them had finally made it through the doorway to stand next to Spike. Tailspin gave him a smile and said, "I heard you're the one who's going to be carrying me. Am I allowed to thank you for that, or would you prefer I started treating you like dirt?"
Spike laughed, then hunched down as low to the ground as he could. "All aboard," he said. "You can act as nasty as you want. I'm a big dragon. I can take it. Just try not to put too much pressure on the bandages, if you can. My back still aches."
"Right, so, extra insults but hold the wound-jabbing, got it."
It took them a moment to get the pegasus onto Spike's back and situated in such a way that she wouldn't fall off. It wasn't an entirely new situation to him. He had carried Rarity on his back quite often. Usually, after she had spent too long working on a large order and fallen asleep at her sewing machine, he would carry her up to bed rather than disturb her rest. A lot of his adopted nieces and nephews had also been quite fond of dragon-back rides. He knew how to walk at an even pace that wouldn't jostle his passengers.
What disturbed him about this specific instance was how light his passenger was. Tailspin was by no means a particularly large mare, but she barely weighed more than a filly. If it weren't for the slight motion of her shivering against him despite the warm air, or the faint sound of her breathing, he might have forgotten she was there.
He waited for Pith to drape a blanket over Tailspin, who gave a grateful nod in thanks, before standing. "Theeere we go," he said, forcing his voice to remain cheerful in spite of his worries. "Ready for travel, I think. You okay back there?"
"You're not exactly comfortable," came the muffled response, "but I'll manage." He heard her yawn quietly, then felt the slight pressure as she let her head fall to rest against his scales. "Ready whenever you are."
Pith was watching him, an odd expression on his face. Spike gave him a crooked smile, then lifted his wings slightly, forming a sort of cradle around the pegasus on his back. Don't worry. I've got her.
The stallion nodded, then turned to look at Compass, who was frowning at one of the pieces of equipment. It was a tiny rectangular object affixed to a string, obviously meant to be worn around the neck.
"Need help putting it on?"
Compass shook her head, then slipped the thing around her neck. "No," she said, not making eye contact. "I just... never needed a real compass before. It's not a pleasant sensation."
Pith grunted. It was more punctuation than answer, just a noise made to fill the space that no words seemed to fit in. He stepped forward and helped Compass to put on her own saddlebags. Spike noted that they were less than a third the size of the ones that Pith was wearing. The earth pony was attempting to carry almost every piece of equipment himself.
Spike stepped up beside him and peered down at the overfull bags, frowning. "You sure you're gonna be okay with those?" he asked, pointing.
Pith flipped one of the helmets onto Compass' head. The unicorn squeaked in surprise as it fell down over her eyes. "I'll be fine," he grunted, as he helped her to adjust it. "I've carried more than this." He gave Spike another odd look.
You just carry her.
Spike nodded. "If you say so," he said. "But if you need any help, just ask."
"He won't let you," came Tailspin's murmured voice. The pegasus sounded as though she was fighting to stay awake. "He never-" she yawned heavily, and Spike felt her shifting around against his scales "-never does. He's a real martyr, that one. Probably why I fell for him. Too nice for his own good, even if he is a bit thick-headed." The next few sentences were quite mumblings at the edge of hearing, but Spike could just make out "don't let him sneak you his share of the food" before the pegasus' breathing settled into the deep, steady rhythm of sleep.
Pith just stood there, looking embarrassed and squirming slightly, as both Compass and Spike chuckled quietly. The dragon gave him a knowing grin and nudged him in the ribs, which provoked a wince.
"Sorry," said Spike, turning away. "Forgot. But don't worry. Rarity used to call me 'Spikey-Wikey' every day. Even with company around."
"Now that gives rise to a series of odd mental images," said a voice. "I certainly know when to enter a conversation." Captain Road was approaching, attempting - and failing - to restrain his laughter.
Spike drew himself up as they approached, still grinning, and shrugged. "Just sharing some embarrassment, Captain," he said. "Come to see us off?"
Road nodded. "Just making sure you all get out of the fortress safe, at least," he said. "I'll get one of the gates open for you as soon as our navigator tells us which way you're planning on heading."
As one, the group turned to Compass Rose. Spike spun a little more slowly than the rest, trying to avoid jostling his passenger. The unicorn was frowning and adjusting her saddlebags.
"The northern gate, then," she said. "I'd show you the path I've picked out for us on a map, but it took a lot of effort to get them all packed, and doing it by hoof would just undo that." She grimaced and ducked her head. Spike noticed that she had pushed her helmet back far enough that it didn't actually rest on her shattered horn, but at the same time made sure that the wide brim still obscured most of it from view.
"North gate, then," said Road briskly. He turned to march off into the compound, motioning for them to follow. Compass walked off after him at a brisk pace, followed closely by Pith, and Spike brought up the rear. He had to walk more slowly than the rest due to his cargo, but his legs were longer anyway, so it evened out in the end.
"So what's the path you have planned?" Road was asking up ahead.
"We'll head northeast, into the foothills," Compass said. "It's clear territory, so we should only take about a day or so to reach the mountains."
"And then? Got any idea where you're actually going?"
The unicorn frowned. "Finding the destination isn't the hard part," she said. "Canterlot was built into the side of the highest mountain in the range, according to the maps Spike showed me before. The problem is that... well, it was built into the side of the highest mountain in the range. It's easy to see where we should go. It's just not easy to get there. Flying isn't really an option, because of the storms. That leaves foot paths, but... those are tricky."
"I didn't even know there were any foot paths in those mountains," said Road. He sounded more curious than anything.
"Like I said, tricky." Compass winced as her helmet bumped her broken horn and paused for a moment to readjust it. "Obviously there were paths leading up to the city while it still existed. But we don't know for certain where any of them are, or if they're still clear."
Spike laughed to himself at the memory of the others' expressions when he had mentioned possibly looking for the Friendship Express railway line. Unfortunately, he had never really paid much attention to the layout - at least, not enough to allow him to point it out on maps of the area after eight hundred years' worth of changes.
"So I'm having to employ a lot of guesswork," the cartographer went on. "But there's a series of segments of level ground that show up on some of our flyover maps of the mountains. They just might be what's left of an old pathway. It's not going to be easy finding them, assuming that they even exist - they only show up on about a third of the total maps, and those that they do turn up on argue over the exact locations - but hopefully Pith will be able to find a workable trail up to the top with those as a sort of, erm, jumping-off point."
"Not exactly the language I would have used," said Captain Road, a definite note of amusement entering his voice. "But I wish you all the best of luck regardless. And tell Tailspin, whenever she wakes up, that I'm glad she's on the mend."
As he finished speaking, they drew up to the outer wall of the fortress. Here, it was at least twenty feet high, and with heavy double gates set directly in front of their path. A pair of guards flanking them saluted as Captain Road approached, and he returned the gesture. "Colts," he said, his voice suddenly becoming sharp and professional. "Gates open. Colonel's party's taking their leave."
"Yes, sir," barked the guards in unison. They turned and began to push the gates open, giving Spike his first view of the world outside.
It was only just recognizable as Equestria, in the same way that the dead, cold thing that he had found all those years ago could be recognized as his wife. The body was still there. The gentle, rolling hills were still present, with high mountains visible against the horizon. But the spirit of it was gone.
The Equestria he had lived in had been green and bright. This place was dead. Even in the half-light from the perpetual evening overhead, he could see that most of the plant life had died away, killed by the frozen sky overhead. The only signs of plant life were the occasional stubby bushes that dotted the landscape, along with a few stunted trees.
Off in the distance, he could see massive, dark thunderheads gathered over the mountains. Other clouds moved, apparently at random, across the sky. There was none of the control that he remembered from the days of the weather teams in Ponyville. The clouds just moved on their own, as they used to over the Everfree Forest.
Equestria was gone. What was left was just bones.
Nopony else even blinked at the sight. Nopony even seemed to realize that he was just realizing that he hadn't just lost his friends, but the world they had shared together. Even he was having a hard time truly processing it.
The world seemed to spin around him, and he felt the bubbling, gangrenous sensation well up within his wounds again as his mind bounced back and forth, running through all the things he had lost. Ponyville. Rarity. Fluttershy. Granny Smith. Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow Dash. Sweetie Belle. Canterlot.
Something nudged him in the side. He blinked, suddenly brought out of his reverie, and looked down to see Compass Rose giving him a concerned look.
"Are you all right?" she muttered. A few feet away, Captain Road and Pith were exchanging a few last words.
Spike looked back out over the dimly-lit wasteland that had been his world, frowned, and shook his head. "No," he answered quietly. "But I'll be fine." He lifted one claw and set it against his ruby necklace, feeling the weight of it against his scales, and took a deep breath. "I just wasn't expecting everything to look this different."
She nodded. "I thought you might react this way," she said. "But... well. That's what you're trying to do, right? Fix all of this." She nodded towards the landscape outside the gates.
The dragon took a deep breath. "Yeah," he said. "I am. This place used to be beautiful. I'm hoping that, if we can find the Elements, it can be again."
"All the more reason to get going quickly, then," Captain Road cut in. Spike turned to see the rest of the assembled ponies staring at them. Pith was already outside the gate, looking at them over one shoulder and apparently waiting for them to follow.
Spike sighed, then nodded to the captain. "Right," he said. "Thank you for all the help, Captain." He paused. "And tell the colonel we'll do everything we can."
Road grinned. "Will do," he said, saluting. "Like I said, I wish you all the luck in the world. You'll probably need it."
"Probably," Spike agreed grimly. And then he set out after Pith, Compass trotting along at his side.
Spike still hadn't quite got the hang of reading the odd, star-patterned watches that were used to keep track of time now. Not that it mattered much; so far as he could tell, the time of day was largely arbitrary. The stars moved around in a regular cycle, yes, but the sun and moon didn't move, and the world never got any brighter or dimmer. Phrases like "night" and "day" only seemed to exist as a means of regulating activities rather than as a description of how the world worked.
Still, so far as he could tell, Compass Rose had been almost perfectly accurate when she said that it would take them a day to reach the mountains. They would have arrived sooner, but, while Pith and Spike both had energy to spare, Compass was not as used to exercise, and had to stop a few times to catch her breath. They hadn't been delayed too long, though, and now they were camped in the foothills about a mile or so away from the mountain range.
The foothills were high enough above the surrounding plains that Spike might have considered himself to hold a commanding view of the countryside, if it weren't for the fact that the only things to view were rocks and scrubland. Even the forts that they had passed on their way towards the mountains had vanished into the distance.
The Tangle was still visible, though. It dominated the horizon, a huge, dark, black mass that seemed to skulk against the landscape. The forts they had passed weren't small things, but they seemed insignificant in the face of the vines. He wondered how far back the settlements were from the front lines, and whether or not it would be far enough.
There was a rumble of thunder from behind him, and he turned. In the distance, the mountains were covered by a haze of rain, and the occasional flash of lightning illuminated the peaks. The range loomed over them, dizzyingly high. Somewhere in there was Canterlot.
Somewhere in there, he might find Twilight Sparkle.
There was another sound at the very edge of hearing. This one was much closer to him, but it could barely be made out over the distant hissing of the rain.
It was Tailspin. The pegasus was whimpering in her sleep as though she had been kicked, and her face was screwed up in a pained expression. She was clearly having a bad dream. For a moment, Spike considered waking her, but he decided against it. Pith had draped one of his legs over her body as he fell asleep beside her, and as she twitched in her sleep, he pulled her closer. The contact seemed to put an end to her troubles for the moment, and she fell silent again.
The sight reminded him of his nights together with Rarity. Their bed in the Carousel Boutique had been large and soft, and every night, whenever one of them woke up, they would find the other holding them close.
He looked away. Carousel Boutique was a long way away, and Rarity was even further. He wasn't in their bed, but lying on bare, rocky ground, without sheets or anything resembling a pillow. He had given up his bedroll and blanket to try and make Tailspin more comfortable. He didn't particularly enjoy lying directly on the ground, but his scales weren't the most sensitive of things, and the fire in his belly would keep him warm no matter how cold it became.
He sighed, lowered his head to the ground, and shut his eyes, trying to go to sleep. Despite his best efforts, though, his mind refused to stop dwelling on Rarity, and when he did eventually drift off, it was a fitful, uneasy slumber, interrupted every few hours by a surge of bubbling pain from his wounds.
Tailspin was dreaming.
She knew it was a dream, because it was the same dream she had been having every night since the castle, but that didn't make it any better. She was still powerless to do anything about it. She couldn't even force herself to wake up, no matter how hard she tried.
She couldn't even move. Her eyes were closed, and she was powerless to open them. Her limbs may as well have not been there for all the control that she had. All she could do was lie still and feel the sickening sensation of the ooze moving in and out of her lungs.
It was thick and tarry, and clogged her throat as she tried to breathe. Every heave of her chest was an effort, but every time she forced the stuff back into her lungs, she felt a rush of oxygen. Disgusting as it was, it kept her alive.
She wished that it didn't.
As bad as the ooze was, the other sensation was worse. The ooze was a purely physical thing. The other was a sense of violation so complete that she wished that her heart would give out just so that she wouldn't have to endure it any longer.
Something was reaching inside and tearing out pieces of her, one mote at a time. She could feel every scrap of her that was being taken away, and knew that they would never be coming back. She was diminishing, bit by bit, and every second of it was agony beyond anything she had any capacity to describe.
And, as if the loss of herself was not enough, in its place, the thing that was reaching into her left behind a gaping, yawning chasm in the center of her mind. It grew and grew as she lost more of herself, taking away Tailspin and leaving behind... something else.
She opened her eyes.
There was the sound of thunder and rain, off in the distance. There was a steady, even rumbling that let her know Spike was asleep, not far away. But, more than anything, there was Pith, lying with his leg draped over her protectively and his muzzle pressed against the top of her head.
She was so hungry.