I kept an eye on the window as our train rolled down the track. I don't know why. That's a lie. I couldn't completely put aside the memory of an ion cannon ripping through another train, in a horrific massacre that I witnessed as a distant line of white and a buzzing phone. If there had been some distant lightning strike, I'm not sure how I would have reacted.
The Itinerant Kingdom was all gathered right here, in a single booth in a passenger train. We didn't even have the privacy of a closed cabin, but with our link we had all the privacy we could ask for. Our thoughts echoed out to each other constantly.
[You should be an earth pony foal, this time,] Wind Chaser suggested openly, her thoughts heard by all of us. [You can use on-demand adrenaline surges to emulate their feats of strength if you need to, until you get the might magic working properly, and you'll be lower key. You can still practice horn magic with Midnight as your tutor during the night, while she can study more advanced techniques at school to improve her own skills.]
[I'd rather go pegasus, and you go unicorn. No earth ponies in the mix. I can work on teaching myself might magic, perhaps with your help, regardless. And I really want to fly again. Besides, it makes us a more coherent looking family,] I replied.
[Why do we have to look all related.. it'll make me look weird for hitting on you,] Midnight Oil objected. [Though.. maybe if Wind Chaser goes mare, she can be my mom, and my mom can be your mom, and then we can still go out.]
Fog Dancer whined into the link, [why do we have to make such a complex web of lies? how am I even supposed to keep all of this straight?]
[Spiders,] Wind Chaser and I replied in unison.
Fog Dancer sighed mentally. [Well, yes, sure, I guess I technically won't actually forget, but it still seems like so much work. And can't I keep my own daughter? is that too much to ask?]
We continued hashing out ideas for our disguises, looking to all the world like a bunch of bored passengers with nothing to talk about. Then our thoughts were interrupted as a loud, clear, commanding, and slightly muffled voice rang out behind me, near the entrance of the car. "Ladies and gentlemen! Do not panic! But this is a robbery! If you all provide my associates with your valuables in a calm and orderly fashion, none of you will be hurt." A glance down the aisle showed a pair of unicorns with glowing horns guarding the door opposite the voice, while a trio of earth ponies with bags began making the rounds. All of them wore black hats on their heads and bandanas over their snouts. We were being robbed by a cliche on hooves.
Glancing at Wind Chaser, I realized our problem. We had a very noticeable bag of bits on us... enough to buy a rather comfortable house, even at Canterlot prices, and too much to hide easily.
[How combat ready are we? I see five ahead of me, outnumbering us already,] I asked.
[I see another three in the other direction,] Wind Chaser replied. [You and I can probably take one or two each, the other's aren't really prepared for a fight. I doubt they'll injur us in a way we can't heal, but getting pummelled won't let us keep our bits.]
I noticed the train was passing over a rather large rivine at the time. [What about fleeing? With a quick change, two of us can fly. I can try to get my wings working again on the way down, and maybe Wind Chaser can carry Midnight Oil down.]
[Fog Dancer hasn't been airborne since her wings were healed, is this really how you want to try to find out if she can make it? There may also be pegasi waiting with charged thunderclouds to catch anyone trying to escape. And if the bag of bits ends up torn and scattered across the countryside, is it that much better for us?]
I closed my eyes, struggling for a solution as they came closer. As much as I tried to avoid it, I found myself asking the unaskable question. What would Istaran do? I calmed myself, realizing I could think it through logically, without slipping into the insanity of tagging out. In this timeline, my timeline, Istaran had never been a living, breathing person. He was just a figment of my imagination, a character from some old roleplaying, nothing more. And I could think about it without somehow making him real.
Most of what came to mind was foolhardy or wildly inappropriate. But two things stood out to me. One was that Istaran had an expansive sense of family, and anyone that made it into that category he would do whatever he had to to protect. The Itinerant Kingdom was my family. I couldn't even seriously claim we weren't related by blood: all of us had nanotechnology in our blood streams, all of shared origin. We all shared the 'blood of the Itinerant King' that I had seen fit to swear on. The second was that Istaran didn't value money. He barely even considered it a means to an end.
Five earth ponies converged on our location, timing their final 'transactions' to all arrive at our seats at once. "Fog Dancer!" a stallion she didn't recognize said. "Fancy seeing you here. And without your husband, of all things? I do hope you'll be a dear and hand over the money. Broken legs to go with your broken wings would be quite a tragedy indeed."
Reluctantly, Wind Chaser handed them the bag of bits. They took a moment to make sure it was what it seemed, before one of them nodded to the unicorns at the ends of the aisles, and we were put through the indignity of being lifted bodily by magic, turned upside down, and shaken. A dozen small coins fell from Midnight Oil's mane, to be promptly scooped up into the sack with the others.
The whole exchange made it very clear we had been targeted from the beginning. Rather than earning sympathy, this seemed to earn the ire of the other ponies: surely if we hadn't been here, they could have gone on to their destinations undisturbed, and with all of their posessions!
The thieves thanked everypony for their 'donations' before heading out the back. Out the window, we saw a dozen pegasi fly away from the train, most bearing riders. No one in the car said a word the rest of the ride.
Our tickets only got us as far as the base of the mountain Canterlot was built on. We had intended to scrub our identities here, and ascend on hoof, but now we lacked the finances to acquire food lodging once we arrived. We disembarked and looked up at the looming structures on the mountain above us.
[So.. is this all the protection the 'Itinerant King' can offer his subjects?] Midnight asked, her anger coming across the link loud and clear.
[I did protect you,] I answered.
[How? By rolling over and showing your belly? At least Oak Breaker had balls!] she shouted into our minds.
[Yes! By not dragging you into a fight we weren't prepared for! They were ready for us. They had us outnumbered, while half of us have never lifted a hoof to defend ourselves!] To myself, I realized I hadn't been in a fight yet, myself. The manticore, Frank, Wind Chaser, Zeke, Ryan, even sparring with Bardrick.. those had all been the other 'me', the memories brought back in time by Wind Chaser and Turbine. [We need to change that. We need to get stronger, tougher, prepared to fight when we need to. But to do that, first and foremost we need to be alive. Come!] I picked a road and started walking. Around the mountain, rather than up it. East.
We spent the rest of the day travelling, stooping so low as to eat the grass by the roadside to meet our needs, aside from Wind Chaser. It was something ponies largely avoided. It could meet their needs, and it was free, but it was bland, boring, and most of all a sign of abject poverty. Nopony ate wild grass when there was hayfries to be had, or bread, or flowers, or even quality designer grasses. In human terms, it was like eating rats.
When night fell, we found a clearing in the woods a bit away from the road to gather together and begin training. Fog Dancer focused on flying, after being landbound for so long. Nimbus had repaired her broken bones and returned her flight to her, but she was still quite stiff and took some time to get going gracefully, especially with the added weight of the nanotech within her. Midnight and Wind Chaser started sparring, the unicorn trying to get used to using her telekinesis under the pressure of a determined attacker, especially one who had no qualms about touching her horn. And I focused on trying to get off the ground.
By midnight, I joined Fog Dancer in the air. We flew together, and before long we found ourselves dancing. It wasn't anything overly intimate. More just.. fun. The wind through our manes. The clouds underhoof. The impossible maneuvers that practically dared physics to complain. Most of it was without physical contact, just the occasional meeting of the hooves. I caught her blushing from time to time and realized her thoughts were.. more complex than she was ready to share. I didn't press her. Wind Chaser was all the mare I really needed, but with her outlook on the proper behavior of kings, she hardly served as a buffer against other amorous entanglements. I felt Midnight's feelings toward me ought to serve as more of a deterant, and perhaps they did somewhat, but then Fog Dancer had shared a stallion with her daughter before, under much worse circumstances. And so, she blushed.
With the coming of the dawn, we set out again to the east. With the help of their spiders, mother and daughter shed all of their fur in moments, growing in a fresh coat minutes later with new coloration. My changeling and I accomplished a similar feat through waves of green magic. And with our identities freshly scrubbed, we returned to the road to the east.