.
Deseret tried to walk alongside her mother. The rest tried to walk as well. They should be flying, but they weren't. They certainly wanted to. The few remaining Breezies found themselves in almost as much danger as they left behind. Escaping their dying world meant little if they all simply died here instead. They muttered and grumbled back and forth in their unique tongue.
"We..can't get off the ground. I can hardly lift my wings. None of us can. It feels like something is dragging us down, but there's nothing. Maybe coming here was a mistake." The former servant of the Queen looked resigned and forlorn, as they all did.
What other choice was there, though? He huffed heavily as they tried desperately to find aid. Without the sun, moon or stars to aid them, there was little choice but to choose a direction and walk. Dragging their impossibly heavy feeling wings behind them. Hopefully they'd chosen the right direction to go. Being unable to fly like this would make any task vastly more dangerous for them and take immensely longer. Passing through the collapsing portal left them in no safe haven, and even stranded them in a strange situation. Even their antennae felt way too heavy.
"Mommy, why can't we fly? My wings feel so heavy." Deseret asked her mother.
She was one of only three children in their group. For all they knew the entire rest of their kind were quite possibly dead now.
"I don't know. Try not to be scared, okay? At least your father is here. I was so worried." She spoke in a wearied hush. They'd been walking for hours. Each step felt so ridiculously heavy as they dragged themselves forward in a shuffle. It was too difficult to really lift their hooves. Why was it like this here? Wherever here was. It looked wrong, and felt wrong. Was this really Equestria? All of them only knew stories of what was, from nearly two centuries ago.
"Hey, aren't you one of the flight commanders? Shouldn't you be the one leading us?" One of the group asked of a gangly lithe blue-coated fellow wearing a black-frilled flight suit. Even for one of them he was rather thin looking.
"Ha. Sorry, we were only an honor guard. We just did flight stunts and whirlwind dances! In the old days we would have headed pollen collection teams in this place, sometimes, probably." His head drooped like it weighed too much and sighed deeply.
"Well okay, but doesn't that still make you the one here with the most experience doing anything like this?" Another one asked. He took a deep breath.
"Look, all we have are stories. They might not even be true. How do we know? This is going to sound brutal, but there might not even be any ponies left alive to tell us or help us either. All we can do right now is keep moving forward and try to get out of whatever this is." He made a bit of a sad trilling noise of some sort and trudged on. The flight commander was probably a bit more rough-edged than the rest of them, but he clearly felt his status meant he should be able to help the rest more. This was far beyond any of them. Why did they feel so heavy? It was like the very ground was tugging them down towards it. This was just wrong.
Wherever they'd come out of that particular portal dropped them into some terrible misery. Would it have been better to stay and die at home? Each would not quite admit to having this thought. It didn't matter, they were here now. The only choice was to drag themselves forward and hope to encounter some friendly face. For the first few moments they hadn't noticed the odd downward pull. It quickly became apparent it was there, tiring them out rapidly. None knew or would dare to guess what might happen if they stayed in this for too long. This was so horribly tiring. Like dragging some unseen weight. An invisible force pressing down from above, or perhaps pulling from below. What could it be?
This was like nothing in any of the stories. Was this place always like this? That seemed unlikely. If it was it would surely have been mentioned. This was interminable and unbearable. The tedium of each dragging step was beyond any tiredness any of them ever experienced. It was death, surely? Approaching with no regard for their plight. Bearing down as some heartless darkness to rob what little hope was left.
"Mommy, I want to go home." Deseret sniffled and tears fell.
"I wish we could. Hang on. We have to keep walking, okay? Stay close to me." Her mother knew no better what to do than the rest. This was bad. Worse than anything she'd imagined might greet them here.
Some of the group were practically being dragged along by the others. Some time later the lone flight commander halted them all.
"Stop. All of you stop now. As much as it is probably a bad idea we have to break for a little bit. Over half of us are almost collapsing as it is. All of you, rest a while. Just keep your eyes open for anything dangerous." He waved them all to rest. His assessment was correct. They all practically fell to the ground exhausted and panting. Almost all of the group fell asleep for a little over two hours. At that time he went around to wake them all. Every one was very groggy.
One of them wouldn't wake up.
"Miss? Come on, miss. We have to go. Miss?" The others looked on as he tried to rouse her for a couple moments. He shivered and looked around.
"She..she's dead." He swallowed hard. The rest let out a gasp of horror at the realization. He took on a stern expression.
"Pay your respects, and then we have to get going again now. She's gone, but the rest of us are still here." He walked on ahead so the others couldn't see him crying.
- - -
The sheer gravity of the situation is dire, wouldn't you say?