"What do you think she's doing with all of Dashie's stuff?"
"Pinkie, we've been through this. Rainbow's clothes were sopping wet. She risked freezing to death. This mare just saved her."
"She's gotta be up to something. I don't like the looks of her!"
"I share Pinkie's concern, Twilight. This bazen vixen is... far too displeasing to the eye."
"Let her actions speak for her, Rarity. Not her looks."
"But where did she come from all of the sudden? Don't you find that the least bit suspicious?!"
"She came from the south, Rarity. I... I-I think she was tracing Rainbow's steps."
"Certainly, Fluttershy, but even you said that you had a hard time sensing her at first."
"Ermmm..."
"Just something about this seems off, is all I'm saying."
"Well, she did save Rainbow's life."
"Did she?"
"Shhh! Girls! I think Dashie's waking!"
"Oh, thank Celestia!"
"Rainbow? Are you there?"
"Speak to us, Dashie!"
"Mrmmmff..." Rainbow Dash stirred. She winced. Her limbs moved—and she experienced a brief lapse in heartbeat upon realizing that she could feel them. She moved her head, feeling the scratchy stroke of hard leather against her naked figure. Her nose brushed against furs and pelts. The mare realized she was lying under a thick sheet of indulating hides. "Hrmmfff..."
With a wincing expression, Rainbow lifted her weary head. Her ears twitched, exposed to the bitter cold of a dull, shadowy cave.
Her vision was foggy. At first, all she could make out was a sliver of gray light. Howling winds rippled in her direction. Standing in the path of the blistery gusts was a thick, muscular equine figure. Rainbow caught the supple outline of a mare's snout. Strong forelimbs stoked a fire burning between them, and in each flicker Rainbow caught the glinting highlight of a full mane of fiery red dreadlocks.
"Mmmmm..." Rainbow squeaked. She trembled harder, and a tear gathered at the edge of her eyes. "...Roarke?"
The figure's rummaging slowly came to a stop. With icy grace, she turned to look at Rainbow. A pair of chiseled green eyes glistened in the dark.
Rainbow blinked.
Muscles rippled. The mare marched towards her. The light of the fire shifted, revealing a dark violet coat and heavy muzzle lines. At last, a granite specimen of a pony loomed above Rainbow Dash. She spoke in a deep, deep voice. "I am nopony you know." She thrusted a hoof down.
"Guhh!" Rainbow Dash winced as she was forced into a sitting position.
"However..." The mare leaned in, green eyes squinting as she studied Rainbow's eyes, ears, and complexion. "...someone who cares... or feels like they should... has promised a great, golden reward for your safe transport. Thus, here I am to save what's left of the merchandise." Her nostrils flared as she tilted Rainbow's chin up. "I can't say I'm all that impressed."
Rainbow gulped hard. "Remna."
"You know, there was a time when saying my name out loud was a sin, and one I personally chose to punish with great mercilessness." The mare's voice rolled rich and reverberating off the cold walls of the cave. The howling wind outside provided a tense backdrop. "It would appear that Wildcard's lost his touch... dulled his minds with the musical levity of a backwater charlatan." She lifted one of Rainbow's eyelids, examining her cornea. "Hmmmm... no wonder she takes pity on a mere child turned fugitive..."
Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy hovered into view, gazing at Rainbow.
"She showed up within an hour of you collapsing, Rainbow," Twilight said.
"I-I hadn't noticed her at first," Fluttershy added with a gulp. "I was so scared... so focused on you and your condition."
"She saved you, Rainbow." Twilight fidgeted in mid-air. "But she hadn't spoken a word up until now."
Rainbow glanced over to the side as she hung in Remna's grip. She spotted her saddlebags. "My stuff..."
"Leave them be," Remna grumbled. She ran a hoof over Rainbow's stubbled scalp, checking her skull for bruises. "They're still drying. They were nearly the death of you." She grasped Rainbow's forelimbs, examining the fetlocks. "Among other things..."
Rainbow sense a glint of gold. She glanced down. "You... d-didn't take my pendant off?"
"What do you take me for?" Remmna's muzzle resembled a gargoyle's when she frowned. "A thief?" She grunted out the side of her muzzle as she reached for Rainbow's side. "Thieves are cowards. I learned years to ago to just skip straight to murderer. It's harder and pays better." With that said, she stretched Rainbow's left wing out to its full length.
"...!!!" Rainbow arched back. "Aaaaaaa-aaaaugh!" Her marefriends winced as she thrusted a rear hoof out and knocked Remna's grip away. "Ya friggin' melon fudge!"
Remna merely blinked. "Hmmm..." She arched an eyebrow. "I see." Shifting, she stood up and trotted back to the flame. "Well, at least your muscles have recovered their reflexes."
"Grnnngh..." Rainbow fell on her side, shivering with pained spasms. Gnashing her teeth, she hissed across the cavern floor. "Did Wildcard really send you?! Huh?!"
"You're awake, aren't you?"
Rainbow blinked. "Huh?"
Remna fished around through a separate selection of supplies. "If I was doing this purely for myself, you would be on your way back to Steamfall by now. The Consortium is offering over ten times more for your body than Wildcard is promising. They'd even pay me more if I brought you in as a popsicle."
"Then wh-what's stopping you?"
Rarity looked aside, trembling. "Is that truly a necessary question, Rainbow?"
Remna turned to squint at her from across the cave. "What the Consortium lacks in honor, our griffon friend provides. For years, I've sought favor with the wyverns. They've always rebuffed me."
"Jee, I wonder why."
"If I can fulfill my promise to Wildcard, his associates up in Wyvern Point are bound to notice. Their influence spreads far and wide throughout this continent. It is an ancient code of honor, even older than Verlaxion's. Something more priceless than all of the Consortium's gold." At last, she grasped a strip of dark brown jerky and wandered back to Rainbow. "Some bounties are nameless, you see, much like that nebulous thing which motivates you."
"What... nebulous thing?"
"The hell should I know?" Remna's jaw muscles tensed. "You use more energy than thought, little pony, which is precisely why it runs out all the time. I had to trace an exploding train tunnel, an abandoned mine, and a dead frost wyrm just to find your pathetic flesh nearly frozen to death. Quite frankly, I will be greatly relieved once I've finished escorting you to your destination." She thrusted the morsel towards Rainbow's muzzle. "Now. Eat."
"That..." Rainbow's pupils shrank as soon as she got a whiff of the smoked material. "That's meat, isn't it?"
"It is nutritious, full of protein, and it will give you strength. Far more than that, it will save your pissant life." Remna grabbed Rainbow's head from behind and thrust the jerky towards her muzzle. "Now, eat."
"Nrnnngh!" Rainbow struggled. "Friggin'... cut it out! I won't—" Her weak muzzle scraped the dried material, and she nearly wretched. "Rrrrgh... flippin' psycho jerk!" Her eyes flickered red on yellow. The pendant briefly strobed, and suddenly Rainbow was shoving Remna away with a violent burst of energy. "Raaugh!" She hopped up to her hooves, trembling. "I said no! I will not eat meat!"
Remna simply stared her down. "Hmmmm..." With scuffling hooves, she turned around and trotted back across the caves. "Looks like it gave you strength after all." She reached towards Rainbow's things and tossed a wet bag of brown lettuce her way. "There you go, little pony. A feast for fools."
Rainbow grimaced. "What... h-happened to it?"
"Cold moisture and neglect, which is the best you could provide for yourself thus far. Meditate on that the next time I tell you to do something for your own good."
Rainbow huffed. Squatting to her aching haunches, she nevertheless grabbed a wet clump of lettuce and bit into it. She grimaced from the taste, but persisted. "I was doing fine until the friggin' frost wyrm..."
"And like a frightened child, you wasted all your frost rods on deterring it."
"How would you know?" Rainbow took another bite and squinted. "Were you watching?"
"I deduced enough from the carcass of the beast."
"You dug the thing up?"
"Where else do you think I got the meat?"
Rarity made a wretching sound. Fluttershy reached over and patted her back.
Rainbow tilted her head to the side. She spotted the cutie mark of a crimson-colored broadsword across the mare's flank. "Without frost rods, just how did you get a fire started?"
"Very, very easily."
Rainbow frowned. "Look. You might think I'm some moron or something."
"And you might be right."
"But I-I've been dealing with every nasty thing this continent has to throw at somepony!" Rainbow barked. "And before that, I was constantly avoiding death by the skin of my teeth!" She took another bite of lettuce, winced, and pointed. "Mrmmff... I'm willing to bet I've seen more crazy things and been on more dangerous adventures than you can even shake a stick at!"
"As Wildcard was keen to suggest..."
"...so don't treat me like some stupid rookie! And do not call me 'little pony.'" Rainbow glared. "I've just been unlucky, that's all."
"You've been a dead mare trotting," Remna grumbled, gathering her things. "And a corpse is still a corpse."
Rainbow blinked. "Huh?" She twitched. "Wait... are you getting all your stuff together?"
"Indeed I am."
"You're... you're leaving already?"
"Correction. We are leaving."
"But... b-but..." Rainbow blinked out the cave. "The blizzard! It's still blowing something fierce!"
"I'm glad that you acknowledge that. Now, please acknowledge that I care little." Remna hoisted a large bag over her flank and turned to glare in Rainbow's direction. "The storm will lessen eventually, but we cannot afford to wait for it. We cannot afford to wait for anything. There is more at hoof here than Wildcard's insistence that we get you to the wyvern sanctuary."
"Oh yeah...?"
"The Prefectures of Rohbredden are shifting power. The Council stands upon the brink of a collapse that they're not willing to admit."
"Since when...?"
"And Verlaxion—the goddess of unification—stirs somewhere, unseen and uncontested. These are anxious times indeed, times in which we cannot afford to hesitate any longer." Remna's green eyes narrowed, chilled, chiseled. "Can you see now why I seek the support of the continent's most tenacious tribe?"
"Hmmmff..." Rainbow Dash fumbled to gather her cloak and things. They were dry to the touch, if only barely. "Well, let's get going then... so you can get the support you need."
"That's more like it." Remna trotted out the cave. "I'll scout for a good hiking path. Try your best not to collapse again. I haven't the wood left for too many more fires."
Rainbow shuddered as the muscular mare left.
"She's... uhm..." Fluttershy fidgeted. "...abrasive."
"Yeah, well..." Rainbow grumbled. "I can think of another A-word."
Pinkie grinned. "'Awesome?'"
"No, not awesome!" Rainbow sputtered.
A deep voice pierced the howling winds outside: "What was that, little pony?"
"Wasn't talking to you!" Rainbow snorted, slipping through her cloak. "Butthole."
"You must admit," Twilight Sparkle said. "For a bounty hunter thinly described as a 'mentor' to Wildcard, she certainly fits the bill."
"Yes, quite, but a certain degree of civility was lost along the way," Rarity added.
"Rarity, do you even remember how tough Rainbow's first fight was against Wildcard and Bard?"
"I only remember a bunch of wind and loud noises, Twilight. Are you attempting to make a point?"
"Eugh..." Twilight face-hoofed.
"As much of a meanie-head this Remna seems to be, she did save Dashie's life," Pinkie said. "Seems like a good reason to give her the benefit of a dumbell."
"Yeah..." Rainbow's nostrils flared. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Just try being nice to her, Rainbow," Fluttershy said. "After all, this is more about Wildcard's favor to us." She smiled. "Don't the Desperadoes, at least, deserve such consideration?"
"As far as I'm concerned..." Rainbow Dash finished garbing herself and then reached for her saddlebag. "...this is gonna make us even for the friggin' Quade."