//------------------------------// // The Sixth Day // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Ten Days // by Windchaser //------------------------------// Sand. Sand in his coat, sand in his mane, sand in his mouth. Firecracker gasped a lungful of air finally realizing that he could, tasting a stinging metallic smell in his nose as well as a heavy, salty wind. A dull ringing echoed in his ears, along with what seemed like waves of sound. They were distorted; muffled. Some figure shadowed over his prone form; the only way Firecracker could tell was the fact that the blinding sun that was hurting his eyes even through his eyelids let up for just a moment. Somepony began rocking him side to side, trying to rouse him faster than he was already. “Wa... it,” he wheezed. The sand in his mouth and his painful lungs were making speaking a great challenge, but he managed to alert whoever was beside him to his awareness. He attempted to flutter his eyes open, but immediately regretted the decision. The sun was shining directly into his eyes, and blinded him the very moment his eyes opened. “Firecracker, can you hear me? Firecracker!” the voice asked, finally able to reach the unicorn’s ears. “I’m... here. In a matter of speaking.” A fit of coughs erupted from inside his chest, but subsided after a moment. Firecracker kept his eyes shut but began to rise to his hooves. His legs were weak, but the urgency in whoever’s voice felt important. “It’s Garnet!” The name... It sent a surge of lightning through the stallion’s body, reinvigorating his mind and rejuvenating his body. He opened his eyes, the pain from the sunlight virtually gone. The stallion standing in front of him was Sunshine, the blue and blond pegasus. He was already rushing off through the sparse vegetation around them. Firecracker galloped through, following the pegasus. He burst out shortly after onto a long, white stretch of beach; in front of him was a small crater, with a small huddle of ponies gathered in the middle. Firecracker leaped down the small drop to the floor of the crater and pushed the other ponies out of his way. Garnet was lying in the sand on her side; her eyes were glazed over and faded, while the hole in her neck slowly dribbled with blood. A familiar sense of dread filled Firecracker. He looked around the group of ponies surrounding them. “Anypony! We need a doctor! QUICKLY!” Firecracker shouted. A wave of shock coursed through everypony present. “We don’t have anything to help her with, Firecracker,” a pony said, walking up to him. Her mane was a bright yellow, her coat a light pink. It took a second to register, but it was the doctor Samantha form the bureau. She was converted in the basement before they teleported. “It’s a wonder she’s still alive... for as long as that’ll last...” Firecracker looked back down at the red unicorn, a colossal weight in his stomach. Garnet’s eye shifted up and looked at Firecracker, a tear rolling down her cheek. “No,” Firecracker said, forcefully. “Sam, is the bullet still in her, or did it go straight through?” Samantha looked confused for a second, but shook the sense back into her head. She leaned down, still slightly awkward in her new body. She almost fell onto her face in the blood tinged sand, but caught herself in time; she looked down at the wound in Garnet’s neck for a moment. “It nicked an artery and her trachea, but it went clear through.” Firecracker smirked. “Stand back.” Samantha backed up into somepony, but wormed her way into the group as it backed up from the center of the crater. Firecracker’s horn glowed a bright orange as a thing tongue of flame snaked out from the tip and down towards Garnet’s neck. Her eyes closed and her body relaxed. Firecracker’s brow was already soaked with sweat from the heat, but the concentration he needed for the precision of his task meant that he needed to draw on every way he knew how to focus. The tongue of flame disappeared into Garnet’s wound and began coating the inside of the bullet’s path. A fine trail of smoke rose from the wound before the flame melted the skin on both sides of the wound, sealing it shut. Firecracker let the flame evaporate and relaxed slightly, letting his muscles and mind ease up. Garnet opened her eye, stared at him and mouthed something before falling unconscious. Thank you. Firecracker wiped the sweat from his brow with his hoof and fell back onto his rump. Garnet was going to be okay... for now. He wasn’t an expert in medicine or restorative magic, but infection was going to become a problem soon if nothing was done. A commotion began to rise from behind the group; somepony was yelling. Heads turned to see a panicked earth pony bound out from the bushes further down the beach. She ran towards the group, tears flowing from her eyes, her hooves stumbling every few steps in the sand. “Someone! Someone help!” she screamed. Her voice was heavy with panic and cracked on some words. Firecracker shoved himself through the group to find Primrose sobbing on a heap in the sand. She looked up and saw Firecracker looking over her. “It’s Jay... There’s blood... so much blood...” “What?!” Sunshine gasped. “The bullet hit his horn... I didn’t see any blood before. Then how-” Firecracker leaned down and nudged a tuft of Primrose’s mane away from her face. He looked her deep in the eyes. “It’s his leg, isn’t it?” Another wave of sobs coursed through her as she nodded slowly. A white earth pony with a lime green mane ran over and began helping Primrose up from the sand. “He’s this way,” she said through the tears. She guided Firecracker and Sunshine through a small stretch of tropical bushes and trees to find a small clearing, with a single body in the center. On any other occasion, Jay’s coat would have blended in with the sand around him, but the sand beneath him was stained red. His coat was scorched in spots, his mane was charred black where it got too close to the fires. “Sunshine, I need you to turn him over. Let me see his right leg.” The pegasus immediately got to work, and gently began rolling Jay’s body over. His eyes were still wide open, but empty. As Jay’s unconscious body rolled onto his other side, Sunshine bounded back from what he saw. Jay’s right leg, the one that was crushed by the falling beam at the bureau, was gone. The cut was clean and made Firecracker’s stomach churn just from looking at it, but it was exactly what he expected it to be. “What... Who did this to him?” Sunshine murmured, aghast. “Garnet did it.” Sunshine looked at Firecracker alarmed at his response. “Well, not consciously. Her teleportation spell was only so powerful, and there was no way for her to differentiate the metal beam from Jay’s leg by the time the spell resolved. She had to close the boundary right above his knee, right where the cut is.” “I’m going to be sick...” Sunshine said, already turning around. He scampered over to a bush and stuck his head inside as he began heaving. “Primrose, stand back. And it’s probably not the best idea to watch this part. So... just turn around, okay? On second thought, head back with everypony else. We’ll bring him over with us in a few minutes.” The pony nodded and walked out of the clearing back towards the ocean glancing back a few times before vanishing. The sun beat down on Firecracker’s coat, the dark color of it soaking in more heat than he cared to deal with. But this was no complicated job, like with Garnet. His horn sparked and glowed a brilliant orange, shooting out a tongue of flame towards Jay’s body. The flame focused down to a fine torch, focused on a smaller area, and began the grisly work of melting Jay’s wound closed. For his sake, Firecracker prayed to Celestia that he was truly unconscious in his head. Most ponies pass out from the pain of this process. The flesh began to blacken and ooze around the stump, until the leg was scourged of hair and closed. As Firecracker let the spell dissolve into the air, the sights that he had to witness brought him to his own bush to empty the contents of his own stomach. Sweat dripping from his brow, Firecracker trudged back over to the still body of Jay and turned over to Sunshine. “Hey, get over here and help me with this kid.” Sunshine obliged as Firecracker levitated the unconscious body onto Sunshine’s back. “OOF!” the pegasus grunted. “Why should I carry him?” “Because I can barely keep myself up.” Firecracker started walking through the foliage, but Sunshine saw that each step was strained and that he was indeed barely able to stand. While Jay was heavy, it was well within Sunshine’s abilities to carry him to the beach. “Say, Firecracker, where’d you learn to to do that? Using fire on a wound to close it?” “Technically, it’s inadvisable to cauterize somepony who’s been hurt, simply because it’s unecessary and painful. We have... plenty of hospitals around.” Sunshine overtook Firecracker as he paused to catch his breath. “Sorry. The air is so hot and... gross.” “No sweat, take as long as you need.” After a minute, Firecracker was in the lead once more. “But yeah. I only needed to use fire like that once or twice in my life beforehoof.” “Care to share the story about it?” Sunshine grunted under the weight of his friend on his back. “Not at all. I was only really good with the real simple stuff and anything having to do with fire.” Firecracker chuckled. “I bet you can guess what you get when you mix that and the fact that the family business was fireworks.” Sunshine smiled. “What happened?” “Well, there’s this party every year in the capital; The Grand Galloping Gala. The Princess commissions this huge fireworks display to go off at the end of the night, and needs several places all over Equestria to make those fireworks. My family being one of them.” Firecracker began grinning. “I always loved the smell of powder in my dad’s workshop. He was teaching me how to pack together my first launcher. He told me to screw on the cap, but I accidentally put too much powder in it already, but tried anyway.” “So what happened?” Sunshine asked. “Well, I wasn’t too good with telekinesis, but when I put more energy into my horn, I accidentally shot out a flame at the powder. Needless to say, it was far from a pleasant experience for me. Fortunately, it was a very small explosive, so I only really hurt my ears and nose. And lo and behold, that is how I got my cutie mark.” “Very cool!” Sunshine said after a soft whistle. “So did you help your dad out much more with the family business?” Firecracker’s grin faded into a frown. “Later that night, after my folks were fast asleep, I wanted to try out my fire magic some more. I was a curious little colt, you know? So I went into my backyard and began trying to get another flame going. It was tough at first, but I managed to get a sort of rope of fire to come from my horn.” “That sounds pretty cool, though.” “It was, and that was the problem. I whipped it around, not knowing that it wasn’t attached to itself. Some of the fire split off.” Firecracker dropped his head. “My father’s workshop caught. I tried levitating dirt and throwing it at the flames to put them out, but no matter how hard I tried, it kept spreading.” Sunshine’s smile faded. “I tried to tell my dad, but the window was closed and he couldn’t hear me. The main house caught as well when the stored fireworks went off. I actually lost my hearing for a few days after that,” Firecracker said, trying to laugh it off. “Firecracker... I’m sorry... I... I didn’t...” Sunshine said, trying to comfort the unicorn. “It’s okay. It’s a closed wound. I stumbled away into the woods, trying to get away before any more went off. I have no idea how far I ran that night, but it wasn’t until morning that I tried to find my way home. When I got there, I saw what was left of the house from the woods: a charred skeleton where my house used to be. Houses nearby were damaged as well, but not nearly as bad.” “What about your parents?” “I saw them with the fireponies. They seemed to have gotten out of the house before the first rockets went off. My mom was a wreck; my only guess was that they thought I was gone, taken out by the explosions.” “Why didn’t you go to them?” “Honestly? I was mortified. I was a young colt who just ruined my father’s business, destroyed a part of the town, and... I was scared. I was scared of the shame. I didn’t want to admit it was my fault and live with the consequences. So I ran back into the woods. I don’t know if my mother was calling out to me when I ran. I still couldn’t hear at all. “I ran off into the woods and got on the wrong side of a very angry Chimera. Gave me a good gash on my back before I ran off. I knew I was bleeding a lot, and if I didn’t do anything about it I was a goner. So... I made that flame rope and... placed it along the wound. I swear that everypony for miles around heard me scream... even fell unconscious afterwards.” “What happened after that?” “An older unicorn found me out there. He took me in, healed up my back properly, and got me back up on my hooves. I didn’t want to go back to my parents, and he offered to give me a job as his assistant.” A long silence filled the clearing between the pair. “Hey, Firecracker. Is Jay gonna be okay? With his horn like that?” he asked, looking behind him, at his friend. Firecracker looked back at Jay’s body. The horn was shattered, the jagged stump ending right above his mane. “I’ve never seen anypony who had to go through it, but I read some books with the topic in them. He’s okay, but asleep. Whether or not he’ll wake up is up to him, though. And will he have his magic still when he does? I have no idea. Come on, let’s get him back down to the beach. We need to figure out where we are.” --- Firecracker looked over the exhausted group of ponies around him. They each held a combination of wonder, terror, relief and worry. The moment Sunshine and Firecracker brought Jay’s body out onto the beach, Primrose was by his side. He was set next to Garnet, who was still resting after Firecracker’s ‘operation’. Fleet Feather was circling the group from above; he hadn’t said a word to anypony since he woke up. He perched on a low hanging cloud and looked down at the group beneath. A smile graced his muzzle. He glided down from his cloud the moment he was sure and walked straight to Firecracker. “I need you to stay here for a few days. I know exactly where we are.” “You do?” Firecracker asked. “We’re at the bottom tip of the Southern Horseshoe Islands. I used to come here for R&R a few years back when they had a resort a few dozen miles from here, but it was shut down some time ago.” Fleet Feather shook his head to get his mind back on track. “The thing is, I can fly straight back to Canterlot from here, and get a rescue team to get everyone to safety.” Firecracker relished the sense of relief. Finally, some good news! “It’ll take a day or two for me to get there, and just as long to guide them back. I’m not risking teleportation anymore. Once is enough for me, and I’m sure the same can go for the others here.” Firecracker nodded, thinking back to Jay’s leg. “Of course. So two to three days is it? I’m sure we can find enough food and water to last that long.” “It’s not food and water that I’m worried about,” Fleet Feather said, harshly. “That stunt you pulled with Garnet and the colt? Reckless and extremely dangerous. You may have stopped the bleeding for now, but what if an infection takes hold?” Firecracker gulped. “You will be held directly responsible for their well-being when we get back.” Fleet Feather stomped off to Sunshine, Autumn Gale, and Skysong. Firecracker’s sense of relief was already replaced by a weight of dread. But what was worse than that was the doubt. Was he right to use his fire like that on Garnet and Jay? They’re going to be scarred for life from the pain, and that would be the best outcome for them. The grey unicorn steeled himself. Of course it was the right thing to do. They were within an inch of their lives, and direct action was the only way to save them. Frankly, it was a miracle that they were still alive at all, especially Jay. Perhaps his condition kept his body alive after the teleport, automatically stemming bloodflow to his leg, but whether or not he was aware while Firecracker was working on his leg was worrying him. With a loud beat of his wings, Fleet Feather leaped into the sky and was already disappearing over the trees into the distance. Firecracker cleared his throat. “Everypony! Fleet Feather told me that he knows exactly where we are! We did indeed make it to Equestria!” Firecracker expected some sort of cheer, or at least a sense of joy from the prospect, but none was to be had. “Well, Fleet Feather has left for Canterlot, and upon arriving there, will dispatch a rescue team to bring us back to safety!” “Are you saying we’re not safe here?” Peppermint asked from the back. The white and red unicorn was tense, and it was showing on nearly everypony present. “No, of course not. We are very much safe! This is in fact used to be a popular vacation spot many many years ago! There’s plenty of fruit to find in the jungle, and more than enough water in the streams for drinking. As long as we stay nearby, Fleet Feather will come back in a few days with a royal escort to take everyone back to Canterlot!” The tension on the group seemed to lessen, but it was still there. Firecracker saw Peach Cobbler standing towards the back of the group, looking out over the sea by herself. He tepidly walked over to her and sat next to her as the group dispersed for the beginning of their stay. “Peach, are you... okay?” he asked. She slowly turned her head towards him. Her cheeks were damp with tears, but her face held almost no emotion. “No.” “Do you... want to talk about it?” Seeing the unicorn like this was breaking his heart; she was always such a bundle of cheer and joy back at the bureau. “Two of my friends died before my eyes; one of them sacrificed himself to save me.” Her gaze was piercing, and it unsettled him. He backed away, not eager to step on a wound that was so fresh. “I’ll give you some time... Just... let me know when you want to talk, okay?” Firecracker offered. Peach said nothing and looked back out to the ocean. --- Primrose looked over Jay’s dirty coat; the hair by his leg was burnt off by Firecracker and his... procedure. The skin around the stump was charred black and dark red, parts of it cracked and oozed blood. It made her stomach turn to see him like this. “Jay...” she whispered. Tears began rolling down her cheek again, but she wiped them away with her hoof. “Prim, you gonna be okay?” Leah asked. Her white coat was splotched with soot and stains, rendering her more of a grey than a lustrous white. Primrose looked up at Leah and shook her head. Leah wrapped her hooves around Primrose and held her in a tight hug. Primrose felt a little bit better, but the thought of what Jay was going through still prodded at her consciousness. She looked back down at his stiff body. Sunshine had closed Jay’s eyes when they set him down. The emptiness of them really bothered him. His horn was jagged and sending off a spark every few moments that would pitifully drop to the sand and die. Firecracker assured her that he was going to be okay, but he needed time to ‘come back’. Whatever the unicorn meant, Primrose wanted to do whatever she could to help Jay. Even if it meant that all she could do was wait. “I feel really gross,” Leah said, looking down at her coat. “I always wanted to go somewhere tropical too!” she said, lighting up with a bright smile. “Lets go find a fresh spring to wash up in! Seawater would just feel gross when we dry off, anyways.” “Okay, I suppose that should be okay...” Primrose said, walking off into the jungle with Leah. She took a moment to look back at Jay before wandering into the foliage. --- The search paid off about forty minutes into their expedition. Leah was the one who found it at first; It was a crystal clear pool fed by a small waterfall, maybe fifty feet across. Several small rivulets ran off through the jungle from it. Leah was the first to jump in, only to realize the mistake she had made. “AAAAAAHHHH!” she screeched. “C-C-COLD!” she sputtered from the pool, trying to find a way to swim back to the shore that Primrose was giggling from. Leah trudged out from the water, her coat matted down and her mane hanging down in front of her face, dripping. Even through her mane, Prim could see Leah’s goofy smile as she began to laugh as well. Primrose walked over to a small overhang above the water and leaned down. She lapped up a few quaffs of water, letting the icy claws course through her body. She felt refreshed and content, until, that was, she was bumped from behind into the water. “AAAHH!” she yelped. Leah wasn’t mistaken; the water was as cold as ice, and immediately caused her to start shivering. As she shakily made her way onto solid ground, her teeth chattered from the cold, filling the area with the clicks of her teeth. Leah doubled over in laughter. Both fillies slowly eased their way into the cold water at their own paces; they relished the soothing coolness of the water over the humid air above them. Primrose felt the sweat and sand washing out of her coat, and it felt wonderful. They took a while to let the tension from their bodies wash away into the water, and it was the first quiet span of time she was able to just lay there with nopony bothering her and for her to just... relax. After some amount of time, Leah looked over to her freind. “Hey, Chloe? Can I ask you something?” Leah asked. Primrose flinched. “My name’s Primrose now.” “I want to have this conversation as the people, not ponies; the ones we were before all of this.” Primrose sunk into the lake and let out a puny stream of bubbles from her nostrils. “Why Jay? Why now? What happened between the two of you, Chloe?” A tone of genuine concern was woven into Leah’s words, which surprised her. “He practically gave his life to save me.” “Yeah, but how do you know it’s not for some… rough and tumble in the hay?” Leah caught herself right after she said it. “Agh!” she snarled. “I hate these ponyisms. They drive me nuts. I mean to say, what if he just wants you for a quick night under the sheets?” “For all I know, Jay may never wake up. How was risking his life and getting shot at a good idea when he would just want sex?” Chloe felt a shiver run up her spine as she finished the sentence. It was just a topic that she had never had to talk about with anyone, let alone one that had ever come up while thinking about Jay. “Granted, Jay wasn’t the brightest light bulb out there…” Leah said, chuckling. Chloe huffed in frustration. “I… felt it. He was genuinely caring for me so much that he’d rather get hurt than see me like that. No, Leah. Those are the people you hung out with. Not Jay. ” Leah crossed her hooves and glared at Chloe. “Don’t flip this on me, Chloe! Don’t judge who I spend my time with!” Her voice was rising, and Chloe felt something rising in her as well. “Why shouldn’t I? All you’ve been since we got to the Bureau was selfish; you make everything about yourself, and don’t care about anypony else around you.” Chloe was yelling now too. “All you have done is hate on Jay! In fact, you have for as long as I can remember!” The point seemed to physically strike Leah, as she recoiled from it. “What did he ever do to you to make you hate him so much?!” Trying to dodge the question, Leah began panic. “But… I’m your best friend! And Jay has done nothing but ignore you and… and he cheated on you! With that cook, Peach!” Leah retorted. Chloe was unmoved. “That was my fault... I drove him away. I was the one who hurt him, and he still ignored that enough to throw himself at Andrew before he hurt me!” Chloe tromped out from the lake and into the air. She shook herself of the loose water to attain some degree of dryness. “I will never forget what he did for me as long as I live.” “But Chloe…” Leah murmured pitifully, on the verge of tears. “I’m not Chloe anymore. My name’s Primrose.” Primrose looked behind her and sighed. “When you find out who you really are now and want to be an honest friend, come and find me. Primrose left the lake and walked back towards the beach as Leah looked toward the waterfall and cried. --- "Quake? Can I go in the ocean? Please?" Sugarberry whined from the beach. The large blue earth pony looked down at his tiny sister and hugged her close, smiling. "That's right; this is your first time at the beach, isn't it?" he asked. Sugarberry giggled and squirmed free. "Yup! It's so big and blue! So much prettier than the pictures you showed me on the Internet!" "Well, that's because this beach is much cleaner and nicer than any of the ones I showed you. I never expected to see one this nice either, sis." Sugarberry skipped down to the frothing edge of the water as the sheet of ocean lapped against her hooves, soaking her bright pink coat. "It's so cool!" she said, bouncing along the hoof deep water, splashing around and getting Quake wet. He whipped his mane out from in front of his face and smirked as he eyed his sister. "Hey, Berry!" he shouted. "What is it?" A splash of cool seawater erupted from where Quake slammed down his hoof, drenching Sugarberry and knocking her on her rump in surprise. Quake burst out laughing as Sugarberry regained her composure and began charging him, intent on knocking him down and getting her just revenge. Quake played along and fell back into the water, giggling along with his sister. Sunshine watched the siblings playing in the ocean with envy. Everypony present was in a poor mood, and they were justifiably so. They all had come within inches of death, and yet they were the lucky ones. To the best of his knowledge, Sunshine figured that about less than twenty ponies had survived the attack on the bureau, most of them being Sunshine and the other orphaned teens from his school. Sunshine shook his head. That… hell was gone, now. There wasn’t any fire or smoke here on this island, and Fleet Feather was going to be back soon to get them all to safety! They were finally in Equestria, and boy could he feel it under his wings. He had done a test flight around the beach with Autumn Gale and Skysong, his two close pegasus friends, and they had agreed: flying in Equestria was like trying to fly after having weights taken off his wings, and it felt marvelous. Sunshine could finally fly with the speed of Autumn and the agility of Skysong. They too were thrilled to experience unhindered flight, and flew off to leave Sunshine behind. He watched the pair of pegasi as they found a cozy little cloud hanging over the beach; they disappeared behind the cloud for what Sunshine could only assume was some privacy. Seeing them disappear flooded Sunshine’s heart with a familiar hopelessness; he was overcome with loneliness, and Jay was in some sort of coma. Jay was the one who snapped him out of this depression last time, but Sunshine couldn’t remember what he had said to make him feel better. Sunshine heard hooves walking in the sand, approaching him from behind. He turned his head to see a new unicorn sit next to him, one that he didn’t recognize at first. He was yellow with a black mane, and he looked out to the ocean with a forlorn expression. “Hey,” he said, grimly. Maybe he wasn’t intentionally trying to sound grim, but to Sunshine it sounded that way. “You feeling okay? You seem out of it. Like everypony- ack.” The unicorn seemed to act as if he had tasted something repulsive and was trying to get it out of his mouth. “I need an off switch for that. Like everyBODY else here.” Sunshine stared for a moment. This unicorn’s name wasn’t coming to him still. “Oh,” the unicorn said. “It’s me, Rob.” Sunshine relaxed. Rob had gotten converted in the basement of the Bureau before the teleport, but Sunshine never saw his new body before now. “You feeling okay, bud?” Sunshine hung his head. “Not really.” “Worried about your friend?” Sunshine nodded. “He’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.” “How do you know?” Sunshine asked, forcefully. “You barely even know Jay.” “I know, but he helped me with that… chip in my arm. He could’ve said no and avoided the trouble all together, but he helped me with it. Looking back at what I spent those days doing still gives me the chills…” Rob said, visibly shaking. The pair sat on the beach for some time, watching Quake and Sugarberry play in the ocean with each other. Having Rob next to him, talking to him… Sunshine felt the sense of sadness begin to dissipate, but only partially. “So, Rob, what was life like for you before the Bureau?” Sunshine asked, wanting to strike up conversation. Rob looked surprised for a moment before smiling. “You’re actually the first person to ask me that in a... well, a friendly manner. Hmm… Well, I was the oldest son of Gerald Telios, president and founder of Telios Chemicals, the very company that employed and consequently killed the parents of just about everypony here.” Sunshine tried to stifle a laugh, but failed. “What’s so funny?” Rob asked, confused. “You said it again,” Sunshine said though his smile. “Said what again? What did I do!?” Rob demanded. “You said everypony again, silly!” Sunshine was finally reigning in his smile from the force of Rob’s demand. “Oh…” he said, his face blank. After a moment, it warped into a smile and a laugh escaped his lips. “May as well not fight it, eh?” “It’s easy to get used to,” Sunshine said. “Back to the story. I lived in relative wealth for my entire life, visiting any city I wanted and getting anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. Eventually, I ran out of things I wanted in a very quick time, so in the mean time I decided I wanted to learn more about computers and how to program. I was eight when I started, and I was ten when I finally broke into my father’s most secure database” “How’d you do that?” Rob grinned. “With great skill and dexterity, of course. It was mostly a test to see how good I was, and it worked. But I got caught, and within minutes, security had me pinned to the ground, almost breaking my arm in the process.” “Wow… that’s some intense stuff.” “You don’t know the half of it.” Rob chuckled. “Thinking back to it all, I was such a bratty kid. I did things that I knew would piss my dad off. I think it was… Yeah, it was a year ago that I managed to get into that mainframe without getting any attention. I saw the despicable things my father did with that company and kept an archive of it all, especially all of his political lunch buddies. I kept it all quiet, ready to send it all out at a moment’s notice when I needed to ruin my father forever. And that was just this past week.” “After the explosion?” Sunshine asked. “Yeah. They wanted to make a couple hundred thousand more dollars to make the stock rise up to the next percentage point. And he killed hundreds to get it. I sent the packet to some news groups and high-tailed it to the most out of the way bureau I could find.” Sunshine sat in silence. In one way, Rob was the reason so many ponies got hurt and… killed at the bureau. But if it wasn’t for that action that earned the ire of his father, that same person would’ve gotten away with mass murder for some stock increase. How was he supposed to feel about this? Sunshine wanted to be angry at Rob for causing so many ponies pain… but his own personal vengeance has been served to that vile company. “Thanks,” Sunshine said, quietly. “For what?” “For getting back at that motherbucker. Thanks. From all of us.” “Yeah,” Rob said, relaxing on the sand a bit more. “No problem.” --- “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to these things,” Samantha said, staring at her hooves. Firecracker sighed. “You’ll be fine.” “Oh, I know I’ll be fine mister grumpy pants. I’ve seen all those kids get used to them no problem. Say, do ponies ever wear pants?” she asked. “Huh? What are you talking about? Pants? I mean… sometimes, but most of the time we’re just out like this.” “Naked?” Samantha said, scoffing in a sarcastic manner. “Everything dangling out for the world to see? I mean, I don’t intend on sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I never understood the appeal of nudist colonies. I mean I like oogling at an attractive guy as much as any other girl, but to see his junk flopping around all day? Pass.” “It doesn’t ‘flop around’! It…” Firecracker paused. “Why am I even explaining this to you? Don’t you know all about pony anatomy?” Samantha smiled and winked. “Celestia damn you, Sam.” “Oh, by the way! I’m Pink Lemonade now!” she cheered with glee. “See the pink mane? The yellow body? I’m sweet, but also tart! I think it fits me perfectly! Hee!” she cheered hopping around the sand. “Oh, Celestia help me.” Firecracker grimaced at the headache Pink Lemonade was setting up to be, but an idea popped up in his head. “Say, you wanna take Anvil and find some fruits for everypony to eat? He seems fond of you.” “Sounds good, Firecracker. Keep an eye on those two, and tell me of anything new happens with their burns,” Pink Lemonade said, pointing at the two sleeping unicorns in the crater further along the beach. “I need to know if they develop fevers or if the areas around the burns start to swell up.” “Will you be able to help them if that happens?” Firecracker asked, clearly worried about what Fleet Feather had said earlier before he left. Pink’s smile vanished and was replaced with a grim frown. “The only thing to do then will be to pray that Fleet Feather can get back as soon as his wings can take him.” --- Primrose pushed her body through the foliage and out onto the beach to see the sun was almost setting. How long was she in that lake? Or did she take so long to walk back? “Perhaps we all woke up in the afternoon...” she murmured to herself. Primrose saw Firecracker sitting next to Peach Cobbler at the edge of the surf, neither of them moving or saying anything to each other. She also saw the pink body of Jasmine lingering near the tree line, spying on the pair as well. She didn't seem mad, but more focused, Primrose noticed. Walking over to the two resting ponies in the center of the small crater, Prim saw that Jay's burned leg wasn't oozing blood anymore; it had all clotted into ugly reddish brown scabs all over his stump. The sparks from his horn also seemed to be less frequent and less pronounced. Letting out a sigh of relief, Primrose settled down into the sand next to Jay and looked him over. His breathing was shallow and strained, but as long as he was breathing, she was happy. Prim looked over to Garnet, who was still asleep. The spell to teleport everypony here must have taken a lot of energy out of her, let alone having to heal from the wound on her neck. She was peaceful right now; her breathing was slow and deep, her muscles at ease and her coat cleaned. Somepony must have come up to the crater and washed her down with some water. She looked back over to Jay, but something bothered her. She couldn't see him breathing anymore. A rush of panic numbed her until she saw his chest rise. After a few moments, Primrose had noticed that Jay's breathing was much more at ease and less strained than it was before. She moved his raggedy brown mane out from his face and planted a kiss on his nose. She saw a small pile of fruits on a mat of palm fronds sitting next to Jay. Kiwis, cherries, plums, pineapples, and even mangoes sat neatly, their sweet smell wafting into her nostrils at last. She looked around for anypony else that may have left them there, but all she saw was Firecracker glancing behind him and catching Primrose’s eyes. He nodded and turned back around to the ocean. She nibbled on the sweet treats and basked in the glow of the sunset, looking up and down the beach. There were ponies spread out along the orange tinted expanse, each either nibbling on their own fruits or trying to settle down to go to sleep. As short of a day as it felt, Primrose was feeling very tired. So much stress... They were almost finished. They were in the final stretch; only a little longer before everything was going to be okay. But right now all she wanted was for Jay to wake up so she could apologize to him for what she did to him. Primrose closed her eyes and sent a prayer to Celestia and Luna for Jay’s safe recovery. She rested down on her side and drifted to sleep right as the stars came out.