The first day of travel was... awkward. Though Pinkie did manage to convince Dash to remove the manacles she refused to budge on the horn inhibitor. It wasn't pleasant to wear and left me with a constant feeling of numbness on my forehead, it was in that regard worse than being in the other world as the feeling served as a constant reminder that something I could almost consider as an additional sense was noticeably absent. A thick blanket had been loaned to me (though not without objections from Dash) to try and keep me warm but between my treatment the night before and whatever had happened between me being struck by the crystal and waking up in the snow, it was apparent that I had developed something a little more significant than a cold. I could barely feel my hooves and a constant shaking rattled my body making it even harder for me to walk than we'd been expecting. At some point in the night Maud had fashioned me a crude crutch to attach to the side of my injured leg allowing me to reduce the amount of pressure on it, but the shaking added an additional level of difficulty. For the first hour or so of our journey Dash attempted to persuade the Pie sisters that I was dead weight and they should just leave me behind but when it became clear that this wasn't being viewed as an acceptable option she resorted to maintaining a moody silence instead.
I wasn't told the exact plan, as Dash refused to risk 'Operational Security' but from what little I was told we were going to be heading south across the tundra before eventually reaching the mountains. Once Dash finally decided to shut up there was a quiet serenity to the whole affair, that felt entirely at odds with the chaos I had so briefly experienced the previous day. We saw neither hide nor hair of other ponies, the sky was devoid of pegasi and all was still. It would almost have been pleasant if it hadn't been for the bone gnawing chill that no amount of warm blankets could hope to keep away, and the telltale signs of recent battles. The fighting may have ceased for the time being but the tundra was littered with craters and eerie crystalline formations. Tattered standards hung limply here and there, their cloth frozen pathetically in place as a reminder of their owners defeat and we carefully avoided small mounds of piled snow that I couldn't help but notice were depressingly pony sized. Even ignoring Dash my other two traveling companions seemed to have no real interest in conversation, from time to time Pinkie would flash me a brief yet sad smile but for the most part the pair maintained stony expressions as they scanned the horizon for any signs of danger.
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By nightfall we had made it to an abandoned series of trenches, they stank of disease and excrement but a small cellar dug into the side of one offered us some small measure of protection from any wind or blizzard that the north might whip up overnight. It took a lot of effort but I just about managed to avoid collapsing in front of Dash when we finally stopped in the shelter, we hadn't taken a rest all day and my leg was killing me. Our journey was to the mountains, I knew that much, but I hoped we wouldn't need to climb them given the state of my leg. Dash immediately left the shelter to scout the area leaving Maud to begin preparing some sort of soup for the evening and Pinkie to light a fire. As Pinkie struggled with damp fuel and a lack of proper tinder I managed to maneuver myself to sit beside her and tried to make the best of my situation.
"You know, I could help you light that fire if you got the inhibitor off of my horn," I started, knowing that with Dash absent this would be my best shot at getting my magic back.
"Not going to happen, Sunset. You're on thin ice with Dashie as it is so please don't try pushing your luck."
"What's her problem with me anyway, if you don't mind me asking?"
"You... you really don't remember do you?" she replied with a pitying smile.
"No. I think I have an idea though," the nature of the dream had been troubling me for most of the day. I had dreamed of defending myself against shadow ponies before awakening in the middle of a battlefield. It wasn't too hard of a jump to make to work out what I was doing there and why I had been wearing armor. Maybe I had been an unwilling, unknowing combatant but chances were I had fought some innocent ponies, possibly even killed them.
"Well, try not to think about it too hard, nopony really knows how Sombra gets his soldiers to fight for him, perhaps you can help us solve that little mystery when we get you back to camp." Pinkie let out a curse as the flame failed to catch again.
"You haven't managed to take anypony else prisoner during the war?"
"No," Pinkie shook her head. "The crystal ponies... expire... shortly after being removed from their armor. I think that's why our Commander wanted to bring you with us."
"Pinkie, if you take the inhibitor off of me I'll light the fire for you. After that, if you don't feel safe with me having my magic you can put it straight back on afterwards, I won't try to stop you." She sat in silent contemplation for a few moments, Maud had also come over to listen in but remained out of our conversation.
"You promise?" Pinkie asked skeptically.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I promise, Pinkie, we're friends and I want to help," the gestures were a little tricky to convert from what Pinkie had taught me at CHS considering my different anatomy but I'd like to think I made a decent attempt.
"Where did you learn a silly thing like that," she giggled at my bizarre gestures.
"A good friend taught me it someplace far away." Pinkie gave me a strained smile then nodded, with a click I heard Maud remove the inhibitor from my head and I instinctively began flexing my magic, conjuring small lights and paltry magical effects. When I finally felt like everything was under control I let the magic flow into a concentrated ball of conjured flame that promised to burn for a few hours without needing too much fuel. The spell cast I closed my eyes and lowered my head towards the Pie sisters to allow them to reattach the inhibitor. After about thirty seconds I noticed that nothing seemed to be happening and opened my eyes to see Pinkie pocketing the inhibitor in her uniform.
"Why? Dash is right, I could be lying to you, why trust me?" I asked with a mixture of surprise and relief.
"Silly, if you wanted to attack us you wouldn't let us put this back on. Besides, friends have to trust friends," with those few words I almost felt happy. She wasn't the Pinkie Pie I knew but it wasn't unthinkable that she could be the same girl at heart.
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When Dash returned from her scouting she was pissed to see me without my inhibitor. Ignoring the food that Maud had managed to prepare she took Pinkie Pie outside for a not so quiet chat. I couldn't catch what was said but it was pretty easy to guess who it was she was speaking about. When the pair stepped back inside Dash angrily slumped herself down as far from me as she could and began tucking into her soup while Pinkie settled down directly between us. Evidently I was going to be allowed to keep my magic but Dash was seemingly now even more suspicious of me than before.
When we woke in the morning I noticed Dash hadn't moved from her spot and her eyes were fixed on me in a perpetual glare.
"When did you get up?" I asked with a barely suppressed yawn.
"Never went to sleep," she shot back at me. Pinkie really hadn't been kidding about me being on thin ice.
That day we continued on towards the mountains through the trench network. Personally I'd have preferred to travel across the surface again as the stench of the trenches was quickly proving to be unbearable, but I couldn't deny the strategic merit of remaining out of sight in the long abandoned burrows. Travel was just as slow as it had been the previous day but with my magic now returned to me I was able to conjure a small ball of portable heat to travel alongside us, to the delight of Pinkie and the irritation of Dash. My chills had unfortunately gotten worse over the night and that day I suffered a constant stiffness of the joints, I attempted a couple of medical spells to alleviate some of the worst of the pain but I wasn't any doctor and was loathe to attempt to fix my leg for fear of making the injury worse. The travel may not have been pleasant but I had to give credit to Dash, she had managed to pick us a route across the war zone that seemed to avoid any hostile ponies. Of course I knew that had to be too good to last.
That night we stopped at another bunker, this one practically at the foot of the mountains. The evening meal was another soup that I could swear had rocks in it. This was more than made up for though by the increasingly amiable company I had to share it with. Pinkie told jokes, I shared a few (carefully edited) anecdotes about my time with the girls at CHS and Maud produced a pack of playing cards. Dash... continued to be Dash, if she appreciated the fires I had been able to supply then she refused to show it and she excused herself to go on watch the minute we began to enjoy ourselves. It pained me to see her being so cold to me but I kept on reminding myself that this wasn't the Rainbow Dash I knew, just a pony who happened to share her name and appearance.
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The third day of our journey started out so well. With the exception of Dash everypony was in good spirits, Pinkie even going so far to hum a pleasant tune as we walked. While Dash had refused to allow anypony to divulge our final destination she had let me know that we would be traveling through the foothills of the mountains. It would make for an arduous trip but was preferable to having to climb the slopes on my dud leg. It was as we began to cross between the mountains disaster struck. Behind us, from the direction we had come from we heard a trumpet call and turning to face the noise I could make out a cluster of small black shapes quickly gaining on us in the distance from the trenches.
"Crystal ponies!" Dash cursed. She motioned for us to quicken our pace and the Pie sisters each lent me a helping hoof to assist me, speeding up my normal hobbling walking pace. After about thirty minutes of forced march though it was clear that we couldn't hope to outpace our pursuers. We were limited by my own slow walking speed and it would be only a matter of minutes before we were caught.
"Leave her and run!" Dash yelled at the sisters. This time I couldn't even blame her, hay If I hadn't been so out of breathe I might have suggested the same thing myself.
"She's right, you guys go on ahead. I'll... I'll try and hold them off," cliched I know. Still with the threat of death or being enslaved by whatever dark magic had been used on me before barrelling down upon us it seemed as good a time as any to try and go down swinging.
Maud dragged Pinkie away while Dash took to the air above them. As the obsidian armored ponies approached I stood my ground, not bravely though, the shaking in my legs at that point was a result of more than jut the cold. My imminent demise was ever nearing, this world's versions of my friends would be hopelessly outnumbered by the enemy and none of my friends would ever know what had happened to me. In other words it was the perfect opportunity to do something brash, short sighted and exceedingly stupid. Just another day in the life of Sunset Shimmer really. With a discharge of magic I let off a great crack of thunder, not real weather of course as I wasn't a pegasus, but a loud enough facsimile to accomplish my goal. The earth itself shook that day as the slopes either side of me dislodged their snowy burdens, a mighty avalanche of snow that would descend on my position and (if all went to plan) bury the valley completely cutting the crystal ponies off from Dash and company. As idiotic heroic sacrifices went it was a pretty solid plan, or at least it would have been if Pinkie hadn't decided to run back to try and grab me.
By the time I realized what she was doing I was running out of options. Had I had the energy to teleport I'd have already jumped myself to safety so instead I opted to try something quick, violent, but ultimately efficient. A quick burst of telekinetic energy sprung from my horn sending her flying backwards, almost as an after thought I directed a similar blast at the crystal ponies closest to me, hoping to knock them clear of the danger zone, then mustering the last of my energy I cowered beneath my hooves and tried to conjure a small dome of force about myself. The avalanche fell with a deafening crash and the world went dark about me, an experience that over the past couple of days I had becoming depressingly familiar with. This time however was different, this time I was still conscious. Mustering a small spark of light while still keeping up the dome I checked myself, somehow I had survived. As good news went though that was it. I was trapped beneath a great mound of snow, I had a limited supply of air in the dome and there was the distinct possibility that the only mares who knew I was here had been buried beneath my makeshift avalanche.
After five minutes I dropped the light to conserve my energy. After ten I shrunk the size of my shield reducing my room but reducing the strain on my magic. Fifteen minutes and I was trying not to hyperventilate, I needed to conserve my air to survive. At twenty I began to consider that I was going crazy as a strange drilling noise began to fill my shelter. At first the sound was barely a whisper but it was quickly getting louder and closer till it was practically on me. Silence. The sound had stopped just as suddenly as it had started. I strained my ears to try and hear some sort of evidence that it had been real, that it hadn't just been in my head, when something burst from the snow beneath me and grabbed a hold on my withers. With a scream of terror I was pulled into the snow and found myself being dragged through some sort of tunnel. I contemplated struggling, perhaps defending myself with magic but the reality was that being captured by diamond dogs or some other subterranean creature seemed preferable to suffocating in my own little bubble.
It came as a great surprise when my new captor reach the end of their tunnel and tossed me up into the cold light of day.
"Thought we lost you there, Sunshine!" I turned my head to see a smiling Rainbow Dash. Not a cruel or malicious smile, a genuine happy to see me smile. Even the tone of her voice seemed to show relief.
"What?" Straining against the sudden change in lighting I looked at the hole I had emerged from in time to see a snow covered Pinkie Pie and Maud emerge.
"Best burrowers in the entire Earth Pony Eighth," Pinkie proudly proclaimed giving me a playful punch with her hoof. "You know if everything works out with Celestia I'm pretty sure you could have a preeeety promising career in demolitions, Sunset." I turned to observe my handiwork, a great wall of snow that would no doubt take days of hard labor to remove.
"Hey! Easy on the civvy, Pinks. Our mission now is get Miss Shimmer here back to base camp so she can debrief on whatever she knows about those freaky Empire helmets, see if the princess remembers her and then, if she is up for it, we can maybe see about getting her to help with the war effort. Pretty sure I can name a few outfits that wouldn't mind another capable unicorn on staff."
"Dash is right, Pinkie, we need to get her home before you can celebrate," I stared between the three of them with my eyes finally falling on Dash.
"Seriously? Three days of the cold shoulder and now you trust me? What the buck?"
"You're kidding me right? You launched Pinkie clear of your little avalanche, you cut off the enemy pursuit, you pretty much got yourself killed trying to save our hides and, oh yeah lets not forget that you dropped a freaking avalanche on the enemy! How awesome was that? Anypony who does that is either okay in my books or the best damn double agent in Equestria, and trust me when I say that if it turns out to be the latter then I will kick your sorry ass so hard that your cutie mark will fly off."
"So all I need to do to impress the mighty Rainbow Dash is nearly get myself killed saving her flank? Good to know," she laughed. She actually laughed, and I was happy to laugh with her.
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The rest of that day and most of the next were spent trekking across the mountain foothills. It was slow going but good company and high spirits made it much more bearable than the past few days. We talked, shared jokes, almost managed to forget that somewhere else across the mountains ponies were likely killing each other in a war that I couldn't really understand. Sombra's motives were entirely alien to me and I had no desire to ruin the mood by broaching the subject with my companions. With plenty of time to think I mulled over my present situation. Ideally Celestia would either recognize me as being her student or recognize the mirror I would describe to her, from either of those points I could hopefully have her believe the rest of my story and from there we might be able to work out a way to return me to my own world. If that dream proved impossible though I could begin to see myself living here. It wasn't the first time I'd found myself stuck in a parallel world and though it would hurt to never see my friends again at least this time I'd be starting over with a few ponies who seemed willing to give me a chance.
"Almost there, Sunset, another few miles and we should be able to see base camp," Pinkie gave me a playful bump but recoiled instantly in pain as a spark of electricity jumped off of my coat and onto her hoof. "Ouchy. What's with all the static, Sunset, that some weird unicorn magic thing?" I looked over myself in horror as magical static bounced across my coat. It had been a long time since I had read any unicorn medical journals but from little I could recall spontaneous magical discharge was never a good symptom.
"This, this is bad. This shouldn't be happening, Pinkie." The panic in my voice caused all three mares to turn and face me, the worry in their faces told me everything I needed to know. "This is going to be okay, everything will be okay, just stand clear of me," I kept drawing in deep breathes to try and calm my panic but it did little to help. Beneath me I could feel the ground drop away from me as I began levitating up into the air as though being pulled by unseen strings. "Dash, I don't know what is happening but I could really use another unicorn here, how fast can you get to camp!" Above me a hole tore apart the sky revealing a swirling vortex of light bordered by spinning symbols and magical clock hands.
"Not fast enough," she muttered before leaping into the air and grabbing hold of me.
"What are you doing!" I screamed as the tug of the portal strengthened.
"Trying to save your sorry ass, Sunset!" she groaned, struggling in her losing battle against the tug of magic. Pinkie was screaming, Maud was...well she was speaking calmly and quietly but that's just Maud, Dash to her credit was putting up a spirited fight against the portal but I could tell a losing battle when I saw one. Whatever fate the portal had in store for me I wasn't going to saddle Dash with it to so I mustered as much magic as I could and threw it into a short teleport directly up and out of her grip. As soon as I re-materialized, no longer held in place by Dash's efforts, I was dragged up and into the sky, into a disorientating tunnel of magic that....
I'm sorry. Twilight, the next part is... difficult to talk about. Think we could save it for another day?
Sure, Sunset. If you don't feel talking about something, we can maybe skip it over. Whatever works for you
No. No I need to get this off of my chest, it's been eating me up inside. But not now. Maybe we can take a break for the next few days, maybe talk about what's going on with you for a change? I just... I need some time to get my thoughts together.