When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Bridge Chapter 1: The Claws Come Out

Two Months Before the Summer Sun

The Seapony’s Pride moored on the eastern side of Clawstantinople, among the other medium sized merchant vessels. The red granite docklands was bustling with griffins and equines of all shapes, sizes, and colors, loading and offloading the wealth of five continents. Above the docklands on the next highest tier, griffins in finery watched with idle interest at the commerce below.

"What a cool place." Dash breathed. She craning her neck up to admire the tallest segments of the city high above her- The towers and domes of the basilica were like spears aiming to pierce the clouds. The mighty airship they'd seen on the way in was moored almost directly above them now. Painted in building-sized letters across the balloon, was its name: Hawkwood.
"Inspiring... If for the wrong reasons." Dash whispered to herself. "Hey G, how many times have you been to this city?"

"Dunno. Three or so times a year, times five years..." GIlda said. "Never for very long though."

"Alright you slackers." Pleiades butted in on their conversation. He held a letter out to GIlda. "Mis GIlda, I hope I can rely on your wings again. Take this up the Marble Mountain to you-know-who. Mis Dash, keep her company."

Gilda accepted the letter and tucked it under her wing. "Aye aye, captain."

Pleiades trotted away to yell at the crew unloading the cargo.

"What's that?" Dash nodded to the letter.

"Don't worry about it. Just a little chore I have to do since I'm usually the only one here who can fly." Gilda assuaged. "We can check out the city's hot-spots on the way."

Descending from the Seapony, the duo weaved their way clockwise along the crowded docklands, until they arrived at the bustling waterfront markets. Hundreds of stalls with exotic goods on display, attended by hawkers of all species called out to them, extolling the superiority of their wares.

"Wow. Reminds me of Filly Delphia." Dash admired the ornate trinkets.

"Eastern markets are like this. Busy and a little chaotic." Gilda nodded. "Take a look around but keep an eye out for thieves.

"I don't have much on me." Dash shrugged. "But enough for a memento."

Glass lockets, gold pins, bone and ivory crafts, ornamental daggers with intricate engravings, flasks made of strange and unknown alloys that glinted iridescently in the sun. "Neat." Dash breathed.

She was ogling an ostentatious pair of boots when Gilda called her over to another stall.

Gilda held up partially opened package of meat. “Take a look at this.”

Dash looked. It was meat, lightly salted and smeared on one side with an unidentifiable spice.

“Now tell me this isn’t pony meat.” Gilda said.

Dash looked again. Meat was meat as far as she was concerned. “Gilda I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shrugged. "Kinda gross."

Gilda pointed to the vender at the stall accusingly. “This idiot tells me this is antelope imported from Sahella.” She licked of the package of meat, and spat. “As if I couldn’t tell it was pony, and very fresh at that.”

The vender griffin squawked something indignantly. Dash understand zero of the griffin languages, including the local Tern dialect. Gilda squawked back harshly, and the two started arguing.

“Gilda, what did you want me here for?” Dash asked irritatedly. "You know I don't like to get involved in this kind of thing."

Gilda broke off from her argument though the vender continued to yell. “Pony meat has been outlawed in Clawstantinople for years.”

“And you’re going to offer me up to this butcher?” Dash asked.

“No, I just- Watch you back, you know. It may be my curse, but its some griffin's pleasure.” Gilda disdainfully tossed the meat slab back onto the vendor's counter. She followed Dash away from the stall. “Don't go down any dark alleys without me."

"K." Dash mumbled.

"Just trying to look out for you. This is your fist time out of Equestria an all." Gilda smiled. "Were you still looking for a necklace or something?”

Rainbow nodded sheepishly. “Captain Pleiades told me earlier that the best silversmiths in Griffany lived here. I wanted to see if I could find something nice, you know, to spend my first pay on.”

“If you humor me for a minute so I can deliver the captain's letter, I'll show you to a whole street of the best jewelry shops on earth. Real cheap too. I got a nice set of talon rings there." Gilda led Dash out of the market. "But I had to give them up to somepony for a favor I owed him."

"Somepony on the crew?" Dash queried.

Gilda smiled thinly. "Not anymore."

The duo took to the skies, circling around the Marble Mountain as they wound up to the higher levels of Clawstantinople.

"How many creatures live here?" Dash asked.

"Hundred-thousand. Somewhere thereabout." Gilda said. "So around the same size as Cloudsdale."

"..." The mention of Cloudsdale dampened Dash's mood.
Gilda began explaining more about the city but Dash stopped listening, preferring to admire it herself. Mansions, villas, gardens, and palaces were carved right out of the Marble Mountain. What would it be like to be an aristocrat living in such luxury? Dash had only ever known the modest life, even when she lived with her family in Cloudsdale. Her place had only degraded through the years as she and Gilda roamed across Equestria, until she'd settled for the humble weatherpony job in Baltmare.

GIlda leveled off at the altitude of the skydocks. They weaved between the moored airships until they arrived at the stern fin of the Hawkwood.
It was huge! It took over a minute to fly from stern to prow. What a magnificent work of art. Oh, how it hurt Dash's soul to know it was owned by killers.

"G, where are we going?" She asked.

"Right down there."

A whole section of the skydock around the ramp of the Hawkwood had been sectioned off. The area was guarded by rugged ponies with nasty looking weapons. They eyed Gilda and Dash as they descended towards them.

"That's close enough." One of the ponies, an older unicorn stallion ordered. Dash had to stifle a laugh. He looked fabulously flamboyant, with fur dyed in black and crimson stripes over his body. Still the lighter pinkish hues of his coat and the blue of his mane showed through in places. He was in a noble’s frilly finery, a vest and coat, with a yellow sun embroidered on each pocket. A small iron laurel rested on his head. "What's you buisness here mis?"

"Yo. Just got in from the Balitmare run. My captain has an arrangement with the Princes for a reduced harbor fee." Gilda produced the letter Pleiades had given her.

"Ah, that's right. I thought I recognized you, from the..." The stallion leaned over the edge of the skydock, inspecting the ships moored far blow. "Seapony's Pride. Yes yes, I see you over in slip ten. Very nice." He took the letter and folded into his coat. "We'll see that you're accounted for."

"Gilda, what's going on." Dash whispered. She did not like the way the ponies, with their wide empty stares, were looking at her. Not to mention they were armed to the nines.

"Don't worry about it." Gilda hissed at her. "I'll tell you later."

"Gilda..."

"And I'll suppose you're off the Seapony too, yes?" The stallion asked Dash. "We don't get many pegasi on this side of the ocean."

"I-" Dash was transfixed by his eyes, wild yellow orbs that refused to blink. "Yeah. Fist trip." She giggled nervously.

"No kidding. Hope you keep it up. Your tribe are sadly unrepresented in the merchant marine." The stallion grinned. "Where are you from? East Coast? Foal?"

"Err..." She looked to GIlda for help but Gilda was making unclear gestures at her. "Cloudsdale."

"Really? Would you believe our captain is from Cloudsdale? Oh I bet she would love to meet you!" The stallion laughed. "Say, how about you come meet her."

Gilda leaned over to whisper in Rainbow's ear. "Refuse. You've got to refuse!"

"She's just a few layers down." The stallion continued. "The best place to cut loose in all of Clawstantinople. Where pleasures of all kind can be found. Come on..." He held out his hoof. "It'll be a fun time."

Dash stood stock still, confused and afraid. Her eyes kept slipping down to the stallion's waist, where a razor sharp rapier clattered with every movement. She saw it in his smile, and in his eyes, and in the way he postured himself: He was a casual killer.
It was about what she envisioned when Gilda had described the Princes of Equestria, but somehow much worse in the flesh. There was no curse that drove that pony to his murderous work, he simply enjoyed it.

"Dash!" Gilda whispered urgently.

"Please, mis, I insist." The stallion stepped forward, and suddenly Dash's hoof was being held by his. "The captain pines for the company of her fellow Cloudsdalians. I'll even pay for the drinks."

Dash tried to pull her hoof away, and mercifully the stallion let her. "Um, thank you sir." She mumbled, eyes darting around. "I..." She swallowed, but her throat was completely dry. Maybe a drink was what she wanted. "I don't know how long I could stay. My friend promised to show me the city. Some jewelers..."

"Oh yes the jewlers here are unparalleled. Much better than any in Equestria, save perhaps the masters in Manehattan jewelers." The stallion nodded. He turned back to the rest of his group. "Who's after me on duty?!" He yelled.

"Mac, but she's with the captain!" One of the mercenaries yelled back.

"The captain will be mad if I leave you alone." The stallion rubbed his chin. "Haa, you can handle yourselves. Better ask forgivingness than permission, and especially when the captain's drunk." He turned back to Dash. "Right this way mis. I know the untrafficked paths down the Mountain." He eyed Gilda. "Like to come?"

Gilda's face was steely. "Love to." She said evenly.

The stallion snorted. "Glad to have you. By the way, I'm the Red Black Prince, at your service. Everypony calls me Red, and that works. If you hear somepony call me otherwise I politely ask you to forget it." Red led them down the skydock, glancing back at them every so often. "I can tell we'll get along fine."

Contrary to the Red Black Prince's claim, it took nearly half an hour to follow the winding way down the Mountain by hoof and claw. The whole time Gilda threw little glares at Dash, and Dash tried to ignore them. She tried to tell herself it was fine, just a quick drink and meeting a fellow pegasus. There was nothing to worry about.

"The only downside of living off the side of this rock is the lack of foliage. The best kept gardens here are little more than clumps of moss." Red was saying, more to himself than the girls. "Ah, but the griffins of Griffany do love their rocks. On the barren peaks, the harsh spires protruding from the salty sea, and on bald mountains overlooking the forests. Kick over a rock, and your apt to find a griffin there." He cast a glance towards GIlda. "Where are you from, chick? I can't place your accent."

"All over." Gilda grunted.

"Ah yes, the griffin abroad. For how much the Gulls, Terns, and Kestrels all loath each other, they distrust the rootless griffin more." Red teased. "For you have no rock to perch on."

"I won't argue the point, though I'll tell you I did grow up on a rock and it was the worst time of my life." Gilda said.

Shortly thereafter they arrived. Nestled between an empty forum and a boarding house was a nondescript door. "He's the place." Red pushed open the door to let the girls pass through.

The room beyond was packed with ponies. Dash was ill at ease, for every one of them carried a weapon, ranging from hefty swords to flint pistols.

“Three ciders!” Red called as she strode up to the bar. The griffin barkeep eyed Gilda suspiciously but obliged.

“I’m not so sure about this place.” Dash said nervously.

“Relax.” Gilda said quietly and a bit harshly. "You got us into this, after all."

"Here you are." Red levitated the mugs of cider to them, which Gilda took in her claw and Dash with her wing. "Hang out here for a while, and I'll be back with the captain." He pushed his way deeper into the bar.

"Maybe we should bail." Dash took an anxious gulp from her cider. So many weapons. So much potential for death. How? Why? For what reason would someone gather so much death in one place?

"Cool it Dash. There's not going to be any trouble." Gilda took a deep breath. "And we can't leave because Red knows we're off the Seapony's Pride. He's not going to be okay with getting ditched."

"K." Dash mumbled. She tried to take another sip but her wing felt too fatigued to lift her mug any.
Her heart was pounding, and underneath the deafening chatter of the crowd around her she began to hear a sound: The wails and cries, as if at a distance. Her eyes went unfocussed, until the ponies moving around her seemed to slide like indistinct shadows.
"G, I'm not feeling so hot." She whimpered.

Gilda clacked her beak in concern. "Why what is it?" She scooted up to Dash. "Having an attack or something?"

"G... I feel it again." Dash was trembling, her voice weak. She stared into a point far beneath the ground. "The wind in my mane..."

Gilda slapped the bar countertop. "YO! I need a water of here!"

The bartender shouted something back at her, lost in the din, but slid a glass of water in her direction anyway.

"Don't let me get blown away G." Dash pressed her head into Gilda's feathered breast, as her legs threatened to give way. "D- Don't let them get blow away!"

Gilda splashed the water into her friend's face. Dash reeled back and fell on her rump, but after a moment her eyes refocussed themselves and her breathing returned to normal.

"Better?" Gilda asked.

"It's... It's been a while." Dash pushed herself to all four hooves. She wiped her face with the back of her hoof and waited for her breath to slow down. "I thought I was through with incidents."

"You need to get a handle on your stress." GIlda gave Dash her cider back. "You've been relying on booze to numb yourself for too long Dash. You've got to get over your problems sooner or later."

"Yeah, you're one to talk." Dash sighed, taking a drink and letting it calm her shaking.

"I'm working on it. It's an iterative process." Gilda huffed. But like Dash, she could put any conviction behind the jab.

"Ah, this is the mare you were talking about?" A female voice sounded from behind them, clear through the chaos.

Dash and Gilda turned to face the new arrival.
She was a slim pegasus, Her coat was a neon teal and her mane and tail were an electric yellow and orange. Her wings partially covered her mark, a lightning bolt and three stars. Her vest, made from the wrinkled skin of some animal, had a dozen straps holding a variety of knives and small guns. Her most striking feature were her scars: One formed a thin discolored line running from one cheek to the other, over the tip of her nose. Another smaller scar across her brow barely missed her wide orange eyes.

"Yup." Red, standing beside the teal mare, nodded.

"Well she's sure a cutie." The mare shoved a few ponies out of the way so she could lean against the bar nonchalantly. “I’m Lightning Dust.”

“Hello, Mis Dust.” Dash squeaked.

"I hear you're from Cloudsdale! Too good! Sisters from the featherhead capital of Equestria are few and far between in this neck of the woods." Lightning Dust grinned.
Dash was astounded by the mare. She couldn't have been much older than she or Gilda, yet she was the captain of the most infamous band of mercenaries in Griffany. What guided a pony down that path?

"Um, yeah." Dash said demurely. "I'm new here."

"You're in luck then, 'New Here'. It's a good time for Griffany! Peace, prosperity, and no work for most of these curs." Lightning Dust cast a disdainful eye around the room. "Speaking of work..." She twisted around to face Red. "Why aren't you back on watch on the Hawkwood?"

"It's Mac's turn. I've been up there for hours." Red gulped from his cider. "Are you going to make me go back? I've been been fending off outraged Terns all day asking me why we're skimming off the harbor fees."

"Ehh, buck the Terns." Lightning Spat. "MAC! MAC GET OVER HERE!" She yelled towards the back of the tavern. "Anyhow..." She turned back to Rainbow Dash. "You've got pretty wings. Practice much?"

"Not as much as I'd like to." Dash shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like it when ponies talked about her wings. Not that it was a pegasus taboo, but it never failed to dredge up painful memories. "There's not a lot of time on a ship, but my captain's a pegasus too, so he gives me and my friend flying time."

"Now that's a sweet deal." Lightning looked up at Gilda. "Hey."

"Hey." Gilda nodded back.

Lightning Dust squinted at Gilda and rubbed her chin. "Do I know you from somewhere? You seem familiar."

"Unlikely but not impossible. I've been in port before." Gilda said.

"Hmm. Maybe. Your color and accent remind me of a griffin I met in Anterpwren, years ago." Lightning Dust hummed. "Ah whatever. I'm slushed but I can't tell griffins apart when I'm sober either! My brains taken up by the faces of the dead." Lightning Dust smiled lasciviously. "Of you though, I'm just jealous! Never met a mare so cute. How'd you catch her?"

Back Gilda and Dash blushed a deep crimson. "Sorry." Gilda said from behind her mug. "I'm not looking to share."

"GIlda!" Dash squeaked.

"Ha ha, I love it, I love it!" Lightning Dust chuckled. "I'm just admiring anyhow. Been too long..." Her smile thinned. "How old are you. Twenty? Look old enough to remember the Clou-"

"Aye! Captain!" A squawking voice interrupted Lightning. "We weren'tta tall sure which Mac ya wanted, so we both came."
Two creatures came forward. One was a short griffin female dressed in an ill-fitting white waistcoat, with a blue cloth coat hanging off her shoulders. The other was an enormous earth pony stallion, cherry of coat with an orange mane, wearing a jacket like Lightning Dust, but with little links of chainmail woven into parts of it. The stallion had a claymore fitted to his side and a long musket on his back.

"Mac!" Lightning wheeled on the two of them. "Red says you're supposed to be on watch with the Hawkwood!"

The griffin snorted in exasperation. "Firstilly cap, still don't know which Mac ya callin out. Second, Red's fulla shite."

"Eyyup." The stallion agreed with his smaller comrade.

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. "You, Mac." She jabbed the griffin in the chest. "If I want Macintosh, I'll call Macintosh." She eyed the stallion. "And you, don't enable her."

The stallion closed on eye and stared down at his captain skeptically. "I ain't."

"Oh whatever." Lightning Dust sigh-growled. She swiped a drink off the bar counter. "Stick with being a sailor, 'New Here'. Getting in a company means you rub shoulders with dips like these." She gestured back towards Red Black and the two Macs. "And they're the best I have!"

"Condolences." Gilda snarked.

Rainbow hesitated, then took the plunge on the question that had been eating at her since she'd heard of the Princes of Equestria. "How do you do it?"

"Eh?" Lightning arched a brow.

"You know." Dash whispered, almost inaudible in the noise. "K-Kill ponies."

Lightning Dust blinked, then glanced away, then around the room. "Well gee. Not much to it really. You just hurt them until they're dead. Not very complicated."

"I think she means morally, captain." Red clarified.

"Ah, morally. Answer isn't much different. You just do it, you know." Lightning tisked. "Why do you ask? Want to try sometime?"

"No!" Dash yelled, then clasped her hooves over her mouth.

"OH? Why so passionate? Are you sure you don't want to try?" Lighting Dust grinned, scooting forward slowly, licking her lips.

"Captain, canna see she ain't buyin." Mac the griffin said apprehensively. "Let's not cause trouble fer tha lass."

"I agree. This is taking the joke too far captain." Red reached out but Lightning Dush pushed him away.

"You pussies. Can't you see the spark in her eyes? This one's a natural born killer. She hasn't learned to hide it yet." Lighning grinned madly. "We're inheritors of the great Cloudsdale tradition of the citizen army. Every pony, a perfectly sculpted soldier and capable warrior. Can you feel it in your wings? In your bones?"

Rainbow Dash wilted away, retreating to Gilda. "That's not true! I'm not a killer at all. I- I don't want to feel it."

"I was saying it before but got cut off, about how you're about the right age for Cloud Creche." Lightning Dust said. Her face contorted into a grotesque mask of awe and absolute horror. "Yes! I see the pain, the horror in your eyes! You remember it. You lived through it, didn't you! Oh what it must have been like, to be amongst those hundreds of screaming fillies and colts as unbelievable power cascaded amongst them!"

Gilda pushed Dash back and put herself between the two pegasi. "Back off asshole." She growled at Lightning Dust.

"My sister was there, you know." Lightning continued. "Little sis went off to the Cloud Creche to be raised and educated like every day. Out over the valley, the pleasant little colony where tikes ran wild. Do you remember it? What a pretty place it was. But then-" Lightning smashed her cup against the table, shattering it. The whole room went silent. "Kaboom! Catastrophe! A weather phenomenon like nopony had ever seen, smack dab in the middle of Cloud Creche."
Lightning grinned. "There was no sign of my sis. Not a scrap. Like she never existed. Sitting there at the bottom of the valley, looking into a sky filled with ash, I remembered my purpose as a Cloudsdalian. I was ready to cause some pain. But the fleet didn't want me, something about being 'too unstable', so I came here and gutted some griffins. Ha haa!" She laughed. "So tell me what you saw, sister! What did you see in those billions of flecks of ash?"

Rainbow was torn between tears of guilt and silent crying now. The self-loathing that her time with Gilda had smothered was welling up within her once again. She felt the urge to say something, anything, in her defense or sorrow. Gilda was giving her a panicked look that showed she knew exactly what her friend was going to do.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She whimpered silently into her wing. "Please forgive me."

Gilda tried wrapping a wing around her to hurriedly usher her from the tavern. “We really need to go Dash. You’re inebriated, and not on booze.” She hissed.

Lightning Dust bashed a hoof against the table, driving the splinters of her cup everywhere. "How 'bout you stop right there, griffin. I want to hear what my Cloudsdale sister has to say." She growled, rubbing a wing on one of the guns hanging off her jacket. “You aren't going to interrupt again.”

Dash looked around the shadowy tavern. The scene had the attention of everypony in the room, half of whom had their hooves on their weapons. Death... So much death... She could almost hear the wind again.

“What did you see in the ash?” Lightning Dust asked again, almost reverently. “What was it like to be there?”

Like dying, Rainbow thought.
“I didn’t know your sister but now I’ll never be able to forget." Her voice gradually gained volume as she gathered strength. She nudged Gilda back and stood up on her own four hooves. "Around me, under me, over me. I saw them. What was left of them, after what I did. I'm sorry. I can only be sorry. I didn't know what the Rainboom would do."

Dust shifted on her seat. "What... What are you talking about?" She asked, a thin scowl of confusion marring her expression.

“Dash they’ll kill me too! Just run.” Gilda hissed to Dash. "Get out! Get out!"

The Red Black Prince was the first pony in the room to catch on. "Holy Shit." He breathed. "The Cloud Creche catastrophe was caused by a pony?! How is that even possible?"

"Rosen you mean..." Lightning Dust looked from Red Black to Rainbow Dash. Expressions of confusion all around the room sharpened as they made the connection. "She... did it?"

Dash shakily turned around. Death, death, death, it was all around her. If she wanted to let herself suffer for her sin, it would soon awaken to her. But Gilda was right: She could not martyr herself when it would hurt her friend too. "I'm sorry, Lightning Dust. I really am." She said quietly. “I didn't mean to." She galloped out of the tavern alongside Gilda. The confused mercenaries around them did nothing but watch.

But their confusion would not last forever. The sound behind Dash was akin to a volcano erupting. With Gilda hot on her hooves, Dash leapt into the air and beelined to the Seapony’s Pride. They rushed, rushed away from abundant death.
The wind screamed in her ear as they flew at breakneck speed. Dash could hardly contain her tears.

Captain Pleiades was still on the deck guiding the offloading when Dash and Gilda touched down, panting heavily. He looked up at them disapprovingly.

We clicked his tongue. “Did you delivered that lett-"

“They’re going to kill us!” Gilda squawked.

“Wait wait wait, who did you upset this time?” Pleiades demanded. "Mis Dash why are you crying?"

“The Princes of Equestria are bloody irate!” Gilda pointed up the mountain, to the swarm of ponies flooding out of the tavern, yelling and shouting.

“What. The. BUCK! What are you doing here! Why are you bringing the Princes down on me?!” Pleiades pushed Gilda back. “Run! Get off my ship and get away from here!”

The other sailors began to yell as well, and under their verbal assault Gilda and Rainbow Dash scampered off the ship into the busy docklands.

“Shit oh shit oh shit! This is really bad. We need to find a place to hunker down.” Gilda muttered nervously, pulling Dash through the crowd. “The Seapony’s Pride leaves tomorrow morning, and we can slip onboard before anypony realizes it.”

“Gilda please. It’s me they want.” Dash got her voice under control. “- Just leave without me. Let them take me. I deserve it. Let me die, Gilda. It hurts too much.”

"Not in a million years, Dash. You'll survive, and I'll survive, and together we'll overcome our curses." Gilda promised gravely. "There's some tucked away places here in the lower levels we can spend the night. Good thing we didn't spend our bits I guess."

Dash remained silent.

They turned off the waterfront and went into the deeper recesses of the lower levels. The labyrinthine maze of stairs, marble overhangs, and damp shacks would make any kind of pursuit impossible. Deeper still they went, until the light of the sun was no longer visible. Lines of old firefly lanterns illuminated the paths around the thick stone columns supporting the entire mountain above. The buildings seemed strange, almost grotesque, for the limits of the light. Some were squat, while others were columns in their own right as they connected floor of the cavernous space to the roof. There was no sound but the buzz of the lanterns and the drip of water from the ceiling.

"Never been here before. It's like a cavern." Gilda whispered. She glanced back at Rainbow Dash. "How you feeling?"

"Fine. Weird." Dash said quietly. "That mare, Lightning Dust... is she my fault? Did I create her? How may damaged ponies like her are out there because of Cloud Creche."

"We can talk about it later." Gilda said sharply, then continued more softly. "At least you're not begging for death anymore. I promise you if that psycho mercenary had caught us, we'd have been begging for the rest of our short lives."

Dash mumbled her agreement. "Thanks G, I just... I..." She sniffled. "Let's not count chickens yet."

"Too right." Gilda agreed, leading the way deeper into the dark.

The alleys were sparse with griffins, but those that were there watched Dash and Gilda warily. The overhang was a place to hide for all kinds of reasons.

"Hmm, this looks like a decent place to stay." Gilda finally came to a stop.
By the wavering light of a firefly lantern, a sign on the door of a large tenement could be read, 'Gore's Inn', and just below that 'Vacancy'.

"Dash..." Gilda paused. "I wanna have a real talk here... What you did with that asshat Lightning Dust was incredibly stupid. I see what you were trying with that stunt. You want to personally prove your regret, to atone or something. That's not the way to deal with your burden."

"I thought I was through suffering, but I don't think it'll ever be over for me. As soon as I had that panic attack we should have left. I can't deal with it the same you do." Dash mumbled. "Which is not at all."

"It's an iterative process god damn it." Gilda cursed. "Listen, I'm just telling you, This is not the right time to show your vulnerable side Rainbow. I did warn you that in this business you either fight or you die. What do you think you're doing right now: Fighting or dying?”

"Dunno." Rainbow Dash shrugged weakly. "G, I need to have a serious think about it all, but you keep telling me that we'll sort it out later."

Gilda sighed. "What do you think you'll find if you do some deep introspection? The answer to all your questions? Or more pain? Dash, you have to accept what you are, either from pride or self-forgiveness."

Dash shivered. "From... pride? No. Never from pride. I'll never turn into a mare like Lightning Dust."

"Well, that's the best I'll get from you for now. No more stunts. From hereon, let's keep our secrets proper secret. Okay Dash?" Gilda smiled. "Don't go around confessing to being a murderer. Even in the company of mercenaries, it's not a dick you should be waving around. Please tell me you understand this."

"I said I'm sorry." Dash said sharply. "I can deal with this in a healthy way. I... I have to keep it from bursting out of me."

"Fine. I'm sorry too. We should rest, let ourselves calm down, think about this rationally. Ready?"

Rainbow nodded reluctantly, so Gilda led the way into the shoddy inn.

The entryway to the inn was occupied by an earth pony and several griffins reading in the corners. The space was narrow and cramped, and the aged wood ceiling looked like it would give at any moment. Gilda squawked something to the innkeeper behind his desk.

“Don’t even try speaking Tern. Speak pony.” The innkeeper said in fragmented Equestrian. “You speak Tern very bad.”

The other guests chortled and Gilda blushed. “Uh okay. Two rooms please.”

“How long you need?” The innkeeper pulled out a ledger and began to scribble into it.

“We don’t know yet.” Gilda said.

“No job for you?” The innkeeper mused. “There is many job in Clawstantinople. Like her.” He pointed to the pony guest lounging in a divan. “She give job.”

“Thank you but employment isn’t the big concern right now.” Gilda said, sliding the golden coins over the desk and taking the room keys.

Dash, waiting while that exchange was taking place, eyed the earth pony. She was a middle-aged mare, with pale beige fur and a candy pink mane. She wore a pristine red coat, with the letters EOC embroidered into each pocket. The beige mare looked up from her newspaper and noticed Dash staring. "Is there a problem mis?" She said with mild suspicion. She had a clear Equestrian accent.

"Nuh uh." Dash shook her head. "Just noticing you're not a mercenary."

"Rather strange observation." The mare grunted. "Don't be too insulted by it." She went back to reading her newspaper.

"Come on Dash." Gilda nudged her. "I've got the key. Let's retire for the day, and see if we can't find respite from our trouble tomorrow."

Dash followed her up the stairs behind the front desk. "If it ever ends for us."

---

By the light of the dawning sun, Rainbow and Gilda crept back along the waterfront to the Seapony’s Pride. The market stalls and the skies above the city were empty, but some of the sailors had woken for an early departure. Pleiades was on the dock checking over the manifest while the crew were preparing to set off.

“Captain, we’re sorry about the trouble but we’re ready to go.” Gilda approached the stallion.

“You’re still alive?” Pleiades snorted. “Mis Gilda, do you know how embarrassing it was to have mercenary thugs riffling through my ship? I thought I'd had the end of having guns pointed at my face when I left the navy."

"Captain, I'm sorry we-"

"Gilda, no quartermaster is the trouble you've caused me. You can only be lucky you haven't incurred any financial damages, besides the glass I broke in my helpless frustration." Pleiades berated her. "You better hope the Princes of Equestria didn't put a goon on surveillance, or we're about two seconds away from having a spiky ball of pony rage rolling this direction.

"I'm sorry captain."

"I'm honestly impressed you could make them this angry." Pleiades pressed the bridge of his nose with his hoof. "But you know, you did deliver the harbor fee, as the Red Black Prince mentioned as he was going through my things. You've been with me for a while, Gilda, and you've been loyal. I really like you, Mis Gilda, which is why I'm throwing you a line here."

"You mean we're not fired?" Gilda gasped.

"Well, you see..." Pleiades laughed nervously. "You see your survival is a bit inconvenient, because I already hired your replacement.”

“What? You have to keep us on! We’re still on contract!” Gilda squawked. “We’ve got to get out of Clawstantinople! Are you gunna let us die?”

“The Princes tore up both copies of the contract when they were turning this ship over. I've not the time to piece it back together."

"Then just let us on! We'll work for free!" GIlda pleaded. "You can't leave us here, captain!"

"I'm not. I'm not." Pleiades promised. "Though you wouldn't have realized it because of your absence, the manifest is changing. We're going to Trottingham with a special cargo."

"..." Gilda now realized why Pleiades couldn't take them. Trottingham was still well within the Princes of Equestria's reach. If anypony there saw him transporting them and reported it back to Lightning Dust, Pleiades would be in the Prince's ill graces forever. Might as well never enter a Griffany port again, for the risk he'd be running.

"I'll put you in touch with the new client. He's been in Clawstantinople for a while, and I have asked him if he has any way of helping you." Pleiades said.

Gilda hung her head. "That's all I can ask, captain. I've put you in a lot of risk already."

“Is there some problem, Captain Pleiades?” A griffin’s head peered out from a window of the aft cabins. He had a curious accent that Gilda could not place.

“No problem.” Pleiades called back. “This is Mis Gilda, who I mentioned to you before.”

“Who’s that?” Gilda demanded. “Is that the griffin you’re replacing me with?”

“Yes yes. Gilda. You did mention her.” The newcomer pulled his head back into the cabin, and a moment later he emerged onto the deck.
He was not, to Dash and Gilda’s great surprise, a griffin, but a hippogryph. He was nearly a head taller than Gilda, with a muscled black pony body and a white feathered head. He wore a simple grey frock, embroidered with red at the edges, and carried no weapons. “Captain, you did not mention the pony.”

Pleiades pursed his lips. “She is much more novice.”

“Very well then captain, I’m going to make sure these mares are safe before we leave.” The hippogryph nodded. "I will be back soon enough."

“Yeah, sure.” Pleiades waved him away. “Don’t take too long. Or do. It's your purse.”

With a last glance at her former employer, Gilda followed the hippogryph with Dash in tow. “Uhh, so I'm not to clear on who you are.”

“It is an unconventional role.” The hippogryph led them past the dockside market towards the more crowded eastern city. “I have chartered the ship's current cargo, and also joined to take your place. My apologies, mis. I did not mean to replace you, but circumstances being what they are it was necessary.”

"Yeah whatever." GIlda grunted. The hippogryph didn't look like the type rich enough to hire an entire ship for a haul to Trottingham.

“Who are you?” Dash asked.

“Neraash Maar, in my native tongue. Eversnake, in equestrian.” The hippogryph bowed his head in renewed greeting.

“The captain said you'd been here a while, but I've never seen your kind around before.” Gilda noted. “What do you do?”

“An exile. I have been living in Clawstantinople for almost a year.” Eversnake said. “It is a long and stressful tale. The priesthood of Maredia accused me of using forbidden magic, and I had to flee for my life. Now I represent some acquaintances of mine, and it is on their behalf I am hiring the Seapony's Pride. Eventually I hope to make it to Equestria, where the magic I study is more accepted."

Rounding a corner, they spied a trio of mercenaries walking down the street. Thankfully they were facing away from them. Eversnake led the girls further, through an alley, and into a small nook which opened into a modest courtyard restaurant.

“As a way of expressing my condolence for stealing your job, I shall give you this meal. This is one of my favorite places to dine in the city.” He tossed a coin bag to a nearby server. “Give these ladies whatever they want.” He commanded.

“Hey, thank you for this. You didn’t have to but you did.” Gilda kicked back at a table. “But I think we can take it from here.”

“Umm, do you think you could stay for a while?” Dash asked quietly.

“I would loath to bother the captain too much with my absence, but as he said, it is my purse he lounges on.” Eversnake smiled mischievously. “Or rather my acquaintance's. I'm of more modest means myself. Were I more coy, perhaps I would say my wealth is spiritual. I shall sit with you, yes, but I am not hungry." He sat down, and waited silently as Gilda and Dash ordered their meals, eyes closed as if in a meditative trance.

“Sir Eversnake, what is your homeland like?” Dash asked, bordering on flirty. Perhaps it was the stress, the magnificent pony body, or that he was the friendliest face for leagues and leagues, but she was finding the hippogryph somewhat attractive.

“Many mountains.” Eversnake said. “Some are lush with forests and others are as dry as the desert. It has many different types of creatures: The arabian ponies in the west, griffins in the north, and zebras to the east. We used to welcome them as friends, but the Fire Priesthood has constricted their access to our nation.”

“They don’t sound very nice.” Dash hummed.

“Fear rules them.” He said sadly. “Like the Griffany of the past, we Gryphs are divided into clans and cities with fierce loyalty to their own. There used to be a prince who unified them, but he was exiled just as I was. The fire priests feared that he would strip them of their power in his bid to centralize Maredia, and threatened an uprising if he did not leave. As for their accusations against me, that stemmed from my studies in pyromancy and Equestrian-style Dark magic. They rightly believed that I would undercut their monopoly on the fire, and break their control over my people.”

The food arrived, a hay sandwich for Dash and lightly cooked partridge for Gilda. They both cast thankful glances at Eversnake again.

"When you say 'equestrian-style Dark magic', what are you referring to." Gilda asked. "Equestrians don't do Dark magic."

"I mean to say dream magic." Eversnake explained.

Gilda was silent for a minute. "What makes it Equestrian? There are other groups that study dreams."

"True, but they are all derivatives of the Equestrian school of dream magic. Griffin and Zebra dream magicians, as few as they are, have their root in the Equestrian tradition." Eversnake said. "Even those of Godswing."

Gilda cringed, nearly dropping her fork. "Neat." She said tensely. She hadn't expected him to know what Godswing was.

Between bites of her food, Dash spoke up next. "Sho, who are thee fire priests?"

“To answer that would be to delve deeply in my people’s religion and cosmology. Are you sure you want to hear all that?” Eversnake questioned. “I’d hope I could spare you the tedium.”

“Nah, go ahead. We love history stuff.”

Gilda was tempted to call out Dash's lie, but she was slightly curious herself. “I know a little already.”

“Admirable is he or she who seeks knowledge for its own sake.” Eversnake nodded. “If I recall the pony religion correctly, you believe that the Light and the divine are one, manifested as your Sun Princess Celestia. I’m not too familiar with the Griffin religion, but I know they view the divine as either good or bad depending on which god you speak of. We Gryph believe something quite different from that, because of how we confronted theodicy.
“All of existence, according to the fire worshippers, is divided into two world, the divine and the mortal. The divine is Dark, masked in shadows and filled with evil creatures. The mortal world is illuminated by the Fires of the Gryph and the sun, which hold the divine and Dark at bay.
“Neverminding what that belief says about the Gryph social psychology, the Fires has led to a measure of distrust between us and you. Zealous Gryph have a dislike of those they believe have betrayed the mortal world by worshiping the divine, and believe that ponies in particular are misled by Celestia, foremost agent of the divine. Ponies and griffins in turn take our godlessness as disrespect or idiocy."

“Wow.” Dash had paused mid meal to listen to Eversnake. “That’s cool, but sad at the same time.”

“You don’t have to pretend you understood what he was talking about.” Gilda ribbed her friend.

“S-Shut up!” Dash blushed violently.

Eversnake continued. “Conventional forms of magic are believed to be the work of the Dark gods. Pyromancy and other light manipulation besides fire and sunlight is regarded as heresy. Those rules weren’t observed that closely before the fire priests took control. They cut off the Gryph from the outside world to ‘spare us from the corrupting influences’ of ponykind and their magic."

"Then how'd you even get access to the material you learned from?" Gilda asked.

"My friend, who I now work for. He has been working within the system for a very long time and knows how to circumvent it. I was not nearly so graceful." Eversnake clacked his beak and hooved the ground in remembered anxiety. "I am not a rebel just for my amusement. How painful it is, to have a lie ripped away from your eyes. Twice I felt it: Once while studying magic, and the second when my casual heresy was discovered and I abandoned my nation."

Gilda sighed. "I know exactly what you mean. When you discover the aberrance, the abhorrence of what you thought was normal... It's the most awful feeling in the world."

"You loose your ability to trust others." Dash echoed.

They sat in silence for a long moment, trading uneasy glances.

Eversnake cleared his throat. “Ladies, I’m afraid you’ve kept me here longer than I’d have liked by exploiting my talkativeness, but I must be going.” He got to his hooves. “I would be remiss to force Captain Pleiades to wait on me any longer.”

“Buck him.” Gilda said dismissively.

“I’m afraid I’m…” Eversnake paused briefly. “otherwise accounted for."

"Whatever you say dude." GIlda stood up. "Thanks for the meal."

"Maybe we'll see you again." Rainbow Dash smiled.

"Perhaps." Eversnake bowed. "Until next time, Mis Gilda.”

He exited the concealed courtyard at a trot after exchanging a whisper with the waiter griffin. Dash watched him go while Gilda sat back to down to finish her partridge.

“Why didn’t he say goodbye to me?” She pouted.

“I don’t think he knew your name.” Gilda said. “He heard mine from Pleiades.”

“Oh.” Dash frowned. “When I get rich and famous how will he have any idea who I am?”

Gilda arched an eyebrow. “You seriously got the hots for that guy? Gryph, more like grifter. A meal is nice sure, but it doesn't help us at all! We're still stuck in this city with the armies of hell out looking for us.”

“He was nice!” Dash protested.

“And he was probably full of crap. He stole our job, Dash! We would be out of here if the Seapony wasn't chartered for Trottingham!” Gilda yelled back. “Shit! We’ve got nothing, and no way out of the city!" She slumped, stabbing at the partridge with her claws angrily "Maybe we should just start flying south. The north coast of Sahella isn't too far. Just eighty kilometers or so.”

The sounds of a commotion in the adjacent alley reached them, and Gilda and Rainbow Dash jumped up in alarm. Raspy voices with equestrian accents tickled their ears.

“The Princes. Maybe we should go back to the inn.” Rainbow proposed nervously.

“Let’s.” Gilda agreed.

---

Although the streets were filled with Princes scanning the crowds, they made it back to their dingy inn without incident.
On their way back up to her room, Dash was intercepted by the earth pony from the day before, who was exiting her own room.

"Hello again." The beige mare nodded.

"Hey." Dash waved awkwardly.

"You and your friend, would you happen to be looking for work?" The mare asked.

"Umm, maybe." Dash really wasn't sure what the plans was, and that was because there was no plan. They'd stay in the inn until the bits ran out, then who knew. "What are you looking for?"

"As it would happen, mercenaries. Or somepony with mercenary tendencies. I need a couple of good sports with no connection at all to the EOC." She tapped the letters embroidered into her coat. "And I can tell you're not EOC spies."

"How can you tell that?" Dash asked. She didn't remember what an EOC was, though she did remembered GIlda mentioning it.

"You and your friend stand out too much. The charter would bring in some normal height earth ponies with inoffensive coloration and uninteresting stories." The mare said. "You're a bloody rainbow, shifty, clearly in dire straits, and your friend is a griffin."

"Are you making a pitch here or something?" Rainbow scoffed. "Because I'm not getting it."

"Dash, what are you doing out here?" Gilda peeked her head out of the door. "Who are you?" She directed at the mare.

"I'm an officer in the Equestrian Oceanic Charter, the EOC, looking for some extra hires. Nothing complicated, just sturdy souls who can follow orders." The mare said.

Gilda stepped out into the hall and approached wearily. "The EOC, huh? The EOC never docks in Clawstantinople."

"I'm not involved in the Charter's trading division. Currently I answer to the Board of Investments. I won't bore you with company politics."

"G, maybe she can get us out of here." Dash said eagerly.

"We'd find a crew willing to take us eventually. We don't need to jump at the first opportunity we see." GIlda warned. She turned back to the mare. "And why are you propositioning us? Why not grab some rough-and-tumble toms off the street. They'll do anything for money."

The mare laughed. "Maybe because I like your look, mis. And maybe I noticed you getting up early, and admire that."

“I only get up early if it means survival, revenge, or a payday.” Gilda snickered. “And I’m going back to bed anyway.”

“Fair, fair.” The mare bowed. “But please, consider my offer. I'm not being stingy here. It's only a question of if you can handle a weapon or not."

"You bet I can." Gilda held up a claw. "I'll keep you in mind mis."

"Magistrate Mare." The mare bowed. "Memorable and descriptive, no?"

"Yeah sure. We'll see each other again." Gilda ushered Dash back into their room.

---

It was almost evening when Rainbow Dash awoke from her daze. Her room was small and cramped. She feared that the scratchy mattress would tear her skin if she moved too much, so she lay stock still, ruminating on feelings she had been repressing for weeks.

Death was following her. The cloud over her life in Cloudsdale had followed her no matter where she went in Equestria, so was it much of a surprise it had come to Griffany too? Her sin would not be forgotten, REFUSED to be forgotten, until it had its way with her.

Dash thought of Lightning Dust. Another victim, added to her ever growing list. Lightning Dust's sister, unnamed and unknown, too.
She thought of that ash, and how thick it had been in the air. They had been little colts and fillies, her classmates at Cloud Creche. Now they were dead, vaporized by an explosion of pure magic.

It had been an innocent game, a race. Rainbow Dash, in the height of arrogance and hubris, had decided to show off something she’d read in a fairy tale. It was an ancient and destructive technique, the Sonic Rainboom.

Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. The explosion had been uncontrolled, and ripped apart the floating playground known as the Cloud Creche, that housed hundred of young ponies in Cloudsdale aged six to thirteen. Hundreds of foals, their caretakers, and the surrounding cloud neighborhoods were gone in an instant.

The ash... Rainbow had landed on the valley floor, her feelings of triumph at her feat fading fast, overtaken by confusion and horror. Where had the Cloud Creshe gone? What was the ash falling around her? It hurt to breath. It got in her eyes.

She never heard what other ponies described hearing: A cacophony of screams both physical and metal, spread on a wave of coruscating color. Not a single pony in Equestria failed to notice the event, as the rainbow magic spread through the skies of the land. Nopony, except Rainbow Dash.

When Cloudsdale’s ruling council, the Admiralty, had unraveled the accident, they had repressed all information of the disaster. No child could be expected to stand trial for centuple homicide, they had concurred. More importantly the admiralty refused feed the headline of condemning a filly for what was being assumed to be the fault of their negligence. Weapons test, everypony was whispering.
Thus the explosion had been dubbed a freak weather phenomenon. Let history remember that this was no one pony’s fault, the official release stated. The public assumed the Admiralty was covering up their own mistake, when in fact the lie was protecting a young and confused filly.

The weight of the truth caught up with Dash quickly. It did not take long to piece together what she'd done, despite how hard the ponies in her life attempted to hide it from her.
Her friends were dead. Her caretakers were dead. Bystanders were dead. The families of the victims, like Lightning Dust, had no closure and no answers.

Death... Death... Death... Rainbow Dash understood that she'd erased them. They were gone, and she was to blame.
She screamed, begging her family to acknowledge the crime. She pleaded for the punishment she knew she deserved. Everypony around her laughed at her tears, pretending nothing had happened, pretending she was trying to get attention as fillies did. They assured her it had been nopony’s fault, that she was imagining her part in the catastrophe.
By themselves, they were uneasy with her. What horror it filled them with, to see the young filly torn by such powerful feelings of guilt and self-loathing. They didn't want to deal with it. They wanted to pretend everything was alright.

When Rainbow Dash couldn’t bare to see the faces of the ponies of Cloudsdale any longer, warped by either forced cheerfulness or pain. It was her doing. There was no joy that was not false, and it was her doing. So she ran. She stole her family’s savings, and payed the young griffin adventurer Gilda to take her far away. The duo had become friends like that, wandering aimlessly across Equestria for a year, swiping food and seeing sights. It had taken them to Baltimare, and then a kind of life began.

Rainbow knew she was a coward, constantly running away from the hurt and the pain. Telling Lightning Dust had been a crap way to redeem herself, but she had to believe it was a step in the right direction. It was not okay to pretend any longer. One day Rainbow would return home, and find a way to make everything up to her family and Cloudsdale.

A scream sounded out from outside the room, quickly silenced. Dash shot up in panic. It hadn’t sounded like Gilda. The scream came again, louder. Dash burst out of her room into the hall at the same time as Gilda.

"You heard it to!" Dash whispered urgently.

“That sounded like that magistrate chick.” Gilda said.

The innkeeper rushed up the stairs into the guest halls. “No worry please! Is only a dog outside! Back to sleep!”

Gilda shoved him aside as Rainbow dashed down the stairs. She landed on the first floor in time to see a pair of griffins dragging Magistrate Mare out of the inn.
She stopped at the threshold. What was she doing? Was it her place to be a hero? Her heart was pounding and she was feeling impulses driving her both forward and backwards.

“I’m right behind you.” Gilda reassured her quietly.

"Right." Dash nodded, making the leap into the dark street.

They caught up to the kidnappers in an alley a block away from the inn. Dash hadn’t brought her sword with her, so she tucked a rock into her hoof.

“Hey!” She barked. “Why don’t you pick on somepony your own size!”

The two griffins turned, dropping Magistrate Mare unceremoniously. They were monsters among bird-felines, two heads taller than Gilda. One of them squawked something in the Tern language, and they both laughed malevolently. Gilda yelled something back, drawing her sword. Dash fell into a battle ready pose.
A third griffin appeared from behind the other two. It was the meat vendor from the market who Gilda had had the spat with. Rainbow was getting a good idea what was going on, and it made her angry.

"No more death today!" She yelled hoarsely.

Dash hurled her stone with all her might. It smacked against the butcher’s shoulder, and his oversized knife fell from his talon. Dash and Gilda both charged forward, engaging a henchgriffin each. Gilda stuck her sword deep in her opponent's breast, while Dash found herself in a wrestling match with a much larger creature with ruthless talons. A headbut sent the brute back, and Dash leaped for where the butcher’s knife had fallen. It was gone.

Dash looked up to see Magistrate Mare hacking away at the butcher with his own knife, cutting him into slivers. Behind her, Gilda sliced the throat of the dazed henchgriffin.

“Deary me.” Magistrate Mare groaned, tossing away the knife. “That certainly was... unpleasant and messy.”

Mare’s grisly work had splattered blood all across her face and coat. Gilda had streaks of blood covering her from where her sword had flung it. Dash’s cheek and flank was bleeding from claw scrapes.

Gilda wiped her sword off on the furry hindquarters of one of the dead griffins. “Not sure what you were trying to accomplish Dash, but I think there might have been some death today."

"Whatever." Dash mumbled.

"Come on Dash, you've seen this all before." Gilda snorted. She turned to Magistrate Mare. "How'd this happen?"

"The bastards pulled me out of my room. They probably have a deal with the innkeeper."

"Maybe they heard you were looking for burley types, ehh?" Gilda clacked her beak in amusement. She still felt giddy, smelling the blood in the air, feeling its slippery viscosity between her talons. "In any case it means I'm not done yet."
She sauntered out of the alley in the direction of the inn.

Magistrate Mare wiped her bow, very much still shaken by the whole ordeal. “You two are brutal." She said, eyeing the whole scene. "Though I wish that one of them survived so I could ask who sent them."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Dash sighed. Echoing from further in the dark, she heard the shrieks of fear as Gilda went about her hateful work. "But my friend and I are going to have to be leaving the city pretty soon. We've gone and upset two clans of goons now."

"And I'll thank you for that latter one." Magistrate Mare bowed her head. "How does my earlier offer sound now?"

"Mis, you don't even know our names." Dash arched a brow.

"That can be easily rectified." Magistrate Mare got to her hooves. "Tell me mis, who should the very generous signing bonus be made out to? Once we are safe, of course."

Rainbow Dash averted her eyes. Was she a mercenary now, selling death for money? There was some solace in that the final blow was always left to Gilda. "My name is Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale. My companion's name is Gilda."

"Gilda doesn't have a family name?"

"She does. She doesn't use it." Dash said tersely. "Hope you don't mind but we'd like to get going as soon as possible."

“I understand perfectly. My ship is in the western slips.” Magistrate Mare said. “Fetch your amie Gilda, and we can get there while it is still dark. I have had enough of this place.”

"Me too." Dash agreed. "It's a very pretty city on the outside though."

"That it is."

Comments

[JDunk1971]

"Docking Bay 94." "94."

[TyroidMary]

I hope you make something of the obscene amount of ranting world build you'r doing in the world outside of Equestria.

[StormyVenture]

Wow. I think your Rainbow Dash has at least one personality disorder. One moment she's having an guilt party about unintended deaths as a result of her poor choices in the life, the next she's quite up to murdering somepony. It's sort of amusing, but beyond that I don't what to think about it.

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

Aaaand now we know where Big Mac is, and what he's doing.

Now I also understand why he's such a touchy subject with AJ.

[TheCommunistDog]

This is one fine main cast.
We have pinkie who is a music mare
We have twilight or rather 2 twilights…
Rainbow who have in a single accident killed hundreds of children. And now wants to die
Rarity who worships a dark lady. And is now a nightmare
Applejack is also a nightmare.
Fluttershy is well… Fluttershy