CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence, Book 3

by GanonFLCL

Chapter Ten: Regret

In the Goldridge Checkpoint's common room, Twilight watched Winter put together the last of the supplies in her saddlebag. How Winter managed to fit it all into just her own bags without needing to give anything to Twilight to carry, Twilight didn't know; it was probably a variant of the pocket dimension magic that she used at home to make her "office", as she'd once described it. Otherwise, the sheer amount of food and drink plus camping supplies just should not have been able to fit.

She turned to Pewter and gave him a little smile. "Thank you again for everything, Pewter. I appreciate all you've done for me."

"It was no trouble at all, Twilight," Pewter said with a grin. "I'm honestly impressed that you were able to recover so quickly. Most unicorns take weeks to get back to the point that their magic is in full working order. But then you're not just any old average unicorn, I suppose. Made of stronger stuff than most."

"Eh heh, no, I suppose I'm not," Twilight said with a nervous smile, not meeting his eyes as he said it.

He still didn't know about her wings, a secret that had not been easy to keep and one that Twilight didn't really want to keep. After all, he seemed trustworthy enough and he'd been more than helpful to her over her time here. It didn't seem right not to keep him in the loop; who was he going to tell? Why would he go spreading things like that around anyway?

But then that was Winter's final word on the subject: "No". There had been no arguing otherwise with her, and Twilight had long given up trying. Considering how angry Winter was about Twilight potentially putting her own world at risk, she might just snap if Twilight did anything to put this one in the same boat.

"Alright, I think that's everythin'," Winter said as she sealed up her saddlebag and slung it over her back. "Thank you Pewter. We'll be back in hopefully less than a week with Hourglass and Applejack. They've probably got all the readings done by now."

"I'll be waiting for you," Pewter said with a little salute. "Tell Hourglass I've got a package of her favorite cookies waiting for her. Sorry, 'biscuits'," he corrected, adding little air quotes with his hooves. "And I'm looking forward to meeting your other new friend, too. If this Applejack is as nice as Twilight is, we'll all get along great."

"Oh, you'll love her," Twilight said, grinning wide. "I guarantee that you two are gonna have a blast talking about all your recipes. She never was fond of that synthetic stuff up north."

"Not many folks are, ma'am."

"We'd best be goin'," Winter said, tilting her head towards the door. "You ready to give your magic a real workout, Twilight?"

Twilight nodded. "I've been looking forward to it."

"Good, then let's move."

Twilight waved goodbye to Pewter, temporary as it might be, then followed Winter to the doorframe and lit up her horn to create a magical barrier around them. When Winter opened the door, Twilight could immediately feel the force of the sandstorm raging against her shield; each particle of sand felt like a punch, a really hard punch from a pony with nothing to lose and everything to gain. It seemed stronger, too, based just on how fast the sand was striking and how often; it was just an estimate, but she felt confident in her measurements.

But for Twilight, this was nothing; it may as well have been somepony trying to pop the bubble-shaped barrier with a really, really, really dull needle.

Thus, making their way back up the side of the mountain to the first small cave that they could duck into for protection was quick and easy. They didn't even need to run, and Twilight didn't even strain in the slightest to keep the barrier up. If anything, ducking into the cave at all seemed completely unnecessary; Twilight could've just kept going without issue.

And this continued all the way along the mountainside until she and Winter finally reached the proper cave entrance that would actually lead them further inside along their planned route. It was here where Twilight finally said something, since until now she'd been satisfied to just let Winter dictate their pace as she'd done heading to the Checkpoint.

"Now that I've felt it for myself, I'm impressed with how well you were able to handle doing this when we went the other way," she said, referring to the barrier spell. "That can't have been easy for you. Most unicorns wouldn't be able to last more than a few minutes at best out there unless they had help."

"Yeah, well, it's not really a big deal," Winter said as she lit up her horn to light the way. "So don't mention it." With a sidelong glance, she added, "Really, don't. We don't have time to waste with back-pattin' bullshit. Just follow me and we can get to the ruins in no time, eh?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I thought the ruins were a week away from here, and that's being generous."

"How do ya figure?"

"Well, based on when we split off from Hourglass and Applejack and how long you said it would take them to get to the ruins, and then how long it took us to get to the Goldridge Checkpoint—accounting for the slower pace because of my condition, of course—I'd put the estimate at around six, maybe seven days."

"Ah. Not bad, if that was the route we were takin'. Luckily, it's not." Winter gestured sharply ahead into the cavern she'd been starting down. "This route'll cut straight through to the ruins after a few tunnels. I know a new shortcut." With another sidelong glance at Twilight, she added, "You'll have to use your magic to make it through it though. You won't fit otherwise."

"Oh, well that's handy to know." Twilight nodded in understanding, then smiled and followed behind Winter. "Lead the way!"

*****

Blue Belle had been trying to get some sleep, when all of a sudden somepony jostled her awake. "Hmm?" she mumbled. She got a good look at who had woken her: Viridian Star, creepy as ever with that crystal-covered horn. "What is it, Viridian?"

"The Vessel has moved, Sister Belle," he said in a dull monotone. "She no longer hides within her sanctuary at the Checkpoint. She has moved east, into the mountains."

Belle's eyes widened, and a small smile came to her lips. She immediately rose upright and kicked Rust and Blitz awake. "Wake up! We're moving!"

"What's going on?" grumbled Blitz. "Are we under attack?"

"We're moving, you idiot. The Vessel has moved, and we're going to follow her." She turned to the groggy-looking Rust. "Rust! The Vessel has moved east, into the mountains. Take point and lead us through. Viridian will direct us as we get closer to her position."

Rust wiped sleep from his eyes. "Of course, Sister Belle, right away."

As her crew dressed and armed themselves, Belle found herself unable to contain her excitement and glee. Soon, yes, very soon, the Vessel would be in their hooves, and then the Dark Lady would be one step closer to victory. Long may She reign indeed.

*****

As promised, the new route definitely seemed to be allowing Twilight and Winter to move along at a much faster pace than Twilight had originally predicted. She knew that she could trust that Winter wasn't lying about how far they were from their destination whenever she asked for an update, which she did sparingly so as not to aggravate Winter while she was trying to navigate. It took only a few days to reach the entrance to the "shortcut", and would only take one more to reach the ruins. Quite a big difference from an entire week.

And, also as promised, Twilight needed to use her magic to move forward through the caves that Winter took her through now. The passages were much more narrow in places than anywhere else throughout the cavern complex, as well as too short at times, and worse, sometimes both. It was through careful use of teleportation spells that Twilight could make her way through, a very delicate process so that she didn't end up splicing herself into a wall.

And then there were the pitfalls! Twilight wasn't nervous going around them herself—she could fly, and there was usually just enough room to do so—but she was horribly worried watching Winter scoot around the edge of some great crevasse, without a rope even!

"I don't need your help, thanks," Winter had grumbled when Twilight offered to fly her across on the first time. "I've made it through here before without your help, so I definitely don't need it now."

Twilight frowned. "I understand that, Winter, but—"

"Just worry about gettin' yourself across. I'm just fine by myself. I don't need you."

"Okay… if you say so…"

She didn't know why Winter kept refusing her help, especially when it seemed as if just minor things here and there would cut down their time. But again, she didn't push too hard. She supposed it was just nerves and stress, and once the sandstorm had cleared and Winter could get her work done, she'd be back to her usual self. Twilight was looking forward to it.

Since Winter wasn't keen on talking very much as they made their way through, Twilight took the opportunity to think to herself about how strange this section of the caverns was. After days of traveling through here one way or another, she'd noticed the patterns and orderliness that the caves seemed to have. The caves seemed to be divided up into sections based on the color of the most common gemstones present in the walls, and the size of the paths was mostly uniform and fit for a creature of roughly her size to move through comfortably.

This new shortcut that Winter had found was anything but orderly. The twists and turns were jagged and unpredictable rather than forming pleasant paths; they were, as mentioned, narrow, short, or both, and even an average-sized pony would find them uncomfortable at times; there were pits and drops that would be lethal to a pony who couldn't fly, as opposed to nothing like that at all; and, most noticeably, the gemstones in the walls were random and varied with no recognizable patterns.

If the rest of the caverns were a natural formation that had somehow been sculpted by the gryphons—there was no denying at this point the gryphons were responsible for it, as their ruined city was in these mountains—then this shortcut cavern was a completely natural formation that had never seen the light of… well, had never been touched before, at least until Winter had first made her way through her with Hourglass and this "Sunspire" character.

The thought of it fascinated her, because it was proof that the rest of the cavern complex had indeed been shaped in a specific way. Terraforming on such a scale was a tremendous feat, something that took immense amounts of magic to accomplish safely. But if the gryphons were responsible, how did they manage it? The griffins of Twilight's world didn't possess magic in any meaningful sense—magical artifacts notwithstanding—so did that mean these gryphons were that much different?

But then, all of the self-inquiring stopped entirely when Winter led Twilight around the next section of the cavern, then gestured for her to stay quiet, a hoof over her mouth. "I know that you've been quiet so far, but I need to warn ya to keep extra quiet movin' ahead here, eh? No sudden questions, and if ya need to sneeze or something ya better fuckin' hold it in."

"Why?" Twilight asked in a voice barely above a whisper, bending down so that she was eye level with Winter. "What's up ahead?"

"I've mentioned Gargantuans before, yeah? There's a nest up ahead, and we've got to crawl through it."

Twilight's eyes widened; there were all sorts of questions running through her head. She couldn't think of which to ask first.

Winter, though, must have anticipated this and set her hoof to Twilight's lips; it wasn't exactly a gentle gesture. "Save your questions for the other side. Just stay low, and stay quiet. And if I tell ya to run, you'd better run. Got it?"

Twilight nodded.

"Good."

As Twilight followed, she allowed her questions to fester and ferment a bit so that she could decide on what would be the most efficient order to ask the questions later, because naturally sometimes the answer to one could also answer another, and Winter would appreciate the attempt to save time. The big question of course was how a Gargantuan nest was here in Goldridge; she remembered Winter saying that these mountains had some sort of magical "aura" around them that the Gargantuans didn't like, so they stayed away.

Of course, all of those questions were replaced with new questions as they pressed forward around the corner and Twilight got her first look at the nest, or at least the edges of it.

A sort of strange goo coated the walls and floor, translucent, somewhat green, and easy to notice because it glowed just enough that Winter didn't even need her illumination spell anymore. It was like no type of moss or fungus that Twilight had ever seen before, but it was strangely reminiscent of the same sort of slimy goop that the old changelings under Queen Chrysalis used to subdue prisoners.

As she and Winter walked through it, Twilight noticed three things about the stuff that she hadn't at first: first, the source of the bioluminescence was due to little particles inside the goo, similar in appearance to pond scum; second, the goo had a texture similar to warm gelatin, not quite sticky enough to hold her in place but enough that she had to shake it off; third—and this was most important—it smelled terrible, like a shower drain that hadn't been cleaned in weeks, and the smell just got worse the farther in they went.

And then more questions arose as they rounded another corner and made it into what could only be the nest proper. Twilight knew it was the nest proper because there were eggs everywhere. Well, not eggs, exactly, more like egg sacs, like those of a spider. Or, considering their size, shape, and familiar appearance: changelings. The resemblance was more than just uncanny, it was almost exact. The only difference was the size; these egg sacs were far larger than any Twilight had seen before.

They were also all empty, their contents—more of that sickly green slime—spilled all over the floor.

To Twilight's surprise, it was Winter who asked a question, though it wasn't directed at her. "What the hell…? Shit."

"Hmm?"

"Listen close, Twilight. These eggs must've hatched recently, very recently. We need to move. Quick and quiet, follow—"

Then, both Winter and Twilight noticed something else. A sound, an almost alien sound yet one that had a sort of familiarity to it. It was difficult to place, really, something between a wail and a hiss, but with little shifts in the tone that made it sound like… laughing? No, not laughing, crying. It was like no crying that Twilight had ever heard before, though, definitely not from any creature that she'd ever encountered.

"C'mon, let's—" Winter started to say. She then hissed, a little louder than her whispers had been so far. "Twilight! What the fuck are you doin'?!"

Twilight had stood upright and made her way towards the source of the noise. She heard Winter, certainly, and she could understand her concern, but there was something about this noise that worried Twilight and she knew that she couldn't let it go unanswered. Whatever it was sounded like it was in pain, and Twilight was not one to allow somepony who was hurt to be left alone.

She could hear Winter plodding through the muck behind her, following and trying to get her attention. "Twilight! Have you gone fuckin' mental? This isn't the time to go wanderin' off!"

"Somepony's hurt, Winter," Twilight said firmly, keeping her voice low as she'd been asked. "I can't just leave them here. You said this place was dangerous."

"Yes, dangerous, which is why we need to leave."

Twilight just kept moving forward towards the source of the noise, past several more sacs of empty eggs and across yard after yard of slime. She lit her horn just enough to provide a little more light for herself to see, though she didn't need much thanks to all of the bioluminescence in the slime already. She was certain that she saw something up ahead; the cavern was massive, so there was plenty of "ahead" to move through.

Then, she saw movement, or at least there was something there that caught the light of her horn differently than it did the light of the slime. Then she definitely saw movement, as whatever it was that had caught the light slinked off somewhere to avoid it. As it did, the earlier sound, the crying, stopped entirely; Twilight was sure she'd heard a brief… gasp? As if whatever she'd seen had been surprised by her presence.

Though it had been brief, Twilight was certain she'd seen some part of the creature just before she lost sight of it. There had definitely been some insect-like qualities in the joints; she could swear that she saw the hint of a wasp's wing? Whatever it was, it was big, but that didn't matter; it had been the source of the earlier sound, the crying, and that meant that it was hurt.

"It's okay!" Twilight called out, not too loudly but loudly enough that she hoped that whoever she'd seen would hear her. "I'm not going to hurt you! I want to help!"

Winter stepped up and grabbed Twilight's hoof. "Keep your fuckin' voice down! What did I tell ya about bein' quiet? You're gonna get us killed!"

Twilight ignored Winter for the moment and refocused her light; she didn't make it brighter, just more directed, like a flashlight rather than a lantern. She used it to search the area, trying to find the source of the movement again. Left and right, up and down, every which way she could in a meticulous pattern, all while continuing forward in hopes of finding the source.

Then, Twilight heard movement again, this time to her left, and very close by at that. She turned and shined her light in that direction, and was surprised to come face-to-face—more or less—with the creature she'd seen before, only this time in full view with all of its qualities on full display.

It was indeed quite large, a little more than twice her own height, which would put it at maybe three, maybe four times the size of an average pony. It had somewhat-equine proportions—quadrapdeal, an elongated neck, etcetera—though with distinctly insect-like qualities to everything such as the joints in the legs which ended in sharp points, the clear carapace around the midsection with half-visible wings beneath, and the stinger-like tail.

The creature did not have a muzzle or mouth like a pony, though, but it did have a fearsome set of mandibles. It had four eyes that reminded Twilight of a spider's, only larger and in positions where a pony's eyes would be; only the larger two of the four seemed to be working from what Twilight could tell. It also had a horn-like protrusion in the center of its forehead, similar to a unicorn's, with a sharp, twisted shape.

"Stay behind me, Twilight," Winter said firmly as she placed herself between the creature and Twilight. The gesture was… odd, to say the least, because the creature towered over Twilight and Twilight already towered over Winter. Like an angry chihuahua trying to defend its owner from a manticore.

The creature let out a low… growl-like noise that Twilight never thought that an insect could make, then let out a threatening screech that was definitely a sound that an insect could make. It slowly stalked around the pair of ponies like a mammalian predator, like a big cat rather than an insect. Twilight didn't dare move just yet; she wasn't sure what the creature would do if she did, and it was probably safer to stay still and stay focused.

Part of Twilight was absolutely terrified; this creature, whatever it was, was big enough that it could potentially rip her apart with ease. It could definitely do that to Winter, who despite not being Twilight's magical equal seemed determined to put herself in harm's way regardless of that fact.

But another part of Twilight told her that there was something wrong here, and that she needed to get to the bottom of the problem so that she could fix it. Whatever the creature was, it was adverse to her light spell, so she shut it off to keep from agitating it. Foal gloves and foal steps were necessary here.

"What is that, Winter?" Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off of the creature, just barely able to track it with only the bioluminescent slime to help her see. The creature didn't seem as though it was about to lash out and strike at them just yet, but Twilight was ready with a barrier spell in case it did.

Winter didn't not respond for a long moment, and Twilight couldn't see what she was doing, but eventually she said, "No way. That can't be—"

"What is it?"

Winter tapped Twilight's leg. "Look to your right. Slowly."

Twilight did so. To her right, against the edge of the cave, looked like a large… crab? No, a beetle. Six legs, a thick shell, and some other oddities that Twilight couldn't make out in this lighting from this distance. It wasn't moving, whatever it was, and in fact looked like it was dead. Or rather, hollow; something had torn a hideous gash through its bottom section and left the rest of the shell empty.

"You see that carapace?" Winter asked.

"Yeah."

"That was what Queen Aculeata looked like when I saw her roughly a week ago."

"Who's Queen Aculeata?"

Winter tapped Twilight's leg again to get her to focus on the creature, which had circled around to their left. "That's Aculeata. A Gargantuan queen. She's moulted again."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said queen Gargantuans were bigger than a house? No, bigger than that, actually. Even that shell over there isn't that big, so even if she moulted—"

"She's been gettin' smaller, and fast. When I was here last, she was just a little bigger than that carapace over there is, and now she's not too much bigger than you."

"She's twice my height, Winter," Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah, and when I was here she was nearly ten times your height. That's my point, she's shrinkin' fast."

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know. I didn't stick around to check at the time, but I planned on doin' some research after finishin' up with all the other shit I've got to deal with." Winter huffed and tapped Twilight's leg again. "We need to get goin' before her young show up. I don't know why she's not attackin' us, but she didn't attack us last time we were here, either."

Twilight paused for a moment, studying the movements of the queen as she did. "I know why. She's scared of us. She's just defending her nest. Fluttershy taught me a lot about animals' habits."

"Scared? Of us? The fuck are you talkin' about, Gargantuans don't get scared, especially of somethin' so much smaller than they are, somethin' they can kill. They don't feel anything at all. They're mindless killin' machines."

"You said that she didn't attack you when you were here before though, right?"

"Well… yeah? I mean, but that's 'cause we were crawlin' right through the nest, right next to all of her eggs."

"Which logically means that she didn't want to risk harming them to attack you."

Winter paused. "That… makes some sense. But the eggs are hatched now, so I doubt that she has that same problem anymore."

"Then why isn't she attacking us? Even a mother bear will attack any intruders she finds around her den. She'd be protecting her cubs."

Another pause. "I don't know. But I really don't want to find out, not when we can just leave—"

"I do want to find out. Something's wrong here, Winter, and I can't just leave without learning what it is." She stepped forward, right past Winter, and addressed the queen directly; she didn't know if the creature could understand her words, but she had to try. "We don't want to hurt you," she said, her tone both confident and sweet as she could manage. "I want to help. Are you hurt?"

Winter hissed, "Twilight—"

Twilight then saw something curious: the queen's "horn" glowed a soft orangish-pink. As it did so, the queen stopped stalking about as she had been, and she tilted her head slightly as if struck by a curious thought. She stepped towards Twilight, slowly, hunched down just enough that she didn't seem as tall anymore.

The queen then scurried off towards the edge of the cave, not particularly fast but not at a normal walking pace either. Twilight followed, ignoring another protest from Winter, though Winter followed behind soon after. She was slowed slightly by the sticky slime on the cavern floor; the queen didn't appear affected by it at all, strangely enough.

At the edge of the cave, the queen stopped, just alongside what looked like it could have been some sort of large pit. Twilight slowly approached the queen, curious as to why she'd led them here, but also still confused about the glow in her horn from earlier, which was no longer there. There was a lot less of the glowing slime in this section of the cave, so Twilight had to light her horn up in order to see, but she kept it dim enough to match the slime elsewhere.

"Why are we followin' her?" Winter asked in a huff. "Twilight, this is a waste of time right now, and dangerous to boot. We need to get movin'."

"She's trying to show us something," Twilight said softly, eyeing the queen cautiously. The queen seemed to be looking between her and the pit below. "Is there something in there that you want us to see?"

"She can't understand you, Twilight," Winter grunted.

"I think she can. And she definitely wants to show us something that's down there." Twilight turned and took a step towards the pit, then increased the intensity of her light spell and cast it into the pit.

She gasped when she saw what was down there: dozens and dozens of bodies. Not pony bodies, no, but… they were almost pony-like in appearance, though with plenty of insect-like qualities much like Aculeata herself had.

To Twilight's sensibilities they seemed like a bizarre halfway point between what a Gargantuan looked like—she'd seen pictures—and what the changelings back home looked like. They couldn't be a hybrid, obviously—changelings didn't exist in this world as far as Twilight knew—but the resemblance was too close to consider anything else.

"What the fuck?" Winter breathed as she looked into the pit with Twilight. "Those are… those are all of the Gargantuans I saw in the eggs when I was here last."

"Are they… are they all…" Twilight murmured.

She glanced towards the queen briefly; she was looking into the pit, and though her eyes and lack of mouth made it near-impossible to emote like a pony could, Twilight could swear the queen looked… well, more than just sad. She looked devastated.

"Dead. All of them." Winter shook her head. "Hard to tell from here, but they don't look like they've been injured, either. They died of natural causes somehow."

"What happened here?" Twilight asked, not really addressing Winter or the queen in particular.

"Well, Gargantuans don't birth their young like ponies do, but if there was an equivalent here I'd say that they were stillborn," Winter explained. "These aren't what 'normal' Gargantuan hatchlings are supposed to look like. We suspected there was some sort of mutation in them, probably the same thing that's causin' the queen to get smaller. Maybe that's why they didn't hatch properly."

"That's why she was crying earlier…" Twilight breathed, turning her full attention to the queen now. "She's grieving."

Winter paused, then let out a sigh and shook her head. "I guess I can sympathize. I can't imagine what that must be like." She patted Twilight's hind leg. "C'mon. We should get goin', leave her to her mournin' or whatever before she decides she wants to get back to normal and, y'know, kill us or somethin'."

Twilight shook her head, then stepped forward and addressed the queen directly. "I don't know if you know exactly what I'm saying, but I think that you can understand me somehow. I'm sorry for your loss. No mother should ever have to mourn her own children."

The queen turned her focus to Twilight for a moment, and her horn glowed that orangish-pink from earlier. Twilight was surprised to see the queen bow her head and start crying again. Now that Twilight could see her doing it, she could tell that it was definitely crying; there weren't any tears, but the way the queen's body trembled was unmistakable.

Twilight turned to Winter. "I'm going to stay here with her," she said simply.

Winter balked. "What?"

"I'm going to stay here. With her. She's grieving, and I want to help."

Winter was stunned, and seemed to have trouble putting words together. "I… you… you want… what? What?! Twilight, have you lost your fuckin' mind? She's just an animal! She could tear you in half without a second thought! Don't be stupid!"

"She won't do that. I don't know if she's fully sapient or not, but she's not 'just' an animal. Maybe she used to be, but she's not anymore. I can tell that she can understand me, and she can tell that I want to help her." Twilight shook her head. "She won't hurt me. If Fluttershy were here, she'd do the same."

"But… why?"

"I'm the Princess of Friendship, remember? Queen Aculeata is mourning the loss of her children. She needs a friend right now, more than anything. It's not just my duty, either; I want to help her. What kind of pony would I be to abandon someone in need, whether they're a pony or some other creature?"

"But Twilight, what if she—"

"I can protect myself if I'm wrong, Winter," Twilight huffed. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm fully capable of using my magic again. I don't need to be coddled, not by you, not by anypony."

Winter stared at her for a moment, then her expression hardened. "You're dead set on this, aren't you?"

"I am."

"What about Applejack, hmm? Do ya think she'd approve of this?"

"If you tell her exactly what's happening here, I know that she'd understand. Even if she doesn't approve at first, she'd know that I have to do this, and she'd support my decision. That's what friends do, Winter. In case you forgot."

Winter's expression fell slightly, then hardened again. "Fine. I'll move on ahead and find Hourglass and Applejack, and we'll be back for ya tomorrow mornin'. If anythin' happens to you though, Twilight—"

Twilight smiled slightly. "I'll be fine, Winter. You be careful, okay? And don't worry about me."

Winter took a deep breath—she looked like she immediately regretted it because of how bad the cavern smelled—then nodded. "Fine. Fine. I'm goin'," she said, taking a few cans out of her saddlebag. "Here, at least take some food. I won't be back for a while."

And, just like that, off she went towards the other end of the cavern, off towards the ruins as they'd originally intended to go to together.

Twilight turned her attention back to Aculeata, who hadn't seemed to be paying any attention to their conversation at all, focused instead on looking down into the pit at her dead children. It was a tough concept to stomach; Twilight had never in her life imagined the thought of dead children—pony or otherwise—so facing the concept head on was… well, it helped her understand the impossible emotions that Aculeata was surely feeling.

She set her hoof against the queen's side, and to her relief the queen seemed to understand the gesture and didn't shy away. "I know that you can understand me, even if you don't know exactly what I'm saying," she said softly. "My name is Twilight, by the way. Twilight Sparkle. I'm a friend. Would you like a friend, Aculeata?"

Twilight couldn't be sure, and maybe it was just wishful thinking, or maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe she was just tired and seeing things that weren't there, but she could swear that the Gargantuan queen… nodded.

*****

Winter grunted and grumbled late that night as she made her way up through a ruined part of the old gryphon city—a section that was actually ruined and not just abandoned—and out of the cavern complex below. This part would've probably been a lot easier if she had somepony with her that could fly her up rather than having to resort to leaping between crumbling platforms to make her way up.

Stupid Twilight, she thought to herself as she climbed her way through broken stone floors. Always has to be so fuckin' helpful and friendly. Can't just leave well enough alone, oh no, she has to make friends with everyone and everything if it has a fuckin' pulse.

She clammored her way up into an old abandoned room that had once been a statue maker's establishment; the centerpiece was a stone gryphon statue that was firmly attached to the floor, still in commendable quality after hundreds of years and far too heavy to steal without irreparably damaging it.

But nooo, Twilight has to go off and play magical fairy princess of fuckin' hoof-holdin' lovey-dovey bullshit! Because of course she does, 'cause she's just so fuckin' perfect. Only a perfect pony princess would want to make friends with a fuckin' mutant insect monster.

She made her way into the room fulling and rolled her shoulders as she caught her breath; she was exhausted, but she wasn't about to call it quits just because she'd been abandoned by Twilight. Again.

Or with an arsehole like me. Fuck, why does she have to be so fuckin' perfect?! It's not fair!

With a grunt, she made her way out of the room through the large stone door and out into the city proper. She was somewhere in one of the old city's districts, though she didn't know if this was some sort of business center or maybe it was the artisan district or what; she'd never learned proper hierogryphics and only knew bits and pieces, not enough to really help her figure out where she was.

Maybe Twilight— yeah, well, fat lot of good that does me if she does know, doesn't it? she thought. Oh yeah, thanks Twilight, you've been a big help. Maybe when you're done playin' hopscotch with the bug queen you can teach those fuckin' zombies out east how to play tic-tac-fuckin'-toe!

She hoped that Hourglass would bring herself and Applejack to the city's center to make camp, because that was where she was going to go first. The route there wasn't exactly easy to take because most of the paths that led up, down, and around the city were located in convoluted junctions, at least far as she was capable of getting to by walking. If she could fly, like a gryphon could, she'd be able to reach the main streets and connections relatively easily.

Wow, sure would be nice if there was somepony around here that could fly! Oh, wait, she's off bein' helpful! Fuckin' hell, she just can't help herself. Too much to ask for her to be anything less than perfect. Too much to ask for her to just leave things be. Always gotta be pokin' her fuckin' nose around where it doesn't belong.

By the time she managed to wind her way to the city center, Winter was not only exhausted after walking for so long without a break, but she was ready to burst with pent-up frustration at the slightest provocation.

Luckily, Hourglass wasn't stupid and had set up camp in the city center, as told by the lantern light that indicated where she and Applejack were stationed. The city center had once served a double purpose as some sort of park or something, decorated with crumbling benches, broken pillars, and empty, dirty troughs that had once probably housed bushes or flowers.

"Winter!" Hourglass called with a smile, running over with the Timekeeper held in her magic. "Blimey, am I glad to see you. I've been bored out of my bloody wits, yeah? I can only play so many rounds of 'Twenty Questions' with AJ before we're out of ideas. And hey, you're back earlier than I expected. I guess Twilight's all better now?"

Winter grumbled under her breath, but nodded. "Yeah, right as rain, whatever. Did you get all the readings taken care of?"

Hourglass paused for half a second, then nodded and passed the Timekeeper over. "Sure did. I took one set when we first got here, then I took a second set the other day just to compare the first set to. I was gonna take a third set tomorrow if you didn't show up, so we can do a quickie before we leave."

"Mmhmm." Winter shook her head and popped the Timekeeper open with her magic, rubbing her hoof against the bridge of her nose. "I'll do a thorough analysis once the sandstorm's fucked off and I can get back to the TARDIS, but it won't hurt to give it a few looks for now, eh?"

As she started looking over the data, somepony cleared their throat just off to Winter's side. "Ahem? Nice ta see you too, I guess." Oh, right. Winter forgot all about Applejack. Well, not forgot about her, just ignored.

"Yes, right, hello Applejack," Winter replied, not taking her eyes off of the Timekeeper. There were quite a lot of figures and graphs that needed looking over, she couldn't get distracted—

"Sooo, are ya gonna tell us where Twilight is, or am I gonna have ta ask?"

"Hmm?"

Applejack inserted herself quite firmly in Winter's view; the Timekeeper could only block so much. "Winter, where's Twilight?"

"Oh. Right." Winter sighed and turned away from Applejack enough to regain her focus on the figures. "She stayed behind in the Gargantuan nest we passed through on the way here. Wanted to make 'friends' with the fuckin' queen, if ya can believe it."

"She what?!" Applejack blurted. "What in the hay is she thinkin'?!" She turned to Hourglass; Winter could just barely see it out of the corner of her eye. "Y'all told me them things were big ol' scary bug monsters! That kill folks!"

"That's the general gist of them, yeah," Winter muttered.

"And you just left her there?!"

Winter rolled her eyes and redirected her attention to Applejack now; the figures could wait until she dealt with the distraction; the annoying, stupid-accented distraction. "I left her with Aculeata, yes. That's the name of the Gargantuan queen that's goin' through some sort of mutation process and is a lot smaller than the ones Hourglass probably told you about."

"What in the hay does her bein' smaller have ta do wit' anything?"

Hourglass interjected, "She might have been smaller, Winter, but didn't she still have lots of, um… pointy bits? I know she let us go when we passed through before, but what about all of her eggs? That's still a lot of Gargantuans, even if they're smaller than what we're used to. Twilight can't handle them all on her own."

"Right, the eggs. They hatched, I guess. All the hatchlings are dead," Winter said with a half-hearted shrug; that would be the end of it, she hoped. "It's just Aculeata now, and Twilight figures she can handle her if anythin' happens, so fuck it, I didn't argue it more than I had to. Not that it would have done any good."

"All of her young… died?" Hourglass frowned. "Oh wow. I mean, I hate to sound like a jerk by saying that I'm not really sad to see a bunch of those monster bugs go, but I dunno, it still sounds bad when you put it like that…"

"And you left Twi alone with this queen or whatever?" Applejack snorted, stepping towards Winter and standing tall. "A queen that has sharp, pointy bits 'n' such, and that can spit poisonous acid or whatever? 'Cause that's what Hourglass tol' me those things can do. And ya left Twi wit' one o' those? Alone? Just makin' sure I got this right."

"Hey, I tried to argue against it," Winter said, ignoring Applejack's attempt at bravado; the annoying distraction wasn't going away, and that just made it more annoying. "But she said somethin' about the queen grievin' over the kids or somethin' like that, and she was convinced that she had to be there to console her. You know, 'cause she's the wonderful Princess of Friendship and all that bullshit."

Applejack blinked. "Wait, she's tryin' ta make friends with this thing?"

"You said it was… mourning? Over what, the dead hatchlings?" Hourglass asked.

"Yeah, that's what Twilight is convinced was happenin', so I said fuck it, let her do what she wants. She doesn't listen to me anyway." With a snide look at Applejack, she added, "Y'know, 'cause if she did, you wouldn't fuckin' be here. And then she wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. So go give her your stink eye."

Applejack seemed unperturbed by the comment, just started tapping her chin. "Well, that does sound like somethin' Twi would do. Probably figured Fluttershy would want her ta do it if'n these critters are anythin' like her animals." She shook her head. "I don't like it, but Twi knows what she's doin'. She ain't gonna be there long anyhow, right? We're goin' back ta get 'er?"

Winter supposed that she should be surprised that Applejack would just agree to it so quickly, just like Twilight said she would. Because of course, Twilight was perfect, everypony should want to listen to her and do whatever she thought was right, right?

"In the morning, yes," Winter huffed, popping her Timekeeper back open to get back to studying the charts and figures. "And don't complain about it. I'm fuckin' rooted after havin' to climb and walk my way over here seein' as Twilight wasn't around to do her fuckin' job and fly me."

Hourglass let out a breath. "Well, at least that's all settled then. If you're sure Twilight's okay, Winter, then I trust your judgment."

"Mmhmm."

Applejack's snorted, and rather loudly at that, and she again forced herself into Winter's view. "Winter, y'all mind if you 'n' me had a lil' talk? Now, preferably?"

Winter rolled her eyes; the distraction just would not go away! "Applejack, I've got to give these numbers a lookover before I get to bed. Whatever asinine shit you have to talk about can wait until morning after I've had a cup of coffee and a good night's sleep. So if you don't mind?" She turned away, but Applejack moved herself back over in front of her. "Look, mate—"

"Don't you 'mate' me, Winter. Don't you give me that load o' horseapples," Applejack said firmly, a twinge of anger in her tone. "Ya don't gotta talk, ya just gotta listen, 'cause I'm gonna say my piece—"

Winter scoffed and walked off. "I don't have time for this."

She was surprised when Applejack snagged her by the scarf, lifted her up, and shoved her against the nearest pillar. "You're a Chronomancer, make time dagnabbit!" she snapped, fire in her eyes.

Winter snarled through clenched teeth, "Let go of me, Applejack."

"Or what? You gonna hit me? Gonna try 'n' knock me 'round wit' yer magic? Go on then, do it. You're already actin' like a lousy friend, might as well double-down on it, right?'

"What the hell are you talkin'—"

Applejack shook her head. "Don't gimme that, y'all know exactly what I'm talkin' 'bout. Ever since we popped back into yer life again you've done nothin' but act like we're lower than dirt. Now I could really give a fig how y'all talk ta me 'cause I'd just as soon wash my hooves of ya 'n' be done with it, but let's look at Twilight, huh? I thought she was yer friend, but ya sure as hay ain't actin' like she is.

"Ya been talkin' to 'er like she's garbage, an' if weren't fer the fact that I done been raised right, I'd've popped you good the second ya called her an idiot. I held myself back, but you're makin' it real hard fer me not ta whoop yer sorry behind inta next week just ta teach ya some doggone manners.

"Not ta mention that ya don't even seem ta care what happens to 'er. Leavin' 'er alone in some dark cave with somethin' ya think could snap at any moment 'n' try ta kill 'er? What in the hay were you thinkin'?"

"She said you would've done the same thing, so don't get all high and mighty with me," Winter snorted.

"See, that's where you're wrong. I would've fought her on it, sure, an' I know she would've convinced me it was the right thing ta do eventually. But ya know what? I would've stayed there with 'er ta make sure she was okay, that nothin' happened ta my friend."

"She knows that I have important work to do—"

"So put it off for a minute, doggone it!" Applejack tapped her temple with her free hoof. "Holy horseapples, girl, y'all sent Hourglass ta take care o' all that already! She done got all them readings ya needed already, ya didn't need ta rush! What, so we can make it back ta the Checkpoint sooner just ta wait out the sandstorm fer longer?

"An' that's another thing! I don't much like the way y'all treat Hourglass neither."

Winter chuckled. "Now I know you're fuckin' with me. Hourglass and I are best mates, I don't treat her wrong—"

"Yeah, ya do. She just don't tell ya how it is."

Hourglass, who apparently had been witness to everything so far and hadn't said anything yet, just cleared her throat to get Applejack's attention. "Um, can we… not involve me? I don't have any issues with Winter. What're you talking about, AJ?"

"See?" Winter snorted. "You've just got beef with me 'cause ya don't like how I tell it like it is to Twilight. You put her on some sort of fuckin' pedestal an' ya think you can talk to me like you've even got a fuckin' clue what's goin' on in my world. Maybe if you were less of a self-righteous bitch you'd understand that."

"You done?" Applejack asked, still firm and clearly angry but not as much as she could be.

"What?"

"I hear what Hourglass is sayin', but that's 'cause she's too dang nice for her own good. But I can read 'tween the lines, an' I can see what you're doin' to 'er even if she can't see it her own dang self." Applejack poked Winter in the chest; not hard, but it made a point. "Ya think you're a good friend to 'er? Then why haven't you ever talked with 'er 'bout her past?"

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Her past? The fuck are you talkin' about?"

"You know dang well what I mean. She tol' me all about what happened to 'er, how she lost everything, how much it bothers her to this day."

"Oh, that." Winter rolled her eyes. "She's over that shit. What're you on about, mate? Sure, she remembers more about her old life than I do mine, but she's over it now, eh? No sense in dwellin' on the past, not like you can change it anyway."

"Actually, Winter… um… I'm not really over it…" Hourglass muttered, scuffing her hoof on the floor. "I talked it over with AJ and she… she helped me realize that it's still affecting me. I still remember everything too well."

"Huh? But you said—"

"That's because you told me to just forget about it!" Hourglass blurted. "Bloody hell, any time I'd ever bring something up, you'd tell me not to dwell on it. 'That's our motto: stiff upper lip', you said. I thought that if I kept trying to talk about it… that you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore. That I'd just be annoying you."

Winter blinked. "Hourglass, I… I didn't know—"

"An' that's the problem, ain't it?" Applejack snorted. "You didn't know, 'cause ya didn't ask. And what ya did know, ya done told her ta bottle it all up an' forget about it. That's not what friends do, Winter. Friends help their friends through that kind o' stuff. They're supposed to be a shoulder to cry on when their friends need 'em to be."

"Fuck off," Winter snarled. "That's not how it is at all. Tell her, Hourglass."

Hourglass didn't say anything, but she looked hurt; she couldn't even look Winter in the eye, and that made Winter tense up. She'd never have expected that kind of reaction, not from Hourglass.

Winter turned back to Applejack, eyes narrowed. "So what, you've been fillin' her head with a load of bullshit? Is that it? Tryin' to turn her against me 'cause ya don't like me getting mad at Twilight?"

"Yeah, that's right. Just brush it off, pretend it's somepony else's fault."

"Fuck. Off."

Applejack shook her head. "I've been hearin' stories, ya know. 'Bout how things're goin' round these parts? Hourglass don't know a whole lot, but she told me enough. She told me what you've been doin' all these years, so if ya wanna know what really makes you a lousy friend, let me give ya the works.

"I don't really know how hard it was or how much time she really spent on it, but I've listened ta how Twilight talked about that there spell that sent us here. Years, she said. She done worked on it fer years, an' she just only managed ta get it workin' a couple o' weeks back. And she even told ya herself why she did it: she just wanted to see you again. Even if it was only for a minute.

"I can't pretend ta understand why Twi likes ya—'specially if you've been an ornery lil' jerk all this time—but she spent years of her life clingin' ta memories she made here. We all did, 'cause that's what friends do fer one another even if they're far, far apart."

Applejack roughly let Winter down from the pillar at last. "You, though? You've been spendin' the last seven years tryin' ta forget it ever happened. Haven't ya?" She grunted in disgust. "Some friend you are."

Applejack didn't even look back as she headed back over towards the little makeshift campsite that had been made. Winter snarled; she wanted to say something, anything, but she couldn't even think of what to say. She couldn't even say that she was angry, just… well, she wasn't sure what emotion this was, actually. Something between anger and… disappointment.

She looked over at Hourglass, and her friend just looked back for a moment, then wordlessly hung her head and also trotted back to the camp.

With that, Winter picked up her Timekeeper—she'd dropped it when Applejack lifted her up—and popped it open again, returning to her measurements and figures again in an attempt to get some work done… and to try and distract herself from the sinking feeling she had in her gut.

Comments

[Turquoise pony]

Friendship problems? Applejack is on the case.👍

[RoboRed]

Ah, next in the line of badly-needed verbal beatdowns: Winter.

Hourglass didn't say anything, but she looked hurt; she couldn't even look Winter in the eye, and that made Winter tense up. She'd never have expected that kind of reaction, not from Hourglass.

Poor suffering Hourglass.

I hope Twilight's kindness and empathy towards Aculeata pays off dividends. If anyone can get it done though, it's the Princess of Friendship.

Things are gonna get complicated in a bit with that cultist squad on the way.