[?]

"This is where we say goodbye."

The warm smile on the face of the gray earth pony mare seemed better suited for a greeting than a farewell. A titanic whirlwind of brilliant blue energy towered behind her, swirling its way up from a black abyss far below to an orb of pale white flame in the night sky. The mare's long sable mane whipped back and forth in the gale-force wind, but her deep violet eyes remained calm and centered on her companion. She let out a sigh that was lost to the howling storm.

"Can you at least wish me a safe journey?"

The pegasus filly that stood before her at the cliff's edge stared straight down, her posture sunken and forlorn. At her back were the plains of emerald grass that they'd long called home and the imposing form of the White Spire, a monstrous tower that rose so high into the air that its top could not be clearly seen from below. Stacks upon stacks of leather-bound books that stood all about swayed to and fro, but the only part of the gray filly that moved was her tousled blonde mane.

As it became increasingly clear that the younger pony would not respond, the elder mare leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "That's all right," she said with her gentle voice. "I suppose it's not a real goodbye. Take care, Little Sister." She turned about in an elegant motion and walked toward the whirlwind just beyond the precipice.

Seconds later, the pegasus filly rushed forward and latched onto the mare's front-left leg. The action had enough force behind it to stop the earth pony dead in her tracks.

"Derpy?" asked the mare.

"Don't go!" Derpy shouted, her frail boyish voice barely rising above the wind. "I don't want you to go!"

"I'm glad to see you've found your words," said the mare, "but we talked about this." She gently removed her foreleg from Derpy's grip and once again stood before the downcast filly. "The way to the Land Past the Sky is open. We may never get another chance to see it."

"I don't care about that," said Derpy, her gaze never leaving the ground. "Why do you care so much?" She shut her eyes in frustration, forcing a pair of tears down her cheeks. "Did I do something bad? Am I boring? Why do you want to leave me behind?"

The mare reached out a hoof and wiped the tear away. "Derpy, look at me." When the filly did not respond, she placed the hoof under her chin. "Look at me."

Derpy did as she was told, though one of her golden irises disobeyed the command and drifted to the right.

"You know better than that," the mare admonished. "I love you, and I'm coming back for you. I'd take you with me right now if I could." The blue light from the whirlwind danced in her eyes. "You believe me, don't you?"

"Yeah."

A knowing smile played across the mare's lips. She lowered her hoof and touched the amber jewel of a silver necklace draped around Derpy's neck.

"As long as you have Amber," she said, "our hearts are connected, no matter how far apart we may be."

Derpy Hooves looked to her sister's neck and the necklace that encircled it, identical to her own save for its jewel of white pearl. Her expression calmed and the corners of her mouth turned up just a bit at the reassurance.

The elder mare drew her sister into a soft embrace. "I need you to be brave for me, Derpy. I'll be back before you know it, and all this will become nothing more than a distant memory." She pulled back and looked deep into Derpy's wavering gaze. "Can you be brave for me?"

Derpy gulped and tried to smile, though water welled in her eyes even so. "I'll try, Sis."

"Good girl," said the mare.

The white light of the orb in the sky flashed brightly in response to an unseen command. Tongues of its flame descended from above and wreathed about the earth pony mare. Then, slowly but surely, the mare was borne aloft, ascending into the maelstrom on a cradle of encircling fire.

Derpy's eyes widened in alarm. "Sis?" She trotted forward to within an inch or two of the edge. "Sis!" Her wings unfolded reflexively, but they were still too tiny to carry her weight.

Despite her words, the mare's eyes began to water as well. "Remember me," she said, unable to stop her voice from cracking. "Remember our promise."

"I will!" Derpy shouted from the precipice, her voice barely audible through the wind. "I love you!"

A single tear made its way past the elder mare's defenses. Her body entered the blue energy of the whirlwind and began to disappear from view.

"Most of all," she said, her voice now echoing in the sound of the storm itself. "Never forget your courageous heart."

With a bright flash and one final blast of wind, the cyclone vanished, leaving only silence and stillness in its wake. Derpy Hooves sat back on her haunches and looked up at the last wisps of blue energy making their way into the orb of white flame. Moments later, the orb itself faded from view, leaving its golden-flamed cousin alone in the sky. Derpy's eyes moved back and forth, watching the stars, auroras, and swirling rainbows that drifted about in the darkness for any sign at all, any trace of her dearest sister. Seconds passed, then minutes. She found none.

Her throat tightened and her eyes watered, but Derpy gave a mighty sniff and blinked back the oncoming tears. "Okay, Sis," she whispered. "I won't cry. I'll be brave, just like you said."

Derpy got up slowly and walked back toward the fields of grass. As she passed by the diminutive towers of stacked books, a faint sound permeated the silence. Derpy's eyes widened. She pulled a featureless leather-bound volume from one of the stacks and flipped it open on the ground before her. One eye scanned the pages with intensity as she brought a hoof to the jewel of her necklace, pressing it deep into the gray fur of her chest.

"I'm not afraid," said Derpy. "You're coming back for me, so I'm not afraid."

The sound grew louder and more distinct. It emanated from beyond the cliffside, from the abysmal darkness far below. It was, in fact, not one sound, but many—a choir of voices crying out in pain and anguish. Derpy Hooves began to tremble. She knew that they wouldn't stop. She knew that there was nothing she could do. She simply continued to read, hoping that she could lose herself in the stories all around her. Derpy's heart pounded in her chest and her skin grew hot. Though her teeth began to chatter, she repeated the mantra over and over, hoping that it would become true.

"I'm not afraid . . ."

My Little Pony: Lost Legacies

"Help Wanted"

[Morning of Day 15]

Everything smelled like burnt muffins.

Derpy Hooves's eyes snapped open to stare at the textured patterns on the ceiling of her apartment. A ringing noise filled her ears and hammered on the inside of her skull. Her gray-furred right hoof sought out the source, but Derpy's gaze remained locked upward. The muscles in her face contracted and the cotton-like taste of morning breath bothered her more than it should have. No matter how many times she looked up at that ceiling, it never failed to elicit this particular emotion from her.

Her hoof toppled a nearby stack of books in its ongoing search. Derpy's right eye tore its gaze from the patterns above and found the bouncing alarm clock clattering on top of an unmounted shelf. Her hoof came down like a hammer and, at long last, the loud crack of broken glass gave way to merciful silence.

Derpy sat up in her futon and immediately wondered why. She swept the long locks of her blonde mane aside to stare at the fractured alarm clock. It had stopped at 7:41 AM. That's why, Derpy thought. I saw it before I saw it again. And I'm late. Upon realizing this, she pulled herself up from bedding that smelled faintly of body odor to meet the sickening "ever-so-slightly warmer than it should be" air that pressed in on her from all sides..

Random dust motes distracted Derpy's eyes as she stumbled toward the corner where she remembered depositing her mailbags. Finding them where she'd left them—a stroke of good luck by Derpy's reckoning—she began to slide the leather saddlebags on before stopping halfway and supposing that she probably looked awful. The gray pegasus settled the bags back on the floor and made her way a bit more carefully to the bathroom, sidestepping piles of books and magazines so that she wouldn't have to stack them again later.

She gave her stiff wings a stretch and immediately regretted that decision when her wing joints bumped against the walls to either side of the bathroom door. She winced, now fully awake, and her face turned hot at the mistake. With the now-smarting appendages folded back where they belonged indoors, Derpy stepped gingerly across the threshold and looked to the cracked mirror above the sink. Seeing nothing, she flipped on the lights.

The first thing Derpy observed was a frazzled blonde mane begging for attention. Knowing that a time-consuming shower was out of the question, she cranked the faucet and splashed ice-cold water all over her head and neck. After absorbing the excess water from her mane with a towel that smelled of dandruff and old shampoo, Derpy stared into the mirror and brushed her hair back to render her appearance at least somewhat professional. One of her golden irises stared back at her from the mirror. The other one seemed to be observing her efforts with the brush.

Derpy Hooves smiled at the mirror to see what it would look like when she smiled today. It was a vain practice born of habit. After all, the cracked glass never smiled back.

LL