"There it is. Greenville." Marcus stopped the group, pointing in the direction of the office buildings in the distance. It was at least another half-hour's walk.

"Is that smoke?" Jonathan motioned toward the plume of black smoke rising from Greenville.

Marcus saw what he was talking about, and began searching through his bag. He removed an unattached sniper scope and held it to his eye.

"Damn. What happened there?" Marcus said, passing the scope to Doc Church.

Church's eyes got wide. "I'm no pyrotechnic, but I'm fairly sure that's a fire."

"A fire. That would be a pretty good distraction, wouldn't it? We might not even need to blow up the arms cache."

"We'll have to get there quick if we wanna make use out of that fire." Jonathan stretched one of his legs.

"It's not going to be much of a distraction." Doc said plainly. "That smoke is coming from around the holding area. The guards will be all over that place."

"So our job just got harder?" asked Jonathan.

"A lot harder."

"Of course it did."

"Ya know," Marcus pondered. "Twilight gets captured by slavers, and less than a day goes by before their compound is burning to the ground. I'm not sure it's coincidence?"

Jonathan's eyes widened. "Magic death ray."

Doc put his face in his palm. "Can we drop the magic death ray thing? There are more important things to worry about right now."

Marcus nodded his head in agreement. "He's right. Twilight could be in a lot of danger. We should get into Greenville as soon as possible."

"I'm guessing this means the plan is scrapped, huh?" Jonathan said, pulling the minigun off of his back.

"I guess so."

"So, we run in guns blazing."

The good doctor sighed. "Crap. I suppose we have no choice. Just don't go shooting anything that isn't shooting back. I don't need the extra work on my hands."

"Got it. Thanks, mom." Jonathan smirked.

"If we run, we can get there in a little more than fifteen minutes."

"Then let's go. Alice is getting feisty for slaver blood." Jonathan smiled wickedly.

"Alice?" Church looked towards Jonathan, who was stroking his minigun. "You named your gun?"

"A gun this nice? She deserves a name. And Alice kills with malice." Jonathan took a smug pride in his ability to rhyme.

Marcus face-palmed. "I'm starting to regret bringing you along."

Twilight was proud of their plan so far. Retreating to the plaza was the best move they could have made. And now that her head had cleared up, she was glad that her temporary loss of sanity was put to some use.

Adam had gone off to coordinate the slave forces. Martin and Twilight decided to walk to the place where they had trapped the slavers. While they were walking, Martin had filled her in on the details of what happened while she was passed out. The slavers were trapped in one of the office buildings, surrounded on all sides. Unfortunately, there were only two entrances, which would be suicide to get in through. Their plan as of now was to stake out the building at all times, starving the slavers into surrendering.

Twilight asked Martin if they would have to kill the slavers once they came out. The answer was probably going to be yes. Martin didn't like the sound of it either, but he knew slavers were too dangerous to be let loose into the wasteland. The wasteland was dangerous enough as it was.

Still, he couldn't break her heart like that.

"No, we don't have to kill them."

Twilight smiled. "Good."

She got to see a bit more of Greenville on the way. It wasn't like any town or city she'd ever seen. There were no houses, no apartments, no shops, no schools. Just office buildings. Martin mentioned that a plaque in the plaza called Greenville an "edge city". As far as he could tell, it was just a small cluster of office buildings that people from the big city go to work. Not that there were many people working there anymore. Just slavers.

When they reached the building where the slavers were holed up, she couldn't see why they would choose it as a place to fall back. It was only three stories tall, shorter than a lot of the buildings in Greenville. The windows were all boarded up, which Twilight didn't find surprising, since most windows around were broken or seemed to be melted. Slaves were patrolling around the building with guns, presumably to keep any slavers from escaping.

"So why would they choose here?" Twilight asked Martin.

"It's where they do most of their business. It's the most defended place in Greenville, even more so now that the rest of them are up in there."

"What happens if they don't surrender?"

Martin shrugged. "I guess they make their choice to starve to death."

Twilight's ears dropped. "I don't really want to think about that."

Martin saw the expression on Twilight's face, and began stroking her mane, which had only got messier over the past couple days. "It's okay, Twilight. We're giving them a choice. If they choose death, it's not your fault."

Twilight believed that, but she didn't understand why anyone would choose to die instead of facing their mistakes and moving on. Slavery was an atrocity, through and through. Was it really worth keeping at the price of death?

Twilight nostalgically shook her head. She never had to deal with this kind of thing in Equestria. Only, that wasn't true.

Twilight remembered king Sombra. He enslaved thousands of ponies just for crystals. And Nightmare Moon, who tried to stop the sun from rising. And what about Discord, the spirit of chaos? But even Discord was able to turn down his wicked ways.

Ponies sometimes lost their way just like humans did. And if Discord could become good, why couldn't the slavers?

"It's just... I hope they make the right choice."

"They might not have to." a familiar voice came from behind them.

A middle aged man in scrubs was limping towards them, escorted by Adam. A white bandage was wrapped around his thigh.

”Doctor Mayfield!" Twilight perked up at the sight of him okay. The clinic was part of the building she accidentally destroyed. It pained her to think she might have killed him, but seeing him alive gave a boost to her spirit.

"Twilight, Martin, glad to see our plan worked accordingly."

"We wouldn't have made it this far if it weren't for Twilight here." said Martin, making Twilight's face turn red.

"I figured as much. That's why I was prepared for this moment."

Twilight noticed the red spot on his bandage. "Mayfield, what happened to your leg?"

"After stashing the weapons in the gas station, I knew the slavers would find me suspicious after you broke out. I hid out in a convenience store a few minutes away. Unfortunately, one of the slavers found me and shot me in the leg. He would have killed me if this man here hadn't killed him first." Mayfield motioned to his Adam, who nodded towards him.

"Now I heard you two talking. You want to make the slavers surrender without having to starve them, correct?"

"I don't see any other way to make them surrender. They're trapped, but they're not scared of us."

"Indeed they are not, but we cannot wait much longer. The building has a long-range telecommunication terminal. If they get a message out, it won't be long before more slavers start reinforcing Greenville. We need to get in there soon, so we can call in help from Rivet City."

Martin raised an eyebrow. "How do we do that without getting killed? They have the building locked down."

"Twilight, you might be our key to getting inside the building. You mentioned being able to teleport out of Greenville at any time. You wouldn't happen to be able to teleport others as well, would you?"

Twilight nodded. "I can do that. If you're asking if I can teleport slaves into the building, I can't. I don't know what the inside of the building is like. I could teleport us in the middle of a group of slavers."

"I thought you might say that. That's why I brought this." Mayfield pulled a roll of paper out of his pocket, and layed it out on the ground. It was a floor plan of the office building. "I found this in an office desk some time ago. I've been keeping it around just in case."

Twilight looked over the piece of paper. "This might be enough."

"Wait. You can teleport?" Martin asked flatly. Adam was wondering the same thing.

"Yeah, it took me a few years to perfect, but I've learned it better than most unicorns."

"Of course. Unicorn magic. How could I be so silly?"

Adam pointed to a square on the floor plan. "That right there is the basement's bathroom. Very few guards will be down there, so it's the best place to teleport."

"I still want to keep as many slavers alive as possible." said Twilight.

"Then it's good I thought of everything." Doctor Mayfield pulled his doctor's bag off his shoulder, and placed it gently on the ground. He opened it up and held out a small object that looked like a toy car attached to a rubber band and some wood. If it was a weapon, it was hardly threatening.

"A makeshift dart gun. I confiscated it from a slave a little while back. It doesn't look effective, but if used right, it can do exactly what you need it to do."

Martin looked confused. "And how does this help us?"

"I've put extra doses of Med-X in these syringes." Mayfield said, opening the bag further to reveal at least twenty syringes.

"Med-X?" Twilight asked, observing one of them.

"A pain-killer. Much like morphine. The dose I've given them will put the average man to sleep in seconds. I've modified the dart gun to fire these syringes as well as darts."

"How did you know what dose would produce the sleeping affect?" Twilight asked, her inner scientist getting the best of her.

"Over the past few months, I tested it on slavers who only use Med-X as a recreational drug. They thought they'd just be getting high, but they were actually getting me results." Mayfield beamed with pride. "I can be quite devious if I need to be."

Twilight was slightly offput by his method, but she also felt a kind of fellowship with the doctor. Like her, he was a man of science in a world that revered simpler things.

Martin spoke up. "If we're going for a non-lethal approach, we're gonna have to go in unseen."

"There's a generator here." Adam pointed on the map. "We turn it off, we turn all the lights in the building off. It'll also turn off the speaker system, so Stacy can't give orders through the building."

"But doesn't that mean we won't be able to see them either?"

"I have a spell that will let you see in the dark for two to three hours." Twilight said, studying the floor plan.

"A see-in-the-dark spell?" Adam chuckled. "Could you silence our guns while you're at it?"

"No, I haven't learned that spell yet. And if we use the darts, we won't need to use our guns."

Adam shrugged. "It would still be useful to have."

"So we teleport in, turn off the generator, head to Stacy's office, kill as few guards as possible, get to the radio thingy, and send a message to Rivet City asking for backup." Martin asked.

"Correct. Though, we should test the teleportation spell first, before sending anyone into that situation." Mayfield said.

"I'll go." Martin volunteered, earning nods from the rest. "I'm ready whenever you are, Twilight."

"Okay. First I'll give you the dark-eyes spell." Twilight turned to Martin, closing her eyes and focusing her magic.

Martin blinked uncomfortably. He shut his eyes, not liking the sensation. Suddenly, the tingling began to lessen, and he found himself able to open his eyes. When he did, the first thing he saw was green; everything was tinted green.

Ha. Greenville. he thought.

His peers looked at him with surprise, all except for Twilight.

"Your eyes. They're green." Adam said flatly.

The whites of Martin's eyes had turned a bright green, contrasting his blue irises.

"It worked!" Twilight jumped up gleefully. She wasn't sure it would work on a member of another species.

"So I'll be able to see in the dark now?"

"Mhm. The spell will only last a couple hours though, so we need to be fast."

"Then let's go." Martin braced himself for whatever teleportation had to offer.

"All you have to do is relax until it's over. It's completely painless... mostly."

Twilight stood closer to Martin, magic forming around the both of them. Martin stood nervously, waiting for something to happen. After a moment, a flash blinded him, making him clench his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he wasn't amongst the group anymore. He was standing in a darkly-lit bathroom.

Not a second passed before he found himself stumbling around like a drunk and reaching out for anything to grab. The teleportation was extremely disorienting. Martin felt as if the whole world was spinning out of control. He grabbed a broken sink and tried to steady himself.

"The dizziness will only last for a minute." Twilight whispered. "Now wait here. I have to bring the others."

Before Martin could reply, she abruptly vanished in a flash of light, leaving him alone.

The room steadily stopped spinning and he was able to stand up without falling.

The realization finally hit Martin that he was the first human to ever get teleported by a magic, talking unicorn.

I'm gonna have some trouble telling this to my grandkids.

Adam was struggling to drag the guard's unconscious body into the bathroom. The guard was bigger than most, but the tranquilizer still put him to sleep fast.

Martin, Twilight, Adam, and a few other slaves crept through the basement hallways, watching for guards. Adam held the dart gun in front of him at all times, expecting any slavers to come out of a corner.

"Where is the generator from here?" Twilight whispered.

"Next room on the left."

Twilight walked up to the steel door and stopped, listening if anyone was inside. She couldn't hear anything, so she nodded to Adam. The man pressed a button to the right of the door, making the metal locks slide out of place. Adam opened the door slowly, thankful that there were no guards in the generator room.

Martin walked in and turned off the generator with a switch, making the whole building go dark.

"Okay, now let's head upstairs before any guards come to see whats up. Stacy's office is on the third floor."

The six walked unnoticed through the basement until they reached the stairs. They climbed up, but were confused when the stairs stopped at the first floor.

Adam grunted. "Dammit. I forgot, the stairs for the second and third floor are on the other side of the building."

"So what now?"

"We get over to those stairs and we do what we came to do."

Twilight nodded. It wouldn't be easy. The first floor was where most of the slavers would be.
The entrance to the basement stairway was at the end of a hallway. The hallway split off to the left about thirty feet away. They slowly made their way down the hall. At the other end of this long hallway was the stairway to the second and third floors. It wasn't too far, but it felt like miles to Twilight.

The group stopped in their tracks when they heard two guards talking and coming from the left hallway. Twilight and Martin held their breaths and stared wide-eyed ahead. Adam saw a door to the right of them and tried to open it.

"Fuck." he whispered when the door wouldn't open. He pointed the dart gun at where the guards would come out, ready for a fight.

"I can't knock them both out. We might have to-- Twilight what are you doing?"

The two guards came around the corner, and stopped when they saw two purple-enveloped syringes floating towards them.

"What the hell--"

The guards couldn't make another sound before the syringes flew towards their chests, emptying the contents into their bloodstreams. They both fell to the ground, passed out from the tranquilizers.

"Good job, Twilight." Martin whispered. Twilight smiled and continued down the hallway. Her companions followed her, stepping over the sleeping guards.

The hall ended in the staircase, but there was a problem. To the right was the other building exit. Four guards were around the corner, on watch for anyone going in or out. Light was shining through a small window on the door. Sneaking by them would be impossible.

They wouldn't be able to get up the stairs without getting caught by the guards. Twilight tried to think of an alternative.

There was a door to another room on the other side of the hallway. Martin opened the door slowly to keep the guards from hearing it. Walking into the room, they could see part of the ceiling where it was collapsed, making an unsightly hole; or a convenient way to get on the second floor.

Martin was the first to go up through the hole, levitated by Twilight's magic. Once the five humans were on the second floor, Adam pulled her up by the hoof, as Twilight wasn't able to levitate herself.

Walking out of the second-floor room, Twilight could see there were no guards around. They used the stairs to get on the third floor. A guard was walking up and down the hallway at the top of the stairs. Adam carefully aimed his dart gun at the guard and took the shot. The slaver dropped to the ground with a thump. They continued down the hallway, looking for what might be Stacy's office.

Finally, they came to a wall and Adam stopped them.

"This is it. This blueprint says on the other side of this wall is Stacy's office." he whispered. "The door on the left side of the room is where she'll be expecting someone to come through. One of you knock on the door to distract them. Twilight, we'll stay behind this wall. I think you know what to do."

Twilight nodded and watched one of the slaves turn the corner. She waited to hear a knock.

knock knock

Twilight flared her magic and pointed her horn at the wall.

Stacy sat at her desk, popping the bottlecap off another beer. The two guards that were with her stood silently, probably wondering whether or not they should surrender to the slaves outside.

"I still can't believe we got our asses kicked by a fucking unicorn and her gang of misfits. What a joke." she smacked an empty beer bottle onto the floor.

"I run this shit. Me! Nobody fucks with Stacy and expects to live another day, especially not some pompous little unicorn bitch! I knew she was trouble. I should have killed her when I had the chance. But I didn't, and now the people I thought could get the job done are running scared! And they want me to believe a purple horse can bring down an entire building with 'magic'? How stupid do they think I am?

"I'm telling you now, when reinforcements get here, there's gonna be hell to pay. These wannabe badasses are gonna wish they'd gotten caught by raiders than deal with the likes of me."

Stacy took a long sip of her beer. "And when the fuck is someone gonna fix that generator?"

knock knock

The two guards went to open the door, but Stacy ordered them not to.

"What! Who is it!"

No reply came.

"I'm waiting for an answer!"

Still no reply.

"I don't have all Goddam day! What the hell do you--" Stacy was stopped by something slamming her forward over the desk. She tumbled to the ground, coughing and spitting old paint out of her mouth. She landed hard on her chest, making it hard to breath. Dust was filling the room, clouding her vision.

Slaves she didn't recognize rushed in through a hole blasted in the wall she was sitting in front of. The slaves started yelling commands, telling her two guards to surrender. Much to Stacy's anger, they laid down their weapons.

She felt someone push her onto her back.

"You..." Stacy's anger rose even more when she saw her captor.

Twilight Sparkle stood over the slave-driver, a hoof pinning her right arm to the ground. Twilight's horn was glowing a soft purple, and she was grinning oddly.

"Yep, me." was the last thing Stacy heard before a needle went into her neck, putting her to sleep.

Twilight watched as Stacy fell unconscious. Statistically, it wasn't much. There was still the job of making the other slavers surrender. Still, it felt like a small victory for Twilight.

Adam and another slave were injecting the Med-X into the slaver guards. When they were finished, there came the issue of what to do then.

"We need to use the terminal to send a message to Rivet City." Martin stood at Stacy's desk, as the chair had been broken by the blast. After fidgeting with the terminal controls, he discovered it couldn't be opened.

"Damn. It needs a password."

"Does anyone here know how to hack a terminal?" Adam asked the group. No one responded.

"Well maybe she left the password around here."

"I doubt it," Martin shook his head. "And we don't have the time to look all over this place."

"Well what about Mayfield. He might know how to hack."

"Maybe. Twilight, you think you can do your thing?"

Twilight nodded. "Just give me a few minutes.

Her horn flared with magic and she disappeared in a flash of light.

Once she was gone, Adam spoke up. "I don't think the rest of the slavers are just gonna give up. Do you?"

Martin sighed. "I don't know. Twilight thinks it'll work."

"Twilight just got here. She doesn't fully understand what these slavers are. They won't just surrender because we asked them to."

"I know that. But do you wanna be the one to tell her? She thinks sparing these slavers will make up for killing those others. I say let her try."

"And how is she going to make them surrender? She can't just walk up to them."

"The intercom will let us talk to all the slavers in the building. If she can convince them to give up, we can avoid having to kill them all."

"And if they don't surrender, they're gonna know we're up here."

"We can handle it. She can handle it. Give her a chance."

Adam gave a tired sigh. "Okay, we'll do it your way. But if anything goes wrong, some slavers are gonna drop."

Martin nodded. A few minutes of awkward silence passed before another flash of light announced the presence of Twilight and doctor Mayfield. The doctor immediately fell to the ground, dizzied by the sudden change in surroundings. Adam and Martin attempted to hide their amusement, but failed.

"Twilight Sparkle, remind me never to do that again." Mayfield slowly got to his feet, which was difficult when his leg still had a bullet in it.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, supporting Mayfield as he got up.

"Nothing a pair of tweezers and a stimpak won't fix." Mayfield pointed to the bandage wrapped around Twilight's chest. "I see you could use the same treatment."

"It's not too bad." Twilight said, stretching her shoulder.

"That's what everyone says until they get gangrene."

Twilight grimaced at the thought. A stimpak actually sounded pretty good right then.

"Okay Mayfield, if you're done being charming, we have a terminal that needs hacking." Adam pointed to the small terminal at Stacy's desk.

Mayfield walked over to the desk, but stopped when he saw the gaping hole behind it. "Smart. Stacy would have been sitting at the desk."

Mayfield stepped over Stacy's unconscious body, and stood in front of the terminal. He observed it closely, checking the model and difficulty of the hack.

"Yes, I can hack this, but it will take some time."

"Take as much time as you need, doc." Martin said.

Twilight was waiting, thinking. She thought about where she was, and what they were about to do. She wondered if her friends would be proud of her, or if they would be disappointed. She killed a lot of people today, but it was an accident. And she was gonna make up for it. All she had to do was make a group of battle-hardened slavers surrender to a group of malnourished slaves. She swallowed the knot in her throat and tapped her hoof on the ground impatiently.

Martin and Adam exchanged glances and nodded.

"Hey Twilight." Martin tapped his unicorn friend on the shoulder. "We know a way you can convince the slavers to surrender."

Twilight's eyes went wide, and she gave an abnormally large smile. She felt as if her prayers had been answered.

"Really? How? I'll work on it right away."

Martin pointed to a white box on the wall opposite the door. It had a black speaker on it, and a red button.

"That's the intercom. You can use it to talk to every slaver in the building. Just press the button and speak."

"Okay." Twilight cleared her throat and shuffled her hooves nervously. "I can do this."

"We know you can." Martin said. He directed another slave to turn on the generator. The slave ran out of the hole in the wall and made his way downstairs.

Mayfield spoke up from behind the terminal. "Be sure to remind the slavers of what they have to lose. That's all they really care about, anyway."

"Maybe they'll come around." Twilight said. "You did, so why can't they?"

Mayfield nodded his head uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry, Mayfield. I shouldn't have brought that up."

"It's quite alright, Twilight. After this is all over, I won't be in the business of helping slavers anymore."

A few moments of silence passed. "Do you still want to know why I was allied with them?"

"You don't have to tell me, doctor."

"No, I do. You're the reason I have a chance to make things right. You deserve to know."

Twilight was going to say something, but Mayfield stopped her.

"When I came to Greenville, I was on the run. That was eight years ago. I used to work with some very bad people called the Enclave. They wan-"

"Wait, you worked with the Enclave?" Martin asked in disbelief. "Damn. I'm glad your on our side now."

"Indeed. They wanted me to perform experiments-- cruel experiments. They told me to splice human DNA and deathclaw DNA to create a deathclaw that could take orders and have the itelligence to perform tactical . The operation would be extremely painful to the subject. 'No' I told them, 'it's inhumane'. They threatened to kill my whole research team if I didn't cooperate. Even knowing that, I couldn't bring myself to do what they wanted me to do, so me and my team fled the Enclave facility and went our separate ways. I kept running until I found Greenville.

"I wasn't sure about working in a slaver city, but then I learned that Greenville's doctor ran away just like I did. He disappeared one night and was never seen in Greenville again. Without a doctor, the slaves weren't being treated properly, weren't getting the medicine they needed. The slavers didn't care. Without me, they would have died. I had to work with the evil to help the innocent. But thanks to you, I don't have to anymore."

Twilight took in what he was saying. She didn't realize what kind of effect she had made on his life. Twilight couldn't find words to reply, but she settled with what she thought was true.

"Thanks to us. I couldn't have done it alone."

Mayfield looked up from the terminal to see Twilight smiling at him, a smile which he gladly returned.

A metallic whirring noise was followed by the lights in the room and hallway flickering on. She and Martin made their way to the intercom.

"Okay, these intercoms work multiple ways. So the slavers will be able to communicate with us after we use it. Are you ready?"

To be honest, Twilight wasn't sure if she was. She'd given speeches and announcements before. It was part of being so close to Celestia all the time. But when she gave speeches at home, ponies' lives weren't at stake. If she messed up a speech in Equestria, nobody got killed. But now, if she messed up, they'd have to kill a whole building full of people.

Haha no pressure.

Twilight steeled herself and nodded at Martin. He pressed the red button, followed by a buzz from the intercom. Twilight opened her mouth, but no words were coming out. What could she possibly say in a situation like this?

She looked up at Martin. He lipped the words 'say something'.

Dammit get a hold of yourself, Twilight. she thought, slapping herself across the face with a hoof. Martin looked at her oddly.

"Um, hello. My name is... no. Umm. We don't want to hurt anyone, but... no no no."

Martin watched her measly attempt with feigned enthusiasm. Twilight could see the disappointment on Martin's face. She was failing him, failing herself, failing everyone. And failing wasn't an option.

"Stacy is dead." Twilight lied, taking Martin slightly by surprise.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I killed Stacy. She enjoyed beating her slaves, so I removed her arms first. She also reveled in kicking them, so I removed her legs. Then I killed her. Ripped her head off with magic, made quite a mess."

Twilight looked at Martin and winked. Martin gave her a thumbs-up.

"I could easily do the same thing to each and every one of you. It would be as easy as tearing a piece of paper. You've all chosen a life of inflicting cruelty and suffering on others, so I have no sympathy or regrets about killing you in the worst fashions I can think of. But fortunately for you, it doesn't have to be that way.

"I'm feeling generous today, so I'll make a deal with whoever will listen. If you surrender peacefully, and promise to make a new life for yourself-- one that doesn't include slavery-- I'll let you keep your body parts. If you choose to keep your evil ways-- well, I already destroyed one of your buildings. Who's to say I can't do it again?"

Twilight tried to think of what to say last.

"You have ten seconds to decide before I decide for you"

Martin kept his finger on the button. Twilight guessed that was her cue to start counting down, even though she had no idea what to do when she got to one.

"Ten... nine... eight..." Twilight counted down, hoping her voice wasn't making her nervousness too obvious.

"Seven... six... five..." the room was completely still, everyone except Twilight holding their breaths. Even Mayfield stopped his hacking, waiting with his fingers crossed.

"Four... three... two..."

Please please please, for the love of Faust, please answer!

The speaker above them made a high-pitch beep, making Martin take his finger off the button. A few seconds of silence passed and no one in the room moved a muscle.

A gravelly voice rang out through the speakers. "Fine. Just don't shoot when we come out."

Another small moment of silence went by. Twilight was dumbstruck. She couldn't believe that had actually worked. She was in a loss for words before she saw Martin's relieved smile. Her excitement quickly took over her.

"WE DID IT!" Twilight cheered, jumping up and down.

Adam also looked relieved, laughing and conversing with the slave next to him. Mayfield nodded his head in satisfaction and went back to hacking the terminal.

"Good job, Twilight. I knew you could do it."

"Thanks, Martin." Twilight stuck out a hoof towards the human. Martin was confused, but he had the strange urge to bump the hoof with his fist.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what that was."

"We call that a hoof-bump in Equestria."

"Well then, I'm glad to be the first human to ever get a hoof-bump."

"And I'm glad to be the first pony to ever get a fist bump."

The two friends shared a laugh before they heard something down the hallway. The slave who went to turn on the generator let out a shout and a gunshot soon to follow.

"We might have trouble." Adam asked, pulling his pistol out of its holster.

A few seconds went by before a small group of four slavers quickly entered the room through the hole blasted in the wall. Mayfield didn't have time to react before the barrel of an assault rifle was pressed against the back of his head.

The next few seconds were a flurry of chaos.

"Drop your guns or this fucker dies!"

"Get away from him!"

"Put down your guns!"

"Put em' down!"

"Give it up assholes!"

"Don't make us shoot you!"

"Drop the fucking guns!"

Twilight couldn't pick out most of the commands that were being shouted from both sides. One of the slavers didn't say a word, just nervously watching the events playing out in front of him. He had his weapon at the ready, but it wasn't aimed. Twilight could tell he was younger than the rest, and he didn't have the same fierce look about him as was with the other slavers. He almost looked scared. In a way, Twilight thought he was a lot like herself.

Out of nowhere, all hell seemed to break loose.

The slaver beside the youngest one fired and struck the wall behind Martin, just barely missing him. The slaver threatening Mayfield dropped when a bullet from Adam's gun struck him in the head. The slave next to Adam got hit in the shoulder and missed his target. Adam put a few more shots into the slaver's chest. The younger slaver looked down at his fallen comrade with a mix of terror and disbelief. He looked back up at Twilight, and his expression changed. Something escaped his lips that couldn't be heard, but Twilight took a few weeks of lip reading classes in Canterlot.

Liss it's all yorf ald? No, I think it's... Twilight realized what he was saying. This is all your fault.

The young slaver raised his shotgun to meet her gaze.

She couldn't explain what the next few seconds were like. Everything happened so fast, and yet it was almost like time slowed around her. Twilight was staring down the barrel of a gun that would soon kill her. She almost couldn't believe it was gonna end like this; shot to death in some dingy old office building in a world she never got to know. Her friends in Equestria would probably never find her. She'd be forgotten. Even worse, she'd most likely not even get a proper burial; just some ditch the slavers could find, if she was lucky. They might just get hungry and eat her. It was a hell of a way to go.

The slaver in front of her tightened his grip on the shotgun and his finger began putting pressure on the trigger. Without even trying, her legs seemed to move on their own, and her thinking was suddenly cleared. It couldn't end this way; she wouldn't let it end this way. The buckshot from the slaver's gun missed Twilight completely as she hopped to the right to avoid it. Her opponent pumped the shotgun and prepared to fire again. Twilight steeled herself. This time, she wasn't going to give him the chance. This time, she focused on survival; nothing else crossed her mind. Levitating her sub-machine gun to point at his torso, Twilight pulled the trigger. She gritted her teeth through the chaos as blood and smoke flew into her face, stinging her eyes. Despite the unpleasant sensation, she held down the trigger, until the only remaining sound was an empty gun's click.

Click click click

A moment of silence passed before the gunsmoke cleared. The youngest of the slavers was on the ground, sprawled out in an expanding pool of sickening red fluid. Mayfield turned his head around slowly, hoping to see nothing there but a big hole in the wall. Twilight dropped her weapon to the ground, saying nothing. She stared at the floor where the slaver she killed was lying. Adam rushed to the injured slave's aid, and Martin knelt down beside Twilight.

"Twilight... I... You wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what? There's nothing to say." Twilight began staring at the wall, where her victim's blood began dribbling down to the floor. She wasn't upset. Not angry, sad, or remorseful. She found it hard to describe. It was almost like she felt... numb?

"Must have been the slavers that didn't agree to surrender." Martin tried to think of what to say next. "You did the right thing, Twilight. They could have given up, but they chose not to. They would have killed you if you hadn't done that."

"I know. You can't save them all." Twilight sighed, leaning her head on Martin's shoulder. They both sat there for a few minutes, not saying a single word. Martin knew how killing had an effect on people. Some were torn by it, some found a thrill in it, but he could tell Twilight just wanted to let it go. As far as he could tell, that was good.

"Let's go, Twi." Martin whispered. "We still have to deal with the rest of the slavers."

Stacy woke up face-down on the concrete. It took her a moment to fully regain consciousness, but she didn't like the look of things when she did.

"Goddamit." Stacy muttered, trying to pick herself off the ground. Her arms were tied behind her back, making her even angrier.

"What the hell is going on here!"

"It's about time you woke up." Adam said, lifting Stacy onto her knees. "Twilight, Martin, over here."

Stacy gritted her teeth at the mention of the unicorn. She looked around her. On either side of her were two slavers, both too ashamed to look her in the eyes. She leaned forward to look past them. There was a long line of slavers, all tied up and on their knees.

Stacy turned to the slaver to her left. "You surrendered didn't you?"

The slaver didn't reply. It didn't matter to Stacy. They failed her. That was all she needed to know.

"You fucking cowards. To think I called you my men! I thought you all could handle a few rebellious mules like you actually had a pair of balls. Shows how much I knew."

"To be fair, it wasn't really their fault." Twilight walked up to her, a grin on her face. "I told them you were dead, something about having ripped your head off."

"And you fucking believed her!?" Stacy yelled at the slaver to her right.

"Most of them did. A few didn't. We took care of them." Twilight said, remembering what happened less than half an hour before.

"So? What are you gonna do now? Kill us?" Stacy laughed. "I don't think you will, my little pony. You don't really have what it takes."

Twilight said nothing, but pointed a hoof towards the pillar of smoke that was still rising from the rubble of the collapsed building. Stacy's jaw dropped a little, finding it hard to believe the story was true.

"Shows how much you know." Twilight smirked, walking away from her to address the line of slavers.

"Here's what we're going to do. Either you can walk away into the wastes to start anew, leaving behind your life of cruelty--"

"Or you can rot away in the Rivet City prison." Martin finished her sentence.

"The choice is yours. Fall onto your back if you decide to leave and never return."

The slavers looked at each other, weighing their options. Stacy just glared at Twilight with a burning hatred.

After a moment of thinking, most of the slavers accepted defeat. All but four fell onto their backs, ready to give up the fight. Stacy looked at the thinning line of loyal slavers with disgust. She looked down to see the two slavers beside her lying down.

"So almost all of you made the right decision. Good." Twilight was satisfied to see most of the slavers still had some semblance of humanity in them.

"Now what we're gonna do is untie you, and each one of you is going to strip down to your underwear."

The former slaves began untying the former slavers one-by-one, until there were only the slavers still kneeling. Each one started removing their clothes until they were in nothing but underwear.

"Good. Listen closely. You're going out in the wastes to start new lives. Do some good deeds to make up for years of making other people suffer." Martin spoke up so all the slavers could hear.

"Head to the nearest town, tell them that you were robbed, and forget about what happened here. And if you continue doing horrible things to people, Twilight here will know. And when she finds you--" he motioned towards the plume of smoke. "That'll look like child's play."

The slavers felt embarrassed, for more than one reason. But their brief humiliation was worth getting to live. Most of them spent years participating in slavery, hurting people. They forgot what helping people was like, and a few of them were even relieved to have a new beginning practically handed to them.

Once Twilight and Martin believed the point had been delivered, a group of former slaves began escorting the half-naked slavers to Greenville's entrance. Stacy watched angrily as the men she once trusted abandoned her and disappeared behind the rows of office buildings.

"Now, about you five..." Twilight wondered what she would do about the slavers who refused to go.

Mayfield approached them with a satisfied look about him.

"I contacted Rivet City security. It wont be long until they come to take these ones to prison."

The four slavers besides Stacy had accepted their fates, but Stacy laughed, almost maniacally.

"Doctor, don't tell me you think I'll be staying there. I still have connections, Mayfield. Powerful connections to people who might not wanna see their number one slave-supplier locked up. You think Rivet City prison will be able to keep me forever?"

"No, I don't." Mayfield said with a smirk. "That's why I also sent a message to the Citadel. Let's see if your powerful connections can break you out of a Brotherhood prison cell."

Stacy's look went from cocky to fearful in a heartbeat. She knew her associates weren't going to risk making enemies with the Brotherhood of Steel. Stacy quickly became angry.

"You! You goddam purple son of a bitch!" she yelled at Twilight. "You had to go and fuck everything up, didn't you!"

Twilight approached the increasingly irritable Stacy. "I mean this with all honesty: I hope you have fun in jail. Send me a keychain if you can."

Stacy replied by spitting at Twilight's right forehoof. She shook the saliva off, looking back at the slaver.

After a moment of stillness, Twilight wrapped Stacy in a tight hug.

Stacy attempted to break free of the hug, but didn't succeed. "What the hell are you doing?"

Twilight pulled away from Stacy with a delicate smile.

"Making up for this." she said, bringing her hoof down on Stacy's face with all her strength.

Author's Note

So yeah, I'm updating this story again. It's been... a while.