Fallout: Equestria, Hivemind

When in Roam
The sky started to turn orange as the sun began its dip down under the horizon.

Tidbit limped as he tested weight on the recently reattached rear leg, as the bone that the scorpion crushed was still knitting together under the healed dried flesh. Misty cast a quick glance at the ghoul pony before returning her attention to her other patient. Laying on the back of Hero, Emjay remained almost as still as a corpse; her wings draped down Hero’s side and the tips dragging in the dirt. As Misty drew another healing potion out of her pack, she pulled the batpony’s head back then forced the liquid down Emjay’s throat.

“Will she live,” Hero asked as they continued behind Tidbit.

Misty sighed. “I don’t know. The venom hit near her spine, has paralyzed her flight muscles and has affected her heart and lungs. I’m surprised she is still alive.”

Emjay’s body spasmed as the potion entered her blood stream, the medical magical elixir fighting the mutated poison from the scorpions sting while also healing the minor wounds that she gained when her body had bounced across the ground.

“Hat”. Hero and Misty started at the sound of the rough voice coming from Emjay. “Where is my hat?”

“It’s on your head; where it should be,” Misty reassured her.

The batpony gave a sigh of relief and faded out again.

Hero looked at the unconscious batpony and poked at her with chitinous muzzle. Grey fur rose and fell with each breath.

“We need rest. We should stop for the night,” the changeling told Misty.

The unicorn nodded then trotted forward to the ghoul, exchanging a few quick words with him before he gave a nod in agreement and led them off the roadway into a small gully. Tidbit turned to the others as he moved to sit down. “We should be safe here.”

Misty watched as he sat down, noticing how he favored the damaged leg. She could see exhaustion radiating from him as his shoulders slumped and his head hung low. Hero moved close to Tidbit then gently lifted Emjay from her back and placed her on the ground. She then looked over at Misty and chirped at her. Misty, also feeling the effects of the day, moved closer to the pair of patients. She took off her packs and brought out some of her basic medical supplies. Satisfied that she had what she needed she began fussing over them.

“I just wish that the bat had a pipbuck, I could use it to help me with her.” Misty groused.
Hero cocked her head in thought before she offloaded her own pack, opened it and rooted around inside. With a happy cheep she brought out the pipbuck that Emjay had rejected earlier, a green magical field surrounded it while she brought it to the grey, still figure. She lifted Emjay’s front left hoof and fastened the pipbuck, clicking it and locking it shut. It beeped and booted up while nanofibers snaked from its rear and into the skin of the sick batpony as she remained still.

“Where…”

Hero shrugged. “Big Purple,” she said with a sense of indifference.

Misty briefly shot her a confused look then rolled her eyes as she worked out what the changeling meant. “That was nice of her.”

Hero nodded. “You trust her, so she must be nice."

“I trust you too.”

Hero wandered off and started to gather wood as Misty activated the batpony’s new pipbuck’s stats screen. Hero’s ears twitched slightly as she nearly heard Misty mutter to herself “Mostly.”

The fire crackled as Hero and Misty shared a ration bar, Tidbit and Emjay on the other side, both of them mostly still. The only signs of life from them being Tidbit’s occasional twitches and a slight glow from his eyepiece while Emjay’s chest rose and fell heavily as she breathed, the vast quantities of healing potions that Misty and forced into her continuing their work.

“We lost half our supplies,” Misty told her friend, “Tomorrow we should turn back and see if Serenity can give us more.”

Hero chewed on her half of the bar in thought for a moment. “No,” she said finally, “We go on. We are used to eating different things we find.”

“Not all of us are going to eat insects and meat”, Misty retorted “That’s just wrong.”

“You eat the bars, we will eat the bugs.”

Misty gagged. Hero grinned showing off her sharp teeth.

“But,” Hero’s face became serious, “We can go on and do this, for your friend.” Hero looked over at Emjay and Tidbit. “And our friends.”
Misty shook her head “Ours as in yours, or ours as in yours and mine?”

“Yes.”

“She is right you know.” They both jumped slightly as Tidbit stirred, his vodicator distorted voice quiet. “I hardly need to eat, and she can eat anything. The only ones we need to carry food for, is you and probably... uh…,” his voice faded as he looked down at the sleeping figure beside him, “-her. I don’t know what her kind naturally eat”

Emjay snorted, rolled over on her side, her wings akimbo, and snored.

“Tomorrow is going to be a long day; you should also get some sleep.” He stood up, testing his weight on all his legs. “And it seems that me having my first snooze in Celestia knows how long, has helped heal my leg.”

Misty’s mouth opened to protest before a green glow surrounded her muzzle and shut it.

“Thank you,” Hero said, “We will both do that.” With that being said, she curled up alongside the snoring winged fluff-ball, and soon joined in.

Misty watched as the changeling very quickly fell asleep. After she could hear the strange snores from her friend she turned her gaze into the flickering flames of the fire.
“When I met her, “ Misty said reflectively, “She could barely think. She had no name, no sense of who or what she is. It was like she ran on pure instinct. After she accidently saved me, she started to follow me like a love sick puppy. Look at her. She is planning, arguing, joking, and even fighting for what she thinks is right. I think that now it’s me that is following her.”

Tidbit turned his full attention to Misty. “And is that a bad thing?”

Misty gave a sigh, then whispered, “I hope not.”

The sun peeked over the horizon sending shafts of light into the face of a batpony who was laying across a sleeping changeling, whose head was resting on the rump of a snoring unicorn. The batpony’s jaw creaked as she yawned and blinked her eyes open. As she moved, the changeling also started waking up, leading to the unicorn shuffling suddenly missing the warmth of the head that was using her body as a pillow.

Tidbit tossed some wood into the embers of the fire as he heard the mares start to wake up. New flames leapt from the embers and started to eat into the bark. The sound of dark muttering came from the batpony as she sat up and tried to pretend that she had not been sleeping on the changeling. Churs came from the throat of the changeling who was pretending that she didn’t know. The unicorn remained silent while she sat up. It was then that Emjay noticed that her left foreleg felt heavier than she had become use to. She looked down at her foreleg.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Her eyes widened as her ears flattened against her skull. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!”

Tidbit’s armored head swung around as the enraged batpony extended her healed wings threateningly, while her fur fluffed out. Emjay tried to remove the pipbuck from her limb, screeching as it resisted every effort.

“I AM NOT A SLAVE! I AM NO PONY’S SLAVE!” She screamed at the changeling and unicorn. “GET THIS MANACLE OFF ME NOW!” Her voice dropped into seething violent rage, “or I will fucking kill you all.” Dark grey leathery wings flared out as she snarled, sharp teeth and fangs gleaming in the morning light.
Misty reared back from the raging bat pony and whinnied in fear. Hero blinked and then calmly looked into the fury filled eyes of Emjay, then booped her nose. Squawking loudly, Emjay fell onto her rump, covering her snout with her hooves while glaring at Hero, who returned the glare.

“STOP DOING THAT,” Emjay yelled, her voice ending with an embarrassing squeak.

“You nearly died,” Hero told the vibrating and shocked grey ball of rage, “That thing helped Misty save you.” Hero’s glare softened. “You are our friend; we don’t want you gone.”
Emjay looked over at Tidbit who returned her stare impassively, then she swung her head around to Misty, who immediately started looking in one of the packs muttering to herself.

“Whatever,” Emjay snarled. She picked up her hat and jammed it on her head and stormed to the other side of the fire and sulked.
Misty’s trained eyes had already taken in how the batpony’s movements and posture had returned to normal, and as she pulled out a ration bar, then broke it in half, she whispered to Tidbit, “Half a dozen potions and a good night’s sleep fixes anything.”

Tidbit snorted.

“I swear, you could break your neck and after a nap you would be up and running.”

“Tell me,” Tidbit’s voice betrayed his amusement, “Will you be donating your neck to see if that will work?’

Misty’s glare at the ghoul would have incinerated a lesser pony.

Hero’s ears twitched as she caught the sound of scrabbling in the rocky ground. Her eyes caught sight of a segmented shelled body of a large rad roach making its way over the soil. A smile formed on her lips as she stalked behind the insect. She gave a leap then slammed her fore hooves into the back of the bug. The roaches shell crunched as it gave a high pitched shriek. Hero bit behind the insect’s head and ripped it off, the six buggy legs thrashing. Digging her fang into the ex-roach’s carapace she dragged the corpse closer to the fire. Misty watched with disgusted fascination as the changeling started ripping the shell off the meat, then the meat into pieces.

“I would advise at least searing the meat before you pack it,” Tidbit advised.

“Don’t encourage her,” Misty moaned nauseously.

From her side of the fire and unseen by the rest, Emjay watched the butchering and drooled.

Overcast skies filtered the midday sun, keeping the travelers cool.

“And those arrows let you know where each of us are,” Misty patiently told the sullen bat pony. A thought came to her. “It’s almost like you have each of us on a collar and leash.”

Bat ears perked up at that. Emjay looked sideways at Misty then at the ghoul walking beside her. “What about him?” Distaste was palpable in the bat-pony’s last word.

“We know where he is, but he only knows where we are when he wears the helmet. Besides, I doubt it could work properly with that old bag of bones.”

“Hey! I can hear you!”

Misty ignored the indignant Tidbit. “So it’s just us mares”. She hoped that it would help settle the sometimes unstable pony.

The former slave looked down at the ground as she walked. Her experiences in the camp, at the hands of both males and females were brutal, abusive, and degrading. Yet most of her fear and hatred were towards stallions. It was always a stallion who had owned her, from the time she was a filly. Always a stallion that had bought and sold her, that set her up to be used and abused by others, or thrust her in a ring to kill, or be killed.

“Bad meat,” Hero said suddenly, her sensitive nose in the air.

Misty shot an annoyed look at the changeling “Look, none of us have had the chance to wash for the past few days, it’s no wonder we smell bad”

“No.” Hero shook her head.

“It’s not Tidbit’s fault he smells that way either.”

“HEY,” Tidbit complained.

Hero sighed. “No, we smell pony meat that is bad.”

Misty grumbled a bit at Hero’s phrasing, while Emjay shot Hero a look. The changeling trotted forward, her nose to the ground sniffing, passing the ghoul, as she started up a hillock and disappeared over the crest.

Tidbit and Misty ran to keep her in sight as Emjay tested her wings in the air.

“Oh fuck me,” Misty gasped as soon as she made it over the top of the hill. In a gully between hills, ran a well trotted dirt track. On the side of the track a large wooden stake was imbedded into the earth. A cross beam was crudely fastened near its top. Near the ends of the cross beams, iron nails pierced the pastern joints of a pony’s forelimbs. The limbs dangled down, ripped out the sockets of the pony, whose remains were in a pitiful pile of bone and scraps of flesh and red and black fur at the base of the cross. A crude sign was nailed to the top of the upright. Misty read it aloud. “Occidere equos qui in qua punctum rubrum et nigrum.” She looked confused, “What in Celestia’s name does that mean?”

Hero poked around the bones in case there was anything usefully. Finding nothing of use, she returned to her friends. Misty looking shocked that somepony would crucify another pony, turned to Tidbit who remained silent, his own feelings hidden by the helmet. Emjay, on the other hoof, looked worried.

“My owner spoke of these things,” Emjay whispered, “Ex-owner,” she amended. She flinched as three pairs of eyes looked right at her. Shying away she muttered darkly to herself.

Hero walked up beside her and gently rump-bumped her. After glaring at the impassive face of the changeling the bat-pony sighed. “The President; he was scared of these ponies. They are stronger than the president’s forces, better trained. And ruthless.” Emjay took off her hat, took out the bag, and retrieved a pre-rolled joint. She lights it up and sat down, a plume of narcotic smoke streaming from her nostrils. “He said the only weakness they had were that they were honorable. He planned to take advantage of that.”

“You are very well informed for someone who was… well…” Misty’s voice faded off as she couldn’t think of a way to finish her sentence.

“The President, his ‘First Filly’, and their lieutenants would often get together to discuss such things while I, and others, would provide ‘relief and entertainment’.” Emjay’s ears flattened against her skull and she scowled at the memories it invoked. “We are nothing, to them, so they felt free to talk”

Misty looked ill, while Emjay took another hard hit, coughing a bit before smiling weakly, tears in her eyes. “I need to get more of this good shit.”

“If something like this is here, then I would expect that they have a camp nearby,” Tidbit said as his voice broke the air, “We should find out where it is, so we can avoid it. And any patrols they may have.”

The changeling looked at all the ponies in her group, the uniformed battle medic, the armor wearing ghoul, and the blade wielding former whore.

“No,” she said at last.

“No,” Tidbit queried.

“We need supplies: food, water, ammo.” Hero pointed at the large gun attached to Tidbit’s power armor. “ You only have whatever ammo you have left in that thing. We find the camp, we find a way in, we take what we need.”

Tidbits visible eye narrowed at the changeling’s idea. “Oh and you have a plan?”

The morning sun shone on the camp of strange slavers. Blood red tents were arranged in rows, around a central clear space where ponies wearing leather and metal skirts, segmented plate armor and helmets drilled with spears and swords, while other similarly dressed ponies carried rifles slung across their backs. Surrounding the camp palisades and trenches funneled any approach to a well-guarded gate. A cliff loomed over the rear of the camp, the red stone mass providing protection from ground based approaches.

Blue eyes peeked over a hill to the side watching as a pair of armed ponies made their way through the gates and started down a path. Black notched ears twitched as brief snatches of conversation carried on the breeze.

“-always dreaming of catching some-“

“-stupid enough we can-“

“-split the caps with you”

“-find somepony to sell first.”

As the figures disappeared around a bend, Hero ducked her head back and stealthily returned to her friends. Hero grinned, her sharp teeth and fangs gleaming.

“You have a plan now don’t you.” Misty’s flat tone showed that it was a statement rather than a question.

Hero nodded. “We do, but we need something. We need a slave.”

Tidbit and Misty turned their heads and looked right at Emjay, who growled at them.

“You fuckers can go fuck each-other.” The batpony’s voice dropped into a menacing snarl.

A ghoul imagined he could feel himself blush, and looked away quickly.

Hero smiled at Emjay, and trotted up to her, as the grey fluffy ball of hate watched her with narrowed eyes. The changeling bent down and whispered into the sensitive bat ears, “To do this, we need to kill two ponies.”

Hero backed away and looked at the batpony, who’s eyes shot wide. Emjay chewed on her cheeks and rocked back and forward, as pride in her freedom wrestled with the desire to hurt and kill.

“FINE,” Emjay yelled, throwing her hooves in the air, “I’ll fucking be your slave. But you even think of touching me, I will kill you.”

The blue unicorn looked amazed at Emjay, “What did you say to her?”

Shrugging off her shirt and placing it into her saddle pack the changeling ignored the question.
“We need to go now, Emjay and us will be back in a few hours”

Gossamer blue wings and gray leathery wings caught the air as the changeling and bat pony took to the air, leaving behind a tan shirt and a dusty bowler hat.
Emjay felt a stirring of excitement through her body, the prospect of fighting another pony, of hurting and killing another pony filled her veins like a shot of rampage. She struggled to fight the urge not to fly pass the changeling, but she had no idea where to find her prey.

Two sets of sensitive ears picked up voices of a pair of ponies. Gently Hero landed and waited while Emjay flapped her larger wings and reared herself to land with a heavy thud on the baked earth. Creeping forward and hiding behind a large bolder, the pair spotted the Roamish soldiers walking and chatting carelessly with weapons slung lazily over their backs, and swords sheathed. Silver colored helmets showed that both of the powerfully built stallions were earth ponies, one black with silvery mane and tail, while the other being deep blue with but only having a sky blue tail. Shiny metal strips wrapped around the barrels of both stallions from their shoulders to the loins, where a studded leather skirt hid both cutiemarks. A belt around the waist held a short sword and ammo pouches, while automatic Kalashnikov rifles rested across the broad backs.
Emjay’s usually sullen face broke into a grin of sheer glee as she watched the stallions continue their lazy patrol. Her wings flared out as she lowered her body ready to pounce on the pair, before she felt a nip on her ear. She eeped and turned to look at the frowning Hero, who pointed a hoof at one stallion, and then herself, then the other stallion then at Emjay.

“Screw you, I want both.” she growled and leapt out from behind the rock and barreled into the unsuspecting soldiers.

The pair gave out a cry of surprise, as the bat pony used her body and momentum to smash them off their hooves. Emjay landed untidily across the body of the black stallion and smashed her hoof into his face. He dropped his head stunned while she whipped her own head around and grabbed the handle of the sword in her mouth and pulled it free from its scabbard. The other stallion regained his footing, and swung around, launching his back hooves into the bat pony’s body. Emjay squealed as she was flung from her perch and hit the ground hard. As she shook her head to regain her senses the sword in her mouth swung menacingly. The blue stallion growled and started to pull his gun from his back. Flapping forward, Emjay thrust the sword at the neck of her enemy. The blade clashed against the wooden barrel grip.

“Die,” snarled the blue solder. His face was met by hard batpony forehead, sending the helmet flying.

The black pony had gotten to his hooves, and drew his sword, and prepared to run their attacker though when he was hit from behind by hard black shelled horn smashing into the back of his helmet. He stumbled forward dropping the sword from his mouth. Hero smashed her hooves down on the segmented armor on his back, then squawked as her hooves slid off the steel as she crashed head first into the back of the stallion’s neck. The armor clad stallion reared up, throwing the changeling to the ground behind him. Hero scrambled back up to her hooves, thrusting her sharp horn up at the stallion’s belly.

Emjay leapt up from the ground and wrapped her fore hooves around the neck of the blue stallion and sank her fangs into his cheek. He gave an earsplitting shriek as the flesh was ripped from his face and blood sprayed all over Emjay’s muzzle. He threw himself to the ground in a clatter of metal as he tried to smash the clinging batpony under him. Feeling him move his balance Emjay ripped the flesh from his face and let herself fall to the ground safely before he manage to pin her under him. Swinging around she slammed her hind hooves into his head and left him senseless.

Hero rolled under the stallion after her horn jab skittered over the armor protecting her own targets belly. Large metal shod hooves slammed into the ground with an ear cracking thud behind her. Hero found herself facing directly into the pony’s stallion-hood. With a deft swipe of her horn, a high pitched scream and a deluge of hot blood, the large stallion was gelded.

The grey and red blood bat pony hefted the sword from where it fell, panting slightly she grinned insanely around handle, before plunging the blade deep into the unprotected throat of the blue stallion, pinning him to the ground. He twitched and gurgled, as frothy red blood formed around his lips. After a fluttery wheezing gasp the blue stallion was still. The scream from the other stallion caused her to spin around, where she could see Hero under the still standing stallion, her face drenched in the blood pouring around where her horn had pierced his nether region. Emjay watched entranced as Hero gave a twist of her head again, ripping the wound wider, slashing opening the femoral artery. Blood sprayed out of the garish wound splattering both mares. The stallion groaned once, then fell to his side, his body pulling away from the sharp invasive horn that had stripped him of his life.

Emjay’s wings were hard and stiff staining upright, her pupils dilated and her cheeks flushed as she panted. The sight of the gore covered bug pony fulling a burning hunger that flooded her entire body with an all-consuming need. She crouched her front down watching Hero intently, her rear and tail held high…

“F-F-F-F-FUCK ME!”

The bat pounced on the changeling.

The sun had started its dip into afternoon, as Hero and Emjay stripped the armor off one of the cooling corpses. As they both removed torn and blood soaked tunic, Emjay took the time to look at the impassive black shelled blue eyed pony that she was working with. She felt uncertain, her feelings were jumbled, as she tried to work out what happened, and why she did it. Hero’s reaction baffled her, the confusion in the bug pony’s eyes, the look of shock and confusion on her face burned itself into Emjay’s mind. Emjay had immediately stopped but the hunger remained. She stuck close to Hero, while they sorted the dead stallions armor ready for the second part of the plan.
Hero, for her part was feeling very full of love energy. A strange energy she had never taken before, a primal almost bestial love, that now filled her reserves. She could feel the energy churning and bubbling inside her. Love energy that came from the sullen and broody mare beside her. It confused her why the energy felt so good, yet also so harsh. Emjay’s actions had scared her, the way she looked at Hero in those moments, the forcefulness of her actions, yet also the powerful love that was directed only for Hero. As the last of the armor was stripped from the stallion’s hooves, Hero’s grumbling stomach reminded her that while she was now full of emotional energy, she was physically hungry after the fight, and what happened after.

She eyed the neck of the stripped corpse, opened her maw wide then crushed its throat, ripping out a bloody chunk of meat and began to feed. Emjay watched, licking her lips. She lowered herself down and ripped the cheek off of the face of the dead pony and chewed it with relish, the still warm blood running down her throat. Silently with their own thoughts the pair stood side by side and feasted.

Bloody muzzled bat pony and changeling started their preparations. Taking some of the rags and bindings the stallions were carrying they wrapped up the pipbuck on Emjay’s leg, then slipped one of the slave collars around her neck. Emjay growled but remained still when Hero snapped the fasteners closed. The muzzle for Emjay’s mouth was chewed to weaken the leather before it was slipped over the bat pony’s head keeping her mouth closed. Weakened binds held her wings to her side.
The changeling was wreathed in green flames, leaving a tall well-built stallion black coated stallion when the flames died. There was another growl from Emjay when she saw the doppelganger of the ravaged corpse laying in front of them. Stallion/Hero raised an eyebrow at the moody batpony, before putting on the blood soaked tunic and blood splattered armor. When Hero was fully in the guise of the Roamish soldier they both smeared blood into Hero’s fake fur and into the real fluff of Emjay.
Hero bent down low and shouldered the corpse of the blue pony over her back, the sword still though his neck, as Emjay tied a leather thong onto her collar as a leash. She held the other end up to Hero before growling “What I did, you will never tell the others.”

“Misty knows I eat pony meat,” Hero responded in the deep male voice of her assumed identity. “She won’t mind that you do too.”

Emjay looked doubtfully at the disguised changeling, both at the deep masculine voice and her use of I, but said nothing. She thrust the leash into the maw of the copy of their last meal. “You know what I mean.” she muttered darkly before assuming the role of a beaten captured slave, sullenly being led by a victorious slaver.

The heavy wooden stakes of the palisades directed the disguised changeling and her faux slave to the main gate. At the gate, a pair of guards watched them approach.

“PASSWORD!” challenged the larger of the two guards, as his partner covered the pair with his rifle.

Stallion/Hero turned sideways and dumped the corpse of the blue stallion to the ground. The first guard gave a small gasp and galloped up, seeing the blood soaked corpse and the blood stained black stallion solder that had born him. Beside the solder a smaller blood splattered bat pony was bound and collared, her eyes angry but downcast.

“CALL A MEDIC,” the guard shouted to his partner, who opened the wooden gate and yelled though.

Soon the gate was dragged open as a toga clad medical unicorn dashed through it with a doctor’s bag in his magical grip. He took one look at the scratches, bruises and the short sword thrust through the pony’s neck and shook his head.

The black stallion and his batpony slave slipped through the gate.

“What the fuck happened to you,” a young Roamish trainee legionary asked them, noting the markings on the armor “er... sir?”

“I won.” Hero’s deep voice rumbled as the changeling shrugged in the direction of the bloody Emjay who played her part of a restrained violent captive by growling at the skinny pink stallion that was talking to her ‘Master’. He shivered slightly at the intense hate flashing in the batpony’s eyes.

“Sir,” the pink stallion gulped slightly as he broke eye contact with Emjay and returned it to the glowering black stallion with her “um... Good luck?” he squeaked.

Hero turned away and rumbled a thanks, then yanked sharply on the leash making Emjay stumble as she followed. Emjay muttered darkly in the muzzle restraint as Hero lead her past other tunic or armor clad ponies into one of the large tents near the cliff. After a quick glance around, seeing nothing that they needed, they headed back out of the tent. A second tent proved equally fruitless.

“I need to rest soon; I cannot keep this up,” Hero grunted.

The ‘captive’ growled through her mouth restraint at Hero.

Hero lead the grumbling batpony into a third large tent. Inside they found shelves loaded with basic foods, and various weapons and munitions. Hero sighed, and let the flames wash over her body again, burning away the heavy muscled stallion, leaving behind a smaller changeling mare. The armor clattered as it fell away from her.
Emjay flexed her wings and felt the leather binds break. She flapped her wings a few times feeling the blood blow back into aching muscles. She opened her mouth wide as the weak leather for her muzzle snapped.

“Take this fucking thing off me” she hissed at Hero, as she pawed at the steel collar around her throat.

With an uncharacteristic smirk the changeling responded “We think it looks good on you”

The batpony blushed turned her head and snarled. “Just get this crap off me.”

The changeling complied quickly, and the metal collar clanked to the ground.

The pair grabbed a saddle pack each, and started loading food, potions and ammunition into the pouches. Their pipbucks automatically logging each item.

The green glow from Hero’s horn wrapped around the first pack as it was levitated and placed on the back of the batpony. Emjay flapped her wings making sure that they had full freedom. The other pack settled behind Hero’s wings, which buzzed briefly.

“We get outside,” Emjay hissed, “We fly, hard and fast”

Hero nodded her agreement.

Side by side the approached the tent entrance, then preparing their wings, opened the flap.

There was the sound of many guns cocking as a hundred armored Roamish soldiers drew a bead on the pair. Hero stopped, short her wings flitting in agitation, while Emjay growled deeply and crouched, ready to attack.

An older Centurion stepped in front of the soldiers, and addressed the pair. “The Praetor wishes to meet with you, if you would come with me.” He gestured to the side. “Please” he added as an afterthought.

Hero caught the eye of the snarling ball of grey fluff that was beside her. Hero shook her head, cheeped once then started off in the direction that she was directed. Emjay gave one last snarl at a jumpy legionary, then followed. Both ignored the fact that each gun barrel followed their every mood.
The Centurion led them to an ornately decorated tent near the center of the camp, where two very armored ponies armed with spears stood to rigid attention. At the Centurions nod, the guard to the left swiftly moved and opened the tent flap. “After you,” the old officer polite voice had an edge of steel.
Hero and Emjay stepped over the threshold to their fate.

“Welcome welcome!” A jovial voice rang from a large stallion resting on an old couch. Purple cloth swathed over his brown shoulders, “We have been expecting you.” He nodded to the side of the tent where two familiar figures were bound and gagged. Tidbit, stripped of his armor, and Misty sporting a black eye and another nullification ring around her horn.

“I wanted to make sure we are all together so we can-” the stallion paused for a moment as he took a sip from a goblet “-talk”.

Emjay’s growling increased eliciting a bark of laughter from the reclining figure. “Pax, slave, I don’t mean you any harm.” His face darkened. “For the moment.“

Hero looked at her friend and the stripped ghoul, and saw them struggling against the thick rope binding them and chewing on the rancid cloth gagging them. Swinging her head back to the stallion in control she spoke in her vibrato voice “What do you want?”

“I am the Praetor, and I have heard so much about you. The Bug, the Unicorn, the slave and the SteelRanger.” He smirked conspiratorially “SteelRanger was perhaps a bit much, maybe half a Ranger? But you will find that there is not much in our little empire that we do not know about.”

Hero remained silent and waited for the brown stallion to make his point.

He gestured into the dark corner of the tent, and a purple unicorn female wearing a steel collar and magic null ring on her horn gracefully appeared. She sauntered to the Praetor and bowed low, before making her way to Misty and Tidbit. Taking the rope in her teeth and tongue she worked on the knots.

“Valereia has a very talented tongue, I can tell you” the voice of the Praetor was smarmy as Hero watched her working the rope.

Now free from their bondage, Tidbit and Misty removed their own gags. Misty gagging and scraping her tongue rapidity on her fetlock.

“Now that we are all friends here” The Praetor smiled at the group “Let us decide what to do with you.”

He looked up in a dramatic thoughtful pose “Normally, and this has happened more than once, stealing is grounds for crucifixion.” Misty gaped remembering the corpse at the foot of the cross “But I see this as being, rather not normal. Not with what my spies have told me. And what we have seen in my camp. So I offer you,” He paused again and smiled “A choice.”

The small band looked at each other, Emjay muttering “I will not be a slave again, I will die first!”

“Now now, slavery is in none of your futures. But what I can offer you, is your freedom, with the supplies you need, and everything you already have, and you can continue on, whatever it is you were doing, or you can be sent out for my men to enjoy, before you are each nailed to a cross, as an example of what happens to those who steal from the Roamish Empire.”

Misty blanched at that thought.

Tidbit spoke for the group, “What are the conditions for the first choice”

Smiling widely the Praetor sat up, “Why it is very simple, I will ask you do to a very simple job!”