Fallout Equestria: Diary of Lilac

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Prologue

"Lilac, I need you to focus," Starlight said with some authority in her voice.

Lilac Oil was laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling in one of Stable 45's medical examination rooms. The purple earth pony shut her eyes and just laid there for a bit, listening to the room while trying to remain calm. When she opened them again, she was looking at Starlight's face. The unicorn's horn was glowing pink while a notebook floated next to her head along with a pen. Except Lilac saw her upside down.

"You know I'm not crazy, Doc. She insulted me and… and... and I had to put her in her place!" Lilac glared at the unicorn as she crossed her forelegs across her chest.

Starlight facehoofed. "Lilac, you don't beat up a pony when you can walk away. We’ve talked about this, remember?"

"But she called me a chicken!" Lilac rolled over and sat up, stomping her hoof into the bed with a glare. "What am I supposed to do?! Let some... some pony who just arrived think I'm a chicken?!"

"Yes," Starlight nodded. She had yet to raise her voice and spoke quietly. "Who cares what they think? It's the stable community you should be worried about."

Lilac's ears folded back because she knew what Starlight meant. "Princess Luna is real," she said, crossing her hooves across her chest again. "I've touched her and had conversations with her. If I can do that, then how is she fake?"

“What does she look like?”

Lilac looked up in the ceiling in thought for a while as she tried to recall the details. After a few long moments, she nodded. “Dark blue, a blue mane with horns and a set of wings; Princess Luna.”

"But no one else has seen her." Starlight sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead as she shut her eyes. "Do you see what I'm getting at? You’re seen talking to nothing by a pony, and..."

The purple earth pony looked at the wall to her right and nodded. "Yes, y'all think I'm fuckin' nuts. Starlight, when I start feeding a ‘pet’ rock like Bits, then you can call me crazy."

Starlight set a forehoof on Lilac's and smiled as she gently squeezed the earth pony's leg. "Lilac, please. No more fighting with other ponies because they call you chicken. Everypony here know's you're not, so you have nothing to prove."

Lilac looked down and set her other hoof atop Starlight's, nodding again. "You're a nice pony, Starlight."

Starlight smiled while looking into Lilac's eyes. "So, what caused this fight to break out?" The purple earth pony looked away and clenched her jaw shut. "Lilac, anything you say to me won't leave this room. Understand?"

"Yeah, but it is a sensitive subject." Lilac shut her eyes and looked down, sighing. "She said 'hey flower butt! What's that stupid picture mean?'."

"Oh... um..." Starlight's ears folded back. "Remember what we talked about?" The purple earth pony said nothing, so Starlight squeezed her hoof again. "Lilac, your special talent is growing the prettiest of flowers that are also very tasty. She was just jealous about that. Or, an idiot."

Lilac looked at her old friend and nodded slowly. "I guess you're right. She was a complete idiot. Is there anything else I need to do?"

"Yes," Starlight nodded. She set an empty notebook down in front of Lilac and stood up. "How about when something makes you angry or sad, you write it down and we'll go over it once a week?"

Lilac took the book in her hooves, flipping it open and tilting her head a little. "There's not many pages. What if I fill it?"

"It's a magical diary that creates a new page when you run low." Starlight stepped to the side to allow Lilac to climb off the bed and walked over to the door. "Oh, and tell Gears I need to see him okay? He's been avoiding me since that last party we held."

"I will," Lilac nodded and hugged Starlight, smiling a little. The unicorn hugged back with her own smile, then stepped away and opened the door. Lilac's ears drooped to the side of her face when she recognized the pony on the other side of the door. "Hi, father..."

"Lilac," he nodded a little before looking at Starlight. "Well? What's wrong with her?"

"As far as I can see she just has an imaginary friend and a short temper, which isn't so bad out in the wastes. There are ponies far more messed up on the surface than anypony in this stable."

"I'm not a foal," Lilac grumbled to herself when Starlight had said imaginary friend, but neither unicorn paid any attention to the earth pony.

Lilac's father, however, wasn't convinced. "Really? She gets into these fights at least three times a month. She’s not a monster surface dweller, so what can you do for her?"

"She's supposed to write her thoughts into a diary I gave her and we'll go over them weekly."

"Where did you learn to be a doctor?" Lilac's father tilted his head. "I don't remember seeing you as a foal around here."

"From another stable," Starlight nodded and tried to smile. "I liked this one better and saw the lack of medical personnel, so I set up shop a few years ago."

Lilac's father frowned for a moment before nodding. As he was about to open his mouth to say something, but Lilac pushed past him and galloped down the hallway. He tried to grab her with his hoof, which narrowly missed her tail. "Lilac! Get back here!" her father shouted as she lowered her head and galloped faster.

Lilac ignored the slightly grimy grey walls, and the constantly cleaned floors as she galloped around ponies towards her destination.

Stable 45, which was situated along the northern border of Equestria, had been opened twenty-five years ago. Only eighty years after the megaspells went off. The stable was maintained by robots that ran off clockwork and, unluckily for the residents, the shipment of Pipbucks never arrived. Which meant that the residents were not issued with them. Nor had any of the current residents seen one outside of pictures.

Eventually Lilac Oil slid to a stop in engineering, nearly bumping into the door to Brass Gears' workshop. The yellow unicorn was a lifelong friend of Lilac's and the only one that never poked fun at her. Lilac opened the door to the shop and walked inside.

There were literally piles of robot parts stacked around in a haphazard fashion. Some looked like they were about to fall off the pile, yet they stayed put. All of them moved around on wheels and a few were in teh shape of ponies. Brass Gears sat over one such pony shaped robot and had most of it pulled apart. He was so focused on his task that he did not hear Lilac enter. Only when she slid over and leaned on him did he notice her presence.

"Aah!" Gears jumped to the side in shock, his ears folded back and his eyes were wide. They quickly narrowed at a giggling Lilac. She moved over to him again and leaned on his side again, looking up into his glare with a grin. "Lilac!" Gears stomped his hoof down, causing her to giggle more. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock when I'm working?!"

"But your face was priceless," she put a sucker into her mouth, leaning on Gears more and causing him to have to shift all of his weight on his right side to keep them upright. "Starlight says hi and she misses you. I think she's lonely."

"What?" Gears blinked in confusion for a few seconds before rapidly shaking his head. "Lilac, why don't you go out with her then?"

"Because I like stallions?" she tilted her head, receiving a roll of the eyes in response. "It's true! And I'm lookin' at one with a nice flank right now."

Gears pushed the earth pony away, blushing a bit. He levitated a book over and pointed at a crudely drawn map detailing some things on the surface. "Lilac, I picked this map up off a trader in exchange for fixing his rifle."

"Uh-huh," Lilac nodded while looking at the poorly drawn map, "and... What am I looking at? It looks worse than my writing and I use my mouth to write."

"A pre-shithole military base that might have some loot."

Now Lilac stared intently at the map. However, to her it appeared like random scribbles. There was a dot with the name of her stable community, a few other dots, and a line going to the base with no name. Just an ‘X’ that marked the spot and said ‘surface’.

"Gears," Lilac sighed. "You know we're not allowed on the surface. The Overmare doesn't know what's up there beyond vague stories and has told us to stick to the tunnels."

Gears rolled his eyes again and let out a deep sigh as he set a hoof on Lilac’s side. "It's safe. Where do you think some of the traders come from? All that's up there is snow."

"The fuck is snow?" Lilac tilted her head to the side as an eyebrow raised up in confusion.

Gears facehoofed. "You know the ice cubes you don't like to put into your drink?" The purple earth pony slowly nodded. "Imagine water droplets from a mist turned into mini ice cubes covering everything."

"Uh... So, since they’re mini ice cubes, that means I can drink it?"

Brass Gears groaned and shook his head, mumbling to himself. "Only you would ask that.” He set the hoof down and looked into Lilac’s orange eyes. She smiled at him as her ears slowly drooped and the irises grew ever bigger. Gears’ ears folded back as he took a step back before tearing his gaze away from Lilac and looked at a pile of robot parts. “Look, pack enough supplies for four days in the tunnels and meet me back here, okay?"

Lilac nodded, wrapping her tail around the unicorn's neck. "How about you and I take some time alone up there to get to know each other better?" she winked.

The unicorn's cheeks darkened a little as he blushed and pushed Lilac away again. "Li-Lilac, I... I t-told you bef-before. We're f-friends and... and th-that might be bad."

"Fine," Lilac rolled her eyes as she slapped her friend's flank. He jumped in surprise with widened eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning,” Lilac winked and galloped off.

“Don’t be late!” Gears called after her. Then started gathering up his supplies.

Author's Note

Happy new year!

Chapter 1

Lilac Oil sat on her bed inside of a room deep in the stable living quarters away from the main area. A pen was in her mouth as it slowly wrote down her thoughts into her newly acquired journal. Off to one side of her room was a doorway, and unnoticed by Lilac, her father stood there observing her.

Lilac hummed along to a tune in her head as she wrote down her thoughts from earlier. That is until her father cleared his throat, drawing her attention away from the book. "Lilac, what are you doing?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"Just doin' like the doctor said." she replied around the pen, but it was a little bit garbled. Regardless, her father had already assumed that. He walked inside the room and sat next to the bed. Lilac set the pen down before slowly closing the book to give him her full attention.

"And what are you doing with that bag of stuff?" he nodded towards her saddlebags.

She wasn’t sure what to say, so she sat there thinking about various excuses. Eventually, Lilac smiled a little bit at an idea that came to her mind. "Just some things to trade in the mornin'."

"Uh-huh," Lilac's father sat on the edge of the bed and levitated her diary over to inspect it.

Lilac's ears dropped. "Father, that's private."

"You know the rules, no secrets." He flipped the diary to the first entry and started reading. After a few short moments, he frowned, but continued on.

Lilac bit her lower lip as she tapped her forehooves together in worry. Her gaze slowly wandered away from her father on over to her mostly full bag where she kept some flowers she had grown, some thick clothes she traded for, and a small pistol.

"So," Lilac's father began, drawing the purple earth pony's attention away from the bag. "You think I'm overprotective and what's this?" he turned the book around and pointed a hoof at the final entry. "'Gears and I are going to the surface'? Explain, now." The green unicorn loudly closed the diary and tossed it to Lilac.

She caught it and hugged it close while curling up. "I'm not a foal..." Lilac mumbled quietly. She took a deep breath and stared into her father's eyes. "Gears and I are going to the surface to pick something up he got in a trade."

"It is forbidden," her father crossed his forelegs across his chest and glared. "Lilac, the surface is a frozen hellhole with ponies that eat other ponies. You wouldn't last one minute out there."

"But I got protection," she nodded at the bag. "Thick clothes and a pistol."

Her father looked at the bag for a moment. He then looked at Lilac and grabbed her ear with magic, tugging on it as hard as he could without pulling it off.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Father, stop it!" Lilac whined as she was forced to climb off the bed and follow the green unicorn. He levitated her bags onto his back and walked out of the room while dragging Lilac.

*** ***

Brass Gears was sleeping in his cramped quarters at the back of his shop like he always did at night. There was hardly anything in it beyond a bed and dresser along with his tool box. No door connected the shop from the bedroom, that way he could hear a pony if they came in the front. However, the bell did not wake him up this time. It was a rough voice whining like a foal that woke him up.

"Father, you're tearin' my fuckin' ear off!" Lilac shouted in a voice that echoed through the hallway and the repair shop before she even entered it.

Gears groaned as he awoke and placed a forehoof on his head to cover his eyes from the near blinding light. "I was afraid of this," he mumbled quietly to nothing in particular.

As Gears sat up, the green unicorn that was Lilac's father dragged her into the bedroom. Lilac’s father finally let go of her ear and glared at the yellow unicorn, who was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You better explain yourself."

Lilac gasped as the flesh rending tension was finally removed from her ear. She sat down and began rubbing it to make sure it was still attached, because it felt like it was on fire or torn off.

Gears tilted his head as he set his hooves down. "Explain what?"

"This," Lilac's father tossed her saddlebags to Gears. He barely had any time to register them before they hit him in the face. "Are you lying to my daughter to abuse her trust?"

Lilac rolled her eyes and began exploring the shop while they talked. After a few moments of searching, she spotted a copper robot that was mostly intact and standing upright.

"No, sir," Gears shook his head as he set the saddlebags to the side. "I would never do such a thing. Lilac is my best friend."

"Then what's this 'surface' business?" Lilac's father sat down and glared a glare that made Gears feel like the green unicorn was drilling through his skull. With a loud gulp, Gears set the map down on the bed next to him, pointing a hoof at the dot for Stable 45. Lilac's father walked over and looked at it. "What's this?"

"It's a map. We are this dot and the tunnel exit is here," he pointed at another one where a dotted line started to head towards the X. "I've been told that the surface has warmed up to the point where it won't kill you in five minutes if you're unprotected and that there isn’t much radiation anymore. But there is constant cloud cover."

Lilac's father stared intently at the map, soaking in all of the details he could see and absorbing them like a sponge. Despite the crudeness of it, he knew what town each dot was supposed to represent even though they were not named as well as they could be. He scratched his chin some while frowning. "You drew this?"

"No, it was given to me for payment. I repaired a pony's rifle this morning and he assured me this map would point me to a stash of items we needed here at the stable."

"Did he say what they were?" The green unicorn set his hoof down on the map where the X was. "Because this, from what my memory says, is a base for the Equestrian military. There’s a high chance that it took a direct megaspell hit and was wiped out. What did this pony look like?"

"Older than my granny," Gears replied. Lilac's father removed his hoof from the X and pointed at what should have been a town, but was a dot. "The pony called that place Prism."

"Prism… hm..."

While Gears and Lilac's father were conversing, Lilac was having a staring contest with the robot she spotted. The earth pony hadn't moved from where she had stopped earlier and appeared frozen in place, but she was actually thinking. 'Should I touch it or leave it? If I leave it, the fact that it's leaning like that is going to bug me every time I come in! But... It's Gears' bot, and if I touch it he'll get angry, so should I leave it? Except it might fall, but what if it explode-fuck it.' She took a deep breath and took one step forward.

In the other room, Gears looked at the green unicorn across from him with his ears back. "Sir, I swear on my life that I'm not trying to trick Lilac. Would I go with her if I was?"

Lilac's father scratched his chin again. "Tell me you weren't so naive to think this pony would give you this map if the information were true? He would have gone there himself."

Gears looked at the map as his ears slowly drooped. "I... I didn't think abou-" A loud crash of metal falling upon metal and stone preceded a near filly like squeal of fright. Gears looked over at the door as his ears perked up. "Lilac?!" he shouted in near unison with her father.

As they rushed out to see what the commotion was, they saw was a pile of partially repaired robot parts strewn across the floor and one of the robot heads slowly rolled over to Gears' repair desk. The purple earth pony was nowhere in sight.

"Lilac?!" Her father shouted as he galloped over to the pile and started using his telekinetics to lift up robot parts. Meanwhile, Gears pulled out a small medical kit and galloped over in case she was injured. "Lilac, if you can hear me say something!"

"I swear I didn't touch the robot," she mumbled from behind another pile of robots, drawing the attention of the two stallions. However they could not see her. "It was about to fall, so I went over to adjust it and it fell on its own before I even touched it."

Lilac slowly stepped out from behind her cover with her head hung low. Her father galloped over and hugged her as tight as he could without hurting her. She returned the hug and buried her face against his neck.

"That's okay," Gears smiled at Lilac. She blinked a couple times as she slowly looked in his direction. "I need to clean up this place anyway. This just makes the issue more urgent."

"Now," Lilac's father began as he let go of the hug, drawing her attention back to him. "About this 'surface' adventure."

Lilac's ears slowly folded back. "I know... it's foalish and forbidden. We can’t go."

"Well, I might be persuaded to let you two go on one condition." The green unicorn looked at a smiling Lilac, then Gears and back to Lilac. "You take adequate protection and come home if it feels too dangerous."

Lilac hugged her father as tight as she could, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"But," the earth pony's ears drooped, "I need you to search for something in return."

"What is it, Father?" Lilac tilted her head some at the odd request.

"A glass ball about this big," he held his hooves apart to show the size of a standard memory orb. "Don't ask what it is, and don't touch it with magic, understand?" Gears nodded slowly, as did Lilac. "Good. Now then, you'll need these."

Lilac stepped back as her father pulled a few items out of his bag and set them down. One of them was a 9mm submachine gun in decent condition with a few magazines filled with ammunition, the other item was a metal apple, which was a grenade. The remaining items were rope and a few other things for trap making like wood.

"Where did you get a grenade...?" Gears whispered almost to himself, but it was loud enough to be heard by the others.

Lilac, however, did not care about the grenade as her gaze was locked on the rope that she poked. "These look like part of the traps I've seen in the tunnels.”

“They could be from there, but does one rope not look like another?” Lilac’s father tilted his head. He wondered if his daughter knew that he sometimes would go out after they did and set minor traps behind them to keep them alert. Except, none of them were lethal.

With a shake of her head, Lilac put the ropes in her saddle bag along with the other parts to make a few traps, and nodded. "I think we are ready."

"How good of a shot are you?" her father asked quietly to them. Lilac's ears drooped to the side of her face. "Thought so."

"We'll be fine," she replied with a sigh. Gears levitated his 'new' smg in the air and began aiming it around at the robots in an effort to figure it out before he had to use it. "Gears has has more practice shooting things than I have."

"Ever kill a pony?" her father looked at Gears.

His ears slowly folded back as he bit his lower lip. Then slowly shook his head. "Just the rats and other things in the tunnels mostly."

"I killed a radroach the other day!" Lilac explained proudly with a nod and a grin. “Stomped it flat!”

"A radroach, and mole rat, are not ponies," Lilac's father explained grimly, causing her smile to fade. "A pony is an intelligent and highly dangerous opponent. They are not mindless beasts. They will have others there to watch their back. And they will also have weapons. Something a rad roach does not."

"What do you mean, father?"

"What I mean, is that you might come across some ponies intent on taking what you have. And you might need to defend yourself. To do that, would mean shooting them."

"How do you know what is out there?"

"Stories, guesses, and a hunch," he shrugged. "But, we don't have the ammo for you to do any practicing. So I hope you two can aim properly."

"I can!" Lilac grinned.

Her response caused gears to facehoof, recalling one of the first adventures they had into the tunnels outside of Stable 45.

***===***===***

Gears slowly walked along the tracks of the tram tunnel. A whole wall to his left had collapsed, causing concrete and dirt to bury the rail cars. Some were knocked off the track and blocked their path, while one was sticking out of the dirt. The rest of it was crushed.

Lilac was behind him. She had her father's borrowed pistol in her mouth. Her eyes darted this way and that way in an effort to spot a predator in the gloomy light. However, all she saw was the backside of Gears and the mound of dirt.

She looked over at the partially crushed passenger car and wondered if there was any loot inside worth finding. The purple earth pony stopped, thinking about if she should tell Gears or not. After a few moments of a heated debate, she looked over and said, "hey, Gears we-"

A shot rang out in the tunnel, illuminating the immediate area around Lilac and echoing for some distance. The bullet slammed into the unicorn's right hind leg and burrowed its way in as the leg collapsed.

As the pistol recoiled in Lilac's grip due to an accidental discharge from tonguing, it slammed back and jarred her jaw, causing her to drop the weapon. It clattered to the ground and bounced, firing a second time at a rail car.

Lilac did not have any time to register the pain in her mouth, nor did she have time to respond to the painful cries of her friend in complete agony at having been shot in the ass. The bullet struck the metal rail car at an angle shallow enough to cause it to ricochet.

The red hot lead dart tumbled out of control for an instant before slamming into a rock. Lilac heard the whistle of the tumbling bullet a split second before it tore its way across her back, grazing her and slamming into the wall. Ending its journey there in a shower of concrete dust.

"Fuck!" The purple earth pony screamed in pain as she began prancing in place. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! It burns!"

"No shit," Gears groaned. Lilac hopped around the dropped pistol in an effort to cool her back off. It didn't work. "You shot me in the ass!" the stallion shouted, removing a small yellow kit with three pink butterflies on it.

"On accident!" Lilac hissed through her teeth.

"How could you shoot me, your best and only friend? What if you hit me in the head?!" Gears tried to look at his wound and frowned when he couldn't see the bullet due to it being near his tail.

"Gears... I..." Lilac collapsed on her belly, throwing up a sight dust cloud. "I think I'm dying... It's so dark." Gears, however, had a full view of her back when she rolled on her side. "Tell Father I love him."

The unicorn rolled his eyes. "Lilac, you grazed yourself. So you're not dying."

She turned her head in a way that allowed her to look at him, but upside down. "The fuck I ain't! My whole back is burning and I can feel it bleeding everywhere!"

"Got a mirror?"

"Of course I've got one." Ignoring the pain to her back, Lilac sat up and quickly dug through her saddlebags. After some digging, the purple earth pony pulled out a makeup mirror and held it out.

"So you're dying, huh?" Gears grinned at the fact that she was standing on her own. "Seems like you're not hurt that badly."

Lilac's ears slowly drooped to the side of her face. "What'd you need the mirror for?"

"To get the bullet out."

***===***===***

"But I really can!" Lilac whined as her ears folded back. "Just ask Gears, he's been there when I've hit stuff."

Gears blinked, slowly focusing back on reality and less on the time his friend managed to shoot the both of them despite being an earth pony. He nodded slowly at Lilac's words. "Yeah, she can hit things." he mumbled in an effort to avoid the subject of actually hitting something that was hostile.

Lilac's father looked at Gears, then his daughter and back again. "Gears," he began with a deep sigh, drawing the unicorn's attention away from the floor. "She's all I've got left, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Gears nodded.

"You know what that means?" Again Gears nodded. "Tell me what it means then."

"You want her protected from harm, from anything that would want to hurt her-"

"To smother me in a protective blanket like I'm some tiny filly," Lilac added with a whining voice that would do any young filly proud, if that filly had a voice like gravel. "I'm not a foal! I have a store, a cutie mark, and can take care of myself!" she began putting everything into her bags.

"No, you can't," her father shook his head. "You don't know what it's like out there."

"And you do?!" Lilac hissed, tossing her bags onto her back and tightening them down. "Father, you haven't been up there either."

"There was a time when I was young too," he replied with a nod. Then pointed his hoof at her. "But if you think for one minute that-" Lilac shook her head and galloped towards the front of the repair shop. "Lilac Oil, get back here!" Her father shouted and stomped a hoof down, cracking the stone a little. When she didn’t turn back, he turned his head to glare at Brass Gears.

The unicorn gulped and quickly put his new things away before following after Lilac. He scrambled out of the shop, turning towards the direction of the purple mare's hoofsteps. Stable 45's lights were dimmed to provide a 'moonlit' state of pale lighting. As such, Gears could just barely make out Lilac's tail before she skidded around a corner.

Her father stepped out of the shop and removed a pocket watch from his stable barding. He glanced at the time of 11:58 p.m. and sighed. "I hope you two know what you're doing."

"Lilac!" Gears shouted. He scrambled after the purple mare as best he could, which was not as fast despite him being slightly taller than her. "Slow down!"

Lilac, however, did not look back. She galloped through the grey stable halls, trying to get out before her father caught her and locked her in her room to 'protect her'. The earth pony did not know that he was not following her.

*** ***

Hoofsteps echoed through the halls, signaling a pony's arrival to the stable door long before she arrived there. The guards sat behind a barricade that faced outwards in case the door to the outside were ever breached. At least that is what they told the stable ponies. Unknown to the residents, and anyone outside of the Overnare or security, the door would not close. Stable 45's door was designed to open after ninety years and the mechanism would weld into the open position, forcing them into the outside whether they wanted out or not.

Instead of a stable door, there was a series of narrow barricades in a zigzag pattern that extended out into the tunnels for some distance. Forcing any would be attackers to navigate the maze while under fire. Should they get close to the old door, they would have found themselves funneled into a single armored door that rose upwards. If the defenders found themselves needing to fall back, they would cut the cables, causing the door to stay in the closed position.

Keys, a pale pink, almost white unicorn in security barding, looked back at the noise. His shotgun lay on the floor next to him, but within easy reach of his telekinetics. A fact he easily demonstrated by slowly levitating the weapon up to eye level and racking the pump back and forth to noisily chamber a shell.

The purple earth pony slid to a stop at the sound, or tried to at least. Her forehooves caught in a bump on the metal floor, tipping her over into a faceplant that hit her in the face like a sledgehammer. Keys did not move save for a slight smirk. "Lilac."

"Owww..." she mumbled into the floor as she began recovering from the shock of the impact. "Can one of you pointy heads invent flooring made from cake or something so it tastes better?"

"Nope," Keys shook his head. He waited for Gears, because he knew the other unicorn would not be far behind. As Gears helped Lilac to her hooves, Keys said, "what are you two doing here at this hour?"

Gears was panting heavily and out of breath. Sweat poured down his face and matted his fur, making him appear as if he had just stepped out of the shower. Lilac shook her head, pushing Gears away. "We're going into the tunnels." she said and her friend nodded in agreement.

"How long?" Keys tilted his head. One of the guards near him glanced at a clipboard and looked at all of the names to see who had come and gone recently.

"Four days," Gears gulped down some air.

Keys glanced at the guard with the clipboard. She nodded slowly. "They haven't gone outside the stable for at least two weeks."

"So we can go then?" Lilac grinned.

"Yeah, fine." Keys stepped aside as he lowered his shotgun and kicked at a nearby lever, causing a rusty screech to precede some gears turning.

Slowly, the armored door rose up with a faint shriek of metal sliding on metal to allow the two travellers to pass. Lilac nudged Gears before bolting into the passageway. The unicorn sighed and quickly navigated the maze behind her.

As they left the maze behind in the dark tunnel, their mood became less enthusiastic and more serious. Lilac stayed right in front of Gears with her ears on a swivel, listening for anything out of the ordinary. All she heard was their hoofsteps, the water dripping down onto some rocks, and their breathing, which had become much slower.

And so they walked along the gloomy and debris filled tunnel for a few hundred meters until they arrived at the first station. The faint green glow of the sign was lost in the flickering lights that illuminated the underground ruins.

Lilac did not know, or care, why they had built Stable 45 next to a station with easy access to the surface. All she cared about was that the bunker had saved her family when the balefire bombs dropped.

As Gears slowly stepped out of the 'maintenance' tunnel, he quickly glanced right and then left. His eyes were constantly looking around while the 9mm smg floated nearby with the safety dropped. The ruins, like so many others, were looted constantly and yet ponies still found items. He found it odd, but did not question it because it kept him and many other ponies in business.

Lilac's ears swiveled towards the crack of a pony stepping on broken glass. She slowly looked over at a grimy advertisement for the Ministry of Morale. The shattered glass lay below the picture of Pinkie Pie, head of the MoM. Her wrinkled face held a smile that Lilac could not help but shudder when she looked at it. Underneath it was the words 'Pinkie Pie is watching you forever', but somepony had written fuck with an arrow between you and forever.

An icy, howling, wind blew in from the stairs leading to the outside, causing a shiver to run the length of Lilac’s spine. As the earth pony turned her head away from the picture, the invisible pony moved, except she made sure to step around the glass this time.

The invisible watcher kept an eye on Brass Gears as he dug through a trashbin near the outside gate, eventually producing a dirty box of snack cakes. "Goddess," the blue alicorn whispered inside her own mind. "We do not understand your infatuation with this one."

"DO NOT QUESTION ME!" the voice reverberated inside the blue's head. "I, The Great and Powerful Goddess, want you to observe him. Test his abilities and see if he is fit for Unity."

"Yes, Goddess," the alicorn nodded. "We will do as commanded, but..." she looked over at Lilac. "His companion has seen Us."

"She is of no concern."

"We have... communicated with her. She thinks highly of Unity, and We believe she could be useful in convincing the other to join if he is hesitant."

There was silence for some time. The blue alicorn observed the two ponies rummage around the wreckage for various items. Even going so far as to find a hat that somepony had missed, but it was tattered and near useless. Finally, the Goddess spoke to the unnamed alicorn. "Is she a unicorn?"

The question threw the alicorn off. She had assumed, like all of the other Unity alicorns, that The Goddess saw all and knew all. But she did not hesitate in her reply. "No Goddess, she is an earth pony.

"Then she is of no concern. Do not talk with her further, or there will be severe repercussions." came the reply like ice that cut into the alicorn’s mind.

She cringed at the threat, but nodded. "I will do as commanded, Great and Powerful Goddess."

Lilac Oil, nor Brass Gears, heard the conversation between the blue and the Goddes due to it happening inside the alicorn's head. The earth pony adjusted the hat on Gears' head and smiled at him. "That looks good riiiiight there."

The unicorn rolled his eyes and tossed the hat to the side. "Lilac, it's trash."

She was about to reply when a fierce wind blew icy air into the tram station, causing Lilac to shiver violently as it cut through her fur. The purple earth pony looked over at the rubble partially blocking the fencing that stood as a door to the outside. "I wonder if we should go home?"

Gears glanced at Lilac then the door. "It's past one in the morning and we already told the guards we were leaving for four days, I'm not going back. That would screw up our chances to leave in the morning."

As Gears had talked, Lilac took her bags off and pulled on her jacket. She tightened her saddlebags down again and nodded. "I was just testing you, but I do wonder what it's like. Princess Luna says that The Goddess is trying to fix whatever is wrong out there."

Gears pulled on his jacket and rolled his eyes. "Lilac, can you leave the crazy at home for this trip? I'd like to go one day without hearing about it."

"I ain't crazy. Y'all just ain't seen her yet."

"Right." Gears adjusted his bags and took a deep breath, nodding at the gate. "Let's do this."

Chapter 2

A snow covered plain stretched out as far as the two friends could see, which was not that far due to the darkness. At the edge of their vision, the grey clouds merged with the white snow to cover the land in monochrome colors. Lilac could not see the road they stood on due to the heavy layer of winter snow over top of it. The rubble around them was equally covered and appeared as mounds.

It was not a town that Stable 45 was built under, but a transfer point between towns. Once, long ago and remembered only by very old ponies, five buildings stood on the spot. Now they were decayed to time and on the verge of collapse. Gone were any signs to give any indication as to its name.

"I don't like this!" Lilac shouted over the howling wind that the purple earth pony was leaning towards to avoid falling over from. "That gate was locked for a reason and it’s cold!"

"Yeah," Gears nodded. The unicorn pulled out his map which threatened to fly away on the wind, but he held on to it with a firm magical grip. "I can't see much, and we don't have flashlights."

"Flashlights might be bad. Remember what Father said about ponies?"

"How do you know he was telling the truth? He could have said that to get us to stay!"

Lilac rolled her eyes at the remark and did not reply. As she looked around again, the cloud cover thinned out enough for the two friends to make out the remains of a medium sized and mostly intact structure not far away.

Gears concentrated on a simple spell and, with a little effort, managed to cast a glow from his horn. Lilac took a deep breath, and began trudging her way through the near chest high snow towards the nearest door.

As they entered the partially destroyed building, Lilac stepped on what she thought was wood due to the oddly colored light. Her hoof slid and threatened to slide out from under her, but other three were firmly planted in snow, causing her to stay upright. "Careful, it's slick like the steps," she muttered as she carefully and quietly made her way inside..

Gears slowly made his way into the building behind Lilac. He glanced at the slowly rotting and sagging walls before picking up his pace to catch up to the earth pony.

Lilac had made her way into a side room and was already digging through a dresser in an attempt to find anything useful. Gears took the moment to observe his long-time friend. He sat down and leaned on the door frame as she tossed an empty drawer away. "So, Lilac, you find anything?"

"Not yet," she mumbled around the drawer's knob as she pulled it open.

Outside and not far from the building Lilac was in, a third set of hoof prints began to appear in the snow from the blue alicorn that was trying to follow the two ponies as silently as she could. As she neared the icy doorway, Lilac shouted, "found something!" Causing the alicorn to tilt her head and partially wonder what they could have found that she had not already found at one time.

"What is it?" Gears tilted his head as he stood up again. Lilac tossed the tube like item over to him. The unicorn caught it in magic and held it close as he inspected the round tube with glass on both ends and dials in the center. "A scope."

"How good is it?" Lilac asked with a tilt of her head.

"Hm..." Gears pulled a pair of magnifying glasses out of his bag and placed them on his nose, causing Lilac to giggle at the sight of his ‘giant’ eyes. He ignored her laughter and even when she started bouncing in circles around him like a filly.

"Does it work? Does it work? Does it work?" Lilac chanted as she continued to bounce around gears. Her hooves came down on an iced over patch of wood behind the unicorn. Lilac's eyes widened as she cried out in shock and lost all balance, falling onto her rump with a quiet thump. Then groaned, “owwww, I think I broke my ass...”

Gears ignored her attempts at stealing his attention away from the task at hoof. After a few more moments of inspecting the scope, he nodded. "Yes, it works but there's a hairline crack in the big lense, see?" The unicorn levitated the scope to Lilac.

Ignoring the ice threatening to freeze her hindquarters, she swiped the floating scope out of the air and looked at it herself, aiming it at the grimy wall as she tried to see through it. Eventually Lilac noticed the crack running through it as a faint line. "Yeah, okay. I'd say this is worth... right around thirty caps?"

"But who would buy it? Everyone I know lives and dies in the tunnels. Scopes seem useless to me."

Lilac opened her mouth to reply, but a loud crash and the sound of ice breaking caused the two of them to look over at the entry way. "What was that noise?" Lilac asked quietly.

Gears tilted his head some and waited for a few moments, but saw nothing beyond a crack in the ice. "I'm not sure."

"Luna?" Lilac called out to the dark blue alicorn she knew. "Is that you?"

Gears rolled his eyes and snatched the scope out of Lilac's grip. "It was probably a rat or something."

Unknown to the others, the Unity alicorn had slipped on the ice and fell, producing the crack. She slowly got up with a silent groan of pain. As she began limping towards the closest room, Lilac looked at Gears. "Should we get some wait for better light?"

"Yeah," he nodded. Then removed a silver fob watch from his jacket and looked at the time of nearly three in the morning. "I heard the sun should rise at five, which is in two hours. Let’s get some rest."

"I don't know if I can. It's pretty damn cold."

"Just try, alright," Gears mumbled.

*** ***

The morning sun had steadily risen behind a ceiling of clouds, casting odd colors throughout the Equestrian Wasteland before it stabilized into a grey sky. Lilac and Gears, however, were pressed against each other in a cuddle to stay warm and completely zonked out. They did not wake not until a small piece of rubble mysteriously fell onto Lilac's flank.

The earth pony blinked awake and lifted her head up, slowly looking around the room. Her gaze was met by diffuse grey light that filtered in through a nearby window. Lilac yawned quietly as she sat up and nudged Gears. "Wake up, it's bright out."

The unicorn stallion shifted positions while mumbling quietly about not wanting to go to class to take the Cutie Mark Aptitude Test. Lilac was un-amused by his antics. Without a thought as to where the piece of rubble came from, Lilac picked it up and tossed it at Gears, hitting him in the chest.

He gasped awake as his eyes snapped open. Upon seeing a giggling Lilac, he frowned. "Did you kick me?"

"Nope!" she grinned, continuing her giggle for some time.

"Liar," Gears sat up and stretched his forelegs, yawning silently. "What time is it?"

"Dunno." Lilac shrugged. She hopped to her hooves and trotted over to the window. "Huh... maybe it's a picture?"

Wondering what the earth pony was looking at, Gears hopped to his hooves and trotted over to the 'picture'. He slowly reached out with a hoof and tried to touch it. His hoof went through the broken window frame, reaching outside into the cold where the icy wind threatened to freeze his hoof. "Nope," he shook his head.

"Last one out is a rotten apple!" Lilac tapped Gears on the flank and jumped out the window, her hind hooves caught the window frame. Causing her falling face first into the snow. She immediately shot up and pranced in place. "Cold! Cold! Cold!"

Gears rolled his eyes. He didn't bother stating the obvious. The unicorn hopped out of the window behind Lilac and landed on the snow with a soft crunch. As he looked around the snow covered area, he frowned some. "Going to be hard to find our way back. Most of this is just flat and featureless."

"Yeah," Lilac mumbled. She stopped prancing and decided to look out at the horizon. Then, her gaze slowly went up and up, and up, towards the sky. "Um... how... high...?" Lilac froze in place, her gaze locked nearly straight up on the vast nothingness that felt like it was going to swallow her whole. "Help..." she managed to squeak.

Gears tapped her side with his hoof. Lilac, thrown off balance by vertigo, teetered in place for a second before falling sideways into the snow. Gears looked up to see what she had been looking at and gulped. He quickly tore his gaze away from the clouds and slowly took a few deep breaths. "We should keep our gaze low and get moving."

"Hm... this is a nice view down here."

"Lilac!" Gears snapped, his cheeks burning in embarrassment as a deep blush formed on his face.

*** ***

The nearly flat snow covered plain soon gave way to a town that was more ruins than standing structures. Depressions lined a few of the house interiors and the signs naming the place were mostly rusted.

However, Lilac was able to partially read one large sign that was almost as tall as a pony. "Cypress Milse?" she tilted her head some before glancing at the rest of the town. Not far from the sign was a snow covered corrugated shack with the remains of a chain link fence running off into the distance.

Towering above the fence, and quite a ways away, was a tall cylinder shaped building with a partially collapsed top floor. Along the tower's left side was a mostly intact two story structure.

Gears glanced down at his map for a few long moments. Then looked at the buildings. "This should be the place, I hope."

Lilac's eyes narrowed as she looked at the building. Faint grey smoke filtered out of a top floor window on the wind. Her ears twitched and swiveled side to side as she stood there listening for anything. All the earth pony heard over her own breathing, was a few faint pops like a pony was hammering something or a broken door on the wind. Eventually Lilac tore her gaze away and glanced at Gears. "What'cha thinkin'?"

"I don't know," he sighed, and tried to ignore the frost that came out of his nose. "Seems quiet and intact. If it's anything like our home on the inside... it's going to be a pain to search. Lots of rooms, narrow passageways, and almost a maze."

Lilac, however, began trudging her way towards the corrugated shack without really paying attention to his explanation. Gears followed her with another sigh. The two of them walked around as they began inspecting the shack for a way in. But the metal door was locked and neither of them had the tools to pick it.

When they got to a boarded up window, Lilac looked at Gears. The unicorn looked at her and nodded. Lilac spun on her forehooves and pulled her hind legs before kicking out with all her strength. Her hooves slammed into the old rotted wood, smashing it to pieces in a shower of wood shards. As she quickly hopped sideways, Gears looked inside with his smg floating near his head.

Inside was a destroyed wooden desk that would be better suited for firewood. Burned papers were piled in a corner next to a sleeping brown stallion in a grimy Equestrian Army uniform.

Lilac stuck her head through the window and said, "hey, are you awake?" She received no response, causing her to frown and back away.

Without a word, Gears laid down in the snow. Lilac climbed onto his back like a step, causing him some pain from her weight, and hopped inside the room. The purple earth pony cautiously went over to the sleeping stallion one slow step at a time. Her gaze never left his un-moving chest.

"Hey wake up," Lilac mumbled. A faint layer of ice covered the stallion’s entire body, but it was not apparent from afar. When she got within range she nudged him with a purple hoof. He still didn't move, so she placed an ear near his nose.

"How ca-"

"Shush!" Lilac hissed, causing Gears to go silent again. She sat there listening for any sign that he would be alive. When she didn't hear anything, she rolled the brown pony over. All of his limbs were stiff and unmoving.

She stood up and took a few steps back, bumping into the desk that collapsed into shambles. "He's d-dead... ice… iced over by the cold..."

"Come on," Gears held his hooves out. "Let's get you out of there."

With some effort, Lilac pulled herself out into the snow. She hugged Gears as tight as she could and shut her eyes, mumbling about her cutie mark and dead ponies. Gears sat speechless and merely hugged her back to comfort the earth pony.

*** ***

LIlac Oil stared beyond the fence line at the Cypress Military Base. Behind her and Brass Gears was a small mound of snow marked only with a board to indicate a pony was buried there. It was the best they could do without a shovel.

The earth pony did not spot movement behind one of the distant windows and quickly trudged her way through the snow with Gears behind her. As they neared the building a faint smell drifted out of a window towards them, causing Lilac to stop and look inside.

The large rubble filled interior was partially collapsed, but Lilac knew the smell of cooking apples when she smelled it. She turned her head to the side and listened intently for anything out of the ordinary.

She heard laughter and a faint voice that was in mid sentence. "-and the mare goes, 'but I don't wanna!' So I-"

"Anypony in there?!" Lilac shouted, causing gears to facehoof.

Before she could flap her lips any more beyond opening her mouth, Gears grabbed Lilac and pulled her away from the window. "Wait!" he whispered. "Think about this for one second. Remember what your father said about ponies?"

"Uh-huh," Lilac nodded. "It's cold and maybe they're hungry?"

Gears glanced inside the window and saw light reflecting off dull metal. Suddenly, a flash of light lit the interior as a slug slammed into the wall next to Lilac, sending wood splinters flying out as the shotgun blast shattered the silence. Lilac screamed in surprise as she covered her face to protect against splinters.

As the wine colored unicorn racked the pump back and forth on his gryphon shotgun, he shouted at the others while walking towards the window. "I bet they be shittin' bricks about now!"

"Hold your fire! We're friendly!" Lilac shouted in her gravelly voice. Gears levitated the submachine gun out and dropped the safety in case he had to fire back.

" 'Ey Airbag, is that a mare or stallion? I can't tell!" the shotgun wielding unicorn laughed, bringing his shotgun to bear on his target. The blast echoed through the building just before a second slug slammed into the wall and exploded, tearing a hole out.

"How about we find out when we catch 'em?" the other pony shouted, his voice echoing throughout the building on an ancient speaker system.

Gears placed his smg in the hole and magically triggered a three round burst, spraying it wildly across the room. His shots causing a few of the ponies inside to duck, but otherwise did no harm to them. Either way for the unicorn, he pressed the trigger a second time.

Lilac used the distraction provided by Gears to roll over and start crawling away on her belly. Gears, being a unicorn, followed her but kept his eye on the smg. As the two of them crawled away from the window, a third shot slammed into the wall and, suddenly, the wine colored stallion burst through the wall in an explosion of wood shards. He aimed down the iron sight of his gryphon shotgun at Gears and shouted, "don't move a muscle!"

But before Lilac could react to the wine colored unicorn, the other one kicked a door open near her head and aimed a rusty sword at her.

Lilac gulped, slowly raising her hooves high, "parlay?"

Chapter 3

Lilac Oil slowly flipped the magazine's page and kept reading about different types of locks. Her tail flicked left and right as her eyes scanned the pages. The dirt floor was barely kept at bay by the cardboard and hay she was laying on as her makeshift bed. Rust and dirt adorned the corrugated walls that surrounded her. The ceiling was made of rebar tied together with razor wire to prevent any pony from escaping. Slits cut into the walls allowed a pony to look in if they wanted.

A heavy and rusty chain ran from a block of concrete in the central point of the dirt floor to Lilac's now dirty coat. Her once vibrant purple coat was marred by a few cuts and dirt from the floor. Oddly enough, Lilac did not mind the chains so much, but she did mind the tiny room she was shoved into by the two ponies. Of Gears, she heard no peep from but assumed he was nearby. Neither did she know where the alicorn she called Princess Luna was, and was annoyed by the alicorn's sudden disappearance.

Outside the cage, a pair of ponies sat around a fire. The floor around them was dirt. Well, it used to be concrete but the years of being exposed to the elements had caused dirt to layer in on the second floor. The ceiling high above them had been meticulously repaired to keep out any snowstorms, but the cold of the land still cut through them. Not far from the ponies sat their gear on a padded mattress and a blanket covered it.

Gears lay passed out near the ponies with blood running from the side of his head where he had been hit by a hoof. The unicorn's twitching hoof went unnoticed by the other ponies, because they were focused on eating their latest meal; pegasus wings.

Lilac frowned when she got to a page of her magazine and found a page detailing safe locks had been torn out. She sighed and shut the booklet, slowly looking around the small shack that was her cage, then looked up. She wondered if she was going to have to do anything or if her 'imaginary' friend would appear.

Seconds ticked by as she laid there, blinking and staring up at the ceiling. Seconds turned into minutes and all Lilac heard was the sound of crackling flames mixed in with the sound of a pony eating. She sat there, an ear twitching a bit as she listened for the sound of hoof steps or anything that would signal a pony moving around.

Yet she heard nothing.

After a while, one of the stallions broke the wing bone in half and started to suck on the marrow. The other one merely picked at his teeth with a knife. "So," the unicorn mumbled, rooting around his tooth when he found a piece of meat stuck in it. A couple seconds later he un-lodged the food and set the knife down. "I figure we shoot the stallion, chop him up for some food, break the mare in and have her haul our gear back to Prism."

"I don't know..." Airbag said, slowly looking over at the unconscious unicorn. "He's kind of soft and cute. Maybe we could sell him to that one slaver. She might get more mileage out of him than a simple meal."

"Alright. We leave in the morning." The other unicorn slowly looked over at the unconscious Gears, but Airbag used his hoof to turn his head back. "What are you doing?" He asked quietly.

"I've been thinking," Airbag said just as quietly as his hoof slowly moved down the other stallion's cheek and onto his neck. "You and I, we're friends yeah?"

"Yeah," he nodded as Airbag's hoof reached his chest. "What are you... getting at?"

Gently, and with little pressure, Airbag pushed the other stallion onto his back and straddled over him, his horn glowing faintly to pull the knife away. "We should be closer," he whispered. "I've caught your looks once in a while, checking out my backside.Do you find me cute too? Do I... Make your stomach do flips when I look at you?"

"N-now, Airbag. I ain't g-gay," he replied, his voice shaky and full of worry. Deep in his mind he wanted to just lay there, but the other part of his mind was worried about the prisoners.

"Does it matter if you are?" Airbag asked with a tilt of his head. "Any port in a storm is the old saying. Our captives aren't going anywhere and we don't want to damage them do we?" The other stallion gulped, sweat beading down his forehead as he stared into Airbag's eyes, and a faint blush began to form on his face. Its sight caused Airbag to smile. "I knew you wanted to have some fun together. Ready?"

The stallion gulped and nodded. Airbag took a deep breath, whispered something, and nodded. However, instead of feeling a warm touch, the unicorn only felt cold steel as it was shoved into his throat. Airbag's smile quickly turned into a scowl as he twisted the knife around, the other pony's eyes widened to the size of pie plates. He tried to push Airbag away, but found his strength was quickly fading and Airbag stayed put.

"More profits for me," Airbag smirked. "So sorry we had to end it like this." He pulled the knife from one ear all the way to the other and stood back, holding the knife in a firm magical grip. "I really did like you, but I doubt Ivory is going to pay much and finding food for one is sooo much easier than two."

*** ***

"My hooves are nuuumb!" Lilac Oil whined like a filly as she trudged through the near chest high snow lining the road. "Why do I have to carry your dead friend, Gears, and your gear?! This is heavyyyyy."

Airbag groaned, facehoofing and mumbling to himself, "this better be worth it, this better be worth it."

"I'm hungry ," Lilac said. "I need to stop and eat or I'll faint and be useless."

The two ponies had been walking through the snow towards Prism for a few hours and the sun was high in the sky, but neither pony could see it due to the grey clouds covering the land. All they saw was a bright orb hiding behind said cloud layer

"Fine!" Airbag shouted, grinding his teeth together as he glared at the purple earth pony. "If it'll stop your whining."

He dug through the saddlebag as Lilac said, "whining? I'm not whining. Thiiiiis is whining; why's your friend all bloody? He smells bad and is making my coat all sticky. Why are there clouds? Where the fuck is the suuun? It's coooold!"

"Shut up!" Airbag shouted, shoving a snack cake into Lilac's mouth. "Eat that and for the love of Celestia, shut the fuck up!"

Lilac smiled and resumed trudging her way through the snow while chewing her meal, content to know that her captor hated her whining. She slowly started to come up with a brilliant, to her, escape plan that would surely lead to her and Gears' escape. All she had to do was whine enough and the pony would let them go.

The only question was when to do it. She wasn't quite sure if she should start right away or finish her meal first. After a few heated debates in her mind , she nodded and elected to stay quiet.

Not long after, perhaps an hour or two, when the road's snow thinned out, Lilac's vision picked up a speck of white moving along the partially snow covered road. She glanced back at Airbag for a moment before looking at the speck.

"Don't say a word or your coltfriend gets it," Airbag grumbled, causing Lilac's ears to droop.

Lilac stared ahead and kept forging a path along the road.

As the figure grew closer, Lilac could see it was a pony covered completely covered in thick white cloth. The figure watched Lilac and Airbag as they slowly passed by, Lilac noticing the horn protruding from the silent figure's head, and kept walking.

The figure glanced the way he had been going, glanced at the travelers, then resumed his trek.

*** ***

Gears awoke to the sound of ponies talking, but the muddled sound he heard was akin to an echoing shout. He slowly sat up and looked at his surroundings, frowning at what he saw.

Gears, and Lilac, were on a rotted wooden stage with other chained ponies. Bright, hot, light blinded the unicorn, forcing him to try to cover his face as sweat began to bead down his forehead. Gears could just barely make out the silhouettes of ponies seated in the abyss.

Lilac stood next to gears with the number thirty drawn over her cutie mark, Gears had thirty-one on and each pony had their own chains. Something heavy drew Gears' attention down to his neck where a large metal collar sat. He frowned at it and looked up at Lilac, noticing she had one and so did all of the others in chains.

Standing near the center of the group of ponies was a unicorn with a grimy suit. The stallion's horn glowed a soft yellow as he stomped his hoof down and echoed in the room, "sold for five hundred caps to the purple filly in the back!"

A pair of battle saddle armed guards near the side started dragging a mare off the stage. Her teary eyes appeared wide in fright as she let herself be taken away without a scene.

The unicorn with the glowing horn looked over at Lilac and said loudly, "and here we come to number thirty and the second to last. A rather... ugly purple earth pony mare," his remark caused Lilac's ears to fold back. "But I bet she could kick a Hellhound across the room. In fact, when she came in she was carrying a load without a cart fit for five ponies to carry." He spun around and faced the crowd. "Starting bid is a hundred and eighty caps for the strong back earth pony."

Only silence met the auctioneer.

"A hundred and fifty caps? Hundred and twenty? Ninety caps...?"

An awkward and long silence fell upon the room, causing Lilac to frown and shout, "what? I'm not pretty enough for you pricks? I'll shove a grenade so far up your ass your head'll explode!"

"And what a mouth!" the auctioneer grinned. "Who doesn't love it?"

Still, only silence met his replies. After a while, and when it seemed like Lilac was going to be given back to Airbag, a bone white mare slowly raised a hoof and said quietly, "I'll take her for seventy-five caps."

Those around the mare looked at her in shock while some across the room began muttering to each other. The auctioneer pointed a hoof at the mare and nodded. "Seventy-five caps to the ivory mare in the center. Do I hear eighty caps?" He waited a second before saying, "seventy-five caps going once, seventy-five caps going twice-"

"Eighty five!" A pony shouted from the other side of the room.

The auctioneer pointed at that pony and started counting down, but the white mare raised her hoof, "a hundred caps."

Lilac tilted her head and watched the two ponies seem to fight over her with money. Gears wanted to say something to Lilac, but wasn't sure if he should or not.

After a few moments that felt like minutes to Lilac, the auctioneer stomped his hoof down and echoed, "sold for two hundred caps to the ivory mare!"

Lilac's ears drooped to the side of her face as the two guards walked towards her. She took a step back and shook her head. "I want to say goodbye first!"

One guard picked the trigger of his saddle up and looked ready to bite down while the second guard tried to grab Lilac. She jumped to the side and looked at Gears as she hobbled towards the first guard. "I'll find you, Gears. They can't keep us separated!"

"Shut up and get moving," the second guard said.

As Lilac walked off the stage with her head hung low, the auctioneer said, "and now for our final, and best deal of the night. A mechanically inclined unicorn. Is your armor or weapons shoddy? Well he can no doubt fix it for you! Starting bid is three hundred caps."

Lilac took one last look at Gears before she was shoved through the curtains.

*** ***

"Open your mouth," Ivory said to her newest purchase. Lilac rolled her eyes and wordlessly complied. Ivory grabbed her gums and pulled them back, inspecting Lilac's teeth for any rotten ones. When she found none, she nodded. "Nice teeth. Come from a stable?"

Lilac closed her mouth and looked back towards the room where she knew Gears was still at.

Ivory's cart sat next to the two ponies in the steadily darkening sky. One earth pony was already hooked into the pulling harness. Icy wind whipped loose snow into a flurry, causing Lilac to shiver involuntarily. She did not reply to the question because she was waiting to see if Gears would appear or not.

However, Ivory didn't need to hear the reply because she knew the answer. "Don't wanna talk, huh? Well your coat's recently washed and groomed, your teeth are in good condition and your hooves look strong. I'd say you're a stable pony."

Lilac opened her mouth to reply, but a loud bang shattered the air, causing her to jump in surprise. Her ears slowly folded back as her eyes began to water.

Ivory nickered a bit and shook her head. "Such a shame. He did seem like he was quite useful."

"She going to be useful?" an odd voice asked from the cart's driver's seat, drawing Ivory's attention to it. A grey two legged canine wearing thick fur around his body for warmth was looking down at the ponies with glowing yellow eyes. "She don't talk much and she kinda ugly. Gill thinks we throw her back."

Ivory rolled her eyes at the diamond dog's remark. "No, Gill. We're not returning her. Tie her to the cart and let's get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover before morning."

"Gill dunno why Ivory travel at night," he said as he hopped down with a rope in his hands. "It cold and only Gill can see good."

"That's the point," Ivory muttered, pulling a helmet onto her head. She lifted her right foreleg and looked down at the screen device strapped around her leg, a faded number was just below it. Ivory, being an earth pony herself, pushed a couple of buttons with her nose and brought up the note recording function. "Day log number seven eighty-eight. I purchased a new helper for a hundred and thirty caps. The charlatans running the Prism Auction house have raised their 'taxes'. They claim keeping healthy ponies is a risky business, but I think it's a crock of shit to allow them to get more caps per purchase." Ivory looked over at Lilace as she simply stood there and allowed a harness to be attached to her face and tied to the back of the cart. "Hey, what's your name?" Ivory asked.

She received no response. Lilac just stood there staring off into space with a blank stare and tears rolling down her face, the explosive collar around her neck stayed put. Gill waved his hand in front of the purple earth pony's face and received no response. He snapped his fingers a few times only to receive the same thing, a blank stare. Gill looked at Ivory with a shrug and a shake of his head. "She's broken. We should toss her back."

Ivory rolled her eyes and looked down at her Pipbuck. The new mare, who I shall call Thirty, seems to have lapsed into some sort of coma. She's awake, but not there. Will try other measures later to see if we can break it. End of log."

Chapter 4

Ivory sat in the back of her wagon filing one of her hooves while humming to herself. Only occasionally glancing up at her newest purchase and noticing that she was keeping pace almost like a robotic creation. She wondered what to do with Thirty and whether it not it was wise to buy the purple earth pony, but she was fine when Ivory had purchased her, if a bit of a loud mouth. Ivory tapped her Pipbuck's audio recording function and said, "day log number seven ninety. Thirty still seems to be unresponsive, but she'll eat if you put a hoof full of hay near her mouth and I'm starting to question why. She started acting this way after we heard an ominous shot come from Prism's Auction House. I suspect that Thirty was brought in with a unicorn stallion, thirty-one."

Ivory then began to talk about her thoughts on the matter. Gill ignored her pony ramblings. Gill stared out at the cold snow covered plain as the big stallion pulled the cart. Gill, the grey diamond dog, rubbed his very furry shoulders and watched for any intruders with a small rifle in his lap. Unlike the ponies, Gill could see far at night. Farther than they ever could hope to. He could almost see to the horizon and, with Ivory's arcano-tech device, Gill could get the drop on any pony trying to sneak up and ambush the wagon.

"How far to Nestlebrook?" Gill asked the earth pony pulling the cart. He did not know why, but Ivory only bought earth ponies. Gill suspected that it had something to do with her inability to use magic and a fear of unicorns for some reason.

The burnt umber earth pony glanced back at Gill and said, "another night or two once we pass Eastwood Dam. I really wished Master Ivory would let us travel in the day. I can't see too good."

"You can't," Gill pointed a finger at the stallion, his digging nails were filed sharp enough that a pony could mistake them for tiny swords. Gill then pointed his thumb at himself, "Gill can. We travel at night so Raiders and Bandits don't see. 'Cause they don't see too good either. You're lucky Ivory let's you speak your mind. Other slavers cut your tongue out."

"I know, I know," the earth pony grumbled to himself and looked ahead, not caring about the weight of the explosive collar around his neck. "All I do is pull, pull, pull."

"I got Thirty to help you," Ivory said loudly, having turned off her recorder to listen to the conversation. "Not my fault she became like this."

Gill looked back at the purple earth pony and gripped his small rifle a little tighter as his free hand reached into his pants pocket. "I say we stop and hook her into spare pulling harness."

Ivory scratched her chin for a few moments and thought about it. "You know. That's not that bad of an idea. Let's try it. Joe, stop the cart."

"I hate that name," he grumbled as he stopped. "Just because you found me in a Pony Joe's doesn't mean that's my name. My name is-"

"Joe, 'cause you're a pony," Gill grinned at the burnt umber earth pony, receiving a roll of the eyes for a response.

*** ***

"Easy now," Gill said quietly, almost in a hushed whisper that was hardly noticeable, except for the faint cloud of ice when he spoke. Ahead of the pulled cart loaded with supplies was Eastwood Dam. No sane pony wanted to delve the depths of the concrete structure, and for good reason. It was crawling with rotting corpses that were once ponies, but neither were they dead. Kept alive by necromantic radiation and turned feral due to long exposure. To delve into Eastwood's depths was to invoke a short, brutal, and bloody one way trip.

Luckily for Gill, Ivory, Joe and Thirty, Eastwood's feral ghoul population did not roam the surface at night. The group was heading straight for a rusty chainlink fence that was better suited as a floorboard than the gate it once was thanks to time. The gate lay flat on the ground next to a flattened guard shack. In fact all of the structures surrounding the dam except for the power stations had been flattened by an air burst bomb detonation, or so Gill was told. The dam itself was a massive structure that Gill could not physically keep track of as far as the specific distance across. He knew it could be almost half a kilometer wide and to look over the edge was to invite vertigo as you looked straight down at the water still pouring out of it.

Gill, like all those in the Prism area, except for the ponies hiding underground, had heard of Eastwood Dam. The story goes that the feral ghouls who populate it keep it running and power the city of Nestlebrook, a shining gem in the frozen hellhole. No pony knows exactly why they kept it running, but it was obvious that it still ran.

Gill gripped his rifle a little tighter and silently flicked off the safety lever in case he had to shoot his way out. The rifle was found by Gill one day while traveling the Equestrian wastes. Before that he had been using bladed weapons and when he found a lead shooter capable of being wielded by a diamond dog, he cherished it and kept it as well maintained as he could.

Gill's gaze flicked left and right while he scanned for movement by the dam's occupants. Thirty and Joe slowly walked the cart so as to keep the noise down. Ivory scanned all directions with her Pipbuck's Eyes Forward Sparkle, a tool that allowed a pony to detect life sighs nearby and determine if they were friend or foe. It had one major drawback that was evident only to Ivory, it could not tell you what floor your target was on. The bone white earth pony gulped and adjusted her grip on a laser pistol when she scanned across the road ahead and found it was supposedly crawling with hostiles. But to Gill, it looked like any other rubble covered road he had come across in the frozen wasteland.

Joe and Lilac continued to slowly pull the carriage past the gate and onto the top of the dam. Joe cringed as the cart creaked quietly when the suspension absorbed a couple small bumps. Gill's, and every pony else's, ears were on a swivel as they attempted to find any hostiles. Ivory continued to scan the road ahead and the doors just to the left of the road.

Luckily, the doors did not open and the group managed to get halfway across the dam before encountering their first actual obstruction, a checkpoint built by the Equestrian military during the war. It spanned the width of the dam and was a fortified bunker with a tunnel leading towards Eastwood Resivoir and a gate allowing passage across the dam.

"Halt!" a metallic voice shouted through ancient speakers that looked like they'd fall off their posts any second. Joe and Thirty stopped as an equally ancient light kicked on and bathed the wagon in a heavily yellowed glow, causing Gill to hiss and shut his eyes. "Who goes there?" the metallic voice rasped like rocks falling around a tin can.

Ivory sat up and held her Pipbuck leg in the air, shouting, "I need to get to my stable on the other side of the dam! Please, help us! There's radioactive snow everywhere!"

Gill and Joe remained silent. Thirty's gaze glanced left, right, and left again as she started to register her surroundings. However, all she saw was black was thanks to the ancient light. "Where...?"

"Quiet!" Joe hissed under his breath.

Thirty looked ahead as a rusty squeal pierced the air from ancient locks sliding open. The rusted gate built into the concrete slowly swung outwards with a groan, revealing an earth pony stallion in heavy combat fatigues and a battle saddle that caused Joe to wonder if he'd die from just looking at the rusty weapon. The once orange and blue stallion appeared like he stood too close to the blast when it had gone off. His skin was warped, shriveled, and missing in some parts, revealing a bright green glow underneath.

He quickly motioned the group towards him as he stepped aside. Thirty, however, whimpered as her ears folded back. "The fuck is that thing?"

"Shut up or we die," Joe glared at the purple and yellow earth pony. "Just ignore it and we'll explain later."

"Come on then," the glowing ghoul shouted. "Best get moving before a mob chases you down for stable access."

Thirty gulped and took a couple steps towards the strange creature. Joe took his cue and began pulling the wagon with her.

*** ***

Somewhere on the other side of Eastwood Dam, Lilac Oil stomped her hooves into the fridge snow and forced the wagon into an abrupt halt. She quickly looked back at the diamond dog in the driver's seat and shouted, "alright, what the fuck was that back there?!"

"Now she talks," Gill grumbled as he facepalmed. "Why now?"

The other side of the dam was much like the side they had just left; mostly flat with slow rolling hills and snow covering everything. The crisp night air cooled all of the ponies to the point that they were close to freezing if they did not move often.

Ivory half leaned over the wagon's side and waved at the purple earth pony. "Hello there! Did you have a nice trip inside your head?"

Lilac blinked in confusion, her head tilted to the side a bit as she began to wonder, [i['trip inside my head? She means that undead thing? Or something else? Why was there a road with a big gate? Where am I?!'

Joe looked over at Lilac with a small frown. "You look like your brain is about to explode from thinking so much."

"What the fuck was that dead pony?!" Lilac shouted at the top of her lungs. "And where is Princess Luna?!"

Joe facehoofed at Lilac. Ivory rolled her eyes, "ain't you never heard of a ghoul? Of course you stable ponies haven't. You got your heads stuffed in the dirt."

"A ghoul?"

"Ghoul," Ivory began. "A dead but not dead pony kept alive by zebra necromancy. Most were created when the bombs fell. Some go nuts and attack anything in sight, some stay sane and very few become glowing ones."

"And Gatekeeper keeps the gate closed across Eastwood Dam," Joe added for Ivory. "He stays in his tower and makes damn sure that gate is locked."

"Why not just shoot him like you surface ponies seem to do?" Lilac grumbled.

"Because that stubborn old colt is one hell of a shot and he's got one of these," Ivory said as she tapped her Pipbuck.

Lilac's eyes slowly narrowed as she stared at the mechanical device . She had seen them before, but only in the instruction manual before she had tossed it across the room. Lilac's stable did not receive any Pipbuck's, much to the annoyance of almost all the residents in there since a lot of the systems could only be accessed with the devices. And so only the maintenance ponies had one, but the one they had was scavenged from a different stable and locked to a pony that rarely left the engineering department.

"Lunaaaaa!" Lilac shouted at the top of her lungs. "Where are you?! Luna? Luuuunaaaaa?" When she received no response from the wayward blue alicorn, she frowned. Then screamed, "I'll find you and kill you for abandoning us!"

Joe facehoofed again and mumbled," I think she's nuttier than Gatekeeper."

*** ***

"Thirty!" Ivory shouted over the howling wind from the back of the wagon. "Where the hell did you take us?!"

Lilac glanced around at the snow flakes blowing at her from seemingly all directions and folded her ears back. "I don't know!" she shouted as a shiver deep in her bones ran up her spine into her skull. "I've never been to the surface before!"

Gill held his rifle tight and braced himself against the freezing wind. Eyes squinted shut to block out the wall of white in all directions. Joe on the other hand, was hiding under some blankets in the back, having let the new pony pull the wagon for a while under Ivory's directions. "I said left turn at the sign, LEFT TURN!" Ivory screamed at the purple earth pony.

Lilac gulped and quickly looked around again to get her bearings. Her heart began racing, pumping fresh warm blood through her system, as she remembered that Ivory could kill her at any second with the push of a button. "I..." Lilac looked left, then right, and finally back at the cart. The tracks made by her body and the cart were long, long, covered up. Leaving only white. "I thought I did!" she shouted.

Using her nose, Ivory brought up the map function of her Pipbuck and ignored the display saying hypothermia could start setting in any second. The map displayed their location far off course from where they should have been. Ivory was not pleased, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Lilac was the only one that wasn't as affected by the cold it seemed.

Lilac took a deep breath and began pulling the wagon through the snow. The chilling wind whipped at her right side, nearly freezing it, but she pressed on. As she pressed on through the blinding whiteout, she began to see strange red flashes of light in the distance. The flashes lit up the snow for a split second and vanished before a few rapid flashes illuminated it. It seemed, to them, that they were heading towards a derelict sign.

Chapter 5

Commander Swift Wind looked down at a stack of papers as she read off the day's weather report. It was clear, slightly cold due to the altitude, and the day was expected to last shorter than normal according to the scientists. "Now that the boring and overly predictable weather is out of the way, it's time to go over basic flight safety protocols." she said, receiving a few grumbles and some groans, yet no pony actively spoke out against it.

Most of the twelve assembled ponies were awake and watching Swift Wind on the podium; however, a golden-yellow pegasus near the end slept through the boring morning briefing. The cloud desk beneath Ripper was too comfortable to pass up an opportunity to nap on, and so she had passed out just after roll call. Her black Enclave uniform was as tidy as it could be considering she was sleeping in it. The cap atop her head kept her short length mane in check and was currently pulled low over her eyes, blocking any prying eyes from noticing that she was asleep.

The sea green pegasus next to Ripper ignored her. Despite hearing the same thing yesterday, Jewels listened intently to Swift Wind speaking about armor functions. "Those of you in heavy armor with a heads up display, use it at all times when flying. It could save your life in a tumble. Any questions?" One of the newer pegasi near the center slowly raised a hoof. Swift Wind pointed at him and nodded. "Yes, Private Iron?"

As he glanced to those next to him, he lowered his hoof. "I find that the display blocks my vision, ma'am. All those lines on the side and center are distracting when flying."

Swift Wind looked behind her at the Enclave flag hanging on the wall behind her. She quickly hovered up and tore it off the wall, tossing it towards Private Iron. The pegasus flared his wings as his eyes went wide. Those around him quickly dove to the side, but Private Iron was engulfed by the flag.

He thrashed about trying to get ahold of the cloth as Swift Wind shouted, "Quick, Private! It’s dark, you're falling towards the clouds and about to hit the deck! Which way is up and which way is down?!"

Awoken by the shouting, the Ripper quickly looked around as she fixed her hat and sat up straight, thinking she was being yelled at. She noticed Commander Swift Wind hovering in place and followed her gaze to a fumbling Private Iron. He finally pulled the flag off and looked at it, then to Swift Wind. "Why did you do that, ma'am?"

"Dead ponies don't talk, Meat Bag. You hit the cloud layer and fell to the surface because the 'clutter' was turned off. Now reattach the flag and think about why you should keep the heads up display on." Private Iron saluted and hovered towards the wall. Swift Wind landed and looked at all of the others. "Let that be a lesson to all of you. Every item of your gear is designed for a purpose. Learn it, use it, treat it well, and it'll bring you home safely."

After finishing his task, Private Iron hovered back to his cloud desk. Ripper leaned closer to Jewels and whispered to the sea green pegasus, "Another demonstration?"

Jewels nodded. "Flight systems this time," she whispered back, turning her head slightly and glancing at Ripper. She noticed the messy uniform and frowned. "And fix your collar, it's crooked."

Ripper looked down and quickly straightened her collar. When she looked at Swift Wind again, Ripper noticed she was back at the podium. Swift Wind picked up a piece of paper and flipped it over. "Moving on. Iron, new name Meat Bag, will accompany Moonie as wing pony. You two will fly with Plume and Shiny Cloud on patrol in the eastern quadrant." The four mentioned ponies all looked at each other for a second before looking at Private Iron. "Western patrol will be undertaken by..."

Ignoring the rest of the assignments, Ripper glanced at Jewels and nudged her. "Jewels."

She looked at Ripper. "What?"

"Bet you she picks us for southern patrol. A nice warm flight that’ll be, eh?"

Jewels rolled her eyes and looked towards Swift Wind. Their commander was already looking over at them. "Jeweled Cleft and Ripper will be patrolling the northern quadrant, alone." Ripper moaned in despair as she buried her face in the cloud desk, mumbling about freezing conditions and ice buildup on her face. Swift Wind heard the mumbling, and glared a bit. "Speak up, Corporal."

Ripper lifted her head from the cloud, looked to Swift Wind, and smiled. "I said it sounds like a winter wonderland, Commander Swift Wind, ma'am."

She nodded. Swift Wind tapped her hoof on the podium and set the paperwork down again. "You all have your assignments for today, good luck and fly safe." Everypony silently got up and started filing out. "Except you two," Swift Wind said to Ripper and Jewels.

They both immediately stopped what they were doing and sat back into their cloud chairs. A few of the others murmured quietly to themselves about their assignments and soon, the grey room was empty. Swift Wind flew over to the door and shut it before flying back. Both of the remaining two fliers silently watched their commander. When she came close to them, they saluted. Swift Wind returned the salute, causing Ripper and Jewels to relax.

"Ripper! Stand at attention!" Swift Wind snapped as her wings flared out. Ripper jumped out of her chair and stood at attention next to her desk, eyes wide. "If I catch you sleeping during a briefing again. You will be cleaning toilets for a month, without a brush. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal! Commander Swift Wind!" she replied, standing as still as a rock. "No napping in the briefing room."

"Good. Now drop and give me fifty wing-ups!"

Ripper quickly dropped to the floor and started doing push-ups using only her wings. "One... Two... Three..."

"Count in your head," Swift Wind said, receiving a nod from Ripper. Swift Wind looked from Ripper to Jewels. "Jewels, you and Ripper have a special duty assignment."

Ripper listened in as she kept doing wing-ups. Jewels nodded. "What are our orders?"

"Command has decided you're going on a scouting mission. They lost contact with a research team on the surface." Ripper stopped mid-wing-up and looked up at Swift Wind. The blue pegasus looked down at Ripper and shouted, "Did I ask you to stop doing wing-ups?! You better give me sixty five!"

Ripper quickly pushed herself up, resuming her workout punishment.

Swift Wind looked at Jewels again. "You two feather-brains were actually my third choice. We lost contact with the first recon squad and the second refused. This is an optional assignment, but there's a promotion in it if you find the team and recover any intel they dredged up. I'm told that the surface is an uninhabitable frozen landmass. Nothing but radioactive snow for hundreds of kilometers. It is dangerous and there is a large risk that this is a mission you won't come back from. But, there is a good side. A scientist in our little slice of cloud believes any diseases cannot survive the harsh weather."

"I'll do it," Ripper said without hesitation as she pushed herself up again, grunting quietly.

Jewels nodded with Ripper's words. "As will I."

"Good. The surface team went down five days ago in the northern quadrant while chasing after a meteor reported by a farmer. Suit up for cold weather, grab a laser pistol from the armory, get some RadAway from medical, and head out. Here are your orders.” Swift Wind removed an envelope from her uniform's pocket and gave it to Jewels. “The return code is in the usual place."

The sea green pegasus took the envelope and placed it in her own uniform's pocket. She gave Swift Wind a sharp salute and held it while Ripper kept doing wing-ups. "We will not fail the Enclave," Jewels replied.

Swift Wind returned the salute. "Good mare. I leave you in charge of making sure Corporal Ripper does all sixty-five push-ups."

Jewels looked down at Ripper and said, "Faster, Corporal! The faster you do them, the faster we can help the Enclave."

Swift Wind walked off while Ripper increased her pace and called out her wing-ups. "Thirty-five! Thirty-six! Thirty-seven!"

Jewels leaned back and pulled her orders from her pocket. She stared at the white envelope between her hooves, slowly flipping it over and contemplating opening it then and there. A quick glance at the door revealed that only Ripper and Jewels remained in the briefing room. She never did question how they insulated the clouds to keep their voices from going to other rooms, but never had she been in a secret meeting. Again, Jewels looked at the envelope and tore it open.

"Is she gone?" Ripper grunted as she pushed herself up with her wings for the forty-eighth time.

Jewels nodded, slowly pulling out their orders. "Mhm, but keep going. Orders are orders."

"I don't get her," Ripper grunted.

"Hush. You'll break your concentration."

*** ***

Icy wind whipped through Ripper's feathers, sending a tingling sensation through her wing. She gave her wings another flap, adjusting her position slightly to the right and behind Jewels, her lead pony. Ripper looked to her left past Jewels and watched the sky for a split second, before looking to her right for the same reason.

Jewels glanced up at the sky, squinting as the bright sunlight attempted to blind the pegasus. She saw nothing beyond the blinding light in the clear skies. Jewels looked behind them as the two pegasi flew towards their destination above the clouds, the farm. Jewels saw no dragons or gryphons, or even pegasi, foolishly following the two. She returned her gaze to the front and scanned the horizon. "Not much longer now," she told Ripper. "About five minutes."

"Why do we have to go to the stupid farm again?" Ripper shook her head. She looked behind them at the same time Jewels looked to their right. "We can just fly below the clouds right now and no pony would know!"

Ripper also saw nothing following them. They rarely saw anything while out on patrol, but there was always the chance that they might. Ripper remembered the one time she had been lax on checking her blind spot. Swift Wind had tackled her into a cloud and put her on potato peeling duty for a week.

Jewels looked to her left and quickly scanned the clouds, but found nothing. "Because orders. We have to fly to the farm, check on the farmer and make sure he isn't diseased."

"Who wrote the orders?" Ripper looked up again before looking down at the clouds some distance below them.

"Command." Was all Jewels replied with.

Ripper frowned. She quickly checked one of her pockets, feeling the familiar cylindrical shape of her cigar safely tucked inside a metal tube. The thin flight suit she wore under her fur lined jacket failed to protect her wings, muzzle and eyes from the icy temperature at the altitude they were flying at, and was considered barely adequate to keep her legs warm.

Jewels looked away from Ripper to check their left again. She was equipped with gear identical to Ripper, including a small silver box in her foreleg holster. A mouth grip was attached to the box so the pegasus could have an easy time drawing and firing it. Jewels tapped at the orange tinted goggles protecting her eyes to clear any ice build up. "What'd you mean in the briefing room when you said 'I don't get her'?" she asked, attempting to steer the conversation away from what they were doing.

Ripper checked the cloud layer below them, noticing a couple pegasi flying in the direction the Enclave fliers had come from. "About six years ago I met a stallion."

"Uh-oh," Jewels dead panned. She looked above and behind them for any threats, but found none. "How'd that work out?"

Ripper looked to their left at the same time Jewels looked to her right, which landed her gaze on Ripper. The gold pegasus looked up, ignoring her lead pony's gaze and quickly tapped her goggles to break up the ice off. "It actually went well. We dated for a while and one day, we're home alone. I hadn't met his parents before, since they were always working. Then, his mother comes home early. In uniform."

"Wait..."

"Yep." Ripper nodded and resumed checking their right. "Swift Wind was his mother."

Jewels suppressed a giggle and decided to look to her left to avoid showing Ripper a grin on her face. "So you dated the Commander’s son. Now I see why she hates you. So what happened next?"

Ripper checked below them for a second before looking ahead. "It started off with boring chit-chat; How are you, my name is yadayadayada. She then brought up where she worked. I told her I had no interest in signing up for.. Building sighted at your twelve o'clock, three hundred meters."

Jewels quickly looked straight ahead. The cloud building Ripper spotted was too far away to make out any specific details on. All Jewels could see were a few holes cut in the wall for windows. Beyond the house stretched a field of trees with a large chunk missing from one half.

"Alright, let's be serious about this and check these farmers out." Jewels angled her wings downward and began to slowly descend.

Ripper immediately threw any notion of reminiscing about her ex-coltfriend out the window. She followed Jewels in her descent towards the farmhouse. Both pegasi noted immediately that there were two trees ready for planting in the vacant area, but no farmers were nearby. Jewels banked right, Ripper following, as she turned just before reaching the farmhouse. The sea green pegasus looked down at the building and soaked in the details while Ripper checked the skies.

The building was shaped to be two stories with a ground floor consisting of three rooms and the upstairs having four rooms. At least, that was what it looked like to Jewels based off how many doors and windows she saw.

"Knock?" Ripper asked quietly as she slowly moved three pony lengths back from Jewels.

"Yeah." Jewels swooped down to the door. She rotated her wings back as she reached the cloud layer and quickly slowed her momentum, landing softly. Ripper followed her down and landed next to her. The door was made from the same material as the walls, clouds, so Jewels gently placed her hoof on it to see how solid it was.

Ripper glanced to the right of Jewels, noticing a small button built into the wall. Her eyes narrowed slightly as a smirk crossed her face. "Jewels, you might want to try the buzzer instead of fondling the door."

Jewels shot a glare back at Ripper and quickly pushed the button. "I wasn't fondling it," she replied as a loud crack, followed by a dull roar, echoed inside the farmhouse.

As the roar died down and no pony opened the door, Ripper glanced back at the trees ready for planting. She remembered noticing the pegasi flying away from the general direction of the farmhouse, and sighed deeply. "Hey, Jewels, I don't think they're home."

"Great.” Jewels shook her head. "Just what we needed."

"Sooo... wait? Or say we talked with them and go?"

Jewels took her helmet off and set it aside. She scratched at her messy mane, frowning at the options they had. "Honestly? We're not even on a schedule and those apples look decent."

"Too bad we can't take any," replied Ripper, yawning quietly as she stretched her wings up.

Jewels looked over to the golden pegasus and grinned. "Too bad we're the..."

Their ears swiveled towards the sound of a metallic click behind them. Both Jewels and Ripper turned to look at the door, as it was slowly opened by a thin orange pegasus with barely anything left for a mane. Deep wrinkles lined his face, hiding his original looks. "H-hello?" he asked in a shaky voice.

Ripper turned to face the pony, but quickly glanced around the area for others. Jewels quickly pulled her helmet back on her head and stood up, turning around to face the pony. "Good morning, sir. I am Sergeant Jeweled Cleft and this is Corporal Ripper." Jewels held her hoof out for a hoof shake. "We understand that there was an incident last week involving your farm and are following up to see how you were doing."

"I'm not buying anything," the old stallion replied as he backed into the house. "Can't you read the sign saying no soliciting?"

"Sir, we're with the Enclave," Ripper said. “And there is no sign.”

The orange stallion slowly shook his head. "Enclave, shmonclave. Always something new with the foals these days..." he mumbled as he slowly shut the door and locked it.

Ripper looked to Jewels, then to the door, and back to Jewels. "That was a new one."

Jewels looked down at her hoof and sighed. "Yeah. What do you figure, clean bill of health?"

"He looked like a healthy old bastard to me. Where do we go from here?"

"Down." Jewels replied as she began walking towards the clearing.

Ripper glanced one last time at the locked at the door and followed after her. "You know we could just dig through the clouds and go up through his floor."

Jewels rolled her eyes. She glanced up at the sky for a few moments, before looking to the trees awaiting planting. Ripper looked to her right, but saw nothing inside the forest of apple trees. "And spend a week filling out a report on why we broke into an old pony's house? No thanks."

They soon reached the outside of the clearing. Ripper kicked at the clouds beneath her hooves. She knelt low, glancing at Jewels, and sniffed the cloud. Jewels was staring at a nearby apple tree full of ripe apples. Ripper could not fully feel the cloud layer through her flight suit, but she knew it was there. Her pegasus magic was telling her that the fluffy ground was quite thick and okay to walk on.

Jewels shut her eyes and sniffed the air as a breeze carrying the scent of the fresh apples ruffled her feathers. "I'm hungry," she whispered.

Ripper began digging at the cloud layer when she found a thin spot from where the object had fallen through. "Jewels, knock it off." Ripper slowly sunk lower into the clouds as she dug. "We'd get canned if that old pony reported us stealing food."

"But I didn't get breakfast," Jewels whined, walking over to Ripper. The gold pegasus opened her mouth to reply. In that moment, her hoof suddenly hit air, causing her to quicky hover up and look down. Jewels heard a faint howl coming from the hole and looked down, gasping quietly.

Far, far, below the hole was grey-white ground dotted with splotches of black. Wind kicked up loose flakes of snow, blowing them up and out of the hole. Slowly, Ripper scattered some of the cloud to make a hole big enough for a pegasus to climb through.

"I'm going to hate myself for taking this assignment." Ripper grumbled. Shutting her eyes, she jumped through the hole with her wings closed.

Jewels glanced back at the farmhouse, noticing the old pegasus's silhouette in one of the upper floor windows. She frowned and jumped through the hole after Ripper.

*** ***

Lilac slowly turned around. Her gaze darted left and right across the dark hallway. She saw only the rubble from the partial cave-in and the lockers that had fallen off the the opposite wall. "Ivory?" she called out into the dark. "Ivory, is that you?"

Despite the fact that her head was throbbing in pain, making it hard to think, Lilac's ears swiveled to the left as she picked up the sound of something walking next to her. She looked over and backed away. The only thing on Lilac's left was a wall with the words "Run away" written in dried blood. Lilac gulped. She looked left, then right, and left again before galloping down the hallway.

She could hardly feel her cheeks anymore, due to the cold numbing her face. Her ears flicked back at the sound of heavy hoofsteps behind her. Lilac stole a glance back, saw nothing, and looked ahead again. An open doorway ahead took her into a large auditorium-like room. Much like the hallway, the roof had collapsed, yet it filled the auditorium with snow covered rubble and provided a view to the outside, filling the earth pony with hope.

Lilac hopped up on the nearest pile of snow, barely making it. Her hind hooves slipped out from under her as she clawed with her forehooves for a grip, her eyes going wide. Lilac's rapidly beating heart increased its pace as her shallow breathing picked up. She failed to keep herself from sliding back down to the ground. Lilac shut her eyes and waited for the end.

And waited...

Seconds ticked by and soon, a minute of only her rapid breathing met Lilac. She cracked open an eye, filling her vision with a bright white light. Lilac opened both eyes and slowly sat up, adjusting the heavy collar around her neck as she looked around.

"Lilac!" a distant voice shouted, drawing her attention to the top of the rubble pile. She recognized the earth pony stallion from Ivory's cart, but couldn't recall his name. He stood there on his hind legs, waving to get her attention, and stopped when he saw he had it. "There you are! Hey, come up here! They can't climb and-"

“Foul zebra scum!” shouted a metallic voice as a red beam of light struck the stallion in the head, searing the beam into her vision. Lilac jumped in surprise and screamed, turning her head away from the corpse as it collapsed in a heap. Lilac reared up as she turned and bolted from the rubble pile back the way she had come.

"No! No! No!" she shouted as she galloped into the dark, her ears back as she moved faster.

Soon, darkness enveloped her. Lilac slowed her gallop to a stop and slumped onto her haunches. Her rapidly beating heart threatened to leap out of her chest as she began to breath faster and faster, nearly hyperventilating. She hiccuped, burying her face in her hooves and shutting her eyes as a tear froze to her cheek.

It was then, with her eyes shut, that Lilac saw the same scene again. The red beam of light striking the pony in the back of the head, the pony falling to the ground with a smoking crater where his mane used to be.

She opened her eyes as quick as she shut them, looking around the dark hallway. Lilac looked left, and saw nothing but darkness. She looked to her right and saw the same thing. The more she kept her eyes open, the more she noticed shapes dancing around her; silently sliding upwards in wavy lines as if the very walls were alive. Lilac shouted something incoherent into the darkness, but the shapes continued their silent dance.

The purple earth pony felt something staring at her from behind. She cringed, remembering from old stories that it could be anything, even her mind playing a trick, but she had to look. Slowly, Lilac turned around and looked into the darkness.

A glowing pony shaped skull was staring at Lilac from the wall. It opened its maw wide as it roared as loud as a dragon, shaking the earth pony to the bone. Lilac jumped to her hooves and backed away. "No! You-you're not real!" she shouted at the skull as the glow began to slowly spread out the longer the skull roared. As it began moving towards her, it broke apart as the wall fromed a large glowing pony skull with fire burning inside its eye sockets.

Lilac turned around again, bolting scene. And slammed nose first into a white pony shape. Lilac did not care, she kept galloping and bowled the shape over. The pony shape yelled in surprise as she fell to the ground, "Thirty! What the hell are you doing?"

Lilac stopped a few meters from the familiar voice. She quickly looked back at Ivory as her eyes went wide. The wall behind the white earth pony held a Ministry of Morale poster with the words 'Pinkie Pie is watching you. Forever' underneath a set of blue eyes hiding in shadow. Lilac gulped, staring at the poser as if the eyes were holding her in place.

Ivory pushed herself to her hooves, groaning quietly. Her muscles felt weak, forcing her legs to shake, her Pipbuck was flashing enough errors that she had to sit down and nose off the Eyes Forward Sparkle. Ivory turned one of the dials to check the health status, and frowned. She quickly turned the dial and looked to the purple earth pony she knew as Thirty. “Hey, Thirty, wake up!”

Lilac blinked a couple of times, slowly looking to Ivory as her ears folded back. “He’s dead.”

“Who’s dead?”

“That other earth pony. He… he knew my name, but was hit in the back of the head by some light!”

Ivory looked down at her Pipbuck, pushing a button with her nose to bring up the map. “Where was this?”

Lilac pointed her hoof the way she thought she had come from, which was correct. The diffuse grey light looked white to the two ponies, being so far from the door. Lilac looked to Ivory as she said, “He was talking when he was hit by this red beam of light!”

Ivory set her hoof down and looked toward the door. “Thirty, we have-”

“My name is Lilac!” she screamed at Ivory. “Lilac Oil, got that?”

With a deep sigh, Ivory nodded. “Alright, Lilac, we have to get out of here. Something is screwing with my Pipbuck and there are robots crawling all over the place.” She lifted the foreleg wearing the device and waved it in front of Lilac. “The map says we’re not far from the entrance, in fact, it’s that way.” She pointed her hoof to their right, a barred wooden door stood in their path. “The snowstorm has to be over by now, so let’s get the hell out of here, agreed?”

Lilac turned around to look at the door. Time had worn through part of it to the point that it had cracked and the purple earth pony could see a dim light behind the door. She walked over to it and inspected the boards bolting it to the wall. Lilac slowly brought her forehoof up and pressed against one of them. It felt soft, rotted, and dead. She stepped back and nodded. “I can buck it down.”

“Then do it and stop wasting your breath,” Ivory replied. Lilac took a deep breath, turning around. She balanced on her forehooves, pulled her legs in and gave a yell as she kicked at the door.