Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel - Under the Red Cloud

Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel

Under the Red Cloud

Chapter 3: God is Everywhere

I closed the back door to the Police Station and found myself in what looks to be the staff cafeteria. The room I find myself in is pretty large. It contains two large tables that look big enough to hold up to ten ponies each, and a long set of counters that form an L shape in the top right corner of the room, stretching down about halfway across the top end wall. Beside the counters on the right side wall sit three fridges which looked like somepony had wrenched the doors clean off, as two were missing, and the other is lying face up on the floor. The counters were littered with cutting boards, knives, coffee machines and other kitchen appliances. Against the far wall next to the counters sits a vending machine for Sunset Shimmer Sarsaparilla. Sunset Shimmer? I thought she owned a loan company. I suppose she owned more than that, she was a business mare after all. Shame the machine is dead; I could do with a nice soft drink right now. Ugh, oh well.

I took another quick look around to be sure I didn’t miss anything, spotting the yellow medical box on the wall next to the entryway to the Police Station main lobby. I trot up to the box and use my magic to open it. Inside I find a hoofful of medical stuff, a couple of healing potions, a syringe of Med-X and three bobby pins. While I put the medical stuff in my bags I became aware of a beeping sound. I realized my collar is vibrating and beeping, getting faster and faster. My eyes widened in realization and I dove backwards. My rump crashed into the counters in my haste to get back from whatever it is that’s causing my collar to go haywire, followed by a piercing pain in my flank. I yelped and grit my teeth to prevent myself from screaming in pain.

My broadcaster crackled to life again, and I heard the old stallion’s voice drift up to me.

“Speakers and radios interfere with the bomb collar frequency, and can set off the detonators…prematurely.

“It is an unfortunate side effect, one I did not anticipate. I was unable to calibrate the collars to block the signals – so you’ll have to make do.”

“YOU WHAT?” I screamed at the PipBuck on my leg as I heard his warning about the radios and speakers. I couldn’t believe this. I could have walked into the room and died because he didn’t tell me sooner. “You could have warned me about this shit earlier,” I groaned to myself loudly and winced as the pain in my flank spread down my right hind leg and up my back. Oh, fuck, I should have asked more damn questions when I had the chance. I shook my head at my own thoughtlessness and then looked back to my flank as I feel a familiar trickle of warm liquid running down my leg. I cringed when I saw the Cosmic Knife sticking out my flank. I gripped the knife with my magic, took a couple of deep breaths and then yanked the knife out of my flank, screaming in agony as the blade was wrenched free. The blade had sunk three inches into my flesh. How sharp are these knives? I threw the knife away from me and watch as it impales itself in the wall just as deeply as it did my flank. I swear these knives are gonna be the death of me.

I sigh deeply as I drink a healing potion to heal the gash in my flank. I cautiously approach the large opening. I could feel my collar start to vibrate and beep again, and I step back until it stops. I am still in the cafeteria but I can at least see most of the main floor. In front of me I see a large detention cell that happens to contain a prisoner, who is rocking back and forth on the floor. From where I’m standing, I can’t tell what or who it is, but he or she is definitely large. I can see one desk to the left of the cell door, where a Ham Radio rests on the floor, underneath the desk. Against the bars of the cell on the other side towards an open door sat two more desks , one of which has another radio sitting on it and on the other, a terminal. I can see into the reception area of the main floor and the front door. Behind a partition wall there’s a table with a large coffee machine sitting on it along with those mugs that no matter how shitty everything is will always remain clean, stacked next to it along with lots of chairs against the far wall. I can see two radio sets which, from the light I can see from the one on the floor are telling me that they are on so they could be a source for the inference so turning them off should help.

I reach out with my magic to grab the first radio, but I find myself unable to do so. I try another two times but can’t get a hold of it at all, like it was being magically protected. I close my eyes in concentration as I begin to cast the “Aura Scanner” spell that was taught to me by a powerful magic user in New Ponyville. It allows the user to be able to see magic. When I open my eyes they are glowing white with magic, but my vision was black. I quickly look around and find that I can see the outlines of the objects in the room.Anything with a trace of magic has a shimmering bubble around it. The creature in the cell had a huge bubble, implying it has lots of magic and the radio sets I can see also had a strong bubble around them. Focusing on the sets I was able to see the spell matrix around them and discovered they are protected by a barrier, likely made to prevent anypony else from using magic on them. I cancelled the spell and shook my head as my normal vision returned. Looks like I’ll have to turn these radios off manually. “This is gonna be fun” I thought sarcastically.

I looked around again before I set my gaze onto the desk with the radio underneath it. If I run I should be able to turn the radio off and retreat back into cafeteria before my head pops. I brace my legs and gallop into the Police Station proper, running up to the radio on the desk. I skidded on the dirty tiled floor and slid right into the desk, smacking my chin on the top of it.

“Ow, cock! I bit my tongue,” I whined painfully as I gently rubbed my sore tongue on the roof of my mouth. My collar had started to beep as soon as I had entered the main room and now it began beeping faster and faster. I quickly crouch down and reach under the desk, turning the knob anti-clockwise with my hoof until the light on the radio went dark to signal that it had turned off. Unfortunately for me, my collar is still beeping and I quickly pushed off the desk and used my large wings to give me a boost to get me back into the cafeteria just as the beeps became a near constant tone.

I panted with relief as the collar stopped its beeping. I guess I know when I’m about to pop with how fast the beeping goes. I suppose when the beeps reach that near constant tone the collar would explode at any moment. It certainly felt like it with how badly it was vibrating. Okay, one down. I close my eyes again and cast the same scanner spell as before, focusing on the radio sitting on the desk around the corner of the cell. As I focused, I noticed another bubble behind a partition wall just outside the cafeteria. There’s another radio? Cock, just how many are there?

I cancel the spell and look to the radio on the desk again, “hmm, I can run to that one first and turn it off and then turn the other off before my head pops,” I thought out loud. I look back at my wings and give them a shake. At least these can help by giving me a boost. I pushed off with my legs and beat my wings as I rushed over to the desk, and like last time I slid on the dirty floor and crashed into the desk. Groaning in pain from the crash I quickly turn off the radio and gallop over to the desk sitting behind the partition and a steel door. Another Ham Radio sits atop the desk. I grabbed the dial with my hoof and turned it off, thankfully causing my collar to stop beeping.

“Oh thank the goddesses,” I sighed in relief as I wasn’t in any more danger for the time being.

The desk also has a terminal sitting on it with its screen flickering. I sit in the seat and tap a key with my hoof, waking up the ancient device. The screen flickered over to the login screen and I let out a groan of annoyance as the screen was full of words. This terminal’s gonna be a hard nut to crack. I examine the terminal to get a sense of what it’s for and noticed the words “Contraband Locker” in the top corner. I look up to see the door and smiled. I might find some goodies behind that door. Looking back at the screen my smile faded as I looked at the wall of text. Ugh, ok, um, err, you. I selected a password at random; “Intimidation”. To my surprise, the computer beeped and let me in, what luck, the screen switched to give me a report which I didn’t read and an option to open the locker. I smile happily with my lucky guess and click the option. A dull thunk was heard from the door as its lock was released.

The locker is small, probably a three foot by six in size. Both sides are lined with two sets of metal shelving which hold a few boxes and other items. As I look at the shelves I see some Med-X, Buckout, and Rad-Away. The boxes are empty and I find a magazine on explosives lying on the floor. On the other side I find a holotape that will let me purchase .357 Magnum rounds for the vending machines outside in the Villa, which is a wonderful find as it means I can now buy ammo with these chips. My biggest surprise in this room came when I found another BAR. I grab the gun and inspect it. To my surprise, this BAR is also in decent condition so I shove it into my saddlebags. Wow, three BARs found in the space of a couple of hours, but, also odd. The BAR is a very old rifle. I mean sure it appeared around the start of the Great War but with so many newer and better weapons that were created after it, they were discontinued and many were recycled. I’ve never seen a BAR outside of the Ranger Base I grew up in, which told me how rare this gun is in Equestria, but here I am at the Sierra Maredre and I’ve found three of them. I wonder if they were a standard for the police force here.

Leaving the locker, I stand in the reception area looking at the cell with the creature rocking back and forth still. Now, without the strange noise coming from the radios, I can hear it muttering to itself. The voice was deep but feminine and seemed to be repeating itself. I could hear it saying “please turn the noise off”, “so hungry” and “master, please let me go”. I walk up to the bars of the cell and look inside. Being this close now the light shining down on the creature wasn’t making it hard to make out what it is. I gasp when I see just what sits inside. An alicorn, a fucking purple alicorn. She was just sitting in the middle of the cell, rocking back and forth and muttering to herself like a lost and scared child. From where I stand she has her back to me, but I can see that she is heavily scarred and I could see a bear-trap wrapped around her left forehoof. This struck me as one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. I soon noticed that the direction marker is actually pointing to this alicorn, meaning the pony I’m looking for is right there in front of me.

“Um, excuse me?” I called out to her but my call might as well have fallen on deaf ears as she didn’t make any sign of hearing me or took any notice

Well that didn’t work. The old stallion’s audio log came to mind after a brief moment of wondering what to do as he might have some info that he didn’t tell me at the fountain. With nothing better to do to get this alicorn’s attention I open up my leg, access my pipbuck’s notes tab, and selected the tape “Elijah’s Instructions”. The tape played and filled the Police Station with his deep commanding voice but the tape was basically everything he told me at the fountain but simplified and shortened. I groan at the waste of time. To my surprise the alicorn stands up and turns around to face me.

She is very scarred indeed. She has several on her face and many on her chest and forelegs. It looks like somepony carved their name in her chest or something as she has scarring that spell out the word “GOD”. Her right eye is just white and a deep scar can be seen cutting across it. Her mane looks to have been cut short and is extremely messy, same with her tail. She wears a relieved look on her face as she faced me and then spoke.

“Mater?” She asked expectantly but when she sees me her face twists into a confused and upset look. “No, not Mater,” she said quietly, almost foalishly, as she turns back around and sits down again to resumed her rocking.

“Well that was sure interesting,” I muttered to myself.

I trot around to the cell door and find it to be locked. Well duh. I examined the lock but it would be impossible to pick. As I shake my head in annoyance, I can hear the strange noise that the radios now give off with their decayed speakers which thankfully alerts me to another radio somewhere nearby. I’ll deal with it when I come to it.

I walk back around to the lobby and see an open doorway between the cell and partition wall next to the coffee table. Above the door is a sign which reads: “Restrooms, Locker Room, Equipment Room”. If I’m going to find the key to the cell it would likely by in the locker room.

The doorway opens into a short corridor with four doors lining the wall facing me. To my right is the mare’s restroom and to my left I can see the locker room, the equipment room and, at the end, the colt’s restroom. All four of them had open doors which told me somepony might already have been through them but I migh as well check them out anyway. I start with the mare’s restroom, inside sits a single toilet, and sitting in the cistern is another glowing hoofprint on the wall, indicating another Dean’s Stash. I smile as I open the briefcase and find that inside it holds some goodies. I pick out another Police Pistol which I use to repair the other one with my repair spell. I also find a good number of .357 Magnum rounds, thirty seven according to my PipBuck. I also pick up twenty standard Microfusion Cells, along with some miscellaneous stuff like food and also five healing potions. Not a bad haul. Turning around I catch sight of a medical box behind the open door. Inside I picked up another four healing potions, a few Med-X, a Rad-Away and a couple of bobby pins. Well, this is great; I have plenty of meds now. Smiling happily with my find I walk into the locker room.

The locker room is lined with lockers on the walls, a desk against one wall with a terminal and a large bench in the middle. I walk along the lockers, opening them one by one and taking what was inside. I came out with three lots of C4 but unfortunately no detonator, several suits of armour which I used to repair my current suit, keeping a couple for later on, and several more Police Pistols with at least a hundred rounds. I guess I’m not gonna be hurting for .357 rounds, but I doubt a Police Pistol will be able to inflect much damage on those Ghost Ponies.

The equipment room was sadly empty apart from a couple of useless items, save for the main attraction of the room, the Reloading Bench at the back. I can use that later on for making ammo. Lastly I check the colt’s restroom. Like the equipment room it is empty. I was about to leave when I noticed a holotape on the floor. I picked it up and a smile spread across my face with glee. It was a vending machine code to unlock .308 rifle rounds. Oh fuck yea. I am so gonna splash out on .308 rounds when I find another vending machine.

I haven’t been in much of a good mood since I got here but after all the good shit I found so far in the Police Station I was genuinely smiling. Sadly I didn’t find a key so I would have to keep looking. I walk around the detention cell and into the back portion of the station. After entering the area my collar starts to beep again and I quickly notice the same exotic looking radio from the bunker sitting on a desk. I quickly run up to it and turn it off, and the collar went cold again. No longer in danger of my collar going off I look around. This must be the prison area as I can see three holding cells. The middle one had a horrible sight. I could see a skeleton on the floor behind a barred door with one of its legs outstretched trying to reach two bottles of purified water. Some sadistic asshole had on purposely left those there just out of reach. Elijah was right… “NOW I KNOW WHERE I SEEN HIM BEFORE.” I mentally screamed as it finally clicked in my head. I had heard about him during my time in the Steel Rangers, he was like the first Scribe ever to be made an Elder. I also heard that he became unstable and at some point went rogue. Great, I have an insane Elder holding my leash.

I quickly looked through the cells, desk and filing cabinets in the back and found several chips, a vending machine code for Weapon Repair Kit(s), which I found sitting on the top of a filing cabinet, and a pair of twenty gauge shotgun shell boxes containing twenty shells each.

I scratched the back of my head as I wondered what I should do now. How can I get that pony out of the cell if I can’t find the key? I grumbled to myself in annoyance as I began to head back to the front of the station until I then saw some stairs leading down. I might as well. I descended the stairs and came to a blue door.

I stepped into a hallway that resembled the typical underground concrete and steel. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom of the dimly lit basement I found myself looking at more of that scratched graffiti facing the door. It was as if it was purposely placed there for whoever came in to see it. I raised an eyebrow in confusion as this was just as cryptic as the others. It read “God is everywhere”. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

I walked up to the wall and turned around as it’s a corner and then I heard a voice begin to talk. I let out a scream of fright as I wasn’t expecting it. I winced with slight pain as one of my wings slammed into the concrete wall as the voice spoke. It sounded similar to the voice from the alicorn but more refined and deeper.

”Knew you would come, below the cage… down to where I am. Maybe you saw the letters I scratched on the Villa walls.

“A little further. Follow my voice… The one in the cage? Dog. I had to lock her up. She keeps… disobeying me.”

The voice then stopped. What the fuck was that? So, the alicorn upstairs in the cell is called “Dog”? And this voice, it’s not Elijah so what does it mean by it saying she keeps disobeying? Okay, I’m confused.

After I turn the corner I come to a security door just like the one I went through before entering the bunker, which opened up into a small room. The room contained little, mainly huge crates and a desk with a terminal. I enter the room and my collar starts to beep again. “Shit,” I cried out before quickly jumping back. From the safety of the doorway I look around again the best I can. I can’t see anything at all that would suggest a radio or speaker. It might be behind the crates. I ran around the crates but found nothing but another door, and with my collar beeping I didn’t have time to think and quickly ran through the door, which thankfully caused my collar to stop beeping. The corridor I find myself in goes on for a few feet before making a ninety degree turn to the left, where it ends at another door.

I go through the door, and I find myself in a slightly larger room, which had two other doorways, one directly in front of me and another to my right. I gingerly take a few steps into the room in fear of my collar. I sigh with relief as it doesn’t make a sound or throb. I do a quick sweep of the room and find nothing but chips in the filing cabinets that lay against a corner. I open the door that is on the same wall I came in from and find myself in a tiny storage room that holds plenty of cleaning utensils and another filing cabinet. I find more chips in this room and on the floor I find an intact Grognak the Barbarian Pony comic. I always enjoyed that comic. I pick it up and stuff it into my saddlebags to read later.

I left the room and open the door opposite to where I entered, seeing and following a slightly winding corridor to another door. This door opens into yet another small room but this time the sound of a radio can be heard. I look around the room but find nothing as it’s pretty bare in here, but it does have another door on the far side wall. I walk up to the door and open it. The door slides into the floor and opens up into another small room, this one is well lit, and facing the door sat a desk with a Ham Radio on it. Other than the desk and the radio this room too is also pretty bare. I quickly walk up to the radio and turn it off but as soon as it stops, the same voice from when I entered the basement pipes up again, giving me another scare.

“That’s me, there, on the table. The disk. My voice.

“Can’t take any chances, though… you may be some victim who simply stumbled down here”

“Got that right,” I mutter out loud.

“If so, can’t let you let Dog out… no, not yet.  If you’re who I think you are, you came to fetch Dog, use her to drag others here. Now I’ll use you - and that PipBuck you’re wearing”

The fuck? How does she know I have a PipBuck or Elijah for that matter?

“You’re smart. Clever. The key to Dog’s cage is simple. Take my voice to the cage above. Let me speak to the beast inside.

“Then you and I… we can talk”

I didn’t like that last bit, it sounded like she wanted to do more than to just sit down and have a friendly chat, but I don’t have any better options with this. I noticed the holotape on the table before the radio and took it, might as well give it a try. I turn around and quickly trot out of the basement and back up to the detention cell with “Dog” still moaning and rocking back and forth.

I trot up to the cell door, lifting my mechanical foreleg and opening up the PipBuck compartment. I access the device’s notes tab and find the holotape I picked up at the top of the list of stored notes. I look at the file name: “Dog Command Tape,” and “umm’d” and “ahh’d” for a moment about wether or not I should play it, but after a little while I decide to go for it. I had no alternative at the moment and Dog did seem to respond to Elijah’s tape.

I select the file and it begins to play. “Dog, back in the cage,” Commanded the voice from downstairs. To my surprise Dog stands up again and turns around to face me, but her facial expression is completely different this time. It was like looking at a completely different pony. This is obviously a pony of intellect and a strong mind. The purple alicorn for a moment wore a look of surprise when she saw me but it was only brief. When she spoke, her voice is the same as the tape and from downstairs. What the hell?

“What have we here, asnow white alicorn perhaps ? You weren’t who I was expecting, I’m disappointed” Her voice is calm and collected, almost like my husband’s, which is kinda scary. “Still… even if you are not my intended guest, you take direction. Good. You can’t have been an idiot to figure out how to release me from my cage…

“…or perhaps you are, with that leash in your leg and the one around your neck… with our collars and manacles, why, we may as well be kin.”

I growled a little at the alicorn and idiot comments but I take a deep breath to control my anger before responding to Dog. “Why is your voice different from earlier?” I asked her.

“I am the voice of reason. I sleep sometimes… down in the basement, in the cage. Now that I’m awake, Dog goes back into the cage.

“Dog knows I’m here, but can’t do anything about it. I’m her… conscience. I keep her tame, keep her from hurting us… doing foalish things.

“I’ve been trapped in here for some time, when you came along and let me out. So… you opened my cage for a reason. Now… I want to know why.”

This alicorn seems to be suffering from a split personality. I can see it with how she is talking about Dog being a different pony and that they are together and this “cage”, which I suppose is her head, the mind they share, both fighting for control.

“You seem to be suffering from multiple personalities. Was this a result of the death of the Goddess and the end of her Unity?” I asked her.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking. We were once two but forced into one when there weren’t enough bodies to go around.

“Do you see these wounds of hers, covering her coat… the bear-trap on her leg? She placed her own hoof in it.

“The name carved in her chest? To remind her of whom she is. She inflicts pain on herself to silence me, when all I try to do is… Hrr!” She grunted in anger and pain. “She cuts, hurts, and tries to murder me out of her. She won’t succeed. Just makes me angrier.

Dog is the beast, we simply change cages. Like the ones here”

I guess I can understand that. Plenty of alicorns were killed since the Goddess and with all the ponies she consumed I would assume there wasn’t enough bodies for all the minds to return to their proper bodies, so it’s conceivable two or more minds would be forced into the same body, like here with Dog or God. I think I’ll refer to this personality as God since she is like a mirror opposite to Dog and it works with the way everything she has scratched into the walls.

I am however a little confused to why she’s locked in this cell when it’s her mind that locks out the other.

”Why did you lock yourself in this cell?” I asked.

“No… why did I lock her in the cage,” of course… “I locked her in because I could feel her… getting hungry again. There wasn’t much time,” It was then that I noticed her teeth were sharpened and got a very bad feeling about her.

“If Dog roams, she gets into trouble… eats things she shouldn’t, listens to others she shouldn’t… so she’s safer in here. We’re safer in here.”

“I hoped if I locked her in here… the one she obeys would come for her. Instead, I get you,” yeah, tough luck you got me.

I shook my head, needing more information.

“Hmm, you wouldn’t have locked yourself in there if you didn’t have some kind of key to let yourself out.”

“The key? Why it’s the Old Stallion of course, the one who brought us here.

“I hid the key on me so Dog wouldn’t know… I just need the Old Stallion to show up, so he and I can talk.” Yeah, somehow I doubt that.

“If Dog was in control when the Old Stallion appeared, she would just whatever he commanded, as always. And I can’t have that.”

I look around at the numerous radios around the police station. I remembered that these collars have a microphone built in and with God’s plan to lure Elijah to her. She must have used them to block out her plan from being heard by him.

“These radios, were you using them for like signal interference of something?”

“They were here when I arrived… so I made use of them, in a manner of speaking. More their… voices, really.

“These collars… they don’t just track us. You can eavesdrop on them as well. Tune to a frequency, and you can hear everything somepony is saying.

“So perhaps it’s a good thing that Dog swallowed her collar. Anyone listening would find it difficult to hear past the… digestion”

“Then I suppose that annoying bell outside helps too?”

“Very good. Yes… it’s another layer of white noise to ensure privacy. Unfortunately, it also acts like a dinner bell for the residents,” I shiver at the thought of that damn bell attracting more of those damn Ghost Ponies.

“As long as the holographic greeter outside is active, however, I can get by them… the Holograms fascinate them. Ghost-worship perhaps.”

Okay, well, time is wasting and I need to get her out of there so I can move on to find the others, steal whatever I’ve been brought here to steal and then go home to my family.

“I need you get you out of here,” I said, tapping the bars to the cell door.

“No… no, I don’t think so. Even in here, I have more control than you do” Oh great, so she’s a control freak too.

“I’m not leaving until the one who controls the collars shows… not his voice, not his hoof, not his lackey… him.

“And when he comes to see me, we’ll settle things. So go on, go back to your master, and tell him I’m waiting for him. Dog may follow him - I won’t” She said the last bit with finality.

God won’t come out on her own accord, she wants Elijah. Hmm, wait, Dog listens to Elijah and follows him, I have his voice, maybe I could use that to get Dog to come out and I can tell her where the key is to let her out of the cell. I smirked as an idea came to mind.

“Perhaps I suppose I can order Dog to come with me. I bet he’d obey me ” I said with the smirk still plasters on my muzzle.

God chuckled at this. “Dog? You’re not talking to him  now, are you? No, even if you could drag Dog out of her cage, you still couldn’t get her out of this cage.

“I put her in here for a reason… if she could have escaped, she would have. So here she stays.”

My smirk grew into a full on grin. “The key is in there with you and Dog.”

She laughed as if what I said was funny. “Yes, but Dog doesn’t know that. We don’t share everything. Sometimes it’s a blessing… sometimes… it causes difficulties.

Now I think it’s a blessing, it keeps you on that side of the cage. Now… you go fetch. Find your master, bring him here so we can talk.”

This time it was my turn to laugh which did cause the calm and collected mutant to raise her brow.

“I think I could tell Dog how to unlock a door.”

“Yes… you could. And once she was out, all starving and hungry… what do you think she would do then?” My victorious smirk faded and considering that Dog ate her own collar and the fact she has fangs. Oh cock! You smart bitch.

“Be careful what cage you open, because she won’t go back in it without a fight. She’ll tear you apart, she won’t care if it kills you both,” fuck, you are one smart bitch.

I had to think. I still could play Elijah’s voice card since Dog listens to him. Well it’s worth a shot.

“If Dog hears the Old Stallion’s voice, she’d obey and do what he says,” I challenged.

“Dog… obeys. Yes. Why… do you have some means of contacting the Old Stallion?” My victorious smirk returned as I knew I had her now.

“I have his voice on an audio log right here,” I said, pointing a hoof to my synthetic leg.

God’s eyes widened in a mixture of shock, fear and rage. When she spoke again her voice was so full of anger it actually scared me.

”You… don’t play it. If you do, I’ll find a way out of the cage, end you. I’ll murder you, crush your legs until…”

Holy shit. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I yelled while flaring my minds  and holding my forehooves up in a defensive gesture. Thankfully the raging alicorn did calm down and she now wore a confused expression. “Follow me willingly and I won’t play it,” I told her as calmly as I could despite her rage just then giving me a right old scare.

“No, you wouldn’t. If you did, you won’t escape this place alive. I’d shatter every one of your limbs to splinters and leave you hear ,” Yikes, that’s a nasty reminder of that Raider Leader I tortured when I was eighteen. “You think I’m afraid of your collar exploding, killing us? No, I’ll leave you breathing, then keep walking until my collar goes cold,” damn she is quite dark. “I’ll prop your broken body in view of the Sierra Maredre so you can see what you came to steal… forever out of reach as you die”

“Ok, I can’t convince you I’m not here for the Sierra Maredre or the old twat that brought us here, so I’ll prove it.”

“Prove it… how? Words are worthless.”

“I didn’t want to come here, it was just a recon mission, and I’ve been taken from my family and my foals. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want to be in that cell. But I have the power to let Dog out so I’ll prove it by not doing it.”

She looked at me, stared into my eyes as if searching for the truth. I stared right back, letting her see the pain in my eyes from being stolen from my loved ones. Telling her through eye contact that I want nothing more than to go home.

“Hmm. No… no, you’re not. Even though Dog’s more docile… easier to control.

“You may regret this. This place… this place is where creatures like Dog can survive. The things that fill its streets…

“She is as vicious, more vicious than they are. Her hunger can help you more than I can. When I’m in control… this shell is difficult to… fight in.”

“Even if Dog is more helpful, we can manage” I assured her and she laughed.

“I am not sure you belong here,” her face then became serious, “no, you don’t belong here.

“Yet you came this far. And I’m not interested in remaining here any longer. I’ll unlock the cage.”

I smile and sigh in relief that God has decided to follow me. I would rather have God in control than Dog because I wouldn’t want a crazy hunger driven maniac running around eating everything in sight.

“Alright, let’s get out of here.”

“Very well… lead on,” she said as her long horn glowed with a light blue aura, lifting a key out from her mane, which inserted itself into the lock of the door and twisted until a loud click was heard as the door unlocked.

I smiled up at the scarred purple alicorn and turned to the front door. One pony down, two more to go.