Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel - Under the Red Cloud

Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel

Under the Red Cloud

Chapter 6: Domino

Slowly feeling began creep back in across my body as I regained consciousness. I found myself to be lying on my back with my wings spread out against the uneven wooden panelled floor of the balcony and my hooves and legs in a tangle with the wooden guard rail support struts. I groaned in the uncomfortable position as I tried to free my legs.

“Ugh, my head, what happened?” I asked myself mentally. I couldn’t shake the cobwebs in my brain as more feeling slowly crept up my body. Soon I began to feel my face again but a warmth settled over the right side which left me confused even more since the left side of my face is cold.

My eyes shot open when a spike of pain grew along the right side of my face and with it my memory of what happened earlier.

I had triggered a trap that was connected to something that caused the gas canister I was stood next to, to explode in a fireball which bathed the right side of my face in flames and the concussive blast sent me into the wooden guard rail before knocking me out.

I hissed as the full burning pain reinserted itself across my face once all feeling had returned and the pain was quick to clear out the cobwebs. I pulled my head up and looked across my stomach to find my legs all tangled up in the struts and now that I could see... wait... my vision feels wrong. I can see my nose more clearly and it looks like part of my vision is blocked by the bridge of my nose. My eyes widened when I felt a deep piercing pain coming from the right side of my head, more specifically, my right eye. In a panic I thrashed my limbs in the confines of the struts until finally they either came free or the struts holding them broke and I quickly pulled my right forehoof up to the right side of my face and immediately threw it away as my boot covered hoof touched my charred flesh which prompted a large spike in the burning pain. I brought my hoof back up to the damaged area again more carefully and gingerly began to softly feel. Through the boot and the pain I could feel the charred and flaking flesh of my face. I cringed when my hoof pulled on some of the burnt flesh and then my hoof came into contact with something hard. I traced the hardness until I realised I was tracing a circle and then went to feel towards the middle, hoping to poke myself in my eye but instead my hoof found something metallic and upon touching that sent a powerful surge of pain running though my head. I threw my hoof away as I quickly scrabbled back up onto my shaky legs while letting out an agonized cry.

“I need a mirror” I wailed.

I quickly barged into the apartment the trap had been set up to catch somepony with and quickly searched the dark red tinted room for a bathroom. I rounded a corner and found a door that had been broken in half and saw that a mirror sat above a sink inside. I kicked down the rest of the door and stood before the cracked and dirty mirror. I flared my magic and swept it over the mirror until it was clear enough and peered at my reflection. What looked back shocked me to my core. I saw a mare’s face that’s entire right side minus her muzzle was horribly burnt and her mane had been blown back and stood on end in a spiky fashion. The flesh was burnt black with cracks of dark red running all over it where it was bleeding slowly. However the most horrifying thing about the reflection was where the eye should have been. Instead of an eye there was nothing but a deep hole rimmed with pure white, showing the actual bone of the eye socket and in place of the eye sat a piece of jagged metal. In a fit of panic I grabbed the piece of metal with my magic and pulled it out, this was a big mistake as the piece of shrapnel also pulled out what remained of my eye and my pain level spiked again. I screamed out into the apartment with all my agony.

I scrabbled for my torn saddlebags as I used my Pipbuck’s inventory sorting spell to find my healing potions and pulled out two of them along with one of the Super Healing Potions I had found along the way. I had tears streaming down the left side of my face from the pain as I also pulled out two syringes of Med-X. I cried from the burning pain as I jabbed both Med-X needles into my flank and pushed down on the plungers, injecting me with their clear fluid. Within moments the fantastic drug made my roaring fire dull down to a gentle simmer. It was still there but thankfully it wasn’t killing me. I looked back up at the reflection of the burned mare. I watched as her only intact eye drifted to the gaping black hole in her head and quickly gulped down the two healing potions. I watched as the lightly, least damaged, areas of her face slowly healed and regrew her pure white fur. The burned flesh now covered most of the right side of her face, the damage to her neck and the surrounding area of the burn had healed but the eye was still missing.

I held the super healing potion, hoping against hope that it would return to me what I’ve lost. I tore off the bottle’s top and gulped it down. I had to brace myself against the sink after dropping the bottle as I immediately felt weak, like I’d ran marathon. Looking back at my reflection I watched as a little more of the burn healed, not by much, and regrew fur but the cracked black flesh flaked more to reveal healed skin below that is twisted and out of shape to the rest. Worst of all, my eye is still missing, it’s just a gaping hole rimmed by my skull’s exposed eye socket.

My eye widened as a realisation settled in my brain. I had just drunk three healing potions; the damage done to me had been healed. If... When, I get home my regeneration talisman will not see that I’m injured and thus will not regrow my eye. I’ll be a half blind, one eyed mare for the rest of my life with this horrible burn disfigurement. I threw my head into my forelegs and began to weep loudly in despair as my traitorous imagination began thinking up scenarios of my friends and family abandoning me because of it.

My feelings of despair began to give way to a deep roiling anger. I had just lost my eye to this pathetic endeavour. I am a right hoofed pony and my right eye was the one I used for practically everything I did. Because of this I’ve lost fifty percent of my combat efficiency as I’m blind on one side and aimed with my right eye. This will force me to relearn how to fight, how to see and how to act. I slowly pulled my head from my forelegs looking at my reflection, my face twisting into a deep scowl. My breathing became heavy as my anger rose to boiling point. I haven’t felt this much anger in nearly ten years. All because of him. All because of Elijah. He has pulled me away from all I hold dear and now because of this place he’s dumped me in I’ve sustained a horrific injury that has left me crippled... Again! My feelings of despair about losing my family and friends because of this injury turned around to fuel my anger and thinking of Elijah, oh everything he’s responsible for with me and everypony else brought my anger and hate to an all time high and something inside me broke which was followed by a sudden surge of magical energy.

The mare in the mirror's eye turned an all-too-familiar green, her red pupils shrinking and a malignant purple flame erupted from the top of her single remaining eye. I snarled looking at my reflection in the mirror, at the darkness that lives within me. For the first time over five years she’s been released. I snarl at my reflection as my emotions boil over with rage from everything that I’ve had to endure since I got here. “THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT” I scream at my reflection before I drove my cybernetic leg through the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces before driving it into the substandard wall behind it. I let out a primal scream of rage as I began to take out my frustration and anger out on the poor innocent porcelain sink. I kick at the sink with my forelegs before standing back up and using my hind legs to starts kicking out against the toilet bowl and bathtub around me while I smashed at the sink until it crumbled apart into small chunks. I began to turn in a circle in the small bathroom, kicking and screaming as I beat the shit out of everything I saw. Not even the dry wall survived my rage fuelled wrath, breaking it down leaving only the wooden supports behind it.

I must have spent half an hour pounding everything I could see into powder. I just had to let it all out. I just couldn’t control myself. I fell to my haunches panting as I slowly recovered from my break down until a glint of light caught my eye. Looking back to where the mirror had been I saw that a piece of the mirror still clung to the wrecked frame still dutifully hanging on the wall and it was large enough for me to see myself. My reflection showed that my eye had changed yet again. I didn’t feel the raging hate flowing through me right now but I was still deeply angry. My eye had lost the purple flame and the green had receded until it just rimmed my red iris. The only thing that hadn’t changed with my eye from the rage shift was the slitted pupil. I don’t understand this right now but quite frankly with everything that’s gone on. I couldn’t give two shits.

I stood on the landing of the stairs from the other side of the apartment looking down into a long street that curls around to the left at the end which was also filled with the Cloud. I noticed that a balcony ran along the length of the wall on the right but ended at the turn. About half way down the street I saw another set of stairs leading up to another apartment opposite the one I’m stood in and bridging the gap between the stairs and the balcony are three planks of wood making a safe passage over the cloud. The Cloud seems to be filling this street but it doesn’t seem to be any higher than the ground floor and it’s not billowing over from the roofs like everywhere else. I suppose something forced the cloud into this street and it’s never been blow back out. I can get to the balcony from the apartment behind me as there is a hole in the wall which leads to a bedroom with another hole in the wall leading out onto the balcony. I don’t want to deal with the Cloud again as its nearly killed me twice already. I groaned with annoyance at having to turn my head a lot more now just so I could get the full picture as I turned around to go back inside the apartment an apple shaped object just below the balcony caught my attention.

I growled angrily at seeing another fucking grenade bouquet. I couldn’t see the trigger point so the best thing I could think of to do would be to set it off. Knowing the fuse length I know I can reach minimal safe distance before it detonates. I reached out with my magic and focused on the string knot holding the three grenades together and once the knot was undone the three grenades fell to the cobblestone road with their pins still in the string. I quickly jumped back and used my wings to propel me through the apartment and out onto the weakened balcony where I lost my eye and hunkered down and placed my forehooves over my head as I braced myself. I mentally counted down the seconds until as expected the three grenades detonated with a thunderous roar. I smiled at my timing and lifted my head and was about to get up when out of nowhere another powerful explosion rocked the Residential District and that was followed by another. The unexpected explosions made me cry out in surprise and I backpedalled into the damaged guard rail causing it and the section of balcony I am standing on to collapse. I beat my wings and hovered in the air where the balcony once was while it fell into the Cloud filled plaza below. At least these wings are good for something.

“What in the name of buggery was that?” I whined after recovering from the shock of the unexpected detonations and hovered back into the apartment.

Stepping back out into the street I was met with a scene of utter chaos. The balcony had been completely destroyed and its debris made a mess of the rubble strewn cobblestone road below. Walls and columns of arches had been blown down to their support beams but surprisingly still held and their rubble added an extra layer of wreckage to climb over. The most surprising thing however is the absence of the Cloud. I suppose the chain reaction of explosions added enough force to disperse the cloud, which is good as it works in my favour. I hadn’t noticed the stairs were damaged as I began to trot down them and one of my hind hooves stood on a loose tile which then slipped caused me to slip down onto my haunches and slide down the stairs bumping my fat ass on the steps until I hit the floor and flopped onto my belly with a pained groan.

“Ow” I moaned and stood up while rubbing at my aching buttocks with my wings. I’m thankful I never lost the baby weight I gained during my previous pregnancy as it gave me a bit of padding back there as otherwise that would have hurt more than it did.

I slowly and cautiously began to trot down the short street. I kept under the partial shelter of the still intact balcony roof as I moved along. Damn those grenades did a real number on this street. As I walked I began to wonder who Collar 15 would be. So far I’ve met an alicorn with a split personality and a once pretty pegasus mare who is scarred and mute. Am I going to be meeting another pony with a horrible back story or am I...

“OW FUCK!” I cried out as something smashed me on the top of my horn and clattered to the floor. I looked down with a balefire glare at what had hit me and found a box of .357 Magnum rounds lying on the floor with a hole in the box from where it hit my horn. I was surprised at this and looked up to see where it had fallen from just to get another box to land on my face, bashing my nose before falling to the floor meet with its brother. “Son-of-a...” I cried out from the stinging sensation in my snout. Bad luck, that’s all I have here. With a snarl of irritation I pocketed the boxes of ammo and looked up at the ruined balcony. The boxes must have been on the balcony and the explosions had knocked them about a bit.

I began to hear the respirator of a Ghost Pony again. I grit my teeth as anger quickly swelled in my chest. I’ve only been here for like a day and I already hate these things. I felt the old and familiar sensation of the magical flame return to my eye as I held out my cybernetic foreleg and triggered my grappling claw to extend from my hoof but kept it in its spike form and spread out my wings and crouched down ready to strike. As soon as that bastard shows itself I’m gonna impale it.

The Ghost Pony hobbled out from around the corner and it immediately saw me, well who couldn’t? I am the brightest coloured pony here. I saw the monster ready another one of those Celestia damned knife spears but before it could launch it at me I launched myself at him. I gave a feral like cry as I beat my wings, taking to the air as I flew at the monster. Before it could throw its spear I thrust my cybernetic hoof forward and jammed the spike of my grapple claw into its head from under its chin before angling my body to bring the rest of my hooves into contact with the monster and pushed it up against the wall with a hard crunch. I felt and heard some of its bones break upon the impact but since none of its body parts were severed the damn thing will regenerate them. I twisted my hoof to force the monster to look at me and I stared down into the glowing green lenses of its mask.

“I am sick to death of you fucking pieces of shit” I growled while twisting the spike. “I’m going to enjoy this” I said with a sadistic grin spreading along my muzzle as I slowly began to part the blades of my grapple claw. I did this once before in Stable 22 on a Spore Carrier. I watched as the creature tried to get out from under me as my blades slowly began to pull the creature’s head apart. Soon the creature stopped struggling as its skull popped and broke apart and the blades cut through its flesh and the fabric of its suit before its head fell apart from being cut into three pieces. I let the body fall to the floor before stamping down hard on the remains of its head once I retracted the blade. “Fucking twat” I growled as I left the body while feeling the sudden rage shift dissipate and began up the street as it curled around to the left.

After a short distance the street turned right and it opened slightly. I noticed two wires above connecting from the roof on one side to a gaping hole on the second floor of the apartment to my right and silhouetted by the light I could make out the shape of a pony sitting in a chair. Well I guess that’s the pony I’m looking for.

I didn’t bother looking around. I was still pissed off from losing my eye. I just want to get this over with so I could get the bloody hell out of here. I walked around until I found a set of stairs leading up to the first floor of the apartment under my destination.

The door opened up into what looked to be a dining room/kitchen area. In the middle of the room sat a large table with six chairs spread about around it, all of which were damaged or toppled over. Against the wall of the stairwell to the left I saw a set of counters and a cooker. I walked inside and looked around, groaning in annoyance with having to turn my head and whole body just to get a better view of the room since I’m half blind now. Around a corner by the door I saw the fridge and in the far right corner of the room I spotted an open door leading out onto the balcony outside. I sighed as I trudged out onto the balcony. I might as well have a look since the door was open. I walked the length of the short L-shaped balcony to the end where I found an ammunition box. I didn’t feel the pleased sensation as usual when finding ammo as I opened the box and peered inside it. With a growl of irritation I turned around and delivered an applebuck to the box and sent it hurtling through the wooden guardrail and crashing down into the street below. “Fucking grenades” I growled as I headed back inside.

I stood at the base of the stairs and took several deep breaths to calm myself down as much as I could before I meet this pony. I don’t want to meet him or her feeling pissed off. I’d rather not get on their bad side. Letting out my breath I calmly trotted up the stairs.

“Have a seat and then we’ll talk” Said the pony in a masculine voice.

I blinked in surprise as the pony seemed to have been expecting me. I mentally facehoofed when I looked back on my journey through the Residential District. I’ve set of basically every damn trap on my way here. Only an abso-bloody-lute idiot would have missed all that. I trotted up to the free chair and sat down. I sighed as I wiggled my rump trying to get comfortable on the hard cushion of the floor chair. I gave up trying to get comfy and turned to look at the pony. I wrinkled my nose as I caught a foul smell of decaying flesh coming from him. As I looked at him I realised why. He’s a ghoul, a surprisingly well preserved ghoul I might add. He has a light bright coat that is slightly mottled with bare skin patches and a well groomed dark brown mane and tail. Above his top lip he has a nicely trimmed moustache. I couldn’t see his eyes as he is wearing a pair of polarized sun glasses which have lost most of their reflectiveness and to complete his look he wore a tattered old tuxedo which he must have taken care of for it have lasted this long. He did look rather handsome despite being a ghoul. He’s the best looking ghoul I’ve ever seen and when he spoke he didn’t have the raspy voice common among ghouls either.

The ghoul turned to regard me as I sat in the seat and raised an eyebrow upon seeing the gaping hole in the right side of my face. “Not a word” I growled at him. He took the hint and turned his head slightly to look out the gaping hole in his apartment wall. I followed his gaze through the hole as its a perfect window to the Sierra Maredre sitting on top of the cliff in the distance.

“The Sierra Maredre, beauty isn’t she. Is she the one who invited you here?” He spoke in a calm smooth voice.

“Or maybe you didn’t catch her voice on the radio. Woke up, confused, like some of the others. At least you’re still breathing”

His voice then turned threatening. “By the way, don’t get up or make any sudden moves, no matter how uncomfortable that chair gets. The cushion’s just for show”

That definitely didn’t sound good. I unconsciously wiggling my rump again against the cushion and now I could feel something else on the hard lump and then a memory entered my mind from a day in New Ponyville when I realised what I’m sat on. I remembered a day Zyon was teaching some new guard ponies for the town to make explosives. She had shown us how to make a shaped charge, something that could be shaped and placed where you wanted it for sneak attacks or traps.

“I’m sat on a shaped charge aren’t I?” I asked looking at him with slight fear in my eye.

“Sounds like you have done some blue collar construction work in your life, your Ma must be proud”

“Don’t you dare mention my mother” I suddenly yelled at him with venom.

The sudden shout made him jump back slightly in his chair but he quickly recovered. “Whatever, but still... Get up with my permission, I’ll blast your ass so far through your head, it’ll turn the moon cherry pie red”

Yeah and you’d kill yourself too pillock.

“So, let’s keep this sweet and polite, and finish our conversation with no misunderstandings”

I nodded, that sounded reasonable. “Ok, you got my attention. I’ll wait till you’re finished”

He seemed to brighten up at that. “And that’s what I’ve missed, a rapt audience. Just because I worked in entertainment, doesn’t mean that I’m a moron. I heard my necktie beeping, I know what that means”

Necktie? I looked to his neck and saw his collar and it then occurred to me, he was talking about his collar.

“I’m part of this somehow. I want out of this contract. And if you put me in it, I’m not going to be too happy. So whatever is going on here, if you’re part of all this? You’re taking orders from me” Oh great.

I groaned internally. If I refuse his demand he’ll likely not follow me and we’ll be stuck as I can’t continue without him and I can’t kill him as it’ll kill me too. Being here is a pain in the flank as you basically don’t have a damn choice in what you do here with this damned collar.

I let out a defeated sigh. “Alright, I’ll co-operate. What do you want...um?”

“Domino, Dean Domino at your service” He said with a cheery voice.

“Alright Domino, what do you want?” I asked. I called him Domino as it sounds better than Dean.

“Good, good, then we are in business. I may be a betting stallion, but I like it when the odds are in our favour. If you’re here with who I think, then I’d rather have you on my side than his. An... ace in the hole” He stopped as he regarded me.

“You don’t want to be here, I want what’s in the Maredre. Real simple” Is it bollocks!

“Alright, I’m in. Let’s get back to the fountain so we can get out of this shit hole”

“Good, good” Domino said as he rose from his chair “We don’t have to go the long way round. I know a shortcut. It’s through the cloud but with me with you I can help you through it” He said with a nod to me. I gingerly stood up and smiled at him slightly.

Domino tilted his head slightly as he saw my wings when I rose from my seat. “You are a white alicorn with one eye?” He said sounding rather bewildered as if he couldn’t believe it.

“I am not...” I stopped and let out my breath with a sigh. “You know what, fine, I’m an alicorn. I can’t be assed correcting anypony anymore. I’ve been doing it for ten years but nopony listens. I just can’t be assed anymore” I grumbled.

“Ok, anyway” Domino craned his neck and turned his head so he could get into one of his jacket pockets. He rummaged about for a minute until he finally pulled back with a slip of paper and an eye-patch clenched in his teeth and motioned for me to take them. I used my magic to pluck them from his mouth. “I found them a few years ago when I was trying to stash something in a fireplace”

I wanted to raise my eyebrow at him but I couldn’t. It was gone of course but I could still feel what remained of the muscles trying to do the motion which sickened me. Sighing I opened the slip of paper and read it.

“Dear Mr Domino

You will soon meet a white alicorn mare who will have lost an eye. I have left you this note and this eye patch to give to her when you meet her. She’ll need them.

Pinkie Pie”

I couldn’t believe what I just read myself. The Ministry Mare knew I was coming to the Maredre, knew I would lose and eye. What the fuck, how is that possible? I’ve heard that Pinkie Pie had foreseen future events seeing ponies such as this Security or Light Bringer and done something to help them but I didn’t believe it. I can’t believe this but it’s too crazy to be false either as she nailed my description down to a T.

“Err, thanks” I muttered still in disbelief as I used my magic to gently slip the eye patch over my eye. I caught myself in the reflection of a nearby mirror and saw how much the patch covered. Thankfully it completely hid the huge hole in my face and made my look more or less normal despite the burn. “Alright, let’s go”

"One second, you know my name, so what's your's?"

"Appletart" I answered.

Domino smiled as we got ready to leave. "You first Applebutt"

We left Domino’s apartment and made our way back down to the street until we came to the turn where I turned right to get to him. “The shortcut is through there” Domino said pointing a hoof at a passage I had missed when I passed by the first time. I groaned, it is full of the Cloud.

“We better run, I don’t want to hang around and die from this shit” I groaned irritably I broke into a quick trot to get through the Cloud. The passage opened up into a very short street with a set of arches on the right. I was glad that the Cloud wasn’t under the arches and the passage at the end.

I found myself in another small plaza with two sets of stairs on either side and a balcony that seemed to run all the way around from the top of each set of stairs but what lay filling the plaza caught my attention. It is a huge slab of metal. In the darkness and red tint of the Villa I couldn’t make it out well but it is a big piece of something.

“What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know to tell you the truth. It’s some goldish coloured hunk of metal that fell out of the sky around ten years ago” Domino answered as he stood beside me. “It has some picture of a swooping bird somewhere on it but that could mean anything”

No way, that’s a piece of the Kodiak. How the hell did it get this far west? Surely those Ion Reactors didn’t have the explosive power to have sent this hunk of metal this far right? If they did, how in buggery did I survive the explosion?

I shook my head to dispel the thoughts as its ancient history right now and I have more pressing matters. Domino opened his mouth to say something else but I had already begun up the stairs through the Cloud filled plaza to the apartment thinking the path is up here. The apartment I found myself in is rather small and didn’t have anything of value and stepped back out onto the balcony. Whatever Domino was doing it was working as I haven’t felt the effects of the Cloud but I didn’t want to take it slow so I quickly made my way into the opposite apartment. I found myself in a one room bedsit and behind a couch I found another glowing hoofprint.

“Oh good” I smiled walking up to the suitcase hidden behind the sofa and opened it.

“Hey, those are my emergency supplies” Domino protested when he caught up to me. I turned and looked at him with a scowl. “Um, well, just leave me something alright” He muttered.

I shook my head and pocketed the hooffull of .357 ammunition that was in the suitcase and left the rest for him. Stepping out onto the stairs and back into the Cloud I groaned when I saw that the path we needed to take is actually next to where we came in. “Oh for the love of...” I whined as we quickly made our way back under the arches.

I coughed once we were out of the Cloud. I suppose whatever Domino was doing to help me in the Cloud had worn off. While I recovered my ears twitched as I began to hear something. I listened until I could make out the sounds of a respirator.

“Another fucking Ghost Pony, Domino do you have a weapon?” I asked as I turned around to look at him. It feels so weird to turn my head so much now just to get a good look at things.

He nodded as he bent his neck so he could stick his muzzle under his jacket and soon pulled back to reveal a mouth operated 9mm Pistol clenched in his jaws. I nodded as I took the BAR off my back. I edged to the mouth of the passage beyond the arch and mentally sighed with relief as the path from here on is free of the Cloud. I nodded to Domino again and we both stepped out into the passage to see a Ghost Pony approaching us.

Domino began firing his pistol and is surprisingly a good shot with it despite how fast he was firing. I on the other hoof having to aim with my left eye was finding it hard to get my aim and two bursts of two rounds went completely wide. “Damn it”

Just as Domino fired the last shot in his pistol and was forced to reload the Ghost Pony slumped to the floor. With the pistol out of his mouth Domino spoke. “It’s not dead, quick, get an axe”

I didn’t have an axe but I did have a Cosmic Knife. I placed my BAR on my back and flew over to the downed Ghost before using my magic to pull the knife from my foreleg and jabbed its sharp blade into its neck and used it like a guillotine to chop its head off.

“I really hate those things” I growled putting my knife away.

“Why do you think I set up all those explosives, shotguns and tripwires” Domino remarked.

“THAT WAS YOU?!” I roared in a sudden fit of rage and whirled around on him. He took a step back in surprise at my sudden shift and despite the sunglasses I could see a slight look of fear on his face as my eye glowed with the hate and anger that filled me. “BECAUSE OF YOU THIS HAPPENED TO ME” I screamed and before I knew what I was doing I had clobbered Domino in the face with my cybernetic hoof and watched as he sprawled out onto the cobblestone road.

I stood over him with my cybernetic leg poised to strike again while my mind was conflicted. It was his fault I lost my eye and I wanted to beat the shit out of him for it but on the other hoof he placed the trap to catch a Ghost Pony and not me. How was he supposed to know I would set it off? I really wanted to smash his face in but I couldn’t as I knew if I killed him I’d die and my children would never see their mother again. Letting out a cry of anger and frustration and slammed my hoof down onto the cobblestone road next to his head which made him let out a startled whine and turned around to face the end of the street where I saw a familiar looking gate. It’s the same locked gate I saw from when I entered the Residential District.

I growled angrily as I stared at the iron gate and began to concentrate my pent up energy into my horn. It began to glow a deep purple as black energy crackled around it as the power grew until with a cry of anger I released a beam of purple and black magic at the gate. The force of the beam burned and warped the iron gate until it finally gave way and swung open. I’ve never used my magic before to fire an offensive beam of energy but any unicorn can do that if they wanted to.

I felt the rage leave me as I released the energy. I panted softly as I turned around to find Domino standing again and holding his cheek where I had walloped him.

“Domino, I’m sorry” I apologised lamely. A simple sorry wouldn’t be enough for that but at this moment I couldn’t do any better.

He removed his hoof which was slightly bloodied and worked his jaw from side to side for moment. I cringed as I saw a hole in his cheek now letting me see into his mouth. I can’t believe I did that.

“I guess I deserved that” He groaned as he opened his mouth wide until it popped. “Ah that’s better”

“No, you didn’t deserve that, I’m sorry” I muttered. I turned back around and started walking towards the gate. “Once we get to the Fountain and Elijah gives us our next objectives sooner we can leave”

Domino nodded his agreement as he fell into step beside me as we left the Residential District and returned to the Fountain and the rest of the ponies I gathered. The next stage is just around the corner and it can’t come quicker for me as I stared up at the hologram.

(An illustration of Appletart's current appearance, drawn by me using Future Twilight's pose as it was just perfect)