Fallout Equestria Omega's Trials

Omega’s Trials
Chapter 10

Tick-Tock insisted that we loot the hospital of anything of value before we left. When he ran out of room in his bags, he loaded up mine and then Crystal’s, either oblivious or apathetic to the cold looks she was shooting him. At least she wasn’t shooting him with her growing shotgun collection. I was busy trying to corral the foals and convince them that we were not slavers, and that I wasn’t Angelo’, no matter what their parents said. Most of them had taken that we had killed their parents fairly well. As one of the older ones, a buck with a teddy bear cutie mark said, “they were pricks.” I was loading some of the healing potions into a cart.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter,” Crystal stomped, gaining my attention. “It’s what we gotta do.”

“No we don’t. The three of us should be fine,” Tick-Tock said, closing his bags full of chems. Then I checked my pipbuck, he had filled my bags with chems also.

“They know how to use guns,” she argued.

“As raiders. Not trained, and not disciplined.” Tick-Tock retorted, “Besides, with the foals, we’ll be reloading their guns after every broken twig.”

“What did you say?!” A very small, milky white filly shouted. “Ah can use a gun wit’ da best of ‘em.”

“Really now?” I recognized his smile. It was his taunting, ‘sure you can’ smile. “So I take it you have been in a few fire fights. Or was this shooting passing caravans?”

“Doesn’t matter. Shootin’ is shootin’.” She had a tone of know-it-all authority in her voice.

“Okay then.” Tick-Tock pulled out a pistol and kicked it to the unicorn. “Hit me.”

She levitated it up at Tick-Tock, and started to shout something obscene involving his mother. Before she finshed the sentence, Tick-Tock’s bladed wing had knocked the gun out of the way, and the other wing’s curved blade was at eye level with the filly. The most impressive part was, I barely saw it and I didn’t blink. Crystal Bullet had only managed to get her sawed-off shotgun halfway out of the holster.

“Do you still think you can use a gun?” He asked, relaxing and folding his wing back, putting a confident smile on his face. “Because I don’t.”

She stood there stunned for a moment, as her brain tried to catch up with her eyes. When she finally spoke, it was the opposite of what I was expecting. “That was so cool!” She shouted, staring at his folded wing in amazement. “I didn’t even see you move!”

“Thank you,” he said. Taking a deep, overly dramatic bow, he didn’t show any surprise to the filly’s change in attitude. “I aim to please, after all.”

“How did you get so fast?” She asked, still staring in wide-eyed amazement. “Is your cutie mark like, a lightning bolt or a flying bullet, or, or, or-”

“It’s a pocket watch,” he said, pulling out his pocket ruby-studded watch and showing it to the colt. “Like this one, but emeralds instead of rubies.”

“Nuh-uh, that’s not awesome!” She shook her head. “You’re just fucking with me.” Her eyes widened. “Are you a Dashite, ‘cause their cutie marks are all burned off and stuff.”

“No, was raised on the ground,” he answered, smiling at the filly. “And that’s my for-real cutie mark. You’ll see it when we get to Sanctuary.”

“But I want to see nooow,” the little unicorn whined, trying to pout. “Please?”

“Sorry kiddo, but it’s a pain in the flank to take this armor off.” He smiled, rubbing his hoof in her dirty mane. “I will show it to you if you promise to be good on the way to Sanctuary, but I need you to help me keep everypony safe. Okay?” She gave him a baffled look, then nodded slowly.
“Who knows? It might help you get your cutie mark.” He shrugged as he walked away, and the filly immediately snapped to attention and saluted him, before running off and shepherding the other kids into a somewhat orderly fashion. Every few moments, checking her flank for a cutie mark.

Crystal still glared at him, and proceeded to arm the ever-loving hell out of her brother. She occasionally looked at Tick-Tock, apparently waiting for him to stop her so she could jump him. She gave Peirce more guns than a pony should conceivably carry, yet this unicorn looked like he was doing just fine. ...Then he fell over.

“Do you want some help?” I asked cordially, helping the colt up.

“Thanks, mister Scythe.” He grumbled, trying desperately to move one of the guns that was jarring him in the ribs, with his telekinesis. He twisted it a few times, then pulled it straight out. “But I can do this.”

“Do you want me to take some of them?” I asked, noting the colt could barely move under the weight of the guns.

“No... I got it.” He winced, then fell over again.

“Are you sure?” I asked, none too convinced.

“If Buck Shot could do it, so can I!” He screamed, as tears started rolling down his cheek. He struggled onwards, taking another step out of pure determination.
“I’m sorry, I can’t imagine what you’re going through...” I answered somberly.
“She used to always carry the big stuff for tradin’.” He spoke to the cracked tile. As he let the guns fall, tears rolled down his cheeks. He was trying to be tough. “She didn’t cry when we buried daddy, or-or when we had to kill Puddles for food...” Pierce started to break down more, and he stopped forming coherent words. Crystal came over and nuzzled her crying brother. I stood there, feeling guilty.
I felt Tick-Tock’s wing rest on my shoulder. “You gonna be okay?” He asked, shaking me a bit.
I brushed his wing off. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I lied. That little colt’s words had shaken me more than anything else.
“Stop lying to yourself,” he said, staring off into space. “It doesn’t do any good.”

“I just-I should’ve done more. I’ve never had anypony depend on me before.” I stared at the ground, whispering, “In my stable, I was always sheltered. Even my chores weren’t that important. All I did was take some of the strain off of other ponies. My mom said it was to teach me to be responsible. What a load of shit that was, right?”
“Scythe, she wanted to try to prepare you to the best of her abilities,” he said, lifting my head up with his wing, making me meet his gaze. “Don’t blame her that she couldn’t get your mind ready for this mess. Now, I need you together mentally. You are going to be on point.”

“Why?” I asked, steadily pulling myself together again.

“Because, I’m going to be scouting ahead.” He started to trot off, then looked back with a smile. “And I would much rather not expose my back to any of those foals.”

“Gee, thanks for pointing that out.” A smile found its way through the guilt that had been coming back.

“Just trying to keep you alert,” he said, right before he hooked me up to a cart. I was about to ask him what the big deal was, then he shushed me and turned my head around. It was full of sleeping babies. I groaned internally. Externally, I thought about how cute they were even though they were covered in filth.

Tick-Tock had been hesitant to fly off. Which was weird, considering it was his plan. He stayed low to the ground and checked back, circling to us. Every fifteen minutes, he’d come down and give us directions in broken sentences. At first, everypony found this baffling. Then after we walked on for a bit, we found out that his directions were short and to the point. I was mostly just glad the little fillies and colts had been asleep through most of the trip.

“Ahead, left. Big rock. Right, watch out for dogs.” I managed to stop him before he took off again.

“Tick-Tock, what’s bothering you?” I asked. He had seemed to be getting more nervous as the hours dragged on.

“Pegasus, wings, shoot,” he said, his eyes darting around warily.

“In actual complete sentences,” I replied, through the hoof I had placed over my face, exasperated by his behavior.

“Bounty Hunters are out looking for Angelo’,” he said, pointing at me. “An Earth pony. I’m a pegasus, so while not top priority, they can still collect bounties on me. Bounty Hunters can be an opportunistic bunch.”

“Oh.”

“It’s the reason I wear my hat and my coat. That way, I may be confused for an Earth pony or Unicorn,” he replied, glaring at a rustling bush. My EFS saw it as a small, green bar and I shook my head to put my friends mind at ease. He calmed down a little, and took a sip of his blue drink.

“Must suck,” I said, sympathetically

“Hmm?”

“Hiding who you are all the time.”

“You should know, my friend,” he answered, smiling as he put the empty bottle back inside his saddle bags. It honestly took me a moment to get that one. Then I remembered my coat was green instead of black, my mane was black instead of green, and my cutie mark was some weird, open circle with two lines coming out the bottom.

“True,” I answered, sobered by that thought as he flew off.

“We need to take a break up ahead,” Tick-Tock said while landing, looking slightly concerned.

“Why?” Crystal asked walking up, still a bit pissy.

“About fifteen less than reputable-looking bounty hunters have made a camp up ahead,” he answered coolly, meeting her dagger-like gaze.
“So, they’re mercenaries, not slavers. Just walk past them.”

“I was raised around mercs. I can tell the ones who stick to the contract, versus the ones who would kill their own mothers over ten caps,” he answered, staring her in the eyes.

“Weren’t you the one who said we needed to hurry if we were going to catch up to what’s left of the caravan?”

“Yes, but it would be a bad idea to do that, if it means we get killed or sold to slavers,” he responded, finding a soft patch of dirt and lying down in it. “And I thought you’d want to catch up to your sister, too.”

“But what if we miss them.” As much as I wanted to come to my friend’s defense, she was raising some decent points.

“We won’t, I planned for us to get ahead of them and wait for about an hour,” he said closing his eyes. “We can afford a thirty minute break. Besides, it’s not like Sanctuary’s going anywhere.”

“Fine,” she said. “But considering you got lost looking for a five story tree, I don’t think you have the best sense of direction.”

“That was a good one, and yet so true,” he answered, chuckling. This apparently pissed her off enough to stomp away and go play with the foals.

“Tick-Tock, do you have to be an antagonist?” I asked, looking at the dozing pegasus.

“Not really, no,” he answered, yawning.

“I’ll be up in thirty minutes,” he said, closing his eyes. “I got the babies, go stretch your legs.”

I found out real quick that I wasn’t good with foals, or keeping them entertained at least. They could do that by themselves. They ran around, played games like tag, hide and seek, and raider and caravan. The little cream filly from earlier seemed to be desperately trying to keep things under control. I felt something small and warm nuzzle up to me, and looked down to see a terrified Scooter.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My daddy never let me outside,” she said, her head darting around, waiting to see if some giant creature would swoop in and grab her.

“Don’t worry, between Tick-Tock and Crystal, nothing is going to get you.” I smiled down at her warmly.

“What ‘bout you?” She responded, “aren’t you gonna help them?”

“Of course, it’s just they’re better at it than me,” I answered, trying to remember what my mom told me about how to comfort trauma victims. I did not want a repeat of Pierce today. She gave me a skeptical look, then at Tick-Tock, then to Crystal who was comforting her crying brother.

“That’s real scary,” she said under her breath.

“Want to know something funny?” I asked, trying to cheer her up.

“Yeah, what?” She answered curiously.

“Until a week ago, my mommy didn’t let me outside either.” I smiled, and she looked at me in shock.

“Really?” She asked. I nodded. “Why not, were you her t-“

“No, I lived in a stable.” I quickly interrupted. “The doors were shut”

“Why’d you leave?”

“My mom said I couldn’t be in charge until I survived three months.” I smiled down on her. “So far I’m doing pretty well. Hey, why don’t you go and play tag with some of the other foals?”

“I don’t know how.” She answered, hanging her head in shame.

“What do you mean, you don’t know how to play tag?” The filly that Tick-Tock, I don’t even know what he did (impressed maybe?), asked, having stopped in front of us. Scooter shook her head.

“It’s easy, you get one pony who’s ‘it’, and you run away from them, cause if they catch you, you’re ‘it’.” She said, poking the filly. “Now you’re ‘it’, and you need to chase me down.” She trotted away, and Scooter gave chase. Half-heartedly at first, then she started to get more enthusiastic about it until she was running around with the other foals, a grin on her face. I stood there and smiled. Crystal was trying to comfort Peirce while somehow still playing with the fillies. Tick-Tock’s eyes were open, and he watched with a content smile, his eyes lazily drifting from one to another.

“Tick-Tock,” I said, walking away. “I going to take care of some business, can yo-“He waved me away with his wing. I assumed that meant ‘sure, go ahead, I got this’. Due to the lack of large rocks in the immediate area, and still having some level of stable pony modesty, I headed towards a nearby dead grove of trees.

I trotted a good distance away from the group. I knew that this was the direction Tick-Tock came from, telling us some bounty hunters were coming through, but I had assumed a good ways off. You know, if you’d find some questionable-looking ponies a good way off while you are scouting ahead, you’d go back and warn your friend and the foals you were escorting that we needed to stop here. This is rational, this is cautious; these are all things that do not comprise Tick-Tock’s mind. The camp was little over one hundred yards away from where the kids were playing. I froze, scared to make a sound, then I realized I didn’t hear anything from the camp, so I took a second look.

The camp was in shambles like a battle had happened. Bullet holes decorated the trees, empty casings littered the ground, and occasional drops of fresh blood splattered the area. Either way, it was abandoned with no sign of who had one, but they had been thorough when picking it clean. Nothing usable, not even a bottle cap or a can of beans had been left. I thought to myself about Tick-Tock’s carelessness. Not having us move around them, or checking to see if they were even alive. I silently berated myself and checked my EFS and soon discovered I was surrounded by green dots along the compass. But could not see where they were. Then I noticed something I had missed before; a tin shack was still intact. While the rest of the camp had been completely torn to shreds, this one was perfect. The green bars swam around my EFS as I moved to the tent, .45 in mouth. I jumped through the door and saw a single, quivering unicorn pony next to a pile of neatly stacked guns and other supplies. She kept mumbling incoherently to herself and flinched when I approached her. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A small note perched on top of the pile.
‘Look behind you.’ The unicorn balled up into the corner let out a blood curdling shriek as she tried to push further away. I clicked the safety off with my tongue, and spun around to face a pony dressed in black, blood-caked robes. I froze and felt the blood drain from my face as I stared at the pony standing in front of me. Thoughts started racing through my head, mostly involving shoot him. My jaw locked up and the gun fell from my mouth, onto the ground. Around his neck, he wore nine extremely long unicorn horns. His freshly blood-soaked cloak flowed demonically in a nonexistent breeze; a black tattered hood covered his head concealing the whole of his face. By far though the worst part was the two glowing red eyes that stared out from underneath, darkness itself emanated from those eyes drawing away all the warmth from the world. For a terrifying instant, our eyes met. I felt my entire body freeze and grow cold except my heart it felt like it would explode from my chest. I felt the whole world peel back around me, leaving only us- no, him... just him... staring at me as I stood in the blackness. His red eyes looking at me like he was weighing my existence. Finally, after the eternal second, his eyes shifted away from me and to the pony in the corner of the shack. I stood there, frozen, a knot tying itself in my stomach. She began screaming as he stepped closer to her. You could’ve heard a pin drop between hoofsteps as he painfully, slowly made his way towards her, bypassing me entirely. The mare screamed and started to beat on the walls, trying to dig her way through with mangled legs. She saw the gun I had dropped, and a look of joy filled her eyes. She levitated the gun towards her, and pointed the barrel in her mouth. Her horn fell to the ground, as did the gun, and all her hopes crashed with it. Then her screaming truly started. I was finally able to run.

Halfway across the destroyed camp, I tripped and fell on my stomach, my eyes looking skyward. I found where the green bars were coming from. He had staked, wired, and nailed them to trees. They hung there, blood-covered gags in their mouths. Those that still had eyes looked at me with hope, I recognized it, the same look of the pony he had hung in the Hidey House, they wanted me to kill them. I froze. Trying to run, to scream, it was like looking into his eyes again. They were being tortured. I knew it would take hours, if not days for them to die. There was a dragging sound behind me.

The mare was mutilated. Fresh blood covered the pony’s hood and robes, and a scalpel stuck out from under his hood. He spat the small knife into the quivering, bloody mass, causing her to jolt once more. I steadily backed up as he advanced. My backside ran into a tree and my legs locked up.

“A-a-are you h-him?” I stammered, trying to take my eyes off him long enough to grab the rifle from my back. He still approached with silence, stopping a few feet from me. A white note fell out from under his hood and onto the ground. The sound of the paper hitting the ground was deafening. “Are you Angelo’?”

A retort from a shot gun filled the air, and the pony vanished and reappeared a few feet away, looking at the glowing purple shotgun. He swung his head in the opposite direction, and a knife flew out from under his hood. There was a grunt, and the gun clattered to the ground. Crystal tumbled out of the bushes, levitating a bandage to her neck and trying to get more guns out. His robes trailed him as he crossed over to Crystal. I was able to get my gun out and enter SATS.

Time stopped, and I saw even smaller percentage chance of hitting him than Tick-Tock. It didn’t stop me from targeting his head. I watched as all the bullets flew past him. As soon as SATS let up, I charged for a tackle. He was faster than me by a long shot. I realized I was going to make it. Peirce just lost one his sisters, now he was about to lose another. Both were my fault. It was moments before he reached her. She hadn’t been able to get another gun out and aimed in time; I was running while reloading the bolt action. Every shot I fired had missed. I charged him, knowing I wouldn’t be able to catch him, but I still had to try. I tackled him or meant to, what actually happened was I got hit in the face three times while I was trying to tackle him. I regained my composer long enough to see Crystal take several shots at the pony each one having the same effect as the first. Teleporting him with no sign of actually hitting him. Then she ran out and Angelo began walking towards her, just walking. The blood drained from her face and her legs shook trying to move away just as I had been in the shack.
Seconds before Angelo’ reached her, a roar filled the air. I looked up in time to see a brown and black streak head between a reloading Crystal and Angelo’. Tick-Tock blitzed between them, leaving skid marks along the ground from his landing, a small cloud of dust to the side of him. All was quiet as they stared at each other, the look in Tick-Tocks eyes was beyond murderous. He took his hoof and drew a line in the dirt, in front of his skid marks.
“Af̱tó to polý” He growled, turning to the side. He took a deep breath then extended his bladed wing to the ground, and crouched the side of his body that was facing Angelo’. His other wing extended upwards, and he twisted his body in such a way that he had his mouth around his sword, but one eye was still on Angelo’. “Opoiadí̱pote peraitéro̱ petháneis” After another terrifyingly eternal second, Angelo’ silently flew off.
“Drepáni voi̱thí̱sei Krystállou.” He said, looking at me. Rage was still burning in his eyes as he approached me. I backed up, terrified as to what he might do.
“Tick-Tock, I-I don’t understand what you are saying.”
He took a deep breath. “Help her.” He pointed at Crystal, who had bled through her bandage and was removing it to apply a second one. I rushed over and gave her a brief lesson in first aid, bandages stack. I looked back at Tick-Tock. He was looking over the grisly scene. He walked up to a tree that didn’t have a pony on it, and bucked it several times.
“You going to be okay?” I asked from a safe distance.
“Yes, and no,” he said, in the tone he used to end Angelo’ conversations. “He made them suffer, so much.”
“If you want to talk about it, I’m here.” I answered, my voice still shaking a little. He seemed comforted by the gesture.
“What are we going to do?” Crystal asked, looking around the depressing scene as she stopped at the quivering mass of flesh that was a mare a few minutes ago. “We can’t just leave them here.” She crouched down and pulled out a healing potion. Tick-Tock shook his head and tossed her a needle.
“Healing potions won’t help her, there’s nothing left to do but make it bearable.” He looked towards her. “She has one minute and thirty-two seconds left.”
Tick-Tock took off, and flew from one pony to another, examining the mutilated ponies. He landed, and I could tell it wasn’t good.
“It’s not good, if they don’t get any help, they will die.” Tick-Tock said at the dirt. “The only way to help them is to kill them.” He was chuckling at the dark irony.
“That’s-that’s just- I can’t bel-“ I stammered, trying to find words to describe a pony who would do this. I couldn’t. The Hidey House was tame compared to what had happened here.
.
“Shit.” Crystal said, looking unsure as she took aim.
“Whoa! Hold your horses,” I said, putting my hoof on the barrel of her gun and pointing it to the ground. “Are you sure there’s no other way?” Tick-Tock nodded somberly.
“Now you see why they hate pegasi,” he answered, laughing darkly. “Because what Angelo’ did to them was worse than anything that they could ever do to me.”
“How do you know we can’t save them?” Crystal hissed. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have that much medical training! Let the stable pony look at them, he might have some more lu-“
“There is nothing we can do…” He said dejectedly, walking away.
“So you’re not even going to try to help!” I stomped as he walked away. He stopped, and turned around.
“Of course I plan to try to help,” he said evenly, rubbing his wings through his mane. “But, I’m not a doctor, I don’t pretend to be one, unless you have a medical diploma stored on your pipbuck.” A wry smile crept across his face.
“I know how to do some basic surgery, my mom taught me back at the stable.” I spoke unsure that I could help this many ponies.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Tick-Tock’s somber expression morphed into a smile and he spread his wings.
He zipped over to me, and I felt his forelegs wrap around me. The next thing I knew I was balancing on a tree branch, staring at the mutilated pony tied to the trunk, barbed wire wrapped around each limb. Her eyes had been cut out and teeth removed. Some thin wire had been tied around the tree and tightened, cutting through her cheeks and going to the back of her mouth. In each leg was a nail holding her spread eagle, with barbed wire wrapped tightly around her chest, digging into her each time she breathed.
“Try not to lose your lunch there’s thirteen more after…her?” I grumbled at his attempt at humor, there are something’s you don’t joke about. Then I realized it wasn’t humor, he genuinely expected me to throw up, something I had no intention of doing. I had gotten tougher, I was just a little queasy from the height. “Let me know what you need me to get.”
“I’m going to need some wire cutters, healing potions and med-x,” I said, almost falling as Tick-Tock left me to go back to the foals, thank Celestia for unicorn magic. “Shit, Crystal! I need you to go back to the foals, they don’t have anypony watching them.”
I turned around, and saw them already there, in various states of shock at seeing me up in a tree. And the grisly scene.
“They are raider foals, Scythe. This is something that they’ve seen before,” Tick-Tock whispered, steadying me and handing me the supplies. “I think we are going to be late to the rendezvous,” he said, trying to lighten the mood with some more misplaced humor.
“Voo fink,” I answered sharply, snipping some of the wire then quickly applied a potion. “Tick-Tock, I need you to lift her up.” He grabbed her under her forelegs with uncertainty, and gently flapped his wings, looking at me to explain. “The tension from the barbed wire was supporting her weight, and kept her from suffocating. Since those nails were holding her like this, it would’ve strained her lungs.” I pulled out the first nail. “You are holding her up to alleviate the weight.” I got the second nail. Her front legs were limp from exhaustion. Tick-Tock cut the wire in her mouth. I removed the last two nails and put a healing potion in her mouth for good measure. She’d need a lot more though, it was just to keep her alive.
Tick-Tock floated her down and put her in the cart. One down, thirteen to go.

It was getting dark. I was exhausted, and had managed to save eight of them. Only eight... The others had died by the time I got to them. The barbed wire cut all the way through, or they had bled out, or some other manner of horrible death had taken them. Crystal had proven invaluable keeping an eye on the foals and making sure I didn’t fall multiple times with her unicorn magic. Tick-Tock was looking…happy.
I heard the chime of a unicorn magic behind me. “Hey, isn’t Omega the name of the new Angelo’?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I was so glad with how cool I played it, and was silently patting myself on the back.
“Then why is this letter addressed to him?” She asked.
I turned around, and saw Crystal holding the note Angelo’ had dropped in front of me earlier. I heard Tick-Tock try to hide a laugh.

“Well? I’m waiting for an answer,” she said sternly. Tick-Tock had gotten up, and was circling around behind her. “Why was he trying to give this letter to you?”
“You remember the stable pony you mugged about a week ago?” I looked at her, and could see her visibly think back to then. She nodded, and I saw the faint aura engulf all five of her shot guns. “Friendly?”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” She said flatly, refusing to believe I could be confused with Angelo’ Death.
“‘Tis most true.” Tick-Tock said, with a fake accent and a smile. “Apparently, it was a ‘wrong place, wrong time’.”
“Which it was,” I assured them both. “If what happened earlier today wasn’t proof enough, I don’t know what is.”
“Yeah, that was close.” She ran her hoof through her poofy violet and gold mane. “Thanks for doing that back there...” She looked towards Tick-Tock, who blushed sheepishly.
“What did I do?” He asked, looking genuinely confused.
“You saved me from Ange-“
“Stop saying that name,” he interrupted; his tone leveled. “And don’t you describe that thing as Angelo’.”
“But, that’s who it was.”
“No, it wasn’t.” His body tensed, his brow furrowed, an icy glare shot from his eyes into me. “You don’t come back after you die.”
“Tick-Tock, what are you talk-“ I was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot fired from my left. I turned to face it, and saw Tick-Tock standing next to me, a determined glare on his face. I looked over his shoulder and saw the filly from earlier, the one Tick-Tock had said she couldn’t use a gun. Surrounded by her magical aura was the smoking barrel of a ten millimeter pistol that was in the pile of weapons. She had accidentally fired it.
An agonized grin on his face, Tick-Tock turned to Crystal and chuckled. “I told you so.” Then he collapsed.

Medical Intern- Congrats, you’ve been taught the basics of surgery in the wasteland, lesson one any operation that the patient survives is a successful operation.

(I’d like to thank my editor/cover artist Sara (to contact her for commissions email her at shaya.laperro@gmail.com) for correcting my grammatical errors which are steadily becoming less numerous. I’d also like to thank kkat for creating the world of FoE in the first place. Feedback appreciated, no it’s needed. I needs it like a changeling needs love!)