Fallout Equestria: Ascendancy

There was no shortage of abandoned, run-down buildings along the highway. As dusk crept closer, we made camp in a grocery store. It—surprisingly—hadn’t been picked clean. There was still food to be found; there was plenty for the three of us. Rose lit a fire under the hole in the roof and sat down and began drinking. I sat beside her.

“Yer filly ain’t said a word all day.”

“Would you be all that talkative if you went through what she did?”

“It’s not like she was raped, Feathers. They were slavers. They was gonna sell her fer caps. Ah’ve been through worse, believe it or not.” She took a pull from the bottle she’d been holding to her face for the last ten seconds.

“When you were six?”

“Well… no, but…”

“Then shut the fuck up.”

“Damn, Feathers! Ya need to simmer down.”

I got up and went to the side and called Radiant to me. One of her eyes was swollen shut from being hit. A minor injury, sure, but I would have used all of our medical supplies if it made her feel better. I grabbed a small bowl and a rag and walked over to Rose, extending the bowl. “Can I have some of that?”

“Sure. It might chill you out,” she said sourly. She poured some into the bowl. I dipped the rag in the whiskey and her expression went even more sour. “What’d ya do that for? Whiskey don’t grow on trees, ya know.”

“It’s for Radiant.”

She raised her brow. “Ah didn’t peg ya as a fun parent,” She smiled. “Yer all right, Feathers.”

I opened my mouth to make a sarcastic and belittling response to my inebriated friend but stopped. “Forget it.”

I sat down in front of Radiant and wrung most of the whiskey from the rag. “This will probably sting a little bit.” She nodded and I washed away the dried blood around her mouth.

She had a gash straight through the skin below her bottom lip, probably from her tooth. She winced with every touch and it began to bleed again.

“This stuff tastes nasty,” she said. Rose snickered.

“I know, but it’s all we have to clean that scrape up.”

“It’s only a scrape?”

“Uh… yeah.” I grinned.

She paused. “It’s not just a scrape, is it?”

“Nope.”

I told her to hold the rag over her cut while I grabbed another rag and a healing potion. After a few minutes, the bleeding slowed. I wiped the excess whiskey and blood from her face with the clean rag and gave her the potion. As she drank it, drops oozed out of the gash and it closed before my eyes.

“Is it better?” she asked, licking at where the hole was on the inside of her mouth.

“Yep,” I hugged her, “all better.”

I made Radiant a bed from my saddlebags and she went to sleep. I sat with Rose by the fire.

“She’s a sweet little thing.”

“I know. She’s the reason I’m out here. She left our Stable and I followed her.” I looked over at the sleeping filly. “If I’d been faster getting there…” I glared at Rose. “If I hadn’t taken your stupid bet then this wouldn’t have happened to her.”

She scoffed. “It’s mah fault? Yer a real asshole, ya know that?”

“If I had a cap for every time I heard that…”

“Yeah, yeah, you’d be one rich muthafucker.” She sat up. “Okay, asshole, tell me this. If ya hadn’t took mah stupid bet, Ah wouldn’t have followed ya out here. If Ah hadn’t followed ya out here, who woulda saved yer sorry ass when that slaver was beatin’ it?”

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. She had a point.

“Yeah. You’d be dead. And yer filly probably would be too.”

“Sorry, Rose. I guess I’m just looking for somepony to blame.”

“Then how ‘bout blamin’ the ones responsible. Ah’m not asking fer thanks. Ah couldn’t be happier fer you two, but ya really shouldn’t blame the ponies who actually try to help ya.”

“I’m sorry. I never had to worry about anything like this in the Stable. I don’t know what to do. It’s so fucked up out here.”

“Ya need to learn that the Marejave is a bastard of a place. Any second could be yer last. Or mine, or hers,” she pointed at me, herself and then Radiant. “Ya need to not worry about yesterday or tomorrow. Worry ‘bout right now,” she tapped her hoof to my chest on the last two words.

I didn’t sleep that night. I couldn’t. Radiant was with me again and I watched over her to make sure it stayed that way.

* * *

The next day we came across a town. Smoke rose from every corner and it didn’t look like anypony was there. We went to check it out.

A mare came running out at us. She was hysterical. Radiant ducked down behind my head when she came running up.

“Yeah! Who won the lottery? I did!” she said and broke into a cackle.

“Lottery? What lottery?” I asked.

“You stupid or somethin’? I won it! I won the muthafuckin’ lottery!” She was still laughing and took off the way we came.

Okay, she was twigged. We continued into the town.

What we came across were a bunch of Zebras. There were ponies nailed to large crosses erected in the town square. A horrific and unfamiliar smell was in the air.

A group of Zebras stood in front of the largest building in, which I guessed was the Town Hall. I recognized the Zebra in the front. He approached me. The large helmet on his head was made from the skull of a Timberwolf and he wore black-tinted goggles. Radiant hid behind my head.

He looked at her. “Don’t be afraid, little filly. I mean you no harm.” His voice was so calm that it was creepy.

“What the hell is this?!” I said, waving my hoof to all the murdered ponies.

“This town was corrupt. A purging fire was necessary.”

“Why was it necessary? Were they murderers?”

“This was a town of scum that would sell each other for a single cap. We gave them that opportunity. What they didn’t realize is that everypony was for sale and that they were the merchandise.

He looked up at the only crucified pony that was still alive. “We held a lottery, drawing only one ticket. That lucky pony would get to keep their freedom and perhaps have a greater appreciation for it. The rest were enslaved. Those who resisted were made an example of.

He sat and looked at one of the dead ponies and smiled with a sigh of relief. “I must say, justice is a beautiful thing.”

“Justice? You wanna see justice?” I put Perdition to his forehead.

He didn’t flinch. “Go right ahead. Shoot me. And you three won’t be walking out of here.”

“Don’t do it, Feathers. Ah don’t feel like dyin’ right now.”

The Zebra nodded. “You’d be wise not to anger the Legion. As you can see, you’re outnumbered and outgunned. My death would certainly mean the death of you as well as your companions.” The Zebras behind him drew their weapons and the hounds started pulling on their leashes.

Rose stepped up beside me. “Ah’d listen to the crazy wolf-bastard if Ah was you.”

“So I should walk by and do nothing?”

“If you feel that strongly about it, then attack us and soon you’ll feel nothing at all.”

I had to resist the urge to blow his head off. Radiant could be hurt or even killed if I took it that far. His reprisal would just have to wait. Their hounds watched us, growling as we left.

When we got a little ways out of town, Radiant broke the silence. “Dad, what’s a bastard?”

“A, uh… a bastard is… a mean pony. Yeah, that’s what it is.”

“Hm…”

* * *

The highway went on forever. According to Rose, we were heading toward Neighvak, a small town south of New Pegasus. With all this talk of New Pegasus, I was pretty eager to see it myself. I could see the lights at night. I wondered what it looked like up close.

We ran into a party of raiders about halfway there. They attacked us first but they clearly weren’t prepared for a pony that could leap fifteen feet in the air and none of them had guns. They were so weak from the drugs—or maybe from the lack of them—that Radiant could have taken them in a hoof fight.

It was dark when we reached Neighvak. The first thing I noticed was the large dragon statue near the motel. I saw movement in the mouth and a gun barrel stuck out in between two of the teeth.

We went into the motel. Ponies were having drinks in the lobby. I could barely stomach the smell of booze right now. Rose wanted whiskey but they didn’t have any. We sat down and each got a glass of water.

I couldn’t help overhearing the two ponies next to me. They were talking about a pack of Ghouls that were living up at the satellite station near the town.

“What’s a Ghoul?” I asked.

“Muthafu…”

The closest one turned around with his hoof pulled back but stopped. Probably because he saw that I was a lot bigger than he was and I had a Riot Shotgun.

“Settle down,” I laughed. “I just asked you a question.”

He turned red and wouldn’t say anything else. His friend told us what was happening.

“Sorry ‘bout him. He don’t like being interrupted. Ghouls are holed up at the space station up the road. They’re hogging all the salvage and that’s how we make our living. If they don’t get out, this town’s gonna die.”

“What’s a Ghoul?” I asked again.

He smirked. “Trust me. If you ain’t seen one yet, don’t get into a hurry to see your first. You wanna help out? Go kill the Ghouls up at the station. You’ll see plenty there. And you’ll help out this time. You’re a good pony, right?”

Now that I’d found Radiant, I didn’t have anything to do. I suppose I could help these ponies.

We went into the dragon statue. It was a shop. We needed ammo. They didn’t have very much normal 12-Gauge buckshot; they also had slugs that were more expensive. I got Radiant a Laser Pistol and some Gem Cartridges for said pistol and a knife. I also bought us both some leather barding. Rose refused and said she’d never wear it.

“You do know that hat and shirt isn’t bulletproof, right?”

She scoffed. “And here Ah was thinking that it was. Seriously, Feathers? How stupid do ya think Ah am?”

“Very…”

“Smart!” Radiant added, and beamed at Rose.

We went outside and I set up some cans and told Radiant to shoot them with the pistol; I don’t think she’d even seen a gun before then.

“How do I hold it?”

“Can you fly up? Just a little bit? It’s easier to shoot when you fly.”

She flapped her little wings as hard as she could, but her hooves didn’t leave the ground. She looked at the ground. “No…”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, Feathers. Yer embarrassin’ the poor filly and you can’t even fuckin’ fly.” She took the pistol over to Radiant. “Here. Put it in yer mouth.” She did. “Now bite the little block on th…”

An orange beam blasted out and hit Rose in the shoulder. “Oh my gosh! I’m so, so sorry, Rose!”

“S’all right…” she said through her teeth. She patted the hole in her shirt that was smoking. “Try to hit the cans now.”

Radiant lined up the Laser Pistol and bit the trigger. It took her four tries to hit a can.

“Good job, Radiant,” I said. “Now try to hit it in one.”

She aimed her pistol for a solid minute then bit the trigger. Another can was knocked to the ground.

“Did you see that, Dad?! I did it!”

I ruffled her tidy mane. “I sure did. I’m proud of you.”

I let her shoot the last few cans and then we headed toward the Satellite Facility. I told her to use her PipBuck’s targeting spell and she shot each one on the first try.

* * *

It was pitch black; the moon wasn’t in the sky. We walked silently, listening for Ghouls on the road and I wasn’t exactly sure what we were listening for. Rose told me that she had seen a Ghoul before. She said that they looked like ponies that were all burned up and were feral.

It wasn’t long before we heard something. There was a squishy-sounding clop then I was knocked on my side and a pony was hissing and trying to bite my throat out. I pummeled at where I thought its head was and felt cold blood drip down on my face.

“Kill that bastard, Rose!” Radiant yelled. Orange beams were going in every direction, only one of them hitting the Ghoul. Rose shot it in the head and it fell limp on top of me, gurgling. I pushed it off of me.

“Luna-fucking-Faust!” I said, catching my breath. “That was so much scarier than I thought it was going to be.”

The corpse looked like it had been dead for years. It was missing teeth and had spots all over where the skin had rotted, revealing tendons.

“Ha! Ha! You shoulda seen yer face!” Rose was holding her gut.

“It’s not funny, Rose! Dad could have been killed!”

“By one Ghoul? Don’t know if you noticed, Little Feathers, but he has the baddest shotgun Ah’ve ever seen.” She looked at me. “Use it. Not yer hooves.” She shook her head. “Ah worry about you sometimes.”

“Ouch,” Radiant said, wincing at me.

We could see the satellite from a mile away. It sat on top of a small square-shaped building. The parking lot of this station was filled with Ghouls. Some were lying on the ground and some were shuffling around. We couldn’t take all of them. There were a few stragglers.

“Rose, shoot that one.” I pointed to a lone Ghoul.

“Alrighty…”

She inhaled, paused, pulled the trigger, then exhaled. Two seconds later, the Ghoul’s head was violently knocked to the side. The Ghoul flailed as it fell to the ground with a shriek and died. The others didn’t even look at it.

“Whoa…” I said.

I pointed to another straggler. She shot it. No response.

“Ah ain’t doing this shit.”

She shot into a small crowd of them. They looked around and spotted us. Rose brought down all but two. Radiant and I each killed one.

“See? Mah way’s faster. An’ it’s more fun.”

We entered the building. Every table, desk and chair was flipped over—some chairs had been thrown and the legs were stuck in the wall. The air ducts rattled and it sounded like debris was being blown through them. There was a shuffling sound in the maintenance closet. I gestured Rose over to it.

“Fuck that,” she whispered. “You go.”

I rolled my eyes and went over to the closet. I pushed open the door with a faint creak. There was a Ghoul staring out of it. Its eyes shot wide and it screamed. I shot it in the face and it fell to the floor.

The next few we encountered were alone; they weren’t much of a threat. Then I saw a bright green glow coming from an office. It was another Ghoul. I could see ashes and light debris floating around in the dead air. My PipBuck began to click and the little rainbow dial slowly crawled toward the yellow area.

That Ghoul was giving off radiation.

I rushed in and shot it. It charged and died just inches from me. When the Ghoul died it exploded and showered the room in a radioactive cloud that I took full force. The heat spiked and I got out of the room and shut the door. My PipBuck was clicking loudly and the rainbow dial was in the yellow zone and rising.

I was starting to feel sick. Perdition was much heavier than it should have been and every step was harder than the last.

Up the catwalks and into a tunnel, we found an intercom. Rose walked up and pressed it. She started growling into the speaker.

“We’re a bunch of Ghouls. Let us in!”

Then somepony answered.

“Go away. There’s nopony in here,” said the gravelly voice.

“Then where are you at?” Her eyes lit up and she grabbed the intercom with both hooves and put her face right on it. “Ya got any whiskey?!”

I pushed her away and stepped up to the intercom. “Hey, are you hiding from the Ghouls? We got rid of them. You can come out now.”

There was a brief pause then we heard the door unlock. “Come on in.”

We went in. To our surprise, the door led to a lab full of Ghouls. They wore white smocks and were messing around with beakers and tubes on the tables. They smiled and nodded as we passed. The pony from the intercom led us up the stairs. There was a weird Unicorn pony overlooking the lab.

She was like that glowing Ghoul we killed, except that her glow was a pale blue. She wore a smock like the rest of them and on her flank was an hourglass cutie mark. The clicking on my PipBuck was almost inaudible but I tried to keep my distance from the blue mare.

“Hello,” she said, “The ponies from the town sent you, didn’t they?” She sounded like several ponies talking at once, but all with the same voice.

“Yes.”

“I just want you to know that we aren’t the ones who killed the others they sent.”

“Killed? They didn’t say anything about ponies being killed.”

“Yes, they sent a few others before you and they were killed. It was the demons, not us.”

“Demons?”

“In the basement. We tried to talk to them over the intercom, but they aren’t very nice so we’ve kept them locked down there.”

“Are you stuck here because of the demons?”

She looked confused. “We’re not stuck here. This is our home.”

Damn it. “The settlers need the scrap from this place to keep their town going. They said you aren’t sharing it.”

“That’s not our fault. We’d trade it to them, but what’s left is with the demons. We’re not going to let them out. They’ll kill us for sure.”

“Maybe I can take care of the demons for you.”

“Yeah, maybe you can. We’d really appreciate it.”

We were brought to the door. It had a numeric keypad you had to put the code into and they opened it for us. They locked it behind us and wouldn’t open it until the demons were gone.

* * *

I’m going to give the basement of the Neighvak Satellite Facility the Creepiest Location in the Marejave Award. I think it had its own creepy theme music playing in the background—at least it did in my head. The main thing was that I felt like I was being watched; like something was lying in the shadows, waiting for one of us to break off from the group.

I could hear strange breathing in every room. The breathing sounded suppressed, like whatever was making the noise was trying to keep quiet.

I walked down the halls, keeping a hoof on Perdition’s trigger. It seemed like my heartbeat was louder than anything else in the world. My body shivered and I couldn’t even find the strength to flap my wings.

“You okay, Feathers?”

“Y-yeah, I’m just tired. Let’s just hurry up and kill these things…”

“Ah don’t quite believe ya, but alrighty.”

There was a shuffle.

“Dad, something just moved in the corner, there.” She pointed and I went to look. I leaned in, squinting my eyes. When I got close, I felt something bump my muzzle. It was another muzzle. A mare about the size of me appeared out of thin air and screamed—in fear, it looked like. She had a horn and wings like the Princesses and she looked like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

Before I could even blink, she blasted me in the chest with some kind of hi-tech hammer and I fell on my back and spewed sour-tasting vomit all over the floor. Rose shot the mare in the shoulder and she disappeared. Her hammer dropped to the metal floor and we heard her run, crying, out of the room and down the hall.

Radiant rushed to my side. “What’s wrong with him, Rose?” She started to cry.

Rose’s eyes didn’t leave the doorway. “He’s sick on account o’ all the radiation. They make stuff for it but Ah don’t think we have none.”

“Will he be okay?”

“Ah don’t know.”

I could barely hear anything and the dark basement was growing darker all the time. I could only sit there and look at my daughter as she held me, both of us thinking that I would die right there. Her warm tears dropped to my face and she looked up at Rose who was digging through our saddlebags. She pulled an IV bag filled with orange goo out of Radiant’s bag.

“An’ we do have some. This woulda been more useful a little while ago. Why didn’t ya say we had it?”

Radiant sniveled and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. I thought it was orange juice.”

“It’s all right, Little Feathers. It’s not yer fault.”

Rose tied a tourniquet around my leg . Then I felt a sharp pain as the needle went into the vein. She removed the tourniquet.

Rose looked at Radiant. “Ah need ya to squeeze this here bag real slow like until it’s empty. Ah’m gonna keep watch in case that mare comes back.”

Rose drew her rifle and kept an eye on the door the mare ran through. Radiant squeezed the bag of orange goo into my body.

“You’re going to be okay, Dad. I’ll help you get better.” She brushed my mane with her tiny hoof. “I promise.”

It took all I had but I looked up and smiled at her. If it weren’t for Radiant I think I would have already given up. She was the only thing that mattered to me in the world.

Once she drained about half the bag I was able to see. The rainbow dial on my Rad meter was still deep in the red but crawling toward the yellow. Without more Rad-Away, I’d still be pretty sick. I was just slightly in the red zone when the bag was empty. Radiant took extra care to get every drop. I still had Critical Radiation Poisoning but I could stand, maybe even fight. Probably not.

“Thanks fer not dyin’ on us, Feathers.” She put her rifle away and turned around. “We need ta leave.”

I stopped her. “No. We’ve come this far down already and we can’t leave until we’re done. We need to finish this.”

“That was the only Rad-Away we had. If ya get sick like that again yer gonna die.” She leaned in close and whispered. “Ya wanna do that to yer filly twice in the same day? I’m sure they’d understand. It’s life or death here.”

“It’s not about us. The ponies of Neighvak need that scrap. Besides, my PipBuck says that there’s no radiation near us right now. It came from the glowing Ghouls.”

“Ah know, but are ya gonna not talk to that blue one when we’re done?”

“Nope. You are.”

“What?! Ah don’t want to.”

“Too bad. I’ll die, remember?”

And that was that. We kept searching through the basement, looking for demon—though I’m pretty sure the demons were these winged Unicorns.

The eerie vibe of the basement was even worse now that I knew what was watching us. Or maybe it was the fact that I knew she could turn invisible. Maybe that one had gone for the others… A million questions ran through my mind and it was hard to focus on the task at hoof.

We heard talking. Two ponies on the other side of a water-logged wooden door. I peeked through the hole that had rotted through it. There was the mare that had hit me though she didn’t have the bullet hole in her shoulder. She was the only one in the room. I got a good look at her this time. She was solid white with a black and red and blue mane that was scraggly and the fur around her eyes was black.

“No!” she said in a fearful voice. “We hit it first but it hurt Us. We must hide. Hide until it goes away.” She put her head to the floor and covered it with her hooves.

She shook her head and her voice changed to one of anger; she sounded like a completely different pony. “No. It found Us before and it will find Us again. We will kill it.”

She became excited and started rubbing her hooves together. “Kill it, yes… Kill it and We eat it for dinner. It’s big. Plenty for all of Us.”

She started giggling then shook her head and growled. “Stupid! Shut up! There’s only one of Us.”

Her ears folded back and she gave a timid frown. “But the Goddess will want some too.”

She grinned and then spoke slowly and quietly. “No. No, she won’t. We can’t hear Her… and that means She can’t hear Us. We must be quiet… and eat quiet… and We can have more.” She purred on that last word then started to giggle and then broke into a mad cackle.

She was freaking me out more than the atmosphere of this place. I didn’t want to kill her. She didn’t try to kill me—at least it didn’t look that way. She was clearly insane but that didn’t make me feel better. If I charged in she might’ve tried to kill me. If I got her to surrender, I could find out why she’s here and nopony would have to die. She finally turned away from the door and began muttering to herself what sounded like a plan.

I went inside as quietly as I could manage. There were uprooted trees placed on the floor as if they were growing out of the metal. Some were petrified and glossy. Some were rotten and mushy. Some were in between. None had leaves and all had slightly charred bark. I felt her body jump when I put Perdition’s barrel to the back of her head.

“Lay down,” I said.

She burst into tears.

“You let it catch Us!” She growled and hit herself in the head with her hoof then glared at me with her bright red eyes then looked back at the floor.

“That’s, uh… that’s right. I have you now. And you’re going to tell me what you’re doing down here.”

She looked up at me with large watery eyes. Her ears were folded back and she had the most frightened look on her face. Her eyes were green now. “Or what is it going to do with Us?” That was probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

“Um… I-I don’t know. But it won’t be good for you.”

Her eyes glazed over and faded from green to red and she grinned. “We won’t say anything!”

Green eyes. “No! We must say something or it will hurt Us again!” She hid under her hooves.

“That’s right.” I pressed the barrel a little harder on her head.

She gave a guttural growl and glared at me. “We will say nothing! Leave Our home now!”

“This isn’t your home.”

She gave me a matter-of-fact look. “Oh yes it is! We found it and it’s Ours.”

She started to get up but I pressed the barrel to her again and she laid back down and growled. “Stupid Pegasus! Spoiling Our dinner…” She shot me a short raspberry and a glob of spit splattered to the floor.

I looked around the room. “I don’t see any food here.”

“We were going to eat it for dinner!” she pointed a hoof up at me. “And it hurt us!” She hugged herself and started to cry again. “We must starve!” She held that last word for a few seconds and rolled dramatically on the floor like a filly throwing a tantrum.

Radiant pulled out an apple and approached the mare. She jumped up with a blood-curdling scream. “It has grenades!” She screamed again.

She laughed and gave the mare a friendly smile. “Don’t be a bastard. It’s just an apple. Here.”

She examined it for a few seconds. “It gives it to us… freely? Does it… does it try to poison Us?”

Red eyes. “Yes, We think We see poison on it.”

“Where?”

She pointed to a random spot. “There.” She rolled the apple over to Radiant. “It will take a bite first, then We will.” Radiant picked it up and wiped it off and went to take a bite. “No!”

“What?”

“On the poison…” Radiant went to bite a different spot. “That’s not the poison!” Radiant pointed to about twelve different spots before she found the ‘poison’, and went to take a bite. The mare watched her with a grin, waiting for her to fall over dead I’m sure.

“See. No poison. It’s just an apple.” Radiant rolled the apple back and it stopped at the mare’s hooves.

The mare looked down at the fruit. “It took a bite and it’s fine… We can eat it now!” The mare smiled and took a bite from the apple and chewed it slower than I’ve seen anypony chew anything. She smiled wider and a little bit of apple juice squeezed past her lips. She threw the core against the wall. “Another!”

“Please?” Radiant said with a smile.

The mare looked at her, confused. Radiant gave her another apple which she ate just as slowly. It’s probably the only bit of real food she’s had in a long time. Maybe now she’d be a little friendlier, though her eyes were red. That appeared to be the mean one. We introduced ourselves and I asked for her name.

“Our name is Harlequin Forest.”

Green eyes. She smiled. “Yes, yes, and our name is…” she shook her head and her eyes changed again.

“It doesn’t care. Nopony likes you. Only me.” Her ears went back and she winced. I could hear her stomach growl and she started to cry again. “We are famished, yes! Famished!”

“Aren’t we supposed to be killin’ the demons, not feedin’ ‘em?”

Harlequin Forest slinked up to Rose. “Cruel pony is so cruel! Does it not care if We be hungry?”

We fed her half of our food before she didn’t ask for any more. She was very polite in asking and I couldn’t say no to her; I felt bad for her condition.

“What are you doing down here?” I asked.

“This is Our home now.”

“Now? Where did you come from?”

Red eyes. “We came here from Canterlot decades ago. Our Goddess ordered Us to flee and We did. We found this place and lived here ever since. We haven’t heard from Our Goddess since then, so We stay here until We do.”

“Is it you who’s being mean to the Ghouls who try to talk to you?”

“They don’t talk to Us! They locked Us down here and tell Us to leave. We don’t want to.”

Green eyes. She pointed to the mushy trees. “And Our beautiful trees have died…” She pawed at the floor and started to cry. “Those nasty ones did it. We must water the trees. Sister told us that’s what We have to do and they won’t give Us any water.” She started to bawl.

She stopped suddenly and looked up and gave me a matter-of-fact look. “We can’t eat them for dinner, you know. Not very tasty. Not very tasty at all…” she purred.

“Would you leave if you had a place to go?”

“No. This is Our home now. We were here first, so they will leave.”

“Would you be willing to talk to them about it? Maybe we can sort this out.”

Red eyes. “No! They locked Us down here for months!” she said, pointing to a spot on the wall bearing at least a hundred marks scratched into it. The first rows were perfectly straight. As the days went on, they weren’t as deep and looked more like S’s than straight lines. “They stole Our home! And We will make them pay…” She calmed down and smiled at me. “As soon as We get out of here.”

The Ghouls sent me down here to kill these demons. The demons were just a single pony; a pony whose home was stolen from her by them. I couldn’t kill them and I rather she didn’t. I got her to agree that they would get a single warning to leave. If not, then it will be out of my hooves. It was her home and she’d have the final say.

I told her to stay quiet while we went to the intercom. I told them that the demons were gone. They opened the door and Harlequin Forest came out with us.

She waited outside the lab door while we were brought to the blue Ghoul. Rose told her of my condition and she agreed to keep her distance.

“So, the demons have been slain?” She gave me a surprised smile, almost like she didn't expect us to come out of there alive. “We don’t need to fear them any longer?”

“Not exactly.”

She frowned. “What? You lied to us?”

“No, because there were no demons to begin with. You locked a pony down in the basement to die and stole her home. How could you do that?”

“It wasn’t a pony. I saw it. It was a demon.”

“Pony,” I corrected, “and you’ll give her home back.”

The blue Ghoul scoffed. “We’ll do no such thing. This is our home.”

I went to reply but the lab door began to warp and fold. It shot violently against the wall and had been crushed into a ball the size of an orange. Harlequin Forest stepped through it. Her eyes gave off a red glow and she was staring straight at the blue Ghoul who was clearly frozen in fear.

“It’s a thief…”

The blue Ghoul swallowed and looked at me. “Why did you let it out?”

“This is Our home! Ours!” The room began to shake.

She spread her wings and red energy began to swirl around her. Ghouls were sucked into the vortex and were twisted and folded just like the door. All the test tubes in the room shattered and glass was blasted in every direction. Cracks spread throughout the metal walls, then explosions came from within them. The blue Ghoul started firing magic at Harlequin Forest. It did nothing and Harlequin Forest grinned. The blue Ghoul was lifted off the ground and she screamed.

I pulled Radiant to me and buried her face in my chest. She didn’t need to see this. Even Rose couldn’t watch. We heard the most disturbing seconds of our lives right then. Ponies screaming for their lives and the sounds of their bodies bending in ways that they aren’t supposed to. There was a sloshing sound from what I guessed was the sound of their insides spilling from their broken bodies as they were suspended in the air.

In the last seconds of this massacre, there was a blue explosion and my PipBuck began to click. Before I had time to react, my legs gave out and the world went black. I heard Radiant screaming for me and Harlequin Forest laughing—I heard both her normal voice and the angry one sounding in unison—and then I heard nothing.