“Couldn't charm your way out of that one.”

Something was not right.

I couldn’t see. My eyes were open, but there was nothing I could see. No, actually, that wasn’t true. I could see the light. At least I thought so, otherwise there should be darkness around me, instead of this… sort of milky fog, I guess, would be the best way to describe it? And why was…

I must have had a concussion.

Think. What happened? The last thing I remembered was getting hit in the back of my head- well, that would explain the concussion. Where was Aite? I remember seeing her on the floor a second before I was knocked unconscious. Was she nearby?

I tried to move, but my body moved sluggishly… and it didn’t feel right. At least I couldn’t feel any pain, so it seemed I wasn’t injured. With my eyesight useless, I turned to my other senses, and almost immediately a wave of relief washed over me. I could feel somepony breathing nearby! Except the sensation - as well as the feeling of vibrations made by the little spark generator - was muffled, as if I was far away; was I moved after getting knocked unconscious? I had been close to Aite at the time… Was I in one of my cells? And… was there somepony else lying on the floor beside Aite? I could feel…

Wait, feel?

Alright, this was getting ridiculous. I tried getting up again, a sensation of annoyance building up inside of me at my hopelessness and cluelessness regarding this situation. My tail swished angrily behind me as I moved my foreleg to my face- Wait, I can see it! Yes, the moment I tried to move it before me, some shapes had finally registered within my field of vision. Except, something was still wrong with my eyes. My foreleg seemed to resemble pinc- oh.

OH!

Well, that explains why I suddenly had a much wider degree of vision and could see only light and movement. And why my body feels so weird. And why I can feel all those vibrations around me.

Alright, so, apparently, I was in Pinchy’s body. Was it how this talisman was supposed to work? No, that would mean that everytime Black Widow commanded Khan to do something her mind would leave her body and control the zebra like this. As far as I had observed she had always remained lucid when giving him an order. Cutter had theorized that it was only an experimental talisman… maybe it’s a side effect of falling unconscious soon after activating it within a new subject’s brain?

An unpleasant thought occured to me: what if I wasn’t unconscious? What if that hit to the head was fatal? What if my body was lying dead on the floor of my laboratory and my mind had been transferred to the talisman?

No, that can’t be it. I can - or, well, Pinchy can - feel two people outside of this cell breathing. It had to be me and Aite. Perhaps once I regained consciousness my mind would return to my body?

In any case, it would probably be for the best to wake both myself and Aite up before attempting to do anything about my current situation. At least I would be able to do something, and considering that we were about to leave the town, before…

How long had I been unconscious? Had the slavers already realized that Black Widow had left?

… I guess it’s better to find out sooner rather than later.

Awkwardly, I tried to raise Pinchy's eight legs. It felt… really weird, and as I took a step forward I tilted towards one side, but I was moving. I reached forward with pincers to touch the door and make sure I wouldn’t hit Pinchy’s cephalothorax against it; I could feel thanks to vibrations where the door was, but it still unnerved me how I practically couldn’t see anything. Now, the harder part - opening the door. Fortunately, I only closed it and not locked it, so it was just the matter of pushing the handle… which I couldn’t reach with Pinchy’s pincers from the floor level. Alright then, I could either try to maneuver the tail, or break the door. Pinchy’s carapace was very tough, so it would be okay, but…

Come to think of it, where, um, was Pinchy? I mean, this was its body, shouldn’t I… feel it? I-

As if thinking about it stirred it, there it was. A small pressure at the back of my hea- cephalothorax, I mean. No, that wasn’t it; it was at the back of my mind. A struggling pressure, sending out various… if that was a pony, it would have probably been thoughts, but what I could hear from the radscorpion was different; they were… stress, fear, and hunger, and scents good and bad, and…

In hindsight, inserting the talisman into a creature with an unadvanced nervous system straight away instead of a pony who could “think back to me” first might have been a mistake.

Nevertheless, even though time was of the essence, I tried. I tried to focus on this pressure, on those things I was feeling from it. The pressure grew as I concentrated, no, not grew, it became closer-

I stumbled forward, utterly confused. The gray, milky surroundings had disappeared, and so did the vibrations I could feel… and as I regained my composure, I realized I was back in my own body-

No. I was a pony again, but this wasn’t my body.

The place I was in was surrounded by a mass of gray-greenish, pulsing flesh. From the walls amethyst chains descended towards the center, where Pinchy, pierced by those chains, was. They ran through its pincers, its tail, all of its legs, its cephalothorax, just behind its eyes. The bindings we had forced on the radscorpion seemed like a luxury in comparison.

But the most unnerving part was that from the other side of the chains, right where they emerged from the fleshy walls, tiny, barely visible strings descened, towards the other being inside this place.

Me.

I knew now what this was. Well, okay, suspected to be more precise. This was some sort of “visualization” my mind had conjured of the spell of this Mind Control Talisman so that it could process what was happening. There, trapped before me was Pinchy’s mind, bound by the chains of the spell and controlled by the strings that connected to me.

And it could see me.

Pinchy was staring right at me. I don’t know if the radscorpion could feel me or if its eyes were capable of seeing more than just light and movements here… actually, those weren’t its eyes or body, it was just a visualization of its mind so it didn’t really matter. I could see - sense, whatever - Pinchy trying to struggle against its chains, but to no avail; they didn’t even seem to budge.

So… this is how it felt? A being’s mind chained, controlled by strings? Was this what Khan had gone through for years?

Was this what I was putting Pinchy through?

… no.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. This might not be my body inside here, but I still focused as I would to channel magic, and concentrated on the talisman inside Pinchy’s cephalothorax.

A wave of magic washed over me, tearing apart the strings.

“I do not wish to control you, Pinchy,” I told the radscorpion’s mind, walking towards it slowly. “Nor do I wish to hurt you.”

Despite my words, the radscorpion’s attitude towards me didn’t change. In fact, I didn’t think that it even understood me... Yes, of course it didn’t. Pinchy didn’t think in the same manner I, a pony, did. Even if we were talking through our minds, why would he understand words?

“Very well then,” I said, standing before it. Gently, I lifted a hoof and placed it on the radscorpion, closing my eyes and… concentrating.

Feeling.

I’ve recalled the advice Fluttershy had given me when she helped my initial attempts at befriending Pinchy: "Try to find a way to convey your emotions to it, let Pinchy know that you mean it no harm." Well, now I had a perfect way to do just that, so I conveyed my emotions to him. I felt calm, unafraid, standing next to Pinchy. I felt happy. There was no aggression in me, no hunger. No pain.

And I let it feel all of that.

There was a change in the radscorpion. Fear and aggression gave way to confusion. But a confused animal could still attack. I wondered what else I could convey to make Pinchy realize that I wanted to be its… friend.

Thinking back, I remembered how it felt like when I was with Aite, Jack, Ditzy and Apple Core. How I felt when talking with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie’s apparitions. How I felt with-

I stopped immediately, before I could start dwelling on those emotions; Goddesses above know what they would do to a radscorpion.

My sudden halt surprised Pinchy, but I had managed to convey my feelings before that. Aside from its surprise, I could also sense something else from the radscorpion. Or rather, I couldn’t; there was no aggression towards me, and its fear had also abated.

If Pinchy had been a pony, I would've said that it was cautiously optimistic.

Well, I was about to make this radscorpion very optimistic.

Once again, I concentrated, reaching to the talisman. I eyed the chains that bound Pinchy, and with a wave of my horn, I turned them to ash.

Pinchy shook as they disappeared, then moved forward and back, and partially turned around. Confusion once again appeared in the radscorpion, but quickly it understood that it was free, and that I had done that.

It turned to me, and slowly crept forward, nudging me with one pincer. I smiled, and placed a hoof on it, then traced along the appendage gently back towards its cethelotharyx, petting it. And Pinchy didn’t shake me off; in fact, it seemed to enjoy it.

I let the moment last a few more heartbeats, then I remembered what I had been doing before getting here. “Listen, darling, I need your help,” I spoke, more for my benefit than Pinchy’s I suppose; at the same time I tried to convey to it my feelings; my worries for what was happening outside, my concern for my friend. “I need you to smash through the door and check if Aite and myself are alright. Can you do that for me?”

I looked the radscorpion in the eyes; its many, many eyes. Even though it didn’t understand exactly what I meant, it did understand the worry in me, and as it nudged me again with its pincers, I realized it agreed to help.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I smiled at it, “Alright, then let’s get back out there.”

I closed my eyes, recalling the pressure I had concentrated on before. Now, I imagined that I was in that pressure, and reached out, towards Pinchy’s body.

My eyes were now open, the gray light surrounding me and vibrations from the generator’s rumbling and ponies’ breathings emanating around once again. Except this time, I couldn’t move. I wasn’t in control of the radscorpion’s body anymore; Pinchy was.

It took a moment to compose itself, then crawled over to the door. It felt even weirder to be a... a passenger, feeling the body move but not controlling it. However, it quickly proved to be a correct decision to allow that to happen - I mean, besides it being morally right - as Pinchy suddenly rushed forward, hitting the door with both of its pincers with greater strength and speed that I would have been able to muster. In fact, the attack was so quick that I was positive I would have felt nauseous if I was in my own body right now.

Even though we couldn’t see the extent of the damage Pinchy had inflicted on the door, we could feel the dents as they formed. It took a step back on its eight legs, then again surged forward.

BAM!

And again.

BAM!!!

At the third strike, the hinges finally gave, causing the door to finally fall down. Picking up a weird sensation from Pinchy that I assumed was satisfaction, I praised it. That was amazing, darling, you’re so strong, I thought, at the same time conveying my amazement at the strength it displayed. Then, I focused on the nearby two unconscious ponies. Now, could you be so kind and go over to check on them?

I felt his agreement, but before it crawled towards myself and Aite, Pinchy paused and partially turned around. Being able to sense what he was sensing, I realized that now that we were free from its cell, the radscorpion had noticed the vibrations emitted by three other creatures, coming from the remaining two cells. My test subjects.

That left only one creature unaccounted for…

Satisfied that the other three posed no danger, Pinchy scuttled towards the closest of the two bodies. For a very brief moment I worried that it might start eating us, but I quickly reassured myself that I would sense if it was hungry or aggressive. Still, when it stopped beside the unconscious body and raised its pincer to prod it, I realized it might harm either myself or Aite by accident.

Actually, darling, I interrupted Pinchy, would it be alright if I were the one to check on my friend?

My request confused Pinch (probably because it wasn’t as easy to convey emotionally as my earlier pleas), but as it backed away, it hesitated, I took my chance. I moved its pincer, keeping it closed…

Actually, now that I controlled them again, I realized that while this appendage hardly had the same maneuverability as my own, let alone a creature’s like Jack would, it was a rare chance to experience how it felt to “operate”, for the lack of a better word, of an appendage capable of-

A wave of irritation from Pinchy broke me out of my reverie; focusing once again on my task, I moved the pincer closer to the body and pressed against it gently. I was fairly certain I was touching the pony’s back, though it was impossible to feel through the carapace-clad pincer if what I was touching was my lab coat or Aite’s Stealth Cloak. However, if I moved it a bit further… yes, there was an appendage growing from behind her scapula, this was Aite!

Alright, now… how to wake her up?

I would have groaned in frustration if I was able to. Here I was, a doctor of medicine, master surgeon, and highly skilled unicorn, and I was unable to examine a patient, much less help her. Being stuck in a radscorpion’s body meant that I couldn’t do anything besides trying to nudge her and stir her awake. However, considering that this would likely have even less of an effect on my own body - as I wasn’t sure how my consciousness being stuck in Pinchy’s mind would affect me - I was resigned to this course of action.

Carefully, and making sure Pinchy’s pincer was tightly shut, I nudged Aite above her wing, then again. When she still didn’t wake up, I pushed it, more gently but further, then brought the pincer back, repeating this motion and hoping that the bat pony would start waking up before Pinchy’s patience would run out-

I paused. Aite just made a noise! Was she waking up? It was hard to make out what sounds she was making, with radscorpion “hearing” by sensing the vibrations around them…

Suddenly, AIte’s body jerked, the movement registering in Pinchy’s vision. She jumped up into the air and landed further behind, crouching down. Immediately I realized she was readying to attack, and what’s worse Pinchy was beginning to react to her aggressive behaviour. I could sense it feeling endangered, and before I knew it the radscorpion wrestled control over its body from me, raised its pincers threateningly and lowered its tail slightly, readying to shoot the sting towards Aite.

No! Pinchy, it’s okay, she’s a friend! I quickly conveyed, by some miracle managing to remain calm; the last thing we needed right now was Pinchy sensing how alarmed I was. Focusing, I recalled how Aite let me conduct a physical examination on her and we talked, how I felt back then, and conveyed it all right now. A friend, not danger.

The radscorpion hesitated, and thankfully, Aite too hadn’t attacked, she just stayed where she was. Apparently, between my attempts and defusing the situation and the bat pony not making any hostile actions, it was enough to convince Pinchy that she was no threat. It relaxed its tail and lowered its pincers back.

The show of non-aggression must have calmed Aite down too, as I “heard” her say something instead of attacking. Unfortunately, it was difficult to make out words… I think I heard her say my name. In any case…

Pinchy, darling? Would you be so kind to point our friend towards the other body in the room? I asked the radscorpion, imagining my own body lying unconscious a few yards away and passing the image to Pinchy.

I must have started to get a hang of conveying thoughts and emotions to Pinchy; it understood me perfectly. Ignoring Aite, it turned around on its eight legs, towards my body, then turned right back around so it would face the bat pony again.

Shapes once again registered in Pinchy’s vision as Aite flew over it towards where it had pointed, apparently realizing what the radscorpion tried to tell her. Following her - but, as I quickly asked, keeping its distance - Pinchy allowed me to see her bending over the source of soft vibrations, and I felt her shaking said source.

It worried me that I couldn’t feel it. Shouldn’t I feel it? It was my body she was shaking after all. Would Aite be able to wake me up when my mind was in Pinchy? Come now, Angel, think before you start to panic. Hm, would… Luna condemn it, it would be easier to think if Pinchy wouldn’t hook itself against a desk by the feel of it! Calm down… would taking out the Mind Control Talisman out of Pinchy and inserting into my own brain work? Well, even if it would, I somehow doubted that Aite was skilled enough of a surgeon to do that… Maybe Cutter could? He had performed that exact surgery on Khan after all… Oh great, I started to panic! Everything was slowly growing darker… Wait, that didn’t make any sense, why would Pinchy’s vision deteriorate, it’s not like it was having a panic attack.

I paused as I realized that the earlier sensation I felt, of Pinchy catching itself against something, had grown stronger, and now it felt as if something was pulling it forward. And it was still growing stronger! Why wasn’t Pinchy reacting to it? Should it start to crawl backwards and-

~ ~ ~

“Angel! Wake up!” Aite shouted into my ear, causing me to yell in surprise - the yell quickly turning into a pained groan - and I scrambled up from the floor.

Wait, the floor… My eyes widened as I took in the sights that I could see, the green lights of my E.F.S., my laboratory, Aite, and Pinchy behind her, all visible and clear as day! And I could feel the pain in the back of my head, too, but I would remedy that in a moment; for now I just rubbed the sore spot with my hoof, enjoying the sensation of my own body.

“Oh, thank merciful Luna!” I exclaimed, sighing with relief. I raised my other hoof before my eyes, just to be sure; yes, it had my devoid-of-pigment coat on it! “That was certainly an interesting experience, but one I would rather conduct in a more secure environment.”

Calming down, I turned to Aite, feeling a smile of relief spreading on my muzzle. Aite, on the other hoof, looked at me with a mixture of concern and confusion. “Um, sure, I think everypony would love to get knocked out while in a secure environment,” she said after a brief hesitation.

Realizing the misunderstanding, I shook my head. “Oh, not that darling, I meant being inside of Pinchy.”

“Being inside of-” Aite started to repeat, only to freeze. She turned back towards the radscorpion, who continued to stand behind her - although it was starting to get impatient - then back to me. Finally, she closed her mouth and frowned. “Gross.”

Now it was my turn to look at her in confusion… only for a second, before I realized what she must have imagined. “Oh honestly, do all you Wasteland ponies think about is sex? I meant that when I was knocked out unconscious, my mind was transferred through the Mind Control Talisman into Pinchy.”

“Oh wow, really?” Aite asked, sounding surprised and amazed. “I mean… that’s still disturbing I guess- Wait, what the fuck are we doing?!” she exclaimed suddenly, causing both myself and Pinchy to step back from her in surprise; which unfortunately in Pinchy’s case was followed by aggressively clicking its pincers.

As Aite immediately stopped what I assumed was to be an angry rant before it even started and jumped onto my operating table, I quickly began to calm down the radscorpion again. Pinchy, it’s alright, Aite means us no harm, I thought, conveying a relaxing feeling… And blinked in surprise as I realized what I just did. Oh… you can hear me! I stated, noticing- no, feeling that Pinchy was calming. This was amazing! Come over here, darling, please.

“It’s okay, you just startled it,” I told Aite as the radscorpion crawled over to me. Giggling, I petted it gently along its cephalothorax. “I convinced Pinchy that you and I are its friends, it won’t harm you.”

The bat pony, still giving the radscorpion a cautious look, appeared as if about to comment on that, but she shook her head and said “Cool. Can we talk about us being knocked out please?!” she exclaimed, once again raising her voice. “I thought you said Khan wouldn’t wake up for at least an hour!”

I nodded, raising a hoof again to the sore spot on the back of my head. “I did,” I admitted, casting a Healing Spell on myself, then on Aite. “I was certain that I took his size into account when I cast my Anesthetic Spell on him, so even overlooking the amount of blood he lost before, it should have been impossible for him to wake up sooner.” Aite snorted and shook her head, making me feel like I was trying to make an excuse. Embarrassed, I added “I suppose there could be something about zebras’ biology that I am unfamiliar with that had caused this, but I sincerely doubt-”

“Alright, nevermind,” Aite interrupted me, raising her hoof to the back of her own head.

“Does it still hurt?”

“No, it’s fine now, thanks. Fuck… Do you know how long we were knocked out?”

Glancing at the time display on my E.F.S., I replied: “About half an hour.”

“Fucking great,” Aite groaned, raising her forehooves to rub her face. “There goes the plan to just slip away quietly.”

“Um, why is that darling?” I asked, not understanding. “I’m afraid I fail to see why Khan leaving the town prevents us from leaving in the exact same manner.”

“Oh, so you think that’s what he did, went down the hatch and left through the underground tunnel?” Aite countered with a question, her eyebrow raised.

“Why, yes, what else would he do after ambushing us and knocking us unconscious?”

“Well, see, if he hadn’t spent the last couple of years as a walking vegetable I’m sure that’s what he would have done instead of using the front door!” she exclaimed with a frown, pointing behind her at the door leading out of the basement back to my clinic, which only now I realized was open.

“Oh,” I exclaimed, taken by surprise. “W-well, this isn’t the actual ‘front door’, darling, so perhaps he just went upstairs to my clinic and back?”

“Why would he do that?”

“Um… to steal from me?” I tried to guess. “I keep most of my actual medical supplies, like the healing potions, upstairs, down here are just ingredients, unfinished chems, and drugs I use for my experiments, all which I’d imagine Khan would have no use for. Oh, and also I keep my bottle caps there.”

Aite didn’t look convinced. “I kinda doubt it, on account of him being an idiot.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say, considering what he has been through,” I chided her, but the bat pony ignored me.

“If he was smart, he would have taken this,” she said, pointing at the gemstone clasp of her cloak.

I opened my mouth, but couldn’t find a counterargument. Aite had a point, a cloak that makes one invisible is incredibly valuable.

“It’s possible he didn’t know what this cloak does,” I finally said. “Just because it was made by his people doesn’t mean he would recognize it.”

Aite rolled her eyes to that. “Oh whatever. We can easily make sure which way he left by checking out how the town looks.”

“What do you mean?”

“Crazy, he destroyed your robot and knocked you out, and you were the one who so benevolently freed him from a talisman that controlled his mind and from servitude to quite possibly the biggest bitch in the Wasteland. What do you think he’s done to the ponies who worked for said bitch?” Aite asked, raising her eyebrows.

Images of carnage based on descriptions of some more gruesome acts performed by Khan over the years immediately formed in my mind. My worry and dread made Pinchy shift uncomfortably, its confusion conveying to me. I patted the radscorpion calmingly, wondering what I should do.

Aite, in the meantime, continued to curse under her breath. “Blasted, one eyed, cheap-shotting bastard. Just wait until this whole thing is over, I swear I’ll get him for this.”

I didn’t like the viciousness I picked out in her voice. “Darling, while I agree he inconvenienced us and I think I would like to see him again to express my feelings on the matter, I do feel the need to point out that he could have killed us but he didn’t.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna kill him either,” Aite retorted. “I just want to meet up with him, and, well, let’s just say somebody is going to have something shoved down their orifice when that happens,” she finished with a smirk, patting the dagger under her cloak.

I was about to voice my concerns about Khan’s health after such an event would take place, but I decided that this discussion could wait until another time. Shaking my head and sighing, I rose to my hooves. “For that to come to pass I believe it would be necessary to know what exactly had befallen of him after leaving my laboratory. So, if you wouldn’t mind darling, I’d like to go outside.”

Aite raised an eyebrow. “You want to go outside. Where, in all likelihood, either a possibly homicidal zebra that knocked you out moments ago prowls on what we can assume is a murder spree, or a bunch of pissed off slavers that by now must have realized something is going on and might take an issue with you might be?”

“You have quite a pessimistic outlook at the current situation, darling,” I retorted with a frown, “one that I feel like could be exaggerated. But yes,” I admitted, sighing, “I want to go to that outside. You see darling-”

“Okay, stay safe.”

Words of duty and responsibility, the arguments with which I intended to convince Aite to allow me to go, died in my throat. I stared at the older mare agape, stunned, before finally recovering. “I’m… forgive me, darling, weren’t you very adamant about us leaving as soon as possible and without anypony noticing us?” I questioned, confused.

“Yes, but as I’ve pointed out, the situation has changed. Now I’ve got to figure out which of Jack’s emergency scenarios best fits this massive shit-show we've found ourselves in. Strangely, he never anticipated the zebra regaining his faculties and knocking us out cold,” she said, with a glare at me; was she blaming me? I suppose I was partially responsible for our current predicament, but still… “So yeah, you can go outside and see what has happened, just make sure you don’t get yourself killed. I’ll pack some of your things in the meantime,” she added, getting up and shaking off before reaching for her hood.

Still confused by her change of priorities, I hesitated, wanting to ask more questions. I would have liked to know what other emergency scenarios had Jack prepared and help her decide which one we would go along with; it would be nice to have a say in the matter! However, I reminded myself that there could be ponies in need of my help in the town above. Even if they were all slavers and their boss had attacked me, I was still the town medic, I couldn’t just not help if there were some wounded out there.

Especially since I was indirectly responsible if there were.

“Very well, thank you darling,” I said as I watched her put on her hood and disappear… only to appear right away.

“I almost forgot, you’re not thinking about bringing your pet along right?” she asked, pointing at Pinchy. The radscorpion shifted its attention to her, probably drawn by the motion she had made. “Because as dumb as the slavers are, I think they might realize right away something’s off when they see a pony-sized insect follow you around.”

Frowning and looking down at Pinchy, I pondered her question. “Well,” I began, “first of all darling, radscorpions are arachnids, not insects-”

“Oh my Goddesses, so not the point right now.”

“- and second of all, I hadn’t considered taking Pinchy along,” I admitted, ignoring her remark. I raised my hoof to pet the radscorpion while thinking. “However, in case you are right and the slavers would be… upset with me, it might be safer if Pinchy was nearby…”

I trailed off as I concentrated. Pinchy, I’ll have to go outside. I filled my mind with images and sounds of myself leaving and walking outside. Other ponies there might attack me. Images turned into me being surrounded by slavers, talking, them starting to get aggressive and finally lunging at me. Can you leave through this passage, I thought, imagining the radscorpion leave through the hatch, dig through the ground and wait near the surface, until I call for your help? I asked, conveying the images of Pinchy digging upwards and waiting, then myself signaling to attack the aggressive ponies. Please?

Pinchy hesitated, and I picked up something akin to irritation from its mind. However, after a brief moment, I sensed an agreement, and the radscorpion turned and crawled towards the hatch.

“I asked Pinchy to dig through the ground and wait below the surface in case I need its help,” I told Aite, who, while sitting relaxed, watched the radscorpion carefully.

The bat pony raised an eyebrow. “I was thinking something along those lines, but wasn’t sure if you could make it do something that complicated.”

“I didn’t make Pinchy do it, I asked and it agreed,” I corrected her.

“Wasn’t that talisman supposed to control minds?” Aite asked, confused.

“Well, yes, initially, when I was inside of Pinchy’s mind, I had an absolute control over it,” I replied, dismayed. “Once I realized that, though, I managed to, hm, how to best describe it… to decrease the level of control the Mind Control Talisman had over Pinchy, to the point that it just allows me to communicate with it telepathically. Which I must say is a bit tricky, I have to rely on conveying images, sounds, scents and emotions rather than thoughts-”

“Hang on,” Aite interrupted me, raising a hoof, “why did you decrease the talisman’s control or whatever?”

“... Because it was cruel,” I answered, hesitating out of surprise.

Now it was Aite who was surprised. “Cruel? That… okay, you know what, I can’t deal with this, I’m out,” she said, waving her forehooves before covering her head with her hood and disappearing.

Confused - and a little annoyed - at her, I frowned at the spot where she had been, then sighed, rolled my eyes, and turned towards the door. “Oh, and please remember to pack my copy of the Wasteland’s Survival Guide too,” I added, glancing back where I had last seen her.

My eyes darted around the laboratory for a second, wondering where exactly the bat pony was, before deciding that it was pointless and hurried towards the stairs. Maybe it would be better if I’d just grab it myself? I wondered, leaving the basement. Hm, no, the pockets in this lab coat aren’t deep enough for it, could-

Aren’t deep enough for what? Pinkie asked, appearing suddenly right before my muzzle.

Almost taking a stumble, I glanced at the apparition in annoyance. Nevermind that, I replied, hurrying over to the bed where I left both statuettes. I don’t suppose you have seen Khan leaving through this door?

Um, no, Angel, Fluttershy said, appearing beside Pinkie, we, um, can’t exactly ‘see’...

Yeah, those statuettes don’t have eyeballs, duh, Pinkie added, rolling her eyes.

Fair point, darling, I agreed, recalling how everytime the two had commented on something around me it was something that I had seen first; it made sense that they could see only what I could. Were you able to see what had happened to me?

Yeah, it was the same like when you left us to deal with those raiders back at the Rock Farms. Although, Pinkie added, frowning, in contrast, that chapter of your adventures went waaaaay better for you than this one.

Sighing, I nodded. You are absolutely right, I said, grabbing both statuettes and placing them inside my lab coat’s pockets. Out of the two situations when I was deprived of your advice, this is the one I could have really used your help. While I can’t say for certain that having you two would have averted our current problems, I do realize that you would have noticed Khan was waiting for us and warned me about him, Pinkie, and you would have helped me with Pinchy, Fluttershy… or actually, maybe you would have been able to talk to it yourself? I wondered as the thought occurred to me; the way I communicated with Pinchy wasn’t very different from how I talked with the two apparitions. Shaking my head and figuring we could test this theory out once we were safe, I turned around and hurried towards the door. I had expected that I would only be conducting surgery on Khan and Pinchy, so I had left you here to avoid you possibly distracting me by accident, but I should have come to pick you up before I followed after Aite underground. I will not make such a mistake again.

Oh, it’s okay, Angel, you couldn’t have known how things would unravel, Fluttershy replied, smiling kindly. Nopony can predict everything that could happen.

Despite Fluttershy’s kind words, I was still in a sour mood about it. The whole matter of what could or couldn’t be predicted aside, it would have been so simple, to just walk outside of my laboratory for five seconds and grab their statuettes.

Speaking of predicting, Pinkie spoke up, mercifully changing the subject, do you think Mistress of Mischief below was right and things are as bad out there as she says they are?

Well, I replied slowly, stopping in front of the door, I can do something that should give us a vague idea… Pinchy? I called, focusing on the radscorpion.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, I concentrated, trying to reach with my mind towards Pinchy. Why wasn’t it working? I had no trouble connecting to the radscorpion’s mind through the talisman in my laboratory, why couldn’t I… could it be because it was further away now?

I don’t think Pinchy can hear you, Pinkie spoke up after a few heartbeats. I ignored her, trying to think of a way to contact the radscorpion, and barely paid attention to her as she floated up to my horn and knocked against it. Hello, testing testing?

That’s it! I exclaimed, then immediately felt my cheeks burn in embarrassment that I hadn’t thought of that.

Ignoring confused stares from the apparitions, I used my magic, casting the spell that I used to imprint my magical signature on the Mind Control Talisman-

In a flash, I felt my body stretch and vision fail, only for the sensation to pass as quickly as it appeared. An unpleasant scratching at the back of my mind let me know that Pinchy had also felt us connect.

Forgive me, darling, I quickly apologized, calming down so that it would too. Sitting down in case another such flash would happen, I asked Do you know what is happening outside?

It was clear from the confusion I sensed that the radscorpion didn’t understand my question, even when I conjured an image of Appleloosa. However, it did understand that I wanted to know something, and so, after a few seconds, it hesitantly reached out to me; it felt as if its pincers embraced my mind gently and tried to pull it.

Realizing that Pinchy was inviting me to “see” through it, I grabbed those pincers and trotted over.

It was dark, not even shades of gray appeared in Pinchy’s vision. And there was ground all around us; just like I had asked, the radscorpion burrowed through the rock and earth to wait below the surface of Appleloosa’ streets. I was amazed to discover how easy digging was to it, but I quickly focused on the purpose of my “visit”.

Being surrounded by ground and “listening” through the whole body thanks to the vibrations meant that Pinchy could hear creatures moving above it.

Moving, hoof by hoof, stomping, fastly, moving around, standing in a group, four, five hooved creatures, others prowling further away, hard to make out, back in group stomping, somebody going away then back, stomping again… angrily.

Thank you, Pinchy, I told him, pulling myself back, to my body. Shaking my head and readjusting myself to my surroundings, I added Please wait for my signal as we had agreed. The radscorpion gave me the mental equivalent of a nod, and I let it feel my gratitude before turning to Fluttershy and Pinkie. It would appear that there are several ponies standing around talking not far from here, and based on what Pinchy felt they seem to be upset.

Oh wow, neat trick! Pinkie exclaimed, amazed.

Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was worried. Oh, that can’t be good.

It would seem that Aite’s prediction might be correct, I agreed, humming thoughtfully. Not only has something definitely happened, the slavers are clearly angry about it… regardless, I still need to go and check if anypony needs medical help. On the plus side though if this is truly the result of Khan’s actions, I might learn something about him and where he disappeared to while engaging them, I added, thinking about how I could salvage this situation.

The two apparitions didn’t look entirely convinced to this course of action, but as I opened the door they merely said: Be careful.

Walking outside the clinic, I began to search for the group of ponies Pinchy had felt arguing, as well as signs of what could have happened after Khan had left my laboratory. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Then I noticed the decapitated, half-crushed head of a pony lying in the middle of the street.

Eek! Fluttershy squeaked in my head, covering her eyes.

Ignoring her, I hurried over to the head, wanting to examine it and see who it was. As I got closer, I finally spotted the group of five ponies arguing - and uttered a sigh of relief when I saw that Apple Core was among them - as well as more signs that a struggle had taken place in town. Not far from the head, between two houses, was a headless body. Further along the street were two other corpses, nearby I noticed a limping, downcast pony, there was a pony-sized dent in the wall of a building I passed, when I glanced around I realized there were bullet holes practically everywhere, and most of the windows on the ground floors had had their glass shattered.

And far away, in front of Black Widow’s house (well, former house now, I suppose), was a ripped out door, surrounded by more corpses.

To think a single zebra could cause this much damage to the town, I mused as I leaned over the head, the damage (which I quickly deduced had been caused by an equine hoof) making it difficult to identify the pony beside that it was a unicorn mare. Such brutal strength… he really could have killed both of us with ease…

“Hey!”

The arguing slavers had finally noticed me and stopped whatever their argument was. I tilted my ear in their direction to show I had heard them, but continue to stare at the head, still trying to- Wire Brace! Frank Fellow’s marefriend! Well, at least he doesn’t have to worry about cheating on her, I suppose…

My - possibly morbid - curiosity sated, I finally raised my head and turned around to meet the gazes of the slavers. The five ponies had already reached me and were about to address me; however, a quick glance at them told me that none of them were injured, so I spoke preemptively.

“I’m glad to see so many of you are uninjured, sweeties,” I said, then turned my attention to the limping pony; heads of others poked through the broken windows of the buildings around us. “I’m going to need you to gather all the wounded, those who can walk by themselves can-”

Watch it! Pinkie shouted a warning.

Glancing back to the gathered slavers, I saw that one - Whip Crack; of course it would be Whip Crack - was partially crouching, about to shove against me. Thanks to Pinkie, I had the time to jump out of his way.

“I’m having a very busy day, sweetie,” I began to say coldly as Whip Crack regained his balance, forestalling another attack from him. “I would really rather not waste time on whatever this is about, but since I don’t enjoy being threatened, could you explain what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, you better get used to being threatened,” Whip Crack snarled, then pointed around the town. “Can you explain what the fuck had happened here?”

“Seeing how I had spend quite a bit of time unconscious, I was hoping one of you would illuminate me on the events that had transpired in the town,” I retorted, looking from Whip Crack to the other slavers, and stopping pointedly on Apple Core… who for some reason averted my gaze.

“Khan went nuts,” one of the others, Fetters, spoke up. I turned my attention to him; his voice also betrayed that he was angry too, but at least wasn’t as aggressive towards myself like Whip Crack was. “The mute went for Black Widow’s house, killing everypony on his way before we could blink, ripped the door out and walked inside. We could hear him trashing inside as we gathered, only for him to get out after a minute and attack us before running away. And all of that,” he added, leaning uncomfortably close to me, “after leaving your clinic, Doctor.”

Aite’s suspicion about the slavers “taking an issue” with me was proved to be correct. Fortunately, I had thought up a story that could at least give me a few hours of peace from them. And so, ignoring the alarmed thoughts of Pinchy - who was no doubt alerted by the twinge of fear I had felt - I narrowed my eyes at Fetters.

“I happen to understand where Khan’s rampage had started very well, sweetie, thank you,” I told him, placing a hoof on his chest and pushing him away; or at least, trying, I think I only managed to make him move back by an inch or two. “And we can all thank Black Widow for that.”

A snort came from Whip Crack while the rest exchanged confused gazes. “Oh, this ought to be good,” he said, shaking his head in wry amusement.

Ignoring the comment, I addressed the gathered slavers; at the same time noticing that a few more had emerged from wherever they’ve hid or rested to listen to our exchange. “As I am sure some of you had noticed, Black Widow had come together with Khan to my clinic. Obviously, at that point of time everything was alright,” I added, pausing to casually flick my forehoof to better convey calm and confidence. “Khan was still under Black Widow’s control. She had come to my clinic to get her portion of my earnings this month, or so I had thought at the beginning. After giving her her bottle caps, Black Widow had begun to tell me about an idea she had, and because of that I had to cut open Khan’s head and remove the mind control talisman she had Cutter place in his head and used to control him.”

The slavers exchanged confused glances, with one of two muttering “Mind control what?” I knew of course that bringing up something like that might not have been the best decision while trying to alleviate their suspicion of me. It could cause them to think that I was making it, and by extension, everything, up. Fortunately, Whip Crack was there, too, and he knew about the Mind Control Talisman from Cutter. After he would confirm that I was speaking the truth about something so unexpected like that talisman, everypony was going to believe everything else I had said.

“I assume she would have wanted me to implant it within Jack’s brain, if she had been given a chance,” I continued, carefully picking my words. “Unfortunately, not long after I had recovered the talisman, Khan had unexpectedly woken up, and despite the injuries his brain had sustained it turned out that apparently it had been only that talisman that caused his borderline vegetative state. He attacked us, and Black Widow teleported away before he knocked me out. That’s all I know,” I finished, looking from one slaver to another. It was a bit discouraging to see them still gaze at with disbelief and suspicion for now, but I didn’t let it show. “I’m guessing that Khan had gone to Black Widow’s house because he expected she had teleported there, but I’m guessing - since you hadn’t mentioned finding her remains - he hadn’t found her there?”

“No, just Pillory,” Fetters answered, then shook his head. “But do you really expect us to believe this horseshit?! Mind controlling talismans and teleporting?”

“Yeah, since when can Black Widow teleport?” another spoke up, laughing. “She’s been here for like fifteen years and we’ve never seen her do that!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Clearly, she never had to teleport before. I’m assuming that in all those years she had never found herself under the attack of a big, murder-proficient zebra, hadn’t she?”

“Enough!”

Startled, I look back to Whip Crack. The slaver, whom I had counted to support my story, trotted close to me until he was almost leaning over me.

“We don’t care about your made up stories, Doctor,” Whip Crack said, his muzzle twisted into a snarl. “Do you think we’re stupid and we’d buy whatever you tell us?”

“Wha- what do you mean?” I exclaimed, confused by his accusation; I didn’t even really make anything of that up, everything had happened like I had said, just not in that order! “Why would I-”

“Cutter would have told me if Black Widow would have ever made him do something like put a talisman inside that zebra’s head,” he snorted, making my jaw drop in shock. Smirking, he added “I think something like that would make the news.”

While other slavers snickered in amusement, I continued to stare at him, speechless. I knew Cutter must have told him about the Mind Control Talisman! Admittedly, I couldn’t recall him outright saying he had, but as Whip Crack just said, that would make the news! That didn’t make any sense, unless…

Unless…

As I stared at Whip Crack in disbelief, the slaver’s muzzle briefly twisted into a smirk.

He’s lying! Pinkie Pie exclaimed loudly, pointing accusingly at him.

Yes Pinkie, I noticed, I replied, narrowing my eyes at Whip Crack in utter disgust.

But why would he do that? Fluttershy asked, her ears dropped in worry.

Judging by how he had been talking with Apple Core and the others and how he was first to accuse me, I’d guess he’s trying to establish himself as the new leader of Appleloosa and sees me as a competition… also he never liked me to begin with. Can you believe that?! I snorted angrily in my mind. Their leader is missing and there’s a zebra somewhere near that killed so many of them effortlessly, and he’s focused on such things!

“Pray tell, sweetie,” I told Whip Crack, glaring at him through narrowed eyes and ignoring the other slavers as they chuckled, “if my intention was to lie to you, why wouldn’t I make up a more believable lie?” I snorted and, as Fluttershy and Pinkie stared wide-eyed and began to wave their forelegs, added “Perhaps you and Cutter weren’t as close as you-”

Look out!

Whip Crack’s hoof shot out and hit its mark so quickly that, despite Pinkie’s warning, I couldn’t react before he hit me in the face, making me stumble, and as I tried to shake my head and recover, a much harder strike landed at my side. A yelp of pain escaped my lips as I fell backwards and rolled around on the ground, accompanied by the sound of the slavers' laughter.

Were none of them going to react to their only medic being attacked? It sure appeared as such. As I looked from the ground, I could see ponies (more had joined the group during my exchange with Whip Crack) either laughing or staring down at me with anger mixed with satisfaction. A few did seem mostly confused, looking from me to Whip Crack and others, and Apple Core…

Apple Core still wasn’t looking at me.

I spared a second to stare at her, but as I couldn’t figure out how to gracefully get her attention, I instead turned my gaze back to Whip Crack as I got up from the ground. My flank and the side of my face where he hit me hurt, but I was only bruised, he hadn’t broken any of my bones, I could heal myself later.

The indignity of being treated such hurt me much more.

Angry, especially after noticing the self-satisfied smirk on his face, I almost scowled at him. “Do you always resort to physical violence during your arguments, or does it only happen when you find yourself unable to retort, sweetie?” I asked as I patted my lab coat to dust it off, taking great pleasure in seeing his mood turning sour.

I was about to continue verbally degrading him, but then my attention drew to an object on the ground that laid between us.

The statuettes!

Dread filled me as I stared at them, flanked by apparitions of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Without giving it much thought, I patted my lab coat where the pocket I had kept them was, and of course it was empty. When did- they must have fallen out when Whip Crack had bucked my side and made me tumble across the ground, and I didn’t even notice!

Hastily, I reached with my magic, grabbing the two statuettes and pulling them towards me… only to Whip Crack jump forward and kick them backwards, breaking my hold of them and making the roll even further away.

Hey! Pinkie exclaimed angrily, glaring daggers at the slaver.

“I think you have more important things to worry about than your dolls,” Whip Crack snorted, amusement mixing in his voice with anger. My attention now divided between him and the statuettes, I found my anger dispersing. It barely even registered with me that the slaver advanced on me. “Ever since you got here, we’ve been having nothing but troubles. First Cutter was killed by that slave. Then we lost Butcher and others to this tribe that magically appeared around here right after you came about. Then we got all those stupid accidents around here while that boyfriend of yours somehow couldn’t find this tribe-”

“My boy-” I repeated, interrupting him, the single word distracting me from worry about the statuettes. Anger once again sparked within me hearing the same accusation for the second time today. “Celestia burn me to ashes, Jack is not my boyfriend!”

Whip Crack snorted. “Yeah right. We all saw the way you two look at each other. I hadn’t seen somepony this lustful since that time we kept a preacher next to a cage with a bunch of eight year old unicorn colts!”

Based on the reaction of other slavers, who all burst with laughter, I assumed that this was a very funny joke, but the meaning was completely lost to me. However, I didn’t waste too much thought on it; as I looked around, I realized just how many slavers had now joined us, and how they all began to congregate around me. Starting to feel nervous, I took a step back, only the presence of Pinchy’s mind preventing me from starting to panic.

“And then we had that weird-ass zebra arrive,” Whip Crack resumed, once again advancing on me; I took another step back, “and everything went to shit. I don’t know what kind of plan she - or he or whatever the hell it is - you, and your griffin had thought up, but it clearly couldn’t be a coincidence!”

“Yeah, he’s right!”

“There was an awful lot of accidents for a while-”

“Hey, what happened to that red-striped freak?”

“It was odd that Cutter got killed right after she got here…”

“Do you think there ever was any tribe?”

“What did you do with Black Widow?”

Oh, this doesn’t look good, Fluttershy whispered, looking at slavers through her feathers as she partially covered her face with her wings.

I had to agree, as I backed away again, turning my head each time a new slaver had spoken, trying to spot one friendly face in the crowd. It seemed that Whip Crack managed to stir up everypony against me, as now even the ponies who seemed confused at the beginning were now nodding and adding their own voices.

As I turned my head again, trying to find Apple Core, my gaze stopped at the body of Wire Brace. I remembered how I left the safety of my laboratory out of my sense of duty to those… ponies. To try and help them.

Anger resurfaced within me.

“SILENCE!!!” I shouted, my voice booming with outrage as I stomped the ground. At once, all the slavers ceased their prattling and stared in silent shock. “YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR MISFORTUNES?! EVER SINCE I CAME TO THIS TOWN I’VE BEEN NOTHING BUT HELPFUL! I TOOK OVER AS YOUR MEDIC WHEN YOU NEEDED A NEW ONE, I TOOK CARE OF YOUR SLAVES, I TRAVELED TO NEW APPLELOOSA AND RISKED MY LIFE TO SECURE YOU ALLIES, I CONVINCED A BLOODTALON TO COME AND HELP YOU, I KEPT TREATING YOU DAY AFTER DAY AFTER EACH IDIOTIC ACCIDENT OR FIGHT YOU HAD, I HELP BLACK WIDOW PINPOINT THE LOCATION OF THE TRIBE THIS VERY MORNING, AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?!”

Now it was the slavers' turn to back away, shocked and confused after my outburst. I managed to instill fear in them, but I could see that also some logic had seeped in: several exchanged unsure gazes. They must have been now wondering if I was right, not to mention that they got reminded that I was still the towns’ only medic. Even Whip Crack had realized that the crowd’s general consensus had shifted, as he shot the other slavers glances with hesitation and barely contained nervousness.

I’d almost turned this situation around, all they need is one final push- Apple Core!

“Apple Core?” I said out loud in my normal tone of voice, turning to her. The slaver mare jerked as if surprised and turned to me, with a somewhat troubled expression; was she that worried about me? That’s sweet. “Be a dear and point out to everypony else how much of a help I have been this month, please.”

I might be a more persuasive pony, true, but Apple Core was one of them. She has been to New Appleloosa and Stable Eleven with me, been at our conference at Black Widow’s office this morning, and she knows of almost every incident that had happened this past week that required my help. If she would reiterate to the other slavers how much I had helped them, they would finally leave me alone and let me treat their wounded and maybe finally focus on finding Khan.

“The sooner we clear this ridiculous situation the sooner I can start treating everypony,” I added, looking through the crowd, between everypony’s legs, trying to spot the statuettes-

“No.”

I froze, confused, then slowly lifted my head and turned it towards Apple Core. I was aware of the silence that followed that single word, but I ignored the rest of the slavers. I also ignored Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who stared at the same mare with shock mirroring my own. I focused solely on her. Apple Core’s face bore an unpleasant scowl as she looked at me, but despite that, for a moment, I hoped I had misheard her.

“Apple Core?”

But I hadn’t.

“Whip Crack’s right, ya were clearly up t’ somethin’ with Khan,” Apple Core said, her jaw shaking a little. “Ah don’t know what that was, but ya fucked up, and could ‘ave gotten all of us killed. And now ya’re askin’ me for help?” She snorted and shook her head. “No. I like ya, but Ah ain’t gonna risk my skin for ya after that stunt.”

Even as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie covered their mouths and looked at me with worry, even as slavers around me started to chuckle and Whip Crack said something, I still continued to stare at Apple Core. I… I couldn’t believe what just happened. Apple Core just… abandoned me. She had been my first patient on the Outside. I gave her my blood. I gave her the means too…

I thought we were friends.

Pinchy’s presence stirred at the back of my mind, emanating confusion at… at the blankness he felt from me.

…

…

...

Ha…

Hahaha…

Confusion rippled all around me, from the two apparitions and Pinchy to every slaver, as my silence was broken by a chuckle that quickly turned to soft laughter. I didn’t care. I just… I just wanted to laugh! The epiphany that hit me was just too obvious to not find amusement in it!

A-angel? Fluttershy called out, but I turned a proverbial deaf ear on her.

“He was right,” I finally said, covering my mouth like a proper lady until my laughter subsided. My eyes tore into Apple Core’s as I smiled at her sweetly. “You slavers are indeed just barely a step up from raiders. Very well then,” I added more briskly, sitting down and looking around. I wanted to make sure they all knew my next words were directed to all of them.

I wasn’t afraid of them; a familiar sensation had stirred within me, the same one I had felt when facing Scope and those raiders. Power. I was powerful, and they were not. They were nothing.

Still smiling, I declared: “I have no further need of you.”

I spread my forelegs and scowled.

“May the Nightmare take you all.”

After a second of silence, the worst curse I had heard growing up was met with amused chuckles and jeers from the slavers. I didn’t care. Nor did I care when Whip Crack trotted over and leaned towards me.

“Oh, we’ll teach you about nightmares all right-”

“You are an idiot,” I told him flatly, interrupting him.

Whip Crack frowned, put off, but quickly shook it off and opened his mouth. I had no interest in letting him talk.

“We both know you’ve lied,” I said calmly. “We both know that there indeed was a Mind Control Talisman inside Khan’s head. I understand why you’re lying about it, of course. I would even go as far as applaud your ploy. But that’s not what makes you an idiot.”

Pinchy…

“What makes you an idiot,” I said, as now I leaned closer to him, making him back his face a bit, “is that despite knowing about the Mind Control Talisman, and that the only way I could know about is if I indeed removed it from Khan’s brain…”

… please…

“... you never wondered what I had done with it,” I said, smirking.

… kill them all!

The puzzlement on Whip Crack’s face quickly gave way to shock and fear as hell erupted behind him.

Pinchy emerged from the ground right at the edge of the crowd of slavers, its pincers grabbing the nearest mare and piercing her legs, causing her to cry in pain and fall down. The radscorpion’s sting was ready and it shot down, aiming at her throat.

At that moment, amid the chaos that I’d begun, I activated S.A.T.S.

With everything appearing as frozen in time around me, I calmly looked at the slavers. I had to admit, it was pretty amusing to see their faces frozen in utter terror while seeing Pinchy killing one of them…

Angel?

Yes darling? I asked as the two apparitions manifested before me, concern plain on their faces.

They exchanged a glance before Fluttershy asked: Are you, um... are you okay?

Why wouldn’t I be?

Because the first friend you’ve made since leaving your Stable just turned her back on you? Pinkie Pie replied, her bluntness making Fluttershy’s eyes wide and actually glare at her, while I had to do a double-take. The pink apparition looked from one to the other before frowning. What, you think there’s a time to be subtle about it?

Fluttershy deadpanned (!?) at her before turning to me. Angel- she began again, gently, but I cut her off.

No, darlings, I am not “okay”, I thought, uttering a mental sigh. I’m… hurt. And surrounded by an entire town of utter degenerates. Fortunately, I added coldly, I’m in a rare position to vent some of the frustration I am feeling in relation to that on creatures that certainly deserve it.

Um, Pinkie began, alarmed. Did you just say that you want to fight all of them- it’s an entire town, you just said it’s an entire town!

I have Pinchy to help me-

They have guns!

I would grimace if I could. Of course, I knew Pinkie was right. Even in this state I could calculate the odds of what would happen if I’d stay here. That being said… I didn’t want to run. I couldn’t just turn my tail and run. Not after being humiliated, not after such betrayal. Those slavers were nothing, and they dared to turn on me?! Oh, they all deserve to be chained up in my laboratory alright, now I could see it plainly.

Angel?

Turning my attention to Fluttershy at the sound of her voice, I found her staring with a familiar expression. She bore it every time I had started one of my experiments on my test subjects. No anger, no condemnation, just concern, pleading… and regret.

Why was it that while one apparition seemed - admittingly, rightly so - primarily concerned about my safety, the other was concerned what I would do to the slavers?

Her worry, which couldn’t make me stop from conducting my experiments, this time did give me a pause. Like a drop falling into water and creating ripples, I felt as Fluttershy just caused a similar effect on the cold fury that arose in me. She did not dissipate it, but she did disturb it, long enough for me to calm down and look at the situation more clearly.

They deserved to become my test subjects. But that could wait. My primary concern had to be to get myself, the statuettes and Pinchy out of this spot.

I won’t fight all of them, I thought, turning my attention to the crowd. I’ll take advantage of the situation to incapacitate a few of them, grab your statuettes, and run. With any luck, this commotion drew Aite out and she’s around here somewhere, so we’d have additional help. This should work out.

The two apparitions looked relieved when they heard my plan.

Alright-y then! Pinkie Pie exclaimed cheerfully. Take out those two, she added, pointing at two slavers in front of me, one to each side of Whip Crack, they look like they are about to turn back to you in a moment.

Did they? I looked closer. Hm, one had already taken out his gun, and at the time I activated S.A.T.S. had started to put weight on a foreleg, as if indeed about to turn back to me…

Very well then, thank you for the advice darling, I said, lining up two shots of my Anesthetic Spell. Do you think it will give me enough time to find you?

Actually… Fluttershy began hesitantly, maybe it would be better if you’d just… leave us and run?

Only my surprise at the suggestion prevented me from replying straight away, but after a few seconds I had recovered. Absolutely not!

Well, we are just statuettes, Pinkie Pie pointed out, trying to help Fluttershy’s argument, but I would have none of it.

Yes, just statuettes, that can speak to me in my mind!

I feel like that says more about you than about us.

We would be fine, Fluttershy spoke up. They can’t kill us, or hurt us in any way-

You don’t know that! I retorted. I hadn’t conducted any experiments on your statuettes that could prove such a thing definitely, and I would hazard a guess that the ponies who held them before me would be even less inclined to do them!

Well duh, Pinkie murmured, then added What if Aite were to pick us up? She could swooooop down all invisibly and grab our statuettes when everypony in town is busy chasing you?

That… actually wouldn’t be a bad plan, I replied slowly. However, since it would depend on me being able to communicate with Aite while ‘everypony in town was busy chasing me’ and actually convincing her to pick up what I have a feeling she would also deem as just ‘dolls’, we’ll call it plan B. I’m still going to first try and pick you up.

Oookay, just don’t get yourself killed, Pinkie sighed, crossing her forelegs on her chest.

Fluttershy, after a brief glance at Pinkie Pie, simply said Be safe.

With a mental smile at them, I released S.A.T.S.

Everything started immediately. The sounds of slavers screaming in panic erupted all around me as Pinchy’s sting punctured a mare’s throat, then with an aggressive hiss turned on the next pony.

At the same time, I began casting my S.A.T.S.- guided Anesthetic Spell. Indeed, as Pinkie had predicted, the first slaver I targeted had begun to turn around, raising his weapon at me. I assumed he probably figured he had time to deal with me, being so far away from the radscorpion. However, before he could finish lining up his gun, my spell hit him, paralyzing him. My other target ended up no differently. He too had begun to turn to me, but he didn’t even reach for his weapon. Still, he would have alerted the others, so it was a good suggestion from Pinkie to incapacitate him as well.

As I cast my second spell, over the head of my target and other slavers, I saw Apple Core, running away from the erupting fight with the radscorpion.

Good. I didn’t want her to be killed by Pinchy. I wanted her to have a long life, a good portion of which she would spend learning just how bad an idea it was to turn away from me.

BLAM! BLAM!

PTING!

The sounds of gunfire snapped my attention back to my surroundings. While some of the slavers had taken the clue from Apple Core and ran away as well, a lot stood their ground and opened fire on Pinchy. Fortunately, their weapons must have been much weaker than the rifle Jack had shot at the radscorpion, as I couldn’t spot any bullet wounds on its carapace.

Either that, or they were much less accurate shooters than the griffin mercenary.

After quickly checking that I didn’t have to worry about Pinchy at the moment, I turned my gaze towards the ground. I looked between the legs of slavers, trying to spot the statuettes, which thanks to all the dirt the slavers kicked up running around wasn’t easy. But they had to be nearby, they weren’t thrown away some long distance, just back kicked by-

“Shoot that thing!”

Whip Crack.

The slaver’s attention had shifted at the radscorpion upon its attack, grabbing his own firearm and firing at Pinchy. However, he hadn’t moved too far from me, probably wanting to keep a safe distance from the mutated arachnid (who just now had wounded another slaver that hadn’t kept a safe distance), and also possibly because he didn’t consider me dangerous.

At the sound of Whip Crack’s voice I ceased my search for the statuettes, focusing on him. My anger, previously smothered by Fluttershy, reawakened. It was his fault I was in this situation! He was the one who turned all the slavers against me! It was because of him that I’ve lost my statuettes! It was his fault that Apple Core had abandoned me!

No. I might not make all of them pay just yet, maybe not even him, but I will give him a taste of what awaits him!

Ignoring the alarmed expressions of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, I began to cast a spell. Not an Anesthetic Spell; I wanted him to feel what I’ll do to him. In fact, this wasn’t exactly a spell I was familiar with. I knew, however, how to cast it, as I had learned a variation of it that used to be applied in medicine.

The irony that the only pony on the Outside I had used that weaker variation on, even if it had been just for a show, was Whip Crack’s lover, was not lost upon me.

My horn crackled with arcane energy as I finished charging the spell, unleashing a torrent of electricity that shot towards Whip Crack. He cried out in pain as my magic swiftly reached him, immobilizing the slaver for a heartbeat as I continued to cast the spell; and then he fell to the ground, twitching, as I stopped.

I released my breath, feeling a bit exerted, but pleased. This spell was fantastic to use in combat! Sure, it took more magic to use it than the Anesthetic Spell, but once I got used to the sensation of transforming magical energy into an electric charge it would take less time to cast, and it travelled towards its target much quicker! If I had tried using it on Khan back when he attacked me in the clinic instead, I might have actually hit him.

Of course, the spell’s victim immobilization would be temporary, and he wasn’t seriously wounded. Sure, Whip Crack’s body now bore burn marks where my spell had connected, and he was disoriented from the pain, but it wouldn’t be long before he would get back up. But Luna condemn me if it didn't feel satisfying!

My anger sated for the moment, I turned back to my search. One or two slavers had looked back due to the flashes and noises my spell had produced, but they deemed the attacking radscorpion a more pressing threat. Now, where were-

COVER YOUR EYES AND EARS! Pinkie suddenly exclaimed, appearing right before me.

Confused, I activated S.A.T.S. again. What? Why?

Because, Pinkie began, floating away from my face and pointing behind her, to the right, of that!

Focusing on what she was pointing at, I noticed a small, round metallic object that hadn’t been there just a moment ago. But what was it? It looked familiar- GRENADE!? I shouted mentally, recalling the apple-shaped explosive device I had used to blow up the Stable Eleven’s door control panel.

Panic seized me; did I have the time to get away from it before it would explode? And who in their right mind had dropped it? Every single slaver that was fighting Pinchy would be hurt by the explosion!

Calm down, silly, Pinkie Pie replied while - to my utter bewilderment - giggling, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Nothing to be afraid of?! I demanded. That isn’t just scary, it’s downright dangerous!

No it isn’t, it’s just a flashbang grenade, the pink apparition said, clearly amused by my reaction. They’re basically like fireworks, if fireworks didn’t have any colors and exploded right next to you, temporarily blinding and deafening you.

Frowning (mentally) at the explanation, I turned my attention back to the explosive. Now that I looked at it better, the grenade was different than the exploding one. Similar to the shock grenade Jack had used to intimidate the Enclave patrol with, it had a colored band going around it, although this one’s was white.

So what you’re saying, darling, I began slowly, is that it doesn’t cause an explosion?

Yep! Well, it does, but it mostly just produces a blinding light and very loud noise, you would have to stand right next to it to actually be physically hurt by the blast.

Oh, I see, I replied, measuring the distance I was from the grenade. A few yards, that should be- wait a moment, darling, I paused, why do you know so much about those flashbang grenades?

I used them instead of firecrackers at a party I threw once. Both myself and Fluttershy stared at Pinkie in utter surprise, causing her to shrug in bewilderment. What? I had to improvise!

I would ask for more details to just… how, but I decided I had more pressing matters to be focusing on. Back to the topic, will I be safe if I just cover my eyes and ears?

Mmm, you’ll probably still hear ringing, it’s VERY loud, Pinkie added, frowning.

Oh no! Fluttershy exclaimed suddenly. Pinchy! Angel, you must tell it to hide underground!

A cold dread went through me at the thought of how a creature with so many eyes that relied on vibrations felt throughout the entire body for hearing would be affected by a flashbang grenade. Yes, darling, I will, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Where do you think the flashbang grenade came from? I asked, wanting to solve that one mystery before I would cancel S.A.T.S.

Hmm… it miiiiight have something to do with the slaver who had his throat cut, Pinkie replied, grimacing as she pointed towards the far side of the crowd.

Unfortunately, that slaver must have been on the edge of my vision as, unable to turn my eyes, I could barely make him out. However, the brief description provided by Pinkie sufficed to make me realize what had happened.

Aite! She must have gotten here after noticing the commotion… But why is she using the flashbang grenade? Does she plan to kill the rest of the slavers after they are blinded? It was a tempting thought, but now that I had calmed down I could analyze the situation better. No, there’s too many of them, I don’t think even with Pinchy and myself helping we would be able to kill all of them before they would recover. Aite would be able to conclude such a situation more accurately than myself, so this couldn’t be her plan. Besides, a lot of them had escaped from the fight, they could come back… and come to think of it, there should have been more slavers than those that had gathered around me earlier, I noted. Were they still hiding around the town? It seemed odd that a singular zebra could inspire such fear… or maybe they’ve all been killed by Khan and their bodies were in another part of the town? In any case, I thought, focusing on present problems, even if we were able to defeat those slavers around us more could surround us afterwards. She must be planning on the two of us escaping.

Now that was an unpleasant thought. Me running all the way to… wherever we would run to, we were supposed to head for Sanctuary to rendezvous with Jack, maybe that was still the plan. I suppose it is the closest haven to Appleloosa… still, it didn’t make the prospect of running all the way to it while pursued by slavers any more appealing. How much time would a flashbang grenade buy us, ten seconds? Well, at least I’d have the time to look for the statuettes...

I hope she knows what she’s doing, I remarked, resigned. To think all of this is because I removed the Mind Control Talisman from Khan’s head… If only I had realized before that those slavers were as bad as raiders, I wouldn’t have felt responsible for the carnage Khan could have caused and came out, only to be accosted by Whip Crack and be blamed for everything bad that had recently befallen Appleloosa!

Pinkie tilted her head as I mentally scoffed in anger. Well, you were responsible for a few of those…

You came out to do your duty as their medic and because you do care for your patients, Fluttershy unexpectedly spoke up as I turned my attention to the pink apparition in mild annoyance. She smiled and continued, Even though Aite had expressed her misgivings, you’ve done what you thought was best. Nopony should be blamed for that, least of all by themselves.

Thank you, Fluttershy, I replied, warmed by her words. Even though I could still see and hear both her and Pinkie, I felt regret that I wasn’t physically holding their statuettes at the moment. I just… I just wish I could have done something that wouldn’t have put all of us in danger.

I’m glad you did, though, Fluttershy retorted, then, as her smile slightly soured, she added I’m glad you’ve let your caring nature shine though. With all those… horrible things you’ve been doing, it could be easy to forget about what makes the real you.

Well, I began to think; even though it was understandable how Fluttershy, of all people, could still have some doubts about me, I found myself slightly put off by her change in demeanor, I suppose it could be. But I already told you, didn’t I? Back in New Appleloosa; I’ve started this journey as Angel, and I intend to finish it as Angel, I said, recalling that argument we had back then.

The heartening memory from the time we were finally able to make a connection despite our different morals began to darken as remembering the conversation had made me remember New Appleloosa, and why - and more importantly, with whom - I was there.

Apple Core, and the slavers.

My attention turning back to the surrounding ponies, I briskly thought And for this journey to continue I’ll have to get out of this bothersome situation. Once I do, I quickly added with a mental smile to the two apparitions as I prepared to cancel S.A.T.S. I’ll make sure you won’t have to fear that you forget who I really am.

I wasn’t speaking about myself forgetting.

The remark, uttered at the exact moment I cancelled S.A.T.S., had almost given me a pause. Almost. As the world around me had seemingly resumed again, I stayed focused on what I had to do. I would ask Fluttershy what she meant later.

PINCHY! I cried mentally, directing my thoughts and fears towards the radscorpion as I covered my ears and closed my eyes shut. UNDERGROUND, NOW!

Pinchy hesitated, briefly, no doubt confused by the panic that I poured into it. I also sent images of darkness and thought back to the tunnels underneath us, though, and it was enough. I heard - no, felt - as Pinchy stopped fighting slavers and buried itself, its body vibrating as it made its way through the ground with the ease I would have crossing through water.

With my ears closed, I couldn’t hear how the slavers reacted to the radscorpion suddenly retreating, but-

PIIIiiiiiiiiiii!!!

Sweet Lustrous Luna, that was loud even with my ears covered! And the “flash” part of the flashbang grenade lightened up the inside of my eyelids bright red! What was Aite think-

“Wh-” escaped my lips as something grabbed me by the barrel and lifted my up into the air. Opening my eyes and looking down I saw it was Aite. “What are you doing?!” I demanded as she carried me through the air away from the crowd-

Oh no.

“Let go of me!” I yelled, trying to free myself from her grasp.

“Ough!” Aite exclaimed in surprise as my struggling caused her to lose attitude. “Calm down Crazy, it’s me!”

“I know!” I replied, staring at the crowd of disoriented, blinded and deafened slavers as yard by yard they got further and further away, searching for the statuettes somewhere on the ground among them. “Turn around, I need to get them back!”

“No idea what you’re on about, but it’s not happening!” Aite retorted, misunderstanding my intentions.

For a split second, I considered using some spell on her that would force her to release me. But as panicked as I was about leaving Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie behind, I knew that even if Aite would let me go I wouldn’t be able to make it back to them and get away before the slavers would recover. Already I could see them turning around, rubbing their eyes and trying to make sense of what had happened.

Don’t worry! I quickly called out to the two apparitions as they floated beside me; already, their images started to disappear as I got further away from the statuettes. I’ll ask her to go back for you as we’ve talked! If she won’t I’ll get you back myself!

Both Fluttershy and Pinkie didn’t seem to be much worried. Oh, I’m just glad she got you away, Fluttershy said, sighing in relief. Don’t worry about us, we can wait.

You won’t have to wait for long, I promise, I thought to them, taking strength from their calm.

Pinkie waved energetically. See you soon! she exclaimed, disappearing.

Fluttershy just smiled. Stay-

She was gone too.

Not for long, I thought, turning my attention to Aite and opening my mouth.

Before I could say a word, though, the bat pony turned sharply. Gasping in surprise at the maneuver, I was unable to speak for the next few heartbeats as Aite flew through a door into a building. An all too familiar building, as I quickly realized when she dropped me unceremoniously on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Goddesses, that was exhausting!” she complained in between breaths, closing the clinic door. Massaging her forelegs, she added “You couldn’t have made that scene anywhere closer?!”

“I hadn’t intended on making a scene, sweetie,” I told her, massaging my flank from the rather unpleasant collision with the floor. “More importantly-”

“‘More importantly’ can wait,” Aite cut me off, jumping up into the air. “Come on, trot and talk, I’ll explain the rest of the plan,” she added as she turned towards the door leading to my laboratory and slowly flew away.

Although annoyed at the dismissal tone of her voice, I quickly fell in step behind her. “So you’ve decided which one of Jack’s emergency scenarios would fit this situation best?” I asked, deciding that hearing out our plan for survival was slightly more important for the moment.

My attention drifted briefly as I felt something poking the edge of my consciousness. For a brief, delusional moment I thought it was Fluttershy and Pinkie, but quickly I realized that it was Pinchy. The radscorpion’s… uncertainty as to what had happened prickled me, demanding an explanation. Unsure how exactly to explain what a flashbang grenade was, I instead relayed that I was safe and we were going underground too (at least, I assumed so), asking it to wait.

Aite’s voice pulled me back to my surroundings. “Nah, I knew straight away,” she explained, much to my surprise. Flying past one of the beds she picked up a duffel bag that was on it and threw it at me, forcing me to stop to catch it with my forelegs. “Your stuff. Anyway, this is what Jack called the ‘fucked up beyond repair but both of you are still alive’ scenario.”

“What a charming name,” I remarked, briefly glancing into the bag - noticing a small sack that chinked a little when touched (most likely because it was filled with my bottle caps), healing potions, cram, a bottle of water, and, most importantly, Burst’s ripper and the Wasteland’s Survival Guide - before hoisting it over myself. “If you knew what-”

“Because the first stage of the scenario was to let you go out and make a scene, then get you out when it inevitably turned bad,” Aite cut me off again, answering the question before I could even finish it. As I stared at her in silent shock, she shrugged and added “I was afraid that if you knew you either wouldn’t comply or wouldn’t be convincing enough.”

“Wouldn’t- convincing enough?!” I stammered, finding myself at the loss of words. As Aite turned around and resumed heading towards my laboratory, I snapped myself out of my confusion and followed after her, my irritation rising. “So you lied to me and sent me out fully expecting me to be murdered by an angry mob?”

“I was pretty honest about that last part from the beginning. Besides, I packed your things in like a minute, then I was right next to you. Oh, and yeah, you had a freaking radscorpion underneath the slavers ready to attack,” Aite added, deadpanning back at me as she opened the door and led us downstairs. “I think you were pretty safe.”

As much as I disliked to admit it, Aite had a point. And I’ve wanted to go check on the town myself. Still...

“And how did you know I would, quote, ‘make a scene’, unquote?” I demanded, finding the assumption somewhat offending.

“It was Jack’s plan,” Aite reminded me, “buuut I believe his explanation would go along the lines of ‘because it’s you’, with a ‘drama queen’ comment thrown somewhere in there.”

Definitely offended.

“And what would you have done if the ‘scene’ wouldn’t have gone ‘bad’?”

Aite snorted. “Oh, it was bound to go bad with me around,” she said, rolling her eyes. Frowning, I opened my mouth to question what she meant, but just as we reached my laboratory Aite landed and turned to me. “Still, I’ve gotta admit, it looked like you’d convince them to fuck off for a moment there. And damn, you’ve got lungs on you!” she added, laughing.

“Um, thank you, sweetie,” I replied, put off by the change in demeanor.

“And that spell! I didn’t know you could shoot lightning out of your horn.”

“Oh, well, I never really used that spell before,” I admitted, starting to feel a little sheepish. “But I knew how to cast it, it’s basically- wait, hold on sweetie,” I finally stopped, recovering from my confusion and frowning. “Why are we discussing this? Shouldn’t we be running? I assumed we were going to my laboratory to leave through the underground tunnel, is this not the other part of this plan?”

“Yes and no,” Aite replied, oddly nonchalant. “It’s a bit more complicated. We’re not running because, as your lack of urgency points out, you can’t see any red bars on your E.F.S. yet, so the slavers aren’t chasing us quite yet. Probably they're still recovering from the flashbang and the fright your pet gave them, and because they hadn’t seen where we’ve escaped. But even they will figure out that the only place you could have run to is the clinic, so they will come and check it. And when they do come here, they would go down to the basement, blowing up the door if they have to, and eventually find the hatch and find the tunnel, so it won’t take long to pick up our trail. I’d say we’d gain somewhere between a ten and twenty minute advantage over them.”

“Then why are we just standing here talking, sweetie?” I asked, not understanding. Indeed, like she had said, I couldn’t see the slavers’ red bars on my E.F.S., but it didn’t change the fact that the sooner we left the longer distance we would put between us and our would-be pursuers.

“Because the other part of the plan will make sure we won’t have anypony chasing us,” Aite replied, then rolled her eyes. “And I’m stalling because I was hoping they would finally get to the clinic, so the presence of their red bars would give you the sense of urgency and not argue pointlessly about this next part. Ugh, I was really hoping they would get here by now,” she groaned, glancing up at the ceiling with a frown.

That really hadn’t put me at ease. “Why would I argue about the next part of the plan?”

Aite turned back to me and stared silently, but before I could prompt her again, she sighed and shrugged. “Because…” she said, reaching behind my desk and pulling out several round objects.

Objects that I realized I had seen before. Black Widow had Apple Core buy several of those in New Appleloosa.

“... we’re gonna blow this place up,” Aite finished, lifting up several mines in her forehooves.

“W-what?!” I exclaimed, aghast.

“We leave those by the door, leave through the tunnel, they come in and blow this clinic up to the cloud cover, preferably killing a lot of them in the process, and convincing everypony that you’re dead,” Aite explained nonchalantly, as if we were talking about something completely normal. “That way we won’t have to worry about any pursuit, and we can wait calmly by the exit from the tunnel for Jack and nightfall to make our escape.”

I was baffled. I had several thoughts swirling in my mind, to the point that I had no idea which to bring up first. My mouth opened and closed silently, as I desperately tried to cling to one thing I could voice. “That… I’m not an expert, sweetie, but I don’t think those mines will be able to cause such an explosion,” I finally brought up after a few heartbeats, pointing at the explosives.

That, of course, was the least of my worries, but raising it would give me the time to work up myself up to what I really wanted to say.

“Excellent point, which is why I am going to line them up from the door to your generators, when somepony enters they will cause a chain of explosions that will blow up said generators, and they will in turn ignite the oxygen you are going to fill this lab with thanks to those talismans,” Aite countered, reaching to my desk and picking up one of the Breathing Oxygen Talismans that I had tried to modify.

I stared at them numbly as Aite put them back. That actually could work. If my laboratory was filled with oxygen then- wait, why was I even entertaining this idea?!

“Sweetie, as much as value creativity, I cannot let you go through with this plan,” I began, narrowing my eyes at the bat pony.

Rolling her eyes, she replied: “If this is about your pets, I already released those radroaches outside when I finished packing you.”

She did what?! I was about to voice my outrage, but after a second I realized that, all things considered, it was probably for the best. Regardless of Aite’s plan, the slavers could kill Snuggles and Wigglebutt just out of spite.

“Thank you, sweetie, for being so considerate,” I said, honestly thankful, “but there are three other lives besides Snuggles and Wigglebutt that I am concerned about.”

Aite let out a groan as I pointed at the cells. “Seriously? You’re going to argue to save the lives of your test subjects?”

“Yes! They are my precious test subjects and I am not about to let them be pointlessly murdered like this!”

“Ugh, who am I kidding, of course you’re arguing about this,” Aite commented, holding up her forehoof to the bridge of her muzzle. “I knew I should have slit their throats after you left… Seriously, why aren’t the slavers here yet?!” she finally exclaimed, looking up at the ceiling again.

I clenched my jaw, annoyed that I was being ignored, but then her last sentence actually gave me an idea. It wasn’t perfect, but it would allow me to save the lives of my test subjects… and I had just the argument that could convince Aite to go along with it.

“You know, sweetie,” I started with a confident smile, “your daring rescue was very well executed. With all the slavers blinded and me leaving no hoofprints in the ground, why, it might have appeared as I vanished into thin air!”

“Oh Goddesses, where are you going with this?” Aite replied as she turned back to me with a deadpan.

“Well-”

“We’re on a clock here, so get to the point.”

Alright then, so much for subtlety.

“Very well. My point is, the slavers are idiots, and might take them a while to check the clinic if they hadn’t seen me enter it. Considering what I had mentioned about Black Widow, they could be thinking that I had teleported away. The slavers might be more concerned with Pinchy, as they saw it both emerge and hide underground, so they could wander off in search of it, and even manage to find the entrance to the underground tunnel. However, if they saw some ponies leave my clinic and tell them that I am inside…” I trailed off, letting Aite’s imagination do the rest.

The bat pony frowned. “You want to release them?”

“Why not? Before, my immediate concern is that they would have alerted the slavers to our escape. However, this way we use it to our advantage, to let them know I am still here so that we can fake my death,” I said, ignoring the prickle of annoyance at the notion that I, of all ponies, had to fake my death. “I admit, I am still upset that I won’t be able to learn the results of my latest experiment, but I prefer that they live through this so I might learn it someday.” As Aite hadn’t changed her expression, I decided to add “Also, sweetie, I’m afraid I’m not going to activate the Breathable Oxygen Talisman until you agree.”

The bat pony groaned and facehoofed. “Is it possible they know about the hatch and tunnel?” she asked, still covering her face. “I remember that mare laughing once about what we were talking about.”

That… was a good question. I frowned as I glanced at her cell. “The other two were in my care for a while by the time we'd discovered the hatch. I know from experience that by then my test subjects no longer register what is happening outside of their cells, so it would be very unlikely that they know. As for Thorny Locust… even if she does know, she won’t be able to talk for several days,” I finally said, turning back to Aite.

“Wonderful,” the bat pony snorted, shaking her head. “Fine. Just... activate the talismans now, we’ll leave as soon as they run.”

“Of course, thank you dar-” I began, but hesitated as Aite began to pull up her hood. A suspicion rose within me. “You’re not planning on killing them after I activate the talismans, right?”

“Yes, because I want to hear you bitch and moan about it while we wait underground,” Aite retorted sarcastically. “No, I just don’t want them to know there is another pony with you, let them tell the slavers that it’s just you.”

With those words she pulled up her hood and disappeared. For a brief moment I considered first releasing my test subjects and only then activating the talismans. It would be a safer option. However… Aite appeared to accept my logic when I told her that the test subjects would bring the slavers to the clinic. There still weren’t any red bars on my E.F.S., meaning this was the only way to ensure they would come here soon. I could trust her to do the smarter thing and let them go.

I trotted around the desk to pick up the keys to their hoofcuffs, grabbing the talismans with my magic as I walked past them, activating them. Immediately, their gemstones lit up and they began humming quietly.

As I picked up the keys, my eyes stopped at the broken body of Janitor. Everything had been happening so quickly, I didn’t even have the time to process its… loss. It was just a robot, true, but it has helped me quite a lot since I’ve repaired and reactivated it. However, thanks to Khan it was far more damaged than it had been when I first found it, with a huge dent right in the middle of its body and several wires sticking out. I doubted I could repair it even if I had the time. I played with the idea of retrieving its memory storage so I could restore it later in a different robot, but I had no idea where I would even start.

Goodbye, I thought lamely, placing my hoof on its body for a moment, then returned my focus on saving those that I could save.

Hurrying back to Thorny Locust’s cell, I opened it and entered. As expected, the raider mare was lying on her back, with her forehooves cuffed to the pipes, breathing heavily through an opened muzzle, her gaze resting on the ceiling. She lifted her head a little at the sound of the opening door, her eyes widening at my sight.

“Hello sweetie,” I began, trotting closer and causing her to twitch. I paused by her head and quickly inspected her now perfect teeth. “Everything appears to be in order. I would advise you to avoid eating solid foods until the pain passes,” I added, bringing the keys to the hoofcuffs and opening them.

Thorny Locust stared at me, focus returning to her eyes, in what I assumed was bewilderment. She didn’t even move her foreleg as I freed it and began working on the next one. Once that one was free too, she brought her forehooves to her chest, massaging them tenderly.

Even though she was weakened by the pain, I did keep in mind that this mare had just attacked me yesterday, so I left the cell immediately after releasing her. As I walked out, I heard her finally respond.

“W-whaaa…?” she gasped, her question turning into a pained moan as she moved her jaw.

“You’re free to go, sweetie,” I told her, smiling pleasantly, then pointed in the direction of the stairs leading to the clinic. “Door is that way.”

I turned around, leaving for the other cell. As I opened the door and saw Cutter and Manacles - both of whom flinched at the sight of me - I heard Thorny Locust get herself up from the floor and trot carefully. When the raider mare poked her head out of her cell and looked around before locking her eyes with mine, I smiled again, then entered the cell dismissively.

The sound of her hurried hoofsteps let me know she took my words to heart and headed for the exit. Knowing that now we were definitely going to run out of time, I quickly released first Manacles, then Cutter, much to the confusion of both.

“What, what are you doing?” Manacles asked, moving further away from me, deeper into the cell.

“What does it look like, sweetie? I’m releasing you all, you are free to go.”

“N-no, it’s a trick, like last time,” Cutter stammered, his eyes widening in fear. “Y-you just want something from us!”

“Sweetie, if you recall, when I asked you to have a talk with me and Jack I had been quite honest from the beginning that you weren’t going to be freed,” I replied, annoyed that he was wasting time. Backtrotting out of their cell, I asked “Why would I lie now?”

The two of them exchanged uncertain glances as I left, then I heard them slowly get up and just like Thorny Locust before, carefully make their way outside. Manacles was first to emerge, and he froze when he saw me standing by the door. I smiled reassuringly, and he swallowed nervously before taking another step towards the stairs.

As I watched him leave, a thought occurred to me. “Oh, and sweetie?” I asked, causing him to flinch and turn sharply to me. “Be a dear and tell those filthy degenerates outside that they will never take me alive, alright?” Manacles nodded nervously, and I giggled happily. “Thank you so much sweetie.”

Manacles made a sound, something between a laugh and a whine, and hurried towards the stairs, hubbling a little. At the same time Cutter emerged from the cell. I raised my hoof to his chest to stop him.

“A moment, sweetie,” I said. Ignoring his wail and twitching, I continued “You have Manacles’ right kidney, Manacles has the right kidney of Thorny Locust - the raider mare I’ve told you about - and she has your right kidney. You might want to get around to switching your organs back before your bodies begin to reject them.”

Cutter began to nod frantically several seconds after I finished talking, then proceeded to follow after Manacles, first slowly, then hobbling as fast as he could. As I watched him go, I had to wonder if anything I had said actually got through to him, but, sadly, at this point there was nothing I could do about it.

As Cutter disappeared behind the door it closed, seemingly on its own. Aite appeared beside them, pulling off her hood. “‘They will never take me alive’?” she quoted questioningly, amused.

I sighed, trotting towards the hatch. “Believe it or not, darling, I read a comic or two as a foal too.” Noticing Aite’s skeptically raised eyebrow, however, I blushed and felt compelled to add “Fine, darling, my friend made me read them.”

That seemed to amuse the bat pony even more. “Seriously, you had-”

As much as I wanted to indulge her, at the moment she began to speak, what we had been waiting for had finally happened.

“Red bar!” I exclaimed, nodding above.

Aite immediately abandoned whatever joke she was trying to make. “Down the hatch, now!” she said, hurrying to set up the mines.

She didn’t need to tell me twice, I was already beside the hatch, opening it with my magic. I hurried down the ladder, moving as fast as I could, but Aite still managed to finish and join me before I reached the bottom.

“Hurry!” she said, closing the hatch as I dropped down the last yard. “We better get as far away as possible!”

Nodding in agreement, I lit up my PipBuck’s light, and after Aite flew away saying “This way!” I ran after her.

After reaching the center of the cavern I spotted Pinchy. The radscorpion was waiting for us as I had asked it to. As quickly as I could without pausing to concentrate I poured into its mind the danger above, similar to the flashbang from earlier but more dangerous, and let it know my panic. For a moment I could swear I saw Pinchy jump a little in fear, but it must have just scurried backwards, then, as we passed the radscorpion it began to borrow itself in the ground.

I noticed Aite turning her head to look at it. “Does this thing move faster under-”

BOOOOM!!!

The explosion, even though stifled by several yards of earth and rock, was still awfully loud, but it was nowhere near as scary as the powerful tremor that threw me to the ground. I was pretty sure I uttered a scared shriek as I covered my ears, huddling into a fetal position, barely aware of a second body pressing against me (but at the same time frightfully aware of the loose dirt falling on top of me) as we waited for the aftershock to stop.

Thankfully, after several seconds, the quaking had stopped. Beside me Aite let out a loud sigh of relief as she got up. “Glad that it worked out without problems for a change,” she said as I joined her, both of us shaking ourselves off.

“‘For a change’?” I repeated, the phrase capturing my interest. I might have also wanted to distract myself from the fright we had. “Have you done such a thing before?”

I could still hear the beating of my heart within my ears as I waited for Aite’s answer. I shook my head and tried to calm down, then looked up at the ceiling. While with the light of my PipBuck I could still see some dirt pour down from it here and there, it seemed to be largely undamaged by the explosion.

The bat pony, who was busy cleaning her ear, shrugged. “Actually, I did help a target fake their death once or twice, but it wasn’t what I had meant. Anyway,” Aite added, changing the subject before I could pursue it further, “better to not push our luck and go wait near the exit.”

I couldn’t agree more. Hastily, I followed after Aite as she led me towards the cavern’s exit, having not explored it myself before. It was further away than I had expected, but after a few minutes, when we made a final turn in the tunnel, I noticed the dim, below-the-cloud-cover daylight at the end of the tunnel in front of us.

Pinchy was already waiting for us at the cavern’s exit. It turned to us on its eight legs and approached me slowly. Pulling my eyes away from the rocky exit and the odd barricade of withered twigs and branches to focus on the radscorpion, I raised my hoof to pet it, only to gasp when I noticed that it was wounded.

“Oh no, darling, you’re hurt!” I exclaimed, looking over Pinchy. The injuries were similar to the ones he had received from Jack after attacking us, only much lighter. Thankfully, my assessment regarding the slavers’ weapons (and/or accuracy) must have been correct. Still, there had been a lot of them, so it was really not a surprise that they’ve managed to wound Pinchy.

“It looks like none of the bullets managed to penetrate your carapace and they are only tangential wounds” I mused, uttering a sigh of relief. I let my Healing Spell wash over Pinchy, and immediately relief and happiness flooded over me from its mind. “Oh, you’re welcome, darling!” I said happily, petting its cephalothorax.

“Adorable,” Aite’s comment brought my attention back to her. The bat pony was sitting down beside the cavern exit, brushing off some remaining dirt from her Invisibility Cloak. “Anyway, now that that’s over,” she began when she noticed I was looking at her, “the last part of the plan, as I might have mentioned, is that we wait for Jack.”

Nodding with understanding, I wondered how she could be so… nonchalant about what had just happened. We just caused a powerful explosion that…

… that destroyed the place I called home for the past month.

Everything had happened so quickly, I hadn’t even had the time to ponder that. I was primarily concerned with our survival and my test subjects, which thankfully I managed to save, but my laboratory… and my clinic… it wasn’t a home, but it was mine, and until today it was a place where I felt safe.

I had been prepared to leave it, to flee this town, but having it destroyed, no, destroying it by my own hoof and horn, was another matter.

A clap right before my face broke me out of my reverie. “You weren’t listening, were you?” Aite asked, sounding a touch annoyed.

“Forgive me, darling,” I apologized. “I was lost in thought.”

The bat pony rolled her eyes. “As I was saying, Jack will notice that your clinic was blown up and will come straight here upon returning to Appleloosa. If he won’t get back by nightfall, however, we will leave by ourselves, and head for Sanctuary. Even if we won’t be able to get there because of that weird talisman of theirs, we could hide in the ruins of that mining town you talked about and wait for Jack there. Got it? Good,” she said when I nodded. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go out and scout the town to see how well our little ploy has worked. You stay here.”

My eyes widened as I realized this was my chance. “Wait! I have a favor to ask of you, darling. While you’re out there, could you find my two statuettes?”

“Your what?” Aite asked, but then answered her own question: “Oh, right, those two statuettes of the Ministry Mares, right?”

“Yes. During that argument with the slavers, things got a little heated for a moment there, and when Whip Crack kicked me the statuettes fell out of my pocket. I would be most grateful if you’d recover them, darling.”

Aite sighed and looked up in exasperation. “Fine, I’ll look for them, but I make no promises.”

“No!” I exclaimed, taking a step forward angrily… only to realize that I was about to vent my frustration on my only hope of reuniting with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Dropping my ears in shame, I took that step back. “Forgive me, darling, I didn’t mean to snap. I just… it is very important for me to get those two statuettes back. Please, Aite, I cannot leave without them.”

The bat pony, whose eyebrows rose up in surprise when I snapped, now titled her head in confusion. I prepared myself for some uncomfortable questions, but to my relief Aite just groaned. “Ugh, fine, I will search for them.”

Happiness washed over me. “Oh, thank you darling!” I exclaimed, lunging forward and embracing the bat pony.

Aite uttered a sigh and patted my back. “You’re welcome, Cray-Cray. Now let go so I can get to it.” As I released her, she began to make her way through the withered branches that hid the entrance, murmuring quietly. “Looking for some memorabillia, I swear… You know,” she added more loudly as she stood outside, turning to look at me, “considering that I’ll do this on top of spending the entire day saving your flank, I would tell you that you’ll owe me medical care for life, except I still don’t trust you to not remove some of my organs.”

I frowned as Aite turned around, but before I could call out that I wouldn’t do that the bat pony glanced behind again.

“Or add some.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” I exclaimed, offended that she would think so, but the bat pony had already turned invisible, clearly uninterested in continuing the discussion.

Annoyed, I turned to Pinchy. “Can you believe that?” I said, huffing as I sat down. The radscorpion’s thoughts became quizzical, but I had no idea how to begin describing this exchange to it. However, there was something else that seemed to bother Pinchy. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus.

Above. Angry creatures. Too many. Can’t hunt. Hide?

That’s what I managed to interpret from its thoughts. Now, how to reply...

I imagined this tunnel, its previous home. Then added slavers inside of it, as Pinchy would see them, gray shapes moving around, making a lot of noises and vibrations with their hooves, searching for us. Night… I conjure an image of blackness and cold, and the feeling of wind to let it know that I didn’t mean darkness of a cavern. Travelling, walking for a long time, to a new… new home. New cavern, new nest.

It seemed that Pinchy understood my reply, as I felt something akin to satisfaction from it. In any way, it left me and scuttled a bit deeper into the tunnel, where it was darker, and settled down. After a few moments I realized that it began to drift to sleep.

Smiling at the magnificent creature, I decided to let it sleep. Considering how tightly it was bound for a week and was released not two hours ago, this was probably the first time it could rest comfortably.

Turning my attention outside, I decided to risk looking around. There were no red bars on my E.F.S., or any bars at all, so as long as I’ll stay alert and not go too far from the entrance, I should be able to hide myself.

Taking a step through the branches and over what remained of the tree’s trunk, I had the unpleasant image in my head of Aite sneaking up behind me thanks to her cloak and scaring me.

Shaking it off my mind, I carefully pushed away some branches to the side to avoid my lab coat getting scratched, and took a good look around.

Outside was a graveyard of dead trees.

Jumping outside of the tunnel, I scanned the remains of what must have been an orchard before the war. Dead stumps, withered husks and toppled over trees littered the nearby hills, aside from the path leading to the tunnel. I vaguely recalled one of the slavers mentioning about getting wood for fires on harsher winters from somewhere nearby. If that was the case and this dead orchard had its resources gradually depleted over the two centuries, then I shudder to think how big it must have been once!

Recalling that piece of trivia brought back Appleloosa to my mind. I turned in its direction, worried if I was too exposed in the open. Fortunately, I realized that the slaver town was further away than I initially expected. Its view was partially obscured by the landforms - which of course made my situation even better - but it appeared that it was almost half a mile away. Relaxing, I took another look at my E.F.S. to make sure nobody was near (aside from Pinchy of course) before I turned my attention back to the dead nature around me.

As I trotted deeper into the orchard, looking among the trees for some better preserved ones, curious if I could identify what species or kind at least it was, my attention drew to the nearest hill. On top of it was a single, lone tree. Just like every other tree, it too hadn’t escaped the ravages of time, but this was a particular case. A lightning bolt - I’d assume, based on illustrations I’ve seen in my books (though it very well could have been a strange Wastelander with too much free time on their hooves) - had stricken it long ago, splitting it almost in two.

The sight of this once mighty, full of life tree, being torn apart like so, its branches spreading apart from each other by time and gravity, grew more and more depressing the longer I looked at it. Despite that, I felt the urge to go to it, my instinct as a medical doctor compelling me to help even though it was long since too late to help this creature. At the same time, though, I was aware how far it was from the cavern, and even I could tell that I would be very exposed on that hill.

It appeared that I had made the right choice, because as I decided against going over to that dead tree, a green bar appeared on my E.F.S. I didn’t need Aite scolding me- wait a moment. Aite was invisible to my PipBuck’s E.F.S. while under her cloak. Unless she took her hood off there was no way it could be her. Was it Jack then? No, that seemed unlikely, it was coming from the direction of Appleloosa… unless he flew first there, noticed the state my clinic was in, and flew right back here?

Even though it was a green bar, just as a precaution, I’ve begun to make my way back to the cavern’s entrance. However, in the time it took me to cross half the distance, I finally spotted the one who the bar represented. Sighing with relief, I sat down and waited.

“My, this is a surprise, darling,” I said after a few moments. Smiling, I added “Hello, Watcher. It’s been a while.”

The sprite-bot hovered before me silently for two seconds before I heard the familiar, mechanical voice. “Hi Angel.”

I tilted my head in surprise, confused by the drawn out reply. Actually, come to think about it, it wasn’t the only confusing thing. What was Watcher doing here?

“May I ask to what do I owe for this unexpected pleasure?” I asked diplomatically, retaining my pleasant demeanor.

This time Watcher was much quicker to reply. “This sprite-bot was flying near Appleloosa when I hacked into it, moments before that big explosion in town. I sent it over to check what had happened, and overheard slavers talking that it was your clinic that blew up.”

“And you’ve come searching for me?” I asked, touched by his sentiment… and a little suspicious. Something didn’t add up- Ah, of course! “That was very sweet of you, darling. But, if I may ask, how did you know I would be here? You headed straight for this…” I trailed off, unsure how to best call this place; orchard? Graveyard? Wood supply?

“This apple orchard, yes,” Watcher finished for me. Oh, so those were apple trees? I glanced quickly at the closest dead trunk, but then the sprite-bot moved a few inches closer, taking my attention once again. “Is it true?”

Confused, I blinked rapidly before replying. “Well, yes darling, my clinic blew up.”

“Not that!” the voice from the sprite-bot exclaimed, quite loudly.

Furrowing my brow, I waited a heartbeat for some further information, but when I didn’t get any, I sighed. “Darling, a lot has happened since this morning, so I’m going to need you to be a little more specific.”

“Is it true you’ve kidnapped ponies and done some things to them?”

Oh.

I regarded the sprite-bot silently, processing the information. Clearly, my test subject must have gotten out of the clinic before it exploded. They didn’t have any outside appearance of being experimented on, so they must have been alive for either Watcher or slavers to come to such a conclusion. That was a relief.

Of course, this meant that somebody I counted among my friends had learned about my experiments in a very unfortunate manner.

Seeing no point in denying it, I answered his question, “Why, yes darling, it’s true.”

I regarded the sprite-bot calmly, curious to Watcher’s reaction. Seconds drew out, with the robot hovering before me. If only I could see his face, to guess what was going through the mind behind it. But I couldn’t, so I was resigned to waiting for the inevitable questions. With the memories of my long discussion with Jack still fresh on my mind, I felt confident that I could make Watcher understand too that-

“We’re done here.”

Wait, what?

I opened my mouth, and at the same time the sprite-bot turned, emitting the familiar upbeat music.

Did he just…

“Watcher?” I called out, bewildered by the abrupt end of the conversation. Rising to my hooves, I followed after the sprite-bot. “Watcher? Come back!” I shouted, breaking my trot into a gallop to overtake the robot. “Watcher, let me explain!” I began as I moved to stand before the sprite-bot, backtrotting as it continued to fly forward, still obeying its original programming. Was Watcher completely gone? No, he had to still see me! “Watcher! Darling, I-”

The music stopped.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” the voice from the robot erupted; somehow, I had the feeling that the pony on the other side was much louder than the sprite-bot’s broadcaster volume settings could convey. “DO YOU REMEMBER WHY I ASKED YOU TO FIND YOUR VIRTUE? DO YOU REMEMBER HOW I SAID THAT IT WOULD KEEP YOU FROM GIVING INTO THE WASTELAND? I warned you,” Watcher said, more calmly, while I tried to recover from the fright he gave me and listening attentively, “I told you, I didn’t want to see another pony break like her, but you…”

As Watcher hesitated, I took my window. “Watcher-”

“You came to the Wasteland already broken.”

I frowned, looking at the sprite-bot, unsure what to say to that. “Watcher,” I finally tried again, “I-”

Music again flew from the robot as it floated past me. I could only stare numbly straight ahead.

“Watcher?” I asked, looking behind me.

The sprite-bot moved further ahead.

“Watcher!” I called out, turning around.

He didn’t respond.

Ah like ya, but Ah ain’t gonna risk my skin for ya after that stunt.

This court has seen all the evidence and heard every explanation that you have agreed to provide, and found nothing that could soften the sentence, let alone exonerate you. The verdict has been declared, and you are no longer a citizen of this Stable.

Leave. Now. And don’t ever come back, Angel.

Lightning shot from my horn, striking the sprite-bot. Sparks erupted and the music turned into a disjointed clatter while the robot was held by my magic. When the spell ended, the sprite-bot fell down the ground, bounced, and rolled down, back towards me.

“Listen to me,” I began, trotting towards the robot, “you self-righteous, judgemental coward! How dare you judge me while hiding behind a robot! You believe yourself to be morally superior to me?! Do not make me-”

“Doctor?!”

I paused, mid sentence, and turned my gaze from the sprite-bot below me towards the direction of the voice. My fury evaporated at the sight of six slavers approaching. Forgetting about the sprite-bot, I watched as they approached.

What was going on? Where did they come from? How did I miss six red- no, they weren’t red. Their bars were green, meaning they weren’t hostile. Which, now that I realized that they weren’t coming from the direction of Appleloosa, made sense. They couldn’t have been in town when Whip Crack had roused the other slavers against me, otherwise they would certainly be hostile.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as they approached.

“What are we doing here?” their leader, High Caliber, repeated. “We were trying to track down that crazy zebra when we heard the explosion, what are you doing here? Why the fuck where you shouting at that stupid robot?” he asked, pointing at the sprite-bot.

I tried to ignore one of the other slavers twiddling around his hoof near his head to the others, much to their amusement. “Well,” I began slowly, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation… and failing. “Have you found him?” I asked nervously. “And what exactly had happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened?” one of the others said, grimacing. “Did you miss the dead bodies Khan left before running from the town?”

“Obviously, we didn’t find him,” High Caliber replied, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Don’t change the subject doctor. What-”

“What the fuck is that thing!?” another slaver screeched, pointing with her hoof somewhere behind me.

I turned around, and realized it spoke volumes of my mental state that I hadn’t guessed who it was. Pinchy. The radscorpion had emerged from the cavern, I didn’t know why, nor did I know why it was walking towards us instead of digging through the ground. Was it not attacking? Did it sense my turmoil through the talisman in its brain and didn’t know what to make of it so it decided to check on me?

Those and other thoughts swirled through my mind as the slavers passed me. Only too late did I realize that they had raised their weapons and aimed them at Pinchy.

“No!” I screamed, casting Lightning Strike Spell on the closest mare before any of them could fire a single shot.

High Caliber whirled around sharply, his gun turning-

BAM----------------!

Pain, worse than I ever felt, erupted in me as fury surged through my body. Clicketing my pincers I rushed forward while I fell to the ground, screaming. Screaming and not hearing anything past the ringing in my ruptured eardrums. My carapace was pierced, and I still held my head, the gray shapes before my eyes giving way to flashes of my E.F.S. warnings that my head had been cripled. I felt my stinger strike one of them as I tried to get up on three wobbly legs, but then my pincer was ripped off. I fell back down to the ground as some new creature appeared, but then a new pain appeared right between my eyes, and all I knew was pain and the ground beneath me.

My head felt like somepony thrusted fire into it. What was going on? I couldn’t hear, my eyes wouldn’t open from the pain. I tried to focus, to cast a healing spell, but the pain was so unbearable.

A weight pushed me down, a hoof, no, two, pressed on my back. I tried to ask what was happening, but I wasn’t sure if I managed to. The weight increased, but then it was gone. I wasn’t relieved, it was nothing compared to the pain that burned in my head.

I tried to think, I had to think. I had to be shot. In the head. I was conscious, so it couldn’t be fatal. I could still move my hooves. I had to…

Somebody rolled me unto my back, then lifted my head up with surprising gentleness. Their hoof felt wrong. When I felt a touch on the side of my muzzle, I fought the pain and opened my eyes.

Jack’s worried face hovered above my own. His beak opened and closed, but no words came- no, I couldn’t hear. I told him, or at least I thought, that my eardrums must have been ruptured. Did I tell him? I couldn’t tell. I asked what happened.

The griffin’s attention turned to the side, he was pointing at something or someone outside of my vision, then waved something away, still holding the back of my head with his other paw. I turned my head a little, wanting to know what he was concerned about…

… and on the ground beside me, I saw the broken remains of my horn.

Footnote: Level Up!
New perk: Royal Canterlot Voice (level three) -- You have the voice of a Princess! You command attention, respect and obedience, and you could deafen a pony if you’d want to! You gain +5 points to Speech and Barter skills. Effects are cumulative with Royal Canterlot Voice level two, which is required in order to take this perk. Now that you mastered the Voice, you gain additional +5 points to Speech and Barter skills!
Quest perk: Lightning Strike (level one) -- You can shoot currents of electricity at your enemies, causing them pain and wounding them. Deals 10% extra damage to robots. You also have a low chance to paralyze living targets and to short-circuit small mechanical targets.

Author's Note

So, anybody still wonders why I wanted this chapter to come out at the end of 2020?

Anyway, thanks to TimePrincess, Zaleros, Sage Probo and guardianxela for their great work on proofreading/editing^^ And special thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria of course, to Somber for Project Horizons and Homelands, and to Heartshine for Speak, which are as canon as the original story here^^