To Whom It May Concern

by Wheller

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Original Character, Rainbow Dash, Tragedy, Derpy Hooves, DJ P0N-3, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 14437

When Derpy Hooves takes a delivery job to a far off land, she quickly finds herself wrapped up in the local's conflict.

After Pinkie Pie is kidnapped, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch and Surprise race to the southern border of Equestria to rescue her.

Published 2011-11-08 04:44:02 UTC
Last updated 2011-11-20 05:05:33 UTC

Chapter 1

Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the sixth story in the Bonds of Eternity Series.

The first story in the series is Family found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1307/

The second story in the series is Nihil Novi Sub Sole found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1444/

The third story in the series is Friends in High Places found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1716/

The fourth story in the series is Trust found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1973/

The fifth story in the series is Domino Effect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2151/

To Whom It May Concern
Chapter 1

Derpy Hooves adjusted her flight goggles as she decreased altitude, nearly there, she told herself. The flight had been a long one, an entire day, as the Pegasus flies from the Pony Express outpost on the border between the open countryside and the southern Everfree forest.

Pony Express was a package courier service run by an older earth pony by the name of Earl. Earl had been long time friends with Derpy’s boss at the Post Office, Pete. Earl had apparently come to Pete looking for a long distance flier, and Pete, being the good boss that he was, highly recommended Derpy for the position.

Derpy was happy to take the job; she jumped on every chance that she could to take on more complex jobs to prove her worth to the rest of the town. Pete had given her leave to take the job, and had gotten Raindrops to cover her mail route for her.

Derpy was rapidly approaching the southern end of the Mohoofie Desert; soon enough, she’d be hitting the Divide, her destination. The Divide was aptly named, for it was the southern border of Equestria and the wild lands, an uninhabited stretch of land that went on for many hundreds of kilometres south.

Derpy made her descent, and thought back to the first time she met Earl and had taken the Pony Express job.

...

“I just want to thank you again for taking this job on such short notice, Miss Hooves. Pete and I are old buddies and you came highly recommended.” Earl said.

Derpy couldn’t help but notice that Earl looked a lot like Pete, except for the fact that he was wingless. Hell, they could have been twins were it not that fact. The only real difference being that Earl looked like he was ten years older than Pete, and had a saddlebag for a Cutie Mark, rather than Pete’s shipping crate.

Derpy sat quietly while Earl continued to speak.

“Honestly? You’re doing me a big favour, first deadbeat we hired to do the job cancelled. Hope a thunder storm strikes him something fierce.”

“He cancelled?” Derpy asked.

“Yeah, Pete had already given me a name for all his long distance certified flyers; he looked at it and saw your name on the list, perked right up, asked if your name was for real. I said ‘Well yeah sure, she’s one of my buddy Pete’s flyers...’ then he turned down the job just like that, I asked him if he was sure, its good money. ‘No, let Derpy Hooves carry the package.’ Like he knew you or something... then he just upped and walked out. Tell you what; this job has been nothing but strange since that older earth pony in those dark sunglasses put down the deposit on this job... My gut’s been telling me to pass this one up, but I can’t afford to turn down the money that feller was offering,” Earl said with a shrug.

Derpy looked at him oddly. “This other guy? Did he tell you his name? What did he look like?”

“Uh...” Earl said, wracking his brain for information. “Heck, I’m old, I don’t remember! It was something weird though... like it was from some other language I’d never heard before... maybe... oh I don’t remember his name. As for what he looked like... Pegasus...”

Derpy waited for Earl to offer up more, but when he didn’t Derpy continued to question him. “And...?”

“Uh... I don’t rightly remember... grey coat? Or maybe it was crème? Heck... had his mane in a real funky way too. Don’t know exactly how to describe it,” Earl said.

That was completely unhelpful, grey or crème, mane in a funky way. With a description like that, that had to have described at least a third of the population of Cloudsdale. Derpy dropped the issue and went on with the business.

“Well. Here’s the package,” Earl said, sliding it over to her, along with a Pony Express mailbag to carry it in. “Remember, you’re not only representing yourself, but all of Pony Express! And go easy on the package, I’ve been told it’s fragile.”

...

Derpy followed instructions to the letter, she had just touched down on the ground and was about ready to enter the narrow passage way. The client’s instructions were clear, take the package to the edge of the Divide, set down on the ground outside the narrow path, and walk the rest of the way.

They had talked about the Divide in Flight School. It was well known for its rogue weather patterns. Blizzards, cyclones, monsoons, hail, sandstorms, all of them sprung up out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. There was a reason that nopony went this far south, it was a death trap.

So one could very easily imagine Derpy’s shock when she learned that ponies not only lived here, but actually had been living here for quite some time! Long enough for two settlements to have popped up, the package that Derpy was carrying was bound for a place called Ashville in the extreme south of the canyon.

It turned out that while the weather patterns above the canyon were insane, the canyon itself shielded Ashville from nearly all of it. Rain water would roll into the canyon itself, on occasion, and Ashville would apparently have a waterfall running in front of it for days, dumping water into a river that carried it away, quite oddly towards the north.

Derpy figured that Ashville had to have been an interesting place to live, not only was the town situated behind a waterfall sometimes, but it had the only river in Equestria... maybe on the planet, that flowed from south to north, rather than north to south. Needless to say, Derpy Hooves was very interested in speaking to the inhabitants of Ashville.

Derpy jumped as she heard a rock bounce along the passageway wall, she looked up and then all around her. Hoping that rogue weather had not decided to spring up while she was in here. She stopped for a moment, and gave the area a quick glance, and then looking upwards. The sky was clear; Derpy sighed in relief and went about her way.

As Derpy continued to follow the passageway, she couldn’t help but feel as if eyes were upon her. Somepony... or maybe someone... or something, was watching her.

No! That was silly! Derpy told herself as she continued on her way, nopony was watching her, and likely neither a someone nor a something was watching her either. She was just nervous because she’d never been here before... and Flight School had talked about the Divide’s weather patterns a lot.

Derpy eventually decided that she was making herself nervous because of thoughts of Flight School. Flight School had been a terrible time for Derpy, because she’d been picked on repeatedly by the “dumb jocks,” Hoops, Quarterback, and Dumb-Bell. Thanks to her eye condition, as a result, Derpy had had rather poor attendance during Flight School and had not really gotten the best education that she could have. She had eventually failed out of school completely due to a lack of attendance, poor depth perception, and an overall “below average” flying ability. The only reason that she had been able to get a job was because Pete was a good colt and had decided to give her a chance. He’d even been able to get her Long Distance Certified.

Derpy smiled, if anything, that had proved to her that not all ponies were heartless bastards, and while Derpy would never be able to get a job in Cloudsdale, because of her failure at Flight School, it didn’t matter, because Ponyville was where she wanted to live and work anyway.

It was a place where she could raise Dinky to be a good mare, and while it wasn’t always easy, it was right.

Derpy heard another rock fall and jumped again. She glanced around. Now she was sure that something was watching her. Derpy continued onward, keeping her mind focused on the task ahead.

Another rock fell, Derpy was scared now. She was regretting taking this job at all, she shouldn’t have left Ponyville, and she shouldn’t have left Dinky! She shouldn’t...

Derpy had found her way through the narrow passageway; she was now in the Divide proper. She was high up, and she could see Ashville on the far side of the canyon.

However, she did take notice that there was another settlement here. Earl had not spoken of it much; maybe he didn’t think it was important. Derpy looked at the sign on the edge of the settlement. “Hopeton,” it said.

Before Derpy had even registered all her surroundings, maybe a dozen ponies leapt from their hiding spots around her, a combination of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, all of them wearing crude metal plates around their bodies, fashioned into a patchwork of barding.

Each of them had some kind of weapon on them. Some of them had knives, some of them had spears, and Derpy noticed that the unicorns were levitating firearms. Of which Derpy had only seen before in a magazine from South Island that Vinyl Scratch had given her.

Derpy swallowed hard nervously, and noticed that another pony was walking towards her. This one was different, rather than wearing metal barding, this one was wearing a green greatcoat which covered his entire body. As for his race, all Derpy could tell was that he was not a unicorn. (The coat covered everything else that would identify his race, as such.)

Derpy noticed that his coat was a beige colour, and his mane was a dark chestnut, but what stuck out to Derpy Hooves the most were the eyes.

They were blood red.

The great coat covered pony smiled at her eerily. “Welcome to Hopeton, package courier,” he said noting the Pony Express bag on her flank. “The name’s Métis Trotter Retslaf, though it’s just Retslaf to you. We really hope you enjoy your stay with us! Because it’s going to be for quite some time.”

Derpy gulped loudly with fear. What had she gotten herself into?

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“No! Stop, you can’t do this!” Derpy cried out as two metal armour clad ponies dragged her along. “That package doesn’t belong to you!”

The two ponies didn’t particularly seem to care; rather, they opened a large metal cell door and tossed her inside without another thought. The door slammed shut and Derpy leapt to her hooves, rushing towards and banging on the bars of the cell.

No one came, everyone just ignored her. Derpy slumped to the ground. She had failed, she let Pete down, she let Earl down, and she let herself down. And now, here she was, letting Dinky down too because she had told her that it was a quick trip, there and back. She wouldn’t be gone long. I’ll be back before you know it.

That was about the time that Derpy noticed that she was not in the cell alone. Out of the corner of her eye, Derpy looked and there he was. Derpy jumped in surprise, her heart began to race, but she forced herself to calm down and then got a better look. It was an earth pony, he was sitting quietly, barely aware of her, reading a book. What really had startled Derpy was the fact that he was covered from head to hoof in bandages. He also seemed to be wearing riot barding. Derpy took a closer look, it was definitely riot barding. Derpy looked closer and read what it said on it. “CPS C019.”

“That’s ‘Canterlot Police Service’” the earth pony said without even bothering to look up from his book.

Derpy practically leapt into the air at the bandaged pony’s speech. He did not look up from his book.

“Calm yourself,” the earth pony said simply. “You are among a friend.”

Derpy took a deep breath, and sat down on the ground. “I’m... sorry, you just startled me is all...”

“I tend to have that effect on ponies,” the earth pony said without looking up.

“I’m Derpy Hooves; I’m a package courier with Pony Express.”

“I’m Graham Cracker; I suppose you could call me the mayor of Ashville,” Graham said simply. He shut his book and looked up at Derpy. Graham Cracker’s bright blue eyes were all that she could see of him. “I was expecting a courier... just not you, though; I suppose he wouldn’t have walked through the passageway.”

“I was carrying a package to Ashville, Retslaf took it,” Derpy said. “I’m going to admit... I’m not entirely sure at what’s going on here...”

“Isn’t it simple? Hopeton and Ashville are at war with each other,” Graham said, like it was obvious. “The inhabitants of Hopeton hate us because we’re better off than they are. We’re sheltered from the Divide’s rogue weather patterns, they are not. So they wish to destroy us and take our town for their own... We tried to be reasonable, tried to reach a peaceful solution... it did not happen, now, we fight. It’s the way of life.”

“I see...” Derpy said. She kind of regretted that she had asked. “What were you reading?”

“The book of Nephi,” Graham said simply.

The book of Nephi... that sounded familiar, Derpy had heard that from somewhere before...

That was when it hit her. The Book of Nephi was the holy book of the nephites, a religious group that shunned Princess Luna and Princess Celestia as deities. They weren’t exactly popular in Equestria; many had taken to dubbing them “morons.” Many called them worse.

“So... uh... you’re a moron huh?” Derpy said, then the thought of exactly what she had said hit her, and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves. She could not believe that she had just said that out loud.

Graham Cracker looked right at her, his bright blue eyes felt as if they were drilling through her skull, but what bothered her the most was probably the fact that she couldn’t see Graham Cracker’s face, she had no idea what the expression that he had under those bandages was.

“Well... considering my current situation, I’d say yes, I am a moron,” Graham said with a chuckle. That was a joke. Graham was smiling at her under those bandages. “I do not take offence; many of us have even started using the name ‘moron’ as a badge of honour.”

“Still... I don’t want to imply that you’re stupid... I know what it’s like to be called things that I’m not,” Derpy said.

“You are kind,” Graham said simply. “Come, stand with me, it’s almost meal time.”

As if on cue, a unicorn levitating two trays of food and a pistol appeared into view, unlocked the door, and walked in. She set the food down on the floor and pushed it towards them.

“Heavenly father,” Graham said, bowing his head. “I thank thee for the food that thou provides for us. I thank thee that our captors are not so brutish to have denied us our basic needs...”

The unicorn looked particularly annoyed, and glanced around the corner, looking bored. That was when Graham made his move; he leapt out and tackled the unicorn to the ground, promptly snapping her neck, causing her pistol to fall to the ground.

“And I ask thee’s forgiveness for what I have done,” Graham said, finishing his prayer, and picking up the fallen guard’s pistol and spare ammunition. Derpy’s mouth dropped wide open in shock. Graham looked back around at her and waved her on, “Come Derpy, we’re leaving.”

Derpy followed, and watched as Graham attached the pistol and the extra ammo to a harness on his flanks that Derpy had not noticed before, a small metal arm extended out in front of him as he trotted out of the cell. “Schäferhund Storm Harness,” Graham explained. “I can’t exactly use my teeth as most would.”

Derpy watched in awe, she was frightened, to say the least, but she figured that she was better off following Graham than staying here, she slowly followed him out, taking care to step around the dead unicorn and out of the cell door.

“Stay behind me, you’ll be fine,” Graham said as he casually strolled away from the holding cells. They rounded a corner, and into the field of view of two other earth pony guards, Graham fired the pistol, two shots, enough to bring down the two guards without incident.

Graham looked back to the frightened Derpy Hooves. "I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other," he said simply, and continued to trot out towards the back entrance to the holding facility.

Graham pushed open the door quickly, catching two more guards by surprise. One of them being an earth pony with a spear, and a unicorn with a pistol just like his own, two more shots rang out and the ponies collapsed to the floor. Graham quickly picked up the gun and its ammunition and gave it to Derpy. They were outside the holding facility and into the open air of the Divide itself.

“Come! We need to get as far away from here as possible before they realise we’re gone. Most of Retslaf’s guards are eating. We won’t get a better chance,” Graham said.

“What about the package?” Derpy asked.

“We’ll worry about it later, your life is more important than the package, don’t forget that,” Graham said, he waved her on, and without another word the two ponies galloped away into the sunset.

...

Graham Cracker and Derpy stopped after twenty straight minutes of running. Derpy was exhausted. Graham on the other hoof didn’t seem to be at all phased. Derpy had taken notice that the Divide was littered with old, ruined buildings between the two towns of Hopeton and Ashville, and as such, they had stopped just outside one. Graham pushed open the door to reveal what had once been somepony’s residence, though it looked as if it had not been occupied as such in quite a long time.

“We can stop and rest here for tonight. It’s not safe to continue on during the night,” Graham said simply as he sat down on a poorly aged sofa. “I have to change my bandages; you’re not going to want to watch this part.”

“Why...?” Derpy began, but Graham cut her off.

“The bandages are for burns. The price of failure,” Graham said simply. “There is a time and a place for everything. For that tale, this is neither the time nor the place. You should try to get some rest; we’ll be waking up early tomorrow.”

Derpy nodded and went into another room and lied down on the ground, she closed her eyes and tried to do her best to sleep.

Sleep did come quickly, her dreams, however, were haunted by the pony that had helped her escape. Graham Cracker frightened Derpy Hooves, despite his calm, and collected demeanour, the holy pony’s quick resort to violence had rattled Derpy’s mind.

Her dreams were filled with Graham Cracker mercilessly killing the inhabitants of Ponyville. Derpy Hooves would get no rest that night.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“GRAHAM CRACKER! WE’RE GOING TO FIND YOU, AND WHEN WE DO, WE’RE GOING TO KILL YOU, SLOWLY.”

Derpy Hooves leapt into the air upon hearing the voice over loudspeaker, she smacked her head hard on the ceiling and fell back down to the ground with a hard thump!

“I’m not cut out for this...” Derpy mumbled to herself as she got back up to her hooves, she trotted into the other room and found Graham Cracker sitting calmly on the old sofa, reading the Book of Nephi.

“Good, you’re awake,” the earth pony stallion said, closing the book tightly and slipping it back into his saddlebags. “I take it you’ve heard the death threats?”

Derpy nodded in affirmation.

“Pay them no mind, the Hopeton ponies don’t know where we are, and they won’t venture out this far. My fellow nephites are superb marksmen, and would take them down without issue,” Graham said, rising to his hooves.

“They’re not going to...” Derpy began, only to be quickly interrupted by Graham.

“Hurt you? No, of course not, not as long as you stay close to me,” Graham said, smiling with his eyes through the bandaged that covered his head. “Come. We’ve got a lot of walking to do today.”

...

If there were any around to see it, the spectacular sight of a kangaroo scout car ramping over one of the Mohoofie Desert’s many sand dunes would have been one to have remembered for ages to come... if viewed from a distance.

The occupants of said scout car, however, wanted nothing more than to forget it entirely. Twilight Sparkle felt as if she was about to vomit. Rainbow Dash held on to the pintle mounted Sen Gun for dear life, fearing that if she released it she’d be bucked clear from the car entirely. Even Surprise, fastened in by restraints held onto her seat like it was the only solid bit of the world left to grasp. In fact, the only pony who did not seem worried was Vinyl Scratch, who was sitting in the driving seat, goggles over her eyes and a grin on her face, wearing a kangaroo Brodie Helmet on her head. Her companions were not screaming, but they were holding on for dear life itself.

The scout car vaulted over one last dune, landing hard on the ground before Vinyl Scratch put on the breaks before putting on the breaks and bringing the scout car to a halt.

Sighs of relief, and mild praise to be alive rang throughout the car.

“Oh come on! My driving isn’t that bad!” Vinyl said in mock annoyance.

“Vinyl Scratch...” Twilight said, poking her head forth into the driving compartment. “When the psychopath is freaked out by your driving... don’t you think that tells you something?” Twilight said, pointing a hoof towards Surprise.

“I... I’m f-f-fine! Th-h-hanks for ask-k-king!” Surprise stammered, still not releasing her hold on the seat.

“Nope! Doesn’t tell me anything about Surprise that I didn’t already know!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Out of the car lemon head! We’re stopping for a while.”

Surprise did not respond to the insult, rather she just climbed out of the seat and out of the vehicle, tripping over a rivet on her way out and receiving a round of chuckling from the others. Surprise picked herself up and began to wander about the local area around whence they stopped.

“Don’t wander off too far marshmallow mare!” Vinyl called after her. “I’d hate to have to clean you up should you melt!”

Surprise gave no response, merely continuing to tumble across the open landscape every two metres or so. Vinyl turned her attention away from mocking the Pegasus and pulled a map of Equestria out of her saddlebags.

“Do you know where we are?” Twilight asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Exactly where we are!” Vinyl proclaimed loudly. “We’re in the middle of nowhere!”

Twilight gave Vinyl an annoyed look, however the off white unicorn continued to grin without saying anything. “The middle of nowhere being roughly thirty six degrees fifty eight minutes forty seven seconds north, by one hundred nine degrees three minutes twenty seven seconds west,” Vinyl eventually added.

“How do you know that?” Twilight asked.

“Because I’m amazing!” Vinyl said with a bright grin. “... in bed!”

“Stop that!” Rainbow Dash said as she adjusted the brodie helmet that she was wearing as she hovered above them. “She’s taken, and so are you!”

“Yeah well, I’m hoping I can convince Derpy into a foursome, if I can do that, I can convince you two no problem!” Vinyl said with a grin.

Twilight deadpanned her. “You know, all things considering, I would have expected you to be less on the humour, and more on the anger.”

“Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I’m fuming!” Vinyl said with a grin. “I’m saving it all for the one who deserves it the most!”

“Speaking of...” Twilight said, glancing around. “You’d have thought that we would have caught up to Pinkie Pie and Pips Domino by now...”

“Oh, we likely have. Actually, we probably passed them a while ago,” Vinyl said. “Doesn’t matter! We know where they’re going, and they don’t know that we know where they’re going, which means that we can get there first and set a nice trap for a certain bastard!”

Twilight nodded. “We should probably get moving again... where’d Surprise go?”

They glanced around; Surprise was nowhere to be found. They began to panic; a Surprise unsupervised was an unwelcome surprise waiting to happen. The two ponies rushed over to the top of a sand dune and discovered that Surprise was off smelling the flowers of one of the more exotic cacti growing in the Mohoofie Desert.

“Hey!” Vinyl called out.

Surprise snapped to attention and turned around to face Vinyl and Twilight.

“Get over here!” Vinyl called out.

Surprise rose to her hooves and trotted over towards them.

“You are not allowed to be out of the direct line of sight of any of us, ever! Do so, and you’ll find yourself tied up and buried under two metres of sand where nopony is ever going to find you, get me?” Vinyl snapped at her.

Surprise nodded and hung her head low; she slowly trotted back towards the scout car and got inside it.

Rainbow Dash, who had been flying above them landed softly beside her two friends, who watched as Surprise climbed back into their vehicle. “Don’t you think that maybe you’re being a little too tough on her?”

Twilight and Vinyl looked at Rainbow Dash; each of them raised an eyebrow. “With Surprise? I don’t think we’re being tough enough,” Vinyl Scratch said. “Not after what she did.”

“Which you two refuse to tell me about!” Rainbow Dash said. “I get it, it was bad, but if she’s as bad as you say she is, don’t you think that maybe agitating her is probably not the best idea? What happens when you make her snap, huh?”

Vinyl and Twilight looked at each other for a moment. Rainbow Dash was right, Surprise was a dangerous psychopath with an incredibly long history of violence, agitating her was probably not the best idea.

“All right, I’ll lay off,” Vinyl said. “You’ve convinced me. Doesn’t mean I’m going to start liking her or anything.”

“That’s not what I’m asking you to do, I’m just asking you to be the better pony,” Rainbow Dash said and trotted back towards the scout car. Man, you know things are messed up when I’M the voice of reason around here.

Rainbow Dash trotted into the back of the scout car and poked her head into the driving compartment. “Hey!” she said, getting Surprise’s attention. Surprise looked up and peered back blankly at the pony addressing her.

“Listen,” Rainbow Dash said with a small sigh. “I don’t know you, and Vinyl and Twilight won’t tell me what you did to them, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m sticking my neck out here for you, if you make me regret this? Anything that Twilight or Vinyl has threatened to do to you is going to sound like paradise compared to what I’m going to do to you, got it?!”

Surprise nodded in affirmation. “I... I promise that I won’t let you down Firefly!” she said.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side slightly. “Firefly? Who the heck is Firefly?” she asked.

Surprise did not answer right away, as Twilight and Vinyl climbed back inside the Scout car and took their seats. She leaned in close and whispered to Rainbow Dash. “You can count on me, bestest best friend!”

Rainbow Dash recoiled slightly, but shrugged it off as nothing; she climbed back up through the top hatch and grabbed a hold of the pintle mounted Sen Gun, knowing that she was definitely going to need it, if Vinyl’s previous driving record had been any indication.

Vinyl started up the scout car and with a toothy grin, she stamped down hard on the accelerator, and once again, they were off on their way.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Derpy Hooves and Graham Cracker trotted at a fair pace through the ruins of the Divide. Derpy found herself looking around, incredibly confused at the situation that she was in. She had known that there were two settlements in the Divide, Hopeton and Ashville... yet they seemed to have been built on the ruins of a third. One that looked incredibly old.

“Graham Cracker?” Derpy asked as they trotted along. “I don’t understand...”

“Please, no need to be so formal, call me Graham,” Graham said simply. “The ruins were here when we got to this canyon five years ago... as were the residents of Hopeton. We used our knowledge to build a new city, clearing the way of the old; the Divide would become our Maneaan. The land promised to us by God. Hopeton is a town of scavengers, raiders; they don’t know how to survive on their own. So they pillage the past, and they steal from us to live. We are not exactly sure what happened here, or what became of those who lived here before, but the ruins are at least a thousand years old.”

Derpy was shocked at such information. She could hardly believe that buildings so old were still standing at all, considering the age of everything around them.

“Hold up,” Graham said as he stopped short. He looked around and addressed the open air. “In him was life, and that life was the light of ponies.”

Derpy looked at Graham with confusion, and nearly leapt into the air when a response came back.

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

Out of their hiding places, nearly a dozen ponies appeared, each of them dressed simply. Yet, unlike the ponies of Hopeton, the nephites were clean, and didn’t smell so horrid, but probably the most important thing about the nephites was that all of them were wearing Schäferhund storm harnesses with a variety of rifles, submachine guns, and pistols attached to them.

“Graham! Good to see you again!” the pony whose voice matched the response that Graham had asked for said. “We feared the worst when you did not return!”

“I escaped my bondage just at the right time, and freed another from hers,” Graham said, looking at Derpy and smiling at her with his eyes. “Everypony? This is Derpy Hooves; she is a package courier with Pony Express.”

The pony who Graham had been speaking with extended a hoof towards Derpy. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Bishop Hoof,” Hoof said with a smile. Derpy looked him over. Bishop Hoof was an older looking stallion, his coat of crimson stuck out among the bleak ruined background of the Divide, much like his chestnut mane stuck out against him. His eyes were blue, not unlike Graham’s, but somewhat darker. Derpy couldn’t help but notice that the Bishop did not have a cutie mark. As a matter of fact, when she looked around at the rest of the nephites, none of them did.

Derpy looked back at Graham. The place where his cutie mark should have been was covered by bandages, so she had never really thought to ask about it.

“It’s nice to meet you Bishop Hoof,” Derpy said, accepting Hoof’s offer to shake.

“Please, please, just Hoof!” Hoof said with a smile. “You don’t need to call me Bishop unless we’re in church! Come! Come! If we hurry, we can be back in Ashville in time for supper!”

...

The scout car skidded to a halt outside the entrance to the narrow passageway. They had reached the Divide. Vinyl Scratch grinned brightly at the prospect, they had definitely beaten Pips Domino and Pinkie Pie here. Now it was time to set a trap.

They found a small cave some two hundred or so metres up the perimeter of the canyon from the entrance to the narrow passageway to tuck the scout car into, the car was way too big to fit inside it, and there was no way that Vinyl was going to let Pips see it.

“Okay! Let’s split up,” Vinyl said. “Rainbow and Twilight? Head around the canyon and see if you can’t find another way in.”

Rainbow Dash nodded in approval and she and Twilight began walking away from the meeting place, heading north around the circumference of the canyon.

“Guess that just leaves you and me, freak of nature.” Vinyl said with a grin. “Keep in front of me at all times.”

Surprise frowned, but otherwise said nothing, and trotted along slowly back south towards the entrance to the narrow passageway. Surprise stopped short of the entrance to the passageway, standing and staring blankly at it for a few moments, before she turned to Vinyl. “I don’t like it,” she said with a frown.

“Yeah, and I don’t like you,” Vinyl said crossly. “But I learn to deal with it, now march!” Vinyl reached out a foreleg smacked Surprise on the arse. She promptly snapped to attention and began walking forward, with Vinyl Scratch following close behind.

They made it through the passageway without incident, and made an immediate right, staying along the canyon wall and tracing the interior circumference. Surprise said nothing, Vinyl said nothing. Both of them couldn’t help but notice the eerie silence of the canyon, but said nothing about it. Surprise didn’t want to agitate Vinyl by talking. Likewise Vinyl didn’t want to agitate herself by hearing Surprise’s voice.

The two ponies came across narrow ledge, and began to cross it. Then, true to its reputation, the Divide struck, out of nowhere, a strong gust of wind forced Surprise to the ground, Vinyl did her best to maintain her footing, but found herself blown towards the cliff edge ever so slightly.

And then, true to its reputation, the wind died down, Vinyl was near the edge of the cliff, counting herself lucky that she hadn’t been blown off. She sighed a sigh of relief and took a step back towards where she had been before.

True to its reputation, the Divide struck again. Vinyl Scratch had taken no more than a single step before the ground beneath her began to shake, and then it subsided just as quickly.

Crack!

Vinyl looked down, that was the worst sound she could have ever heard, and the visual that had gone along with it was just as bad. The ground suddenly gave way, tumbling down a fifty metre cliff. Vinyl leapt as hard as she could, and caught the newly formed edge of the cliff.

“S... Surprise!” Vinyl called out. The Pegasus turned her head to find her companion was now dangling off the edge of the cliff. “Surprise! Help me!”

Surprise continued to stare blankly at Vinyl, and then a small, eerie smile formed on her face. Vinyl Scratch’s eyes widened in fear, Surprise was going to let her fall.

Vinyl’s grip slipped, she lost her hoofing and began to fall.

It was not the end however, and Vinyl Scratch had noticed that she had fallen no more than five centimetres. She looked over her shoulder to discover that Surprise had leapt forward and had grabbed her. The pegasi’s wings flapping at high speed as she struggled to pull Vinyl Scratch back up.

Surprise grunted loudly and yanked as hard as she could, utilising every bit of might that she could muster, she pulled the unicorn back up onto the ledge.

Vinyl Scratch began to pant heavily, her heart was racing; she had nearly met her end on the edge of that cliff. She looked back at the Pegasus pony that had saved her. Surprise was smiling brightly.

“I... I thought you were going to let me fall...” Vinyl said.

“What? No! I wouldn’t do that!” Surprise said, latching her forelegs around Vinyl Scratch, giving her a tight hug. “Besides! Even if you did fall, I’m a Pegasus! I could just fly and catch you!”

“You just...” Vinyl said. “That smile... I thought...”

“I thought the situation was funny, that’s all, I mean; you hate me!” Surprise said. “And there you were, asking me for help, it was kind of ironic, you know?”

Vinyl found lips curling into a small smile at her Pegasus companion. “Well... if it means anything to you? Right now, I hate you just a little bit less,” Vinyl wrapped her forelegs around Surprise, returning the pegasi’s embrace. “Thank you, Surprise.”

“You’re welcome Vinyl Scratch,” Surprise said.

They continued to embrace for a few more seconds, before eventually releasing each other. Vinyl got to her hooves and extended a foreleg to help Surprise up. “Come on, we best get moving.”

Surprise took the hoof and got up. The two mares started walking.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Derpy Hooves trotted into the Ashville town limits and looked at her surroundings in awe. She had seen Ashville from a distance while flying towards the Divide. It had been impressive then, and it was still impressive now.

Unlike Hopeton, which was little more than a collection of ruined buildings, Ashville was a properly built town; in fact, Derpy might have mistaken it for Ponyville if it weren’t for the shingled roofs and the canyon wall visible at the far end of the town. The streets were paved with asphalt in the Manehattan fashion, and the town was surrounded by a large concrete wall. (Graham explained that the wall was a more recent addition, one that had proved to be necessary after repeated encounters with Retslaf and his Hopeton ponies.)

But what Derpy noticed more than anything was the pony inhabitants themselves. All of them, every single one, were without a cutie mark. She had not yet asked Graham about this yet, deciding to hold off until Bishop Hoof and the rest of his party had parted, figuring that there was a chance that such talk would offend the nephites.

Most of the nephites were earth ponies. There were possibly two or three pegasi that she could see, as for unicorns, Derpy didn’t see...

Derpy’s line of thought dropped off as a unicorn mare stumbled around the corner, tripping and falling face first into the street. She was levitating a glass bottle above her, and somehow the shock of falling did not break her magical hold on it. This unicorn was clearly not a nephite, because she had a cutie mark, a magic wand sprinkling pixie dust. Her azure coat stood out among the mostly earth toned earth ponies, as did her silvery mane. She picked herself up and took a sip from the glass bottle.

“Trixie...! Is okay!” she announced, hiccupping slightly, and continuing to stumble onwards. She trotted close, noticing Derpy’s cutie mark and stopped to gawk at it. She smelled of alcohol, and it was not surprising, considering that the glass bottle that she was holding was a whiskey bottle. “Hey...! Trixie... doesn’t think... that Trixie...”

Trixie stopped mid sentence to take another swig from her whiskey bottle before continuing. “You... are not... a moron!”

Were this Ponyville, Derpy would have likely taken that as a complement, however, as this was Ashville. Derpy knew that Trixie was referring to the fact that she wasn’t a nephite. The nephites of Bishop Hoof’s party were all groaning loudly.

“Not this again,” one of them said.

“Didn’t we take the alcohol away from her?” another one asked.

“She must have more hidden all around town!” another one exclaimed.

Trixie either didn’t hear the other ponies, or didn’t care; instead she just took another swig from the bottle.

“Trixie...” Bishop Hoof began. “How much alcohol have you drunk?”

Trixie seemed to be thinking hard about the answer to that question, she stood silently for a moment before giving her answer. “Six... hold on,” she said, tilting her head back and emptying the bottle, tossing it over her shoulder haphazardly where it smashed on the side of a building. “Make that... SEVEN! Bottles...”

“Today?” Hoof asked.

“In the last...” Trixie said, being interrupted by a hiccup. “In the last... half hour!”

“Trixie...” Graham Cracker said as he approached.

Trixie let out a scream of terror. “It’s a mummy!” she said and turned to run, not making it a single step before collapsing on the ground, having tripped over an invisible turtle. (As Trixie would later claim as the cause.) Graham Cracker picked her up and placed her on his back. He grimaced slightly in pain as pressure was applied to a place where he had been burned at, and began to trot.

“You need to be put to bed, Trixie...” Graham said simply. “Come along Derpy, I will show you around town after I take her home.”

“Help! Trixie is being... ponynapped!” Trixie called out, but was far too drunk to put up anything that even mildly resembled resistance.

“Who is she...?” Derpy asked. “She looks familiar...”

“Then you might be able to tell more than I,” Graham Cracker said. “One of our trade caravans found her around Appleoosa, lying in the desert, alone, with only saddlebags filled with some sixty bottles of whiskey, and no water, they took pity on her and brought her back here. One of the tenants of our faith is abstinence from alcohol, but as she is not a nephite, we decided we would not force her to conform to our beliefs... we eventually discovered that that had been a mistake. Such manner of tomfoolery that you have just witnessed is a regular occurrence, and she has gotten into a lot of trouble because of it.”

Derpy blinked, processing the information, and then she remembered. Trixie had been the name of the unicorn magician that had visited Ponyville last year, made an arse of herself, and then run off leaving a giant mess that required Twilight Sparkle to clean it up.

“But...” Derpy began, pausing slightly to look at Trixie again; Trixie had long since passed out, and dangled limply over Graham’s flanks. “With the rate of consumption, shouldn’t she have run out by now?”

“One would think, one would hope,” Graham Cracker said. “However, despite the scene that you have just witnessed, Trixie is actually quite a bright young mare. She has learned how to make more... and has, there is no telling how many bottles of whiskey she has made and hidden all around Ashville... Though, best estimates place it at somewhere in the range of eighty decalitres.”

Derpy’s mouth fell wide open.

“Our thoughts exactly,” Graham Cracker said, smiling with his eyes at her. The two ponies entered Trixie’s home, which too, smelled strongly of alcohol, and placed her in bed.

“Is she going to be okay?” Derpy asked.

Graham looked at her and shrugged. “In the short term? Probably. Though, at the rate that she consumes, I’m somewhat surprised she hasn’t had her liver fail yet.”

...

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had found another way into the canyon. A long dark, system of tunnels carried them along inside the cliffs of the Divide, with only the light of Twilight’s horn to guide them; they couldn’t help but feel as if they were on a snipe hunt of their own.

“Don’t suppose you’ve read much on the Divide, eh egghead?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.

“Not really?” Twilight said apologetically. “There aren’t that many books on it in my Library. Honestly Dash, you’re the expert on the Divide when it comes to us.”

“I don’t know anything either!” Rainbow Dash called out. “Just that weather is freaky here!”

“Exactly,” Twilight said.

The two mares found themselves nearly running into the stone wall, as the passageway of the cave that they were exploring turned sharply to the right with no warning. They stopped to get their bearings for a moment, and then continued on their way.

Twilight found herself glancing around, examining the stone walls closely, and at the same time, taking light away from Rainbow Dash, who would then start complaining loudly. After the fourth such instance, Rainbow Dash had had it.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “What is so interesting about the cave wall that you have to keep looking at it?!”

Twilight glanced at the wall and then back to Rainbow Dash, she didn’t answer right away, and instead she continued to study the cave wall again for about thirty seconds more, Rainbow Dash waiting impatiently to get an answer.

“Something isn’t right about this cave...” Twilight said. “Look at the walls!”

Rainbow Dash looked at the walls, nothing jumped out at her. “I’m looking at the walls... and you know what I see?”

“What?” Twilight asked. “What do you see?”

“Walls,” Rainbow Dash said flatly. “Clearly you’ve made some brilliant deduction, nerd, so how about you fill me in?!”

Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash with annoyance. “I do hope you know, that’s costing you snuggle time!” she said. “Anyway... the walls are far too smooth to be a natural formation so that means...”

“So that means?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Don’t keep me in suspense here.”

Twilight gave up on getting Rainbow Dash to come up with it on her own. “That somepony dug this,” Twilight said simply.

“Awesome,” Rainbow Dash said, clearly not seeing the significance. “Good for them! What does it mean for us?”

“Well... I’m not sure, I mean the last time I saw something like this...” Twilight’s voice began to trail off, and a look of horror began to form on her face. Without another word, she took off running, galloping at full speed down the tunnel, hoping to Celestia that she was wrong.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called out, going off after her.

Twilight rounded several more twists and turns before finally reaching the end and skidding to a stop. Rainbow Dash quickly found herself crashing into the back of her.

The two of them looked up at what they saw. It was a door. A big, metal door in the shape of a gear, painted on the front of the door in big white letters “HVMB.”

“Oh no,” Twilight said quietly. This discovery changed everything.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“Oh no!” Twilight said again as she continued to stare at the HVMB door. “No no no! This is bad... this is so bad!”

Rainbow Dash sat next to her, looking confused. Despite having her old world memories, there had been a lot that Rainbow Dash had missed out on. Meeting Surprise, and the Everfree Plains Ballistic Research and Development Facility among them, however, Unlike Surprise, Twilight had filled her in on EPMB, but her lack of first hoof experience with it had caused her to miss the reason Twilight’s panic entirely.

“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Rainbow? We need to find Vinyl and Surprise. Then we need to seal up this cave so that nopony can ever use what’s hidden down here!”

“Twilight? What’s...?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s another nuclear missile, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said, she rose to her hooves and galloped back towards the entrance to the cave. Rainbow Dash was quick to take off after her. They burst from the cave at top speed, only to find that they had company.

Standing before them were a group of ponies, each of them clad in patchwork barding of metal plates. Each one of them was holding something different. Some of them had knives, some of them had spears. There were a few unicorns with combat shotguns.

But Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle weren’t paying attention to them. No they were paying attention to the pony clad in the green great coat walking slowly towards them.

“Well now!” Métis Retslaf said with an eerie grin. “I’ve got two guesses for what you two just found back there... and I’m guessing it’s not a hidden entrance to Ashville.”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash both swallowed hard. They did not know this pony, but they had just handed him a nuclear missile and the ability to play god.

...

Vinyl Scratch and Surprise were headed back towards the narrow passageway to meet Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They were not as quite this time as they had been on their way out. Vinyl and Surprise were chatting about life. Despite her childlike appearance and demeanour, Surprise was a rather philosophical pony.

Vinyl’s ear twitched. “Surprise!”

“Yes?” Surprise asked.

“Shhhh!” Vinyl said, bringing her hoof up to her lips to shush the Pegasus. She leaned forwards slightly and began to listen.

“What is it?” Surprise asked.

“I’m not sure...” Vinyl said, she listened closely, but could not make out the sound that she was hearing.

Out of cover, five earth ponies wielding knives and spears leapt into view and closed in on them.

“You picked the wrong place to walk lady!” the lead earth pony said, drawing his knife as they moved in close.

“And you picked the wrong mare to mess with, smelly,” Vinyl said with a grin, her saddlebag flipped open and Vinyl’s revolver was brought to bear. Vinyl Scratch had learned a long time ago when she and her friends were threatened, that she couldn’t hesitate.

Five shots, five ponies, one Emerald Ordinance No.4 Revolver now completely empty, unfortunately for Vinyl Scratch, revolvers made a lot of noise, and this had just attracted the attention of smelly’s friends. Over the ridge, some twenty of them came into view.

“Run!” Vinyl called out. She and Surprise took off at high speed, it seemed though that more and more of smelly’s friends just appeared from nowhere, and soon enough they had the entire town of Hopeton bearing down on them.

There would be no escape, and Vinyl had no ammunition left for her revolver. Surprise had figured this out quickly enough. Surprise stopped running; rather, she planted her hooves firmly on the ground and turned to face their pursuers.

Vinyl looked back and stopped short. “Surprise!”

“Keep running!” Surprise called out. “I’ll hold them off. GO!”

“Surprise...”

The look on Surprise’s face intensified. “GO!” she screamed.

Vinyl Scratch nodded and took off in the other direction.

“Okay everypony... you all don’t know me,” Surprise said to herself, she picked up one of the fallen ponies spears in her teeth. “Ifsh tahm fer a SURPRISE!” she called out as she leapt at them.

...

Graham Cracker and Derpy were sitting on the Ashville wall, Derpy had taken to quizzing the nephite about his faith. She knew next to nothing about it. It wasn’t something they talked about back home.

“The way you describe him...” Derpy said. “God sounds wonderful.”

“God is wonderful,” Graham said, smiling with his eyes. “Any society that derives its power and authority from the will of ponykind alone lives apart from God and will crumble in the end. That is one of the tenants of our society. With God in our lives...”

“Graham? I hate to interrupt, but we have a runner, headed straight for us!” One of the nephite watch ponies said. He was staring down the scope of a rifle looking out towards the east. Graham Cracker rose to his hooves and trotted over to him.

“Let me take a look,” Graham said. The watch pony moved aside and allowed Graham to look. “Hmm... I do not recognise this one; this is definitely not one of the Hopeton ponies. She’s moving fast... I’d say about five kilometres out.”

Derpy was curious now; she got to her hooves and trotted over to Graham. “Would it be okay if I took a look?”

“Certainly,” Graham said, he stepped aside and Derpy moved up to take a look. She pressed her right eye to the scope, and shut her left eye tightly, and focused in on the pony that was running towards them. Much to her surprise, she recognised this pony. The off white coat, the electric blue mane, the goggles...

“Vinyl Scratch!?” Derpy called out in shock. She pulled her head away from the rifle and looked at Graham in confusion.

“You know that pony?” Graham asked.

“Yes,” Derpy said with a nod. “She’s a... friend.”

Graham nodded in understanding and turned to the watch pony. “She is not to be harmed. Tell the other watchers to leave her be, she’s running from something, if we have scouts out there, radio them and tell them to guide her to us. Don’t approach her, like I said, she’s definitely running from something.”

...

Vinyl Scratch didn’t look back, she couldn’t, she had no idea what had happened to Surprise, or if she was even being followed at all. There were just... so many, even a savage fighter like Surprise... Vinyl didn’t like the chances that the Pegasus had been given.

Surprise was immortal... at least, Vinyl thought she still was, she really didn’t know for sure, but assuming that she was, Surprise couldn’t be killed, but as many ponies that had come at them as they did? Numbers would eventually take Surprise down... and then...

Vinyl couldn’t think about it now, she had to keep running.

Vinyl Scratch noticed a sign off in the distance, someone had placed a large red arrow pointing in the direction that someone clearly wanted her to go. Vinyl’s first thought was that somepony was trying to corral her into a trap, but then she figured; she was ahead of all her pursuers. They had all been earth ponies, nopony was able to fly ahead and set up a trap, even Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have time to set up a trap.

Vinyl took a leap of faith and decided to follow the arrow. She turned through the street and found another. She turned and followed it, only to find the same thing again and again. Vinyl Scratch was taking a hell of a risk, but she kept going anyway.

Soon enough, Vinyl Scratch found herself in front of a large, open gate. Standing in it was an earth pony covered in bandages, and...

“Derpy!” Vinyl called out in shock.

“Vinyl!” Derpy called out, she rushed forward and threw her arms around her marefriend and pulled her close.

“I hate to interrupt...” Graham Cracker said simply. “But we really don’t want this door to be open when the Hopeton ponies get here. Inside! Quickly!”

...

Two hazard lights began to flash. A small buzzing alarm went off, and the air filled with the hiss of steam.

Something from the inside pulled the metal gear back, creating a deafening screech as metal grinded against metal. Twilight and Rainbow Dash covered their ears, and watched as the large metal door rolled to the left.

Métis Retslaf grinned widely as the HVMB door opened before him. “Get them on their hooves!” he bellowed to his troop of spear wielding ponies.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash rose without needing encouragement. The red eyed greatcoat clad pony’s face had shown him to be one that you did not want to play around with. Two of Retslaf’s guards walked into the door first, they glanced around, announcing that the area was clear, the rest of the group walked inside.

Twilight noted that the layout was almost identical to EPMB, except everything was in extremely poor shape. The metal deck plates were rusted through, the metal walls were rusted and worst of all, at least for the shape of the base, and there were no robots to be found.

“What happened here?” Twilight asked quietly to herself.

Retslaf shot her a look that told her to be quiet. Twilight needed no further encouragement. “You!” he called out. “You’re out in front!”

Before Twilight could even think of protesting, one of Retslaf’s guards pointed his spear dangerously close to her throat. Without another word, Twilight took to marching in front of the group. “Where do you want me to take you?” Twilight asked, knowing that it was a risk to have asked the question, but one that was likely the only way of making herself useful.

An un-useful hostage was a dead hostage.

Retslaf grinned widely at her. “You’re a smart girl. Take me to the missile!”

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Vinyl Scratch, Graham Cracker, and Derpy Hooves had taken a place on the Ashville wall, looking out into the Divide. The ponies that had been perusing Vinyl had not approached. Vinyl figured that Surprise had effectively tied them up.

Derpy looked over to Graham, the earth pony had just returned after excusing himself to change his bandages. This probably wasn’t the best time to be asking him personal questions, at least that’s what was going through her head at the moment... but she had to know.

“Graham? Your burns... how did they happen?” Derpy asked.

Graham Cracker turned to look at the Pegasus, his eyes conveying a neutral expression. “Last month, while I was scouting movements of the Hopeton ponies on the upper ridge, a Pegasus pony that I had not ever seen before appeared behind me. He called to me by name. I turned to look at him. I did not know him, but I knew that he was not one of the Hopeton ponies. I greeted him kindly, and asked what he was doing here. He gave no reply. He stared at me for about thirty seconds, and then he approached. ‘We remember Graham Cracker.’ He said, and then the most curious incident. I inexplicably caught fire over my entire body and he cast me into the Divide.”

Derpy’s mouth fell open. Vinyl Scratch looked up in surprise; she knew instantly who Graham Cracker was talking about.

“How did you survive?” Derpy asked.

“It was simple; I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me. God was testing my conviction, and I was determined to survive. I fell into the river, which carried me away from Ashville entirely. I took me three days to reach home. I told God that I was going to survive, and he didn’t see any reason to disagree,” Graham Cracker said simply

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Oh... don’t tell me you’re a nephite!?”

“I am a nephite,” Graham Cracker said. “God has not turned his back on ponykind. He is still there; he is just waiting for us to come back to him.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes, though it was not visible under her goggles. “Yeah... listen pal, I know Princess Luna. I hate to break it to you; she’s certainly everything that the books claim to be.”

“You misunderstand our faith, miss,” Graham said simply. “We do not doubt that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are who they claim to be, they are powerful. They are two of God’s angels, they have simply lost themselves.”

“Yeah... right,” Vinyl said rolling her eyes. Derpy shot her an annoyed look, which Vinyl promptly ignored.

...

Surprise thrust the spear forwards, spearing yet another pony with it. She was winning, and as much as the ponies around her hated to admit it, they knew she was winning. Surprise had broken this spear with the last thrust, and she quickly tossed it aside and picked up another one. These ponies weren’t exactly smart, and they were clearly not used to fighting someone who could fight back. Surprise was a frenzied fighter, and despite her childlike appearance, she was not someone to be trifled with.

A new pony had appeared over the hill, this one, however was armed much differently than the rest of them. This one had a chain knife. The pony revved the knife loudly and leapt down towards her. Surprise was ready and brought the spear to bear, impaling the pony that had leapt at her without effort.

The pony dropped the chain knife and it stopped revving. Surprise quickly threw the spear aside.

“Amateurs,” she said with a huff, she picked up the chain knife and revved it loudly. Now it was time to go on the offensive. She spread her wings and leapt into the air. Charging the group of ponies who had all just decided at once that they were not getting enough out of their current situation, they all dropped their weapons and turned tail and ran. Surprise showed them no quarter, dive bombing the group and ripping them to pieces with her powerful weapon. Blood and gore showered the Pegasus pony, and she found herself smiling.

Oh how she had missed this.

...

Twilight and Rainbow Dash had lead Retslaf and his ilk into the missile’s fire control room. Through panes of dirty glass they could see it sitting, completely dormant, yet still menacing. Twilight looked around the room and noticed that there was a flashing console that somehow was still in good condition far off to the left. It was not the launch console. It was too small, but it interested her nonetheless. She wanted to go over to it, however a spear wielding pony brought it closer to her throat.

“No...” Retslaf said. “No, let’s see what she’s so interested in. Go ahead, little pony, and go play it.”

Twilight trotted over slowly to the console, and pressed the flashing button on it.

“Head researcher’s personal log, this is Doctor Emerald Sparkle reporting...” the recording let out an exasperated sigh and continued to speak. “Idiots! Idiots all of them! The best and brightest of our generation are certainly not residing at HVMB! I swear; it’s not enough I’m uprooted from EPMB to supervise the test launch of the Crusader X... It’s also bad enough that I know what’s coming today. Ever since Princess Luna personally came to me... she’s told me what happens today. In about six hours, the orders are going to come in. Princess Celestia wants this installation gone, and she’s going to use the launch of the Crusader X to justify it. I’ve gone ahead and swapped out the Crusader X’s warhead with regular high explosives, It’s going to destroy Hopeville, but it won’t be the ecological disaster that Princess Celestia is trying to engineer. I got to hand it to Princess Luna, she’s taking a big risk with this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia banishes her to the moon for tipping me off. Damn the Luddite. This would never have happened if Queen Gaia hadn’t become sick. Hopeville Missile Base is a goner, I’ve gotten everything set up. I need to be back at Everfree Plains to insure that the luddites don’t get it... too much is at stake, Princess Luna has confirmed that much for me... I just hope Doppler got everything ready while I was gone... or this is going to be a really short trip.”

The log ended with a click, Retslaf seemed uninterested. Ancient history, it mattered little to him.

“Well that was a fucking grand waste to time. You! Time to get to work!” Retslaf said, pointing at Twilight Sparkle. Two of his ponies opened up the launch console; Twilight glanced over to it and noticed that all of the thermionic valves in the console had been broken. Every single one had been smashed open. Someone had deliberately broken them. It was obvious that Retslaf wanted her to fix it.

Twilight swallowed hard, she wasn’t as familiar with electronics as say, Vinyl Scratch, who would have been better suited for the task, but even she knew that there was no way to fix it with all the valves smashed.

“Bring up the package,” Retslaf said. One of his ponies set down a box with Pony Express stamps all over it. It had been opened to reveal that it was full of replacement valves for the circuits. “Fix the console,” Retslaf said.

“I don’t know if I can...” Twilight said.

Retslaf looked annoyed at her response, clearly that had been the wrong answer. “Hold her down.”

Two ponies put their hooves on Twilight, holding her back from what Retslaf was about to do, while several other ponies grabbed Rainbow Dash.

“Hey!” Rainbow called out. “What are you...?”

Retslaf kicked one of his unicorns that was levitating a pistol, causing her to drop it. He picked it up in his teeth. “Hold her wing open.”

One of the other ponies bit down hard on Rainbow Dash’s wing, holding it open. Rainbow Dash yelped in pain. Retslaf pointed the pistol at Rainbow Dash’s wing and pulled the trigger.

The bullet passed cleanly through Rainbow Dash’s wing, causing Rainbow Dash to scream in pain. The ponies released her and she fell to the floor.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried out.

“Fix the console,” Retslaf said.

Twilight nodded in understanding, and quickly went to work replacing the broken thermionic valves. Tears were forming in her eyes, as she worked. She hoped to Celestia that they were going to be okay.

Twilight quickly replaced most of the valves, she had only one to put in when the large radio unit at that one of Retslaf’s ponies was carrying on their backs began to bark.

“Retslaf! We got trouble! There’s a Pegasus that’s coming right towards us!”

Retslaf fumbled with the receiver on the radio and picked it up to yell into it. He didn’t get a chance to say anything.

“Hey! No! Stop!” one of the ponies over the radio yelled. There was a loud crashing sound, followed by screaming, then nothing but static.

Twilight’s spirits soared; she assumed that Surprise and Vinyl Scratch were coming to rescue them.

She turned around to look, there was more screaming from down the hall, Vinyl and Surprise were closing in on them!

That was when their saviours came into view.

To Twilight’s horror, it was not two ponies, but one.

It was a grey coated Pegasus, his mane an equally grey. His eyes were blood red.

It wasn’t Surprise. It was Legion.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Twilight had crawled over to Rainbow Dash, pulling her close. Legion was standing before them. He stood there, saying nothing, scanning over everypony in the room. He then took his focus on Retslaf, and began to step forward.

“We remember Métis Retslaf,” he said.

“Uh...” Retslaf said with confusion in his voice. “Good for fucking you?”

Legion did not respond, rather he reached out and snapped Retslaf’s neck. The greatcoat clad pony fell to the floor, his lifeless eyes peering towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

All of Retslaf’s guards leapt into action, Legion wasted no time killing any who took to violence against him. Oddly enough, anyone who approached him seemed to just up and die. Twilight figured that he had to be telepathically attacking them. Within seconds, all of the Hopeton ponies lie dead at Legion’s hooves.

Legion then turned his attention to Twilight and Rainbow Dash; he scanned them for a few moments.

“We remember Rainbow Dash,” he said finally.

“No!” Twilight said, throwing herself in front of Rainbow Dash. “You want to kill her? You’ll have to kill me too!”

Legion cocked his head to the side, staring intently at Twilight. “We do not understand, we remember Rainbow Dash. Her continued existence is redundant.”

“I don’t care!” Twilight snapped at him. “You heard me! You want to hurt Rainbow Dash? You’ll have to go through me!”

Legion stared at Twilight for a moment. “We do not remember Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle may not be harmed.”

Twilight got Rainbow Dash to her hooves, making sure to keep herself between Rainbow Dash and Legion. She backed Rainbow Dash out of the control room and back down the hallway. Legion did not follow; he seemed to have lost interest in them and continued about the business that he set out to do.

“Are you okay Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked.

“No...” Rainbow Dash grunted in pain. “Not really... I suppose it’s not the worst thing that could have happened though...” Rainbow Dash forced a smile. “I’ll be fine nerd, especially if I’ve got you looking out for me... seriously? That was amazing.”

Twilight smiled brightly at Rainbow Dash as the two of them limped out of the missile base, intending to put as much distance between themselves and Legion as possible.

...

Surprise found herself lying on her back. Giggling madly as she rolled around in the ocean of blood that she had created. Every square centimetre of her, from head to hoof was covered in the blood of some forty ponies.

“Ohhh...” Surprise moaned. “So good...”

It was at this point she had taken to pleasuring herself, dipping her hooves in the warm, sticky blood and rubbing it all over her. Surprise was living in a world of pure ecstasy. She hadn’t felt this good in years. One thing had not been changed about Surprise. How much she did like the violence.

She took the same pleasure from violently dismembering a pony that most got from sex, and Surprise had lost her virginity long ago. She had had her climax, and now, Surprise sat up and looked around. She had climaxed, which meant that depression was about to set in. It had felt so good, and now it was over.

Surprise felt sad, memories of her master flooded back to her. She missed him terribly. He would have been so proud of her today. Surprise rose to her hooves and proceeded to trot down towards the river. She took a deep breath and waded into it, submerging herself underneath the water. She scrubbed herself clean; she had to at least be presentable. She may have been proud of what she had done. She loved how good it had made her feel, but master would have expected her to be clean.

Surprise surfaced and released her breath. She began to scrub the blood off her; soon enough, she was clean. She pulled herself out of the river and began to shake herself dry. No sooner than she did that, did her straight mane poof back to its normal shape.

Surprise picked up the chain knife and stuffed it into her mane for safe keeping. Her hair was so thick in this shape that she need not worry about it going anywhere. She took to the air, Surprise looked down on what she had made, and couldn’t help but smile eerily. If only master could see what she had done.

He would have been so proud.

...

Trixie’s eyes shot open. Oh how her head hurt! Clearly, there was only one remedy to this plight, whiskey. Trixie stumbled out of bed, falling face first on the floor and trotting out the door. She was now standing in the pure evening air, though one wouldn’t have noticed. Ashville’s placement under the canyon blocked out the sun in the evening hours. Trixie turned and looked down at the potted plant next her house’s front door; she leaned over and bit down on the plant, pulling all of the dirt out to reveal a hidden bottle of whiskey.

Trixie levitated the bottle out of the pot and placed the plant back where it belonged. She snapped open the bottle and took a long hard swig.

Trixie was sober enough at this point to remember just how pathetic she actually was. Didn’t matter, she’d soon enough forget.

Trixie had lost everything. Her hat and cape, her caravan, her home in Canterlot, her family, Trixie had lost everything. Except whiskey, that was the one thing that she’d never be out of.

Trixie found herself trotting along, stumbling over herself in the process. She found herself turning onto the high street, looking up to see Derpy Hooves, Graham Cracker, and another pony that she did not recognise sitting on the wall, looking out into the Divide.

Trixie stumbled over to the ramp and climbed up onto the wall, taking several swigs from the bottle while she was at it.

The pony that she didn’t recognise looked over at her.

“Trixie?” Vinyl Scratch asked.

“Who... who wants to know?” Trixie asked, taking another swig from her bottle. “Does... does Trixie know you?”

“Probably not... but I know you,” Vinyl Scratch said simply, Vinyl focused on the bottle that Trixie was levitating beside her head. “How much have you had to drink today?”

“Trixie... Trixie lost count after... eleventy,” Trixie said.

“Maybe you should give me the bottle...” Vinyl suggested.

“NO!” Trixie exclaimed point a hoof at her. “No... NO! You just want it all for yourself! Trixie will fight you!”

Vinyl Scratch looked as if she was about to explode. If there was something that she couldn’t take, it was cracks about alcohol. Vinyl Scratch too was an alcoholic. But this was different, she had wanted to help Trixie, and while Trixie had not laid a hoof on her, she might as well have smacked her across the face.

Tension was building in Vinyl’s face. “Oh...? It’s a fight you want huh? Well good for you! Because I’m in a fighting mood!” With that, Vinyl leapt at her.

Trixie was far too drunk to have reacted, and within seconds Vinyl Scratch was on top of her, beating on her repeatedly. Trixie raised her hooves to try and shield her face, but it was far too late.

Derpy and Graham Cracker leapt into action, pulling Vinyl Scratch off of her.

Trixie felt blood running from her nose. Anypony else would have been in pain. Not Trixie though, she had enough anaesthetic in her that she wouldn’t be feeling the pain for hours.

Trixie sat up and looked out into the Divide.

“Hey... what’s that!?” Trixie said pointing.

Graham Cracker, Derpy, and Vinyl Scratch all stopped moving and looked out.

“Oh hell no,” Vinyl gasped.

“We need to evacuate,” Graham said simply.

...

Legion prodded his hooves against the control console. It had been prepared, and now it was time to use it for his purposes. The silo door to the HVMB complex opened, and the missile rose into place.

The targeting functions had been fried. Despite the internal circuits being replaced, the targeting computers had been irreparably damaged. The missile would launch, as to where it was going to go? Well that was anypony’s guess.

Legion looked back down at the console, the large red “FIRE” button was flashing, and without a second thought, he pushed it.

Fire consumed the silo as the missile slowly began to rise out of the silo, launching into the air and rocketing towards its destination. However wayward it would be. Legion’s task was done, time to leave.

...

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had made their way out the cave after some twenty minutes of trotting through the caves, they had made it back out into the open air, and instantly noticed the vapour trail.

They looked up to see that the missile had flown high into the air, and had arced back downward and was racing towards Ashville.

Five seconds later, the missile impacted the ground and exploded.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Twilight and Rainbow Dash could only watch in awe at the smouldering ruins of Ashville, though they knew it not as such, having had no contact with the Nephites. They had no knowledge that Ashville was the last known location of Derpy Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, and the Great and Powerful Trixie.

They were stunned nonetheless.

“You... you don’t think anypony was down there? Do you?” Twilight asked.

“You mean... like Vinyl and Surprise? No... Of... of course not! Why would they be... down there?” Rainbow Dash said.

Both mares looked at each other in horror, they had no proof, but they began to assume the worst.

BAM!

Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned around to discover that a large metal hatch had popped open, a white foreleg stuck out at Vinyl Scratch pulled herself up from the hole in the ground.

“Oh hey girls!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Good thing you don’t have mallets, or this would be the worst game of life-sized wack-a-mole ever!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s mouths fell open, but they soon turned to a smile, Vinyl Scratch was okay!

Vinyl pulled herself out and turned around, reaching back in to pull somepony behind her out. Vinyl grunted and pulled none other than Trixie, who looked incredibly drunk and unaware of what had just happened out behind her.

Derpy Hooves followed shortly thereafter, followed by Graham Cracker, then Bishop Hoof, and one by one, the Nephites of Ashville began to pile out. The whole town was accounted for.

“There is an old saying,” Graham Cracker said. “A nephite caught unprepared, is not a nephite at all.”

Graham smiled with his eyes towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight; the then took notice of Rainbow’s injured wing. “That needs tending to.”

Graham Cracker took several bandages out of his saddlebags and began to wrap Rainbow Dash’s wound.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Derpy asked. Vinyl looked over to her and gave her a grin. Derpy didn’t respond to it. “We need to talk.”

...

Vinyl and Derpy walked away from the crowd, she looked over to her marefriend and frowned. “This was a normal day for you, wasn’t it Vinyl?”

Vinyl couldn’t help but grin. “Pretty much, yeah!”

Derpy continued to frown, causing the grin upon Vinyl’s face to slowly fade.

“Derpy?” Vinyl asked. Derpy raised a hoof, shushing her and then continued to speak.

“Vinyl... I care about you, I really do! But there is no way that I can keep up with this...” Derpy said.

Vinyl sighed, nodding her head. “I understand, I guess we’re done then?”

Derpy nodded in affirmation.

“I’m sorry Derpy; I was never good enough for you. You deserve way better than what I can offer you. I hope we can still be friends though!” Vinyl said with a smile.

Derpy shook her head in the negative. “You should have tried harder, Vinyl.”

Vinyl nodded her head in agreement.

Derpy looked away from her. “I’m not coming back to Ponyville, not right away. I’ve got a lot of thinking that I need to do.”

“I understand,” Vinyl said. “I’ll take care of Dinky for you until you get back,” she said, offering the Pegasus a smile. Derpy gave her a disapproving look and shook her head, causing Vinyl to frown.

“You can’t even take care of yourself Vinyl Scratch,” Derpy said. “You’ve proven that already.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to speak, but Derpy had already turned away from her. Vinyl shut her mouth tightly; she knew that Derpy was right.

Vinyl turned back and walked over to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Graham Cracker had finished bandaging Rainbow Dash’s wing and had turned his attention to others.

“You okay Vinyl?” Rainbow Dash asked her.

Vinyl looked up and forced a grin at her. “Me?! Yeah! I’m great! I’m always fine!”

Neither Rainbow Dash nor Twilight believed her, but before they could say anything about it, they were interrupted by a certain azure unicorn.

“You!” Trixie shouted, pointing a hoof at Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight Sparkle! Trixie has found you! Trixie will fight you!” Trixie cried out in a drunken slur, she took a few steps and promptly passed out onto the ground.

“Yeah... we need to take her back with us,” Vinyl said. “The nephites have had enough of her... has anypony seen Surprise?”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at each other and then shook their heads. “We thought she was with you!”

“We got separated,” Vinyl explained, she opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the all too familiar cry.

“SURPRISE!”

In a flash of white, Vinyl Scratch was on the ground pinned under Surprise, who was grinning widely at her.

“Surprise...” Vinyl said, grunting in annoyance.

“Hey! You do this too!” Surprise called out. “You can’t complain when it’s done to you!”

Vinyl thought about it for a moment, and realised that the Pegasus had a point... she didn’t like it, but she had a point.

“I hate it when you’re right...” Vinyl complained.

...

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch (who was carrying Trixie on her back), and Surprise made their way back to the scout car, leaving the Divide and the nephites behind them. The return trip was much smoother, as Vinyl Scratch found herself to be far too depressed to be her reckless self.

They continued to drive for about an hour before they noticed something off in the distance. It was a pink blob, a lone pink blob in the middle of the desert. They approached it to discover that the pink blob was a pony, and not just any pony.

It was Pinkie Pie; she was lying on her back, relaxing in the sun wearing a pair of extremely dark sunglasses.

Vinyl pulled up to her and shut the scout car off. Rainbow Dash, who was in the gunner’s spot looked down at her.

“Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash called to her.

Pinkie Pie lifted the sunglasses up off her eyes and looked at her. “Hey Dashie!” she said with a smile.

Vinyl Scratch had opened the door to the car and hopped out, she trotted up to Pinkie Pie and looked directly at her. “Pinkie Pie... where is Pips Domino?”

“I dunno!” Pinkie Pie said brightly as she slid the sunglasses back down over her eyes. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday! I stopped being a hostage the day after we left!”

Vinyl Scratch looked incredibly confused and Pinkie Pie sat up and looked directly at her.

“I know you’re probably super mad at him, but you really shouldn’t be! He didn’t want to hurt me; he was just scared that Legion was going to do something bad to him!” Pinkie Pie explained. “We saw this big vapour trail off in the distance and said that he was sorry for dragging me along to this, and then he let me go! He pointed me in the direction of Appleoosa, and started walking off in... Oh I don’t remember... some direction!”

Vinyl Scratch raised an eyebrow. “Then why aren’t you going towards Appleoosa?” she asked.

“Isn’t it obvious!? Pinkie sense told me to wait RIGHT HERE! So here I am!” Pinkie Pie said, she looked blankly at her hoof for a moment, and then back to Vinyl Scratch. “Pinkie sense says I can go now! Let’s go home!”

Vinyl opened her mouth to say something, but found that she could only smile at Pinkie Pie. “All right, let’s go home!”

...

Several weeks had passed by the time the knock on the Library door came, Vinyl Scratch opened the door to find that Derpy Hooves was standing outside the door. Vinyl did a double take; it was Derpy all right, though you might not have been able to tell at this point.

Derpy looked incredibly different. What Vinyl Scratch first noticed was that her eyes were no longer crossed, but as she looked over what Derpy was dressed in, it was what Vinyl took more notice of.

Derpy was wearing Canterlot Police Service CO19 riot barding, almost identical to the vest that Graham Cracker wore, except somewhat cleaner looking and having holes in it for her wings. Around the riot barding was a schäferhund storm harness with a nephite 12.7mm pistol clipped into it.

“Derpy?” Vinyl asked in surprise.

“Not exactly,” Derpy said, maintaining a neutral expression.

“H... how are you?” Vinyl asked.

“God has seen fit to grant me safe travel,” Derpy said simply. “May I come in?”

“O... of course!” Vinyl said as she stepped aside.

Derpy casually walked inside, past Vinyl who could only stop and stare. She noticed that Derpy’s cutie mark was gone too.

“You’ve... ” Vinyl began.

“Become a nephite?” Derpy asked. “Yes, I have been welcomed into God’s fold, and it was, quite frankly, the best choice I had ever made. I am judged according to my ability, and not my appearance, and I certainly proved my worth during the construction of New Maneaan.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to ask, however, Derpy beat her to the punch, knowing exactly what she was going to ask.

“After the destruction of Ashville, Graham Cracker led our people out of the Divide and to a place where we could make our new home, our promised land where we could live out our lives in peace. That is New Maneaan.”

“Where is this...? New Maneaan at?” Vinyl asked.

Derpy gave Vinyl an annoyed look that indicated that she was not going to tell her. “God hath taught us: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.’ But as far as I am concerned, the townponies of Ponyville, and the Nephites of New Maneaan are NOT friends.”

Vinyl swallowed hard, she wasn’t sure that she liked this new Derpy.

It was at that point that Dinky wandered into the room, she looked up to discover that Derpy was in the room. “Mummy!” she cried out excitedly, and ran and gave her mother the biggest hug she could muster.

Derpy smiled brightly at Dinky, hugging her back. “Oh I missed you little one! Come on, it’s time to go home! Climb up on my back,”

Dinky smiled at Derpy brightly and climbed up onto her back. Derpy turned and walked out of the Library without another word. Vinyl Scratch followed her out.

“Derpy!” Vinyl called out to her.

Derpy looked back at her scornfully. “It’s not Derpy, not anymore. I was baptised in the nephite tradition, and I was given a new name. From now on, my name is Ditzy Doo.”

Vinyl looked in confusion as Ditzy Doo walked away from her.

“May God be with you Vinyl Scratch, you need his help far more than I,” Ditzy Doo said, she leapt into the air, and just like that, she was gone.