Chapter 4 - Reclamation

Chapter 4
Reclamation

Golden and I bolted from Manehatten with newly-instilled confidence. I had no idea where it came from, but I was ready to take on anything.

It wasn’t long before Golden and I came across the houses Driver spoke of. They looked pretty decrepit from the outside, but there were quite a few of them. Many of those that were intact were either boarded up, or barely counted as ravaged husks of the houses that were once there.

Golden and I found some safes within the shells of some houses, but much to our dismay, all of the ones we found were cleaned out. We decided there was nothing more for us to see outside and looked for a house to stay in for the night.

We walked into a house. It was dark, so I turned on my PipBuck light. The house honestly looked better than I thought it would. I expected a horrid mess and a completely desolate room with no furniture, but instead, we got the opposite. It was an okay-looking room, nothing prestigious. There were couches and a table in the living room and counters with various items on them. The house seemed to be good-sized, so Golden and I decided to look for anything that may be able to help us.

One of the tables had a broken picture on it that caught my eye; I picked it up to look at it more closely. It was a picture of two happy-looking ponies. One of them looked like a slightly older unicorn: blue-eyed with a white coat and a well-styled purple, curly mane and tail. Her cutie mark was hard to make out because of the age of the picture, but looking closely, it seemed to be that of three light-blue diamonds. The pony she was standing next to was an earth pony with cyan eyes, and an alabaster coat. Her mane and tail were a light shade of blue with a stripe of a lighter shade of blue in the middle, wearing what appeared to be some kind of shirt collar with a bowtie around her neck. She was a very cute pony, but unfortunately, I couldn't tell what her cutie mark was.

One of them must have lived here, I thought.

I looked over to Golden, who was checking the kitchen while I was in the living room. “Find anything, Golden?”

“Sorry, Seren,” she replied meekly, “I don’t think there would be much we can use here.”

We decided to check the bathroom before going upstairs. The only thing of note we seemed to come across was a first aid kit. The design was particularly interesting, as opposed to what I was used to in the stable. The box built into the wall was a light, nearly butter-colored shade of yellow with a pink cross spanning the entire front. Three small silhouettes of butterflies could be seen in the middle. Unfortunately for me and Golden, it was locked. I found Golden a bobby pin to see if she could pick the lock, but she failed and broke the pin.

"I'm sorry, Seren," she said in a dejected tone, "I'm not familiar enough with old world locks to know how to pick these smaller ones yet."

"It's fine, Golden. Let's look around some more," I said, trying to get her mind off the failure.

Golden and I went up to the second floor, but we were only met with another restroom with nothing of interest and two bedrooms. One seemed to be a foal’s bedroom and the other a master bedroom with a queen-sized bed. We went into the master bedroom and Golden went and sat on the bed while I sat on the floor at the end of the bed.

I thought it might be a good time to check what I had. I took my saddlebag off and starting looking at what was inside. Among my possessions were the combat knife I got from the warehouse, the barely functional sawn-off shotgun that I only had four shells left for, two StealthBucks and one healing potion. I was a bit annoyed at myself simply because I could have been carrying so much more.

I started to think about whether there was anything I missed while I was back in Manehatten until I heard Golden say my name.

"Seren?"

I looked up at her, "What is it, Golden?"

"Are you sure about Stable 64? I-I mean, uh, what if—"

"Please, Golden, I would rather not have this discussion again. I think it would be a good idea to rest here. You can sleep on that bed and I’ll go into the other room. After we wake up, we go straight to Stable 64."

She just let out a whimper and laid down. With that, I went into the other bedroom and did the same.

My eyes cracked open to the sound of a door opening. I checked my PipBuck to see it was just after 3 AM. Golden and I had been asleep way longer than intended.

I got out of the bed and went to get Golden. While sneaking through the hallway I was able to hear a rough, gravelly voice from downstairs. "I hope no faggot-ass wastelander ponies wandered in here."

Followed by a female voice saying, "Ya say that every fuckin' time! I keep tellin ya no one is ever here; it's just us, ya damn retard!"

I assumed it was the house's rightful owners. Maybe two raiders, judging from their vocabulary, but I was far from sure. I remember Driver telling me a little bit about raiders while we were going through Manehattan. He said they have a tendency to swear a lot and are avid drug users. He also mentioned how, unlike slavers, they can’t be reasoned with, or talked to most of the time. There was also something he said about their armor being very distinct and easy to pick out. If he gave me any examples, I couldn't recall at that moment.

I went into the other room as silently as I could to get Golden. I knew I would more likely than not have to kill these ponies, so I readied my combat knife.

I shook Golden a bit to wake her up and before she said anything, I covered her mouth with my hoof and whispered in her ear, "Golden, we need to leave now, I think there are raiders here.” Her eyes grew wide with concern. “Just follow me and stay quiet." She got out of the bed and onto all fours.

We heard the male voice from downstairs again. "I’mma go to fuckin’ bed!"

We began to hear the steps creaking as the pony started making his way toward the room. Me and Golden became a bit more nervous. Not wanting to waste the StealthBucks on these ponies I knew there wouldn’t be a way out of the room without being seen, I levitated the knife and steeled myself.

We leaned up against the wall right next to the door and the hoofsteps sounded closer than before. The moment he came through the door, I screamed and thrust the combat knife as hard as I could, leaving a deep cut on the right side of his body, causing him to stumble back into the hallway.

"Grah! You fucking whore!" he grunted out while trying to draw his own weapon, but I stabbed him again this time in the chest, killing him. I heard another set of hoofsteps coming up the stairs. I quickly took his half-drawn 10mm pistol.

Before I could duck back into the bedroom with Golden, a second pony came up the stairs, clad in what looked to be some sort of well-made barding. She started shooting at me from the other side of the hall.

I moved around, trying to dodge her shots. One hit me in the leg, causing me to scream and stumble, almost falling over. She took one more shot at me and I just barely dodged it before she fired.

Not planning to go down so easily, I drew my newly-acquired 10mm, went into S.A.T.S. and took aim at her head.

I didn't feel confident in the thirty one percent chance I had to hit. Nevertheless, I took two shots at her, with one missing (of course) and the other just barely hitting her ear, causing her to stumble back a bit.

She backed too far down the stairs, out of sight. I quickly put the pistol away and took out my combat knife to finish her off. However, my injured leg made it so I couldn’t get to her as fast as I liked.

I limped down toward the raider and met her on the stairs. I tried to stab the mare, but she pulled out her own combat knife and took a swung at me. I ducked and thrusted at her right forehoof, causing her to scream in pain and tumble down the stairs.

I stood there—still levitating the knife and panting—looking at her. I wondered if she was dead, I slowly made my way off the stairs and was able to see she was still breathing. “Look, I don't want to kill you so I suggest not forcing me to. You and I can settle this without more death if you just let me and my friend leave this house peacefully.”

As a reply, she got up, clenching her knife in her mouth. She was growling, staring me down with the intent to kill. I readied my knife again, as she ran at me screaming, "You bitch!”

I heard the sound of ripping flesh, as her knife tore jaggedly into the left side of my body. My eyes grew wide with shock after she ripped the metal blade out, leaving a huge bleeding gash. The intense pain shot through me immediately. I screamed with pain as my vision started to blur and I felt my legs getting weaker.

The mare chuckled and and walked around my backside before stopping in front of me, waiting for me to fall. “I bet that really stings doesn't it, cunt?”

I defiantly glared at her and focused all my energy for one final attack in an attempt to kill her before my body and magic gave out. I could see that she was about to finish me off so with one erratic movement I blindly took a stab at her with my knife plunging it into her right eye, causing her to collapse onto the floor, screaming in pain. I slowly staggered away from the dying raider.

She kept attempting to pull the knife out of her eye with her hooves, screaming obscenities and racist slurs I've never heard before at me. until finally falling to the floor, dead.

A couple of seconds after she fell to the floor, I joined her, feeling dizzy and lightheaded due to the blood loss.

Scared of bleeding out, I screamed for Golden's aid. "G-Golden! Please c-come down! I need help!"

Golden gasped in horror when she saw the gruesome scene. I saw her starting to hyperventilate. “Se-Ser… y-your—”

"Golden, please stay calm.” I coughed. “I need you to h-help me. Check if that raider I killed has a k-key to that first aid box."

I saw Golden take a deep breath to calm herself down and make her way over to the dead raider, wincing as her hooves touched the blood that seeped onto the floor. “Find the key, just find the key,” I heard her quietly mutter to herself.

While she was checking, I took my last healing potion. I knew it wouldn't fully heal me, but I needed Golden to have more time. I tried to look at my wound: it only looked like it closed up slightly. It was still bleeding badly, the blood starting to stain my light-gray fur. I found myself still unable to get up.

“Seren, I found some keys!” Golden exclaimed. I looked over to her and saw her levitating a ring with five different keys on it. Before I could tell her what to do next, I saw her dart off to the bathroom. I couldn't see what was happening, which left me a bit unsettled even though I knew Golden knew what she was doing. I heard her trying the keys on the box until hearing her say, “Got it!” in a proud and triumphant tone.

She rushed back into the room and laid three health potions down in front of me. “You're a life saver, Golden,” I shakily said before drinking two of them. They closed up the wound on my body, for the most part. The wound was still there and it still stung a bit, but it was good enough.

I was finally able to stand up again, causing Golden to smile. I cracked my neck and thanked her again.

“It’s the least I can do, Seren,” she responded in a happy tone.

I walked over to the raider and stripped her of all she had. This included a combat knife, a healing potion, a 10mm pistol, a fair amount of caps and her armor.

I turned around and saw Golden gazing at me with a profound look of confusion on her face. “Er... why did you take all her stuff?”

“It’s one of the things we will need to do to survive out here, Golden,” I said as I made my way to the bathroom with her trailing behind me.

I went into the bathroom and checked the first aid kit. It was chock full of items, so much so that there was a hole in the wall behind it. I assume the raiders made it when the kit was getting full. I cleaned it out, giving me a bunch of medicines I have never seen before, including two more Healing Potions, two Med-X, two Mint-als, two Rad-X, one Hydra, one Buck and one RadAway. Aside from the Healing Potions and Med-X, I wouldn’t have known the names of any of them if they all had not been labeled. Even if they weren't, it was at this point I noticed that my PipBuck was keeping track of all the items I collected, I was astounded.

After taking all I could, I turned to Golden and said, “I think we should leave the house now In case more raiders come along.”

She gave me a confirmative nod in response and we both promptly left the house.

Golden and I made it back to the cave, looking eerily ominous over the dark, dimly colored clouds of the early morning. We didn't waste much time walking back into the cave. It was so odd, as it only felt like mere hours ago we were fleeing this cave. We didn't get too far in before I turned my PipBuck light on.

After a couple of minutes of walking I stopped Golden and gave her a 10mm pistol and a StealthBuck. "If we are going to hope to save the stable, I need you to help me. Okay?"

She looked down, I knew she wasn't ready for this, but it was what had to be done. She looked up and said quietly, "I'll try, Seren." With that, I gave her a nod and we both kept going.

I turned off my PipBuck light when we got close enough to see light from the stable door, mainly out of fear of getting caught. We both hugged the cave wall until I could see the entrance of the stable.

I saw two raiders, both armed with machine guns and well-fortified barding. Nothing Golden and I could take on, at least as we were now.

I sat up against the wall on my haunches and evaluated our options. Honestly, we didn't have many. If we tried to attack them directly, one of two things would happen, we would either be captured and tortured, or we would be killed right away. We could use the StealthBucks, but I wasn't sure how long they would last. What if they wore off while we were in the Atrium and it was filled with machine gun toting raiders? We would die so fast it would be shameful! We could try and get them to come to us, but that would just turn into a losing game of hide and seek.

I was becoming stressed, I turned to Golden. "Golden, there are two raiders at the entrance, both with machine guns. We need to find a way to get past them, do you have any ideas?"

I saw her instantly become worried and start to sweat a bit. "I—um uhh… I-I don't know," she stuttered.

"Golden, do you know how long those StealthBucks last?"

She quietly sighed. "I'm sorry; I’m not sure."

I looked down at the ground and dug one of my forehooves into the dirt, trying to think of another option without having to take a gamble on the StealthBucks. With nothing coming to mind, as much as I hated the idea, we needed to take a chance on the StealthBucks.

I knew that what Golden and I were going to see in the stable would most likely be gruesome. "Golden," she turned to me, indicating I had her full attention. "I've decided we are going to use the stealth bucks to go through the stable. No matter what we see, we have to keep moving. I know this will be hard, but we need to get as far into the stable as we can."

She gulped in reply. "I'm scared, Seren."

I looked down and whispered, "I am too... I just hope Dad’s shelter plan worked.” I brought up my PipBuck map. “We should be able to find it, I still have the marker Dad put right here."

I took out the StealthBuck and looked at it in confusion. “Umm… Golden, how do these things work anyway?”

“I think you just plug it into your PipBuck and it makes you invisible,” she quietly said.

“Okay then, together, from three… three, two, o—”

Golden tapped me on the shoulder, stopping me. “Umm, Seren. I don’t have my PipBuck anymore… I can’t use the StealthBuck.”

I looked at her in complete disbelief. “B-but can’t you just activate it with your magic?”

Golden shook her head “It’s a PipBuck accessory. It only works with PipBucks.”

And just like that, we were back at square one. I buried my head in my forehooves, growling in frustration. “Then what are we supposed to do now?”

Golden thought for a brief moment. “Well, I mean, you can still use the StealthBuck. Maybe you should just go without me; I’ll stay here.” She looked down and let out a sigh. “The stable probably hates me anyway.”

“I’m not going in there without you, Golden. There has got to be another way we can both get in there.” I paused as a moment of brilliance passed through my mind. “Would we be able to disguise ourselves as them?”

“I guess we could, but how would we get the armor?” Golden asked.

Apparently, I was ahead of my own thought process, I didn't really think about how we would get the armor, without killing any of them. I thought for a few moments and took another look at the stable door. I realized there was no other way and I let out a hopeless sigh.“I… I’m going to have to kill them. Golden, will the StealthBuck make my weapons invisible?”

“I’m not sure, but it should”

“Okay then.” I took in a deep breath. “Wish me luck.” I activated the StealthBuck.

My eyes widened in surprise as the StealthBuck began to work. I was shocked at the sight of my hooves and body becoming translucent before my very eyes. I turned to Golden. “Did it work?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I can’t see you at all.”

“Okay then… Here I go.” I took another deep breath and steeled myself.

"Be careful, Seren,” I heard Golden say as I walked toward the stable door.

The closer I got to it, the better I could see the raiders. They didn't look too much like the raiders I fought earlier. I was able to hear them having a conversation, and they sounded like halfway intelligent ponies so much so that I questioned whether I would have to kill them, or not, but I couldn't take any chances. I also took note of the barding they were wearing, which was nothing like the barding I got from the raider I killed.

The barding I had, while well reinforced, seemed to be good quality makeshift at best. The barding they had was dark gray and metal plated, covering their entire body. They also had the same color horseshoes. In addition, they had what seemed to be a strange kind of riot helmet. It was made of a strange metal looking material with tinted glass covering the face area. One of the two guards seemed to have what looked like a metallic, mesh-like object covering his legs with no armored knee pads, while the other guard had just kneepads. I didn't know too much about old world barding, excluding the security barding we used.

I thought about how I could best kill them most efficiently and decided the best way to start would be with the helmets.

I went into the doorway of the room to the right where me and Golden opened the stable door from when we had left. I flared up my magic and quickly yanked both of their helmets off.

They both look at each other in surprise. “What in Tartarus? My helmet just flew off!”

“Yeah, mine did too! Somepony’s in here!” I heard the sound of them arming their machine guns.

Becoming scared of getting found, I went further into the room and wanted to back into the hallway leading to the Overmare’s office, only to find that it was sealed off. I didn’t realize it until now and it may be too late. All I could do was go to the back of the room.

I was almost too scared to move, one wrong move and I would be killed. Celestia, please be with me, I prayed. I had steeled myself and was beginning to move to attack the first one until I saw him come into the room and looked directly at me. My heart stopped. This was it, if the StealthBuck wore off now, I would be gunned down like nothing! I stood there—completely petrified—for a few seconds that felt like hours until the raider finally stepped back out of the doorway.

“Where is this pony?” he growled, frustrated.

After taking a couple seconds to recover, I took a deep breath and started to go to attack him again.

I quickly creeped up to him and with a swift motion stabbed him in the back of the neck with my knife. The other raider saw his partner fall and gasped. “The sh— is this place haunted?!”

He cautiously made his way over and inspected his partner’s dead body. “What the… a knife wound, but how did—”

While he was thinking outloud I stabbed him in the neck in much the same way, causing him to die.

I stood there for a few more seconds until the StealthBuck wore off.

I went to get Golden, so we could get the armor and put it on. She trotted after me into the stable. She took a few steps into the stable and looked down after hearing the all too familiar metal clang underneath her hooves. “It feels so weird… Just coming back here like this.”

I couldn't help but agree with her, but this was no time for reminiscing. I decided to take the one with the metallic mesh to cover my PipBuck. We carefully took the armor off the dead ponies and put it on ourselves. It was a bit too large for us and very heavy. While I was putting the armor on, I noticed something about the metallic mesh, it seems to be a shirt of sorts comprised entirely of linked chains. I had never see this stuff before, so I wasn't sure how effective it was during combat. One thing was for sure, it was very heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

Luckily, me and Golden both had our own machine guns now and best of all, they looked to be in halfway decent condition. Well, at least compared to the sawn off I was still carrying around with me for some reason.

Me and Golden finally got the armor on. After putting on the helmets, we could barely recognize each other. “Okay, first things first. Let’s hide these bodies,” I said to Golden.

When the raiders died, they left very little blood on the floor, which was good for us since they had a lower chance of being found. Golden and I pulled both bodies into the room off to the right, laying them on the floor in the back.

“Okay, that should be good enough,” I said, panting slightly. “Are you ready, Golden?”

She nodded.

“Alright then. Remember, just act natural.”

And with that, we went through the door and continued into the Atrium.

We got into the Atrium and my jaw dropped. Right in the center of the room there was a pile of ponies, lying in a bloody heap, all of them lifeless and riddled with bulletholes. I started to shake and weep, I had never seen something so horrifyingly disgusting in my life. Despite my disgust and shock Golden and I had to force ourselves to keep walking forward.

The room was being patrolled by raiders, all wearing, more or less, the same body armor as Golden and I. However, some lacked helmets. Everypony's legs seemed to be different, ranging from having no armor apart from the horseshoes to having both the metal looking mesh and the armored kneepads.

The longer I was here, the more difficulty I had controlling my rage and not blowing our disguises.

The room was more dimly lit than I remember, the light having more of an ominous green tinge to it now. The formerly plain metal walls had been redecorated with bulletholes and a couple of odd graffiti drawings. Needless to say I wasn't too pleased with the new décor.

Both me and Golden were struggling not to react to the bloody mess of ponies in the center in a way that would cast suspicion on us. My eyes widened in terror when I heard Golden weeping and quickly kicked her to make her stop.

A chill went up my spine when I saw one of the raiders start coming toward us. I thought our cover was blown. “Hey, why are you in here? Who’s patrolling the entrance?” he shouted at us.

I decided to lower my voice to a rougher, more gravely tone, to respond to him. “Yeah, about that, we were called down to Maintenance to check some shit. We were gonna be back in a few minutes.” Golden just nodded in agreement.

The pony looked at us suspiciously for a few seconds, before rolling his eyes. “Okay, but be quick! I’ll assign some others to guard the entrance.”

After he walked off, we trotted into the hallway. I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

The floors in the hallway were smeared with blood, creating trails that led to the dead pony pile back in the Atrium. The walls also had shocking amounts of blood, accompanied by what I'm sure was a common stable sight now, bulletholes. Thankfully, the hallway was a straight shot down to Residential.

We made it down to Residential. Golden and I still seemed to be in the clear. I saw the down the hallway and was completely disgusted. The entire floor was bloodstained, with dead ponies strewn about all over the place. With the doors to most of the residences open, I didn't need to look through the cracked glass of the windows to see ponies lying dead in their living areas, some in pools of their own blood. The walls had been defaced with various graffiti messages sprayed all over the hallway, as well as dozens of dents left in the wall by bullets.

Words could not express how badly I wanted to kill the few raiders we passed. I wanted to kill them all. I wanted to get revenge for what these awful ponies did. It took a lot of my willpower to force my anger down. I didn’t want to blow our cover, and I was sure I couldn't take any of these ponies down.

We soon made it to the stairs of Maintenance. Before we went down the stairs, I lifted up the metallic mesh covering my legs revealing my PipBuck.

“What are you doing, Seren?” Golden asked.

“I’m just making sure we know how to get to this room.” After a few seconds, I showed Golden my PipBuck. “Here, Golden, could you find where this room is and lead the way there? I mean, this is your part of the stable after all.”

“Alright.” She looked at the PipBuck’s screen. After a few seconds, she looked back up. “Okay, I’m pretty sure I’ve got it, follow me.” She continued down the hall.

I followed Golden. While we were passing by the hallway leading down to her residence, I heard some laughing and what sounded like some ponies having a great time. I was pretty sure it was more raiders. They probably made a mess out of her residence, maybe even broken into the DMT1 room. I was actually surprised at how few raiders were down here.

We soon found ourselves in the deepest darkest corridors of Maintenance; many ponies would call it a Tartarus incarnate. These hallways echoed with unsettling groans and sudden loud noises. Machines housed down here included the incinerator and recycling systems, huge generators and a couple of other machines that I doubted even Golden herself knew the purposes of.

The walls were darker than normal and the lighting was almost nonexistent, bar a few orange-ish colored lights that acted as markers of sorts.

After a bit of walking, I decided to stop Golden. “I’m assuming we’re pretty close, right?”

“Yeah, we’re almost there, why?”

“I think it would be okay to take this armor off now; it’s safe to assume our chances of encountering a raider this far down are slim.”

Golden gave a hefty sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness. I was starting to get worried we’d still have to be wearing it as a disguise when we found the shelter.” She started slipping off the armor, as did I.

We took everything off save for the machine guns and continued to the room.

We made it to where Dad marked the location on my PipBuck. Golden let out a surprised gasp. “Oh, I remember when I sealed this part of the stable off a few years ago. I should have known this was where he meant; it’s the perfect spot.”

After feeling around a bit, my hooves came across a metal plate that was slightly bent in the top right corner. “I think I found it.” I pulled on the plate. “Golden, help me with this thing.”

With Golden’s help, we were able to pry back the metal plate and slip behind it. I let Golden go in before myself. The metal plate snapped back into place after I got through.

“Don’t move a fucking muscle.”

I turned around and immediately froze up when I saw two security mares aiming their shotguns at us from behind a makeshift barricade. I recognized who they were right away: Nightshade and Daylight, the stable’s classic good cop, bad cop sister duo. They looked a bit roughed up—their barding was damaged and both of them had some small cuts all over their bodies.

“Why the fuck did you come back?“ Nightshade yelled. “And how did you get down here? You're in cahoots with those savages upstairs! AREN'T YOU?”

I had to say something quick if I didn’t want to get blasted in the face. “Please, I don’t mean any harm!” I pleaded. “And I’m not with the raiders!”

Daylight humphed in response. “Yeah right! Give us one reason to believe you!”

With my previous knowledge of Stable 64’s security procedures, I knew they couldn't shoot me unless I made any hostile or sudden movements. Then again, the regulations never took into account stable wide raider attacks.

I gulped. “If I was in cahoots with the raiders and they sent me to kill you, I would have done, or uhh… tried to already, or I would have just told them where you were. Me and Golden used StealthBucks to get down here. I came back because I felt terrible about what happened and I wanted to help. Please, you don't have to believe me, just give me a chance.”

Nightshade growled at me. “If we weren't still following protocol, I would blast you right in the damn face for all you’ve done, you bitch! Do you know how many ponies have died because of you and that Golden cunt!?” She sighed. “Daylight, go get Oculus.”

Daylight said nothing and started walking down the hall.

“Don’t you dare move a muscle! Oculus will decide what to do with you. He got all of us down here, so he decides who gets in. I will have no problem shooting you dead right in front of your father. Who knows? He may actually thank me for it!” Nightshade grinned, brandishing the shotgun.

I knew my dad would never have me killed. He knew I never intended for any of this to happen.

A couple minutes later, we heard hoofsteps echoing through the hallway. My father trotted into view. I saw his jaw drop in surprise and start moving toward us quicker.

He got up to us with a look of disbelief still plastered onto his face.

“H-hi, Dad,” I said sheepishly.

“S-Seren… how did y—”

“Oculus!” Nightshade yelled, snapping him back to attention. “What do you want us to do with them? Let them in? Or kill them?”

Oculus thought for a moment. “I’m letting them in, but they’ll be under high-threat probation.” He looked back to me. “Sorry, honey, but I’m afraid that, after everything that’s happened, we can’t fully trust you… yet.”

I knew what high-threat probation meant. If I drew any weapons, or showed any signs of violence, I would be shot and killed on sight. Same went for Golden. Even though I should have expected all this, hearing my own father saying those words to me was almost like being stabbed in the heart. I nearly cried, but tried to fight back the tears as I followed him down the corridor.

Daylight and Nightshade stepped aside, allowing me and Golden to continue. As I passed by Nightshade, I saw her mouth the words “lucky bitch” at me while glaring.

As we walked through the hallway, I was still struggling to grasp the fact that my own father had doubts about me now.

“Dad, do… do you think I wanted this to happen?”

He kept walking.

“I honestly don’t know, Seren. I don’t think you would want this, but everyone else is thinking differently. They’re convinced that you and Golden planned all of this, or are at least accomplices in it.”

I was fighting to hold back tears. “Dad,” I croaked, trying not to cry. I could see we were getting near the room where all the ponies had taken shelter. “C-can I please tell you what happened? I… I don’t want to go into that room knowing that you don’t even trust me.”

“I think that would be a good start.”

I told him the entire story, everything that happened after I left the stable.

“So you say you and Golden were unknowingly used, huh?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

I nodded. “I know it’s hard to believe but please dad! I really did come back to help! I didn’t know any of this would happen!”

He looked off the the side. “I believe you… but the stable won’t. I know that you’ll face hostility if you go into that room. Let me tell them you are coming first for your safety. Do you have any other questions you want to ask?”

"Do you know who all survived?"

He explained to me, "Well, I only have rough estimates. I think there are some married couples, a few fillies. Not many members of the security team survived, but several managed to make it here. There seems to be an equal number of mares and stallions. All and all I would say there are somewhere around 80 to 90 ponies in there, if that helps.”

Another question popped up into my mind. “Did… did the Overmare make it?” I asked.

Oculus shook his head. “I don’t think so. Nopony’s seen her anywhere. I sincerely hope that she escaped, but I fear that those... things... upstairs may have gotten to her.”

As much as I despised the Overmare for what she did to Golden, nopony deserves to be heaped onto a pile and left to rot.

He started walking to the room and telling the other ponies of our arrival. We couldn't hear much of what he was saying which I preferred at this point.

After a few minutes, he came back and let out a sigh. “Ok, you are good to go in now but be warned… Not many ponies are happy about it.”

We walked into the improvised shelter. It was a fairly large, dimly-lit, hollowed-out room, with dark-gray metal walls. I could clearly see where the machines that were removed from this room originally stood from the indentations in the concrete floors and the covered pipes in the walls. To the left of the entrance was a partial wall splitting the room into two sections. The area behind the wall was much smaller than the main part of the room and had no lighting, which explained why nopony was there.

Golden and I walked into the room. Most of the ponies were glaring at us, and I heard lots of whispering, both distinct and indistinct.

“How much ya wanna bet they’re in cahoots with those psycho ponies who attacked?”

“I don't trust those bitches one bit.”

“They’re both murderers, I heard they killed Fairlaw.”

Golden and I made our way to the other end of the room. Many ponies were still giving us glares and some outright refused to make as much as eye contact with us. Golden looked to me, an expression of fear clear on her face. "I don't feel comfortable here, Seren."

I placed a hoof on Golden's shoulder. "I know, but that's to be expect—"

I was interrupted when suddenly, Liaison burst from the crowd, and, before I could react, she slammed me up against the wall by my neck, using one of her forelegs. I screamed in pain causing most ponies in the room to turn and gasp. She screamed at me tears streaming down her face, "How DARE you kill my mother! YOU FUCKING MONSTER!" She thrust her foreleg again, this time almost crushing my windpipe.

I saw Oculus come up and try to pull her away saying, "Liaison, let her go dammit!"

"Li-L—" I desperately tried to talk to her but I couldn’t. Not when I couldn’t even breathe. My vision was starting to blur when out of the corner of my eye I saw a gun appear on the left side of Liaison's head, her eyes widened as she looked at it.

I heard a vaguely familiar voice.

"Let. Her. Go."

I fell to the ground gasping for air, Golden trying her best to comfort me. My vision slowly started to come back into focus. I looked up to get a glimpse of the pony who saved me and saw a figure covered in a rust-brown cloak.

Liaison growled, then glared down at me. “I will get you back for this, Seren,” she said in a low voice. “I swear to the goddesses, my first order as Head of Security will be to have you shot dead, point blank!”

“Thank you for the extra persuasion, Cloak,” I heard Oculus say. “I can take it from here.” Then I heard him lead Liaison away.

The pony in the rust-brown cloak humphed in response and put her revolver back under her clothing.

She started walking away, with Golden staying by my side. "Are you okay, Seren?" she asked.

I tried to respond to Golden, but couldn’t. I was only able to cough and gasp for air. I was finally able to speak again after about a minute of trying to catch my breath. “I’ll be f-fine, Golden,” I said to her through the panting.

After I gave myself a few minutes to recover, I looked around and saw that cloaked pony, who was not too far away from where we were. At that moment I recognized her as the same pony that saved us back in Maintenance when we initially tried to leave the stable. She was just leaning against a wall with nopony talking to her or even so much as noticing her. Something gave me the feeling that she enjoyed the isolation to some degree. I thought it would be as good a time as any to try and talk to her.

I told Golden to stay where she was as I walked over to the cloaked pony. “Umm... h-hi there,” I sheepishly said.

“What do you need?” she asked, her back turned to me.

I realized her voice was that of an older female pony and sounded eerily familiar, as if I heard it somewhere before, other than when she saved us in Maintenance. “I'm not sure if you realize it,” I said, “but during that lockdown a couple days ago you saved me and Golden, and I just wanted to thank you.”

She said nothing and just stood there; she didn't seem like a mare of many words. I tried to get a response from her by asking, “Uhm... do you have a name?”

She finally turned around. Her entire body was covered; even her muzzle was wrapped up behind a cloth of some sort. "You can just call me Cloak."

“Oh… uh okay, mind if I ask you a question?" She replied by saying nothing, I took her silence as a yes. "Umm, when you killed the security ponies in Maintenance, how did you know about the gaps in the security barding?"

She stood there silent for a few seconds. "I'm just... good with guns."

“Oh, okay. There’s just one more thing on my mind: why did you help me... twice now?”

She turned her back to me again. “I tend to help ponies when I see them in trouble.”

I could tell she was hiding something from me, but, even if she would tell me, I was too preoccupied to think about it right now. "Okay. Thank you." I walked back toward Golden.

After a bit of looking around, we came across Starlight, who was talking to a filly. Golden and I walked up behind her and I tapped her on the back with my hoof. She turned to see us and the filly who she was previously talking with quickly trotted away upon seeing us. "Wait! Come back!" Starlight shouted after her.

After the filly didn't return, she turned back to us with a glare. "What do you want? I was trying to comfort that filly." Her glare intensified as she started to walk closer to me. Her horn beginning to glow causing me to back away. "Who, by the way, lost her parents thanks to you letting those… those… murderers into the stable, Seren!"

I was actually scared that she was going to lash out and attack me. I hadn't recalled Starlight ever being this upset before.

Once she stopped yelling at me, she regained her composure and her horn stopped glowing. Starlight just glared at me, waiting for a response. Golden said in a disappointed tone, “I thought you would be happy to see us.”

Starlight turned to Golden. “Maybe if you two didn't have the blood of hundreds of fucking ponies on your hooves, I would be!”

I quickly sprang back up on all fours. “It wasn't like that, Starlight!” I yelled.

“I know about the defense plan, Seren!” she shot back. “Everypony in Intelligence does. Records indicated a download to a PipBuck the night you two escaped, the tag number on the PipBuck matching Golden's.” She glanced at Golden’s non-existent PipBuck and snorted. “And it looks like you were happy to deliver it, too.”

“S-Starlight,” Golden stammered, “I had no—”

Starlight interrupted her. “I don’t care! The only reason you would have taken them in the first place would have been to sell us out!” She turned to look at me again. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go comfort fillies that you orphaned!”

As she started walking away, Golden ran over and stopped her. “Please, Starlight, wait!” Starlight turned only to have Golden break into tears and hug her, pleading with her. "Please listen to me me, Starlight! Let me explain what happened! You're my friend! Please! I don't want to lose you! You and Seren are all I have left!"

I watched this unfold and noticed a few ponies were watching the scene, including Oculus. Golden let go of Starlight and said with a sniffle, "Please, Starlight." Starlight said nothing and the room fell into a dead silence.

Starlight turned around and, using one of her hind legs, kicked Golden upside the head, knocking her to the floor. I heard some ponies gasp in shock, while some others actually the audacity to cheer and say that she deserved it.

"Starlight!" My father started yelling at Starlight, but the words didn’t matter to me. All that I could think about was how Golden, when she turned to Starlight—one of the few ponies she’d considered a friend—for support, she received an icy dagger to the heart. How could Starlight do something like that and walk away like it was normal? Powerless to do anything about what just happened, I just stomped my hoof in frustration.

"Dammit!" I angrily yelled, causing more than a few ponies to look at me. I withered a bit under their gaze and tended to my hurt friend.

Golden and I had just been sitting in a dark area of the room behind the partial wall. After helping Golden, she just stayed close to me. She hasn't said a word since Starlight kicked her, Oculus came up to us. "I’m so sorry about all this, Seren."

I just looked down. I felt so alone. The only one who had even a shred of respect left for us was my dad. He sat down and put his hoof around me. "Seren, me and the security team have been talking about clearing out the raiders."

I looked at him, my curiosity perked. "I've convinced them to let you help but Liaison demanded to talk to you." I shuddered a bit; he must have noticed. "I'm not going to let her hurt you."

I just looked back down and quietly said, "Alright."

He got back up. "I'm going to go get Liaison."

Right before he started walking, I said, "Dad, wait!"

He turned around. "What is it?"

"Can you please tell me what you know about, umm… Cloak?"

He tapped his chin for a few moments. “Oh yeah. That cloaked pony. Well, to be honest, none of us know anything about her. She just seemed to follow us down here. We don't even know if she has a PipBuck. It’s weird ‘cause I feel like I know her from somewhere. I just can't put my hoof on where or when. Nopony knows who she is, but she’s been helpful enough.”

Not even my dad knows her, but at least she’s seems to be on our side. “Okay, Dad, thank you,” I quietly replied.

A couple minutes later my dad came back with Liaison. I stood up to talk to her, it still looked like she’d prefer to kill me. "Why did you kill my mother? Why, Seren!" She asked with tears in her eyes.

I just looked down. "I had no choice, Liaison. She shot Golden in the chest and came at me with a taser."

She glared at me. "You’re just saying that as an excuse! I bet you wanted to kill her!"

I gave a sigh. "Why would I have wanted to kill your mother, Liaison?"

She didn't respond, and instead looked away. She started shuddering, before her hatred gave way to tears. "I-I'm just... I just feel so-so alone now!"

I looked down and hung my head in shame as Liaison continued, "You don’t know what it's like, Seren! I never knew my father, I lived for my mother! I tried to impress her and push myself everyday, just so she could have a daughter she could be proud of. A daughter who she knew would be able to take her place as head of security one day. She never even told me she loved me. I never got the chance to be the daughter she wanted... Because you killed her!"

I slowly looked up. "Liaison... I hope you know Fairlaw loved you more than you think she did."

Liaison gazed at me, her face nearly red from crying. "H-how can you possibly know that?"

I was hoping to Celestia that what I was about to say would be enough to cheer Liaison up. "She tried to kill us, but do you know why?"

Liaison had a confused look on her face. “Because she tried her best to stop you from killing any more ponies!”

"Well, yes, that’s partly true, but she became enraged when she heard you were hurt, screaming that nopony hurts her daughter, before shooting Golden in the chest. If that doesn't prove she loved you... at least a little, I don't know what does."

Liaison’s eyes slightly widened in surprise as I continued. "I don't think Fairlaw would like it if you didn’t take charge right now as the new head of security and try to take back the stable. Just because she's dead doesn't mean you can't at least do what you think would make her proud."

Liaison looked at me, her face expressionless. I could tell she had no response to what I just said. After a few moments, she finally spoke again, "I will never forgive you, Seren... EVER, but for my mother... I'm willing to look past what you did, at least until we take back Stable 64, but I still hate you.”

I gave a firm nod. "That’s okay, Liaison. I don't expect you to forgive me. I know I wouldn't if I was you."

She turned resolutely to Oculus. "We need to finish planning."

He nodded and with that, they walked off. Liaison with her back turned to me said, "We will get you when we’re ready."

I said nothing in response.

We were setting up to take back the stable. Each team was composed of a group of ten or eleven ponies. Since I had both experience and was formerly in security, I was assigned as one of the group leaders. Some of the noteable ponies in my group were Golden, Cloak and, ironically enough, Starlight, who was still absolutely beyond livid toward Golden and me.

As for how we would kill the raiders, I didn't like the look of our chances. Most of the security ponies were armed with their security barding, riot helmets and shotguns, while the remainder of the ponies had what they could improvise. They sadly didn't have any extra barding for me so I unfortunately had to remain unprotected. Of course, there was the raider armor, but wearing it didn’t strike me as a good idea, especially with what the stable currently thought of me. I had a feeling that friendly fire wasn’t out of the realm of possibility resulting from confusion… or malice.

Oculus only stored a few guns in the room, certainly not enough for everypony. Some of the more trusted ponies were given pistols and/or shotguns while most others had makeshift melee weapons made from various metal parts found around the room.

Before the briefing, I told Liaison and Oculus how the E.F.S. worked. The entire stable was using it now, so I thought it would hopefully give us an advantage and I can only hope went a long way toward regaining some degree of trust amongst the stable population.

Despite my concerns, we were as ready as we’d ever be for the attack. I had a feeling of impending doom overtake me as Liaison began briefing the teams. “Okay, listen up!” she started in a commanding tone. “I'm not going to sugarcoat this! It is unlikely all of us will make it out of this battle alive. According to what I have been told, these are not normal raiders we are up against. They appear to have good armor and weapons. No matter what our past differences were, we need to put them aside and work together to reclaim this stable. So here’s the plan: each team will secure a part of the stable. Teams one and two, you will secure Maintenance; teams three through five, you will secure Residential; team six, you will secure the entire Atrium floor; and teams seven and eight will be going all the way up to the Overmare’s office. If we need backup, we will radio for help, but if we remain silent, the teams are supposed to patrol the area and eliminate any remaining or hiding threats. Any questions?”

I was leading team seven and was surprised to hear we were going all the way to the Overmare’s office. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for the long battle ahead.

We slowly walked out of the shelter area. I looked at my E.F.S. to figure out where the enemies were, so we could get the sneak attack on one. Since my team, much to my dismay, was considered the strongest, we were first tasked with securing Maintenance. Though I’m sure some of them were just throwing me under the wagon. The other seven teams stood by in different parts of the area. We were to alert them if anything went wrong.

The E.F.S. didn’t offer as much as an advantage as I’d hoped, since I saw nothing but a mess of red lines everywhere. I figured by what I heard when I came in, most of the raiders in Maintenance were near or inside Golden’s former residence.

I knew a head on attack would be too costly and I didn’t want to have to wear that armor and get killed, because either side would be liable to shoot me, so we needed to find another plan.

“I hope you all trust me, ‘cause I think I have an idea,” I nervously said. They all just gave me blank stares. Taking their silence as a yes, I started to tell them my plan, “I’m thinking we need to make a sound so one will come investigate we hide behind these machines and then we all jump him.”

“How do we get through the armor?” one of them asked.

“I’ll yank off the helmet if they are wearing one and we will just aim for the head. Two of us will also have machine guns so that will help. Is that good? We can pick up any of their guns that we find when we’re done.”

Nopony else had a plan, so they all just agreed to mine, but they also decided I had to be the bait. And even though I was supposed to be in charge, they refused to have it any other way.

My group was hidden and in position while I was standing at the far end of the hallway leading to Golden’s residence, quaking in fear. Even though the hallway was rather long and the door was on the left side near the end, I could still tell that it was open from where I was standing. I could faintly hear the voices of the raiders echoing throughout the empty hallway. After taking a few deep breaths and gathering my thoughts, I was ready. I took out my 10mm pistol with my magic. I aimed at the back of the hallway and took a shot.

BLAM!

Two raiders rushed out of the residence, neither wearing a helmet, spotted me and drew their machine guns. “Hey, you! Stop right there!”

I panicked immediately and fled back to where I had to lure them keeping my PipBuck light on to let the others know not to shoot me. I glanced behind me and noticed they were hot on my trail. One was a unicorn and fired his machine gun at me while running, which I thankfully dodged. I responded by taking two completely blind shots at him with my 10mm, hoping to hit his head, but I only heard one bullet bounce off of his armor.

“Give it up, bitch! Stop running and let us kill you already!” one of them yelled.

“If ya stop now, maybe we’ll have a little fun with you before you die!” the other raider laughed.

I ran into the dark passageway where everyone was waiting. Halfway down the hallway, I turned my PipBuck light off so the raiders wouldn't find me and ducked down behind a machine.

I heard the raiders come in behind me. “Where did that cunt go?”

“I don't know! You run faster than me!”

“Well, maybe if you weren't staring at her plot and thinking about fucking her if we caught her, you could have kept up!”

“Oh yeah, blame me, even though I'm totally a better shot than you! Who misses a pony running through a hallway?”

“Discord fuck me! Just look for her!”

“Fine!”

Despite the circumstances, I actually struggled not to snicker at the banter. I snapped back into serious mode when I heard the hoofsteps coming down the hallway. I drew my machine gun and gave the cue to attack.

“NOW!” I screamed.

With that, the ponies in my group attacked as one. I aimed my machine gun at their head and fired. They tried to return fire, but we didn’t relent in our attack and they fell quickly.

When we were sure we killed them, we turned on our PipBuck lights. We had done well, but two ponies were injured and one was even killed. We called a medic in to look after the two injured ones. Despite the fact that some were eager to get the machine guns, no one wanted the armor and considering what the stable’s previous opinions of me had been, I didn’t feel much like persuading them.

We went back near Golden’s residence and I saw one of the teams making their way down the hallway like an infantry squad and clearing out the room and just like that Maintenance was cleared out.

Before going up to Residental, Golden told me she wanted to check her place. I was actually surprised at the request. I wasn't sure how the room looked, but I knew it couldn't be anything good. Nevertheless, I decided to oblige.

We made it into her residence and to be honest, it didn't look that bad aside from the dead raider in the room. Some tables and chairs were turned over and a couple of things were broken, but nothing beyond that. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, the DMT1 room was untouched completely. Golden didn't give much of a reaction beyond a defeated sigh. “Why did you even want to come in here, Golden?” I asked.

“I-I just wanted to see how bad it was,” she muttered.

We left the room and went to take out Residential.

We had made it into the Atrium floor. To be honest, I couldn't believe we made it this far. We lost quite a few ponies in Residential—maybe about twenty or so between all the teams. Thankfully, our individual teams seemed to be doing ok. It was teams 6, 7, and 8 now, and between us we only lost 5 ponies. At least, I could be sure the other teams were safe, either securing or patrolling the rest of the stable.

At this point, the raiders knew they were in trouble, and there were a few in Residental that simply fled. Between what the three teams collected, nearly all of us had guns now, and we were as ready as we could be to take the Atrium, but we still wanted to play things safe.

After a couple minutes, we had discovered that they barred one of the two entrances to the Atrium. I figured they were trying lock us out or even trap us. With no other options available to us, we decided to take the way in through the Cafeteria, instructing our teams to stay behind while we checked the room. Liaison and I took cover behind the doorway with me on the right and her on the left. I glanced in and didn’t see anything; I was actually surprised that the front door was closed. Despite that, Liaison and I weren’t taking any chances and decided to take cover anyway.

The two of us quickly made our way in. I jumped over and ducked behind the serving counter while Liaison went behind a table. Ironically enough, I think it was the same table I hid behind when I encountered her while Golden and I were escaping.

Suddenly, I heard the metallic hiss of the front door opening followed by the sound of hoofsteps. I was positive it was a raider, checking the room. I was nervous about Liaison getting caught and looked for something I could use as a distraction to get the pony’s attention, until my gaze landed on a full crate of Sparkle-Cola.

I lifted a bottle out of the crate using my magic and threw it at the raider. The bottle missed him, smashing on the floor with an terrifyingly loud shatter.

“What in Tartarus? Who’s there?” we heard the raider say.

“Hey what's going on in here?” An agitated voice asked coming from what sounded like the front entrance. “What did I tell you about about keeping this door closed? You know we’re getting fucked by these stable ponies!”

“I thought I saw something in here.”

“Well, check and get your ass back in here. And keep this door closed!”

We heard the door close and I could tell the raider was quickly walking up to where he thought the bottle came from. He jumped over the server counter and saw me causing me to scream.

“Got ya, bitch!”

He took a few potshots at me with his machine gun. I threw another bottle of the cola at him hoping to obscure his vision as I ran into the kitchen.

I heard the bottle hit his helmet with another loud smash. “Stop that, you soda throwing cunt!” he screamed as I heard the sound of what I was sure was him removing his helmet.

“Ah damn! Where did you go?” I heard his hoofsteps coming closer once again and I readied my machine gun to to attack.

TAK! TAK! TAK! TAK!

I was surprised to see the raider fall into the doorway to the kitchen, dead. I looked around the corner and saw Liaison on the other side of the room standing up with the machine gun in her levitational grasp. I came out and carefully stepped around the now dead raider. “Thanks, Liaison.”

“I don’t know what the fuck you were thinking, but warn me next time! You had me scared shitless, I thought he was going to kill us both!” Liaison said, irately, slightly out of breath.

“I was trying to keep you from getting caught so I improvised.” I put one of my forehooves behind my head and gave a nervous grin.

Liaison let out a sigh. “Well, either way, he's dead. I think we should regroup in Hydroponics and plan our final part of this attack out.”

I gave a nod of confirmation and we went to get our teams.

We entered Hydroponics. I hadn’t been in this room for years, but it hardly looked any different. It was a very large room that was lined with rows upon rows of troughs of nutrient solution, many of them growing differing food. The lights here were the brightest lights in the stable, meant to simulate sunlight, placed right above the troughs. On the right side of the ‘farm’ was a structure that was reminiscent of an old world shed holding all the supplies needed for growing fresh food.

The lights were on a dimmer setting to save power, which I thought was nice. If the raiders had been in here, they sure left the room in great condition because everything looked as it should have.

Of course I wasn't in here to sightsee or look around the room despite how much I wanted to. Liaison called both teams to attention, which quickly brought me back to reality.

We all gathered around Liaison as she began to explain the plan. “Okay, our options are kind of limited since all we can do is go in through the Cafeteria. I just say we play it safe, stay back, stay hidden and just slowly make our way in. That’s all I have unless anypony has any other ideas.” She looked around and nopony said anything, not even me. I was trying to think of an alternate suggestion, but her plan was honestly the only thing we could do given the circumstances.

We went to the door with most ponies on our teams hiding behind various tables and the server’s counter. Liaison gave me her keycard and instructed me to open the door, but stay in cover behind the wall. I obeyed her instructions, but before opening the door I decided to check my E.F.S for any threats. Sure enough, it indicated that there were three raiders inside waiting for us.

I took a few deep breaths, then used my magic to open the door. Even though I was safely hidden behind the wall, having to be the one to open the door was still terrifying, even with magic.

The moment I opened the door, we were greeted by ear-shattering gunfire.

The gunfire then stopped almost as abruptly as it started, with nopony willing to expose themselves. “We can stand here all day! Come at us bitches!” A menacing voice yelled from the atrium.

In response, a mare from one of our teams poked out from behind her cover and started shooting at the raiders. I tried to warn her, but it was too late. The raiders returned fire and she was killed instantly.

She fell to the floor, the raiders in the atrium chuckling at the meaty thud her corpse made.

I was trying to think of what to do when I heard two loud shots ring out.

BLAM! BLAM!

I turned my head and saw Cloak standing up from one of the tables wielding her revolver, with smoke coming out from the barrel. Then I heard a body fall to the ground on the other side of the door. “Oh shit! They killed Grunge!” a scared and saddened voice said.

“Fuck Grunge, she was weak, we can still take um!” the menacing voice yelled back.

“Screw you bitch, Grunge was my friend and I don't want to die next! I’m getting out of here! Fuck the Masqueraders!” I then heard the sound of galloping away.

The last raider fired into the room once more. “I ain’t scared of any of you damn stable ponies!” the menacing voice yelled. “I’ll kill you all myself! I don’t need any help anyway!”

The only way I could think of to kill the last raider was to take a chance and use S.A.T.S.

I whispered to Liaison what my plan was and she nodded.

After a few more seconds and one more deep breath I quickly jumped into the doorway, startling the raider. I activated S.A.T.S. before he could react and aimed the machine gun point blank at his right foreleg, the only part of him that was exposed.

TAK—TAK—TAK—TAK … TAK—TAK—TAK—TAK.

Time resumed normally, and the pony fell to the floor screaming in pain. Liaison took a quick look into the atrium, and stood up. “The atrium looks clear! Secure the area!”

The others slowly got up from their hiding spots. I motioned for Golden to come towards me and stay close. We slowly walked into the room, put the injured pony out of his misery, and looked around. We all began to scatter and secure the various parts of the room.

Liaison turned to me. “You and Golden go check the Overmare’s Office and tell me what you find. The rest of us will secure the stable in case of would-be counterattacks and search for any stragglers. If you don't come back in fifteen minutes, we’ll come up there and check on you. Ok?”

I nodded. “Let’s go, Golden.” We started going up the stairs.

We were in the hallway that led to the Overmare’s office when a raider jumped out from around the corner and tried to stab me, catching me off guard. I panicked and pulled out my combat knife and blocked his blow, but he continued to persist and started forcing his knife against mine.

We were in a tense standoff with our knives crossed. The raider started pushing and overpowering me with his knife, drawing ever closer to me despite my best efforts with my own knife to keep him back. I had to distract him somehow, so I ripped his helmet off with my magic.

Before I knew what happened, my knife was knocked out of my grasp and the raider put one of his forearms around my neck, putting the knife to my throat. “Well, well, well. Lookie what we got here,” he said in a smooth voice, definitely not one I would expect a raider to have.

I looked over and saw Golden take out the pistol I gave her. “L-let her go!” she stammered, shaking like a leaf.

“Don't take another step, blue pony! Or your gray friend dies!” The raider threatened, putting the knife closer to my neck.

“I-I said let her go!” Golden demanded.

The raider chuckled. “You look like you don't even know how to use that gun!” He turned towards me. “Well, gray pony, this has been fun and you dented up my helmet, so why don't we just end this?” he offered, increasing the pressure until the knife was pressed firmly against my flesh, the blades threatening to pierce my skin at any moment. I started shaking in fear, and closed my eyes.

“G-Golden!” I whimpered.

“NO!!!” Golden shrieked.

BANG! BANG!

I heard the metallic clang of something drop to the ground and felt something moving down my body. I opened my eyes and saw the body of the raider, limp and lifeless, with two bulletholes in his head.

I shoved the raider’s corpse off my body and slowly got back up on all fours, panting raggedly as I slowly walked up to Golden, my muscles shaking.

She was sobbing. Her face was buried in her forehooves. The pistol lay forgotten on the floor.

I knelt low, and wrapped my forehooves around her as smoothly as I could.

A couple of seconds later Liaison and a few other ponies burst in. “We heard a scream in here! What happened?” she asked, frantically.

I turned to face her. “It’s nothing, Liaison, we handled it.”

“You want some other ponies to accompany you?”

“No we’re fine… but thanks anyway,” I reassured her.

“Ok then. Well, we still want you to check the room, so try and get going,” she urged, and stepped back into the atrium.

I turned my attention back to Golden. “Seren...” she croaked. “I-I-can’t believe I killed him.”

“No, Golden. You saved my life, that raider was going to slit my throat!” she looked up at me. “Please don’t fall apart on me now. We’re so close.”

After giving her a few more seconds to gather her emotions, she finally gave me a nod and stood up wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’m… I’m just happy that you're safe.”

“So am I, here.” I said levitating the pistol to her.

She took it, thanking me. I then went down the hall and picked up my knife. After a moment of thought, I picked up the raider’s knife as well just for good measure.

We walked through the door into the Overmare’s living area. Everything looked as it should. It was so much like last time that I almost expected Fairlaw to come out of the doorway to the office again to confront us. But with nothing in our way, Golden and I just continued into the Overmare’s office.

We walked into the Overmare’s office and saw a gray-coated pony with a syringe cutie mark on the far left side of the room. He was looking out the circular window that overlooked the Atrium. The Overmare was lying on the floor to the right of her desk, dead, seemingly executed, with a single bullet hole in her head. The room looked almost exactly as it should, bar a few dents in the walls and the dead Overmare.

“I must say, I’m impressed,” The stallion at the window said with a deep and low voice. “I guess death is all that is to be expected from ponies who want to become something they clearly lack the ability to be.”

“That’s him,” Golden whispered to me.

“Who?” I asked.

“The pony who I saw at Tenpony…”

I stared at Golden for a few seconds, then nodded and turned to face the stallion. “So you’re Doctor Waterfall?”

“I prefer my whole name, Doctor Gray Waterfall,” he said turning around. I was finally able to get a look at his face. He was an older unicorn with a stern expression. Fitting the description Golden gave me, the color of his mane and tail nearly matched her own to a T. What struck me as odd was that he also had the same eye color as Golden, orange fading to yellow near the bottom.

He glared at us for a moment before softening his expression. “Ah, Golden, it’s lovely to see you again. How are you?”

“Don’t talk to me, you… you monster!” Golden screamed.

“Hmm, such hostility,” Gray muttered while walking back to the Overmare’s desk. I kept my machine gun pointed at him, just in case.

“I hope you know you're wasting your energy pointing that gun at me. It's pretty clear that I'm unarmed and have no intention of hurting you,” he said to me while sitting down at the Overmare’s desk.

My brow furrowed. “Insurance, Gray.”

“Suit yourself. It’s your magic, not mine.” He waved a hoof in dismissal toward me.

The three of us just glared at each other for a few seconds until Gray broke the silence. “Well, as long as none of us seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere, let’s have a little talk.” He pressed a button on the Overmare’s terminal, closing and locking the door behind me and Golden.

Golden tapped me on the back. “Umm... Seren, he just locked us in here.”

I whispered to Golden, reassuringly, “Don’t worry Golden, he knows I’ll kill him if he doesn’t cooperate.” I turned my head back and held my stance, pointing the gun at him, relying on my training. “Open the door and step away from the terminal.” I demanded.

“Don’t worry, I'm not going to do anything nefarious. I just want to make sure no one interrupts me and Golden during this father-daughter talk.” A smug smile came across his face when my silence confirmed that I was prepared for neither the refusal nor the shocking declaration.

Golden gave the pony a confused look. “Wait. W-what do you mean father-daughter talk? I don’t even know you!”

He let out a chuckle. “Rest assured. I understand your confusion, but it is true. Golden... I am your father.”

Golden said nothing and stared at him in disbelief.

I was pretty sure this pony was insane. No way I believed this was Golden’s long lost father, but something inside me made me want to humor him anyway. “Okay, Gray, if you really are Golden’s father, then prove it! Tell me what day she was born!”

“October 19th,” he quickly said back. “And my wife, Sharp Eye Riversong, may she rest in peace, was born on July 27th. Golden’s grandmother is my mother. Her name was Signal Test, who used to be a very gifted stable radio technician.”

My mind went blank. I lost the grip on my gun, dropping it to the floor. No words came to my mouth as I tried to comprehend on what he just said. There’s no way that this maniac is my best friend’s father! Why would he leave the stable? Why would he leave behind Golden and Sharp Eye to take care of themselves? It didn’t make any sense!

Golden took a couple of steps back. “N-no... No! That’s impossible! M-my father is d-dead! He-he disappeared years ago!” Her breathing began to quicken. She whipped the dropped machine gun up with her magic. “W-who are you, really!? L-let us out right now! Or-or I’ll shoot you!”

“Oh, Golden, I know you won’t do that to me. You’re such a timid flower. You're just scared and confused about this.” He grinned.

“Give me the gun, Golden!” I demanded, snatching the gun from her shaky telekinetic grasp with my own. I resumed pointing the gun at him. “Why are you telling us this, anyway?”

He got up from the Overmare’s desk and walked back over to the window. “I was hoping, perhaps you two would like to hear how all this happened before the other survivors come in here and kill me… Hostile or not.”

I looked down. I didn't feel like it was my place to make that decision, especially if this was Golden’s father. I decided there was only one thing I could do, I turned to Golden. “Golden, this is your father. I feel you should decide if you want to hear what he wants to say or if you want me to kill him right here.”

“I… I want to listen to him. I want to—I need to know why… why he did all this.”

“As you wish,” Gray said. He walked back to the Overmare’s desk and sat down.

“It was years ago and I was known as Gray Riversong. Like any loving father. my daughter, Golden Riversong, was my pride and joy.”

I could barely fathom how hypocritical that statement seemed today. Gray didn’t seem to have any problems with mentally violating his ‘pride and joy’ and disposing of her in radiation-filled water, leaving her for dead.

“No doubt you already know what a stallion’s role in Stable 64 is, but I didn’t want to be a homemaker my whole life. I was hopeful that things would change for stallions in the stable. I had always wanted to be a doctor of sorts ever since I was a small colt. When I became a bit older, I started studying medicine.”

“When Golden was a very young filly, there was a virus going around the stable, notorious for providing a slow death. I had already been studying medicine for a few years and had a cutie mark from it by then. Since Medical couldn't find a cure, I quickly put my talents to work to make one.”

“D-did you?” Golden sheepishly asked.

“I actually did. I wrote some theories and a recipe for one and presented it to the Overmare. She turned it down ‘cause stallions don’t work in the stable. I showed it to Doctor Injecta, the stable’s head of medicine, the next day. She turned it down telling me the same thing the Overmare said. Then,” he let out a sigh, “a few days later, Golden was diagnosed with the virus. I pleaded with Doctor Injecta again to try my theories, but she said no. Golden and all the other ponies were eventually vaccinated, but it did no good.”

His voice began to take a more frustrated tone. “I became… angered. Scared of losing my daughter before she could so much as even talk properly. I decided to attempt to kill Injecta… I took a nine millimeter I had acquired and told Sharp Eye I was going out. I wanted Injecta to pay for her negligence; I wanted to kill her in hopes that a new head of Medical would take her place and cure the stable.”

“I walked into Medical, saw her, took aim and fired twice. Unfortunately, I missed. She ducked down and hid behind a support beam, I moved closer to her, intending to kill when I was stopped.” He glared at me. “By none other than your mother, Seren.” He let out a sigh. “Cosmosia shot one of my hind legs, causing me to fall to the ground. Obviously, she came running when she heard gunshots… She then arrested me on charges of attempted murder, possession of an unlawful firearm, harassment, and disorderly conduct. I can’t say I was sad to see that she died, even when there wasn’t enough left of her to recover.”

I struggled not to shoot him for saying that, even knowing that this was important. In the end, I managed to accept that it could wait a few more minutes.

“Anyway, I was thrown into a cell and it was decided that I should be exiled from the stable. They were going to release me into the Wasteland, leaving me for dead. It was extremely early in the morning, I think around three AM, when the Overmare came to get me.”

“She was so arrogant and so sure I would die in the Wasteland that she told me about how the defence plan would make sure I could never enter again. She said every trace of my existence in the stable will be erased once I stepped out that door. I no longer cared though, I had no reason to. I stepped out the door and into the Wasteland. And that’s where my story ends, for the most part.”

“After that, it's not too exciting. I got my way into Tenpony, and eventually manipulated the group of bandits—not raiders—that you just killed into carrying out this attack… That, at this point, has clearly been quite a failure.”

“And the reason I tried to invade the stable in the first place… Revenge... revenge and the promise of a position in one of the dominant factions in the wasteland, one which this group of bandits happened to also be interested in joining. It was simple enough to mislead them into thinking this would convince the faction recruiters. For the longest time I wasn't sure if the ponies in this stable were still alive. I started to use special tools to pick up the stable’s radio frequencies. Since they were still operational and changing, I knew ponies were still alive and operating them. Alive or not, I should have known that this is how it would end. We weren't strong enough. We thought we killed all the stable dwellers and got cocky.” He ended his story with a sigh. “And that’s all you need to know.”

“B-But how did the stable make a working vaccine without you?” Golden quietly asked him.

“Well, turns out they did. I looked through the records in Medical and found the recipe I came up with only simplified in some areas and written under a different name, so—”

There was a loud banging on the door behind us. “This is security!” A muffled voice shouted from behind the door. “Open this door right now or we will force it open and not hesitate to shoot!”

Gray promptly pushed the button, opening the door.

Liaison walked in, gun at the ready. “Okay! Nopony move!” A look of surprise came onto her face when she saw the situation, before turning to us with an accusatory look. “Golden, Seren, who the hell is this pony and why is he still alive? Isn’t this their leader? You know, of the ponies who nearly destroyed the stable?”

Before I could answer her, Cloak followed through the doorway. She recognized the pony behind the desk immediately. “Gray Riversong!” she shouted, angrily, far more emotional than I’d heard her before.

Liaison looked slightly shocked. “Wait? Riversong? But Golden is… What the hell is going on here?”

“I’m sorry,” Gray said in confusion. “Do I know you?” he asked Cloak as she approached him.

“You used to,” she said, getting up to the desk. She put a gun to his forehead. “I had a feeling you were the bastard behind all this and now, I'm going to do what should have been done all those years ago!”

I was hopelessly confused at this point, and I had no idea how any of this made sense. Who could possibly know Gray well enough to recognize him after all these years? Injecta, the Overmare, Fairlaw, and absolutely anypony else who might still recognize him died. Who was this pony—could she even be an actual pony?

Gray continued to gaze at her in confusion. “I’m sorry but I have never seen you before in my life; I have no idea how you know me. All I can deduce is that you have me confused with somepony else.”

“I assure you that I haven’t, but it doesn't matter how we know each other because I will finish you off. One bullet. Point blank. Squarely in your forehead. A fitting end for one such as you.” She cocked the gun back. “Any last words?”

I decided to urge Golden to look away. Even though her father was a terrible pony, who’d done unspeakable things to her and others, something gave me the feeling that seeing him summarily executed like this would scar her, even if she didn't love him.

Gray gave a sigh. “I guess all I can say is that I failed… finish me off. I’m ready.”

For a brief moment, it was as if the world stopped turning. An eerie silence fell over the room. A part of me believed that Cloak wouldn’t pull the trigger.

BLAM!

And with that, Gray was dead… Stable 64 was safe.

“I always knew he would come back,” Cloak said.

“Who are you, dammit?! You’re hiding something and I want to know what it is!” Liaison screamed at Cloak. “Continue playing games with me and I’ll kill you!”

Cloak sighed. “I also feared this day would come, apparently I have said too much. Fine, I will do as you asked. I guess you deserve to know after that… display. But before I do I want to say one thing in advance… I’m sorry, Seren.”

“Sorry for what?” I raised an eyebrow.

She didn't answer as she unbuttoned her hooded cloak and, in with one swift motion, levitated it off her body.

My jaw dropped as I started to hyperventilate.

The pony standing before me was a unicorn mare with a dark gray coat, a black mane and a shorter than normal tail with a couple thin strands of white running down the right side on both. She had gray eyes and a gold security badge cutie mark.

It was my mother… Still alive.

“M-Mom,” was all I was able to say before I fell to the floor and my world went to black.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Egghead - You receive one additional skill point for every skill book you read.

Author's Note

Chapter 4 of Hidden Enemies is finally out, if you read all the way and enjoyed it, I thank you for your support.

Chapter 4 was a particularity difficult chapter to write with many delays and hardships bogging down editing and writing. but we got through it and I hope you stick around for chapter 5.

Special Thanks to:
StableStahl and PersonalGamer for editing the story

and KitRifty for extra support

Also special thanks to Kkat for writing the Original Fallout Equestria.