The night was menacingly quiet, even for a place as desolate as the Zona. Ghostly blue light shone across the eerily hushed wasteland from the full moon as it pierced through portions of the cloud covered sky. A hooded figure shambled towards a musty, craggy cave. Her tired hooves stumbled weakly, trudging as she cradled a small bundle in one foreleg. Upon entering the cave’s foreboding mouth, a massive metallic churn filled the air. Hearing a familiar sound again filled her heart with relief. Wearily reaching a slowly opening cog-shaped wall of metal, an even more familiar sight stepped out of the Stable door surrounded by an emotionless wall of stoic guards.

She raised her hoof to the figure. “Stop right there. Come any further and we’ll open fire.”

“Overmare Sunny Days!” shouted the figure as she pulled back her hood. Her pale blue hair bounced out, matted with dirt and blood. “It’s me! Leaky! Leaky Faucet!”

The Overmare remained still. “I know it's you, Leaky.” Her voice was cold and distant.

The bundle in Leaky’s forelegs stirred awake and began to cry softly. “Overmare Sunny Days, please...I can’t...I didn’t...I couldn’t find any place we could...” Her voice trailed off, the bundle’s cries getting louder and louder.

Sunny Days stood motionless, her eyes narrowing. “We know, Leaky. You failed us. You’ve failed your people.”

Leaky recoiled at the verbal assault. “No! I...I tried! I did! The Outside is an awful place!” She looked down, on the verge of tears, at the wailing newborn foal cradled in her hooves. “It’s no place for children...I can’t go back...”

“You can’t come in,” deadpanned the Overmare. Leaky’s ears folded back, the sound of her heartbreak almost audible in the dead silence of the wasteland. “You failed us. You’ve failed your people. Now they’re going to starve, or worse, all because you didn’t care enough.”

“I did! I did care!” The new mother shouted as the dam of tears burst forth. Her foal’s cries were deafening.

A foreleg hooked around her comfortingly. “Of course ya did, dearie. It’s why ya killed me in cold blood, wasn’t it?” The pony beamed as blood freely flowed from the gaping wounds on her temple and neck. “Because ‘ya caaaared’, eh?”

Leaky stumbled back in horror, shielding her crying foal. “No! It wasn’t...I...” She slid to the floor as her rear collided with the wall of the cave, futilely trying to cradle her foal to sleep. Her sobs almost matched her baby’s cries. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry...”

The ghastly vision of the long-dead mayor shook her head. “Tsk tsk tsk. Sorries and tears flavor yer mornin’ coffee, sweetheart, but they don’t bring Plumwood back from the dead, now do they?” She leaned in close to Leaky, her face as kind as ever. “To think: if you’da just kept yer big nosy nose to yerself in the first place, your people might’ve already been livin’ happy and free back in my town. But ya didn’t! And now yer people are—Hrrk!” She said as she dragged a hoof across her neck and her tongue lolled out. “Y’know?”

Leaky shook her head violently, making no attempt to hold back her tears. “No! Nonono! I couldn’t just do nothing! The children...You were all bad ponies!”

“Okay!” Plum Pudding nodded once sarcastically. “Are ya sure? Cos’, I mean, how do ya know? You’ve never had to make hard choices to save the ponies you care about, have ya? It’s not as easy as it looks! Sometimes, you gotta be the villain in yer own story for yer people to have a happy ending. I’ve told ya that before, haven’t I?” She sat on her haunches beaming and shrugged, blood starting to pool at her hooves. “Well, in yer case, you became the villain, and ya still got the bad end!”

Leaky shook her head and cradled the foal close to her face, silently mouthing words of protest, seeking comfort in its warmth and... stickiness..? She froze. The warmth was trickling down her neck. She slowly lowered the baby, seeing only sheets soaked with crimson. With trembling hooves, she unwrapped the burlap blankets.

The pale, smiling face of a filly stared back: the one who Leaky had failed to save from the flanamingo. Leaky unwrapped more of the blanket, revealing jagged flaps of flesh where her body should be.The filly stopped smiling and hung her mouth agape, staring horrified at Leaky with bulging eyes.

Leaky shrieked and dropped the filly’s remains. The severed head bounced with a sickening thud once before exploding into a puff of ash. The dust blew into her face as she collapsed to the ground in a debilitating coughing fit. Still crumpled on the floor, she began to crawl towards the Stable door, sobbing.

The Stable 16 guards raised their weapons, their faces cold and emotionless. “I warned you, Leaky,” growled the Overmare. “You’ve failed us. Come any closer and I won’t hesitate to put you down.”

But Leaky didn’t care. She dragged herself across the cutting, rocky earth in a crazed stupor, drawn inexorably like a moth to the warm candle of the Stable.

The guards aimed and cocked their weapons. Sunny Days glowered at the pathetic display in front of her. “It was a mistake sending you out. Look at you. Disgusting.”

Leaky shouted in agony and desperation with each pull towards the door. She could barely see through the tears. “PLEASE! I-I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!” The last of her meagre strength gave out inches from the door, collapsing into the muck. She buried her face in the ground and sobbed quietly through clenched teeth.

The Overmare stepped over Leaky’s defeated form. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. She reached into her side bag and gripped a long, purple machete in her telekinesis. Her eyes were filled with indignation. “Even boogies don’t deserve to suffer.”

Leaky shut her eyes in tearful acceptance. With one final swing, her world turned a soothing black as all of her burdens disappeared instantly.

***********************************************************

Darkness faded gradually, turning into a dark-hued blue. She felt her eyes creak open as consciousness seeped into her, producing a soft gasp from her tired lungs. She ached all over. She tried to prop herself on a shoulder, but her exhausted body protested and fell on its side. Defeated, she rested her head on the cold, hard floor.

She traced her head with a fatigued hoof and felt cloth near the area that Muckraker’s rocket had singed. A bandage had been wrapped with a tender thoroughness that the Stable doctors back home couldn’t have matched. The cloth was damp with sweat and slightly stained with blood from her ear. She gingerly tapped the area. To her relief, she could still hear. A thought struck her and she ran a hoof in trepidation across her naked body, sighing with relief when she felt her belly. It was still there, as round and pregnant as ever. She felt her foal kick lightly inside of her. This was a welcome companion in her solitude.

Consoled, she slumped back onto the floor and peered wearily across the room she found herself in. It was a small cell with one barred window casting calm, ethereal moonlight across the cracked concrete floor. The walls were lined with torn, dirty posters, too dilapidated to read if Leaky even had the energy to try.

Her unbandaged ear perked as a murmur filled the air. She focused, trying to clear her muddled mind enough to make out the words and... tune? The hauntingly beautiful voice was echoing around the enclosed cell, soothing Leaky’s tired mind and body. The somber sweetness of the voice reminded her of the times her father would try and comfort her by singing during the riots that plagued Stable 16 in her youth.

As she tried craning her neck to pinpoint the source of the solemn music, her protesting body’s energy reserves gave out and caused her to sag back onto the floor. She curled up into a ball and rubbed her belly, letting the haunting voice lull her back to a hopefully more restful sleep.

“I looked at the skies, running my hooves over my eyes,

And I fell out of bed, hurting my head, from things that I said,
'Till I finally died, that started the whole world living,

Oh, If I'd only seen, that the joke was on me...”

**********************************************************

“Any updates at all?” asked a small blonde mare kneading her temples with both hooves, her desk stacked with tall piles of extra ration requests and theft reports. The bags under her eyes were deeper than ever, courtesy of countless sleep-deprived nights trying to bring order to a Stable at the breaking point.

“No, Overmare,” answered a unicorn mare with a knotted mane. Her glasses were missing one lens and her once white lab coat was stained with dirt. She adjusted her broken spectacles and looked down at the clipboard she held in her telekinesis. “We haven’t had reports from any of the scouts we’ve sent out for about...” She paused as she squinted at the clipboard. “...two days.”

The Overmare pounded at her desk with both hooves, sending papers scattering across the floor. “Goddesses damn it.” She looked at the mess she had caused and sighed. “We need to hold on for a little longer. They’re close. I can feel it. What can we do?”

An earth stallion with braces cleared his throat. “Well, Overmare Sunny Days...if we reduce rations once again, we can maybe add a week or two to our deadline before running out of supplies fo--”

“Perfect,” interrupted the stressed-out Overmare as she pointed at the stallion. “Do that. ASAP.”

“Overmare Sunny Days, if we do that...ponies will be furious. They almost rioted when we took in those children one of the scouts sent us! More strain on rations will surely do us in,” chimed in a third pony from behind a chart with meaningless mathematical equations scrawled all over it. “We’d need to step up security, and we’ve already given out most of our weapons and armor to the scouts.”

“Not to mention that the reactor has already begun to leak radiation...” added the unicorn with the unkempt mane. “As long as we have our Rad Away stockpile, we should be able to treat the symptoms as they show, but we won’t last another week..”

The Overmare leaned on the desk with her elbows and clasped her muzzle. Her brow unfurrowed as her eyes started to glaze slightly.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” asked the unicorn. The Overmare’s uncharacteristic quietness worried her advisers.

She lowered her hooves from her mouth and let out a small sigh. “We’ll blow that bridge when we get there.” She straightened her back, regaining her powerful composure after a painful moment of doubt. “I have full trust in our saviors.”

**************************************************************

Morning crept in through the small, barred window in Leaky’s cell and washed the room in the wasteland’s cold grey paint. Leaky wearily opened her eyes and let out a long sigh. Her body ached for her to go back to sleep, but her worried mind was loud and awake. She propped herself up on her shoulder, her muscles finally waking from their stubborn slumber.

“Finally awake. Fuck.” The voice was sharp and venomous. “And here I was, starting to think I DID kill you. Sharing a cell with a corpse and shit.” Leaky slowly turned to the voice, her chest tight. The olive drab stallion was huddled in a corner adjacent to Leaky, his jet black mane matted with dirt and dust. His heavy equipment was gone, leaving only the metal scraps decorating his forehoof and the metal collar that once held his microphone.

“You,” hissed Leaky. She slowly rose to her hooves, struggling to ignore her screaming joint’s pleas to give out.

Muckraker got up from the floor with a groaning chuckle. “Careful there, mommataur. You can’t do shit after whatever they shot at us.” He turned his head to show Leaky a gash on his chin. “I tried. My legs gave out from right under me—crashed into the ground face first and just laid there for hours.” He turned his head quickly towards the pregnant unicorn and squinched his golden eyes. “I didn’t cry.”

Leaky did her best to lower her tired body in an intimidating pose and glowered. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t make you cry.”

Muckraker rolled his eyes and suppressed a sharp chortle. “Oh, shut the fuck up. Don’t you have something to apologize for?” He sat back on his haunches and put his hooves to his face. “I’m sooorry! I’m soooorry! I caaaaared!”

Leaky flinched and wrinkled her nose. “You...you horrible pony!” Her face twisted in rage as she stomped towards the snickering propagandist.

“You two! Break it up!” shouted a muffled, electronic voice. The owner of the voice banged an armor-plated hoof against the iron bars, forcing Leaky to stop and shield her hurt ear from the reverberation.

A bronze-armored stallion stood at the mouth of the opened cell. Even through the dim morning sun, his gas mask’s blue lens shone an eerie, incandescent light. He stood tall above both Muckraker and Leaky. An elegantly painted drawing of a crescent moon overlaying a sun decorated the sides of his flank.

He nodded at the door behind him. “You two have orientation. Move up.”

Muckraker chuckled at the word. “What is this? Magic kindergarten? Is this the part where we learn about manners?”

The armored stallion’s emotionless gaze fell upon Muckraker, causing the radio pony to backpedal slightly. “I won’t tell you again, Lost One.” His sizable battle saddle whirred and moved into place.

“Zat’s quite enough, soldier. Vait outside,” ordered a small mare as she walked into the room. Her coat was white as fresh snow, with strands of her blonde mane poking out from under a black, short-brimmed cap. “I vant to inspect zeese vorkers myself first.”

‘Workers…?’ thought Leaky.

The stallion nodded to mare and trotted to the outside of the cell.

The mare turned her piercing gaze to the pair of captives, continuing only after the door had closed behind her ‘soldier’. “So,’’ she began, speaking with an accent Leaky had never heard before, not even in the old movies she used to loot from Stable 16’s rundown library. “You two are finally avake.” Her eyes probed at Muckraker as she inspected his scarred and mangled body, toughened by countless years surviving the Zona.

“Fuck you,” barked Muckraker, trying his best to strike an intimidating pose as his muscles failed to co-operate. “Where’s my equipment?” The mare looked at the olive drab stallion without moving her head, her disinterested gaze still examining his lean form.

“In due time,” she deadpanned as her eyes set upon Leaky. They hung upon her baby bump, which Leaky instinctively covered with a hoof. Her piercing, pale blue eyes moved up her neck and settled on Leaky’s horn. She turned her back on the two and started walking out of the room as two soldiers, identical to the stallion from earlier, filed in from outside. “But vor now...Equestria needs you. Take zem vith zhe ozhers.”

The armored stallions motioned Muckraker and Leaky out of their dingy cell, their bronze-plated armor clattering as they did so. “Not zhe loud vun,” she added as she exited the building. “Escort him to my office. I have use for him.”

As Leaky and Muckraker were marched outside into misty rain and thick mud, massive factories came into view around her with tall smokestacks churning out black trails of thick, menacing smoke. Her nose curled at the acrid smell of burning wood and rubber.

A guard lightly tapped her rear and pointed towards the tattered remains of an old barn. “Keep moving, Lost One. Towards that building.” She complied wordlessly.

As they marched towards the barn, Leaky looked around her. Rotations of similarly armored guards trotted around purposefully, the wispy light emanating from their blue goggles swirling around the mist. Tired, unarmored ponies carried barrels and support beams in and out of the remains of old buildings while being escorted by guards with live battle saddles. Near the barn, throngs of dirty earth and unicorn ponies tended to massive plots of land, shoveling dirt and mud from the vast network of trenches criss-crossing the land.

Forked shapes could be made out in the distance through the ocean of mist with colorful and feathery extensions topping the end of their limbs, contrasting almost disturbingly in the pale blue light of the morning.

The guard poked at her flank with the barrel of his long-rifle battle saddle, snapping her out of her trance. “Inside.” He motioned to the barn with a bronze-clad hoof. A chorus of shouts rose from inside the worn wooden building. “C’mon, you. Pick it up. Orientation is starting.”

‘Orientation...?’

She opened the barn door’s rusted handles to peer inside. A mass of worried, frightened, and downright angry wastelanders from every walk of life were huddled indoors. Their shouts were deafening; some demanding answers, some demanding being returned to their daily lives, and none of them happy. There were no guards inside the barn, only odd, metallic, spider-like constructs with an otherworldly sheen to their angular carapaces.

The guard pushed Leaky inside the barn and closed it. A dull thud barred the door. Leaky turned away, looking back at the unruly abductees. They were getting more and more restless by the second. Not wanting to stand out, Leaky lowered her head and quickly trotted towards the outskirts of the crowd.

After a few obstreperous minutes, the barn door swung open with a crash and silenced the crowd. The white mare with piercing blue eyes stood at the door, commanding the same aura of unquestioned authority that she possessed in Leaky’s cell. She brushed her blonde mane out of her eyes and adjusted her cap imperiously. The crowd whispered as she strutted towards a lone podium situated on a stage in front of the audience. Leaky noticed her cutie mark—a pink heart cradled in the middle of a warm sun.

She propped herself up on the podium and gazed into the expectant masses before clearing her throat. “Ponies of zhe vasteland,” she announced, her smooth, delicate voice filling the room like cigarette smoke. “I am Justicia Rein-Strum, 4th Overmare of Stable 50, und I have gathered you here from your various homes und towns to tell you zis… it is your time.” The crowd broke out in roars of protest, which the mare ignored. “For far too long have I vatched you all tear apart zhe province of our Goddesses Luna und Celestia. My heart feels its pain as you ravage und maim somezhing zhat vas once so precious to everypony. But I see potential in all ov you. Zhat is vhy you are here und not dead, paying for your sins against zheir sacred land.”

A raider mare with a spiked, red mane shouted over the boiling crowd. “What the fuck do you want from us?!”

“You misunderstand,” started Justicia, ignoring the specifics of the question. She raised her hooves slowly in the air as her eyes wandered towards the ceiling. “Equestria vas once a proud, loving land. Celestia’s heavenly sun bathed its residents in tender light, und Luna’s sublime moon brought restful slumber to the land avter a hard day of work und play.” She exhaled sharply at imagining such a thought, before locking her gaze unto the ponies before her. “Zhe fertile ground grew bountiful harvests, green as far as zhe eye can see. Instead of twisted abominations zhat hunger for your life, zhere vere soft, furry, friendly animals who never hesitated to valk alongside you during your days out.” She leaned on the podium, her face grim. “You misunderstand. It is not vhat I vant. It is vhat you deserve. It is vhat your children deserve.”

A gruff unicorn stood up and yelled. “Fuck the children! I want to go home!” The crowd jeered in agreement. The spiderbots raised their carapaces slightly in response.

“You cannot go home,” retorted Justicia. “Your home, as you know it, is dead.” The ponies in front of her fell silent, confused. The unicorn froze and slowly sunk back to the floor.

“Vhen I first stepped out of Stable 50,” she continued. “I saw not zhe sacred land blessed by our Goddesses as told by our elders. In its place vas a blighted, charred vasteland, devoid of any kindness. Instead of kind ponies who valued friendship above all else, cutzhroats and thieves roam in zeir place who vere just as eager as any abomination to take your life. But like a phoenix rising from it’s ashes, Equestria shall rise from your ‘Zona’. Zhen, und only zhen, vhen you see zhe beauty of vhat you are all capable of--zhe beauty of the true Equestria--you shall be released into your new home und vee vill accept any und all punishment for zhe crimes ve’ve committed.”

A bald stallion burst suddenly from the crowd with a shiv clenched in his teeth and hatred in his eyes. An elderly mare yelped in surprise as the charging hunk of muscles shoved her aside, all the while Justicia stared dispassionately.

The black spiderbots silently aimed their turrets at the stallion and sent forth a blast of wispy, yellow energy before he could even get within a few feet of her. He convulsed wordlessly before tumbling to the floor with a dull thud. The mare strutted over to her would-be assassin and placed a hoof on his temple as his eyes frantically darted from side to side.

She looked down at him, carefully caressing the contours of his head. “You vill eat. You vill vork. You vill sleep. Und vhen you vake up, you vill do it all again, slowly chipping away at Equestria’s chitinous prison.” Her head turned at the crowd. “Make no mistake about our intentions. Compliance vill be rewarded accordingly. You vill be fed, given a roof over your head, und provided protection from zhe harsh elements your ‘Zona’ delivers unto you. In time, you too shall see warmth und kindness that vee know zis land is capable of.” Justicia raised a hoof and a blade sprung forth from her jacket’s sleeve with a sharp click. Emotionless, she brought it down on the stallion’s temple with a wet SHWIK and gave it a gruesome twist, causing the pony’s eyes to bulge and twitch before rolling back into his head. The crowd recoiled in fear as she gave the blade one final grisly jerk. “Resistance vill be punished swiftly.” The spring-loaded blade retreated back into her sleeve as she made her way towards the barn door. Armored guards piled into the building and beckoned the crowd to get in a line. “Do not fail me. Und most importantly, do not fail Equestria.”

As she left, the guards brandished their weapons and began shouting at the new ‘workers’. They were shoved into a line by force and ordered to march out of the barn. Leaky made herself as small as possible and joined the line.

“Her,” boomed a muffled voice. Leaky’s ears shot up as she slowly looked back. To her dismay, one of the soldiers was looking right at her. “Take her away.”

Leaky backpedaled against a wall.A few curious ponies watched the scene as they passed by. “Wh-what? No, I didn’t do a-anything!” Two guards hooked their forelegs around hers and dragged her outside the barn. Leaky struggled as she began to panic.

“Don’t struggle, Lost One,” deadpanned one of the guards as he pulled Leaky’s body. “Overmare Justicia has use for you.”

*****************************************************************************

The room was dark, only illuminated faintly by a single overhead lamp. Leaky peered around into the muddied darkness, but saw nothing other than faint outlines of some sort of box with a slowly blinking red light. She looked down at the heavy chains shackled around her forelegs and tugged at them. The chrome table they were attached to refused to give an inch. She was helpless.

“H-Hello? Anyone there?” Leaky quavered back at the deafening silence. The faint echo of her quiet inquiry met her ears through the darkness of the enclosure. She began to feel an overwhelming loneliness seeping deep into her soul which caused her head to lower onto the table. “Someone? Anyone? H-Hello…?”

A door opened in the darkness and Leaky bolted upright. Hoofsteps approached the table at a leisurely pace, the gentle clip-clopping doing nothing to settle Leaky’s racing heart.

A shadowy figure faded into focus as a set of unblinking pale blue eyes met Leaky’s. Without a sound, the figure pulled up a chair and sat down across from her. The figure removed her cap politely and set it aside before fixing a blonde, slightly ruffled mane.

Justicia stared impassively at Leaky for what seemed like an eternity before opening her muzzle to speak. “I apologize for zhe accommodations,” she began. “Can never be too careful around zhe Lost.”

She pulled up the sleeve of her right foreleg to reveal a small metal contraption.She unlatched three leather straps with her mouth before removing it and setting it on the table. “I vill try to speak slowly und softly, as I am fully aware of zhe concussion you have received from zhe loud vun’s missile.”

The contraption looked like little more than a spring-loaded switchblade worn around the foreleg, its blade was still slightly stained with her assailant’s blood. Leaky briefly thought about lifting the weapon with her magic and attacking the mare, although that would still leave her chained to the table at the mercy of any guards that found her.

The mare noticed Leaky staring intently at her weapon and slid it out of her reach, adjusting it neatly to the side. She clasped her hooves together and sighed in satisfaction at Leaky.

“So,” she began as she leaned forward slightly. “You are zis, ‘Mozher of Zona’, no?”

Leaky recoiled, chains rattling. “Wh-What? No! I-I mean, I am, but I don’t--”

The mare raised a snow-white hoof and shushed quietly. “Please remain calm, Lost Vun. Zhis is no interrogation. Think of it as… a friendly conversation between two long lost friends.” Leaky looked down at her thick iron chains. If this was how she treated her friends, Leaky was thankful not to be among them.

“So, are you? Or are you not zhis mare zhe denizens of zhis ‘Zona’ speak of in hushed vhispers?”

Leaky opened her mouth to protest, but memories of Plumwood flashed in her mind. She nodded once, slowly, looking down at her chains.

“Ah, wunderbar,” the mare rapped the table lightly as she chirped monotonously. “Zhen my search is over.”

She straightened her back and adjusted her fur-lined jacket. “I am Justicia Rein-Strum, 4th Overmare of Stable 50, und I have a job for you.”

Leaky stared incredulously at her kidnapper. “A… a job?”

“Indeed, a job.” Justicia craned a foreleg in a half-shrug. “Well, not a ‘job’ in zhe most traditional of sense. Maybe ‘task’ is a more appropriate word.”

Leaky glared at her silently. This was absurd.

“Nozhing I am sure you cannot handle, of course. Vee vill assign soldiers to acco--”

“No,” interrupted Leaky, more serious than she had ever been in her life. It was a strange feeling.

The mare cocked her head slightly, almost surprised at her outright refusal. ”No?”

“You are all bad, bad ponies,” she spat, venom coursing through her words. “I’m not going to help you cause more suffering. The Outside hates me enough as it is without me doing… whatever it is you want me to do.”

Justicia blinked once, slowly. “I suggest you still yourself und listen to my proposition, or else--”

“Or else you’ll kill me?” she interrupted again. Leaky faltered slightly as her brain caught up with what her mouth was saying.

Justicia remained silent, her face as emotionless as ever. She inhaled softly and began. “It is an option, vun zhat I vould prefer to use only in extreme cases as a last resort--”

"Like in Plumwood..." Leaky felt a sudden flash of rage. "You… you murdered those innocent ponies!" Revulsion simmered deep in her gut.

Aside from a slight wince, Justicia remained stoic. “An unfortunate occurrence caused by our own naivety und inexperience. Vun zhat vee assure you vill not happen again, especially if you agree to help our cause.” She leaned closer to Leaky. “Too many ponies have died. Help me prevent any more from encountering zhe same fate.”

Leaky felt herself on the verge of tears as she slumped back in her chair, defeated. She thought of Plumwood, the only kind place she had encountered in The Outside, corrupted thoroughly by its surroundings. She thought of Dog, all alone, no doubt wandering in search of his savior after her inexplicable absence. She thought of Plum Pudding’s eyes as she pled for death.

Her eyes welled with tears. “I just want to go home...”

The sounds of Leaky’s sniffles echoed all around the room as Justicia looked on quietly. After a moment, she pulled her scarf from around her neck and slid it across the table. Leaky looked at the beige scarf through tears and picked it up with her telekinesis.

“Yes, a guard informed me you vere speaking of zhe afflictions troubling your Stable in your sleep, so I pieced it togezher.” She ignored the insulted looks an embarrassed Leaky flashed her. “I do believe vee can engage in some form of… mutual co-operation.”

Leaky looked up wordlessly at Justicia as she dried her eyes, which Justicia took as a sign for her to continue.

“You have no doubt seen zhe trees und crops outside.” Leaky remembered the foggy forked figures in the mist. A creeping realization flowed into her as she remembered those familiar leaves that decorated the branches.

“Plumwood’s trees... you didn’t burn them down.”

“Indeed,” Justicia responded. “A precious resource in zis barren vasteland. Vun that vill be the first stepping stone in reviving Old Equestria.” She adjusted her coat and fluffed the fur-lined collar. “Am I to understand zhat your Stable is having overpopulation und supply issues?”

Leaky looked up at Justicia and paused before nodding slowly as she dried her eyes with the scarf.

“I am villing to donate large quantities of food und water to your Stable,” she began, much to Leaky’s surprise. “...As well as send in highly-skilled technicians to apply repairs to vhatever might ail them.”

Leaky leaned away from the table in shock. “W-what? I--”

“In addition,” she interrupted. “I am more zhan villing to set aside a large plot of land in the new Old Equestria just for you und your Stable, once vee reach it. Fertile land, running water, anyzhing you might need.”

Leaky’s open mouth trembled as her mind refused to find the words she wanted to express the wave of anger, sadness, surprise and happiness that conflicted inside of her. Unable to do so, she instead whimpered.

“Be reasonable, Lost Vun,” pleaded Justicia, genuine empathy in her voice. “I vant to help you. I vant to help your Stable. Und more importantly, I vant to help Equestria. So do not leave my request for help unheeded.”

Leaky stared quietly at the scarf in her hooves. The wet stains of her tears were seeping deep into the thin, beige fabric. “What do you want me to do?”

Justicia clapped a hoof to the table as she leaned back. “Gut. You’re doing a great service to the Harmony Movement, vun vee vill not forget.”

“Yeah...” Leaky sniffled once and begrudgingly slid the scarf across the table as Justicia pulled a manilla folder from her jacket.

“It is a good zhing you agreed, so I can tell my soldiers at your Stable to stand down.” She smiled coyly and picked up her scarf as she slid the folder across the table. “Zhis could’ve gone two different ways, really.”

Leaky looked up at Justicia, horrified. The slight smile disappeared from her face. “My apologies. It is my attempt at humour.”

Leaky looked up to see Justicia reach into her jacket and produce an elegant and long cigarette holder, which she proceeded to light with the forehoof-worn contraption she had laid on the table earlier. She took a slow drag of the ebony mouthpiece and exhaled a silky plume of smoke, then shook her head once and crossed a foreleg. “You do not mind, do you?”

Leaky nodded violently and coughed but was interrupted before she could answer properly. “Anyvays, inside you vill find numerous towns marked for you. I vant you to go to these towns und use your… reputation, as it vere, to convince zhem to surrender to us.”

“Why do you need me...” Leaky mewled as she coughed and weakly waved the acrid smoke from her face. “I’m sure you have other more capable ponies…”

“Capable, maybe,” retorted Justicia as she admired the glowing embers at the tip of her cigarette. “But you seem to instill somezhing in zhem which zhe Harmony Movement und its soldiers have failed to do so as of yet.” She leaned in closer, her pale blue eyes narrowing as she did so. “Fear.”

The growing splotch at the pit of Leaky’s stomach welled as her ears folded back against her head. She never wanted to do anything of this sort. She’d cry more if she wasn’t out of tears.

The corners of Justicia’s mouth twisted into a frown as she leaned back. “Believe it or not, Lost Vun, I absolutely detest violence.” She flicked gray ash from her cigarette and sighed. “As much as vee long for zhe days vhere vee don’t have to resort to such barbaric methods to coerce the vastelanders to vork togezher, vee have nary zhe manpower nor ideology to vage full-scale war against zhe denizens of zhis ‘Zona’. Hence vhy ve’re desperate for…” Justicia paused and weighed her words, then locked her gaze back on Leaky. “...alternate means of subjugation.”

Leaky looked down at the intricately drawn map while it shook lightly in her magical grip. She bit her lip as her eyes scanned the random topographical blobs, X’s representing towns full of ponies she was tasked into convincing that a life of slavery was preferable to fighting for what they had. ‘Am I really going to do this?’

‘When you have ponies that look to ya for their salvation, ya gotta make sacrifices’. Plum’s dying words echoed in Leaky’s ears. She shut her eyes in rejection of the advice she was just now beginning to understand. ‘Sometimes, ya gotta be the monster in the storybook fer yer people to have their happy ending.’

Leaky looked up, tears having long since ran out. “When do I start wi--”

“Immediately,” punctuated Justicia, startling Leaky as she got up from her seat and retrieved her forehoof contraption. She picked up her cap and adjusted it on her head. “Vee vill provide you vith anyzhing you might need. Armor, weapons, foodstuffs, etcetera.”

“Wait!” shouted Leaky. “You mean now?!”

“Of course,” Justicia retorted. “I understand you are… particularly vulnerable, so I vill be sending my second-in-command to accompany you und lead my army to persuaded settlements. Brilliant field tactician, zhat vun. Vun of zhe best soldiers under the flag of zhe Harmony Movement.”

She turned to slip back into the darkness and stopped. Her tail flicked as she turned her head slightly to look at her newest subordinate. “Vhat is your name, Lost Vun? Now zhat you have found zhe light of Old Equestria, you are deserving of vun.”

Leaky looked down at her hooves, her chain rattling in the quiet vacuum of conversation. “Leaky… Leaky Faucet...”

“--ermare? Are you okay?”

The barrel of the revolver gleamed weakly in the sickly, dim light that lit the office. The metal cylinder that served as a handle for the weapon glowed with a daffodil, yellow aura as it floated in the air.

“One little squeeze of the trigger would be all it would take. Just one. Then it’d be somepony else’s mess to clean up.”

Somepony else would have to be the punching bag for the hundreds upon hundreds of hungry and understandably angry ponies that looked to her for guidance, even if she herself had not the slightest idea of what to do.

“Overmare Sunny Days, ma’am?” quavered a sky-blue earth pony with a disheveled, light-orange mane. Her once bright and beautiful coat was noticeably duller; small, wet scabs ruined the the delicate portrait that was her face.

Sunny Days looked up irritably, her stern but otherwise stoic magenta eyes now sunken and tired from countless restless nights. She holstered the ornate revolver into its holster and clasped her hooves to the desk. “Yes?”

“Your twelve O'clock is here. The father of one of the volunteers?”

Sunny Days sighed and slumped in her chair. “Alright, send him in.” The mare nodded and left the office.

A haggard stallion came through the door of her office, looking pale in the dim light of the room. “Overmare Sunny Days,” he began before abruptly clearing the frogs from his dry, itchy throat.He absent-mindedly scratched the back of his black and salted mane as he searched for the words to say. “Any, ahh… word? At all? From--”

“I already told you, Clog,” she interrupted. “If I hear back from Leaky or any of the other volunteers, you’ll be the first to know.”

“No, yeah, I know...” stammered the stallion as he waved his hoof in front of him at the annoyed Overmare. “It’s just that… I was wondering if you could recall Leaky back home, with her baby coming and all--”

Sunny Days raised a hoof and shook her head. “Leaky knew what she was up for when she volunteered, what happens after that is up to the Goddesses. I’m going to tell you what I’ve told everyone who wanted their families recalled after they volunteered to save our Stable.” She cleared her throat and looked to the ceiling while hurried and rehearsed words streamed out of her bored expression. “While I understand your concerns, your family member is the best hope we have of saving our people. Without their duty, we stand no chance of yadda yadda yadda… Now, will that be all, Clog? I have a giant backlog of items I need to worry about. And frankly, your selfish desires are the least of my worries.”

“Overmare Sunny Days!” The sky-blue mare from earlier burst through the door, interrupting the two. “We…cough!...we have another group planning to leave the Stable! These ones look serious this time!”

The Overmare waved away the concern. “Send security to guard the Stable door. I don’t have the resources to bribe parties into staying anymore.”

“Ma’am...” began the mare before her. “The ponies leaving are security.”

Sunny Days’ brow furrowed. “What? Even after giving into their demands?!” Her hooves slammed into her desk in frustration. “Those rotten bastards… Curse them!”

“Overmare Sunny Days, if the security team leaves, there will be no one--”

“Yeah yeah,” interrupted the tired Overmare as she got up from her desk. “I understand the severity of what is happening.” She opened her desk and produced a clear bag of glowing orange liquid. She gave it a single shake as she examined it and then handed it to the blue mare as she trotted impatiently past her. “I’m not dense.”

“Overmare...” the mare mewled as she stared at the bag in her hooves. “I can’t--” She began to protest as she turned to see the room empty, save for a dumbfounded Clog. A twinge of dread tingled down her spine.

“Hey! Overmare! Wait!” blurted out Clog as he chased Sunny Days around the door, leaving the mare alone in the dingy room.

The flickering hallways were lined with sick ponies in makeshift gurneys, their bodies too damaged to fight or protest or do pretty much anything other than lie down and suffer. Sunny Days thanked the goddesses that the surplus RadAway that Stable-Tec stocked in Stable 16 had been virtually untouched since the doors sealed almost one-hundred and sixty years ago, save for a few careless ponies taking a dare to spend seven minutes near the reactor. She sighed at the prospect. The innocence and joviality from her grandmother’s tales were worlds away from today’s grim reality. She straightened her neck and widened her stance as sunken eyes looked up at her from ponies with sunken eyes staring through her. Though her body was as wracked with radiation as theirs, she had to be strong for them.

Clog caught up to her, apologizing to every ailing pony he bumped into. “Do you have children, Overmare Sunny Days?”

Sunny Days sighed ruefully as she kept trotting along. “No, Clog, I can’t say I do. My life is already stressful enough without making more mouths to feed.”

“Well, what about Stable 16?” He corrected. “You care about your people right? That’s why you won’t let us out? So we don’t just leave and die a few steps away from the door?”

Sunny Days trotted along silently. “I suppose I do, Clog, but sometimes certain people make it really hard to.”

“Well, let me tell you something then, Overmare. This was a long, long while ago, back when things started to get real bad. I just got fired from my job keeping the pipe systems in check because of payment issues, so Mrs. Sugarbottom was letting me drink for free.”

The Overmare trotted impatiently without a word. Her hooves picked up the pace, and the stallion followed suit.

“So then this… mare, just… comes up to me, asks if she can join me in my misery. I knew she was just using me for the free drinks, but I didn’t care. I needed the company. We talked the whole night.Talked about my job, the Stable, things like that. Before we knew it, we were both really drunk. I ended up taking her to my room, back before we started having to share--”

The Overmare snorted. “Goddesses, Clog. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?”

Clog exhaled gruffly. “I woke up that morning with a note thanking me for the drinks and that she’d see me around sometime. Didn’t think much of it.”

Sunny Days exhaled sharply and rolled her eyes. “Is this pointless story going somewhere Clog? I have my duties to take care of--”

The stallion twice her size clasped her shoulders and spun her around before pressing his face deathly close to hers.

“What the fuck?!” she exclaimed as she attempted shaking free, but his powerful hooves held the diminutive Overmare firmly in place. She tried raising her forelegs to strike Clog in retaliation, but to no avail.

“Five months later, I hear a loud knock on my door. Figured it was just the crowd passing by, so I ignored it. A few seconds later, I hear it again, this time faster. More urgent.“ He furrowed his brow, his greying face becoming dark. “I open it to see the same mare from that night, only super thin and really pale, and she's holding a foal. Tiny thing, about the size of your forehoof. “

He inhaled slowly before continuing. “I look at the baby, confused, and back at the mare. She’s sweating and trembling, looks like she’s about to keel over and die. I open my mouth to ask if she’s okay and the mare just… grabs the foal in her magic and tosses it at me. I catch the poor thing in my hooves and it starts crying hysterically. I looked up, confused out of my skull, and see the mare run into the crowd of ponies going on their daily lives. So, I’m shouting, right? Telling her to come get the foal, and tell me what in the name of Tartarus is happening? I try to catch up to her, but I can’t walk and hold the foal at the same time, and all I can do is just… watch her slip further and further into the crowd, all the while me, a fucking earth pony, have both forehooves occupied, holding this foal and shouting at her to get her baby.”

Sunny Days glared at the imposing stallion. “Get your fucking hooves off of me, Clog.”

The stallion continued, ignoring the smaller mare’s assertion. “So then I look down at this foal, and she's bawling her little orange eyes out. The… the brightest things I’ve ever seen, those eyes, and they’re looking up at me, dripping more than any pipe or faucet I’ve ever seen.”

The Overmare panted as her face remained twisted in dulling anger, but said nothing.

“I take the foal in and sit down on my bed, then look around. I don’t know the first thing about raising children, and I don’t really have anypony you’d call a friend. I tried looking for the mare from that day, trying to give her foal back. I remembered she mentioned something about living near the hydroponics lab, so I decided to try and go there. As I’m heading out the door, the PA starts blaring, and the speakers start playing this song, all sad and slow… You remember that day, don’t you?”

Sunny Days scowled silently before rasping. “The Bread Riots.”

“Yeah...” lamented the stallion. “Ponies just… attacking each other for what little they had. Over bread rations.” He shook his head slowly. “Sure, that’s common now, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen it happen with my own two eyes.” Clog glanced up with a faraway look in his eyes. “That foal cried and cried all night as ponies I knew, neighbors and friends, kept trying to force their way inside. If they opened the door, there wasn’t much I could do against them. But I held her tight. All I cared about up to that point was giving this kid back to her mother, but all I wanted at that point was to protect her with all my life, make sure it lives long and happy, make sure that nothing can come and tear her away from me.”

He continued. “I tried looking for the mare while security was finally bringing an end to the riots because… Goddesses. I don’t even know why. Closure, maybe? But you know how bad the hydroponics area got hit during those riots. More than half of the ponies who lived nearby had been killed or exiled.” He slowly let go of the Overmare and looked down at her. “It didn’t matter. I already made up my mind. I did my best to take care of that foal. Tell me, Sunny Days...” said Clog as his eyes misted slightly, face unchanged. “Would you do that for the people you care about?”

Sunny Days staggered backwards from the stallion. Her mouth hung open, searching for the right words to properly convey the raging flurry of threats and scoldings she felt churning inside of her, but nothing came out. She screamed in frustration as she turned around and stomped off, leaving Clog standing by himself in the hallways stacked with the sick and tired.

Furtive whispers emanated from the Stable entrance as the Overmare approached. Against the moans of the afflicted, their unscratchy voices rang out like clarion bells.

“--we getting out of here then?”

“In a bit,” answered a higher pitched voice. Sunny Days recognized her as the head of security; an otherwise noble pony now spearheading this mutiny. “The children are packing what they can. Five minutes, tops.”

A group of thirteen ponies stood at the mouth of the closed entrance. The plates of the light armor they wore were cracked and dirtied; some were stained with the dried blood of their previous owners. They carried varying loads of supplies strapped haphazardly on their backs and impatiently fiddled with weapons in dangerous states of disrepair.

A loud bang filled the room and startled the group. An ornate revolver was held in the air by a yellow aura, its smoking barrel aimed at the group’s general direction. The diminutive, yellow mare holding the weapon was breathing heavily. The long walk from her office to the entrance took a toll on her deteriorating body. “Commander Rust Bucket, tell your group to stand down and return to their posts.” The Overmare’s heart pounded inside her ears as she waved the pistol to the side, pointing at the right. She faked a smile. ”If you’d kindly.”

The head of security‘s face contorted in shame. “Damn it. You weren’t supposed to--”

“I wasn’t supposed to what?” the Overmare interrupted. “Know that you’re abandoning your people just to go die out there?”

“We can’t stay in here...” protested Rust Bucket. “You know as well as anyone that the radiation--”

“...Is the least of your concerns at the moment. If I recall, I gave you and your families extra medicine to stave off radiation sickness.”

The commander narrowed her eyes. “They won’t last. Not at this rate.”

“We just have to hold out a little longer. Just enough for the scouts to secu--”

“A little longer? A little longer?! You always say that! The scouts AREN’T coming back!” shouted a shaky guard in the front of the group. The dirty visor on his helmet was cracked in three different places. “They’re all dead! And if they’re not, they would’ve gotten some sense knocked into them and left this hellhole behind!” Rust Bucket's sly advance towards the control panel during the speech was cut short as the Overmare's gun was thrust roughly towards her.

“Don’t think I won’t, Rust Bucket. Not for a second.” The revolver floated shakily in the air, but didn’t waver from its target. The Overmare narrowed her cold, tired eyes at her insubordinate.

Rust Bucket slowly inched towards the control panel as the beleaguered security team raised their weapons at their Overmare. “Don’t do this, ma’am. If you shoot at me, my group will be forced to retaliate.”

“With what?” snorted the Overmare. “Rubber bullets? We haven’t had real bullets down here for weeks. Which means… in the time you and your playdate over there hoses me down with your children’s toys, I can show you imbeciles six reasons why opening that door will be the single worst idea you will ever have in your increasingly numbered days.” The group’s aim faltered, not liking the sound of those odds. One by one, barrels lowered towards the ground.

Rust’s legs froze a yard away from the control panel as her eyes narrowed at the Overmare. “You won’t shoot me.”

The chrome hammer on Sunny Days’ ornate revolver cocked back as if punctuating Rust’s defiance. “Try me,” she hissed. “I’ve had a bad day.”

For several small eternities, no one spoke.The omnipresent whir of the control panel and the constant buzz of the overhead lights were deafening in the quiet.

And then Rust Bucket lunged at the control panel, clenching the lever with her teeth.

“You fool!” shouted the Overmare as her anger got the best of her.

A deafening roar filled the room, startling the Stable dwellers. It was not the sound of a .44 calibre threat being made real, but instead a deep grinding of metal on metal and the wail of a siren. Rust Bucket turned to the Overmare as the Stable door rotated and hissed, then back to the still-inactive control panel.

“Back away from the door!” shouted the Overmare at her subordinates as the heavy cog door slowly trundled to the side. Exhaust from the hydraulic pistons flooded the floor, a scalding fog the startled security team desperately backed away from. A sea of blue orbs floated eerily through the steam, their weak ethereal light peering through the exposed entrance.

Sunny Days ducked behind a wall and aimed her revolver at the the blue lights, ignoring the nagging sense that five bullets really wouldn't be enough. Why couldn’t her family heirloom be something like a gattling gun, or one of the magical energy weapons she used to read about?

She motioned at her mutinous security team to aid the Stable dwellers packed in the halls as she prepared to stand against whatever force could penetrate a Stable door

An electronically enhanced voice boomed from the Stable’s entrance. “Citizens of Stable 16. Stand down. We come as friends from a wasted, degenerate land.”

“My ass!” shouted the Overmare from behind cover as she opened her revolver’s cylinder. Inside were five shots. Full metal jacket. Armor piercing, for whatever that was worth when fighting something from The Outside. She slammed the cylinder shut and poked her head slightly from behind cover as she heard a heavy dragging noise. “What do you want from us?”

A bronze figure emerged from the steam. It was more interested in the small clipboard in one of it’s hooves than the long barreled revolver floating nearby.

“What the fuck are you supposed to be?” barked the Overmare as the flamboyant blue brush on its head came upon her pistol’s sight. Three blue stripes were painted on the shoulders.

The figure checked off something on its clipboard and looked up with a quick half-hearted salute. “A proud soldier of the Harmony Movement. Overmare Justicia Rein-Strum has generously allocated resources of the reclamation effort to help Stable 16.”

The Overmare squinted at the bronze figure, revolver’s lock-on never leaving him. “Wha… Harmony what?”

Another soldier ran out out of the steam, rapid clicking emanating from its armor. “Sir, high levels of radiation detected, we need to work fast.”

The one with blue stripes nickered. “Goddesses. Alright, engineers upfront, head to the reactor. Should be located in the same place as back home. The rest of you, I want a command center and supply depot set up right here at the entrance.”

More bronze clad ponies poured out of the steam, carrying everything from toolboxes to unmarked metal crates. They trotted past the confused Overmare, none paying attention to the formidable revolver she was waving around. Startled cries rose from the halls behind her. “Woah woah woah! What the fuck are you doing?!” She pointed the gun at the blue striped one, who had his back turned to her and was waving more of them through the entrance. “You! You better tell me what the fuck it is you think you’re doing here before I paint your tuna cans cherry pie red!”

His brush-clad head turned slightly as he waved even more of them inside. “Stand down, Overmare. The Lost One Leaky Faucet has agreed to help our cause in exchange for the Harmony Movement’s aid in saving her Stable.”

The Overmare lowered her pistol slightly. “Leaky...?”

He turned his head completely, emotionless gaze resting on the Overmare’s face. “We come as friends. A rare commodity in this wasteland.”

“Likely story,” snarled Sunny Days as she readjusted her revolver. “Now get the hell out of my Stable or--”

“You won’t want to do that, Overmare,” chided the armored stallion. “Friendship is a valuable and rare commodity in the ruins of Old Equestria. The alternative method of securing your co-operation is less desirable, I assure you.”

“Is that a threat, asshole?” growled the Overmare as she cocked the hammer of her revolver.

“No, Overmare Sunny Days,” responded the unflinching sentinel. “It’s a promise.”

The mare’s magenta eyes narrowed dangerously, the world slowing while the hunk of engraved, gleaming death in her telekinetic grip shook with anticipation.

“You promise…?” mewled Leaky as she angled her neck to get a look at her newly acquired armor: engraved sheets of bronze plate mail protected the full-body Stable 50 suit she wore underneath, as opposed to the short-cut variants that came standard in the ventilation-challenged Stable 16. She tugged at the leather fabric on her foreleg with her teeth.

The helmeted quartermaster behind the reinforced window simply looked around, then back at the pregnant mare before him. “All accouterments are measured specifically for each--”

“No, yeah, you said that three times already, it’s just...” Leaky spun in circles slowly attempting to catch a glimpse of her bump. “This doesn’t look a bit tight to you...?”

The stallion remained silent for a few moments before shrugging lightly. “I don’t know what to tell you. It was the biggest size we had.”

Leaky sighed. Being pregnant sucks.

“Ah, gut. You are ready,” said a familiarly stern voice from behind her. The quartermaster in front of Leaky threw his hoof to his forehead in salute, as Leaky turned warily. “I just vant to thank you again, on behalf of zhe Harmony Movement und all of Equestria, for agreeing to help secure our future.”

“It’s not like I had much of a choice...” grumbled Leaky as she picked up a hefty fluorescent tube of some kind surrounded by a thin cage of metal rods. She clicked a lone button on the handle’s mouthguard and jumped as the rod crackled to life with an energetic blue light.

Justicia looked down and padded at her jacket with a hoof, pulling out her ebony cigarette holder. “Zhe vasteland had a choice. It made zhe wrong one. Und now...” she said with a sigh as she sat on her haunches and raised her hooves outwards in a welcoming gesture. “...here vee are.”

Leaky looked at the electrical rod she held in her telekinesis and shook her head sadly.

“Now,” spoke Justicia. “If zhere isn’t anyzhing else, I vill be retiring back into my office. I look forvard to your progress, Leaky Faucet--”

A guard with a heavy-looking metal pack on his back ran into the room and saluted the blonde mare, an aura of urgency following him into the room. He leaned into his Overmare’s ear and whispered as quietly as his electronically amplified helmet allowed. “Overmare Justicia… we’ve got a situation at Stable 16.” Leaky’s ear perked.

A… situation..?

“What’s going on? Is everything alright?” she quavered.

Justicia turned her head to Leaky and back at the soldier, eyes narrowed. A harsh whisper escaped her frown. “Vat do you mean a situation? I gave a simple order, on a mission of friendship even, how can one possibly create a situation out of zhat?”

“It’s the Overmare, ma’am,” he began. “She, ah...” he looked at Leaky and trailed off.

“She what?!” Leaky burst out. Her heart raced a mile a minute.

Justicia pointed a hoof towards Leaky. “Still your tone, Leaky Faucet.”

Two armed guards trotted into the room and stood at their Overmare’s side. She leaned into the pony with the metal pack on his back and whispered something into his earpiece, who turned to look at Leaky and nodded.

“Please! What’s happening?!” She shouted as her throat began to tighten. “What happened to my Stable?!”

******************************************************************************

Footnote - Level up!

New perk: Big Leagues IIIIIIIIIt’s outta here! You do 20% more melee damage and have a chance to disarm opponents.

You are Concussed! Even with medical care, you are still too injured to think clearly. You suffer -2 to Perception.

Author's Note