Fallout Equestria: Commonwealth

"But, seriously, this isn't the toughest crowd I've ever been in front of. But it's definitely the easiest to bug!"

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"Do ya hafta fly so high up dollface!? You're killin' me here!" Nick Hearts n' Hooves interrupted our steady flight to the west with another of his periodic complaints, clinging to Vira's back and grimacing to the ground.

His large alicorn assistant had no problem carrying the synth around and was obviously used to his discomfort, giggling a reply with a little shimmy that made him yelp and hold tighter, but she did start losing altitude to placate him. "Just focus on the horizon like we practiced Nick. If I flew lower, we run the risk of crashing into the treetops. Really, you have an employee that can ferry you around the Commonwealth, but you still wish to crawl around on the ground? Just think of how many more cases you can take now! I'm sure Ellie will be pleased!"

"Ugh... Don't you dare tell her that doll! I'm sure she'll figure it out on her own when we get back to the office, but the longer it takes her the better." Nick huffed back, tugging his collar up and unsuccessfully trying to duck down to light a cigarette in the freezing wind.

Listening to the two of them banter back and forth like old friends made me smile, amazed again at the unlikely partnership. Nick had helped my best friend Val when she had hit bottom years before we met, so it seemed he had a real knack for helping others to turn lives around. I felt a debt of gratitude in both cases too.

(That red griffon mercenary of yours Fast? I'll have to compare notes with her when we see her again, one detective's assistant to another.) Vira read the thought out of my head with a warm smile, then looked up in thought and bit her lip. (Though I don't think she liked me very much... Do you think she'll be as forgiving as your daughter?)

(Er... well...) I couldn't really lie to a psychic, leaving me no good answer to the hopeful question and glad to see lights twinkling through the snow covered forest below. "Oh look! That must be where we're headed now!"

Vira gave a worried nicker at all the ways Val might react I was already trying to head off in my mind, but let me get away with changing the subject as our pip-bucks chimed with; Location Discovered: Lynn Woods. The name was a bit misleading as what seemed to set the mapping spell off wasn't the skeletal forest below, but a leaning tower of ancient stone dead ahead.

It was very old and crumbling, but still standing somehow. A thin spire of rough stone, the partial onion dome left on top reminding me of pictures of Canterlot. As we glided closer I had the odd sensation of seeing it as it must have looked long ago, some of the Shroud's memories superimposing themselves on my present view, dating the structure back at least 1200 years.

What had been an royal garrison for the tiny hamlet of Neighlem in the old days was now a faded ruin, though still inhabited by a menagerie of creatures I did a couple loops around the place to take in. There wasn't any electric lighting, just torches and campfires illuminating a variety of tents and shacks arrayed around the tower. Just a cursory look showed several hellhounds, minotaurs, griffons and a variety of ponies.

A loud siren broke the silence as we came in for a landing, a hoof cranked air raid warning that focused everycreature on our arrival. A variety of weapons were trained on us the second we touched down, while the growling hellhounds were intimidating by their very presence. Of course it didn't help I saw all their ears laid back like mine and Vira's were, the wailing noise just pissing them off more.

"Easy everybody! We don't want any trouble!" I tried to shout over the sound and calm things down, then immediately had my efforts undone by my own mouth snarling on. "Cease thine yapping mongrels!"

I facehoofed at the Shroud egging the hellhounds on, relieved to see the particular dog we were here for when I looked up again. Clara had her claws to her ears and strode straight through the ring of her people surrounding me with a pale earth pony stallion trotting to keep up, shouting over the siren in a friendly greeting before turning to scream up to the tower. "Shadow-pony! There you are! Everyone stop being mean, this is pony I tell you about what save pup! And TURN OFF STUPID SIREN!!"

The awful wail finally tapered off at her waving her claws up to the tower, the resulting silence allowing me to catch her pony companion's frightened whisper of; "Oh shit... he really came..."

While the hellhounds looked as relieved as I felt with the siren cut off, they weren't backing down. Instead I found myself engaging in a growling standoff with the biggest one shoving Clara back from greeting us. Thankfully, Clara's pup Jewel broke the tension before the Shroud's demand for dominance screwed things up even more, the young hellhound bounding out of the crowd with her tail wagging, tackling me with slobbery licks to the face that made me sputter laughter.

"Shadow-pony Fast! Hi! It good to see you again! You bring friends too, is this Princess pony?" Jewel was happy to see me anyway, the sight of the youngster's enthusiastic greeting seeming to put the settlers here in a better mood as she blinked up to Vira curiously.

Extending a foreleg to shake with Jewel's sharp claws, Vira smiled and shook her head in answer, allowing a woozy looking Nick to clamber off her back. "I'm no Princess little one, you're thinking of my sister. My name is Vira and this is my boss, Nick Hearts n' Hooves, a pleasure to meet you!"

Finally getting the opportunity to light his bent cigarette in shaking hooves, Nick tipped his hat to the wary little hellhound and the crowd in general. "Heya there sweetheart, and all you fine folks of course. Sorry to cause a ruckus, just here to pick up your ma there for our little adventure. We're friendly, I promise."

"Another robot-pony? Like mean one in black coat what helped us too? This one seems nicer..." Clara gave Nick a dubious appraisal, her reply making me wince under Vira's scrutiny when I thought of the Courser who'd assaulted Libertalia with me.

I could feel her psychic senses focusing on me and a worried frown crossed her face, that and the still pensive looking residents of Lynn Woods encouraging me to hurry things along. "R-Right, they're friends of mine, along with Zed here who your mom's already met kiddo. Now that we're all introduced and friendly, maybe we could get out of these folks' manes? They're not exactly rolling out the welcome wagon Clara..."

The pale stallion wearing leather armor under a variety of warm looking furs gulped when I raised my eyebrow his way, noticing their variety of hunting rifles and shotguns still hadn't entirely pointed away. "Sorry Mr. Shrouded Stallion. We're all right grateful for you helping Clara here, but we uh... well we're just a little hunting settlement, we don't want no trouble and it..."

"Follows me around... yeah, I get it... Don't worry, I'm not planning on sticking around." I sighed and made to back away, then found my retreating hindleg wouldn't obey me. Instead my mouth kept right on moving, the Shroud's voice rumbling out. "I shall leave because I wish to, with my promised guide. But make no mistake..."

At that a black shockwave of magic rippled out from my firmly planted hooves, the snowy ground exploding upward and disgorging three more hellhounds who had apparently been waiting in ambush if things went bad. I barely caught sight of their surprised faces hanging upside down in the air, then I spread my wings and launched myself at them, pinballing from one to the next with midair bucks that sent them flying.

Landing back where I started, my corrupted magic snatched several unactivated mines from the the air and floated them to my saddlebags as I snarled the end to the Shroud's statement. "...No mangy curs or pitiful peasant tells me where to go..."

There was dead silence for a long moment, the dazed hellhounds shuffling up as I hissed to myself. Fucking really? You just have to start shit with a pack of freaking hellhounds? Ok, even I had to admit it was impressive, but there was no reason to...

To my surprise, the quiet was broken by barks of laughter... The vicious looking pack of hellhounds, the few minotaurs and single yak I saw all chuckling together until the woods were filled with the sound of guttural guffaws. Looking around in surprise, I saw Clara and Jewel puffing up proudly, the mother hellhound padding forward to hold my foreleg up and shout. "See!? I tell you is really Shadow-pony of legend!"

Even the three I had bucked away were laughing, joining all the others in a bow before me flaring my wings and sticking my chest out. I groaned internally at the vain spirit soaking up the sign of respect, but I wasn't exactly in control. We were on the Shroud's quest to retrieve his sword, so he had decided to take an active role in things, sticking my nose up and grinning with a mouthful of sharp fangs, making me feel like a pompous idiot.

At least the local stallion who started all this looked as confused as me and my friends, giving a start from his dumbfounded staring when the brown and white hellhound in charge clapped his back with a hearty laugh. "Is alright Game Trail, just had to test him. True Shadow-pony is friend to dogs, and this is true Shadow-pony alright! Sorrows tribe send off with feast!"

At that the big hellhound clapped his claws and the rest of the settlement sprang to action, directing my attention to a large radhog roasting on a spit over a campfire that made me drool. I supposed the Shroud understood hellhounds better than I did... Apparently that little display was all it took to earn their respect and establish dominance.

"Er... thanks? Really, thanks for the offer, but we just came to get Clara and get this done. I appreciate the.." Blinking in confusion, I tried to decline and found my mouth taken over again. "I accept your offering wise pack leader. Bring me meat..."

With Clara's pup Jewel happily dragging me forward to join the makeshift feast, I shrugged sheepishly to my companions and sighed. "Well.. umm... it would be rude to say no? Sorry..."

Zed groaned and rolled his stern grey eyes, while Nick shrugged and followed along amiably. Vira seemed almost pleased at least, prancing to catch up with a tinkle of laughter. "We certainly wouldn't want to offend. Little Jewel here can tell me all about her heroic rescue! I'm very interested in hearing all about it, especially the part about the other robot pony..."

I winced at her curious question, her voice in my mind conveying a lot more worry than she showed out loud. (A Courser...? We need to talk about that Fast... Later...)

We lost about an hour or so celebrating with the rough and tumble residents of Lynn Woods, but my full belly made it a worthwhile stop at least. I'd given the local hellhounds a run for their money, voraciously tearing into the well cooked spoils of the hunter's camp.

I also learned a few things. The small settlement was home to a lot of outsiders, a tribe of hellhounds, local minotaurs and the odd yak I reminded myself to tell Swan about when I saw her again. The tower they built their home around was near the northern edge of the Commonwealth, so they took in a lot of explorers from outside that had a few interesting things to say.

Beyond the barrier sealing the Commonwealth off, a blizzard was currently raging... Apparently it was in response to the gathered army from the New Canterlot Republic just outside, stymied from marching on Trotson by the impenetrable storms. They had to be the reinforcements Elder Macson and the Brotherhood of Friendship were waiting on, but according to the residents of Lynn Woods, they weren't moving in force anytime soon.

It was still worrisome... From the rumors I picked up while stuffing my face, they weren't the only ones either. An expedition from the Lunar Commonwealth was coming from the west whoever they were, and numerous small groups I didn't know like the Twilight Society, the Collegiate, Enclave Remnants and raider tribes were also massing outside the barrier. All the excitement here and whispers of Princess Celestia's return were bringing in all types. Some were sending small groups of infiltrators through the storm already, but they all wanted to come in and start turning the Commonwealth into a warzone.

The goodwill the Shroud's little display bought us had another happy result at least, the settlers had dragged out an ancient chariot from the tower to carry our hellhound passenger in, a well crafted conveyance that Clara and Nick were riding in as Vira and I pulled together. The green alicorn was quite pleased at the two of us being harnessed side by side, letting me mull things over in silence for awhile before she finally broke it by speaking directly in my mind.

(You can't seriously be considering working with the Institute Fast... Whatever that Courser said, they lie and manipulate... They never deliver on what's promised.)

She must have been digging in my head this whole time, psychically reading my misadventure in Libertalia and the messages from Klein the synth killer X6-88 had delivered. Much as I believed her and hated to see her concerned frown, I snorted in frustration and answered the same way.

(I know alright! I know they can't be trusted, but... Glitter... They offered to help Glitter, I can't ignore that Vira. Even if it's making a deal with the devil, I just can't... What if they're the only ones who can help her? I'll do whatever it takes to save my daughter. Whatever. It. Takes...)

She gave a worried little whinny as we flew on, her green gaze softening as she reached a comforting foreleg out to my shoulder. (I... I understand Fast. But I know how devious the Institute is personally, I don't want to see you repeat my mistakes. At the very least, try to think. They don't do things out of the kindness of their hearts. Why are they so interested in your daughter? What makes her so special?)

(Well... Glitter disobeyed Vega's orders, that wasn't supposed to be possible I guess... It fried her when she did it, but she did break free. She even got her cutie mark, all by herself! It was awesome, all sparkly and bright... I don't think synths have ever gotten their own mark either. They have stolen ones applied when they replace somepony, but never actually get one themselves. Glitter's even some kind of symbol to all the rogue synths now, they call her a Princess like Jade and the Railroad puts her mark up all over the place.)

(Hmmm... Curious. What about her origins? They told you Mobius created her? That they don't make child synths for some reason? Why?) Vira hummed in thought beside me, the assistant detective focusing on the mystery of my little filly.

(I'm not sure actually... Only that what they called Project Small Wonder was a failure, they have a hard time making kids. Dala had some in her dollhouse, but they didn't seem quite right, just acting out their roles like windup toys. Mobius... my Grandpa, it was one of his crazy projects, so I guess he found a way to make it work to spy on me.)

(Wouldn't he be the better choice to fix her then? If your Grandfather created her, he must know how to help her better than Klein. Why not go to him instead?) Vira replied softly, trying to divert me away from thinking of actually working with Klein and bringing up a point I hadn't thought of.

(Because, I don't know where he is! He's hiding! He's been hiding for years! He used to get involved in things, he helped my friend Burny Jets even, but he's never helped me. He didn't even start doing anything again until I woke up, but he hasn't come out to find me or explain anything! Just spied on me, told ponies he knew to wait for me like he knew I'd come, made Glitter to keep tabs on me... The most he does is keep up the barrier that imprisons the Institute and keeps groups like the NCR out there. If I could find him I'd ask, or kill him... I'm still not sure. If I could just remember what he did... why... why he did all of it...)

(Then before you make any decision, you should allow me more opportunity to find out. The memories are there Fast, they weren't erased or removed, just sealed away. I can find out for you, we can find out together... Just give me a chance before working with Klein, I know I can do it!) Giving an uneasy smile, Vira leaned over to nuzzle hopefully, tilting the chariot and getting a yelp out Nick.

"I know you can Vira, thanks... I know you're trying to help too, just... If I have to, if it's the only way to help her, I'll do what I have to. I know how you feel about it and you're right, but... I have to save her. I can't fail her again..."

Picking up on the until then unspoken conversation, Nick grumbled from his seat huddled against the big hellhound Clara. "Hey! You two are doing that telepathy hooey up there, aren't you!? Focus on flying sweetheart! No getting distracted with psychic flirting!"

Answering with a blush lighting her cheeks, Vira huffed at her employer. "Oh hush Nick! We are not... It was a serious conversation! Speaking through Unity is simply easier than yelling over the wind. Besides, we are nearly there, see?"

We all followed her pointing foreleg, looking to the north and spotting the huge hole in the earth that was the Sandwich Borer's dig site. It looked even worse up close, a gaping maw in the middle of rocky and dead land even more blasted and barren than most of the wasteland.

We subconsciously veered that way for a better look, though the arrow displayed on the compass at the bottom of my vision still pointed to the east for some reason, prompting me to ask about it as we approached the Shroud's goal. "Why aren't we just going straight to it Clara? You said you had a better way, but it's right there..."

"Because of bugs Shadow-pony Fast." Clara's terse answer only confused me more, the hulking hellhound giving a shiver.

"Bugs?"

Almost like an answer to my dubious question, E.F.S. lit up with several red dashes, corresponding to distant specks rising out of the dig site and flying right for us. A ridge of fur on Clara's neck rose as she barked back, shaking the whole chariot to Nick's yelps and pointing a claw to the approaching threat. "Bugs! Ugly copy bugs! Too close to hive Shadow-pony! Fly away!"

She had a point, but I was too stunned to follow her advice. My sharp eyes focused on the approaching fliers and I felt them shift to a glowing, dragon slitted scowl as I got a better look, my own foalhood fear kept in check by the Shroud's anger.

Changelings... That's what they had to be, the monsters from my mom's bedtime stories long ago. They were essentially pony shaped, but had chitinous hides of glossy black with markings of varying colors and wide, blank eyes. Their forelegs had holes in them and their mouths opened in a furious screech as they closed in, revealing gleaming fangs that made me shudder.

Zed was fastest to react, swooping away to meet the threat on his leathery bat wings and smashing a purple accented Changeling out of the air with a flying buck. "Go! Pull away from the hive, quickly!"

His yell was enough to snap me out of my stupor, joining Vira in flapping hard and veering south in a hurry. The Shroud tried taking over to attack, but was kept from joining my zebra friend by the harness tethering me to the listing chariot.

If it weren't for being psychically linked to my co-pilot, I may have ended up crashing in my desire to go face the threat. Thanks to Vira however, I found I could rely on her to handle the flying, subconsciously following her harried instructions keeping us one step ahead of the green beams of magic firing on us from the Changelings curved horns.

With her in charge of our looping flight that made Nick shout frantically between crashes of his hoof cannon of a revolver, I focused on staring over my shoulder to line up the Last Minute. The flat crack of the gauss rifle blasted through the hard shell of one of the pests attacking Zed, resulting in a gooey mess where its head should be that did at least sate the Shroud's desire for destruction.

The spirit joined in by firing a beam of blackened magic from my horn and torching another as Vira dove and dodged, then the remaining Changelings seemed to realize what was going on. To our shared frustration and horror, the four remaining monsters were surrounded in a green flash of magic, then there were suddenly five Zeds ducking and zipping around each other in a flurry of hooves.

Two of the matching zebras broke off and made for the chariot, but I couldn't be sure one of them wasn't the real Zed. While I was unsure what to do, I had to reject the Shroud's automatic suggestion of firing off a wide spread bolt of lightning and seeing who survived.

'...What?... Real one live... probably...'

"We're not freaking attacking Zed, even if he can probably dodge it asshole! Think of something else!"

While I was fighting with myself, Clara swung out at the first Zed to come close with his hooves held up peacefully. I yelped at the flash of her sharp claws tearing the zebra in half, gasping in relief when the illusion faded from the two halves falling to the earth.

The second Zed's face changed from his normal flat expression to a sneer I'd never seen the zebra wear when it dodged Clara's next swipe, the Changeling form replacing him in a flash with his cover blown. Flames of green magic swirled at his horn, but it never got the chance to blast us as Nick had all the assurance he needed to fire his Trotson P.D. issued revolver, leaving the ugly bug in a tailspin behind us with a large hole blown through its thorax.

"Great job Clara! How do you tell which is real and which isn't!?"

Gripping both sides of the chariot as we leveled off with Nick holding on to the fuzzy hellhound for purchase, Clara shouted over her shoulder in a growling reply. "Bugs smell wrong! Just get away from hive Shadow-pony, more coming!"

I turned back to follow her pointing claw, my face paling as I looked beyond Zed smashing another of his doppelgangers from the air. A veritable swarm was boiling up out of the Sandwich Borer's hole behind him, more than even the eager Shroud was capable of taking on while strapped to a careening chariot, no matter what the violent spirit said to the contrary.

Zed, or the Zeds rather, spotted the same thing and winged their way back towards us in retreat. I guessed the one in the lead had to be the real one, but was still glad for Clara's nose proving me correct before I just incinerated one. She allowed the first Zed to make a swooping pass right by her, then tore the next one to ribbons when it attempted the same thing. The third veered away frantically on figuring out the hellhound could identify it, but was already too close to escape. A bolt of lightning crackled from my horn, leaving a smoking shell that fell behind us as Vira flapped harder and pulled me with her.

"Faster! We must go faster if we're to escape Fast, fly!" She yelped and focused my eyes forward again, straining to pour on the speed with our heavy passengers weighing us down.

Pulling up next to us, the real Zed stared down at the snowy ground a moment before giving a relieved huff. "It's alright! We should be safe now, just keep going and don't approach that place again."

I looked down to see what he did, only noticing that the trees were below our hooves again, instead of the blasted, rocky ground surrounding the Changeling hive. I looked back in confusion, but found Zed was right, the huge swarm stopped and turned back, leaving us free to escape once we were out of their territory.

"W-What the hell? Why aren't they chasing us? What the fuck was all that?"

Gliding closer, Zed rooted in his saddlebags and pulled out one of his clay potion jars. He dipped his hoof into the pot of greenish-brown goop, smearing it on my face as he replied gruffly. "Changelings... I told you that place was cursed Fast. They don't usually leave the area, but I brought protection just in case. Here, this reveals a changeling's true form, they cannot copy its magic or smell, so keep it in mind while we're in the area."

Vira wrinkled her nose at the the zebra goop sloppily applied to her pretty face and I did the same. I supposed even normal ponies would be able to identify the strong, bitter smell, for alicorns like us however, it was a little strong. Still, better than relying on Clara's impressive olfactory senses to sniff out the bugs themselves. I had no idea how she caught the scent while blasting through the air on a chariot, the canine's sniffer must be even better than my own.

"And that's where yer ghost wants to go Mac? Hate to tell you, but I think you're shit outta luck. Nopony messes with the hive up in these parts, most of us are just glad they keep to themselves. We got enough problems with my fellow synths sneaking around and replacing folks as it is." Nick slumped and breathed easier as our flight evened out, giving a grim appraisal the Shroud didn't like hearing.

"No! I will exterminate yon pests and retrieve what is mine! No hive of cowardly changelings will stop me from...!"

"Will you shut up! We're not diving right into a freaking changeling hive dammit! Clara, you said you had a way in? Want to elaborate before my insane pal turns us right around?" I fought to take over my mouth and wings straining to redirect us, grunting back to our passengers hopefully.

Squinting at my dueling comments, Clara nodded in reply and pointed towards the marker my pip-buck was still displaying as our destination. "Yes! Can go under Shadow-pony, no have to go through hive. Please?"

"There, you see stupid? Let's try taking the easy way for once!"

'...Easy way boring... Fine.... Want sword though!..."

I facehoofed at the internal answer the Shroud sullenly volunteered after a moment's thought, dragging my hoof slowly down my bristly muzzle with a groan and looking ahead. The area Clara and my pip-buck were directing us towards appeared to be an old rock quarry, within sight of the Sandwich Borer's hive, but just out of the clearly defined territory of rocky hills spotted with ugly, twisted spires that looked like termite mounds.

Vira joined me in slowly losing altitude and circling the site, looking down on a warren of square cut blocks of granite shaped from the stony ground, forming an intimidating looking maze of narrow passages. The message of; 'Location Discovered: Hugo's Hole' didn't really inspire confidence, but we drifted down for a landing near the entrance as Clara directed.

Nick jumped out of the chariot before it even finished clattering to a halt, making a show of kissing the barren ground and glaring at Vira and I as he lit a cigarette and breathed a shaky plume of smoke into the frigid air. "Finally! Thank the goddesses, back on solid ground. Take my life in my hooves every time I fly with you dollface..."

Snickering at her employer as her emerald magic worked to undo her harness, Vira stuck her nose up playfully at Nick's grousing. "Any landing you can walk away from Nick... That wasn't as bad as flying through the fog, now was it? I don't see what you're complaining about, this time you even had your very own chariot."

"Could be my own personal Vertibuck and I still wouldn't like it sweetheart. Now then, what's the skinny here rover? There some kinda backdoor this'a way?" Nick huffed and flipped his trenchcoat collar up defensively, trotting towards the gloomy entrance to the maze of passages ahead.

Before he managed to cross the threshold however, Clara bounded forward and grabbed him by his plastic tail, yanking the synth detective back with a bark. "No just wander in robot pony! Hugo no like visitors, see?"

Blinking at her shakily pointing claw, even I had to squint to see the gleam of a tripwire in the light of the waxing moon overhead. After I fought my way free of my own harness, I joined Vira and Zed in trotting over to inspect the booby trap, spotting the dull green finish of several grenades mostly covered by a pile of rocks.

Staring down the narrow passage into the complex, I gulped as my eyes widened and glowed, spotting a web of more tripwires within, along with rusty red cans of fuel, tall cyllinders of gas, pressure plates and even the dim red glow of laser triplines. I was forcibly reminded of Talon's Department Store and Gunter's own murder maze, gulping at the path before us.

"Hugo? Is he a friend of yours Miss Clara? Why does he live all the way out here behind all these defenses?" Vira tilted her head looking down the passage with me, giving a shiver as she turned to Clara carefully disarming the first trap.

Clara waved us forward as she took a careful step into the complex, explaining as she went. "He old alpha, go here when new alpha take his place. Hugo is... grumpy... but not bad. There safe path to take, just follow very, very closely... We go ask to use his hole, go under hive to where Shadow-pony want."

"We could simply fly over this deadly funhouse... Is there a reason for going through the insane nest of traps Clara?" Zed grumbled from the rear, following Clara's pawprints exactly like the rest of us.

"More traps up there for fliers, plus Hugo would take as attack and fight back. If we go through safe path and survive, he knows we are friends. Clara answered absently, making a show of stepping over a slightly darker looking stone in our path.

She or Hugo both had an odd definition of 'safe path' considering the number of deadly booby traps even I spotted, but she was our guide and I had to trust she knew what she was talking about. Weaving our way down the narrow canyons of rough cut stone, I again thought of Talon's Department store and wistfully smiled, thinking of Val and how the explosive loving griffon would appreciate this place.

(She is a good friend to you, isn't she Fast?) I paused and turned back to Vira's voice in my mind, finding the green alicorn smiling happily as she read my thoughts. (I remember her from Fort Loyalty very well, she was extremely loyal and brave... You think very warm thoughts about her. Though what is a... griffon groper?)

'...Want...'

(HA! N-Nothing! Nothing at all!) I flushed and yelped back, pausing our progress to cringe under Vira's knowing smirk. (O-Ok... Maybe I had a naughty thought pop to mind there, sorry... But seriously, yeah... yeah Val is awesome alright. She's my best friend and I wish she was here. I really... r-really miss her a lot...)

'Be Awesome!'

(So I see... My, my, such interesting memories you have of her too!) Vira giggled back, then leaned down to nuzzle my burning cheek softly as she continued. (We'll get you back to your friend soon Fast, I'm sure she'll be overjoyed to see you again.)

(She'll probably beat the shit out of me when I see her again... Val's funny that way, but she really does care. I don't know what I would have done without her. I fell for one of these kinda booby traps when we met actually, blew my legs to hell... When Jade came to get me, Val had already decided I was her boss and the way they fought... oh boy, I thought those two were going to kill each other for awhile. Then she kept sneaking me beers and Jade got sooooo mad! That was when I met Glitter too and the two of them...)

I paused midsentence, catching myself laughing at old memories and realizing I was telling the story of when Glitter and I met. At least it wasn't soul crushing sadness that rushed in when I thought of her now, but a strong sense of homesickness washed over me instead. I wanted to see her again... To see both of them, laugh and play together, watch Val teasing Jade and how flustered she could make her, for Witchy to chirp at the griffon in frustration for upsetting her Princess, and Zed to chime in with a sarcastic quip.

I could just see Swan squeezing her way into my little house in Sanctuary to join the fun, hear Ivy give her musical giggle and tell all the 'children' to behave, while Peri watched it all with that dreamy, spacey look on her face at all the activity going on around her. A burbling Cogsworth bobbed around the house to happily serve guests again after so long, helping Sturges and all the ponies of Sanctuary to put on a big party like we'd had back then, a time that seemed ages ago now.

The momentary fantasy was so bright and real to me, I didn't realize I was crying until the first warm tear spilled down my cheek, prompting Vira to give a worried nicker and lick it up with a kiss. (I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset Fast... It's a lovely little dream, I'm sure it will come true soon! Though I... I hope there is a place for me in all that? Maybe?)

Sniffling and hiding under the brim of my hat, I wiped my snotty muzzle before looking up with a tired grin. "S-Sure Vira, if you really want to join in on such a crazy fantasy... Maybe you and Nick could open a Hearts n' Hooves Detective Agency branch right in Sanctuary! You could solve mysteries, even take on tough cases where you wanted to call in help from the Shrouded Stallion at the climax! Er... the comic book one I mean... Not... umm..."

Openly laughing at me geeking out over the thought of a Shadow Spade / Shrouded Stallion crossover in real life, Vira nodded happily as we took another turn, ducking under a grenade bouquet as she answered out loud. "I can see what you mean and I love it Fast. Though I don't want the comic book Shroud or the spirit version either one, I want you..."

Giving a snort from behind that made us both jump, Zed chuckled as he pushed us back into keeping up with Clara. "You two are the only ponies I know who'd woo each other in the middle of a deathtrap... Though it is good to see even that part of Fast's personality again. Having you around is good for him Miss Vira, but please finish your romancing somewhere a little less explosive."

"I wasn't! W-We weren't! We were just talking Zed, jeez!"

Nick's own chuckles joined the smirking zebra's, the synth detective pausing to raise an eyebrow at the two of us blushing furiously. "Talking... is that what the kids are calling it these days? Figured you were up to the psychic version of heavy petting by now dollface."

"Nick! That was awful! We are not..." Vira whinnied and reared back at her boss' well scored hit, but was brought up short by a blast of plasma scorching the stone where her head had just been.

I was moving before any of us had done more than register the sneak attack, or the Shroud was rather, propelling me around the bend and directly at a large grey hellhound holding a crackling plasma rifle as long as I was. It was as big as Icepaw or the alpha I'd fought in Poncord, a grizzled old wall of muscle with a severe underbite, his glistening fangs poking up to his wrinkled face.

The sight of the intimidating beast slowed the Shroud down not at all, the steady beat of fury over attacking 'MINE' pounding with my hooves charging right at the monster. For a moment it looked surprised at the snarling little pony charging right at him, then he snarled right back at fired a volley from the magical energy weapon in his claws.

Black lightning flickered around me and I zig-zagged down the narrow passage, narrowly avoiding the crackling green bolts of plasma melting the stony ground. I did manage to exert enough control to draw the terrible shotgun along with the knife already held in my fangs, firing from the flank and hammering the hellhound's broad chest.

The hellhound yipped in pain over the oozing wound as I spread my wings and pounced, slashing out with his wickedly curved claws when I closed the distance and went for his throat. An agile flap and midair flip brought the gleaming Best Served up to meet the attack, blunting his natural weapon with a starmetal hooficure.

The attack killed my momentum however, forcing me to flap back and land in a tensed crouch, ready to continue the battle until Clara's voice cried out as she rushed forward. "Hugo, Shadow-pony! Stop! No here to fight Hugo! This who we want Shadow-pony!"

"Grrrr... Clara? What you want? Shadow-pony? Like old legend? This runty little pony? HA! Go away before me eat tiny snack..." The hellhound blinked at Clara's plea, throwing his head back in a bark of laughter at me still growling and staring him down.

"Snack!? I shall feast on thine stringy flesh mongrel! You face the true Shrouded Stal..." I snapped back, forcing me to fight for control again and argue. "Would you stop just using my mouth when you feel like starting shit already!? Clara, this is the Hugo we're here to see? I thought you said he'd know we're friends, not just shoot at Vira like that!"

"Was warning shot runt! No hit, did it?" Hugo snapped back, then paused to look over his blunted claws and back, squinting his eyes before huffing and turning away. "Tough little pony though, will give you that. May as well come in, tell what want and go away."

'In' turned out to be a wider opening in the warren of rough cut passages, covered by a roof of flapping tarps and hides. It was a small den with a cheery fire in the center beneath a strategic hole in the roof for the smoke, packed with more explosives, a small cot and a dented old refrigerator used as a cooler and emanating the smell of meat. I found myself gravitating towards the latter with drool running down my fangs, only to be snapped out of it by the old hellhound giving a warning bark.

"Sorry! We're not here to take food dammit, stop pulling that way! Want... No! Yes!"

Blinking at the schizophrenic back and forth as I struggled not to provoke the intimidating hellhound, Clara jumped in to take over with a respectful bow to Hugo. "Nevermind Shadow-pony, is weird, but good... Anyway, we just want use your tunnel Hugo, then go away."

"Yeah mac, the fuzzy dame here says you've got a way under that hive, that true? Gotta wonder why even a hellhound would go poking a hornet's nest like that." Nick tipped his battered fedora and voiced a curious question I had wondered about too.

Giving a gruff snort that flapped his sagging jowls, Hugo narrowed his brown eyes dubiously in return. "My territory, dig where I want, no afraid of bugs. Lots of tunnels down there, I just dig into old ones."

"Lots? Like what?"

Turning to his crude bed, Hugo lifted the fur padded cot aside and revealed a dark hole stretching away under our hooves with a shrug. "Like lots. Marlwurf tunnels, pony subway tunnels, zebra ruins, lots... Go around metal places too, but no bother robot-pony tunnels no more."

Vira tilted her head at that, looking between Nick and Hugo inquisitively. "Robot-pony tunnels? You mean ponies like Nick?"

Hugo stood aside and grumbled back, frustration creeping into his growling voice. "Ugly plastic robot-ponies, yes. Broke into one once, but lots of pale robot-ponies fight back. No worth trouble and they fix entrance, so leave alone. Clara want use then can use, just hurry up and go."

"The eggheaded miscreants!? I mean... The Institute? You've found Institute tunnels down there Hugo?"

I gaped up to the grizzled dog nodding in reply, my head buzzing with the implications. Hugo had found an Institute facility... I doubted it was just a coincidence it was here, so close to Yura's temple and the buried meteorite the ancient zebra witch had dug down to find herself. The Shroud latched on to the idea of finding the secretive scientists as a bonus to our mission here, while I was conflicted. If I pissed them off further, Klein might rescind his offer of help for Glitter...

'...Destroy... Conquer... MAKE help...'

"No! Just... just shut up about them, that's not why we're here, is it!? We're going to get your stupid sword, then we're going to find Jade and Glitter! Nothing else!"

"That sounds like a good plan Fast... Best to not get sidetracked and leave the Institute alone entirely, they're dangerous and not to be trusted." Vira gave me a worried nicker, then pranced towards the gaping hole in the ground and made to climb down right away, smiling brightly to thank Hugo on her way.

Giving a deep chuckle at the alicorn wiggling her way down and Nick jumping in after her, Zed patted my back on his way to join them. "I like her Fast. She's bright and keeps you in line. Listen to your new friend and stay focused, I think the hive of changelings and unknown dangers of Yura's temple are enough to deal with tonight."

The Shroud voiced unconvinced grumbles as my hooves stalked forward, ending with a grudging nod of respect to Hugo impatiently tapping his paw at the dark passage into the depths. With a frustrated snort, I jumped down after my friends as Clara spoke with Hugo a little longer to get directions for our dangerous expedition, for once hoping we really could avoid the Institute...

The tunnels beneath Hugo's Hole were cramped and rough, forcing us to move single file through the narrow stone passageways. At least I had Vira's swaying rump directly in front of me to follow, a view that kept the impatient Shroud happy as we made our slow way down, down, down.

We all turned on our pip-buck lights to illuminate the inky tunnels, picking our way carefully along and following Clara's instructions as the twisting tunnels branched out. I'd always wondered what things looked like for a hellhound burrowing through the earth like it was water, amazed at the size and stability of the passages left in Hugo's wake and saying as much to Clara.

"These not all Hugo's, these Marlwurf tunnels Shadow-pony, see claw marks? Have to be careful..." Clara answered by pointing to a clear set of marks adorning the stone walls with a shiver.

"What's a marlwurf?" I paused to tilt my head at the deep gouges, estimating them to be even bigger than an alpha hellhound's claws.

Looking back as she stepped down from the roughly dug passage and into a smoother, concrete section of pony-made subway tunnel, Clara's ears perked up at a low rumble in the earth, yelping at an explosion of dust and stone coming with some guttural roar of a huge beast breaking in behind us. "That! That is marlwurf! Run!"

I gaped in shock at the grotesque thing waddling towards us for a moment. It was huge... the giant purple thing filled the tunnel we were in snugly, its forelegs ended at long, curved claws that parted the rubble between us like butter. It screeched as it came, its mouth filled to overflowing with buck toothed teeth, beneath a weird blue nose that reminded me of a starfish.

The others were following Clara's extremely sound advice and turning to run, something I would reeeeally love to be doing too. Unfortunately my muzzle parted in a predatory grin and my hooves remained planted firmly, the Shroud giving a cheery chuckle in my head. '...Monster!... Battle!... Challenge!...'

KRAKA-THOOM!!!

The spirit and I both blanched at the charging monster shrugging off the bolt of lightning from my horn, hardly even slowing its stride and forcing even the Shroud to take a wary step back. Glancing behind me, I saw the others slowing in hesitation and drew my guns, waving them on with my tail as I took my own turn. "Go! I'll be right behind you, just move it!"

The Terrible Shotgun and Vengeance boomed like thunder in the tunnels, though even the heavy slugs and .45s merely bounced off the marlwurf. The beast narrowed its beady eyes and roared again, aiming to swat me with its long foreleg when it closed the distance.

A hard flap sent me lurching over the swing of its claws, though it was quick to follow up with the other leg, smashing me out of the air and directly into the nearest wall. Before it could slice me to ribbon with its claws drawing back to finish the job however, a stream of multicolored beams blazed out with a furious yell, stitching their way from the thing's weird blue nose and up its face.

Vira had turned back and had her magical energy weapon pouring on the fire, still barely scorching the thing, but blinding and distracting it enough to save me. "You leave Fast alone you overgrown rodent!"

While I was trying to peel myself out of the me shaped hole in the wall, Zed dashed forward and hammered at the thing with his hooves. To both our surprise however, the heavy hoofstrikes bounced off its rubbery hide, forcing the zebra martial artist to flip away and grab me by my scruff when I made to attack it again.

"Enough of your overblown pride spirit! We need to escape this thing, not prove our strength by wasting it here!" Zed forcibly dragged me away, joined by Vira using her bulk to push against my dragging hooves.

"He's right Fast, leave it be! There's no point in fighting this thing! You... you want your sword, don't you Shroud!?" Vira yelped as she kept shoving against my body fighting to get free, reading enough of the spirit's thoughts to say something that would get through.

"Sword?" The Shroud's confused mutter let Vira and Zed gain ground in trying to pull me away, allowing me to toss a pair of grenades at the huge marlwurf as I grinned and shouted. "Yes, my sword! I shall destroy this worthy foe with my blade!"

"Then how about we go fucking get it instead of waiting until that thing eats us!"

I spun away with a yelp when the grenades exploded, barely singing the marlwurf's mottled purple fur. I was back in control of my body though, able to join the others in running past ancient subway cars and towards a pair of narrower tunnels where the two tracks split apart. I could feel the Shroud fuming and sulking over running away, the only reason I was allowed back in charge was so I'd be the one to do it, since I was perfectly ok with being labeled a coward in this instance if it got us moving again.

Clara and Nick were waiting at the left hoof branch and waving us on frantically, Nick still blasting away with his .45 revolver to cover us while Clara turned to lope down the passage when we were finally all moving the same direction. The marlwurf shook rubble down from the tunnel ceilings with its roar at our escape, the screeching, squalling noise of rending metal enough to know it had gained enough to hit the subway cars.

Then we were down the smaller tunnel, the dim light behind us blotted out when it hit the narrower passage and clawed to drag itself after us. We ran down the tracks only a short distance, skidding to make a turn at a flickering red gem light marking a pony sized door to rubble strewn service passages that twisted and turned enough for us to finally slow down a bit, putting the monster mole behind us.

Nick's pale face lit up in the darkness in the flickering light of his gold plated lighter, his cheeks hollowing as the ember of his cigarette briefly added to the light. He blew a long plume of smoke out in the stale, still air, looking between all of us and chuckling gruffly. "Well, this little adventure is going aces so far, huh? You got a handle on that spook in your noggin now pally?"

"I think so, yeah..."

Shaking the spent casings from his revolver as we slowed to a trot, Nick gave a friendly wink, his strange yellow on black eyes betraying concern even as he spoke in a light hearted huff. "Good, cause I'm guessin' we ain't seen the last of trouble down here. Let's focus on getting in and getting out, our Shrouded client for this job can come back for monster slaying fun later..."

"S-Sorry everybody. I'm trying to stay in control, he's just being especially obnoxious. Er... thanks Vira, you were great getting him to agree like that, really smart thinking."

I caught Vira's warm blush as she smiled and flutterered her wings in the cramped space. "You're very welcome Fast! Let's carry on and get what your spirit friend wants done, so you can return to your family."

'...Obey... Princess...'

Sputtering at a facefull of green feathers smacking me, I smiled back and scratched my mane with the Shroud's needy agreement echoing in my head, grateful the green alicorn was with us. We sped back to a fast trot when we heard the marlwurf give a frustrated roar behind us and fell in behind Clara again, making our way down the twisting labyrinth of passages.

"Who is Witchy and why are you missing her now Fast?" I gave a guilty start at Vira's question beside me, looking up to the alicorn filly tilting her head down to me curiously.

We'd progressed from service passages down to rough hewn tunnels through the earth again, cramped enough that Vira's long horn scraped the ceiling even as she kept her head down closer to my level, grumbling repeatedly about 'tiny tunnels'. I had no problem moving around normally of course, but felt for the poor alicorn wiggling her way through a tight spot and stayed nearby to keep her company.

I had been letting my mind wander however, thinking back to the last time I was down in deep underground caverns like these and missing my thestral friend. I blushed thinking of that adventure and Vira narrowed her eyes suspiciously, forcing me to stammer out a reply before she read everything out of my head.

"Er... W-Witchy's a really great friend of mine Vira. She's actually Jade's best friend and royal guard. She's pretty and strong and brave and..." I slowed at Vira's eyebrow slowly rising higher, tugging my hat down to hide behind and rushing on. "We got trapped in caves like this once and she was awesome. She's a batpony, so she can do this high pitched screechy kinda thing and tell where she's going, I was just thinking it'd be nice if she was here."

'Be Unwavering!'

'....Yes!... Want thestral... Miss... Want... Pretty!...'

I winced at Vira's contemplative 'Hmm...' of a reply as I felt her rifling through my thoughts and feelings for the beautiful batpony, extremely grateful to Zed speaking up to save me and add to the conversation. "She would be useful here, but she's been quite busy. You'd be proud of her Fast, she's risen to the role of your wife's guardian in your absence and been a constant comfort to Jade. She's never once doubted you'd come back either, even when I tried to caution the others you may have been lost forever. She... quite forcefully disagreed actually..."

I smiled at the thought, just picturing Witchy's red faced squeaking when she was really upset about something. Judging by the way Zed rubbed his cheek as he finished, I got the idea a slap may have been involved in their 'disagreement' and was surprised the sweet filly would go so far on my behalf, despite being possessed by the terrible Shrouded Stallion from her people's legends. I also felt better knowing she was there for Jade, the loyal thestral guard would never abandon her Princess.

"Hmm... So my sister has her own royal guard that's ...good friends... with Fast. Perhaps I chose the wrong line of work Nick?" Vira snickered and teased her boss and me playfully, looking up in thought as if she was seriously considering a change in career.

Rolling his eyes at the joke, Nick huffed back over his withers. "Hey, I told you it ain't a glamorous line of work dollface. Assistants to the assistant detective ain't part of the benefits package. I told you to play up the whole detective princess moniker."

Chuckling nervously along with them, I thought I got away with it for a minute. Then Vira's voice spoke up in my mind, the psychic alicorn smirking at my wince. (Well, now I know what jealousy is... what an unpleasant emotion... First the griffon and now a thestral, just how many females have you mated with while being so stubborn about my sisters and I Fast?)

(J-Just those two! Because we're really good friends and I... I love them both a lot, ok!? A-And the three alicorns I promised Umbra I guess... But I love Peri, Ivy and Swan just as much! I wouldn't have done anything otherwise, no matter what the pervert in my head or Umbra wants!)

Giggling to herself, Vira raised her brows higher at my flustered reply. (Umbra... I'm surprised she was satisfied with just three. I suppose I'll have to try even harder if I'm not covered by your agreement.)

(I-It's not like that Vira, and she wasn't happy about it, that was just all I was willing to compromise with her on. If she gets her way, she'll try to capture me and keep me safe back in Trinity Tower to do...t-that will all your sisters. The awful part is, if she does, I'm not sure the Shroud will complain at all... But I don't want to. I meant what I said to you about caring and love, I wouldn't do anything with somepony I don't care about, and promising Umbra three doesn't mean I wouldn't with others I felt that way about too.)

(L-Like me?) Vira's bright green eyes grew wide as she asked hopefully, biting her lip when she came out with the question.

I could feel an undercurrent of worry and vulnerability in her mind when she asked. This time it wasn't about getting me to mate with her to simply reproduce as the goddess had wished and Umbra insisted. This time Vira asked if I cared about her, the answer seeming to weigh even more heavily than her mother's final command.

'...Say yes!!... Want filly!...'

We both flinched at the Shroud interjecting himself in the moment, then laughed nervously together, pausing in the gently sloping passage to blush and look anywhere but at each other, except in cautious peeks and darting glances. The odd dance around the subject gave me a second to think anyway, considering what she actually wanted carefully before meeting her eyes and replying.

(Vira... I'm still not sure about, t-that... But ummm.... as for... how I feel about you? I mean... it's kinda early to say. You've changed so much since you tried to kill me, so I'm still catching up. You're a really awesome filly though. You're independent and brave, finding a job with Nick and doing such great work on Fog Harbor. You're sweet and smart and funny and... er...)

Mentally jabbering to the green alicorn, Vira's eyes had been growing wider and darker the whole time, a rosy glow lighting her cheeks in the gloom and a wide smile spreading across her muzzle. I paused when it seemed her stare took up her whole face, tiny hearts sparkling in the deep pools of her pupils and a rising squee sound growing louder in the cramped cavern, a low 'eeeeeeEEEEEE' that made me gulp as I managed to spit out the rest.

(...A-And I do like what I know about you now a lot, er... l-like you a lot... so ummm...)

That was as far as I got, the big alicorn tackled me to the stone floor, nuzzling and planting little kisses that made my face burn as she burbled aloud in a giddy voice. "EEEEEE! I like you too Fast! Very much! I'm still not sure if it's love I feel, but I do love how I feel being with you! It's so warm and nice! This is much better than trying to force you to..."

"HA! A-Alright Vira, e-easy! I can't..."

I tried to interrupt the big green alicorn cuddling me into submission before she embarrassed me further in front of Nick, Zed and Clara watching the display, then found myself forcibly shutting her up with a frantic, hungry kiss. My wings ached splayed out under me and my forelegs moved by themselves, grabbing hold of Vira's ample rear with a victorious roar in my head competing with her soft moan.

The Shroud had been denied repeatedly and was now shoving me aside to take control, leaning after her when she tried to pull away on realizing just who she was actually making out with. Thankfully a splash of cold water interrupted me, shocking my system just enough to take charge again and scamper back, even as my mouth hissed like a cat at Zed opening another bottle of water in his teeth.

"Down boy... this is hardly the time or place Fast, and I believe you know better. That spirit on the other hoof... try not to encourage it Miss Vira. As you can see, it can be difficult to get it to back down again." Zed's expression was both amused and exasperated, playing foalsitter to a perverted spirit and his mortified host.

Vira had her hoof to her pounding heart and whinnied when I turned a shamed look back to her, speaking in a breathless voice. "O-Oh my... I'm... I'm sorry Fast. I forgot and I was so happy I... c-couldn't help myself. Forgive me, I'm still learning about love and what you said was so sweet, it made me feel so good it just o-overflowed."

"I'm the one who should apologize Vira, I lost control and..."

Hushing my attempted apology with a feather to my lips, Vira smiled sweetly and shook her head. Then her brows came down in a frown, making me worried she actually was upset until she spoke in a much harder voice that echoed in my head and I realized it wasn't me she was talking to. "Fast owes me no such thing. You on the other hoof, I am very annoyed with spirit! I already told you, I want Fast, not you. I understand your loneliness and need, but that doesn't make it ok to use Fast to force yourself on me like that!"

'....But!.... Want... Need... Feel....'

"No! I'm willing to accept you as part of the package, but it must be Fast that wants to do such things! Apologize!" Vira huffed at the Shroud's internal answer, feeling the frustration boiling off the spirit as well as I did.

She must have also gotten the little ember of shame I could feel burning my cheeks, raising an eyebrow and tapping her hoof impatiently as she stared down the murderous monster like a naughty colt. To my absolute shock, eventually she got a sullen and pained reply for her efforts too...

'...Fine!... Sor--....'

"Out loud!" Vira stamped a hoof to interrupt the Shroud in my head, only making everyone goggle more when she forced it to obey.

"Nnnn! Sorry! I shan't do so again fair Princess, I apologize...."

Closing her eyes in a cute smile and nickering happily in the silence that followed, Vira leaned down to nuzzle once she dragged the words out of my mouth. "That's better! I know how you feel Mr. Shroud, but you can't do that. It has to be Fast, so I appreciate you containing yourself in the future."

'...Nopony loves... hurt... sad... alone...'

(Just because I reject what you tried to do doesn't mean I reject you as well spirit. Love is patient. For now I am willing to be friends, like you are with Fast. You're certainly never alone anyway. Behave yourself and perhaps we'll both... g-get what you desire so much. In due time...) Vira finished with a psychic aside to the pouting Shroud, trying to soothe his forlorn whining in my head.

Nick's plastic hooves coming together in a slow clap broke the eerie quiet while I was still gaping up to the smiling alicorn, chuckling as he tipped his battered fedora to his assistant. "Good job Vira, you handled that palooka like a champ dollface. Was worried we'd all be gettin' an episode of wild alicorn kingdom for a second there."

"How...?" Zed managed a hoarse whisper once Nick broke the spell, shaking his head with a surprised snort. "You... you got it to obey you Miss Vira! The Shadowknight actually apologized to you! How!?"

"Oh he's not really that bad, just misunderstood I think. We have many things in common. I tried to... er... take what I wanted from Fast too after all. The spirit will cooperate, you just have to put things the right way is all. It's very eager to please a Princess at any rate, a role I'm not above filling for my sister if it helps Fast, if not for better benefits as Nick suggested." Vira smirked back, smoothing out her disheveled Shadow Spade outfit and smiling brightly.

Zed looked like you could knock him over with a feather, joining me in my slack jawed staring at the alicorn filly moving on as if nothing of note had happened. It was Clara who finally broke the stunned silence as Vira pranced down the tunnel past her, her pointed ears perked up and flicking anxiously to the warren of passages as she spoke in a gruff bark. "Ponies should no be so mushy and... pony-like. Will draw bugs."

Shaking off my shock with an embarrassed snort, I trotted to catch up and get back to moving, puzzling over the hellhound's warning. "The Changelings? Down here? You really think they'll be drawn in by... what? Vira and I acting er..."

"Love-bugs love love Shadow-pony. We close to under hive, can smell them here. No get all lovey-dovey with big green pony, like laying out bait for them." Clara grumbled back, leaving me to ponder what she meant with nagging worry over her flicking ears.

I found my own ears copying hers as I thought, straining to pick up any sound in the rough stone tunnels as I thought. Love-bugs... I'd heard Changelings called that before when I was a foal, my mom's bedtime story answer only making the mythical monsters more frightening. Changelings fed on love... that's why they were natural enemies to ponies, we were like an all you can eat buffet to the horrifying creatures. Clara was right to be concerned about that whole episode then, Vira's virtue was love according to Nick, so she'd be...

I gulped when I worked it out, finally identifying the low buzz my ears kept flicking at. I charged forward to catch Vira still prancing along happily, a step behind the trio of dark changelings flying out of a side passage and darting her way. Vira skidded to a halt and whinnied in surprise, too slow to do anything more before the drooling bugs opened their fanged mouths and inhaled, a cloud of pink magic coalescing around the alicorn filly and drawn to their waiting maws.

Vira stumbled and seemed to pale as the changelings fed on her, though they were too absorbed in the tasty treat of her love to notice me speeding to a full gallop with black lightning flickering around me until I roared in fury. "HEY! Leave her alone!!"

'...MINE!!... Protect Princess!...'

I leapt over where Vira had fallen with a snarl, the Terrible Shotgun shredding the first changeling still greedily feeding. Nick's shout came along with the second's head exploding in a shower of green blood, the synth detective's .45 revolver smoking in his muzzle.

Another quartet of changelings buzzed out from the passage the first had come from on their insectile wings, though these were accented with different colors on their shiny black hides. I landed in a protective crouch over Vira and growled at the new threat, my shotgun blasting the last plain black bug trying to cut its meal of her short to regroup.

Before the Shroud and I had the chance to unleash the charge of powerful magic swirling at my horn however, I suddenly felt weak and staggered, turning to spot a red accented changeling feeding on me. At least Vira's color was quickly coming back, but I understood how she felt now and groaned under the assault, falling to my knees and struggling to draw a bead on the nasty insect. It wasn't quite what I expected however, the color of the wisps of magic being drawn away from me were red instead of pink for one, and rather than feeling all my love and happiness bleeding away, it was the Shroud's fury that fizzled out, apparently feeding the red accented changeling.

Zed had jumped over us floundering to get up and his hooves cracked the carapace of one of the other in thundering blows, while Nick's revolver blasted another just crawling out of the side passage. The one feeding on me was suddenly vaporized by Vira's rapidly spinning magical energy weapon, my anger slowly creeping back in as soon as the pest was gone.

Best Served sprang from the loop of leather on my bandolier, slicing through the hard shell of a blue accented bug voicing a loud screech that echoed down the tunnels. We all heard an answering screech and the wingbeats of what sounded like a swarm coming right at us, but the quick thinking Clara saved us from having to face even more of the hideous, pony-like bugs. The hellhound bounded forward and slashed out with her gleaming claws, slicing the last changeling to ribbons even as she hit her real target, ripping a gash in the stone walls and collapsing the tunnel the bugs were coming from.

Turning to bark at us woozily getting back to our hooves and recovering, Clara shifted on her paws nervously and pointed down the dark tunnel we'd be following. "Go! They find other way soon enough, We go quick, and no be all mushy again ponies!"

Blushing and cringing under her stern orders, Vira and I helped each other up and nodded meekly, trotting down the tunnel together with a shared, "Yes ma'am..."

"Hey Zed, have the Changelings always been here?"

Zed paused as we stepped down from yet another rough tunnel to one that was squarer and strung with rusty gem lights still providing a weak glow, tilting his head at one of the numerous questions that had been chasing themselves in my mind since our run in with the insects. "For a very long time anyway. I once asked Zao and other prewar ghouls in Neighlem about it, they said they were known to have a hive here shortly after the war. If they did beforehoof, they managed to keep it secret."

I hadn't considered that, maybe this Sandwich Borer's company was some kind of secret Changeling front... I added it to what I had been considering, but disregarded it after a moment. Instead I focused on a few nagging questions that had been bothering me.

"Neighlem never bothered to try to get rid of them?"

"No. I told you, this place is cursed. The Changeling hive showing up here was just taken as further evidence of that fact. At first, everyzebra just assumed they weren't much of a threat. They feed on love and given the nature of the wasteland... it was believed they'd starve or never grow to be a threat." Zed shrugged in reply, continuing our sloping path down with our hoofsteps ringing on rusty steel plating that made us all wince at the noise.

Nick gave a grim chuckle at his answer, adding his own two bits in a sad, sarcastic voice. "Yeah, love was as rare as hen's teeth back then pal. No idea how these bugs have managed to hang on, but us synths took the top spot for evil imposters to worry about in short order. Nothin' outta this hole has ever really bothered anypony."

"They don't only feed on love anymore..." Vira joined in, probably listening to the run of my thoughts this whole time and a step ahead of the others. She blinked at them turning back to her curiously, continuing in a sure and certain tone as she explained. "Well, they don't. What you're thinking is correct Fast, I felt it when that red tinged one fed on you. It drained away your anger, not love."

Nick gave a whistle at his assistant's confirmation, lighting a cigarette to puff on nervously. "Anger? Ain't no shortage of that nowadays dollface. If they can feed off us being pissed off at each other, they should'a swarmed the whole damn wasteland by now."

"Exactly! I'm even willing to bet they can feed on more than just that too. Red isn't the only other color of those bugs we've seen, so what if each one eats something different? I was wondering if it was just me not knowing how they'd mutated over the centuries, but you guys seem surprised too."

Scratching his chin and leaning against a broken down old minecart nearby, Zed halted our progress entirely as he spoke in a worried mutter. "If that's the case, Nick's right, there would be no stopping their spread... They've truly never left their territory around this cursed site though, it's the main reason I and my ancestors have never attempted to check on Yura's temple... I take it you suspect that is the point, don't you Fast?"

"Hugo said he's run into Institute tunnels down here... Who likes experimenting on things they shouldn't? Making Changelings even more dangerous sounds right up their alley, doesn't it? Once we make it to the Sandwich Borer's site, maybe we can find more."

"Already there Shadow-pony. Why we should go fast and quiet now, no stop to talk and think." Clara interrupted our back and forth impatiently, pointing a claw to the dead hulk of a piece of earthmoving equipment tucked in a side passage. Sure enough, stenciled on its side in flaking paint was 'Sandwich Borer's'.

Discovered Location: Sandwich Borer's. Blinking in surprise at the evidence and my pip-buck's confirmation in the corner of my eye, I took a better look around the new passage. From somewhere above I could hear the low buzz of a looooot of Changelings and shivered, realizing we had to be directly under the hive. The square cut tunnel sloping its way deeper into the earth had some minor evidence of the bugs in the form of globs of their secretions up near the ceiling, but was mostly clear of anything that would put me on guard.

It was pony remains that filled the passage instead, piles of bones wearing hardhats, minecarts tipped over from the rusty tracks along one side of the passage, the hanging industrial gem lights still weakly buzzing all these years later, digging equipment, the occasional mangled catwalk bolted to the wall. It reminded me much more of the tunnels being prepped for Stable 88 Witchy and I had stumbled on than something under a changeling hive.

"Alright.... I guess we keep going down then, thanks Clara. Don't worry, the sooner we're done here the better, we'll get you back home to Jewel soon. I was just... thinking out loud. This whole place bothers me..."

I answered honestly, passing the anxious hellhound with Vira trotting worriedly at my tail to take the lead with a weird sense of familiarity guiding my hooves. The further down we had come, the more that disquieting feeling of deja vu had been growing. When I stalked down the next section of tunnel and came out into a huge chamber however, that feeling hit me like a sledgehammer.

I got a glimpse of the vast open space as it was, a deep and inky pit in the earth going straight down to tartarus for all I knew. It had to be the size of a hoofball field, lined by rusting catwalks that spiraled down into the dark. Before I got a better look however, my head ached and everything seemed to swirl and shift around me. The metal walkways turned into rough timbers, the few flickering modern lights changing to ancient lanterns and torches.

Most disturbing was the sudden appearance of dozens of other creatures, thin and sickly looking ponies and zebras trudging their way up the spiral path harnessed to much cruder looking minecarts full of stone. My ears were filled with the sounds of their suffering, low moans and screams coming with the cracks of whips echoing up from the pit, the ringing of iron picks on the stone walls.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when a cackling voice spoke right beside me, flapping backwards in a panic at the sudden appearance of a crazed looking zebra mare speaking to me. "So you see great Shadowknight, soon we'll give Celestia a fright. Once we excavate the final rooms, your victory surely looms!"

"W-What!? Who!?! Where'd you come from!?"

I gave an undignified yelp as I scrambled back, stammering at the insane looking mare. She was elderly and thin, wearing rich purple robes and a lot of jingling silver zebra jewelry. Her disturbing blue and green eyes were lit by a wild looking grin stretching her oddly striped muzzle, the black bands thin and looping around her face in weird orbits.

(Fast! It's alright! Calm down!!) Vira's mental voice broke through the panic I felt, blowing away the illusion of the crazy zebra and the ancient tunnel like dust swirling in the air.

I glanced all around with my heart still pounding, finding all of it gone again like a bad dream. The green alicorn was standing over where I had fallen to my haunches, the only one to get close as my writhing shadow slowly stopped whipping around me. She looked worried, but relieved I was actually seeing her and not... all that again, leaning down to investigate cautiously.

"There was a sudden surge of dark magic around you Fast, what happened? What did you see..." Zed spoke up gruffly, his grey eyes narrowed and flicking in all directions as he trotted up.

"S-Sorry... I don't know what happened, all of the sudden I..."

"I saw it too, through your eyes. You scared me Fast, suddenly it was like you were somewhere else entirely! Who was that disturbing zebra that spoke to you?" Vira joined Zed in helping me up, her psychic abilities and Zed's senses at least confirming I hadn't had a total psychotic break with reality.

"I don't know, I've never seen that mare before in my..." I started to answer, then my mouth grumbled out the Shroud's voice in a wary, disturbed tone. "The witch... Come, mine prize is close."

My hooves started carrying me towards the spiraling catwalks at a trudge, then Zed's foreleg gripped my shoulder and spun me back to face him, his stern stare lit with a feverish intensity. "Yura!? You saw her!? She's still here!?!"

At my grim nod, Zed started rummaging in his saddlebags, pulling out the clay pots and weird fetishes from his bad juu-juu emergency kit in a rush. He jumped at Vira lightly touching his back with her wing as I turned back to the pit, the green alicorn speaking in a soft voice to his obvious distress. "I don't think she's still here in the way you seem to think. That was a memory... though a very powerful one. Something about this place made it come to life in Fast's mind, but it wasn't a ghost."

"T'was but an echo. Come." The Shroud's voice grumbled out of my muzzle again as I started down the slow slope, I was allowed to keep talking though, craning my head back to the still stunned looking zebra and shrugging. "If that was her, those ponies making the Museum of Witchcraft were waaaaay off the mark. That mare was a lot less cartoonishly evil and a lot more batshit insane. C'mon, I think it's ok Zed..."

My usually tough and unflappable zebra pall still looked spooked, the broad stripes of his face pale and a cold sweat on his brow, but he did come trotting up behind me. Honestly, I'd never seen Zed actually look so scared of anything... We'd been through all kinds of scrapes against powerful and scary foes before, but Zed never lost his cool.

Coming here to his evil ancestor's lair was really affecting him, but he still came to help me... I felt bad and wondered how much the witch Yura and her vile deeds so long ago had loomed in his mind, but also felt honored to have such a good friend and hoped we cold help each other through this. Maybe he could bury Yura and her legacy down in this awful pit and be done with her once we left.

'Be Strong!'

Vira closed her eyes and smiled as she and Nick caught up, while her employer looked out over the edge of the pit distrustfully and voiced a low whistle through his teeth that echoed creepily. "Some ancient zebra dame dug all this out a millenia ago? How?"

I had briefly wondered why we weren't just flying straight down if the Shroud was in such a goddess damned hurry to get his sword, but found out along with Nick's answer when everything shifted around me again. The ringing steel under my hooves turned to timbers again, the sights and smells of suffering ponies and zebras now much closer as I grit my teeth and tried to ignore the ghostly slaves toiling away in this hell.

We were walking because the Shroud walked this path once before, a stew of complicated emotions oozing off the dark mote in my head as things came back into focus and I caught the tail end of Zed replying. "....slavery. Creatures were taken by Yura by the hundreds, worked to death excavating Kremvh's bones. If I had to guess however, I'd say this pit was made by the meteorite's original passage. The chamber's walls are fused and scorched, see? Most of the work would have been at the bottom of this shaft once they reached it."

(Are you alright Fast? That is very disturbing when it happens...) Vira kept up her cheery outward appearance, but clicked her teeth when I shook my head and kept stalking down the path, her supportive concern added to all the foreign emotions already rattling around my brains.

(F-Fine... It's just really weird is all Vira. I mean, not just getting glimpses of the Shroud's memories, but dealing with feeling a bunch of stuff and not knowing why or what exactly. Something about being here is really setting him on edge, it's like being mad, but sad too and....)

(Ashamed.) Vira's short reply made me freeze a step, blinking back to the psychic alicorn as my hooves started moving us along again.

Was that it? Was the merciless, murderous spirit of destruction possessing me actually ...ashamed... of anything!?

Searching my and his feelings as we kept clopping slowly down into the dark, I realized Vira was right. It was shame I felt from the Shroud, though the source still eluded me awhile. I kept mulling it over as we walked, trying to commune with the uncooperative spirit and occassionally flicking an ear back to Clara, Zed and Nick nervously filling the silence.

We kept spiraling down into the dark that way for quite awhile, a small, roving spot of light from our pip-bucks casting our shadows up to the looming walls of the pit. The air wasn't just stale down here, it was dead.... Even with the miracle of alicorn biology, I felt the cold, clammy atmosphere creep into my bones with a shiver down my tail. The lower we went, the worse the disquieting feeling of being in a huge tomb took hold and the more I had frequent flashes of the past superimposing themselves on the present.

It wasn't until I saw the foals that I understood where the shame came from though... Another vision as we neared the bottom showed their haggard little faces in the torchlight of long ago, how beaten and broken they were, forced to labor down here so far from Celestia's sun until they were used up along with the other slaves. To my horror even that wasn't enough as I caught a brief glimpse of their reanimated corpses toiling away as we descended lower, the sight of the undead ponies and zebras enough to make me pause and clutch at my head to shut the vision out.

'....I-Ignore!... Witch's fault!...'

"Don't give me that dammit! You were part of this!?! You helped!? You worked with that evil bitch and... and... Slavery!? FOALS!?!" I screamed out into the pit and stamped my hooves, getting a yelp from NIck as the rickety catwalks shook under my crazed fury.

I absently felt Vira's soft wing on my back and saw the nervous glances of my friends my way, but I was focused almost entirely inward. For once my own anger dwarfed the Shroud's nearly limitless supply as I waited and fumed, refusing to budge one more inch toward his insane goals until I got a damned answer.

You broke Luna's rules! She hated slavery and you were part of it! She commanded you to never hurt a foal and you went along with this shit! WHY!?! Even as crazy as you are, you don't disobey her orders! So why!?

'....for Princess....'

What the hell are you going on about!? FOR her!? Luna, the real Luna... she wanted the exact fucking opposite! What kind of twisted mental gymnastics lets you say it was FOR her you freaking nutburger!?

"The stars will aid her escape..." The Shroud's voice finally answered out loud, the normally confident rumble now petulant and sad.

I tore at my mane and raged over the vague reply, interrupted from a truly spectacular tantrum by Vira's calming voice through Unity. (He would do anything to save her... Luna, Nightmare Moon... the spirit didn't care, he loved her Fast. Even corrupted and fallen, he knew better and did it anyway to save her. Doesn't that sound uncomfortably familiar?)

"That's not...!" I shouted back, then froze and slumped as any end to that sentence struck me like a ton of bricks.

It wasn't what? True? Fair? The same? It was all of those things though... The Shroud may have been corrupted by Nightmare Moon, but he was still under Luna's orders and he disobeyed, for her... Was that really any different than me doing things I knew both Jade and Glitter would hate for their sake? Was I any less willing to cross that line if it saved my daughter?

If it were her or Jade trapped in the moon for a thousand years, was there even a line at all? If it brought my little filly back to me, wasn't I perfectly willing to sell my soul to the Institute? Hadn't I already helped them with their twisted form of slavery back on Libertalia, all for the mere promise of saving Glitter?

Looking up to Vira's glistening green eyes shining in the dark beside me, I saw the alicorn mare was crying as she spoke in a soft whisper. "The things we do for love... Sometimes they're wonderful and warm, but sometimes they are awful as well Fast. I learned that much about my virtue on Fog Harbor too..."

Hearing Vira's small, pained voice, Nick Hearts n' Hooves trotted up to join us, tugging at his ratty tie nervously. "Er... I get the feeling us non-mutant members of this merry band are missing out on a few things here dollface. You doing alright up there Fast? You're not cracking up or anything, are ya pally?"

"P-Probably..." I croaked back, then sighed to myself and the sullen Shroud waiting on me.

Ok... Ok I get it. I'm sorry I yelled at you, alright?

'....Not mad?...'

Oh I'm mad alright, but... I understand. You did what you did because it was the only way you could see to help her. I guess I can't hold that against you when I... I'm doing the same damn thing... Let's just try not to repeat the past quite so closely from now on, ok?

'...Love... Want daughter... Miss Princess... Conquer enemies... Save... Protect...'

Right... So let's go get this stupid sword and get back to them. You paid a high enough price for the damn thing, it may as well do some good now. Come on partner...

At that I continued our quiet trudge down, feeling a thawing in my heart for the Shroud and the things he'd done. It was for love, so I could sympathize and knew he felt the same about me. My situation was like a second chance for the fallen spirit, so we were both struggling our way forward with the same goal. Neither of us could do anything about the poor choices of the past, but we could try not to repeat them.

I hoped I wouldn't repeat them... I really did.

When we reached the bottom of the pit, it quickly became obvious that we weren't the first visitors down here in the last 200 years.

It was a bowl shaped depression surrounded by a ring of cut stone floors, branching out from the main cavern into various rooms carved from the stone in traditional Roaman style, littered with fallen stones, wide cracks in the walls and floors, collapsed passages and more damage that must have happened when the bombs fell.

We spread out to look around as the visions directing me so far had backed off, perhaps driven by the Shroud's guilt that was for now somewhat assuaged. Doing so revealed the presence of a lot of modern equipment, including sets of work lights spread around the complex of Yura's temple. It only took following the power cables snaking around the room to find a fairly new looking console with a large power switch which sparked when I threw it, lighting the temple up in their harsh glow and revealing more details.

"Kremvh's bones... they're gone..." Zed's voice echoed from across the main chamber, drawing my eye to the zebra stallion peering over the edge of the hole in the floor and down to where the meteorite must have landed ages ago.

Trotting over to join him, I noticed several industrial digging machines arrayed around the pit like the Sanwich Borer's labeled examples further up the dig site, but these weren't rusting yellow hulks like those dead relics. Instead they were each painted a gleaming white, the crimson spread eagle pony emblem of the Institute stamped on each.

Stretching my neck to look over the ragged stone edge of the pit, I saw they had removed nearly all traces of the meteorite at some point in the past, leaving only a cavity with twisting tunnels stretching off into the dark and a pile of oddly colored rubble. I could only shrug to Zed's pensive stare beside me, patting his back as I spoke. "Starmetal's valuable, I guess they couldn't leave any trace behind. I just wonder how long ago they were down here."

"Not that long Shadow-pony, can smell plastic ponies all over." Clara looked up from snuffling her way around the chamber, her sensitive nose down to the uneven floor.

Vira and I joined her in doing the same, sniffing around to pick up the faint scent. We must have looked amusing with our heads down and rumps up in the air, as Nick chortled laughter and eyed us curiously. "You guys can actually sniff out synths like me? And here I thought I didn't need to shower that often anymore..."

"You smell mainly of your cigarettes Nick. Along with hints of booze and bullets... You may not sweat, but I'm sure Ellie would appreciate you cleaning yourself a little more frequently." Vira smirked back, getting a snort from her employer I was sure would come with a blush of his pale plastic cheeks if he could.

"It's not bad Nick, it makes it easier to keep track of you, it's your own personal scent, y'know? It's not like normal Gen 1s, they smell more like... hmmm... Kinda like that 'new-carriage' smell I guess. Clara's right, there have been synths working down here, not that long ago."

"My more simple-minded brothers don't seem to be the best miners though, lookie here." Nick paused in his own inspection of the chamber, pointing out a rough boulder that must have fallen from above and the green puddle of goo smashed under it.

"All the more reason to get out of here quick I guess, I don't want to get held up by the Institute popping in. So? Which way crazy, you're the guide here..."

I replied both to Nick and then the Shroud, tapping my hoof as the scenery around me shifted to what it looked like in the past. Fires burned in braziers instead of the work lights providing light and robed zebras ringed the pit that glowed with a dim green aura, chanting their weird prayers to Kremvh's bones.

There was a lot of activity around the place, the ringing sound of metal on metal led me towards a side chamber that was the forge, a large room with a huge stone furnace. A heavily muscled zebra stallion that reminded me of the weapon merchant in Neighlem pounded away at silvery metal bars heated to a cheery orange on the large anvil, slowly shaping the star metal they took from the meteorite into weapons far beyond mere kitchen knives.

The vision faded and I saw a cold and dead forge instead of the burning one from the past, the room littered with rusting tools and bones. That was where they made the sword then... but where did it end up? What happened?

Vira trotted at my side as my hooves started moving again, taking me from the crumbling entrance to the forge chamber on the eastern side of the room, over to a vaulted archway to the south that led down a long stone passage blocked with fallen rubble.

Clara padded over when called, ready to repay the Shroud and fulfill her job on this adventure. Her sharp claws cleared the stone blocking our path in no time flat, scrabbling away and sending a torrent of gravel and dirt between her hindlegs in a fan I sputtered and retreated from.

With the way clear, we made our way down a long, dark passage, ending at a large chamber with vaulted ceilings. Our pip-buck lights barely scratched at the gloom, but my horn lit with the blue flames of one of the Shroud's spells and dozens of torches and braziers blazed to life, lighting up what looked like an underground church.

There was a long aisle stretching away before us, framed by the broken remnants of stone pews carved from the living rock and covered by tattered scraps of ancient carpet woven with weird zebra designs. Pillars lined the sides of the chamber, carved from the stone as well and in the shapes of strange, creepy looking spirits, lots of tentacles, claws, beaks, fangs and way too many eyes seemed to be the common theme.

The pulpit itself at the end of the aise I started trotting down was a wreck, a large pile of rubble atop cracked stone floor. As I walked slowly towards it, I noticed the numerous piles of bones and armor scattered about, some smashed under the mound of stone I was heading towards, but most haphazardly strewn about. Many were contained in the rusting remnants of ancient Solar Guard armor, gold and steel plates, helmets with ratty feathered plumes, broken spears and swords...

As I looked it all over and tried to piece together the past, it came to life around me. The bones became ponies and zebras engaged in furious battle, the robed zebra cultists falling back from the door we entered in and towards the pulpit that was restored in my minds eye, the crazed witch Yura chanting before a huge cauldron of starmetal inscribed with squiggly runes, the pile of fresh pony and zebra corpses nearby speaking of terrible sacrifice involved in her foul ritual. She was reared up on her hindlegs behind a dark stone lecturn, the black book opened before her practically radiating evil that made her thin face look like a skull in a kind of... anti-light it seemed to put off. That had to be THE black book... and she was using it...

I froze and let it all wash over me, seeing Celestia's guards storming the chamber and engaging in the cultists trying to hold them back. Everything seemed to be shaking and I got the idea Celestia herself was part of the attack, the only creature I could think of with the power to make the stone under my hooves rumble. I wondered if she and the Shroud were fighting outside and I was seeing an echo of the past instead of his memories, maybe Zed's fears about this place being haunted or cursed were valid after all...

Yura's screeching chants reached a cresendo and drew my eye to her removing a gleaming sword hilt from the baleful light pouring out of her bubbling cauldron, the spell around her reaching its climax and the ancient torches flaring with bright green balefire. The shadows in the room grew darker even as the light pulsed and it seemed like the witch was having difficulty withdrawing the blade from her brew, but it was coming out inch by inch, a curved and twisted thing of gleaming silvery starmetal that made me shudder just looking at the spiky hilt as it came free.

Before the awful ritual was finished, a blur streaked down the aisle from the entrance and interrupted. I couldn't even tell it was a pegasus in ancient armor until he hit the cauldron hindlegs first with a ringing 'BONG!', knocking it from its stone pedestal in an explosion of wild magic that threw Yura and her necromantic book back and made the room shake even more.

He landed with an agile flip, snatching the barely glimpsed sword from the air and holding it protectively, determined to keep it away from Yura screeching from where she landed and the deep roar of the Shroud coming from the main chamber behind me. He was a light brown pegasus stallion, his darker brown and white mane sweaty from battle to reach this point and his armor bloodied. He had to be Bronze Star, the hero from the bedtime story I read Glitter... the buck who kept the Shroud's sword from rejoining its master...

He stood in a tense crouch with the hidden sword firmly pressed to his breastplate by one trembling foreleg, looking around wildly as the pulpit cracked and shook under him. His strong looking wings flapped and made to zip him away, but falling rubble from overhead smashed him out of the air. Yura yowled and scampered away with the black book held in her teeth as the whole altar was swallowed by a wide rift opening under his hooves, the boulders from the ceiling falling on top of it and burying the brave buck forever.

When the vision ended, I was staring at the same pile of rubble, undisturbed all these centuries later. Bronze Star paid a high price, but he stopped the Shroud from getting his sword and carried it to his grave, a silent tomb deep in the earth I pointed a shaking foreleg at as I voiced a hoarse whisper. "T-There..."

Clara padded forward at my direction, intertwining her claws and cracking them as she prepared to get to work. "This where Shadow-pony want digging? Hmm... big hole here..."

"Y-Yeah, there is. Be careful around it Clara, just try to open a way down for me and we'll see what's there. I'm not sure how far it goes, but a big crack opened up under all that crap."

Zed was trembling slightly as he approached behind Clara, pacing around the pile of rubble and eyeing the whole room warily. "Cursed... This was where it happened alright. While you work on retrieving your prize, I think I'll see about setting the spirits in this place to rest Fast. Will you be alright?"

"Fine Zed, go to town... I hope you can help undo whatever curse hangs over this place, even I can feel it."

I nodded as Zed started pulling out fetishes and potions from his saddlebags, wrinkling my nose at the bundle of incense in his teeth he lit from one of the burning braziers and started trotting about to spread the spicy smell. Nick lit a cigarette and paced the chamber aimlessly, practicing his detective skills by investigating each pile of bones and determining how they died.

Vira sat beside me on a segment of clear and unbroken pew, watching as Clara got to work digging the rubble clear much more carefully than she had opening the passage to this chamber. We sat in companiable silence awhile as I rubbed at my eyes wearily, ready for this to be over and done finally.

(You're sure this is the right thing to do Fast? Just being here gives me the willies... I'm begining to think your zebra friend is right and it really is cursed, all of it... Maybe we should leave this sword alone. A great deal of evil was done to create it, I've seen that much through your visions.) Vira's voice eventually spoke in my mind, her wide purple hat in her hooves being twisted nervously as she cast a worried glance down to me.

(He won't leave without it Vira... even if I wanted to. I can't do anything about the mistakes the Shroud made in creating this thing, but I can use it to try not to repeat them. Like you reminded me, I can't trust the Institute. I'd rather be in a position where I can take down their fake Celestia and force them into helping if it comes down to it. That means getting this sword, then getting back to Jade and... figuring out what to do together. I'm glad you'll be there to help though...)

Gaining a pretty blush and whinnying happily, Vira shimmied in her seat beside me and brightened considerably at that. (I'm glad I'm here too Fast! It makes me happy being able to help you, I've been enjoying our time together quite a bit!)

The Shroud was so focused on getting what he wanted, he didn't even freak out when Vira leaned down to nuzzle softly. Taking the opportunity to speak and act as just myself while the spirit was distracted, I took off my own fedora and turned to her seriously, stroking her cheek with my hoof and looking deep into those beautiful emerald eyes. She leaned into the contact and purred happily, her gaze growing soft and lidded, then surprised when I leaned forward and kissed her tenderly.

The kiss went on quite awhile, time seeming to slow down as we both closed our eyes and came together both physically and mentally. I could feel the warm, fluttery emotion in the green alicorn swell to bursting and broke it off, looking up to her blazing red face as her eyes slowly opened again and she touched her lips with wonder.

I peeked up at her from behind my ragged mane and smiled bashfully, glad to only get an excited mutter from the Shroud in my head. After being admonished by her, it seemed he was willing to stay out of this, allowing me to speak with my heart thudding as hard as Vira's was.

(Er... Me too Vira. That was just... umm... I really am glad you're here and helping. I know I can count on you and really appreciate it, I appreciate everything you've done and all you went through just to come find me too. Y-You're really a great filly and friend, so umm... Thanks...)

I was prepared for the hug that followed, though still surprised when she yanked me to her lap and squeezed giddily. Vira nuzzled my itchy mane and burbled away in my head, voicing giggling little snorts aloud as I was tossed back and forth in her grip. (You are welcome! I love love so much! This is such a wonderful feeling! It's even better than the romance stories my friend let me read!)

I had to chuckle at the idea of Vira reading ancient romance novels and wondered if she had the same tastes as Jade, hugging her back and just enjoying the moment as I thought of my wife and introducing the two alicorns. Somehow I thought Jade would approve of the new Vira and smiled, looking forward to finding out soon.

"Ahem..." Clara's amused bark made us both squeak and break apart in embarassment, looking up at the smirking hellhound dusting herself off beside a deep chasm in the earth. "All done Shadow-pony, you want see, or too busy trying to attract more love-bugs again?"

"R-Right! Sorry! T-Thanks Clara, let's take a look at what we got, huh Vira?"

I scampered up with Vira and cringed at Nick and Zed both pausing their wandering in the temple to chuckle at us, slinking over to the uncovered rift and peering over the edge. It was just wide enough for the full sized alicorn beside me to carefully flutter her way down I supposed, more than enough room for me. Squinting as I held my foreleg down over the edge, I could make out the reflective surface of still, deep water not far down and frowned as I put my hat back on.

"It's flooded, but that's where we need to go alright."

Smiling brightly, Vira tugged aside her pink silk scarf and withdrew the blue pearl necklace around her graceful neck. "Well then, it's lucky we have just the thing to go exploring underwater, isn't it! Eeeee! I've been wanting to try this in the water! I can't wait!"

Considering she held my hoof in hers and shook her magical necklace invitingly, I supposed Vira really was determined to go with me no matter where this adventure led. Nodding up to her, I took her slender hoof with both of mine and smiled back, happy she was with me all over again.

"Alright then, we're gonna go down and find this thing guys, together... Be right back!"

The others waved us off as the bright glow of Zao's Sequestrian artifact surrounded us, the weird sensation of being fundamentally changed taking hold in the brilliant flash of light.

Turning into a seapony was a stranger experience than I thought it would be...

Overall it was a lot more pleasant than the last time my body had been so radically altered anyway, compared to a week of suffering while turning into an alicorn, it was quick and painless. Perhaps that's what made it weirder for me, I felt it as my old unicorn body was broken down and reformed cell by cell, coming uncomfortably close to dying more than once, this time it was just 'poof!' and over.

The first thing that struck me was the lack of hindlegs, though it wasn't like they had been suddenly cut off either, I could still feel them, they were simply part of my elongated and sinuous body, melded with my tail which reliably flicked and flapped when I thought of it. I still felt whole and healthy, but it was definitely weird...

The second thing that came to mind was how dry everything suddenly felt, Yura's temple had been uncomfortably damp and chilly, but suddenly it was like being in the Saddle Arabian desert, a dry heat that made my fur... scales... itch. The sensation made the still water down the chasm Vira and I flopped before look extremely inviting anyway, though I couldn't help goggling at my reflection before jumping in.

My Shrouded Stallion armor had magically resized itself to fit my new frame without any real alterations, the wings that poked from the back now frilly fins instead of feathered appendages. A horn still poked from my fedora and I was basically the same from the front half forward other than that though, it was just a very odd image.

Vira enjoyed the experience as much as the first time anyway, slapping her tail against the stone floor impatiently while the others paused to look us over too. She wiggled and giggled to herself, taking advantage of the same reflection I was to pose fetchingly and flutter her diaphonous wings happily, clearly impatient to try swimming, but unwilling to break the surface first.

"Well, soonest begun, soonest done I guess. Let's go Vira. Cannonball!" I hopped over the edge with a shrug and broke the spell, careening down the pit to the freezing water below curled into a tight S shape.

My wings reflexively tried guiding my fall and I swore they had some impact, the magic that made pony flight possible still in some effect apparently. The fins weren't nearly as good at catching air as feathers though, fluttering madly until I splashed down and sank. I expected more of a shock considering how cold the water must be this deep in the dark, but it was more or less like a pleasant pond on a warm summer day, enough of a shock to still get a gasp from me, which did immediately prove out the ability to breathe water anyway.

My long tail waved automatically behind me, keeping me in place as I tried to breathe slowly and get used to the experience. I was just getting the hang of it when a large green shape splashed down right beside me, displacing enough water to send me spinning away in a rush of bubbbles as Vira dove down and spun gracefully, taking to the whole thing like a fish to water.

I could hear her still giggling merrily in my head, glad it was a psychic alicorn with me and we could still talk underwater. It wasn't like we could speak normally or anything, right? (Oh this is wonderful Fast! I wish my friends on Fog Harbor could see me now! So much of their lives revolved around the sea, they would be amazed!)

(Maybe we can go visit them someday Vira, I'd really like to see the place and meet Mr. Cane after all. It's umm... something to look forward to, right?)

She surprised me by doing a giddy flip in the water, swishing her tail and beaming as she settled back to an upright position beside me floundering to get my balance. (Oh yes! I would love to take you Fast! I promised to come back already and they all want to meet you!)

Blinking at her wide grin, I could feel my cheeks heat up in the cold water as I thought over what she said. (Er... how many ponies did you tell about me Vira?)

(Hmmm... most everyone I suppose!)

(And what exactly did you tell them....?)

(That you were a very nice stallion who helped me that I wished to return to, so I could learn about love and mate with you!)

Cringing at her honest and shameless answer, I facehoofed and sighed, blowing a stream of bubbles in the water. I did want to see Fog Harbor after all her stories, but now I wondered if I could ever bring myself to step hoof on the island... Well, at least I was looking to the future with something like anticipation again, so I supposed that was something. I had no idea how I'd get there, but I realized part of me had started to believe there'd be a day where I could do something like visiting the mysterious island with the green alicorn, that I could even do so as something like an old world vacation with my whole family as silly as it sounded.

It had probably started when Zed told me that Glitter was still alive, but I realized having Vira around had helped me start thinking that corny, simple things like that might be possible. That there could be a future where I wasn't an insane monster or constantly fighting, that maybe there was a happy ending somewhere out there... She was an infectious optimist and it was refreshing.

She was also blushing brightly in the gloom, reminding me yet again, she can hear you thinking dummy... Before I could say anything more, she spun and swished around me in the water, doing a tight corkscrew that left me spinning until she dove down, flipped, and shot straight back up to grab me by the shoulders to stop me, planting a very wet kiss on my dazed face.

(It is as you say, a date. I look forward to that day very much Fast, I'm sure it will come, somehow. Now, should we get started down the path to reach it, or would you rather float around aimlessly awhile longer?) Vira's voice giggled in my mind as she broke off, raising an eyebrow and smirking over my goofy look back.

'....Want sword.... Want filly!... Nnn... Want both!....'

The Shroud's voice interrupted the moment and I chuckled nervously, scratching my mane as it floated around me in a cloud and shuffling in place a moment. (M-Maybe some other time, huh? For now, let's get to business before they start wondering if we drowned down here. I'm guessing down is the way to go, so let's check it out Vira. Er.. you lead the way, you're a lot better at this than I am...)

I could feel the pride flowing off Vira as she nodded and took off like a shot, her pip-buck light illuminating the rocky, winding chasm as it went down. She always seemed a little clumsy on land, but apparently was pretty damn graceful in the water, leaving me floundering behind her as I got used to the weird experience and swam after her.

The flooded passage continued down lower than I would have thought, eventually opening out into a larger underwater cavern that branched off in multiple directions. We must be all the way down in the water table by this point, part of a system of aquafiers that supplied water to the Commonwealth. I made sure to keep track of exactly where we came down from and tried not to deviate from keeping the passage above us, worried about getting lost down here more than what we were searching for.

It took longer than I thought it would, but eventually we reached the bottom, finding a large pile of rubble that had fallen down from the temple above. I could spot Yura's starmetal cauldron still gleaming mellowly in the dark from near the bottom of the pile, reflecting our pip-buck lights back without a sign of corrosion whatsoever, even after resting down here underwater for 1200 years.

It proved we had the right place, though I wished Clara had come along with us on swimming around the pile in a slow circuit, hoping for the sword to be conveniently resting right on top. Alicorn telekinesis would have to suffice however, Vira and I's horns lit up the gloom with emerald and blue magic, turning the murky water a brilliant turquoise as we tugged and shifted the boulders aside.

Excavating the pile stone by stone took more time and clouded the water with fine silt as we shifted things around, but eventually things settled out and we could see beneath it all. At the bottom was a small pocket and inside this hole was the remains of Bronze Star, his golden Solar Guard armor still shining and mostly undamaged. Clutched in his skeletal hooves was what we were here for, the Shroud's sword...

I drifted close and stared into the brave soldiers helmeted skull, offering a prayer to the real goddess he once served and feeling trepidation as I reached for the Shroud's prize. For a moment I worried the skeleton would come to life, still loyally guarding the weapon he'd given his all to keep from the Shroud... from my hooves...

I couldn't sit here all day however, so gently, carefully and a little fearfully, I took hold of the immaculate dark leather wrapped mouth grip and tugged, shifting the poor old pony in his grave as little as I could as I withdrew the sword from the pile of stone.

As soon as it was free and gleaming in my mouth, I could feel power thrumming through me and gulped. It was like holding on to a bolt of lightning... the wickedly curved blade seemed to vibrate in my grip and was wreathed in oily blackness that rippled like flames, getting a beep from my pip-buck I looked over to distract myself as the Shroud gave a victorious roar.

Inventory Updated flashed in my vision, a quick check of the item sorting function revealed a new entry under the weapons tab labeled simply 'Bloodmoon - Kremvh's Tooth' and assigned an astronomically high value in both caps and damage. Actually, the arcano-tech computer on my hoof seemed to have a hard time recognizing its potential, listing its damage as 999 as if that was just as high as it could measure, a concept that made me even more accutely aware of the dangerous thing I now held like a chimera by the tail...

Even the voices of the Ministry Mares in my head seemed to quail at the Shroud's happy shout, the spirit now at full strength again after being reunited with both the piece of itself that had infected Zigguraut Carrot in Parsnip's Asylum and now his legendary weapon. The cavern around us felt like it shook as the Shroud gleefully swung his weapon around in a few practice swings, the water looking to boil around the burning blade flashing out in wicked arcs.

'...MINE!... Finally!... Mine again!... Now... Betrayer... Kill... Destroy... Conquer!...'

E-Easy big guy... let's not go too nuts here, this is a means to an end, remember? Don't forget what all you did to even get this damn goddess slayer, alright? A lot of ponies and zebras paid a high price because you were greedy and crazy, we're not going that route again, right?

I could feel a petulant sigh answer as I reminded the spirit of his mistakes, but it did seem to rein him in again. The sword stopped burning with black flames and was reluctantly sheathed in the loop of leather on my bandolier, replacing my faithful kitchen knife Best Served, which was stashed away in my saddlebags.

The movement let me look over the blade more closely as it was put away, taking in details that had been hard to make out in the Shroud's triumph. It was longer than my foreleg and curved like the crescent moon. Strangely it looked like it was first one kind of blade, like Witchy's Lunar Guard sword, overlaid with another sword of twisted, spiky starmetal that held the first's shape.

I'd read that the witch Yura had promised to make the Shroud's spirit blade into something less ethereal and more dangerous, so it was strange to see the finished product and I better understood the dual name my pip-buck provided. It looked like molten starmetal had been poured haphazardly over the original sword, snaking around it and forming wicked, jagged spikes and sharp edges, then etched with squiggly zebra runes that glowed a faint green.

Overall it looked plain old dangerous and warped, like the spirit itself... But we had what we came for anyway, finally... I could return to Jade and Glitter, it was time to get moving.

When we broke the surface of the water again, we both grinned at our success and held hooves again, allowing Vira to brush the Sequestrian pearl and change us back. It suddenly became a lot harder to maintain our position and I remembered I wasn't all that strong of a swimmer, doggie paddling madly until my wet wings took over and lifted me up.

It was half flying and half climbing up the narrow rift in the earth, but we made our way to the exit together, flopping over the ragged edge and calling to our friends with a smile that quickly faded. Sprawled out on the stone floor with Vira, I barely had time to recognize there were a lot more than just Clara, Nick and Zed in the temple now, E.F.S. lit with a horde of dashes that wavered between red and green. The room was full of black and white, but they weren't zebras...

Changelings and synths!? Together!? Dozens of them were waiting for us, all arrayed around the pit we had crawled out of. I barely caught sight of the others by their muffled shouts, our friends were each muzzled and held to the floor by a viscous green goop, struggling madly to warn us but unable to do anything.

My wings flared and I made to take off with the Shroud's fury blazing brightly, then crashed back to the ground as I felt the horrible sensation of being fed on again. A throng of red accented changelings were ready and waiting for me, slurping at the cloud of red tinged magic that drained away even the rage that had threatened to take over when Vira crashed beside me, losing wisps of pink love-stuff to the classic variety of hideous insects.

The synths all held their weapons on us passively, while more changelings trotted forward and spit green goop at us, glueing our hooves to the floor and splattering our horns. I didn't have much strength to move to begin with, but the gunk made sure I couldn't budge an inch. Even my magic fizzled out with a sickly bubble of glop, leaving us helpless as a slow set of clopping hoofsteps approached.

"My, my, that wasn't so hard. Good job everyone. So, this is the one Klein's so interested in, pleasure to meet you Mr. Times..." I snorted at the set of griffon-like claws and hooves stopping before my chin on the cold floor, then just gaped when I got a good look at our captor.

It was... I wasn't even sure how to describe it... The first thing that popped to mind was the Shroud's shout of '...Chimera!...' but even that wasn't quite right...

It was a stallion, I worked out that much by his deep voice and the square, green and striped face of a zony looking down at me with amusement. A horn sprouted from his spiky neon green and black mane, though it was a shiny black, chitinous, curved thing like a changeling's instead of a proper unicorn's horn. His yellow eyes were slitted like a dragon's, though not drawn down in a scowl or very aggressive, more curious and entertained by me struggling to get up to rip his throat out.

His forelegs ended at the griffon-like claws he idly polished on his chest, though they weren't scaly and hard like Val's, but furry and more mobile. Down his slightly humped back back was a wide strip of shiny green scales, passing a pair of leathery dragon wings on the way to a long, whipping tail that ended with a wild fluff of black and green hair. His body and hindlegs looked essentially pony however, medium green fur striped with darker horizontal bands I was now able to recognize as Propoli, what Zed described as the tribe of tinkerers. He also had a cutie-mark on his flank, though the artistic style of the image leaned a little towards zebra glyph-marks, a vibrant green snake in a circle, eating its own tail.

The Shroud's initial reaction seemed like the best explanation I could come up with, it was like some kind of pony-zebra-changeling-griffon-dragon-otherstuff hybrid... The face was familiar however, though it and the voice had aged to adulthood from the scrawny synth I met in the Haunted Highschool...

"Oro Borous...?"

The... thing... grinned at his name, shaking his head and replying in a friendly tone. "I haven't gone by that name in ages, though it's nice to hear it again. Klein said you messed with our little playpen, so I suppose you met my younger self. Well, proper introductions are still important, even if you have me at a disadvantage. Professor Swirl, at your service."

"W-Who... What are you..." Vira groaned beside me, trying to raise her head and flopping back to the stone as the changeling's feeding on her increased the suction.

Pacing before us amiably, Oro... Professor Swirl paused in front of Vira and held one of those weird claws out like he wanted to shake hooves, gently taking her goop covered foreleg and giving it a little wiggle. "So sorry about this dear, terrible first impression I'm sure, though at least you're not the Princess we expected. I hope this form isn't too off-putting, it's my latest model. Not the most attractive I know, but it does have a variety of perks."

At that, his curved changeling horn glowed green, the swarm of bugs in the room shifting and buzzing about at his direction. It seemed the Institute Head of Reverse Engineering had been reverse engineering different creatures.. building a better synth body one piece at a time...

"Nnnngh! What do you want Swirl!? What is this!? Lemme go!"

Turning back to blink down at my furious snarls, Swirl shook his head and shrugged helplessly. "I get the feeling that wouldn't be a very good idea, would it Mr. Times? Or should I address the Shrouded Stallion directly? Klein wasn't very clear on the situation, only that you had a rein on Project Knightfall. Fascinating really, I have oodles of questions! This seemed the safest way to meet you, and I'm to keep you occupied awhile yet."

"Occupied!? What the hell are you going on about!? I thought we had a deal, Klein said..."

"Oh we do, but it wouldn't do for you to blow the whole arrangement before you even take your post as our new Head of Public Relations, would it? Our concern was you may do something... rash... so this seemed the best compromise for now. I assure you, I have no interest in harming you or your companions. We can simply have a friendly chat while things on the surface resolve themselves." Swirl bowed his head and shrugged, sounding like he really was embarassed over the situation.

(Fast, they came from a teleporter in the main chamber when we left! Nick says they went to great pains to capture them alive...) Vira gave a meaningful glance from where she lay trapped, communicating silently with the only other pony member of our party.

Looking up to the muffled "MMMNNN!" of Zed fighting his own bonds, I saw my zebra pal's grey eyes were frantic. He couldn't talk, but we knew each other well enough we had our own kind of psychic link, enough for me to focus on Swirl's words and think desperately.

"What do you mean, what's going on up on the surface? Why are you keeping us here!?"

Sitting before us and curling his long tail around his legs, Swirl sighed patiently. "Do try to stay calm, I don't want to have to make my changeling minions increase the drain on you too much, it can be harmful. Amazing creatures actually, do you know they developed bio-technology rivaling our own prewar standards? Incredible right! I've been breeding them for generations now, I'm afraid my experiments have left them a little too feral to be effective at more than being simple guard dogs, but they still have so much to teach us. I've even heard of some fascinating experiments regarding them in certain Stables... how I wish we could recover the data! I've yet to crack their shape-shifting ability completely, but we're making fine progress. Someday our synths will be able to infiltrate wherever we wish, without having to build a model specific to the creature being replaced!"

"Who gives a fuck about your pet ant farm dammit!! ANSWER ME!"

"Very well... We knew you were coming here, your spirit's goals are rather easy to figure out after all. Of course he'd go for his sword. Going for it ourselves was deemed a waste of resources since it would only respond to its master, but now that you've done the heavy lifting for me, I hope you don't mind if I take a look while I explain, hmm?" Swirl shrugged and gently tugged the Shroud's sword from my bandolier, floating it to his claws and eyeing it appreciatively as he continued.

"Astounding, truly astounding... I'd love to study this at some later date if you don't mind, so little is truly understood about enchanted starmetal forging, let along the melding with an astral weapon... It's up to you of course, I'll reluctantly return it as soon as we're done here. You see, we didn't interfere in allowing you to retrieve it, and have no plans to take it from you either. We simply wanted you out of the way for a bit and to have this chat."

"Fast, I can't... r-read his mind very well, he's a zony.. I can tell he's being evasive and thinking something about... Neighlem?" Vira panted and strained beside me, glaring daggers at the weird thing Swirl had turned himself into.

It might be a mish-mash of body parts, but the brain was originally a zony, so I supposed that much hadn't changed if Vira could read him at all. I saw Swirl wince at her psychic investigation, shuffling with an 'aw-shucks' look on his creepy face. "Ah... one of the green ones, that's right. I expected a blue... Well, I suppose there's no use hiding it then. That's the reason to keep you from doing anything foalish, besides our so far pleasant chat. You see Mr. Times, we need Neighlem's port..."

"Neighlem... You're moving on Neighlem!? Batia and your games there, you're going to try to take over!?" I roared and struggled up to my hooves, then swayed as the swarm of red accented changelings screeched and increased that awful draining sensation.

Zed shook with fury and strained to get loose with more muffled shouts, but Swirl barely gave the raging zebra a second glance, pacing the temple with his blank faced synth guards keeping their weapons trained on us. "They're not affiliated with your Kingdom of Sanctuary, now are they? That makes them fair game under the terms of our truce. We were going to wait until you had left the area, but things in Neighlem are moving more rapidly than anticipated. A result of your little visit I imagine... I had hoped to be done before you finished your quest down here, so merely instructed my hive to keep you occupied. I didn't expect you to take a shortcut below however, so had to make do. It will all be over soon with minimal loss of life I assure you. They may be a bunch of traitorous enemies to Equestria, but there's no reason to be cruel."

"Traitorous... the war is over you lunatic! They're just people! You can't!"

"Enemies mass on our borders and you say we're not at war? You're being a bit naive Mr. Times... We require the port and a base of operations in the area. Besides, I've been waiting to take that stealth sub apart for ages. Those zebras have grown fat and sassy on Equestrian shores long enough! Under the protection of the very ship that tried to annhilate us no less! They need to be reminded who rules this land, Princess Celestia!" Swirl stamped his claws and hooves with a crazed shout, a little of his own brand of madness leaking out.

"Leave poor Captain Zao alone! He just wants to go home!" Vira managed to raise her head again to shout shrilly, concerned for the new friend we'd just made who was apparently on the Institute's chopping block and continuing in a weak psychic aside. (Be careful, he's very unstable... his mind has been altered somehow...)

"You're crazy..."

He was still suffering from Grandpa's hacking... I could tell he wasn't quite in touch with reality, though he was better than Dala had been. Swirl obviously grasped that the world beyond the Commonwealth existed, but had bought into their own fantasy of their Synthlestia monstrosity as the real Princess of Equestria. He seemed almost fanatical in his devotion to Equestria of old, willing to bring the hammer down on his own old home and the zebras living there.

His expression grew sour at being called out, but he shook it off and smiled grimly. "I'm... having a few issues lately, but getting better every day thanks to Klein. He's a very fine stallion Mr. Times, you should accept his help as I have, he made me who I am today."

Glaring at his weird, twisted form, I snorted back, "A monster?"

"Oh out of the two of us, I think you fit that desciption better, don't you? After all, I can slip on a more standard body like a pair of comfy shoes, but you'll still be possessed. Klein is still willing to work with you however, to deliver on his promises..." Professor Swirl answered with a huff and implied threat, getting a low growl out of me still struggling at his hooves.

Rolling a burning eye over, I caught Vira's calm green gaze and snarled back, repeating the green alicorn's warning to me. "You assholes don't deliver, ever... You use people, just like Klein used you when you were a kid. I saw Swirl, I met Oro, who you used to be... He had the sense to be ashamed of what he'd done, but you drank the cider, you actually believe your bullshit, don't you? You're going to hurt those zebras, when you used to freaking live there! They're your people too!"

Swirl grew frantic when I scraped away his veneer of sanity, shouting back with his long tail whipping behind him angrily. "My people are loyal Equestrians! I don't take after my striped mother's side of the family, I'm a proper pony dammit! We're going to restore Celestia's kingdom, put things back they way they should be!"

"Yeah, you really look like a proper pony alright... You hate yourself so much, you turned yourself into this thing, you're willing to make your own people suffer, all for Klein and his lies. This isn't right Swirl, you know it..."

"All you have to do is relax Mr. Times, it will be over soon and you'll be on your way, sword in hoof. Isn't that what you wanted? Return to your Princess, speak with Klein and accept his assistance with your daughter. That's a problem I'm eager to work with you on, I'm sure we can save the unique model. What happens to Neighlem is none of your concern, it's merely a change in management. If you're going to work in Public Relations, you need to get used to such actions. I'm simply taking up the slack for Vega since this is my territory, but I'm eager to hoof it off to you in the future. I'm sure you can find a better way, but nozebra will be harmed if they cooperate..." Grinning cheerily, Swirl let the insults slide off his scaly back and returned his attention to the spiky sword in his hooves, tapping at his own sleek black Institute pip-buck as he examined it and shut me down.

He had a point... The Shroud had what he wanted and was willing to return to Jade's side, I could just leave and go home to Glitter, save her with Klein's help and... and what mattered more than that? If I was working with the Institute, maybe he was right. Maybe I could do what they wanted without anycreature getting hurt. I was sure Jade could find a way at least... We could use them to do some good and make sure the suffering was kept to a minimum.

(That's just what I thought Fast... that I could use the Church of Balefire to help my kind, that a little suffering was an acceptable price to pay... Don't fall into the trap I did, please!) Vira's voice pleaded in my head and I snapped out of the fantasy, looking to her shimmering eyes next to me.

I kept seeing those visions from our trip down the pit, the slavery and torment the zebras and ponies of long ago suffered because of the Shroud. He owed a debt... Looking up to Zed's pleading stare from across the chamber, I realized I owed my own too... I thought of his aunt Pandora, of the snotty but not so bad Xia, of the zebra colt who actually spoke to me on the beach and poor old Captain Zao just wanting to return to Zebrica... Most of the zebras living there treated me like some kind of demon, but that didn't make them bad people, they didn't deserve to suffer like the slaves that died in this hole had so long ago.

I wasn't going to repeat the past dammit...

I was going to atone, the Shroud was going to atone for what he did...

We were going to be better.

The more I thought and focused on it, the more the ember of righteous fury was stoked in my heart, gaining me a little strength. I noticed the red accented changelings feeding on me were starting to look a little full and poured it on, gritting my teeth as I stood and spoke directly to the spirit in my head.

That's it, get pissed buddy.. Let it all out. These guys are gonna hurt those zebras! Are you gonna just sit around and let it happen again!?

'...No...'

Are we gonna do something about it then!?

'...Yes!...'

Make up for our mistakes?!

'...Yes!...'

Be a hero!?

'...YES!...'

'Be Kind... Be Strong!... Be Unwavering!... Awareness!... Be Awesome!'

The bugs cheeks were puffing out and their stomachs distended as I got my hooves under me and strained against the goop keeping me in place, psyching myself and the spirit up enough to gorge the nasty pests. The rising song of the Ministry Mares gave me the energy to fight back, but it was the red rage lurking under them that was overwhelming the anger eating bugs. Black lightning started flickering around me as Swirl finally tore his attention away from the sword when it started jittering in his claws, gaping at me pulling free of the goo that was starting to char and flake away.

That's right! We're gonna get loose and we're gonna kick ass! Right!? Feel free to go completely fucking nuts! Destroy everything! Kill these bastards and let's go!

'...Kill... Destroy!... Conquer!... YES!...'

"W-What are you doing!? Hold him down dammit! Don't let him..." Swirl tried to shout, but it was too late, the sword in his grip burst into black flames, scorching his claws and floating free as the crud on my horn burned away.

Pulling myself free and floating the sword to my side, it felt like I was burning... The changelings were still trying, but several of them simply keeled over with their bulging stomachs bursting when they hit the stone floor. They'd taken all the rage they could, but it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what the Shroud had on tap. I could feel it lighting my nerves on fire, my blood boiling in my veins as I stalked forward with a predatory grin at all the synths and changelings moving to defend their master.

"Greetings Evildoers.... I will be imprisoned by no creature again vile miscreant. Death has come for you all, and I am its Shroud!"

Taking Kremvh's Tooth in my mouth, I flapped up so Zed and the others weren't in the line of fire, then swung the blade in a vicious arc, sending a crescent of black magic whistling out to slice through half a dozen of Swirl's defenders. The bizarre chimera-zony was splashed with green goop from both the changelings and synths that had been obliterated, wiping his face to glare at me and shout. "Stop this! You can't do anything, you'll just get in the way! If you interfere, I can't guarantee Klein will honor his deal to help you!"

"If Klein wants to piss me off more when I do show up, that's his business. I'm crazy, remember? I am coming though..."

I growled back from midair as the synth's Institute made M.E.W.s hummed and took aim, then the swirl of inky black magic at my horn extinguished every torch and brazier in the temple I had lit earlier, bathing the chamber in a deep blackness that was soon lit with blue beams of magic and flames. The echoing cavern was filled with screeches of changelings and warbling squawks of synths being torn to shreds by the ringing noise of the Shroud's sword slicing them to ribbons and my own snarls.

It was a frenzy of destruction I was only partially aware of, standing aside in my mind to let the spirit stretch his wings and really go to town. I could feel his dark joy at being pointed in a direction and let go, free to annhilate everything in his path, but for a good cause. Now that he had his blade back, I got a better idea just what a master swordspony the Shroud was, feeling my body zipping around the cavern with unnatural grace, the crackling sword a flashing glimmer in the dark.

I swooped and dodged with the long blade in my teeth, never floating it in my telekinesis and thus never giving away its position in the blue glow. I took damage from a few random blasts of magic, but my stride never slowed and on one occassion I was shocked to see the blue beam from an lucky synth parried aside, reflected away from the shining blade to scorch a blind changeling buzzing up near the ceiling.

I wasn't even sure how he could do such a good job of it as I observed, alicorn night vision only amplified available light, but this was like being part of the shadows themselves. I could see every enemy being cut down in perfect detail, the rampage finally ending when Swirl's chimera-synth was skewered by the long blade.

He melted under me like all the other synths, a look of shock and surprise frozen on his weird features before they dissolved. Then it was all over, I reconnected with my own body as another flicker of magic relit the torches and showed my friends turning stunned gazes around the charnel house Yura's temple had turned into.

I trotted over to Vira first, carefully using a warm glow of flame magic to scorch away the changeling goop holding her down without harming the alicorn filly and wincing at her wide eyed blink as she spoke. "Fast... are you.. are you you? That was..."

"Er... yeah, that's what happens when I let him off the chain. Sorry you had to see it Vira, I umm.. I hope you're not scared of me now..."

She lunged up as soon as the secreted goo had dried and broken away, hugging me fiercely and shivering. "Of course not! I was worried when I felt the spirit take control, but I feel it's still you now. You did what you had to, to help others.. right?"

Turning to Zed's muffled grunts and moving to free him next, I nodded to Vira and him both. "Right, we gotta go now, I don't know what they're up to, but we're not gonna let them hurt Neighlem!"

Zed gasped when his muzzle was freed, ripping his legs loose of the goop in a rush. "No, we cannot allow them free reign back home. Thank you Fast... You may have sacrificed much to help my people, I'm in your debt."

Sighing as he gave a low bow while I moved on to Nick and Clara, I shook my head sadly. "It's the other way around Zed. I owe you a lot, I'm... We're just trying to do the right thing and make up for mistakes we've made. It's what Glitter would want..."

Nick lit a cigarette as soon as his own plastic face was free of crud, raising a brow over his strange yellow on black eyes as he surveyed the destruction and spoke in a firm, practical tone. "We better get movin' if we don't wanna miss the show there pally, it's a long trek back and I don't think the rest of that kook's bugs are gonna be too happy about you putting that shell down for the old dirt nap."

"You told Vira they came here in a teleporter, right Nick? If they're messing with Neighlem, I'm willing to bet there's a relay in town somewhere, we're taking a shortcut." I grunted back as I freed Clara last, fluttering up to scratch at her laid back ear and bow to the hellhound. "Clara... I'm sorry you had to go through all this, but I'm not gonna ask you to stick with us. You've got Jewel to think about, so once we're clear you go on back to Lynn Woods."

"Debt paid to Shadow-pony? You save pup, I can still help if want... Only do a little digging is all..." Clara's hindleg thumped happily and her tail wagged, but she looked at me dubiously.

Smiling to the noble hellhound, I tipped my fedora and nodded firmly. "Your debt is more than paid Clara, but I've still got a lot in my own books to atone for. I'm going to start though... thanks for all your help."

"He won't be doing so alone either Miss Clara, so don't you worry. Are you ready Fast?" Vira smiled brightly, breaking the grim mood with her warm optimism as we all gathered up around the big alicorn.

Shifting the darkly thrumming sword at my hip, I nodded again and trotted for the exit with a steady, determined stride. "More than ready to try something new instead of the same old mistakes. Let's go!"

At that we galloped off together, making a very odd herd, but one I felt true camraderie with. I missed my old friends and family like Val, Witchy, Jade and Glitter, but knew they'd be right at my side in this situation and would understand what I chose to do now.

It was time to put aside my own selfishness, to do what Jade would want instead of what she'd hate, to help folks who needed it and stand up for what was right no matter the cost.

To be a hero again...

----------------Level Up!----------------

New Perk Added!----------

Big Leagues----
---Swing for the fences! You now dow +25% damage with all melee weapons, have an increased chance to cripple or disarm opponents, and a chance to grand slam their head clean off!