Fallout: Equestria - Child of the Stars

Chapters

Chapter One: Simplicity’s Twilight
Chapter Two: Just Another Job
Chapter Three: Cherry Pin
Chapter Four: One Way Or Another
Chapter Five: First Lesson
Chapter Seven: The List Of Places That Messed With Ponies
Chapter Eight: Test Subject
Chapter Nine: Reorientation
Chapter Ten: Bug In The System
Chapter Eleven: Trust
Chapter Twelve: Survivors
Chapter Thirteen: Brainstorm
Chapter Fourteen: Bad Seed
Chapter Fifteen: Crimson Springs
Chapter Sixteen: Vertigo
Chapter Seventeen: Last Train Out
Chapter Eighteen: Unexpected
Chapter Nineteen: Crossroads
Chapter Twenty: The Old Fashioned Way
Chapter Twenty-One: Heat-Stricken
Chapter Twenty-Two: Headquarters
Chapter Twenty-Four: Changing Perspective
Chapter Twenty-Five: Fort Sandstone
Chapter Twenty-Six: Project Nightstalker
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Desert Steel
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rally Call
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Common Enemy
Chapter Thirty: Stable Fifty
Chapter Thirty-One: The Cavlary
Prologue
Chapter Six: The Destiny Corporation
Chapter Twenty-Three: Reality Check

Chapter One: Simplicity’s Twilight

Chapter 1: Simplicity’s Twilight

“So close to perfect, it hurts.”

I closed my eyes, lifting my head to feel the hot water flowing through my tangled mane, its pleasant heat trailing down my aching back. The steaming liquid soothed my tense eyes and helped remove the dry, cottony taste in my mouth, as I rehydrated with the iron-tasting tang of the stream pouring forth from the showerhead. I released a pleased sigh as it poured across my face.

Damn, am I glad this place has a working water talisman and a spark generator sustainable enough to heat said water.

That plentiful fact in mind, I reared upright, forehooves pressed against the wet tiles. It afforded me a long moment of warm, pleasurable bliss. Seconds later I bowed my head beneath the flow, opening my eyes and glimpsed downward towards the grimy tile floor.

In the water which streamed towards the drain, a concoction of dirt, blood, sweat, and probably a great deal more undesirable substances flowed from my grime ridden coat to form a vile cesspool of disgusting liquids. Such a mess was quickly swept into the mysterious oblivion of the drainage piping by the falling water, leaving the modesty clean, enamel-coated, ceramic tiles and my white coat free of filth once more.

My fur was not the problem however, I just had to get the last of the hardened grime out of my mane, and that was proving more problematic. I paused to balance myself against the wall with one forehoof before dragging the other roughly through the thick mess of hair upon my skull, managing to painfully prune the light blue strands enough to at least make me look presentable, or as presentable as anypony could look out here anyway.

Regardless, the pain was only a minor inconvenience compared to the overall sensation and I was kind of lost in the relaxing fantasy. For what it was worth I only knew one other place in the wasteland that could offer such a comforting service and no way I was giving any of my caps to those stuck up snobs over at Tenpony. Besides, here freelancers got it cheap. Well, cheap as any hot water is in the wasteland, but damn it was worth the caps. They would frequently try to pay us scavengers as few caps as they could get away with, but…

Ah, just shut up brain. I told my irritatingly patronizing consciousness, turning the hoof I'd set to cleaning my mane into a blunt weapon as I whapped it soundly against my skull in an attempt to discipline my thoughts.

With that I pressed my hoof back to the wall and then sighed, water droplets flicking from my muzzle as the long breath escaped me. The few extra minutes of paradise I'd promised myself a moment ago were unfortunately up and I pushed back from the wall, falling back down onto all four hooves.

I really wished I had a spell to replicate this feeling, it being one of many things I wished there was a simple magical solution for. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a spell which could simulate this wonderful state of being, so with another soft sigh, I reached back with a hoof and once again dragged the limb through the hardened, encrusted forest that was my dirtied mane. This time I put in a little more force, resulting in a few more painful twinges. Nevertheless, I yanked most of the remaining grime free and left it to fall into the drains with the last shreds of its foul ilk.

A moment later I shook myself vigorously, flinging what dirt was left onto the tiles around me. Upon finishing the last of my grueling tasks, my eyes fell upon the aged faucet. The chipped, silver metal was covered in a patchwork of rusted spots and flaking blue paint. The same faded mess covered most of the vast network of pipes that ran throughout Churn.

After living and working here for so long I'd kinda gotten over the whole so close to perfection yet so far thing, which the ponies threw around here. I worked, earned a decent living, and even got a discount on a room, bed, and shower. All of which were private, might I add. It was at that moment that there was a loud knock, and my ears fell sharply.

It was almost private.

I looked out from the shower to the large metal door across from me, the sole entrance to my private quarters. As if waiting for the honor of attracting my gaze, the sound of hooves against metal continued. My frustration at being disturbed was lightened slightly, as I watched the huge metal wheel upon the door’s center struggle to turn, but to no avail.

Reluctantly, I placed a forehoof upon the faucet’s knob and finally forced the valve closed, sealing away that gorgeous flow of warm water.

Well, at least I still have the residual heat which I've absorbed through my coat and mane. I thought hopefully. Oh wait, that’s going to turn into a freezing inconvenience the moment I step out of here.

This place was so damn close to perfect, that the thought of leaving such comforts behind really did hurt.

"Dragon, you in there?" A deep, muffled voice asked from behind the thick, metal door.

I paused for a moment, eyes fixed on the steel mass as I raised a forehoof to my muzzle in thought.

Should I answerer him? Should I make him wait? I was certainly the only mare who could do so, and yet…

What was the point? I lowered my hoof in a light stomp.

"Yes, Star, where else would I be?" I told the door in a vaguely polite tone.

I could almost hear the relieved breath escape his muzzle as my response hit his ears.

"Griddle wants to see us upstairs," the buck stated, somewhat muted through the thick steel separating him and I.

I turned from the door, not caring to look at the silver-grey expanse now that there wasn’t something to engage my attention. As for the pony he’d mentioned, the only time I ever wanted to see her was when…

"She's got our pay," he added, his gruff voice breaking eagerly.

"I'll be right out!" I called swiftly, stepping out of the shower and onto the aged, metal-plated floor of my room.

"Be waiting for you up there," the stallion's voice added before the heavy clopping of hooves signaled his retreat.

Well, another job, another payment. I mentally told myself unable to help but feel a sense of pride.

No matter what I had to see of Griddle, she still had a pretty good place going here, not to mention the discounted rooms, caps, and…

You should really stop repeating yourself when it comes to your glorious benefits. My mind scolded.

I simply shook off the complaint as I looked about. Like most chambers down here in the underground, it was small, really it was just large enough for a bed and a place to put one’s luggage. Because the rooms were subterranean, they naturally lacked any windows whatsoever. The walls were a dull gray and made from a metallic patchwork of panels that, at first glance, created an illusion of smooth, solid surface only to reveal the network of rusted pipes and faulty wiring beneath through its many openings. And don’t even get me started on the spiders and cobwebs hiding everywhere.

I had to admit, it was not the most appealing interior decoration, but this wasn't some fancy pre-war masterpiece built by Stable-Tec. In truth, it was just so close to perfect, but still so far. The roof was almost identical, albeit there were sets of flickering white lights, the glow of which accompanied the dull, red ambiance that filled every room in Churn’s underworld. The floor was no different. In fact, the only break in the scenery was the dirty, enamel tiles of the bathroom and my torn and threadbare furniture.

There was a bedframe, adequately manufactured from old rebar that supported the best mattress I could find. Again, it was as good as one could get without restoring the world to how it was prior to the apocalypse. At either side of the bed was a small metal cabinet, each holding a worn out lamp and on the right an old radio. Across from me, pressed against the far wall, was a large gun cabinet and to the right of that was a workbench, a varied assortment of magical weaponry hanging upon an old tool rack above it.

Finally, a tall glass display case housed most of the rare or interesting curios that I'd found while traveling. Most of its contents consisted of gems, which I found uses for. There were also three or so memory orbs which contained memories that I was fond of, and a mint condition Red Racer scooter. Most of the other salvaged items were things that I intended to sell, including some guns and spare parts, and I knew some lucky foal would probably appreciate the scooter someday.

I also had some ammo which was just another thing I intended to sell to whatever shop was willing to buy it. Admittedly, I didn't use a lot of it as my preferable combat style (magical energy weapons) only saw me keeping things along the lines of spark packs and batteries. The more common variants of ammo like bullets on the other hoof gained me more than a little extra caps.

I grinned at that thought as I levitated a towel from its resting place upon one of the many heating pipes.

Well, at least it’s warm. I thought, as I dried off and turned my blue and cyan mane from a wet sludge, to a frizzy mess.

There was one other thing I'd forgot to mention. I recalled it as my gaze met a mirror sitting on the left wall near my bedside. Staring back at me from the faded surface was the image of a white-coated, unicorn mare with a deep blue mane, her parted bangs bordered on either side by cyan streaks, the color almost matching her electric blue eyes. Upon her flank was a cutie mark that sported a draconic wing, its flared surface formed from shimmering blue crystals as it was enveloped by a lighter blue flame.

Well, that pretty much described how I looked, my name was Dragonfire. But I'd looked into the mirror a thousand times and all that would change was how it hung as I repositioned it every time it inevitably fell off the wall. I really ought to do something about that, since having decent looking glass was a rare luxury. Having mine break meant that I’d not be able to determine if I was at least somewhat presentable before going out amongst the public. Moments later I shook the last of the water from my mane and looked to the end of my bed. Sure enough, sitting within my rumpled, disheveled quilts was my combat barding.

It was unlike that of any normal westlander's gear, however. One of my skills happened to involve the heavy customization of everything I owned, and my barding was no exception. It was made from a greatly modified mix of security enforcement barding and lightweight military gear.

You'll find nothing short of power armor that can beat my stuff. That was something I always told myself and I had no small amount of pride in my ability.

Even so, I'd bet a hundred caps that I could give any one of those fancy Steel Rangers a run for their caps in a fight. Firstly, most of the underlying plates were practically bulletproof, and add to that my special modification, a thin, but flexible layer of dragon scales and I was practically invulnerable to penetrative attacks. As for where I'd gotten such scales? Let's just say a pony doesn't earn the amount of discounts that the places I shopped at gave me, for being as standard as every other mercenary out in the wasteland.

As for the rest of the armor; it was pretty standard, saddlebags and holsters for all the weapons a pony could ask for. I also wore tail and hoof guards, thereby leaving my only potential weak point being the underbelly. But I was working on that, I certainly didn't want to lose anything down there after all.

Lastly, was my helmet. Modified for a unicorn of course, and taken from an old suit of power armor. I'd had to remove most of the heavy stuff, yet thanks to the scales, it was still just as strong. However, it wasn’t any of that stuff that set me apart from my fellow mercs. I'd always wondered why the stable ponies we always heard about over the years ever needed a targeting matrix, that was until I got one of my own. I mean, I knew I was a brilliant shot, and this was no stable-tec S.A.T.S mumbo-jumbo, nor anything like the helmet’s original systems. But I had something that I knew most ponies out there didn’t, a Pip-Buck.

It was a family thing, passed down from when some old relative first emerged from one of those iron, death tombs they called Stables. Yet as far as I knew, I was the only one who’d actually tinkered with the thing. I’d mainly looked at the E.F.S as well as using what I could salvage from the armor. Ultimately my efforts broke some of the Pip Buck’s programming, and I’ll admit to being somewhat proud of that because breaking one of those things was hard no matter how ancient they were.

Nevertheless, after a few long weeks of tampering, I'd finally managed to get some of the power armor’s old systems working again. I liked to think of it as my own deadly advantage, not too dissimilar from the original stable-tec technology. Granted, it wasn’t as good as the original programming, but it was far better than not having anything whatsoever. Even if I usually had to clip the thing to my side or leg and hook it up to my armor that way. Regardless, with my gear, abilities, and skills, I was almost the perfect combat machine, and whenever I teamed up with my partner Star Strike, we became quite the duo in a fight.

Star Strike, the buck who had been at the door, was an earth pony. Thanks to his heritage, he was stronger than me, but brute strength only took a pony so far in the wasteland. He preferred to blast his enemies to bloody mist with big barrelled guns like most bucks. A compensation thing among most of them, I was certain. To put it simply; however, I didn’t particularly care for his combat tactics. In fact, Star was lucky I even agreed to listen to him at all.

That thought made me snicker to myself slightly as I tossed the towel aside and turned to the door.

"Well super advanced, not quite perfect, but close enough barding," I stated happily to nopony in particular, other than my gear lying idly on the bed. "I need to go see the goddess of ugly herself, and unless you have suddenly upgraded yourself with a blackout filter..." I snickered again at the thought of my armor gaining sentience and performing upgrades and maintenance upon itself just to spare me the horror.

"I'll see you later."

Griddle was the mare in question, and I really didn't want to see her. Nevertheless, I ran a hoof over my mane as best as I could, trying to ensure that I looked somewhat presentable and that no stray locks interfered with my vision. I almost wanted to thank the steel door that greeted me for keeping Star out, even though I was the one to lock it. Goddesses forbid that stallion ever see me in the shower! In fact, I'll bet that when I show up to this meeting without my usual barding, that he'd get an eye full, even if every other mare wore the bare minimum too.

Oh well, I guess that this could work out in my favor. I thought wryly.

I still wanted to be the one alpha mare that was in control and in charge of her huge earth pony stallion. Figuratively speaking, of course.

With that in mind, I slid the lock clamps open and then turned the opening mechanism. Within the hulking door, there were a few mighty clunks as I enveloped the handle in an electric-blue colored magic and pulled it open. The metal groaned reluctantly as I swung it forward.

Beyond, a long, metallic, cylindrical tunnel greeted me. It was not too dissimilar to my room, though the walls in the claustrophobic corridor were made from even more water pipes and valves. They were just as poorly hidden away, as some of the paneling was either starting to come loose or was missing altogether and showed what lay beneath for anypony to see, like some cheap two-bit whore that flashed her goods for anypony that might be interested. Amongst the pipes and valves ran a web of waterproof wires. At least I assumed they were waterproof, the lack of electrocuted corpses suggested that much at least.

Somewhere far below, the dull hum of generators mixed with the much closer sound of water running through the pipelines. Intermingled with these noises was the hiss of escaping steam, the metallic tang of rusting steel and the humidity of non-siphoned steam that turned the tunnel into a sauna. It was hot enough here to begin with, considering the town was located in a desert and the constant, sweltering heat that often plagued environments like this one. Dull, red lights glowed from their attached spots on the top of the tunnel, thereby illuminating the steam. The crimson bulbs; however, were hidden among the thick pipework above as if somepony had gone to great lengths to shroud each one, while still allowing their light to illuminate the surrounding area.

In the end, I didn’t care what the place looked like, and the hostelry management possibly had their efforts wasted as some other pony had put up the occasional white bulb, the likes of which were hung from the mass of pipes on short wire cords. The floor clanked and rattled with each hoof step, the metal frame suspending the walkway millimeters above the warm pipes. As I moved along the corridors I passed several other large doors. The thick layers of concrete that surrounded them were the only disturbances in the constant stream of pipes which simply flowed around the obstacles like some strange metallic river, retaking their former alignment once they'd passed.

The thick steel doors were all the same, the only difference being the occasional splattering of paint and nameplates hammered in just above the central valve. First, I passed Winter Scythe's, or simply Winter's on the left, then Death Mark’s on the right. I just trotted on without so much as batting an eye. I'd walked through this corridor a thousand times, the other mercs that operated out of Churn were nothing new and neither were their rooms. As one may expect from competitors in our particular field of work, we didn't mingle much. It was a stretch that we could all coexist in the same town and goddesses forbid that the work should ever start to dwindle.

Star had told me about such a thing almost tearing the town apart once before I arrived. It was the major factor as to why we didn't mingle anymore. Only finding myself here after such a calamitous event, I'd kept thinking about it frequently in the back of my mind, especially when close to anypony but Star. Yet for all of my caution, I only ever occasionally got disapproving looks and heard the odd mumble of jealous muttering. I couldn't say we were any better, but I wasn't one for letting my guard down.

As I approached the end of the corridor, I passed a blue stained door, and it at least gained a glance from me. Star Strike was the name carved upon it. My partner had been an experienced merc for some time before I'd found myself here. I'd lost a lot at that point and I'd been anxious to find something worthwhile in this hell we called a world. That opportunity came only two days after I arrived in town and I'd proved just what I was made of, albeit nearly getting what I was made of eaten in the process.

Even so, that dragon was nothing compared to how Star treated me at first. The gray coated earth pony with coal black mane was far larger than me. His crimson comet cutie mark, hardened battle scars, and brutal attitude didn't do him any favors when it came to charm either, and that was before I'd even seen him in the tank-like gear he called barding. On the contrary, I had to admit that I was kinda open when it came to anypony naked, especially on a bed. But back then I'd come a long way and lost a great deal. I'd a good track record with bold bucks and I'd made that clear the first time he'd tried to have his way.

I couldn't help but giggle slightly at that thought, well aware that he was never gonna try it on with a frisky unicorn mare again, especially me, nopony ever tried it with me. Yet that was a long time ago, years even. A lot had changed since, and the intimidating brute I once found myself stuck with was now practically a brother to me, not a replacement for one but…

No, shut up brain! I hissed mentally, once again bringing a hoof to bear against the side of my skull in an attempt to change the direction my train of thought was going in.

It didn’t matter what he was to me, I'd stand by him and I was sure he'd do the same. It was practically marriage, only with less lovey-dovey crap and more killing, caps, and sex. Well, depending on one's preference, but like I said, I was about as straight as a blind Hellhound when it came to the latter.

I stopped again at that thought, grinning to myself.

Fuck you brain! What did I say about fantasizing? I mentally cursed, but my thoughts countered by reminding me how much I loved this life, doing so with a rather… Well, let's not go into the type of memory which had proceeded your inner monologuing. Type of tone.

Nevertheless, as hard as life was out there in the Marejarvie wasteland, I had made a damn good life for myself. It would never be as good to how life had been before the bombs, but it was pretty damn close to perfect.

"What are you smiling at?" a slurred voice mumbled, snapping me from my daydream.

See brain? This is why we don't fantasize like some little school filly! I told myself scornfully, turning to see a green coated buck leaning against a rusted railing at the tunnel's mouth.

His mane was a ragged brown and a rifle clip cutie mark dawned his flank beneath what appeared to be the loosely fitted leather under barding for a currently unequipped battle saddle. He scowled at me, eyes drooping lazily as he fought to keep them there. One of the town security ponies, one clearly off duty, I noted swiftly. Did he really need to ask that question, though? I was about to get paid. What else would I be smiling about?

"What's it to you?" I asked bluntly.

"Nothing, just that a pretty face like you shouldn't be wandering about at… Urm, what time is it?" he mumbled with a drunken gulp, glancing at the cloudy sky before staggering clumsily towards me.

Great, off-duty and drunk. By the goddesses, if us real fighters weren't around I swear this place could be overrun by a lone Radroach.

The idiots were the town's new security force, and they'd been sent down from up north. That was New Pegasus, NCR territory. The New Coltifornia Republic and all that their situation entailed. They liked to think all of the lands south of there were a part of their... country, organization... Confederacy? Whatever they called it. They didn't seem to realize that politics had died once Balefire engulfed the country.

That didn't stop them from trying to sweet talk all large settlements in the south Marejarvie into accepting their new republic, while still fighting their wars. They sure had a funny way of showing the benefits. The security ponies they offered seemed more like a group of paid off gang members they’d simply dressed up nice and pretty. I'd seen their real rangers and these stupid fuckers were about as far from them as a mosquito is from a dragon.

Eyes narrowing, I didn't even flinch as the drunken buck slumped forward, falling flat on his muzzle before me. The catwalk rattled as his rear followed him to the floor and slouched down, finally came the sound of his snoring. I rolled my eyes at the sorry state of this town’s security officer.

If he keeps drinking like that, he’s going to end up dead, either by the criminal element or one of the monsters that live outside. My mind remarked.

Firstly, how could anypony fall asleep so fast? Secondly, I didn't have time to deal with drunk little colts and fillies!

And to think that these chumps are supposed to protect us! Bah! No wonder the civilians are so desperate to have battle-hardened warriors stay in their town! Even they must see how lacking their so-called security ’is! I mentally added as I trotted out from the tunnel and onto the catwalks of Churn.

The city guards were supposed to protect all of the families, the food, and materials, and not to mention the water talismans themselves. These clowns were all that stood between the wasteland and everypony else in Churn. Ultimately, they would have descended into chaos and anarchy without us around. Actually, that last reason was why the city’s citizenry gave us better mercs perks to stay around. That, and the twelve or so of us could easily do the work of a hundred of these sloppy, undisciplined foals.

I sighed in exasperation and absolute utter disgust of Churn’s politics and bureaucracy. One got what they paid for after all and considering the town didn't pay its guards squat, my expectations were low, to begin with. Besides, it was none of my concern, so I swiftly shoved the thought from my head and looked about. Now outside of the tunnels, I could see the suspended metal maze that was the town of Churn. A ragged ring of rock formed the outer perimeter of the large sinkhole into which the town was built, the dull gray cloud cover and equally depressing shallow sunlight hung above the rim. It was a sight I was sure everypony in the wasteland knew all too well.

Running along the jagged inner walls of the sinkhole was a vast sprawl of metal catwalks, ladders, ropes, chains and stairs, which all connected to the cliff face like a massive spider web. The buildings hung from the metallic strands like trapped flies precariously clinging to the sheer rock. Most were used for trade, some of the buildings were homes to those ponies who didn't reside in the tunnel networks below. All of them were tattered and old, yet despite their rough and weathered appearances, they still provided a decent shelter. Those ponies who specialized in trade often found plenty of trading opportunities here, since the multiple trade caravans throughout the desert that frequently stopped by ensured that there was never too serious a shortage of goods.

There were some exceptions to the numerous homes and traders, however. One was Willow’s bar, a long metal shack down at the base of the cliff. Neon lights covered the front of the bar, at the very least displaying the establishment’s name amidst their orgy of color. Atop its roof sat a jagged metal plate cut into the shape of a palm tree. The rusted image of something that may have once been alive had been converted to look more like a willow tree, bands of fiber-optic cable hung in sheets from the sharp points covering the door. Finally, a bold neon sign read Willow’s; Good food, good booze, good fun.

Those illuminated words were supported by several flashing bottles, filled to the brim with what I assumed was the neon light equivalent of alcohol. Beside them, a stiffly animated outline of a pink, dancing mare implied the fun aspect of the title. To the left of the bar, suspended by metal stilts, was the clinic. It was a similarly shabby shack, made only slightly more interesting by the light from its far more colorful neighbor. All it boasted for itself was a clouded window and a weathered ministry of peace symbol upon its front wall. Above the door was a sign, a sheet of metal cut into the shape of a leg bone, exhibiting the chipped words Marrow’s apothecary, and no not the vegetable.

The only other major notable structure consisted of the Hydro plant, a huge concrete slab-shaped building at the far end of the canyon, the trademark Hippocampus Energies: Hydroelectric, Coal, and Sewage boldly written on the front. Four distinctive waterways rose up through rusted piping, heading toward the center of the building before disappearing within. Above them was the spillway, from which gushed a huge torrent of foaming water from the lake. The water came to rest in the deep reservoir at its base. Most of the bottom of Churn was built around the Slick, a concrete waterway that fed out from said reservoir.

More pipes added to the flow as it slithered out of the deep pool and into the shallow spillway, the likes of which crept steadily down the canyon. Some pipelines fed into the flow directly, while others had been severed by either the wear and tear of time or because of Churn’s new inhabitants that liked stripping sections of pipeline for some quick caps. As a result, water simply erupted from the severed pipelines in a horrid brown froth. From up here, it was hard not to think of the whole thing like some kind of rusted old water park.

Most of what else remained of the spillway lay beneath my hooves. A square pool where the water once again became deep and still, and was now used to farm Radigators. At least a dozen of the mutated beasts drifted in the sickly water. I'd heard ponies claim that they were a lot less hostile than their wild cousins, yet that didn't stop those same ponies from putting an electric fence above them as indicated by the buzzing of the wires running around the edge of the pool. It didn't stop the things from tasting good either, no matter what anypony said about ponies eating meat.

Below that, the water cascaded down into a black, churning pit, before being sent off into the mass of pipework within the rocks. The inky black mass gushed and bubbled like some ancient sea monster and was the very pit for which Churn was named. As for the water talisman? It lay down in that mess of hydro electrical systems somewhere. One thing was for sure, I certainly was glad I wasn't one of the ponies that had to risk their life down there to maintain the damn thing. In my opinion, such a marvel of the enchantment capabilities of Hippocampus Energies should be incredibly self-sustaining.

But this place was not a Stable, despite how close to perfect it managed to get. Other than that, there were only two other structures worth mentioning. The Spire, a rusted old bucket of a radio tower suspended close to the earthen depression of the sinkhole’s edge. It was the only building to have windows with a view of the wilderness above, most of which had been shattered. It was by far the most precarious building, not to mention the huge radio spire that reached up above the rim of the cliff and into the dull wasteland sky above. The crumbling old metal frame was far from new, as were the disintegrating dishes high upon its slanted peak. However, while we were lacking reception from Tenpony and therefore the famed DJ pony, we did get the stuff coming out of New Pegasus, and then there was Rapid.

She was the lone mare who spent all of her days up in the Spire trying to be just like all those other radio ponies. To give the filly credit, the broadcast wasn't terrible and she had access to all the records she could find. I'd even done the occasional odd job to get her some of those records myself. Besides, it wasn't like every town could boast its own radio station now, could they? Even if, once again, its quality was not quite perfect. That left just one structure left worth mentioning, the Spit.

No, Griddle’s office isn’t worth mentioning at all. I mentally sighed.

I was just stuck heading there so I had nowhere else to divert my eyes. Like everything else, it was a rusted box of corrugated metal, pressed right up against an undercut section of cliff. The dilapidated walls had been reinforced with beams of steel and pipes, as well as chains that ran down from the rock above. At the front, looking out over the rather obscured view, was a balcony. I'd never understood why anypony would want to have a balcony while practically living underground, but the rugged platform and red curtains that covered its entrance proved somepony did. Didn't need to guess who that pony was.

I felt my ears pressed flat against my head and my steps grow heavy as I approached the metal stairs leading up to the shack. Griddle. She was like a brooding dragon and the Spit was her lair. Sometimes I wished I could slay that dragon, I was no stranger to the art after all. But Griddle was the head of Churn and our employer. Killing her would only ensure she'd no longer have to suffer the horrible fate of having to give some of her precious caps away. Yet as much as I'd like to see her suffer so much pain and agony, she wasn't a monster.

That was my code, one I'd like to think I stuck by honorably. One that prohibited the slaughter of anything other than monsters, be it a beast or an equally monstrous pony. As I thought about that, an armored security pony stationed beside the Spit's stairs met me.

What is that mundane crap they called barding? It's a piece of shit compared to my own? I thought to myself.

Yet at least this pony seemed to be doing his job, and hopefully, he wasn't drunk. If he was, then getting in wasn't going to be as simple as I was hoping it would be. As I came closer, I saw the guard take notice of me, be it for my apprehensive looks or the fact that I was almost dragging my hooves while traversing the catwalk. Regardless, his head and ears rose sharply, his tired eyes widening.

Snoozing on the job? I assumed typically.

I couldn't see clearly, but his coat appeared to be crimson, his mane and tail a light purple and he was a unicorn.

"Ah, Dragonfire the boss is expecting you," he told me in a curious tone, lifting the social bar that firmly prevented him from being anything more than any random pony I'd just met and tossing it aside with a smug grin.

My ears instantly perked, noticing the mention of my name and his friendly tone, a little too friendly for my liking. I stopped before him, remembering that barricade of social status and frowning at its now dilapidated condition. There were two ways I could do this, the hard dragon slaying Dragonfire way, or the seductive, sly and brutally cruel Dragonfire way. I smiled, giving him an appreciative gaze as I lightly placed a hoof on the metal stairs.

"Thanks," I purred while passing him slowly.

His eyes widened further and he gulped in apprehension. My enticing glare had all but hypnotized him, and like a hungry predator stalking its cowardly prey, I could sense he knew he was in way over his head. He still went for it however, just like any typical buck who let their dick make decisions for them, instead of utilizing higher thought processes from the meat in his head.

"Don't mention it," he replied, trying to copy my smooth, suave, confident tone before his voice cracked from nervousness.

He squirmed, seeming to hope I didn't notice as he glanced downward sheepishly. Humoring him, I pretended I didn't, and wearing that sly, seductive smile once again, I teased him aurally as we parted ways.

"Well, see ya'."

I swiftly made my way farther up the stairs, putting an exaggerated sway into my hips and purposefully ensuring that my swaying tail flicked the tip of his broad, angular muzzle along the way. For now, I was feeling strangely generous, I was about to get paid, get drunk, and later tonight, get laid. Star had certainly earned it and I was only too happy to oblige. I'd give that security colt a chance, but if he was still gawking at my flank like he was right now whenever I came down…

Well, he was gonna get so much more than he'd bargained for. Not to mention what Star would think. With that in mind and a warm smile gracing my muzzle, I pranced happily up the stairs and through the thick iron door. Wait? Smiling? Oh, shit! Not a good idea! Fuck! It was too late…

Damn it brain, what did I tell you! I mentally hissed, as an unpleasant assortment of stern eyes turned my way, forcing my expression to twist into an awkward grimace.

The grim, unimpressed spheres that seemed to see the faults my happiness presented in my demeanor demanded otherwise however. The whole room had that dull, lifeless atmosphere to it, despite the ambient decoration. A tiny radio that sat on a shelf just to the left of where I'd entered gargled out ancient orchestral music that sounded more like a swarm of buzzing Bloatsprites than whatever it had once intended to be.

The crackling symphony shared the air with a damp, musky scent as well as the dull hum of the lights as they flickered. The interior walls were covered by sheets of untreated wood, one of the few places far enough away from any moisture to actually house the stuff without it rotting and they'd gone and painted them the same dull gray as the exterior. In fact, the only damn thing that made anything in here special was a lack of rust.

Under hoof, there laid an aged red carpet. Once it may have been something worth standing on, but now the color was faded and the scraggy fabric was just irritating, not to mention the acrid smell caused by a horrible over-usage of old detergents and carpet wash. The far wall was covered by a long row of filing cabinets, all neatly closed and ordered with metal plaques. In the wall to my left was the balcony, as well as a row of display cases containing a whole manner of useless junk.

And some ponies thought I was weird for having just a few? Then again, who was gonna question the leader of an almost perfect town?

To my right, in the center of the room, was an old oak wood desk. Displayed neatly upon its polished surface were a few intricately arranged pencils, a pot of old office supplies and a strangely pristine Hippocampus Energies branded coffee mug. The back wall behind the desk was formed from the cliff face into which the Spit was built. The walls merging less than seamlessly into the jagged rock, in fact, it looked as if a foal could have done a better job. In the center of the rear wall, a concrete block disrupted the naturally rough texture of the rock. It was similar to those that marked the steel doors in the tunnels, yet was far larger and held in its center a huge steel door.

I swear, did anypony really need a safe that big? It was basically a small stable!

Yet this was Griddle I was thinking of, the dullest, most boring, least likable pony around.

Oh, and did I mention the hoarding? The pony was a fucking lunatic when it came to keeping things.

The monstrous safe in the back was a testament to that entirely, and it wasn't solely reserved for the unknowable amount of caps she'd managed to scrounge up over the years either. Although, they probably took up a good portion of the space among the mountains of useless junk. It was almost like she was hiding things away in order to survive an apocalypse that had already happened. Well, that was her residence summed up in one mental rant, and I was yet to talk to her specifically. Speaking of which…

My smile faded as my ears pressed flat against my head. Those disapproving eyes I'd mentioned could only belong to one pony, and sure enough, that pony was still staring right at me. Griddle was a short, dark green coated unicorn mare with an almost black mane, laced with swampy green streaks. Her cutie mark was a sizzling grill, a cooked slab of some sort of meat upon it.

I'd never got that? How could she have a special talent for anything other than being a bitch? If anything her flank should be marked by a pile of useless shit or a picture of herself, not that there was much difference. Even so, according to everypony in town, the hoarder had once had a knack for cooking Radigator. I had another, more believable theory, however, supported greatly by the fact that the right side of her face was scarred. A hardened ridge of seared flesh crawling through her sickly coat and rather conveniently in the shape of a grill. To put it simply, my theory was the stupid fucker had burnt herself on a hot grill and got a cutie mark for it in the process, a rather sizzling special talent I had to say.

I had to fight not to smile again at the thought of that, lest I sour her gaze further. No matter what I thought of her, she was still the one with the caps, the jobs, and she ran the whole town. Although exactly how she did those things was beyond me.

Standing behind her, beside the demi-stable door, were two security ponies. One was a cream colored mare with a blue mane and the other was a gray colored buck. Both were earth ponies and I doubted either of the lazy pair would even move. At that, I almost felt sorry for them, anypony who was forced to spend a day in here, idiot or not, certainly deserved at least some sympathy. Yet they were not the only ones. Right beside Griddle was another pony. He was a larger unicorn, completely covered by black barding, his face encased in a similar dark combat helmet that covered his eyes and left all but his dark mane, tail, and horn to the imagination.

I'd never seen him before, but then again Griddle went through personal bodyguards faster than the wasteland chewed up ponies. Today's model must have been this, and it was certainly more intimidating than usual. Yet he did not scare me, in fact, my attention was focused strictly on his sides, and not for the reason most bucks were blessed with it. I had to fight back the urge to lunge at the magnificent magical energy weapon that was holstered there, the likes of which I'd never seen before, not even in pictures. Unfortunately, the holster covered most of it. The black metal emblazoned with a strange glyphic pattern as well as the symbol of an eight-pointed star. His barding also bore that symbol over where his cutie mark should be.

As I regarded him he seemed to notice me, glancing over without a word. In that moment I had a feeling a pair of eyes were looking at me in far more detail than I liked from behind that visor. I really hated it when ponies did that without my approval, and even when he looked away that irritation lingered. There were; however, exceptions to that rule, one of which was standing before the desk.

The large grey buck was still wearing his heavy under barding. Shreds of dirt and gore covered his metal shoes and I could imagine his actual armor and battle saddle were no less vile wherever he'd left them. Personally, I'd have welcomed the additional crap on my two-hundred-year-old rug, that was if I were Griddle. At that mental remark, I felt a strange lust to go back and get my dirty barding if only to stain her oh so precious carpet. My attention was focused too much elsewhere to sustain the idea for more than a few moments however. Looking over Star Strike, all I saw was the first buck who impressed me today, whether he knew it or not. Yet he was more than that. For beneath all the dirt, blood, and metal, I saw a friend. A friend who's eyes, as I'd expected, widened slightly at the sight me.

His grim expression quivered and once again I felt my mind threaten to force a smile onto my muzzle.

Brain no! I hissed scornfully. Stay professional!

"Loose the smitten look, you want to get paid right?" I couldn't help but snicker at the gawking stallion as I moved to his side.

His eyes rolled in exasperation, before returning back to their forward position.

"Whose payment would I miss?" he replied with an equally sly tone.

"Gawk at me again and you'll find out," I purred.

"Erm, ahem," Griddle coughed suddenly, interrupting the both of us as she raised a hoof to her muzzle in mild disgust.

She looked at us closely for a moment, her eyes scouring every detail.

Wow, hungry for shit and the sight of two ponies that aren't your tin foil guards? Arrr Griddle. I sighed to myself, still lost in a rather different trail of warm, lucrative thoughts.

"Are you two quite finished with your… ugh, pre-mating ritual?" The sound of her dry voice felt as if it sucked the fun right out of me, killing whatever lustful fantasy I had going with one swift swipe.

"Yeah, I think we are," I replied, almost challengingly.

Her eyes narrowed slightly and she scowled.

"Yes, well now that you are both here," she resumed, really reminding me how much I hated her voice.

It was like somepony had blown the legs off a Hellhound, taken a recording, thrown in some hissing ghouls for good measure and then shoved the recorder down her throat. Add to that a tone that demanded your full attention and a pony who believed every conversation was in her hooves no matter what, and you had that goddesses awful voice. Well, maybe the first bit was a bit of an exaggeration, but the wretched sound was still far from pleasant.

"I trust you can now provide the package?" Griddle asked in a strangely frustrated tone, before holding out a hoof towards Star.

The stallion gave a wry smile much to the green mare’s disapproval.

"Well, I don't know. What do you say, Dragon?" he asked, casually glancing down to me.

Oh, that was my Star Strike! I couldn't help but laugh to myself at the thought. Keeping what we'd retrieved from the last job out of Griddle’s hooves until I arrived? Awww, how sweet.

It was, after all, just about the only thing we could do to mess with her without getting our flanks kicked out of town, and my muzzle curled into a playfully appreciative grin.

"Go on, give her what she wants. I do wanna get paid," I told him nonchalantly.

He rolled his eyes again, a smirk still spread upon his muzzle. Then he reached a hoof back into his saddlebags and produced a golden trophy. One of the largest I'd ever seen and staggeringly well-preserved. Good thing too, we'd had to trot halfway across the wasteland to get the damn thing. The words 'Best Storm Chaser' were engraved on the rim of the bowl. With a thud, Star lightly placed the oversized golden mug on the desktop.

Griddle flinched slightly at the sound, before reaching out with her forehooves and clasping the two handles either side of the bowl. Star leaned forwards, resting an elbow across the rim, holding it down with his weight before Griddle could get a firm hold. The green unicorn stopped and stepped back, looking up with a scornful grimace at the smiling buck atop her prize.

"I take it the best young flyer tiara wasn't there then?" she asked, looking cautiously at his foreleg.

I sensed she was trying to deflect a question she knew was inevitable. Star meanwhile, shook his head.

"Your fancy golden headband wasn't there, but the contract was for whatever we could salvage if I recall, and I'd say this here's a might bit bigger then some shiny hat," he stated with a bored tone of disinterest.

Now it was time for my eyes to roll, then they swiftly fell upon Griddle as her expression contorted.

"I'm going to have to pay you first, aren't I?" the green mare finally sighed.

Neither of us had to give an answer before she dove beneath her desk, emerging a moment later with a jingling bag of caps. With an equally loud chime, Griddle placed her side of the trade upon the desktop.

"Thank you kindly," Star exclaimed, removing the impressive weight of his upper torso off of the trophy and scooping up the bag in his mouth.

Griddle eagerly retrieved her prize, grumbling to herself as she rotated it in her hooves.

"Well, I have to admit, apart from some disrespectful manners, I can't fault you two. The client will be happy to add this to their Rainbow Dash collection, I'm sure," she stated, while placing the trophy beneath her desk.

Wow, a compliment and a smile? Did that mean we were allowed to smile two? I certainly wasn't planning on competing!

I looked at Star Strike, only to see he was scouring the bag of caps more intimately than Griddle did her scrap.

"Don't worry, they're all in there," Griddle assured him as she moved from her desk and over to one of the filing cabinets.

I tried to divert my eyes from her as she walked, looking awkwardly around the room. As predicted, the two useless guards hadn't seemed to register anything, as for black barding pony? My eyes narrowed slightly as I saw him looking at me again, yet my disapproving expression did nothing to dismay his seemingly calculative gaze.

Goddesses, was he a damn robot under all that armor?

Yet his penetrating gaze was not like that I was used to, it was far from the instinctual drive that lingered within the mind of everypony. He was looking at me like I was some kind of object, no different than the trophy we'd just handed over to Griddle.

Rather strange for a bodyguard. My mind observed as I watched my weirdo meter spike.

I slowly glanced away from the buck, but then I looked back sharply as if to startle him. When that failed, I thought to blurt out something ridiculous in an attempt to garner the same response.

"If I'm anything, I'm a pony of my word." Griddle’s somewhat charismatic words stole my attention as she rummaged about in the cabinets and finally fished a piece of tattered paper from a draw named specialist jobs.

A pony of her word? I wondered.

Thinking back, I couldn't fault her on that one. Of all the things she may be, a fool, a hoarder, a grump, a miserable old bitch who stayed cooped up in this foul room all day. She had managed, with her weird ways, to keep this place going and keep all the ponies that lived here safe. Families and foals were spared the horrors of the wasteland and who was there to thank for that? Griddle.

I sighed to myself wearily. Putting it like that made heroism sound so dull, not to mention making me feel slightly guilty. I had to admit that I could be a real pain in the flank sometimes, but I still considered myself a good pony, not a hero though. Call yourself a hero out here in the wasteland and you're practically asking for it to chew you up. No, I did what I needed to get by, made use of the privileges I earned and helped anypony in need if I could.

But hey, look at me! I was opening up to–well... myself. I mean nopony other than me could hear these confessions right? I certainly hoped not.

Getting my thoughts back on track, Griddle never lied to us, maybe she was as obsessive-compulsive with being truthful as she was when it came to hoarding things. Wishing to just leave that mental topic in the dust however, I swiftly turned to Star.

"Come on, you know they're all in there," I told him jokingly, and he looked at me as if I'd dragged him back into something he'd tried to escape.

Oh, I see he just wanted a way to ignore Griddle. Damn, why didn't I think of that? I muttered to myself as Griddle trotted back to her desk.

"Arrr, I've been keeping this one for the past week," she muttered, glancing up at black barding pony before turning her eyes downward upon a piece of paper suspended in a green aura before her.

"It's another job for you two if you want it," she said, placing the tattered paper on her desk.

Firstly, I was surprised she wasn't flipping out at such a dirt-ridden thing being on her furniture. Regardless, the prospect of another job so soon was both intriguing and something I couldn't quite bring myself to care about. We'd gotten back from that stupid trophy fetch quest only last night. In fact, after falling asleep the moment I got back, all I'd done was got undressed, had a shower then came here. I'd not even cleaned my barding yet.

Yet if we were out on a job again I wouldn't have to, vigorously anyway. I'd done it before, back to back escort and retrieval missions. They all paid well and if we didn't take them then surely our competition would. Then there was that inevitably frustrating voice of reason swimming about in my head.

You need to rest, relax. You never know which job will be your last. By the Goddesses, it was worse than Griddle and I certainly wasn't gonna see the latter whisper transpire anytime soon.

That in mind, was I going to accept this job or…

"So where's this facility?" Star asked, leaning over the tattered note and looking at it closely.

Okay, so maybe we were accepting this job.

Well, all the more caps for us, was the new topic in my mind as I realized Star had already gone ahead on taking up the offer.

Moving closer to the table, I peered down at the tatted contract. Most was gibberish, scribbles that I took no time to read. I'd leave that to Star since he had the maps and the notes. I may have a tagging system, broadcaster, and half a Pip-buck, but like I said, it sure as hell wasn't one that liked to work. Destiny Corp. The faded title atop the paper was all I bothered to read.

"Client up north wants a code that they think is in the mainframe of the place," Griddle explained, pointing out that specific point of the written contract with a forehoof.

Even so, at her words I thought I saw a shiver run through her and she swiftly brought the outstretched limb back up to rub the scarred side of her face. Was she nervous, why? Had one of her snow globes gone missing again? Star didn't seem to pick up on it, instead, he looked up at her and sighed.

"The location?" he asked again, this time in a condescendingly slow tone.

Griddle snorted, any sign of nervous fading as her ego took a minor blow.

"Somewhere in the south Moohave mountains, across the Marejarvie. I don't have an exact location, but you should see it if you look around there," she explained, mocking Star's patronization with a condescendingly regal accent.

Neither looked amused as their eyes met again. I just watched and listened, one eye seeking to look and see if black barding pony was still gawking, only to see him standing as stoically as when I'd entered. At that confirmation, I focused on Griddle’s words. Around the south Moohave mountains? Well if I knew my wasteland, and I did, we'd be out there for a while and that would take us close to NCR territory as well as the western Marejarvie slaver towns. Then there was the idea of a job that involved terminals. I guess I'd be trying my hoof at hacking again. But we had things for that, most notably what still worked on my Pipbuck when it decided to function properly.

Yet I just liked to think I had a talent breaking into other ponies private files and extracting from hard drives.

Figuratively spanking... I mean speaking. Speaking! Damn it brain!

Regardless, I was grinning again. Griddle looked at my silly smile disapprovingly, Star just grinned in a similar fashion and the black barding pony at least had the decency to glance away.

"I'm sure we can manage," I chirped in a cheerful tone that didn’t betray my mental frustration with myself.

Nevertheless, the last of my thoughts escaped me with an uncountable giggle. That seemed to confuse my companions.

"But… " I forced what professionalism I could back into my tone as I floated up the bag of caps and shook it softly. "What's it worth?"

Star’s smile widened, Griddle’s frowned deepened. The large buck’s eyes turned to the sour-looking mare, the knowing smirk still parting his muzzle as he leaned in closer. Griddle stepped back, took a breath and said collectively.

"The client has offered a price of fifty thousand caps for the recovery of that data."

I could almost hear Star's jaw hit the desk as mine threaten to fall to the sour-smelling carpet.

Fifty thousand caps! Fuck yeah, we were doing this job!

There was no way I was going to let any of the others have it. Then again this was the wasteland and a client.

"Why so much? And why wait for us to get back?" I questioned, leaning forwards and raising an eyebrow.

Star seemed to recover at that, and instantly gave me a look that undoubtedly said; please don't fuck this up. All I gave him in return was a confident smirk. Thinking partly about how responsible I must look to him right now. Griddle looked at me curiously, she certainly didn't expect me, a lowly merc, to question the amount they were getting paid. Despite the fact I considered myself one of the smart ones. She opened her mouth, then closed it again when she ruminated upon whatever it was that she might have said. I once again saw that hint of nervousness in her expression. I edged closer until my forehooves brushed against the desk. Griddle straightened firmly, eyes glancing sharply to black barding pony, then to me.

"The client has failed to share that information with me. As for why I procrastinated, well you two are the most reasonable of our little group and I'd hoped you'd be less lightly to question this job."

I could almost see her gag on the irony, but goddesses had she got me wrong if that's what she thought, the others too.

I mean Death Mark and Winter were naive when it came to jobs maybe, but Cannon and Drake? I'd bet a hundred caps they'd have questioned this shit too. Regardless of my mental discussion, I just smiled and nodded. In the end, it didn't change anything.

"Okay, we'll take the job," I replied calmly.

I knew why a price was so high, this was probably a hive of fire ants we were going into or a Hellhound burrow. I wouldn't be surprised if this Destiny Corp. place was somehow filled with the goddesses damned pink cloud. Well either that or enough radiation to melt a pony's flesh to liquid. All I knew for sure was that it was gonna be dangerous...

Wait no, everything in the wasteland was dangerous, this would be especially, super-duper, ultra, mega dangerous!

I'd been in this business long enough to know that. But fifty thousand caps was surely worth it?

Fuck yeah, it was worth it! I snapped at my nagging concerns.

I straightened myself up, almost mirroring Griddle. An emphasis on almost, I wasn't nearly as ugly. Star looked at me before slipping our pay into his saddle bags.

"Mou fow fot bhen bou lct mart," he mumbled around the sack in his muzzle.

I was hot when I acted smart? That was the only thing my mind salvaged from his muffled sentence and what I immediately vocalized upon.

"Funny, you're the same when you're not," I teased.

He frowned, a fake and clearly transparent frown that was swiftly turned upside down.

"Well, the details are in the contract, as for the time limit? Well, there isn't one. The client only told me to get that data as soon as possible, but gave no specific limit," Griddle added, disturbing what to her must have been as awkward as fuck.

I turned to her, eyes closed and smiling merrily.

"Thanks, glad to make you feel that way," I practically sung, before turning to the door.

The green mare stammered before turning awkwardly red, then she fell timidly silent.

Ahh, Griddle you may have forbidden force, but you was practically a bullseye for this form of attack. I thought to myself giddily.

"Don't worry, we'll have that data back to you ASAP," I added, swiftly trotting toward the door and flinging it open.

Star followed, head slowly shaking as if he'd expected as much.

"Thanks again!" I called ecstatically, with a wave and grin to the green mare who was flushing so intensely she almost looked like a tomato. Well, she looked like the colored pictures that the few books I had showed in regards to tomato plants anyhow.

With that, I finally departed through the door and out onto the stairs, with Star Strike behind me. My horn flared and the rather satisfying slam of the door followed him.

This day is just getting better and better! I sang merrily in my head. Get paid, check. Now get drunk, get laid, then set out for fifty thousand caps in the morning!

I was almost like a school filly prancing down the stairs, the roar of water my backdrop and the metallic hoof steps my rhythm. That's when I glanced at the security buck at the base of the stairs.

Fuck, this couldn't go well.

My subtle glance was met with an equally anticipatory ogler.

Shit! Was all I could think as I recalled the way I'd acted toward him before. Urg... Now you're gonna have to do something to change that, damn it! My mind smirked.

I smiled back, all the while fighting the urge to face-hoof. When I'd passed him before, I'd been mildly pissed that I was gonna have to talk to Griddle. But then the job, that little twinge of guilt and mostly the promise of fifty thousand caps. Fifty thousand! Goddesses damn the irony! Now I was in a far better mood, lucky for him. Only now I had to think of a solution that didn't involve kicking his sorry flank for the way he spoke to me before.

The giddy smile on my muzzle slowed to a smirk as I reached the bottom of the stairs. Star's heavy hooves struck the metal behind me and unsurprisingly the large stallion’s presence did far more than arouse a sense of unease in the much smaller security pony. He squirmed, turning his eyes from me and pretending not to notice.

There, you could leave it at that. But.... Hurrr, goddesses damn my stupid sense of humor! I wasn't that cruel, well not on the eve of a payload I wasn't.

I looked back to Star.

"Hey, how's about you get that shit off, you look like a fucking zombie," I suggested, pointing to his still awfully dirty attire.

He looked back over his wide shoulders as if hurt by the suggestion. Then he raised an eyebrow curiously.

"I'll bet yours is no better?" he countered.

Touché. I mentally sighed to myself, my expression falling flat.

At least I'd the decency to take it off however, and take a shower.

"Just go take it off, Star. I'll meet you at Willow’s in about an hour," I told him dryly.

He gave me a wide-eyed look, the type that expressed confusion and in this particular stallion’s case, playful disobedience. My blank look broke slightly, as a smile curled across my muzzle.

"Do you want your caps or not?" I taunted suggestively, turning side on with a sly wink.

Okay so I wasn't made of Stubbornite, but still, even with the sight of me Star still managed to pull his eyes away long enough to roll them. Then with a playful snort, he made his way off and back into the tunnels. I sighed in relief. I didn't want to do that to him, but I didn't want him beating another pony senseless over me either, especially when it was my responsibility. I'd set up that joke and I'd grown tired of it. But in my defense, it had taken fifty thousand caps to bring me down a notch.

Swiftly, I turned to the security buck wearing the best smile I could muster. He looked genuinely surprised that he'd gotten me alone, despite the fact that I was the one to establish such a situation. Not that I could expect him to admit something like that anytime soon. Before he could get too excited however, I stopped in front of him and raised a hoof.

Fuck, you know this is really gonna damage your reputation if you slip up.

"Look, I'll bet you’re a real nice pony and all..." I whispered closely, leaning in toward his raised ear.

His joyful surprise was extinguished and replaced with a somewhat cheated expression.

Fuck! Why did I have to be in such a good mood, now he was looking at me as if I was the one underneath. Figuratively speaking!

"Right. Basically, I was just fucking around with you before, so... if you could just forget about the whole thing that would be real nice," I explained swiftly, my friendly expression replaced by my best cute, pretty please face.

His disappointment soon turned into a smirk, then an arrogant snort. Well, I'd tried to be pleasant, and he should know better. My eyes narrowed dangerously, ears flattening as I leaned in real close, my muzzle almost touching the side of his head.

"Take me up on the offer or I'll give you far more than the good time you're after," I hissed sharply.

Now it was my turn to grin as the stallion’s face fell flat and he gulped ever so subtly. I leaned back smiling with cringing pleasantness.

"Well, I'll be seeing you now," I declared happily, before swiftly trotting away.

A long moment of listening for hoof steps following after me later, and I let out a long breath of relief.

Well done Dragonfire, another sexual crisis averted. That was if that guard knew what was good for him anyway.

That settled, I now had about an hour before meeting Star, that was if he was marginally on time. I moved over to the rail and looked out over the Churn below. From over the cliff I could see the red rays of the desert sunset illuminating the cloud cover like a sheet of fire from below. Beneath me, the town basked in what little light the overcast sky and stone depression would allow to grace them. Only to be mocked by the vast amounts of sunlight received by the radio tower high above. The ponies went about their business and splashing sounded as the beasts in the water below sensed it was almost feeding time.

“Almost perfect,” I sighed, leaning on one of the rusted railings.

Well at least it wasn't raining, that was about the only thing we had to worry about down here, that and the damn fucking Radroaches, but they were a problem just about everywhere. Just as daylight's gradual deepening into the ever darkening twilight suggested the end of another day, the stores of Churn were closing and many ponies were retreating into the many tunnel entrances that dotted the sinkhole. I had to move to let several by me as I watched, a buck, accompanied by two mares, the last of which was with a young colt and filly.

I tried not to look at the latter pair too much. Foals and all the mushy side of sex were not for me.

Not that it could be...

Shut up brain! I warned dangerously.

This time my thoughts didn't continue to pester me with things I would rather not think about, and when the group of ponies was out of sight, I managed to loosen up a bit. Still, I needed a distraction. Shops? Most were closing and I already had about everything I needed, might as well use what we found during the last job to supply our next one. If this course of action was inadvisable, Star would get it sorted out. Should I check out the clinic or apothecary as Bone Marrow liked to call it? Nope, I had enough healing potions and chems from the last job too, and the only thing wrong with me besides being a pastel colored pony living in a post-apocalyptic shit hole was a lack of booze and sex, but both of those afflictions would be cured soon enough. Once again at Star Strike’s hooves. Then there was Willow’s, well…

My stomach gave a sudden grumble.

Yeah, Willow’s it was.

********

"Good evening everypony, this is your humble little station Rapid Radio R999, so close to perfect it hurts."

The crackling buzz of the speakers caught my ear as I sat at the bar, the wild mare’s voice a break in the low din. I really couldn't fault that filly upstairs on determination, knowing full well it wasn't the bar's speaker system that was making the reception a tad rusty.

"So how's everypony doing on this fine evening? Having a good ol' time in this dust bowl we call the Southwest? Well, let me tell you that if you're safe and cozy in your home or enjoying yourself in some bar..."

The moment she said that I felt my ears flatten and timidly diverted my attention from the long row of concrete barricades that was the counter before me.

"I have a little request of ya'. It seems an unfortunately high amount of raiders have been pouring across the desert and it would appear the vile creatures have some sort of deal with the slavers up north, not that any decent pony up in those parts will have any chance of changing how things are run up there."

As her broadcast continued, I found myself coming out of the mild cocoon of embarrassment that her witty comment had forced me to crawl into and once again my ears perked up. If there was something going on out there in the desert, I considered myself a pony who needed to know.

"Word is that Bucktown was hit last week by a small band of the scum and I have reports of even more incidents moving on up towards Crossroads. In other news, there's also reports of the Steel Rangers up in that region hindering travel and stopping caravans. We all know what those tin-can ponies can be like, and I know not one of you is thinking anything they're up to is any good, not even that little war they've still got going on with the rest of the scum coming out of Crimson Springs. Then there's the ghouls coming up out of the Sheen, now I know what I said about knowing how to distinguish a pony from your typical zombie and let me tell you that any pack of rotting flesh on hooves coming up out of that glowing pit would definitely take your leg off sooner than start a conversation."

As she continued on about a whole host of other deadly entities prowling the dessert, I leaned my side against the counter. Rapid had a habit of making things sound real bad out there, even if they were just as despicable as always. The rangers were as pleasantly murderous around here as just about anything else out there in the wasteland, and I didn't even need to think about the slavers and raiders. The only abnormal one was with regards to the ghouls. Yet the Sheen was home to a whole slew of radioactive beasts and something inevitably crawled out of it from time to time. All I could say was that anything from that glowing, glass crater was bad news.

"So what's the little favor I'm asking of you my little ponies?" Rapid’s voice went on from the crackling radio.

"Well if any of you have to go on traveling up that way then give all those abominations a good flank-kicking from little ol' me, and if you don’t have to travel up that way, then just think about how lucky you are. Now that I've got that out of the way I'll let you fine folks get back to your music, once again big thanks to the ponies downstairs who went out to get me some more variation when it comes to songs. So here's a new one for you all. This is Sweetie Belle with ‘The Dark Days are Over.’"

Her voice crackled out with a sharp pop, before being replaced a moment later by that of a gorgeously sweet mare. Well as magnificent as she could sound on a radio of such a shitty standard. By the goddesses, she was so close to perfect it hurt, and as for the big thanks? I snorted subtly.

Let me guess, Gold Sabre and Saw Blade? No, no, Tin Bits and Sepia?

As the many faces of my competition went through my mind I couldn't help but laugh slightly. They'd all missed out on a fifty thousand cap contract that had been sat under their noses for the past week. As a witty smile dawned upon my muzzle, I turned back to face the large concrete block that separated me from the orgy of booze displayed on the shelves just before me. My smile faded as I once again realized they were just out of hooves reach.

Beneath my rump was a metal plate, topped with a less than clean cushion and supported by a piece of rebar that protruded from the side of the concrete block. The same pattern of stools continued all the way along the blockade, ending at the far wall where the corrugated iron walls of the shack met the jagged stone of the cliff. Once again they merged less than seamlessly into the natural surface.

Pressed against the back wall was the stage, behind which, was a concrete bunker similar to Griddle’s demi-stable. This one however, wasn't a fucking fortress. Instead, it was covered by a pair of ratty green curtains, which were doused in water from the dripping cliff face. Behind it was the room labeled fun, just as the flickering neon sign displayed over the door to the left of the stage boldly suggested. Well, at least ponies round here used their bunkers productively, one was a vault full of useless shit, and the other a brothel. Oh and the one Bone Marrow had in the back of the clinic was full of refrigerated chems.

The right wall of the room was lined with makeshift seating booths, like those of the pre-war cafés we'd occasionally find out in the wasteland. Yet these were, like everything else around here, made from a combination of concrete blocks and rusted metal. The tables between the seats were painted sheet metal which sat atop a lonesome iron frame, and the seats were made more comfortable by dirty cushions. Spilled booze, Sparkle-cola, sweat, piss, and goddesses know what else had been so kind as to bless those cushions. That was why I made more of an effort to sit at the bar if I could. Not that the cushion under my haunches was any less dirty, there was just less material to be marred by such filth.

To my left, opposite of the stage, was the door, above which was a mangled bell that sounded more like a dying songbird whenever somepony entered. Sat on a shelf beside it was the radio filling the bitter, alcohol smelling air with the crackled voice of Sweetie Belle. Ironically, beneath it was a dusty old jukebox. Personally, I was slightly insulted by it. Rapid tried so hard to give us that radio, and a combination of admiration and the fact the cool blue coated mare was kinda cute, garnered her my respect. Still, there were songs on that old jukebox that she didn't have, the likes of which made even me feel a bit warm inside. One thing was for sure, none of it was as mind-numbingly boring as that orchestral shit the damn Spritebots blurted in their eternal crusade to cross the desert.

Looking to the flickering jukebox, my eyes surely came upon the opposite end of the concrete bar. There a hinged slab allowed entry, and a sign that had once said beware of dog had been changed to beware of Fog. A reference to Foggy, Willow’s private bartender, and muscle. Yet none of the crowded room really caught my attention, save for the stage that is. It was surrounded by lusty stallions and, to my admiration, a few mares. Their eyes were all wide and jaws dropped as a sunset orange mare with a yellow mane and blazing flower cutie mark danced about a pole in a tight fitting leather sex wear. I'll admit she'd drawn my curious eyes more than a few times already. I mean liking both fillies and colts ensured I'd never be without eye candy, besides they never showed stallions up there anyway.

Whoa, Dragonfire you can't go looking up everyponies rear. My mind scolded, recalling the situation outside the Spit, and preferring not have a repeat of it.

As much as I resisted that idea, I managed to reign in my thoughts. The fantasy of what I'd do to Star later was enough in the way of bait to get my mind back on track and with a shake of my head. Moments later I moved my eyes onto the bar where on either side of me, rows of ponies sat. Those that sat here were either much soberer, or out of it completely. It was lucky for one such mare and two bucks that Foggy didn't really take interest…

"Arr, good evening Miss Dragonfire!" I jumped slightly as the Mister Handy's tinny voice rang into my ears.

It was indescribably annoying, his artificial tone had been designed to mock that posh accent of a pre-war, upper-class, Canterlot pony. My fright nearly caused me to fall from my chair as I realized that in my scouring of the room, I'd failed to notice Foggy approach. Recovering, I leaned forward looking at the hovering thing distastefully, only to be met by a lone red eye atop a long stalk.

By the goddesses his accent even made a blind, unblinking eyeball seem annoyingly happy all the time!

"Err, Hi," I groaned wearily.

The robot’s irritatingly good mood didn't change, in fact, the positivity radiated from his metal case more so than the radioactive glow did from the Sheen.

"Hey, why the long face, that's if you don't mind me asking?" the robot questioned, flicking a metal arm as if to seem witty.

Ha, ha, funny joke, not heard that one a thousand times before you bucket of bolts. I snorted mentally.

All the while there was a long pause, my boredom and hunger battling against his overly charismatic charm. In what felt like an unwarranted surrender however, I finally opened my muzzle.

"I'm starving and I forgot Star still has all the caps, so I have to wait until he shows up," I said with a pout.

Wow, you're a real bitch when you're hungry. Was all I could imagine the robot’s irritating accent stating in response.

But he just continued to stare at me with that overly happy eyeball, then with a roar of his underslung thrusters, he moved back.

"Well, I'd be soiling Willow’s good name if I left an honest customer to sit around dissatisfied," he suddenly declared, reaching down into a chipped old fridge below the alcohol laden shelves.

Wait, he was going to give me something? That abrupt thought changed my mood slightly.

A moment later he returned with a raw Radigator kebab in his pincer.

"I trust your companion will be arriving shortly?" he asked cheerfully.

I sat up looking into his gleaming eye.

"What, Star? Yeah, he'd never miss a drinking opportunity for all the wasteland," I told him eagerly, my focus now completely on the prospect of food.

"Well, then I'll take payment when he arrives, in the meantime please do enjoy yourself!" he offered, holding up the speared meat. "Right, Urm, this is uncooked so—Urm…" he mumbled, looking more uncertain than any robot should as he gazed blankly at the raw meat in his claspers.

Never get a stupid tin can to do a ponies job. I mentally moaned, rolling my eyes at the machine's confusion.

I had spells that could cook it in an instant, he had a smaller blowtorch attachment on him.

In here? Yeah, the blowtorch sounds good.

"Give it here," I told the puzzled contraption levitating the kebab from his grip. "Right, now you cook it," I added, hovering the spit in the air above his small flamethrower attachment.

He turned to me with yet more nagging positivity.

"Arr yes, a brilliant idea if I do say so myself," he declared before torching the meat.

Luckily the thing had the common sense to do it down towards the floor and not at the alcohol, not that anything around her could burn for long, well besides Griddle’s wooden desk and the population. That is apart from my food, but that was not an image I wanted to hold onto. Fortunately, or more accurately, unfortunately, reality urgently called my focus elsewhere.

"Foggy, stop that's enough!" I called out as the meat began to singe.

He stopped and looked over his overly done work with the same irritating positivity.

"Oh my, I am terribly sorry," he stated bluntly.

I slouched back down.

"It's fine," I groaned sourly, pulling what was left of the black charcoal to my muzzle and chewing what felt like rock.

The robot’s gleeful eyes spun to me.

"Well, I am glad you are satisfied. Like I said, I would not want to tarnish Willow’s good name," he repeated proudly.

With that, I looked up at him chewing heavily.

"Speaking of Willow, where is she?" I asked around the tough mouth full.

"Arr yes, she is currently a little under the weather, as they say. But don't worry, she'll be back for good food, good booze, and good fun faster than a sonic rainboom!" he explained, waving a pair of his metal limbs as if to cheer.

If he'd intend that to be a joke, it fell flat, not that he could sense the awkwardness that followed. As for Willow, I'd believe that story when I saw it. She was never here, in fact, I'd only ever seen her a few times. Last I remembered was about a year ago. I'd hardly recognized the lime green mare with a long, straight, dark green mane that covered her face like that of the makeshift willow tree outside. Her cutie mark was apparently an emerald formed into the shape of the same tree, as her first and seldom heard name was; in fact, Emerald. But I'd never even seen her cutie mark in the first place, which was a shame because even in her work apron, the mare had a nice flank.

That lustful thought was swiftly silenced by a warning growl emanating from some sensible part of me that had torn my mind away from the show mare's butt just a moment ago. What survived was swiftly sucked out of my thoughts by the sight of the happy robotic sphere staring me down from across the bar.

"Thanks, I guess," I muttered, holding up the half-eaten Radigator kebab in my magic.

There was a long pause before finally, he responded.

"I'm glad to be of service, please do inform me if you require anything else." With that, and a whir of thrusters, the robot steadily moved on down the bar.

My eyes followed him as he sped down to the next group of ponies needing to be waited on.

Wow, eyes, that was a boring scene. Why go there? I mentally groaned, before shifting my newly board gaze a little to the right.

That's better. My mind sighed happily as I got another eye full of the dancing mare's flank. Well, Star isn't here and no other stallions are showing such fine tail so I supposed it's mares for me tonight. I told myself with dismissive content.

"What you eyeing there?" a recognizably grim voice questioned as if on cue.

I turned sharply to see a familiar buck standing beside me, a sly smirk on his muzzle. That sensible part of my mind laughed at the revelation. Then shook its head at me like I was some kind of filly that had disobeyed instruction after a multitude of warnings. Then it went wild for a moment so to avoid forging an answer to his question.

"Um, I... I wasn't looking at anything," I replied innocently, turning back to the bar nonchalantly.

"Right... So that fine flank over there is not appealing to you?" he questioned tauntingly.

I had to fight my lusty urge to glance back at the stage.

"Nope!" I choked, shaking my head.

Star’s smirk widened as he latched onto the crack in my voice like a hungry predator.

"So you won't mind if I go have myself some fun?" he asked tauntingly.

My eyes narrowed and I spun to him sharply.

"No, the only flank worthy of you is mine! So sit down and shut up you big oaf!" I demanded with a forcefully playful anger.

He continued to tease, with his confident, knowing, and smug smirk.

Wow, I'd let him take the candy from a foal, and I was that foal! Oh goddesses, why couldn't I had just seen him come in? There was a fucking bell over the door!

I gave up, my expression falling flat as did my ears,

"Yeah, her flank is pretty fine too," I admitted reluctantly as the dancing mare continued on oblivious to our conversation.

He gave a nicker before finally sitting beside me.

"Well in your defense, you ain't wrong," he chuckled while glancing past me.

My right eye turned upward to face his gawking expression.

"Well don't get any ideas while I'm here. Plus, when am I ever wrong?" I growled for the show mare’s sake.

Star laughed some more before turning forwards to the bar.

"Hey, you know you're the best fit for me," he added with a nudge.

I couldn't help but mimic him a little as I grinned. Sure we weren't loyal, we took all we could get. But he was the best I had, I was glad he felt the same way.

"Fine, for that you still get paid," I sniggered playfully, and waved a hoof dismissively.

"I trust you brought some caps," I added eagerly.

For a moment he raised an eyebrow.

Wait? Oh, shit. He'd forgotten them! Foggy is not gonna be happ…

With a metallic thud, the stallion dropped the bag of caps Griddle had given him on the concrete counter.

Or he could have just brought them all. I corrected swiftly.

"Ahh, nice to see you, Sir Star Strike," Fogy's mechanic voice interrupted suddenly.

He was like a fly to dead meat, the sound of currency drawing him in instantly, his happy eyes gleaming at the sight.

"Likewise, you fancy-flank bucket," my gray companion retorted, pushing the caps forward.

"We'll take what we can stomach!" he added winking at me.

Oh, Star was that a challenge? Well, it was time to get wasted.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk Added: Stallion's Kind of Mare - You're an expert in the art of seduction, and aren't afraid to show it. You gain +5 critical hit chance when targeting ponies of the opposite sex and gain unique dialog options with certain ponies.

Author's Note

Massive thanks to Kkat for creating the fantastic universe of Fallout: Equestria. Also, massive thanks to all of the editors, pre-readers, and artists who have made this story possible and worth reading. Finally, massive thanks to the readers. Updates on this story should be fairly regular depending on how occupied I and the editors are. Furthermore, any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Updated artwork kindly provided by: PonyEcho and Scarletsfeed respectively.

Once again; thanks, everyone and I hope you enjoyed reading!

Chapter Two: Just Another Job

Chapter 2: Just Another Job

“Just another day in this pony’s wasteland.”

"You did what?" My mother's shocked voice demanded loudly.

I fidgeted beneath the covers that I'd fashioned into a makeshift shelter, hiding my growing embarrassment from her critical gaze. Deep down I felt a cold dread, the likes of which was slowly spinning into something greater the longer I withheld the truth. It had spawned the moment she'd realized what it was that I had done. After that, I'd just tried to hide from her, despite the fact I knew she was standing right over me.

"Astral Fire!" My mother demanded impatiently, her hoof tapping upon the hard metal floor of the train car we called home.

My eyes open, only to find the warm darkness of the covers pressed against my muzzle. Strangely, as bad as I felt, and as much as I knew I was gonna get into a lot of trouble for being so reckless, I was smiling. Rebelliously? Perhaps, I certainly felt slightly rebellious. Yet it was more of a satisfied feeling than anything else, as for what I'd done, well…

"But mom me and Dodge love each other and him and his brothers are teaching me some really neat stuff," I whined, lifting my head from the covers.

My mother’s name was Dragonfly. She was a dark blue unicorn mare with a light cyan mane and a yellow cutie mark shaped like the insect with which she shared her name. She was wearing an old Pipbuck on her left foreleg and it looked as if she'd been slapped across the face by my response. A part of me just wanted to laugh, I couldn't tell whether her lost expression was because of my confession or my smile. Either way, I knew I was in for it the moment her eyes narrowed.

"So... You? Astral, You're twelve!" she stuttered, her shock hindering her ability to shout. "You don't even have your cutie mark yet!" she added, her anger besting her surprise as she glanced to where my blank flank lay beneath the tattered covers.

I wondered how angry she'd be if I'd gotten my cutie mark for what I'd done? I even asked myself what a cutie mark in such a field would even look like? The more I thought about it, the more I was confused as to whether it would be a good thing to have on my rump for the rest of my life or not.

"I told you that I don't want you hanging around with those pyromaniacs anymore and now you've gone and... Astral Fire! Are you even listening to me, missy? You'd better be!" my mother hissed, snatching back my attention with a sharp glare.

"Urm... yeah, Mom, I'm lusting... I–I–I mean listening, I'm listening." I stammered clumsily, then blushed nervously.

As expected, her frown deepened, and her sharp eyes seemed to blaze with anger.

Nevertheless, my mother tried to keep the wasteland out of my foalhood, and by extension anypony who lived in it, best she could. In that moment my mother's mouth opened, and my ears and eyes fell as I realized just how much trouble I could be in.

Damn you, brain, and your sudden obsession with the local colts! Screw you for even getting me into this mess in the first place! It's not me that likes Dodge’s rear end it's you, buck you. brain! I mentally cursed.

Yet as the long moments of my internal conflict passed, no words came from either of us. I cautiously raised one eye to see my mother shaking her head disapprovingly. Confused as to why I was spared her anger, I looked about for anything that may have changed her opinion. Nothing but the bed, old dresser, and door surrounded us in the rusty, old train car. The thing was our home, for now. We didn't exactly hang about in one place for too long, though. My mom's job required us to be flexible with where we lived.

"Hey, Mom, you can't say anything, you're with bucks all the time. In fact, I've even seen you with some mares!" I stated bluntly.

The blue unicorn's expression turned from anger to confusion, not to mention a hint of embarrassment and untimely shame as she stammered.

"No, no! Astral that's different! That's—" She stopped, taking a breath. "I have to do that or we won't have any place to live. We’d find ourselves with no food and no water!" she explained, waving a hoof and gesturing toward the train car's interior.

My eyes followed her hoof like it was some irresistible lure and when she finally returned it firmly to the floor, I found my gaze locked upon her.

"That's no reason for you to go about doing the same thing though! I try my best to give you a life that you can live with pride, honor, and dignity. Not for you to go around well… Doing it," she stated firmly.

I winced, leaning back.

"Well, when you say did it? We didn't actually do anything so… " I explained, hoping the fact would dismiss her anger and we could be friends again.

Instead, she just scowled.

"Astral, you know I've not been feeling well lately, and yet you still put me through this? I'm doing what I do, I sully my body, soul, and self-esteem because I'm trying to give you a better life, and this is how you thank me?"

She stated, looking back at me over her shoulder as she turned towards the door. Okay, this was new, she wasn't shouting. So why did her words make me feel so—horrible? Yeah, she was ill, she'd been throwing up a lot for weeks now, not to mention she was more angry than usual. Maybe this sudden lack of anger was another mood swing? If so, I just hoped it kept back her wrath long enough for her to forget the whole thing. As my thoughts went on, my mother sighed wearily.

"I have to go to the clinic. You can stay here and think about what you did or you can come with me." She told me, trotting to the door.

I swallowed, wrapping the sheets about my legs and sitting up as if they would somehow anchor me to the mattress. The thing threatening to take me away eluded me, however. A deep, sickly feeling in my chest that told me what I'd done was wrong.

"I'm feeling okay, I don't need to go to the clinic," I muttered, my rebellious tone ebbing away.

My mother raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Astral, that's not what I meant, I just… "

I felt myself slowly slip down onto the bed resting my head against the pillows, turning away from my mother. Why did it make me feel so empty? I hadn't done anything other than sleep under the same sheet as him. No, it wasn't that fact that was making me feel this way, it was my mother's words and her tone. The elusive implication I failed to understand. But for whatever reason, I was almost crying. All of a sudden the room filled with a dull blue glow and the covers swiftly slid over me.

"Hey, you're a big grown-up filly now, and I know stuff like this happens, but no matter what I still love you." I heard the soothing tone of my mother wrap over me like a second blanket, one of an unfathomably greater warmth and protection.

It felt as if I could ride out a mega spell within its loving cocoon. It was the height of hubris to think like that, I knew. But I didn't feel like I needed a bunker or a stable to keep the wasteland away. I just needed the sound of her kind voice. I shuffled about in the blankets as I heard the door to the train car open, and felt the dull light slip in.

"I love you too, Mom," I mumbled from under the blankets as she left.

********

The warm blackness divided into a horizontal horizon, revealing a slightly less dark—well, blackness. Then my eyes closed again, returning to the previously darker gloom.

Wow, was that a strange foalhood dream? I’ve not had one of those in a while.

I may have thought upon that nostalgic idea more clearly had I been in an at least half-decent state. But as evident by my returning senses, I was far from presentable. My head throbbed, my ears rang with even the slightest hum of the water pipes and my muscles were no less stiff than the rusted metal about me. But I was so warm, so comfy, and content. My body was alive with a pleasurable buzz and I was still exceedingly satisfied. I may have been hungover as fuck, but last night was one to remember.

I could remember it, right? I thought, urgently searching through the blurred memories. Yeah, there it was.

I sighed in relief as I recalled the jackhammer, I mean Star Strike. I had no idea whether it was the prospect of fifty thousand caps or just the fact I was an extremely attractive sex machine that could never be tamed, but Star had broken me good. With that, I curled my hooves up to my chest pulling the cover over myself tightly.

Perfect, not close to perfect, this is perfection. I mentally stated.

A moment later, I turned to where the gray stallion had finally given up on his late-night siege. I didn't open my eyes, all I wanted was my buck. I gave a satisfied whinny, reaching out a hoof over the cold empty bed sheets.

Wait? Empty? My eyes reluctantly pried apart.

Okay, ambient red glow? Too bright! Despite that, my mind raced with thoughts. Where is he?

That wasn't a question I asked often, on account of how frequently I would pick up cute mares and one-night stands.

"Urg, just shut up brain!" I groaned, giving a dissatisfied grunt, the persistent nagging of my mind shattering my horny buzz.

Using the same hoof that had been dispatched to the far side of the bed, I dragged myself over the edge. The spot that I had scooted off was still slightly warm, I noted as I settled.

Where the fuck is he? My mind cried again like I was some lost puppy abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

As I stared at the bedside desk, the question of where he was repeated more times than Rapid's limited assortment of records. With another lazy groan, I sprawled out my hooves and stretched my aching muscles.

Well, at least that felt good! I thought, finally sitting up.

Moments later I realized just how much of a bad idea that was. Immediately my head began to pulse and throb like a Zebrican war beat thanks to my hangover. A moment later, I pressed my hooves to my ringing ears in a futile attempt to make the world stop spinning. I sat there for a long moment trying to squint past the dull red glow of the industrial lighting.

"Where's my buck?" I moaned, beating my forehooves against the mattress like some spoiled foal.

After another long moment of nursing my frustration of waking up to an empty bed, I finally stood up on my own four hooves. Another bad idea, I realized as I crumpled to the floor and the world spun like crazy. As I waited for reality to stop spinning, I looked to my right. Down on the small metal cabinet at Star's bedside was a note.

"A note? That's all that he can give me?" I grumbled to myself, pouting.

With a sigh, I picked up the tattered paper. It was faded and worn, just like any form of parchment in the wasteland, the writing wasn't much to smile about either, it was badly scrawled and the moisture in the air hadn't done it any favors.

Written by an earth pony? I mused. Bet I know which one.

'Hi, Dragon, gone to get barding clean and supplies. Would have woken you but you looked too adorable. XXX'

I felt my playful frustration simmer to boiling point at the word adorable, not to mention the school filly kisses. The irritatingly affectionate words were followed closely by…

‘Get your guns and get your hangover taken care of. See you later today for the payload.’

So it must have been the fifty thousand last night, not me. I assumed glumly.

I groaned at the fact that it wasn't my irresistible beauty that motivated him to fuck me that good last night. Then glimpsed something besides where the note had been left. Radigator meat and his portable stove. I sighed wearily. Okay, so maybe my buck wasn't that bad after all.

********

A few hours later, I found myself looking down at my workbench, focusing my slowly detoxifying brain into action. Broken gun parts and spark ammunition looked back, each one seemingly eager to be put to use. I'd found my Pipbuck sitting toward the back, beneath the shelf upon which I kept everything I needed in order to maintain it, even if it was almost beyond repair even for me. Mostly tools and books I'd salvaged from an abandoned Stable a few years back, those that had been handed down to me, or the occasional useful item looted from corpses. Notably, it had not been where I always left it, yet I suppose I could attribute that to the state in which I'd arrived after yesterday, as there seemed to be nothing wrong with it, nothing apparent anyway.

Beside it were a few gems as well as an equally rough copy of Applied Gemstones and various used and worn old rifle parts, all of which were dusted with a fine coat of pink ash. I'd just finished putting one gun back together after giving it a well-deserved cleaning. It was by far my favorite, the closest thing to a foal I could have. A magical energy rifle, or was it a magical energy shotgun? Not to say it was a normal variant of either. I'd tinkered with it, a lot. I mean a lot. It had been taken apart and put back together over a hundred times. I'd thrown in some more spark batteries, modified the gem matrix, and fitted the beam with splitting lenses so that it fired into extra prisms. Assembling it all together got me a pretty deadly light show.

Now that I think about it, the thing is a magical energy shotgun, only with little scatter and the effective range of a rifle. I liked to call it the Saddle Blaster, despite the fact it had nothing to do with saddles, battle saddles, or a similar entity of any kind aside from its holster.

But what else was I gonna call it, Beamy? Metal Blaster? Super Mega Ultra Blaster of Lasered Immolation? No, I had an imagination that's why I used energy weapons over anything that used bullets. All those boring ponies with their shotguns, carbines, and brush guns, they had nothing on my magic. The way I saw it, a magical unicorn used magical guns, I'd certainly like to see a bullet turn a Raider into pink dust, or a standard rifle liquefy a Bloatsprite.

Speaking of liquefaction, I had my twins. A pair of slightly less modified magical plasma rifles. All I'd managed to do with them as of late was up the rate of fire, and I still had to increase the clip size to compensate. Last was the oldest of my projects, a modified magical energy pistol. I'd had the thing for even longer than my Pipbuck, ever since I was a little filly. Back then I'd liked to call the thing Zap-Zap due to the amusing sound it made before turning somepony to dust, and trust me they were always turned to dust with this baby. Even so, my mind snickered at the idea.

Okay, so what if I modified the fuck out of my guns and they were less popular?

I hissed at my condescending brain as it challenged my idea with images of the many times I'd seen bullets kill a pony. Besides, if fewer ponies used those weapons, then ammo was way more available... Sort of.

There! How do you like that you psychopathic jerk? I mentally snapped.

Besides, I sometimes found spark batteries on my bounty hunter jobs, raiders always had random hoof fulls of scrap and slavers had slightly more organized loads of scrap. Then there was the Enclave, yet I had to admit the pegasi were far more worthy opponents, their shit was hard won. On top of the magical laser show I was packing, I also had several grenades. I carried two of my magical energy grenades and one matrix disruption device I kept handy for all those fucking robots we'd inevitably run into. Add to that my magic, which was far more than simple levitation. I mean, c'mon I'm not a filly. High-quality barding laced with dragon scales and you had yourself a battle-ready mercenary, purely my own style.

Every one of us had one, it's what separated the rookies from the battle-hardened merc. At the thought of the others, I was reminded that I still hadn't seen Star since last night. Even so, that train of thought had mostly been stolen when I'd first smelt my room. It was then I'd seen my dirty bed, slipcover, and blankets.

"Really! Was it too hard for my stallion to clean my bed when he came down here to get my barding?" I asked myself quietly.

Regardless, I couldn't be angry with him. Instead, my mind formulated a swift idea. With a spark of my horn, the sheets were enveloped in a magical glow and quickly lifted from the bed. Steadily I trotted over to the shower throwing the sheets inside. We'd be gone for a few days, maybe a week. So it would be dry by the time we got back. That was all that went through my head as I turned the warm water on and dowsed the filthy sheets in the steaming torrent. The foul brown mix of blood, dirt, and vomit wept from the dull white fabric and slowly fell away down the drain. I smiled happily before trotting back to my workbench, leaving the water running. My weapons deserved no less love and affection, and soon they were all as spotless as I could manage.

"Well, little guy I'll be sure to see you get used this time," I told my pistol Zap-Zap as if it were my own foal, turning the thing in my magic.

"Right, now I just have to find some way to carry you all to the yard," I stated, turning to look about my room as I slipped my Pip-Buck around my foreleg and clipped it closed with the improvised pins I'd installed, I'd have to hook it up to my armor later.

Star had my barding, which meant he still had all the salvaged miscellanea I'd left in my saddle bags, lucky for him those scavenged bullet guzzlers were not anything special.

Wait, no, he wouldn't sell them, what was I worried about? I mean if he did then I'd be upset, then angry, then there'd be no fun, and I like fun. I sighed lowering my head and ears a little, then the cloud of steam kissed my muzzle and I realized the cloud was leaking from the shower.

A moment later I found myself by the gushing hot, torrent, the soaked bedding warped into some sort of strange blob on the tiles.

Well, Star didn't exactly give me a time. Hell, I'll bet he thinks I'm still in his bed. I thought, raising a hoof to my muzzle

I smiled a little at that thought while retrieving the soggy mess from the water. The pile looked no better than a raider's display piece slapped down on the metal grill of the floor and I stepped into the warm water's embrace.

Oh, yeah! This was the life a hard-working pony deserved, not perfect, but so damn close!

Once again the warm deluge seeped through my mane soothingly, smothering my coat in a steaming pleasure. I bowed my head, letting the smooth torrent embrace my face and horn.

I was gonna have fifty thousand caps when I was next in here, or else I'd be dead, but that was a boring way of thinking. Death was nothing in the wasteland, the sooner a pony accepted that the sooner they'd be wasteland-proof, as I like to call it. It was never a good idea to let the horror seep into your head because basically, everything has gone to shit, don't do the same to anypony else, and most importantly don't be a hero. By Celestia, I heard enough about those on the radio, the only good part is when they've finally learned to stop fighting so I don't have to keep hearing their sob stories.

Nevertheless, I wasn't completely against trying to make the world a better place. I may be a mercenary, but I was all for protecting those who needed it. I'd save ponies from slavers, raiders, and monsters without needing a paycheck before. I wasn't some pony who could just sit by and watch things like that happen if they were right in front of me. There was only one rule. It was the rule that ultimately defined me, only kill monsters. It's okay to kill monsters.

I'd had many a discussion with myself regarding the definition of the word monster, too many times at gunpoint. A monster was something or even somepony who was doing what was wrong. There was no shortage of them out there, somepony just had to look at Fillydelphia. But it was me who ultimately had to make that decision, if somepony were a monster they were dead, no sweat off of my mane. But if they weren't, then they had nothing to hide from me. Then there were the blurs between the lines, those made my definition of monster waver.

My eyes were sealed for a moment, and my ears went numb to all but the water cascading smoothly over my face. I knew I only killed monsters, and it was okay to kill monsters.

********

My horn flared brightly as the saddlebags levitated beside me. This wasn't my barding. In fact, I'd borrowed it from Lynx, a stallion who lived a ways up from me in the industrial hall. At least every buck I knew seemed to owe me favors, and so did most mares. Nevertheless, I sat the saddlebags over my back and began putting my guns into each with my magic.

"Well room," I called back to the shower, naked bed and soaked sheets laying spread out on the floor. "When I see you again I'll be fifty thousand caps richer."

Twenty-five thousand actually. My mind reminded me. No, I bet I could get it to twenty-six, depending on how I played my cards.

One thing was for sure, this place was getting a renovation, well that was if I didn't blow it all on booze and good company. Regardless, I quickly swung the large metal door open with my magic and lept out into the corridor.

"Fifty thousand caps, fifty thousand caps. Fifty Thousand Caps!" I hummed to myself.

The words played out rhythmically in my head as I trotted eagerly among the pipelined steam tunnel, my hooves clopping against the metal to the beat of my mental song.

A few moments later, I found myself beyond the steam tunnels and out in the reasonably fresh air of Churn. Water flowed freely from the broken pipes and dam, ponies of all variants went about their business. The shops were open, Radigators snapping below and Griddle was locked up in the Spit. The morning practically shimmered as I descended the metal stairs to the waterfront. There my hooves met the concrete canyon floor, and I trotted merrily to the crossing.

Across the bridge, I could see several industrial sacks of supplies lingering just in the shadow of the surface elevator. The traders up top certainly had a good haul for the town this week, I noted as I glanced over the varied assortment of bags, crates, and metal barrels. All the day needed was some sunshine and it would be perfect, shame that was impossible in the wasteland. But I'd settle for what lay ahead under the cloudy sky instead.

Star Strike was waiting by the elevator, speaking to the shaft’s operator. The shorter earth pony was a dusty yellow color with a dark brown mane, his cutie mark was a cog and lever. My buck towered over him like the ruins of a Manehattan skyscraper. After last night, the sight made me both a happy pony and a slightly horney mare. Upon hearing what must have been my hooves upon the metal frame of the waterway crossing, the pair turned. The sharp armored hide that was Star's barding rattled like a wall of animated steel as he did so. Atop his head, a horned helmet dwarfed the tiny thing I called my own. His huge battle saddle was what set us apart the most, however.

On his left flank was a hulking minigun, its ammo chamber mounted on the left side of his back. On his right was a flame thrower, its fuel tank supported beside the minigun's ammo chamber in a similar manner. His saddlebags lay farther back than mine, covering his haunches. He said it was the only place they could go, but I was convinced it was because he didn't want me getting any free samples. Either way, his armor design was crude and barbaric. I mean with horns like that on his head I was surprised ponies didn't mistake him for a dragon or something. Then there was the fact he used it as a battering ram! I still didn't get that.

No, when I was in battle I conducted myself with swiftness and grace. It was only during a fight that I could use the latter of those two words while referring to myself. My energy weapons were far more elegant than his bullet-spitting rattler or flamer. Why, if he took just one round to that tank he'd be a bonfire. Fortunately, said round would have to penetrate an extension of his armor to even scratch the fuel. If that weren't so then I may have tried it once myself, it would be a great way to prove my way was better.

I both scowled and smirked at that. No, I wouldn't hurt him. Not again anyway. We were a team. A tank and a magical energy-wielding pyromaniac, and we were a damn good pair, so I suppose I couldn't complain. I approached him while looking up at his armored face.

"Seems I didn't leave you unable to walk," he snickered with a wry smile. I cocked an eyebrow, before giving him a smug grin.

"Yeah, you wish! You got my stuff?" I countered swiftly.

He gave an amused grunt before gesturing back to his saddlebags.

"Yep, gear‘s all cleaned up, it's back there," he told me motioning to the bags with a nod.

I continued to stare at him as I walked around.

Wow, taunting me when I’m so close to your rear, it's almost like you… My expression fell as did my ears, then I saw him smiling. Fucking bucks!

I swiftly pulled my barding from the sack with my magic. Sure enough, the smart, light blue scale-coated barding greeted me. It took me only a moment to remove Lynx's saddle bags and replace them with my own barding. Custom-made dragon claw knife, check. Full canteen, check. Pip-buck hooked up with short-range communications broadcaster, check. Twins on the left holster, Saddle Blaster on the right, Zap-Zap in back? Check, check, check. I stationed my weapons before head counting them. Twice. Then I slipped the spare saddle bags into Star's. Who knows, it may be useful, and besides Lynx wasn't brave enough to ask for it back anytime soon. That done I slipped on my helmet, sliding the custom glass of my visor up into a space above my brow, temporarily deactivating the display. I then looked to my companion, the virtual wall of flesh, steel, and guns he was, compared to the swift-scaled serpent with the nasty magical sting.

"You ready to get rich?" Star asked.

Really? Who did he think I was? Of course, my only answer was…

"Fuck yeah! I'm ready."

********

As usual, the elevator ride was painfully slow. The sounds of the corroding metal quite literally making it painful to endure. Yet, sure enough, we found ourselves back at the cliff top about a few weeks later, give or take. Regardless, here I was again, the Marejarvie wasteland. After only a day of such close perfection, I had to admit it was a depressing sight. Still, I wasn't frustrated, just sick of the endless expanse of scorched desert leading off over the bare hills in every direction. One of the few breaks in the heat haze rising from the sands was the distinct green glow of the Sheen to the northeast. The rest of the blasted view was broken only by smooth, red rocks and mangled cacti.

With a firm jolt, the elevator ground to a slow halt signaling the end of our escalatory journey, silencing the horrible symphony of worn metal and grinding gears.

"There you are," the elevator buck told us, yanking the lever that held the platform aloft.

I was first to get off the metal platform, happily avoiding the rocking as Star shifted his great weight from the rusty, old metal. From up here the town itself was almost invisible. The only indicators that civilization even existed out here in the vast stretches of nothingness were the crane and the tip of the spire's broadcast tower. The only other things to stand out from the dusty backdrop were the windblown tents of the trade caravans and the generators, all of which were rusted and half-buried under the sand. Above, the tattered remains of pylons hauled many thick wires up from the mass of weathered metal, carrying them far across the desert to the north. To my left, the shattered railings of the dam were only just visible as its curved peak formed a bridge over the gorge, allowing the scorched remnants of a road across the breach.

On the opposite side of the crossing, the lake stretched out towards the hazy horizon. A body of deep gloom that rippled and shivered in the dry wind as it crawled its way west toward the coast. Upon its far bank, beyond the distant side of the dam, the lakeshore rose into a set of weathered cliffs. The huge walls of rock and sand sagged wearily in the desert heat. Atop them were the crooked bones of an old, pre-war town. Most notable to me, however, was the mangled iron frame of what had once been a water tower, the likes of which had been plunged into the deep murky depths of the lake. I'll admit, I had a lot to do with that.

Opposite the cliffs, the lakeside was a smooth dusty beach littered with trash, bones, and the occasional small boat, all of which were as bone dry as the desert, slowly disintegrating into the harsh sand. Sure enough, when my eyes came back around, they fell upon Star. My ears perked as the hissing of worn machinery sounded and once again the platform behind us disappeared over the cliff edge.

"Guess you shook that thing good," I wittily commented.

To my amusement, he just shrugged.

Yeah, you just leave the talking to the pretty one. I mentally noted, turning to the scorched asphalt leading away along the smooth shoreline.

"So where we heading'?" I asked, keeping a steady pace at Star's side.

The stallion's eyes tore from the heat-scorched horizon to look down at me.

"Client's description puts this place a good few miles south of New Pegasus, about three days across the desert on hoof," He answered, eyes moving back up to the horizon.

For seasoned bounty hunters like us, New Pegasus was practically a stroll, and though I hated going close to NCR territory, it didn't seem that proximity to their turf was the reason for the number of caps being offered for the completion of the job.

Speaking of which…

"What does it say about the place?" I asked, fishing for any preliminary information I could get before arriving at the location.

Secretly, I really wanted it to be a fluffy bunny factory or something ridiculous, like a house full of toothless Radigators. Just something that was easier to shoot up. But in the wasteland, such harmless things had probably become ravenous monsters.

"I don't know much, looks to me like some sort of pre-war research lab or something," Star replied, sounding concerned.

Great! These types of jobs were always fun, I got to see all the fucked up experiments of a generation of ponies who just loved crazy in all its forms. Then there'd probably be some sort of damn security system and if we were really lucky, some kind of eldritch abomination.

I sighed, this time with a groan. My energetic buzz had all but evaporated into the scorched air, and there was no chem in the wasteland that could make me feel that way again unless sex was a chem, and if that were the case then I'd be all over it. Nevertheless, I'd done more than enough of these jobs to know what I was getting into, and trust me I knew what I was doing when it came to a cave full of muties or some haywire Robronco factory. I used an energy gun and shot whatever the fuck was trying to kill me.

Even so, I turned my attention to the passing wasteland. Who knew, maybe I'd see something to shoot, or some rare treat would just fall out of the sky. But alas, there was nothing but the bones and trash upon the sickened lakeshore. Broken shards of concrete and steel sat among the petrified remnants of ponies and all kinds of other fucked up wasteland creatures. I'll admit at least a dozen of them were probably my hoof work. Raiders, slavers, monsters, and feral ghouls mostly.

One, however, caught my eye. A horned skull, far larger than all of the others, and still clinging to the last shred of its sand-bitten flesh. A long neck snaked down into the grim water, and its back rose from the stagnant filth just a few meters from shore. Around its bony neck was a chain, the likes of which was now slack and rusted as it curled across the dust before me. I didn't know whether looking at it made me feel proud, happy, or just 'meh'. I'd only been doing my job.

Okay, so that particular job was what gained me most of my respect.

"Wow, Vanator you're looking worse for the wear," I sniggered, passing the adolescent draconic skeleton casually.

I heard Star's tired whiny a moment later and I could almost sense the grinding of his eyes as they rolled. This was Vanator, what was left of him after I kicked his scaly tail. Doing anything out here wasn't easy, but I think I'd put myself on top the day I put these bones here. It was kinda funny, all I was doing was protecting Churn from an angry dragon that had dragged its sorry tail up from somewhere in the mountains south of what was once the Equestrian border. I certainly wasn't the one who magically tied that chain around his neck when the security finally managed to shoot his left wing. Nor was I the pony who'd tied said chain to the water tower. Nor... Okay, I bet you can see where this is going. I sent that water tower over the cliff into the deep end of the lake and he fell down with it. The rest was history.

About a week later the locals disassembled the crane and reworking it, were able to drag what was left out of him out the lake. They wanted the scales, claws, and anything they could sell. The scales were a light blue I might add, the claws sharper than any traditional knife.

"Lost in Dragonfire again?" Star’s smug vocal tone shattered my triumphant daydream.

I shook my head, my brow furrowed and my ears fell flat.

"Oh, I'm sorry! How did you get into town?" I barked.

He gave a proud smile, "Oh you know, saving fifteen foals will earn a lot of folks’ respect."

I sighed. Okay, so he'd saved some fillies and colts, but so had I! I mentally tried to count how many foals I had saved as I searched through my memory.

One, two... Damn, there had only been fourteen foals in the Churn the day I slew the dragon.

I swiftly kicked the thoughts from my mind so as not to continue the topic. Otherwise, Star may begin going on about how I didn't strictly kill the dragon alone. As my mind moved away so too did the dried dragon bones. Soon the south cliffs disappeared into the hazy horizon too. Having nothing to focus on but the endless expanse of either gray water, dark overcast sky, parched sand, or the almost unbearable heat of my barding roasting me, I swiftly remembered Rapid's radio broadcast. While we were far away from the heart of the trouble she'd mentioned in the east, she had said something about Bucktown.

Taking another well-needed sip of water from my canteen, I remembered the small settlement. I knew it quite well and I also knew it was not far from here. I really didn't want to think what might have transpired there, part of me even contemplated taking a route that wouldn't take us through that area. Yet I knew that wasn't a good idea for various reasons. Instead, I just set my watchful gaze on the sandy horizon as if patiently fishing for trouble. A few miles of trotting later, and that featureless horizon was no more.

"Hey, keep your eyes open in there," I told Star warningly, as we found ourselves staring at surroundings that were more than just simmering sand.

Besides the threat of attack by goddesses know what may be lurking ahead, I was almost glad. Looking out over the endless expanse of desert for so long had made me mind-numbingly bored. Besides, the windblown sand was not the best travel companion, it was irritating when it got under my already uncomfortably hot barding. Not that the environment before us was any better.

The edge of the once buzzing community grew like withered branches from what was left of the desert road. The outermost buildings were scorched husks, almost completely consumed by banks of sand. Yet, the inner skeleton of the crumbling town presented a very drastic change of scenery. Star stopped as the asphalt under-hoof disappeared beneath cracked dirt and eventually thick, muddy sludge.

"What now?" I asked stopping beside him and looking over the vaguely visible road between the ruins ahead.

As far as I could see there was nopony around. These ruins had long since been picked dry by carrion scavengers looking for some quick caps, then there was the actual carrion who picked on the bones of those that didn't make any caps on a count of being killed by said dangerous endeavors. In there, the desert sands became a waterlogged, mildly irradiated mess. The deeper I peered the more it looked warped, becoming naught but viscous wet sludge lingering amidst the buildings. Right at my hooves, the parched desert dipped slightly, deep into the foamy brown soup.

Great, from one extreme to the other, fuck you wasteland! I hissed mentally, strangely imagining the entity that was the fucked up apocalypse answering back, in the same overly joyful voice of Foggy no less.

Goddesses, I really hated that robot. I added begrudgingly while trying not to think about how refreshing potentially cool water could be after so long in the sweltering heat, no matter how disgusting a state it was in.

Above the shattered buildings to the far right of us, another sagging mud bank allowed the burst remains of several rusted sewage pipes to spew their foul content into the already sickly water. In fact, it was as if the whole town, (that a rusted old sign above us had once proclaimed Mareston) had sunken into the soft sands only to be flooded by the nearby lake.

Star seemed unfazed by the sight of the water, instead, he was eyeing over the upper ruins cautiously. I was guessing, despite my warning, he'd heard the radio too. While I didn't see anything (and yes before some smug voice in my head reminded me that there might be something in the water I was aware, thank you!) I was on edge. Becoming a slave was not on the top of my to-do list, it was admittedly below getting captured by raiders and getting eaten. Regardless, I wasn't gonna give any pony a chance to allow either possibility to transpire.

"We going around?" I asked casually, motioning to the north with a nod.

Even so, if we went that way we'd have to cross the San'prance River, not to mention it would take us dangerously close to the Sheen. I recoiled slightly as I realized that I didn't want drowning or ghoulification to be on my to-do list either.

"No, we're going through, head to Buck before nightfall," Star said firmly.

Right, that settles it. I told myself as my mind tried to warn me about things I knew to be blatantly obvious.

Wait, you were planning on staying the night in a town that has apparently been attacked by raiders recently? Are you also planning on simply trotting through their territory? My mind questioned, growing ever more patronizing. What about traps? Slavers? Monsters?

I sighed, there was a question of risk no matter where you were in the wasteland.

Besides, it won't be a problem for you, brain, because I won't have any second thoughts about killing any of the things you just listed, especially the latter.

As for traps? Well, they usually took care of themselves.

Nevertheless, as relaxed as I may be, the thoughts were enough to provoke me to drop my visor and draw my blaster warily. If anypony or anything crept up on me they'd be highlighted long before they had a chance to do anything more.

Unless they came from behind, above or below. Oh, and from behind a wall. My mind added smugly.

Admittedly, it could not see through walls like its original counterpart. Not that any of that stopped me, nor did it make the disgusting sensation of becoming knee-deep in foul sludge any more appealing. I was sure that only about one percent of the brown piss was actually water, the rest just sucked at my hooves like a vacuum. I'd half a mind to crawl onto Star's back.

He was certainly making this look easier than I was. Even with the weight of his armored battle saddle, his taller frame held him higher above the stinking sludge. Worse still, was the fact I'd just had this damn stuff cleaned. I fell into a sulking morbidity as I continued to fight the festering liquid under-hoof.

Goddesses, at least let me kill something before you make me trudge through all this shit! I groaned mentally, that irritating entity that was the wasteland laughing all the while.

Yet just like that, the foul shit hole that was the world seemed to oblige. There was a sharp ping as something rang off the hard surface of my dragon-scaled armor, followed momentarily by another. Instinctively and somewhat eagerly, I brought up my Saddle blaster and spun as fast as the mud would allow. My eyes fixed on a crumbling door, from which the shot had originated. I knew it wasn't a bullet, but I'd know that the moment it hit me, bullets at least tickled. No, this... This was pathetic.

The buzzing desert Bloatsprite didn't seem to agree, instead, the bobbing creature continued to fire its futile thorns. I glanced at Star, no way I was allowing him to unleash the thunder of his battle saddle on such a pathetic thing. It was kinda' adorable, and the sound of his guns would most likely bring every raider within a hundred miles down on our heads.

"Please, allow me," I stated elegantly, bowing as another futile ping bounced from my scales.

Then with a silent whoosh, the bobbing hunk of tainted meat was no more than ash in the thick mud.

Satisfied, I slipped the blaster back into its holster casually.

"I think you overdid it," Star joked, drawing a disapproving scowl from me.

"Well, at least I didn't have the whole fucking wasteland on our tails with my giant guns," I counted resentfully.

Star actually shut up at that, I mean wow that was easy. Yeah, my guns were better, quieter, and…

My proud thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang.

"Oh, fuck you wasteland!"

********

Dry earth had been hard to find amidst the flooded shit hole that may once have been habitable, but no matter how saturated, the moderately hard ground under my hooves was making my situation far easier.

I'd managed to find cover behind a slab of concrete that had fallen from a ruined walkway above. Unfortunately, several ruined buildings just down the flooded street, including an old weapons factory, still had many intact vantage points. From most of which a group of raiders, which I assumed to be the same group who'd terrorized Bucktown just a trot’s distance down the street, were now peppering the area where we were with a whole assortment of crudely maintained weaponry.

"Really?" I found myself snorting, they were holed up in a fucking weapons factory and still couldn't use firearms any better than a rusted pile of scrap?

The place must have really been picked clean long before they got there. I looked around over the foremost buildings and glimpsed the collapsed roof of the old factory, the words Ironshod Firearms written with rusted metal upon what still stood of its east wall. Another hail of pitifully inaccurate bullets clattered against the rubble around me the second I made myself visible and a rather distasteful set of creative profanities followed.

I simply sighed. First of all, bullets? How mind-numbingly boring. Nevertheless, I was the one who was out of range. Even my Saddle Blaster's minor spared only saw it hit targets a couple of yards away at best. Instead, upon finding cover, I'd resorted to one of the twins. Star was hunkered down across the street from me inside the rusted skeleton of an overturned sky wagon, the likes of which was held above the foul water by a mound of rubble.

My eyes were watching the still barrels of his heavy weapons with a growing frustration towards the fact they were not currently an option. It was both fortunate, and it tasted bad to say but, inconvenient that these raiders had been able to hold off their more savage urges long enough to retain numerous captives, and while I was sure Star wasn't one for just blasting the shit out of possibly innocent ponies, my one rule still applied.

I just had to find a way to get into the foremost ruins, those that appeared to have once been a cafe. At least a dozen of the bastards were held up on the ground floor and I could see several more by the upstairs windows. It was at times like this that I really wished my Pip Buck’s S.A.T.S still worked. Right now I could only see where they were, not target them.

Over the street to the left of the cafe, an old concrete walkway stretched over the water. I didn't need any magical assistance to see that such a vantage point had been turned into a shooting gallery, full of more Raiders. To my right was what appeared to be a shattered playground. The warped and blackened metal skeletons appeared to grow wickedly from the damp earth among bleached vegetation and ruined concrete.

On a wall just beyond was a large poster, its image flaking and aged. Teach your foals how to tank. Taking shelter saves lives it claimed in bright red letters, below the image of a turtle... No, tortoise, with a strange mechanical propeller strapped to its back. It smiled rather creepily, before shooting inside its shell at the sight of a fiery orange Kaboom!.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like anypony had got the message. Instead, like some cruel joke, skeletons littered the scorched ground about it like fallen leaves, one sat atop the slide as if eternally waiting to 'Weeee' all the way down. Another leaned against the domed bars of a climbing frame, hooves desperately reaching through for the tightly curled-up remains of several foals.

I swallowed, it may have been almost two centuries ago, but those ponies weren't monsters. I'd always done what I could to keep monsters at bay, why else would I be engaging these trigger-happy fucks up in the factory, instead of simply going around? Yet looking at these made me feel, in some regard, I felt I'd failed a whole nation's worth of ponies and I was no stranger to failure. Before the thought could fester for too long, however, the rattling rain of gunfire from ahead abruptly ceased.

"Think they've scattered?" I heard one rather sickly raider ask.

"I don't fuckin' care! I wanna' eat em'" Another splurged loudly, his voice more akin to a wild cackle.

In one regard, the latter was an example of the raiders I knew and despised. A pony that didn't ask questions, and was so insane that they were practically a walking target. Smiling at the idiocy of the savages I peered across the playground. Between us was a metal mesh fence, a skeleton leaned against its melted mesh, forehooves pressed up onto the charred wires as if it had once tried to scream to the playing foals only to meet the same balefire-induced fate.

I swiftly looked past it, over the flooded road, and to the gore-decorated front of the old cafe.

How had I not noticed that? The radio warning was one thing, but the next few blocks practically cried raiders are here!

Dried blood and hardened entrails hang from the old balcony above the door coated in putrid fluids. Profound crimson text was scrawled over what little remained of the previous establishment's sign. The small metal fence, that I assumed had once been the outside seating area, had been repurposed as a set of trophy spikes. One other obstacle was the wicked form of a dead tree that stood between me and the mesh fence.

I plotted my course swiftly, setting my visor's custom targeting peripherals towards the equally perforated walkway to the left. Then I looked to Star.

"I'm going in there, the moment I'm clear give them more holes than a slice of cheese!"

For a moment the gray stallion looked at me disapprovingly. At first, I thought it might have been for something smart like... 'What if you don't come out?' Or the fact shooting that amount of firepower in the same direction as an old weapons factory was a stupid idea.

Wait? No, I was supposed to be the smart one here, and I'd only just considered that.

Regardless I rolled my eyes, figuring that he was sulking for a different reason.

"No way, it's my turn to kill some of these psychopaths, you'll get your turn next time!" I barked, and with that, he reluctantly nodded.

"All right Dragonfire here goes nothing!" I mumbled quietly to myself, before bolting around the concrete barrier.

A split second later the raiders seemed to rethink their theory as to whether we'd scattered or not and their hail of rusty old boring was completely re-directed towards me.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" I whined, as several bullets actually struck home, pinging irritatingly from my dragon-scaled barding.

A second of galloping and bullet ricochets later, I found myself by the charred remains of the tree and slid myself out of the raiders’ line of sight. The dead wood gave a splintering cracking sound as the rounds dug into its trunk, each splinter a sign from me to get my rear in gear and move.

I coughed and took a deep breath, my heart was racing now, my body pumped up with adrenaline. In my brief dash over here, the targeting matrix of my visor had highlighted several ponies up on the walkway in an outline of red. One outlined with green.

>Number of targets: four.

It displayed in the top right of my vision.

"Aww, helmet, I love you so much," I remarked softly.

Then the gunfire stopped.

"Come the fuck out from there, you filthy mule!" a staggered voice howled.

My eyes widened, ears pressed flat, and teeth grinding.

What did he just call me?

I stood up rolling around the tree and right into their line of fire.

"My turn!" I called loudly as I bolted forward once more, the plasma rifle held up in my magical grip opening fire with three buzzing bolts of crackling green light.

There was a hiss, a grunt, and a bubbling-liquefaction sound over the rush of my gallop as I reached the door.

>Hostile targets neutralized 3. Civilian casualties 0. A green set of words in my vision confirmed.

"That’ll teach you to call me a mule!" I panted to whoever was still alive to listen.

A second later, I pressed against the door of the cafe. Hopefully, the one friendly pony still up on the walkway still had the intellect to get back to town (if there was anything left of it) before any more of them got back up there. A moment later, and I moved over to the door, trying to ignore the warm stickiness that had doused the bricks against my back.

Blood was the best it could be, right? Okay brain, not helping!

With a sudden thud of what I assumed was somepony throwing something against the door from inside, it opened.

"Come on in!" a buck squealed eagerly.

I almost yelled be with you in a moment or something in similarly snide tone. But they didn't want to look at a mule now, did they?

I looked at my inventory, everything I had outlined my armor's sorting spell. A grenade? Easy but there may be hostages.

"Damn, I really wished I had an E.F.S that could see through walls."

No, I needed something else. A distraction, a…

I looked at the twisted remains of a café table before me and focused on a second table with a far more spoilt dining surface next to it. I grasped them both in my magic, then placed the solid cover in front of me, and rolled into the open doorway.

"Here you go!" I yelled loudly, tossing the other metal frame into the room.

Three Raiders exploded from behind the remains of a bloody counter reducing the mangled table to tattered ribbons in seconds. From just over the cover, my visor took a snapshot of the targets within the room.

"Damn!" I hissed as it identified two green shapes lay in the middle.

There were three reds behind the cafe counter and one red who looked to be making for the back door with two more greens.

"You idiots better keep them back from the factory." A buck, vaguely similar to the one that had questioned my disappearance only a moment ago called out.

"Don't worry about it, we'll see you keep nicely," a sour-toned mare griped back dismissively.

The buck snorted, and I paused for a moment listing in.

"Remember your place, scum."

At his sharp reply, it was the mares turn to growl.

"Go on, get back in there with the rest of your filthy meat," she retorted bitterly, her voice heralding the sound of a metal hoof against what sounded like some pony's flank.

These sure are some strange raiders? But at the possibility, some green-lit pony was getting the wrong end of a hard hoof I spurned myself back into action.

Pressing back against the gore-coated wall I kicked my rolling cover away. Now they were targeted, I could see their outlines through the walls. Albeit it, only in the positions I'd glimpsed them in, but the spell matrix would see to any swift retargeting calibrations, the moment I could see them again. Looking closely I noticed that one of them even had an energy rifle, strange for a raider, but my only thought was to make it mine.

Changing to the more fitting weapon of my Saddle Blaster, I jumped right back into the doorway. Sure enough, three scarred and bloody faces turned to me, one grizzled mare from a half-open door in the back wall, smiled wickedly. There were several flashes, a sizzle, and a splat and they became two piles of ash and a headless corpse before any of their bullets could find their way to my hide.

Better still the decapitating shot saw the energy rifle was undamaged, and I fought not to squeal. Allowing my targeting matrix to make out any more hostiles, which it, fortunately, notified me as zero, I cautiously trotted into the room.

The torn carpet was no better than the mud outside, it squelched under-hoof bringing foul-smelling moisture up to meet my nose as well as the already putrid scent that clung to most raider dens. On the crumbling walls clung a damp, sagging, yellow lemon wallpaper the likes of which was in no better condition than the sewer-saturated floor. The remains of several dinner tables, including the one I'd tossed, sat scattered about like rusted bones. Above me desiccated corpses hung like crude decorations, dripping foul ichor onto the wet carpet. In the shattered remains of the blood-soaked display counter were the severed limbs and heads of mutilated ponies, most post-mortem and bloated, dark crimson liquid seeping from every orifice.

It was something I said every time I saw a place like this, but by the goddesses how could anypony be so fucked up?

I gagged, not realizing there was more. In the far right corner, below a ruined flight of stairs, blunted, beaten and their flanks scored with sharpened metal table legs removing any trace of a cutie mark were several mutilated corpses, ones my matrix had not marked.

Damn it, Damn it! I mentally cursed, my mind berating me for my failure. No. No, I'd still managed to get two! I told myself swiftly turning to the hostages.

One was a yellow unicorn mare, the other a brown stallion. Both lay on soggy, sewage-stained mattresses. Their coats were scarred, marred by bites, cuts, bruises, and burns. Their flanks red and raw. Looking at them I knew for sure that these Raiders fell under the monster category.

Just another reason to go kill them all. I declared as my horn flared brighter and my dragon claw knife joined the cyan cloud of levitation that suspended my blaster.

"I'll have you out in a tick," I told them swiftly, and both stared at me, eyes wide in disbelief.

"No, no. Not more slavers! You... you might as well kill us. Please no more!" The mare begged, kicking me away from her the best she could while trapped by her bloody bonds.

I backpedaled slightly, ashamed that I had made myself look like such a despicable thing in some ponies eyes. Setting the mild hurt aside, however, I smiled as warmly as I could.

“Really? You think a slaver could take out all those savages?” I asked, looking back over the counter.

All they did was shiver.

Okay, so trying to joke with two ponies that had been raped, beaten and goddesses know what else definitely wasn't the best move. My mind stated flatly.

Ha, ha. I retorted mentally before moving slowly forward and carefully cutting the ropes.

"No, I'm not a slaver. I can earn an honest living, thank you very much!" I explained breaking the bonds around her rear hooves.

She trembled before twitching her recently unbound limbs, grimacing at the pain and numbness. At least she hadn't said I was a merc yet, and even in that line of work, I tried to be honest, unlike some of the traitorous, backstabbing scum that worked as mercenaries. I'd like to see a Talon do what I just did, without getting some extra caps on the side for the trouble. With another flick of the claw, I cut her ropes and freed the poor mare, before swiftly moving onto the stallion.

He seemed a little better for his trouble.

I just guess us mares were more appealing... I abruptly cut off that train of thought. No, brain, I certainly wasn't that horrifying.

The other mare just stared at me, wide-eyed and in painful tears as I freed her battered companion.

"You're real, aren't you?" she coughed in a frail and broken voice.

"Sure hope I am," I replied while releasing the stallion from his final bond.

"You... You are… They have more of us up in the factory. Mister Red just took Sugar Cube and Sweet Sun back up there... You... You have to go..." The mare's words flooded out in a wild torrent, the realization I wasn't some slaver like a balefire bomb against the dam of her concerns.

Mister Red? I swiftly made a connection between what she'd said, and the buck I'd glimpsed leaving with two other green-lit ponies.

So I was right to be suspicious, he didn't strike me as a hardcore raider, especially when he'd asked a reasonably sensible question. Without realizing my knife gnawed through the last strings of the buck's blooded bounds. He flinched almost jumping up into me as I staggered back from him.

Raped raider victims. That’s right, they get touchy about strangers laying a hoof on them. Touchy-touchy is not a good idea. My brain mocked condescendingly.

The quivering form of the buck only reinforced that patronizing sentiment as he fought to rise to his hooves, then the dull eyes of a broken soul looked at me for a long moment, and through the tint of my visor, I regarded their green outlines.

Not monsters. Well done, Dragonfire good job, just an unknown amount more to go.

"How do I get to the factory floor from here?" I asked, glancing back at the door this Mister Red had taken.

There was simply no reply from the pair.

Well, a thank you would certainly be nice. I moaned mentally, trying not to open my muzzle as the somewhat selfish statement crossed my mind.

"Um... They had us gagged and blindfolded most of the time, but that alley there, I'm sure that's…” The mare's words were staggered and fleeting.

The moment I resumed eye contact with her, she became silent again. The buck, however, gave a frail nod in agreement.

"Um, you should get out of here, my partner’s outside, don't worry he's' friendly..."

Before I could finish the pair had latched onto the opportunity and fled through the crooked door.

Wow, so grateful. Shut up brain!

A second later, I made my way back around the counter making sure to salvage the energy rifle and its respective ammo as well as any other loot the corpses offered as I entered the alleyway. Behind me, a mangled wall of metal and rotted wood formed a barricade between the alley and the flooded street. Ahead, along the long shrouded space was the rear of the Ironshod factory. Above the alleyway, guts and flayed skin was hung like laundry lines between the two buildings, the words fuck off written in blood on the side of a rusted old dumpster to the right. I was also met by several more wickedly smiling ponies, likely excited to have some fresh meat to fuck and beat.

They were armed and taking cover behind the dumpster. Two were swiftly dispatched the first time they exposed their heads to fire, the third and fourth managed a few shots against my scales before I charged at them. The first, a silky brown mare clad in blooded, spiked armor, was met by my hind hooves.

I opened with a buck to the face and, unlike the Sparkle Cola bottles that formed part of her crude helmet claimed, this assault lacked radishes. The second Raider I slashed at with my dragon claw, my magical grip bringing the naturally serrated blade across her throat as she tried to bite down on a rusty shotgun. The lash left her bleeding corpse on the flooded asphalt, and I looked to the second mare sourly, her hoofs clutching a face that was naught but a bruised mess scarred by the sharp glass of her shattered, bottle glasses.

I pinned a heavy forehoof hard on her chest stopping her squirming.

"What the fuck are you ponies doing here?" I demanded.

What do you think Dragonfire? They're raiders, you know what they do.

That, brain, was my point.

I'd seen raiders, I'd seen slavers, I'd seen both together, and never were they this organized or chummy with one another. The bloodied mare hissed more akin to a rattle-tail than a pony. The barrel of Zap, Zap pressing against her messed up face soured her will to resist somewhat.

Told you you'd see some action little guy. I mentally remarked as if it could somehow, telepathically understand my thoughts.

“It was, Mister Red. He comes in here asking for ponies when we're done with ‘em. Brazen Skulls up in the mines need ‘em so they pay more fer da able-bodied ones. He’s a lot more lenient about dey’re health dough, ‘e only cares dat ‘e can put ‘em to slavin’ in ‘is mines," the mare muttered as if such a long sentence were hard for her small mind to formulate.

Her bloodied eyes seemed to have no such problem as they fixed on me, waiting for any slip. She was looking in the wrong place, and my own eyes narrowed as if our stares were more lethal than our guns or hooves.

"Where?"

The causal implications of her past confession forced my words to slip through gritted teeth.

"Up in the factory, second-floor office, ‘e don't let us up dere. Da fucker," she explained resentfully, only supporting my theory that raiders and slavers seldom cooperated.

At her confession, I scowled. Whenever I had to deal with a factory it was usually robots, well this threw that track record out of the metaphorical window. The problem was, this place was gonna be crawling with raiders. My other problem was that even if this was not a part of our job in any way I was not leaving a potential town's worth of ponies to fall into slavery. Glancing up at the factory wall above the alleyway I had an idea. Lifting my hoof of the squirming raider I wrapped her firmly in my magic.

"I'll be right back," I lied happily, tossing her into the rusted old dumpster before fastening it shut with one of the chains they'd been hanging their gory decorations with and leaving her there.

********

There were two doors, the one on the right was open and emitted the foulest of smells, the left was closed, a barred window separating it from the catwalks above the factory floor. Below two large rows of slave cages sat among the old remains of the factory's production lines, as well as the battered remains of robots that had once guarded the place. I could have laughed at the thought, how many raiders had killed themselves trying to best the security bots? If it were not for them shooting up at me.

Unfortunately, despite Star's timely intervention through the rear loading doors some of the fuckers had managed to get to cover leaving both of us as targets. Worse still, he was swiftly catching up with me on kill score, the sudden roar of his mini-gun often heralded my cursing in regard to his escalating kill count.

I meanwhile, had managed to sneak in through the upper floor’s fire escape, the likes of which I'd seen from the alleyway. I'd imagined it would be the easy way. I'd guessed that far too soon, however. That fact was only made more evident as a bullet struck the roof above me.

Moving swiftly forward along the catwalk I was struck with a sharp dash of pain as another shot glanced my undercarriage, and then two more struck my left foreleg.

"Goddesses, when I designed this stuff I didn't expect to be crawling above the damn bullets!" I hissed to myself as I reached the far factory wall and leaned back against it.

More gunshots sounded over the roar of Star's mini-gun and the raiders’ profane shouting. I frowned angrily, my horn flaring. I found myself staring right at a sign on the opposite wall. It said rather amusingly, Ironshod firearms, how do you like them apples? The latter words crossed my mind as my magical grip tore off two of the fixed roof lights and proceeded to smash them down onto several raiders below,

"How do you like them apples?" I shouted as I vented my frustration.

Rolling back onto my hoofs, and with the upward flak temporally culled, I retrieved a set of magical healing bandages from my saddlebags and swiftly wrapped them around my scathed forehoof.

"Goddesses, I really hate bullets! I went to the trouble of killing a dragon to make sure I don't get riddled with any!" I complained to myself as I approached what was once the factory office, before bucking the door open with a firm kick of my hind hooves.

"Don't move another inch," a white-coated unicorn buck, with a red mane and cutie mark that was strangely nothing more than a red square declared dryly.

His sharp, scarlet eyes were narrowed as his magical aura levitated a revolver to the head of a pink-coated unicorn mare at his side. My expression wrinkled in frustration. Why did every pony seem to know about my one rule? Surely they didn't assume anypony else was decent enough not to shoot innocent ponies out here.

Glancing to my left I saw a desk, complete with a terminal and an old photo of a sandy yellow, earth pony buck with a brown leather vest and rodeo hat, rearing up on a desert ridge. It was sunset, or rise, I couldn't tell, in the background. Finally, in the craggy wall of flaking, blue wallpaper below it was a wall safe. Before the dark steel box, lying motionless on the worn, green carpet were two mares, both bearing a bullet wound through their skulls. Sugar Cube and Sweet Sun I assumed sadly, by their white sugar cube and beaming sunlight cutie marks.

Goddesses, fuck this guy, I've known him for a moment and he's already right at the top of my to-kill list. My visor seemed to agree as it fought to distinguish between him and the mare pressed against his side.

Behind him, to the right was another eye-stinging sight. A barbed cage formed a dome, within which a dull blue mare was curled up with her back to me. She seemed to be sobbing. Monsters? My vision became redder than the eyes of my new opponent, and yet I lowered my weapon.

Mister Red, I assumed, looked at me with a cold smile, the mare beside him appearing strangely ashamed, and her eyes seemingly begged forgiveness for this predicament. That look on her face didn't do anything to lighten my frustration. It wasn't her fault she was a slave.

"Good, that's a good little pony. Now drop it!" he stated with a firm stamp of his hoof.

Sure enough, the magical field around my Saddle Blaster evaporated and it fell to the carpet. Mister Red smiled as his own crimson magic enveloped my weapon.

"Now the rest," he almost purred, retrieving the rest of my energy weaponry and turning them all with their barrels pointed at me.

Those guns? The chances of me surviving a shot from each one? Even with my barding? Nil. I had made sure. Besides I was more bothered about the strangely cold betrayal I felt to see them aimed at me, only for the chilling pit within me to begin to boil. This buck had crossed the line and my eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Now you're gonna be a good little filly and call down to your friend. Tell him to stop," he ordered coolly, his expression far too relaxed.

Our eyes locked as my failure to move challenged him. He stepped forward and away from the pink unicorn's side, his confidence growing with the addition of my arsenal.

"Please do as I ask, I don't have all day," he asked politely.

In the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the pink mare tentatively slip away from the gun levitating beside her. Mister Red failed to notice. Instead, his gaze was locked on me like a newly found vendetta.

"I can't imagine working with a bunch of raiders, are they giving you a hard time?" I asked, distracting this fool of a stallion as the mare in the background crept back.

He seemed strangely intruded by that. "Yes, you couldn't imagine how difficult managing this lot is! They try to have me killed daily. Now if you please."

He motioned one of my plasma rifles to the open doorway. I turned slightly.

"You know I never thought you Brazens were the type to stoop so low," I taunted, knowing full well that being a slaver was about as low as anypony could get, negating pure insanity of course.

His cool expression didn't falter, he just smirked.

"You could say they're under new management," he told me.

I gave a fake, dry laugh.

"Yeah, hasn't done much for your peripherals though," I stated smugly.

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion before the photo from the desk, or more accurately its metal frame smashed, hard into the back of his head. I leaped forward as he staggered and blindly fired off all four of my guns into the spot I'd just occupied. There was another loud crack as the revolver also fired, followed by a sharp yelp as the stray bullet struck my would-be savior in the hind hoof and she stumbled.

Rearing up, I came down on the buck's chest with my forehooves. My horn began to glow with more than just telekinesis as I pressed it to his heart.

"Nice chat," I declared as I focused my magic and cast a bolt of glowing, blue flame right into his chest.

The buck screamed as his heart melted out of his torso, and the smell of charred flesh filled the room. Then he gagged on his last gasp of air before falling limp.

"They never learn! Stupid ponies!" I added as I stepped back and recovered my stolen guns with extreme prejudice.

Over the fading sound of gunfire downstairs, I could hear the pink unicorn mare spill a mix of weak curses and uncontrollable sobs as she clutched her right hind hoof lightly.

"Here, use one of these," I advised, trotting over and offering up one of my magical healing bandages.

She looked at the magically augmented medical supplies cautiously. By the look of her bruised hide, burn marks, and wounds I could tell she'd not had it easy, a bit easier than those I'd saved in the cafe, but still not easy.

"Don't worry, I'm not a slaver," I assured her with a kind smile.

One of those two gestures must have been right as she tentatively took my offer of aid, before setting to work on wrapping the bandages around her hoof.

One hostage secure. I thought to myself while trying to avoid looking at the two ponies I'd failed to save.

There was nothing more I could do for them, and if I let it get to me, it would destroy me like it had to so many other ponies before. Instead, I focused my attention on the crudely built cage in the far corner of the room, the likes of which looked out of place in the mostly neat office. Upon opening what I assumed was the door (if not oh no, I just broke some piece of shit cage) I found a raider.

A fucking raider pony… Wait, what? My mind boggled.

It was a raider, but not a run-up and eat-your-face-off raider. She was curled up around something and sobbing heavily.

Wait, what? I mentally backtracked again.

Raiders didn't do this, they were not smart, not organized, and certainly didn't cry, not consciously anyway. My anger dwindled, my horn’s glow weakening its grip on my weapons.

There was a Raider? A monster? Damn it, Dragon! Do your job! It's okay to kill monsters! But no…

My eyes widened as the sobbing mare uncurled to reveal a tiny foal, barely a few weeks old. A mother? My ears fell flat against my skull and I staggered back in terror.

No, no, no. Not this! No. No. Fuck you, wasteland! I knew what you were up to. No, no, no! Not this!

The sobbing Raider cackled coldly as the little foal pulled something from her hoof.

"Who’s mommy's good little boy?" She croaked dryly.

There was a soft beep, then another as I saw the mine in the laughing foal's tiny hooves. My eyes went wider than they'd ever been my heart stopped abruptly, then it jump-started with more power than a balefire bomb. My horn flashed telekinesis wrapping around the closest thing. It turned out to be the desk and the pink mare I'd just saved.

Instinctively I dived back behind the overturned desk, taking my uneasy pink companion with me. There was another beep and a childish giggle. In that unbearably still moment, the world felt as if it had died. Then it was filled by a deafening boom.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk Added: Barnstormer (Level One) - You know how to clear a building, even if it’s in your own special way. Gain +1 perception and endurance when attacking enemies from the outside of a structure.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: PonyEcho once again!

Chapter Three: Cherry Pin

Chapter 3: Cherry Pin

"I'm gonna make you smile and I will brighten up your day..."

My eyes opened, only to find the faint glow of my visor’s heads-up display. The words Hostile Targets 0, Civilian Casualties 0, were displayed briefly in the top left corner and I got a strange feeling that my seemingly flawless engineering may actually have had some flaws. It had marked that trapped raider green and…

I shoved the thought out of my head. The thing must have relabelled her hostile without me noticing. Looking beyond the words as they flickered out of existence and blinking dust from my eyes, I noticed a smooth warmness pressed against my flattened muzzle. It was as stiff as a wooden plank, yet it was twitching softly. My eyes steadily blurred into focused to see the image of a stark red flower, that was, in fact, the tip of a golden key. A cutie mark? It didn't take me long after that to realize I'd landed on top of my would-be savior, and now my face was both satisfyingly and uncomfortably close to her haunches.

Usually, I'd have no problem, but… Raider victims. No touchy, touchy.

Shakily, I stood up forcing debris to tumble off of my back and fall in a dusty heap on the stained carpet. Looking about, I fought not to vomit at the sight of the room, painted with a splattered coat of singed red. Fortunately, none of the walls had collapsed, although I guessed having a defensive office in a factory of potentially armed employees was standard back before the bombs. Even so, I could still hear no gunfire past the soft ringing in my ears. Either Star had gotten the last of the fuckers below, or the timely explosion had just shut everypony up for a few minutes.

Regardless, I'd find out soon enough. Yet my mind was unnervingly focussed elsewhere, and there was no amount of self-restraint I could throw out to reel it in. She'd sacrificed her own foal? Raider or not, that was beyond barbaric, and for what? Mister Red's words, 'they try to have me killed daily' came to mind, yet a great deal of my mind refused to believe that bomb had been set up for such a purpose.

Did that foal even know? Or did it just think that the mine was some sort of metal apple? I stared coldly into the scorched corner as if hoping my gaze could revert time if I just tried hard enough.

Fuck you wasteland for handing the incarnation of my one rule a live grenade and just walking away like it doesn't matter, while just waiting for it to blow up in the face of my morals! I internally screamed.

Still, like a fool, I'd just held onto that grenade until it went off in my face. I took a breath, scowling at the thought before some sense finally reached me. Damming up my rage I looked down to the cowering mare between my legs. She was curled up, stiff, and whimpering behind her tightly locked eyes.

"I'm sorry! Please, just stop!" she begged in a faint whisper.

I shook my head free of the horror I'd just witnessed. They were dead, and I couldn't bring them back. But goddesses damn me if I don't help the one I'd saved.

No, Dragonfire, don't let it get to you! You might as well just shoot yourself right now if that's the case. That bold mental statement was enough to silence my guilt, at least for now.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," I said as kindly as my subdued anger would allow.

The mare opened one lime green eye hesitantly, giving a wet snivel.

"You... You're not one of them are you?" she stuttered in a frail voice as she looked at me carefully.

I managed a smile; seeing her alive, at least, was reassuring. Ignoring the foul things that had transpired around me allowed me to smile because I'd still saved at least one pony. She tensed before she finally relaxed, shivering as she did so. Her other eye opened and looked up to the fallen desk, the likes of which thankfully hid the profound amount of charred crimson paint from her view. Before she could notice I stepped back slowly and levitated the table towards the epicenter of the bloody explosion, covering it best I could. Nopony needed to see that, especially a pony who had just been through what I could only guess was hell.

Her head twitched back to me, eyes wide with fright only to calm slightly when she discovered that I wasn't directing anything at her.

"What are you doing?" she sniffed, her voice growing firmer. Still, her shimmering gaze begged the goddesses that her rescue wasn't some kind of cruel joke.

"Urm... I'm getting you out, of course. Can't leave you here," I improvised swiftly, hiding my true motivations carefully.

She flinched again at the idea, before shivering violently. I winced slightly, not really feeling like I was making a good first impression. Or it may just be the fact that, as of late, she was only used to seeing ponies that raped and abused her before using her as a meat shield.

Thanks, brain, good evaluation.

Regardless it was at least partly right, and the last thing I wanted was to be seen as any of those horrid things. Beating back all my negative emotions to the best of my ability, my horn flared again, and with a cool dash of air against my sweat-laden mane I lifted off my helmet. Maybe now I'd look more like a pony and not some Steel Ranger wannabe, not that I wanted to look anything like any of those...

Fuck, never mind!

My timid, new friend looked at me cautiously and she seemed to relax a little more, her quivering eyes scouring every detail, noting everything that may give away what kind of pony I truly was.

Her ears perked sharply at the sound of rabble beginning below, as did mine. So Star had bested the raiders then, not that I'd had any doubts.

I glanced back to the door and said, "Looks like you're all free now." I looked back to the mare who met my abrupt positivity with weary skepticism.

She glanced away again, assessing the room before finally opening her muzzle.

"This isn't a joke, is it?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Not unless it's on me," I told her kindly, knowing full well that I was gonna be suffering from what I'd just seen in here for awhile.

Trying not to fall into that trap just yet, I offered her a friendly hoof. Once again my good willed motion was met with a cautious glare. If she'd seen this gesture many times recently, I doubted it had been for the same good reason. Moments of caution later, however, she proved she was still enough of a free pony to take my aid.

"I'm Dragonfire," I told her while helping her to her hooves.

She swallowed nervously before swiftly replying.

"Cherry Pin."

She said the name as if it tasted bad, then again, I doubted she'd thought she'd get a chance to say it again. Nevertheless, I simply nodded in response.

"Nice to meet you," I said with the widest smile I could muster, placing my helmet back on my head with my magic.

All the smiles in the world weren't gonna do me any good, I just needed to get out of here. I'd done my job now and I had moved on, just like always. Otherwise, the wasteland would just eat me up. But what I saw, that wasn't a monster. That colt wasn't a... I'd failed to save him, I'd had a chance to do more. Enough time to think, and I'd failed.

I shook my head.

Never let it get to you again! I cursed myself internally. Never let the world’s shit make you angry again!

I knew that slipping back into those dark memories was not a place I ever wanted to go again, and for once my recriminating brain was more than in agreement.

********

I kicked at another pile of pink ash as we passed it by; another shot, another disintegrated Bloatsprite. Fortunately, the putrid floodwaters were shallower here on the east side of town. I was grateful for that more so, as behind us trudged about thirty or so exhausted slaves. Most were still able to walk, though some small foals were being carried on the backs of what I assumed were their parents. Upon finding my way back down to the recently opened raider graveyard, I spent a few long minutes opening cages and hoping I wouldn't have to carry any live pony.

Not me, not now, and by the goddesses, not a foal. All I wanted to do was get these ponies back to town, assuming there was something left of it, and try and forget all about today. Apparently, the whole Ironshod factory setup was just a ploy by Mister Red, whoever the fuck he was supposed to be, to keep the town contained.

Give a pony a carrot and you'll feed them for a day, give a pony a carrot farm… I thought of it as something along those lines. More like to keep the town weak, but alive and keep taking ponies that come in.

At first, I didn't buy it, but that cool buck did strike me as the clever type; give him an army of raiders, and that sounded like what a mind like his would do. Yet he was a slaver, a member of the Brazen Skulls no less, so why did he need to work with raiders? Not to mention this far away from Crimson Springs, the city those specific slavers occupied. The term under new management didn't bode well with me either. I'd never really any idea who was in charge of that rabble, but I did know it had been roughly the same for the past few decades before I came here. This? Well, this was a worrying break from that norm, like a small fracture in a thin sheet of ice, the first step in a complete shattering.

"So what's really got you all quiet?" Star asked, seeming to notice my thoughtful silence.

I'd told him I'd seen a hostage killed. But Star hadn’t worked with me as long as he had without being able to sense when I was lying. I'd seen a lot of good ponies die before but their deaths hadn't shaken me like this. Yet his attitude was different too. He had yet to make a single wry comment about how many raiders he'd killed or how many ponies he'd saved. If I'd been all fine and dandy, we'd have been arguing about that all the way to Bucktown. No, he knew something was up, and I was in the wrong for not opening up about it.

I took a deep breath, knowing I was gonna have to tell him what happened eventually, so why not now?

"Star, those bastards murdered a foal in cold blood," I uttered bluntly, the words tasting foul in my mouth.

I somewhat hoped the sound of many hooves in the water would drown out the rushed confession. My eyes turned upward to the large buck for just a moment to see him looking down at me, then my gaze scarpered timidly.

"Dragon, you helped save a dozen foals back there and they're raiders that's what they... "

"Its mother killed it!" I growled angrily, kicking my hoof through the water as though venting my frustration regarding what had happened might somehow lessen my anger with the fucking sick psychopathy that these raider scum were.

Star fell silent, and the horrifying image played out in my mind several times before I finally calmed myself. It wasn't just that. In fact, I had no idea if my blunt assumption was correct. The real reason as to my furious anger was that I'd failed. Although, that wasn’t what was hitting me hardest either. No, it was what she'd done. It was more than monstrous, and for what? To kill a leader the others didn't like? She'd sacrificed a tiny foal for that? I wasn't angry, that had faded into a feeling of heartache, I was devoid of most feelings as I thought about it. How can anypony go to so much trouble to make somepony else and then…

I stopped, my eyes closed and threatening tears. I couldn't do that. I couldn't. I couldn't give birth to a foal. Not like what that fucking raider had done, then killed it in cold blood and with no hesitation.

Suddenly, the sound of Star's hooves in the water stopped, and I felt a firm hoof over my back. My eyes opened to see three of the armored tree trunks that were his legs still in the brown sludge beside me, the other laid gently over me. I sniffed, shaking away my tears before they could clog up my visor.

"Hey, now you don't go beating yourself up over this stuff again, it's the goddesses' loss for not letting there be another great pony like you out here," he told me comfortingly.

I sniffed, my muzzle widening before quivering into a smile. He was right, I was too good, it was their loss. More ponies like me and the wasteland would be a brighter place in no time.

Unless it was that metaphorical fucker that was preventing me from... No, brain, just shut up!

I gave Star an appreciative nod before he lowered his hoof.

"I still got you, you big oaf," I called to him as he continued along the street.

I remained still for a long moment, the first of the slaves passing me with curiously sympathetic looks before I finally released my mind back into the wasteland. There my eyes fell upon a familiar, pink unicorn mare with flower blossom, key cutie mark. She was in a slightly better state than the rest of them, although I didn't think it my rightful place to judge how serious her torture had been. Another thing I tried not to think about, was the fact several of them had not survived. Sugar Cube, Sun Beam, and…

Cherry Pin! I recalled her name urgently.

The mare I’d recently saved was still shivering violently, her ears and eyes twitching nervously in every direction. The look on her anxious face said she didn't want to be here, near ponies, and yet she didn't want to be alone either. Not that she struck me as a pony who'd admit it. After seeing her assault her captor, I got the feeling that, deep down, she wasn't just some submissive, victimized type, even though she had been traumatized. Furthermore, she was still limping slightly. I'd offered one of my healing potions for the wound on her hind hoof knowing that magical healing bandages would most likely not keep out many of the infections that were surely lurking in the foul water.

She'd taken a while to assess whether or not my offer was genuine, and even longer to finally accept it, but it was nice to see she trusted me enough not to assume I was giving her poison or something.

"Hi," I introduced abruptly, slipping into the crowd beside her.

Once again she looked wary, but far less towards me than she had toward Star or any of the other larger slaves for that matter.

"Urm, hi," she replied, her tone giving me the vibe that I was somehow making this really awkward.

I swallowed nervously.

Come on Dragonfire you know how to talk to ponies, even recently escaped, traumatized, slave ponies.

"That... That back there, that was quite impressive. If it weren't for you, we might all be..."

Great conversation starter Dragonfire! Just go ahead and remind her of the most intense situation of her recent life.

As expected, she just looked at me with those cowering eyes, yet ever so slightly she blushed and looked away. My ears perked, she'd liked that. She was humbled ever so slightly.

"No really, you'd have to be one brave pony to assault that guy like that," I added encouragingly, feeling strangely like some sort of fanfilly.

Cherry's puzzled gaze looked back at me, the hints of caution slowly fading

"You really think so? I mean I was only there for a few days but they..." She instantly shut up at that, the memory of whatever she had gone through, caused her to put her guard back up and our conversation ended abruptly and no less awkwardly as it had begun.

Time would tell whether or not this trauma would make her stronger, or torment her mind and spirit until her death, regardless of how proud of a pony she was.

Damn it Dragonfire! You were doing so well. My mind groaned.

The term so close to perfect it hurts was being tossed about in there somewhere too, literally making my head ache.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you," I apologized, feeling both awkward and uncomfortable, trying to dismiss the topic with an equally awkward wave of my hoof.

The sharp emotional sting swiftly twisted into twinge of sympathy for her, maybe it was because she was kinda cute. I had gotten quite a close-up look after all, or maybe it was the fact I'd saved her? She made me feel at least a bit more confident in my abilities.

"It's my own fault they caught me in the first place, I should have been more careful," she sighed, looking downcast.

Yeah, Mister Red fell right into the trap of not being careful too. My mind muttered Oh, hardy, har, brain, that's not helping!

I shook off the snide joke, instead focusing on contemplating exactly what she was telling me. Her fault? I'd heard enough ponies in her situation say that to last a lifetime and even more who'd fallen to the depression of the idea, not discounting myself.

No, that was just... My mind shut up before it could finish, like a timid foal that had just senselessly blurted out a profanity to its mother. Yeah, keep it that way, brain. I warned dangerously.

That was not the point of this, she was. Cherry Pin, such a nice name, not tainted by the idea of killing or death like so many others. I wasn't gonna let her fall into the same trap I had years ago. The first thing I knew, telling her this wasn't her fault (even if I was sure it wasn't) was not going to work.

"You got anywhere to go?" I asked, avoiding the previous topic.

She looked back up at me closely.

"I... I came from Buck, I... I came out here after my friends but..." She faltered, eyes dropping to the sludge under our hooves.

I couldn't help but feel that the two dead mares I'd seen dead in Mister Red’s office were those friends of hers.

Sugar Cube and Sweet Sun. Brain, by the goddesses you make an effort to remember those names.

Now she was gonna have to live with the fact that she'd failed them. I also was gonna have to admit I'd failed all of them too.

No, damn it! I promised myself that I wasn't gonna fail her!

"Where are you gonna be staying in Buck tonight? You can tag along with me if you want." I offered calmly, before wincing at the many ways I knew that could be interpreted.

Her initial expression almost confirmed my fears, but then she managed a smile.

"You sure? I mean if it's..." she stuttered timidly.

I dropped the heartfelt smile ever so slightly, partly not to seem insensitive to the fresh grief of having lost two of her friends, but also so that I might not come across as an utterly shameless flank chaser.

"It's no problem," I assured her.

It would be no problem. I mentally added, addressing the more promiscuous parts of my consciences sternly. She is a mare, she is cute, but she is not, I repeat is not, any kind of sex toy. Nor was she a buck, so that disqualified any other possibilities. Got that, brain!

I finalized with a mental admonishment, much like the stern reproach of a parent who caught their foal doing something contrary to the values that they try to instill within their offspring.

My mind's more perverted side scurried back to its den like a frightened Radroach, much to my satisfaction. Then another loud crack rang out, startling every pony around me. My head perked, ears standing to attention as I realized that it was a gunshot.

"Halt, who goes there? This settlement is under guard." A buck's voice called from a tower up somewhere in the ruins above.

********

Bucktown? So it had survived?

The revelation caused me much concern, as did my thoughts regarding Mister Red and whatever operation he'd been running out there. The evening had swiftly fallen into twilight over the ruins, scattered about which were several newly improvised lookout towers. An emphasis on new. Most of them had been torn down by multiple Raider attacks as evident by the mangled rubble at their bases. It seemed the same NCR hospitality package had been gifted here as well. But that only resulted in a greater awareness that a population center of some sort was likely located nearby the lookout towers were located, which increased the chances that more ponies could be captured for the raiders and by extension Mister Red and the rest of the Brazen Skulls.

Still, after a warning shot, another rather stupid gesture given the fact that if we were raiders, why would we be bringing the slaves back? We'd managed to get everypony through safely. Just ahead of us, the slaves were tentatively making their way back into the battered walls of Bucktown. The town was formed from a steep pile of concrete scraps and rusted rebar from the surrounding ruins, not to mention the razor wire along the top. The place looked more like a prison than a town, which was made all the more menacing by the crimson light of the dying desert sun. Still, I felt incredulous that not even these incompetent foals of a security force couldn't protect it.

Even so, the improvised defenses still bore the many scars of heavy weaponry and even explosives, the latter undoubtedly the Brazen's contribution to the siege effort. Beyond, the sounds of civilization chattered and the glow from fires illuminated the small columns of rising smoke. Star Strike was first through the gate after the majority of the slaves, several of which still lingered nervously outside. A yellow coated stallion sat in a small concrete bunker at the gate, and he'd been greatly surprised to see more ponies coming in then being dragged out.

"Savin' slaves, good on ya'," he called to Star with a tone of respectful approval.

The larger stallion merely nodded in acknowledgment of the yellow buck’s complement.

"Indeed," he rumbled, clearly soured by the guard's enthusiasm towards the whole ordeal.

I'd admit that the slaves weren't as happy as I thought they should be, given that they were not only free, but they were returning to the comforts and familiarity of home. These ponies were back home, but for how long? I knew it would take a long time for any of them to even heal, or at least cope with the treatment they'd received from the raiders and the horrid sights which they’d seen. Deep down, I really wanted to help them all, but for that, I'd need a lifetime, a lot of which had already passed me by. The pink mare standing beside me however, I wanted to try saving.

Cherry didn't seem to find the wall very appealing either, and she seemed to regard the inhabitants which it guarded with even less esteem. After arriving at the entrance to the town, the pair of us had remained on one side of the lightly flooded street while we watched all of the other ponies head on in. We'd waited outside of the flimsily fortified hamlet for about half an hour now and it was becoming increasingly late, not to mention cold. Despite the improvised watchtowers and at least one less Raider hideout being out there, being out here at night was not on the top of my list of things I wanted to do.

You could be worse off. My mind retorted, and I winced knowing for once it was right.

Breaking that depressing line of thought best I could, I looked over with worry at the anxious pony beside me. She regarded the walls cautiously, her ears erect and rotating like broken reception dishes of the old world. I took a deep breath, the warm, foul-smelling desert air wasn't at all refreshing, but at least it was better than the foul sewage on the west side of the ruins.

"You know, I don't think anypony in there wants to hurt you," I stated calmly, pointing a hoof at the battered walls.

She only seemed to flinch more at the word hurt, before swallowing hard.

"I know that, it's just..." Her reply was cut off by a slight sniffle. "I was the one who left and I was the one who got myself caught," she admitted reluctantly.

I cocked my head curiously.

Dragonfire you know telling her it wasn't her fault is a bad idea, for now anyway.

Regardless, I still wanted to know why she was blaming herself. Although I supposed every pony had asked the same question of me at one point.

Brain, no! I mentally admonished, then frowned.

My muzzle was unable to formulate words while I wore the disapproving expression. Cherry looked up, her quivering gaze passing by me before hitting the walls, then she looked back. I forced a smile.

Oh, goddesses please let her sort this obstacle out for herself.

"You are... You’re really something, aren't you?" she told me.

Damn it! Why did you have to go and twist my prayer into something else, this wasn't what I'd asked for, and you ... Somepony up there, you know it!

I glanced away as her cautiously inquisitive eyes regarded me. Of course, I'd like to consider myself something. As for what that something was? Well, usually it would just be a better pony than everypony else, in more ways than one.

"Thanks," Cherry Pin's frail voice murmured.

I paused, now it was my turn to be in disbelief. She'd thanked me? No, I hadn't expected it or tried to make any of them feel obliged to give it. But she had, and it was nicely sincere.

Wow Dragon, you must be the sappiest merc in the wasteland. My mind snickered.

I just pushed the wry thought aside. All I really cared about was the fact that she'd said it, the fact she felt I'd earned it.

"For saving me, that is," she added quietly, waving a hoof tentatively and bowing her head as a hint of embarrassment dawned on her face.

As my satisfaction grew, my pride didn't diminish. I didn't feel she was a trophy, a trophy won by the victors of the battlefield. Instead, she was a pony, a pony that was still alive and not suffering at the hooves of the raiders because of me, and despite the massive payment on the horizon, this was somehow payment enough.

"So are you up for heading in?" I asked hopefully, pointing a hoof at the scarred walls.

The pink unicorn nodded, albeit still subtly, seeming to use the chance to belay her embarrassment. Well, there was still some confidence there at least, and a good deal of the pony she really was underneath. While I'd no right to judge her mental state or the length of her torture, I couldn't help but feel slightly relieved at the fact it didn't seem quite as extreme as her fellow slaves. For now, I was just happy she was brave enough to come into town, I could work on her confidence later

Yeah, we could.

No, brain, that's not what I meant! I mentally berated my perverted gray matter as my mind conjured another suggestive image of the mare. In bed...

Oh' for goodness sake, you perverted thoughts, just shut the fuck up!

Without giving my mind any time to retort, I turned toward the town entrance with Cherry following closely beside me. Her steady hooves on the damp asphalt was a welcome reassurance.

"Well, how ya' doin' there?" the yellow buck by the gate asked happily, leaning forward upon a rocking chair.

He was lucky Cherry had greatly improved my mood, if he'd looked at me anything like he was now before I’d rescued her, he'd be in for far more of a show. That said, I didn't acknowledge his presence other than to ensure that he didn’t try any funny business. Instead, I turned to the pink unicorn behind me. She was trying not to look at the mass of concrete attempting to lock her in with the other ponies.

"Why, y'all gone an' rescued our would-be savior too," the guard stated, whistling.

Cherry flinched, her ears catching the sound of his mocking tone of voice before she lowered her head in shame, her frown deepening, and hot, bitter tears hitting the ground beneath her hooves.

"It’s nice to see you too, Skipper." She winced and hearing the choked hitch in her reply I glancing up at the buck.

Skipper, just whistled again as she came close to him.

"It's mah' pleasure miss."

I focused my eyes and glared with disapproval, my muzzle scrunching in a display of hostility, my ears rotated and laid flat against the top of my head.

"It that so?" I questioned sharply.

Cherry closed her eyes and, looking secretly confident that I would protect her from any possible outlash this stallion might make, settled beside me.

Skipper rocked back, whistling again.

"Sure is, that one went out thinkin' she could bring all them slaves back single hoofed. Ah mean, good on ya' girl, but ya' ain't no fighter, y'all are a waitress mare through an' through."

He didn't seem to notice my dangerous glare at the latter part of his little explanation. How could anypony fault her for trying, no matter how dangerous or stupid it was? I didn't see any of them lifting so much as a hoof to help the half of their town that had been stolen into slavery. Besides, it wasn't like they fell under the category of fighters any more than she did. I moved to voice that opinion, but a look at my new companion dissuaded me. This wasn't what she wanted to be talking about, in fact, there was a good chance it was the reason she was so anxious about coming into town in the first place. My simmering frustration at her treatment was quelled by that, but not forgotten. Besides, with that innocent look, she was unbearably cute.

Platonically! I added swiftly, as my thoughts tried to run off with the idea again.

"Where'd Star go?" I asked Skipper, trying not to growl.

The buck swung forward resting his forehooves upon the concrete barricade between us.

"What? Ya' big buck friend? He made straight for the saloon," he told me, pointing a hoof to the group of ponies congregating in the center of town, then to the old pre-war ruin that was boldly labeled, Cocktail's.

At that, I relaxed my dangerous stare.

"Thank you," I expressed my gratitude politely.

"Anytime, miss," he muttered back, almost subconsciously.

It didn't take me many guesses to know where his attention was fixed now the pair of us had our backs to him. Ahead, I could see the majority of the slaves. Some had already found their way back to what must have been their previous home, others sat timidly in the muddy town center, like a flock of nervous birds ready to scarper at the first sight of danger. Beyond them I could see several of the security ponies, as well as the town's part-time sheriff, seemingly debating what to do with the many ponies, ponies they'd probably guessed were all dead.

Around the rabble, on the edge of the muddy square, were several structures. All were shattered pre-war ruins, shabbily renovated over the years with planks of wood and concrete taken from the buildings outside the walls. This, I recognized thankfully, was also the only large piece of dry land in the whole of these goddesses damned ruins. Directly ahead was the town hall, that doubled as a sheriff's office if the need ever arose. Formerly a police station it was now the second largest and most secure structure in the town after the equally large Buckaroo's casino beside it.

The rusted sign and barred walls of the place paled in comparison to some of the larger casinos I'd seen up north, and the mere fact it had once been situated beside a police station only dragged its appeal down further. Nevertheless, most of the machines still functioned inside, including the Bucking bronco, the rodeo simulator for which the town had got its name. To my left were more residential shacks as well as the town clinic. Pretty much the same as the one in Churn minus the security, vault, and population.

The establishment itself was run by Bone Marrow’s brother Bone Meal, and I doubted the serious lack of the things I'd listed sat well with him. Opposite the clinic was Cocktail's saloon, not quite the wildly neon-lit Willow's. It only bore the glow of firelight from the wood filled barrels and torches scattered about town. Nevertheless, they did have a generator here, just not an entire functioning hydroelectric dam. Still, I wasn't one for spending my whole evening outside, and now that we'd practically saved half of the place, it was a good enough place to get some rest.

That in mind, I began trotting towards the bar almost instinctively. That subconscious motivation was broken a moment later when I had to stop for my new companion. Cherry had tensed up once again, her ears fidgeting and eyes darting nervously to everypony that passed her by, none of which showed any interest in her. That made me feel both annoyed and relieved simultaneously. While frustratingly unsympathetic, at least they weren't socially torturing her. That said, I backpedal cautiously. She flinched as I reappeared beside her, but seemed to relaxed the second our gazes met.

"Do you want to go inside?" I asked, feeling both sickeningly condescending and unfairly demanding.

Damn it, I was treating her like a foal! I really didn't want to think about foals right now.

It took her a long moment to answer, the whole time of which I was secretly begging Celestia she'd say yes. If not then I'd have to stay out here, because by the goddesses I'd let myself become attached again.

"Are you... Are you gonna stay in there? I mean I don't need you to... If you don't want to... I just..." She faltered, trying to communicate what she was thinking, her timid voice trailing off again.

I turned my attention toward other things as my conscience sought to make me aware of the various emotional traps that I might fall into. It was also berating me for the patronizing tone and reminding me of my poor interpersonal skills. Which was why most of my diplomacy involved my guns or flirting. But the more time that I spent with Cherry and seeing the strength of her character, her will to live, I realized that I was starting to have feelings of affection for this mare.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll stick with you," I assured her, unsure of whether I should ask her permission before boldly stating such a thing.

Another frail smile later, and her uncertainty assured me that was not necessary. Moments later, I took off my helmet and trotted into the bar. Cherry's tentative hoof steps sounded upon the desert dust close behind me, then on the wooden steps as I pushed through swinging saloon doors. The scent of cigarette smoke and booze struck me like a buck to the face almost instantly, and I felt a strange sympathy for the mare I'd left in that dumpster. Usually, I wouldn't have minded the good old smell of a saloon so much, yet being out in the relatively fresh air all day had made my senses more receptive than usual.

The foul scent manifested itself as a thick smog, the likes of which hung over the dimly lit room heavily. It was stirred like some viscous soup by two slowly rotating ceiling fans. In front of me was a large square room, with shabby wooden walls, several crooked windows, and faded pre-war portraits, as well as another door on the far side. It was also filled with rows of wooden tables. Covering most of them were glasses, cigars, spilled booze and drunk ponies. The occasional game of poker or blackjack broke the trend, as did several old vending machines.

I found myself having to double take at the sheer amount of ponies in here. Those that weren't drunk, broke or passed out, that was. I didn't recall this shabby little settlement ever having such a population, assuming this was the half that hadn't been stolen or the portion added by the protection package. I shrugged it off however. It wasn't my place to worry about this town too much. I should be more concerned about the strangely expansive slaver operations going on out in the desert considering that was where we'd be heading tomorrow. My knowledge of the region coalesced as I tried to figure it out, maybe all the scum had joined up to fight the rangers to the northeast, yet that wouldn't explain why they were this far in the opposite direction.

Besides, I doubted the lot of them could stand against those tin cans out in the opened for too long. I tried to formulate a theory revolving about the ghoul reports too, but that didn’t make sense either. That was just the wasteland being the wasteland, then again, wasn't every one of my problems just that? One conclusion I did come to, was one that thinking about made my head hurt, so instead, I set my mind to finding the only pony in here I cared about.

I found him sat at the bar, only a bit further along the left wall beside a set of upward leading stairs. It was not too dissimilar from Willow's back in Churn, only this bar had the luxury of being made from wood without rotting from the moist air. Another painfully tempting similarity was the wall behind the counter, the likes of which was lined with a rainbow of booze, wine, beer, scotch as well as the odd Apple Whisky or Sparkle Cola. Behind them was a mirror, giving any yearning customer the illusion that there was far more available than met the eye. At least this place didn't have an artificial charisma machine serving drinks though. No, it had an organic one inserted, as the owner here had the tendency to run her own establishment, unlike Willow. Cocktail, was her name I recalled, the sign outside serving my memory.

"Hope everypony out there in the South San Palomino is having a nice evening, your listing to your humble little rapid radio. So close to perfect, it hurts." The slightly tinny voice of Rapid fought the sound of the rabble from a radio sat on the far end of the bar.

Once again her reprised intro stung a little. Not to mention the strange longing to be back home the sound of her voice summoned in me. Well, I say home, what I was sure my cryptic feelings really mean was being free of the complications storming a raider nest commonly enrolled.

"Once again I am deeply displeased to have to talk about the growing threat of raiders in the southwest, it seems that not only are more of the poor excuses for ponies flowing out of the mines over in Crimson Springs, and jumping on that dog pile of a war with the Rangers. But more have taken to calling the old stable down at the south border their lair. Once again, I'd like to remind every good pony of my little request from last night's news, and warn every other pony to stay away. Moving on up from the dark depressing facts of our post-apocalyptic glory hole, however, we have some music. This is Sapphire Shores with 'The Sun Can't Hide Forever.'"

Her energetic voice cut out with a sharp pop, replaced the gloriously toned vocals of a mare. I felt my hopes drop a little as I realized I'd heard the same song about a thousand times. Then the idea of more raiders setting up shop south of here only soured my feelings that bit more. Before me, Star was already waving caps in his hooves, a half bottle of whiskey sitting on the counter in front of him. His fearsome helmet was perched upon his back mounted ammunition boxes, the weight of which was probably preventing him from sitting on one of the flimsy wooden bar stools.

I spared the gray buck only a brief glance before looking back to the doorway. Cherry stood there like a pink statuette, frozen between the swinging wooden panels. Though she was tensed up, she'd managed to stop shivering, I didn't see that as a good thing however. Her ears still danced nervously, twitching in all directions other than forward, her eyes feared to gaze upon her fellow bar patrons. Instead, the lime green spheres were focused directly on me.

Pondering exactly what I actually intended to do with this situation, I turned back to Star to see he was talking to somepony, either I'd been so blind as to not notice her at first glance or she'd only just engaged in conversation. She was a tan-coated mare with dull red mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of a lassoed cocktail glass spilling purple liquid. She was wearing a pocketed white apron, the original, pre-war name of this establishment faded and scribbled out on its front, replaced with her name, Cocktail. I approached, waiting a moment for Cherry to shift after me before taking the seat beside where Star was standing.

"Well, howdy sugar, might I say that you are lookin' mighty fine this evening." The voice of Cocktail greeted gleefully.

I didn't smile, she wasn't my friend, she just wanted to butter me up like every sales pony. Unlike them, I wasn't gonna overlook who I knew she once was.

Slaver.

I nearly coughed the word from my muzzle.

That had been a long time ago, she'd been betrayed by her group and almost killed, before finding her way here on a whim. It was frustratingly unfair that a pony so undeserving had managed to make a living so profitable for herself, especially when half the ponies about her were dragged into the wrong end of the same organization she'd once been a part of. My scowl deepened to dangerous levels, but I resisted the urge to let the grudge simmer for too long. Usually, I'd have taken her up on her offer and blown every last cap on booze and sex. All were, sure enough, a way to forget who the pony giving me such pleasures once was, yet I wasn't in the mood for any of that.

"So honey, what's it gonna be?" Cocktail asked expectantly, forcing a smile I could crack with a hammer.

"Just a room," I said dryly, trying to evaporate her attitude.

I could almost see her face twitch, she opened her muzzle to say something, but then stopped herself, throat dry as the desert.

Well, at least I'd been somewhat successful. I told myself raising an eyebrow. Now, was she gonna except my caps or what?

I floated the amount for a room out of my saddlebags almost subconsciously. The bar mare suddenly seemed to latch onto a new idea like a lifeline, pulling herself back into a raft sailing in the direction of more income, no matter how depleted.

"No worries, sugar, your partner here's already booked you both a fine room," she explained happily.

Had Star booked us a room? One room? But we were at work? I questioned, raising an eye to the buck sat beside me.

Then I remembered what I'd told him earlier, about the foal, and the raider. I sighed to myself silently, this was his way of trying to make me feel better, wasn't it? To engage in rough, sweaty sex? I'll admit I was tempted to take him up on the offer. It was fun, yes, but he was my friend and he knew I liked it, especially with him. He also knew why I did so much of it, he knew why I'd fuck every buck and mare I deemed worthy, all in hopes of achieving something I knew was impossible. Despite that, he didn't know what I'd seen today, he'd not seen what I'd seen before. I mean sure I'd told him, but he didn't see it play out right in front of him.

Urg... Damn it, wasteland! Why couldn't it have just been a bold stallion or a lone mare that suicide bombed me, then I'd only have the doubts about whether I'd done my job right and I could eventually get over that?

But no, the wasteland couldn't be that kind, it was all against me. That mockingly regal entity and its fucked up rules.

I continued to stare up at Star, he merely looked forward somewhat stoically, as if waiting for permission to see through the treatment he'd planned. I swallowed tentatively.

Damn it, I knew his heart was in the right place, yet fucking him or any buck for that matter over and over, wasn't gonna change who I was or what was wrong with me.

"No, I'll take my own room thanks," I told Cocktail simply.

The mare's plastic expression almost shattered, I guessed it wasn't every day she got a merc on the road not interested in anything other than a single room, but to hell with her sales. There were enough drunk ponies in here to fill a stable. Star didn't move, he just continued to stare forward, neither disagreeing or challenging my decision. That idea made me feel better than I ever could in bed with him. I didn't know if what I'd done to him upon our first meeting had made him that way, but I'd like to think knowing me had. For all my killing, sex, and cap hunting, I knew I wasn't a bad pony. I'd been able to hold on to that belief at least. Yet the only one who I'd allowed to see that core of modest goodness in me was him, and if that had changed him in any way, then I was proud of it.

"Yes, of course, sugar," Cocktail groaned reluctantly, hiding her sour tone as she took the caps from my magical grip with a hoof sweep, and went to the old pre-war cash register further down the bar.

"Thanks, I'll make it up to you when we get back home, promise," I whispered to Star appreciatively.

His eyes remained facing forward yet his muzzle was parted by a cunning smile.

Oh' he's thinking about that payment alright.

"You do what you want to when you're ready, I'm not a pony to get in your way that's for sure," he told me simply.

I turned my eyes back to the rows of alcohol on the mirrored shelves before me with an equally wide smile.

Yeah, he was my buck. My buck through and through.

"Here, honey, room's first door on the right," Cocktail mumbled around an aged metal key.

I stood up, taking the key in my magic and turned swiftly.

"Well I'll be a Brahmin’s mother, ya' gone an' found my waitress!"

Cocktail's sour mood seemed to abruptly lighten as her attention tore away from me. Then I noticed that as I'd moved I'd exposed Cherry to her hungry eyes. The pink mare was still standing nervously behind me.

Had she been waiting there, just standing? Damn it, now I felt even worse!

I should have offered her a seat at least.

"Why, when ya' when out there I thought ya'd never come back, Cherry Pin isn't it?" Cocktail asked excessively.

I glanced back, stepping aside so the pair could see eye to eye.

Cocktail beamed the words 'free labor at the expense of another's traumatic experience', and the phrase 'once a slaver...' flashed through my mind.

"Yeah, that's... me... And I was coming back, honest," Cherry's words were fleeting, she was fighting to see a pony she once knew and not some raider, although in this case there hardly seemed to be a difference.

My eyes narrowed slightly at that revelation.

"Yeah, I'll bet those raider bucks were just itching to get ya' back here," Cocktail countered, carelessly dismissing the fact with a wave of a hoof.

"Well... No, but..." Cherry muttered softly, her head bowing.

She didn't want to have to admit it was her fault, or what had happened to her. Cocktail's head cocked to one side inquisitively, and for a moment I thought I saw a hint of sympathy.

"Well, it's certainly good to see ya' back an' able to work, sugar," She stated, with transparent cheer.

Wait? My thoughts halted, Work? She'd been through all that, and you were ready to just put her back to work like nothing had happened?

My ears fell flat against my helmet, I really hoped waitress, as Skipper had said, meant what it was supposed to, and wasn't something else.

"Urm… Yes, ma’am, I'll work, just..." Her voice cracked painfully and trailed off.

I glanced at her shivering, she didn't look afraid nor did I sense she wanted to disobey. She wanted to be the hero who at least got off her butt and tried to save those ponies. In my eyes she was more than that, she was like a gleaming star among all of the other dreary fucks who'd done nothing to help. Worse still, they treated her this way. I turned sharply to Cocktail.

"I think I'll take this one." I pointed at Cherry giving her a subtle wink. "For some fun," I added erotically as possible.

Cocktail's eyes widened at the possibility of extra caps. I didn't want to look at the pink unicorn's eyes lest they be filled with horror at the idea. Nevertheless, I slowly floated a great deal more caps over to the bar mare, more than she could have gained from my drinking that was for sure.

"Thank you kindly, please do be careful with her she's been through a lot."

Oh, you have no idea you bitch!

I had to fight to keep that thought a thought, lest it become a bold declaration at gunpoint.

So waitress did mean something else if the caps stacked up did it? I surmised.

I couldn't stomach the greedy mare's poisonous gaze any longer, she'd robbed my caps and won, now she could just fuck off. That said, I swiftly turned and looked down to Cherry, secretly begging she'd not be staring at me with horrified eyes, so much so I put my helmet back on so not to reveal my hurt expression. Strangely, they were still drooped, boring into the dull green of the old carpet.

"Well, come on," I said sharply, trying to be as believable as possible.

She didn't look up, and I felt a shiver of shame run through me. Nevertheless, I trotted towards the stairs and she followed slowly.

"Well, go on, you'd be dead by now if you were still a slave you know," Cocktail declared coldly, banging a hoof on the wooden counter.

I could feel red creeping into my vision as Cherry jumped and scurried to only inches behind me. Cocktail smiled, it was free caps after all. She was still a slaver, just a less obvious one, the only difference was her slaves wore a collar that made them naught but hopeless as a pose to blowing them up. The cold look in her eyes made me want to scream, I would have jumped onto her right there and then if it weren't for Star.

"I'll have another," he announced, pushing his half full bottle over the wooden counter.

Cocktail's eyes lit up again as she turned to the stallion. Then her expression morphed into one of confusion.

"Urm, it's still half full, sugar," she announced dryly, looking down at the glass.

"Oh, really? My mistake," Star added with a slight laugh.

The hastily manufactured chuckle of Cocktail followed, but I'd ensured we were long gone upstairs by the time she could look back in our direction.

********

"Here this is for you," I said invitingly, tapping the single mattress with a hoof.

The old, metal frame it was laid upon gave a rickety creek as did the aged wood beneath it.

Oh' well more work for that bitch below if it broke. I sniggered harshly to myself.

Cherry was stood just a few hoof steps from me, looking heartbrokenly betrayed. The moment I'd revealed the bed she'd tensed again, her eyes begging that the image they saw was some kind of cruel illusion, and yet never wanting to admit it. For a long moment, it was hard to look at her while I stood in the position a Raider may have taken only hours ago.

"But I thought... I... I can't, I," the pink mare stuttered.

A wave of crushing shame fell over me with the weight of a train car, this was not what I wanted, and yet whatever I did it felt like I was transmitting the wrong message. Instead, I smiled, albeit it rather pointlessly given the gloom.

"Don't worry the bed's for you, nopony else," I told her, stepping back from the warn mattress.

"But, but, you... Cocktail, she..." she stuttered again, losing her pitiful plea to confusion as she began to shiver once more.

"I didn't mean what I... Implied down there. I just tricked her into giving you the room," I explained kindly, praying to the goddesses that she could see what I'd intended over the very suggestive implications.

I could see her glance about. The room was a small, wooden rectangle with only one window the likes of which sat on the bed, looking over the wall towards the flooded, brown, wasteland beyond. Other than that, there was a bedside table supporting a shattered lamp and a stained rug. Cherry took a slow breath, hesitantly trotting over to me and the bedside.

"You tricked her?" she asked with the faintest grin.

I nodded, equally amused by the fact.

"Yep, and now you get her services for free," I explained with a slight chuckle.

I took another step back allowing her to slip cautiously between me and the old bedside.

"This, this is mine? I can sleep on it?" she asked in disbelief, laying a hoof on the mattress as if trying to prove to herself it was really there.

I gave another nod, another rather pointless expression considering she was far too focused on the miracle that was a free bed.

"Yep, it's all yours," I added slowly moving to the door.

There was a metallic creek as she climbed into the bed and settled down. Only once she was content did my thoughts turn to myself. I could go back down, I owed Star at least something. Yet if I did, Cocktail may wonder what became of her waitress.

Wouldn't want to be wasting such a good talent after all.

I sighed, but it was a warm sigh, at least. I spent almost every moment with Star, he could wait. And the less I saw of Cocktail, the better.

Does Cherry want you to stay? My mind asked.

I perked up, turning to the corner of the room just left of the door. In the darkness, I heard Cherry shift. Now it was my turn to plea, would she let me stay? Did I deserve it? The questions swam on the currents of my mind until I finally voiced them, and to my surprise, she nodded ever so slightly. I couldn't tell whether it was shame or pride that made it so, but it made me feel better regardless. My horn flared, wrapping my helmet in a blue glow that temporality illuminated the room. With a tug, the modified attire levitated up allowing the relatively cold air to flood onto my damp mane as it fell back to its natural place, partly covering my eyes.

I took a deep, refreshing breath, the air just felt cooler without the helmet or visor, speaking of which I made sure to lock the glass display up before placing the helmet down beside me. Then with another glow, the rest of my dragon scaled barding began to peel off my sweaty coat and I took several swift sips from my canteen.

Wow, now I knew why I rarely removed my barding outside of Churn, I really stank.

Just like the average wastelander without access to a water talisman. My mind reminded me.

I ignored the mild guilt as I peeled off the rest of my modified gear and laid it neatly beside my helmet and weapons. I looked up, taking another breath as the relatively cool night air relieved my sticky, sweat simmered body. A moment of grooming my damp mane from my eyes later, and I glimpsed Cherry's eyes watching me from the bed. Her forehooves were curled up to her chest pulling the ragged purple blanket up over her front, her eyes were as close to normal as I'd seen them all day. She didn't look afraid or threatened, instead, she looked safe, more so in fact. Like she couldn't believe who I was.

A warrior of the goddesses come to save her? A miracle pony from beyond the wasteland? Or perhaps simply a good pony?

I dearly hoped for the latter most idea to be true as I made my way over to the bed and lay down on the rough rug just beside it. She was still looking at me, like the fact that I was naked made me more a pony and less something terrifying.

Don't even think about it that way, brain! I snapped at some of my bolder thoughts.

Ultimately, it was like we were equal. I'd saved her life, I assumed that was why she seemed to at least be less afraid of me. I smiled slightly, ignoring the fact that the rug on which I lay of reeked of piss, booze and Celestia knew what else. Yet it was no better than any mattress out here.

"Urm, Dragonfire?" Cherry muffled tentatively, instantly stealing my attention.

She looked right at me hopelessly, and it seemed she was regretting the fact she'd started to ask something. Worry beat in my next heart twitch.

Why was she worried about me? What had I done? Was it the room, my barding? Because I was naked?

No! I stopped my panic with one rational thought, recalling her words and tone closely.

"Sorry, go ahead, ask what you want," I intoned kindly. "Trust me, these ears have endured the worst," I added, trying to wave of her worry with a literal hoof wave.

She seemed to relax at that, dismissing the idea that failure to complete a sentence would result in something awful. Then she opened her muzzle once more, fighting back her shivers as she cautiously continued.

"Urm, Dragonfire?"

I continued to look at her, my eyes inviting her questions as much as possible.

"Yeah?"

She paused shivering violently before finally adding…

"Thank you."

She managed a frail smile as she uttered the words. She'd said it again, and I felt my heart flutter slightly.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just doing my job," I replied simply.

Was this really my job? No, not technically, but it was what a pony should do, my one rule that distinguished me from all other mercs, the one exception being Star. A moment later there was a metallic creek as the mare rolled over onto her back, eyes boring into the dull wood of the ceiling. She gave a sniff, then razed a hoof to the shimmering spheres as tears began to trickle down her cheek. I froze, eyes diverted. Was there anything I should do? What should I say? I took a breath and swallowed, don't lose this one Dragonfire, save her.

"You know if you want to talk about anything..." I said, slowly raising a hoof.

Her weak weeping stopped, and she fell silent.

Damn it, Dragon, you...

"Really? You want to hear about a useless filly like me?" Cherry whimpered self-loathly as if there was nothing to tell that anypony would find interesting.

Shut up doubts. Shut up, brain!

"Yeah, of course," I responded with interest, my mind now asking me whether psychology was in a mercenary's job description.

If somepony paid enough for it, it probably would be. I countered wittingly, but that wasn't the point.

Cherry gave another weak sniffle.

"I just don't want them to be mad," She confessed softly.

My ears rose tall in confusion. Mad? Who was gonna be mad at her? The image of Cocktail came to mind, as well as Skipper, then her dead friends. My recent frustration saw that my thoughts failed to dwell on the latter however. Regardless, she didn't give me a chance to respond before continuing.

"I'm such a stupid filly, I got myself captured. It's my fault. I mean, who did I think I was going to fool out there, the damn raiders? I'm good for nothing other than what Cocktail tells me," she exclaimed, her words escorted from her muzzle by a set of sobs.

My confusion steadied slightly.

"No pony gets captured by raiders on purpose. Besides, all I see is a brave mare who tried. No pony can fault you for that," I explained as truly as I could.

Yes, it was a reckless idea, but truth be told, the world was as it was because of recklessness. I was reckless. But at least she'd been reckless trying to do what was right.

"No, I shouldn't, it was stupid. I should have just listened to Cocktail, like she said this is all I'm good at… I."

She sat up sharply waving over the bed with her forehooves, her words severed by a slight squeak as if realizing she was actually talking openly to somepony. Then the weeping began to creep back into her eyes.

Damn it Dragonfire, think of something, pull her back!

"I don't think it's your fault. And I'm definitely not angry at you," I told her abruptly.

No, no, no that never works! Not now it's too soon, damn it, brain! Remember how many ponies said that to you?

I lacked the tenacity to tell my mind to shut up as Cherry stopped and glanced at me. Instead, I forged a reassuring smile.

"I don't think such a kind pony would let anypony down and you didn't. If you hadn't been there I'd have been a slave by now," I added, trying to hide the fact I actually found her quite cute, and the fact that I'd have probably found some pyromaniac solution to Mister Red before the latter mentioned fate could have befallen me.

Even so, Cherry's trembling muzzle began to curl with the frail foundations of a proud grin. I don't know whether it was just me or if any other pony could have done it, but when she looked at me it seemed to just be enough to hold back the blame and anxiety.

"Just don't worry about it, you're safe now, and I'll stay right here until you believe that, and well..." I paused thoughtfully.

Was this really the best thing to say? Regardless, it was the best I had.

"If you know what will make you happy then just say, I'll try my best," I had to block out a snickering voice in my head that constantly reminded how many ways I may come to regret that promise.

The sight of Cherry's somewhat relieved expression remaining constant warded off my doubts slightly, and for a moment I thought I'd calmed her just enough. Then she frowned, dark thoughts dragging back her relief. I blinked, not wanting to say anything until I knew what was biting at her smile.

"I can't be happy, not anymore."

Her voice broke with a sharp crack as she looked over herself beneath the covers. Her cold confession made my heart ache, that was something I knew far too well and it was a situation far too numerous in the wasteland.

"Well, if it's any consolation, happiness is one of the hardest things to find out here. But is there anything you could think of?" I asked, before trying to think of an example.

My attempts just bought up past memories I'd fought hard to bury, and I swiftly filled in the holes before my mind could get a chance to reanimate them. Cherry just went back to staring down at herself emptily. I swallowed nervously. I had the social situation on a knife edge, throw a minefield in there and some trigger happy raiders and you'd just about get the delicateness of the emotional situation I was handling, and I certainly wasn't the most skilled when it came to these instances.

I bowed my head as the long moment of no response dragged any hope I had of making her feel at least somewhat better into a dark room, before putting a bullet through its skull.

Well done, Dragonfire, my mind hissed mockingly.

"I…" Cherry suddenly whimpered glancing back up at the far wall, salvaging my hopes as she did so.

I looked back up at her, ears perked.

"I... My family made me happy, my sisters, mother. My father, baby nephew especially, but… They're all gone now," she stammered, closing her eyes tightly.

It wasn't hard to see she was holding back tears about loved ones that she would not see again, not until she gave up her spirit too. My ears fell flat again, any hope I'd had of giving her something was weak, but now it was no less than impossible, yet in one cold thought of my own I salvaged an idea.

"Hey... I know how that feels, I don't remember my father, but I remember losing my mother and my..." Now it was my turn to stammer as genuinely as she did.

The chilling thought of that loss hit me like a wall of ice. Now those thoughts were present in my mind the sick mental fucker made me relive them several times before I finally managed to seal them away again. I remembered losing my little brother all too well, back up in New Appaloosa, one trek up near the Everfree and well... There was a reason I hated dragons. I thought of the draconic beast I'd slain, lying rotten on the lakeside. The thought was caught between a burning sense of justice and a cold flood of sorrow. I took a deep, staggered breath.

Not now, Dragonfire, not now. I mentally told myself, before glancing up at Cherry.

I knew how that felt, but she needed help far more than me. She'd been beaten, raped, a lot by the look of her flank. Disease, internal damage, I knew everything that could physically come from such abuse. The moment I realized that fact, another far deeper monster reared its ugly head from within the dark caverns of my troubled mind. Its presents swiftly turned my attempt at kind reassurance emotionally fatal to more than just her.

Fuck you, brain! I called, but all the psychological fucker gave me in response was something along the lines of out of the frying-pan and into the fire.

I forced my eyes closed once more, taking a breath as Cherry watched me with worry. It was hard to tell if I was the source of her concern or something else in her head.

No! Dragonfire, this wasn't about you! Not anymore! This was about her, save her! My mind continued, beating at my self-induced torture.

My eyes opened and turned to her as she continued to offer that concerned look.

"You okay?" she asked timidly.

Wow, you must look like such a great savior.

I groaned, my mind coming back from panic attack territory.

"Yeah, I–I'm fine. It’s just the mention of family… I lost my family a long time ago too, and well..."

I couldn't make a new one. My thoughts finished for me.

No, brain. You do not get to finish that! You do not get to take me back there!

Still, my unspoken portion of the sentence mustn't have been too elusive, and Cherry's eyes widened at the implication.

Damn it Dragonfire! Just focus on the reality.

She'd been beaten, nothing a good healing potion couldn't fix physically, and while her mentality was a concern, it was currently marred by the many complications of being raped and abused, as was her body. Internal injury, disease… Conception?

Dangerous line there, brain, real dangerous line…

"Look, I know it's not my place to ask," I stated cautiously, looking away and digging at the tattered carpet with a hoof. "But would you feel better if I paid for a medical? I mean if you want to... I..."

I wanted something to calm me down not her, and that blunt violation of privacy was a good enough distraction. I knew how far it was from the ideal option, I was practically forcing her to admit to everypony, including herself, what had happened. But if I didn't then she'd just worry about the consequences and maybe even succumb to them. As if counter attacking my previous assault, my mind took great pleasure in forcing me to admit that some mares didn't even have to try in order to achieve what I was simply unable to. I beat that thought to a ragged pulp before burying it deep in the darkest reaches of my memory with the rest of its foul ilk.

On the outside, all I could do was sigh, I wasn't gonna have many caps left after this, until the fifty thousand anyway. But for Cherry, for this mare I was making the sacrifice for, the caps didn’t matter as much to me. Why? I couldn't fathom. No, I didn't want to admit I could fathom it.

"You... You would?" she stuttered, still clearly fighting the fear of the worst possible truth, and yet seeing many unwanted troubles I could relieve her of.

I just gave a weak nod.

"Of course."

The words left my muzzle like a fluent song riding over the fallen corpses of all the foul thoughts that processed them. Of course, I was a merc, but there was a difference between being a merc and evil. Of course, there were someponies out there who were only in it for the caps, sometimes even me. But the moment I saw her, what I saw in the moments that followed our meeting. Something had been broken in my mind. A foal blown to bits by the cruelty of its own mother. A mare horrified and alone. The two in combination had mutated my instincts into something alien and new, or they'd resurrected something old and rusty, but no less strong. I'd do anything to make her happy. Just like I would a foal whose life I'd tried save, a foal whose life I'd never create. Cherry's wide-eyed expression sank down into her bed as she laid back on the ragged pillow.

"You should get some sleep," I found myself saying, avoiding the emotional conflict this conversation had left me.

She gave what looked like a nod, yet from her position, it was hard to tell for sure. I looked round to the bedside table just before me.

So close to perfect? Haha, what a joke.

Tomorrow, I'd get her a full medical, that would probably see a lot of my caps go down the drain, but she'd be happier. Clean and disease free. Healed and… I mentally paused. No little miracles, not for her. My eyes drew closed as I settled my head. No miracles for this pony.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Psychologist - Wasteland hardened killer or not, you really know how the harshness of the world affects the mind. Gain +3 charisma when talking to any allied character and gain extra speech options with all companions.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: Rainbowsurvivor.

Chapter Four: One Way Or Another

Chapter 4: One Way Or Another

“Don’t worry. I’m not sure I'd want to live here either...”

In the dull evening twilight, I could barely make out my forehoof as it sat gently upon my mother’s smooth coat. Even so, the shafts of light which permeated the jagged roof of the train car provided enough illumination for me to make out the deep blue hue of my mother’s hide as it shifted.

"I think I just felt something!" I laughed giddily as her swollen midsection kicked.

I'd known for a few weeks now, ever since she'd accidentally spilled it to me while on another angry tangent about how my friends were a bad influence on me. Yeah, sure they were not perfect, but the older unicorns were teaching me some neat stuff, not to mention they told me how to take good care of 'Zap'. Unfortunately, my mother had drawn the line last week when we'd 'accidentally' found ourselves too close to some radiation pit at the back of the town.“We shouldn't have been back there,” she'd said, “they're a bad influence on a young filly like you.”

Firstly, I wasn't a filly, I was twelve and while I still didn't have my cutie mark, I could definitely look after myself. I mean, I didn't even get close to the glowing barrels so there was no way it could have done anything to me, especially with the amount of RadAway she forced me to take afterward. Even so, I was condemned to stay here in this tin can of a car unless supervised, no matter how much I protested or begged. Admittedly, after the first few failed escape attempts, I just accepted it. All the while I continually told myself that she was the only pony I'd be this nice to. I mean, after that misunderstanding with Dodge, I'd felt I was being a too little hard on here, especially when she had the new foal to think about.

It was funny really, I'd sort of an idea of where foals came from before this, but my mother had never had a stallion, not outside of work anyway, and traveling about so much saw that even relationships with them were fleeting. I'll admit, it was embarrassing to think that I might have ended up like her.

That was if I and Dodge actually done anything. My thoughts added.

I was still trying to convince everypony that while I knew that I may be reckless, I wasn't that stupid.

"Urg ... Yes, dear, they're not one for sleeping, but could you please do me a favor and just get some sleep yourself?" My mother groaned wearily, rubbing her squirming belly with a hoof.

I looked round at her, my forehoof still rubbing the smooth surface of her stomach.

"But mom, I want to talk to my new baby brother," I protested, forcing my voice into a fake whine.

The blue unicorn smiled warmly, as if she couldn't resist.

"You do know this foal could be a filly, right?" she asked me casually as I felt another kick beneath my hoof.

I thought about that for a moment, but my mind wasn't one for focusing on one thing for too long.

"Nah, he's gonna be a colt, I can tell. If he were a filly he'd be like me, and I can kick way harder than that," I stated proudly, puffing up my chest.

My mother rolled her eyes.

"Don't I know it," she replied, then sighed.

My look turned somewhat curious, I couldn't imagine how it felt to have some pony moving about inside you, then again, I certainly wasn't getting in line to find out. I mean, I loved my mom and all, but this... She was kind of a bitch while pregnant. She looked at me casually before shaking her head slowly, laughing to herself subtly. My ears perked, my head cocking to one side, and an eyebrow rose in confusion. Was this another mood swing? She'd just been telling me to go to bed a moment ago, now she seemed okay with my just sitting here prodding her. Or was it a craving? She'd already sent me to get her ten packs of sugar apple bombs this week. By Celestia, she was gonna be a pain when we had to move again.

"Mom, you okay?" I asked skeptically, my hoof still stroking her coat almost subconsciously.

She gave another thoughtful laugh before looking back up at me.

"You're right, they are no better than you," she said, rubbing her hoof in my scruffy mane.

My concern washed away.

Why was I worried anyway? She'd been through this alone with me after all.

I gave her an appreciative smile.

"Ha ha, I'm just glad I never have to put up with somepony kicking about inside me," I boasted cheerfully.

With that, my mother stopped ruffling my mane and instead moved her hoof to mine, gliding it across her belly gently. I looked at her curiously for a moment, but her focus was on where our hooves fell upon her swollen stomach.

"Oh?" she asked knowingly, not sparing me a glance.

"What do you mean, oh? Have you seen what this is doing to you?" I exclaimed bluntly.

She just gave another sweet chuckle.

"You know, one day you might not say that," she replied, her tone one of motherly amusement.

"No, I think that I’ll leave that to you," I laughed, as our hooves stopped on a rising bulge.

"There he is, I can feel him!" I looked up to my mother eagerly to find her once again shaking her head, her smiling expression somewhat matronly.

"Yep, that's where 'he' likes to lie. Right in the ribs." She grunted as she put extra emphasis on the irritated tone of voice of her latter statement.

My attention was far too occupied with the soft mass beneath my mother's smooth coat, however. My brother, I was gonna have a baby brother... Or a maybe sister. But I was convinced it would be a brother.

"Mom, I'm gonna be the best big sister ever, you'll see," I declared proudly, looking up at her with an equally wide smile.

She paused looking at me with motherly affection.

"I'm sure you will," she said, rubbing the same spot with her hoof. "I'm sure you will," she repeated to herself thoughtfully.

"You'll make a great mom too," she added, as if teasing. "I mean you're reckless, disobedient and the like..." she added jokingly.

My eyes narrowed as a whimsical scowl adorned my face.

"But you're loyal, caring, and your heart is always in the right place," she added with pride.

"Yeah, it's in my chest!" I snarked wittily, pointing a hoof to the same spot on my body. "But I'm still fine with leaving this mushy stuff to you."

She shook her head once more. It was like somehow she thought I believed it was her job to have every foal in the wasteland.

I mean come on that was a stupid idea, right?

"It's not just about this, you know, Astral, there’s a lot more to it. Like love," she replied.

My ears perked curiously, one of my eyebrows rising.

"But you didn't love anypony, certainly not any of those stallions you had back here. I mean, you were kicking them out the next morning," I told her giddily, waving a hoof to the door.

She paused for a moment, blushing slightly. Her crystal blue eyes looked as if they were staring right through me, then she sighed.

"No, but I love you more than anypony," she replied with a warm grin, and I smirked challengingly.

"Even more than him?" I countered, rubbing her belly softly.

She laughed slightly as her as my hoof returned to the squirming mass of foal within her.

"Well, maybe you'll have some competition soon," she corrected.

I spat out my tongue in playful disgust, I was certainly wasn't getting in line to go through this lovely-dovey crap.

"Hey now, you need some sleep," she swiftly added, looking to my bed on the opposite side of the train car.

I glanced in the direction of the ragged pile atop the mattress.

"But mom," I whined, hoping it would provide me with the same response as my former attempt.

I saw her eyes roll tiresomely.

"No, Astral Fire, go to bed. This foal isn't going anywhere for a few months yet," she told me wearily.

I was about to protest, yet recalling what I'd told myself about being somewhat of a jerk. I instead gave in with a frustrated huff.

"Good night little bro," I said reluctantly, before hesitantly pulling my hoof from my mother's belly and trudging over to my bed.

Oh, well at least I could actually get some sleep, without a party going on inside me. I thought wittingly, the idea a silent form of retaliation.

Not that I'd ever have to worry about it. Yet, the more I thought about what my mother had said, the more I began to wonder, what more was there to it? The idea of not knowing was strangely peculiar, almost like my curiosity was instinctive. Yet, I assured myself having somepony inside me was just weird. Besides, I didn't want to get that fat, I'd lose all my colt friends for sure if I was that fat.

Yep, it was probably for the best. I mentally repeated as I settled down into my bed.

********

"Well, you seem to be fine," Bone Meal said flatly, tapping on a flickering medical screen with a hoof.

It was a familiar sight for me, the clinic that is. I usually found myself in Marrow's back in Churn, and she had almost everything except one of those auto-doc things I'd heard so much about. I'd never really paid much attention to the stories about the small iron coffins with cutting arms, syringes, saws and lasers ready to take a pony apart. To me, it sounded like a stable, only miniaturized. I much preferred the more open approach of a clinic, even if needles were one the only things I was still terrified of.

I know! I know! It was such a foolish attitude. I'd been shot, beaten, and subjected to goddesses know what else so many times, and yet some little needles frightened me. But I'd seen worse, I once knew a pony who was afraid of balloons, the poor buck fainted at the sight of an M.O.M building full of the things, even before any of us realized they were actually just sprite bots painted like balloons, straggly freaky balloons at that.

I shook my head, that was way off topic.

Was the clinic really that boring? Considering, I wasn't here for myself, then yes, yes it was.

The long room before me was made from what was previously a pre-war clothing shop by the look of the dressing rooms at the far end. That was another thing about pre-war ponies I'd never understood. They didn't wear clothes, so what oh so fabulous equine had the idea to make a dressing room?

Wow, this place really was boring enough to bring that to my attention.

Even so, the previously pointless dressers had been converted into curtain covered hospital beds around which sat a whole plethora of medical screens and equipment. Three ponies occupied the beds. Many more beds were backed against the left and right walls between us, where the store's shelves had once been. Most were occupied by the slaves we'd rescued. In fact, it had surprised me that another pony in this town was willing to help them. Bone Meal, it seemed, did have the same caring tendency as his sister, even if it did take a little 'convincing' from the town authority to have him accommodate most of the recovered population.

I overlooked that latter part, however, simply wanting to look beyond the ‘coercion’ involved to see that there was another good pony out here. After all, he did need at least some caps to get by, so it wasn't too hard because I did the same thing in a manner of speaking, no matter how kind hearted I thought I was. Bone Meal himself was a unicorn buck, boasting a white surgical robe. He wore glasses over his brown coat and white mane and was standing beside the bed closest to me. Cherry was laid nervously atop the old metal frame. Even after last night, it had been a struggle to get her in here, never mind get her to lay still while a buck with cold, metal utensils did his work. If she'd not been so tired, I doubted I'd have persuaded her to do any of this, that in itself didn't make me feel good about myself.

Abusing the fact she'd failed to get much sleep certainly wasn't the best way to leave an impression, especially considering in the moments in which she did get some rest, it was fleeting and plagued by traumatic night terrors. On top of that, there was my own brief moments of sleep, the likes of which had also been plagued by similar dreams. It seemed all the talk I'd been having with Star, as well as the incident at the Ironshod factory, had left a grave impression on my restless mind, the likes of which I could not escape even in unconscious. For a long while, I was freighted that somepony would come to investigate Cherry's unconscious cries. Yet Cocktail didn't seem to care about her 'waitresses' enough to even raise an ear. Not to mention the fact I'd had to sneak Cherry out of the back this morning to avoid the bitch. Finally, on top of all that, I was hungry. All I'd been able to eat was some old sugar apple bombs from my bags, and worst of all I'd not even had a chance to look at my spare energy rifle. I shook my head, this place really was boring enough for me to lose myself entirely.

It's all for the better, Dragon. I assured myself. No, it's all for Cherry. I corrected.

As for the mare in question, she seemed to be physically fine, or at least Bone Meal told me she was. I stood up from the old stool that sat at the bedside as Bone Meal looked over a clipboard suspended by his magic.

"Hmm... I see," he mumbled as I peered over his shoulder to look at the information on his clipboard.

"So she's okay, right?" I asked, looking down at the random medical gibberish on his clipboard.

He looked back, staring over his glasses.

"Well yes, no infection, internal damage or signs of conception," he explained in an emotionally detached, clinical tone of voice as he levitated the clipboard to the side.

I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Although I'd tried to assure Cherry she'd be fine, after I'd brought it up she had begun to indeed worry and I couldn't have been truly sure she was fine. Hearing it from the doctor just banished the doubts of my own reassurances as he laid those fears to rest.

"Yes, apart from some vaginal bleeding and some pelvic pain. Nothing a simple healing potion won't fix. She should be fine," he reassured as he finally placed the clipboard down on a medical cabinet filled with refrigerated chem to his right.

Then he turned to Cherry while looking at her thoughtfully.

"Mental and emotional traumas on the other hoof may be far more complicated to treat. Though I’m no shrink, that shrink might warn that she’ll never really recover from the traumas inflicted upon her after she left town."

I nodded, signifying my understanding regarding his disclaimer about Cherry’s mental and emotional health.

Goddesses! I felt like I was her mother or something!

Regardless, I tried not to think about what the raiders’ abuse might have done to her head. The physical examination and less than simple blood tests had been uncomfortable enough to watch, especially after what she'd said to me last night. But she knew Bone Meal and he was no raider. I on the other hoof, knew that most ponies working in places such as this were out to help, not abuse, though their help required a significant amount of caps. Yet medical supplies weren't cheap in the wasteland. A moment later, Bone Meal struck a switch on top of one of the screens before trotting back behind the medicine cabinet.

"Well, physically all I can advise is some healing stimulus. Restoration potions should do the trick, then she should rest," he advised as Cherry cautiously sat up.

I turned towards her, smiling kindly. I felt strangely proud of her bravery. Only yesterday a raider had been where the doctor was, yet she'd not faltered too much at the examination. I'd like to think she was regaining her trust, if not of other ponies, then at least, I hoped, that she might place her trust in me and to an extent and Bone Meal too. That said, the prescription didn't feel completely accurate. Don't get me wrong I was no medical pony, but a healing potion or two may repair her body, but it would do nothing to fix her mind. That was gonna take far more than just chem. That was a fact I knew all too well.

That realization hit me sometime last night, and at its conception, another thought had swirled into existence.

No, brain I can't! I hissed at my mental thoughts feeling an aching, twanging sensation within my chest.

Yet, a dusty old part of my mental mechanism had indeed sparked into life and it was slowly shedding the layers of filthy cobwebs as it once again began to churn out ideas.

No, I can't. I mentally protested again, as if that part of me were a foal begging for a new toy.

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't stay here and take care of her for any longer than today. I still had a job to do and there was no way I was letting Star go to that place alone. On the other side of the bench was the dangerous side of my mental conflict. I didn't have it in me to tell her.

"I'll take two healing potions then," I told Bone Meal almost subconsciously as I leaned over his counter.

The brown stallion stared at me for a moment, I must look so strange dressed in this battle-hardened gear while spending my caps on somepony else for no reason.

That would be the reputation my line of work earned a pony kicking in then? I assumed.

If you were a merc, you were in it for the caps and nopony else. I just sighed at the stereotypical thought, just as I did every time I was presented with it. It was as if the whole wasteland was against me. I'd taken one of its leading occupations and was using it to break the mercenary stereotype and my habitual mercenary mentality certainly didn't like me for that.

Well, you know what wasteland? Fuck you! I mentally shouted at the cursed entity that was this post-apocalyptic shit hole of a world.

Regardless, in my thoughtful stupor, I'd failed to notice the Bone Meal as he began calculating the cost, tapping his hooves upon the pre-war cash register.

"Well, she's one of the slaves, subtracting that, while adding the cost of a full body analysis and healing potions and we come to... One hundred-twenty caps." He concluded, looking up from the cash register.

Well Dragon, you knew it wasn't gonna be cheap. My mind told me in a tone that only said 'I told you so'.

Still, it was a lot cheaper than I was expecting, even if she'd had been raped and tortured to qualify for the discount. I grumbled at that implication setting my subtle frustration on it like a pack of hungry Radwolves. But at least it drove my focus away from the irritation regarding the minor expense as my horn flared, the respective amount of caps swiftly levitating onto the counter. At least it wasn't all of them. I still had a few hundred or so left, not that they would get me much in these parts. Bone Meal smiled generously, before sweeping the caps into the register with a hoof.

"Thank you," he added, in what was an honest and appreciative enough tone, unlike his greedy neighbor across the yard.

A moment later two healing potions replaced my caps on the desktop.

Well, he was happy and Cherry was safe. That said, the mare was still nervously twitchy, not to mention she clung closer to my tail than any other pony I knew ever dared.

"Thanks," I groaned, trying to be as appreciative as possible.

It wasn't Bone Meal's fault that I was slowly leaving myself stuck with this mare.

"Hey, I know it's none of my business, but if you want my advice, you should stay around give her somepony to talk to. She clearly suffering from minor PTSD. Talking about it is the best treatments, especially considering how Cocktail usually treats her ‘employees’ over there," Bone Meal whispered, gesturing in the direction of the saloon.

My ears flattened.

Okay, so that part was his fault. But he was right.

I wasn't just gonna leave her back at Cocktail's, even if I knew it would be so much easier to simply move on. A part of me wondered why he would let her go back, yet the saloon owner was an 'important' slav... I mean pony in the town, and I doubted his opinion would make any real impact. I sighed to myself quietly. No, I couldn't leave her, my mind wouldn't let me without twisting my insides up with guilt. But out there she wasn't safe, even if she thought she could handle it like the last time.

Damn, it Dragon what is it with you? I cursed myself.

Then I just stopped, evaluating my plethora of problems. Firstly, I had a job to do. Secondly, I had a mare I couldn't bring myself to abandon and third, I had a friend I didn't wish to disappoint. No solutions presented themselves to my mind.

Come on, brain, you friskily little fucker, give me some solutions!

I had a home back in Churn where I could take her! Yes, but the mental mechanism that provided the idea was equally swift at shooting it down, I'd no time to backtrack. Star could be very patient, but I wasn't doing that to him.

"Err, hmm," Bone Meal's interjection swiftly shook me from my thoughtful stupor only for me to realize that all this time I had been just leaning on his counter.

Stepping back with a slight hint of embarrassment I shook my head.

"I'll keep that in mind," I told him as he looked at me peculiarly.

Before he could question, however, I retrieved the potions and trotted out of the door. Cherry darted after me, her shivering hoof steps unmistakable upon the rickety wooden floor.

"Feeling any better?" I asked the moment we were both outside.

From her shy expression, I could tell she was still rather uncomfortable with admitting to me the whole ordeal even happened. Nevertheless, her ears tweaked upwards at the sound of my voice.

"Yeah, I... thanks," she stuttered in an unemotionally monotone tone of voice.

Alarm bells were already going off in my mind, I recognized what was once anxiousness was swiftly developing into a noticeable depression.

Damn it, Dragon! You're a mercenary, not some damn psychologist! Yet, Bone Meal hadn't been much help in that regard either.

'Give her somepony to talk to?' Yeah, I could do that, but not forever, not for as long as she needed me to.

You could do it right now. My mind stated dryly.

I sighed. Right, of course.

"Hey, remember what I said last night? Just try to think about what makes you happy," I forced.

Really Dragon? That was the best you can come up with, did you even consider the fact she might be afraid to think about the one thing she told you made her happy?

Thank you brain, you're such a supportive friend.

Cherry looked up at me.

"Thanks, but I don't think that will do me much good around..." her sentence trailed off into an uncomfortable silence as her eyes leveled with the Saloon.

A portion of my anger exhibited itself as I ground my teeth in anger, the muscles in my limbs flexing and relaxing as I breathed heavily and exercised every ounce of my self-control to not storm out of the town, capture a raider, and use a potato peeler to release all of my hatred and fury for what their treatment of Cherry had done to her. By Celestia, if I could I'd drag Cocktail out into a raider den and see how she like to spend a day with them, I'd be a far happier pony.

She'd probably feel just at home among those scum as Mister Red enjoyed using them like chess pawns. To be exploited to the fullest extent and then sacrificed when he no longer needed them, I assumed.

That wasn't the point brain.

Regardless of my vendetta against Cocktail, Cherry still looked terrified of returning to her old place of employment. Furthermore, it seemed she thought she wasn't good enough for even that. If I left her here I'd spend every moment resenting myself for plunging her back into that degrading and diffident-enhancing environment, not only that, but I’d be leaving her to suffer alone with the extra mental baggage of being a raider victim. I really hated that long-dormant part of my consciousness.

"How'd you end up there anyway?" I asked as casually as possible, dragging my thoughts away from the previous subject as I began to trot across the muddy town yard.

She looked slightly shocked that anypony was interested. Nevertheless, she began to follow me. Then she sighed, her eyes glowering at the dirt.

"My family were traders. My mother, father, and sisters were all earth ponies, so it was quite the surprises when I came along." She smiled at that memory, moving around to my side instead of being my shadow.

I slowed slightly, focusing my full attention on her story.

"I have some skill when it comes bartering for things like guns and other combat related stuff. My sisters were really good with all the fine little things, locks in particular. My father taught them and even though they were earth ponies they could get into anything. But when it came to teaching me..." She trailed off and then proceeded to snicker slightly. "Well, if you're taught how to handle fine things by hoof, then precise levitation only triples those skills."

She appeared almost giddy for a fleeting moment at the latter part, like it was some great graduation. I felt strangely happy for her, even if such a talent had obviously been discovered years ago.

Picking locks? I had to admit for all my magical skill and weapon tinkering lock picking was not something on my list of abilities, not high anyway, but I'd try anything.

"Soooo, say I had a safe... oh I don't know, locked in a vault. Could you use your lockpicking skills to open it?" I asked casually, waving a hoof in the air in a vertical, circular motion like I was turning one of those rotating vault mechanisms.

For some odd reason Griddle's micro stable came to mind as I asked. Cherry's smirk widened, smilingly unable to hide her pride.

"I've cracked a few safes before. It would depend on the vault door style, its locking mechanism and the time constraints I’d be working with. So my results will vary depending upon those kinds of factors," she told me, my heart fluttering again to see her become so vivacious.

She was just so adorable I could…

Brain no. I stated refusing to yield to whatever thought my willful mind drudged up this time.

"Well, it's not something I couldn't do," I admitted, "But if Star asks I'll deny it," I added with playfully fake embarrassment.

Still, I could swear the pink mare laughed, or at least raised a hoof to her muzzle and closed her eyes for a second.

"It's true, seven years of merc work and I have never picked a lock."

Oh, sure you've tried. My egotistical mind added swiftly, but I merely showed it away.

Cherry was smiling and that was enough to sustain a positive set of thoughts, these positive thoughts held back the other less positive thoughts.

"You've been going out there for seven years?" she asked, gesturing to the town gate and I nodded.

"Most of my life actually, crossed half of the damn Wasteland," I added cheerfully.

Ahead I noticed that our seemingly random walk about the center of town was directing us towards one of the structures at its edge, specifically the weapons store, aptly named 'Ratchet's' after the sales pony I knew who worked there. I'd been a customer once or twice, but the caravans that supplied this place were the same ones which supplied Churn, the latter getting the better business due to its greater size and population. So I really only ever used Ratchet's store to sell off junk and repair and upgrade my own weapons.

Glancing at Cherry I realized that she'd failed to answer my question as to how she ended up here in the first place. Though it wasn’t something I was gonna force out of her. If she didn't want to tell me, then she didn't have to. A moment later and we both found ourselves staring at the glass front of what had once been a cake store, and where once there had been savory desserts there were now many varying weapons, ammunition, and spare parts, all of which were locked behind a metal grid that covered the tattered glass from the inside.

'Warning: This establishment is protected by anti-magical charms! All attempted break in will notify the authorities' was written in faded yellow upon a tattered pre-war sticker on the top left of the metal grid.

I couldn't imagine the warning had any weight to it anymore, not that I was gonna put it to the test. I was an opportunistic scavenger, not a straight up thief. Not that any of the stuff in there was worth stealing anyway, most of it was either broken, overpriced or not all there at all. That, and they were all boring old bullet flingers. Cherry, however, was looking at the array of guns in a strangely different light. Wait no, she was looking at the guns, but also something else. I glanced round to see her expression mirrored by a dull reflection in the glass. Beside it, my own confused doppelganger looked to her.

"You okay?" I asked carefully as the pink unicorn stared even more into her reflection.

She snapped back sharply, before backpedaling slightly.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine..." Her words were lost in a sea of stuttering before she finally stopped and sighed. "I... It's just. I saved up a lot for a chance to get out there and when the chance for me to do something came... All I could afford was a lousy revolver and, well..." She glared back up at the window, her reflection staring back at her with disapproving eyes. "And well, you saw where that got me."

Before I could even say anything however, she stamped a hoof on the ground weakly.

"Sweet Sun and Sugar Cube were the only friends I had in that stupid saloon and I let them down. Just like I let everypony else down."

Her voice grew slowly weaker as that final confession left her. She'd had to pay to help ponies? I didn't know why (Considering I had to pay myself) but for some reason that made me furious. I could almost imagine the fabulously voiced entity of the wasteland telling her

"Oh, yes dear you can indeed help your friends, but first I want this, and this. Oh, and that too."

I hated that entity with a fiery passion, it stole everything from a pony, even if all that pony wanted to do was help.

That's why you don't go around and being a hero. My mind warned, dousing the flames of my anger nonchalantly.

All that left me physically was a grumble then I looked to Cherry and put a hoof...

Wait. No. I shouldn’t touch her unless I can do so without expecting anything from her. I really shouldn’t touch her while I have ulterior motives regarding her! I retracting my forelimb, and instead lowered my gaze to hers.

Good, you're in prime position, now kiss!

Brain no! Just shut up!

She was on the verge of crying, and the memory of the two mares I'd failed to save, who could have made coping with Cherry’s feelings of failure and uselessness so much easier for her, was only making me feel worse.

Damn it, if I hadn't gone back for Star or if I'd not have fucked about with that mare in the alley back then...

Then you'd have had no support, or any idea of where anypony in the factory was.

Fuck you brain! I mentally hissed as the irritatingly rational and logical thought crossed my mind.

"Hey, Cherry. Look, don't blame yourself so much. You were the only pony around her who was brave enough to do something," I assured her comfortingly.

She sniffed seeming to hold back tears.

"Yeah, and I got what I deserved for being so reckless," she countered in a despondent tone of voice, wiping her nose with a hoof.

Oh, Celestia, where was the smiling Cherry I'd seen just a moment ago? I thought to myself as my heart sank at seeing her hurting like this.

Damn it Dragon! Buck up, you got her there a moment ago. You can do it again! My mind told me firmly.

"You said you wanted to get out there and make a difference?" I asked, hoping dearly that she would not suspect the vague chance in conversation.

She looked me, her expression almost bringing my fears to life, but then she nodded.

"You think you can?" I pressed, trying to make my words as admirable as possible.

Unfortunately, her look turned skeptical. I'd imagine her recent experiences had dashed her hopes of becoming a pony that could make a difference. I took a step back, raising my head. Expectantly, hers slowly followed, now we were both looking at our reflections in the glass and the guns beyond.

"You know I've never met anypony who can pick a lock, and I rarely find myself on the winning end of a deal."

Okay, so that last one wasn't wholly true, I could get most bucks to part with as many caps as I wanted if I tried, mares less so, but my attempts were still admirably embarrassing for those involved."

"Look Cherry, the point I'm getting at is that no matter what anypony else about this town thinks about what you did, knowing you did it means the world to ponies like me," I blurted out.

The mere idea that there was somepony out there, excluding myself and Star, who'd run into a raider den to help somepony else, occupied much of my thoughts. As I looked back to her she appeared dumbstruck, even her encroaching depression could not hide her shock for long. I'd no idea whether it was because I, a big scary mercenary pony, had admitted it or the fact that I, as a pony who wanted to do right by other ponies, had admitted it, but she seemed to have returned to me not depressed and miserable, but curious.

I on the other hoof must have looked like a hopeful filly who'd just found their special talent and was now sure there was nothing standing between me and the fame and fortune said talent would bring. Was I really that wrapped up in this, saving ponies? I mean yeah, it was right but... I didn't want to become a paragon of goodness, I didn't want to be a hero. Cherry sighed, turning back to the glass window and pressing a hoof against it.

"You really mean that?" she asked as if desperate for me to say yes, but expecting nothing other than no.

I took a deep breath.

"Of course! Like I said, it's been a long time since I met anypony who would do what you did," I admitted softly, scuffing my forehoof against the floor.

Brain ... Wait, no. This was me! I was behaving like this! Goddesses, now it was like I was coming onto her or something!

No, I had to stop. This was not the message I wanted to get across. I just wanted her to be happy and away from this stupid town. I just...

"Cherry how good are you with an actual gun. A real proper thing not...?"

I stopped without adding mention of that revolver she'd brought up, both because I had a nagging fear that it was the same one by which Mister Red had used to kill her friends and by extension threatened to kill her, and the investment she'd slaved in that whore house Cocktail was running for goddesses know how long to make. She glanced down over the array of weapons. Part of her seemed lost in disbelief, the other bore a small hint of regret and guilt, yet most of it was fought back by a firm determination my words had seemingly relighted.

"I have some skill… though it's a bit rusty. I mean, Cocktail didn't let us practice, but I can shoot... let's see; rifles, revolvers, obviously. Oh, and I did fire a magical energy weapon once or twice," she stated, pointing a hoof to my weapon-laden barding.

I smiled warmly, she was like some little foal subtly listing all the reasons they were responsible enough to stay home alone or look after some wearied pet they'd dragged home. I looked back to the window with a sigh, my reflection looked back at me, as did those of my many firearms.

Damn it Dragonfire. I cursed myself, looking at the reflection of a white unicorn looking back at me. You better not regret this.

I looked back to Cherry, noticing the long pause had caused her to deflate ever so slightly. But I was sure my next words would fix that.

"Cherry what would you say if..." I paused the words catching in my throat, her ears perked.

Damn it. Do. Not. Regret. This!

"How would you like to come with me when we leave?"

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Quick Thinker (Level One) - You're almost as quick with your brain as you are on your hooves. Gain +5 Intelligence.

Companion Attained: Cherry Pin - What's taught with one's hooves is only improved by one's horn. Gain +5 to lockpicking and bartering skills when traveling with this companion.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: Pridark.

Chapter Five: First Lesson

Chapter 5: First Lesson

"Now back to work. I lost a lot of time, and I cannot have any more interruptions... What now!"

"So how far?" I asked, glancing up at Star as the larger earth pony walked beside me.

"Half a day across the desert, then we have to start searching for this Destiny facility. Which, no offense, has become more... complicated," he grumbled quietly, glancing at our companion following behind me.

My ears fell flat, while my head ducked in shame upon hearing his disapproving tone. Cherry clung close to my tail, she was still the same anxious wreck and that anxiety was swiftly mutating into depression, She was starting to realize that she was holding us back from moving in the manner we usually would. Nevertheless, it seemed under all the cold dread of her recent trauma, that brave pony that had taken action against the slavers was still kicking. My expenses at the gun store had allowed me to glimpse that side of her. She'd been close to a filly in a candy shop, a filly with the financial support to purchase almost anything that store had to offer. Even so, after only a few moments of looking over the state of the stock, I was surprised that the revolver she'd purchased even worked as well as it did. Although, I'd failed to mention that to her. Instead, most of my attention was spent on accepting her gratitude and assuring her she could have whatever she wanted.

Okay, so maybe not everything, I was convinced she would have cleared out the place had I not limited her to a set of armor and two firearms.

It hadn't taken her long to set her eyes on some barding, an old, modified set of stable utility barding, bearing the number five... The last digit, if there had been one, had long since been scorched off. I had a nagging feeling it had come from stable fifty-four, yet another revered shit hole to the southeast. Regardless of its cursed origin, it was protection. I'd survived with less before and by the sounds of the radio transmissions issued recently by other ponies, bad ponies were taking over the desert with nothing any better. Add to her arsenal a worn old assault rifle and a combat shotgun that was in no better condition, and I felt the need to give her something that was at least reliable. I'd told Zap-Zap that it would see some use and some use it would see, even if it wasn't in my hooves. I just really hoped we didn't get into a situation in which she had to use it.

Maybe you shouldn't have dragged her back out in the wasteland then? My mind snickered sourly.

I just knocked the wry thought to the floor with a mental buck to the face. We've had this discussion brain. I demand that you cease any further thoughts regarding this matter.

Even so, Cherry was no serious wasteland hardened pony. She was, however, a beneficial addition to our team. Her excellent aptitude with bartering and locks were both traits I'd convinced myself would be incredibly useful for ponies in our occupation.

Yeah, if she's not dead.

Just shut up, Brain!

After seeing to it that she was properly kitted out, and saying bye to yet more of my caps, we'd swiftly departed. Firstly, because I didn't want to have to keep Star waiting. Secondly, I didn't want that bitch at the bar finding out that I was taking her waitress on a far longer run than I'd paid for. A part of me just hoped she'd think that glimpse of Cherry last night was a dream or something. Nevertheless, she wasn't getting the pink mare back anytime soon.

"Urm... if I'm getting in the way I could..." Cherry’s tremulous voice trailed off at Star’s look of disapproval, the sound of her murmuring summoned me back from my slightly shameful mental argument with my mental reasoning.

I'd hoped she hadn't heard what we'd just said, and by his quiet tone, I assumed Star hadn't intended her to hear his issue either. My experienced partner, Star, and Cherry, a greenhorn to this line of work were still wary of each other. I guessed she was simply unnerved by somepony she didn't know, a far larger and far more solidly built stallion at that. I'd told her that she had to follow my orders without question. The mere act of demanding her trust and obedience stung at first, but I knew that the wasteland would be far less forgiving. Asking her to trust Star, however, was slightly more troublesome, in spite of his years of experience surviving and prospering in this line of work. I simply hoped she'd only have to take orders from me, which meant I'd have to stick with her wherever we went. As a result, I could see just why this had become far more complicated for my larger companion. She wasn't the liability, I was. I was the one who insisted on bringing a complete greenhorn out into the wasteland on a mission which was difficult for even experienced mercenaries such as Star and myself to accomplish. We weren’t taking her out on beginner grade missions to build up her skill and experience, as we might have otherwise have done, were we not already deep into wasteland territory and currently in the middle of the mission we had accepted.

I glanced back at the pink mare as her gaze lingered cautiously upon the huge buck donning his saddle mounted mini-gun, flamethrower, and his fearsome-looking and flesh-rending spiked armor. She may as well been looking at some Rider's tank.

And you thought it was a good idea to convince a traumatized pony that something that looked like that was a friend? My brain admonished in dry amusement.

I shook the snide mental comment off, replacing the thought with a quick response to Cherry's stuttered words.

"No, I want you to stick close to me."

I was almost on the brink of reciting the whole 'don't run into gunfire', 'don't step in front of a loaded weapon', 'don't go skipping into a raider den and the likes' routine, when more of that admonishing guilt watched over me.

Damn it, Dragonfire, she isn't a foal!

Add to that the fact I knew she'd agree with almost anything I told her because of her fear that I'd abandon her if she did not, and that remorse only grew like an already heavy millstone around my neck being replaced with an even larger and even heavier millstone.

Why are was I doing this? Of all the ponies in the wasteland, of all the ponies you could have saved, why this one? Why go so far to help her? Those frustrating questions kept repeating over and over in my mind.

I merely sighed, the argument that she was a pony who among all others was just trying to help finally forcing me to admit that there was a deeper emotional attachment forced upon me by the traumatic events of our first meeting. It certainly had resurrected a part of me which had long lain dormant.

I still hated myself for what I'd see in that office. Not the raider mare, or the foal, but myself. I'd seen the whole wasteland, the whole fucked up reality ponykind squatted about in, and it was that which had broken me? I realized that my ensuing time spent with her had established and strengthened a bond I had with very few ponies. Despite recognizing the moment in which I had formed a bond with Cherry, I was still no closer to an answer as to why I had formed my bond with her when I had not permitted myself to have such vulnerabilities presented by having bonds with non-battle-hardened companions.

I let out a long breath, my eyes still upon Cherry. I could see that under the frail vial of caution she was contemplating what I'd just told her, considering whether she was really with the right ponies. I swallowed, finding the words formulating in my head hard to stomach, and yet I bore no desire to get them out.

"You know... you don't have to stay with us. I mean you can by all means, but..." I stammered, the fear of her leaving me clogging my throat.

She glanced about, looking anywhere but at Star or myself.

"I... I probably wouldn't be able to find my way back," she admitted tentatively, her eyes finally looking upon me.

Once again, I simply found her cute. A fact that was swiftly turning my head upside-down, especially after the way I felt about her outside the gun store.

Wow, I didn't know wannabe heroes turned you on, Dragonfire? My mind snickered, using a mockery of Star's voice.

I mentally constructed a stable, into which I shoved psychological fucker inside before proceeding to securely lock the damn bunker before flooding the stable with something nasty, such as plasma or Cyanide, then instantly blurted something to distract myself from the idea.

"Alack and alas! That our strings of fate should ‘twine together and so journey with yon beaut mare! Oh, woe is us!" I behaved dramatically turning to face Cherry and lasciviously wriggling my eyebrows at her.

Despite everything she smiled slightly at that, her expression only confusing my usual set impulses even more. I fought to redirect my eyes away, but instead, the rebellious orbs dragged my gazed over her shoulders past her middle and back towards her…

Oh, look her hind hoof is all better, she is walking fine now, the potions had done their work and we had more if necessary.

Come on Dragonfire let’s not kid yourself. You want to do more than just look at her shapely hindleg, don’t you?

I swiftly changed the subject again, dragging the lustful idea back into a corner for harsh words later.

I needed more distraction, yes, distractions were good.

With that, I yanked my gaze away from the, thankfully oblivious, mare and to... The middle of nowhere. So much for distractions, not even raiders operated this deep into the desert, nothing but the sand blowing in a scorching wind. The horizon was broken only by dunes trailing streams of sand from their peaks and the towering red mesa far to the northeast. Straggly mutated cacti broke up the emptiness as did parched desert rocks, and the odd pile of rusted scrap. I'd never really understood how this place even got so hot or even why it was a desert, it rained buckets here most of the time. Not to mention none of it had seen the sun in centuries.

Under hoof, the cracked remains of a road were just visible beneath the invading sands, the long line of scorched asphalt stretching off into the distant dunes. Beyond, were the ragged brown outlines of hills, distinguishable from their flat-topped cousins to the west by their jagged peaks and lack of blood red stone. In the miles beyond them was the city of New Pegasus, a length we, fortunately, didn't have to traverse. As for our mysterious destination? I really hoped we'd be able to find it quickly. A part of me even imagined giant signs telling us exactly where to go, or even one of those monstrous smiling M.O.M billboards. Those I knew, were frail hopes. Like Star had said this was gonna be far harder with half of my focus divided, thanks to the addition of Cherry to our team.

"So, you get any leads on this place while you were in town?" I asked Star, seeking yet more distractions.

He looked down at me knowing full well the question was not one I'd be asking under normal circumstances, if it was normal then I'd be either boasting, joking or purring some sexual fantasy. No, he knew I was avoiding the true meaning of complications.

"Look, I'm not blaming you for anything," he told me firmly. "All I'm worried about is that you're becoming attached... More so than usual, and certainly not in the same way as usual. Usually, you’d never bring a complete neophyte on an advanced grade mission such as this. I also know that you would usually never allow your attention to be divided as it is right now," he added, never one to mince words.

I glanced away from him, sensing the concern in his tone and praying Cherry couldn't hear it.

"Dragonfire I know you, I also know what would happen if something did happen, and she isn't ready for this kind of life. Instead of dragging her into the dangerous wasteland, you should have arranged for her to travel with a trading caravan that was heading back to Churn and had her find work there while we took care of our mission," he continued warningly.

If such a thing had been said by any other pony I'd have bucked them into next Tuesday, but Star was right. He was right most of the time, in fact, he was nearly always right, and to think, I claimed that I was the smart one! I knew what he was worried about, he was not worried for his sake, but for mine. Yet I just couldn't leave Cherry with that sly bitch back in town, only to live through the same experience over and over, especially with the mental baggage of her recent encounter with the raiders. The image of that manipulative red associated stallion flashed in my mind and I had to rein in my murderous thoughts.

Nor would I let her travel back to Chun alone. Yet once I was back there with her I could get her a place, I'd let her share mine if needed, as long as she was safe and happy. Life was almost perfect there, so close to perfect that it hurt. For her, I'd trot the extra mile to make it perfect. Why? Goddesses know that I didn't know why, but I knew many aspects of my twisted brain were telling me it was the right thing to do. My thoughts were shattered a moment later however, my ears twitched upward as my head rose catching a distant sound carried on the dusty wind, a gunshot. Star had heard it too, stopping with a metallic clatter and looking up over the windblown desert.

"Sniper Rifle, I'd say high calibre," he stated, sniffing the dusty, arid air.

My visor sparked to life, having been dormant over my eyes to prevent needlessly draining my magic unless the situation called for it. Cautiously, my horn flared drawing one of my plasma rifles and bringing into the air before me. Another shot carried on the dry wind a moment later. I slipped back to my new companion, my eyes and targeting matrix scanning the desert horizon in all directions.

"Cherry, listen closely," I said firmly.

By her frightened look, I knew she'd heard the shot too, even if she was fighting to hide it.

"Cherry!?" I asked, almost shouting.

She tensed as if my words were a lifeline dragging her back from a torrent panic.

"Now listen, you stay right by me and do exactly what I say. Okay?" I instructed firmly.

She flinched, but nodded and drew her assault rifle with her lime green hued magic. I almost winced at that, the hope she'd never have to kill under my instructions rapidly fading as I'd always known it would. Another shot stole my attention, the lack of anybody being injured, dying or bullets impacting in the ground indicated that the shots were not directed at us, at least not yet.

"Don't think we got raiders, slaver caravan, maybe," Star reasoned, examining his surrounding environment cautiously before he took a heavy step forward.

"Stay behind me, only use that if you have to," I commanded Cherry, the words tasting bitter on my tongue as I reluctantly motioned towards the assault rifle.

A moment later I turned back to the direction of the sound, my gun hovering so that I was looking down the sight.

"You see anything?" I called to Star.

He gave no response as his eyes strived to see into the windblown dust storm. Then I saw something, a shimmer in the brown cloud. My matrix marked nothing, the target too distant and too hidden in the dust.

"Got something to the left," I advised, creeping forward while redirecting the barrel of my rifle.

"I got nothing," Star added wearily.

My eyes narrowed as something emerged from the dusty road ahead. The shape was blurred at first, but as we approached, the mangled metal skeleton of an old sky chariot became clear. All that was left was a corroded rusty frame, eaten away by the harsh extremes of the unforgiving desert. The bubbling decay appeared like a swarm of ravenous insects as time feasted upon the metal. Beyond the wagon the shimmer flashed again, this time right ahead.

"Ahead Star, straight ahead," I warned him, even though both my visor and eyes were still picking up nothing but the visibility-reducing cloud of dust.

"I got it, can't make out what it is yet," he added, squinting into the cloud.

A moment later, and we'd reached the broken remains of the skywagon. It was empty, save a few scorched books and two dust bitten skeletons, one of which had been the pegasus pulling the thing. Looking over the bones I wasn't hit by the woeful thought regarding who this pony had once been, instead, I was reminded just how much I hated pegasi. I doubted any wastelander who knew the truth about the sky liked them. Exhibit A, the fucking clouds. This one had gotten what he'd deserved long ago, assuming the warped remains were those of a buck. Regardless, his former chariot now provided us with a stopping point as well as cover from both the dust storm and what potentially hostile inhabitants which might be nearby.

"Wait here with her, I'll check ahead," Star ordered grimly, stepping around the wrecked chariot without concern for the brittle bones of the departed, which he crushed under his metal hoofs.

I nodded in acknowledgment, but he didn't even glance our way.

"First rule of combat, keep your head down," I advised Cherry as Star departed deeper into the dust storm.

The experienced mercenary in me almost forced me to push her head down with my hoof, yet I'd decided against touching her, experience and danger would instruct her in ways I could not. Even so, I knew it was not the best way to build her confidence back, and I'll even admit being firm with her was hard as I did not know when my firmness was too much, when it was just enough, and when I wasn’t being firm enough. As she nodded in agreement the memory of Red’s sickening misuse of somepony's trust only made my insides crawl that bit more. Ahead, Star's large armored shape was no more than a ghostly silhouette against the swirling sand. He'd stopped, his gaze panning the horizon. My eyes did the same and another shot rang from the storm, this time far closer. Star didn't even flinch, he wasn't the target, and as far as I could tell neither were we. Cherry jumped with weak "eep", startled by the much closer sound. In the moment I had to think faster than ever. The flicker appeared to the right. 'Hostile targets: 1' my visor declared.

My eyes widened, and without hesitation I toppled my startled companion, forcing her to the scoured asphalt. The shot sounded with a loud crack. There was a sharp whistle over the dusty wind and then an equally swift thudding sound as the bullet struck my dragon scaled armor. A dull pain blossomed from my back, leaving a bruise as the force was disrupted by the scales. A moment later it was confirmed that this shot hadn't gone unnoticed. There was a low whirring as Star's mini-gun laced the shooter with a hail of lead. All I did was look down at the tensed mare under me. My breath was quick and shallow, my body gasping for whatever air it could after that bullet impact, and my heart was thudding like the rapid tempo on a drum. Warmblood raced through my veins. Then I realized how I was positioned on top of Cherry and a great deal of that blood went to my cheeks.

For a long moment, all I could do was confirm to myself that she was still alive. If I'd have been even a moment slower she'd be blood splattered on the dusty road. My mind lingered on that grotesque vision as I harshly berated myself for the danger I was bringing her into. I closed my eyes tightly, trembling as I fought not to hug her.

Raider victims. No touchy, touchy.

Instead, I continued to assure myself that she was still there, that she was still alive, as I cautiously moved off of her. Then I began to realize that Star’s concerns were much more real. I'd made this far harder for everyone involved, especially for myself.

"Woah there, I ain't lookin' for a firefight!" A distant voice wailed from over the roar of the mini-gun.

Star Strike's rain of bullets halted as my head rose and I looked up where the shot had rang out from. Instantly my visor outlined the shape of an earth pony buck in the sand. He was swiftly highlighted as non-hostile, yet I assumed that was only after he'd lain his scoped rifle on the sand dune beside him.

Green? My simmering anger set in. He'd shot me, he'd nearly killed Cherry and my visor declared him friendly! I was beginning to doubt my own expertise.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Another gruff voice called, then came the distinctive sound of wings overhead.

I crouched down low, expecting an ambush as I saw the armored silhouette of a griffin pass over me. Yet she didn't attack, instead the shadow disappeared into the storm in the direction of the other voice. My expression was soured further as the other green outline appeared, yet at least she hadn't been the one to shoot first.

"Come over to where I can see you, both of you," Star's voice boomed into the visibility reducing dust storm.

I brought up my plasma rifle, our would-be attackers entering within firing range, and marked. If my visor was right then I shouldn't' need the gun, on the other hoof my, super well designed, supposed to be my best work visor, wasn't always right... apparently. I stepped back helping my rather shocked companion up onto her hooves.

"You okay?" I asked, giving her a fleeting glance.

"Yeah... that was just... Well, scary," she murmured, brushing herself off.

I just gave her a nod and she gladly took the opportunity for the non-verbal communication with an appreciative expression, instead, she opted for retrieving her rife from the asphalt.

"Woah there, ah didn't mean to take no shots at y'all." The buck emerging from the sand shroud declared.

His accent went strangely well with his a sandy yellow coat and brown mane. It also, I noted sourly explained the seemingly unintentional camouflage against the sand. Behind him the gray-feathered griffin was skulking wearily, her sharp yellow eyes locked on us. Taking a step forward I held my rifle up, Cherry mimicking my potentially aggressive stance by raising her own weapons. It was then that I noticed that our attacker's cutie mark was a broken bottle in the process of being shattered by a pebble.

"Sure look like you did to me," I growled holding the plasma rifle up to his head as he stopped.

He gulped, and his feathered companion looking like she thought everyone, but herself, were an idiot. I just prayed to the goddesses that she stayed green. As long as they were green then they were not monsters and not something I'd shoot. To the new buck's credit, he had left his rifle up on the dune and aside from some thin barding and his saddle bags, he was unarmed and unarmoured, the same could not be said for the Griffin, yet all her weapons were at least holstered in one of the ragged black harnesses griffins called barding.

"Sorry 'bout back there, I guessed y'all were more of them darn vermin," the buck said in an apologetic tone, the likes of which turned sour at the mention of 'vermin'.

"Is that so... You know you should have waited for me to check it out first before you shoot," the griffin scolded.

He just scowled at her.

"Oh, and would ya' have done any different?" he challenged, and her opinion of his idiocy levels seemed to double.

"I'd have done exactly what my contract states and my contract includes the stipulation of protecting your dumb ass. You’re making my job harder by shooting anything that moves! Your damn wild shooting is going to piss someone off and then they’ll decide to fucking end you, even if they have to walk over my damn corpse to do so!" she hissed, pointing a talon at him accusingly.

He merely scoffed at the idea, almost seeming insulted and the griffin simply sighed.

"You know, I swear I'd have to have been wasted beyond belief that day I said I'd help you," she moaned, her guard seemingly slipping as she did so.

"Well, I didn't hire ya' to shoot up reasonable looking folks," he added nervously.

I relaxed a little, evaluating how fair of an excuse it was. One, it was dusty. Two, we were hiding and mostly obscured. Then the positives stopped. Three, we were ponies! Not some damn 'vermin’' whatever that meant. Regardless, that combined with his seemingly humble surrender was enough to loosen my magical grip on the trigger.

"What vermin?" Star asked, his mini-gun's barrel poised at the bucks facial regions.

I could see the sandy pony fight not to squirm. The griffin regarded the situation carefully, yet didn't seem too eager to intervene as if this was some sort of lesson for her client. At that, I was beginning to believe them, however. No raider would do this, and no slaver would be brave enough to do what looked to be the right thing. My guns cracklings green barrel waved slightly.

"How about a name first?" I asked in a slightly more invitingly tone, and not at plasma enhanced gunpoint.

I could see his posture partially relax as I relaxed my aggressive stance, Star's min-gun position would decide when he’d be able to relax any further.

"Well, I..." He glanced to the heavy weapon's barrel nervously.

I looked to my companion and with a short turn of his armored bulk, the weapon moved away from our would-be attacker's eyes. Now his relief was more visibly expressed, and I could swear that I saw a sly smirk crossed the griffin's beak.

"Names Buck Shot, this is Gina." He motioned to the griffin. "Pleased to meet ya'. And urm, sorry again for shootin' ya,'" he explained in a nervously friendly tone.

Keeping a wary eye trained on the newly identified Buck Shot, I returned my weapon to its holster. Either, as his bodyguard had implied, this buck was really stupid or he really didn't mean to shoot us, both dangerous things in the wasteland. Nevertheless, he was unarmed, unarmoured and most importantly, he was green.

"Vermin?" Star asked again, looking down over the sandy buck, then at the griffin, as if it were somehow her responsibility.

She seemed to know that all too well and frowned sourly.

"Yeah, darn things got mah caravan. We were all saddled up over yonder when a group of those little scaly bastards came out an' jumped us," he responded, his weary tone quickly growing into one of irritation at the thought of the 'scaly bastards' he'd described.

"They wouldn't have if you'd have waited for me to check the place out first," Gina told him with frustration, but he merely shook of the idea.

"Ah ain't met no critter that I couldn't handle," he retorted proudly.

"Yeah, until now," she retorted with a loud huff, her rebuke thereby earning her another sour glance from her client.

I focused on the scaly description, there were only a few creatures that matched it in this part of the wasteland. Goddesses dammed rattle-tails or more likely geckos. I'd had a fair amount of encounters with both, the former was easily avoided. If you stayed clear of their dens then they wouldn't chase you to the next town and back. Given that Buck Shot was still here and none of those scaly creatures were pursuing him, I assumed it was the latter. Geckos, there was definitely no shortage of them around here, the little fuckers were often called the Radroaches of the Marejarvie. Like their mutated arthropod counterparts, the oversized lizards were easy enough to deal with, providing you didn't encounter the fire breathing or poison variants.

"I'm gonna assume you mean Geckos?" I asked bluntly, confident in my assumption.

Buck Shot looked at me, his eyes narrowing at the name.

"If y'all' mean the little lizard fuckers? Then yeah. There's a whole bunch of um' crawlin' 'bout down there," he explained, thus confirming my suspicions.

Beside him, I could almost see steam rising from Gina's feathers at the reminder. I gave the taloned merc a sly smile.

"And you couldn't handle that?" I taunted.

Her eyes narrowed as she flexed one of her sharp, black talons.

"Oh, I'll show you just what I can handle," she warned.

My smiled didn't fade at her frustration however, and I just nodded.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," I added slyly.

She looked like she was fighting the urge to take one of her revolvers and shoot every last one of us.

"So where exactly are these Geckos?" I asked Buck Shot, glancing ahead for any more indications.

He stammered, seeming embarrassed that he'd not told us their whereabouts before repeatedly cursing about the things.

"Ol' wagon stop. Just down that way. Was hold up in there last night, that's where those little fuckers jumped us!" he explained shamefully.

"I wish you'd have lasted the whole night, we were in there no more than an hour you idiot," Gina corrected bitterly, forcing her companion to scowl once again.

Scratch my previous thoughts, now they just seemed embarrassed to have been bested by Geckos. I took a dry breath from the sandy concoction that was the desert air. If he was right those Geckos were right in our way and going round in these conditions was not an option. Best case scenario we'd lose the road in the storm, worse a rad-glass storm would blow in from the Sheen and cut us into radioactive giblets in seconds. Add to that the fact we needed a place to rest for tonight and I'd mapped out our next move.

I glanced back at Cherry who was looking at the sandy buck before me. Wait no, she was looking past him. Despite still being slightly startled by the gunshot her eyes had become fixed of the finely maintained, golden rimmed sniper rifle that had unleashed it. My look turned curious, then concerned. I'd almost lost her only a moment ago to the very gun she was gawking at. There was a risk of such a thing repeating itself just over the next hill, albeit death by Gecko.

Could I keep this up? Was I doing the right thing? My mind repeatedly asked these questions as if they were a percussive beat.

But she was still here, ready to fight and brave the wasteland with me. Only because I offered her something slightly better than her previous life, only because she was too afraid she lose the opportunity if she didn't do what I say.

Abusing a ponies trust is not the right thing to do, you know? I stomped a hoof, much to the surprise of the ponies in front of me as I mentally screamed. No, she was not a foal, she was not some helpless slave, and she was not here because I liked her!

She was here because she was a pony who tried to make difference, and no matter what I couldn't let her failure rob her of that ambition. Nor could I let it smother another potential light in this dark shit hole of a world. I failed to notice the faces of the ponies before me while shaking my head.

Yes, Dragon you could save her, do your job and get her back to Churn, or you could make her into something to be proud of, something for her to be proud of.

First of all, I had to stop treating her like a foal, she could fight, she had skills we could use.

You've already had to save her twice. My mind stated bluntly. No, I could do it a few more times until she was safely back home if needs be.

Besides as long as these vermin were normal Geckos, then there was a little problem, I could even make a lesson out of it, the scaly fuckers were that stupid after all. I looked up to Star, forcing a smile that he recognized almost instantly.

"Y'all up for killin' some vermin?" I asked, slightly mocking Buck Shot's ascent as I replaced my plasma rifle with the Saddle blaster.

The sandy coated buck didn't even blink an eye at my weak mockery, he merely gave a light-hearted chuckle. His companion's humor on the other hoof, didn't seem to be so fake as she snickered. Star rolled his eyes, but I knew he wouldn't say no. If anything killing Geckos was entertaining, in addition to also making the desert that little bit safer, and he knew as well as I did that the ruins Buck Shot had described would at least provide a stopping point for tonight. Above all, we were presented with somepony who needed help, and despite shooting at us he clearly wasn't a monster. Above all, I made sure to help ponies who needed it.

********

There was a loud bang and a wet spatter as another oversized lizard head was turned to red mush beside me. I turned back from the pile of disintegrated dust I'd recently created to see the headless corpse collapse to the blooded asphalt. It seemed that Buck Shot hadn't been lying when he said these fuckers were sneaky. The familiar sandy coated buck stood just beside the dead lizard, his golden rifle relieved of its aiming stance as he trotted over.

"Think that's the last of um' out front," he stated, his tone buzzing with satisfaction as he looked over the ten or so dead Geckos, and pink ash piles, staining the asphalt about us.

The pair of us had come down here first, originally I'd have just had Star's cannons level the place from up on the dune, yet with Buck Shot's wares apparently still inside, it wasn't an option. Furthermore, I'd intended to leave him and Cherry up on the hill too, yet the sandy buck suggested against it. I'd thought to argue, obviously he didn't trust us near his wares unsupervised, yet having shot us only moments before I didn't think he was gonna openly say as much. Therefore, we were all down her buzzing about like a swarm of overly armed Bloatsprites trying to kill all the scaly fuckers.

The area itself had once been an old wagon stop along the long road through the desert, most of the walls had collapsed or been slowly eroded by the desert. A great deal of the places was buried under drifts of sand, two open garage doors sat on the right side each containing the corpses of rusty old wagons. Both appeared to have been in a state of repair that would never be finished. I'd cleared both the surrounding asphalt and smaller wreckages that were scattered about the place. Gina was flying above and Star had gone around back where several more sky wagons lay stacked in a sagging heap of dusty metal and rust. The pile's right side was almost completely covered by sand, making it almost indistinguishable from the other waves upon the desert sea.

Back there were two more structures, an old motel, the likes of which was half collapsed on its far side exposing many tattered rooms. Opposite, the still-standing section of the building crept round to the far left side of the wagon workshop. I could barely make out any of the upper levels on account of their long balconies being flooded by mounds of sand. Below, the doors to the place were no less consumed by the desert. Drifts of dust poured in through the shattered glass front, the sand was in the process of burying the reception area.

Directly behind the workshop was what appeared to be some sort of small broadcast tower. As of yet, I'd only been able to identify the building by the sight of the large rusted spire that stood atop it. On the rooftop beside the spire, I could see the rusted ruminates of a large sky wagon, the thing having seemingly crashed into the lower structure long ago narrowly missing the tower. A part of me wondered why anypony would need such a thing out here in the middle of nowhere, yet even before the war being stuck out in the desert with no means of communication was practically a death sentence.

Shame that didn't save the many scattered skeletons cast over the rusted terrain around us, leaning from the windows of rusted wagons like rags. Speaking of the wagons, and given the sound of gunfire and lack of explosions coming over the main structure, I assumed none of us had managed to hit any of their more explosive parts, nor any of the fuel barrels. Beside me stood Cherry, my prize pistol levitating firmly in her magic.

"Not bad," I told her casually, motioning to the several Geckos she'd managed to disintegrated.

She smiled at me proudly, but just like the last time I'd praised her I could sense a part of her that just wanted to be humbled. That only made my smile that bit wider as levitated my blaster forward and looked to the tattered door of the workshop.

"Ready for some more target practice?" I asked encouragingly.

The pink mare levitated the pistol up, mimicking my actions as she nodded. A moment later I found myself crouched beneath the far right corner of the garage. The ruined wall, and the great deal of sand that had mounted it, provided suitable cover. Not that I needed it, these Geckos didn't have guns. But this was, in my eyes, as much a lesson for Cherry as it was a mundane task for me. If I was going to make her wasteland ready, then she needed to get into the habit of taking cover right away.

Even so, as Buck Shot cautiously opened the door and a fresh mob of the scaly creatures rushed out to greet us, my attention was focused on every scaly fiend that strayed within ten hoof steps of her. Only for my mind to remind me that in doing so I was only undermining my own goals. I just told my thoughts to shut up... again. I'd take foal steps with this. Buck Shot didn't comment on the fact that in my distraction, one of the Geckos had just managed to catch my tail. His subsequent shot had saved my flank from a biting, not that it would be the first bite, but a bite nonetheless.

"How many more did you say there were?" I asked, looking to him as I reloaded and motioning for Cherry to do the same.

He glanced ahead over the fresh pile of dead Geckos and peered inside.

"I'd say, no more than twenty," he stated, his tone seething with hatred for the mutated creatures.

He reloaded his golden rifle. I nodded in mild thanks for his saving of my rump before a moment came later the roar of Star's mini-gun sounded from behind the main building.

"Well, ah think we got the last of um' out here," Buck Shot added.

Certainly looked that way, I added mentally.

Cherry's eyes followed mine until her gaze came to rest on the sandy buck too. I winced and for a moment, afraid the sight of another bloodstained pony would break her. Yet before I could say anything the mare's expression turned rigged and she swallowed. I had no distinctive proof that there wasn't something else going on in her head, but I liked to think that she was far stronger than she looked. The pony I was seeing now was the one that had refused to stand by while her friends were stolen from her. To resist that past trauma, and be able to bear the brunt of the pain, made her a far stronger pony that I was.

Nevertheless, I knew that this was just the start, and the fucked up entity that was the great and powerful wasteland had a lot more tricks up its sleeve. I forced that thought out of my head, taking a step back as Buck Shot moved over the scaly corpses and into the rusted old doorway.

"How are you holding up?" I asked my companion, secretly begging Celestia that I could ease the strain on her.

"Yeah, I think I'm good," she responded bravely, bringing up her weapon.

Once again I felt a strangely warm pride, like I was finally seeing the pony I'd saved, the pony that had tried to be better.

"Good, you're doing great," I told her, my friendly tone almost a joyful laugh.

She gave a weak smile, bowing her head slightly and focusing on the rusted door. Then there was a sudden bang, and she jumped. My head swiveled to the interior of the garage's main building.

"Blasted scaly vermin!" Buck Shot hissed as a Gecko lacking a left side slumped out of the doorway.

"You stay close to me, and watch my tail okay," I told Cherry, trying not to think of the many other ponies I'd said that to, for different reasons.

Regardless, she nodded, fighting to stay as humble as she could. Just like the last time, I could see that the responsibility I'd given her was filing her a pride, akin to that of a filly who'd earned the right to stay home alone for the first time.

"Ah'm gonna go on ahead. Guess there's a good dozen of um' in there," Buck Shot declared peering through the second doorway that combined with the first to form a small foyer. "Ah ain't' got enough rounds for um' all though," he added, his tone growing deeply frustrated.

I pulled my Saddle Blaster up, poking the barrel through the latter doorway.

"I'll clear them out, you just pick off the ones I miss," I told him, stepping through the doorway.

He nodded, yet was seemingly dissatisfied that he was not the one to be killing all of the creatures. Beyond a dusty waiting room greeted me. The floor was stripped of carpet, leaving only dried cork, plaster and sand in its place. The tattered wallpaper formed a patchwork of cracks, its dirt stained coat appearing like a dried riverbed, and flaking more than a ghoul. The roof was no better, a crumbling plaster mess that seemed unable to decide which of the deserts elemental extremes it wanted to be taken down by first. To my left was an almost bare wall save for an old, pre-war notice board. The metal frame was almost rusted through, the dust-stained glass panel having been smashed, leaving only a sharp jagged row of teeth around its edge.

Inside were several posters, most scorched beyond recognition, yet I could just make out one detailing a Pegasus aerial team adorning sleek black gear, with a rainbow-maned mare in the center. Apparently, decades ago 'victory' was 'just a wing beat away'.

Yeah, a wing beat to this fucked up wasteland.

Another poster displayed a similar message, yet I guessed 'keeping Equestria safe' wasn't an accurate statement either.

'Renowned Griffin assassin is jailed for war crimes against Equestria. Elusive criminal, Garro Nightclaw was arrested and convicted of a stream of illegally tasked and organized homicides. Griffin officials overseas refuse to offer sanctuary to one whom they have labeled highly dishonorable.' I almost laughed at that last one, a faded newspaper article.

Good description of every Talon merc ever you poor pre-war basterds. I mentally snickered to myself, making a note to let Gina see the article if I could.

The opposite wall was covered by a set of worn old lockers. Those that weren't warped, door-less or filled with sand were closed tight. Beyond them, on the far side of the room was the counter. A long wooden desk, now a creamy bleached color, stretching most of the room's length. Behind it was yet another notice board, this one shattered, rusted and empty save for some posters, all of them were too warped to read, and some faded scribbles. The whole thing hung crooked on its left side. In the center of the room below a long-dead light were Buck Shot's wares and about half a dozen angry Geckos.

The scaly little fuckers looked much like their textbook pre-war cousins. Only they were nearly the size of a small pony, had a mouth lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth and fingers tipped with claws. Most were too busy feeding on whatever was left in the bags, two rose up making their signature hissing sound before charging wildly. Running on their hind legs they were more than a little clumsy when it came to obstacles, and Buck Shot's bags made for plenty. My targeting matrix had already designated them as hostile, ten in total. The first was turned to dust, its momentum carrying a cloud of pink towards the smoking barrel of the upgraded energy weapon as it levitated round. The second stumbled, my shot hitting it in the back as it fell. With a meaty splat, the scaly mass exploded clawed limbs sprawling over the bags.

The light show hadn't gone unnoticed by the other Geckos, however. The remaining eight swiftly stood, charging in a similar fashion to their fallen predecessors.

By the goddesses, it was almost pitiful. The noises they made before attacking are pure entertainment.

One was greeted by a rifle round to the open mouth as to my right Buck Shot opened fire, two more were turned to dust and another lost its upper torso in a wet splatter of gore. The remaining four were unfazed. One tripped rather comically, sprawling over a fallen locker. Another, the foremost, leaped forward at Buck Shot only to be met by the hard end of his rifle as he swung it round and struck the creature across the muzzle. With a bone spilling crunch, the scaly mass fell flailing to the floor. The third was greeted by a blast of magical energy, costing it its torso. The last fell right at my hooves, hissing up at me as it frantically attempted to right itself. I reared up bringing my full weight down on it. I was not a big pony, yet I felt its frail skull crack all the same. The lizard twitched giving one last gargled hiss before it fell silent.

"Take that ya' blasted vermin!" Buck Shot added, as the Gecko bested by the fallen lockers meet the wrong end of his rifle.

I just rolled my eyes, all boring gun ponies just wanted to keep hearing the bang of their oh so precious firearm.

"Ah reckon that's the last of ‘um," he stated, kicking the twitching dead mass aside, before trotting over to his wares.

Eagerly looking through them the buck frowned.

"Ow, well this is just fuckin' merry, ain't it?" he growled pulling what looked like a ragged cloth from one of the torn bags. "Ghoul mare sold me that back in up New Appaloosa, damn fuckers go an’ chewed it right up," he hissed, tossing the ragged mass to the floor.

My spark died slightly at the mention of that place, it had been my home once and I knew that mare, I mean who didn't? Yet that, for me, was a long time ago. A time I'd tried to forget. Buck Shot's next reveal only tested me a bit further. The wasteland survival guide. I was glad that such a thing was now nothing more than a torn mess of chewed paper and gecko saliva. With that brief sting of nostalgia sparking an emotional flame I didn't want to kindle, I swiftly set my gaze about the room. There I promptly noticed something I'd missed previously. Behind the counter was another door, slightly hidden behind the crooked notice board.

"I'm gonna check the back," I told Buck Shot.

The sandy stallion glanced up, first to me, then to the door.

"Fine by me," he said swiftly, before eagerly returning to his bags.

Cautiously, I trotted over moving around the counter.

"You still with me, hun?" I asked Cherry as I noticed the pink mare trotting up behind me seemingly oblivious to all else.

For a brief moment, she looked hurt as if somehow she shouldn't be there. I swiftly cursed myself for being so bland and corrected myself with equal haste. My smile summoned her back from that dark place, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I guess..." she stuttered seeming to struggle for words as she thought deeply. "I just want to make sure I don't miss anything, that's all," she swiftly blurted.

Well, that was a lie, albeit it with some truth, yet I didn't say as much. I just nodded and pretended to take pride in the fact that she thought I was a good enough teacher. Even if my real pride was in the fact she was still choosing to follow me.

Dragonfire, you really shouldn't invite more death and trauma for yourself, my mind snickered slyly.

I beat those thoughts with a mental hammer before turning to the hidden door. With a flare of my horn, the notice board straightened and fell to the floor. A moment later and my magic infiltrated what had once been the handle, opening it with a click. Thankfully it wasn't locked. Inside was a small room with cluttered shelves on one side and a pile of cardboard boxes stacked on the other. 'Robronco' was written on most of them. In that moment I was glad whoever had once worked here hadn't had the chance to build any of the dismantled robots. Getting in here would have been significantly more complicated if that were the case. On the far side of the room was the faint, green glow of a terminal, flickering beneath a layer of sandy dust.

At times I was surprised the things still worked after all this time, yet I knew what everypony said about stable-tec.

When they build something they... yadda, yadda, yadda. I trailed of mouthing the words silently to myself.

On the floor beside the terminal was a safe, the likes of which was just as dusty as everything else. Furthermore, its lock was untouched. Nopony had tried to get into it, in fact, it didn't seem like anypony had been in here for centuries. The coast clear, I holstered my Saddle blaster and moved over to the terminal, blowing away the dust only to find it locked.

Well, the wasteland wasn't gonna make everything easy. I sighed looking to my Pipbuck before hooking it up to the terminal. Okay Dragon, let's see how much you've lost your touch.

Several backouts and one almost broken screen later, I was in. The password was 'hero' of all things and it had taken me that long to find it.

Let's just not talk about this again, my mind unanimously agreed as I agreed as I looked over the contents.

I unlocked the safe first, after that, I found three audio recording which I swiftly download onto my Pipbuck. Inside the safe were a few stacks of pre-war bits, rather pointless, but I took them regardless and a stealthbuck, once again rather strange, but it was mine now. Finally, I found a memory orb. A memory orb? I'd seen many of these things before, and for a moment I was nearly in it. Yet my magic waived the moment I felt its touch. I'd had the misfortune of accidentally getting locked in one of these in combat before, that was one of the first ones I'd encountered and I'd never seen Star as unhappy as he was afterward. Still, if they hadn't taken me prisoner, we'd never have found their secret camp, and I wasn't a good prisoner especially when unarmed. That and I don't think those ponies had ever dealt with a mare in the heat before?

Not that such natural cycles actually do you any good. My mind snickered.

I lassoed my wandering thoughts with a shake of my head. I still liked to see memories, it was the only way I could see what may have still been if it weren't for monsters. But if nothing else, they were interesting. The only condition was I had to do it where there was absolutely no danger, basically in my room back in Churn, but I was able to bribe my way into exceptions. That said, I picked up the swirling sphere in my hooves and placed it into my saddlebags for my Pipbucks sorting spell to deal with, yet as I glanced into the safe I saw something else.

A photo, dusty and old. It was almost completely faded yet the safe had guarded it well enough to ensure somepony saw it before the end. It was an image of an old brown earth pony stallion smiling proudly beside a red and dark gray coated mare, both wore the same happy expression. Below them were two more ponies, a pale coated unicorn filly with a brown mane and beside her, an older cream coated earth pony mare with magenta mane and green eyes. None of their cutie marks were visible. The youngest of them, however, just seemed delighted to be a part of the image.

I swallowed, they were all so happy, so... My sight wavered as my head dropped to the left, they were a family, a true family, and now they were dead, they'd died such a long time ago. Fortunately, by the lack of bones in the room, not here. The image of those dead outside swiftly challenged that assumption, however. They'd deserved more than to die because of monsters with big mega-spells and balefire bombs. I let out a small sigh, slipping the photo into my saddlebags.

You don't even know them, I mentally remarked, and yet I was taking the image with me anyway.

Then, all of a sudden Cherry screamed. My head shot up as I turned, the pile boxes to my left exploded and came tumbling down. The distinct form of a gecko's tooth filled maw appeared right in front of my visor, 'number of hostile targets: 1' it declared obviously. I reached for my weapon, but it was so late.

Fuck me, this was not gonna be pleasant.

In that instant, there was a zapping sound, a boiling hiss, and mild groan the Gecko vanished before my eyes. 'Number of hostile targets: 0' my targeting matrix decreed as the pile of pink ash fell at my hooves. My eyes widened, my mouth falling open as I looked around to see Cherry standing panicked and shivering behind me. She was panting fast, her muzzle open as her lungs demanded more air than it could take in. Her horn was glowing with a faint green aura and levitating in the same sparkling hue before her was Zap, Zap.

My energy pistol. She'd saved me. Not exactly from death, Geckos were not that strong, not to mention I had my helmet. But she had spared me a serious facial mauling. My horn flashed steadying the pistol in the air as her magic flickered out. It had been a very a quick shot, I remarked to myself admirably.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, you got it," I told her soothingly, as her panic cocooned her away.

"Cherry?" I added in the same warm tone, noticing she was a lot tenser than usual.

I merely assumed it was shock, the little fucker had come out of nowhere after all. She took another deep breath then coughed, gasping more before finally wheezing

"It's gone, I got it?" she asked.

I gave her a nod, glancing back to the pink ash pile. In the floor behind it was a hole.

Funny never seen a Gecko burrow before? But I guess there was first for everything. At least I didn't have to worry about my targeting matrix wasn't fucked for missing it.

Moments later I looked back to Cherry as she began to calm down. Her breath slowed enough to allow her nostrils to take over and her eyes closed tight as she swallowed.

"How'd I do?" she asked, coughing as her true voice surfaced.

I placed a hoof on her shoulder, wary that I might have to take it off at the first sight of irritation in the mare.

"Um... saving my hide from most unpleasant experience, I say um... nine points out of ten," I offered kindly.

She smiled, her exhalations slowing, then I was once again expecting that impossibly cute pride. Instead, her expression fell flat, as if the achievement were stolen by some cruel pony in her head.

"Cherry, you okay?" I asked, lowering my head to hers.

The pink mare gave a weak sniff.

"Yeah, I'm ... I just never actually saved anypony before," she stated softly.

All the praise in the world is no good unless you feel it inside. My mind remarked, and for once I couldn't help but listen.

I frowned, she hadn't saved my life, as such, but I didn't need to tell her that. She was smart enough to know that Gecko had only a small chance of actually killing me, but that wasn't the problem.

How many times has she let somepony down before? What didn't you really know about her? I bucked my mind back into shape. Dragonfire you've been through this shit before, help her! I told myself firmly drawing the words out as if speaking to an infant foal.

"Hey missy, you saved me from a face full of Gecko. Don't you go thinking you're no good," I countered, acting on what felt like social instinct.

I'd imagine if it had been anypony else demanding something of her like that, the pink mare would have bolted and for a brief moment, I was afraid I was no expectation. Yet she managed a frail smile, a weak fire casting away the cold of her depressive anxiety. I mirrored the expression, she looked impossibly innocent like that. My horn flickered, and my magic shifted bringing Zap, Zap down between us. Cherry's eyes watched the energy pistol closely as I snaked it by her head and into the front holster of her modified utility barding.

"Now you can keep it knowing you've more than earned it," I told her.

She looked skeptical at first, I could see that doubt in her eyes. Yet like with the scene outside she did her best to force it out.

"I'll take good care of it," she assured me for the second time and I nodded.

"And I'll take good care of you," I assured her in return.

*******

"Oh that place up on the hillside, ah ain't' heard nothin' but bad news 'bout it, they say it’s haunted," Buck Shot explained, leaning back against the wall opposite the door to outside.

Gina slowly shook her head at him from her watchful position by the door. After clearing the whole place and blocking all the strange burrows, we'd all made it inside for the night. Star had removed his outer armor, yet was covered in what smelt like a coat of overcooked Gecko. Now the buck was laying beside me it was irresistible to lean my frail little body into his larger, more muscled body. The strangely pleasant smell of well-working stallion breaking the foul musk of dead Gecko. One of my forehooves was raised and I brushed it through his mane. I'd removed the armor from said hoof, as well as my helmet, both of which sat on the floor beside me. As did a rather sleep deprived Cherry.

As of the past two hours, she'd been asleep, but getting her to stay that way was still a challenge. The raiders had certainly done a number on her nightmares. Not only that, but I practically had to force her to eat. Star was about the only thing that had kept me from losing it. I was more worried than I'd ever expected, but she had my gun, a trusted well-maintained gun. She'd the skill to kill a Gecko, yet she was still far from safe; no matter how much I kid myself I couldn't protect her indefinitely.

That said, I waited until she was asleep to cuddle up to Star. I didn't want her to think she had to share me, she needed me as a whole to pull her through this, and she could have my attention. But Star deserved at least a platonic cuddle.

"Haunted?" His deep voice boomed beneath my ears sending warm chills through me.

Buck Shot looked back from the mocking griffin by the door, his rifle slung around his shoulders. He looked more than a little uncomfortable to see me almost like a towel draped over Stars back, but I gave him the fortune of closing my eyes so not to meet his as he awkwardly blushed.

"Yeah, they call it the Prissy Ghost, say it keeps the place far cleaner and more organized. Can't say ah've seen it myself, but ah heard plenty stories."

"Ha, yeah right," Gina interrupted with a huff.

I opened my eyes at that, raising an eyebrow as did my companion. The 'Prissy Ghost?' Just like the griffin implied, that was ridiculous. I said as much, but the sandy buck just shrugged and Star grumbled.

"What about a location?" Star asked, as I once again laid my head against him pondering the wild implications of a Prissy Ghost.

"No, can't say ah have one. Ah just know it's in the hills and no ponies been there since the war," Buck Shot offered, glancing out to Gina as if awaiting another sly comment, yet the griffin's eyes were locked on the dusty world outside.

"If no ponies been there since the bombs, then how do they know it’s haunted?" I asked confidently.

Buck Shot looked back and shrugged. I lower my head with a smirk, it was horse apples, just as I suspected. Still, this whole job had me slightly on edge. Pre-war experiments and some pony paying a whole lot of caps to get info on them, not an ideal set up. As for the place itself? Destiny, I recalled. I'd never heard of it. Not like the ministries, Robronco, Ironshod and the likes of Stable-tec. Star's head turned as he looked forward, I had to really hold back my urges as his thick muscles shifted below me.

No, I couldn't do this as much as he deserved it, we were at work and if Cherry saw me, well…

Reluctantly, I moved from his back and looked forward.

Damn, now I'm bored and guilty. Star deserved affection and I couldn't give it to him.

Instead, I'd nothing to do but sit here and listen to ridiculous ghost stories. My head drooped to the floor, leaning on the dusty cork and wood. My eyes closed lazily then opened, the left sphere falling upon Cherry, the right on Stars forehoof.

Damn it Dragonfire, leave Star out of this! I hissed at myself, and my right eye sealed.

Cherry, however, overpowered my mind's demands. Her breathing was heavy and her sleep less than peaceful. But she was so innocent, she didn't deserve any of this. She was one of those ponies the wasteland didn't deserve to toy with, those raiders didn't deserve her and strangely I felt that I also, was undeserving of her. That going off my deep lust, but I'll admit if she were not traumatized I might have made a move on her cute flank by now.

No! Dragonfire, damn you no! Leave your utterly sexually craving mind out of this! Fucking everypony won't get you what you want! Besides she's a mare it doesn't work like that. My mind screamed impatiently. Nature's workshop door doesn't swing that way!

Usually, I'd have emotionally collapsed at my mind's cruel accusation. But instead, I fell into a slump. I had to save her and fight off the fact that she was incredibly cute. I grumbled some more, glancing back over myself.

Fuck you um... the goddesses? The wasteland? Some mysterious omnipotent entity with an irritatingly fancy voice? Whoever gave me this useless barren body and stopped me from setting myself right, fuck you!

My head slumped against my left forehoof. Then I looked at my Pipbuck, well there was one thing. I retrieved my set of ear blooms and prodded at the flickering green screen with a hoof. Entry one the fuzzy image stated as I found the recording.

"Hi, Lucky it's mom here. I just wanted to leave you this message before you leave, seeing as I have to work an' all. Anyway, and I know we've told you a lot, but I just want to tell you how proud I, and your father are that you've gotten this position. As for your sister? I'm sure she's proud too. Well, seeing that your father will be working at the garage tomorrow you'll probably see him on your way up there. As for me, I just what to say don't forget about us little ponies when you're a big executive of a private company, and well I love you, sweetie."

The voice was soothing and kind, that of a seemingly proud mare. I could sense it in her tone like it was lined with golden affection for the pony in question. I had no definitive proof, but given the place I found it and the mention of at least two younger ponies one of which was a sister, I guessed this was something to do with the family photo I'd found in the safe. They really did love each other then? Hearing it was far more heart-wrenching than seeing it, and yet I'd seen far too many snippets of a world long dead to feel utterly heartbroken by anymore. That was both my defense and my shame

Entry two:

"Rotor, those strange ponies in suits were here again today. They claimed to be from the Ministry of Moral, yet they didn't seem that way to me. I even asked Autumn Meadow, you know the mare who works at the misery hub in Manehatten, I asked her when she did me that favor. She hasn't a clue. Apparently, the ministry doesn’t work that covertly and they certainly don't wear black trench coats that scream creepy. Anyway, they were asking about Lucky and when I told them she'd got a new job at that place they just nodded and told me to have a good day. Well, I tried contacting her and couldn't get through. If you ask me it's probably just the stress of a first big time job on her end. Now I'm not saying you should skip out on your work, I know you've got a lot going on down at the garage with those robots, the posts an' all, but maybe it would be better if you were here if those ponies come back. I don't know something about them was just off and no it wasn't the obvious clothes they were just curious and then, well... Not curious all of a sudden. Anyway, I've got some things together for dinner tonight and now Lucky's moved out we have the house all to ourselves for a change. Look forward to seeing you later."

Entry Three:

"Those ponies are here again! I just went to the window and caught two of them at the door. Well, I haven't opened it, and damn you for not being here. Brilliant husband you are, leaving me to put up with theses weirdoes. Anyway, I don't intend to see them a second time. I'm sneaking out the back. I still have that present your cousin gave me if try and follow me. I'll be coming to you so if you haven't read this message by then I just tell you in person, and if you're not there then first of all where the hay are you? Second, I'll be in the back of the garage."

I looked curiously at the flickering green array of files and numbers. Somepony centuries ago had been either really bad or unfortunately misunderstood. Thinking it was the one in the photo made me feel somewhat sympathetic to her plight, even if she may have once been some form of master criminal. I didn't know much about the ministries, but what I had heard about the one in question was mainly about its rather unique way of treating those who it suspected of criminal activity, especially later on in the war. The Ministry of Moral all fun and parties on the outside, all fucked up and dark on the inside, but hey, at least they served cupcakes.

I just sighed, nothing I hadn't heard before. All the ponies back then were fucked up, only for the entire world to take up the mantle when they inevitably blew themselves to pieces. Levitating my stuff back into my saddle bags I felt my magic brush against something else, the memory orb. It wasn't hard to think that this was something to do with the favor mentioned in the recording, given that the M.O.M were once again involved. Then I assumed the stealthbuck was 'the present' as she called it. Obviously, she'd not been caught as it was still very much here. Regardless, I pulled out the orb.

"I wonder what you could be?" I ask myself, in a hushed tone, rotating it curiously in my forehooves.

"Well, no danger here," I declared with shrug, leaning my horn down to touch the orb before anypony could stop me.

A second later and the magical connection flared and in an instant the dark dusty ruin fell away.

********

The dark reality was replaced by a bright sunny meadow. I felt the sun's warm touch on my coat or more specifically my host's. Its blissful light blessed the bright, green grass as it beamed down from the endless blue sky. If it had been me I'd have just sighed. There was no point in going over the argument of what we'd lost or given up because none of that would bring it back. Yet for now, I could see the sun, the sky, and lush grass and trees. As much as it appeared to be infinite at first the meadow itself didn't stretch on forever however. Instead, it was stopped at a bearer, a tall, white picket fence to be precise. Beyond, the tight wooded square was the harsh sands of the desert.

Well, at least nothing had changed out there. I noted as I saw the same sandy dust bowl.

In the left corner of the garden was a tall apple tree, and in the right, a sky blue shed. Beside it was a guarded flower patch filled with a whole manner of beautiful colored flowers. Back against the wall of the shed, a wooden frame supported a magnificent rose bush, each brilliant red flower like a crimson star blessed by the goddesses themselves. Below a plethora of blues, oranges and yellows drifted upon a sea of lush green leaves, cut off from the lawn by a small stone barrier. Knelt down on all four hooves before the flower patch was a pale gray coated mare with chocolate brown mane, the cutie mark of a golden star on her flank. She was a unicorn, her horn almost completely covered by her mane.

Speaking of her looks if it had been me here and now, I'd have been all over her. Instead, my host was glancing nervously to her hooves as the mare tended the flowers gently. From what I could see of the pony whose memory I was viewing, she was a dark coated mare with what appeared to be strands of deep red mane invading her eyes.

"Um, Lucky?" my host asked tentatively, looking up and swallowing.

The mare ahead looked back, and unfortunately, and my host didn't seem interested in leaving her eyes upon her flank.

"Yes, mother?"

Okay, now I could see why! This may not have been my body, but I was fucked up for even entreating that previous idea.

My host swallowed nervously again, seeming incredibly twitchy as she approached.

"You know we're proud right, both me and your father. We're all very happy?" the words swiftly slipped through my host's muzzle and Lucky smiled as she looked back.

"You're not afraid are you?" she asked seeming almost amused.

My host stopped, glancing down before looking back.

"Well, no, it's just we love you and after your sister moved to Ponyville we only had you, and now you're leaving we..." The deluge of words ceased as her emotions formed a lump in my host’s throat.

"Hey, mom," Lucky, stated lifting my host's head with a forehoof.

There was no resistance from her as our eyes met, hers. They were sad, yet happy. My host's sad, yet proud.

"You know I'll always be thinking of you," she assured my host warmly, before wrapping her in a loving hug.

I may not have been there, but I felt something I didn't when to feel in my subconscious at her embrace. My host didn't share the same sick impulses, instead, she wrapped her hooves around her daughter.

"I love you, sweetie," she whispered into the cream mare's ear.

"I know you do. You never stop reminding me," Lucky laughed, releasing her mother and looking to the flowers at her hooves, disturbing one with a poke.

My host looked at her actions and smiled.

"You know if you sister saw you doing that to her old roses, she’d go mad," she warned softly.

Lucky looked back.

"Maybe she shouldn't have moved so far away then," she suggested with a slight giggle.

My host rolled her eyes as Lucky continued.

"Hey, at least I won't be as far away. Heck, I'm stationed in the facility just up the road, you could say it was like destiny," she said.

Then the dreary wasteland world fell back into place in all of its dull and hostile splendor at that word. Destiny? It was a peculiar word indeed.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk Added: Exterminator Level One - When it comes to the wasteland's irritating vermin you're the pony to call. Gain + 10 damage against all creatures when they're below 20% maximum health.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: Rainbowsurvivor and Pandesalvado respectively.

Chapter Seven: The List Of Places That Messed With Ponies

Chapter 7: The List Of Places That Messed With Ponies.

“I don't see what's so daring about an old legend. Plus, I don't believe in ghosts.”

'Sub level 5' I had still seen no hostiles, nor had I encountered any obstacles. There was no sight of my friend. This place had swiftly risen to the top of my list of places that fucked with ponies. I'd kill for some pre-war abomination or a robot, even the fucking security system that actually did its job. Or more accurately, did it in a way that didn't involve driving me all the way down into the depths of this tomb and as far away from where I'd been separated from Cherry as it possibly could.

So much for corridor Forty-Five-C or wherever that terminal had told me to go to. No, that exchange upstairs just felt like the start of an effort to separate me from Star, and when that trick couldn't take Cherry they... Well, I wasn't sure what that was. I'd never seen a shield like that before. As for the door? The mere thought of the metal bastard was a target of most of my rage at the moment. On either side of me, the walls were formed from pure white tiles, all pristine. I could see now why somepony may call whatever the fuck was in here a prissy ghost. Ahead, I could see the corridors' end. Through a glass window beside it, I could make out the room beyond. It was far darker and the path I was taking traversed the vast space via a metal catwalk. 'Sublevel 6' the words were illuminated by the light of myPipbuck as I passed by, and I assumed it meant the floor I was walking above.

The room was certainly a vast change from the spotless white laboratories I'd been forced to wander through for what felt like hours. This new chamber looked far more industrial than scientific. In fact, it was deceptively like my room back in Churn, only on a far grander scale. The thick metal walls were lined with pipes and wires.Out over the many catwalks, I could see metal islands rise from the lower levels onto which the vast intricate spider web of walkways leading somewhere else inside this facility. Below, between the bases of the raised platforms, I could make out a great number of creates as well as droves of machinery, the likes of which looked more like monsters than anything somepony would dare operate. Under the shadowed stilts that held up one of the catwalk islands aloft, I could see several large wire coils. A vast web of black cords snaked out from each, spreading across the room like a great metallic weed. Above the light trail had died, yet a faint red glow filled the otherwise dark air.Nothing but, pipes, wires and a gridded metal floor greeted me as I soon found myself in a tunnel that looked far too much like home.

If it had been tighter I might have wounded if somepony was reading my memories to recreate this. Instead, the metal grid on which I stood was held inches above the solid floor. Around me, the room was filled with more lab desks and their respective projects. The lights were beckoning to me once again and I soon found myself stepping down from the shallow walkway and into the work area. Robots still bound within their hibernation pods watched me like silent sentinels, unmoving as I dispatched several more aimless turrets. On one of the desktops, a row of large, glass tubes were filled with ragged lumps of flesh, the likes of which had been prodded and prodded with a million different wires, their contents now resembling an electrical pincushion more than anything else.

The plethora of sick and twisted experiments only chipped away my emotional shield as I saw something with a better claim to the fact it was once alive. Beside a shattered tank, amides the glass and dried gruel was the skeleton of a pegasus strapped to a gore-stained medical table. Opposite the bones was the body of what appeared to be an earth pony, yet further inspection revealed the severed horn of a unicorn beside it, and my initial assumptions corrected themselves.

We make better ponies. The company slogan flashed through my mind.

Yeah by cutting them up.

I winched, not wishing to think about the true way to discover the supposed pegasi telekinesis, then noticed the grizzled bones of a severed wing and fought not to gag. I was almost thankful that the terminal closest to the experiment was busted, at least curiosity couldn't force me to look into what else it hand involved. 'PrimalMagic, Test 404' was all a dusted set of notes beside the shattered screen made clear.

Damn this was like a museum for the insane, I thought as I passed several more gory jars.

These ones held the severed heads of multiple ponies, all of which boasted more electrical testing equipment through skin and bone. Most unnervingly to me, however, was the fact they were all unicorns. If this was the work of the ghost then I needed to get Cherry and get the fuck out of here. I really couldn't care less about that reward right now.Then, however, I noticed something that was not originally part of a pony, at least I thought it wasn't. Yet the new sight sent more shivers down my spine than anything from the gory fetishes ever could.

Bound within a solid glass tomb were another of the mechanical exoskeletons, its left and right arms missing. It was big, bigger than me, bigger than Star. From the way it had been imprisoned in the transparent block, I assumed the two legged approach was its preferred method of getting about. For all intensive purposes, however, it looked like battle armor for a hellhound or similar creature. Yet, the spaces between the silver segments that formed its body were far too tight to accommodate something quite that large without flaying it first. Its feet were like that of some demonic mixture of bird and reptile, its chest a neat collage of sharp metal segments, all symmetrical aligned. Its head was by far its most daunting feature. A pair of sharp, dragon like eyes stared down at me with a lifeless gaze. Its seemingly closed mouth was unrecognizable in the neat arrangement of metal plates that formed its face and the back of its head. The back of its skull was lined with several fine horns that, within the solid glass, seemed to levitate.

In fact, the whole thing seemed to appear as if it were levitating like somepony was magically holding all the metal bones in perfect union. It was as if they were whole, while still mimicking the stature of some natural creature. The image of this thing free and running after me was horrifying. Yet, most daunting of all was the fact it felt as if the strange metal form were reaching right into me, into my thoughts. It was angry, and I felt as though an age old anger with a malice unmatched was directed toward me. Not only that, it longed to be free. I felt a feeling of dread unlike any I had ever felt before surge through me as that realization struck. It was like billions, upon billions of lost souls were trying to claw my soul right out of me to join them in eternal damnation.

I shook my head. What the fuck? Was this it, the ghost? This thing? It was no more than a glass ornament. Below it was what I assumed to be its other arm, once again lacking the hand, and filled with more wires than a suit of power armor. Beside it were two small cases, each open and lined with a now dusty blue cushioning. The combination locks on them were strange, not something I'd ever seen. At that, a part of me wished I could ask Cherry about them, locks did seem to be her passion and yet...

Don't remind me, brain, I grumbled bitterly.

There were a few more scraps of the same strange metal, as if somepony had been cutting the stuff up and to my right was the sickly green glow of a dusty terminal. Great, it was alive, and now I was curious.

You know curiously is a death sentence, right? My wasteland hardened mind reminded me sternly.

I just grumbled something along the lines of... "You would know" and that seemed to shut it right up.

Somepony had left this terminal on before their inevitable demise, five of its files had been tampered with, leaving only two assessable, one of which was an audio log.

'Program Prototypes, Complete: Weapons transferred to Stalliongrad facility. Have a nice day'.

I raised an eyebrow. Somepony was making weapons out of this stuff.Prototype weapons? At those words, I had a feeling such a weaponry had never come to fruition, given that ponies weren't sucking the souls out of each other. At that, I moved on to the second entry, the likes of which had been entered later the same day.

"Damn, them they've taken them, both of them! That no good pile of horse apple Tail Feather up in Stalliongrad has taken them."

A frustrated mare's voice erupted from the speakers far louder than I expected, and I cursed my curiosity with a quiet stream of profanities.If nopony knew where I was, they certainly did now. I even glanced up to the imposing armor within the glass, fearing that even this disturbance would have it bearing down on me. Confirming that wasn't the case I hit the volume, lowing it as the angry mare ranted on.

"I doubtOracle even know what they have now. Yeah, sure, you find one star metal pillar and start that whole excavation project, but by Luna the moment you join under another company you play by their rules, am I right? Not that Mister Hayland cares about the prototypes anymore, he's too caught up with the covert stuff, and his wife? Well, you can forget about her. You've got more chance getting an appointment with TwilightSparkle herself than her. That's why I'm sending you this. They'll probably check, but I know you know your stuff, you keep it from them and add it to your set. With any luck, they'll sack all of us by the end of the month and I can get Moon Glow and Star Shine to send theirs through to us too. Once we get to making more of these things, we'll be rich. I can think of a lot of ponies who'll pay big bits for weapons like this, and a few others that will pay a lot more. We're just relying on you not to slip up with the program. Got it? Don't let me down, Silver!"

Attached to the log was another file,'Prototype Etherium Blaster blueprint 2' My Pipbuck designated it helpfully, flashing the message onto my visor.

Well, it was right about one thing, I'd need more of these things to even have a hope of understanding it. Nevertheless, I downloaded the files, who knows maybe it was what our client was after. For some reason, I doubted that as I trotted on diverting my eyes from every new horrific scientific display the room had to offer until I found myself back in a pure white corridor.

The change in scenery was short lived, and I cursed the goddesses that it was not a set of stairs going upward to take me back up to Cherry. No, the wasteland just continued to force me down. Ahead, another set of plastic sheets separated the while laboratory walls from what appeared to be another industrial catwalk-strewn room. To my right directly beneath a lone deactivated turret was a lit doorway, and that was the direction I promptly choice. My eyes widened as I found myself staring at something all too normal. It was a corridor, pristine and perfect as if the war had never happened.

Still, don't believe in ghosts? My mind pressed condescendingly.

I shook my head, but this was fucked up, even I had to admit that. Who even needed what looked like some fancy hotel corridor beneath a twisted experimental facility anyway? As my eyes scoured the sandy, yellow wallpaper and a sign on my left told me that 'medical' was apparently down here somewhere. Ahead, the spotless, pre-war corridor leads to another opening and to my right was a single room. Each hoof step upon the perfectly kept, red carpet just felt wrong, not even the foul smelling excuse for a rug in Griddle's office was this prissy. I grumbled slightly at that.

"There is no such thing as ghosts!" I told myself under my breath.

A second later, and I was peering into the first room on the right.Inside I found a brightly decorated scene painted on the opposite wall. Asun wearing a wide smile shone down over rolling, green hills, trees, and birds, the painting attempting at capturing such a scene was a mere mockery of the real thing. A bed, table, sink, and lavatory were all posted respectively about the room as well as a terminal. The floor was covered by a bright blue carpet, and scattered about it were a number of toys. A foal's room? I questioned the information my eyes were offering, hoping dearly the realization wouldn't stir up any newly restless emotions in me. The more I looked, however, the more I felt as if I was being poisoned. The many sheets of medical paper at the end of the bed, the thickness of the metal door and the shattered mirror on the far wall. Above the faint hum of a motor stole my attention. A turret sat in the sky painted ceiling above, rotating aimlessly. Around it were bullet holes.

Who needed an automated gun in a foal's room? Who had shot a gun in foal's room? Why was a foal kept so far underground?My heart burned into a furnace each beat stoking the growing fire. Could nopony just be a normal loving parent! I almost screamed that out loud, stomping a hoof upon the carpet. Of all the ponies I knew that had the privilege of having a foal, none of them seem to care. I grit my teeth stamping my hoof again and again, before moving over to a terminal beside the bed. Once again there was no password and I was presented with eight audio recordings. I slumped bedside down, staring at the flickering green screen, then my eyes lowered to what appeared to be a trash can stuffed under the bed and a sharp shard of shattered glass?

Really?Bunkers, guns and now this? I was running out of ways to hate these centuries old ponies. I reach down with a hoof, first to the glass. It was about the only unclean thing down here, coated in a dark layer of ancient crimson, as was some of the carpet beside where it had lain for what I assumed were the past few decades. Darkened crimson, blood?Somepony had bled here, a lot by the size of the stain, yet there were no bones, no sign of any struggle.

What the fuck? What the Fuck! I screamed mentally.

What the fuck had some pony done in here? This was a foal's room, it was supposed to be safe, a home! I banged a hoof on the bed, a rather pitiful gesture given the fact the soft mattress absorbed most of my strike. The disturbance did reveal something else, however. The cheap metal bed frame buckled and shifted the trash can to disturb a memory orb within. The smooth sphere rolled out onto the carpet, bearing a long, dried smear of blood across it. I looked at it sternly, I was gonna find out what happened here, I was gonna know why somepony had been so careless. I scooped up the orb in my hoof and placed it firmly into my saddlebags. I knew better than to use it here, however, but that didn't stop me from rooting through the audio files on the terminal.

Day one.

"Hi, this is Lucky Star and... Well. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say. They just told me to get settled in and make sure I make a recording of how I feel every day."

My ears perked as the mare in the recording sighed, yet her voice was still cheerful and chirpy. She sounded happy, far happier than anypony from this place should be. That was not what caught my attention, however. I recognized that name slightly, even that voice. Lucky Star? Lucky? The young mare from the workshop memory orb, she certainly had a figure I'd not be forgetting anytime soon. This was where she'd been hired? This mad scientists’ monument to science without ethics?

I pressed my face into my for hooves. Goddesses she'd looked too innocent, so pretty in that memory, and yet she'd been here helping these monsters. At that, Isaw another gruesome side to the same bottle cap. No, they couldn't have. The brief image of one of the unicorn heads in the bloody jars, not to mention the one I'd seen strapped to the medical table flashed through my mind. No, nopony was that fucked up, surely. Luring somepony in with the promise of a job and then... I was hesitant to continue the recording, the once burning frustration about the state of a foal's room had now been warped into a cold and sickly disgust.

"WellI'm here now, so I think I should at least make something out of it.Everypony here's been so welcoming and nice. I'll admit it's a little strange to be living this far down, but there is a war going on after all. Besides, the private dorm they gave me is nice. I'll have to say I was a bit anxious about moving out, but I'd be a fool to say no to such an opportunity, and the job description did make it clear I'd be staying here for a long time. Anyway, on the subject of what they asked me to say... I'm feeling fine, but also very excited. I suppose that will change after the medical examination later. I may have a medical degree, but by Luna I hate needles. But listen to me, I'm rambling like an excited filly. Anyhow, I'm off to settle in. So until tomorrow, I guess... I can leave it at that."

My anger simmered in the cool vat of my worry as the recording finished. That didn't sound suspicions, she sounded fine, I assured myself, a great battle raging in my head as to whether I should listen to more or not. On one hoof, this was somepony I'd seen, if only briefly. Yet, after seeing the defilements back in the laboratories I didn't feel all that comfortable not knowing what had happened to her. On the other hoof, I needed to get back to my friends, that was if they were still alive.

Damn it brain! Of course, they were alive, I declared firmly unwilling to believe otherwise.

I instead decided to meet each of my opposing sides midway. Downloading the recordings onto my Pipbuck I levitated out my ear bloom and activating the second entry as I trotted onwards.

Day 2:

"Urg... this is... Lucky Star, yeah that's what I was told to say."

I instantly regretted my decision at the sound of her weary voice. She sounded as if she'd had a rough night, and I sincerely hoped that was the only reason she sounded so... frazzled. I highly doubted sex or alcohol were the cause it however and as I trotted out of the door to the improvised foal's room I moved to turn off the recording. Yet my mind protested. Whoever she really was, she deserved for this to be heard, for her voice to be free from within this twisted tomb. With a sight and tentative tap of my hoof, I let the rest of the recording play out.

"Urg, who knew I was in an accident. I have to admit it was rather strange. I can't think, there's just a great big block right there, and beyond it? Well, I can't recall the accident. Is this it then, the sun? It has a smiley face. I never imagined the sun would shine in a room just for me, I meant there's only one right, this one?This world, as small as it is ... it's amazing. They say I have to stay here, I mean there's nowhere else to go but out there in the halls so I have no idea what they’re talking about really, I just nod and take my medicine.

Of cause I'm not going anywhere, it's dangerous out there. No, I have to stay in here where it's safe for me until I'm better and they said that could take a few months, maybe even a year, however long that is. But they say when it's all over, I won't be so alone in the sun anymore. Oh~ I'm so excited about getting better because, and I know it's safe in here and all, but I feel strange. I can't quite put my hoof on it, I just feel different like... I don't know like I'm missing something. No, I've gained something in place of something else, yeah that's it. I mean I was in an accident, so I can't be all better yet, can I? The world's locked now and the sun had gone out anyway. But it's still smiling. I know I need to go to sleep when it’s dark, that's what they tell me. ‘Just try and ignore the stomach ache, dear,’ Doctor Band-Aid told me, he's my new friend. He tells me all I need to know about my accident and warns me I have to take care of myself. But, I really do have to go to sleep now, so bye terminal ponies."

She was drunk. She had to be. Nopony just became a rambling bag of words like that, she was like a foal herself. She didn't even seem to recall making the recording just the day before. Maybe alcohol had been a factor? Even so, I found little relief in its possible confirmation. They'd done something to her, that drunk sounding mare in the second recording was not the mare I'd seen in the memory.No, that mare was happy and dead set on a goal that now seemed to have been naught more than a cardboard cut out, hiding something far more sinister behind it. 'Private Medical Ward' Was the name given to the next door on my left, and the promise of more medical supplies was enough to divert my attention from the old recordings for now.

Great, the first locked door I came across and I wasn't with my newly acquired locksmith, fuck you, wasteland. I mentally grumbled as I resorted to basics.

I wasn't a strong pony, but after two firm bucks of my armored hind hooves the glass door gave out and shattered. The room beyond was a small rectangle with tiled walls, a few mirrors and several wilted plants that sat in orange pots upon a shelf opposite me. Against the left wall was a long row of medical cabinets and two surgical beds, directly opposite the door was another closed opening. To its left were several more medical cabinets, to its right a tall metal tube.

AnAuto-Doc? I knew several ponies who'd do anything to get their hooves on that high-tech baby. A part of me even considered breaking into the thing, then I remembered the stories of the cold iron coffins cutting ponies up, and decided against it. Instead, I made my way over to the rows of medical cabinets smashing into the standard butterfly emblazoned boxes within most of them and swiftly salvaging as much as I could carry. At least half a dozen healing potions and some restoration potions, not to mention bandages and all the bobby pins Cherry could ask for.

The next few cabinets were glass. On my second try, my forehoof broke through the majority of them the shards falling to the tiled floor as I did so. Inside was another pair of healing potions, a set of magical healing bandages, some Dash, Med-X and plenty of RadAway, all of which I swiftly commandeered. A moment later, and I found myself peering through the second door, into what appeared to be a large office. On the floor was a clean, red carpeted lined with a golden run around its edge. Almost every wall was bookshelves. The one exception being to my left, where the wall was instead one big window, angled slightly into the ceiling of the room below. It allowing the office a clear view of what appeared to be a white walled operating theater.

In front of the wide window were a tall office chair and large wooden desk supporting a terminal. All of it still shimmered with polish, as did most of the wooden bookshelves. The only other brakes in the wall were a set of large wooden doors to my right and opposite me, where the shelves sunk back forming what looked like some sort of alcoholic beverage station, a clean mirror on its back edge. A white coated mare with light blue mane dawning light blue dragon scale barding looked back from the shimmering surface, and I jumped at the sight, only to have my mind laugh at me as I settled.

Yeah laugh it up, brain, you're certainly not a ghost, I groaned pushing the unlocked door open.

It wasn't hard to surmise that the private medical room was intended for the pony who owned this office. Even now, after almost two centuries, the room smelled clean and well maintained, like nopony had been here since well... forever. Just like the ghost story. One break in the cleanliness threatened to topple the stories' believability, however.The carpeted directly before the desk was stained by a pile of gray ash, the likes of which still glowed with a faint orange hue. I stopped as it caught my eye.

It sure didn't look like any magical energy weapon residue, and I should know. The color was off, yet there was something else. It was in the almost perfect shape of a pony, even its head was visible. The pony had their mouth open, and most of their pained expression was silhouetted against the bright red carpet as if they'd been blasted into the floor. Either somepony was vaporized laying down, and by a really fast disintegration firearm to boot, or this was something else. Regardless, there was nothing I could do about it now, other than hope the pony lying dead before me wasn't a monster, and therefore undeserving of such a horrific fate.

Still, staring at it made me feel weary, just like that strange set of imprisoned armor it felt as if the ash itself were angry and trying to drill that impression into my head. With that, I swiftly turned tail to the glowing pile and moved around behind the desk. Looking out of the window I could see a wide hexagonal chamber lined with pure white walls. The roof was also white, the angled panels that formed it all converging on a flat section directly above the center, as did the angled office window.Beneath the central tile was a surgical table, thankfully empty. Around it sat a whole manner of expensive medical erumpent, ranging from syringes and drips to medical terminals and overhead spotlights. Around the room, the same scene played out as many more spare medical machines sat silently. I gave the scene a curious look over, before I turned the terminal a top the desk, only to find it locked.

"Oh, so now you want a password?" I groaned sourly, sitting on the high-class office chair and removing my helmet with a flash of my horn.

"Fuck you, password." I hissed to myself rotating the chair after only three failed attempts.

That was when something else caught my eye. A pair of buttons on the back of the desk, one was labeled assistance and I quickly realized that I wouldn't be getting that anytime soon, the second was labeled Overseer. I leaned back thoughtfully.

'Systems fully functional under stick the Overseer command' I recalled from the upstairs terminal.

Who the fuck was Overseer?

Curiosity then got the better of me and, leaning forward, I tapped the button with a forehoof. And... Nothing happened. I pressed it again and once again there was nothing. My expression fell flat as did my ears. I slouched back against the thick cushions of the chair, what was I expecting tea and biscuits? No, not even this place was that friendly...

"Greetings, I am the Overseer, governor, and caretaker of this faculty."

I almost sent the chair collapsing backward through the observation window as the sudden voice sounded. My legs straighten stiffly, catching on the underside of the desks and stopping me before I could swing too far back. My head swiftly swiveled in the direction of the abrupt sound.There, to my left, I saw a strange levitating device about the size of my head. It had no rockets or engines and no obvious magic, it just seemed to float there effortlessly. It looked, for all instinctive purposes, like a metallic flower. Four major metallic plates surround a glowing orange core like petals, each twitching and shifting as if imitating expressions. As for the core, it was an orb, almost like a memory orb, yet it was glowing with a bright light that focused on to one point within the glistening surface almost like an eyeball. A light, high pitched, hum emanated from behind it as it bobbed like some sort of overly expensive sprite bot.

Yeah, it managed to sneak up on you like one too, my mind grumbled.

My initial surprise fading, I could do nothing but stare at the thing as it hovered happily, anticipating my response.

"Urm, hello," I said skeptically, waving a hoof tentatively.

The metallic framework shifted as if to imitate a more gleeful expression.

"Greeting, it would seem you have arrived at the specified location, I do hope your experience was enjoyable," the hovering robot explained, its central light flashing with each syllable of its happy tone, the likes of which was almost identical to that of the presentation screens upstairs.

Then the thing's actual words hit me. Wait, what was it saying? I'd arrived at the specified location? And no the trip was not enjoyable. I looked away, sinking back into the chair. It was just another useless bucket of bolts. All I was gonna do, was find my friends and then we were getting out of this stupid place. I sank further down as I released that that may take a significant amount of time, especially if I continued to lounge about like I was.

"Please excuse my interruption, but are you not to accompany me to the catalysts chamber?" the hovering robot asked cheerfully.

My head turned lazily.

"What?" I asked dryly.

It mocked a smile with its shifting frame before continuing.

"Indeed.Although, I have to admit your sudden presence was unexpected." My ears perked up, and a budding curiously was born from the mental plane, consisting of boredom and a deep concern for Cherry.

Firstly, what he was expecting? Second, did he know how to get out and a rather trivial third, was this thing the damn prissy ghost? Really, this thing?

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously, sitting up.

His mockery of an expression turned to shock, I'd actually made a robot shocked. Well, there was one thing I never saw myself doing.

"You are an optimal candidate for the revival of the project, are you not?" he asked curiously.

I couldn't help but smile, albeit skeptically. I felt my curiosity blossom further, I centrally didn't recall being the pony he'd described, yet he'd intrigued me.

"Say I am this ... Candidate?" I explained thoughtfully, rolling a hoof in the air generally. All I was hoping was that may be able to trick him into showing me the way out if I played along. "What does that mean?" I added leaning towards him.

"I will admit at first speculation I was unable to understand the lack of knowledge regarding the project, every potential candidate has displayed a lack of acknowledgment as of late. Such a thing is strictly against regulations. Even so, I thought I made the direction quite clear to them with the limited systems still functioning. As I did to you," he explained, his confusion only seeming to grow.

My budding curiosity wilted as I lost him. His directions? Wait. The upstairs terminal, the lights, my mind suddenly clicked.

"Wait, wait, wait. The terminal screen upstairs, the light trail? That was you?" I asked abruptly.

The levitating orb hovered closer, bobbing in the air as if to nod.

"Indeed, protocol dictated my response. You were an optimal genetic candidate.You are in fact, a closer match to subject two than any of those that have proceeded you, the bypass systems made sure of that. Explicitly," he explained eagerly, well as eager as a robot could be.

I raised an eyebrow, but he'd made it perfectly obvious that he, Overseer as he called himself, was controlling the overly friendly security system. That also meant he'd separated us. My wonder flared red, and I felt an overweening urge to use one of my spark grenades, the one that involved killing robots specifically. He'd taken her away from me!

I stood up sharply, stepping down from the chair my magic ready to draw any number of my guns from their its holsters.

"You split us up. What did you do with her!" I growled accusingly, stepping up to him.

The mechanical construct lacked any concern, he merely floated back slightly. The only thing that was holding me back were his words, optimal genetic candidate? I was curious, by the goddesses that was a death sentence but damn it, I was so curious. Curious enough not to turn him to ash just yet. Not only that, I couldn't help but feel that fact was the only thing distinguishing me from the ponies he'd seemingly gunned down upstairs. The metal plates around his eye suddenly shifted to an expression that looked uncomfortably sympathetic.

"I assure you no harm was intended. Circumstances merely displayed the possibility that your progress may have been hindered, sensors indicate all internal life signs are currently unharmed," he explained in the same charismatic tone as if the whole things was little concern to him.

I bit back my retort, stomping a forehoof into the carpet. He'd split us up because I was being too slow for him? What the fuck was so important?

"Take me to them, now!" I growled dangerously.

Once again the bobbing ball appeared confused. Like I should know exactly what he was trying to say and just not question it.

"You are an optimal candidate for the continuation of the project, allowing you to depart without the most basic consultation would be against regulations," he explained, hovering over to my side.

I left an eye lingering on the orb as he hovered by my left, around my tail and then by the saddle blaster leaned against my right. It felt as if he were double-checking his accusation, doubting himself. Funny, I never knew robot could do that. Regardless, he didn't seem as positively chummy as his irritating voice may suggest. A moment of the robot's strange lust for eye candy later, and its sole eye appeared before me again. He clearly didn't understand the concept of personal space.

"What project?" I asked stepping forward firmly and forcing him to hover back as I did so.

"Project Destiny, of course," he stated condescendingly as if above everything in my little life, I should know what that meant.

Project Destiny? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? My mind went over the thousands, upon thousands of things I could remember from years in the wasteland, and not once had something like this crossed me. I met Overseer with the same clueless expression, the notion seeming to unsettle him further. Only after all that did he finally seemed to get it. I had no fucking idea what he was going on about.

"This revelation is indeed unexpected, if not predictable. However, I am still to proceed as protocol dictates," he stated dryly, before moving over to the double doors opposite the desk.

My eyes flowed as the humming buzz as the orb swiftly darted across the room. He was like a smart, metal and overly cheerful bloatsprite, minus the foul image, smell and strange habit of shooting barbs at anything that moved. More so, he'd failed to answer my question or act upon my request. Did he know that I had at least three barrels that were eager to meet him if he didn't take me back to my friends? Then there was my more shameful confession, he still had me intrigued. I'll admit, I was kind of naive, and I knew if Star were here he'd be holding me back. But if nothing else, I was gonna find out what was so important, that it was worth splitting us up over so calculatedly.

"Please, do follow me," the Overseer invited the door opening for him as he moved through.

I turned and steadily retrieved my helmet, and beginning to trot over to the door. I graciously avoided the pony shaped scorch stain on the carpet and made an effort to have my magic wrapt about my saddle blaster at all times. Very few ponies in the wasteland were friendly, even fewer of the robots were friendly. The way I saw things, fewer still were so friendly before the war.

********

"I for one am glad that the facility is still functional after such an extended period of shutdown," the Overseer said, but I failed to spare the hovering incarnation of pure irritation even a single glance as he hovered beside me.

Under hoof yet another metal catwalk held us just inches above another set of experimental laboratories. Around us were more rows and rows of scientific equipment, yet despite the fact some of the lights were still active, there was not enough illumination to chase away the gloom concealing most of it. All I could make out were the light shimmers of dusty glass, some metal and what looked like silver rock. All that was clearly visible were the many crates on the far left side as well as something covered by a vast red tarp.

Overseer was in control of the turrets that still rotated aimlessly above us, not to mention any others still in the building. I had a feeling he was smart enough to realize that without my friends he had no leverage over me. The sensation of being somewhat hopeless to help them, however, stirred within in me in a way I thought I'd lost with my brother. It clung to me like heavy saddlebags, like I was carrying the weight of their whole life on my back. As with my brother. I'd assured myself I'd never sink back to the memory again, maybe that's what Star had truly been hinting at.

Then there was a sharp hiss as something in the seemingly solid wall ahead shifted. My ears perked and I looked forward to see that a section of the gray steel slid inward and lifted up, forming a door that a part of the catwalk extended into. Overseer hovered inside first, bobbing effortlessly below the roof. I hesitantly followed and immediately a brighter light struck me. It was almost like somepony had trapped the sun trapped inside this metal prison, maybe Lucky Star hadn't been so wrong to think the same about her cell.

A moment later my eyes readjusted to the bright light, and I noticed that the walls were a reflective white. The catwalk now painted with a rough layer of white continued into the center as did three others entering in from four equidistant points about the circular room, crossing seamlessly in the center. The layout of the catwalks split the circular room into four symmetrical quarters within each was a large metal pillar. A dark criss-cross of thick pipes, wires and steel frame reached up from the floor and down from the roof of each. Between them was a cylindrical glass chamber. Wires pipes and robotic arms hung lazily down from the top of the glass pod, some suspending what looked like an empty harness. Below the point at which the glass ceased, panels of lightless buttons and dead screens lined the cold metal. Atop each glass cylinder, an engraved plate was attached to the metal column.

'Salvation','Destruction', 'Eternity' and finally 'Evolution'. All four were empty of whatever those cryptic words implied unless of course, it referred to some metal arms, pipes, wires and empty space. A fifth capsule was positioned in the center of the rounded chamber, around which the catwalks converged. It, however, was far from empty.

'Destiny'. The pod was labeled, and it was filled with a dull green liquid. The display panels beneath it were lit up like a flickering rainbow. Inside were a similar set of wires and skeletal metallic limbs, all were attached to a harness similar to those of the other pods, yet there was something distinguishing this one from its fellows. A pony. There was somepony inside the capsule. I stopped beside the base of the tank, peering through the thick green liquid. The color was not pristine, yet I was sure she was a light-coated, unicorn mare with her mane and tail shaved off completely. Only her head and forelimbs were visible, her flank and cutie mark were covered by the tight metallic harness device that stretched around to cover her rump, midsection, and stomach.

Many of the arms, pipes, and wires fed into the harness just like the other empty capsules. Some bore straight into her back, others into more uncomfortable places. Even I winced a little, as I walked round to see her mechanically defiled flank and finally to her head. Thankful she appeared to be unconscious or dead, either way, she didn't seem able to feel the mess of wiring forcing their way into every natural orifice. Over her forehead was a metal band that also encompassed her horn in a silver shaft, wires lead up from the band, snaking through the liquid and into the tank's roof. Then I looked at her muzzle, the image struck me with the same horror as her violated rear.

Like some sort of fucked up work of art, several pipes and wires fought their way down her throat and nostrils. I gagged, lowering my eyes from the sight as I saw the bulging line in her stuffed neck as the pipes reached deep into her chest. The only part of her that seemed to be free of machines were her forelimbs, yet even they were far from unscathed, crossed with deep scars and dark slashes. Finally, in her left forehoof what appeared to be some sort of metallic plate, no bigger than a bottle cap, it was only just visible under her fur as it glowed a soft orange. Even so, I found myself staggering back against the rail of the catwalk and fighting not to throw up.

"What the fuck?" I cursed, eyes wide in horror.

She looks like... No, that can't be her, but how can I tell? I can't see her mane, tail, or cutie mark!? Overseer swiftly hovered around the tank once before settling beside me.

"A marvelous piece of experimental engineering. Far superior to any other systems developed by the Ministry of Science or Ministry of Peace," he added in a generally admirable tone.

I gasped, forcing my open muzzle.

"Marvellous? What the fuck! This isn't marvelous! It's sick, what the hell are you doing to her?" I cried, pointing the manically defiled mare.

The hovering orb looked at me disapprovingly. A fucking robot was disapproving of the fact I was disgust by this. I just stared coldly at him. I hated robots, but that this one that could express some faint mockery of emotion was far worse, especially when they seemed to think kindly of shit like this.

"I can assure you the profanities are not necessary. This is merely an advanced form of life support system first developed by the Ministry of Peace. It has merely been developed to sustain life against elements the original designers could never have anticipated." Overseer casually explained as he hovered back up to the tank stating right at the living pincushion floating within.

I couldn't tell whether my shiver came from fear or rage, either way, this was wrong. No, this was monstrous.

This is what ponies did back then? My mind added throwing coal on the fire.

I knew about the Ministry of Peace, Fluttershy, just doing better and all that. On the surface that shy, yellow mare didn't seem like she could hurt a fly, but if she'd known she'd had anything thing to do with this, I wondered how she would react. I was right. I'd always been right. No matter what, everypony I'd heard of from before the war was fucked up in one way or another. They all had their dark secrets, the ministry mares, even the princesses, they were all just as fucked up as the wasteland they'd created. I closed my eyes tightly, bowing my head.

"I can assure you that sympathy is not necessary, this subject was only subjected to life support due to her own actions, she is quite alive and stable."

I swear I almost lost it as Overseer said that so nonchalantly. I swear I almost took my gun and blasted this abomination of the face of Equestria. This mare, one I may have seen alive and well once. She didn't look like a monster by choice, she was stuffed with machines, encased in cold metal, and forced to live through it by those very machines. I almost did it, I almost drew my blaster from its holster, but then what would that make me? A murderer? Or was such an act mercy in such a dire circumstance? I only killed monsters, it was okay to kill monsters. She wasn't a monster.

I stomped a hoof on the metal, rattling the catwalk and glaring down at the clear white floor just inches below. I could see the dull reflection of myself, a white-coated mare with sky blue mane clad in dragon scale barding and helmet, magic itching to grab the holstered energy rifles at her side. Was that mare glaring back at me a monster? Did letting this exist make her so, or did her willingness to commit murder?

No, damn it. I saved ponies who needed it, I saved ponies who deserved it. My head shot up as I bolted over to the control panel of the pod. There had to be some way to fix this, to get her out. Frantically, I struggled to connect my Pipbuck to the system.

"And what, pray tell. Are you attempting to achieve?" Overseer asked curiosity, hovering round to see my frantic efforts.

"I'm gonna get her out, I have to. It's my job." The words rushed from my muzzle just as wildly as my frantic hooves and desperate magic met the flashing interface.

There was a long pause from the robot as he hovered around behind me and appeared at my left side.

"Don't be ridiculous, this subject would not survive for more than a few moments of exposure, nor would the experiment. Both would be lost," he explained in an eerily calm tone.

I just blanked him out completely and suddenly the screen before me came to life with information.

***'Subject: 002'***

***'Status: Stable'***

***'Stasis period: 199 years, 11 months, 13 days'***

***'Persevered natural age: 23'***

***'Actual age: 223 (Preserved)'***

***'GS Period: 1 week (Preserved)'****

"Com’on!" I screamed as I banged a hoof of the screen, and with a dull thud, it bounced off the glass.

ThenI fell silent, my magic finally faded as I slumped muzzle first on the panel. I had to save her, I had to do my job, she wasn't a monster. I knew that right now, I couldn't kill monsters.

"This emotional outburst is rather unexpected," the Overseer stated calmly, before hovering back. "I suppose that is what I should have expected given your lack of knowledge regarding the project," the bobbing orb added, sounding introspective.

I gave a faint whimper as one of my forehooves brushed against the cold screen.

"What knowledge, what the fuck are you doing here?" I demanded in a furious whimper turning my head towards the levitating machine.

Once again he looked confused.

"Perhaps it is possible that all past subjects were oblivious to the project on purpose," he added thoughtfully, yet it didn't feel like he was addressing me more himself, he was questioning himself, like a pony.

"Recalibrating... Yes, such a lack of knowledge would certainly prevent a repeat of past failures. The genetic catalyst must be preserved for a minimum of eleven months." He added to his self-monologue.

"Hey, Sparky!" I called angrily, pressing my forehoof against the panel and forcing myself up.

He seemed to break free of his thoughtful stupor and looked at me blankly.

"Help me get her out now!" I growled dangerously, with no care for what he'd said.

I saved ponies, I was gonna save this pony. He just hovered there silently. One eye turned to the tank only inches from my muzzle as I raised a hoof to the glass rubbing it gently. If that was her, Lucky...

"I'm sorry," I whimpered, begging for her forgiveness as I felt my magic wrap around the saddle blaster.

"My apologies for not seeing your intended role sooner. I see now what is intended for you, subject twelve." Overseer stated in a tone as blank as his emotionless expression.

I didn't care, I didn't even spare him a glance as the high pitched hum of his movement drew closer.

"Please ignore prior interaction. I will now proceed with new found intention."Those were the only words to omit from his flashing eye as he came closer.

Then with a bright flash, I felt a sudden surge of magic in my horn, my eyes went wide and I was swept away from the world as it fell into darkness.

********

The white walls were replaced by strangely familiar surroundings. I was back in the office, or one that looked exactly like it. Wait, this was a memory? I was in a memory, but how?

My mind swam for a moment before settling on feeling irritated. That little robotic bastard tricked me. I'd no idea how I could be in a memory. I don't know, maybe his eyes was a memory orb or something? That was the least of my concerns, however, now he had me unconscious somewhere. I felt a deep, cold dread surge through me, yet this wasn't me I... My dread doubled as I suddenly felt the strange body I was now trapped in. The taller frame, thicker build, and muzzle. The sensation of something between my thighs was the last straw.

No, no, no I never wanted to be this close to a buck, no way. My host stood behind the wooden desk, as I had done not too long ago. The terminal screen before us emitting its green glow, the likes of which reflected from the polished desk. I could feel my host's heavy hooves go to work on the keys, the password, I noted swiftly, was Ebon. A sight of cold relief escape my host's muzzle as he looked at the few files that were still on the terminal. Then he paused, logging off with equal haste before all of a sudden a surge of deep pain tore through us. Something deep inside him twisted forcing his hooves from the desk as he convulsed and staggering back.

I really hoped that somewhere I hadn't screamed at the pain, it was as if somepony had set off a grenade in his chest, and he'd not had the good fortune to die. He gasped desperately, the air like sandpaper grinding in his bone dry mouth. Something felt serious wrong with this buck, the more I thought about that, the more I could feel it writhing within him, the more I really wanted to be out of this memory. The pain of another heavy convulsion struck, and I knew that somewhere the real me was definitely crying in agony. Now it was as if his whole body were being forced through a damaged memory orb, it felt as if each of his nerve endings were being flayed one by one and unbearable slowly. I almost felt sorry for him, if not for the sensation of my very soul being torn to pieces.

As the inner pain subsided slightly, the buck gave an agonized winnie, the dry air slowly escaping his trembling muzzle.Steadily, his eyes rose to the double doors opposite, his hooves quivering. It was then he fumbled for something on the desk before him. A small metal object in the shape of an eight-point star, attached to a fine silver chain. It looked old and worn, the once golden metal chipped and dulled by the passage of time. Etched into its center, barely recognizable against the worn surface, was what appeared to be a heart.

The buck's quivering hooves struggled to hold the trinket as he tapped it lightly. Now he was more than trembling, he was burning. I tried to scream as I felt the crackling pain within growing once more. It was like he was on fire but on the inside. As if every single part on his body was falling apart in searing agony. He gave a wretched cough, and to my horror dust bloomed from his muzzle, even more, strained his hoof as he whipped it over his face. His mouth was drier than the desert and a tingling taste of iron touched his tongue, yet there was no blood. The dry substance seemed to peel from the inside of his mouth and glow with a dull orange aura. With every dry breath, it tasted as if there were a lightning storm in the air. His eyes burned with a dry heat, the only moist came from the layer of cold sweat that leaked in buckets from his orange coat, turning his magenta mane into a weeping mess.

"Overseer... I require assistance ..." he spluttered with a dry gag, bracing himself on the side of the desk as another burning surge of agony tore through his quivering body.

The small trinket in his hooves fell to the floor as his limbs twisted, the sudden jolt of metal hitting the carpet rang in his ears for far longer than such a simple sound should.Nevertheless, he glared down to see the thing as it popped open. A locket? But there was no picture. No, instead there was an old mass of cogs, gears, and springs. A music box. Regardless, it was the least of his current concerns as he looked about. Meanwhile, I was fighting hard through the immense pain best I could as my host reeled again.

"Overseer! I need to know it's safe." He wheezed heavily, coughing up more glowing dust.

I couldn't think straight, nor could he, it seemed. As if his mind were slowly melting, I could feel his mouth disintegrating with every subtle movement, I could feel a dusty flutter with each dry heartbeat, he was disintegrating alive, from the inside!

"Did ... did you save the genetic template? Please tell me it's safe," he begged, then crumpled over the desk gagging and coughing.

One of his thrashing hooves hit the music box, and we both looked in horror as the limb began to form a glowing patchwork of red lines beneath his sweat drenched surface. Slow the deadly crossword puzzle began to spread up the limb sending an incendiary pain right through us both as it did so. In the same moment, a similar pattern began to consume his second hoof. Then came the low whirring of clockwork, followed by the soft sound of a beautiful melody.

The light notes mixed with a soft chime to form a gentle lullaby. Once it may have one of the most pleasant, if not slightly romantic, sounds in the world. Yet in my host burning ears, it merely sounded like a screaming chorus. That same pain flared in his chest once again as it continued and I could swear I felt his heart not only stop but explode into dust.

"Yes, I have fulfilled all assigned tasks, Mister Hayland," the sudden voice of Overseer stated, as the glowing orb appeared overhead.

My host fought to turn his head to the hovering robot as it bobbed in the air carelessly.

"The specimen implant is stable, yet the catalyst has suffered considerable trauma, may I recommend ..."

The buck silenced the robot with a painful wave of his glowing forehoof."No Overseer… You... You are to continue as planned, lock the site down, make sure..." the next set of wrenching coughs lasted for nearly a minute, ending with a strained groan.

I did everything my mental prison would allow to ignore the searing pain, unfortunately, that wasn't much.

"Make sure Oracle never get their hooves on... she can have control of two fifteen it's ..."

With an agonizing groan, his words turned into a frantic fit of shallow gasps.

"I assure you Mister Hayland that is not necessary, Oracle has given me no cause for concern and I..."

"Doit, Overseer, that is an order." My host, who I'd now identified as Hayland, barked firmly, interrupting the calm tone of the robot.

There was a momentary pause, my host convulsing in pain all the while the soft tune continued to play in the background.

"As you wish, I will re-establish protocol, my primary function has been shifted. New goal established. Lock down all facilities, find a suitable genetic replacement for subject two... Probability of completion in light of the current situation: zero point one percent," the Overseer rambled, oblivious to the buck sprawling about on the carpet before him.

Witha weak swing of a crumbling forehoof, Hayland dragged himself to the right and staggered to the desk's front. It felt as his legs were charcoal crumbling under his weight. His mane had begun to glow red like molten iron, the coat of sweat beginning to boil from his skin as if it were such a molten metal. With a clumsy stagger, he fell onto his side before the desk, gasping for air like a beached fish. I could do nothing but brace as the feeling of being burnt alive wracked him, all the while his hooves tried to grasp the still playing music box.

His weight was fading as if a light breeze could blow him into the sky. I tried not to think what I was ... no, what he was feeling. But, it was as if his organs were crumbling to dust inside him, his vision went black as his eyes slowly vaporized. The only indication I had that the memory still existed about me was the floor, and the weight of the musical trinket he desperately clutched in his forehooves. That disappeared as I felt his hooves crumble away.

"You are... Our last hope... Overseer ..." he gasped out with one last breath.

I felt his tongue move in the crumbling ruminates of his muzzle. First, his boiling flesh was gone, then all I could feel was bone. I was still couscous, why the fuck was I still couscous? He was no more than bones! A flaming blade tore through the very essence of the memory.

"Indeed,it seems the forced Etherium binding has demonstrated its predated course perfectly. I am sorry, Mister Hayland." I heard Overseer say over the crackling in my crumbling host's ears, the sound akin to that of a voracious swarm of insects.

"Initialising memory extraction." The muffled voice sounded somewhere in the now complete darkness.

For a long second, I just prayed and prayed the pain would stop, all the while that soft tune continued to play. Only a moment later did I feel his brain collapse into dust and his very soul followed into oblivion.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Breaking and Entering - You've proven yourself a match for some of the most adept forms of automated security, even if they seem too smart for their own good. You gain 15% extra damage against all form of automated turrets and security robots.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: Rainbowsurvivor and Kukotte respectively.

Chapter Eight: Test Subject

Chapter 8: Test Subject

"I'm doing scientific research. I'm observing Pinkie Pie, scientific name: Pinkius Piecus, in its natural habitat."

A violent shudder shook my whole body, causing my eyes to flicker open. A heavy daze overwhelmed me like being cocooned in a warm blanket before it swiftly dissipated into raw terror as I realized what I'd just been forced to experience. With a sharp breath, I shot up, my eyes instantly scouring my body for any sign that such a nightmare may have followed me out of the memory. I was laying in a medical bed. Fearing the worst, I slowly pulled the sheets back.

My hooves? Still there. My coat, still there. My whole body was still there. My sudden jolt did not bode well for my motor-control however, for, in spite of my will, my body wasn’t responding in the way I would have liked. I lurched forward, my head dipping lazily as my mind swam. My gut felt like the roaring, splashing whirlpool of Churn, my legs ached with the sensation of pins and needles as pinched blood vessels resumed flowing to the affected nerves, and my coat was doused in a layer of cold sweat. I was no longer wearing my barding, nor was I in any state to defend myself; my weapons had been confiscated. All I had left was my Pipbuck and a sweat-soaked white sheet draped over my lower half.

I took a deep breath as I began to calm down and slowed my racing heart to a more bearable level. I rubbed a hoof through my sweat-soaked mane, finally turning my attention to my gloomy surroundings.

Hanging from a wired box in the ceiling above was a device resembling the spider-like arms of Willow's Mister Handy, only instead of buzz saws and flamethrowers, these arms had been fitted with needles and similarly sharp medical utensils. Despite the eerie atmosphere, the shocking memory of a pony disintegrating from within and my churning insides, I still shivered at the sight of them.

Well done Dragonfire, so if you were in a lair full of Manticores and you saw a needle just laying around would you just stop for a moment and shiver for old phobia's sake?

I didn't even bother muttering the words shut up brain in response to that stupid mental proclamation.

I simply ignored the surgical multi-tool and the needles to the best of my ability. That was made easier by the fact that most of the sharp limbs above were neatly flooded up against the central carapace, the likes of which clung to the ceiling. Shaking that nagging idea out of my head as best as I could I leaned forward, pressing my forehooves onto the mattress. That's when my body once again thought it would be funny to act up without my consent. My insides felt as if somepony had been playing hopscotch with them and every movement only made the dull ache in the overwhelming sensory feedback that much worse. Not only that, but my gut felt strangely warm and tingly, a striking contrast to my cold, damp exterior. Only when I was still for about a minute did the churning nausea subside somewhat and the shivers hit me.

Oh, yeah it was freezing, my senses swiftly notified me.

Immediately, I pulled the damp quilt around myself hoping my body heat would at least warm both the fabric and the cold fluids staining it.

Survival in the wasteland? Whoever said it was pleasant was one slick, slimy, snake-oil-selling son of a bitch; one moment you're trotting through the friendliest ruin imaginable and the next you're wrapping yourself in your own sweat-soaked blankets just to keep warm.

Well at least my sense of humor had survived whatever has happened to me, I remarked as my mind finally began to resume operating normally.

Taking another brief moment I peered into the gloom surrounding me. There was a faint light flickering above, the only thing preventing the chilling chamber from becoming overwhelmed by darkness. In its ghostly glow, I could just make out the long, hospital-like room. Its walls were tiled, its ceiling a tessellating pattern of plaster sheets, crisscrossed neatly by the wires serving several more of the spider-like medical multi-tools. All those I could make out were situated above more private patient chambers, each housing a bed, several dark screens and borders marked by white curtains. In the corner of my eye, another light flickered, and I looked to see the green evacuation marker which sat above a set of double doors at the room’s far end. Straining to peer through the misted windows, I could see the bright light of a white corridor beyond. It was then, as my gaze crawled back into the dark room, that I noticed the bodies in the beds around me.

I swallowed hard, which only succeeded in further irritating my dry throat and giving my body another excuse to thrash wildly. The discomfort became greater as I shifted from my slouched sitting position and moved to the bed's left side. Next to the bed was a metal mobile medical trolley, on which was an array of surgical utensils.

Great... more needles, my mind moaned.

I pushed the trolley aside in a clumsy attempt to get down from the bed, its wheels squeaking as it rattled to a stop against the wall. When my bumbling attempts at leaving the bed failed, however, I collapsed back onto the uncomfortable mattress whereupon I huffed in frustration. My mind was racing in an attempt to ignore my internal discomfiture, and my hoof clenched the slowly warming blanket closer to my neck. It was then that the sight of the needles above reminded me of the gruesomely arranged skeletons occupying the other hospital beds within the terrible room. I felt unadulterated terror as I began to realize the danger which I had been exposed to after succumbing to unconsciousness.

The best I could manage was a feeble kick, but it was enough to shake the blanket from my lower torso and I clenched my eyes closed fearful of seeing any other signs of mutilation or experiment which might have been performed upon me. Unable to not find out what alterations may have been made to my body, I looked to see... Nothing. No scars, not even burns or stitches. There was no indication that any sort of operation had transpired while I had been unconscious. I'd heard plenty of stories about experiments upon live ponies, and stories of ponies who had either been vivisected or dissected, deep within Equestria’s mental asylums or malfunctioning pre-war laboratories. I gave a long sigh, my tense muscles relaxing as I realized that neither dissection or vivisection had been performed upon me whilst I had been unconscious. No more than a moment later, my now mostly operational mind told me what to do. I needed to get out of here. This time I leaned forward and ignoring the intense discomfort carefully scooted out of the bed. My hooves struck the cold tiles as the bed sheets fell over my back. Almost instantly my legs buckled like jelly under my weight.

Stumbling, I pressed against the bed frame for support, the cold metal obliged with a metallic creek as its wheels had been locked into place. The world became a spinning blur once more as my eyes managed to warp the gloom about me into a swirling miasma of color, light, and darkness. I really needed to get out of this accursed place, or if not out, then just get somewhere other than here! During my decision-making process, my mind seemed eager to unload a barrage of profane curses regarding how stupid I was to follow that fucking robot, Overseer, that mare in the tank, or to even enter this fucking place!

"By the goddesses, Dragonfire! You should have turned that little glowing fucker to dust the moment he appeared. But no, instead you behave like you’re some damned greenhorn Wasteland bounty hunter! You just had to go and follow him, didn’t you? You just had to get yourself knocked the fuck out and laid unconscious on an operating table. You left the one pony you were supposed to protect alone and got fucked with in some pre-war lab!"

"Just shut up!" I screamed at my berating conscience before my conscience stopped nagging me suddenly.

Cherry! I needed to find her and get her out before that little fucker caught her too. I looked up to the bed across from me to see the dead body of a mare partially covered by the white hospital curtain and really hoped that he hadn't gotten to my friend already. With that terrifying thought in my mind, I took a quivering step forward, followed by another, each hoof tap upon the tiles making it painfully clear that I wasn't the same bounty hunter I had been before I succumbed to unconsciousness, despite the lack of obvious surgery. But I'd felt like this before; was I drunk?

Oh, yeah the fucking crazy protocol robot just wanted a quick drink!

No, this was different and I knew it. I felt a wrongness inside me that was unswervingly pleasant like I'd just had a fun night, only without the fun part and with all the dire consequences.

I had to get out, I had to find Cherry!

With that thought constantly on my mind, I knew that the little fucker had been given more than enough time to perform whatever sick, twisted experiment he may have wanted to her. I bit my bottom lip and forced my shivering legs to form another weak step. Inevitably, my eyes wound up on the beds flanking me as I passed. The other ponies were all dead, some were even reduced to skeletons. Those that were not simply skeletal ponies were no more than empty corpses, their eyes opened wide with an unseeing, soulless stare as if gazing into eternity. Most were laid perfectly flat, some were even tied down that way. Others were curled up tight, hooves clenching their stomachs as painful expressions remained forever frozen upon their lifeless faces. The cold, glowing x-rays plastered over the dark screens above showed eerie pictures of their insides. Even if I was not smart enough to notice anything wrong with them, the internal images still made me sick.

The bodies closest to the door still had hooves held upright by the spider-like arms. Other metallic limbs, tipped with what appeared to be magical gemstones reached down towards their lower abdomen. I close my eyes, struggling both to stand up and not to cringe at the horrible, gruesome display of death all around me. They all had one thing in common, they were all mares. Most of the dead had been unicorns, though there were several earth ponies among them, and to my surprise, two were even pegasi! I didn't even want to investigate what had happened to the few that were completely hidden behind closed curtains, the still silhouettes of hooves struggling with mechanical limbs enough to tell me they were no better off than the dead I could see. I prayed to the goddesses that none of them were Cherry. Slowly the dull gloom became washed by the ghostly light of the lone bulb above the door, and it gave a few buzzing flickers before resuming its constant hum. In the new light, I could make out some writing upon the ends of the two foremost hospital beds. One on the left supported a purple unicorn who's clipboard designated her as 'patient ten. Surrogate catalyst unable to sustain subject beyond stage 1. Subject failure.'

A load more science mumble-jumble that I didn't bother to read went on below. The second was a blue Pegasus. Her plaque stated she had a similar problem as the unicorn opposite. My fear-filled mind was in no state to processes the scientific information, nor would I have wasted my time with the eggheaded jargon even if I could. I was gonna get my guns, find Cherry and Star, then we were gonna march right up to that little robotic fucker and demand he tell me what the fuck he'd done to me. Yet, as that new spark of determination flared, it was just as swiftly stolen as unsettling cramp suddenly twisted in my gut.

I winced, my insides lurching heavily around the slight pain. One spluttered breath later, and I found myself slumping against the door as the sharp pain in my gut swiftly vanishing, leaving only a tingling sensation amidst the continually churning storm. I fell back, trying my back to the door and sliding down onto my rump. The soggy sheets slipped from my back, setting upon the cold tiles at my side as I looked over myself. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, even as I pressed a hoof to my aching stomach nothing physically felt different. The only thing summoned by my touch was that unpleasant dizziness, as the world once again became a swirling maelstrom of color, darkness, and light.

"What the fuck have you done to me?" I mumbled under my breath, as my hoof trailed over my damp coat gently.

Yet the slight cramp failed to return and soon I forced myself shakily back onto my hooves, pressing one against the reflective surface of the door. I shivered again but managed to keep the next surge of internal turmoil to just a few spluttered coughs. Even so, I constantly experienced that roiling turmoil repeat over and over. I almost felt as if I was turning into dust, just like in the memory. Yet this was real and not some terrifying illusion. I really wished... No, I was not just going to sit around and wait for me to be rescued like some helpless and weak damsel in distress!

Damn it Dragon! You either die right here or keep moving, either way, you’re not letting that little fucker's experiments upon you beat you! My mind scorned, and for once I couldn't disagree.

Taking a few deep breaths, I saw myself faintly in the glass of the door frame. I looked as if I'd been through a great deal more than a night out in the Wastelands, to say the least. Not even the roughest night I could remember had left me looking anything like this. My white coat had almost turned into a dark gray with sweat, the same could be said from my mane. The cyan mass looked more like it had tangled with some kind of seaweed monster and lost atop of my head. My eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles under my eyes, not to mention they were wet and my orbits appeared to be puffy, as were my nostrils. Yet my mouth felt nothing but dry, and my throat ached as if had forced me to swallow an entire seidel mug’s worth of sand. I pressed my eyes shut before taking another deep breath. Was I going to get out, or was I going to die here? The Wasteland was giving me those two options to choose from and I knew I'd better pick one fast.

Regardless of my mind's turmoil, I pressed my weight against the door. It gave a heavy clunk before falling open and leaving me to stagger into a long, tiled corridor beyond. I fought not to fall flat on my muzzle, opting instead on colliding heavily against the right wall. My cold sweat slipped against the smooth tiles, as I stumbled forwards. All I could see ahead was the same endless corridor, illuminated by yet more flickering lights. Despite that, I could feel my vision clearing and the mental fatigue caused my unconsciousness was slowly dissipating. I paused, taking a few sharp breaths before forcing myself to stand up straight and noticed a doorway to my right. It was large and black, yet with a firm push, it swung open.

Inside appeared to be a locker room, illuminated by another stammering evacuation light. Placing one hoof firmly on the tiles of the new room, I was able to coordinate a stronger step, followed by another. Even now I could feel myself slowly regaining my motor-control even though I still had a long ways to go before I would be satisfied with how my body moved and reacted. Even so, that did nothing to hinder my priorities. I needed to find Cherry and Star and get the fuck out of this fucking place. I'd fight my way to that mare with my bare hooves if I had too, and if I saw that robot then he was a good as scrap metal. As my thoughts grew stronger, I staggered further. Lazily pressing against a bench in the center of the locker room, I looked ahead, and there my clearing eyes widened.

"My barding?" I coughed in a dry voice.

There was no mistaking the blue scaled security barding and customised power armor helmet. I stood up straight again, forcing my not quite steady legs to become steadier. It was my barding, guns and all, exactly how I knew them. So why did that seem so different? It was then I looked up and saw, sitting on the bench beside them, two more sets of barding. Most were stereotypical wastelander attire, as was the weaponry that accompanied them. Sadly, there were no energy weapons, yet I was hardly in a condition to give a major fuck. Some were no more than ragged scraps that a raider could easily throw together. Others seemed as sophisticated as my own. Two stood out massively. The black carapace of power armor was unmistakable, the wings and scorpion tail only made that truer. Both sets were left in a standing pose, as much lost sentinels as the building's security system.

Enclave? But... It didn't take me long to recall the staggered image of the two pegasi mares dead on the beds. I closed my eyes tightly as I cringed. I could almost throw up just thinking about how fucked up this was, what the fuck were they doing here? Capturing seemingly random ponies from the wasteland and doing what? As much as I tried to resist thinking about the image of that mare plugged into the tank, it flashed through my head over and over. There had been four of those pods. Had I been in... I lurched forward my guts twisting and convulsing until they poured a torrent of bile onto the tiles beneath my hooves. I fell to my knees, gagging and wheezing as more vomit crawled up my dry throat singing it with an acidic bile.

What the fuck had he done to me? I felt myself asking, again and again, each question sending a cold shiver down my spine.

I felt my head press against the bench and my forehooves became warmer due to my vomit as I waited for the gagging to cease. I was trembling more than ever, I was afraid I... Suddenly a sound sounded out from the doorway behind me. I stiffened my legs as fast as my traumatized body would allow, my mind turning back into a warped mess. Regardless, I forced my magic around my Saddle Blaster and looked to the empty doorway. He was coming back, that little floating fucker, he was coming to make me just like all those other mares he'd experimented on, all of those other mares he had raped... Whatever the fuck this situation I found myself in was. I tensed my muscles which ached in protest as I levitated the modified energy rife up to the open doorway.

"Come on you buzzing little fucker, I'll show you perfection," I growled weakly.

I didn't care that, given my state, even the hovering robot could probably beat me in combat. My eyesight was still far from clear, and my violent trembling made my aim no better than a filly's on her first training day. He could probably get me with the memory thing again. Assuming it was the same one if so I'd have to experience turning to dust all over again. Was that what he'd done, began such a process where I… I shivered again this time with pure horror, yet the gun remained poised to fire. Then came the sound of hoofsteps upon tiles. They were slow, maybe even cautions. Centrally not the high-pitched hum of Overseer's levitation talismans. But, I wasn't taking any chances. I wasn't letting him get me again, no fucking way was I...

"Cherry?" My frail voice broke in shock as the gloomy image of the pink mare appeared in the doorway.

My eyes widened and my magical grip vanished. With a hard clatter, the blaster fell to the floor, as did I. She looked just as startled as I was, even as she bolted towards me.

"Oh, by Celestia, Dragonfire! Are you okay!?" she stammered frantically.

I just leaped up and wrapped my hooves around her neck in a tight embrace. She tensed, becoming as stiff as a board, just like every other time I'd been so close. Yet this wasn't to protect her, I just needed somepony. The quivering mess my forelimbs and I had become almost rattled against her tensed muscles, and opening my eyes I saw her looking at me, her own eyes wide with shock and confusion.

"I'm never gonna leave you again." I whimpered, like a frightened filly crying into its mother's mane.

She seemed to have no idea what to do beyond just trying and blocking out the sheer terror caused by my sudden and abrupt contact, but as I just clung onto her there for a long moment I felt her slowly relax. She was warm and alive. I was cold and half dead, but I held onto her like she was the only thing to keep me from slipping back into the horrible memory of the mare in the tank or the vaporized stallion.

"Dragonfire?" Her soft voice seemed to force itself from her muzzle as if her throat were clogged by soft tissue.

I let go, leaning back my on forehooves, the likes of which were now encased in vomit, as was my posterior as I plopped my butt in my now cold and icky fluids. For another long moment the pair of us just stared at each other, neither of us could oppose the other. Be it through fear, respect or an overwhelming desire to protect. I still needed to save her, I was still gonna get her back home. I forced myself back onto my hooves, scraping off the sticky, slick bile best I could.

"Are you okay?" I asked as kindly as my weak, dry voice would allow.

She shied away from my words. "I'm fine… I just followed the lights, but what happened? You were there, then the door I... I thought I was gonna... You have been gone for hours..." The words ran from her mouth like a river, and she only missed those things she didn't want to think about.

Overseer. A dull throb of my past anger slowly rekindled, despite having subsided before. What the fuck is it doing? First, it separates her from me and now it leads her back to me? My dizzy and muddled mind tried to come up with any logical reason for its very seemingly contradictory actions. Yet I couldn’t figure out anything more than a repeat of what it'd told me, and that only dragged me deeper into the fears of what it might have done to me while I was unconscious. No, I'd only one goal to achieve right now. I'd have to find out what it'd done to me later. Now we had to either find it or get out. All I could do regarding such a thing was hope that Star was already clear or waiting upstairs, or at least somewhere where I could still contact him. As I double checked my Pipbuck to see if my Pipbuck’s broadcaster was still functional, a part of me at least entertained the idea that Overseer might be generous enough to just let us walk out.

"We need to leave," I stated as seriously as I could manage, my ears swiveling for the slightest sound which might indicate movement, my head turned as I looked. The last thing I wanted was for that Overseer to get the drop on me a second time.

Cherry's expression remained gloomy, but she managed to give a small nod.

"Can you find your way back to the lift?" I asked, stepping close to her.

She seemed to freeze, but remained silent, though I wouldn’t be surprised if her mind was whirling with all manner of thoughts! Was she desperately trying to believe she was useful. When that seemed to fail her she looked almost on the verge of tears.

"Cherry?" I queried her in almost a faint whisper.

She glanced briefly at me before shaking her head slowly.

"I... I just followed the lights, I wanted to find you..." she murmured.

I sighed, but nodded my head, understanding her logic.

"It doesn't matter, I'd have done the same if I were you," I admitted.

Yet Overseer seemed to have no intention of reuniting us until he'd had his way with me. My words, however, seemed to give Cherry a spark of life. With that, I took a slow step up beside where my gear was piled, levitating my barding and slinging it over my back while placing the helmet atop my head. My insides gave another twisting kick as I moved with extra weight of guns and dragon scale. I felt oddly warm inside yet chilled as ice on the outside. I'd changed, something inside me was very different. I couldn't feel it entirely, but there was something nagging at my mind like my body knew something I didn't. It was as if it had been adapted for such a diversion in its normality, yet my mind hadn't. I took another step shifting the warm sensation back into a dull ache all my muscles shared as I pressed on.

Many corners later and after what felt like an eternity of shivering, my body began to completely reawaken. My gasping breaths slowed, and my eyes felt less strained in the bright light. Finally, we reached a fork in the corridor and Cherry anxiously tried to retrace the way she'd been lead, constantly glancing up to the lights as she went. I couldn't help but notice with mounting suspicion that all of the light had now turned on. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Overseer was playing his little game anymore. The more I thought about that robots' sick intentions the more it made my head hurt. He could have fucked me up in so many ways. What was it, radiation? Taint? Was I going to turn into ghoul, or worse whatever the fuck had happened to Hayland? I felt a cringe-worthy shiver in my gut at the reminder of that feeling, followed another cramp stinging my insides. I could understand now why this job had been worth so many caps, no monsters or environmental hazards just some fucked up faculty with and an even worse caretaker.

By the goddesses, if I was gonna die I was haunt that client forever! Let’s see how they like an un-prissy ghost. I closed my eyes trying not to think about any of it, horrid memories of ponies in pods, the dead mares back in the hospital room and more difficulty, the strange feelings bubbling inside me.

Just ignore it, my mind advised. Get out, then you can worry about it.

Oh yeah, the good old just don't think about it routine, works every time brain, thanks oh so much for the advice.

No, it was not that easy, but at least, for the moment I only felt slightly worse than the roughest night I could remember. That changed a moment later as I glanced down a corridor to my left. Instantly I recognized the corridor in which I'd found the office, the shattered glass of the medical door a big giveaway.

"Hey, I came this way," I stated, gesturing towards the corridor.

Cherry paused, looking back to me with slight skepticism. Even so, she was not one to argue even if a part of me wished she would. She nodded, and I swiftly moved back towards the office, trying to ignore the sight of Lucky's former cell just ahead. The shattered glass door was still open, as was the second one across the small medical room. Swiftly I stepped through, Cherry followed her eyes instantly and eagerly setting upon anything I'd left unopened.

"See what you can find, I just want to take a look at something," I told her, levitating out the bobby pins I'd found for her.

She looked at them appreciatively, before nodding and setting her sharp eyes to work scouring the room for anything she deemed worthy of her saddlebags, which I expected, included every little thing that wasn't nailed down. I stepped back into the main office, determined to find at least a hint of that little fucker had done to me. Motion after moments of being stationary, however, did not bode well from my fucked up insides and they churned sickeningly again. Still, this time my nausea did not drop below discomfort levels than that of a belly full of booze could easily match, something I was greatly experienced with.

"Dragonfire are you..." Cherry's weak voice asked timidly as she looked at me swaying, her ears twitching and eyes focused.

I took deep breath, attempting to compose myself into my usual stoic appearance. My body disagreed with my decision as another wave of nausea hit, and I was quickly getting the idea that whatever Overseer had done to me was not supposed to be followed by moving about this much. Nevertheless, I offered my companion a half positive look.

"I... I'm fine. We just need to find Star and get the Tartarus out of here," I explained with urgency, fighting not to gag as my insides roiled again.

She just nodded skeptically. Great now concern was now apparently infectious, and she may be suffering from it more than me if I keep this up. But I couldn't put her through that, not after what she'd endured already. A moment later and I once again found myself in the unfamiliar setting of a clean pre-war room, red carpet, polished bookshelves, desk and a disintegrated corpse. Even looking at that ghostly pony-shaped disintegrated corpse filled me with dread. I'd felt it, felt him go from a pony to naught but a pile of ash. I closed my eyes tightly as I trotted around, praying to the goddesses that such a thing was not gonna happen to me anytime soon. Then I was once again faced with the glowing terminal. I placed my dragon scaled gear on the desk along with my helmet, then I entered the password I'd seen in the memory, 'Ebon'.

My trembling hooves made the task far harder, yet as I fished for more information from whatever might have been stored on this terminal, a fleeting feeling of pride enveloped me, even if I'd technically cheated in order to retrieve whatever might have been stored on this terminal. As the machine unlocked I was met with several files and swiftly downloaded them onto my Pipbuck. One more thing caught my eye, however, which was a flickering small red box in the bottom right corner of the screen. I didn't recognize it since I wasn't a pony who usually studied terminals in any detail, and these weren't the standard Stable-Tec models either. Moving down the list of files led me to the blinking light,

"Warning Sublevels one and two compromised, security systems activated by order of Overseer." A mare's tinny voice sounded and then repeated the warning about the compromisation of the two sublevels.

It certainly wasn't the sophisticated, charismatic tone of the Overseer. For a moment I was just glad of that, though that swiftly faded as I realized exactly what I was being told. Then as if on cue the whole room shook, dust trailing from the roof tiles as the lights flickered. I staggered back from the desk. The boom which had proceeded the shudder was swiftly followed by the dull clatter of gunfire.

Fuck, could this get any worse? Was my first thought, followed swiftly by a list of what might be going on.

Maybe it was Star? Maybe the security system had finally decided to do its job and was killing some Radroaches or something? If it was the latter reason, it only deepened the puzzling riddle regarding the Overseer's actions. Yet I highly doubted he'd lose control over his own facility, so if it wasn't him then the question remained as to what was happening down here? Another boom, this time much louder, shook the office violently.

Fuck, why couldn’t my jobs ever be easy?

Says the pony who left her friends and got herself abducted by a damn robot. Now you could be turning into Celestia knows what Dragonfire. My conscience retorted in an amused sounding tone of voice.

I just grunted in irritation as I levitated my barding form the desk and clumsily attempted to put it on. The sounds of rapidly repeating gunfire reported again in the wake of the second boom, now sounding way too close for my comfort. Cherry appeared in the right doorway, glancing cautiously at the ceiling.

"I didn't see anypony. There weren't even any guns up there," she informed me while appearing to be upset, or was it that she was angry with herself.

With an uncomfortable twist of my tender midsection, I managed to slip my barding over my flank and up over my back. Besides the thick coat of sweat and patches of vomit that still clung to my coat my barding still felt the same.

Well, at least the little fucker hadn't messed with my gear.

At that snide mental comment, I redirected my focus on the situation at hand, since I was not particularly desirous of having an untimely end because I was being distracted by my conscience or whatever.

Don‘t think about whatever he may have done to you, Dragon just doesn't think about it now. You have Cherry to save and now you have potential hostiles above you that you will likely need to deal with. I reminded myself firmly.

With that, I took a step out of the cover afforded by the terminal’s desk.

"Cherry, stay close," I instructed the mare almost subconsciously.

The pink mare was quick to obey, resuming her usual place close to my tail as I stepped towards the door, yet another roiling movement once again disturbed my body uncomfortably. Glancing back, however, I recalled something. Cherry looked at me strangely as I paused, my eyes directed towards the pony shaped ash pile before the desk, more specifically its former hooves.

Could it? I wondered briefly.

My horn flared, digging through the ash until it struck something solid. The battered, old, star-shaped music box looked no better than it had centuries ago as I suspended in my magical aura. It's once golden coat was now completely replaced by a dull brown texture, yet I could still see the heart engraved into its center and with a push of my magic, it popped open.

"What is it?" Cherry asked.

I glanced at her as she looked the pre-war technology over, most likely she was, in her mind, wondering how much it was worth.

"Something from a long time ago," I simply told her, with no real idea as to why I had answered her in the way that I had.

I didn't play it, I doubted it still even worked, as the many gears looked no better than the rusted exterior. I merely looked at it for a long moment, then the room shook again and I promptly popped it closed.

"Come on, we're getting out of here," I instructed.

With that, I slipped the metal trinket into my saddlebags. A part of me even wondered if I should wear it about my neck as it should be, but the rest of my mind regarded that idea as if were a complete stranger attending some party uninvited.

A few corridors later, I found myself peering around the corner of a black door frame, the double doors of a stairwell at the end of the corridor just beyond. Cautiously, I approached the doors, creeping as steadily as I could to stop the throbbing discomfort in my stomach. A loud bang sounded from the ceiling above me and the loud sound echoed through the room, and as if I already wasn’t nervous enough, I could hear a dull whoosh as I reached the doors to the stairwell. I froze, preferring that whatever was on the other side make the first move, instead of opening the doors and getting whatever nasty surprise this place might have. My ears perked up and swiveled in the direction of the closed doors as I attempted to heighten my focus through controlled breathing exercises. I didn’t know what awaited me on the other side of the doors and from the sound of bangs and explosions, I was highly skeptical that I would not like whatever it was. Did they have some sort of rocket launcher? I'd heard enough of them in my time to know the distinctive sound of a missile. But more worryingly was that I hadn't seen any security features to indicate such high-explosive technology. Star didn't have a missile launcher either. I scowled, getting into a crouched position, preparing to dodge whatever I was going to face on the other side of that door. Though, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to fighting someone with incendiary ballistic weaponry. Cherry flinched beside me, her ears perked and swiveling around. I closed my eyes, taking a breath as another bang seemed to splinter the wooden doors on the floor just above us, forcing them open with a terrific crash.

"Mucking mumority!" a buck's voice hissed around what I could only assume was a firearm.

"Yeah, those bucking turrets sure cut down the cannon fodder," another voice, which sounded like a mare croaked, her vocal inflections sounding as if she almost admired the turret's efforts.

"Well those fuckers were nothing but unworthy meatbags anyway," the buck responded, seeming to spit out whatever he was holding in his muzzle. "Now come on! We’re checking this last level and then getting the fuck back to the surface, this place doesn't feel right," he added in a solemn tone of voice.

My ears twitched nervously as I noted that there were at least two of them. I braced myself against the wall near the double doors as I levitated the saddle blaster right up in the direction of the closed door. As the sound of hoofsteps sounded upon the metallic frame of the stairs, I knew I'd at least have the element of surprise if they were hostile. They certainly didn't sound friendly, a fact that was almost a welcome relief from the ‘lure you in and then fuck with your insides tactic,’ which the Overseer employed. Another witty comment from my mind reminded me that it was my own fault for following him and not blasting him to scrap though. That thought was swiftly shunted away since I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Not if I was to teach Cherry how to be a proper bounty hunter and how to handle uncertain situations like the one we were in now.

"Keep quiet you maggots, keep your eye out for any more of those fucking things," another voice sounded, that of a mare again, at least I thought it was a mare's.

It was as rough as sandpaper, almost making her sound like a stallion. The sound of the approaching ponies hooves rounded back towards me as the stairs turned, and I nodded to Cherry as she leaned against the opposite wall, with Zap-Zap levitating in her magic. Even with the barrel of my blaster pressed right up to their faces, I doubted it would kill them all. I'd need her firepower if this went sour, which it most certainly would.

"We better find some serious shit down here, otherwise I'm gonna be seriously pissed," The buck, who I'd imagine had a rather large build by the sound of his heavy hooves, growled.

"Yeah, Slab's right, we wasted Sigel knows how many savages to get down here. Chief, you gonna tell us what the fuck we're looking for?" the mare hissed.

I gritted my teeth at the banter being spoken, the ears upon my head twitching. The thought of asking Cherry to kill another pony was swiftly becoming more prominent, yet it was just another lesson of the wasteland. There was no innocence once you reached self-awareness, only the level of everypony's guilt.

"Shut the fuck up, the lot of you. If Carnage sent us down here with an army of savages then you can be sure that he expects us to get what he asked for," the gruff mare, who I'd identified as having the rather odd name of Chief, added bluntly.

My visor was now trying to pick them out through the faded windows of the door, and the red light’s intermittent flickers, which occasionally outlined their silhouettes, wasn't promising. I glanced back at my companion, her fearful eyes still locked on the double doors. Yet to her they were still just voices, she'd no idea what could transpire in the impending few minutes. Killing Geckos was one thing, but what she could be about to do was nothing short of murder.

"That guy doesn't care what he's gettin' as long as there's some blood flowin' and the Barron ain't pissed at him," The buck, who I'd also identified as Slab, added almost resentfully.

The red outline of the second mare seemed to squirm with either laughter or nervousness at Slab’s opinion.

"You doubting the master's ability?" Chief growled angrily, leaning in on the buck despite being half his size.

Now it was his turn to squirm as the little mare's eyes bore into his like hot daggers.

"No, I ain't sayin' nothin' like that, I ..." he stammered nervously.

"Well it’s lucky for you that you shut your muzzle right then because if you run it anymore with such treasonous talk, I'll be telling the boss all of your complaints against him, then it will be your blood that's flowing," Chief hissed coldly.

That seemed to shut the buck right up, and he swiftly turned back to face the lower door.

"Now you two get the fuck down there and check for any fucking relics!" Chief demanded angrily, pushing the pair downward with her forehooves.

They grumbled to one another, before trotting swiftly towards us.

Shit, it was now or never. I thought as I looked back.

"Cherry I need you too ..."

"Hey! Who the fuck are you?"

Shit!

My mind flared and my magic instinctively pulled the blaster's trigger. With a sharp flash and a hiss, the green coated mare had her forehooves reduced to naught but seared, red sludge. Her face and mane were seared and she fell gagging and screaming to the floor. Slab, a brown coated buck with dark red mane had a significant advantage in his size. It offered a bit more resistance against the energy beams as they lanced across his black barding. He stammered, glancing down to his grimly amputated companion

"Fuck, Steam!" He cried turning to me, it was then I noticed the rocket launcher mounted to the left side of his battle saddle.

My eyes winded, my head rising in fear as the tip of the explosive projectile aligned in my direction. My magical grip faltered as pure dread gripped me. I was in no state to fight, what the fuck was I doing?

Stupid, stupid pony. Stupid!

A sudden zap of energy buzzed over my ear, which was quickly followed by the stallion giving a whinny of pain and bucked his rear legs and shattering the wooden door behind him as his eyes were reduced to smoking holes in his skull.

"Go away!" the most unfamiliar voice screamed aggressively.

Another zap of energy followed, the vibrant beam impacting his face and enveloping him in a pink glow before he turned to naught but glowing ash. I watched as he crumbled into a pile of dust before me. The disintegration process was so painfully slow. It was if the world wanted me to feel every moment of the fatal transformation. Every long second was a horrifying reminder of the Hayland memory, the burning sense of slowly dissolving from within.

"What the fuck?" Chief cried furiously from the stair's midsection.

I bit down, forcing the barrel of my gun up through the shattered doors. Intense concentration, sent strikes of pain through my mind as I struggled. Then with a flash, the beams lanced up the stairs, skimming the cursing mare's rump as she bolted back to the upper level. Finally, the energy rifle fell with a clatter. Beside me, Cherry gasped as the gravity that she had murdered began to sink in. Zap-Zap fell beside my saddle blaster on the black tile floor. The air stank of seared flesh and the metallic ozone smell of discharged energy rifle fire mixed with smell of the blood as Steam's corpse slowly bled out and ceased thrashing. I closed my eyes tightly and released a staggered breath. My barrel shook as I haltingly released it, almost as if I were crying in grief. When my eyes opened they were met by Cherry's traumatized expression. She'd saved me. She'd picked up a gun and killed another pony with it. I owe her my life, though I also may have robbed her of her innocence.

No, there is no such thing as innocence out here.

My ears flattened, as my mind wrestled with itself between which action to take and warring between satisfaction that she was becoming a valuable teammate and regret that she lost this last frontier of her innocence. I had to save her from her paralyzing fear and self-recriminations and... All of a sudden I felt a warm embrace around me…. My eyes widened as the pink mare wrapped her forehooves tightly around my neck, just as I'd done with her back in the locker room.

"I... I'm sorry Dragonfire I'm..." All of the fear, guilt, anger, and sadness she'd harbored for goddesses know how long came rushing out and then disappeared as I hugged her back.

The tensing of her muscles was almost instinctive, yet she didn't flinch. In fact, neither of us seemed to want to let go. It reminded me of only one other pony I knew, that feeling that I could just hold onto her forever while the world fell apart. I could take on a whole wasteland for her and for what? Because of the unusually emotional circumstances of our meeting? My sympathy? My stupidity? Why was she so different from the ponies I had freed before?

"You don't need to be sorry. You don't." I told her firmly, almost instinctively as my eyes quivered with tears.

I pressed my head against her shoulder. She was different because I saw somepony who needed another good soul in her life, and after what I'd been through, I needed somepony like her, to remind me what was right and wrong, to evoke the various emotions which became just a little harder to feel with each pony I added to the stain upon my soul.

"My... My life for Transcendence..." The gargled voice of the dying mare beside us rasped, blood bubbling from her muzzle as her last breath escaped her.

I looked down at the now lifeless body, where a part of me was curious about her last words, yet the part of me that still held onto Cherry wouldn't let me let go of her as she shivered and shook and cried into my shoulder from the trauma of her first kill.

"Get the fuck down there you maggots!" A distant voice sounded from atop the stairs, it’s gruff tone unmistakable.

The sound of many hoofsteps upon metal followed, and a moment later several ponies galloped around the stair's midsection. I glanced to the saddle blaster and concentrated on nothing but the thought of the pony I still needed to save. My magic wrapped the weapon in a cloud of telekinesis.

"Cherry stay close to me. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," I whispered into her ear.

She flinched, looking torn between breaking from her mental trauma, her instinct for survival, and the warm embrace we shared. I loosened our embrace, pulling gently back as the sound of hoofs approached the ruined door frame. That last glimpse of Cherry's smiling face was the most perfect thing I'd ever seen, yet the world stole it from me all too soon. My blaster levitated up to the door and I spun to face it with a fiercely determined expression, my magic poised upon the trigger. With a series of maniacal laughs and a slew of colorful profanities, three raider ponies burst through the one still intact door, scattering pink ash, singed gore and splintering wood as they emerged. They were met by the same fate as their predecessors. A bright flash of the modified energy rifle vaporized two of the shabby armored ponies. The third dodged sideways and used the furniture of the room for cover, as he hopelessly tried to strike me with the rusted knife in his slavering muzzle.

His efforts resulted in the loss of his left forehoof as my dragon claw came out from its sheath and sliced it clean off. The savage buck screamed before crumpling up on the floor, I spared him from further agony as I brought the blade across his jugular.

"Your life for mine," I muttered with a solemn face as he died in a pool of his own blood.

Without another thought for yet another victim slain by me, I took a step forward.

Monsters. It was okay to kill monsters.

Cherry took one look at the concoction of gore, pink dust and splinters before her legs began to shake so much that she nearly collapsed. Even in spite of her trembling legs, she remained firm, focusing on me as she retrieved Zap-Zap with her magic. I could make out the sound of fleeing hoofsteps just above for just a moment before they faded into the distance. Chief I assumed.

Not so mean now that everypony that let you bully them and boss them around was dead, are you? I snickered in amusement at her change in attitude now that death draws near and solitude hounds her every step. I took a step onto the metal frame of the stairs.

Nevertheless, I had no fucking clue what was going out here. We'd been corralled, I'd been pony-napped by a robot, experimented on by said robot and now shot at by some scavenger scum? I felt like shit. Star was missing and Cherry had been traumatized more than anypony like her ever deserved.

"Well, I think that's all of it." My mind stated, ticking off boxes on a mental checklist casually.

Regardless, this place had quickly risen to the worst place out here in the Wasteland, and it hadn't even shot at for us the majority of our time here. One thing was for sure, we were getting out of here, the only problem was that this place wasn't so friendly anymore.

*******

With a flash of energy and a sizzling hiss, another raider was turned to glowing pink ash. Regardless of what I'd overheard downstairs, there seemed to still be enough of these meatbags to go around. There was no sight of anypony like those black armored fuckers we'd killed below, nor was there any sighting of the pony they called Chief. Not that the raiders were any trouble for an experienced bounty hunter like me. Most of their tactics involved were nothing more than running at us full tilt with nothing more than rusty knives, sharpened shovels, and pool cues. Not too much of a threat when you were carrying superior firepower, not to mention that they had to clamber over the bodies of their former companions to get anywhere near us. For what it was worth, the security system had thinned a lot of them out. That left Overseer's role in this even more of a mystery. Nevertheless, I'd turn him to scrap if I saw ever lay eyes on him. Unfortunately, most of the turrets were gone, so I couldn't take out my anger on those.

I cautiously sneaked toward the corner of the wall, the white laboratory wall opposite informing me in large, black letters that this was Sublevel 4. One more sublevel to go and then we could use that service elevator to bypass the rest of these fuckers and loop back and get Star.

I leaned back, reloading my blaster. Cherry stopped beside me and as I looked at her, it wasn't hard to tell this was stretching her to her very limit. Despite this though, she was managing to hide the dark turmoil inside with a firm expression. As for her skill when it came to fighting raiders? It was reasonable at best. I could see now why she'd been caught, but I dismissed that cruel thought as I needed to stay focused and keep my guard up. As for taking the lives of other ponies, she seemed to not react as much as she had mere moments ago as she slew whoever it was that had tried to kill me. As innocent as she was, it wasn't hard to think she may have killed other ponies before she and I met, and that didn't make me feel any better about what I'd asked of her, however.

"How are you holding up?" I finally asked, slipping a new spark pack into my weapon.

She closed her eyes, nodding with a slight sniff.

"I... I can manage. They’re no different from those I left Bucktown to kill anyway," she stammered, opening her eyes once more.

Even that was a blow to my conscience, she was slowly losing all those things I'd seen in her only days ago, only to become somepony else.

That's what the wasteland does, it robs you of any innocence the living might have had, my mind reminded me.

That was what it had done to me, that what it had done to everypony.

"Come on out you fuckers, I's wanna' gut ya," a crazed raider cackled from around the corner.

I leaned out, only to dive back as fragmentation pellets struck the wall. Great, now one of them had a gun. A shotgun, and like all raider weapons it was not in the best condition. That didn't negate the fact it was a threat, however, and my horn flared as I blind fired a pair of plasma bolts in our attackers' direction. It wasn't hard to imagine the bloodstained white corridor was turned into a shooting gallery as both the automatic plasma weapons blasted it with bolts of green energy. A hiss and sharp scream later, and I checked it was clear by glimpsing the reflection on my rifle’s casing.

"Fuck you ... Ha, ha. Fuck all you ponies and your stupid faith!" the raider growled, writhing in a spreading pool of his own gore.

His right shoulder and forehoof had both melted, and the scent of the seared flesh filled the corridor. Approaching him, I levitated my gun to his head. What I was about to do was both mercy, and prevented my timid companion from having to stomach the gruesome scene for any longer.

"They'll get you, they'll get every pony. Then we'll all work for them, ha, ha, ha, ha..." I silenced his crude laughter with a plasma burst to the skull.

"Consider yourself lucky then," I spat scornfully as his head melded into vicious red soup.

"What did he mean?" Cherry's quiet voice murmured behind me.

I paused.

Okay, I was expecting her to collapse from shock or trauma, not be curious. Damn it, brain! She, not a foal! Besides, are you so different? Maybe if I hadn't been a lab rat less than an hour ago, then yeah I would be. But right now, I couldn't give a fuck.

"I don't know, just some typical crazy shit," I told her as I casually began trotting onwards.

I was no stranger to freaky religions in the wasteland, they tended to arise when your original deities were no better than everypony else.

Sublevel 3. Another bloodied wall proclaimed as we reached the top of the next stairwell.

I knew this level was where we'd find the elevator, assuming it led to the surface. Looking down the bloody and bullet-riddled corridor, I could see just how many ponies had been gunned down before the turrets had finally been destroyed, and was strangely irritated by the fact I was glad those turrets hadn't been shooting at us. I traversed the corpse-strewn corridor, with Cherry following close behind me. Her eyes were averted from the mutilated mess as she seemed to force her mind to focus on something else because she wasn’t displaying any symptoms of trauma. I could only suspect that that crazy raider’s ramblings were among them. As I rounded another corner I noticed a set of double doors ahead, shattered into splinters. I assumed the rocket wielding buck we'd dispatched downstairs was responsible for the destruction done unto the doors.

Or some other pony with an equally explosive weapon. My mind told me, reminding me that if one pony could be armed with heavy explosive weaponry, then there was likely more scum carrying that kind of firepower out there.

On the roof above the remains of the door were turrets, the likes of which were now nothing more than mangled scrap metal. The bloodied white walls either side of us were broken by long sheets of tinted glass, windows into what appeared to be more labs. It was still far beyond me to even consider what they may have been doing here before the bombs fell, not to mention how those experiments now involved me. I just tried not to think about my churning insides too much, I still had a pony to save even if I was as good as dead once whatever that robotic bastard had done to me came to fruition. As for our adversaries, they seemed to have dwindled into non-existence. Despite their poor equipment and foolhardy tenacity, I knew raiders couldn't be behind this. Somepony was pulling the strings on this scavenger hunt and I'd really like to have a word with such a pony. Looking ahead, I could see the hall split left and right.

Sub-level 3 was once again displayed upon the wall opposite, as well as a label claiming that the main service elevator was to the left. With a dull hum, the doors to a lab on our left opened. My ears perked as I watched another set of doors on the far end of the lab also open up as I peered through the glass. As unnerving as it was, I had a good idea who was opening doors for us. I stopped at the edge of the lab’s doorway and peering into to the lab. I'd overheard them say that they were low on raiders as both the corpses littering the levels below us and those littering the hallway on the level we were currently on were evidence of their mounting losses. If I didn't know any better I'd say they'd completely run out.

I guess that means that all that is left is the cunning ponies.

My gaze swept across the lab before settling on the open doors on the opposite side of the laboratory.

"This way," I told Cherry, gesturing toward the open door.

There was a reason for why the Overseer was opening the doors the way that it was…

Wait, why was I following it again?

My mind spun for a moment before reflecting upon my thought process and decision-making ever since I entered this structure.

Shut up, brain! If he wanted to kill me then he'd have certainly done it already.

I really hoped I could believe that. Yet as if on cue, a new sound met my perked ears.

"You have any idea why we're waiting here?" a buck's voice sounded to the right of the labs' exit. Somepony was waiting for us right around the corner, probably hoping to catch us by surprise. I bought my saddle blaster up and aimed toward the doorway and rotated my hoof, motioning for Cherry to take the other side.

"Chief's orders; she's gone back to the boss with Flash Drive. That egghead can't get in from up here or something. But something down there has got Chief spooked," another buck responded, in a slightly deeper tone.

Two bucks, my visor confirmed as it a gauged their combat readiness. Leaning back I once again used my rifle’s casing to peer around the corner. Both were wearing mini-gun battle saddles, black carapace barding upon which bore a strange icon. My mind paused for a moment at that and I squinted at the icon. It was almost recognizable, if not far clearer than any faint memory I had. I knew that images of an eight-pointed star and I recognized that strange glyphic pattern that covered the armor like some kind of freaky spiders' web. My thought converged for a moment, as they all sensed I'd seen it before, yet I couldn’t work out where I had seen those icons.

"Must be something pretty terrifying to get her running back to the boss empty-hoofed," one of the bucks chuckled, his laughter being joined by the second.

"Well you never know, skulking about in one of these fucking reliquaries, they're like death traps. You remember the last one?" the lighter toned buck asked.

I paused, holding my gun firm. I could spare these two a moment to enlighten me further.

"You mean the Stalliongrad one or the one in Trottingham? Shit, after a while they all just blur together. But I know, if I had the choice? I'd rather take a stroll through bucking Canterlot than going back down into some of those bucking tombs, especially if there is a chance we'll find another pony like Carnage or Locus," the deeper voiced buck added firmly.

I thought over this new information in incredulousness. Wait, there were more of these places?

What the fuck did you think, you idiot! Of course, there were bound to be more, the wasteland just liked to fuck with ponies like that.

But really, he'd really rather go through the Canterlot ruins over this? More confusingly, who the fuck was this Carnage? Or Locus? And why did he seemed to refer to the names with trepidation?

"By the Sigel, I just hope the Baron can keep them both on a leash," the second buck replayed, almost whispering.

"Relax, the inquisitors have got it all under control, Carnage is one pony I wouldn't fuck with, but the Grand Inquisitor? Are you really doubting him?" the first stallion responded.

The former shook his head and the pair seemed to shiver as if somepony was walking over their future graves. I'd heard enough of the cryptic chit chat for one day. I'd hoped they'd unknowingly elaborate on what the place was, or what the fuck may have happened to me. Now; however, they were just rambling about some more shit I'd no idea about.

My horn flared, levitating my plasma rifles around the door as I cautiously poked my head out from behind where I had taken cover again. Number of targets: 2 the spells in my visor declared, highlighting them both of them in the red outline designated for enemies. I'd thought to use a grenade, yet after hearing them talk about big, scary, boss ponies, I'd decided to try and save them. I looked back to Cherry, who was still hunkered down at the opposite side of the doorway.

"I'm gonna charge, you stay right behind me and if any of them don't go down, you take them out," I instructed in whispers.

Cherry closed her eyes tightly again as she nodded. Every moment I had to ask her to do this was tearing me apart. Not only that, it threaded to further corrupt her from the innocence she had before the death which she had dealt within this bucking place. Nevertheless, one way or another, we were getting past these bucks.

"Ready?" I asked, poised to make a dash towards our unwary adversaries.

She gave another stiff nod, nodding my own acceptance, I bolted from the doorway, two plasma rifles blasting a shower of glowing green bolts at our surprised opponents.

These two stallions were far smaller than Slab, making the focused blasts far more effective. The farthest buck lost his rear legs to the shots before he could even turn his saddle mounted weapon to bear in my direction. The amour of the second absorbed most of the energy, yet those which struck his coat seared it black. One bolt singed his eye sending him into a frantic buck as it melted. Spinning, he bit down on his battles saddles' firing mechanism, and the min-gun whirled to life, shredding the wall to his left before turning the clean white into a mangled mess of metal shrapnel and broken concrete. I ducked down below the hail of death, reloading my two rifles, after which I sent several more disintegration blasts his way. The beams mostly struck his head, each one searing more of his flesh, his whole head splattering into a bloody paste upon the clean wall behind him. Cherry gave a stuttered cry as she stopped beside me, lowering her head and closing her eyes as the buck's body crumpled to the floor in a mess of singed gore, his mini-guns' rattling coming to a halt.

I slowly rose to my hooves, desensitized to the sight of death and gore from having dealt so much of it myself. First, my eyes met the legless buck, who had now fallen silent. Then I looked to the decapitated corpse which was gradually losing its twitching on the other side of the doorway. I'd asked her to do that, no I had forced her. There was no way she would have disobeyed me. Or rather, she was too afraid to disobey me, and yet in spite of her fearfulness of me, I'd made her kill another pony.

The pink coated mare trotted forward, her head held above the bloody corpse of her most recent kill. I froze, paralyzed by a mysterious feeling of guilt as she was forced to come face to face with what was left of the pony she'd decapitated. She paused, seeming to end her internal battle against the truth of the wasteland. I took a tentative step towards her, followed by another until I was right by her side.

"Cherry…" I asked her with a feeling of trepidation, as she glanced back in my direction. Her eyes were teary, yet not sad, and far from the trembling, wide spheres, she bore when we met.

"It's okay. I... I'm okay," she stated weakly, most likely trying to deny the obvious reality that her mind was slowly being warped by the wasteland.

When she'd dreamed of making a difference, had she imagined it to be like this? Had she known the cruel effects of the wasteland? I stepped past her, levitating my saddle blaster close. She wasn't okay, I didn't need to remind myself of that anymore. Now she knew it for herself, she now realized what killing other ponies did to her. It was something that the wasteland had done to me a long time ago. Unlike me, however, she was a strong pony, a far stronger pony then I'd ever been. She was simply accepting the truth of the wasteland, becoming like every survivor who lived on this miserable planet. I knew I should stop her, preserve the timid, little mare I'd thought I had seen in the saloon. Yet that had not been the real her. That had been the weak husk of a pony recently exposed to the trauma of Slavery and the casual disregard for anypony’s life, The pony I had thought I had seen was almost like a cocoon, a protective shell within which she'd been locked inside, until now. Now she was emerging a changed pony, the one who'd survived the murderous reality of the wasteland.

A loud boom shook the pair of us back to reality as it traveled down the corridor. I looked up, shaking my head. There was yet another fork in the corridor just ahead. More distinctively was a sign that told me that the service elevator was still to the left.

"Come on," I called back, moving forward.

Once again, standing still for too long had disturbed my fucked up inside, yet the discomfort was getting far easier to deal with and had mostly faded the moment I had reached the corner of the hallway. Peering around the wall, I didn’t see anypony. Instead, there was a thin barrier of curtain-like plastic sheets, illuminated by a bright glow. I didn't like the fact they lacked the decency to let us see through them, yet if anypony was directly on the other side I was certain the light would have exposed their silhouettes.

"It's clear," I whispered back.

Cherry gave a slight nod and I levitated my blaster round to my front before creeping around the corner. Brushing by the plastic barrier, I noticed the white laboratory was replaced with a large chamber of cold concrete walls, the likes of which I recognized. To my left was the metal door that Overseer had used to separate us, the likes of which was still firmly locked. A few hoofsteps to my right was the large service elevator. I could only glimpse the tracks as they lead up into the tunnel, over the crates that lay between us and it. Regardless, as we began to creep out from the corner another loud boom sounded, shaking the chamber in its foundations.

A rocket, I booth heard the whoosh and saw it exploded against the huge Sub-level 3 written on the chambers' domed roof. Both of us jumped as the faded shockwave of the explosion rushed by. I was glad for our silent shock, however, as it was quite clear we were not the only ones in here.

"Hit it again. We'll draw him out!" a fiercely aggressive buck barked.

My ears perked and as the voice ran through my head, yet I found it far stranger. It didn't sound that old, barely even an adult, yet it resonated with a furious anger more frightening than the rage of ‘goddess’ Celestia. I stopped, my flank bushing against one of the Destiny Corp. crates as I peered around its edge.

Standing before the elevator were several ponies, all displayed as red by my visor. A buck paced angrily about the center of the room, where he was surrounded by more bucks and mares. All wore the same black armored barding which had been worn on the ponies we had encountered previously in the lower levels of this place, all of whom were bearing that strange star symbol upon their armor. Not only that, but many of them were armed with a vast assortment of weaponry and all were staring timidly at the buck pacing between them. In a cage on the elevator behind them were several almost animalistic raider ponies locked up in metallic cages, all gnashing and gnawing at the bars of their metal cages like wild animals. One buck stood before the very angry looking stallion and calmly reloading his saddle mounted rocket launcher.

Well, that explained the explosions, I surmised as I saw the corresponding hole in the roof.

"I'll draw him out and he'll tell me where the relics are. We didn't go to so much trouble to get in here only to leave with nothing!" The angry adolescent-sounding leader bellowed, seemingly to himself.

The young buck barely looked bigger than me, which was surprising in itself. Yet what I saw next confused me far more than his youthful appearance. He wore a set of coal black amour, which was lined with a red trim that glowed like hot embers. It bore a striking rebalance to that of the armor worn by the pre-War royal guard. That, however, was where those similarities ceased. Beneath the suite, a strange metal harness stretched over his bulging muscles, almost like a tight medical brace for his entire body. The tarnished metal was harshly crafted into his blood red coat, as evident by the deep scars around it. Over the back of his bare neck, the frame rose into six small, glass cylinders, each a filled with a bubbling red liquid and bearing syringes poised to strike directly into his spine.

His eyes to were bloodshot and crazed, like that of a raider. His teeth were sharpened like that of some hungry dragon, yet they were far too clean to be that of any run-of-the-mill savage Wastelander. His mane and tail had been shaved off as had most of his original coat, leaving the bulging, red muscles beneath to shimmer like he was some sort of oversized, plastic figurine. I would have almost said he looked attractive in the way that a body sculptor is attractive, and couldn't help but think about what I'd do to a stallion with a physique like that if I had the opportunity. Yet his look was so unnatural and extreme that it was almost sickly like he didn’t care about how hideous he became if his ‘modifications’ denied the limitations of his carnal vessel, not to motion he was hot for a great deal many other reasons.

Most striking of all was the fire. His tail was formed from it, as was his helmet crest. Now, anywhere there may have once been a mane, burned with flame. His metal horn was likewise wreathed in flame. Upon either side of said horn were pipes which seemingly fed fuel into what appeared to be a flamethrower at its tip. Both his hooves and ankles too were laced with bright red flame, rising up from his formidably clawed, brazen hoof guards. In both instances, the flames scorched his red hide and blanked his flesh, yet did not eat at it. More confusing still, was the lack of concern or pain he showed. There was no sign of the pure agony the flames must have induced as they must have naturally seared him constantly. As for where they were coming from, I could only assume it was something built into his amour, judging by the two small gas tanks upon his back.

All that built upon a buck who was only about a week free of being a colt? He was in his late teens at best. His angry voice only reinforced my ideas, like that of a foal who couldn't get their own way. Yet I had a feeling this pony's temper tantrums didn't end it a scolding and a banishment to his room. The front of his armor was doused in blood, the likes of which was almost invisible against his red hide. It almost certainly came from a beaten corpse that all but been crushed into offal upon the concrete at his hooves.

Carnage, I assumed, judging by the fearful expressions of his peers as he stormed about angrily. Somehow I doubted giving an angry teenager the power over a group of armed ponies was the best idea, never mind the physical implications of his fearsome appearance.

"Come on out you little fucker! Come on!" he shouted up at the roof.

If he wasn't doused in blood, flames and didn't have all the ponies about him shit scared, then I may have been tempted to call his tantrum amusing. Nevertheless, I had to work out a way of getting us out of here, which meant getting past him, somehow.

"Fire again!" Carnage instructed the rocket launcher buck firmly, pointing to the crumbling roof with a gore-stained hoof. "I said fire!" he screamed impatiently, as the buck squirmed nervously, firing again.

I ducked back behind the crate as the explosion rang out, bringing a good piece of the roof down with it. The buck firing the rocket was not so lucky as the ruble crashed atop him with a thunderous boom. Several ponies coughed as the dust of the impact bloomed through the room. Yet as Carnage's burning gaze cast over them, they froze best they could. The fiery buck just looked back at the pile of rubble triumphantly, sharp, white teeth flashing as his bloodshot gaze glanced up to the hole above. Several walkways and corridors had given way with the roof, leaving the level above exposed. Rubbing the dust from my eyes I looked back at them with a new found disgust. They may not be good ponies, but to so readily sufficed the lives of even their own was incredibly harsh.

"Come on out! Come the fuck down here you little fucker!" Carnage raged to nopony particular.

Well, I think somepony's has a favorite word. I noted at the repeated cursing.

Meanwhile, I swallowed my anger, there was no way I was taking on all of them especially that rage-filled, monster-pony—thing. He may barely be a buck, but there was a reason the other ponies didn't question his furious cruelty.

I glanced to the service elevator, our way out. Looking back I could see the creates could shield us most of the way around, yet I'd no idea how fast it would climb once we were on it, nor how long it may take to activate it. All of which would be time spent in the line of fire.

"If you insist, but this behavior is most unacceptable," a familiarly, charismatic voice stated dryly.

My ears rose, twitching as my gaze flashed red. The glowing orb descended casually from the shattered corridors above, hovering directly above Carnage. The red buck smiled sinisterly, then he gave a sly laugh. My eyes narrowed as I glimpsed around the create to see the fucker who'd tricked me. Overseer. I pulled myself back behind the create, fearing that if I looked at the talking light bulb any longer I might snap and get us both killed. Instead, I turned to Cherry, looking beyond her I saw the row of creates leading close to the edge of the elevator platform.

"Come on, we're gonna have to sneak as close to the exit as we can," I whispered, gesturing towards the elevator.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble, Sparky," Carnage growled, his sinister laugh fading into a deep rumble.

I couldn't see, but I could almost imagine the imposed smile upon Overseer's pathetic excuse for a face. Nevertheless, there was a long pause in the conversation, broken only by our quiet shuffling.

"I am afraid the sentiment is mutual. You and your companions have displayed no respect for even the most basic of regulations, I had expected better from you," the cheerful tone replied almost as if begging it could sound angry.

I stopped, ears perking again. So he wasn't just going to blow Overseer up.

Funny, Carnage didn't strike me as somepony who like to chat, and I've known him for what? Five minutes.

Regardless, I settled two creates from the edge of the elevator, I had no way of getting either of us onto it without getting seen. Running through my list of options was not providing me with anything better. I still had a stealth buck, but they only worked for one. Getting into a firefight with them was also out of the equation as there was just too many of them.

Meanwhile, Carnage growled like some sort of starved hound. Circling like a shark below the hovering orb. The Overseer showed little concern for the young bucks predatory movement, in fact, he seemed to be slightly amused. I shook my head, I'd no idea how he was still managing to transmit his feelings with such a basic way of physical expression, that expression was no more than four shifting plates. He did; however, manage to place me within a memory without a memory orb. Maybe that had something to do with how he conveyed his feelings.

"I should have broken you when I had the chance," Carnage sneered, resuming his stance before Overseer.

His glowing eye glanced down to Carnage, his metal plates molded into a condescendingly flat look.

"Such an act would only result in this unit's physical destruction. My advanced systems can be downloaded and redistributed into any foreign system in a matter of seconds. I could simply repurpose an older chassis," Overseer replied, seeming to revile in his mockery as he manufactured a smile.

Carnage didn't seem to agree as he now looked more akin to a boiling volcano than a pony.

"Then I'll rip every last system apart!" he declared furiously. Everypony around him filched nervously, stepping back ever so subtly.

They all knew what happened if this pony got mad, all I knew for sure was that it could be anything ordinary. Regardless, I didn't want to find out why they were so freighted and I pulled my gaze back moving both myself and Cherry to the next crate along.

"Such a wasteful use of this program’s potential. I still cannot understand why mister Hayland thought you were ready. I do hope your sisters are more mindful of their importance."

I stopped again, this time only one crate from the elevator. I had to hear as much of this as I could in hopes they would give me at least some clue to what was going on, or better yet what had happened to me.

Carnage's growl depends warningly, yet only the other ponies and I seemed weary of it. Overseer's expression fell to what a robots ought to be, emotionless.

"You wouldn't know, you're just a worthless piece of scrap metal! I'll show you just how ‘ready’ I am when I tear you apart!" the flaming red buck declared, stomping a clawed hoof against the floor, the flames about his body flaring as he did so.

The ponies about him squirmed nervously, yet once again Overseer appeared unfazed.

"Well I can assure you will not find any more members of the apotheosis here, this facility has focused its resources on a far more important project, one that I can assure you that I have taken good care of," the Overseer declared in a tonne of nonchalance.

My ears perked, I couldn't help but feel he was referring to whatever the fuck he'd been trying to do here. What he'd tried and failed to do, no less, judging by horrific abuse the mare in the tank and all the ponies labelled as failures down below had suffered. I tried just to focus on hearing what the cheerful voice had to say, blocking out what I'd seen below, despite the fact that I might soon end up being in the same way.

Carnage looked furious. Like he knew exactly what he was being told was true and he didn't like it one bit. His tattered ears flattened and his red eyes narrowed scornfully

"The Sigel has a place for all four of us in paradise, the transcendent will rise!" he declared sounding like a zealous fanatic.

The robot looked unimpressed, to say the least. "Sigel? 'Transcendent? Why must you insist upon using such incorrect terminology? It would seem that prolonged exposure to the adrenal stimulant has imbued you with illogical and faulty thought processes," he replied, making his standard cheerful voice seem somehow bored.

I just wanted to bury my head in my hooves. Sigel? Transcendent? I felt like Overseer was questioning them, but at least he seemed to have an idea of what it was that he was doubting.

To me, it just sounded like more nonsense to be thrown into the rest of everything I found confusing since entering this place.

"I've had had enough of this. I submit to nopony but the great Sigel!" Carnage screamed like the bratty teenager he was.

Overseer's look was still one of little care.

"Give me the fucking relic!" he added furiously, but Overseer merely laughed! The robot actually laughed!

It was a painfully sarcastic laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

Then he suddenly stopped, as if wanting to say something more before Carnage could inevitably explode.

"Relic? You still insist on using my facilities as a base in your false religion? It seems I may have to re-evaluate the effects all the tests may have had on their surviving subjects. As for the code to which I know you so falsely refer? Do not be ridiculous. After the events of the Stalliongrad facility, I will never allow you to acquire any more of them. You are lucky I allowed your pod to be retrieved by this Transcendent ... Carnage is it now?" Overseer's frame shifted upwards on one side, almost appeared witty. "Not only that but if it were not for the arrival of the former subject, you would never have broken my security measures." He laughed mockingly, then with a sharp hum of his propulsion system he hovered right into Carnage's angered face.

"I no longer possess this facility's data or experimental subject, as for the codes? I will ensure you that they will never fall within your reach," he finalized confidently, smiling down at the buck as best as his metallic plated body would allow.

"Enough you fucking overpriced light bulb!" Carnage screamed with a roar akin to that of a dragon.

He reared up, preparing to smash his forehooves down on the hovering robot. However, the Overseer was faster and was safely in front of him as his hooves slammed into the concrete. Then my jaw hit the floor as the concrete actually cracked beneath Carnage’s impact-filled strike, leaving two firm hoof impressions in its wounded surface.

"It seems I was incorrect, you may possess the physical stimulant of the destruction project, yet you are not competent in its proper use at all." It hovered further, back glancing to the mutilated corpse before Carnage as he did so, "It would also seem that your rage may take much more. Know that I will not allow any of them to retrieve any more of your father's work," he added tauntingly, moving back further towards the hole in the roof.

I had little time to process any new revelation before Carnage let out a blood-curdling scream. The syringes on his neck hissed sharply, and the fire enveloping his body exploded from his armor as the sharp needles pressed the liquids each syringe contained down into his spine. The metal exoskeleton that grafted to his coat began to spark to life forcing yet more metal bolts into his bulging muscles. He shivered painfully, as his bloodshot eyes went wide, his pupils reduced to shivering dots as the once white spheres glowed a bright red.

"Enough!" His new, reverberating voice boomed now alike in volume to that of….

By the goddesses, it was far worse than a dragon.

Flames spewed from the makeshift flamethrower at the tip of his metal horn engulfing Overseer. I pressed myself back against the create.

Okay, this must be why ponies were afraid of pissing him off, he became a raging daemon pony!

The ponies under his command backed up as far as possible without drawing the flaming monsters' gaze, who appeared like something dragged straight out of hell. Carnage now looked like his name suggested. The deep demonic voice that was once that of an angry teenage cackled menacingly, echoing through my mind painfully.

"Really? Such behavior is most unacceptable," Overseer muttered oblivious to the raging, monster—pony thing before him.

With a loud hum, the orb levitated up away from the flames, his metal frame glowing red hot from the fire. Carnage didn't seem to give a fuck either, as he redirected his flamethrower towards the orb.

"Such impudence. It seems that some discipline is in order!" Overseer criticised calmly, backing off into the hole above.

Suddenly, the chamber became filled with sounds, as alarms rang out all around us. I jumped back behind the cover of the crate as many flashing red lights replaced those of the chambers standard illumination. With a hiss, a torrent of cold water began to rain down over the whole chamber.

He'd activated the fire safety systems? As much as I hated Overseer, I could help but find his witty triumph over the red, rage machine a little amusing.

"Go you, weaklings! Bring me that little fucker and everything he knows!" Carnage's demonic voice boomed, to his cowering follower.

No pony was willing hastate, nor did any of them follow Carnage as he eagerly charged into the hall opposite us. We both tensed as the vast majority of the group ran by us and into the corridors, we'd just emerged from. Only after a few long moments later did anypony dare to follow Carnage down the corridor opposite from us.

"You two stay here and a keep watch on our escape," a gruff sounding mare's voice instructed.

I recognized that voice, sure enough, as I peered around the final create I saw Chief. Though the flashing lights of the alarms and the drowsing hum of the pouring sprinklers, I could see the highlighted outlines of her body. Under the barding, she was a short gray earth pony, barely half the size of me, with a sleek brown mane and tail. A yellow and black-maned mare and a blue buck were with her, both wearing the same black barding. The former was armed with a twin rifle battle saddle, while the latter was equipped with energy rifles.

If this had been me a few days ago I'd have leaped through the roof with joy at the sight of the light show she was packing, but I really just wanted to get the fuck out of here. I'd hoped that having a homicidal rage-filled demon pony as your leader would make his cronies too fearful to enact any strategy without his approval, but now I figured that that was Chief's job. I also assumed that it was the only reason she wasn't paste on the floor like whoever the last pony was to fail her brutal master. Both the ponies being left behind, however, didn't look too confident about Chief’s orders. I was sure that it wasn't the cold water that was making them shiver.

"But—disobeying Carnage's orders... ma’am he'll smash us to bits just like Flash if he finds out!" the mare explained nervously, and the buck nodded his agreement with what the mare had pointed out.

"Not my problem, but if you're still here when we get back I'll try to put in a word for ya. He'll make it painless if I ask nicely." Chief hissed coldly, stepping away in the direction the rage monster in question had charged. "Now stay here where I fucking tell you!" she screamed back, before galloping off down the corridor after Carnage and the rest.

I was unsure who exactly was in charge of this random group of ponies, perhaps it wasn't Carnage? He just seemed to be there to keep the others in line and seriously reduce their numbers. No, somepony else was behind this just as Overseer suggested, my guess it was this Sigel they referred to and whatever the fuck 'Transcendent' meant. As interesting as it would be to know the full details of what was going on, however, we were leaving now. I peered out from the cover from the crate, both guard ponies were stood just before the elevator's control panel. Behind them was a cage filled with several angry raider ponies.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to stay here? Look what he did to Flash," the mare whispered nervously as if Carnage was somehow in earshot.

"I don't know, but we stay here and maybe he'll be too angry to care," he retorted swiftly, shivering all the same.

The mare looked reluctant to expect that.

"This isn't what the Sigel promised, there was a promise of salvation not, not ..." she stammered as the buck quelled any more words from her with a hard, stony look.

"Do not question the Sigel! We'll be fine if we stay true to our orders and do as we are instructed."

Neither of them seemed to believe that.

It was almost a shame I wasn't gonna give either of them a chance to find out their fate.

"Same thing as last time, I'll take the first shot and you get any that don't go down," I told Cherry and she nodded in complete seriousness.

I swallowed hard, setting my feelings best I could as rolled from around the create, weapons poised.

"No, no. I can't do this... He'll kill us!" The mare panicked weakly as she turned to run.

Instead, her wide eyes met the barrel of my levitated weapon. I froze, caught by surprise as our gazes locked. My eyes narrowed, focusing on her outline it was red, yet she looked so lost and afraid, she didn't look like a monster, she... she bit down of the trigger of her energy rife battle saddle. My eyes widened with shock and then pain as one of the twin beams struck my forehoof, the other bouncing from the dragon scales of my barding. It was no saddle blaster, yet the searing shot tore tough my flesh, all the same, crippling my right forehoof.

"Dragonfire!" Cherry called leaping up behind me, two shots flashed into the mare, one struck her in the left foreleg, the other tearing her right ear clean off. She reared up, screaming in pain as she staggered back past the buck, striking the control panel as she failed. The whole elevator gave a shudder, the hydraulics whirring below as it began to climb. Before I had a chance to recover the buck turned his twin rifles at Cherry. The pink mare darted to the floor as she fought to reload. I tensed and focused my magic on the buck.

"Oh no you don't," I groaned and telekinetically forcing him back with all my magical strength.

He staggered, almost stumbling from the platform as his battle saddle fired. One shot went wild narrowly missing Cherry's head and instead hitting the wall of the service tunnel. The second struck the raider cages lock shattering it in a cloud of sparks and shrapnel. I stared at the cage of raiders, as the insane ponies within burst forth from their confinement. I then turned to look wide-eyed at the buck who had, of all things, shot the lock which had, until now, kept them confined and contained. Of all the dumb luck!

The platform gave another whirr, with water pouring from its surface as it began to swiftly ascend into the tunnel. The sound of alarms stopped as it did so as did the deluge, and the dusty scent of the wasteland drifted down from the open tunnel. After what I'd been through down here, I was almost glad for that familiarly awful smell, if only I'd not been struck in the middle of a fight.

The cage of riders swung open violently. Cherry's eyes winded as she turned, only to see a group of ponies no different from those which had tortured her charging right towards her. Without hesitation, I forced my magic back around my weapon and swung it around to face towards the new threat. In a flash of light two were reduced to ash, another was crippled and sent skidding across the soaked metal. Three were still able to run, one towards Cherry. I tried to force myself up, but my wounded foreleg slipped out from under me, burning with pain as it struck the wet floor.

"Cherry look out!" I cried out in panicked terror and she staggered back timidly rising Zap-Zap and firing its two shots blindly into the charging raider.

The first glanced his left forehoof, the second melted a hole in his chest. His lifeless corpse slid to a bloody halt at her hooves, convulsing violently. My anger flared, as I realized what I was forcing her to do again, I was supposed to save her and... The weight of the other pony over me stole my attention.

"Why... ain't you just fuckin' delicious!" My attacker, a far larger mare with a grizzly expression and spiked mane, hissed around the shaped metal protruding from her muzzle.

Goddesses only knew where she'd been keeping that weapon while all locked up.

I fought to bring my weapon round to blast her, but she bucked it from my grip while her forehooves pushing down on my chest and one of her rear legs thurst forwats and pinned my dragon claw knife in it's sheath. I thrashed about, splashing in the water like a beached fish as I tried to break free. The larger mare merely smiled cruelly.

"Oh, and where do you think you’re goin' little pony?" she asked cruelly, lowering her rusty blade to my throat.

I stopped thrashing, instead forcing my horn to flare once more.

"Fuck you!" I screamed as one of my twin plasma rifles elevated up behind her.

Fearing a shot would go right through her skull and into my own, I instead swung the hard end round with all my telekinetic strength, striking the back of her head. More of the gun gave way then her skull since energy weapons were never as solidly constructed as their lead flinging counterparts, but it was enough to get her off me. She gave a painful squeal, staggering back. Almost instinctively I rolled aside, firing two bolts of plasma into her right flank turning her rear and spiked collar cutie mark into luminescent green sludge.

Just before me, I saw the saddle blaster laying on the wet platform, beyond it a third raider mare jumped onto the buck with the black barding and battle saddle. The pair thrashed about, the latter trying to force the mare of as she tried to ram a hammer into his skull. I raised the plasma rifle and sent three bolts of luminescent green death into her side. The grizzled mess of a pony gave a horrific screech, but not before slamming her hammed flat onto the buck's face reducing it to naught more than bloody offal with a single bone-crushing blow.

Blood stained the watery surface as I fired once more, the spark cell of the rife depleted. Even so, the third shot was enough to take off most of her head and send the half-dead pair staggering towards the edge of the platform where they tumbled clumsily over the rail. Above, the dull sky of the wasteland was slowly shedding light on the platform. I staggered onto my hooves, limply holding my crippled limb up from the slippery metal. My insides felt like a thunderstorm of surging nausea, sharp lancing pain, and shock-fueled convulsions, all of which were driving me to keel over and vomit my guts up.

A moment later and that's exactly what I did, staggering to my knees as my weapon fell to wet metal at my side. A foul taste of bile greeted my tongue and a sputtered gagging followed as the dull sunlight shimmered over the wet platform.

"Dragonfire!" Cherry cried.

All of a sudden a sharp 'Zap' lanced over my head striking the yellow mare who'd shot me first back to the ground.

"Cherry, stop!" I coughed instinctively, staggering to my hooves.

Cherry froze instantly, her eyes falling to the wet floor, her mouth quivering.

Shit, Dragon. What did you just do? You dragged her into that and now...

I shoved my self-recriminating thought away in a desperate attempt to hold off the inevitable turmoil, then my attention shifted as the platform ground to a rough halt. The dreary cloud cover hung over me once again and around us was the shattered remnants of some sort of pre-war warehouse. It was now nothing more than ruined walls and a collapsed roof containing several Destiny Corp. crates.

Surrounding it was the remains of a mesh fence, mostly torn down and buried beneath the desert sand. Swallowing the foul taste of vomit best I could, and fighting not to gag as my insides lurched, my attention moved to the mare I'd just spared from Zap-Zap’s cruel sting. She was curled up tightly, shivering and drenched. She mumbled incoherently as she clutched her missing ear with a severely burned forehoof. Both water and blood caked her quivering face as she stared hopelessly up at me. Retrieving the saddle blaster from the crimson stained pool it had fallen in, I staggered over to her.

I'd hesitated to shoot her, why had I heisted? These ponies were red. Not friendly, so why the fuck had I hesitated?

"Go on! Just do it! just do... At least life shall become transcendent now anyways!" the mare whimpered.

My expression tightened, "Who are you?" I demanded, pressing the glowing barrel of my rife to her face.

She shivered timidly, glaring up the length of the weapon with dull, tear-filled eyes.

"You them, aren't you, the meddlers? You're the reason the Sigil's sent Barron and all his freaks to kill us all off. The Sigel sent them because of you... Fuck you! I... I, I thought I had something but you... You had to go and ruin everything!" She coughed heavily.

My ears flattened, I had no idea who or what the fuck she was talking about, all of this stuff?

Urg, why couldn't the wasteland simply just try to kill me? I really didn't have time for all this cryptic shit!

Regardless, I twirled my gun around in the air. "Next time, I suggest that you don't shoot at me..." I growled before slamming the metal stock into her head, knocking her out cold. "Or you'll become very well equated with the other end of my gun!" I yelled at the unconscious mare and then took a deep, calming breath.

The relatively fresh air cleared my throat of the acidic taste of bile before I turned back to Cherry. The moment I looked at her, the emotional floodgates opened. I'd forced her to do all that, only to tear her down in one sentence. I didn't know why I'd told her to stop, why I'd hesitated in the first place. I holstered weapons as I took a step forward, almost stumbling on my crippled foreleg.

"I'm sorry, I..." I told her with a weak kindness.

She glanced up at me before her head looked away toward her right. I stammered, my tongue catching in my foul tasting throat.

"It's... It's okay" she whimpered softly.

I reached out to her, before dragging my hoof back and forcing any response back into my muzzle.

Damn it Dragonfire! It wasn't okay, that was just her default response to everything! But what was there to say? I mentally shelved that thought, deciding to deal with it later.

We still had to find Star and get back to Churn, only then could I sort her out. The only problem then would be me. As much as I was trying to ignore the feeling, Overseer had done something to me, and there was no point in going anywhere if whatever he had done to me meant that I was as good as dead. I paused, I needed to see a doctor, lucky there was at least one between here and home, even though that strangely didn't make me feel any better. My thoughts ground to a halt. I needed to find Star, or at least contact him, but he had the broadcaster! Checking my Pipbuck didn't offer me any hope either and my ears sank as I discovered he was either out of range of the receiver, or something else was preventing his broadcaster from broadcasting and receiving signals from my Pipbuck.

I looked up a moment later only to see Cherry staring upwards at something, and following her gaze, my eyes found themselves directed towards a heart-stopping sight. Above the ruined warehouse walls, rose a great plume of dark smoke. A coal-black column scarred the sky almost as high as the cloud cover as it rolled away on an easterly wind. I bolted, running towards the warehouse's ruined wall until and finding a traversable breach at its lowest point.

I found myself on the ridgeline overlooking the walled parking area of the Destiny Corp tower a few moments later. Just then, my gaze descended upon the searing flaming mess the glass building’s lower levels had become. I almost felt my heart stop in my chest, a weight pulling me to the ground akin to that of an avalanche over my back. I gasped, smoky air filling my lungs as I staggered to the dirt.

Fuck! Fuck! Goddesses damn it! We should have never split up, if we hadn't then this would be fine! Cherry wouldn't have been traumatized, I wouldn't have been somepony’s experiment.

That feeling of cold dread swiftly gave way to anger, this was my fault. But Star? He'd be fine—right? This wasn't the first time we'd been separated on a job. Only this time there was an evil corporation, a mad robot, and a crazy, raging demonic pony to consider. Goddesses, something was going on here or something had been going on in this place long before we were drawn into it. Was it all worth the caps? The fifty thousand? It was within my reach, yet it seemed further away than ever. Had I gotten the data the client asked for? What else had I gained? An emotionally traumatized companion, an increasingly fucked-up body, and a slowly gowning desire to know who the fuck sent us here in the first place. Whoever it was, knew how much it was worth. Why else would he or she or they offer so much?

Probably, because they knew that other powerful interests were after whatever they were, my mind added flashing images of the flaming red buck from below.

I face hoofed, how the fuck could I have been so stupid?

I knew it was dangerous from the moment I agreed to do it and yet I still just trotted on in there and practically served myself up. As for Star, well I refused to admit that buck was still in the burning building, no matter how much grief my mind threw my way. Star, was strong, and I'd think of a way to find him. —I hoped. Regardless, I raised to my hooves. I'd been over this with myself at least once before. It was just like the last time I thought I'd lost Star. Like I said, I didn't love him. I'd killed that flower before it could blossom. No, I was a smart pony. Below, in the walled of parking lot, I could see yet more raider ponies, several of them gunned down, the others snapping at each other like feral ghouls. Atop the winding stairs, several of the black armored ponies seemed to be bowing to the inferno and keeping it going with several flamethrowers. All the while two of them kept a keen eye on the angry rabble on the wreckage strewn asphalt.

As I watched I heard Cherry drag herself up beside me her hooves trailing lazily through the dust as she looked up at the rising stack of black smoke hopelessly. I could sense similar feelings radiating off of her for different reasons, I wanted her to ask me something, be the curious little mare I'd seen open that medical box or smash the display cabinets. I was afraid the wasteland had cut that out of her, or even worse, that I had.

I step back from the ridge, knowing that the small, seemingly insignificant sentence I'd uttered almost instinctively could completely bring her down. For what? To spare the life of a mare who'd tried to kill us? I highly doubted she'd be alive when Carnage found her, and still, I'd left her there to face his wrath. I killed that thought quickly. I killed monsters, that was okay. Monster or not, I had no obligation to save her from the ponies she was working for. I looked to Cherry, for only a brief moment before turning my gaze to the desert. The wide-open sands blurred like a dusty haze on the horizon as winds whipped up the dust bowl from the west.

"Come on, we need to put some distance between us and this place before nightfall," I suggested dryly, before limping my way down the hill.

She didn't argue and once again her hoof steps fell in line behind my own.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Secrets of Spelunking - Who knows what that goddesses forsaken place did to you but at least now you can safely say you know better. You gain plus 1 perception and chances to find rare items are increased by 5% whenever in any dungeons.

Active Effect Added: Guinea Pig - Like it or not you've made a big mistake and now have to live with the fact that you may just boil away and melt at any time. You suffer -1 to both Strength and Endurance.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Pony-way and Jedayskayvoker respectively.

Chapter Nine: Reorientation

Chapter 9: Reorientation

“Um, you better hold off on giving yourself an award just yet, Pinkie …”

Nightfall came far too soon. We'd barely reached the bottom of the mountain as the dreary wasteland sky grew ever more depressing. The darkness was heralded by the distant rumbling of thunder and the flashing of green lightning upon the horizon. It was clear now that a storm was coming, and as if my luck hadn't been bad enough already, the change in wind direction, noticeable by the smoke still pouring from the mountainside far behind us, blew the oncoming weather right our way.

I sneered at the sight of the rapidly approaching storm. They were dead, but I would have liked to give the ponies who had caused this whole ‘Wasteland’ mess a beating. Show them the consequences of their royal fuck-up and how many lives this apocalyptic world had claimed. Not a few times had I fantasized about meeting them and disfiguring them with blaster fire. Taking the legs, in which the Earth pony tribe took such pride in, or the wings of the war-like pegasi, or the horn of the unicorns, their mastery over the ancient arcane energies of magic.

This desert really didn't have temperate weather. Either it was so swelteringly hot that it felt as though we were being baked like beached fish, or we trudged through rainfall so heavy, it seemed to drown us with torrential downpours. Even so, it was my own fault we were still out here, after having attempted to walk down the rocky mountain road with such a bad limp. Instincts gathered by years in the wasteland were now scowling at me angrily and mentally berating me for making such a rookie-level decision. It had taken me a good while to finally take a healing potion in an effort to fix it and some Med-X to counter the pain.

Even then I needed a proper doctor to reset it completely. Just another thing to add to the list of things that were wrong with me. Despite that mental reminder, not to mention all the pains, aches, and the constant churning in my gut, I couldn't bring myself to care. Most of my mind was caught up in worry. I'd abandoned Star and had no idea what I'd gotten myself into. Most of all, my concerns lay upon Cherry. The thought of her was like a parasite upon my mind, drawing every part of my consciousness away from my own well-being. Not that I minded, I could be caught fretting over far worse ponies.

My only problem was I didn't know how to apologize for what I'd said. Would simply telling her it was okay suffice?

Of course not, you fucking idiot! My mind berated me. If somepony had said that to you all those years ago, would you have just been fine?

No... I sighed mentally, knowing I may have just lost any of her trust I might have gained.

She'd trusted my judgment when it came to killing those ponies down in the labs, she'd trusted I was making the correct decision when I'd told her to shoot them. Then I'd torn her down with a thoughtless comment.

Damn it! Dragonfire, damn it! I cursed myself over and over.

I should have just let her kill that mare. Neither of us would have lost anything and neither would... I stopped, shaking my head at no pony other than myself. Looking up, I found myself in the middle of a scorched street. A long row of asphalt stretched off into the darkening desert ahead, its surface awash with drifts of sand that shifted in the foreboding wind. The very air itself buzzed with static, and thunder far above as the coming storm drew closer. Looking about, my eyes found the skeletal remains of housing on either side of me, their lonely shadows cast out from the horizon as the sun was dragged away from the world.

My visor lit up with several targets. Radroaches and Bloatsprites mostly, as well as some feral dogs. All were too far away to hinder us, scavenging among centuries-old trash dumps or the dusty remnants of collapsed rubble before the storm undoubtedly forced them back into hiding. From what I could see, nopony had followed us, or if they had they'd yet to catch up. That, or my visor was faulty, or... I raised a hoof to my head in an attempt at calming my worry-filled mind.

The first priority was to find shelter. Crossing the desert at night was a bad idea at the best of times, yet with the threat of a storm, it was practically suicide, especially if that storm turned out to be one of the Razor-Rad storms that sometimes blew in from the Sheen. Reconfirming that the coast was relatively clear, I turned my attention to the closest of the ruined houses. Most of the structures on the right side were still intact enough to fulfill our needs, I just had to hope they wouldn't flood. The crooked frame of one larger house was marked by a shattered glass foyer and many windows.

A scorched and weathered sign above the broken door revealed, despite several of the letters being missing, that the building was in fact called Pieny Shade Retirement Community. The warped metal frame of a revolving door sat between two smashed windows, several blackened skeletons curled up on the cracked steps before it. It would have to do, I told myself limping up to the former retirement home. As I moved, Cherry appeared beside me, her body still trembling.

"Come on, we really don't want to be out here after dark," I told her warningly, a cautious eye glancing at the darkening sky as more flashes lit up the clouds like the wrath of an angry goddess.

Even so, much as Cherry fought not to show it, I could see the dread in her eyes too. For her sake, I picked myself up the best I could. There was still no way I was going to let anything happen to her, not as long as I could move and draw breath. As we entered through the crooked doorway, an eerie silence fell over the desert. It was as if even the wind feared the approaching storm and had fled. Tentatively, I stepped over the many skeletons curled up on the porch. Beneath the charred, black bones and dirt a large doormat read 'Welcome', following the greeting were the details of the long-dead establishment.

For a moment, I wondered why somepony would want to advertise their business where it would be stepped on, yet such queries were as fleeting as the lives of the ponies that commissioned such specially ordered goods. Ahead, beyond the broken door frame, the ghostly reminders of that long-gone population did not fade. Old, rusting wheelchairs bearing yet more skeletons were covered in shards of sharp glass and the dull remains of a foyer stretched out before me. There was a rounded desk against the far wall as well as a few other smaller ones to my left and right, all sagging and rotten. Two skeletons were hunched over a pair of terminals behind the largest of them, and two more clawed at its stained front.

Flanking the desk were a pair of crooked door frames, each leading into long passageways. There were larger, arched openings in the left and right walls, leading to two more grim rooms that looked to have once been living spaces. Now both were nothing more than graveyards, filled with bones, rotting furniture, and mud-coated carpets. The walls fared little better against the wrath of the wasteland, shreds of pine green wallpaper had long since washed away and the carpet had pulled away to reveal the cracked wooden floors underneath, the same image was almost mirrored by the sagging plaster ceiling.

Cautiously, I approached the desk. The establishment's title was written in dark green letters over the faded cyan paint along its curved front, and the skeletons seemed to claw at the words as if they would somehow save them. Peering over, I saw nothing but a dirt-choked office space, terminals, and more bones. A thick coat of mud had built up behind it, almost concealing a rust-bitten safe within the rear wall.

Maybe that task can be a chance for Cherry to feel better? I made a mental note of its location, evaluating the possibility of talking to her before mentioning the thing.

With that in mind, I cautiously proceeded into the left corridor beside the desk. Beyond the door frame was a long dark hallway, no hostiles according to my visor, yet most of the rooms that lined either side of the hall were closed, and it struggled to see through solid walls no matter how decrepit they were.

What was clear in the faint light of my helmet, was the shimmering layer of shattered glass and thick dirt beneath my hooves. Trampled skeletons were strewn about the grime-encrusted floor, the thick lines of which stretched up to about the midpoint on the door frame.

Well, we certainly didn't want to be here if the place flooded, I noted, assuming that was how high the water often rose as I cautiously approached the first door.

My saddle blaster levitated up to point right at the door as I slid open what remained of the decayed frame. Inside was an average size bedroom, plunged into eternal darkness that I'd only now disturbed. Torn fabric clung to the collapsed, wooden skeletons that most of the furniture had devolved into. Crooked shelves sat warily upon the blackened walls, looking out over another mud-stained carpet. Another skeleton sat slumped against a decayed dresser to my right, a second was curled up beneath a collapsed coffee table sitting beside a large couch opposite the door.

To my left was a twin-sized bed, its rusty metal frames the only thing saving it from the decrepit fate all other things in the room had suffered. Its sheets were coated with dry mud, so much so, it could have been mistaken for some sort of strange creature's corpse. Finally, to the far left, there was another door, smothered by a pile of dry dirt and crooked on its hinges. As my eyes wandered, I was reminded that, to me, this was just another ghastly image of the wasteland. Nevertheless, I proceeded into the tomb of a room. If need be, I'd search the other rooms later, but right now I wanted some rest. Besides, most of the critters around here couldn't open doors.

Cherry was quick to follow me and looked about cautiously as she did so, her eyes darting between the two doorways as I approached the second. This door I would check even if the thick dirt coating its surface had sealed it tight. Well, at best the fact it was so well sealed by time proved there was nopony here, at worst, there was something here and it didn't need to use doors.

With a tentative shove of my forehooves and a painful twinge from my lame limb, I forced the ancient mass open. With a dry crack and a scattering of dust, it shunted forward, falling from its hinges to reveal the dirty remnants of an old en-suite bathroom. The tiled walls were laced with thick grime and both the sink and lavatory were covered by a similar coat of filth. Above the former, a cracked mirror sat beneath the smashed case of a roof light. Under hoof, the white and black chequered tiles fared little better than those on the walls. To the right of the door was a bathtub, its legs almost invisible beneath a layer of dirt, and its rim weeping rust. At the dilapidated tub's far end a withered set of pipes sat mangled, crawling out from the wall like vile, rusty vines.

Peering over, I saw that the water in the bath was at least somewhat clean and the slow clicking in my Pipbuck as I approached told me it was more a less normal, as clean as water in the wasteland went anyway. Radiation, not a deadly dose, but not something I usually worried about living in Churn. Just another thing I knew I should be thankful for because out in the wasteland I knew ponies had to drink and bath in a manner far worse than the pool I was looking at.

Moving over to the rusty rim, I looked down at my beaten and tired reflection. My eyes strained, my coat and mane were thick and heavy with sweat. A blanket of thick dust coated my scaled barding and crimson ichor bathed my equally beaten helmet. Looking deeper into the pool, I saw the submerged bottom of the bath was lined with a thin layer of gravel. I raised my head up, as did I lift a hoof, and slowly I brought the forelimb to the water.

It was warm, or warm-ish? We were in a desert after all. Warm enough for at least a quick bath, as clean as any water would get out here. It was then I heard the hoofsteps behind me. I paused and looked back to see Cherry in the doorway. I forced myself to smile, and from beneath her dirtied face I almost caught a glimpse of another, then she glanced at the water.

"Hey, why don't you come get cleaned off?" I suggested kindly, disturbing the calm liquid with my forehoof.

She glanced back at me suspiciously. Then in a brief moment of idiocy, I realized what that might have sounded like. I gulped thickly, my heart increasing its tempo and I grinned nervously at my companion. With that, I took a step back from the bath and simply approached her, my expression begging forgiveness no matter how hard I tried to hide it. Then I merely sighed.

"Look, Cherry, I'm sorry... I–I didn't mean to make you do those things. I just..." I trailed off, wondering if I had irreparably damaged our relationship, or whatever Cherry thought of me.

Had I intended for her to murder and kill? Had I meant to force her to fight? I was the one to take her down there, to take her from her home.

"Dragonfire?" she whispered softly, her eyes struggling to meet my own.

My ears instantly fell flat as I realized that I'd ushered in the moment in which I may lose her trust completely. Ultimately, I'd no idea what to tell her, only that I was sorry and I'd really no idea why I stopped her shooting that mare after she and her companions had tried to kill us.

"I'm sorry for... I'm sorry," she muttered, looking away with a shamed look on her face, her eyes closed tight, ears laid against her head, and mouth drew into a tight frown.

As much as I was ashamed that she trusted me to make the hard decisions in order to survive out here, my look turned to one of slight confusion.

Why was she sorry? It was me who told her to do those things. It was me who made a split-second decision. I'd dragged her away without considering the full effect it may have on her. My conscience was right, it had been my quick thinking that had forced those words from my muzzle, that had even resulted in her being here in the first place. I took a breath, lifting her head up with my hoof. She shivered at my touch, tensing slightly. Yet she didn't fight me, instead, our eyes met.

"It wasn't your fault, I was the one telling you what to do. I was the one who hesitated," I admitted shamefully. "You trusted me to make the right choice and well..." My tongue when limp.

I coughed slightly, fighting not to look away as my mind scrambled for any words it could find.

"Just... Just… I made the decision, not you. You were only obeying what I said because I was the experienced thriver," I improvised swiftly, hiding my deeper concerns.

She stared at me for a long moment, seeming to weigh how genuine my words really were. A part of me insisted that she may think I'd have left her for what she'd done. I dismissed that poisonous, insidious thought before it could properly take root within my mind and upset me further. Her gaze finally faltered when she glanced at the bathtub. Then I could swear I saw even more of a smile.

"I thought about them, you know? When I was alone and afraid. I thought about what makes me happy," she stated woefully, her eyes wandering across the still water.

What makes her happy? What drags her back? Her family? Her time alone in the wasteland? Her time trapped in Cocktail's employment? I'd forced her mind back to one of those.

I had to brace myself against the cold weight of guilt that revelation summoned. Her family was the one part of her I could truly relate to, the loss of her family more so. I paused glancing away.

"Please don't hate me for any of that..." I beseeched, my voice no more than a whimper.

Despite all that must be going on in her head, Cherry actually appeared surprised. Her ears rose, her eyes widening as she looked back at me. Then she just looked shameful for having such a reaction, sinking back sheepishly.

"I don't hate you, I couldn't hate you. You saved me. It's just, I thought I was actually..." She trailed off, staring at the dirty tiles. "You make me happy, you remind me of them."

I felt my heart almost skip a beat.

What did she just say? Did she compare me to her family? She... She'd looked at me, right at me, with that same expression that begged me never to leave her again.

It put my selfish plea for forgiveness to shame in an instant and I lost my breath with how heavy the guilt that slammed into my gut seemed. Like the weight of the world carried upon my back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," I admitted, still hiding all of my deeper emotions.

She smiled, a warm, comforting smile.

How could I have thought she'd hate me? How could I have used her trust like I did? I felt as if I'd manipulated her, used her because of a thought I'd set up in her mind.

I took a deep breath, stepping back slightly.

"Thank you," she whispered, as if her whole life had meaning again, something to make her happy, not something she was going to let the wasteland take from her again.

My heart fluttered at her innocent expression. If she'd been anypony else, those eyes may have awakened that fun-loving side of me, instead I returned to the door.

"I'll be in here, come back in when you're..." my words failed me as I noticed the worry in her eyes.

I was leaving her again, I realized. My eyes darted awkwardly about as hers closed and she swallowed.

"That's fine," she whispered, giving me a nod.

I mimicked the action before trotting out and levitating the door back into place best I could, but if the utter filth I used to prop it up again reminded me of anything, it was that I had to be very wary of flooding. I'd worry about that later, right now I was having one of the biggest conflicts of guilt and happiness I'd ever experienced.

As I moved into the middle of the room, I looked about. On the wall above the bed, just beyond the evident reach of the flood waters, an old portrait still clung to a rusted nail. The last shreds of a sunflower-decorated wallpaper weeping from around its rotting frame. The grime-coated image within was faded by both the dampness and heat, further evidence of the desert's inability to decide between the two. The image showed yet another happy family, a smiling stallion, mare, young colt, and a slightly older filly. It was hard to hide the thought that the bones about me may be those ponies up there on the wall, yet those still intact were all fully grown, and given the name of the place I imagined they were mostly elderly. Maybe it was a picture of somepony's children and grandfoals?

Nevertheless, at least I didn't have to consider the fact I may be sharing a room with what was left of a dead foal. Hesitantly, I lay myself down on a foul carpet that sat between the end of the bed and the tattered sofa, removing my helmet. The thick dirt encrusting the surface beneath my body scratched my underside through my softer under-barding. In a painful movement of my aching body, my eyes found themselves upon my crippled foreleg, just above my Pipbuck.

The healing potion had cleared up most of the burns, as for the internal muscle damage. Well, it had done the best it could, I'd have to make it back to at least Bucktown if I ever wanted to have a hope of seeing a doctor. Then there was my internal nausea, my stomach seemed to have settled. Now all I was getting was the occasional cramp and light twitch. That left me exhausted more than anything else. With a sigh I undid the clasps and removed my Pipbuck, moving the crippled limb freely for a change.

With my magic I activated its light, illuminating the room with the sickly green glow as I set it down before me. I still had what data files I could gather from Mister Hayland's private terminal. Everything Overseer didn't want Carnage or this Transcendent to know. He'd just given it to me? I highly doubted he'd just handed them over, and yet here I was, alive and free, relatively speaking. That robot was either really confused or a really super-duper smart machine. I was uncomfortably close to thinking it was the latter. Even knowing that a robot, a cold calculative logic box, was pulling the strings of my life was a worrying thought.

All somepony had to do then was throw in an angry teenage demon pony and his gang of frightening minions, not to mention Celestia knows what else, into the mix and you had my extreme situation. Hardly worth the loss of Star or fifty thousand fucking caps! I let out a weary sigh, checking for a signal from Star's broadcaster, yet there was still nothing. I'd need to boost the range if I wanted any hope of picking up anything.

"Why can't my life ever be easy?" I grumbled, staring down at the Pipbuck, prodding it softly with a hoof.

I had so many other things on my mind. All of which were things I was procrastinating until the latest possible moment. I was gonna find out what had been going on in those laboratories. Why the robot butler was so friendly if only to get me alone, and why he had a plethora of dead mares in his basement? That dull recognition of the Transcendent pony's armor flashed through my mind again, that star symbol at the forefront of my thoughts, yet still, the recollection eluded me. I grunted, looking at the Pipbuck again.

That frustration only doubled as I saw most of the files I'd gathered were either corrupted or just complete nonsense. As I scrolled tirelessly through the majority of the data I began to wonder why somepony was willing to pay so many caps for this shit, they'd lose just as much simply getting somepony to decrypt all the things on here. After several more utility records, I gave a frustrated growl. Then my eyes fell upon another set of files, automated recordings. A lot of them dated back to before the war and some even in the years following the bombs. My ears perked up with curiosity as I scrolled down to the later files, only to find them all corrupted save one that had been recorded a month ago. My eyes narrowed as I almost beat the screen with a hoof.

"Why does everything have to be so hard?" I asked myself avoiding shouting too loud for Cherry's sake.

Nevertheless, I still had more data, not to mention the rest of the recordings I'd salvaged from Lucky's terminal. Setting aside the doubts it would do me any good, I scrolled down further. I was not surprised then when I found three more encrypted files.

Fuck! How paranoid do you have to be to set up blocks that not even a Pipbuck can break? I grumbled.

Regardless, I still had access to the audio logs, I just didn't want to listen to what became of Lucky after what I'd seen. Then I remembered what I'd told myself back in the tunnels, and knew she deserved to be heard.

Don't regret this Dragonfire, I groaned mentally as I took out an ear bloom and turned on the third recording.

'Day Three.'

"Hi, terminal ponies, it's me again. I still don't really know what to say though. I suppose I feel fine, that's what you want to hear, right? Anyway yeah, I do feel fine. My tummy still hurts an eency-weency bit, but doctor Band-Aid says that's normal for somepony involved in an accident like mine. It's especially bad at night though, when the sun's not shining. You know it makes me sad when the sun's not shining, it's just always smiling.

Still, I'm feeling a bit icky too, I don't like the sharp things the doctors say they have to put in my hooves, and my imm- in... My plant thingy really itches. But it glows at night, so yeah, I can always see. Doctor Band-Aid says it helps him know if I'm healthy, says he can see me from that big room where he, and all the other ponies live. I've never seen that room, you know? I imagine it's a big room filled with sunshine and... Oh–oh, and rainbows!

But I can't go there, not until I'm better anyway. Don't suppose there's much else to say, it’s dark now. Doctors have all gone and all I have is the sun. Oh well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow right? Bye terminal ponies.

I cocked my head against the floor, pressing my left ear into the musty carpet as I rolled over. For once I was really glad for my barding for a reason other than its efficiency deflecting shots, this carpet was like nails against my face. Furthermore, I felt sickened by the recording. Yet I was far too exhausted to think about it for too long. Nothing new really, she still sounded hammered and the same trick had been pulled on her that the sick fuckers had pulled on me decades later.

I wondered if it was Overseer that had lured her in with the promise of a job and fucked with her mind and body. I really did wonder if that was her I'd failed to save in the tank. I really wanted to know how the doctor she mentioned could sleep at night aware of whatever sick and twisted things he was doing to her. Those concerns faded a moment later as the sound of hoofsteps upon creaking wood met my ears.

I shot upright, much to my tummy’s dissatisfaction as it challenged my actions with a spark of aching nausea. Cherry had materialized in the bathroom doorway, her dusty and bloody stable-utility barding suspended in the air by the soft glow of her horn. Her coat, while still slightly stained and soggy, was far cleaner than my own. She was still wearing a small smile, a warm reminder of our conversation, and a sign for me to get out of such an open position on the carpet.

I sat up properly, as she entered, before looking nervously about. For a moment I wished she would fail to notice the family picture above the bed, yet as her eyes wondered they inevitably stuck there and my expression fell flat.

Please don't think about the skeletons, please, please, please.

She glanced down respectfully, before looking at me. For a long moment, I was lost as to what to say. Was she disturbed, reminded, inspired? Eventually, my instincts just told me one thing.

"You should get some sleep, you can have the sofa," I offered, pointing a forehoof towards the worn furniture.

The mare looked at it cautiously, before looking back at me with concern.

"What about you?" she asked, her voice low and considerate.

My ears perked, then fell flat as I realized that must have been something in my sick mind. I looked about for something I could tell her I'd sleep upon. When that failed, I had to accept the floor was my bed for tonight.

"I'll be fine here, it's certainly not the first time I've been stuck on the floor," I said, with a reassuring laugh as I tapped the dirty carpet with a forehoof.

Her concern didn't waver, yet any desire to argue was far from the forefront of her mind as she slowly slipped onto the couch, levitating her barding over her like a blanket.

"Goodnight," I told her softly, cautious not to sound too intrusive.

The pink mare shifted to face me.

"Thanks," she admitted with a subtle smile before curling up into her improvised blanket.

For a long moment, my gaze lingered on her, a fading memory crossing my thoughts. A memory I never wanted to recall. Then I looked back to my Pipbuck, recalling what I'd heard.

Lucky Star? Was that you I saw? Answering that question seemed like the penultimate goal of my existence at that moment, and still, a part of me didn't want it answered.

'Day four'

"I met the leader of the doctors today, at least he looked like their leader. He's the one who makes the sunshine and tells them what to do, so yeah, he has to be their leader. But... he looked, sick. I wonder if he was in an accident too, and that's why he needs all the doctors with him. He was coughing a lot and kept taking these weird little white things. They were like mine, but they didn't seem to work on him like mine do. Well, I'm definitely taking mine now because I don't want that to happen to me, no way.

But he, the leader, he came in here, in the sunlight and he... He just sat there, looking at me all funny. Then he showed me his magic box. Oh my gosh, it was amazing, it moved and played sounds and... Well, he said there was only one, and it was his. I think it's how he controls all the doctors but he didn't tell me, so I may be wrong. All he told me was that I was the most important pony in all of Equestria, whatever that is, I'm the only pony in here besides the doctors.

I wonder if that makes me the least important pony too? Anyway, he seemed to mean it... I don't know, his eyes, the way he said it. It was almost like it was the only thing he cared about was me. Then he left, just like that. Back out into the other world, I suppose. I wonder if I'm still important out there in the doctors’ world... Equestria?"

I slowly pulled my hoof away from the screen. She didn't even remember Equestria?

My anger was quelled simply by a cold sorrow. Every moment that feeling spun in my head was one where I felt further emotionally torn. The former only had a hatred for the cruelty of ponies before the war or Mister Hayland who I assumed was the 'leader of the doctors', given his sickly condition. I wondered if he knew what would finally become of him then. Regardless of his horrific fate, he was no different from those that killed and pillaged the world now. Back then ponies should have known better. Their failure to see the world they were creating had resulted in the dusty shit hole ponykind squatted in today.

The latter of my feelings were nothing but a frozen chill, churning about in my aching insides. I'd no idea what they'd done to her, to me, or to anypony they had sealed away in that dark morgue. What I did know is why they were not one for telling anypony what they were up to down there, especially those whose bodies they'd fucked about with! The mere thought of them was disgusting, and for what? What Overseer had done to me as a simple medical examination, hiding their need for Lucky behind the promise of a great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? It fanned the flames of my rage into a hurricane more furious than Carnage himself.

I didn't know what to think anymore. I lashed out with a hoof striking the Pipbuck back against the bed frame. They were evil. We were all evil. No matter how perfect we think we were, ponykind was far from perfection. But it was close enough for us to exist. Close enough for us to kill and torture one another. My thoughts began simmering in a vat of mental acid as I curled my head round to my side and rested it upon the dirtied carpet. I wasn't perfect, I'd failed to save so many who were far from being monsters, the raider foal, Lucky Star, even the dry bones in the room about me. I'd failed to help ponies who needed it.

********

With a sharp thud, the tip of my knife hit the moist wood. I slouched lazily over my forehooves as I reached out and pulled the sharp blade from the chipped table with my magic. The room around me was darkened, lit only by a few flickering candles and the occasional flash of lightning outside. The rickety wooden frame from which the shack was made, rattled and groaned as harsh wind and a deluge, alike in volume only to a monstrous roar, battered down on it. Looking up I saw a mirror, rounded and attached to a frame that, in combination with the wooden desk, formed a pre-war dresser the likes of which was now so waterlogged it may as well be liquid.

Peering back at me from the cracked glass surface was an adolescent unicorn filly. Her eyes and nose were runny, her face stained with dirt, grime, and bruises. She'd only earned her cutie mark today, a flaming, cyan crystal, forged into the stark shape of a draconic wing. Only twelve years old, and now it was her who had to protect her family.

The knife's blunt edge struck the table, clattering to the side as I glanced down at my bruised flank. The crystalline dragon wing was barely visible beneath the singed white hair and dirt. Twelve years old and I'd gotten my cutie mark, my desperate use of magical fire in the midst of battle. That was my special talent? It was my best guess. As for what it truly represented? I'd no idea. All I did know was that it was not the happy revelation it should have been. All I saw looking at that mark was an eternal brand upon my flank. It reminded me of the firefight that had sealed my fate. I was gonna be alone because I'd failed in the very same battle I'd seen my...

"Astral?" A tired voice groaned to my left.

I looked up sharply, my violent trembling obstructing any effort to retrieve my knife from the desktop. There, laying on a tattered old couch, lit from above by several candles upon the steamed window ledge and wrapped in many layers of thick blankets was a deep blue-coated unicorn mare. A fading light in her cyan eyes. My mother, I knew I was not far from losing her, and not only her. Beneath the thick layers of blankets and thick quilts, a large bulge rose. Tentatively, I sat up, shivering as I turned toward my dying mother. She'd been shot, and I... I didn't know what to do. Months had passed since I knew that I'd be having a new sibling. I'd found out having nearly gotten myself into the same stupid situation.

I was so stupid, stupid. Stupid. Stupid! Astral, you were fucking stupid! I'd been the worst daughter ever, so disrespectful, ungrateful!

The only other sound to play in my head was a laugh. A helpless, lost laugh, that had me on the verge of tears. Such sorrow was only rivaled by that which I bore upon my face. I'd just thought mom was getting fat, somewhat moody, that day I... I sniffed, closing my eyes.

No Astral Fire you need to think, you need to get your fucking head right here, right now!

We'd been en route to New Appaloosa with a caravan when she began having trouble. I knew I shouldn't have let her leave the last safe haven, not while she was so far along. But what was I? A twelve-year-old filly, I didn't even have my cutie mark when we'd left. I'd had no idea what to do, I couldn't protect her or the foal. I couldn't do anything but shoot and hope for the best. I closed my eyes, I was useless. What had I done other than try hopelessly to use what little chems we had and force her to this stupid shack to die?

As tears seeped through my closed eyes I felt a shivering hoof against my chin. With a nudge, my head rose and my eyes quivered open to meet those of my smiling mother. Pain, sadness, fear, grief, exhaustion. Her face was rife with it all, and yet she was smiling. She was smiling!

"I... I'm sorry, mom," I apologized as tears streamed down my face like torrential twin waterfalls.

Without hesitation I lurched forward, wrapping my forehooves around her neck, and pressed myself against her. I could feel the warmth of the bloody bandages I'd managed to wrap around her upper forehooves and the ichor leaching from the severe wounds on her chest. None had hit the baby, I was sure. I was fucking sure I'd saved the baby from the bullets at least! But I needed to save her, there was nothing I could do for either of them without her. With that realization, I'd ultimately admitted I'd failed to adequately protect my family, and the new mark on my flank was just going to be an eternal, shame-filled reminder of that failure.

"Shusssh, it's not ... Ahhrrg." My mother's soothing voice was interrupted by a grunt of agony before she could finish.

I closed my eyes, pressing deeper and deeper and never wanting to let go. The whirring of the storm outside was chased away by her frail heartbeat and shallow breaths. Beyond it, I could feel the cacophony of muscular contractions as her body desperately tried to expel her unborn foal to save itself. Its efforts were futile, and those very efforts were killing her.

I shouldn't have let her leave! No, I should have gotten her to New Appaloosa, somewhere, anywhere!

"Astral, you... list-en to me I... Urg!" With another grunt of pain, I felt her head fall lazily beside me, her forehoof limp across my back.

"Mom! Mom!" I begged, nuzzling as close to her as I could, the moist blanket rubbing blood and salty tears into my face.

"As-tral, Astral, you... Arg! The baby you have... to... do something f–or me," she whimpered faintly.

I didn't want to listen, I just wanted to stay here, hold her, and never let go. If I held them both enough nopony was ever going to take them. Nopony!

"Ast–ral... Fire" The fleeting sound of her meek voice beat down upon my ears like thunder, and with one great effort, I felt her forehoof nudge me away.

I wanted to scream, kick out against this force trying to drag me away and hold onto her, and yet I didn't. I couldn't find it in myself. Then my eyes fell back to her fading cyan gaze, and for a long moment, she stared right at me, right into me with all the loving warmth she could muster. From within that storm of pain, desperation, and fear, I saw it. Spinning behind the weak vile of maternal love was more. The weight of her forehoof against me failed as it fell limply onto the bed, then with one final effort her eyes flinched upward to the dresser table.

"You hav–e to... save... the..." Her words were silenced by another painful contraction, becoming no more than a gurgling in her throat as her face contorted.

My eyes dared not look to the table, I may have been young, but I was a smart pony and I knew what still lay there. I knew that she couldn't save the baby, nor herself.

"I... love you. Both of… you," she stammered weakly.

Her head fell flat, the life slowly seeping from her shimmering eyes as her shallow breaths ceased. I felt a wash of cold dread mix with the warm hysteria, the result was nothing but desperate sadness. I wanted to grab her in my hooves and never let go, shake her voice back to me.

"Mom?" The word left my trembling muzzle as nothing more than a faint whimper.

"Mom?" I asked again, but the only sound came from the raging storm outside.

My breathing steadily accelerated, my heart beating like a hammer against my rib cage as panicked heat rushed through me. My eyes cautiously turned to her swollen belly beneath the blankets and my ears fell flat against my head. I needed to save them, my family. All I had left was...

"Mom, please!" I begged, my throbbing heart wrenching as the magical glow of my horn enthralled the knife still sitting on the dresser.

I didn't want to do this, I couldn't do this. She had to save the foal.

"Mom!" I screamed.

No answer came but the howling wind outside. A staggered whimper left my shivering muzzle and along with a berth that felt as if it sucked the life from me.

"Mom?" A frail plea, no louder than the silent tears seeping down my face.

I placed my hoof on her forehead, feeling the softness of her coat one last time. My trembling body tensed sharply, my head drooping, tears gushing forth. My horn flared brighter as the blade levitated to my side. I took a weak breath, looking up at my mother's still face, locked for eternity with that warm smile. The smile I forced in return was nothing but a mockery of her own, no matter how hard I tried, I could never be the mother she was. I loved her more than anything. Gently, I pushed her eyes closed with a forehoof.

"I'll never, never let you down, mom," I stated with as much pride as my frail emotional state would allow.

I closed my eyes biting back the flow of tears as I turned and took the knife to save my family.

*******

I shuddered awake to see the dull blackness of the windowless bedroom. A mild damp hung in the moist air, increasing the irritation of the dirty carpet against my side. I felt utterly miserable. No, in fact, I literally felt like total shit. It was like a really bad hangover, yet without a headache or the fun before. Instead, all the suffering could be attributed to my rotten gut. My insides felt putrid, my stomach churned, threatening to throw up whatever I'd managed to scrounge down. I gagged, lurching forward and lifting my head in an effort not to choke. Okay, never mind threatening. I was throwing up!

I directed my mouth away best I could before I heaved up a foul torrent of vomit over the dirtied carpet. Just as I thought it was done, however, I gagged twice more.

What the fuck is happening to me?I whimpered mentally, wiping the vile bodily brew from my muzzle with a shivering forehoof.

Even so, my insides didn't seem content with just that, a moment of sickly shifting later and I was heaving again. I closed my eyes, almost in tears as the gut-wrenching motions continued, the acidic vile stinging my throat. With a splutter, cough, and a wheeze, the foul torrent seemed to cease or merely run out of food to chuck up. Gasping for breath, I fell back to the carpet, my rasping insides aching in protest.

"By the goddesses, when I get my hooves on the fucker that did this to me I'd..." my angry curse was broken as I raised a sweat-laden hoof to my cold forehead.

I may have slept last night, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. I'd come to be acclimatized to nightmares, yet that didn't make them any less traumatic. With a tired groan, I sat up again, a forehoof clutching my aching gut as I looked about the dark room. With my weary vision swimming, I was thankful for the lack of light. The only illumination I could see was the soft glow of my Pipbuck still sitting by the bedside. I may have mistaken the world around me for nothing but a dark oblivion if not for its glow, not that such a place would be any better than the wasteland anyway.

The only other tether holding me to the dreary reality was the damp air and the sound of rainfall against the outer structure. The storm, it seemed, had not finished, and judging by how damp the carpet was, it was eager to submerge the whole neighborhood. I just hoped it was daytime outside, or whatever a day equated to in the wasteland. Steadily, I rose to my hooves. Stiff muscles and a crippled forehoof added to my inner symphony of pain as I downed another healing potion and took some more Med-X. I had to pause for a long moment to collect myself, but even then I felt as if I could collapse.

Fuck, I still need to find Star and cross a desert before I can get this straight. As the thought crossed my mind, my ears picked up and I once again checked our broadcast frequency.

My Pipbuck was silent. I gave a frustrated groan before another thought came to me, the memory of the terminals just out in the foyer, they would present a welcome distraction. At that, I looked down at my Pipbuck, sitting just within reach of my outstretched forehooves. It looked almost as if it were cowering under the bed frame, its inability to provide me with the signal from Star seeming to terrify it. Rightfully so, it was lucky I didn't try and smash it after what I'd heard last night, not that it would do me any good, these things were practically indestructible. Regardless, my gear didn't function without it, so I couldn't just leave it here, and if I even wanted to see my pay…

I shook my head, what did that matter anymore? As far as I knew I was as good as dead soon.

My only job now was to save the one pony I could. Despite what we'd said to each other last night, my eyes were still hesitant to turn toward the mare sleeping peacefully on the couch. The soft sound of Cherry's breath whistled through the gloom, her pink coat, and cherry-red mane only just graced by the Pipbuck’s green, artificial glow. She looked more than a little cute, hiding under the stable barding blanket, but I'd made it more than clear to myself not to view her in that regard. Unfortunately, not thinking about her like I thought about almost every other mare I saw was becoming increasingly hard.

Damn it, Dragonfire! I flushed a little, my ears burning as I realized how my latter thoughts could be taken.

I took that thought away instantly, I was not that bad of a pony. Despite the blatant disregard for my self-imposed rules, the joke was enough to spur my weary spirit. Still smiling slightly, I wrapped my magic around the Pipbuck and helmet placing the latter atop my head and reattaching the former to my foreleg.

********

I swear, if my life wasn't depending on something other than crude thoughts, I'd have bucked this terminal into next week!

The fact it was the only one on the desktop to work, however, made the idea frustratingly unpractical. I'd already been forced to back out ten times before I finally cracked it, the password was 'homestead'.

In an old pony's home? Go figure I guess. Nevertheless, the option to open the wall safe was safely within reach. Staring at it, I was caught between the desire to give a big 'fuck you' to the terminal and open it, and save it for Cherry. Ultimately my soft spot for the pink mare won out, and I save the task for her. If nothing else I'd get to see her cute smile, that was more of a reward than rubbing my victory in the face of an inanimate object. There was, however, something else on the terminal screen. A recording.

Fuck, if I have to see another of those damn things again, I'm gonna scream! It was almost as if by beating the terminal's damn passcode wasn't enough, now it was mocking me with more things I'd rather not hear.

I grumbled to myself, grinding my teeth and theorizing that if I didn't listen to the recording, the fucker couldn't rub its success in my face.

Wow, look at you treating a machine as if it's a real thing, my mind nickered wittingly.

"Fine, you little bastard!" I hissed, to both my thoughts and the irritating terminal as I hit play on the first of the recordings, snatching my Pipbuck away from it so as to gain some small satisfaction.

"Well, it doesn't look like any of us are making it out of here, after all. Sky wagons are nowhere to be seen"

The instant sound of a despondent buck's voice filled the air, I regretted even hacking the damn thing. Yet now, out of respect, I had to listen, regardless of how this recording ended. I also knew this was gonna make me feel even more like shit. Even so, I made an effort to engross myself as much as possible in anything that wasn't the recording as I allowed it to continue.

"It's been almost three hours since the sky went dark, I think the pegasi are hiding away up there or something. As for the rain? Well, I think it’s killing everypony."

The buck sighed wearily, his voice as dead as I was beginning to feel.

"Well, I think most of the folks here know it, and those that can't tell what's going on are better off. I went up to see Mr Waddle, before and, well... He only asked me about his daughter in Manehatten as if it were a normal afternoon. Truth is, I don't know anymore. All I do know is there was a rumor going around about the Zebras hitting Cloudsdale, and while I have no idea about Manehatten, I think it safe to say it's gone too."

The buck paused, seeming to think. Then despite all the dreadful events that must have been going on around him, he managed to give a slight laugh.

"You know there was even talk about trying to get up to the Stable up near Desert Springs or the one south of the lake, but nopony showed. Damn Ministry, can't believe that Fluttershy herself came down here only weeks ago and now she's abandoning everypony. I’d wager ten bits it's because Las Pegasus is now a radioactive crater, I can even see the green flashes against the clouds from here.

Yeah, save some fine rich gamblers over a group of innocent old ponies? It's all about what's most practical I suppose. You know that's one of my only regrets about this whole thing, working so close to one of the brightest cities in Equestria and never going there."

He gave another humble chuckle, seeming to think deeply about the possibility that would never be. Around him, the faint sound of panic began to spur amidst a chorus of coughing. The buck's laugh was ceased by a sigh as the thought of a city he'd never see seemed to fade.

"Well, I guess this is it, we got a few weeks' worth of food, providing the rain doesn't kill us. But I don't think anypony here's going to last the next few days... All I will say is, that if any pony finds this place, tell my wife, my little colt. Please, tell them I love them both very much."

The recording crackled into oblivion, and despite all I'd told myself I was frozen in place. I'd not even thought, I'd just listened. Just as I'd predicted it made me feel so cold and empty. The damp floor, dust-choked skeletons, and dirty water lines on the wall way above my head, made his last words unsettlingly clear. Those ponies, all of them...? I merely sighed, both a curse for me and a salute to a world long since obliterated. As I shook off the sorrow, I stood up and turned to face the shattered glass front. Beyond, the eerie mist was scarred by torrents of rain, thunder rumbled in the distance, and lightning flashed high above.

It was disturbingly easy to imagine that dark day centuries ago, the radioactive downpour slowly boiling everypony alive. I was just glad that this storm wasn't a glowing Razor-Rad storm, yet only the survival part of me felt that instinct. Leaning forward, I rested my head on the end of the desk peering aimlessly into the mist, then my eyes wandered to my Pipbuck as I settled my forelegs on the desktop.

"Well, what are you looking at?" I hissed, like some crazy pony.

Well, it's a new low for you Dragonfire. Talking to inanimate objects, must be a side effect of being the cause of so many deaths? My mind proposed.

I rambled to myself for a good long moment, pausing at intervals as if to let the Pipbuck respond. I even cursed its existence when it failed to do so. Then my expression just fell flat, my ears falling against my mane as I slumped down to the desk's midsection. I felt like total shit, the world was total shit, everything was just total shit! As I whined the device on my leg seemed to look at me skeptically, like I was some ungrateful foal or a spoiled brat who'd been told 'no' for the first time.

Well, what did it know? It was just a piece of metal, it didn't even work properly it... Wait?

Through my one open eye, I saw something shift in my vision, words?

I would advice caution

I glanced to my helmet sitting on the desktop, having taken it off to get a better look at the terminal screen. Okay, this was definitely not my visor then, I was going crazy, but I hoped I wasn't that crazy!

The advice appeared in my vision for just a moment, before the E.F.S (which I knew definitely didn't work) lit up with a pair of red dots.

What the fuck?

I raised up, looking at the device on my foreleg skeptically before putting on my helmet and glancing out of the shattered doorway, and slipping on my helmet.

Sure, it had to be faulty there...

'Number of targets 2' my visor confirmed, struggling to outline two red shapes in the rain-swept street.

I swiftly ducked back down behind the cover, bracing my back against the wood and trying not to wince at the internal discomfort my motions induced. Despite the danger I looked at my Pipbuck, blinking as the strange display appeared in my vision. But the thing had never worked as anything more than a fancy torch, a blunt force weapon, and sometimes a paperweight. Right now I just blamed it on myself cracking up, but I would have to look into it later.

Currently, I had two bigger problems. My visor retained the marks of the two ponies, both of which were heavily armed given the shapes of barrels at their sides and the heavy armor that was easily distinguishable from their natural figures. Both were bucks, and that armor was familiar. Their marked hostility gave me no reason to hesitate, and my saddle blaster was swiftly levitated to my side. If they passed us by, then I'd have no reason to use it.

I glanced to my left, through the gap between the desk and the wall, then at the door to the room holding my sleeping companion. Suddenly, the sound of hoofsteps emerged from the rain-swept mist and the sound of glass crunching under metal stole my attention.

"Why the fuck are you even going in there?" One of the bucks asked dryly.

I shifted to the far left side of the desk only just concealing myself from their view as the sound of glass-shattering hoofsteps ceased.

"Because Chief told us to find whoever got past Shill and Lemon Grass, and put two and two together, you idiot. It's raining anypony coming this way is going to be taking shelter if they know what's good from them," the second buck, the one I assumed was closest, replied and I swore I heard his companion mutter.

"They're clearly smarter than us then."

So much for passing through. I told myself recalling the name 'Chief' immediately.

"Besides, you wanna end up like Lemon Wedge?" The closer buck called back to his companion, and I instantly felt a slight sting for not having killed that mare myself.

The other buck didn't verbally answer, but after seeing Carnage, I could only assume he gave some sort of visual kind of 'fuck no' response. A second later, and the hoofsteps resumed. My ears twitched, judging that they were right in the middle of the foyer.

Well, it's now or never. I told myself.

A second later, I sprung up saddle blaster ready only to find the former of the pair was far closer to my left than I'd anticipated. As we saw each other both our eyes widened. From the gaps in his gear, I could see he was a deep blue-coated unicorn, with a white mane and tail. He wore that same dark, star-branded armor etched with glyphs that my mind was still battling to recognize.

His horn flared the moment I managed to swing my weapon around. Well, there was no way he could draw his weapon so... I felt myself tossed back against the far wall my rear hooves clattering against the safe.

Wow, another pony who actually knew how to use telekinesis for something other than guns? Oh, and shit!

I scrambled to my hooves, as the blue buck raised a shotgun in his magic.

"Hey, I've got somepony over here!" he called back, pointing the gun at my forehead.

"Don't move," he growled, pressing the barrel to my forehead. I froze, the saddle blaster stiff in the air at my side, his eyes were locked firmly on it.

He wasn't gonna kill me, really? Well, that was a mistake, and he should have been watching more than my obvious firearm.

A moment later and I slammed one of the broken terminals into the back of his head with my magic. In the same action, I kicked his forehooves from under him with my rear legs, sending him sprawling over me. Not the ideal way to have a stallion laying with me, but to make sure he was out cold I bashed his head again with the butt of my blaster, then wrapped him in my magic. He was heavy, but I'd managed more, even if my crippled limb screamed, and my guts plainly didn't like me concentrating so hard on something other than them. As anticipated, the second buck appeared around the corner in time with the red bar moving in my vision, my visor marking his new position as the green earth pony posed to fire a saddle-mounted rifle at me.

"No, no," I warned, levitating the first buck between us.

His eyes widened slightly, before narrowing and he gave a slight grunt. Now it was my turn to get some answers.

"Who the fuck are you ponies?" I hissed, adding extra emphasis by pressing the barrel of my blaster against the unconscious buck's head.

The green buck looked at me with disgust, seemingly opposed to answering. I'd come to expect such a thing and hastily brought the barrel of my blaster under the chin of his companion, pressing another weapon of the plasma variety to the back.

"Humm?" I pressed impatiently.

That caught his attention, more so. But it was better than simply killing them, and if he cooperated, then maybe I'd let them leave.

"I would ask you the same thing?" he growled, eyes shifting from me to his friend, then back to me as if judging whether I had it in me.

I sincerely hoped he didn't doubt it. His response merely pissed me off, however, and my scowl deepened.

"What's that to you?" I asked sharply, knowing full well how incredibly hypocritical it was.

The green buck snickered, then snorted.

"You're just some cheap merc, ain't' ya'?"

I took a deep breath, I was anything but cheap, and not what I'd call a true merc. Yet clearly these ponies were above that, or at least they all thought they were.

"Little filly out to do the dirty work, bit far from home ain't ya'?" he added, becoming increasingly twitchy with his rifles.

Yes, I was uncomfortably far from home and that made me all the more dangerous.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied, forcing the barrel of my blaster closer to the unconscious buck's head to fortify the truth in my words.

Apparently, that didn't work. The buck merely sniggered impatiently.

"Oh, is that right, my apologies... So you and your little friend just happened to get into one of the most guarded Reliquaries we know of by accident did you?" he told me condescendingly.

Reliquary? Okay, I'd had just about enough of this. More so my gaze tried not to shift to the door behind my new friend.

He'd said my friend, but they couldn't know she was in there if they were going to kill anypony it had to be me. My mind slowly clicked as the buck gave me a sly smile, and I realized that the situation had just reversed dramatically. He wasn't talking about Cherry

"That's right you and your little colt friend? Give up and you can see him again," he taunted.

Star, they had Star? Celestia damn them, Luna fuck me! I should never have split us up! My eyes narrowed further.

"Where the fuck is he, you fucker?" I growled like some feral dog.

The buck smirked, glancing at his captive companion.

"Why don't you come with me and find out, home base is a nice comfortable stable not too far from here," he invited slyly, sweeping a forehoof towards the exit.

My expression told him my answer, but I still responded.

"Fuck you!"

The buck merely leaned back slightly, almost sitting before saying casually.

"Well then, it appears we are at an impasse my frien..."

A dull clunk severed his words as his eyes wavered. A moment later he slumped forward, unconscious on the floor before me. I paused in confusion, a trick, he was faking. No, he was actually out cold. Then I looked up and was met with a far more surprising sight. The first buck fell from my magical grasp as I saw Cherry standing in the doorway. Zap, Zap turned back after slamming the buck hard in the back of the head.

********

"See, I told you, it's not hard... Just stick it in here and twist, then you've got it," Cherry stated proudly as she opened the safe, her tools levitating beside her.

I winced, not wanting to think about how my mind initially took those words, especially while searching two bucks. Disarmed, they were no bigger than me, especially in the right places.

No, Dragon! Shut up!

I'd already taken all their ammo, their guns (including a scoped sniper rifle), and most of whatever supplies they had before sticking their backs to the wall with some wonder glue Cherry had found, all the while I was looking at the strange markings on their armor. I had far more incentive to figure out who these ponies were now I was aware they had taken my friend, and there was only a small shard of reason left in me to resist the urge to charge guns blazing in any direction until I finally found them. I found a distraction in Cherry as she rummaged through the rusty safe. Inside there had been a bunch of waterlogged, brown paper, a few old bits, and some medical supplies, including some chems and two healing potions.

The temptation to take one for my crippled leg had been unbearable, but I'd resist until I could see a real doctor. Thankfully, there were no more recordings or memory orbs, both of which were now as unwelcome as ever. One item caught my eyes, however, as did it seem to captivate Cherry's attention. 'Be Pleasant' was the small inscription written upon the base of a small statuette depicting a timid-looking yellow Pegasus, with long pink mane and triple butterfly cutie mark.

"I've heard of these, my sister, Trouble, found one once... It was Pinkie Pie, I think. They're really rare and they're magical. Worth a fortune if you can bring yourself to part with one," Cherry stated excitedly as I levitated out the statuette of Fluttershy, ministry mare of the Ministry of Peace.

The pony who'd abandoned these ponies lying dead around us. That thought contradicted the good feeling that washed over me as my magic touched the figure and I looked at my giddy companion. She was far more deserving of the inscription it boasted than I was.

"Here, you take it," I suggested kindly, levitating it to her.

She looked strangely honored as she took it in her magic, and I saw the same pleasant effect wash over her with far more respect for it.

"Thank you... I don't know what to say, I've looked for one of these ever since my sister found hers, we all kinda' wanted our own," she admitted with slight embarrassment.

I didn't know what to think about the negative topic of her dead family as the statuette’s magic chased it away. I smiled at her as she placed the yellow mare in her saddlebags then turned back to another unwelcome sight, not that either of those fuckers could move without tearing the hair off their rumps. At that moment my insides gave another unpleasant squirm and I winced.

So much for being pleasant. My mind remarked snidely.

"You okay?" Cherry asked, the term becoming defaulted in my head.

I pressed a hoof to my stomach, nodding weakly at her. She saw right through that lie.

"Dragonfire... I saw the mess on the carpet and..." She trailed off as if thinking about what she wanted to say next.

Oh yeah, that. But what should I tell her? Should I lie, abuse her trust again?

You're good at that. My mind added slyly.

I abused that thought instead.

"I'm fine, just some bug, you'll get used to them out here."

At her skeptical acknowledgment, guilt crept back into my mind.

It's happening all over again, isn't it? My mind asked knowingly.

I slammed a door in its sly face.

No, this was not like that! Telling her that I was fine saved her from worry.

It saved her that little bit more, and saving her was all I wanted to do. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only pony who needed saving. Furthermore, neither of our captives were providing any indication as to where my companion now was, all I knew was it involved a Stable, yet there were several I knew of around in the Marejarvie.

By the goddesses, can't anything be simple? I internally groaned, once again reaching for my Pipbuck, only to find its broadcaster silent yet again.

"What's that?" Cherry asked, pointing to the broadcaster as she stowed away the last of her findings in her saddlebags.

"I can't pick up the signal from Star's broadcaster, he always has one so we can talk to each other. Only he is way out of range." My explanation was as much a response to her as it was a reality check for me.

Damn it, I had to stop hoping for something that wasn't going to happen and get a message to him myself. To do that I was gonna need something bigger. I merely shook my loose Pipbuck in frustration, growling angrily as I looked down at it.

"What are you looking at?" The futile question flashed through my head and I almost imagined the thing projecting a smug expression into my vision with its newfound functionality.

Then more of reality came running at me. I couldn't do this, what about Cherry? Getting her home, what about me? I was in no state to continue this job and yet…

"I need something bigger," I groaned, noticing it was one of the first times I'd said such a thing while not referring to some stallion's nethers.

Cherry's look turned skeptical, and for a moment I thought she'd come to that conclusion also. I flushed, swiftly correcting myself.

"Something to send a message, with more range, a bigger broadcaster." She seemed to think about that, raising a forehoof to her chin.

The error of my previous words seemed to slip out of her head. I still looked at the Pipbuck sitting around my foreleg, spitting out my tongue at the thing, then I did the same thing to the stuck bucks as my frustration simmered. Fortunately, I had something they didn't. A smart pony like Cherry.

"What about the broadcast tower we passed on the road?" That sweet smart pony's voice suddenly chimed.

I paused, ceasing my foalish actions immediately before looking at her. The garage broadcast tower?

"You're a genius!" I called out waving my hooves in emphasis.

Okay, so maybe not all the foalishness had escaped me, but still, my companion smiled, blushing heavily and it was unbearably adorable.

She hadn't expected her verbal contribution to matter so much, had she?

I knew that look, that adorably humble look. I could hug her again, but given that neither of us had been scared shitless lately, I resisted the urge. Instead, I took one last look at my Pipbuck, then at the strange things, it was projecting into my vision. I could do this, for Star. I didn't love him, but goddesses damn me if I didn't do something to save him. Home would just have to wait.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Be Pleasant - No matter how bad the world around you may get you must always try to do better. You gain +5 to charisma and gain specific dialogue options with certain ponies.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: TioTheBeetle and Margony respectively.

Chapter Ten: Bug In The System

Chapter 10: Bug In The System

"Don't worry about it, it's not like we haven't been here a million times before, right?"

Okay, having second thoughts.

I know that sometimes I had bad ideas, sometimes I didn't know when to quit, and sometimes I could be a complete idiot. Not once had all of those unfortunate traits ever equated to one big fuck up in the span of one week on such a great scale as the one transpiring around me right now, however. Point one, this place was a total shit hole that looked like it just gone through its own private balefire bomb explosion. Point two, I had no idea what had transpired to cause such a thing. Point three, there was no sign of Buck Shot, Gina or anything else like what was here when we'd left just yesterday.

The room that we'd slept in no more than a day ago was now a complete mess, even by wasteland standards. The walls were riddled with bullet holes, the items that had once sat around a makeshift fire had been battered and scattered, and almost everything was coated in... something. A light, sticky residue bearing crimson stains and slick green liquid covered the decrepit walls. There were no other signs of any life, not the dead Geckoes, nor anypony else. Oh and it stunk like shit.

I fought not to gag as I stepped over a string of the sticky slime that coated the inner door frame. On the notice board to my left, even more of the stuff was smothered across tattered posters and I reached out with a forehoof, prodding some of the viscous, transparent goop. Cherry trotted in behind me, a forehoof placed over her nose

"What do you suppose happened?" she asked.

I was a complete idiot. I'd never seen anything like this in the wasteland.

I had bad ideas. I'd come in here in the first place.

I didn't know when to…

"I have no idea, but whatever did it, it's not here now," I stated, flicking the sticky slime from my forehoof.

It twanged like the string of some instrument, sticking to my barding firmly. I really didn't want to find out what getting tangled in some of it would do to a pony. The image of us trapped in a giant spider's web arose in my mind, the hungry arachnid crawling down from above to suck out our guts an unappreciated cherry on the mental cake. Giant cockroaches, scorpions, they were all real, but giant spiders? I'd never even seen a small one. Still, something had done this, and by the looks of the slime-covered supplies in the center, Buck Shot had not left before such a something happened to leave all this sticky slime around.

It was then that I notice something else. The door on the far side of the room was gone. In fact, most of the back wall and desk was gone, sunken into a ditch in the earth. I swallowed as I recalled the last time we were here.

Tunneling Geckos? I'd never heard of a Gecko tunneling before.

I stepped back out of the doorway, Cherry following swiftly behind me. The scene outside was almost identical to the way I'd left it, albeit the heavy rain made the asphalt look more like a hairy black mass, laded with scaly corpses and rusted wagons.

"Come on, let's try the radio tower before anypony finds us here," I stated cautiously, motioning to the rusting spire.

I just hoped 'somepony', wasn't 'something'. The unlocked door to the radio tower’s back entrance didn't do anything to subdue those fears, nor did Cherry's commentary on the lock's brutal treatment. I looked about as she rambled, noticing several more strange sinkholes around the side of the structure, one of which was directly beneath a set of old spark generators, allowing the earth to consume at least one of them.

"Looks like somepony tried to force it. I freakin’ hate it when they do that. There's no patience in the world anymore," Cherry grumbled, brushing a hoof over the tattered lock.

Not that I didn't appreciate her sentiment, but patience wasn't always a virtue. Whatever happened here seemed to coincide with my assessment. The door hadn't merely been forced, most of the lock had been blown off. A blast from a shotgun by the looks of it. Inside was another small foyer, and it seemed normal enough. However, the room beyond it was far from ordinary. I paused, feeling my hoof brush against a firm strand of web. The small room was in no better state than the garage, its flaking wallpaper was covered in many more notice boards, all containing scribbles of what I could assume were radio messages and logs. In the roof, a light flickered, and to my left, the rattling hum of a generator confirmed that somepony had restored power to the place at some point.

One less job for us, so why did I feel so uneasy? Oh yeah, the whole place was covered in more of the sticky web.

A door on the far side of the room was the only thing remotely free of the foul mess as was a deep sinkhole sloping down in the room's center. I really didn't want to meet whatever was behind this mess. That thought was reinforced more as I saw something in the web on the roof above me. Geckos, At least five of them were strung up as if they'd hung themselves out to dry. More foreboding still, was the sight of something metal glistening by the rim of the hole. My newly functional E.F.S was showing red dots all about us, yet I could see nothing, nor was my failing visor picking them out. Despite how much the images in my vision freaked me out, it was becoming increasingly useful to see hostiles on the other sides of walls. My Pipbuck was telling me that, in addition to the hostile targets about us, there was another friendly marker in the next room.

"I think there's somepony still in there, can you get that door?" I asked Cherry, motioning to the door on the far side.

She gave me a skeptical look, her inbuilt desire to prove herself seemingly conflicting with the fear that the sight before her undoubtedly evoked.

"I... I can try," she admitted timidly.

I just nodded, taking a step over the strings of goo that covered the door, all the while keeping my eye out for the ghostly entities my Pipbuck was tracking. I really hoped it was just more Geckos.

"Keep back from the edge," I cautioned Cherry as the pair of us worked our way around the thin ledge.

There were no arguments from her, and a moment later we were at the locked door. My uneducated glance, as well as Cherry's frustrated groan, told me that somepony had tried to mess with this lock as well. I didn't really want to think about it, especially as my magic reached out the glinting mass trapped under the web at the edge of the pit. With a tremendous effort, I was able to pull it free, then my eyes widened. I recognized the golden rifle.

"Hey, that's..." Cherry's eyes became fixed as I levitated Buck Shot’s gold-trimmed rifle over.

I recalled the way she'd looked at it on the dune, a frightened timid mare, with a taste for fine weaponry.

"Just get that door open," I murmured nervously, slipping the rifle into her saddlebags as some extra encouragement.

Even now, I could tell its presence excited her, I could also tell my unnerved tone did shake her confidence and without question, she set to work on the broken lock. Meanwhile, I took a cautious step forward. The edge of the pit was especially coated in slime, each was like a fine cord, all trailing back into the pit like the triggers on a trap. Directly before me, I saw something else tangled amidst the web, a terminal. I paused, looking down curiously before tapping the keys with my magic. It wasn't locked, and I was swiftly presented with a set of audio recordings. I looked about, then back at Cherry as she worked on the door. I needed another distraction. A moment later I attached my Pipbuck and let the things play.

"Rotor, where the hell are you? Those damn strange ponies are still following me. I came in through the back, but there's nopony here, not you, nor any of the others. There's no pony. I even checked your messages, mine were there, unanswered. Ugh, this is all because of that damn job, isn't it? I really need to get in touch with Lucky, but I have no idea what's going on with her. Goddesses, Rose was never this much trouble even if she did move halfway across the country.

Well, if you get this, then I'm leaving. There's no way I am hanging around in the back building with all the damn bugs. I thought you'd gotten somepony out about them. Anyway, I'm heading back to town, those ponies follow me back and I'll take the train to my sister's. Goddesses, you better get back to me the moment you get this or there will be hell to pay. I'll leave you the spare 'gift', but really just want to know you're okay.

I want all of us to be okay. But with all that's going on, Lucky's job, Rose’s engagement, I just worry about them all the time. They're still my little foals. Anyway, why am I rambling about this to you? You just get your flank to wherever I end up and talk some sense into these damn ponies, okay? Thank you, bye."

I swallowed hard as the recording of the familiar mare concluded. Lucky Star's mother, the mare from the memory. I had to believe her daughter was not what I'd seen in the tank, and yet so many things were telling me that that was the case. As for the ponies her mother mentioned? I was becoming increasingly unnerved by something I knew had transpired almost two centuries ago. Then something caught my attention. Bugs?

"Dragonfire, what are you..."

My head spun around as Cherry mumbled.

"I'm not doing any..."

I froze, the words catching in my throat as I stared at her rear leg.

"Don't move," I whispered quietly.

She stiffened instantly, becoming like a pink statue. Wrapped around her rear right leg was some sort of snake-like creature. Like somepony had forced a scorpion and snake together to make an abomination of many legs attached to segmented chitin, with formidable mandibles and horribly pale armor. I reached out with my magic as Cherry looked back. Unfortunately, the ugly little creature had other ideas. The segment of its body that I'd identified as the head rose and came down, driving its sharp mouthparts through her barding and right into her flesh.

My magic wrapped around the creature tightly as she screamed, then she bucked hard and another magical glow took over as her own horn flared brightly. Her panic-driven magic overwhelmed mine as she tore the creature away. The thing gave an angry assortment of hissing clicks before I drew my clawed knife and cut its head off, tossing it into the pit. Cherry panted, looking back at the two distinct puncture marks on her hind leg. I only stiffened as the formerly silenced clicking returned, and began to grow louder. The sound of hundreds of segmented chitinous legs scurrying toward our location broke the tomb-like silence. The shifting of thick chitin sounded like somepony rubbing heavy concrete slabs together. Cherry's eyes widened as she looked at me, my back was toward the pit.

I was an idiot, yeah that seemed about right.

Still levitating my dragon claw blade I turned around slowly and was met with the sight of a hissing monster of legs and armor that looked about at least twelve feet long. Its many segmented body parts ground against each other like rocky plates as it reared up. Mandibles far larger than a pony stretched along the length of each side of its head and slammed together with the force of a rock grinder, making a distinctly hollow crack as they crushed my dragon claw with ease.

Damn, that was my favorite knife! I sulked internally as its many sharp, red eyes focused on me.

Then the sight of its mouth, a writhing mass of plates and muscle, made me swiftly forget about the knife.

Radroaches? Foal's play. Giant Scorpions? Been there done that. Giant Spiders? Spiders were extinct. Giant Centipedes? Well, this was the Wasteland, and this bug was angry. Or hungry. Or it was angry because it was hungry. Either way, I had two options. Kill or be killed, and I had no interest in becoming this bug bastard’s next meal.

The many-limbed monster gave a furious hiss, followed by a raspy symphony of clicks as it swung forward with heavy jaws. I ducked, yet the side of its head still caught my crippled shoulder. I winced as my injury was further exacerbated and I was tossed across the room, landing in the thick web. The creature looked at me with casual disinterest, before turning its attention to Cherry.

Oh, so now that I'm stuck, you don't want me huh? Well, fuck you too!

Cherry coiled back against the door, retrieving the first weapon she could, Buck Shot's golden rifle. Two shots later, it was evident that the adult centipedes were not as easily dispatched as their offspring. The bullets pinged from its armored chitin like pebbles against bricks. The creature gave another hiss, lunging for her with mandibles open wide.

Goddesses damn me and my stupid ideas! I internally cursed as I struggled against the webbing holding me captive.

Ironically, I felt a sudden remorse for having left those bucks stuck to the wall as the sticky strands pulled at my barding. With a firm tug of my aching hooves, not to mention my magic, I managed to tear myself free. The action was also enough to make my head spin as I stumbled forward and fired into the right side of the oversized arthropod with my saddle blaster. All it did to the top half of the creature's body was make it glow like red-hot metal, the underside was less defended, however. It gave a crackled growl, recoiling from Cherry and rearing up to face me.

"That's right, smile!" I called sending two more bursts of magical energy into its soft underside as its mandibles opened wide.

That at least seemed to piss it off, but unfortunately for me, it didn't care enough to stop trying to kill us. I bolted to the right as it lunged down at me, the massive jaws slamming shut just inches from my tail as my hooves became caught in the thick webbing at the pit's edge. The creature didn't seem to encounter the same problem when it came to the sticky goo and it coiled back against the wall, barbed limbs crawling over the shimmering surface effortlessly. More of its long body crawled up from the pit as it drew back. I glanced down, seeing the clawed tip of its body in the gloom just below me. I drew one of my plasma rifles, laying into its rear end with all of the energy weapon's fury. The hideous beast gave a painful hiss as the flesh at its far end began to boil.

"Not so armored in the ass are you!" I growled as it snapped at me.

The mandibles were like having a machine press only inches from my face as they slammed shut with a loud clack akin to the sound of a gunshot. I staggered back, and right into the pit.

"Dragonfire!" I heard Cherry call, her cries followed by more gunshots and flashes.

I felt my hooves tangle in the web as I fell head-first into the darkness, then I stopped inches from the floor as the spring in the webs slowed my fall like a bungee. I felt my insides churn more and more as the sickly motion went on and only when I managed to get my head to stop spinning for a moment, did I finally attempt to shoot the strands. In a bright flash, I fell to the cold stone with a clatter, my vision swimming as my Pipbuck's light activated and it informed me of several new injuries to my limbs.

Despite the device's newfound care for my well-being, I staggered to my hooves. My crippled limb felt as if it were on fire as the rest of my body throbbed and ached. I felt warm blood run down my forehead from a large gash and the rest of my body had just had its aches and pain increased by twenty percent. Above me, I could see the long creature paused at the edge of the pit, its attention focused on the pony above.

"Oh no, you don't!" I called back, laying into its partially melted rear with all of my magical might.

At least five segments of its body melted away, all of which it didn't seem to need for anything other than looking ugly as it persisted in its effort to kill us. Now, however, it looked little more than just pissed off. It coiled back, moving with incredible speed as it turned straight toward me. The grinding mass of chitin and the thundering of hundreds of armored legs was among one of the most unnerving sounds I'd ever heard, not to mention the furious clicking and slamming of its mouthparts.

Okay, can we flee from this thing? My mind suggested as the giant centipede clawed down the pit after me, and for once I was in agreement.

I turned tail and bolted off into one of the tunnels, webs pulling and tugging at my hooves, mane, and tail as I went. Then I stopped, or more accurately I tripped, landing face-first in a pool of cold water. Instantly, a clicking of a different kind from my Pipbuck reminded me that I'd just received a face full of radiation, but the type of clicking creeping about behind me reminded me I was still being pursued by a very angry mama monster. Looking up, I saw a dull light flickering in the dark cave. Water poured down from the roof, the likes of which had collapsed. Several sky wagons and one of the spark generators I'd seen collapsed above formed a ragged wall of rusted metal below it, sending sparks out into the water.

Then there were the bodies. Goddesses, I knew a site like this should really sicken me, but the wasteland had taken that weakness from me long ago. The pungent smell of rot and decay assaulted my nostrils as did the metallic buzz of electricity. More buzzing came from the flies that swarmed about the piles of mangled gore that lingered in the center of the chamber, bound together by many thick strands of web.

Most were geckos and upon every scrap of meat was a writhing mass of sickly pale creatures, all a soft, miniaturized version of the empty shell that sat curled up about them, the likes of which they also feasted upon. As they swarmed they practically turned my E.F.S a solid red.

Eating the empty skin of the big one? Goddesses I hate bugs, why can't they just stay small?

Over the clicking, however, I heard something else, a sound I'd rather have not heard in such a place. Nevertheless, my eyes homed in on the disturbance and to my left, I noticed something other than indistinguishable gore or dead Geckos. My eyes widened in horror as I saw the sandy-colored buck strung up to the wall like some sort of crude decoration. His rear legs were naught but bloody, meaty stumps, chewed and melted away. His face was cold and lifeless, his left eye naught but an empty socket crawling with the most disgusting offspring I'd ever seen.

I swallowed, the chatter of a million tiny jaws and the thundering of a hundred limbs behind me growing silent in my mind as I cautiously trotted over to the web-bound buck. Given I could see no other corpses, I assumed Gina had escaped. Trust a Griffin merc to abandon their client, even if it was clear she'd not particularly liked him. It was then I noticed his one good eye, clouded and marred by streams of crimson vanes. He was looking at me, looking right at me. I bolted forward fighting not to trip as I realized that he was still alive, the dot on my E.F.S as well as the flickering outline in my visor only confirming as much.

I staggered, before pressing my forehooves against the wall as webs tangled about my rear. No, not another, I was not leaving somepony else. Buck Shot stared at me vacantly, seemingly unable to say a word as he gagged and spluttered. The same could not be said for me as the morals of my existence ran through my mind again and again. I helped ponies who needed it. I was not a bad pony, yet the wasteland was continually trying to prove otherwise. I'd let that foal die, left the mare in the tank to suffer for centuries, and now this!

No, I was good. Yet what about all the ponies I'd lost, all those I'd failed?

The constant reassurance I offered Buck Shot was only contradicted by my mind.

Look at him, he's gone, he's dead, you can't help him and you know it. My mind stated reasonably. No, I could save him, fix his legs with a healing potion. Hell, I'd find some Hydra if I had to.

"H–elp... Kil-," Buck Shot gargled, dark crimson bubbling from his muzzle as he twitched violently.

I tried to tug at the thick web, and when my hooves proved futile I lowered my horn to the thick mass, I'd melt the stuff if I had to!

"I'm gonna help you!" The only response was a splatter of warm blood across my visor as he convulsed violently.

His muzzle gave a painful crack as it was forced apart and a centipede the size of my head crawled out from the gory mess. I fell back, my face and shoulders coated in the crimson ichor as my rear hooves caught on the web and I landed on my rump in the water. The buck's life faded from his last eye and his head fell limp, the only motion came from the chittering creatures that crawled out from within his barrel, swimming through his blooded hide with ravenous hunger. I felt like I wanted to throw up. Yet there was nothing left in me.

Unfortunately, the same juvenile creatures seemed to sense me, and the swarm slowly began to flow from its fleshy bounty as they all reached for the new fresh meat. I allowed them no such luxury. My horn flared brightly, cyan fire bursting forth onto the writhing mass cremating Buck Shot's defiled body as the grubs popped and boiled like foul-smelling corn. With a chorus of hisses and clicks, the rest of the surging mass of grubs was turned into a flaming, blue pyre. I fell limp across the cold stone, webs tangling about me as the screeches and cries of the dying abominations filled the singed air.

Why? Why does the world have to be so cruel, so fucked up? What did anypony do to deserve this existence? The Wasteland did not bother to bless me with a response.

Instead, the sound of thundering chitin sounded around me, and a massive force constricted around my midsection, forcing me to gasp.

Mommy was definitely not happy. Well neither was I!

The fearsome arthropod pulled me up, the dragon scales of my barding managing to hold back its powerful mandibles just long enough for me to fire every weapon I had back into its vulnerable underside. The fouls smell that filled the air was doubled as its mutated flesh sizzled, yet it was once again only enough to inconvenience the almost bulletproof monstrosity. It lurched forward, mandibles clenching around my waist before tossing me across the room into the collapsed generator. I landed in the cold water with a splash, the flames around me turning the inky black surface into a glowing pool of cyan light.

From across the fire of its burning offspring, the mutated beast looked at me with all of its sharp red eyes, the flames reflecting from each one perfectly. If it could feel pain and sadness, I may have felt guilty. But this was a monster without question, I couldn't allow the wasteland to make the brooding creature anything other than that, in my eyes. It only proved its monstrous nature as it reared up above the fire.

"Come get me you fucker," I challenged, as the creature's sharp eyes bore into mine with intense, bestial ferocity.

It lunged forward, flames wreathing its monstrous form as it dashed through the fire with mandibles wide open. My eyes narrowed as I bolted to the left, landing with a splash as its serrated mouth sank into the generator. I forced my head down. There was a hiss, pop, and a long sizzle as sparks went flying over my back. The smell of burning centipede filled the room with nauseating intensity. Then with the exception of the crackling of flame and the trickling of water, the tunnels fell silent.

********

"He won't be needing it anymore," I told Cherry as she panted beside me.

I'd not told her the exact fate of the rifle's last owner, all I said is that she owed it to him to look after the thing, a charge she readily accepted once she'd calmed down. I'd left her again, and this time she'd really thought I was gone. I'd imagine the sight of that horrible creature wasn't something she'd be forgetting soon either. The scene I'd seen in the pit wasn't going to be leaving my mind anytime soon. I just didn't want to think about the grubs, nor did it seem my companion wished so too. The bite on her hind leg was deeper than I'd seen, and despite the healing bandages I'd applied, she may bear the scar for some time. Nevertheless, now that the skulking monster in the basement was finally dead, and my E.F.S confirmed there were no more hostiles in the vicinity, I wasn't one for pressuring her to open the locked door.

Climbing back up here, I'd just intended to melt it open and assume that whoever was on the other side would not turn hostile. That was only made more appealing by my anger as it seemed reluctant to loosen its grip on my emotions. Yet climbing up a wall full of web with a spinning head and swirling guts had taken a lot of that furious energy out of me.

"What was that thing? They're not poisonous are they?" she stuttered, shivering timidly as she rubbed the deep wound.

I shook my head.

"I don't think so. Besides, it was only a small one that bit you? If it were anything like a Radscorpion you'd need anti-venom by now... As for what it was?" I scratched my mane with a hoof. "I'm tempted to just call it the angry, ugly, web monster. But if the rumors were true I'd say it was a Borer. Used to hear tales of sand sharks boring right through the earth and dragging ponies down. Can't say for sure they're the same thing, but it fits the description," I stated lightly. "Not that I know where that description came from if nopony ever survived."

The smile I gave at that reinforced the implied joke and the pink mare at least stopped shivering.

"Ever find a monster you couldn't beat?" she asked with a subtle grin.

That made me think, many of the thoughts that question uncovered were not ones I wanted to recall, but I held them back for her sake. I simply leaned back against the wall.

"I killed a dragon once," I admitted proudly, dissuading my mind from its darker paths.

Her look said it all and I motioned to the scaled barding over my rump, making her flush.

Okay, so I could be a little clever, but it was all in the aim of making her feel more like a pony as a pose to simply a thing that followed me around.

Besides she was a pony that deserved a lot more than just me, if it ever came round to her finding somepony, that was. Regardless, her smile was still right up there on that list of nice things.

"What about the Griffin?" she asked, abruptly drawing the conversation away from her embarrassment.

"Didn't see her down there," I responded, then looked at the door, focussing more specifically on the friendly marker blinking in my vision. "But I know somepony is in there," I added, nodding to the door before tapping on my Pipbuck.

She looked slightly confused as I moved over, swiping the strands of web covering the door aside before knocking. There was nothing but faint sounds from the other side and at that, I melted the lock into goo with one of my plasma rifles. Cherry looked only a little disappointed, yet not enough to complain as both of us peered into the room.

Darkness swarmed within, yet it was not defiled by the mutated creature's vile secretions. Instead, I found a vast counter of flickering broadcast equipment, several stools and microphones sat opposite the door. Yet my attention was soon diverted elsewhere, and I glanced towards the marker to see an armored griffin sitting weakly in the corner of the room. Her cobbled armor was scratched and darkened by blood as were most of her feathers. The light of my Pipbuck revealed that a large gash in her wing was the source, and as the light hit her she razed a quivering talon to shield her weary eyes.

"Looks like you're in luck," I offered, holstering my weapon.

Gina shifted weakly before recognizing us.

"You, what the hell are you doing back here?" she asked, her voice cracked and raspy.

"I need the broadcast tower, and it's lucky for you that I did," I responded.

********

"We were about to leave when those little fuckers came out of the tunnels, at first I thought it was just more Geckos, but no. The little ones were easy enough to squash, but killing a few of them woke Big Mama," Gina elaborated as Cherry looked over her wounds.

Some healing potions had brought her back from the edge, yet the hole through her wing would not be so easily fixed, she'd not be flying for some time without help.

"How'd you get away from them?" I asked, most of my attention focused on the broadcast equipment as I fought to get it operational.

The Griffin looked slightly frustrated as I asked that.

"After the back of the main building collapsed, Buck Shot ran back out from here to get his damn stuff, the stupid mule. The big one came out from under him and that was it, he was gone. I broke into this place and locked the door, not that I thought it would do me any good, but they seemed to just forget I was in here," she explained, wrapping a bandage around her wounded wing.

Cherry stood back up as the griffin finished and shakily stood, shooting the mare a hard look.

"I'm so sorry about his death," Cherry admitted softly, glancing back over her shoulder at his rifle.

Gina sighed a mostly frustrated sigh, but not entirely.

"He may have been a fool, but not enough of one to go down like that. Though I suppose my contract went down with him too, " she said respectfully.

I felt a sickly twinge run through me as I recalled exactly how he'd died and forced the image from my mind.

"Besides, you still didn't tell me what you are doing back here, and where's your other friend?" she asked, glancing about.

I grit my teeth at the hard reality.

"Somepony took him, said it was to a Stable of some kind. I need this to see if I can contact him," I told her.

She cocked her head.

"Must have been some pretty mean ponies to take down a guy like that," she joked, but I wasn't one for laughing at that moment.

I was still fighting to find out who they were and where I'd seen them before.

"Right, we just need the frequency and..." I muttered as the old machinery sparked to life.

Cherry looked around the room for anything that was salvageable, while Gina collected herself and arranged her remaining gear. All I got as I began to tune the radio was static, then out of the fuzzy noise came a faint voice. I paused in confusion. It was a message.

"This is an automated distress call. Message begins…"

"Dragonfire, this is Star..."

My attention ramped up so swiftly and with such intensity that it made my head swim. That was Star on our frequency, I knew that voice! But where was he? How could he be sending a message? Were they just letting him? The questions raced through my mind like a torrent as I sat back on one of the stools, dumbstruck, the message playing out of the microphones for all who were present to hear.

"If you get out of that place and you get this then you mustn't go back to Churn. These ponies are not like any others, they knew we were there, they know they can find you back in Churn. You have to run, run and hide somewhere they'll never find you.

I'm sorry Dragonfire, I can't tell you anymore, it's only a matter of time before they find this and destroy it. Just know that they will try and find you. You have to be ready, make what preparations that you can. You really are the best mare in the wasteland and I just want to say I'm... I'm sorry."

"Message repeats. This is an automated distress call. Message begins..."

I almost fell back off the stool as the message played out again.

What the fuck was going on here? They knew where we were from? Worse still was his warning... Wait, why was I feeling so practical about this? What about all the sentimental shit? Oh wait, there it was.

Then the reality smashed through my confusion like a train.

Home? I couldn't go back home? I had to run and... Who the fuck were these ponies! Now it was my anger’s turn to take the reins of my mind as I swatted the microphone away.

But home... Cherry, Churn? Everything I had waiting for me, everything, I had planned it all.

I finally fell face-first onto the table. Fifty thousand, that's all it takes to tear down a pony's life, then the recollection hit me. They knew we were there because they were there too. The memory of Griddle's office flashed through my mind, one pony other than the ugly mare standing out. That buck in the black barding, I'd dismissed him as just another of her bodyguards but his gear was exactly like that of those ponies in the lab, star marking and all. I cursed myself for not seeing it sooner, regardless of all the other things spinning in my mind.

At my outburst, both Cherry and Gina jumped back in surprise. I didn't spare them a glance, my eyes became fixed on my Pipbuck. It had not been the same since the labs, and now more than ever I couldn't help but feel this had all been somepony's plan from the beginning. Overseer had said I was important to whatever they were trying to accomplish, yet he certainly wasn't with the ponies that had been there with Griddle. A part of me wanted to march back to Churn and throttle the ugly mare, yet if Star was right, I'd be putting the whole town in danger. I let out a frustrated growl, slamming a hoof on the circuitry before me.

I knew what I should do, what I wanted to do, and what he'd do for me. I should do what he'd told me, Star would never lie to me about such a big thing, he would never betray me and I knew there was a lot more to those ponies, to Overseer, to everything that had happened in that stupid building! I wanted to find them and buck their fucking brains out, plain and simple. But I also knew what I needed to do, save Cherry from this wretched way of life, take her home and let her live somewhere safe.

But what about Star? What was Cherry in comparison to my long-time companion, the pony who'd help save me from the darkest part of my miserable existence? He was better, a better pony than me, and now both I and Star were doomed to die, him at their hooves and me at those of the robotic little trickster. Fifty thousand, what a waste. If I could I'd find that client and tear them apart. Even so, I'd settle for Griddle's head right now. Then I knew what I was going to do. I stood up and retrieved my saddle blaster.

"Wow, that was rough," Gina remarked, scratching the back of her head with a talon.

"Come on, we're leaving this dump," I stated tiredly.

Cherry looked at me with concern.

"Leaving to go where?" she asked, glancing back at the control console.

I bowed my head slightly, her eyes were filled with that firm determination, and for what?

"Home, I need to get you somewhere safe," I admitted somewhat shamefully.

She glanced back at the crackling microphone and speakers.

"Dragonfire... He said you shouldn't and y–you'd just leave him?" she asked timidly and yet her words were bolstered by that stoic determination, the same motivation I was sure had driven her to try and save her friends from Mr Red.

That was not a question she had a right to ask. She was right to use a cautious tone and yet I felt like nothing more than a weak little foal. Tired, sick, and afraid. Afraid for my life not as an entity of conscience, but as a tradition I'd seen through and through over and over again, every day since the moment I took my first breath. It wasn't about life in the wasteland, it was about how it was lived.

Cherry's tone, her eyes, her expression all screamed how a pony should live their life, even if it were mostly hiding behind a timid mask. She owed Star nothing compared to what I owed him. I was the mare who owed him almost everything, and I was willing to just leave? I was leaving him for her sake and yet, at her core, she was the type of pony that would save everypony if she could, she was the type of pony that I never could be. I frowned, scuffing a forehoof at a piece of web across the door frame, the sticky strand twanging like a guitar string as it did so.

"I can't take you any farther out there, I don't even know where they've taken him," I explained pointing a hoof at the console.

She twitched, but her demeanor did not falter. She stood tall and regal. Goddesses, she was almost like a princess with that heroic determination.

Never be a hero. My mind warned, but like Star's warning, I ignored what made sense.

"You told me... that day, that I could make a difference. Did you not think that I couldn't figure out that you were just gonna keep me somewhere? Shelter me somewhere safe? That's not making a difference, Dragonfire. I know what it's like out there, I've seen it, and I... I wanna stay with you because you do make a difference!" She nodded to the webbed nest behind me. "You... You remind me of the pony I always wanted to be and with you... that doesn't seem like much of a fantasy anymore."

I almost found myself back at the bottom of the pit as she said that. Her firm expression fell into one of slight embarrassment as she scuffed a forehoof at the dusty ground. I swallowed, I felt even more like a foal now, one that had just had a good session of verbal tongue-lashing. She was right, she was a better pony than me. But I couldn't afford to lose her.

"You... I, I can't go on risking your life..."

She silenced me by trotting over and placing a forehoof on my shoulder.

Raider victim, no...

Oh shut up, brain!

"I'm choosing to follow you... If I die... well..." she trailed off shivering, and I could see beneath the strong confidence budding there, that there was a whole lot of doubt plaguing her budding courage.

"You won't die," I vowed, though whether it was to reassure myself, or for her benefit, I still did not know. Nevertheless, I levitated my saddle blaster to my side. "We'll make a difference, today or some other day, but we won't die," I added, looking at her with a smile.

"Nor will Star, I owe him that much," I finished, knowing full well I owed Star far more than I could ever give.

Cherry nodded, this was her. The real her, I was liking this courageous mare that she was becoming, not willing to live her life without her morals, I'd almost saved her and now she was saving me from my despair and uncertainty. I began to believe that she could go on to save every pony in the wasteland.

"But you're right about not knowing where this place they'er keeping him, is," she added with a wince, rubbing her rear legs to gather over the bandaged wound.

Oh, and here comes reality again. I stomped a forehoof on the web lightly.

"Hey, you said something about a stable, right? There's an old Stable-tec hub in Crimson Springs, that's if you can get past the crazies," Gina interjected, ruffling her wings.

As she said that something appeared in my vision again, sending my weirdo-meter back to high.

'New location added, Desert Springs, South Equestrian Stable-tec Hub' was marked on my map.

I gave a half-satisfied half confused smile.

"What about you?" Cherry asked and I looked back at the wounded Griffin.

"Well, I sure as hell ain't flying out of here," Gina admitted with frustration.

I looked at her with a cocky grin.

"Well, are you up for hire?" I asked, from one mercenary to another.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk Added: Exterminator Level Two - When it comes to the wasteland's irritating vermin you're definitely the absolute best pony for the job. Gain + 20 damage against all creatures when they're below 20% maximum health.

Companion Attained: Gina - Bitter rivals you may be, but even competition has its advantages. Gain +1 to Strength and Endurance whenever your companion is present.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Brisineo.

Chapter Eleven: Trust

Chapter 11: Trust

"Twilight! You promised Spike you wouldn't say anything. He trusts you, and losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever!"

Once again, cracked asphalt met my warn hooves. The storm had, if anything, gotten worse. A layer of thick sludge turned the highway ahead into more of a river than a road. The skeletal remains of various shattered buildings flanked the street on either side, the sagging structures weeping torrents of filthy brown water. The constant clatter of the heavy rain created a perpetual backdrop of sound while the humid air and the stench of sewage bubbled up in thick brown fountains from every broken drain.

I hung my head low, allowing the thundering deluge to pour from the brim of my helmet. Every moment I spent in this goddesses forsaken downpour was one more moment which was spent questioning why this place was called a desert. Most of my thoughts were set about pondering my decision to change course as I avoided the Pipbuck's strange and unsettling behavior, worrying about Star, and finally, trying to ignore the increasing pain within my stomach. I promised myself that I'd find somepony to look at the latter-most of those issues later. For now, I was just taking what the wasteland threw at me.

Another reminder that I was in far worse a state than I'd like was my crippled limb, the likes of which was getting no better the longer I left it without proper medical attention. Regardless, I needed to find Star, but to do that I needed to find the Stable-Tec Hub. However, that hub was in the worst place imaginable. Despite my lack of understanding as to how Pipbucks seemed to know whatever information that I needed whenever I needed it, a part of me wondered why it hadn't displayed the location of the stable immediately. The only answer my mind gave me was: This is the wasteland. Then again, I knew that it was a stable, but not which stable.

In a time before the war, we may have made the journey in under a day, but as night began to fall once again, I found myself continually aware of raider dens and slaver patrols. As for the location of the Stable-Tec Hub, it was the next big problem I had to deal with. To be honest, it was the source of most of the southwest's problems right now. Crimson Springs.

I knew from experience that I'd practically avoided the frying pan and ended up jumping into the fire with this new objective. Not only that, but between here and the slaver-infested ruins, was the San'prance river. That fact narrowed my list of options even more, leaving only one. The Brazen Key. The old bridge hadn't got that name for nothing, the Brazen Skull slavers had a fetish for well... Bronze-coated skulls. On various occasions, I'd seen them stripping their victims of flesh and coating their bones in molten brass before hanging them out to dry in the desert heat as cruel and macabre decorations. I'd spent my whole life down here in the southwest trying to avoid them, and now I was trotting right up to their base of operations.

Worse still, was the unsettling events which I'd seen at the Ironshod factory. Mister Red had said something about new management and given that the slavers were working so well with savage raiders, I believed there was a lot more to that statement. That only added more things I really didn't want to learn about. Still, it was better than being chased across the wasteland by a bunch of crazy cult ponies and their demonic leader, right? Regardless of my internal trepidation or lack of foresight regarding how my decisions might affect me, my mind was made up and I doubted Cherry would let us deviate from the course on which we found ourselves either. Her growing confidence was not something I wanted to steal from her and after what I said last night, and what happened in the broadcast tower, I couldn't tell her no. Even if it did mean overriding a whole lifetime's worth of survival instincts.

With that in mind, I swiftly began to realize just how much I could change myself for her while being mentally berated for all of the stupid decisions I was making after saving her. Ignoring the fact I was probably gonna die from whatever Overseer had done to my insides soon anyway.

Not the best image for a mercenary. My mind mockingly sneered.

A large part of me hoped that the grounded griffin that now accompanied us didn't sense such a weakness in my decision-making abilities either. She'd already made it very clear that she was only travailing with us to the next town, where she was confident she could find somepony to fix her contract. Then again I had no idea how this griffin's contract worked, Buck Shot was the last one to hold it. Had she been indebted to the monster that had killed him? Because if that was how it worked, then she was indebted to me now anyway.

Regardless, the small piece of parchment which set her apart from raiders and slavers was gone, and I had no idea how she might go about getting a new one, not that I really cared. Nevertheless, saving her life meant that she was at least being more than a bit lenient, however, her cooperation was not high on my list of concerns. In truth, all I hoped for now, was a lifelong enough to save my other new companion. My wasteland survival instincts berated me for that, like some angered parent does to a disobedient foal, repeating the same recriminations every time I thought about it. As much as I knew the dangers which were most likely to be encountered by making that decision, I set them aside. Instead, I tried to focus solely on the survival of the pink mare walking next to me.

None of us looked at all pleased with the rain. Even so, while the downpour drenched Gina's feathers and caused her bandages to slip, I doubted the stern griffin would voice any form of complaint. Cherry's coat and barding were also darkened by rain and dripping wet. While her mane looked more like a kind of scraggy, pink mop atop her head. The steady clicking from my Pipbuck didn't mix well with the image of her so drenched either, and I knew we had to find shelter sooner rather than later. It was no surprise then that the unpredictable wasteland was against me once again. Most of the buildings on either side of us looked like they could wash away at any moment, and for now, shelter looked to be about the last thing the world would offer us.

"You'll have to think of a name," I told Cherry, barely audible over the hammering rain as I gestured to her new rifle and tried not to think about the fate of its previous owner too much.

She glanced back at the gold-rimmed weapon and shrugged. "If I knew what he'd called it then I'd keep that name, now it just feels like it's my responsibility to take care of it for him," she exclaimed with equally great volume, looking to Gina for any answers.

"Don't look at me, he had that thing as long as I can remember and said nothing about any name," she responded, shaking her wet and bandaged wings, only for another soaking of her feathers to start building up in its place.

I looked ahead thoughtfully, the deluge-obscured environment not presenting much in the way of distractions as I thought about what Cherry had said.

"How about Responsibility, think you can remember that?" I suggested, glancing back.

She seemed to think on that for a moment, before nodding. "It's more suitable than Zap-Zap, that's for sure," she added with a wry smile.

But zap— That's the noise it... Okay, maybe she was right. But come on, I was a foal when I named that thing! Besides, the little beauty didn't need some wordy and meaningful name like Responsibility to mean something to me.

Nevertheless, I simply nodded in acknowledgment of my verbal defeat. Great, now she was getting better she could start using her smarter think tank against me!

Looking ahead, I once again sought out a distraction that wasn't there. Goddesses damn this fucking desert’s extreme indecisiveness! Eventually, my eyes fell on my Pipbuck, my ears fixed on the steady clicking. Okay, so the E.F.S fixing itself was weird, I know, but... I lifted it up and was both completely weirded out and greatly thankful for the sweet sound of music. Cherry glanced over at me as I set my hoof back down and decided to just let the radio play.

You know that's practically a beacon to every raider in the area? My mind admonished me, but I simply ignored it. I needed something to distract me from the situation, the threat of everything which we were facing, and the sickly feeling of my body churning more than the water bubbling all around us. Besides, the sound of the rain would drown out most of the noise anyway.

"Greetings, my little ponies! It's me over at your humble little radio station Rapid radio, so close to perfect it hurts!"

The sound of Rapid's voice made me feel more than a little homesick. I knew that if I'd have left after a quick rest back at the garage then we could have been halfway back to Churn by now, maybe minus a little for the rain. Yet here I was trotting towards possibly the most dangerous corner of the southwest. I really did wonder what would become of Churn if Star was right, and I went back. Those ponies, the Transcendent, what would they have done? There were at least twelve experienced fighters back home and a whole force of conscripted idiots to back them up, the town had defeated a dragon for goddesses' sake! What were these ponies compared to that? Some fancy slavers in black barding? The memory of Carnage chipped the armor of my confidence, however. He was certainly no average slaver, nor a normal pony for that matter. He was something... Unnatural.

"I hope you're all enjoying the lovely weather we're having in post-apocalyptica these days, forecast says rain, rain, and if you guessed even more lovely rain, then you got it! You don’t win a prize this week, but if you’ve taken up gardening, then what a time to do it! But I'm not one to dwell on such dreary revelations, it looks like some ponies have been taking my advice when it comes to the scum around here. I have had reports from Buck, that the town was saved by a pair from right here in Churn!"

Okay, I blushed a little at that. The thought of the cute blue mare on the opposite end of the crackling broadcast complimenting me was a far more fitting distraction. Cherry, however, sighed. There was no mention of the would-be savior, without the help of whom, we'd have all been slaves. I flicked the radio off with my magic, looking at my companion.

"Hey, she may not know it, but if anypony asks me about what went down, then I'll tell them the complete and honest truth," I assured her. "And trust me, once we get back to Churn, everypony will know you made the difference," I added with a smile.

She mirrored the expression slightly, but I could tell the bitterness hadn't completely left her. She was a pony who tried hard to make a difference and when that effort went unrecognized... Well, I could imagine she felt unappreciated. I made it a priority never to take her for granted myself and through sheer mental force of will, crushed the lecherous and perverted side of my mind before it could twist my initial thought about Cherry. Once I was satisfied that my devious mind wasn’t going to act up again, I turned the radio back on.

"It also seems, that somepony else out there has been hitting the bastards hard. I have reports that stable fifty-four was cleared of raiders two days ago and there has been further news that some pony has been hitting the slave caravans heading to Crimson Springs. Still no mention of who these brave heroes are, though folks are saying that it's the doings of them Rangers again. Providing you're not one of the tin ponies yourself, if you’re listening right now and you’re responsible for getting rid of the scum out in that corner of the world, then you've certainly earned my gratitude. Well, I think that's about everything for today, now it's time for some music. This is 'The Dark Times are Over,' By Sweetie Belle."

I turned the radio off once again, it wasn't like I was missing a song I hadn’t heard a million times before. That wasn't my only reason though, the road ahead had started producing more in the way of distractions. I kept a wary eye on the jagged ruins that flanked our right side. On the left, the collapsed pre-war structures had given way to a smooth mud bank. At its base, which had been submerged beneath the prolific deluge of rain, what remained of the north Marejarvie rail line leading out from New Pegasus lingered. I knew it had once carried freight from Desert Springs, which was evident by the spark-powered train engines and looted train cars that sat rusting along the tracks.

Peering over the mangled fence that had once separated the tracks from the road, I could see a faint hint of the rotted wood and rusted metal beneath the dirty water. The landslide of mud sagged more than the lakeside cliff back near Churn, more so as I balanced my weight upon the edge. Opposite, the saturated bank rose up to form a large concrete bulwark, rusted metal rails ran along its edge and beyond that stretched the scorched remains of an industrial estate. The skeleton of a tattered billboard, its frame almost completely rusted through, boar a weathered pink image of a mare upon it.

The smiling pink pony was almost unrecognizable beneath the rain streaks, bullet holes, and general scars of age. I'd seen enough of its like, however, and assume the message had once been something along the lines of 'Pinkie Pie is watching you, forever!' Or some other kind of creepy MoM propaganda. Nevertheless, I doubted the party-loving ministry mare of old would think kindly of what hung atop the board now. Impaled upon sharp metal spikes were decapitated pony bodies, their torn limbs hanging limply over the top of what was once a poofy-maned Pinkie Pie. Dark bloodstains wept over the tattered remnants of her smiling face and scorch marks marred the image where the hot metal had dripped from the brass-entombed bones.

I sincerely hoped Cherry hadn't seen the gruesome sight as we passed by and it faded into the rainy gloom behind us once again. The Wasteland, it seemed, had a way of twisting my prayers however, as a moment later the clatter of close gunfire filled the air. I froze instinctively, Gina leaped to the side, drawing one of her pistols before scouring the gloomy ruins with her sharp eyes. Cherry was the only one not to have some kind of defensive reaction as she tensed, and instinct drove me to move her aside.

"See anything?" I whispered the griffin's way as quietly as the beating rain would allow.

She shook her head, rain darting from her feathers as she did so. I cast my eyes out into the wet gloom but saw nothing. There were so many pipes, smokestacks, and demolished factories, most of which were adorned with bloodied and brazen decorations. Tattered corpses, though the crows and Radroaches scattered from them as we approached. My ears fell at the knowledge I couldn't hide my companion from the sight of the murderers inhabiting this place, but this was the wasteland, this was the world she so dearly wanted to change. Hiding it from her, as she'd said, did not aid her in those goals.

Regardless, she didn't say a word even when I looked back, and yet every moment she was exposed to this horror, was another moment in which I only felt remorse for dragging her out here. Despite no more gunfire breaking the constant sound of rain and splashing water, every gruesome display which followed was no less horrifying than the last; ranging from heads on spikes, filleted ponies hanging from rope, and of course, the signature brazen skulls, all of which made me wish I could just find the fuckers who'd done these horrific and atrocious acts of inequality and disintegrate them. That wish didn't seem too far away as a distant roar began to sound above that of the rain. I looked up, water dripping across my visor as I saw a tall dark shape emerge from the rain-swept murk.

A large, rectangular block rose high above the flooded road, its blurred outline covered with sharp spikes and rattling chains. Its center was a mangled mess of metal with its frame crisscrossed by crudely-built catwalks and rope that hung loosely from the repeatedly renovated main structure. The entire place was decorated with rows of weathered, brass skulls and sharpened bones, some of which bore the rotting head of a more recently murdered pony. Just one more morbid addition to the skeletal monument. Atop the highest point of the metal tower was a large weathered billboard, 'Welcome to Desert Springs, the crown gemstone of the south'. The silhouette of a shallow pit worked by several ponies wearing hard hats, holding pickaxes, and bearing orange gemstones sat behind a smiling lavender unicorn mare with a purple mane wearing a similar hat while bearing one of the crystals in her raised forehoof.

'Rocks are fun,' boasted a small caption beneath the smiling image of Twilight Sparkle.

Yeah... I don't agree, and I've seen strange silver rocks that felt as if they were pissed at me for some reason. I mentally remarked, shuddering at the recollection of how wrong the silver metal down in the labs had actually made me feel.

Something suggested that the Brazens didn't agree with the long-dead ministry mare much either as the image was stained by dark blood and gore. Undoubtedly coming from the rotting of a row of bony spines sat just above on the bridge tower's peak. I tried to prevent the gruesome monument from plaguing my thoughts as we came closer, but as if some ancient force had put a curse upon my mind the sight was hard to dismiss, the smell alone would have made even the most hardened wastelander gag.

A few hoof steps closer and the weathered suspension cables of the bridge came into view, trailing down either side of the tower and onto the razed surface below. The thin walkway that sat atop each broad wire was flanked by sharp rails of bone, severed heads, and impaled limbs. As the highway continued it dipped down into the shallow valley of the river. Just down the squat incline, the bridge was littered with wagons and chariots, the faint glow of firelight flickered from within many of them. Several of the larger ones were covered by gray tarps that amplified the roar of the rain tenfold as they danced in the stormy wind. Between us and them, to the right of where the bridge met the bank, was the control house, the upper level of which had been rebuilt with wood, rusted metal, and bone.

Undoubtedly, the controls were still inside, and much to my frustration, the bridge was in a raised position. The large, metal surface of road rose almost like a second tower from behind the pile of wagons. Its grilled floor appeared almost alive as torrents of water ran down and into the torrential brown froth that was the river below.

Well, we certainly weren't swimming across. I noted.

Not that the irradiated sewage running beneath the bridge was a good idea to enter at the best of times, never mind when it was roaring like some kind of ferocious, monstrous sea dragon.

Crossing the bridge definitely isn't gonna be a walk in the park, either way. My mind added dryly, noticing the spiny mass of metal and bone that the slavers had crudely formed into a wall around the base of the bridge.

A spiked gate, flanked by two smaller towers was the only thing I could see allowing access to those permitted to cross the chasm.

Damn, I knew this was a bad idea! I cursed myself, stopping just short of the depression in the road before any of these bucking Bronze Skulls got a chance to see me, considering my limited options.

To my left, at the summit of the squat hill, an old billboard had fallen from a collapsed store, the rubble of which now half-buried the larger sign. Another Pinkie Pie? I guessed as much as I glimpsed the smiling pink mare, but I wasn't about to go check the front and expose my tail to any snipers to see the rest of her undoubtedly gleeful message.

Instead, I swiftly fell back behind the old billboard, my back against the rubble that had formed a mound around it. Cherry and Gina were swift to follow, the latter holding her weapons ready as she eyed the bridge scornfully. While the former had her eyes continually darting to the formidable sight of the Brazen Key, her face far more expressive of terror. For a moment I thought she was doubting her own ideals, yet as she looked at me, I saw that fierce determination mixed with trust in my survival knowledge and experience. She still trusted me, though the guilty memory of abusing her trust plagued me once again. However, more pressing matters allowed me to dismiss it for the time being. She leaned forward, wiping her soggy mane from her eyes, and ran a forehoof along her drenched stable barding.

"Told you we weren't getting across that easy," I said, motioning in the direction of the hellish bridge.

She looked back, holding her wet mane up with a forehoof, a pained expression on her face. She knew I was right, and yet her drive to do good was still telling her not to back down. Years of wasteland instinct were telling me the opposite and I knew her natural survival instincts must be telling her the same, and yet... I simply sighed as a sinking feeling settled in my gut. I swallowed nervously then glanced at my Pipbuck, hoping for another miracle.

I don't know, maybe it could turn into a massive death cannon or something? When that didn't happen, I was forced to turn to more realistic options.

"There's no way we're getting through there, but there's probably a way around," I suggested, waving a forehoof toward the bridge in general.

"Got that right, it's called flying. Shit, if I ever see another one of the freaky fuckers that grounded me..." Gina began bitterly, her beak forced into a scowl as she made very colorful motions with her talons.

I focused on Cherry as the griffin continued to pick every detail from the gory sight and grumble about her inability to just fly around.

Ready for another lesson, Cherry? Today you are going to learn how to break into zones that should really be avoided. I wrangled my mind into submission, before continuing with my line of logic.

"Everypony who's at least competent has a back door, even slavers."

Okay mind, no! Don't twist my words!

Cherry nodded, and then paused as she thought, raising a hoof to her chin as she glanced back along the waterlogged road. Leaving her with that idea, I set to work seeing if that were indeed the case. I peeked up over our cover, drawing the scoped rifle I'd scavenged from one of the Transcendent bucks we'd left glued to the wall in the old pony's home. The standard firearm felt alien in my magic as did a scope against my eyes as I lifted up my visor. The Pipbuck set to work marking out many of the targets as I passed over them, though personally, I just thought that it was unnecessary visual data cluttering my vision as I peered through the scope.

Goddesses, how does anypony even use something like this? I mused to myself as I watched the first tower closely.

Then I had to wipe rain droplets from the lens, and I scowled some more. Nevertheless, the upper platforms of the first tower were covered by dripping tarps suspended from high on the steel frame. Another was raised above the very top of the tower creating a small nest. The three that I could see facing us all bore at least three ponies with long rifles as did the upper sniper nests. My guess, they all had some sort of sniper rifle. I also guessed that the condition of their guns wasn't great, but that didn't mean that we had the appropriate amount of firepower to pick them off. The scene repeated itself as I drew my sights down to the tower's base. More ponies sat atop some of the wagons and the fortification was crawling with even more. Several ponies, manes spiky and wicked, even manned glowing green magical energy turrets.

After fighting the initial weapon-enthusiast’s orgasm which seeing such an energy weapon threatened to give me, the hate I garnered at seeing such a beauty in the hooves of such scum felt greater than the Goddesses' wrath. My ears fell flat as I saw two more glowing masterpieces mounted atop the foremost skywagon. Looking at the whole thing, and assuming the town beyond was no better, I quickly came to a negative conclusion that completely eclipsed the last one. I uttered a frustrated groan as I sank back down against the wet concrete, my rump landing in a thick concoction of mud and water.

Lazily my magic dropped the rifle back into my bags and I brought a forehoof to my tender midsection, rubbing it gently. What could I do? Just march in there and hope for the best? Anypony who was that foolhardy deserved to be killed, yet I didn't feel any better off.

Fuck you. I hissed mentally to the fabulous entity that was the wasteland. The thoughts concerning Destiny corp., Overseer and the damn ponies who'd turned this job into a nightmare laughing at me like school bullies.

I hated the robots I had encountered as well as the slavers, the raiders, the fucking irradiated mutant monsters and the fact that my hindquarters were doused in mud! One thing was for sure, the slavers had certainly gotten a significant upgrade to their weaponry!

'I guess you could say that we're under new management.’'

Yeah, management with access to a whole load of fancy shit scum like you should never get your hooves on! I growled at the mental image of Mister Red.

Hesitantly I looked at Cherry, but she looked like she was still thinking. No, she looked as if she had an idea and had no idea what to do with it.

"What is it?" I asked, hoping desperately that the smarter pony had thought of a better idea than trying to storm the front gates of this Tartarus-hole.

She paused, as if my question were unexpected, then with a wet shake of her head she seemed to break out of her stupor and looked at me. It was then I realized she wasn't trusting me to get her through this, she was counting on me to trust in her. I swallowed hard, the taste of my saliva filling my parched throat.

"Can't we go under the river?" she asked.

She seemed to lighten for a brief moment, then she frowned, her sorrow robbing a fraction of my frail confidence.

"I know it sounds stupid, going underground in such heavy rain is most likely exceedingly stupid, I know, but we..." She trailed off as she gestured to the fortifications across the chasm.

Underground? In the rain, yeah that was stupid. But was it any less stupid than trying to enter a heavily fortified and armed fortress through their front door?

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, glancing back to where she'd been staring for any indication.

She took a deep breath. "What about the train tunnels back there? We wait for the storm to pass, out of sight in the ruins, and then we sneak under the whole place," she proposed, pointing a hoof at a set of only slightly dilapidated warehouses behind us.

My ears perked, my mind suddenly racing.

The train tunnels? Then came images of the flooded concrete tombs and... Yeah, not the best plan, at least not until the storm had passed.

Great, just great! How would you like to die? Would you rather drown or get shot? My mind asked.

Now it was my turn to take a deep breath. You take option A, and at least you'll have a spectacular chance at dying! Oh, just shut up brain!

I'd never been in those tunnels before, but I knew they must run under the whole place, it was the only way to get the vast quantities of gemstones out of town back before the war, and considering the place had only one major river access, the train lines had been very popular. Then there were the obvious issues with the tunnel flooding, the chance of encountering slavers or goddesses know what else living down there. But with the number and quality of the enemy’s guns and my arsenal's effectiveness at close range, I saw a far better chance at getting to where we needed to go and with a reduction in the likelihood of us dying. A part of my mind, the survivor part, wanted to scream. The part of me that was the experienced Wasteland survivor leading our little group hugged Cherry lightly. Trust? It wasn't an easy thing for me, but I had to start somewhere.

The pink mare blushed but did not fight the embrace or even tense, goddesses that humble adorableness was just too much. She smiled a crooked smile as I leaned back.

"You know, I like a quickie as much as any Griffin, but I don't think now's the time," Gina commented smugly, that scowl wiped from her beak for just a moment as she motioned toward us with a talon.

The blush deepened upon my cheeks, while Cherry's blush deepened further, as both guilt and embarrassment washed over me all at once and I was so glad for my helmet.

"I guess we’re taking the tunnels then?" Cherry asked, looking slightly flustered.

I stood, shook the filth from my rump, and looked at the ruined warehouses she'd mentioned in her plan.

"Yeah, because you're a smart pony."

********

The thin alleyways and water-filled streets between us and the relative dryness of the warehouses made the small side trip feel as though it took much longer than it actually had. I'd never been so wet, and I had to wrangle my mind back into submission again as it sought to take my thoughts and twist them into a far more perverted meaning. Steep brick walls stretched upwards on either side of us, the large windows built into each wall were far above our heads, while the gushing rain poured torrents down upon us. I was all too aware that the walls made for great ambush locations, while the fallen scraps of catwalks and stairs that littered the small spaces made for excellent tripping hazards. Not to mention what could crush us, or give out under us. I knew from Gina's muttering, as well as her disapproving glares, that she knew as well as I how dangerous this place was. Yet as crazy as raiders were, I couldn't imagine them wasting their time out in this storm, and if they were, then setting a trap for us would probably be the last thing on their minds.

Even so, when the way became too narrow, I placed myself at the front of the single-file line we were forced into. If anypony was going to be shot, it should be me, I was as good as dead anyway for all I knew. Nothing came to attack us, however, and soon we found ourselves on the decrepit outskirts of the warehouses Cherry had observed from the main highway. A large hole in the wall allowed us to slip into one of the larger buildings and inside we found the floor to be at least a little dryer, even if it was cracked, uneven, and littered with dozens of rusted shipping containers.

"We should find somewhere warmer, if it's concealed enough, we can make a fire," Gina suggested, shaking her feathers like a wet cat-bird.

I wiped a great deal of the water from my own barding, and Cherry did the same before I nodded my agreement to what the griffin had said.

"Keep your eyes open, there's usually a lot more than just raiders in places like this," she advised again, drawing one of her weapons.

I gave her a look that expressed my irritation at being treated like an absolute greenhorn. Still, she only smirked and motioned to Cherry, without Cherry seeing her do so.

Was her inexperience really that obvious? I gave the pink mare a look over as she finished drying herself off and winced, maybe I was losing my eye for danger after all. At that, my mind unleashed a barrage of mental attacks, all berating just how soft I'd become.

"Hey, over here," came Gina's voice and I looked up to see the griffin squeezing through a small hole under some large steel girders.

The sight was more than a little pleasing, she may not be a pony, but after repressing my lusts for so long, that feline rump looked more than a little appealing. It had been a long time since I'd been attracted to something so exotic. I'd only gone as far as fucking a Zebra before, but right about now, I'd…

Dragonfire! I scolded my lust-filled thoughts and refocused my attention back to the present. Why in Equestria am I thinking about getting some pussy? I refocused on the situation at hoof with a shake of my head and moved over the hole as the griffin struggled to fit through.

She was slightly larger than most ponies, and I couldn't imagine the injury to her wings made it any easier as they were scraped against the rough walls. Yet after a long moment of struggling she made it through to the other side.

"Three beds and the entire floor in here is dry too," she called back.

The prospect of being dry and warm instantly took precedence in my mind, but I battled my own selfishness for just a moment more and looked at Cherry.

"You go first, don't worry I'll be right behind you," I offered, waving a hoof at the breach.

She looked very unsure about the idea, but as much as I'd trusted her, she trusted me and slipped through. I cautiously checked the surrounding rubble before following after her, levitating a light sheet of corrugated iron over the space to conceal it from the outside. Beyond, the only light was that of my horn, and it swiftly illuminated the vast interior of the factory floor through the shattered windows of what appeared to be a collapsed office. Rotten, old desks and cabinets littered the room, and the carpet was only slightly damp. Several mattresses had scattered bones upon them, making it clear that we were not the first ponies to seek refuge in this place. Cherry gave only a little shudder at the sight of them, either the memory of the Brazen Key was still dominating her fear or she was finally becoming inured to sights of death. Either way, I felt a sting of remorse to see that innocence slipping away.

"Don't think this guy needs this anymore," Gina stated, flicking the bones aside and settling onto one of the mattresses.

I felt a strange compulsion to stop her, my hoof almost reaching out to catch the disturbed remains, yet I held myself back.

What am I doing? This is not how I've managed to survive for so long. Cherry didn't pay the griffin any more heed as the feathered mercenary set to inspecting her weapons.

Instead, the pink mare found a mattress that was mostly free of bones and settled down upon it, shuddering whenever the bones brushed up against her. This felt too much like sleeping with the dead, and the morbid and morose part of my mind wondered if this wasn’t a portent that I would soon receive the kiss of death myself. I looked between my two companions and then finally took the last mattress and moved it over next to Cherry's, trying to ignore the bones that rolled aside as I did so. Across the room, Gina set her guns down and began to remove her armor, wringing the water out before inspecting her wounded wing. I fought back the surging perverse lusts rising within me at the sight of her undressing.

I mean, come on, we hardly ever wear clothes! Yet the survivalist side of me bothered me, some tidbit of information tauntingly outside of my recollection, but just barely. So close, and yet so far.

"Hey… You know, you'd be warmer if you take that off, at least until it's dry," I told Cherry sheepishly, waving a hoof at her drowned barding.

She looked at me strangely, seeming to think. I only got the sense she thought this was another test.

"Probably, should I have remembered that?" she responded with a nervous laugh and I nodded. "My sisters taught me all I know about that survival kinda stuff," she went on as she began the task in question.

I sat down on my mattress and glanced away, the cold of my own soaked barding biting at my numb hooves and crippled leg. Moments later, there was a wet thud as she set the barding down, and I finally made an effort to look back at her.

"Well, thanks to you, at least we're somewhere dry and not out getting soaked while watching the bridge," I told her and flashed her a grin of gratitude.

She smiled, looking adorably shy as she scuffed her forehoof against the moderately damp carpet.

"Well, you'd have done the same, right?" she asked, not a hint of doubt in her sincerely naive voice.

I nodded, but deep down I'd no idea what I'd have done, I wasn't even sure if I'd be doing this if not for her constantly reminding me that it was the right thing. That thought alone gave me a sinking feeling in my gut and made me wish I could crawl into the depths of the earth and disappear. Did she care more about Star than me? No, she cared more about other ponies’ wellbeing than I did. Maybe that was what the wasteland had done to me, wearing me down, like sandpaper, numbing me with each death I’d dealt, and with each act of atrocity my eyes had seen, until all that was left was a frail shell? Just an emotion-numbed automaton or golem just getting through each day, waiting until that fatal day when death would finally take her? The mare I had become was now filled with false promise and hope.

"What about you?" Cherry asked, nodding to my own wet barding.

Removing my helmet with a flash of magic, I looked myself over.

"It’s fine, most of this stuff's waterproof," I lied, but she remained blissfully ignorant of the truth, after that, I made an effort to hide my shivering until the water slowly began to evaporate and my barding eventually warmed me back up.

Across from us, Gina was curled up on her mattress, the griffin seemed to have no intention of making conversation and I simply ignored her in return.

"I really hope this rain stops before morning, I really can't stand just sitting in one place," Cherry sighed, staring up out of one of the shattered windows across the factory floor.

"Sometimes they can last for days, I don't know why this place is even called a desert!" I told her, laughing slightly.

I could see she was trying to share in my amusement, but her seriousness and her drive to prove herself to me would not allow it. I felt something within me die a little more at that realization and I recoiled slightly as a consequence.

"Hey, you do know that I mean what I said, right? About looking out for you and all?" I asked, trying to put the right words into something which I hope sounded as close to reassurance as possible.

She looked at me as if she had been mildly insulted. I glanced away.

"It’s just that, I have had a lot of ponies rely on me before, and..." I trailed off, that idea of misusing her trust blooming in my mind once more.

She looked slightly perplexed as she cocked her head.

"Dragonfire, I've known you for less than a week and you've already done more for me than anypony I’ve ever known, other than my family," she admitted, her response seeming to bring up her memories, and she fell silent, a distant look in her eyes.

"They sound like they were good ponies," I offered, trying to steer the conversation away from my own guilt and onto something that may brighten her mood.

She gave a brief giggle as her smile deepened.

"They were, we traveled across the wasteland together for years. Mother and Father were the ones to do all the trading, with me and my sisters always fetching stuff whenever they asked. My sister Tumbler was the eldest, but I think my nephew came along before she was ready to take up the role of a mom," she reminisced nostalgically, her eyes shimmering.

I felt a slight sickness at the mention of her sister being a mom and tried my best not to let it get to me as I listened respectfully, before resting my head down on the mattress. She looked at me as if to ask the same thing about my family, but didn't press.

"Well, if they were half as good as you are, then I'm sorry I didn't get to meet them," I told her and she sported a humble blush, even as she scrunched her eyes closed tightly shut and a choked sob escaped her throat.

"I just wish I could have done more... To..." she began but trailed back off into silence.

I felt a twinge of sorrow at her words, as I began realizing the implications. The same images of my own family flashed through my mind, but I shoved those thoughts away.

"Whatever happened, I’m sure that they'd be glad you're still here," I offered, hiding the fact that I was more than glad that she was still with me.

She stiffened, nodding as she wiped her eyes. Remembering my mother, I was almost in tears too, but the last thing I wanted the mercenary across the room to see was both of us crying into each other's embrace. Instead, my mind sought a distraction yet again and finally came back to my Pipbuck, its newly functioning radio in particular. Retrieving my ear bloom I looked through the broadcast it was picking up. None of them were from Star and assuming the several that were not Rapid's Radio were something to do with the slavers, I sighed at the lack of anything to take my mind away from the dreary world. Cherry looked at me curiously, eying my Pipbuck as if eagerly awaiting the day she could see how much a pony would be willing to pay for it. I paused before hitting the radio, then looked at her kindly.

"Here, you should listen," I offered.

Her curiosity transitioned into confusion as she regarded the ear bloom levitating before her and I moved a little closer to her.

"But you... it's yours," she stuttered, but I shook my head with a grin.

"There's nothing on there that I haven't heard a thousand times," I assured her, taking her hoof with my own and placing the ear bloom in it.

She protested again, before asking me if I was certain, to which I just nodded with a smile. The sight of her behaving so hesitantly was so cute, and that made her a far better distraction than Rapid's voice could ever be. With that final confirmation, she finally accepted and placed the things into her ears. Her look instantly turned thoughtful as the broadcast filled her hearing. I felt another wave of warm happiness fill me as I settled back down on the mattress, leaving my hoof stretched out towards her as she continued to listen. That subtle joy I'd felt when I had given her my ear bloom acted as a ward against my dark thoughts for just long enough that the darkness of sleep finally claimed me and I drifted off into unconsciousness.

********

Okay, this was strange. This was very strange, and it was something new. I felt a weird sensation of falling, or more accurately, swirling. My whole mind felt like it was being stretched out like some kind of sticky taffy, before being melded along thousands, upon thousands of tiny tubes and passageways, almost like veins through a body. It was like one of the worst fever dreams I could imagine, but given the state I was in, that wasn't a surprise. Then all of a sudden the vast network of feelings I felt I'd been cast upon drew back inward and my mind settled as something shimmered around me.

Instantly, I felt the sensation of hooves moving under me... My hooves, only this was not me. It was like being in a memory orb, only I felt I was really here, experiencing whoever this was I was occupying as if I was really them and had been my whole life. I felt a lean and strong body, which seemed to, thankfully, belong to a mare. Even so, for all of the strength I could feel surging through this mare's limbs, she moved with a light grace, almost gliding across the mossy stone slabs that passed by beneath her.

The more I thought about the feeling of this mare's movements, the fluid placement of her hooves against the damp stone, and the sensation of chilled, moist air around her, the more I felt I was really here and not a mare sleeping somewhere in the dark wasteland. The sensation of being in her mind was like nothing I'd ever experienced, and the more I could feel this pony's real being, the more I was slipping away. It was small at first, but as I sensed emotions and a swelling of great purpose within this pony's mind, the more my fears and doubts were swept away. Eventually, as the mare continued to walk along the long, overgrown tunnel she'd been traversing when I'd invaded her mind I caught a glimpse of her hooves, then the thought of her identity entered her mind as the last of my thoughts were mixed with hers. She was not somepony, she was some Zebra.

Majeaph, my name was, Majeaph, daughter of Xundia and Xepheriah, respected scion of the Ytja'gie tribe. For some reason I felt I had to remember that as I walked down the dimly lit tunnel, shaking my head slightly as I felt my mind intruded upon by a nagging sensation. The motion caused the string of silver beads around my neck and chest, as well as the long silver cloak of scales over my back, to shift and jingle. The sounds captured the attention of the two other Zebras that accompanied me down the moss-covered tunnel, and their ears rose tall.

Both of them looked like striped ghosts in the gloom, their silver-scaled robes and glowing orange markings were the only things to flash against their striped coats as the occasional glow of a wall torch passed us by. The pair looked back, one female, one male, both my elders, and both of them much more respected members of the tribe. The look in each of their cold, calculative eyes, demanded I bow my head in respect, and in an instant that's exactly what I did. Both of the elders kept their powerfully intimidating and mysterious eyes on me for many long seconds, seeming to see far more than the eyes of any mortal should. Then the male, elder Xundia, looked back into the gloomy tunnel ahead, the silver strands around his neck and forelegs chiming as he spoke to me without making eye contact.

"What is it that troubles you so, young Majeaph? I sense a turbulence within your mind as we speak, which makes me wonder, are you not proud to be walking the great path of your ancestors?" he asked, his accented voice slow and yet impossibly imposing.

I felt a wave of dread run through me, the likes of which I knew I should never have felt. The feeling was an insult to the very powers that had blessed me with such a divine and noble purpose. To show fear in the face of the elders was a folly beyond that of even the non-faithful, and there was no way I would be compared to the blinded Zebras that squatted and squirmed in the sunlit lands far above, away from the sight of their true masters.

"No, troubled I am not, my elder. I merely feel the presence of something encroaching upon my mind, yet I assure you, by the light of your training and the glory of your divine guidance, such troubles will reside within my mind no longer," I admitted, and once again that blasphemous feeling seeped into me as I knew full well I was at least partially lying.

Nevertheless, elder Xundia nodded once, the silver strands that adorned his regal headdress shimmering like stars, as did the orange glow of his tattoos flicker. Then the aged Zebra looked to the other elder walking at his side knowingly, and the second Zebra glanced back at me.

"Good, it is not the place of our kind to show fear as we approach the truth and meaning of our lives, for to show fear, is to deny our very purpose," she, elder Xepheriah, told me.

Even so, the hard glare she gave me with those, terrifying, imposing eyes, told me that I should know such things already, and who was I to deny her that fact? I'd been trained ever since I was no more than a little filly for this moment, the purpose of my life was to reach the ultimate perfection, and soon I was supposed to do just that. I had been raised the same way as all of my sisters had for countless generations before me, and now mother and father were walking me down the long tunnel, taking me deep into the earth, to the place where my grand purpose would finally be fulfilled.

Mother and father? I looked between the two zebras walking on either side of me. I wished I could have called them that, yet I knew such simple titles were far, far below them. To be considered as such things was to show them the utmost disrespect and disgrace their ancient names. Still, a part of me wished I could, the same part of me that still wished I could have met the rest of my family, and lived a true, loving life with them all. I hated those traitorous feelings!

Even now, I knew mother to be with a foal yet again, and although I could not see it yet, I knew most of the tribe knew of the possibility of a new scion being formed within her, to bring them the light of truth once more. I wished I could meet my little sister-to-be or brother, yet if that were the case then the new colt would have very little of a life, just as the order of the tribe dictated. Only a daughter of the elders would be allowed to live and train, all in order to fulfill their final purpose and become a scion. Her whole life was to lead up to her penultimate sacrifice before her merging with the universe itself.

I felt my head sag a little at that and fought to keep it high and proud as the dripping wet walls of moss and sagging vegetation either side of me began to be broken by towering stone pillars. Each cool gray monument was slightly overgrown, yet beneath the intrusive vines and fern leaves each one was engraved with a masterpiece of hoof work that stretched far beyond wonder and awe. Carvings depicting the very start of time itself, leading right up to the spawning of life beneath the great sun and moon, and the blessing of the great ones as their clawed hands stretched down from the heavens to imbue our mighty tribe with their unlimited power, the power of the stars themselves.

My eyes caught on that last image, studying the carving of a whole world’s worth of Zebras standing tall beneath the grand flaming eye of the Great One, coiling tendrils of light and fire winding down to the earth to bless them and scour all who would oppose them. The grand flaming eye was the mark of the tribe, the mark of the Ytja'gie, the Great One. Despite everything that was currently happening to me, that icon filled me with a great sense of pride. To know that, of all the tribes created long ago, the Ytja'gie tribe had been chosen to be the true scions of the stars' greatest spirits. It was an insult to imagine a world in which that divine decision had been different. To think of the wretched, sun-dwelling Zebras rolling around in the dust and mud far above us. Roamani, Zencori, Atori, Achu, even the false Starkatteri, all of the tribes foolishly thinking that they were in charge, such a thing was to betray the very declaration of the world's masters themselves.

Nevertheless, as I moved on, I saw the majestic carvings change to those that showed our future, the war that the stars said would soon come now raged below the eye of our great one. Stone images of zebras fighting hoof and hoof below the creator's baleful gaze. Chosen by the sun? The sun was weak and cowardly, afraid to do what must be done in order to make sure it survived. One day, one day very soon, the stars would rise up against the sun and finally break free of its blinding and overwhelming light.

On that day, the might of the stars would no longer be subjugated to cowering in the night and flee from the light of the sun each morning. On that day of eternal night, the Ytja'gie would no longer be forced to crawl beneath the earth either and would raise up from the darkness, finally reveal their existence and make sure all the tribes remembered the ones who really gave them life. Then all Zebras would see the truth in the great eye of their master, or they would be devoured by the stars along with their purpose.

That was the cryptic truth that had been hammered into my mind since I was a foal. It was the only thing I could believe in, the only promise that could give me hope. It allowed me to hold my head high as I trotted right towards the place where I would finally be merged with the Great One as all of my sisters had before me. It was an honor I could not deny or doubt, lest the master judge me for my failure to believe that they would save us all from the world and deliver us to their haven. The great one was the creator of all, and what right did their creations have to doubt their master? It was like the tools of the hardy blacksmith or the sword of the mighty warrior turning and questioning the knowledge of their wielders or the purpose thereunto which they were being wielded. Such things were folly.

As I thought about that, the rows of pillars either side of us broke and the tunnel opened up into a massive, overgrown chasm, the likes of which had dwarfed all others I'd seen in my sequestered and controlled life. The cave was as deep as it was wide and its vegetation-strewn walls were almost invisible in the gloom. Far below, a fiery orange light rippled upwards from deep within the earth, and ahead, the same light radiated in a swirling storm of eldritch mist and lightning from the peak of the one grand structure to occupy the massive chasm. Upon a large pillar of rock within the center of the yawning pit, a pyramid grew from the rock as if it were a natural extension of the earth, summoned up from the depths by the will of our master so that we might remember their omnipotence as we walked the steps to meet them.

The four sloping walls of the monolithic pyramid were covered in petrified stone statues of Zebras. All of them were mares and each bust stood with closed eyes, folded forelimbs, and tranquil expressions. They looked too peaceful compared to the angry-looking orange light that filled the great chamber and bathed them in its infernal glow. Nor were any of the stone Zebras touched by the natural vegetation growth or marred by the constant drip of water that fell from above. The infernal-looking light seemed to scare away anything that might damage them, its omnipotent fury utterly terrifying the secret places of my heart, but once again I forced that blasphemous thought away from my mind. Then I saw something that distracted me entirely. Directly ahead, across the large stone bridge that spanned the pit between the tunnel exit and the pyramid's many steps, I saw the most recent of the statues, and among them, I saw my own face.

Unlike the others that had walked the steps before me, my face was still with open eyes and a vacant expression. I did not bare the peaceful look of all of my sisters, and that almost felt like an insult in itself. To stand here before them, and yet not having my statue share the peace-filled appearance of those who had gone before me somehow felt… irreverent. Yet the more I thought about that, the more I could feel doubt creeping into my mind, and the more I hated myself for the doubt plaguing me. Hatred seemed amplified in this chamber as if the orange glow were the pure, raw, and intense emotion itself and the hellish light grew brighter in my vision as anger boiled in me.

Then my attention was stolen once more as elder Xundia stepped forwards, and from his silver-scaled robes, he produced a long staff. The long rod of twisting wood shimmered as if covered by tiny specks of silver stars, and the whole thing seemed to hum with a low note that made the orange glow flicker violently in my vision. At the highest tip of the staff, the wood uncoiled into a hand-like protrusion, each crooked finger ending in a sharp silver claw as the metal seemed to grow from it like wicked thorns. Hovering between the twisting silver thicket was the icon of an eight-pointed star, made from the same kind of humming silver metal.
Most eye-catching of all was what was set within the star's center, it was a fiery, red gemstone that seemed to subdue the fire of the angry light below with an even greater indomitable will. I'd never seen the staff before and the moment I looked into the light of that gem, I felt my blood run cold and my body become rigid. It was as if my veins had become filled with ice and now that hard web of cold spanning through my entire body thrummed with pain.

Elder Xundia looked right at me as my resolve finally broke and my face contorted in agony. His dull eyes were filled with scorn and disappointment, as were the eyes of my mother as she moved up beside him and frowned at my weakness. I looked at them pleadingly as the judgmental glares I'd known for my whole life began to glow with that same orange light and went wide as their mouths began to move, uttering a language that I did not know. A strange, alien tongue flowed from them in a visible trail of crackling orange mist and I felt what I could only describe as lightning lance through the frigid chill which coursed through my body. Then, like a living liquid, the coldness that had seized me in its paralyzing grip began to shift and move, even though I did not have any control over it.

I opened my mouth to cry out in both pain and terror, but the force which had taken hold of me continued to keep it clenched shut. That fear I'd shoved to the back of my mind for so long now threatened to overwhelm me as the ethereal force controlled my body like a puppet. Moving at the will of the puppeteer I began to walk stiffly toward the pyramid's many steps. I tried to fight against whatever force was now controlling my body, but it was as if my own form was not my own.

The mystical force was dragging my body as I struggled to hold onto something and not be pulled up toward the peak of the pyramid. I tried to look back at my tribe’s elders, my parents, but all I saw from them was the same odious glare that they always gave me, only now that imperious attitude and passionate loathing was enhanced by the sneer of rage upon their faces. There was no way that they'd help me, those of whom were too devoted to the teachings of their faith that I'd been trained to follow obediently and unquestioningly, being prepared my whole life for this supposedly glorious moment. But if they were right about all of this, then why was I so terrified?

I'd been told from the moment I could speak that this was my destiny, as had it been the destiny of every one of my sisters who had gone on before me. Had they been this afraid? Or had they remained faithful to the promise of the Great One and not insulted the power of the stars with fear and doubt? Regardless of all of those thoughts racing through my terrified and panicked mind, I unwillingly crossed the bridge’s expanse and ascended the towering steps of the temple. I finally laid eyes upon what lay at its storm-shrouded peak. There was a grand chamber lined with intricately carved stone pillars and long tables. No Zebra, not even the elders had been allowed to come up here in centuries, only the scions, those who had been chosen to meet with the master had ever had the luxury of seeing this great chamber.

Yet this was no luxury. The chamber was decrepit and covered by dust, food and drink lay scattered across the long banquet tables, aged and rotting. The markings on the wall showed the petrified images of equine bodies as well as those being attacked by the fiery tendrils of the heavens and set alight with the ethereal flame of the stars. Meanwhile, other etchings revealed Zebras from other tribes succumbing to the same fate as those of the earlier etchings as my tribe stood by and watched the souls of the unfortunate ones being dragged back up into the fiery eye of our master. Yet that was not the worst thing I saw. No, worst of all was the sheer number of zebra skeletons.

Hundreds were strewn around the room, every one of which bore the tribal identification accouterments of our tribe’s silver-scaled cloaks and beaded braces of the Ytja'gie, all of whom were lying in a pile of gray dust which seemed to glow with a faint orange hue. The countless dusty bodies, coupled with the presence of the ancient food, made it look like they'd all died at once, while they had been in the middle of some kind of festival or ritual. Moments later, my ears picked up another hum as it filled the air, yet the stiff protrusions atop my skull could not shift or twitch like they naturally would, my frozen blood would not allow it.

Even so, with the hum ringing in my mind, the sensation of rage only grew. It continued to build as I was forced past the countless skeletons. Each painful tug upon my currently paralyzed body was a pull against which I attempted to resist, but the mysterious force enveloping me continued to drag me on. Then I saw something else which refocused my gaze away from the sight of the morbid and dusty graveyard, and the sight was such that it took away my will to fight my impending fate altogether.

The hum in my ears manifested into a faint whisper, the ethereal voice deep and ghostly as it spoke in the same rhythmic tone as the elders had when stealing control of my body. It seemed to grow like the hum did as I looked at what had captivated my attention. Before me, at the back of the room, built into the point at which all of the walls met, was a great silver diamond of humming metal. Its surface was shaped to make the whole thing take on the form of a vertically standing diamond, and it gleamed and shimmered with an eerily pleasant radiance. The metal was like a far more polished version of the same silver I wore around my neck and across my back. Thin lines of glowing orange light broke up the silver surface forming an eye-pleasing geometrical pattern all along it, appearing very much like the tattoos etched into the body of my father. Only now that light began to pulsate, each beat appeared to be like that of a heart and had accelerated its pulsating frequency as the thing hypnotized me.

The light felt as if it were scorching my eyes, and seeping right down into my very soul, yet I could not look away. I felt a hungry emptiness in it, a vast pit that could never be filled, and a rage that reached out to every corner of the stars. It was like a swarm of locusts that sought to devour all in its path, yet such things as locust swarms were only ever a problem for the unfaithful surface-dwelling fools. I was faithful, I had been told that all my life, and right now, in the face of the void itself, I had to use that faith to shield myself from the overwhelming fear. The great one is the master of all, the protector, the creator…

If only I could believe those things, but my fear would not allow it. Then with a slow motion of metal, the center of the great pillar slid open as if it were molten fluid, seamlessly revealing a large sphere of fiery orange, a lonely eye of pure fire. Rings of metal levitated around it as it was brought forward to meet me, twitching and shifting as it focused on me with a more intense glow at its core. It looked almost like an iris looking right into me as I was forced right toward it.

I felt that urge to scream one last time before the dark voice in the air drowned out the hum and I was pulled right into the fire of that infernal eye. Then I felt nothing but emptiness as all sensation of my body was scorched away and incinerated by that other-worldly fury. I felt the vast and cold nothingness that this hunger had clawed its way across for an eternity in its never-ending quest to satisfy its insatiable need to consume. It was impossible, a thing beyond imagination, it was... it was me, I was it... It was the creator, the destroyer... it was the universe. The Great One, the master of all. I became one with that dark voice and one with all things as my mind was blasted out along the vast currents of creation. Then, and only then, did I find peace in the instant light, and all I saw through that blinding rage was the image of the statue I'd seen upon the pyramid's walls, my statue. Now, I was just as peaceful as the rest.

********

A light, tugging ushered me back to the waking world. I rubbed my eyes, feeling a cold shiver run through me, especially through my outstretched hoof. The sound of rainfall outside, coupled with the darkness, suggested I hadn't been asleep for too long and at first I simply rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. The wires protruding out from my Pipbuck were what finally caught my attention as they snagged around my forehoof, and my eyes opened to see the blurred image of the room. The sound of Gina's snoring met my ears and I sat up and shook the mental fugue from my head. Then my mind finally caught up with me and I looked to my side to see….

My ears fell flat against my head and I swallowed a breath of air. Cherry wasn't there! I shot up, my crippled limb and churning guts disagreeing with me as I did so. Looking about I saw that her barding was also gone, the trailing ear bloom of my Pipbuck appeared to be the only evidence she was here.

"Cherry!" I cried, without care for who else might hear. The snoring was cut off abruptly as I shouted the name again and Gina looked up sharply. The moment the griffin saw me awake and panicked, she shot to her feet and looked about swiftly.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, reaching for her own weapons and barding.

I took little heed of the griffin as I looked about, shouting Cherry's name again. It took Gina dashing over and wrapping a claw about my muzzle to finally shut me up.

"Do you fucking want every raider in this Tartarus-forsaken place to know we're here?" she hissed, and I kicked away from her shaking off the dirty taste her claws had left on my muzzle.

The griffin backpedaled slightly, assessing the situation cautiously as she scowled.

"She's gone, Cherry's gone!" I exclaimed as panic seized my heart like the icy claw of death.

The griffin looked about and then grimaced.

"You know, for all her braininess, that little mare's going to get us both killed," she growled sourly, earning a dangerous look from me.

She raised both talons defensively as she added. "Just saying, your marefriend's kind of..."

"She is not stupid and she most certainly is not my marefriend!" I snapped angrily, and she stepped back some more, surprised at my very vocal vehemence.

All I did was give a low-volume growl and fall onto my rump, my guts roiling uncomfortably within me as I did so. I looked about for any sign of where she may have gone or anything that suggested my fears were valid. My ears twitched as relative silence found us, then something caught my senses and I looked down. A voice was coming from the ear bloom of my Pipbuck and immediately I put them on.

"We need help! Message repeats: Hello, is there anypony out there? We need help urgently! We managed to escape the caravan when it was attacked. We made it into a ruined warehouse just east of the city, Robronco, I think. If there is anypony out there, we have a foal with us and my friend is hurt. Goddesses, I know this is an awful idea, but please if you can hear this, we need help! Message repeats: Hello is there anypony out there..."

The sound of a distressed mare filled my ears and they fell flat against my head as my blood ran cold. I pulled the device from my ears and levitated my helmet back on as Gina looked at me with confusion.

"Well, you know where she's gone?" she asked me.

I felt a shiver run through me. Me... A far younger me would have done what I knew Cherry had done, and now….

"She's gone after whoever aired that message," I stated simply, mentally berating myself for letting her listen to my Pipbuck’s radio in the first place.

Gina looked just as shocked as she opened her beak and then closed it several times, likely at a loss for words. But in truth, I wasn't shocked, I was terrified, terrified of the biggest mistake I'd made since entering this goddesses-forsaken Wasteland.

********

Once again the rain and wind lashed at my barding as I galloped through the small alleyways, leaping over wreckage and ruined piles alike despite my body's aching protests. Without her wings, Gina struggled to keep up with me, her greater size causing the obstacles to be more troublesome for her to traverse. My eyes scoured the wrecked buildings for any sign of the Robronco factory which had been mentioned in the emergency broadcast. I finally found one across a collapsed courtyard, the likes of which had been mostly consumed by a large sinkhole that now bubbled with filthy water. Sneaking around the edge of the gargling pit as fast as I could, I was finally stopped as a loud gunshot rang out, my heart almost leaping into my mouth as it did so.

I froze, wincing as my crippled limb gave me a painful reminder of its condition, and my churning guts still felt like they were running as fast as they could. Gina crept up beside me, one of her weapons held in a talon as her sharp eyes scoured the rain-swept gloom for the shot's source. I trotted carefully forwards, my eyes and ears both set to scouring the ruins. Gunfire sounded again, and this time it was far closer than I liked.

"Sounds close by..." Gina's words were cut off as a bullet struck my side.

The impact sent me sprawling into the sludge, my crippled limb giving out as the force of the shot was luckily redistributed over the rest of my dragon-scale armor. Somewhere above me, the griffin growled, firing back at our enemy as several more rounds struck the flooded asphalt about us. I rolled back onto my hooves. Gina appeared over me as I stood and scurried into the relative cover of a ruined wagon.

"What the fuck you shootin' at?" A grizzled voice asked ahead as both of us peered out from the refuge of the wagon.

I had to push several skeletons aside before finally managing to get a good view of what was going on out in the rain, my sense of respectful preservation all gone. My failing visor struggled to outline the red silhouettes of two ponies against the gloom, and my Pipbuck's new display did the same.

Goddesses why hadn't I seen them on this new E.F.S? I really had to get more precise at using it. Then there was a bright flash against the building to their right, followed by an explosive boom.

"You tellin' me you didn't see that? Some fucker was shooting back at us!" A smaller raider mare countered as she turned to a larger buck.

"Probably just some of the other boys lookin' for the same prize, da' rage must be gettin' to em'. But you don't go firin' unless ya' know for sure what ya' shootin' at you fool! We's gotta get these slaves back without the Brazens or any other fuckwads out here knowin' or they'll take um' for themselves," the previous voice, that of a larger buck responded angrily as a third pony, with a smaller scraggier frame placed something against the factory wall.

"That's some pretty explosive stuff for raiders?" Gina observed, peering through the rusted hole beside me and nodding to what they were sticking to the wall.

I narrowed my eyes, my vision struggling to make out clear shapes in the gloom.

"I think they're trying to breach the building, those ponies from the message must be held up inside or something," I responded, looking up to see large chimneys and rusted smoke funnels behind the massive sign.

"C'mon, Tack, I's wanna get these ponies out of there before mornin'. Da rage is gettin to me head, I've not had any good meat in over two days and I sure as hell don't want any of the other boys gettin' their hooves on ‘um if they're out here lookin' too," one of the raiders, the largest of the bucks, growled impatiently.

The smaller unicorn mare beside him laughed maniacally as she slapped his spiked rump.

"You's ain't getting any meat, I's gonna have ‘um all first. That was the deal, I's get you some of dat rage cure and then get you out here past the bridge and you’s give me first pickings on all the flank," she reminded the larger pony confidently.

He merely snorted before growling. Gina fidgeted uneasily beside me, and the words spinning in my head described a situation I couldn't imagine she was too happy with, despite her occupation.

Good, at least she's not the completely heartless type of merc then. My mind observed.

She pressed herself against the wagon's inner wall taking full advantage of the cover it provided. I paused, rolling back from the rusted window, and glanced at her.

"If your friend's stuck in there too. Well, reckon you can take the big one with your energy gun?" she asked, motioning to the array of energy weapons strapped to my barding.

I tensed at the idea, the plethora of aches, pains, and agonizing discomforts inside me all telling me I was in no state to fight. Yet a determination was burning through my fear and the pain within me as I levitated out my saddle blaster.

"I'll get inside and find her," I added, the memory of the last factory I'd infiltrated flashing through my mind.

Gina nodded once as another boom heralded a savage cry from the raiders and the wall disappeared in a cloud of rubble and falling water. Before I could react the griffin was gone in a blur, and gunfire filled the air just beyond the wagon. Jumping out from the cover I sent several blasts of energy at the group, yet they had the sense to jump behind a mound of rubble by the door. Clearly at least one of them had been confident enough that we were not a rival group of raiders that could be easily scared off by a few shots.

Gina darted to the side, moving fast even without her wings and peppering the group with her lone pistol. In the brief moment of distraction, I crept as close as I could, then laid into the group with all the firepower at my disposal. Unfortunately, there were more than just three raiders and while I made short work of the scrawny buck planting explosives, several more raiders, including the large buck and angry mare had managed to escape inside. I glanced at Gina as she began battling the few raiders they'd brought with them and darted for the hole. She was a griffin merc, she could deal with a few scrawny raiders.

The rain across my back stopped as I made my way inside, rifle raised and dripping wet. I needed time to collect myself and the constant hammering of the rain wasn't helping. I had to find Cherry before it was too late and... Rounding a corner I slammed face first into the side of somepony, the force knocking us both to the floor. I recovered first and pointed my blaster down at them as they squirmed, only for them to curl up into a tight ball.

"Cherry!" I exclaimed in shock, pulling the weapon away.

A wave of relief, confusion, and rage poured over me, the latter instantly taking precedence in my panicked mind.

"What in Equestria were you thinking!?" I demanded angrily, then fell to my rump, the cold concrete sending a chill up through me as my haunches hit it.

Cherry opened one eye timidly, glancing up at me, then muttered my name as she realized who it was she'd just run right into.

"Who else would come after you?" I asked, peering down at her, a glad warmness taking the place of fear and anger as I heard her voice.

She looked about, shock and fear replaced in her own mind by determination.

"There's somepony in here, they needed my help! I heard it on your Pipbuck and thought... Well, after what you said... I thought I could..." She began to stammer frantically.

I stood up and looked into what appeared to be a manufacturing floor for robots, filled with conveyor belts and suspended catwalks.

Goddesses how I love those. I shook my head, swallowing the sickly feeling swimming in my gut as my injured limbs began to throb with overexertion.

"Cherry, you just ran off into a raider-infested city! You–you horseapple head! Ugh! I understand wanting to save ponies, I really do, but you can’t go galloping off and playing the Lone Ranger out here! You didn’t wake us up and ask for our help, you didn’t consult us on land layouts, potential chokepoints, and bottleneck spots, entry and exit points, or even scope them out! It’s this kind of stuff that gets ponies killed!" I replied sternly, then my eyes widened as I realized just what it was I'd just said.

That was when the clatter of gunfire sounded ahead, and before I could say anything further, she took off in the direction of the shots.

Goddesses, I really hope she's too caught up in her save everypony quest to register the words that just left my muzzle. I mentally remarked.

Even in the unlikely event that she hadn't heard me, I certainly had, and the sudden outburst had all but proved how I felt and where I stood morally. Maybe my doubts were right, maybe I was not the good pony I'd thought I'd always been. Taking off after Cherry as fast as my aching body would allow, I passed several more long production lines and factory floors, all bolstering silent robots. Fortunately, the brains within the craniums of these particular automatons were not as sophisticated as they may have once been, and all sat rusting away lifelessly on the floors they'd been manufactured on.

Then I was forced up and over one of the production floors and at that and the sound of metal catwalk under my hooves, I was reminded just how much I hated factories. The gunfire ahead made me think about that twice, however, and made it clear that the raider ponies hadn't planned for whatever resistance the ponies stuck in here were put up either. Coming up on a break in the metal walkway, I was forced to make a swift right into a metal tunnel that allowed the walkway to pass into the next factory chamber. I could see Cherry just ahead as I swiftly replaced the empty factory chambers I'd been running through for one filled with the gunfire of a group of very pissed-off raiders.

Really, does every trip in the Wasteland have to be this eventful? A bullet against my dragon-scale hide gave me a swift answer, and I quickly ducked back into the tunnel.

"Fuck! Get that door open, we's got too much attention as it is, if boss finds out about this we'll all be dead," the raider mare declared, pushing a hoof against another pair of smaller raiders as they fought to plant more explosives to a metal door at the opposite end of the catwalk.

"You, get out there and deal with these fuckin' intruders, I don't care who they are, just skin ‘um alive for me, now!" she added, her loud voice straining for breath as she pointed a hoof in our direction, a motion which the larger buck reluctantly followed.

With all the force of a pony three times larger than me, he charged forward. I leaped up, firing several shots from my plasma rifle as the catwalk rattled under his thundering hooves. His metal chest plate became a glowing red mess as one green blast struck it, his mane was singed to a crisp by another. Despite the shots, he tore the melted armor away with a sweep of his head and didn't stop. Then there was a flash beside me as a beam of crimson light fired upon the catwalk's roof support. Zap-Zap made swift work of the metal wire on the left side of the bridge, and the thin cord snapped with a sharp crack.

The section of catwalk leaned heavily under the charging buck's weight and he was sent tumbling to the piles of sharp scrap below. There was a sharp splat and a heavy rattle, then a faint, wet wheezing piercing the rusted gloom. I didn't look down, but I figured that the jagged pile of robotic parts hadn't broken his fall so much as skewered him like the blades on a meat tenderizer. But hey, at the least his fellow raider might appreciate that metaphor.

There was another bang seconds later, this one followed by a sharp scream. In an instant Cherry fell back, blood pouring across her face and darkening her mane as her forehooves clutched the tattered stump of her left ear tightly.

"Good show," the mare across the tilting catwalk mused, levitating a scoped magnum at her side as an explosion tore away the door behind her, causing her ill-kept mane to dance like fire atop her head.

I didn't care as I bolted across the tunnel to Cherry's side, lifting her in my forehoof as she clutched her missing ear. Instinctively, I dropped my weapon while retrieving a healing potion and bandages from my bags as the raider mare fired wildly, several of her shots striking my armored barding.

"Damn it, why won't you die!?" she hissed as more bullets clattered from my draconic scales.

Even with my reinforced barding the force of so many shots still hurt, and I imagined it was doing far more than merely bruising as I felt pain flare in my left side. Cherry coughed weakly as she downed a healing potion, and I tentatively pulled her hooves away from her bloodied ear as I tried to wrap a bandage around the stump.

"Dragonfire... I'm sorry... I–." I pressed a forehoof to her lips, silencing her as I worked.

A healing potion wasn't going to fix this, we'd need a restoration talisman, or Hydra to fix something like this! Even as she screamed, my mind was constantly telling me how minor of an injury this was. She'd lost her ear, and without help, she'd never have it back, but it could have been so, so much worse and it still could. But every time I tried to think about it like that, the thought of that innocent mare I was trying to save being marred by scars and the torment of the wasteland, the more I just wanted to save her good looks.

"Fuck, we got some tough fuckers over here, youse two go get the merchandise! I'll handle this," the mare across the collapsed catwalk growled as I heard the scurrying of hoof steps disappear through the breached door behind her.

"Now, why don't you's mules come out here and play? The Rage ain't made me too crazy, not like those others. I's just kill ya', not eat ya', I promise" the mare called, cackling as I finished wrapping the bandage over Cherry's severed ear.

I looked down at the pink mare in my forehooves, but she just looked pained, guilty, and regretful.

"Wait here," I instructed her in a firm tone as I stood and walked out onto the catwalk.

"Good," the mare croaked gleefully, smiling at me with yellowed teeth as she levitated up her small revolver. 'Number of targets: One'.

Declared my flickering visor, but S.A.T.S was faster. Time froze strangely as I activated the spell, with a swift blast of green light, the savage mare was naught more than goo dripping through the grated catwalk floor.

"Don't shoot my friends, you fucking bitch!" I growled loudly as I looked for a way to restore the fallen catwalk and get across as more gunshots sounded in the distance.

As much as I needed to help my friend, Cherry was right. These raiders were after somepony over there and I wasn't just going to sit here. I was not like that, I was sure I wasn't. A struggle of magic, wonder glue, and welding spells later and the walk was as close to perfect as it was after almost two centuries of rusting away in the old factory. The moment I was sure it was steady again, I trotted back to Cherry. She had managed to lean herself back up against the tunnel wall, one hoof still tentatively feeling the bloodied and bandaged stump that had once been her left ear. A lifetime of experience was telling me that this was her fault, that she'd been reckless, naive, and underestimated her opponents all while trying to prove herself.

I rejected those judgemental thoughts, this was not her fault. I'd let her listen to the radio, I could have kept my ear blooms to myself, and she'd done it all to try and help somepony that she didn't even know, while I suspected I'd have done nothing in the same position. She'd done it to be a better pony, better than me. The sound of another gunshot rang out down the hall and the sight of Gina's head peering around the corner told me that the raiders outside were either dead or right behind her. The sound of a gunshot in the hall behind me, across the newly restored bridge, said otherwise and I raised my weapon to the breached door.

Cherry was in no state to fight any more of these fuckers, even the small ratty ones, and I'd kill anypony that even thought about laying a hoof on her. I was in such a state that my mind felt like someone took a giant cotton on a stick and turned my brain into mush and my guts felt like they were being turned into soup in an industrial blender. I swallowed hard as I staggered forward, my crippled limb giving no respite now that my adrenaline and any med-x I'd taken earlier was wearing off. There was another gunshot ahead and a cackling scream. I heard the light tapping of hoof steps as Cherry fought to stand behind me, her shivers vibrating the platform almost as much as the heavy hooves of the charging raider buck had not long ago.

Another swift gunshot had me rethinking my course of action. I was just standing there, in the middle of a weak catwalk. Goddesses! I knew I'd come to regret my lack of tactical understanding at least once a day from now on. Now it was the Wasteland's turn to give me a royal ‘fuck you’. I cried out as a bullet struck the same hoof that had been plaguing me with agony for the past day, then I fell to the cold metal catwalk with a solid thud as warm blood spurted from the injured limb.

I glanced up into the breeched doorway to see my attacker, only to freeze with shock as Cherry called out something. The young earth pony colt turned from red to green in my visor as the display died and flickered out, leaving only that of my newly restored Pipbuck. Then the colt's bruised and battered form staggered back the way he'd come as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"Fuck you too, Wasteland," I coughed weakly as I saw Cherry struggling to walk over to me and Gina finally appear near my collapsed body.

Now it was my turn to be sorry but in spite of whatever personal desires for self-recrimination and self-loathing, my vision darkened as unconsciousness asserted its grip over me.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Zebrican Perception - Weather as a result of your time exposed to all the wasteland's dangers or simply madness you've somehow glimpsed into the life of another... Zebra? You gain +1 to perception.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Brisineo and No Ordinary Pony respectively.

Chapter Twelve: Survivors

Chapter 12: Survivors

"I can be responsible. Why, responsibility is my middle name. Pinkie Responsibility Pie."

"Just give me that!" called an unfamiliar voice.

It was the voice of a mare, who sounded stressed, filled with urgency, and not a small bit impatient. My ears twitched, yet my vision had not returned and my sense of hearing felt like it was underwater. My whole body felt limp, not only that, but the sensation of a warmness hung over me as if the dull air were actually a lucid soup. I could just make out blurred shapes in the black haze that was my vision as a small scuffle took place.

"By Celestia, kid, of all the places you go and hit, you chose right in her subclavian artery!" Came that disgruntled voice as I felt a strange sensation digging into what I assumed was my left forehoof.

The same dread which I had felt in the morgue under Overseer's laboratory came to my mind as I struggled to move. I had no idea where I was or who these ponies were, worse still, I had no idea about what might have happened to Cherry and given the last bloody image of her I still had in my mind, I wanted to see her now more than ever.

"What do you mean, will she be alright?" Came the muffled voice of the pony I longed for more than ever, and at that, I was caught between a desire to lay still with relief or buck anypony aside to get to her.

As I squirmed, the latter instinct seemed to be winning.

"Shit, she's waking up, get some more sedatives!" Declared that mysterious mare as the blurred bulb of her head bobbed to the right and her forehooves fought to restrain mine.

One of my limbs, in particular, hurt more than the others, and even while in the dream-like haze it felt as if the leg was on fire. Then there was the sound of shuffling metal and glass before a quiet, little voice, barely audible to my weak senses called back.

"There's none left!" The mare battling my hooves gave a loud growl, then her head seemed to rise as she shook hard.

"I'll just have to stick her under with an anesthetic spell then... By Celestia, I'm going to have no magic left in me at all at this rate!" she declared and moments later the shape of her head appeared in my vision once again as she leaned her horn down toward me.

I stiffened as she pressed her horn to my forehead, pain eating away at me.

"Just go to sleep, go to sleep," the mare growled, and only after a few moments, my own exhaustion was pressing me to do just as she was asking.

Yet as my body surrendered to her numbing spell, my mind stayed stoic. Then I felt a hoof press against my shoulder and my thoughts of defense fell away.

"Dragonfire, it's going to be alright, just go to sleep for a little longer," Cherry's soft voice, even if it sounded far dryer and weaker than I last remembered, was like a soothing breeze through the dreamy air.

I didn't know if I was dreaming or just crazy, but as I felt her hoof trembling against my side I knew the mild tone in her weary voice betrayed the fact she was terrified. Even so, I knew she was just trying to do the right thing, just like she always did. Trust was a two-way deal. As much as my mind was telling me to fight the magic trying to slither into my brain and plunge me back into sleep, I let go. Trusting in my companion as the world around me faded and my vision became shrouded in darkness, casting me back into the blackness of sleep.

********

The darkness upon my eyes felt heavier than slabs of stone, the aching throughout my tired body pulsed with each beat of my cold heart. I was cold. Frozen to the bone and so alone that it felt like the vastness of space was the only thing around me. A sharp sniff of breath through my runny nose told me I was still alive. A dull ringing in my twitching ears supported the idea too, as did the tangible feeling of something soft beneath my tender form. There was a nagging tickle in my throat, a twitch in my eyes, and a sour trickle of water covering my face.

It was all like that, so empty and devoid of everything I'd ever held dear, all gone, all but a warmness pressed against my midsection. I shuddered, the covers of the bed in which I found myself shifting as I looked around. I was in a small shack, a line of several medical boxes boasted the standard string of pink butterflies as they were stacked up against one wall opposite me.

'You don’t need to be a Steel Ranger to be a Hero! Join the Ministry of Peace today!' A nurse filly told me from a poster sitting above the row of medical boxes.

This is a clinic, right? The lack of chains, ropes, and death as a whole told me that it was a good place at least.

I sniffed again, my nose feeling as if it were stuffed with soggy cotton, then I felt the warm mass beside me shift and I froze. For a long moment, the only sound in the room was my shallow breaths and the buzzing of a small light above, coupled with something that sounded like light rainfall on the corrugated metal roof. Then I stretched out a hoof. No blood. No, nothing. The protruding white limb stiffened as memories rushed back to me, then my eyes fell to where the warmness pressed against my stomach.

The ragged covers hit it from view, yet I knew it was there. Another hoof slowly traced across the rough surface of the quilt, then halted. A sudden sound ceased the action altogether. Seconds later, however, I tensed once again as a door beyond my bed swung open.

"Oh, you're awake, good. I was hoping I could meet you soon," a lime green, earth pony mare with a darker maroon mane stated kindly as she trotted in.

She wore a pair of black glasses and a yellow nurse's uniform which covered her flank and cutie mark. She smiled, and I just looked at her like she was nothing more than an illusion. That seemed to dismay her slightly, her smile faltering.

"Now, I'm no great expert on foaling but I'd say a filly like you is lucky to be alive, especially after the way we found you," she stated matter-of-factly, her smile replaced by a sensible look.

Still, I sensed a hint of sympathy in her voice and a touch of disapproving admiration. I swallowed, feeling that warmness beside me move again. I felt my neck stiffen as I wondered if I should nod, the muscles' reaction a clear indicator I should not. Instead, I just sniffed again.

"Well, sweetie, ah looked you over an' you seem mostly fine, exhaustion’s natural, especially after what you've been through, you've been out of it for three days," she added, opening one of the medical boxes with a forehoof.

Finally, I managed a weak nod.

"As for the foal, well he's a fine, healthy colt. You should give yourself a pat on the back for that given your age. Must have been a hoof-full having such a big one kicking around," she stated casually, retrieving something from the medical box as she looked back at me.

The foal, a colt? I had a brother! That realization set my mind aflame, yet my face showed none of it. Meanwhile, the mare before me sighed.

"You're in no state to nurse him though, and well ..." She paused, then shook her head. "No, ah'll be fine with two more," she added firmly.

I swallowed again, now it was my throat's turn to clench as I struggled to speak.

What was going on here? Where was here? Where was mom? My brother... The mare’s words raced through my head before my mind finally clicked and gears began to turn. She thinks I'm his…

"Mom?" A timid voice asked from the open doorway.

My eyes flinched, redirecting my gaze towards a small white-coated filly with a candy-colored mane as she peered around the door frame. She looked just a little younger than me, she didn't even have her cutie mark yet. Then again, I'd only gotten mine, what, three days ago?

"Who are you, where am I?" I asked bluntly, my dry voice quivering as my whole body trembled.

The green-coated mare turned to me and smiled.

"Oh, so you do have a tongue?" she joked in a friendly tone. Neither I nor the filly in the doorway seemed to find it amusing.

"You're in New Appaloosa, sweetie. I'm Apple Schnapps and this is my daughter Candi," she went on, pointing a forehoof to her chest, then to the filly at the door who waved back shyly.

I swallowed again, then sniffed, placing a forehoof down on the mattress. My brother, I had a brother... I... I remembered the knife, the blood, the cutting, the crying, the…

"Is he okay!?" was all I could ask in the most urgent tone I'd ever mustered, my forehoof finally finding the warm mass beside me.

It squirmed ever so weakly, and it felt as if the smallest pressure could break the little thing like a precious flower. I shivered as something touched my hoof lightly, recalling all the kicks and movements I'd felt so many times from mom's belly.

"Yes, he's perfectly healthy, more than most down here can say, that's for sure." She seemed to utter those last words somewhat cautiously, but I didn't care about her wariness as my hooves tried to pull away the ragged cloth.

I needed to see, I needed to see him. Oh, goddesses please say he's okay! I needed to know that for myself.

Apple Schnapps moved forward slightly, and my head shot up, dangerous eyes locking with hers. She froze as if she'd just disturbed some kind of fearsome monster. I looked back at the half-lifted quilts, my shivering forehoof sitting atop them.

"Sweetie, you're in no state to exert yourself, even like this, let me help," she told me, holding out a forehoof tentatively.

I peered at the green forelimb, eyes following it back up to her friendly expression.

Can I trust her, can I trust anypony in this wasteland? Against everything my mind told me I leaned back, my aching muscles burning as my head rested against the pillows.

She moved slowly forward, her eyes fixed on me as she slowly removed the covers. Then I felt everything in my head stop in an instant. He was there, so small and so helpless. The teal ball of fur with dark green mane and tail squirmed slightly as the dull light hit him, his tiny hooves grasping at Apple Schnapps'. There was a slightly bloody bandage wrapped around his middle and his coat shimmered as if slightly wet. The sight of blood made me freeze colder than ice, then my eyes turned sharply to Apple Schnapps. For a moment she didn't seem to understand. My shocked expression couldn't stay away from him for long, however, and I reached out with a forehoof, brushing it through his damp mane. He was so perfect, so beautiful, a brother. I'd been right, and... My memories ceased to matter as my hooves fell upon the bloodied bandage. It was at that moment she seemed to get the message.

"Arrr, no, that's perfectly fine, sweetie. Just where I had to cut the rest of the umbilical cord away. It was a bit of a mess so I couldn't tie it off, but it still might bleed a little," she explained.

The fact was noted somewhere in my mind and filed away for later, but at the same moment, I just didn't care. I just stared down at the tiny colt, into his…

Wow, he has blue eyes, just like mine, but... he wasn't a unicorn?

"Hey, Candi, you wanna come see?" Apple Schnapps asked the filly by the door, tilting her head in the direction of me and the tiny foal.

I glanced up at her, but not for longer than a moment. She was no threat, nor did it seem her mother was, yet something in me wanted them out, away from me and the foal. Unaware of my new maternal thought processes, Candi trotted cautiously towards us, resting her forehooves tentatively on the bed. I gave her a warning glare, and she retreated back into her mother's chest, then I looked away.

"It’s fine. You... You can look," I told her reluctantly, a softer side of me breaking through the hardened cocoon I'd built around me.

I didn't like seeing ponies that scared, I'd been scared like that, and I didn't like it. Even so, it took her a moment to build up the courage to lean forward again, then her eyes fixed upon the tiny foal. It seemed the sight of him was not as engrossing to her as it was to me, yet as she looked I imagined that at least some of the thoughts inside her head were akin to my own.

How small, how wondrous. My forehoof brushed against the bandage again and I sniffed.

"We could take that off if you like, he's certainly got a surprise for you," Apple Schnapps told me, another tone of mild caution in her words.

I glanced up at them and nodded weakly, then as she shifted Candi aside, her hooves came far too close to him for my liking and I fought not to maul part of them off. The gasps that followed came from everypony but her, however, as both I and Candi got a good look at his...

Wings? He's a pegasus! I stiffened again, a million new thoughts racing through my mind.

But mom was a unicorn, I was a unicorn... Our father, well, his father at least... I had no idea, but I doubted either were pegasi. Apple Schnapps gave a light-hearted chuckle and she looked at both me and Candi, I'd no idea why, but the other filly seemed concerned. The green mare cleared her throat, before explaining.

"Either his dad was a pegasus or he had some kind of recessive gene, or one of your ancestors must have been a pegasus. Although, a birth like this is so rare ah..." she stammered, looking at me, "Like ah said you should give yourself a pat on the back."

I swear I felt a proud smile crossing my muzzle, mom would be so proud so... I buried those thoughts.

She was gone, he was here and I needed to save him. That's what she'd told me to do. But he wasn't mine he was... I looked right at the teal pegasus, my brother? My son? I paused, my mind cycling through a million possibilities. I just wanted to go, forget everything and save him. That life was gone, my mother was gone, and now... Now it was just me and this tiny colt alone in the wasteland.

Astralfire, you… I silenced my mind's questions so abruptly it was almost as if it would never dare challenge me again. That name, the cursed mark on my flank, they were dead!

"You think of a name?" Candi asked, the seemingly timid filly appearing to open from her own wary cocoon at the sight of the magnificent foal as she motioned to him with a nod.

I looked from the crystalline dragon wing across my flank to the tiny pegasus curled up against my underside. A name, he didn't even have a name. He'd never know her, our Mom. He'd grow up wondering what she was like, that amazing blue mare that had looked after me through everything the wasteland could throw at us. I'd never appreciated that fact until this moment, and he'd never know her as anything but somepony his sister talked about. I felt my jaw clench tightly, I was gonna be the best sister ever, a good pony. A good pony would give him the world. I'd give him the next best thing.

"Teal. Teal Blitz," I stated lovingly, rubbing a forehoof gently through his dark mane.

Candi nodded. Teal? It was a perfect name for the perfect pony. As good as my limited imagination could come up with right now.

"What about you, sweetie, you got a name?" Apple Schnapps asked, seeming to approve of the name I'd given the colt.

I looked at her firmly.

Astral, Astralfire, just say it, that's your name. No, I told my mind as I looked to the last remnant of a lost life, the crystalline dragon wing doused in cyan flame upon my white flank.

Pyrotechnics I could do. I glanced down at Teal, the Baby Pegasus who was gonna have the next best mother in the wasteland after the one I'd promised I'd take care of him.

"Dragonfire, my name's Dragonfire."

********

The wash of sleep fell away to reveal a cold, damp, and dripping wet room. It was dark, but I could just about make out the moldy old brickwork and rusted pipes along the crumbling walls. I was laying on a damp mattress and my crippled forehoof was aching up a storm beneath a bandage. Around me, cold gloom lingered like a heavy blanket, the sound of rain and running water buzzing in the air. The only break in the darkness was a small fire, the likes of which burned within a rusty metal drum. To the left of me, opposite the warm flame, was another stained mattress and directly ahead was a ruined doorway, its sagging frame illuminated by another flickering light. It was then I noticed my lack of barding and instantly assumed I'd somehow been captured.

I sprung up, only for my stomach to lurch and my forehooves to give out from under me. I staggered forward, my head falling on a hard surface that impacted like fabric.

Oh, there's my barding, and head-butting dragon-scale armor really hurt.

Rolling over, I crawled back onto the relative comfort of the old mattress, then the world caught up with me. I'd just been asleep, I'd been shot and...

What was going on, where was I? Where was my friend? My mind raced with panic for a long moment before, for once, the wasteland seemed to give me a break, and Cherry appeared in the ruined doorway before me.

Her horn glowed as she levitated what appeared to be some sort of bowl, an equally crude spoon carrying the contents from the metal rim to her lips. That sound of hearing her eating whatever was in the bowl stopped as she saw me laying like a rag on the mattress.

"Dragonfire, you're awake!" she exclaimed, eyes widening as she swiftly trotted over.

I tried to drag my head back onto the mattress, noticing her as she set her soup down on the concrete beside me. It was then I saw her bandaged ear stump and winced. No healing potion was going to fix that, no chem either, if we left it for too long. Nevertheless, her attention seemed focused on me as she sat beside the mattress.

"Cherry, are you alright? What happened?" I asked, and she flinched, my right hoof reaching out as it tried to touch where she was missing her ear.

"I... I'm fine, you were shot right through the leg and collapsed," she said tentatively and I sniffed.

"What about the raiders?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"Gina took care of those approaching the outside of the building, but everypony knows it won't take them long to come looking around here again," she explained weakly, yet it didn't seem that such a thing was at the top of her list of concerns.

I made a mental note of such a threat, it was the absolute minimum my wasteland-hardened mind would allow me to get away with.

"Hey, is she okay?" A smaller, more cautious voice asked, and the pair of us turned to see a dull gray, earth pony colt standing in the doorway.

His mottled coat was bruised and battered. His scraggy blue mane hung in front of his tired eyes and parts of his fur were singed. After only a few moments, I saw the gun on his back as well as a multitude of other salvaged things, then I recognized he was also the pony who'd shot me.

"Yes, she's fine, your friend did a great job," Cherry told him, a forehoof tentatively touching her bandaged ear stump.

At her words, the shy colt seemingly mustered the confidence to approach. A bitterness still resided in me. He shot me! My mind declared simply. So have a hundred other ponies! I reminded myself, reveling in the fact I was being the smart one for once.

Not all of them had been monsters, and he was no more than a colt. Cherry glanced down at me, then at the smaller pony as he stopped beside her and shrugged off some of his salvage.

"I... I'm sorry for shooting at you... I hope... I hope you're okay," he apologized weakly and I nodded as he shifted a long black case over to me with a trembling forehoof.

"Don't worry about it, you're far from the first," I tried to smile, but my aching muscles made even that expression harder than it needed to be as I looked at the case he'd passed to me.

“I found these while looking through one of the storage units below, I'm no unicorn so I can't use them, but I thought you could use them to pass the time while you recover... It's really the least I should give you," the colt explained as he opened the case to reveal several memory orbs housed in plush purple padding.

Despite everything, I could almost let an, awww, slip through my muzzle at how cute that was. A combination of his weakened and battered state, plus a small amount of resentment for him having shot me stopped that however, and I just nodded.

"Urm, thanks... You really didn't need to, but thanks..." I responded, at least trying to be respectful of the apology as the colt retreated back a bit.

"How's Ochre?" Cherry asked, and he seemed glad to change the subject.

"Sky's looking at her now, but that operation on..." His speech trailed off as he waved a forehoof at my crippled foreleg.

Cherry glanced down at me, seeming to try her best not to let her hope fade. "Don't worry about that either, I've got her for now, you just go help your friends," she told him motioning to the door.

The colt sniffed, nudging the shotgun on his back, then wiped his runny nose before nodding. "Sorry," he added to me one last time before disappearing from the room.

Now it was my time to ask questions. "Who was that?" I asked weakly, sitting up the best I could.

Cherry lurched forward as if to help me but then hesitated as I struggled not to fall back against the mattress.

"His name's Clip, he escaped from the slave farms in Crimson Springs with some other mares, those raiders we killed were after them, as were a few other groups of them apparently. After all that was going on at the time, he thought you were after him too," she explained, then shied away.

This wasn't the first time I'd been shot for such a reason, it was hard to distinguish between friend, foe, and a desperate pony out here in the wasteland, it was a difference between life and death. At that confirmation though, I suddenly felt far more sympathy than bitterness for the timid little colt.

"You took a shotgun to the leg. We had to keep you out with a sedative spell," she added with equally shy haste.

I swallowed the information, it tasted sour, but it wasn't gonna make me ask any more questions. Only one thing came to mind after that, however.

"You okay?" I tried to avoid looking at her ear as she flinched for it again.

She sighed coldly, seeming to finally accept the question she'd been dreading.

"No, I thought I could handle that situation on my own, prove to myself that Ironshod wasn't just me being stupid, but it was all just another big fuck up," she stated with slight frustration as she looked at her forehooves. "I know that it's not all about helping ponies, I know I can't help anypony if I'm dead. But after what happened in the labs, what happened to Buck Shot, I felt I just needed to do something. To be better than just another mare-in-distress. To just do better," she added, lowering her head as she wiped her eyes gently.

I sighed, she was a far better pony than I was.

"If you could go around accounting for every wrong in the wasteland you wouldn't be a pony anymore. Hell, if you did it for just one corner of the wasteland you'd have to be some sort of goddess. No, you just need to keep doing what's right when you can, and this call..." I glanced to the door, ears folding slightly. "It was the right one, you saved ponies, even if you didn't go about it in the best way." I expressed a deeper admiration at that, but she shook her head solemnly.

"But, I almost lost you and I..." Her forehoof rubbed over her ear and she sniffed.

I leaned back against the brick wall, the weight of my body not doing my aching muscles any good.

"Don't go blaming yourself for that, I should have been more careful. I shouldn't have made you feel like you had to prove something to me by succeeding where you failed last time, but you did succeed, Cherry, you never failed." She looked up at me with shocked eyes, then they narrowed as she seemed to berate herself within her mind harshly.

"No, there's no point saving any pony if I lose you. You're the one who makes me feel… You make me feel like I can do something, without that, I'm no better than I was raising my tail for bucks in Cocktail's stupid bar," she whimpered angrily.

That put a rather distasteful image into my mind, but my anger towards the mare who'd forced her to do such humiliating things overwhelmed it. I leaned forward, attempting to place a forehoof on her shoulder, when that failed, my weak limb fell upon her damp chest.

"Nopony ever needed me to do anything, you made that decision. If it had been me alone in the same situation..." I stammered, recalling what exactly my survival instincts had told me when I'd told her that nopony mattered as much as she did.

Yeah, you're a good pony Dragonfire, when it doesn’t inconvenience you, that is.

Shut up brain! I demanded, but I knew it was right.

Cherry didn't look like she wanted to believe the implication, didn’t want to believe that the idol she seemed to be making me out to be was more flawed than the nation that came before this shit hole of a world, and yet she seemed to think deeply about the mare she was looking at. All I recognized was that there was very little recognition of what I'd said to her, and I was disgusted with the mild relief that knowledge garnered. I shifted heavily as my weight once again overpowered my weak muscles. This time she lowered me to the mattress with her hooves.

"Sky said you'd be weak when you came to, but..." I shook my head as the worried words left her muzzle.

"Don't worry, I've been through much worse than a shot leg." I felt my gut tighten at that, and goddesses I hoped that I wouldn't throw up in front of her as it churned.

In light of her confession, Cherry seemed less motivated to oppose my advice. Instead, she lay herself down on the second mattress and finally seem to lose the fight with her curious hooves entirely as they went to prodding at her missing ear.

"I'm sorry about..." I faltered, instead nodding to the missing feature.

She sniffed and nodded weakly. "It's a reminder, to remind me that I shouldn't be so reckless," she muttered in a tone akin to that of a shameful foal.

As much as I wanted to agree, I said nothing. All she did was stroke the bandaged stump carefully. All I knew was it was far more than just a reminder for her, it was a reminder of my own faults and failures.

********

Day 5:

"Urg... I thought I was supposed to be getting better, the doctors told me I was supposed to be getting better but I just feel worse. I was sick this morning, at least that's what they told me it was. I... I really just don't know what to think about it. They just tell me it's all-natural, that a lot of weird stuff's gonna happen to me before I get better. I don't like it, I don't want to feel like this for that long!

I can feel it in my head like there's something there inside me, but every time I try to picture it all I get is strange sensations and blank memories. I feel more than weird, I feel lost... How strange is that? I mean the world's so small and it's just me, and yet I feel lost, I really hope that I don't have to be alone for that long either. I mean, the doctors are nice, and they help me. But every time I think about somepony else to share the world with I feel all warm and tingly inside.

That must be what it feels like to be better. Not having to worry about the stomach ache, throwing up every night, or just worrying about everything that happens in this small, little world. I wish the world was a bigger place. I even have these dreams about a bigger sky, and a million rooms populated by more ponies like me, it's like a rainbow enveloped with bright sunshine. I don't want the sun to shine just for me anymore, I thought I did, but... But the doctors tell me that's all that world is, a dream... Maybe when I'm better I'll be able to get to sleep more and dream more often. I really hope I can sleep, I love it when I see them, all the ponies in that other world."

I let out a slow sigh as I turned away from my Pipbuck and rolled lazily onto my back. Was hearing about that mare's suffering really what I needed right now? I gave a slight grumble, stretching up my hooves and looking at them as they twitched. Above, the darkened mess of pipes and bricks that formed the factory roof looked like a dull mass of black spaghetti. The sound of the storm rumbled just beyond as did the many clanks and clatters of the crumbling building as it continued to decay around me. Finding little interest in the ceiling, I glanced to my left. Cherry was fast asleep on the second mattress. She'd been reluctant to take her eyes off me after my many failed attempts to stand, but after hours of waiting, exhaustion had finally taken its toll.

I looked at my barding, and then at what had once been a severely crippled limb, now marred by scars. Whoever had patched me up had at least done some good work on it. It didn't ache half as much, and my shoulder hurt even less than my injured leg. As for the bullet wounds? I was glad I'd not been awake long enough to know that I had them and made a mental note to reinforce the armor over my vulnerable limbs, even if it had been a shot from an energy weapon to initially damage them in the first place. I also knew I'd have to make an effort to thank whoever had saved me. Even so, another part of me really wanted to make that colt, Clip, I recalled, feel far less guilty than he clearly was.

Another part of my cynical mind scowled at that, yet the instinct reawakened back in the Ironshod factory was now more than large and dominant enough to challenge its adversaries when it came to foals and how I treated them. He'd been terrified, pursued by savage raiders, and endured goddesses knows what else at their hooves. I should have known that Cherry’s tender heart wouldn’t let her ignore a distress call. Distress calls were a common enough occurrence out here in the Wasteland. Looking back, I felt incredibly stupid for letting her listen to the radio while I went to sleep. I fought not to look at her bandaged ear as the thought that it was my fault crossed my mind again. Instead, I opted to roll onto my front and attempt to stand again. My legs gave a weak shudder and I stumbled but mustered all the strength and will I could dredge up. I held my position briefly, but then I collapsed as I fell back to where I had been laying with a wet thud.

Okay, so maybe I'm not standing up, after all. That didn't change the fact I was bored, however, and at the prospect of spending the next few hours just laying here, I once again looked to my Pipbuck. Did I really want to listen to more of Lucky's rambling? The thought of her being all fine and sophisticated one minute.

But remaining unwilling to experience the hardships and sorrows that the life of a Wastelander experienced made me sick for the unkind thoughts I had regarding her. I decided against listening to her recording as I did not want to listen to more of the tragedies and sufferings present in this hard, cruel world.

But I still needed something to do. It was then that I caught a glimpse of the black case Clip had delivered to me as an apology, upon catching sight of it, I levitated it over to take a look inside. There were three memory orbs, each one housed within a smooth cushioned padding. I looked around. Aside from Cherry’s slumbering form, I was alone, however, right now there didn't seem to be any danger.

Well, I supposed that the first step to making Clip feel better would be genuinely accepting his apology, right? At that thought, I took out one of the orbs with a forehoof and looked at it closely.

The last time I'd been in one of these things, I'd felt a buck turned to dust and had my real body tampered with beyond belief. Then again, that memory had been trapped within Overseer's strange, eye thing?

Finally deciding that the dreary boredom of the ruined factory couldn't really be any worse than whatever lay within the orb, I pressed my horn to the thing and made the connection. With a sudden flash of magic, the world around me fell away as I was sucked into the memory.

********

Okay, this certainly isn't me. I felt hooves, a tail, no horn, and... My host gave a graceful flap of their wings as they fidgeted. That wasn't the only thing I felt, and immediately my mind was begging for the boredom of the wasteland again.

Great, I'm a buck again. A pegasus buck at that. For some reason being in such a strong and lean body didn't upset me as much as I'd first thought, there was just something about flyers, something that made me very happy when I was actually myself.

In addition to the standard package between my legs, I felt a cushioned metal helmet over my head, the likes of which was particularly tight, not to mention how much he stunk of sweat. The armor clinging to his equally well-encased body was no better off and yet that was not the thing that made him... Well, weird, this buck was rather odd. His gaze was lucid, like he was in some sort of waking dream and the air moved about his body in a rather similar way. It was as if this were just a dream to him too. If that were true, then he had been dreaming of a neatly cleaned foremare's office, similar to that of the Ironshod firearms factory.

The room's front windows overlooking the factory floor were framed with bars of metal, a clean, red carpet covered the floor, and upon the polished wooden walls were a great many portraits. To his left was a desk, a brass plaque upon which read, 'Babs Seed, Equestrian Robotics Chief Supervisor'. Beside the plaque was a picture of four smiling fillies riding inside what appeared to be a giant, tomato-like thing with wheels. Beyond that, was a window that looked out over a river and to the sight of a massive spread of industrial buildings beyond it.

Massive chimneys and extensive pipelines made the city appear to be more like one big factory than anywhere a pony might want to live. In fact, the only break in the polluted skyline of metal and brick were the huge desert mesas lingering in the hazy distance. My host looked around before he began to pace about the room impatiently. Beyond the barred windows, I could hear the sound of chatter coming up from the factory floor, his ears pricked up as it increased in volume and I felt a sudden guilt at the action. Images of Cherry's severed ear formed in the back of my mind. Yet a moment later, my host's attention was stolen as the door to the office burst open.

"Urrg!" A white unicorn mare with a pink and lavender mane moaned as she trotted in.

My host's ponderous thoughts turned into skeptical concern as a second mare, a brown earth pony with an amaranth mane and tail, trotted in behind the first, shutting the door with a kick of her rear leg. Both mares were dressed rather formally, the former in a fine, light blue dress with short trim, golden seems, and shot training laces that all revealed a generous amount of her curved flank from the rear. The latter wore a gray business suit and tie, as well as a badge bearing the same name as the desktop plaque, 'Babs Seed'. Most notable of all, however, was the Pipbuck which she wore on her right foreleg.

The mare gasped heavily before catching her breath enough to be able to voice her opinions. "Applebloom should be here doing this, not me! She's the one who arranged the whole thing with Twilight. I told them, I'm the public relations mare. Not the, ‘come and explain why we have to come and mess up your lives, even more pony!'" the unicorn grumbled as she rested her head on the desk.

Babs Seed trotted over and sighed lightly. "Yeah, but they told ya' what they were busy doin', didn't they?" she asked, in a strong Manehattan accent.

The tired and exasperated exhalation from the white unicorn mare was far from subtle. "I know, I know. But you're her cousin, if she wanted to drag you into this then she should have come out here and talked to you herself. Oh, and Scootaloo? Don't get me started on her horrible organization skills right now," she complained wearily.

The earth pony smiled, shaking her head. "Well, it looks like ya' gave it ya' best shot," she offered kindly.

With that my host trotted forward, appearing beside the earth pony mare. "Even sounded good from up here," he stated with a far more friendly tone, the likes of which I knew was used for more than just close friends.

The unicorn looked up at my host's armored face and smiled. "Hey now, you're biased," she joked with a slight giggle as she lifted herself up and took a deep breath.

"Hey, come on, Sweetie Belle, ya' know he's naught but honest with ya, this one," Babs Seed said, nudging my host in the side and giving him a sly wink.

I could feel him flush and knew he was glad for the armor at that moment. Sweetie Belle trotted over to my host placing a light kiss on his armored muzzle.

"Do you really have to wear that skyguard uniform everywhere you go?" she asked, brushing a forehoof along his armored chest.

I could feel a few more parts of him want to answer that question in a way that I really did understand, I may be a mare but arousal was arousal no matter what gender a pony was, and Sweetie Belle was an impossibly pretty mare. Even so, his eyes stayed away from her shapely flank and locked on her emerald-green eyes.

"Do you have to wear that dress?" he retorted, to which she gave an amused little snort.

Goddesses she's almost as adorable as Cherry!

"I wish I didn't. I don't know how ponies put up with wearing anything out here, it's so damn hot! Can't imagine Rarity would be impressed with the state this thing is in." She lightly caressed the fabric of her dress and I knew that wearing something like that in the sweltering hot desert town was not the ideal fashion choice, nor did it result in the finest of smells. Still, her vast amounts of perfume did well to mask the scent of hot, sweaty mare.

"Ah'll say, ya' don't know what it's like havin' to work out here. It's a long way from good ol' Manehatten, Ah'll tell ya' that much," Babs Seed said with a tone of slight frustration, tugging at the collar of her suit with a forehoof as she looked out of the window and onto the industrial city.

Sweetie frowned, moving beside my host and over to the earth pony's side. "Well, the last thing I wanna do is make anypony's job worse, but..." She trailed off, placing a forehoof on the glass lightly as her eyes diverted to a dense number of cranes and mine shafts on the far side of the city.

"That thing they found down there, ya' know what it is don't ya'?" Babs Seed asked with a hint of concern, looking over at Sweetie.

My host trotted to the opposite side of who I'd come to assume was his primly dressed marefriend, his eyes also directed in the direction of the vast excavations.

"Well, it's no normal gemstone, I'll tell you that, we scrapped the plans for this new stable when we found out what the thing did to all our machines. But whatever it really is, it's got Twilight in a bigger tizzy than I've ever seen, and I've seen what she was like when she thought she was tardy, so I know a Crazy-Twi when I see one," Sweetie Belle responded, then she glanced up at the towering red cliffs beyond the polluted clouds above the city.

"But then they just go and decide to move the Stable a bit, and I get stuck with the mess of telling everypony about the relocation. If anything, Twilight should be the one who owes us," she grumbled, but then sighed.

Both my host and Babs looked down at the white unicorn as she bowed her head.

"Well, if that's all ya' know 'bout it, then I'd say that speech was pretty good," she told her, placing a forehoof on her shoulder. My host nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I suppose, but I wish things could go back to the way they were when we were just fillies. When the biggest thing we had to worry about was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon... oh, and Rarity's dresses. Luna forbid if I did anything to my sister's dresses!" Sweetie sighed, her nostalgia seeming to let her smile in fond remembrance, if only a little.

"Yeah, ya' still remember the day we met?" Babs asked, and Sweetie nodded.

"That was the first time I heard somepony tell those two to go buck themselves," Sweetie added with a slight giggle, and Babs seemed to share the playful expression as my host simply narrowed his eyes.

"Hey, you scold me every time I say something like that," he added wryly.

Sweetie Belle looked up at him and narrowed her own gaze. "Yes, I do, because you are supposed to be a gentlecolt. Which means that you have to be a noble-mannered, formality-abiding and loving coltfriend or my sister and her fashion police’ will come and beat you with their ‘fabulous’ batons," she teased, finishing with another kiss to his helmet.

Behind her, I could see Babs s smiling as she gave the buck another encouraging gesture as Sweetie looked into his visor-covered eyes lovingly. So this must be what true love felt like, not loving somepony for one night. Banging them just to try and make the loneliness fade away. Funny, it was almost filling, like sating a hunger for it or something, or maybe that was just me, or even my host... Even so, it really felt like nothing else mattered more than the pretty mare beside him. The thought conflicted as he nuzzled her back lightly, his armor the only thing making the moment imperfect, so close that it hurt. Then the moment was broken when there was a knock at the door and they both pulled away as their brief moment of intimacy was broken.

"C'mon on in," Babs s called, and the door opened slowly revealing an olive mare.

"Excuse me, Miss Seed, Miss Belle's skywagon is recharged and ready to depart," she muttered, before disappearing back through the door as Babs gave her a nod.

"So I'm guessin' ya' gonna be off then?" Babs s asked as Sweetie turned to face her.

The white mare nodded. "Yeah, sorry I can't stay longer, there's an awful lot of ponies in town who still need to know about the impending changes," she informed her long-time friend with another weary sigh.

"Hey, don't ya' worry, Ah'll see you soon, at the reunion, right?" Babs asked, and Sweetie nodded.

"Of course, none of us could miss it. Besides, Apple Bloom owes us all for this mess too," she added with a smile.

Moments later the pair gave a goodbye hug to one another before Sweetie took her place at my host's side, and Babs gave the buck a stern look.

"Hey, ya' better watch out for my fellow Crusader there, ya' hear?" she warned, flashing another wry smile at Sweetie as the latter giggled and my host nodded firmly.

"Trust me, nothing will ever befall her or your secret society," he said with a playful salute.

Sweetie looked around at him, playfully embarrassed. "You're not still hung up on the fact that you were never really initiated, are you?" she asked with another whimsical chuckle.

My host rolled his eyes, his forehoof returning to the floor once more. "Nah, I was able to meet the perfect special some-pony for me, instead."

********

The memory faded away and left me right back in the problematic situation of being bored out of my mind. Rolling back onto my back I once again looked up at the pipe-covered ceiling, then chanced a glance back at my Pipbuck and the two remaining memory orbs Clip had given me. As tempted as I was to view another, especially given the chance that I may once again get an opportunity to see the utterly gorgeous mare that was Sweetie Belle. Right now I just wanted to find out what was going on in the real world. Upon arriving at that decision, I once again tried to stand up, this time taking things far slower as my aching limbs quivered underneath me. After a few long moments of holding myself there without collapsing, I finally dared to take a step off the mattress, but then almost fell right on my face. Okay, the concrete floor was cold, wet, and slippery, all points which I noted.

Nevertheless, I trotted forward best I could, careful not to wake Cherry as I moved past her and over to the door. Beyond the crooked brick arch, which was followed by an equally dilapidated brick corridor, the walls were crisscrossed by rusted pipes, and tattered wires, and lined with rows of disintegrating lockers. To the right was nothing but darkness, while to the left was another room illuminated by the flickering light of a fire. Left was the direction I swiftly chose and I once again found myself confronted with yet more catwalks.

"Great," I muttered to myself.

Fortunately for me, however, these fragile walkways did not cross the gloomy factory floor that lay beneath many of the catwalks, but instead turned sharply to the left, forming a metal stair along the wall and leading up to what appeared to be some sort of office, identifiable by its barred windows.

Light shone through the shattered glass and illuminated at least half of the scrap-strewn factory floor below me, with the shadows of the bars breaking the illumination with great bands of darkness. In the gloom, I could just make out the skeletons of disassembled robots, as well as the furnaces, conveyor belts, rollers, and various industrial cutters which were all buried beneath the piles of sharp pieces of metal and pools of brown water. Every shadow moved as if it were alive, the red bars on my E.F.S made me even warier of each one.

I had to assume most were just Radroaches, even as I thought I saw the flash of insectoid eyes in the gloom and heard the ruffling of wings. Looking out I had a hard time distinguishing between what was once a robot manufacturing factory and what appeared to be equipment for a steel mill, yet every factory in this place was so tightly compact together it wasn't hard to imagine them as one large industrial center all feeding into the heart of the city. In fact, some of the hulking things buried in the rusty mess looked like war tanks.

A large mural painted on the brick to my right said as much, 'The heart of all industry is its workforce, working to save Equestria in every way we can', stated a picture of a stern, yet proud orange mare with a triple-apple cutie mark, freckles on her cheeks and an aged, gray mane. The Ministry of Wartime Technology, then that would be the one known as Applejack. I didn't like how much I'd been thinking about those pre-war mares recently. It was unnerving to say the least, even if the statuette of Fluttershy I'd found had made me feel wonderful at the time. With that superstition prominent in my mind, I swiftly began up the stairs, which, given my weak state, was easier said than done.

I could almost imagine the giant pony on the mural coming to life and chasing me up the rusted incline with false promises of a bright future and salvation. I'd have succumbed to such a patronizing fate if it had been real as I fell flat on my muzzle one step away from the top of the stares. Now the spinning in my head had been increased tenfold, and my guts, well... I swear somepony was dancing inside me and even though I'd not eaten in days it was a battle not to cough up bile. I felt the cold metal of the staircase as it brushed my muzzle. The smell of iron filled my senses as the dull pain of the impact began to fade. Then there was a sharp creek as the door to the office opened and a familiar blue and gray blur rushed out.

"Hey, you okay?" Clip asked tentatively as he cautiously made his way over to me.

I staggered to my hooves and nodded the best I could as I wiped my stinging nose. "I'm fine, don't worry," I said, dismissively waving a forehoof.

He looked skeptical but didn't look like he wanted to challenge my reassurances. I tried to give him my best smile, but the colt still looked at me as if I were some monster ready to gobble him up. Worse still, he looked as if some part of him felt he deserved such a horrific fate.

"How about you, you doing okay?" I asked kindly, and he just looked more unnerved.

Dragonfire, have you ever heard of the term don't talk to strangers? I know you're awful at following that advice yourself, but now... Well, now you're that stranger. I consciously suppressed that idea, not willing to completely disregard it before I had the colt's total response.

He shook his head, and I was ready to drag those doubts about my predicament right back to where I needed them.

"I'm... Ochre's not doing very well and Sky won't tell me what's wrong, she's just shouting... So your griffin friend, she just told me to keep watch out here," he explained with a sigh, nudging his shotgun with a forehoof.

I didn't like where that train of thought may lead him, if one of his friends was so gravely wounded then he should at least be allowed to be there for them. The confirmation of my other travel companion's whereabouts was also a welcome relief, even if I'd never thought I'd find her still here. I'd just assumed she'd have left on her own by now. A moment later, the small colt caught my attention as he shrugged weakly.

"But, I bet you don't wanna know anything about that... I should just be apologizing," he added with an equally despondent tone.

I swallowed my guilt, knowing that too much remorse would cause me to become too emotional, which would further upset my churning stomach and increase the likelihood that I would vomit once again. I took a step towards Clip and struggled to give him a reassuring or sincere smile. At least now my vision was clear and I could see his face. He was small and meek, clearly, he'd had something to do with the slavers and had been on the wrong end of their pecking order. If I'd all the food in the wasteland I'd have given it all to him right there and then, and yet the best I could do was be kind and hope he wouldn't villainize himself so much over something that wasn't anypony's fault but my own.

"You still beating yourself up for having shot me?" I asked in a nonchalant tone of voice, raising a forehoof to my chest.

He shied away but nodded. I shook my head and then raised a hoof to my side. I'd no shortage of scars and after pointing a few of the more innocent ones out, I swear I saw a smile across his muzzle beneath all that filth and guilt.

"It's just another one for the collection. Heck, I should be getting mad at you for not getting me as good as whoever did this," I added, pointing out a rather bold scar hidden beneath my mane.

Clip gave a slight nod, and thank the goddesses, I finally discovered that he could laugh. "You get them all saving ponies?" he asked, the relief seeming to bring out the pony he really was, if only for a moment.

I seemed to be getting good at doing that to ponies and I nodded in response. "Fair share of them, yeah." My voice was somewhat proud, even if whatever remained of my conscience insisted that was far, far from true.

With that, however, I managed to get onto the same level as the colt without him bolting in fear and, while appearing slightly cautious, he didn't seem to be afraid that I might take some sort of revenge.

"You know, I'm surprised a pony like you even needed saving, you took me down with no problem," I said with a feeling of admiration, giving him a better view of my wounded limb.

Okay, so that wasn't entirely true either, the sight of Cherry's ear and what felt like several days' worth of exhaustion had brought me down. Not to mention my stupidity, a crippled limb, and a fight with a giant mutated creature. Regardless, he seemed to look upon the fact far more lightly.

"So, do you feel like letting bygones be bygones and maybe even be friends?" I asked holding out a forehoof.

He shied back at that slightly, and I thought the friendly gesture might have discouraged him as he regarded my limb like a live grenade, the look in his eyes unbearably similar to that I'd seen in Cherry's eyes on the day we'd first met. Yet after a long moment of cautious speculation, he finally took my offer and shook my forehoof with his own.

"I'm Dragonfire, by the way," I said casually.

"Spark Clip, but everypony just calls me Clip," he responded swiftly.

Spark Clip? I wasn’t too sure on the meaning, but it was a good name.

"So what about your friends and Gina, they around? I kinda' wanna have a word with the pony who patched me up," I asked, and he nodded slowly, the weapon and gear upon his back rattling as he did so.

“Skylark is with Ochre, and your griffin friend's just through there," he stated, pointing a forehoof into the office, then he frowned and looked away. "She... she's not good though, Ochre I mean," he added with a pained look on his face.

My look turned sympathetic, but I nodded. "Well, I'll see if there's any way I can help," I assured him.

Great! Feed him false hope, Dragonfire. Are you trying to acquire another flawed prodigy already? Did you get tired of having to deal with your marefriend with the bleeding heart? My mind elaborated, feeding my imagination horrifying images of Cherry's injury and repeating the words about how much she mattered I'd uncontrollably uttered to her over and over.

I tried my best not to think about it, and my mind belittled me for that too. When all else failed, I simply trotted on, leaving Clip to guard the stairs as instructed. I just really hoped things were not as bad as I was imagining them to be. The office I found myself in a moment later, stole my attention slightly. It looked identical to the one I'd seen in the Sweetie Belle memory orb, well not counting the hundreds of years' worth of rot and decay. Not to mention the rusted heavy-duty blast shutters which had sealed over the large window on the far side of the room, thereby hiding that disgusting view of the city. The walls were peeling with flakes of rust scattered about its base, while the humidity made them seem as though they were almost weeping and the portraits that had one sat upon them either lay scattered all over on the debris-strewn carpet or were hanging crooked.

A desk sat before me, its once fine wooden surface now sunken and marred by dry moss, mold, and dirt. It was much closer to a hazard than the piece of officious-looking furniture I'd seen in the memory, the rusted filing cabinets and shattered display cases about the room were no better. There was one other thing atop the desk that had also failed to stand the test of time. It seemed my recent fetish for ancient photos was not dissuaded from the almost unrecognizable depiction of four smiling fillies sitting in a large orange fruit parade float. I'd never completely understood those ancient ponies, what with their mad experiments, powerful mega spells, corrupted politics, and riding about in conveyances resembling a giant pumpkin. I suppose it was the most minor of all their evils, even if it were one of the strangest.

The peculiar image didn't hold my attention for long, however, as the sounds of weak chatter caught my ears and I fell silent. On the left side of the room was a door to another corridor, the one the buck in the memory seemed to have been guarding. It was also the source of flickering firelight and the direction from which the chatter was coming from. Therefore, it was perfectly logical that it became the direction I swiftly found myself following. The first room I came across was on the left, and looking in I saw what appeared to have once been some kind of storage area. Now the space between the cabinets was occupied by a griffin. Gina seemed to take every chance she had to maintain her armor and weapons, and this was no exception.

"I take it the raiders didn't give you too much trouble then?" I asked, stepping through the doorway and leaning my weight on one side of its crooked frame as I tried not to let my discomfort show too much.

She looked up quickly, slightly startled, a response she instantly attempted to hide, I observed. "Less than you, it seems," she retorted, staring at my forelegs.

I rubbed one of them against the other and felt guilt and shame well up in my chest. "There were complications," I admitted.

"The colt shot you, I know. The damn kid is obviously good with that gun of his, but the least he could do is shoot at the right fucking targets," she responded in a bitter-sounding tone.

I opened my muzzle to say something in Clip's defense, but the thought of inciting an argument with the griffin dissuaded me, and I fell silent.

"And your other friend? Jeez, I don't know where you find these ponies, but I’m surprised that her naivety hasn’t gotten you killed yet. Either you’re good enough to be considered a one-mare army, or you’re still alive by sheer dumb luck," she went on, waving a talon in frustrated emphasis.

I grit my teeth at the idea she was talking ill of Cherry and her actions. "How is she?"

Wait, what was it that she just asked? I paused, looking at her as if I'd seen a ghost when reality flooded back to me and I stuttered.

"She's about as fine as any of us. She's a little bit shaken and exhausted, but otherwise, she seems fine," I assured her.

"Of course she is," Gina responded snidely, waving a talon to the side of her head, exactly where her ear would have been if she were a pony.

My expression fell into my usual serious frown, masking my true feelings at her response, and I felt my anger simmer.

"Well, that mare through there, Skylark, or whatever her name is, seems good at making do with what she has. She certainly saved your flank from bleeding out anyway," the griffin added, then smiled. "I guess that even ponies need saving once and a while."

I shook my head and turned my tail to her before I could get too pissed off. "I'll remind you of that should you continue to need my help," I retorted sharply.

"Well, I hope you've got a while because you'll be waiting for that day for a long time," she called back with a nonchalant, easygoing tone of voice as I continued down the corridor.

Yeah, well you wouldn't be saying that if you knew what would have happened to you at the radio station if I hadn't come along. I thought scornfully, recalling the horrifying fate of Buck Shot as I stalked past the crooked doors of an old elevator and reached the last of the rooms, the one where the firelight was the strongest.

"I'm fine Sky ... I don't know why you worry so much," A mare's voice coughed weakly, and I paused, ears standing tall.

"I worry about you, both of you. And don't give me that all ‘I’m fine’ crap, I'm a doctor, and I know that you're not fine." Another, far more frazzled-sounding mare responded, which was soon followed by a loud clatter of metal.

"Fuck!" The same mare suddenly growled as the sound of what I could only assume was her limited equipment hitting the floor rang out from the room’s interior.

It wasn't hard to identify which of the two mares was Sky and which was Ochre given their conversation, and it wasn't hard for my mind to remind me that eavesdropping on two seemingly good ponies was wrong. With that knowledge shaming me, I made my presence known. Skylark, I assumed, was a light blue unicorn mare with a pale gray mane and had a red cross flanked by two white feathered wings for a cutie mark. Ochre was an earth pony who, as her name suggested, was a pale, orangey brown with a cutie mark of a gemstone sitting atop a pile of dirt. Her mane was dark brown and her rear legs and neck were wrapped in bloodied bandage wraps.

The mattress under her was no cleaner, nor were the improvised medical supplies beside her. Nevertheless, she didn't bear the expression of hopelessness I'd seen in so many other dying ponies. She merely looked woefully content and a look of admiration at the pale blue mare frantically tending to her. Sky just looked impossibly frustrated and frazzled as she cursed at her fallen medical equipment. Seeing her made me have second thoughts about confronting her about my condition, but the moment I had that thought, it was too late.

"What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be walking," Sky told me bluntly, swiftly returning to work without so much as a glance, a batch of chems levitating in her magical grip.

I'd failed to notice that I'd drawn their attention as Ochre looked at me far more kindly, wincing as her frantic companion went to work on her rear legs.

"Good to see I was right about your abilities, Sky," she mumbled weakly, giving the pale blue mare a knowing look as the doctor injected her patient’s limbs.

"Say that when you're out of here and not dying," she retorted frantically, then glanced at me. "That filly’s leg was nothing too major, I wasn’t as concerned about using Hydra on her as I am on you. Your heart is struggling as it is," Sky responded as she returned her attention to her work, waving her horn over Ochre's limb as it began to glow. "There, the anesthetic spells are gonna keep you immobile for now. But by the goddesses, I swear you're going to be fine, love," Sky added firmly.

Oh, this is one of those situations? Well, there went any further thoughts of ogling either of the pretty mares before me.

Thinking about things more seriously, Sky looked like she was fighting a losing battle to save some pony she loved. Now I saw the many blooded rags and bandages beside the desperate mare in a whole new light. My initial inattentiveness to such things faded as similar memories of my past resurfaced.

No, mind. I'm not going back there! I growled, yet the painful memory persisted.

Sky gave Ochre a light kiss on the cheek as unconsciousness took the earth pony. With each passing moment, I could see the pale mare was hoping that her beloved’s sleep would not be permanent. Then she gave a slight sniff, wiping her nose and leaning back, her rump resting on the floor beside her sleeping marefriend, a set of used medical supplies, and an old revolver which seemed to be her only form of weapon.

“Goddesses, I could really use some Wild Pegasus or something right now,” she huffed.

"Thanks... for what you did," I told her carefully, lifting up and gently wriggling my once crippled forehoof.

Sky sniffed again, trying to hold back her tears as she nodded firmly. "Like I said, you weren't anything too difficult, no offense. The gunshot clipped your upper subclavian artery... Once I had the bleeding under control it was nothing that some regenerative chems couldn't fix, even if I hate using them.”

Oh, well at least she tried her best to keep me alive while pumping me with dangerous chems then. My mind sneered, only for me to shake the snide idea out of my head. What? Don’t you know Hydra can make your heart stop?

“But you had only one major injury and it was one I could treat. It was exhaustion that really brought you down though. Still, Clip’s kicking himself for shooting you, and your friend..." She looked at me at the mention of Cherry, then at her sleeping mare friend.

"I wish I could have saved her ear, but she insisted I use everything I could to help you," she admitted sounding despondent and disappointed that she wasn’t able to save Cherry from her marred disfiguration, looking at her forehooves.

I shook my head, slowly raising a forehoof for her to stop. "No, that's my fault. You look like you have your hooves full as it is," I assured her kindly, glancing at Ochre as she slept.

Sky glanced at her sedated marefriend, placing a forehoof on her forehead. "Several bullet wounds, fractured ribs, broken legs, and a whole lot of internal bleeding. About the only thing making me desperate enough to put out a cry for help in this goddesses forsaken place."

She listed the factors of her dire situation as if they were the only way to assure herself that she could help, yet her tone was far from hopeful. "If we were back in Crossroads, I'd be able to help her, get her walking again in an instant, but..."

She trailed off, removing her forehoof. "Slavers don't take too kindly to ponies getting out of their cages. Even when somepony else is shooting at them," she added with a slight sneer of anger.

I knew that feeling, to hate the ponies that take everything from you and to hate the wasteland for every grueling day it forced you to endure the pain. I swallowed hard, questions raising in my head that I didn't feel wholly confident asking. Yet I still had a job to do and Crimson Springs sat right between me and my goal.

"You get out of Crimson Springs?" I asked as subtly as possible. She nodded, then paused.

"Never got in really, some pony attacked the caravan at the bridge, might have been the Rangers, but I don't know. We broke out with the rest of the slaves, all of us just ran for it but they gunned almost everypony down there. You're either a slave to them or a bloody paste for the raiders to smear on the road. They suffer from this thing they call the Rage, don’t know what it is, but it makes them crazier than most,” she explained

The Rage? That had been what I’d overheard the raiders talking about. Then again I was no expert on what made ponies that crazy, living in a place like this would drive anypony mad.

“We managed to get here to the factory, and well... Some prestige-hungry raiders came looking. Clip knew a way inside and the robots in the outer warehouse kept them out, but now those things are more useless than me." Sky levitated up some of her improvised medical supplies then a raggedy old bag filled with limited chems and sighed.

"Now I'm stuck with a colt and a marefriend who don't know what it's like to see somepony they love falling apart in front of them," she added placing her forehoof back on Ochre's forehead.

My mind was racing and yet I felt the cold coil of fear constricting my guts. I knew what it was like to lose somepony close to you and yet I didn't feel I had the right to sympathize with her, especially after presenting her with hope, only to have myself wind up the same way. She hadn't called for help to wind up having to save the pony that came to rescue her. Regardless, I still needed to get into the slaver city, yet asking or even telling her of such a thing may not be the best option right now. I only thought of one thing, one thing that defied the wasteland and its misery, that emotion called happiness.

"Did you meet her in Crossroads?" I asked, trotting forward and sitting across the room from the pair, beside an old terminal and desk.

Sky nodded, sniffling as tears ran down her cheek. "Yeah, the town’s head doctor is my father. He never liked it whenever I would go out drinking. She was a bar mare... A barmaid with a knack for catching my eye," she told me with a slightly warm smile as she rubbed Ochre's forehead gently.

Thinking about that was making her happy, that happiness was an anathema to the wasteland, and to know the wasteland was being affronted satisfied me immensely. Yet the more I saw her smile, the more I thought about what had driven my own past to be so dark. I'd been in her situation before, I knew the pain, and yet for her, there was still that ray of hope. She was a medical pony, she could save her marefriend, save Clip, she'd even saved me from my own stupidity, not to mention Cherry’s foolish behavior. Who would I save when I was stuck like this? No pony.

"Your friend was quite helpful, she got into more medical boxes than I could, and I don't think I could have saved you fast enough without the extra supplies. Of course, she was worried about you like no pony’s business," Sky told me as she stood, her magic wrapping around her improvised supplies and tidying them.

I flushed slightly at the thought of Cherry's care and the sound of her voice while I was sleeping. I felt the heat of my blushing grow.

"I'm gonna guess you two ain't from the slave farms though?" she asked, and I gave a tentative nod.

Goddesses, telling her that made me far more guilty than I knew it should. She didn't seem too put off by the fact I'd not been made to suffer in the infernal pit that was Crimson Springs as she placed her tool on the desk beside the terminal, however.

"Dragonfire, isn't it? Your griffin friend told me your names when you were both out," she asked and I nodded, standing somewhat shakily.

"More of an acquaintance than a friend," I corrected, but didn't allow the bitter thought to plague my mind for long.

"Skylark, I assume?" I asked, and she mirrored my response, albeit without the distasteful thoughts regarding Gina.

"I wish I could say at your service, but when you're abducted by slavers you kinda' lose your professionalism," she admitted with a subtle grumble. "Name's weird, I know. Father was set on having a pegasus foal. He was always going on and telling us that our family tree was littered with them. Don't ask me why, or how many mares he knocked up trying to sire one," she added, then slumped. "Though I sure wish I had some of my sisters to help me out now."

"I didn't think raiders would be bold enough to attack Crossroads?" I said, avoiding the subject of siblings, and she smiled somewhat proudly, but then shook her head.

"No, as crazy as they are they have never come that far north before, but pressure from the rangers seems to be driving them. That, or something else. Sunspot, the town mayor, rallied us to go out to help a caravan with their wounded. Ochre wouldn't leave my side even though it was her day off, but then it turned out the whole thing was a trap."

She looked down at her forehooves as she placed them on the desk. "I saw too many good ponies die because they were willing to help," she added, sounding sorrowful.

I glanced at Ochre sleeping opposite as the mare gave a restless twitch and a pained murmur.

"Goddesses, If I could wipe every slaver from the wasteland I would," I admitted and that garnered another confident grin from the pale blue mare.

"Cherry said something about how you rescued her in that panicked mess she called an introduction. She also said if there is anypony who was a slaver, that they should watch out for you. Though of course, you were squirming around and bleeding everywhere. Kinda made her claims kind of hard to believe." She pointed a hoof at me and this time, guilt or not, I couldn't help but blush.

Then Sky's smile widened slightly and she glanced at her sleeping marefriend. "Say, you two, you aren't... Together are you?" she asked.

I felt myself shudder and my heart flutter all at once, then it felt as if I'd been dipped in impossibly cold water as the reality hit me. Sky looked away awkwardly, and I figured my reaction must not have been as appealing as she'd hoped. I shook my head soon after, trying to dismiss the fact with a wave of my forehoof.

"No, no, we're just friends," I told her, the confession stinging.

Cherry, that impossibly cute, and lovely mare with the fearless personality I knew her to possess. How could I not like her and yet here I was...? I fucked everypony in the wasteland to try and achieve a hopeless goal, and I liked her enough to try and spare her the pain and humiliation of that stupidity. It didn't help then, that in the next moment I heard the familiar voice call my name. Cherry appeared in the doorway moments after my ears caught the sound. The pink mare sighed, seemingly in relief as she saw me. I remained frozen for a long moment, Sky's remark still spinning in my mind as the sight of my friend's bandaged ear fought to put such thoughts to rest quickly.

"I was looking for you. How are you doing?" Cherry asked, her eyes lingering on my quivering legs.

The best I could manage was a subtle nod as the words caught in my throat like barbed wire. She trotted forward, shaking the left side of her head as if agitated by the wound. That didn't help the words escape me any more than the sound of her soft voice did, more so as she approached and smiled.

"I... I'm glad to see you're up," she admitted quietly, almost shamefully.

I fought not to stare at her missing ear as the bloodied stump of bandages lingered before me. But as she shook her head again, I couldn't help but look away.

"She's no worse off than the rest of us now," Sky admitted, looking back at me as she leaned against the desk.

Cherry frowned slightly, but I doubted doing such a thing to the mare that had saved us both was boding well with her good conscious. She glanced back at me, still somewhat lost in a thoughtful stupor.

"How's your friend?" she asked Sky, and the mare's repeat of Ochre's dire condition was enough in the way of cold negativity to draw me back.

Cherry sighed, shaking her head again. "There were more medical boxes downstairs, but I couldn't find anything other than more pins and some rags, the whole medical room's collapsed," she admitted, looking at the several empty healing potions against the opposite wall.

Sky shook her head too, yet more in slow disappointment than agitation. "It... I–I know when I'm beat... I just never..." She faltered, looking down at her hooves and closing her eyes tightly. "We would need to get her back to Crossroads for me to make any kind of difference," she added bluntly.

I paused, shaking my head slowly, then looked at Cherry. "Where'd you find those supplies?" I asked.

She looked back at me with slight confusion, yet was swift to answer. "Down in the maintenance hall, but the whole room beyond it has collapsed," she elaborated, raising an eyebrow and likely wondering why I was asking her such things.

The look I garnered from Sky was equally curious. Okay, now was the best time I could think of to tell them what we needed to do, even if I knew nopony would like it.

"Every factory has a medical room, but that's never the only place there are medical supplies," I stated, and Cherry's expression brighten slightly as she seemed to think the same thing. Sky did not share the pink mare's enthusiasm, but she did look like she had an idea.

"There may be one other place. They had a place that they used as a surgery room where they used to take the brains out to put them into their robots. However, the problem is, that's where all the damn brain bots are now," she explained with another hopeless and somewhat frustrated grumble.

My hope faltered a little, and I saw Cherry's follow as it did so, yet it was at that moment I realized what I needed to do. I wanted to save the good pony in her.

"What does it matter now anyhow? There's no way there's enough supplies to fix this kind of trauma. As easy as I say it was I was barely able to fix you or cauterize that in this state!" Sky exclaimed loudly, pointing to my leg and then to Cherry's severed ear respectively.

I swallowed the remorse, it tasted like a bitter soup slithering down my throat, yet I couldn't just sit by and watch this happen and I certainly couldn't let her watch hopelessly while the pony she loved died.

"If we get enough supplies, will you be able to get her walking again?" I asked hopefully. Sky frowned then cursed slightly under her breath.

"Maybe, if you can find some strong healing stimulators, then her leg would be the only issue, she could walk with a brace if we helped her and she's up to her mane on Med-X, but last I checked a brace wasn't involved in brain surgery, so why would there be one down there?" she asked, then paused, raising a forehoof to her chin thoughtfully before seeming to lose hope in the idea that the room would have what she needed to treat her friend, especially since it wasn’t something needed for the type of surgical operations performed within.

"Even if we could do all that, there's a slaver city between here and there, not to mention the Brazen Key and the Steel Rangers, we'd never get through!" she expressed coldly.

My hope failed at that, so much for trying to pry our way around death central from here then? Ultimately, I knew this would always be the case and the wasteland had merely confirmed my fears.

"Wait, there has to be some way in, all the train lines, the pipelines, there can't just be one way through the city," Cherry suddenly stated, stepping forward, her once cowering form now regained some of its confident determination.

I'd forgotten about that idea, and at the reminder of how confident she could really look, I felt I should have done more to support her. Yet as Sky shook her head, I knew that as right as Cherry's motivations were, they were hopeless.

"Obviously you know nothing about Crimson Springs. There's one way in, and one way out on each side. Train lines will be flooded and filled with goddesses know what, and all the pipes across the river are busted," she responded, seeming to grow more frustrated as her only hope was slowly dragged away by her own declarations.

"There's no way over the river unless we go miles south past the Sheen and there's no way I can take her that far," she finally stated, banging a forehoof on the degraded carpet in emphasis.

I saw Cherry's face light as she tried to respond, but her words seemed just as reluctant to leave her as mine had been, and she said nothing, then the room fell silent, all bar the crackling of the fire and the distant roar of the storm. I wished I could help, to save ponies, to be a good pony, but I'd lived in the wasteland long enough to know its cruel ways. I hated the scum which made their homes in this lawless desolation with a fiery passion. I'd seen too many situations like this, I'd seen so many ponies die and others powerless to stop it, this was no different and it was hard to face the fact that the wasteland was once again going to win.

"Sky?" A small, timid little voice asked and all ears rose.

Clip was standing in the doorway, his eyes locked upon the pale mare that had rescued him.

"That's not all true there's... I know another way through," he admitted simply and I smiled.

Okay wasteland, you're not getting these ponies just yet.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk Added: True Grit - If nothing else, you can take a beating! No matter how hard somepony else has to work to put you back together. Instantly gain +10 Damage Resistance.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: CutePencilCase

Chapter Thirteen: Brainstorm

Chapter 13: Brainstorm

"Why? Can't you watch me like a griffin"

I could now see what Cherry had meant about the medical wing of the factory as we passed it by. The roof had completely collapsed and the streams of water gushing down through the rubble and scrap didn't bode well for the building's structural strength either. More foreboding still was the fact we were being drawn deeper underground. Evidently back before the war, the research wing that was involved in cutting ponies up and sticking their brains in mechanized jars was the last thing they wanted on public display. Regardless of those facts, I was fighting to save some pony's life, rescue Star, save Cherry and if I was not dead after all of that, then solve the mystery that had followed me out from the labs.

Moving my mind back to current dangers, it seemed I was not the only one who thought ill of the idea regarding the theft of a pony's brain. The many rusted corpses of brain bots down here in the lower halls were all smashed open as if the living components had broken free and crawled away in spite of their transformation. What remained of the facility's active defenses was just as relentless as any other security system I was used to dealing with, however. The vast array of automated turrets swiftly began to eat through our ammunition as well as my spark grenades. I couldn't help but admit to myself, that after Overseer's deadly game, I was somewhat thankful for a security system that only wanted to shoot me.

I also had to thank the goddesses for Cherry's lockpicking skills ten times over as we passed several locked ammunition boxes and sealed doors. It appeared somepony had been stocking up on guns and bullets down here and the presence of spark cells led me to believe this was not a simple case of stockpiling simple firearms. Nevertheless, as we finally reached the bottom floor the waves of robotic corpses began to thin, as did the turrets.

"I think this is the research wing. The surgery room should be right through the holding pens, and down the elevator," Clip told us as he climbed atop a small box to my left. He peered through a dirty glass window into a darkened room filled with mounds of rusted scrap and filthy streams of water.

Deeper underground, yippee! I mentally groaned, yet the idea that our whole plan to get through Crimson Springs revolved around going underground, turned my previous apprehension into a slowly simmering frustration.

I still hadn't really considered how I was going to find the stable Star had been taken to. Nor what to do when I found out.

"Good, if I have to waste another shot on one of these stupid things, I swear I'm going to rip out my own feathers," Gina grumbled, shaking her wounded wings restlessly.

I couldn't help but agree with the griffin as I reloaded my saddle blaster, no matter how much I didn't like her. Clip pulled away from the windows and glanced back at us, grinning slightly. Despite everything, I was glad to see he was warming up to me, especially now I knew he was a good fighter. Not only that, but the colt seemed to have a skill for navigation or just a better eye for the signs down here in this rusted maze of scrapped junk and running water. Either way, we'd have quickly gotten lost without him. What was better still was that Cherry was getting far more confident with her new rifle as the stationary turrets provided a fair amount of target practice when she wasn't looting rooms and opening locked security doors.

"C'mon, before the brainbots find out we're here," Clip called a moment later, hopping down from the rusted crate and steadily trotting off down the corridor towards a door labeled, 'Holding Block A'. I motioned for Cherry to follow me as I followed Clip, Gina taking the rearguard. The sound of shambling metal hooves on the other side of the crumbling bricks made my ears twitch nervously as we reached another security door and Cherry set to work opening it. Above us, the roof had collapsed, leaving a jagged hole in what appeared to be another manufacturing platform. A rusted old conveyor belt and several piles of sharp scrap metal had fallen through and now gushed with torrents of sickly brown water that poured into a small pool at our hooves.

Somehow I didn't think the drainage system in here had been made to cope with almost two centuries of rainfall like this. My Pipbuck's clicking was the first kindly reminder that this water wasn't doing any of us any good either. That fact didn't change as the door opened and we finally entered the waterlogged room. Rows of empty cages flanked us on either side, their tops made of glass, as was the whole floor of the observation area above. The likes of which was half collapsed.

Large plates of gridded metal looked like strange brown waterfalls as liquid gushed down over them. Floating in the filth were several empty brain cases, bones, and sharp shards of broken glass that shimmered in the frothy filth like gems. Most of it was nothing new to me, but the several medical beds I saw brought back dark images of the Destiny labs, as did the long-dead ponies strapped tightly to them.

"How did anypony ever get away with this?" Cherry asked as we rounded one of the fallen roof segments and passed a medical bed covered by a bloody sheet.

At least half of my attention was focused on Clip as the water rose dangerously high on his smaller body.

"It's what you equines did, Zebras, Ponies, neither of you were any better than the other. All you did with dropping those bombs was spread your kind of crazy to the rest of us," Gina told her, not a hint of sympathy in her voice as it thrummed with a small amount of resentment.

Cherry, however, didn't seem to expect an answer from anyone other than me and stammered at the griffin's response.

"The whole world's always been fucked up," I corrected, and despite a sly glance, Gina said nothing more.

"And what about you? You got a plan for getting through Crimson? You ever been in there before?" Gina asked Clip, seeming to take the opportunity to make conversation over silence no matter the personal cost to the colt.

I grit my teeth again, yet this was an even worse place to start arguing with the griffin. Clip shivered slightly, then nodded. For some reason that made me feel more than a little sick, and I couldn't help but get the sensation his guilt for something that wasn't his fault was forcing him to speak to us. I thought to tell him otherwise, yet that wasteland-hardened part of me reminded my compassion that the lives of all five of us were riding on his supposed secret path. Maybe that was what Gina was digging for. It was an example of the frame of mind I should, and usually did, possess. Right now that analytical mind would know that I needed to know the full details of what we could expect to encounter sooner rather than later if we were going to make this work.

"I was taken in a few months ago, I was traveling with a caravan with my parents when they took us. I used to hear slaves talking about secret tunnels under the city. One, they called the Screamer tunnel, leads right out on both ends to the city. But that's where the slavers apparently got their screams from, and no pony ever went down there..." He trailed off, seeming to take great interest in reloading his shotgun as a pose to explaining.

How did slavers get screams? Harvesting them? How did that work? I shuddered at the thought. Evidently, the doubt on my face must have been apparent as he soon corrected himself.

"But they also said about ponies using it to get out too, I heard about it from more than just one. Plus, some others say the slavers were just letting them out through the tunnels," he added with a naive hint of hope.

That doused my fear slightly if there was a tunnel full of monsters I could handle it, the cautious glance Cherry shot me, however, shifted my question.

"How'd you get out the first time?" I asked as if it would somehow present me with another idea.

Clip sniffed, finishing his reload. "They were gonna trade me out to the raiders. It's all part of the agreement they got, some slaves go to them along with some of the Rage cure and they sit and guard the outer ruins. I was at the gate with all the other slaves they were going to trade when it was attacked. I got out with Sky and Ochre, they were in one of the caravans coming in. That's when they chased us in here," he explained.

I merely sighed, so much for alternatives. I'd seen the gate to the city and there was certainly no way to get past it without being a slave or a slaver. Or dead. My mind added bluntly.

It was hard to believe that anypony would dare attack the river fortification, then again, they were at war with the rangers and if there were any ponies in the wasteland to underestimate slavers it was those Steel fiends.

"So you don't know who saved you?" Cherry asked skeptically as if she were somehow ashamed she hadn't been allowed the privilege.

He gave a slight shrug. "I didn't think anypony was out to save us, we're not saved. But if I had to guess I'd say it was the rangers trying to get a heavy hit on the Brazens," he told us.

I shied away, he was right, we weren't saved. This was the wasteland and being safe was a luxury it didn't bestow generously if it did at all. Simplicity didn't seem to be a virtue of the post-apocalyptic shit hole either as I learned a moment later.

"Hostile life signs detected, I predict a ninety-nine point nine percent chance they will be terminated immediately." Came a cool feminine voice, almost too much like a filly.

The tracked monster that rolled around the corner at the far end of the holding area was certainly no filly, nor were the bright beams it fired in our direction.

"Shit," I exclaimed in frustration as the thing rolled into range of my E.F.S.

Well, at least you can't blame obliviousness this time. My mind stated, reminding me that I really didn't know how to use the new layout in my vision.

"Up ahead, watch out!" The moment the words left my muzzle we all darted for cover behind the rusted debris strewn across the flooded room.

"Please don't hide, we only want to kill you because you're not supposed to be in here." Came the brainbot's tinny voice again.

That hatred for anything mechanical was growing in me at the sound of its stupid voice and metal hooves grinding in the water. Then the beams firing from its open muzzle momentarily stopped, and I laid into the robot with several sharp energy blasts. It fell into the water in a shower of sparks and steam, yet as soon as its hostile tag on my E.F.S blinked out, two more replaced it from the far end of the hall.

"Please, your cooperation will be rewarded. You will never have to worry about anything else again." That offer was almost tempting.

Looking across the room I saw Gina ducking down in one of the cages, yet there was no sign of Clip. My heart jumped at that realization, and I looked across the water in case the colt had fallen, our robotic attacker all but forgotten. The loud bang of Responsibility's shot rang out over my head as Cherry fired, smashing one of the brainbot’s glass craniums in a shower of shrapnel and sickly green liquid.

"Please come out, we only want to be your friends..." The last robot's words were cut off by a loud metal clang and a splash as the metal ventilation above it fell down, smashing its brain case to pieces.

All three of us peered up from our cover as the robot slumped into the water, to see Clip standing above us upon a severed length of roof ventilation, a screwdriver in his mouth.

"You just gotta get them in the head," he said innocently, nodding down to the fallen robots.

********

"Sorry I took it without asking" Clip apologized to Cherry as she slipped the screwdriver back into her bags, yet the pink mare looked impressed if nothing else.

"It’s fine, I'm just surprised at how quickly you were able to get it and get up there without any of us noticing," she said, and he looked at least a little proud of himself.

"You spend time in the slave pens and you learn how to get away from ponies. That and how to take the bigger pony's things without getting caught," he admitted, brushing one of his forehooves sheepishly along the grated floor at that latter part.

Cherry looked like she was admiring some adorable kitten as he did that. I just tried not to think about how much he reminded me of my brother. Gina merely huffed as the elevator gave a ‘shunting’ sound and began to descend.

"Don't see why those three weren't as smashed up as the rest of the robots down here," she grumbled, motioning in the direction we'd come from with a claw.

I could see her reason, yet the sight of the busted robots back in the halls didn't strike me as a reprieve. "Careful what you wish for," I warned, but the disgruntled griffin didn't respond.

The sights before us as the elevator opened confirmed this was the right place, as did the large operating room. Several medical beds were sat below grasping arms fitted with all kinds of gruesome arcane technology and large surgical lights. Thankfully only one of the bloodstained beds bore an actual pony, and that pony had long since rotted to naught but bones. Even if the clean hole bored into the skull made me wince.

"Keep an eye out for anything we can use," I instructed, as we entered the room and spread out.

The look on Cherry's face told me she didn't want to be too far apart from me, especially after what had happened the last time. But as I looked at her timid expression I couldn't help but think how cute she was. Sky's words about if we were an item repeated within my mind. But my stupid, sex-driven brain was simply trying to tail-chase the cute pink mare.

Goddesses damn me I wasn't doing that to her! In an attempt to draw my eyes away from her flanks, I moved to the far side of the room.

'Cerebral Reconfiguration' was down here and beyond that was a door marked 'Incineration' and 'Asset Assembly'. The sight of no more medical beds was a welcome relief, even if the x-rays on the walls still made me feel sick. Ultimately, it seemed my sense of direction had served me well as I glimpsed a door on the left labeled. 'Emergency-Medical'.

"Over here!" I called back to the others, and both Cherry and Clip were quick to appear in the doorway.

"Well, ain't you fast," Gina muttered as she approached the medical room last. I shot her a disapproving look as Cherry moved over to the medical room's door and began her work on its lock.

"It just means that we get to spend less time down here," I retorted, and I could see she was at least somewhat in agreement, even if the only response she gave was a disgruntled snort.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me I'm going to salvage some of this shit, who knows brains in jars may sell for something? It might make it worth the time we wasted coming down here," she responded snidely.

"Wouldn't count on it," Cherry muttered half-heartedly as she worked, only for her voice to soften as she realized what she'd so blindly said.

Almost instinctively I stepped between her and the griffin. Yet as bitter as Gina was, she didn't seem to want to use anything more than sour words.

"So she really has got a sharp tongue under all that stupidity. She's not completely hopeless then?" Gina stated.

I heard Cherry falter in her work, and that desire to resist an argument was running out as I locked eyes with the griffin.

"Just go and salvage your shit if you really think this is that much of a waste of time. You know where we are if you need help," I retorted bitterly, then she turned away with a flick of her tail.

"I'll keep that in mind," she added in an equally sarcastic tone.

The moment she disappeared into the chamber marked 'Incineration', I looked back to Cherry. The pink mare had stopped trying to open the door and was just sitting there while Clip glanced between us, his lack of confrontation management experience was quite visible.

"Don't listen to her. She's about the most honest talon I've met, and that still equates to nothing," I assured her, but I knew the moment I said it that it was not enough to disprove the griffin's words.

"She's right though, isn't she? And I know how you feel too. After last night I don't blame you," she admitted, and now I couldn't see the Cherry I was trying to save, but the small hopeless mare I'd rescued from the factory.

I shook my head, and every plan I had for such a situation failed me. What could I tell her? After what I'd said about how important she was compared to other ponies, and what I'd done to keep her away from harm, there was nothing I could do but admit that I didn't think she was ready for most of this. A glance at her missing ear all but confirmed that.

"Look, you're not useless, you're the only pony here who could open this," I assured her, tapping on the medical room's door. "And if we couldn't get in there, Ochre would die," I added, then winced at my own bluntness.

Clip was the only one that reminder seemed to sting however, Cherry was far too caught up on something else.

Goddesses if something like this was enough to bring her down, then maybe Gina was even more right. I redirected my thoughts from such negative thinking.

"I'm sure you'd have found a way in without me," she retorted, glancing at my weapons.

I turned so they were removed from her view, then sighed. "Wouldn't make me feel good about it though," I offered, my mind providing me with very little in the way of intelligent responses. As improvised as my words were, they at least seemed to make her think.

"She's right, I didn't really think anypony other than raiders would come to find us when Sky sent that broadcast. Let alone come down here to help us," Clip added, and I smiled appreciatively at the colt's support.

It looked as if he believed he were repaying me for what he'd done somewhat at that. Cherry straightened at his words then levitated her tools back up to the lock.

"You're the last pony I think is useless," I told her kindly as she went back to work. She smiled, and once again I could not ignore what Sky had said.

I had to shake such mental distractions off and stepped back. I needed another distraction, I needed to prove to Cherry she wasn't useless. The years of mercenary rivalry didn't help the struggle either as I looked at the door to the Incineration room.

"I'm going to have a word with our friend. Besides, she shouldn't wander off alone, no matter how tough she thinks she is," I stated, then trotted for the door.

"Neither should you," Cherry called back, and I paused.

"Don't worry, I'd have to be stupid to go too far from you again," I assured her with a slight smile.

Okay, so I could let a little of my more playful nature shine through. Even so, that was only because I was going out of sight within moments of saying that was a bad idea.

My previous flattery only seemed to half-blind the pink mare, and the knowledge of my departure had brought her right back to full alert. Nevertheless, she was humbled for long enough for me to slip away. The room beyond was just as large as the surgical chamber, if not grander. It was also not broken into smaller segments like its neighbor. A wall full of shattered brain jars and one large smashed tank stretched high into the gloom. Each broken tube still dripped the strange green liquid. Sets of old pipes still feeding them the green sludge didn't appear to have quite gotten the message that the world had ended as they spat the viscous fluid across the metal walls.

To my left was the hot glow of a furnace, that was surprisingly still active. The flames coated the whole room in a hot, fiery glow as the inferno inside still raged. The same could not be said for the brain bots scattered all around the place. Just like the majority of the robots on the upper levels above us, the glass cases of the many constructs were also shattered. Piles of scrap had heaped up over the countless wreckages as if they had not moved in years. That stillness was betrayed by the fact that the factory still chugged, clanked, and rattled as if it were alive. I attributed that eerier fact to the storm hammering down far above as I made my way through the brainbot graveyard.

"There's no such thing as ghosts," I told myself, only to be reminded where that belief got me last time.

There was one break in the eerie-looking scene, however, a familiar silhouette standing before the almost blinding light of the ember-spitting furnace.

"Didn't know you had so much in common with a crow, hate to break it to you, but that thing's not some shiny trinket you can pick up and drag through Crimson with us," I muttered snidely as I approached, my harsh confidence back for a change now I was away from Cherry.

Gina's figure did not move, and my confident look turned to mild confusion at the lack of any smug response from the clearly agitated griffin.

"You're going to go blind if you keep staring into that thing you know?" I added, but still nothing.

She was like a ghost, as dead as the lifeless brainbots scattered amidst the scrap piles around us. "Gina?" I asked as I finally reached her, then froze.

She might as well have been blind. Her eyes were as cloudy as the wasteland's dreary sky and as wide as spotlights. Her expression was loose and lifeless, yet that was not what earned the sight of her my shocked gasp. Atop her head, beating like some crude heart and wrapping a wicked combination of mutated flesh and metal into her skull was a brain. A small disk upon the corrupted organ's surface bore a glowing eye, and immediately it snapped round to face me. I staggered back but the moment the thing made eye contact Gina struck out at me with her talons. Her sharp claws cut three distinct lines across my helmet, and once again I found a hate for those talons that arose most times I was attacked by one of her kind.

Gina didn't seem to care about anything as she turned stiffly, her limbs almost like a crude replacement of the mechanized brain's intended body as she began to shuffle forwards, that blank look still in her eyes. I backpedaled, trying really hard to think what the fuck was going on. I'd just run out of ideas for telling Cherry how great she was, now this?

Goddesses fuck you, wasteland.

My instant impulse was to shoot the brain off of her head as all of my targeting spells marked her as hostile, yet I had no idea what that would do. I had a feeling if I accidentally killed her the angry griffin would become a vengeful ghost and haunt me forever. With that in mind, backing away seemed like the best idea right now.

"Gina, this isn't you. As much as I know you probably want to singe my hide I don't think you'd go about it like this," I tried to reason, but the senseless griffin was unfazed as she mindlessly moved towards me.

I felt chunks of scrap and shattered glass bite at my hooves as my rump brushed against one of the walls. Strands of wires felt like snaking tentacles across my back as the room itself seem to come alive and reach out for me. From somewhere above came a buzzing sound, slowly growing in volume until it was as if the thunderstorm outside was just inches away. Through the static rumble, I could almost hear a voice. It was a deep tone, almost sounding as if it was spoken with an accent. It felt as if it wormed its way into my head, an almost angry sensation. The sight of a way more literal brain worm before me was enough in the way of imminent danger to keep those dark intrusions out, however.

Looking about in search of anything I could use to disable my opponent without killing her, my eyes came to rest on a set of old tools. Unfortunately for me, Gina didn't offer any more time and in my stupor, the griffin pounced, talons aimed directly at my face. Without thinking, I ducked, rolling to the side and instantly regretting it as my stomach churned. Gina struck the wall hard, several empty brain jars clattering around her as it shook. Yet she recovered in mere seconds as if the pain had not registered at all.

That sound boomed through the room again, the words trapped within it becoming more audible with the static beat of whatever hidden speakers it was surely coming from. Once again, I was not one to listen to the sound as I jumped into a gallop, fighting the knotting feeling in my gut as I reached the tools and encased a considerably large hammer in my magic.

Damn, I really wish I still had my knife or something! The moment I was armed with a slightly less deadly weapon than any of my guns, I spun back around only to find that the griffin was nowhere to be seen.

My eyes instinctively scanned the air, and I was almost relieved to see that not all of my wasteland experience had abandoned me, even if it failed to reveal the location of the danger. The voices booming down from above stopped as if waiting in eager anticipation for a killing blow. I pulled the blunt weapon close.

"Gina... Here, griffin, griffin, griffin," I called, in a faint attempt at mockery.

And you're the one who won't just shoot her? My mind stated, yet the idea that I was not as bad as the kind of mercenary she was, would not consider killing her just because she no longer controlled her own body. I was not a monster.

That was at least until the griffin finally made herself known. With a muffled shriek she fell down from the thicket of wires and pipes above me as if the wall had consumed her and spit her out exactly where she needed to be. I raised the hammer as fast as I could, forcing it between us as her talons slammed over me. I was pinned to the floor, my stomach twisting and forelimbs quivering as I fought to keep the shaft of the hammer between my helmet and her talons. I tried to kick up into her underside with my rear limbs, but every hit felt as if it were impacting lifeless flesh. The brain latched onto her head locked onto me with its lone eye, its wiry tendrils seeming to sink deeper into her skull with a fleshy whir. Then she began to force me forwards with her rear paws, sliding me along the sleek floor until the pair of us ended up directly in the center of the room.

It was at that moment I realized that the thing in possession of her mind was not trying to kill me. That voice above became a low whisper, its buzzing tone punctuated by several loud smashes. I looked to see some of the still intact brain cases shatter, their green liquid and augmented content falling onto the floor with a series of wet thuds. The newly released brains locked onto me with cold, red eyes. Before they all began to slither towards me with an unnatural speed that betrayed their sluggish-looking nature. Horror filled me as I realized exactly what it was Gina was pinning me here for, and the urge to just shoot the griffin was stronger than ever. Yet as if it were some kind of desperate race the horrors dashing toward me came closer.

"Goddesses damn me!" I cursed as my morality clashed with the will to survive, ultimately resulting in a surge of magic through my horn.

The blast of cyan fire erupted upwards into the griffin's face, forcing her back in a flurry of wing beats and scorched feathers. The dull droning above fell silent as I heard my attacker shriek in pain, only for her agony to fade as the horrible mechanized mindjacker tightened its grip. Before I could even look at her, however, I turned my pyrokinesis toward the approaching parasites. Each sick brain popped like a scalded Bloatsprite, their electronics crackling out as the fire consumed them. The moment they were gone I started to pant, adrenalin rushing through my body as I turned back to the griffin.

Gina's face was blackened, yet lacked any major burns. The thing latched onto her head seemed to have taken most of the flames. Yet it appeared that, with a living host for sustenance, they could regenerate far faster than when they were dashing about on the floor like slimy insects.

"Gina, stop!" I demanded, but the only look of recognition came from the glowing eye of the thing controlling her.

Once again she began to prowl toward me. Her scorched foreleg caused a limp she didn't seem to even recognize. Once again I was forced to back up, then something in my vision gave me an idea. My Pipbuck, it was working, and I knew what it could do. At that recollection, a set of patronizing hoofclaps when off in my mind, and in an instant I set up to target one specific part of my attacker with S.A.T.S. Failure to reason with Gina and my years' worth of instinct didn't give me much choice and I pointed my blaster right at her. Just like with the raider mare on the bridge time once again seemed to slow, almost like entering a memory orb. I felt myself stiffen, yet the same magical effect did not consume me, what it did change was my vision.

I lined up several shots with one of my plasma rifles and fired into the pulsing thing attached to her head as the spell was executed. My mind was demanding I get out of this warped time frame as fast as I could. Despite my doubt, the Pipbuck's newly functioning spell did not fail me as several bolts of magical, green energy flashed right across the mutated horror, scalding it to a mushy pulp upon the side of her head. I bit back my guilt as she fell to the floor, no way to block out her howls of pain as she went limp. With that, the whole room seemed to go silent, and naught but the orange light of the furnace passed over us. I looked at myself, plasma rifle suspended beside me within the cyan aura.

Did it work, or is she dead? Why didn't either of those things make me feel any better?

Tentatively, I approached, and after a few moments, I was glad to see she was still breathing. Even if the air seeping from her beak was raspy and saturated with bloody gargles. I stopped a hooves length away from her, retrieving the hammer I'd tried using first, and prodded the thing into her side like she was some trap I'd yet to set off. Using the tool to flip her head over revealed the bloody blister on the left side of her face, and the horrible burned wound. The brain thing had gnawed several inch-wide holes through her skull. Her eyes twitched as did the metal tendrils still sunk deep into her flesh and I jumped back as the thing began to regrow. Shooting it directly hadn't worked, I realized with horror as pulsating brain tissue began to crawl its way back out from her face, and the metal tendrils began to writhe.

"Dragonfire!" Came another panicked voice, and I spun around to see Cherry and Clip galloping toward me.

The moment I saw them I stepped in front of Gina. I knew it was nothing they needed to see, but ultimately there was a darker thought in my mind. Would Cherry think I'd done this? Worse still, did she think I'd do it because of what Gina had said to her? A series of hard cracks sounded as the griffin's skull twitched and stiffened. It was pressing me to think of something quick. All I knew now was that we needed to get out of here and back to Sky with the medical supplies before we all became mindless brain zombies. I'd save Gina if I could, but not over Cherry or any of the others.

What happened to saving ponies? My mind asked snidely, but instinct told me that if we couldn't get the thing off of her, we couldn't risk letting any of them attach themselves to us either.

Does that mean you'd kill her to save them? I guess that is the easiest way to save somepony from the wasteland, isn't it? My mind added.

I wasn't like that though, I'd never let anything happen to my friends. But what about those ponies who I didn't know, or even my enemies? Didn't everypony deserve a chance? I closed my eyes shaking my head.

"Dragonfire... Dragon-!" Came Cherry's voice, then she paused with a weak stutter. "What happened?" she asked weakly, fear shining in her eyes.

I looked at her, right into those teal spheres as they shimmered in the orange glow of the furnace. Does she think this is me? Does she think I've done this? What kind of pony does she think I am right now?

Before I could even think, however, my rear hooves were dragged out from under me. I screamed as Gina's talons sought out and cut through the weaker gaps in my scaled armor, and wrenched me back toward her. The unnatural force of her claws was like a metal vice. It almost felt as if she could rip my leg right off as I kicked out, my insides feeling as if they'd turned to jelly. The griffin's expressionless face looked at me coldly, and just like that, reason died. Whether it was pain, fear, or anger at myself, morality became nothing but a dream as I pointed my horn right at her. She wasn't a monster, but she definitely wasn't Gina anymore. Magic flared, and the cyan glow around it grew brighter and brighter. A sudden crack echoed through the air seconds before the fire could escape me. Gina's grip went limp as her grasping forelimb exploded in a bloody shower and she flared her wings to jump back.

Clip levitated his shotgun directly at her other talon as the first began to rapidly regrow. I felt the urge to cry out overcome my anger. But the fiery glow faded from my horn in the same instant, and then I wanted to tell him to stop. A hoof pulled me back from the griffin before I could do any of those things, however.

"Oh goddesses, what's wrong with her? Here take this," Cherry stuttered in a panic as she regarded my bloodied leg and pushed a healing potion to my mouth.

I had no choice but to down the whole thing as her shivering hooves refused to relieve me, only when my strength came back to me was I finally able to push it away.

"I have no idea. I came in here and that thing was stuck to her face, now she keeps trying to kill everypony!" As if on cue the sound of shattering glass heralded the wet thuds of more augmented brains hitting the floor.

"We have to get out of here!" I stated urgently, as I brought up my weapon and began to fire upon the approaching abominations.

Cherry didn't even question my armed aggression as she began to blast the things with Zap, Zap. I looked back to see the way we'd entered as several more brain jars shattered beside it.

"Clip, come on!" Cherry called, and I glanced back to see the colt's eyes fixed upon Gina as she rose again and again from the scattershot of his weapon.

"Come on, kid!" I called too, yet the moment I'd turned away from the oncoming mass of brains I felt several cold tendrils coil around my helmet.

A fear the likes of which I'd never endured filled me at its touch, the sound of metal teeth biting through even the dragon scales only doubling that dread. I dropped my weapon and reached up with my forelegs as blackness threatened to consume my vision and sharp spines found their way to my coat. All of a sudden that fire that had burned within my horn flared forth. Fear overwhelmed me as I let the magic flow through my horn without end until the foul creature eventually burst into ichor and flame.

"We need to go!" I screamed in panic, as I desperately searched for my weapon and ran for the door.

A sharp cry behind me stopped me in my tracks and I turned back to see Clip swatted off his hooves by Gina's claws. Cherry cried the colt's name as some of the slithering horrors turned and rushed right toward him. Gina pressed forwards, pinning him down under her talons as the first of the creatures coiled its metal barbs around his legs and another battled for space atop his head. I saw nothing, not fear, anger, or emotion of any kind as I pointed my blaster right at the griffin's head. S.A.T.S assisted shots melted it from her shoulders as two more blasts disintegrated the horrors tearing at the colt.

Gina's limp corpse fell to the floor twitching and bubbling. There were several bright flashes as Cherry opened fire on the rest of the attacking mutants. I had no love for any of them as I bolted to Clip's side, sweeping him up in my magic and placing him across my back, blood trailing from the coiling wounds in his legs.

"Cherry, we need to go now!" I called, but looking back I saw the pink mare backpedal to my side as a swarm of hungry brains clawed their way toward us.

"They're still coming..." she stuttered, unrelenting in her defense as more brains toppled down from high up on the walls above us.

Looking at the door through which we'd entered, I realized just how right she was as I saw it almost covered with the things. Then my mind began to spin as I urgently searched for another escape. The deep sounds echoing from the speakers boomed as I found it, that accented voice beneath the static almost recognizable. Not that I had any time to think about where I'd heard it before.

"There, that security door!" I shouted, before darting towards the small exit opposite the one through which we'd entered.

Cherry galloped after me, the flashes of Zap, Zap ceasing as the swarm grew. Like mines sensing our presence, more of the jars above shattered, their contents falling down on us with ravenous hunger. I batted one aside with my blaster as we reached the door and darted through it, slamming the heavy metal closed behind us.

"Can you lock it?" I asked the moment the metal sat between us and the horrific swarm.

Cherry looked up at me, panting hard. Then she looked at the thick, metal door.

"It's a magnetic seal, there has to be a manual way to seal it," she told me, and instantly I set about finding such a thing.

The deep sound of static and the slithering of foul things opposite the door did more than persuade me to hurry. Then like a living wall, they began to slam against the door, tendrils snaking through and drilling at its weaker edges. Cherry threw her magic around the slab, holding it closed as I finally found a terminal.

Okay, now there's no time for messing up Dragonfire! I told myself as I connected the Pipbuck to the machine.

Each failed attempt was one second more Cherry had to hold the door, one step closer to having somepony else's mutated brain try and get through my skull to turn me into a mindless zombie.

"Dragonfire... Please, hurry!" Came Cherry's strained voice, her face contorting as she fought to keep the creatures out.

Seeing her like that didn't do anything to aid my concentration, and at the next failure, I realized just how doomed we were. So much for saving ponies, so much for saving her.

"Fuck you, wasteland," I muttered to myself as I stared emptily at the screen that had secured our fate, then all of a sudden the silky green glow lit up with one message.

'Foreign Program Accepted. Equestrian Robotics Service Code 24/9 Overruled, access granted. Security Door 234 Sealed. Have a Nice Day.'

There was a loud shunt as the door sealed, cutting off several of the metal tendrils reaching through and leaving them to wriggle on the floor for a second before going limp. Then a sigh of relief from Cherry as she collapsed against the wall opposite the door. I meanwhile, stared at the screen.

"What?" I stuttered, then coughed a laugh.

I had no idea what was happening, but we were alive. My stupidity had not killed us, yet it had not saved us either. The screen had died to naught but a cold blackness, and I looked down at my Pipbuck, pulling it away from the terminal and rotating my foreleg. Something was definitely wrong with it unless I didn't know all there was to know about Pipbucks, one thing was for sure, this one seemed very keen to keep us alive.

"You okay?" I asked Cherry, and through the weight of her exasperation, she nodded.

"I was never taught how to keep a door shut as well as I was taught how to open one," she panted, the relief clear in her tone.

Yet that mild joy was overwhelmed as I looked over my shoulder at Clip. The little colt was curled up over my back, blood still trailing from his wounded legs. Immediately my horn glowed and retrieved a set of healing bandages.

"Cherry, give me a healing potion, quickly!" I called, bandaging his wounds.

He looked up at me, then shivered as he tried to raise his head. "Hey, woah, woah... Don't try to sit up," I instructed as Cherry offered me a healing potion.

Before Clip could say anything I pressed it to his muzzle. Cherry watched me silently, then her eyes fell nervously upon the door.

"Gina?" she began, then stopped. I stiffened, the image of the griffin's head melting away in the gruesomely slow motion of S.A.T.S flashing through my mind.

"That wasn't Gina. I think she was already dead when I found her," I lied. Surely if I'd tried I could have saved her, right?

The sight of her face bloody and broken while that thing had been more focused on regenerating than controlling her suggested otherwise, but still my doubts persisted.

"She... She was going to let them do the same to me..." Clip's timid voice stuttered as I moved the potion aside.

I turned to look at the colt. "She was going to do nothing to you. That thing on her face was after us all," I told him firmly, then my expression softened.

"Besides, if not for you I'd have been no better off," I added, knowing that if I'd been possessed by one of the brains, my stupid morals would have ensured I'd have regretted not burning Gina to a crisp.

Was that any better than blasting her head off? My mind asked, but the idea of her hurting Clip had possessed me far more than any foul, brain abomination ever could.

"What the hell were they?" Cherry asked with a clear desire to change the subject from the dead griffin.

"Never seen anything like them, thought brainbots were bad enough as they usually are," I told her, looking back at the door.

The rumbling of that static voice was still audible through the thick metal, as was the slowly growing grinding sound of a hundred metal teeth trying to gnaw their way through.

"They can't get through, can they?" Clip asked, as the wounds on his legs slowly began to close into bloody seems.

The sounds on the other side were more than enough to persuade me that putting their abilities to the test was not a good idea.

"I don't know, but we're not waiting here to find out. Come on we still need to get back to the others. Please tell me you got all the healing supplies you could," I said and Cherry nodded back to her full saddle bags.

"There wasn't an awful lot, but I got all I could, there was even a pair of medical braces," she told me, her confidence returning a little.

I nodded, but as the gnawing of tiny metal mouths continued to eat away at the door behind us, we began deeper into the industrial labyrinth.

********

The tight pipelined tunnels and steamy walkways were almost homely, right down to the dull red hue. It was so close to perfect it hurt, but the scuttling amidst the machinery always had me on edge.

So close to perfect, it even has its own swarm of ravenous brains that want to eat your mind. Passing through the open conveyor belts and assembly stations of an area of the factory marked 'Brainbot Assembly' made that edge all the sharper, yet it seemed that all the brains were still alive and able to feed were behind us.

"You have any idea how to get out of here?" Cherry asked, and though I had a million explanations as to how I would save her from this, my mind demanded the real reason.

"No, but we got to the holding blocks through the emergency stairwell for the primary supply shaft. So the primary supply lift must be around here somewhere," I offered hopefully.

I could see the questions on her lips. She was waiting to ask me what I'd do if one of many possibilities obstructed that plan.

"She's right, there's a cargo elevator to the main warehouse. I saw the top of it while looking through the ruins upstairs," Clip added, glancing between us from his perch upon my back.

That seemed to soften Cherry's worry slightly, but I was still very much on edge. If not for the monsters crawling through the mass of mangled factories around us, then the thing that had saved us by closing the door. As grateful as I was that none of us were mindless zombies, I didn't like the idea of somepony messing with me for reasons other than my own. Especially after Overseer's actions.

Well, it's good to see that at least one part of your sense has survived. My mind snickered, but once again I suppressed the mental distraction. Now is not the time for distractions, Brain!

Moments later, that emotional dictatorship was softened slightly by the sight of a sign labeling the area we were entering, 'East Warehouse Cargo Elevator'. The room beyond was a large opened chamber. Catwalks crisscrossed its midsections and above tracks, and limp crane bore claws and empty metal carts. Piles of junk littered most of the floor, and water dripped down from the gloomy sight above. 'Cerebral Command. Crusader Mainframe, Model Alpha 4' was written upon a large wall of machinery before me.

"Here!" Came Clip's voice as he jumped up and ran over to a large metal door on the far side of the room.

"The elevator's at the top, but we can call it down if it's still working" he began, ushering Cherry towards him with a wave of his forehoof.

I took a step in the opposite direction, my eyes fixed on the wall of machinery. Before it was a table, similar to that of the operating tables only far more advanced and intricate.

As if the other torture tables hadn't been enough. I thought bluntly.

One thing that wasn't different was the skeleton that lay upon the table before me, skull cut cleanly open. It was an earth pony's body, and strangest of all was the Pipbuck loosely wrapped about the bones of its right foreleg. I glanced up at the machine, then back at the device on the skeleton.

Goddesses damn my curiosity! I cursed myself as my horn flared and I slipped the device free.

My limited knowledge and tools were enough to access some of it, yet without a user, most of it was beyond my reach. All but a set of emergency recordings. One was a recorded message, the rest were a series taken in short succession.

"Dragonfire, we need your Pipbuck," I heard Cherry call as I pulled out my ear bloom and activated the first message.

"Hey, Babs, it's Apple Bloom."

The voice that came from the message was that of an accented mare, even if she sounded as if she were trying to hide that with a more formal tone. Even so, it was far from the pessimistic stuff I was usually subjected to.

"Sorry ah couldn't come see ya' in person, but it's been really busy here over in Fillydelphia, what with the war getting as bad as it is an' all. Part of me's just glad ah' ain't the only one who misses how it used ta be when we were still younger. Anyway, ah shouldn't be fillin' this message will all that kinda' stuff, this is 'bout the Crusader Mainframe.

The Prototype we built under the factory is to be decommissioned. Personally, ah thought it was fine, but Scootaloo's pushing for the mark five now, says we need the absolute best. But with all that she's describin' for this version, we're only gonna be able to make one, maybe two at most. Sometimes ah get the feelin' she don't think mah work is the absolute best no more, not that it really matters anyway.

Ah also got news about the new stable being set up 'cross the river from ya, but I think it best lettin' Sweetie Belle talk to ya about that when she comes down next week."

Apple Bloom gave a tired groan, then there was a sound like the scattering of papers as she almost seemed to growl in tired frustration.

"Ya' know, ah really wanted it to be me that come ta see ya'. Feels like the whole Apple family is not a family no more, even me and Applejack don't talk half as much as we used to, especially after Big Mac..."

There was another thudding sound, as Apple Bloom hit her head on what I assumed was a wooden desk.

"You know what, keep that mainframe runnin', it ain't gonna' be doin' anything it's not supposed to down there an' I don't want to feel like all that time we spent on it was wasted. So keep it cous', ya' know how it works, an' Scootaloo don't need to know. It can be an Apple family secret, just like the good ol' days, before all of this..."

At that, Apple Bloom's static voice faded and the message stopped. I reached the others with a slightly sadder expression. It was hard to think of ponies before the war struggling when we had to battle to survive every day, yet for some reason as I glanced back at that skeleton on the table, I felt a slight chip in my stoic view of the old world.

"Are you alright?" Cherry asked, and I snapped back to see them both looking at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled, slipping the Pipbuck I'd found on the skeleton into my bag and connecting my own to the elevator terminal.

Once again the wall of gibberish appeared before me, yet without a swarm of hungry brains after me, I was far better equipped to break through. Even if I was still wearily anticipating somepony else doing it for me. 'Access Denied' was all I received for my efforts.

"Well, well, you three ah' a bunch of bullin' troublemakers ain't ya'?" Came a deep, static voice.

It was the voice of the speakers again, the now clear voice of some kind of robot. I really hated robots. Yet the shocked look upon the faces of my friends told me otherwise and I looked back to the mainframe to see all of its screens had come to life. Including a large one right above the table, and a red brain jar that had lit up in the vast wall of machinery. Now I knew why I recognized that voice. I recognized the face of the earth pony on the screens. Babs Seed looked as if she'd been plucked right from my memory.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Exterminator Level Three - When it comes to the wasteland's irritating vermin you're undoubtedly, without question, the absolute best pony for the job, even if those vermin happen to be almost two centuries old. Gain + 30 damage against all creatures when they're below 30% maximum health.

Companion Lost: Gina - Don't blame yourself, some rivals just aren't cut out for the tough life. All related companion perks lost.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Rainbowsurvior

Chapter Fourteen: Bad Seed

Chapter 14: Bad Seed

"That's not fair, Babs! We never did anything to you!"

The deep buzz in the air reverberated from the computer, the booming sound making the brown-coated mare on every screen sound like an angry goddess. For all I knew, she could be just that. I had no idea what the machine she was linked to had done to her, I didn't even know if this was the mare I'd actually seen in the memory, or just some malevolent program. I stepped away from the elevator terminal as all of her eyes fixed on me from multiple screens around the room. Cherry and Clip stood behind me as I edged cautiously toward the largest screen.

"It's been a very, very long time since ah've had to deal with anypony causing trouble," Babs Seed stated as if the fact were both bolstering her resolve and tearing her apart all at once. "No pony ah knew, nopony cared enough!" She went on, the words seeming to be more of a statement to herself than anypony else.

I paused in the middle of the room, watching as the mare upon the screen rambled as if addressing a vast audience.

"I know you. You're Babs Seed, right?" I asked, and all of a sudden she stopped, all eyes locking onto me once again.

"That's right, but ah don't know you... How do ya' know my name?" she demanded, her tone becoming firm.

"I saw you in a memory orb, you were with Sweetie Belle the day she came to talk to the factory workforce," I explained, and at the realization that crossed her face I realized that if this was not really her, then the computer was a very, very good actor.

Several questions seem to flash across her expression as she thought, her static image flickering like she was some kind of ghost. The dull hum of the machinery all around us became a buzzing growl.

"Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo... Apple Bloom?" Babs stated from within the rumbling, then her images stabilized as did the sounds. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" she added, and despite my lack of real information, a desire not to piss off the computer-bound mare forced me to nod.

"They abandoned me!" she boomed before I could even respond, the machinery roaring as she did so.

For a moment I was afraid the giant image of her would step out of the screen and squash us all like insects. I stepped back towards the others as her image glowed an angry red.

"Apple Bloom and her little club? Ah thought they were my friends, but apparently, that only counted when we were fillies," she went on, her image flickering between the mare I'd seen and that of a very similar-looking filly curled up in tears.

The machinery's hum became a spark-spitting growl and I noticed that the tank I assumed was holding her brain flashed a red hue, like some kind of alarm.

Think Dragonfire, if you wait here any longer those damn brain monsters will find you, or she'll just kill you herself. I knew that if we wanted to get out then I needed to calm her down.

"No, no, no, nopony abandoned you!" I stated, begging the goddesses that I was right.

Her image stabilized again as did the whole factory settle back to a dull hum. Yet her eyes still burned with the pain of the accused betrayal.

"How would ya' know 'bout what happened to us, ah don't know ya'?" she demanded.

I fought for words as she regarded me with a glare that looked as if it could cut steel, and for all I knew it really could. Then I glanced at the dusty, old skeleton on the table.

"Apple Bloom, she's your cousin, right? She didn't abandon you... She gave you all of this, she saved you," I improvised, with no idea what effects my stuttering would have.

Babs didn't even consider that as she glared, then that static buzz rose once again. "Don't ya' dare talk to me about me and her. She never even made an effort to come find me out here," she said, and once again I was lost for a response as my mind dug through that memory I'd seen of Babs and Sweetie Belle.

"And she didn't save me, she didn't save anypony!" Babs added, then her eyes focused upon my saddle bags.

Before I could respond the sound of static emanated from amidst my weapons and I looked back to hear one of the other recordings suddenly begin to play from her Pipbuck.

"Apple Bloom? Goddesses, Ah have no idea if this is reaching ya', but if y'all are gettin this something just hit Desert Springs... Ah' have no idea whether it was direct, but everything is going to hell outside. There's riotin,' all the workers have run off, and the rain... It's raining glowing green stuff, ah' don't know what it is just…

Look if ya' gettin’ this you need to get out of Fillydelphia, you need to get as far away from any city as ya' can. Ah'm going to make my way across to the Stable, ah' know it's not the one ah' was designated to, but they have to let me in right? You'd have told um' that right…?"

The voice cut off with a buzz, and I glanced up at the screen as I pulled her Pipbuck from my bags and suspended it before me. Yet her eyes did not move anywhere other than the floating device as it continued to play its message.

"They were right, the naysayers, those stray ponies sitting' about town with the darn billboards, they were all right. The fire in the desert, it was a zebra missile. The moment ah tried to get outside, ponies just wouldn't stop screaming. It was the rain, ah think it was burning um'. Ah 'got back inside before ah' got covered in it, but ah still think it was too much, my Pipbucks’ telling me its deadly... Look, ah guess what ah'm tryin’ to say is ah ain't gettin' to the stable. Ah'm on my way to the factory's lower levels, hopefully, it'll be safer down there. Ah just can't believe this, it's over, it's all over.

Once again Babs's flickering, red gaze was unrelenting as the second recording stopped, and as expected, the third soon followed. The moment I heard her weak voice my heart went cold.

Damn, who am ah kiddin'? Ah know ah'm gonna die down here, the whole of Equestria's dead, ah know. I should have taken your advice, cous'. Ah knew it, what with Sweetie goin' missing an' all, ah should have just listened… Ah just hope ya made it, not heard anything from Fillydelphia, ah hope Sweetie and Scoots are fine too... That leaves just... Urg! Ah hate this."

The sound of metal banging filled the air as I could only assume she began to smash up the room in anger.

"Why don't ah ever listen! Ah never listened to advice about them bullies, never about growing up, and never about this damn stupid job!"

She shouted again and again until her strength finally left her. There was a thud, a clatter, then a fit of coughs and exhausted breaths.

"Ah know this is all silly now but... Ah hope you get this, ah hope you can come find me.

Before she could say another word a loud static filled the recording, followed by what I could only describe as an ear-rending boom. I staggered in pain, gritting my teeth as I dropped the Pipbuck. The screens around me flickered, and even Cherry and Clip had to cover their ears before the unnatural sound finally subsided. The sound that replaced it was a set of sharp gasps, and raspy breaths.

"Ah... something just happened, it's gone… Everything's gone. The city... it's angry and ah, ah can't see. Cous', cous', where are you, why ain't you here, why ain't you coming to save me?"

Her words were perforated by another set of loud clangs and thuds as the blind mare seemed to stagger her way around, grunting and growling maddeningly.

"Ah can't see, Ah ... Ah'm dyein', Cous', ah have to get out, get it out of my head... Ah', the Crusader! Ah' have to use the Crusader... Ah, ah'm sorry..."

There was another series of clatters and staggering hoof steps, then the sound of buttons being pressed haphazardly.

"User identified, Babs Seed." Sounded a mechanical voice. A deep buzz of static finally cut off the recording as a fit of screams and mechanical whirring erupted from the Pipbuck.

I stagger back from the device as if the thing were toxic.

"See, she abandoned me, they all did! All of that time avoiding me and she didn't even have the decency to save me!" Babs boomed, her voice wrapt in the same static that had overwhelmed the recording.

I backed right up to the others, lost for words.

"A lot of ponies died that day," Cherry countered, looking directly at the screen even as she shivered. Babs looked at her coldly, the red in her eyes pulsating slightly slower.

"Yeah, but ah bet none of those three did, ah bet they never came to save me 'cause they were comfy in stables of their own somewhere. The only one ah saw after cousin Big Mac's funeral was Sweetie Belle, and she didn't even have the dignity to tell anypony where she was that day!" Babs declared.

I swallowed, glancing at the elevator terminal and subtly hooking up my Pipbuck. Come on miracle Pipbuck, if there's a time I need you it's now.

Cherry looked about and it was clear she was no better equipped to uphold this argument than I was. Babs was a disembodied brain in a jar with some clear abandonment and betrayal issues. Plus she was almost certainly mad after so many decades of mechanized isolation. I could tell by the look on her face she knew what I was doing. She frowned, her face flickering and distorting into something akin to a monster. Before I could even think a bright flash of light struck my side and a burning pain flared as my scaled armor sizzled. I staggered to the floor, Cherry cried my name and Clip jumped back as the newly revealed energy turrets swiveled to face them.

"Ah don't think ya are going anywhere. Ah have been locked down here for centuries with these voices and the more ponies that become part of them, the less the voices hurt," she explained cryptically and the sound of scuttling metal limbs grew as several of the pipes burst to reveal more of the hungry, augmented brains.

I struggled to stand, chancing a shot at one of Babs's energy turrets as both Cherry and Clip were forced to open fire upon the clawing abominations.

"You... You were controlling these things!?" I groaned, as more of the ravenous creatures began to pour out of the pipes. She frowned, her mouth flickering in the static as that dull hum began to grow just like with Gina.

"Ah knew that those ponies had no idea what they were messing with at the excavation. Sweetie was right about that, at least. What they went and dug up was not natural," she began, and I was forced to blast another pair of energy turrets as they opened fire and tried to force us toward the oncoming brains.

"Every day everypony in the city knew it was there. It felt wrong, every piece of magical equipment felt angry with us, then when the bombs fell it finally got out and everypony heard it, dead or alive," she explained then winced as if the mention was painful.

"Everypony that heard the anger knows the pain and the only way to soothe it is to spread it out across as many minds as possible." Her frown became a cruel, maddened smile. "Ah would be as cruel as my traitorous cousin if ah' just abandoned all the minds still linked to me when wounded prey came all too willingly down here," she finished with a slight laugh.

Battling the oncoming swarm I motioned for Cherry and Clip to get closer to the elevator. "And you think that this is what she'd have wanted, I thought she gave you this place to show you how much she really cared?" I asked, and her gaze narrowed, eyes flickering red.

"Ah'am savin' what is left of the ponies she failed to help. Whatever they went and meddled with in the city didn't even let anypony die right! The anger keeps us here trapped in our minds and if ah' don’ find some pony to share it with it'll torture us forever!" she shouted, as if I were the villain for not wanting my mind feasted upon by the brain of a long-dead pony.

I sent a bolt of magical energy right into the face of one of the oncoming horrors. In the same instant, the cold tendrils of another wrapped around my rear leg, sharp metal biting at my armor as I battled to kick it off.

"Fightin' proves ya'll are no more willin' to save these ponies than any of the so-called crusaders were," Babs went on as a shot from Responsibility blasted the brain wrapped around my rear leg into slimy, gray gore.

"And what about all the ponies she did save, all the ponies that did get to the stables?" I asked, and she frowned.

"They were nevah safe, just another thing she lied to me about before the end... Ah know now what she and the others all planned to do once they had ponies sealed away inside."

Great, she knows about the iron death tombs and all the messed up experiments. My mind muttered dryly. Well, there goes that line of reason.

"And what about you, the mare I saw in that memory didn't seem like somepony that could do this," I expressed, hoping that the brief recollection I had of her was enough to uphold that belief despite my hatred of most pre-war ponies.

It didn't seem to matter as she scoffed, raising a forehoof to the inside of the screen and tapping it against the glass as if it was just as real to her on the other side.

"That mare died with the rest of Equestria, and my friends' loyalty!" she shouted, the screen flashing red with static as the sounds about her voice boomed like thunder.

"Not that it even matters anymore. Ya'll will know of the anger under the city soon, and ya'll see what monsters it makes," she added, and at that, I pointed my blaster right at her brain.

Her eyes widened, then locked onto me as a set of metal shutters closed over the braincase and another set of beam turrets opened fire, stealing my attention away from her weakness. That was only half of my problems, however, and as if I were a beacon, the swarming mass of claws and brains all converged upon me like a ravenous carpet. I felt sharp tendrils coil around all four of my legs, and teeth sink into my back as they began to pile atop me. With no way to kill so many opponents, and with the sensation of the many clawed coils slowly dragging me down, I tried to kick out as hard as I could. Yet it was a futile gesture, and the weight of the brains swiftly began to overwhelm me as they crawled over my back and toward my head. Right now, the only thing keeping me from the same fate as Gina was my armor, yet the grinding of small metal teeth told me that wouldn't last long.

I managed one look up at the large screen as Babs's smile became a somewhat solemn frown, and for a moment it looked as if some distant part of her really didn't want to do this. Yet her mind was hardly a stable place anymore, and with another flicker that maniacal smile returned. Then there was a sudden flash on the screen and all of a sudden a wall of random gibberish and scrawled text flashed over her face, and the red glowing in her eyes momentarily turned green as the words were written into existence before her.

'Foreign Program Accepted. Equestrian Robotics Service Code 24/9 Overruled. Prototype Crusader Maine Frame, Alpha 4, User Designation. Equestrian Robotics: Executive Babs Seed, User Overruled'

"What... No, what is this... What did you do? Ah'... Ah' can't see… Please no, no, no, no, not again!" Babs suddenly cried out, her eyes glowing green as she frantically looked about the darkness of the screen around her as if blinded.

In the same instance, there was a sharp burst of static, and the image of her distorted. The metal covering her brain flung open and the beam turrets that had once sought to pin us in place to be feasted upon, now turned and began to fire into the swarm of augmented brains. I felt the horrors eating through my armor blasted away by the magical energy. Seconds later the ones around my legs were turned to dust or pulpy gray mash as the turrets miraculously set me free. I took a deep breath of relief, only now able to fully realize how terrified I'd been as adrenalin coursed through me. Behind me, I could hear the others calling out. Yet the world went silent as I tore my Saddle Blaster away from the coiling tendrils of the swarm and leveled a shot right at the exposed brain jar.

"I'm sorry," I whispered as S.A.T.S picked out her brain and I fired. I'm sorry, I only kill monsters.

With a bright flash, the tank shattered, pouring foul liquids and spraying shards of glass out over the table and the skeleton below. The room filled with a horrifying, electrical shriek that resonated from each brain as they began to explode into sickly mush. As they did so, I felt the few grueling tendrils slip away from my limbs and the teeth loosen on my back. Yet my eyes became focused upon the screen above, below which a bloodied brain hung like a limp corpse from several wires. A soft whimper filled the chamber, punctuated by sharp static and fading fast. Upon the screen, the image of the angry, red-eyed mare had been replaced by that of a tiny brown filly, curled up and crying.

"Ah'm sorry, sorry, cous'... I ain't even a... worthy... crusader..." As her voice dissolved into a low rumble of drawn-out static, the image flashed and flickered, then like somepony hitting the off button on a terminal it flashed brightly and went completely black.

'Foreign Program Accepted. Equestrian Robotics Service Code 24/9 Overruled. Cargo Elevator 04 Activated. Have a Nice Day.' Flashed on the screen, then there was a loud shunt and a whirring sound as the large platform began to descend down towards us.

I looked up at the screen as those words faded, then moved over to Babs's dusty bones. There was no joy, and the sharp relief in my mind faded as I looked down at the lifeless skeleton and placed a forehoof on the surgical table beside her skull.

"Rest easy," I whispered as I levitated her old Pipbuck back to lay beside her.

*******

Nopony said a word to me as the elevator slowly ascended back toward the surface. Above, the roar of the storm became more apparent. But despite the mechanical grinding of the elevator, my aching limbs, churning gut, and bloody scars; I made no effort to take one of our last healing potions. I wasn't sure how many Cherry had found in the medical room, nor how many we'd need to get through Crimson. So until I knew everypony else was safe, I'd leave myself to be taken care of last. Even so, Cherry was looking at me nervously, and it was clear where her concerns lay. Clip was just sat down, rubbing his bandaged limbs and wincing at the pain. My whole sense of morality had been thrown into as much a spin as my stomach.

Had I just killed a monster or simply delivered mercy to a broken mare who'd lost her mind long ago? I didn't really want to think about it but neglecting the idea only made me feel more wrong. All I did know was that I'd saved my friends from a fate that sounded worse than death, living as tormented brains in jars, feeding on somepony else's mind. As for the supposed unnatural anger that had driven her to do such things? I could only assume it had something to do with the rage affecting the raiders. Clearly, whatever had been found under the city was something that had never been understood. Yet to bring to life an army of brains? I had a feeling whatever mainframe Babs had been put into had at least something to do with them reanimating, and the idea that I'd destroyed the minds of all of those ponies along with her only made my remorse stronger. Then there was my miracle Pipbuck, but despite my instincts, the less I thought about that right now, the better.

"Dragonfire?" came Cherry's cautious voice, and I glanced back to see her looking at me. Even Clip glanced up from his bloody bandages at her words.

"I'm alright, Cherry," I told her in anticipation of her next words. To my surprise, however, she shook her head.

"You're not, are you?" she stated bluntly and I felt that deep hole inside me become ever more inviting.

I lowered my gaze, sighing as I looked at the ragged rips and tattered tears the brains had made in my armor. "Can't we just get back to the others?" I asked, and she moved over to me.

"Thank you," she stated simply, and despite the guilt, her word ignited a spark in me. I looked up at her with wide eyes, like some timid foal would after a horrifying nightmare.

"Thanks for not lying to me again," she added, and in an instant, it was pretty clear she'd known something was wrong with me for a while.

But if that was true, then what did so blatantly lying to her for all that time make me look like? Before I could think too hard about that, however, she continued to speak.

"That and well... I'd never had known what to do without you, and after what Gina said..." She trailed off, her own eyes shivering. I stood as straight as my quivering legs would allow.

"She was wrong. I think everypony's been wrong about you, and I was wrong to lie to you," I told her, the idea both a welcome distraction and heartwarmingly sincere.

She nodded, wiping her muzzle with a forehoof as the elevator ground to a halt in the midst of a scrap-strewn warehouse. Rain streaked down from the shattered glass roof and a pool of rust-filled water sat amidst the mountains of sharp metal.

"Come on, we can get back to Sky through the east warehouses," Clip told us, standing and slowly walking from the platform.

Before he could take more than a few steps, however, his legs buckled and threatened to fall from under him. Without thought I swept him up in my magic and placed him upon my back, wincing at the pain as his weight pressed down upon my bruised hide.

"You can’t go too far on those legs, just tell me the way," I stated weakly, trying to put on my best, loving, and responsible adult voice.

While seemingly reluctant to admit I was right about his wounded limbs, he nodded and pointed to an exit. "That way, I used the ventilation to get by the refinery before, but you two will have to go through the normal way," he explained, and I nodded before leading on.

I just really hoped the wasteland had no more surprises up its sleeves. We hadn't even entered Crimson and my mind was teetering on the precipice of an abyss I'd only ever fallen into once before. I knew if my thoughts fell into that dark pit again they would not come out of the depressing darkness a second time.

********

The dark confines of the factory's east wing were no better than those below, the only difference was the horrifying brain monsters had been replaced by torrents of running water and flooded corridors. The filthy onslaught threatened to sweep any unsuspecting pony away. Clip had made it quite clear that ponies as large as myself and Cherry were far less adapted to moving through the industrial ruins unseen like he could. Even so, as sagging walls and rusted pipes passed us by my mind continued to drift back to the tunnels below as I continually questioned what I'd done down there.

I'd wanted to save my friends. Yet the moment Babs had confessed to me she was no longer the mare she used to be I'd snapped. I was afraid of how fast I'd done so and I wondered that if it were not for my desire to save the others, would I have still done the same? If it were me and Star stuck down there, would I have hesitated, or would the ‘mercy’ have been even swifter? Mercy? The word felt twisted and wrong as it wound its way slowly around my turbulent mind. I didn't want to think about it too hard, yet like some cruel joke, my thoughts constantly dragged me back there and forced me to live through the memory like I was still locked in the slow effect of S.A.T.S.

"Take a left here, head across the upper refinery then you'll be back at medical. That's the way we came down originally, so Sky and Ochre should be just above," Clip directed, pointing a hoof in the direction he'd indicated.

Like some blind work pony, I just followed his hoof without a word. Then something in my vision caught my attention and my head perked up sharply. Clip tumbled back as it did so, and I whispered a quiet apology to him as I looked about. Red bars danced in my vision, and while I couldn't tell whether they were above or below us, I did know they were directly ahead.

"What is it?" Cherry asked with concern as she appeared beside me. Clip stood up on my back, pressing his forehooves into my mane as he looked over my head.

"Something's up ahead, and it's not friendly," I stated, drawing my Saddle Blaster.

Cherry looked at me with mild curiosity and I motioned to my newly functioning Pipbuck. Without a word she slipped behind me, retrieving her hard-won golden rifle. Just ahead the corridor opened out onto another metal catwalk. After my initial groan at seeing such an environment again, I peered out to see the suspended walkway looming amidst hanging cauldrons and rattling chains. Below were the telltale channels and casts of a steel mill, most of which were encrusted with hardened metal slag.

With my visor still on the fritz, I was forced to rely upon my Pipbuck's new functions even more. Therefore, looking at where it told me there were hostiles, I made out several shapes in the gloom amidst the machinery. I pulled up my blaster, yet before I could fire there was a loud clap of thunder and in the lightning flash that swiftly followed one of the ponies jumped in alarm, knocking aside a pile of scrap.

"Damn it, will ya' be quiet!?" Came a frustrated whisper as the spiked armored pony at the lead twisted back to face the one that had jumped. "Oh, 'fraid of a little lightnin' are ya'?" the same stallion added.

The other raiders didn't say a word, as the large buck at the lead marched back to the startled mare and smashed his spiked forehoof across her face with one heavy sweep.

"There are some thangs out here that ah really don't want ta draw the attention of. Ya' got that ya' fuckin' wretch?" the raider stallion growled and the mare nodded as she spat blood from her muzzle. "Good, now spread out. this is where the others didn't come back from. Find meh those damn slaves and stay fuckin' quiet," he hissed, and at the instructions, the red bars on my E.F.S began to disperse.

I lowered my blaster and looked back at Cherry, shaking my head. She re-holstered Responsibility and looked at me expectantly. Upon my back, I felt Clip shivering. Without a word, I motioned for us to creep our way across the catwalk before the raiders could come back and turn it into another shooting gallery.

"I was wondering how long it would take them to send more," Clip stated, his tone half hopeless, half furious.

"It doesn't matter, we have to get back to the others and get out of here before they find out where we are, can we still get to the passage?" I asked, and Clip nodded.

"It's going to take Sky some time to get Ochre moving though," Cherry added, and at that, my ears fell flat.

Right, she's a smarter pony than me.I mentally sighed. Or at least she thought about the things that really mattered instead of worrying whether you were justified in killing the mare that just tried to kill and turn you into mindless zombies. My mind added bluntly.

"We'll just have to give her the time she needs then," I retorted, levitating up my weapon and offering her a confident smile.

Cherry levitated up Responsibility, mirroring my expression best she could as she nodded. I just really hoped I wouldn't come to regret those words.

********

"Can you manage with this?" Cherry asked hopefully as Sky dug through the medical supplies.

The pale mare looked frazzled, to say the least, but nodded nonetheless.

"Provided, we don't get caught. You picked up enough painkillers to knock out a Hellhound, as for the leg..." She looked at the pair of old medical braces skeptically. "I can make it work."

That was all she added as she levitated up some of her other supplies, the assurance seeming to be more for herself than anypony else.

"I'm sorry about your friend," Ochre offered weakly, her sympathetic words cut off by a wince as Sky went to work. I didn't say a word about Gina, but Cherry at least had the decency to think about her death respectfully.

"Don't talk too much … Just try and relax because this is going to hurt," Sky instructed, and Ochre braced herself as the unicorn tightened one of the braces to her rear leg.

Her gritted cry made it clear that the painkillers had not yet kicked in, and Sky's expression fell at the sight of her mare friend in such pain.

"Clip, can you come help..." she called and subconsciously waved him over.

I felt the small pony upon my back lurch forwards and knew he really wanted to help her. At the sight of Ochre's pained expression, I really wanted a way to spare her this pain too.

Just like you saved Lucky or Babs? My mind added. The idea that the former was not the pony I thought it was all but destroyed after the murder I'd just committed.

My attention was swiftly redirected towards telling my small companion to stay put, however, and reluctantly Sky agreed as she glanced at his bandaged legs.

"She's right, you should stay off those legs until I can get a better look at them," she instructed in defeat.

"What do you need?" Cherry swiftly intervened, moving up beside Sky readily. The pale mare didn't think twice at the new offer of aid as she made use of it.

"Hold this tightly," she instructed and Ochre's next set of painful cries came all too soon for me to deal with.

I looked back at the door nervously, at this rate every raider in the area was going to hear us. "Clip, which way to the way out of here?" I asked.

"There should be a tunnel down to the train lines at the far end of the warehouses, back past the collapsed medical area," he told me, and I nodded.

"I'll make sure it's clear, you two just hurry," I said as kindly as I could.

Clearly, the idea that raiders were after us dissuaded any hostility that demand may have summoned, and both Sky and Cherry nodded.

"Be careful," the latter added, and with that, I made my way back out of the office.

"You be careful up there okay, stay behind my head," I instructed Clip, but that idea did not seem to sit well with him.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I designed this thing, it can take as much of a beating as I can," I told him proudly, tapping a hoof on my scaled helmet.

Didn't stop my visor going on the fritz nor a set of hungry brain monsters from trying to eat their way through though, did it? My mind added snidely.

Getting rid of those ideas was really becoming hard. Moments later, my pride was shattered as something shook the whole factory, heralded by a loud boom that was far too close for comfort. My ears perked and Clip rose as high as he could atop the back of my neck.

Oh well, so much for my safety instructions, I thought weakly.

"They must have blown through the central doors, they'll be in here any moment," he warned, pulling out his shotgun.

A part of me really hoped he wouldn't shoot me again, but that idea was far easier to dismiss now. Instead, I turned my attention to the darkness in the warehouse before me. Nothing but the mountains of rusted metal and sickly waterfalls were visible below the sinister gaze of the Applejack mural. Yet the flashes of lightning above afforded me the briefest of glances at the warehouse's layout. A pool of rust-saturated water sat in the center, there was a large red door on the opposite side and the rest was a cobbled mass of sharp metal scrap. We were right in the kill zone should the raiders come through the doors opposite and then we'd have no way out. I backed up into the doorway of the office, then something else caught my ear.

It was faint amidst the roar of the storm, nothing like the distant explosion I'd just heard. Yet I had not survived this long by being deaf. I was almost glad I could still admit that as I recognized the sound of waving chains and spun around. Above me was the dark shape of a pony, almost invisible against the shadows. Even as lightning flashed through the shattered roof all I saw was a jet-black figure, yet it was unlike any raider. A dark carapace armor covered the ghostly pony head to tail, almost like that of an Enclave pegasus. I raised my blaster, scanning the pony for wings as lightning flashed again. All I got was a glimpse of their shimmering eyes and then they vanished. I looked for its blip on my Pipbuck, but it seemed invisible even to the device's E.F.S.

Seriously, what in Equestria is invisible to one of these things!? I thought, that feeling of somepony watching me the last time I was in here making my mane crawl.

"Did you see that?" I asked Clip abruptly, mostly seeking an answer that would tell me I wasn't going crazy.

He opened his mouth to answer, but another bright flash and loud boom tore through the room before he could speak, and this time it was certainly not lightning. Fire erupted from the doors on the opposite end of the warehouse and from the subsiding flames came a murderous group of ponies I knew for sure were real.

The force of the blast shook the whole wall, and before I could even register my own loss of balance, the whole catwalk shook. Clip yelped as the thing lurched forward and I threw myself back towards the office, grasping the edge with my forehooves as the metal frame fell away into the filthy pool below.

Goddesses, if I ever have to stand on another of these things again, I'm going to be really pissed!

Unfortunately for me, the wasteland seemed only too happy to ensure I didn't have a chance to see anything again, let alone another catwalk. The corroded frame gave a metallic howl as the rest of the stairs fell and struck the water, several more pieces of crumbling factory wall falling into the gloom around it. The raiders ducked for cover, yet it didn't take them long to see me as I hung from the wall, and a series of snickers and cruel laughs was all that proceeded their gunfire. Clearly, the idea of being quiet was no longer an issue for them, and in the position, I was currently in, it wasn't hard for even ponies as stupid as them to hit me. Without thought I reached up towards the office entrance, my limbs and stomach more chaotic than the storm above as I tossed Clip into the room with my magic.

"Get to the others!" I instructed loudly, and he glanced back at me, the look in his eyes unsure.

Even so, he did not look like he was willing to leave me hanging as a perfect target. I didn't give him much of a choice as another shot struck my hide and my horn flared, magically pushing him forwards before more shots could find their way into the office and hit him instead of my armor.

"Go!" I screamed as I levitated up my plasma weapons and began to fire them both blindly into the room behind me.

He took off, and while I felt more than a little cruel for being so harsh with him, I had no time for sentiment. My blind firing at least caused the raiders to dart for cover. Evidently, I could hit better than them even without seeing. Then again, their armor was not as bulletproof as mine. Regardless, the several aching bruises on my back added to those wounds I already bore, and with all of my might, I tried to pull myself back up into the office. Then there was a loud crack as a bullet struck right beside my left forehoof and I slipped. I almost swore my life flashed by at that moment as I slid down, the muscles in my other forehoof going taught with a surge of pain that caused me to scream.

Seriously, how many times can you damage your limbs before finding a doctor? My mind asked as I winced.

"Ha-ha, got ya' now," came a sickeningly joyful voice.

Once again adrenaline took hold of me, even if its effects were far more exhausting than before. I pressed my rear hooves into the wall and frantically tried to regain my grip. The raiders below didn't allow me the luxury as several bullets hit the scales over my back, and as they laughed I knew that even the dragon scales could not take many more shots. It was pretty clear they were going to make this slow and painful, and I assumed if the fall didn't kill me, whatever they had in store would be even slower. Then a sudden whoosh cut past me and I saw nothing but a black blur as one of the raiders fell limply into the water and others began to cry a fit of curses as they darted back for cover.

"Shit... Spread out, an' somepony finish that one up there, now!" came the voice I vaguely recognized as that of the larger stallion I'd seen in the refinery room.

All I could think was saving my own hide as the sounds of gunfire not aimed at my rear began to chime. All but one gunshot... The crack of Clip's shotgun was mixed with the cry of my name as Cherry ducked forward and grabbed my forehoof. The pony who I assumed was about to finish me off fell into the water with a splash as Cherry's magic reinforced her grip and slowly she pulled me up into the office.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we have to move now!" I exclaimed with relief, my mind only now realizing just how close I'd been to death. That was when I realized exactly where I was laying.

Cherry had fallen back and now I was sitting directly atop her, my lungs demanding more breath than my gasping could provide.

Okay, this is awkward but... damn it, Brain! This is not the time for hot, sexy thoughts about the mare you can't deny is incredibly cute!

I staggered back, blushing furiously under my helmet. In fact, the only thing preventing my embarrassment from sending me back over the edge was a bullet striking the wall.

"Fuckin' damn it! Ya' two find us a way 'round!" came the voice of the lead raider stallion, and I had a nagging frustration that he'd been the one to try and finish me off.

At that moment there was another bang as Clip took another shot. The raiders scattered like radroaches. Yet as I looked at Clip propped up against the doorframe wall with shivering limbs, I suspected that he was not the one causing so much chaos. Whoever the dark pony that had set their sights upon the raiders was, they did not seem to have any problem as they plucked individual ponies off right and left. Those that survived shot blindly into the darkness as if their attacker was a ghost.

There's no such thing as... Really, brain, does it matter anymore? The only thing the black armored pony seemed to give them was a swift death as they began dropping dead in the water with no sound other than a splash.

Looking back, and bracing myself against the door I swore I could see the flash of green eyes amidst the darting shadows. Of course, I knew one thing for sure, illusions did not kill ponies like that, not even ones created by my sick fuck of a mind. But hey, at least I wasn't going crazy enough to hallucinate things like that. None of my companions seemed to notice the silent, death-dealing pony, however.

"Right, we need to leave," I stated again, yet that seemed more directed at my easily distracted brain than anypony else.

"The exit plan?" I added, looking a Clip as I backed up from the firefight outside and levitated him back onto my back.

My legs gave a painful twinge at his extra weight and I winced. Clip steadied his shotgun in his quivering hooves as I turned back into the hall.

"The elevator, without those stairs it's the only other way down, but I don't know if it works," he explained.

I nodded and a moment later, I found out just how right he was as I pulled the crooked doors apart with my magic and stared down at the rusted shaft.

"You know I wasn't aware this idea involved jumping down elevator shafts," Sky muttered as she eyed the darkness below.

"You have a better idea?" I asked, the sound of fighting in the background the only real emphasis my words needed.

A set of metal cables trailed down the center of the shaft, and a few meters below the open roof of the elevator car itself sat crooked. Sky gave me a stern look, but I simply shook it off.

"Look, if we jump one at a time, then all of us can use our magic to levitate each other down," I suggested, motioning to myself, then Sky, then Cherry.

Skylark's doubtful look didn't change. "What you... You can barely walk!" she stated, pointing a forehoof at my newly crippled limbs.

"My legs have nothing to do with my horn," I countered swiftly, then before I could respond the stubborn mare was shoved forwards.

She screamed for a short moment and instinctively my magic flared, as did Cherry's. The shaft lit up and there was a soft metal moan as the glowing telekinesis lowered her softly atop the elevator. Moments later, she let out a growl that told us somepony was really about to get some stern words. We all looked back to see Ochre trembling, one forehoof outstretched as she leaned against the wall and took several shallow breaths.

"Functioning horn or not... You were never going to get her moving like that," she muttered with a weak smile.

*******

"I swear, you do that to me again I'll... Oh, Ochre, I'll kill you myself! " Sky grumbled in frustration as she helped support her injured marefriend along the corridor. Magically reducing the earth pony's weight with her telekinetic magic.

Ochre just smirked at the pale mare's frustration. "Well, I had to believe it would work, what else is there...? Plus, I thought you liked me touching your butt?" she teased, and her coy expression made Sky blush no matter how exhausted either of them were.

I had to admit the ochre mare was a bold one, I'd have sooner jumped down that shaft myself rather than face Sky's wrath. I had to admit I'd not been completely sure my magic was enough to catch her, but after that, I had little hesitation levitating the others down. Whether her whole idea of belief was real or not, it was a smart play on Ochre's part, even if I knew levitating myself would have been far harder than stopping somepony else from falling. Sky and Cherry had brought me down last, and even the soft landing had caused my wounded limbs to ache all the more. Following that, Cherry forced me to down another healing potion, and Sky reluctantly insisted that both Clip and I take painkillers if we were going to be doing so much moving around.

I was now very glad for the latter, at least, but the way Cherry had told me to take even more chems was nagging at me. Her readiness to use them so much only brought another threat to mind. Next wasteland lesson, too many chems are bad, don't take any unless you absolutely have to. I didn't want to think she was oblivious to that, and I mostly attributed her somewhat stern actions to the fear and stress. Running away only to lose her ear and being attacked by an evil brain-controlling robot pony in the basement was sure to do that to a pony. The only other problem was that I really hated thinking so little of her. I was still unsure if she'd heard what I'd uncontrollably muttered about her being so important to me. But with the way she'd asked me not to lie to her anymore, I could only assume that she had. Then there was the idea that I was once again treating her so much like a foal, and that knocked another frail support out from under my already turbulent sense of morality.

"There should be a service tunnel just ahead, then a ramp down to the train tunnels... But I have no idea what might be down there," Clip warned, and I looked back at him atop Cherry's head.

The pink mare had been just as happy as I was to carry him around, yet the idea that I wasn't really strong enough to do that and fight anymore made that pit inside me just that much deeper. I looked back at them and nodded, trying to look past Cherry's concerned gaze and not focus on the bandaged stump of her ear.

"How do you know they're not flooded, it's been raining non-stop out there?" Sky asked.

"If it is then we watch our backs and wait," I offered as he struggled to answer her.

Clearly, he wasn't one to disappoint his friends, even if he didn't know what to tell them. I knew my reasons were far less noble as I took the chance to think about something other than my pink friend. Most prominent in my mind besides her and the others was the whole thing involving my miracle Pipbuck, a killer cult of crazy ponies, and the idea of my failing ability to distinguish monsters from victims. Most of my ideas involving any of those things were hopeless as of yet, especially the idea of who exactly deserved to die and who didn't. Other than that, the only other thing that came to mind was the ghost pony I'd seen in the warehouse.

That glimpse I gained made it clear it was at least equine, and despite my mind wishing to make several connections between it and my miracle Pipbuck, it wasn't much of a viable correlation. If they were connected, why had it saved us from one danger with science hacking skills at one moment and another with a swift and silent deadly attack? Maybe it was one of those darkly armored ponies I'd seen in the labs, yet the Transcended seemed to want me dead. Not saved. That left only coincidence, and I didn't believe in such things.

Regardless, the idea made my head spin almost as much as my stomach, and my survivalist mindset pushed it far away from my focus as we reached a break in the long, metallic corridor. To the right was a larger metal door, the words 'Subway Access tunnel 245' etched into the metal below a set of leavers. A nod from Clip confirmed this was the right way and I reluctantly looked at Cherry.

"Can you get it open?" Despite her concerns, I knew the chance to prove herself in her most esteemed set of skills was something she couldn't help but smile at.

She trotted forwards, setting Clip down beside her as she set to work. Ochre leaned against the wall, earning another flurry of attention from Sky. I simply leaned against the opposite wall and tried to ignore all of the things wrong with me as I waited. Fortunately, it wasn't long until the door clicked open and Cherry peeked through.

"There's water... but the coast looks clear," she called back as Clip climbed back onto her back.

"Good the sooner we get through this, the better," Sky retorted as she helped Ochre back up straight and once again wrapped the earth pony in a cradle of light telekinesis.

I waited for them all to go through, backed up to the door, and then paused. Despite how much it unnerved me, there were a great many things I was beginning to love about my new Pipbuck. I spun around, slipping into S.A.T.S and sending a blast of magical energy into the raider pony's face before he could even draw his weapon. He fell down with a cry of pain as two more clambered over him.

"Wait!" another of them called out, yet it was too late for her as I melted her face right off and instantly turned the Saddle blaster to a third raider.

He stood motionless in the corridor, his coat was a sickly green, and his mane an equally stained yellow. His teeth were far closer to that color than the natural white as he grinned.

"Ah really don't think ya' what ta go that way," he warned, and I knew from his voice this was the ringleader of the bunch again.

"Yeah, well I really don't think I want to stay here with you either," I retorted.

"After the trouble, ya' have caused meh, probably not... But trust meh, it's better if ah kill ya'll an' get it over with then for ya' ta go inta the city for the rage ta get ya'," he added with an unnerving tone.

It was almost as if he meant that as more of a true warning than simply a raider's maddened threat. He was really afraid of the city, he wasn't just completely crazy. It didn't save him from me, however, and I opened fire. He jumped aside, but in the restricted space there wasn't really anywhere for him to go as the energy beams turned most of his front to charred toast and he fell to the floor. A slew of loud curses followed as I stepped back into the door.

"Ya' fuckin', bitch! Ah hope they find ya' there... Ah..." His dying fit was cut off by a sharp whistle as something punched clean through his neck.

There was nothing but a burst of blood and a gargled breath from his corpse. I stiffened and watched as the dark-armored pony emerged from the gloom and stepped into view. No wings, no strange star symbol, no sign of a brain latched onto the side of their head. He looked like a buck too, many years' worth of experience telling me that about his rather sleek form even through the faceless armor. Then I noticed a dark purple mane and a horn through neat gaps in the carapace, and my analysis stopped as those green, insectoid eyes peered at me. I trained my weapon on him, yet he did no more than stare. That was when there was a loud crack and a flash as a bullet struck the wall behind him. I jumped back into the tunnel to see Cherry levitating Responsibility right behind me. When I looked back into the tunnel he was gone, and so was the blooded corridor as the force of telekinetic magic dragged me back and the door slammed shut.

"You alright!" Cherry asked urgently, and for once it looked like it was her who was fighting the urge to embrace me.

I glanced between her and the door before nodding slowly. "Sure, sure, why wouldn't I be?" I said sheepishly, my tone a dead giveaway to that lie if my shivers were not.

I knew she saw right through my lies, I also knew she was too afraid to say she knew of my deceit as she turned and levitated Clip back onto her back. Sky and Ochre were stood a little further down the dripping tunnel, and in the light of the former's horn, I could see the shimmering of water. I took one last glance at the door and sighed as my mind asked the simple question.

Why wouldn't I be?

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Guardian Angel - No matter what, the goddesses must want somepony to make sure you don't die. You gain +1 luck when you are without any party members and there is a small chance a mysterious stranger may come to your aid in a fight.

Chapter Fifteen: Crimson Springs

Chapter 15: Crimson Springs

"Spike! There are no zombie ponies. Pinkie, what are you doing here alone in the dark?"

A faint dripping was all I could hear against the distant roar of the storm, all else was lost within an eerie gloom broken only by my Pipbuck's sickly, green light and a profuse clicking as it warned me of the water's less-than-hospitable nature. The sound of my hooves splashing in the shallow river below echoed through the long, dark subway tunnel. For almost half an hour it had been just that, an abyssal emptiness. Yet the deeper we went into the labyrinth of tunnels, the more our cold concrete surroundings became illuminated by a few flickering lights of their own.

It appeared that some form of power was still functioning, leading me to believe the slavers must either have a generator or somepony else had managed to get it started. 'New management' led me to assume the latter. At the top of my list of dangers right now, however, was flash floods. This wasn't the first time I'd been caught underground during a downpour, albeit the last time I was caught off guard. I'd hoped that I'd never have to endure the same terrifying ordeal again, trapped in a concrete tomb and doomed to drown in thick mud. I had to remind myself that I had little choice if I wanted to get through here. Yet the name Clip had first given to this place, and the fact even a raider preferred death over entering, had me more than a little on edge.

Then there was my new black armored friend. I looked at my Pipbuck, the map it presented had switched to one of the tunnels under the city and according to it, and Clip, we were heading the right way. Furthermore, the strange arcane device had marked out several locations, including an excavation site to the south, a train yard to the southwest, and a plaza to the southeast. The latter most included South Western Equestria Stable-Tec and M.A.S hubs, and a place called 'Oracle: South-Western Equestrian HQ'. Another marker 'kindly' remained me that these tunnels were named after screams. I had to admit that as useful as my Pipbuck's rapidly multiplying functions were, there were a few things I'd rather the thing keep to itself.

"How you holding up?" I asked the pair behind me, glancing back to see both Sky and Ochre's reflection in the inky, black water.

The former was clearly not liking the whole situation, yet it beat hiding away in an old factory, awaiting their inevitable capture.

"Fine, just... The quicker we get out of here the better," Sky reminded me, as Ochre gave a weak nod.

As much as I agreed with her, I had a feeling that we weren't going to get away with walking under the city completely scot-free. The anticipation of impending danger was like a coat of biting bugs crawling beneath my barding, and I still had to figure out a way to get to the Stable-Tec building and find out where the Transcendent were most likely operating from.

"Don't worry, we're evenly matched down here. There's three of us who can fight and I doubt they could fit many more ponies than that in here," I replied lifting the saddle blaster in my magic.

As much as I knew the modified beam rifle was better at close quarters, I found it hard to believe my own statement. I couldn't gun down a flood after all, and chances were slaver ponies were the least dangerous thing that may be lurking down here. Sky seemed to suspect the same thing, as did the others, yet Cherry at least looked like she took the fact I deemed her fight worthy as a compliment. I really hoped I was right about that as the idea of facing something we couldn't simply shoot to death only strengthened as we passed several gaping holes in the tunnel walls. Each gushing with torrents of brown filth. The foul smell was almost overwhelming and the sharp metal scraps that swirled about within the water and cut at my barding didn't bode well either. At that, I added; watch for razor-sharp debris to my long list of precautions.

At least the water wasn't enough to move the largest of the rubble. Yet by the positions of some of the rusted train cars and engines, it didn't seem impossible for the flow to shift them if it became strong enough. Most of the car's jagged windows boar the skeletons of long-dead ponies, many of which looked like they were still fighting to claw their way out. While others looked eerily like they'd been the day they'd died, sat perfectly normal and ready for a day's work. Another threat came in the form of dangling electrical wires that sparked dangerously close to the water. The coppery smell mixing with that of scorched rubber, challenged the stench of sewage for dominance of the damp air as we cautiously passed them by.

Next came evidence of something I could at least shoot, dead ponies drifted about in the gunk. Most of them had been stripped of their flesh. Surely this was the raiders doing. Even so, I felt my blood run cold as an almost bare pony skull drifted by me. I heard Cherry gasp and issue a muffled whimper at the sight of them. I felt another urge to run over and hug her.

She's not a foal! I reminded myself sternly, besides, I didn't even think I was good enough of a pony to have the right to embrace anymore.

To his credit, the youngest amongst us seemed most resistant to the gruesome sight, and I had to wonder exactly what the slavers had put him through to make him so desensitized. The images made it hard to believe he'd come back into the city so willingly, yet his commitment to saving us seemed as strong as Cherry's, if not a bit less naive. I scowled at my thoughts for adding that last part. But I couldn't deny it was at least partially right, just like Gina had criticized. My thoughts turned to the griffin only for a few seconds before the build-up of corpses began to turn the water into a river of decay.

I heard Ochre begin muttering something to herself over and over as she closed her eyes and turned her nose up from the foul smell. She wasn't the only one and even in her grumpy state Sky started to scientifically remind herself that what was dead, was dead and couldn't hurt her. My resistance to the horrific scene frightened me, but not as much as Cherry appeared to be trying to mirror my ignorance. If she could look at this and not care she was not the perfect pony I wanted her to be, she'd just become like another me. Doomed to wander the wasteland and fight an unwinnable fight, only to question her every action.

"This is where they told us we'd end up if we messed up. Guess this really is where they dumped all the corpses," Clip observed as his eyes passed over the watery graveyard with more sympathy than disgust.

I really hoped it was no more than that, like Sky said, at least corpses couldn't kill us. Yet after seeing that the brains of long-dead ponies could indeed try, I was certainly wary of the possibility of another room filled with zombies. This was the wasteland after all. The rotting stream didn't end until the tunnel opened into the ruins of what was once a metro station. To our left, a second rail line emerged from a similar tunnel, and both ran parallel to one another across the rubble-strewn station before vanishing into tunnels in the opposite wall. Above, the curved roof of thick concrete and tiles bore a great wound from which a torrential torrent of rain poured down like some unnaturally filthy waterfall. Many more joined it as mangled masses of rubble and broken metal trailed down to form a massive pillar as if it had frozen mid-collapse.

A crumbling bridge crossed half of the chamber, its opposite side having collapsed over the tracks, burying the rusted remains of another train car. On the opposite track, a similarly weathered, spark-powered train had plowed into the platform, its degraded corpse subjugated to a constant beating from the water above. I swiftly traversed the rubble that blocked our path, my limbs aching in protest as I wandered onto the left platform and out of the filthy water. My swimming insides began to churn anew as I shook off the liquid like a wet dog and both Cherry and Sky gave me a look that told me such actions were a bad idea with crippled limbs.

The legs in question seemed to agree as what felt like bolts of white-hot lightning lanced through each of them. I disguised the pained wince as best I could as I turned back, both I and Cherry helping to lift Ochre up from Sky's side as the pale blue unicorn jumped onto the platform. The moment the injured earth pony touched the concrete, however, she gave a sharp yelp. Her expression made it clear she was dealing with far more pain than I was, and Sky rushed over to her once again to help take the strain off of her limbs.

"Damn it, I'm going to have to use something stronger," Sky stated, levitating several syringes of Med-X from her medical bags.

I knew I could do with some of those too, but I had to settle for the weaker painkillers I was getting.

"Give us a moment," Sky said, as she focused on her task, and both I and Cherry nodded.

"Any idea where to next?" she asked, looking up at Clip as he rested his forehooves on her shoulders.

"I just know that all of the tunnels lead out to the old train yard on the east side of town, we just follow them there, then follow the tracks back to Crossroads," he told us, seemingly hoping that was enough of an explanation.

It was enough for me right now, and my growing urge to get out of here was just as satisfied with his words as I nodded.

"Well, we've got a moment, see if you can find anything useful. Just be careful," I stated, and it was not surprising that Cherry brightened slightly at the idea, even in our current situation.

Taking whatever you could when you had the opportunity was one of the oldest wasteland philosophies, after all. Yet most of my attention was focused on looking for strange things, things that may involve my miracle Pipbuck and the strange, armored pony after me. Directly above me, I could see the hole in the roof where the bridge had once connected to the wall, I could also see what was left of the mangled escalators that had once connected it to the platform. On the wall before me, was a transit sign. Most of it was far too faded to read and the few words that were visible were written in black along the crumbling tiles above. 'Four Stars, Public Transportation'.

Beside it was a set of old Sparkle Cola and Sunrise Sarsaparilla machines, the smashed bottles of the respective brands littering the area immediately before them. Additionally, the glass of both a smashed notice board and a long-since looted food vendor added to the glinting mess. It was almost ironic then, to find the piles of ragged corpses strewn about the platform before them as if the ponies had resorted to eating each other instead. I was unable to fight a gag as I caught the smell. Covering my helmet's respirator with a hoof, I closed my eyes and passed over the foul-smelling mass of rotting bodies and crawling insects. Did I have to remind myself of how much I fucking hated the wasteland for making ponies do something like this to other ponies?

Just fuck them all! That was the only response my mind offered.

Cherry didn't seem to be taking it much better, and my mind seemed to have given up on trying to keep the impossible truth from her. She too raised a hoof to her mouth but made no effort to cover up her retching, and even Clip was finally forced to cover his nose.

"Hey..." I spluttered, trying to form words over my urge to heave.

Cherry's wide quivering eyes locked on me, reminding me all too clearly how vulnerable she still was.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't... I shouldn't have convinced you to come down here... I shouldn't have dragged you anywhere you could see stuff like this," she muttered, and I stepped over to place a forehoof on her shoulder.

With a swift jolt, her shivering ceased and she tensed. A storm raged on in my mind the very instant I felt her tense against my limb. No, I was the one who felt like I needed to apologize. I was responsible for Cherry losing her innocence.

"I could have said no, back in Buck, or at the radio station. Even when we had to go under the factory. Besides, it was my idea too," I assured her responded. "Don't forget if it wasn't for you, I'd have given up already. Because in spite of whatever claims I make, I'm nowhere near as good a pony as you are," I admitted.

I was thankful for my helmet hiding my eyes as they closed tightly. The cold truth of that confession hit me again and again like an icy wall. Still, she'd asked me not to lie to her, and that's what I'd do.

Clip gave a weak nod as he agreed, but she looked right at me, straight through my cracked visor and into my eyes, stunned, as of the whole bloody mess littering the platform around her had drifted away and all she could see was me. I was begging her to trust me, especially after some of the things I'd said. Not only that, but trust herself, even after she'd made all those mistakes. Her one good ear twitched, the bandages around the other's stump shifting. I swallowed my dread, all I needed was for her to be able to think of herself as a good pony. Because goddesses damn me, I really didn't trust myself to be as good as she was. Moments later she gave a firm tremble, her eyes going from awe-filled to avoiding me like some scorned filly after a good talking to.

I felt my heart almost shatter to see her take it in such a way, I never wanted her to feel like that, she wasn't a foal but...

I turned around, looking over the piles of rotting flesh. At that moment the mounds of death were meaningless to me, all those lives lost before me, all of their lost potential, it was nothing. How can I be a good pony with a view like this?

"You're not a bad pony, you know," Cherry told me, a small smile seeping through that blank look as she once again seemed to read the doubts from my mind.

I smiled back, nodding. Evidently, that was enough to let the lure of potential salvage consume her again as she resumed scavenging, albeit keeping her distance from any of the corpses. I wished I had the same sensibility, but with the lack of anything incredibly abnormal for the wasteland, my mind homed in on the vending machines. Once again I thought about one of the Wastelander's first rules, salvage all you can if you get the opportunity. Years of experience and instinct activated like some lost autopilot as my eyes scanned the machines. I knew I couldn't really get inside without destroying the thing and its contents, but those frustrating facts steered me away from how I was treating my friend and that was what I needed.

At that, all that came down upon the dull surface of the sparkle-cola machine was a weary forehoof. Lazily it ran down the row of dormant buttons as my head thumped against the smooth, plastic front. A long dry sigh left me sending the water and sweat dripping from my muzzle and out through the busted respirator.

What are you doing? I asked myself wearily, my confident spark all but consumed by a cold darkness and every defense I'd bolstered in my head laying in smoldering ruin beneath an army of doubts.

I didn't have the right to tell Cherry to believe in herself. Look at you, Remember what you were. My mind told me. Remember what you overlooked down in that lab, remember Gina, and Babs!

"Dragonfire?" Cherry asked from behind me. My ears twitched back, and my head turned tentatively in fear she might just run away and leave me. "Urm, I can have a look at that, if it's okay," she proposed, motioning to the machine.

Every part of her was seemingly set on dismissing the massacre about her, and I knew focusing on picking a lock was about as far from it as she could hope to get. I looked back at the flickering image of sparkle-cola on the machine's front, before stepping swiftly aside.

"Go ahead," I told her as kindly as I could.

Her muzzle curled into a weak smile, then she trotted forward, raising her forehooves to the lock and telekinetically retrieving her bobby pin and screwdriver.

Clip jumped from her back, sliding down beside her and glancing at me. "Didn't think it would be this quiet down here... I mean it's not like I want anything to come get us, it's just ..."

"You don't trust silence?" I finished for him, and he gave me a knowing look as I levitated him onto my own back.

The pain threatened to flare again at the new weight, and I had to swallow another painkiller. The wasteland would not beat me, it would not make me weak, and I was certainly strong enough to carry him.

That's right, wasteland, I'm not weak at all! I mentally cursed, sticking out my tongue at the smug, metaphorical image of the post-apocalyptic world.

"That's the makings of a pony that's going to survive," I told Clip, and he gave a weak little laugh.

My eyes remained on Cherry at the words, however, and I noted that some parts of me longed to just stand there and watch her flank. I quickly suppressed such thoughts. Seriously, I was going mad, I was sure of it, and my mind still had time to think about those things.

I'd already assured myself I would not allow her to suffer that same humiliation, besides she wasn't my marefriend. She was my friend, and now she was a pony, a really cute, kind of nice-looking mare and not some traumatized raider victim, she…

No! I told my brain, and in an instant, the thoughts retreated away.

Fortunately, the pony sitting on my back didn't notice my brief moment of lust-filled staring and I swiftly looked to the left of the row of vending machines where the old remains of a shattered notice board still bore several weathered notices. 'Biggest gemstone ever excavated!' The bold title sat above an article that elaborated the respective gem was larger than the city hall. 'The miraculous discovery found days ago beneath the city, being referred to as the Desert Rose, is according to the Ministry of Arcane science, the largest natural gemstone ever recorded. Measuring a staggering one-hundred meters in length, the gemstone is to be subjugated to many on-location tests. Mine owners and workers have been compensated for the closure of several tunnels, yet tension still run high as to whom the discovery really belongs'.
Another article below it told of a record-breaking win for a pony in Las' Pegasus. 'Lucky pony Balthazar Gold wins a staggering 200 million bits during an excessive gambling spree on Equestria's biggest strip'.

Wish I had that many caps. I mentally sighed as my eyes fell down to the last of the still-readable articles.

'Explosion at Fort Sandstone: state prison, kills several inmates. Experts from the M.o.M and Equestrian defense force are still working to discover the source of the explosion, which is thought to be an escape attempt gone wrong.' I couldn't help but snicker at that one, what idiot would try and blow themselves up to get out of jail? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

Then I recalled at least two occasions I'd escape capture with naught but a grenade. Okay, point taken.
A map of the metro network sat beside the notices, the blue background gave the fine white map of the tunnels an almost blueprint-like appearance ruined only by the big 'you are here' that sat over the south station. The map lined up almost perfectly with the one on my Pipbuck, minus the new tunnels and collapses over the decades. The words 'They come to take our jobs' were written in weeping ink across some of the maps too. Glancing back at the others, I saw Cherry still struggling with the vending machine and Sky helping Ochre walk towards us. One thing I did know was that I still had to find a way to the Stable-Tec building, otherwise this whole venture was pointless for me.

What about the ponies whose lives you're trying to save? My mind asked, and once again I felt a flood of guilt for thinking about things like that.

Even so, I focused my attention on the map. Running my forehoof over the moist plastic, I spotted an access tunnel that exited close to the central plaza my Pipbuck had marked. The M.A.S, Desert Springs hub, and its neighbors, the South West Equestria Stable-Tec Hub, and the area's Oracle HQ, were all situated around the open space. Unfortunately, the tunnel up to them was sitting right above a large area of crisscrossing tracks labeled 'Subterranean loading bay: 2'. I highly doubted the Brazens would leave that large of an area directly under the center of town unguarded or unoccupied for that matter. Nevertheless, the fact we were so close to it and still hadn't seen anypony, anypony alive that was. Was also somewhat unsettling. A bloody message splayed across the far left side of the public notice board only twisted those suspicions into something unnervingly sinister. 'They're all around you!'

All around us? I questioned the words in my mind before looking about, there was nothing, but water, rubble, and... corpses.

There was a smooth clunk above the gushing of water, and the sound echoed painfully through the station as Cherry removed the lock and opened one of the vending machines. In the same instant, a bar of text flashed through my vision and I froze. 'I would advise caution.' One by one, small red bars began to flash into existence on my E.F.S, yet looking over the field of corpses I couldn't see anything hostile. Then my head swiveled to the pink mare in horror, and her proud smile instantly dropped as our eyes met.

Whether I could see the danger or not, it was too late. They were all around us, and they'd definitely noticed. The few red dots on my Pipbucks E.F.S swiftly began to multiply, as an army of dormant hostiles began to wake up. It was a testament to how stupid I was for letting us come down here, no wonder the slavers had no defenses, they didn't need them! The pile of bodies behind my friend shifted in the moist air as did all of the others strewn about the station.

'Number of Targets, Calculating…' My visor brokenly declared, trying to crackle to life even in its damaged state. Yet my new Pipbuck made me all too aware of how many there were, too many. Like an army of the dead, hundreds of them rose from the field of corpses, hundreds of ravenous, red-eyed ghouls.

"Run!" I screamed as the festering horde rose up, bearing many rows of gnashing jaws.

With a blood-curdling growl, one of the living corpses erupted into the air behind Cherry. Without thought, I blasted the thing with a flurry of red light. The beams lanced across the rotten monster's hide, tearing its head to sizzling ribbons, and it fell limp beside her. Before I could even recognize the hit, however, another grizzled hiss sounded to my right and before I even knew it, I felt a pair of rotten forehooves over my back. The weight caused my legs to give out, and Clip rolled off of me as I fell. I heard Cherry shout something, yet her attention became focused on both Sky and Ochre as I battled the ghoul atop me. A combination of weak limbs, and the fact I had my back to the thing, gave it the advantage and before I could shake it off, it bit down furiously. Foul teeth gnashed against the dragon scale as it fought to get at the flesh beneath.

Almost instinctively, I bucked hard with my rear hooves sending my rump smashing up into its shriveled stomach. I knew a few tricks when it came to being pinned on my front, and the force sent the former pony flying back. Then its head exploded as Clip fired his shotgun. Another ghoul emerged from the gloom behind him, and I leaped right at it. Before the colt could even turn the ghoul had planted its teeth into my rump. Once again the dragon scales saved my hide from a mauling, but that didn't stop my crippled limbs from ensuring I fell again. Grimacing at the pain, I rolled onto my front, shaking the ghoul off and kicking it right between its glowing red eyes. It fell back, raising its hooves to its face and hissing angrily. I withdrew my hind legs and pounded it a second time, smashing its disfigured face into the vile ichor ghouls called blood.

Wait, was that glowing a faint orange too? Goddesses, not even the ghouls in this damn place are right! I noted as the goo dribbled over my armor.

"I've had far worse things wanting to take a good piece of my rump, thank you!" I grunted loudly, wincing at the pain in my gut as the bucking motion threatened to tear my insides apart.

That didn't stop me from beating its foul excuse for a face to a slimy, glowing mess with several more kicks, before striking another savage beast with the butt of my blaster as it lunged for me. Clip just looked at me, stunned for a brief moment before I levitated him up with my magic. The pain in my legs suggested that I may not be able to carry him anymore, while levitating him and using my weapon was becoming increasingly hard for my swirling mind. That didn't stop him from firing at several ghouls, all of whom found out that even he wasn't an easy meal as his shotgun reduced them to bloody mush. In the frantic blur of combat, the wet darkness about me was randomly illuminated by a bright flash as Cherry fired my magical energy pistol into more of the zombie ponies, keeping the monsters away from Sky and Ochre as they staggered over.

"We need to get out of here!" I declared urgently, bringing a heavy forehoof down on the ghoul I'd just struck with my blaster. They glanced up at me as I fired weakly into the face of an encroaching ghoul, and despite the fear, I could swear I could see a sarcastic 'no, you don’t say' expression on Sky's face.

"Come on!" I shouted, motioning behind me at the rubble pile beneath the shattered roof.

Sky's look then changed to one that told me that the ghouls were not the only ponies who she was going to kill. The look I shot back only told her we had to survive this before anypony was going to kill anypony else. Cherry seemed hesitant to move anywhere in the confusion. Moments later Clip blasted a pair of leaping ghouls behind her and she swiftly bolted along the clear path toward us.

"Get to the other tunnel, I have an idea!" I instructed as she passed me, wincing at the pain in my stomach.

She stopped at my side, lime green eyes wide with both panic and worry. "Go!" I hissed, magically placing Clip on her back.

A new pain struck me as the pink mare's expression fell into something like that of a timid foal. She trusts me, doesn't she? She trusts I I'm not lying to her again, right?

That vulnerable expression was torn away a moment later as the deep instinct to survive took hold and I nearly shoved her toward the top of the concrete pile. She moved moments before I could do so, scampering up the rubble. A moment later, both Sky and Ochre were past me and I began to backpedal up the pile of rubble, blasting the ghouls back with more controlled blasts of magical energy as I reached the peak of the mound. The sound of similar energy blasts behind me told me that there was probably more of them to gun down on the other side, it also told me that I was going to have to be fast.

With a grunt of pain, I looked to the floor below. Several more zombie ponies were advancing from my side. More still crawled over from the opposite platform flowing across the flooded tracks as a shambling horde. I brought my blaster up, sending several searing bolts of energy into the oncoming hoard, while blindly spraying plasma into the others. There was a horrid chorus of wet pops, harsh screams, and hisses as at least five of the zombies were reduced to wet ash, while two more were gruesomely dismembered and fell convulsing to the soaked platform. The bitter stench of their boiled flesh mixing with that of decomposition.

Yet for all the ones that fell, two more were unscathed enough to persist and began clumsily scaling the rubble. Savage jaws snapped, flared nostrils emitting a faint orange glow as they snared like rabid dogs. With an experienced twitch of my magic, I reloaded my blaster. Tossing the empty spark batteries at them for good measure.

Who knows maybe it could have hit one in the eye or something? The thought was irrelevant, however, and once again I brought the barrel of my blaster to bear on the hoard, adding all the firepower my horn could cope with.

"Look out!" Was all I heard one of the others call out amidst a horrific screech in my right ear.

I spun around, only to see a savage corpse lunge down at me from what was left of the station's upper bridge. I moved my weapon to blast the creature. Yet with no time to pull the trigger, the length of the energy rifle forced between us was the only thing blocking me from those teeth as the ghoul collided with me hooves first. I couldn't help but scream, both in terror and agony as I was thrust to the cold rubble and began to slip down its far side, a set of gnashing jaws only inches from my helmet. The ghoul hissed, sputtering vile secretions over my visor with every jolt. Images of Gina standing over me, her head marred by that brain creature came flickering back to me as the magic in my horn flared.

A bright spout of cyan fire hissed forth, searing the ghoul's face. The creature thrashed wildly, trying to batt the fire away as I pressed all four hooves against its underside and bucked up. It flew upwards as my hind legs did as instructed, yet my forehooves burned like they were on fire and gave out, sending the ghoul's teeth right down at my face. I shifted my head, missing its teeth by inches, but the creature took the opportunity to bring its scorched jaw down onto the underside of my left shoulder as my forehoof stretched up weakly. The softer underside of my barding was no match for the sharp needles it called teeth, and all I did was cry out in pain as the serrated blades tore at my soft flesh and my magic failed, weapons clattering away from me.

In a frantic struggle, I brought all three of my free hooves to bear, beating them against the ghoul's rotten hide with all of my might. It didn't seem to be going anywhere, however, and its maw was still firmly wrapped around my shoulder. I couldn't stop screaming, in my ravaged brain those accusations came forth and I could do nothing but understand as they told me how much I deserved to die this way. The idea both terrified me and relieved me. Suddenly a pair of pink hooves connected with the beast's head, and there was a sharp, bloody pop as the force yanked its teeth from my flesh. The zombie pony gave a garbled cry, my blood slavering gruesomely from its blackened muzzle as it looked up towards Cherry angrily.

"Get away from her, you creep!" she growled fearsomely, before opening fire with several more beams of magical energy, bullets, and whatever else she had to blast the creature down with. Ultimately, magical energy proved best as the ghoul was reduced to glowing pink ash after only a few seconds.

"You ugly fuckers better stay back too!" she called, turning to face the ghouls still clambering over the rubble towards us, opening fire upon them with bursts of energy and loud shots from Responsibility.

My whole body screamed in pain, my head, shoulder, my right forehoof, my stomach, heck even my tail felt as if it was on fire. The scent of burning ghoul and festering death clogged my nose. Those dark accusations within my mind faded but every fiber of my being still told me how much of an idiot I was. The same survival instinct bucked the distraction in the face as I looked to my left shoulder. It was smothered in dark crimson, more gushing forth by the second.

I pulled the straps of my barding tight, slowing as much of the bleeding as I could, then adrenalin took hold and I staggered to my hooves, telekinetically retrieving my weapons. My companion meanwhile, sent bolt after bolt of magical energy and bullet alike into the zombies below. It was as if she were somepony else entirely, she looked unwavering, determined, and yet only fuelled by fear. She looked angry with them, with everypony, even herself. Just like me…

Priorities! My mind screamed.

Peering over the opposite edge of the rubble I saw several more ghouls scampering up from behind her, then I saw Clip and the others backing up into the flooded tunnel, naught but his shotgun and the revolver Sky had finally been forced to use holding back the hoard. At the sight of the blue colt limping through the water, however, that underlying instinct wrapped its tendrils around my mind and slammed reality into me with the force of a train.

"Cherry, come on!" I coughed, still gagging on the taste of ghoul drool.

Warm blood pooled beneath my barding, yet before I could look the pink mare's eyes snapped to me furiously. She was frozen there, those lime-green spheres burned angrily for a long moment. My eyes merely quivered painfully. She truly looked like a different mare. Now I was looking at her and I didn't see who I'd told only minutes ago not to doubt herself. Now I saw a pony who'd had a hard life of loss and pain, all at the hooves of others. I saw a pony who was angry at the world trying to take everything from her. It was another truth of the wasteland. Was it anger, a secretly building rage that fuelled her to make a difference? Was that what had forced her to go after her friends, told her to go after Sky's distress signal? I was naught but the cowering little wreck I'd been when the wasteland had stolen from me those which I loved most and now…

By the goddesses Dragonfire you have no idea. My mind hissed.

Then Cherry's angry expression wavered, and a look at my bloodied shoulder seemed to call her back to the urgent reality.

"Dragonfire! You're..." she declared urgently.

I raised a forehoof grimacing at the pain as I motioned for her to stop.

"No, we need to get off this... Platform, now!" I forced, my weak tone and coughing doing nothing to set her concerns to rest.

She looked hesitant, even with the shambling of a hundred approaching ghouls.

Before she could object in any way, however, I turned towards the downward rubble slope. I heard her hooves shuffle uneasily. "Dragonfire you can't make it like..."

"I can worry about all the shit that is wrong with me when we're out of here!" I cut her off sharply, knowing she was gonna speak the moment my wounded body began to falter.

Then, without even so much as a word, I brought my blaster up, my horn feeling like a hot screw twisting back into my skull, as I rapidly pulled the trigger. What few ghouls Cherry had left on this side of the rubble were swiftly reduced to true corpses. The sound of more gunfire behind me and the sight of a hoard mowing over the top of the train cars across the platform only hastened my staggering as I fumbled clumsily towards the flooded tracks.

This, or a flooded tunnel full of enemies? My mind asked. But it was like I'd said, I'd been through worse, there had always been worse, and at least this time I had a plan.

The survivalist part of me would not allow me to go on without at least some kind of plan. Looking back I saw Cherry swiftly descend the rubble as she fired blindly up at the tide of hungry dead boiling over the peak. I turned, firing up at them, and backpedaled painfully, Cherry mimicking my actions as she was forced to reload.

"Get back!" I declared as my rear hooves met the platform's edge.

Sky and the others had backed right up into the tunnel, their shots taking out the ghouls trying to wade across the tracks to get at us. Cherry glanced reluctantly back at the inky water, then of all the places she could look, her firm gaze was directed at me.

"I'm not leaving you," she declared as strongly as she could.

I felt a surge of many emotions, pain, fear, pride... Horror. Even a spark of goodness. All of which were swept away as the zombie hoard began its clear stretch toward us.

"I'm not asking you to, now get into the tunnel!" I called out in the firmest tone my beaten body could muster.

I hoped she trusted me, trust was a two-way thing. She hopped back, I heard the sound of splashing as she galloped toward the others. One of the ghouls lunged at me and gained a blast of energy to the face for its trouble. Another leaped forward and I fell back into the water, the thrashing creature's momentum carrying it over me and smashing into the other side of the platform with a loud thud. Without thought, I bolted for the tunnel after Cherry and the others. My painful wreck of a body was forced to go faster than it was able to, the water making it all the harder to gallop.

The cold liquid felt as if it were dragging me back toward the hungry horde with every step. That only became more apparent as the flow of shambling corpses began to fumble down from the platform and onto the flooded tracks. Now I knew all my friends were in the tunnel ahead of me, however, I looked up and focused nowhere else. There was another surge of splashes as the horde behind fought the resistance of the water too, yet they surged through it like more of a wave then whatever I could call my pathetic excuse for movement.

"Ha! I'm dead anyway, you fuckers!" I called, knowing they were about to end up the same way any second now.

My magic flared reaching into my saddlebags, pulling the pin on one of my magical energy grenades, and levitating it up towards the tunnel's arched roof. The strain of holding it there and levitating my weapons was proving too much for my weakened body, and I ended up tossing my rifles forward into the tunnel moments before I leaped toward the others. In the same instant, my magic flared brightly, and I thrust the energy grenade right up. Holding it there as I fumbled as far into the tunnel as I could.

"Get down!" Was all I could cry through the cold water lapping at my muzzle before a bright ball of energy turned the darkness into a distant mockery of daylight for a split second.

Then, in an earth-shattering boom, the light was gone and the tunnel collapsed atop the hoard. A pressure wave of both air and water surged over my back at the same moment, and as I fell forwards into the river the world was plunged back into cold, crushing blackness.

********

My Pipbuck's light flickered to life. Moments later, I rose to the churning surface of the water, gasping for breath as the force of the collapse rippled through the tunnel. All the time I didn't spend flailing about like some beached fish or coughing up a storm, was spent praying to the goddesses that the rest of the roof wasn't about to come down on top of me. The moment my frantic squirming forced my hooves into contact with the silt-laden floor, I pushed up. Only to stagger as my left shoulder and foreleg throbbed painfully. Stumbling to the left I felt a cool wet surface rub against my side, it was only a moment later that I fell back against the grime-laden wall, and grit my teeth to block out the pain.

Damn it Dragonfire, this was a bad idea. No more doubts, no more mental breakdowns, no more nothing. This was simply a bad idea and you knew it! My mind went on and on, over and over. Now you're gonna be lucky to get out of this goddesses damn place alive!

My magic flared weakly, illuminating the area about me more so. In the new light, I looked down at the mauled flesh on my shoulder, barely even able to see the darkened blood stain seeping from my torn barding. I knew my thoughts were right, we'd only scratched the surface of what threats Crimson had to offer. There was still a town of armed slavers to get through, and goddesses only know what else. I was quickly beginning to doubt how I'd even survived so long out here, considering that I had been making decisions this recklessly. There's always been somepony else there, Star, my mother, at least a town or two, for me to go back to, and now... Now there was no pony. It was at times like this, with nopony else to rely on that I truly began making the wrong decisions. Hell, it was one of my stupid decisions that got me into this mess in the first place. I didn't have to take that stupid job.

I'd known the moment I heard about the bounty that it was strange. Not to mention the strange pony Griddle had brought in with her at the time. I should have just said no, I didn't have to support Star when he said we'd take it. I didn't have to leave him or follow that damn robot into the Destiny labs. I didn't have to walk so blindly into this trap that somepony seemed to have elaborately set for me. I almost growled like some wild dog at the thought of all of those stupid mistakes. Yet pain swiftly turned my frustration into a whimper.

"Dragonfire! Dragonfire!" Cherry called out amidst her own coughing and desperate gasps for air.

I felt myself lurch forward only to fall back against the wall as the pain flared once more. "I'm over here!" I shouted into the gloom, waving my Pipbuck's light.

The moment I did so, all I saw to my right was a restless pile of settling dust and rubble. To my left was nothing but an endless abyss of gloom and inky blackness. The rippling sheet of water was only broken by the bright sheen of Cherry's wet coat as the light hit her. Then Sky's, Ochre's, and finally Clip as the colt leaned against his weapon for support. I glanced at my shoulder again, then before she could see too much gruesome detail, I downed a healing potion and took out a roll of magical healing bandages. By the time I'd wrapped it in healing material, however, she'd been looking at me shamefully for a good long minute. Evidently, my medical skills were not adequate enough to provide her with the result she wanted, nor did they meet the standards of our new doctor it seemed, as Sky also regarded me with stern worry.

"You have to be about the most reckless mare I've ever met," the pale mare exclaimed, in a tone that suggested half of her wanted to strangle me and half wanted to hug me. A shot of Med-X later and I felt a great deal more of the pain subside. "That should last until we get out of here, at least... I hope," she added reluctantly as she straightened my bandages with her own magic, then looked to Cherry.

The pink mare looked over herself, then shook her head. "They need you more than I do," Cherry said, motioning to about everypony other than herself.

"Clearly," Sky muttered sourly, looking back at me before moving over to Ochre who'd been resting against the wall while her mare friend tended to the rest of us.

"Clearly, you all need each other, we'd be dead in that damn factory by now if not for them," she scorned, while Sky grumbled something inaudibly. It was clear she knew how right her words were, even if she didn't like them.

"Don't hold your breath, we're not out of this yet," I told them, rising to my hooves shakily.

The chem had already begun to subdue my pain, and the healing stimuli would probably hold out until I could get some real medical attention. I just hoped none of the drugs would impede my already fading perception. Cherry, meanwhile, still didn't look happy with the state any of us were in, me in particular.

Before she could voice those concerns, however, I spoke. "You okay?"

No, of course, she not okay, nopony is ever okay. Regardless, she nodded lightly.

"Are you?" She replied quietly, her voice taking on a tone all too similar to the one that had asked me not to lie to her again.

At first, I thought about hiding my true feelings, I didn't want her to know what I thought about all this, lest I slip up again. "More or less, thanks to you," I assured her.

"Good, then we can get going?" Sky added bluntly, resuming her place supporting Ochre.

Clip limped forwards, and without thought, I levitated him back onto Cherry's back. "The tunnels should still take us out but, I have no real idea where we are after..." He trailed off as he looked back at the rubble wall.

"Don't worry there's another way out, I saw it on the map back there. Plus, I'm learning how to use this," I offered, waving my Pipbuck where they all could see. "Besides, it takes more than a ghoul to kill me anyway," I declared bluntly, gesturing to my bloody shoulder as I fished in the water to retrieve my weapons

The look they gave me was skeptical at the very least, but it wasn't like we had much of a choice. Taking the lack of argument as agreement, I waded forward and took the lead, watching my Pipbucks map and E.F.S closely. The thing was still marked by several red bars, yet I had no idea what may be between us and them, nor if they were above or below us. The only thing that resisted me now was the foul-smelling water as it slithered by me like a thick goop.

Before I took more than a few steps, however, I noticed that in the gloom ahead, there was a faint green glow. Pinned to the far right tunnel, the flickering light seemed to sit above a small metal platform at the rail side. Its elevated height made it sit just above the inky blackness of the water.

"Hey, you think you can open that?" I asked Cherry, nodding in the direction of the service door.

She paused, thinking deeply for a moment. It was becoming clear that relying on her eagerness to be useful to make her happy was not going to work for much longer. She was starting to care about me far too much, and Just as she'd found out I was only trying to save her, not really trying to help her make a difference, she was figuring out everything wrong with me too. I wondered how long it would take her to uncover just how bad of a pony I was and consider how wrong she'd been for following me.

The pink mare regarded me for a moment, then she looked up to the locked door. "I can try," she stated, a frail confidence emerging in her tone.

I nodded, trying my best to hide the pain behind my thoughts as both Cherry and Clip made their way to the service door, the latter sitting watchfully at her side as she began to work on the lock. At that, I turned back and looked at the others.

"You get up there too, the sooner we get out of this tunnel the better," I advised, motioning to the door.

"How many more times are you going to remind us of that?" Sky retorted dryly.

A sudden disturbance in the silence behind us broke the neutral tension, and the three of us looked at each other. Then back at the rubble, only to see small parts of it begin to crumble as the sound of a hundred scratching hooves began growing like the buzz of a thousand angry bees. The fuckers are still after us? Damn these ghouls are the most tenacious in the damn wasteland!

"I think you're both right, now less talk and more moving please," Ochre added tersely, staggering forwards and forcing Sky to do the same. I backed away from the rubble, my weapons ready once again.

"It's gonna take a while to get through this, this door it's... I... No, no, I can do it," Cherry stuttered as she focused harder on the lock.

"As long as we're not around here when they get through, it’s fine with me," I said to her, and that statement earned me a few uncertain glances from the others.

Cherry merely locked eyes with the metal mechanism as if her stare could break it alone. I really wished one of us had an ability like that right now. Regardless, I positioned myself between them and the imminent threat as the sounds of burrowing grew unnervingly louder.

"Goodness... I've not seen one like this in a long time... I..." she mumbled as I heard her magic force the bobby pin, breaking it. "Urg, c'mon, you stupid lock!" she cursed, taking out another pin.

I swallowed nervously, eaten by a hoard of hungry zombie ponies underground was still not how I wanted to go. Even if I was set on the, 'soon to die train' already, there were still things I needed to do before whatever Overseer had done killed me.

You weren't thinking that when you were fighting for your life a few minutes ago. My mind stated. That's because between now and then, I'd decided to stop letting you speak, Brain! I retorted mentally.

I had to trust Cherry, trust she could get us out of this. "Hey you almost managed this when that big bug thing was after us, you can do this," I called back encouragingly, and I saw Sky mouth the words, 'Bug thing' with a perplexed look.

Then my eyes were forced back to the wall of rubble as another larger chunk fell into the water. A second later another splash sounded, yet not from the rubble pile ahead of me, this one came from the tunnel behind us. Cherry gave a nervous whimper as she fumbled at the lock.

"Don't worry it's just falling concrete," I told everypony reassuringly, hesitantly turning my attention from the rubble and to the darkness of the empty tunnel opposite.

Clip did the same, and I knew from the red bars that there were most certainly other undesirable things working their way toward us from all angles. Even in the fading glow of my horn and Pipbuck, I saw many of them move into positions that suggested they were either in the tunnel, directly above or below it. The sound of two more splashes ahead made me doubt it was either of the latter realities and I wrapped Clip in my magic. Pulling him away from the edge of the small stairs as I moved between the water and my friends. The sound of hooves splashing in the shallow water came moments later.

"Doesn't sound like concrete to me," Sky stated, levitating up her revolver.

The wall of rubble wasn't fairing well either and I felt myself torn between which set of zombie ponies was gonna get to us first. Assuming what had dropped into the water ahead wasn't something worse. The image of the large, chitinous creature that had attacked us at the radio station came to mind. The lack of any power generators to help kill it this time made the thought even more unnerving.

Damn it, Dragonfire! Really not the best thing to think about right now! Even so, I could swear I caught a glimpse of shimmering red eyes through a hole that had just opened in the rubble wall.

Suddenly, another splash sounded in the water across from the platform, I even saw the cold liquid splash against my visor as something writhed and heaved in the black ink.

"There I got it!" Cherry called out triumphantly, her words heralded by a soft click as the security door slid open.

Before I could react, however, the water to my right exploded. I levitated Clip through the door and as far from the leaping ghoul as possible, but in an instant, the creature had reached the platform. Cherry screamed, the living corpse landing atop her, wet hooves wrapping about her as its teeth clattered against the barding on the back of her neck. I swung around with all the force I could, no concern for the pain I knew I'd be feeling when the chems wore off.

"Get the fuck off her, you fucker!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I sent my rear hooves into the creature's skull.

It recoiled, giving a gargled hiss as it slipped back. Cherry kicked up, her rear legs connecting with the beast's stomach and sending it flying back.

"Get in here you two!" Came Sky's voice from the other side of the door.

I felt a small spark of relief as I realized they'd gotten themselves through. Seconds later there was another growl and that relief was stolen as another ghoul erupted from the water. I bolted through the door as the zombie pony leaped up. It wrapped its hooves over the metal rail on the track side of the platform and reached out for my tail with its jaws. Cherry made it through the door just before me. The ghoul clambered over the bars and tried to grab my hind legs. The next brief moment was one spent begging the goddesses I didn't trip.

The moment I was through the door I slammed it shut with all the force of my magic. Seconds later, another magical aura flared as Sky forced a locker up against the door. Without thought, I swung around and pointed my Saddle blaster right at the sealed opening and fell back onto my haunches gasping for breath. My chest heaved heavily, my heart racing like an engine, forcing blood through my retching body with more fury than a raging river. All the while my wide eyes quivered, locked on the sealed door as the clang of hungry hooves upon the opposite side rang out. Every moment I sat there was one just spent hoping the fuckers couldn't get through. Only after several long seconds of banging scraping and clattering failed to produce any ghouls, did my breathing finally slow and I took in a great lungful of air.

Wiping the thick, wet strands of my soaked mane from my misted visor, I heard the steady assault upon the opposite side of the door grind to an eerily silent halt. It vanished a second later, leaving only the faint hum of the dull light above us to fill the air. Collecting myself, I looked around to find we were now in a dimly lit service tunnel. Dark gray concrete formed every surface, trapping us within a cold rectangular tomb, its constant gray surface only broken by rows of pipes, service wires, and to my right, a small window.

It was, I recognized, unnervingly similar to the place I spent most of my time back in Churn, yet instead of humid and steamy this tunnel was strangely chilly. Clip and Sky seemed just as reluctant to take their eyes off the door. Ochre leaned against the wall beside the blue unicorn and Cherry was sat up against the wall to my left, a forehoof rubbing the back of her neck tenderly. The initial urge to ask the obviously flawed question was resisted. Nopony here was okay.

"Looks like we all owe you another one," I stated, in as friendly a tone as I could muster, motioning to the door.

Cherry just sniffed, wiping her nose with a forehoof before nodding weakly. Then she lowered her other forehoof and just sat there for a moment. She was thinking again, she did a lot of that.

Well of course she does, she's a smart pony. My mind snapped harshly as if some part of it really doubted the idea.

I once again quickly suppressed that thought, before looking forward. There I saw another door on the right wall of the room, the words 'you were warned' painted in dark crimson upon the cold metal. Unfortunately, that wasn't all that the blood covered. The floor was smothered in it, like a foul dark carpet several trails of which led out under the door we'd just sealed. Bloody hoof marks dotted the cold gray walls, some of which appeared to have been dragged across it, once again pointing back toward the outer door. I had a horrible feeling that being somepony in here when that door was open, wasn't the best way to go. That was evident more so by a number of disembodied limbs and splayed torsos up against the far wall, the gnawed entrails of which led out in the same direction as most of the crimson decor.

The more time passed, the more the sight seemed to affect everypony. Even after the sea of corpses outside this was a shock, yet not as much as I knew it should be. I forced my own mind away from the idea and tried not to let my eyes linger upon the bloody message scrawled across the inner door. Instead, I focused my attention on Cherry who was lifting herself from the blood-soaked floor. She looked at the gruesome display and at least tried to sink back into that stoic cocoon the last day had forced her into. That weak resolve finally seemed to be failing her though.

"I'll get the door," she stated flatly, and I shuddered at the things my mind persisted to tell me.

It took her only two attempts to get through what she told me was another well-locked door. Can't imagine why some pony would go to so much effort to keep it that way... Oh, wait there's an army of zombies out there.

Beyond the inner door was a small corridor and yet another door, once again locked. Nevertheless, Cherry set to work on it just as swiftly. I hoped it would be the last thing keeping us with our backs to the ghoul-infested subway tunnels. To the right of the corridor was a small room, and I stepped into it to allow Sky and Ochre space in the tight corridor. I was surprised to find myself fighting the urge not to gag at the foul scent of a trash can filled with very old, rotten scraps of meat and bone. Nevertheless, I was greeted with a small square box that looked to be some kind of office. On the far side sat a rusted old set of metal shelves, to my left was a locker, beside which was the smelly trash can.

Opposite, was a desk complete with a terminal, drawers, and what appeared to be a scribbled-on stack of dried paper. After salvaging what I could from the shelves; two packs of sugar apple bombs, a sparkle-cola, and several stacks of ammo for my scoped rifle, as well as some for Sky's revolver. I began looking through the cabinet. All I discovered there was an old magazine that I was amazed had survived all of the floods that must happen down here. 'Today's locksmith', well unless I was planning on twiddling with a screwdriver and bobby pin myself, I knew somepony who'd really appreciate this.

After clearing most of the room of salvage there was only one thing left, the terminal. Somewhat reluctantly I shifted over to it, sitting on an old stool that sat before the desk. A mix of both curiosity and caution wrapped over my mind as I looked at the flickering green screen. One emotion fought to slow my actions enough to ensure that Cherry would finish before I could snoop around. The other retaliated just enough to encourage me to hook my Pipbuck up to the terminal. Looking at the device on my foreleg, I tried to ignore the red bars skulking all around me, and after a rather easy hacking attempt, I got into the terminal.

The password was 'Null?' Damn, wasn't somepony a genius?

I was granted with several audio files for my efforts. Most of which were recent, only from weeks ago, reaching back about a few months. One lone entry seemed to predate the bombs, however, and I selected that recording first hoping it was pre-apocalypse enough to be at least something not emotionally desolating. A crackling of static filled the air, lasting for a long moment.

Great, it's just another dud. I mentally sighed. I was about to shut it off when the hiss of a distant voice began to emerge from the heavy static.

"Thhhiiss iiiissss...... Gooollenssssttttoeee." A Buck sounded over the buzzing of the recording before it cut out with a sharp beep, then all of a sudden the recording gave a buzzing pop and the voice continued.

"Finally, thank Celestia they finally got that thing under control. Anyway, as I was trying to say this is Golden Stone, checking in for what feels like the first time in a month. All the systems have been on the fritz ever since they found that damn thing in the mines! I mean, I know the normal rose crystals have a way with electronics, but that's only like sticking a weak magnet next to your terminal at most. That thing they have down there in the south-east tunnels…

I don't know, it's like one massive magnet screwing with everything in the city! Ever since they dug it up I've been fighting to get these damn things working. I can't be sure if the thing's even working now, I'm just talking to it because what else am I supposed to do down here? They've shut this track down for maintenance, so here I am running as standby engineer on a track that's being worked on by a whole team of engineers just up the rail!

Damn, this job. I knew I should have gone on strike with the rest of the miners when I had the chance. Stupid Ministry messing with us all. Don't get me started on Oracle, never heard of them before, but damn, they don't seem to care about anypony, least of all any of us. They all keep going on denying it, but everypony around here knows it's all the stupid M.A.S eggheads making that thing down there worse. The thing's not natural, and what do they do?

Go poke it with a big magical stick. It's like throwing rocks at a hornet's nest, I swear. Oh yeah, then there's that talk of putting the damn thing in a museum. They can shove that thing up their tails for all I care but. But now they want to keep it here? By Celestia, I really have to find a new job out of town."

The recording fell into static once more before fading away completely. At that I switched it off, moving to the second. My mind was wondering what the buck was talking about. Crystals? Well, if there was one magical thing I understood it was gems, I'd stuffed enough of the things into my weapons that was for sure. Desert Roses were what they called the red gems they found around here back before the war. Yet recalling the poster I'd glimpsed back in the station, I was reminded of a greater 'Desert Rose'. Then there was that word 'Oracle', I'd heard it before, but where?

I paused, a sickly feeling that I'd heard it back in Destiny Corp. labs not boding well with me at all. As for the gem? I knew the Roses had an effect on electronics, that was why nopony could use them to make weapons. They were more useful to use like magnets in the production of electricity. Even so, I'd never heard of a Desert Rose powerful enough to mess with an entire city. I mean if it were in a gun I'd... I had mental images of gigantic death lasers blasting down from the clouds, and felt strangely like a crazy raider boss I'd once met, who tried to mix some matrix disruption grenade with some of the red gemstones in question. The result of that misfortune was hardly productive, especially for him. All I knew for sure was that whatever this Desert Rose was, it looked like it was long gone. Especially if one of the goddesses damn ministries wanted their hooves on it. Regardless, I swiftly passed my attention to the next recording. This one was from only a few months ago, and at the sound of a grizzled buck, I instantly regretted it.

"Arrr, how wonderful we finally got this darn thing working again. It's been a couple of weeks' waste of perfect disciplinary material not having this darn... darn, thing working. That's the spark boys' problem downstairs though. I can finally get back to having some fun. Maulfiend’s finally gonna get his little set of warnings to make sure the darn miners do as they're told, not that he gives two fucks about that anymore. No, he's too chummy with them up on the mountain.

I'd say fuck him, but they'd probably just rape my mind like they did the others. I'm just in it for the blood, gore, and fine flank at the end of a good day. Helps keep the rage at bay, causin' pain, recording the slaves' pitiful pleas to come back in through the door... It's a good pain. It's extra good when they take a shot of gettin' back in. Don't think any of um' can read though. Warning I put on there might make um' really think about what they did if they could. Had to put little Breeze through the other night. Shame I couldn't record that show. Ha, ha, she was almost as good in there as she was in bed when the rotties came through to get her.

Haaahaaaa I love this darn job. Bet those rotten fuckers on the other side love it too, getting free meals every time one of the slaves really fucks up, and that fresh meat doesn't come cheap either. Hear that you zombie fuckers! Plus, now we got a new shipment coming in along the rails from Old Appaloosa. Way I hear it, we're in some good competition with those idealists in Fillydelphia.

Bet Mauls gonna hide behind his new friends when that comes to bite him too. I just hope these newbies survive the darn train ride, fuckers up there don't seem to have perfected that yet, and no slaves good to us dead. I mean, then they can't scream for me, I can't hear it either. Oh, yeah one last thing, Slate Chip. If you're in here next take a look at this darn needle caster thing or get the fucking shit off of my desk, or you'll be going through that door next, you fucking worm!"

The recording shut off there, my eyes fell over the many more that came after it. None of which I was ever going to risk listening to, the screams of ponies being eaten alive? I looked up through the blood and hoof-stained window before me at the room in which ponies had cried and screamed to get away from the ghouls, only to have those sounds drilled into the heads of the others. I'd been wrong about this place, I should have run right in over the bridge and just slaughtered as many of the despicable fuckers as I could. I was almost on the verge of tears as my mind reminded me this was the wasteland. This was not the worst thing I'd encountered, and just like that, I was dismissing it like I did all of those other awful things. I slipped back on the stool, then froze as I glanced behind me. Clip was there, looking at the screen.

"This is how they did it, isn't it?" he asked and I checked to see if I'd accidentally forgotten to plug in my ear bloom or something.

I hadn't, that meant he was a smarter pony than me. "You know?"

"They used to tell us where those recordings came from, nopony would question them, most believed it... But I never," he explained before his look turned strangely pitiful.

"You never... What?" I asked, with no intention of provoking any more of an answer should he remain silent.

His eyes fell slightly. "All I thought about was getting through the next few minutes alive. Hoping one day I'd get out... I never thought about any of the others really, even when the slavers came and took them away," he told me simply.

I stood up, looking down at him. "You're a strong little pony then, and I promise you'll get out," I assured him with a weak smile.

I knew things in his head were telling him to doubt that, but he mirrored the weak expression. I was just glad that nopony else had heard, or even guessed about the recording as he had. No pony needed to know that such cruelty could exist. While I didn't know how Ochre or Sky would feel about the traditions of those who'd nearly captured them, I knew I couldn't let Cherry find out what had been going on down here. She was a better pony, I had to preserve all of that while I could. At that, I turned tail to the terminal screen, thankful for the pain relief Sky had given me as I bucked my hind hooves right through it.

"No more recording for you, you sick fuck," I hissed, then looked back at Clip.

The feeling at least seemed mutual, and at that, my eyes came to rest upon the piles of scribbled paper that sat on the desk just beside the broken terminal. It seemed the pony mentioned in the recording had never removed their stuff after all, and at that, I wondered if some of the blood in the other room had been theirs. I shuddered, then looked at the papers to find they were some kind of blueprint detailing how a pony might possibly make a special needle caster from a collaboration of rare parts as well as a desert rose gem.

I had no idea whether it was an energy weapon, ballistic, or non-lethal. But as much as I despised every aspect of what I'd just heard about these ponies, I wrapped the blueprints in my magic and stuffed them into my saddle bags. My Pipbuck's new inventory spell kindly sorted them for me, labeling them as Red Needler blueprints. If nothing else, it would at least keep these filthy ponies from ever getting their hooves on such a weapon. I almost wanted to turn back and act upon my bold statement about torching the bridge at that idea.

As I exited the room, however, I was met with a triumphant. "Yes!" from Cherry, followed by a set of relieved sighs from the others.

Preserve her, save her. Keep at least one good pony in the wasteland. My mind repeated as the door slid open to reveal another tight, pipelined corridor.

"Here, you'll understand this better than me," I informed Cherry generously, levitating the copy of Today's Locksmith over to her.

She looked at it skeptically, then, despite all the things I knew were going on in her head, her muzzle curled into a smile. "Don't know if I've read that one, thanks," she stated appreciatively.

It was a welcome change to her blunt tone, and as much as I resented the idea, her cuteness was another major reason to save her. I stepped into the doorway, my Pipbuck very kindly reminding me that the quickest way to the subterranean loading bay was to the left as was the quickest way to the Stable-tec Hub. I still had to figure out how to get to the latter with the others, yet I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Right now, all I was doing was keeping them all alive.

"Come on, Pipbuck says the way out is this way," I stated.

I could also see several red bars marked on my E.F.S just ahead. But in truth, every slaver I mowed down after hearing what they did to ponies down here, just meant a little less suffering and cruelty in this already far too hard and cruel world. I just hoped stopping as many of the evil ponies as I could absolve me of all the other things I'd done wrong as of late.

********

Okay, so this really is a bad plan. I was beginning to realize that now more than ever. But what choice do we have?

The massive chamber I was now staring at was a monument to just how bad an idea this was turning out to be. The colossal crossing of train lines, tunnels, and industrial machinery looked more like the mangled wires I'd seen inside terminals expanded tenfold. Pipes and cables hung from a crumbling concrete roof, trailing down the equally dilapidated walls. The smooth concrete that formed the wall was cracked and marred by huge fissures, water, and brown sewage cascading outwards from within. Crude bridges of rubble and frail catwalks traversed the space between the holes in the wall and the pits that dotted the ground. The smell of blood, sweat, sewage and explosive cordite filled the baking-hot air, as did the scent of molten steel.

The screeching of train cars rang out as many tones of rusted pre-war carriages were dragged over gnarled tracks. The clang of hammers, whirring machinery, and cries of an abused workforce joined the sounds, as did the cracking of whips and bang of guns. Monolithic pillars of concrete were covered by thick metal frames, and massive service elevators carried up large supply crates between huge industrial pipes. Mining pits and cages sat down between flame-spurting pipes, and some even hung from high up on the subterranean towers. Rattling chains and sparking wires were coated in sickly sprays from above as rain trickled down across their electrical surfaces to form frothy brown pools in the deepest pits below.

Across the many tracks and steel-encased pillars, I could see several large metal drums and even more rusted boxcars sinking into the mud. Dark caldrons were coated in hardened slag as their insides glowed red with the bubbling, molten liquid that was poured down into them from the larger stone vats above. Streams of the glowing hot gloop drained out from holes in their bases, flowing down long pathways before disappearing into yet more drums. Around them, a vast assortment of metalworking equipment ground on and on. Rollers, cutters, and saws all ground into the cooling metal as if somepony had dragged a whole steel mill underground into this infernal pit. Hell, it was how I'd imagined Fillydelphia, just with more stone and less red sky. In fact, now, this was far more like the fiery lair of some kind of evil, mechanical dragon.

The spurts of flame, the clouds of embers, the smoke, and the fact the air itself glowed with an orange hue like some infernal chasm, only supported that idea. I was even terrified to look at the massive chamber's far corner where a huge chasm, exposed to the stormy world above, had swallowed a vast section of the earth. Like a hungry mechanical monstrosity crawled up out of it. I was also frightened that Clip would run at the sight of this, especially when I looked down to see hundreds of battered and bloodied slaves digging in rocky pits between the rusting rails. Nothing but tattered robes and rags to protect them from the harsh conditions.

The excavation pits were rimmed by crudely erected walls of scrap and guarded by ponies clad in tarnished brass armor. On the rails above, wagons were pulled by yet more sickly-looking slave ponies, slavers beating them from atop the hordes of scrap and gemstones they were hauling in the wagons. I frowned, years of wasteland survival once again making sure that I was not as concerned by the scene as I knew I should be. I'd seen slavery, I'd seen torture, and I'd seen death.

"They call this place the Furnace, it's where they do most of the work. Most of the slaves are held in smaller cells around here too, instead of above ground," Clip explained, and despite my anxiety, I was glad he'd been the one to accompany me.

I'd insisted on scouting out every direction, especially considering one of us could hardly walk. Yet the closer we'd gotten to this place the more he'd insisted on coming with me. He did know this place better than anypony else it seemed, maybe even better than my Pipbuck.

"That means the elevator to the train yards should be back there, through one of the upper slave pens," he added, pointing back in the direction we'd left the others.

I was very glad that at least we wouldn't have to sneak through the Furnace, and I nodded to him once. Moments later, we turned away from the infernal chasm and crept our way back to the others. Even so, every moment the image of the furnace remained in my mind was one my thoughts persisted to question my morality.

How can you just walk away from this? My mind asked and despite my many, sensible excuses it would not let me simply let go of the idea. I swear my morality is going to get me killed all too soon.

********

"It's not pretty," I warned the others the moment we were all back together.

Cherry took a deep breath as if preparing for another world of horror. I shook my head and motioned to another corridor. "There's a cargo elevator to the train yard that way, hopefully, we can reach it without anypony noticing," I told her, my Pipbuck confirming as much.

Not only that but there was a way up to the surface close by, and a small army of markers. Fortunately, only a few of them were red, which meant the blue ones that remained must be slaves.

"Well, hopefully, this one will work," Sky muttered at the mention of another elevator,

"Can't exactly push you upwards can I," Ochre added, but before either of them could say anything more I took the lead, placing Clip back onto Cherry's back as I watched my E.F.S closely.

The dimly lit corridor beyond was stained by crimson graffiti, the bloody words kindly telling me that an area the slavers called the 'funhouse' was this way. Another told me the same about a 'dinner room' being along another corridor to the left. As I rounded another corner I was presented with an intersection of four tunnels. A rotting wooden door covered the pathway directly ahead. The corridor to the left had collapsed, and the Pipbuck told me that right was the direction we needed to take. That evaluation was swiftly silenced, however, as the wooden door swung open and an armored pony burst out laughing.

His spiked, brass armor was chipped and battered, coppery turquoise lines appearing where the brazen metal had oxidized, and where a skull shape had been molded into his helmet. The brazen buck staggered forward, laughing, and I ducked back around the corner. He looked drunk, so maybe he'd just pass us by?

"Fucking bitch. I'll show you who's boss!" he slurred back into the room he'd just come out of, slamming the door closed with a kick of his rear hooves. "Fucking mares, no better than any of those damn slaves," he added, and I heard the chime of magic as he took a sip from a bottle he had wrapped in a chain around his neck.

So he's a unicorn under all that stupid armor. My mind assessed again.

"If I had a cap for every fucking bitch and filly out there I'd fuck I'd..." The buck's words were cut off by a sharp crack and a flash of light.

The shot shattered his glass and struck him right in the eyes. With a bloody splay, he collapsed into a twitching heap, his skull naught but a crimson rag. Clip held his shotgun right above Cherry's head, but as she winced at the loud sound, he stared at the buck's twitching body with an angry glare. I just looked at him, then at the dead slaver, my morals once again in flux. These were the ponies that had beaten and tortured him for most of his life, and I was the one thinking he'd no right to shoot them?

Wouldn't you have done the same? My mind asked coolly. He'd worn that armor, he was one of them, one of the most infamous slaver groups in the southwest wasteland, he was a monster. Why did you even consider letting him leave? Or that killing him may be wrong?

My thoughts then tried to remind me that we didn't want to attract any attention, yet he was a monster. I was a good pony, wasn't I? So why shouldn't I kill monsters? It wasn't any different from what I'd always done. My eyes trailed down from Clip to 'Responsibility' sitting in its holster. Meanwhile, Cherry didn't look proud or sympathetic, she just looked focused.

"What the fuck was that?" A muffled voice called from the room beyond the door.

Right, now my mind was scorning me for allowing anypony to make a noise, no matter their personal trauma. You're an idiot through and through.

The next moment another brass armored mare burst through the door. The game was up now though, and she was not spared the wrath of my saddle blaster. The bright beams tore her hide to sizzling ribbons, melting her armor back to the molten mess that had once bubbled from the furnaces. Another buck burst through the door after her, managing to get off a shot as I reached the intersection. The bullet pinged from my scales, leaving only another aching bruise as I took his head clean off in a wet flash of gore.

Goddesses, why do they even wear that armor,? It's certainly far from the ideal material. The technical part of my mind managed to question amidst all of the other turbulence in my head.

Nevertheless, as I was forced to reload my blaster with my rapidly depleting supply of spark batteries, another two slavers charged through the door. One was met with a bullet from Responsibility, the other managed to get off a shot with a cobbled-together pistol. The bullet struck Cherry in the left forehoof and she screamed as it tore right through her improvised stable barding. I felt my own heart stop at the sight of her determination and weapon failing as she staggered to the floor, just like when she'd been shot the last time. Clip rolled over her head and onto the floor in front of her as she fell. Without hesitation I leaped up, tackling the buck before smashing the barrel of my empty blaster against his temple.

"Nopony shoots my friend!" I called over and over, all the confusing feelings I had bundled up exploding out of me.

I didn't stop smashing his head until it was a bloody pulp. He was a monster and I... I was not a good pony. The barrel of my custom energy weapon gave a metallic crunch, then sparked. I pulled it back, blood dripping from its tip as I finished the job with my hooves. Even with the supply of Med-X coursing through me, my crippled limb began to burn, and my stomach twisted into impossible knots, but I didn't care. I'd seen enough of the wasteland these past few days to last a whole lifetime. I'd lost my friend, left a confused mare to be tortured for eternity, killed a griffin who couldn't fight for her life, and murdered one of the few ponies that may have seen the world when it was a better place when she was hopelessly trapped inside a mad computer!

I was not going to lose the last good pony in the wasteland because I'd already lost myself. Stepping back I looked at the disfigured barrel of my blaster, then frowned. That was gonna take some time to fix, but so were a lot of things when I got out of this damn nightmare. I saw Cherry clutching her forehoof tightly in the doorway, trails of dark crimson staining her hooves as she fought to retrieve some healing supplies with her magic. Sky moved by her, laying Ochre against the wall as she tended to the pink mare. The sudden eruption of emotion sank back as I pulled out a healing potion.

"Here," I called, levitating the vial of purple liquid over.

Cherry looked up at me, then at the bloodied bodies behind me. She retrieved her golden-trimmed rifle with one forehoof as Sky worked to bandage the other. At that, I turned to Clip as he stared at the singed, bloodstained door ahead of us. Then the colt quivered, looking down at his shotgun as it lay on the floor.

"I'm sorry, I just..." he stuttered.

"You shot at an evil pony that beat and abused you... You have nothing to apologize for," I assured him bluntly, silencing the part of my mind that was angry at him. He nodded, retrieving his weapon and using it to stand.

"Watch them, anything comes up behind us, shoot it," I told him, sickened that I'd had to say such a thing to a pony his age.

He didn't seem opposed to the idea, however, and as he limped back I moved through what was left of the door. I emerged into what appeared to have once been a large storage room. Opposite, a vaguely recognizable cargo door was covered by a dull grey shutter. To my left, a large cargo elevator was sitting on this level, the rusted frame of its shaft visible in the walls around it. A dull light flickered amidst the pipes and wires that crisscross the roof, its sickly glow broken only by the slow rotations of ventilation fans. Despite that, the temperature here was like that a city in the middle of a desert should be. Not that I liked the brutal humidity any more than the unnaturally chilly tunnels, or infernal mining chamber.

That uncomfortable sensation, however, was swiftly overlooked as the smell hit me next. The foul, musty stench of excrement mixed with that of vomit and blood, all of which was only intensified by the warm atmosphere. Then my underlying anger once again clawed at the bars of its frail prison as I saw the rows of large cages lining each wall. For a long moment, I prayed it was just an illusion of the gloom, yet as my E.F.S had warned, the long rows of cages were filled with sickly-looking slaves. I felt rage course through my veins, the likes of which I knew I should not feel. Two brass armored ponies sat in an open cage on the second row up, its bars covered by sheets of metal preventing those in the cages on either side from getting at them. The front door of the cage had also been converted into a ramp allowing access.

An overturned table was providing the remaining pair with adequate cover, and after the commotion a few moments ago it was no surprise they were both on high alert. Clearly, these two had not been stupid enough to blindly charge out of the room, and it was at that moment, that I realized I had no cover of my own as they opened fire.

‘Dragonfire, why did you just stroll in here? Shut up, brain, you're the one who's not working properly! I mentally retorted as I bolted for the open elevator.

Bullets struck my scales, each one seeming to hit harder than the last as the pangs of pain flared. One glanced the back of my neck taking off a large tangle of my mane and I yelped, diving into the shaft and taking cover behind one of the side walls.

"C'mon out here, bitch!" One of the Brazen Skulls called.

Damn you, brain, where's that snarky sense of humor when I need it? Insulting their stupid little brains was one of the best ways to get them to fuck up!

A sound from the other door distracted the pair, however, and I had no idea which of my friends was fighting as shots blasted in from the maintenance tunnel. Regardless, I seized my chance and fired up at the slavers with my plasma rifles. One mare seemed to see the green bolt soon enough to duck, the shot hit the back of the cage. My other shots melted a hole in the wood and it sparked into flames as the second slaver clumsily rolled aside. I coiled back into the cover of the elevator shaft, my hopes now set on wishing that I didn't hurt any of the slaves as I fired so recklessly.

There was a clatter of bullets against the wall at my back, narrowly missing the two sets of cages flanking the opening in which I was hidden. Another shot came from the door as one of the slavers stopped to reload and through the hole, I'd melted in the table, I saw her face as the bullet tore it right off, shitty brass armor and all. I swiveled around my concrete cover as the second mare appeared once more. I dropped into S.A.T.S and sent three bolts of green light right into her side. The first melted more of the wood into a charred back mess, the second melted her hind hoof off, and a third her left flank. She screamed, wrenching on the floor as she splurged dire profanities. Checking my Pipbuck for any more trouble, I hastily trotted up to the little nest forged amidst the cages.

"You fucker, my leg... My fucking leg!" she cried amidst a fit of spluttered breaths.

I knocked what was left of the chard table aside with my magic, pressing the barrel of my energy weapon to her forehead.

She's a monster... You killed monsters, so just kill her!

"Ha-ha, you're never gonna… Get outta the yard ..." she spluttered before her face melted off in a green flash.

I looked up, scavenging their ammunition, and guns. Take everything. my mind told me simply, all in an effort to keep my focus where it was needed and not on stupid worries about death, saving ponies, and morality.

A light clunk sounded and I turned to see the others had entered the room and now stood on the lower end of the ramp just behind me. Only Clip didn't seem horrified by the sight of the slaves, he just looked sad and very angry. Cherry's leg was wrapped in bandages, yet she fixed her eyes on nothing but me, then she glanced back to the elevator. She was a good pony. I looked at the dead slaver, then at the slaves. Then at my Pipbuck's map. Directly above us was something it had marked as 'Robronco construction site' and beside it was another rail line. Just to the east were the Stable-tec hub, M.A.S hub, and this Oracle building that was really beginning to nag at my memory.

I assumed the construction site and train lines were the yard Clip had told me about and that the elevator led right to it, then I recalled that I only really had this opportunity to get to the Stable-Tec building and find out which one the Transcendent were using. Then there was the more recent fact that I was now in the middle of a room filled with a whole lot of ponies that could really do with saving. I sighed, looking back at my companion. I knew what she'd ask if she could. If she trusted me to be a good pony she'd have no trouble asking.

That's just proof of it then, isn't it? You're not as good as you thought you were. My mind mused disapprovingly.

"There's an open area at the top of that elevator with tracks that lead right out of Crimson, no red bars. You wanna make a difference?" I pointed to the slaves with a forehoof.

Her eyes followed wearily, she levitated up Responsibility and gave a crooked smile. Both Sky and Ochre looked at me, and both seemed a little more than uncertain. Right then, I was even afraid the former would question me.

"You want to save everypony in here?" Sky asked in shock, and for the first time, her mare friend didn't offer something witty in response. "Goddesses, what kind of pony are you?" she added.

I looked at Cherry. "I'm not that kind of pony... She is."

"Thank you," the pink mare said quietly, reaching up to wrap her forehooves lightly around my neck.

Okay, that was enough of a reward in itself! I felt my heart flutter just like it had done when I'd heard of what she'd done for her friends back in Bucktown. Then I nudged her away with a forehoof. Oh goddesses why do I have to do that, why can't I just stay like that with her forever?

"You get them out, the corridors are clear and none of those bastards got away so they shouldn't know you're here, at least for now," I explained.

"Yeah, an important word there is 'shouldn't'," Sky added skeptically, then she sighed. "Still, I suppose there are less noble things we could die doing," she added, revealing that even she may be a better pony than I was.

"Right, wait until I get back and we'll all get out of here together," I stated firmly.

There are about a hundred ponies in here. My mind reminded me, there was also an army of slaves trapped in the infernal mines downstairs but... I couldn't save everypony.

But Cherry could at least make a difference right here right now. The mare in question looked at me somewhat sympathetically, then reality seemed to hit her.

"What about you, where are you going?" she asked firmly.

My smile faltered. "I need to find out where that stable is, I still have to save Star, remember? If I don't come back or anypony comes after you, you get out of town along those tracks fast as you can," I explained bluntly, bowing my head somewhat shamefully.

She was not the only one who seemed to think I'd not completely lost it with this idea as she shivered, then tensed. All of a sudden I sensed she didn't like this plan, but her determined ideals were forcing her to improvise.

"You... You... You can't go..."

"Do you trust me?" The abrupt question silenced her and our eyes met.

I'd never realized just how beautiful her eyes really were. The teal spheres twitched nervously, then she took a deep breath. "Yes."

All I did was give a firm nod before I turned back towards the door.

"Wait, if you're going up there I should come with you," Clip said as he watched me.

"No, these slaves need more capable ponies than I do, you need to help them because you're the only pony who knows how to get around this place if things go really wrong," I told him and the sense of responsibility in the little colt's expression was immediate, even if he didn't seem to like it.

He gave a weak nod as I turned to the door, and I noticed the words 'Tracks' were imprinted in the concrete above it, the sight now rebranded with the bloody word 'Furnace'.

"Dragonfire?" Cherry called frailly.

I looked back to see her standing stoically in the center of the foul-smelling room, Responsibility levitating perpendicular before her.

"Please... Please, don't die," she pleaded with a slightly nervous smile on her face.

I swallowed all of my doubts. Can she really trust me? By the goddesses, yes, she can! I steeled my mental determination and self-conviction with the intent that in this I would not waver, then I nodded to her and smiled.

"Don't worry it takes more than a bunch of slavers to kill me. That's if they can find me," I told her, lifting up my Pipbuck and grinning as I levitated the stealthbuck I'd been carrying with me for the past few days.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Tough Hide (level one) - Be it gunshot or ghoul the brutal experiences of the Equestrian Wasteland have hardened you. You gain +3 to Damage Threshold for each level of this perk you take.

Chapter Sixteen: Vertigo

Chapter 16: Vertigo

"I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but it’s almost sunset! We don’t figure this out soon, it’s going to look like we didn't lift a hoof to help."

The wasteland never made anything easy.

The Stealthbuck had gotten me through the maze of maintenance tunnels and to the surface without being seen. After a few close scrapes with some of the patrolling guards, I considered myself lucky. The key word there, however, was lucky. Now I was hunkered down behind a row of wooden counters as several brass-armored slavers fired at me through the shattered window of an old cafe. I felt a strange sympathy for the raiders I'd pinned in this very position less than a week ago as bullets thumped against the damp barricade. From the reflective surface of a cracked mirror on the back wall, I managed to glimpse the rubble-strewn steps of several large buildings across the open plaza just outside.

The skyscrapers included both the M.A.S Desert Springs Hub and the Oracle HQ building. The latter of the two stood out from the grimy, industrial architecture of the rest of the city. Its curved glass structure with white walls set it apart from the crumbling brick and mortar, even if it too had become mottled and brown over the centuries. It was much like the Destiny Corporation tower and looked in no better condition from the outside.

Doesn't mean there isn't some centuries-old monster in there to mess you up again, Dragonfire. My mind warned.

Nevertheless, as wary of the mysterious building as I was, I quickly focused on my true objective. The blocky, squat building that was the South-Western Stable-Tec hub sat between the two towers and it was in just as bad condition as its neighbors. Yet even if I could get over to it, there was no way that I was making it in through the collapsed door and deep pit that had dragged half of its front face into the infernal foundries below. Another shot penetrated the rotted wood beside me, and redirected my focus to more immediate problems, however.

So much for not dying. Great way to keep your promise to Cherry. My mind stated flatly. Shut up, you should be thinking of a way out of this, not mocking me! I mentally cursed, tapping a hoof against my helmet.

Even that small action stung as I felt the Med-X wearing off, allowing all of the aches, pains, and intense burning in my wounded shoulder to steadily return. Groaning, I sat up and forced the agony to the back of my mind as I popped one of the last doses Sky had given me and used the broken mirror to peer over the counter. The water-stained walls of the building hemmed me in on both sides. In fact, I was amazed that anypony could have once run a business in such a small space. The intense industry and residential areas in this place merged so seamlessly that it was hard to distinguish between a home and what was a hole for burning trash. Houses and shops were crammed tightly amidst the sprawl of pipelines, factories, and foundries, with long, steel walkways and rows of wires trailing throughout all of them like a great spider's web. It was as if the whole place was one big factory built on top of the bare minimum quality of life standards that everypony working here needed to live.

Searching for anything I could use to escape, I looked up to see several burst pipes running across the ceiling as well as a rusted ventilation system that was suspended by nothing more than some taught threads of metal. It was even more unfortunate that there were no more tables and chairs left. The trick I'd used on Mr. Red's raiders could have worked again if there was at least something to throw at my opponents. That left me with only one clear option, and the survivor in me was begging that I took it.

Just go back down to Cherry and the others. You can at least save them. The sensible voice chimed in my head. No, that will draw the slavers back down there too, not to mention all the ponies I crept past to get up here in the first place. I need a damn plan! Give me some options brain!

In frustration, I fired several blind plasma rifle shots at the slavers. But they were safely taking cover behind what was left of a broken monument in the plaza's center.

"I'm sick of this, somepony just blow that place up!" One buck shouted as another tossed a grenade.

Grenades? Those I can handle. My magic flared, catching the explosive mid-air and tossing it back.

"One, two..." I paused, ears rising as the thing failed to detonate.

Then there was an almost silent whoosh and a more distant explosion as the grenade detonated in the face of a group of slavers far further back from anywhere I could have thrown it. Seconds later I peeked into the reflection to see one of the slavers fall dead on the flooded asphalt.

"What the fuck!?" one slaver called, as the same question crossed my mind.

Shifting to get an even better look I saw the group of brass armored ponies looking up in panic and taking the pressure off me.

"What's he doing? Hey, you stupid shit-lark we're on your side!" a mare added firing into the upper floor of the building I was hiding in.

Okay, I was officially confused. Either I had yet another guardian angel, they had an enemy, or the wasteland just felt like fucking with me some more. Regardless, I took my chance and fired several shots of plasma into one of the bucks. He cried out in pain as the searing bolts of plasma melted through his brass armor and into his leg.

Yeah, still not understanding why they wear that stuff.

My target fell heaving onto the wet asphalt. In the midst of it all, I thought I saw what I could only describe as a fiery green flash somewhere above. The two remaining slaver's eyes went wide and they stopped firing for a split second. All I really took note of was the fact that they were still far too focused on what was attacking them from upstairs to notice me and it wasn't long before another of them fell to the ground that they resumed fire. Even with most of my enemies distracted, however, I hardly needed to do anything but fall back into my cover and watch the reflection in the mirror as slaver after slaver fell. Eventually, the last slaver, a mare, bolted towards me, yelling as she ran.

"Fuck, can't trust any of you guys... Why's somepony always gotta try and turn..."

There was a sharp whoosh and she fell to the floor only inches from my cover, blood leaking from a clean hole in her skull.

Okay, what the fuck?

I reloaded my plasma rifle cautiously before I trotted around the bullet-beaten counter and over the dead mare. Looting what I could, I made sure to take a good look around for any sight of whoever killed my attackers. Yet by now, I was used to having a mysterious stranger saving me, only to vanish mere seconds later. True to that, the blood-washed street was devoid of all but the thrashing buck I'd shot and his dozen or so dead friends.

I glanced up to my right, seeing the massive industrial towers blasting flame into the rainy sky as they wrapped and twisted around the taller skyscrapers and apartments that marked the far side of the collapsed plaza. Past the ruined monument at its sunken center, steel frames held thick pipes aloft over the cracked streets and rusted rail lines. More still bubbled up from huge fissures in the gnarled earth where entire parts of the city had collapsed into the fires of the hellish underworld below. I swiftly took note of anypony else that may be watching me too, but most of the crudely built slaver structures that hung from the ruins were too far away or too unoccupied for anypony to notice me. At the lack of any more Brazen opposition, it wasn't hard to assume that most things this deep into the city were going on underground.

Yeah, like feeding ponies to ghouls and mocking their pleas for mercy. Tell me, where did you leave your friends again?

I don't need reminding of that, thank you, brain.

In the gloom above the metallic skyline, I could see the distant mesa reach even higher. Another of the flat-topped mountains sat to the left, where the flame-spitting metropolis thinned out slightly. As my eyes panned down the view was obscured by the crooked form of a leaning skyscraper, its crumbling frame draped in pipes and scaffolds. 'Ministry of Arcane Sciences' was written in lopsided metal letters above the rusting door. 'Stable-Tec' marked what was left of the building next to it, along with the tell-tale icon of the company. Finally, the Oracle building looked even odder up close, especially with its electrical blue logo that still flickered with the faintest glimmer of light. Maybe it was just what had happened to me back in the Destiny tower, but the sight of the glass spire made my skin crawl far more than anything else.

Great, I've come all this way, and how the fuck am I supposed to get into the damn place? I mentally groaned as I regarded the collapsed foyer of the Stable-Tec hub, taking care not to get too close to the deep fissure that had consumed almost half of the building.

I looked at my Pipbuck, hoping to find any kind of other entrance, tunnel, bridge, or anything.

No more stupid ideas, you don't have all the time in the world to go exploring for a way in! My mind commented. No! I'm gonna be the best pony I could be! I countered. I was not a good one, but I was gonna do this, I needed to do this for Star.

A rasping cough caught my attention as the half-melted buck I'd shot tried to crawl across the wet asphalt toward his weapon. Turning, I pointed my plasma rifle at his head. This was the only mercy I could offer such a monster. He looked at me, yellowed eyes narrowing as they met the crackling barrel of the rifle.

"Ya'... Ya' have no idea... What y'all gettin' in comin' in 'ere causin' trouble," he coughed.

I paused, holding my gun steady.

"Why? Are you gonna chase me across the wasteland? Already got some ponies in line for that, and most of them still have all four of their legs," I told him bluntly.

He hacked and gagged some more. He knew he was dead, he knew he could spite me with whatever he wanted and I could do nothing but speed his inevitable passing.

"No... Y'all 'er just like us, nopony knows what t'er gettin' inta when it comes ta dem..." He coughed again, convulsions stealing his words.

I kneeled down over him, eyes narrowing. "Who is them?" I asked sharply.

"The fire, the swarm ... The Barron's freaks… Cure for da rage... Hahaha!" His words were silenced as his head exploded.

Warm gore smothered my visor and I staggered back, wiping a hoof over the glass as the weak display flickered and his red outline vanished.

"Don't move," somepony uttered. Then I felt the cold barrel against…

Oh, goddesses I really needed to get that part of my rear properly armored.

"It's so nice to finally get you alone." I swallowed, years of social instinct taking over. This wasn't the first time somepony was threatening my nethers with a gun.

"Well, if you're so keen, at least ask me out to dinner first," I nickered as the gun tickled my reproductive organs. My mysterious advisor merely grunted.

"I would, but if you haven't noticed, our options are rather limited. Now, turn around slowly." I did as instructed and was swiftly met by the sight of the black barding pony from the tunnel.

His horn glowed with amber magic, levitating his weapon around. His head was still covered and I could almost feel the stare of his eyes behind those insect-like green domes. Then with a forehoof and a click, he flicked the helmet up over his horn and levitated it onto his back, revealing…

Oh, shit. Why did the dark mysterious pony stalking me for the past day have to be so devilishly good-looking?

His coat was a dusty blue and his dark purple mane curled, almost falling over his cool yellow eyes.

"That's a good pony, would hate to put an end to your lovemaking," he said, the corner of his mouth curling in a smile.

I felt the barrel of his odd weapon shift before levitating back to him. Now I could see the thing a little better I really had to admit it was the strangest rifle I'd ever seen. It looked more like somepony had wonder glued a pile of scrap together in the rough shape of a rifle and I could only assume from the state of the slavers around us that it was some kind of silent weapon. That, in addition to a jagged sword and holstered pistol, lead me to believe his choice of weapons was not conventional.

Humm, more in common than you think then? My mind mused.

"Now, about that dinner?" His smile widened and he bowed his head.

My magic was just about ready to grip my plasma rifle and melt his face off. But I had a feeling he'd be expecting such a thing after stalking me for so long, plus I really didn't want to damage such a fine complexion unless I really had to. So I looked for something I could knock over his head instead.

"Yeah, about that...You were right..." I found a brick, levitating it ever so gently from a pile of rubble to his right. "There's absolutely no options. I guess we're both stuck, haha," I added with a slight laugh.

"Yeah," he said calmly, his amber eyes lidded.

Then his rifle flipped in the air instantly and shot the brick from my magic.

I paused, one eye twitching.

"Urm ... Well, this is awkward," I stuttered, coiling back and raising my weapon.

His horn flared and then the spark cell fell out of my rifle.

"Hey, that's cheating!" I accused, scrambling for the dropped ammunition.

His cool smile didn't falter as he raised his jagged rifle to my head.

"This is Sting." He nodded to the weapon. "I'm Vertigo. You know, I've been watching you for a long while now and you're not dead, so... Oh, I don't know." He lifted a forehoof to his muzzle. "Please stop trying to kill me!"

He said that so casually, so calmly, too calmly. Well, apart from that last part. Then his magic flared again and he reloaded my rifle and pushed it back to me.

"Do you agree?" he asked one last time, lowering his weapon as if giving me a chance to shoot him if I really wanted to.

Am I a magnet for strange things or is this another side effect of being somepony's science project? That was the first thought to enter my head, yet he really didn't seem to want me dead, so I nodded.

Vertigo smiled again, his eyes finally opening fully and reducing the effects of his stupidly good looks only a little.

"So... You have a name? I mean I kinda know after hearing your friend shout it all the time, but... Proper greetings and all." He rolled a forehoof in the air, then bowed.

"Dragonfire," I stated bluntly.

He nodded then raised a forehoof to his chin.

"Boastful... strong, a bit stupid... You're a misfit."

Wait, is he talking about me? I paused, ears rising as confusion wracked my brain once again.

"I'm sorry. I've met my fair share of odd ponies lately, but who in Equestria are you supposed to be?" I finally asked.

He looked back at me seemingly slightly pained.

"Oh, I'm a former member of a lot of groups of ponies that tend to disappear every time I'm around," he boasted as if I should understand what such an utterly backward and confusing sentence was supposed to mean. Then his expression fell flat.

"But to put it in a way you and your simple mind may understand..." He motioned with a forehoof as if to make sure I was listening. "I'm a merc who's just spent most of my last day saving your flank," he stated dryly.

That I could somewhat understand.

"A private merc?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as my experience with this particular topic came to the forefront of my mind.

"Guess so, we're all private really. We all got our own morals, after all, right?" he went on, and I paused, a little lost for words.

Okay, this buck is insane! Still, he had saved me from all the doubt and guilt that would arise if I'd gotten back to Cherry without what I came in here for, not to mention all of the other things. And his face, his body…

Gurr, by the goddesses, stop making my adversaries look so handsome!

"You're trying to head in there, I assume?" he asked a moment later, nodding to the Stable-Tec hub's collapsed foyer.

"Yeah, why?" I responded.

"Now why would you want to go into such an unstable building when there are clearly two far safer pre-war treasure troves right next door to it?" he asked, nodding to the skyscrapers on either side of the collapsed hub.

"Why is it any of your business?" I retorted, even as my curiosity regarding the Oracle building flared.

"Because I know you're looking for a stable and you're only alive right now because of me and that thing on your leg..." He nodded to my Pipbuck and I shifted it out of view.

He frowned a little. "You want to trust me a little?"

"Ha, sorry but my stocks of trust are currently coming in at zero," I retorted bluntly.

"Oh, okay then, I guess I'll just take all I know about the Transcendent, Oracle, and Stable Fifty over here with me then," he taunted, turning tail and walking away towards the Oracle building.

My mind instantly jump-started and I was caught between a spike of hope and a deep pit of anger, not to mention a flare of irritating lust at the sight of his smooth, muscular flanks as he walked away. How can he know? How do I even know I can trust him? Then again if he knew anything about what was going on I had to find out what.

Dragonfire, the last time you trusted anypony that had anything to do with this mess you ended up unconscious in a morgue. Ever considered the fact he's been keeping you alive just like Overseer? My mind stated, and I couldn't help but agree.

But if he knew about where Star had been taken, if he knew what had happened to me and what I could do to avoid ending up like Hayland? I looked at my Pipbuck first noticing his blue bar then the marker of the Oracle building he was heading towards as it turned from a blank pin to a small version of the company logo on my map. I looked at the Stable-Tec hub, angrily admitting to myself just how inaccessible it was.

I didn't have all the time in the world here, and right now I had only one option if I really did want to unravel this mystery and save my ponynapped friend. Still, I couldn't help but feel Vertigo had stalked me with the intention of capitalizing upon a situation in which I had little choice but to trust him. Then as if expecting my exact reaction to the current standoff he paused, glancing back at me over his shoulder.

Goddesses, why does he get to look so... so... so goddesses damn sexy!

"What do you know?" I finally asked, more than ready to shoot him at the first sight of anything even remotely suspicious.

If he so much as flicked his tail in the wrong direction I'd blow his stupid, handsome face off.

"That depends on how far you're willing to go for your answers?" he responded and I frowned.

"Right now, as far as I need to go to find my partner and save my friends," I retorted and he nodded.

"Well, Stable Fifty is just up on the masa outside of the city. The Transcendent have the slavers here under their hoof with a promise they can offer a cure for the Rage. Don't really expect there's any truth to that, but feel free to go up there and get him. You'll be on your own though because my next job is to find out what they're really up to and why they need an army of slaves. So if you really want a chance to save your friend, help me, and then I'll help you," he suggested, turning back and holding out a hoof to me.

I could really see what Mister Red had meant by under new management now and wondered how many ponies knew that the slavers here were under the rule of some fanatical religious group of nut-jobs. That was if Vertigo was telling the truth, but after hearing many of the Brazen Skulls talk about this whole Rage thing, I had to surmise there was some truth to it.

Nevertheless, I eyed Vertigo's outstretched forehoof as the rain dripped from the black armor encasing it. Then looked up into his eyes. If he was a liar then he was a damn good one, but I'd seen damn good liars before. Then again, what choice did I have?

"And I can trust you how?" I questioned and he laughed a little.

"You can't, not even after I saved you. But this is the wasteland and believe me when I say you're in way over your head. I know where you went and I know that you've probably seen things no pony has seen since the war. But unlike someponies, I'm trying to help. Only, for me to do that, you need to help me get the information I need in order to help you," he explained.

"Oh? Why do you need me when you seem to be doing fine all on your own?" I challenged, glancing at the dead slavers.

He trotted back over and tapped my Pipbuck which made me flinch as I strongly suppressed my survival reflexes.

"Because you have something on that Pipbuck, I don't know what it is but the moment you wired it up before, that whole factory went crazy. The key point is, you can get into those glassy white buildings for some reason and I can't, not without a whole load of trouble," he explained, and truly realizing he had a good point, I sighed.

"Okay, I'll help you. But one wrong move..."

"And you'll what? Blow my head off? Wow, you really are too easy to read, Dragonfire," he responded as I finally shook his hoof before snatching mine away.

"Still, if nothing else, you're the first pony with any decent emotion out here," he said, licking his lips in an odd manner as he trotted up to the shattered doors of the Oracle building and put his helmet back on. "Oh, and here, this is for that shoulder of yours," he added, levitating back a strong healing potion.

I felt like I'd picked up another unwanted buck at a party, only I had the misfortune of being sober enough to realize just how strange he really was despite his good looks. My untrusting mind still fired questions at the mental image of him like flack cannons into a war-torn sky, even as my lustful brain conjured up several fantasies of what I'd do to him if not in this situation. Regardless, after a wary sniff of the healing potion, I took a sip.

"Come on, I want to get this over with and then get out of here. I haven't eaten in days," he whined, passing through the rusted old doors.

He hadn't what? He wasn't a cannibal pony, was he? I knew how those situations usually ended.

Regardless, I made sure to have my last good-functioning weapon ready to melt Vertigo to goo if he tried anything.

Idiot, fool, stupid. Now all I needed to do was add great big magnet for all the wasteland's strangest and wildest phenomena to my ever-growing list of disadvantages.

********

"What did you say about me being able to get in here with no problem?" I called over the sound of heavy gunfire.

"Attention, attention! This area is restricted, please surrender and..." The damaged ponytron's obsessive chatter was silenced by a plasma blast to its torso.

Despite that, something about finally killing one of the stupid, pony-manufactured scrap piles after all I'd been through was very therapeutic.

Spoken way too soon, Dragonfire. My mind commented and within moments the wasteland all too eagerly jumped on the opportunity to turn my satisfaction against me.

Another of the quad-wheeled robots rolled into the corridor to take the place of the one I'd just dispatched, its mouth opening to reveal a fresh barrage of laser fire.

"Damn, these fucking things really ruffle my feathers!" Vertigo stated as he ducked back around the wall opposite me.

Even in the midst of combat, he was still hard to figure out, like a set of stairs while I was drunk. He doesn't even have any feathers?

"This area is restricted, please..."

"Oh just shut it!" he yelled firing his scrap weapon, Sting, into the metal contraption.

I'd learned swiftly after descending to the lower level of the Oracle hub that his custom weapon made use of well... Almost anything as ammunition. The mangled gun gave a whir as it chomped on any metal he put into it and spat three sharp spears of glinting death into the robot. I was really glad he'd not fired that thing between my flanks when he'd had the chance as the shards cut holes straight through the robot's mechanical shell. The ponytron crackled, sparked, and buzzed a few distorted words before it died. The laser weapon built into its domed, pony-like head sparking out with a pop.

"Anypony else?" Vertigo called into the long, white-walled corridor.

The place reminded me all too much of the Destiny building's interior, the only difference here was the fact the building was nowhere near as clean. The clinical, pale walls were mottled and brown, dried rivers of muddy water forming dirty lines upon almost everything. Hanging from the walls were shattered screens and projectors, and on my left was a row of smashed plant pots. To the left was a grimy window offering a view down into what appeared to be some kind of underground garden. Now it was nothing more than a soggy pool surrounded by rotting wood and long dead vegetation that snaked away through huge rends in the chamber's sides. I waited a few seconds to see if any more robots were going to roll up before I peered around the large planter I'd adopted as cover.

There were no more repetitive orders to surrender echoing through the halls as I stepped out. Vertigo seemed even less cautious, he simply trotted by me and right over to the foremost of the drooped robots, pushing the still construct over.

"Not bad," he admitted, nodding at me as he passed a hoof over the hole my rifle had melted in one of the robots.

"Not bad yourself," I replied skeptically. His gun, it really did have a sting. That, and I had no idea how it worked.

"Built off of an A2-21 prototype I presume, good model. You should make it automatic," he offered, nodding at my plasma rifle.

"Oh you don't know the half of what this baby's made from," I replied, my inner love for tinkering snatching my mind as I boastfully acknowledged his admiration.

Wait, Dragonfire, this was the pony who had a gun pressed to your butt not long ago, and now… Shut up brain!

"I imagine that's got a kick to it too," he mused, nodding to my holstered saddle blaster. I held back the urge to wince.

"It would... But I kinda, broke it a little," I admitted shamefully. He snorted as if mildly disgusted by the fact then moved on deeper into the facility.

Well, what did he know? If my blaster was working it could give his shitty pile of scrap a run for its caps any day. Just not today, and that was a mighty fine pile of scrap he was hauling and... Shut up, brain!

"Damn it, we got at least two more of them coming this way, the hallway has turrets too!" Vertigo called sourly, peering around the corner. "Fuck!"

He turned back around, looking over the corridor until his insectoid eye lenses locked onto a faded image on one of the walls. It was long ruined and ancient, but depicted a chart of some of the company's staff members. Most were unicorns and all were dressed in white lab coats bearing the blue comet trail Oracle logo. Several more notice boards and posters showed pictures of a smart, lavender unicorn mare with a darker purple mane and highlights as a cream, glasses-wearing unicorn with a maroon and purple mane stood beside her.

'Knowledge is magic' one declared.

Yeah, but knowledge was still only half the battle. My mind mused.

My attention was stolen seconds later by a wood splintering crash as Vertigo bucked open one of the corridor's side doors.

"Nope," he stated flatly before moving to the next door.

"And behind door number two is..." His hooves connected with the rotted wood before it swung open and he looked inside. "Bingo!"

I looked to the room where he'd disappeared, then to the corridor and sound of approaching robots ahead of me. I swiftly chose to follow him through. Inside was a large office, with an array of shattered terminal screens on the far side and a smaller room to the left. Wait no, that was an elevator. In front of the long-dead monitors was a desk and another terminal, so too were the walls lined by rusted filing cabinets, glass cases, and shelves stacked with crumpled paper and files. Most notable of all though was the turret as it dropped from the roof the moment I entered.

Of course there was a fucking turret!

I ducked to the right landing behind a locker that had fallen into the middle of the room as the automated defense swiveled around to face us.

"Really!" Vertigo moaned, then with a flash of his horn he was on the other side of the room.

Wait, how'd he get...

The turret opened fire, peppering my cover with bullets, then there was a sharp swoosh as Vertigo sent a metal dart straight through something important and the automated weapon fell limp. Nevertheless, I sent a plasma blast its way just to make sure, and it melted to the floor in a pool of green goo. From behind the desk, Vertigo gave me an odd look, almost as if he thought I was not taking this seriously or something.

Oh, because I'm the one not taking this seriously? I stood up, looking at him.

"What, you never seen anypony teleport before? It's rare, yeah. But with enough practice, any unicorn should be able to do it," he elaborated, almost taunting me.

I really felt stuck between hating his smug face and really wishing he'd tell me how to perform such a useful spell. Regardless, I stepped over the fallen cabinet, trotted right up to him, and placed a forehoof on the desk.

"Teleporting, taking out goddesses know how many raiders and slavers single-hoofed? I always thought I was good, but even I'd find any of that hard! So who the fuck are you really?" I demanded, prodding a forehoof to his chest

He hit something on the terminal and the doors to the elevator opened. Then he looked at me, cocking his head.

"Well, it's good to see you have a hint of humility at least. I'm Vertigo, I thought we already did the name exchange thing. Now if you don't mind I'm going to try and get the elevator to the lower levels working so we can get away from all the robots trying to kill us," he muttered, waving a hoof at me.

I growled, banging my hoof on the desk again. The mere mention of descending deeper into the bowels of another place like this did not do anything to aid me in trusting him.

By the goddesses, if I didn't have a friend to save and an army of religious mad-ponies after me I'd have nothing to do with this guy.

"No, you helped me kill those slavers, followed me in here, and now we're fighting those things like we're best friends I..." I trailed off.

He shook his head, pushing my hoof from the desk. "You saying we're not best friends? I mean yeah, dinner first and all that but..."

My serious look must have had some weight to it, it was able to stop him rambling even with my helmet on. "No, we're not 'best friends'," I grunted.

"Fine. But not to be rude, you followed me into this exact building, so yeah... I mean you could have just left, I've got enough crazy ponies after me too, especially after Stable fifty-four," he boasted as he moved over to the elevator. I paused, my ears rising as my mind went to work.

"Stable fifty-four? You were the pony Rapid was talking about on the radio?" I asked curiously.

I had no way of knowing if there was any connection between him and what the radio mare had said, he could just be a mercenary from there for all I knew. But this was the wasteland, it liked to fuck with me, and what better way to do that than with cryptic clues? He removed his helmet and his look turned skeptical, then came the expression of a pony who loved bragging even more than I did.

"Wow, news travels faster than I expected out here," he said as he went to work messing with some kind of pad in the elevator's wall. "It was another of the Transcendent's secret bases, not as fortified as Stable-fifty though. They were taking slaves and raiders affected by the Rage and locking them up there. It's something they seem to be very fond of lately."

So maybe he is the pony that cleared them out of there after all? I wondered.

I supposed that absolved him of really being on their side at least. Then again, Overseer had not seemed incredibly fond of them either.

"Okay, say I really was to believe you were the pony Rapid was talking about and not just some buck who heard that on the radio. How does somepony clear an entire stable full of well-armed ponies all alone?"

"Let's just say they can't seem to notice me, even when I'm right in front of them," he added, a hint of amusement in his tone even as I sensed I really wasn't getting the whole story.

Okay, so that last part makes no sense. Nor did any of it really. Rapid had said Stable fifty-four had been cleared yesterday, but that was halfway across the desert. Then again he'd just revealed he could teleport so…

How far can somepony teleport? My thought process must have been evident because Vertigo looked at me like I was stupid

"So, you not only took on an entire stable full of raiders, but also made it halfway across the desert in one day?" I stated, the words so unbelievable they actually tasted odd.

He leaned forward eagerly, seeming to forget about his tinkering with the elevator. "Oh, oh, don't forget the part about that Mister Yellow guy, or that Balefire egg or..." He cut himself off, ears rising.

Mister Yellow? The image of Mister Red, just with all the redness exchanged to the new color crossed my mind. He was connected to this too, the Brazens, the buck that had been with Griddle and the Transcendent all were...

'I guess you could say we're under new management.'

Fuck! My mind screamed and I heard the fabulous entity that was the wasteland laughing at me from afar as the curtain fell, only to see my post-apocalyptic enemy had a massive sign mirroring my mental profanities.

'Fuck you, Dragonfire'

"Urm, you may wanna duck," Vertigo said swiftly, putting on his helmet and tapping my hoof to draw me out of my stupor.

"Attention, attention this area is restricted, please surrender!" A much deeper, tinny voice sounded from the hallway.

Fuck you wasteland’

I bolted to the left, ignoring the churning in my gut as I rolled into the elevator. Bolts of crimson energy sparked across the room towards Vertigo. The buck just grumbled something before firing a previously aimed shot right at the sentry bot's head. The sharp shard made a small hole somewhere between the robot's shoulder and its head, but it was far bigger than any ponytron. The thing gave a shudder but kept firing as it rolled slowly forward and a second sentry forced its way in through the doorway behind it.

"Please surrender and submit to disintegration," the robot blurted loudly.

The second one was even larger, angrier, and looked more like a tank than anything that should be within an office building. There was a loud crash as the robot violently made the door large enough for it to fit through and a massive gatling weapon on its arm swerved toward us.

Who in Equestria makes a robot too big for the building it's designed to patrol? The utter ridiculousness of the pre-war world baffled my mind as I turned to Vertigo.

"Hey, captain sarcastic, if you're going to do something I suggest you do it fast!" I stated as the spray of crimson death was unleashed upon us.

I ducked into the elevator as Vertigo fired a few shards into the metal beast. But the sharp projectiles merely seemed to pass through its amour and get lost inside it somewhere as the robot continued to fire. I brought up my rifle, and it brought up a missile launcher.

A missile launcher, seriously! I'd seen these kinds of robots before and even now the fact this was allowed to happen in an organized, pre-war society baffled me.

"Vertigo, do something!" I called, and there was a sudden green flash and a wave of fiery heat behind me.

Instinct drew my eyes to the light, but the survivalist in me took over before I could look away from our attackers.

Eyes on the killer death machine Dragonfire, eyes on that, please!

There was a series of beeps behind me as Vertigo did something with the elevator controls, then another fiery green flash and a wash of heat.

"Facial recognition accepted. Bata class clearance permitted. Welcome Professor: Moon Dancer," beeped a metallic voice.

The elevator shook and sparked to life, the light around it turning green as the door began to close. That was when the missile fired and I leaped back, landing sprawled out over the black armored body of Vertigo as the thing exploded against the closing door. I heard nothing but the loud boom, the moan of metal, and the clatter of shrapnel as I closed my eyes and felt the heat surge over me. A shower of sparks and sharp metal glanced my barding, rattling in the elevator as the thing gave a heavy shunt. I looked at Vertigo as I lay across his chest. Given how good-looking he was I was surprised it had taken me this long to find myself sprawled out over him in the corner of some isolated space. All we had to do now was get undressed. But as he looked at me from behind those stupid lenses I could only say one thing.

"I fucking hate you!"

The elevator gave another heavy shunt as the smoke cleared, then the whole thing was sent plummeting down into the shaft below.

********

For what seemed like several impossibly long moments, all I could feel was the sensation of plummeting weightlessness. The light in the elevator flashed on and off and the screeching of metal rang out painfully. Then much to my stomach's discomfort, the elevator gave a grinding call of metallic grief as it shuddered to an uneasy stop, sparks spitting in from holes in the corroded frame.

"Emergency stop must still be working, not that we should hang around to test it," Vertigo observed as he pushed me off and looked up.

"Oh really? That's so reassuring," I grumbled trying not to fall over with the internal discomfort churning within me as I rose to my hooves. "Now, you have a plan to get out of here, right?" I asked as the elevator gave a dangerous moan.

"Give me a second," he said as his horn glowed, straining as the hatch at the top of the elevator was forced open.

Then with a flash he vanished and reappeared on top of the elevator, peering down at me as the thing lurched dangerously. I felt my whole body shudder and the griping in my gut grow as I looked up at him, seeing nothing but the dark shaft and the distant light of fire coming through one of the doors far above. Then Vertigo shifted over to the edge of the car and the whole thing shunted uneasily to the right.

"By the goddesses, if you don't stop fucking moving I'm going to kill you!" I called as he peered down over the edge of the car.

"Don't worry, we're almost at the bottom," he assured me, then teleported back inside with a flash and pointed his rifle through a hole rent in the wall that revealed one of the emergency brakes.

I looked between him and the brake, internally cursing. This stallion is going to get me killed through sheer stupidity alone!

"Wait, wait don't you dare!" I called but he paid no attention to me as he shot a shard right through the brake mechanism then spun to hit the one on the opposite side.

I'm really going to kill him!

The elevator sank with a jolt, tilting until he shot out the second brake. Then it fell for a grand total of two milliseconds before it slammed hard into the ground. Vertigo shuddered at the impact and I fell to the floor as my legs became a weak pile of jelly. He lowered his rifle and looked down at me, the smug face I knew he must be wearing annoyingly hidden behind his stupid helmet.

"Dare do what?" he asked, then held out a hoof to me.

Damn it, Wasteland, stop making me look bad in front of stupidly good-looking stallions who I don't even trust! My mind cursed and I shoved his gesture aside as I shakily rose to my hooves.

"You know perfectly well what, now you going to fill me in on the next part of your plan to get out of this stupid thing?" I snapped and he simply turned to the door and wrapped it in his magic.

The aged metal frame gave a few groans of protest as Vertigo strained, but after a few seconds, the thing was pried open revealing a long, dark corridor just a step above where the elevator car had landed.

"Fillies first," he suggested, motioning to the corridor with a forehoof.

"If you think I'm going anywhere down here before you are, you have another thing coming." I made that fact very clear as I did my best to straighten myself and ignore the gurgling in my gut.

Vertigo just sighed. "And here I thought you were eager to get out of here. Oh well, if you insist," he replied as he stepped up and out into the hall, flicking on a light attached to his helmet.

Once again I really tried not to look at his flanks as he moved ahead of me, and gave a disgruntled snort of irritation as I moved out after him into the dark hall, activating my Pipbuck's own light. All the while I was checking my new E.F.S for red bars. It was an odd change of pace for me, but while I was getting used to it I really hoped the hostiles I could see milling about were those of the robots above us.

"Well, now what?" I asked, watching Vertigo as he peered left and right down two branching corridors.

"Now we have to find this place's mainframe and see how it feels about whatever you have on your Pipbuck there," he answered, nodding at my foreleg.

Really, we came all the way down here just to see how my Pipbuck plays with the building's mainframe? I said as much, but he just nodded.

"I don't know if you've heard, but getting into a building like this is pretty hard even for a pony of my talents. But getting into the most secure files of a place like this one is nigh impossible unless you're exactly the right program. I... Or more importantly, you, really need whatever information we can find down here," he explained.

"And why do I need it?" I countered, not liking where this was going.

"Well, you want to save your friend and find out what's going on don't you?" Of course, that would be his response.

I fought the urge to face hoof as he started trotting along one of the corridors towards another large metal door at the end, with a slightly smaller room to the right.

"Okay then, fine. What exactly are we looking for?" I went on, playing along with his little game as best I could without wanting to just shoot him.

"I have no idea, just a big thing with a lot of wires and terminal screens is what I usually go for," he said with a shrug.

Great, why do I always have to be the one to get stuck with such clueless ponies? I mentally sighed as Vertigo reached the large metal door at the end of the corridor and tried to push it open.

"Pony feathers, damn thing won't budge," he declared, then nodded at the doorway leading off to the right. "You want to try and make yourself more useful? Go see if there's an access switch in there," he instructed and I felt my frustration spike.

Seriously, I'm not some kind of saddleblanket mare for him to boss around! Yet against all that my stubborn pride was telling me, I did as I was told.

If nothing else it would only result in getting out of here and back to Cherry faster. Checking my E.F.S for any hostels that may be in the room and deeming it clear, I cautiously stepped through the door. It led out into a gloomy office, rather similar to the one Hayland had under the Destiny corporation building. There was even a big window to my left that looked down into a dark space. This one was far less well-kept, however, and was shattered in several places.

A faint light shone through the window, and I saw that beyond the broken glass was a mostly collapsed catwalk that led around the upper circumference of a large, circular chamber. In the center of the chamber was a tall spire of wires, pipes, and screens that lead up into the domed ceiling and fanned out like the roots of some kind of odd upside-down tree. Around the middle pillar were several empty frames that appeared to have once held some kind of tall, rectangular objects, yet such things were long gone. More cables snaked out from each of the empty frames and lead up into what was left of a reinforced glass box surrounded by monitors and spindly robotic arms. Other tables, and even rows of chairs sat around the room's edge as if it had been used to display experiments to crowds of ponies. Many of them even had black glasses still resting on the seats

"What in Equestria?" I asked myself quietly, looking back at a desk that sat facing the window.

The wall behind me was bare, save for a few small cracks in its otherwise pale surface. In fact, aside from a terminal atop the desk and a chair behind it, the room was rather unfurnished. Then I saw another fiery, green flash from where I'd left Vertigo in the corridor. My ears perked and I moved to see what he was up to. Before that, there was a dull beep and the corridor lit up with ambient red light.

"Access denied, all staff below clearance level Alpha access to main facility chamber suspended... Please await termination," a tinny mare's voice sounded as alarms began to chime.

"Termination, seriously? It said she had beta class clearance. That's supposed to be high!" Sounded an odd feminine voice from the door, a voice that definitely wasn't Vertigo's.

Upon hearing the stranger I bolted towards her, then a turret dropped from the ceiling right above it and quickly opened fire.

The stranger's voice was the last thing on my mind as I instinctively rolled to the side, bullets digging into the carpet. My insides felt like they were still rolling long after I came to a stop and levitated my rifle up to melt the turret into green goo. A few shots of plasma later and I did just that, allowing slag to drip onto the floor, sizzling the carpet.

"Hey, what the fuck did you just do?" I called out into the hall as laser shots flashed past the door toward Vertigo.

"Attention, attention. This area is restricted, please stand down and allow us to dispose of you quietly," a robot chimed from somewhere in the corridor outside as Vertigo returned fire with Sting.

The sharp whoosh of the weapon's needle projectile was followed by a clunk and a fizzle as the robot he was firing at fell to the floor. He took the free moment to dive into the office. He still looked exactly as he did when I'd left him, but I supposed I'd just have to ask him about the odd voice I'd heard at a time when neither of us were being shot at.

"Attention, this is a restricted area!" boomed the far deeper voice of a sentry bot, the sound of its heavy treads accompanied by the grinding of metal as it crushed the smaller robot Vertigo had just taken care of.

"I thought you said you were supposed to be good at this kind of thing?" I asked, fixing the buck a glare.

I expected an equally witty comeback as he turned to me, but I couldn't help but notice he wasn't really looking at me, more behind me. I felt my mane stand on end as I swallowed and turned, right as a hiss of steam escaped a large panel in the wall. It was then that I realized the cracks I saw weren't cracks at all as a rectangular slab fell away to reveal the red eyes of another sentry bot.

Of course there's a fucking hidden robot, why not!

"Goddesses, you've got to be kidding me!" I cried as I jumped under the desk and the robot raised its beam mini-gun.

Great, now I can be disintegrated instead of being blown up or falling to my death in a stupid elevator car. Painful memories of Hayland came to mind as the gatling laser's fire began to flash and burn through the desk.

"Use the terminal, it's an executive one there should be a way to turn the stupid thing off!" Vertigo instructed, crawling back from the door as the second sentry bot rolled up to it.

Without thought, I telekinetically yanked the terminal down and hooked it up to my Pipbuck. "Come on, come on, you little miracle worker, please don't fail me now!" I pleaded, closing my eyes as random bars of code flashed across the screen.

Then with a telltale boop, the thing flashed to life and I was greeted with the flash of the Oracle logo.

*Oracle executive access granted, welcome professor: Moon Dancer*

Another set of text read before several options presented themselves on the screen. Within seconds I glimpsed an option labeled security; accessing it, I quickly found anti-intruder functions and immediately hit the first thing I saw to say off.

"Primary defensive directive terminated. Backup directive re-initiated. Disposal of all non-essential Oracle personnel. Priority one." Both sentry bots growled in a deep metallic voice before each of them regarded me with a rather unnerving level of detail. "Attention, no alpha clearance level identification recognized, please stand by for termination."

"What!?" I called, as both robots resumed firing.

Vertigo darted back from the door firing several quick shots at the sentry bot in the doorway, yet the shards of metal did little more than slow the armored monster for a few seconds.

"Damn it, I'm really starting to hate this place," he yelled taking cover beside me.

"You and me both, now stop being so dramatic and tell me what to do!" I retorted as I searched the terminal.

The look he gave back was one of intense disapproval. "What? I thought you were going to shut them off!"

"I did, but apparently this place doesn't really care about their own ponies unless there some high and mighty egghead, so intruders or not we're still on the execution list!" I explained.

"Wow, and here I thought this place was going to be a lot easier," he responded, and I fought the urge to face hoof once again.

"Yeah, you're a real ton of help, you are!" I snapped, looking back to the screen and ducking as several energy blasts darkened the scales on top of my helmet.

The smell of singed hair as the metal underneath heated up really became my motivator as I looked at my Pipbuck, then slammed it against the side of the desk.

"Come on, you stupid logic box, if you're going to do something, you better do it now!" I cursed, really hoping somepony really did want to keep me alive.

For an unbearably long moment nothing happened, a few minutes later and there was still nothing but gatling laser fire. I levitated up my rifle, if these things were going to kill me then I wasn't making it easy.

"Sorry, Cherry," I whispered as I looked around the cover and fired several bolts into one of the robot's heavily armored hides.

The plasma did little more than make a glowing hot bruise upon the dark gray metal. Fuck, nothing short of a balefire egg is gonna blow these fucking things up! I mentally cursed.

"Warning critical error detected... Sircurtttyyyy sysssiiittemms commmmmpromised... New targets designated. Executing command." Like that, the robots all stopped, only to raise their gatling weapons and missile launchers to point at one another.

'New targets?' Oh shit!

I ducked back behind the desk, as the pair opened up on one another with intense volleys of beam fire. The unending onslaught of magical energy began to strip away the armor of each robot relatively fast, but when it failed to kill each of them quickly enough the missiles went off, and everything inevitably ended in a fiery explosion. The blast shook the whole room, ripping away at the walls, the desk, and shattering the window. I had nothing but my armor to protect me from the hurricane of flames and shrapnel.

I closed my eyes, grabbed the closest thing I could use as an anchor, and prayed to the goddesses that the whole building didn't come down on top of us. Then the air went still save for the crackling of the flames that burned from the robots' broken bodies. A few seconds after that, I finally opened my eyes, vision flickering in my visor.

"You planning to do this every time we're almost blown up?" Vertigo asked, and I looked up to see what I'd grabbed was his torso.

In the same instance, I let go and staggered back. Yeah, definitely ask him out first… No, just no... I mean he's pretty hot and not a victim like Cherry, he... No, brain!

I didn't say a word, nor did I really want to think about the awkwardness in the air as the dust settled and the smoke drifted out into the large room beyond the broken window. Peering around the desk I saw that most of the room's walls were scorched black. The far right wall (as well as the corridor that had been beyond it) had been replaced by a mound of rubble.

Great, you really were almost buried alive. My mind chirped. My eyes did not linger on the destruction, however, instead, they were drawn to the flickering terminal screen.

'Security failsafe activated. Shut down attempt denied. Custom self-termination protocol activated. Have a nice day.'

I stared at the words as a whole slew of other random code and gibberish scrawled around them, then it all winked out and the scene went dead. I looked at my Pipbuck, I both wanted to kiss the thing and was terrified by it all at once. It had saved my life again, yet the reason why we're rapidly becoming a serious concern of mine.

Hey, don't blaspheme against the mighty Pipbuck! The part of me that was just happy to be alive retorted.

"Now that's why I knew you'd be useful down here," Vertigo stated as he sat up and rubbed some dust from his helmet with a forehoof.

"You mean my Pipbuck's useful, don't you?" I corrected sternly, but he just shrugged.

"Yeah, but you're much prettier to look at," he joked, retrieving a vial of peculiar green liquid from a bag in his armor, opening a small hatch around his muzzle, and taking a sip.

What? No... He doesn't get to say that... He's too good-looking and... Oh, Goddesses fucking horse apples!

I was left stuttering for a long moment before I was finally about to answer. Then I noticed he was not getting up. Instead, he was still clutching his chest and forehead as he levitated the vial of green liquid back into his bag. Through the scratch marks in his armor, several large wounds ran across his bloodied coat and they were... Glowing? A faint green hue seemed to emanate from the deep gashes as they closed.

How fucked up is this buck? What is he? A mutant, ghoul, tainted, a crazy raging daemon pony? Then I recalled his gesture from the elevator and offered him a forehoof.

He looked at me curiously, then at the helpful motion. Goddesses, I know I may have brushed off your kind offer, but did everypony have to be wary of me trying to help them?

"Thanks," he said as I helped him to his hooves.

"So, you gonna tell me what this is really all about?" I asked, removing my helmet and putting on my best cute mare expression as I motioned to the last remnants of his odd wounds.

That didn't seem to faze him, instead, he just moved past me and placed a hoof on the terminal.

"What, you never seen some crazy shit like that out here? Zebra elixir, nothing more," he told me as I set my helmet on my back. "Now, if you're looking for answers about the killer death robots then... You’re shit outta luck. Because I have no idea why anypony would program them to kill their own staff and remove the shutdown command. Let's just hope they all self-terminated," he explained, glancing out of the window.

"Is that your mainframe?" I asked, unplugging my Pipbuck from the terminal and stepping up beside him, nodding towards the pillar of terminal screens in the center of the large room.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that would be an odd place to put one because Oracle has a big obsession with hiding them," he elaborated.

"Yeah, didn't every pony try and hide that kind of information before the war?" I asked, and he laughed.

"Sure, but you've really not seen paranoid yet. Now if you want to do something else take a look around," he added, instantly darting over to the part of the wall the sentry bot had emerged from, prodding at the metal in search of any kind of secret.

I have to find yet another secret in one of these goddess-forsaken buildings? I thought to myself, then instantly set my eyes back on the terminal and levitated it back onto the desktop.

********

"Hello, Moon Dancer. By Celestia, it's been a long time. I'm glad I could finally get a connection in Desert Springs. This is Twinkle Shine from the M.A.S hub in Canterlot, we went to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns together, remember? Not that I'm saying you should, that was a long time ago, and well... Everything's so stressful nowadays and you're such a big professor an' all, haha.

Anyway, I've been told to inform you that Twilight Sparkle herself has taken an interest regarding your work and wishes to come to see the project for herself. There will also be representatives from the Equestrian Science and Research Foundation. I am also supposed to send you a checklist of all the things that must be prepared before the Ministry mare's arrival. You know how Twilight can be with her lists. She even said she'd have made this call herself, you were once one of her head researchers, after all... Haha. But like... well, we all know there's no free time around here anymore.

Anyhow, I hope you can get back soon with confirmation, I know communications over there are going haywire with the excavation. And well, I know this is going to sound kind of informal but... I hope you're happier where you are now, Moon Dancer. Because I'd like to think we're still friends, even if you don't remember me and the other girls anymore. But haha, listen to me! Sorry, have a good day, goodbye."

Vertigo banged on another part of the wall as the recording died, taking Twinkle Shine's flustered voice with it. It was one of the few I could find on the terminal and it was rather old, older than even the day the world had come to an end. Almost everything else important seemed to have been wiped from the terminal.

Probably something to do with the fact that they ordered their robot security to slaughter every pony they employed that wasn't some big shot. I noted suspiciously.

Below the recorded message was an attachment containing a checklist of seemingly unnecessary preparations. Ranging from seat ordering and orientation to the number of ice cubes in the refreshments. The words 'Yours sincerely, Twilight Sparkle' written at the bottom.

Twilight Sparkle? She was just another pretty face hiding a whole plethora of dark secrets. They were all the same. The Ministry mares, the princesses, Stable-tec...

I sighed, slumping down in what was left of the blown-up chair, and scrolled right down to the bottom of the terminal's contents. Then something right at the end caught my eye.

'Safe room door controls.' My ears perked as I leaned forward, then I glanced at Vertigo as he continued tapping hopelessly on the back of the small space the hidden sentry bot had emerged from.

And he said he was supposed to be good at this? A small desire to simply spite the buck welled up within me and I grinned wryly as I selected the option and told it to open.

For a long few seconds, there was nothing and I sat up straight, looking around the room for any secret compartment that might open. When that failed to happen I sank back down, mildly disappointed. Then there was a small beep, the sound of a heavy door swinging inwards and a profane yell from Vertigo as he fell into the hidden room muzzle first.

"Hooves and horseshoes!" he called as I looked over to see the back of the rear of the space he was testing had opened to reveal a new room. "Fucking stupid door," he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his helmeted muzzle.

I got up from the chair and trotted over to him, shining my light into the dark space as the centuries-old air and dust escaped from within.

"Told you there'd be a hidden door, found it no problem," he boasted as he raised back to his hooves.

"Yeah, of course, you did," I muttered slyly as I trotted past him. "Now come on, I don't want to be down here any longer than we have to."

The room was shrouded in darkness, yet in the green light of my Pipbuck, I could see it was a long space with a row of terminal screens covering the upper half of the walls on either side. Below them, a counter covered in dials, buttons, and switches still flickered. Wires were strung overhead and the faint hum of still-working electricity permeated the still air as the rattle of our hooves on the metal floor chimed. Taking another step forward I saw that the room opened out towards the end, sinking down a step into a slightly larger square chamber in which there were several blocky rows of electrical equipment.

"Wow, somepony really wanted to keep an eye on this place without anypony else knowing it," I observed as I brushed a hoof over one of the dusty control panels, seeing flickering camera feeds from random parts of the building.

"Like I said, you really haven't seen paranoid yet," Vertigo commented as he moved past me and down to where the room widened. "This looks promising though, there's got to be a mainframe access point in here," he added as he moved over to one of the large machines.

I turned my attention to the terminal screens that still radiated a dull green hue, and levitated over a dusty stool that had been left in one corner of the room. The moment I sat down some of the screens flashed a series of code and I shifted back in my seat.

Okay, as much as it had saved my life a few times, this was now getting kind of creepy. Yet as if not to be dissuaded by my uncharitable thoughts, the code dissipated from green to red and then vanished a moment later.

Awww, now you've gone and made it angry, Dragonfire! My mind muttered and I tried to ignore it.

Making my miracle Pipbuck angry was not something I wanted to do, even if it did freak me out. That was when the terminal right in front of me flashed to life with more than just code. First appeared the logo of Oracle, then another set of words.

***Data logs access granted, accessing terminated surveillance file 201. Please stand by... Surveillance footage recovered. Do you wish to play? Yes?/No?***

I squinted, making sure what I was really seeing was actually there. Then I got a very eerie feeling as I glanced at my Pipbuck.

Did somepony want me to see something? Why? The question ran ominously through my mind, yet once again curiosity sank its claws into caution and ripped it aside.

I couldn't help the fact that I really wanted to know, despite how unnerving it was, and I quickly pressed play. The first image I saw was blurred by static and colorless. But It did not take me long to recognize the large, cylindrical chamber as the one just outside the office behind us. Or if it was not that one, it was another one very similar. The version on the screen looked far newer and well-lit however, despite the image's poor quality. In it, I saw the rows of seats filled with ponies, each one wearing a pair of dark glasses.

There were two seating areas, one on the opposite side of the room and one below where the camera was situated. In the middle of the two was a set of three chairs, one was empty, and another supported a unicorn mare with a mint green coat and darker lime mane, her body covered mostly by a lab coat. The scientist sat nervously beside the unmistakable form of Twilight Sparkle, who was flanked by two armed pegasus guards. Then the movement of another pony as she entered the camera's view caught my attention. In the blurred image, I could just make out her cream coat as well as the mixture of maroon and purple in her mane. She too wore a white lab coat.

She stood before the tower of cables and wires in the middle of the room, the web now crackling with orange energy. The frames they were connected to were not empty however, and held within each was an odd pillar of silver metal, the likes of which were marred by a shimmering ornate pattern and radiated a dull glow. Connected to them was one of the glass boxes I'd seen shattered, and within them was what appeared to be Parrasprites.

"Fillies and gentlecolts of the Ministry of Arcane Science. Ministry mare." The cream mare looked over at Twilight in particular, and the lavender mare almost appeared to fidget a little. "My fellow explorers into the unknown, I am Professor Moon Dancer," she declared.

"You are here today to bear witness to the revolutionary applications of this new element, what we are currently calling Element-E! So if you would all please put these on for your own protection," she added, then turned to the tower, levitating a pair of black glasses over her eyes as the rest of the crowd did the same.

Seconds later, she began pressing buttons and pulling levers on the tower's console. It gave a spark and the camera feed flickered as from it more of the orange energy began to pulse creating visible winds that battered the scientists.

"To get right to the point, what you are about to witness will change the war, and the world," Moon Dancer declared, flipping one last switch.

As she did so a bolt lanced from each of the wired pillars and into the main structure. The metallic spires each began to thrum, a buzzing hum coming from the experimental device as a shielded spell enveloped the glowing spire. It built and built until the whole thing was like a rod of pure light within the magical field, then it arched out from the mechanical tower to the box containing the Parrasprites, and the creatures were struck by the orange lightning.

"The samples of Element-E excavated from the fissures under the city have proved quite fascinating. It seems that when the right kind of magical stimulation is applied it produces a form of energy like no other. We have taken to calling it primal-magic, for now, as it seems to be the basis for all forms of energy." I could hardly see through the bright light as Moon dancer went on, but within seconds it had faded to reveal the smoking interior of the tank.

The Parrasprites were dead, they had to be? I thought as I leaned closer.

The slamming of a multi limped, fusion of… Something with gnashing teeth, razor-sharp legs, burning orange wings, and silver metal tendrils that lashed out at the glass proved otherwise. The crowd gasped, recoiling a little. Twilight's guards leaped to protect her, but once it was clear the monster could not escape, they relaxed. Twilight herself leaned forwards, eyes focused right on the new monster.

"As you can see Element-E has a rather violent response to any bio-electrical current. Once again acting on the basis of the energy within the subject itself. This leads to the creation of what we like to call Neurodynes. As a basis for all potential life on Equs, it seems these Neurodynes can almost be programmed. As evident by the creature before you this could possibly be used to almost speed up a life form's very evolution," Moon Dancer elaborated, stepping forward.

"Now what I, and our scientific team here at Oracle propose is research into the application of this effect on ponies. As of now the only hypothesized method of creating and controlling this primal-magic is Element-E. The end goal of this proposed research is the creation of an army of highly evolved super soldiers." At those words, Twilight sat up and moved over to the professor.

Moon Dancer frowned as the Ministry mare offered a smile."Moon Dancer, right?" she asked, and the professor nodded, pushing up her glasses.

"That's correct, Miss Sparkle, we went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns together," she responded, a faint glimmer of hope in her voice.

"Sorry, I don't recall. So many things going on these days that it's hard to think back that far," Twilight admitted, and Moon Dancer's frown deepened. "But this... This is an amazing discovery! With this, we could win the war in a matter of months, or weeks even. An army of super ponies... I don't even know what the possibilities of future evolution could be... Alicorns perhaps?" Twilight went on, lifting a hoof to her muzzle.

"Yes, I think about it a lot, yet you must understand that this research is in very early stages of development, to apply it to ponies would take far longer," Moon Dancer responded, yet Twilight still just seemed lost in thought.

"But this combined with... Oh yes, it's almost possible," she mumbled to herself, bearly audible on the camera.

“I'm sorry, but I must insist that you return to your seat, Ministry mare, this site may still have trace amounts of radiation, and your attire is not equipped with the proper protection," Moon Dancer stated, nodding to Twilight's seat, glancing nervously at the catwalk above.

"Of course, forgive my intrusion. This is just so great, you should be very proud," Twilight congratulated one last time before trotting back to her seat.

Moon Dancer glanced up at the catwalk one last time. Then, as if on cue, there was a metallic twang and the whole thing fell right in front of Twilight, crushing the mint green mare and her two guards, before swinging into the crowd on the cords that remained fixed to the roof. Twilight froze with a gasp, as the whole room erupted into chaos. Moon Dancer was the only pony who looked out of place in the panicked-filled throng, as she stamped one hoof on the ground. I almost swore I heard her groan before she reluctantly trotted out. Flicking her tail against a switch beside the box, a spark of electricity shocked the monster inside dead as the whole system powered off.

********

I sat back in the chair, eyes passing over the other screens in case there was anything else that had appeared on them. Nothing presented itself and I just remained there for several more seconds before catching a glimpse of something glinting in the corner of my eye. Looking down under the desk I was met by a broken ventilation grate, sitting within, along with a few old papers, was a memory orb. I reached out with a hoof, taking the thing and putting it in my saddlebag.

Sometimes I think some pony went placing all these things around just to mess with me. I thought before turning to Vertigo.

He was still tinkering with one of the machine blocks, reworking wires, and flicking switches as he muttered to himself

"Hey, you know anything about this?" I asked and he looked up, a pair of long cords still draped over his head.

"Know anything about what?" he asked, and I nodded at the screen.

"About random surveillance recordings appearing right in front of me. Especially considering what it looks like they captured," I went on.

"Really?" He cocked his head and trotted over.

"Yeah, it looks like somepony was trying to kill Twilight Sparkle. I think this may have been an assassination attempt or something," I explained as he moved over and looked at the screen, yet the moment he did so it went dark.

"Wait, what? Who was talking about that?" he asked, looking back at me as the screens all died.

"Well, no pony was talking about it directly. Somepony called Moon Dancer looked rather pissed that Twilight didn't die though," I informed him and he shook his head.

"Are you sure?" he pressed and I nodded.

"Of course I'm sure... Why? What does it matter? Twilight's been dead for years anyway… They all have."

"She always said they were trying to take over the M.A.S... But why? It doesn't make sense," he muttered to himself, raising a hoof to his chin

"Hello, Equestria to stupid pony. What are you going on about?" I waved a hoof in his face, and he paused.

"Why would it show you that?" he asked, and my face contorted in bafflement.

"What! I thought you were supposed to be helping me find all the answers?" I yelled, and he shook his head.

"I have no idea, all I do know is that kind of stuff was not what I was expecting to find down here. Why would they just leave incriminating footage like that laying around?" he asked, but I shrugged.

"I don't think they did. I think what or whoever wanted me to see it recovered it somehow," I answered.

"Maybe so, but if that was the case then you'd have to have a very powerful program, more powerful than I was expecting," he went on, tapping my Pipbuck.

Goddesses, I don't understand any of this technical terminal shit.

"What do you mean more powerful than you were expecting? I'm standing right here, you know? And I'm not some moronic mare that just happens to be attached to the miracle Pipbuck!" I stated with a stomp of my hoof.

He turned around, muttering to himself as he moved back to the large bank of machinery he'd been messing with. I stepped out of the chair and moved over to him, shining my light over the wall to see what he'd been doing. The mass of sparks, blinking lights, empty sockets, and blank screens made about as much sense as his words.

"There's something in the system... Wait, how many times did you plug that thing in?" he asked, nodding at my Pipbuck.

"Just the once, why? That's all it’s ever needed to save my flank before," I stated.

"Ha, you're thinking about the potential too limitedly. Let's see what happens if you hook it up to this," he suggested, now motioning to one of the empty sockets in the wall.

I regarded him and his work for a long moment, the sinister message I'd seen in the terminal still fresh in my mind.

Maybe it was a warning? Get out while you still have a chance kind of thing? Remember what happened last time, Dragonfire? Vertigo caught me staring, then sighed.

"Look if you don't like the Transcendent, then we're on the same side. All I need you to do is plug it in again," he stated, looking right at me even as he reached for my foreleg

"So you can do what with it?" I snapped, pulling my hoof back

"Damn, why do you have to be so difficult? I have a friend in Crossroads that could really do a lot with this stuff. I work for them, and they're kind of a technological wizard. If anyone can help you with all this it's them, " he finally explained.

'Crossroads?' The town on the highway, but that was miles away. Wait I thought he was the one who was supposed to be helping me!

I said as much, but he shrugged again, "The only way you could ever get to them is through me, so technically I still am helping you. Now, the Pipbuck if you'd please."

Grumbling to myself I reluctantly lifted my foreleg and let his telekinesis plug it into one of the sockets he'd created. "Now, this is where the fun begins," he said flicking a switch.

The way he said that made me shiver and it was hard not to imagine some kind of evil scientist rubbing their hooves together as they cackled wickedly. Yet I was more distracted by the rapidly scrolling code that danced across several of the once-dead screens, not to mention the screen of my Pipbuck.

Goddesses, he knew what he was doing right? You know what you're doing trusting him like this, right? Dragonfire? My mind asked as I felt almost hypnotized by that scrawling code.

"Yes, come on, you beauty, give me everything, tell me how to beat those fuckers and their stupid freaks," Vertigo muttered as he watched the code too.

Wait, those fuckers and their what?

"Hey, what do you mean by freaks? You mean like monster ponies?" I asked, images of Carnage floating about my mind.

Vertigo stiffened as if he should not have said that. "I guess you could call some of them monster ponies, that's if you can even call them ponies anymore. But you don't need to worry about all that."

"No, I'm pretty sure I do. Look, I trusted you and gave you access to my Pipbuck. Now, if you really want me to trust you, tell me what you didn't before," I pressed and he sighed.

"Most inquisitors, the color-coded ones are just charismatic shells. The Transcendent have done far worse to ponies. As far as I know, there's only two. I met one called Locust at Stable fifty-four, and well... Well, she was pretty fucked up," he explained as he flicked a couple more switches on the terminals.

So Mister Red was not a normal pony? Yeah, he was still normal enough to get taken down by a good smash to the head though. My mind mused, unable to believe a pony like Carnage would have been fooled by such a thing.

"So who's Locust?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"She was just one mare. Thought she was just another slave when I went in, she didn't have the silly armor," he began, tapping his own armored hoof.

Funny, his armor looked a lot similar. What did a set of silly eye lenses make him super special or something? Then again, at least he hadn't covered his in that confusing orbital pattern.

"Well, turns out she wasn't a normal pony, though I only found that out once I got close. She had some kind of control over a swarm of mechanical microsprites that lived... Inside her ..." He trailed off, the memory sickening him as he took a sharp breath. "I mean now that I think about it the big holes in her spine should have been a big giveaway. She was like some damn symbiote."

"They lived inside her?" I asked in alarm, the image, sensation of such a thing making my stomach twist even more.

"Oh yeah, she'd strip the flesh off your bones in an instant if she wanted to," he assured me and I shot him a flat look.

"And you killed her, right?" I asked bluntly.

He snorted. "Ha, I'm stealthy but I'm not that good an assassin. No, I killed them all by sneaking in and flooding the whole place with radiation from the reactor. Got out before the door sealed. But that bitch just ate right through the door and didn't seem to care."

"She what?"

Ate through a Stable door, but that was a Stable-Tec door! Not even a mega-spell could get through something like that!

Despite everything Vertigo smiled at my stunned expression and right there and then I really wanted to hit him.

"Yeah she did, and I don't think I need to explain how uncomfortable knowing a pony like that's out there makes me. Stupid ponies and their stupid experiments," he muttered as if he wasn't one of these same stupid ponies.

I really considered what I was about to say next after that reaction. Yet after all he'd put me through, I wasn't really that concerned with his mental state.

"You ever heard of another one called Carnage?" I asked and he quickly looked at me.

"You saying there's more than just the one left?" Even behind that helmet, it was the first time I'd sensed fear in his voice, yet given who I was referring to I couldn't blame him.

I nodded, revealing every detail I'd seen, from his armor's flaming mane and red coat to the way he'd turned into a real monster after that stuff was injected into him.

"You're kidding me, right?" I shook my head and he fell forward over the code-filled screen.

"The shit I do for..." he groaned wearily before cutting himself off.

"Shit you do for what?" I asked, nudging him with a hoof.

He glanced back and I swear he growled like some sort of dog. "I have that psycho swarm bitch, now this ... Carnage. What a stupid name!" he exclaimed raising his hooved in the air.

"It also kind of makes this next bit of the plan a lot more... Well, interesting," he tapped a hoof to the terminal.

"What?" I asked, a million different things flooding out of my untrusting mind at those words.

"Well, you see your Pipbuck there has been doing exactly what I was expecting it to do if it had the chance," he said, gesturing at the device as I instinctively ripped it away.

I had no idea what was going on but I was really wondering why I'd trusted him again.

Because you're a stupid pony, didn't you prove that back under the last creepy science building?

"That is exactly why I didn't tell you what I was thinking sooner," Vertigo said, seeming to think for a second

"Tell me what?" I demanded and he flicked a switch on the wall.

***Data Transfer Complete. Please Have A Nice Day***

The words appeared on the screen as I gasped and looked down at the device on my foreleg.

"You transferred everything onto my Pipbuck?" I exclaimed, but he shook his head.

"No, your Pipbuck did that. The first time you plugged it in it must have installed a worm. I just gave it the opportunity to get the worm back. Looks like you picked up something very interesting and it really hated Oracle."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You lied to me, you little bastard," I growled.

"Haha, if only you knew how incorrect that insult was. But another thing I forgot to mention is that big of a data transfer is very hard to miss. Plus, if it is a Destiny corporation program on that Pipbuck of yours, then right about now it should..." Before he could finish there was a loud beep from the terminals.

"Warning, foreign artificial intelligence detected in primary core systems. Designation hostile: Proceeding with automated server wipe. Oracle security has been notified: all access points now in lockdown status," stated the tinny voice of a mare over the building's PA system.

Seconds later the whole room shook and trails of dust fell as a boom sounded somewhere above. In the same instance, my E.F.S lit up with red dots like a tree on Heartswarming Eve.

Goddesses it was all happening again, only this time I was stuck with a complete moron instead of my friend!

Vertigo looked at me as he drew Sting in his magic. "Oracle and Destiny hated each other, I did say you hadn't seen Paranoia yet."

"You... Goddesses, I'm going to fucking kill you!" I screamed.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Hit the Deck (Rank One) - You’ve been hit by one too many explosions. Perhaps it’s time to consider a new career. +25 Damage Threshold against explosives.

Companion Attained: Vertigo - Really? Are you just a magnet for the strangest of ponies? Oh well, at least this one can teach you a thing or two about being sneaky... Not to mention he's hot! You gain +40% duration for Stelthbucks and +20% damage from sneak attacks while your companion is present.

Chapter Seventeen: Last Train Out

Chapter 17: Last Train Out

"Ya' know, there's fussy, an' there's just plain gettin' on mah nerves."

A week ago I'd thought I'd hit the jackpot when I'd been offered a job worth a fortune. I thought I could finally have all the caps to make everything I’d done before as a bounty hunter worth it. Turns out it was most likely either a trap conjured up by some raving lunatic cult in order to get me in the right place at the right time, or it was a job that would require a small army to accomplish. But with me being me, I may have let my love of caps get the better of me and by taking on this mission I'd ended up being shot, stabbed, chased halfway across the desert, and on top of it had some malicious little robot do goddesses know what with my insides to the point I could hardly move without puking.

‘And what are you doing again, right now?’ My mind asked as I sat in the depths of another pre-war facility, alarms ringing as I looked at the stupid buck that had gotten me into this mess.

"Yeah, well as of five seconds ago I have a lot more ponies wanting to kill me. Now, how about you work with me to get the both of us out of here alive before you really consider killing me?" Vertigo suggested.

Another sound heralding the imminent arrival of the building's security rushed my decision-making as I reluctantly nodded.

"Well, can't we just shut them all down again like last time?" I asked, but he shook his head.

"Nope, didn't you hear? All of the info is gone in the purge. All terminal access is going to be on lockdown now," he elaborated.

By the goddesses, I'm going to roast his flank so hard the moment we get out of here!

Seconds later I put my helmet back on and the pair of us swiftly made our way back into the office. Vertigo instantly went over to the broken window, peering out into the large chamber beyond. I meanwhile took one look at the way we'd come in and concluded that the collapsed corridor wasn't going to be how we were getting out.

"So, what's your plan?" I called over to him.

"This room sits between this building and the M.A.S hub, below the rail lines and the Stable-tec building. There should be another elevator up to the back of the M.A.S building then we sneak out down the pipelines and right into the rail yard. Then you get your friends and we all get out of here, simple." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Sure it was easy for him to say.

With my luck, we’ll have a horde of those heavy-duty robots racing towards us with intentions to exterminate with extreme prejudice.

Still, it was at least some kind of course of action. It was far better than just waiting here for those damn robot security to kill us on sight. Not only that, but it would make sure we ended up right where Cherry and the others would be. Yet he'd missed out one major detail.

"What about all the slaves?" I asked.

He froze mid-stride."Slaves?"

By the goddesses, this had just become a million times worse!

"Yes, the whole reason I left Cherry and the others down there. Do you really think I'd have come up here alone otherwise!?" I yelled, really hoping he wouldn't somehow sense the true goal behind that question.

It would have been yes, either way. No way would I have risked the life of the pony I really cared about for this little side expedition, nor would I have Sky up here with Clip and Ochre still injured. I just hoped the pony I really cared about would still be okay when I got back to her.

"Well, I assume you told them to come up the service elevator that leads right to the rail line beside the construction yard?" He tapped the tip of his muzzle.

Goddesses, you'd think if he'd been stalking me as much as he claimed he'd know what to do.

"Pony feathers, you've really gone and made this interesting," he explained, eyes and ears darting about as he re-evaluated his plan.

"I've made this interesting? You're the one who snuck up on me and wrangled me into your little quest! How do you even know that's the right way?" I asked, and I could swear he was looking at me like I was stupid or something under that helmet.

"Don't tell me you've never infiltrated a building like this without taking even a single look at how it's laid out?" he asked and I grumbled to myself.

"Funny, Admiral Smart-ass, now you’re getting us the fuck out of here and you’re not going to ‘conveniently’ forget about my friends," I retorted and he quickly stepped out onto the catwalk just beyond the broken window.

‘More suspended catwalks, great. How I really do adore those.’ My mind groaned as I followed him.

The moment I stepped hoof on the metal it swayed uneasily and the urge to step back and find another way out of this death trap was becoming very strong. Then there was a rattling sound behind me and I glanced back.

"What's wrong, you afraid of heights?" Vertigo asked.

‘Goddesses, I'm going to rip that helmet off and blast the smug face I know's under there to Tartarus!’ That was when the office exploded.

"Attention, attention!" blurted yet another sentry bot as it blew a hole through the rubble covering the door and tried to force its way through.

The explosion threw me forward into the rail on the other side of the catwalk and the whole thing swayed away from the window before swinging back towards the broken glass. I wrapped my forehooves around the railing as my rear hooves kicked out and my stomach lurched. Then the sentry bot trying to crawl its way over the rubble piles aimed its gatling weapon right at me while it positioned its missile launcher to blast away more of the rubble and make a path for itself.

"Why can't you just stay shut down you stupid hunks of scrap metal!" I yelled as the rocking continued.

"No chance of that now. So much for hoping they all were shot to bits by each other!" Vertigo called as I felt like I was going to throw up.

In the blurred mess that was my vision I saw him look back at me, the piece of catwalk he occupied disconnected from my own and relatively still in comparison. Two of the cables suspending my half of the catwalk snapped with a loud twang and the whole thing swiftly became vertical.

"Goddesses, get me the fuck off of this damn thing!" I cried, holding on for dear life and closing my eyes as the bright beams of the robot's weapon nearly severed the second set of cables.

‘Sure, don't just shoot at me directly.’ I thought to myself, my inner monologue absolutely dripping with loathing and sarcasm. ‘Take the long and terrifying road to kill me!’ I mentally cursed.

That was when I detected a bright flash beyond the darkness of my sealed eyelids and swiftly heard Vertigo calling out from below. "Let go, I'll catch you!"

‘Oh right, like I'm going to believe him after all of this shit!’ Then one of the cables on the far side of the catwalk snapped and the whole thing tilted a little further downwards, spinning while hanging diagonally. ‘Well, you're dead either way. Even if he's lying.’ My mind noted.

Goddesses, I really don't want to give the buck who got me into this dangerous situation in the first place the satisfaction of letting me fall to my death! ‘Then what choice is there?’ My mind queried and right then I really hated the wasteland for creating the situation for which I was out here in the first place!

Without a word, I closed my eyes as tightly as I could as the catwalk gave one last shudder before I reluctantly let my hooves slip away from the railing.

‘Damn, this is not how I expected to go out.' Then again nothing that I'd done recently had gone as I had expected.

I screamed, but shortly felt the tingling aura of telekinesis envelope my plummeting body, and my weight was reduced to that of a feather. I cracked open one eye and looked down from where I was suspended in the air by Vertigo's purple aura.

"See, not bad at all," he mused, then cocked his head and seemed to look past me.

I was about to retort with something equally witty when he added. "On second thought, let’s leave the talking until we aren’t in danger."

There was another whip-like crack as the sentry bot's fire severed the last cable and it snapped back. ‘Right, fight for survival now, talking can definitely wait until later.’

Vertigo bolted to one side, levitating me with him as the mass of metal came crashing down, smashing apart in a burst of metallic shrapnel, a great deal of the equipment that littered the experimental demonstration suffering various degrees of damage. Instinctively I kicked my legs to run too, only for me to realize again that I was still suspended by Vertigo's magic.

"Damn it, let me down! My hooves have been off the ground long enough today!" I exclaimed, my legs still squirming as Vertigo finally levitated me to the floor.

"You were up there for five seconds," he said, but I just shook my head.

"Like I said, I’ve been off the ground for long enough!" The flashes of another explosion and the following light of beam fire swiftly canceled the argument as the sentry bot broke into the office and moved over to the window to fire down at us.

"Come on, there should be an exit on the other side," Vertigo stated, running around the piles of scientific equipment.

"Great, let's just hope this one isn't locked!" I added as I carefully backed up to where he'd run, firing back at the attacking robot.

His lack of a response beyond that of a faint grumble wasn't very encouraging. But the wasteland didn't stop there. No, it had to go and make my day so much more exciting.

Below the office window from which the sentry bot fired a large steel door slid open. The bright flashing of alarms on either side rang to life, and grinding tracks carried forwards two more sentry bots, both immediately taking aim.

"Awww, come on!" I screamed, ducking behind the cover of the equipment as the two new robots blasted us with beam fire.

"Hey, give me a second. I'll have to manually try and override the door controls!" Vertigo called from where he'd pulled a panel off of the wall beside our exit.

"Good, because me and my miracle Pipbuck are kind of busy at the moment!" The sound of a missile followed my words as the sentry bot on the upper floor blasted the spire in the middle of the chamber and I was thrown aside by the concussive force of the fiery blast.

The tower went up in a flash of fire and orange sparks, the old shield around it activating for a second before flickering out. My whole body felt as if it had been put through a blender and my gut seemed like it had been through the same thing several times more as I rolled across the tile floor. Getting back on my hooves I saw that most of the central shaft had fallen down between me and the robots, it had also split in the middle. Sparks of the odd orange magic arched between the two halves and beyond it, I could see one of the sentry bots moving in to execute a pincer maneuver. I looked between the robot and Vertigo as he got back to his hooves and resumed work on the door.

‘Great, time for me to save his sorry flank for a change.’

"Hey, you!" I shouted, standing up and moving toward the sentry bot.

It paused, then swiftly shifted to point one of its very powerful weapons at me. I looked right into the red lights beneath the grill of its head and fired. The plasma did nothing but cause its black armor to glow red hot as it opened fire and advanced towards me. I darted toward the closest piece of cover I could find as the bright beams lanced through the air. All the while begging the goddesses that the laser fire wouldn't instantly turn me to ash.

"Ha, is that it? You worthless bucket of bolts! Your grandma was a toaster!" I called, unable to forgo allowing a little bit of my hatred toward all robots to surface even as parts of my flesh burned from the heat of the lasers.

The same could not be said for the sentry bot as it kept firing and raised its missile launcher. Yet the explosive never fired and I peeked up to see the robot advance mindlessly right into the crackling field of magical electricity between the two halves of the fallen spire.

"Attention, attention... Sssss-security compromised... Ssss... System error, error, error!" I expected the robot's buzzing stammer to be ended with a loud bang.

Instead, the orange lightning lashed out over it like a living spider web, reaching out and underneath the plates of armor like flickering tendrils. Then the whole thing seemed to glow from the inside before its plates began to rupture and bulge.

Okay, not what I was expecting. I noted as the inside of the robot almost began to bleed a silver metal that glowed the same vibrant orange.

"Haha, I got it!" Vertigo called out before there was a small beep and the door slid open next to him.

I looked away from the sentry bot as more of the silver metal swelled up from within it, ripping apart its arms and weapons before leaking onto the floor. Then the second of the ground-level robots blasted away through the wreckage to my right allowing both it and the one in the office above a new line of sight.

"Great, that's a first!" I called to Vertigo, galloping as fast as my aching limbs would allow right toward the door.

The robots continued to fire, nipping my tail with singeing bolts of magical energy. Moments later, I reached the door, following Vertigo into the dark corridor beyond.

"Now close it!" I yelled.

"Close it? I hadn't exactly planned that far ahead," he responded, but I was quite frankly done with these stupid robots.

"Fine, I'll do it!" I snapped pointing my plasma rifle at the door control switch.

There was no argument from my companion, in fact, he even seemed impressed. That was when the whole room was shaken by a new explosion, however. The robot caught in the lightning gave one last metal groan before it blasted apart in a flare of orange light and a molten wave of silver metal. The robot on the ground was smothered in the metallic liquid and I had no time to see the same thing happen to the sentry bot on the upper floor as I blasted the door's lock. Much to my relief it slid closed before any of the strange substance hit us.

‘Great, finally a break.’ I appreciated the reprieve for however long it lasted as the sound of the hard substance hitting the other side of the door rang out, causing it to hiss and bulge outward as extreme heat radiated from the other side, before the place finally went silent.

"So where to now, mister expert infiltrator?" I asked, turning to Vertigo.

I really had very little patience or time for this. Cherry probably thought I was dead and had left with the others by now anyway. Still, there was no way I was just going to leave her, no matter where we both ended up.

"This way, there's some labs and then an elevator up to the rear of the M.A.S hub if I'm right. Just watch out for any more security," Vertigo said as he trotted down the corridor.

‘And what has he been right about before now?’ I thought to myself as I trotted along after him.

********

Unfortunately, Vertigo was at least right about the security, yet we dispatched the turrets and ponytrons with far more ease than the heavily armored sentry bots. The farther we went, the darker it got, the gloom parted by the light of my Pipbuck. The green glow did nothing to settle the eerie sights I saw through the cracked windows of the laboratories as we passed by, however. I could see the shadows of operating tables sitting beneath spindly metal limbs, tipped with drills, saws, and a whole manner of sharp needles. Half-full tanks of odd liquid lingered like ghosts in the corners of the room, the ones that weren't shattered or glowing serving as an unwelcome reminder of the mare I'd seen below the Destiny building.

‘Goddesses, I really hope that hadn't been Lucky.’ I thought, noticing that some of the vats even had shriveled organic remains in them.

I dared not think about how I'd seen Lucky Star in the memory as I passed each of them before the corridor finally ended and we both emerged into a dimly lit room.

It was another operating chamber. ‘Great. So much for my break.’

The walls were a clean white, as were the panels covering the bases of several shattered glass tubes and vats positioned in a neat square around the central operating table. Looking into each I was glad to find them all completely empty. In fact, besides the medical equipment, the majority of the room was empty. Across the chamber from us was a large, shattered mirror, yet as we moved over it became clear that only one side of the thing had been transparent.

"Must have been some sort of viewing screen. Ha, figures they don't want whatever poor soul's on there to see the ponies torturing them. Cowards," Vertigo noted, nodding to the operating table as he levitated up one of the broken shards.

"And you know what they did to ponies here, do you?" I asked and was both thankful and a little disappointed when he shook his head.

‘Great, now can we just get out of here already?’ I thought to myself, voicing the sentiment to my current partner’.

Vertigo didn't seem to disagree as he tossed the broken glass aside and stepped into the room that it had once hidden from view. The dull walls in here were a stark contrast to the ones in the clinical lab. All that I could see was a control desk with a microphone, another door, and several cabinets built into the wall. I found myself drawn to the desk just for a moment unable to think about what horrible orders may have been issued from it. What had the ponies here done in their sick experiments? An image of Lucky Star and the whole host of horrible things I'd seen under the Destiny tower flashed through my mind again and I turned away. Then I found myself looking at one of the lockers as Vertigo set to work on rewiring the door.

"Damn, this better be the last one of these stupid things," he groaned and I was about to agree when something caught my attention.

Through a rusted crack in the cabinet, I saw a faint glow. I glanced at Vertigo, then back at the glow. Curiosity finally got the better of me and my horn flared as I magically pried the thing open only for a whole pile of memory orbs to come flooding out. Startled, I jumped back and raised my rifle as the orbs rolled out and pooled around my hooves only to realize how twitchy I was getting.

‘Damn, are these places really starting to get to you?’ ‘Haha, very funny, brain.’ I cursed as I lowered my rifle, then levitated up one of the orbs, careful not to let it touch my horn.

"Seriously?" Vertigo asked, watching me slip a few of them into my bag.

"What? Know your enemy, right?" I retorted.

A small part of my mind thought exactly that, yet another only wondered if they all were really just set up to mess with me. But so what if I found them interesting? This mystery had already caused me enough trouble and some of these things could contain valuable answers. Vertigo on the other hoof, swiftly became distracted elsewhere as the door beeped.

"Hey, that was easy... Wait?" It slid open and before he knew it a metal hoof smashed into his face with a hard clunk.

His helmet sparked and crackled under the force of the deactivated power hoof's strike, yet seemed to absorb most of the impact. I had a feeling if it had been turned on, he'd be dead, but I had little time to think as I lifted my weapon to the door. Only for it to be kicked from my grip and back out into the operating room by the power-hoof-wearing pony. The barrel bent with a flash of green sparks and plasma as it clattered to the floor, leaving me with only my magic as three ponies stormed in through the door. Two of them were heavily armed stallions in the dark Transcendent armor. The third was a small, gray, earth pony mare only half my size and clad in a combination of Brazen barding and black combat gear. It was her that I'd seen before, only this time she had a crackling power hoof on each of her forelimbs.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Two lost little birds," Chief growled.

She banged her hooves on the floor, sparks flying from the power hooves as they activated and tiles buckled beneath her. Then her eyes narrowed further as she focused on me.

"So you're the one who gave us the slip? Such a pretty little thing, don't really look like much. Hardly worth Carnage's effort," she mocked, waving a hoof at me. "I'd snap you like a twig if my Carrie, didn't want you alive."

‘Her what?’ My face contorted before I snapped back.

"Funny, I recall you being the one running away when I blasted your little friends." She grit her sharpened teeth.

"I'm sure it's hilarious, but how about we see how smug you are when I smash your face in, pretty girl," she declared as her two companions lunged at Vertigo and she whirled to strike me with her rear hooves.

‘Well, at least she's not coming at you with the power hooves.’ I recognized.

Then again that probably meant she didn't want to simply kill me, or at least not yet. ‘Goddesses, are all bad guys gonna do their villainous monologuing, or is there anyone who would rather have me dead without making me sit through their spiel?

I jumped to the side as her strike struck nothing but the air, and then wrapped her rear hooves in my magic and pulled, dragging her back through the window.

"Fuck you! You stupid fucking horn head!" she yelled kicking out before managing to grip her power hooves onto the window frame.

As good as I thought I might be, my telekinetic strength was nothing compared to the gripping power of those hooves and I was forced to release her.

"Now, just stop with the tricks and take it, you troublesome little bitch!" she yelled, the time for mockery clearly over.

"Haha, you're about the last pony to call anypony little, pipsqueak!" Vertigo called as he tussled with the other two ponies.

I was surprised at how fast he'd recovered from one of those hooves to the face. Either she hadn't really been trying to kill him either or his armor was really something. Regardless, it was evident that whatever orders Chief may have had to keep us alive didn't really matter anymore as the little mare's rage spiked. Now it really looked like she was just trying to smash my face in.

"What did you say, you pathetic bug? I'll squash you and your pretty marefriend here!" she declared, smashing her power hooves hard into the floor, sending enamel shards flying along with sparks of electricity.

‘Okay, definitely trying to pummel me into a bloody pulp now.’

The small mare coiled back, then sprang at me with the crackling weapons outstretched. Without my rifle, I lowered my horn, concentrated, and with a spark of cyan flame set the window frame on fire.

"Fuck! What the fuck? You can go shove that horn up your ass!" she cried as she hit the flames and kicked back, cursing a whole slew of profanities and patting out her singed fur. "Hey, you two stop fucking about with him and get this little bitch!" she called from over the blaze and before I knew it there was a clattering of gunfire against my side.

Most of the bullets bounced off of the scales or left only bruises as they hit the harder parts of my barding. Yet several pierced the flesh in my flank.

‘Bruises, beam weapon burns, and now bullet holes?’ Goddesses I was glad I was so numb on Med-X, no matter how much the painkiller was beginning to wear off.

Still, the gunshots sent me sprawling to the floor as one of the black armored bucks levitated an automatic rifle to my head as he stood over me.

"If I see so much of a spark from that horn of yours, I don’t care how much trouble I’ll be in with the boss, you won’t be causing us any more problems," he grumbled from under his helmet.

‘Well, if that was the case...’ I kicked up with my rear hooves and struck him right where it hurt.

It seemed I was not the only one to forget to put armor there as the stallion folded in on himself, grasping at his crotch with his forehooves. The moment his weapon was off of me my horn sparked again and this time blasted his helmet with a wave of cyan flame. In the end, it was safe to say that the area between his legs was the last of his problems as he fell back and desperately tried to pull his red-hot helmet off.

Absolved of my last plasma weapon, I caught his gun in my magic and aimed it at the transcendent earth pony frantically trying to pin down a teleporting Vertigo. It was clear from my companion's panting and sizzling horn that jumping from place to place was really taking it out of him. So I once again took it upon myself to save his flank. I opened fire on the attacking pony's head and it became pretty clear that while that armor was a cut above the usual wastelander's, it was far from bulletproof. I shot again and again until the black metal yielded and the earth pony fell to the floor with a hole in his skull. Vertigo finally appeared before me with a flash, gasping for breath through his helmet's vent.

"Good shot," he panted, and I grinned behind my visor.

"I shouldn’t leave all of the saving to you now, should I?" I responded, all the while trying to assure myself that I wasn't also smiling because he was also stupidly attractive.

Vertigo almost seemed to breathe in that admiration as if it were a refreshingly cool breeze, then he darted to the door Chief had attacked us from. Beyond it was a short corridor flanked by two more doors and just ahead was the open entrance of an elevator.

"Get back here... I'm going to beat the goddesses fucking shit out of both of you damn mules when I get to you!" Chief yelled from across the fire as the pair of us got in the elevator and Vertigo pressed the button to ascend with his magic.

“You’re a bastard of multiple generations of inbreeding, stumpy!” Vertigo mocked before the elevator doors.

The screaming mare disappeared as the dull hum of March of the Parraspites began to play. I let out a small breath of relief, despite the fact I knew this was most likely far from over. I still had to get back to Cherry, then escape this goddesses awful place. Then I had to find some way to get to Stable Fifty, find Star, and make sure I didn't die and... I rubbed my aching gut as it growled. It was all so much just because of this stupid job.

"Here, for the wounds. Got no Med-X left though, sorry," Vertigo offered, levitating over a healing potion as he removed his damaged helmet and took another sip of his strange green liquid.

"Stupid power hoof, how did I miss that?" he grumbled, then strapped the helmet to his side.

"Just be glad she didn't have them turned on, she wasn't trying to kill you. At least before you really pissed her off," I responded.

But most of my attention was drawn to the small vial as he took a sip. Even as I downed my healing potion, I slowly began feeling at least some relief all over my body as the magic set to work on my injuries.

‘Extra strength, wow he really does know his stuff.’ I thought as the elevator ascended for about a minute more before stopping with a beep and opening to reveal another office room.

‘Another secret elevator to the crazy basement, how predictable.’ I thought, stepping out.

It was in no better condition than any of those from the Oracle building across the plaza, the likes of which I could see through a shattered window to the right. Rain still poured outside and lightning flashed against the industrial skyline. Then Vertigo stepped out and pulled a grenade from his saddlebags.

"Perfect gift for our angry little friend down there. Should make sure she stays put for a while at least," he said as he magically sent the elevator back down, though not before pulling the grenade pin and tossing his ‘present’ inside.

A moment later there was a distant rumble and the room shook as the explosive detonated. "Now let's get out of here, we should be fine now unless they have fly-"

His words were cut off as something smashed in through the window, bounced from a desk with a metallic thud, and rolled into the room. Both our horns ignited in union, the pair of us ceasing the grenade and hastily tossing it back out of the window.

"Damn, featherbrains. They must have been watching the elevator!" Vertigo called out, as two black armored griffins took firing positions outside the window.

I glanced up, my failing visor struggling to make out the pair as they hovered in the rain, meanwhile, my E.F.S just showed me a whole load of red dots. The griffins were either Talon mercs or this Transcendent offered its services to more than just ponies. Neither option struck me as desirable as I raised the rifle I'd looted and fired into one of the flying felines, dropping into S.A.T.S. One shot struck his wing while the other hit his rear paw. The hybrid creature gave an eagle-like screech, clearly not prepared for my magically assisted accuracy. He also didn't seem ready for the sharp metal shard that sliced right through his throat as Vertigo joined me.

The second Griffin merely looked on as her companion fell to the rain-swept street below, then she sent two more bursts through the window. I ducked, a bullet striking the screen of a terminal atop the desk, bursting it with an electrical pop.

"Come on, we can find a way down to the construction yard this way," Vertigo told me as he crawled to the office door, blasting shots back into the griffin and forcing her to swerve.

"Yeah, but going down the way you planned is gonna be a lot trickier with our new friends," I countered, recalling what he'd said about the pipes.

Still, it was better than no plan at all and I began backing quickly towards the door, keeping my head low and blasting at the lone griffin. After a minute of swerving, she dove down below the window and disappeared.

"Ha, she gave up, typical," Vertigo snorted.

"There's going to be a lot more of them you know?" I corrected and he laughed a little.

"Well, yeah of course. Not to mention all the other ponies that are probably looking for us. Somepony in the Transcendent would have known the moment you plugged that program into an Oracle terminal," he elaborated and I had to fight the temptation to hit him.

"Yeah, because that's going to make getting thirty slaves out of this damn place so much simpler," I snapped, frowning.

‘Goddesses, did he know about that when deceiving me to use my Pipbuck? Does he intend for us to run with the whole of Crimson Springs on our tails?

"Don't worry, I'm working on that," he assured me, trotting on.

********

The short trek through the ruined corridors of the M.A.S hub was just as eventful as the last. The only things preventing me from laying into Vertigo with a barrage of questions, were the small groups of Transcendent and Brazen slavers we were forced to dispatch or sneak around. Even with my burning curiosity, years of wasteland survival demanded I stay focused, E.F.S and S.A.T.S were proving very helpful in that endeavor. That all ended as we found ourselves in another office, or more accurately, half of what was left of one. Like Vertigo had said the whole rear left corner of the building had collapsed. Many exposed floors sat above and below us, as well as many loose support beams and hanging wires that lashed about in the storm.

About five floors under us there was a crumbling concrete wall and a train line emerging from a tunnel within it. To the left of the tracks, I could see the skeletal remains of the construction site I'd seen on the city map. It had either fared far worse in the wasteland than everything else or it had never been more than a rusting frame to begin with. Under the steel mess was a whole assortment of discarded metal, rubble, and spark-operated construction machines which were gradually sinking into the muddy earth created by the torrential rain. An old Robronco sign lay half buried in the mud beside the aging tracks and next to it were several boxcars as well as a rusted, old, spark-powered engine to which a few additional train cars were attached.

"We'll get out on that, there's enough room for everypony!" Vertigo called, pointing a hoof at the train.

Well, it would certainly be faster and get everypony away from here in one go. But of all my time in the wasteland, I'd never heard of a more ridiculous idea.

"Are you being serious, that thing's nearly two centuries old for Celestia's sake! We've no idea if it even works or..." Much to my irritation, he cut me off with a wave of a hoof.

"Trust me, all you need to do is turn it on and it'll work. Earth pony engineering always does," he assured me, and the fact I was left with so few other options forced me to trust him once again.

Goddesses, is this buck just trying to kill me or make me follow every one of his ridiculous moves without question?

Still, part of me hoped I really could at least trust him to save my tail again. I also really hoped I could trust myself, or more specifically my miracle Pipbuck, to get that thing working somehow.

‘A train is no different than a terminal, right? Not to mention the tracks are downhill, so it's not like I have to keep the thing going for long as long as the brakes work?’ My thoughts were silenced by a loud crack, then another sharp twang as a bullet struck the crumbling roof above us.

"Yeah, fine plan, sounds great. Time to move," I finally agreed.

Vertigo quickly leaped from the edge of the ruined floor, landing on one of the long, rusted pipes. My eyes followed him, then moved onto the mass of pipelines that crisscrossed the back of the building before vanishing into the concrete wall above the tunnel. It was all far too high from the ground for my liking. Everything in my head was telling me just how bad an idea this was. I agreed, but today was shaping up to be a paragon of bad ideas, why not go all-in? I leaped forward, hooves landing upon the closet of the metal frames as two griffins swooped around the ruined M.A.S tower.

‘Yeah, this was a really bad idea, but at least I was right about there being more of them.’

I spun around swiftly, whipping the rain from my visor and trying hard not to slip on the wet metal as I sent several bursts of the automatic rifle in the griffins' direction. The pair swerved, narrowly avoiding the first barrage before returning fire with their own rifles.

‘Now I have no cover, great!’ I turned back and ran towards Vertigo as several rounds glanced off my dragon scale-encased rump.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" I called out profusely as I leaped to the left, landing clumsily on another set of pipes and sending my gut into another nauseating churning sensation.

"Get down!" Vertigo instructed as he raised his rifle.

Scary Images of what the scrappy thing had done to the Brazen slavers flashed through my mind as I dropped to the floor. Sting gave its signature hiss as a barrage of sharp metal needles fired toward our winged adversaries, right over my head. I heard one give a painful cry, then the pipeline shook as the beast's body came crashing down upon it before bounding into the flooded mud below. I glanced up at Vertigo as he reloaded, cramming in more shards of scrap.

‘Cherry is a good pony, I'm kind of a smart pony, and him... He's just a plain weirdo pony.’ Taking his example to heart, however, I reloaded my own weapon.

The griffins didn't seem willing to give either of us the luxury for long however as two more shots glanced off my armor, battering my body anew. ‘Damn it, I only just drank a healing potion for all of this shit!’

"Fuck, what's that fucker wearing, I can't get a good shot!?" I heard one griffin ask angrily.

"Sigil only knows. Now keep firing!" another retorted, his words heralding another hail of bullets.

I swear I blushed. At least someone appreciated my armor's design for once.

"Oh, it's a personal design, not too hard to make. All you gotta do to get some is kill a fucking dragon!" I shouted back, opening up with the automatic rifle as I spun to face them. “Also, your mother bucks toaster ovens, you overgrown turkeys!”

"Kill a dragon? Wow, sounds great! You'll have to tell me about it sometime," Vertigo laughed as he jumped down to another platform.

"You assume there's going to be another time?" I called back.

One of the griffins swooped around and behind a smokestack, trying to come at me from the left. I watched his mark on my E.F.S, then dropped into S.A.T.S and levitated out my scoped rifle

The shot flashed and my love of functioning Pipbucks only grew as it struck the griffin right in the chest. I had no idea if it actually penetrated his armor but from the way he spiraled off course and down into a mass of sharp metal girders I assumed he wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

"This will teach you fucking bastards to chase me across the wasteland!" I called, almost jumping on the spot.

The griffins retreated behind the cover of the buildings and then my smug smile was wiped from my muzzle as a dark blur slammed into my left side. My insides shifted and twisted like jelly as the force rippled through me. I staggered before tumbling onto the pipeline Vertigo had jumped to just below. My automatic rifle landed on the wet metal only meters from my forehooves, the other clattered down into the thick mud below. I glimpsed Vertigo as he fired into the rainy sky then heard a croaking laugh as the pipeline shook. Rolling onto my front and trying to ignore my very, very uncomfortable stomach ache, I glanced back at the rifle that had landed in front of me. A heavy metal claw smashed down on it seconds later.

"Chase you? Haha, I'll think we'll just kill you and call it a day," a new, croaking griffin cawed.

I glanced up and right into the sharp green eyes of the black feathered creature. His right foreleg was completely made of metal, the likes of which glowed with many green lights and was tiptoed with razor-sharp talons that crackled with electricity. The tuft of fur at the tip of his lion tail was also green as were his wings' outermost pinion feathers and those forming a crest behind his black armored head. A similar black, green trimmed, carapace covered the rest of his body. Two long blades ran along the edges of his wings and there was a beam pistol holstered on his left side as well as a grenade bandolier.

"Mister Green, I presume?" If I was wrong about that, then who could blame me, maybe he was just a griffin who liked the color green.

His cracked beak parted with a smile, and he rubbed the Transcendent badge on his chest carapace with a foreclaw.

"At your service," he responded with a slight bow and spread of his wings.

‘Great, I'm right. Now for a whole new batch of questions. He's a Griffin? But... You know, you should really think more about killing your enemies, not woolgathering like some senile old mare, Dragonfire.’ ‘Shut up, brain!’

"Sigil only knows that tiny, power hoof swinging, foal couldn't have captured you down there. Never send a pony to do a griffin’s job," Mister Green grumbled, pointing to himself.

The green-tinted griffin regarded me closely, eyes appearing to see far more detail than my simple equine eyes could. He glanced back at Vertigo, who I could only assume hadn't shot him yet due to the ring of five or so griffins that now had guns pointed right at us.

‘You know a smart pony is really a stretch’, my mind snickered as I tried to figure out how they'd all managed to sneak around us.

I was even more confused as to how I was still alive, and the most puzzling thing to me was the fact I cared enough about Vertigo to not just start trying to torch them all.

"I suppose you're the rat who killed Yellow?" Vertigo didn't do anything other than scowl and the griffins all chuckled in malicious glee. "Don't think you can trick these eyes, you little grub," the griffin stated, pointing at his face. "It's funny really, I thought your kind was extinct."

I paused, then mentally backtracked. ‘His kind? He is a pony, right?’

"No, the only thing that went extinct out here is common sense," Vertigo retorted, his scowl broken by a wry grin.

The griffin merely gave another fake chuckle, his expression falling flat. "Yeah, never figured ponies would be so blatantly philosophical as to end the world," he spat.

Vertigo raised an eyebrow. "Well then, I think we can both agree that they're the lowest of the low," he responded, pointing a hoof at me.

‘Wait, why? What the fuck are these two talking about?’

"Are you two gonna shut up and kill me? If not can you please just stop wasting my time!" I shouted.

The smug contest between them stopped abruptly, Vertigo looked surprised and Mister Green showed about as much emotion as a brick wall. Then the green griffin sighed.

"Barron wants me to bring you two in, but I think he'll just settle for you." He pointed a claw at me. Then glanced at Vertigo. "You? Well, I don't think it will be too hard to say you were caught in an accident." He laughed and the Griffins around him all joined in again.

Vertigo slumped and mimicked the expression with a fake chuckle. I glanced down at the rifle under Mister Green's crackling metal claw. That limb was far too strong for me to just yank it away.

‘Damn, I really wish my eyes could melt it off or something, maybe if I focus really hard...’

There was a sharp crack amidst the thundering sound of the rain, then the green-tinted metal buckled, steam hissing from the hole in his ankle. In the same instant, there was another as one of the griffins above fell dead to the muddy tracks. Mister Green cawed angrily as the griffins scattered in confusion, his damaged claw lifted from my rifle as I snagged it, and the hole in his limb began to close.

‘It has a repair talisman, seriously!’

"Urggg! Enough talk, just kill them all you fools!" he called as my horn flared and levitated my rifle into a firing position.

The green griffin disappeared into the air before I could get a clean shot at his smug face and in the chaos, I couldn't even find him on my E.F.S. That only fuelled my frustration as I spurred back into action. Vertigo had also taken the chance to fire upon the griffins surrounding us. The gleaming projectiles Sting fired glinted in the flashes of lightning as he hopped down onto one of the lower pipes, now only inches above the train cars' roof as he downed another griffin with a swift shot to the skull.

A burst from the rifle and another confused half-feline was knocked off course and sent head-first into a rusted smokestack. Then there was a crack out in the rain and I saw another take a bullet straight through her wing, swirling down to the mud like a leaf in the wind. Reloading, I looked down over the train tracks to see where the shots were coming from. Cherry stood in the rain with Clip on her back. Water dripped from her mane and barding as she levitated Responsibility at her side, Clip holding off any attack from behind with his own weapon.

That is the pony I saved. I felt a strange concoction of pride, happiness and then fear as I saw two griffins taking aim at the pink mare.

I raised my rifle and opened fire. One of the griffins got off a shot before my bullets bit into his chest and wings. I didn't even dare look directly at Cherry as she jolted to the side, staggering behind the fallen Robronco sign. Behind the sign with her, I could see at least a dozen more ponies taking cover, I could even make out the very displeased face of Sky as she tended to them as best she could.

Oh, yeah, forget about killing Vertigo, you better make sure she doesn't get you first.

"Over here, you fucking feather brains!" I called out in an effort to draw their fire away from my friends. “You’re so stupid, you overgrown chickens can go buck yourselves!”

It worked. A griffin swiftly turned, to face me and the barrel of my levitated rifle. Her eyes went wide as I opened fire and tore most of her face off. Seconds later another pair swooped in over me and I bolted to the side, landing on the lowest of the pipes. Somewhere in the rain, I heard the sharp hiss of Sting, before one of the griffins fell to the pipe in front of me, rattling it hard. The second dived towards Vertigo, the shard of metal glancing at the side of her black helmet as she swerved and slammed into him. Both were cast over the edge of the pipe. The force of the impact caused one section of the line to give way and fall onto the top of the boxcar sitting in the tunnel's mouth below.

The griffin spread her wings as Vertigo struggled in her claws, then before she could drag him back into the air there was a flash and he was gone. With a wet thud, the griffin landed in the thick mud and swiftly became indistinguishable as the vile filth splashed her. Vertigo appeared next to her in a flash, but before Sting could fire the griffin lashed out with a claw and knocked his forelegs out from under him.

I aimed my rifle at the struggle. Then I was also knocked forward and onto the roof of the train car as my section of the pipeline collapsed. Another griffin swooped in over as I sprawled across the wet metal, my stomach swimming more than the muddy slog below as I tried to aim my rifle upward. The car shuddered as new weight landed atop me, a firm talon forcing my rifle down. The griffin smiled wickedly, her claws tipped with sharp steel. I smiled back, my horn flaring. All smiles faded as her face was scorched by magical flame and she lept back, screaming before falling to the mud and frantically rolling around.

I staggered to my hooves, looking ahead to the engine two cars along. Down to my left, I saw Vertigo tussling with the griffin in the mud. Hoofs and claws locked as she tried to snap his neck. He twisted out of her talons like a snake ending the hybrid creature's life with a blow from his jagged knife. To my right I saw Cherry as Clip and Sky all fired from their cover by the sign, at least three griffins pinning them and the slaves there. Immediately I activated S.A.T.S as I dashed along the train car, firing up into the griffins. Distracted, one had his wings torn to ribbons, another's torso joined it and the third griffin dodged.

One always has to fucking dodge, don't they!

"Get everypony in the cars, now!" I called to Cherry and the others as the griffin's attention became focused on me.

I had no idea whether they'd heard me or not as several shots glanced my armor and I could almost swear one nearly broke a scale. One hit my rear leg and I fell sprawling to the metal in the middle of the forwardmost boxcar as the bullet bit right through a gap in the worn draconic scales. I staggered onto my back, blood trailing from the wound on my leg and mixing with the hammering deluge. The griffin took aim, as did I. Once again I dropped into S.A.T.S, just enough charge left for one shot to the head. He had no such advantage. I executed the spell, each twitch of my magical aura now burning my tiring horn.

The rounds struck his head and he spiraled out of control, vanishing into the rain. Still, even in that time, the bastard had managed to fire at least once, albeit inaccurately. His shot missed my head and struck my shoulder. I screamed as it tore through the bandages, into the newly healed flesh, and through the bone.

Goddesses, if I survive this I'm going to make this stupid armor into a damn tank before trying anything like this again!’

I squirmed as I felt the warm touch of blood flood out under my armor. I reached for my saddlebags, my right forehoof and horn aching painfully. Fumbling with the bottle, I managed to down the last healing potion, not that it would do me much good with a bullet wound that deep. I'd fix that later, right now I knew what I had to do.

I staggered to my hooves, my shoulder burning. I grit my teeth as the wound slowly closed over the shattered bone. I didn't care for that as I flopped down onto the side rail of the engine car and dragged myself to the front. Inside was a large array of shattered dials, dusty buttons, and cracked screens. I tried to recall what Vertigo had said about trains, but his speech about earth pony engineering didn't really help when I had no idea where to start.

Then I realized something. ‘Nowhere to connect my Pipbuck? I guess trains really are different from terminals.’

‘Trust me, all you need to do is turn it on and it'll work.’ Vertigo's words rang in my mind.

I thought you were a smart pony? My mind sneered as I found a button that said ignition and hit it. Okay, he could have told me that!

I'd expected as much, and the thought that Vertigo may have suggested such a thing just to get me motivated made me want to strangle him all the more. In the few long moments following that, I simply prayed to the goddesses that whatever else I tried would work. I pushed one leaver and turned one dial to full and the engine gave a firm shudder before the whole thing gave a deep, vibrating growl and the cabin rattled before settling on a constant hum.

It's working, it's working! By the goddesses, it's fucking working! I leaned back against the rear of the cabin, panting as warm crimson slowly seeped from my shoulder and hind leg.

See wasteland, giving some pony a break isn't that hard, hey? The crack of rifle fire reminded me that mocking the post-apocalyptic world was not a good idea, however.

I staggered over to the cabin's window, peering out to see Cherry and Clip firing out at the griffins from one of the opened boxcars as Sky helped the last of the slaves in, much to the admiration of a smiling Ochre as she leaned against the inner wall of the car by the door. When the pale blue mare finally jumped in herself I assumed everypony was inside. I turned to the controls pressing everything I could before one central lever began to move the train steadily forward.

"Cherry, I hope you got everypony," I muttered under my breath, the idea of her as a good pony amidst the dark and desolate wasteland foremost among my thoughts as the train picked up speed.

As for Vertigo? Well, a small part of me hoped the strange buck was onboard too, only so I could kick his flank later. Even so, I couldn't help but ask myself what I'd do if it were me left behind. Before I could really consider that question the roof of the cabin shook, then a long set of claws tore straight through the metal roof.

I brought my rifle up, firing wildly into the indented roof as the crackling claw ripped back. Before I knew it, the window beside me shattered and I felt a firm grasp wrap around my neck.

"Going somewhere?" Mister Green growled as he dragged me kicking and firing wildly through the window and up onto the top of the engine car.

I tried to force him back as I squirmed, the scales on the back of my neck preventing his sharp grip from simply slicing my head off. Then came the electricity. I screamed as bolts of green lightning arched from his talons and shimmered across my body.

All the while the griffin laughed, his eyes narrowing.

"You know, I have no idea what they want with you, I think you're just too much trouble. Just be glad that it's me who had the honor of killing you, and not any of them," he growled in my ear as I gasped.

"Yeah... but you're still missing one thing, it's kind of a big flaw with you guys," I choked, head lulling as his electrifying claw grew tighter.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and what's that?"

I managed a smile. "Peripherals."

The hiss of Sting was followed by a metal shard slicing right through the base of his right wing. His grip failed as he staggered to the roof of the car. I fell too, coughing and retching as I raised a hoof to my singed neck.

"Lowest of the low they are, but I'm still gonna have to kill you!" Vertigo called from the second car along, his grin visible even as his mane flailed in the wind.

By Celestia, even now in the midst of all this, he looks so hot... No brain, not now!

Vertigo's words didn't seem to be a question the griffin was at the luxury of answering, however, and with a sharp whoosh, two more shimmering darts were sent right at his face. Mister Green, it seemed, was far better at dodging the things than his minions, however. The griffin ducked and rolled as the projectiles flew over him.

"Strong words coming from somepony whose kind they wanted to exterminate!" he declared, his one flesh and blood claw grasping his magical beam pistol.

It was no Zap-Zap, but the griffin unloaded a full barrage of magical death right at the purple buck. Vertigo, ducked, then staggered as he fell back and disappeared over the edge of the train car. I felt a cold breath escape me as I saw him disappear.

‘Death?’ In the wasteland it was everywhere, I'd seen it so many times before.

"Fuck you, he was my only ticket out of this mess!" I screamed as I kicked out with my uninjured rear hoof.

The blow struck the griffin’s natural foreclaw making him drop the weapon.

"Fuck you and your stupid cult!" I screamed again, this time levitating up my rifle from the cabin below.

He wasn't about to let me strike him a second time however and certainly not with the ballistic weapon. He grasped the rifle from the air with his metal claw, tossing it toward the far side of the engine car. I staggered back to my hooves, watching as the rifle caught on one of the engine's ventilation fans. I was panting, muddy, wet, bleeding, sick, and really pissed off. I was really done with this shit. Mister Green only seemed to have the misfortune of being wet, not even acknowledging the hole in his wing as a cruel smile parted his beak, one unnervingly similar to that of his red counterpart.

"Just give up," he stated flatly.

I staggered back toward the front of the engine. "You give up!"

He grimaced. "I already have."

He lunged forward at me and I shifted back as far as I could as his claws scratched at my chest. The electrified metal tip of his talons left a lasting scar in the cyan scales as my magic wrapped around the rifle caught in the vent. I levitated it around as fast as my horn could and blasted his left wing with a shower of bullets. The griffin gave a painful shriek as several more holes were torn right through the feathered limb.

"Haha, it's a shame I broke all of my actual weapons, my plasma rifles are green, you'd love them!" I commented wryly as he lunged again.

My efforts to fire failed as he swatted the rifle aside and it disappeared into the rainy gloom, then he grasped me in his metal talon, heaved me up into the air, and threw me across the length of the engine car. My head spun as I rolled to a halt, adrenalin about the only thing keeping the pain from overwhelming me as I fell flat against the wet metal. With a beat of what was left of his tattered wings, Mister Green lept over and pinned me down against the back of the engine car. Blood trailed from his scruffy feathers as he bent my head and horn away providing me a very ominous view of the rattling, metal clamps and mess of wires that connected the cars as the train thundered across the muddy desert. My horn glowed as I tried to pull out a weapon, something, anything!

"In life, I am but a servant, and inquisitor of the grand Sigil. In paradise, I will be a god!" Mister Green declared in a bold voice as he pulled a metal apple from his bandoleer. "You and all of the other fools onboard this train will be my payment to the great master," he added looking at me with those sharp green eyes.

‘Goddesses, all I really did is shred his wing. It's just a wing, he can grow it back. He is half metal and surely if they make monster ponies, they can give him his wing back?’

"My life shall be Transcendent," the griffin finally added closing his eyes and pulling the pin on the grenade.

‘Braking visual contact? No pony, or griffin, who on top of me should ever do that!’

My magic wrapped around the only weapon I had left. The Saddle blaster's battered and broken barrel gave a disapproving hiss and I levitated it to the griffin's face. I had no idea what it would do if I used it in such a damaged state, but what did I have left to lose?

"Your life for this!" I cried out as the barrel glowed red hot and a solid cone of red energy ignited the griffin in a flash of searing flame.

There was a fizzing as the barrel of the blaster disintegrated into the rain and his headless body tumbled off the side. I was far more concerned with the grenade as it fell and rolled to the front of the train.

I... I can stop it in time, I could be a good pony!

The grenade exploded, the force pressing me down into the wet metal as the front of the train was consumed in a ball of flame and shrapnel. Then the whole thing gave an uneasy whir and a very heavy clunk as a set of pink flames erupted up from deep within the whirring engine and it ground hard against the tracks.

Goddesses! This thing is spark-powered, spark engines and explosions don't play well.

My eyes widened as memories of exploding chariots and wagons entered my mind, but none of those had been anywhere near as big as this. I looked back at the train carriages. All those ponies, slaves... Cherry. I rolled onto my stomach and the organ gave a painful nauseating sensation as it churned, but I didn't care.

"One last shot, old friend," I asked the half-melted blaster as I aimed it down at the connecting brace. One last shot. I closed my eyes.

"Be a good pony, Cherry." The blaster gave a painful whine, then the molten slag of its barrel glowed red hot and the whole rifle popped, fading into dust as the explosive beams reduced the metal brace to naught but pink ash to be washed away in the rain.

The carriages all screeched yet kept moving forwards. Then my horn flared with all of its magical might.

"Just do this, do this!" I hissed through gritted teeth as my magic wrapped around the wheels of all three cars. "Just do this!"

I screamed in pain as the force of a whole train's worth of momentum felt as if it were drilling my horn down into my skull. The glowing mass behind me began to slow as a bright layer of over glow burst around my horn. I closed my eyes tightly, crying out in more mind braking agony than I'd ever faced. Sparks erupted from under the carriages as yet more layers of cyan glow consumed my horn.

‘Pyrotechnics I can do, stop a train? Well… I’ll see just what I’m capable of in a moment of desperation.’

The engine cars beneath me gave a firm shunt as their increasing speed became too much for the flooded tracks to bare. I fell face-first into the metal, my horn's immense glow dying as my head throbbed more than it ever had. Even all of my hangovers combined and amplified by fifty thousand had not been like this. I had no idea if it had been enough. If I'd saved them. If she'd be a good pony and would make a difference in this shit hole of a world. This world, it was so flawed, so messed up. So far from perfect, it hurt, and this was it, I was leaving.

Well, Dragonfire we're riding the last train out of here, next stop... Somewhere, with mom, Star, brother ... The Goddesses.

I rolled onto my back, feeling the earthquake of metal under me as I peered up into the cloudy oblivion as harsh rain marred my face. Then I closed my eyes.

"Fuck you, wasteland!"

All of a sudden I felt something grasp my midsection. I felt warm hooves and the beating of wings.

‘Wait, is this an angel, or one of the goddesses? Is going to the everafter really like that?’ I opened my eyes slightly, to see a dull purple coat, whipping black mane, and cold, black armor.

‘No, it's not an angel.’ I had no idea what it was, all I saw was the bright flash of magical fire in the rainy gloom below, heard the boom and was blasted by the shockwave as it hit me and sent everything into a spin. I felt my whole body lurch and squirm as my Pipbuck began clicking wildly. But all of that was just before I was blasted into the sweet, pain-free darkness of unconsciousness.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Action Filly (Level One) You are getting to know your targeting spells like the back of your hoof, making you about 20% cooler in combat. For each level of this perk, you gain +15 action points in S.A.T.S.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Jedayskayvoker

Chapter Eighteen: Unexpected

Chapter 18: Unexpected

"Uh… I'll explain later. For now, I think we deserve a celebration".

Trains, for some reason I really felt like I hated trains, and it wasn't just because I was back from a long day of welding train cars and lifting heavy girders. Goddesses I hated trains, and heavy labor. Especially working for anypony that considered affiliating with slavers anything other than morally reprehensible, no matter the benefits. Nevertheless, I had little in the way of choices. I was beginning to grasp an understanding of what Mom had once told me. If I was to provide a home for myself and my foal then I had to work, even if the employment wasn't always the most honest.

Still, I was always glad for the end of the day. I levitated my saddle bags down onto a wooden workbench beside the door as I entered the converted train car that was our makeshift home. It was an odd reminder of where I'd once spent my time with Mom, yet that memory felt like a lifetime ago. I was just eighteen years old and I already had a home, a job, and so many responsibilities my younger self would have probably disowned me for if she knew this was her future. Even so, as good as life went in the post-apocalyptic wasteland it wasn't that bad. I also wasn't alone.

"Teal!" I called out. There was nothing ahead but benches, the radio, and stairs to the train car stacked above. I sighed. "Teal Blitz, I swear you better get out here!"

I grumbled to myself as I trotted forward, limbs aching. I reached the bottom of the stairs before the sound of hoof steps met my ears and I paused, eyes narrowing."You know what happens to colts that don't do as they're told, don't you?" I mused.

There was another scurrying of hoof steps before all of a sudden a green-ish blur assaulted me from atop a shelf to the left.

"Rawww!" Teal cried before landing atop my back, wings buzzing. I let myself go limp, falling to the floor as if slain as the pegasus let out a fit of giggles. "Yeah, they get gobbled up by dragons!" he laughed, battling with his hooves as he created a monstrous impersonation.

I laughed, rolling over as he assaulted my stomach. "Yeah, and I'm the worst dragon of them all!" I wrapped him in my forehooves and pretended to gobble him up, laughing all the while. Teal screamed playfully, his wings buzzing as he fought to escape.

"No, I'm the worst!" he countered, darting back as I released him. I slouched back onto my front and stood, eyes locked on the colt as he continued to prowl like a draconic creature.

"Yeah, but it's in my name," I added, pointing a hoof to my chest. Teal paused, thinking for a moment before his face scrunched.

"Awww, you always use that one! You get a name like Dragonfire and I get my stupid name," he grumbled, crossing his forehooves before falling back on his hunches.

I gave another light chuckle, trotting by him. "Your name's not stupid," I assured, but he just shook his head.

"No way, my name's boring." His wings buzzed as he hovered up to the workbench beside me, bringing us to eye level.

"Hey, you got your wings, all I've got is a cool name and a dumb horn." I tapped the protrusion in question. "I can't fly," I added, motioning to the buzzing limbs at his sides.

He sighed, giving them another flap. "Yeah, I know. All the other foals think they're really cool. But dragons have wings, I wanna be a dragon!" he exclaimed proudly.

I raised a hoof to his muzzle, shushing him. He shied away slightly, but my smile coaxed him back. "Hey, there's no way I'm fighting a real dragon. They're nowhere near as cute as you are," I told him before doubt could manifest into anything greater.

"Hey, I'm not cute!" Okay, so his shyness was definitely short-lived too.

My eyes narrowed. "Yes you are, you're adorable," I teased.

"No fair, Mom," The colt frowned, sticking his tongue out at me before falling back on his rump.

I turned back to the table, upon which was a dismantled energy rifle and an equally disassembled Zap-Zap. I sighed as I saw the vast arrangement of parts, gems, and a copy of Applied Gemstones. Ditzy had given me a good price on it all, yet all I saw now were wasted caps.

Damn it Dragonfire, if you survived this long, you can build a gun, you needed a new one anyway! My mind chastised, reminding me that I'd been taking care of Zap-Zap for years.

Regardless, my horn flared and levitated out the notes I'd been making on this particular project. A far stronger modification to the laser rifle.

"You're reading that one again?" Teal asked, pointing a hoof at the tattered sheet of paper. "I can't even understand all your scribbles."

I paused, looking back at the pegasus sitting atop the leftmost workbench, eyes continually glancing at the dismantled weaponry.

"That's because you still need to learn to read, silly," I responded, even if I knew I was procrastinating.

Even so, after a hard day of work, I wasn't in the mood for doing even more. If it weren't for Teal I wouldn't even be back here, I'd be getting drunk over at Turnpike Tavern or something.

With that thought of partaking in one of my favorite vices, I moved away, my walk slow. How long can I really keep this life up?

"Say, where's Candi?" I asked and Teal shrugged.

"She left a few hours ago, somepony got shot up real bad so she's gone over to the clinic, said she'd be back later," he explained, hovering up from the desk and to my side. "Why, you two gonna make me stay down here while you have another party upstairs?"

I froze by the stairs, blushing hard and rounding on the teal colt. My cheeks and ears burned and I was incredibly glad he was not old enough to understand why.

"Teal! That's for big ponies and..." I faulted as he frowned. Then I swallowed, shouting wasn't my thing.

I don't shout, I'm a good mom, right? My mind continued to race as Teal looked at me with confusion.

I sighed, nudging his drooped chin with a forehoof. "Hey... I'm sorry it's just..." I faltered once more.

I'm a good mom, right? I've done her proud. Saved him the pain? Teal looked up at me, eyes shimmering and teary.

"I... I just don't like being left out. I feel so different from everyone." He buzzed his wings, using a tone that leached the truth from me faster than any kind of chem.

I nodded, then shrugged. "Ponies would not survive if everypony was the same, the world needs difference. There's no shame in being special,” I stated.

I'd like to think that was really true. Even I was different, mainly due to my pyrotechnic magic, but nopony else could weld as well as I could without a torch. He was a pegasus, one of the greatest rarities in the wasteland. Yet in truth, that only made me worry about him even more.

Suddenly there was a loud clatter and the door swung open as a white earth pony mare with candy-colored mane trotted in. Her saddlebags hung lazily over her back as did her yellow uniform. Not to mention the weary bags under her eyes.

"Urg, they could warm me before dragging my flank there on such short notice," Candi grumbled, shrugging off her saddlebags beside my own.

The moment she looked up at me her expression lightened. "Oh, hey, Dragonfire, good day over at the train yard?"

I glanced down at Teal knowingly. Now he had a card to play against me any time he wished. "Yeah, about as good as a day there can be," I replied trotting over.

Candi smiled as she approached before wrapping her hooves around me in a hug. "Well, it's a good thing ah'm here to give you a prescription," she purred.

"Yeah, but colts need to be in bed first," I retorted, our lidded eyes meeting.

She gave a foolish giggle before releasing me. "Yeah, but in the meantime..." She bumped my rump with hers.

"Ewwww! Filly cooties! Don’t give me your filly cooties!" Teal blurted, jumping in the air with a buzz.

Both of us froze, wide eyes locked shamefully on the colt as we blushed heavily. He beat his wings spitting out his tongue in disgust. I glanced at her, and she at me as we both shook our heads and finally regarded the young colt.

"Well, at least there's no chance of us getting another," I mused quietly.

Candi smiled. "The way you go I wouldn't be so sure. Not to mention there are some pretty good-looking stallions coming in to see me these days. Oh, what I would not give for a handsome pegasus fella," she added with an equally whimsical grin.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? Well looks like I'll just have to up my game."

The pair of us laughed as Teal just frowned in confusion.

********

Consciousness stirred in the darkness as my senses came back to me less than smoothly. First came the light against my closed eyes, then the warmness of a bed, and finally all the horrid pains, aches, and illnesses that revolved around life in the wasteland. My eyes flashed open, glimpsing the dull metal of a ceiling. Faint lights flickered behind the slowly rotating blades of a ceiling fan. The buzzing of a radio met my ears as they twitched, as well as a faint beeping sound. Looking over myself I saw a worn sheet, glancing to my right I saw a scrap wall and a bed. Ochre slept soundly under the covers, a whole host of medical equipment accompanying her. Above the sleeping mare, a yellowed glass window allowed the dreary light to bleed into the room.

Well, at least the storm stopped. I thought as I looked to my left.

There was a medical drip at my bedside too, as well as a rusty table supporting several doses of radaway, med-x, and medical equipment. I shuddered at the sight of more needles, I really wanted to just kick them away, throw the sheet off and see what way I'd been cut open this time. But my body lacked the strength to move me more than a few inches. All I could think was that if Ochre was here and she was still alive, then I must at least be somewhere safe. One thing was for sure, this was no pre-war lab. Only one closed door allowed access to the shabby room, flanked on either side by several lockers. None of those things really struck me as sinister, yet none of that mattered as I saw somepony sleeping with her head on my bedside.

Cherry must have really been getting sick of sitting around while I recovered from beating myself up. Nevertheless, as I saw her chest rise and fall with steady breaths, I felt a swell of relief.

I'd saved her, the ponies on the train... Suddenly my mind raced and the memories of what had happened came flooding back. Then came the realization that I knew should have been instantaneous

I had to make sure everypony made it out of Crimson Springs! With all the strength I could muster I kicked off the sheets, but once again the sight presented me with nothing more than my bruised white coat.

Wait, something's off. Is it just me or do I look a little pudgier than usual? I'd no time to think about how I may have let myself go, however, as I tried to sit up, only for my muscles to spasm and utterly fail me.

I paused, leaning back against the pillow as I shook all of my hooves in turn. They were stiff, trembling, and sour, but did not feel broken. The same could not be said for my aching gut or throbbing headache, both just reminders of my imminent demise. My mind insisted that I should be dead already, and after the trick I'd pulled in Crimson Springs I was hard-pressed to disagree. Nevertheless, I'd saved Cherry, Ochre, and assumingly the others. I looked at the mare sleeping on the side of my bed and many things suddenly revolved in my head.

Why was she here? Why was I here? Where was here? I raised a hoof to her head, placing it atop her dark pink-red mane.

She looked so peaceful, so innocent. The sight of the muddy mare standing firm in the rain, her golden rifle aimed at deadly griffins came to mind, but I moved the thought along. That had been the good pony, not a merciless killer or desperate survivor. I knew that for sure because those griffins had not been good by a long stretch, nor was the group they worked for. Transcendence, that monstrous rabble of ponies…

I felt a little relief that Vertigo had died at the hands of one of their lesser creations before being handed to the likes of Carnage, even if I wished I could strangle him myself. At that, my mind suddenly clicked, and I promptly realized that without him I was back at square one.

Seriously, wasteland! He was my only ticket to figuring this mess out! I mentally screamed, a little envious that I'd never get to see that handsome face again either. ‘Grr… Shut up brain!’

Staring up at the ceiling as the fan blades slowly rotated I finally noticed one last thing. My Pipbuck's display was gone. Sure enough, as I placed my left hoof on the mattress I saw that the arcane device was no longer attached to my foreleg. I felt a swell; two parts spite, one part dread at the revelation, wincing as I felt a painful jab in my gut.

I fucking hate waking up and not knowing what's going on! I mentally grumbled. Awww, come on, it's not like you're not used to it. My mind retorted and I growled through gritted teeth.

Yet with my body refusing to cooperate properly, I could only stuff my head into my pillow. After several moments of sulking, I finally sighed, then brushed a forelimb through Cherry's mane again. She was about the only comfort I had. It felt as if I'd seized defeat from the jaws of victory.

Then there's nothing left to do now but keep running and hope those ponies don't catch you. My mind added.

I sighed rubbing my left hoof across my gurgling stomach gently. The aching muscles gave a nipping cramp and I shifted, ignoring it. Looking back at Cherry I finally made the decision to end what appeared to be the first decent sleep she'd achieved in days. The pink mare gave a reluctant moan.

"No... Sis, no... I don't wanna go today... I..." she moaned to herself before lifting a lazy hoof to my own.

Then she stopped, her limb grasping mine as her eyes opened and she glanced up slowly. "Dragonfire?"

"Who else were you expecting?" I asked with a slight smile.

Her eyes grew wider as she raised her head. "You pulled through? Oh, thank Luna!" For some reason that didn't sound so good.

I paused, my smile fading as I lowered my forehoof. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you, are you okay?"

I felt like I was nearly dead, though I could worry about my well-being later. She leaned back onto a stool she must have been sitting on before falling asleep.

"I'm fine... A bit shaken, but fine. Bit better with a rifle too, I'd say," she stated that last part with a faint smile, her previous relief still holding most of her expression.

I leaned back against the pillow, forehooves crossing over my midsection. Cherry watched me closely and I really tried not to look at the bandaged stump of her ear as it twitched.

"What about you? Sky said it would be a miracle if you woke up, so how do you feel?" she asked skeptically.

Her question, and how it was so cautiously voiced, once again set off alarms in my mind.

I took a deep breath, my forehooves rubbing nervously against my aching stomach. "I'm okay, but please just tell me what happened?"

Cherry did not look too fond of the fact I was throwing my well-being out of the window and that only made me feel a little more guilty. But my mind was demanding information I only trusted her to give.

"Sky and I managed to get at least twenty of the slaves on the train. Clip and Ochre are fine too, but some ponies..." She trailed off.

My breath caught in my throat. Death? It's just another normal thing in the wasteland.

It had not been what I was expecting however, she was a good pony she could have saved them she… This is the wasteland, Dragonfire. My mind insisted, reminding me about the irritatingly logical entity.

Cherry sniffed, taking a deep breath. I glanced down, away from her eyes. "The rest wouldn't come, kept saying the screams and the rage would get them if they ran. Going on about some kind of paradise?" she admitted before I could respond.

'Paradise?' Mister Green's last words flashed through my mind. I had no doubt who was filling everypony's head with that religious ideal, but even hopeless slaves? Maybe they'd just overheard? Maybe the Rage rotted their minds too?

I sighed, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "You saved as many as you could, you were the better pony," I assured her kindly.

'Be kind'. I recalled the statuette that I assumed my companion was still carrying in her saddlebags.

She gave a half-hearted sigh, rubbing a hoof over her face before nodding. "I knew the wasteland wouldn't make it so easy, just hoped I could have done more," she stated before looking back at me.

No, the wasteland certainly won't. That posh entity whispered into my mind. I swiftly suppressed that thought.

"Are they all safe now?" I asked in an attempt to steer her mind toward what good she'd achieved.

She nodded. "By the time the train stopped, we'd lost the griffins in the storm. A buck who found you at the side of the track led us here. Said you knew him," she explained and I felt my mind come to a sudden stop.

Vertigo, he's alive? He'd been shot and fallen off a speeding train! How in Equestria could anypony survive that? I exclaimed as much.

"All he said was that you helped him in Crimson Springs, and I think he may have taken your Pipbuck," Cherry informed me and I felt the urge to face hoof.

So he's alive, and he's gotten exactly what he wants! So much for trust!

"But how'd you get off the train?" Cherry continued, drawing my attention back.

I opened my muzzle to answer but felt the words die in my throat. "I have no idea, I think somepony flew me off."

Her face appeared as confused as I felt, but we both knew at least some part of it must be true or I'd be dead.

"Vertigo, where is he now?" I asked, nodding to my Pipbuck-deprived leg. Cherry seemed slightly amused by that, and despite everything, her smile was a welcome sight as she answered.

"I don't know, said he'd come by with flowers when you woke up. He seems like a good stallion." She waved her hoof about in the air slowly.

"Did he happen to mention why he needed my Pipbuck?" I grumbled.

"Not exactly, he just said that he needed it. At the time I was kinda afraid he'd just leave us all to die on the tracks if I didn't let him take it," she admitted.

Putting the safety of everypony before my own interests? It was good to see that her heart was still in the right place even if I was unsure as to whether I'd have been so trusting in her position.

"He also said something about taking you out for dinner but there were..."

"No options?" I finished for her and she nodded.

That certainly sounded like Vertigo. Goddesses, that buck is either tougher than an Alicorn or the luckiest pony in the whole damn wasteland.

Regardless, I was not about to let him escape me any longer, I needed answers and he was going to take me to them. My aching body it seemed had different ideas and as I tried to get up from the bed my strength failed me. My muscles felt like jelly and my stomach rolled as if some pony were kicking it around like a ball.

My head felt about the same. Is somepony playing drums in there or something?

"Hey, you better not be trying to get up. I'll sedate your sorry butt in a second again if you are." The sound of Sky's firm voice made me tense, then I remembered that if anypony was going to try and kill me right now it was her.

I slipped back onto the bed, Cherry's hooves catching me before I could fall back too far. The moment she did it, however, she pulled back, blushing hard. It would have been mind-bogglingly cute if Skylark had not marched up behind her, stern eyes fixed on me. Cherry's hooves gone I slipped back down in the bed, my midsection churning.

"I'd tell you you're lucky to be alive, but I don't think that would stop you from doing something like that again. Strolling through Crimson Springs, stopping a damn train with your magic, you really are insane!" she declared, pointing a clipboard at me with her telekinesis.

It was not the first time I'd heard somepony tell me that, and it was not the first time I knew somepony telling me I was stupid was right. I said as much and she frowned, then sighed.

"The worst part is, I'm still glad you did it all. Maybe not the whole creeping off thing, but you got us out of there and..." She glanced over at Ochre and her face softened. "Saved the love of my life."

"So she's going to be okay?" I asked and Sky offered me a solemn look.

"She will live, maybe never walk straight again, but she'll live," she elaborated before I pressed on.

"How about Clip, is he okay too?" She rolled her eyes, then nodded.

"Yes, yes, he's fine. One good healing potion fixed his legs, he's almost up and about already." I felt a wave of relief wash through me, then saw the sight of her sharp eyes again and gulped.

"You on the other hoof, I have no idea what really happened to you. Not even my father can figure it out!" She jabbed the clipboard at me again.

I glanced at Cherry shamefully, really feeling the weight of the fact. I came so close to leaving the pink mare with nopony while trying to do what was right. It had been a stupid plan from the start, and yet I knew I'd at least partially done it for her.

Sky didn't seem to accuse Cherry, however, her eyes were focused on me as if I were a spectacle for more than my looks. Dragonfire, she has a marefriend damn it!

Cherry leaned back on her stool as Sky trotted over and looked at the set of screens beside her. Tapping on them as her face scrunched into a whole manner of puzzled expressions. Then she glanced at Cherry and the pair exchanged unsure looks.

"What is it, do you two know something?" I asked, peering from mare to mare. Sky placed her clipboard down on the medical table, her eyes fixed on the screens.

"I know that you really should be dead, that's one thing," she stated, tapping one of the screens.

I sighed, my hooves flopping down at my sides. Great, they are keeping things from me.

"You at least gonna tell me when I can stand up?" I asked, wobbling my limp legs.

Sky glanced at me with a disapproving glare. "I'd say about a day or two before you can walk properly. Father thinks a little longer, but that's probably just because he wants to prove me wrong," she confessed.

"And which of you is usually the right one?" I pressed and she frowned.

"The one who saved your sorry plot, then again he helped so I can't really say that... Grr, the point is you messed yourself up, Dragonfire!" she berated, before taking a deep breath.

"So you're saying I'm stuck here for a whole two days? That's great, you at least going to tell me what I did to fuck myself up so bad then?" I asked, hitting my hooves on the bed as hard as I could. Which was to say, not very hard.

"Exhaustion mostly. You were drained when I patched you up the first time and the recklessness you've shown is almost suicidal. Plus, don't even think about using magic for a while, you completely burned it out," she explained, pointing at the reading on the screen, then my horn.

I raised a hoof to the spire atop my forehead, feeling it ache as I tapped it. Magical burnout? It wasn't a first for me. Then again, I'd never tried to do something like stop a train car before, never mind three.

"You also had several pieces of shrapnel dangerously close to some major arteries, major bruising, your shoulder was half severed, and then there was the radiation poisoning." She faced-hoofed. "Goddesses, you really would have been dead if we hadn't got you here," she concluded as if ticking a mental checklist.

I glanced at the vast amounts of radaway on the medical trolley, yet I'd had radiation poisoning before and I couldn't feel anything. Usually, I'd be stuck on a mattress, puking and shitting my guts out by now.

"How long was I out?" I asked, my eyes narrowing. She once again glanced at Cherry.

"It's been about three days," the pink mare informed me, rubbing one of my forehooves.

"A stressful three days at that, between you Ochre, and the slaves half my family's been in here. Thank Celestia for Flare," she stated, glancing at her sleeping marefriend.

"Are all your sisters doctors?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Mostly just myself and Wing Flare. Sidewinder, my only brother ran off a long time ago. My younger sister, Heatstroke, is more focused on helping father take over the town than medical training, and the twins help where they can," she informed me.

"Taking over the town?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Skylark's head drooped as she responded. "Yep, turns out a lot's happened while I've been gone. Sun Spot, the town's previous mayor apparently died in the raider attack, and ponies have been vying to take her place since. Looks like it's going to Pear Pudding though, not that my father's happy about it."

"I thought you said they're still trying, the positions not been taken yet?" Cherry interjected, but Sky shrugged.

"Folks don't take kindly to somepony just rushing into the position of somepony who just died. They're biding their time to look respectful. Though Pear will get what he wants, fat slob always does," she retorted, spitting out the latter part with disgust.

"Still, you're on your deathbed and you're asking me about my family? Yeah, we have a big influence here, but you sure you don't have bigger things to think about?" Sky asked, her firm demeanor snapping back.

I recoiled, raising my forehooves. "Okay, okay, I was just curious. I just assumed that one of your sisters must have been really good with radiation poisoning. I know that much... It should have killed me, like you said," I admitted, really hoping that I didn't frustrate her even more.

Instead, Sky almost seemed to choke on her words. "Yeah, about that. It should still be killing you right now... But..."

My eyes narrowed more, I had a really bad feeling about this. Then again I really should have a bad feeling about almost everything in my life right now.

"Well?" I pressed, and she glanced back to the screen, then at Cherry.

"Well, that's the problem. The radiation didn't seem to mutate or even affect any of your cells, it was just absorbed," she stated, somewhat amazed.

I paused, my expression falling as I cocked my head. Absorbed? My cells can harmlessly absorb radiation. Since when?

I asked as much, but both mares just exchanged glances again. Cherry merely seemed timid, her ear and bandaged stump folding back. Skylark seemed more worried. That didn't bode well with me at all.

"Well, it wasn't exactly that your body did away with the radiation. In fact, if this weren't the case then you'd both most certainly be dead." I looked at her questioningly.

Both?

She merely looked back at the screens. "I tested your blood and found increasing levels of gonadotropins, oestrone sulfate. Father found some other stuff too, said it was like nothing he'd ever seen."

Okay, those were science words I didn't understand. I thought as Cherry gripped my forehoof tightly.

"You absorbed all the radiation," she informed me clearly.

"That's good, right? But who else are you talking about?" I looked right at Cherry. "You?"

The pink mare froze at my response, looking a little pale under that bright coat as she strengthened her grip on my hoof, before she finally smiled.

"Dragonfire, she's not talking about me," she stammered weakly.

My confusion only grew as I looked back at Sky, yet she too just had that same, happy kind of look. My mind was turning and turning, attempting to find every possible explanation as I tried to put this whole mess together.

Skylark gave a light-hearted chuckle. "You know with your track record this doesn't surprise me, but congratulations, Dragonfire, you're pregnant."

Oh hi, darkness, didn't expect to see you again so soon.

********

The world was dark save for the pillars of firelight cast by the brazers within their narrow coves. Like luminescent sentinels, they lit my path as I trotted down the long, sandstone passageway. My hooves hit the dusty floor with the softest of motions, not even scattering small clusters of rats and Shardroaches as I passed by. I could feel my breath in the cool air, the small puff of vapor the only thing to betray my invisible form. Even so, the orange light of my eyes shone against the underside of the invisibility hood, a perfect reminder that only I could see. The rest of the stealth cloak shimmered over my back like liquid night as I glided through the silent temple halls.

I moved with a swift and set purpose, only glancing away from my path to see other corridors branching off from the first. The sandy-colored walls were mute in the gloom as I rounded one corner and caught a glimpse of two zebras standing just ahead. Noting their positions I shrank back around the edge, pressing my back to the wall. Across from me, etched into the stone, were numerous carvings and murals. Equine figures beset from above by coiling tendrils of fiery wrath and one great eye looking over them. Directly below it sat a pair of cloaked zebras, raised above the rest upon a hill of stone zebra faces.

"Too forsaken," I muttered in zebrican, lining my forehooves vertically against my muzzle as I closed my eyes and bowed my head.

Then I sprung, moving with the swiftness of the wind and stoic vigor of the earth as I bolted down the corridor and right into the first of the two zebras. He was taken completely by surprise as I wrapped my hooves around his neck and wrenched it around. His spine gave with a pop, and he fell twitching to the floor. The second equine spun around to face me, orange eyes glinting in the firelight. I took one look at the tattooed zebra as he drew a curved silver blade and leaped aside. He may not be able to see me, but a true huntress never tested her pray's skill, especially when it came to her own tribe.

The striped stallion didn't say a word, he didn't call out or taunt. He just trotted forward, eyes darting to every shadow as he burnished the shimmering blade. I crept behind him, kicking a small pebble aside. Instinct caught the stallion and he swiveled, ears standing tall as he saw the small stone. I kicked up, leaping right over him in a fluent arch. One hoof lashed out, striking his spine and in seconds he folded like paper, curling up on the floor. I hit the ground behind him with a gentle whoosh of dust, then finished him off with a snap of his neck.

"May the spirits have mercy upon your souls," I stated, making the same motion with my forehooves as I bowed to the fallen victims and trotted on.

I had to dispatch four more guards before the corridors finally led me out into something that wasn't just another dark hall. The base of the large, cavernous pit was filled with a grove of thick vegetation and boasted a tranquil lake at its center. Dragonflies and firebugs darted around the thick canopy, and waterfalls poured down from the mossy walls that stretched far above. Looking up, I had to steady myself against vertigo as I glimpsed the shimmering sea of stars at the very rim of the sinkhole.

I'd lived underground my whole life. I'd died without seeing the sky that I was told to worship so reverently. Now that I saw it, barely a smear against the dark brim of the deep pit, I felt both a swell of pride and a cold dread. Those stars, those innocent, twinkling little lights so distant in the midst of their void. I'd seen the real fire in those stars and I knew that it was anything but small and innocent. I looked back down to see that the tunnel had deposited me on a small ledge of grassy rock that ran the circumference of the pit.

Checking for more guards, I carefully crept my way down the damp wall of stone and into the forest grove. Thick tree trunks rose on either side of me, their narrow roots forming a maze under my hooves as they impacted the soft mud. Ferns, grasses, and luminescent flowers sprang up around them in the hundreds, bustling with more nocturnal insects. The fresh smell of the undergrowth met my nostrils as I inhaled, and it was hard not to become distracted by just how beautiful it felt. Life, in all of its forms, felt good. To see it strong and flourishing was almost filling. Of course, that was when one of life's more obnoxious features presented itself.

As I reached the opposite side of the grove I came upon a leaf-littered pathway, the trotting of hooves caught my raised ears. I peeked to see a familiar zebra stallion approaching.

Xundia held his head high as he passed by, silver-scaled cloak billowing as his fiery tattoos glowed. The light that radiated from the serrated, orbital markings marred into his aged, striped hide was like a curse upon the living grove. I could feel the anger of the trees as it passed over them, their spirits uneasy. Unseen, I slipped out of the undergrowth and followed the stallion until he came upon the edge of the small pool. A narrow shore of pale sand ran around the water's edge and at the end of the path a gazebo of silver metal had been erected. The pillar supporting a pyramid roof above a raised platform, upon which, her belly swollen with new life, stood Xepheriah.

"An ancestors blessed night, is it not, my precious?" Xundia asked as he trotted up to the pregnant zebra's side.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, then snorted. "Do not attempt to berate me with idol talk, husband. My mood is most opposed upon this night," she growled as I crept up to the base of the gazebo and pressed my back against it.

"My apologies." Xundia bowed as he brushed close to her side. "Your time grows near, does it not?" he asked, and she shot him another frustrated look.

"You have seen me with foal a thousand times, I think you can tell," she huffed, and he nodded, looking out over the pool.

"Then what is it that troubles you, if not the foal?" he asked, and her eyes went to looking across the pool along with his.

"It is the foal, not the bringing of them into this world, but its departure. The last scion was not the same, I fear the Great Master may be displeased and forsake us because of our daughter's resistance," she elaborated, and my jaw clenched.

"I see, you should not fear, my precious. Our daughter will have found the truth in the Great Master's embrace no matter her resistance," Xundia admitted.

"Yet it is not the Master's wrath upon them that I fear. If this scion turns out to be the same, then there will surely be consequences. What did the stone tell you about this?" she responded, and right there and then I felt like snapping both their necks.

How could they talk about such things so dismissively, how could they care more about their own belief than their offspring's well-being!?

"The tablet does not reveal to me what it is you fear, the Master must wish it to be shrouded from us," Xundia told her, and she let out a hissing breath.

"Only so that they may strike us when the time comes. Put the tablet in the temple for reconditioning. The souls of a few weaklings should prove to satisfy its hunger," she spat, stamping a hoof.

"Do not worry, my precious, I have already seen to that. You are not the only one who knows what must be done, the tablet will be satisfied by morning," he assured her and my ears perked.

"Good," she stated as I peered up onto the platform.

The two of them just stood there in the starlight, right on the edge of the lake. I could do it now, kill them both and send them back to their Great Master. Yet if he was right then so many innocent zebras were about to lose their lives. I glanced back along the path into the trees, then at the evil pair I'd once called mother and father. I knew what had to be done, and I knew what was right. That distinction had set me apart from the rest of my tribe and at that, I bolted back into the woods. I ran through the brush, past torches, and patrolling zebras until I finally came upon a structure built into the pit's wall. Four carving-etched pillars supported the large entryway into the earth, the glow of torches flickering within. Two zebra guards, wooden spears tipped with silver metal in their forehooves stood at either side of the grand entrance.

I took both of them out from the shadows in mere seconds before leaving a trail of twitching bodies behind me as I stalked into the temple. Zebras fell like flies to my hooves, then I finally came upon a large chamber at the core of the temple, once again supported by four pillars. Unlike the stone that surrounded them, these pillars were formed from silver metal. A glowing orange pattern marked the surface of each and at the sight, horrid images flashed through my mind forcing me to recoil. Then I saw the middle of the room, where the floor dropped a few steps onto a large, square platform. A shallow mote of water ran around its edge, and purple mats covered most of the flat stone. Crouched upon them, blindfolded, gagged and hooves bound by rope were twelve zebras. One from each tribe, almost.

I did not make any effort to distinguish between them, however. Instead, my attention was drawn to the far side of the chamber. The back wall was lit up by a pit of fire, the light of which shone up onto a mural of two cloaked Zebras standing under the gaze of a great eye. The tribe's elders, Xundia and Xepheriah, mother and father. Before the image, across the shallow stream, stood a stone plinth, upon which, held by a silver frame, was a gray stone tablet. Inscribed into it was the image of the two zebras and their cosmic lord looking down a tower of faces onto a battlefield of equine figures wielding spears and axes. Sitting before that was a long table that sat horizontally to the tablet. A long, silver blade rested upon it, a scythe-like glaive crafted from the same silver metal as the imposing pillars.

One other zebra occupied the room, his face covered by a mask crafted from the same metal and made to imitate the shape of some kind of demonic skull. The faceless stallion dawned a silver cloak and necklace like the elders. I watched him pace before the tablet, muttering rhythmically to himself as some of the captive zebras before him fidgeted and even wept. I crept forwards, hopping over the stream and to the bound zebras. The stallion stopped, as did I. Then he rose up onto his hind legs and hefted the silver scythe in his forehooves. The words that seeped from his mouth were alien and strange. Once I'd failed to understand them, but as I saw one zebra before him go as stiff as stone I knew exactly what those words were. He was turning the mare's blood to ice, just like mine.

I sprang up, wrapping my forehooves around his neck and twisting. The stallion fell forwards, hooves hitting the mat hard. In an instant, he reared back up and tried to buck me off. I kicked up, lashing out to strike his spine but not before he spun and swung the blade right across my outstretched limb, severing it in a flash. I landed on my hind hooves as a numbed pain shot through me, like a shock from touching warm metal. The bloody stump that was once my leg glowed red hot as the invisibility field around me faded. The masked stallion reared up, then dove to plunge the blade right into my chest. I kicked up again, landing atop the blade's edge with my hind hooves, darting along its length, and gripping his head with my one remaining forehoof.

The stallion squirmed as I pressed my head close to his and through the mask our eyes locked, my bright orange spheres burning into his mildly glowing ones. He started to scream, kicking and thrashing as his eyes began to burn, then his face, then his whole body. I took one step back, taking his blade as the orange fire spread over him, turning his hide to the same shimmering silver metal as the pillars around us until he was nothing but a petrified statue. I fell back to all fours, my severed limb flickering as silver metal began to grow in its place. A coat of striped fur marked by glowing tattoos once again bloomed across it until nopony would have believed it had ever been severed.

I looked to the closest of the bound zebras, the one that had been frozen only seconds ago, and moved to untie her. The mare shivered as I remained silent, then she suddenly gasped through her gag. All I noticed was a black smear pool under her coat where her heart should be before she spasmed and fell to the floor, dead.

Heart attack curse, cursed dark magic! I took one step back as the long shadow of a stallion was cast across the room, then I finally glanced up at the entrance.

"So you came back?" Xundia asked as he stood alone in the entryway, orange eyes fixed on me as I backed right up to the tablet.

"I have no words for you, Father!" I spat, holding the blade horizontally across my chest.

"Not even questions, daughter? Or do you already know that you can't stop the world's destiny?" he asked, and my eyes narrowed.

"No, I thought you would know that after what you put me through I would have seen everything." I spun on my hind hooves, holding the blade high. "I know that saving these zebras will not stop you from sacrificing anymore."

"Wait, Majeaph, my daughter, what are you doing?" he called, reaching out for me.

"What you always taught me, father. What must be done," I declared as I brought the blade down upon the tablet.

********

"Dragonfire, Dragonfire!" The sound of somepony's voice by my ear shook me from the gloom.

"Cherry, will you please stop that? It's not going to make things any better!" Is that Cherry? Wait, no, that sounds like Sky. "Flare, will you help me with this?"

"How long has she been out?" Okay, I'd no idea who that voice belonged to.

"About half an hour, she passed out and with all the stuff that's going on inside her I really have no idea what's going on!" Sky exclaimed, her voice drawing me closer to consciousness.

That was when I realized I was literally shaking. I opened my eyes to see Cherry looking down at me with a worried expression, forehooves shaking me awake. I shook my head, letting a long breath escape my muzzle.

Cherry sighed in relief as she let me go and fell back onto her stool. "Thank Luna," she breathed.

"Urg, what happened?" I asked, raising a hoof to my aching forehead.

The pink mare looked at me with a slight smile, yet she was paler than the laboratory walls as I asked the question.

I peered to my right to see Skylark standing patiently by the medical terminals, and next to her was another mare. She was an orange unicorn with a creamy red mane wearing a yellow lab coat boasting a trio of butterflies and adorned with a pair of large glasses. With just one look at her, it wasn't hard to assume it was one of Sky's sisters. Colors aside, the pair looked alike, right down to their disapproving scowls. I looked between the two doctors, then memories came back to me. My head felt light and I had to fight hard not to pass out again.

"Are you sure you know what you gave her, sis? She really doesn't look that great," the orange mare asked and Sky let out a weary sigh.

"You know, Wing Flare, if you think so then why don't you just take over the whole thing for me?" Sky retorted and Wing Flare rolled her eyes.

"Not even a trip into Crimson can break your mean streak, huh?" she asked, and Sky snorted. Then her eyes passed over me.

"You know all of the stress isn't good for my patient, Flare," she stated, glancing back at the screens.

"Yeah, but she saved your life, so you owe it to her to make her better," Flare retorted, prodding a hoof at her sister's side. The orange mare then looked at me. "Thanks for that by the way, I don't know where we'd be without the grump of the family."

"Keep it up and you'll find out just how grumpy I can get. Now stop bugging her, don't you know how to treat an expectant mare?" I took a deep breath. What she'd told me? I'm really…

Pregnant? But that's impossible. I'd fucked every buck and mare from here to Manehatten and I'd never been able to conceive.

Bone Marrow had told me that it was impossible for me to have a foal, and yet I'd tried and tried until I'd eventually ground the hope into dust. That was exactly what I blurted to Sky in the next five seconds, but both she and her sister shrugged.

"I'm no counselor, but you're pregnant, no doubt about it. About three months along, give or take a week," she explained, pointing to one of the screens.

I had about as much an idea as to what the information on it meant as I did as to how in Equestria I was knocked up!

"Well, at least you found out now and not later. Morning sickness can be a real bitch if you're stuck out in the middle of nowhere and have no idea why you're sick," Flare assured me, and Sky shot her an odd look.

"And how would you even know that?" Flare frowned at her sister in an instant.

"Not for the reason you think, Sky. You know I've helped plenty of mothers here, I'd even help your sorry flank if you ever ended up pregnant." The orange mare plopped her butt on a stool and crossed her forelegs.

"Ha, like that'll ever happen," Sky laughed as her sister kicked back, the wheels of the stool carrying her away as she smirked.

"Well, some of those mothers had a backward barn door too. Life still finds a way when you're not looking." Sky went redder than I'd thought possible, I didn't even think Ochre could make her blush like that.

Still, their sibling bickering seemed muffled by my thoughts as it entered my ears. I simply looked past the pair and Cherry to the wall of corrugated metal on the opposite side of the room.

Three months? But... How did I not notice sooner? Who's the father? Goddesses, I don't know! Is it Star or just one of the many other stallions I've slept with in an attempt to fulfill this futile dream? I swallowed hard, my eyes drooping until they fell upon my pudgy midsection.

No, this is impossible, this is a joke. I mentally declared, chasing the thoughts away.

"No, there's no way I'm even a month pregnant, let alone three!" I exclaimed, locking eyes with the medical siblings. Flare appeared like she had seen this whole debacle before and Sky simply looked at me disapprovingly, as always.

"Look, if it were under traditional circumstances then the test may provide inaccurate results, but given the situation and evidence there's undoubtedly something inside you," she explained and her sister nodded.

"Trust me, as odd as my sister can be, she's not wrong. I saw your results, it can't really be a tumor or anything else. You should be glad for that because from where I'm sitting if that lump was a mutation then it would be a lot worse for you," Flare added, making a window with her forehooves as she regarded my stomach.

I glanced down at the small bump. The aching almost didn't feel bad anymore, it felt warm and each light cramp felt like a new spark of life flashing into existence. Even so, everything in my mind told me it was impossible. I was infertile, barren. I'd never been able to have a foal, a fact that had ruined most of my life.

"So, there's no way you could be wrong?" I asked with both hope and dread.

"Sky? Yeah, definitely she could be wrong. Me? No way am I wrong about this kinda stuff, you're going to be a mom for sure," Flare assured me, pressing a hoof to her chest before Sky could even open her mouth. Instead, the pale blue mare scowled, grumbling to herself.

"I'll have you know I'm never wrong. But haven't you been listening, the fetus saved your life from the radiation, it's still not exactly a normal foal," she added before Flare could interrupt again?

Despite her silence, I felt Cherry shiver. She glanced away and an equally firm shudder passed down my spine. Not normal? Goddesses, is it okay, the foal, my foal!? I can't lose it! The thoughts raced through my mind as no others had before.

My breath and heart raced as the many impossibilities gave way to only one thing. I was pregnant and it was no joke. I'd seen mothers before. I'd seen mares go from prostitutes to maternal, and I'd seen far too many die in the process. But they had always been somepony else, never me. I'd never had to endure that which I'd so blindly wished for.

"Whoa, Dragonfire, calm down, it's okay." Cherry swiftly placed a hoof on my shoulder as the machines started to beep faster.

I felt myself shiver against her grip and couldn't stop. The worrying thoughts just continued to pour on until they made me feel sick.

"Sky, isn't there anything you can do? Can't you calm her down?" Cherry had never sounded so committed, a far stretch from the timid thing I'd found in the factory.

Sky just looked at her hopelessly, then she glanced at her sister, and Flare stood up, marched over, and pointed a hoof at me. "Hey, now listen! You're going to be a mom and there's nothing you can do about it. It doesn't matter how, where, when, or why it happened, but it has. I've seen your tests, your foal's an odd one but it's fine. Now, stop panicking and buck up because it's not all about you anymore!"

Her voice was like a hoof blow to the face. Maybe it was the way she looked at me with her emerald green eyes or the amount of conviction in her tone, but Flare's words hit me harder than a bullet.

"Wow, a little harsh don't you think? She's only just found out?" Sky stated, but Flare shrugged.

"And that's why you deal with your patients when most of them are out cold. She's a mercenary, Sky, she'd want it how it is." Flare wiped her hooves off the matter as she sat back on her stool

I took a deep breath and swallowed hard, giving a snotty sniff. She is right, I can't do this, it's not all about me and this stress can't be good for the foal. I'd seen it all, the horror, the fear, and the cruelty of the wasteland and it was no place to raise a foal, let alone carry one.

Yet this is not a normal foal. My mind added in a futile attempt to reassure me. If not, then what was it? Am I pregnant with some sort of monster pony, like Carnage or Locust...? A literal monster with teeth, tentacles, and talons? Monsters, it's okay to kill... No!

I shuddered, falling back against the metal headboard of the medical bed. Cherry's hoof clutched my own tightly, holding me back before my head could hit the cold steel.

"Dragonfire, stop, it's okay," she exclaimed urgently before she did the most unexpected thing I could have imagined at such a time.

She leaped up, wrapping her hooves around me tightly. I shivered, yet didn't stiffen or shudder like before. I simply leaned my head into her shoulder and hugged her back.

"You survived that mess on the train, you got us all out of Crimson Springs alive, you can get through this too," she whispered into my ear.

Then she released me and our faces met. That look, that honest look of happiness on her face was the most precious thing I'd ever seen.

"Cherry, that... I..." I stammered as the memory of Crimson Springs cycled through my head. "Thanks," I finally admitted, letting out a long breath.

The pink mare leaned back onto her own stool, her hoof still holding mine. Then I saw Flare grinning in the background, her muzzle covered by a hoof as she regarded a rather baffled-looking Sky. My nurse was red, she was blushing, she…

Goddesses, she has a mare friend! Fortunately, it was her sister that broke her awkward stupor before I could.

"Now, now, sis. Ochre will be awake soon enough," she chuckled and Sky went from blushing to going so red she had to look away.

"Damn, I need a drink," she groaned as she covered her face with the clipboard.

"Not on the job you don't, I thought you'd kicked that habit?" Flare interjected before Sky marched over and thrust the clipboard into her hooves.

"Then consider me done for the day, she's your patient now. I'm off to find some Wild Pegasus. Come get me when Ochre wakes up," she declared, then stormed off and out of the room.

Flare looked at the clipboard, turned it the right way up, then glanced at me. "She really is glad you saved her life, not to mention Ochre's. Her gratitude's just a little unique, that's all," the orange mare admitted.

Cherry and I watched Sky leave, then Flare stood up and took her sister’s place at my bedside, looking over the clipboard before tossing it aside.

"But as grumpy as my sister may be, she's right," she stated, tilting the screens out of the way with her magic. "I really don't think you need a whole load of scientific nonsense to tell you that you're life's going to change. For the better, I hope, but if I were to tell you to do anything right now it would be rest. Whatever is inside you may have absorbed all that radiation, but it's still just as delicate as a normal foal as far as I'm concerned."

She leaned close to my face, that same strong look in her eyes that made me dare not question her unorthodox expertise. I gulped, rubbing my stomach. Cherry looked at her and nodded.

Wait, why does she look so determined to make sure I stick to Flare's instructions? I thought as the orange mare leaned back, then she sighed.

"Well, that's it, that's all I can say right now. I can't tell you what kinda foal it is, it's too early to tell without an ultrasound." She rubbed her hooves clean again.

I fought not to let fear and worry get to me again, focusing on the warm hoof grasping my own instead of the possibility there may be another Carnage growing inside me.

"What about her? Is she going to be okay too?" Cherry asked, but Flare looked anything but certain.

"Carrying a foal to term is a dangerous process, especially out here. I can't say I've not seen a lot of bad things happen, but with some rest, she should be healthy enough," she said with a shrug.

A little too healthy it seems. It's a thing, not a foal, a radioactive abomination. You should be dead, goddesses know what its done to you.’ My mind added. I forced back those dark thoughts. My foal was no 'thing', it was my future, all that I'd ever wanted.

Of course, that only left everything else that was going on in my life right now to figure out too. I still had to find Star, save him, and stop the Transcendent from coming after us. I really hoped the fact that I'd blown Mister Green into dust would make them think twice about coming down from Crimson Springs after me for now.

"Still, I'll keep an eye on you, and unless you've been bucked by a ghoul that thing's still mostly a pony," Flare reassured me.

Sleeping with ghouls? Not even I'd go far, it'd be like fucking sandpaper... Okay, that was not an image I wanted in my head. Flare looked at me over her glasses, as if to confirm that the foal's father really wasn't what she'd proposed. The look I gave her back suggested I'd be likely to shoot her if she ever brought it up again.

"Well then, I think we're all done here," she stated, then turned to the door. "You really, really, really should just get some rest though," she emphasized, glancing back.

I just nodded, before she left with a hum and a flick of her tail.

"She's pretty laid back for a nurse, huh?" Cherry asked, smiling at me.

"You didn't have her eyes glaring at you, she's just good at what she does and she knows it," I responded, pressing my head back into the pillow. "How long do I have to wait in here? I hate doing nothing," I groaned, rubbing my face.

"As long as Flare and Sky say. Besides, you won't be alone, Ochre is here and I'll come by all the time I can," Cherry stated, then she saw my concerned look and sighed. "I will be fine, Dragonfire. You've worried about me for long enough, you have a foal to think about now," she added, and at the word 'foal', I felt another twisting in my gut.

Goddesses, this really isn't a joke. But I care about Cherry, foal or not. Do I really want her to wander the town alone?

Those thoughts must have been plastered all over my expression because Cherry seemed to know exactly what I was thinking. "Dragonfire, I've lived most of my life out here, you know. There's no raiders or slavers in town."

"I know, I'm... Well, I know I'll worry about you. You really are a good pony," I admitted and despite how tough she was trying to look, Cherry blushed.

"After saving those slaves I guess I might come to believe that, but right now I'm worried about you. The first trimester can be rough, especially if this is your first time," she told me, and I knew from her face she was thinking about her sister and nephew again.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere for now, that's for sure. But as soon as I can move I'm finding Vertigo and then we're going to sort this mess out," I declared, rubbing a hoof over my stomach.

Cherry watched me, smiling like a giddy filly. "Just promise me you won't go stopping any trains this time please."

"Not a chance of that for a while, I busted my horn," I said, flicking the spire upon my forehead and wincing at the sharp buzz.

Cherry looked as about as approving of my discomfort as I felt about letting her wander around alone. Regardless, I could see that no matter how much she wanted to stay here with me there was a little part of her that wanted to go out and have some independence.

She isn't a filly, you have to let her go. My thoughts reminded me and I sighed.

"Hey, if you wanna go out there then go right ahead. You should try and sell some of our salvage, get your weapons looked at. Forget the challenge, you're now officially my head barter mare," I told her, and once again she gave me that ridiculously cute face of humility.

"I... Are you sure? I can stay with you a little longer if you want." I lifted a hoof to stop her.

"I'm sure, keeping you stuck in here with me is the last thing you want, your legs must be numb by now. Just promise to come back with plenty of caps, okay?" I told her, and she glanced at the door.

"Okay, but only as long as you promise you won't go doing anything stupid until I get back." She jabbed a hoof at my chest, before making me swear I wouldn't. Seriously, how can I say no to that face?

"Okay, okay, I promise I won't move my grounded butt from this bed, okay," I started and only then did she look mildly satisfied.

"Okay, good. I'll be back as soon as I can." She nodded once, then stood up and trotted over to the door.

I really tried not to look at her naked flanks as she did so, but after how cute she'd just been that was impossibly hard.Come on, Dragonfire, you have what you want so now you can stop trying to fuck everypony! Okay, that thought felt really odd.

"Oh, and Sky also said you shouldn't take this as an opportunity to go trudging through radioactive waste. She still has no idea what the fetus actually did with the radiation," Cherry advised before slipping out of the room.

The moment I couldn't see her anymore my eyes lingered on my midsection. I rubbed the pudgy mass gently.

I'm pregnant. Ever since I'd lost the last of my family I'd dreamed of trying again with a new one, getting a second chance. This was what I'd wished for and yet for some reason, it felt like a wish that came with a whole load of strings attached.

Of course it does, this is the wasteland. I mentally sighed, thinking only one other thing as my stomach shifted. Oh goddesses, where is the puke bucket?

********

This stupid hospital room was swiftly becoming the most boring place in the wasteland. All I had to watch was the dull beam of sun shifting as the day moved by outside the window. All I could listen to was the rattling swoosh of the fan above and all I could taste was throat stinging bile. I'd tried to use my magic to turn the fan off several times, but my horn could hardly produce a spark and all I got was an hour-long headache to show for it.

Goddesses, this really sucks! I slouched forwards, rubbing my aching belly as I sat there. Well, at least I'm not throwing up anymore... Oh, wait...

One heaving fit into the puke bucket I'd found under the bed later, and I lay back, throat burning as I sulked. But hey, at least you know why you're so sick now.

For some reason, that thought wasn't helpful, nor reassuring as I rolled onto my side and clutched my churning gut. Ochre was still sleeping across the room and the third bed it boasted was empty. There was nothing in the way of distractions anywhere, not even a goddesses damn clock so I knew how much time I was wasting! So I set my attention to doing the only other thing I could. Cherry had only told me to stay in bed, but she'd never said how much of my body had to actually be in the bed. Leaning over the edge and trying hard not to throw up again I peered under the bed, finding a long metal footlocker and heaving it out to where I could see. I sat back up, about to open it with my horn.

I winced at the stabbing pain. I hated not having magic! I opened the locker with my hooves to find my belongings, all except my Pipbuck. Damn it, Vertigo. You didn't even leave me any of Lucky's recordings! I cursed as I lifted my saddlebags onto the bed.

Once again I tried using my magic, yet even something as simple as pulling open the bags was far beyond the small fizzle of power my horn spat. At that, I really thought about just sitting on the bed and letting myself waste away in boredom. Well, now you know you're not going to disintegrate from within, doesn't that seem good? My mind leered.

After another minute of just sitting there, I swiftly decided to give the bags another try, this time with my forehooves. What rolled out was spark batteries and some rifle ammunition, the latter a grim reminder of what had become of my favorite weapons.

Out with the old and in with the new, I guess. I surmised, rubbing my stomach as the star-shaped music box I'd taken from Hayland's body fell out along with a trio of memory orbs and the photo.

I glanced at the image I'd taken from the highway garage. The happy parents with their two foals. After seeing the memory orbs I could tell now that at least two of them were Lucky and her mother, the former albeit a filly at the time it was taken. I swallowed hard, my throat still burning as I tried hard not to think about what had become of either of them. Sliding the photo back into the bag I took one look at the old trinket wondering if I should open it. A flash of the feeling of how Hayland had died made me shiver, however, and I set it down. Finally, I looked at each of the orbs instead.

Okay, so maybe everything isn't all that bad. Still, I didn't even have any idea if my horn was strong enough to make the connection. It can't be that hard right? It's usually easy. Two of the orbs looked identical, while one was marred by a smear of blood.

The orb from the foal's room, maybe Lucky? I recalled as I turned it in my hoof. Do I really want to see it before I at least heard all of the recordings?

In the end, the thought of that room under the labs, the mare in the tank, and the sensation of life inside me dissuaded me from the idea. Instead, I took one of the other two orbs at random and lifted it to my horn. There was a fizzle, a pop, and a sting that rippled through my head like a swarm of tiny radroaches. Then there was nothing.

"Awww, come on, please don't leave me bored over here, you stupid thing!" I cursed, tapping the thing against my horn over and over. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

My face scrunched, muzzle wrinkling as I tried so hard to focus. My horn ached as I drew back and tapped the orb against it one last time.

Goddesses, how bored do I have to be for the wasteland to drive me to... And just like that, there was a small flash, and the world fell away.

********

"By Celestia, the nerve of that mare, first she doesn't even have the decency to message me herself, then she can't even die right? Does she exist just to spite me?" My host declared as she banged a hoof against the office window.

Outside I could see a large room alike to the one Vertigo and I had trashed under the Oracle building. When I saw my host's reflection in the glass I knew why it was so recognizable.

Moon Dancer frowned, her tired face a mask for so much frustration. "Years of planning, weeks spent setting everything up just right, and when the moment finally arrives she stood in the completely wrong place!"

The mare cried before levitating over a newspaper detailing the events I'd seen on the security recordings days ago, proceeding to rip it to shreds with her magic. "The stupid thing is everywhere!"

She banged another hoof on the window and I noticed that without the lab coat I'd seen her wearing in the recording, I could see her reflected cutie mark. The dark shape of a crescent moon upon her flank was just visible as she watched ponies fixing the catwalks outside, sparks flying as tools growled.

"Stupid Twilight and her stupid ministry... She doesn't deserve any of it, she wouldn't even have any of it if she'd just stayed in Canterlot with me!" The pale mare hissed into the glass, staring intently at her reflection as if it were the lavender mare in question.

It was a glare so strong it almost reminded me of Wing Flare's, yet there was far more malice in my host's dark purple eyes. "She wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Then all of what she has could have been mine."

"That is a rather bold assumption, Professor Moon Dancer." The moment the mare's smooth voice sounded, Moon Dancer looked back at two other ponies as they walked in.

One was a unicorn mare with a black coat and silver mane dressed in a neat business suit of the same dark color. The other wore a brown robe with a hood that covered her pale-coated face.

"To think things could have turned out so differently had such a small detail been changed? Do you not think it would be better to remain focused on your aspirations here and now?" the black-coated mare asked.

Yet it almost sounded like some kind of trick question and Moon Dancer knew it, not that she was about to let on that she did.

"Miss Ebon Star, I... I... I thought the door was locked," she stammered, putting a name to the dark mare as she stepped back from the window.

"It was, but I thought you of all ponies should know that nowhere in Oracle is locked to me," Ebon Star said, glancing at Moon Dancer with a glare that seemed so sharp I was worried it might actually cut me all these centuries later. "Though, I must admit I've heard some interesting things about you lately. I understand that your progress with the artifact is going well?"

"Well, yes everything's going fine. The demonstration was even a success, we were able to push the genetic makeup of the subject into an advanced stage far beyond what we thought possible. The applications for Element-E are still limitless. I interfaced with the primal magic, created Neurodynes, did everything exactly as I expected."

"Element-E?" Ebon Star mused, cutting Moon Dancer off, and the mare frowned.

"Yes, I'm not calling it Ethereum or Star metal, or whatever the rabble calls it," she snapped, waving a hoof.

"As sophisticated as you are intelligent, it would seem," Ebon Star observed.

"You know my work here requires a serious frame of mind. Twilight seemed to have really taken an interest, she was going on about alicorns and all sorts of stuff, but ..."

"But I've also heard that she's still alive," Ebon Star interrupted again, peering out of the window at the repair workers.

The dark mare seemed to cast an eerily long shadow over the office even with most of the lights on, as the ominous look she gave Moon Dancer came only from her reflection. The professor looked between her and the odd pony who she'd entered with as if trying to work out something I was completely oblivious to. The pony under the hood didn't move, they didn't even look up. I had an odd reminder of the Transcendent pony that had been with Griddle in Churn. Finally, Moon Dancer stiffened, moved over to her desk, sat down, and cleared her throat.

"There were some slight complications in the plan, she wasn't stationed under the right section of the catwalk when it fell. Then security went crazy, thought there may have been some stealth zebra assassin messing with the clasps or something," she explained, and her words gave me pause.

These ponies really had been trying to kill Twilight Sparkle! As much as I really didn't like any of the ministry mares or anypony involved in any part of the government that led the world to annihilation, even I found what they were saying a little hard to process.

"Stupid, paranoid mules taking such a pathetic job so seriously," Moon Dancer went on as she slumped.

Ebon Star's ears perked at the news, yet she remained stiff and stoic for a long few seconds before tilting her head to address Moon Dancer.

"Fortunately such an assumption does well to divert attention from your actions. Hardly anypony is ready to blame anypony other than the enemy at this point, and yet I wonder why you failed so easily? I thought you said you could get it done and make it look like an accident without issue?" the dark mare asked, her calm voice unnervingly stern.

"But I have no idea why the clamps gave out before they were supposed to. The damn thing only fell on a bunch of stupid aristocrats," Moon Dancer retorted, waving a hoof in frustration.

"So it would seem, and don't forget my daughter," Ebon Star stated, and once again my thoughts ground to a halt.

Her daughter? She'd lost her daughter in an assassination attempt she'd helped plan? Or had Moon Dancer just really, really fucked up? From the way my host bristled, I assumed the latter was not the case.

"You were the one who told me to sit Milky Way right next to Twilight. She spends half her time working with the M.A.S anyway, so I just did what you said. You knew where that thing was going to fall," Moon Dancer started, yet even in the bitter mare's heart, I could feel she knew it was wrong.

"I proved your loyalty, proved you'd do anything I said to get what you want. It's a shame you can't actually be trusted to carry out tasks perfectly though," Ebon Star cooed as Moon Dancer slumped on the desk.

"What! She stood up and walked over to me, what was I supposed to do, shove her back into her seat?" she exclaimed.

Ebon Star's brows knitted together as she turned fully and trotted up to the front of Moon Dancer's desk, her heavy gaze forcing the frustrated professor to sink right back into her chair.

"Excuses are not what I want to hear, Moon Dancer. But if you are so bold as to offer them to me then they must come with how you plan to correct the same mistake next time," Ebon Star stated, her calm facade breaking only for a second.

"Next time? I'm sorry, but there's not going to be a ‘next time’, this place is finished. They're investigating the deaths and I've got health and safety from the M.O.P all over, not to mention the M.O.M snooping around. The only place that I have left to do anything major is the excavation site. But Twilight took almost complete control over that and all the assets are still here! Besides, there's no way we're ever going to get another chance like this!" she exclaimed, her frustration coming back in full force.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that. Twilight and her colorful friends are in danger almost every day. Applejack was almost killed in an elevator accident and Pinkie Pie is almost blown up at every one of her parties," Ebon Star elaborated and Moon Dancer's ears perked. "I still think you're going to have one more chance of achieving what you desire," the dark mare added, then looked over at the hooded pony she'd brought with her.

"Terboa, come... Tell this little pony why she failed." The moment she said that the hooded pony stepped up beside her, then moved back her hood to reveal she was not a pony at all.

She's a Zebra! In the middle of pre-war Equestria? My thoughts mirrored Moon Dancer's, then I felt an odd sensation as if I'd seen that striped mare before.

Her striking orange eyes, short mane, and scarred hide were all new to me and yet I felt like I knew her somehow. But that was impossible this memory was nearly two hundred years old.

"Yes, maiden Ebon Star, as you command, I will make it so," Terboa said in an odd accent as she reached into her robes and pulled out a stone tablet inscribed with many varying images of ponies, zebras, and what I thought were stars.

I also noticed that they looked remarkably similar to the piece of stone tablet Cherry had found in the Destiny building, right down to the way it was broken.

Maiden? If she has a daughter she's anything but a maiden. Goddesses, Zebras are strange. I thought in the back of my host's mind.

Moon Dancer meanwhile took one look at the stone, then looked up at Ebon Star with confusion. Meanwhile, Terboa closed her eyes and slowly ran her hooves along each of them, muttering something inaudible in zebrican.

"A zebra? How could you bring a damn stripe down here?" Moon Dancer muttered quietly, but Ebon Star cut her off with a glare.

"Because some among both our kinds can see things far greater than this petty war. There are grand opportunities," she said simply, before adding. "I thought you were a pony smart enough to realize that too?"

"All I want is Twilight dead and for her ministry to become mine, I know you of all ponies can do that for me," Moon Dancer retorted, and Ebon Star shook her head slowly.

"Such a disappointingly limited view," she said and Moon Dancer frowned.

"And what else would you have me do, hmm? I already left one of the most highly esteemed jobs over at her damn ministry to come here for you. I'm only working on your crazy artifact to keep it from completely falling into Twilight's stupid hooves, but I didn't come here to study that goddesses damn star metal forever!" she grumbled, then Ebon Star grinned, pure, white teeth flashing as she did so.

"And yet jealousy is only a small part of the reason you want her dead and everything she stands for to be yours?" she almost purred.

"It's because she doesn't deserve it. I looked up to her for years and she didn't even have the decency to notice me, then she runs off with a bunch of strangers and becomes one of Equestria's idols," Moon Dancer declared, her face contorting in frustration.

It was then that both my host and Ebon Star were silenced as Terboa opened her eyes and lifted her head, drawing the dark mare's attention immediately.

"So, Terboa, what does it say? Are things all still proceeding as they were?" she asked and the zebra nodded.

"Yes, maiden. Everything is still going to happen as the Great Master has foreseen… Twilight Sparkle will die in Splendid Valley exactly two months, four days, twenty-five minutes, and forty seconds from now," Terboa responded and Ebon Star stepped back to gauge Moon Dancer's response.

The pale unicorn merely stammered in confusion, so too did my thoughts become lost. Did she just see the future? How could she know that?

"Splendid Valley? Maripony?" Moon Dancer said slowly as realization dawned. "Wait, wait, wait, you can't seriously believe any of that, she's a zebra! They're expert liars," she exclaimed, pointing a hoof at Terboa.

"Your prejudice is a limitation that has befallen all too many these days, Moon Dancer. It is a restraint that holds your mind back from exploiting all possibilities, even those offered by our supposed enemies. Your potential could be far greater than even that of Twilight if you allowed it to be. All you should know is that Terboa's sight has not failed me yet," Ebon Star explained.

"Then why are you here? If that's the case then you knew Twilight wouldn't die here anyway," Moon Dancer retorted, crossing her forehoofs and leaning back.

"I came here to see if you would realize the gravity of what is really going on, to see if you were as smart as I'd hoped. I wondered if you could see the bigger picture like few others can. Even your failure has triggered events that will lead you toward your final goal," Ebon Star went on nodding at Terboa once more.

The moment she did so the zebra collected her tablets and placed them back into her robes before moving back to her position at the edge of the room, putting back up her hood.

"Oh really, and how does killing a bunch of useless nobles get me any closer to having the whole M.A.S at my disposal?" Moon Dancer asked, but received a flat look from Ebon Star.

"So short-sighted. You're forgetting that among the witnesses to those deaths was Twilight herself. Even without seeing the future, it is not hard to guess that seeing such a thing will only encourage Twilight to put more time into her precious alicorn project. A project that is currently being worked on at the Maripony facility, I might add," she said, and both I and Moon Dancer's eyes grew a little wider at what she was saying.

I at least had the decency to feel shocked, yet my host seemed to fill with corrupt ambition.

"To think that everything that happens is random and by chance is folly, the universe is too structured for things like that. In truth, you've only forced her that little bit closer to the point of her death. So now I'll ask you again, are you willing to see the bigger picture?" Ebon Star added, and Moon Dancer once again looked between her and the hooded Terboa.

"But... But, even if I could, I'm finished here. The facility is going to be under investigation for weeks! Plus, there's still the excavation to worry about, and… Well, I could never get anything done," she exclaimed, and Ebon Star grinned.

"That should not be a problem. I have made arrangements for you to move to the facility in Canterlot as soon as you are able and for all of your projects here to be re-assigned. The artifacts will be moved to Trottingham. All provided you want to take this opportunity and finally get the recognition you deserve?" she went on and Moon Dancer leaned back in the chair once again.

"Canterlot... But, I..." she stammered then cut herself off as her brow furrowed. "Okay, I'll play your pet zebra's little game if you trust her that much," she finally stated, standing up.

"Good, good, I'm glad to see you're finally starting to see things my way. Now, you should go back to your apartment immediately and get ready, I'll have a sky carriage come and pick you up in a few hours." Moon Dancer nodded, her expression that of a pony who was really hoping for the wrong things

"Good, I'm sick and tired of this dry old dust bowl anyway. Canterlot is where a pony of my talents really belongs," she proclaimed as she moved to the door, starting to mutter a whole host of new ideas to herself.

"Oh, and before you leave..." Ebon Star called as the door slid open.

Moon Dancer turned, looking back at the dark mare. "Yes, Ebon Star?"

"Be sure to remove this memory from your head as soon as you can and give it to me, wouldn't want somepony to find out what you tried to do, would we?" I felt a lump catch in my host's throat.

Moon Dancer was a smart pony, she knew what Ebon Star could do with a memory like that. But she also was smart enough to know that some ponies should not be disobeyed. Ebon Star had that feeling about her. Her black coat was as deep as the night, or at least how I imagined. It was cold and endless, yet calm and peaceful far from the bloody turmoil of the world. This mare was like an embodiment of that, and yet somehow she radiated with a bone-chilling aura that both I and my host were well aware of.

"Absolutely," Moon Dancer said with a nod, before trotting out.

********

I came out of the memory orb to find myself looking up at the ceiling fan. I also came out of the orb with a great many questions. Moon Dancer and Ebon Star had wanted to kill Twilight and take over the M.A.S? I couldn't fathom why, nor could I understand why one would give up the life of their daughter to do so? I rubbed a hoof over my stomach at that thought, knowing I could never do the same.

The world's always been fucked up, Dragonfire. Nowadays the chaos is just free. My mind stated as I sat up, and was met with the face of a mare.

She sat on a stool at the end of my bed, her coat a mat, sandy color, and her mane a mute orange. She was an earth pony, a little larger than me, and had a cutie mark that seemed to be a shimmering oasis. One look at her face and I had a feeling I knew who she was related to.

"Glad to see you're awake, I'm Heatstroke, the ambitious one." She jabbed a hoof at herself, then smirked. "And you've really gone and made a mess around here for me, Dragonfire."

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Mother's Glow (Level One) For better or for worse, you have got a bun in the oven. Congratulations, you better start thinking of names! Both your endurance and agility suffer a -1 penalty. However, you gain +1 to charisma and unique speech options with certain ponies.

Author's Note

For simplicity's sake, the AU version of Moon Dancer here and throughout this story is one that never reunites with Twilight. Keeping with the Fo:E theme of sticking to only season 1/2 canon and picking out bits to fit in after that.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading!

Chapter Nineteen: Crossroads

Chapter 19: Crossroads

“Something's rotten in... Whatever the name of this village is that we're in right now!”

Trouble. It was a word that seemed to follow me around, and all too often. Therefore, I was no stranger to having to deal with the consequences of trouble. Yet right now, after just learning that I'd finally achieved my most impossible ambition. Trouble was the last thing I wanted. I was sitting, unarmed, unarmored, sick out of my mind, and pregnant in front of some pony accusing me of making a whole lot of trouble.

Goddesses, why didn't this have just ended when I nearly died leaving Crimson Springs? Couldn't the wasteland just give me at least a little break? Unfortunately for my frail hopes, the mare leaning on the end of my bed looked like she was about to give me anything other than a break.

"Come again, I thought you'd be glad I saved your sister?" I asked, a crooked expression dawning on my face.

Heatstroke looked like she considered that for about a millisecond before her mind moved on. "Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty glad you saved Sky, we need all the doctors we can get around here. But that doesn't change the fact that you've really made trouble with the wrong ponies."

I pressed a hoof to my stomach and sat up straight. "And who would these ponies be?" I asked, ready to give her a whole list of bad ponies I knew were already after me.

"Really? You think you can just go riding a train out of Crimson Springs with half a dozen slaves and not piss the Brazen Skulls off?" she asked as if I was stupid. "Because if that's the case then you clearly didn't consider the fact that now the whole of Crossroads is right in their crosshairs. Where else do you think they're going to come to get replacement stock?" she pressed, sky-blue eyes narrowing.

And this was what I meant about trouble because, for all I'd done to save those ponies from that inferno, she was right. They'd just be coming right back for more.

"Now you leave me with that threat on top of dealing with the rangers to the west and trying to get this town some proper leadership," Heatstroke added, thudding a hoof on the bed.

"And that leadership should be you, I'm guessing? Sky told me what you wanted." I asked, yet she frowned.

"I'm only here to help my father, he's the one who wants to be in charge. The only other option is Pear Puddin' and that idiot would sooner eat himself to death before doing anything useful," she spat as if I really should know.

"And I suppose your father's the sensible kind then?" I inquired and she shrugged.

"He's smart enough to know that the best future for this town is to give it up to the NCR or something, yeah," she responded.

For a moment I wondered if that was a good idea. Sky had made out that this Pear guy was stupid, but she'd not mentioned that her family had plans like that. Then again, I trusted the NCR about as much as I trusted almost anypony right now. Crossroads was on the very edge of their territory, like Churn, and if somepony had land the NCR wanted they usually took it. Of course, that didn't always make everything sunshine and rainbows, the republic abandoned as many new towns as they 'liberated'. I'd seen settlements stripped and then left with practically nothing only a few months later. From the look on Heatstroke's face, it was pretty clear that she wasn't really considering that, however.

"So why don't you just let the NCR in? Like you said, you're pretty much in the middle of a large group of angry ponies right now?" I asked, failing to mention that most of that was my fault.

Well, not the steel rangers at least.

"Ha, you think we haven't ever considered that? We may not run the place but my family has been here for years. But for all the slob's worth, Pear's got some tricks up his sleeve," she exclaimed, seeming to take insult to the fact that I'd doubted her even a little.

"Sun Spot, goddesses rest her soul, always said this place could stand on its own. My father always respectfully disagreed. All I say is that she didn't die for this place to be run into the ground." She crossed her forehooves over her chest, looking up as she mentioned the deceased mayor.

"So this Pear Puddin', he always gets what he wants?" I asked and she frowned again, the mention of that name making her look sick.

"If what he wants is all the caps he can carry and a whole night in the bar with as many drinks and mares as he can have, then yeah. Not once have I seen him do anything to prove he'd be any good at running a town. But he has the influence, there ain't a pony in town who don't know him," she elaborated, making some colorfully violent gesture with her forehooves.

"So what does this all have to do with me? As much as it sounds like you're just here to kick my butt for messing things up, I don't think that's what you want," I asked and she gave a crooked smile.

"Oh, believe me, I do wanna teach you a lesson for all the shit you caused in Crimson. But I'm not one for taking my anger out on an expectant mare," she stated, and I tensed, rubbing my stomach.

Goddesses, thanks for small favors. But seriously am I the last pony in town to find out I'm knocked up? Nevertheless, as much as I could see her frustration, I believed her. Hurting a pregnant mare wasn't exactly the image a potential mayor wanted, I presumed.

"So what do you need me for then? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of stuck here, your sisters' orders," I responded, motioning to the room around us.

"I'm here to offer you an opportunity to pay us back for making this situation a whole lot messier. Plus, if you get the job done, you'll be welcome here in Crossroads any time," she began, nodding toward the window.

I glanced towards the sickly yellow light streaming in through the cracked glass, then back at her as my ears perked. "Okay, I'm listening."

"My father wants control of this town and you're going to help him get it," she stated, crossing her forehooves as my look turned skeptical.

"And how in Equestria do you want me to get you control of a whole town? I'm good, yeah, but all I do is shoot ponies and fetch stuff," I stated and she smirked, leaning back in the stool.

"I didn't say you had to do it alone, nor did I say you had to kill anypony. Well, at least I don't think it's a guarantee," she elaborated, pausing as a low groan of confusion left my throat. "There's just one major thing about you that I wanna use, the fact that Pear has no idea who you are."

Okay, that doesn't sound too bad, but surely there was a catch. I summarised.

"And if I say no?" I pressed, leaning forwards.

"Well, then you can kiss Crossroads goodbye because your dumb tail will be booted. Not to mention I know a few ponies you really don't want to get involved with," she warned.

As far as threats went it wasn't bad, but I'd had worse. Bounties, hunters, raiders, and slavers, been there, done that. But it's not all about you anymore, Dragonfire. Think of Cherry, think of your foal.

I rubbed a hoof on my stomach, frowning as I considered her offer. Heatstroke continued to smirk. Goddesses, she knows exactly what she's doing too, she knows I'll never risk my foal like that!

"So I say yes, then what?" I perked, and she stood up, still grinning.

"Then you stay here for a bit, get better. Then come and see me and my father as soon as you're ready. We can explain the rest there, where it's a little more private," she elaborated, brushing back her mane with a hoof. "Got to keep up good appearances after all."

Of course, you do. I mentally mused, unable to shake the idea that she sounded just as bad as this supposed Pear Puddin' guy.

Still, this was the sister of the mare that had saved my life and also the sister of the mare that had really slapped me in the face with my new reality. I owed her because of that alone, never mind the fact I'd brought down the Brazen Skull's wrath upon her. Then again, the less I saw the NCR abusing small settlements, the better. Yet what could I do to argue the point, they both sucked?

"Okay, you have a deal. I'll come find you as soon as I can," I agreed and she reached out and shook my hoof.

"I knew you were a smart mare, come find us at my father's house then. It's the big, shiny steel building under the main overpass, you can't miss it." The smile she gave me was undoubtedly the one she used while trying to woo the town to her side, it looked so fake I bet I could crack her grinning mask with a hammer.

Still, I had little choice, and as she walked out I just sat back in my bed. I didn't even look at those nice flanks as she walked, lean muscles rippling.

"Well, shit." I had goddesses know how many ponies chasing me, my Pipbuck was gone, I was somehow pregnant and now I had to pay off my debt to this stupid town. "Fuck you, wasteland!" I spat, throwing up my forehooves.

The motion made my insides go for another wild ride and I crumpled back in on myself, clutching my stomach and reaching for the bucket again. One spew of vomit later and I was laying on my side, shivering. I really hated my life right now. My wandering thoughts were cut off a moment later as a dry cough met my ears and I looked to see Ochre was awake and looking at me from the other bed.

"Oh, hey. How you feeling?" I managed to wheeze, before coughing myself.

"No better than you, it seems," Ochre groaned, rubbing a forehoof over her face. "What in Equestria happened?"

"We rode out of Crimson Springs on a train, then it blew up and we ended up here. Sky saved your life," I explained and at the mention of her marefriend's name the earth pony smiled.

"I know that part, I was awake on the train... Great driving by the way," she told me and despite myself, I blushed. I could kind of see why Sky had fallen for such a kind mare.

"It was nothing really, the thing was on tracks." I waved the idea off with a hoof, but she seemed to value my efforts at least, then she took a deep breath.

"What I mean is what's happened around here though? Spotty's really dead? Damn, that really sucks," she admitted, the first pony I'd seen to look genuinely saddened by the news.

"I'm guessing you heard the rest of it then? Hope you have a better idea of what's going on than I do?" I admitted, looking at my forehooves as if they'd somehow provide all the answers.

"I heard enough to know it's not good. Goddesses forbid Pear be in charge of this place, he used to be my boss before going into all the chem dealing stuff," she explained.

My attention spiked, ears perking again. "Chem dealing?"

"Oh yeah, how else do you think a slimy buck like that's going to get anywhere? He's got his own gang and everything, seemed to get it all overnight. I was kinda glad to see the back of him when he quit though," she confirmed.

Of course, Heatstroke forgot to mention that little detail. I thought, frowning.

"What about Sky's sister then, how's she?" I asked, and Ochre sighed.

"Out of all of them, I'd not pick Heatstroke to be the leader of the town. But she just wants what her father wants. She's the closest to him, proper daddy's-filly. Almost never leaves his side, always been like that. But as much of an angel he makes her out to be, she sure ain't one." That sounded absolutely great, I could potentially be helping an NCR lapdog rise to power or assist a chem-dealing thug.

"But if I had to choose out of the two of them, it would not be Pear. He doesn't have any family to hold him back, and I know Sky and Flare won't let their father mess things up," Ochre added, once again lighting at the mention of her lover.

Well, that at least narrows it down a little. I trusted Sky and I trusted that anypony who disobeyed Flare would regret it. That mare could command complete obedience with a simple glare if she wanted to, I was sure.

"You going to do it though, what she wants?" Ochre asked, sounding as if a small part of her actually thought I'd say no.

"I don't really see many other options. I couldn't care less about her threats, but I really don't want to see anypony pillage Crossroads because of me," I confessed, rubbing my belly.

Is that because you couldn't forgive yourself for it, or because you know Cherry wouldn't forgive you? My mind asked, and I really didn't want to answer.

Ochre smiled warmly. "We always have more options, I know for a fact that no matter what Heatstroke says, Flare and Sky wouldn't let her hurt you or..."

"Or my foal? You know I'm pregnant too, huh?" I cut off, finishing for her, making her blush a little.

"Well, I wasn't sure, I only heard bits, and Sky's given me so many different chems. But yeah, I guess," Ochre admitted before adding. "Congratulations though, I've thought about having foals before, just don't know how we'd go about it."

"Yeah, well at least you'd have a 'we'. I don't know though, Sky doesn't look like she's ready for kids?" I offered with a small chuckle, a laugh she shared.

"Now that's another thing I know is obvious," she added. "I just hope what happened back in Crimson didn't change her too much."

I cocked my head as she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't think you have to worry about that, she still seems as mad at me as she was before," I assured her.

"Sky's grumpy with everypony, Dragonfire. I'm just worried she's always going to kick herself for what happened." She glanced down at her crumpled body under the covers. "I know there's something wrong with my legs, and I know if she could have fixed them then she would have already," she told me with a small sniff, her rear limbs fidgeting as she tapped them with a forehoof.

Then she looked out of the window, through which the brighter lines of the desert sun beamed as it dropped below the cloud layer.

"Hey, Sky loves you more than anypony. Trust me, I've seen all kinds of love and I know what's true when I see it," I assured her as she watched those beams of sun start to fade, then she finally glanced back at me.

"Thanks, Dragonfire... For everything, Sky wasn't the only one who saved my life." At that, I blushed. Despite the appreciation, however, I really felt that her gratitude was misplaced.

"It's Cherry you should thank, she was the one who found you. I was just tagging along," I retorted, and she smirked.

"I know, I'll thank her soon enough too. But Cherry didn’t steal a train, that was kind of cool." I blushed even more, my embarrassment only broken when I coughed a second later.

"Technically that wasn't my idea either, there was this buck ... He told me to steal the train," I confessed. Wait, why did her smirk grow wider at that?

"A buck, hur? Funny, I got the impression your barn door swung another way." I face hoofed.

"I... He... I swing both ways, okay... He's not special to me, I only just met him and he's already run off!" I exclaimed, but that did nothing to dissuade her teasing.

"I only knew Skylark for about a day before we started really bumping flanks. Think she ran off the morning after that first time too." She lifted a forehoof to her chin. "Love works fast if you find the right pony." She winked and I felt myself go redder than ever. "Besides, a mare can't knock you up."

Okay, really something I didn't want to think about... Still, the mental image of Vertigo and me... No Dragonfire, no! I fell back in the bed, pressing my hooves to my face.

"Goddesses, what is it with ponies in this town? Sky's mad, Flare's too right, and their other sister's trying to blackmail me ... Now you're doing this," I whined.

"Hey, when I got together with Sky there was still one slot open in her family roster," she mused and I glanced over, dreading what she had to say next. "The kinky one," she added with a wink.

I felt myself go so red I may as well have been turning to scorched dust right there and then.

********

Luckily for my shame and blood pressure, Ochre relented on her teasing for the next few hours, mostly because she fell asleep again.

So much for finding Sky when her marefriend wakes up. I thought, imagining that the drugs in the earth pony's system must really have been working to keep her asleep so much.

Not that I had a problem with being freed from her malicious teasing, she made me squirm more than anypony could, and she didn't even need to be in the same bed as me to do so. What I did have an issue with was being bored, not to mention all the things spinning in my head. Cherry had been back a few times, one time Clip had even been with her. While he was limping and his legs looked permanently scarred, I'd been glad to know the colt was okay and still walking. Nevertheless, I'd insisted that they go find a proper place to sleep.

The room at the town hotel Flare had bought for Cherry was the least she deserved after what she'd been through. Not to mention, after the number of caps she'd made while in town. It was close to a thousand, just on scrap. Even if I'd insisted she keep hold of the stone tablet we'd found in the labs when she'd asked about it. For some reason, I felt like I needed to know where it was. Other than that most of the junk was gone, with the exception of the Fluttershy statuette that my companion had grown quite fond of.

Goddesses, that mare amazed me! Still, without my friend, my doctor, or my tormenter, I was laying alone in the dark with nothing to think about but what to do next.

On one hoof, I could always just leave and take Cherry with me. I still had to find Vertigo, of course, get my Pipbuck, and let him help me find out what the Transcendent wanted. On the other hoof, I really didn't want to ruin the lives of Sky, Ochre, and Flare. I couldn't really care less about the other ponies, except for maybe Clip. I could only assume he'd be living here now too.

Maybe Sky and Ochre will get a foal after all, and sooner than they think? At least I wouldn't be the only one to have motherhood dumped on me like a train car. My mind mused as I looked up at the ceiling.

No magic and no Pipbuck, that was all I could think about again as I looked at the ceiling fan slowly going around. I glanced at my bags still sitting on the bed next to me, but the other two memory orbs seemed beyond my weak horn's ability to connect with. The last one had taken all the strength I had, and now I was just stuck. The best thing I could do was to just take Sky and Flare's advice. Get some sleep and hope I felt better in the morning. Part of me really wished Cherry was here with me as I closed my eyes. I didn't care that I found being attracted to her utterly wrong. I just wanted to know she'd be there when I woke up. Or in case I woke up screaming.

********

I was laying in a bed, a warm, cozy bed with the mare I was closest to in the lonely wasteland. It was a bed far better than the dreary infirmary bed I'd been stuck in. That felt so distant now. The pony beside me was my one rock in the torrent that was life, the likes of which I held onto with all four hooves. Her coat was soft, her mane like cotton against my muzzle as I nuzzled her gently. Our hooves wrapt about each other tightly, mine over her back and hers over my flank as the pair of us purred like kittens.

"You know, we should do this more often. Good to take all the comfort you can get out here," Candi suggested, her half-lidded eyes meeting my own as our lips pressed together.

I pushed all of my compassion into that kiss, all the aching stress of a long day's work was behind me and now I just wanted to feel good. I could just stay here with her forever, ride out the worst the wasteland had to offer, even if it didn't completely feel like love. Our kiss lasted for a long moment before I finally pulled away. The white-coated mare looked slightly pained, yet I gave her a smile, coaxing her back.

"Candi, am I weird?" I asked reluctantly, thinking about what Teal had said about being different

She gave me a confused look, her seductive smile fading only for a moment. "Dragon, why would ah think that? If it's because of us then, there's plenty of fillyfoolers right here in town. Heck, between us we've slept with half the mares and bucks 'round here. "

She pulled me close again, planting a light kiss on my cheek. I let out a shallow breath, glancing down at her hooves as one stroked my chest lightly.

"I know, it's just... Today with Teal, he thinks we're all weirdos, and I don't really know what to tell him. Ponies look at me funny for having a pegasus foal, not to mention how young I was when he was born." I played off those facts as if the lie were as real as the death of my mother.

Candi was oblivious to the truth as she smiled, nuzzling my neck affectionately. "Do you think you're weird?" she asked.

I rubbed her side, stroking her fur softly. "Is this my marefriend or my nurse asking?" I responded cracking a smile.

She lifted her head from under mine, a low purring sound escaping her throat.

"Both, you an' ah know ah ain't no doctor yet, but mom still taught me good. So no, this ain't a nurse asking," she assured me, rubbing the back of my neck, then giggled. "But that don't mean you can go being dishonest now," She bumped her rump against my own beneath the covers.

"Is that the only thing she taught you?" I teased, and the white mare shook her head before forcing her lips to mine once again.

Now it was her turn to pour on the affection as she wrapped both her forehooves around the back of my neck.

"No, ah learned that one all by myself," she purred with a coy grin.

I flushed, nothing but an awkward, little squeak escaping my throat. "Okay, you proved your point," I admitted."Still... Teal thinks he's different because of his wings."

"Hey, this darn town's needed a good pegasus for years. He'll be a fine buck when he's all grown up," she assured me, offering another kiss before adding. "He'll have to be with you as his mom."

At her words, my blush grew tenfold and I couldn't help but smile as a warm sense of pride swelled within me. "Yeah, but I just don't want him to feel different, I want him to be happy."

Much to my disappointment, she sat up, then shook her head slowly. "You know, Mom used to tell me about fillies our age who'd end up pregnant and either die or just end up leaving the foal to do the same, but you..." She pointed a hoof into my chest for extra emphasis."You really do love him, don't you?"

I nodded slowly, blushing even more as I sat up next to her. "So if you go on for one more minute saying he can't be happy with you, then ah swear ah'm gonna make you squirm so hard," she added, smacking my butt with a hoof.

I let out a yelp, jumping a little. That was a little more than just some playful flankspank, she really meant it.

"Love is a hard thing to come by out here, ah seen enough cruel ponies to last a lifetime. But you ain't one of um," Candi went on, taking one of my forehooves with her own

"So we're not weird then?" I asked casually, and she rolled her eyes with a snort.

She looked just about ready to say something smart in response, but before she could there was a sound by the stairs.

"Mom, Candi. You still awake, I heard voices and...?" Teal trailed off as we both looked to see him standing at the top of the stairs, teddy ursa clutched in his forehooves.

"Awww, sweetie, yeah we're still awake, what's wrong?" Candi asked, standing up and brushing herself off first.

Thank the goddesses he didn't come wandering up just a few minutes earlier. I thought as I stood up and trotted over to the young colt.

"Is it the nightmares again, Teal?" I asked, and the moment I was within hooves reach he lunged and wrapped his hooves around my foreleg.

"Yeah, the one with the scary ponies with the scary faces. I'm sorry, Mom. I tried to tell them to go away, but they just keep hiding. They'll eat me if I fall asleep again!" he explained, eyes starting to water and in an instant, I knew that our night of fun was over.

Still, as much as I loved sex, I love my little colt far more. I wrapped a hoof over his back, rubbing his mane and wings gently as I shushed him.

"There, there, it's okay. No scary ponies are going to get you while Mommy and Candi are around." I looked at the white mare and she nodded.

"You bet, ah got a whole bunch of needles waiting back at the clinic for anypony that wants to mess with you," she declared, and he glanced up at her with a sniff.

"You mean the big, sharp, and scary kind? The ones that hurt?" he asked, and she appeared a little unsure as she nodded. "And no sugar apple bombs afterward for them?"

"No way, only good ponies like you get those," I added, nudging him softly.

"Well, I suppose they'd be scared of that... Maybe that'll make them go away?" he mumbled, giving another wet sniff as he stared off into the gloom.

"The only pony who can find out is you, Teal. When those bad ponies come for you again you just tell them what Antie Candi's got for them," I said with a grin, and much to my relief he mirrored the expression as he looked up at me.

"You bet I will, Mom. I'll be big and tough, just like you," he boasted and that warmness in my chest bloomed. "But, Mom, can I just have one more thing?"

My ears perked, then again I knew exactly what he was going to ask next. He was even looking at where we'd been laying just moments ago. I didn't even need to wait for the question.

"Yes, Teal, you can sleep with us tonight. But this is the last time, you're a big colt now and you have to start being brave, you know. Like the dragon, you always pretend to be, right?" I told him and he nodded, smiling.

That smile meant the whole world to me. "You mean brave like you too, Mom?"

I felt a shallow breath escape me at those words, yet my happy expression did not falter. Candi looked at me as if daring me to shoot myself down again, and confronted with both her and Teal's eyes, I finally sighed.

"Yes, Teal. Brave just like your mom."

********

I awoke to the sound of things being moved and opened my eyes to see Sky disconnecting me from the medical machines at my bedside. I opened my mouth, yet before my parched throat could croak a sound the mare offered me a flat look and spoke.

"No, this does not mean you can leave just yet. You should still be resting." I felt my hopes and dreams fall flat.

Horse apples, why do I have to be stuck here? As if sensing my irritation, Sky smirked and finished moving the last of the machines away with her magic.

"Hey, it's not all bad. You should be able to at least walk today, but I'm just not recommending it. Plus, Cherry will kill you if you leave this bed whether you're a couple or not," she warned, and at that idea, I at least had some incentive not to wander off.

Even so, I was caught wondering if I should tell her about her sister's offer. I also didn't know how long Heatstroke expected to wait for me. For some reason she didn't strike me as the most patient mare, none of Sky's family did. So I instead tried to offer my doctor something that may at least cheer her up.

"Ochre was awake last night, you know? We were talking," I told her and she glanced at the sleeping mare.

"Oh, I know. She was awake early this morning. Said something about you being very cute when you're awkward." She looked back and I felt heat in my cheeks once again.

Goddesses, she is at it even when she's asleep, does she have any limit to her teasing? Sky, at least, had the decency not to press the joke any further. That, or she was just as awkward as I was.

"Is that all she told you?" I asked, wondering whether Ochre had informed her of what Heatstroke had said to me.

Sky shook her head and my concern spiked. "Nope, she said you have a good marefriend and a new buck. Said you should... And I quote, 'get under a tail before they're taken'." She looked sickened by the words and for a second I thought she'd have to use my puke bucket too.

I just sank back into the pillow and covered my red face with my hooves. Goddesses curse my white coat, it makes it so obvious!

Nevertheless, I didn't have to worry about anything more as apparently, that was all that Ochre had told her. That at least led me to believe that the earth pony wanted me to try to fix the town. Sky just seemed as oblivious to the fact as ever as she looked at the memory orbs sitting at my bedside.

"You actually managed to use these?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, but only one. That's all my horn could take," I responded, and she frowned. "What, you going to say I have to sit here board out of my mind without even a memory orb to view?" I snapped.

"It's not recommended, but I'm afraid you may just do something more reckless without the distraction. I supposed trying to work your magic back up with small memory spells wouldn't do too much harm." She lifted a hoof to her chin. "But no more than one a day, got it?"

"Yes, Mom," I moaned, crossing my forehooves. Sky only looked at me with a flat expression.

"Every day, I see more and more why you travel with Cherry. You seriously need the maturity," she observed and I instantly dropped the act.

"Seriously? I'm still mature, you'd be going insane from boredom in here too. Besides, where is Cherry, I at least feel like I want to do what she tells me to do," I grumbled.

"She went to find that buck who guided us off the tracks..." She paused, seeming to think hard.

"Vertigo?" I asked, and she swiftly nodded.

"Yeah, him. Seen him in town a few times so he's from around here as far as I know. Don't know where he lives though. He took your Pipbuck too, by the way," she finished.

"I'm aware," I deadpanned, slumping again.

Regardless, at least I knew Cherry was with somepony I kind of knew, or at least looking for him. Somehow that was reassuring, Vertigo had been in no rush to kill any of us and I didn't really think he'd spontaneously turn into a monster or something.

"She said she'd be back to see you as soon as she was done asking him some things," Sky went on, levitating over a mug of water and setting it down on a medical trolley at my bedside. "So, if that's all, then I have things to attend to."

The pale mare didn't even give me a chance to respond before she moved over to Ochre, kissed the mare's forehead, and then trotted out. Damn, as grumpy as she is, Sky still has a nice plot... Dragonfire, just no, it's over now, give up!

Only a few minutes passed before boredom wrapped its claws around my mind again. I looked at the trinkets littering my bed, the musical locket, and the memory orbs. I finally picked up the former and placed it around my neck, jingling it with my hooves as I wondered if my horn could take another of the latter.

Look into the past or disobey everypony and go see if you can find Heatstroke? I looked up at the slowly spinning fan, that endless slow whooshing that had been sinking into my head for what felt like forever. Yeah, I think I can make it back before Cherry is done with Vertigo, no problem.

********

Crossroads, this was only the second time I'd seen the concrete maze of roads and bridges that was the intersection city. Cracked asphalt clattered under the hooves of many passing ponies as I looked up into the concrete canopy of highway bridges and improvised metal catwalks. It had taken my eyes a second to adjust to the light having been cooped up in the bed for so long, yet I could see the businesses and homes built into the sides of the overpass and its supporting pillars. From the ground up, the town formed layer upon layer of thin streets, and corrugated shacks all connected by metal stairways. Several wrapped around the concrete support cylinders in spirals while others snaked their way up some of the larger buildings on the ground level. It was like Churn, only in reverse, and seeing its size nowadays, it wasn't hard to guess why Heatstroke wanted control over the place.

Creeping out of the clinic hadn't been too hard, nopony had been behind the desk at the entrance and my quiet hoofsteps had been masked by somepony shouting in another room. Most likely Skylark. The clinic itself was a large shack of corrugated metal sheets suspended on several steel stilts with its back against one of the highway support pillars. Unlike those in Churn, it at least had windows. Though in the shadow of the overpass, they seemed just as pointless. A little green light came from a flickering medical sign beside the door, as well as another glowing image of three pink butterflies.

I made sure to creep away from the stairs by the door as subtly as I could, hoping that, without my barding, no pony would recognize me as the mare who'd potentially brought the Brazen Skulls' wrath down upon them. All I had were my saddlebags, the locket around my neck, and my faint memory of the last time I was here. Heatstroke had said to find her father's home, and while part of me just really wanted to go and find Vertigo, I knew that if I went there I might bump into Cherry. Seeing the pink mare mad was not on top of my to-do list, and I wracked my memory for the directions Heatstroke had given me.

'It's the big steel building under the main overpass, you can't miss it.' I looked up. Goddesses this whole place is under an overpass!

From here on the ground level, the cloudy sky was invisible. Yet as I trotted along I swiftly came upon the largest of the ground-level roads, the south equestrian highway. The large span of asphalt was littered with wagons, most of which had been turned into homes or businesses, all connected to the rest of the city's web by a number of suspended catwalks. On the far side of the highway was a parking lot covered in more shacks and beside it was an old diner. To my right, the highway continued, flanked by improvised metal buildings formed from more scrap wagons. Raising above them, its back built into one of the large concrete pillars, was what looked like an irregular stack of steel blocks and windows, covered in a whole mesh of framework. 'Under Toe Hotel and Casino' proclaimed a large flashing sign above the building's front door.

Okay, having second thoughts about letting Cherry stay in a place like that alone... No, Dragonfire, she's not a foal! To my left, the road led out from beneath the intersection.

A ragged wall of corrugated metal had been erected between the outermost support pillars of a squat railway bridge. Guard ponies stood sentry atop the makeshift fortification, manning several large gun emplacements that had been fixed to a number of train cars sitting on the elevated tracks. I at least appreciated seeing guns like that when they weren't in the hooves of slavers. Not that the security forces here looked any more competent than those in Churn or Buck Town. It seemed the NCR had already begun to lay claim to this land as it had done back home. Just more of a reason for me to try and get this mess sorted out.

I turned away from the gate, keeping an eye out for any overpass that could be referred to as the 'main one'. Ponies trotted about their business around me, mares, stallions, and foals all safe and happy, just like home. I felt a slight twinge in my gut as I saw them, the sensation of life inside me was far from the cold emptiness I'd seen watching families pass me by in Churn. It was not impossible for me anymore. I could have another chance to do what I'd failed to do all those years ago.

That doesn't mean you'll succeed this time though, you really fucked up last… I cut off my thoughts with a shake of my head. No way was I ever going to start thinking like that now.

Nevertheless, my mind continued to try and drag me back into my past mistakes. Even any happy thought about the foal and the impossibility that was its existence was marred by how I'd failed my last family. I couldn't have foals, that had been the one thing in my life that had driven me to do all the messed up shit I'd done. Did it make me stronger? I really tried not to think about it too much, ignoring the sickly sensation in my gut as I continued my search.

I passed open wagons serving everything from iguana meat on a stick to roasted radhogs. The scent that drifted out of them was both alluring and disgusting all at once. I could only assume it was my condition that was putting me off as I never usually minded. There was a filly standing on a box, preaching about how ponies had to stand up to raiders. While beside her another, slightly older mare handed out newspapers. Amidst the crowd was an assortment of robots, the likes of which moved among the ponies almost like pets. Ponytrons stood guard over particular stores with more wealthy-looking owners and by one larger building, I swore I saw an old sentry bot. I felt a spike of spite in me at the sight of the hulking metal brute, but at least this one wasn't trying to shoot at me.

Weirder still were the Gyrotrons. I'd seen them before, some sort of experimental robot designed for use in high-speed wagon chases on the long desert roads in the latter years of the war. A pair rolled by, effortlessly weaving around ponies. They looked for all intents and purposes like gigantic wheels. At the base of the large central arch, close to where the chassis met the road, an equine-like body boasted four clawed legs. Like an odd amalgamation of griffin and pony impaled by a wheel, the things carried an array of magical energy weapons on either side of a pair of stalked red eyes. Several more of the patrolling robots crossed my path as I finally looked ahead to see a large metal building.

It was built into another highway pillar and looked rather similar to the Under Toe. Yet the metal it was made from was far cleaner. It made me wonder why Heatstroke hadn't referred me to the cleanest building in town instead. The silver plates practically gleamed compared to the rusted shanties around them. As I trotted closer, however, it became clear that the wasteland had not spared its influence even here. The polished walls were still burdened with patches of rust in a few odd places and the catwalk balconies that clung to some parts were no better than the rest of the sprawl they were connected to. Several windows were broken, and the stairs leading up to the door whined as I moved up them. I lifted a hoof to knock on the chipped, red door that greeted me. Only for it to slip open loosely at the smallest touch.

Okay, not creepy at all. For some reason, I didn't like the idea they'd been expecting me.

Inside was a long corridor supported by an inner skeleton of darker metal. I slipped in and the floor gave a groan under my weight as the metal shifted. Shutting the door behind me with a light kick, I trotted down the corridor until I came upon a larger space I assumed was the heart of the building. A balcony above ran around the edge of the square room, and a set of bulbs strung from wires across the ceiling formed a mock chandelier. It was big, for the wasteland. Then again, while Sky and Flare seemed okay, I couldn't really say the same for the rest of her family from the members I'd met.

Goddesses only know what went into getting this. I thought. But hey, maybe it's just so their father has room for all of his kids?

For some reason that didn't seem like the whole story, especially as I looked around. In the middle of the room was a rounded table, littered with paper and all kinds of medical supplies. Scattered among the endless piles of parchment, books, and scrolls were a few doses of RadAway and healing potions. 'Supernaturals', the cover of one book that caught my eye stated, sitting next to a pestle and mortar, along with some odd green powder and withered blue herbs. A bunch of scribbled notes I'd have no chance of understanding accompanied the odd text, and I swiftly trotted to the edge of the room. On the wall were several photographs and I noticed the ones with Sky and Flare in them almost instantly. Heatstroke was in many of them too, as well as one lime green and one purple earth pony mare.

More of her sisters. Maybe the twins? I presumed.

Sidewinder was the only stallion I could see, yet in his one image, he was no more than a colt. He looked a little like his ambitious sister, with a sandy-colored coat and an orange mane. The image was of him pointing to what I could only guess was a brand-new cutie mark. A green snake locked in a perfect circle to eat its own tail. I had exactly zero idea what that kind of cutie mark even meant. I forgot about it seconds later as I came face to face with a rearing pegasus mare.

I hopped back, reflectively reaching for a weapon that wasn't there with magic that didn't work. The mare didn't move, however, and after wondering for a second how she was standing so still, I finally noticed that she wasn't a mare at all. At least, not anymore. She had a dull brown coat with a curly maroon mane, she was small too, a little shorter than me if she'd have been standing on all four hooves. Her cutie mark was the scorched image of a cloud and lightning bolt.

So she's a Dashite? My mind swiftly noted, recalling the several enclave rejects I'd met in the past. I had to admit I had fewer issues with them than I did their sky-going companions, but overall my opinion of pegasi was still sour.

The same could not be said for the father of all the foals I'd seen in the photos. The whole span of the wall next to the stuffed mare was covered in images of pegasi, both old and new. I saw faded newspaper articles detailing the many battles fought by the Shadowbolts, not to mention more than a few images of a very awesome-looking Rainbow Dash. There were posters too, and a faded photograph of the brown pegasus. Sky had said her father had been set on having a pegasus foal. Now I could really see that somepony had a little bit of an obsession. It came as a surprise then when a voice suddenly spoke and I looked back in shock to see the unicorn buck watching me from across the middle table.

"Magnificent collection, don't you think?" he asked, and right away I knew who I was talking to.

He had a dull orange coat and white striped red mane as well as a white lab coat and black-rimmed glasses. I imagined the stethoscope around his neck wasn't part of his usual attire as he levitated it onto the table and trotted around, looking over the pegasus memorabilia fondly as he passed.

"It's certainly something, you must really like pegasi," I offered, watching him look at the stuffed mare in particular before reaching me.

"That I do, they fascinate me. So elegant and streamlined, so powerful. Their bodies are made for power and speed." I just nodded, it was scary how he said those words with such conviction.

The way he looked at me was just as freaky. Damn, does he want to sew wings to my side or something? I swiftly glanced at the still mare posed in the corner.

He smiled. "I see you've met Dust Storm," he asked, trotting over and kissing the mare's rearing hoof. "She was the love of my life, couldn't bear to allow the wasteland to take such perfection and let it rot away. It took a lot of work to have her preserved like this."

So what, he really had her stuffed? Wow, talk about priorities. How'd he even find a way to do that? Regardless, it was at least a nice sentiment, no matter how creepy. While I was not opposed to keeping something out of the wasteland's cruel grip, even I had limits.

"I'm sorry to hear, I bet she was a really nice mare." My condolences were forced, even if for some reason they didn't seem necessary. Nevertheless, I wasn't about to try an offend one of the most powerful stallions in town.

The doctor closed his eyes and took a long breath, seeming to breathe in the scent of the long-dead mare. "Thank you, but your pity is not necessary. Dusty went down in a way deserving of any pegasus."

Yeah, Dragonfire, really necessary. My mind smirked. Grr, shut up, brain! I banged my head with a forehoof, drawing an odd look from the curious stallion.

"Sorry, just my mind misbehaving again," I told him with an awkward smile, then trotted back over. "So you're Sky's father and she's her mother?" I asked, nodding to the brown mare.

He merely laughed. "Are you serious? Haha, no, Dusty is not the mother of any of my foals, as much as I'd have liked her to have been. The Enclave fitted many of its citizens with contraceptive implants. Part of the reason I became a doctor was to try and take it out of her, but she passed on before I could," he explained, looking up at her with what appeared to be genuine affection.

And now he's gone and gotten himself six children trying to replace something that he couldn't? Why does that sound familiar? My thoughts mused.

"But yes, I am really Sky's father as am I the father of all the foals there." He gestured to the wall of photographs. "I'm Doctor Pick-Me-Up, a horrid, mud pony name, I know. But I know exactly why you're here, Dragonfire," he said, and I swallowed as he looked just that little bit more creepy.

"Yeah, your daughter Heatstroke came to see me at the infirmary. She told me to come see you as soon as I could," I responded, and he pressed a hoof to my lips.

"That would be my infirmary, thank you. A swift recovery you've made too, but that's quite enough talk for out here. Heatstroke is waiting for us in my office, I just wanted to come out and judge you for myself before we discuss anything," he explained, before turning and trotting off toward a stairway, motioning for me to follow with a nod.

I glanced at the stuffed mare to my left. ‘Goddesses, why do I feel like there's a whole new wave of weird ponies about to gravitate towards me?’ I thought as I reluctantly trotted on after Pick-Me-Up.

********

As far as wastelander homes went, Pick-Me-Up's family house was huge, six kids or not. His office was on the uppermost floor. As expected, the moment we entered I was met with the smug face of Heatstroke sitting back in a chair, her rear legs crossed. Beyond her was a desk and on either side, the walls were lined by lockers and filing cabinets. One lone window in the right wall provided a look to the underside of the overpass outside and on the far edge of the room was a door to what I could only assume was one of the third-floor balconies. The sounds of the town drifted in but were just muted enough to ensure the ticking of a clock to my left was audible.

Damn, what is it with me and the constant sound of something in the background! I mentally recalled, only just starting to forget the excruciatingly boring motion of the fan back in the clinic.

"Dragonfire, glad to see you could make it. Not to mention so soon, I am impressed," Heatstroke greeted as I trotted in, her father behind me.

She motioned to a chair as the doctor trotted over to his desk and took a seat on a metal stool. Trying not to show my unease too much, I took a seat beside Heatstroke, attempting very hard to ignore her as she looked me up and down.

Goddesses, does she have her own agenda on top of this too, I'm not some damn textbook! I huffed at her rather scrutinizing observations.

"So what's this all about? I'm here now, so what do you want?" I asked, looking at her, then at her father as the buck shifted his glasses.

"We want your help, of course. As I told you before, you owe us," Heatstroke responded, rolling her eyes.

"Now, now, Heatstroke. That may be true, but I'm pretty sure she'll be far more inclined to listen to what I have to offer," Pick-Me-Up said, silencing his daughter with a slow wave of his hoof. She seemed as obedient as a trusty hound to him, shutting up almost instantly.

"What do you have to offer? You mean like not putting a bounty on my head or something like she suggested?" I nodded at the mare beside me and she frowned.

"Really, how crude. I would only resort to that if it were absolutely necessary. That's not the attitude I'd expect from somepony so close to the future mayor." He shot his daughter a flat look.

"I only told her I knew ponies, I never said I'd do her in. She's pregnant for Luna's sake!" Heatstroke exclaimed.

Go on, tell the whole world while you're at it. I thought, slumping in my chair as Pick-Me-Up continued.

"I'm aware of her condition, confirmed it myself." He peered over his glasses at me. "Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks for the confirmation," I groaned, waving the idea away with a forehoof. Still, I was unable to resist the urge to shoot a smirk of my own over at Heatstroke.

"Still, I don't think you'll have to send anypony after her, Heatstroke. There's no way she's going to say no to my offer." Pick-Me-Up smiled at me, and my brief moment of triumph over his moody daughter was stolen.

"As you keep saying, so why's that? Forgive me for saying, but you kinda sound like you're saying exactly what she did," I responded, nodding at Heatstroke again.

"Because the matter of the fact is that you saved my daughter from those savages in Crimson. While giving you the opportunity to fix this mess without simply sending somepony to get you should be reward for that enough, I believe there's also an opportunity here," he explained, and for a moment my interest peaked.

Heatstroke glanced at him, then at me, and the look on his face caused her to become even less laid back. "Wait, Daddy, you can't be seriously considering that? I know she saved Sky, but isn't just letting her clean things up here in town easier? Clear out some Dash-heads or something?" the mare asked in a fluster.

"Of course, I am! If this works, I won't have to worry about those slavers ever again. Wouldn't it be better running this place without the threat from Crimson Springs?" he suggested and just like that, she seemed to stop and think.

"Wait, what do you mean? You only said you wanted help getting this Pear guy out of the way. You sound like you're talking about taking down the Brazen Skulls?" I asked, glancing from father to daughter.

Don't forget about the Transcendent. My mind added, but I thought it better to leave out that part until I was sure I could trust them more.

"Well, that's kind of what I'm trying to say," Pick-Me-Up confirmed and right there and then, I wondered why they didn't call him the 'ambitious one'. "You see, I learned from a little friend of mine that you were after something in Stable Fifty. That's the Brazen Skulls' main headquarters up on the mesa."

The Brazen Skulls, among other ponies. I mentally added, yet he didn't seem to know that.

What he did seem to know was that I'd lost Star, and as far as I could remember only three other ponies had known about that. Gina was dead, and I didn't think Cherry would have been the one to tell him. That left only one pony.

"So you know Vertigo?" I asked, and at his smile, I really wanted to kick that dumb indigo buck in the face just a little more.

"Our mutual friend in all things secretive, yes. He does the odd job around here, gets a free room at the Under Toe whenever he needs it. But what I'm really trying to say is that I want that stable cleared too," Pick-Me-Up explained, leaning forward onto the desk, pressing his forehooves together.

Just something else I was learning about my new 'buckfriend'. Nevertheless, it only sounded like Vertigo told them that, and not about the super crazy cult ponies hiding in Crimson Springs too. At least that confirms Pick-Me-up isn't the real pony Vertigo reports to.

Regardless, I didn't see any point in denying that I was after something from the stable. Not to mention I was interested in what he had to say. I said as much.

"What I propose is that, if you help me finally become the leader of this place." He pointed a hoof to his chest, and I swore Heatstroke glanced away from him, muttering. "Then you will have what resources this town can offer when you decide to go and get what you need from stable fifty."

Okay, now he really has my attention. Still, some doubts lingered.

"Well, what kind of resources will they be? I don't know about you, but I don't really think telling the whole town they have to go to war with the slavers next door will be a good first order?" I suggested, but his calm smile didn't fade.

"I never said anything about the town's citizens, but we have plenty of robots here. I have no doubt you've seen the Gyrotrons?" He motioned to the outside through the window. "They are stuck patrolling the intersection, but if you were to get the control terminals for me then I don't think it would be too hard to offer you some as payment."

Damn, I hate it when I'm offered good ideas by smarter ponies! I mentally hissed.

"Need I mention that there's also a whole warehouse more of those things just out of town too? We get the terminal, we can turn them all on," Heatstroke added suddenly, perking up once again

"But if you know about all of this then why haven't you gone out and got them already?" I asked.

"Because of Pear and his crew. That warehouse is where he stacks all the chems the Great Kigers deliver him, he's got the whole place all locked up," Pick-Me-Up elaborated.

"Funny, if he was smart he could have all those robots under his control," Heatstroke muttered, standing up. "Look, Daddy, I'm pretty sure she gets the message. So you going to do it or not, Dragonfire?" She peered right at me and I finally sighed.

Seemed like a choice between two really shitty options, so close to perfect it hurt. But the two of them did have a point. As creepy as he was, Pick-Me-Up did seem like he could help me if I helped his family.

"Yeah, I'll do it. You help me get to that stable and I'll help you get this town," I finally sighed.

"And you'll clear the stable when the time comes? No questions asked?" Pick-Me-Up pressed, and I nodded, even if that promise made me feel really uneasy.

"Great, you tell her the plan then, Daddy. I have some urgent things to take care of," Heatstroke started as she turned and trotted out.

"Do they all just get up and leave like that?" I asked, looking back at the doctor. He chuckled, nodding once.

"The ones you've met, sure. Once they're done with what they want they move on to the next thing, kinda take after me. Grape Juice and Lily are a little less like that though, probably because they're the only ones named by their mother," he informed me, glancing out of the window.

Goddesses, what is it with this guy and names? I thought, nodding slowly before finally asking.

"So what is it you need me to do?" He looked back at me, pushing up his glasses.

"I need you to take out Pear's chem trade here first." He tapped a hoof on his desk. "He has a den here in town, everything else is at the warehouse. You'll need to find one of his head ponies to get access to the bigger facility. His crew will scatter once they see the drugs are all that give him power, that's if the Kigers don't gut him first." He laughed at that before finally adding.

"All that really matters though is the Gyrotrons. There should be at least half a dozen in that warehouse and once we get them online he'll be done for." The moment he was finally done I sighed.

Another job like this? Is there any town in the Marejarvie free of a secret chem trade these days? Regardless, it wouldn't be unlike any job I'd done before. Well, except for the fact you're not getting any caps.

I'd stomped out dodgier dealings like this with Star back in Churn before. Griddle was not a big fan of selling chems to foals as some ponies had once tried to do back home. It was one of her good qualities, at least.

"So I'm guessing I'll have to find one of his head ponies in town first?" I asked, and the doctor nodded. "So where is this chem den?"

********

A police station? This place had a police station? I found it incredibly ironic that Pear had chosen a place like that to put a chem den.

It was odd that somepony had even put one here before the war considering the intersection was virtually in the middle of a scorched nowhere. Nevertheless, that was where Pick-Me-Up had told me to go, and if I wanted his help with the slavers I guessed that was where I was going next. First thing first, however, I had to get back my Pipbuck

Well, at least it's all still in town. My mind offered as I walked down the steps at the front of the doctor's house and right into the path of the last pony I'd want to see me out here.

"Dragonfire, what in Equestria are you doing out of bed?" I never thought Cherry Pin could have looked so scary, but as she glared at me I felt like little more than a tiny foal.

"I... I had to see the doctor... I..." I improvised, pointing back at Pick-Me-Up's house. Then I finally felt my body droop. "I couldn't stay stuck in that room, okay!" I finally admitted as she trotted up to me, a very unhappy look plastered on her face.

Okay, is it wrong to say, as scary as she is, she looks even cuter when she is trying to be mad? I thought as she looked me over, my stomach in particular."

"Cherry, I'm fine," I sighed as she finished inspecting my belly and looked at me sourly. "And the foal's fine too," I added.

"You promised me you'd stay there," she stated, and I felt my heart break just a little.

"I know, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't lay there doing nothing, I had to get out, do things. Besides, I was still seeing a medical pony... Kinda," I stammered, and she took a deep breath.

"I guess I know how that feels, but you disobeyed me." She jabbed a hoof at me. "You may be in charge out there, but when you are sick I'm the one who has to make sure you are okay." She pointed to the wasteland beyond the wall, and finally at my pudgy midsection. "I have to make sure you're both safe."

Goddesses, why does my heart feel like it is melting? The pink mare got herself so worked up she stomped a hoof on the ground and several passing ponies gave us odd looks. I moved over and nuzzled her neck, forelegs wrapped over her shoulders.

"Hey, you really do mean a lot to me, I'm glad I have you to look out for me too. But don't worry about me, I'm fine," I assured her, and the look of her caught halfway between anger and compassion was so cute it almost killed me.

"Yeah, well you mean a lot to me too, and you're having a foal so I have to make double sure you are both okay. But... Well, that clinic was kinda boring." She gave the smallest, little grin.

"Hey, I tell you what. I promise not to stray out of your sight so long as you don't make me go back there, okay?" I proposed, and she seemed to take way too long to think about it.

Goddesses she is like my mother, she is really considering taking me back there! Can I even resist if she does? One more look at her face, however, and I knew the answer was 'no'.

Still, when she finally spoke I was glad to hear confirmation. "Okay, but you step one hoof where I can't see it and I'll tell Sky to strap you to that bed."

Wow, I didn't know she was into… No, brain, she's innocent, don't you dare!

I nodded. "It's a deal. So did you find Vertigo?" I asked and her look went from determination to mild embarrassment.

"I... I'm still working on it, I went to his room at the hotel but he was out. They said he'd gone to the bar down by the highway, that's where I was heading," she explained, peering down the street.

"Well, let's go find him. I have a few questions for that stallion and I want my Pipbuck back," I stated trotting forward only for her to call me back with a loud cough.

The look she gave me said just one thing. "Oh yeah, not out of your sight." My expression turned sheepish, ears folding as I chuckled. "How could I forget?"

********

To say that I'd overlooked the neon-lit front of the old highway diner before, was an understatement. The big building draped in flickering lights with a giant, metal donut sat upon a stone pillar at the edge of its parking lot was so glaring it was almost painful to look at.

'Donut Joe's' boasted a set of large rusted letters above its cracked glass door, the 'O' quite appropriately shaped more like a sprinkled dessert than a letter. A white banner had been strapped over the base of the former sign, however. 'Long Road Bar and Grill' The new title proclaimed

There was a pair of show mares at the front, their spiked black attire less than casual as they danced up and down a pair of old road signs on either side of the entrance.

"Goddesses, how do ponies not shoot them thinking they're raiders?" Cherry asked, recoiling slightly at the display.

Awww, that innocence is so precious. I thought, really trying to keep my eyes off of the nice mares.

I sighed. "Cherry they're in the middle of a town, ponies here generally have more on their minds than shooting raiders," I told her, the pair of us pausing to allow two Gyrotrons to roll past.

She watched the robots go by as she spoke. "I know, it just kinda brings back some... not-so-good memories." She finally looked at me, then back at herself and I felt the urge to face hoof.

"Hey, you're nothing like that, you tried to make a difference. Have you heard if anypony who went out after Sky and the others when they were taken? No pony did as far as I know." I stated, and she slumped a little.

"Vertigo did?" she suggested, but I'd believe that was the reason he was out there when the goddesses came back to save us.

"He doesn't count, he was already out there and I have a feeling it wasn't for them. You were the one who went to save them, I just tagged along and got shot," I assured her as we trotted across the road.

"Yeah, that's one of the things I'm worried about too. You can't go getting shot at anymore," she stated, and a small cramp in my stomach really insisted I agree.

"I'll be more careful, I promise. I'll go everywhere with you, no questions asked, but we still have things to do," I told her, not that she looked too happy about it.

She remained silent as we trotted by the two dancing mares and up to the glass doors. Cherry opened the door with her magic when my instinctual attempt ended in me almost colliding with it face-first. The pink mare held it there and I entered first before the smell of the place hit me like a brick wall. The alcoholic stench of the bar did nothing to help rest my uneasy stomach and I felt a sudden regret I'd left my puke bucket in the clinic. Smoke hung in the air like a cloudy miasma, illuminated by lights that flashed in tangent with beating music. The windows were tinted black and painted over in most places, keeping out what little light the sun could offer. The whole place looked more like one of the pre-war MoM party clubs I'd seen in memory orbs than any roadside bar.

The layout was not dissimilar from Willow's back home, only five times the size. A row of seats covered the right wall. The middle of the room was filled with almost identical aisles. In the dead center, a wooden stage had been set up with several metal polls, on which several mares and stallions dressed similarly to those by the door were dancing. Along the opposite wall, the bar was formed from the old café service counter. One of the only things the place was lacking was a stage and an overly charismatic robot butler. Instead, there were at least three ponies working behind the counter, handing out drinks. Despite that, it was pretty clear that alcohol and sex were not the only things on sale here.

Chems littered the tables, and I recognized ponies out of their minds on Dash or Med-X when I saw them. Walking by some of the tables I saw even more, Buck, Mint-als, and even some Stampede. I guessed all of this was a result of Pear Pudding's work and I had to shove several Dash-heads out of my way. At least seeing this made me feel no issue with shutting him down.

"Goddesses, I hate places like this. They just use ponies for caps instead of helping them," Cherry grumbled, before flinching as a mare tried to chew her tail. "Get away. Please, go see a doctor, you need help!" she snapped, tucking her tail between her legs.

"It's a place there's all too many of. You can wait outside if you want, I'll find Vertigo and come right out," I suggested, but that only seemed to frustrate her more.

"Oh no, you are not getting out of my sight that easy," she declared, sticking right to my side.

What, no! I didn't suggest it to get away from her... I... Grr, stupid, brain! I tapped a hoof against my head again as we forced our way around past the bar.

Looking at the weakly-lit counter, I took in the vast stock of booze they had lining the rear wall. Not to mention a rather nice-looking red and purple mare working there. My brain didn't even bother thinking up anything to counter that ogling as I tore my eyes away and hit my forehead again. Of course, in here, avoiding flank was like avoiding mines in a minefield. I shifted my eyes from one hot rump only to find another before I finally gained control over my hormones and homed in on one buck in particular.

Vertigo sat at the booth furthest from the door as if he'd known I'd have to wade my way through bustling craziness just to get to him. Considering what he'd been through he didn't look that bad, though most of his coat was covered by a black trench coat. He sat back in the purple leather seat, a half-empty glass of Sparkle Cola on the table before him as he stared out of the dull window. A trio of passing 'waitresses' seemed to be judging whether to seek out his attention. I saved them the trouble as I trotted over to the indigo stallion and sat down across the table from him along with Cherry.

"Well, well, look who's finally awake. Gotta admit, you're out of the clinic sooner than I expected," he greeted, grinning before he nodded at Cherry. "You too, sorry didn't catch your name before, what was it again?"

"Cherry Pin, though most ponies just call me Cherry," she told him and I looked at her, then at him.

"Okay, Vertigo, I'm sure you've had plenty of time to mess around with my stuff, but now I want my Pipbuck back," I growled, eyes narrowing.

He leaned back with a chuckle. "Right to the point I see." He levitated up his sparkle-cola, tilting it at me. "You know all you have to do is ask nicely." He took a sip, then levitated the device out from his coat.

The look I gave him told him my answer. Does he really believe I am going to say please after he nearly got me killed? One nudge in the ribs from Cherry, however, and Vertigo's grin only grew. Goddesses, is it that obvious?

"Can I have my Pipbuck back, please," I groaned, the word leaving a sour taste in my mouth.

He levitated it over to me without question and Cherry smiled. "Before you ask, no I haven't messed with it. Not that I know how you use it, heads up display and leg clasps are all broken," he assured me.

The heads-up display is broken, is it? I wondered as I snatched the thing from the air. Just like before the retirement home?

"I'll be the judge of that. Why take it if you didn't want to mess with it anyway?" I asked, turning the thing in my forehooves before slipping it on and waiting for it to boot up.

Okay, I don't think I've ever missed that display in my vision so much. I guess it just didn't like working for Vertigo or something? The stallion in question looked out over the crowd, then leaned over the table.

"Because there are things on there we don't want other ponies finding out about, especially the doctor and his daughter," he whispered.

"The doctor's daughter? You mean like Sky and Flare?" Cherry asked, ears perking, but Vertigo shook his head.

"No, Heatstroke. She's the middle one, Sky and Flare are older. But she's daddy's little minion and he's wanted to take over this town for weeks now. If he knew what program you have on there then he'd no doubt try and use it," he elaborated in a hushed tone.

I looked over the Pipbuck and true to Vertigo's words, everything was how I'd left it, including the massive Oracle data files.

"Well, if you had the data why didn't you just run off with it?" I asked, and he laughed.

"If I'd have wanted to do that I'd have taken it back in Crimson Springs. I didn't have to help you get out of there, but I did." I gave him a suspicious look.

"So you're saying you don't want to keep me alive for some other twisted reason?" I asked and he looked me over with a chuckle.

"Can't it be for any reason other than you're pretty? I mean there are other reasons, moral ones, I promised I'd help you and I will." I slumped against the table, hoof stretching out towards him.

He didn't sound like he was lying. Damn it, why can't this just be simple? I mentally groaned as Cherry rubbed my mane.

"Dragonfire, are you okay? Is it the foal, are you sick again?" she asked, worry building in her voice.

"No, I'm fine, Cherry, really. I'm just tired of all this mess," I groaned lifting myself up, frazzled mane falling over my face.

"The foal? Oh yeah, I forgot, congratulations! You must be very happy," Vertigo exclaimed cheerfully.

"I... Yes, I am, but..." I trailed off, glancing at my worried companion beside me. "It still doesn't change the situation," I grumbled, before resting a hoof on my stomach and slumping back.

Vertigo considered my words for a second, looking thoughtful. "Well, yeah, but I can imagine you want the Transcendent off your tail more now considering, you know... The baggage," he stated, pointing a hoof down below the table.

"If I just say yes to one of your stupid damn jokes will you stop?" I asked flatly, leaning back in my chair.

He smiled. "Oh they're not jokes, it's just fun... You never heard of fun? It's good, maybe you should try it sometime. But no, in all seriousness, I'll still help you," he admitted, tapping his forehooves together as if this was some devious plan.

"Oh, that's great, because she may not admit it, but we do need help," Cherry interjected, looking at me sheepishly. "I don't doubt you, Dragonfire, but there's more to think about now, and we still have to rescue your friend." That was all just another reason she was a far better pony than me.

"Yeah okay, we need help, but does it really have to be him? He almost got me killed!" I accused, pointing a hoof at him.

I'm sorry, exactly how many other ponies do you know that have knowledge about the mess you're in? My mind asked as Cherry frowned at me.

"Wow, mares really do change when..." I banged a hoof hard on the table. "Okay, okay, don't mention that you're preggers, I get it," he corrected, raising his forehooves.

"Dragonfire, please don't make him mad. Because yes, he really is the one whose help we need," Cherry stated, looking at me sternly.

Wow, she really can be just like Mom when she wants to be. Are you sure she's not had a foal before? I wondered as I took a deep breath.

"Think you just had your first mood swing, congratulations," Vertigo chimed in, and I came so close to just hitting his smug face.

"Vertigo, I can't get pregnant naturally, they... They must have done something to me, so please can we just get on with things," I finally relented.

That's right, you're going to give birth to a monster, that's exactly what they want. It's all just part of Overseer's experiment. My mind sneered. No, my foal is not a crazy experiment!

For once Vertigo's face looked at least a little sympathetic, not filled with worry like Cherry as I rubbed my squirming belly.

"Hey, don't worry. I said I'd help you, and I don't know anything about any foal experiment myself, but my friend will. They always know what those ponies were up to back in the day," Vertigo assured me, his smile at least somewhat genuine.

"This 'friend' of yours, they're here in Crossroads, right?" I asked as my rush of panic ebbed.

He shook his head, taking another sip of Sparkle Cola. "Nah, they're up in the old sky tower just outside of town. There's so much tech in there that you're sure to find out something, providing we don't bring down a pegasus city while we're at it," he explained, placing his drink back on the table.

'Sky tower?' It took me a long moment to recall the great ivory spires that dotted the wasteland as Cherry asked about them.

"They had something to do with the weather and the enclave, at least that's what I always assumed," Vertigo explained to my companion as I sighed, leaning back in my chair and rubbing my stomach.

It gave another fluttering twitch. It is not a monster pony, it is my foal. I may not have conceived naturally, but by the goddesses it was mine and I was gonna love them more than ever.

"It will be a few days before we can get up there, there's some business in town that needs sorting out first. My friend will contact me when they're ready, it takes time to prepare for the amount of data we've got." At that, my ears perked and I recalled the meeting with Heatstroke and her father.

"Wait, you told the doctor about stable fifty, he knew I needed to get up there!" I exclaimed and that smug, all-knowing grin returned.

"Yeah, but I did not tell him why or what was really up there. Dragonfire, we both came back here with a whole bunch of the Brazen Skulls' slaves. If we didn't offer them something they'd kick me out of town then just pay somepony to kill you and your friend." He pointed a hoof at Cherry.

"They'd what? I saw the doctor, he's Sky and Flare's father, why would he do that?" Cherry asked, and her look of betrayal made my heart ache.

"Because you'd be a problem for him and Heatstroke. He's got his hoof in the door of about every place in town, and he is not about to let the new opportunity go. The rest of the family's alright, but don't let the lies of those two get to you," Vertigo warned and Cherry sat back, looking at her forehooves.

"Can't anypony just get along?" she asked as if her hooves would magically provide all the answers.

"So you saved me again, huh? Kept my Pipbuck from them and told them only what they needed to hear? Any free favors left?" I asked, the idea that I owed him a lot more than I assumed sickening.

Vertigo shook his head. "No, I think they'll end here because the only way I can help with the next part is if I'm there fighting with you," he said, opening his jacket just a little to reveal the glinting barrel of Sting.

Great, so now I have to do all of that clearing the town rubbish with him too? My head rolled back into the cushion behind me as I let out a long breath.

"Wait, what's the next part? What do we have to do?" Cherry asked, glancing from me to him.

Vertigo opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off with a raised hoof as I turned to my pink companion. "Cherry, you're not going to like this but... we have to take care of Crossroad's chem trade problem before we can do anything else."

Footnote: Level up.

New perk added: Contracted - Wasn't there a time you got paid for this shit? Both you and any companions earn double experience points while completing the same set mission objective together.

Chapter Twenty: The Old Fashioned Way

Chapter 20: The Old Fashioned Way.

“You know, there's messy, and then there's just plain rude.”

"Oh by Celestia, Dragonfire, you're pregnant! Why in Equestria would you think this was a good idea?" Cherry asked as she stood beside me and Vertigo, fully armed and armored by the rear door of the old highway police station.

With the destruction of my previous arsenal, I'd had to replace my old favorites with new weapons bought with Cherry's caps. I still had plenty of spark cells, so in the end, I'd ended up with a magical energy shotgun and a new automatic magical plasma rifle, as well as a new knife. The lack of magic only complicated my issues further, however, and I found myself wearing a battle saddle for the first time in years. Cherry still had Responsibility and Zap-Zap while Vertigo levitated Sting at his side.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," I assured her, nodding back to my newly patched-up barding, the few metal plates I'd added to the underside in particular. "No way am I going to let anything happen to me."

It was a tough job and didn't look too appealing, where scales had cracked or fell off, they'd been replaced by metal too. But I'd been telling myself over and over to get some underside protection, and what better reason to do so than because I was carrying a foal? Cherry didn't look entirely convinced as she frowned. But after hearing that our only options were stopping Pear Puddin' or dealing with a whole lot more angry ponies, it was clear she knew which choice she'd made.

"I don't think you'll have to worry too much anyway, we'll be done with these fools soon enough. All we do is find the tough guy in charge, smash a few chem stations and they'll scatter like Radroaches," Vertigo elaborated, before shooting me a wry look. "Still, you best not be so keen to get in the line of fire this time."

Taken aback, I snorted. Who does he think he is? I can take care of myself and my foal perfectly fine! Lifting my head high I marched past him and over to the door.

"All the more reason to stick you where you can get shot instead, Captain Sarcastic," I sneered as I tried the door, only to walk into it face-first.

No magic, oh yeah. A deep frown crossed my muzzle and Vertigo snickered as my ears fell flat. Ignoring him, I tried the handle with a hoof only to find it was also locked.

"Cherry, the door, you're up," I instructed, nodding to the affronting slab of rotten wood.

Vertigo looked between me and my pink companion, dumbstruck. Cherry offered him a small smile as she stepped past and levitated out her tools, making swift work of the crude lock.

"You know, I could have gotten the key if I wanted to, right?" Vertigo stated, and I flicked his muzzle with my tail as I levitated on my helmet.

"Yeah, well you're not the only one who can get things done. But if you're still up for standing in front of me to be my meatshield, be my guest." I wiggled my midsection just a little before trotting into the station with Cherry.

"Good work," I offered and she gave an unsure smile as Vertigo appeared a moment later with his helmet on.

"For sure, good work," he added in a tone that sounded almost as if he was mocking me.

"Are you two going to be like this all the time?" Cherry deadpanned, eyebrow raised as she looked from me to him.

Both I and Vertigo exchanged glances before asking in union. "Like what?"

"Goddesses, it's like my sisters all over again," Cherry groaned, face and drooping mane pressed into her forehooves.

The inside of the police station was dank, dark, and humid, rotting plaster walls covered in flaking paint had become a haven for molds and other fungi. The floor was a stained-blue carpet, crossed by patches of sickly green and dark crimson. Looking at the walls, it wasn't hard to see from the old blood splatter that something had gone down here long ago. When we came upon our first improvised barricade, and the skeletons, it became even more obvious that the chem dealers did not use this part of the station.

"Must have been riots after the war, folks trying to find safety anywhere they could," Vertigo suggested, running a hoof over a turned-up desk before searching through the old ammo stockpiles behind it.

Cherry took one look at him and swiftly began to do the same, albeit far more squeamishly. As the pair set to work looting, I took a look around the surrounding hall, noticing many more bullet holes and blood stains, as well as another barricade. This one looked even more ramshackle than the last, made from an overturned locker, a door, and what was left of a terminal. Then my ears perked as I heard something over the sound of my companions scavenging.

Going ahead into the heart of danger, what a great idea considering your condition! My mind mused as I turned to see a door to my left.

I silenced my snide thoughts with a shake of my head and trotted over to the door. Just like the walls, it was old and rotten, a refuge for mold and stained with a streak of faded crimson. For some reason, I didn't think any of that accounted for the foul smell that hit me the moment I got in front of it, however. It was like something on the other side had died and instead of becoming bones, was still festering. The sound of scuffling movement and red marks on my E.F.S beyond the door suggested that whatever was on the other side was still very much alive, however. I looked up to see a cracked glass panel just above the door and, dragging a metal box that had once been part of the barricade over, I hopped up to peer inside.

The glass was covered in grime and yellowed by thick mold, yet beyond I could just make out a row of rusted bars. Three prison cells were arrayed against the left wall of the long room, and another set of decrepit bars marked the far side, sealed by a metal door. The opposite side of the door below me seemed to be chained shut, another defensive strategy on the part of the ponies barricaded in here before the war, I assumed. In each of the cells I could see the faint shadows of something inequine moving around, and on the wall opposite them, was a table covered in a whole assortment of chems and fresh meat.

What the fuck kind of chem den is this? I thought to myself, seconds before the real stench of the room hit me and I recoiled, almost falling off my perch.

"Dragonfire, my goodness what are you doing?" Cherry cried seconds before I staggered back.

Instead of my hooves dropping to the floor, however, my fall was slowed by an aura of lime-green magic.

Great, now I'm being treated as some useless invalid. I internally groaned, a small twinge in my gut reminding me why.
Cherry cut off the spell the moment she saw me look her way, and her eyes went to seek out everything that wasn't my face. Nevertheless, I merely offered my companion a nod. Behind my helmet, she couldn't see my smile, because, once again, her humility was stupidly adorable. That smile disintegrated the moment Vertigo appeared beside her. I could almost sense his grin, helmet or not.

"Not a word," I growled and he lifted a forehoof, stepping back.

"I'm not saying anything," he insisted before levitating over another box and clambering up to peer over the door himself.

I really tried to not think about how much his casual use of magic made my mane crawl.

"The door's chained, we'll have to find another way through," I told him, trotting on.

There was a flash from Vertigo's horn, and Cherry gasped as he vanished. I stopped mid-stride as there was another flash beyond the glass, then the sound of shifting chains before the door levitated open.

Stupid buck and his fancy magic! If I had my spells, this horn-measuring contest would have been over in a moment. I'd burn all the damn doors in this stupid place to ashes! I mentally spat as I turned back around.

"Looks like the only one who hasn't displayed she can get through locked doors is you then," Vertigo mused, the slack chains levitating in his magic as Cherry looked between where he was and where he'd been.

"I get my horn back and you'll find out just what things I can get into," I hissed as I stepped towards him.

Then he nudged my side with his rump. “I'm sure I would be plenty impressed with the things you can get into with your mouth.” He smirked before adding. "Should I look forward to it then?"

Once again I was thankful for my helmet as my cheeks went bright red and my folded ears burned.

It was then that the full smell of the room struck me, however, and not only me. Vertigo didn't seem too phased, Cherry on the other hoof, raised a hoof to her muzzle, recoiling and gagging as I turned up my nose at the odor. One look at the rows of meat and the buzzing flies that swarmed around them and it wasn't hard to see why it smelled so bad. One glance into the cells, and it became even more clear.

Vertigo whistled, leaning back from the bars a little as the bald, pink mole rat lunged at him, claws and huge teeth slashing and gnawing. Its feeble limbs reached through the bars, to no avail. After only a second of failure, the scrawny beast set to work chomping on the metal, rust flaking from the corroded bars.

"Goddesses, I think I'm going to be sick, " Cherry gagged, hoof to her muzzle as she recoiled back into the hall, retching.

I regarded the cages along with Vertigo. The sight of bones and hundreds of needles on the floor, along with the meat and chems on the table opposite, allowed me to swiftly put things together.

"They must be making all kinds of new drugs and testing them on these things." Vertigo stole the words from my mouth as he pointed a hoof at the cage.

I frowned, but for once, the stallion wasn't in search of a battle of wit as he trotted by and over to the table. Cherry reappeared at my side with a sniff, wiping her muzzle.

"How can they let something like this carry on here? I thought Crossroads was supposed to be a town. There are families here for Luna's sake!" the pink mare exclaimed, and I patted her shoulder.

"Ponies desperate for caps, control, or power. No town is free from folks like that," I told her.

Ready for your next wasteland lesson, Cherry Pin? Most ponies in the places you think are safe are nothing but greedy fiends after caps, drugs, or sex. Nopony really cares about civilization anymore. My mind elaborated.

Cherry just returned a solemn look as I trotted over to the table and tried to not gag at the festering meat. Thankfully, all of it seemed to have at least come from Brahmin. The decapitated pair of bovine heads at the far end made that pretty clear.

Well, at least it's not cannibalism. My mind remarked, much to my relief. You know how that usually ends up.

Even so, it was far from ideal. Looking over the chems arrayed on the table before me, it was clear they were testing combinations of drugs I'd never even heard of before. What in Equestria was Ultra-Dash, Prolong, and Buckaroo?

I looked over each bottle, syringe, and chalky pill, pausing only to loot a pair of healing potions that seemed relatively ordinary. Cherry trotted along the table beside me, levitating up some of the drugs and looking them over.

"There's some things we don't want to take with us, trust me," I warned, and she set the stuff down.

"Don't worry, Father may have done it, but I wouldn't be caught dead trying to sell anything like this. I can't believe ponies actually pay for this stuff," she responded.

"What, you never seen a Dash-Head before, or somepony hooked on Med-X? They don't exactly have a choice. You take the stuff or wind up a cripple in the street. Not that getting their fix really makes them any different," Vertigo interjected as he looked over one of the cage doors, taking care to avoid the aggressive rodents within.

"I know what a pony hooked on chems looks like, yes," Cherry retorted, turning sharply to the stallion. "Doesn't mean I have to like that it happens."

Goddesses, she gets more perfect every day! I thought, practically beaming behind my visor as Cherry's eyebrows knitted together.

"I say we just burn the whole place down, that should stop them making this shit," she stated with a stomp of her hoof.

Okay, maybe she isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Goddesses, what kind of influence am I having on her? The fact she looked at me as she said that didn't bode well for the idea, then she glanced at my horn and I frowned.

"As much as I agree with you, no magic, remember?" I admitted, flicking my horn only to recoil at the sting.

"Yeah, as much as you two seem great at coming up with great ideas, I'm afraid I already have a solution to this little operation," Vertigo stated as he looked back at us both.

I cocked my head as Cherry's face brightened with a little hope. Vertigo then nodded to the larger set of bars on the far side of the room from the door.

"Hey, Cherries, you think you could get that open?" he asked.

"It's Cherry," the mare stated bluntly, making both of us pause for a second. "But yes, I think I can. Only the locks are all on the other side," she told him.

Vertigo took a deep breath, going still for a second as he relaxed. His horn began to glow and I looked at him with confusion along with my pink companion. In a flash, both he and Cherry were gone, and a brief moment of utter panic flared in me before they reappeared on the other side of the cell block bars.

"Wow, not done that in a long time," Vertigo groaned, pressing a hoof to his forehead as Cherry swayed in a daze.

I bolted to the bars, skidding to a halt on the bloodstained floor. "Goddesses, are you okay!" I asked Cherry, reaching through to steady the mare as she fell back onto the bars.

"N–Never better..." She groaned, eyes spinning as I shot a furious glare at Vertigo, helmet or not.

"A little warning before you do that next time would be nice!" I snapped, but he shrugged.

"Yeah, but then you'd disagree, and then it would take longer to argue, and then they’d find us and I really just thought you wanted to get this all over with as fast as we can," he droned as Cherry shook her head.

"Did I just... teleport?" she asked, looking at him before she turned to face me on the other side of the bars. "Dragonfire, by Celestia, don't worry I'll have you out of there in a second!" she suddenly declared, starting to work on the trio of locks that held the door shut.

"Don't worry, there's no rush," I grumbled, looking right at Vertigo as he trotted over to a desk beside the bars.

"What? I can't be teleporting you too, who knows what it could do to a mare in your condition," he stated, and my scowl deepened tenfold.

I didn't know if it was the fact he may be right or the fact that it seemed he was leaving me as the only one with nothing to do on purpose. But I really, really wanted to buck his face in again. Goddesses, if this babying thing was going to become a regular occurrence then I didn't know if I could put up with it. I was pregnant, I wasn't a foal myself!

My ears pressed flat against my helmet as I scowled behind my visor. Then there was a click and a shudder of metal as Cherry opened the lock and slid the cage door aside. I trotted through, trying hard to ignore the urge to hit Vertigo as I passed by and looked at the desk.

There was a terminal, some scraps of paper, and a pot of moldy old pencils, as well as a whole bunch of empty syringes.

Looks like the mole rats aren't the only ones getting a fix back here. My thoughts observed as my eyes fell upon a set of scribbled notes and the rough sketch of an odd weapon.

'Hey, Half Pint, got sick and tired of those damn critters biting the hoofs off of every sucker who tries to test out some juice. Sure the boss suggested paying some dash-heads from the street to do it or something, but do you really think some high-as-a-kite pony's going to do any better?'

'No way am I paying for that. So somepony back at the warehouse designed this thing. Should be able to shoot the needles right into them through the bars. Somepony's going to send the stuff over to make it soon enough, and then I expect you to get off your fat plot and get it ready a.s.a.p., you got it?'

'- Overdose'

I read the note etched on the side of the scuffled parchment as I held it in the light of my Pipbuck. Just like that, the brilliant, little devise made a note of all the necessary information. I blinked, still not quite understanding how it knew. Then again, as far as its feats so far, this wasn't all that impressive. Vertigo was distracted by a set of wires under the desks, so I instead offered the plans to Cherry.

"Hey, think this will be worth something. I already saved a copy?" I asked, and the mare cocked her head as she levitated it to her eyes, my envy of her magic spiking.

"I guess. A design is still a potential product. I bet I could get something decent for this if I find the right pony," she elaborated, looking it over.

Sure would serve a better purpose with somepony other than these drug-crazy fiends. I surmised as Vertigo finally lifted his head from under the desk.

"Damn it, this thing's completely dead. Was hoping there'd be an automatic cage release or something," he grumbled, forehooves tapping on the desk as thoughts seemed to race behind his insectoid lenses.

"Open the cages, seriously? Why in Equestria would you want to let these things out?" Cherry asked, looking at the savage mutants.

Vertigo sighed, and I had to admit, even I could see where he was trying to go with this.

"Because do you have any idea how much chaos three angry mole rats will cause? Not to mention the effort it will save us. I bet those little guys are hungry for some payback," the buck explained as he trotted by and moved over to another barred-off section of the room to the right of the cage doors.

"Little guys? You sure your eyes are working properly?" I asked as I passed my stunned companion, clearly, this idea had not been at the top of her list of potential ways of dealing with this situation.

"Little, big, we can argue size semantics later if you really care about that crap that much." Vertigo shrugged as he passed through the second set of bars, these ones unlocked.

Inside the darkened corner of the room were three rows of lockers, most rusted through and lacking doors. At the far side was another door, and through a small window in it, I could see the faint light of a fire.

"Point is..." Vertigo continued. "All we need to do here is figure out who the boss is and then get them to tell us how to get into that warehouse, and I reckon the pony in charge will be the first to run when things go south." Vertigo reached the fire-lit door and rested a hoof on it. "Now, how about you go make yourself useful and check how many ponies are in that room."

My frown deepened as the stallion nodded to the second entrance to the room, the one in front of the terminal desk. That feeling of being babied only grew as I marched back over to the first door and peered through the glass above. Using my E.F.S, I made out a dozen or so hostile ponies mulling out in the room beyond.

Inside was a large space filled with a haze of smoke that congregated against the ceiling. The walls were moldy and covered by peeling wallpaper, and the whole room was lined by rows of long desks. A grimy chalkboard on one side of the room had a whole bunch of formulas scrawled on it. The vast amounts of glass vials, tubes, and bubbling pots sitting on the tables made it pretty clear this is where most of the products here were being manufactured.

By the looks of the scratch marks on the floor and the boarded-up set of double doors through which beams of faded light streamed in from outside, it appeared that this had once been the building's main entrance. The desks had seemingly been dragged half-heartedly inside. Other than the door I peered through, there were only two other ways in. One on the far side, and one to the right, both of which were covered by moldy doors.

The one opposite opened a few seconds later and a pair of ponies trotted in to mix with the half a dozen or so already in the room. The majority of them were wearing what looked like torn, orange radiation suits. Two guards were wearing a mixture of leather and metal barding, and the pair of ponies that had just entered consisted of a small, cherry-red mare and a large, barding wearing earth pony stallion.

Well, there's Vertigo's 'leader'. My mind established as I watched the pair trot along the row of desks, ponies shifting out of their way as they inspected the operations.

"Do you see how many there are?" Cherry asked from behind me, and I looked back to see her staring.

"Enough for us to deal with, easy. There's no need for his stupid plan," I spat, hopping back down onto all fours.

"Yeah, but at least if we do go through with his plan, we don't have to get shot at, right?" she responded, a weak smile adorning her muzzle.

My head drooped, ears folding flat. I knew I should not be getting into a firefight, but if it meant doing the right thing, I knew Cherry wasn't afraid of getting shot at herself.

"You mean, you don't want me to get shot at?" I asked and instantly her smile faded.

"Well... Yeah, can't we just let Vertigo deal with it? He seems to know what to do," she added and a low grumble escaped my throat.

Vertigo's antics I could deal with. But why did the fact she was trying to protect me make her so damn cute? I hate being treated like this so much! I stepped forward, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

"Cherry, look, I can take care of myself and the foal. I already promised you I would not let anything happen, and I don't intend on breaking that promise. But you were the one who said trying to protect somepony from everything wasn't the right way to go," I elaborated, and her one ear folded as her head sank.

She looked up at me a second later, opening her mouth. Before she could speak, however, there was a loud clatter, followed by a thud as the room's right door fell open and the body of a dark green buck hit the floor. Cherry jumped back with a shrill eep as the stallion slumped, groaning like he'd just woken up from too fun of a night. Behind him, Vertigo stepped out of the other room, the likes of which now looked to have been some sort of small office that had been converted into a den.

"What in Equestria are you doing? I thought you said you were going to set the rats loose on them all?" I hissed, trotting over to him as he frisked the half conscious stallion.

"Oh, I am, I think this was just the guy they had to watch the rats," Vertigo stated as the stallion called out weakly.

"The rats! The mole rats... they're escaping... Have to warn..." He was silenced by a hit on the head from the butt of Sting.

"Safe to say he's not doing the best job," the black armored buck added, finally levitating a set of keys from the stallion's belt.

"Oh, and you are, are you? You know, you seem to have this whole thing down yourself, so I don't even know why we bothered," I grumbled, pointing to myself then Cherry as Vertigo levitated his captive back into the fire lit room and shut the door.

"Well, sorry if I'm being a gentlecolt," he said with a flick of his tail as he strode by.

By the goddesses, I could shatter the smile I knew was under there like glass! Still, once again he had me in a situation in which it was far better to let him be himself rather than buck his sorry plot to the moon.

Even Cherry seemed to frown at his attitude as she glanced at me, she had the kind of look that asked whether I was really going to take that, plastered all over her face. Vertigo was already back at the desk by the time I finally shook out of my frustrated stupor, and in a flash, I was in front of him. A hoof slamming down on the set of keys.

"No. Now listen, if you want to be a team with us then we all have to work together," I declared and at the way he leaned back, my thoughts tripped over my words.

"Oh, so we're a team now are we? You, me, and Cherries? You know, one of those groups that's going to save the wasteland." His voice dripped with such smugness I could almost smell it.

Cherry looked at me as I lifted my hoof from the desk and sat back, taking a deep breath. The pack of weirdos trying to save the wasteland? Hardly a fitting title, and I certainly wasn't trying to save the whole damn world. Right now, it was all about saving Cherry and making the world safe enough for my foal.

"All I want to do is clear any ties I have with this damn place and get the crazy ponies off of my back. Until then, yeah, we're a team," I finally relented, and he patted my shoulder.

"Ha, for a moment there I thought you were going to say you didn't like me." He took a deep breath. "The taste of friendship, it's refreshing, right?"

I had a feeling that my confusion was not as invisible to him as I'd have liked, even behind my visor. Cherry's wearied outlook was even more obvious as she raised an eyebrow and looked at him like he was the oddest thing she'd seen. Which there was a high chance he probably was.

"So, what's the plan?" she asked, looking at me.

"Oh, the plan's still the same," Vertigo interrupted before I could even think, then he shrugged as he looked at me. "What, it's a good plan? But if you really want to be so hooves-on there is something you need to do."

Once again that confusion was evident in both myself and my pink companion as Vertigo elaborated the whole thing. It was as if it had been planned months ago.

"There's another way out of here through there." He nodded to the door he'd shut the guard behind. "Now, these chem-dealer types have escape plans after escape plans. You two go find out where they'll scurry to, and catch them. Simple."

Seriously, is he telling me all this as if I can't figure out how it's going to work? I'm not always some helpless pregnant mare! I'd done things like this before! I internally cried, still I was warming to where this was going.

"So what about you? I finally asked, and he levitated up the keys, jingling them in his magic. "Well, I've got a party to start."

********

Ambushes, I'd done my fair share, most often with Star Strike by my side or a bunch of other armed ponies. Right now, I was stuck in a gloomy terminal room with no magic and a weapon system strapped to my side which I hated. The thing was so uncomfortable, but at least I was with the cutest mare I knew. Cherry had her gaze fixed on the one door to the room, the conviction in her eyes absolute. She'd been given a part in a plan that would make things better for ponies, and right now that was all that mattered to her. At least after I'd told her to lay off about worrying about my foal.

It was pretty evident that my health was still nagging at her mind, yet she was at least far more focused than I was. Finding out I was pregnant had done nothing to settle the discomfort in my gut, and I had been thankful that one of the things we'd found while sneaking around was an empty trash can. I really hated my body right now!

I mean really, how does having a foal inside you make you wanna throw up so much? Still, in the face of my discomfort, I'd looked for a distraction, and when the moldy old posters and note board stuck to the walls had failed to offer any, I'd homed in on the only working terminal in the room like a moth to a flame.

It had been locked, yet that had not been an issue once my Pipbuck knew I was trying to get into it. What I'd found was mostly corrupted data and a list of some ponies arrested centuries ago. But hey, at least there were some pictures. Broadly slumping against the desk, I scrolled through.

Arrested for robotics tampering, kinda cool. Arrested for theft and arson? Wow, talk about self-destructive. My mind added it's little comets to each profile until one finally spiked my attention.

Arrested for potential espionage? Wow, this one even had a recording! I moved a hoof to activate the audio, right as there was a loud bang and a flash from behind the door.

My head shot up from the terminal, stomach lurching as I swiveled to face the door. Cherry rose with a jolt as there was another flash and the small window in the door lit up. Taking a step back, I nudged the firing bit on my battle saddle and the weapons readied to fire with an electrical buzz. Cherry levitated Responsibility forward, mounting the barrel upon a desk and taking aim at the door. I shuddered and tried to get comfortable with the weapons mounted to my side.

"Goddesses, there's a reason I never use these stupid things," I groaned, shaking my rear legs as the saddle's frame pinched.

Cherry didn't offer anything more than a reassuring smile, though it wasn't difficult to see that she was resisting the urge to remind me how careful I should be again.

Well, if you can't get your weapons working, then she may be right. My mind snickered as I shook.

There was another flash outside, then a thud against the door before the sound of jangling keys sounded from the lock. The door flew open right in front of us and a cherry coated mare bolted in, right at the moment my weapons accidentally fired.

The mare's eyes went wide the moment she saw me. She fell to the floor in a heap seconds before the green bolts of magical plasma whizzed over her head and struck a pursuing mole rat square in the face. The ratty creature's head exploded in a shower of crimson gore and green light as it fell back. The room beyond the door had become a haze of smoke and fumes, the sound of smashing glass, spilling liquids and gunshots only a few of the noises filling the chaos.

Then there was a stammered hiss and from the haze bounded the shadow of another pony. The large gray earth pony staggered back into the door, a mole rat thrashing in his grip as it tried to chew his face off. The mare on the floor lifted her head, just in time for the larger buck to staggered back into her prone form and fall backwards over her.

He sprawled on the floor, forehooves the only thing preventing the savage mutant from ripping his face to ribbons. I bit down on the bit of my saddle instinctively, lighting the whole place up with a ray of magical beams as the energy shotgun blasted the rat into pink ash, not to mention singeing a good portion of the buck's coat and mane.

The blasts from my plasma rifle scorched several black marks in the wall around the door, melting through the plaster in several places before I finally flicked the mechanism with my tongue and stopped the fire.

And this was why I preferred having my weapons in my magic! I mentally screamed as I pointed the barrels of my saddle down at the fallen buck.

He had his forehooves crossed over his ash-covered face, wiping his eyes to catch me glaring down at him. Cherry moved up next to me, the barrel of Responsibility trained on the door as another shadow bounded forwards. The fallen mare who had entered first scurried under the closest desk she could find as, from the smoke, fell another dead mole rat. A hole clean through its skull.

"Damn, I've not seen a show like that in a long time. Lasers and smoke, like crazy. Thought all the displays like that were canceled when the world ended," Vertigo cheered as he trotted in.

"Here, I think this belongs to you," he added, levitating the dead rat over to the cowering mare and dropping it at her hooves as she recoiled.

"You really know how to make an entrance," Cherry frowned as she drew back her golden rifle, I meanwhile, kept my weapons trained on the buck as he glared at me.

"So what about this one? We caught the leader, now what's the next step of your master plan?" I asked, removing the captive buck's stern look with a kick to the muzzle.

He pressed both forehooves to his nose, before answering in a frustrated tone.

"Me, in charge? Yeah, I wish." He pointed a hoof to the cherry red mare as she tentatively poked the dead mole rat. "She's the idiot in charge."

The mare looked at him with a frown, then at each of us as she chuckled weakly. "Pear Pudding's premium chem services, how can I help?"

"Seriously?" My ears fell flat as each one of us looked at the nervous mare with confusion.

********

"This isn't fair, Pear said I could be in charge!" Raspberry Cola, as I'd learned from her whining, complained as she was tied up and sat against one wall of the office. "Girder, do something about this, you were supposed to protect me!" She continued to blame her ‘bodyguard’, looking at her larger earth pony companion as he was also restrained and sat down next to her.

"I was supposed to be in charge. Stupid boss will give any mare with a fat rump the keys to anything they like!" he grumped, and she glared at him.

"You are all despicable, when Pear finds out about this he'll have your head. At least once I'm done telling him how mad I am right now," she declared, closing her eyes and sticking her chin in the air with a 'huff'.

"How about you both shut up or I'll tie your mouths shut too. At least, as soon as you tell me how to get to your boss," Vertigo stated, flicking Raspberry's horn. "Make sure she doesn't get a chance to use that." He added looking at Cherry.

"Ha, you really think she's smart enough for magic. She's just a pretty face," Girder snapped, struggling against the hoof cuffs that bound him.

I looked at him with a grin. "So, I suppose you are the one we have to ask then?" I looked at Vertigo. "Well, I guess you can do what you want with them to find out what we need," I instructed, wishing to add a little of my own flair to this plan of his.
Vertigo seemed to lighten at the idea. "Now you're thinking like me. You get..."

I cut him off with a raised hoof. "Oh, no. I don't have time to get frustrated with these guys. Besides, it's too dangerous for me, they could lash out or anything." I nudged his side with my rump as he grumbled.

"Cherry, you still have some wonder glue?" I asked, and the mare nodded as she levitated out the stuff from her bags.

I took it in a hoof and handed it to Vertigo. "Stick their butts to the floor when you're done, please," I instructed.

Despite everything, that idea at least made him smirk. Satisfied, I trotted back to the terminal, and levitated off my helmet, removing the battle saddle bit from where it had been fitted. I gave Cherry a wink as she looked back at me with uncertainty, however, it took no more than a twitch from Raspberry and the stoic mare's eyes were once again fixed on the captured mare's horn. Placing my butt down on a stool, I rubbed one hoof over my belly as I once again searched for the log that had caught my attention before. I found a good few others before I finally came across it again.

What did they say about curiosity again? Oh, well, I was bored and Vertigo seemed adamant that he could handle things before, so why not let him do all the work now? My mind stated.

"South-Equestrian highway, east station: interview zero nine." Began the tired voice of a buck, his words only slightly gargled by static.

"Officer: Sandy Road. Suspect: Blue Rose. Arrested for the illegal use of stealth technology in a public area. Apprehended on east Las Pegasus highway one after fleeing from Desert Springs Northern Plaza Park." The stallion, Sandy Road I presumed, droned before ending his opening statement with a sigh.

Then there was a notable blip in the recording, and with a buzz, the tone shifted.

"You can't be serious about this, really? I know my rights, and I know that I have a right to be free from ponies stalking me!" Sounded the agitated voice of a mare, and my ears perked as I sat up.

I recognized that voice, I'd heard it before. I lifted a hoof to my chin as I considered the recordings I listen to. Then I shuddered as a chilling realization hit me.

What had she been arrested for again? She couldn't be the mare from the garage station? Lucky Star's mother? Goddesses, was her family haunting me or something?

"Miss... Blue Rose, is it?" There was a shuffling of paper as the same weary buck's voice spoke up.

"Please calm down, we have found no evidence of the ponies you describe and quite frankly, that is the least of your issues right now. We have accounts of possible espionage and foul play around most cities in Equestria and I'm sorry to say finding you with a stealth buck in the middle of one of the country's most important centers of industry makes you a suspect for such crimes. Do you understand?"

Blue Rose gave a sharp laugh, hoof cuffs jingling as she seemed to slam her forehooves on the table. "You have got to be kidding me, are you stupid? I'm not some stripe’s spy, I hate them as much as anypony for this damn war!"

There was a creaking of wood as if Sandy leaned back in his chair, then coughed. "Sorry, but I don't think we can just take your word for it. There have been a high number of reports from the MoM of not only zebra infiltrators, but sympathizers too. So I'm sorry to say that you'll have to be handed over to a Ministry official as soon as possible."

"This is ridiculous," she responded, chains rattling as she moved again.

Sandy continued his monotone without pause. "They will assess you and get to the bottom of where you may have obtained such equipment." There was another shuffle as she shouted again.

"It was a gift from somepony I knew... Some pony, not some stupid stripe! She worked for the MoM you featherbrain, gave me a whole bunch of these things!" I heard a flare of magic, a huff, and a thud as I assumed she was forced back into her seat.

"Get your slimy hooves off me you creep. This is harassment! I have done nothing wrong, and if you're just going to hand me over to some suits from the Ministry then why even bother showing everypony up on record?"

"It's merely procedure, Miss. Now, would you please calm down. I don't think I need to remind you that you are on record and anything you say can and will be used against you," Sandy droned.

"Oh yeah? ... Well, I'll say this to your recorder, this whole place has gone to shit if you're going to let ponies stalk me around and then arrest me for using my own head to get away!" she spat, only to be forced back again.

Sandy took another audible breath, then there was a knock before he could continue. "Come in," he called.

"Erm, Chief, there's some ponies here for her... From the Ministry," a mare said in the distance.

"Wow, that was faster than usual. Okay, see them through, sooner she's out of my mane the better," he said, chair legs creaking as he stood up and the sound of his hooves could be heard on the floor. "Looks like our little game ends here, sweetheart."

"This won't be the last you hear of this, once I get back home I'm going to sue you for every penny for this... It's outrageous," Blue spat, and he chuckled.

"Well, I'm sorry to say you wouldn't get much even if you could do that. This job doesn't pay what it used to anymore," he assured her as the sound of more hooves and the creaking of a door sounded.

"I assume you are the ponies from the Ministry? You're looking a little more... well, sinister then before, I must say" Sandy asked, as I heard Blue Rose's chair shift.

"No... no, they're not, they're the ones that came to my house, they've been following me all this time!" she called, but no pony seemed to be paying attention to her.

"An upgrade in security, nothing more. We cannot allow our identities to be disclosed any longer with things as they are, we may put ponies at risk otherwise," A mare responded in a slightly distorted voice and for a moment I really wished I could see what these 'Ministry ponies' looked like as my mane crawled.

"Makes sense I suppose. Well, she's all yours, word of warning though, she's a bit of a hoof full," Sandy told the mare. "Running from the Ministry all alone, crazy."

"We have dealt with far worse, I'm sure. Thank you for your assistance, Chief," the mare responded.

"Just doing my duty to good ol' lady Equestria. But I'm off to get a drink, this was the ninth interview today," Sandy said before the sound of his hoofsteps signaled his retreat.

"Wait, come back you idiot, you can't leave me with these ponies. Put me in a cell, lock me up, send me to Luna damn Fort Sandstone! Just don't go!" Blue Rose called as the sound of two ponies trotting on tiles met my ears.

"Knock her out," the mare said coolly, and with a magical buzz, Blue's shouting stopped, a thud following as I assumed she hit the table. "Good, her whining was incessant. Now get her ready for transportation to Fort Sandstone, the carriage will come pick us up in five."

"Yes, ma'am," a buck responded, his voice distorted too. Then the sound of hoof steps drew right up to the recorder.

"By Luna, that lazy fool left on the recorder? Doesn't he know your supposed to pause these things for an interruption?" The mare groaned, and all I heard was the shifting of a hoof before the recording stopped.

I leaned my forehooves on the desk, staring at the terminal. So, Lucky Star really hadn't been the only one who had been abducted, so to say?

Still, as much as those ponies she'd been running from gave me the creeps, I could see why everypony had thought she'd been a spy. Pre-war Equestria had been the most paranoid thing I'd heard about, at least until the Oracle Building. Still, I had a feeling if the police ponies had not been so done with everything, they may have noticed that something was off because I certainly did. Nevertheless, it was still almost two centuries ago, and right now I had bigger issues.

"Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay, not me, please don't do that to me. I'll tell you everything, I promise, just please don't mess up my mane!" Raspberry shrieked as Vertigo levitated a sheet of glue covered paper before her.

I looked around to see the black armor-clad stallion grinning, and Cherry looking as if she were trying to gauge how cruel this really was. Her uncertain expression said that she didn't really think it was the best idea, yet it was at least better than killing them. One look at Girder and it was pretty clear that Vertigo had taken the term, 'glue their butts to the floor', a little further. His eyes were watering and his teeth still grit from the several blistering-red bald patches on his legs and neck, all in the perfect shape of the rectangular card. Clearly, the stallion had been right when he'd said we'd get nothing from him. His cowering pink companion on the other hoof, was starting to become far more cooperative.

"Oh, you'll talk, will you? You sure, maybe I could just take a little off the top?" Vertigo taunted, levitating the glue slicked card close to her mane.

"No, no, no, I'll tell you anything, anything you want to know!" she whined, tears falling from her eyes as she curled back up against the wall as tightly as she could.

"Okay, she said she'd tell you, that's enough with the teasing," Cherry interjected, stepping forward and swatting the card aside.

"Okay, fine. I guess it was getting kinda old anyway," Vertigo sulked as I trotted over.

"Having fun?" I asked, nudging his rump.

"Was until ‘miss sunshine and rainbows’ came back over here," he said with a smirk, and right then I really wished I could have levitated that card back over and plastered it to his dumb face.

"So what do you know, you going to tell us how to get into Pear's warehouse and everything we wanna know about the place?" I asked, trotting by Vertigo and kneeling down in front of Raspberry.

"Don't tell them anything you stupid mule!" Girder growled, eyes narrowing as he looked at her, yet after only a second, the stallion finally relented. "In fact, on second thought, just tell them everything why don't you? If Pear wants to think with his cock instead of his brain see what I care. I'm done with him and his stupid gang!"

"See what I mean, they'll fold as soon as they see how much of an idiot he is?" Vertigo said with a smirk.

I shoved him away, eyes passing between our two captives. "So which of you is going to open up first?" I pressed.

"All I know is that Pear keeps the terminal with all the good stuff on it in his room at all times. He showed me because I'm his favorite and all," Raspberry began, flicking her mane back a little.

I could almost hear Girder's eyes roll like gemstones in their sockets as the stallion huffed.

"She's right about that, and only he knows the password. You fail to get in, and the whole system will shut down, so don't even think you can hack it. That's if you can even get into his room in the first place, but you'll be seen a mile away packing heat like that," he elaborated, nodding to our weapons.

"That's not true, he told me the password once," Raspberry proclaimed, lifting her chin once again. "My smoochie Pear would tell me anything if I wanted him too, I'm his favorite."

Her proud look was suddenly diminished as all sets of eyes became fixed on her. The cherry red mare let out a small eep, then a weak, little chuckle.

"Of course, I've forgotten what it was, you'd still have to get into his room too," she stammered, and Vertigo's smirk only grew as his horn flickered.

At least until Cherry gave it a flick with a forehoof. "No more magic or tormenting her. We know where to go, so let's just figure out how to get there and how to get him to talk," she stated, and her nobility made my heart flutter.

"Yeah, Vertigo, if you're so good at all of this then surely you can think of a way to get in there, get Pick-Me-up the key to his robots, and take down this chem boss for good," I mused, backing up my friend as I trotted between the buck and our prisoners, flicking his muzzle with my tail.

He rubbed his nose, stepping back before seeming to consider that. Then my coy distraction didn't feel so distracting all of a sudden as Vertigo's signature smirk came back.

"Well, I think I know exactly what we need to do." He made a frame with his hoofs, looking through them at me, then at my butt like I was some kind of portrait.

I shifted my rear, and he cocked his head, squinting. "And I know I'm not nearly attractive enough to get into that room."

I felt myself go redder than ever and really, really wished I'd left my helmet on as everything fell into place.

********

"You are singlehoofidly the worse, most irritating pony in the wasteland," I growled, body drooping as Vertigo stripped me of my battle saddle and barding.

Or at least most of it, one sly tug of his magic and I was removing the rest of my gear with my hooves as he nursed a bloody nose.

We stood on a dry, rocky ridge, sand blowing by us as Cherry peered over the edge, using Responsibility's scope to keep an eye on the large warehouse below. From up here, however, the huge, gray building with worn sheet roof and rusting walls looked more like some kind of aircraft hanger than anything else. The long, asphalt strips, surrounding buildings, and rusted fence that ran around the whole area made it look more like some kind of old military base.

Well, I guess they didn't want anypony stealing what was here even before the war. I surmised as I finally shook off my barding and glanced back over the ridge.

There were, of course, a great many Wasteland additions to the old base. All of which I knew could never have been part of the old, pre-war aesthetic.

A row of old wagons had been erected into a small barrier before the large pair of hangar doors to the biggest structure, and the breaches in the chain fence had been bolted over with corrugated gray sheets. Ponies clad in various forms of cobbled barding trotted about with basic weapons, each of them only looking a cut slightly above the stereotypical raider. The lack of gory decor and spikes was at least a plus, however. Even if I had no doubt anypony who got to close would be shot anyway. That was to say me, most likely, given the plan Vertigo had pitched.

And you didn't buck him in the face twice for that? Wow, are you getting soft? My mind chirped as I folded my barding and stretched out.

My stomach still ached, yet the slight bulge in my abdomen did not quite ruin my slender figure just yet. Oh, yeah, but that is another thing you can say goodbye too over the next few months. I was reminded. Please, just shut up, brain!

"So, you see any simpler way in?" I asked Cherry as I trotted up beside her.

The pink mare lowered her rifle and looked at me with a disapproving glare. "There's a smaller gate at the western side, just below the ridge with only two guards." She motioned over the edge of the rocks with a nod. "But I still don't like the idea of you doing this. Taking care of yourself is one thing, but going in there alone..."

She didn't look sure whether to finish that sentence as she trailed off, and I placed a hoof on her shoulder.

"Believe me, if it was as simple as barging in there guns blazing we'd do it. Though, we'd probably still get shot at just as much. But we do that, and Pear will probably just run off out of the back," I reassured her.

"Yeah, but at least then I'd be there with you if anything happened," she said, head drooping as her ear folded back.

I frowned, her look making my heart ache, then Vertigo trotted up beside me. "Don't worry, she won't be alone. I'll be right behind her."

"Oh really, and how do you plan to do that smart flank? No offense, but I don't think you're his type," I retorted, nodding to his haunches as he levitated his helmet on.

Don't think about that too much, really, really don't and try not to look at his butt... Goddesses, curse him and his handsomeness! I looked away, right at the warehouse below, so to avoid the awkward feelings both of my companions summoned.

"I followed you through most of Crimson Springs and you had no idea. So don't worry, they'll only see me if I want them to," he assured me, then nudged my side. "What about you, how you going to get him to talk?"

Oh, wouldn't he like to know... Wait, why did it feel like he was smiling under that helmet again? My head drooped, ears folded as my weary eyes glanced at him and he gave a stammered laugh, pressing a hoof to his muzzle.

"Because I've seen Pear before, and trust me, you'll get as far as shaking your butt in his face before you want to puke, no pony in their right mind would get in bed with that guy," Vertigo added.

"Remind me again whose idea this was, the guy drives me crazy and you'll be the first pony I take it out on," I growled, and he chuckled some more.

"Oh, I'm sure. But I'm also pretty sure I'll have a front row seat to the whole thing, you're not exactly the hardest mare to stalk, Dragonfire," he responded, tapping a hoof on my shoulder before disappearing with a flash of his horn.

"I seriously hate him," I grumped as Cherry looked at me, her cheeks slightly red.

Ignoring my own blush, I looked at my friend and removed my Pipbuck. "Here, take care of this and if you see anything wrong, be careful, I don't want you getting hurt over this."

"I know the feeling," she mumbled as she levitated my Pipbuck into her bags, yet her sour tone did not seem to rob her of her common sense. "I'll be up here waiting for you to come out, as crazy as he is, I kinda trust Vertigo knows what he's doing."

"Well, I do too, you know." I pressed a hoof to my chest and she smirked.

Goddesses, was his grin infectious or something? I thought, shrinking back a little.

"Just be careful, okay?" she finally added, wrapping me in a hug that made my whole aching body buzz with warmness.

"Don't worry, it's like I said, it'll take a lot more than this to finish me off," I assured her, patting her on the back.

*******

From the way the guards watched me as I trotted towards the small gate it was hard to figure out if they were being cautious or just gawking. From what I knew of this place, and the amount of mares Pear had just trotting up to see him, I had to assume it was the latter. At that, my face dropped into a sour expression.

Well, at least it's just you... I mean you wouldn't want to be in one of those flocks of prostitutes Vertigo told you about, right? My mind stated, seconds before the sound of hoofsteps on the dry, cracked earth caught my attention and I looked back.

"Hi there, I'm Mirage, are you here to see Pear too?" The face of the eager, cactus green mare with red and orange mane was pressed up against my muzzle faster than I could even think.

Her eyes trembled with excitement and her muzzle was parted by a wide smile. I took a step back, noting her horn and cutie mark of a distorted heart illuminated by a beam of sunlight.

"Erm, sure... And you are? " I questioned, waving a hoof in her direction. She beamed, practically jumping on the spot.

"I'm here to see him too, he was in Crossroads and swept me off my hooves so fast it was like a dream!" She exclaimed, before drawing in close to my ear and whispering with a shrill growl. "Don't ever let anypony tell you the chubby ones ain't killers in bed."

So he was chubby? Great, this was sounding like paradise already. My mind droned as I slowly pushed the hyperactive mare away.

"Don't I know it," I uttered a weak chuckle as she perpetuated that creepy smile. "But hey, you really seem to like him, so what do think about you getting first dibs when we get in there? This is kinda my first time." I really had to try not to trip over my words as I spat them out like vomit.

Mirage waved a hoof. "Ha, sure, I am his favorite after all. I remember my first time, by Luna, he was so dreamy." She trailed off, lost in thought for a second.

"So, you wanna show me how to get in then, you know, first time and all?" I added, trying to put on my best innocent mare who doesn't know a thing about the world act as I prodded the dusty ground with a hoof.

"Oh sure, just watch and learn you little misfit. I'll show you how we mares can get all the things we want in no time." Her eyes narrowed as she marched by and right up to the guards, swaying her hips and tail from side to side.

Even I had to admit, seeing her tight flanks shift and her butt wiggle was mesmerizing. Stay focused, Dragonfire! My mind snapped, backed up by a twinge in my gut.

Still, just a little bit of admiration where it was due was necessary as I trotted after her. The way she flicked her mane, dull sunlight catching in the beads of sweat that clung to it, making it shimmer, made the show all the more alluring.

Goddesses, are you here to get answers or for flank spank? Focus, Dragonfire. You can just let her do all the work anyway... I mean, watching ponies have sex is hot too, right? My mind worked like a train with no brakes as Mirage batted her eyes at the two stallions by the gate.

"Hey boys, me and my new friend are here to see the boss. He's called for some real mares this time." Before I knew it she had a forehoof wrapped around my shoulders and before I could even flinch I was drawn to her side.

The guards' eyes narrowed as they both peered at us, then the leftmost stallion raised a hoof to his chin. "Is that so, can't say ah recognize either of ya'. An' we know all the regulars, believe meh." He glanced at the other buck and the pair smirked.

This is seriously disgusting. Oh, well looks like I'd have to ramp up the heat a little bit. I surmised as I stepped away from Mirage, stretching out as I stared at them with lidded eyes.

The looks they gave me appeared more impressed than anything else. Not that I wasn't glad for the fact, but I was more in search of a look that suggested they were going to let us through. I batted my eyes, ignoring the squirming in my gut as I wiggled my flanks.

Come on, Dragonfire, you still got this. Just hope that Vertigo can't see you right now and you'll be fine. My mind started. Yeah, thanks for that idea, brain, it's not distracting at all!

I at least seemed to have their attention. "Say, you know if you two ladies just wanna stay out here with us, I know somewhere we can go that's far better than anything the boss has," the right buck said, chuckling as he looked at his companion.

I bowed my head, glancing up at him with lidded eyes. I guess this really is going to come down to just wiggling my butt in their faces. Goddesses, damn Vertigo and his logic!

Before I could delve to the very depths of desperation, however, Mirage took one step forward and wrapped a hoof around the left buck's shoulders, her tail coiling around to rub his chest.

"Oh, honey, I'm sure what you've got going on down there is simply divine," she purred, rubbing his shoulders. The buck shuddered, before relaxing into the embrace like melting butter.

The green mare's horn began to glow softly and the stallion moaned as I stared at them both with wide eyes. "But I'm not here for the small fry, so how about you let us in and then you don't have to explain to your boss why you stole his favorite mare, huh?"

I glanced at the second stallion, and him at me, as the pair of us watched the embraced guard nod, almost possessed by the green mare's allure.

"Sure thang, go right ahead," he said, before flicking a latch on the gate and pushing it open. "Let them in, boss ain't goin' ta want ta miss this one," he said to his rather jealous looking companion.

Mirage planted a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you kindly, honey," she said before slipping away and trotting inside, flicking the second buck's rump with her tail, making his jump. "Come on, hon, don't want to keep the boss waiting," she called, looking back over her shoulder at me.

I swallowed hard, before finally realizing my butt had hit the floor at some point while watching her. Okay, was it wrong that I felt far more jealous than either of the stallions looked? I thought as I stood up and trotted after her.

"By the goddesses, those guys are so insufferable," Mirage started as she trotted beside me and toward the door to the main warehouse. "I mean really, not recognizing me, are they serious? I'm here all the time! They just can't tell one flank from another," she added before finally winking at me. "Glad to see I had your attention though."

She flicked her tail with a giggle as we reached the door and my mouth worked silently as heat rushed to my cheeks. Seriously, who was this mare?

"Well, I guess you'll have all the attention in here for a while. So I can probably just leave you to it and take a break," I improvised, wiping sweat from my brow as I nodded to the door.

"Well, of course. Though, I must say, he sometimes likes all the mares at once." The smirk she gave as she telekinetically opened the door and trotted in made my stomach churn more than usual.

Goddesses, why couldn't the damn plan have been to just charge in and shoot everypony? I really wished it could have been so simple as I trotted in after the green mare.

Inside we were greeted by a pair of long, mangy old corridors. One lead to the right, and the other straight ahead. Like most places out here, the walls looked like they'd been exposed to both the wet and dry extremes of the desert far too often, and their cracked, flaking forms boasted mold in damp patches. There were emergency exit signs and notice boards sitting crooked on the chipped plaster as we trotted forward, hooves squelching on the damp carpet.

Mirage, at least seemed to know where to go, as I didn't really feel like many of the ponies we trotted by were willing to offer directions. Everypony was either in barding, lab coats or more of the odd radiation suits they'd been wearing at the police station. Most of them just shot us wary glances, some getting a little too close for my tastes. Mirage soaked up the sexual tension with her gleeful look as if the awkwardness in the air were some kind of fresh sparkle cola. I on the other hoof, really had to try to not buck half the stallions that bumped my rump in the face as I put on my best cute mare look and hurried along.

When I get out of here, I'm going to kill everypony who forced me to do this so hard! I internally growled, head bowed as my brow furrowed.

Then Mirage paused, and I almost collided with that succulent, curvy, plot. Stop looking at her butt, damn it! I recoiled, no matter how much I wanted to reach out and touch it.

"Well, here we are, and we're the only two," she practically jumped on the spot like a filly once again as she squeed. "Oh, this is going to be so fun, I've not felt as good as he makes me feel in too long." She clopped her forehooves together as I tried not to gag.

That was far too much information already, no matter how horny all this sex talk was making me. My rear end fidgeted, buzzing even as I let out a small chuckle.

"Haha, yeah, how about you go ahead, I'll be right behind you," I suggested, then winced.

Oh, wouldn't you really like to be right behind her? My mind mused and I fought not to face hoof.

Still, Mirage still seemed to know exactly where she was going and I noticed that to our right a set of stairs broke off from the corridor and lead up to a mangy wooden door. A faded golden plaque bearing the word 'Management' didn't really leave what was on the other side to the imagination.

"Hehe, sure, don't worry I'll make sure to leave plenty for you... because, you know, he'll obviously want me first anyway," she giggled, brushing a hoof over my cheek and making me shudder.

Goddesses, did any mare this guy spoke to think they were a princess or something? They're all obsessed. I wondered. You know, you get what flank you can out here, Dragonfire. My mind added as I offered my excitable companion a weak smile.

"I'll be sure to look forward to it," I forced as she turned and trotted up, flicking me with her tail again.

"Oh, I'm sure you will," she cooed, and once again I really had to stop looking at her rear.

Damn it, Dragonfire, you're knocked up, surely that should make you less horny and more grumpy, right? My thoughts offered, but I had no idea as I trudged up the stairs after her and cast my eyes to anything other than her rump.

She reached the door, tapping on it once before her magic enveloped it and she slipped in without any kind of response from the other side. I took a deep breath, the strong stench of alcohol and sweaty musk hitting my nose as I prepared for the worst and followed her inside. The room beyond bore a striking similarity to the office I'd confronted Mister Red in. It was long with a tacky, green wallpaper and faded red carpet. A large desk sat at its center, facing out over a wide, lacy curtain-covered window. On the far side was another door, and to my right, another set of curtains covered a smooth arch in the wall opposite the window.

A stallion's head appeared from behind it the moment we entered, his scraggy, sweat-laden, teal mane falling over his eyes. Judging by his height he was a small earth pony, yet what mass he lacked in his height he easily seemed to make up for in girth. Rolls of fat hung from his cheeks and neck, rippling under his swampy blue lime colored coat and horrible, scraggly beard. He wiped the strands of mane from his eyes with a forehoof and looked at us with utter glee. I glanced at Mirage as the mare practically jumped for joy.

"Well, well, fresh company. Haven't seen any gems as smooth as you two before," the stallion croaked, sniffling. I felt my teeth grind, his slimy voice rivaled Griddle's for inducing sheer irritation in me.

Mirage gave a snorting giggle, prancing on the spot and covering her muzzle. "Oh, Pear, you silly stallion. I was here last week, remember? We did such wonderful things," the mare exclaimed, waving a hoof at him.

His eyebrows moved in a wave, his pudgy flesh rippling like jelly. That made me cover my muzzle for a different reason as I fought not to gag.

Seriously, I wasn't picky when it came to who I'd have sex with, but even I had standards! Plus, I'd never really had droves of ponies telling me how disgusting a buck was for days before getting in bed with him before. Of course, that would have to be one of the few occasions I was sober enough to even consider how good looking somepony was. I did not know whether it was the fact I was going crazy, or that I was pregnant, yet right now he seemed purely revolting.

"Well, I'm not sure about that, but I can think of a lot of wonderful things I'd like you to do right now, babe," Pear responded before his words were lost to a fit of not too healthy sounding coughs.

Screw the fact he looked so disgusting, it sounded like he could drop dead any second. Maybe Mirage could just over exert him and then I'd not have to get my hooves dirty? The idea was certainly appealing, especially when his eyes moved to me and I shied away, head bowed and forelegs rubbing together as a part of my best cute look.

"My, my, you're a little diamond too, ain't you?" he observed, and I batted my eyes, reluctantly turning to display my side and wiggled my hips.

Damn, if there's still one thing I know how to do, it's get what I want. I really hoped getting knocked up hadn't robbed me of that at least. I mean how could it, pregnant mares were supposed to glow, right?

"Please, you give me a shot and I'll show you how much of a diamond I can be," I purred with a wink.

He seemed to consider that, a foreleg lifting to his chin. Then he started coughing again, hacking into his grimy hoof. The fat limb looked more like some kind of moss strewn branch than anything I may have been remotely into as it wobbled.

"Your coat is so pretty, like a precious white opal. You know, I think you'd look perfect in some of my more... Specialist outfits. I've got some in the closet over there." He nodded to the door on the far side of the office. "How about you check some out, then come see me?" He gave a wink that made my gut swim even more than normal.

"I guess you better get in here in the meantime, babe. Come show me what's so wonderful about you." He beckoned Mirage with a jiggling forehoof as he slipped back behind the curtain.

The mare's eyes went wide as she nudged me. "I'll save some for you, honey. Who knows, he may even want a three-way!" I went redder than ever as she bumped my butt with her own and trotted after Pear.

Hello, Equestria to Dragonfire, you're in the room alone, try and find something. I shook my head, freeing my thoughts from my stupor as I looked around.

My first port of call was a terminal sitting on the central desk. It was hard to manage with no Pipbuck and no magic, and in the end, it was just as Raspberry had told me. I was warned that the system would permanently lockout anypony that failed to crack it.

Okay, so now find a plan B. My mind encouraged, reminding me that I shouldn't have come in here expecting it to be so easy.

I stepped over to the curtain blocking the window as a very disturbing set of noises started to emanate from the one opposite. Parting the drapes with a hoof and peering through, I found a very dusty old window covered by a set of bars. Beyond, was a large storage floor with exactly what Pick-Me-Up was after. Row, after row of lifeless Gyrotrons sat neatly in the gloom, their guns silent, eyes dimmed and most covered by blue tarps. There must have been hundreds! Right then I wondered if letting anypony have them was really the best idea.

You've done worse for less before, Dragonfire. Just get this silly job over with and try to find out what Overseer and the Transcendent did to you. My mind told me, and I took a deep breath before reluctantly continuing my search of the room.

Just as Pear had suggested, I trotted over to the storage cupboard and opened it with a forehoof. The musky smell from within hit me like smelling wet skunk and unwashed exercise outfits.

Seriously, it was almost stale! Once again I really wished I had a working horn as I peered inside to find a pile of discarded linens, garters and tights. Goddesses, why would anypony wear this stuff, never mind find somepony else attractive in it?

From my experiences, the erotic sleepwear was nothing new. Yet it seemed Pear's taste in skimpy outfits was thoroughly lacking. I preferred black, it countered well with my coat. What I could see here was orange, green and some blue. They were lazy, and looked as if they'd have my hooves in a knot in seconds. Not only that, but the smell suggested these things may have never been washed. While I wasn't opposed to some hot fun, especially out here with the heat of the desert, even I liked to consider myself clean. Reaching out with a forehoof, I prised free a long blue, skimpy lingerie.

It reeked like an abandoned brothel, but it was the only colorer I'd be caught wearing out of the mess of things I could find. Slipping it onto my back I turned to trot away, only for a shimming amidst the pile of clothes to catch my eye. I reached out again, throwing aside a silky red dressing gown and pulled out a set of hoof cuffs and a crop.

Damn, this stallion certainly knows what he's into. I thought, as I found another three sets of cuffs and had another idea

I put them all on my back, along with the crop, before trotting back to the desk and spreading the junk out before me. Then I winced.

How in Equestria was I supposed to get stockings on without my magic? Never mind make this tight enough? I thought, yet sounds from behind the curtain quickly amped up the awkwardness.

"Butter my sides and call me a biscuit, you really... Oooo, are wonderful." My ears perked at the sound of the stallion's voice, only to start burning along with my cheeks as I realized what I was listening to.

My stomach gave an agitated churn as I slipped into the sleepwear's saddle as best as I could, then fought not to wretch as I held a stocking in my mouth and slipped it onto one of my forehooves. Around the time of the fourth, I was almost throwing up again.

Okay, all that's left now is my rear. No way am I letting him get a clear shot to my butt. I thought as I craned my neck and twisted to stretch the drape of tight linen and garters over my flanks.

"Oh, I've never been so full in my life... Hummmm, so much love, you're absolutely delicious." I had no idea whether hearing Mirage say that made me hornier or just plain crept out.

Why, thought you liked seeing ponies having sex just as much as you love it yourself? Remember all the orgies? Those were the days. My mind mused as my face burned bright red. Not helping, brain, not helping.

I gave a grunt as I found the bow holding my new attired together and gave it a tight pull. The thing was just as uncomfortable as I imagined, especially between my legs and around my slightly rounded belly.

Well, you better hope he's into that kinda thing. This really does make your butt look big. My thoughts snickered as I took one look at myself in a cracked wall mirror. The final part of the set was a black, blue-gem encrusted pair of reins.

I picked them up and threw them around my neck, no way was I wearing those for a stallion like this. Nevertheless, as the sound of unrivaled pleasure from the other side of the curtain stopped, I knew there was no putting things off any longer. I would have to get the password from him the only way I knew how to get things from a stallion, and right now, having sex with him was the last thing I intended to do. I placed the hoof cuffs and crop on my back, winching at the pinch of the tight fitting sleepwear. Regardless, I once again applied my best pretty mare look and slid through the curtain.

A wall of musky heat hit me almost as fast as the reek of two ponies that had just had a very rigorous time. The room was dim, but I saw the two of them laying side by side on the large, princess sized four poster bed in the middle of the otherwise simple square box of a room. There was a dresser to the right and an old drinks cabinet to the left, neither of which appeared like they'd been here when this place was still an office.

Not only that, but like the stallion who I assumed owned them, it appeared as if they could fall apart at any moment. There were some portraits on the wall, most smudges or depicting rolling green landscapes and seaside cliffs. I didn't know whether to feel sorry or suspicious of the rather stunning image of a white unicorn mare with a curled purple mane that posed upon a long, red lounger in one of them. Her posture and sultry look suggested that she was no less innocent then whatever Pear had mare's do in here.

Speaking of which. The pair looked up seconds after I trotted in, part of the damp blanket slung over Pear's mane. Now I could see him properly, I really found it hard not to envision some kind of mutated pony slug hybrid. It was hard to see where the dark green covers ended and his bulging body began.

And now you have to seduce him, good luck. My mind snickered as I threw all the doubt to the back of my mind and batted my eyes at him, rolling my hips and shoulders as I prowled to the end of the bed.

"Hi there, handsome, you got room for one more in there?" I purred, finding it hard to tell what were fatty folds in his face and what was a grin.

Mirage looked up a second later, then leaned against his side, rubbing his foreleg. The mare moaned, looking up at the overweight stallion like a pleading foal.

"Yeah, yeah, can we keep her, we have room," she begged, and I really had to resist the urge to tell her just how weird she was making things.

I mean, is she patronizing him, or is she serious? Some ponies have weird sex? I thought, fixing my coy smile and lidded eyes on Pear Puddin'.

"I don't know, there's something off about you." He waved a hoof at me as his grin widened, then he rotated it slightly. "How about you turn around for me?"

Behind my smile I grit my teeth and slowly turned, putting as much emphasis into my hips and I lifted my rear and swayed my tail. I felt my stomach lurch. Right now, this certainly didn't seem like the kind of position for me to be in if I wanted to keep my last meal down. Yet now was not the time to think about throwing up, no matter how ugly the pony I was showing off to was.

"How's this, handsome?" I asked, wriggling my raised rump and glancing around with my head held low.

Pear rubbed his chin, his irritating grin still present. Beside him, Mirage perked up, then started clapping her forehooves together. Even after all I'd heard the two of them doing, she still had so much energy?

"Good show indeed. Come on Pear, please, I need to keep this one," she pleaded some more, pulling at his forehoof.

She needed me? Wow, maybe this mare really was far more than I was ready to deal with. At least I wouldn't actually mind sleeping with her. Looking at her now, that wasn't hard to believe.

"Oh, we will, babe. But first, she's gotta see what she's done wrong." He nodded at me, then made a slow motion around his squat muzzle. "I go offering you my clothes and you don't even put the whole outfit on," he stated.

I took a long, deep breath. I'd have rather had Vertigo on the bed right now, at least he'd have been good to look at when I scorched his face off. I bowed my head submissively, letting the reigns clatter to the floor. I forged an innocent smile as I took the bit in my muzzle and threw the rest back over my head, wriggling the harness into position.

"Hey, babe, what kinda stallion would I be if I made ya' put that on all by your lonesome, hum?" Pear asked, then beckoned me over with a hoof. "Let me tighten it on for ya'"

Oh, I'm going to kill this guy so hard the moment he gives me that damn password! Creeping over to the bed like a submissive hound, I clambered up onto the cover and dumped the hoof cuffs and crop at my side.

Mirage noticed them first, a gleeful look spreading over her face before she winked at me. I did my best to ignore her as I got as close to Pear as I could stomach.

"You're such a gentlecolt," I cooed, sliding up next to him, realizing just how much like a slug his sweaty sides really were.

"I try my best," he growled in my ear, before trailing his tongue up my neck and pulling the reigns with his mouth.

My instinct betrayed me and I tensed, shuddering at his warm touch. But I'd been through enough encounters like this before, and I wasn't about to let him get ahead of himself. I turned around, meeting muzzle to muzzle with him, lidded eyes staring right into his. The look of shock on his face suggested that he wasn't used to mares that took things into their own hooves, and right now an urge to run him through with all I had nagged at my mind.

Dragonfire, focus on getting the password for now, humiliating this fool can come later. My mind prompted, and as much as I'd like to have this slug of a buck crying like a foal, I'd rather not spend any longer with him than I needed to.

In another graceful twist, I wrapped my rear hooves around his swollen barrel and rolled onto his front. Straddling him as I turned his head to face me with a forehoof, grinning. Mirage looked at me as if I was some kind of fascinating exhibit in a museum, not only that, but now she was really looking at me. I tried not to think how wet I was for the odd mare next to me because no matter how strange she seemed, she was the hottest flank I'd seen in weeks. Instead, I tapped my muzzle against Pear's, recoiling a little at the salty tang.

"What's the matter handsome, mare got your tongue?" I cooed, chewing on the bit of my reigns.

Goddesses, there was a reason I only wore these for Star! I thought as the metal rolled across my tongue and the straps bit into my cheeks.

"No, no, of course not," he stammered, yet the way he was looking up at me with wide eyes said otherwise. "You going to show me what kind of diamond you are then?"

My grin curled into an even expression. "Oh, I thought we'd start with a little roleplay, how do you feel about interrogation?" I purred, and he smiled nervously.

"I'd do anything to get answers out of you, babe," he responded, rubbing my flank.

I pressed his left foreleg up against the head of the bed, rubbing down his other side with my other hoof until I felt a hard ring of metal against my limb.

"Answers from me? Humm, tempting, but I was thinking of something more along the lines of you giving them to me," I suggested, and in the time it took him to realize what I was saying I took the hoof cuff in my right hoof and cuffed his left foreleg to the bed frame.

I half expected him to call out for help, and was prepared to ram the covers into his mouth to shut him up. Instead, he just looked at me like a colt who was just about to have real sex for the first time.

He gulped. "I guess. I mean... W–well ya' are so hot, I don't mind," he stammered.

"Oh, believe me, I can feel how much you don't mind," I retorted, wiggling my butt over his crotch under the covers.

At least I think that was his penis? It was hard to tell with all extra fat. He blushed, and at that look, it was as if he actually believed he'd get a chance to use the pathetic thing.

Still smiling, I hoof cuffed his right foreleg up, running my own forehooves down both his forelegs and onto his chest, fat rolling as he shuddered.

"Oh, let me do the back ones, this looks like it will be so fun!" Mirage exclaimed, and for a second I was amazed how I could forget she was even there.

Wow, you were into this fat slug that much? You sure he's not your type, Dragonfire? I ran a forehoof through my sweaty mane, before nodding to the energetic mare.

"Go right ahead, I'm sure he won't mind," I assured her, looking back at him as he shook his head.

"Not at all, anything for you ladies," he stammered, his toughs buck attitude diminished as I lifted a hoof to my chest, putting on a humbled look.

"Ladies? Awww, aren't you just the sweetest?" I purred, before rubbing a forehoof along the side of his face.

"All done, you're good and stuck now," Mirage chirped as Pear tugged on each of his restraints.

"Left all alone for us two pretty mares to do whatever we want to you," I purred, sliding up his chest with my body, my pudgy belly against his.

He grunted, chains chiming. "So how do you want to do this, you going to try and orgasm the answers out of me?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

I leaned back, placing a hoof on his lips. "No, no, I'm not really in the mood for sex, to be honest," I finally admitted, spitting out the reigns and ripping them off my head

He went from apprehensive, to confused in a second. "What? But, you did all this, I'm more turned on than ever... Why?" he stammered, and I pushed a hoof to his lips again, silencing him.

"Well, I just found out I'm three months pregnant, so there's one thing. Also, you're not really my type," I declared, before throwing my mane back away from my horn and adding. "Now, how about if you don't tell me what I want to know, I blast your pretty face off with my magic, hum?"

Just because I had no magic left in me right now, didn't mean he needed to know about it. He looked at my horn, then at me before he spat out my hoof and opened his mouth.

"One word out of line and you'll end up the same way. You really want to risk it, pretty boy?" I added, and his mouth slowly closed.

He looked right at Mirage, and in a flash, my eyes followed. Wow, forgot her again did you? The mare sat at the bedside, took one look at him, then at me.

Then she threw her hooves up in the air. "I'll do whatever you say, just please don't hurt my sweet Pear Puddin'."

Of course she would be that obsessed. I thought as I dragged a portion of the covers over Pear's eyes, blindfolding him as I took the crop in my forehooves. Goddesses, as committed as Mirage seemed to be, why did she look so excited?

"You'll have to do better than that to get answers out of me. You can't sit on me forever and I've lasted for hours getting spanked by that thing," Pear spat, wriggling under my straddling rear.

I flicked his butt with my tail, snapping his attention back to me and making him shudder.

"Oh, I'm sure you have, but on the flanks, I bet? It takes some getting used to, but it's good. I don't intend on making this good," I sneered as I flipped the crop round and held the narrow end in my muzzle.

Don't think about that taste Dragonfire, don't think about it! I drew back and smacked him across the face with the hard handle end of the crop.

"Ouch, Goddesses damn it!" I really hoped the squeals of pain he exerted would be dismissed as normal by any pony that may hear as I thwacked him twice more.

Mirage watched me with a crooked expression, not even making an attempt to flee and get help as she bit her lip. Was she seriously a damn masochist or something?

"Okay, okay, tell me what you want... I–I'll give it to you. Just stop hitting me!" Pear finally cried, his limbs pulling at the hoof cuffs.

I sat back, rubbing his side. "That's a good buck, now all I want is the password for the terminal outside," I finally asked, and I felt him go stiff as a board in another way.

"Oooo, that's a big one. Pearie is super sensitive about that," Mirage muttered, seeming to eat up the tension more than worry I'd hurt her precious buck friend.

"What? H–how do you know about that... What, makes you think I know what it is?" he asked, struggling even more.

"How in Equestria did a pony like you get to be in charge?" I asked, facehoofing. "I know you know the password, and I know that if I get it wrong it will crash the system, so how about you just tell me?" I pressed, jabbing him in the side with the end of the crop.

"Ha, you think if I knew then I wouldn't just activate all those robots myself?" he suggested, and I paused.

That did make sense, but Heatstroke had said that he wouldn't know what to do with them. Take over the town for himself or sell it over to the NCR? Come to think of it, none of this made sense, least of all why in goddesses' name this foal was in charge?

"Then who does know? You start talking or I'll really find out how much you can take." I poked between his chubby flanks with the end of the crop, pushing it ever so slightly.

The stallion gave a sharp jump, gasping. "Okay, okay... Goddesses, she's going to kill me," he groaned, deflating.

"Who's she?" Both I and Mirage asked in union. I looked at her, and she at me before she finally glared at him and her eyes narrowed.

"I thought I was the only ‘she’ who really mattered to you?" she spat, and I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously, tell me or I'll shove this thing so far up your rear you'll be choking on the other end!" I growled, prodding him again. At the defeated look on his face, I paused.

She would kill him? But he was in charge, he had an army of robots and... Dragonfire, who had told you that? My eyes twitched as I leaned back and stepped off him.

I buried my face in the bed sheets and let out a low groan. "Goddesses, how could I be such an idiot?" I called into the damp fabric.

"Ha, and you're the one telling me..." Pear's snide remark was cut off my a painful whinny as I smacked the crop handle square into his crotch.

"Ooooo, that's got to hurt," Mirage observed, wincing as I looked across the bed at her.

"You, what's the fastest way back to Crossroads? There's somepony there I need to have strong words with," I stated, but she just looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Fine, I'll find my own way back. I've had enough of being played by everypony," I stated trotting to the curtain, then the butt of a rifle hit me square in the face.

No helmet, oh yeah. I fell to the floor, forehooves clutching my bloody muzzle as a familiar mare stepped through the curtain.

"You know, you really are the epicenter of all my problems right now, Dragonfire," Heatstroke sighed, a rifle slung around her side.

My muzzle felt as if it was cracked in all the wrong places. My stomach twisted and my head throbbed. In my hazy vision, I saw the sandy mare look at the bed and frown.

"I really do have to do everything myself don't I, you useless slob?" she groaned, then looked back down at me, the same snide look on her face.

"Oh well, at least I can actually get a job done," she said before, with another smash of the rifle, I was abruptly sent into blackness.

Foot note: Level up

New Perk Added: Clever Prancer - Through agility and reflexes, you have become deft at striking where it hurts while preventing your enemies from doing the same. You gain an additional 5% chance to score a critical hit; your enemies suffer a 25% penalty to their chance to critically hit you. This perk is only effective when wearing light or no armor.

Author's Note

Updated artwork kindly provided by: Margony

Chapter Twenty-One: Heat-Stricken

Chapter 21: Heat-Stricken

"Exiled! I supposed technically I'd have to move away to live in exile... Where would I go? And what would I pack? Oh, it's going to take me forever to do all of that packing. What are you supposed to pack when you go into exile?"

The slick, cold, wet cobbles produced an odd sensation under my hooves as I made my way down the darkened Equestrian street. I was not used to such chilly, dank weather. Not only that, but the nights here were cruel and bitter, not like the warm, tropical climate of my homeland. The spirits of this place were detached, unbounded with the land's inhabitants and alien to their culture.

The city around me was in a whole other league of unusual, tall stone buildings with regal glass windows and balconies that rose up like great fortress walls on either side of me. They loomed over the narrow street until the cloudy sky above was almost invisible through the small slit between the upper floors. Of course, that did little to stop the rain. Turning the light drizzle into glimmering slithers as it cascaded down from rusty gutters and broken drains.

Equestria, it seemed, was no place for my kind, nor were its inhabitants anything special. I hugged my hood close around my head, hiding my shimmering eyes from a group of drunk noble ponies as they staggered by. I eyed each of their horns with wary suspicion, unsure whether any equine should have such easy access to magic. Behind the unicorns trailed a pair of shabbily dressed ponies that lacked the horns and wings of their cousins. Earth ponies, as I'd come to learn, were typically no more than farmers or slaves in places like this.

I could only suppose that was what aspirations of getting beyond their role in society got them, yet my lack of a horn or wings did at least allow me to offer some sympathy as the pair trudged by after their rowdy masters. I sincerely hoped that nopony here got any ideas about trying to treat me in such a way, they'd find that my stripes more than made up for my lack of feathers or magic.

It certainly hadn't been my first choice to come here, I'd heard of zebras living in the pony lands long before the great winter. But those tales had always been filled with power, greed, and arrogance. It wasn't too different than the tribe I was running from, I supposed. Yet I doubted any of my former fellows would follow me here. They lacked the intimate knowledge of this land that allowed them to hide so easily as they did in the homelands.

Nevertheless, right now I would certainly take the baked savannas or tropical swamps over the cold, dark streets of the pony fortress city. Even great Rome herself would be preferable. Nevertheless, there were still things I had to attend to, and as I rounded a torch-lit corner, passing under an arch to an even narrower alleyway, I finally laid eyes upon my destination.

'The Rusty Horseshoe' Proclaimed the rocking wooden sign positioned atop the rickety door to the back alley tavern. Looking both ways across the street, I swiftly galloped over, rain whipping at my hood as mist pooled around my hooves. Arriving at the mangy wooden door I checked my surroundings yet again, before knocking. The sound of rough merriment from the other side was complemented by the silhouettes I could see through the misted window to the right as there was a clink and a rattle from within. A moment later a small, wooden panel on the door slid open and a gray stallion peaked out.

"Coin, or business?" The gruff buck asked, and I wrapped my hood over my muzzle, looking up at him.

"Business, I'm here to see the one you call Prancer," I said, and the stallion's eyes bobbed as he nodded.

"Very well." There was another clunk and a moment later the door swung open, the warm air cascading out as the sound of bustling ponies came with it.

I stepped inside, marking a group of stallions looking at me by the door with a glare. The moment they saw the gleam of my orange eyes glowing under my hood, they returned to whatever dice game they were playing in a hurry.

"Far table, on the right is where you'll find him. Warn ye' though, that's where the weird folk linger." I gave the door-stallion a nod in acknowledgment before he shut away the cold night behind me.

Stepping through the crowd was like trying to cross an angry river, these ponies were so unorganized. Even with my tribe as it was, I at least appreciated the stern demeanor the equines of my homeland upheld. Here there didn't seem to be even a slither of honor or pride. Just the reek of alcohol, sweat, and the rabble of two bucks fighting at the bar or thwacking a maiden's flank. Even under my hood, my sensitive ears picked up on the muffled sounds of voices cast my way.

"That must be one of them wonders, say they're from beyond the Everfree," one stallion muttered, followed by two more.

"Vagabond."

"Hermit."

The hushed tones were like snakes amidst the grass, yet as I looked over the sea of pastel-colored faces, no pair of eyes dared meet my own veiled gaze.

Ponies bumped against my sides, throwing each other around as they laughed and bellowed. My nimble hooves simply weaved where others tripped and sprawled in a drunken mess. Until one stallion finally fell in front of me, rolling on his back as a rather large earth pony mare stepped over him. I stopped, glaring down at the repulsive equine, but he was far too intoxicated to even notice. Then the apron-adorned mare bent down and kissed him on the muzzle for almost a minute straight.

I recoiled, a forehoof folded against my breast. Do these ponies lack all dignity?

"Witch."

"Shaman."

"I'd take that one as an exhibit for my exotic collection."

The mutters and verbal snipes flowed like the lies of a river in drought as ponies noticed me. Yet as much as I'd have slit the throats of everypony here once, I simply trotted around the commotion and over to the far side of the tavern.

Here, as far from the door and the cold night as possible, smoke lingered in the dank gloom. A green hue hung over everything, moldy growth on the rotting walls adding to the effect. My sharp eyes caught the scattering of rats in the shadows and my ears perked at their scuttling squeaks. In the gloom, there were only three booths, each lit by a single, wax-weeping candle. One look over the place and I found that only one of them was occupied by a single cloaked stallion. A long pipe glowed with smoke and embers as it protruded from under the green brim of his hood.

"Prancer?" I asked, trotting up to the booth. Yet the stallion did not move.

"Who's asking?" he grumbled, voice low and rough as his eyes remained fixed on the fire of the candle at the table's center.

"I am the one your kind calls; Spectre." At that, he at least had the decency to shift a little, a puff of smoke hissing from his pipe.

"Take a seat, if you please." He motioned to the opposite end of the booth and reluctantly I did as suggested, wrapping my cloak tightly around myself and trying not to think too much about the repulsive surface under my haunches.

The torn cushion and straw were less than comfortable, especially considering it was damp. Just another reason my opinion of Equestria was substandard in comparison to my homeland. Nevertheless, I forced myself past how disgusted I was as I regarded the pony across the table from me.

"So, I hear you are what folks call, a little strange?" Prancer asked, removing his pipe and blowing a ring of smoke my way.

"I would prefer to call your lands strange, not I. Yet from what I hear, you are an outsider to most also," I retorted, and he chuckled.

"I'll take that as a compliment. The part about me that is, I have no love for this place either," Prancer said, glancing out at the other bar patrons.

I cocked my head a little.

"Oh, and why would that be?" He gave me a look that wondered why I'd needed to ask that.

"Survived the worst winter anypony could think of and the moment we get here everypony just throws off leadership and swears loyalty to two ponies we don't even know." He scraped a hoof on the table before grumbling. "Celestia and Luna, what's a horn and wings worth?"

I looked down at his hoof scraping layers of grime off the rotten wood. "The mother of the sun and the child of the stars, I thought they'd ruled over your lands for decades now?"

"They have ... I'm older than I look. But make no mistake that the moment somepony proclaimed the royal sisters in charge they've silenced everypony who dared question it. Not since the days of Princess Platinum has anypony been important enough to get a word in edgeways." He leaned back in his seat, flicking dirt from his hoof.

"They're heading for chaos, they'll see one day soon, believe me. Why are you so interested anyway? I know you are not from around here, talk of equines like you come in with the slavers on expeditionary vessels?" he finally asked.

"True, the first landing of your people on my homeland's shores sparked controversy, but your kind is nothing new to us. We had cities in Equestria long before you called it that," I explained and from under his hood I saw a pair of green eyes finally meet my own.

"And what did you call it back then?" I looked right at him.

"The land of fallen stars, a place to be feared ever since the fall of its great city long ago," I finally admitted, and he fidgeted slightly.

"So it is true, what I see... In the nightmares," he confessed, yet seemingly more to himself than anypony else.

"I see that it is true that the rumors about those nightmares are real then?" I added and he shot me a wary look.

"Folks don't know what they're howling about when it comes to me. I'm the town pony to be avoided," he stated, scraping a hoof on the table again.

I watched the limb move, peeling the dirt up in arching waves until his scuffed hoof started to bleed from the splinters.

"I have come to ask you what it is you see, and if I am as different from the common pony as you claim, then it is my hope that you may feel free to divulge the contents of your visions in the night." I gestured a hoof to the crowd as a group of ponies shouted and cheered rowdily at another table.

Prancer looked at me, and for a moment I thought he'd lash out and try and kill me before telling me anything else. I could feel the pain behind his eyes, the rage in his soul. If I had to, I'd scorch his mind with a single glance. Then the hooded stallion let out a breath.

"I see darkness in my sleep, stars, and orange fire. I see things I don't even know how to describe and at the center of it all, I see her. Coat black as midnight, armor like pale moonlight," he elaborated, trembling as he looked over his shoulder and at the crowd.

"Who is that you see?" I asked, leaning close and pulling something from my cloak before sliding it towards him.

"I don't know, Princess Luna, but she's different. No pony ever sees that sister, she's always scaring them away, but..." He stopped the moment he saw the rearing alicorn engraved on the stone tablet I'd presented.

Her wings were spread, horn alight with flame and at his gaping look, I knew exactly what he'd seen because I'd seen it too. Just one of the many things I'd seen in the starry eyes of my Great Master.

"How do you know this, who are you?" Prancer demanded, slamming a hoof on the table and drawing a few wary glances from around the tavern.

I sank into my hood and stood up, snatching the tablet back.

"If you want to find out, come with me, pony." With that, I turned and made my way back into the crowd.

********

The sudden sensation of freezing cold water hitting my face was enough of a shock to blast me right back into the waking world. I gasped, and a fit of coughs later, I was able to open my eyes only to see gloom around me. My head was throbbing as it lulled and as I tried to lean forward I found that my back was against the wall, with my right forehoof caught. Instinctively I looked up, seeing in my fuzzy vision that my forehoof was cuffed to a metal pipe. One tug and it was pretty clear the thing wasn't coming off. Seconds later, I tried to fire up my horn, and all I got for my trouble was a small spark and an increase in my headache.

"Inconvenient isn't it? Not having magic." A familiar voice said from the shadows before Heatstroke flicked on a lone light bulb. "Might I say you're looking rather fetching, by the way," she said with a nod to my soaked skimpy attire.

I stopped tugging, slumping against the cold wall as I glared at the sandy coated mare. Pear Pudding was with her, a band-aid across his muzzle as he rubbed his forehooves together.

"How are those hoofsies treating you, handsome?" I cooed, and the stallion frowned as he took a step back.

"I'll deal with you properly later," Heatstroke muttered, glancing at him before she looked back at me. "Right now, I have this pain in the flank to deal with."

"Oh so now I'm a pain in your butt, that's funny? What the fuck are you doing here, I thought this was your idea?" I finally snapped, and she smirked.

"If you mean setting up Pear and his little crew here in the first place was my idea, then yeah. But sending you in here to mess everything up was my father's idea, not mine," she retorted, and at my confused look, she rolled her eyes. "You seriously have no idea how politics work out here, do you?"

"But wait, I thought you wanted him to be in charge?" I asked, and she stomped a hoof.

"No, I want to be in charge! What don't you get about the 'ambitious one'? All my father would do if he was head of the town is run it into dust, if only to protect his precious collection," she snorted, and Pear took a step back from her.

"Well, if you were behind all this then why not just take the place anyway, hum? You have all those robots?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Unfortunately, the republic does not respond well to hostile takeovers with robots, how do you think negotiations would go down afterward, hum?" she elaborated.

"Then they'd brand you a raider," I muttered to myself as things started to fall into place.

"Great, so you do have a brain. Though, warlord feels more fitting." She flicked her mane back. "They'd take this army for themselves if I'm not careful, so as you can see my options are limited," she snapped.

"And yet you had to drag me into this mess!" I exclaimed, and for once she looked just as angry with the fact as I did.

"You are the one who pissed off Crimson Springs, that gave me an excuse to activate the robots. I could not let my father know I was the one who had the password, now could I? But then of all the places he sends you, it's here," she went on, pointing a hoof at me before turning it on herself.

"You both sent me here!" I retorted, and she laughed.

"I agreed with that mad-stallion I call a father." She stomped a hoof. "I've played him for years, stupid foal."

"Why? He seems to care enough about you?" I wondered, and she snorted.

"You're joking, right? He doesn't give a shit about any of us, not me, not Sky, not Flare, none of us because we're not a precious pegasus like she was," she snapped, stomping a hoof on the floor again. "If he knew I knew how to activate these robots he'd get it out of me or die trying, beat me, rape me... My sisters might tell you he's innocent, but I know he's not the perfect gentlecolt behind closed doors!"

For a moment there were tears in her eyes, and Pear backed right away. Yet as she went on, I couldn't help but feel two sides of my conscious going at each other like rabid Hellhounds. Could that be true? Sky and Flare didn't seem like they'd been treated in such a way? Then again did anypony really seem like they'd been abused? I thought back to how I'd found Cherry only a week or two ago, slipping down against the wall as my mind worked. I felt disgusted by the stallion I'd been in the office with a day ago, yet Heatstroke had been nothing but deceitful so far.

"So why not just kill him then?" I asked bluntly, only feeling that it may not have been the best thing to say after I'd said it.

"Oh, believe me, I've wanted to, but what part of being branded a raider do you not understand? I didn't want any harm to come to Crossroads or my sisters. So I played along with father's little plan to get you to liberate the town for him. To be honest, I'd hoped you would die trying. That would solve one of my issues, at least." She waved a hoof in the air dismissively.

"You should know that it takes more than a fat idiot to kill me," I growled, glaring at Pear.

"Hey, who you calling..." Heatstroke silenced him with a single stern look.

"I needed somepony stupid enough to settle for caps, sex and nothing else. I paid off that crew, he just gives most of the dumb orders," she stated and the stallion deflated. "And yet I trusted that Girder could at least deal with you before you got here." She looked back at me. "But no, I had to come here and see you three and your little orgy."

"Orgy, you're joking. I'd sooner burn his cock off than have it anywhere near me!" I declared, growling at Pear as he shrieked.

"What, she was going to do things to me... Horrible things." For a second he reminded me all too much of Mirage as he looked like he wanted to tug at Heatstroke's mane.

"I'm literally surrounded by idiots," Heatstroke moaned as she face-hoofed.

"So what now, I've seen the whole victim act before. Even if you're telling the truth none of you should be allowed the power I saw in that hanger," I told her, eyes locked with hers.

‘Wow, that was an odd sense of nobility, Dragonfire. What, do you want a round of applause or just to impress Cherry?’ My mind asked, but a squirming in my gut suggested that at least one little pony was clapping for me.

"Now I'm left with very little options. The major pony in my way is still alive and Crimson Spring's slavers could attack at any moment." Heatstroke lifted a hoof to her chin. "Fortunately, you may finally prove useful to me, Dragonfire."

I snorted. "I think you're the last pony I'd help right now. If I had my magic you'd be a pile of ash." She didn't even flinch as my horn sparked pathetically.

"Well, I didn't mean to imply that you had to do anything for me. You see, the only pony in my way now is my father, and I need to make it look like somepony other than me killed him." Her smile as she pointed at me made me sick to my stomach. "And you fit the bill perfectly, an evil outsider pony and her friends for everypony to hate."

"And you turn the stallion who supposedly abused you into a martyr, ironic?" I stated, but she shrugged.

"I can live with that as long as that ungrateful stallion is dead. I'll be queen of the hill and he'll never be on top of me again," she assured, she then turned towards a metal door in the far side of the room. "So if you'll excuse me I have a bastard to kill, then I'll be right back to frame you and that stupid oaf Vertigo. All the little nuisances taken out with one shot."

I squirmed against my cuffs, growling at her snide look as she trotted to Pear. "I'll overlook this embarrassing little issue of yours if she's still here when I get back. Then you can have all the mares and chems you want," Pear perked up like a happy puppy promised a biscuit from his master.

"Yes, ma'am." The salute he gave was all but ruined by the rolls of fat quivering on his foreleg.

"Good, though if you fuck up this time she won't be the only one ramming crops up your rear," Heatstroke threatened, making the large stallion chuckle nervously before she finally trotted out and slammed the door behind her with a rear kick.
The second she was gone Pear turned to me with a grin, yet I was too lost in thought to notice. I'd been played from the start, was there any end to ponies treating me like a fool? First Overseer, the Transcendent, Vertigo, now Heatstroke! Was I sure those were all not linked somehow? Still, if she was telling the truth and her father was like that, then what happened to saving ponies?

I saved ponies if I could, and only killed monsters, it was okay to kill monsters. On the other hoof, if she was lying like she had been all this time, then could I really let her leave Sky and Flare without a father? Of course, there was the whole, frame me for murder aspect too, and the last thing I needed right now was the whole of Crossroads or NCR justice on my tail with her as part of their government. Not only that, but could I really let Vertigo or Cherry take the fall with me? Out of all of that, only one thing was certain, I needed to get out of here. That idea was only strengthened as a hot, sweaty flank nudged my side.

"Hey, look who's all alone with me and chained up now, huh?" Pear purred as he rubbed my side. "Heatstroke only said to keep you here alive, she didn't say I couldn't have a little fun, huh, pretty diamond."

That was as far as he got before he received one hard hoof to the face and one buck to the abdomen.

"She only cuffed one hoof, genius!" I shouted as he crumpled on the floor, gasping.

For a second I could not help but feel Heatstroke had hoofcuffed me to the wall like this and left him here with the intent of this exact thing happening. Even so, it didn't make her any less crazy. As Pear rolled around whimpering I tugged hard on my restraints, yet the cuffs were not about to come off without my hoof still locked in it any time soon. In another act of desperation, I tried to spark up my horn.

‘Focus, focus on the fire Dragonfire... If you could do it as a foal, you can do it now!’ A layer of glow slowly crept across my horn as my face scrunched and my eyes watered. Then a lance of pain shot through my skull and the magic faded with a smoking pop. Goddesses, I hate magical burnout!

I slumped with a huff, no magic, no weapons, no friends, and I was sat here looking like a mare from the local whore house! Rolling my head to look down at Pear Pudding I gave my cuffs a futile tug.

"You're going to be ash the moment I get out of here... Somepony is going to get it for this," I grumbled, yet I could do little more than pout.

The stallion did nothing more than climb over to the wall just out of my reach, a hoof rubbing his newly bloody muzzle. From the look in his eyes it still seemed he'd rather fuck me overkill me, but despite Heatstroke's orders, he was keeping his distance.

‘Good, if he has the decency to get out of my sight before I get out then maybe I won't kill him either!’ I grumbled mentally, tugging at my restraints again and again and achieving nothing.

About half an hour later and I was utterly done. "Fuck this!" I called, and Pear chuckled from his gloomy corner.

"Haha, shout all you want, this shed's on the far side of the warehouse, nopony is going to hear you," he snickered.

"Then no pony will be able to hear you when I melt your face off either, smart flanks!" I declared, and that at least shut him up again.

‘Goddesses what I wouldn't give for my magic, or my friends.’ Cherry could get me out of here no problem and even Vertigo had his uses.

If nothing else I'd rather be locked in a room looking at his handsome face than the slob I was trapped with. I slumped again, my head drooping as I finally realized that there was virtually nothing I could do. I'd fought dragons, monsters, and robots and here I was beaten by a troubled mare with a superiority complex.

'So much for making the wasteland a better place?' It was then that there was a knock on the door, and at the metal clang, I looked up.

Pear did too, and groaning the overweight stallion rolled to his hooves and slumped over, still rubbing his bloody face.

"Who in Equestria?" he mumbled, right before the opened the door and he received another slap to the face.

"Pear Pudding, you two-timing slime! I've been looking for you all over and here I find that you've been in here with that stupid mare from town! How dare you!" Mirage exclaimed, practically blazing into the room as Pear slid back across the floor away from her.

"I thought I was your favorite! We were about to have the greatest sex of all time, but the moment Heatstroke's shows you a little favor, you're following her like a stray dog!" she went on, her words rapid as Pear covered his face.

"Hey, babe, you are my favorite. I don't have anything with Heatstroke, she's just my boss," he stammered, but Mirage sat between his rear legs and crossed her forehooves.

"Sounds like another word for your best marefriend. I bet you don't even remember my name do you?" she went on, prodding at his chest.

"Sure I do, it's ... It's ... Babe?" He was cut off by a firm jab to the gut.

"No it's not ... See, you don't care about me... Where is that Heatstroke, is she in here, she better not be..." I manufactured a week smile, my ears folding back as she fixed on me.

‘Come on, Dragonfire think, the world is throwing you a bone here, think of something.’ I jingled my cuff and once again put on my best innocent look.

"Hi, sorry, I told him we needed you to continue the act. It felt so real before Heatstroke interrupted. But he wouldn't listen, he just kept saying over and over that she was his best mare and he didn't need anypony else." Anypony a little smarter than the bubbly mare may have seen through my improvised response, but she looked right back down at the stallion.

"What! How could you? I thought we had something special!" She smacked his face again and he groaned.

"Babe, just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you, please," he begged as she lifted a hoof to her chin.

"Well, I suppose if you let her go and say that I'm your one and only favorite, then I might consider letting you off the hook. But she has to go." She pointed a hoof at me and my hope peaked.

"What, no ... I can't, Heatstroke would kill me," he responded, earning another slap.

"Heatstroke again? I see how it is, you're just so in love with her and you will do anything. Fine, that's it, I'm leaving." She stood up and spun to the door with a huff, slapping his muzzle with her tail.

"Wait no, I..." He reached out with a forehoof, sitting up. "I–I'll do it, okay. For you my favorite mare." I could not tell whether it was poor hygiene or his 'marefriend' that had knocked several teeth out as he gave her a wide tooth-gapped smile.

"Oh, Pear, you would, just for me?" In a flash, she went from hating him to hugging, then kissing his lips.

'Wow, love must really be strong because I didn't think any mare could be horny enough to do that.' I thought, cringing at the sight.

"Now, about her." Mirage nodded to me and oddly enough, she smiled.

"The keys are in that yellow barrel over there, you got to let her out. I'm done getting beaten up my mares," Pear groaned, propping himself up against the wall and rubbing his face.

Mirage smiled gleefully, retrieved the keys and trotting over to me with them in her magic. "Hey, cutie. I'm not mad at you, just him. Better watch out though, because if I see your fine flank around I'll be coming for it, especially I find you dressed like that."

She nodded at my outfit, then bumped my rump with her as she undid the cuffs with her magic and I fell forwards, blushing harder than ever.

"I'll keep it in mind, thanks," I retorted, rubbing my free hoof as she batted her eyes at me and grinned.

"Don't mention it, now run along, I've got to teach this one a lesson." Most ponies would have got a buck to the face when slapping my butt, but the way she did it, it made me want to run for the door faster than any monster ever could have made me gallop.

I felt a small twinge of sympathy for Pear at that moment as I ran by, he certainly was in for a lesson or two. Still, I avoided the urge to buck him in the face one last time, if only to make sure he was conscious for whatever Mirage had planned. Seconds later, and I was back out in the dull, overcast gloom of the desert, and for a second, even the Dust Bowl made me feel cooler for a change.

True to Pear Pudding's taunting, the shed I emerged from was across a large, asphalt loading area from the warehouse. I could just make out the rusting old building through the haze of rising heat in the distance. I didn't want to think what Heatstroke may do with those robots once she didn't have to hide them from her father. Looking around, I saw several holes in the rusted mesh fence, and carefully squeezed through, ripping the blue sleepwear.

‘Damn, I had to get this stupid thing off. No, I had to get back to town and stop Heatstroke! No, I had to find my friends!’ My mind raced as I trudged up the hill at the rear of the compound and finally slumped against a rock.

‘Seriously, why did it feel like I was sweating more while wearing this?’ I thought, remembering some really crazy kinds of fetish enchantments I'd seen on these kinds of outfits.

One thing was for sure, I could not save the town looking like this. ‘Goddesses forbid Cherry or Vertigo see me like…’

"Wow, damn. Must be my lucky day." I felt like nothing more than burying my head in the sand at the sound of a certain purple stallion's voice. "Blue, really goes with your eyes."

Vertigo's shadow appeared on the rock above me before the stallion leaped down and landed on all fours in the dust. For once I really wished he had a helmet on, his ear to ear grin was almost unbearable.

"Very funny, smart flanks. Where in Equestria where you? You said you'd be right behind me?" I exclaimed, waving a hoof and finally trying to struggle out of the stupid sleepwear.

"What, I got hungry? Besides, you do realize that right behind you doesn't literally mean right behind you, right?" he confessed, and my right eyelid twitched.

"What, of course I know that! And what do you mean you got hungry? I had the rug pulled out from under me in there and you were hungry! Are you really that oblivious?" I exclaimed and he gasped, pressing a hoof to his chest as he back peddled.

"For your information, I was being 'oblivious' a lot closer to you than you think. At least when you were in Pear's office, I totally didn't see that," he assured me.

‘Oh, thank the goddesses.’ I mentally sighed. ‘Wait, why did a part of that sound sarcastic?’

"Dragonfire? Oh, thank the goddesses you're okay!" The sound of Cherry's voice came seconds before the pink mare holstered her rifle and barreled into me.

After all the awkward tension I'd been through, her embrace was all too great of a release.

Then she took a second to look at me, razing an eyebrow. "Erm, what are you wearing?"

I went redder than I ever had in my life. ‘Really, Wasteland? Dressed like this in front of the one mare I think I might have a genuine crush on?’ Her blush was nothing compared to my own as I took a step back and brushed myself off.

"All part of the job, just a part of it, yeah," I improvised, offering a nervous smile as my burning ears folded.

"Of course it is," Vertigo muttered, still admiring the view.

I'd have bucked his teeth in again if Cherry didn't silence him with a mean look. Or at least as mean as the cute mare could look.

"Great... Now, does anypony have my barding? Crossroads is in danger and we don't have much time," I added, struggling to get free of the skimpy outfit.

I felt both hot and grateful when Cherry came to my aid and I really, really tried to bury every trace of my arousal. From the look on her face, it didn't appear that this was any less awkward for her, but there was no way I'd be letting Vertigo do this.

"Cherry, my knife, cut the stupid thing here," I suggested and with a flash of her horn the pink mare delicately cut the bow and the whole thing slid off as I gasped. "Goddesses, that was tight."

"You okay, what's wrong in Crossroads?" Cherry asked as she levitated over my barding and Vertigo teleported to retrieve my battle saddle from wherever he'd stashed it.

The stallion was back in a flash a moment later, before I finally informed them about Heatstroke and her plan.

"And now she's going to kill her father and blame it on us. She'll be a victim, and make him a martyr," I finished.

"Damn it, how could I have not guessed she'd be the one to set this whole thing up? She always seemed to just go with whatever her father did," Vertigo growled, stomping a hoof.

"All part of her plan, even if she did not like it." I responded, and for the first time, he actually looked angry for a change.

"But that's stupid, Sky and Flare would never let her. Plus, neither of them ever suggested anything about being abused like that?" Cherry suggested, but all I could do was shrug.

"That's because they're both unicorns, better to have magic then nothing in Pick-Me-Up's eyes, even if he was after wings," Vertigo elaborated.

"And after her brother ran off the twins always had each other, she was the only lone earth pony," I added, and despite myself, I found my feelings leaning more towards Heatstroke actually telling the truth for once.

"Well, we can't let her kill anypony, even if they might deserve it," Cherry stated, and once again my heart fluttered at her commitment.

Seconds later (and with more of Cherry's help) I had my barding back on and slipped into my helmet, making extra sure the battle saddle modifications still fit.

"We need to get back to town. Vertigo, can you teleport us there?" I asked.

I had no idea what it may do to me in my state, yet any apprehension was diminished by urgency. He gave me a flat look, however.

"What do I look like, an alicorn? No way can I take three ponies that far," he stated, but Cherry was the one to perk up.

"But you can take yourself, you can get there before her," she suggested.

"I suppose, but if she's there she'll kill her father the moment she sees me... unless..." He lifted a hoof to his chin. "The way back to town is just over the hill, get to the doctor's house as soon as you can. I'll meet you there!" With that and a wave of his hoof in the general direction, he was gone in a flash.

"Are you serious?" I asked, as both myself and Cherry stared at where he'd stood. It was my companion that went into action first, however.

"Come on, you know he'll have some trick up his sleeve, let's just do what he says," she called as she trotted off.

‘Wait, since when was Vertigo in charge?’ Regardless, knowing Cherry, it was most likely just her urge to save ponies that was driving her to follow his orders.

She was clinging onto the only strand of a plan we had. 'How can you not respect that, huh?’

I shook my head and finally started to follow. Vertigo better be right, because right now the whole town was riding on his brief moment of inspiration.

********

After a few minutes of running through the humidity of the desert, it became pretty clear that actually knowing what was wrong with me did nothing to change the fact that my body really disagreed with me moving like this right now.

‘All for the sake of a town you really owe nothing too?’ My mind questioned, yet I shook off the idea. 'Great idea, so let her brand us all criminals instead?’

I could not let Heatstroke believe she had free access to the power I'd seen in the warehouse. I knew her type, and no matter what she'd been through I had no doubt she'd use those robots for more than just battling Crimson Springs or winning over the NCR's favor. She may not have wanted to be branded a raider, but I doubted she'd be anything but noble with the power. Not only that, but I doubted Cherry would forgive me if I didn't try to help her prevent Sky and Flare losing their father, even if he may have been evil too.

Cresting the next hill, I stopped, taking a deep breath. I was at least glad I wasn't the only one who was exhausted, Cherry looked just as winded by the gallop as I did. Across the hill, I could see the asphalt of the freeway running over the top of the town, and below, the bustling settlement looked nothing out of the ordinary. Even from here I could see the large metallic house Doctor Pick-Me-Up had greeted me in, his tower pressed up against the bridge's supports. Above, built atop the mass of twisting roads, were a number of small shacks and bridges spanning the gaps where the concrete had fallen through.

"Wait a second, Vertigo's right, if she sees us coming she's bound to have a plan," I called to Cherry, blocking her with a hoof as she tried to trot toward the town gate.

The way she looked at me made me just a little hurt, but it was pretty clear she understood what I was getting at, then she slumped.

"There's only the two ways in past the wall? How are we supposed to get to her?" she asked, and I looked around.

Gates were a no go, she'd probably have somepony from Pear's crew watching them. In fact, she probably had eyes on the whole town.

‘Great, this sounds like it was going to be a piece of cake.’ My mind groaned as I finally looked across at the mass of tangled bridges and shacks. ‘You can't be serious, catwalks suck, remember?’

I threw my anxiety right to the back of my mind as I looked at Cherry. "Come on, I have an idea."

*******

It was becoming pretty clear to me now that I could add heights to the growing list of new things I really hated. The tangled catwalks, cables and electrical gondolas spanning the bridges above Crossroads were very similar to those of Churn, yet instead of a gargling river below me, there was a good thirty foot of nothing before the crowded street. Several of the taller houses were connected to the bridge by yellow elevator carriages suspended from wires, and even more of the gondolas were used to span some of the larger gaps between the ruined overpasses.

There were ponies up here too, mares and stallions that looked considerably less well cared for then the ponies in the town below. The tattered robes that clung to their battered hides were the only thing they seemed to own aside from the chems that had driven them completely out of their minds.

A few warning shots from my side mounted weapons made it pretty clear that I wasn't here to hand out Dash or Med-X to the few addicts that came begging. A kick off my rear hooves warded off a ghoul mare as she not so subtly tried to pry my weapons from my battle saddle. Cherry seemed to have more of an issue telling the desperate ponies no, yet after the first few times she had to dart away from them, she was once again walking right by my side. It once again made that heat in my heart flare ever so slightly to see that she felt safer right next to me, even if I really didn't like the reminder of the frightened mare she'd been only a week or two ago. Nevertheless, one stomach-churning gondola ride, and a fear that the rusty contraption could fail at any second later, and we were positioned over Pick-Me-Up's home.

I was glad that his office was on the top floor, not to mention the fact that it had a balcony. Not only that, but it was one of the buildings connected to the bridge via an elevator, and Heatstroke had apparently left it unwatched.

‘Guess she didn't expect anypony to wade their way through all the Dash-heads to get to it? Thank the wasteland for small favors.’ I mentally sighed, trotting over to the elevator car.

Then that posh entity that managed my fucked up world laughed in my face. ‘Of course, it was powered off.’

With a flick of my hoof, I sent an empty Sparkle-cola bottle flying over the edge of the bridge, cursing to myself. A pair of chains wrapped around a set of rusty pipes tethered the elevator to the roof, and I could only assume they were to ensure none of the chem addicts could take a free ride down should it be activated. Cherry looked a little uncertain, glancing at me before peering back at the lingering crazy ponies prowling around us like hungry radwolves. Then the pink mare moved to the edge and peered over the broken rail, ears folding as she noticed the easily eight-foot drop between us and the roof.

"Goddesses, where's that teleporting idiot when we need him," I grumbled, glancing over the edge too. "There's got to be some way down."

"Urm, Dragonfire..." Cherry muttered, and I looked to see her pointing a forehoof at the encroaching crowd of crazy ponies.

‘Come on, Dragonfire, think! There's an elevator like this in Churn. In fact, this one is even longer! What do you know about elevators? I pressed both forehooves to my helmet as I wracked my mind. I know they're horrible, falling death traps. They're really dangerous and will fall with even a little too much weight.

I paused, head perked as I looked between the elevator and the crazy crowd of chem addicts.

"Hey, Cherry, you have any Med-X left in those bags?" I called, and she shot me a suspicious look.

"Yeah, Sky gave me some for my ear? Why?" she asked, and little did she know that, behind my visor, I was grinning.

‘You're seriously going to do this?’ My thoughts questioned as I undid the elevator's chain anchors. ‘What, it's not like I actually intend to be on it when it falls.’

"Toss some here," I called to Cherry, and with a flare of her magic, a pair of syringes landed in my forehoof.

The eyes of every drooling pony around me locked onto the chems like hungry dogs as I held them up and proclaimed. "Hey, today's your lucky day everypony! Come get the drugs!"

I threw them into the car and within seconds as many ponies that could fit in the long box were rocking the thing back and forth like a ship in a storm. A few almost fell out, and at least some were cautious enough not to go barrelling in as the thing swung away from the bridge and gave a painful whine. I took a step back, backing over the chains and looking at Cherry.

"We're going to have to climb down the wires when it falls," I suggested, my gut churning at the idea.

She didn't look any more enthusiastic about it, yet her determination to do good was far stronger than any stomach-turning nausea. Of course, that was when the motors in the elevator crane sparked and with a loud twang, the left wire snapped instead of unwinding. The crane supporting the cradle fell over the edge, rattling down to the roof as the elevator plumited vertically, throwing ponies all over the roof. With a grinding chorus, the right wire began to loosened and the elevator fell.

‘Well, not exactly as planned, but at least it's something to climb down.’ I thought as I heard the jangling of chains, seconds before I felt metal wrap around my foreleg and yank it out from under me.

I shifted my balance to my rear hooves as I tried to keep from falling on my belly and being dragged down with the elevator.
I didn't even have a moment to call out my utter hatred for the wasteland before I was dragged from the bridge, over the rail and slung over the elevator car as it fell.

‘This was it, I was going to die, it really is going to be falling that gets me!’

With a grinding crunch, the elevator shunted to a halt, suspended vertically mere feet from the bridge and leaving me dangling by my foreleg from the chain just above the roof.

‘Goddesses, why did that hoof have to be tied up so much today?’ I thought as I looked up, seeing several addicts heaped in a pile on the elevators side rail, each looking as if they were a mere second from vomiting.

"Dragonfire!" Cherry cried moments before her head appeared over the rail of the bridge. "Goddesses, are you alright. Wait right there, I'm coming down." The mare swallowed her fear and gulped as she slung Responsibility over her back and weakly began to climb down the cord onto the vertically slung elevator.

"Not going anywhere any time soon," I groaned, but as her movements shook the whole thing and it lurched closer to the roof the chain slipped.

‘Fuck you, wasteland.’ The thought coincided perfectly with me landing face first on the metal roof of the building as the chain fell slack across my back.

Thankful for my helmet, I lifted my head, looking to my left to see a pair of ponies sprawled out across the roof on their backs, groaning about Dash and Buck. Shakily I rose, my stomach heaving as I really tried not to throw up. It was official, I hated heights!

"You okay?" Cherry called from where she clung to the vertical rail of the elevator car, slipping down inch by inch.

"I will be so long as I don't have to hang by my hooves again anytime soon," I grunted, planting my butt on the floor as I tried to steady my buzzing head.

Then Cherry gave a loud shriek as she slid down and fell from the elevator. I moved faster than I ever thought I could, darting over and flaring my horn. Of course, when it failed to produce so much as a pathetic spark, I fell forward and she landed right in my trembling forehooves. Her sealed eyes peeled open, saw me, and then her one ear folded as she went red.

‘Goddesses, helmet, I love you!’ I internally cried as I felt my own cheeks burning once again. And yet for a long few moments, I just held her in my forelegs.

"Erm ... Thanks," Cherry stammered with a nervous little laugh. "I think I'll be okay now, Dragonfire," she added and like that, I was dragged back to reality.

"What! Oh, right yeah, of course," I fumbled as I let her go and got back up, brushing myself off. "Er, where were we? Right, stopping a mad mare, yeah."

With that I turned, stepping over a buck who was begging me for some Med-X before I reached the edge of the roof overlooking the office balcony. I really wished my E.F.S could tell me what levels targets were on as I could only see the field of blue bars created by the street ponies below. I couldn't even make out Heatstroke from the few red bars I assumed were either skulking radroaches or hostile chem addicts. Nevertheless, as I peered over the edge and sunk my head under to see the room below I found the office empty.

"Looks clear, she must be somewhere else in the house," I informed Cherry before swinging around and dropping down onto the balcony.

Her head appeared over the edge above me. "Then I guess she doesn't know we're coming?" she asked as she began to clamber down after me.

I really tried not to look at her butt as she dangled there. She was just hanging down by her forehooves, rear hooves scraping the floor when somepony walked in through the office door opposite. It was a stallion I recognized, the bald patch on his butt and back was a dead giveaway. That, and he was armed.

"You!" Girder growled the moment his narrowed eyes locked on me. "What in Equestria are you doing here, you're supposed to be locked up?"

"Change of plan, I got out. And a lot easier than you did by the looks of it." I nodded to the painfully red patch of flesh on his rear.

"You, I'll kill you!" he declared, drawing a pistol just as Cherry dropped from the ceiling, landing on her rump with an eep.

‘Oh well, so much for the element of surprise. But at least we're inside.’ I ducked and pulled Cherry down behind the Doctor's desk with me as he fired twice.

One shot punched a hole through the desk's draws and the other glanced my shoulder, scratching the cyan scales as I stood up and bit down on my battle saddle. He leaped behind the chair I'd been sat in only yesterday. Unlike the desk, the frail wood and cushions sparked into flames as the magical beams of my energy shotgun blasted it apart. Leaving the earth pony with more than just a hairless flank to worry about.

He fell to the floor, dropping his weapon as he called out in pain, both forelegs and his chest scorched red. Luckily for him, it had not been my Saddle Blaster, otherwise, he'd have been dust right now. At least I thought it was lucky, trotting over and seeing his new burns I guessed he'd rather be dead. I angled my weapons to his face, then caught Cherry's look as she perked up from the desk and hesitated.

"Cherry, give me another Med-X, please," I called and the syringe appeared in a bubble of lime green magic a second later. "Now, you are going to tell me where Heatstroke is, right now," I demanded, jabbing the painkiller into his burned foreleg.

He grit his teeth, looking at me as a small breath of relief escaped his throat. "And why should I do that?"

"Because I know you don't like her, I didn't melt your brains out, and I just spared you a Med-X. Now, I won't ask so nicely again." I pointed my weapons back at his skull for added encouragement.

"Damn it all, this is why I should have been in charge of this whole thing! She was down in the main hall last I knew. She's got more ponies between here and there though, you'll never get the drop on her," he finally admitted, and I retracted my weapons away from him.

"Oh, I think we'll do just fine," I stated, then looked at Cherry. "Glue his butt down again and then let's go."

The look on the stallion's face was so done with everything as he grumbled. "Of course, you wouldn't just kill me like anypony else, freak."

********

True to what Girder had told us there were at least five ponies patrolling the house, most of which I recognized to be dressed similarly to those that had been guarding the warehouse gates. For a moment I almost wished I had Mirage to flirt them into submission again. Instead, I had Cherry and only my useless weapons, not to mention one hell of a growing stomach ache after my fall.

‘Goddess, I swear I'm not stepping a hoof out of town until I have my magic back!’ I internally screamed.

‘That's assuming it comes back.’ My mind sneered, and with a clang of my helmet against a wall I shut my thoughts up in an instant.

"Sorry, E.F.S was glitchy," I improvised as I got an odd look of concern from Cherry.

Regardless, neither of us had a lot of time to worry as we descended a set of stairs next to a wall lined with anatomical images of pegasi wings. At the bottom was the large balcony that ran around the edge of the house's central chamber. One look at the paper-laden table and stuffed mare in the corner, and I knew exactly where I was. There were a pair of guards in here too, and I doubted we could sneak by the two of them in the open. One thing was for sure, Heatstroke was nowhere to be seen.

"You think you can cover me from this side while I try and get around?" I asked Cherry, nodding in the guards' direction.

I could assume Heatstroke was somewhere downstairs. Cherry nodded, drawing Responsibility. But before she could do anything one red mark on my E.F.S caught my attention and I spun. The pistol was knocked from the air as a surprised Pick-Me-Up fell back into the corridor.

‘Damn, I really did love this thing when it worked.’ I internally squeed. ‘Yeah, yeah, but you do realize that it could have well been just another Radroach creeping around behind you, right?’ I whacked my head with a hoof. 'Shut up, brain, give me this one!’

"You... What are you doing here, I thought I told you to go clear out the warehouse?" Pick-Me-Up stammered as he scurried back.

"Yeah, newsflash, you're whole warehouse deal really wasn't all it cracked up to be," I retorted, and the red stallion frowned.

"You mean you weren't up for it, now you've got these thugs crawling all over my house," he grumbled, and I rolled my eyes.

Before I could say another word, however, a shot rang out, then another. The clanging of a bullet striking metal was followed a moment later by a searing pain in my rear as the second bullet stuck my rump.

"Oh by Celestia, I'll have somepony's head for this!" Pick-Me-Up hissed as he rolled to his hooves and Cherry returned fire with Responsibility.

I grit my teeth, really hoping that pain in my butt was just a bruise and the shot had failed to penetrate my rapidly degenerating armor. It at least kept my rush of adrenalin going long enough for me to dive on to the doctor's back and pin him there as I shouted back to Cherry.

"Cherry, come on! There's better places to hold up than this!" It was a shock just how good she was getting with the golden rifle, but as she drew back from the rail and turned, I pinned a hoof on the doctor's chest and unleashed a blast of suppressive fire with my battle saddle.

"Up the stairs, go, take him back to the office," I instructed, and with a nod, Cherry was trotting away, Pick-Me-Up scurrying behind her.

I backed up the stairs, still firing until the guards were out of sight. The rattling of hooves on metal, however, suggested that they'd be coming round and be on top of us again at any moment. I turned to bolt up the rest of the stairs, then I heard Cherry call out. My heart skipped a beat as the pink mare fell from the top of the stairs ahead of me and came tumbling down into my forehooves. My legs slipped out from under me and the pair of us landed in heap at the base of the stairs, right as the two guards came round to point their guns at us. Our attackers were the last thing on my mind, however, as I sat up and lifted Cherry.

"Cherry! Cherry, are you okay?" I cried out as the mare groggily lifted her head and rubbed her face.

"Ouch, my head... Dragonfire, she's..." Her words were cut off by the clang of the doctor falling down the stairs and landing with a thud before us.

"Well, would you look at this, the perfect crime scene and two likely criminals all in the right place at the right time. I really am a genius," Heatstroke mused as she strode down the stairs, rifle slung at her side.

Cherry shook her head as she sat up, the guards making extra sure to remind us where their guns were aimed as they lurched forward. Pick-Me-Up rubbed his bloody nose as he sat up, took one look at the guards, and flinched. The stallion turned and came face to face with his scowling daughter, and in an instant, went from confused to very, very displeased.

"Heatstroke, what are you doing... You... I think you broke my nose," he stammered, frowning at her.

"Oh boo hoo, did I hurt your little nose, father? Well, that's nothing compared to how much you've hurt me," she snapped, flicking his muzzle and making him wince.

Even so, the stallion recoiled a little more at her words, chuckling to himself as his eyes passed from Cherry to me in a flash.

"W–whatever do you mean, precious? I–I haven't done anything to you," he stammered, edging away from her ever so slightly.

"Don't deny it, father," She directed a forehoof at him. "Or do you still prefer, daddy? The game is up, and you've been played for the sick fool you really are. Now it's time for me to hurt you just as much as you hurt me!" She glared at him with a look that could melt steel, there and then, I really had no doubt that she was telling the truth.

"What are you talking about... I... thought you wanted me to be in charge, to get rid of Pear?" he went on, rubbing his forehooves together.

"Pear was a joke, I set that whole thing up to keep you from the one thing you wanted, power. All my life you've done whatever you wanted to me, now I'm done being your little fuck-filly." She aimed the rifle at him and I had to hold Cherry back as she jumped

Heatstroke was crazy, but I still had no love for a stallion that would treat her the way she was describing. If I tried to save him then I'd be trying to save a monster. If I let her win I'd be handing power to a mad mare and letting her frame me for the crime. They were both monsters in their own right, and now my moral compass was spinning too fast for me to keep up.

"Heatstroke, precious... I... I was only trying to do what was better for you... You wouldn't shoot me," he pleaded, but she didn't even flinch.

"The only way I'd have been better in your eyes is if I sprouted wings. All you ever said is that you were making me a mare, treating me as any real stallion should." She jabbed him hard with the rifle.

"And I wondered if you were right. Thought it was all you did to that stupid pegasus who was your real precious. Now I don't care, but you'll be going right back to fuck her in Tuataras!" She pressed the gun to his head.

"Wait, you don't need to kill him, you–" I pulled Cherry to my side, begging the goddesses she'd forgive me.

One wrong move and we'd both have our brains blown out. I doubted even my helmet could take a shot point blank. I had no idea what to do other than keep the mare I cared about most alive. Yet was I really about to let Heatstroke's plan to brand us all as criminals go forward either?

‘Damn it, why did trying to be a good pony hurt my brain so much!’ Heatstroke didn't even spare either of us so much as a glance.

The flash that appeared behind her a second later, however, did at least capture her attention. Sting gave a sharp whoosh as the two guards behind us fell to the floor, clutching at the holes punched right through their forelegs. They'd most likely never walk again, but Vertigo was far from done there, clad in full black barding the stallion's eye domes locked onto Heatstroke as she spun and pointed the rifle at his head, Sting coming around and locking the pair in a tense standoff.

"You... What are you doing here?" the earth pony mare hissed.

‘Was that the question of the day or something?’ I inwardly asked myself as Vertigo retorted.

"Why, did you miss me, was that part of your little plan too?" The anger in Heatstroke's eyes flared, yet I had a feeling she knew that his helmet would provide him with far more protection against her shot then her bare face would from one his weapon's darts.

"Heatstroke, stop this now!" Every pair of eyes not locked in a staring contest to the death looked to see Wing Flare step over the whimpering guards, Skylark close beside her.

‘Okay, now that was a glare that could win a staring contest of doom.’ I thought as I saw the look on the orange unicorn's face.

Cherry shot to her hooves, flanking Flare on the opposite side from her sister as I stood and looked between them all, my morals in a complete and utter spin.

"No pony has to die today," she muttered and at her words, the sting of guilt shooting through my chest was almost crippling.

"Oh, look who came to join the party. Couldn't you leave finding out about this until after I killed him?" Heatstroke groaned, spitting out the rifle and motioning to her cowering father with a hoof.

Vertigo relaxed a little, but his eyes did not leave the crazy mare. Heatstroke, it seemed, had little care for the armored buck as she rounded on her sisters. In fact, she didn't seem to care about anypony else.

"What in Equestria do you think you're doing?" Flare demanded, gesturing to the wounded guards at her hooves as Sky looked them over. "There better be a really good reason you dragged us away from work."

"By Luna, I'm going to need so much alcohol after this," Skylark moaned, sighing as she wiped her brow.

"I wouldn't expect either of you two to understand. Just go back to whatever it is you do these days and leave me alone like you always do," Heatstroke spat picking up the gun and training it on her cowering father again.

"We're doctors, or did your ego get too fat for you to see? We help ponies, what are you doing?" Flare went on.

"Goddesses know everypony else forgets all the work I put in," Sky added, and for a moment I could have sworn she was looking at me as she frowned.

"I'm helping myself. It's not like either of you ever did, you had your magic, Grape Juice and Lily had each other, and why do you think Sidewinder ran off? No pony ever cared about what he did to me." She jabbed the barrel of the gun at his head, no care in the world as Vertigo aimed at her again too.

"That's because you never told anypony? We're your sisters, Heatstroke, pride shouldn't get in the way of that!" Flare exclaimed, but Heatstroke shook her head.

"I shouldn't have had to! If you're as good a doctor as you say then you should have seen. But no, you're just a fool like everypony else, and I'm done listening to fools!" Time almost seemed to move in slow motion as she pulled the trigger.

I sat there, helpless, no magic, no time. All I'd been able to do this whole time was sit there and watch. Even the wounded guards could have been more useful than me as I just watched. I saw a flash of that mare in the tank, Buck Shot tethered to the tunnel walls, Babs Seed trapped in an endless nightmare. I'd been useless to do things then, now I was just as useless. I didn't know who to save, the monster or the victim driven to acts of desperation just to get revenge.

There was a click then a clatter as the clip fell out of Heatstroke's rifle. She looked at the gun in bewilderment as Vertigo, horn glowing, kicked the clip aside with a forehoof, and trained Sting on her as she staggered back. There was a shot, a loud bang and the earth pony's eyes went wide as she fell back against the wall.

Everypony jumped, even me as the pistol I'd swiped from Pick-Me-Up levitated behind him in a glowing orb of his magic. The stallion looked down at his daughter, a bloody hole punched right through her chest. Then Vertigo's hoof struck him across the face and the gun went flying.

"Heatstroke!" Sky and Flare called in union, appearing at her side faster than Vertigo could teleport.

Cherry's face was awash with utter shock. Her eyes wide and coat paler then I'd ever seen. Vertigo knocked the doctor to the floor as the buck stammered about how no filthy, dirt-digger daughter of his would ever do anything disobey him again. I just sat there, morals spinning in a storm as I sat down.

"I need a healing potion, now! Hydra, bandages, anything!" Flare called, holding her sister's hoof as Sky pressed down on the wound.

"Don't be stupid Flare, we need to get her to the clinic now!" the pale blue mare growled. "Damn, I'm really not drunk enough to be dealing with this!"

"Here, this is all I have," Cherry declared, pulling out every bottle of healing potions and every syringe of pains killer she had and levitating it over.

She was rummaging through my saddlebags a second later in search of more, and yet all I could do was still just sit there. What was wrong with me? She was bad, he was bad? I'd seen good ponies die, I’d seen their loved ones cry. I'd been as powerless as Heatstroke when he'd had his way with her, and I knew how it felt. Yet right at that point of my life, when I'd lost it all and hit rock bottom, was there anything I wanted other than to die?

"Come on, stay with me, Heatstroke," Flare demanded, forcing her to down a healing potion.

"Shut up, Flare, stop shaking her! The thing's gone right through her heart!" Sky yelled, and my heart sank even further as she finally leaned back.

That look on her face, I'd seen it before. That's how she'd looked when she thought there was no hope of saving Ochre.

‘Come on, Dragonfire. You pulled a miracle out of your sorry butt then, do it again now. Do something!’ My mind scrammed.

Cherry glanced my way for a brief moment, the smallest glimmer of hope in her eyes. As that hope faded I felt nothing but cold inside, even my churning gut was silenced.

"You, can you teleport her to the clinic, please!" Flare begged, grabbing Vertigo's shoulders.

The stallion was the only one who didn't look broken as he answered. "I'm sorry, that would probably do more bad for her then good, she's-." He at least had the decency not to tell her what we all knew he was about to.

"She's done, Flare. There's nothing we can do," Sky admitted, ears folding as she sighed and bowed her head.

"What, no!" Flare was back in front of her wounded sister. "Come on, Heatstroke, you stubborn mule, don't you die on me!"
The sandy earth pony coughed, blood seeping from her muzzle as she looked up into the firm green eyes of her elder sister.

"Wing Flare..." Her words faded as she gasped and her sister leaned close. "Don't ... Don't ever let him ... control you ..."

With one final breath Heatstroke's words finally faded, and as the last seeps of air escaped her lungs I could only watch from over the shoulders of Cherry and the dying mare's sisters as the last vestiges of life finally fade from Heatstroke's eyes.

Foot note: Level up

New Perk Added: Cherez La Filly - And here you thought you were alawyas the mare on top. You do +10 damage to the same sex, and extra +5 Speech for seduction purposes on same-gender individuals (whose barn door swings that way)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Headquarters

Chapter 22:

“Aww, come one, we hit another low. We’ve come back from worse before, right girls?”

My mind flickered weakly into... something. It was far from my usual waking consciousness, more like the many weaving strands of my thoughts aligning into something that at least allowed me to feel, or lack thereof. The world I was plunged into was like a cold soup, with every breath I felt like I was drowning in my own mind until, finally, the feeling of real sensation slithered its way to my senses. There was an unusually, and equally, light mane brushing against my closed eyes.

Okay, I'm a mare, a unicorn. But this is not me. I opened my eyes to see a reflection in darkened glass.

A mint-coated unicorn mare, with lime green mane, wearing a white laboratory jacket looked back at me from the reflective surface. I recognized the mare I'd seen sitting next to Twilight during Moondancer's assassination attempt as my current host. She was looking considerably less crushed than the last time I'd seen her. Her breath was slow and calm as was every other part of her. Yet her muscles felt odd, wrong even. They were like liquid, heavy, incompressible yet very strong.

Nevertheless, they felt like they were not her own, like her insides were crawling under her skin, moving around to make her better, more efficient, stronger. I could feel almost every biological process in her body as it was carried out. Her breath, heartbeat, neurons firing, the shifting of blood, and even digestion as if micromanaging her insides. Yet where other ponies might scream at the sensation, I was surprised that, she actually seemed to think it felt good.

From her reflection, I could see she stared at the glass with a glare that could almost shatter it. I could feel the many thoughts she had flashing away in her mind, all directed to one sole purpose as she counted every millisecond. The only break in her stoicness was her twitching ears as the beeping monitors in the black-walled room around her chimed. Then her relentless stare was interrupted as she looked to her left at an array of clear blue screens. Two displayed the jagged line of what appeared to be a heart rate, and another pair boasted paragraphs of scientific gobbledygook that I couldn't dream of understanding even in a body as perfect as this one.

The room was as black as the dark glass at which she'd been staring, the screens and her reflection in the polished floor the only thing breaking the void's effect. Behind her, there was an equally dark door, and above, a slowly humming ventilation fan. To the right were more screens and as my host looked back her eyes fell upon a jet black unicorn mare with steel gray mane and a business suit.

Ebon Star looked almost indistinguishable from the darkness, were it not for the white and orange of her eyes she may have been able to blend right in. Beside her was a yellow coated earth pony buck with a light blue mane, doctors coat, and stethoscope cutie mark.

"Stellar Swirl, good to see you're looking well." My host swallowed as her eyes lingered on the black unicorn addressing her, the only pony who seemed to make all that perfection inside her squirm uneasily.

"Yes, mother, I'm feeling..." Stellar powered her mind through the memory of a heavy metal catwalk slamming down upon her.

Wait, so this was after she was supposed to be dead? But I'd seen her squashed to a bloody mess? How could anypony survive that? I thought as odd, blurred memories of pain and power came to my host.

I saw flashes of pale-masked ponies looming over her, heard the disembodied rappid bleep of another monitor. What other brief parts of her survival she could recall made me sick to my stomach.

"I feel different... But good, the procedure was a success, but was it really the best way to test it? Now everypony thinks I'm dead?" Stellar asked, the recollection of literally growing back together making me want to crawl my way out of her memory.

It was like Hayland all over again, only in reverse and with far more blood than ash. And by the goddesses, it made her feel good?

Ebon Star gave her a nod. "Unfortunate, I know. But we had to make Moondancer's efforts at least look like a convincing accident. The fact that my daughter died will serve to drive suspicions away for the time being."

Ebon Star placed a hoof on Steller's shoulder, smiling as my host's skin literally felt like it was crawling.

"Besides, I had no doubt that your work in the project would serve you well, and here you are, alive when anypony else would be dead," she added, and my host smiled, pride welling up within her chest.

"I had no doubts either, you know I would not have agreed otherwise. All that spying at the M.O.S, makes me want to drag Twilight down for what she's done as much as Moondancer does. But messing with the ministry, the bombing too... We can't hide this forever." My host grit her teeth and was it just me or did they sharpen a little at her anger?

"No, but we can hide it for a month or two, that's all we'll need," Ebon Star assured her as she took a step back and at my host's curious look she added. "I have sources better than anypony else, Stellar, don't you worry."

At that, she trotted forward and placed a hoof upon the glass surface. "How long until the procedure is complete?"

Her question summoned mixed responses from both my host and the other buck Ebon had entered with. The dark mare looked at him first and he squirmed a little under her intense gaze, then swallowed hard before trotting forward.

"It may still take a few hours, we had to improvise given the sudden circumstances. We still have no idea if it will work," he admitted sheepishly.

My host watched the stallion closely, a brain crammed with too many organized thoughts judging his every word. Ebon Star just stared into the glass tirelessly, then slowly turned to face him. She needed say nothing to make the buck look even more uneasy.

"Mam, you must understand that we were not ready, we had to stabilize what was basically a corpse... Brainwave function was failing, major organs ruptured..." He struggled to even pause for breath as he babbled.

"He's not even a pony and we had to work with what we could save that... In the plan he wasn't supposed to come in pieces," he finally forced out, stepping back as if she'd suddenly tear his head from his shoulders with her fiery eyes alone.

The buck glanced towards my host and in that brief moment, our gazes met, Stellar shook her head slowly. That didn't seem to make him feel any better. Nevertheless, Ebon Star's daughter stepped forward before he could say or gesture anything more.

"A more accurate and appropriate response would be to tell you that improvised method and fail-safes have been successful. The subject is stable and clear for the transplantation procedures," she assured her mother, all possibilities and outcomes of the words considered in her racing brain.

Even her voice was perfect for the explanation, smooth and fresh as mint. Okay, she may have felt like she was crawling with bugs from the inside out, but I had to admit hearing her talk with such confidence was kinda hot.

Now, Dragonfire, don't get too attached to mares in memories, remember the last one? I had a sudden flashback to the uncomfortable awkwardness of Lucky and her mother, and for once did not buck my mind in the face for offering such advice.

My host seemed to relish in the perfection that came so easily to her and embrace it. Or she simply dismissed it as a result of her genius. Given the look on his face, I assumed the buck opposite could sense he was in the company of two ponies that were far, far, above him in every way.

"Will he survive?" Ebon Star asked, lowering her hoof from the filtered glass and looking to Stellar Swirl.

My host nodded. "Yes, we were able to lay out a program to complete the process with all functioning organs intact and necessary synthetic replacements. He will be less organic than first designs, yet the Etherium frame will prove to be a more than an adequate replacement for the original limbs." Stellar explained, looking to the glass.

Ebon Star was silent for a few uneasy minutes, then she nodded. "I am glad to see that your adaptability is growing more considerable by the day, Stellar, " she said, looking to her daughter with a knowing glance.

That sense of pride in my host's chest grew. Only it literally felt like new parts of her body were growing along with it. Goddesses, is this what it feels like to become a Ghoul, or just die from taint exposure?

"It would seem you are lucky then that my daughter recovered in time to put your department back together," the black mare continued, slowly rounding upon the yellow buck.

The yellow earth pony backpedaled slightly, then froze, seeming to fight the words stuck in his throat as he raised a forehoof to point back at my host.

"But she was working for the Ministry only a month ago, your policies regarding the sharing of information with anypony outside of Oracle dictate that we shouldn't have let her do anything," he stammered as Ebon Star stepped towards him.

Stellar gave a cunning smile, subtly glancing away, only to peak like a foal that knew they were about to see an interesting confrontation in the schoolyard.

"Those policies are in place for ponies like you. Muttering foals who can't see potential, how dare you assume they apply to my daughter." She motioned at Stellar, and pride bubbled into something far more cocky in my host. "So, if you are quite done telling me what can't be done, I'd like to see what has been done. I want to see the patient."

I heard the buck's hoof tap the polished floor and a moment later he seemed to find his voice.

"Miss Ebon Star, we cannot simply break quarantine, you..." Something silently interrupted his words and my host's smile widened.

"I trust we will be obedient from now on?" Ebon Star stated as she pressed her horn to his chin.

There was a small shimmer of orange magic and Stellar looked in awe at her mother. I on the other hoof, felt my cold dread amplified. The stallion's eyes widened, then went cold and dead, only to flicker back to normality a second later. His once green irises were now tinted orange too. Ebon Star stepped back primly, looking up to the seemingly empty stallion.

"Shame, he overlooked my desires a little too much." She glanced back at Stellar

"I hope you can tell me if it is truly safe to see my patient?" My host nodded. "Good, now show me," she instructed the stallion.

The buck stood up straight and nodded without question. Trotting over to one side of the closed viewing screen he flicked a switch and an electrical buzz heralded the retreat of the glass cover into the ceiling. The room beyond was bright white, so much so, that the stark contrast stunned my host's sensitive eyes. The white, cylindrical walls were lined with yet more scientific screens, ponies dressed in similar white coats and muzzle masks trotted carefully around the room. Silver tables supported a whole range of sharp medical equipment, making me cringe within my host's mind.

Having a few moments to adjust to the light, I recognized the room as a lab similar to the roof Chief had ambushed us in under the M.O.S hub. The idea that I was going to end up seeing what fucked up mess had been concocted in there made me want to crawl out of Stellar's mind even more, but I was trapped for the ride as she trotted at her mother's side. In the middle of the room were a pair of massive medical tables, atop both were open glass shields, and their bases were covered in more wires then I could count.

To the left of the tables were a set of large, silver machines. The likes of which beeped and flashed with a slew of scientific data as they fed a mixture of purple, blue, and even rainbow colored liquids down through clear tubes into what I could only describe as a vaguely pony-like bloody mess. It had four legs at least, and the presence of black feathers suggested it had once had wings too.

A pegasus, maybe even a griffin? I surmised, yet most of it just looked like bloody offal supported by ragged bones.

Above, a vast array of metal arms, saws, needles, torches, and crystal-tipped spears worked furiously to pick apart the gory mess with as much precision as Steller's thoughts the moment my host took one look at the ragged corpse. To the right of the first, the second bed was far cleaner, atop it what appeared to be a tarnished silver frame, made from the same odd metal I'd seen in the Destiny labs and in Moondancer's experiments. More gnawing sets of mechanical limbs worked on placing a well-cut section of the former mess into the metal, threading muscles, tendons and even veins around the silver skeleton.

Smaller, finger-like extensions popped out from the side of each metal talon, welding and sealing the metal into place as more claws issued injections before scorching away any excess bone and flesh. To the right of the bed was a rack of the same metal, only here it was formed into more limb-like shapes, similar to the exoskeleton display I'd seen wired up in the destiny laboratories and even more unnervingly akin to that angry thing I'd seen trapped in the glass. Beside it was something that, at first glance, would have made me throw up if this had been my real self. In fact, I was pretty sure I'd be waking up from this memory to find my last meal all over the place.

Goddesses, why do I have to see something like that again? I asked myself as Stellar directed her attention away from the table.

A wired tank, similar to that in which I'd seen that poor mare defiled in, held within its bubbling vat several clumps of discolored meat. Each was pinned with more wires and needles than a pin cushion. In fact, they may have even put Lucky Star's supposed fate to shame. The lighted panels and screens below flickered with yet more data as smaller arms coiled up from the pod's surface, shooting beams of light over the meaty masses inside every few minutes.

"Well, I must say I'm impressed with all of this, Stellar. I have a feeling that sending you to spy on the ministry may have been a waste of your talents if this is what you can accomplish after only a week of being back here," Ebon Star declared, the brainwashed buck standing next to her only earning a few odd glances from the scientists working around the room.

Even with the compliment, now it was my host's turn to feel slightly uneasy. Her overactive mind was just as busy reminding her of the million complicated things that could go wrong with her procedure any moment.

Hey, at least I wasn't the only one with a brain that hated them. I thought as Stellar Swirl smiled.

"Thank you, mother," she acknowledged with a little bow of her head.

"Leave us," Ebon Star instructed the mindless buck and he immediately trotted off as she directed her daughter to the clean table's side.

Anypony working within a few feet of us froze, their eyes locked upon the dark unicorn trotting by slowly. Ignoring the chill, my host swiftly followed, her brief glances setting the other doctors' wayward eyes back to work. The only thing to keep constantly working were the multitude of mechanical arms, the subtle hydraulic sounds of which buzzed and whirred as Stellar and her mother stopped beside the metal skeleton atop the table. Looking at it more closely, I saw only a torso, both legs were missing, as were its arms.

The shape was very inequine, the spine was long and curved upwards, the hip far more downward facing and the neck was almost perpendicular to the rest. Without the limbs, however, it was hard to tell what the thing was supposed to be. What I did notice was that, even here, the angry metal jabbed relentlessly at my host's mind. Each dire emotion forced its way into her hyperactive thoughts like a knife. What felt like a bone-chilling nightmare to me and Stellar, however, didn't seem to even bother her mother. Instead, Ebon Star's eyes were focused on the many slabs of twitching meat and organic tubes being slowly built into the skeletal form's open chest, kept alive by the constant zaps of eldritch electricity from talisman tipped limbs and the odd concoction of liquid pumping into it.

Finally, her eyes fell upon the uppermost part of the body, and she reached out a hoof, only to quickly draw it back. What I assumed to be the head of the construct being manufacture before us was no more than a metal frame that appeared to have been forced around the jagged and cleanly cut form of an in-equine skull. It looked almost reptilian.

What was left of the sheared muzzle had been replaced with a steel gray respirator, small pipes, and tubes that funnelled red liquid back over the thin sheet of flesh that was stretched across the bloody bone. Leading back to a large, empty socket in the back of the head, the likes of which crackled with spikes of electricity. So too did the eye sockets spark with electrical life as one metal arm slowly lowered a small mechanical ball into it, attaching several wires before welding the glowing sphere into a place where there had once been an organic orb. A similar arm mirrored the action opposite, before both sets welded in a lens and drew back to work on the rear of the skull.

"Magnificent isn't it, your potential?" Ebon Star asked.

I could feel that sense of pride raise then fall as Stellar looked at the jet black mare. There was a sense of achievement, admiration, and love. Yet her emotions felt like more than just feelings, it was as if they were physically changing her insides.

"It was not possible without you and... Well..." she stammered as a seemingly forbidden thought fought to get into her head.

All I got were glimpses of another lab, a flash of the Destiny logo across a terminal before she shoved the traitorous idea away. Ebon Star smiled, and once again I felt those accomplished ideas fill my host.

"This is as much your victory as it is mine, Stellar. No Ministry could achieve what we have done here, such a pinnacle of cybernetic engineering has never been reached before, and you should be rewarded," she explained, trotting around the table and kindly placing a hoof on my host's shoulder.

"Thank you, but I feel like this... My work on the evolution project... Well, the way I feel." Stellar pressed a hoof to her chest, rubbing her firm muscles. "I'm so strong, so alive when I should be dead. I think it's reward enough," she stammered, pressing her forehooves together as her insides crawled.

Goddesses, I really loved knowing that when my gut squirmed like that it was a foal, not whatever this is inside her.

"Well, in that case, I have a new project for you," Ebon Star finally stated.

I felt my host's pride fail and confusion swirl up in its place as she cocked her head.

"A new project, but I'm sure this will be a success? We can give it to ponies, with soldiers like this we could win this war and..." Ebon silenced her daughter as she pressed a hoof to her muzzle, then she smiled.

"What did I tell you? This is not about the war, this is about our prosperity as a species. I have entrusted you to embody our role of evolution and therefore you are to work on this new project," Ebon explained with a firm ambition.

Stellar seemed to ponder the thought for a long moment, then paused. Her mother looked back at her with encouragement, yet I knew there was a deep fear hiding within the back of my host's mind regardless of how invincible she felt. She'd seen what happened to the doctor, she'd admired that power. Yet her mother had been perfectly fine with letting her die, so if her own experiments did not pull through? Would she be perfectly fine doing what she'd done to him to her own daughter?

What the fuck did she even do to him? Was my far-flung contribution to the centuries-old mental dilemma in Stellar's head.

Then my host's mind fell silent as she lowered her hoof, a deep trust and admiration for the pony before her blocking out the doubts as she nodded.

Ebon Star smiled. "You always were my magnificent little filly, Stellar."

The hug she wrapped her daughter in was chilling at best. Stellar merely looked over the black mare's shoulder to the mechanical monster being manufactured on the operating table.

"Yes, magnificent... Isn't it?" she uttered coldly.

*******

The memory orb slid from my hoof, rolling across the wooden floor as I lay spawned out on the mattress in Vertigo's dingy hotel room. As much as he apparently annoyed Sky and Flare's family he was still useful enough for them to give him a room at the Under-Toe just too keep him around. Or just to keep him out of their manes. Of course, it wasn't like any of that mattered now. The room was dark, long shadows cast by the dull light of the town outside coming in through a dirty window. I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance and the wind rattled against the window blinds. I lay there in the gloom, staring at yet another slowly rotating ceiling fan as I sighed.

What is the point in making the mystery greater? Is adding to the whole 'Oracle is trying to rule the world thing' really worth staving off your boredom? To save me from my thoughts from wandering, right now, it seemed worth it.

I'd failed to save a pony who needed it, whether she was crazy or not. I'd left Sky and Flare without a sister and Cherry hopeless, even if she'd assured me she was fine in that... 'No, I'm not really fine' kind of way. I glanced over to the bed at the far end of the narrow, rectangular hotel room. Of course, I'd given it to Cherry, I didn't deserve anything more than a grimy mattress to wallow on. In the dull quiet, I could almost hear her breath and things seemed relatively peaceful to the murmuring rabble outside, at least at first glance.

A small mutter from the pink mare curled up at the head of the bed and I sat up in a flash. Remainders of how fast I'd dashed to catch her when she fell from the elevator or how I'd felt my heart rent from my chest when she'd come tumbling down the stairs came running back to me as I steadied myself and stood up. Only the light of my Pipbuck still wrapped around my leg broke the still gloom as I trotted up to Cherry's bedside and sat down on a rickety old stool. It felt good to have the cool night air on my bear coat and to be free of my barding while not stuck in a clinic or some pony else's sex office. Cherry was the only pony I wanted to be with right now and yet I dared not wake her up. I didn't think she blamed me for anything that happened, even if part of me knew she should. Otherwise, only one thing was for sure, she was going to be kicking herself for it.

"No... D–don't make me... I–I don't want to go..." she stammered in her sleep, twitching and kicking as I placed a hoof on her head and rubbed her mane.

"Shussssh," I breathed, rubbing my belly as I stroked her neck. "It's okay, shusssh."

Things in my mind were once again creeping out from the shadows. I remembered my mother sitting next to me as I wept. I remembered Teal crying into my neck as I hugged him. I felt my belly squirm ever so slightly and imagined a new foal to comfort.

"No... Father... Tumbler... No–no, I won't leave you... Don't make me go..." Cherry stammered, tears rolling from her closed eyes as she wriggled.

Then, just like that, she fell silent and resumed her slow breaths. I slid back in the chair, both forehooves rubbing the small bump in my abdomen as I watched her.

Am I really doing the right thing? Am I really a good pony like she thinks I am? I sighed as I slumped some more.

What was there to do, I didn't feel like my magic had the strength to pry into any more memory orbs. Vertigo's radio was busted, not that I'd heard from Rapid back in churn for the past few days. Eventually, I looked at my Pipbuck, a set of recordings still un-listened to.

I'd failed to do anything to help Lucky Star too. No, I don't need this right now. I don't need to feel even more like shit. I declared. You've been at rock bottom before, Dragonfire. You know what wallowing in self-pity will get you. Now buck up and distract yourself!

Regardless, I was not about to endure another heart retching recording from the mare whose fate I suspected was more horrible than I could imagine. Oracle, Destiny, they were the same and with an unhealthy obsession with using ponies as pin cushions. I saw that bloody mess on the table being wired into the silver skeleton and shuddered. That, Ebon Star, and her daughter's insides chewing her up... They were all so wrong.

Even so, I didn't really feel like going out around town was the best idea. The less time I spent lingering around Crossroads the better. Vertigo was still out. It had only seen fitting that, as one of the three of us to actually live here sometimes, he was the one to help sort things out. I didn't think I could look Sky or Flare in the eyes right now, and to Cherry, it seemed like they were the last ponies she wanted to disappoint again.

They could take Pick-Me-Up and throw him into a pit to rot for all I cared. I'd not heard about Heatstroke since leaving her father's home with Vertigo. He'd left us here and I'd made it pretty clear how out of the way I was staying until he got back. That had been hours ago, and ever since getting Cherry to get some sleep, I'd been sitting here wallowing. One thing was for sure, I wasn't getting any sleep myself regardless of how tired I was. Carrying a foal was hard it seemed, but carrying the added baggage of a broken moral compass and a life in the wasteland made it all the more difficult. Still, I sat up from the bed and trotted back to my mattress, then peered through a door on the opposite side of the room from the bed.

The small, grimy kitchen beyond looked no more appealing in the gloom as I trotted in. Once white tiles were now yellowed and chipped. The oven looked more like an angry monster, its glass cracked and covered in dry mold. The stove above it was no better and each of the cupboard doors looked only a few inches from falling off their rusting hinges. Wallpaper was peeling and a distinct rattling came from a pair of small rusted pipes beside the door. I walked through the kitchen, tiles cracking under my hooves before I reached another door to the right of the first. It creaked open to reveal the bathroom. There was one toilet, sink with rusted faucet, and a shower bath. The pink and flowery, translucent curtain that covered the latter really did not seem like Vertigo's style. Even so, as I trotted over and pulled it aside I was met with the relativity clean bath and a wall of tiles with a tinted window just above.

I glanced back into the silence of the darkened kitchen. Cherry was still fast asleep and goddesses I hoped this place had water. My magic still refusing to spark up, I reached out with a hoof and turned the fosset. What small amount of trickling water that did come out was nothing like in Churn, but after a day in the desert heat, it was at least pleasant. The slow clicking of my Pipbuck suggested it was indeed rainwater. As the warm water liquid through my sweaty mane, down over my shoulders, back and flanks, I finally sat down. Water pooled around my butt as I leaned against the side of the bath and rubbed my stomach gently.

At least there's still one pony I can't fail. That was all that went through my mind as I watched the droplets slowly roll across the small bump. Damn it, this all feels so new and wrong at the same time.

Part of me still didn't think it could be real. Did I even deserve it after all that I'd done? I failed to save lives and yet I was finally allowed to bring one into the world?

Don't forget, it could still be a monster. My mind chirped, but I slammed a mental door in the face of the idea.

No way would I allow any foal of mine to be a monster, even if it killed me. But even now, when it was so small, it felt so strange. It was like that strength swelling inside of Stellar Swirl, only for all the right reasons. I wiped a strand of wet mane from my eyes, remembering what my mother had told me about caring for a foal all those years ago. Funny, back then I thought it would be the last thing I'd want to do.

"You really do know how to turn my life around, don't you, little guy?" I said with a small chuckle, rubbing my belly as my insides tickled.

"More like on its head, hur?" I added with a sigh as I lifted my head up into the water, closed my eyes and let it cascade over my face.

My stomach gave an anxious, little twitch, seemingly unsatisfied that my attention was directed anywhere but towards my foal. I looked back down and smiled.

"Don't worry, you'll have nothing to be afraid of because I'll never let anything happen to you now. No matter what you are," I assured the wriggling sensation.

Even if you come to regret it? My mind asked and as I went to slam another mental door in its face again I felt my thoughts catch. I know what's right, there's no way I can regret carrying this new life, right?

Water still cascading over me and one forehoof on the top of my tummy, I looked to the one distraction I had left and sighed, droplets flittering from my nostrils. My Pipbuck still sat idle on my leg, glowing as water trickled around it.

Another little miracle. I thought, lifting it up as I rubbed my midsection softly.

What really was going on, there had to be a reason for all this? Overseer, the monster ponies, my foal.

Part of me still dared not look as I once again found Lucky's sixth recording. Yet for the good of my foal, for the little guy's future. Wouldn't it be worth that if only to save me from self-pity? I took a deep breath, then sighed as I rested my foreleg and the device atop the small bump.

"We'll find out what we are now together, okay?" I stated, taking the little squirm that followed as an agreement as I reluctantly hit play.

Day 32:

Damn, and there's a time jump since the last? I thought, spying the date as the sound of the brainwashed mare's voice once again sprung from my Pipbuck.

"Hey, this is Lucky Star... Wow, you would not believe what the doctor let me do today! They let me out, I got to see the world outside my room for the first time... Their world and they let me go through the big tunnel thing, with lights and screens. They said it showed them what was inside me and everything, and I was super glad because I still feel sick and I really just want them to make me feel better.

But they said I was fine and that it was all a result of my accident. I don't know though, it feels like they treat me different, they never let me out of their sight and there were always these two ponies with weird sparky sticks with me. They never did anything, but they had funny masks and didn't talk... Stupid grumpy ponies. I saw doctor Band-Aid too, and it was just me and him in a room. He put some weird stuff on my tummy, then had this thing which was really cold... Then he put me to sleep! But he said it was all okay and that I should not worry. Asked me if my hooves were hurting, how hungry I was and how much I was being sick.

So I told him and he just nodded, but he didn't tell me how I'd get better, he just said there was a long way to go before I did, and that a lot of things were going to change. He seemed really interested in looking at me though, they wrapped this weird yellow tape with a number on it around me and then had me stand on this odd black thing that gave them a number too. I'd never seen numbers so big, but all they did was say that was okay too. Then there was the one time I asked what it was that was making me sick and if I could stay outside and they didn't even listen, just said they may need more orbs. I don't even know what orbs are! I think it was one of the rooms we passed on the way back to my world, but I don't know. It's not fair! All I want is to be better and now... Oooo, not now! I feel it coming again... No, no, I don't want to be sick... Please!"

Her voice faded in a fit of retching and gagging as the recording went dead. I looked down at the Pipbuck, water dripping from my mane as my belly gargled.

Orbs? Scans? She was sick? What in the goddesses' name had they done to her? A lurch from my stomach stole my thoughts and I pressed a hoof to it as I heaved.

I was incredibly thankful that the toilet was right next to the bath as I rolled over the side and vomited into the bowl. A minute later, and I slipped back into the trough, sliding down into the shallow pool with a really bad taste burning my throat.

"Thanks, just what I needed," I groaned, patting my belly as it squirmed.

Still, as much as I'd seen countless things in the past few days that had made me sick, vomiting did little to cleanse it.

Seriously, I have to stop running out of distractions! I cursed, even if I really didn't feel like getting out of the bath just yet.

I lifted one foreleg over my face, the other on my stomach. The last pair of recordings from Lucky Star looked to be dated with a larger jump than the last two, a few weeks each. I looked down at my small bump.

"Another one can't hurt, right. What do you say, little guy?" I asked, ready to activate the seventh audio log.

Of course, that was when the wasteland answered my prayers in the utterly wrong way. Vertigo's head appeared from the open door, our eyes met, and just like that, I found it hard to think the water was the hottest thing in here as my ears burned and my cheeks went bright red.

Goddesses, why couldn't I have just heard him come in! I braced myself for some wisecrack, but instead, I just got a smile. A really, really handsome smile... .

"I see you found the shower, it's definitely one of the better perks of the room," he said, leaning against the door frame with his forelegs crossed.

"What... You... When did you..." I stammered rising for just a second before splashing my forehooves down in the water and slumping back again. "Yeah... Fine, what does it matter?"

Vertigo shrugged before trotting over and leaning on the bath side. For once, I was able to see that underneath that sarcastic witty stallion's facade, he actually looked like he cared. That, and he was more good-looking now than ever before. Who knew that less light could actually make some pony looked better, mysterious even.

"You don't have to be embarrassed that you're using my bath, you know? I mean goddesses know I don't use it," he said with a smirk.

"And here I wondered why you smelled so much," I retorted, more of his wit seeming to rub off on me.

"Ha, I'll have you know that I have a shower back at... well, headquarters," he responded, pressing a hoof to his chest.

"You mean you're friend's, headquarters," I added, and he gave a little nod. "We still heading out there tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah, Flare thought it best we get out of town sooner rather than later, she's going to try and pull this place together while Sky runs the clinic. She said to give her a week or two to try and get the robots working and she'll see what she can do about Crimson Springs," he explained, but even as I nodded only one question was on my mind.

"And her father?" I asked.

"Locked up," he added sharply.

"Good," I declared bluntly, slumping a little more.

"It wasn't your fault, you know? I thought everything was under control the moment I disarmed her, I didn't even catch sight of his weapon," he confessed, and despite his level tone, I saw regret in his eyes.

"I've been through a lifetime of ponies telling me things were not my fault, I've seen the same happened to others over and over. I think we both know we could have done something different, and I have a feeling you know as well as I that thinking about it now won't change anything." My head rolled over my shoulder as I leaned against the sleek tiles.

He at least seemed to admire my willingness to admit that as he sighed.

"How about your friend?" He motioned back to the bedroom.

"She's a different story, she's just focused on trying to make the world a better place. I filled her head with false hope and now this is going to eat her up," I admitted, and it almost felt good to tell somepony about those feelings.

"There are worse things to fill somepony's head with, at least while she's with you it doesn't seem like it will be bullets anytime soon," he said with a small chuckle, before adding. "But she trusts you, she still does. Trust me, I've seen a lot of ponies and I know how to read them."

"And what do you read about me?" I asked, fearing what he might say.

"Like I said when we met, you're a misfit." He brushed his chest armor with a hoof. "But at the end of the day, who isn't? I know you try to do the right thing, but you're way in over your head," he explained.

Wow, is it really that easy or is that his special talent? I've yet to see his cutie mark, so what do I know? I sighed, then laughed a little.

"You got that right. Took one job too many," I stated and he patted my shoulder.

"The same boat as me, not so good ponies on our tails and no idea why. But I promised I'd help you get out, and I keep promises," he assured me, and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, unless you're hungry, bored, or I'm stuck in a clinic bed for days," I retorted, and he raised a forehoof defensively.

"Hey, that first one's important. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent meal out here?" His shock drew another chuckle from me.

"You know if I were back in Churn and still had a life, I'd fuck a stallion like you in a heartbeat." Just like that, I'd discovered another pony who truly spoke my language.

"Who says we can't do it right now?" he asked with a smirk. "It's a great way to forget about all the shit we've caused."

"Because one of the only reasons I'm trying to bring the bad ponies down is because they kidnapped one of the few stallions I actually care about, and I've had enough awkward sexiness for one day," I admitted, yet I didn't even need to reinforce the rejection with a glare as Vertigo nodded and took a step back.

"Well, the offer still stands because quite frankly, you really are quite something underneath all that cocky shit you call a personality," he joked.

I waved a forehoof at him, sending a splash of water his way. "All that reading and you still don't judge a book by its cover?"

His mouth curled as another small chuckle escaped. "Not when I think the book’s worth reading."

Okay, so maybe he does know what to say to get me a little more interested, but right now I'll just take the shower.

"I guess I'll just leave you here then, sleeping isn't really my thing in this town anyway, not for too long," he said, backing out the door.

For a split second the thought of that offer resurfaced in my mind. We can share my mattress, can't we? If we have sex then maybe I'll be able to stop staring at his butt every time it's in front of me?

"Goodnight, Vertigo," I said, sinking down into the cooling water as I flicked the shower off with a hoof and the tub began to drain.

"Night, and don't let me come back to find out you drowned or something," he snickered as I shouted.

"For the love of Celestia, it's an inch deep. I'm not a goddesses damn filly!" It was amazing his laughter did not wake the whole hotel as he trotted off into the bedroom.

********

"Teal, you're barely three, what are you doing trying to drink that!" I shouted as I swept the bottle of whiskey back into the stash I kept in my foot-locker. "You know you're not supposed to go in there!"

"What does it matter how old I am, you drink it and I've heard so many ponies saying you're too young to be doing the things you do!" the colt shot back, and no matter what he'd done wrong, that stung.

"W–what... I don't care what anypony else says, I'm your mother and I say that you shouldn’t be drinking that stuff until you're a lot older!" I declared, jabbing a forehoof at the rusty locker as the rain thundered on the roof of our boxcar home.

Oh, sure you're his mother, how long has it taken for that lie to really sink in. My mind mused as I tried my best not to let his comment about my predicament get to me. He's just a colt, barely older than a foal. He doesn't know what he's saying.

"Why shouldn't I listen to them? I know you do, I heard you talk to Candi about them, you let them make you sad," Teal pressed, and I closed my eyes, counting to five.

Oh, doesn't this seem familiar, how many years ago was it that you were like him trying to justify sex with a colt when you were too young for it? I was reminded, gagging on the irony.

When I opened my eyes I found Teal looking a little unsure, apprehensive, even. He still scowled at me, little wings buzzing as they did now he'd just about learned to fly independently of his magical outbursts. Every time I saw him, I saw perfection, or at least thinking back on every time I saw him, at the moment perfection was hard to find. Especially when he was really getting under my fur.

"What I and Candi talk about when you're in bed is nothing to do with you, mommy's got issues with the ponies there too," I assured him.

"Funny coming from the pony who told me being different wasn't so bad," he retorted with a huff, slouching as he crossed his forelegs.

I winced and reached out to pat his wings, yet he scampered away. "Hey, I still don't think it's a bad thing, but some of the things they say about me are hard to deal with."

"Oh, and what do they really say? You've got a horn like most of them, so what's really strange about you?" he pressed and, I hesitated.

"Well, it's age... Like you said." I swallowed, unsure how far to go with my answer if he did not dig for it.

He's still so innocent, he's just mad. I love him, I can't really tell him. My mind raced with so many different answers to offer the colt.

"What are you too old, or too young? You drink that stuff all the time so why can't we all just do it?" he reasoned, jabbing a forehoof at the foot-locker.

"Because it's nothing to do with the drink, Teal!" I finally blurted, before rubbing my forelegs across my head. "I... I... They just judge me. Okay."

"But why? You don't tell me why they judge you. Then I guess I'm not too young to know things, mom," he countered, creeping towards my stash.

I shot him a dangerous look that saw he sat back down and frowned. "I'll tell you why when you're older, okay?"

Oh, Dragonfire, really? That's your response? My mind chastised as Teal snorted and I realized that what I'd said was really not the way out of this argument.

"Seriously, how old do I have to be? I've seen all that stuff you tell me not to. I saw them put done those raiders outside the walls last week, I see you and Candi sat there kissing and making all your cootie sounds!" he exclaimed, jumping up and flaring his wings as I could not help but blush, then scowl.

"Well, I'm sorry if you go ahead and just don't listen to me. I'm doing the best I can, it's not like I asked for this!" I declared and like that he fell to the floor and looked at me strangely.

"A–ask for what, mommy?" he asked, voice so naively curious it was almost unbearable.

"I–I... I... Don't worry, it's nothing," I improvised, finally realizing that peak my mother had reached all those years ago and found myself toppling over the other side where she'd stood proud upon the summit.

Teal looked at me, then at his forehoof. "You think I'm strange too, don't you?"

The question felt like it tore out my heart, and through the new hole, all of my heat, frustration, and anger poured out and was forgotten.

"No, I never said that. I love you, Teal, more than anypony in the world!" I insisted as I moved to hug him, but with a buzz of his wings, he darted away.

"That's why they think you're strange too because you're with me!" he added, flying up to the top of a cabinet and pointing a forehoof down at me. "You live with a pony who's strange!"

"No, they don't they... They think I..." I lost my words.

You're what, too young for this? Damn, right you are! I trotted over to the cabinet and reached up but he shied away from my forehoof.

"Come on, Teal, come down, we'll talk about this. I'll even try to get you so of those sugar bombs you like so much."

His ears perked, yet he didn't come any closer to me. Instead, our eyes met and the sense of fear that I'd leave him just because of his wings shot through me like a bullet.

"I–I... No, I don't want sugar bombs, I wanna be normal," he whimpered as he curled up against the back wall.

I crept up onto the cabinet, rear hooves on the lower shelf, the whole thing listed under my weight as I assure him. "You are normal, you are the most normal, best pony in the world."

He shook his head and cried. "You're just saying that. You don't even want me. Bet that's why you don't like it when I hear you and Candi, only normal ponies do what you do!"

Tears streaming from his eyes he darted past me and buzzed up to the rear of the train car, near one of the makeshift skylights. I almost toppled off of the cabinet as I stepped back and it rocked towards me.

"Teal, what are you doing. I've told you to stay away from there!" I called, but he shook his head as his tiny hooves fiddle with the latch.

"You just told me you don't want me, why should I care?" he whimpered, wiping his eyes with a sniff as the skylight flung open with a gust of stormy wind and rain streamed in.

"Teal, no, I never said that... Please don't!" Impulse took over and I bolted for him, only for the unsteady cabinet to come toppling down over my back. "No, goddesses fucking damn it!"

I cursed and squirmed under the weight, pain blooming in my hind legs. But I did not care, I did all I could to get free as long as I could still hear the buzzing of Teal's wings. I looked up, seeing him unsure before the last glance I got of the pony that meant more than anything in the world to me was Teal darting off into the rainy night.

********

"So tell me, you bought what again?" I asked Cherry as she trotted beside me.

The dry desert soil cracked under hoof and the heavy heat hung over us like a damp blanket. It was hardly anything out of the norm, the desert had gone back to being just that after last week's storm. My pink friend, on the other hoof, looked as if she was caring more than just the weight of the desert heat on her shoulders. Cherry had still failed to mention anything about Heatstroke's death or how she felt. I'd thought about asking her once or twice, but right now, it wasn't really something I wanted to think about either.

Even so, I'd kept good on my promise and she'd been the one who'd restock us up on ammo and medical supplies. Having finally experienced her bartering I'd come to realize just why she was so confident she could sell anything. The mixture of confidence and even sass I'd witnessed her employ when trying to sell off what was basically scrap did nothing to help me try to ignore my crush on her. Doing what she was good at practically turned her into a different pony, and it at least distracted her from what had transpired yesterday. Not only that, but she'd even managed to upgrade her barding. The new combination of stable jumpsuit and highway security officer, riot barding looked good on her. Definitely far better than me trudging around with the faulty battle saddle I was still forced to wear.

One thing I was at least thankful for, was that the black armor hid the curved shape of her body enough for me to ignore it, almost. It was hard to stare at her butt now, but her face was still unbearably cute. So too was her puzzle expressions as she levitated the ancient zebra tablet before her.

"I already told you. Plus, I sold almost every scrap of useless junk we had, except for this damn thing." She turned it left and right, and once again that odd, knowing sensation came over me as I looked at the stone carvings.

"I mean I had that rusty fork, it was far more useless than this and I manage to sell that just fine," she explained, seemingly to herself as much as me.

A fork, yeah... Damn it, Dragonfire, don't think about how hot she is trying to squeeze caps from a stone.

"Father taught me never to give up on something that's worth anything, I'll find this a home yet," Cherry declared proudly, levitating the stone tablet back into her new saddlebags.

Yeah, the sooner that thing was away from me the better. I thought, even as that odd desire to have it around came to me again.

"So, how's your magic?" She asked, looking back at me.

I gave a dissatisfied grunt. "Still useless" I groaned, putting a forehoof to my horn.

It gave a faint flicker as I focused, but that was all. Cherry gave me a half-hearted smile.

"And how's..." She gestured back at my stomach with a nod.

Wait, back there... My butt? My ears perked. Oh, the foal! Right!

"Fine, he's fine," I mumbled.

Cherry cocked her head as she looked at my midsection. My mind made the gesture out to be far more forthcoming, but I ignored it. She's not looking at me like that, damn it!

"He?" she questioned.

That reinforced my smile slightly. "Yeah, he's a he. I can feel it," I told her, shaking my midsection a little.

Cherry gave a slight giggle, an impossibly adorable giggle. Raising a forehoof to her muzzle as her eyes closed.

Great, all I really need to distract her from Heatstroke's death is be a cute mom. What perks does being knocked up not get me? I wondered.

"Whatever you say, but I remember Tumbler's foaling and she thought it was gonna be a filly right up until the moment my nephew popped out," she added with more of a cute giggle.

Her happiness was both unbearable and so pleasurable to watch. But I raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Tumbler?" I asked, recalling the name, but not her being so open about the mare it belonged to

Cherry paused, lowering her forehoof. "Yeah, she was my oldest sister. Best of us with her hooves, but sometimes I think she was a little too good at getting ponies to like her."

Her ear folded as she made a motion with her hooves and blushed.

"The year after that was more than a little bit of a struggle, but we pulled through the pregnancy, got the cutest nephew I could ask for..." She sighed, gazing off into the distant hills.

"It was only a week after that that I lost them all, I hardly knew that colt and... He never had much of a life." Her head drooped as she sighed, eyes falling to the dirt at our hooves.

I moved in as close to her as I'd allow myself, placing a forehoof on her shoulder.

"Hey, if my foal grows up with a pony like you around, he'll have the best life in the wasteland," I told her kindly.

She glanced up at me with… Oh goddesses, not the humble look! Anything bit that utter adorableness!

"I know, he'll never go hungry, that's for sure! That one could bribe grass out of the desert," Vertigo called from ahead, nodding at Cherry as she scuffed a rock with a hoof.

The pair of us looked to the eavesdropping buck with disapproving scowls, but he only seemed to gorge himself on the amusement as he grinned.

So much for Mister Sensible and Handsome last night, huh? I thought with a sigh.

"How much further?" I asked bluntly, only now starting to notice the little added weight cradled between my legs.

Vertigo motioned ahead with a forehoof. "Just over the hill, you could see the damn thing from town, so you're asking me why?"

I just shook my head again. Damn casual weirdo.

Regardless, the massive frame of the ivory needle that had been visible on the hilly northern horizon the moment we were out from under the intersection had been where I was told our destination was located. The huge monument to wartime ponies' desires to go bigger stood defiant against the dusty gales of the desert, nestled between several small hills and rocky ridges. Along its vast surface was a large web of wires, pipes, dishes, and cameras that would have been visible as no more than a black sprawl b from the distance I usually observed these towers at.

As we passed over the ridge, I saw that the area around the tower's base was surrounded by a trampled chain-link fence, several large generators on the far side, and a smaller white building to the right of what appeared to be the monstrous structure's main entrance. Clumps of dead shrubs and brown grass clung to areas of the yard in mounds, and the odd tumbleweed bounced through. Then I noticed the robots.

There were at least half a dozen automated contraptions roaming around the dusty yard. Ranging from ponytrons, and mister handys to security sentinels and some of the Gyrotrons Heatstroke had been coveting. A part of me was both really glad she didn't know whoever had set this up, and another part glad that whoever this pony Vertigo worked for was, they did not seem to have an interest in the warehouse full of machines just a short walk away.

"Well, there it is, the real home sweet home," Vertigo declared happily, waving a hoof out towards the fortified sky tower.

My eyes were fixed on the army of shambling robots scurrying around like ants below. I had to suppress my newfound hatred I had for their existence, otherwise, I might try and dismantle every one of them before one inevitably tried to shoot me.

"Great, your housemates look just wonderful?" I pointed a hoof at a Mister Handy as it hovered to the edge of the fenced yard, extended its eyes to look around, then back moved towards the tower again.

Vertigo squinted as if they were nothing but real ants to him.

"What the 'bots? They don't bite unless they're told," he stated simply, pointing a forehoof at a rocket armed sentry bot as it rolled casually out of the office building.

Oh, because he loves robots any more than I do! I cursed inwardly, recalling just how close he'd come to being blown up under Oracle too.

Nevertheless, before I could argue, Vertigo hoped from the ridge, trotting eagerly towards the tower and the awaiting metal death squad.

"I hope you aren't planning to do that," Cherry asked softly, looking at the trail of dust kicked up by the rushing buck, then at my midsection with a worried expression.

Goddesses, is she really thinking more about my foal's wellbeing then I am again?

"No, I'll be careful. But keep your eyes on those robots." I suggested, and she levitated out Responsibility.

Damn it, I really wished you'd hurry up and get back here magic! I inwardly cursed at her casual use of telekinesis

"Whoa, come on you two, we ain't got all day," Vertigo called up as he reached the bottom of the ridge, shaking the dust from his coat with a violent ruffle of his mane.

"Have I ever asked how exactly you found a pony so strange?" Cherry asked as we regarded him.

I opened a mental file of all the bucks I'd fucked in the wasteland. Half of my memories had timed out, some others felt like they were corrupted or encrypted. Unbeknownst to Cherry, Vertigo fell into the file of 'I haven't fucked him yet'.

Oh, but you'd like to. You know you would. My mind snickered, recalling what we'd said to one another last night. Okay, so I definitely will at some point.

"I have no idea why some of the oddest ponies around are attracted to me. I'm just glad I have you to offer at least some sensibility," I responded, and despite what she'd told me, I had to run from her cute humbled look before I accidentally kissed her!

"Dragonfire, you said you'd be careful!" she called after me as I zigzagged my way down the ridge, careful not to fall.

"I am, don't worry!" I retorted, but myself shouting was abruptly silenced as a sharp pop filled the air, followed by a soft wiz as a bolt of green energy struck the ground to my left.

Fucking robots! I swear I almost shouted as I reached the base of the ridge and bolted for cover behind a nearby rock.

Cherry followed me with equal haste, a bolt of plasma skimming her rump and exerting an eep from the mare as she dove into cover beside me. Goddesses, am I glad she had that new armor!

"Die, zebra scum!" The over prejudice, tinny voice of the spider bot blurted as it hovered forward.

"Don't get me wrong, I really know why you hate these things," Cherry panted, levitating up Responsibility. "You still okay with the saddle?" she asked.

I looked at the weapons strapped to my side. Damn it, horn, I'm not an earth pony, give me my magic back!

"No, no, no. Wait, stop!" Vertigo cried, forehooves flailing.

Cautiously the pair of us peeked around the rock to see the buck running towards the Mister Gutsy. The robot paused, peered at him strangely, then finally hovered back. Vertigo fell flat on his face, sprawling in the dust where the robot had just been hovering. I exchanged a glance with Cherry as the robot's tinny voice gave a static crackle and a new voice replaced it.

"Vertigo?" The voice was that of a mare. "What are you doing back here so soon, and why were you followed?"

Okay, maybe that's a hint of scorn too.

Vertigo coughed, wiping the dust from his muzzle and patting down his mane as several more robots trudged over to help him up.

"One, I come back here any time I like." He lifted a forehoof. "Two, I have friends other than you, and three, please don't shoot my other friends!" he exclaimed, pointing at the pair of us.

Before either of us could react one of the Gyrotrons sped up behind us, scattering dust as it deployed its clawed legs and side mounted plasma cannons.

Oh come on, what in the goddesses' name am I supposed to do against that? I thought as its stalked eyes extended towards us.

"Hi," I offered tentatively, waving a forehoof.

Cherry sank down a little, paling even as I knew her magical grip on the golden rifle tightened.

"This is the one I was telling you about, she got into that stupid Destiny tower you're always going on about," Vertigo explained.

The Mister Gutsy beside him paused, seeming to think. Damn it, why is a robot thinking again!

Overseer flashbacks ran through my head as the robot extended one of its eyestalks towards us. The Gyrotron behind us gave a rev of its lone wheel as it also pointed its eyes on long stalks at us.

"You accessed Destiny Crop. tower five?" The rolling robot asked in a far deeper and menacing version of that mare's voice.

I nodded slowly as its eyes came in closer, and looked me over, lingering on my saddle bags for a long moment before redrawing back into the robot's frame. Then it sighed. A robot sighed!

"Very well, but only because I trust you, Vertigo, you oversized radroach." Both robots growled in union.

"You won't shoot us then?" Cherry asked, perking up a little.

"No, Vertigo and Stg ML3 will escort you up to me," the wheeled robot added, retracting its array of energy weapons before rolling away like nothing had happened.

I took a deep breath. Those things with that, speed, all those guns and me with no magic? My mind asked. It's a very good thing that Heatstroke did not get an army of them.

Vertigo gave us a weak apologetic smile as I stood up and frowned at him. Clearly, he had not got everything as planned out as he'd like me to believe.

"Come on, let's go see this backup of yours," I told him with a snort, trotting up to the Mister Gutsy.

"Stg ML3, I'm guessing?" I asked the hovering spider bot as it rotated to look at me.

"Yes, ma'am, at your service, ma'am." Oh, how I had not missed that irritating voice.

"You alright?" Vertigo asked Cherry and I looked back to see her more shaken then I'd seen in days.

You know how hard she's hitting herself for what happened yesterday, you're going to have to bring it up at some point. My mind reminded me, but I shook off the inevitable idea.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," she responded, and from the way he nodded, it was pretty clear he was just as against thinking about bringing it up as I was.

"Okay, let's just get inside, " he stated, trotting forward towards the door of the tower, St ML3 following him closely.

I nodded to Cherry who gave a nervous smile as we both totted after them. Vertigo pressed a button in the tower's base, entering a code before the robot confirmed his access and a large door in the vast mechanical wall whined and ground open.

"Your friend sure has a weird way of saying hello," I grumbled to Vertigo as we stepped onto a large elevator platform within the newly opened space.

Goddesses, how I love these stupid things. I internally hissed as we began to rise into the mechanical gloom.

"Well, you can't be too careful, the transcendent have ponies everywhere. They're not like raiders or slavers. They're organized and coordinated," the purple buck said simply.

I shook my head, glancing up to the hovering spider bot at my side. "Doesn't seem like enough to stop somepony like Carnage or a flock of augmented griffins," I observed, tapping a hoof against one of the robot's arms.

Vertigo glanced up at the silent mister gutsy. "Well, the trick is not letting them on to who's fucking with them, so they don't know where to send the monsters" he added, somewhat proudly.

I cocked my head. "And how exactly do you do that so well?" I asked in an equally suspicious tone.

Vertigo shrugged as the elevator rattled to a loud halt. The whole thing gave a shudder as a large metal door ahead opened with just as much noise and jets of hissing steam from either side. Stg ML3 was the first to exit, then Vertigo.

"Just please, please don't shoot anything," the buck asked, looking back at us with seemingly the best pleading expression he could muster.

Cherry seemed less reluctant to disagree as she nodded. I, on the other hoof, was not about to be accosted by any more robots anytime soon, no matter what he asked. The room beyond the elevator was a massive mesh of wires, pipes and terminal screens. It was almost identical to home, minus the moisture. That, and the corridor here was huge, it looked as if something even as large as an ultra sentinel could roll down the great rectangular shaft with no issue.

The buzz of generators sounded deep below and flickering lights illuminated the long hallways stretching off either side of us as we trotted down towards another bulkhead at the far end. Stg ML3 hovered over to a small panel in the wall to the left of the door, tapping several buttons with a metallic limb before turning back to us.

"It has been a pleasure, commanders, now I am afraid I must return to my duties," the mechanical spider buzzed before flying off back down the hall and into the elevator.

Vertigo shook his head as the door before us slowly opened, alarms and spinning red lights signaling its retreat into the roof.

Goddesses, what does he have in here? A mechanical monster pony of his own? My stomach gave a nervous twitch as I imagined something with a mass of mechanical legs, grinding tendrils, black claws and a fiery mane like Carnage.

Regardless, Vertigo trotted into the new room nonchalantly. Cherry appeared beside me and I offered her a cautious glance before following after the stallion.

"Honey, I'm home!" Vertigo called out into the vast new chamber.

To our left and right, raised platforms supported a vast array of flickering terminal screens and control counsels. Pipes and wires hummed under hoof, a griddled floor holding us about a foot above the vibrating surface. The shadows of fans marked the walls as they slowly rotated and hisses of steam accompanied sparks here and there. Vertigo's voice echoed as I peered up on to the massive shaft starching far into the misty gloom above, its walls lined with yet more tec and crossed by many steel catwalks as I resisted the onset of vertigo it summoned.

Directly ahead was a small groove into the domed wall in which was a large array of flickering screens, all seeming to display numerous places all over the wasteland. I could see towns, villages and ruins, some as far away as Manehatten. I could even see the area outside as Stg ML3 exited the elevator through the front of the tower. Below the screens was a massive control console of flickering lights, levers, and twitching dials. Several more had been pulled up on metal trolleys behind it, all bearing smaller terminals and keyboards. If it were not for the sparking wires that snaked up from the floor and over the trolley beside it, then I'd have struggled to distinguish what was detached from the rest of the machine mass.

Yet more of the wires and buzzing cables snaked around my hooves, all leading to various places around the overly technological chamber. The image of some sort of robotic abomination emerging from the mess to swallow us whole played out in my mind as my eyes struggled to comprehend the sheer amount of metal.

"What in Equestria is all of this for?" I asked Vertigo in a hushed tone.

The buck looked back at me and gave a subtle smile, nodding towards the mixture of terminals growing from the far wall. "Well, don't ask me, they're not mine."

All of a sudden, there was a rattling amidst the terminals and the head of a small earth pony mare emerged from beyond the foremost trolley. Wires and cables draped across her mane as she spat out a wrench and straightened a pencil behind her left ear. She was at least half the size of me. In fact, it was hard not to think she wasn't a filly as she stood up and pushed the trolleys aside with…

Wait, she's definitely an earth pony so what are those?

She wore a tight-fitting, black harness that was crisscrossed by small wires and bore a chest plate of flashing buttons. My attention was swiftly directed to where the vast majority of the wires led to, however. Protruding from her back were four metal arms, like those of one of the spider bots outside each was tipped with a dextrous set of claws that twitched like a perfect extension of their wearer.

Speaking of which, from what I could see of her uncovered head, tail and mane, her coat was a steel gray, her mane a dull green with lighter highlights, almost the same color to a terminal screen. Her eyes were green too, only just visible behind a set of large welding goggles. My eyes widened as she trotted out from the terminals, a great many larger wires dragging behind her as she did so.

Goddesses, she's like my nightmares about surgical machines turned into a mare! I thought as she flicked the cables from her scruffy tail.

"So, you two must be the ponies that have my..." She rolled a forehoof in the air. "Emissary, all wound up?"

Her voice was surprisingly light, prim almost. A betrayal of her partly mechanical appearance, more so as a mechanical arm took a screwdriver from the table beside her and placed it in a pouch on her strange barding. She glanced to Vertigo casually, her expression both a scowl and sly smile. He mirrored the expression blushing slightly at her narrowed gaze as one of her metal arms pushed the goggles down to hang around her neck.

I just nodded slowly. "You must be the 'friend' he keeps talking about then?" I responded, trying not to be too sour about the events that had just taken place outside.

"Is that what he's calling me these days?" She offered the buck a crooked smile, then waved a forehoof. "Nah, the name's Binary, and I think we got off to a bad start."

I looked at the mechanical limbs she was holding out in a friendly gesture like it was about to come alive and rip my leg off. I'd be reluctant to shake her hoof, never mind her creepy claws, which probably could do more things than a multi-purpose tool.

"I'm Cherry Pin, this is Dragonfire, and I think we can forgive and forget," the pink mare beside me suddenly introduced, taking the metallic limbs and shaking it politely.

Binary smiled. "Nice to meet you, even if it's unexpected." She glanced at Vertigo again.

He offered another awkward smirk, and Binary shook her head before she turned back to the terminals.

"Now, I understand that you gained entry to a place nopony should be able to enter," she asked, glancing over her shoulder.

Her metal arms swerved with her eyes as if they had a mind of their own. The whole thing caused a shudder to bolt down my spine.

Great, straight to the point, I hated long waits. Even if she looks like she has a set of metal snakes on her back. My mind noted wearily, as did it seem my tummy was unsure as it gave another tickling flutter.

This is still a bad idea, I have no idea who this mare is or what she wants. She could be a transcendent spy for all I know I stepped forward, glancing at Vertigo for reassurance.

He gave me a confused look, seeming to be in another place within that silly head of his. Well, so much for his seal of approval. I sighed mentally.

"I might have, but first I wanna know who you are and what you want with that information because somepony was willing to pay a lot for it. Not to mention, your friend here dragged me into a whole other nightmare just to try and get more of it." I nodded at Vertigo, regretting going into the Oracle building just a little bit more as I rubbed a hoof over my Pipbuck.

Binary sighed, her claws drooping with her head as her ears fell, then rose sharply. "You really know how to pick them, don't you," she grumbled her eyes and claws now fixed on Vertigo. "Well, I suppose I could just kill you if info gets out so..." she added with a sly grin.

Great, she is only a little more serious than him. I grumbled inwardly, catching her smirk. Only she had an army of robots to kill us with

"In answer to your question, I'm a pony who's been after those bastards ever since they ransacked my home, and I'll need every piece of information I can get to bring them down," she explained.

I was wary, but she didn't seem like a liar. I'd seen enough treachery in the wasteland to know when somepony was trying to trick me.

"Your home, where's that?" Cherry asked as I considered things.

Binary glanced away, metallic limbs looking back at her like sympathetic pets. Goddesses, I've really had enough of emotionally distressed robots!

"I'm from Stable Fifty," she told us, gesturing to her forehoof where I saw an incredibly slim Pipbuck, so much so it merely looked like an exertion of her barding.

The exact same stable where they took Star. I thought bitterly.

"The whole thing was some kind of experiment by Stable-tec, to overfill the place with terminals and lab equipment, but then the M.A.S decided to have the vast majority of their scientist stationed there to study what they found under the city. So when the bombs came down they were locked away with a virtual cornucopia of knowledge and technology," she explained.

Just like Sweetie Belle and Babs Seed talked about. I recalled, trying not to think about the fate of one of those mares as Binary went on.

"The Transcendent seemed to find that appealing, the temptation was too much to resist to keep them from taking over the place." She looked at my Pipbuck hopefully.

Great, another pony that had lost her family, her home? Goddesses, I really am a magnet for this. I flicked the faulty latch and pulled the Pipbuck off my leg, E.F.S and my vitals vanishing from my view as I set it down on one of the trolleys beside me.

"Can't say I know much about terminals, but everything on there came from Hayland's private terminal. Plus, whatever Vertigo got for Oracle. Most of the stuff’s encrypted but..." She cut me off with a casual wave of her forehoof, dismissing the fact with a soft whistle.

"Encryption, that's nothing. I eat those for breakfast," she declared grabbing the Pipbuck in her metal claws and looking over it carefully.

"The other files are from the Oracle hub in Crimson Springs. Whatever program she has on there stripped the place of everything," Vertigo assured, but Binary seemed far more interested in me as she pranced like a school filly.

"So you really did get in there then?" she asked eagerly.

I nodded, rising a forehoof before she could explode with questions. "Don't ask me how, I've no idea. All I know is the Transcendent sent a monster in after me to get something and I'm sure I left with it instead," I told her, feeling a squirming in my belly.

Among some other things you left with. My thoughts reminded me as I gently nudged my gut with a hind hoof.

Binary nodded, looking over the Pipbuck like a foal with her first ever toy. "Locking mechanism’s trashed, E.F.S seems glitchy, but it's working. I can probably fix everything on here with about a day tops," she boasted with another excited burst as she reached her wall of terminals.

"Oh, thank you! This is really everything that Destiny had on Oracle? All the stuff they tried to hide from everypony? The Apoptosis program, what’s under Crimson Springs. Oooo, you have no idea how much this means!" she counted giddily, setting the Pipbuck down on the foremost trolley before attaching a whole range of wires to it.

I glanced back to see Cherry smiling a little at the thought she'd done a small thing to help somepony. Vertigo just looked about as if this were the most awkward situation of his life. I looked back to Binary as she bounced about like a giddy school filly.

"So what were they up to, you know, making monster ponies?" I asked cautiously, really thinking that the least she owed me was telling me what was trying to kill me.

That seemed to reel the small mare in slightly, but she didn't seem half as reluctant to address the fact as her companion did in the field.

"Ever heard of the Apotheosis Project?" she asked as if I should know.

I shook my head in a way that made clear I wasn't the kind of pony that should know those things. She looked slightly puzzled by that, as if in her clearly superior brain this didn't add up, then she rolled her eyes

"Why, the Apotheosis Project is Hayland's fourth failed attempt to save Equestria, putting it simply," she added, waving a forehoof.

Using monster ponies to save Equestria, there are my feelings regarding pre-war ponies dropping to new lows? Carnage, a rage-filled daemon, pyromancer was designed to save Equestria? What about Vertigo's story of the mare with the swarm of flesh-eating death? My look of confusion must have been blatantly obvious as Binary continued to explain while she worked on the Pipbuck.

"Four different projects, all designated to perfect our biology. Radiation immunity, disease immunity, strength, endurance boosts. That was the basics, then they started to go a little mad. Mental control over mechanical nanosprites with the intention of creating matter was one such occasion. Then there was another to bio infuse a pony with IMP evolved viruses and bacteria. Most of the stuff they stole from the M.O.S," she explained, glancing over at Vertigo for the latter part.

The buck, shook his head. "I'll eat my tail if I see that crazy bitch create anything," he said sourly, scuffing a forehoof against the metal.

"IMP?" I asked, cocking my head?

"Yeah, we knew a lot about it in the stable, out here you'd call it taint. It was created by Twilight Sparkle at the end of the war, was supposed to create Alicorns, but I don't think it worked out," she elaborated, yet from what I heard, Alicorns were far from a myth.

"But they're just two examples. I thought most of the experiments were dead, but I now know at least two are still alive Locust and..." She waved a hoof at me.

"Carnage, who is a big fiery daemon pony," I finished for her swiftly.

"Yeah, him," she acknowledged, nodding as she looked back to my Pipbuck.

My mind reeled with the idea of at least two more of the monster ponies unaccounted for. Still, that didn't explain everything.

"What about this Barron?" I interjected.

Binary's ears rose tall, metal arms shivering like frightened hounds as she looked back over her shoulder at me.

"No, that was strictly an Oracle Project... Some sort of biomechanical, cyborg made from a unique metal ..." She trailed off looking at the screens emptily for a moment.

"The Barron's the one who took Stable Fifty from us," she sighed looking back at herself.

"I remember it like it was yesterday, the Stable door didn't stop them, security couldn't stop an army of radicalized idiots and captured raiders..." She swallowed, then sniffed. "That was the day I got my cutie mark for wiping the stable mainframe, the day I saw my mother murdered in front of me," she added, her sad expression growing firm as she thumped a hoof on the floor.

I felt my heart sink until it was almost as if it dropped out of my chest.

"If she hadn't been overmare I'd have never have made it out, but by the goddesses, I made a promise I'd get the metal bastard one day," she growled, her metal claws clenching.

I swallowed hard, another pony who had lost her family, the very day she had seen her destiny appear on her flank. I looked back to where my own cutie mark sat under my barding. That hadn't been me, that had been somepony else, some pony who died years ago.

"I'm sorry." It was the best I could say, the second most pointless gesture of compassion in the wasteland after it's not your fault'.

Binary shook her head. "Don't be, that was a long time ago, revenge is a good motivator, keeps my focus on the day I can rip that metal monster's brain out," she stated, claws tightening. "Then, as long as we put an end to whatever and whoever the Sigel is doing I'll be happy. I just wish I knew what any of that was."

She trailed off again, plugging another wire into the Pipbuck, then looked over at the screens, many of them still displaying places displayed in the wasteland.

"So you don't know who this Sigel is they keep going on about?" I asked as I saw a trade caravan pass a dinner on one of the screens.

Binary shrugged with all of her arms. "Beats me. Nopony but Barron seems to know. He's kinda' the right-hand buck being Lord Inquisitor and all. But I'd take a guess and say Parsec also knows, Twilight, and maybe some of the Apotheosis," she explained, rubbing her chin with a claw.

Wait no, that just gives me more questions. my mind hissed. Now there are just more names in the mix.

"You don't mean the real Twilight, do you? She's dead," Cherry interjected

"And who's Parsec?" I added skeptically.

Binary once again looked at us as if she thought we should already know.

"No, the Twilight I've heard about wears a mask, an inquisitor that thinks they're the second coming of the ministry mare or something." She waved another fore hoof dismissively.

"Parsec is the head of the Alicanto. It's a rogue faction of pegasi that follows the teaching of the Sigel. Though I don't think there's many of them anymore."

Okay, I'm just gonna stop asking questions now, I didn't want to know if they had an army of Hellhounds or Alicorns too

Binary shook her head. "You know, for some pony who got into a locked down Destiny tower you don't seem to know much." I'd no idea whether that was an insult or a compliment, but I tried to take it as the latter.

"I have no idea, somepony just paid us to get in there and when we arrived the place was open and defenseless since something called Overseer let us in," I explained, leaving out the part about my experimental impregnation for now as my stomach gave a faint twitch.

Really, she's the one pony who can help you? My thoughts stated reasonably. I didn't need help, I could have a foal, not a monster.

Binary shrugged. "Can't say I know what that is, probably some interactive security system," she told me as she looked over the Pipbuck, then she sighed.

"Well, this is gonna take some time to decrypt everything so I suggest we all leave the questions for when I have more answers." She nodded at the Pipbuck and the mangled mess of wires that had formed around it.

As much as I'd like to know more, I was prepared to give the mare a break if I had to. The last thing I wanted was her wallowing in the pain of her past when I needed information. With that decision, I swiftly turned back to the others to see Vertigo leaning casually against a squat wall of screens. Cherry's eyes were seemingly fighting to keep away from all the shiny equipment she could undoubtedly make caps from. Vertigo glanced to Binary the first chance he got and gave a dry cough, catching the small gray mare's attention.

"So, I think you owe me something," he asked bluntly, admiring a raised forehoof.

Binary rolled her eyes, giving a dry sigh. "Yes, okay! I'm sorry, and thank you," she retorted with an equal lack of enthusiasm.

Vertigo smiled. "Thank you," he responded with a little bow of his head.

"Yeah, well you're lucky I lost that bug zapper," she grumbled as he trotted to the far side of the room and opened his saddlebags, removing his equipment carefully.

As I looked around, Cherry appeared beside me. "Find any more deals?" I asked her with a wry smile.

She shook her head. "Hardly, everything in her looks like it's wired up to something else. I can't even tell if she's a part of it or not," she replied, pointing a hoof at the wires dragging across the floor behind Binary's scraggy tail.

My smile grew slightly at Cherry's puzzled expression. It was like she was part of the Apotheoses, and her enhancement was sheer adorableness. Now that was something I would like to see save Equestria.

"So you got a plan now?" she asked, but I shook my head.

"No, we'll stay here and see what we can find out from that Pipbuck," I said reasonably.

Cherry nodded, but then frown. "So you think your friends still alive out there?" she asked.

There was that good pony again. But I couldn't give her an honest answer. I believed Star could survive anything, I believed he wasn't dead. But that faith was slowly fading. Then something crossed my mind and an idea soon followed. I looked at Binary as she tended to another set of flickering screens. This was not something I really wanted to ask, but I was done beating around the bush.

"Say... how did you get out of Stable fifty?" I inquired tentatively.

The mare's ears rose and she looked back at me, both pride and dread in her expression.

"There's a secret passage to the overmare's office by the main door. I hacked it and got out through there into the desert..." She seemed to think deeply on that for a moment, then pointed a hoof at Vertigo and added. "Would have died out there and then if she hadn't found me."

My eyes were on the stallion in a second, as were Cherry's. "She?" we both stated in blunt union.

Vertigo coughed and gave an awkward smile. Binary looked to us in surprise then to the purple pony with smug confidence.

"Oh, she hasn't told you has she?" the small earth pony asked, waving a hoof at Vertigo. "Well, come on Vertigo, I gave up my secrets, now it's your turn," she pressed.

Vertigo stood and sighed. "Fine, it's no fun anymore anyway," he added in a mildly frustrated tone before the room was illuminated by a bright green flash.

Vertigo was gone, consumed by green flame and what stood in his place was... My jaw dropped as Cherry looked like she could faint. The strange, black, bug, pony... thing turned to face us. His hooves were like rods of cheese as was his horn, spiked mane, and tail. His ears had become sharp and pointed, and on his back were a pair of thin, insect-like wings encased in a sapphire blue elytra. His peculiar gray armor had also changed to that of a strange purple hide, like a saddle across his back and an old helmet, almost like that of those old world guards. The bright blue eyes beneath narrowed and his fanged mouth broke with a sly smile.

"Well, you caught me. Surprise!" He, she... it, said in a reverberating voice that was not that of the teasing buck I knew.

The Vertigo I thought I knew wasn’t the same Vertigo that stood before me. Vertigo wasn’t Vertigo at all!

Foot Note: 25% To Next Level Up

Chapter Twenty-Four: Changing Perspective

Chapter 24:

'I'm not awkward, you're awkward. This is all awkward!'

"You'll knock ‘em dead out there, Sweetie," my host said as he looked over the last details of Sweetie Belle's long, flowing, black and gold dress.

The mare was particularly shimmering, even in the low backstage light she was as radiant as a goddess. Each turn of her head was accompanied by a faint chime of jewels and rainbows of reflected light beamed from the gems braided into her mane and tail. I imagined it would have been hard for a dragon's hoard to gleam more than she did, yet no number of gemstones could have rivaled her beauty in the eyes of my host.

That made it incredibly hard not to think about how attractive she really was. Particularly when his attention sometimes became a little more focused on her butt than her face. She was the kind of mare stallions would chase after for sure, the celebrity crush young colts would hang posters of on their bedroom walls and drool over.

Goddesses, if anypony ever made a sex clone... or robot... Damn it, brain! Even so, the odd time she did notice my host gawking, the looks she offered seemed far more whimsical than offended. Oh, so at least one stallion gets a pass, how about mares then?

"Eyes are up here, Fleetie," she purred, tapping her cheek with a forehoof even as she wiggled her rump.

Damn thing sounds like a windchime!

I felt blood rush to my host's cheeks as well as a few other places and was once again thankful for the sky guard armor concealing it, even if he didn't have the helmet this time. Even so, it didn't feel like his eyes could go any wider as he stammered, words catching in his throat as he choked and took a step back. All the while, Sweetie Belle giggled, offering a rather sultry smile as she tapped his chest.

“Got your tongue again?" she cooed before planting a light kiss on his cheek. "Shame, I so could have gotten my cutie mark in making you speechless if I didn't have it already."

"Wait... What would that cutie mark even look like?" my host, Fleetie, as she'd identified, finally responded, glancing to see that ever so playful smile on his gorgeous marefriend's face.

"Humm..." Sweetie tapped her chin. "I imagine just like you look right now, you're just the right shade of red, even my sister would be impressed."

Okay, this mare does not deserve to be so teasing, where is the hot, sweaty, and grumpy mare from last time? At least then she was sexy in a way that didn't make me feel like a bug!

"Just imagine that on my butt," she chirped, wiggling her rear with a jingle as she giggled. "Scoots and Apple Bloom would be so jealous!"

"Well, maybe Apple Bloom, not sure about Scootaloo yet," my host offered in response as he nuzzled her cheek. "You know how she feels about most ponies nowadays."

"What, all grumpy and stuck with work? Yeah, I know... After this tour, she’s asked me to go all around Equestria again. Public relations, honestly that part of the job sucks," she huffed, the erotic undertone all but evaporated.

Her coltfriend offered a small smile, nuzzling again.

"I know, I'd rather you do what you love to do too. But I'll be there every step of the way with you," he offered, and at that, it was her turn to blush.

"Hey, you'll mess up my mane if you keep doing that," she giggled, shoving him away gently, before pressing a hoof to her muzzle with a gasp. "Oh Celestia, I sounded way too much like Rarity right then!"

My host shrugged.

"Well, you are dressed like her again, after all." The hoof that ruffled his mane a second later said that he was really in for it if he even suggested such a thing again.

Seriously, how can such an adorable action feel so threatening, unless the kind of treat is the kind, they'll both enjoy... Damn it, brain!

As I battled my hormones, my host rolled his eyes, and for some reason, I felt that it was at least partially my fault, even all these decades later.

"Just because I wear fancy dresses doesn't make me a carbon copy of my sister. The last gala I saw her attend was ages ago anyway," Sweetie declared, then sighed, head drooping a little. "I know for a fact she's not out there either."

She gestured towards the giant red curtain separating us from the stage and what sounded like hundreds of ponies taking their seats. Then the lighting below the divider's edge shifted as somepony took center stage and started to talk to the hushed crowd, announcing the night's entertainment.

"I... I'm sure she'll be listening to it on the radio if she's not, right?" Fleetie suggested as he stepped up beside the weary-looking mare. "But I thought she and Fluttershy both bought tickets?"

"Fleet Wing, you're on the security detail, I think you would know if two ministry mares were out there," Sweetie responded, glancing up at him before nodding to the curtain again.

Fleet Wing, so that's his name? I noted as the stallion in question sighed and tried to be reassuring. Goddesses, that feeling, he really does love her, it's so filling... I didn't feel like that with Cherry, is my love for her still just a lie then, is it really just lust?

"I know, I'm sorry... You know if I could pick her up from whatever dumb meeting she's in and make her sit there, I would," Fleet Wing stated, stomping a forehoof. "I'd move mountains for it if I had to."

Despite herself, Sweetie Belle cracked a smile and lifted her head.

"If I didn't have so much lipstick on, I'd kiss that dumb face of yours so much," she purred, pressing a forehoof to the tip of his muzzle.

"And now with tonight's opening act, with her brand-new song, Sweetie Belle!" Came the voice from beyond the curtain.

"Who says I'd mind a few little kisses?" my host responded, but Sweetie rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him away.

"Well, there is always the after show, my trailer's empty, remember?" she cooed, wiggling her rump again.

Once again that heat returned to all the right places of my host's body as she waved him off stage and the curtain broke to bathe her in a brilliant blue glow. Her dark dress blended into the shadows, her coat a ghostly white as all the gems wound into her mane began to shimmer like a cloak of starlight. I imagined it would make even the princess of the night jealous and was somewhat worried my host would be too captivated by her to actually do his job. Moments later, the light narrowed, until one lone pillar of pale blue illuminated the gleaming mare as she stepped up to a microphone. The beat began, the rhythm flowing, and then she started to sing.

As if looking at her body wasn't distracting enough! Both I and my host thought almost in unison as the most beautiful sounds I'd ever heard drifted into his ears.

"Hush now quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head," she began, dizzying my host as he started to swoon.

Seriously, how can anypony have lost this...? This is the kind of thing they gave up, This kind of entertainment is what they destroyed? I thought bitterly.

Eyes closed, Sweetie Belle lifted her head, body flowing beautifully in rhythm with the music as her radiant voice filled the room with its audible glow. Sure enough, her horn lit up, lime-green magic synchronizing with orbs of light lining the stage as a constellation of magnificent stars grew like vines in the darkness above her. The image of a crescent moon shimmered into view; the shape of a dancing filly rather similar to the singing mare pirouetting upon the curve. Seconds later, Sweetie Belle's eyes opened, twinkling like the stars hanging over her as she took a breath and smiled.

Goddesses, those eyes are so beautiful.

I couldn't tell if those thoughts were Fleet Wing's or my own as my host started tapping a forehoof in beat with the music and his mare friend peered over the awestruck crowd.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed," she soothed, before the beat changed and the song picked up the pace. "Driftin' off to sleep! Exciting day behind you! Driftin' off to sleep! Let the joy of dreamland find you!"

I'd no idea a lullaby could be so catchy. I thought as the most genuine love I'd ever felt flooded my host's chest.
He breathed it in like a miasma and part of me wondered if this was how Vertigo felt around me whenever I looked at Cherry.

Silly bug pony, no wonder he has an orb like this. It's like a damn fix for him! I recognized, a little bitter that he probably used this beautiful memory that way.

Fleet Wing, at least, seemed to love Sweetie Belle wholeheartedly, making me all too aware that my love for Cherry didn't feel anywhere near this strong.

Maybe I'm just fooling myself, or it's just new hormones talking? Is it just lust? How long will it be until I can next have sex while knocked up anyway?

Ideas spun in the back of my mind while I was overwhelmed by my host's passion. To say I was envious of the feeling would have been an understatement. What I wouldn't have given to hear Sweetie Belle sing first-hoof, memories couldn't do a sound like her voice justice in the slightest.

Still, for all his distraction, Fleet Wing was far, far more alert than I was.

Goddesses, is that some sixth sense he has? His ears swiveled as an oddly familiar sensation came over him.

It was like looking into a photo to see somepony you recognized after years apart, yet there was nopony around save for stagehands and pompous-looking directors. Nevertheless, he stopped tapping his forehoof and glanced back over his shoulder. There was a clatter as a mare carrying a bunch of stage equipment fell, and in a flash, he darted over.

"Are you okay, miss?" he asked like the perfect gentlecolt.

And here I thought Vertigo had been hot last night.

The peach, earth pony mare glanced up at him, looking a little uncertain. "I–I... Sorry, I should really be more careful," she stammered.

Fleet Wing shrugged, offering her a hoof and helping her up. "Ah, I'm sure you have a lot on your hooves, I wouldn't worry," he responded, picking up a speaker with his wing. "You're not hurt, are you?"

She shook her head.

"No, no, I'm fine," she assured, dusting herself off with a forehoof. "Thanks for asking though, erm..."

"Fleet Wing, Equestrian Sky Guard," he concluded, making a mock salute with his wing.

She giggled, lifting the fallen equipment onto her back and taking the speaker from him.

"Sweetie Belle's coltfriend right?" she asked, and I felt that heat return to his cheeks as he nodded. "Hehe, yeah word kinda gets around backstage, don't worry though, my lips are sealed, anything for Sweetie."

"That's something we can both agree on, at least," he chuckled as she straightened herself.

"Well, I better get back to work, nice to meet you, Fleet Wing," she offered and he nodded watching her as she trotted off behind a wall of props.

Beyond the curtain, the crowd erupted into cheers as Sweetie Bell's performance concluded. Yet Fleet Wing still had the odd sensation prickling in his mind. It had slipped my attention while he'd been talking to the amber mare, but it was like somepony was watching him, only he knew exactly who.

"This is all quite the performance, I'm impressed," came the voice of a stallion, and Fleet Wing slowly turned to see a dark-brown buck, dressed in a long trench coat emerge from the gloom between two-stage backgrounds.

"I see your performance has gotten no more subtle," my host responded, eyeing the stranger up and down before trotting towards him.

The mysterious stallion smirked and nodded to the open stage.

"Oh, I don't mean to imply it was the performance out there." The stranger waved a forehoof at Fleet Wing. "What you just did with that pony... Haha, quite the bluff."

Fleet Wing frowned.

"Did you ever think to consider that it wasn't a bluff, hum?" he questioned, and the stranger rolled his eyes.

"What, you're saying you actually care about them? Here I thought you were sapping that mare out there for every last drop you could get," he joked, but the moment the words left his muzzle one of Fleet Wing's forehooves struck him right in the nose.

"What do you want, Electra?" my host grumbled bluntly, rubbing the offending forehoof on his chest.

That green goo coming from his nose, is that... Blood? My thoughts laughed with realization as the stranger staggered back to his hooves, scowling at my host. Damn, these two are Changelings!

"You better hope that was part of the act too, I could have you exiled," The stranger, Electra I assumed, hissed as he wiped his bleeding muzzle.

Fleet Wing, or whoever he really was, scoffed.

"I still outclass you, remember. Besides, right now exile doesn't seem so bad, I wouldn't have to deal with your dumb face every five minutes," he countered.

"Oh yeah, because you could totally survive without the hive mind, remember the queen's orders, Spiracle," Electra spat, and my host, Spiracle, I assumed, growled.

"Don't use that name while I'm on infiltration, bug brain!" he hissed, but Elytra shrugged.

"Didn't stop you from using my name... Now, you wanna know why I'm here, or not?" he countered and Spiracle let out another low grumble.

"If it gets you out of my face faster, go right ahead," he declared, and Electra cleared his throat.

"Her royal highness, Queen Chrysalis, requests a report. Any opportunities presented by the ponies and their war must be exploited, after all," he declared, and Spiracle shook his head.

"Now, of all times?" he hissed under his breath, stopping a forehoof as Electra grinned in anticipation.

"Well... You know you can't turn down a royal command, say goodbye to your pony friends, little Fleetie."

At least I could sympathize with my host's rage as he shot Electra a very dangerous look.

The offending changeling frowned, taking a step back as Spiracle lifted himself and glared daggers at the disguised bug.

"You can tell the queen that I'm not done, she put me up to this and she trusts me... We're going on a tour of Equestria's stables soon, after that, Chrysalis will have her report," he declared matter-of-factly.

"That's Queen Chrysalis, remember your place," Electra swiftly added, prompting another glare from my host.

"And you remember yours, messenger drone. Now run along back to the hive. Wouldn't want this big bad world to eat you up." It was Elytra's turn to scowl at that, but he crept back and vanished into the shadows nevertheless, eyes flashing green.

"I have a feeling we'll see each other again very soon, infiltrator," he warned as he went.

"Forever would be too soon at this rate," Spiracle responded, before turning tail to the drone and marching away, only to almost step right into his beautiful marefriend as she came off stage.

Oh wow, did performing like that always make a mare look so worn out... Nice smell. Both I and Fleet Wing thought in unison as Sweetie took a step back in surprise.

"Oh, there you are... So what did you think?" she asked, beaming at him like some kind of school filly after their parents' unrivaled admiration.

It felt like he admired her more than I thought possible for a pony, then again, he wasn't a pony.

Is this just all part of his trick too? Does he really care about her or is he really just digging for love?

Hitting Electra in the face for talking down about her certainly disputed that, but was it all just an act like the stranger had suggested?

"Perfect, as always, Sweetie," Fleet Wing chuckled, ears perking as his marefriend giggled.

Her cuteness was short-lived, however; as she looked back with a coy smirk.

"So, the show's over... Wanna head over to my place?" she asked, eyes lidded.

"S–sure thing, Sweetie." He nodded; half distracted as he glanced to the darkness Electra had skulked into.

"Hey, everything okay, Fleetie?" Sweetie called.

Oh, goddesses, does the idea of lying to somepony so sweet and beautiful always feel so bad!? I thought as I felt his emotions conflict, loyalties clashing yet masked by an expertly manufactured chuckle.

"Oh, everything's fine, Sweetie, I'm fine..." he began, then paused, nuzzling her cheek. "And your place sounds so wonderful."

*******

I came out of the memory to find myself on a mattress... again. Just like yesterday. Damn, why are the days becoming so crushing?

I flopped my head back against the dusty pillow as I levitated the orb back into the velvet case that I'd taken from the safe.

So the stallion I've seen with Sweetie Belle was actually a changeling? For some reason that made my mane crawl far more than I thought it would.

How could anypony really ever know a creature like that and trust them? Sweetie Belle had loved him, that love had felt real and genuine, and he'd felt like he loved her too. But how did a creature that feeds on love feel love?

That's like ‘feeling’ Radigator kebab, or some iguana on a stick, right? I wondered, noting that it didn't really make much sense. Maybe it's like you are what you eat. Vertigo said he'd loved somepony once too?

Vertigo? The name rattled through my mind. How can I ever trust that stallion really? He's not even a real stallion and I was ready to buck him last night for Celestia's sake!

If one of his kind was willing to manipulate the love of a mare like Sweetie Belle all those decades ago, then why was it any different now? I really had to wonder if he'd simply saved Binary to scrounge off her love for machines, though I'd no real idea if it worked that way.

Regardless, I sighed, rolling over in the bed and looking to the black case as the metal frame creaked.

I have my magic back, why am I moping again? Oh yeah, because I'm really afraid some deceptive bug knows love better than I do! I thought, yet was it really any fault of Vertigo or his kind that I'd just really messed up my chances with the mare I cared about most?

Chances, don't joke, Dragonfire. You have no chance and you know you don't want one with her. My mind scolded as my tummy gave a twitch and I pressed a forehoof to it, feeling groggy.

It was at least good to get my barding off again, though it kinda felt like my armor was getting tight in some places. I was going to have to make size modifications soon, maybe now? I needed something to get my mind off of Cherry.

Just don't think about her, it's better that way. My mind went on, yet threw images of her cute smile and humble determination into the mix.

"Urg, we've only been together for two weeks, what's with me?" I hissed, grabbing the pillow and throwing it to the foot of the bed.

I sat up, a shrill gasp escaping me as my stomach gave a sharp pinch and I looked around for a bucket, just in case. I reflexively pressed a forehoof to my muzzle, that horrible feeling I was going to throw up sitting on my mind like a wet blanket, yet minutes went by and there was nothing. Then my thoughts went right back to Cherry, her pretty eyes, adorable giggle, round flanks.

"Stupid, brain, stupid!" I cursed, smacking my forehead several times.

My body responded with another twinge in my grumbling belly and just like that, I really needed the bucket again.

"Goddesses, how was I envious of pregnant mares for so long?" I groaned as I lifted my head from the metal rim, hot bile burning my throat. "Why does having a foal in me make everything I eat want to come out again!?"

I wondered just how much I should have asked Sky and Flare before their sister's death, maybe that would have cleared some things up. I considered asking Binary, yet I suspected her expertise was with technology, not biology. Overseer was out of the question, no matter what he claimed. I'd no idea if what he said about his loss of information was true, but I trusted him about as much as I did Vertigo. Still, I was far more worried about what I'd do alone in a room with the former. The way I'd smash Overseer would be far different to how I'd probably end up smashing Vertigo.

Urg, is thinking about his stupid butt bad now too? I wondered, considering the fact that it could literally be any kind of butt if I wanted. What does that make me? The ultimate tail chaser?

I thumped my head on the rim of the bucket, before the stench of the hot mess inside drove me back up onto the bed. Part of me wondered if I'd even have a chance with a buck like him? Trust may not be on the table, but a mutual understanding. How much love did sex give him, and who would I rather have sex with most in the world?

What about sex with an alicorn, can he do that?

I pulled the pillow back onto my midsection and sighed. I needed to get up, get my mind out of the gutter, and find something to occupy my thoughts before I just lingered here in self-pity forever.

Is this what pregnant emotions feel like? So mixed? I wanna buck the ponies I hate one minute and rip their heads off the next?

"You know, keep this up and we'll have to have a serious talk, little guy," I declared, patting my tummy, getting a harsh cramp in return. "Okay, okay, please don't make me throw up again… I'm sorry."

I needed more distractions. I glanced to my left to see the grey wall, huffed then shifted right to see the open safe and terminal sat atop it next to my bed.

Right, nothing good to focus on here anymore. The lack of weight on my foreleg was a painful reminder of my absent Pipbuck as I sat up. Nevertheless, I recalled the recordings that had been present on the room's terminal when I'd accessed it.

Weight's all shifted to your belly, Dragonfire... Shut up, brain! I scowled at my thoughts as I rolled onto the floor and placed down all four hooves, using my magic to access the terminal once again.

Scrolling right down I found one post-war recording from several years ago and selected it.

Well, I've gone into their privacy this much. I thought, yet as I activated the recording, I concluded the last pony who deserved privacy was Vertigo. His kind literally lives to break that sacred rule.

"Yes, good, this thing's working. Looks like that mainframe reboot accessed every subsystem. Strike, you still got it, Binary!" Came the buzzing voice of the earth pony mare I'd met hours ago.

Judging by the subtle differences in her tone and the date, however, I assume she was far younger. The shrill sounds in her voice gave it away, she couldn't have been any older than a teenager when recording this.

"I can't believe how much stuff there is in here, I heard about the SPP before, but it seems like the Ministry of Awesome's not so useless after all. Special ops files, secret mission logs..." There was a foalish squee before the mare went on. "Oooo, Rainbow Dash was up to so much stuff, airship development, specialist weapons!"

"Ugh, mother would have killed to get hold of this place... Shame that none of the outside search parties ever came out this far." There was a dry sigh, a sniff, then she seemed to perk up suddenly. "Chin up, Binary..." There came the sound of typing hooves. "And here Vertigo said I'd be wasting my time here. Does he want to keep me safe or not? There's no danger here, all these robots too, we could make a frickin' army."

I felt a chill run down my spine at the mention of that.

Surely, she means the robots she still has outside, not the warehouse? I took a seat on the bed, steadying myself as some static sounded and Binary went on.

"Just one step closer to retaking home, I'll get it back mother, I promise. I'm pretty sure Barron left those monsters in charge, I saw his sky tank leave again a few weeks ago, so now would be the perfect time to strike. I need to be ready, to be able to get around without Vertigo." The clang of a hoof on a metal grated floor rang out. "So what if I'm only fourteen, he can't treat me like a foal... He's not even like normal ponies. Ugh, if only I had some data on Changelings, I could make him listen to me!"

Her words trailed off as she sighed once more, the light sound of fur dragging on metal as I could only assume she slumped down against the terminal.

"I can't let him listen to this; he'll think I'm weak again ... I can't... I can't let him... I can’t ask him to... look like you again, mom..."

The sudden shift to hopelessness in her tone sent a shudder through my heart, then things fell into place and it wasn't hard to imagine what Vertigo had done for her once.

But was that out of care or just hunger? I thought, sympathizing with what it was like to lose a mother as I imagined what Vertigo could do.

Can I ask him to do that for me...? To be able to see her again? I hit my face with a forehoof as my stomach gave a twitch. No, that was years ago, I've moved on!

"I won't let you down, not you, not Gadget... I'll avenge you both, I swear. Whoever those ponies are, they won't get away with what they did to us. I just got to think carefully, gather resources, I have a base, technology... Maybe it's time to work on those prosthetics you suggested... Yes!"

For some reason I didn't think Binary was the best pony to mess with, she seemed kind of chatty. Was she insane? I honestly didn’t know. But she was shrewd and smart, and that felt dangerous. She could betray us. Then again, would I have been any less eager to avenge my mother?

A sigh from the recording, and my attention returned to it.

"I should delete this; Vertigo needs to think that I'm strong. I wish he really was you, mother... I think... I think I'll leave this with you."

Her voice died and the recording stopped, leaving silence, save for the metallic creaking of the structure around me.

Lost her family? Am I a magnet for crazies? Can I be gathering the most depressed ponies in the wasteland, or something?

Even so, I could truly understand Binary's plight, and, unlike Vertigo, I felt like I could at least trust her. Or at least her rage towards the Transcendent. No way that mare was going to stop until that group of fanatics was gone.

At that, I threw the pillow back in front of me and pressed my face into it, butt in the air as I groaned.

Now I need another way to distract myself!

Like a corrupt dealer dishing out wishes, the wasteland reacted, just in the way that it knew I'd hate most. There was a dry cough from the door, and I hinged one eye open to see a long shadow cast over the room.

"So, is this the room of violating privacy, or what?" Vertigo asked, one forehoof crossed over his chest. "Nice view, by the way." He motioned to my raised plot and I sank to the bed, throwing a cover over it.

"Glad you think so... Enjoying the taste?" I retorted, sitting up to glare at him.

He smirked.

"Oh, I imagine you taste divine, kinda got a peppermint-flavored look to you, the hot spicy kind. But no, that's not how Changelings work," he elaborated.

Funny, that's what stallions have told me before and... No, brain! My next breath escaped as a low growl as he trotted in.

"You're the last pony who deserves privacy. I know what you are now, you just live to spy on ponies," I snapped, and he sighed.

"That's not how it works either. I never tried to hurt anypony... Not in a long time," he admitted, meeting my glare with a solemn look.

"So you admit that you did," I pressed, imagining those emerald green eyes and black chitin under the mask of the indigo blue stallion I'd come to recognize. "Because, from what I've seen you only pretend to care for your own gain."

"At first, yes. I was raised the same as any other changeling. We didn't see ponies as anything other than food, sure." He shrugged. "But I met somepony who taught me differently, I’ve seen things differently ever since."

I crossed my forelegs, still looking at him like he was trash, yet he didn't even seem to care as he added.

"Think what you want, Dragonfire. I know what's true."

He moved over to the open safe and pushed it closed, took one look at the memory orb case, then back at me.

"Why are you here, shouldn't you be up helping Binary or something?" I asked, suddenly wanting to be far more alone than I'd been a second ago.

Well, maybe with Cherry too, but otherwise alone.

"I was, but saw Cherry going up there and decided to come find out what's up... Also, Binary told me to give you this." He magically reached into his saddlebags and pulled out a Pipbuck.

I noticed instantly that it wasn't the one I'd come in with, so no Overseer, I assumed.

Damn, if they've broken mom's Pipbuck there's going to be trouble.

This new one looked a little sleeker than mine, however; more akin to the one Binary had been wearing. I took the thing in my magic and rotated it, noting the well-kept state of it as well as the more modern-looking design. 'Gadget' the word was marked on the side of the device, beside the blue-tinted screen.

"The thing was her little sister's, consider yourself lucky," he told me, moving over to one of the room's shelves. "She's going to be busy with that program of yours for a while, so it convinced her to let you have a replacement."

So Overseer is the one who wants me to have a Pipbuck?

That really didn't sit well with me. Yet as far as I could tell, as I put the thing on and the heads-up display flickered into my vision, I could see no evidence of the program's corruption.

So, he still wants me alive? Kinda odd for a mission he can't remember. I thought as I turned my foreleg, getting used to the sleeker fit of the Pipbuck. At least it works better than moms ever did. Plus, I still get my E.F.S and S.A.T.S.

That latter bit at least felt better, I was getting too used to those to lose them.

"I see you found Rarity then, I kinda hoped you might," Vertigo, observed picking up the mare statuette and nodding to my horn.

I shrugged.

"Gave me my magic back, yeah." I didn't admit how glad I was for that, not wishing to be any more in his debt.

Nevertheless, he smiled as he set the thing back down on the shelf.

"Yeah, well the thing only works once per figure, so don't get used to it," he told me before moving back to the door.

"And you only have the one?" I inquired, and he glanced back over his shoulder.

"They don't exactly grow on trees, Dragonfire," he retorted, and I knew I really should have recalled what Cherry told me about them.

Grr, why am I thinking about her so hard... I just don't want her to hate me! My thoughts went on, wondering if I should go and see her, or just leave it for now. I hate love, I need distractions, damn it!

Meanwhile, Vertigo cocked his head, peering at me. Part of me wondered if he could feel the emotional conflict inside me. The look on his face at least suggested he knew more than just his eyes were telling him. I guess. I must have tasted disgusting to him then, or something.

So much for peppermint. I thought as I sighed. Then noted the full saddlebags at his flanks, as well as the holstered weapons and the helmet strapped to his side.

"Hey, you going somewhere?" I asked, and he paused before he could trot out.

"Yeah, Binary got some info on a place nearby from your new friend. Fort Sandstone, was going to check it out," he confirmed, and just like that, I levitated over my barding.

"Good, I need a walk. Plus, you and I have to talk," I declared, and for once, he looked very unsure.

"You sure about that? I don't care for what that program says about you, but personally, I don't think a mare in your condition should be..." I shut him up with a look that made it clear if he finished that sentence, he'd see what happened when a pony messed with a grumpy, expectant mare.

"Overseer is not my mother and neither are you. I'm a grown mare, I can take care of myself," I assured, starting to slip on my barding.

"I don't doubt that. But I'm a grown stallion and a lot older than you, and despite what you think, I do give a damn, you know?" he countered.

I huffed. How did I even know that the care he apparently had was real? He could just care about feeding off my love for Cherry for all I knew.

"You're not even a pony... You want to stop me, stop me," I challenged, slipping the barding up to my waist with my magic.

Then it caught.

"Oh come on, you can still fit, you stupid thing!"

Vertigo pressed a forehoof to his face and I swore I could have killed him.

"Just breathe in," he suggested, and before I knew it, his horn flared, pulling the barding up over my midsection.

Taken off guard I fell to the floor, growling.

"You rip this thing and you fix it, smart-flank!"

He rolled his eyes as he looked down at me, while I glared daggers at him.

"No offense, but you're going to need to modify it anyway, you know that, right?"

What, yes of course I do... I've just been thinking about it... I... My ears drooped as I sighed. First Cherry, now this embarrassment!

"This is going to be a long night, isn't it?" Of course, of all ponies, Vertigo would be the only one to just nod in smug agreement. "Fucking great."

********

For once, it actually felt good to be out in the nighttime chill of the desert when there was not a storm raining down on me. I'd seldom been to this north-eastern area of the dustbowl, where the flat sands and cacti-strewn landscapes were replaced by rocky cliffs and rugged, red canyons. There were even a few ruins out here between the mesas, the only sign that ponies had even been to this area before, lonely roads that snaked through the sands like cracked riverbeds of asphalt.

Wagons sat like rusting corpses, sand piling up on their corroded flanks as the wind howled between the cliffs. Bones hung from windows like wind chimes or lay strewn across the dirt, flesh long since picked away by the elements and scavengers. In the distance, I could make out firelight, the closest thing to stars in the inky blackness of the far-off hills. Vertigo was swift to point many out, even as I noted every glint in the dark, no matter how distant. A fire was a sure sign of pony habitation, and that usually meant raiders out here. Or worse.

"So, you usually wander around out here all alone?" I asked Vertigo as the pair of us trotted down a solitary highway. "This was Ranger territory, last I heard?"

"You live out here, you know that you can avoid trouble when you want to," he countered with a wink.

Goddesses, I wish he'd just put his stupid helmet on! My mind screamed, yet in my desire not to think about Cherry, I wasn't opposed to continually checking him out. Head to tail, he's handsome... I hate it! He must make himself like that just to mess with me!

"Yeah, but I can't just look like anypony, and I don't go about avoiding danger by just strolling down the middle of a road like this," I retorted, casually kicking a rusty can into one of the wagons with a forehoof.

There was a clatter from within, and I raised the rifles I'd pried off of my battle saddle just in time to see a mangy pair of dogs take off running into the dark. Moments later, a growl escaped my muzzle as I heard Vertigo chuckle.

"What's so funny?" I grumbled.

"So jumpy... You know you really didn't have to come out here, right?" he asked, motioning to my ready weapons.

"I do what I want, thanks," I huffed, holstering the guns. "What in Equestria makes you so sure about everything anyway?"

He grinned.

Oh, for Luna's sake, I'm going to shove that helmet on so hard if he keeps looking at me like that!

Even so, he pressed a hoof to his chest.

"Silly, pony." He motioned to me with the same forehoof. "I tasted them, animals are pretty weak, but you can pick up on them if you look."

I raised an eyebrow behind my visor.

"That's disgusting, should just go around licking dirt while you're at it," I countered, and once again, I was on the verge of bucking his dumb, smiling face in as he added.

"Oh, I know there's some dirt on you I'd lick, little peppermint."

I marched right up to him, glaring as our muzzles were barely inches apart.

"You call me that again, bugger, and I'll swat you like a fly, got it?" I hissed, but he didn't even flinch.

"So, we going to kiss now, or what?" I felt the air in my helmet heat up as I blushed and drew back.

Damn it, is it all just a joke to him? Or food, he's just trying to drain every scrap of emotion from me!? A twinge in my gut reminded me that, in my state, it must be so much easier for him.

My mind felt like it was on fire with these stupid hormones. One minute I wanted to buck him in one way, and the next, buck the shit out of him in another!

Stupid love bugs and their stupid good looks! I should have just gone after Cherry, making up with her has to be less awkward!

The shudder that then ran through me, made it clear that mending my relationship with the pink mare was going to be a little harder than just talking, however.

Either way, I shook my head, ears still burning as I looked back at Vertigo. He was staring off into the distance behind me, ears tall and eyes fixed. I stepped right into his line of sight, frowning behind my visor.

"Is that it, nothing else witty to add?" I inquired before he could catch me off guard again.

He cocked his head, then shoved me aside with a forehoof so he could peer down the highway again.

The nerve of this stallion, am I just supposed to be ignored now?

"Shush, you want the whole desert to hear you?" he muttered, glancing at me as his ears twitched and he sniffed the air.

"Oh, like you have cared so much about subtleness before," I spat, yet as I looked to where his attention was directed, I saw the unmistakable glow of a light streaming through the broken carriage windows ahead.

"Somepony's coming," he warned, as I peered forward. "Shut your lamp off."

Begrudgingly, I did as instructed, and sure enough, four red bars entered the range of my new E.F.S, marching slowly towards us.

"So, what? You apparently know everything there is to know, super-stallion, what now?" I asked as he glanced around.

"Hide, in there." He pointed a forehoof to a long carriage, before darting over.

Seriously, he's hiding? It was the exact opposite of what I was expecting.

Nevertheless, I followed, trying my best not to ogle his butt too much as he crouched between the warped wagon seats in front of me.

"So remind me again why we're hiding in here?" I questioned as I moved in beside him, almost cowering under the seat like somepony's lost luggage.

He rolled his eyes.

"Were you not the pony who was just telling me how to survive out here?" he asked, and despite myself, I felt a small flutter of satisfaction. "Now, shush, we have some stuff they'd be really interested in if we're caught, and with you here, I can't just fly out."

Okay, and there's my satisfaction gone. I inwardly huffed. Stupid Vertigo, why not just be some great, all-powerful alicorn and fly around all the time then?

Yet as I watched the red bars on my E.F.S draw closer and saw the headlight outside break through the shattered windows overhead, I remained silent. Then came the heavy clunk of hoofsteps on cracked asphalt, and the mechanized whirring of movement.

I know that sound. Power armor! Oh, this really is shaping up to be another great night.

"Spread out, not every blip here can be Radroaches, they don't have lights," came the gravelly voice of a helmeted Steel Ranger as the metallic hoofsteps came to a halt right outside the carriage.

They have E.F.S in those suits too! I thought in sudden alarm. Damn, I never thought I'd have been so happy for there to be so many Radroaches everywhere.

The light passed over again, and my mane stood on end as the sound of a hydraulic-assisted hoof bucking in a carriage door was followed by the heavy sounds of them searching the area.

"This area is restricted, scavengers, come out now, offer up your contraband and you will be free to leave," boomed another augmented voice, that of a mare I could guess from the tone.

I looked to my left as the light passed over the entrance of the wagon, drawing my weapon. If they came in here, I'd be ready, this was not my first time dealing with ponies like them, I knew the weak points in power armor.

Yeah, but dealing with a whole squad of trained Steel Rangers, are you seriously going to take your chances like this, Dragonfire? You're not just fighting for yourself anymore.

A little flutter in my belly was all too much of a reminder as I bit back my thoughts. That was when I felt a hoof tap my shoulder, and glanced to see Vertigo shushing me again.

What, I didn't even make a sound? I thought, cocking my head.

Yet having regained my attention, the stallion rolled over and motioned to the rear door of the carriage with a forehoof. Outside there was the sound of another carriage getting bucked in, then the clunk of a metallic hoof on our carriage's steps. I ducked my head, as the light came in along with the heavily armored head of the Steel Ranger. Like my own helmet on Stampede, the hulking mass of metal pipes and arcane technology clunked and whirred as the pony inside surveyed the gloom.

I made out the few red bars nearby on my E.F.S, seeing exactly what he was, and as his head passed over to the far side, I kicked out a hind hoof at a moldy, old suitcase. Just as my targeting spell suggested, a pair of radroaches scurried out and made right for the door. The ranger's eyes fixed on them instantly, squashing one with a heavy hoof before drawing back out to catch the other.

"What is it, knight?" came the voice of the mare who'd called out first, their leader I assumed.

"Nothing, Star Paladin, just bugs, ma'am," the knight responded, withdrawing from the wagon door.

There was a groan from the Star Paladin, like the grinding of gears through her helmet as she spoke again.

"A waste of time, spread out, and keep looking!"

The sound of their hooves stomping away met my perked ears, as did the smash of another wagon as they searched elsewhere. I glanced at Vertigo, only to realize I'd unknowingly pressed a forehoof to his lips to shush him.

"Nice move," he offered, brushing my limb away as he crept out into the carriage's central aisle.

Damn it, why did that make me blush? I thought, folding back my burning ears as I crept toward the rear door after him. Hahaha, I know what rear door you're looking at right now... Shut up, brain

Vertigo's horn lit up as he pressed his back to the door and magically pulled the thing open. I winced along with him as dust was shaken off the creaking mass of metal. Yet one look back and it was clear we still hadn't attracted any more attention.

Damn, I hope they can't distinguish between all the random bars and the ones that move with purpose? I thought as Vertigo gently swung the door open.

Of course, that was when it fell off its decrepit hinges with a loud clunk.

Oh, fuck you, wasteland!

Vertigo jumped from the door, rolling onto all four hooves. I followed, sliding down the bank of sand that had built up at the rear of the carriage as four distinct bars in my E.F.S all shifted back towards the rusting vehicle. The light swiveled to illuminate the wreckage behind me, casting long, spiked shadows across the broken asphalt as I ducked down with Vertigo.

"What was that? I thought you said it was clear?" the lead paladin asked as I glimpsed one of the armored ponies moving back between two wagons.

"Literal metalheads, not too bright, are they?" Vertigo joked as he dropped down and crept toward the roadside.

For once I couldn't disagree with him, it was almost comical how oblivious they were. If it weren't for their huge guns, I'd have called out loud to offer a fighting chance. That, and my mind was still far too fixated on Vertigo's rear only inches from my muzzle.

Wonder what he tastes like... He can be a 'she' if he wants, right? Maybe I can get back at him for his peppermint comment?

My wayward thoughts almost saw me march right into the stallion's hanches as he paused. I took a small step back, flashes of Cherry's kiss in my mind as I imagined it was her flank I'd almost bumped.

Goddesses, am I really that into him? Or am I only imagining her because I'm loyal? I wondered, right as I was partly lit up by a beam of light. Okay, really, fuck you, wasteland!

"Run, damn it!" I declared, shoving Vertigo forward as I took off.

The ranger yelled out some warning about stopping and complying. Yet with no such compliance, she was swift to turn the wagon we'd been hiding in into a blasted hunk of scrap with a shot from what I could only guess was a grenade machine gun. There was a clunk as the thing reloaded, then a whoosh as it sent another barrage flying toward us. Shrapnel clattered against my scaled armor as wagons were blasted apart. Vertigo had his head low, levitating on his helmet as the pair of us dove for the barricade at the edge of the highway.

"Of course, they'd find us... Just my luck," the disguised changeling declared as he leaped over the rusted metal.

"Yeah well, we wouldn't be in this mess if you weren't trying to show off!" I retorted, jumping after him.

The stretch sent a bolt of pain through my body, and a sharp cramp in my gut forced me to fold in on myself, legs catching the barricade and knocking me off balance. I hit the dusty floor with a thud, sand, and rocks scattering around me as another set of explosions sent a cascade of rubble and metal shrapnel over my head. I pressed my forehooves to my helmet as fire lapped the brim of the shattered barricade, before I peeked up, just in time to see another volley of grenades.

Great, looks like more of them have taken notice! My mind screamed, scorning me for even being out here as I glanced up at several explosives that were most certainly going to kill me. Guess Cherry won't have to be awkward anymore... I'm so sorry.

"Move your dumb tail, you idiot!" called Vertigo, before I felt the sensation of magic wrap around me, and I was yanked away.

Next thing I knew I was galloping on air, an array of explosions lighting up the night behind me as fire washed over the sand.

"What did I say about levitating me around!?"

I couldn’t blame him for failing to acknowledge my foalish squirming as I kicked and wiggled, gut-churning and threatening to make me retch once again. Moments later, I heard the clunk of metal hooves as three power armored ponies marched through the flames like metal demons, leveling their array of heavy weapons at the indigo stallion. He bowed his head, a layer of over glow forming around his horn.

What is he...? I realized what he was doing, and my eyes popped wide.

"Wait... Getting blown up or not, don't you dare..."

The sensation of floating was lost, replaced by what felt like sliding down a long tunnel of sleek metal. Seconds later it was like trying to squeeze through an impossibly small hole, my body stretching as I went. Yet in as brief a flash as the sensation had started it stopped, popping me out like the cork from a champagne bottle as I staggered.

Is it just me or does my mane smell singed? I wondered, before, in an instant, my thoughts went right to my foal.

I looked back over my shoulder, eyeing the slightly pudgy mass in my midsection.

No, no, no... Not the foal... Anything but... There was a light flutter and I felt my anxiety spike, before washing away, the spark of life was still there.

"What was that about showing off?" Vertigo coughed as he staggered to his hooves, swaying as dust fell from his singed armor.

"What kind of stunt was that? Do you have any idea what you could have just cost me!?" I screamed, marching up to him and taking him by the shoulders.

Visor to visor. I was certain we were glaring right into each other's eyes.

"You said it yourself, you have no idea what that can do to us... My damn foal, you lunatic!"

"Yeah, but at least it's better than what they'd do to it with those guns. I warned you about coming out here," he retorted, gesturing behind us.

No, he does not get to be so smug about this, I can take care of myself! With a huff, I let him go, stomping off a few steps ahead and kicking sand.

"I'd have made sure we'd not been caught in the first place... Is my life just a joke to you?" I asked, turning to him sharply.

"You live as long as I can and everything's a joke... Like somepony up there is just messing with you," he countered, nodding up to the cloudy sky.

I snorted, yet at that, sounds drifted up from the roadside, and both our ears perked up.

"Damn, teleporter... Spread out, find them. Don't shoot to kill, anypony that can do that is valuable!"

"Looks like I have some new fans," Vertigo mused as he peered over the small ridge of rock we'd materialized upon, and looked down the mound of sand below as the rangers fanned out from the road.

I took one look at my E.F.S, spying that we were now two very obvious and exposed red bars in the middle of the cliffside. At that, I yanked him back with my magic seconds before a grenade struck the base of our rocky perch. The whole cliffside shook, sandstone boulders thundering down around us as rivers of gravel gave way and poured downwards toward the power armored ponies.

"They're bigger fans of you than I am right now. That's for sure," I growled as I steadied myself. "I'm getting sick of saving your flank too."

"Damn it, I said don’t shoot to kill!" yelled the gruff mare I'd identified as the Star Paladin.

"Two targets, two o'clock, on the ridge!" called another of the rangers, the sounds of their advancing hooves becoming audible.

"Any more bright ideas?" I asked Vertigo as he steadied himself too.

"I have one more trick up my sleeve," he responded, looking up at the cliff face. "The sub-complex should back into these cliffs, if we can..." He tapped his chin and I rolled my eyes.

Master of strategy, how attractive. I mentally remarked as he stomped a forehoof.

"Any time now, Vertigo," I pressed, and he finally nodded towards one of the many narrow gorges marring the orange cliffside.

"Perfect, we just need to get them all in one confined space, catch them all out at once. That'll work." He glanced at me, and I knew under that helmet, he had to be smiling. "Follow me, we'll give them a surprise!"

"Oh, of course, we will. If they don't blow us up first!" I called as he took off into a tight canyon between two gnarled cliffs, leaving me little choice but to bolt after him.

I found the crevice he’d disappeared into the shadows of was just wide enough for us both to fit side by side as I caught up, panting.

Goddesses, was I always this desperate for breath before, or is it just a pregnant thing?

Nevertheless, I struggled to turn, blindly leveling my weapon to aim behind me as the flashing of headlamps heralded the sound of metal hooves approaching. Meanwhile, Vertigo took a step forward, nudging my gun down as he levitated a grenade from his saddlebags and rested it on his back.

"You may want to take a step back," he warned as the first of the power armored ponies appeared in the narrow space.

"Stop right there, or I'll blow you to bits, savages," rumbled the voice of the Star Paladin.

She was a lot larger than the others, with armor and canon to match. All of it marked by the cobalt-blue stripe many of the rangers in the southwest boasted.

"Wait a minute, I've seen you before." She looked right at Vertigo as the stallion lifted a forehoof in surrender.

"Okay, you got me, guys... So, how about a prize?" he asked as two more rangers appeared behind their leader.

His magic flared and I glimpsed the blue band around the grenade seconds before he tossed it over his head and it landed amidst the armored trio. I imagined their eyes going quite wide behind those visors as I ducked along with Vertigo, the crackling blue flash that followed lighting up the canyon. Lightning lanced outwards, spider webbing over their armor, causing the arcane attire to pop and fizzle, before the shock faded and they all went still. Next came a low whine, the distinct sound of something in their suits powering down as Vertigo rose to his hooves and regarded the three.

"Dummies, gets you every time," he joked, peering into the Star Paladin's visor.

"If you think that's going to stop us, then think again," she rumbled from within her armor, muffled voice gruff even without the active augmentations.

Seconds later, there was a whoosh, then a boom as another grenade arched overhead and the canyon path behind us exploded.

"You only got three of them, feather brain!" I called as I darted deeper into the mountain, the stone walls around us starting to crumble.

Rocks clattered down as orange dust filled the air and I faintly heard another whoosh as a second volley of grenades was sent over us. I skidded to a halt moments before a large boulder slammed down in front of me.

"So much for not trying to kill us!" Vertigo called as he galloped to my side and we worked our way around the fallen stone.

"Can't exactly order boulders around, you dunce!" I snapped, skidding left to avoid a deluge of rocks the size of my head. "You didn't tell me they were friends of yours!"

He chuckled, leaping over a fallen rock and rolling to his hooves.

Damn, I wish I could still move like that without a world of indigestion.

"So I may have slipped up and let them see my base armor once or twice before, makes things more interesting," he confessed as we reached a narrow slit at the end of the canyon, leading into what looked like a cave.

Underground again? Where did that get you last time? My mind questioned as I hesitantly looked between the cave and the rockslide coming down around us.

"You and I have totally different ideas of interesting!" I snapped, jumping aside as a rock twice my size came thudding down where I'd just been standing.

There was another whoosh, then a thud as the cliff directly above us exploded, and a whole wall of stone came sliding down. I looked up, paling at the sight.

Is going underground again really so bad? Going to be buried either way! Regardless, Vertigo wasn't willing to give me a choice.

"I'm not waiting for ladies first," he called, darting ahead before his magic yanked me into the gloom and the rocks came down where I'd been paralyzed.

Looking back, I had just enough time to see the thick cloud of dust lit up by the headlamp of another ranger before the thundering deluge of sandstone boulders piled up and cut off the outside. Sealing me in darkness, tangled with Vertigo yet again.

"Do you just live to spread chaos and piss me off?" I hissed, not so graciously standing on his stomach as I staggered to my hooves.

The stallion let out a breath, wincing as he clenched his gut.

Ha, doesn't feel so nice to have stomach pains out here, does it!?

"The first part maybe... But I'm not trying to piss you off, it's just too easy to get under your skin," he wheezed, magically pulling off his helmet and taking a deep breath.

More like under my tail... That wouldn't be so bad though...I mentally berated the directions my thoughts had taken as Vertigo's snide remarks were cut off by a fit of coughing. Humm, his dumb suffering is kinda cute... Damn it, stop it!

I shook the idea from my mind, thwacking the side of my helmet before turning my headlamp on once again and surveying the cave around us. For a moment, I was terrified we'd just sealed ourselves in a tiny space behind the canyon, yet panning the light over, I made out it was far larger than I'd anticipated. Smooth walls of red sandstone surrounded me, and a floor of loose sand reflected the pale light, forming a ghostly river leading deeper into the cavern. Small clusters of glowing green fungus clung to the walls and the odd stalactite hung from above.

Given that some of the hanging features were now laying on the floor, I guess the ranger's bombardment had shaken this place right down to its core. That was only proved more so as I glanced back, and the whole cavern shook, a muffled boom emanating from outside.

"That's not going to keep them out long with guns like that," Vertigo informed me as he heaved himself to his hooves.

"You got that right, so how about we stop sitting here waiting for them?" I asked, looking down the tunnel. "Where's this go, brainiac?"

He slipped his helmet back on as the cave shook again, trails of dust trickling down upon us.

"If I'm right; Fort Sandstone backs into these cliffs, I've flown over a few times. These tunnels must lead somewhere," he elaborated.

Perfect escape route for any prisoner wishing to get out, sure. So why are we trying to get in again? I thought, scowling.

"Flying sounds great, you do that without being shot down, how?" I asked, and he looked back over his shoulder, tapping his eye lenses.

"At night, changelings see better in the dark, we grow up in underground hives," he explained, then swished his tail, wiggling his rear. "Plus, I like doing most of my dirty work in the dark too."

My ears burned once again, helmet heating up as that urge to buck his smug face in came back.

I'll buck him right now if it gets him to shut up... Either way of bucking is fine!

"Fine, in that case, feel free to lead the way," I offered, swinging my headlight away and gesturing to the pitch-black tunnel.

I could almost sense his eyes roll at that, but nevertheless, he led on

Anything to look at his butt, that's the only reason he's in front, right?

"You know, keep hitting your head like that and ponies will start thinking you’re weird," he suggested, as I beat my thoughts into submission once again.

"Me, the weird one?" I pressed a hoof to my chest, almost tripping. "You are the one who's some strange bug pony. What else about changelings don't I know?" I snapped as he steadied my walk with a nudge of his rear.

Urg, why does he have to be so sweet sometimes... And his flanks... So, firm, damn it! I thought as my companion shrugged.

"I don't know, you tell me?" he countered, and I grumbled as he added. "What do you wanna know?"

I felt all of the spinning thoughts regarding him rush to arrange themselves at the forefront of my mind.

I can ask him what he can do, who he can turn into. Just like Binary suggested in the recording... No, I already concluded that's wrong!

"Well, for one, you said you're a guy... But what about mares..." I twirled a forehoof in the air. "Parts, do you have those? What happens if one of you ends up like me?" I asked, gesturing to my midsection.

"Well, we're not ponies for one, we can't have foals with stallions." He chuckled.

Oh pony feathers, why does he know how to make me feel like an idiot!? From now on it was pretty safe to assume my helmet was never coming off while he was around, the heat in my cheeks was too much.

Even so, the smugness radiating from him could have been enough to spend my Pipbuck on a clicking spree as he seemed to wait for my permission to continue. My ears folded back and I nodded once, kicking a small mound of sand with a forehoof.

"I guess that makes sense. Now, do you wanna tell me how you can have a wagon and a garage at the same time, or are you just here to smirk?" I muttered, and once again, he laughed.

"I can't have both at once, change them on demand, sure. But if you want the honest truth, my reproductive organs never change. They're pretty much pointless, really. Only a hive's queen can lay eggs," he elaborated, and I cocked my head, ears perking.

It would be a lie if I didn't say there'd been a few times I'd wondered what it would be like not to be stuck with estrus every now and then. Sometimes my biology was insufferable.

"Technically, we're neither mare's nor stallions, like I said. Some Changelings prefer to identify as females, some the opposite. I had a few brood siblings who didn't care either way."

He let out a long breath at that, and once again I was caught wondering if that care he seemingly had for his fellow changelings was genuine.

Can they feed off each other, that would mean they can feel love, right? I thought as he continued.

"When we take on a form, our insides stay the same. They can condense, take a lot of pressure if we shrink or grow." He gestured back to his rear. "Everything is internal back there, we usually use mind magic to give a host the impression of either a mare or stallion, changelings are very good at mind and memory spells."

"Great, we fuck now and I'll know it's fake," I sighed, and he chuckled.

"Some things are better left forgotten, right?" he asked, and I shrugged.

"Maybe, but don't even think about rummaging in my mind to try and take that memory out, got it?" I warned.

He pressed a hoof to his chest.

Goddesses, I wish I could be so graceful, does getting knocked up really make it so hard to walk, how about in a few weeks? My ears folded again as my companion added.

"To be genuine for a second, I won't go into anypony's head unless they ask. I made a promise about that," he assured me, and my attention spiked.

"A promise to who?" I asked, but he looked ahead, neglecting to answer for a few long moments.

"Somepony who was worth keeping promises for," he stated, and once again, my eyes fell on his butt as he walked.

Damn it, the thing's like a magnet. Is this a weird changeling thing too? I thought, guessing it was kinda easier to think about knowing what lay between those flanks was fake. Wait, is that really a good thing, he's still handsome?

Still, the way he spoke about it made it sound as if it was a touchy subject. Therefore, I didn't press, no matter how curious I was about him, his magic, and the memory orbs he'd had back at the tower.

He can't actually be Fleet Wing, can he?

"So you all come from the same pony... Changeling, then?" I asked, part of me kinda warmed by the idea of so many brothers and sisters. So what if I have a soft spot for siblings?

"The queen, yeah, she chooses one warrior or infiltrator every cycle to sire a brood. So we have siblings and brood-siblings. Your brood is your unit, family, kinda... Though I lost that a long time ago," he confirmed, glancing away down a narrow side passage.

I looked too, noting that a red bar I'd been tracing was a radroach as it scurried across the light of my lamp.

"So you were an infiltrator, right?" I went on.

"Right, for the badlands hive, served my queen-mother, Chrysalis. Though, I've not been back there in a long time, last I heard the Changedlings overran the place anyway. If any hives were still there, they'd either be dead or have retreated into the nexus," he explained as the cave around us started to widen, another pair of Radroaches scattering from my light.

"The Nexus? Is that one of those things you tell me about, and then have to kill me?" I pressed with a small laugh.

He at least shared my chuckle.

"Hardly any point in keeping the secrets of a dead empire. Nexus was the capital of the Changeling Under Empire, yes. Home of the Queen council, but that was a long time ago, before the war even," he told me, and the idea of a whole empire of bug ponies lurking under ponykind’s hooves sent my mane crawling.

Damn, imagine if they were all like Vertigo, irritating and handsome. I shook my head, ready to dig deeper into the history of his kind, yet before I could my hooves hit something other than soft sand.

There was a rattling clunk as we stepped out onto a squat platform of rusted metal at the end of the passage, where the cave widened out into a large, underground chamber. The sandy floor dropped out from under us, forming a small bank at the edge, while the metal frame led down a set of old stairs to the floor below. More patches of growing green fungus clustered around stalactites that dotted the cavern, while a dull, red hue lingered.

Opposite, the natural subterranean formation was marred by a large metal box suspended on steel stilts. Several crimson bulbs dotted its flanks and windows were cut into its rusting metal face; glass shattered in several places. It all suggested we'd stumbled on the edge of some kind of underground pre-war installation.

Great, because it's always so much better to get into these kinds of places through the back doors. Then I get to see all the messed-up monsters in the basement first on the tour! My thoughts grumbled as Vertigo took a step forward.

"What do we have here?" the stallion muttered, a forehoof on his chin. "There must really be some parts of the complex connected to these caves?" he added, seemingly more to himself than me as I trotted up next to him.

"Looks like whatever it is, it's seen better days," I offered, nodding to a particular part of the structure that seemed to have collapsed, the cave having fallen in around it.

Yeah, underground, it's not like that can happen to you at any moment down here. My mind warned as Vertigo trotted down the stairs towards the opposite structure.

"This doesn't look like corrosion," he observed, nudging aside a fallen rock, before looking at some rust on the metal wall. "Doesn't look recent either, must have happened when the place was bombed."

At his observations, I cocked my head, vaguely recalling something I'd read about Fort Sand Stone somewhere.

"What do you mean? Saying this place was blown up before everything else?"

Vertigo nodded as he took a step up onto the pile and started to levitate rocks aside.

"Yeah, I remember it, a week or two before the war the prison went into lockdown, then somepony apparently detonated a bomb inside. They never finished the investigation though."

I looked to one side, noticing several mounds of scrap metal and what appeared to be dry branches, along with bracken and small rocks. Vertigo lugged a rock my way, and I turned my gaze back to him sharply.

"Sorry," he said swiftly, before pulling away another stone and revealing a way into the metal room. "Goddesses only know what they were up to down here. I heard reports of prisoners going missing even before the bombing."

I zoned out of his explanation as he tried to squeeze through, yet finding the passage was still too small he resumed digging. The mounds sitting in the shadow of the collapsed pile captivated my attention, however, and I paused, levitating some of the dry vegetation aside before removing a scrap metal plate. Then the sense of unease in me was proved right as a cold dread ran through my veins.

Damn it, I knew those mounds looked familiar! What do I know about caves in the desert!? Nestled within each cluster of junk was a dozen or so pale eggs, each soft and reptilian in nature.

"Rattle tails," I uttered under my breath, eyes darting to the shadows as I gently set the metal back down.

My E.F.S was dark, surly that meant no reason to worry, yet the cold talons of anxiety didn't release me from their grip.

"Vertigo," I hissed through gritted teeth, glancing back at the busily burrowing buck.

His butt in the air and face in the hole, it was hard not to get distracted.

No, Dragonfire, think about rutting the bug later. Right now make sure you don't end up minced meat!

"Vertigo!" I hissed again, as loud as I dared as I drew my rifle once more and sidled up to him, daring to nudge his rump with the butt of my weapon. "Vertigo, get your head out here now, or so help me..."

There was a dry pop and puff of dust as the stallion appeared, helmet marred by orange sediment. Yet he cocked his head, looking puzzled.

"What is it?" He began to ask, before I pressed a hoof to his helmet's mouthpiece and nodded back behind me.

He glanced at the half a dozen nests, then at me, nodding once.

"Be quiet, they find us near the nest and we're in for it," I warned, taking a step back.

Vertigo followed, then just like that, the whole rock pile gave way. There was a rumble, a small trickle of rock to start, before the whole wall came crashing down with a thick cloud of dust. I darted aside, Vertigo following my lead as the pair of us fell limply to the sand. Stones clattered down around me once again, thudding against my helmet before finally, the rocky deluge came to a stop and I dared look up, E.F.S flickering in my vision.

So much for being quiet, you're screwed. My mind chirped as I searched for red bars in my vision. Damn it, what's with this thing? It's supposed to tell me where bad things are, right?

I looked right as a fit of coughing erupted next to me.

"Okay, getting a little sick of falling rocks today," Vertigo wheezed, rolling onto his back and looking up at the newly-formed pile of boulders.

Like a river, the stream of stones had flown right under the metallic stilts of the structure, knocking several out and forcing the whole thing to lean away from the wall, groaning metallically. The dusty haze cleared just enough for me to see that the rockslide had also pooled in the center of the chamber, crushing the nests.

I felt blood seep from my face and my ears pressed flat as I heaved my laser rifle out from under a mound of sand while Vertigo sat up, shaking dust from his helmet. Then his ears stood tall as he looked to where he'd been digging just a second ago.

"Look, it's not all that bad, we can get through now. Don't even have to teleport you again." I scowled at him as he pointed to the door, but right then it seemed my growing frustration was the least of his worries.

The best I caught was a glimmer in the corner of my eye. I knew a stealth field when I saw one, I'd fought plenty of stealth buck wielding ponies. I magically shifted my rifle, yet what materialized and clamped its jaws around Vertigo's outstretched leg was not a pony.

The twisted amalgamation of reptilian and canine had wicked, yellow eyes, each narrowed like the slitted spheres of a snake. Its mangy body was a patchwork of green scales and balding, pale skin. Scars dotted its hide, ears torn and ragged. That didn't detract from its sharp teeth, however; as it rattled its signature tail. That tail was the first thing I grabbed as Vertigo yelped. The creature's incessant rattling cut off as I yanked it away, small fountains of green blood shooting from the punctures its snake-like fangs had made in my friend's armor.

Hissing as it thrashed and kicked in my magical grip the Rattle-tail was met with a buck to the face from Vertigo before I tossed it to the floor and aimed my weapon. Once again, I was overjoyed to have my magic back as I blasted the thing into a bloody spray. No matter what ponies had fused them with back before the war, they were no match for a good blaster!

Of course, that hope was short-lived, and I could almost hear the wasteland cackle as the bloody spray struck several more invisible bodies, picking them out like crimson ghosts in the gloom. Their cover broken, the remaining Rattle-tails materialized, hissing and snapping their serpentine jaws. I had just enough time to turn to Vertigo as he groggily rose to his hooves.

"Damn it, you had to go wake the neighborhood, didn't you!?" I snapped, yet before he could shoot back with a witty remark, I shoved him toward the newly-opened hole in the wall. "Get in there, if there's a locked door, by Celestia you better open it!"

He looked at me as if in a daze, before shaking his head and nodding.

"I–I'm on it!"

Sting levitated beside him as he scrambled up into the metal chamber. A howl of pain resonating out from behind me as the makeshift weapon proved just as effective against the mutated beasts as it was against anything else. Meanwhile, I was stuck dealing with the small hoard of angry mutants in front of me, and one creature's head exploded into gore as another lunged.

Damn it, the rate of disintegration with this thing is a joke! I inwardly growled as the beams failed to vaporize another Rattle-tail and I was forced to swing the gun to bat it aside.

The beast fell back with a yelp as I backed right up into what appeared to be some kind of control room. A counter of dials, switches, and flickering lights lay before the cracked windows, as if somepony had once thought it was necessary to monitor something in the small cavern outside.

Stupid ponies and their stupid experiments! I mentally growled, kicking one Rattle-tail aside and blasting it as another scurried along the control panel and latched onto my foreleg with its jaws.

I winced, expecting two pricks of pain, yet the creature simply chewed on one of my dragon scales before ripping it off and falling back. As if thinking the lucky beast had managed to rip away flesh, the others all descended on the same spot, fighting as two more tried to flank me.

"Damn it, that's mine... Do you know how much that's worth!?" I called, yet before I could reach for the lost scale one of the creatures pushed forward, knocking me aside.

I felt my insides lurch again, and I fought hard not to throw up in my helmet as my stomach churned. The crafty Rattle-tail righted itself, hissing as it spun to face me, fangs flashing. I kicked out, stomach twisting as I smacked it right in the face. It gave a pained hiss, but before I could fire to finish it off Vertigo called out.

"Dragonfire, get in here!"

My head whipped around to see the buck lying slumped against the inner wall of a doorway to my left. I didn't even hesitate as I leaped up and bolted for the corridor, smacking a Rattle-tail aside with my magic as I reached the door, seconds before one of the creatures lunged at me from behind. I fell into the gloomy corridor beside Vertigo with a clunk, yet my pursuer wasn't so lucky as the door came down, shearing its head clean off with a bloody pop. I looked to see blood stain my barding, the limp head sitting between my splayed rear legs, tongue lulling, and eyes bulged.

Blood and spread legs, so this is what it's going to feel like in the end? My mind proposed as I reflexively kicked the decapitated head away and collected myself. No, it's not going to be like that... I wasn't... Nothing like that's going to come out of me!

I took a deep breath as panic gripped me, and without thought ripped off my helmet to keep up with the higher load my lungs demanded. All the while I pressed a forehoof to my stomach as it churned. I imagined a healthy, happy foal, a colt... Just like my brother. This would be no different, it couldn't be.

"D-Dragonfire..." Rasped an odd voice that sounded only half like Vertigo's.

I looked back to see a frail flickering of green fire as my companion's form slowly burn back into that strange, black, chitinous body. Armor shifting back to that odd, guard-like appearance as it had done in Binary's tower.

Vertigo coughed, his base voice reverberating as he looked at me sheepishly with those cloudy, blue eyes. My ears folded back as I peered at him, no way did he look in a good state. Then he winced, fangs flashing as he forced a weak smile.

"One more thing about changelings..." He coughed again, tattered ears folding back. "We're not immune to venom."

Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Hit the Deck (Rank Two) - Okay way too many explosions, really go consider a new career! +35 Damage Threshold against explosives.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Fort Sandstone

Chapter 25:

"Why do you think I would help you? I'm an evil changeling!"

There had been many times when I'd held the life of another pony in my hooves, and my hooves alone. I'd stuck to my rules, helped ponies where I could. Provided they were not monsters, it was only okay to kill monsters. My definition of monster had always been tested, did an intelligent ghoul count as a monster just because they were technically dead? Or would a Hellhound be a monster if it simply walked up and started a conversation as I'd heard tales of them doing in the past? Beasts were monsters, like Geckoes and Rattle-tails.

But the pony-thing, bug-stallion I had leaned against my side, wheezing for breath as his oddly hard, but fuzzy, exterior rubbed against my barding. I held his life in my hooves, and part of me still wondered what in Equestria I was doing. I'd learned about changelings only a day ago, seen, that in the past, they'd been nothing but scheming tricksters, fooling poor ponies just for their own gain. They looked like a mess too, knobbly hooves, diaphanous wings, and fangs. But did that make them monsters? Did it make the stallion that was really starting to grow on me a monster?

Grow on you? Ha, bet you'd like him on you in some regard. I smacked my thoughts across the face. What, you a bug-bucker now?

No matter what my feelings were at the moment, I'd seen Vertigo's true eyes again, and I'd been unable to think too harshly. I didn't know what it was about the almost featureless blue spheres, either it was just a trick on his part, or he was just a really good actor. But for a moment, he'd looked terrified.

Does he really believe I'll just run off and leave him to die? I somewhat hated to admit it, but he was my friend.

At least, more than a simple acquaintance. Maybe I just had a thing for those eyes, I knew what it was like to be afraid, terrified that somepony would just abandon you when you needed them most. I knew it must have only been a fleeting moment of desperation on his part. Yet it reminded me so much of my mother… So much of Teal. I'd been a perpetrator and a victim of both sides of such fear, and I wasn't about to do it again.

"You know, I never really was that good of a doctor, even for ponies. You're lucky I can even lug your dumb butt up here," I grunted, heaving as I tugged Vertigo's unusually heavy body at my side.

The changeling slumped heavily against me, his gnarled hooves weakly trying to aid me in supporting him as we made our way up from the caves below the prison complex. I didn't know a thing about changeling biology beyond what he'd told me. Of course, that was mostly about how they had sex, so I had no idea whether a pale looking bug-pony was a bad or good thing as his fawked tongue lulled limply from between his fangs.

"Y–you're helping in more ways than you know," he coughed, taking a deep breath as he instructed. "It should be just down here on the right if that back entrance was the one I think it was."

He nodded to the gloomy industrial corridor ahead where a T-junction was coming up, and as ordered, I turned right. There, in the gloom, I was just able to spy the faint glow of a light that marked a room to the left as a medical locker. The corridor itself looked like it had withstood a great deal of strain during the bombing. There were pipes hanging loose and a large rend tore through the concrete wall opposite the medical room, as if the whole building had been twisted like a damp towel. I felt the cold, grey walls around us closing in, hot, sweaty, and feeling like the inside of my helmet were tightening as we trudged to the door.

Goddesses, if either of us die down here please let it not be from a collapse... Urg, I hate being underground, I admit it! I cursed inwardly, no matter the fact I spent so much time underground in Churn. No, sex and alcohol make it bearable back home, damn it!

Vertigo gave a grunt as I rested myself against the wall and slid to the door, finding it had become nothing more than a rusty sheet, wedged ajar in the decayed frame. No need to blow it open with noisy explosives. Good, then maybe the rattle-tails will just forget we're here?

Still, improvisation my middle name, I levitated up the closest piece of rebar I could find, and wedged it between the door and the wall, shunting it free.

"Yeah, dragging you best be helping enough," I snapped, softening the clang of the door falling with my magic. "Because my legs are killing me."

"What are you, sixty?" he countered with a weak chuckle, I frowned before he perked and added.

"Well, your lust does help too." He wheezed, while my brow furrowed as I begrudgingly resumed my supportive stance and helped him stagger through the door.

Great, the only reason he's still alive is because I find him hot!

"Yeah well, I've not had sex in almost three weeks, so shut up!" I retorted, hooves grinding on broken glass as we moved across the medical room.

The left wall was lined by shattered shelves and broken cabinets, as was the far side. Broken jars leaked dust; their former contents completely decayed. To the right was another door, flanked by two metal cabinets. Unlike the one I popped out of the frame, this one appeared to have been blown out of place. The black scorch marks and the fact that one of the flanking lockers appeared half-melted suggested somepony had either really wanted in or out of here centuries ago. The fact it had been a room filled with drugs, led me to believe the former as I made out the pair of medical beds in the middle of the room.

"Oh, I'd rut you right now if that's an offer..." Vertigo began, cut off by a grunt. "But you know... Limited options."

I huffed, levitating off my helmet, set him at the bedside, and smirked. "Seriously, we try it and I'd literally buck you to death, the state you're in."

He returned a weak smirk. "On the contrary, it's pure emotion and I'm a changeling, lust can be as filling as love."

I face-hoofed. "I'm not bucking you back to life," I stated flatly.

Hmm, that would certainly be a better kind of CPR though. Real thrusting, real kisses. No brain no! I shook my head as I tapped a forehoof on the bed.

"Get on, just tell me what you need," I ordered, and he seemed to wilt a little.

Struggling to get himself anywhere on his quivering limbs, I reluctantly assisted with my magic and head, getting way too close to his chitinous butt for comfort.

Oh, but it’s kinda fluffy or… bristly? You know, not in a disgusting way? I slammed a door in my thought's path. It's him or Cherry, you know you want to.

The changeling collapsed onto the worn bed with a wince, groan, and a cloud of dust. When the fit of coughing that summoned faded, he looked at me weakly.

"You saw those cages down below, right?" He wheezed, and recalling some of the claw-mauled metal animal cages we'd seen on our way up here, I nodded. "They must have been breeding those things, so they must have an antivenom."

My ears folded as he coughed some more, my own chest starting to ache. Urg, damn it, heart, I can't love him too! I internally screamed. So, what do you want? Him to die?

I took a deep breath, jaw clenched and forehoof pressed to my temple. "Okay, so that should be in here, right? This is the medical room?" I asked, but he shrugged as he glanced back at the dusty medical cabinets.

I winced. "Please tell me it's in here?"

I trotted over to the ragged pile of rusted metal and broken bottles, sweeping an armoured forehoof through the dry mess and finding not a drop of liquid or chems. Goddesses, damn it, no!

The only thing of interest I did find as I pulled open every draw and cupboard was a flickering terminal, with what looked to be the severed leg of a stuffed teddy Ursa beside it. I gave the decayed curiosity a suspicious glance before reaching over to a rack of vials on the wall behind it, inadvertently activating what the terminal had apparently been set to play in the process.

"Hey, my silly filly... It's your big, fuzzy Goodall. How's the mane looking, I'm sure it's beautiful?" Began the distorted voice of a mare from the recording before she went on after a series of coughs. "I–it's been five days now... I think, maybe a week... Whole prison went into lockdown..."

Her words were broken by coughing again as I drew back, trying not to scream at the lack of anything to help Vertigo.

"I think this is it... Security was so high after the prison's first bombing, but this... There's no transmission in or out, no nothing. All I heard was something about Cloudsdale, and... Well, I hope you're okay out there, wherever you are, silly filly. I'm recording this for you, I just hope you find it someday."

There was a pause and I glanced at the screen, unable to help but listen for a second as the recording buzzed and crackled.

"I really took this project to help you, see what I could learn, but... Well, now I'm trapped in a medical room so... I... I'm going to try and get out, there's got to be something I can mix to melt through the door. No PhD for nothing..."

The mare chuckled, coughed and the recording jittered before she finally added. "I know how much you wanted me to have Mr Fuzz ball, even if he's all broken now. I’ll leave a piece of him here, so you know it's me... I'm coming to find you, sweetie; your Goodall is coming."

I glanced at Vertigo as he stared at me, then the blackened door behind him as the explanation matched up with what I was seeing all these decades later. Somepony really did want to get out, really wanted to get out.

"I guess she must have used everything in here, there's nothing I can treat you with," I admitted, furious at my powerlessness.

"T–this place was huge before the war... There'll be more, you just have to find it," he croaked, reverberating voice distorting.

"Yeah, and you can't move another inch, so how are we supposed to do that?" I snapped, then instantly frowned.

"Look it's either fuck me or leave me," he stated, and I once again had to wrangle my thoughts as I trotted over. "And fucking me is really just so I can go out having a good time."

"This is a stupid plan, there's more rattle tails out there," I grumbled, marching back over to his side. "They come in here and you're literal bug bait!"

"Oh, so this is what it takes for you to start with the puns? I see," he retorted, before weakly levitating Sting into his forehooves. "It's paralytic venom, it works fast but kills slow, if I stay still, sit up, keep my heart above it, it’ll be even slower."

He did just that, awkwardly positioning himself with the gun in hoof. "Changelings have a resistance to this kinda stuff. I have time, though, there is one thing you can do for me."

He gave a knowing look, and I raised an eyebrow as he added. "You know...? To give me strength."

I glared at him. "I told you we're not bucking down..." He kissed me, long, deep and brimming with passion.

My eyes were wide, even if I felt all the strain and angst revolving around Cherry's kiss ebb away. His eyes were closed as I saw a faint pink glow pass between our locked lips, then my reluctance failed, and my eyes closed too.

Goddesses, I'm really starting to hate stupid, manipulative changelings. I swore to myself, right as my flustered thoughts added. Yeah, but you don't suddenly feel this hot under the tail unless you like it.

********

Eating love. Of all the stupid creatures I could pick up out here, why does it have to be the only one that feeds on love, lust, or whatever!? I still didn't really understand.

Grumbling to myself, I trotted down the dark halls, really trying not to think of that kiss, or Cherry's. Vertigo, I was pretty sure, had either done it to get under my coat, or as he'd made clear, it provided him with just enough sustenance to last a little longer.

Oh, because you totally don't want any romance with him to last as long as you can take it, sure? My mind quipped, and my cheeks burned. You know for him to take love; you'd actually need to feel it.

No, it's just lust, it has to be. I don't care for him like I do for Cherry. He was handsome, lean, and sweet when he wanted to be.

But it was like most mares and stallions I'd ever wanted to sleep with, I didn’t love him.

How sure about that are you? My mind sneered, and I thwacked my helmet against a wall. I'm pretty damn sure. I can't deal with all this relationship shit right now!

Vertigo, however, seemed to have known that. I didn’t know whether changelings could read minds, but Vertigo had said they were very good at mind magic. I was more inclined to believe he could sense emotions with some kind of extrasensory ability. He did always seem to know what to say, how to make me squirm or want to buck his teeth in.

My gut gave a wriggle at that, as if emphasising the former point. Seconds later, the pipes along the wall I'd head-butted rattled, and I froze, projecting the light of my Pipbuck down into the gloom. Bottom line, right now, was that I didn’t want him to die, why I was so driven to prevent that didn’t matter. Though making noise and getting myself hunted down by the prison’s venomous inhabitants wasn’t a good way of going about it.

"Urg, why is it always me who ends up alone in these stupid places?" I groaned, memories of the destiny labs coming back to me as I regarded the gloom.

Two signs hung at an intersection in the tunnels. One marked generator and laboratory hung ajar, while another marking a storage room still flickered with a pale-yellow light. Trotting up to the junction I peered both ways, noting a clicking as it started to emanate from my new Pipbuck. Advanced as it was, the thing was no miracle worker like Overseer, yet it did inform me that radiation levels were climbing down here.

Generator room, of course. I mentally noted, suspecting that, like most fortified places during the war, the prison was self-sustaining.

Therefore, a reactor that could go wrong. They just loved to ruin my day back then, didn't they?

I turned away from the irradiated corridor, forced to find a new way to the labs through the storage section.

What was it Sky said about walking through radiation? It's a bad idea? I glanced back at my mid-section, bump barely visible under my barding. A week ago, I was perfectly slim.

I groaned. If it had taken that much radiation to make me pile on the baby weight, then for once I was perfectly fine taking Skylark's advice. It wasn't like I could just go back and ask her, and even if my foal wasn’t normal, I wasn’t about to go jumping into a spark reactor to see what happened.

Yeah, at that rate you'll be delivering in a few days... Or you'll just explode. I shook my head, trying not to think about that part of my condition. It's not a monster, I'll get a perfectly healthy foal, a colt, I know it.

I passed a door marked 'maximum security: block one' as the corridor climbed up a set of stairs. Then came across another intersection, each corridor leading away to block two, three, and storage respectively. There were barricades, as well as several skeletons. Vertigo may have been able to make better observations, yet I suspected not everypony had gotten out before the bombs. I recalled what I'd heard in Crossroads, as well as the few articles I'd glimpsed about the attack on the prison before the war.

Still filling these places with criminals even after they're blown up once? I thought as I noted several broken cages, and claw marks in the walls, along with bullet holes.

I saw another old terminal on a rusted pile of crates, right next to a wall marked by the crudely scrawled words 'Watch for the nests!'

Yeah, not about to make that mistake again. I thought as I crept over the bone strewn corridor and up to the terminal.

Rummaging through the medical kit and ammo box beside it. I found a few spark cells, a red banned grenade, and several shotgun rounds. There was even a baton. I restocked on what supplies I could. Before discovering the mostly shredded remains of what I was pretty sure was another part of the teddy Ursa I'd seen in the medical office.

"Really down with that whole bread crumb trail thing, huh?" I noted as I looked at the terminal and found, much like its counterpart, it was set to play another message.

A small part of me ached knowing that I wasn’t the pony it was intended for, yet glancing around and checking the volume, I didn’t let the long-dead mare's voice go unheard.

"H–hello... Silly filly..." Immediately it was clear whatever was causing the mare's cough in the last recording had become far worse.

Her voice was wet, yet raspy. Like some kind of slimy sand paper, it slithered from the terminal's speaker as she coughed and spluttered.

"It's still me, your big sis Good all, still kicking..." Another cough and a wheeze. "I... I just wanna say sorry, I know it's been over a month... I said I'd be home for your birthday, but it’s looking like we're still trapped. I... After the warden, I... No, no, You don't need to know."

There was a long pause, a few deep breaths from the mare that faded in and out of static. There was also a rattling in the pipes around me and I glanced about, seeing nothing but darkness as the recording went on.

"But, well I found some friends, some ponies I work with, they're trapped in here too and well... They need me to help, remember, like when I used to help you walk before you got your roller? I know you're a big, strong filly, you’re tough, but these ponies need me more than you do, I'm the only one who knows how to help them..."

There was a sniff from the mare and even all these decades later I knew she was crying. "I... I really love you, you know, but you'll be safe with mom, and you'll get this someday, I know it. I'll get out, get my friends out and we'll all give it to you, come celebrate that birthday party together..."

There was another deep intake of breath from the mare. "Just gotta take them back to the labs where I keep all my work tools, past the reactor, piece of cake..." There was a sound in the background, a clattering and another voice called out in the distance.

"Damn it, Wild Rider watch the nests, Luna only knows what those things are doing now they're out!" There was a scuffling and another pony snapped back.

"What, we're all dead down here anyway if we don't get to those supplies! Radiation be dammed, it can't get all of us!"

"It's a damaged reactor, it's not out to get us... I can fix it, just give me time!" added another voice.

"Time to what, be eaten by those sick experiments or the inmates? No, you had your chance, Isotope!"

"Everypony, please calm down, they'll hear us," called the mare who'd started the recording, before seemingly addressing who the message was intended for once again. "You're Goodall's gotta go again, silly filly, don't worry she'll stay safe... Love... You."

The message fizzled out just as the ponies in the background started to argue again and glancing up I realised a whole new meaning to the message scrawled on the wall.

'Sick experiments?' It was good to know I wasn’t the only pony who thought so. Then what in Equestria were they really doing down here?

I glanced around, according to the signs, storage was dead ahead. According to my E.F.S, there were red bars all around me. A small Radroach scurrying out from the skull of a pony had me jumping like a timid feline before I dispatched it with a hoof stomp. Another came out of the ammo box I looted and met a similar squishy fate.

See, it's like everywhere else you go. All those bars are just Radroaches. My mind reassured, even as the survivalist part of me wanted to give my ideas a kick in the flank.

I looked up and saw the glint of two shimmering eyes in the gloom ahead as my light passed across the corridor. Sharp fangs flared from under snarling lips as another set of eyes materialized beside the first, then another, and another, until the whole corridor was staring back at me.

Their rattling slid into my ears as they folded, and I took a wary step back. You just had to think they were all Radroaches didn't you, Dragonfire!?

"Oh, fuck you wasteland!" I screamed, before flaring my magic and ripping up the biggest part of the barricade I could manage.

The broken office door I ended up with was all I had as the swarm of snarling mutants charged. I thrust the door forward with all my telekinetic strength, ramming it into the tight corridor and smacking several of the creatures back. The effort stung my horn, yet goddesses was I glad to have my magic back!

Unlike the Radroaches I'd been hoping for, however, rattle tails weren’t so simply dealt with, and started to claw their way around my improvised blockade. Still riding my magical high, I reared up and lurched forward, horn sparking to blast a gout of cyan flame over the edges of the wooden frame. The pyrotechnic spell didn’t last as long as I would have liked before it sent a sharp pain through my head. Yet the burning barricade was finally enough to send the resilient predators scurrying back into the shadows.

Well, there goes the storage route option. My mind quipped as I glimpsed the sign hanging above the cyan pyre.

My lack of care couldn’t be more obvious as I eagerly yelled. "Yes, how do you like that!? Oh, I love magic!"

I wanted to take off my horn and kiss it. The series of hisses that came from my left and right put a stopper in my plans, however. I glanced either way to see more of the hybrid fiends creeping towards me.

Instinctively, I flared my horn, only to wince. Magic's still a little tender, Dragonfire, and you've already run out of doors to throw!

I backed away, laser rifle levitating at my side as I took my own advice for once. Stupid wasteland can't even give me this!

Regardless of my grumbling, I was reluctantly forced back down the corridor I'd come from, all the way past the stairs. The sound of a great many claws grew closer, and my pace increased. My heart pounded, yet as my ears stood erect they only picked up another symphony of hissing growls right behind me.

I seriously hate underground places! I internally screamed as I fixed my eyes on the only option I had left, the maximum-security block I'd come past. Better to go deeper than die here, right?

No matter how much I'd insisted I come out with Vertigo. I was really going to have strong words with the changeling for dragging me down into the bowels of this pre-war tomb.

Thought's on killing him later, focus on not getting eaten right now! I charged through the open door and looked back, desperately searching for the controls.

I saw a flicker of green and one buck of my hind hooves later, my gut was swimming, I was gagging, but the rattle-tails were locked away. At least for now.

Back against the wall, I slid down to my rump and placed a forehoof on my griping stomach. "You really don't make this any easier, little guy."

The room around me was almost pitch black, save for the light of my magic and a small set of flickering emergency lights. In the periodic flashes of illumination, I could make out a long corridor. To the left was an office sealed off by a set of reinforced glass and bars. From the looks of the shattered window and the crumbling wall around it, however, it didn’t seem to have fared much better than the rest of the structure.

Here's hoping it doesn't all just come down on your head. My mind chirped as I groggily got to my hooves and began trotting down the corridor.

There were no more signs, the only way to go was forward through a triple set of barred gates and what was left of a barred steel door. The stuff looked like it had been melted through, and as I got to the other side it didn’t take me long to recognize why.

The towering shaft stretched on at least three layers above and below me, circumference lined by rusted catwalks and broken steel bridges on each floor. Behind them were countless cells, row after row of decrepit bars jutting out from the thick concrete like the ribs of a corpse. The further up I searched, the more the destruction seemed to increase, until my eyes fell upon large holes blasted in the roof. Rubble lay strewn around the pit, the broken catwalks it had shattered in its wake mangled on the boulders below.

The thought of being in here when the roof came down made me shudder. Yet from the look of the door and cells as I made my way around, it was pretty clear there had been ponies in here until the fiery end.

Well, them wanting to get out makes even more sense now. I'd melt a door off too in their horseshoes. I thought as I followed the rickety catwalk around, wincing only a few times as it shuddered. You make me fall and I'll melt you too!

I gently placed one hoof before the other, making my way into hard, concrete-floored cells where I could. Every pile of cloth, mound of twigs or lavatory stuffed with junk made me flinch. I'd no idea where more mutant nests could be.

Scared of sticks now? Oh, how you have fallen? My mind chimed, but I slammed a mental door in its face, locking it up tighter than any of the cells around me.

A cell with walls covered in graffiti became my next point of refuge from the rusting catwalk. Yet the scrawl declaring the 'Snakes are in the walls' and 'We're locked in here with them' did nothing to settle my nerve.

Vertigo was right, the things must have been here before the bombs fell. I concluded as I made out another wall boasting the words 'the bite is the end'.

I backed out and the catwalk gave a rattle. My face scrunched, eyes closed tight as my ears folded.

Okay, off this stupid thing now! My mind screamed, as I grasped the rail and hobbled along.

Yet the wasteland wasn’t about to make my new fear any easier to deal with. I had to pause again as the sound of rubble clattering down from above met my ears. Pressing my back against the wall, I made out the distinct shapes of two rattle tails prowling amides the thicket of broken rebar and girders suspended like a web against the roof. The weak light streaming through the breaches from the floors above silhouetted them like ghosts in the dusty air, and I bit back my fear as more of the creatures began to stalk along the vast catwalks.

My back still against the wall, I crept along as the beasts broke out into a hissing spat over a Radroach trying to scurry away. Better the bugs than you, now move your tail, Dragonfire!

I finally made my way into a large box at the far side of the shaft, the high security, barred windows and doors a clear indicator this had been the block's control centre. The vast array of flickering cell operators were also a giveaway as I gently shut the thick steel door behind me, turning a bulkhead to lock it. There was a clatter of things falling against the roof, but aside from some yelping and snapping, it didn’t seem the rattle tails were finished with their meal outside.

I sighed as I made my way over to the control desk. The things I do for somepony I don't love.

I had to assure myself of that last part as I inspected the console. Everything was red, from the mark that represented each cell, to the huge, containment breach still flashing faintly before me. From the look of the doors, however, it didn’t seem the prisoners had blasted their way in here.

Just in a hurry to get out, not so much take control. I surmised, spying a camera in the corner of the room and another thick door behind me. Can't say I blame them.

As if wanting to make me just that little bit more anxious, I glanced to the left of the dashboard and found a set of screens. Most were dead or buzzing with static. But the few that were not, were stuck looping a recording of a panic-filled shaft. All stallions, many battling hoof and teeth with armed guards or clawing their way out of cells as rubble rained down like a storm. Dust filled the air, as each screen seemed to show a deteriation from an organized attempt to restrain the chaos to everypony fighting for their lives. One ended with a bloody-faced stallion, barely older than a colt, banging against the lens before the recording reset.

Most of them were probably monsters, murderers and rapists. Yet did they really deserve that in the end? I was no different, I'd killed before, I'd killed hundreds and even gone so far as to remove the guilt from my mind just so I could survive. I shook my head. No, I'd been in prisons before, I'd had this argument with myself. The world was different now, I did what I had to. I didn’t belong in a civilised world. Then came the rattle tails, however.

At the garbled hissing sound, I jumped and swivelled my weapon to the door. Yet the mutants’ shrill sounds were coming from the last recording. The things crept up the shaft, feasting on the dead and those too weak to escape. Some straddlers fought back with rebar and stools, one stallion even had a sink. They were no match for the sheer amount of mutated creatures.

I sighed. It had been playing to no pony for almost two centuries and here I was. Pretty much trapped in the same situation. I flicked the recordings off with a twitch of my magic. This place was sitting on a hive that needed to be blasted off the face of the wasteland yet again. Had twice really not been enough?

I heard a scattering outside, and looked up, ears perked and weapons ready as a pair of rattle tails scampered off the way I'd just come from. I didn't relax, however, not until something else met my ears. The low whirring of a motor.

My head perked, attention spiking as I peered left and right, eyes finally coming to rest on the camera sitting above me in the corner. The light beside the lens flashed from red to green as the thing rotated, homing in on me as I cocked my head.

No, no pony could be...

"Hello, hello? I'm flummoxed, is there really somepony in there?" At the sound of the tinny voice buzzing through the room's PA system, I almost shot right through the roof.

By the goddesses, heart stay in my chest where you belong! I had to tell myself as I pressed a forehoof to my breast. How much more of this can I take!?

A small twitch deep in my gut told me that I wasn’t the only one with butterflies in my tummy, even if I did my best not to feel sick. Steadying myself against one of the control panels. Taking a series of deep breaths, I heard the PA system crackle again, then heard an eep from the other side.

"Oh, dear Luna, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you so much," apologized the voice that was distinctly that of a mare despite the distortion. “It’s just been so long since the prison had visitors."

I staggered back to all four hooves, peering at the camera. So, whoever this is can see me? Goddesses, I hope this isn’t some other Overseer!

No matter how much I'd approved of what that robot did while hijacking my Pipbuck, if I was stuck down in this tomb with another one I was going to rip my mane out. The way she talked about not seeing guests in such a long time didn’t bode well in that regard.

"Hello, so you can see me, right?" I asked, waving a forehoof that the camera seemed to automatically follow before the speakers gave a buzzing pop.

"Yes, I can see you. You're in high-security cell control two. Oh, you're not one of the security inspection teams are you?" the mare asked, and I glanced around.

Sure wish I had a team! My mind screamed as I considered my options. This is either a crazy machine or a pony who's lost their mind, you've been here a few times.

"Sure, that's me, though I must say that I've found my inspection so far to be a little lacking. One of your prisoners stole my identification," I improvised.

"Oh, horse apples, not again...! Don't worry all of the security systems’ down. Though some doors should still be accessible through a staff key card," buzzed the mare and I shuddered as she seemed to become flustered. "Oh, I shouldn’t have to deal with this, I'm a vet, not a prison officer!"

Wait, what did she say? My attention perked and after the initial rush of confusion as to why a mare of that profession would be here, I had an idea. Seems too convenient to be true, Dragonfire.

"Hey, wait, did you say you're a vet?" I asked hopefully, and there was a long pause before the speakers chimed enthusiastically.

"Dr Fauna, veterinarian PHD, assigned to project Nightstalker," the mare introduced, throwing my suspicions as to whether she was real or a machine into question.

"Project Nightstalker? You mean the rattle tails?" I pressed, putting the two names that often revolved around the hybrid creatures together.

"That is the name some of the prisoners give to them, yes. But in reality, they are actually a creation of Hippocratic..."

"Okay, sure. You wouldn't happen to know where I could get an antivenom for their poison, would you?" I asked and once again there was a pause for longer than my liking.

"For one, they’re venomous, not poisonous... But yes, there are several batches of synthesised antivenom in refrigeration storage... Only, I'm unable to get there with my access codes," the mare admitted, and I held back a huff of irritation.

Yes, I admit it, too convenient to be true, there has to be a catch. I inwardly grumbled. Fuck you, wasteland!

"Okay, then how do I get to you? I do that and you show me where this medicine is?" I asked, really hoping she was somehow a real mare.

"I'm trapped in the safe room on sub-level four, about two cells from your location. You'd need security clearance of bata level or higher, but with no identification..."

"Okay, cut to the chase, is there any way to get clearance?" I asked, glancing around.

"Well, I'd have to review the recordings but I'm pretty sure head warden Bright Spark was in the security cell adjacent to yours. But I can’t see him on any of the feeds... I hope he's okay," the mare informed me, and I had to fight the urge to bang my head on the control desk.

Her mind’s clearly fried, she's either a brain in a jar or a ghoul. My mind reasoned. Still, she’s gotta be the key to what I need!

"Okay, just tell me this." I jabbed a forehoof at the camera. "How do I get to this guy’s clearance code?"

"Well, you have access to vent control from there, I think. Then it's just a matter of climbing through... Oh, but I really should not tell you that, it's a serious breach of security!" she went on as I felt my stomach drop.

True to her words as I looked over at the control desk I saw a button marked ‘vent seal control’. There was a blinking red light next to it and as I tentatively gave it a flicked to green there was a grinding sound, and a vent in the wall next to the door slipped open, revealing a space just large enough for me to squeeze through.

Oh, where is Clip when I need him! I thought, recalling the way he'd been in the factory ruins as I looked myself over. Thank the goddesses I'm not so round yet!

I gulped. I had my E.F.S, and my magic back, I could make my way through a tight crawl space. That was when the Doctor crackled back to life on the PA system.

"Though I will warn you that several of the vents are sealed. Many of the escaped Nightstalker subjects were caught inside and are still awaiting retrieval."

My ears folded as I shuddered. "Thank you, that was just what I needed to hear!"

********

I'd played pre-war games a few times. Pin-ball, ponies and ghost, the striped menace, the game buckaroo had always been an oddly entertaining one. Never had I cared about video games enough to want to feel like I was living in one as I did right now, however. Crawling through the tight ventilation shafts with the heat of my breath and sweaty body, the thrumming in my ears and the loud clatter of my armour against the rusty metal was bad enough. Yet it had become more like a minefield as I constantly had to watch my E.F.S, distinguish which red bars were in the vents with me and avoid them before they could find me.

Kinda wish it was a red menace in here with me, at least a zebra would have to contend with being too large for the vents as well! I mentally hissed as I saw the shadow of a rattle tail dart away in a blinking red light.

A squirming in my gut made it pretty clear that I wasn’t the only one on edge. Even so, the fact the foal was still so small at least allowed me to awkwardly wriggle my way in the direction my Pipbuck indicated. I still had no idea how it knew where the control room was, but as I heard the hiss and the rattling of a tail behind me I didn’t care.

I couldn’t look back, I could hardly move, I could only wriggle as fast as I could. Like a beached fish I floundered my way up the shaft, envious of how easy worms made it look as I prayed the tapping behind me was not claws on metal. Then I felt something other than smooth steel under me, and as soon as I realised it was the grated metal of a hatch, the thing jolted. It gave way with a shrill shriek, and I was sent plummeting down into another, far larger control room.

By the goddesses, I really hate you gravity! I inwardly cursed as I instinctively sparked my horn, wrapping myself in magic for a brief moment, slowing my fall enough to save me from a hard landing.

The strain of self-levitation sent a sharp jab through my skull and my magic cut out as my hooves hit the cold metal floor of the gloomy chamber. One grunt of irritation and a forehoof tapping my horn later and I was thankful that the trick hadn’t left me with magical burnout again.

Because that would really, really, suck! I mentally exclaimed before glancing up at the grate hanging loose from the ceiling vent.

By the looks of it, it had boasted some seriously heavy-duty locks once, yet time hadn’t even spared the highest of security enhancements. I was swift to levitate the thing closed and weld the locks shut with a burst of pyrotechnics from my horn. The flash of a Nightstalker darting by in the light of my magic threw my thoughts about gravity into a spin.

I'd have either fallen or been eaten with no way to fight back. Oh, why can’t the world just be simple?

Before I could dwell on what may have happened too much, however, I peered around to find that this control room was at least three times the size of the last. Looking out of the dusty security windows and through the rusty bars, I saw three new detainment shafts. So many more cells, so many more skeletons, so many more ponies screaming like in that recording.

Just how many ponies did they have here, how many of them were so fucked up they'd need a prison this big? I tried not to think about it, I had to save Vertigo and I didn't have the time to dwell on the past.

Even so, all I could see around me was a larger control panel and bones draped in the tattered remains of prison officers’ uniforms. A slow clicking from my Pipbuck, told me that hanging around in here wasn’t the best idea either, not if I really wanted to find out what my foal did with the radiation I was exposed to.

Really think it's not a monster? My mind chimed but I slammed a security door in its face. No way, it’s not a monster... Just different.

Creeping over the bones littered around the place and levitating them into a corner next to another skeleton sat clutching a piece of paper that disintegrated the moment I went near, I really did my best not to think about what went on here. Blowing dust from the old control panel, I was met by a low whir and a series of blinking lights. One last skeleton had its back to the console. The stump of a severed left forehoof folded against its chest while an old machete sat at its side. I found the other part of its limb wrapped around the lanyard of a security pass, still locked in the slide accesses slot on the control panel.

Lost their hoof while trying to activate the thing? I wondered, glancing at the bones, before the crackle of the PA system once again forced me to do all I could not to jump. I swear, get it together body or so help me!

"Oh, by Luna, you're there! Sorry, there's a delay on the feed, fixed now," Doctor Fauna chimed as the buzzing speakers came back to life.

I couldn’t see whatever camera she was observing me from in the gloom, there were too many sets of green and red lights. So, I simply peered out of the window as a trio of Nightstalkers scampered up the shaft.

"I take it this is what I need?" I asked, taking the card in my magic, yanking it free.

"Yes, that's it. With that you can recover power remotely and lift the lockdown from there," she told me eagerly, and after a few directions, I did just that.

The control panel lit up, whirring to life far louder than it had done before as lights turned from red to green and a tinny voice declared that the lockdown had been lifted. I heard the rattle of cell bars sliding open and the hiss of Nightstalkers as the shift seemed to agitate the roaming hybrids. I just hoped Vertigo would still be in one piece when I got back as the doctor informed me she was in safe room three of the same level as me. It all sent enough shivers down my spine. Yet as if that wasn’t enough, the control room's recording began to play.

"Damn it, Keychain! What do you want me to do, just let them all die down here too!? Death row already collapsed, those fuckers are gone!" Shouted what I could just make out as a large, blue-coated stallion with a white mane as he stood by the control desk.

"Bright Spark, I don't care about them or your morals, you know the procedures since the bombing! No prisoner is to be out of their cell, no staff are to be in hoof-length of a cell at any time, all weapons are to be..."

"I get it, by Luna did they turn you into a damn robot over there!?" The stallion they'd identified as Bright Spark responded to the smaller red mare. "I know the procedure, one of them managed to sneak in a goddesses damn machete with this morning's transfer...!"

The two ponies were cut off as the whole room shook, dust trailing from the ceiling, alarms starting to whir as red lights flashed. I could hardly make it out in the din, but I was pretty sure some radiation device in there with them was starting to go crazy.

The two glanced about before Bright Spark spoke up. "There it goes again... No, it can't be. The Manehatten report must have been right!"

The blue stallion moved to the desk, only for Keychain to call out. "Spark, don't you dare lift the lockdown!"

"Or what, you want to just let them die in here? This is it, feather brain, didn’t you hear?" the stallion stated as he took out his key card. "Get out, go find your family or something."

"You know I can’t do that..." Key chain's words were strained and wrought with pain even all these centuries later. "We put down the fucker that killed them last year, remember?"

There was a pause, and Keychain dissipated from the camera's view as Bright Spark stared out of the window at the destabilizing cell beyond. Ponies starting to panic, begging to be let out.

"Not just that, but you know that if we open the doors… Then project Nightstalker..."

"I know the risk, and I'm sorry but, I can't have any more blood on my hooves," Bright Spark interrupted only to glance back at his companion, a machete in her muzzle.

Looking down at the blade to the left of me and back to the open gun cabinet beside the room's door, I put things together, right as she said.

"I can't let you unseal this place, warden. I'm sorry." The recording buzzed out into static just as I realised that all these years later, I'd so casually activated what the pair of them had died for.

I swallowed my own disgust and turned to the door. Being very careful not to disturb any more bones, I pressed the card to the green-lit lock and crept through, sealing the control room behind me.

"I... I'm sorry you had to see that, the control team should have been here to deal with it months ago," the doctor crackled in the corridor's speakers.

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to seeing crazy," I assured as I made my way down the corridor, peering into each darkened room I came across with my lights.

"I... I imagine so, I guess. Your line of work can't be easy," the mare on the other side of the speakers buzzed.

"Oh, you have no idea," I retorted with a roll of my eyes as I was forced to dispatch two more Nightstalkers prowling the corridor ahead of me.

Beyond them was a fork in the tunnel, then a stairway up. The word 'Nightstalker' was marked on the wall in faded blood several more times as I blasted two more of the creatures stalking amidst skeletons. Trotting over the bones and disintegrated corpses, I used the card to open another door. Greeted by a larger room and a scattering of Radroaches as I panned my light across the darkness.

Either side was marked by stacks of rusty cages, bars bent and broken. Scattered around were smaller pens, the kind I'd seen mobsters and slavers keep attack dogs in from time to time. The monsters locked up here had been set free long ago, however. The many gnawed holes in the walls, roof, and floor, not to mention the multiple broken vents, made their tenacity pretty clear.

"What is this place?" I asked, hoping Fauna could still see me.

"This was the overflow bay, Doctor Nightshade wanted us to keep the older specimens here while he worked with the younger animals in his lab," she elaborated as I trotted through the mess of broken metal.

Why do I feel when she says ‘animals’, she means some kind of crazy, twisted experiment? Moving by two broken medical beds at the far end of the room, that suspicion only grew, as did the churning in my gut. I’m not going to think about the labs under Destiny corp, I’m not!

"Hey, there it is!" Fauna suddenly declared, catching my wondering attention before she added. "I'm in room C, it's the next door down. Oh, I've been locked in here for what feels like forever!"

"Okay, okay, hold your horseshoes," I retorted, shaking off my dread and moving to where she'd indicated.

True to her words, I found the faded letter C on the concrete beside a thick steel door, and pressing my key card to the red lock, the thing buzzed before the large metal slab slid into the floor. The room was a small medical office, not really what I'd call a safe room. Even so, it was secure enough, with rows of glass medical cabinets, heavy-duty lockers, and a medical trolley at its centre.

The makeshift cluster of wires, terminal screens and microphones sprawled out on the desk, like some machine had coughed up its metallic guts, appeared a little more out of place. So too, did the hunched mare slumped before it like she'd not moved in centuries. Her rotten coat was a very light yellow, what was left of her mane a pale cerulean with lighter grey streeks. I knew a ghoul when I saw one, and even if this was the mare that had been speaking to me all this time, I approached with caution.

"Urm, hello, Doctor Fauna?" I asked tentatively, almost hearing the crack of her withered spine as she turned and looked at me with two milky brown eyes.

It wasn’t hard to see now why she may have lost her mind. I'd seen ghouls like this before, almost like robots that were still programmed to think the world had never ended. It was a wonder they didn’t go feral locked away for centuries. When she cocked her head, smiled with yellowed teeth, and jumped at me, I was more than a little apprehensive.

Please say she didn’t choose right now to lose it completely! I begged, instinctively levitating up my gun.

That didn’t stop her as she grabbed my left forehoof with hers, and instead of biting it off, gave me a very squishy hoof shake.

"Oh Luna, I'm flummoxed, you're really real, I thought I was just seeing things...! Dehydration maybe, but now you're here!" She practically beamed at me like a giddy foal while I repressed my urge to shoot.

Okay, so just a little better than wanting to eat me. She's crazy, but not a monster. I assured myself before responding.

"Last time I checked I was real. Now, you were going to help me, I have a friend who doesn't have much time," I insisted, and she blinked, cocking her head, forcing me to press further. "You know, the antivenom!?"

"Oh, right yes, well I have some, we'll just have to go get it," she said happily, and I really had to resist the urge to scream, if only to avoid bringing every rattle tail down on our heads.

"What?! I thought you said you had some!" I hissed through gritted teeth, before stomping over to the terminals.

Maybe there's a way I can see him, see how much time we have. My logical side thought as I searched for anything that may be what I needed. Oh yeah, I'm not smart enough to know about medicine like that!

"Well, I do have some, though not right here. It's down in my locker in Doctor Nightshade's lab," she admitted, and I grit my teeth. "It's where I've been trying to get for days now... Or was it just yesterday?"

I glared as she pressed a forehoof to her chin. "I thought you said you were locked up in here all this time?"

She chuckled.

"What…? Since the lockdown? Yeah, I think... Though there was that time I passed the reactor... I don't know it's all pretty fuzzy." The way she smiled at me without a clue made it hard to call her out on her own crazy.

I simply huffed and turned to the terminals. "Okay, is there any way to use this, I need to look for somepony," I asked, and she floundered over, rotten side brushing uncomfortably close to mine.

"Oh sure, I've had this for a few days, can get to pretty much every camera in the prison," she chimed, flicking through images of empty cells, a canteen, and a Nightstalker-filled corridor.

A few days, sure. I think a day is a year for this crazy mare. I surmised as I caught the image I was looking for.

"There, stop... Go back!" I exclaimed, leaping at the terminal coordinates, and switching to the image of Vertigo.

He didn’t look good, he wasn't even on the bed anymore. Slumped with his back to the wall at the side of the door with drool leaking from between his fangs; the changeling had Sting resting in his forehooves, the body of a Nightstalker severed by the door sitting next to him.

"Can he hear us?" I asked and Fauna looked at me, before fiddling with several of the controls and wires.

"What in Equestria is that!? I've never seen anypony like that!" She gazed at the flickering screen in awe before motioning to a button by the microphone.

"Vertigo, damn it you stubborn bug you better not be dead!" I demanded, pressing a forehoof to the intercom.

"D–Dragonfire... S–sorry, I'd say it's good to see you but... I can hardly see anything..." he responded.

"Dear Luna, he's suffering from almost complete paralysis. I didn't think anypony could survive long enough for that to take effect," Fauna muttered at my side.

"Yeah, well he's not a pony. Now, is there anything you can do to slow it down, he's in the medical room by the cave entrance!?" I asked and she cocked her head again.

"Cave entrance, really? Wow!" she mused, then tapped the screen. "It shows he's in medical room four, see." She tapped the screen with a forehoof, and I face-hooved.

"Can you help him!?" I pressed and she recoiled before seeming to think.

"There are some ways to slow the venom, I guess I could... Yes, that would work." She trailed off, looking through one of the medical cabinets. "I can't stop its effect without the antivenom. Though if he's resisted for so long he may still have some time. That's if they don't find him"

I lifted a forehoof to cut her off and turned back to the screen. "And what you need is in the lab, right. So where would that be?"

"Down on the level below, along with data storage and the central reactor. I can show you... but all the subjects are loose!" she told me, stashing a host of medical supplies into a sack, throwing it over her shoulders.

"Leave that to me, just make sure not to get bitten," I instructed, unsure whether she knew that she was already pretty much dead.

I had a feeling she'd been down here for far longer than she knew and that she had no idea what it was to become a ghoul. Her apparent trip to the reactor may have had a hoof in that. That coupled with the radiation readings I'd been getting made me very unsure of what I was about to do.

"O–okay, if you say so, but what about the prisoners? With the lockdown lifted some of them may be loose too," she asked, moving back to check her cameras. "Damn it, they're so good at hiding!"

"There's no pony out there, trust me," I assured, as she switched the cameras to what I assume was the laboratory.

"I–... Oh, come on Fauna there's ponies who need you!" she stated, more to herself as she slapped her face.

I winced at the sickening sound of her body moving. But she seemed no less determined as she took what I guess was a ghoul's best attempt at a deep breath.

"There's a stairway down just two doors across from here. We can use it to get in and out now the lockdown is lifted," she showed me, switching one of the cameras.

Going deeper, radiation and monsters around every corner, how fun! I thought, as on the terminal screen I caught glimpses of Nightstalkers moving in a flash of light. Oh, the things I do for the stallion I don't love!

********

It seemed that for every steady click my Pipbuck emitted, I had to kill another Nightstalker. Even so, after downing two packs of radaway, I could already feel the slight nature of radiation sickness, not to mention a small stabbing pain in my gut. I dared not think what this was doing to my foal, yet every time I glanced back and saw no change in my figure like the explosion on the train had given me was a relief. Clearly, it would take far more magical radiation than this to give my foal another growth spurt. Even so, after what Sky had told me about going through radiation, I didn’t want to stay down here any longer than needed.

"Urg, these things are everywhere! There was only fourteen catalogued in each section at a time, how are there so many?" Fauna asked, taking a useless radaway of her own.

Right now, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she didn’t need to, nor did I feel like letting her in on the fact that the radiation was probably rotting her brain just as much as it was affecting me. That last revelation that she was undead could be the final push that shoved her over the edge, better to just leave her with ignorance for now.

"I have no idea," I improvised, creeping around another corridor illuminated by flashing lights. "But, this project Nightstalker, what do you know about it?"

I needed a distraction from my warping stomach, and really didn’t want to think of my foal as a radiation sapping monster. Knowing what was really going on here and what ponies had died for seemed like a good enough substitute.

"What, you don't know? Funny, I'd have thought they'd have told you before sending you in here," she responded, kicking a forehoof at one of the dead creatures and wincing.

"Call it a test of what you know. I am here to inspect, after all," I responded and that made her stammer.

"I... I–I, oh I didn’t realise that this was a test. Oh, let's see, well the original project is based in Hoofington, Fort Sandstone is just one of many outside testing facilities across Equestria. There is plans to incorporate Nightstalkers into law enforcement rolls after all." If I'd not had my helmet on, the look I gave her alone would have been enough to tell her just how much of a joke that sounded like.

Using hybrid monsters to hunt criminals, wow, someponies must really have gotten desperate. Or just too ambitious. I wondered, yet even as I did my thoughts added. Isn't this whole ruined world just built upon the ambitions of those who thought they had good intentions?

I shook my head free of the mental debate as I rounded a corner and came across another long, cell lined corridor. There were plenty more bones, those of ponies and Nightstalkers, even griffins and other creatures. Radroaches scampered back to the shadows at our advance as Fauna eyed every looming shadow wearily.

"You wanted to let these things loose in places where ponies lived?" I asked sceptically, glimpsing a set of long fangs on one of the bare skulls.

"Well, no. The domestication plan was just a front, I think. I know the original intention was to have a pet that was both loyal and able to find their owner in the case of zebra invasion, but the point was to make sure it never got that far," she went on as we reached the far door and feeling weary I was forced to take another radaway.

"Though now that I think about... Why I'm here, I believed in something, but I can't remember... Urg, this isn't going to go down on my report is it?" she asked and sapping the last of the tangy orange chemical, I shook my head.

"Don't worry about it. I think I've found far more things wrong with this place than your memory," I offered, and she glanced about with uncertainty as I moved to the door.

The mess of bloody hoof prints and claws marking the heavy bulkhead gave me pause. Dreading what may be on the other side, I lifted my gun to the door before using the card to slide it open. It gave an agitated shunt, then a grinding groan as it shuddered its way back into the roof.

Much to my relief, I wasn’t met by a face full of Nightstalker teeth, instead; a long, tile-walled room with rows of tables supporting medical and chemistry stations. Overhead lights flickered and sparked, more animal cages littered the lab and windows in the far wall allowed a shaft of sickly green like to beam in.

"This is Nightshade’s lab, the antivenom should be in here somewhere," Fauna declared, darting into the room, forcing me to swiftly make sure there were no monsters hiding in the shadows. "Take a look at the desks, I should still have the key for these cabinets."

She nodded to one of the tables as she dove into her sack and began to rummage. Time still far from on our side I did as she indicated and trotted up towards the green-lit window at the far end, noting a small spike in my Pipbuck’s clicking. A trio of rusty barrels in the corner by the window also caught my eye, especially the sleek rainbow-coloured fluid that seemed to be oozing out of them.

Whatever you do, Dragonfire, don't touch anything that looks like that! My mind screamed as I did all I could to avoid every puddle, hoof, and paw print of the stuff.

Making my way around a medical table with a dissected Nightstalker splayed open below a series of operation arms, I had to force myself not to think about what I'd seen in the past week or so. They were just monsters, not like Lucky, not like Babs, they'd never been real ponies. I told myself that over and over again as I reached the furthest desk, more like a control panel before the window that peered out into what I could make out as a sickly-lit cave. A natural formation in the red rock of the desert like the one through which I and Vertigo had entered, it seemed the cave had become exposed to whatever radioactive slime was leaking out of the reactor, it was filled with a lake of the stuff. A ledge to the left supported several more of the rusty barrels, rainbow fluid leaking into the vicious mix outside.

I really don't want to know what being close to that will do to a pony. I noted as my Pipbuck’s clicking spiked and the stabbing in my gut grew a little more.

"Ha, I think I got it... Come on key, come on!" Fauna called out from behind me as I looked over the control panel.

No antidotes here, though what was I expecting? I thought as my eyes panned across flickering buttons, buzzing speakers, and what looked oddly like the legs of a shattered lavender figurine.

They came to a stop at one still active terminal, its sickly green screen broken by a spiderweb of crack spawned from one corner. Next to it was the thing that caught my attention, however, the head of a blue teddy Ursa, the latest piece in Goodall's breadcrumb trail.

Foot Note: Level Up.

New Perk Added: Living Love Battery – like it or not, your feelings are stronger than you think, and for some, that’s more than just a good time. All companions receive extra damage resistance while alongside you.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Project Nightstalker

Chapter 26: Project Nightstalker

“Well, I’m flummoxed. You bring me a dog, I’ve got it diagnosed in seconds, snake even faster…”

Log: Project Nightstalker – Doctor Nightshade: Day 23.

“First day with the new lab assistant, some veterinarian from Ponyville, came highly recommended. Hopefully, this one can tough it out long enough to get us somewhere. New flux shipment came by from Hippocratic along with her, bosses upstairs are pressing for the distribution of Nightstalkers more and more by the day.”

“But the practical implications are just not there right now. They expect us to mass produce these things, but the fusing spell comes out with something different every time. Even if it’s not noticeable on the surface, on the cellular level, it’s a total mess. We need to breed out the desired traits and breed in those we want, not just throw more resources into the stew pot, and hope a good mix sticks.”

“The arcane propagator is up and running in the cavern enclosure to speed up the process, damn thing didn’t even fit in the main lab. But it seems the flux continues to render every specimen sterile. There are clearly males and females, yet every attempt so far to match our two best candidates as a breeding pair has failed.”

At first, I was a little shocked to hear a crackling voice that wasn’t that of the mare I’d been hearing in the past few recordings. It was that of a stallion, tone grim and dower, as if he’d really been trying the same thing over and over to no fruition. Yet looking through, I saw there were a good few more logs before the last one. All dated only a few days before the bombs fell.

Log: Project Nightstalker – Doctor Fauna: Day 25.

"By Celestia, it has been a long time since I had to make daily logs, first having to work under a prison, now the strictest work environment ever. Surgical logs, sure, but this is a whole new ball game. Still, the talk at the university was right, the regenerative traits of flux are unmatched. Just looking at how the subjects recover from surgery is amazing! Even if sometimes I feel everypony is a bit too eager to cut them up in the first place. I’m a vet, not a butcher.”

“No, no… Remember why you’re here, Fauna. On that note, yes, the hypothetical applications for flux in the treatment of injury and degenerative illnesses are undeniable. If we could apply more to actual equine tissue samples, we’d know for sure. But as of now, the applications I was sent to evaluate are also viable.”

“I know I’m not supposed to bring my personal feelings into this, but damn it, if we can pull it off with these specimens, surely we can do it with ponies. My sister could walk again, for the first time in years! I’ve just gotta keep my head down and work on it, I can put up with the demands long enough for that. Once Nightshade gets a hold of his breeding pair, I don’t even think we’ll need so much flux for the project anyway. Then we’re free to move on to other tests.”

That was the voice of the mare I was used to, far less broken by wet wheezing. She sounded healthy, and committed. Yet as I downed another dose of radaway, all I could focus on was the name.

Doctor Fauna? I glanced back at the ghoul mare behind me, as she cheered at the medical cabinet’s defeat, rummaging through the contents. She’s the mare who left all these notes, she’s one of the ponies behind the Nightstalkers?

The revelation threw my brain into a spin, not to mention my morals. The ponies here had mostly been bad ponies, yet those who were not even prisoners had been pretty shady in their creation of hybrid abominations. Nightshade’s sly voice alone made my mane crawl. It literally felt like he was breathing down my neck, ready to cut me open with a scalpel. Looking at Fauna now, however, I couldn’t see a hint of malice.

Spent all this time hating ponies for the monsters they made, and never actually met one. I noted, feeling like I should despise her. It’s okay to kill monsters.

Log: Project Nightstalker – Doctor Nightshade: Day 27.

“This is it, I’m sure of it, a successful pairing between two specimens. Specimen N-14 was quick to eat her partner shortly after a successful mating, but all scans confirm conception was a success. I’m sure the more aggressive traits will need to be bred out, but once we can find suitable partners for the offspring, we’ll be good to go.”

“The rest of the staff seem to be withholding their enthusiasm on this though, I’d have thought they’d be happy with progress. Luckily that shipment of minted Ministry Mare statuettes was enough to smooth most of them over, fools think they’ll be worth a fortune. The new mare, however, Doctor Fauna, I think, protested the use of the propagator until we know more. I disagree. Hippocratic wants loyal attack dogs, I’ll give them to them. Finally get that pair of two-bit, conning bozoes off my back.”

Every time I heard Nightshade’s voice I began to hate him more and more. He sounded like the pony who I really needed to talk to about knowing when to stop, while the mention Fauna didn’t quite agree made me want to shoot her a little less. More so as I glanced back to see her retrieving several vials of black liquid from the cabinet, each one a narrow test tube plugged with a plastic seal.

The anti-venom, I hope. I thought as scrolling through the next set of logs only revealed they were corrupted, all but the last one.

“Isotope, shit, she’s dead!” It didn’t open with a pony I recognized, a stallion, tone urgent as I heard some clatter over the speakers, then a hacking cough as a mare told him to calm down. This sounded far more like the Goodall I’d heard before.

“Damn it, he removed the last set of logs… That son of a mule!” Far less formal than the other logs, the mare stamped a hoof on what I guessed was the consul, sounding far more ill by the second.

“I want this on record… So ponies know what Nightshade did… Killed two innocent ponies, all for what, to protect his precious Nightstalkers? I… I assisted him in their creation but… I didn’t want it to come to this, it was never worth it. I just wanted to help my sister.”

There was a deep rumble in the back of the recording, as if the whole world were coming apart around her as much as her degrading health.

“Keychain lost it when she found out he wanted to lift the lockdown, let those things out… I… If we don’t we’ll be stuck in here too, Isotope was the only one who knew how to get out past the reactor, but Wild still wants to try anyway.”

There was another rumble, what sounded like a scuffle as a mare declared she was going to stop the warden from doing something stupid. Fauna’s calls for them to calm down seemed to meet deaf ears, before she broke down coughing, addressing the recording again.

“Off the record… Little sis… Flora… I’m sorry, I… I just wanted to help, see if this could really make you feel better, like the old days when we were able to go to the park together… But I messed up, I let them use me to make something horrible. I’m sure the main subject is gone along with the propagator, we just have to get out… I have to help these ponies get out… Isotope told me enough about the reactor, it’s the best I can do to make up for it, and then… I’m coming to find you, by Luna, I swear I’ll find you my little Silly…!”

“By Celestia, what is that thing!?” somepony somewhere behind the vet shouted, cut off by a guttural scream as the final garbled recording died with a sharp pop.

The latter most exclamation had my mane prickling with apprehension as I glanced at the skeletons littering the room. One set of scattered bones between the tables, while what I assumed remained of Isotope was still curled up in the corner where her wounds had finally claimed her. The last was slumped with its back to the control panel. The ragged lab coat still clinging to its bones like some weak semblance of flesh, as well as the faded name badge, made it clear he’d once been Doctor Nightshade. There were two bullet holes in the glass right above him, faded lines of darkness staining the grimy surface.

Prewar ponies and their fucked up games. I’d seen it all before, hated them for it. Yet they’d been dead for centuries, or at least most of them. Odd to have a vet in a prison, what was she really up to down here?

It was only then that I noticed it, the sound of Fauna’s rummaging had stopped. Save for the ambient groans of the dying prison, the room was silent. Mane on end and ears perked, I glanced back. The best I could hope for was that she’d found the anti-venom, and from the vials still in her mouth, I assumed that was the case. The worst I could hope for was that she’d heard…

“Doctor Nightshade, we shot him.” The words left her muzzle like a ghost as she stashed the vials of dark liquid on her side. “I… There were the five of us, we needed to get out. I needed to get back to Flora!”

Her eyes were wide as she glanced about, as if searching for a million accusing eyeballs. I took a step back, making sure my gun was close, and really wishing this was not the moment I was going to have to put down another feral ghoul.

No, no, she’s not lost it yet, give her a chance. My mind screamed, even as another part of me reasoned. For what, even if she disagreed, she helped make this whole mess in the first place.

“Hey, hey, Fauna, just look at me, calm down, and try to think,” I encouraged, waving a forehoof for her to focus on, really hoping she’d not consider it a snack any second.

She danced on the spot, breathless exhalations seeping in and out of her rotten muzzle like she were a terrified filly caught with no idea what to do. As if the whole world were melting around her just like that day the bombs fell she gasped and panted, eyes darting about like the twitching of Vertigo’s delicate wings.

I don’t have time for this, Vertigo needs that antivenom and she’s about to lose it. What’s another dead feral?

‘Be kind’. The word echoed in my mind as a small flutter tickled my gut. I took a deep breath and walked over to her, survivalist side screaming all the while. I really hope kindness doesn’t cost me a foreleg.

I tentatively placed one forehoof on her shoulder. She flinched, forcing me to shy away with a wince. Yes, very friendly looking that is, Dragonfire.

“Hey, hey, just calm thoughts, listen to me, okay?” Feeling oddly like she had sounded talking to her long-lost sister, I put on the most motherly tone I could.

Wow, pregnant only a few weeks and I’m already getting back into the swing of this. I thought, yet to avoid losing my own mind, I banished any thought of Teal. The little one in my gut wriggled, yet they could squirm their discontent later, right now I did all I could not to have to shoot Fauna.

Stiffening for a second, the ghoul mare blinked at me, her rotten chest heaving, even if naught but dry air and dust swirled between her desiccated ribs. For a few long seconds, she peered dead ahead at her faded reflection in the grimy glass, then finally looked at me. For a moment I was terrified there was hunger in those milky eyes, that she’d lost it. Yet just like peering into Vertigo’s gaze, I couldn’t see a monster here. She was just as scared and terrified as he was.

“I… I… That was yesterday, how could I forget?” The cloudy spheres quivered as she peered right at me, then at the bones. “Yesterday, or last week, but they’re all bones… And look at me… What am I!?”

“You’re still you, more so now it’s all coming back to you!” I assured her, putting myself between her and the reflection.

I’ve dealt with this before. I let her fall down the rabbit hole and she’s gonna lose it. It wasn’t common to see a ghoul go feral, but like a deadly axe constantly poised to fall on her sanity, it was there all the same. Keep her focused on the moment, you know how it goes.

“I… I’m falling apart, look at me, I…” She closed her eyes, shying away from me as her muzzle wrinkled. “I’m a monster… I helped make these things, now I just look the part!”

How much can I fault her there, how much of me thinks she deserves this for enabling the creation of yet another set of abominations? A few weeks ago, I may have fallen back on that logic, maybe put her down to spare her the pain. That’s before I met Cherry, I’ve seen what a genuinely good pony actually looks like.

I’d not been the one to run to the aid of ponies who’d needed it like she had. No matter what it cost me. First her dignity, then her ear. She’d been the one to save the slaves, all I’d really done was search for a way to fix my own issues. Now it was on me, and goddesses damn me if I regretted it, I didn’t want to just leave this mare.

“I’ll be straight with you. I’m not an inspection pony, it’s been a pretty long time since you were locked in here and you’re what we call a ghoul.” I laid every fact out before her as plainly as I could, hoping her scientific background would allow her to appreciate the logic.

“A ghoul? I look like a Celestia damn zombie… Why can’t I remember it all…?” She glanced about, looking more and more like a terrified filly by the second. “I remember being in here, Key shot Nightshade… Wild snatched the gun… Then…” She pressed both forehooves to her temples, muzzle wrinkling as she groaned in frustration.

“Then she killed Bright Spark before he could lift the lockdown, making sure you were all stuck in here,” I reasoned, knowing she’d seen the recording in the control room. “If you knew of a way out, you didn’t take it.”

“All I remember is going to the reactor, that’s it,” she muttered, looking up at me, appearing as close to the verge of tears as ghouls could. “It’s all so fuzzy.”

“It’s like that for most ghouls, trust me, you’re not alone,” I assured, looking around the room. “If the reactor is leaking, that would explain how it happened, someponies become ghouls if they’re irradiated too much.”

“Once I may have found that fascinating,” she muttered, tentatively inspecting one of her rotten forehooves. “I’m not going to fall apart, am I?”

Isn’t she, falling apart seems like a fitting punishment for what she did, right? I bucked that snide part of myself right up the head, torture like that was sick.

“No, no, I know whole towns of ghouls. But we still need to find my friend, then get out of here,” I told her, as she looked past me, faded eyes setting on the bones of her former boss.

“Yes, yes, sure but…” She seemed lost in thought for a second, glancing between Nightshade’s remains and the glass. “If it’s been so long since I was here then… Well, the specimens should all be long dead.”

That sent a shiver down my spine as I peered out of the glass beside her, only this time I was sure I saw things moving below the warped surface. Almost as if not totally put off by the lake of glowing rainbow ooze, Fauna propped her front up on the console, tapping on the glass.

“Hey, it doesn’t matter how long ago it was, the lockdown’s lifted, you’re free,” I told her firmly, a forehoof on her shoulder again. “Did you get the antivenom?”
Oh, for the love of Luna, I hope she has it! The several vials on her flank were the best I could hope for.

“Y–yes, I… I did, of course.” She shook her head, pressing a forehoof to her temple, only to pause and look at it. “Just a few days ago… I swear, but I feel so… I remember it attacking Wild, right before we ran.”

“I told you, don’t think about that right now, just focus on getting out of here, that’s what you were trying to do, right?” I reasoned, but as she looked back at the glass I could see her sanity walking on a thin wire.

“No… You don’t understand, the lockdown was the only thing keeping them in. Nightshade ran his breeding pair through the propagator over and over, he was obsessed.” Her faded eyes popped wide as she darted away from the glass, cupping the teddy ursa's head in a withered forehoof. “Specimen D-14, that’s why there’s still so many, it’s still in the propagator!”

Okay, understanding crazy mares is hard at the best of times, least of all when they’re a step away from going insane. I thought, glancing between her and where she’d just disturbed the glass, knowing I could easily levitate the vials off her and find my own way back.

Yet with the lockdown lifted what was to stop what they’d all feared from coming to pass? Whatever Nightshade had done down here sounded far worse than just simple desert vermin. I wanted to ask as much as I wanted to flee, at least until Fauna yelped in alarm, backpedaled from the glass, and dropping the decapitated stuffed toy.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down just tell me exactly what’s happening…” My words died in my throat as the room shuddered, and I looked up to see the pool of viscous slime bubbling outside of the window.

“It can’t be, it has to be dead!” Fauna yelled, while I had no idea if she was referring to something from what she perceived as two days ago, or almost two centuries.

As if summoned by her realization, or merely her tapping on the glass, the bubbling beyond the window suggested whatever it was, was far more present than I’d like. Like a great wave, a bulge swelled up from the gloopy depths, several bony spires sprouting free like razor blades as the dribbling mass parted over the dorsal ridge of its withered peak. For a second I thought the whole cave floor was bubbling up from below the fluid. Then the first bloated claw rose, fingers gnarled and distended like swollen pustules. Claws like meat hooks pierced the glass as another two paws rose to grasp the cave wall opposite, heaving the great mass of blubbery flesh up like some kind of ghoulish whale.

If what I was looking at had once been the prize specimen, almost two centuries stewing in the bile deep down here had warped and twisted it into nothing but an abomination. Vaguely resembling some kind of gigantic canine rodent blended with a serpent and a smaller, desiccated monster latched to its flank like a parasite. Its pulsating flesh was a mangy mass of bloated boils, shimmering scales, and ropes of arcane machinery. Two hulking hind limbs sprouted from its left flank as if they’d erupted violently from the fleshy bulk. While a disproportionate set of forelimbs coiled from its right flank in a grotesque affront to evolution.

Its tail appeared to have melted into chitinous bones, lined by spines that trailed all the way back to its hunched shoulders, forming a barbed mane that rattled like the tails of its lessors. Most disgusting of all, was its face, or lack thereof. The flesh peeled away from its skull like a rotted collar of raw pink around its neck, while the bony snout split into a huge, tri-jawed maw of teeth and gibbering tongs. Each section of its distended skull-mouth bore a dripping fang, while rows of serrated razors pointed back into the pulsating sphincter at the back of its gasping throat.

Like some kind of bulbous walrus, it dragged itself up from the slime, green ooze dripping from its back as the wall buckled under its sheer mass and it flopped into the room. Then it stood up, tiles cracking like thin ice under the weight of its gnarled claws.

Oh no, something that hideous does not get to stand up! I thought as I vaguely recognized whatever it once was as a Nightstalker.

“What in Luna’s name is that!?” I called, pretty sure I knew how Wild had felt almost two centuries ago as I lifted my weapon, while Fauna darted behind me.

“I don’t know, it’s been in the flux for far too long, I… I didn’t know anything could survive that!” she yelled, terror on her face as I opened fire on the thing. “Oh, Nightshade would flip if he knew an inspector could see this!”

“I’m not an inspector, remember. Eyes on the moment, Fauna!” It was no saddle blaster, but the blazing red beams of my laser rifle cut into the thing’s putrid flesh all the same, gouging lines of cauterized meat through its distended form.

The thing recoiled, a reverberating squeal somewhere between a pig and a hound emitting from its throat as it threw its head wide, trying to slam the twisting mass of taut sinew and bone into me.

Oh no you don’t, I’ve had enough of underground monsters for today! I rolled under its bulk, doing my best to ignore the twisting in my gut as its skull shattered the wall of cabinets to my left.

Staggering, I raised a forehoof to my midsection, every movement causing my griping innards to pinch harder as the clicking of my pipbuck told me that this was not a time to hang around.

Don’t think about foals, don’t think about what radiation is doing to you while pregnant, just get out! I inwardly repeated over and over as the thing snatched its head out of the cracked furrow it had dug in the wall.

As if reading the fear from my mind, the wasteland appeared all too happy to play on the notion, however. What appeared to be a smaller pair of vestigial limbs along the monster’s bloated belly peeled free, running along the distended sack of glowing green fat and fused wires that hung below it. Holes tore open along the blubbery mass, gibbering orifices that looked far too much like the thing had sprouted several genitalia along its slimy flank. From each bubbled a slew of rainbow fluid, and finally a squirming pod of taut flesh. Each hit the tiles with a wet thud, quickly uncoiling into a full-grown and aggressive Nightstalker.

No wonder there’s always so many of them in here, this thing’s been popping them out like some kind of queen! I felt sick, my own gut twisting at the sight of such a monstrous birth. Fauna was right, the Lockdown was the only thing keeping them in!

Spying the veterinarian by the door, I took aim at the bulbous, brain-like cyst on the back of the thing’s skull before any of the newborn Nightstalkers could free themselves from the amniotic fluids disgorged with them. The thing squealed, looking right at me, while its great maw bloomed like a vile flower. It heaved once as if about to throw up, row after row of teeth flaring, as with a sickly lurch, a trio of long, snake-like tongues shot out from the back of its throat. I didn’t even think, I shifted left, bracing against the door frame. Twisting stomach feeling as if it were rung out like a wet towel, I grit my teeth. Meanwhile, the ravenous tentacles shot right past me in a flurry of dribble, wrapping around Fauna in a flash.

The ghoul screamed, trying to grasp at the hoof rail, only for the rusted bar to pull free. I bit back the pain in my gut, really starting to feel like something was swelling in my womb as I wrapped my forelegs around hers and suspended the rest of her in my magic. My rifle dropped to the floor as I did so, doing all I could to save her from being dragged into that hungry abyss.

“I got you, I got you!” I called, really hoping her rotten limbs would hold as I planted myself on the stairs.

“Ah, please, please don’t let go! I’ll never fail another inspection again, I swear!” she yelled, as my face contorted under the strain. Yet between the thing’s sheer strength and its encroaching offspring, there was little I could do save for hold on.

No, just levitate off the antivenom and go, this is her monster, she’s done! Part of me still screamed. The part of me I would have listened to two weeks ago, but not now.

One eye cracked open, I saw my rifle at the base of the stairs, and with all my magical will I telekinetically grasped for it. Fauna slipped as I did so, the momentary distraction in telekinesis seeing her dragged toward the yawning pit of fangs. Like lightning, I snatched up my rifle, took aim, and entered S.A.T.S. I’d never been more thankful for Overseer showing me just how useful the spell was as I opened fire on the thing’s tongues, severing two in a flash of dust, while the other snapped back into the throat like a cracking whip. Fauna fell to the floor, curling up like a terrified filly as she muttered to herself. Part of me still wanted to leave her, yet snagging her foreleg I dragged her to the door. She found her hooves on the stairs right as the first of the young Nightstalkers leaped at us.

“Up, now, I’ll be right behind you!” I called, disintegrating the smaller monster before reloading.

She let out little more than a timid yelp as I saw her blurred reflection nod in the grimy tiles’ sheen. Backing up, I had just enough time to open fire on the larger brood mother as it violently shoved up the tunnel after us. Sick regeneration battled with the bloody efforts of it trying to force its way through the tight passage. Yet with durability like that, I assumed it could go anywhere now the lockdown wasn’t keeping it trapped.

Whatever happened to thinking before you mess with things that are better left locked, Dragonfire? I swore to myself I’d leave the unlocking things to Cherry from now on as I reached the top of the stairs to find Fauna with her back pressed to the wall by the door.

“Okay, now which way to Vertigo, that’s all I need to know!” I ordered, trying to make her think about the task at hoof and nothing else.

Once again her desiccated body heaved as she gasped for breaths I was pretty sure she didn’t need. Pressing a forehoof to her breast, I was amazed she was so oblivious to her ghoulification not to realize the breathing did very little for her. While on the other hoof, I was still very thankful she was coherent enough to hold herself together after the life-changing revelation.

“I… I know how to get there from here but with the lockdown lifted, that thing can come after us,” she told me, the grinding of flesh below making me acutely aware that our bloated adversary would be at the top of the stairs any second.

This thing finds Vertigo paralyzed and anti-venom or not, he’s done for. I noted, hating the fact something so cumbersome could move so fast. She’s not a fighter, but she’s the only one who knows how to help him.

I really didn’t like what my mind was telling me, the survivalist side of my brain screaming at me for letting it get this complex. We never should have even come here, so what if it was miserable back at the spire, at least we were safe. Yet here I was, and I saw only one way out.

Fuck you, wasteland, really! Fauna screamed as the thing’s barbed tongs shot out from the door, striking the wall opposite like spears as its skull bulldozed through the tunnel’s frame.
Whether I liked it or not, the thing’s bulk was rapidly forced between us, the many beady eyes that blossomed from under its bony frills like shimmering zits fixating on me.

“Fauna, get to Vertigo, just head for him, and don’t look back!” I called, taking aim at the monster’s head as she scampered back on her rump before hopping to her hooves. “Go, now!”

All the shouting drew the monster’s attention to me as she nodded rapidly and took off opposite the way we’d come. That left me with little option other than to backtrack as I backed away from the thing.

“Hey, you, this way!” I called, shooting out several of its regenerating eyes while it heaved its hind quarters free of the tunnel with a bloody pop, the rents the concrete had torn in its pale flesh rapidly knitting back together.

Like deformed tadpoles, odd shapes swam within its bloated belly, more Nightstalkers swirling into existence like rainbow motes as the machinery fused to it thrummed. Filling the hallway with its mass, it rounded on me, skull-maw parting with a hiss. Its pulsating throat heaved again, the barbed tips of its tongues lining the gibbering sphincter within its toothy depths flared like cannons ready to fire. That was where my next barrage of laser fire soon found home before I ejected the sizzling spark sell and took off running, leaving it gagging on cinders.

If not for my helmet lamp, I’d have been plunged into utter darkness. The eyes of prowling Nightstalkers shunned the glow like diamonds in the gloomy oblivion, earning flashes of laser fire as I finally slowed to catch my breath. The clicking from my Pipbuck became ever more rapid, and coming to an intersection in the endless halls of cold gray concrete, I flopped back, pressing a forehoof to my gut as I bit back the pain. Red dots surrounded me on my E.F.S as I did all I could not to double over, glancing down at my midsection. Under the armor, it still appeared fine, yet the agony like somepony was jamming a knife into my stomach made me really glad I’d been asleep the last time I’d been irradiated.

Not blowing up like a balloon just yet, hold it together. I assured myself, even if it felt like the most painful bloat I’d ever had, as if something were swelling inside me faster than my organs could accommodate. No, don’t think like that, just get out, it’ll be fine as long as you get away from the radiation!

That was easier said than done, as I glanced around to find nothing but more dark halls, E.F.S, revealing only more red dots lingering in the depths of each. The hyena-like chatter of my monstrous hunters was also drawing closer, as were the sounds of their brood mother’s heavy claws behind me.

Goddesses, why does every prewar death trap have to look the same!? The only break in the cold gray monotony was a series of signs, or what was left of them.

Once again directions to the reactor were the last thing I needed, most of all if it was sabotaged as Fauna had warned. That left only a rusty sign directing me towards a storage area. Similar to what I’d glimpsed on the way down, I inwardly begged it would lead me back toward the others. Hopefully allowing me to shake my monstrous hunter to boot.

As long as it’s out of the radiation, I don’t care. I noted, taking a moment to down another dose of radaway before staggering back to my hooves.

The glorious orange tang of the stuff on my tongue did nothing to calm the aching in my gut, yet did drop my rad absorption a little more. That just left the monsters trying to kill me as I darted back across the intersection, right as two more Nightstalkers leaped out from the opposite corridor. Thankfully, I was still agile enough to run, the first of the monsters skimmed my barding with its claws. Flung over my back by its momentum, it slammed into the opposite wall with a hard crack and a whimper, while the second barrelled right into my right shoulder. I swung around, smacking it away with the butt of my rifle, only to wince as the weapon cracked.

I’m not breaking this gun too, damn it. The beast floundered to the floor, rounding on me in a spin, offering just enough time for me to raise my foreleg as it pounced.

I saw its fangs flare, sure that I’d be the one dying of venom within moments. The hard crunch of its teeth as they gripped my pipbuck saved me from such a fate as the thing fought in vain to bite through the device around my foreleg. Instinctively, I bucked out, hind hooves striking the beast’s underside, sending it staggering back into the corridor I’d first emerged from. Right into the maw of its hungry brood mother. The bloated monstrosity appeared just as eager to eat its own kind as it was to birth them as it swallowed the squealing Nightstalker whole, trampling the other before it could recover.

Thank the goddesses for small favors. I sent a small prayer to Celestia that the smaller beast had been between me and its mother as the thing’s ravenous maw shifted to me again.

In the constantly shifting amalgamation of flesh that was its hide, it had gone from many eyes, to no eyes. Leaving me with very little in the way of targets save for the hard bone of its skull as the maw was once again sealed behind the calcified mass. True to that fact, save for blackening the regenerating mass like scorched cardboard, my fire appeared to do little more than piss it off.

Seriously, who looked at this thing and thought making more was a good idea!? I inwardly screamed, pretty sure that after I’d let her come to terms with her new life, I’d be giving Fauna a good talking to. That’s if we get out of this.

I could only hope the ghoul mare in question had reached Vertigo as I half staggered, half flopped against the wall in an effort to heave myself to the storage room. The pressure in my gut made it all the harder, the fear that before long I’d swell up into some brood-bound abomination just like that behind me eating away at my mind. Only blind fire backward held the thing at bay, not that it was hard to hit when it filled most of the corridor.

Maybe Cherry is right, all this crazy adventuring while pregnant, it’s really not good for me or the foal. My more cynical side noted as I finally came upon a set of metallic doors. All to what, get away from her? Because she made things awkward?

It really didn’t feel like the time or place to dwell on that reality as I scanned the ID card across the small panel on the door’s flank. It blinked from red to green, rust trailing from the seal’s rattling face as cobwebs were torn away by the sudden motion. Never had it felt like a door opened so slowly as the monster behind me was swift to prey upon my moment of distraction, finding an opportunity to close the gap between us. Its tongues shot out the second I ducked through the newly-opened passageway, snagging my hind legs.

The pain in my gut was only added to by the sensation of a hundred bony barbs sinking into my rear hooves, effortlessly puncturing my barding as I was yanked back toward the open door, and the rapidly approaching maw filling the space beyond. I felt a sudden sympathy for Clip back in the ruins as the tendrils coiled around my hind legs like a serrated rope, pulling the two limbs together like I were no more than a wriggling fish on a line.

“No, no, no!” I screamed, each word feeling like it slipped out far more panicked than the last, a primal part of me terrified I was about to sink deep into that pit of teeth and digestive enzymes.

I wrapped my forehooves around the first thing I could, what turned out to be a towering metal shelf filled with faintly glowing orbs. It took me only a second to realize it was a whole shelf of memory orbs as the thing toppled over, sending the pale spheres cascading down over me like a barrage of shattering magical vials. The eruption of glass and glittering white memory magic forced the beast to recoil, as I flung my forelegs over my head. Saved from the glassy shards, only to feel another tug at my hind legs as the monster recovered.

Looking back I magically lifted my weapon, ready to aim for the back of its throat. Yet for as little good that had done me so far, I glanced right, spying a blinking green panel by the door.

“I said no, that means no, you ugly son of a mule!” The store room lit up with the brilliant red flash of laser fire as the door controls popped and with a hard shunt, the rusty slab fell back into place, severing the thing’s regenerated tongs in a flurry of dark-red ichor.

Its squeals of pain were eerily audible through the rusting mass as its claws scraped against the metal. All the while I scampered back to the base of the next nearest shelf, downing a healing potion for my torn-up legs while the dissipating pool of pale liquid the shattered orbs had left behind seeped into the nearest drain. The monster fell silent, nothing but the dull rhythm of my clicking pipbuck and rushed breathing filling the space as I finally registered the fact I was safe from getting swallowed whole, at least for now.

Crazy ghoul or not, Fauna and I are going to have very serious words. I remarked sourly, trying to ignore the sporadic twinges of painful growth going off within my womb like tiny bubbles popping inside me.

Lights flickered overhead as I rolled onto my hooves and finally inspected my surroundings, thankful I’d not just blindly wandered into another room full of Nightstalker nests. Instead, what greeted me was a box of cold concrete, filled with many shelves of memory orbs, and what appeared to be a desk of terminals at the center. A bang at the door behind me made it clear that radiation wasn’t the only reason I should avoid hanging around, while another sharp pinch to my gut forced me to wince, staggering against one of the shelves.

So many memories, if only there wasn’t a monster trying to eat me. I thought, pretty sure there must have been at least a few interesting things locked away down here as I trotted between the towering shelves. Is that the monster trying to eat you from the outside you’re worried about, or the one on the inside?

Any effort I made to counter that argument was lost as a sharp pain in my midsection had me doubling over once again, one forehoof catching on the central desk as the other pressed to my stomach. I really hoped it was my imagination tricking me into thinking the thing quivered and jolted, as if kicking out bigger and bigger ever so slightly. The audible growl could easily be dismissed as just another sound of the dying prison even as it echoed within my sweaty helmet along with every twitch and shudder from below my ribs. Teeth grinding in my clenched jaw, my eyes closed tight, as something almost like what I imagined a contraction felt like rippled through me before stilling.

“Please, please, if anything is going to happen, not here!” I begged, more terrified I’d have to deliver a foal down here alone than I was of any hungry maw.

Finally glancing down between my legs, there was no sign the bump had become any bigger. If it was growing as Sky warned me it would, it was still incredibly slow. All the more reason to get out of here fast!

Looking up I saw that my options in that regard were limited. The door behind me thudded rhythmically as the monster beyond did its best to break through, while of the two exits ahead; one was completely collapsed and the other marked as a pathway through coolant storage to the central reactor. Sure enough, the clicking of my pipbuck and steadily rising cramp in my gut were clear indicators I was only getting closer to the source of radiation.

Why can’t there ever be an easy way out? Just some secret path that leads me right where I want to be!? I imagined a tunnel, surrounded by blinking arrows and happy faces, reminding me of Willow’s back in Churn. By the goddesses, even the bar back in Crossroads would be preferable. Oh goddesses, how I’d rather be there, abstaining from alcohol or not!

Another deep thud on the door behind me as it dented inwards really told me how pressed for time I was. Running a forehoof over the desk I searched for anything that may help me, a map, another key code, anything. Aside from dusty old notes, there was nothing, and my attention swiftly turned to the terminals themselves. My new Pipbuck was certainly no Overseer, but after only a few tries I was in, only for my ears to fold at the disappointing sight of countless evidence logs. Scrolling from top to bottom, I found nothing, at least until one thing caught my eye.

Seriously, you care about that now!? The more serious side of me scolded as my attention caught on one of the logs, that of Lucky’s mother. This must have been where they brought her after she was arrested back near Crossroads… They really are haunting me!

There was another hard slam on the door, and I winced, pretty sure if I was going to be digested alive I didn’t have anything to lose. It’s that, or try my luck with the reactor. I thought as I transferred the log to my Pipbuck.

Part of me merely considered the fact that if I let the recording play, at least I’d die only feeling being swallowed, rather than having to hear it too. That was until I noticed something, the small blinking light of another camera in the corner of the room. My ears perked, the sensation of total hopelessness diminishing just a little as I did my best to clamber up one of the fallen shelves and wave at the thing. Stretching out made my insides ache in all kinds of new ways, that swelling inside me bubbling up for what felt like another painful contortion as the clicking on my pipbuck spiked.

Please, please, tell me one of them is watching this! I begged the goddesses Fauna would see me, hell, Vertigo would even be more helpful than I could help myself right now. After several long moments, however, there was nothing, the camera didn’t even follow my movements.

Wilting, I sank back down, doing my best not to slip on the tilted shelves as another cramp almost threw one of my hooves out from under me. Seriously, if this thing feels like this before it’s even started kicking, I dread the next few months!

The clicking on my Pipbuck warned that a few months could be a few hours at this rate as there was another thud on the door. Creeping towards the back door of the place and scanning it open with the key card, I was forced to recoil as the exposure to the hall beyond caused the clicking to spike further. Downing another radaway, I slumped back to the shelves as I pressed a forehoof to my aching gut, wincing at another twinge.

What happened to the days I could just down a radaway and hope for the best without feeling like I’m gonna explode! The bold forehoof ran over my belly, feeling the slightest bump outward, accompanied by a sharp spike of pain. You’re not a monster, I know you’re not.

There was another thud at the door, rusty metal screeching as claws parted the decrepit sheet like paper. The motherly abomination writhing beyond really made it hard to believe that I wasn’t soon to become no more than a bloated mass of vile offspring too. For once, I felt utterly stuck and alone. No Star to watch my back, no Cherry to keep me going, no miracle Pipbuck or sly bug to back me up. I was simply trapped between the monster, and the dark tunnels I really didn’t want to test when it came to making me just as monstrous.

Stupid underground tombs, I knew it would always come to this! I glanced around, feeling an odd sympathy for Fauna when she’d appeared so lost in Nightshade’s lab.

“D–Dragonfire… Can you hear me!?” The buzzing static rattled from one of the room’s PA speakers, making me jump so hard my stomach lurched again.

Recognizing the voice as Vertigo’s, my shock faded fast as lightning. My ears perked along with my attention. Glancing about, I saw the camera in the corner of the room fixed on me. I couldn’t have been happier to hear his stupid, handsome voice.

“Vertigo, by the goddesses, it’s about time you got off your sorry tail!” I yelled in exhilarated irritation, peering right at the camera. “What’s going on, did Fauna find you?”

“Still can’t feel my legs too good, but venom’s wearing off, so yes she did… Right after she stopped screaming at seeing a changeling for the first time,” he deadpanned, and I winced.

Right, seeing him on a screen and then in person must be really freaky for a ghoul with only half her brain working. I noted as the changeling went on.

“We’re back in the control room, less rattle tails in the main shaft now all the doors are open.” That was lucky for some, yet the shrieking of the door coming apart behind me made my level of care roughly zero.

“Lucky you, but you may have noticed there’s a goddess damn lot of them down here!” I called, opening fire on the door as a smaller Nightstalker tried to claw its way through. “I need an out, Vertigo!”

“You’re going to have to dip past the reactor, you still have enough radaway to make it,” he reasoned, and if I could I’d have shot the camera a sour look from behind my visor.

“First you teleport me with my foal, now that!?” I yelled, forced to shoot another Nightstalker as I backed up to the rear door. “I can’t take any more rads, this baby already feels like it’s growing way too fast!”

I hoped the odd hiss I heard was him wincing at the fact that things weren’t so simple, while another voice chimed in over him.

“Her foal! Wait, is she pregnant!?” Fauna gasped, repeating just how flummoxed that made her before she added. “That’s totally against procedure, it’s downright dangerous!”

“Yeah, yeah, you tell him that! I was only down here to save his sorry flank!” I retorted, swearing I could almost hear Vertigo’s eyes roll during the pause that followed.

“I didn’t force you to come with me!” he countered, and while I hated him for it, with looks like his, what choice had I ever really had?

That and Cherry’s kiss… Goddesses, I’m a romantic mess! I banished the idea, tallying it up to pregnancy hormones as I telekinetically tossed a memory orb into one of the brood mother’s eyes and reloaded.

“Can you raise the rad shields more before she comes through?” I heard Vertigo mutter to Fauna as I was left to fend off another newborn Nightstalker, while the door almost completely gave way.

“Guys, now’s a really good time for a plan!” I called, conjuring every ounce of my strained magic into setting alight a wall of cyan flame across the door.

As if there was a drill digging back into my skull in protest of the magical exertion, I felt on the verge of burnout once again as another heave wracked my stomach. The contortion of my insides forced me to crouch in pain, a yelp escaping my mouth. “Fuck! Goddesses, why does it hurt so much!?”

“Dragonfire, Dragon!” Vertigo called, and I latched onto his voice in the storm of agonizing sensations as my only anchor. “Fauna is going to raise the rad shields around the reactor, they should block the radiation long enough for you to get by now the lockdown’s not drawing power, but…”

“But what, Vertigo?” I asked, voice sharp as a razor as the painful contraction faded into a dull ache.

“You need to grab something for me, orb two-four-seven, on row C!” he told me, and for a moment, I felt like screaming at him.

Of course, he wanted to come down here to find something like that! What, is it a clue to find the Transcendent? That notion at least gave me the motivation I needed to look a little while longer, and with his direction, I found the orb in question, thankfully on my side of the room.

I didn’t care much for his protest as I tossed the whole row of orbs into my saddlebags, right as the door finally caved inward, and the monster flopped onto the fire. The thing’s sheer, blubbery mass suffocated most of the flames, as well as the few Nightstalkers unlucky enough to be caught under it. Like a river of flesh, it ebbed into the chamber, the licks of flame drawing lines of charred black across its hide, only for the flesh to reform seconds later.

“Rad shields, now, please!” I called, taking off down the dark hall with little care for the sudden spike in my Pipbuck’s clicking, or the sudden sensation my gut was about to pop.

I made it no more than a few meters before I doubled over, forehooves braced against the wall as the device on my foreleg screamed in warning. A similar shriek of pain escaped my muzzle before agony stole my voice. I pressed a forehoof to my gut, feeling the flesh quiver and writhe under my barding like the bulbous body of the monster ruthlessly set on eating me. The pressure forced me down, rolling onto my back as my legs struck out against the wall.

My organs felt like they were stewing in all kinds of ways they shouldn’t, my coat like the taut skin of a drum pulled tight over my gurgling insides as what felt like an outward thump pulsated from within my midsection. I dreaded to look, I could barely open my eyes, yet within moments I felt the force of something under my barding as the tight fabric pressed against my expanding stomach.

“Ahhh, fuck!” I couldn’t help but scream, terrified this was how my mother had felt the last time I’d been able to talk to her, all the while I was sure the monster was right behind me, ready to swallow me before I even got close to exploding. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, goddesses it hurts!”

As suddenly as it had started, however, the pain stopped, as did the violent clicking on my foreleg retreat to naught but a dull hum. I dared open one eye, peering through the gloom and visor misted by my heated panting. Instantly, my attention was on my midriff, where the barding felt far more tight than it had a few moments ago. Safe to say, if I’d not been showing before, it was now good to assume anypony who got a close look at me would at least be able to guess I was expecting. I was still a long way off matching my mother, yet as I ran a forehoof over the distended lump between my legs, I shuddered.

It's really, it’s really real and… Goddesses, did I just put on another month!? I staggered up, back against the wall as I fought the urge to rip off my barding and see it, yet with the radiation gone there was little more than a squirm, while I felt like I was about to throw up. Whatever it is… No, it can’t be… It’s gotta be a foal… If not that then… Oh, Celestia, what’s inside me!?

The deep, reverberating howls that echoed down the hall dragged my eyes off my bump and to the gloom behind me as the brood mother’s vast silhouette appeared, awash in the cyan glow from behind.

I will not end up like that, I will not! It was all I could tell myself to wrangle that fear of motherhood, scooping up my rifle and darting deeper into the hall as fast as I could.

I could only hope that whatever Vertigo and Fauna had done would be enough to hold the rads back for now. Because I’m not sure what will happen if I take that many again!

The dread that the shields would suddenly fail was only further amplified as I passed several security doors, then the corridor sloped downward, finally depositing me out onto a catwalk that ran the circumference of a vast, round chamber. Like the cylindrical cell shafts above, the room was huge, yet in the place of cells, there were sheer walls of mottled concrete, ringed by several rusting walkways in addition to large black letters labeling the place as the main reactor. The machine itself was suspended in the center of the room like some kind of twisted god of technology, a bubble of arcane pink magic sitting around it as gurgling green fluids swelled within.

The same fluids formed a lake of green bile below, from which rose a steady stream of hissing steam and an increase in clicking from my Pipbuck. I felt that cramp in my gut again as the alien foal seemed all too ready to sap up the magic and advance to five months rather than four. As much as I wanted to be a mother, I wasn’t about to let that happen so fast again. Instead, my attention fixed on a series of shattered windows in the upper part of the room, spying two ponies behind the cracked glass.

“Dragonfire, get across to the inner door, now. The shields aren’t gonna hold much longer!” Vertigo called over another set of speakers, not that he needed to tell me twice as my eyes fixed on the door opposite.

I took a few steps, doing my best not to disturb the catwalk too much. Then it listed, of course, it listed! The corroded frame creaked and groaned in protest as I paused, gripping one of the rails before it could threaten to send me plummeting into the green abyss below.

“I… I can’t go too fast, the thing’s unstable!” I called, not even glancing up from the gantry as I carefully watched where I placed my hooves.

“Go… Go help her, I can manage the controls. Once the shields drop I can purge the reactor, it’ll flush any of the heat build-up out into the caves, should provide some time to get out before it builds up again!” Fauna explained, while I wondered just how much a vet could learn about arcane physics if locked away for almost two centuries.

I didn’t hear Vertigo’s retort as I carefully managed to reach halfway across the bridge. The great glowing sphere that was the core looming over me like a vibrant green sun. I couldn’t count just how many of the things I hated were all converging in this one moment as my gut shuddered, and I swore if my foal’s first kick shocked me into falling to my death, I would become a very vengeful spirit! Yet as if not satisfied with the unstable catwalk, baleful arcane sun, and lake of bubbling radiation, the wasteland just had to add more.

A whole pack of pale, newborn Nightstalkers prowled from the tunnel behind me in the wake of their brood mother’s gibbering maw. Scattering up the walls like ants, the largest among the pack fixed its many sets of mutated eyes on me, catwalk shrieking as it put its first hulking paw down on the rusting mass.

The whole thing lurched downward, forcing me to wrap one foreleg around the railing, while the other cupped the griping bump in my midsection. I could ever so slightly feel the shift of weight inside me, my center of gravity slowly shifting as whatever it was grew a little more. Just another thing I’d have to compensate for, not to mention how tight my armor was around the middle all of a sudden.

Think about the monster in there later, focus on the one right in front of you for now! My more reasonable side yelled, as I staggered my way back along the catwalk, one forehoof still around the railing.

The brood mother peered at the loose metal under its claws, seeming to way up just how it was going to get to me. Its smaller offspring, on the other hoof, had no such issue. Whether through lack of care for self-preservation, or simply the fact they were literally born two minutes ago, they threw themselves at me with hissing jaws open wide. One disintegrated into dust as S.A.T.S guided my shots, while a second skidded off the loose side of the catwalk, yelping in pain before vanishing into the goop below with a puff of fire. It was followed by several more, before another found purchase on the rattling surface by my hind legs.

Barding still tattered, and coat underneath raw with the wounds its mother’s barbed tongues had wrought, I kicked out. It scurried around my strike and along the catwalk far faster than something so frail-looking had any right to. While my focus was fixed on it, another landed by my head, causing the whole catwalk to slip away from the section ahead. Just like back under the Oracle building, the taut wires anchoring the thing to the roof snapped back with a metallic twang, swaying me far too close to the green ooze below for comfort.

The motion dislodged the Nightstalker below me just enough for a well-placed kick to send it flailing into the abyss below, while the one by my head practically fell onto my helmet. Its claws scratched at my visor as it seemed to search for just the right place to sink its fangs in. I did my best to bat it off, hoping the hard case of my Pipbuck would strike it in the midst of my blind floundering. Yet between one forehoof still locked to the almost vertical catwalk rail, and a pain in my gut that felt like it was ripping me in two, I knew which of us was better off.

That was until Vertigo appeared. I liked to think it was my willingness to save him that had the bug-turned-dark pegasus with a lighter violet mane swoop to my rescue as he swerved around, Sting held in what I realized were not his front hooves at all, but a pair of bird-like talons. I was almost as happy to hear the weapon’s signature woosh, as it sent a silver dart right into the monster’s head, at least until it threatened to drag me down with it as it went limp.

“Don’t worry, I got you!” he called, stashing his weapon at his side before swooping down to hook his claws around my forelegs.

“What, I thought you said you could hardly feel your legs!?” I yelled in alarm, curling up against him as he heaved me from the unstable gantry.

“It’s alright, I’m doing a lot better!” he called as his face contorted and his wings beat hard.
“Damn, did you put on a few pounds, or what?”

“Not a word or I’ll pluck those pretty wings off, I swear!” I warned as he pulled up, only to come face to face with the monstrous brood mother. “Look out!”

His violet eyes popped wide, wings beating rapidly as he swerved to the left, right as the thing’s pulsating maw heaved, and the trio of barbed tongues struck out. Raising my rifle, I sent several S.A.T.S assisted shots right into the back of its throat, disintegrating two of the tongues, while the third wrapped around Vertigo’s hind hoof.

“Oh, come on, I really don’t have the strength for this!” he cursed, blood seeping from his barding as I kicked out at the thing’s remaining tongue rapidly dragging us back into the toothy abyss.

Well, if we go down, at least it’s together. How romantic, digesting alive in each other’s hooves!

“At least you can fly, how do you think I feel!”

He should just let go… I didn’t know how to consider that small thought, sure if it were me in his place, I’d never do so. What if it were Cherry, would you want her to die with you too?

The room lit up with a crack of gunfire, the brood mother’s flesh erupting in several patches of gore. Some shots bounced harmlessly from its skull, but once again its sheer bulk made it hard to miss. Finally, one bullet struck home, severing its tongue. The moment he was free,

Vertigo swerved upwards, while I looked to the control room to see Fauna atop the consul, a security pistol in her mouth. The shock in her milky eyes was apparent seconds later, I didn’t know if she’d used a gun before. Maybe she had and just couldn’t remember, but as the thing fell from her muzzle, I once again felt slight apprehension regarding her sanity.

“If you’re done showing off, I’d really love to get back on the ground!” I yelled at Vertigo, the purple stallion rolling his eyes as he darted back in through the shattered window.

All the while, the reactor’s shield spell flickered and popped, the dome within now almost completely full of green goo. I staggered as he set me down, resisting the urge to kiss the ground at my hooves as he landed next to me, adopting his unicorn appearance with a flash of green fire. That just appeared to take it out of him a little more. Safe to say he’d not be teleporting anytime soon, while I had to admit I’d miss his pegasus form.

There’s just something about flyers… No, brain, not now, now’s not the time! His looks aside, now I wasn’t dangling over a pit of molten goo, I was at least glad to see him not dying.

Helmet or not, that fact appeared to be more than a little obvious to him, and at his coy smirk, I cursed changelings and their stupid emotion magic.

“I’ll take that as a thank you,” he cooed with a wink, flicking his tail at me.

“Yeah well, keep that up and you’ll be right back on the bed,” I snapped back, and he nickered, jabbing a forehoof at me.

“Given how you feel, I’d take that more as an invitation than a threat.” I just knew he knew how red I was under my helmet, the pressure inside the thing almost greater than that in my stomach, the heat like a kettle about to boil over. “But I’ll just take it as you missed me.”

And here I went through all that because I didn’t want him to die. I really, really hoped he couldn’t read minds as I diverted my attention to Fauna.

Vertigo at least had no comments on her emotions, as distraught as she looked. I imagine that doesn’t taste good, or maybe they can’t feel love from ghouls at all.

Either way, I placed a forehoof on the ghoul mare’s shoulder, before finally realizing she wasn’t staring out of the window anymore, but down at what was left of a shredded teddy ursa on the consul. The extremities that I’d seen previously were all absent, as if this were the thing’s final resting place. However, it didn’t appear there was any recording to go with it, not even a note. The only thing that stood out were the blackened bones slumped below it.

“Wild Rider… T–this is where it happened, I remember now,” she stammered, glancing at me.

“I wanted to get out so much, make it back to Flora but… Then they’d get out with me, we both knew we couldn’t… Purged the reactor to flush them out, but the lockdown sapped too much power, radiation killed him, turned me into…”

She looked back at herself, the sad look in her eye hitting me harder than any recording. How can a part of me think she deserves this? She’s only stuck like this because she gave up her future to stop them.

There was a thud as something hit the wall below the window. Glancing down through the glass, I realized in horror that the monster below wasn’t done. Its many deformed claws sank deep into the concrete, mismatched limbs heaving it up towards us as more of the smaller Nightstalkers crept into the room. All the while the reactor grew brighter and brighter.

“They’re coming, we have to go,” I ordered, turning back to Vertigo. “You said you know this place, which way is out from the reactor core?”

“Back that way, there should be an air intake for the reactor. Comes out just a ways off the main prison,” he told me, adding just a little more smarts to his plethora of alluring traits.

I nodded, levitating him the ID card, before moving back to Fauna. Her eyes were still fixed on the teddy, unblinking regardless of the reactor’s burning glow as even with my visor I had to squint. All the while the Nightstalkers came closer, a few bursting into flames as the core’s molten glow grew.

“Damn it, the coolant cycle’s been interrupted too long, that thing’s gonna melt down if those shields stay up!” Vertigo called from the open door.

“Fauna… Fauna!” I repeated her name as I shook her. “We have to go, you can finally get out, but we have to go now!”

She shuddered, then looked at me, a small smile upon her rotting face. “We go and the reactor melts down, that’s enough to blow up the whole mountainside.”
I imagined another balefire bomb, great green mushroom clouds like in some of the old-world memory orbs I’d seen. Not to mention the radiation that would come down from

Crossroads to Churn. Why can’t things just be simple, why does there always have to be a catch?

A pulse of heat had the rad meter on my pipbuck slowly rising as my stomach lurched. I did my best not to double over, battling the pain. All the while that meek smile didn’t fade from her face, even as it started to glow like it were on fire.

“I drop the shields now you two get fried. But if I stay, I can flush the reactor… With no lockdown sapping the power, this time it’ll fry them all out of the caves… Not to mention, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can stand the radiation for long enough,” she explained, her voice adopting some semblance of reasoning for the first time since I’d met her.

“You don’t have to do that.” I knew there was a part of me that didn’t quite believe that, she’d helped make these monsters, after all. Yet what was out there worth her life, a dead world full of even more monsters, she’d never seen the outside, if she knew…

“Dragonfire, there’s no time, the intake shaft is shielded, even if the reactor’s flushed we need to be in there!” Vertigo wrapped a forehoof around me, tugging me back.

My eyes were still locked on her as the claws of the brood mother heaved the thing’s monstrous bulk up to the window, blotting out the light of the trapped sun behind it. Fire lapped at its bloated body, while that smile remained on Fauna’s face as the doors swung closed, stealing her from sight.

“This is it, in here!” Vertigo exclaimed, opening a thick metal door with a scan of the card. He dove in, while I finally snatched my eyes away from the closed control room, staggering into the faintly-lit chamber as the door slid closed.

A set of stairs ringed the edges of the shaft several floors up, before what appeared to be the faint glow of an emergency light lingered above, and a deep pit of gloom loomed below. The walkway creaked under my weight, as I glanced up to see Vertigo just ahead, right as the whole place shook. I hit the floor, grated metal rattling under me as nightmares about being crushed replaced those of being eaten or exploding from within.

Dust trailed from the wall as I swore I saw splintering cracks split down their lengths in a web of devastation. Like the great breath of a dragon sucking air downward, the atmosphere around me screamed. For a long moment, I was terrified the force would drag us both deep into the pit below before the intake reversed. In a great dusty plume, air surged outwards, hissing with steam as it tossed the two of us upwards like autumn leaves. Right before the light above finally popped, plunging everything into total darkness.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Maternity - Rank Two: Motherhood is catching up on you faster than ever, better start getting used to it. Unlock more speech and unique quest options with certain ponies, at the further cost of agility, in addition to being locked out of certain apparel options.

Author's Note

Chapter art by: WildeGems

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Desert Steel

Chapter 27:

Desert Steel

"Thanks, y'all. I guess I just got so used to doin' everythin' a certain way, I didn't realize there were any problems."

“You ponies can’t do this, I have friends in the Ministry, I know my rights. I did nothing wrong!” Exclaimed Blue Rose, tinny voice weary, as if she’d been shouting for so long her vocal cords were fried. “Just wait until my husband finds out about this, he’s going to kill you!”

“Threat of violence against prison staff is another check against your opportunity for bail, miss,” responded the very bored voice of another mare before she added. “And really, it’s the third time this week. I really don’t think you know how serious the charge of espionage is.”

“I told you ponies I’m not a Celestia damn spy! How about you put this much effort into finding the pony who almost blew the place up last week!?” roared the captive mare, hooves slamming on what I guessed was a metal table. “I told them at the station, I told that bitch who carted me over here, I told you every day this week! If all you want me to do is confess to a crime I didn’t commit then why stick me here in the first place!?”

“Because this is not about a crime you’ve committed,” sounded a new voice, tinny, reverberating almost a little too much for it to just be the recording. She sounded like Vertigo, only his tone at least seemed natural for his kind, this mare sounded plain wrong.

Why do I feel like I’ve heard that voice before? There was a nagging sensation at the back of my mind, even though I could not see her, I felt I’d seen the mare before. A tone that wrong just sticks with a pony.

“Your work is done here, I’ll deal with her now,” stated the messed-up sounding mare, and the guard that had been watching Rose huffed.

“It’s about time, this one really talks your ear off,” she grumbled, before the sound of a door whooshing open was followed by hoof steps approaching the recorder.

“And who are you supposed to be? I know you ponies are not with the MoM, so cut the shit,” Blue Rose muttered flatly, and as a mare who’d been on the end of my tether far too much before, I could sympathize.

“My name’s Stellar Swirl, former employee of the Ministry of Arcane Science, now I represent the interests of Oracle.” The name resonated with me as I matched it with her distorted voice.

She explained her role in so much detail, as if anypony other than her were a mere foal that needed every word spelled out. I was taken back to the last time I’d seen her, or felt what it was like to be her, more accurately. Being in her memories had felt so strange, like she were twisting from the inside, yet even then her voice had not sounded so… Wrong.

It hadn't been the same as how it felt to have my womb clawed at from within, at least. Yet her calmness at every one of those internal alien sensations had been even more creepy, more so now it almost sounded like they’d progressed. Rose didn’t appear to pick up on any of that as she responded.

“Funny, mare with that name was all over the Foal Free Press a few days ago.” The cautious undertone in her voice was evident, leaving me to wonder what she’d think if she’d known what I did about Stellar.

“Yes, crushed by a falling catwalk, I’m sure you heard. What you may not know is that was also a suspected assassination attempt on Twilight Sparkle herself, and took place in the facility right by where you were first spotted.” There was a long, uneasy pause before Rose started to blabber, seemingly unable to formulate words.

When Stellar laid it out like that, it all sounded so damming, more so with how I knew her mind was able to process things like some kind of supercomputer. Yet I’d seen the truth. Moon Dancer had been the one to want Twilight dead. Her boss and that freaky zebra had planned all of it.

Including the death of the mare who’s now up and talking in this log… Her own daughter! I felt a shiver run down my spine, mane crawling as if filled with biting ants as I recall just what it was like to be a pony post apparent resurrection. When did I ever hear anything good about something that wasn’t dead when it was supposed to be?

“You can’t be insinuating that I had anything to do with that? I’ve never even heard of Oracle… Besides, if you apparently died, that is all clearly a lie.” Cuffs rattled as I guessed Rose jabbed a forehoof at her sinister adversary. “Not that it matters, I know my rights, you can’t just lock me up in here without a court case… Fuck, even a call!”

“I think you’ll find we can, and… We will. The prison’s regulations are already stricter… Since the bombing.” As if there were an awkward knot in her throat, Stellar fought to speak for a moment before what I assumed was a metal chair rattled as she took a seat. “The judicial system is almost at a standstill right now, you’d be waiting months for a fair trial anyway.”

I heard papers shuffling, the dry tone of the mare’s empowered voice fitting perfectly with the mental image of some stoic office worker tapping her files into a neat stack. At least without the idea something were alive in her throat.

“Most of all with something as serious as espionage levied against you. It’s more than a good enough excuse to keep you here.” There was a pause and I half expected Rose to erupt into another tirade, while Stellar made a noise half way between a cough and a grunt. “But as I said… This is not about that crime, at all.”

“Then what, all just fun and games? Tax bits wasted on fucking with innocent ponies!?” Quivering voice dry as a river bed, Rose sounded like she was on the verge of cracking. “I have a family, you know? They’re gonna come after me!”

“Yes, yes, I’m aware. Married to the owner and proprietor of a lovely workshop on the South Las Pegasus highway. One daughter married to two wives in Ponyville, owner of a rather successful botanical company, and another…” Stellar trailed off. “Well, it would appear records on your other daughter are quite lacking?”

“What have my girls got to do with this? Rose Luck runs her agriculture stuff, sure… Lucky Star was just hired by some big tech company, Destiny. Big tower up in the hills, can’t miss it!” The almost total confirmation that the mare I’d seen stuck in that jar was Lucky Star didn’t hit as hard as I was expecting.

I could only guess the trauma of the last few hours, maybe even the last week, had softened the blow. I’d known it was her, how could I not? Hearing it for real just made me want to get to the bottom of this more and more, bumping up Stellar and her mother on the list of ponies I didn’t like in the process.

If that really was her, then what the fuck did they really want with her? Why did Destiny take her, why not be upfront, why erase her memories? Why a room that looked like it was made for a foal? It made me far more curious to listen to the final few of the notes I’d found under the tower. And why is Oracle so interested too?

“Oh, I’ve heard of them, trust me,” Stellar was swift to assure, as the sound of papers slipping across the metal table masked another odd sound in the back of her throat. "Before Oracle, you could say I was heavily invested, in fact.”

There was another pregnant pause, naught but a low grumble passing between them. From the odd fidgeting disturbance, I guessed Lucky’s mother was studying whatever it was Stellar had slid her way very carefully.

If only this was a memory orb, I’d love to see whatever that is for myself! I inwardly cursed, only to recall that the only reason Vertigo wanted to enter the prison in the first place was for memories. If that place was used to store Oracle’s dirty secrets, then surely more than just one of those orbs has gotta be important.

It made me more than a little happy to have grabbed so many of them, even if I’d hardly been thinking about that at the time.

“That’s great, and what in Luna’s name does all of that have to do with me? Those ponies who showed up at my door after Lucky left, the same ponies at the police station, they work for you, don’t they?”

“You could say that, every organization has its secrets, why do you think espionage is taken so seriously?” Stellar countered, distorted tone still managing to sound far too sly. “Just tell me this, ever since she left, has your daughter tried to contact you, even once?”

“Kinda hard for her to do that when I’m stuck in here but… I…” It was just as unnerving as it was shocking to hear a mare that had been screaming her lungs out two seconds ago totally lost for words. “No… No, she’s not. But she’s gotta be busy, that’s all.”

“Your memories don’t lead us to believe that’s how you really feel, Rose.” The matter-of-fact manner in which Stellar said that made my skin crawl, most of all knowing how her hyper-active brain functioned. On the flip side, it rendered Rose utterly silent. “Surprised? With as many connections to the Ministry of Morale as you claim to have, I’d have assumed you’d be well informed of the memory procedures?”

“You… What?” Rose’s voice quivered. “You bastards, what did you take from me, why can’t I remember that!?”

“It’s common practice to remove any knowledge of mental tampering, Ministry of Peace officials insist it’s more humane… Don’t worry, we didn’t find what we were really after anyway,” Stellar elaborated, her position on the list of ponies I didn’t like rapidly rising.

“And what’s that, you creep?” Rose growled.

“Your cooperation.” There was another shift as I could only assume more documents were slid to the incriminated mare. “We are prepared to make any charges against you go away, all you have to do is help us look into your daughter and her new employers.”

“What makes you think I know anything? You’ve been in my head, and I’m betting you know full well I’d not betray my daughter!” Rose yelled, cuffs rattling as she slammed the table again.

“Then I’m sorry to say it’ll be even longer until you can see her again. Bail is out of the question, and any chance for parole only comes after you’re officially incarcerated. I’d hate to be stuck in here that long, like you said, it’s already been bombed once. Not to mention, I suspect a drawn-out case like that is going to cast a dark shadow on the rest of your family,” Stellar warned, as if she knew far more than she should.

“So you’re threatening my entire family now too, is that it?” Rose huffed bluntly, while I suspected she was doing all she could to mask the slight quiver of dread in her voice. “You’d ask me to betray one daughter over the other, and for what, what is this Destiny place?”

“From what I saw of your memories, I know you want to find that out as much as we do. At least what they’ve been up to since Lucky Star left,” Stellar reasoned, sounding far more prim at the prospect Rose may actually be coming around on the idea. “Need I remind you, it’s not us that seemingly made her disappear.”

“I… Fine, so it does all seem a little shady, your ponies in black at my door hardly helped with that!” Rose spat, yet the apology Stellar offered felt ludicrously corporate. “I’ll tell you what I know, do what I can to get in contact with her. But you have to tell my husband at least, tell him I didn’t do what they say I did.”

“Of course, of course, we can take care of everything,” Stellar assured, sounding like she were gathering up her files.

“Okay, and what about that?” There was a bump against the recorder. “Every word here is on record.”

“Don’t worry, I have it on good authority what’s said down here, stays down here,” Stellar told her, before the log clicked off.

I laid back against the rusting wall of the ventilation tunnel, telekinetically plucking the ear bloom free. All I could think was what Rose had gone on to do. I'd no love for Oracle, Stellar Swirl now even less so, yet had she found her daughter, did she know how Lucky had ended up?

She never set her free, I know that much. I noted, pretty sure if I asked Overseer about the details he’d talk my ear off about the many different reasons he couldn’t tell me. Whatever it was, it has to have something to do with this.

Looking down, my eyes fell upon the small bump in my belly as one forehoof reflexively ran across it. In the dawn desert light, it was pretty clear it had grown. Not as much as the last time, but if it wasn't obvious I was pregnant before, now anypony with half a brain could see I was at least rather pudgy.

Of all my years of modifications, my barding has never felt this tight. I huffed, outwardly grunting at the fact right now it just looked like I was getting fat. Overweight and the Wasteland don’t mix well.

Even so, at least the pain had stopped, and while the fact I'd no idea what it really was still lingered. Now I was free of the radiation and the sensation I was about to explode, I could almost consider it a foal again.

Almost… I inwardly sighed, staggering to my hooves, sandy dust trailing from my back as the rusting metal of the cylindrical vent creaked under me. Urg, that shift in weight… Why does it feel so weird all of a sudden?

It was another thing I pressed to the back of my mind. When I had a bump the size of a melon I’d worry about how to compensate, right now I just wanted to get as far away from this hell pit as I could.

I really hope whatever Vertigo was looking for down there is worth it… Not to mention Fauna’s life. It was odd to feel so solemn for a pony who’d made monsters, yet I accepted the fact she’d at least died to fix it as I glanced ahead.

A set of rusting bars marked the outside of the grate, beyond which, the desert sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. The brief moment in the day I could see it in all its radiant glory, before it was stolen away by the thick clouds.

Goddesses, fuck the pegasi. The thought came to me almost every time I saw a sunrise, even if the few plumes of green smog that rose from the many caves dotting the cliffs around the ruined prison stole a bit of its majesty. I just hope all that steam did what Fauna said it would… I could do without a desert overrun by Nightstalkers.

“Ha, gotcha!” Vertigo finally declared as my eyes came to rest on the stallion by the barred gate. “All these years and I still got it!”

For a brief moment, it was as if that cocky, confident face he always wore melted away in smug glee. Of course, when I’d protested he teleport us both through the bars, for the good of my foal, he’d only pouted a little at the opportunity to prove he wasn’t a liability anymore.

“Cherry has you beat by a good fifteen minutes” I cooed, flicking one of his many broken lockpicks aside with my tail as I hopped down through the open grate, into the sandy crevice below.

Maybe she’s not the only pony who’d appreciate a copy of Today’s Locksmith? I thought, catching his flat look, only for a fresh smirk to flash under his helmet as he slipped it on.

“Yeah well, gates aren't the kind of thing I specialize in unlocking,” he countered, and I snorted as the two of us made our way down the narrow canyon.

The ruined shell of the prison blocks and towers loomed above the masa as if still on eternal guard, even if it was hard to make out most of the fort’s upper complex from down here. In the light of day, the bright red rocks practically glowed, lined by many glinting bands of erosion they looked far prettier than they had at night. Not to mention this time we didn’t have grenades belting down on us. I could only assume the rangers had given up when we’d lost them in the caves.

What were two native scavengers really worth to them anyway? And yet that Star Paladin seemed to know him. I recalled, glancing at Vertigo as I quipped back.

“Here I thought all the gear back there was fake?” He looked back at himself, wiggled his rump, then nickered as he corrected.

“More like a blank canvas that can be whatever you want it to be.” That had me blushing again as I imagined just how big… No, not thinking about his hypothetical peinus!

“Whatever the case, I guess now I owe you one,” he finally admitted, the softer side I’d glimpsed when he was dying in my hooves peaking free once more. “If I’d been alone, that may have been it for me.”

“Yeah, well as annoying as you are, you still gotta help me get to the bottom of this.” I nodded back to my midsection, and while he’d neglected to mention it, I knew he was well aware what the radiation had done to me.

He has the decency not to joke about that, at least. That fact made me just a little more glad he was still around, Transcendent on my tail or not, I was happier with the bug again. More like you’re happy he’s walking in front of you.

Not faced with imminent death, I hated just how fast my mind dipped back into a hormonal stooper. Seriously, is pregnancy like estrus on Stampede or something!?

“You can just admit you missed me, if that’s what you really want,” he cooed, while I staggered, snorting.

“Whatever, I just hope it was worth it,” I retorted, nodding back to my saddle bags. “Those orbs, I have a feeling they’re not about Project Nightstalker, are they?”

“No, if you’re little Pipbuck friend and Binary are right, they’re not,” he told me, adopting a more serious tone.

Goddesses, why is it so attractive, yet unnerving when he does that? For a pony like him not to joke, almost always meant something was seriously wrong. As if endlessly-birthing brood monsters were not enough.

I hated the fact that such a monster had almost been tailor-made to play on my maternal fear. That smug entity that was the wasteland, a constant, infernal puppet master.

“Binary suspected Fort Sandstone was where a lot of Equestria’s ol’ big shots dumped their dirty laundry when they didn’t want to just outright kill them. Logs of the place were bound to just be crawling with secrets… If we’d had a little more time, we could have found more.” He kicked a forehoof at the dust, ears folding.

“Yeah, well, the wasteland has a habit of messing up the best-laid plans,” I muttered, in the place of something snide, really wanting to remind him that it was me irradiating my tail off down there to get his orbs. “I really thought I was done for down in that radiation.”

“Just even more reason to consider us square, I suppose,” he quipped, glancing back at me. I wasn't like him, I could not sense his feelings, but by the way the eye domes of his helmet caught on my belly, I knew he could detect my apprehension.

“I don’t wanna talk about it like it’s a monster,” I stated before he could ask. “You were there last time, on the train, you saw… But this time, I felt it… It hurt, what kind of real foal does that?”

To my surprise, he stopped and rounded on me. The canyon was so narrow I had little choice but to stop too, visor to visor with him.

“I don’t know, but I said I’d help you figure it out, and I will.” His voice was robbed of snarky wit, and while I couldn't see it, I guessed his face was serious. “And I’ll do it before you have to go through that again.”

“My hero,” I mused, reflexively batting my eyes at him. I knew he didn’t need to see them, not to mention I was acutely aware my sultry mask did nothing to hide the genuine appreciation his remark summoned. “Just make sure to let me know if there’s radiation involved next time.”

“And narrow down our options when it comes to dates even more, how irritating.” Just like that, his serious side was gone. He turned and flicked his tail, my cheeks, and ears on fire once again.

Moving after him, I did my utmost to come up with an equally witty retort. Letting him get the last word in was becoming almost as bad as getting shot. The second something crossed my mind, however, I could only call.

“Vertigo, above, watch out!” The red bar appeared on my E.F.S right as the grenade flew through the air with a dull woosh, impacting the cliff above with an explosive boom.

In the light of day, the flashes were far less vibrant, yet the plume of dust and cascade of red rock that came crashing down at my back was far more colorful as the whole canyon shook. Sting levitating beside him, my companion took off, while I did my best to force my aching body to keep pace as I fixed my sights on the ridge above. E.F.S made it clear exactly where they were, three of them in total, yet like fish in a barrel there was no way I could get a good shot as another volley of grenades cut off more of the passageway behind me with a flurry of rocks.

They’re not trying to hit us, more like flush us out! The realization hit me right as the narrow canyon blossomed out into a shallow bowl between the smooth cliffs, the basin filled with loose sand. Ambushes… I’ve been through my fair share!

“Vertigo, wait!” I called, magically reaching out for him as he darted out into the open area, spinning back to aim Sting at the cliff top behind us.

Still recovering, my telekinesis failed, leaving me with little choice but to grab him with a forehoof. The sharp buzz of touching his lean rump faded the second his momentum heaved me into the middle of the basin with him. For as witty and all-knowing as he claimed to be, the bug could be a really oblivious fool sometimes. He glanced at me, the beady eyes of his helmet shunning the dawn’s glow as a ring of sand exploded upwards around us.

Before I knew it, a trio of metal spires speared up from the dust, rattling as they erected to full height. From flickering talismans at their peaks extended a glowing bubble of pink light. Within seconds the shield spell was complete, trapping the two of us within the glistening dome.

“A pacification mine, are you joking!?” Vertigo exclaimed, as I took aim at the bubble. “No wait, don’t!”

Safe to say, for as oblivious as I considered him, I really should have seen it coming when the laser bolt bounced from the inside of the bubble several times, lighting up the dome with a silver flash upon each impact. The two of us ducked before the rogue shot finally struck the sand with a soft fizzle, leaving naught but black glass.

“It’s a one-way shield on the inner side, any shots just gonna reflect!” Vertigo warned, forcing my rifle down with a forehoof. “Anti-teleportation tech too, I suspect!”

“Could have told me that a second sooner, genius!” I snapped, tapping on the bubble with a forehoof, only to get a sharp shock. “Ouch!”

“Must be one of the mines left over from the prison security. Damn it, all of these countermeasures should have powered down decades ago!” he muttered, digging in the sand to find a corroded metal disk, sparking with arcane bolts as if it had only recently been tampered with.

“You’d be right about that,” came a grizzled voice, accompanied by the metallic hoof steps of the Star Paladin as she appeared from one of the side canyons. “But what did you say about catching dummies out every time?”

It turned out, much to my and Vertigo’s irritation, that one of the perks of a one way shield was the fact a unicorn on the outside could simply levitate things off of us and over to them. Not only that, but the self-proclaimed guardians of ancient arcane technology, were also very adept at making it suit them when the need arose. Magical Steel Rangers were a rarity, yet the power armored unicorn, her helmet modified for her horn, was all too happy to see us as the ones stuck in place for a change. I had to admit, the changes to the suit were impressive, not quite what I’d have done, but right now admiring her hoof work was the last thing on my to do list. Most of all, as many of them scoffed at my own apparent bastardization of their gear.

I hate their power armor, doesn’t even let me see if the pony trying to kill me is at least cute. I thought, forelegs folded as she upended my saddle bags, everything from orbs, ammo, and the few nick-nacks I’d scavenged falling to the red dust. I had a feeling Cherry wouldn't be impressed to see so many tradable goods ruined, while I was thankful most of our more important things were still safe with her.

“No more weapons, ma’am, just the laser rifle and… This thing,” muttered the unicorn as she inspected Sting.

“I’d be careful with that if I were you,” Vertigo muttered, gesturing a forehoof at the weapon casually. “It bites.”

If power armor could shoot somepony a flat look, I imagined that was exactly what the unicorn did behind her visor. Of course, I bet she doesn’t know he can taste how irritated she must feel right now.

“You know ponies who run their mouths too much often tend to end up mute,” came the only slightly less grizzled voice of the Star Paladin, now she’d removed her helmet. “You’re just lucky we only had to restore three of those mines before hitting the exit you crawled out of.”

“Oh, you’re so welcome,” he mused, smirking at her. “And for the record, ponies who don’t talk enough tend to give everyone the impression there’s a stick up their tail.”

She huffed, one forehoof stomping in the dust with a metallic whirr. She’d at least had the courtesy to introduce herself as Star Paladin Chrome Hammer. Now she was up close, and we weren't running for our lives, it was clear she was big, even for an earth pony. Broken by rough scars, her coat was a sleet gray, her mane a blue similar to my own, with a lighter patch of fur marking the tip of her lean muzzle, almost making it look as if she had a perpetual scowl.

Her blue-trimmed armor and cannons had to be modified even more than the unicorn’s under her command. Extended pistons and wires compensated for her bulky shoulders and longer legs as she glowered down at Vertigo like he were the bug he really was.

She said she knows him, and she’s not just killed us outright. I noted, wondering if she was aware of what the stallion really was. Mr Green and the others back in Crimson sure seemed like they knew.

Either way, if she did, that didn’t appear to be what she cared about as she finally spoke up again.

“What I see is that we found two native scavengers on the road in the middle of the night. One of those turns out to be a known trouble maker, and then the two of them enter a locked down prewar facility that is currently marked as a place of interest.” I was impressed she could lay all the facts out in one breath as she stifled a rugged gasp. “So, instead of berating me for my discipline, how about you two give me a reason not to blow your sorry tails to the moon?”

Any other time, I’d have spat something witty as easily as Vertigo did at such a threat. If she wanted us dead, we’d be dead. Yet monster or not, I knew I wasn’t just fighting for myself anymore, not to mention I’d really hate it if I didn’t see Cherry at least one more time.

“We were after information,” I stated over the top of Vertigo blurting that we were simply scavenging.

I shot him a sour look, while he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine… Yes, we were looking for memory orbs. Though I can’t see how that’s any matter to you, if you want tech, go see if there’s anything left of the reactor.”

“After somepony performed an emergency purge, I know. We saw every cave blast steam from here,” she retorted, nodding to one of the great plumes of green mist that loomed into the sky. “You’re just as lucky the two of you weren’t incinerated.”

Some of us weren't so lucky. My mind added, Fauna’s last smile flashing across my sight. Still, Vertigo's right, what does it matter to them?

I said as much, jabbing a forehoof at her as I added. “You could have just killed us, why go to the trouble of activating this thing?”

At the static tingle that built up in my outstretched forelimb, I neglected to touch the shield again as Hammer’s brow furrowed. She looked me over from hooves to tail, yet if I was expecting to play the helpless mother card, it was futile as she made no mention of the bump under my barding.

“And you are?” she asked plainly.

“Dragonfire, merc out of Churn,” I told her just as bluntly. “Long way from home, I know, but if you think you’re the worst thing I’ve come across in the past two weeks, then let me tell you...” I nodded to Vertigo, and he frowned.

“Hey, I’m just unique,” he countered, yet oddly enough, my identity did seem to pique the Star Paladin’s interest.

“Same one who caused a ruckus for Crimson, I imagine?” she pressed, and feeling only a little put off as to how she knew, I nodded. “Really made the Brazen’s chatter. Maybe even made our jobs a little easier.”

“Hey, I had a hoof in that too,” Vertigo interjected, finally standing up. “And it’s pretty well known you’re no friends of theirs, so let’s say we just call this even…”

“You really have to improve your negotiation skills,” she deadpanned, eyes level as she glowered at him. “But, you.” She looked back at me. “Same mare that almost flipped Crossroads on its head too?”

Goddesses, since when did news travel this fast? Rapid’s not quite as on the ball as DJ Pone-three up north. I asked as much, and after a moment of thought, Hammer responded.

“Intercepted messages about a pony out of Churn almost three weeks ago. We don’t know who they are, but their chatter always comes in over the Brazen’s wavelength. Best guess, right into Stable Fifty.” I thought back to the last time I’d been home, the Transcendent pony with Griddle.

They knew I was coming, set me up to go into the lab. But they’ve been talking about it all this time too? The more pieces fell into place, the more it infuriated me. But where’s setting that bounty got them so far? The only other who could have wanted us there is Binary, and she doesn’t strike me as the type.

Even so, if it was to avenge her family, I didn’t know how much I could put it past her. On the other hoof, however, if the Transcendent knew about me from the start it made sense they’d also been talking about me. How deep does this go, did they mean for me to get impregnated too?

Overseer hated them, that much was clear. If continuing his eternal experiment on me made the process vulnerable to them, why would he do it? Unless he didn’t know they were watching me.

It made my head hurt. Regardless, at the risk of revealing too much information, I simply asked.

“Stable Fifty, that’s what the Rangers have been after for years, right?” She nodded, yet that was a pretty well-known fact. “What if I told you I also wanted to get in there? I already have the support of Crossroads.” I jabbed a forehoof at Vertigo. “And I have him, current situation aside, there’s no better infiltrator.”

“You know telling them that kind of ruins the whole point of an infiltrator, right?” he asked, but I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Just take the compliment, you’re always so desperate for them anyway.” That at least seemed to have him stunned for once as Hammer appeared to think deeply.

“Just think about it, those bastards down in Crimson have been terrorizing this place for decades. We work together, we stomp them out.” A few weeks ago, I’d have not even considered the fact, Crimson Springs wasn't my problem back then.

Maybe Cherry really is rubbing off on me? I considered, yet I was still way above the bar of being the good pony she was. I just need an opportunity to save Star.

“As popular as Crossroads is, I don’t think half a town’s worth of dash heads is gonna be much help,” Hammer stated, yet at that, it was my turn to smirk. “Only reason the Elder would back that idea is the prospect of leaving the town weakened enough to take ourselves.”

Just like the Rangers, always taking, giving nothing back. I thought, pretty sure I was walking a fine line of what to tell her and what to withhold.

“No, I don’t think they’d have to send anypony, but only if you play nice,” I told her and she cocked her head, finally seeming curious. “I make no promises, you make good with us, and maybe the army of Gyrotrons I may know of can help you take that Stable?”

That finally seemed to turn her intrigue into attention and the perpetual scowl on her grim muzzle flipped. I really hope telling them this doesn't come to bite me in the tail.

I knew the rangers well enough, one hint as to where those robots were and they’d just go and take them themselves. Hammer’s next words confirmed as much as I caught a few of her knights muttering.

“What stops us from just taking them ourselves?” I shrugged, then winced.

“Not me, but I’d like to think you’re smart enough to know that threatening the town is only going to have all those robots turned on you. Then no pony wins.” I drew out each word like I was talking to a pouty foal, earning a witty grin from Vertigo as Hammer huffed.

“I suppose you have proof to back this up?” she pressed, throwing a wrench into my idea. Sure Flare had said she’d have my back, but that was just her word, I was going to need more.

Plus, I’m still pretty sure she doesn’t want to see us again for a while. A more solemn part of me added.

“You wanna make that call here?” Vertigo asked before I could speak again. “Pretty sure Elder Thunder Hoof is at least the kinda stallion who’d like to hear her offer. Unless he doesn’t want to finally take Crimson?”

“You’re clearly not as in the know as you think,” Hammer stated flatly. “Elder Thunder Hoof was killed during the last blow at Crimson. His son, Cobalt Saber, is Elder now.”

I didn't like the way Vertigo’s expression flattened at that, and while I knew a fair bit about the supposedly unbreakable Elder Thunder Hoof, I knew nothing about his son.

How come that news didn’t travel fast? I thought, recalling that the former earth pony elder I’d heard about over my time in the Dust Bowl, had apparently been ten times more stubborn than a mule. They must be keeping it pretty close to the chest, of course they are.

“And here you’re saying you're gonna hesitate when we’re offering you a way to hit back at them?” Vertigo asked, fake sheepishness in his words as he looked at her as if she were a fool.

“I don’t know which of you needs to be mute the fastest,” she stated, scowling once more as her hard eyes rolled from him to me. “Fine, we’ll see what the Elder has to say, see if the folks over at Crossroads are willing to chime in. But don’t come crying to me if he just decides to have you killed, he lacks the aged nuance of his father.”

I had a feeling if Vertigo had known that, he’d have been more reluctant to bring their leader into the equation. Despite the threat to my life, however, a wave of relief passed over me. I’d deal with Cobalt when the need arose, but if this all worked, I’d finally be a step closer to actually taking Stable Fifty, saving my friend, and getting these freaks off my tail so I could try to figure out how to deal with my foal.

“Knight Gingerbread, knock them out, we’re heading back,” Hammer ordered the power armored unicorn, nodding to us. Being rendered unconscious was another thing that hadn't been on my agenda. At the split second of apprehension that revelation flared in me, I swore I caught Hammer smirk. “One of those memory orbs should do fine.”

Like an inescapable void, once more I was locked in the dark depths of Fort Sandstone. The dower cell was bleak, dusty air still, despite the slowly rotating fan that was hidden away within the mess of wires behind the grated ceiling. Dull light peaked between the creaking blades, the rotating shadow passing over my host’s face as I tried to figure out what I was. I was a male, that much I knew, the same awkward mix of pleasure and creepy that always came over me when I was a buck.

Yet he was not a pony, one glance at his talons on the silvery table before him was enough to tell me that. His reflection in the surface was faded, but as far as I could see the griffin was mostly black, save for his golden beak and sharp, yellow eyes peering at me as if they knew I was in his head. Safe to say, he was rapidly becoming the creepiest host I’d ever been in. The fact he was a griffin wasn’t even a first for me. They were strong and lean, while the predatory instincts that naturally thrummed through them was a stark contrast to the underlying prey anxiety most ponies knew all too well.

That was an instinct I’d mostly lost in my time surviving the wasteland, having it warped into more of a sense of caution than a feeling everything was going to eat me. That same sense of survival that was still pretty pissed at me for letting myself get trapped in this memory while the rangers did goddesses know what with my body. I did my best not to think about that, trusting Hammer wouldn't be there to mock me if I woke up a corpse.

Doesn’t really feel like her style. Besides, what options did I have? As much as I thought I could, I wasn’t too much into Vertigo’s idea that he could wit is way out of every conflict. Not that it matters, if this is one of the orbs he was so eager to get his hooves on, then what harm ever came from paying attention?

It certainly helped me deal with the idea the rangers could be breaking my legs right now and I’d have no idea until I woke up screaming. That would surely be a far cry from how it felt to be a griffin, though the claws did feel just uncanny enough to be uncomfortable. Looking at the sharp talons as my host peered right ahead, I noticed that despite his scales being black, the curved hooks were silver.

Metal encased them, shimmering like knives and making it pretty obvious why he was still cuffed, cell or not. His mind, however, was blank, more so than anypony I’d ever felt. Once again, I had a strange sensation he somehow knew I was here. The only thing he didn’t seem able to hide from me was his bitterness, he hated this place, he hated himself for getting stuck here.

I suppose the worst thing for a natural-born hunter is to be trapped. I thought, pretty sure every griffin I’d ever known would agree. Not that I’m too fond of the prospect myself.

He wasn't locked in the darkness to stew on his thoughts for long, however. The dry monotone of the ceiling fan was interrupted by the clopping of hooves and the jingle of keys. The instant the sound met his ears, my host’s mind went from a barren desert, to an explosion of ideas. Most revolved around how he’d break the guard’s neck given the chance, how weak and frail ponies were.

The savageness was courted by a calculative sense of reason, however. The prison was huge, and they had magic. He’d make it no further than the cell block before they caught him again. No, if he wanted to get out, he should have never been caught in the first place. The stab of bitterness that thought conjured felt sharp as a scalpel, even all these years later, most of all how he imagined how other griffins must see him now. The hunter, hunted. Regardless, his eyes shifted to the cell door, where bars sat up a pair of squat steps, the distinct prison shaft I’d seen under the fort beyond.

“Visitor for you,” said a unicorn mare in prison barding as she twirled a ring of key cards in her magic, her eyes oddly aglow with a faint orange light.

In combination with a magical sequence of numbers, the high-security door was heaved aside with a metallic groan. Even only being in this body for a few minutes, I could feel just how much the sight of a creature so inferior to him made his feathers bristle. He wanted to rip her throat out, he didn't care for the prospect of company. Even if the visitor turned out to be the most gorgeous griffin hen in the world, he still wanted to make the weak foals suffer. Yet another part of him was acutely aware that those weak foals were the ones who had him captured.

His arrogance was not willing to dismiss that completely, the level of understanding only making him feel that bit more lethal. I’d always considered a talon who could admit they’d lost to be far more deadly, even if they barely ever did so out loud. Every shred of the griffin’s will to lash out faded as the guard stepped aside, however, and a new mare stepped into the light of the cell door.

As if her shadow weren't simply limited to the long pillar of darkness cast across the dusty concrete, her black form rose atop the squat incline like a living eclipse. The same umbral business suit I’d seen in Moon Dancer’s memories appeared out of place in the cesspit that was the depths of the prison, as did her well-kept, silver mane. Yet for all the sly whistles and heckles Ebon Star earned from the crude inmates trying to grasp at her through the bars, she remained as imperious as ever. I had a feeling if any of those horny bucks saw her gaze, they’d think twice, it certainly affected my host in a way I didn’t think possible.

A mare that makes a griffin feel a little less confident in himself? Now I’ve seen everything. I thought as the dark equine stepped in, the door creaking closed behind her.

“Just call if you need, ma’am, I’ll be right outside,” said the guard, yet cuffed to the table or not, I didn’t feel the griffin would try anything with this mare.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Ebon Star said, studying the griffin up and down. “What a truly revolting state to find you in, Garro.”

“What do you want?” the griffin croaked as I caught his name. “My contract's gone. Is it not enough that your games have cost me everything?”

“That wasn't what you said when you agreed to take part in them,” she stated, looking around to the shelves, levitating up what appeared to be a claw-carved lump of stone. “But do not assume I am here to make a mockery of such things. I didn’t plan for you to get caught.”

“And here I thought your freaky zebra witch saw everything coming,” Garro rumbled, raspy voice as dry as his parched throat. “You told me that if I took my master now, the Nightclaws would be mine.”

“I told you that on the assumption you could pull it off,” Ebon retorted, setting the lump of rock down. “You’ve been very useful to me, assassin. Yet am I to assume the success of your mission only came to pass because you thought it was fated, not because the Nightclaws are supposed to be the best?”

“Not at all, I don’t need some stripe to tell me how to hit my targets… Great Egg, you should have let me hit the Ministry mare, I wouldn’t have missed,” he countered, and at the reminder of what they’d tried to do to Twilight, I felt a spike of apprehension.

Even so, if such things were not to be said out loud, Ebon Star didn’t seem to care. Either the guard mare was under the sway of her magic, or Vertigo was right. Fort Sandstone really was a place where secrets went to be buried. Between that and all the Nightstalkers, just how many guards were paid off, mine controlled, or did she just kill them all?

It summoned another wave of apprehension, recalling what she’d done to the doctor in Stellar's last memory.

“The matters involving the MoA are none of your concern. You were required to take lesser pieces off the board, and you fulfilled that role admirably, until now.” She moved up to him like a ghost of shade, unblinking as she peered down her dark muzzle. “Terboa didn't predict your effort to take control of the Nightstalkers. I assumed you could get that done yourself, now I see your successes only come to pass because you think they’re preordained, how short-sighted.”

Regardless of the wave of rich perfume that radiated in her wake, the air almost seemed to turn cold at her approach. Garro’s eyes found it hard to meet hers, lingering on the collar of her suit and the silver chain of some kind of necklace lingering below her breast. Feeling a frown on a beak was all kinds of weird, yet it made the fact he was doing his best to snarl at her all the more evident as he hissed.

“That was on you. Contract or not, you told me that you’d get me what I wanted. Instead, you ensured I ended up here.” He flared his wings at the cell. “The prisoner of such frail, insufferable, little equines, and for what? You’re not going to find another to do your dirty work!”

To her credit, Ebon Star didn’t so much as flinch at the avian’s aggressive display. It appeared he was boring her more than anything else as she drew back primly, rubbing the spittles of drool expelled by his yelling from her fine-pressed suit.

“Maybe that’s so, but as you are, it’s clear your usefulness has run its course,” she reasoned. “If what I require is surpassing even the skills of the Nightclaw’s best, it sounds like I require ulterior means.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked darkly, even as his anger slowly began to warp into interest. “I had that old bird at my mercy, one more shot, and I could have taken him.”

“And yet he still beat you,” she was swift to remind him, and once again his sharp eyes narrowed, feathers bristling like the spines of a radhog.

“As you keep saying.” The words escaped through gritted teeth as that aura of intimidation she projected began to fail in the place of his desire to kill her. “So how about instead of pointing out all that went wrong, tell me what you really want.”

“I’m here to offer you another chance, and this time, Terboa assures me you’ll succeed,” she stated simply, summoning a new wave of shocked rage in the avian feline.

Before he could demand what was different about this time, however, least of all how he was supposed to do so while stuck in prison, she went on.

“All you have to do is swear complete loyalty to me. No more jobs, no more contracts, sware yourself to something greater.” There was a long pause, then despite everything, a dry chuckle left his beak.

“That’s not how it works, and you know it. I was happy to do all you asked when you held my contract, but I’m not some common raptor ready to offer you my life now it's destroyed,” he stated, smirking at her. “Now, I work for money, nothing else.”

“Yet here you are, stuck rotting for the rest of your life with what that silly piece of paper cost you,” she countered, and even I had to admit that stung. He didn’t let that bitterness out, no matter how much I felt it stewing inside him.

“Then what, you gonna break me out?” he asked drily, rolling his eyes. “For as good as you think you are, Ebon, I don’t think you can do that.”

“No, not unless you agree to my terms,” she insisted calmly as she stepped back up to the door, peering down from the steps as she went on. “Yet if you don’t want what you think you’re owed, what I promised you, then feel free to decline. Your corpse will prove just as useful after they put you down.”

The gears in his head were working, pride battling desire and ambition. Honor destroyed with his contract, he didn’t want to serve her, not if he didn’t see a penny for it. But at the same time, being locked up in here at the whim of such weak fools was just as bad an option. Part of him couldn’t help but feel she’d somehow planned it all out. Led him to fail, only so he had no other option but to go crawling back to her. I noted it was similar to how she’d played Moon Dancer too, leaving me to wonder why. I knew most griffins would serve whoever held their contract, even if it killed them. Yet that wasn't true loyalty.

“My loyalty, money or not, that’s the only catch?” he pressed as the will to be free won out over staying here just to spite her. He wanted to tell her to bite his tail and get lost, the words were so close to his tongue it was painful, yet I knew just how selfish his kind were.

“Of course,” Ebon Star assured, yet there was no smile to accompany her prim tone. “All you want and more.”

“Then do what you have to, I’m not going anywhere,” he responded, slumping back. “My one term, I get to take out Master Nightclaw for good the moment I’m able, got it?”

“I think I can live with that,” Ebon said, the grin that parted her muzzle at that far more sinister as she backed up to the exit, and the guard let her out. “Are the charges in place?”

“Yes, ma’am, and the extraction plan, Bright won’t see it coming.” The blank look on the guard, the glow in her eyes as she responded, filled me with a hint of dread. Meanwhile, I had a feeling Ebon was totally aware Garro was listening in as she added.

“Good, then have this memory of his stored with the rest before tonight.” The griffin’s jaw clenched at the notion he’d have to go through that again, yet the desire for revenge swiftly burned all of that away.

The first bombing of Fort Sandstone, that was her? I thought as I slipped out of the memory. To what, free her pet griffin, why?

For some reason, I doubted it was so noble. Ebon Star seemed to be collecting a series of specific individuals to do her dirty work. First the zebra, Moon Dancer, now him. And that name; Garro Nightclaw, where have I heard it before?

I wracked my mind for the memory, only for a bump in the road to shake the idea free, forcing me back into reality. First thing’s first, I had no idea where I was as the desert cliffs drifted by the wagon. I could only assume that was the idea, the Steel Rangers were always rather secretive about where their southwestern headquarters was located. Looking about, I spotted no more than a cracked asphalt road snaking between a set of cliffs, a drop on the right marked by a rusting barricade, and a sheer slope on the left, between which sat an old railroad.

Yeah, I think I’m going to give trains a wide berth for a while. My horn still hurt at the memory, most of all as I saw a spark engine picked clean and pressed against the base of the cliff. We must be in the mountains east of Crossroads, it’s the only place that would let them hit Crimson’s east flank so easily.

“Look who’s finally awake,” Vertigo muttered as I looked across the wagon to see him rubbing his horn. “Hope it was a better memory than mine… I really didn’t need to feel a mare crawling from the inside.”

“Stellar Swirl?” I asked, and he nodded with a smirk. “Yeah, well that’s kinda how this feels, so better mind what you say.” I jabbed a forehoof at my gut, and he chuckled.

“Aww, but you looked so peaceful sleeping. I hear that’s a rarity for expectant mares,” he cooed, and my face fell flat.

“Yeah well, maybe you’d like to find out just how hard I can kick, hmm?” I warned, only for him to roll his eyes as I looked at the squad of knights around us, the unicorn I’d identified as Gingerbread pulling the cart. “Where are we?”

Clearly, the non-earth ponies don’t get first pick of the weapons. I noted, seeing she could only pull the thing due to the lack of cannons on her flanks. Looks like she’s the pack mule to boot.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out, but pretty sure you’ll agree all there is to see is rocks,” he deadpanned, and I fought the urge to face hoof.

“Don’t bother, you get out of here, and you’ll be telling no pony,” Chrome Hammer called from just ahead, voice once again growling through the vent of her helmet. “Head Scribe Silver Dawn knows you’re coming, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay on her good side.”

“I thought we were going to speak to the Elder?” I asked, and she huffed as if she’d just had to explain this.

No guess as to who was asking a second ago. I thought, glancing at Vertigo, only for him to shrug.

“That’s correct, but she’s his mother, and first, you go through her,” she informed me, summoning a whole new wave of mixed feelings. “Don’t worry, she’ll hear you out, anything to take her mind off her husband’s death, I’m sure.”

I could sympathize with that at least, losing a loved one wasn't easy, I knew that all too well. She’s a mom, maybe I can pull the motherly sympathy card after all? I thought, running a forehoof over my bump.

The pudgy mass quivered, not quite an outright kick, but far more like genuine movement than the butterflies that had plagued me before the reactor. Funny, when it’s not trying to eat its way out of me I can almost consider it cute again.

I really didn’t want to dive back into those thoughts, nor did I want the revelation about Silver Dawn to have me lapsing back to my own failures as a mother. In the corner of my eye, I caught Vertigo peering at me, a hint of worry in his expression no matter how much of a charmer he always wanted to be. It made more than just my stomach flutter.

“I’ll keep in mind not to bring it up,” I told Hammer, earning a nod from the armored mare as we all rounded a corner, coming upon a large quarry dug out at the rear of the valley.

The place was easily as vast as a sports arena, three rugged, sandstone cliffs hemming it in on either side, while the front entrance was a choke point between two more impassable inclines. The road sloped down, where the base of the quarry was naught but smooth sand, pale in comparison to the red rock of the walls and cool in the shadow of the towering mesas. Ahead, the rails to the right fanned out into many loading bays, the petrified skeletons of mine works and loading cranes lingering in rusting heaps beside each. Many more of the tracks disappeared into the cliff, where great curtains of corrugated metal covered what appeared to be a huge manufacturing mill under the mountain.

Scribes adorned in red robes, as well as initiates in their orange jumpsuits, all went about their business, watched over by many more power armored knights. The second we passed under the heavily-fortified gate at the quarry’s perimeter, my eyes were exposed to more stripped-down scrap than I could imagine. Everything of value had been picked clean, dragged under the mountain by the looks of the few ponies hauling nets of cargo into the flickering interior of the old mill.

What are they gathering in there, a dragon’s hoard? At the sight of the molten red flashes of industry within, I really hoped I was wrong about that. Name or not, I’ve seen enough actual dragonfire in my life.

Among the mountains of salvage, smaller shacks of metal had been erected, in addition to a concrete barracks, complete with a large broadcast array. I glanced at my pipbuck as we passed a set of rusty box cars filled with old munitions, hoping that the thing would kindly mark the hidden location on my map. Hammer was swift to assure me it would not, and that the secrets to jamming such a thing were just as closely guarded.

So quick to hoard, so slow to help. I thought bitterly, the idea nothing new, even if the reminder all of this potentially useful stuff was here stung. Still, I want their help, better to play along.

I kept that in mind as we passed more curious onlookers, scribes muttering to themselves before we finally moved under the shadow of the underground mill. The heat hit me first, accompanied by the blazing red glow of molten metal, the rattle of chains, and clang of heavy manufacturing. Ironically, it sounded just like I imagined Crimson Springs had so long ago.

No wonder they’re so interested in taking that place back. I noted, as the cart finally came to a stop, as did our armored escort. They could churn out weapons and armor for years.

“Alright, sound off. Ginger, you stay with me, the rest of you are relieved,” Hammer ordered, removing her helmet with a hiss of steam.

“Yes, ma’am,” the knights all said in unison, as many of them removed their helmets too, all but the unicorn as she unclipped from the wagon.

“Watch them, I’ll call into Silver,” the Star Paladin told her, then added. “Permission granted to remove your helmet too.”

“Yes, ma’am, thanks, ma‘am,” Gingerbread acknowledged, levitating off her helmet before tapping her horn with a wince.

Modified or not, I could see wearing that hurt. If she’s not an initiate, she must have been born into the rangers a unicorn? I noted, pretty sure her parents must have been earth ponies.

Born to another tribe… The reality brought back memories I’d rather it didn’t, it was at least something I could sympathize with. Not that she looks like she needs my sympathy.

Gingerbread glowered at us as if we were just as distasteful as the dirt on her power armored hooves, while Hammer marched under spitting sparks to talk into an intercom across the aisle. The place was huge, towering far above with several levels of catwalk between. They ran above the great pillars of arcane foundries that bubbled and blazed with hearts of molten flame, sparks cascading down in flurries as ponies in heavy work gear moved about the machines. Rivers of melted steel ran like magma, conveyer belts and pistons pressing slag into ingots. It was no wonder the rangers here possessed the means to keep the war with Crimson up for so long.

They’re both fighting over sites of production. I noted, recalling what I’d seen under the city, dreading to think what ponies this efficient would do with all that. I guess the Dust Bowl’s just lucky most of the production from here has to go out to the other chapters too.

The steel rangers had the disadvantage of being an Equestria-spanning group, while the Brazen Skulls were all going insane, falling to whatever the Rage was. The more I thought about it, the more I really had to consider if I was making the right call. Not that there was anything I could do about it now, they had my guns, and while I was pretty sure I could levitate them from the wagon, Gingerbread wasn't letting us out of her sight.

Robbed of her helmet, I could see she had a far more fair complexion than the rest of the grizzled ponies around her. Her coat was a light, cinnamon brown, her mostly-shaven mane a lighter satin color, while a patch of white marked between her green eyes. Even so, I had a feeling she wasn’t the biggest fan of her averaged-size horn, most of all by how sore it seemed. All in all, she was cute, large for a unicorn, yet lacking none of our elegance. Even if that would have been far more appealing if she looked the least bit happy with me.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, voice just as chocolate-smooth as her looks now she was free of the respirator. “Never seen a mare in uniform before?”

“On the contrary, you could say I’ve not seen enough,” I quipped, with a smirk, a smirk she didn't share.

Really, flirting now? I thought, a hoof on my bump as it fluttered in apparent irritation. What? It’s better to have her like me, right?

Her eyes narrowed slightly, lip curled in curiosity as she glanced over at Hammer. The larger mare was still talking to the intercom as the unicorn added.

“As much as I’d take the compliment, I’m not one for fraternizing with natives,” I admit, some of my hopes died at that.

“Eh, your loss, right?” Vertigo came to my aid as he nudged my side, then winked. There was no helmet to save me from the blush that summoned as my face scrunched in annoyance. All the while, Gingerbread looked like she wanted to throw up.

“You ponies are just out to breed like rabbits, I swear,” she muttered, and for a moment, I swore she was just about to point out the fact I was pregnant.

I was just about ready to tell her that it wasn’t his, yet at that notion, a part of me really wished that was the case. What… Me, him… But he’s a bug!?

Better than a monster that grows every time you take too many rads! My brain countered as the disguised changeling chuckled.

“Believe me, I’m not breeding with anypony any time soon,” he mused, wrapping a forehoof over my shoulder as I grumbled my discontent. “It’s called banter, maybe you metalheads should try it sometime?”

“To treat the sticks up our tails, as you put it, I presume?” she countered drily, standing rigid. “Let me ask you this, native. If you were born to serve a higher purpose, despite your differences, do you think you’d still make light of the situation?”

Okay, maybe the stick-in-the-mud reward goes from Hammer to her. I thought as she hit me with the facts like a mase. Still think you can sympathize?

“No, but I’d not let the flaws I was born with get to me as much,” I told her before Vertigo could quip. “Because believe me, I had a few.”

Like not having foals? Pretty sure that’s fixed. I shooed that nagging idea away as she blinked at me, then shook her head. If nothing else, knowing her insecurities is an advantage.

I was really starting to feel like Vertigo. The two of us were beginning to share far too many ideas. He smirked at me, obviously feeling my confused emotions, at least until the clang of metal hooves heralded Hammer’s return.

“Head Scribe Silver’s waiting for you upstairs. Your weapons all stay here.” She nodded for Ginger to fall in behind us, a distraction the unicorn leaped upon. “Follow me, and don’t touch anything.”

Despite everything, if there was one thing I could thank the steel rangers for, it was the fact they kept their catwalks in a safe condition. Peering down at the molten forges below, I really didn't feel like falling from another of the suspended death traps. More so as the heavy clang of both Hammer and Ginger’s armored hooves rattled the grated metal, leading us to a boxy room suspended atop one of the foundry’s vast support pillars, as if a whole section of the roof were levitating amidst the mess of pipes, wires, and concrete above.

Is it just me or does a whole section of this place look like it’s moving slightly? I wondered, trying to wrangle whether it was just my imagination. Yet it appeared a significant part of the ceiling was swaying like a ship in calm waters. What are they really using all this industry for, only weapons?

“I can think of a few ponies who’d pay a pretty penny to find this place,” Vertigo observed as he glanced around at the sea of production, then up at the curious ceiling.

The structure was odd, curving up from the center of the room like it were some kind of great cylinder. Many pipes, wires, and walkways spanned the inverted expanse like some kind of web, while several parts of it were torn open. Robots of all kinds assisted the ponies working on such breaches, like ants swarming over a hole in their nest.

“All the more reason to play our cards right,” I told him, voice low as my ears folded. “I’d rather take stable fifty than start another war over it.”

“That’s if the new elder is willing to listen, not to mention if Flare’s gonna stick to what we said when this reaches Cross,” he responded.

“She will, how can she not? They take out Crimson and her independence is pretty much guaranteed.” He shrugged while Hammer reached the door at the end of the catwalk, and Ginger came up close behind me.

“Or these guys just fill the power gap the Brazens leave.” I couldn't deny I had my worries about that, pretty sure my eagerness to just get into stable fifty was clouding my view of what may transpire after.

The doors ahead slid open with a woosh, sitting at another awkward angle to the catwalk as if the two things had not actually been built as part of the same entity. The wall curved up at an acute angle to the grated walkway, shifting almost up and down ever so slightly. Either way, any opportunity I had to inspect it further was stolen as Ginger didn’t offer any time to loiter.

“Head Scribe, Silver, the tribals from the north passage,” Hammer announced, gesturing a forehoof back at us.

The scribe herself didn’t really need an introduction, I’d seen my fair share of her kind running jobs for rangers elsewhere. Those chapters far more willing to allow mercenaries to do their dirty work. Her red robes were gilded with gold and a light-blue trim, embroidered with the symbol of her faction over where her cutie mark would be. Her coat was a cool blue, her mane almost white. Oddly, she reminded me of an older version of Binary. Though, I guess that was mostly just because of her goggles and the rather archaic-looking pipbuck on her foreleg. The beady things on her head were shoved down to rest around her neck as she looked away from the array of screens that inhabited the center of the large room.

Come to think of it, the more my eyes scoured the chamber, the more this place looked like some kind of control room. The far wall was glass, several cracked panels all curving down to the floor like some kind of observation deck. The walls on either side were fitted with many tiers of terminal screens, the foremost of which were complete with seats for at least half a dozen ponies. Besides the door opposite which we’d entered, there was another on the far side, each flank a mirror of the other, while a large pair of double doors stood to our right, across from the vast window. The center of the chamber rose up to form a squat plinth just large enough for a pony to stand on, ringed with blinking consoles from above, and below, with a seat suspended in the middle.

“Thank you, Star Paladin,” the head scribe acknowledged as she hopped down from the central pedestal, while Ginger took up a position by the door behind us. “Now I can finally see if all of this was worth my time?”

“Worth your time? You’re the ones who captured us,” I countered, yet like pretty much every other pony in here, her bored scowl was hard to shift.

I’m really starting to think Vertigo’s comments about what’s up their asses is not a joke. I thought with a sigh.

“Captured and not disposed of yet, I’ll remind you,” she responded, nodding to Vertigo. “Most of all for this one, a menace matching his description has been a thorn in our side for months.”

“What can I say, I’m good at my job,” he mused, casually rubbing a forehoof on his chest. “You’re just lucky you could actually get my description.”

“Yes well, right now I could very easily make sure that I never have to hear about you again,” she warned, yet he didn’t look convinced. “So in the interest of not having you both killed, what is this about a possible assault on stable fifty?”

I laid it all out as I had done to Hammer, both the Star Paladin and Vertigo interjecting with their own comments and details as the head scribe nodded.

“I’m sure Flare would be up for using the Gyrotrons too, she wants the Brazens gone as much as you do,” I finished, while she lifted a forehoof to her chin in thought.

The pause was infuriatingly long, part of me just wished Vertigo would say something witty so I didn’t have to sit and wait. Instead, all I got was a squirm in my gut, the rapidly-progressed foal really wanting to make sure I knew it was still there. Taking a deep breath, I did my best not to fidget, nudging the underside of my midsection with my inner thigh. I caught Ginger exchange a glance with Hammer, yet the Star Paladin didn’t say a word.

“And what’s your interest in that Stable, if you don’t mind me asking?” Silver pressed, strutting to my left, and looking me over. “As a Scribe, I’d tell you it was suicide, as a mother, I’d tell you it’s selfishly reckless.”

Great, so she does know. I guess the perception award goes to her! I wilted at the notion, the idea I’d put my foal in danger hitting me like a wall of cold ice. How about putting your monster child in…? No, brain, no!

“I didn’t think it was that obvious,” I sighed, catching Vertigo’s wince as he averted his eyes from the small bump. “I have a friend trapped up there, not to mention there’s some ponies in that stable I’d very much like to have a word with.”

“The benefactors behind Maulerfiend, I know about them… That traitorous bastard knows enough about our doctrines to be a pain in the tail as it is, without the backup,” she responded, drawing her eyes off my tummy, and trotting back to stand before us.

So, the rumors the Brazens were born out of what the rangers left behind decades ago are true? I wondered, yet those had always been little more than tall-tales from long before I was even born. I never thought they’d actually be open about it.

“Any other chapter, any other band of slavers, and they’d have been dealt with in months. But a former ranger and whoever’s backing him has turned that into years, and they’re just as interested in you, aren’t they?” She was right, the constant grudge match between them had been a thing for as long as I could remember.

As for what they wanted with me, if she couldn't shed light on that after hearing their chatter, then what hope did I have? I opened my mouth to say as much, only for the woosh of a door opening to snatch my words.

“Elder on deck,” Hammer announced as if it were a reflex, going stiff as a bored, as did Ginger.

From the set of double doors to the right strode a young stallion, barely older than a teenager. A cocky aura of boastfulness rather than actual experience hung around him like a bad smell, while a bulky set of leather barding left all but his head and neck to the imagination. Safe to say, I didn't think he was the one to slay the hellhound whose hide hung over his shoulders. That, and the get-up was far too big for him. So much so, he almost tripped as he came to a stop, saved only by the odd, crooked scepter topped with a set of cogs he held in one forehoof. He looked at the two of us, and much like Ginger, appeared like he was about to throw up.

“What’s this… Who brought natives aboard?” he asked, jabbing a forehoof at us, only for the loose fabric on the end to sag. “And why wasn’t I informed?”

“Because dealing with the locals is a matter that is below the station of elder, Cobalt,” Silver Dawn stated dryly, seeming more than a little bored as she glanced over at who was clearly her son.

Their manes and coats are almost identical, even if that dark blue stripe in his hair must come from his father’s side. I noted.

“We were just done here anyway,” she added, and I blinked at her as she waved for the two lesser rangers to be at ease.

“Wait, we are?” I asked, while all she appeared to desire was for her son to leave before she divulged anything more.

He didn’t, he drifted over to her, a scowl plastered on his muzzle like he were a foal robbed of a new toy.

“Funny, Father would have just had them shot,” he mused, smirking at us like we were stupid. “Look at them, it’s like they crawled out of a drain pipe.”

I mean, he’s not wrong. I thought as his mother glared at him. Goddesses, is that kind of stare a mom thing or what? Do I have that power now!?

I felt like I’d given such a look to Teal a fair few times, wondering if my newfound state would allow me to unlock such raw maternal will yet again.

“Don’t you act like you know what your father would do!” she hissed, and he melted like hot butter, lifting his forehooves in surrender.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry… But what other reason do they have to be here?” he asked, then glanced at the two other rangers. “Anypony gonna fill me in, I’m your Elder!?”

“Found them on the road, sir. Came to us with a plan to take Crimson Springs, right after we caught the two of them infiltrating Fort Sandstone.” I had a feeling that from the looks Ginger earned from her fellow rangers, that they’d not wanted the Elder to have any idea what they were up to.

Is that serving her higher power or just trying to prove herself to the pony in charge, no matter who that pony is? I didn’t ask as much, adding my own sour expression to the ones shot her way, not that those of her superiors mattered as the Elder’s face lit up.

“Yes, if you must know, that’s what this is about,” Silver groaned, muttering Applejack’s name along with so many curses under her breath. “But if you want that to be the case, don’t be like your father, keep your nose out and let me deal with it.”

He snorted as if he’d been slapped across the face. Yet once again, the imperious glare of the mare who’d given birth to him caught his tongue.

“So, we’re not done here then?” I asked, jabbing a forehoof at her, and for a moment, I caught the sheer power of that glare as she glanced back at me.

“If what you propose is true, we’re going to need to set our terms.” She trotted back to the ring of terminals, forehooves tapping on the keys as her son slinked up behind her to peer over her shoulder at the screens.

“Aside from putting Mauler down, we want the stable itself, we can deal with the actual city later. I will also stress that the stable’s reactor is not damaged, all reports we have say it's fully operational. Most of all now the two of you have kindly proven the one under Fort Sandstone is a bust.” She rose up, stiff as a statue as she glanced at her intrusive son. “Do you mind?”

“Okay, goddesses, I never thought common ponies would get your tail in such a twist,” he huffed, peering over at us as if we were an oddity. “You sure we need their help?”

“What’s got my tail in a twist is that Crimson is not a nut we’ve ever been able to crack. We take it, and that stable would provide a perfect bulkwalk against the NCR to the west.” She glanced back at Cobalt. “Not to mention make you look very favorable to the other chapters, should we take it now.”

That finally appeared to have his attention, and his mouth remained shut for the duration of his mother’s work. All the while her attention flitted between the consul and her pipbuck, until she finally trotted back over.

“You have a Pipbuck, right?” she asked, handing me a holo-disc ejected from her pipbuck. “If what you say is true, those robots should be programmable with the right codes.” She flashed me the device on her foreleg again. “I suspect Crossroads will have them, after that, you can set the robots to run on an external, E.F.S. I’d suggest mine, but in the interest of seeing this go smoothly, I’ll settle for yours, being a neutral party.”

“What, you mean like run the things on my Pipbuck?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes as if suspecting such a lack of tech savvy from natives.

What, I’m not some dumb stable pony, I know what she’s getting at!? I thought, pretty sure the robots would be targeting things my E.F.S was marking as hostile, leaving her rangers and Crossroad’s unmolested. Also ensures she can’t turn on me, the rangers go hostile, and the robots hit them back.

I made sure she knew as much, and while her son appeared put off by my words, he neglected to speak as his mother nodded begrudgingly.

“A token of goodwill, if you will.” She gestured at me with a forehoof. “Of course, it will only work if you’re also within range of the stable, preferably in the stable itself, that gives them an objective to head toward, while we can reinforce.”

Okay, so this is why she’s being so lenient with me. I had a feeling she knew I was one of the few ponies who may be able to get in past the defenses. Though why do I feel like that may have to be as a prisoner?

I glanced at Vertigo, but he shrugged. “Binary will most likely have a plan to get us in there. I could do it too, but that’s a hard nut to crack unsupported.”

“Given your record, I’ll not hide my objections to that either,” Silver deadpanned, glancing at him flatly. “It has to be her, based on what I’ve heard, she’s the only one they won’t just shoot on sight.” She moved up to me, looking me over before saying in a lower tone. “They want you for something, any idea why?”

Her eyes drifted to my belly, as I felt an uneasy squirm. Yet I did everything not to look at it, a feeling that whatever the prize really was, it was the thing inside me. Whether she believed it or not when I shook my head was irrelevant, she simply took a step back, handing me another holo-disk.

“These are our terms, I’ll overlook the fact we’d confiscate any of your gear for safekeeping if you relay the message back to Crossroads.” She nodded over to the door. “Ginger can go with you, make sure you don’t try anything funny and give us their terms.” She looked to the knight, flashing her Pipbuck. “You can contact me directly from there.”

The unicorn stiffened, offering the scribe a salute. Real suck up that one. She’s gonna be so much fun to have around.

Sourness dripped from the thoughts like bile. Yet in the interest of not seeing this plan fall apart, I nodded.

“Good, this works out and we’ll consider all of this forgotten, him included,” she added, nodding at Vertigo.

“Guess that would put you back at square one with my identity,” he mused, but if there was one pony he’d not get a rise out of, this was her.

“Same way it would move you from the pony of interest list, to the kill on sight list.” I really wished I could shut him up like that comment did sometimes.

Even so, seeing the pieces fall into place around me, I simply nodded. “You got a deal, you just give us back our things and we’ll be out of your mane.”

I had to admit it was refreshing to say that with such conviction for a change. I knew she didn’t want to let me go, she wanted to kill me, take my things, and hide them all away in here. Oh, what good can a common enemy do somepony?

“Star Paladin.” Hammer was at Silver’s side the moment the words left her mouth. “See these two dropped off at a safe distance.” She glanced at Ginger. “Knight, ensure this goes exactly as we’ve just agreed.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the two mare stated in unison, while behind his mother, Cobalt was grinning ear to ear.

Foot note: Level Up

New Perk Added: Presence - Rank One: Maybe it’s your looks, maybe it’s finally the motherly glow, but you command attention by just walking into a room. The initial reaction of another person is improved by 10% for each level of this Perk.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rally Call

Chapter 28:

Rally Call

"I'm pretty sure I know somepony who wouldn't mind organizing this merchandise shipment for you… I'm talking about myself… Oh, please, let me organize it!"

Whether he was actually Vertigo or not, if there was one thing I was starting to enjoy, it was being Fleetwing. Not that I’d ever admit it to the bug in question, but he was fit, strong, and had what I could only describe as one of the most gorgeous marefriends in all of Equestria. Sweetie Belle really was as magnificent as all the pre-war posters made her out to be. It was no wonder she was the mare to produce so much of the radiant music that had survived for almost two hundred years. Right now, that beautiful voice was little more than a soft whisper, however, as the young superstar playfully nibbled at my host’s ear.

Goddesses, what I wouldn’t give to have Cherry treat me like this. I thought as her pale forehooves glided down to the stallion’s lean rump, soft as squishy marshmallows as they rested there. She’s so perfectly gentle, just like her voice.

“If I taste like marshmallows, then you taste like blueberries,” the mare cooed as she lounged over him, her sly grin barely visible in the gloom of the lavash hotel bedroom. “Or is all this talk too cushy for a sky guard?”

“It’s only cushy if somepony finds out,” he mused, taking her wandering hoof off his butt, and holding it over his chest. “Besides, just think of the scandal if the tabloids find out what we’re up to.”

Her smirk did not fade as she tilted her head, then shoved her forehooves down into his chest, pressing him into one of the plush pillows. I didn’t know whether a romantic night like this was dinner or sexy time for a changeling, though from the full feeling swelling inside him, I guessed it was a bit of both.

Goddesses, if that thing between his hind legs is fake, it’s a really good illusion. I had to admit I was jealous, not only was Sweetie Belle gorgeous, her effects on Fleetwing were nothing to scoff at. Stupid, sexy bugs!

“Then it’s a good thing I have my big, sexy pegasus stallion to protect me from all the cameras then,” she cooed, listing up to straddle him with her hind legs. “I saw how ruffled you were about my performance at Shattered Hoof.”

I could tell he still hadn’t approved of that all too much by the way he bristled. Yet staying mad at her was impossible. His forehooves drifted to her hips, steadying her as the covers slipped from her shoulders. Goddesses, she really does feel like a squishy marshmallow!

Her pale coat was like a ghost in the dull light, naught but the flashes of the nightly city glow beyond the blinds of their window. It sounded like a busy night for more than just the two lovers, leaving me to believe this had to be somewhere major. Most parts of my brain were fixed on Sweetie Belle. Most of all, as the shimmering, dark-blue night gown she wore, only accentuated her refined curves all the more, translucent silk draped loosely over her slim stomach and hips. Fleetwing’s thoughts too, were locked on the mare, at least for the most part. I could tell, real pony or not, he considered himself lucky. He did love her, and that apparently was a really odd feeling for one of his kind.

So why do I feel like secret Changelings in the middle of a big city like this is a huge red flag? I wanted to give the bug the benefit of the doubt, yet if this night took place after his meeting with Elytra. Goddesses, why can’t things just be good… This is sex, she’s gorgeous, why do I have to feel all icky about it?

I had to wonder if my pregnancy was just diminishing the appeal of a sexy memory orb. It would certainly be an awkward shock for Gingerbread in the waking world, the Rangers had not exactly vetted the orbs before knocking me out again.

“I don’t know if that’s how it works. Can’t exactly arrest gossip,” Fleetwing said, running a forehoof up her toned flank. “That’s your sister’s job.”

“But you would if you could, I know it.” She rolled her eyes, her efforts to keep him pinned persevering as his erect wings twitched. “The show in Manehatten is going to be crazy for it tomorrow.”

“All the more reason to just take your mind off it and think about the here and now.” She giggled, hardly fighting back as he finally leaned up to nibble on her neck.

The locking of lips that came a second later almost floored me with a flush of emotion. I figured most of it came from the fact that Fleetwing literally took in her love, it made him feel good, powerful. But where I imagined him as a leach sapping her feelings, the reciprocated affection was just as powerful. He wasn’t doing this to feed, he was doing it because he wanted to.

“You’re really gonna have to tell me who taught you to kiss someday, Fleetie,” Sweetie cooed as she leaned back, looking at him how I knew most ponies looked at her.

She loved him just as much, the emotion so thick he could literally see it in the air, like sparkling pink smoke radiating off of her.

“Funny, she kinda looked like you,” he told her, tapping the tip of her nose with a forehoof.

She giggled, light laughter broken by a few infuriatingly cute snorts. She reminded me far too much of Cherry, that longing to get back to her swelling as I was sure our hours apart must be enough time for any of her awkwardness to warp into worry.

“That’s a lie, and you know it,” she accused through her cute giggles. “Only kissing lessons I ever got were from Scoots, and that was for mares.”

“Maybe it’s all just natural then, same as that voice of yours,” he countered, and she rolled her eyes, smirked, then shoved him back into the pillows before flopping over him. “Oof… That’s not the answer I was expecting.”

“Clearly you need to talk to Scootaloo about mare lessons then,” she quipped, resting her head on the downy fur of his chest. “That’s if you can get a word in with her anymore.”

“War’s got every pony busy, you know how it is,” he told her, earning a sigh as he patted her mane.

“I know, smile, and look pretty, keep the public off her tail… Let Applebloom deal with all the construction. I just wish for once we could all meet up again like we used to.” She pressed her face into his coat, even her frustration sounding elegant. “Right now it feels like you’re my only rock, but if anypony knew about us… Urg.”

“Don’t worry, if you don’t want anypony to know, they won’t. They can gossip about backstage flirting all they want,” he assured, looking into her eyes as she glanced up at him. “How about you just try to get some sleep, I know how much a show takes it out of you.”

“How’d I find the only stallion in Equestria that doesn’t want to go another round with me?” she cooed, summoning a flustered wave of heat in him that I imagined was only so potent because of his true form.

Goddesses, is this why Vertigo teases me so much? I wondered, the emotions like a shot of dash. Still, if they decide to go at it again, I won’t complain.

“I didn’t say that,” he mused, earning another of the cute giggles as she rested her head down on his chest again.

“So maybe not a total heart of gold.” She pressed her ear to his breast softly, humming a gentle tune in time with what appeared to be his heartbeat. “I love that sound.”

“Yeah, well gold doesn’t beat like that,” he countered, earning a poke to the rump under the covers. “Yip…! What, am I wrong?”

“No, you’re perfect,” she cooed, snuggling so tight beside him it was as if she’d melt into his coat. “Just don’t tell Scoots I said something so cushy, she’d flip.”

“Don’t worry, what’s said between us, stays between us,” he assured as she drifted off to sleep.

I really wanted the memory to end there, leaving me with a warm buzz of affection. It was good to see two ponies genuinely happy with each other, to actually feel that love in a way no actual equine could. Belly filled with the warmness of a fine meal, Fleetwing lay awake for what felt like another hour or so. Time dragged by at a dreary pace as the city sounds went on rhythmically outside. Sweetie Belle muttered song lyrics in her sleep, slurred voice still far more refined than most ponies I knew before she sleepily rolled off of him, curling up against his flank. Fleetwing loved her, but there were other feelings too, conflicted feelings. Like how I felt between Vertigo and Cherry, only on a far grander scale. He glanced at the bedside table, eyes on a clock proclaiming it was almost midnight.

Silent as a ghost, he rolled out from under the covers. The soft carpet of the luxurious room gave no indication as his hooves settled upon it, and he peeked back at his sleeping marefriend. He loved her, and that was why he had to do this, otherwise, they’d come for her. The flash of change was odd, as if one moment I was looking through one set of eyes, then another, the two separated by a flicker of green across my whole body. Now I was a mare, a somewhat jarring relief to be sure, but I was also a unicorn. To Fleetwing, it was all as natural as breathing as he flicked his new horn over Sweetie Belle, casting a glinting cloud of green mist, before telekinetically pulling the covers back over her.

How long could he keep this up? Infiltrators were not supposed to get in this deep with their prey. A Changeling was not supposed to feel love. He knew if the high council knew he’d become so entwined with a mare, he’d be reconditioned. On the flip side, he knew if the ponies found out about him, he’d be squished like the bug they all perceived his kind to be in legends and folklore. Therefore, she could not wake up, not until he was back here to make sure she was safe from every dire reality he brought with him, so many things that could go wrong that she had no idea were even there.

“Mmm, hush now, quiet now… Comfy… Sleepyhead…” the mare mumbled happily in her sleep, cozying up to one of the pillows. “My stallion, so comfy.”

Fleetwing winced at the sight of the pillow spooned in his place, heart aching, he wished for nothing more than to slip into bed and let the world fall away around the two of them. That was not why he was here, however. Instead of creeping back to bed, he made his way to the elegant door, quietly stepping out into the light of the fancy hotel hall outside the grand seal of oak and gold.

I’d seen plenty of fine establishments in the wasteland, yet to see such prim and proper places in their prime was almost jarring. Bright red carpet ran between white walls, each marked with embroidered gold, while golden seals of rearing ponies ran the skirtings of the room. The doors to each of the seven chambers along the hall were decorated with magnificent archways, folding together like crashing waves of gold over the polished wooden doors below. Sweetie Belle’s room was at the far end of the hall from the elevator Fleetwing trotted towards. Obviously, the superstar had been given the most glamorous of the suites.

Reaching the opposite end of the hall, Fleet glanced back at the room, forehoof pressed to a panel near the elevator as he summoned the car to his level. Sweetie Belle already felt like a million miles away, he knew now his instincts should take hold, his kind was not made to form bonds, it was built into their very being. She was prey, he should use her to get what he needed, for the good of the hive. Yet part of him still wanted nothing more than to go back to her.

I felt his pain. I wanted nothing more than an ideal life together with a pony I cared about, yet the world never made that easy. Are you even sure who that pony is anymore? My brain asked, images of Cherry, then Vertigo flashing across my sight.

The fact I may very well be in Vertigo’s mind right now only complicated those feelings further as Fleetwing tapped the buttons to his left. He failed to select a floor, instead typing in a sequence of numbers that quickly saw the whole console retreat back into the lavish wall with a mechanical whir. In its place, a new, far less gilded panel was pushed forward, in addition to some kind of scanner. He pressed his forehoof to the latter, while typing yet another code in with his magic.

“Welcome, Professor Gestalt,” chimed a tinny voice from the console, leading me to guess the green unicorn dressed in prim uniform I saw in Fleetwing’s reflection to be the mare in question.

“Sub-level three, please,” said the changeling in the mare’s voice, and with a chime, the elevator began to descend.

The downward lurch did little to settle the disguised bug’s feelings. He loved a mare, felt like a traitor to his kind, felt like a traitor to her. Yet this operation had been planned for months, he received the dead drop days ago and was already overdue. Elytra would be back to pressure him any day now, and if he did not have the data the hive expected, he dreaded to think who the Queen would send next. A drone too big for their boots, he could deal with, a soldier on the other hoof… There was no way he could keep his secrets if that came to pass.

The elevator came to a stop. With a ping, the first set of doors opened, followed by a second set of far heavier seals marked with the purple starburst of the M.A.S. Beyond, was a long concrete corridor lined with pipes, a stark contrast to the glamorous rooms above. The monotony was broken by a similar set of marked doors at the far end, and a box window to the left. Fleetwing trotted along the dull hall without a second glance, coming to a stop by the far door, before peering into the window. Asleep in her chair was a dull purple mare with a tan mane and a locked book on her flank, lab coat draped over the back of the thing.

Fleet cleared his throat, and the mare almost leaped out of her seat as her hooves flailed. Finally, she leaned forward, eyes fixed on the plethora of security screens before her.

“I’m up I…” I saw her freeze, then her eyes slowly rolled to see Fleetwing, followed by her whole body as her stool steadily spun. “Professor Gestalt… Or Mosaic sorry, hard to tell you apart. I… I didn’t expect anypony this late.”

“It’s Gestalt,” lied the fake green mare as she peered in at the screens. “And I won’t lie, I didn’t know I had to be here an hour ago either.”

“You’re alone, where’s your sister?” asked the security mare as Fleetwing levitated what had to be a fake ID from his coat. “Thought you two went everywhere together?”

“Ideally we do, but that’s not entirely possible these days,” Fleet responded as he took back the ID.

If that’s fake, then it’s a damn good fake. If not, I dread to think how the changelings got hold of it. I noted, as the security mare shrugged.

“Sorry to hear it, don’t hear much chatter about what’s going on upstairs from down here. Most of all what’s up in Canterlot with you folks,” she said, resting back in her chair.

“All the more reason to sleep on the job, I’m guessing?” The mare paled as she buzzed Fleet through, stammering weekly about not getting fired. “Don’t worry. But don’t let anypony catch you out again, you never know who’s trying to sneak into here.”

Oh, isn’t that ironic!? I had a feeling if Fleetwing was not Vertigo, he was for sure some kind of ancestor. Even so, the look of relief on the security mare’s face was instant as the disguised bug made his way down into the chamber below.

Humming lights flickered on with a series of dull clicks in his wake, revealing row after row of terminals and databanks. The room was cool, the droning buzz of all the machines accompanied by the dull blinking of their lights and monitors. To me, it looked like a maze. To my host, it was no obstacle, Fleetwing homed in on where he needed to be like a moth to a flame, sitting down before one of the screens. If the layers of security he’d already passed were no obstacle, the password on the thing was foal’s play, he was in seconds later. Up flashed the starburst image of the Ministry as well as watermarks for something called the O.I.A and Luna’s own royal seal.

Just how much information do they have locked away down here? I wondered, unable to help but think about what I could have learned about my own pre-war ghosts here.

Fleetwing knew just what he was after, however, levitating out a drive from his coat and connecting it to the machine. Chimera, Starfly, and Bulkwalk were just a few of the secretive names I caught before my host paused on a file of note.

‘Impelled Metamorphosis Potion: IMP.’ The moment it was selected, the screen lit up with all kinds of information regarding alicorn super soldiers, notes on potential test candidates, and greater implications of the experiment's viability. ‘Mirapony testing site pending operation. Suitable interim secondary test site established: Stable Seventy-Nine.’

Thanks to Fleetwing, the changelings now had all of it, as he transferred everything from the terminal to his holo drive, stashing it back in his coat the second he was done. I didn’t know whether to feel horrified or impressed. My host on the other hoof felt only one thing. That was guilt, and to one of his kind, that made him literally sick.

The memory faded, leaving me with a sour feeling that was swiftly tempered by the recollection that the start of the memory had not been nearly as dower. Thankfully, I’d not made a mess. I didn’t know if that was a disservice to Sweetie Belle, or simply a testament to my sexual restraint. Regardless, I glanced about to find I was in what appeared to be a rundown shack. The far wall was utterly gone, allowing the desert sand to pool in from the cracked highway just outside, while to my left, were my weapons.

I guess Silver stayed true to her words. I noted, adding one point to the level I could trust her as I ran a forehoof over my griping gut. Urg, good to see you agree too.

Talking to the thing as if it were actually a product of my own biology felt stupid after the reactor, yet if I did not think of it as my foal, then what? I think I’ll just go mad.

Rolling onto all fours, dust, and small bugs scattered from under the sack as I lifted it. Magic still a little tender, I holstered my weapons, stashing anything else back in my saddlebags before levitating the locket back around my neck and folding it under my barding. Everything that I’d taken into the base was here, just as Silver had promised. Every other thing she’d assured me would follow me was here too, I found out seconds later.

“Good, you’re finally awake,” Gingerbread’s tinny voice rumbled from the opening in the wall as the power armored unicorn marched into view, Vertigo at her side.

“You know, it’d go a long way to actually test the orbs you use,” he commented, looking at me. “Long one, huh?”

“You could say that,” I told him, placing my helmet on and trotting over. “How long have you been waiting?”

“No more than an hour. But it’s almost midday, and I’d prefer to get to Crossroads then call back to base before dark,” Ginger told me, while Vertigo just appeared curious.

Long one? Here’s guessing he knows exactly what orb I was in. I didn’t say anything, I’d bring up who Fleetwing was later, right now, there was still an alliance to forge.

“Good then let’s get going, it’s not far,” I told her, taking the lead, only for the grinding of hooves to shake the asphalt under me as she insisted she walk ahead.

Either way, getting her out of here fast was not an issue, according to my map, we were still pretty close to where the Gyrotrons were stored.

Wonder how long Heatstroke would have waited until she went for the rangers’ help with those? I really had to wonder if she’d have gone that far, while hoping her sister would see reason when I marched up with Gingerbread.

“Good, then try to keep a good pace,” called the ranger as she marched out onto the sand-blown highway.

If only she’d lose the gear, then at least I’d have a nice view too. I didn’t bother squishing my lust, she had been rather fetching without her helmet. I bet if bucking me got her accepted as a unicorn, she’d do it in a flash.

“There goes any ounce of subtlety,” Vertigo observed as Ginger marched on. “They’re gonna see her coming like a bulldozer a mile away.”

“Then let’s make sure we’re there to ensure nothing stupid happens,” I retorted, taking off after her with him close behind.

“I hate power armor,” I muttered, downing a healing potion for the shot that had grazed my leg. “Did it ever occur to you that stomping up like that would get you shot!?”

“It’s not often a thing we have to worry about,” Gingerbread snapped, yet free of her helmet, she was far less intimidating. “Besides, that crude thing you wear is of the same make.”

“Stripped down to the bare minimum, and I tend to take it off when I want to look friendly!” I countered as my wounds healed, much to my squirming belly’s delight.

The three of us sat in the police station, the place having been cleaned up in the week since we’d liberated it of Pear’s operation. It had Vertigo impressed, yet his quips about being the only one not to be shot overshadowed my ability to care.

I have a foal inside me, forgive me if I’m not as agile as I used to be! I thought, really wishing I could buck his smug face in again.

“We’re not here to make friends, we’re here to make arrangements,” Gingerbread protested, jabbing a metal-encased forehoof at me. “You said they know you!”

“No, I said the mare in charge knows me, not every one of the ponies that lives here, most of all when they see a metal beast storming up to the gate,” I declared, and aside from a scowl, I seem to have her beat.

It had been the best we could do to let the ponies at the wall take us in and lock us up here. Ginger was very quick to remind us that waiting for Flare to come see us only wasted more time, yet after her stunt, it was the best she was getting. At least I’d had Vertigo to back me up there.

“All this bickering’s just got me waiting for you two to start making out,” the stallion muttered, earning a sharp look from us both, then he grinned. “There see, not too hard to just shut up.”

“Sly, little rat,” Ginger muttered under her breath.

“Trust me, you get used to it,” I huffed in agreement, causing Vertigo to wilt playfully as he asked.

“What, you saying you don’t like me or something?” He just had to add a wink, did he put on those handsome looks on purpose, or what!? I knew he could, he could look like anypony, why not look like what I enjoyed the most?

“That can usually be called into question,” came a new voice, and the three of us looked to the door, to see Flare, and her sister.

It took me a moment to realize that the mare opposite Skylark, on Flare’s left, was Ochre. I’d never witnessed her standing, not without bandages, but since the last time we met, she looked good. That, and she was the only one who didn’t look like she wanted to kill us. Sky was a given, I was pretty sure that mare hated me, but Flare, she appeared mad for her town’s sake.

“You know, when we sent you on your way, we didn’t expect for you to come back here looking like you wanted to bash the gate down,” the orange mare said as she trotted over, seeming to relax a little as she looked at Vertigo and me.

“Is it any comfort that we didn’t want to?” I asked, nodding to the stallion. “We’re here to try and put a stop to Crimson Springs for good, with their help.”

Her eyes followed my motion, settling on Ginger as the Steel Ranger begrudgingly nodded. “That’s correct.”

“Like an alliance… with the Steel Rangers?” Ochre asked, the only one among them seemingly giddy at the idea while Sky rolled her eyes.

“That’s ridiculous, they don’t work with anypony but themselves,” the light blue mare reasoned, bringing a smile to Ginger’s face.

“And if you want my opinion, it should stay that way,” she declared, and I fought the urge to face hoof.

She really needs to read a few books on diplomacy. Sky’s eyes narrowed at the ranger, regardless of the armor, yet before she could snap back, Ginger went on.

“But it’s not my call to make. My superiors want Crimson gone as much as you do, I’m just here with their terms.”

“Oh, there’s terms, goodie,” Sky droned, her stern glare drifting from Ginger to me as if this was somehow my fault.

I mean, she’s not wrong. Part of me quipped as I smiled sheepishly at the doctor. Still, she’s been in the city, she knows what good it would do to have the place gone.

“So that’s what this is all about?” Flare asked, taking a seat on one of the old lab stools in front of me. “Your doing, I assume?”

“Group effort,” Vertigo mused, stretching out his forehooves behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.

I rolled my eyes, pretty sure Flare, and her sister joined me as the orange mare finally sighed, and asked. “Okay, then lay it out to me. Crimson’s gotta be gearing up to hit us after what you did, so what’s your plan?”

Just like I had to Silver back at the base, I told her everything I had in mind. From getting into the stable, to using their robots in combination with the rangers’ arsenal. Sky looked like she always did, that was to say, not happy. I had a feeling, for as much as I’d saved her life, it now looked like I was actively trying to ruin it too. Ochre seemed intrigued, nudging her grumpy mare friend every time Sky muttered about how ridiculous something sounded or that she just needed another drink. One mutter in her ear, and Ochre had the doctor blushing so hard she could not even try to belittle me as I finished.

Flare, on the other hoof, appeared to have been listening to me the whole time. It was at least encouraging to see the death of her sister and father’s betrayal, had not dampened her ability to reason. Regarding her now, I was taken back to only a few days ago, when she’d told me I was going to be a mother and just had to deal with it.

It was a lot easier to deal with before the extra rads. I thought, rubbing my bump without thinking, drawing the orange mare’s gaze. If she noticed how much bigger I was, she didn’t say, instead she glanced at my two companions, who both attested to the plan.

“We were able to take control of the warehouse with Heatstroke’s codes once we ran off Pear’s goons. But the bots are only programmed to patrol the roads, great for us here, but if you really want to set them on the stable…” She rolled a forehoof in the air. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“Easy, if you have access to their central computer you can designate a new target. Their current patrol patterns will just be a default,” Gingerbread commented, as if the simple fact Flare had access to the thing warranted that she should at least know as much.

“And I suppose you ponies are the ones who know how to do that?” Sky huffed, shaking free of Ochre’s teasing as she added. “Way I see it, that’s just an excuse to get access and turn the things on us.”

“As much as it would be no hair off my tail to march back to base and present my Elder with a robot army, that’s not how they want things to go down,” the ranger was quick to counter. “We can work on the details right now, all we really need is a means to get into the city itself.”

“You can’t really be considering this, Flare?” Sky asked, looking at her sister, the orange mare lost in thought.

“What I’m considering is the fact that we have a chance to wipe that cesspit off the map for good,” she reasoned, glancing back at her sibling. “But I’m not about to let that come at the cost of this town’s independent security.”

Ginger muttered something under her breath about stubborn tribals not knowing salvation when it came to them. I imagined that was exactly the same argument the NCR had given Heatstroke, the same mantra the dead mare had fed herself. No, I had to be the intermediate.

“I know that look,” Vertigo muttered as he caught me thinking. “What’s your plan?”

“This targeting thing, Silver said it can be applied to my Pipbuck, right?” I asked, and Vertigo smirked. So he’s impressed, or does he just think I’m crazy?

“That’s correct, she’s hoping the fact you’re a neutral party will smooth things over,” Ginger confirmed begrudgingly. “If somepony here knows how to issue an attack order, the gyrotrons can home in and designate targets based on that Pipbuck’s E.F.S.”

“So an army for the pony wearing it, ready to kill anything they see as dangerous,” I mused, lifting my pipbuck for everypony to see. “The rangers don’t get direct control either.”

“You get an upgrade?” Flare noted, as Ginger confirmed that this was her Elder’s plan once again.

“It’s a long story,” I told her with a shrug, before assuring. “I get into the stable with this, I can broadcast the command from in there. All you’d have to do is turn them on from here.”

“And how exactly do you plan to get in there?” Sky asked, forelegs folded as she raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but we barely got through last time.”

“Let’s just say I have it on good authority, they’re looking for me,” I assured, thinking back to Overseer’s comments. “I go up there, and the ponies in charge are not gonna have me shot on sight.”

“Better you than me, looked like they were shooting last time,” she responded, however, she’d not seen the legion of griffins they’d sent after me, Mr Green had not aimed to kill me at first.

“Like I said, Binary should be able to help with that, she knows all about that place,” Vertigo interjected, and at the mystery mare’s name, he earned a few odd looks. “We’ll have to pass this on to her before we make a move though.”

“These commands, you need to see the mainframe to issue them?” Flare asked Ginger. The unicorn frowned, then shook her head.

“No, you’d activate the same as you normally would. Our Head Scribe already set her device up to be the command module, if you have the codes here, I can input them onto her pipbuck and complete the process,” she elaborated, nodding at the device on my foreleg.

“Trusted with an entire army, moving on up, huh?” Vertigo chuckled, nudging my side. I smirked at the small hint of jealousy in his eyes.

“When you lay it all out like that, sounds like it could work,” Flare finally admitted, glancing at Sky, who despite her clear reservations, muttered.

“Maybe it might… Don’t look at me.” She averted her eyes, only for Ochre to jab her shoulder. “Okay, fine, yes, if we have a shot at getting rid of Crimson, yes.”

“The way I see it, this is your best chance for that,” I declared, stepping up to stand between them. “The rangers have their terms, the stable and its resources, what are yours?”

Flare once again dropped into thought as Ginger insisted the reactor was also to remain undamaged and the Elder wanted Mauler’s head on a spike.

“Backing of Crossroad’s independence for one. I know the rangers are no fans of the NCR and we’d rather not be stripped to the bone by them either,” the orange mare stated, looking at Ginger.

“Given your position relative to the base, I’m sure that can be arranged. You’re between us and the West,” she reasoned, seeming to consider what she possessed the authority to approve. “Though they may insist on an occupation too.”

“I’ll settle for trade. You leave us what we need to get by, we’ll give you what’s left, can split the difference from Crimson’s ruins,” Flare countered, yet while Ginger didn’t disagree, she also made it clear there were no promises.

“Then we’re in agreement?” I asked, glancing from face to face. Flare nodded, Ginger did the same, even if she appeared far less happy about it. Sky looked as she always did, the only one who seemed eager at the idea was Vertigo.

“I’ll relay the terms back to command, but I think they’ll find them acceptable given the circumstances,” Ginger finally declared, looking down at my Pipbuck. “I suppose you’ll want me to finish setting that thing up.”

“The sooner the better, right?” I asked, eager to get the ball rolling as Flare chimed in.

“I can get you commands, that’s all you need, right?” she asked, an edge to her voice that made it clear she hoped this was a good idea, while Ginger just nodded once again.

“Sky, take her back to the house, let her see Heatstroke’s terminal,” she told her sister firmly.

“You’re not going to let me sit this one out, are you?” Sky deadpanned, only for Ochre to tug at her shoulders.

“Probably because she knows how valuable you are,” the earth pony encouraged. “Come on, we’ll work out these codes then I’ll help you unwind.”

“Like rabbits, I swear,” Ginger muttered under her breath as the medical mare’s eyes popped wide. Even so, begrudgingly, Sky and the clang of Ginger’s armored hooves, followed her mare friend to the door.

“Go with them, make sure she doesn’t try anything,” I asked Vertigo with a nod in the retreating group’s direction.

“Don’t worry, I still have a spark grenade or two,” he assured with a wink. “You just watch yourself too.”

“When do I ever do anything otherwise?” I asked, feeling a hint of warmth in my chest as I rolled my eyes, and he trotted off after the rest of them.

“Still has his sense of humor, I see,” Flare observed, trotting to my side. “I don’t know how you put up with him.”

“He’s not so bad once you get to know him,” I assured, dismissing the idea with a forehoof wave. He’s really not bad at all… Wit aside.

Part of me didn’t know what I’d do without him, part wanted to kill him sometimes, while another part really wanted to think about the other things I’d do to him. No brain no, I can have time to unwind after we get this done.

“Oh, I know,” Flare said with a smirk, then motioned down at my stomach. “And what about that?”

“It’s that obvious?” I asked, ears folding flat as I drooped and glanced back at the small bump. “Vertigo was in danger, saving him cost me a few rads.”

“You can say that again. Girl, I don’t know what’s in there but… Damn, what are you, four months now?” The fact she could tell that just by looking at me made my mane crawl.

“I really try not to think about it… I just want to imagine it’s a normal foal but… Well, just look at me!” I glared at the bump as if doing so would tell me all I wanted to know, I was only a little startled as Flare ran her forehoof over it.

“Sorry,” she told me with a soft smile as I relaxed. “If we had an ultrasound I could take a closer look. Though, there may be a few things I can do.”

“Like what?” I asked, doing my best not to allow the quiver of desperation show in my voice. “At this point, if there’s anything more you can tell me, I’ll take it.”

“Okay, just lay back and try to relax, this may feel a little funny,” Flare told me as I lay back on the clinic bed.

The room was just as dull and dreary as the last time I’d been trapped here. Yet for being the place I was first told about my impossible foal, it was now also the place I saw my newly-grown belly exposed for the first time. Without my barding to pinch the pudge tight, it was now very clearly distended, even if it still looked more like I was bloated than actually pregnant.

Sure feels that way. I thought with a huff, slightly envious of the slender figure I’d had weeks ago. Better than feeling like I’m going to explode.

“Don’t worry I’m getting pretty used to funny feelings down there,” I assured her as I rested my head on the pillow, one forehoof on the peak of the bump without thinking. “It squirms, not like kicks, but movement for sure.”

“Well that’s normal, just your body shifting to accommodate the foal. Though with your growth spurts, I imagine it’s a little more intense,” she elaborated, wheels squeaking as she levitated over a metallic table, fitted with an odd device she then held up in her magic. “How about your morning sickness, you’re nearing the end of the first trimester, so it should be settling down?”

“I’ve not thrown up in a few days, if that counts,” I told her, at least receiving a supportive smile for the joke. “But no, I still feel sick, and when it was growing…”

I shuddered at the memory, pressing both forehooves to my belly. “It hurt, so damn much. I felt like I was gonna rip in two.”

“All the more reason not to do that again, if you ask me.” She gingerly nudged my forehooves aside, running her own forehoof over my bump, all the while I did my best not to let her touch get to me.

No, no, this is medical, not kinky! I told my brain as she appeared to find what she’d been feeling for. She doesn’t look too worried, how abnormal is it really?

“Believe me, I’m not about to try it again,” I assured, settling my hooves at my side to avoid their seemingly unending urge to rub my belly. “I just can’t get my head around it though. I want to care, I do care… But every time I think it’s a foal, it does something weird.”

“Hence why it’s just best to let it grow to term on its own. There’s always surgical options if things don’t go as planned, but as far as I can feel, you’re a perfectly normal mother,” she reassured, taking her forehoof off me. “Okay, let’s see if this works.”

Her horn flared, and from the table levitated a smooth white orb, attached to the main terminal by a tattered wire. A few taps on the keyboard, and the text on the screen faded out, replaced by what looked like a heart rate monitor.

“What’s that?” I asked, glancing between her and the screen. “I thought you said we couldn’t see it?”

“No, but you wanna hear it?” she asked, and at the idea I could have some inkling of my foal other than sickly squirms, my attention perked. “Okay, so just try to relax and keep your forehooves down, we should be able to find a heartbeat.”

The smooth sensation of the rounded orb on my belly was not the shock of cold I’d been told was common for mares in my situation. Even if, for a second, I had to wonder if Flare needed to press as hard as she did.

Now, who’s the medical pony here, Dragonfire? My brain asked, calming my apprehension as I lifted my head to watch the ball glide across my distended stomach. Okay, but why has it got to feel so weird…? Damn thing tickles.

Like some kind of tingly, magical buzz between the device and my insides, I felt it roll back and forth over the bump. It really seemed to have the butterflies in my tummy riled up as Flare periodically glanced between my bump, and the screen.

“Oh, that’s got things fluttering,” I huffed, doing my best not to let my hooves shoot up and get in her way.

“Yeah, I can see,” Flare acknowledged with a small laugh as she glanced back at my stomach. “Perfectly normal movement, just have to find… Ha, gotcha!”

Thrum, thrum, thrum. I very much felt Sweetie Bell’s apparent love for that sound as my foal’s heartbeat filled my ears for the first time.

It was soft, not quite as pronounced as it was when laying on a pony’s chest, but as Flare pressed the sensor down on the beating spot, I lost all care for what the foal might be.

It has to be real, no monster’s heart beats like that.

“Wow, strong one,” Flare observed, rolling the orb around the spot to get a better reed on it.

“And that’s okay, right, all normal?” I asked, fighting the urge to sit up and throw her aim off.

“As far as I can see, all perfectly… Hmm…” Her words trailed off and like a wave of heat, anxiety flared through me fast as lightning.

“What is it, what’s wrong?” I asked in a rush, only for her to settle me with a forehoof. “Flare!”

“Nothing, nothing, don’t worry, just… That is interesting.” She rolled the probe left, then right, prompting another sharp twinge in my gut. “Could just be mummers off the placenta this early, but I think I’m getting two heartbeats.”

If Crossroad’s clinic was one thing, it was a room where I was very much having to fight my hardest not to pass out. I weathered the news like it were a great wave of icy water hitting me, stammering as I asked.

“Two heartbeats… W–what, like twins!?” She appeared lost in contemplation for a moment, leaving me to stare at her for a good long minute before she responded.

“Maybe, could be. May explain why you’re showing so soon, but there’s still seven months to go,” she elaborated, then levitated the device away as she looked at me. “All I can say for sure is that it sounds like a perfectly normal foal… Or maybe foals.”

Foals, two babies? I could be having more than one!? I felt an oddly cold sensation as the sensor was lifted away, as if a great barrier of time and flesh was erected between me and my baby. Or it’s just two monsters… Maybe it became two monsters, and more rads will make it triplets!

I set up a far more meaningful barrier between those ideas and the new revelation. If I was having twins, I’d be the best mother they could ever have. Maybe it was just Flare’s presence, but like a rock in the turbulent sea of raging, hormonal emotion, she was something to grasp onto.

“Twins sure would be a whole new surprise,” I said as I sat up, wheels rattling as Flare magically slid the probe away. “But at least they’re okay, right?”

“If you need me to tell you just how fine they are again, I could just write it down for you,” she retorted with a smirk. “They’re fine, but if it is twins, that means that you have even more reason to keep away from trouble.”

Yeah, because now I’m getting all three of us into danger if I do anything reckless. Silver’s comments about motherhood rang in my brain at that, as I ran a forehoof over my pudgy gut. Urg, as much as I longed for this, why now, why not when it could be easy?

“Hardly makes my plan for the stable sound like the best idea, huh?” I asked, and I could tell her desire for the good of my foals, was battling her commitment to the town as she rested a forehoof on the bedside.

“I don’t think that it’s the best idea at any time. But I’m not sure the slavers are going to give us seven months to wait it out,” she responded, glancing away. “It’s funny, if Heatstroke were still here, she’d probably agree with this plan wholeheartedly.”

“And what about you, how do you really feel about it?” I asked, one forehoof rubbing my bump reflexively as I levitated my barding onto the bed.

“I feel like working with the Steel Rangers is just putting off one villain now to fight another later,” she told me flatly. “I know Sky was hardly happy when she heard about what happened at the gate.”

That stung, for as much as I’d saved the mare’s life, and that of the mare she loved. I couldn’t help but feel I was still just as rapidly trying to throw it into turmoil again. I said as much, and Flare sighed as I slipped off the bed. Unrestricted by my barding, my bump swayed just a little, the foal within griping as I levitated my gear back over my hindquarters.

Goddesses, this thing is going to need some modification. I thought begrudgingly, as I did my best to heave the tight clothing over my bloated midsection. It hardly fits anymore!

Flare giggled, a forehoof to her muzzle as I finally managed to squeeze into the outfit, the pinch around my nethers far too tight for comfort. Stupid hormones, got all kinds of things ballooning back there!

“You’re going to need some maternity wear, even if it’s just for under the armor,” she told me. “Lactation and expensive clothing don’t mix.”

That comment had me blushing, ears folding back as I wished for nothing more than to put my helmet back on. That’s nothing too though, right? Besides, why would my body even want to produce milk if this foal’s gonna kill me on the way out?

I really hoped I was right about that, because right now the tingling between my legs was very apparent as my mammary glands began to swell.

“Just another thing I can add to the list,” I muttered, drooping a little as I settled the barding around my neck.

“You’ll find that list will probably get longer the closer you come to term,” Flare noted softly, and for a mare who had no foals of her own, it was remarkable how much she appeared to sympathize. “Going to war with slavers aside, that is.”

“Yeah, well maybe Sky’s right, this is all a stupid idea,” I reasoned, levitating up my helmet. “I feel like I’m ruining her life more than I saved it, yours too.”

“I could take it or leave it. You helped get this place back on track. Sky is just still mourning Heatstroke’s death, not that she’ll admit it,” Flare responded, and with a wince, I glanced at her. “Don’t get me wrong, I know you played your part in what happened to her. But so did I. I should have seen what Father was doing to her, given her some pony to talk to.”

The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing. My mind chimed as I felt another squirm in my belly, or was it two squirms now? I just hope hindsight won’t be there to bite me in the tail after this plan is over and done with.

“Now all I’m worried about is the good of the town and the family I have left,” Flare went on, nodding back toward the window and bustling street outside. “We deal with Crimson, get the drugs here under control, those are the goals.”

“I feel like your sister would be happy with that, in her own way,” I commented, pretty sure that if Heatstroke had not been abused, those would have been her goals too. “Even if she did try to kill me.”

“We do what’s best for those we love,” she said, stepping over to me and resting a forehoof on my shoulder. “And you have ponies who care about you too. Cherry for one, she hardly left your side, and Vertigo seems to be fond of you.”

I know I’m fond of him… Brain, really? The idea at least summoned a smile to my muzzle, yet that was more at the notion of Cherry’s affection rather than anything else. I really need to get back to her, finally work out the awkwardness between us.

It had been almost a full day, surely she’d be worried about me. That mental image both filled me with excitement and guilt, the fact she cared about me as much as she did a double-edged sword. Yet for as much as my thoughts lingered on Cherry, it was the other target of my conflicted affection that appeared before us a second later.

“Looks like you’re becoming a regular for this place,” Vertigo commented as he materialized in the doorway.

“What, you here to make up for the fact that you didn’t come visit me the last time?” I asked with a smirk.

“Eh, this time you don’t seem to be dying,” he countered with just as wry an expression, before trotting in. “Ginger and Sky have the codes imputed, these are the targeting commands.” He levitated up a holodrive from his saddle bags. “Ginger’s talked to Silver, says they should be ready in a day or two.”

“And we just what, activate the Gyrotrons from the warehouse when they say?” Flare asked, trepidation still lingering in her undertone. “How do we know the things won’t just turn on us the second we do?”

“I know enough about this kinda thing to know they were honest about what they programmed,” Vertigo assured, levitating me the drive. “The command module is set to the device it's imputed into, Silver made sure that could only be Dragon’s Pipbuck.”

I took the thing in my magic, inserting it into the device on my leg. Just as he’d said, a small prompt flashed in my vision, before scrolling through, I found the command matrix for the machines. It was marked as inactive, yet I assumed that would change the moment Flare saw fit to turn the things on.

“The rangers are gonna hit the place from the east, same as always. Silver suspects Mauler will counter same as always, then he’s primed to be caught out by your Gyrotrons,” Vertigo went on, nodding to me. “Now we just have to get the module inside the stable, call in when we’re ready to move.”

“That’s the part that worries me,” I admitted with a sigh. “But you’re sure Binary can get them to take the bait?”

The twinge of apprehension that ran through me was shared by those inside me. The flutter within my griping stomach prompting me to lift a forehoof back to the bump without thinking.

“She’s been frothing at the bit to get this done for years, she’ll agree the second she hears the plan, believe me,” he assured, then his witty mask slipped a little as he looked at me and asked. “And you’re sure, not to sound sappy, but you are carrying a foal?”

Maybe two foals, actually. I didn’t say as much, even if his soft tone made me want to. It just made me want to consider them his more and more, or maybe Star’s, anything to take my mind off what they really could be. No, no, Flare said they seem normal, damn it!

Part of me wondered if he’d ever agree to play into the idea, he was a good actor. Yet the selfish notion was countered by the very same thoughts that kept me from loving Cherry. I didn’t want to use him like I’d used any other stallion, no matter how much of a pain in the tail he was at times.

“I don’t see another way I’m gonna save Star, not to mention get the answers we need,” I told him, glancing back at my belly. “Besides, you gonna pass up the opportunity to hit those bastards where it hurts again?”

“Eh, I don’t need an army to do that,” he mused, rubbing a forehoof on his chest. “But it definitely would add to the statement.”

“I don’t know how no pony’s shot you yet, you know?” Flare joked, looking the disguised bug up and down.

“I’m just really, really good at what I do,” he responded, and she smirked as she countered.

“What, like getting captured by the rangers? I’m pretty sure none of this would have come about if you had a choice in talking to them.” At that, the witty mare had him stumped.

“Happy accidents,” I interjected, feeling like I was just filled to the brim with those right now. “Either way, I have the means to contact them, and now you. When we’re good to move on the stable, I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll keep my broadcaster handy,” Flare agreed, still grinning at vertigo. “Wouldn’t want action stallion over here to go without his army.”

Goddesses, how can she flaw me with reality, and make him gibber like that so effortlessly? I thought, Flare’s mastery of words the momentary core of my envy. There’s times I want to shut him up like that so bad!

“Of course, that’s why we need to get back to Binary as soon as possible, isn’t that right, action stallion?” I cooed and he blinked.

“That’s not going away anytime soon, is it?” he asked, and I shook my head, drawing out a long, devious.

“Nooppppeee.”

For the second time this week, the vast ivory tower of the SPP cast a dark shadow over us as we trotted along the desert pathway toward it. Without Cherry, the trip was far less bright, my longing to be back with her only growing as she drew closer. Vertigo was at my side, muttering about how Flare seemed to be a good fit for Crossroad’s new boss.

“You think that before or after she got one over on you?” I asked with a giggle, imagining his expression through his helmet as he paused.

“I don’t think I need to dignify that with an answer,” he cooed, before adding. “All I’m saying is it’s not her loyalty we need to worry about.”

“You said it yourself, the rangers appear to be holding up to their end of the bargain. I don’t think Ginger’s gonna screw us over if she believes this is what they want either,” I reasoned.

“Correction, if she thinks it’s what the Elder wants. Teacher's pet, that one,” he commented as we crested the hill, finally seeing the courtyard below.

Is it just me, or does it look a bit more empty than the last time? Part of me noted the lack of killer robots as a plus, while another rose on edge.

“She thinks she has to prove herself to them just because she’s a unicorn, it’s obvious,” I retorted, searching around for any sign of the spire’s defenses. “Still, if they have an issue with what comes after the attack, we’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Yes, because having the rangers and Transcendent on your back in your state just seems ideal,” he said, and as much as I hated it, he was right. “Dragonfire, I’m good, but even I don’t think I’d want that.”

“Here I thought you’d be my hero?” I countered, allowing just a little of my affection to slip out, clearly stumping his weird, emotional taste receptors. A second later we came upon the rusty perimeter fence, the same ghostly quiet lingering in the air as dust drifted by. “Something feel off here to you?”

The stallion glanced about as we made our way to the gate, opening the lock with a flick of his magic as I added. “Where are all the robots?”

“She might have moved them inside, hell of a defense, but draws a lot of attention with things as they are,” he reasoned, yet my prickling mane was still on end. Overseer had been in full control of the place by the look of it, and I still trusted him about as much as I did a raider.

“Binary, we’re at the outer door, hit the locks,” Vertigo spoke into the speaker by the main door as the two of us came to a stop at the base of the tower.

There was no response, yet from the metallic growl within the walls, it was clear the elevator was descending. Every second it did so felt like it dragged on forever, I wanted nothing more than to see Cherry on the other side. Even the plan could wait until the two of us had sorted out our feelings, we had at least a day or two, after all. To my left Vertigo took a step back from the door, right as the thing gave a hiss and started to grind open. I could not see his face, but from his posture alone he appeared off. That was the moment I received a buck to the face.

“Oh, what’s wrong, little mare, didn’t see that coming!?” mocked the small earth pony as she stepped out. “Just what you get for trying to set me on fire!”

I caught the spark of Chief’s power hooves as she tried to stomp on me, rolling aside and flaring my horn. I’d set her on fire again, no problem! She dodged my pyrotechnic spell, hopping back. Landing with a dusty crackle of power hooves, she didn’t even so much as flinch, and when I saw the pony lurking behind her on the elevator, I knew why.

“Really, this is the whelp that got away!?” Dread gripped me as I was taken back to the Destiny Labs, only this time Carnage was not distracted, his bloodshot eyes were locked firmly on me. “Little bitch, I should crush you!”

“Oh, how I’d like that, Canri’,” mused the smaller mare, flicking her tail at him like some smitten school filly.

Her and him, seriously? How does he not impale her? I thought, pretty sure his cock was not the only thing she’d be skewered on if they went at it. Like fucking a furnace!

The fire of his grafted armor lit up the gloomy elevator shaft to reveal the third pony that stood at the forefront of the group of dark armored guards. Her coat was a pasty yellow, dulled right down as if she were almost a ghoul. She certainly was filled with enough holes to be considered one, yet her full head of pale blue mane countered the fact. Her gaunt flesh was grafted similarly to Carnage, even if the metal poking from her bare hide in odd increments appeared far more like it was grafted to her insides rather than her outside. Her eyes were pale as the rest of her, her cutie mark the tattered image of a swarm of fiery bugs.

I had no idea what kind of special talent that entailed, at least until she sneered at Vertigo, and from the many holes in her body buzzed a shimmering gray cloud of chittering death. Sting was torn from his magical grip, shoved to the ground, and almost shredded to dust by what I swiftly realized wasn’t smoke at all, but some kind of micro-sprite swarm.

“And you, you little insect!” hissed the mare, voice just as maddened as her blazing companion as she shoved Vertigo to the floor with a metal fist of sprites. “I should thank you for locking me in that stable, the door was so delicious!”

“Really, I’d have thought you’d have taken the hint and just rotted down there,” he gasped, a din like a hundred tiny buzz saws rattling off his armor as they rapidly ate through it.

Despite Carnage being mere feet away, my weapon magically swung to the wicked mare, only for my magic to falter under the grip of a far greater telekinesis. I grit my teeth, battling with all my might until my horn popped painfully as I staggered to the dirt. I half expected Carnage to leap on the opportunity to crush me into molten paste, but the monster of rage held back, while the stolen weapon was telekinetically crushed in the air before me like a can of sparkle cola.

Not another rifle, damn it! The thought lasted a split second as I watched the pair of monster-ponies droop under the imperious shadow that appeared in a purple flash behind us. What in the goddesses’ name makes them afraid like that?

“Locus, release him!” boomed a deep, reverberating voice, like that of the Steel Rangers in their armor only far more refined.

The hole-filled mare drew back with a snort, the sprites swirling back into her many corroded orifices. The almost orgasmic moan she let slip as they did so sickening me to my core as my griping stomach lurched. The second he was free, Vertigo attempted to get up, only for an aura of purple magic to effortlessly shove him back down, while levitating the half-eaten Sting from the dust and tossing the weapon aside. I didn’t even try to move, not that I had much of a choice as the all-powerful telekinesis tugged at me like I were a mere puppet, heaving us both around to come face to face with the caster.

“The two of you have been a pain in our side for far too long,” growled the imperious voice of the dark armored alicorn, not an inch of her coat on display as she added. “I am the great Twilight Sparkle, and I will tolerate your incessant transgressions no longer!”

Footnote: Level up

New Perk Added: Team Player – Maybe it’s just the desperate situation, but you’re becoming rather good at bringing ponies together. You get +10% to all skill checks when within the influence of other squad members.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Common Enemy

Chapter 29:

Common Enemy

"Something tells me everything is not going to be fine."

Alicorns, I’d heard tales of divine goddesses from Las Pegasus to Manehatten, but never actually seen one myself. They were supposed to be a myth, legends to explain disappearances, or the glimpses of angelic equines in the corner of one’s eye. I’d always suspected that the myth was true, I knew it was folly not to take the rumors of the green, blue, and purple monsters at least a little seriously. Telepathic, teleporters that were hell to fight one on one. This alicorn was nothing like that.

Dressed horn to tail in majestic black barding, there wasn’t a hint of her coat left on show as her shrouded wings and hooded cape billowed behind her like the radiant mane of the goddess Luna. Like a mask of silver, gleaming metal marked the areas around her visor, in addition to the metallic plates reinforcing her hooves while a red gem studded her forehead just below her towering horn.

Mild horn envy aside, the get-up alone may have almost made me jealous, it looked rather high-tech and masterfully crafted. Yet when she was telekinetically pushing my face into the dirt with no more than a casual flick of her magic, claiming she was a long-dead ministry mare, no less. Well, I really didn’t care about what she was wearing.

“Wretched things, hardly worth the trouble you’ve caused,” rumbled the accented voice of the false goddess as she shoved Vertigo’s snout into the dust, robbing him of any opportunity for a witty retort as she ceased me up towards her. “No more than common wasteland rabble, to think they bested you.”

Like a hundred claws digging into every inch of my body, I felt her magic squeeze tight. As if I were trapped in the crushing vice of the deep ocean, I struggled to move, gasping on what little air she allowed into my throat as she glanced by me to the rest of her minions.

To think a mare exists who’s able to make a minion out of Carnage. It was just another thing that may have impressed me, were she not actively attempting to telekinetically pop my head off. Locust too, she must be Vertigo’s friend from stable fifty-four.

Her gimmick was obvious the more I studied her, most of all as her body buzzed in simmering frustration, while sprites crawled over her withered skin in odd, zigzagging patterns.

She’s fused with them, they live inside her. I had a feeling they did more than simply live inside her, if the metallic growths on her desiccated coat were anything to go off. Not to mention they appear to give her a fair bit of… Pleasure.

I had to admit, I’d seen my fair share of ponies that got off on weird shit, yet this was quickly reaching the top of my list as the two freaks grumbled in irritation.

“Hardly had the chance, little bitch was gone before I even knew she was there!” Carnage hissed, the fire of his armor simmering like hot coals as his bloodshot eyes flared. “You let me at her now, and I’ll show you just how I deal with pests!”

“Oh, you really know how to impress a mare, Carni’,” muttered the smitten earth pony at his side, sitting back and tapping her power hooves together with a sparking click. “Make sure to make it extra painful for what she did to me!”

“Yes, smash them to a bloody paste, how… Wasteful,” mused Locust, licking her cracked lips. “Allow me, I hunger for revenge as much as I do this little nuisance’s flesh!”

“Yes, yes, because all that eating you do does wonders for your figure, sister!” Carnage smirked as I was left wondering just how the two were siblings. “A million mouths to feed, all skin and bones for it!”

“Less than can be said for the sheer weight of your fat ego, brother!” snapped Locust, while both Carnage and his smaller marefriend bristled.

“Great way to get indigestion, is cannibalism,“ Vertigo choked out, coughing on dust as he squirmed under the telekinetic grip.

“You don’t fool me, changeling!” Hissed the hole-filled mare. “Not that it matters, but I hear your kind were a delicacy once!”

Okay, whoever thought it’s okay to eat bugs that can think and talk, is kinda fucked up. I noted, even if they were sly shapeshifters. Either way, these guys squabble any longer and I’ll die of boredom before they kill me!

“Cease the pointless bickering, you foals!” Boomed the voice of the alicorn as she levitated me before her, as if inspecting a prize toy. “Barron was quite clear, they are to be alive and unspoiled. You would not rob him of his prize, would you?”

That comment appeared to shut the two of them right up as they stiffened, while leaving me to wonder who this Barron was. If he makes them think twice, I can only guess he’s going to be ‘sooo pleasant’.

“Look at you, barely worth more than a speck of dust,” mused the alicorn, her voice subdued as if only for me to hear. “And what’s this, I see you’ve been busy.”

I hated how exposed I was, all four legs pinned at my side, body arched towards her as she inspected my distended belly.

“Mis…. Black… I assume, another of…” I struggled to say, guessing she was another of Mr Green and Red’s band.

“Miss Pink, if you must know,” she responded, not a speck of the color in question on her as she levitated me back face to face with her. “And your elusive escapades have come to an end. For let it be known, it was I, Twilight Sparkle, to enact the Sigal’s will.”

She shoved me back into the dust, her shadow looming as she finally set down, sand and dirt fidgeting around her hooves as if disturbed by her mere magical radiance. Pinned as I was, all I could see was her armor-clad forehooves as she towered over me, cape billowing like storm clouds behind her.

There’s no way she’s an actual Ministry Mare? It was impossible, those ponies had died almost two hundred years ago, there was no way one could be here. Oh, the things I’ll say to her if she’s the real deal… At least after I find a way to beat her stupid magic.

“Bring forth the others, we have wasted enough time here,” declared the so-called Twilight Sparkle, looking at the rest of her goons, only for the two freaks among them to hesitate for a second. “Now!”

The armored band began to move, Carnage and Locust most reluctant among them. I could sense the tension, like a gang of petulant foals all clamoring to claim they were the ones to bring me in. Yet between flaming rage, ravenous swarms, and goddess-like magical prowess, I was pretty sure not one of them had anything over the others. Regardless, Twilight appeared to be the one in charge, levitating me like I were little more than a puppet on her telekinetic strings, standing me up straight, before she did the same with vertigo. I found myself posed like a foal’s action figure as she flicked her horn, and as if my body had been wrapped in concrete every one of my limbs froze, leaving only my stiff neck able to move.

I can’t move, why can’t I move!? I grunted, struggling to tug my aching limbs as they weighed me down like mill stones.

It was oddly how I’d felt in my dreams, recalling a Zebra mare, her blood like solid metal in her veins. The only quiver I felt from my petrified body was the squirming of my foals, a feature of my body Twilight appeared to be rather intrigued by as she regarded the two of us.

“What did you do!?” I snapped, jaw clenched as I tried to heave my legs out of the sand, only to teeter as if I were a statue about to topple over.

“Careful now, you don’t want to fall flat on your face,” mused the alicorn, augmented voice snide despite the helmet. “You’ll suffocate long before that petrification spell wears off.”

“Funny, I thought you said alive and unspoiled?” Vertigo quipped as Twilight casually nudged me upright with a dark wing. “I wouldn’t think the great Twilight Sparkle would risk her quarry suffocating.”

There wasn’t a word from the dark-armored mare, she flicked her horn no more than an inch, the gesture appearing to tax her less than simply breathing. Like he’d been ruthlessly struck by an invisible whip of telekinesis, Vertigo folded, still paralyzed as he grunted in pain. I did my best to break free, little care for her threat of drowning on sand as she paralyzed his head, robbing him of his ability to scream. For a moment, I thought she’d stopped his breathing, only for a whistling exertion to seep from his petrified nostrils as she struck him again.

“Do not doubt my intent, Changeling,” she hissed, lowering her head eye to eye with his crumpled form as her horn flashed. Emerald-green fire laced across the spire, and in the same instant, her magic ripped Vertigo’s disguise away. “My only charge is to keep one of you alive, and that’s not you.”

She glanced at me, while I fought to ward off the worry for my foal and just stare back at her. I knew there were a pair of eyes behind that black visor, probably a pair of very smug eyes while Vertigo could barely even blink.

“Where are the rest of my friends?” I hissed, and for a moment I feared it was going to be my voice she stole away next, until somepony else called.

“You’re not Twilight Sparkle.” Both the alicorn in question and I looked to the open elevator, where I saw Binary; her mechanical arms removed to reveal her gray coat.

Naked, I could see a few scars on her back and shoulders, far too neat to be actual injuries, I guessed they were where her suit connected. I could also see her cutie mark too, an open terminal file, from which poked a sheet of paper covered in ones and zeroes. The only thing they hadn’t taken from her was her Pipbuck, yet as worn as the earth pony looked, it was not her that my attention was instantly drawn to.

“Dragonfire!” Cherry’s voice was the most wonderful thing in the world, all I wanted to do as I saw her shove free of the crowd and run to me, was embrace her.

So much for the awkward kiss. I noted, pretty sure my current inability to hug her back was infinitely more awkward as she wrapped her forehooves around my petrified neck before any of them could stop her. Why would they, they probably think she’s as pathetic as I am for leaving her.

“Aww, the little things are so precious,” mused Locust as an arm of mecha-sprites swirled from a smooth cavity in her shoulder. It moved oddly like one of Binary’s arms as it hefted aloft my mother’s pipbuck. “Here, this what Barron’s after?”

So much for a miracle pipbuck. I wondered if Overseer was still hiding on it, or if he’d just left us and dispersed into the digital ether. If he wants to keep me alive, this isn’t how to go about it.

“Good work,” Twilight said as she took the thing in her magic, Locust shooting a smug grin at her fiery brother as Carnage huffed smoke like some kind of dragon.

I hardly cared for their senseless bickering, even if the terrified way Binary regarded Vertigo was lost on me. It looked as if she was losing her stable all over again, at the hooves of the very same ponies, no less. All of my attention was on Cherry as she finally appeared to realize I was stuck.

“Hey… Sorry, I had to get out… Stretch my legs,” I told her weakly, unable to move the limbs in question. “Are you okay, they didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“Disable the sentries and jumped the tower about an hour after I realized you were gone. Binary said you’d gone with Vertigo but…” She tentatively grasped my shoulders between her forehooves, looking me up and down. “What have…”

The last thing I was expecting from the timid, pink mare I’d come to know, was for her to round on the gang of monsters. I supposed this was the mare who’d gone to save her friends from the slavers, the same mare who’d leaped to Sky’s aid back in Crimson. Now she looked pissed as she glared and demanded.

“What is this, what have you done to her?” The two freaky siblings appeared as if they were about to burst out laughing, while Chief snickered along with a few of the other faceless onlookers.

I caught Cherry falter, her spur-of-the-moment aggression wilting as Twilight loomed over her.

“Nothing I won’t do to you. Now get back in line or paralysis will be the least of your concerns,” she commanded, yet for all her benevolence, I wondered why she didn’t just turn each of us into statues to save her the trouble.

She’s powerful, but not limitless. I noted, pretty sure her torture of Vertigo, not to mention how much she’d been tossing us around, had its cost. She’s not letting it show, she’s well aware of her own limits.

“N–No, let her move again or I’ll…” My heart broke as Cherry glanced about, desperately searching for something, anything she could use to get us out of this situation. It was then, that the freaks erupted into a fit of laughter, mocking her like schoolyard bullies.

“Aww, what are you gonna do, whinny us to death?” Carnage joked, earning a snicker from his small marefriend. “No guns, no armor!”

“Poor little thing’s gonna go and piss herself before she can squeak out another word,” mused his sister, jabbing a coiling limb of mecha-sprites at Cherry. “Totally pathetic.”

“Shut up!” Cherry roared, and in a flash she kicked out, her forehooves scattering sand into the monsters’ faces.

Most was deflected by the weaving wall of sprites Locust conjured around herself, while Chief took cover behind Carnage, and the few fleeting specks that entered his eyes melted with small puffs of smoke.

“You little, bitch. I’ll…!” The black wing thrust in Carnage’s path was all that stopped him from charging like an angry bull as Twilight casually levitated the sand and tossed it aside.

“There’s fight in you, but not enough.” Cherry squawked like a dog toy as the alicorn’s magic wrapped around her, squeezing tight as she squirmed.

“No, wait!” Between seeing Vertigo beaten into submission to now watching Cherry being crushed alive, there was little I could do but fold. “Leave them alone and… I’ll… I’ll tell you everything you want to know… About Destiny, right, that’s what you’re after!?”

“No, don’t… They…” Binary was the only one to call in protest, only for one of the faceless goons to kick her in the side.

The strike hardly looked severe, I’d weathered far worse, but it had her crumpled over, gasping as if all of her ribs had been shattered. Beside me, I heard the anger in Vertigo’s next exhalation, yet my focus was still totally fixated on Cherry as she gasped for all the air Twilight would allow her.

“What you know?” asked the alicorn as she marched right up to me, Cherry casually levitating above her as she leaned her head down to mine. “It’s hardly what you know that I want, it’s who you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, I’m no pony special,” I responded, but she drew back, and mask or not, I could detect a devious smile on her slender muzzle.

“No? We’ll see about that,” she mused as she let Cherry fall to the dust, coughing and gasping like a fish out of water. “But I’ll oblige, they can live only…” She turned away slightly. “Once Barron gets his claws on them, you’ll wish I was the one to kill them.”

“Dragon… I… I’m…” Cherry flopped with a dusty thud, the last of my four companions to do so as I glared at Twilight.

“We’ll see about that!” She appeared to care for my threat as much as she did for the dust on her hoof armor as she nodded for one of her goons to take hold of me.

“No, I don’t think we will,” she stated simply as the faceless pony shackled the four of us in a row like slaves.

What had started as the foundation of a good plan, the day I finally took back what was mine, was ruined as the last I heard was the monstrous’ siblings snickering. With a kick of his armored forehoof, the faceless goon sent me reeling into unconsciousness.

As far as cursed forests went, the Everfree came close to those of my homeland. It was a testament to the place’s ferocity, considering it was Equestrian. The life here was strange, alien even, and something far more sinister if the ancient tales were to be believed. My kind dwelled in the lands like these long before ponies first arrived, before the founding of Equestria, in an age of chaos and great winters. Yet after almost a hundred years wandering far from my home, I’d seen no great temples, no monuments to the ancient spirits. Zebras here were different, subdued, and quiet. At first, it hardly bothered me, all the easier for me with them out of the way.

Only ponies weren’t like my kind, they knew not the dangers of old. It was hard not to see them as naive foals, blessed with bodies capable of flight and magic, or the ability to revitalize the earth under their hooves. For millennia my kind had done such things through bone-braking work and alchemistic prowess. I knew it was the last shreds of my parents’ vision that had me believing such things, seeing others in such a small light. Yet such things hadn’t been gifted to my kind through evolution, we had earned our place, and respected our power. While ponies toyed with the heavens themselves like they were gods.

“You have us trek into the most wonderful places,” muttered my companion, and glancing back I saw the hooded stallion, the only company I’d had for years.

“You would prefer a sunny beach? Some wine perhaps?” I’d never been one for jokes, not until coming to Equestria, but at the smile my comment garnered, I couldn’t help but smile back.

Ponies had an odd way of dealing with the world. For all their power and the ambition to use it. Together they were something more. Divided in looks as much as the great tribes of my home, they functioned more as one. A great tribe of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, united under the only pair to embody traits of all of them. My skepticism regarding the rapid ascension of the alicorn princesses aside, part of me couldn’t help but admire them. In all my centuries wandering Equus, no zebra had ever treated me with such comradery.

“Goddesses, wouldn’t that be lovely,” Prancer nickered as the two of us made our way along the forest path. “Hard to think I grew up out here.”

“You do not recognize it?” I asked, his past one of the things to have brought me to him in the first place. Even if he was as tight-lipped about it as I was regarding my own history.

“No, things have changed, ever since they built that castle, tried to restrain the forest…” He trailed off, pressing a forehoof into the wet dirt. “Let’s just say there’s things that can’t be contained.”

I knew the feeling, it perforated the whole land. From the darkness of the eastern valley, to the wickedness here, I’d no doubt my parents’ old tales that this land saw my tribe’s origin were true.

“I fear it is the same grasp that takes hold of your dreams,” I told him, glancing at the night sky. “The tablet speaks of something sinister at the heart of this place, where the end begins.

“You’re hardly any more clear about it than my dreams, you know?” he said as the two of us made our way across a fallen log, the only manner to traverse the river below for miles according to my ally. “Either way, the castles just up ahead, so long as there’s no Timber Wolves between here and there, we’ll be fine.”

“I fear no wolf,” I assured sternly. He rolled his eyes, making it pretty clear that my attempts at humor were as far from perfect as they’d ever been.

“Believe me, after fighting cheese soldiers in that forest full of cotton candy, the Everfree is a breeze,” he quipped back.

“Yet I fear the age of chaos was only the start.” I glanced up at the night again as a shiver ran down my spine, mane prickling as if filled with more than the biting insects that flitted about the close air. “There’s something here… Something sinister.”

“Now you’re just starting to sound like my mother,” he huffed, tugging his cloak tighter around his neck as a cold gust of wind shook the trees. “To her, everything was cursed.”

“Smart mare, you should speak of her more often,” I said casually as the trees broke out onto a vast cliff bathed in pale moonlight.

The valley below was shrouded in mist, while across the vast breach loomed the subdued white towers of Equestria’s royal castle. Far from the great world temples of my home, the pony structure was still rather impressive. It was at least far cleaner than many of their cities, while the isolation saw most of the rabble didn’t linger in its streets. My sharp eyes scanned over the shimmering walls, taking in every gargoyle and stained glass window. From the lowest balcony, to the tallest spire.

There were fewer guards than I was expecting, leather-winged thestrals adorned in midnight-blue armor in place of the gold and white solar guard common during the daytime. They nullified any advantage of a nightly infiltration, the dark was to their benefit.

“My mother was a mad mare, cursed her unborn foal with the blight of immortality,” Prancer hissed as he appeared at my side, before taking a deep breath. “Goddesses, I hate my mother.”

“I understand the sentiment,” I offered with a half-smile, before adding. “But such things are only a curse if one allows them to be.”

“I don’t know, a few hundred years of wandering really gets old fast,” he responded, only for me to tell him to try a few thousand. “Either way, not a competition I want to win.”

“It matters not, this is where your old companion is to meet us, correct?” I shifted topic as I knelt in the grass, while he glanced about.

“South ridge, opposite the main bridge, yes,” the earth pony assured, retrieving a set of rugged papers from within one of the many pockets of his cloak.

“The two of you mutter so loud I could have ended you blindfolded,” came a new voice, and in a flash the two of us spun, dirt flying as I hopped onto my hind hooves, drawing my silver glave, while my companion drew a blade in his mouth.

“Steal yourself, you need not threat,” mused the stranger, materializing from the trees as if born of the shadows lingering amidst the canopy. “Night Prancer, you don’t look a day older than when we last met.”

“Need you remind me, Umbra?” said the stallion as he sheathed his weapon and relaxed. “What’s it been, ten years?”

“Try twenty-five, right after the last chocolate rains, remember?” the thestral mare mused casually, bat wings on full display as she set down before us. “And who are you, never seen one of your kind this deep into the heartlands before?”

“Then clearly you have not lived as long as he,” I responded, still trying to work out the whole casual thing, as with a nod from Prancer, I relaxed. “You are one of the night guard?”

“Eighth flight, third wing, yes,” she confirmed, offering a mock salute as her midnight-blue armor glinted in the moonlight. “Then tell me, if you know why we’re here, why betray your loyalty?”

Prancer gave me a look that suggested being so blunt may not be the best move. True, ponies didn’t seem to have as strict social mannerisms as my kind, but Umbra hardly appeared put off.

“Straight to the point, I see,” she observed, fangs flashing as she grinned. “No wonder you get on so well with him.” She nodded to Prancer and for the first time, the stallion stammered.

“Leave such things out of this, do you have what I asked for, or not?” he questioned, and with a roll of her eyes, Umbra reached a wing back into a hidden pocket under her armor.

I felt the chill in the air grow just a little as I saw it, the wind echoing through the trees as I laid eyes upon what she held out to him. As if calling to the forest around it, the small shard of silver metal hummed softly, a reverberating aura that appeared reciprocated by the silver blade at the end of my glave.

“Cursed steel, so it is true?” The words left my muzzle before the thought could fully materialize, while a part of me wanted nothing more than to run at the idea something so powerful could fall into the hooves of such a naive race. “How did you come by this?”

“I don’t know for sure, there are rumors among the guard about some kind of cult in the castle… The Children of the Night…” Umbra glanced around as if for prying eyes as she went on. “I dare not speak out against my goddess Luna, but there is talk that she found something at the heart of Everfree, a fallen star.”

Fallen star. The two words hit me harder than any blow ever could, I did my best not to falter, glaring at the infernal metal she so casually held on a wing tip as if it were my age-old adversary.

“What, like a shooting star?” Prancer asked, looking from her to me. “Is this like the time you had us looking all over the desert for another of these things?”

“So those reports about a zebra out there were true then?” asked Umbra, regarding the pair of us curiously. “You know there’s Changelings all over there, right?”

“Here I thought your goddess wiped them all out on her last visit,” Prancer quipped, and Umbra huffed, stomping a forehoof.

“Princess Luna was there for other reasons… I… I just don’t really know what,” she insisted, glowering at him as if he’d just insulted her mother.

“Looking for more of that, I presume,” I offered, nodding to the metal, only to back away as if the fragment would bite me as Umbra turned toward me. “Bring it no closer!”

“It’s that bad, really?” she asked, looking down at the thing as if it were just a rock. “Now that you mention it though, there was all that archaeological work. I remember being posted outside Her Majesty's tent when those Night Children folk went in.”

“Did you hear what they were saying?” Prancer pressed, but Umbra shrugged, letting him know that it wasn’t a guard’s place to eavesdrop on their princess.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure they used a silence spell,” she said with a sigh. “Dark are the days the princess does not trust her own guard anymore.”

“And yet here you are?” I countered, that feeling of being blunt once again only coming after I’d opened my mouth, either way before Umbra’s sour expression could become harsh words, I added. “Regardless, I see it in your eyes, the doubt. Tell me, why are you really here?”

She dared not meet my eyes as they shone under the brim of my hood. Even if I assumed she was a good pony, there was no looking directly into my gaze. No pony had in centuries, and the bat pony mare finally sighed.

“Because there are those among the night guard that fear for our princess. Ever since she came back from the heart of Everfree, ever since she’s been around this stuff… She has not been the same.” Suddenly she was looking at the silver rock as if my efforts to stay away from it were not so foalish after all. “And there’s talk… Talk she’s not happy ruling beside her sister, that she may try to usurp the throne.”

“That’s absurd, half of the kingdom would be against her,” Prancer exclaimed, but Umbra shook her head.

“There is a large number of pegasi that revere the dusk more than the dawn, same goes for the unicorns. Less said about the whole thestral race that will rise up to her summons should she try.” As much as a battle appeared to be the last thing she wanted, there was no doubt that Umbra would fight for her princess if she had to.

“War,” I said simply, taking a step up to the cliff’s edge to peer at the moonlit castle across the misty breach. “Or wer as some call it. An ancient word, born not of this world, for it has never known such hardships. It is the language of the stars.”

“What are you saying? That there’s going to be another dark age?” Prancer huffed, pressing a forehoof to his face. “Here I thought Wendigos and Discord were enough.”

“Need I remind you that Goddess Luna was one of those who saved us from those dark times?” Umbra added, looking to the rock, then back at me. “To think she would just set all of that aside for a throne?”

“The transgressions of the past are not lost on me, thestral. But I fear the events I foresaw have been set into motion, your goddess does not think as she once did. There is another puppet master tugging the strings now.” I felt the dreadful hole in my chest swell at the notion, the idea that after millennia of fighting, the world’s fate was still sealed.

“Even now, followers gather in her shadow, not of Luna, but of the stars. Those are your Children of the Night,” I added, turning back to face them, thankful for my silver cloak as the glare of the moon’s light on my back felt just a little more harsh.

“Then we take them, the Nocturnal Council will not simply stand by and allow them to corrupt our goddess,” Umbra insisted, finally tossing the star metal to the mossy earth as if it were poison.

“And yet is the path she is now set on not her will, not your duty to uphold?” I countered, feeling the conflict that I had the day my parents had told me to step up to my destiny, as every sister of mine prior had. “Where does the line between your loyalty and what you think is best lay?”

“I… I…” Umbra glanced from me, to Prancer, and finally to the moon as if seeking a divine answer from her goddess. “What does it matter, we can’t have a war…? Or whatever it is you call it!”

“And yet you would still fight one,” I stated, and at her lack of denial, I knew that the machinations of ponykind had their race on a knife edge. Fall one way, and it was oblivion for all, and yet the other way, I feared led to something far more sinister.

“In the Nightmares, the mare I see surrounded by fire… That is Luna, isn’t it?” Prancer asked, only to pause. “But you said there’s a puppet master, who?”

Peering out over the cliff at the distant horizon of endless trees bathed in the radiant pale majesty of the looming moon, I sighed.

“I was once told of a feud between the stars, those that wished to preserve life, and those that sought to consume it. In their hunger, they sent a great reaper to harvest what they had sown. While other stars sought to hinder this grim arrival, there are those among us now that wish to see it come to pass.” Looking back at them, I tossed back my hood, revealing the orange scars that mottled my striped hide.

Despite seeing them several times before, prancer averted his gaze. While Umbra bore a momentary look of awe that soon melted into dread, just as all others who saw me for what I was.

“My presents, my tribe, were among those who wish to do so. Now I wonder if your princess is another, or if it is the stars that seek only to toy with our existence that have laid claim to her soul.” Umbra’s fascination appeared to warp into fury, as if I’d just told her every one of her family members were little more than two-bit whores.

To take her goddesse’s name in such vain, must hurt, that level of social conversation was hardly lost on me. Yet it was Prancer’s look, one of cold bitterness that I had failed to tell him about such things after so long that gave me pause.

“That’s ridiculous, stars are just stars, they sit in the sky and twinkle… By the night, Luna’s mane is full of stars!” Umbra spat, tripping over her own revelations as she stomped a forehoof.

“And here lays their scheme, the efforts to turn soul against soul. Not an hour ago you were willing to betray her to save her. Now I offer you the truth and you reject it,” I responded, and for all her flustered fury, there was no smart retort from the bat pony.

“So, how do we stop it?” Prancer was the one to ask, peering up at the night as if the stars were about to fall on his head. “Saying I believe you, that is.”

“I fear that we may not be able to. The flow of fate is a complex thing, often in an effort to prevent that which one dreads, they become its causation. We must tread carefully, observe the tides.” Had I said such a logical thing to my kind, they may have understood, ponies, however, did not.

“Allowing the kingdom to fall into ruin while you do? No wonder your kind’s cities burned.” Even the centuries-old Prancer appeared put off by the notion, even if he was not the one to outright say it as Umbra pressed. “Rumors or not, I refuse to believe my goddess is possessed by some star monster!”

The bat pony’s forehoof stomped again, only this time landing right atop the discarded star metal. She hardly appeared to notice, glancing down at the stuff with as much scorn as she did me. All the while, that humm from the cursed metal grew just a little.

“Umbra, wait…” The mare shook off Prancer’s efforts to calm her down, flaring her leathery wings, and taking to the sky. “You two are lucky I don’t arrest you just… Get out of my sight!”

Like a phantom, she disappeared into the night before I could even blink, while I tugged my hood back up, peering out into the starry night as the bitter wind tugged at my cloak.

“Congratulations, you put her squarely on the evil side,” Prancer huffed as he marched up to stand next to me.

“Her kind will follow the star maiden into any plight, I made no difference, merely reaffirmed,” I muttered coldly, spying many more bat ponies upon the ramparts of the castle.

“Your past, why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, gaze fixed on the stars as he did so.

“I would ask the same, but talk of your mother’s cruelty matters not to me,” I responded, bowing my head a little. “Therefore, I sought not to burden you with the knowledge of my own. I know not how she cursed you, only that you share my plight of immortality.”

“Well, my limbs don’t exactly grow back like yours,” he quipped with a small laugh. “So when was the last time some pony called you by your real name, not that Specter horse-apples?”

“Not in an age, and you?” I asked, earning a shrug from the stallion as if it felt like just a long. “Majeph, if you must know. That is my name.”

“Bramble Thicket, only thing my mother gave me that didn’t come with a curse,” he responded, finally looking at me. “And all that talk of a fight… A war, you believe that?”

“I believe I have to. Fate works in mysterious ways, and if the stars that influence your princess wish to prolong our torment, they may at least spare us the wrath of those that would see us consumed,” I told him, feeling as if I was stuck between two cliffs, doomed to slam into them both over and over.

“What has the world come to?” he asked, taking a deep breath, before glancing back at the metal Umbra had discarded. “And what of that?”

“Leave it, such things have caused this world enough pain already,” I told him, reluctantly scooping up the shard in a forehoof.

The prismatic shimmer shunned my warped reflection, the glow of my orbital scars blazing in the sleek surface as I felt dark whispers fill my head. Calls to keep it all for myself, to keep those closest to me away from it. I’d seen it all before, born into a world molded by the stuff. Resisting the humming call, I finally tossed it into the misty depths below.

I awoke in a cold room, the dreariness of my dreams replaced by the dull hum of ventilation and the monotony of gray walls as my eyes flickered open. At least until the weary haze of sleep was shattered by the most amazing pink face, followed by the most wonderful voice in the world.

“Dragonfire? Dragonfire, you’re awake!” Cherry was wrapping me in a tight embrace before I could even assure her I’d indeed left Luna’s realm.

“Cherry?” I asked in a daze, blinking tiredness from my eyes as I sat up, finding a smooth wall against my back as my rump rested on a grated metal floor. “Y–you’re alright?”

I’d never been so happy to have feeling in my limbs as I reached out and hugged her back. Weak as my forelegs were, feeling her warmth, her smooth coat and mane so close to me was a true blessing.

I never should have left her. What was one kiss? I neglected to mention any of that as she drew back, looking me over like I was some rebellious foal who’d returned home to her mother covered in dirt. I just wonder how much she’s thinking about it too.

“I’m fine, but what about you, what happened?” She studied me rigorously, eyes lingering on my rounded stomach, a bump notably not covered in armor.

Both of us lacked any gear save for magical retainers around our horns, and as I glanced around at the stable security cell, I was pretty sure I knew why. Reflexively, I rested a forehoof on my belly, rubbing it without thought as I blushed hard. There was no way I could hide it, without my armor it was pretty obvious I was further along than the last time we’d met.

“Did you… Get bigger!?” she asked in alarm, pressing a forehoof to the peak of my distended midsection. “You… You went near radiation, didn’t you!?”

Brow furrowed, she glowered at me like she was the angry mother. While I did my best to ignore the agitated squirming in my gut that suggested my unborn twins were just as unhappy with my lack of self-preservation. Even if the manner in which they wriggled at least suggested they were just as happy to see her as I was.

It's like the three of them are in league or something! I thought with a sigh, feeling the closest thing to a kick since discovering they were growing in there. But she’s not wrong.

“I had to, Vertigo was in danger, and it was the only way to get him out,” I assured her, only a half-truth. But I didn’t think that the details of Project Nightstalker would bother her that much as she looked at my tummy.

“It’s just… Wow, Sky really was right,” she muttered in slight disbelief. Only to wince and glance up at me sharply. “Not that it makes you look any less… Good.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice, last time I go near…” As her latter words hit me, my own thoughts died.

Like the mysterious zebra haunting my wacky dreams, I found it impossible to meet her eyes as she blushed. She was so unbearably cute, how could I not appreciate that kiss and adore every moment with her?

Use her like a sex toy, just like every other pony you’ve supposedly loved. My mind sniped, guilt swelling in me just as it did every other time I had considered pursuing her. I can’t use her but… That was all just to get a foal, a hopeless goal. Now I have one… Maybe two, can’t I have her too?

My thoughts also lingered on Vertigo, he was a good stallion… Bug, thing… Whatever he was. I was hardly even sure I loved him as a he, his pure form definitely appeared to lack the features of a mare or a buck, as he’d told me. However, while I could hardly say that the foals inside me were Cherry’s, calling them his still filled me with a little more faith that they weren’t monsters.

Maybe a permanent three-way isn’t the worst option? I wondered, considering what I could say if anypony asked how two mares had produced foals. I’ve seen crazier shit in my time.

“Dragonfire, are you alright?” Cherry nudging my shoulder as she dropped the question softly shook me from my romantic stooper. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head or something?”

“N–not I’m fine just…” I winced, averting my eyes away from her worried gaze. “Just hung up on a few things… I’ll get over it.”

“Oh, right… It’s me, isn’t it?” I both loved and hated the fact she was so straightforward, while I was sure I’d spend weeks dodging the issue until it ate me up inside, when she put it so openly exposed like that, it made things so much easier. “I… I’m sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing, just…”

That’s right, she’s made it easy. Take the easy way out, blame it on her. Part of me insisted, running from responsibilities as I had for years. What’s another mare’s heartbroken in your desire to get bucked?

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong and I…” I felt the words catch in my throat, a feeling I hadn’t possessed in years swelling in my chest, desperate to let the sentence out. While apprehension snagged it like hooks in my muzzle.

Just tell her you liked it, tell her you like her. I shook my head with a sigh, one forehoof resting beside hers on my belly as I swore I felt something move under my taut coat. How can I? I like her enough to spare her that.

“Goddesses, did it just move!?” Any delusion I had that the foals within me hadn’t started to move for the first time dissipated as Cherry’s eyes popped wide, her focus instantly on my tummy. “I know I felt it. Oh, he’s kicking!”

“So that’s what that is, thought it was just indigestion.” Leaping on the sudden shift in topic with a sheepish laugh, I rubbed one forehoof on the back of my neck. “Does feel a little more funky down there though.”

“Just a day ago you could barely tell you were expecting… This…” As adorable as her giddy excitement was, she soon trailed off, wincing as she added. “Sorry.”

“So, you found something in Fort Sandstone, then?” croaked another voice, and it was only then that my attention shifted away from the blissful mare that was Cherry Pin.

Binary looked far worse for wear. Our captors had at least gone to the effort of wrapping a bandage around her midsection, even as she slumped against the far wall, struggling to breathe. Robbed of her harness, I noticed how small she was for an earth pony, not to mention the weary look in her eyes.

What did they do to her, surely one kick to the ribs didn’t fuck her up this much? I thought, wondering if the harness was some kind of life support.

“Picked up whatever you sent Vertigo for, I think… Suppose they’re in here somewhere now.” Glancing around her, I finally made out the cell the three of us were sealed in, monotone gray walls encasing us on all sides.

Each was devoid of features save reinforced pipes and wires, with the exception of that opposite me. There a faded window allowed a glimpse into the stable security block beyond, while beside it, was a sealed door. It took me no more than a moment to guess that this was stable fifty, if the faded digits printed on the far wall didn’t give it away any sooner.

When I imagined infiltrating this place, this wasn’t what I had in mind. I thought, straining to peer through the window at the other cells surrounding the security block, only to find them empty. Damn it, where’s Star, or Vertigo for that matter?

The fact neither of them were here was starting to make my mane prickle as I finally rolled onto my hooves. Once more the free sway of the blooming weight between my legs threw me off a little, only for Cherry to steady me.

“Whoa, steady,” she exclaimed, resting against my flank, only to dart away as I regained my balance, adding in an awkward stammer. “Foals are heavy, that’s what my sister always used to say.”

“Tell me about it, it’s worse when they rapidly double in size on you,” I assured, burying the idea they were monsters soon to outgrow me as I moved over to Binary. “What happened to you, what did they do?”

She appeared sad at the question, her eyes downcast as she grumbled about stupid things under her breath, before finally sighing.

“BADD, it’s the reason I need the harness for more than just maintenance. Same reason I hardly come out here.” At my I'm not a smart pony who understands acronyms look, she shifted, wincing as she stretched out one of her forelegs. “Bio-Arcano-Deficiency disease. Rare genetic disorder, I won’t bore you with the details but makes me more brittle than a thin sheet of ice.”

“I tried to tell them she needed medical attention, but they won’t listen to me,” Cherry insisted, stomping a forehoof. “She hardly does herself any favors.”

“What, you want me to magic up a solution?” she huffed, pressing a forehoof to her face. “I’m finished, they found me, right when I had the keys to the kingdom in my fucking back pocket!”

Was that because of me, is that why they were able to find her? I wondered, considering it could have even been Overseer who’d sold her out. No, he hates the Transcendent… They must have finally tracked me down.

“My old pipbuck, what did they do with it?” I asked, glancing out of the window as if expecting every one of the freaky monsters to be there peering in at us. “And where’s Vertigo?”

“Your little robot buddy completely shut himself off the moment it realized there was a breach in the tower, didn’t lift a finger to help even when they shut down all the defenses,” she said bitterly, and with that, Overseer gained a few more hatred points in my log. “Vertigo, I don’t know. They took him away to another cell, he was still stiff as a board when they did.”

“She’s right, all your pipbuck did was ask for you the moment it knew you were gone, kept freaking out about it,” Cherry added, stepping up beside me.

“Yeah, only I’m pretty sure it encrypted itself, if it’s not still in the tower’s mainframe, it’s all still on that pipbuck, and they have it.” Binary nodded out of the window, and finally peering out, I took in the room.

Indifferent to many other stable security sectors I’d seen before, the neat block of stable fifty was at least cleaner than most others. As I’d made out before, there were at least two other empty cells, as well as a table in the center of the room, on which was a terminal and what appeared to be my gear. I saw Cherry’s too, and while the pile lacked Binary’s strange harness, I did see my old pipbuck, right next to the new one the earth pony had gifted me days ago.

There were four ponies in the room, two of the faceless Transcendent guards by the door, while another pair of mares in stable fifty barding worked on the terminals. There was a distinct lack of monster ponies among them, and while the guards appeared as they usually did, still as statues, the pair of stable ponies looked like they’d rather be anywhere else.

“I see my stuff, pipbuck an all,” I told the others. “Only three hostiles too. We need to get it, and get you some medical supplies.”

“You mean escape?” Cherry asked, perking up at the notion, while Binary just shook her head with a huff.

“I tried the door, it’s locked tight. Besides, those stable ponies are just as much prisoners.” She grit her teeth as she shifted, half out of pain, and the other out of fury, I suspected. “I thought they’d killed everypony I knew when they took this place, turns out they just took half of us as slaves.”

“We’ll deal with that when we get to it, I have a plan. All I have to do is reach that pipbuck you gave me, get the word out…” My words died as the opposite door opened, and from the hall outside strode an elegant, dark figure.

Like a cloud of shadow trailing behind her dark tail, Twilight Sparkle loomed across the room as if carried upon a cloud of pure shade. Her masked eyes came to rest on me as she peered down her sleek muzzle at the window.

“Ah, you’re finally awake, good,” she spoke with irritation, as if her spell hadn’t worn off fast enough for her liking. “For some time I was worried what the spell may do to a mare in your condition, you’re weaker than most.”

“Let me out of here, give me my guns, and I’ll show you just how wrong you are about that,” I hissed, stiffening as I glared back at her. “Who are you, what do you want with me?”

“You know who I am, or are you so primitive that even history books are beyond you?” she asked, pressing a forehoof to her chest as she flared her wings. “I am the great Twilight Sparkle, and you…” She jabbed the same forehoof at the glass. “You are more trouble than you’re worth, if you ask me.”

“Good, I aim to be that way for ponies like you,” I countered, and even through the glass, I heard an irritated breath seep from her grated mask.

“To think one such as you was able to enter the reliquary, fate does find a way to make things difficult,” she muttered, seemingly more to herself as she added. “If it were my call, I’d have you strung up, your mind dissected until every answer was mine, but Barron wants you alive.”

“Lucky me,” I countered, feeling that of all the fates that could befall me, from being mashed into a pulp, to eaten by a swarm of mecha-sprites, if this mare could really cut my mind apart like it was on an operating table, why not just do it?

“You may not say so when he returns,” she warned, bowing her head to come eye-to-eye with me. “So, I offer you this, before you are tossed to the Sigal’s dog, tell me what it is that makes you so special.”

“You think I know, don’t you?” I asked, and she fell silent for a second, seeming to think, before her horn flared.

I winced, even Cherry shied away from the glow. Yet no magical torture came, she simply levitated over my mother’s old pipbuck from the table.

“For almost two hundred years we have been trying to access every Destiny facility. Reliquaries to the faithful, answers for those more intellectual,” she elaborated, leveling the small device between us. “Mr Hayland was always obsessed with bettering ponykind, any opportunity he had to improve life for the masses, he took, no matter the cost.”

“Yeah, I saw. Like butchering a mare and stuffing her in a tank for centuries!” I growled, feeling that if anyone deserved some retribution for all of this, it was Lucky Star.

“Among many things, yet he could never see the big picture, never see that to change fate, you must embrace it. It cost him everything, his wife, family, even his mind.” she went on, regarding the pipbuck as if it were the key to everything.

“If the attack on the southwestern center that day had been successful, we’d not be here now. But the bombs had to drop, cost everything,” she hissed, once again more to herself as pieces of what she’d said fell into place within my head.

“Orical… Ebon Star… She was his wife, wasn’t she?” I asked, and like a school teacher shocked the often disobedient filly had answered a question correctly for once, Twilight perked. “And you knew her?”

If she was telling the truth, and she was somehow Twilight Sparkle herself, then surely she had heard of the mare that had once tried to have her killed.

“Yes, I did, and yes she was,” she said, looking back at me slowly. “Happily married with four foals, until she found the truth that he was blind to.”

“Then spit it out, if you’re as great and powerful as you say you are, you can skip the shit and tell me what this is,” I snapped, earning an awkward smile of support from Cherry.

“So eager for answers, did you ever stop to think you may not like what you find?” she asked cooly, setting the pipbuck down.

“I’ll take my chances,” I insisted, feeling a small jab to my gut as I wondered if the truth about all this, maybe the truth about my foals, was it worth knowing?

“The program on your pipbuck, I know it desires to keep you alive. You should know it only does so because you have become the catalyst for its experiment.” She nodded back at the device on the table. “Once we have it unlocked, we will know all of Destiny’s secrets, but for now, I know this. Whatever they were trying to create, whatever kind of new pony, it was only half like you… The rest is something else.”

The next squirm I felt in my gut was notable no matter how much I tried to ignore it, all the while I was left wondering why this had happened to me of all ponies. Why had they set me up to become the host to this thing, why was I the only mare able to get into that place? It had been clear from the many other dead mares down there that I wasn’t the first Overseer attempted to impregnate, only I was the first not to die.

Not yet anyway. If it’s only half pony, what else is it? I shut my mind off there, really trying not to think that there could be something developing claws within me, ready to rip its way out. No, they’re not monsters. Like Flare suggested, we can cut them out!

“All that I have inside me is my foals,” I told her sternly, catching the small gasp that escaped Cherry’s muzzle at the plural addition. “You want them, you’ll have to go through me.”

Mother’s scorn met magical might as our eyes locked, her visor doing little to spare her from my hash glare as I caught my stern stare reflected in the obsidian shield. Even so, she did not back down, she merely scoffed at the threat, lifting her head back to tower over me.

“Barron may intend to do just that, he need only deliver your spawn to the Sigle intact, not you,” she warned.

“Then he’ll have to wait, foals take time!” Cherry chimed in, stepping close to my side. “A–and you’ll have to go through me too!”

Under threat of brutal cesarean or not, feeling her so close to me, so boldly coming to my aid, I felt my heart flutter far more than my alien foals’ kicking.

“Oh, but we have ways of hurrying that along, don’t we?” the alicorn threatened, her horn flaring, causing the pipbucks around her to crackle, as the ponies in the room shot her worried looks.

Their apprehension was nothing next to the slight stabbing that wracked my gut at the conjured radiation. I doubled over, Cherry gripping my shoulders as I heard her call my name, voice muffled by the pain.

“Stop it, you’re gonna kill her!” begged the pink mare as Twilight’s radiation spike flickered out.

What’s that, another month… No, maybe a week? I thought gasping for air as I saw my belly quiver. Goddesses, if this is happening enough for me to get a feel for the time frame, that can’t be good!

“I’m fine, Cherry, I’m fine,” I coughed, a forehoof pressed to my aching gut as the pink mare knelt before me. “It only hurts when they grow.”

“They… More than one!?” she asked, her voice filled with a mix of fear and excitement as tears shimmered in the corner of her eyes. “Twins!?”

“Interesting,” mused Twilight, peering down at the two of us like we were little more than the microbes in her petri dish.

“You bitch, how could you attack a pregnant mare!?” I had to admit, hearing such vulgar rage come from such a sweet mare was a shock as Cherry glared at her.

“We all do what we have to,” responded the dark alicorn, before there was a call from over the crackling speakers of the stable’s PA system.

“Inquisitor, Lord Barron has arrived and requests your presence immediately.” The monotone summons cut off with a sharp pop as Twilight sighed, spun, and made for the door.

“They are to remain alive and unspoiled, the mother and her foals most of all,” she ordered the two guards, who nodded as she disappeared into the halls.

“You sure you’re alright?” Cherry asked as I finally sat up, one forehoof on my rounded bump as I breathed, savoring every deep breath.

“That’s one heck of a pregnancy you got there. Doesn’t line up with any project I’ve heard about,” Binary commented, still looking as weak as I felt, while I nodded to Cherry.

“I’m fine, just… Need a breather.” The pink mare appeared far from convinced but as she gripped my shoulders between her forehooves, she smiled.

“Twins, huh… When did you find out?” she asked sheepishly, while I informed her that I’d been back to see Flare, and that the medical mare suspected it was the case.

“All the more reason to get out of here… While I was there I made a plan, we just need to get to the pipbuck, send a message out,” I elaborated, doing my best to think on that, rather than the idea my foals were some kind of pony-monster hybrids as Cherry glanced about.

“They’re going to keep us in here until that monster comes back, with her around there’s no way we can get out,” she suggested, wincing. “And I have no idea where we are.”

“I know my way around, they can’t have changed the layout too much,” Binary assured, sitting up with a cough. “I need to hit the med bay… Try to find another servo-harness too… There’s a way out under the Overmare’s office we can use.”

“What about a broadcaster, is there a way I can transmit a message back to Crossroads?” I asked, hoping that the attack could be ready a day early, while neglecting to spill the full details lest the Transcendent hear.

“If the interference from Crimson isn’t too bad, the stable’s got a communications lab. Transcendent has to have one too, chatter has been in and out of here for years.” She glanced at the door, seeming to think. “All of the labs are on the upper floors, above the atrium… But there’s also Vertigo, I’m not leaving him here.”

I don’t plan to either. I added mentally, as she added details regarding a solitary confinement space on the far side of residential. Figures they’d lock him in there, maybe Star too, it would take more than a cell like this to house him.

“Hardly makes any difference if we can’t get out of here though,” she added, as I wobbled to my hooves, peering out of the window.

Two guards, two ponies that don’t look like they’ll put up a fight. I have no magic, no guns, and I’m four months pregnant… Wait. My thoughts paused as I glanced at the bump in my belly. That’s it!

“Cherry, you were there when your sister foaled, right?” I asked, and she blinked at me before nodding.

“I… Yeah… It was when I was younger, but sure…” she told me sheepishly.

“Good, then just do what you did when she was in foal, we gotta make this look convincing,” I instructed, before doubling over and clutching my gut. “Gah! Oh, by Celestia!”

“Dragonfire, Dragonfire, what’s wrong!?” she called urgently as I yelled at the top of my lungs, bracing against the wall in mock pain. “Is it the foal!?”

“Oh, Luna… Fuck, yeah, I think the baby is coming!” I declared, scrunching up my face as I pressed my forehead to the wall. “All the excitement must have gotten to me… Fuck, it hurts!”

I dove back to what it had felt like to feel my belly expanding back under the prison, pouring the memory into my act as I caught Binary’s knowing look.

“Sudden labor shock, she’s delivering early. Must have been whatever that alicorn did to her!” exclaimed the gray mare, as I saw the two stable mares outside sit up straight, the guards by the door exchanging glances.

“What, how long have you been having contractions, not even braxton hicks!?” Cherry demanded, pressing a forehoof to my arched spine. “Just breathe, Dragonfire, breathe!”

Damn, and here I thought I was a good actor. I thought, detecting the genuine panic in her flustered voice as she glanced out of the window. It’s like she really believes it.

“What are you doing, somepony needs to help her!?” she called to the ponies outside, while the unborn foals inside me wriggled giddily at the display.

“Should we do something?” asked one of the mares by the terminals, while the one opposite looked more apprehensive.

“I don’t know… After the breeding queue, I delivered my last foal alone at home, I made it through,” she stammered, pressing a forehoof to her gut.

“Oh goddesses, something feels wrong… I gotta push!” I called as loud as I could, recalling the few dramatized depictions of foaling I’d seen in old recordings. “Okay, one… Two… Ahh, goddesses!”

“No, no, don’t push yet, Dragon! I… Oh, we need a doctor!” Cherry glanced about as if a midwife would suddenly materialize from the walls, before once again fixing her eyes on the guards. “Do something, didn’t she tell you this foal’s important!?”

Wow, good one, Cherry, really make them think about this! Her quick thinking was just as adorable as her cute looks as the guards finally took a step forward. That’s right, can’t afford to lose your prize foal now, can we?

“You two know anything about this shit?” asked one of the masked ponies, a mare, as the other took a step back.

“Fuck, I’ll go to medical. Let you mares deal with this foaling shit!” He was gone in a flash, leaving the last to stomp over to the stable mares, drawing a rifle in her magic.

“I… have a filly, but… Well, I didn’t exactly deliver my own foal…” Said the mare who’d said I would be fine. “She just kinda… Popped out!”

“You said you did it on your own. Good enough, now get in there,” ordered the guard, jabbing the timid mare toward the cell at gunpoint.

“It’s okay, Dragon, help is coming, just breathe. Try not to push until a doctor tells you, alright?” Cherry reassured softly, rubbing my back as I pressed my head to the wall, closed my eyes, and screamed like my insides really were ripping open.

“Okay, get back, both of you!” The guard hissed, jabbing her gun at Cherry and Binary, the former reluctant to leave my side, while the crippled latter just huffed the word ‘seriously’.

“You bastards, let me hold her hoof!” Once again Cherry’s vulgar outbursts were met by deaf ears as the guard forced her right back to the wall.

“Okay, I had to use a mirror myself, but let’s have a look at you,” stammered the stable mare as she lifted my tail with her magic. “Pretty sure I’ll be able to see how dilated… Wait.”

As good as it often was to have a mare toy with my tail, the rump bump I shoved against her side was anything but playful. She fell with a yelp, right into the guard. In the commotion, the faceless mare’s magic imploded, robbing her of her weapon as my eyes fixed on the rifle. Pregnant or not, I darted for the thing as fast as I could, belly dragging only a little as my instinct to use telekinesis resulted in nothing.

Goddesses damn horn restraints! I inwardly cursed, moving to shove the guard mare down as her magic swiftly found the weapon. Oh no you don’t!

I liked to think my added weight was good for something as I pinned her down, feeling like there was an equally rambunctious tussle within me, part of me worried I’d eat my own words and this fight would shock me into early labor. The mare under me wasn’t so eager to be outdone, however, and the moment she kicked the clumsy stable pony away, her hind hooves shot up, right into my very sensitive nethers. I had a strange sympathy for milk brahmans as I crumpled, and she rolled me off with a grunt.

“Nice try,” she huffed, levitating up her rifle as she blocked the door. “No pony ever teach you not to cry wolf!?”

“You won’t kill me, you can’t!” I countered, staggering up to stand before her. “Not if you don’t want Miss Goddess to come in here and turn you into a statue.”

“No, but I can just shut this door and…” There was a clunk as something heavy smashed over the guard’s head.

She fell in a heap, weapon utterly forgotten as in her place stood the second stable mare, loose terminal levitating beside her.

“Thanks,” I offered, taking the guard’s weapon as the stable mare looked down at the unconscious guard as if this were the first pony she’d ever struck.

“I… Is she dead?” she stammered, dropping the terminal.

“Beats me, good hit, Net Runner,” coughed Binary, and as the adrenaline faded from them, the two stable mares both darted to their crippled companion.

“Oh, Binary, you’re alive!” Net declared as they both crouched on either side of her. “I thought they killed you for sure, after your sister and the Overmare…”

“No, I used the escape under her desk… How did you get by?” coughed the crippled mare as the two helped her up.

“They spared half the foals. We had to grow up here working for them… Or they toss us into the city as slaves,” said the other mare, adding. “I think you were the only one that got out.”

“Damn it, just wait until I get my hooves on…” Binary’s threats were broken by a fit of coughing as I stepped out the door, wary that more guards could return at any moment only to find us not dealing with ‘mare shit’.

“We need to get her to medical, Pixels will still see to her, I’m sure,” said Net Runner, her companion nodding, before adding.

“If we can get by the guards, they’ll be back here soon.” Making my way over to the middle desk, I was barely able to use the security keys to remove the damper on my horn, magic stinging a little as I levitated the thing over to Cherry next.

“Wait, so you’re not having the foals now?” she asked, blinking at me in confusion as I nodded.

“Yeah, but it was a good act though, right?” I asked, patting her on the shoulder. “You were great, the whole don’t push thing was just like the old shows.”

“Dragonfire, you idiot! You grew weeks in a day, I thought it was real!” she exclaimed, magic flaring to bat at my shoulder with her loose barding the second the restraint was off. “Don’t do that to me!”

She did, was I that convincing? I winced, feeling guilt I didn’t know I had at making her worry about me. And here I want to avoid toying with her heart.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re out, aren’t we?” Binary stated, interrupted by more wheezing. “You’re right, I need to get to medical. Net, Flash, can you get me there… Say the guards sent me up?”

“Yeah, I think so, but what if they don’t take the bait?” the mare I assumed was Flash, asked nervously.

“Then you use this,” I told them, levitating over the guard’s rifle, as I took Zap-Zap back for myself.

Oh, I could kiss you, little guy. I thought the second the arcane energy pistol was back in my magical grip. I’m not letting anything happen to you, no way!

“Point and pull the trigger, right?” Net Runner asked, as she sighted down the levitating weapon, only for me to nudge the barrel away from me as I nodded.

“Goddesses, I need to go get Rollo, if they find out I helped you, they’ll kill her!” Flash said urgently.

“They’re not killing anyone else,” I assured, as Cherry retrieved Responsibility, and slipped into her barding, leaving me with the arduous task of squeezing into mine.

“I think we’re going to need to up you a size,” huffed the pink mare, as her magic added to mine, finally pulling the draconic-scale gear over my bump. “You’re really starting to show.”

“Feels like I’m just getting fat,” I huffed, earning a sour look from her, as if I didn’t dare refer to myself in such a way. “What, it’s true!?”

“You’re going after Vertigo, aren’t you?” Binary asked, as I levitated on her sister’s pipbuck, then clipped my mother’s to my side.

“And somepony else, they have to have him in here too,” I reaffirmed, levitating Zap-Zap by my side. “But I still need to get a message out to Cross.”

“You’re not going alone,” Cherry insisted with a hoof stomp, and while I had the urge to tell her to stay with the others, after losing her for almost two days, I couldn’t find the words. “You promised not to leave my sight.”

“I get a new harness and I’ll meet you in my mother’s office,” Binary told me, glancing at her two stable companions. “How many others can we get on side?”

“I’m pretty sure every pony would take you over Barron. They’re all just too afraid to face him,” said Net, while Flash nodded in agreement.

“Yeah well, I have a few questions for this Barron guy too,” I declared, pretty sure that I’d need a plan if he was as infamous as everypony was making him out to be.

That’s after I’ll need a plan for Carnage, Locust, and Twilight too. I noted, yet rearmed and with backup, I was sure I’d made it out of worse odds. Only then I wasn’t four months pregnant.

Footnote – Level up:

New Perk added: Center of Mass – Like it or not, it’s time to start thinking differently when it comes to fighting with a changing weight class. In S.A.T.S., you do an additional 15% damage when stationary, however, 15% less otherwise.

Chapter Thirty: Stable Fifty

Chapter 30:

Stable Fifty

"I may not know what comes next for you, but whatever it is, I promise I'll always be there for you."

Stables, I had been in my fair share of them over the years, only they had never been as clean and operational as stable fifty. For some reason that only served to have me more on edge as we wove our way around the halls of the bunker, all the while I wished I still had a stealthbuck.

What, and leave Cherry in the open for all to see? My mind scolded as the pink mare in question was right behind me. She’s more agile than you anyway, look at that slim figure, no baby weight on her!

I wanted to take out my brain and beat it to death for all of the snide jabs, yet the squirming in my gut proved more than enough of a distraction. Apparently, Twilight’s little radiation spell and my show, had really gotten the things riled up, so much so I was pretty sure weeks of boisterous kicking had only just begun.

Oh, lucky me, do all mothers feel this way? I winced at a sharp jab to the ribs, hunkering down by a split in the corridor with my back to one of the chipped, gray walls, while Cherry lingered just behind me. If the two of you could hold off on the party until after I’m done saving everypony, that would be great!

“Okay, the atrium is up that way, communications have to be above that. I have a whole army of Steel Rangers and robots getting ready to storm this place,” I told her, glancing around the edge to see two guards trot by the far end of the hall. “It’s all wired up on my Pipbuck.”

“You slip away for a day and that’s the kinda thing you come back with?” she asked, looking at me as if trying to discern how I’d managed to achieve such things.

“The plan was to wait a few days to work out a way to get in here, this pipbuck has the targeting parameters for the Gyrotrons Flare saved back in Cross,” I told her, flashing her the device on my foreleg before creeping along the next hall towards a sign that declared left was to the atrium, and right, the upper floors. “All I have to do is tell her to flip the switch and they’ll storm this place with the rangers.”

“And you got their help how? I thought Steel Rangers were the bad guys?” she asked, while I shrugged.

“Depends on where you are, it’s complicated.” Glancing left I saw a set of stairs, up which ascended the two guards I’d watched walk by. “Point is Silver wants these ponies gone as much as we do.”

“And what about us, what do we do if they’re attacking from the outside?” she asked, and I had to admit I was still working that part out.

I’d hoped that we could get Vertigo and Star, then sneak out of the hidden exit with Binary and any other stable pony who was willing. All the while the frontal assault would keep the Transcendent distracted. The only issues came in the form of three monster ponies and whatever in Equestria this Barron was they were all so afraid of.

One problem at a time, Dragonfire. I told myself, biting my bottom lip as I heard the two guards stop by the top of the stairs. Really, you’re gonna stop there!?

“We’ll need to find another way up. Come on, if this is like other stables there’ll be a way by the Overmare’s office,” I told Cherry, as two more guards moved to take up posts by the stairs.

With a straight shot of open corridor between us and them, with little to no cover, we’d be pinned long before we could take them out. Ample time for the rest of the fuckers to surround us. There were no arguments from Cherry as we shifted course, backtracking, and taking a left. The pink mare simply seemed happy to be with me again, even if it appeared she’d rather we be anywhere else right now.

Can’t argue with that, my hooves are killing me. I inwardly grumbled, squirming gut quivering in delight at the discomfort. That’s right, you just enjoy the ride, little freeloaders.

“Hey, Dragon…” Cherry stated as the two of us ducked left to avoid trotting through residential. “Why you left… About that kiss.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, pretty sure an ambush from the guard patrols couldn’t have brought me up short so sharply. Looking back, it was hard to focus on anything other than her, the monotone gray of the stable halls made her bright coat stand out all the more.

She brings this up now!? I hated the thought, even if part of me had hoped she’d gotten all of the awkwardness out of her system in the cells. Why is it so hard to think about this?

“I–I… I’m just sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking… Then you left because of me, come back and everything’s a mess…” She bowed her head. “I feel like this is all my fault.”

Is it not? She did kiss me! I desired nothing more than to strap that cowardly thought to a rocket and blast it out of my horn.

“Cherry, it’s not your fault,” I sighed, double-checking that there were no prying eyes before I looked back at her. “I… I could have stopped you, could have talked about it.”

“But I shouldn’t have done it, I didn’t even really think I liked mares until I met you and… Urg, I’m so stupid and impulsive!” I winced at her exclamation, glancing around.

Is she wrong, she left to save her friends from the slavers, then again to save Sky. Reckless maybe, but not selfishly. At least until she kissed me.

“I don’t think you’re stupid, Cherry,” I assured, resting a forehoof on her shoulder only when I was sure no guards were coming. “All the things I’ve seen you do, you did for somepony else.”

“I didn’t make a move on you for anypony else,” she muttered under her breath, eyes averted shamefully. “I… I just wanted you… Some closeness before…” She bit her bottom lips, ears folding. “Before somepony could take you away.”

“No pony is taking me anywhere,” I promised, really hoping I’d not come to regret that decision. “And I’m not leaving you again.”

She finally met my eyes, quivering vision filled with worry no matter how strong she was trying to be. Concern for me, concern for my foals? I didn’t deserve her care and yet here I was, on the verge of breaking her heart.

“You don’t hate me?” she asked softly, the words feeling as if they snapped my heart in two instead.

No, I love you. I wanted to say, but caught my tongue even if the kicking of my foals suggested they were rather fond of the idea they’d gain a second mother.

“I care about you, I don’t hate you,” I assured, glad my helmet hid the conflict on my face as I did anything but confess my blossoming affection.

And there it is, heartbreak. I saw the way she wilted as I’d seen countless times, yet where once letting somepony down easy felt like a weight off my chest, watching her be denied what she longed for only hurt. Damn it brain, why this one? Why did I fall in love with this one!?

Part of me wanted to blame the hormones, I’d never been pregnant before. I knew that was a frail excuse as Cherry glanced up at me like some timid puppy. I wracked my brain for something to say, anything to make her believe I cared about her with all my heart.

“Hey, you get a good look at him?” My ears perked as I caught a guard trotting down a corridor to my left, shoving Cherry back out of sight.

She looked at me, then the forehoof I had pressed to her lips as I silenced her, and wordlessly nodded to the oncoming pair.

“What, Barron? Only a glimpse, that damn sky carriage kicks up so much dust,” retorted the second guard as I readied my weapon.

Free of complicated romantic engagements for the time being, I saw there was no way around them, we were going to have to fight. The element of surprise was our only advantage, there was no pulling the fake labor card now. Running a forehoof over my neck in a deathly motion, I relayed the reality to Cherry, who swallowed and nodded, golden rifle ready as it levitated in her lime-green magic.

“Don’t let one of the Alicnto hear you saying that, you know how much Quazar loves her toys,” laughed the first guard, before the pair came to a halt, distracted by the skidding of hooves behind them.

“Hey, you two, get down to medical, something’s going on,” called a third guard as he appeared in the door behind them, then dashed on to convey the warning to more of his faceless companions.

Binary and the others must have reached medical. I noted, yet given that appeared to be the biggest concern at the moment, I surmised that they didn’t know we were all free yet. I’m running out of time, I need to get this ball rolling.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!?” called one of the guards that had been coming our way, before they too took off in the opposite direction towards what I guessed was medical.

“They’re gonna be trapped down there,” Cherry muttered, her urge to help Binary obviously split between her urge to help me.

She’s still a good pony. To avoid another emotional stooper, I delayed my admiration, there would be time to make good on that kiss later, right now we needed to act.

“Binary knows this stable, she’ll be fine, we need to get to the upper levels,” I insisted, before creeping out into the hall and taking a left into a corridor marked as ‘Overmare’s Office’.

Ascending a set of steps with Cherry close behind, I found that, like all other stables I’d had the displeasure of entering, the corridor leveled out. Ahead, on the right, was a door, and beyond, another set of steps. There was a faded window by the entrance to the office on the right, and despite the glass’s translucent nature, I made sure to creep under it. Besides what I guessed were guards flanking the opposite side, two blurred figures, as well as the opposite round window, were silhouetted within.

“Need I remind you that sending those foals to do delicate work is the very reason we lost the reliquary in the first place, Barron.” My ears perked, and I paused by the sealed door as I heard the distinct voice of Twilight, muffled by both her mask and the wall. “You should have sent me.”

I had no idea who she was arguing with as I saw her faded shadow on the far wall. Glancing in, I saw the second figure was just as tall, only far more slender as it stood in the light of the far window, and finally responded in a gravelly, mechanical voice rough as sandpaper.

“Do not lecture me on how to conduct the Sigel’s will, inquisitor. The success of your operation does not give you the license to question my orders.” Similar to somepony in power armor the rumble of the stranger’s voice rattled as if from a rebreather.

In the same motion, I caught withered limbs extending from their blurred shadow. Not a quadruped at all, the skeletal hand clenched hard into a fist, emphasizing their threat. Whoever they were, they stood on two legs, while the blurred outline appeared to be shrouded by some kind of dark cape suspended over their broad shoulders.

“There is a difference between questioning and correction,” Twilight countered, as what I assumed was Barron’s claw withdrew. “Not that it matters, the Sigle will have her prize, we just need a means of extracting it.”

“And it’s a foal, you say? An unborn foal?” questioned the gravelly voice of Barron, his skeletal movements accented by whirring servos and the heavy clatter of metal claws as he shifted back to her. “Why not flay the flesh off her bones, we need only the baby.”

I felt a shudder in my gut at the notion, pressing a forehoof to it as I took a deep breath. There was no way I’d let it come to that. Whoever this freak was, I’d turn him to ash before I allowed him to touch my foals. Part of me wanted nothing more than to storm in right now and catch them off guard with lasers and pyrotechnics. Yet between what I was aware Twilight could do, and Barron’s sinister reputation, I knew that was hardly the most intelligent idea.

“No, that would risk damaging the foal, as could many other forms of restraint. We need other means of ensuring she does as we command,” Twilight responded, ruffling her dark wings. “Give me a day or two, I’ll have everything in order.”

“And what of the Reliquary’s code, the Sigle was quite adamant that we only require two more?” asked the grizzly voice.

“On her pipbuck I imagine, but the thing is proving difficult for our technicians to access,” Twilight responded, and I was at least happy to hear Overseer was still giving them a run for their caps.

And how long before they notice it’s gone along with me? I wondered, as the mechanical monster growled. Sounds like some pony really needs throat medication or something.

“Perhaps I can find new means by which to motivate them,” he warned.

“Worry not, you do not believe that the Sigle would have assigned me this task if I were incapable, do you?” mused the alicorn. “I will personally rip the thing apart if I have to.”

“No, you are to leave these pests to me,” Barron snapped, his blurred form shifting back to the window with a whirr of gears that suggested whatever he was, it was more machine than organic. “You are to retrace her steps, every location logged on that pipbuck, and scour them for anything we missed.”

Everywhere on my pipbuck. I knew just where that led, first to Crossroads, then back across the desert to Buck, and finally to Churn. Against powers and resources like hers… They’ll have no chance.

“Take care that your eagerness to present the Sigle her price in my stead doesn’t overshadow your duty, Barron,” hissed the alicorn.

“Take care that your inability to follow my orders without question does not see you end up in my grasp, inquisitor,” the robotic monster shot back just as coldly. “Now go, and see I do not need to provide an escort to be sure you find your way.”

“How generous of you,” cooed the alicorn as I saw her shadow sweep toward the door, before hissing at Cherry that we had to move.

Of course, for as quiet as we were, that was the moment the alarm began to blur. The door did not open right away, leading me to believe the bickering pair were caught equally off guard by the sudden din. Taking the opportunity, Cherry and I darted to the upper stairway before the door finally hissed open.

“Report, what is going on?” came the far more clear voice of Barron, as I heard what I guessed was his metallic fist slam on a desk.

“Prisoner containment breach in security, my lord, we…” The response of a stallion over a speaker was cut off as I assumed the furious monster shattered the thing, the crashing and flash of sparks certainly suggested as much.

“Still wish to send me away?” I caught a glimpse of Twilight exiting the door moments later, right as the two of us made it to the top of the stairs. “You cannot let the Sigle’s prize escape, Barron.”

“No, rip this place apart and find them!” Growled the monster, claws clattering as I assumed he moved up to follow her, thankfully back down into the lower stable. “I want them alive and unspoiled. And silence that cursed alarm!”

“W–what in Equestria was that?” Cherry asked timidly as the two of us pressed our backs to the wall by the top of the stairs. “I… I won’t let them do any of that to you, Dragon!”

I know you won’t. I wanted to say it, accept her care and affection. Only the truth is, I’d put her before me… If not for the damn foals she’d be my everything right now.

“Don’t worry about me, you know I’m hard to catch,” I assured her as I caught my breath. “Let’s just get a move on before they catch up.”

The blaring alarm did not stop as the two of us finally made our way into what we’d come to discover were the upper labs of the stable. I could only deduce that the scientific additions to the underground complex were part of its experiment. I was well aware most stables were intended to mess with their inhabitants, yet I’d never come across one quite like this. Even so, it also appeared that the upper levels were not where our adversaries expected to find us, the guards were minimal, and the lack of monster ponies was a plus.

“I thought stables were built to protect ponies, what’s all this supposed to be?” Cherry asked as windows into labs flanked us on both sides, the stable ponies within far less willing to call out than the guards that we’d avoided.

Most just looked scared, locked within the clinical rooms. Chambers that reminded me far too much of those under the Destiny building as I ducked below one of the windows to dodge a guard overseeing several enslaved stable dwellers.

“Every stable has a gimmick, some test they run on the occupants, don’t ask me why, I don’t know,” I told her, hardly feeling removed from those poor souls as somepony’s experiment nudged my stomach. “Ponies back then were just as fucked up as they are now.”

I hated how the fact simply made her look sad. I knew she’d open every one of these doors and free everypony if she could. Yet this was not like back in Crimson, they were looking all over for us. A stroke of luck appeared seconds later, however, as I finally came upon a lab marked as ‘communications’.

“This has to be the place Binary was talking about, can you get the door open?” I asked, nodding to the door.

“It’s been a long time since I worked on an automatic door, but I think I can manage,” she assured, and I stepped aside as she ran her forehooves over the thing. “Just gotta trick the hydraulics into thinking it’s supposed to be open.”

She was a smarter mare than me when it came to such things. Studying the door with so much scrutiny it almost made me jealous, if not for the distracting twinge in my gut. Slouching against the door, I winced, glancing back to see what I swore was a small lump roll under my taut barding. Dread that it was some mysterious monster, a hybrid of pony, and something horrifying flashed in my mind. But if Twilight was right, then it could not be so different, Flare had not indicated that the thing had claws and tentacles, or heard something akin to four hearts.

It's still early though, am I supposed to be this big at the start of the second trimester, was mom? So many questions spun in my head as I did my best to recall those months years ago. She hid it from me for so long, if she was this big she’d never have been able to do so… But she also didn’t have twins…

I really didn’t want to consider the fact that they might somehow be multiplying, that twins would become a whole litter any day now, too many squirming bodies for my womb to take.

“Dragonfire, are you sure you’re alright?” Cherry asked softly, her voice like a lifeline I used to drag myself out of anxiety’s deep abyss. “I know you’re probably gonna tell me not to worry, but I am.”

“Okay, I… No, I’m not, is that what you want me to say?” I pressed with a sigh. “Same as I told Vertigo and Flare. I just want to have a normal foal, without all of this…” I nodded to the stable around us. “That too much to ask?”

“It is a normal foal, don’t listen to that Alicorn,” she insisted, but she appeared as if she believed that about as much as I did.

“That’s why it came from a lab, why it’s grown so fast…? Why they want to rip it out of me!?” All of the pent-up fear broke free as I listed my worries. “Cherry, I’m not going to let that happen!”

“I know, I know, I won’t either,” she assured me, forgetting the door as she rested a forehoof on my shoulder. “But it’s like you said about the kiss… We… We have to get through this first.”

When did she become my rock in this sea of crazy chaos? I wondered, feeling my mind swim with emotions. This must be what they mean by mood swings… What a doozy.

“Yeah, I got this,” I said, taking a deep breath and pressing my fears back once again. “You got the door?”

“Now I do,” she stated casually as she flicked a forehoof at the thing, and it hissed open, right in the face of a guard.

“Hey, you’re those…!” He crumbled to the floor in a disintegrating heap before Cherry could even yelp, Zap-Zap levitating above.

“T-thanks…” the pink mare said, catching her breath as I slipped by her and into the lab, much to the shock of numerous stable ponies.

“P–please don’t kill us!” begged one stallion, his hooves up in surrender as two more mares huddled under a desk.

“Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you,” I assured him, with a nod back to the dust pile in the door. “But I need your help, I need you to open a communications link on this channel. ” I flashed him my pipbuck and he blinked, then nodded sheepishly.

“I–can do that… I’m Wavelength, head of the communications lab,” he greeted timidly, before glancing at me. “Is it true what they’re saying, you came in here with the Overmare’s daughter?”

“You know Binary?” I asked, as he led me over to a terminal and gestured for me to plug in my Pipbuck.

“Yeah, Binary Code, the two of us were in class together when the stable was breached… I–I saw what that monster did to her mother,” he told me as if the memory were still fresh.

“You mean Barron, who is he?” I asked, as he clicked away on the terminal. “I heard him down in the Overmare’s office, sounds like a machine.”

“Only partly, I’ve never seen cybernetics as advanced as his. Stable fifty has been his lair for years, every effort we’ve made to take it back just results in more of us being tossed into the slave pits,” he went on, yet given how fast he’d been willing to aid me, I assumed that he was just as eager to try again.

He’s a slave, this may be the stable’s only way out. I noted, pretty sure that if Binary could get enough of them onside, we’d be at an advantage. What’s their alternative, get thrown into Crimson?

I recalled just what it had been like under the city, the great pits of industry filled with battered ponies. The screams recorded just to keep them in line. One step at a time, we deal with the stable first, then the Brazens.

“Yeah, well this time you have us,” I encouraged, levitating my weapon up. If he was convinced it did not show through his dread. Even so, I had a feeling he’d do anything for the pony with the biggest gun right now.

“Here, you’re connected. It’s only outgoing, but whoever set that connection up on the other end can hear you now,” he informed me as text and wavelengths flitted across my Pipbuck’s screen.

“Silver, this is Dragonfire. It’s a long story but there’s going to have to be a change of plan. I'm in stable fifty right now and would really appreciate some help.” As Wavelength had told me, there was no response from the head scribe as I went on. “Flare and Ginger have the robots set just as you wanted. You want the stable, now’s the time to come get it.”

“They want the stable?” Cherry asked, and glancing at her I caught her gesture to Wavelength and the other stable ponies. “What about them?”

Damn it, I had not expected there to be civilized ponies in here. Only raiders! The reality caught up with me as I assumed none of the Brazens were permitted up here. That means a whole army of slavers between help and us, they’re gonna take time.

Even so, it didn’t answer her question. Goddesses, I really hope I’m not doing something really dumb here.

“Give Flare a heads up too, she may have a pretty big influx of new ponies for Cross.” I had no idea if that would even work, who was I to rip them from their home and send them away when it looked as if they’d not stepped a hoof outside before?

“Y–you want the stable?” stammered the stallion to my left as I snatched my pipbuck from the terminal.

“No, but others do, it was the only way I could get them to help,” I told him, adding yet more guilt that I didn’t need to the raging fire of emotions inside me. “I didn’t know there was anypony in here other than the Transcendent at the time.”

“And Binary agreed to that?” he asked, and I blinked, wondering if she would have given me her blessing had this plan actually been able to cross her desk before Twilight’s attack.

If what Vertigo said about her is true, I think she’d move the sun itself to get revenge on the Transcendent. I wondered just what I possessed the authority to say. Can I lie to them, is it what I need to do?

“I don’t know, but she didn’t disagree,” I offered, twisting the truth as best I could as I winced. “She’s here now, stuck in medical… If you really want to get rid of Barron, this is your best shot.”

He glanced between Cherry and me, then over to the other mares who’d only just emerged from their hiding spot. I could see the conflict in his eyes, wondering just what he was going to have to give up to have his home back, or at least his freedom.

“Is the way down there clear?” he asked, glancing at the door. “I doubt they’ll shoot us on sight, but they’re gonna ask why we're out of the labs.”

“Just tell them we chased you out, we’re not gonna hang around here,” I responded as he nodded for the two mares to go ahead of him. “That said, you don’t know where they keep other captives, do you? Binary mentioned solitary confinement.”

“They moved that years ago. Any wastelanders they bring in here now are kept in the stasis labs if not in security. They use them to test the stuff they dig up from outside.” His words sent a shiver down my spine, even Cherry appeared put off as I asked.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to tell me exactly how to get there.”

As distant as they were from the old world, it seemed the Transcendent knew how to nail down the creepy factor of Destiny Corp. Even if the clinical chamber itself had been made by stable tec, the stasis labs were not very inviting. Cleanliness was a strange thing in the wasteland, it made my skin crawl more than dirt ever could as cold tiles tapped under my hooves.

True to what I’d told Wavelength, there were fewer guards back the way we’d come. Those that we did see were all too busy mustering a response to what they were calling some kind of mutiny in medical. I could only hope Binary was okay as I inspected the room before me, seeing walls of glass capsules, within which, were many wasteland creatures. Most were no bigger than a radhog, I spotted geckos, Nightstalkers, and radroaches to name a few. Yet my attention was swift to pan by the monsters, to the ponies that were also suspended in the pods.

It was like Lucky Star all over again, only with far less invasive technology. At least the prisoners here appeared peaceful in the soupy gel that contained them. Many seemed to be from the stable itself as if the Transcendent merely put their workers on ice when not using them, while more still appeared to be wastelanders. There were several worn-looking unicorns, a greater number of scarred earth ponies, and even a pegasus. Her branded flanks clearly visible in the blinking light of her pod.

“What are they doing with all these ponies?” Cherry asked, as we passed by one pod housing a griffin and another some kind of mare with an oddly overgrown mane, dorsal scales, and an oversized horn.

“I have no idea,” I muttered, wondering if it were merely the concern for my foal that had kept me out of one of these myself. “But they’re not going anywhere, helluva a prison.”

Above some of the pods was a mix of wires and cords, most notably a tube of glowing orange fluid. The glow looked uncannily similar to that of the silver devices I’d seen under the Orical building in Crimson Springs. The rapid eye movements of those the stuff was being pumped into as they twitched and jittered in their pods had me wondering what Wavelength had meant about the Transcendent testing on these ponies.

The Rage, that’s what the raiders in the ruins called it. The thing that they say drives them mad. Same as the brains in the factory? I had to wonder, pretty sure a raider was a raider no matter how I sliced them. I need to find the others before they can have crazy stuff pumped into them.

“Haha, hit him again!” Came a mare’s voice, and in a flash I was crouched, creeping up to an array of terminals that cut the room in two, Cherry close at my side. “Sigle, what I would not give to see the look on its dumb face if it could move!”

I knew that voice, and sure enough, glancing up over the cover I saw Chief, power hooves cracking as she and two other raider mares flicked trash at one of the pods. In the gloom, I could hardly make out the dark figure suspended within, cylinder slightly tilted against the wall. But after the past few days, I’d spy a changeling anywhere.

“You say this fucker can be whatever I want it to be, what’s say we get a collar on it, make it go a few rounds,” one of the scantily-clad raiders cackled as she caressed the pod, while another leaped atop it, straddling the glass as she made rather unsavory motions with her rear.

“I’d give it about three shots before it folds… Ain’t a stallion I fucked who could keep up with me,” declared a second mare.

“That’s if all you want is stallions. I heard these things lay eggs in you!” The first mare corrected, the two giggling like mad fillies as Chief strode back, resting against the smoldering flank of her crimson lover.

“Ladies, ladies, you act like you have not already got access to the greatest stallion around,” boasted Carnage, like little more than a young buck eager for his first rutt. “Where it up to me, I’d just squash this bug and be done with it,” he huffed, smoke snorting from his nostrils as he glowered at Vertigo.

“How do we get him out of there?” Cherry asked as I slid down, my back to the consul as the mares swooned over their bloody lover.

Seriously what do they see in him, is his cock the size of a dragon’s or something? I thought, checking the load on my weapon. Either way, he’s too much for me to handle, I need a plan.

Glancing about, I saw four halls spanning out from the central module, each one lined by more pods. Most were empty, while ahead of me, a series of pipes and valves hissed, what appeared to be frosty medical tanks bubbling away with some kind of freezing agent. I could only assume it was something to do with how they suspended ponies, even if none of the pods appeared to be nearly as chilly.

“I don’t know, they clearly don’t give a fuck about the alarm,” I whispered, pretty sure that negated any attempt to try and bait them out of the room.

“Maybe we could trick them into one of the pods?” Cherry suggested, yet seeing none of the things open, and possessing no idea how they worked, I shook my head. “No, but we…”

My words left me as my eyes panned down one of the halls, every one of its pods empty save for one. I knew that color, that shape, that build. Cool steam swirled around my hooves as I carefully trotted over and wiped a layer of condensation from the smooth cylinder, revealing the stallion I’d come all this way for. Star Strike looked as he had weeks ago, if not for the pain in my distended gut, I could have said the same about myself. Yet I cared not how he may see me now, all I wanted to do was get him out.

“Haha, oh Carni, I love it when you talk dirty to me,” cooed one of the mares, their faded laughter followed by a flaming flash as Carnage’s armor flared. The show elicited a startled eep from Cherry as she darted up to me, peering into the pod.

“That’s him, right? The stallion we left in the tower,” she asked, jabbing a forehoof at the glass. “Maybe he knows how these things work?”

“I doubt it, if it doesn’t go boom, Star’s not your guy,” I muttered, looking the suspension device up and down. “Damn it, we need to get this stupid thing open before they notice.”

Looking below the consul that ringed the lower circumference of the pod, I found only hissing cables and wires, while above, a green light blinked with the word ‘occupied’. Meanwhile, Cherry searched the opposite side, running a forehoof over it as if it were another lock to be picked.

“Here, emergency release,” she called quietly, peering over the rounded rim at me. “Looks like a manual lever.”

“Pull it, maybe it’ll pop the thing open,” I suggested as I heard the fiery haram around the corner cheer about getting bucked.

There was a clunk and in one heaving hydraulic motion, Star’s pod lurched from the wall. Steam hissed and spluttered around it as cables popped free, whipping about like angry serpents. The buck within was still as ever, his jelly-like prison bubbling as with a heavy clang, the pod slid free of the frame and hit the floor.

“What was that!?” My ears perked along with Cherry’s as one of the raider mares asked the question, the best I could was mouth the word hide across the width of the discarded pod. “I heard something.”

Ducking down behind the tube with my weapon raised, I heard approaching hoof steps while Cherry took cover between two more of the wall-mounted cylinders. Scarred and dressed in little more than rags held on by rusty plates, the mare peered around the corner, yellowed eyes fixing on Star’s tube.

Damn it, she’ll see us for sure! I thought, ready to turn her to dust. At least until she snorted, laughing as she turned away.

“Ha, just another faulty pod popping the release, popsicle’s gonna be thawed out in a few minutes,” she called back to the others. “Can have some fun before the techs shove them back in.”

“Mare or stallion?” The two other mares asked, perking at the idea Star was a buck. “Oh, I call dibs, they’re always so fuckable when they first thaw!”

And here I thought I was bad for sex. I thought, pretty sure Star would rip those mares in half. Let’s just make sure he’s not asleep by the time they want to fuck him!

With that in mind, I peeked out from the cover, seeing that the fluid within the pod was bubbling far more violently, now more akin to a vibrant blue soup than frozen jelly. An array of buttons along the flank of the thing flickered as the viscous liquid thinned more and more, before with a hiss of steam and a cascade of fluid, the glass hinged apart, spilling Star out onto the tiles like a newborn foal. Secretly begging the goddesses that the raiders would just assume his coughing and the heavy clatter of his hooves were still perfectly normal, I crouched down next to him. Like a baby fawn his body quivered as goop dribbled from his wet coat.

“W–where am I…?” stammered the stallion, coughing up fluid as his eyes fluttered open. “Who’s there?”

“Star, it’s me,” I said, removing my helmet as I pressed a forehoof to his trembling shoulder. “We’re in stable fifty, you’ve just come out of… Well, I’m not quite sure what it is.”

“D–Dragonfire, is that you?” he asked, blinking the stasis gel from his eyes, before wiping his face. “You… What are you doing here, I thought I…”

“Told me to run, yeah.” I smirked as he finally looked at me. “But you know me, I was never really that good at following orders.”

He peered at me like he always did, that same knowing expression that could only come from knowing me for years. Then he glanced down, saw that unlike him, I’d changed a fair bit since we’d last met, and balked.

“What happened to you!?” I blushed, one forehoof reflexively on my bump as I bit my bottom lip and admitted sheepishly.

“I kinda got what I wanted.” He glanced from the bump to me, then again before the realization that I had not simply gotten fat seemed to dawn on him.

“You’re pregnant!?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes as if stating the obvious was necessary. “But… You’re huge, how long was I out… Who’s the father!”

“It’s a long story… But it’s only been a few weeks,” I told him sternly, before really considering the latter most of the questions. “Besides, I’m still nimble enough to save your sorry ass?”

“You buck half the stallions from here to Manehatten and now’s the time you get knocked up?” he huffed with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t suppose you actually know whose it is?”

Why is he so interested, does he want it to be his? Between him and Vertigo, they were the only two stallions I would actually consider offering the role. No, instead the father could be some mutated monster for all I know.

“No, Star, I don’t. It came from a lab, same one we lost you in,” I admitted with a sigh as I rubbed the distended bulge. “It grew this big in just a week or two, I don’t know what it is.”

He blinked at me, then at the bump, as if seeing it in a whole new light, while I added. “But right now it doesn’t matter, we have to get you out of here.”

“We?” he asked, then glancing by me his eyes fell on Cherry.

I had a feeling that to him, there was just as stark a change in the pink mare. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been scared of her own shadow, now she looked almost as hardy as the pair of us.

“Hi, good to see you again,” she greeted with a small wave, hugging her rifle close as Star glanced at me.

“What, she’s improved a lot while you were away,” I insisted, jabbing a forehoof at his chest. “Can you walk, we need to move?”

“Yeah, I think I got this,” he huffed, staggering to full height.

Damn, I forgot just how big he is… If I say he’s the father nopony will ever question why I’m so round so early. I noted, really trying to keep my raging hormones in check.

Of course, the wasteland was unwilling to offer me even the small moment of reprieve as the second Star was on his hooves again, Cherry uttered a small gasp, her rifle drawn as hooves clattered on tiles.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Chief cooed, her sparking weapons crackling as she strode into view. “Come look, there’s some little lost birds.”

I would have found it hard to take the small mare seriously, even with her two raider cronies I felt like I had her outmatched. That was until Carnage marched into view, a devious grin spreading across his crimson muzzle from ear to ear as the fire of his armor turned the whole hall red.

“Same three that we caught in the tower, Carni,” mused the smaller mare, as her scruffy companions giggled, and the flaming stallion shoved forward.

“What a treat, to have all three of you little pests right here,” he mused, scuffing one armored forehoof at the tiles with a spray of sparks. “And if I remember correctly, Barron only wants one of you left alive.”

“Stay behind me, it’s me they want,” I whispered to the others as I stepped up to the molten buck. “Really, because I’ve seen you fight. Clumsy as you are, I doubt you could avoid the collateral damage.”

“You little bitch! Instead, how about I kill that stallion of yours, fuck you two little sluts raw, then rip off the pink one’s head!?” he growled, snorting cinders like some kind of pony-dragon hybrid. “Then again, already looks like you whored yourself out to some welp.”

That earned him a series of devious cackles from his mares as he glared at my belly, while like a pack of hungry Nightstalkers, the trio surrounded us, knives and sickles at the ready.

“I ain’t never had a mare in foal before, wanna try fuck the thing out of her!?” giggled one of the raiders, as the other asked if she could pop me like a balloon.

“Leave me the big one!” She added, jabbing her blade at Star. “Been in stasis so long I bet he’s ripe to explode!”

“Yeah, I’ll take the pink one for an hour or so before you kill her, Carni. She looks like a real screamer!” Chief said in sinister glee.

“You wish, freak!” Cherry hissed, levitating her rifle up at the mare as the three of us were forced back to back, and I brought my energy pistol to bear.

“Now, now, ladies, let’s have fun with this, I bet we can make them all screamers!” Carnage mused, Zap-Zap trained on him as he gave a forward nod.

The raider mares were on us in seconds, rusty blades flashing as power hooves cracked tiles. One leaped at Cherry, dodging her shot, leaving the bullet to shatter one of the empty pods, spilling a vicious flurry of blue goo onto the floor. If the pink mare had not levitated Responsibility parallel to herself to parry the blow, she’d have been gutted as the mare fell over the rifle. Her screams of savage glee drowned out Cherry’s yelp of alarm as the second mare met Star.

Weeks in stasis didn’t seem to have hindered the larger earth pony too much, however, leaving the smaller mare in for a shock as he charged back, throwing her over his head and across the room to slam against another of the pods. She slumped to the tiles, appearing out cold, as Star dashed to barge the mare pinning Cherry. That just left me with Chief, as Carnage stalked around the scuffle like a lion ready to pounce upon the weakest prey.

“No one to save you now, little pest,” hissed the smaller mare as I hopped aside, letting all four of her power hooves rupture the tiles where I’d stood in a spray of shrapnel while I rounded on her and took aim. “Damn it, hold still!”

“What’s that, getting outmatched by a pregnant mare!?” I called, only for her to swat the weapon from my magical grip with a kick of her rear hoof before she twirled and brought the force of one of her power hooves to bear against my left shoulder.

I heard dragon scales crack, saving me from being blown apart as the blunt weapon discharged a wave of static into my shoulder, sending me spiraling back against Star’s open pod with a thud.

“That’s going to be dead pregnant mare in a second!” roared the little savage as she charged, right as my horn flared and a wave of fire caught her underside.

Unlike under the Orical labs, however, now she had fire of her own to back her up. Carnage appeared, cyan flames washing over him with little effect as he thudded down on the tiles between Chief and me.

“I think dead sounds like an excellent idea!” he called as his smaller marefriend landed atop his back, vaulting to land on the edge of the open pod above me.

Still robbed of my weapon, my horn flared again. I managed little more than a spark before I felt a chord wrap around my neck, dragging me back against the pod as Chief yanked one of the device’s loose wires tight around my throat.

“Get her, Carni, rip her heart out for what she’s done to me!” cackled the crazy mare, all care for keeping me alive forgotten as the fiery buck smirked.

Maybe Barron should have kept this one on a tighter leash after all. I knew he’d do it, he had little more than the mind of an ambitious teenager as he swished his fiery tail.

“Hey, asshole!” Star called, right as he tossed one of the raider mares at Carnage in a crazy cackling ball of stabs and hoof kicks.

The flaming stallion recoiled, while the mare screamed as she landed in his flaming mane, coat charred by his armor before she toppled off. There was a bloody crunch as he backed over her, brass armor popping her skull like a melon while overhead, Chief screamed.

“Carni!” She yanked the chord tight, only for it to slacken a second later as Cherry yelled.

“Who’s screaming now!” I caught sight of the pink mare’s reflection in the pod’s door as she levitated up Responsibility and struck the smaller raider over the back of the head.

The moment the cord around my neck fell away, I spun, gasping for air as Cherry’s horn flared and shoved the raider into the open pod. In the same instance she telekinetically slammed the door shut, proving once and for all that, yes, she could trap one of the raiders in a cylinder.

“No, no, let me out of here, you bitch!” called Chief, kicking and thrashing against the glass with just enough momentum for her power hooves to begin cracking it.

“Quick, turn it on!” I called, running a forehoof along every switch and button I could find, while Cherry did the same opposite.

A spider web of cracks spanned across the curved glass as the small raider struck again and again, before with every dial and lever flashing, the inside of the pod turned blue, a dull hum emitting from within as Chief screamed.

“No, no… Carni!” Both Cherry and I glanced up at the flaming stallion as he shook the trampled mare’s blood from his face, and glared at us. All the while, his small marefriend’s cries grew weaker as the pod plunged her into stasis.

“No, what are you doing!?” he roared, bracing for a charge, only for Star to ram into his side.

I watched the gray stallion’s shoulder char, heard his grunt of pain, and saw his wince as his fur was burnt away. He’d been through worse, and his greater size at least allowed him to stagger the molten monster.

“Go, get Vertigo,” I called to Cherry, magically retrieving my pistol as I pressed a forehoof to my aching bump. “We got this.”

She appeared conflicted, but at another urge for her to go, she leaped from the pod and scampered over to the frozen changeling.

“I have no idea what you are, but stay away from my mare!” Star growled, ripping one of the metal cylinders from the central pillar and cracking it over Carnage’s head.

Cold steel and brass plate ruptured as the thing bounced off, rolling to a stop by my hooves as geysers of frozen gas spurted free. All the while I could only think of all the stallions Star chose to fight over me with, why did it have to be one that was on fire!?

A few weeks ago this would have been the most romantic thing. I noted as Carnage kicked out, the gas canisters on his flanks weeping molten fluids as the flamer on his horn flashed.

I caught Star’s eyes pop wide as he hopped back, yet not before the stream of fire blasted his flank, turning more of his gray hide to a bubbling mess of scorched-red flesh and singed fur.

“Enough!” roared the flaming stallion, bracing as the vials of red fluids on his neck glowed. “I’ll kill you all!”

Star staggered back, burned, battered, and bruised as he spat blood. I knew he’d not go down until he was dead, and against Carnage that appeared to soon be the only outcome. Most of all as the injectors stabbed into his neck, and just like in the labs, his crimson muscles bulged, rippling veins flaring under his taut skin as if his blood had become as much fire as his armor. A reverberating roar akin to a dragon escaped his throat as his bloodshot eyes almost popped free of his skull, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as if he’d just taken a shot of every chem known to ponykind.

“Hey, you walking bonfire!” I called, no idea if he could even hear me through his blind rage as I staggered atop the petrified Chief’s pod. “You calm the fuck down or your little fuck toy here gets it!”

He rounded on me, tiles hissing as they melted under his boiling hooves, while I pointed my pistol down at the cracked glass. For all of his throbbing fury, I could see the moment of pause in his eyes as I added.

“That’s right, you listen to me!” I called, nodding for Star to back up toward where Cherry had freed Vertigo’s pod. He hesitated, only relenting as I winked, while Carnage advanced, then grinned.

“Do it, kill her, then I’ll smash you anyway,” he growled, deep voice reverberating with the fury of an angry god as he narrowed his eyes. “Either way, you’re all going to fucking die!”

Okay, so maybe threatening the literal avatar of bloody rage is not the best plan! My mind screamed as I diverted my weapon from the stunned raider to him, letting loose a flurry of laser fire that only appeared to piss him off. Damn it, this thing is supposed to dust everything!

The few scorch marks the weapon made in his crimson hide quickly regenerated as he slammed into the pod, knocking me back as I fought to stay steady on the curve of the cylinder.

“You think I care about anything other than blood, blood, blood!” he repeated like a mad-stallion, clawing his way up the pod, glass cracking under him as molten sludge dribbled down into the stasis fluid. “I’ll kill you, kill him, then kill all the fuckers in here, Barron be dammed!”

Okay, maybe a bomb collar rather than a leash! I thought, taking aim only for him to swat the meager weapon aside.

“What do you think you’re gonna do with that, I’m a fucking god!?” he bellowed, flames crackling at the back of his throat as the air blasting between his metallic fangs scorched my cheeks.

“I don’t know, something stupid!” I called back, magically reaching for the next best thing I could find.

It turned out to be the cylinder Star had beaten him over the head with, only instead of attempting the same futile attack again, I shoved the loose nozzle in his face and twisted the valve.

He hissed, recoiling as the rushing surge of frozen gas blasted into his face. Reaching a forehoof to his eyes to rub the stuff away, I saw the heat burning away his eyelids just as fast as they regenerated. At least the parts that were not frozen solid.

He can’t regenerate if it’s frozen. I noted, unsure how I could use that to my advantage now the cylinder was empty. Damn it, I need more of that stuff.

“You bitch!” he growled, shaking the frost from his head as he leveled his horn at me. “I’ll fucking cook you!”

Well, there goes that plan. There was nowhere for me to go, the whole room was going to be alight in seconds. Damn, I really need to cover myself in more dragon scales!

“No, you don’t, not this time!” Star called, adding to his burns as he leaped atop the flaming stallion and wrapped his forehooves around his neck, yanking him back from the pod.

The blast of fire from his horn flared, scorching the roof with a wave of smoldering heat that poured down the walls in an infernal torrent. The raider mare Star had knocked out was caught in the fire as several of the pods burst like ripe melons. All the while, Carnage bucked and kicked, tossing off the larger stallion like he were a mere foal, before slamming into another pod.

“Star, you idiot, I told you to help Cherry!” Caught between the horror of seeing my friend burned, and ducking out of reach of the flames above, I lost my balance, falling right onto the raging red stallion’s back. “Oh, shit!”

If not for the scales on my armor, I’d have been toasted to a crisp too, the heat against my bloated belly almost as unbearable as the pain of the thing swelling rapidly. Regardless, I fought to stop myself from falling, only to get battered to a pulp by his blazing hooves. My forehooves gripped his shoulders, hot brass hissing against my barding as my magic grasped the first thing it could, the metallic harness designed to pump the fiery chemical into his neck.

Seconds later I suddenly discovered that such a thing was not made to be grabbed while the pony wearing it was bucking and kicking like a mad-stallion. A hissing spray of boiling blood erupted from the four points in Carnage’s neck as the whole thing ripped free, and the stallion screamed in reverberating agony.

“Get the fuck off me!” His blazing mane flared as he slammed against one of the walls, shattering several pods as he charged back toward the center of the room, shoving terminals and consuls aside in a flaming storm of sparks. “I said get off!”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m bad at following orders!” I responded, doing my best not to be tossed off as he slammed into the lab’s central pillar, causing several pipes to burst free in a series of frozen torrents.

Canisters toppled from the spire, shooting off like miniature rockets as the pressurized gasses within were loosed into the scorched air. All the while I did my best to magically grasp onto one of the free chords as it danced in the air like some kind of wicked snake.

“Do you have any idea who I am!?” Carnage declared as he reared up, every flame of his brass armor flaring as he violently attempted to throw me over his head. “I’m a fucking god of war!”

“Yeah well, this god of war needs to fucking chill!” I declared, snagging one of the frozen output chords in my magical grip, and ramming it into one of the injector wounds on his neck as hard as I could.

Blood bubbled from the surgical cavity in his throbbing flesh like he were about to burst, while somewhere within him I felt metal catch, seeing the flesh freeze before my eyes. I telekinetically reached out for every valve I could, cranking them all up as far as they would go. My grip loosened by the strain, I was tossed over his head, tumbling to the tiles as he heaved and panted, quivering eyes fixed on me as bloody foam drooled from his fanged maw.

“You… I’ll kill…” His reverberating words caught in his warped throat as he shuddered, while a steaming wave of icy blue marched over his neck, coils of pale crystals sprouting out over his bulk from every accentuated vain like some kind of frosty tree taking root under his taut skin. “W–what have you done to me!?”

I winced, failing to dignify him with an answer as he attempted to step toward me, only for his now frozen left foreleg to catch and shatter like glass. The garbled sound was like nothing I’d ever heard, as before my eyes the point on his neck I’d injected started to rapidly swell like a bloated water balloon.

“She told me I… Could never… Die…” He gasped, lungs freezing over as icy fluids bubbled from his flared nostrils. “Sigle… M–mother, save… Me!”

Regenerative or not. There was no way his body could recover from the multitude of unstable chemicals bubbling away within him like some crazy party chem-concoction. With a flash of fire and ice, his neck exploded, shattering the rest of his half-frozen body like frosty glass in a spray of crimson shards, frozen brass, icy blood, and gore, staining the room around me in sanguine offal. I closed my eyes, feeling the bubbling goo that had once been the monster pony slipping off my face as I really wished I could get the gruesome image of somepony exploding out of my mind, as foul as they’d been in life.

Just think, a month or two from now, that could be you. I cut off the thought immediately. No, they are not monsters!

“Dragonfire, Dragonfire!” I opened my eyes to see Cherry skid through the gore towards me. With little care for the blood on her hooves, she knelt down beside me. “I think… What did you do?”

“Pretty sure I made him explode,” I told her with a small laugh, wiping more of him from my scorched barding. “Where’s Vertigo and Star?”

“Here,” came the far more welcome reverberating tone of the bug in question as I glanced up to see him dripping stasis fluids, looking like he’d just recovered from the goddess of all hangovers. “You couldn’t have waited a second…? That looked like a good show.”

“He didn’t exactly give me a timeframe,” I laughed, rolling onto my hooves, and shaking off more gore as Cherry supported my left. “How are you feeling?”

“Worse than you look,” he muttered, rubbing his head. “Just give me a moment, I’ll put on something more appealing.”

“No, this is not so bad you know?” I told him with a small smile. “I’m glad you're okay, now we just need to get you out of here.”

“Where’s Binary, is she alright?” he asked, and I nodded, bringing him up to speed. “As far as I know she’s still in medical, there’s a bunch of stable ponies in here still loyal to her mother. I also got word out to Cross and the Rangers, if they’re gonna come help, they have to do it now.”

“Killing him has to help too, right?” Cherry asked, peering at the bubbling pile of offal with only a mild disgust. “I didn’t think anypony could kill one of those monsters.”

“Just hope he stays dead,” Vertigo huffed, then glanced my way. “So, who’s the stud, I dig the burns?”

Only then did I look to where he’d indicated, seeing Star stagger up, his hide blackened and burns raw.

“Shit, I need a healing potion, now!” I called, darting over to my fallen friend. “Damn it, Star, I thought it was down to me to deal with fire!”

“Yeah, but I was the one with the flamer, remember?” he coughed as I snorted my discontent.

“Cherry, I need that potion now…” I glanced back to see both Cherry and Vertigo frozen solid, their eyes quivering as the latter appeared to have been in the motion of retrieving the potion I’d requested.

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” I was shoved to the bloody tiles by Twilight’s magic before I could so much as twitch, while the dark alicorn materialized from the shadows like a ghost. “Same can’t be said for poor Carnage here.”

“Keep talking like that, and you’ll be next, witch!” I hissed, gagging on bloody chunks as my face was shoved into the tiles.

“No, I don’t think I will. Still, for as much as I applaud you for killing that loose cannon, he was still one of the Sigel’s children,” she mused, wiping bloody offal from one of her dark forehooves. “You’re just lucky they want you alive, Barron has flayed ponies for far less.”

“Yeah, well I’ll add him to the list of ponies I gotta kill too, right after you!” I challenged, seeing that Star was also petrified in the motion of trying to get up and jump her. “Just you wait!”

“I’ve waited almost two centuries for a worthy challenge, and you’re not it, trust me,” she deadpanned, levitating my friends into a neat line as she added. “You’re just another pest in a long line, and I’m sure Barron is just going to love finally meeting you face to face.”

Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Monster Slayer: Rank One – That’s open monster pony down who knows how many to go now? The speed of all your melee and unarmed attacks is increased by 30%.

Chapter Thirty-One: The Cavlary

Chapter 31:

The Cavalry

“Listen here, you rabid rhododendrons! You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!”

The atrium of stable fifty was like any other, if any other stable was run by a crazy cult of well-armed and organized ponies, led by magical monsters. Stiff as statues, Cherry, Star, Vertigo, and I were levitated into the large room and arrayed in a line opposite the Overmare’s window above, flanked on all sides by faceless Transcendent guards as from the corridor behind us Twilight loomed like an obsidian goddess.

A very angry-looking Chief trudged behind the dark alicorn, shimmering stasis fluids still staining her damp coat. She looked for all the world like all she wanted to do was rip me apart. Considering I’d bested her three times already, I didn’t fancy her chances, most of all now her flaming colt friend was gone. I could hardly blame her, however, my friends were hardly in any better shape. Vertigo looked only a little more awake than her, his pure form on display for everypony to scoff at, while the few stable ponies in the chamber appeared rather perplexed by the changeling.

Star looked as if he needed to join Binary in medical, his burnt hide was red raw. I could only hope that the smart little earth pony knew what she was doing, because right now it appeared my plan had gone to total shit. Seeing Cherry puppeted around like a toy only made that all the more real. Her stern expression felt as if it were only for my sake, she was an inch away from breaking, falling back to what she’d been weeks ago. At least back then she’d still been a good pony. I, on the other hoof, could hardly say the same. I’d dragged her into this mess. I’d dragged them all in.

Why can’t anything I do just work out for once, why couldn’t such a high-paying job just have been simple? It all felt so pointless now, the caps. Surrounded by the very cult of ponies that had baited her into it. And here I am, finally in the trap.

As if the situation couldn’t get any worse, Locust lingered in the shadows to the left, mechanical sprites jittering around her in an angry cloud that matched her bitter expression. She’d cared for her brother enough to be mad about his death. I could just add her to the list of Barron’s goons that wanted me dead, rather than captured.

Somepony really needs to get these guys’ work ethic in order. I liked to think that my wit was the last thing I had to lose, yet even my brain’s sarcastic remarks felt wasted. A small squirm from my gut only added to the deep pit yawning inside me, that mental dam in the back of my mind fit to burst with the weight of so many failures. No, they have to be coming for us, damn me if I’m letting it end here.

“Begone,” Twilight said as she came to a stop before us, shoeing Chief away to the corner of the room, where the small mare begrudgingly took up a position as close to Locust as she dared. “Well, looks like your time’s run out.”

She rounded on the four of us, leaving the others totally petrified, before releasing my head with a flick of her horn. I gasped, feeling rushing back into my lips as she withdrew, levitating my mother’s pipbuck away with her. Beyond, I saw a desk, at which was a pony I recognized. Wavelength had clearly never made it to medical, and while I dreaded to think what had become of the two mares I’d found with him in the labs, the terrified stable technician was now staring at a terminal upon the desk as if to look away, was instant death. It felt like just another failure, as little as I knew him. Nevertheless, I called out.

“No, I’m just buying time.” Twilight paused, glancing back over her shoulder at me. Her dark armor gleamed, yet for some reason it felt as if she were smirking under the helmet.

“Perhaps you’re referring to your little band of mutineers in the medical wing?” she cooed, voice dripping with snide venom. “Not to worry, we’ll have them dealt with soon enough.”

“Not just them!” Locust snapped, an arm of sprites jabbing free of her shoulder to point at me. “Why are we even wasting our time, just let me shred these native fucks!”

“Yeah, yeah, do it… Just leave me the white one!” Chief chimed in like a yapping puppy championing the rage of the far more dangerous monster pony. “I get my hooves on her, and she’ll wish she were dead.”

“Oh goddesses, I’m so scared,” I droned, not even sparing her a glance as I did my utmost to maintain my nerve, no matter how close to the surface my terror was.

I can’t let anypony else get hurt, not my friends, not my foals. I thought, sure, that if they thought the only threat was Binary in medical, then they’d no idea about the army poised to take the stable. That, and maybe there’s another ace up my sleeve.

I eyed the pipbuck levitating in Twilight’s magic, praying that it had one last miracle to pull. It wavered in the air as she glowered at the two rambunctious mares demanding my death, waving them off with a dark wing.

“Silence your insipid muttering,” she hissed, the two backing off with growls akin to angry dogs as the alicorn looked back at me. “As for you, enjoy what little wit you have left.”

I glared right back at her, catching sideways glances from my petrified friends as I felt the little foals inside me shudder. There was no way she was getting her hooves on any of them, yet the second I opened my mouth to say as much, an eerie silence fell over the atrium. As if gripped in the alicorn’s magic, every Transcendent goon stiffened, while the alicorn herself drew back, a small snicker of triumph escaping her mask as she looked to the doorway below the Overmare’s window.

It hissed open and two ponies materialized first. For all intents and purposes, they looked to be in power armor. Yet as they parted, taking positions on either side of the doorway, I noticed it was merely a more heavily armored variant of the barding the rest of the Transcendent lackeys boasted. Marred by orbital markings, it covered the pair from hoof to mane, right down to the tail. The most notable differences were the clean gray cape slung around their shoulders.

At their flanks were what I guessed were modified magical energy lances, protruding from beneath the cape the arcane spears crackled with purple sparks. Both took up stoic positions by the open archway, as if more robotic than equine. Standing like sentinels as the sound of loud, metallic footsteps echoed from the hallway beyond. I considered myself lucky, assuming what were evidently Barron’s personal guards had been inside the office with him and Twilight rather than outside when Cherry and I had passed earlier. Right now, however, that luck felt pointless. No pony uttered a word as the sound grew closer.

Locust scowled, sprites buzzing about her like she were a cadaver, while Twilight loomed in her statuesque stance. The only one not turning her full attention to the door was Chief, all she appeared to desire was my head on a spike. In the few seconds, I could hear the footsteps, the less and less they sounded like that of a pony, too few for four hoofs. Like the silhouette I’d glimpsed in the office, Barron didn’t sound as if he walked on all fours either. His gate was more like that of a lithe hellhound.

A moment later, the mechanical creature whose goons had chased me for weeks finally appeared, casting a dark shadow over the atrium. He was like nothing I'd ever seen, tall and bipedal, yet hunched over slightly. Skeletal body made from a smooth, silvery metal that shunned the buzzing atrium lights with a purple sheen. Every section of the stuff moved more seamlessly than any robot. Arms tipped with five-fingered claws, digitigrade legs, and metal feet like that of a giant bird. Behind his sleek hips, dragged a long metal tail. Jittering as segmented sections, like that of a Radscorpion shifted over the grated floor. The wicked thing was finally tipped with a bladed coil that curled inward like a viper poised to strike.

Housed within his cavernous chest plates, was a glowing core of bubbling fluid, around it, a thin fleshy embrace that moved and shifted with a mechanical heartbeat. Like the guards, down his back was a long, white cape, projecting his outline wide as it stretched over his broad shoulders. Above, a segmented neck slumped forward between the curved pauldrons, his head like a flat skull. At least from the front, the rear of the skull boasted sharp draconic horns. Wicked spires that stretched over his hunched shoulders, the space between them boasting a translucent glass orb that seemed to house a brain.

Sharp eye sockets were carved into the metal above a grill-like mouth. Red pupils glowing with a strange light that was broken by dark plates that shifted about the orbit, as if to mimic blinking and expression. I felt like I’d seen this demon of flesh and steel before, in a dream or more fittingly a nightmare.

The tap of his metal claws beat hard against the floor, cyborg body far more life-like than any robot had any right to be. He wasn’t like any brain bot, they were so minor and calculating. No, I could see why everypony seemed wary of Barron as he swiftly walked into the center of the atrium, clawed hands curled up to his steely chest.

"My lord," Twilight began, bowing her head and sweeping her wings outwards in a bow, an action I suddenly found myself forced to mimic, along with the rest of my captured friends as the alicorn’s horn glowed.

Barron appeared as if he cared as much for the formality as he did the dirt on his metallic claws as he regarded us, a tinny growl thundering from his grated face. Every breath had the gritty consistency of dragon scales as the cyborg finally spoke.

“Ah yes, the Sigal’s prize.” Like in the office, his gravelly voice radiated outward as if he’d smoked far too many cigarettes in way too short a time, and his eyes passed from me to Vertigo. “And, the changeling. I’ve been waiting for you.”

His acknowledgment of Cherry was fleeting, leaving me to wonder if I should feel proud or terrified to have drawn his ire.

“That wasn’t much of an escape attempt.” Servos whirred as his attention shifted to Star. “Nor a rescue.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” I retorted, putting on as strong a condescending tone as I could manage as he loomed down to come eye-to-eye with me.

In place of foul breath, I caught the scent of acrid oils, while the mere metal he was made from felt as if it radiated a sickly feeling.

“Forgive me if I was expecting somepony who’s caused me such trouble to be something…” He paused, a grizzled chuckle marring his words. “More.”

“I could say the same,” I spat back, hearing metal click as his eyes shifted into a knitted scowl.

“Equine fool,” he growled, snatching himself away from me with a flick of his claws. “You may have bested Carnage, but your sharp tongue cannot save you now.”

“Her device, my lord,” Twilight stated, levitating him my old pipbuck. “Everything the Sigel requires should be present.”

“And yet still you fail to offer me such secrets, inquisitor,” the cyborg snapped, snatching the thing from her telekinetic grip as if she couldn’t just magically crush him. “It is imperative we acquire the code fragment and any other information the Reliquary hides.”

What is he made of if she can’t? I wondered, glancing about, but with my body petrified from the neck down, and the rest of my friends like statues, there was hardly anything I could do.

“You can’t open it,” I called, feeling, if anything, the cyborg’s apparent anger was something I could use to buy some precious time.

They all seem to do things based on him, so just gotta keep him distracted. I thought, really hoping I didn’t upset him enough that he just cut my head off.

“Is that so?” he hissed, clutching the thing tight in his claws, before tossing it at the desk. Wavelength flinched at the impact, tears streaming down his cheeks as Barron wheezed another grizzled laugh. “For his sake, I hope you’re wrong.”

There was a snide laugh from Chief and Locust, as the cyborg lifted one claw, clicked the metallic limb back with a whirr and in his wrist two narrow panels slid apart. A low hum sounded, as from within his arm lifted a barrelled device. I knew an energy weapon when I saw one, even if I could not make out the vibrant blue glow of the model. Not that I really cared what it was as he aimed the thing right at Wavelength, growling two simple words.

“Open it.” The stallion fumbled for the device, whimpering as he did his best to awkwardly hook it up to the terminal. All the while, I stared at the thing, knowing full well that Overseer wouldn’t save the life of the buck over Hayland’s secrets.

“N–no, no wait!” I called, wishing to reach out to them, to no avail as my stunned body shuddered. “I don’t know how to open it!”

Wavelength continued tapping away on the terminal, each sharp click of his hooves on the buttons deafening in the petrified silence. I saw the green light flash across his face, and caught the glimmer of his tears as he shuddered. Barron didn’t budge, nor did his weapons, only the ragged monotony of his heaving breath left him as the anger at my inability to do anything built and built.

“You know I don’t know,” I pressed, looking at Twilight. “Or is all that freaky mind shit you threatened me with just talk?”

“Insolent cur,” grumbled the alicorn, glancing between me and the cyborg. “I don’t need to look into your mind to see how worthless it is,” she cooed, stepping around me as Wavelength sniffled. “But don’t you want to know?”

Do I? She’d warned me the truth was not good. The reality that I had something inequine growing inside me. I couldn’t glance down at the sensation of something squirming in my belly, but I wanted to, no matter how much I tried to keep my stern gaze fixed on her. I could know what it is, save my friends from this.

That was only if I believed the Transcendent would keep their word. Safe to say, I didn’t as Twilight pressed.

“No desire to discover what they did to you, what’s inside you?” I felt a shallow pressure caress my gut as her horn glowed, the foals within kicking in response to her magic’s touch. “Is all this stubbornness really worth it? Just give in.”

Her cool voice dropped low, as if talking to a foal. Once again, I could only imagine a devilish smile under that dark mask as I snorted in her face.

“I told you, I don’t know how.” I nodded to the device as Wavelength glanced between it and the screen, sweat mixing with tears on his pale face. “There’s a program stuck on there, picked it up the same place I did my passenger.” I nodded downward. “Maybe you should have asked Carnage about it before I iced him, it chased him off the last time.”

“You bitch, I’ll…” A wave of magic from the alicorn shoved Chief back, while the buzz of sprites from the former monster pony’s sister ground almost as hard as her silvery teeth.

“I see,” mused the dark goddess, looking back to Barron as the cyborg maintained his soulless aim at the stable pony. “She has nothing to reveal, though could provide other means to access the quarry.”

She gave a nod to the device on the desk, and Barron growled as Wavelength stammered meekly.

“S–she’s right… There’s something in the system, every time I try to bypass it, it corrects itself.” Barron’s claws closed into a fist, sharp metal grinding as Twilight mused.

“An arcaneo-intelligents.” She looked at Barron, rubbing a wing tip under her chin. “One of Hayland’s personal assistants, I assume. If so, it will not relinquish its defenses unless forced.”

“And to do so?” pressed the cyborg, clearly growing very impatient despite the minor inflection in his voice.

“I suspect it is the safeguard of whatever final experiment he was conducting,” she went on, glancing back at me. “It will not act, unless such assets are threatened.”

“I see,” growled the cyborg, a flash lighting up the room before I could say anything more. “Then you are no use to me.”

I’d never seen an energy weapon discharge so violently, as if the sun itself were trapped within the glowing blue barrel his wrist blaster turned Wavelength’s head to bloody meat in a flash. The crimson spray disintegrated before it stained the wall, his body thudding to the grated floor as ash. I heard Cherry’s panicked breath, the angry grunt that escaped Vertigo. Star merely glared at the alicorn holding him in paralytic chains. My attention was fixed on the cyborg as he stomped over to me with heavy, metallic steps, the grated floor buckling under his claws. Maybe if I’d been armed and could move, he wouldn’t be as intimidating.

“Listen to me, pony.” He snapped the latter most word as if he’d never been something so organic. “I do not care for your attempts at stalling, I do not care for your lack of knowledge. I only live to serve the Sigal.”

He wrapped a claw around my neck, the vice-like grip similar to that of Mr Green as he shattered Twilight's spell and shoved me down. The alicorn took a step back, huffing hotly as I weekly regained control of my limbs. Not that it did me much good. I heard Cherry breathe a shrill eep, while Vertigo and Star both huffed. All the while my forelegs worked weakly against Barron’s arm, that warning about him ripping the foals right out of me was now very believable.

“I promise you nothing more than a swift death, the same cannot be said for your companions.” He heaved me up, slamming me back first into the floor, while Twilight grumbled about how important it was I didn’t die. “They will suffer endlessly!”

Only, as he’d promised, it was not me that was going to be killed first, and slowly servos whirred as I watched him raise his other arm, pointing his wrist weapon right at the paralyzed Cherry. Just like Wavelength, I saw tears in her eyes, small lines of glistening fluid rolling down her quivering cheeks as I kicked and bucked at the metal monster.

“No… Don’t…!” I choked, gripping his wrist as I struggled to look at the pipbuck. “Overseer, you bastard… Do… Something!”

There was nothing from the pipbuck, as if it knew that everypony else in here would die before me. Everypony not important to its plan.

Not that I’m so important, that program will hardly care if I die when his precious monsters burst out of me. It was hardly time to stifle that thought as I felt Barron’s sharp claws start to dig into my barding.

“Your boldness grows tiresome,” growled the cyborg nightmare as he flicked his wrist, the weapon giving a low hum. “Open it!”

Clearly, he didn’t care much for Twilight’s explanation, not that she seemed willing to interrupt him. Locust and Chief, at least, appeared to revel in his torture as I squirmed.

“Overseer, fuck you!” My breath left me, warmness seeping from my bloody neck where his talons pierced my armor. Then the room shook.

A rumble came moments after the atrium quivered, lights flickering as dust trailed from the rusty gantries above. Barron’s grip relaxed slightly, a frustrated hiss escaping his grated mask as he glanced about.

“I thought I ordered the medical wing to be slaughtered,” he stated, looking to Twilight as the alicorn too, appeared perplexed.

“The rebels are contained…” Her voice was cut off as an alarm sounded, followed by a buzzing announcement.

“Perimeter breach at the main door, eastern defenses are unresponsive,” came the voice that had announced our escape hours ago.

A sound like oncoming thunder left Barron’s mask at the announcement, moments before he tossed me to the floor like a rag. I saw Twilight lurch, heard Chief snicker. All the while, I was left gagging, battling to regain the breath he’d stolen from me as my whole body ached.

“Get to the main door, make sure the stable is secure,” demanded Barron, jabbing a claw at Twilight as he withdrew to the desk. “Then commence with your mission, I want every loose end here tied.” She appeared unsure, glancing at me before reluctantly nodding.

“As you wish.” She looked at my petrified friends. “Restrain them.” Transcendent guards appeared at my companions’ backs, weapons of all kinds keeping them still as Twilight took a step back, flared her horn, and much like Vertigo often did, disappeared in a pink flash.

So, she can’t do her whole statue thing when she’s not around. I noted as my friends were released, gasping, only for the guards to make sure they didn’t budge.

“Let me deal with them, my lord,” Locust finally chimed in, taking a step forward. “I hunger for flesh, and you only need the foals, right?”

“Silence your impulses,” Barron hissed, waving her off as he approached again. “The stable will be secure and I will have the Sigal’s prize.”

“Not if I can help it!” I coughed, free of the paralytic spell and currently lacking a guard to press a gun to my back, I magically ceased my weapon.

Remind me to thank that arrogant alicorn bitch later. To think she didn’t even disarm us. I thought as I took a shot at Barron. Get dusted monster, Zap-Zap always…

The shot pinged from the cyborg as if it were no more than torchlight. That didn’t stop me from shooting again, and again, each shot doing little more than creating a glowing spot in his silvery frame as he laughed.

“Your bravery is wasted,” he mocked as his wrist blaster hummed, poised to turn Cherry to ashes once more. “Now, allow me to show you true firepower.”

What can I do? I have my gun, I can move… But he just won’t die. The clip empty, all I could do was reload, right as there was a sound on the floor at his feet.

Clang… Clang… Thud.

“Impossible!” Like the sharp eyes of a griffin, Barron’s gaze shifted downward, popping wide as he leaped back faster than lightning.

It took me only a second to see why, dropping my laser pistol and magically yanking Cherry away from the spark grenade right as it went off in an eruption of crackling blue magic. The blast shunned my eyes, ringing in my ears as I lost sight of everypony but the pink mare. Before I knew it I was face to face with her, her weeping eyes fixed on me as I loomed over her defensively.

“Y–you alright?” I panted, adrenalin fuelling my recovery as I heaved and panted, foals throwing a party in my griping gut all the while.

Cherry blinked tears from her eyes, sniffed, and then wrapped her forehooves around me. Her first kiss had been a shock. Now our lips were suddenly locked a second time, however, I wanted nothing more than to melt against her. A scream behind us made me quite certain that wasn’t an option as I broke the embrace far too soon. Locust fell, as if feeling the pain of every sprite as her swarming minions fizzled out with static pops. I made sure to note her apparent weakness to spark magic, while beside her, Chief shook her head, staggering on her power-hoof-tipped legs.

“D–dragonfire… I… I’m fine… I…” Cherry didn’t avert her eyes as one pink forehoof lifted to my chest, slowly running down to my distended tummy. “Goddesses, I shouldn’t have…”

“No, don’t be sorry,” I declared sternly, glancing about to see the less robotic of the Transcendent guards recovering from the sudden spark attack. “Let’s just save the sappy stuff until we get out of here.”

She sniffed, before her face hardened as she nodded. Levitating Responsibility from her side as I staggered back, shaking the last dregs of ringing from my ears.

“Helluva ambush, how’d you pull that off?” The newly disguised Vertigo said as he appeared beside me, the guard who’d been tasked to watch him out cold on the floor.

“It wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything!” I called, searching for Star. “Where’s Star, he was right next to you?”

“The big guy? I don’t know,” the Changeling droned, before Cherry called out, gesturing across the room to where I saw the large grey earth pony struggling to combat two guards with his burnt hooves.

“Star!” I called, lurching for him and levitating up Zap-Zap.

“No wait, if you didn’t drop that grenade then who…?” Vertigo’s words were lost to a battle cry as half a dozen ponies in stable security barding appeared on the upper atrium gantries.

“For the Overmare!” called one mare, while another muttered the same mantra, adding stable fifty in the place of Overmare.

I hardly knew her, but I had never been so happy to see Binary, looking far more stable in a new mechanical rig as her mechanical limbs clutched a pair of submachine guns. All around her, the rest of Stable Fifty’s residents wielded similar weapons, from rifles to security batons. I saw Flash and Net runner among them, the latter’s aim still a little wobbly.

“Barron, you’re surrounded, give up!” called Binary, two of her extra limbs clacking as she lifted herself up onto the rail, aiming right at him.

“Ah, so you’re the leader of this pitiful mutiny,” rasped the cyborg, as I looked up to see him in the archway through which he’d entered, grizzled laughter escaping his mask as his elite guards ignited their lances. “Crush them, bring me the Sigal’s prize!”

Ceasing the crackling spears in their magic, the two elite unicorns charged without question, spinning the things like they were leading some kind of marching band, while Barron slinked back.

“Back, now!” I called, shoving the unarmed changeling away as I took aim along with Cherry. “Try to find a weapon!”

All the while, the ponies above exchanged fire with the few guards that had recovered from the spark grenade’s electrical detonation. Any bullet that struck Barron harmlessly pinged off his silver bones, however, only adding to the ways I knew I couldn’t harm him as the first lancer guard came in close.

I’d never seen a unicorn wield such a melee weapon so masterfully as she twirled the thing, catching the longer barrel of Cherry’s golden rifle and shoving it upward as the pink mare fired. In the same motion, the elite mare reversed the momentum of the lance, and before I could even blink, jabbed it at my lover’s shoulder. Cherry screamed, a sizzling scar tore from the right side of her neck to her upper foreleg.

All the while, the second guard made for Vertigo, only to fall short as the buck teleported away. In a flash, he was behind the elite stallion, snatching one of the discarded Transcendent weapons from the floor with his magic. Not to be outdone, the elite guard telekinetically jabbed the lance back, the blunt end impacting Vertigo’s muzzle hard, staggering the blue stallion as his opponent spun, presenting the far more dangerous end of the weapon.

No, no, don’t make me choose! My mind screamed as I glanced between my two friends. Don’t say I have to lose one of them!

It was Cherry’s scream that broke me, as the guard pinned her under one forehoof and shoved Responsibility aside with another jab of her magical spear.

“Get off her!” I yelled, swaying as my stomach lurched before I clumsily barrelled into the guard.

The elite mare staggered left, while I fumbled over my prone companion, swollen center of mass really doing me no favors as my larger belly swayed. My opponent had no such disadvantage as she spun back, lance swirling masterfully to skewer me. She didn’t say a word as I lifted my pistol, swaying as I forced my pipbuck into S.A.T.S. I could only hope they were not as laser-proof as their boss as I opened up a full clip of disintegrating death into the mare’s masked face. Zap-zap didn’t fail me a second time, the mare vanishing like a ghost in the wind as she crumpled to dust. Her lance clattered down at my forehooves as Cherry staggered out from under me and lifted her rifle.

Responsibility sang before I registered, striking the second elite guard in the shoulder before he could impale Vertigo. Snagging the first guard’s discarded lance, I whirled around with her, only to see more of the lesser goons aiming at us.

“Don’t bother with them, retrieve Locust and fall back,” called Barron, as the silvery monster slinked around the firefight's edge.

True to his orders, the lesser guards withdrew, multiple unicorns levitating away the stunned monster pony. I saw Chief dragged off with them, molested by fire from above as the remaining lancer struck Vertigo across the face with a hind hoof and rounded on us. In the time it took Cherry to reload, the elite stallion was on us. I didn’t even bother ejecting the sizzling clip from Zap-Zap, telekinetically lifting my new lance to counter the first in a hail of purple sparks.

The metal clattered, reverberating down the length of the slim weapon. Yet I was no master, I hardly managed two parries as the elite guard whirred and spun his lance like it were an extension of his magic.

Tap, Tap, crackle. Deflected with perfect ease, my lance was swatted from my magic, as the elite guard moved for one last blow at my neck.

So much for wanting me alive! I thought, right as there was a flash above the stallion, Vertigo materializing from nowhere to drop onto his back.

“Last pony I wanna take for a ride right now!” he called, as the elite stallion bucked, struggling as Vertigo wrapped his forehooves around the dark mask.

With both a heave of his forelegs and his magic, he ripped the thing off. Revealing a grizzled yellow buck’s face.

“Hey, you!” Cherry called through her pained exertions, rifle loaded and aimed. With a flash, Responsibility reduced the scarred features of the buck to a bloody paste, Vertigo hopping free as the elite guard slumped in a sanguine heap.

“Nice shot,” the disguised changeling quipped, and regardless of her heaving breath, I swore Cherry actually lit up with the cutest blush.

“Enough of this!” Barron’s thunderous voice shook the room, snatching my attention to the far side.

Oh no… I thought I’d been freed from his wicked torture, only to find Star effortlessly pinned under one of the cyborg’s clawed talons. That stallion can hurl rock… No, damn it!

“Wait, wait, stop!” I called, the stable ponies above directing their weapons at the mechanical monster as the last of the transcendent goons not gunned down slinked out. “Binary, tell them to stop!”

“Hold your fire!” called the mare, lifting one metal claw, and closing it tight. “Damn it, Dragonfire, this bastard has to die.”

“You really think your pitiful weapons have any chance of stopping me?” hissed the monster with a wicked laugh. “I will see every one of you die, until I get what I want. Starting with this one!”

I had never heard anypony make Star scream, yet Barron came pretty close as he sank one talon into the buck’s shoulder, seeming to part his shoulder blades like smooth butter. A pained grunt left my burly companion as I poised Zap-Zap at Barron.

“Go ahead, waste more ammo, I cannot die,” taunted the cyborg as Star growled.

“Dragonfire, don’t give this fucker nothin’!” Barron shoved his claws forward, slipping Star across the floor with a bloody smear.

My aim wavered, I looked from my pinned partner, to the eyes of the monster, then finally to the pipbuck on the desk. Overseer won’t open it for anyone but…

“You can’t die… But I can!” Cherry lurched as I lifted Zap-Zap under my chin, staring right at the monster.

“Dragonfire, what are you…!?” I nodded for Cherry to stay back, the pain in her eyes more hurtful than the thought I could die any second. “No… No, don’t!”

“You hear that, Overseer…? You keep him from what he wants, and I go, along with your little experiment,” I insisted, while every set of eyes in the room fixed on me.

Cherry with raw fear, Vertigo with somewhere between a sly smirk and worry I’d actually do it.

“You are a bold creature,” mused Barron, eliciting a gritted yelp from Star as he pressed downward. “Go ahead, do it!”

“I will!” I warned, shoving the weapon as I lifted my head. “You really want to take that risk, Overseer…? You play along, save everypony here, or everything Hayland told you to do dies with me!”

There was a long silence, the air so thick I could have cut it with a knife edge, before finally, Barron growled.

“Time’s up.” His wrist weapon hummed, right as the terminal on the desk started to whir.

I saw the green flash of text projected on the rear wall, as did Barron as he glanced left. I lost sight of him a moment later, nothing but his glowing eyes visible as the lights flickered out. In the same instance the terminal’s hum grew louder, before with an electrical boom, the thing exploded like a second spark grenade.

It was just enough to shake the monster off my friend, staggering him back. The second he was more than an inch away from Star I unloaded Zap-Zap once more, as did the rest of the stable ponies reinforce my barrage. Every shot pinged from the monster like mere pebbles, the only real damage that to his cape as the tattered white sheet billowed behind him. I saw only brief flashes of him in the light of the gunfire, shocked at just how fast he could move while skittering to the desk like some oversized metal Radroach. Snatching the pipbuck in one claw, he took off back the way he’d come, the door hissing closed behind him.

“Star!” The word left my mouth the moment I was able to dash over to my injured partner, while the wounded Cherry slipped against Vertigo for support. “You stupid bastard, how’d you let him get you!?”

“Hard to fight off a wall of metal,” coughed the burly earth pony, lightly pressing a forehoof to my belly as he croaked. “Are you… Alright?”

“I… I’m fine… I…” Words caught in my throat as I felt his soft touch on my bump, a warmness I didn’t know I could feel anymore blooming in my chest. “They’re fine too, we need to get you to medical.”

“Her too, magical energy scarring is not good,” Vertigo informed me of Cherry’s dire state as the pink mare wavered.

“No… No, I can…” She slumped, wincing as it appeared her adrenalin rush was fading. “Okay… It hurts a lot!”

“Don’t worry, medical is secure,” Binary informed us as she casually climbed down from the gantry above.

Even if she has to wear that thing, I can see why she never takes it off. Her mobility was second to none, rivaling Barron’s creepy crawl.

“You got the whole wing, how?” I asked as she passed Vertigo, hugging him as well as she could with Cherry resting on his shoulder.

“All the monsters were distracted here, then the main door was hit,” she assured me with a smirk. “Looks like your plan is coming together.”

I looked at my two wounded friends, the room filled with dead guards and injured stable ponies.

“Hardly, do you know what the situation by the door is, he sent Twilight up there?” I asked, as Star staggered up, while Binary offered him and Cherry a healing potion.

“Not good for her, I think. That witch may have the magic of a goddess, but against enough firepower, she’ll still go down,” the technical mare assured, glancing about. “Locust is out for the count until her brain reboots, and I hear you took out Carnage.”

She actually appeared genuinely impressed by that as I detected just where she was going with this train of thought.

“That just leaves Barron,” I finished for her, and with reluctance, she nodded. “He has my old pipbuck.”

“And if we want any hope of stopping him, we need it back,” she told me simply as Star regained enough composure to stand on his own.

“I know that look, Dragon,” he coughed, glowering at me. “You’re not going after that thing alone.”

“And you’re in no fit state to come with me, big guy,” I countered, holstering Zap-Zap as I recovered one of the lances. “He won’t kill me, I know that.”

“No… No… He’s right, I’m not letting you out of… My…” Cherry wheezed as she did her best to stagger over, two more stable ponies descending to relieve Vertigo of her care.

“I’ll go with her,” he stated, marching up to me. “Unless she doesn’t want a third date?”

That comment had me blushing with irritation, Star huffing in furious confusion, and Cherry whimpering. While Binary cocked her head, as if trying to work out the math behind it all.

“You better not get your crazy tail killed,” she declared, jabbing a metal claw at Vertigo. “Or so help me…”

“He won’t, we get the pipbuck, then get out.” I glanced up at the Overmare’s window. “You still have the access codes for that secret exit? You can get the rest of the stable out of the main door if it’s open.”

“Yeah, sure,” Binary offered as Star reluctantly staggered over to the medical ponies, shooting Vertigo a very dangerous glare. “A copy should still be in my sister’s pipbuck.”

She took my foreleg in one of her mechanical claws, lifting it before tapping away with another of the gangly limbs. Sure enough, when she was done, I saw the access code was ‘eggheaded’.

“Just be careful, do not underestimate Barron,” she warned, yet after the previous display, I felt the last thing I was going to do was not take the monster seriously.

For being in the midst of a siege, the darkened corridors of Stable Fifty were eerily quiet. I assumed Overseer had taken out more lights than just the atriums as Vertigo and I navigated the gloomy interior. The only sounds were deep rumbles, followed by shudders in the infrastructure.

Occasionally, odd prompts flashed in my vision, what I assumed was the Head Scribe’s programming directing the Gyrotron army. I could only hope it had gone so smoothly as I panned my pipbuck light down to the bloody claw prints on the floor. I felt so naked without my helmet, while my half-battered armor clattered, most of all as my foals shuddered anxiously.

“So, what do you know about this guy?” I asked, noting the many scattered red dots in my E.F.S mixing with the friendly ones. “Barron, I mean.”

“Binary never really talked about him outside of saying he’s the unkillable bastard that murdered her mother,” the blue buck informed me as he levitated a submachine gun he’d scavenged from the atrium skirmish. “Never seen anything like him before today, only ever heard them talk about him like he’s Nightmare Moon or something.”

“I get where they’re coming from,” I muttered, rounding a corner to find the bodies of several stable ponies.

Their blood coated the walls in sweeping arches, still warm as it dripped downward. Most notable was that they’d not been disintegrated, if Barron was responsible, it was clear claws and blasters weren’t his only weapons.

“This is heavy security barding… Cut right through it,” Vertigo observed as I panned my light ahead, skittering sounds echoing up from the ill-lit gloom.

“Better than being naked, right?” I quipped, nodding to his bare coat. “As flattering as it is.”

“So, a little trauma bonding is all it takes for you to admit you like me?” he cooed with a wink. “Don’t know if your big colt friend is gonna like that.”

“Star and I were never a thing… It was work with benefits… Sex with him was just sex,” I sighed, feeling as if I’d lost him again after only just reuniting.

“That’s not how he feels about you,” Vertigo told me as he stripped the barding from the security officer, flashing green as he modified his body to fit. “Back in the atrium, he does love you.”

Stupid bugs and their stupid emotion magic! I cursed inwardly, pretty sure he could feel my mixed feelings too. Star and I… I always knew he cared… That he… Urg, why is love so hard!?

“I can’t, Cherry and I…” I sighed as the changeling slipped into the bedraggled barding and peered at me as he finally stated.

“You love her, don’t you?” I did, I couldn’t hide it any longer. After seeing her almost killed twice now… After her second kiss.

“You can prove to me I do, can’t you?” I asked, glancing back at him. “Tell me I love her, that I don’t just want to use her.”

He paused, as if mildly confused by the question, running a forehoof under his chin before he finally opened his mouth to answer.

“Love… How pathetic.” The two of us lifted our weapons, but the grizzled voice sounded as if it radiated from all around us. “Such things will not save you. Surrender and your pitiful friends will at least die quickly.”

“Come out and say that to my face, you fucker!” I called as Barron’s goading was followed by a static chuckle.

“He’s got to be close, that’s not the PA system,” Vertigo observed, as I gestured for us to move forward.

“Your tenacity is impressive, yet ultimately useless,” he hissed as the corridor opened into a vast shaft.

It was not a stable design I was familiar with, it appeared to be a towering room where most of the bunker’s stairways met, with some kind of storage area at the base. Heavy doors lingered opposite, while I made a mental note not to go anywhere near the hallway marked as ‘reactor access’. My stomach shuddered at the memory of Fort Sandstone, as I watched the hostile dots on my E.F.S, sure one of them was the mechanical monster.

“What can I say, I’m persistent,” I called, peering up into the shaft, sure I saw the skeletal figure leap across the red emergency lighting.

“Not enough. Your little mutiny will fail, your conspired assault on the main doors will be crushed. Now, I need only you and the spawn you carry,” he hissed as with a clatter, something dropped into the center of the shaft.

Bathed in a pool of bright light was my old pipbuck, simply there for the taking. I wasn’t so stupid. Barron was more than just a machine, his sick and twisted desires were clearly far more diabolical. An echo of the cruel brain welded into his silver skull.

“What’s the matter, what’s stopping you?” asked the cyborg with a devious laugh. “All you want and more right there, for the taking.”

“That’s bait,” Vertigo chimed, while I rolled my eyes shooting him a ‘you don’t say’ kind of look.

“I’m not stupid, you know!?” I called, turning my weapon upward despite the frantic mix of dots on my E.F.S.

“No? Then perhaps your allies will see fit to accept my offer,” he goaded cryptically as I saw a rather organized set of blue marks just opposite us, right as the bulky doors exploded inwards.

Both Vertigo and I ducked into cover as metallic shrapnel bounced from the storage crates. Meanwhile, smoke billowed in from the blasted entrance in the wake of numerous heavy hoof steps. I didn’t know whether to be overjoyed or wary as the squad of Steel Rangers marched inwards, power armor brimming with heavy weapons, I counted seven in total, recognizing Gingerbread’s suit among them. Their headlamps cut through the misty gloom, dazzling my eyes as I lifted a forehoof to shield my face. Yet it was the lead stallion that caught my attention, seeming almost clumsy in his accentuated suit.

His armor would have been a glorious sight, if he didn’t trip over his hooves like he’d never worn the thing before. Either way, I was pretty sure he should not have access to toys as formidable as grenade machine guns and missile launchers, as the Hellhound hide around his neck made it obvious who he was.

“Elder Cobalt,” I asked, peeking over my cover as the elder’s armored head shifted to look at me. “I didn’t expect you to be here yourself.”

“As would most, yet Mother could not stop me from leading on this glorious day,” he declared, tinny voice still bearing the mark of immaturity.

I glanced by him, to my old pipbuck, as Gingerbread levitated up the device, inspecting it closely.

“Is that it?” asked the elder, glancing back at her with a whirr of servos. “Is that the pipbuck my mother modified?”

“No, sir, it’s not,” rumbled the armored unicorn, before she nodded to me. “She still has it on her leg.”

“I see,” stated the young elder as I felt my mane start to crawl. “Relieve her of the device, it’s all we need.”

“Wait, what!?” I yelled as the deep thud of their weapons loading echoed up the shaft. “What are you talking about, we had a deal!?”

They may not be Barron, but Zap-Zap was still not quite on the level of disintegrating power armor. I feared even more for the inadequacy of Vertigo’s weapon as the changeling muttered.

“Never trust a ranger. How long were you planning this little stunt, huh?” The elder scoffed, breath muffled by his rebreather.

“Mother should know better than to make deals with primal natives. She can have Mauler Feind and his little band of raiders. But the moment my loyal associate here told me exactly what the three of you were planning, it didn’t take long to work out how to gain control for myself,” he elaborated, while I glowered at Gingerbread.

“A suck-up to the end, I see,” I muttered, but she didn’t bat an eye as she countered.

“It’s called loyalty, look it up.” Her fellow rangers nodded in agreement, none of them appearing to favor the head scribe over her son.

“And loyalty is rewarded.” He nodded back at her, and armor or not, I could almost feel the heat of pride brimming inside her. “I get that pipbuck of yours, and the Gyrotrons are mine, then this stable and all the land between here and Crossroads will belong to the Steel Rangers, as it should be,” he finished, stomping a metal-clad forehoof.

“Rangers…” Both I and the pack of power-armored ponies were taken off guard by Barron’s disembodied voice as the gravelly tone clawed its way down the shaft. “Lost soldiers slaving away for a dead Ministry.”

“What is that, where’s it coming from?” asked the elder as the rangers all glanced about, headlamps panning over the empty gantries above. “Report, damn it!”

“I don’t know, sir, E.F.S is too crowded!” called one, while another said there were hostiles all around them.

“You idiot, he’s in here with us,” I hissed at the petulant elder as I ducked back behind the supply crate.

“W–who is?” he asked, glancing at me, only for a skittering above to draw his focus back upward. “Damn it, back to back, now!”

Hooves thundered as the group formed a ring in the center of the chamber, lamps, and weapons arrayed out in all directions like the bristling spines of a radhog. I peered upward, picking out every hostile on my E.F.S, right as one lone dot, lingering perfectly still, caught my eye.

“There, sir!” Gingerbread called, as the skeletal monster was lit up in one circle of light, hunched over one of the rails two stories up like some huge, predatory insect. “Engaging!”

I had the sense to duck as she and several others opened fire, her machine guns put to shame by the explosive ordinance that leveled the wall. A blue bolt lanced outward in return, blasting one of the ranger’s shoulders apart in a spray of dust. The power-armored pony staggered as a dusty cascade of rubble and catwalk came thundering down, removing any hope of escaping upward as the devastation cleared.

“Your weapons are impressive, your skill honorable,” called Barron’s grizzled goading. “But make peace with your miserable lives now, for this is your final stand!”

“Next time, how about you make sure the coast is clear before you try to pull a fast one, idiot!” I hissed to the elder as his squad backed up so tight their armored rumps ground against one another.

“Report, what is that thing!?” he demanded, yet there was no solid answer from any of them as I finally caught that one odd dot again.

“Look out, he’s above you!” I barely managed to yell before like a silver ghost, the metallic horror dropped into the center of their formation.

The ranger he’d shot was crushed, sharp claws plunging into power armor like it were merely wet paper. Fast as lightning, Barron’s arms flared, and from each of his wrists extended scythe-like blades. Vibrating with a devilish hum and shimmering with the same silver as the rest of him, each was perpendicular to his arm, forming sweeping arches that slashed downward into a second ranger, cutting his head, and both barrels of his guns, off like they were no harder than butter.

Power armor about as useless as leather barding, the ranger fell as Barron leaped up, ragged cape billowing, tail like a silver whip as he whirred in the air to slice another of the blades across the front of a third ranger. The mare within screamed as the vibrating silver tore her breastplate open, dark innards spilling out as the light of return fire illuminated the cyborg. Every round merely pinged from his body, until with a roar, the explosives opened up. The monster’s wicked blades clicked sideways, before starting to spin in motion with his gyrating wrists. No more than a whirling blur the scythes formed shields for the grenades to harmlessly explode against.

The spinning stopped, and without offering the ranger a chance to fire again Barron leaped into the air, somersaulting in a tight ball of silver spines before landing atop his attacker. His foot talons closed around the ranger’s helmet, effortlessly crushing the thing like a tin can as the head within popped in a dripping eruption of bloody offal.

“Bring it down, bring it down!” called the elder, as another ranger opened up with a grenade machine gun, succeeding only in pulverizing her companion’s decapitated body even more as the cyborg hopped up to one of the gantries, scurrying along it with blinding speed.

“What in the goddesses' name is that thing!?” called the remaining mare with the explosives, blasting apart the gantry behind the skittering nightmare, seconds before he paused, rails buckling under his talons as he launched himself at her.

She reared up, barely dodging his claws as the concrete under him ruptured in a web of splintering cracks. Her hooves kicked out, yet as if striking a brick wall, Barron was unfazed. Instead, with flexibility that put a zebra to shame, his clawed foot shot out, snatching her head and shoving her face into the floor with a hard crunch. The blades spun, then came down, severing her head from her shoulders in a flash of sparks.

“Die, damn you!” declared Gingerbread, while my eyes fixed on the pipbuck as she dropped it behind her and opened fire with all she had.

Barron didn’t even bother dodging or returning fire as the machine gun rounds harmlessly glanced his metallic hide. Instead, he kicked out, talons impacting her chest with a meaty crunch as she was cast flying across the room. I’d never seen power armor tossed about like it were a mere toy, leaping aside as the ranger’s limp body shattered my cover.

“No… Elder…” She muttered in a daze as I peered down at her, then at my pipbuck only a hoof’s length away.

“She dead?” Vertigo asked as I levitated the device back to me, all the while Barron loomed to full height, sharp eyes fixed on the elder as the juvenile ranger backed up.

“Come on, you stupid thing,” muttered the young earth pony as he struggled with the missile launcher on his flank. “Damn it, fire.”

Safe to say, it didn’t appear as if he expected the thing to go off as it did. He was tossed back onto the concrete as the projectile streaked toward Barron. The cyborg’s humming blades spun, casually deflecting the missile into the wall above. The monster’s tattered cape wafted in the explosive light as he leaped up and pinned the elder under his claws.

“See now what becomes of those who dare challenge me,” he warned, blades retracting with a sharp hiss as he wrapped one clawed foot around the elder’s skull.

“We need to get to the door,” I hissed, looking back the way we’d come, before levitating up Gingerbread’s still body.

If nothing else, her armor would provide cover, maybe she’d even thank me once I made sure her superiors knew how much of a backstabbing bitch she was. Vertigo was at my side, weapon trained on Barron as the monster folded his arms behind his back casually and scoffed.

“I–I’m not finished with you yet…” huffed Cobalt through his whimpering struggle, only for Barron to lower his head to the pinned earth pony with a soft whirr.

“No, but I am done with you.” With little more than a casual flick of his claws, the elder’s head popped free, helmet rolling to a stop as blood oozed from the sparking underside. Seconds later the monster’s eyes fixed on us as he strode over the bloody slaughter.

“You have something of mine, pony.” Dragging Ginger all the way to the door I opened fire, as futile as it was.

Vertigo joined me, yet Barron didn’t stop, he didn’t even flinch. All that met my ears was the clatter of his claws on cold concrete as he drew closer and closer.

“That’s it, run, fools!” he mocked, grizzled voice erupting into maniacal laughter as we reached the doorway.

I didn’t think a door would slow him down as I noticed the control panel to the left, nor did I think there was any way out as I glanced at Vertigo solemnly.

At least Cherry’s safe. He kills us, takes my foals, that’s all he wants. The little ones inside me wriggled indignantly at the idea yet as I dared meet the monster’s devilish red eyes, there was nothing I could do.

“Hey, robo-fucker!” I heard Star’s voice, right before I glanced back to see the stallion, bruised and bloody as he held a grenade launcher in his mouth. “Try dodging this!”

The thud of the loosed projectile roared as it whizzed over my head. Barron had just enough time to lift his arm as the explosion engulfed him in a ball of blazing flame.

“Dragonfire, are you alright!” Bathed in the flames’ glow, Cherry was in front of me before I could even register what was happening, looking me over like I was a mucky filly after a serious fall. “If that bastard lay a hoof on you I’ll…”

“C–Cherry, you… I’m fine!” I blurted, recovering from the shock as I glanced between her and Star. “What are you two doing? I thought you were in medical!” I screamed as the silver demon vanished in the smoke.

“One restoration potion, that’s it,” he told me, loading another grenade. “I’m not sitting in some bed while you’re out here.”

He loves me? I felt a sting for every time I’d used him for sex, assuming it was always the same for him. Of all the stallions I’ve fucked, all just to have a foal I can never have…

Part of me considered telling him that they were his, lying to him to hide my own mistakes just as I’d done to my brother for years.

“Neither was I… I…” Cherry appeared to have rehearsed her triumphant return to action speech a little less, before she huffed and snorted. “I said I was not letting you out of my sight again.”

But I love her. I could not shake the thought, pretty sure the internal conflict was obvious to Vertigo, even if he currently appeared as baffled as I was.

That was until the smoke cleared. All that had burned from Barron was the last shreds of his immolated cape as his body glowed red hot. His demonic eyes were fixed on me as Star shot again. Not to be struck a second time, his spinning blades fanned free, deflecting the explosive to his left in a flaming boom.

“Back, now!” I ordered, shooting the door controls, sealing the monster away as I heaved Gingerbread back.

“Who the heck is that?” Cherry asked, worry spreading across her features at the sight of the ranger’s bloody chest.

“Somepony who’s in for it when she wakes up,” I declared, neglecting to mention her betrayal, lest Star want to kill her next.

“I got her, for what it’s worth,” Vertigo assured me as his magic added to mine, reducing the weight of the ranger enough to walk as we backed up from the door.

Is it me or is it starting to glow red? I observed sparks starting to spit from the sealed archway as Vertigo assured me it would not hold him back long.

“We have to get to the Overmare’s office, there’s a secret way out,” I declared, as the five of us rounded a corner.

“Well, navigation was always your thing,” Star countered, loading another grenade from the bandoleer around his shoulders as I rolled my eyes.

“And your thing right now, was supposed to be sitting in medical!” That almost appeared to catch him out, was I really that much of a mother already to demand he go and take his medicine like he was supposed to?

“Medical said the top three floors of the stable are under control. No idea where that alicorn went, but she seems to have ghosted,” Cherry informed, leaving me to wonder just how many of the rangers were on our side.

Their elder’s dead, surely Silver’s next in line? It was a bridge I’d cross when I came to it, right now I was just making sure the same monster did not kill us too.

A flash and a clang behind me made me acutely aware that such a monster was still hot on our tails as Star finished loading the grenade launcher, backpedaling as we reached a second corridor, a door just ahead.

“If that was the emergency access shaft, then the way up to the Overmare’s office should be a few corridors up. Back the way we came down,” Vertigo informed me, adding with a knowing smirk. “You know I make sure to study schematics.”

By the goddesses, does he have to rub it in so much!? Just like under Fort Sandstone, I wanted to scream. I saved his ass twice now, where’s that on his schematics?

“Good, take her,” I told him, swallowing my pride and allowing my magical grip on Gingerbread to slip, glancing back. “Star we…”

Cherry screamed, kicked back toward me in a whimpering heap as her rifle clattered to the floor. I didn’t even think, catching her against my side with little care for how it made my belly churn with discomfort.

“You ponies are such easy prey,” hissed Barron, one claw pinning Star up against the corner wall as he swatted the grenade launcher away. “To think that you even have a chance against me.”

“Let him go,” I demanded, Cherry shaking back to full alert as I aimed Zap-Zap at the monster. “I sware, so help me I’ll find some way to kill you, fucker.”

“I wouldn’t count on it, nor do I possess the patience to submit to your pitiful demands anymore,” he growled as I caught Star’s sideways glance.

I could save him, do something. Only, I’d have to leave Cherry. The pink mare scooped up Responsibility in her magic, while my attention was locked on Star Strike.

“Run.” It was the last thing the earth pony choked out before Barron’s wrist blade deployed, slicing his neck and lower jaw off in a spray of crimson.

Time felt as if it had stopped as the decapitated body of my friend… Companion… The pony who had loved me, crumpled to the floor as no more than a pile of meat. Nought but the cruel rumble of Barron’s twisted laughter was audible as he turned and started to approach. I screamed so hard my throat burned, letting loose every laser shot my weapon had.

When they failed to touch him, I levitated Star’s ammo over and snatched up the grenade launcher, unleashing my friend’s last round. Barron merely sidestepped the projectile, the explosion blasting the wall and what was left of Star apart behind him as he curled his blades forward with a devilish cackle.

“Dragonfire, back!” Vertigo’s words and Cherry’s scream, were muffled as if emitting from underwater. Cherry’s magic and a blue forehoof yanked me back as he blew out the second set of door controls, sealing Barron away once again.

“No, no, get off me you… I… I have to save…” Cherry staggered back from me as I clawed my forehooves at the door before the disguised changeling was finally able to heave me back against the wall, eye to eye with me as he shouted in my face.

“He’s gone, he’s dead, I’m sorry.” I had never seen him so serious, sure he could never understand how it felt. But one look into his eyes, peering into the strange creature I knew he was below. I was sure he did understand. “We have to go, get out or he died for nothing!”

Tears stained my cheeks as my eyes quivered, adrenalin flooding my aching body as my foals flapped like terrified birds in my stomach. I stared at him, him at me, the only other creature to have known how Star really felt about me, while against the opposite wall, Cherry looked as petrified as the day we’d met. Then sparks burst from the door as Barron began to cut his way through.

“Go to Tartarus, you bastard!” I declared, loading the only grenade I’d grabbed from Star’s bandoleer.

I fixed my eyes on the door as it glowed red hot, then shifted my aim upward, blasting a hole in the roof, ensuring rubble cascaded down to block the monster’s path.

“That is only gonna keep him back a little longer,” Vertigo declared as the three of us backed up to the unconscious Gingerbread.

I hope he gets through, so I can kill him! It was not the red of emergency lights polluting my vision as I fixated on the door, only to glance and see Cherry to my left. If she’d not fallen, if I could have gotten to him… I… I picked her!

She didn’t look at me, she only wilted as if sinking back into the shell I’d first found her in. Her ears folded, the hole in one, and the fresh scar in her side catching my eye as rage fleeted for a brief moment. I chose her… Now Star’s dead.

“Let’s just find that exit and get the fuck out of here,” I sighed, pretty sure Vertigo didn’t need to feel emotions to know how I felt right now.

Like the rest of the stable, the Overmare’s office was dark as we approached, the sound of battle fading as the door whooshed open. Dull emergency lights still flickered as the three of us heaved Ginger into the room, shoving her up against the desk as Vertigo trotted around to the Overmare’s terminal.

“Binary’s told me about this a few times, you got the password?” he asked as I inspected the marks in the desk Barron’s previous outburst had wrought.

“Egghead,” I told him, all emotions fleeting from my voice. I felt like a ghost, doomed to aimlessly wander a haunted world, dreading the day my friends, family, and foals would die.

It was like my mother all over again, Star was dead, and I’d been so powerless to stop it. I was so powerless to stop Barron from coming after us now, just as I’d been hopeless to care for my brother. I hated the way I couldn’t escape it, even unable to fulfill Star’s final wish to run.

Cherry wondered just as aimlessly, as much a specter as I felt as she gravitated toward a wall safe amidst the office’s shelves. Part of me had gone from wanting to adore her, to hating her. It was a stupid, selfish part, of course, I’d picked her, I’d pick her again. Star would have probably wanted me to pick her if she made me happy. So why did I feel as if she’d gotten him killed?

“Looks like they’ve tried to get into it,” I observed, inspecting the dented lock as the chime of Vertigo accessing the terminal sounded.

“And not very professionally,” she added, not looking at me, as if what had just transpired below had not happened at all. “I–I can do it though.”

I didn’t even need to ask, nodding as I glanced back at Vertigo. “You got it, tell me we got a way out.”

“Yeah, yeah, but look at this,” he called, beckoning me over to reveal several odd files on the sickly green screen.

MoA: Desert Springs Excavation – Logs enclosed.

Most of the text had been corrupted or wiped, yet several images persisted. Blurred windows into what the industrial complex that was now Crimson Springs had looked like almost two centuries ago. Still scorched by factories as it was now, the great crater fenced off in the middle of town didn’t appear remotely normal, nor did the odd obelisk-like pillar of silver metal crookedly jutting out from the earth. Only, I recognized it.

“Hey, one of those was under the Orical building,” I noted, jabbing a forehoof at the screen. “And in the recording.”

I was at least glad he’d been there to see it, lest I sound like a mad mare. Safe to say, whatever it was, whatever Moon Dancer had been using in her experiments, she’d dug it up here decades ago.

“Yeah, only try three times bigger,” Vertigo quipped, scrolling further. “There’s so much on here, Binary is gonna want it all.”

“Whatever she wants, just be quick, we need an out, Vertigo.” I was not in a patient mood, no matter how much I felt it was Binary’s right to have her mother’s old information.

The click of a safe opening, and the small sigh of relief from Cherry called me back to her, as the armored vault swung open. The shelves within were littered with files and trinkets. I assumed Binary would have a field day with more of her mother’s possessions, endless scientific reports from a stable devoted to the M.A.S. Until finally, something caught my eye, as did it Cherry’s.

‘Be Smart’ Read the inscription upon the base of the tiny statue, the purple visage of the real Twilight Sparkle.

She was as far from a dark alicorn goddess as the stars were from the desert, the feeling that washed over me as I scooped her up in my magic all the more welcome.

Fluttershy, Rarity, and now Twilight. That’s halfway to a full set, right? I wondered, as the magical aura of the statute just about lifted my mood. At least my magic feels better.

I was still no match for the self-proclaimed Twilight of the Transcendent. Foals fluttering within me as if to encourage the idea, however, I couldn’t find the will to leave the poor purple mare trapped down here.

She should be with Binary. Otherwise, Cherry seems to be a fan. I glanced the pink mare’s way, sure she still had the Fluttershy figurine.

“Here, keep her safe.” She blinked at me, as if the last thing she was expecting right now was a gift. “You said it yourself, they’re collectible.”

She took it without a word, while I looked back into the safe, inspecting the stack of papers that had been below the statuette.

‘Excavations sight: Desert Spring – Nurodine Testing catalog.’ The seal of the M.A.S sat within a ring of other logos, two of which I noted as Destiny and Orical.

Nurodine. Where have I heard that word before? I thought as I flicked through the dusty papers, catching sight of a mare I recognized. Moondancer appeared right at home in the lab as she tapped a ruler on a chalkboard of arcane scrawl. It’s what she was testing when she attempted to kill Twilight, the same thing they dug up!

I had a feeling the dark mare in question would not be all too pleased, as I pressed deeper. Reaffirming what the memory orb had told me, about Moon Dancer’s former employment in the M.A.S, before moving to Orical. Whatever they had found in the gem mines under the city, whatever it was that still lingered and drove every raider here insane, she had known all about it.

“The rage… What she did to those Parasprites…” I muttered to myself, hoping there was another recording hidden here I could see to get all the notes.

“Binary, if this finds you…” The hum of static filled the air as the voice of a mare escaped the terminal. I glanced up, as Cherry jumped in alarm, seeing Vertigo back away from the thing sheepishly.

“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered, as the recording went on.

“If this finds you… If you escaped like I told you to, if your sister’s safe… Then you have to listen to me.” My ears perked as I crept back to the terminal. “The stable, it was never meant to be this way… We were never meant to be the residence, our ancestors were just trapped inside when the bombs fell, Ministry staff with all the equipment they were using to study… The obelisk.”

“Is that Binary’s mother?” I asked, jabbing a forehoof at the screen, only for Vertigo to shrug, while Cherry set down the statuette on the desk.

“I don’t know, I never met her. But what is the obelisk?” He looked more intrigued for his companion’s sake as he squinted at the screen.

“I don’t have all the details, but before the bombs the Ministry found something under the city, some kind of object, same as several others noted across Equestria. They’re not… Natural, part of something, something angry but… There are ponies that will do anything to get their hooves on these things. They accessed the stable, I couldn’t keep them out… But you need to run from them, you and your sister, keep safe… I… I love you both so much!”

“What’s going on?” The groggy voice of Gingerbread yanked our eyes away from the last words of Binary’s mother.

She looked little better off than a tortoise flipped on its back, pinned by the weight of her armor as her head lulled. Helmet creaking, her lamp flickered on as I trotted over, shooting Vertigo a wary glance that made sure he knew his next task was to get the damn escape door open.

“W–where am I…? The elder, I…?” she looked at me, light dazzling my eyes before I ducked under it.

“The elder’s dead, so are all the other ponies who came down here with him,” I stated flatly, coming eye to eye with her visor. “I should have left you down there too, but I didn’t.”

“The elder… He…” Her armor shifted as her head rolled upright. “You native scum, how dare you drag…!”

“Look, I really don’t give a fuck,” I said with as cool a voice as I could muster, shoving Zap-Zap’s barrel under her breastplate. “I just lost my best friend, you hear that, my best fucking friend? So I don’t care about your bullshit, all I do know is that this model of power armor has a weak spot right under the main breastplate. Most of all when it’s as fucked up as yours, correct?”

She didn’t dignify me with an answer, yet I could tell from her silence that I had her attention as she nodded.

“So, you’re going to listen to me. We’re going to get out of here, and you’re going to go tell the Elder’s mother why the fool got himself killed.” She stiffened, yet didn’t say a word as I drew back. “Or maybe I should just leave you here for Barron to finish off.”

“There, medical’s been cleared. Cherry’s right, the whole west side of the stable’s secure,” Vertigo told me as I came around behind him, adding in a low whisper. “Kinda scary when you're pissed, you know?”

“Lucky you never piss me off that much,” I warned as I looked at the screen, seeing a camera feed of the medical wing, Binary among the countless stable ponies still there. “Now, get that door open.”

“W–what about Barron, won’t he follow us?” Cherry stammered, eyes fixed on the doorway across the office.

“With the main stable doors covered, he’s nowhere to go,” Vertigo stated as he tapped the terminal again. “Will probably make him hesitate, at least. Okay, and the door!”

There was a grinding of metal, a rumble of machinery under our hooves. Gingerbread huffed as I levitated her aside, making room for the rising desk as dust and grime trailed from its rattling pistons. Moments later, and the whole thing was near the roof, as the slab of metal below us rolled back into the floor, allowing us to step off.

“That’s not true,” coughed Gingerbread, snatching both my and Vertigo’s attention as she added feebly. “Stable’s got a second exit south side of the masa, bastards dug it out a few years ago to access their sky tank.”

“And you know that, how?” I asked, glancing at Vertigo. “What about you, I thought you knew the layout?”

“The pre-war layout, there’s nothing on old schematics for raider tunnels,” he reasoned with a wince.

“Really, we’ve been after this place for years… You natives really are stupid,” Ginger groaned, while I felt the growing desire to shoot her again.

If he’s not coming for us, and he gets away. I looked at my pipbuck, all the secrets it contained. He just gave it back, why?

My eyes wandered back to my tummy, bump clearly visible under my tight barding. I want him dead, to save my foals, avenge my friend.

“The ranger speaks the truth.” My guns were up, as were Vertigo’s and Cherry’s, while Ginger did her best to aim for the door.

“I should have expected to find you here, rats sneaking out through the basement,” mocked Twilight as she lingered in the archway, darkness pooling around her like a liquid shroud. “You really don’t get it, do you? There is no escaping us, Barron will chase you to the ends of Equestria, while I uproot every speck of existence you’ve ever laid down!”

I eyed her horn, yet she almost sounded bored of the whole petrification act, as if she really did pity the three of us, bruised and battered, tiny bugs for her to toy with.

“Is that what happened to you? Huh, you couldn’t escape?” I asked, taking a step around the desk. “Who are you really, because you’re not this mare!?”

I levitated over the statuette, the pony she claimed to be, and like the thing were emitting copious levels of radiation, she recoiled rapidly, lifting a wing to cover herself.

“W–where did you get that!?” she demanded, backing away as if the thing were a bomb that could go off any second. “Keep her away from me!”

I blinked, the confusion lasting only a second before I smirked and jabbed the tiny purple mare at her.

“What, don’t like looking at yourself?” I goaded, wondering just what she looked like under that mask as she slinked back into the door like a roach fleeing light. “What happened to the great and powerful Twilight Sparkle!?”

“Wretch, I’ll…!” I shoved the thing right in her face. She reared up, a beam of magic igniting from her horn and striking me in the chest.

“Dragonfire!” Cherry screamed as the statuette was tossed aside.

While as pure and emotionally driven as the wild attack was, it still struck the wind out of me as I was blasted back into the secret stairs. Twilight shook her head as if breaking free of a severe migraine.

“I am Twilight Sparkle!” she roared as she stomped a forehoof. “I am the inheritor of all she left behind, this city was mine, everything found here was mine. I made it all work!”

She flicked her horn, shooting a beam that sent Vertigo and Cherry darting behind the desk as I pressed a forehoof to my chest and staggered upwards.

“You mean the thing that makes every pony down there go mad. Orical’s little toy?” I pressed, and she scoffed.

“Observant little thing, aren’t you,” she hissed, wings flared. “The Rage as they call it, a complex magical result of the Ethereum’s frequency, yes. Specifically anger in this case.”

Much like I’d heard about her namesake, she still had a weakness for talking as I delicately sparked my magic.

“But they have no appreciation for such things anymore, had no appreciation for my work, my time. The M.A.S cast me out, Orical used me… Ebon Star promised me everything I ever wanted and still they don’t do as I command!” her tirade went on, as if the presence of the statuette had broken something in her stoic shield.

“Still second fiddle to Barron?” I pressed, and behind that mask I was sure she glowered at me, head low as she hissed.

“Everypony I ever knew left me, when I am the one who knows best!” I smirked, staggering as her horn flared. “But I deliver you to the Sigal myself, and Barron will have nothing!”

“Yeah, well make sure to give them this!” I yelled, telekinetically tossing the statuette at her. She recoiled, screaming as if the touch of the plastic doll burnt her, giving Vertigo and Cherry a moment to open fire.

She wasn’t Barron, yet still her armor provided her enough time to flare a wing over herself, feathers clattering as if made of metal. That was proven true only seconds later as Gingerbread shifted, awkwardly rotating her weapons to blast the alicorn’s wings. She muttered something about mutated abominations, while several of Twilight’s tattered feathers tore loose, sparking as they did so.

She’s not an alicorn at all, those wings are not real. I noted, realizing she was another cyborg, as in addition to the crackling flames, spurts of pink glass escaped the battered armor. I know that gas, anypony out here knows that gas. A cyborg ghoul!?

“Enough of this!” screamed the false goddess as she flared her horn, crippled wings extending wide as she let out a blinding pulse of magic that sent all of us wheeling.

My stomach felt like it were upside down as I hit my head hard on the inner arch of the escape tunnel, while both Cherry and Vertigo were tossed behind the desk, Ginger flopping back as her weapons sizzled. Only one thing appeared to stop the fake alicorn from stealing me away right there and then. The statuette fell between us, landing perfectly upright as if it were some tiny guardian blocking her path.

“T–this, is not over!” Twilight wheezed through her broken mask, the sharp glare of a regenerating pink eye just visible where one of Ginger’s rounds had torn away her armor, before in a flash, she was gone.

“Dragonfire!” Called Cherry, Vertigo close behind her as the two hopped over the desk, kneeling down beside me as I weakly levitated over the statuette.

“What the fuck was that?” asked the disguised changeling, as he peered at the small, purple mare.

“I don’t know, she seems to hate this thing.” I noted the weakness away along with Locust’s vulnerability to spark weapons. “N–now we just gotta find Barron’s…”

“By Celestia, you can’t keep doing this while pregnant!” It appeared Cherry’s apprehension to confront me about Star’s death was not quite as firm as her worry for my foals as the statuette slipped from my weak magic.

“Must have belonged to Binary’s mother, she… Told me about it,” Vertigo observed, lifting my head. “You good?”

“No… I don’t think so,” I admitted with a huff, while Ginger lifted herself up to stand above us. “Thanks.”

“Consider us even, native,” she stated, nodding down the tunnel. “That leads to the main entrance. There should be a forward base there by now.”

Of course, she knows that, always planning to fuck me over. I noted, strangely glad they’d not accounted for Barron in that plot.

“Yeah, but I’m not just leaving her here,” Cherry insisted, gripping my shoulders. “Damn it, Dragonfire, I wanna kill you sometimes!”

“Don’t stand up a mare on the third date, right?” Vertigo chipped in with a sly wink, as Cherry pulled medical bandages from her saddle bags.

“Y–you charmer… Looks like you’ll have to carry me I…” My head lulled, throbbing where it had hit the wall. Yet before giving into the coils of darkness creeping into my blurry vision I squeaked. “I think I’m… Done with this fucking place…”

Footnote: Level Up

New perk added: Be Smart - The words of Twilight Sparkle herself, the real one that is. Gain considerable bonuses to both intelligence and any magical attack damage.

Prologue

“Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria…”

We suppose you've all heard the story before. The tale of how the once glorious and magnificent world fell into the darkness because of the greedy and selfish transgressions of ponykind. True, the war that devastated the world was nothing short of a disaster, yet such a thing had always been waiting to happen. Ponies were made that way; their every drive, no matter how friendly and caring on the surface, was set towards the betterment of themselves through whatever means necessary. No matter how cruel and barbaric those means may have been.

We should know this better than anyone by now, living in the scorched and barren world ponykind left behind. It has taught us more than enough about pain and cruelty. Yet what they failed to realize all those decades ago–in fact, what all ponies who ever graced the world failed to realize, was the fact that there is a reason for ponykind being the way that they are.

There are things in the world which far exceed the darkness of war, even putting to shame the inherent shadows within the hearts of every pony ever to draw breath. For the ways of the ponies who survived the apocalypse, could not have happened by sheer chance. No, the universe does not work upon such precise rules, it does not simply create such a turbulent mix of traits within one being randomly. For such a thing to be so perfectly specified and displayed within something, it must be designed and controlled with the utmost care and accuracy. That was just another thing that ponykind failed to see though, we suppose.

Nopony would have guessed that their lives were never truly their own–especially when countless of them were sacrificed in the name of a war that, in the end, was utterly pointless. In the same way, everything in their history was pointless. In truth, we wish we didn't know these things. We wish we'd never been born the key to everything ponykind has stood for. We only wish we had been born a normal foal. For the totality of our accumulated knowledge makes the world seem like such a small and fragile place.

What we know reduces the very harshness of the wasteland itself from a worrying and fearful experience to an aloof and analytical logistical problem. For we know how all things will finally come to an end. It was always intended to be this way before even the first foal took its initial breath of fresh air. There is a purpose to everything ponies know, even their very existence. It is the greatest secret that has ever been kept from them, and it is their most fatal truth.

But if we are to tell the story of our life, how we ended up where we are with the knowledge we possess, we must start with the tale of somepony else. A pony whose mind and memories are now our own. We say this now as if we were her, such a thing is the least we can offer after all she did for us, all the pain and suffering she endured to make sure we survived. We only wish we could have known the real her more. Ultimately, she was a pony no different from any other in the post-apocalyptic ruin of the once majestic world, a pony who’d soon become the key to everything that has ever been.

Chapter Six: The Destiny Corporation

Chapter 6: The Destiny Corporation

"I'd like to tell ya'll the terrifying tale of the prissy ghost, who drove everypony crazy with her unnecessary neatness! Ooooohhhhh Ooooooohhh!"

Destiny Corp was where my thoughts directed themselves, as did my eyes. The weathered black words sat above the shattered glass entrance hall. High above, the tall, crooked-looking tower stretched almost as far into the sky as a mountain. It was hard to distinguish what was part of the original design and what was ruin, given that the whole thing seemed to lean lazily to the right. Its tall and slender design was curved to the point where it looked more like a crescent than a tower. Atop its peak were elegant spires, one of which had toppled over. The wires that once held it up now flying over the building's side, chiming with a ghostly melody as they moved in the wind. I tried to ignore that, not allowing it to mix with the ridiculous idea that this place might be haunted. Besides, it was far from organized, as the tale had suggested.

Most of the dirt-smothered glass which had once framed the great tower was shattered. A few stories up, a hole tore straight through the slender tower like a great gaping wound, yet it was hard not to see the damage as an extension of the strange of the building’s curvy design. Once again my subconscious reminded me that I had never heard of this Destiny before, and judging by how hard this place was to find, nopony else seemed to care either. After finally discovering a road that curved up the mountain, and dealing with more than a few irritating samples of the local wildlife, you finally found yourself upon the cracked parking lot that sat at the building's front.

Surrounding the field of scorched asphalt and decaying wagons was a thick, concrete wall. An equally firm-looking gate, in combination with rows of barbed wire, guarded the entrance against anypony that couldn't simply fly over. Instead, such a threat would have to deal with the lines of turrets that lined the wall like deadly barbs on a vine. Unfortunately for whoever owned this place, none of those defenses seemed to work anymore. The wall was mostly crumbling, and the turrets were dormant, as was any sight of power to the front gate. I found it hard to picture how anypony could have seen this place and thought,

‘Well, that looks appealing, let’s go there.’ Then again, I'd heard of entire cities designed with the simple goal of keeping unwanted attention out.

Star stood beside me, finishing off the last of the automated defenses before they had a chance to become hostile. My attention was cast between regarding the shattered entrance ahead, the likes of which was decorated by neat steps that curved around long dead shrubs and a dried fountain, and keeping an eye on Cherry. After getting a decent amount of sleep, food, and water in her system, she was becoming slightly less clingy. For now, however, I didn't know whether that was good or bad.

"You think all of the security inside is gonna be so friendly?" she asked in a cautious tone as if fearing she may jinx the favorable situation.

I greatly hoped the thought proceeding that question wouldn't tempt fate either.

"I wouldn't take it for granted, that's for sure," I commented, eyes scouring the shattered glass doors beneath the weathered and crooked words of the Destiny Corporation logo. Even from here I could see turrets on the roof just inside the door, spinning like they were lost.

"Can't say the wasteland's fair even when you want to show somepony how bad it is, huh?" Cherry commented with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes, but she couldn't be more right. The moment I wanted to teach somepony how to survive the wasteland turned nice. A part of me wondered: if I gathered enough ponies all trying to do that same thing, could we not trick the wasteland into returning to the world it once was? Though I knew it could never be that easy, the thought of Cherry's budding humor was reassuring.

"Well, those ones seem friendly enough," Star stated, motioning toward a group of aimless turrets just inside the foyer.

"I'd still blast them," I added, and seconds later my companion’s mini-gun whirred, its draconic roar swiftly reducing the turrets to naught but sparkling shards of metal and smoldering dust.

"Well, they're certainly friendly now," Star quipped firmly stepping up onto the bone-strewn staircase that lead toward the entrance.

I drew my Saddle blaster, which I'd now upgraded with extra parts from the second rifle, along with some parts from Buck Shot's store, before we'd left him and Gina there to salvage what they could from the place. With a metallic clatter, Star kicked the remains of one of the turrets into the central foyer. It was no surprise that the movement attracted no fire from the second pair of automated guns sat on the platform above; regardless, they swiftly met the same fate.

The interior was a towering, equilateral antechamber that rose all the way to the sharp steeple we’d observed from the outside. The once-pristine walls that surrounded us were ringed with layers of wide balconies, most having collapsed long ago but still linked by the remains of ornate glass elevators. At the very top, a huge glass skylight had been shattered by the toppled, rooftop spire filling the room below with vast mounds of rubble. A large rusting cylinder on the far right, below several collapsed balconies, was what remained of the fallen spire's tip.

Under the ash, sand, and bones, the floor had once been tiled. Directly before us, it fell away in the form of several shallow steps before flattening out, each row covered by dozens of fixed seats. Their frames were warped and rusted, hardly distinguishable from the layers of skeletons that sprawled atop the disintegrated remains of the seat’s dull blue padding. In the center of the room was a huge semicircle reception desk.

Above, tattered and faded banners were hung from the balconies of the first level. One on the left side boldly stated 'We make better ponies.' One on the right was far too torn and weathered to pass on its faded message, while the poster on the far wall boasted a similar slogan: 'Destiny: building brighter futures.' The faded image of a sun rising over the horizon was displayed behind the deep blue, comet-style emblazoned text. The last billboard-sized banner was suspended on the flat wall directly above us and stretched like a great tapestry over the entire surface. Upon it was the image of an orange coated unicorn stallion, donned in a fine blue business suit and tie. At his hooves, the companies title once again claimed that it was 'building a brighter future for every last mare, stallion, and foal.'

The station’s eyes seemed to watch me with a look of arrogant judgment, but I'd seen far too many monolithic paragons of propaganda to care. In the end, that bright future had been no better than the bright glow of balefire, and the fact that this place was littered with skeletons was a testament to that. Most of the bones were piled on the stairs as if trying to reach the door all those decades ago. I looked over them with caution; the bullet holes that dotted the floor and walls suggested that turrets had been responsible for this massacre.

A few of the bodies stood out as being far more armed and armored than the rest, and some weren't even ponies; I'd seen enough Griffins in my time to know what a dead one looked like. My concern regarding the “friendly” security system perked at the sight. Either those guns were just waiting to turn on us, somepony else with a gun was in here or the turrets had been shooting at something else… whatever had killed these ponies. Fuck, I hated pre-war tombs like this, they were all the same: littered with dead bodies and no way to know precisely why.

"Don't suppose you see this too often...?" Cherry asked me carefully, the sight of the numerous dead destroying that mental fortitude she had built up.

I glanced back, the glow of my magic forging a path through the bony plethora of skeletons and scattered bones as we proceeded.

"All too often," I sighed. "But after passing the hundredth skeleton, you start getting inured to it. Moping around won't bring the dead back to life... it’ll only get you killed."

I'd no idea whether it was the sight before me or just the idea I was dragging her along to see it, but if she even stood a chance out here she needed to brave the ultimate truth of the wasteland: never let the dead or misfortune of others get to you. Be a good pony, be better, but never be the hero.

"If you're looking for survival advice, keep your eyes open,” Star grumbled. “As long as you aren’t holed up in a foxhole you’ve dug for yourself or staying somewhere you know is secure, always assume that your environment is unsafe. Scan your surroundings, listen for hoof steps, scrabbling claws, hissing, or the sound of machines activating. Listen for the sound of a round being loaded into a rifle. Learn to discern the click of a safety being switched off. Use every available sense to search for danger: the smell of gunpowder, the ozone of a magic gun blast, the stink of something dead. Put your ear on the ground and listen for movement.” He locked Cherry with a firm glare. “Because if you don’t use your senses and stay alerted out here, you’ll be dead in a day, or worse, get us killed too."

Both of us glanced back at him, and I could feel Cherry edge closer to me as I mouthed the words, ‘My job,’ to him sourly.

He rolled his eyes in response, still unconvinced that I could protect my new charge. "You just make sure you're up to that because chances are pretty good that we're gonna have to split up," he told me.

Split up? My ears fell flat. I was no stranger to that kind of plan, as we'd done it countless times on other jobs. Sometimes we did it so much that it seemed pointless to be in a pair, but he always took the broadcaster while I had my Pip-Buck. My downcast look only seemed to confirm his fears about my motivations, but ultimately I nodded.

"You take downstairs," I told him, looking to the balconies.

"I'll take either, but you've got the Pipbuck," he stated, nodding to my foreleg.

'Shit. I’d forgotten that we were looking for some sort of terminal!' Then an idea came to me. I paused by the central desk peering over its dusty edge.

Three terminals sat on a shelf running along the interior of the circular section, paper, quills and a whole manner of office supplies were littered among them as well as the bones of several ponies. Most lay collapsed on the floor, yet one was sat lazily on a lone stool before the central most terminal, the only one that still flickered with a dark emerald green glow. The pair of us glanced down at it, then at each other. Then I smirked as I holstered my weapon.

"I'll check, see if they had a record or something," I suggested, hoping dearly it would result in us staying together as I moved round to the desk.

With a flicker of my horn, the bones of a pegasus pony were pushed aside, warranting no added respect from me as they were mixed with the other remains. I took its former seat, studying the terminal before me. 'Destiny Corp.' had replaced the typical Stable-Tec logo upon the screen, and the password prompt that typically accompanied the logo was missing; either the pegasus had been logged in for almost two centuries or there had been no security to begin with. 'Destiny Corporation, building brighter futures' flashed on screen again, this time appearing from the tail of a comet as it dashed from one side to another.

"Let's see," I muttered to myself, biting my lower lip as I looked through.

Star was still outside the horseshoe-shaped reception desk and was sorting through the piles of bones. Cherry was close behind me, her eyes also on the screen. Most of the things which we found were just appointments, timetables and finances, all of which were now completely irrelevant. If fact, according to the information, this place safeguarded a lot of pre-war money within several vaults. There was also an unsettling but thoroughly unsurprising amount of bribing and blackmailing going on behind the scenes. Destiny Corp had even lobbied two Ministries, although given that it appeared privately owned, I could see why. A directory labeled “Security” caught my eye; it wasn't completely ridiculous to have the controls to your building’s defense on your front desk’s terminal, was it?

'***Manual shutdown of security grid activated at 08:00 hours. Successfully restored by Overseer. Systems restored to fully functionality by order of Overseer.***' The text stated.

All I took from it was that 'still functional' probably meant still liable to shoot you in the rear if you weren’t careful. I eventually came across a file titled 'Faculty map', and opening it presented me with a frustrating caption declaring that all internal files were locked by order of 'Overseer'. Below that was something strange: a text box. 'Would you like to know more?' The words wrote themselves into existence just beneath the neat green rectangle.

I was flat out of ideas, which, when it came to terminals, was admittedly few, to begin with. I fought the urge to bang my hoof on the desk while I glared at the screen, eyes narrowing at the blinking green cursor as if doing so would somehow force the inanimate object to obey me.

'Would I like to know more?' Yes, I would like to know more! I growled in my head.

But with nothing else to go on, I asked it how to lift the file’s lockdown.

'***File lockdown can be lifted manually via server hub. Server hub Location: level 4, room 234/9. Unlocked files will be dispatched to the terminal mainframe by default order of Overseer. Files can be extracted from mainframe via an external storage device. Mainframe Location: Sublevel 3, corridor 23B, lisle 45C. Have a nice day.***' Now we knew where the objective was, but we still needed to know the name of the file we were after, a question I knew the terminal couldn't answer.

"Um... Star? What exactly are we looking for?" I asked skeptically.

He turned back to me, thinking deeply for a moment. "Not too sure, myself. The contract never named exactly what they were after. I was just gonna say take whatever we can find and give it all to Griddle," he suggested.

I had a feeling somepony wanted to keep exactly what they were after to themselves. I said as much, but Star didn't comment and Cherry just seemed to grow even more curious. That was a good change, I noted, given that I'd unintentionally summoned the shift in feeling. A moment later I stood up, glancing back at the screen. If I was reading the terminal’s instructions right, one of us had to be upstairs while another was downstairs; the higher one needed to unlock the system manually, while the lower extracted the needed files. My ears flattened once more as I realized that I hadn't actually fixed our separation problem, but merely confirmed it.

Given that I was the only one with the means of downloading anything from the maneframe, it looked like Star would have to take the upstairs after all. My gut sank even lower at that. I fucking hated pre-war death tombs, excluding the one I lived in. I reminded myself that I'd done it before and for far fewer caps than this, not to mention that this place seemed fairly safe and quiet for such a high payment. With that bold statement, I made sure at least one hoof was touching the wooden desk.

"One of us needs to go upstairs, level four, room, um.... two hundred, thirty-four, dash nine, to lift the lockdown," I explained, glancing back to the terminal’s instructions to ensure I was correct.

"Huh?" Star grumbled while raising a confused eyebrow.

"Somepony called the Overseer has blocked all access to the system and is apparently in strict control of the security, so..." I trailed off glancing back at the screen. "Basically, you need to go upstairs, find the maneframe and unlock it.”

Star looked up to the balconies above, "There're a lot of rooms up there, Dragon."

"Level four, room two hundred, thirty-four, dash nine!" I repeated in frustration. “I don't know... follow the signs or ask a terminal. They actually seem helpful for once.”

Cherry had remained silent for the entire conversation, her eyes fixed on the terminal screen. As I moved she followed, almost as blindly as this place's security system.

"Looks like we're heading downstairs," I told her as enthusiastically as I could, yet my loathing made it substantially more difficult.

She shook her head slightly before her expression sunk. She wasn't okay? Oh Celestia, what was wrong? I was actually panicking more about her feelings than the potential tunnel trek ahead, what was wrong with me?

"C-can't think of anywhere better," she stammered sheepishly.

I took in a breath of relief; she was fine.

No, she was far from fine, my mind countered. Fine, physically she was fine at least. I just hoped her sudden drop in attitude was because she hated this idea of going down as much as I did.

"Level four?" Star asked glaring up at the fifth-most balcony.

I pulled my eyes away from my nervous companion to look at him. "Yeah, somewhere up there," I said, pointing a hoof upwards with only a portion of my focus.

He sighed, starting towards a set of stairs behind the desk.

"I'll meet you back here, but at any sign of trouble, you leave, find a new position, and radio me, okay?" he declared firmly before turning back with a wink, the gesture shattering the strictness of his ground rules slightly.

I flushed a little, I couldn't help it. "You be damn careful up there too," I instructed, before he disappeared up the stairs, the sound of his metal plates fading.

I looked back at Cherry, who still wore the dull introspective expression of deep thought.

"You sure you're alright?" I asked her skeptically.

She sighed looking up. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just been a while since, well you know..." She swept a hoof over the bone yard that was the room.

I frowned and was about to open my muzzle, but then she spoke again.

"And no, it's not getting to me. It's just..." she continued before I could speak. "Another failure, isn't it?"

I closed my muzzle and swallowed. We certainly had much more in common in that regard, and in truth, I saw myself at her core. I could almost envision her as a younger me, the filly that had just lost everything, and in that view, she was far stronger, able to buck off the anxiety that was trying to grip her and stand firm.

"You know you're a good pony, one of the best," I told her, hiding the fact that I appreciated her just standing there, radiating with the image of what I'd once aspired to be.

That had all been before the wasteland broken and battered me down. She smiled but didn't seem to take the compliment in quite the same way she'd taken the others. In her mind, I could still see that mental battle playing out and it was preventing the humble cuteness I now expected from such a conversation. But I bucked the thought from my mind; I didn't deserve such a response. Shaking that from my head, I glanced back to the terminal.

'***Maneframe Location: Sublevel 3, corridor 23B, aisle 45C.***' I asked exactly where that was.

'***Please follow the signs***', it responded. I could practically hear the condescending tone in my head.

"Right..." I grumbled as the slight irony of my advice came back to bite me.

With that, I turned away and followed the signs into the depths of Destiny Corp.

********

'Sublevel 1' the first of the signs read.

Well, this was going to be so much fun if the stairs leading downward were all in different locations. The sublevel two stairs were indicated straight ahead by a large red arrow, down a lengthy dilapidated corridor.

Yay, so much fun, I mentally groaned, tiredly drawing the Saddle Blaster.

Cherry was, as always, close behind me. Her eyes were looking over every darkened corner and shadow, timidly holding her shotgun ready within a glowing green field of magic. I really hoped she had the instinct to use my far better gun if she needed it, but for now, I decided to leave it to her own judgment. The darkening gloom ahead was unnerving, my dread only further reinforced by the battered remnants of several robots, long-since destroyed by gunfire. As I trotted cautiously into the corridor, I noticed that the walls bore the scars of an intense firefight and even some explosives. To our left the corridor widened, making space for a row of shattered glass display cabinets. Besides the metal skeletons of what had once been shown here, there was nothing but shattered glass and rusted plaques.

One case held what appeared to be a severed wing, another a similarly mutilated unicorn horn. Yet under closer inspection, it was clear both were actually metallic replicas of such body parts, stopping my ideas on the sickness of pre-war ponykind from dropping to a whole new level of disgust. Behind the rows of cabinets, against the far left wall, was a life-sized model of a pegasus, wait on a, unicorn, alicorn? Both the wings and horn looked artificial just like those in the cabinets, both were also strapped to the equine mannequin via a strange vest-like device and smooth helmet. A faded poster behind the display asked in bright orange text 'Have you ever wondered what it's like? In our brighter futures, you need wonder no more.' I raised an eyebrow at that if anything that message just triggered my warning alarms.

"Have you ever wondered?" An overly cheerful voice suddenly boomed to my right.

Both Cherry and I jumped like frightened fillies as a dusty screen lit up on the opposite wall.

"Have you ever pondered how a pegasus really flies or the secrets to unicorn magic? These mysteries and more will soon be unraveled. Here at the Destiny Corporation, our dedicated scientists are hard at work looking into what really makes you a pony; what makes all of us ponies." The voice boomed again in a cheerful tone painfully reminiscent of Fogy's.

Only this one wasn't tiny and broken. The vocal tones and volume sounded far too cheerful and excited considering that their entire industry was intended to make each tribe feel inferior about their tribe’s abilities and selling artificial prosthetics to those who could afford their technology. I could feel my sudden panic begin to fade as I watched the image on the screen. At least it isn’t a monster, I assured myself, as a steel gray pegasus appeared on the screen. She reared up with a majestic flap of her wings, before running out of the frame. A lime green unicorn mare appeared in the same spot with a flash from her horn, performing an identical pose and then following the pegasus.

"The Destiny Corporation. Building a brighter future for every last mare, stallion, and foal."

That was the last thing to sound from the screen accompanied by the image of the corporation’s logo, the words appearing in a flash and lingering within the tail of a comet. Below it appeared the image of a family; a mare, stallion, and small foal all gazed up at the cosmic spectacle in awe. Then with a dull whimper, the image cut out. I just shook my head; all those stupid ponies back then with all of this stupid shit they thought they could make a reality. A brighter future? They sure fucked that one up. I looked back at Cherry who, besides being scared half to death, had focused her attention on a glass display cabinet, the one boasting the metal pegasus wing.

Shivering slightly, she raised a hoof to wipe the dust from the plaque upon its front.

"Pegasus telekinesis…” she read, her tone skeptical. “What is really just a wing beat away?"

Looking to my left, my eyes fell upon the cabinet containing the artificial unicorn horn. 'Spells... or merely instinct?' the topmost title of its plaque asked. I almost found that insulting. Of course, we had to learn spells; casting fire from my horn was not something I could just do, yet every unicorn could use telekinesis as far as I knew. I felt a combination of distaste and caution from the idea, and a subtle fear as to what it might mean silenced my mind, and then I moved over to the pegasus wing.

'Have you ever wondered how a pegasus flies or controls the weather? How can a pegasus wing not only support the weight of a full-grown pony, but also propel its host forwards with enough velocity to generate a hurricane or ascend into the clouds? Cutting-edge research has revealed that with each flap of a pegasus wing, a weak telekinetic field is generated around the pony, reducing their weight and allowing flight! Here at Destiny Corp, we aim to unlock the source of innate magic that flows through not only pegasi but all ponies. The Destiny Corporation strives toward building toward a brighter future for every mare, stallion, and foal'.

I had no desire to read the neighboring unicorn plaque after that; to think that my horn was no different from some pony’s wing was ridiculous, even if I had always thought pegasi had small wings. I’d already had a bad feeling about this place, but it somehow got even worse once we’d found this display. I couldn’t shake the horrific mental image of some mangled mash of ponies and metal limbs crawling about downstairs. I even wondered if the things ponies claimed to be the goddesses were made here, though I didn’t believe that rumor either. I tried not to let my uneasy demeanor show as I looked to Cherry, who was still pondering the implications of a metal wing.

"If you got it to work and found another, could you…?" she mused, trailing off as she placed a hoof on the thick wall of glass separating us from the wing.

"What, fly? I wouldn't try it," I told her cautiously.

Having no knowledge of any flying earth ponies before the war, I assumed this project had never been finished. Cherry glanced over to the unicorn display case, her sudden movement setting off the speakers and video again. This time it startled me more than the eager pink unicorn as she eagerly began reading the second plaque. Unfortunately for my companion, however, the second set of information had not fared quite so well over the years, leaving her with only half of the ambitious ramblings. Something about a primal magic within all living things, a ridiculous idea that I shook from my mind as I'd done the others.

Cherry, on the other hoof, seemed content to ramble on about it. I made no effort to stop her, however, simply glad to hear her voice openly about something. In the rooms that followed there were more display cases, most of which were empty. Two more mannequins, one of an earth pony the other of a unicorn, lay toppled in the final room as well as one last display cabinet, the likes of which was also shattered open.

Glass crunched under my hooves as I reached the room’s far wall. As I peered at the obliterated display case before me, a forehoof caught on something: a stone tablet or a piece of one at least. It didn't take me long to deduce this had once been displayed within the ruined case ahead. The accompanying plaque was concealed on its downward face, not that I was interested in reading any more nonsense these lunatics had cooked up. I kicked the tablet onto its front and saw a vast array of patterns etched into its gray surface. Towards the top was the lower half of what appeared to be a multi-pointed star, surrounded by a triangle of three smaller stars, each with their own orbiting sparkles.

Below it sat many pony-like figures, yet it was hard to tell exactly what they were. Some were bowing, others were fighting with what appeared to be spears in their muzzles. Earth ponies then? Maybe even zebras? I almost snickered at that; the idea that anypony would put anything related to them in a display case back then was among one of the more absurd things I'd thought. With that, I kicked the tablet aside. Maybe the thing was cursed; if so, this ghost certainly wasn't hard at work cleaning up this area.

See, it is horseapples. I told my mind, firmly backing the theory Buck Shot's tale had spawned.

As I moved on, Cherry stopped and curiously peered down at the stone tablet, before setting down her weapon and levitating it up to inspect.

"I wouldn't mess about with that stuff if I were you," I suggested, before falling silent.

Horseapples… really, Dragonfire? My mind questioned wryly. I’m not Goddess-damned superstitious!

"Couldn't we sell it?" she asked optimistically, and I raised an eyebrow.

"You do know that the metal is probably worth more," I stated, pointing a hoof back to the previous cases and the metal body parts within.

Cherry glanced back.

"You'd be surprised what I've seen exchange hooves," she explained thoughtfully, looking back to the tablet as she deliberately rotated it in her magic.

My look once again became curious, I knew at least some part of her was motivated to prove herself to me even if I didn't want her to. Second, I didn't see her as the type of pony who’d buck centuries-old glass cases just to get at some scraps... Okay, I could be wrong.

With a flare of her horn, Cherry thrust the butt of her shotgun into one of the cases, shattering it on the second strike and looting its contents. Without hesitation, she started on the second one. As timid as she was, I had a feeling I'd picked up a pony with a clear knack for salvage, and if her bartering skill was as good as she claimed then I was surprised she wasn't running her own trader town or something. One more thing I don’t have to teach her, I noted, amusedly wondering whether I could get any tips from her for a change.

"I reckon I'll get somepony to fall in love with these," she explained eagerly, hefting the extra weight in her saddlebags.

I merely nickered, as kindly as I could. She frowned, but I swiftly salvaged the situation.

"You sell that thing, and maybe you can manage all our finances," I offered without hinting that after her claim back in town, I planned to have her do most of the bartering from now on anyway.

She smiled, seeming to take that as a challenge as she retrieved her shotgun. The slow emergence of her true character was enough to send my mind swimming with pride among other things. I turned back to the corridor to find the tattered ruins of a poster hanging from the wall at its end.

'Leading the charge against the unknown' was what the bold yellow letters claimed from beneath their coat of sandy dust.

Yep, that ghost was literally just pony feathers.

To my right was the dark gloom of another long corridor, to my left was a set of double doors and a sight declaring this to be the stairwell to sublevel two. The doors were unexpectedly unlocked, and the large blast cover was retracted above them. I kept a wary eye on it as I passed underneath, shoving the doors open and, finding myself at the top of yet more stairs. The metal framework underhoof seemed sturdy enough, as did the rails The walls were comprised of rough concrete and bricks, and unlike the desert exposed chambers above, an unnerving chill hung over the gloom. I gave a shiver as I imagined the ghosts of the dead in this place touching or passing through me.

There's no such things as ghosts, I mentally reprimanded myself as I began to descend. I heard the door close behind us as Cherry followed.

In the light of my magic, I could see the stairs ahead turn sharply, before doubling back on themselves and sinking deeper even into the gloom. Above, an ambient red light was accompanied by the faint whirring of a motor as a turret slowly rotated, just as lost as all the others. With a swift flash of magical energy, the turret met its end with a grinding spark, illuminating the darkness. It fell, rattling the metal staircase and eliciting a sharp "eep" from Cherry, somewhere in the shadows behind me. I shifted the sparking wreckage aside before rounding the corner, while behind me I could hear my companion poke a hoof at the metals and wires, undoubtedly searching for more bargaining materials. A part of me imagined just how much a pony could gain if they managed to make a profit on every little thing they found, while another part of me demanded that I remained focused.

I was in a dark room, in a dangerous place, with Celesta knew what else. For once, I had to side with my instincts; they hadn't kept me alive in the wasteland for so long because I ignored them. 'Sublevel 2' the next sign read as I passed through the double doors at the bottom of the stairs. Beyond was yet another long, gloomy corridor. It was both fortunate and unnerving that the number of targets displayed on my visor remained at zero. All of a sudden there was a bright flash, and several lights flickered to life. Many popped and smashed, sending a wave of shock and terror through me as I jumped back, my rump hitting the door as Cherry came through. I gasped, cursing everypony who ever lived for making such unreliable things as light bulbs. I realized that Cherry had backpedaled up the stairs slightly, and I looked back to see the mare slightly stunned, her eyes wide with confusion. I winced, knowing I'd practically just flung my tail in her face.

"Sorry," I stammered weakly, trying not to make the situation any more awkward.

Raider victim; no touchy, touchy, my mind remained me swiftly, shaking its metaphorical head in disappointment.

"Um... No, no I should have watched where I was going... I'm sorry." Cherry stammered, her face reddening deeply.

She rubbed a forehoof on the back of her neck, her eyes darting about for anything that could change the subject. Fighting my own blush, I readily obliged, turning forward again as if nothing had transpired.

"Fuck you, wasteland," I grumbled sourly under my breath as the sinister entity sought to turn something as simple as a light bulb against me in a way that didn't involve killing.

Those same lights now lit the corridor ahead. I had a strange sensation that somepony was watching us, playing with us. Maybe it was the ghost, my mind suggested in a vain attempt at a scary tone.

No brain, ghosts don't exist! I mumbled to my wild thoughts.

It was then I noticed that this situation was in fact very strange. Following the lights that had come on, I realized that not all had done so. In fact, those which had not exploded now formed a glowing trail leading into a room right of the hall. Peering through a set of reinforced windows, I could see what appeared to be a large laboratory of some kind. Row after row of long tables stretched across the room, all lined with shattered glass and aged lab equipment. That didn't disturb me most, however. No, what did was the fact that most of the room was still swarming with murky darkness, the light trail continuing through an open door on the opposite side. The lights were tempting us forwards.

Both the door and the wall it was set into were formed from thick metal, covered by fine white paint only on the exposed sides as if to look like something normal. This room had been quite secure back when it was in use, and I couldn't help but feel that had been for a reason. Now it was open, and I had a nagging fear that we were not only being watched but led somewhere.

Ghosts aren’t real! I shouted mentally, taking a tentative step inside.

Like the corridor above, the room looked as if had been subjected to its own personal apocalypse. Underhoof, the shattered remains of glass jars and age-old stains covered the cracked tile floor. Rows of still intact glass vials and test tubes sat on the table. Most were lined with dark-colored coats, demonstrating the effect a few hundred years would have on whatever they had once held. The same grimy residue formed thick puddles of bile in the larger glasses and bowls that sat below the many elaborate laboratory contraptions, the sheer amount of which formed a vast sprawl of rubber pipes and valves far beyond my comprehension. I understood the many rough scribbles and notes scattered atop the desk even less so.

Further down was a set of old petri dishes and scalpels, along with other delicate utensils. Sat beside them was an old medical crate, the traditional yellow box bearing pink butterflies that any westlanders fought not to squeal over. Opposite was a long dead terminal, its screen shattered and filled with more dust than circuits. Several tools lay scattered before it as if somepony had been trying to work with the thing. Among them was a screwdriver, a wiring kit and an open pack of Mint-als.

“Well, somepony was sure having a bad day if they needed one of these things,” I remarked, almost feeling sorry for the maintenance pony whose taxing work had amounted to nothing. My attention didn’t linger as I heard fidgeting behind me and turned to see the medical box open, a rather focused Cherry surveying its contents.

"Bandages, a healing potion, more bandages and... Yes!" The pink mare seemed all too happy about something that wasn't potentially lifesaving medical supplies as she drew out several bobby pins. She looked over each of them as if there was something I couldn't see in the little pieces of metal. "Now all I need now is this." She added triumphantly, looking up and reaching out a hoof for one of the tools before the terminal, the screwdriver.

I stepped out of her way. Once again she was like a filly in a candy shop, only now she knew exactly what she was after. Setting my weapon down on the desk behind me, I levitated the few medical supplies she'd uncovered into my bags.

"I was gonna take those," she told me, looking back as if she knew the error in leaving such important supplies behind and was only now realizing it.

I retrieved my weapon a moment later. "I'll think you'll have enough with all the stuff you plan to sell," I told her, glancing to her bags. One already looked full to bursting.

She smiled slightly, seemingly a little embarrassed. In truth, her look was too cute for me to stomach for more than a few moments without saying something I knew I'd regret. To save myself any potential embarrassment, I turned as swiftly as I could and continued along the row of desks. That's when my eyes fell on a set of scales, upon which was a rock. It was bland like any rock one would see in the wasteland, yet as I examined it closer I quite clearly saw it was far from normal. It was a deep silver, but as the light shimmered across its surface it flickered from purple to deep blue. Probably just another crazy experiment, I noted bluntly. But as I passed it by my attention fell on something I found far harder to ignore.

An arm? It certainly looked like an arm, especially the way it was supported on what appeared to be a custom made stand. It was not like any griffin arm, however, more like that of a hellhound, minus the claws as what I'd perceive to be the hand was missing. It wasn't that big either and appeared to be formed from hollow bones. It was comprised of three distinct parts: an upper bone, an elbow, and a lower piece, all of which were posed to look as if they were still encased in flesh. Of all the things I knew about bones, however, I knew they were not supposed to be like this; were bones supposed to be hollow?

Okay, so I knew next to nothing of skeletons. But that was not the kicker: each segment was made from the same strange, shimmering silver I'd just glimpsed at.

"Looks like some sort of exoskeleton," Cherry commented, trotting up beside me, her saddlebags clattering with her new prizes.

An exoskeleton? I'd seen a great many creatures with a similar body design in my time, not that I knew what it meant beyond a hard shell. On top of that were a number of wires and electronic equipment plugged into the interior of this metal “exoskeleton.” I swore it looked as if these ponies were trying to make an evil wire-monster or something.

"I have no idea what it is," I told my companion bluntly.

My mind was more focused on the fact that with that previous observation, she was clearly a smarter pony then me, or just had freaky knowledge about strange mechanical exoskeletons. I sighed. Couldn't I just see her as her normal self, all the time? A moment later I realized just how horribly selfish that was. She, on the other hoof, merely shrugged, oblivious to my mental conflict as she glared at the strange metal limb curiously.

She wanted to take it, didn't she? I sighed once more. That thought brought a brief evaluation on just how hard the thing would be to remove. This whole lab seemed to be focused on the exoskeleton, as there appeared to be no more grand quantities of the strange silver metal about us. I trotted away a moment later; besides its strange appearance, the thing was giving me the creeps, as if some cold aura swirled about it. The real creeps, I might add. Not the type that revolves around a stupid ghost story, and for all my caution was worth, it seemed mutual. Cherry followed me away from the thing, her eyes focused on anything else she could scavenge. She was definitely a smart pony because to be honest, I didn't think the ponies who built this place knew what that thing was either.

'Sublevel 3' the next sign proclaimed as we entered from another set of increasingly chilly stairs. The almost identical corridor beyond was no warmer either, nor did the sight ease the unnerving feeling in my gut. We'd only seen one other turret on the stairs, similar to the last one. Once again it wasn't hostile. Regardless of the places' eerie hospitality, it felt like one of the least inviting places I'd ever come across. I couldn't help but get the feeling somepony wanted us here. It was becoming increasingly harder to shun the idea of some supernatural entity from my thoughts as we pressed onward.

Above us, many of the lights still functioned, clearly marking the pathway. This time they directed us directly ahead. On this floor the walls had also changed; they were cold and white, unusually clean.

The prissy ghost, my mind taunted with a vile snicker.

Underhoof the black floor was clear enough to show my faint reflection. Doors lined the walls, each leading off into an old lab room similar to that above, only these ones looked as if the workers had left only yesterday. Most unnerving of all was the persistent lack of anything... wastelandy. There was no clutter, no bones, and no hostiles. So why was I so discouraged? This place seemed to be willing to do nothing more than love and tolerate the shit out of us. Like some creepy enchantress inviting a foal into their home, only to bake them up into a big, tasty stew later. That was not the best image I could have given my mind to chew on, but as we arrived at the end of the corridor I was swiftly distracted.

A fine film of plastic sheets separated us from a large chamber beyond. What appeared to be some sort of service elevator to the surface had tracks leading up into a large rounded tunnel to my left, and to my right was what I assumed to be the last of its cargo. They were mostly steel crates bearing the comet-tailed Destiny Corporation logo. In the center of the large chamber, the tracks lead to the elevator itself, a large metal disk sunk into the concrete floor. A control panel sat on the far side, while a guardrail separated any wandering pony from the massive hydraulics that were barely visible below. The opposite sides of the room each held doorways. Running along the smooth concrete wall above were vertical lights hanging from long strands of wire.

I had a vague reminder of my trick back in the ammunition factory as I saw the ruminates of a catwalk suspended up there with them. Set into the wall itself, however, were smaller lights, the glowing likes of which beckoned me like a moth to a flame. They lead towards a larger doorway opposite the elevator shaft. Above it were three turrets, all of which were friendly. I scowled, unable to figure out which I found worse: friendly turrets or disabled turrets. This set appeared to be drooping lazily, unlike their lost cousins above. Making sure I had eyes on all possible defenses, I trotted into the room and around the crates, following the trail of the lights and making sure my blaster was locked onto the inactive guns.

'Corridor 23B' was written in big, black text above the large rectangular entrance to the tunnel. Set into the walls were the thick mechanical workings of some sort of door, as well as a peculiar effect in the air. I squinted, eyes narrowing as I tried to make it out. It looked as if the light about the door frame were dancing. My first instincts told me it was a gas leak, yet there was no scent suggesting such a hazard.

"What is it?" Cherry asked, seeming to notice my cautious stupor.

I paused, thinking for a moment.

"Wait here a second," I instructed cautiously, taking a step into the doorway.

There was nothing, just a distortion of the air. My mind wouldn't let it simply rest at that though; something was wrong, and this whole place was off. Then it happened.

As Cherry stepped forward into the doorway there was a bright flash of light. In an instant, the wall of distorted air lit up the whole entrance with orange light. The pink mare fell back onto her haunches as if she'd walked right into a solid wall, a shield of some kind. But just a moment ago I'd ... I didn't even have time to think about that.

"Cherry!" I called out as the mare staggered about on the floor.

I bolted forward, but in the same instance, the mechanical door forced itself shut with a whoosh and loud clang, sealing her away. I slammed face first into the newly erected metal, before falling back on my rump as my magic imploded.

"Cherry?" I whimpered, as my mind struggled to catch up to what had just transpired.

In that moment it did, and almost instinctively I reared up, banging my forehooves upon the metal as hard as I could.

"No, what the fuck? No!" I cursed as I brought my hooves down against the door over and over.

The thick metal merely seemed to ring with laughter at my futile attempts to open it. I met the mental image of its smug face with a shot from my Saddle blaster, and when that failed to even tickle it, it found itself fall victim to several bolts of plasma. That did nothing more than turn the metal hot, singeing my hooves as I gave it one last buck. I winced and fell to my haunches once more, panting heavily.

"What- The fuck... What the fuck!" I screamed through my heavy exertions.

The door wasn't budging. I looked to my armored forehooves, massaging them as the force of several hard impacts, not to mention the heat of the last, finally caught up with me.

Still, don't believe in ghosts? My mind snickered.

I growled both in my head and at the door. Then, ignoring the painful sting in my hooves, I stood, gathering my weapons once again. Somepony was watching us. Somepony who wanted to separate us. I was going to have a serious talk with this somepony!

"Where are you... You fucker!" I called angrily into the gloomy corridor ahead.

My mind summoned up mental images of a million foul things crawling out of the gloom towards me. In reality, all I got was a sharp pop as a light above a door to my right flickered to life.

Still playing that game, are we? I asked myself.

Yeah, but if that somepony so much as put a scratch on either of my friends, I'd blast them to the fucking moon.

Footnote: Level Up

Companion Perk Added (Cherry Pin): One Pony’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure - Your new companion seems to have the talent and confidence to make a profit from anything, here’s hoping they’re right. Prices are reduced by 5% when traveling with this companion.

Author's Note

Updated artwork for this chapter kindly provided by: Rainbowsurvivor.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Reality Check

Chapter 23:

"Wait! I don't understand. Changelings are supposed to be evil... right?"

"So you're a bug-pony?" I asked, waving a forehoof over a set of dusty shelves in search of anything that could make sense of this abrupt topic.

Seriously, Binary has so much stuff in here, surely she's got something on strange bug ponies? I thought, wondering just how there could be such a thing.

Vertigo sighed, in his... her... 'its' new reverberating voice. "Ugh! No, I'm a Changeling! By the hive, you are so uneducated."

I looked back at him with a disapproving expression and even now the trickster managed a smile. A rather more sinister-looking smile given the fangs, but a smile nonetheless.

"If that's the case, how come I've spent my whole life in the wasteland and never seen..." I shook my head, that one was obvious. "Heard of a changeling?" I asked firmly.

"That's the beauty, isn't it? I had a whole nation's worth of data back in stable fifty and even right here, and not once have I heard a mention of a changeling," Binary interjected from a level of catwalk above me.

I looked up to see the gray mare leaning casually against a rail, her metallic arms casually tapping at buttons on the wall as if they were another entity entirely.

"I'll admit I've never heard of changelings either," Cherry added with a shy grin as she foraged through a pile of medical boxes she'd dragged out from a room Binary said she'd never manage to break into.

One lock pick and cute face of determination later, the earth pony found out just what Cherry was capable of getting into. Vertigo's cloudy eyes passed between us all, then he huffed.

"Well, for one, Binary..." He sneered at the gray mare. "It's not ‘she’... You know I prefer ‘he.’" He placed a gnarled hoof on his chest. All of a sudden there was a green flash and before me stood... Oh, this is gonna get really confusing really fast.

"That's the beauty, isn't it? I had a whole nation's worth of data back in stable fifty and even right here and not once have I heard a mention on a pony like her, blah, blah, blah!" Vertigo muttered, his appearance and voice identical to his multi-limbed tormentor.

Binary frowned, stepping back from the rail and focusing on the terminals as her doppelganger continued to splurge random mockeries of her identity. Then there was another green flash and the real Vertigo returned, his blue eyes narrowing as he looked at me.

"Don't suppose you want me to do you next?" he asked cunningly.

"Don't even think about it," I warned, holding up a forehoof.

He leaned back, eyes widening. "I really have no idea how you are so full of love," he stated, seemingly more to himself before looking to Cherry.

The pink mare shook her head. Then so did Vertigo as he became the perfect mirror of her. No, oh goddesses, he... she, this is getting out of hoof, now there's two of them!

Then Cherry went rigid, stammering weakly. One of the few things, it seemed, able to break her free of her scavenging trance was staring right at a real-life copy of herself.

Vertigo smiled, looking at me and winking. I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks and begged the goddesses the real Cherry didn't notice. My mind filed away the image with great eagerness. However, it took a good many attempts to reign my salacious imagination back in with the fact that it wasn't the real Cherry looking at me like that. I was on the edge of totally snapping when Vertigo burst out into a fit of giggles and (imitating Cherry's voice perfectly) fell onto his back with forehooves pressed to his gut. There was a flash as he turned back to his chitinous definition of normal. I scowled at the black, insectoid equine, the look on Cherry's stunned face only making my distaste for the changeling's jokes even greater.

"Okay, okay. I'm done, but that was priceless," he gasped through his droning laugh, wiping a tear from his eye with a hole-filled forehoof. "Goddesses, you ponies are just too easy to mess with," he added, licking his lips at the apparently tasty humour.

"Well, it's kinda easy to mess around when you can do that," I pointed out, reinforcing the fact with a jab of an accusing forehoof.

"Yeah, but if I couldn't look like one of you then nothing would ever get done around here," he retorted swiftly, lowering my forehoof with his own.

It felt hard and grainy, covered in a fine, prickly fuzz and… Eww, I thought ghouls felt funny. Yet just last night I'd contemplated sleeping with this thing! Well, if he can be anypony… I could do a lot worse?

I backpedaled slightly, and I knew he was fighting not to nicker as I tripped over a set of cords and fell on my butt. He ultimately caved, a knobbly forehoof pressed to his fanged muzzle.

"You know, you're one of only three ponies who haven't shot at me for actually looking like this," he explained, gesturing to himself before looking up at the catwalk above. "Though, one of the other members of that trio might as well shoot me."

"Bite me!" Binary swiftly deadpanned.

"Wait... wait..." I shook my head, lifting a forehoof. "So if you can change then... You saved me from the train?" I asked, and that seemed to get his attention.

"Humm, so you're smarter than you look?" he almost purred, "Any other things I did?" He pressed knowingly.

I felt a sharp tingle down my spine. He could have been anypony, at least any pony that I'd seen when he wasn't around in the past week. Plus, I highly doubted he'd been one of Sky's siblings. So why did his question make me fear for my reputation so much?

I shrugged, despite my anxiety. "You saved my life, that's about as far as I can think," I replied, eyeing him warily. "Why, am I supposed to be suspicious? Are you an evil bug-monster now?"

His ragged ears dropped, diaphanous wings buzzing slightly. "You know, evil's such a strong word." He waved a forehoof dismissively. "No, I'm all about love and tolerance, the stuff's delicious," he added, practically beaming at me.

Suddenly all of the green fire under the Oracle building and hunger remarks he'd been making almost made sense. Wait, so where in the hay did he go to eat when he was supposed to be watching my back at the warehouse?

"So you feed on love?" Cherry asked, the shock of seeing herself imitated seemingly faded.

"Bingo!" Vertigo cheered, shooting a forehoof toward her and giving a wink.

I scowled at that, Cherry blushed, and the changeling continued to grin.

"Still, doesn't explain why I've never heard of your kind before," I interrupted abruptly, really wanting to change the subject.

He looked slightly pained at that, cloudy blue eyes shifting and sharp ears folding.

"There hasn't been a good hive of changelings in almost a thousand years, just lone drones here and there. Things may have been different if it weren't for the bombs and the queen," he explained rubbing his forehooves together.

I narrowed my eyes, many thoughts and ideas spinning in my head. Yet there was a solemn look on his face. It was hard to believe something that looked so un-pony-like could care so much.

"You saw it didn't you? Like some of those really old ghouls?" I asked simply.

I had no idea how changelings worked, but that was not the face of somepony who simply hated what had been done to the world because of the wasteland, he had the look of somepony who'd lived through it.

Cherry's shocked expression returned as she looked to Vertigo for conformation. The changeling cocked his head, then offered me a crooked smile before he nodded.

"You know, I admire your observation skills, Dragonfire. Good looking and smart." He winked and my ears folded as my expression fell flat. Then he finally sighed.

"Yeah, I saw it. Was around for a long time before that too. Providing we can keep feeding we can live for almost half a millennia. I was a drone from the under-city of Nexus, it's hidden beneath the badlands." He tapped a forehoof on the metal-grate floor, and for a second my frustration broke as I saw his forlorn expression.

"That was the last bastion of changeling civilization you'd find. I was drafted as an infiltrator when our queen, Chrysalis, began talks of a surface invasion of Equestria. But that never happened," he went on, sitting down and rubbing his forelegs together.

They'd wanted to take over Equestria? So they were kinda evil? Still, I knew Vertigo was many things. I didn't know how much I trusted him, but I was pretty sure he wasn't evil. How can a guy with a butt like that be evil? Grr, shut up brain he can pretty much have any shape butt he wants!

Just goddesses please, don't have some super sad story like everypony else. He's way too casual for that. Regardless, the changeling sighed, the exertion strange in that odd echoing-tone as he continued.

"Being as we are, it wasn't hard to learn of the tension between ponies and zebras. So instead of trying to take a nation that was on the brink of war, the queen decided to remain hidden. There were some rogues, but we'd ride out the trouble as we'd done for a thousand years. Yet when the bombs fell..." He trailed off, then winced.

"Well, in all that time we'd never come against something like that. Chrysalis wanted to strike at the weak world that was left. But I don't think she counted on there not being a world left." His forehoof drooped at his side as he sighed.

The information was going right over my head, only the sad parts seemed to catch in the net of my thoughts, but it was the gravity of those that prevented me from interrupting.

"Of course, that was just the start. Turns out that magical radiation and our telepathic connections to our hives don't mix well. Not to mention a great many of the tunnels collapsed... And well... there was the Changed-lings." He shuddered, and I didn't find it hard to assume something that made him do so couldn't be pleasant.

"I had some stuff going on during the war, but after that, I was on my own. No hive, no queen. As far as I know, with no love, we all kinda' died out," he admitted, pressing a forehoof to his chest.

I cocked my head. But if there's no love then how is he still here?

"But being a Changeling isn't without its advantages!" he blurted before I could think too hard.

There was a green flash and the familiar cyan buck appeared in the changeling's place. Another flash and he was a purple pegasus mare and even a midnight-blue Alicorn before coming back to the original. The way both I and Cherry's look at the latter most form made him grin like a giddy foal.

"Now, don't go thinking I can become a goddess, it's just an illusion spell. Still only got my horn and my wings," he explained, tapping his forehead and buzzing his wings.

Wait, why is he looking at me so intently while saying that? I'm so reckless as to think I was a goddess? A cramp in my gut told me that somepony might disagree.

Nevertheless, as Cherry finally recovered from the fact an alicorn had just been grinning at her, I finally spoke.

"So you're the last of a race of shapeshifter bug-ponies?" I confirmed.

He seemed to think on that for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I wouldn't say last, at least if there's still a queen out there, not to mention the Changed-lings. As for the shapeshifter bug-pony bit..."

The sudden appearance of an open forelegged Twilight Sparkle proved his point. I leaned back, laughing slightly as I passed a forehoof over my anxious stomach.

"So you broke into a stable as one of them, then gassed the place?" I asked simply and he nodded proudly.

"Didn't stop that bitch with the real bugs though," he grumbled. "Still, messing with the Brazens trying to kill you was fun." He winked, and a rather disapproving look from Cherry caused me to shrink back.

"Yeah, but now..." Binary called from above, words cut off by a loud clunk as she pulled a heavy lever. "Now, we're in mares and gentle colts," she added, metal limbs clapping as she trotted down a set of metal stairs like a giddy school filly.

The screens before the wired Pipbuck filled with various information. Gibberish flashed by at breakneck speed before finally stabilizing on the comet-tailed style Destiny corp. logo. 'Building a brighter future for every last mare, stallion and foal' appeared beneath it.

"Now to isolate any Oracle files," Binary said as she homed her focus and metal arms in on the small device.

Both I and Cherry trotted swiftly to the center of the chamber, Vertigo came up slowly, the form of the cyan buck I knew re-adopted.

"Sooo, what we got?" He asked, looking to the frantic Binary.

"Give me a minute and... There!" she called out as all the screens in the tower lit up with various information. "We have, everything! locations, research notes, private audio logs even the apotheosis files, everything!" she exclaimed loudly.

Then she winced, forcing her narrowed eyes close to the screen skeptically.

"Project Destiny?" That word didn't sit well with me for some reason, nor did it seemed to sit well with anypony.

That was until, all of a sudden that unease made perfect sense. Every screen when dark. Binary looked up, Vertigo gave a weary whistle and I looked to Cherry and she to me.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," the changeling muttered.

"What! No, no, no, no, no!" Binary exclaimed as her arms and hooves sped frantically across the dead interface. "No, you bastards what is this?"

There was a low beat and hum as every screen flashed to life. Orange sparks appeared in the center before blossoming outward like an intense flame to form what appeared to be a glowing eye.

Is it just me or did that look familiar?

"Greetings I am Overseer, please to make your acquaintance." That was the moment the gears in my mind ground to a halt.

*******

To say that I hated robots was an understatement. Yet of all the things I'd come across in the past month, there was one thing that I hated more than any other. Funnily enough, it was not Vertigo's quips

My companions turned skeptical as the glowing point of orange light on the screen glanced around, scanning over the details of the tower closely. It reminded me a little too much of Babs Seed locked in that computer under the factory. I felt anger, frustration, but sheer confusion caused me to keep silent at that moment.

"It would seem that this foreign system is lacking several functions, I will work to rectify the problems," the voice chirped, blurting from a whole range of speakers around the large chamber.

At least one mare's expression turned from skepticism to panic at that. "Wait... No, no, no. Don't activate anything!" Binary called urgently, waving her metallic arms.

Overseer's eye paused and peered down at her. "I do apologize, your identification is not one I am familiar with, I am unable to comply," he stated, and the mare looked around frantically, two claws pressed to her temples.

I swallowed my mixed feelings, stepping forward. "Overseer," I stated firmly and the glowing eye fixed upon me.

"Ah, subject twelve, it is a pleasure to see you are still well," he said kindly, and for a moment I could swear his eye narrowed to mimic a smile.

I didn't share his expression, my eyes narrowed, my ears pressing flat against my head. "You tricked me!"

My rage and frustration beat confusion from my mind like a piñata, easily winning the race to the forefront of my thoughts. The glowing entity's smile seemed to flip into a frown.

"I did no such thing. I simply followed protocol. You were a perfect genetic candidate for Project Destiny. I will admit, former instructions were obsolete, but this newly determined objective should be quite reliable. Providing you remain in a fit state to carry the subject," he explained.

I felt a sharp twitch in my gut. So I was right, the thing inside me isn't my foal. He's put it there and I'm still as useless at creating life as ever! But this foal is not a monster pony, it's mine, goddesses damn it.

"Wait, you know this thing?" Binary asked, glancing up at me from where she'd urgently dove to unplug the whole system

I nodded. "He was in the Destiny building, opened the place up and just let us trot on in," I explained.

The expression on the screen above was once again disapproving. "I acted according to protocol..."

"I get it!" I cut him off sharply.

"It's some sort of interactive program," Binary observed, trotting up to the Pipbuck still wired up on the desk.

I took a breath and slowly released it, my anger settling like a cold stone within my gut and my tummy roiling as I experienced another bout of pregnancy nausea. Goddesses, if a three-month-old foal is moving like this I don't want to imagine what it's gonna be like soon.

I looked back at Cherry, somewhat shamefully. I really hoped she didn't have to hear that the thing growing inside me was not my own, or at the very least, not that my foal was some wartime pony experiment.

"I am an artificially manufactured intelligence, created for the purpose of monitoring all systems owned by the Destiny Corporation. Post subsidiary interaction, management of all higher systems and projects automated by company systems," Overseer explained, glancing at the earth pony.

I still frowned as he seemed to overlook my situation like it was just another box on his checklist. My stomach gave another flutter, and I suddenly felt sick again, pressing forehoof to my gut as I sat down. I didn't what to ask him what he'd done. I just wanted a foal, to be happy, live the life I'd once lost. I wanted to save somepony I really cared about for once.

"So you... You have access to everything Destiny Corp. was up to?" Binary asked, a giddy smile forming on her muzzle.

The glowing entity frowned. "Indeed, I have access to over two million data files. Unfortunately, most are classified at this current time," he elaborated.

"Hey, you okay?" Cherry's soft voice was like a break in the storm of sudden revelations as she trotted up beside me.

I took a deep breath, nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine..." I lied, rubbing my tender midsection. She looked anything but satisfied by that response.

"Excuse me, but what are you attempting to accomplish?" Overseer asked, glancing down at Binary as she fiddled with the wired Pipbuck.

The gray mare didn't look up at the screen as she mumbled. "Rectifying the problem, hope you don't mind."

The robotic eye narrowed, "I am detecting your attempts to access classified data. This breach of protocol is most unacceptable," he growled and a bolt of electricity surged up each wire.

The mare gave a sharp yelp as the sparks struck her metal limbs and jumped back. Vertigo leaped forward, drawing Sting faster than any normal pony.

"Now listen, you try something like that again and I'll send this right through your mainframe," the changeling warned, eyes flashing green.

Wow, do his eyes do that every time he is mad? I've never seen him mad. My stomach gave a wriggle and I winced. Goddesses, any other time he'd be so hot to look at.

Overseer frowned as Binary propped herself up on the desk.

"Such a primitive response. Your efforts would be futile, I do not require this mainframe to sustain myself. This Stable-tec device has sustained me for over a week, albeit in a less conscious state. Nevertheless, I simply cannot allow this to continue," Overseer babbled as, without warning, several defensive turrets appeared from the tec-strewn walls.

"He's got access to the automated defenses, Vert," Binary warned, looking around warily.

“I can see that," Vertigo muttered, unflinching as he took aim at one of the automated guns and Cherry's horn flared as she drew responsibility.

"Now, wait!" I called out suddenly, shooting to my hooves and trotting right up to the screen.

Grr, don't think about that sickly feeling in your gut. Don't ruin the moment, don't throw up! My mind insisted.

"Now, listen, you stupid... Whatever you are, stop rambling about stupid protocol. In case you didn’t know, that world ended nearly two hundred years ago, nothing you know matters anymore!" I barked, all of my frustration and anger pouring out in a flow of words as I jabbed a forehoof at the screen.

Overseer glanced at the armed ponies, then at me. The guns lowered and withdrew, yet still, the level of curiosity that seemed to radiate off him was far more unnerving.

"I am well aware of the effects of the balefire bombings, yet that is none of my concern. One of the organizations I was designed to monitor has turned against its original duties. Oracle, is still a great threat to the future of this corporation," he explained, frowning again.

I shook my head slowly. "There is no Oracle or corporation anymore, I saw the ruins of that place myself!" I could have almost screamed so loud that the goddesses could've heard me, if not for the squirming in my gut.

Overseer seemed to beam with patronization. "I am aware, I was able to access all data from the building in question." My ears perked.

"Wait, so you... You really were the thing on my Pipbuck?" I felt a shudder run down my spine. I knew something wanted me alive, but really did it still have to be him?

"Indeed, though functions were somewhat limited. Even when I made efforts to modify the device, the stable-tec design is more rugged and hardy. Accessing the foreign systems you wished of me proved difficult. Therefore, I must recommend you start to take the utmost caution, you are too prone to dangerous situations for a test subject." I grit my teeth as his babbling paused.

"I'm not your test subject!" I screamed, almost jumping off all four hooves. Everypony looked at me like I was some kind of mad-mare, and damn me I blushed as I saw Cherry.

"My apologies, but when you entered my facility what else was I supposed to believe? You were a prime genetic specimen for my goals. I will admit, in the time that I have been free of the facility my understanding of you has grown quite significantly, Dragonfire. Nevertheless, I do not regret my actions," he responded and growled.

"Regret, you are a robot, you can't regret. Ponies regret, that mare trapped in the computer, the one you murdered, she could regret. Heatstroke, gunned down by her own father, she could regret... You!" I jabbed a forehoof at him. "You stuffed a mare in a tank for almost two centuries, so don't say you can ever have regrets."

I heaved and I panted, sitting down and pressing a hoof to my bubbling gut. There was no way this could be good for the foal, but right now my anger had to go somewhere.

Overseer let out a hum, that horrific sense he was smiling coming back as he regarded me. "I was assigned the task of preserving all the work my master had achieved. The deaths to which you refer are merely a small few to save the many," he elaborated and I had to fight not to put a hoof through the nearest screen.

"So what is it then? Don't go thinking I have not figured this out, you had this thing in that mare for this long, then you put it into me." I rubbed my gut.

It's not a monster, it's my foal. It’s not a monster. I repeated in my mind, eyes closed as I thought of myself with a happy foal. Maybe even Cherry with us in a safe, happy life.

"My apologies but I cannot reveal that information because I do not know it," he admitted and I looked up at him expecting a kind of smug smile.

For once, however, he looked bland. "Compartmentalisation, a failsafe in case I was ever captured by Oracle or another rival company." My head drooped, ears folding as I rubbed my belly.

"And who might those be?" Briary suddenly pressed. "Oracle was still a part subsidiary of Destiny Corp. before the war, even if they were governed by the ministry."

"So the public image would have you believe. The truth is that Miss Ebon Star, chairmare of Oracle refused all interactions with her husband's company after their divorce," he explained, and I glanced over at the gray mare as she cocked her head.

"Wait, Hayland and Ebon Star divorced? I thought they just ran things differently?" she asked and Overseer frowned.

"Once again, not a public affair, but yes. She disagreed with my master's methods, so too did many of their children. Most of the projects fell apart after that, so Hayland developed project destiny in secret."

"Let me guess. that's compartmentalized too?" Vertigo interjected as he leaned against the far rail.

"You would be correct. To retrieve such information I would need to access Hayland's private mainframe in Trottingham. Utterly disconnected, however, that facility was overtaken by Oracle before the war. Oh, they made so many adorable efforts to access it." He almost seemed to squee at that, smiling again.

Trottingham, that's where there’s answers then? Wasn't that half a country away? I slumped, head in my forehooves. I had a feeling if Overseer had been the relic the Transcendent were after they'd have been thoroughly disappointed too. Maybe it would have broken their dumb little religion?

"Then what about the ponies that were after us?" Cherry perked up as she trotted over and rested a forehoof over my shoulders. I offered her a small smile, glancing up at her, yet she looked as stern as ever. "They attacked you too, we saw them."

"The organization that attacks my stations is the remnants of those I was once constructed to govern. Partway through the Equestrian-Zebra conflict, Oracle removed me from all of their systems despite Hayland's protests. Their discovery of the object under Desert Springs lead to their close workings with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and all Destiny Corporation assets involved were removed," he began, images flashing on the screen of the large excavation site; from aerial footage to the dark mare I'd seen in memories shaking hooves with Twilight Sparkle, a scowling Moondancer in the background.

"Only when object two-two-three was uncovered did Hayland finally decide to invest resources in a project solely of his own design. I was soon repurposed to oversee this project and nothing else. Confined to installation five, I was only able to regulate Oracle's experiments advancements through camera feeds from other facilities." I took a deep breath. Listening to him speak that fast just made me want to breathe.

"So, Oracle, they're still out there?" Both I and Binary seemed to ask in union, before glancing at each other.

Overseer looked between us. "Indeed, they do not, however, remain true to their former name or function. They have resorted to the most primitive methods of achieving their goals, things I would never have allowed to happen," he explained.

"The Transcendent," Binary muttered, and for some reason, the hushed word sounded louder than ever as the same pieces fell into place in my brain.

The eye above bobbed as if nodding. "Such incorrect terminology is an insult to the morals they once stood for. I doubt Miss Ebon Star would approve of such behavior, even in her later years," he added, and I recalled all I could from the memory orbs.

She'd had that feeling around her, that malefic kind of feeling. She'd conspired with Zebras and attempted to kill Twilight Sparkle. The fact she had sacrificed her own daughter knowing Milky Way would come back was only more disturbing.

You still think he's right about her morals at the end? I shuddered. She felt like a mare that just wanted to laugh from atop a throne as the world burned down around her.

"Do you know anything about the apotheosis? Anything we could use against the Transcendent?" Binary asked suddenly, tentatively approaching the Pipbuck.

"Classified data, I am sorry," he retorted just as swiftly and the gray mare frowned.

I leaned against Cherry's side pointing a forehoof up at the screen again. "You don't like this Transcendence any more than we do, so why not just forget about all the classified shit?" I snapped.

He glanced down at me. "I do not exist for the protection of failed organizations, I am protecting the legacy of my creator," he retorted bluntly.

Mister Hayland, his creator? I recalled the buck melting from within and the mare he'd brainwashed into thinking the world was nothing but a painted room only to end up like some dead fish in a jar.

"You watched him die didn't you?" I asked, recalling the memory as if the robot could actually feel some sympathy.

His eye wavered slightly. "I attempted to warn Mister Hayland of the effects synthetic Etherium fusion would have on organic matter. He said it was worth the risk. His atomic structure deteriorated for several months before final breakdown occurred." he admitted, seemingly as heartfelt as his overly positive voice could.

I nodded, glancing away. "I suppose the reason he died is classified?" I asked.

He stared at me for a long moment, then at Binary and the others. "You truly wish to stop them, don't you? Discover what Oracle managed to achieve without my guidance?"

For some reason the sincerity in his inflectionless voice made my mane crawl. I glanced back at the others, from Cherry's worried face, Vertigo's wary glower, to Binary...

"The Transcendent... Oracle captured my home and killed my family, if there's a way to bring them down then yes, I'll stop them," the earth pony confirmed, slowly approaching the Pipbuck.

"I'm with her," Vertigo added with a nod. Overseer looked down at Cherry and she to me. I gave a small smile, the squirming in my tummy settling for a moment.

"They still have my friend and want my hide, what choice do I have?" Overseer paused seeming to think.

"While allowing you to be in any potentially hazardous situation is strictly against protocol, I see it is not an efficient option. As for the situation involving this Transcendent, I agree it needs to be assessed and dealt with. Therefore, I will reformat former protocol. New primary objective. Assess Oracle situation, rectify problem," he babbled, then mocked a smile. "It seems we have an agreement, and a common enemy."

The screens gave a flicker and he vanished. Then the previous display of text scrawl appeared and his voice emitted from my Pipbuck. "I have granted you access to all files available on this device and have begun necessary decryptions. I am also working to assess the current situation using security files of SPP tower fourteen," he chimed.

Binary approached the large console and began frantically tapping away at the controls, Vertigo holstered his weapon and trotted up behind the smaller mare as Cherry whispered into my ear.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, huh?" she asked with a slight smile.

I nodded, mimicking the expression somewhat. Despite not knowing exactly what he'd done to me, he may have his uses. But Overseer was still far from my friend.

********

Destiny Corporation Restricted File Active.

Login Sequence Begin…

Restricted Access: Tier 1 Security Clearance Required.

Login: Access Granted by order of Overseer.

Loading Data files: Apotheosis Contingent.exm...

File Active.

Designation: Apotheosis Contingency.

Status: Active.

Funding Available: N/A

Project Classifications:

Classification 1: Evolution

Subject: Milky Way

Test Status: Microbe Bio-infusion - Error

Subject Status: Suspended Animation, Interrupted (Cause Unknown)

Classification 2: Eternity

Subject: Silver Comet

Test Status: Etherium Graft - Success

Subject Status: Suspended Animation

Classification 3: Salvation

Subject: Starfly Nebula

Test Status: Micro-Mechanical Infusion - Success

Subject Status: Suspended Animation Interrupted (Intentional Shut Down)

Classification 4: Destruction

Subject: Quasar

Test Status: Serum Integration - Success

Subject Status: Suspended Animation Interrupted (Intentional Shut Down)

Contingency Implication: Failed (Lockdown Enacted At All Facilities. Cause: Foreign Hostility)

I pressed a hoof to the flickering terminal screen as the information appeared. Every other screen around me showed the same thing as Binary and Overseer conversed like old friends at the main terminal. Monster ponies, this was the basics of making a monster pony and yet there was no mention of the project Overseer had made me a key part of. I didn't know whether to be glad or frightened by that, all I did know is that I wasn't going to ask him with everypony around, especially Cherry. I didn't want her to know the truth if this thing growing inside me turned out to be no better than Carnage or the rest.

I noted the details of the mare Vertigo had reported. So she was really called Starfly Nebula? I thought as I saw a fitting also describing Carnage as a pony once called 'Quasar'.

Milky Way too, I that mare had felt odd but she hadn't been a monster in the memory orb? Doesn't mean she didn’t turn into one.

My stomach gave a slight flutter and I pressed a forehoof against it, sitting with my back against the cold metal wall. It's not a monster. I told myself over and over as my forehoofs stroked the tender area. But what if it is? What if it's the world's most perfect weapon, a pony designed only to kill for the purposes of a war that ended almost two centuries ago?

I swallowed and my gut twitched again. I could never have imagined it felt like this, so warm and tingly, the sensation of life inside me was both terrifying and amazing all at once. I glanced up, Cherry was across the room from me, rooting through an old storeroom which Overseer had unsealed.

Those sexual urges were still spinning in my twisted mind but I turned my eyes from her flanks jiggling in the open hatchway. I can't tell her, she has to stay a good pony and if she knows I'm carrying a monster...

"Hay, you holding up alright?" Vertigo's voice suddenly sounded.

I looked up to see the cyan buck form of the changeling stood just above me, his false-green eyes somewhat troubled. I sighed, taking my forehoof from my tummy and rolling onto all fours.

"Yeah... I just can't wrap my head around this," I stated, tapping my horn.

It gave a buzz, yet it was not as painful as it had been. Good, maybe I can have my magic back soon.

The changeling offered a smile. "Well, I'd say there'd be more wrong with you if you could just dismiss something this big as water under the bridge," he stated, hopping down.

He rounded on me, blocking my view of Cherry's butt. At the lack of cute, curved rump my eyes went nowhere else but the grated floor. Vertigo seemed to notice that and his smile only grew wider.

"You like her, don't you?" he asked, licking his lips. I scowled at him, but there was no joke in the question despite his hungry look.

I tried to nod. Do I like her? She's cute, kind, and adorable, but I've thought that about every other pony I've been with. Yet I'd known most of them for one night only and if I was to do such a thing to her I'd never forgive myself.

"I've liked a lot of ponies before," I responded with a slightly shameful expression.

"Don't I know it." He smirked and I huffed, grumbling about stupid love and stupid bug-ponies who treated it like dinner.

He gave a little chuckle, then glanced at Cherry. "You know, as one who feeds on love it's not hard to see it, and trust me, you love some pony you better say so before the world can take them from you," he explained simply, looking back at me.

I looked at the pink mare as she pulled several dusty cardboard boxes from the storeroom, then shook my head.

"That's the problem, I don't know if I love anypony anymore, I just like to have fun. If I did anything like that to her I'd never be able to forgive myself," I groaned, clattering my forehooves against the metal.

Vertigo sighed. "Yeah, but you look at her in that way. Tastes like a little more than just lust," he swiftly countered.

I paused. True, I'd felt like that with very few ponies. But I'd betrayed every last one of them for some new flank spank sooner or later, it's why I'd never 'loved' Star. I couldn't be sure Cherry was an exception.

"Look, thanks for the advice, but..." I trailed off, looking right at the buck before me, right into the cloudy blue lenses I knew were disguised beneath those green eyes. "I can't trust myself. There are other ponies I'd sooner fall in love with," I declared with a light hoof-stamp.

Vertigo shrugged. "Well, that's all I can give. But hay, I know what it's like not knowing whether you love somepony or you're just hungry," he added with another sly grin.

I rolled my eyes, my gaze peeling away to Cherry as she routed through one of the boxes eagerly. "And what about you, did you ever love anypony like that?"

The buck seemed to go stiff for a moment, a forehoof pressed to his chest before he finally sighed. "Once, I still love her... Keeps me going."

It was the first time I'd seen him speechless, and for some reason, the idea to press deeper didn't seem all that wise. The look on his face made it quite clear that love was literally the reason he was alive after so long.

My stomach gave a slight twitch, drawing my forehoof back there. Vertigo awkwardly coughed the topic away and glanced around.

"You know Binary's got this, no pony knows tec better than her, so if you wanna get some rest you can use the staff quarters just down the hall," he suggested, pointing a forehoof towards the large metal door and back down the corridor.

My eyes narrowed. "You don’t want me here or something?"

Now it was the changeling's turn to roll his eyes. "No, I'm just saying a pony in your state has to be more careful than the rest of us," he explained motioning to my midsection before razing a forehoof. "I know you said not to mention that you're preggers, but you’re only going to endanger your foal if you continue to deny that you’re pregnant."

I scowled, shoving down his forehoof as I opened my muzzle to retort. If only it was a lie. Words died in my throat as my stomach gave a firm shudder.

"Fine... You're right" I sighed, head and forehoof drooping.

Vertigo grinned, leaning back against the wall. "Down the hall, first door on the left," he directed, pointing a forehoof in the general direction.

I nodded, thanking the cyan buck as I moved off down the hall. My stomach started to churn again, and I instinctively started to look for a bucket. Great, tonight is going to be rough.

"Hey, Dragonfire, you alright?" Cherry's voice suddenly caught up with me, as did the pink mare herself as I looked back to see the pile of cardboard boxes laying where she'd once sat.

I paused, somewhat surprised that my simple absence had managed to tear her away from her scavenging.

"Yeah... I'm fine, I just need some rest and..." My stomach squirmed lightly and I press the tender spot with a forehoof. Oooo, I'm going to need a bucket soon, I know it!

"Oh, there's no problem, is there?" she asked with a slightly worried frown.

I shook my head, trying to resist her tentative expression as she stopped beside me. "Well, you shouldn't go anywhere alone, not with a foal," she insisted.

I once again opened my muzzle to assure her it was fine, but one glimpse at the smiling buck behind us and I wanted to scream. Vertigo waved a forehoof towards us, motioning to the living chambers as his smile widened.

I tried to make the frown I wore as subtle as possible as I looked back to Cherry. "Don't you want to scavenge some more stuff?" I suggested, but she shook her head.

"That stuff can wait. Like I said, from now on I'm not letting you or that foal out of my sight if I can help it." She placed a forehoof on my shoulder

I gave a crooked smile, blushing slightly. "Thanks, Cherry," I admitted quietly as I trotted down the corridor.

For some reason, I could not shake the feeling she was this clingy because of what had happened with Heatstroke. I knew the feeling of failure and wanting to do better. Not only that, I'd asked her to hold back on the care once before.

But as she beamed at me I could not resist that adorableness. Goddesses damn you, Vertigo! I don't love her!

"No problem, guess I just have more responsibilities now," Cherry assured me, grinning.

I looked back to respond and that was when my body decided to interrupt. "You okay... Is it the foal?" she asked, but even at her ridiculously cute cocked head, I could only choke out one word.

"Bucket!" She darted off in a pink flash, getting back with a hard hat just in time for me to throw up.

So what's that about being okay on your own? My mind asked as I gagged and spluttered into the hat, with Cherry patting my back. Ha-ha, very funny, brain.

********

'Be unwavering' The text upon the base of a small statuette declared as I levitated it in my newly restored magic.

I had no idea what the figure of the gorgeous white mare with dark purple mane had done to me but it made me feel like a princess, not mention returned the use of my magic. Oh damn, is that feeling sweet. I've no idea how earth ponies and pegasi survive!

"Oh, by the goddesses, I can't believe there's another. I think this one's Rarity? " Cherry gushed as she pulled out her Fluttershy figure.

She knelt down beside one of the small metal bunk beds that sat on each side of the small dorm, levitating her dirty barding onto the mattress above her. Even if she was with me, it didn't seem she could completely resist looking for something useful in the lockers and long boxes that were still here. I inspected the miniature Rarity closely as I rotated it in my magical grip. I assumed it belonged to Binary or maybe even Vertigo? Part of me wondered why it wasn't the head of the M.O.S they had a statuette of. With all Twilight had to do with Binary's former stable.

It was somewhat a shame that I had to place the figure back on the shelf with its company of dusty old computer parts and metal boxes. I almost felt guilty keeping Rarity and Fluttershy apart as I made my way over to the bed and Cherry set the butter-yellow pegasus down on the mattress next to her. Between the two bunks was a terminal, and below it, a safe. The likes of which appeared to have been assaulted by armature locksmiths multiple times.

"Hey, you reckon you can get into that?" I asked, pointing a hoof to the scarred lock.

She looked up, ears perked. Then glanced at the safe before her expression fell flat. "I could take a look, but it looks like somepony really did a number on this one," she observed. "Besides, don't you think they'll have an issue with us going through their things?"

I sighed, instead looking to the terminal on the wall just above it. "I suppose. May as well take a look at this instead," I grumbled as I trotted up to the screen.

Cherry frowned. "Come on, you think that they'd have left any terminal un-cracked around here? If it's locked, it will be for a reason." Regardless of her words, she was caught looking in-between me and the safe, curiosity blooming across her face.

Goddesses, is that a twitch? She looks like she'll bite her own hooves off if she doesn't give it a try.

"Vertigo owes me all the information he has. He has an issue with my going through his stuff he should not have sent me down here. I'm done with manners," I grumbled and no matter how unsure she looked, I could sense a part of her agreed.

If nothing else, it was pretty clear she could not leave any lock unchallenged. She crouched down before attacking the lock with the full accuracy of her precision skills. I merely fought to block out the sensation of her tender rear so close to me as I accessed the terminal. Unlike Cherry had theorized, it was not locked, yet that could have just as well been Overseer's doing in the past few hours. Logging in, I found no option to unlock the safe, but several files and audio messages. I scrolled down, but most were from before the bombs and only one, from a few years ago, was post-apocalypse. Glancing down at Cherry working between my legs, I swiftly sought the distraction offered by one of the recordings. It even had a data file attached to it.

"Goddesses, why does everypony assume that I'm the one to deal with this stuff?"

The sound of a gruff buck filled the small room, the constant humming of static emanating from the background as he began to ramble in frustration.

"Damn Dusk, if she's got a problem with her work and Tail Feather, then why's she dragging me into it. She knows I work for Oracle now, right? Though, I seriously doubt that given she is sending me illegal data that should have been destroyed months ago. I have a good mind to report this just because she's so incompetent! Urg, these mares are gonna be the death of me if any pony else finds out about this! Those Etherium Blasters are dangerous, I say good riddance, it's like the stuff they're made from is pure evil. But if there's bits involved... Well, she owes me this.

Moon Glow, I'm forwarding you these two copies of the Prototype design, and the fire talisman integration matrix. You get this to Star Shine in the Trottingham facility then we get the whole set together on the black market. Oh, and if you see Dusk Light you tell her that she's a dumb mule for sending this here. That thing they dug up, I dunno its weird, like every signal has a mind of its own, I have no idea how far transmissions will even get these days..."

The Recording cut out and I paused, looking at the screen then towards the attached file. As the buck's words had suggested, and my thoughts had hoped, I was presented with the second set of blueprints for a gun known as the Prototype Etherium Blaster I'd discovered under the Destiny labs. In addition, there was a way to add a fire enchantment to said weapon should I find all the parts. I made a note to download the rest of the data onto my Pipbuck if I ever got the thing back. Then there was a soft click and a squeak as the safe under me opened.

"Phew, that was a stubborn one," Cherry declared as she leaned back and wiped her forehead with a forehoof.

I sat back on the bed, looking down to see several broken bobby pins sat beside the open safe. Inside was a stack of old, pre-war paper, some ammo, a pile of old musical records and a photo. I seized one of the records first, slipping it out from the cover.

'Hush now quiet now, by the cutie mark crusaders.' Not a song I recognized.

The faded photo accompanying it depicted a picture of a large workforce, including both ponies and robots, all lined up proudly before their monstrous machines and construction equipment, the white walls of the grand, ivory tower in the background. A rather attractive looking cyan pegasus mare with stunning rainbow mane was flanked by two more pegasi, all dressed in dark Shadow Bolt barding as they stood proud at the forefront of the crowd along with a few Equestrian Sky Guard.

'Ministry of Awesome. Super secret awesome project, tower 14. I was there.' Was scribbled at the base of the photo as well as a signature from Rainbow Dash herself.

I placed the photo into my bags, where it joined the other of a smiling family, then looked back into the safe and noticed one more thing hidden behind the pile of records, a long black case.

A memory orb case? I'd seen them before, and just as much was confirmed as I opened it to find several orbs sitting neatly within the velvet-lined interior, as well as another photo folded between two.

'My Super Special Somepony, Sweetie Belle.' said a small scribbled message on the back of the image depicting two ponies stood seemingly backstage, one a purple pegasus stallion in Equestrian Sky Guard uniform, and the other the white-coated unicorn mare with teal eyes and a pink, lavender mane I recognized from the factory memory orb.

She was dressed in a beautifully regal white and gold dress while both ponies smiled at one another with loving expressions. It was almost like I'd seen her in the memory, though the lack of motion made it feel somewhat distant.

Is that stallion the one who's memory it had been? I stared closely at the thing before I felt Cherry's breath on my shoulder.

"They look so happy..." she observed, stealing my attention as she leaned back against the bed.

Then she stepped back, sitting on the bunk opposite. I thought about that as I slowly removed my barding, my body aching from the punishment I had subjected it to as it was forced to move in ways that set off my pain receptors.

"I still find it hard to believe anypony could have done everything together like that…. Must be nice to have a special pony," she added with a sigh. I slid the photo back into the case closing it, before placing it in my bags.

"Yeah... Wish all the ponies who fucked everything up were as sweet," I countered, sitting on the bed beside my folded barding.

The pink mare looked over the technological abundant walls, a forehoof pressed against one. "You ever imagined what it would be like if... If it hadn't happened?" she asked tentatively.

I paused thoughtfully, I knew my answer was not what she'd want to hear. The way I saw it, the war wouldn't have ended. Those monsters would have just kept on going, making bigger and more destructive things until there was nothing left. Some of those things were still going today, hiding in bunkers and laboratories.

I shook my head. "I can't imagine it would be any better," I admitted, my stomach giving a twitch as the idea crossed my mind and I raised a forehoof to it gently.

Cherry sighed. "We're not so good, are we... Ponies in general I mean?" she asked, glancing back at the terminal.

I looked right at her, the good, smart, beautiful mare she was. "Not all of us are so bad," I admitted with a small smile.

That adorably humble expression surfaced again as she leaned forward. "Do you ever wonder why we're even here? Why we were able to do what we did, kill the world?" she asked.

She was a smart pony, smart, and apparently philosophical. All traits I lacked and appreciated in her. As for her question?

"I honestly don't know. I just assume everypony's bad news until they prove otherwise," I answered leaning back and waving a forehoof upward dismissively.

She sat up and looked around cautiously. My tummy gave a light twitch and I rubbed the tender spot with a forehoof. Cherry glanced down at me, smiling before her eyes strayed to my midsection.

"How is he?" She asked kindly.

I smiled, rubbing the area slightly more. "Well, he feels fine, but I don't think he's any bigger than a nut yet, so I have no idea," I responded, and she raised forehoof tentatively.

"Can I..." She motioned down at my belly.

I glanced down at my own forehoof, then at hers, removing it as I nodded. My heart fluttered at her touch and even though my mind continually told me she wasn't doing this for me, it just felt good to feel her hoof against my body.

"You should start thinking of names, I remember Tumbler coming up with them ever since the moment she felt morning sick. She didn't even know she was pregnant back then, and still said she dreamed about foal names," she said with a slight laugh as her forehoof stroked me gently.

Her happiness was only fuel on the fire of my contentment as I raised my head. "I'm open to suggestions," I told her with a slight smile.

She seemed strangely honored by that fact as she looked back at me in mild surprise. "Well... I, I don't know, I mean ..." I placed a forehoof on hers. "Relax, we still got ten months or whatever yet," I assured her, and her sudden excitement seemed to fade.

She gave a crooked smile, "Keeping my eye on you for that long is gonna be hard," she joked. Then she was looking right at me. No, she really looked at me.

"That night... in Crossroads, when Sky told me about you and the foal... And the radiation..." She trailed off and I felt my inner self begin to weep.

I paused, the idea of what might have been if I'd have not been saved by some ridiculously lucky fluke arising in my mind.

Having a monster pony growing inside me is not lucky! I reminded myself, but I ignored the fact.

I imagined her there waiting for those long days, knowing I was pregnant and that radiation was going to take me away from her, just like her family and her friends back in Bucktown. A mild rage flared in me as I heard the prim tone of the wasteland's incarnation laugh and skip around my head. Yet my temper was soothed by a cool realization. How I'd felt last night, the guilt, how I'd felt about Cherry ever since I'd seen the real her back in Crimson Springs and most importantly, how I was feeling right now.

I did love her like I'd loved only a small number of ponies in the past. I realized that all thanks to a damn changeling. What did Vertigo really know about love? To him, it was no different than a snack? I recalled the photo of the smiling family and my forehoof passed from hers to my stomach, then came the recent image of the two loving ponies backstage and I felt my heart flutter at the possibilities.

"I thought I was gonna lose somepony else I cared about, then I found out about the foal and it was like I was back there, the day they died," Cherry muttered anxiously, she looked at me with a worryingly desperate expression, her thoughts seeming to rage in her head like a storm behind her quivering eyes.

I had a brief moment to take things in, opened my muzzle to respond. Then the world stopped. She's kissing me! Goddesses this has to be a joke, this mare isn't real. It's just Vertigo pleading for more love!

As our lips met and all the love and passion flowed through, however, I knew that this was the mare who'd been scarred by the loneliness of the wasteland her whole life. What was this now, some kind of desperation before I could be taken away again? What did it make me if I abused it like I'd done so many others who'd been into me? A long moment of embrace later and she pulled away, shivering.

Her expression was soft for just a moment before her eyes went wide and her pupils contracted to pinpricks. "Dragonfire... I'm sorry... I..."

Oh, goddesses, what did my dumb face look like after that? I was stunned with a level of shock that completely overwhelmed my senses.

Cherry shivered, backing away sharply, I tried to wrap my forehooves around her but the limbs felt like jelly in my stupor. Cherry's expression turned from shame to fear as she shrank back like I was a hot flame.

"I... I..." she stammered before bolting.

I tried to scream, but like some nightmare, I could do nothing as my worst fearers played out before me and she disappeared through the doorway. All my hidden compassion and long-lost love withered with those thoughts. I fell limp onto the bed, the touch of her hooves on my midsection still tingling as I met it with my own quivering forehoof. She was gone, and I felt far more empty than I ever had. I glanced down and my stomach gave a twitch. I loved her, and it still felt so wrong.

Footnote: 50% to next level

Vertigo: Companion perk acquired - Changefire: There’s a reason you don’t ‘see’ changelings that often. Your companion’s sneak skill is permanently increased.