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