South Line Station was a small town and like the name suggested, used to be a train station. Train cars were turned into various buildings, old-world ticket booths and souvenir stores served as shops and hotels.

The streets were filled with ponies, busy with their works. But even though the town was bustling with activity, it felt sick. Ponies lay on the floor with lots of empty syringes around them. Everypony walked warily like somepony would try to steal their things at any moment.

The air was foul and the walls were stained by all kinds of filth. Almost every corner had drug sellers showing their wares openly among the crowd. It seemed like there was no security at all in the town.

“There’s a medical clinic just ahead,” The mare, which introduced herself as Cloud, said, Pointing forward with her hoof. She was carrying her daughter Angel on her back while I carried her battle saddle and bags.

The clinic was an old two store pharmacy, boarded windows in both levels kept whoever wanted to steal its contents away.

Putting my fetish on, we went inside. To my surprise the inside was actually pretty clean, white tiles adorned the clinic’s floor complimented by white painted walls. Even so, I felt strangely uneasy inside this place.

Ishwa was following behind me. Suddenly, she stared fixedly at a nearby door, her fur and feathers standing on end.

‘Danger…’ She growled, clearly wary.

Through that door came a white unicorn with red mane and tail, he had a syringe as a cutie mark and wore a white medical coat, stained with red spots of old, dried blood. He was carrying a bone saw with his magic when he noticed us. He placed the bone saw on top of a nearby table and said, “Hello there, my name is Fix Shot, is there anything I can do to help these two beautiful mares?”

Cloud helped her daughter down and answered, “My daughter was shot. She needs healing.”

“Oh, I see. Let’s go to the next room so I can examine the wound better, yes?” the doctor said, leading us to an examination room on the left. The room had white tile walls and floor. There was a steel exam table in the center, coupled with exam lights and a medical table with lots of surgical equipment.

“Lay here please,” he asked Angel, who jumped on top of the table with a bit of trouble.

The doctor put on some glasses and examined the wound for a while.

“Luckily, the wound is superficial. I can sterilize it with some hydrogen peroxide and give her a shot of a stimpack to help it heal.”

“Stimpack?” Cloud asked, not liking the sound of it.

“A stimpack is a medicinal drug I concocted, it’s a metabolism accelerator mixed with anesthetics. It heals faster and better than a common healing potion.”

“Ok, then. You can proceed,” Cloud said, allowing the doctor to start the treatment.

He cleaned the wound with a clean cloth and hydrogen peroxide. After it was cleaned, he got a syringe with a bluish liquid and injected it in Angel’s leg.

“The wound will begin to heal from inside out, getting any kind of possible lead or debris out of her body after a good night sleep.” He explained, cleaning his needle in a nearby sink.

“Thanks, how much will it cost me?”

“I’ll give you a nice discount, fifty caps.”

Hoofing her caps, Cloud got her filly on her back again and began walking out, followed by the doctor and me. Before leaving I asked the doctor, “Do you sell any chemical supplies?”

“Sweet Celestia no, I'm having too much trouble trying to get this town clean. I would never sell any kind of chemical supplies!”

‘Is that true Ishwa?’

‘... I don’t know! I can’t use my powers on him! What the hell is he!?’ Ishwa exclaimed in surprise. I didn’t know if she was more afraid than angry that her powers didn’t work, I would bet it was the former.

“Ok then, goodbye.” Walking out of the clinic, Cloud waited for me outside, sitting on the side street with her daughter, drinking a bottle of “Sparkle Cola”.

“So, what are we gonna do now?” I asked sitting near them.

Cloud rolled her eyes in annoyance. She didn’t like my presence at all. “I’ll buy some supplies around the city. As soon as it gets dark, I’ll head to Farside City.”

“You’re going to spend the night outside?”

“Yes, like we normally do.” She gestured to her filly.

‘She would be monster food in no time in Zebrica,’ Ishwa commented.

“Ok then. I’ll search for some chemical reagents and I’ll wait for you at the gates.”

She nodded dismissively, not caring too much about me. Going deeper into town, I reached what seemed to be the marketplace, a lot of booths were set around a big clock that dangled from the roof, completely broken. The streets were divided by passing rails. On one side there were food shops, gun shops and other miscellaneous shops scattered around. On the other side, there were chemical shops, drug dealers, mixers, fixers and all kind of intoxicating items.

Ponies clearly didn’t have the same control and viewpoint as zebras when it came to drugs. Empty syringes, inhalers, cartridges, smoking pipes and other stuff lay scattered around. Some ponies shook and quivered with pinprick eyes, some other banged their head on the walls and some other were so overdosed that they simply stopped functioning. Misery and suffering spread like an airborne plague in this town.

I approached what seemed to be the emptiest drug store. The shopkeeper was an orange mare with white mane and red eyes. She was busy mixing something behind her counter to notice my approach.

“Excuse me? What do you have for sale?” I asked, clearing my throat to get her attention.

“Oh, hi there! We have plenty of entertaining things for sale today.” She answered, putting a plastic case on top of her counter and showing her wares to me.

“We got Buck, Dash, Mint-als, Party time Mint-als, Moon dust and all kinds of alcohol!” The mare announced with pride of her wide variety of “entertainment” drugs.

“How much for Dash and Mint-als?”

“They cost twenty caps and thirty caps respectively!”

“I’d like two of each please.”

She hoofed me the drugs and grabbed my caps, storing them in a pouch around her waist. “Enjoy!” She smiled.

“Thanks. Say, where do you get the chemicals to make these?”

“Oh, I got it from a special supplier, so you can be sure that the best chems are only found here, at our shop!”

‘That’s true, at least she thinks it’s true.’ Ishwa stated.

‘Can you confirm that?’

‘Hey, I’m only a lesser spirit, my powers don’t go that far. Unfortunately,’ Ishwa said with a heavy sigh of frustration.

‘Don’t worry.’

Waving my goodbyes, I left the shop. ‘Let’s see if we can find out who they’re buying from.’

‘Ohhh, espionage!’ Ishwa exclaimed with a spy suit and smoking pipe in her paws.

After a while, I visited almost every booth and none of them gave me a substantial answer. It was getting dark, so I went to the gate and waited for Cloud and Angel to arrive.

After a couple of minutes, they arrived carrying new supplies, stored them in her saddlebags and left the town.

“So, why exactly do you spend the night outside settlements?”

“It’s cheaper that way,” Cloud answered as nonchalantly as possible. It was starting to get a little annoying, so I thought it was time for some payback.

“And more dangerous.”

“But more private.” She retorted with a bit of annoyance.

“And less comfortable,” I answered with a smirk on my face.

“And a bit lonely…” Angel added meekly.

“Sweet Celestia! We’re sleeping outside, if you don’t want to, get lost!” Cloud yelled, her face red with anger.

‘Nice! The new score is 1 x 0 for the home team!’ Ishwa cheered, wearing a buckball team uniform.

“I was just teasing. Shall we set up camp so I can make something to eat?”

*** *** ***

After a while of walking, we found a good place to set camp, it was near Farside City in the same area where I found the Stable. With a tent raised and the fire going, I started to cook a traditional zebra soup, not very filling, but super nutritious.

Cloud was returning from her watch when I noticed Angel playing with some familiar looking toys. “What you got there Angel?”

The filly looked at me with a happy smile, eager to show me her toys. “It’s the ministry mares! They are the ponies that tried to save Equestria a long time ago!” She had four statuettes similar to mine. She introduced me each one of them with pride at her collection.

“The blue one is Rainbow Dash, the fastest pony that ever lived! The white one is Rarity, she’s very pretty! The orange one is Applejack, she looks so cool! And the purple one is Twilight Sparkle, she’s my favorite!”

“They’re very pretty, is your collection complete?” I asked, knowing the answer.

The filly deflated. “No, there’s two that I'm missing, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. My mommy searched for them all over the place, but they’re super hard to find!”

“Oh, are they? Well, maybe… you’d like... this?” I started slowly as I searched my saddlebag, getting the statuette alongside the memory prisms.

Angel went ecstatic! “You have Fluttershy!” She screamed with a high pitch voice, jumping in place. “Can I see her?” she asked, trembling with excitement.

“You can have her, clearly it’s more important to you than me,” I said as I gave the statute to her with a smile.

Her smile was infinite times greater than mine. She held it like a precious gem, her eyes flashing a curious glimmer, like when I held it for the first time.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Mama! Look what the nice zebra gave to me!” She screamed, hopping to her mother, light as a feather.

After some time, the soup was ready and served, Cloud was suspicious about it, but eventually, her hunger talked louder than her suspicion and she began eating it.

After we finished eating, I got a pouch full of berries from my homeland. The berries were called “Guaraná”, they had a red shell and black on white interior, alongside it were little dark purple nuts called “Açaí” that, when mixed together, would make a super sweet dessert.

Remembering that I still had my disguise on, I took off my fetish, reverting to my original stripes. I got up and showed the berries to my companions. “Who wants a Zebrican dessert?”

“I’ll pass,” Cloud stated blankly.

“Uh, can I have some mom?”

“Uhm… Yeah, you can, but just a little bit.” Cloud said, apprehensively.

“Ice cream coming right up!” I announced. Chopping the treats in the tiniest possible bits and grinded then together in a bowl, I poured a bit of water, mixed then and calling on the powers of a lesser Spirit of Hatred, also know as a Spirit of Cold, I froze the dark purple cream into a nice Açaí ice cream and served Angel a bowl.

“... It looks weird,” Angel said, inspecting her ice cream with a spoon.

“You will like it” I encouraged, taking a spoonful of my own. The açaí ice cream was super sweet and tasty like a tropical heaven, it gave me so many memories from my homeland. I miss my home…

Angel ate a shy amount of her ice cream, tasting its sandy texture. She made a disgusted face at first, but soon the guaraná sweetness kicked in. Her expression quickly changed for one of pure tropical bliss, her previous hesitance replaced by eagerness and a strong hunger for more!

“Sweet Celestia this is so good! Mom! Come and try it! Angel, beckoned.

“I’m good sweetie, don’t eat too much or you’ll have a tummy ache.” Her mom warned, not really phasing the filly.

*** *** ***

After every last bit of ice cream was consumed and every utensil were put away, everypony was settling to sleep. Cloud did her last scouting round before putting her filly to bed. When Angel was comfortable and sleeping she approached me.

“Hey…” She whispered softly, trying to not wake Angel up.

“Yes?” I replied in a similar tone.

“I noticed that you have a memory orb collection.” Cloud procured a small pouch from her saddlebags, and from inside the pouch, she retrieved a memory orb and gave it to me. “Consider this payment for the Fluttershy statuette, Angel really liked that.”

I took the orb in my hooves and stored it with the others in my saddlebags. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m going to bed. Can you cover the first watch?”

“Yes, of course.”

Cloud turned back and went inside her tent where Angel was asleep. Leaving me alone outside since Ishwa was sleeping on top of said tent.

A few hours have passed, I was bored to death… Everything was calm and quiet. Not even a wild critter to entertain me. I looked at my saddlebags, wondering if I should look into a memory orb.

Well, I had nothing to do, so I've put my skull mask on and placed the first memory prism I found onto its right eye socket. I heard that unicorn ponies go into a trance-like state when looking into a memory. Well, we zebras didn’t have that kind of problem. With my skull on, I asked a lesser Spirit of Time for help. Memories being the proof of time, I was able to partially submerge myself into the memory, Having the complete connection to my host without losing consciousness of the real world around me.

Concentrating on the memory prism, I delved in.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I was walking in the middle of a green lustful forest, the calming sound of running water announced the presence of a nearby river. My host was a female zebra, the fact that I wasn’t fazed by the fact that I was in a female body worried me to no end.

I felt tired, my breathing was heavy, probably due to recent running. My host looked around her. I was surrounded by zebras wearing combat gear and the old Roam military uniform, I knew where I was.

Soon enough my host reached her destination. A small clearing, totally surrounded by marked trees. In the middle of the clearing, two zebra scouts waited for us.

“Report,” A zebra stallion from my squad said, by the looks of his uniform, he was the squad captain.

“Sir! The ponies built a defensive base of operations with heavy artillery in the area, their communication system seems weak and they’re isolated from any kind of Nightmare Moon’s reinforcements.” One of the scouts said, saluting her superior.

“Show us the map.”

The scout gestured to his friend who grabbed a map from his saddlebag and opened it on the grass, my whole squad approached to see the map.

The map showed nine military settlements connected by a single rail line that circled from the north and all along the Crescent Moon Canyon.

My host gasped, following the rail line and the river that ran in that location, the whole place formed the crest of Nightmare Moon, this place was evil, and it must be cleansed.

“Zaya, what do you see?” The captain asked my host. Now I knew her name.

Zebra squads usually had a shaman with them, in case they needed higher help or maybe a blessing before their deaths. Shamans were also responsible for the recording of important memories from their operations, these memories would be stored for later use by officials as a way to study the battlefield if the worst happened to the scout team, the memories would be hidden away so that when the rest of the army arrived they would know what they’re dealing with.

My host concentrated, channeling her will upon the spiritual plane. She was able to ask a Spirit of Whispers and a greater one at that, she was quite the capable shaman. Spirits of Whispers have the ability to erase something you want to be a secret or, in this case, revealing what is a secret. But the problem with greater spirits is that the price they charge is always pretty high.

I could feel images being planted inside my host’s memories, what the pony artillery was like, how to gain control of it, how their communications worked, how to break their connection with each other, train schedules, ways to infiltrate their bases using the train and much more.

But at the same time, the spirit was taking away the memories she valued the most. Her first day at school, the day she got her cutie mark, her first date, her wedding, the day her foal was born, all becoming more and more blurry as the spirit feed her new information.

At the end of the process, the spirit vanished, leaving her out cold on the grass. Her teammates helped her on her hooves. Weak and pale, she began telling everything she learned, a small tear rolling down her eye, knowing that she would never be able to regain her lost memories ever again.

“Thank you Zaya, your sacrifice will bring salvation to our people,” the captain said, wiping away her tears. He rolled the map and stored it in his saddlebags, rallying everyzebra to formation he instructed, “Alright listen up! We’ll set up base here and organize our supplies for tomorrow's assault. We’ll split into two teams: one and two. Team one will head to their radio station and cut off their communications while team two will head directly to their artillery cannon. The ponies fortified their bases expecting a direct assault from a big army, but they were not prepared for us, we’ll use their own artillery to blow them to Kutengwa!”

Everyzebra cheered Intensely, confidence and determination filling their souls while my host stood on the far side, doubt permeated her mind. That night they would have a great celebration, a zebra tradition to raise morale before going to battle. But all my host wanted to do was to return home, to her family, and apologize.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

With the end of the memory, I took the memory prism and the skull mask off, a lone tear running down my cheeks. “Forgive me, mother…” Not wanting to stay awake anymore I woke Cloud and went to sleep, Hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.

Footnote: Level Up! (5)

Skills Raised:
Barter: 39
Speech: 37
Survival: 49

New Perk:
Knowledge of the Past: You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level.

Author's Note

Chapter 4!

For those of you unfortunate to not know what the berries and nuts I mentioned were: Açaí + Guaraná = Açaí ice cream!

(Quick warning. I fixed a miscalculation on the skills raised and added the level the character reached)

I hope you liked it!

Please let me know of anything you think I should improve in, so I can make better stories for your enjoyment!

bye!

-T.M.W.D.

Chapter edited by: EverfreePony