Fallout: Equestria - Across the Divide

Chapters

Chapter One: A Grand Reopening
Chapter Two: The Divide
Chapter Three: The Muck and the Mire
Chapter Four: Depths of the Sound
Chapter Five: The Two Towers
Chapter Six: Ensnared
Chapter Seven: The Fire and the Flames

Chapter One: A Grand Reopening

Chapter One: A Grand Reopening

"It was just me against the world... and the world had it coming."

"...So, without further ado, I present to you, citizens of New Pegas... the long-awaited reopening of the High Roller Casino!"

With a grand flourish, the red tape was telekinetically snipped, and the large, towering casino that had sat empty since the Great War was reopened, filled to the brim with slot machines, roulette and blackjack tables, and practically overflowing with booze and the bartenders necessary to serve the influx of guests. Some would say it was overkill... but to attract tourists on the outlandish New Pegas strip, it needed to be overkill.

As soon as the ribbon was cut and the way was clear, the crowd of ponies there for the reopening stampeded forward in a desperate attempt to be the first one to gamble in the new, prestigious casino, nearly trampling the mare in charge of the ceremony in the process. As the horde of ponies descended on her with no time to scramble away, the papyrus-colored unicorn ignited her horn and disappeared with a PAF, the casino-goers hardly noticing in the commotion.

A split-second later, the mare reappeared on the other side of the street with a flash of blue-colored light, a gap in the clouds separating her and the crowd. She stumbled from one side to the other before finally regaining her balance, adjusting to her new surroundings.

"Ow, bad idea..." she muttered under her breath as she rubbed at her aching horn as it throbbed angrily at the sudden influx of magic, the scar trailing from the base of her horn along her forehead to her temple also starting to ache at the sudden drain of her magic reserves. She brushed her dark blue mane out of her eyes with a huff as she let the throbbing subside.

"What a moving ceremony, Miss Eden. It almost brought tears to my virtual eyes... if my processors had tear ducts," a mechanical voice next to her chimed.

Eden lowered her hoof and turned to see a large securitron standing next to her, watching over the mass of ponies trying to enter the new casino on the Pegas strip. However, instead of the normal face of a soldier plastered onto its flickering screen, this one was replaced with a rather cartoonish depiction of a scowling, eye-rolling pony standing on stilts. The screen flickered and glitched in random intervals, an almost hypnotic sight.

"Well, I'm glad it met your standards, High Horse. We all know you're an awfully hard program to please," Eden teased in response, sitting back on her haunches as her head continued to spin. Yep, definitely a bad idea.

"Yes, fuck me for having standards, I guess," the securitron quipped, the sarcasm detectable even through the mechanized tone. "To be quite honest with you, that speech of yours nearly put me to sleep."

"Well, it's a good thing you're a computer and you can't fall asleep then, huh? You'd probably let all of New Pegas crash to the ground if that wasn't the case," replied Eden with an amused snort, always happy to return the computer's banter. "How's the city doing today?"

High Horse beeped. "Awful, just awful. Morale is low, distrust is high, Enclave refugees are flooding into Applewood and filling it to the brim faster than we can vet them, raider groups have moved in to fill the power void left by the collapse of the Enclave and Somber's Legion and are disrupting our trade routes... but hey, we reopened a defunct casino, I'm sure things are gonna turn out just fine."

"Hm, I'm glad to hear things are going so smoothly. It's not like you to be so positive, High Horse. What's gotten into you?" Eden chortled, giving the robot a playful nudge on its metal arm with an alabaster forehoof.

"I hate you, miss," was the monotone reply.

"The feeling's mutual," Eden said before her voice dropped, suddenly getting serious. "How about this... we have a lot of available securitrons on idle now that the war is over. How about we send them out to conduct daily patrols along the major roads and to guard the larger settlements in the Badlands? That'll help clear out the raider problem, and it'll give us a good defense if the Legion remnants ever try something in the future."

High Horse was silent for a few seconds as it processed her requests. "...If you insist. By the way, you've got a few important visitors looking to talk to you. Official city business. Better you than me, I guess."

"Got it, I'll be on the lookout then," Eden reassured with a nod, standing back up onto all four hooves as her throbbing horn faded to a dull ache. "You coming?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, the face on the securitron's screen flipped from the High Horse caricature to the normal pony-faced soldier, the computer program clearly wanting no part in more conversation with her.

"ENJOY YOUR STAY IN LAS PEGASUS," the now-normal robot drawled before rolling off to break up a drunken hoof-fight happening outside one of the other casinos.

Eden smiled as she watched the robot for a few moments before walking back towards the front entrance of the High Roller, her hooves sinking slightly into the cloud roads beneath her. As she crossed the bridge spanning the gap in the clouds that separated the two sides of the street, the unicorn took a peek over the edge at the ground below them, the ruins of Applewood visible directly underneath the shadow of the great city, with the wasteland continuing on to the northeast and the badlands to the south. Even though the city had been lowered down from the cloud layer to allow ponies to enter from the ground, the drop was enough for her head to go dizzy once again, prompting her to step away from the edge.

If I'm gonna be running this place, I better get used to the heights... Eden thought with an involuntary shudder. Another idea crossed her mind... magical barriers along all gaps. Faust knows there's enough drunk ponies around here, she doesn't need anyone stumbling off the edge in a salt-induced stupor.

After hurrying off the bridge to the other side, the High Roller now towered above her, the most easily noticeable and recognizable building in the city. It was shaped like a large spire, with a narrow shaft and a bulbous observation deck on the top, with a needle sticking out of the top pointing towards the heavens. The bottom floor contained all the gambling stations and bars, while an elevator ride up to the top would take you to the large dining area as well as the luxury suites. It had been the home to the de facto rulers of the pre-war city, which explained its rather... phallic appearance. While the other casinos on the strip reopened, the High Roller remained dormant, and Eden took it upon herself to restore it to its former glory. The city deserved that much.

The crowd waiting to be admitted into the casino was growing rapidly, threatening to overwhelm the guards at the entrance as they confiscated each pony's weapons before allowing them inside. The mass of ponies had ballooned out to obstruct every pathway to the entrance, all the way to the gaps in the clouds on either side, so Eden was forced to push her way through to the entrance, drawing lots of annoyed glares from impatient gamblers.

"Hey, no cuts! We're all waiting here!" an impatient stallion growled as she tried to push past him, his foreleg sticking out to block her advance.

Eden placed a hoof onto his foreleg and calmly pushed it down, staring into his eyes with her bright blue hues. "I own this place... and the whole city too. A little respect would be appreciated."

The stallion scowled, but allowed his hoof to be lowered, letting Eden slip past him and make her way up to the entrance. With a nod, the guards there recognized their employer and just waved her through, allowing the unicorn to trot right into the casino floor of the High Roller.

Inside, the festivities were already in full swing, the playing area filled to the brim with ponies sitting at slot machines and poker tables, gleefully throwing their caps away for a chance at maybe winning them back. The bar scene was equally as lively, the bottles of pre-war booze collected for the occasion freely flowing, the liquid courage loosening the ponies' inhibitions and inspiring them to go gamble away even more. It had everything a casino needed to belong on the strip... with the notable exclusion of escorts and prostitutes, which was a line that Eden was unwilling to compromise on.

While not quite as fancy as the Soyeux, the interior of the casino looked as impressive as the exterior, with shimmering chandeliers overhead and silk carpets underhoof. The signs of rust, mold, and age were still visible along the walls, floors, and appliances, but most of it was hidden away as carefully as possible, trying to recreate the pre-war look as closely as possible. One couldn't completely escape the passing of time... it was just part of the wasteland charm now.

Eden found an empty stool at the bar and slid in, catching the bartender's attention. "Sparkle-Cola, please."

The stallion nodded and grabbed one from below the bar, popping the lid off and sliding it to the unicorn mare. She caught it with a hoof and took a long swing, letting the fizzy, carroty taste wash over her taste buds with a long sigh. It wasn't quite the same feeling as downing a shot of alcohol, but it was better than nothing.

"Quite the impressive place you've set up here, Eden," a voice behind her said suddenly.

Eden set her bottle down onto the bar and turned on her stool to see a glamoured-up stallion approach her, flanked by two bodyguards. He looked old enough to be going through a midlife crisis, which was a rare sight in the wasteland, which usually shortened life spans quite a bit. He had dark navy fur and a shimmering silver mane with streaks of white running through it, as well as magenta eyes that stared into her own light blue hues. All three ponies were dressed in black dress suits like they were attending a funeral, yet their smug, uptight aura showed that they were not mourning anything.

Eden bowed her head respectfully as he approached. "I'm glad you agree, Sterling. More reasons for tourists to visit is good for all of us, isn't it?"

Sterling declined from returning the gesture, instead glancing around the interior of the High Roller with an air of contempt, silently judging everything his eyes touched. "Yes, of course. But rumors going around the strip have ponies worried that you'll be cracking down on New Pegas's biggest draws."

It took a second for Eden to realize what he was referring to, and she let out an exasperated sigh. "...For the last time, no, I won't do that. I just opened up a brand new casino, for crying out loud."

"You did," Sterling conceded. "But your religious views tell another story. Who's to say you won't go back on your word in the future and try to make us fit your worldview?"

"I've given the casino owners my word, and I'll do it again, if it makes you feel better," Eden said as she leaned forward and pressed her forehooves together. "I'm only concerning myself with the security and continued well-being of the city and its citizens. How you and the other ponies run your casinos is none of my business. Happy?"

Sterling turned up his snout. "Good. Because our blessing is the only thing keeping you in power here. For your sake, I hope you remember that."

Eden bowed her head again. "I understand. Enjoy the party, Sterling."

Sterling just scoffed and turned on his heel, immediately leaving the High Roller as quickly as he had entered, clearly wanting to spend as little time as possible in such a "low-class" casino. As the owner of the Soyeux, he had a bit of a superiority complex, which masked his ever-present paranoia that someone would best him, or show him up. He had built quite a lifestyle on the backs of sex workers and unfair odds at the blackjack table, and he was terrified of losing it, especially to a mare like Eden.

There was nothing she wanted to do more than to clean up the city and shut his smug face down... but as much as she hated it, Sterling was right. Crime and vice kept this city running, a fact that Eden despised, but there was little she could do about it. Ponies came to New Pegas for the gambling, for the booze, for the prostitution... without that steady flow of caps, there was little to keep the cloud city afloat. A mare of religion like her had no place in the City of Sin, but fate or prophecy had put her here, and she was determined to do her best.

Eden watched Sterling and his guards all the way out of the building before turning back around on her barstool, facing her bottle of soda once again. She carefully tried to activate her horn and grab the bottle in her telekinesis, but the effort only resulted in a few dim sparks flying out of the tip, the glass bottle remaining in place. Still drained... even a short-range teleportation spell would leave her magical resources depleted for the rest of the day at least, a few days at most. Eden's special talent was defensive magic, and a teleportation spell just barely qualified as part of her skill set, but it still was a very, very advanced spell that few ponies could pull off, and one that she just barely learned how to do. It was definitely not something she could cast willy-nilly, and she needed to be more careful when she used it.

"Mayor Eden?" another voice behind her asked.

Eden sighed and turned around once again, only to do a double take as she saw that the pony who had drawn her attention wasn't a pony at all. It was a griffon... a species she was familiar with, but a rare sight in New Pegas; given their rivalry with the pegasi, they usually steered clear of cloud cities and the cloud layer in general. This one was a male, with a multitude of scars detailing his green and brown plumage showing his lifetime of service to a Talon group. His yellow, predatory eyes searched her as he waited for an answer.

"Y-Yes, that's me," Eden responded, suddenly very aware of how she had been staring. "How can I help you?"

"My name is Gannon. I'm an ambassador from the New Canterlot Republic," the griffon introduced himself, along with a short bow before straightening back up. "Is this a good time for us to talk?"

"Yeah, sure," Eden answered, taking another swing of her Sparkle Cola before sliding out of her chair, motioning for the griffon to follow her as she took a walk away from the bar area. "What's up?"

"I bring a message from Junction R-7," Gannon started, his talons starting to click on the tile floor as the two of them moved off the carpet. "President Grimfeathers says she's disappointed that you've declined her invitation to join the Republic, but she respects your decision and hopes that we can still be allies in our mission to bring peace to the wasteland."

Eden nodded as she walked along the outside of the gambling area, flinching as bells started to ring from one of the slot machines, the excited whoops of joy signaling jackpot. "Yes, I'm up for that as well. Our two cities can become great allies and trade partners, I feel... but this city and the ponies here have been independent for centuries. They're not quite ready to relinquish that freedom." Or the casino owners aren't, to be more accurate... she thought to herself with an internal eyeroll.

"Yes, I'm sure. You can consider the invitation to join the Republic to be a standing offer," Gannon said, stroking his downy chest with a claw. "I also bring a request. Would you be willing to allow the NCR to establish an Embassy in New Pegas, in order to improve relations between the two of us? I would most likely be the ambassador stationed here, if that is okay with you."

Eden's muzzle scrunched slightly as she contemplated the question. "...Sure, I see no problem with that. There are plenty of empty buildings on the strip that you could convert into whatever you're looking for. However, can I ask for a favor in return? I know you griffons love paying off your debts as quickly as possible."

"Depends on what it is. Let's hear it," was Gannon's measured response as the two of them reached a more isolated part of the casino floor, in the corner with not many ponies nearby, allowing them to talk freely.

"We have a bit of a... refugee problem on our hooves," Eden started, glancing around briefly to make sure no pony was eavesdropping. "Ever since the Enclave collapsed and the skies opened up, pegasi have been flocking to our doors in droves trying to get in. We're the last great cloud city left, and the pegasi feel like they belong here, which I can understand... but there's just too many of them to properly vet and house. We've had to turn them away, and they're filling Applewood to the brim. Would you be willing to accept some of these displaced ponies, if they agree to move to one of your cities?"

"Hm..." Gannon hummed softly, rubbing a talon underneath his beak in thought. "...We've got a bit of a crisis ourselves, given the continued fighting between us and the remnants of Red Eye's forces in Phillydelphia... but we can take on a few of the displaced ponies, I'm sure."

"Alright, that's all I ask for," Eden replied, with an internal exhale of relief that she was careful to not let show. "Soon, Gawdyna and I should have a formal meeting and hammer out a trade policy. And make sure to let her know that NCR citizens are always welcome on the strip... as long as they have the caps, that is." The last sentence was added with a sly, teasing smile from the unicorn mare.

"Yes, of course," Gannon said with a smirk of his own, a rather strange sight when formed on a beak. He reached out with one of his talons. "Let this be the start of a long and prosperous relationship between our two great cities."

"And let our alliance bring forth a long and prosperous era in the wasteland," Eden responded in kind, placing her hoof in his talon and giving a firm shake. "Feel free to stay and enjoy the party if you like, Gannon. There's plenty of drinks and casino chips to go around."

"Oh, I definitely will. I'll probably take the time to explore the rest of the strip as well... one has to get acquainted with his future place of residence, right?" he asked with another sly smile, along with a little wink. "I'll leave you to it, Mayor."

"Good travels, Gannon." Eden replied, giving him a nod before he turned to walk away, leaving her alone in the corner of the expansive room.

Her attention turned to one of the unused slot machines next to her, a hoof running along the buttons and causing the screen to light up with a triumphant encore of music. She had to admit, the urge to play was very tempting... just insert the chips and pull the lever, over and over, the possibility of a big win behind every play... but she had sworn herself off the gambling, and the booze, and she wasn't going to walk back on her promise now. She enjoyed playing blackjack or caravan in a fun, no-stakes atmosphere... but anything else was too addicting for her to risk.

There was a time where her resolve wasn't as strong, and her inhibitions were lost... but those days were behind her, and they were ones that she wanted to forget. Faust had accepted her back into her fold once before, and she didn't want to relapse a second time.

Then, suddenly, her reflecting was interrupted by a loud, blusterous yell from the entrance.

"EDEN! I DEMAND AN AUDIENCE!"

Great. When High Horse said she had important visitors, she didn't realize it meant every single important person in New Pegas. How did they keep finding her? If she found out that it was sending them right to her, she was gonna... hm. Maybe mute it for a night. That would give her some peace and quiet for once.

Eden looked up from the slot machine to see the cause of the commotion, and was greeted with the sight of an earth pony mare bearing down on her; the rest of the casino had momentarily gone silent at the loud outburst, and all eyes focused on the two of them. The newcomer had seafoam colored fur, though the uneven coloring betrayed the fact that it was a dye job. She had a wickedly long mane, light pink and dark purple in color, as well as a jewel-studded punk jacket with spiked bracelets that clinked with each step. Her face was hidden behind a dark veil, her turquoise eyes barely visible beneath, but Eden could tell they were boring right into her.

"Good evening, Countess," Eden greeted with a bow of her head, very aware that the entire casino floor was staring at her. "What seems to be the trouble this time?"

"Oh, you know what the trouble is," The Countess snapped, stopping just half a yard from the unicorn. "All those refugees you've been sending me? They just keep coming, and now we have nowhere to put them! These damn pegasi are setting up shanty towns in the streets, and we can't get them to leave! When I so benevolently agreed to house these Enclave castoffs, I didn't agree to this many!" The earth pony jabbed her hoof into Eden's chest. "Fix this. Now!"

Eden sighed, placing a hoof onto her own and pushing it away from her chest. "Look, Countess, we've been over this. We simply can't conduct background checks faster than they've been showing up, we're backlogged for weeks. We're going through and accepting ponies as fast as we can, but it's a process that takes time, and we can't have potentially dangerous Enclave agents wandering around the city while we do so." So much for keeping these negotiations a secret...

The Countess snorted. "Oh, so they're too potentially dangerous to be in New Pegas, but it's perfectly fine if they set up shop in Applewood, then? Applewood is my territory, not yours, Eden. It would do you some good to remember that!"

"We can't just turn them away!" Eden shot back. "These are presumably innocent ponies, Countess, sending them out to die in the wastes is no way to gain trust and goodwill with the disenfranchised pegasi. Besides, I didn't tell them to move down to your town... they went there of their own accord."

"What's the fucking difference?" The Countess snapped.

Eden put her hooves up. "Okay, okay, calm down... I just made a deal with the NCR for them to take in some of the refugees, so that should relieve some of the pressure on your town. And after that, I promise we'll work double time on getting the pegasi out of your (ridiculously long) mane. Deal?"

"Hmph. I'll hold you to it," The Countess snorted, flipping her mane to the side. "Allying with you has been very good to Applewood, I would hate for things to go wrong now."

"Yes, I agree. There is no reason for us to be enemies," Eden purred in the most soothing tone she could muster, sensing the rage starting to bleed out of the other mare. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Hm, maybe get a radio in here or something, it's way too quiet all of the sudden." She then turned and raised a hoof to the staring ponies on the casino floor, turning her accusatory glare on them now. "What the fuck are you all staring at? Get back to work!"

Now that they were called out, the ponies quickly remembered the games in front of them and went back to shuffling cards and pulling levers, the idle chatter and ambient noise starting up once again as the gamblers ignored the two mares once again.

"...That's better," The Countess decided, turning back to Eden. "I've listened to those blasted songs on the radio too many times anyway. Cons of being the DJ around here, I suppose."

"Yes, I bet," Eden blindly agreed yet again, running a hoof through her own frazzled mane as she tried to keep her cool. "Is that... all?"

"Yes... Yes, I believe that's all I have," The Countess responded, an almost confused tone to her voice, as if the rage subsiding from her made her forget why she was even here. "I guess I'll take my leave now. Good day, Eden."

"Good evening, Countess," Eden answered in kind, making sure the earth pony truly was leaving the casino before exhaling a huge sigh of relief.

What a strange pony.

The Countess... The long-time ruler of Applewood, running the earthbound gambling city for years before Las Pegasus was lowered back down from the sky... New Pegas had taken a lot of Applewood's business, but she supposed that the Countess didn't mind, the less worrying about foreign ponies in her territory the better. That is, until the Enclave blew themselves up.

Before the war, Las Pegasus was one of the premier tourist locations in all of Equestria… but it was located high in the clouds, and even with specialized cloud roads that allowed any species to walk on them, some ponies couldn't handle the tall heights or the flight up to the city. So earth ponies, funded by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, built a rival town underneath the cloud city, providing gambling and attractions for the earthbound species, especially as the pegasi became more and more nationalistic. And when the bombs fell, and Las Pegasus was swallowed up into the cloud cover, Applewood was all that remained, its strategic location connecting the Equestrian mainland with the Badlands to the south, making it subject to lots of infighting between rival gangs for its control.

The Countess was its current leader, as well as its radio broadcaster, playing songs from the previous Countesses in the Countess School of Singing and Performance. Just like there was always a DJ PON3... there was always a Countess. Controlling all the other Countesses in the Countess gang from the Countess school, broadcasting Countess songs over the Countess radio!

Eden rubbed her scar-ridden forehead with a groan. She needed another Sparkle-Cola.

Or better yet, she needed some sleep. She had spent most of the day preparing for, and fretting over, the reopening ceremony, and now the sun was starting to dip below the horizon, turning the cloud roads orange, pink, and red, one of the signature sights of New Pegas. She suddenly had to fight back a yawn, and she promptly started to head to the elevators to head up to the top of the High Roller's spire, where the suites and rooms were located.

But before she could press the call button and escape, another voice from behind her made her freeze in panic. "Miss? I have a letter for you."

Eden slowly turned, but was relieved to see that the pony was only a courier, dressed in the familiar Badlands Express uniform. She was levitating a small letter in her magic, holding it out in front of her for her to grab.

"Really? Who's it from?" Eden asked.

The courier shrugged. "No clue, actually. Apparently, it just magically poofed into the post office, addressed to you."

Eden accepted the letter from the courier with her hooves — her magic was still drained, after all — and nodded. "Alright, thanks."

As the courier turned to leave, Eden took a look at the envelope. It was completely unlabeled save for her name and "New Pegas" written on the front. The formerly white envelope was tinged brown and had a hint of mold on the corners, but that was more likely due to 200 years of age and radiation exposure than anything. She quickly made her way back to the bar area to borrow a small butter knife, slicing open the top of the envelope and pulling the letter out. After unfolding the paper, she began to read.

Eden,

You probably don’t know about me, but I’ve heard a lot about you. One doesn’t become the leader of one of the biggest cities on the continent by accident, I’m sure. I’m impressed.

I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need your help. The safety of the entire world may be in danger, and there’s no one else I can turn to. Come to Tall Tale, along the coast of the North Luna Ocean. I’ll explain everything there.

-S.G.

Eden frowned and flipped the paper over to see nothing on the back. That was it? What a cryptic letter... and S.G. wasn't the initials of any pony she knew. Yes, her reputation had probably exploded after becoming the leader of one of the biggest cities in Equestria… but not so much that she'd be getting letters like this. Something felt off about it... like-

"Wow, you got fan mail?" a familiar mechanized voice asked from behind her. "Who would care enough to waste paper writing to you?"

Eden folded the letter back up and turned to see the familiar image of a stilted pony flickering on the screen of a new securitron this time, the computer program apparently feeling nosy about her new item in the mail.

"Someone I don't even know..." Eden responded, slipping the letter back into the envelope. "They said that all of Equestria was in danger or something... up in Tall Tale. I didn't even know that city still existed."

High Horse beeped. "Well, it sounds awfully like a trap to me, so I say go for it! Maybe, if we're lucky, you'll fall right into it!"

"My thoughts exactly... about the trap, that is," Eden clarified. "If this was really so important, I'm sure they'd come see me personally, or give me more information than this."

"So... you're not gonna go get yourself killed?" High Horse asked with a disappointed tone.

"Nope, sorry buddy, you're stuck with me for another day," Eden said with a chuckle, patting the securitron on the shoulder. "I'm heading up to my room for the night. Don't drink too much while I'm gone, okay?"

"Ma'am, being forced to work with you makes me wish I had the capability to drink," the robot grumbled.

"The feeling is mutual, buddy. We make a great team," the unicorn smiled. "Have a good night!" she added over her shoulder as she trotted off to the elevators once again.

Rather than respond in kind, High Horse abandoned the securitron yet again, reverting back to its default, soldier-faced state. "OBITUARIES OF THE RECENTLY DECEASED MR. GLADMANE, PRESIDENT, CEO, AND SOLE PROPRIETOR OF LAS PEGASUS, ARE STILL AVAILABLE. JUST ASK ANY SECURITRON," it beeped as it wheeled away.

Eden quickly hopped into the first elevator to come down and hit the button for the floor containing the presidential suite, quickly tapping the close button as well so the elevator slid shut, stopping any last minute visitors from taking up more of her time. As the car started to shoot upwards towards the heavens, Eden leaned back against the elevator wall with a loud groan, finally letting her pent-up exhaustion and stress out in one long, drawn out sigh. Running a city was a lot of work... but it was rewarding work, and it was worth it to see the fruits of her actions come to fruition.

She had a home that she loved, a job that allowed her to do good things,... for the first time in her life, things were starting to turn up right for her. And even if there were a few wrinkles in her to-do list, she was confident that she and Tall Tale could handle anything that the wasteland threw at them. She had driven back the Enclave and Somber's Legion at the same time... what could be harder than that?

Eden found herself standing in the middle of a vast ocean, waves lapping at her hooves, no land in sight. The water was completely opaque, so she couldn't see the bottom, but her hooves only sank a few inches below the water as she stood in place. A dense mist surrounded her and blocked her view of the sky or anything more than a couple yards in any direction; she fought the urge to step forward, for fear of losing her footing and plummeting down into the water.

"Hello?"

Her voice was absorbed by the mist surrounding her, the sound barely traveling. Was the fog getting closer? Her breathing got quicker as she felt it encircle her, a tight vice of panic gripping her chest as her heart thumped against her ribcage. She tried to ignite her horn to cast a light spell, a shield spell, anything... but her body wouldn't respond to her demands. She was stuck, frozen, in the hoof-deep water, surrounded by nothingness.

Her eyes searched desperately for anything, anything to tether her sanity to, anything to banish her fears... and they soon focused on a dark silhouette that slowly grew bigger and darker as it made its way through the mist to the trapped mare. The quick burst of relief as she realized she wasn't alone was quickly replaced with a new wave of fear and anxiety at the sight of this unidentified figure approaching her.

The mist surrounding them was so thick and dense that even as the mysterious figure stopped in front of her, she could see nothing more than a dark silhouette standing and staring ominously at her. Its eyes opened to reveal a bright, piercing whiteness with no color, no pupils, just pure energy boring straight into her soul and causing her to flinch away.

"I need your help..." a mysterious voice echoed inside of Eden's head, though the figure's mouth didn't move. "There's no one else I can turn to..."

"Help you with what?" Eden cried out. "What do you want from me?"

The dark silhouette's mouth finally opened up, but no words came out. Instead, what emerged from its maw was a long, writhing mass of tentacles, dark blood starting to leak out of the figure's eyes and mouth as the appendages descended on the transfixed unicorn. Eden couldn't help but scream as the tentacles enveloped her, wrapping around her neck, her horn, her forelegs, her torso... she couldn't move her body to fight it, she could only watch in horror as she was slowly pulled towards the mouth of this abomination.

"Great Faust above!" Eden cried out as the tentacles started to burn against her skin, the saliva feeling like acid, sizzling away at her fur and melting into her flesh, another pained scream rattling through her vocal cords that was promptly swallowed up by the ever-present fog. "Let me go, p-please!"

The creature gave no indication that it heard or understood her, more and more tentacles shooting out from its ever-widening mouth to wrap around the trapped mare, lifting her out of the water now and trapping all of her limbs, squeezing around her throat. Out of the corner of her eyes, Eden could make out more shapes emerging from the fog, encircling her, surrounding her... there were hundreds of these monsters, all of them content to watch, silent, unmoving.

That was the last thing she ever saw before her face was doused with a toxic black fluid, vomited directly from the creature's unholy mouth. Blood... acidic, melting blood, boiling away at her eyes, her mouth, her mane, her flesh sizzling away from her skull. She screamed until her throat was filled with burning fluid, her skin dissolving into her bones, her whole body melting away.

Eden jolted up out of bed with a gasping breath of air, her body covered in sweat and her bedsheets thrown off her. Her forehead scar burned like hell, slowly fading to a dull thud as the horror of the dream faded away.

But was it really a dream? It felt too real to be a dream. Too relevant. What did the creature in the dream say?... There's no one else I can turn to... exactly the words from the mysterious letter she received during the reopening. As a religious mare, Eden was no stranger to the concept of visions, of deeper meanings to dreams and apparitions... and this definitely felt like a vision. A message. Something she was meant to see.

So if it was a message, what did it mean? What was Faust, or Celestia, or Luna, trying to tell her? A flooded, mist-covered area, a pony with tentacles in their mouth... it was nothing she knew or recognized. The only thing she had to go off was the letter from S.G.

She had originally scoffed at the idea of gallivanting off to a place she had never been in search of a pony whose name she didn't even know to fight some specified evil... it sounded so obviously set up and fake. But was it? What if there was a horror in Tall Tale, waiting to attack, to destroy her fragile peace she had just created for herself?

She couldn't take that chance. She needed to see it for herself.

Eden shakily rolled out of bed and stumbled over to the intercom next to her queen-sized bed, eyes scanning her presidential suite in paranoia for any foreign apparitions ready to invade her mind. "High Horse, you there?"

"Of course I'm here, you idiot. I'm a computer program, where else would I be?" the electronic voice scoffed through the small speaker in its usual condescending tone.

"I-..." Eden paused, rethinking her decision for a split second before pushing forward. "I've changed my mind. I'm going to Tall Tale to see what this pony wants."

"....Hold on, you actually are gonna go get yourself killed?" High Horse asked in disbelief. "For a second, I thought you maybe weren't as dumb as I always claimed, but I guess I was right all along."

"Get three securitrons we can spare powered up and ready to go," Eden continued, clearly in no mood for the usual banter. "I'll leave first thing in the morning, once I get some more sleep and pack up."

"Yes, fine, whatever, would it hurt you to say please or thank you? Ungrateful bitch," High Horse muttered.

Eden sighed. "Thank you, High Horse. I'll see you in the morning."

She quickly ended the call before High Horse could come up with another insult and climbed back into her bed, the sound of her mattress creaking underneath her causing her back to stiffen and her eyes to look around in panic. Her gaze searched the room before landing on the opened letter sitting on her bedside table, so innocent looking, but filled with implications and ideas that made her head spin and her heart stutter.

It was clear that she would find no peace until she found answers, that nightmare told her that much. She just hoped she had the capabilities to handle the answers she was given. She had trust in herself, and trust in the Goddess that watched over her, but there was evil in the world that was even beyond Faust's control... she couldn't expect the Goddess to do all the work.

Eden's head found the pillow, but sleep brought her no comfort from her fears.

Chapter Two: The Divide

Chapter Two: The Divide

"We don't have to dream that we're important. We are."

After a few hours of fitful sleep, and a couple more hours to pack all her things and make sure everything was ready, Eden trotted out of New Pegas's north gate and down the cloud bridge to the ground below, three securitrons in tow behind her. She didn't know what kind of threats or situations she was going to get into on her journey, so she packed everything she might possibly need; weapons, ammo, and medicine, along with enough food and supplies for at least two weeks.

She wore her Stable 54 armored barding and had her plasma rifle, Remembrance, slung behind her back, her full saddlebags pressed against her flanks. After some thought, she had also pulled her PipBuck out of storage and attached it to her left foreleg, her gait a little unsteady as she got readjusted to the extra weight. It was old, but it was still reliable... and the mapping system and Eyes-Forward Sparkle would be useful in a new, unfamiliar area. She had never been to the Stable that she bore on her collar... but the outfit was passed down to her by ponies who were no longer with her, and she felt like she was honoring them by wearing it.

With all her equipment, Eden looked like a real killing machine... but she wasn't even the deadliest member of her group. She had three literal killing machines following her every move, securitrons armed with guns, energy rifles, and shoulder mounted grenade and missile launchers, able to locate and eliminate hostiles at a second's notice. Just their intimidating appearance was enough to make any potential attackers steer clear, and that's exactly what Eden was hoping they would do.

The cloud bridge led them right down into the heart of Applewood, half of the city obscured in shadow from the cloud city floating above them. It was a very impressive sight from the ground, the towering clouds and flashing buildings giving it a sort of heaven-like aura and appearance. Especially compared to the state of Applewood, with its crumbling buildings and shattered streets, torn apart by hundreds of years of infighting. Now, it was as stable as it had ever been... but it was still a sight that made Eden's heart sink.

The city was quiet today, with only the Countess patrols out and about making sure that the streets were in order. Occasionally, Eden would spot a pegasus, but they always fluttered away out of sight before she got close. Most of the pegasi encampments must've been on the other half of the town, underneath New Pegas and perpetually in shadow.

Eden flagged down one of the passing Countess members and whispered, "You're not... giving the refugees a hard time, are you?"

"'ope," was the simple response from the seafoam-colored pony, though her dye-job wasn't nearly as convincing as the main Countess. "They're jus' normally skittish like that. Celestia knows why, guess they're jus'... scared of acts of retribution from ground ponies, bein' former Enclave 'n all that. Maybe those death machines you got scared 'em, I 'unno."

Eden glanced over at the securitrons as the other pony waved a hoof at them, one of the robots letting out an idle beep. "SITUATION NORMAL. NO LETHAL FORCE NECESSARY AT THIS TIME."

"Yeah... maybe you're right," Eden muttered under her breath before patting the Countess member on the shoulder, letting her carry on.

The rest of the journey through Applewood was quiet and routine, and soon the pony and three robots were outside the city limits in the expanse of the wasteland itself, the irradiated water of the South Luna Ocean to their left and the mountains containing the APPLEWOOD sign to their right. The game plan was simple: follow the train tracks north through Shattered Hoof Ridge and the Smokey Mountains, and it should lead them to where Tall Tale should be. Hopefully.

To save time, Eden decided to hitch a ride on top of one of the Securitrons, perched on its shoulder like a parrot as they rumbled along beside the train tracks, their mechanized wheels allowing them to roll faster than she could trot or gallop... without having to stop for breaks.

Trusting the securitron's sensors to detect any enemies, Eden turned her attention to her PipBuck, brushing dust off the screen before flicking through the different pages. She had tried to do a bit of research on Tall Tale before she left, but New Pegas didn't exactly have libraries or government facilities like Tenpony Tower to pull information from. High Horse was of no help either, though that wasn't a surprise. As a computer program, it was bound by its programming to obey her commands... but it sure loved making it difficult. As its programmers intended. Stable-Tech must've had a huge grudge against the pre-war rulers of New Pegas, for some reason.

Rather than listening to the whir of the securitrons as they rolled along, Eden flicked to the radio tab on her PipBuck and was given two choices: Countess Radio and DJ PON3. She picked the Countess and was immediately introduced to the familiar mare's voice.

"-had a wonderful reopening ceremony for one of New Pegas's most iconic landmarks, the High Roller casino. Clean, well-staffed, and no asses rubbed in your face every five seconds. Might be worth a stop... if you have the caps to get in the city. Credit checks, who came up with those? Preventing less-reputable ponies from entering, my ass. Obviously isn't doing a very good job, because all the ponies living up there have some kind of mental problem, I swear.

"In other news... with the destruction of Gambit and his 'Sombr's Legion', the southern badlands have been freed up for trade routes, and Klugetown has made contact with Applewood and New Pegas about doing just that! So if you see any weird, bipedal, anthropomorphic creatures walking around Applewood soon, don't blame it on the Dash.

"...Well, don't immediately blame in on the Dash, I know how much of that stuff you fuckers are huffing. Celestia knows what fucked-up shit you ponies are seeing when you hit the peak of that high.

"Guess it's time to go back to the music. You can't get these tunes anywhere else, ponies! This is Countess Radio, the exclusive home of Countess Coloratura! Here's one of our favorites, The Magic Inside!

"I'm here to show you who I am
Throw off the veil, it's finally time
There's more to me than glitz and glam,
And now I feel my stars align..."

Countess Radio wasn't connected to the S.P.P. towers like DJ PON3 was, so the range was very limited, but she was able to listen for a few hours before the signal cut out. There wasn't much variety, but they had songs that PON3 didn't. She toggled over to the PON3 station now, and she was given just music, no news updates... the stallion must still be on his "quest" that he referred to a little while back. Fighting the good fight, as he always liked to say.

Sweetie Belle's voice serenaded the tan and blue unicorn as she traveled north up the coastline, the mountains to the east transitioning to the maple trees of Whitetail Woods, leafless branches clawing at the sky. Quiet, serene... and extremely poisonous. Eden shuddered and made sure the securitrons steered clear of the forest edge as her PipBuck's radiation detector started to click.

To the west, the South Luna Ocean turned into the land bridge separating Equestria from the zebra homelands, the cloud-covered Littlehorn Valley barely visible from their place on the train tracks. The isthmus separated the upper and lower parts of the Lunar Ocean, with New Pegas on the south coastline and Tall Tail on the north. However, instead of cutting straight north, the train tracks started to wind east as the Whitetail Woods gave way to the Equestrian Heartland. The towering mountains to the north showed her that there was no easy route to Tall Tale. They just had to trust the tracks to take them through the divide.

After riding all day, with the sun starting to dip below the horizon, Eden's eyes began to sag slightly, her mostly sleepless night catching up to her. But she pressed on, and soon, she saw lights on the horizon. Her PipBuck's mapping system helpfully called it out for her: JUNCTION R-7.

So this was the home of the New Canterlot Republic. As the name suggested, it was situated on the junction between two tracks, one of the railroads continuing further east to what she assumed as Ponyville and the mountain that formerly held the fallen city of Canterlot, while the other turned back northwest, the way she needed to go.

As much as she wanted to see the new capital for herself, the vision from her dream kept prodding at the back of her mind, and she felt she couldn't waste time. Eden gave the securitrons instructions to cut across the wasteland to meet up with the tracks on the other side, instead of making her way through the town. However, before the securitrons could follow her command, a shadow flashed past her on the ground, signaling something coming from the air. Her E.F.S. flashed yellow for friendly, and soon a familiar griffon touched down in front of her.

"Mayor Eden?" Gannon asked, looking a bit winded, as if he had been flying for the majority of the day. He must've left New Pegas for Junction R-7 a few hours after Eden did.

"Oh, hey Gannon," the mare replied as she hopped down from atop the securitron, signaling for them to stay put. "What's up?"

"What are you doing here? I didn't realize you had left, we could have traveled together," Gannon replied, folding his eagle wings against his sides. "Are you coming to see President Grimfeathers?"

"No, it's fine, I'm in a bit of a hurry," Eden said, waving a hoof. "Not here for that. I've got a bit of a personal quest to take care of, you could say."

Gannon tilted his head. "Oh yeah? Where are you going?"

"A prewar town named Tall Tail. It's on the other side of the Smokey Mountains, bordering the North Luna Ocean," Eden explained, her waving hoof moving to point along her route to the northwest.

"Ah, across the divide," Gannon surmised with a nod. "Very dangerous."

Now it was Eden's turn to headtilt. "Really? What do you know?"

"Not much," Gannon admitted. "Few creatures dare brave the crossing for what's on the other side. I know of a Talon that was hired on a mission across the divide, and they never returned."

"Hm, that's ominous," Eden said matter-of-factly, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "Any idea what's on the other side?"

Gannon shook his head. "All we know are rumors. The weather acts differently on the other side of the divide. Even with the skies cleared in most of Equestria, the clouds and the mist still remain."

"How? I thought the Stable Dweller was controlling the weather now," Eden asked, her eyes focusing on one of the still-standing white towers, towering up into the heavens.

"She doesn't have full control yet, as I've heard from President Grimfeathers and the Light Bringer's friends," Gannon explained. "And the white tower at Shattered Hoof was destroyed during the Enclave invasion, so maybe it's impossible for her to control it there. But for as long as I've been alive, the Smokey Mountains have been covered in mist."

"Must be because of the name," Eden said with a snort. "Any idea of how I would get there?"

Gannon's beak twitched in thought. "Um... I would follow the tracks up to the Shattered Hoof Re-Educational Facility, and then... keep following the tracks upwards, I suppose. Supplies had to get through on rail before the war, right? The trains should lead you right through."

That name sounded familiar. "Re-Educational Facility... are there still raiders there?"

"No, the place has been cleared out for months now. It's joined the NCR, so they shouldn't give you any trouble," Gannon reassured her.

Eden nodded. "Alright, thanks Gannon."

"Safe travels, Eden," the griffon replied, using her words from before back at her with a smirk before he turned and padded away to Junction R-7, now just a few minutes walk away.

Eden waited until Gannon was out of earshot before letting out a loud, long yawn she had been holding in during the conversation. A fitful night's sleep and a long day of traveling had taken its toll on her, and if she stayed up any longer, she might fall asleep right on top of the securitron she was riding. And if that happened, they might keep driving and leave her behind without even noticing. However, she wanted to keep moving, in case the trouble in Tall Tale was time sensitive. She needed a new plan.

The unicorn thought for a moment, then trotted up to the securitron she had been riding and waved a hoof in front of its screen. "High Horse, can you hear me?"

"...Ugh, yes, unfortunately," The computer program replied after a second of silence, its screen face flickering to the familiar cartoon depiction. "I had hoped you would be out of range by this point."

"Tough luck," Eden chaffed, lowering her hoof. "How's the city doing? You busy?"

High Horse beeped in annoyance. "Y'know, we're just floating around, dealing with drunks and idiots running off on stupid quests. Definitely something I want to spend all of eternity doing."

Eden ignored the sarcasm dripping off its computerized voice and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, since you don't seem busy, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Can I say no?" High Horse asked, then paused as it searched itself for an answer. "...I can't say no, my programming overrides me. What do you want?"

"I'm gonna try to get some shuteye, but we have to keep moving towards Tall Tale, I don't want to waste any time," Eden explained, glancing at the sun as it was almost completely swallowed up by the horizon. "Can you keep an eye on the securitrons while they pull me along, make sure they don't... blow themselves up? Or drive off a cliff?"

"...You just keep coming up with stupid idea after stupid idea. But if I must," the robot groaned.

"Thanks. And wake me up immediately if we're under attack. Oh, and you're not authorized to bring me or the securitrons under peril. Take detours if you must, but no risks. No... intentionally driving to a raider den or anything like that," Eden stammered, waving a hoof in thought as she tried to eliminate any possibility of the computer program killing her in her sleep.

High Horse beeped. "Ugh, fine."

"Alright, stay here, I'll be right back," Eden said with a nod.

After making sure the securitrons wouldn't follow her — showing up with heavily armed death machines was probably not a good first impression to make — Eden slipped into the Junction R-7 marketplace to buy a rather unusual item, but one they had in stock: a pony-pulled wooden cart, small enough to not be a hindrance when pulled, long enough for her to lay in. And after towing it back out to the securitrons, and a bit of tinkering, she was able to attach the harness above the wheel housing of one of the securitrons. The unicorn climbed in, using her saddlebags as a rather bumpy and uncomfortable pillow as she stared up at the stars. Something that used to be a rare occurrence, now a daily sight with the Enclave gone.

"Alright... I think this will work..." Eden mumbled as she shifted around to get comfortable, hooves behind her head. "High Horse, go for it."

"Moving..." High Horse chimed before the securitron's gears whirred into action.

There was a lurch as the robot started to move, then just the rumbling of the cracked road and dirt underneath her as they rolled along yet again, the securitron not bothered one bit by the extra weight. Perfect! She should've thought of this sooner.

Eden rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, keeping her ears open for anything unusual. If something happened that required her attention... she was sure that the sounds of missile explosions would wake her up.

Eden was awoken from her uneasy sleep by the sound of her PipBuck beeping on her leg, her Eyes-Forward Sparkle alerting her to a detected presence. One red dot, along with three yellow ones.

"HOSTILE ENCOUNTERED," chimed a securitron, letting her know they spotted the threat as well. There were several thump sounds as their shoulder-mounted grenade launchers fired, followed by several explosions that caused the red light on her E.F.S. to blink out. "HOSTILE ELIMINATED."

The three securitrons started moving just as quickly as they had stopped, and Eden poked her head out of the cart to watch as they rolled past a smoldering crater in the road. Whatever had attacked them was nothing more than ash and rubble now.

The unicorn rubbed her heavy eyes before glancing around at her surroundings. Her PipBuck told her that she was on the Shattered Hoof Ridge, and the tall, ridged peaks surrounding her were unmistakable. The entire area was full of high points and low ravines, the rocks and slopes made of crumbling gravel and shale. Down in the valley below, she could see the fractured remains of one of the weather control towers, its normally pristine white exterior torn away and scorched black from the explosion that had toppled it down into the ravine.

They were on a small mountain path carved out on the slope, most of what had been the railroad tracks ripped away leaving only unstable gravel underneath. The road had narrowed enough so that the securitrons had to roll in single file, with Eden in the middle, their rolling wheels kicking up rocks and gravel, thumping against the wood sides of her cart. The sight of the mountain sloping away underneath her made her look away. Darn heights again... why can't I go somewhere flat?

"Urgh... High Horse? You there?" she muttered softly as she got more comfortable inside the cart, wooden splinters digging at her exposed fur.

"You're finally awake," the rearmost securitron pinged, its screen changing to the High Horse cartoon as Eden rolled onto her back to look up at it. "Thought you never would. Kind of hoped you wouldn't, to be honest."

"Very professional," Eden grumbled, checking the time on her PipBuck and seeing it was still early morning. "How did it go?"

"You're alive," it beeped matter-of-factly. "The securitrons are alive. We passed the Re-Education Facility a few hours ago, but no one came out to bother us. We're currently about 38.6% of the way to the Smokey Mountains. You're welcome."

"Very good, High Horse, you did everything I asked of you. Thank you," Eden responded with no hint of sarcasm in return. Maybe if she was nice and praised the program, it would return the favor. "How are things back home?"

"Hard to tell, since I'm using most of my processing power babysitting you. But it's hard to imagine anything going wrong, especially since you aren't around to fuck things up," High Horse replied with its monotone, yet scalding tone.

Okay, the nice approach wasn't going to work. It was a computer program after all; it was only doing what it was programmed to do: be as annoying as possible.

Eden huffed and sat up in the cart, propping her back up against her saddlebags as she adjusted her armored barding. "Well, now that I'm awake, I don't need you to control the securitrons anymore. I can take things from here again. I'll let you know if I need anything else from you."

"Fine," High Horse chimed. "Back to harassing drunks on the strip I go..."

When the securitron's face flickered back to normal, Eden waited a few more seconds to make sure the program was gone before signaling for the robots to stop so she could jump out and stretch her legs. The gravel underneath her hooves felt sharp and biting against her frogs, and whenever she scuffed a hoof across the surface, it sent up a fine cloud of white powder, the wheels of the securitrons already covered with the stuff.

Shattered Hoof Ridge was barren and rocky, full of deep crags and ravines that made traveling it treacherous. It was here that the zebras had hatched a plot to assassinate the Princess, using the mountainous region to their advantage, and Eden could definitely see why it almost worked. The train path they were currently on seemed stable enough, but the shale and the crumbling rock had created this unstable terrain, and they needed to be careful to avoid plummeting down into the many ravines along the path like the weather tower below them.

"Let's get moving," Eden ordered the securitrons as she floated her saddlebags out of the cart and onto her back. "Hopefully we can make it off the ridge by dusk."

The four of them had been hiking for hours. Eden hadn't trusted the one-legged securitrons to carry her around on such a narrow, unstable pathway, so she put her fate in her own four hooves instead. She hugged the far side of the path, shoulder brushing the rock slope to avoid looking down at the valley far below. But the road seemed to get narrower and narrower, and soon she had no choice but to stare down the steep incline. The wind had picked up as well as they got towards the cloudy, foggy area of the mountains, and she had to dig her hooves into the gravel at points to stop herself from being blown right off the edge.

At least her magic was working again after her unintentional teleport. Two days of rest had given her her telekinesis back, but she kept her usage to a minimum in order to charge it up enough to hopefully use defense spells again. She had no idea what they were walking, or rolling, into, and she wanted to be at full effectiveness before she got there.

The Re-Educational Facility and the decaying S.P.P. tower were far behind them now, and even with their pace severely reduced by the conditions, they were almost to the Smokey Mountains and its excess of fog. The sight of the thick mist obscuring the tips of the mountains and what lay beyond them gave her a flashback to her dream, the vision of being surrounded by tentacle ponies in a thick haze, and she shuddered.

She didn't have much time to dwell on the thought, as she heard a crack in the rock underneath her, and she froze in place in horror. The cracking continued to grow as the three securitrons behind her rolled up, and suddenly, a piece of the mountain path broke off, taking one of the securitrons with it.

"ERROR. ERROR. ERROR," It beeped as it tumbled down the mountain face, followed by an explosion in the valley below.

"Ah!" Eden yelped as she scampered back away from the unstable ground, the two remaining securitrons having the good sense to wheel away as well until the ground stopped creaking and groaning underneath them.

Sweet Faust, she really wished she could still swear. Was this journey going to keep triggering all her phobias like this?

"...O-Okay, new plan," Eden gasped as she caught her breath, slowly climbing back to her hooves. "Keep a 10 hooflength distance between all of us. If the path goes again, it won't take all of us with it. Understand?"

"AFFIRMATIVE," was the response. And then they continued.

Eden went first, terrified that the weight of the two securitrons was what was causing the ground to become unstable. Her much lighter frame wouldn't disrupt anything, and if the path did give way behind her, she would be on the other side and able to continue on. Luckily, her fears were unfounded, and the path no longer gave them any problems as they continued on. She kept the spacing pattern, just in case.

Using the sorting spell on her PipBuck, Eden located a snack cake in her saddle bags and floated it out with her magic, unwrapping the pre-war delicacy and taking a nervous bite as she walked. It tasted like preservatives, preservatives, and more preservatives, but it successfully quelled the rumbling of her stomach and the anxious worrying of her mind. She followed it down with a swing of purified water before tossing the wrapper off the edge, watching the plastic float through the air like a fallen feather.

Suddenly, her E.F.S. let out an alarmed beep. A red blip appeared, from behind! The alert was quickly followed by an animalistic cry, and the screeching of claws on reinforced steel.

Eden spun around to see... something... had jumped onto the back of the rearmost securitron and was gouging it with its long claws, long teeth trying to sink into its neck... if the headless robot had a neck. Instead, it just gnawed at the top of its casing as the robot swung its arms around in an attempt to throw its assaulter off. It eventually succeeded, one of its arm-mounted weapons catching the creature and dislodging off its back, launching it off the edge of the narrow path.

Eden drew her plasma rifle off her back and galloped to the edge, hoping to see the yellow-green blur tumbling down the mountainside into the valley below... but she wasn't that lucky. The four-legged creature was digging its claws into the gravel and rock of the slope, sparks flying as it slowly slid down before coming to a halt.

Eden had a split second to get a good look at the creature; it was undoubtedly feline, quadruped, larger than her but smaller than the securitrons. All four paws were equipped with sharp claws that dug into the slope to stop its descent, its beady eyes staring her down as it snarled, revealing a mouthful of teeth and two large fangs that looked too long to fit in its mouth. It looked like it had pale yellow fur, but green growths pulsed and swelled along its body, flickering with balefire radiation. This animal was nothing she had seen before.

Eden raised Remembrance to fire, but the intact securitron beside her shot first, firing several grenades from its shoulders that forced the creature to leap to the side, the explosions causing a mini avalanche of gravel to rumble down the mountainside. Eden aimed and fired as well, but again the feline was too quick, and the plasma shot melted an unfortunate rock into green goo instead.

"It's too fast for explosives!" Eden called out to the securitron as she shifted her aim. "Lasers and bullets should be more effective!"

The robot obliged and raised its two arms instead, the 9mm submachine gun and magical energy rifle embedded in each of its hands opening fire on the creature as it scampered back up the slope towards them, weaving side to side as bullets and lasers impacted off its reinforced hide and did little to slow it down. Then, finally, it leaped right at Eden, arcing through the air, claws extended and reaching for her.

Eden activated S.A.T.S., and the world slowed to a crawl around her.

The spell system helpfully had a name for the creature currently intent on ripping her head off: Mountain Lion. At least, that was its pre-war name. It was probably called something like Radamount, or Deathclaw now. Wastelanders loved giving creatures like this nicknames.

Its fangs snarled, and she could see radioactive spittle flying out of its mouth as it slowly moved through the air towards her. Shooting it from here would eviscerate it, yes, but the viscous goo it would melt into would still carry its momentum forward, splashing the boiling, superheated goo all over her as well. But there was no time to pull out another weapon or move out of the way while frozen in this slow-motion state, and the Mountain Lion was growing closer every second. She really hoped her horn had healed enough for this...

Everything happened at once. S.A.T.S. targeted the soft underbelly the cougar's leap had exposed, Remembrance unleashing three plasma bolts into its gut and causing its body to melt immediately, the spell pulling her back into real time with the threat eliminated. As soon as it did, her horn ignited with a blue hue, and a translucent shield formed in front of her, the molecular mess splashing against the magic and sizzling against the rocks around her. Yuck.

Eden backed away from the shield and deactivated it, causing the viscous liquid to fall down to the ground, steam rising from the ground around it as it melted the rocks underneath as well.

A Radamount... that's what she was gonna call it. The first new enemy the Divide had thrown at her. And if the rumors were true, there were bound to be more. A lot more. Hopefully, they wouldn't be as fierce as this one... but she doubted it. She wouldn't have been called to this quest if what awaited her there was easy. She just hoped she was ready.

Eden's thoughts were interrupted by a pained beep from the clawed-up securitron, and she glanced over to see that its face-screen was instead flashing error messages, sparks flying from where the Radamount had exposed its wired innards with its claws.

"ALERT: CRITICAL DAMAGE. I MUST RUN AUTO-REPAIR PROGRAM IN ORDER TO PROCEED," it stated matter-of-factly, with none of the emotion of a wounded soldier.

Eden waved a hoof as she caught her breath. "Go ahead. I need a rest anyway."

Eden allowed the securitron two hours to heal as much as it could before forcing it to continue. Being exposed on the mountainside made her anxious, and she wanted to make it off the path before the sun fell and their visibility was drastically reduced. Navigating the narrow path was hard enough while she was able to see where she was putting her hooves.

Luckily, two hours was enough for the securitron to repair its critical systems and most of the serious damage. It still leaked smoke and sparks, but it was able to roll and able to fight, and that's all Eden needed for now. She would allow it to do a more thorough repair once they weren't suspended hundreds of hooflengths off the ground.

By the time on her PipBuck, the sun would be starting to set by now, but the mist they were walking towards shielded their view of the horizon, so the only clue she had to go off was the sky back to the east starting to turn a dark orange. Eventually, their view was completely obscured by clouds and mist overhead, as the three of them finally stepped off the mountain path into the dirt and grass of the Smokey Mountains.

Eden yelped in relief and leaned down to give the earth a kiss. "Finally! Thank Faust we made it. I'm gonna be pulling gravel out of my hooves for days..."

Her securitrons said nothing, and she trotted up to the non-damaged one, the one still hauling her trailer. "High Horse, you there?"

This time, she was greeted with nothing from the program. Either it was ignoring her, or the terrain had finally cut her off from New Pegas. And despite the computer's obvious hatred of her, everything, and everyone, it was still duty bound to respond to her hails. She was alone and all in now.

Here, with the tall peaks and trees shielding the area from the winds that Shattered Hoof Ridge had failed to hold back, the train tracks were in much better shape, leading Eden northwest through the valley, snow-capped mountains surrounding her on all sides. The trees around her were evergreen, pine, with some of them still miraculously keeping their color and leaves, though most were just as dead and scraggly as the rest of the wasteland.

Rather than push through an unfamiliar area during the night, Eden decided to set up camp right at the end of the mountain path, pulling her sleeping bag out and intent on getting a proper night's rest. And soon, she had a small campfire going, cooking some real food instead of the over-processed junk she had settled on during the crossing.

"You, start on repairs again, I want you at 100% before we head into the woods. You, guard duty. You'll be alone, so make sure you cover all approaches," she ordered her last two companions, and she was immediately greeted with silent cooperation as they carried out her orders.

Before closing her eyes, she turned on her PipBuck's screen and scrolled over to the radio tab. Just as she suspected, there were no signals available. At least she knew now why no one had been able to make contact with anything on the other side. She wondered what was blocking the signals... maybe it was the shapes of the mountains that deflected the radio waves, or the fog that absorbed it and stopped them from penetrating through. Maybe there was a signal jammer in Tall Tale. Who knew?

She hoped she would find answers once she reached Tall Tale. One part of her wished that there was actually a problem there, so that this whole journey wouldn't be a waste, while the other wished that it actually is just a poorly thought out trap so that she could just go home without worrying about the fate of the world once again. Being an adventurer wasn't her first profession... but she had to grow to fill the horseshoes she had been given.

Eden forced her wandering thoughts to stop and closed her eyes. She would worry about those things tomorrow.

Mines.

Someone had mined the train tracks. And if she hadn't had her E.F.S. up looking for enemies, she would've stepped right on them.

Eden sat at the edge of the minefield, searching through her PipBuck's map for an alternate route around while her securitrons idled next to her. The train tracks had taken her off the mountain path on Shattered Hoof Ridge down into the valley of the Smokey Mountains, and with the mountains towering around her, there wasn't a lot of room for her to move around this new obstruction. An effective choke point.

Who had buried these mines here? It obviously wasn't left over from the war, as the trains traveling these tracks would have set them off. Someone must've recognized the potential for an ambush in this narrow valley surrounded by tall crests... but these areas didn’t have ponies going through them, Gannon had told her as much. Maybe that rumor wasn't as solid as he claimed.

The two tall hills that created the valley in front of her weren’t nearly as tall as the mountains surrounding her, so their peaks weren’t shrouded by the ever present fog. If she peered her eyes, Eden could make out two structures, one on top of each hill positioned to look out over the valley. They looked to be pre-war structures, but anything or anyone could be hidden inside them, just waiting for her to pass by. She effectively had two options: flank the minefield, which involved climbing one of the two peaks and risking being attacked from the houses; or find a way through the mines, and risk being ambushed by both houses at the same time as she traveled through the valley.

Both options were bad. But working her way through a minefield was by far the riskier plan.

"Okay, new plan," Eden told the securitrons next to her as she lowered her PipBuck. "The mines are only in the valley here. If we head up one of these large hills and come down the other side, we should avoid all of them. There are structures atop each of the peaks, so be on the lookout for any hostiles within. Got it?"

The robots just silently whirred in place as they stared at her. They didn't need the plan spelled out for them — they would follow obediently wherever she went. The explanation was more to calm her own doubts before they proceeded. At least the injured securitron had fully repaired to 100% effectiveness; they were down one already, and she felt like she needed all the firepower she could get.

Eden still had one more choice to make. The hill to the right had a dirt path leading up it, but all of the trees were chopped down, leaving them no cover on the way up, and atop the crest was a large fort with tall-reinforced walls and tattered, waving flags, a perfect place for any attackers to be hunkered down. The other hill looked like it used to be used as farmland, but the land had since overgrown in the 200 years since the war, leaving it a mess of trees and vines which would be a mess to slog through. However, the structure on the tip was only a mixture of poorly held-together shacks and sheds, a much easier place to fight.

In the end, she settled on the right-side path. Yes, there was the fortress on top, but there was a path up to the top, which made the hill much easier to climb, especially with two large, burly securitrons in tow that wouldn't be able to push through the overgrowth with their wheels. And the hills were so close together that if anyone was in the fortress, they could just attack them across the valley once they reached the huts, where they would be at a major disadvantage.

"Follow me," Eden waved her hoof to her two robotic companions as she trotted off to the right, using her E.F.S. to make sure she made her way around all the mines before turning upwards, up the hill.

The climb was slow-going, with the securitrons struggling a bit on the steepness of the slope, and with Eden taking a slow pace to search for any more mines as they made their way up the winding path, which had faded with age, a thin layer of grass growing overtop the previously dirt road. She made sure to keep her horn ready to cast a shield spell at a moment's notice; with a complete lack of cover on this hill, her magic would be the only protection they would get.

As they got closer to the fortress-like structure, Eden was able to get a better look at it. It was definitely pre-war, given the state of disrepair it was in, but it still held up surprisingly well for how old it was. It was made entirely of wood, which explained all the stumps and lack of trees on this side of the hill, with a wall made of tree trunks sharpened to points at the tip surrounding the entirety of the compound. The path that they were traveling on led them straight to the sealed-up gate, and two watchtowers poked out above the wall; the only structures that were visible from the outside. No one appeared to be inside the towers, or else they would've been spotted on the approach. A ping from her PipBuck's mapping system gave her a name: Fort McColt.

When they got close, Eden's E.F.S. started to light up with red dots, all in front of her and contained in the fortress. As soon as she saw just how many there were, she froze in place and held out a hoof to silently order the securitrons as well, though their idle humming and whirring was still just as loud when they were standing still. If there were fewer enemies, she would've felt more comfortable taking them out to avoid being attacked on the return journey... but she didn't want to risk health and ammo this early on in the journey when she didn't know what she was walking into. Maybe they could sneak around the back to the other side, and the walls would shield them from anyone inside seeing them...

However, Eden's plan was rendered moot just as soon as it entered her mind, because at that moment, a pony's head poked up over the wall, eyes focusing right onto her as if it had heard her thoughts. It was a stallion, his mane roughly cut and shaped into a spiky mohawk, his face splattered with dirt and dried blood. When he saw her, he bared his teeth, and Eden was able to see that he had sharpened them down into fangs. Raiders? All the way out here?

"Outsider! Outsider is here!" he screamed with a whoop of bloodthirsty joy. "The Mist has given us a gift!"

His yell was answered by several more hoots and hollers from inside, the red dots on her E.F.S. spell moving and shifting around as the rest of the ponies inside prepared for battle. The stallion straightened up so that most of his body became visible now; his entire body was covered in (self-inflicted?) scars, as well as the same blood and dirt that caked his face. His clothing consisted of a weird mixture of ropes and pieces of sheet metal, as if he had tied the plates onto himself that way. In his mouth was now a pipe rifle — a makeshift gun of wood and spare parts, highly customizable. And he was pointing it right at her.

"Great..." Eden grumbled, her horn igniting to float Remembrance off her back while also preparing to cast a shield spell when the shooting started. "Securitrons, you are authorized to fire."

"ENGAGING," the robots chimed in response, raising their arms and opening fire with both bullets and lasers at the only enemy in sight.

The raider on top of the wall fired as well, and Eden threw up a translucent blue shield wide enough to cover the three of them, blocking the bullets coming from in front of them while letting bullets shot from behind the shield pass through. His small caliber bullets bounced off her spell, while the lasers from the securitrons sliced into the stallion in several places, the impacts knocking him back off the wall with a death squeal.

"No grenades, no explosives!" Eden ordered the securitrons as she lowered the spell, the robots beginning to roll forward to attack the base. "There could be hostages in there!"

The two death machines silently acknowledged her order, the flaps folding back up over their missile and grenade launchers as they rolled towards the gate, the only way for them to enter the base. One of them tried nudging the double doors open with its arm, but the gate only rattled slightly with the sound of a lock. No way in. Maybe they could blow the doors open, or find a stealthier way in...

However, her thoughts were interrupted by more gunfire, but this time, bullets were whizzing past her from the side! Eden yelped and threw up another shield around herself, rounds impacting off the left side as she spun to face the new threat. Across the valley on the other hilltop, more raiders were emerging from the seemingly derelict huts and opening fire on them from across the gap! Even with their broken down weapons, they were still surprisingly good shots from all that distance away, round after round pinging off her shield and causing the unicorn to flinch from the drain of each impact.

"...Okay, I changed my mind," Eden sighed. "You, target the other side with everything you've got. You, come with me, I'm going over the wall and opening that gate!"

"ALERT. USE OF FORCE HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED," The first securitron beeped, turning to face the new threats on the other hill, its shoulders opening up and launching five missiles at the other raiders as they continued to fire, bullets sparking off its steel plating.

The rockets left smoke trails in the air as they curled and swirled in the air before slamming into their targets, several large explosions rocking the hilltop and blowing the ransack sheds into the air! Several raiders were obliterated into meaty chunks immediately from the force, while several others were blown back from the shockwave, fur catching on fire. One of the unlucky ponies was launched right off the edge and down into the valley below, his broken body landing directly into the poorly-spaced minefield along the path.

The resulting explosion caused the ground to shudder under Eden's hooves, the unicorn falling back in shock as a large firecloud billowed up in between the two hills, heat washing over her and singeing her fur! She was suddenly glad she was watching her E.F.S. and didn't accidentally step on one of those mines.

With the raiders across the ravine taken care of with the well-placed volley of rockets, the securitron turned its attention back to the wooden fortress as the raiders finally started to climb up onto the wall to open fire, the robot distracting the ragged group of ponies long enough for Eden to climb back onto her hooves and slip her way to the back of the fort with the other securitron in tow.

The wall surrounding the compound was way too tall for Eden to climb or jump over, but in the back, there was a small part where the top portion of the wall was either blown or eroded away, leaving it slightly shorter than the rest of the defenses. The small unicorn was able to first climb up on top of the securitron, then jump up onto the top of the wall, completely undetected by the raiders as they continued to attack the one securitron they could see.

"Alright..." Eden muttered under her breath as she made sure she wasn't seen before turning back to the robot. "Go back to the gate and help draw their attention, be ready to charge through the door once I get it unlocked."

"AFFIRMATIVE. MOVING TO SUPPORT," the securitron beeped obediently before rolling off back around the corner, the sound of its laser rifle firing audible soon after, followed by another screech from a dead raider as the firefight picked up.

Eden looked around one more time for any raiders before silently hopping down to the ground, the rustling of her gear inside her saddlebags inaudible over the gunfire. Using the base of one of the watchtowers to keep her hidden, she slinked along the wood structure to peek out around the corner, looking out into the open area of the compound.

Now that she was actually inside the fortress, she could get a good look at what they were dealing with. Along with the two watchtowers, there was a two-story homestead in the corner, in the same crumbling pre-war condition as the rest of the place. There was a small stable without walls hugging the perimeter as well, with old mangers and feeding troughs filled with rotten hay, the animals that lived there long dead. What lived here now was lots and lots of raiders.

About half of them were up on top of the wall, trading fire with the securitrons down on the other side of the gate, one of them occasionally sticking their head out for too long and taking a bullet to the forehead, toppling them back into the courtyard. The other half were concentrated near the homestead, distributing weapons and ammo and letting out animalistic hoots of excitement.

The securitrons may be tough, but they weren't invincible, and they were taking a lot of fire from the raiders smart enough to take cover... she needed to hurry before they became disabled and she was left on her own. Her attention turned to the gate, and she was able to see that the two barn-like doors were secured with only a large lock and chain, the key nowhere to be seen. No time to look, and even if she knew how to pick it, she would be shot up halfway to the door if she tried to make a run for it.

Luckily, her plan B was just as effective. Eden floated Remembrance up and activated S.A.T.S. once again, the sounds of gunfire slowing and becoming an almost alien noise as everything halted around her. Except this time, she used it to target the lock on the door, firing a single shot of superheated plasma at the door. The unicorn backed out of the spell and time sped back up to normal, the projectile slamming into the padlock and melting it instantly, the chains falling limply into the dirt.

The sound of her rifle firing and the sight of the green projectile flying across the courtyard drew the attention of the raiders still by the homestead, their eyes turning and their weapons raising... but at the same time, the gate was smashed open by the two securitrons, drawing their attention right back to the heavily armed machines of death.

"UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR HAS BEEN NOTED. RESPONSE IN PROGRESS. INNOCENT VISITORS, PLEASE DISPERSE," both robots chimed before opening up their grenade launcher shoulders, firing several metal apples without stems at the group of raiders before they had a chance to move.

Eden ducked back around the corner as fire and shrapnel billowed out of the explosion and past her hiding spot, followed closely by several singed chunks of flesh. She checked her E.F.S. again — no yellow signals, no innocent ponies. Just red dots that were rapidly dwindling by the second as the barrage of grenades transitioned to flashes of red magical energy. Let's hope that means we weren't too late...

Eden poked her head back around the corner with her plasma rifle floating beside her, targeting the raiders still on top of the wall while the securitrons took care of the ponies in the courtyard. One of them caught sight of her and fired a few rounds at her, impacting against the wood of her hiding spot while she fired shots of her own without the aid of S.A.T.S. Her own rounds missed as well, but one of the plasma bolts smacked right into the wood underneath his hooves, turning the wood a superhot green that melted his hooves as well. He let out a shocked scream of pain before the weakened structure collapsed underneath him, dumping him onto the ground.

A new round of bullets from the raiders forced Eden to duck back behind the corner, but her magic levitated her rifle out to fire without exposing her body, another plasma bolt striking a mare in the shoulder and melting her down with a cut-off scream as her lungs turned to goo. Eden took aim and fired once again, this time striking the wood boards underneath the raiders and causing the support to melt; the unicorn did this several times until the guard post completely gave way underneath the ponies, dropping them all onto the ground with a thud of wood and a sizzle of melted ooze.

By that time, the securitrons had finished clearing out the homestead and had rolled back out into the courtyard, and any surviving raiders still struggling in the rubble were gunned down with their submachine guns. After a few more shots, the fortress finally went quiet.

While the securitrons ran their auto-repair programs in the courtyard, Eden busied herself with searching the compound for anything useful. There wasn't much in terms of... anything in the place, the isolated area clearly not the best place to do any raiding. The interior of the homestead was, by raider standards, surprisingly clean. Though there were a few blood splatters and strange skulls mounted on the walls. Eden chalked that up to a lack of ponies traveling through, giving them a shortage of pony guts to use for decoration.

Other than a few old pieces of unfamiliar meat and the ragtag collection of pipe rifles, the only thing of note was a terminal in one of the upper room floors, miraculously still glowing with its green apple hue. It didn't have any encryption either, as the raiders probably didn't have the tech skills to set anything up. With nothing better to do, Eden clicked into the personal files and started reading.

Entry One
I was finally able to figure out how to erase all the old entries in this terminal, thank Celestia. The previous owners just kept rambling about Hooffield this, Hooffield that, how they were gonna shoot the Hooffields up and slit their throats in their sleep... I tried reading through it, but the grammar (or lack thereof) and the nonsense ranting was too much. According to Sway, the other place was just as run down and insane, talking about lighting the McColts on fire and what not. They must've wiped each other out, because there was no one around when we showed up.

This place seems like a really nice place to settle down. The nearest pre-war town is miles away, so there's not much to scavenge, but there's not a lot of radiation or taint, and the mountains are full of wildlife to hunt and trap. It's a trapper's paradise! And if we clean up the weeds and overgrowth on the other side, we could try planting some seeds and actually becoming self-sustainable. It's our nice little hidden paradise, no one should be bothering us here.

Entry Two
Valier broke down coughing again, scared off the Radstag we had been tracking for hours. At first I was pissed, but then I noticed the blood he had splattered all over the ground. Gravel had a look at him and said he had radiation poisoning. I say bullshit. There's no rad spikes anywhere in the valley, where could he have gone to get like this? We gave him the last of the RadAway, and he calmed down a bit. I don't know where we're gonna find any more, so hopefully it's nothing serious.

Entry Three
Valier's condition got worse, even though he hasn't left the house since we gave him the RadAway. Where is he picking these rads up from? I told Gravel that his theory was bullshit, and we had to be separated.

I can hear Valier down there now while I'm typing this, talking incomprehensibly to himself. He wasn't the most stable stallion to begin with, but he was at least functional. What is getting him like this? Gravel said he didn't have a fever, or chills, or any sign of infection... I hope he didn't breathe in something toxic from the local flora, because I've been breathing in the same shit he has.

Entry Four
Sweet fucking Luna, Valier's fucking lost it. He broke out of his room, raided the armory, and just fucking shot Sway in the back of the head. Blew his fucking brains out all over the wall. Managed to shoot Ivy in the leg too before me and Gravel were able to take the gun from him. Had to lock him in the sturdiest room we had, and now he keeps slamming something against the door. Maybe his head. There's blood seeping under the door.

Gravel was trying to fix Ivy's leg when he broke down into a coughing fit too, sprayed the poor mare with his blood while she's bleeding out already. We got her to stop bleeding before we immediately locked Gravel away as well. If Valier's infected our only doctor too... I don't know what we're going to do. I don't know what we're gonna do with Valier either. Code says we kill him... but he's obviously mad, I don't know if he even knows what he's doing.

I've been getting really bad headaches. Maybe I should start sleeping with my gun.

Entry Five
Valier's been screaming for hours. Top of his lungs, full pitched, no stopping for breaths. How is that possible? Can't hear myself think. Head's swimming, buzzing, keep hearing voices.

Coughed into my hoof and it came away bloody. Wiped it off before anyone saw, I think... No, I think Snowflake saw. She looked at me funny.

I need to find a way to keep her quiet. She doesn't understand.

Entry Six
Ivy dragged herself off the operating table to unlock the door for Gravel. I heard gunshots about an hour ago. Haven't heard anything since. Nothing but the voices. More blood.

I locked myself in my room, don't think they know I'm here. Keep coughing. Can't stop. How can they not hear me? How can they not hear the voices?

The voices keep talking.

Entry xndwed
Do you hear it? Does it speak to you? It gets to everyone.

When Eden reached the end, she realized that she had been holding her breath, and she forced herself to exhale and back away from the terminal screen. So these ponies weren't raiders... they were something else, poisoned and corrupted by something in these mountains. Something in the air that she was breathing in at that very moment.

Her haste to get out of the crumbling place suddenly increased tenfold.

"Uh, hey, maybe we shouldn't stick around too long," she sheepishly called out to the securitrons as she trotted out of there as fast as she could.

Eden was already starting to grow sick of the clouds.

She had grown up her whole life barely seeing anything but overcast sky, sure. But for three months, she had grown to love and appreciate, and then get used to, the bright blue sky and the shining sun overhead. Now, she had to go back into the dull gray darkness again, and it wasn't a change she appreciated.

The three of them had reached the end of the valley, so the train tracks were once again winding up along the sides of the mountains, taking them closer to the clouds and the mist that clung to the peaks. As they got higher, Eden's PipBuck occasionally started clicking as its radiation detector started to announce the presence of balefire, though it was in very low amounts and often went away entirely.

Eden was used to encountering pockets of rads, so it didn't bother her, but what made her concerned was just where the radiation was coming from. The land they had passed through was relatively untouched by any megaspells as far as she could tell, as the sparsely populated area was probably not very high on the zebra's target list. However, the higher they got from the ground and the closer they got to the mist above them, the more frequent these rad detections became. Was the mountain fog radioactive? That would be interesting... it would make sense that the water droplets would readily absorb the balefire radiation and hold it, even after all these years. But Eden wasn't in the mood to go up high enough to find out; heights and radiation poisoning were both on her NO NO NO NO NO list.

After their encounter at the Hooffields and McColts, the journey was rather uneventful, only interrupted by a few bloatsprites and the occasional radhog... no more sightings of Radamounts, or crazy insane ponies. The securitrons were running low on grenades and missiles from their fight at the fort, and Eden hoped she would be able to find more once they were in Tall Tale... the launchers were very useful, and she'd hate to run out and not have any more heavy rounds if they ever came across tougher enemies.

With this mountain path a lot wider, and with stable dirt instead of the crumbling shale and gravel of Shattered Hoof Ridge, Eden hopped back into the cart and allowed herself to be towed along once again, speeding up their travel time considerably. According to her PipBuck's map, this path traveled up to get them out of the mountains, before taking them down to the shoreline and into the city. They were almost out of the divide... and they would get a pretty good view of Tall Tale out of the journey as well. The highest point of the mountain pass would overlook the coastal city and give her her first good look at what she was dealing with.

After about an hour more of riding, they finally crested the top of the path as it split two mountains, the peaks towering up on either side of them as the ground sloped away from them in both directions. Behind them was the valley of the Smokey Mountains, and in front of them... was Tall Tale.

"Woah..." Eden uttered under her breath as the securitrons came to a stop, allowing her to jump out of the cart and trot forward to get a better look at the area sprawling out in front of her.

The city was still a few miles out, but she was still able to see much of it from where she was; she fished a pair of binoculars out of her saddlebags to make the task even easier. The entire area was covered in clouds like the mountains were, with a dense mist hanging over everything that even dropped as far down as street level closer to the coast, swallowing up most of the city with clinging fog. She could understand that there were clouds around the divide, where the S.P.P. tower had been destroyed, but they were days away from it now... why was the weather here still overcast and unaffected? Maybe the Lightbringer was still gaining access to the weather in this region.

The coastal city had seemingly once been perched above the water of the North Luna Ocean, providing a docking area for ships to load and unload before sailing out for the zebra homelands and the landbridge settlements... but over the last 200 years, the sea had reclaimed several parts of the now-sunken city, the roads leading into Tall Tale also becoming swamped and covered in marshland. It would be a slog to even get into the city, much less searching the place for the sender of the mysterious letter.

Tall Tale was a rather large, industrial town, with lots of factories and loading docks outside of the main downtown area, which surprisingly had quite a few skyscrapers for a city this isolated. The tallest building was... not exactly a building at all; it looked like a freestanding tower, with a base that got narrower as it got taller, topped with a large, bulbous head and a large spire sticking out towards the heavens. It looked very much like the design for the High Roller back in New Pegas, and she suddenly wondered which one came first.

Looking at the strange tower, Eden also got her answer for why the weather was still so dreary and overcast. The white S.P.P. tower in this area had been toppled over, crushing several buildings underneath it, with its pointed tip leaning on the top of the spire's observation deck and miraculously not toppling it as well. But this station hadn't been blown up or destroyed by an explosion; the towers were much too strong for any conventional explosive to shatter it. Instead, it had been uprooted like a tree, its supports ripped from the ground by what looked like an earthquake, large crevices opened up in the earth around where it had previously stood at the edge of the city.

The bay was full of ship carcasses and flotsam, some of the boats large military vessels while others were small civilian sailboats, gentle waves causing the debris to float calmly across the murky waters. A pony-made river ran through the northern part of the city, along with locks to keep the water level in check, allowing for ships to continue further inland from the sea. The city looked as if it had escaped the megaspell bombings miraculously intact; there was no apparent craters or damage from explosives that she could see, just the effects of the weather tower collapsing and the general passing of time.

"There it is... Tall Tale," Eden mumbled to herself as she reached into the breast pocket of her Stable barding, pulling out a small waterproof container which held her paper belongings, as well as the mysterious letter that had sent her on this journey. "A long lost, forgotten city... a place filled with apparently world-endangering threats, and I have no instructions other than 'meet me there'."

The unicorn sighed and read the letter over one last time before folding it back up and slipping it back into its case. "Well, I guess we'd better start looking then. Let's get moving."

Chapter Three: The Muck and the Mire

Chapter Three: The Muck and the Mire

"This here is my town. These are my ponies. You so much as breathe wrong, and I'm gonna fuckin' end ya."

Eden and the two securitrons hiked down the mountain path to the relative flatness and safety of the shoreline area before deciding to stop for the night; even though she couldn't see the sun, both her PipBuck's clock and her sagging eyes let her know that it was time for rest. Rather than sleep in the cart while the securitrons kept traveling like she had done before, Eden decided to find a proper camping spot to rest in; they were only a few miles out from the city, and she wanted to go in fully rested and prepared.

They settled on an old, ransacked rest stop along the old coastal highway, the parking lot littered with dead carriages and crumbling skeletons. After getting a small fire going in the lobby of the convenience store, underneath one of the only still-intact parts of the roof, Eden busied herself with exploring the place while the securitrons patrolled the area and made any needed repairs.

On one of the shelves was a row of books, most of the paper soaked through and molded, rotting away and crumbling at the slightest touch of her hoof. However, one of the books had been shielded by a piece of roof that had fallen down and was still legible; the title read "The Fauna of the Northern Luna Ocean" in big colorful letters, along with smiling cartoon animals emblazoned on the cover. A foal's book.

Eden had nothing better to do, and she ended up taking the book back with her to her camping spot, curling up on top of her sleeping bag as a pot of food cooked slowly over the campfire. If anything, it would get some use as tinder after she was done reading it.

The Fauna of the Northern Luna Ocean

The Equestrian Northwest is full of unique and interesting animals that you won't find anywhere else, due to its isolated location on the west coast! Its blend of ocean, mountains, and forests makes it a melting pot for many different species to converge!

Bears: These large, furry predators are actually omnivores, feasting on tasty mountain berries high up in the Cascades. Some ponies, like Ministry Mare Fluttershy, are able to communicate and make friends with this rare species.

Beavers: With their large tails and webbed paws, these aquatic rodents have become very good at building dams. Some have even been recruited by Equestria in order to build large, hydraulic dams for the war effort!

Crabs: The Ponget Sound is full of these cute little seafaring critters, known for their hard shells and sharp pincers. Their meat is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world!

Elk: A distant relative of pony-kind, but more closely related to deer, these creatures live high up in mountain abodes, and are known for their large antlers and loud mating calls.

Fly-ders: Native to the North Luna Ocean area, these green insects are a mix of spider and fly, able to fly around and spin webs! Just don't get bit, their venom is painful!

Giant Lunar Octopus: Octopi are the smartest of the invertebrates, and this one is the largest in the world! Sightings over the years have led to the creation of an ocean legend... the Kraken!

Honey Bees: Bees are a familiar sight in the summertime, zipping from flower to flower to collect their pollen. Just don't get too close to their hives, or they'll use their stingers to good effect!

Mountain Lions: These large felines live high up in the Smokey Mountains and the Cascade Range, and are a rare sighting due to their lower numbers. Although they look dangerous, they're actually semi-sentient and are able to hold conversations with ponies, using a series of growls and roars!

Orcas: They may be nicknamed "Killer Whales", but don't let the name scare you off! These creatures are beautiful and don't hunt ponies, so don't be afraid to go sightseeing for the majestic mammals!

Pukwudgies: While these creatures are native to the Everfree Forest, it's not uncommon to see one of these creatures scurrying about. They look like small porcupines with large mouths, and when they're angry, they shoot their quills like arrows!

Racoons: These small, cuddly creatures might look like they have the mask of a burglar, but they're not going to steal anything but the leftover dinner scraps in your trash!

Rocs: Residents of Tall Tale can often see this large, majestic bird of prey soaring overhead before swooping down to snag its prey with its sharp claws. Don't worry, it doesn't eat ponies... though it is attracted to a dragon's molt!

Tatzlwurm: A rare sight these days, this mystical worm burrows deep into the earth, using its sensitive sense of feeling to navigate using vibrations instead of sight!

Tri-horned Bunyip: This mysterious creature lives deep in the North Luna Ocean, only resurfacing in order to snack on its favorite food: cucumbers!

It was short, and not very descriptive, but Eden decided to hang onto the small book for the time being. It could be useful later, if she ever needed to identify any mutated wildlife that survived the war and still lived in the area.

She closed the small book and put it in her waterproof carrying case before slipping it back into her breast pocket, turning her attention back to the broth she had been heating up over the fire. She held her bowl in her hooves and took a sip; it wasn't very flavorful, but the hot soup warmed her up and settled her grumbling stomach for the time being. Long enough for her to finish her light meal and drift off into a light sleep, the adrenaline of the long, eventful day still pumping through her.

The longer they traveled, the more and more of a slog the journey became. The same water that had swamped much of Tall Tale had also reclaimed much of the land leading into the city as well, covering the roads in murky muck that the three creatures had difficulty trudging through. Eden had muddy water caked on her legs up to her knees, and her securitrons often let out alarmed beeps as they got stuck in the water, forcing them to back up and try another way through before finding a spot shallow enough for them to navigate.

And the travel wasn't going to get any easier; the dense mist had descended onto them the closer they got to Tall Tale, so much that she couldn't see the sun anymore, nor the skyscrapers of the city, just the marshlands that carried on as far as her eyes could see.

Her securitrons couldn't go on any further. Their wheels just weren't made for this type of terrain, and if they tried to continue, they would get stuck in the deep water and not be able to get back out. Once the three of them had reached a dry patch, an island of pavement among the swamped roads around her, Eden finally relented to the now-obvious truth.

"I'm gonna have to go alone," the unicorn told the two robots as she wiped her muddy hooves off on the concrete. "I need you two to wait here for me to return. If I'm not back in... two weeks, go back the way we came through to get help. Try High Horse first, then Junction R-7. Understand?"

"UNDERSTOOD," was the monotonous reply of her last two companions as they continued to idle. "GOOD LUCK, MISS... EDEN."

Eden gave them one last nod before turning to continue, stepping right back into the murky water. It was now almost up to her belly, and she floated her saddlebags off her back and in the air next to her to keep her equipment dry as she pushed through. Every so often, her hooves would brush against something hidden, submerged in the marsh, causing her to jump back with a splash and a shriek, but it was never anything alive; just carriages, skeletons, the remnants of pre-war life washed away by the changing tides.

Soon, she couldn't see the securitrons behind her anymore, their location marked in her PipBuck so she wouldn't forget. The mapping system told her she was almost to the city now, and soon, she was able to make out the first few buildings through the mist, small homesteads and strip malls, small compared to the large tower and the skyscrapers further in. The last obstacle for her to cross was the deepest water yet, the size of a river with its own flowing current as well, moving away from the Ocean to her left and taking the muck deeper inland to the right.

Eden took a deep breath and stepped right into the water, shivering as she felt it go up to her belly, soaking her Stable barding and the fur underneath. She kept her saddlebags and her plasma rifle floating next to her over the water, her horn starting to flicker slightly from the strain of carrying her heavy bags so far. Just a few more hooflengths...

Before she could make it to the shore, something large erupted out of the water behind her, followed by a loud roar that nearly knocked her off her hooves! Eden barely managed to stay upright as waves and ripples washed over her, the unicorn spinning around to face the new threat that towered above her.

It was very, very large, more than triple her height, with a spiky exoskeleton shell and two large, pincer-like arms that it waved in front of itself with another roar. The entire underside of its torso was covered in small, writhing appendages, and it had eight powerful legs keeping it rooted in the flowing water. It had no head... or a small one, with antennae-like protrusions sticking out of the rounded end to the torso, embedded within the large shell.

Her PipBuck had nothing. This was a horror beyond pre-war understanding.

The monster in front of her scuttled forward through the muck, spouts on the outside of its exoskeleton firing acidic spittle through the air at her! Eden shrieked and threw up a magic shield in front of her as she unsteadily tried to backpedal away, the poison sizzling against the shield as her short pony legs couldn't outpace the large creature bearing down on her. It followed up its acid attack by raising one of its large claws and slamming it down at Eden, smashing into her shield and overloading her magic from the force of the blow!

Eden shrieked as her horn gave out, her shield popping out of existence and her telekinesis failing, dropping her rifle and supplies into the river, sinking into the murky water. She collapsed onto the shore and clutched at her aching horn with muddy hooves, her forehead feeling like it was splitting apart along her scar. Through her tear-filled eyes, she watched as the creature raised its claws again, ready to finish her off... her journey was over, just like that. She couldn't scoot away fast enough, and she had no more protection from its acid. It was over.

But before the creature could deal the final blow... there was a bright flash of light from the east, brighter than any spotlight or street lamp, pure white in color, beamed directly at the two of them. The monster let out another screech, but this one was a tone of pain and fear, scuttling back away from the source of the light. It was too bright for Eden to look into without going blind, so her heavy eyes just watched the creature slink back into the water as fast as it could go, soon leaving nothing but rippling water to suggest it had even existed.

Eden weakly tilted her head towards the source of the light as it slowly dimmed away, and she was able to see the outline of a... pony, a unicorn, the light emanating directly from the tip of their horn.

That's all she could see before her vision started to swim and fade to black. Sleep? Yep, sleep is good. No more pain...

Eden was awoken to the ever-present ache of her head, and the cold chill of the water still soaking her through. She let out a soft whimper and wiggled all four of her limbs... yep, still there. Her horn throbbed so badly, she wanted to cut it off.... but it was still there too. She was alive.

Once she got her heavy eyelids to cooperate, she forced them open to see that she was still laying on the same shore that she had been attacked on, her saddlebags nowhere to be seen... neither was the large creature, nor the pony that had saved her. Her horn was out of commission, and she was going nowhere near that water while the monster could still be submerged... so her supplies were lost. All that she still had was what she had kept in her Stable barding pockets... her PipBuck interface tools, her waterproof case carrying the mysterious letter and the small animal picture book, and a combat knife that she had strapped to her thigh. No guns, no ammo, no medicine, no food, and nowhere to go.

With her way back to the securitrons cut off by the monster-inhabited river, her only way forward was deeper into the city, where she would hopefully find some answers. Eden scampered away from the shore as fast as she could, onto the road lining the river, not wanting to accidently draw the creature back out. The thick mist surrounded her on all sides, and her PipBuck's clicking continued to alert her of radiation even after she had exited the water. It was in the air, filling her lungs and poisoning her by the second. This was on top of all the rads she had taken wading through hours of irradiated water to get to this point... and now she had no RadAway or RadSafe.

Eden ducked into one of the stores along the broken road to catch her breath, the still-flickering sign reading Tall Tale's Tall Tales: Fictional Stories, Comic Books, and Novellas in stylized lettering. Inside, the mist was less prominent, the clicking of her PipBuck slowing somewhat as she looked around. The store was filled with racks upon racks of fiction books, most of them titled Daring Do... apparently written by Tall Tale's own A.K. Yearling.

Eden picked a random one off the shelf and looked it over: the title was Daring Do and the Betrayal of the Zealous Zebras, and the cover depicted a gold pegasus with a compass rose cutie mark and explorers outfit infiltrating a top secret zebra base, balefire radiation warning symbols posted everywhere. When her hoof touched the paper, she felt a momentary jolt surge through her, a sensation that made her shiver. She didn't know what it was, but she felt... stronger, somehow, and the ever-present radiation didn't bother her as much. Weird... She opened up her documents case and slipped the small novel into it as well.

The rest of the store had already been looted by a previous scavenger, leaving her nothing to take but hundreds of books. Eden stepped out of the store and back into the street, glancing around at the empty city surrounding her. If she hadn't just been attacked, then saved, she would have thought that there was no life left in the city at all. Where was everypony? And where was the pony that had saved her? It was like they had vanished without a trace after driving the monster back.

Truth be told, Eden had no idea what she was looking for... just for somepony named SG. They might not even be a pony, for all she knew. And with how many rads she was picking up, she was going to be puking up her own guts before she had time to search even a fourth of the city. She needed help.

Eden trotted west down the road until she found a road traveling north, taking her deeper into the city. In the distance, if she really squinted through the mist... she swore she could see lights in the distance, illuminating the mist around it, in the downtown area just a few blocks from the shoreline. That was her best bet.

Off she trotted, through the silent, broken city, nothing but the mist to keep her company.

Her walk through the southern part of the city was quiet. Eden stuck to the shadows and the sidewalks as much as she could, ducking away out of sight at the slightest noise or blip on her E.F.S... but nothing detected her, and soon she was in the downtown area proper, the ocean to her left and the tall city buildings to her right as she traveled north towards the lights, her destination becoming more prominent as night started to fall.

Eden passed countless Starbucked stores on her journey, their rather steamy advertising of the two lesbian mares intertwined forcing the unicorn to avert her eyes with a shudder. The messaging had apparently been very popular in this city, as there were shops and advertisements on what felt like every block. Eden had no idea why Starbucked had such a grip on this city in particular; their main competitor, Java’s Cup, was nowhere to be seen.

To her left, on the city's waterfront, was a towering Ferris Wheel on a pier jutting out into the water, its formerly white steel rusted with age as it loomed over the mist-covered water. Its large passenger capsules swayed gently with the breeze, the creaking and groaning audible from where she was walking even from all that distance away. It really drove home just how quiet the city was... Eden had grown accustomed to the everyday bustle and noise of New Pegas, and the complete silence and lack of life made her realize just how alone she really was.

Eventually, Eden made it to the source of the lights. She stood in front of what had previously been a... farmers market, most likely. The entrance was to the left of the road she was standing on, the large alleyway blocked off by a patchwork fence of sheet metal and wooden beams, tied together with chains and supports that bore the algae and rust of ship work. All the lights and signage in the stores were active, bathing the street and area in a multicolored neon glow.

Above the gate and main entrance of the market was the welcome sign; The large, red neon letters spelled out "PUBLIC MARKET", with a large clock attached to the sign that was permanently stuck at the 9:47 position. Someone had taken the time to scrawl over the sign with paint to present a new message to arriving ponies: "OASIS".

Surrounding the outside of the wall were tall lamp posts, but instead of lights on the top, they bore what looked like small crystals embedded inside the tip. Talismans, most likely; The mist swirled and dissipated around the magic devices, leaving everything past them mist and rad free. Mist cleansers. If there were working spell talismans here, then there must be ponies as well... Eden just hoped they weren't raiders. She didn't exactly have any means of fighting back.

Eden took a deep breath and stepped right up to the gate, raising a hoof and delivering three firm knocks to the wood before stepping back. She was met with immediate silence... After a few seconds, she could've sworn she heard commotion on the other side of the gate, but it was drowned out by the steady humming of the talismans surrounding her, so she couldn't be sure. Maybe nopony was home... she would have to find a way to break in if that was the case.

After a minute, the unicorn stepped back up to the gate to knock again, but before she could, the doors were thrown open and at least four rifle barrels were forced into her face.

"Woah!" Eden squealed out in surprise, falling back onto her rump and scooting back across the pavement before putting her forehooves in the air. "P-Peace! I come in peace! I'm friendly."

"Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck are you doing here?" the lead stallion growled, his rifle floating in the air in his magic aura, following her out of arm's reach when she scooted back.

"M-My name is Eden, I'm just visiting the city, I mean no harm, I swear," Eden answered as she flinched away from the guns, her horn glowing softly as she activated her E.F.S.: all yellow signals, for now. No one was immediately hostile.

"'Visiting'?" the stallion scoffed. "Pfft, no one 'visits' Tall Tale."

"No, I swear to you I'm telling the truth," Eden pleaded, locking eyes with the navy stallion in front of her. "I'm here to look for a pony here in the city, but I was attacked crossing the river to the south and lost all my equipment."

Her pleas seemed to have some effect on the four ponies guarding the entrance, as their guns lowered slightly and they glanced at each other, as if to telepathically decide what to do next.

"...Could be a Trapper ploy to get us to lower our guard," The navy stallion said out loud finally, turning his attention back to the unicorn sitting on the ground. "Has the mist gotten to you?"

Eden blinked. "The... what?"

"Don't play stupid!" he barked, his gun raising once again. "Are you one of those crazy fucking lunatics or not?"

Before Eden could respond, a different mare's voice echoed down the alleyway. "Bolt, stand down! Treat our guest with some respect, will you?"

Eden's, and all the other ponies', gaze turned to the source of the voice that had interjected; a gray-furred, green-maned earth pony was walking towards them from deeper inside the farmer's market, her yellow eyes scanning the situation, the fabric of her medic's outfit fluttered softly in the breeze.

The navy stallion grunted and lowered his weapon as the mare stepped up next to him. "...Apologies, Emerald. Can't be too careful these days, with how many Trappers are still out there."

"Yes, I understand. But guns to the face is no way to make a first impression, is it?" Emerald asked the stallion, before turning her gaze to Eden. "What's your name, miss?"

Eden slowly climbed back up onto all fours before responding, "Eden, ma'am."

"Eden, my name is Captain Emerald Mirage, and this is the settlement of Oasis," Emerald greeted her, raising a hoof to gesture at the graffitied sign that bore the name of the town above them. "Sorry for the... aggressive introductions, but we don't get many visitors out here."

"And we don't want visitors, so you can pack your things and leave," the navy stallion growled again, his rifle lowered in his magic grasp, but still out and ready. "Outsiders are nothing but trouble."

"Bolt Action, this isn't your town. You don't get to decide who's allowed to stay and who's allowed to leave," Emerald reprimanded him sharply, the earth pony turning on him in an instant.

Bolt scoffed and stepped back, running a hoof through his slicked-back red mane in contained annoyance. "Your call, Captain."

Emerald nodded, but stared the stallion down for a few more moments to get her point across before turning back to Eden. "Sorry about him, he thinks more with his rifle than his head sometimes. But he does have a point, not all visitors have good intentions. What brings you to Tall Tale?"

Where do I even start? Eden thought to herself with a sigh before beginning slowly. "I received a letter... from someone with the initials SG. They told me they needed my help, and that they would explain everything once I got to the city. You're the first survivors I've found... Are you the ones that sent it?"

"SG..." Emerald said aloud in thought, rubbing her chin with a gray hoof. "There's no one with those initials in our town. At least, there haven't been any during my time as Captain."

Of course, that would be too easy. Eden grumbled internally. "Is there... another pony settlement in the city, somewhere where they could be?"

"You are an outsider, aren't you?" Bolt verbally jabbed in a taunting tone. "We're the only town left in the city. Everywhere else has been swallowed up by the mist, or consumed by the madness it brings."

"We're called Oasis for a reason," Emerald said in agreement, not reprimanding the stallion this time. "We're the last safe haven left in the Northwest... you came to the right place."

That was good news and bad news to Eden. She had stumbled upon, apparently, the last friendly town for miles completely by accident... she could have easily walked into a raider den instead and died. But this town didn't contain the pony she was looking for, and none of them knew what she was even talking about. It was clear this quest would not be as straightforward as she had hoped. She just hoped this journey wouldn't turn out to just be a giant radigator chase...

"Well, I'm not looking to stay long, I just... lost all my gear in a fight with a... large creature in the river, so I need a place to recuperate and restock, if you ponies will have me," Eden explained, a tinge of hopeful optimism in her voice as she focused her attention on the other mare, avoiding Bolt's accusatory stare.

"Yes, that seems fine to me," Emerald nodded, giving her final decision — to the chagrin of Bolt Action — as her eyes looked beyond Eden and scanned the dark fog. "Come inside, before we attract unwanted attention."

Eden was more than happy to oblige, stepping forward inside the town limits to allow the gates to swing back closed behind her with a clatter of steel and wooden parts clinking together, a large latch falling into place to keep the entrance secured.

"Already, everypony back to work," Emerald ordered the ponies that had answered her knocking. "Our guest doesn't need four ponies hovering over her. Let me do my job... get back to your own."

The four ponies stuck their weapons back into their holsters and trotted back to their defense positions with disappointed grumbling; Bolt took the time to shoot another warning glare in her direction before he trotted deeper into the town. Soon, only Eden and Emerald remained standing inside the gate, just the sounds of the talismans' whirring outside the gate to keep them company.

"Large creature..." Emerald repeated, bringing the attention back to their interrupted conversation. "Sounds like you had a run-in with the Queen. You're lucky to be alive."

Eden blinked slowly in confusion, the name not ringing any bells. "The... Queen?"

"The Mirelurk Queen," Emerald clarified. "She's been hidden in that river for decades now, cutting off the only safe route left out of the town. There's no way for traders or settlers to enter or leave the city without braving her wrath... barely any make it through. Outsiders are a real rarity these days... makes everypony suspicious."

A Mirelurk... Another term that was unfamiliar to the foreign unicorn. Her mind flashed back to the incident a few hours ago... its scuttling legs, large pincer arms, acid spouts, and spiky exoskeleton added up to something she had never seen before. She couldn't even begin to guess how a pre-war animal could've mutated that drastically with just exposure to balefire radiation. At least the name was on-the-nose apt.

If that was the queen... What were its subjects? Eden didn't think she wanted to find out.

Eden nodded slowly. "Yes, she caught me by surprise, nearly killed me... but another pony saved me. A unicorn. They flashed a bright light at the Queen and drove it off. Was that one of your townsponies?"

Emerald's muzzle grew a thoughtful frown. "No, doesn't sound like one of them. No one has left the town in days. But I'm sure if you ask around, you might get some answers... a lot of the ponies here are better versed on the city's inhabitants than me."

Eden glanced at the other mare with a questioning look on her face, and Emerald elaborated, "I was an outsider too, a long time ago. Lived up in Vanhoover, but that town fell under the control of slavers and I had to flee for my freedom. Ponies here were distrustful to me too, but once you gain their trust, it's a great place to be. C'mon, I'll give you a quick tour."

The two mares stepped away from the gate, and the L-shaped road curved away from them sharply to the right, the entirety of Oasis opening up to Eden. It had the layout of a farmer's market, with shops and booths on either side of the road, large signs posted everywhere drawing customers to them. Instead of temporary, free-standing stalls that Eden was used to in places like Klugetown, the pre-war inhabitants of the city had built the shops into the buildings lining the street, the whole place open air but with walls dividing the shops and a roof overhead to keep out the rain... and the mist. Normal-looking buildings rose up over the shops, but only two stories more at maximum... probably low-income housing or apartments. The end of the street had been sealed off with a similar gate to the one she had come in through, the shops and buildings lining the street providing an effective defense to anything trying to get in.

Some of the shops still looked operational, with lights on and shopkeepers bustling inside going over inventory or selling their stock to the local townsponies. The rest of them were quiet, and Eden could make out the occasional bed placed inside, sometimes with a privacy curtain covering the entrance, and sometimes completely open to the outside world. The rest of the inhabitants were either milling around aimlessly in the street or standing guard along the gates and walls, the two mares occasionally drawing strange glances as they walked down the road.

The road underneath her hooves was made from clay-colored brick, in contrast to the gray pavement of the other roads in the city. It looked like it hadn't been replaced in decades, even before the bombs dropped, the road worn down from the thousands of hooves that had walked across it.

"This is Oasis..." Emerald began, waving a hoof at the town. "It used to be the oldest farmers' market in Equestria, and the biggest attraction in Tall Tale, besides the Tower, of course. Most of the shops and buildings we've converted into sleeping quarters, but some of the stands are still run by ponies."

Emerald pointed a hoof at one of the stores, the walls lined with various weapons with a navy stallion behind the counter, teal eyes watching their every move. "There's the gun shop, owned by Bolt Action... you met him earlier. Aggressive stallion, but he's extremely devoted and wants the best for the ponies of the town. Don't let a bad first impression sour him."

"The general store is here," the Captain continued, leading Eden to the largest store in the market, lots of useful and miscellaneous goods filling the shelves with the room opening up to what looked like a medic station in the back, with cots and healing potions. "Dusty Locket owns the place, but I run an infirmary in the back to share space. You need anything patched up or any healing supplies, this is your stop."

Emerald stepped away from the general store and pointed a hoof further down the street, almost to the end of the market. "Down that way is the finest (and only) pub in the city, The Fireside Taproom, if you need a drink or a place to sleep. Most ponies in the town find themselves there at least once a day... not much else to do around her but get hammered and forget your troubles."

"Sapphira lives there, she's the one that maintains the Mist Condenser talismans and keeps Oasis free of mist," Emerald said as she moved her pointing hoof to another small store, this one full of magic artifacts and strange devices. "Definitely the most important pony in this town, even more than myself or Bolt Action. Without her, this place would have been swallowed up by the Mist years ago."

The Mist... The ponies here kept referring to it in a hushed, mythical tone, as if it had supernatural powers. Eden was almost too scared to ask what it was. Bolt Action had asked her if the mist had gotten to her... that it brought madness. That the trappers were lunatics. Her mind flashed back to the McColts' fort in the divide, to the group of trappers who had been driven mad by something that they couldn't see... They said it spoke to them, that it got to everyone. How could something that seemed so innocent bring so much disaster to the ponies of this area? The ever-present clicking of her PipBuck's radiation detector gave her one possible explanation.

"As for everyone else... everyone has a task here," Emerald continued, snapping Eden out of her wandering thoughts. "We have ponies that guard the walls and protect the town, we have ponies that run the shops and prepare the food... and we have ponies that go and secure the food on fishing and scavenging trips deeper into the city. I think a group of them is off on an expedition right now... which is why the town seems a little quiet right now. It's not an easy way to live, but we make do."

Emerald did a little spin in place to make sure she had covered everything before nodding to Eden. "That's all there is in our little corner of paradise. But, if you don't mind me asking... what exactly did this 'SG' tell you in the letter they sent you?"

"They just said... they need my help, the safety of the world is in danger, and to meet them in Tall Tale," Eden replied, replaying the message in her head one more time. She had the thing memorized at this point.

"Well, there's a lot of things wrong with Tall Tale right now, as you can probably tell, but nothing world-threatening," Emerald answered, her eyes looking up at the cloud cover and looming mist on the horizon, past the safety of the walls.

Eden frowned. "And they said that they had no one else to turn to... I was the only one who could help. But that's not true, since you ponies are here. How did they even know about me, anyway?"

"I don't want to be inconsiderate... but that letter? It sounds awfully like a crank call to me," Emerald offered softly, echoing Eden's original thoughts on the message.

"That's what I thought too, at first. But..." Eden trailed off, unsure of how to explain her vision without sounding completely crazy to the mare she had just met.

"I'm just saying," Emerald backtracked, putting up her hooves. "Maybe a pony thought to send you to one of the most isolated places in Equestria with no way out as a way to... get you out of the way."

The earth pony made a good point. They were all thoughts that Eden had herself, when she first received the letter in the lobby of the High Roller. It was vague and non-descriptive, calling her off to a far away land that would take weeks to travel to and back... a place ripe for an ambush, or just as a way to get her out of the picture. As the mayor of New Pegas, she had no shortage of enemies: the Enclave Remnants, the disgruntled Casino owners led by Sterling, High Horse... maybe even the NCR for turning down their invitation. And now, she was trapped here, with no way out for the foreseeable future. Was her original presumption correct this whole time? Had she walked right into the trap with open hooves?

However, even as her mind dwelled on these negative thoughts, she couldn't stop herself from recalling her vivid nightmare... of the watery, mist-covered landscape, of the strange ponies with writhing tongues that vomited blood. Like how the trappers in the divide had coughed up blood, the first symptom of their mist-induced madness. And the setting of her dream was a spitting image of the area she found herself in now. She was fully convinced it was a vision, and if Faust had found it fit for her to come here, she was going to figure out why.

"No," replied Eden firmly. "I was brought here for a reason, and I'm gonna stay here until I figure out what that is."

Emerald just gave her shoulders a little shrug. "If you insist. It'll be nice to have a new face around here, anyway. Get yourself settled, you know where to find me if you need anything."

Eden thanked the mare again as she walked away before glancing around at the settlement once again, now all alone on the street. Most of the ponies looked to be wrapping up for the night as the sky started to dim, lights starting to flicker on in each store and living space as the Oasis residents trotted back inside, leaving the main street pretty much deserted. At least no one was giving her trouble for being an outsider.

Eden... was lost. Her conversation with Emerald had given her more questions than answers, and she felt she was further away from the truth than before. She knew she needed to be here, but she had no idea where to even start looking in such a vast, hostile city. If the mist was such a strong contaminant that drove every pony mad with continued exposure... S.G. could even be dead by now, for all she knew.

But that was second to her primary dilemma. She was weaponless, with no food, equipment, or caps to her name. There was no way she could even begin to start looking without getting properly stocked up first. And to do that, she needed to do some shopping.

Eden sheepishly trotted up to the weapons shop, where Bolt Action was sitting behind the counter, grease and oil stains dotting his navy fur and red mane as he worked on cleaning one of the many rifles in his shop, some of the designs familiar, while others seemed to be of the unique, homemade variety. He had not been happy with the fact that she was allowed into the town; Eden could understand distrustfulness for outsiders, as he didn't know what her true intentions could be, but hopefully he had gotten over the initial, aggressive introductions.

"If you're looking for an apology, save your breath," Bolt stated coldly as the unicorn approached. "Emerald may run this town, but ponies around here answer to me, and they know to watch you close. So don't even think about trying anything."

Great. Any hope he might've brushed it off vanished instantly.

"That's not what I'm here for, actually, but if that's what you want to talk about, I'm free all night," Eden retorted as she stepped up to the counter, looking around at his products. It's like I'm back with High Horse...

Bolt snorted, rolling his teal eyes as he reassembled the rifle in his magic at a lightning-fast pace. "Well, I'm not, so state your business or get lost, outsider."

"I'm looking to acquire some new gear, but I lost all my caps... do you offer purchases on credit?" Eden asked hopefully.

"Credit?" Bolt asked incredulously, floating the rifle back to its display rack on the wall. "Mare, I don't know where the hell you're from, but in Oasis, it's always caps up front."

Oh well, worth a shot. Eden sighed internally. "Then, are there any jobs I can do for you, so I can earn caps in order to buy supplies?"

"No," was his simple response.

Eden let out a huff of annoyance. "There has to be something I can do. Some mission I can undertake, some... prewar shipment I can go retrieve, anything. You really have nothing?"

Bolt seemed to get more and more annoyed at her prodding, but at her mention of a prewar shipment, his demeanor brightened suddenly. "...Now that you mention it, there is one thing I've been looking to do for a while now."

"Oh yeah?" Eden asked, placing her forehooves on the counter.

Bolt snorted and placed his own hooves on the counter, leaning forward to stare into her eyes. "Here's the deal. Before the last day, this town was used as a supply depot for Equestria's armies, loading up guns, ammo, armor, soldiers onto big ships and taking them off to the front lines, instead of risking trains on the land bridge. However, one of these freighters was sabotaged by zebra sympathizers, sinking the ship into the Ponget Sound and its cargo with it. The bombs dropped before Equestria could send teams to retrieve the cargo, so it should all still be there. Weapons and ammo that I could use."

Eden bit her lip as she listened to his explanation before nodding slowly. "Where's the ship?"

Bolt pulled a folded-up paper map out from underneath the counter and laid it out for her to see, pointing to the triangular marker that read OASIS. "This is us. Just inside the front gates you came in through, there's a ramp that takes you down to the lower floors of the market. You take a left down the alley covered in dried gum, follow that for about a hundred hooflengths or so, then take the right out under the overpass. You head due west, you'll hit the waterfront in minutes. The sunken ship itself is right about... here. It's only partially submerged, so you shouldn't need diving gear. Just a way to get out into the bay. Should be no shortage of boats you can commandeer."

Eden followed along on her PipBuck's map, marking the location of the shipwreck in the Ponget Sound with a nod. "Alright, sounds doable. What's the pay?"

"A fair deal, based on what you bring back," Bolt replied cryptically, folding the map back up and leaning back in his chair.

"Not exactly very reassuring terms, Bolt," Eden snarked, lowering her PipBuck to glare at the stallion.

"You're not in the best negotiating position, are you, outsider? Bring it back, then we'll talk pay," Bolt replied, standing firm.

Eden let out a huff. "Fine. Can I at least... get some equipment up front to help with the mission, and you can deduct it from my pay afterwards?"

Bolt rolled his eyes. "What did I just tell you? No credit, anywhere, any reason."

"You want me to go off on a potentially dangerous mission without any weapons at all?" Eden asked with an incredulous tone. Was he serious?

"Doesn't sound like my problem, does it?" Bolt snorted, folding his forehooves against his chest as he stared her down.

Eden opened her mouth to offer up another retort... but before she could, she was interrupted by the dull thud of hoofsteps on the brick road behind her, followed by the jingle of a pouch of caps being placed down on the counter next to her, causing both Eden and Bolt's eyes to widen at the sight. Eden turned her head to see a cloaked pony standing next to her, a whole head taller than her, an orange stallion muzzle the only thing visible behind his black hood.

"I'll cover the upfront costs, if I must," the new stallion growled. "Just give the mare some damn weapons, Bolt. Do your job."

Bolt blinked in surprise before he stood up and grabbed the pouch in his magic, turning it over and dumping out the caps inside all over the counter. At least 100 of the small SparkleCola bottle caps spilled out, the noise causing a few heads to turn their way.

"...If you insist." Bolt said finally.

"I do," the hooded stallion snorted in response before stalking away just as quickly as he had arrived, heading across the street to the open air tavern as his cloak fluttered in the wind.

Eden watched him walk away with a confused look on her face before turning back to Bolt as he counted the caps. "...What will that much get me?"

"A revolver, and three boxes of ammo," Bolt responded, turning towards the back of the shop to retrieve the weapon. "You'll have enough left over to buy some RadAway at Dusty's place as well, which I highly recommend you get. The Mist is no joke, outsider. Don't take the warnings lightly."

He turned back around with a revolver and the ammo in his magic grasp, setting the ammo on the counter while extending the gun out to the mare. Bolt's teal-colored magic aura surrounding the revolver became intermingled with Eden's royal blue as her own horn grabbed hold of the weapon, before turning fully blue as Bolt relinquished his grip.

Eden took a few moments to examine the gun for any defects before opening one of the boxes and floating six rounds out, slotting them into the cylinder and flicking it shut. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Yeah, yeah," Bolt replied with a roll of his eyes, sitting back down into his chair. "Remember, I've got my eyes on you. The whole town does. Don't do anything stupid with that thing."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Eden told him as she slipped the revolver into her toolbelt, and the ammo and remaining caps into her last free barding pocket. But before she left, she glanced out at the cloaked stallion and leaned over to whisper to Bolt, "Who...who was that, that paid for me?"

Bolt just snorted and shrugged his shoulders. "Not my place to say. If he wants you to know, he'll tell you himself."

Eden was confused by that answer, but she suspected she was going to get no more cooperation from Bolt. She was equally confused at the random act of goodwill by the cloaked stallion... this town didn't seem to be very big on the whole sharing and empathy thing, especially when it came to outsiders. Emerald was the only other one who had treated her with any modicum of respect, and she had previously been an outsider herself. What had prompted that random pony to spend a hundred precious caps on a pony he had never seen before? She would have to get some answers from him... after she completed her quest. She needed to gain some trust first, before pressing for answers.

She stepped out of Bolt Action's gun store back out into the open area of the market street, the skies now dark enough that all the lights had been turned on, illuminating the area with a pale yellow glow, along with the red from the still-active neon signage. She lifted her PipBuck once again and went over the route that Bolt had spelled out for her. Seemed easy enough... She wanted to get down to the waterfront before it got too dark.

But before she could move, a watchpony's panicked cry froze her in place.

"ROC! INCOMING!"

"Everyone, get to cover!"

Eden glanced around in confusion as the ponies still out in the street dashed into the roof-covered stores and cowered away from the open, the unicorn preparing to dash back into Bolt's shop herself... but a loud skree drew her attention to the skies above.

There, backdropped by the clouds overhead, was the largest bird she had ever seen. The largest creature she had ever seen. Its great talons were each easily as big as she was, and its combined wingspan was as long as Oasis's main street from end to end. Its feathers glinted strangely in the light, revealing that it wasn't covered in feathers or down at all... it was covered in gray stone of different hues, its body and head a dark gray while its beak and wings were a lighter color. Its glowing yellow eagle eyes were staring right down at Oasis as it swooped down... staring right down at her.

Eden tried to force herself to move, but found that her hooves refused to cooperate with her commands. They stayed rooted to the brick road underneath them, the unicorn almost entranced by those yellow eyes as they drew closer and closer... wings swooping, claws stretched open, extending to pluck her right off the street. There was nothing she could do. She could only watch in awe.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The sounds around her became muffled and distant, like she had blown her eardrums out in an explosion. The shadow of its great wings covered her completely as it swooped overhead, open claws reaching down into the alleyway, closing in around her...

In a flash, she felt something hard slam into her, lifting her off the ground... but it wasn't the bird taking her up into the heavens. She had been tackled, knocked off her hooves and onto the unforgiving brick beneath her, the great beast's talons grabbing at thin air before it swooped back up into the air with an unsuccessful screech. Eden gasped loudly as she was knocked out of her trance, a blunt pain running up her side where she had been slammed to the ground, pinned underneath a black figure that she couldn't make out. She watched as the bird tilted its wings to drift away, towards the Cascade Mountains due east of the city, without its prey.

"Clear!" the watchpony called out again, and the figure pinning her down got up in a flash, allowing Eden to roll over onto her back with a grunt of pain.

"Wha... what happened?" she groaned softly as she blinked, slowly regaining her senses.

Above her stood the same cloaked stallion that had paid for her revolver, his hood still over his head, but she could make out his bright green eyes staring down at her in annoyance behind his orange muzzle, a judgmental look on his face as he examined the winded mare beneath him.

"...I hope I didn't overestimate you, outsider," he said simply before turning away from the prone mare and walking off to the tavern yet again, allowing Eden to stand back up and brush herself off while she watched him go.

Unlike the Mirelurk Queen, this new creature was easy to identify. A Roc... the great bird of prey listed in her wildlife book. Covered in impervious rock, with a hypnotizing gaze... and it hunted ponies. Once again, she had been at the mercy of a Tall Tale creature and had to be saved by an unknown pony; Eden hoped this wouldn't become a reoccurring thing. She didn't exactly have a way to repay her debts just yet, and there was no way her luck would hold out forever.

She had no idea why the mysterious stallion had taken such an interest in her... but she couldn't worry about that now. She had a job to do, and it was the perfect way to start getting some respect around here, and ultimately, some answers. She had a gun, she had her wits, and she had directions... she hoped that was all she would need.

Chapter Four: Depths of the Sound

Chapter Four: Depths of the Sound

"Please enjoy our little corner of Equestria. We're all quite fond of it. No doubt you will be as well."

After her rather close encounter with the winged sky-beast known as the Roc, Eden made sure to stop by the general store to purchase some RadAway with her leftover caps, as Bolt Action had suggested. She had enough money to buy two of the citrus-flavored packets, and she drank one of them right away before saving the other one for later. She had picked up a lot of rads on the journey to Tall Tale, and she wanted to start off her quest fully healthy and ready to go.

Following Bolt's directions, Eden trotted back to the south gate of the settlement, the door to her left with the town opening up behind her. Just as he had said, there was a service ramp sloping down to the lower level of the farmers' market to the right, leading to a few more abandoned shops underneath the main street, as well as another gate blocking the path to the left, the way she needed to go. The gate was protected by a single bored-looking guardpony; apparently, the lower levels didn't receive as much hostile attention as the main street.

"Where do you think you're going, outsider?" The stallion asked with suspicion as he straightened up to look presentable as she approached, looking almost happy to have someone to yell at.

"To the waterfront," Eden answered as she stopped in front of him. "Bolt Action's orders."

The guard chuckled. "Bolt Action? Giving an outsider jobs? Never thought I'd see the day."

"I'm as surprised as you are,” Eden replied. “You gonna let me through?"

He stepped up to the gate and peered through a crack in the steel, and apparently liked what he saw, as he gave a small nod. "Alleyway looks clear for now… Don't know how long it'll stay that way though. Not safe out there in the city, outsider, especially at night. I hope you know what you're doing."

"I don't..." Eden admitted with a shrug of her shoulders before stepping up to the gate as well. "But I'll figure it out."

"Hm. That's what they all say..." the guard grumbled as he undid the latches and locks keeping the gate secure before pushing open the door, revealing a single Mist Condenser talisman standing between them and an alleyway filled with fog. "Knock three times when you come back, so I know it's you. Wouldn't want to mistake you for a trapper, now would I?"

Eden bit back a retort and simply nodded. "Three knocks, got it. Just do your job and let me in when I come back, okay? You're not gonna fall asleep and keep me locked outside, are you?"

"Not a chance,” the guard growled. “Though you keep that smart mouth up, I might just consider it."

That's considered smart-mouthing here? Is sarcasm a thing in Tall Tale? She's suddenly relieved she didn't blurt out her original reply.

Eden nodded again before slowly stepping past him into the alleyway, double checking her revolver before pushing deeper into the mist. Almost immediately, her PipBuck began to clickity-clack once again, alerting her to the balefire radiation that clung to the air around her. In her brief time inside the walls of Oasis, she had almost gotten used to the feeling of breathing in clear, uncontaminated oxygen. But now, every breath was filled with water vapor and the harmful rads clinging to it, filling her throat and lungs with a slight burning sensation that accompanied the clicking of her PipBuck.

The silence of the alleyway was interrupted by a clang and a rattle from behind her, causing Eden to jump in surprise. She looked back to see that the guard had closed the gate behind her; the click of the padlock let her know there was no turning back. Not that she wanted to, of course. She needed the supplies and the caps they would net her if she wanted to make any progress in completing this impromptu quest of hers... or even make it out of the city alive.

Now that her hackles were starting to lower after being startled, she took a second to look around at her surroundings. Covering the walls of the alleyway around her was... dried gum. Wads upon wads upon wads, covering every inch of the brick as high up as hooves could reach, and even higher, with the help of wings and magic. Both sides of the alleyway were completely covered in the multicolored gunk, all of it rock hard now from 200 years of passing time. She was just surprised that they hadn't all molded away; pre-war preservatives were one impressive invention.

This had to have been a tourist attraction, for there to be so much of the stuff. Who traveled across the country to place gum on a wall? Pre-war ponies were very strange. If there wasn't already enough evidence pointing to that fact, she could add one more to the list.

Eden silently stalked down the narrow passageway, the gum collage slowly starting to fade away on the walls on either side as she moved away from the epicenter near the gate. Then, as Bolt Action had promised, the line of houses on her right ended, and the alleyway opened up to a road heading westward toward the waterfront two blocks away.

Now that she was no longer in the enclosed safety of the alley and into the open danger of city streets, Eden ignited her horn and floated her revolver out of her tool belt before continuing forward, eyes scanning the buildings around her for any movement on the rooftops or inside their shattered windows. The citizens of Oasis had talked about Trappers, the crazed ponies driven mad by the mist... she had already run into them once, out in the Smokey Mountains. And the lack of megaspell destruction meant there were a multitude of intact buildings to conduct surprise attacks from. The mist had stolen a lot of their mental capabilities, but Eden felt that ambush plans were still something they were capable of.

Her horn had recovered somewhat from the overload it had suffered from the Mirelurk Queen attack, meaning that she could use her levitation spell without much pain, but if she tried to float her gun out too far, she felt the spell start to waver. She kept the revolver close as she walked along, her hoofsteps echoing off the cracked pavement underneath her.

A footbridge to her left had a stairwell leading up to the upper part of the farmers market, providing a way for ponies to make it up to the main part of Oasis without going through the gum-alley first. Eden made a note of this for the return journey; maybe it would be useful if the guard at the lower gate actually did fall asleep.

Though the low-hanging mist hampered her visibility, Eden could see the Ferris Wheel directly in front of her at the waterfront, its decaying white carcass in stark contrast to the dark waters below it, waves lapping at the docks as wrecked boats and bits of wood bobbed and shifted with the tide. With no moonlight to illuminate it, the bay appeared to be an inky black color, the mist hanging over it like a heavy curtain, preventing her from seeing very far out into the ocean. She had a sudden flashback to her vision, of the endless dark water surrounded by thick fog, and shuddered underneath her Stable barding.

Eden crossed the street to reach the steps down to the waterfront area, skipping down the rotting wood staircase to the boardwalk level, just one more street to cross before she reached the bay. However, her E.F.S. suddenly started to light up with red dots as soon as she did as the spell was finally able to penetrate through the thick mist. She hissed and crouched down behind the nearest inert carriage, her revolver floating by her side as she peeked out around the end to look for any sign of the hostile targets.

With the help of the Eyes-Forward Sparkle, Eden was able to make out a few shapes stumbling in the mist, aimless and janky with their movements. They were pony-shaped, but she couldn't make out any weapons in their grasp or on their bodies. Their rotting, shriveled bodies, burnt black in several places, bits of torn clothes and fishing nets still clinging to them. Their eye socks were large and sunken into their skull, barely any mane still left on their scalps, black soot smeared across their muzzle like war paint.

Ghouls. And by the looks of them, they didn't seem to be the kind with their minds still intact.

There weren't too many of them, only a hoof-full or so, but there didn't seem to be an easy way for her to slip past them, even with the thickness of the mist obscuring their vision. Now seemed like as good a time as ever to try out her new weapon; she just hoped that the sound wouldn't attract more of them.

Eden slipped into S.A.T.S., the spell slowing the stumbling gait of the creatures down to a crawl. It auto-focused on the nearest pony-figure and confirmed her suspicions with a name overtop the target: Feral Ghoul. She wasn't sure how accurate her new revolver was, or just how much damage it would do, so she kept it simple: three shots, all to the center mass.

The gun fired with a bang, the recoil rocking it back in her magical grip as the bullet struck its target, punching a hole in the ghoul's rotting body and sending out a plume of mist that made the air around it even thicker. It stumbled back and shrieked in surprise at the force of the impact, causing Eden's second shot to whiz past it and strike the wooden boardwalk behind it. It recovered and turned to snarl at her, just as her third shot echoed through the mist, slamming straight into the ghoul's chest. More fog hissed out of the hole in its abdomen as it crumbled down to the ground... only to slowly climb back to its hooves, making its way towards her once again in an injured lurch.

"What the...?" Eden muttered in shock, quickly aiming down her sights as the ghoul got closer.

Either this gun wasn't very powerful at all, or these creatures could absorb way more damage than normal ghouls. And after seeing all that radioactive mist burst out of it, she wasn't in the mood to let it get any closer. With her S.A.T.S. recharging, Eden took manual aim and fired once again at the chest of the zombie-pony, the bullet slamming into it with enough force to punch through the other side of its body. But again, the ghoul only stumbled briefly before continuing at its slow, staggered gait, its body starting to shrivel up as the mist continued to leak out of its breached organs.

By this point, the rest of the ghouls had reacted to the gunshots and were plodding through the maze of decaying carriages at a slow, drunken-like pace; at least they weren't as fast as regular feral ghouls. Eden hissed in frustration and took a couple steps back to avoid the oncoming ghoul, her aim shifting up to fire at its head this time. The round struck between its glowing eyes, skull shattering from the impact, finally causing it to collapse and fall to the cracked pavement for good.

Eden flipped open the cylinder of her revolver and ejected the five empty bullet casings, floating five new rounds out of her pocket as her eyes watched the crowd of mist ghouls approach her slowly. She didn't want to waste her precious ammo on such spongy targets, and they were a lot slower than she had anticipated. Maybe she could make her way through them, even if the buildup of carriages would make it difficult. Once she made it onto the boardwalk proper, she would have lots of space to avoid them as she looked for a suitable boat to take her out into the bay.

She fired one more time into the nearest ghoul to knock it off balance before making her move, quickly galloping across the street and picking her way through the rusted carcasses of the pre-war carriages, the group of creatures slow to react as she weaved through the traffic. Eden ducked under flailing forelegs and slipped through small gaps in the gridlock, her small frame coming in handy. She reached the final row of carriages and jumped on top of the hood of one to make it through... only for a pair of hooves to latch onto her hind leg!

Eden yelped in surprise as she was yanked back, her head turning to see a ghoul holding her in place, trying to pull her off the carriage down to the street below. Its muzzle opened, revealing a few rotting teeth still left in its mouth, as it snarled up at her while she tried to pull her leg free with no avail. Eden tried once more to yank herself free before floating her revolver back around, pressing the barrel to the ghoul's forehead and pulling the trigger, the bullet blowing open the creature's head and sending a plume of radioactive mist straight into her face.

She shrieked and stumbled back as her nose and mouth were filled with the toxic mist, her PipBuck starting to click in a frantic staccato as her hooves flailed in front of her face to clear the air. Eden stumbled backwards until her hind hooves slipped off the edge of the carriage, and she fell back onto the boardwalk with a THUD that knocked the wind out of her, resulting in her gulping in even more of the poisonous air around her.

"...S-Sweet Faust alive..." Eden wheezed, rolling onto her side as a few coughs racked through her body, finally getting enough air back to climb onto her hooves once again.

By now, the remaining ghouls had found a way through the mess of carriages and were stumbling towards her once again, the odd gurgling noise or hiss of fog the only noises coming from the group. Eden limped away towards the docks, her injured pace enough to keep a safe distance between them as she scanned for a boat.

The boardwalk waters were a maze of docked or sunk ships, most of them having drifted off of their anchor spot due to the passing of time. Almost all of them were no longer in seaworthy condition, with holes punched in the hull, or parts ripped out for scrap by eagle-eyed scavengers. Eden kept looking, stumbling across the shoreline towards the large docking area where most of the boats still lay dormant, very aware of the crowd of ghouls still on her tail.

The docks gave her as little success as the boardwalk area itself. However, she finally spotted something that the careful eyes of the scavvers overlooked; in the dark, partially submerged hole in a large yacht's side, a black rubber dinghy was floating in the water almost out of sight, the magical motor attached to the back appearing to be intact. Now recovered from her hard fall, Eden leapt up onto the dock of the ship and made her way across to where the hole was located.

Eden slipped underneath the rail and slowly lowered herself down to drop into the dinghy without much impact. The boat wobbled and swayed under her hooves at the newfound weight, but it otherwise remained afloat. Perfect. She quickly turned to the motor attached to the end, floating the lid off the top in an attempt to get it started. Eden wasn’t a mechanical talent, but she had spent enough time tinkering with broken pre-war junk that she knew her way around an engine. This particular engine didn’t need much work anyway, just a surge of magic from her horn to recharge the dead magic-energy generator inside, giving it the spark it needed to start humming yet again.

The rust-and-barnacle-covered propellers took a second to break free of its natural shackles before beginning to spin, and Eden flipped the gear into reverse so the dinghy could slowly back out of the hole in the hull, turning the dark water white with foam. However, just before she could get clear of the sunken yacht and into the safety of open waters, a large weight dropped from above, slamming into the nose of the rubber boat and bouncing inside!

Eden yelped as the dinghy lurched underneath her, barely able to keep her balance, her forehooves grabbing on to the side to stop her from falling onto her face. In front of her was one of the mist ghouls, trying unsuccessfully to stand in the unstable boat after tumbling into it. When she looked up, she saw that the crowd of ghouls had climbed up onto the deck of the yacht after her, and they were starting to stumble off the edge of the boat itself in an attempt to come after her. As she watched, another ghoul fell through the gap in the railing, but the boat had drifted far enough away so that it hit the nose of the dinghy and fell back into the water instead, the resulting splash spraying Eden with radioactive water droplets.

By now, the ghoul in her dinghy had found its footing and was lurching forward through the small space between them, so close that Eden could see the black bits of its decaying teeth as it snarled at her, fog-filled saliva dripping from its fangs. Eden just calmly flipped her revolver around in her magic and swung it, slamming the butt end of the gun into the ghoul’s jaw. Bits of tooth and flesh flew out of its mouth from the force as it stumbled back, landing half over the rounded edge of the dinghy with its hindquarters still in the boat. Then, she floated the bloody gun over to press it against its head and pulled the trigger. Mist flew from the bullet wound once again, but it was harmlessly up into the air this time, and the momentum of the bullet lurched the ghoul’s body off the edge of the dinghy and into the water below.

Eden sighed in relief and holstered the revolver, letting the boat slowly back up as she watched the rest of the ghoul pack stumble one by one off the yacht and into the harbor, where they didn’t resurface. Thank goodness those things weren’t very bright, or very fast. They were tough enough to kill already! Once she was far enough away from the dock, Eden flipped the motor into forward gear, and the dinghy slowly made its way through the graveyard of wrecked ships and into the ocean beyond.

Most of her attention was focused on slowly navigating her way through the maze of boats and debris along the waterfront as she made her way deeper into the Ponget Sound, but she took the time to look behind her at the city every once and a while. From here, she had the best view of the skyline yet, the buildings still shrouded by mist but more visible now than from her viewpoint atop the Smokey Mountains.

Eden could see lights from the shoreline area where Oasis would be located; it was one of the few illuminated places in the entire city, with everywhere else stuck in powerless darkness. There were a couple buildings with lights shining through their windows, as well as on the large spire that Emerald had only referred to as the Tower. If she squinted hard enough, she swore she could see shapes moving around on the observation deck at the top, but it was hard to tell. It was a curious sight, the Tower still standing tall with a toppled S.P.P. spire leaning against it; she would have to get the full story on how that had happened later.

She also caught a glimpse of the Roc as well, back out and soaring high above the city buildings, still looking for food after its failed attempt to snag her earlier. As she watched, the large bird suddenly swooped down towards the ground, rising back up seconds later with something large snagged in its claws; luckily, it didn't seem to be a pony. The Roc took a wide swoop and flew off back towards the mountains, presumably where its lair was located. How could a creature that big support itself? And why did it choose to stay here, when it could easily make its way anywhere in Equestria in search of food? Maybe it was drawn to this place for some reason.

The further she got from shore, the less dense the flotsam and carnage became, and sailing became a lot easier. The motor hummed behind her as she guided the dinghy out into open waters, propellers churning the otherwise calm water. Eden still took it slow, however; the thing was 200 years old, after all, she didn’t want to push it too hard and end up sinking it halfway out into the bay. She could even start to see the upper half of the capsized cargo freighter she was heading towards through the mist, poking out of the water like a rock formation.

But as she traveled further out into the water, she started to realize that she wasn’t alone in the seemingly serene calmness of the Sound. Through the mist, she could see waves and ripples that weren’t caused by her boat’s movement, and she almost spotted a tail or a dorsal fin poke out of the surface, but she could never get a close enough look to tell for sure. Eden floated her revolver out of her tool belt’s holster just in case. Who knew what kind of creatures inhabited the irradiated oceans around Equestria?

The closer she got to her destination, the more frequent her creature sightings became, and soon her E.F.S. started flashing with red dots around her, though they only lasted a second before disappearing. A dorsal fin continued to circle her boat as it purred and churned the otherwise quiet waters, its color black with white splotches visible by the base, scars and nicks taken out of its flesh. Eden raised her revolver in response, taking aim at the fin in case it came any closer, turning in place on the dinghy to watch it circle.

But as she kept her attention on the fin in front of her, she heard something suddenly burst out of the water behind her, lurching the dinghy forward underneath her hooves! Eden yelped and grabbed at the edge of her boat as it almost flips underneath her, almost losing the magical grip on her revolver in the process. The dinghy tilted precariously before lurching back in the other direction, slapping back down on the dark ocean's surface and adding more ripples to the choppy waters. And when Eden regained her balance and looked back, she saw the body of a large whale sink back down underneath the depths, too quick for her to get a good look.

That thing had breached the water and tried to flip her out of the boat! There was no doubt that these creatures were hostile now. Eden rose back up with a scowl, floating her revolver back up and glancing around for another sign of life from underneath the waves. When she saw another scarred fin poke out of the water to her left, she spun her weapon and fired, taking a nick out of the flesh and making the creature sink back down to safety. And as she looked around for it to reemerge... the water erupted from underneath her.

While the first impact had been a glancing blow, this next one was a direct impact, sending Eden and the dinghy several hooflengths up in the air. She flew through the air for a few seconds, and had just enough time to recover, reorient, and quickly hold her breath before she splashed down into the icy depths of the Ponget Sound.

Eden had to fight the urge to close her eyes as bubbles swam up all around her, allowing her to look around the watery environment she now found herself suspended in. The Sound was just as dark and murky as it appeared from the surface, but streams of moonlight filtered through the waves and illuminated the area around her as she sank below the surface. This area was deep, but not so deep that she couldn't see the bottom; if she glanced down, she could see the carcasses of several sunken ships, along with discarded wooden barrels and other seafaring junk littering the sandy floor. Up above, her dinghy finally landed back down on the surface with a splash as well, but upside down, the propellers still spinning uselessly while sticking up in the air.

Her revolver had been knocked out of her magical grasp, and when she spun to look for it, she could see it sinking down towards the bottom of the ocean; she reached out with her magic to prevent this and pulled the gun back into her toolbelt's holster. The water filling her ears muffled any noise around her, but she could faintly hear the clicking of her PipBuck's rad detector against her arm, letting her know that this water was somehow more poisonous than the misty air she had just been knocked down out of.

Thanks to the streams of light, Eden could finally catch glimpses of what was stalking her now; three large shapes circled her in open expanse of murky water, the circumference of their circle shrinking with every pass. Based on the (admittedly very few) marine life books Eden had read, these creatures looked more like whales than sharks, with longer top fins and horizontal tail fins instead of vertical. They were about three times her length, and they were pitch black in color, with white splotches around the eyes and bellies. And based on the way they were creeping closer and closer to her submerged body, they were hungry.

Her mind suddenly clicked with a recent memory: the wildlife book that she had stashed in her breast pocket. These creatures looked like one of the cartoonish drawings inside its pages, namely the Orca. Killer whale, they had also called it. Didn't it say something about them not attacking ponies? Apparently, that wasn't the case anymore.

Eden's first instinct was to swim her way back up to the surface, towards the air she was soon to run thin on. But with her dinghy flipped over, there was no safe place to go, and she would be left a sitting duck with no way to keep track of her attackers; the fact that she was in this situation proved that the dinghy was ineffective anyway. Down here, at least she could see her attackers and try to dissuade them, even with her revolver unusable underwater. But that still didn't solve her lack-of-air problem...

Her brain suddenly lit up with a plan, and her horn began to glow. Up above the surface, a circular shield began to form, then curved, forming a sphere of concentrated magic that trapped the air inside it. Then, it dipped down into the water below, making its way towards Eden until her head could slip inside, magic repelling the water clinging to her and leaving her dry inside and gasping for air. She still had to be careful; this small bubble would run out of oxygen quickly, but it was still better than holding her breath and trying to fight at the same time.

And right on cue, one of the whales came surging forward once she had her back turned. But instead of attacking with its teeth, it brushed by her at top speed, creating a water vortex that sent her spinning at a disorienting speed. Then, just as it made it past her, its tail slapped into her, sending her flying through the water with a jolt that stunned her. Eden gasped as the impact almost dislodged the air bubble from around her head, and her body spun head over hooves until she was finally able to orient herself, head and vision spinning as she panted for air.

A second killer whale moved in while she was disoriented, an attack that Eden was barely able to detect with her eyes still fuzzy and out-of-focus. Her already-glowing horn flashed with extra exertion, desperately throwing up a shield as the orca opened its mouth, three-inch-long teeth on display as it looked to sink them into her. However, its nose bumped right into her translucent shield, deflecting it off to the side and causing it to swim away in confusion.

Her makeshift defense had worked... for now, at least. It wouldn't deter them for long, and Eden's horn was already starting to ache from overexertion, compounded by the dizziness she was still feeling from the orca tail's impact. She needed a new plan, something to scare them away for good, or at least long enough for her to flip her dinghy and make it to the cargo ship. But that left the return journey as well... Eden pushed the doubts to the back of her mind. She would worry about that when she got there. For now, she needed to deal with the threat of being eaten NOW.

As the first orca swam away to line itself back up for another charge, a second killer whale swam forward from a new angle, forcing Eden to spin to face it. When its mouth opened to bite down on her, she pulled the same trick as before, a new shield stopping the large animal in its tracks and sending a spark through her horn as her magic struggled to maintain the spell. However, this time, she floated out her revolver as fast as she could and created another air bubble shield, this one just big enough for the weapon. With her gun now surrounded by air and usable, she floated it up to the side of the orca before it could swim away, pressed the muzzle against its blubber, and pulled the trigger.

With no water in between the gun and the body of the killer whale, the bullet struck true, punching through its blubbery fat and imbedding itself inside. The orca let out a high-pitched squeal and darted away, blood starting to leak out and turning the water around it into a cloudy red color. Nothing fatal—her revolver wasn't nearly powerful enough for that—but it definitely gave it something to think about.

That left two more that she could see: the one she had originally blocked that was lining up for a second attack; and the third one, who still lingered barely within eyesight. The first one made another circular pass to line itself up before charging forward, with Eden ready to conjure up another shield. However, right as it got close, the orca feinted a bite and instead slipped past her new shield, its tail slapping her again as it went past.

This time, the impact was hard enough to knock the air bubble off Eden's head, which quickly dispersed along with the rest of her magic as her horn shut off from the sudden impact, leaving her helpless and reeling in stunned disorientation. The impact knocked the air out of her lungs as well, and her resulting gasps for oxygen were instead filled with salty water entering her muzzle, making her gag and choke desperately. Her horn finally flickered on dimly, bringing a poorly-shaped bubble of air down to head into, sticking her head right inside to promptly hack up the water she had inhaled. And through her blurry, disoriented eyes, she could see the third killer whale surging forward now; with her revolver knocked out of her grasp somewhere she couldn't see, she could only throw up another weak shield and pray for the best...

However, right before the orca could reach her, it was suddenly brought to a halt, for reasons that Eden's blurry eyes couldn't make out. The dark silhouette in front of her was yanked away from her with an ultrasonic cry for help, and when her eyes finally refocused themselves, she could see that it was actually being yanked away by what looked to be a large tentacle wrapped around its tail. The tentacle was easily as thick as the killer whale it was pulling down into the depths, and Eden's wide eyes followed the appendage allllllll the way down to the seafloor to its origin point.

On the ocean floor, from inside one of the sunken shipwreck carcasses, emerged the largest creature Eden had ever seen. First came its tentacles, eight in total, one of them dragging its ensnared prey down towards it while the others worked to pull its body from amongst the wreckage it had hidden itself inside. The tentacles were connected to a large, bulbous head, with two eyes bulging out of it slightly, the slitted shape of its pupils giving it a completely unnatural appearance. Its tentacles were covered in what looked like suction-cups that allowed it to keep its grip on the orca, its remaining limbs helping to bring it in once it got closer. Then, it pulled the killer whale underneath its body, where a large, pincer-like beak began to nibble away at its prey, slowly eating it alive.

Eden's eyes widened as she took in the full horror of the revealed creature, its terrifying size only becoming more apparent as her eyes refocused. An... octopus? Or a kraken, as her wildlife book had called it. Apparently, the apocalypse had a way of bringing myths to life. The orca's blood leaking into the water from its gunshot wound must have drawn it from its hiding place. And by doing so, it had inadvertently saved her from the killer whales; she just needed to get out of there before it made her its next target.

She hastily grabbed her lost revolver before she turned and swam up towards the surface above, horn already glowing in an attempt to flip her overturned dinghy over... but before she could make it, Eden felt something wrap around one of her hindlegs, suckers digging into her flesh and dragging her back down into the depths. She yelped and clawed at the water to prevent her descent to no avail, before finally turning to look down at the creature that had ensnared her.

The...Kraken... was still working away at the squirming orca in its tentacles, blood and bits of flesh filling the water around it as it devoured its prey. But even as it did, its eyes turned their attention to the pony caught in the grasp of just one of its ginormous limbs. And as she got closer, Eden was able to see that within its alien depths, the kraken was merely... studying her. Within those eyes, she could feel intelligence. This wasn't any ordinary radiation-affected animal; this one had thoughts, emotions, curiosity... She could feel all of it the longer she stared back into its large pupils, almost hypnotizing in its horrific beauty.

However, was it studying her as a scientist would examine a newfound species? Or as a predator sizing up whether she was worth the effort to eat? Eden didn't want to stick around to find out. The kraken's tentacle wrapped around her leg was so thick that a revolver's bullet would probably do nothing except make it mad, so she was left with little options. There was one thing she could try... if her overexerted horn could handle the strain.

The air bubble around her head dissipated as she focused on a new spell, horn flashing and surging with magical effort. Then, several balls of light shot out of the tip of Eden's horn, filling the murky water with strobing light, flashing and swirling around to make the effect even more potent. The orbs shot towards the hypnotizing eyes of the kraken with blinding effect, circling around the creature's head at random so it couldn't look away to escape. The large octopus made no sound, but its body language changed drastically at this newly-posed threat, its tentacle releasing both Eden and the half-devoured corpse of the orca in order to pull itself out of the shipwreck and push itself away from the strobe-light spell, swimming deeper into the Sound as fast as its tentacles could propel it.

The underwater current caused by the propulsion of its limbs lurched Eden back, spinning her through the water and knocking whatever air she still had left in her lungs out. She flailed her limbs until she reoriented herself in the murky depths, and when she was finally able to look around once again, the large creature was nowhere to be seen... gone into the dark, cloudy depths of the Sound. All that was left was her, the drifting body of the killer whale, and the overturned dinghy churning above.

Eden's burning lungs soon reminded her of the fact that she had been underwater for several minutes now, and she desperately swam her way up to the surface, breaking it with a huge gasp for air. Despite the ever-present, irradiated mist surrounding her, it felt like the purest air she'd ever tasted. She drank it in greedily as she treaded water as best she could, relaxing her aching body as oxygen started to pump through her arteries once more. Her soaking-wet mane was plastered against her skull and fell over her eyes, forcing her to brush it out of the way with an equally-wet hoof as she looked around for her dinghy.

The rubberized boat was nearby, bobbing up and down with the small waves, a whirring noise filling the air as the magic-powered propellers still spun even though they were no longer submerged. The strobe-light spell had, unfortunately, taken the last of her magic reserves, and her horn only flickered weakly before sending out a few pitiful sparks when she tried to focus her telekinesis on the dinghy. Eden instead crawled up on top of the underside, flicking off the engine to shut down the propellers before collapsing back with a pained groan, finally back on something resembling solid ground.

She had somehow survived an encounter with several killer whales, and the biggest animal she had ever seen. Unfortunately, this journey was starting to be filled with a lot of somehows; it was not a trend that Eden wanted to continue. However, she had a gut feeling that she was going to be hit with everything that Tall Tale had to offer... like the whole city was out to prevent her from doing what she had been sent here to do. She just hoped she would be ready for it.

Eden sighed and closed her eyes. She was sure a couple minutes of rest wouldn't hurt…

After resting on top of the dinghy for what felt like hours, Eden finally regained enough strength to sit up on top of the overturned boat. Her horn was still too overworked to cast any spells, so she fetched a long bit of wooden flotsam to use as an oar instead, rowing her way to her destination: the large cargo ship half-submerged in the Sound, so long that the other end had stuck itself in the ocean floor below, allowing the upper half to remain above the water. As she got closer, Eden could see a large rupture in the ship's hull, just below the surface; Bolt Action had mentioned that the ship had been sabotaged by zebra sympathizers, and the passing of time had not been able to disguise their handiwork.

On a regular cargo ship, the containers would've been loaded onto the open-air foredeck, and at the angle the ship was currently suspended, all the crates would've slid right off into the Sound. However, this one seemed to be a different, newer model, with the cargo portion completely covered as well to protect from the elements. Hopefully, that meant the cargo was still intact.

Eden directed the dinghy up alongside the cargo ship, to where the water met the deck, allowing her to jump off the rubber onto the wood and steel of her target. With actual solid ground to stand on now, she was able to get enough leverage to flip her dinghy back over using her hooves. The bed was partly filled with water, but it would be easy enough to bail out, and now she had somewhere to put the supplies that Bolt had told her about. Now she just needed to find them.

The cargo ship's precarious tilt up into the air made walking across the deck feel like hiking up a mountain, and Eden's wet, slippery hooves didn't make the task any easier. Slowly, she made her way up to the top end of the boat, where the cockpit would be located. At the front, there was a storm-hatch covered in rust and barnacles that Eden was able to pry open with a bit of effort, revealing the cockpit down below. Perfect.

She took a grip on the edge of the opening and slowly lowered herself down as far as she could before dropping, catching herself on the sloped floor with a thud; her wet hooves threatened to slip out underneath her, but she found enough grip on the diamond plate flooring to keep herself in place. She had landed in the space in between the captain and co-captain's seats, and as she looked around, she was greeted with the sight of two skeletons seated in them, empty eye sockets staring blankly out the front window. Eden grimaced and kept looking for anything useful.

The front console had been overgrown with the same aquatic growth and rust that had infected the rest of the ship, covering most of the gauges and controls. However, when she ducked down to look underneath, she was treated to the sight of a hidden safe, still locked tight after all these years. She gave the door a tug, but it held firm; even if she was a lockpicking master—which she wasn't—she didn't have any lockpicks or bobby pins on her. Maybe one of the crew had the key on them.

The skeleton to her left miraculously still had his uniform intact, and it wasn't a captain's suit. It had the olive-green coloring of Equestrian Army personnel, and the nametag above the left breast pocket read "Inspector Belfair". Gently rummaging through the pockets, Eden eventually struck gold, as one of them yielded a gold key dangling from a key ring. However, as she pulled it out, the metal clinked against something else inside the pocket; reaching in, she found an audiotape as well, unlabeled and nondescript. A quick look confirmed that the tape would interface with her PipBuck, and she did just that, slipping it into the cassette slot on her wrist-mounted device. Pre-war recordings usually didn't amount to much, but Eden always had a strange fascination with hearing them... it was like she was honoring them by reliving their memories.

"Inspection log number-... ah, it doesn't fucking matter at this point...

"Equestria is gone. I watched the explosions with my own eyes. Zebra bastards finally did it... Cloudsdale's gone for sure, looked like Manehattan too... Canterlot's surrounded by a pink haze... who knows if anyone's still alive out there. Saw the megaspell hit in Tall Tale too, but no explosion; didn't stop the Sound from boiling from the heat, completely frying our transport out here... and any unfortunate souls out for a swim. Dear Goddesses...

"We just came out here to assess the damage of this sunken ship, but now we're stuck out here... and even if there was a way back, why would we want to go? Whole world's gone up like a tinderbox, there's nothing left to go back to. Might as well go out on my own terms.

"This will be my last report. As a primary eyewitness, I've secured my perspective of the... incident, for lack of a better word... in the ship's safe. Don't know if anyone will be around to see it... but if you manage to watch it, maybe it'll help keep you from making the same mistakes we did.

"Celestia forgive us."

As the log ended, Eden reverently disconnected the tape and placed it back where she had found it inside his pocket. He held a revolver in his skeletal hoof, and she gently flipped the cylinder open to see that it still had 5 intact bullets for its 6 slots; she floated them out and added them to her own collection in her Stable suit pocket. She needed them more than he did now.

His recording did provide Eden with some useful information though. He mentioned seeing the megaspell impact somewhere in Tall Tale, but not activate and explode; that would explain the lack of explosion damage in the town. It was unusual to hear of a megaspell malfunctioning like that, so Eden was a bit surprised to hear it, but it did make sense that there would be at least one misfire among all the weapons fired at Equestria on the Last Day. Still, it didn't explain the ever-present radiation, or the mist that it loved to cling to...

Now armed with the key, Eden ducked underneath the front console once again to slip it into the keyhole, the handle turning and opening with a satisfying click. The door slowly swung open as the hinges creaked from rust and age, eventually revealing the contents to her; a sight that made her gasp in frightened shock.

There, sitting on top of a stack of papers, was a memory orb. The crystal ball swirled with dark blue energy like a cloud of smoke was trapped inside it, alive with the magic that kept the memory intact. A sight that was uncomfortably familiar... that recalled horrifying memories of her own.

Eden recoiled with almost animalistic instinct, scooting back on her rump until her back hit the captain's chair, jostling the skeleton perched atop it. She tried to force herself to look away, but her body refused to cooperate, her eyes staring right into the entrancing depths of the orb... a reflection visible in the crystal exterior.

In the reflection, she saw another mare. A mare with the same blue mane as her own, same blue eyes, same horn... but without a scar across it. The whites of her eyes were tinged yellow, and they twitched with manic, restless energy, pupils shrunk to mere pinpricks. Her neck and forelegs were covered in the scars of needles, and her whole body trembled and twitched unnaturally in horrifying ways. Those eyes... they stared, but they stared unseeing, like they were looking at something that wasn't there. Like she was trapped in her own mind, reliving memories over and over.

She was looking at... herself. A version of herself she desperately wanted to forget, but one she could never escape from.

With a cry of effort, Eden forced herself to break eye contact with the orb. She gasped for air to recover as she lay crumpled on the ground, desperately looking at anything but the memory orb that triggered so many of her suppressed fears. She blindly reached back and shut the locker door with a hind hoof, only daring to look once she heard the click of the latch locking it back into place. Only then did she allow herself to relax.

A memory orb... She was expecting to see a hoofwritten note detailing the experience or something similar, but the inspector had apparently gone above and beyond when it came to reporting the world's ending. A report that had no relevance to her now, and was nowhere near worth viewing, especially considering her... history. Reading notes and listening to audio tapes was one thing; seeing someone's memories through their own eyes, feeling their emotions, thoughts, desires... that was a whole different beast entirely.

With a deep, calming breath to ease her rushing heart, Eden pushed herself back up to her hooves, leaving the contents of the safe behind. The papers underneath the orb weren't worth the risk; she was here to find the weapons this ship was transporting, not 200-year-old manifests and legal documents.

The door separating the cockpit from the sheltered cargo space was easy enough to open, despite the overgrowth of barnacles trying to lock the hinges shut. With a push of her hooves, the sliding door opened with a shudder and a creak of old steel grinding together, revealing the covered area beyond. Eden blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the space, the minimal amount of light streaming in from the cockpit illuminating the first few rows of cargo: large, marked black crates, stacked three high and secured with straps to each other and the cargo deck. The space was full of the things, but only the first few rows were salvageable; beyond that was submerged underwater, no doubt destroying the contents of whatever was inside.

Stepping up to the first row of crates, Eden examined the white markings scrawled across the side: “PROPERTY OF EQUESTRIAN ARMY, 002-B”. Using the knife still strapped to her thigh, she cut through the straps securing the crate to the deck, allowing her to gently push the top crate down to the ground while her limited magic applied just enough telekinesis to stop it from thudding against the deck too hard; picking it up magically was out of the question for now.

She quickly undid the latches and pushed the lid open to see what was inside, whistling softly at the sight; inside was a full soldier’s loadout, containing everything they’d need on the front lines as far as weapons were concerned. The main attraction was a standard-issue combat rifle with standard iron sights, along with an unusual looking pistol nestled in the corner. The sidearm was big and bulky, and when Eden picked it up and ejected the magazine, she saw that it was full of 10mm rounds. Not as powerful as a revolver, but a lot easier to use and reload for non-unicorns. The crate also had several magazines of ammo for each gun, a couple metal apple grenades, and an unfamiliar type of grenade that Eden hadn’t seen before. No doubt the rest of the crates on this ship would have similar contents.

If Bolt Action had valued a revolver and a couple boxes of rounds at a hundred caps… she would get a very big return on all these things.

Eden grinned and closed the crate back up, using a combination of her hooves and her magic to lift it onto her back, knees wobbling slightly under the weight. It would take a while to ferry all these crates from the storage room to her dinghy, then from her dinghy up to Oasis, but it would be worth it to actually have some spending power again. Besides, it’s not like she had anywhere else to be.

Thud!

The black crate slid off Eden’s back onto Oasis’s cobblestone street, drawing the attention of anypony not already staring at the newcomer’s return. The most shocked pony of all was Bolt Action himself, who nearly dropped the rifle he was cleaning at the sudden noise before his pupils shrunk at the sight of the soaked unicorn mare before him.

“I’m back!” Eden exclaimed as she leaned against the crate to catch her breath. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much.”

Bolt’s shocked expression faded away as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by his usual scowl. “Not really, no. In fact, I was wondering what was taking you so long.”

“Well, y’know, the giant octopus really put a wrench in my plans for a second there, but other than that, I thought it went swimmingly,” Eden replied with a giggle at her own joke. “But now that I’m here, let’s discuss that fair deal you promised me for these things.”

The mention of the Kraken sent a murmur through the eavesdroppers that had inconspicuously gathered around, but Bolt didn’t flinch. Odd…

“Is that the only one you could find?” he asked, unperturbed. “Not much of a haul.”

“Nope! I’ve got eight more down at the shore, waiting to be brought up. And it’s all Equestrian Army surplus. High quality. That stuff doesn’t come cheap, y’know,” Eden teased with a smirk.

“Now hold on,” Bolt Action interrupted, “That’s not how this works. I pay you the scavenger’s rate for finding it based on my tip, you don’t get to try to sell them to me individually.”

Eden shook her head. “Nuh uh uh~... You’re the one who declined to negotiate the rate before I left, remember? Now I’m the one with all the weapons and no obligation to give them to you, so I’m the one with the leverage.”

Bolt flinched, but he didn’t back down. “Oh yeah? What exactly are you planning on doing with nine crates of weapons and nowhere to store them? That’s not gonna net you the caps you need.”

“Hmm…” Eden teasingly pretended to ponder that, a hoof rubbing underneath her chin. “I could set up shop across the street from you if Captain Emerald lets me. High quality pre-war weapons for cheaper than you can offer? It’s tough to compete with that. Especially considering the amount of fighting you ponies seem to do around here; guns must be in pretty high demand!”

Finally, Eden could see some cracks starting to form in Bolt Action’s defense. She leaned forward and placed her hooves on his counter, a wicked smirk on her face.

“Come on. Let’s barter~”

If Bolt Action didn’t hate her before, he definitely hated her now.

But then again, he had hated her from the second he laid eyes on her. So, no harm, no foul then, right?

Part of her wanted to feel bad about using him like that—she did want to make a good impression with these ponies after all—but something about their conversation had rubbed her the wrong way. More specifically, the part about the Kraken.

When Eden had brought up the giant octopus, all the ponies around her had broken out into hushed murmurs, like the very mention of the myth’s existence had sent a shockwave through the whole crowd. The only pony who hadn’t reacted to that news? Bolt Action. Almost like he knew that it would be there.

Why would Bolt have a sudden change of heart about sending her on a supply run after adamantly refusing several times? Maybe because he thought that it would be a way to get rid of her. The momentary shock on his face when she returned added some credence to her theory. She had no way of proving it, of course, but just the fact that it was possible took away the guilt she felt at fleecing him for everything she could at the bartering table.

Eden had left the negotiations with quite a bit of caps in her pocket, but she also had one unique request: she would be able to keep one of the crates for herself. And the first thing she did with her newfound money was to go to the General Store and buy herself a new pair of saddle bags to store all her new equipment in.

Eden popped open the black supply crate and floated out the combat rifle, looking it over for any of the rust or marine overgrowth that had infected the ship that had been carrying it, but the weapon was clean. So was the weirdly shaped pistol, but she just floated it to the bottom of her bag along with its ammo; her revolver would be more useful to her for now. Also into her bags went the explosive metal apples, and the tubular-shaped grenades that she was unfamiliar with, before finally adding the contents of her Stable suit’s pockets, her PipBuck organizing all of it with its sorting matrix.

As she stood back up on her hooves, she floated her saddlebags onto her back and her rifle over her shoulder, eyes looking around the main street of Oasis. She finally had equipment and caps… What now? She still had no idea where to go or where to start looking. She could start asking around Oasis to see if anyone had any ideas, but none of the ponies besides Emerald had been any help so far. At least they weren’t staring at her like she was a zebra anymore; maybe surviving a Kraken encounter and bringing in a fresh supply of weapons was enough to make them look at her with a little more respect.

However, as Eden pondered her next course of action, the ringing of the alarm bell snapped her out of her thoughts.

“We have movement in the mist!” one of the guards cried out. “Everyone, to the wall!”

The town immediately sprang to life around her, with ponies streaming out of shops and buildings like an oncoming flood that flowed around Eden like she was a lone rock in the stream. She turned and watched them take up posts atop the large wall surrounding the settlement, guns raised and watching the mist for any movement.

Finally, she spotted a familiar face—Emerald—and grabbed her shoulder as she tried to move past. “What’s going on?”

“A watchpony spotted something outside the gates,” Captain Emerald replied simply as she pulled a pistol out from underneath her medic outfit. “Usually nothing good. We could use the help if you know how to use that thing, Eden.”

“Just lead the way,” Eden responded as she unholstered her new rifle.

The two mares trotted up the ramp to the section of the catwalk overtop the main gate to join the rest of the townsponies. Eden found herself standing between Emerald and another unicorn mare, and she rested the barrel of her combat rifle on the edge of the metal wall in front of her, allowing her to keep her aim steady as she scanned the mist.

“Sapphira! What’s going on out there?” Emerald asked, directed to the unicorn mare on the other side of Eden.

Sapphira. Emerald had mentioned her during her tour of Oasis. She was the pony that had created the Mist Condenser talismans, stopping the town from being swallowed up by it. “The most important mare in this town”, Emerald had called her; that was quite the title.

“Not sure yet, Cap’,” Sapphira responded. “Guards said they heard some shots in the distance a few minutes ago, now they’re seeing movement coming from that end of the street. Just dark shapes, can’t make out what it is.”

Eden glanced down the street in the direction Sapphira indicated, shifting her rifle as she did. Once out of the Mist Condensers' range, the mist became so thick that the road appeared to disappear into it, obscuring the buildings on either side and blocking them from seeing much of anything. However, as she looked, she began to notice something; a spot in the mist lighter than the rest, as if it was illuminated by something deeper inside. It slowly grew brighter and more pronounced as it grew closer to the walls, and the mist started to bend and swirl in unnatural ways as something in it started to move.

“There,” Eden called out, drawing the other two mares’ attention. “A light in the mist, at the end of the street. Something’s coming.”

“Contact! To the south!” Emerald confirmed, calling it out to the rest of the ponies on guard. “Stay ready, but do not fire unless it’s a confirmed hostile.”

Eden flicked on her E.F.S. as the ponies around her readied their weapons, but it showed nothing; the mist must really be interfering with the spell. However, as she waited, targets finally started to appear: yellow dots, blinking into existence one after the other.

“They’re not hostile… Well, not yet at least,” Eden told the ponies around her. “Nine life forms in total.”

As the whole town watched, the figures started to emerge from the mist. Pony shapes, one after the other… hobbled, injured, unarmed. Not trappers, not mist creatures, but victims. They moved as fast as their injured bodies could take them, dripping blood on the road behind as they did from deep gouges and bullet wounds.

One of them was being carried on a makeshift stretcher made of tattered cloth and flotsam, and it was being carried in the magic aura of a type of pony Eden had never seen before. Her glowing horn was curved and branched, like it was a tree growing out of her forehead. Her back and upper snout were covered in light pink scales that grew overtop her white fur, and her hooves were cloven. Her purple and blue mane was curled and puffy like a lion’s mane, and it grew underneath her chin and down her chest as well.

Eden had seen many strange creatures during her time in Klugetown, but nothing like that. What in Faust’s name…?

A disturbed murmur rumbled through the townsponies atop the wall.

“That’s Morning… Crimson… Halcyon…” Emerald mumbled to herself as the ponies came into view. “That’s the fishing expedition. What the hell happened to them?”

“And where’d the rest of them go?” Sapphira asked in a worried tone.

“Help! Please help!” the frontmost stallion called out to the guards, waving a foreleg to attract their attention. “Open the gates!”

“Crimson! What happened?” Emerald responded.

“W-We got ambushed us at the shore, and they’re picking us off one by one! Please, you have to let us in-”

Crimson’s pleas were interrupted by a loud snarl, and a red dot popped up on Eden’s E.F.S. just in time for a yellow-and-green blur to leap out of the mist, sinking its claws into the rearmost fisherpony and dragging him back into the mist. The stallion’s desperate cries were abruptly cut off a second later.

The remaining ponies scurried backwards in shock, including the scaled-pony, who accidentally dropped the stretcher she was carrying in her haste. A second blur appeared as quickly as the first, sinking its teeth into the injured pony atop it and pulling them away, leaving a smear of blood across the cobblestone.

“Fuck!” Emerald swore. “Radamounts, in the mist! Guns ready!”

“Please! Open up! They’re gonna kill us all!” Crimson pleaded as he pounded on the wooden doors with bloody hooves.

“Captain, they’re going to die if you don’t open the gates,” Sapphira said.

“But we’ll all die if I do,” Emerald replied solemnly. “I’m not going to allow those creatures to flood into the town. We hold the line here.”

Right on cue, one of the radamounts leapt out of the mist, fangs bared as it snarled at its cornered prey. However, before it could pounce, a chorus of shots rang out from along the wall, bullets bouncing off its reinforced hide but causing it to stumble back with a yelp.

Eden sank into S.A.T.S., and the radamount’s lightning-fast movement slowed to a crawl. She had killed one of these things on Shattered Hoof Ridge, but that was with the help of her plasma rifle; she didn’t have nearly enough firepower to punch through its hardened skin now. However, as she cycled through its body parts, she came across an unusual target: one of the glowing, pulsing mutation growths sticking out of the feline’s side.

The combat rifle barked once, and a bullet slammed into the sickly green sack, punching a hole through it and causing pus to leak out of it. The radamount stumbled back with a shocked yelp, but it wasn’t fast enough, as Eden’s second shot struck true as well. This time, the growth completely popped, exploding with force that ripped through the mutated cat and left a hole in its side down its ribs.

With its hide broken and its insides exposed, the rest of the townsponies’ shots ripped through the radamount’s innards, causing it to drop down to the ground with a pitiful mewl before going limp.

“Damn good shot, Eden!” Emerald called out over the gunfire.

“I’ll focus on the growths as best I can, your ponies can deal the finishing blows. Do whatever you can to keep them away from the ponies out there!” Eden responded.

Two more radamounts charged into view without stopping, weaving back and forth to avoid the barrage of rounds fired at them. With S.A.T.S. recharging, there was little hope of landing a shot on the weak parts of their hide when they were moving so fast, so Eden merely took potshots in an attempt to dissuade their advance. The lead cat leapt at the injured fishers with outstretched claws, causing them to press against the gates with several frightened shrieks… but before it could reach them, a blue translucent barrier appeared between them and the radamount, and the creature bounced off it with a yelp. Eden winced at the impact, her weakened horn flashing as she maintained the shield.

While the first radamount lay stunned on the ground, the second leapt forward, landing on top of the glowing shield. But instead of bouncing off it, it used the barrier as a springboard, jumping off again to reach the top of the gate’s wall. Several ponies stumbled back, but one wasn’t fast enough; the radamount’s jaws closed down around the stallion’s head and dragged him off the wall down to the ground below, its claws tearing his body into bloody chunks.

How?! Eden gasped in shock and her horn sputtered, causing the shield to fall and exposing the fisherponies once again. Protecting the injured ponies was important, but if the radamounts knew how to use her shield as a stepping stool, she was putting the entire town at risk by doing so.

By now, her S.A.T.S. had recharged, so she fell into the heightened perception of the spell once again. With the two radamounts mostly motionless down below, it was easy for her to target each of their weak spots and fire. First was the stunned radamount trying to stumble back to its paws, then the second as it tore into the guardpony; her combat rifle’s bullets ripped through the pulsating sacs of radioactive pus, rupturing them with a release of pressure that exploded through their hides and splattered their blood over the cowering fisherponies. The remaining guards were quickly able to take advantage, and the two radamounts were left dead on the road in front of the gates.

With the threat dealt with, Eden shut off the spell and turned her attention back to the mist with her E.F.S. up, just in time for a new blur to appear and zoom down the street. However, this wasn’t the yellow-and-green, zig-zagging movements of a radamount; this pink blur zoomed forward like a ball, and stuck to the outskirts of the road to stay out of effective firing range before popping back onto all fours with a loud, ear-piercing screech. It had a mouth full of large pointy teeth like a shark, beady eyes, and its back and tail were covered in sharp quills like a porcupine, which it bared threateningly as it crouched down into a combat stance. Meanwhile, its loud screech had summoned more of the creatures to roll up beside it, all gnashing their fangs while their quills quivered.

“Pukwudgies! Take cover!” Emerald cried out.

Eden barely had time to blink before the air around her was filled with the brightly colored quills, thunking into the wood and scrap metal wall in front of her and whizzing past her ears. They were shooting them at her! She yelped and ducked down next to Emerald and Sapphira to avoid the barrage, but some of the other ponies weren’t as lucky. Eden watched as a mare on the wall was struck in the forehead and dropped without a sound, the large quill sticking out of her head like a makeshift horn; down below, she heard one of the fisherponies cry out as a projectile pierced his shoulder, pinning him to the wooden gate behind him without killing him. An errant quill managed to hit one of the mist condenser talismans outside the gate, shattering the gem inside and causing the mist to start to swarm into the vacated area, but the remaining talismans stopped the fog from reaching the ponies on the wall.

Eden tried to sneak a peek over the edge of the wall, but the thunk of a quill embedding itself in the wooden plank protecting her head quickly made her withdraw. The projectile was launched with enough force to pierce through the thick wood a few inches, dangerously close to her eye. These things were great shots, and their quills packed some serious punch. She opened up her saddlebags and floated out one of her newly-acquired metal apples.

“Anything sensitive out there I can’t destroy?” Eden asked Emerald as she took a small peek at where the pukwudgies were clustered in the street.

Emerald glanced down at the grenade in Eden’s magic before shaking her head. “Just the talismans, but the pukwudgies are far enough away that they shouldn’t be in the blast radius. Give ‘em everything you’ve got.”

Eden nodded and pulled the pin, counted to two, then hurled the metal apple with her magic. It arced through the mist-filled air and bounced once on the cobblestone before erupting in the midst of the group. The pukwudgies closest to the grenade were turned to nothing more than bloody chunks by the shockwave, while the outer creatures were peppered with shrapnel and knocked off their paws to the ground, stopping the rain of quills for a brief moment.

She took advantage of the interruption to raise her rifle once again, dumping several rounds into the stunned pukwudgies before they could regain their footing. When the creatures started to fire on her once again, she cast a small shield around herself with the barrel of her rifle poking through the other side, protecting herself while allowing her to pick off the pukwudgies one by one; thankfully, they were a lot less bullet resistant than the radamounts. And as Eden drew much of the pukwudgies’ attention, the rest of the townsponies were able to raise their weapons and fire on the ground as well, dropping the porcupine-like creatures and spilling their blood across the rain-soaked ground.

Soon, there was no movement on the street or in the mist, and Eden quickly reloaded her combat rifle as her eyes scanned for any more attackers. She quickly brought up her E.F.S.; no dots were visible.

“Clear!” the watchpony called out, confirming Eden’s suspicions.

The whole town let out a collective sigh and lowered their weapons, but Emerald quickly sprang to action. “Open the gates! Let them in before the creatures decide to launch a second wave. Get the wounded to my shop as quickly as you can!”

The momentary lull of relief quickly turned into a rush of action once again, leaving Eden behind in the commotion. She holstered her rifle and fought through the crowd to make it down the steps onto the main street of Oasis, watching as the gates began to swing open once again. The injured, but alive fisherponies immediately stumbled into the safety of the walls once the doors were open wide enough to enter; however, the one stallion wasn’t so lucky, as he remained pinned to the gate by a pukwudgie’s dart that caused blood to gush from his pierced shoulder.

While one pony rushed forward with a saw to cut the stallion down, the rest of the ponies turned on the strange, scale-covered fisherpony that Eden had noticed earlier.

“This is all Halcyon’s fault! Again!” one stallion snarled in frustration, poking a hoof right into the scaled-pony’s chest. “Her magic drew that pack of radamounts right to us. We lost everything. The catch, the gear… half the team…”

“And she left Iris behind to be torn apart by those monsters. After carrying her all the way here!” another one called out, and a murmur of anger swelled through the gathered townsponies.

“I-I-...” the scaled-pony squeaked and stammered, but her words didn’t come to her; she just stared at her blood-soaked cloven hooves as the crowd hurled insults at her.

“I don’t know why we still keep you Kirin around,” a pony yelled before spitting on the ground. “Time after time, you show us you’re nothing but trouble!”

A Kirin. That’s what the scaled-pony was. Halcyon was what they had called her. The name gave Eden no clues as to the species’ origin… could she be the result of post-war balefire mutation? Taint? Crossbreeding with a dragon? She couldn’t tell for certain.

“That’s enough, all of you!” Emerald finally interjected by pushing her way into the crowd, standing between the angry fishers and Halcyon. “I know you’re frustrated, and we lost a lot of good ponies tonight, but no one’s to blame. You know how the fog is: it loves to throw everything it can at us, especially when we’re least expecting it. Nothing we could’ve done would have prevented this, so that means it’s pointless to point hooves. If anyone has any problems with anyone, you bring it to me, not to the pony’s face. Got it?”

The captain’s yellow eyes scanned the crowd, but no one objected or talked back. The respect that Emerald commanded was so palpable that Eden swore she could feel it in the air around her, like she could reach out with a hoof and touch it.

Emerald nodded. “That’s better. If you’re injured, come see me now, please. Everyone else, get back to it. I’m sure everyone has something better to do than just standing around.”

Reluctantly, the crowd dispersed as ordered, trudging off to their homes or guard positions while the injured fisherponies followed Emerald back to the general store. However, Eden stayed in place and watched the strange Kirin the whole way; Halcyon felt her stare and looked up as well, and the two made eye contact for several seconds before Halcyon looked back down shyly, disappearing into the shop and leaving Eden alone in the street.

As she stood there, weariness suddenly hit her like the Mirelurk Queen’s claw. She hadn’t slept in nearly 24 hours… not counting her impromptu nap on the shores of the river. A whole day’s worth of fighting and exploring caught up to her as the adrenaline wore off, and she nearly collapsed onto the street before catching herself.

It had been a productive 24 hours though. She had been ambushed and almost killed, yes, but she had found her way to Oasis, found some new equipment… and tomorrow she could start looking for the mysterious pony that had brought her here. But for now, she needed sleep. Badly. Luckily, there was an inn here that could help her get some.

Chapter Five: The Two Towers

Chapter Five: The Two Towers

"Whatever caused our fates to intertwine would never let them unravel."

Suddenly, the street around her was empty.

Eden paused with a forehoof raised and glanced around. The guards, the shopkeepers, the townsponies, they were all gone. The sound of wind whistling between the abandoned buildings lining the market brought more mist swirling inside, quickly obscuring most of the street from her view. Soon, she was alone and completely isolated, nothing but the encroaching fog visible around her.

“Hello?” she hesitantly called out, but her words were swallowed up by the mist.

She tried to charge her horn, cast a spell, or do anything to disperse the claustrophobic mist, but her body refused to obey. Her hooves were rooted to the worn bricks below, and her horn ignored her hails; all she could do was watch Oasis disappear until there was nothing but whiteness around her.

“You did this.”

While Eden’s voice was muffled and silenced by the mist, a new voice pierced through it as clear as if they were standing right next to her. It had no direction with which to track it, no emotion; it was as if it simply came to be inside her head.

“What?” Eden tried to respond, but when she opened her muzzle, mist flooded into her mouth and caused her to gag, retching up saliva and specks of blood onto the street below.

“You think we needed your help? Your presence has only made things worse! Now we’re all dead because of what you did.”

Dead? No, that can’t be. She helped the town drive off the attack… they were safe because of her! She was here to help… to save Equestria…

She tried to open her mouth to say as much, but all that came out were violent coughs that shook her whole body from the exertion.

She had helped in the defense, yes… but she hadn’t been able to save all of them. Two deaths, because she hadn’t been quick enough to react to the danger; one death, because her magic was too strained to protect the townsponies from the pukwudgies’ quills; and one death, because she cast a shield that the radamount could use to reach the upper parts of the wall. Their blood was on her hooves…

Once she was able to clear her windpipe of the invasive, poisonous air, Eden looked up into the deep mist to see dark shapes beginning to move, the fog swirling around their limbs as they shambled forward. As they got closer, she was able to make out familiar appearances. She saw three ponies practically torn to shreds by sharp claws, their internal organs spilled out of their chests and dragging across the ground as they stepped into view. Joining them was a mare with a pukwudgie’s quill stabbed through her forehead like a horn, her brain matter leaking down over her face and into her mouth. Each pony that came forward had more horrific injuries than the last, until a whole mob was standing before the frozen unicorn, who looked on in terror.

At the front of the group was Emerald Mirage, but she had a hole through her head, allowing Eden to see through it to the ponies on the other side. “You think you can come into my village and disrupt my life?”

“Tall Tale is our home. And I’ll be damned if I let an outsider try to tell me what to do!” snarled a zombie that vaguely resembled Bolt Action, but it was hard to tell under the massive, horrific burn wounds that covered his entire body. “I was perfectly happy before you and your friends ruined what I built!"

More and more accusations began to rise out of the assembled group until the chorus of voices was all she could hear, both a mess of jumbled words while simultaneously able to make out every single one.

“Stop!” Eden pleaded to anyone that would hear her. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

No one listened.

However, before her mind could crack under the unrelenting onslaught of stimuli, the whole crowd at once took in a sudden, shocked inhale of breath, creating a vacuum that almost sucked the air out of Eden’s muzzle. Their blank, soulless eyes all focused on something behind her; finding that her head was able to turn, Eden did so, and she gasped at what she saw.

Behind her stood a pony-shaped figure, completely shrouded in black save for the pointy tip of a horn poking out of its head. However, despite its featureless appearance, it looked familiar to Eden… she saw a mane and body shape just like it as she lay on the riverbank.

“HER,” the mob snarled in unison. “You’ve thrown your lot in with her?”

The silhouetted unicorn said nothing, but its horn began to glow with that brilliant white light, and the ground underneath Eden’s frozen hooves began to shudder. The brick-covered street grew cracks before splitting open into a yawning, cavernous crevice, swallowing the mob of townsponies as they tried to run. Eden tried to escape as well, but her muscles once again refused to answer… All she could do was stare at the mysterious unicorn’s blank face before plummeting down into the depths, where a nest of writhing tentacles was waiting to tear her into pieces.

Eden shot up in bed as her screaming continued into the waking world, nearly throwing her bedsheets off the mattress in the process. As usual, her scar felt like it was about to split her forehead into two, much like how the ground had opened up beneath her in her… dream. Or vision. And her terror had matted her sweaty fur to her body and left her shuddering.

More than anything, her whole body hurt. Her skin crawled, and when she ran a hoof through her fur, several strands of her papyrus-colored fluff came with it; her stomach ached and churned so much she couldn’t sit up straight without doubling back over in pain. She checked the status page of her PipBuck and winced; her trip out into the Ponget Sound had caused her to pick up a substantial amount of balefire radiation, and the flashing warning on the screen told her the side effects would not be pretty.

Eden reached down into her new saddlebags to pull out her second and final pack of radaway, which she had purchased before leaving Oasis yesterday. A quick cut from her combat knife opened the corner of the pouch so she could gulp down the citrus-flavored medicine with a shudder. It tasted awful, as usual, but it would keep her alive and healthy for now.

After laying back and letting the medicine work its magic for a few minutes, she finally felt good enough to sit up and take in her surroundings. She was in the motel room she had rented above the Fireside Taproom, which Emerald had pointed out to her during her tour of Oasis. It was a small place, with only the bed, a few dressers, and a large bucket filled with clean water from the town’s water talisman. No plumbing, no electricity. Nothing she wasn’t used to… even though her luxurious lifestyle as leader of New Pegas had softened her up a little.

One thing was out of place, however. Atop the dresser, next to her folded-up Stable barding, was a piece of paper that wasn’t there when she fell asleep. Odd… she hesitantly used her magic to levitate it over to the bed, pleased when her horn was able to accomplish the task.

Eden,

Welcome to Tall Tale. My apologies for not being there when you arrived. I would’ve preferred to welcome you personally, but unfortunately, more pressing matters have come up.

As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, this place is unlike anywhere else in Equestria. It’s nasty, it’s mean, it takes the weak and spits them out after grinding them to paste. I need to make sure you’re capable of handling it.

You’ll hear from me when you’re ready. Until then, make some allies. You’ll need them.

-S.G.

Eden flipped the paper over to make sure there was nothing on the back before reading it again. Were they serious? She risked her life to travel across the country to an unknown, hostile town, and the pony who called her here blew her off? She couldn’t help but let out a sharp, biting laugh that had no joy in it. This had to be a joke. Or a crank call.

But still… The horrors of the nightmare were still lingering in the dark corners of her cloudy mind. They were getting more frequent. More intense. And the creatures she had encountered here were undoubtedly dangerous. Who knew what kind of dangers lurked deeper into the sunken city, and what kind of threat they posed to Equestria at large? And with her way out of the city blocked off, she had no other choice but to play along.

After washing herself off and getting dressed, Eden stepped down the stairs and into the main room of the pub. It was small and open-air, and the cold wind blowing in from the street made her shiver. Maybe she needed to invest in a cloak as well, if she was going to be spending a lot of time in the mist and dreary rain.

A few ponies were starting their drinking early, sipping magically-conjured ale from carved wooden mugs; their conversations quieted to hushed whispers once Eden entered the room. Through the open wall, she could see the main street of Oasis bustling with activity; ponies were reverently moving dead bodies from the attack onto a small wagon, while others worked on repairing the front gates from the damage caused by claws and quills. Bolt Action was standing nearby with a group of ponies, holding a conversation in hushed whispers. Sapphira looked over the shattered mist condenser talisman with a worried look on her face, using her horn to rearrange the pieces. The kirin, Halcyon, was nowhere to be seen.

Eden’s attention was pulled away from the commotion of the street by the rumbling of her stomach; she hadn’t eaten anything since the night before her arrival. She stepped up to the bar with a yawn, prompting the owner to come up to greet her.

“Hello there, outsider. Sleep well?” Silver Shine asked as she used her magic to clean cups behind her.

“Very well, thank you,” Eden lied as the dream unwillingly replayed in her mind. “Thanks again for the room. Do you have anything to eat?”

“Nope, sorry, drinks only. The fisher’s bay has cooked seafood, or the general store has some scavenged items if you prefer pre-war food. Be prepared to pay up for it though, the stuff doesn’t come cheap.”

Eden thanked her before turning to leave, taking care to step between each of the small tables and not disturb any patrons with her saddlebags. However, something caught her eye when she looked up; there, sitting alone in the corner, was a cloaked stallion with an orange muzzle. The one that had paid for her revolver when Bolt Action had refused to give it to her. He had his hood pulled down now, so Eden could get a good look at his true appearance; his mane was the beautiful blue color of pure, uncontaminated tropical water, something she had only seen in pictures and memory orbs, and his green eyes were staring right at her over the lip of his mug. At one time, he was probably very handsome... but now, he was at least 20 years her senior.

Her hunger momentarily forgotten, Eden diverted course to the corner of the pub and stopped in front of his table, her magic pulling a sack of her newly-acquired caps out of her saddlebags and placing it in front of him. “Here.”

The stallion silently regarded her, then the sack, before slowly nudging it back towards her with a hoof. “Keep it.”

“I need to pay you back,” Eden insisted, using her magic to push the caps right back to their previous position.

“I have no need for caps anymore. You’ll put them to better use than I will.”

“Let me get you another drink then,” Eden said as she floated a few of the caps out, levitating them all the way to the bar. “Uh, Silver Shine? Another of the same, please?”

The stallion snorted as a new mug arrived via telekinesis. “Not getting one for yourself?”

“I don’t drink.”

“Hah. A couple days in this town will have you rethinking that policy.”

Eden fell silent as she put her caps back, before taking a seat across from him. “Why did you help me?”

The stallion regarded her with an annoyed glint in his green eyes before taking a sip from his new mug. “I couldn’t let a mare like you run off into this hellhole of a city unarmed, could I?”

“Out of the kindness of your heart, then? Odd. That doesn’t seem to be a very common trait around here.”

“It didn’t always used to be this way. The harsh environment has hardened the hearts of many of the ponies around here, but I’m old enough to remember when things were better. I’m an artifact of a time gone by.”

“Who are you, then?”

“Name’s Ridgeline. Used to make a living running townsponies and outsiders alike through the mist… but business has long since dried up, as I’m sure you can tell.”

“Must’ve been a lucrative job, if you can afford throwing caps away on a mare you’ve never seen before.”

“Back in this town’s heyday, Tall Tale was a goldmine for scavengers trying to get access to all the supplies untouched by the megaspell explosions. And trying to get through the mist on your own is a death sentence. So they all came to me.”

“What even is this mist anyway? Everyone here talks about it like it’s the boogeymare, hiding in the shadows, ready to snatch you up if you dare utter its name.”

Ridgeline fell silent for a few moments, idly swirling the contents of his mug. “It rolls off the mountains and hangs over the city like a blanket. It comes and goes like the tide, swelling and receding, but always present. It ain’t nothing like the fog you’re probably used to. This mist... it ain’t normal. It twists the mind, corrupts it. The weak-willed fall prey to it first, but stick around long enough and it gets to everyone.”

“I won’t let it get to me,” Eden insisted. But will I? History of drug addiction, traumatic brain injury... my mind isn’t the strongest.

Ridgeline laughed with a sharp, bitter tone. “An outsider’s foolishness is never matched. I’ve seen the strongest, hardiest stallions I’ve ever met crumble under the influence of the mist. They got confident, greedy… the mist melted their minds. Now, no one within their right mind strays beyond the safety of the condensers if they don’t have to. And good riddance to that. Seen enough ponies driven mad to last me a lifetime.”

“If you’ve been traveling through the mist for such a long time… why didn’t you go crazy?”

“Why do you think I stopped?”

Eden saw the distant glimmer in Ridgeline’s eyes and knew the question was a rhetorical one. Her eyes drifted to look over his shoulder at the city beyond, shrouded in fog.

“Right now, the mist is as intrusive as it's ever been,” Ridgeline continued. “Which makes the appearance of an outsider like you even more remarkable. How in Celestia’s name did you make it past the Mirelurk Queen, through the mist, and to our town in one piece?”

“I almost didn’t,” Eden admitted. “The Mirelurk Queen ambushed me at the riverbank, nearly killed me without even trying… but someone saved me. Another pony. Used their horn to scare the creature off, but they were gone before I could see who they were.”

“Ah. The mare in the mist,” Ridgeline remarked nonchalantly.

Eden blinked. “Wait. You know them?”

“Know of her, aye. You were lucky. She doesn't make an appearance when she doesn't have to.”

“Who is she then? Is she an Oasis townspony? One of the… trappers?”

“Neither. She just stands and watches from within the mist, too far away to see clearly… always disappears when you try to move in for a better look. A few of the other old timers say she’s a ghost, or a hallucination of the mist, but I’ve seen enough of both to know that’s not the case. She’s probably the last sane pony left outside this town… and who knows how she’s stayed that way.”

“If she’s as sane as you say… could she be the source of the letter?”

“Letter? What letter?”

“Oh, right…” Eden fished the container out of her breast pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper. “The whole reason I came here in the first place. Someone with the initials S.G. sent this, told me that the whole world was in danger and that they needed my help.”

Ridgeline shrugged. “Could be. Certainly wasn’t anyone from this town, and it’s not like there’s a surplus of ponies still able to write a letter around these parts. Haven't heard anything about this ‘world-ending danger’ neither. But the mare in the mist isn’t someone you go out and track down; trust me, I’ve tried. If she’s really the one who brought you here, then you gotta wait for her to come to you.”

“Lovely. Guess I’ll have to spend Faust knows how long in this rundown town, waiting for a mare who may or may not exist,” Eden groaned in disappointment as she slumped in her chair.

“Hah,” Ridgeline snorted as he took another sip from his mug. “Have you reconsidered your stance on drinking yet?”

“Nope. But it’s tempting.”

“Lighten up, missy. This town isn’t all bad. A lot quieter around here lately, but livable, if you ignore the sour moods of every one of us. It's not easy to be in good spirits when you live in a place as hostile as this; I’m sure you understand.”

Eden quickly sat back up, a confused look on her face. “Quieter?”

“Ever since slavers took over the northern passage and the Mirelurk Queen took up residence in the south, the supply of outsiders moving in has completely dried up. So with every attack the mist throws at us, our numbers dwindle lower and lower. Just last week, trappers foalnapped a group of townsponies that we still haven’t managed to get back… and there’s the ones that were killed in the attack last night, of course.”

“Wait… haven’t managed to get back? So they’re still out there? What are you waiting for?” Eden exclaimed in disbelief.

“You think we didn’t try?” Ridgeline retorted. “The rescue team got slaughtered; less than half of them managed to make it back. The trappers at the Tower are dug in too well, and we’re too busy licking our wounds to stage another attack… Who knows if they’re even still alive at this point.”

Ridgeline leaned forward after a few seconds of uneasy silence. “And you wanna know a secret? Most of the foalnapped ponies are kirin… so most around here aren’t too motivated to get them back.”

Right. That.

“As we lay the valiant dead to rest, their sacrifices will not be forgotten. May their souls be granted safe passage to Celestia and Luna above.”

Four bodies in total; the rest were too desecrated to salvage, or unable to be recovered at all. They were laid atop a makeshift raft made of pieced-together flotsam, resting on a dock on the waterfront Eden had cleared of mist ghouls the night before. The whole town was present and watching solemnly, though at least a quarter of them were on the lookout for anything hostile; you could never let your guard down in Tall Tale.

Emerald finished her prayer before beckoning to the crowd, and forward stepped a stallion with a burning torch floating in his magic. He gingerly set each corner of the wooden raft on fire before placing the torch inside with the bodies. Next, he used his magic to lift the raft off the dock and into the murky waters below, and Emerald stepped forward to give it a little push, sending the makeshift pyre slowly out into the open water.

The concrete jungle they lived in and the wet swamplands surrounding meant that there was no good place to bury bodies, Ridgeline had explained. So this was the next best thing.

The entire town stood in silence as they watched the fire slowly consume the raft and the bodies inside, the pyre soon becoming the lone bright spot in the dark waters and the ever-present mist surrounding. Then, slowly, the pyre began to break apart into ashes, crumbling into the depths and out of sight.

One by one, the observing townsponies turned to leave, silently trudging back to the safety of their walled settlement. And when Ridgeline turned, Eden was right alongside him the whole way.

“I’m going to save those foalnapped ponies. And I want you to take me to them,” Eden said.

Ridgeline threw his head back with a whinny of shocked disbelief. “Nonsense.”

“I'm not joking.”

“Didn’t I tell you I’m retired? I’ve done my fair share of running outsiders to their deaths.”

“Then I guess I’ll go by myself. But something tells me you won’t let that happen.”

Ridgeline glanced down at her for a second before rolling his eyes. “Why do you even care? You’re an outsider. You’ve been here a day. You should be drinking yourself back sober and complaining about the rain.”

“I want to… make amends for what happened during the attack last night,” Eden replied as she glanced down at her hooves. “Make a good impression around here.”

“What happened last night wasn’t your fault. Hell, you saved lives,” Ridgeline said, his voice taking on a surprisingly soft tone.

“Is trading one pony for another really saving a life?”

Ridgeline flinched away from the look in Eden’s eyes. “What do you think you’ll accomplish? A whole group of townsponies couldn’t free them. You’re just one inexperienced mare.”

“I can handle myself in a firefight just fine. I just need someone to get me there. Are you in?”

Ridgeline glanced both ways before coming to a stop, a hoof pressed against Eden’s chest as he leaned in closer. “If we’re gonna do this, you need to understand the rules of the mist. Rule one, you follow every order to the letter, and you never question an order, no matter how strange it may sound. Rule two, you never obey or answer any voice but mine. Rule three, you never deviate from the route. You break any of those rules, I march you straight back to Oasis and lock you in your room for your own good. Am I clear?”

Eden nodded. “Crystal.”

The front gates of Oasis slowly swung open, revealing Eden and Ridgeline saddled up and ready to go. Eden wore all her gear from the assault last night; Ridgeline wore a battle saddle made from makeshift steel, with an odd rifle attached to the side that looked like it was mostly made of wood.

Eden’s saddlebags were a few pounds heavier with the addition of two health potions and a pack of radaway, but it was almost evened out by the number of caps it took to buy them. Dear Faust, was everything in that store expensive, the potions especially so. Ridgeline had explained that due to the dangers of scavenging in this city, along with the constant fighting the town had to undergo, healing items were always at a premium. She just hoped she didn’t have to use many of the things, or she’d be out of caps very quickly.

“The Tower is in the part of town where the mist is the thickest, so a lot of nasty things like to hang out there. You remember the rules?” Ridgeline asked.

“One: obey every order. Two: never obey an order that isn’t directly from you. Three: never deviate.” Eden replied.

Ridgeline nodded. “Walking through the mist is a fine line. Push it away, and you’ll get lost in it. Lean into it too much, and it’ll break your mind. Just follow my lead, and you might make it out of this alive.”

He closed his eyes and tilted his chin up slightly as if he was smelling the mist-filled air, his ears occasionally twitching and flicking along with his tail. After a few seconds, his eyes sprung back open, immediately focusing on the road north.

“This way. Follow me.” And then he was gone.

Eden raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing of it as she fell in behind Ridgeline, sticking so close that her muzzle was only a few inches from his blue tail.

There was no echo to their hoofbeats as they stalked through the city streets, the mist surrounding them quickly muffling any noises they gave off. It was an odd kind of quiet, one that caused Eden’s ears to ring and the voices in her head to increase tenfold. She made sure her combat rifle was correctly loaded before focusing all her attention on Ridgeline; E.F.S. would be no use to her here.

“Where do you think you’re from, outsider, that you feel confident enough to take on an entire group of trappers by yourself?” Ridgeline asked idly as they walked, his voice piercing the otherwise oppressive quiet and making Eden flinch.

“I’m from beyond the southern borders of Equestria. A place called the Badlands,” Eden replied.

“Sounds lovely.” Ridgeline’s words were dripping with sarcasm.

“Not the word I would use. It’s practically the opposite of this place,” Eden said as her eyes glazed over, memories flooding back to her as she spoke about them. “Barren, no rain, ramshackle huts, nothing but sand for miles… The abundance of things trying to kill me feels pretty familiar though. And the cranky locals.”

“What brought you to Equestria then?”

Eden paused. “A… lot of things. Not many of them particularly pleasant.”

“Yet here you are, here to save the world on a mystery mare’s whim…” Ridgeline whinnied in amusement.

“Yeah, not my best plan. But it just felt right. Y’know?”

“Sometimes, our gut instinct is all we can trust in this world. You’ll get no quarrel from me.”

Interesting. Eden couldn’t get a read on Ridgeline, no matter how much they talked. Sometimes he was scornful and demeaning, and sometimes he was understanding and strangely insightful, without rhyme or reason to what he would be next. It's like he was stuck somewhere between the bitter, cynical attitude of many of the Oasis residents, and the bright, optimistic view of Captain Emerald. The dangers of Tall Tale had undoubtedly changed him like it did for many of Oasis’s citizens, but it felt like he was still trying to cling to his sense of chivalry, given how he’d bought her first weapon for her and was now leading her off on an impromptu rescue mission.

“What about you? Where are you from?” Eden asked, trying to turn the subject of the conversation to him.

“Born here, raised here, probably going to die here. Never seen anything but the mist and the tall buildings trying to pierce through the top of it.”

Eden blinked. “Seriously? You’ve never left?”

“Never had a reason to. And now I don’t have a choice, given that both ways out of the city are cut off,” Ridgeline glanced back at her. “Why? Does that surprise you?”

“There’s just… so much more to see in the world besides white and gray…” Eden trailed off.

“The whole country was bombed to hell and back. I’m sure I’m not missing out on any beautiful scenery out there,” Ridgeline snorted.

“There’s a certain beauty in everything if you know where to look… how to look at it the right way. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a place with nothing but dirt, sand, and clouds for miles, but the diversity of the world is so incredible to see.”

“Maybe once you find your mysterious mare and save that precious world of yours, I’ll be able to see it for myself.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Eden said, and the two travelers fell into silence as they continued into the mist.

The longer they walked, the louder the voices became.

Eden rubbed at her ears with a hoof, but nothing made them go away. Her eyes began to drift away from Ridgeline and to the mist surrounding them, trying to find the source of the noises, but there was nothing to see but endless amounts of white and gray, along with the towering silhouettes clawing their way out of the mist to scrape the skies above. A fact she was so focused on, that when Ridgeline suddenly slammed on the brakes, she bumped right into his rear with a squeak.

“Ow,” Eden groaned as she raised a hoof to rub at her nose.

“Shh…” Ridgeline whispered. “Keep your voice down, outsider… unless you feel like cutting your journey short.”

Her rubbing hoof quickly slid down to cover her mouth and stifle a gasp as she saw what Ridgeline was referring to. The street in front of them had been completely enveloped in mist, thicker than any patch Eden had seen so far; it looked so dense that she reckoned she wouldn’t be able to see the hoof in front of her face if she walked into it. However, it wasn’t just the mist that had caught Ridgeline’s eye.

The mist rolled and churned with the movements of something inside. Something big… and multiple things. She could occasionally make out a spiked tail, a fur-covered leg, a glowing yellow eye… along with feral snarls that made the hair on her neck stand up. It was a full pack of mutated freaks, all centered in the middle of this city block. Luckily, the mist seemed so thick that they couldn’t see out of it, so the two traveling ponies were undetected so far.

“This way. There’s a way around,” Ridgeline whispered, tilting his head to show her before stalking off.

Eden followed close behind again, but this time paying close attention to where she placed her hooves to make sure they didn’t clop against the pavement too loudly. The two ponies quietly made their way to the next street over and ducked into a small, sheltered alleyway, where the enclosed quarters kept out a lot of the mist and allowed them to traverse through more easily.

“What was that?” Eden asked as soon as she felt they were far enough away.

“Mist creatures. The thicker the mist, the more horrors it attracts. And we’re heading into one of the thickest parts of the city. We need to move cautiously,” Ridgeline answered.

“How do the trappers survive here, among all these hostile creatures?”

“Trappers are ponies whose minds have been broken by the mist. In a way, they’re no different than the mutated freaks that scurry in the gutters. They’ll still try to kill each other occasionally, sure, but there’s a shared devotion to the mist that overrides that animalistic urge. To them, the mist is a gift. It’s all that matters.”

“So, the mist isn’t just an environmental hazard, then, it’s a deity now? Why didn’t I get that in my history lesson earlier?”

“Ponies worship strange things when their minds are shattered. Are you any different?”

Eden just scowled and idly rubbed at her scar with a hoof.

“Besides, even if the trappers and the horrors did want to kill each other, they’d have a hard time getting to them up there,” Ridgeline said as he stepped out of the alleyway, pointing a hoof up into the sky as he did.

As Eden stepped out behind him, she glanced up to see what he was referring to. The Tower now towered up above them, closer than Eden had ever been, allowing her to take in all its strange, atypical beauty. It really did look like her home back in New Pegas, the High Roller Casino, with its slim base leading up to a bulbous head, looking almost like a flying saucer from strange alien books she read as a filly. However, this one looked… older, in a way, with less of the flashy lights and frills that New Pegas was known for. It was also made of steel, not the strange cloud-hybrid materials much of New Pegas was built from, yet it remained defiant to the passing of time; no wear or rust was noticeable anywhere along its frame.

The most notable feature wasn’t even a part of the Tower itself. As she had noticed on the way into the city, the region’s S.P.P. tower was no longer standing upright; something had knocked it over, but rather than collapsing completely to the ground, the tip had landed on top of the Tower’s spire and remained suspended above the ground… though it was now nearly perpendicular to it. It was a miracle that the impact didn’t immediately topple the Tower, but it had withstood it without much damage at all. Now the two towers remained locked together hundreds of hooflengths above them.

“...The hostages are up top as well?” Eden asked.

“It’s where I’d put them,” Ridgeline said. “The only way up is the elevator at the base, and it’s always heavily guarded. It’ll be quite the fight, outsider.”

“Fighting I can do. All this stuff with the mist… not so much.”

“How many?” Eden asked.

“I see twelve in the lobby right now,” Ridgeline answered as he peered through the scope of his rifle. “Could be more hidden around the other side. Can’t tell from this angle.”

The two of them were perched atop one of the buildings flanking the base of the Tower, with Ridgeline scouring the place while Eden looked on. Her combat rifle had only its iron sights, and her binoculars were lost in the river along with the rest of her supplies, so she was of no help at the moment.

The base of the Tower was a circular structure ringed entirely with glass, with several of the panes cracked or outright broken in the years since the War. Through those cracks and gaps, the ever-present mist leaked in, obscuring the inhabitants inside as they loitered around. They were only little dots to Eden’s eyes from this distance, so she relied on Ridgeline to tell her everything she needed to know.

“We don’t want them ambushing us once we clear out the lobby… so we’ll need to draw them out first. Get them all out in the open so we can take them all out at once,” Eden said.

Ridgeline glanced over at her. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

“I can sneak down there, cause a distraction to bring them all out into the open. You stay up here and pick them off while I mop up the rest.”

Ridgeline snorted. “If your idea of sneaking is being as loud as you were on the journey here, you won’t be sneaking anywhere near those trappers. They’re former hunters, and the mist hasn’t robbed them of all their senses yet… Otherwise. they’d be part of the ghoul packs roaming the coast.”

“I learned a thing or two about sneaking in the Badlands. I can handle myself.”

“Alright, fine. How do you plan on creating a distraction?”

“I have one more metal apple left. As well as a couple of these…” Eden said as she floated one of the special, slender canisters out of her saddlebags. “Not sure what they are though.”

“Ah. Incendiary grenades. Portable magefire.”

“Magefire… now that sounds like it would make a pretty good distraction.”

“As well as burn away the mist in the area, which would be very useful for us. Just don’t be too close when it pops.”

“Don’t worry about me. Just be ready to start shooting once the trappers come running.”

Ridgeline nodded, and Eden got up from their hiding spot. She quickly retreated to the fire escape which had provided them access to the roof and made her way down, the old black metal rattling under her hooves until she reached the ground. Despite Ridgeline’s warning that the Tower was in the most dangerous, mist-infested part of town, there didn’t seem to be many creatures around the base of it. Perhaps they steered clear of the trappers who inhabited it, or the trappers made frequent hunting trips to keep the area clear.

This area of town also seemed to be the busiest section during pre-war times as well, given by the amount of abandoned and rusted carriages that littered the roads leading up to the entrance; Eden used them as cover as she slowly made her way towards the tower, combat rifle floating by her side. She activated her E.F.S. as she walked; at first, the mist blocked her from detecting anything, but as she crept closer to the base, red dots began to appear… followed by yellow ones as well. The captured townsponies? Unfortunately, E.F.S. couldn’t differentiate between differences in altitude, so she was unable to determine if the hostages were in the lower level as well… or hundreds of hooflengths above her at the top.

As she got closer, she was able to see the occupants of the Tower in the lobby. They looked a lot like the raiders she had encountered in the Smokey Mountains, with the weird, makeshift metal armor covering their scar-riddled bodies. However, unlike the raiders on her journey here, these scars seemed to be fully deliberate, as each one formed the shape of strange sigils that had no meaning to Eden. Maybe they had no meaning to anyone but the ones driven mad by the mist.

The trappers were scattered around the lobby, fiddling with their weapons, or fidgeting uncontrollably in place while staring at nothing. Some of them still had the blood of their victims splattered across their fur, with seemingly no desire to wash it out; the bodies of those victims were strung up along the main entrance, most likely as a warning for would-be attackers to stay away. One of those desecrated bodies looked a lot like Halcyon, the kirin from Oasis; he had the same curved horn, the same cloven hooves, the same scales covering his back and muzzle. The trappers had mutilated him almost beyond recognition.

Eden grimaced and floated one of the magefire canisters out of her saddlebags to look it over. It was shaped much like the other metal apples that acted as explosives during the war, with the stripe of color denoting its type and purpose as incendiary. With a deep breath, she pulled the pin and flung it towards the trappers with her magic, sending the grenade through one of the missing panes of glass so it skittered across the lobby floor. Then, it erupted.

Blue flame splashed across the tiled floor and spread like it was covered in gasoline, consuming an area the size of three ponies in an instant. One trapper was caught in the inferno and fell to the ground screaming, but no amount of flailing or rolling was able to extinguish the magical fire. The others closest to the eruption first leapt away in shock, then hooted out cries of alarm and warning to the others in the building.

“Fire! Fire!” one of them yelled out in a guttural tone that sounded almost inpony. “It will destroy the Mist! Bring help!”

More trappers rushed forward from the other parts of the lobby and the gift shop, some of them carrying buckets of water to throw onto the raging blue inferno, but it had no effect on the magefire. Then, the flames flashed to a green color, and suddenly erupted a second time, expanding to a size twice as large as it had previously been… and consuming all the trappers surrounding it that thought they were standing a safe distance away.

The primal screams of pain and horror made Eden cringe in her hiding spot, and she had to force herself to resist the urge to cover her ears with her hooves. Instead, she floated her combat rifle to rest on the hood of the carriage she hid behind, taking aim at the trappers the fire didn’t catch. One of the ponies, a mare, spun around to look for the source of the attack, and she and Eden made eye contact for a brief moment. The rage, fear, and desire that clouded her milky eyes filled Eden’s chest with dread, like a vice tightening around her heart. It was like this pony wasn’t a pony anymore. She had been reduced to nothing more than an animal.

One pull of the trigger on her combat rifle reduced her to nothing more than a lifeless body on the burning floor.

She watched a bullet rip through the shoulder of a panicked trapper as he tried to extinguish himself, followed a split-second later by the report from Ridgeline’s rifle. He fell forward into the inferno without a sound, engulfing his body and cremating it within seconds. Ridgeline was an excellent shot if he was hitting targets from that far away; it suddenly made Eden self-conscious of her own efforts.

As Eden and Ridgeline fired on the trappers, a loud ringing sound filled the lobby of the Tower, and billowing black clouds began to cover the roof before raining water onto the magefire, successfully dampening the flames. And once all the trappers were unmoving on the floor, the inferno was extinguished, causing the clouds to roll back to where they came from with a low rumble of thunder.

“That was a damn good distraction, outsider,” Ridgeline remarked as he and Eden stepped past the scorched floor that denoted the origin of the magefire. “Did most of the work for us too, which is always a good thing.”

“Yeah…” Eden muttered in response. “That second wave… was it triggered by the water the trappers poured on it? Or does it always do that?”

“A timer. Really nasty piece of magical engineering, those things. Starts out small and draws ponies in trying to put it out before activating the big eruption. Luckily, it flashes green right before it does, so you have some warning… but it’s best to stay as far away as you can. Let it run its course. If it has grabbed something or someone, it's already too late for them.”

Eden frowned as she stepped over the charred remains of a trapper. The blue, then green-hued flames reminded her of balefire, making her think this was a zebra development… but it was compacted and shipped in the metal apple design of the Equestrian military. Perhaps this was one of the many zebra technologies that was reverse-engineered by ponies as the war progressed.

Once in the middle of the lobby, Ridgeline closed his eyes and went through his air-sniffing, tail-twitching routine once again, which Eden watched with a quizzical look and a tilted head.

“Only way up is the elevators,” Ridgeline said after a moment, nodding towards the tall stalk in the middle of the room. “Hopefully one of them works.”

There seemed to be a car on either side of the shaft, but one was stuck halfway up, burnt out and ripped apart by an ancient explosion that left it unusable. The other was docked up at the top, and when Eden stepped forward to press the call button, nothing happened.

“Damn. They must’ve disconnected the power from up there when they heard the gunfire,” Ridgeline hissed.

“And there has to be something around here that can reactivate it,” Eden replied. “I’ll check this side.”

The two split up, and Eden went straight for the source that seemed most likely to be useful: the Stable-Tech terminal that sat on the reception desk near the entrance. It was protected by a password, so Eden floated the PipBuck interface tools out of her saddlebags to connect the arm-mounted device to the terminal. Luckily for her, there wasn't much worth protecting on such a simple, mundane terminal, so the encryption was very weak, allowing her to view the contents in just a few seconds.

Lunar Monument
Lobby Reception Terminal

> Welcome Message
[ATTENTION EMPLOYEES: This spiel must be given at the beginning of every tour group visit. Be sure to downplay the dangers of visiting the Monument and the low odds of being involved in a Zebra terrorist attack when asked. Also, DO NOT read this part out loud.]

Welcome to the Lunar Monument! This towering structure was built to celebrate the defeat of Nightmare Moon and the return of Princess Luna from the moon after her millennium of banishment. The slender, needle-like design was developed as a tribute to Princess Luna’s time on the moon, with the tip pointing up into the night sky and scraping the stars. The times of the year when the moon lines up perfectly with the tip of the Monument are a special holiday in Tall Tale! On these days, a powerful spotlight shoots up into the sky, creating a tunnel of light that represents Luna descending from the moon down to Equestria.

Unfortunately, due to Tall Tale’s relatively close proximity to the Zebra Kingdom compared to the rest of Equestria, as well as the Monument’s symbolic ties to Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna, the Monument has been on the receiving end of some cowardly attacks from zebras and zebra sympathizers over the years. However, the odds of such an attack occurring are extremely low, and your safety is our number one priority. The Lunar Monument is equipped with state-of-the-art defense systems and is under constant watch to keep you safe.

The lower floor contains the Lunar Monument’s gift shop, as well as the entrance to the elevator when you’re ready to make your way up. The upper floor contains Tall Tale’s finest restaurant, the Mile High Club, as well as an observation deck providing 360-degree views of the entire city. Whenever you’re ready to make the ascent, our two main elevators will take you up to the top. Just join any line!

[Pegasi are not allowed to make the journey up to the top on their own. Failure to comply will result in arrest and prosecution.]

“Hey, there’s a safe over here,” Ridgeline interrupted. “Locked with a numerical code. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been inside in a while.”

Eden glanced up from the screen to see Ridgeline poking his head out of the Employees-Only area. “Can you pick the lock?

“Nope, my hooves are a little too big and clumsy for that. Can you?”

“No, sorry. We’ll have to find the code, I’m sure it’s written down somewhere,” Eden said as she looked back down at the terminal screen.

Ridgeline paused. “Wait. You can’t pick locks?”

Eden sighed and looked back up. “Why’s that a surprise?”

“Well, I always thought that was a unicorn’s thing. Magic makes it easy.”

“Well… I used to be able to. But then…” Eden pointed to the scar on her forehead. “I don’t have the fine magic control to be able to do it anymore.”

“Ah,” Ridgeline nodded reverently. “I’ll keep looking.”

Eden nodded in return before turning her attention back to the terminal, clicking down to the next page.

> Incident Reports
[07.02.1226] AUTOMATED: FIRE DETECTED IN LOBBY. ALARM SOUNDED; SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS DEPLOYED. FIRE DEPARTMENT CONTACTED: NO RESPONSE.

[10.17.1024] Another suicide bombing. The zebra suspect managed to get into the south elevator and halfway up the shaft before they were noticed and reported by the operator. When the elevator was shut down, the suspect detonated their explosives rather than be captured. 14 visitors in the elevator with them were killed; more importantly, we’ll be down to only one elevator until the replacement comes in. At least peak tourism season is over.

[10.03.1024] A zebra sympathizer came in and started shooting up the lobby indiscriminately before the guards could subdue him. Luckily, the terminal wasn’t hit… but some of the merchandise will have to be replaced. Along with a couple of the staff.

[09.22.1024] Some idiot tried to plant an explosive on one of the legs of the Monument and topple the whole thing. The bomb was so strong it probably killed the operator after they stepped back, but the Monument barely shuddered. Looks like that magically-reinforced steel paid off. Scrubbing the explosive residue out of the pavement will be a pain though.

[09.19.1024] Another zebra with an invisibility fetish tried to sneak through the front door, but one of the guards noticed the wet hoofprints they were leaving behind from the rain outside. They were killed before they could deploy whatever they were planning on activating; it looks like a talisman of sorts, and it occasionally leaks out pink smoke that smells absolutely horrendous. Some Ministry punks investigating the scene took it away. It’s just a good thing it wasn’t used; we probably would’ve had to shut down for the day.

> Display Older Entries?

Eden shook her head instinctively and clicked to the next page.

> Internal Messages
>> [STICKIED: Emergency Protocol]
In the unlikely event of a zebra attack on the Lunar Monument, all staff members should follow this strict protocol for ensuring the safety and continued operation of the site. Failure to do so may result in termination.
1. Ensure the security and stability of the Monument’s structure.
2. Secure and protect any important equipment in your area. Terminals and other arcane technology are of highest priority, merchandise less so.
3. Assist visitors only when previous objectives are fulfilled.
These rules are designed to ensure the profitability and stability of the Lunar Monument in the short and long term. Please ask a manager for any questions or clarifications to this protocol.

>> A.K. Yearling Visit
To all employees working Tuesday: A.K. Yearling just moved into town, and now she’s doing a press tour of all the town’s landmarks. Which means she’ll be coming to the Monument next. Her arrival has whipped the press into a frenzy, so this place will probably be packed with cameras and reporters when she visits. I don’t want them to be able to notice ANYTHING suspicious or out of the ordinary. Everyone needs to be on their best behavior. We’ll also be doubling the guard in case the zebras try anything, but remember: the Monument and its infrastructure always comes first, no matter how famous the tourist is. Good luck.

>> RE: A.K. Yearling Visit
Everything went swimmingly. Old hag just came in, sniffed the merchandise for a bit, posed for a few pictures, then was gone. However, she did give us a signed copy of one of her books or whatever; it looks like it’s for fillies, so I just stuck it in the employee safe for you upper management ponies to deal with however you see fit. The code is 1738, remember; I’m not opening it for you idiots again.

“I’ve got it,” Eden called out. “1738.”

“Sweet. I’ll open it,” Ridgeline replied as he ducked back into the room.

While Ridgeline was busy fiddling with the lock in the other room, Eden turned her attention to the last entry in the terminal’s menu.

>System Control
>> Lights: ON
>> Automated Doors: ON
>> Elevators: OFF
>> Fire Suppression System: ON

She selected the elevator option and squeed when the terminal displayed a success message. And when she looked up, she could see that the call button for the elevator was now glowing white and ready to be used.

When Eden stepped away from the terminal, Ridgeline emerged from the Employees-Only Area at the same time, cradling something in a hoof.

“Nothing but paycheck stubs and performance reports,” Ridgeline said with a disappointed tone to his gravelly voice. “But it did have this, which looked interesting.”

He held out what he was holding: a green hardcover book with the title reading Daring Do and the Rout of the Sanctimonious Spies. Below it was a picture of the adventure hero fighting off a group of zebras armed with various magic fetishes disguising them as normal ponies, though some of it was covered by the long, sprawling autograph of the author, A.K. Yearling. The copy they had talked about in the terminal entry.

When Ridgeline handed it to her, she felt a surge of energy shoot through her unexpectedly; much like what she had felt in the bookstore when she first arrived. However, instead of feeling stronger, she felt… clearer. She was able to notice each crinkle and crease in the book in her hooves, as well as the grit scattered across the floor, the blood splattered across the walls. She could hear the hum of the electricity surging through the elevator stalk, the droplets of rain starting to patter against the room above and the pavement outside. Each sensation coated her mind with fresh splashes of bright color.

“Mind if I keep it?” Eden asked softly, as if any louder would damage her now-sensitive ears.

“Not at all. Reading was never my strong suit,” Ridgeline shrugged. “Did you get the elevator working?”

Eden nodded as she floated out the waterproof container to slide the book inside with the other. “Be my guest.”

Ridgeline quickly pressed the call button before backpedaling away to a safe distance, prompting Eden to do the same. “Who knows what kind of traps they put in that thing. We have to be careful—”

Suddenly, he was interrupted by a loud explosion from above, and they looked up to see a fireball engulf the top of the elevator car, followed by the twang of metal cords snapping. The car quickly began to freefall down to earth, and Eden once again found herself being tackled to the ground by Ridgeline as the elevator smashed into the lobby in a spray of splintered steel and shattered glass.

Eden yelped as she was pinned underneath Ridgeline’s body weight for the second time in as many days, but she waited until the noise died down to say anything. “Are you okay?”

Ridgeline paused for a second to assess before nodding. “Yeah. You?”

“Fine enough,” Eden winced as she rubbed at her ear; why couldn’t all this commotion have happened after she touched the weird, perception-amplifying book? “What was that?”

“They severed the cords,” Ridgeline replied as he climbed off her. “If shutting it down wouldn’t work, then blowing it up sure would.”

“But now they won’t be able to get back down!” Eden exclaimed as she jumped back to her hooves.

“And more importantly to them, we won’t be able to get up there. They’re like animals, it’s hard for them to think of any long-term consequences beyond the here and now.”

“So… we failed then? The hostages are stuck up there forever now?”

Ridgeline opened his mouth, but he paused. His ear twitched, followed by a hind leg, and he turned his head to glance out the shattered window. “Actually… there may be another way. But you’re not going to like it.”

“If it can help us get those ponies back, then I’m all for it,” Eden replied confidently. “Show me.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Eden stared up at the gigantic base of the S.P.P. tower above her… the one that had been uprooted by some terrifying force of nature. It now lay at an incline above her, pointed towards the Ponget Sound and the western horizon beyond, but it had been stopped from falling completely to the earth by the bulbous spire atop the Lunar Monument, where the tip now rested.

“I said you weren’t going to like it,” Ridgeline said with a grin.

“But… this is crazy. We’ll be completely exposed on the hike up, and this rain will make the whole thing slippery. We’ll be lucky if we make it up there without falling off, much less without being shot.”

“And as of right now, it’s our only way up to the hostages. Unless you’ve suddenly made friends with a pegasus,” Ridgeline glanced around with a chuckle before leaning in closer. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold hooves now, outsider~”

Eden stiffened her lower lip. “We’ve come this far. We have to finish the job. Let’s get climbing.”

The sheer size of the S.P.P. tower made scaling the base impossible, but luckily for the two ponies, there was another way. When the tower had originally fallen, it had cleaved a nearby building in two, and it was still perched between the two halves. By climbing the stairway up to the roof of one of them, Eden and Ridgeline were able to jump on top of the white tower and begin their ascent towards the Lunar Monument’s upper level.

The overcast clouds above had finally let loose a drizzle of rain on their hike to the S.P.P. tower’s base, and while it had washed away some of the mist, it also coated the smooth, slick surface of the white tower with slippery water droplets, making every step tedious and potentially disastrous for the two. Eden suddenly had uncomfortable flashbacks to her journey across Shattered Hoof Ridge on the way here, but at least the gravel on that trail had provided her hooves with some purchase!

They walked in single file on the flattest part of the curving architecture of the circular tower, trotting past skyscrapers that were sometimes only a few hooflengths away from the edge. Eden walked in front and Ridgeline behind her, with the unicorn ready to deflect any bullets shot at them. They made it more than halfway up before one of the trappers happened to spot them, but as soon as they did, potshots started to whizz past the two, making Eden crouch down with a wince.

“Stay as close to me as you can, Ridge,” Eden called back to him as her horn began to glow.

She cast her trademark magical shield in front of them when Ridgeline stepped closer, and they continued their slow hike up once again as bullets began to ping off the translucent blue barrier. Each impact made Eden wince as it added extra strain on her horn; it was tough, but it wasn’t impervious like an alicorn’s personal shield, and if she held it too long, her horn would burn out. So, she slowly increased her speed despite every instinct telling her not to, occasionally risking nervous glances over the edge of the ever-narrowing spire.

Ridgeline was so close to her that his cheek brushed against her cutie mark, letting Eden guide his hoofsteps as he looked through the scope of his rifle. “Looks like there’s less of them up here than there were in the lobby… but now they know we’re coming, obviously. How long can you hold your shield?”

“I can make it to the top,” Eden replied with a grimace. “But once we’re in the Lunar Monument, I’ll be spent.”

“Then I guess I should start thinning them out before we get there,” Ridgeline replied, followed by the loud bang of his rifle that made Eden jump in surprise.

The bullet whizzed through the one-way protection of Eden’s shield, and a trapper that was foolish enough to stand in the open was dropped with a spray of blood and brain matter. The other trappers quickly scrambled for cover, but the potshots picked back up a few seconds later. One even tried tossing a metal apple at them, and it came skittering down the white S.P.P. tower towards them; Eden yelped and nudged it off the edge with a hoof when it rolled under her shield, and it exploded harmlessly in midair, failing to even make the nigh-invulnerable tower tremble.

“Do you see the hostages anywhere?” Eden asked as her scar began to burn.

“Not from here,” Ridgeline answered. “They could be deeper inside, near the center.”

A quick cast of her E.F.S. to show the yellow dots in front of them calmed her fears. “They have to be.” I can’t be too late. I can’t fail again.

They were close enough to the top now that Eden could see the whites of the trappers’ eyes, and shots that had previously been whizzing wide of her shield were now slamming into it every time, draining Eden’s energy more and more as she struggled to keep the shield together.

“Get ready to jump,” Eden hissed out between clenched teeth, and Ridgeline crouched down behind her.

Her horn began to glow with a bright white light at the tip, growing into an orb of pure magic energy that was nearly unbearable to look at compared to the dull overcast sky around them. Then, as soon as her shield spell ended, she let loose her built-up strobe spell, shooting blinding lights into the trappers’ eyes to make them stumble back in blind shock.

“Now!” she yelled, and the two leapt from the S.P.P. tower onto the observation deck of the Lunar Monument below.

Eden landed on solid ground and rolled with the impact, and a grunt beside her told her that Ridgeline also made it. She tried to telekinetically pull out her combat rifle, but her horn simply fizzled out and refused to obey; she reached down and grabbed the handle in her mouth instead before looking around.

The top floor of the Monument was smaller than the lobby, but it was much more impressive. The entire floor was nothing but thick panes of glass, allowing visitors to see just how high they truly were. It would be nothing to a pegasus or batpony, of course, but it was still enough to make Eden’s heart flutter every time she glanced down. The inner part of the circular level contained the elevator stalk, as well as what looked to be a restaurant surrounding it, with tables overturned and glassware scattered across the ground by the trappers occupying it. The outer edge, where Eden and Ridgeline were currently perched, was an observation deck devoid of any furnishings apart from a railing to prevent ponies from stumbling off. It also meant a lack of cover for the blinded trappers, who were busy clawing at their eyes and growling in confusion.

“I’ve got left, you’ve got right!” Ridgeline called out, and before Eden could even respond, he was taking advantage of the strobe light spell and gunning down the trappers before they could recover.

Eden grimaced and did the same, using her tongue to pull the trigger and drop the nearest pony next to her with a mercy shot to the head. Firing with her muzzle was unfamiliar and awkward, and reloading would be unbearably slow, but she’d have to make do.

Rather than follow the path of the observation deck, Eden ducked into the inner ring and into the ransacked restaurant. She had to make sure the hostages were alive and okay during the raging firefight; if they died, this whole mission would be for nothing, and she would never forgive herself for failing.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Eden called out briefly before ducking down as errant bullets whizzed in through the windows, causing shards of glass to rain down around her. “We’re here to help!”

The silence in response was deafening, even as the gunfire raged outside. But just as Eden was about to give up hope, a faint voice rose over the commotion. “Over here!”

Her ears perked up and traced the voice to its source: the minibar next to the elevator doors. Eden crawled her way over to it, making sure to keep her head down to avoid having a stray bullet take it off. When she reached the bar and poked her head over the edge, her heart sank; there, cowering behind the counter, were the hostages they were looking for. However, many of them were injured, and it looked like they had been forced to sit in their own blood for weeks. Their eyes were filled with a kind of terror that made Eden’s blood run cold, though they softened slightly when they realized that Eden wasn’t one of the trappers imprisoning them.

“Who are you?” asked a small filly, who Eden noted was a kirin as well.

“I’m from Oasis, I’m here to rescue you,” Eden answered as quickly and reassuringly as she could. “Just stay here and stay hidden, I’ll come back once it’s safe—”

Suddenly, something from behind yanked her combat rifle out of her grasp! Eden was forced to quickly let go to prevent it from taking any teeth with it, and the gun was pinned to the wall across from her by a glowing, ethereal dagger, locking it out of reach. She spun to see a trapper standing in front of her, a unicorn, his horn aglow to cause more of the magical knives to float around his body.

“Back away from our prey, defiler,” he snarled at her. “Unless you’d like to join them.”

He was able to speak complete sentences, which was unlike any other trapper she had encountered before. Maybe the mist hadn’t affected him as long as the others, allowing him to retain some of his brain functions, as well as the use of higher-level magic, judging by his ethereal dagger spell he seemed fond of. However, he obviously wasn’t sane; his body was covered in scars like the others, in some places even thicker and ubiquitous than the other trappers, and the bubbled quality of the partially healed skin told her it was his magical knives that did the cutting. His eyes were bloodshot but gleamed with an excited look of a predator finding something new to hunt… focused directly on her.

“They’re not yours to torment any longer,” Eden growled back in response.

She tried her telekinesis once again, and her horn shimmered, but she didn’t have enough strength to pull her revolver out of her saddlebags. She was weaponless and defenseless, and any move towards arming herself would cause the trapper to attack. So, she held her ground, waiting for him to make the first move.

“Fine. They’ll have to watch me carve you up instead,” he sneered, and his knives flashed into action, aiming right for her throat.

Eden threw herself out of the way with a yelp, and the ethereal daggers slammed into the wood of the minibar’s counter. She grabbed the closest thing to her—a wine glass on the floor—and flung it at the trapper. It shattered across his head, making him stumble back with a pained grunt. Eden pressed the advantage and closed the gap in a second, tackling the stallion to the floor. He snarled up at her as his horn began to glow once again, but Eden quickly spat into his eyes, throwing off his concentration and causing his spell to falter momentarily. She grabbed her combat knife from the sheath strapped to her thigh and plunged it down, but the trapper grabbed onto her arm and twisted with almost inpony strength, pinning her hoof to the floor and rolling so he was now on top.

“The mist gives me strength you could never imagine,” he hissed. “Soon, it will cover everyone and everything, despite you defilers’ feeble attempts to keep it at bay. No more will you taint the mist with your filthy presence! It will engulf everything you hold dear, and you’ll die wishing you joined the winning side when you had the chance.”

Eden squirmed against his pin to no avail before thrusting her head forward, treating her own horn like a knife, but he pulled away right before the pointy tip could sink into his eye. Pulling back caused him to loosen his grip on her, however, and Eden successfully wriggled free, driving a hind hoof into his nether regions to stun him as she did.

The trapper winced and scrambled back before Eden could close the distance again, and suddenly the ethereal daggers were back, causing her to step back hesitantly. She had no counter for them without her magic, and he had the advantage as long as the fight was ranged. The daggers zoomed forward, and Eden twisted to parry one with the combat knife gripped in her teeth. However, the second sank into her shoulder and twisted as she was busy with the first, and she screamed out in pain before ripping it out of her. Her own blood coated the blade of the ethereal form before it disappeared in her hoof, causing the now-floating blood to splash down into a puddle on the glass floor.

This was a losing fight, and now her mobility was limited; there was no way she could avoid those knives forever. Come on magic, give me something! she internally screamed at her cracked, scarred horn, willing any last saps of strength to give her anything. And as the ethereal knives shot towards her once again, her horn began to glow.

A shield formed in front of her—a small one, less than a hooflength in width or height, and it wavered for only a second before disappearing, but it lasted just long enough to intercept the path of the first dagger and make it shatter into magical dust. She brought her horn around to cast a shield in front of the second one right before it buried itself into her chest, the impact causing her to wince. Her horn was on fire, and each movement of her head made her dizzy with exhaustion, but she pressed on. Her life, and the lives of the hostages, were at stake here.

The trapper advanced on her, and Eden backpedaled, keeping the distance long enough so she had enough time to react to the ethereal daggers flying through the air. His red daggers met the blue of her mini-shields over and over, sending sparks of light into the air each time they connected and dissipated; the interior of the restaurant became a light show, each magic user struggling to get the upper hoof. They weaved their way through the overturned tables and chairs, and the trapper occasionally flung items in the room at Eden telekinetically to throw her off, trying to close the distance without getting too close to the combat knife still held in her muzzle.

By now, they had worked their way back around to the mini bar, and Eden’s face was contorted with pain as sweat dripped down her face. She kicked a nearby chair at the trapper, but he caught it in his magic and flung it right back before she could recover. She put her hooves up to protect her face, but the impact knocked her to the floor, and the stallion quickly pounced on top of her.

“You fight dirty, you fight with desperation, but it’s not enough to overcome the power of the mist. Nothing is,” he screeched down at her while pressing a hoof to her horn to pin it to the ground. “I’m gonna gut you from stomach to throat, and then I’m going to make those ponies eat your organs. I wonder what’ll taste better, your liver or your heart?”

Eden screamed in pain as the slightest touch to her overloaded horn sent blinding pain through her whole body, leaving her unable to fight back. However, before his ethereal blade could slice into her stomach, he suddenly went stiff atop her, along with a sharp grunt of pain. His bloody hoof left her horn, allowing Eden to release the breath she didn’t know she was holding, and the pain faded enough for her to see what had happened; the trapper had turned around to reveal that a fork had been driven into his back, not deep enough to cause anything but pain and annoyance, but now he was staring down the kirin filly Eden had talked to before. The poor filly stumbled back as her poorly-thought-out plan now had her squarely in the crosshairs of her captor.

“You little twat,” the trapper snarled. “Watching your father die wasn’t enough to make you behave? I guess I’ll have to kill your little rescue party, and all your friends for good measure! You brought this on yourself—”

Before he could finish, Eden lunged forward, driving her combat knife just above the fork already stuck into his body. The trapper let out a haunting hiss of air as his lung was punctured before collapsing to the ground, but Eden didn’t let up. Her mind became nothing but a space of white emptiness, nothing but rage and pain driving her actions, plunging the blade into the motionless stallion over and over and over until fatigue made the task impossible.

As she pulled the knife out for the last time, it slipped out of her trembling, blood-soaked hooves. Her vision swam and she nearly collapsed right then and there, but she forced herself to remain conscious; the other trappers were still out there, and she needed to protect the hostages.

When her vision settled back down, she was staring at the kirin filly in front of her, and she was staring back, only her eyes weren’t filled with gratitude—they were filled with fear. Eden glanced down at herself to see she was covered in blood, some of it her own from her injured shoulder, but most of it from the dead trapper at her hooves. His back was covered in stab wounds, over and over… much more than what was needed to kill him. She didn’t know what came over her… a white heat, a blind rage, a desire to do nothing more but make sure the trapper was dead. A blank white space had taken over her mind; the same white as the mist outside.

“I-I’m sorry, I-...” Eden stammered out, before hanging her head. “...You saved my life. Thank you.”

The filly said nothing, only a slight tilt of her head showing that she had heard Eden speak. The fear slowly began to fade away, but it was replaced by an ever-present, haunting pain. The trapper said that her father had been killed in front of her, and Faust only knew what other horrors she had witnessed during her imprisonment here. No filly should ever have that look in her eyes, but little were lucky enough to avoid the horror of the wasteland; Eden certainly wasn’t.

“Now, go back to hiding, okay?” Eden said in the most reassuring tone she could muster. “We need to get rid of the rest of the trappers and make sure everything’s safe before we can get you out of here—”

Eden was interrupted by the sound of the restaurant door slamming open, and she quickly spun around while shielding the filly with her own body. However, the newcomer was a friendly face.

“Outsider!” Ridgeline called out as he looked over the scene with his rifle raised, shifting his gaze between a blood-covered Eden, the kirin she was protecting, and the ravaged dead body next to them. “Are you alright?”

Eden reached back to the wound on her shoulder with a wince. “I’ll be fine. Is the Tower secure?”

Ridgeline nodded. He had a gash on his cheek that was leaking blood down his face, but he otherwise looked none the worse for wear. “How are the hostages?”

“They’re alive. Some of them are injured, I don’t know how mobile they’re going to be,” Eden warned.

“Get them up anyway,” Ridgeline said. “We have company incoming, and we need to get back to Oasis before the sun goes down.”

After making sure the hostages were safe, Eden went to retrieve her combat rifle. It had fallen to the floor after the ethereal blade pinning it to the wall had dispelled, but the damage it had caused remained. The knife had punched straight through the barrel and warped it wherever it touched, leaving it in an unusable state. She still put it back into her saddlebag, as the damage was only limited to the barrel, and it was possible that Bolt Action could swap out or repair the broken part… if he even wanted to talk to her after what happened last time. However, she was left with just her revolver and the strange pistol for the time being.

They had two health potions, and though the wound on her shoulder was ugly and painful, Eden refused to use one for herself. Instead, the expensive potions went to two of the most badly hurt hostages, allowing them to be able to walk. It was more important that everyone in the group be in walking shape for the trip home, especially when part of that trip involved hiking down a slender, slippery S.P.P. tower.

The trip down was even more treacherous, as they couldn’t go too fast without losing their footing and sliding all the way down to end up as pony splatter on the concrete. And on top of that, Eden and Ridgeline had to babysit a group of starving, wounded ponies down to the ground without them panicking or falling off. Ridgeline took the lead, and Eden stayed in the back to watch out for any slipping or struggling ponies.

As she looked out across the city during their descent down, Eden could see large crevices snaking through the earth like veins, starting at the upturned roots of the S.P.P. tower and spreading all through Tall Tale. Their sizes ranged from ones that were barely a split in the ground to ones that were more than a block wide. They were too wide to just be splitting, dry ground… an earthquake, perhaps? That would also explain how the S.P.P. tower was uprooted like that. The sight of the larger crevices gave her uncomfortable flashbacks to her dream, where the earth opened up and swallowed her whole; she shivered and looked away.

When she looked down at the ground below them, she was treated to an equally grim sight; the mist creatures that Eden and Ridgeline had narrowly avoided on the trip here had been drawn to the sound of the gunfire, and now were congregating on the street just below where they were hiking down. As the group of ponies moved, the mist creatures stayed right underneath them, following them all the way down to the base.

“Ridge, we’ve got company down there,” Eden called out, just loud enough so he could hear her from the front.

Ridgeline nodded. “They’ve got our scent. Let’s hope something else grabs their attention before we reach the bottom.”

However, they weren’t so lucky. In fact, the closer they got to the bottom, the bigger the group seemed to become, as more of the creatures the group passed decided to join in on the hunt. There were creatures both new and familiar to Eden, and they brought more mist with them, like they had absorbed so much that they were seeping the excess from their skin to infect new areas. And as they got closer to the base of the tower, which was flanked by the building that was split in two, they were able to see that a pack of mutated creatures was already waiting for them.

Ridgeline suddenly ducked, and Eden had to quickly flinch out of the way as a pukwudgie quill whizzed past the group, sending the missed shot flying off into the mist. Eden quickly spun back around and squinted through the mist; there, on the roof of the left-side half-building, was a herd of the diminutive porcupine-like creatures, and they were bristling their tails as they took aim and began to fire!

Eden squealed as quills began to cling against the white metal beneath her hooves, and she quickly scrambled backwards to put more distance between her and them. Ridgeline apparently had the same idea as her, as he spun around to shoo the group of hostages back up the tower.

“Go back! Go! Get out of their range! The mist will throw off their aim!”

The group of ragtag ponies was now going the wrong way, and pukwudgie quills were still raining down around them. Eden heard a cry of panic from behind her, and she spun around to see that one of the younger fillies had lost her footing and was now sliding off the side. Eden lunged forward, sinking her teeth into the scruff of her neck before she could slide out of reach, and throwing her back up onto the solid part of the tower.

“Keep moving! I’ll catch up,” Eden said to the shaking filly before glancing back down at the base.

Pukwudgies were continuing to prep quills and fire them into the air, but there was another sight that chilled her. She spotted radamounts racing up the steps of the shorn-apart building towards the roof, no doubt attempting the same strategy she and Ridgeline had employed: jumping from the roof to the tower to climb their way up.

“Radamounts are scaling the base,” Eden told Ridgeline as he passed her, making him pause. “They’ll easily outpace us if they get up on top, we’ll never make it back up to the Monument. We’re trapped.”

“And there’s no way we have the firepower to drive off all of them,” Ridgeline said with a worried tone to his normally gruff voice. “We need another way off this tower.”

“Well, if you’ve got any ideas, I’m happy to hear them, because things aren’t looking too good right now,” Eden replied with a wince as a quill almost nicked her ear. She couldn’t even cast a spell to shield them from the barrage!

Ridgeline simply closed his eyes and took a single deep breath. Despite the projectiles whizzing past him, he refused to move, other than the slight twitch of his ear and the swish of his tail. He stomped a forehoof, then stomped it again, his forehead wrinkling in concentration. Then, suddenly, his eyes shot open with a gasp of inspiration.

“The Starbucked building. C’mon!”

Before Eden could blink or object, Ridgeline shot past her, galloping back up towards the Monument’s top once again. What in Faust’s name is with this guy and his ear-twitching? Is he on Dash or something?

However, the choice between following Ridgeline and running towards the mist creatures was an easy one to make. Eden hurried after him while coaxing the scared hostages to do the same, making their way up to where the S.P.P. tower lay closest to one of the skyscrapers. The neon sign glowing at the top of the building denoted it as the Starbucked HQ, and the side of it was only a dozen hooflengths away… not the easiest of jumps, but still makeable. However, the drop was a long one, and just the thought of leaping across it made Eden’s head spin.

Ridgeline took aim with his rifle and fired, blowing out one of the windows closest to them to reveal an office space. Then, he leapt, but he only made it far enough so that his forehooves grabbed onto the edge of the window frame, hind legs clawing at the smooth glass siding for purchase but finding none. However, he was able to pull his way up into the room and kick the shards of glass out of the way before beckoning to the rest of the group.

“Jump! I’ll catch you. Trust me.”

The adults went first, leaping across the gap one by one into Ridgeline’s strong forelegs. A few balked at the size of the gap, but a quick glance down at the approaching mist creatures did wonders to change their minds. Then went the fillies, but some of them were so small that Eden had to toss them instead. With each throw, the knife wound in Eden’s shoulder burnt like magefire, and she nearly collapsed in pain as she threw the kirin filly across, but she forced herself to stay upright and help until she was the only one left on the S.P.P. tower.

“Alright, you’re the last one, outsider!” Ridgeline called out over the whistling wind and the barrage of quills. “You’ve got this.”

Eden blinked the reflex tears out of her eyes and nodded, taking a few steps back before breathing in deeply. Her left foreleg was coated in a waterfall of blood, and every movement caused more to spill out of the wound in her shoulder; it would be hard to get enough strength out of her foreleg to clear the gap, but she’d have to make do. The radamounts were quickly closing the gap, and a painless fall to her death was preferable to being torn to pieces.

Eden galloped forward in the small amount of space that she had, planted her hind hooves right on the edge, and leapt with all her strength. Her hooves nearly slipped on the slick white surface, but she found enough purchase to launch herself at the outstretched forelegs of Ridgeline, stretching through the air in a moment that stretched itself into several. However, right before she fell into his arms, she felt something slam into her hind leg, like she had been punched… except she felt the exact same feeling emerge out of the other side of the leg, followed by a searing pain through her hoof that took her breath away.

She crashed into Ridgeline, and her momentum knocked him back into the room, a high-pitched scream escaping her lips moments after. She rolled off him, but one of her hind legs refused to cooperate, and each movement caused so much pain to course through her that her vision swam and distorted. She glanced down at her back right hoof; there, just above the fetlock, was a pukwudgie quill, stabbed through her leg so deeply that it was sticking out of the other side. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight, and she stuffed a hoof into her mouth to prevent herself from screaming.

Ridgeline, however, stormed past the injured Eden without even a glance. A radamount had reached where they had been on the S.P.P. tower just moments before, and it was preparing to leap over into the office room where the ponies were cowering in fear. Just as it did, Ridgeline fired his lever-action rifle, striking the radamount’s shoulder as it flew through the air. Its reinforced hide was enough to protect it from the bullet, but the impact slowed and diverted its momentum enough that instead of landing through the window frame, it fell short. Its claws dug into the building in an attempt to save itself, but it wasn’t enough, and soon the radamount was plummeting down to the ground far below.

“Move, everypony, move!” Ridgeline called out. “Get deeper into the building! We do not want those creatures out there figuring out where we’ve gone!”

Eden was stuck in a pain-induced trance, and his words barely registered to her; she had tunnel vision on the sharp quill embedded in her leg, watching her blood bubble around the entry wound before spilling onto the ground… each droplet splashing against the moldy carpet sending shudders through her body. However, the feeling of Ridgeline’s hooves grabbing her underneath the arms snapped her out of her trance, and she was quickly dragged out of the office before the door slammed shut behind them.

“R-Ridge…” Eden stammered out once they were certain no other radamounts were attempting to follow them across.

Ridgeline finally turned his attention to Eden’s wounded leg, and he crouched down with a worried frown. “It doesn’t look good, outsider. I’ll need to pull the quill out to properly bandage it.”

“W-… Will it hurt?” Eden whimpered, though she already knew the answer.

“Extremely,” Ridgeline replied solemnly. “I’d bite down on something. We don’t want your screams attracting the other mist creatures.”

Eden raised a forehoof to her mouth and bit down on the cuff of her Stable suit, clenching it between her teeth. It tasted like blood, muck, and swamp water, but it was better than accidentally biting her own tongue off. “On three?”

“On three,” Ridgeline replied in agreement, his hooves taking a grip on the end of the quill. “One-”

Then, suddenly, the quill was gone, and Eden’s teeth sank into her sleeve so hard that they punched holes in the fabric. Her scream of surprise was muffled behind clenched teeth, and her horn sent out sparks of distress and pain that illuminated the dark hallway.

He did it early. He did it early, that mother-...

Her thoughts were cut off as the wave of pain reached her mind from her leg, and her vision immediately began to dim as the world started to swirl and contort around her. She collapsed back in shock, and before her head hit the ground, she was already being whisked away into the comforting—and familiar—feeling of unconsciousness.

Chapter Six: Ensnared

Chapter Six: Ensnared

"Someone needs helping, we help 'em; someone needs hurting, we hurt 'em. It's not hard."

Pain.

Not even unconsciousness could save her from the ever-present, overwhelming pain. It enveloped her like a cocoon, surrounding her and filling her every moment with agony and regret. It was both a physical pain and a mental pain; the pain of injury and the pain of regret, and while one tore away at her body, the other ate away at her soul.

Luckily for her, she’d gotten used to the pain by that point.

Eden sputtered back awake after what felt like mere moments, coughing up Mist droplets with body-shaking force. Each breath and movement caused more daggers of pain to shoot through her injured shoulder, and agony quickly yanked her out of the fogginess of sleep and into the waking world. Her eyes shot open, but they were blinded by the bright lights above her.

However, before she could start screaming, a pair of comforting hooves placed themselves on her chest, and Ridgeline’s far-away voice reached her ears. “Easy, outsider. Breathe.”

Her glazed-over eyes began to adjust to the light, and the room slowly came into view. She was laying in the middle of an office room, with the large table slid up against the door to barricade it. However, it wasn't the same room they had leaped into from the S.P.P. tower, as the window was still intact, giving her an unobstructed view of the Smokey Mountains to the east. She had bandages wrapped around her shoulder that looped across her chest and underneath the armpit on her other side, as well as tightly bound around her hind hoof, concealing the hole that had been punched through her leg.

The hostages sat silently around the edges, staring blankly at the ground, lost in their own minds. Ridgeline sat next to her, looking her over as she regained consciousness. The blood leaking from the gash in his cheek had dried into his fur, turning orange to red. He gently pressed the opening of his canteen to her lips, and Eden greedily gulped the water down as she became painfully aware of the dryness of her throat.

The first thing on Eden’s mind was the last thing she thought before going under. “You pulled the quill out early.”

“I did,” Ridgeline replied nonchalantly as he corked his canteen.

“Why?”

“It would’ve hurt a lot more once you tensed up in anticipation. Doing it early made the whole thing easier.”

Eden winced and rubbed her hindleg just above the bandages. “Still hurt a whole lot anyway.”

“That was bound to happen regardless. You got yourself in a lot of trouble, outsider. Your shoulder looks like it’s gonna be worse off than your leg. Whatever that trapper stabbed you with made your flesh bubble and warp. It was all I could do just to stop the blood flow.”

“Ethereal daggers,” Eden grimaced. “Magic corruption. It’ll stop the wound from healing naturally.”

Ridgeline raised an eyebrow. “You knew this, and you still gave away both your health potions?”

“Getting down the tower was more important. If we had to carry ponies down, we never would’ve made the jump over here.”

“But that still leaves you in a sticky situation. Any sudden movements, it’ll reopen, and if you pass out from blood loss, that’ll leave me carrying you all the way back to Oasis while babysitting everyone else.”

“I can handle myself. Don’t worry.”

“You keep saying that, and I keep believing you for some reason,” Ridgeline said as he rummaged through his saddlebags. “Luckily for you, I do have some painkillers left to help take the edge off—”

The sight of the white pills made Eden look away immediately with a sharp hiss of air. “No. No painkillers.”

Ridgeline shrugged and pocketed the drugs. “Suit yourself.”

Only once the painkillers were away did Eden risk looking back at the stallion. “How long was I out?”

“15 minutes or so. We dragged you in here and barricaded the door in case any of those creatures decided to follow us. The plan is to wait out the night and allow the pack that was following us to disperse before making our way back once the sun’s out.”

“You really think these ponies can wait that long? They’re wounded and starving.”

“What choice do we have? Do you really think they’ll fare any better walking down into the claws of that horde? Besides…” Ridgeline leaned forward menacingly. “You don’t want to be out and about during nighttime around here. That’s a death sentence.”

“Okay,” Eden nodded reluctantly. “Then we wait.”

“Glad to hear we’re on the same page,” Ridgeline said, patting Eden on her good shoulder before sliding back against the other wall. “Get some rest, you’ll need it.”

Eden dragged herself up to the near wall, sliding between two ponies to prop herself up. It was as quiet as a funeral here now that Eden and Ridge were no longer talking. Each of the rescued townsponies had chosen a different part of the room to stare at, and they were lost in thousand-hooflength stares; there wasn’t much appetite for sleep among these tortured minds.

Eden joined in, and her eyes found themselves fixed on Ridgeline across from her. He was sitting against the wall with his forelegs crossed over his chest, head tilted down and eyes closed. Every once in a while, his leg would twitch, or his ear, or his tail, but otherwise he was as still as a statue.

That made a thought flash across her mind. “Hey, Ridge.”

“Mmhm?” Ridgeline responded, not moving his body or opening his eyes.

"Do you think there are any healing supplies on this floor?"

“Doubtful. The whole city was nearly picked clean by scavengers years ago. Not much left of anything worth finding, unless it’s somewhere isolated, or guarded by Mist creatures.”

“Can’t you use your… twitchy thing to find some?”

Ridgeline looked up. “My what?”

“Y’know. Your…” Eden crudely wiggled both ears to demonstrate, followed by a full-body tremor.

Ridgeline pursed his lips. “Ah. No. That only works with locations, not items.”

“What is it, anyway?”

“My special talent,” Ridgeline said while briefly showing his cutie mark: a well-marked trail with a sign pointing the right way. “Pathfinding. I can calculate the best route to any location I can think of. All the twitching is just my body doing the calculations.”

“Weird.”

“It’s not voluntary. I barely notice it anymore. But it allows me to find my way through the Mist, so it’s pretty damn useful. Made me the most important pony in the city for a long time.”

“Until you retired,” Eden added. “You know, you never did tell me why.”

“And I never will,” Ridgeline replied bluntly. “Now, what part of ‘get some rest’ did you not understand?”

Eden took the hint and shut up. Sleeping would take a lot more work though, especially with her body still aching with relentless pain. She closed her eyes and tried anyway.

Eden limped down the hallway, passing generic office after generic office. There was no chance any of these meeting rooms had anything worth scavenging besides pencils and clipboards; she’d need to find a bathroom or medical station to find the potions she needed.

She gripped her revolver in her teeth as she carefully pushed a closed door open, scouring the room through the small opening in the doorframe. It looked like a personal office space, with a small desk and a terminal perched on top of it. The name tag displayed on the front of the desk denoted the room as the CEO's office.

Eden slid inside and rummaged through the drawers of the desk, but the search was in vain; there was nothing but wrinkled papers and envelopes in them now. This floor had already been picked clean. The terminal atop the desk was deactivated, and the subjects of the photos hanging on the wall were faceless.

With a sigh, she pushed her way back out of the room, but something in front of her caught her eye. The hallway had opened up on this end, and a second path in front of her led to a single, solitary door. A lit-up sign hung above it; the text and covering had long since shattered and fallen off, but the bulb still shone, coating the otherwise-dark hallway with a red glow.

How is there still electricity in the building?

Eden tensed her tongue against the trigger and moved closer, the red light casting a long shadow across the ground as she approached. Her hoof found the door handle and pushed down, sliding the door open slowly. The first thing she saw was… water. Water and muck. The entire room was full of murky water and brown mud, with the occasional tuft of grass growing atop the dry patches. It was as if a piece of the mire on the outskirts of town had been picked up and deposited into the room, burying the contents in peat.

“Woah…”

Eden stepped into the room while making sure to keep her injured hind leg out of the muddy water. The underwater portions were only fetlock deep, so she was easily able to traverse the room while exploring its contents. All the tables, desks, and chairs of this section of the office were partially submerged by the mire, leaving nothing to find or salvage. The only thing of note was a second door with a red light shining overtop it, exactly the same as the first.

She pushed on the door, expecting the mud caking the hinges to give resistance, but it swung open easily once again. This time, she had to flinch away from the uncomfortable brightness of light that sprung out of the opening, and she shielded her face with a forehoof as she looked inside.

Inside this doorway was a long, barren hallway the color of bleached white. Only the occasional black accent along the corners of the walls and floor broke up the ubiquitous white, and the fluorescent lighting embedded in the ceiling reflected off the shiny material and made the hallway almost unbearable to look at. Eden squinted her eyes and entered anyway. Her hooves left mud stains on the pristine floor as she limped inside.

Every few hooflengths, a window was set in the wall, though the glass was tinted so black that Eden could only see her own reflection in them. But there were no doorways, no ventilation grates, no branching intersections to other hallways; just lights, blank windows, and a straight and narrow path. Eventually, the hallway came to an end, and she was greeted with the same door with the red light overtop it.

The next room was pitch black. The light from the white hallway spilled in through the doorway to illuminate the first few hooflengths inside, but Eden still had to blink several times to adjust her eyes to the light change. The interior was so dark that she couldn't see where the walls or ceiling were; the room could either be as small as a custodian's closet or as large as an auditorium. There was no way of knowing.

The dark room appeared totally bare, except for one item: a small wooden bureau, only as tall as her chest. Eden stepped forward and placed a hoof on the handle of the topmost drawer, gently pulling it open. Inside were clusters of brown pods sticking to the bottom of the drawer, each as big as her hoof. They were stuck together with a wispy white substance, and each pod was covered in small holes the size of a needle tip.

They looked like… Eggs? If so, who did they belong to?

A rustling noise from above answered that question.

Eden spun around and turned her gun up to the ceiling. Above her shone eight red eyes and two large fangs, along with a mass of legs that kept the creature attached to the ceiling. When she caught sight of it, it hissed and reared up. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet nicked off the green-colored exoskeleton. A long, slender leg sliced across her face, knocking her revolver out of her muzzle, and taking some of her jaw along with it.

She collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain as her blood and teeth scattered across the floor. The side of her face quickly went numb, but she could feel her tongue hanging out of the hole in her muzzle. She dragged herself towards her lost revolver and reached for it with a hoof, but the arachnid leg stabbed right through her PipBuck and into the limb beneath. With a twist, it ripped her foreleg right off her body.

The blood filling her throat gagged Eden's scream. She watched her severed leg thump against the wall and paint it red. She tried to turn, but fangs sank into her back before she could, and her body immediately went limp. The last thing she felt was silk wrapping around her, enveloping her in a cocoon.

“Are you okay?”

Eden looked up to see the Kirin filly she had rescued atop the tower staring down at her with worry in her eyes.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” Eden said as she carefully shifted to a sitting position.

“You were talking in your sleep. You looked scared,” the filly said.

“It’s just something I do sometimes. I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s okay. I don’t sleep much anyway.”

Eden frowned as she looked the Kirin over. She looked a bit older than the age a pony filly would get their cutie mark, but like the other Kirin in the room, she didn’t have one. Her haunted eyes were accented by dark circles underneath; she looked like she had seen a lifetime of pain already.

“What’s your name, dear?” Eden asked.

“Vestige,” the filly whispered.

“Vestige… Big name for such a small filly. I’m Eden.”

Eden put on her most reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Vestige. She just frowned and looked away, causing Eden to tilt her head.

“What’s wrong?” Eden asked.

“This is wrong,” Vestige stammered. “You’re a pony. I’m a Kirin. We’re not supposed to be talking to each other.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well… The townsponies hate us, so we’re supposed to keep to ourselves when we can.”

“Well, I’m not a townspony, so can we make an exception? You seem like a cool filly.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“Why don’t you hate me? My mom told me all ponies hate Kirin. Ever since before the war, they’ve hated us and blamed us.”

“Well, maybe around here they do. But there aren’t any Kirin where I’m from.”

“Where in Equestria are you from? There are never any outsiders in town anymore. Only grumpy old ponies.”

Eden glanced over at Ridgeline, but he either didn't hear or didn't take the statement as an insult. "Well… I'm not even from Equestria."

That got Vestige’s attention. “Whaaaaat? There are places that aren’t Equestria?” she asked, placing her hooves atop Eden’s chest to look up into her eyes.

“Of course! There’s the Zebra Kingdom to the west, the Crystal Empire in the north, the Griffonstone Isles to the east… but I’m from the south. Beyond the Macintosh Hills is a large expanse of desert and rocks that we all call the Badlands. There are actually more non-ponies than ponies there, so you get used to living alongside them! That’s why I’m not angry at you.”

“What kind of non-ponies?”

"The main city, Klugetown, is a giant melting pot of species. There're hellhounds, abyssinians, griffons, batponies, zebras, hippogriffs, buffalo, robots… storm creatures… slime creatures… walking fish… all sorts of crazy things. The Ironworks outside the town doused the whole city in smoke and chemicals, and sometimes it's so thick you can barely see anything in the mornings. It's built on top of a rock spire, and houses are stacked on top of each other, up and up and up… if you have enough caps, you can afford to live on the highest parts and avoid the worst of the smog…" Eden blinked. "Sorry, I got off topic, but—"

“Tell me more about it, please…” Vestige pleaded, even though her eyes were beginning to visibly grow heavy.

Eden chuckled. “Okay… There’s New Haven, home of the Sentinels. Best group of ponies I’ve ever met. There’s… Salt Lick City. My home. Nothing there now but ghosts and echoes… There’s Canter Creek, Irwind, Mount Aris, Applewood… But the shining jewel is New Pegas.”

The more Eden spoke in her comforting, soothing tone, the more relaxed Vestige became. The filly rested her head on Eden’s chest as she listened, closing her eyes and immersing herself in the unicorn’s story.

“It’s built high up in the clouds where no one can touch it,” Eden continued. “It’s full of bright, flashing lights and tall buildings that take you up into outer space… at least, that’s what it feels like. Mares wear dresses that glitter and gleam like magic in the light. Stallions wear pre-war suits and white shirts that are miraculously still white after all these years. No two outfits look the same. No two buildings look the same. It’s all a unique blur of commotion and color that you get lost in.”

“It sounds so much better than all this gray…” Vestige whimpered sleepily.

“It is. It’s like a time capsule of the old world, perfectly preserved. A moment of sanity in an age of chaos. And when you find those moments of peace among the horrors of the wasteland, you need to protect them with everything you have, because you never know when they’ll come around again once they’re gone.”

By now, Vestige was too comfortable to respond. Eden leaned down to whisper into the filly’s ear as a hoof gently stroked her mane.

“That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I do. Protecting the glimmers of hope still left in this world. Because if I can’t be the one to save it, then maybe I can nurture the spark that does.”

“Clear.”

Ridgeline pushed his way out of the room, with Eden behind him. The group of townsponies filed out as well, though they kept their distance from the two, letting them clear the way forward. The floor was still quiet and abandoned, and it seemed that none of the Mist creatures had tried to follow them after seeing the radamount plummet to its death.

The floor was similarly abandoned of anything noteworthy or useful, save for a single terminal that was still running. Given that all the other terminals were broken, this immediately perked Eden’s interest. She quickly seated herself in front of the screen while her magic fished her PipBuck interface tools out of her pocket.

“Don’t we have more urgent things to be doing, outsider?” Ridgeline asked, tapping a hoof as he glanced around.

“This’ll only take a second, hold on,” Eden said as she plugged her PipBuck into the terminal’s interface port. “And I do have a name, you know.”

“Aye, you do. But I’ve decided not to call you by it… Until you prove yourself.”

This made Eden look at him around the terminal screen with a frown. “Why not?”

“Up here, it’s best not to get emotionally connected to something that can be ripped away from you at any time. I’d suggest you do the same.”

Eden’s frown deepened, and she shrugged her shoulders. “Seems disrespectful to me.”

“You’re an outsider. You don’t understand what we townsponies have been through.”

“You think I haven’t lost friends? Loved ones? And yet I still have the common courtesy of referring to you by name.”

“This is different. Tall Tale is hell. You haven’t seen even a fraction of what it can do.”

“The wasteland is hell for everyone, Ridge. Your mistake is thinking that you ponies are the only ones with problems.”

“And yet here you are, desperately trying to fix ours. Our knight in shining armor!” Ridgeline said with a flourish and a bow. “What would we ever do without your gracious presence, outsider?”

“Sit around and drink?” Eden offered.

Ridgeline just snorted and rolled his eyes.

Once her PipBuck connected to the terminal, the scrolling lines of code that flashed across her PipBuck screen made her raise an eyebrow. This wasn’t a standard security protocol; someone had manually enhanced the encryption to make it resistant to a simple hack. Was this standard operating procedure for Starbucked? Or was the owner of this terminal particularly obsessed with security? With all the other terminals destroyed, there was no way of finding out for certain.

With the possibility of brute forcing her way in out of the question, she wormed her way deeper into the code of the terminal, bringing up lines and lines of gibberish words and symbols. One of these words was the password, and it took her a few minutes to suss it out using trial and error.

It ended up being “corporeality.” That was a new one.

The terminal contained internal communications for the entirety of the Starbucked office. Eden quickly downloaded the messages onto her PipBuck for later reading before disconnecting.

“Alright, I got it. Let’s go.”

Internal Communications

[STICKIED] R&I Department Mission Statement
Tall Tale is Starbucked turf, and we need to make sure everyone knows about it. If Java’s Cup tries to make a move in this city, I want to know about it. If the Ministries try anything funny, I want to know about it. If someone does as much as sneeze in our direction, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

I created the Research and Information Department for a reason, and if I’m going to be bankrolling you, then I expect results. I want prompt weekly reports on your findings, no matter how seemingly small and inconsequential you think it is. I’ll be the one deciding whether something is important, not you.

This is all considered Top Secret information. Do not discuss any of this with your coworkers, your neighbors, or even your families. You never know when, where, or how they’ll listen in on you. Discretion is paramount. Consider internal communications the only safe form of conversation.

Kirin Internment
The situation regarding the Kirin is an… unfortunate circumstance. Not only are their internment camps an eyesore, but locking them all away has taken away a not-insignificant portion of our consumer base. The Crown is, unsurprisingly, not empathetic of our complaints, and equally as dismissive of our suggestions.

We suggested that they disband the camps and focus on increased surveillance of the Kirin instead, but they said they do that anyway! Our next idea was moving the Kirin out of town so that they won't be so… visible… but that was rebuffed as well. Apparently, they want them close by to keep an eye on. Moving them back to the Peaks of Peril puts them even closer to the zebra kingdom; they don’t want to give them any more opportunities to become sympathizers or spies.

However, I still feel there is an opportunity to turn this situation in our favor. The Kirin may no longer be able to visit our stores, but they’re locked up with nowhere to go. Which means they don’t have a choice as to what or where they can eat and drink.

Perhaps we can secure a deal with the crown to be the “caterers” for the internment camps, for the lack of a better word. We’ll be paid to feed them strictly Starbucked products, and by the time they’re released, they’ll all be completely hooked on us. Plus, we’ll have their gratitude for looking after them in their time of need.

Is this worth looking into? Let me know.

They were forced to take frequent breaks on the way down the main stairwell to allow the more injured ponies to catch their breaths, which—to Eden’s disdain—included her. Her injured hind hoof hobbled her more than she feared; she couldn’t put any weight on it at all, forcing her to work her way around on three legs. At least the breaks gave her time to skim through the terminal entries she had downloaded.

The standard corporate meddling was of little interest to Eden—Klugetown was full of it, so she was used to it—but the passage about the Kirin quickly caught her eye. Vestige had told her that ponies hated and blamed Kirin even before the war, and this entry backed that story up. Spies and saboteurs for the Zebra Kingdom? Was this a classic case of unsubstantiated war paranoia, or did they really choose the side of the zebras?

None of that mattered though. The Kirin she was escorting were not involved with what their ancestors may or may not have done, so they definitely didn’t deserve to be mistreated because of it.

Ridgeline offered her another sip from his canteen, which she gratefully accepted. He may have insisted on calling her outsider, but at least he was helpful and understanding otherwise, which was more than she could say about most of the ponies living in Oasis. A lot of ponies had strange quirks, and she was willing to let his slide for now.

“How are you holding up?” Ridgeline asked.

“Doing well so far,” Eden replied as she gave the canteen back. “Bit slower than I’d like to be, but there’s not much I can do about that. You know the way out of here?”

“It’s been years since I’ve been in this building, but getting out is easy enough. We just need to make it down to the lobby. Stairwell should be intact the entire way down, then a little jaunt through the offices will take us to the main entrance.”

“And the way back to Oasis?”

Ridgeline’s mouth became a thin line. “It’ll be trickier than the way here. We’ll have to move at a slower pace due to all the injuries, which means we’ll have prolonged exposure to the Mist. That could spell disaster if we aren’t careful. You got any RadAway left?”

Eden quickly checked her PipBuck’s inventory screen. “One more pack, yeah.”

“Good. Hold on to it. If someone goes down, it’ll be vital for bringing them back.”

“Bringing them back?”

“Remember how I said that the Mist melts your mind if you aren’t careful? I wasn’t exaggerating. You spend too much time out there breathing it, walking through it, rolling in it… You start to lose your sense of reality. That’s how those damn trappers turned into what they are…” Ridgeline’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And it’ll happen to all of us if we aren’t careful. Consuming RadAway is the only way we know of to diminish the symptoms and stave off the onset.”

Eden’s mind immediately wandered to her trip through the Divide. The terminal she found in the raider-infested fort had mentioned something similar: the first pony to start breaking down into coughing and nonsense rambling had been sated by the application of RadAway. The same thing happened to her after her… excursion into the Ponget Sound.

It made sense. The clacking of her PipBuck told her that the Mist’s power undoubtedly came from its excess radiation. Taking RadAway would be the most obvious way to counter its effects.

“But we’ll only be able to bring back one of us if it comes to it,” Eden frowned.

“I’d rather not have to use it at all,” Ridgeline replied. “Which is why we need to hurry when we get out there. No more pointless side quests for you, outsider.”

“Fine,” Eden shrugged her shoulders. “Apparently, all the good loot is already taken anyway.”

Manehattan
Heads up, boss. We've got a status update from one of our franchise stores in Manehattan. Not Tall Tale related, per se, but still important enough for you to take a look at.

Jamocha Joe is our Franchisee in the lower Manehattan area, and unfortunately for us, a Java’s Cup opened in the same strip mall at the same time. This has obviously taken a cut into our profits from the store, but there is some good we can take from the situation: it can function as an interesting case study for our advertising techniques. See what works and what doesn’t. We fed Jamocha Joe a few ideas, but we’ve mainly just sat back and seen what he could come up with. Then we compared the sales totals to figure out which ones the customers connected with.

The Java’s Cup, as expected, leaned heavily into their “patriotic” ad campaign, doing just about everything but calling us zebra-affiliated. Even got a picture of Luna plastered up on their billboard, which we’ve obviously already reported for misappropriation. Jamocha Joe has decided on something a little more… arousing.

Now, I don’t know if the Ministry of Morale will be crawling over our backs over this within the next few weeks, but I think it’s genius. Attractive lesbian twins? Steamy coffee? The two go together like buffalo and mud. And apparently, the citizens of Manehattan agree with us.

The rollout is limited, obviously, but results are promising already. We’re now outperforming Java’s Cup handily in Manehattan, despite their best efforts at sabotage. If this goes well, we could adapt this into our nationwide advertising strategy. We’ll keep you updated.

Eden was suddenly hit with a strong sense of déjà vu.

At the bottom of the staircase was a single door. A shattered sign above the doorway still shone with a defiant light, bathing the group in blood red. The underside of the door was splattered with mud, and muck was leaking through the gap in a slow ooze.

The townsponies were gathered around the small landing area, and Ridgeline stood with his hoof on the door handle.

“Alright, we made it to the ground floor. This is the most likely spot for any Mist creatures to still be lingering if they waited around, so we need to be extra careful. No talking unless absolutely necessary,” Ridgeline said.

That didn’t need to be an order. Eden hadn’t heard any of the shell-shocked hostages say a word since they were rescued.

Well, none except for Vestige. The Kirin filly had stuck closer to her since their conversation up in the office, and now she was hiding behind Eden’s hind legs and using the unicorn’s tail as cover.

Eden levitated her revolver out of her saddlebag and nodded to Ridgeline. She could feel her magic returning after a night of rest, but she hoped she didn’t have to use too much of it.

Ridgeline nodded back. “Stick close to me. Let’s move.”

He pushed the handle down, but the mud had caked the door shut in its frame. Ridgeline pressed his shoulder into it with a grunt of exertion, and it slowly swung open to reveal the ground floor.

The stairway had led them to what looked like a cafeteria, but it was hard to tell under the sheer excess of mud that had been deposited into the place. The ground and walls were plastered with it, and pools of murky water dotted the open area like splatters of ink on a muddy manuscript. The sheer amount of brown was offset by the occasional sprinkling of green from the small plants that had managed to find root here. Any furniture or furnishings had been completely submerged, leaving only a small slice of the swamp.

She had seen this place before. In her dream.

“Weird…” Ridgeline whispered. “It wasn’t like this before. Something must have flooded the place.”

“Is it still traversable?” Eden asked.

Ridgeline closed his eyes briefly before nodding. “Seems to be. Lobby’s this way. Come on.”

He stepped into the mud slowly and carefully, and Eden followed behind on her three good legs. Immediately, her hooves splashed through the water, and her PipBuck’s radiation detector chirped angrily at her. The air was filled with a slight vapor that tickled the back of her throat whenever she took a breath. The room smelled… burnt, and bittersweet, with a hint of fruity aroma. Not like the normally earthen scent of the mire.

The soft, slippery mud made finding her footing difficult, especially with only three hooves to work with. The injured townsponies were having similar problems, and progress through the cafeteria was slow going. Ridgeline, however, did not stop to help; his eyes were fixed on the doorway out of the room, and his teeth snugly gripped the trigger of his battle saddle.

A splash and a little yelp caught Eden’s attention. She glanced down to see that Vestige had fallen into one of the many puddles of water, and it was so deep that it went all the way up to the small Kirin’s belly fur. The filly floundered for a second as she fought the deep mud and tried to find her footing, soaking herself even more.

“Here. Want a lift?” Eden asked, offering a hoof.

Vestige gratefully took it, and Eden lifted her out of the puddle and onto her back. The mud-covered filly wrapped her hooves around Eden’s neck to hold on, and the two slowly made their way after Ridgeline.

“Thanks…” Vestige whispered.

“No problem,” Eden said. “Just stick close, I’ll keep you safe.”

The doorway out of the cafeteria was caked in the same gunk that covered the rest of the room. But joining it were strangely shaped red barnacles, like the ones that infested the sunken supply ship. However, the shape of these ones appeared similar to nozzles, and as Eden approached, she noticed that the Mist surrounding them was noticeably thicker than the rest of the cafeteria.

She heard Vestige take a deep breath behind her before they got too close, but she thought nothing of it… until one of the barnacles unleashed a plume of thick Mist that buffeted across her face. The vaporous air filled her mouth, nose, and eyes, assaulting her taste buds and gagging at the back of her throat. She broke down into a loud, wheezing coughing fit that nearly shook Vestige off her! Each sharp inhale during the moment’s respite between bouts of coughing only succeeded in drawing more of the poisonous air into her lungs.

Eden covered her muzzle with her hoof and hobbled out of the way of the barnacles, making her way to clean air before attempting to draw another breath. Her PipBuck continued to staccato like a broken metronome.

“Try not to breathe it in, outsider,” Ridgeline said with a roll of his eyes. “I thought that was obvious.”

Eden wiped her muzzle off before glaring at him. “I didn’t know they’d be blasting it into my face. A little warning would have been nice.”

“Again, I thought it was obvious.”

Then, Ridgeline was gone once again, heading deeper into the floor without a moment more to pause.

“Sorry,” Vestige whispered into her ear as she perched on her back. “I should’ve told you. But I was too busy… y’know...”

“Holding your own breath?” Eden finished with a small chuckle. “Don’t worry. I'll be fine.”

Her PipBuck clicked away.

Excess Coffee Beans Storage
Hey boss. Remember that massive order for coffee beans you had us put in the other month? Well, it’s finally here, and now we have nowhere to store the damn things. We fit all we could in our storage warehouses, and even sent extra to all our stores in the city, but there’s still too much. I know the whole point was to block Java’s Cup from ordering enough for their own stores, but do you think we might’ve gone a little overkill?

We’ve decided to store the leftover vats in the basement of the headquarters for the time being, until we can figure out something more permanent. They shouldn’t spoil for a long while unless something drastic happens, so we’ve got time to think about it. Just let us know if you want to do anything different.

The hallways leading to the lobby were filled with more mud and more strange barnacles. In some places, the hardened clay was built up so thick that it clung to the walls and reached the ceiling, and navigating through it was like squeezing through a maze.

This wasn’t something that occurred naturally. But what could’ve possibly shaped the mud like this?

Whatever had done it wasn’t here anymore; there were no other signs of life as the group of ponies climbed through the hallways. Her E.F.S. was likewise quiet in the few times she brought it up. However, the quiet didn’t bring her calm, instead more unease. Oasis was the only place left in the city where one could feel truly safe. Everywhere else, the quiet was more like a calm before the inevitable storm.

The air was filled with the smell of decomposing plants, along with the dripping of water and the splashing of hooves as the group progressed. Eden often found herself breathing into the sleeve of her Stable Suit to avoid the worst of the Mist that clouded the interior like a haze.

At the end of the hallway was a glowing red light that beckoned them closer as they trudged through the disgusting terrain. It was shining from the exit sign hanging above the door on the wall side of an L-shaped intersection. It was the same kind of sign as the one above the doorway in the stairwell, but this one was hanging slightly crooked. The wires powering it dangled loosely from the torn-up ceiling.

“Weird…” Ridgeline muttered as Eden limped up beside him. “The exit sign is here, but my talent is telling me the exit is still in that direction.”

He pointed down the turn of the hallway to the right, leading further into the building.

“Maybe this is the emergency exit? A back way out?” Eden asked.

“Could be. But this still isn’t the fastest way back to Oasis,” Ridgeline said.

“Fastest? Or most direct?” Eden objected. “I think getting outside and moving on pavement would be a lot quicker than slogging through more of this crud.”

“Maybe. But I don’t like taking detours. Straying off the safe path has never ended well. Remember rule three?”

Eden nodded. “But you don’t think it’s at least worth a look? If it saves us time, that’ll mean less time spent in the Mist.”

Ridgeline pursed his lips at that. “Fine. Just a look.”

As Ridgeline crept forward towards the exit, Eden brought up her PipBuck’s mapping feature. It was useful for finding the route from one place in the wasteland to the next, but the local interior map left a lot to be desired, especially considering the amount of decay and destruction that affected the original floor plans of the buildings. A lot of the time, the map would show you a route that no longer existed.

However, the map told her that the door Ridgeline was walking towards was a dead end. In fact, they weren’t even near the outside wall at all. How was this an emergency exit if they were still in the middle of the building?

Eden looked up at the sign once again. It was hanging crooked and uncentered, sloppy work for such a well-off business. The dangling electric wires were much too long for its current position, as if it were supposed to be… farther away.

Eden’s stomach dropped. “Wait…!”

Ridgeline swung the door open.

The interior was indeed a dead end. It was a large custodian’s closet, lined with concrete and completely stripped bare. The only thing that remained was a small wooden bureau, only as tall as her chest.

A long, slender leg sliced across her face, knocking her revolver out of her muzzle, and taking some of her jaw along with it.

She had seen this place before. In her dream.

“Ridge!” Eden called out as her horn flashed to life.

Before Ridgeline could react, Eden's blue aura wrapped around his tail and yanked him backward, pulling him out of the room so hard he fell and splashed through the muck below. And as soon as she did, an arachnid leg sliced down from the ceiling to where Ridgeline had been just moments before, nearly impaling him straight through.

Rather than slicing through the stallion, the leg instead sliced right through the bureau on the follow-through, rattling it and knocking it over onto its side with a wooden thud. The impact continued to make it shudder and tremble for several seconds as something inside it shook. Then, little green specks began to flood out of the drawers and cracks of the bureau, scurrying across the wood and down to the ground.

Each of the little specks had eight tiny legs, eight blood-red eyes, two fangs dripping with venom, and buzzing wings that could barely support their weight. And they were flooding towards the doorway like a green wave.

They looked like… Eggs? If so, who did they belong to?

Spiders. Thousands upon thousands of tiny spiders. With wings.

The last magefire canister was out of her saddlebag before she could think, and she hurled it while keeping the pin behind. The metal apple bounced twice before erupting inside the custodian’s closet, engulfing the toppled bureau and the wave of spiders in cleansing blue flame.

A primal scream of fear and grief filled the air. The giant spider leaped down from the ceiling and into the flames, scooping the bureau up in its legs to save it from the flames. Protecting its babies.

Then, the fire flashed green, and the magefire exploded again.

Eden didn’t stay to watch the aftermath. She was already shoving a mud-covered Ridgeline away from the flames and urging ponies down the hallway as fast as their injured legs could carry them.

“Go! Go! Go! Follow Ridgeline! Don’t look back! Just MOVE!”

“Outsider!” Ridgeline called back from the front. “You okay?”

“I’ll make sure no one gets left behind. Just get us out of here!”

The slow, careful pace had turned into a mad scramble through the maze-like muck. All the rescued townsponies were nearly climbing over the top of each other to make it around the tall stalks of mud, and Eden was forced to limp along in the rear, helping fallen ponies regain their footing. Their panicked shouts and grunts of exertion echoed down the previously silent hallway. The barnacles continued to puff out exhales of Mist, and each plume blinded the unlucky recipient, making navigation even more difficult.

Eden ignited her horn to bring up her E.F.S. as she ran. All the commotion had woken up the rest of the building, and life signatures were popping up everywhere around them. Hundreds of dots filled her vision; every single one was red, and they were scuttering around in a hurry.

This wasn’t something that occurred naturally. But what could’ve possibly shaped the mud like this?

The spiders had turned this place into a breeding ground… and a trap. This was their elaborate version of a web, and they had been ensnared in it.

“Miss Eden!” Vestige cried out from atop her back. “Behind us!”

Eden didn’t dare look. She couldn’t look anywhere but the uneven mud underneath her hooves, desperately trying to find the right footing to move as fast as possible. Her injured leg erupted in pain each time she placed it down, but she couldn’t afford to only use three at the moment. She needed every last scrap of energy and speed to make it out of here, or an injured leg would be the least of her worries.

Suddenly, a fresh burst of pain shot through one of her hind legs, drawing Eden’s breath away in a shocked gasp. It was enough to throw her stride off just enough for her to lose her footing, and her hooves slid away on the slippery mud, sending her tumbling to the ground snout first. Mud and water coated her underside and soaked her Stable barding, and she felt Vestige tumble off her and roll further up the hallway.

“Keep going!” Eden groaned out to the Kirin filly before rolling over onto her back.

There, attached to her hindleg, was one of the baby spiders. Its disproportionately large, yet still relatively small fangs were embedded into her skin, and its wings buzzed in an attempt to keep itself attached. Eden yelped and instinctively brought a forehoof down, crushing the arachnid under her hoof and splattering its guts across her fur.

The momentary delay was all it took for the swarm to descend on her: a green cloud of tiny flying spiders with buzzing wings that filled the air with an ominous, haunting hum. They were on her in seconds, covering what felt like every inch of her body with their buzzing, crawling presence. Their fangs couldn't penetrate through her barding, but Eden felt them bite into her arms, legs, neck, and ears; they were everywhere all at once. No amount of writhing or rolling could dislodge them or free her from the torturous sensations battering her battle-torn body.

“Get OFF!” Eden screamed as her magic erupted.

Her body briefly flashed blue as a shield formed along her skin before distending outward. The rapid outward expansion launched all the spiders off her body and sent them tumbling back down the hallway, splashing in the mud as they made impact. Her horn flashed as her magic temporarily overloaded from the strain, and her body trembled as venom coursed through it, but it was only enough to make her achy and weak, not paralyzed.

She felt cloven hooves grab her good shoulder and attempt to pull her away while Vestige’s worried voice filled her ear. “Are you okay, Miss Eden?”

“I’m fine,” Eden replied as she pulled herself back upright. “Why aren’t you with the others?”

“I couldn’t just leave you! You helped me, so I need to help you.”

Eden opened her mouth to respond, but a loud screech interrupted her. Both ponies turned toward the source of the sound, but they quickly took a step back when they saw what was coming.

Back down the hallway, the giant spider had pulled itself out from the custodian's closet and was scuttling its way toward them. It was so large that the hallway was barely large enough to accommodate it, and its long, slender legs merely smashed apart the mud stalks in its way as it gained on them. In a way, it looked like a boulder rumbling down the narrow passageway toward them, destroying everything in its path.

It had a green body with brown legs and red eyes, along with red markings that coursed along its body, and two insectoid wings that were too large to use in such a small space. Its exoskeleton was covered in scorch marks, and in some places, it had even burned away to reveal its insides. But it was still rushing towards them unabated, and its eight red eyes glowed with hatred.

“Dear Faust above…” Eden stammered as she stared, transfixed.

There was no way they’d be able to outrun that thing. Not in her current state.

In an instant, Eden’s magic levitated her last metal apple out of her bag and shoved it into one of the mud stalks next to her. She then yanked the pin out and scooped Vestige up onto her back before galloping off after the group.

“Don’t look back!” Eden told Vestige as she braced herself.

Behind them, she heard the metal apple erupt, washing her hindquarters with heat and shaking the ground under her hooves. Then, she heard the clattering of metal as the ceiling and walls collapsed, followed by the frustrated screech of the spider as it was trapped behind the rubble. A creature that big would plow its way through eventually, but she planned on being long gone by that point.

"Miss Eden! You did it!" Vestige cried out as she hugged Eden's neck for support.

Eden brought up her E.F.S. and grimaced at the sea of red that greeted her. “One down… hundreds to go.”

The whole building was filled with a distant buzzing as Eden burst into the lobby at last. It was a large, spacious room, and the ceiling was three stories tall, which was a relief coming from the claustrophobic feeling of the rest of the floor. The entire wall containing the main entrance was made of glass and windows, some of them cracked, some of them shattered, all of them dirtied by time. They still allowed what precious light managed to penetrate the Mist to beam through and illuminate the place in a light blue glow.

The floor was still covered in muck, but it lacked the built-up stalks that restricted their movement in the hallways. What the lobby did have, however, was large, stainless-steel vats, about a dozen of them, almost all turned over onto their sides. The contents spilled out of them, revealing it to be the same brown sludge that covered the rest of the floor. The sides of the containers were labeled: “Starbucked Coffee Beans: Product of the Starbucked Organization.”

We’ve decided to store the leftover vats in the basement of the headquarters for the time being, until we can figure out something more permanent.

This stuff wasn’t mud. It was the rotting dregs of coffee beans. The spiders had dragged the vats up to create their trap.

Ridgeline and the group of townsponies were waiting for her near the front entrance, but Eden could hear the spider begin to tear through the rubble that had separated them. It wouldn’t hold it for long.

“Help me!” Eden yelled to the group as she galloped over to the nearest upright vat and began to push.

The vat was heavy on its own, and the contents added to its weight considerably, so she wasn’t able to make much progress on her own. But as more and more of the group galloped over to help, the container slowly began to slide across the ground towards the hallway, where it completely covered the doorway to block the spider from following them.

However, the sound of scuttling legs above her grew louder and louder, and Eden released the vat to look up at the high ceiling. Crawling out of every window, crevice, and doorway were waves upon waves of spiders, from the size of a dog to the size of a bugbear. They scurried across the walls and ceilings as more and more emerged, soon totaling in the hundreds. And they quickly began to home in on the source of the commotion: the group of ponies standing on the floor of the lobby.

There were so many. Too many to fight. If her combat rifle were still functional, she could do some damage, but neither of her pistols had the stopping power to punch through the spiders’ exoskeletons. That left only one option.

“RUN!”

At the sound of Eden’s voice, the room exploded into movement. The group of townsponies bolted for the entrance with Eden limping behind as best she could. The buzzing of wings and the clicking of spider legs on concrete filled the lobby as the spiders began to chase, some through the air, others on the ground.

“Duck!” Vestige called out atop her back.

Eden quickly complied, and something wet and sticky flew over her head to land with a splat on the mud—... No, coffee-covered floor. It was a bundle of white spider silk. They were shooting webbing at them. Eden grimaced and continued to keep pace with the group as the horde of spiders continued to gain on them.

Beside her, a Kirin townspony gasped as he was hit with one of the flying wads of silk. It tangled around his hind legs and brought him down to the ground with a thud, despite his best efforts to shake free. And before Eden could veer over to help, the spiders descended on him. Fangs sank into his back, stopping his scream in his throat as the paralyzing venom took hold; his face was fixed in an expression of absolute terror.

Eden felt her own body go numb, but it wasn’t from venom. No.

She was here to save them. To make up for her failure at Oasis’s main gate. But her carelessness had only caused more death. More blood on her hooves.

Her magic lifted her revolver out of her saddlebags and unloaded all six shots into the spiders as quickly as possible. Each bullet thumped into their chitinous exoskeletons but didn’t penetrate; instead, the spiders quickly dragged the Kirin’s inert body back into the lobby while dozens more arachnids took their place, descending on Eden in an instant. The stallion was gone.

Vestige screamed as the spiders bared their chelicerae, but Eden’s horn flashed. Her trademark shield appeared between her and the spiders just as they pounced, causing them to bounce off and collapse on top of one another in a tangled pile of legs. More and more continued to take their place in an unstoppable swarm, but the delay gave Eden the time she needed to turn and bolt after the group of townsponies that had already made it out of the building and into the street beyond.

Her shield followed her a few hooflengths behind, and as soon as she passed through the main doorway, her horn flashed once again. The shield instantly expanded in size to fill the entire frame of the entrance, preventing the spiders from following as the ponies galloped deeper into the Mist. Each thump of bodies against the barrier caused her magic to grow weaker and weaker, but by the time the shield finally collapsed and the spiders began to spill out into the city, the townsponies had disappeared into the maze of fog-covered buildings.

Ministry Movement
The trains into town have unfamiliar faces on them. Several of them, new ones, every single day. Canterlot, Las Pegasus, Splendid Valley, Manehattan are their origins. Crown locations. And they’re bringing in cargo cars full of Luna-knows-what with them.

If they were in uniform, I’d just write them off as being new recruits for the Equestrian Army base in town, but they’re in street clothes. They stand at corners whispering to each other in dark cloaks. They have to be ministry affiliated. Have to be.

There’s a lot of zebra attention at the Lunar Monument, and they may be here to keep a closer eye on it, but would they really need that many ponies if that were the case? My gut tells me something else is going on. I think the Ministries are setting up shop here for something bigger. And the fact that they’ve already had the military round up all the Kirin means they’re emboldened.

This is definitely something we need to keep a closer eye on. Where are they operating from? Where are their operations focused? What is their goal? I think the department needs more resources to explore the answers to these questions more fully.

“Damn fly-ders. We walked right into their web.”

Ridgeline lowered the corner of the moldy blinds he had lifted to look out the window and sat himself down with an angry huff. The group of ponies was huddled in the break room of an abandoned office building; outside, the skittering legs and hissing noises of hunting fly-ders had haunted them for the better part of an hour.

Eden had joined the hostages in total silence. Her body was wracked with shivers and aches from the venom still coursing its way through her system, and the fly-der bites had swollen into red bumps all over her body. Her shoulder wound had reopened, with fresh blood spilling down her foreleg once again. However, she paid her own condition no mind; the only thing she could think of was the Kirin stallion’s paralyzed face as he was dragged off into the cluster of arachnids.

What could I have done better? What could I have done better?

“I guess that’s what I deserve for listening to an outsider,” Ridgeline mused angrily to himself, but loud enough for everyone else to hear.

“It’s my fault. I should have known better. I’m sorry,” Eden responded bluntly and without hesitation.

“No, it’s my fault for letting you talk me into it. I should know better by this point. Nearly got all of us killed.”

The room once again dropped into silence. Each ragged breath Eden took in was full of Mist particles that tickled her tonsils.

What could I have done better? What could I have done better?

“But you did save my life,” Ridgeline said softly. “How did you know?”

Drip. Drip. Drip. Her blood soaked into her fur and slid down her leg to coat her hoof. Blood on her hooves. Their blood.

“Outsider?”

She had failed at Salt Lick City. She had failed at Somnambula. And she was failing here. She would never be good enough to escape from the ghosts still haunting her.

What could I have done better? What could I have done—

An orange hoof pressed underneath Eden’s chin and tilted her head up so she was forced to stare into Ridgeline’s green eyes.

“Hey. Deep breaths, okay?” Ridgeline cooed. “Come back to me.”

Her own reflection in his pupils shocked her back into reality. She was disheveled and wild, covered in muck, grime, and blood. Her mane was stringy and dirty as it fell across the scar on her forehead and horn; just a few days ago, it was luscious and glowing in the New Pegas lights. Now, she felt like she was worlds away from her city.

Eden nodded and took in more shaky inhales. “S-Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Relax. We’re safe for now.”

Ridgeline pulled his canteen back out and offered it to her. Eden took a small sip, but it quickly turned to greedy gulps as she realized how thirsty she was. The blood pouring from her shoulder made her lightheaded and dizzy.

“Did you hear my question?” Ridgeline asked.

“No, sorry,” Eden replied as she corked the canteen.

“How did you know the fly-der was going to be in that room? I would be dead right now if you hadn’t yanked me out of there.”

Where do I even start? Eden thought with a sigh. “I saw it happen already.”

Ridgeline blinked. “Excuse me?”

“The exact same thing happened to me last night. In a dream. Except I didn’t survive.”

“How does that work?”

Eden looked down at her hooves. “It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time.”

“Well… I’ve died once already,” Eden started, pointing to her scarred forehead. “They were able to bring me back, but my mind has never really recovered from it. Every night, I dream of my own death. Sometimes I relive the moment I died. Sometimes I see previous near-death experiences I’ve had, except things turn out differently and I perish. But lately, something’s different about these dreams. I’m seeing my death before the situation happens. Events that have not yet come to pass.”

Ridgeline frowned. “You’re saying you have... visions of the future?”

"It sure seems like it to me. Faust is the Princess of Realities; she made and shaped this reality, and birthed Celestia and Luna to maintain it. So, maybe she’s still shaping this reality from up above, altering the future to the best possible outcome. And she’s doing it through her servant, me, by showing me glimpses of my failures so I can avoid them.”

“Listen, I don’t know about all that,” Ridgeline said with an awkward chuckle. “If there’s some all-knowing Goddess up there controlling and shaping our reality… she must be a fucking sadist to subject us to a world like this. I don’t see a Goddess’s hoof at work in any of this. Just the fucked-up horrors of our own making.”

"Well, we're not puppets to her. We all still have free will. And that free will is what led our ancestors to turn this reality into a wasteland," Eden explained. "But Faust is able to guide our actions and intentions onto the good path if we really make an effort to listen. Not many ponies do anymore, unfortunately."

“Well, the next time you talk with your Goddess, can you ask her to hit the reset button? This world of hers is clearly beyond salvaging from my point of view,” Ridgeline paused. “Oh, and tell her thanks, from me. I owe her one.”

Eden smiled. “Will do.”

Daring Do
The next big media hubbub is about A.K. Yearling. Ever heard of the Daring Do series? Was never my cup of tea, but apparently, it’s got a fanatic nationwide fanbase. A.K. Yearling was born and raised in Tall Tale, and now that she’s retired, she’s decided to move back, and she’s what everyone is talking about around here.

Now, I don’t care about some foals-book author, but a lot of ponies do, and that means we need to at least do our due diligence here and look at how we can use this to our advantage. She’s already done a full press tour of all the city’s landmarks, including that Lunar Monument eyesore. Do we need to invite her to tour the Starbucked brewing center? Do a photo op at one of our stores? Maybe even use her on billboards and other advertisements?

I’m sure every business in this city is brainstorming how to use this mare to their advantage right now. We can’t fall behind.

The group of townsponies made their way through the streets, sticking close together to weave between inert carriages littering the road. The swarm of fly-ders was still loose and searching for them throughout the city; Ridgeline said they’d retreat to the Starbucked building by nightfall, but they didn’t have the luxury of waiting any longer. Not with the townsponies beginning to starve and Eden on the verge of bleeding out.

Besides, the things that came out at night were so much worse than fly-ders. Ridgeline made sure to stress that fact. They needed to make it back to Oasis before the sun went down, and they were already behind schedule.

However, progress was slow-going as they crept slowly and quietly to avoid drawing detection. They paused often to allow Ridgeline to check his talent to make sure they were headed in the right direction. And any noise, any possibility that fly-ders or other Mist creatures may be nearby, forced them to quickly duck down and hide for several minutes before moving on.

Eden could barely keep herself upright as she limped along. Her vision was blurry, her legs trembled from blood loss, and she left a trail of red droplets behind wherever she went. Vestige walked next to her and occasionally glanced over with a worried expression, but there was nothing the Kirin filly could do. She needed proper medical attention, and the only place to find that was Oasis.

As Eden kept up with the group, a voice in the wind made her pause. Her ears perked up, then swiveled around to find the source of the noise. To her left was a wide, open street, lined with stores and shrouded in Mist. She couldn’t see very far down the road, but she swore she could see a pony-shaped silhouette inside, waving a hoof at her desperately.

“Help! I need your help, please!”

Then, the shape darted off down the road and into the fog, out of view.

“Hello?” Eden asked, almost to herself.

Her entire perception of the world faded. She barely noticed the townsponies coming to a stop around her; all she could focus on was the pony that had called for her. She needed to help them. She began to limp away, following where the silhouette had disappeared to.

“Outsider? What’s going on?” Ridgeline said, piercing through her stupor.

Eden blinked. “I heard something… Someone. They need help.”

“Ignore it and move on. Remember rule two?”

Eden no longer heard him. There was a pony that needed helping, and she wasn't going to abandon them like she had abandoned the Kirin stallion. She limped forward down the street after the voice, and soon she was swallowed up by the Mist.

“Hello? Where’d you go?” Eden called out, louder this time.

“Over here!” was the response, followed by the brief reappearance of the silhouette. “Come quickly, there’s not much time!”

Eden quickened her pace. “I’m coming! What’s going on, what’s wrong?”

The pony didn’t respond, just dashing back into the thickness of the Mist to disappear. Eden followed as best she could, but she was interrupted by a coughing fit that splattered blood and saliva across the concrete street below.

“I’m trying to help you, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on! Tell me what’s wrong!” Eden cried out.

“Almost there! Keep coming!” the pony’s disembodied voice answered.

Eden continued blindly, obediently. She was almost there. Just a few more steps—

“BACK!”

Her forward progress was halted by teeth sinking into her tail and yanking her backward. Eden fell back onto her rump with a yelp, and the Mist immediately began to clear as the hypnotizing trance lost its hold. As soon as it did, she was overcome with violent, body-shaking coughs, like she was hacking up a lung. The hoof covering her muzzle was soon covered in splatters of blood as she curled up into a fetal position until the fit passed.

“...W-What are you doing?” Eden finally managed to squeak out.

“Where’s your RadAway?” Ridgeline demanded.

“Left saddlebag…”

She felt Ridgeline dig through her bag to pull out the pouch of orange liquid, and he tore the corner open with his teeth before pressing it to her lips. “Drink, now.”

Eden quickly gulped down the citrus medicine, though she nearly coughed half of it back up as another fit surged through her body. But as the RadAway began to work its cleansing magic through her body, her foggy head began to clear, and the Mist pulled back to reveal the full length of the street to her.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ridgeline barked.

“I-I heard someone,” Eden said, though now she cringed at how stupid she sounded.

“No, you didn’t. You heard the Mist. We’ve been out here too long, and it sank its claws right into you.”

“Why would the Mist want to bring me out here?”

Ridgeline gestured in the direction Eden had been walking. “Look for yourself.”

Now that the Mist had cleared, Eden could clearly see what Ridgeline was referring to. Directly in front of her was a yawning crevice, like an open wound torn into the earth's crust. It was so wide that it couldn't be crossed safely, and it was so deep that Eden couldn't see the bottom. If she really peered down into it, she could maybe catch a glimpse of something white and glowing along the bottom, but she couldn't tell for sure.

She had seen these cracks when she was atop the Lunar Monument. They spread across the city like veins, and they seemed to all connect to the collapsed S.P.P. tower’s base. Fault lines from an earthquake, perhaps.

Another step, and she would have stumbled off the edge to her death.

The brick-covered street grew cracks before splitting open into a yawning, cavernous crevice… All she could do was stare at the mysterious unicorn’s blank face before plummeting down into the depths, where a nest of writhing tentacles was waiting to tear her into pieces.

“The Mist doesn’t have to send creatures to kill you,” Ridgeline’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “It’ll just sweet talk you into walking yourself to your death anyway. That’s why we have rules, outsider. Rules that need to be followed without exception.”

The Mist had used the image of a pony in need to draw her in. The thing she was most susceptible to obeying and answering, given her current mindset and the events of the last few days. Had the Mist read her thoughts to find the most effective way of drawing her attention? Or had it simply taken over her mind and inhibited her sense of reason, and her consciousness simply filled in the gaps?

Either way, the thought was terrifying. How could she fight something like that?

“I’m sorry. I haven’t been thinking straight,” Eden whispered.

“Understatement of the year,” Ridgeline scoffed. “Let’s just get you back to Oasis before you turn into a trapper on me.”

“Fair enough. Thank you for saving me.”

“A life for a life. Consider us even now.”

Ridgeline offered a hoof, and Eden accepted it to pull herself back upright. However, as the two of them made their way back to the group, another noise began to penetrate through the wind: a faint buzzing sound, drawing louder and closer as she stopped to listen.

“Can you hear that?” Eden asked. “Or is that the Mist again?”

“No, I can hear it too…” Ridgeline replied as his ears swiveled. “Whatever it is, it’s probably not good. Let’s get back to the others.”

The two quickened their pace as the noise got louder and louder, and once they reached the rest of the townsponies, Eden had a moment of realization. “Is it… wings?”

Ridgeline’s face went pale. “It’s the fly-ders. They must’ve heard your screams.”

Murmurs of confusion and fear quickly swept through the group of townsponies, but they were quickly hushed back down to silence.

“What do we do?” Eden asked as she glanced around for any sign of the incoming creatures.

“We’ll never be able to outrun them in the open. Oasis is too far away,” Ridgeline concluded. “We have to try to hide.”

Immediately, Eden knew that was a flawed strategy, and she could see it in Ridgeline’s eyes. They didn’t have the time to spare hiding for another few hours; she would expire from blood loss if they waited that long, and the wounded, starving ponies would be too weak to move. And they had been able to stay undetected before because the fly-ders didn’t know which direction they had gone, but now they knew exactly where they were. They would find them eventually. Ridgeline was just trying to give the townsponies some hope, but it wouldn’t fool her.

“No, if they know where we are now, that’ll never work,” Eden said, stomping a hoof in determination as she did. “You take the group and lead them to Oasis. I’ll stay behind and divert the fly-ders away from you.”

Ridgeline’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“You heard me. Take these ponies to safety!” Eden insisted.

“That’s suicide. You won’t be able to outrun them either, especially not in your current state.”

“I can handle myself, Ridge. I’m not going to let anyone else die because of my mistakes. Now go before they get here and we all die!”

Ridgeline stood there, torn, before solemnly nodding in agreement. “Everybody, follow me! Don’t make a sound and don’t fall behind. Let’s go.”

Ridgeline galloped off south down the road, with the rest of the townsponies right behind him. Vestige lingered behind momentarily, as if she were going to try to stay behind with Eden, but a stern glare made sure the filly went with the group. Keeping herself alive would be hard enough without a filly to look after as well.

Not that she expected to make it out alive. She just needed to buy enough time for the other ponies to make it to safety.

The buzzing of insectoid wings grew louder and louder as Eden waited in the intersection, and soon the large shapes of flying spiders began to emerge from the Mist into view. It was only a small group of them, consisting of whoever had been in earshot of her, not the hundreds and hundreds of fly-ders that had rushed out of the Starbucked building. That gave her slightly better odds.

“Hey!” Eden called out. “Remember me? Come and get me!”

The fly-ders immediately locked onto her voice, and she turned and galloped off away from the direction the other ponies had gone with the fly-ders in hot pursuit. Her injured hoof was growing stiff from exertion, and her shoulder flared with constant pain with each movement, but she pushed her battered body for every bit of speed she could. It was that or death.

The fly-ders were right on her heels at once, and with room in the open air to fly, they were significantly quicker than they were indoors. She had to weave around carriages and potholes that they could fly over easily; each detour allowed them to gain another hooflength on her. She felt a wad of silk fly past her ear to stick to the pavement, and she barely avoided stepping in it as she went by.

Come on Eden, come on! She internally screamed at herself, digging deep for every reserve of energy she could.

Suddenly, a fly-der jumped out from one of the alleyways lining the road, landing right in front of her! Eden yelped and dug her hooves into the road to stop herself from crashing right into it; her injured hoof exploded in pain that nearly made her collapse. However, she found just enough purchase to leap off to the side to avoid its bared chelicerae, fangs swiping at thin air. It swung its spinneret around next as she tried to round it and keep moving, and she was forced to quickly cast a shield to block the wad of silk that tried to entangle her. She then threw the webbing back into the spider’s red eyes, causing it to back off with an alarmed hiss.

But she had lost her momentum, and the rest of the group was closing in fast. Eden dashed through the front door of the closest store and slammed the door behind her. As soon as she did, a long, slender spider leg smashed through the window, making her squeal in panic! Glass shards rained down on her as she scrambled further back into the store, and more legs began to tear their way through the front wall, forcing their way through to get her.

Her magic fumbled with her saddlebags to pull out the strange 10mm pistol before she activated S.A.T.S. With time slowed to a snail's crawl, she watched as pieces of glass slowly fell to the floor, sunlight glinting along the jagged edges to create rainbows of color. One of the fly-ders had created a wide enough hole in the window frame to begin squeezing its way through; she quickly honed three shots directly into its eyes and activated the spell. It squealed in pain as the bullets punched into its hyper-sensitive eyes, and it withdrew from the opening to avoid more damage. However, three more took its place.

With S.A.T.S. recharging, she manually took aim and fired on each fly-der trying to enter, but they began to cover their eyes with one of their eight legs while continuing to force their way through. Soon, one of them had completely made its way into the store proper, forcing Eden to retreat behind the counter and back into the storage rooms. She needed to get out before the rest of them surrounded the store and left her trapped.

She tried every single door in the back, finding closet, after closet, after closet… but as the fly-der began to gain on her, she finally found the back door, unlocking it and throwing it open.

There, on the other side, was a cloaked pony, their face hidden behind the shadow of a deep hood.

“Get out.”

Before she could even blink, Eden was wrapped up in levitation magic and yanked out of the doorway, ending up on the other side of the cloaked pony in an instant. She moved so fast that her head spun when she was released. Who in Faust's name had magic that strong?

As the fly-der tried to follow through the doorway, the door was slammed in its face by more telekinesis. Then, the cloaked pony's horn began to glow, and fire leaped from the tip, striking the wall of the store and immediately setting it ablaze.

Eden stood stunned, speechless, as the screams of the fly-ders joined the roar of the inferno. The orange flames clawed at the blue, mist-filled air like a dragon’s claws tearing the heavens open. Two of the fly-ders managed to pull themselves back out of the front window and scurry back north towards the Starbucked building; none of the others emerged, and soon their cries died off to leave nothing but the crackling of burning wood.

She was so transfixed by the flames that she didn’t notice the cloaked pony was walking away until they were nearly out of sight. Eden did a double take and quickly galloped off after them.

“Wait! Where are you going? Who are you?” Eden called out.

The cloaked pony didn’t stop or acknowledge her as they continued to walk into the Mist. The air swirled and churned around them as if it reacted to their presence.

This had to be the Mare in the Mist. Right?

“Are you the pony who brought me here?” Eden tried again as she came to a stop a respectful distance away.

That made the cloaked pony pause. Their head turned slightly, but not fully around to face her, keeping their face and muzzle hidden.

Eden took that as a yes. “And you saved me from the Mirelurk Queen, didn’t you? At the river?”

More silence.

“Why did you help me then? Why did you help me now? And why do you always disappear after?”

The cloaked pony slowly turned to face her once again. They were a bit taller than she was, but that’s all she could ascertain about them; the cloak obscured every other feature.

“I couldn’t let you die before you accomplish what I brought you here for,” the cloaked pony said with a mare’s voice. “But duty requires me to stay distant.”

“Why did you bring me here then? What do I need to do?” Eden pleaded. “Please, just give me something to work with so I know I’m not on a wild goose chase!”

The mare tilted her hood-covered head. “Don’t give up hope. Keep gaining the town’s trust. The plan won’t work without them.”

Then, the cloaked mare’s horn ignited, and her magic pulled the Mist around her like a curtain to disappear from view. Eden was left alone with the burning storefront, and its ash and smoke joined the Mist in polluting the air.

The Mare in the Mist was real. She was the one sending her the letters that brought her to Tall Tale. She had saved her twice already, so she was clearly watching her every move from afar. But what was her end goal? What was she looking for in Eden? The meeting left her with more questions than answers, and she still had no idea of what she was supposed to be doing here.

Eden probably swore, but the swirling Mist swallowed up her voice.

Equestria Games Advertising
As I’m sure you’ve heard, the next installment of the Equestria Games will be held in Tall Tale. This is both a blessing and a curse. The Equestria Games brings visitors and athletes from across the country, and this provides us with a golden opportunity to market and expose our products to all these potential new customers. However, the downside is that the Games are an advertising boon, and they could allow competitors to potentially gain inroads into the city.

That’s why it’s imperative that we secure a high-profile advertising deal with the organizers. Imagine if Java’s Cup beats us to the punch. They’d be plastering their logo everywhere in our own city! We’d be a nationwide laughingstock.

I suggest we look into this as soon as possible. I don’t care if it’s a legitimate deal, or if we have to go under the table to get it done. We need to seize this opportunity.

Chapter Seven: The Fire and the Flames

Chapter Seven: The Fire and the Flames

“I guess anger's like other feelings. It's not about having them. It's what you do with them.”

“Drink.”

Eden accepted the potion bottle from Emerald Mirage and downed it. The cold liquid numbed her tongue, then her throat as it traveled down her gullet to her stomach. From there, the numbness spread through her body until she couldn’t feel anything at all.

“Feel anything?” Emerald asked.

“No,” Eden replied, though her numb tongue made it difficult.

“Good. Lay on your stomach for me. I need to remove the warped flesh from your shoulder so it will heal correctly.”

Eden quickly did as she was told and settled down on her underside, chin resting on her forehooves. Emerald’s medic station was in the back of the general store, and she could hear hooves click against the cobblestone street as ponies came and went, but the two mares were secluded in the dim light of the back room. She could also hear the click of metal as Emerald fetched her surgical tools, followed by the sound of those tools carving through her corrupted flesh, but thankfully she couldn’t feel a thing. The noises alone were almost enough to make her shudder.

“You look like you’ve been through hell, Eden. Almost can’t believe you’re here on my floor,” Emerald said.

Eden fought the urge to shrug her injured shoulder. “Eh. I’ve survived worse.”

Emerald chuckled. “I doubt that. Hiking all day on an almost-severed hoof and a shredded shoulder… You’re lucky we’re not talking about amputation. Permanent disability isn’t off the table at this point either…”

“Beats being shot in the head again,” Eden mumbled, nonplussed. “Already lived through that once. Not fun.”

“Ah. So that’s what that’s from,” Emerald gestured to the scar across Eden’s forehead. “Didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.”

“That obvious, huh?” Eden sighed. “I’ve accepted the fact that I won’t be winning any beauty pageants in my life.”

“Just makes you fit in better around here. Locals appreciate a few scars. Everybody’s got at least one big one.”

“I hope so. I’m just hoping that staging an entire rescue mission is enough for them to actually want to say good morning back to me.”

“That’ll come with time,” Emerald said as her shears clicked together, and a piece of corrupted flesh fell to the floor. “I was in the same boat as you are right now, back in the day. This town’s full of the most stubborn ponies you’ll ever meet, and outsiders like us are a big mystery bag that they don’t want to deal with. But you saw how they were singing your praises when you walked through the front gate with a dozen rescued hostages. Nopony can possibly deny that you’ve done Oasis a massive help, without prompting and without reward.”

“Singing my praises? You’re acting like they threw me a parade down main street. At best, I got a few nods.”

“Around here, a nod is practically an award. Don’t let it get to you. You did what none of the other ponies would even dare try doing. They can’t deny that you pulled off something they thought was impossible. They’ll have to look at you differently after this. It’s just a matter of time before they warm up to you. They did the same for me, and now I run the place. Me, an outsider.”

“I guess you’ve got a point. How’d you do it? Get them to like you, I mean.”

“Being a damn good medic, mostly. Ponies tend to be nicer to you when you’re the only one around that’ll prevent them from passing on the next time they get in a nasty fight. And who in their right mind disobeys a doctor’s orders? Soon, almost everypony was used to me telling them what to do, and I was a bona fide townspony myself. You just need some patience and some perseverance.”

“Guess I’ll just have to keep working at it.”

“After you spend a few days on bedrest,” Emerald said as she sanitized her tools and put them away. “Doctor’s orders. Your body’s been through enough trauma for a month, it needs time to heal.”

Eden smirked. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen, Doc. Sorry in advance.”

“What did I just say about disobeying the doctor’s orders, Eden?” Emerald sighed.

Eden gestured to her scarred forehead. “I’m not exactly in the right mind, I’m allowed.”

“You’re fitting in a little too well already,” Emerald snorted. “Stubborn as the sea. All I can ask is that you take it easy. Or easier, at least.”

“I’ll try.”

“Atta girl,” Emerald said as she held out a health potion. “Here, drink this.”

Eden obediently guzzled it down once the bottle was pressed to her lips. The healing magic coursing through her battered, broken body almost made her moan aloud in bliss, but she thankfully clamped down on the embarrassing sound before it left her muzzle. Without the magical corruption in her shoulder, she could watch the flesh and skin start to slide and fuse back together in real time. The same thing happened simultaneously in her hind leg, as her body filled in the gaping hole above her fetlock. Bruises, aches, and fly-der stings faded away, and soon all that was left of the harrowing experience was a bit of an itch where the two worst injuries were.

It couldn’t heal everything though. After the potion’s effects faded, Eden reached a hoof up to her horn and gently traced the length of her scar from horn tip to temple. Still there, and as fresh and angry as ever. No amount of healing potions would ever make it disappear; the injury had so traumatically affected her horn that her magic blocked any attempt by the potion to heal it. The wound was a part of her now. A constant reminder of how close she’d come to death, and to never take living life for granted.

“How do I look?” Eden asked.

Emerald smiled. “Good as new. Your clothing will need to be stitched back together, and the blood will need to be rinsed out, but other than that? It’s like it never happened.”

Eden gingerly rose up onto her hooves once again. The numbing potion was already starting to fade, but it was still a bit difficult to feel the floor against her frogs. She couldn’t know just how much pain was still left until it lost its effectiveness for good, but she’d dealt with plenty of aches before. She just hoped she didn’t have to buy another health potion to fully heal herself. Those things were expensive.

“Thanks again, doc,” Eden said.

“Anytime,” Emerald replied. “I would say that I hope to not see you back here again, but given how stubborn you are? I’ll just say I hope your future injuries are less serious.”

“I appreciate the kind words too,” Eden said with a wink. “See ya.”

Eden stepped out of the medic station and out through the front door of the general store. Now out on the main street of Oasis, the drizzling rain began to patter down onto her stringy mane, dampening it down and sticking it to her forehead. Faust alive, she desperately needed a bath. And a long sleep. And lots to eat.

However, she had a few errands to run first. She ignited her horn and lifted her broken combat rifle out of her saddlebags to look it over. The barrel was still pierced and warped where the trapper’s ethereal dagger had stabbed it, leaving a giant ugly hole in the side that looked a bit like how her shoulder had looked a few minutes before. Bolt Action was the only one in town who could fix it. However, he wasn’t exactly happy with her after the last time they spoke. Fleecing a businesspony for all the caps you can is an effective way to make sure they don’t want to talk to you ever again. Maybe he’d appreciate getting some of his caps back to fix her gun?

Eden gingerly made her way over to the gunsmith’s store, where the navy and maroon stallion was busy cleaning his merchandise like usual. Bolt Action looked up at the sound of her hoofsteps, and his eyes narrowed.

“Outsider,” Bolt said.

Eden sighed. “Y’know, I’m a bit tired of being called that. When’s the point where I stop being ‘outsider’ and start being ‘Eden’?”

“Never. You’re not born and raised here? You’ll never be one of us.”

“Really? You seem to call Emerald ‘Captain’ just fine.”

Bolt’s gaze became sharp as daggers. “What do you want?”

Eden levitated her rifle onto his countertop. “Can you fix this?”

Bolt took the gun into his own magic to look it over, examining the damage from all angles. “...I recognize this kind of damage. A trapper do this?”

“Mmhm. One with ethereal daggers and a huge superiority complex.”

“And you killed him?”

“He won’t be a problem any longer.”

“Well, I’ll be damned…” Bolt whistled. “I’ll fix this for you. But only as a favor for ridding the city of that filth.”

Eden blinked. “Well… Thanks. You knew him?”

“He used to be a townspony,” Bolt said as his magic got to work removing the damaged barrel. “Head of security. Did too many patrols outside the walls, and the Mist infected his mind. He was too weak to resist. Ended up betraying us and joining the trappers… and he foalnapped all those townsponies to buy his way into their good graces. City’s a lot better without that traitor in it.”

“Well, he’s gone, along with every other trapper that was hanging out at the Tower. Does that mean your trapper problem is solved now?”

Bolt scoffed as he attached a replacement barrel. “I wish. That was only one of their strongholds. You’ve really put a dent in their numbers, if that’s the case, but they always seem to have more. Just takes a slaver party from Vanhoover to accidentally travel too far south, or a townspony to get too careless outside the gates, or an outsider to wander places where she shouldn’t, and they’ve got another member.”

“Well, maybe I’ll go and make sure the trappers are nothing more than a bad memory. Permanently.”

“You got lucky once, outsider. I wouldn’t risk it twice. Or you could go ahead and try it anyway, no skin off my back. My problems go away either way.”

Eden narrowed her eyes. “You don’t want me as a problem, Bolt. Nopony’s managed to solve me yet.”

“We’ll see,” Bolt said as he floated her rifle back to her. “Here you are. Don’t go waving it around too much.”

Eden traded a small helping of caps for the rifle with a barely disguised scowl. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

As she walked away, Eden made sure to keep her head high and her shoulders back, not wanting Bolt Action to pick up any possible tell that his conversation had rattled her. He was not an easy pony to get along with. In a town full of grumpy ponies, he had to be the worst of them all. And it didn’t help that ponies looked up to him like he was the ringleader of shitty attitudes. Any attempt at fully getting on this town’s good side would have to involve winning him over. She just couldn't possibly dream up a way of doing so.

With her repaired rifle slung over her shoulder, Eden made her way to the Fireside Taproom, where her rented room was located on the second floor. She had dreams of finally stripping out of her Stable barding, rinsing all the blood and muck out of her fur and mane, and collapsing into bed… but as she stepped into the ground floor tavern, a familiar sight in a familiar spot caught her eye instead. Ridgeline was sitting alone in the exact same spot where she had first seen him, nursing a mug of cider and staring at nothing.

Eden instantly detoured to sit in the chair across from him. He had made it through the expedition relatively unscathed, with only a bandage across the scrape on his cheek. However, his eyes immediately hardened at the sight of her, and he looked away with a groan.

“Go away.”

“Aww. C’mon, Ridge. Don’t be like that,” Eden teased.

Ridge folded his forelegs. “I mean it. This working relationship is over. I’m done helping you.”

“But we did so much good together! We saved so many lives. And we can save so much more if you help me.”

“And you nearly got yourself, me, and everypony else killed in the process. Really, we made it out despite your best efforts to doom us. You displayed blatant disregard for the three rules I laid out for you very clearly, and your mind clearly can’t resist the Mist’s influence. You’re a ticking time bomb every time you step outside those gates. I should make good on my promise and lock you in your room for your own good.”

Eden scoffed. “Hey, that’s not fair. I was still inexperienced; I didn’t know what to expect. I know better now, I’ll do better.”

“It doesn’t get any easier, outsider. It only gets worse.”

“I’ll pay you.”

“I don’t need your caps. Hauling you around the city isn’t worth my life and peace of mind.”

Eden blinked. Is he serious? “What, your peaceful life sitting here and drinking all day? You can’t just hide out in this corner and pretend nothing’s wrong with the world. I certainly don’t have that luxury. Not when there’s a threat out there in this city that I need to fix.”

“Again, a threat that you have no idea even exists. All you have is a random letter from a random pony you haven’t even found.”

Eden paused and took a deep breath. Bombshell time. “I saw her, Ridge.”

“Who?”

“The Mare in the Mist. She talked to me.”

Ridgeline scoffed. “Bullshit.”

“Nope, it was real. I got cornered by the fly-ders, and she saved me. Yanked me away with her magic and lit them all on fire before waltzing off like it was nothing. Then she confirmed she was the one who sent the letter before disappearing.”

Ridgeline leaned forward, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper. “The Mare in the Mist has never gotten that close to anypony, let alone talked to anypony. Not even the most salt-addicted boaster in this town would brag about something like that happening to them. That easily could’ve been another Mist-fueled vision, trying to lure you back out there.”

“I had just taken RadAway, Ridge. My mind was clear.” Eden leaned in as well. “It happened. And now that I’ve seen her, I can’t just stop looking for her. Not when I know that I’m here for a real purpose now.”

“It’s still not safe, outsider. You almost died a few hours ago.”

“And it would be even less safe without you tagging along. But I’m going, with or without you. It’s up to you if you want to guide me through it or not, but I’m going anyway. Your choice.”

Ridgeline leaned back with a scowl, but Eden could tell she’d broken him. His hooves once again folded across his chest in a last futile attempt at looking defiant, and his eyes turned to the darkening horizon. “Celestia alive, you’re just like her…”

Eden tilted her head in confusion. “What’s that?”

Before Ridgeline could say anything further, a voice behind Eden interrupted them. “E-Excuse me? Miss Eden?”

Eden turned to face the new voice. Standing there was the kirin filly she had rescued, Vestige. She was standing in the shadow of a larger kirin, a familiar one as well: the one that had been part of the fishing expedition that was attacked outside the gates. The one that the rest of the fisherponies blamed for the attack. Halcyon was her name, if she remembered correctly. White fur, blue and pink mane, and blue scales scattered across her back like a dragon.

Eden smiled at the filly first. “Hey, Vestige.”

Vestige smiled back, but the taller kirin took charge. “I’m her mother, Halcyon. I-I apologize if I’m intruding or interrupting, but I just wanted to thank you for saving my daughter. She means the world to me, and I don’t know what I would do if I lost her.”

“It was the right thing to do. We were happy to help,” Eden said before turning to her partner. “Right, Ridgeline?”

Ridgeline’s face froze in shock at being included in the conversation, but he managed a stiff nod in agreement. “Yes. It needed to be done.”

“I just… I don't know how I could even begin to repay you,” Halcyon continued. “My fishing expeditions haven’t been very fruitful, s-since I’ve been so distracted from Vestige’s foalnapping. A-And then there was that attack a couple of nights ago, and we’ve had to completely start over—”

Eden waved a hoof dismissively. “It’s fine, really. No payment necessary. I’m not a mercenary, or a gun for hire. Just a mare trying to do the right thing.”

Halcyon blinked. “O-Oh! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were.”

“There’s no need to apologize either,” Eden chuckled.

“S-Sorry about that as well,” Halcyon squeaked. “Well, uhm, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d be honored to have you two over for dinner. It’s the least I can do to give thanks. And Vestige would love to spend time with you again.”

Ridgeline’s face froze again. “Uh…”

Before he could come up with a response, Eden jumped in for him. “We’d love to! That sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll both be there.”

Halcyon brightened up. “Oh good! Okay. My apartment is on the third floor above Sapphira’s shop. J-Just stop by at sundown, or whenever you’re free. Doesn’t matter.”

“Sounds good! See you then, Halcyon. And Vestige,” Eden said.

Eden gave Vestige’s mane an affectionate ruffle before the two kirin trotted off to Sapphira’s magic store as promised. Eden watched them go with a smile, but when she looked over at Ridgeline, the stallion had an annoyed look plastered over his face.

“The things you keep getting me into, outsider…” Ridgeline groaned once they were out of earshot.

“What? Free food, friendly conversation? Surely not even you can complain about that,” Eden replied.

“I like my alone time, and my privacy. I’d appreciate it if you kept that in mind in the future.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll have all the free time in the world once we save the city and I get out of your mane for good.” Eden stood up and tapped the table with a hoof. “I’ve gotta go freshen up. See you in a bit.”

The thick fog and overcast skies that blanketed Tall Tale day in and day out ensured that the days were sufficiently dim, and that the nights were oppressively dark. There was no hope of seeing the stars, and not even the moonlight was strong enough to pierce through most of the time. All that kept Oasis illuminated was the red neon signage that still managed to remain operational after all these years, turning the street into a river of blood.

That same red shone through the blinds in Halcyon’s apartment as she welcomed Eden and Ridgeline inside. It was a small place, with only a modest kitchen and one bedroom where Halcyon and Vestige both slept. The power that kept the neon signage running clearly wasn’t provided to the residents as well, as there was nothing but sparse candles keeping the room lit.

The four ponies sat in a circle around a square-shaped table. Eden had finally managed to wash the blood and mud out of her fur, and her mane was brushed so it was no longer frizzy and filled with tangles. Ridgeline wore the same black cloak he always wore, and he looked around with barely disguised displeasure at the situation.

The food that Halcyon dished out was fried fish straight from the fisher’s bay. Perhaps ones the kirin had caught herself. It was simple, and each bite made her PipBuck’s rad detector click slightly, but Eden dug in greedily all the same. Some ponies would cringe at the idea of eating meat, but not her. Growing up in the Badlands meant growing up with barely any plants in a harsh desert environment. That meant a diet entirely of meat and pre-war food. And after a long day without much to eat, and a battered body that desperately needed nourishment to recover? She was barely able to hold herself together and keep her table manners.

“This is delicious, Halcyon. Thank you,” Eden said between bites.

“Mmhm. It’s not bad,” Ridgeline muttered in agreement, in the typical townspony style.

Halcyon beamed. “Oh, good! T-There’s not much in terms of spices or flavorings around here anymore, but I do what I can.”

“That’s always appreciated around here,” Ridgeline said. “Live your whole life in Tall Tale, and you eat enough fish that you start growing gills yourself. Any variation is a good thing.”

Halcyon nodded in agreement. “Mmhm. I remember Retrospect used to always come in, and his face would get so crestfallen when he saw we were having fish for dinner again. I-I got into using all these flavorings just so I wouldn’t have to look at his pouty face when he walked through the door…”

The look on Halcyon’s face gave away most of the story, but Eden figured she’d ask anyway. “Who’s he?”

Halcyon paused. “He… was my husband. Vestige’s father. He volunteered to be part of the rescue team when Vestige was taken. He didn’t make it back.”

Eden’s mind went back to the attack on the Lunar Monument. The trappers had strung bodies up above the entrance and desecrated them as a warning to trespassers. One of those bodies had been a kirin stallion.

You little twat. Watching your father die wasn’t enough to make you behave?

Eden’s heart shattered. “I’m so sorry.”

“I-I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost Vestige in the same way… which is why I’m so glad you succeeded,” Halcyon said.

Eden placed a comforting hoof on one of Halcyon’s cloven ones. “She’s safe now. And your husband’s killers were brought to justice. He can rest now.”

“And may his killers rot in the bowels of the Great Serpent.” Halcyon spat on the floor.

Eden swore the temperature in the room rose a few degrees. The frog of her hoof tingled with the sensation of heat against Halcyon’s fur. Next to her, she felt Ridgeline’s sympathy turn to unease.

However, the moment ended as quickly as it started, and Halcyon stared down at her half-eaten plate with a sigh. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t want to turn this into a pity party. You’ve already done so much for us.”

“You’re not,” Eden said with a squeeze of her hoof. “It’s okay to grieve. We’re here for you. Both of you,” she added with a smile at Vestige.

“You’re a gem, Eden. W-What did we do to deserve somepony like you joining our town?” Halcyon asked.

“Just trying to spread a little kindness and hope is all,” Eden replied.

Halcyon smiled. “The Serpent knows we need more of that around here.”

Eden smiled back before opening her forelegs in a wordless offer. Halcyon accepted it, and she pulled the kirin into a warm, comforting hug. After a moment's hesitation, Vestige joined in, and the three mares just embraced each other in a moment that stretched on. It wasn’t enough to make up for all the hurt, all the loss the two kirin had been through. Not even close. But it was a step in the right direction, and it was all Eden could offer. She knew first-hoof that the emptiness of loss could never be cured with some magic combination of encouraging words. All you could do was be there for them until they could heal on their own.

Finally, Halcyon pulls away from the hug. “Before you go… I-If it’s okay, I have one more favor to ask of you. You’ve already done so much, so I don’t want to be overbearing, but if you have the time—”

Eden put up her hooves to stop her rambling. “Alright, alright. Let’s hear it.”

Halcyon blinked. “Right. Well, a couple of days ago, I was on a fishing expedition on the waterfront, a-and we got attacked. In the confusion, we had to flee to Oasis with the wounded, and we left our fishing supplies there on the shore. I-I don’t dare go back to get it myself, since the creatures that attacked us might still be wandering around there… but enough time has passed that it might be safe now. S-So, I was wondering if you two could accompany me out there, as an extra pair of guns? Just a simple trip there and back to get the tools. It wouldn’t take up much of your time. I promise.”

“Sounds easy enough. This is something that can wait until tomorrow though, right?” Eden asked.

“Oh, yes yes yes. It’s m-much too dark to go outside the walls now. We can go tomorrow. Or whenever you want. It’s no bother,” Halcyon said.

“Tomorrow works for me. It’s not like I’ve got much on my schedule at the moment,” Eden said.

Halcyon beamed. “Oh! Great. I promise, t-this is the last time I’ll have you running around doing something for me. J-Just stop by whenever you’re ready to go out.”

“Will do. Thanks again for having us over, Halcyon. Good to see you, Vestige.”

Eden gave both kirin one last small hug before taking her leave. Ridgeline simply nodded silently before following her. He hadn’t said a word since she’d noticed his unease, Eden realized. Not that he talked much to begin with. But something had spooked him.

And as soon as they made it down to the street, Ridgeline stopped her with a hoof to the chest. “You need to be careful around the kirin.”

Eden blinked. “Why? Vestige is a sweet filly. Halcyon looks like she’s never hurt a fly in her life. And none of the rest even seem interested in talking.”

“Well, let’s just say that the townsponies’ distrust of them isn’t solely based on petty prejudice. Their tempers can really flare, and that’s bad news for everypony.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing I don’t plan on getting on her bad side,” Eden said. “I’m helping her. Are you coming with us?”

Ridgeline hesitated, then sighed. “I’ll come. But only because it’s a quick trip.”

Eden smiled and patted his shoulder. “Good to hear. Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Her home burned.

Eden stood rooted in fear as flames clawed at the heavens above her. Pre-war wood and salvaged steel homes crumbled, and the screams of their inhabitants filled the air like a hellish choir. Siege machines churned and groaned outside the collapsed walls, and invaders poured in through the created holes. Salt Lick City had fallen, and there was nothing she could do to save it.

A mare in a deep black cloak and mist swirling around her figure stalked the streets of the doomed town. Her horn flashed, and a pony was immolated in seconds. Ponies in dark masks with glowing green eyes wielded long spears and dark magic as they followed her. The stars above were disfigured by smoke. Not even the heavens could escape the horror. Not even Faust could save Her ponies.

A pony a few hooflengths from her was the next to be ignited, and Eden finally found that her hooves were ready to respond. She sprung to action. She didn’t care that the fire was hot enough to melt the desert sand below to glass, or that it scorched her hooves and clothes immediately when she grabbed hold of the pony to drag them out. All that mattered was saving this pony’s life, no matter what.

Just as she yanked the burning pony from the blaze, the flames flashed green.

Eden was consumed by the second wave. It was a baptism by fire. Her fur ignited and disintegrated into ash. Her skin boiled, then charred. Her horn melted. Her last scream was stolen from her throat as the inferno robbed the oxygen from her lungs to fuel its rage.

It was mid-morning by the time the three ponies got underway. Eden donned her washed, stitched-up stable barding, and her fixed combat rifle floated in front of her. Ridgeline led the way as usual, and he weaved them through safe streets and shortcuts on the way to the waterfront. Halcyon took the middle. In her magical grasp was a double-barrel shotgun that looked every bit of its centuries-old age. Every noise made her flinch.

“Are we still going the right way?” Eden asked.

“Yes,” Ridgeline and Halcyon answered at the same time. Halcyon then squeaked and looked away with an embarrassed flush.

“You said it was on the edge of the waterfront, right?” Ridgeline asked.

“Yes. And with the Serpent’s blessing, it will still be there,” Halcyon said.

“You’ve mentioned that a lot. The Great Serpent. What is it?” Eden asked.

“Oh, nothing. Just an old kirin story we haven’t managed to let go of,” Halcyon said.

Ridgeline scoffed. “It’s just their version of Celestia and Luna. Or whoever it is you keep talking about, Outsider.”

Eden glared at his backside, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“W-Well, not exactly,” Halcyon corrected. “It’s more folklore than religion. The Great Serpent isn’t exactly a deity.”

“I’d love to hear about it. If you’re willing to talk about it, that is,” Eden said.

Halcyon sighed. “Well… ever since before the war, the Kirin had a legend. They spoke of a massive serpent-like being who lived underground. They said he had the ability to carve tunnels through the earth, and he could travel anywhere on Equus without appearing above ground. He was impossible to find or track, except for the finest vibrations in the soil when he grew close. They said that his diet consisted of Kirin, ponies, and other creatures who committed evil, selfish, or destructive acts. Only those who devoted themselves to a selfless, righteous lifestyle would escape its wrath. And that tradition stuck around to the present day.”

“See? Just another unseen, unproven God,” Ridgeline snorted.

Eden scowled. “Ridge, be respectful.”

“A-Again, it’s not a deity. Just a part of the Kirin culture,” Halcyon said.

“Whatever. It’s all the same to me,” Ridgeline said.

“You don’t even believe in Celestia and Luna?” Eden asked.

Ridgeline shrugged. “Sure, I use their names in vain, I say the prayer when we push our dead into the Sound… but it’s hard to believe in a higher power or a divine plan when the world is so full of darkness and death. Especially our slice of it. They either don’t have the power, or they don’t care enough to fix our situation, and I don’t know which option is worse. Hell, we can’t even bask in their comforting presence, since the Mist covers up the sun and moon most of the time. No prayers get out, no blessings come in. So no, I don’t believe in Celestia and Luna.”

“And that’s your choice. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ridicule ponies who do. Because although you may not care, it means a lot to me,” Eden said firmly.

Ridgeline rolled his shoulders back. “Fine. Whatever.”

“Thank you,” Eden said as her hackles lowered.

The three continued onwards in uneasy silence for a little bit before Halcyon broke it. “Y-You believe in Celestia then, Eden?”

“Well, sort of,” Eden said. “I actually worship the Mother Goddess, Faust. Celestia and Luna are Her children.”

Halcyon blinked. “Oh! That’s a… new one on me. Sorry.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to know about Her. It’s a bit of a… niche religion. Only from my part of the world.”

“W-Well, I told you about mine, so… it’s only fair that I listen to yours.”

“Well, my hometown was made up of descendants from a pre-war Stable. The original settlers were rather religious to start with, but once the bombs fell and the Stable doors sealed, the Overseer made an announcement: Celestia and Luna worship would be banned inside the Stable. There were protests, there were riots, there were escape attempts, but the Overseer held firm. Apparently, these were orders directly from StableTech itself.”

“Banning religion? Why would they do that?” Halcyon asked.

“The most plausible theory? Some ponies believed that the deification of the Sisters led to increased nationalism and caused the Great War to become inevitable. Maybe StableTech wanted to stop those feelings from persisting in the surviving population. But maybe we were simply lab rats, and that was a variable they wanted to test. Hard to say for certain.”

“So what did they do?”

“Well, they weren’t allowed to worship Celestia and Luna… so they found the next best thing: Faust, the mother of the two royal sisters, creator of Equus and the Princess of Realities. Thus, Faustianism was born. And even after they were released from the Stable into the wasteland, the religion stuck around.”

“I didn't realize Celestia and Luna had a mother,” Halcyon said.

“Me neither,” Ridgeline added. “I guess I just assumed they… simply came into being.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly widespread knowledge. But one of the Stable dwellers had access to an obscure text about the history of the world, and it mentioned Faust as the architect of the universe. That’s how it started,” Eden said.

“Just sounds like Celestia worship but with extra steps,” Ridgeline said.

“There’s a lot of similarities, sure. But there’s some key differences. Followers are meant to keep their conduct clean. No swearing, no alcohol, no drug usage, no… promiscuity. Anything that would keep our focus away from Faust and dampen our connection with Her. But it really didn’t spread much outside of the Stable’s settlement, Salt Lick City.”

“What made you come up north, then?” Halcyon asked.

Eden’s eyes lost their focus as memories flashed through her mind. “It was destroyed. I was one of the only survivors.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Halcyon said softly, and the trio once again fell into silence.

Soon, the three ponies reached the waterfront, where the inky black water lapped against the wooden supports of the boardwalk. The large Ferris wheel loomed above the water to their right, but it was dwarfed by the Lunar Monument that silhouetted the horizon. Out in the Ponget Sound, Eden could spot the half-sunken cargo ship that had netted her a sizable chunk of Bolt Action’s fortune. Absent was the large kraken that had nearly eaten her, but just because she couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Eden shuddered and moved on.

The fisherponies had set up shop on one of the docks that jut out into the water. There was a large umbrella to protect from the rain, buckets to store their catches, chairs to sit and wait in. All of it had been upended and scattered from the chaos of the radamount attack that had killed over half the group. The rain had long since washed the blood away, but there were still spent bullet casings scattered across the dock that Eden took care to avoid stepping on. Any of the bodies that had been left behind had been dragged off into the mist to be feasted on.

But while Eden focused on the mist, Halcyon trotted over to the edge of the dock with an agitated whine. “Oh no… it’s not here.”

“What’s not here?” Eden asked.

“The fishing gear. Our poles, nets, hooks, bait, it’s all gone,” Halcyon cried out.

Eden hurried forward to reach the panicked kirin with Ridgeline close behind. The wood at the edge of the pier was lighter colored than the rest of the dock, and the splotches were organized in clumps and patterns. Something had been laying there on the wood to discolor it, but it had since been moved. There was no sign of the fishing equipment anywhere.

“Could the mist creatures have taken them? Or knocked them into the Sound?” Ridgeline asked.

Halcyon shook her head. “N-Not likely… They would’ve focused on us instead. We retreated pretty quickly towards the town.”

“Trappers must’ve gotten here first,” Ridgeline surmised with a curse.

“So they’re gone forever then,” Halcyon whimpered as she kicked a pebble into the murky water. “Might as well head back home. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

Eden wasn’t so easily dissuaded. “Where would the trappers have taken the gear, Ridge?”

Ridgeline paused to think. “The nearest hideout I know of is at old city hall. A few blocks inland from here.”

Eden’s mouth curled into a smirk. “Think we can take ‘em?”

Ridgeline looked at her incredulously. “Over fishing equipment? Really?”

“Why not? You’re letting the trappers take a chunk out of your only sustainable source of food production. You want to let them turn that equipment into traps to use on your town instead?” Eden asked.

“We can make more fishing gear. Fighting to save hostages is one thing, but I’m not too eager to lose my life over poles, bait, and nets,” Ridgeline said.

“It’s not just that. I’m sure wiping out their cell in the Tower has them on the ropes. Wouldn’t you want to finish them off while we’ve got the upper hoof? Eliminate another group of them, and this city will start feeling a whole lot safer, don’t you think?” Eden asked.

That started to create cracks in Ridgeline’s defense. He glanced up at the late morning sun as it shone weakly through the mist, as if judging if they had enough time to pull it off. “We can’t go while we have Halcyon with us.”

“We can take her back to Oasis, then head on without her. Wouldn’t take too long—”

“I-If you’re going, I’m coming with you,” Halcyon said firmly.

Eden and Ridgeline stopped and turned in unison. “Excuse me?”

“I won’t let you go and risk your lives for my sake while I sit back in safety. You already did that for me once. I won’t be that selfish again,” Halcyon said with a stomp of her cloven hoof.

Ridgeline looked the kirin over. “Do you even know how to handle yourself in a fight? I don’t want to babysit you. That would do more harm than good.”

“I know how to use a gun, a-and I’ll stay out of your way when I need to. I promise,” Halcyon said.

Eden and Ridgeline looked at each other for a few moments. Eden offered a wordless shrug of her shoulders. Why not?

Ridgeline sighed. “Fine. Just stick close and follow my lead. Let’s not run into any traps or mist creatures and make this any harder than it already is.”

Tall Tale felt like a city with two faces. On one side, the lack of damage from any balefire bombs meant some of the buildings and streets were as pristine as the ones in New Pegas. On the other side, some of the city was decaying and sinking in on itself. Maybe the mist was corrosive. Maybe the excess water had rotted the supports. Maybe time had caused it to simply wither away. In any case, Eden walked past an alternating line of pristine buildings and half-crumbled scrap heaps.

The further they got into the heart of the city, the taller the buildings became. Eden kept her head craned upward to scan the windows above for any Trappers who had set up an ambush, but Ridgeline didn’t seem too concerned. He trusted in his intuition to lead them on a safe route, and his eyes focused straight ahead at the churning mist they plowed through. Halcyon’s eyes flickered all over the place like a butterfly, though it seemed to be more from a nervous habit than an attempt at preparedness.

As Eden gave up on her search with a sigh, something on the street corner caught her eye. A blue cylinder sat on the sidewalk at the intersection, a little bit taller than her if she stood upright on her hind legs. The side sported a large red button atop a sliding door, and an unlit sign above the button said “occupied”. Peeling white paint atop the blue exterior labeled the cylinder as “SELF STORAGE.”

Eden went to take a step towards it, but remembered her experience with the mist from the previous day and stopped herself. Who knows if it’s even real? “Ridge? What’s that?”

Her voice seemed to knock Ridgeline out of a trance, and he turned his attention from the route to the cylinder. “Oh, that? It’s an emergency shelter. Damn things are scattered all over the city.”

“So it’s actually there?”

“Mmhm.”

With that reassurance, Eden tentatively stepped towards it, only continuing once she didn’t hear a reprimand from Ridgeline. She reached out with a hoof and pressed the red button, and the sliding door slid away counterclockwise around the cylinder to slowly reveal the interior. The first thing to greet her was a skeleton that spilled out as the door slid away, like it had been slumped against the entrance. Bones clattered on the pavement before her hooves, and Eden skittered back with a yelp before regaining her composure.

The inside was only large enough to accommodate one pony, and even then, it was a tight fit. The only furnishings were ventilation slits, a dangling oxygen mask, and a long suction tube for… something. No food, no water, no radiation medication.

A recorded message chimed in as the door slid fully into its open position. “Self Storage’s Straight Stalls! For your last-minute radiation protection needs.”

“Charming, isn’t it?” Ridgeline asked dryly.

“That’s one way to put it,” Eden replied. “Are these things even useful?”

“Nope. Which is why all their occupants are skeletons. It’ll give you a brief respite from the mist, but you’ve gotta go back out into it eventually.”

Eden pressed the button to close the cylinder once again. The door slid back to its locked position, and it clattered a few of the bones away as it did. Once it locked into place, the recorded jingle stopped, and the three ponies were left with only the whistling wind for company.

“Why are there so many of these things? Does Tall Tale not have a Stable?” Eden asked as they continued.

“There is one,” Ridgeline said. “Maybe ponies were worried there wasn’t enough space for everypony, so they made these cheap alternatives instead.”

Eden chuckled. “How ironic. The only city that didn’t get bombed is the one that invested in extra protection.”

“And apparently, we’re worse off than almost anywhere else in Equestria, despite making it out unscathed. Fate apparently has a sense of humor,” Ridgeline said.

“Fate makes jokes, but nopony laughs,” Halcyon whispered, and the trio let the kirin proverb hang in the air as they fell into silence once more.

By midday, the three had reached city hall. Planted between several high-reaching skyscrapers, the building’s magnificence didn’t come from its height. Instead, it was the expert masonry and elegant architecture that set itself apart from its glass-covered neighbors. It was long, wide, and imposing, lined with spires like the prongs of a fence, covered in dark windows like a spider with a thousand eyes. The large clock face placed upon the central spire was frozen in place at a specific time, the same time as the clock in Oasis: 9:47.

The once-beautiful structure had since been ransacked by trappers. The front walkway to the entrance was littered with traps, and visitors were warned away with heads adorned on spikes. Blood, gore, and barnacle-covered nets were scrawled across the brick exterior, and every window was shattered to let more of the mist inside. Trappers stalked around the main entrance, practically snarling and growling amongst one another like wild animals.

The three townsponies cowered behind a nearby carriage for protection as they scouted out the base. Eden leaned against a wheel while examining her PipBuck’s map of the interior, and Ridgeline and Halcyon scanned the exterior defenses with their eyes.

“What do you see?” Ridgeline asked.

“That’s the main entrance in front of us. Leads into a large lobby that branches off to the left and right,” Eden said as she scanned through her PipBuck.

“It also looks like most of their attention is on it. And most of their defenses. Not the best option. They’ve got watchguards, roaming patrols, traps, the whole works,” Ridgeline said.

“Alright, that’s plan A down…” Eden said as she continued to look. “There’s a secondary entrance on the far right side of the building. Maybe an emergency exit, or a service entrance.”

“It’ll probably be less defended. We could sneak in and take them by surprise,” Ridgeline said.

“But w-what if they’ve boarded it up?” Halcyon interjected. “Or booby-trapped it? Would they really leave an entry undefended?”

“They’ve mostly had to defend against creature attacks, not ponies. And mist creatures don’t know how to use doors. Perhaps they’ve overlooked it,” Ridgeline pointed out.

“And it doesn’t hurt to look. We can come up with another plan if it doesn’t work out,” Eden said.

“T-That makes sense,” Halcyon relented.

Ridgeline nodded. “Alright, follow me.”

The three slinked back away from their carriage cover and further into the shrouding embrace of the mist. Taking the long way around to the side of the building would take time, but the further back they went, the less likely it was that the trappers would spot them. The trappers might’ve worshipped the mist, but even they couldn’t see through it.

Soon, the town hall came back into view, and the side entrance along with it. Next came the armored figure of a lone guardpony, which made Ridgeline crouch behind the nearest carriage with Eden and Halcyon right behind him.

“Another guard on watch. Guess they aren’t that dumb,” Ridgeline said.

“It’s only one though. That’s a lot better than a dozen,” Eden pointed out.

“H-How are we gonna get past him, though?” Halcyon asked. “They’ll h-hear any gunshot. And he’ll see us if we try to sneak up.”

Eden slowly peaked her head out the side of the carriage. The trapper on guard looked as bored as a crazed pony could be, but he at least was keeping watch in the right direction, unfortunately for her. There weren’t any obstacles that she could hide behind to sneak up closer; the carriage they were behind was the last thing separating them and the town hall besides the cracked street between them.

The cracked street… She looked down at the pavement more closely. Like most streets in the fallout, the streets of Tall Tale were split apart in yawning chasms as the stress of hundreds of years split the concrete. Each crack was several inches wide and deep at least; not big enough to hide any creature larger than a rodent. But it could potentially hide a weapon…

Eden blinked. “I’ve got an idea. Be ready to go loud in case he catches on.”

Ridgeline and Halcyon nodded and readied their guns. Eden covered a horn with a hoof to hide its glow as she ignited it, and her combat knife slid from its sheath and levitated underneath the carriage slowly. When the trapper yawned and turned his attention away briefly, the knife slid into the crack and traversed across the road towards the guard just out of his eyesight. Eden’s horn strained as the knife neared the limit of her telekinesis range, but she gritted her teeth and stretched further.

Once the knife was behind him, it lifted into the air and slowly crept up on the guard. The ambient tingling noise of Eden’s magical aura finally caught his ear and he turned his head, but by that point it was too late. The disembodied combat knife slid into his neck and slit his throat in one fluid motion, spilling his blood onto the street as he fell with nothing more than a gurgle.

Halcyon gasped and looked away from the gushing red blood, but Ridgeline’s eyebrow quirked in intrigue. “That’s a neat trick, outsider,” the stallion said with a whistle.

Eden wiped the bloody knife on the dead trapper’s clothes before floating it back across the street and into her sheath. “Let’s move before his replacement shows up.”

The three hurried across the street and past the trapper’s body to the door. After consulting with Ridgeline’s talent to make sure the entrance was safe to go through, Eden slowly pushed the door open to reveal the inside of the town hall. The door was an emergency fire exit, but no alarm sounded when the door was opened; the fire suppression systems must’ve been disabled. By the wear of time or by the trappers, she couldn’t say, but it allowed the trio to slip inside undetected regardless.

They entered at the end of a long hallway leading right into the atrium of the town hall. Doors and rooms lined the entire length of the hallway on either side, designating offices for representatives, secretaries, and all manner of elected ponies at one point. Now, all were converted into living spaces for the trappers, and the results were nothing less than horrific. Doors were torn off their hinges, windows were smashed, floors were stained with blood and other bodily fluids; they were content to live in their own filth. Luckily, the bedrooms seemed abandoned during daylight hours, so the three snuck by unnoticed towards the lobby.

As they got closer to the atrium, more of the scene was revealed. At least a dozen or two raiders stalked around the lobby as sunlight streamed through the windows to create beams of light in the mist. Some of them conversed amongst each other. Some of them ate strips of bloody flesh, soaking their muzzles red in the process; whether it was animal or pony flesh, Eden couldn’t tell, but she shuddered at the sight nonetheless. The rest worked on stripping a pile of fishing equipment for parts, removing the hooks from poles and fashioning makeshift traps out of netting and rope.

“I assume that’s the stolen stuff we’re looking for?” Eden whispered to Halcyon.

There was no response. Eden glanced over to see that Halcyon’s wide eyes weren’t looking at the fishing poles and nets; instead, they were focused up on the balcony of the second floor that overlooked the lobby. Hung from the banisters were the desecrated bodies of several ponies. Their bowels were eviscerated, intestines dangling, eyes gouged out, their limbs positioned in humiliating angles. Scrawled in blood on the wall underneath their suspended corpses was a phrase: THE MIST IS HEAVEN SENT. WE ARE ITS DISCIPLES.

Was this a display of warning to anypony who got too close? Or a display of pride for the trappers? Eden couldn’t tell. But she grimaced and glanced away all the same.

“...Blitz… Windy… Sonata…” Halcyon whimpered as she recognized each of the bodies on display.

“You know them?” Eden whispered back.

“T-They were the first to die in the attack on the docks. Killed by the radamounts before we could blink. I thought the animals would’ve… y’know…” Halcyon trailed off.

“But the trapper patrol who took the fishing gear found them as well,” Ridgeline deduced.

“T-This is somehow worse. Being eaten i-is terrible, but at least it’s natural. This… is barbaric,” Halcyon growled.

Eden suddenly felt warm enough to sweat in her Stable barding. She swore Halcyon’s irises and pupils disappeared into white nothingness, and her eyebrows turned to mini flames. The normally shy and reserved kirin looked ready to tear someone’s throat out. Next to her, Ridgeline’s expression changed from disgust to horror in an instant.

Their tempers can really flare, and that’s bad news for everypony.

Eden placed a comforting hoof on Halcyon’s shoulder. “We’re here to avenge them. I promise. But we need to come up with a plan before—”

Halcyon snarled and shrugged her off. “They were my friends. And we weren’t able to give them a proper burial because these monsters wanted to use them as DECORATIONS!”

That last word echoed through the tall space of the atrium, and every single trapper turned their head to face the source of the noise. Halcyon didn’t shrink away; instead, she stood up fully to reveal herself to the group while Eden and Ridgeline scrambled to stay out of sight. Her patchwork shotgun fell from her magical grasp. Sparks flew each time her cloven hooves made contact with the tile floor as she stepped forward. The trappers barked and pulled out their weapons, but she stood unflinching before them.

“Halcyon! Get back here!” Eden hissed, but the kirin was too far gone.

“You heard me!” Halcyon yelled. “You ponies are monsters, and none of you deserve to be alive! Freaks like you make me furious.”

With a final scream, Halcyon ceased to be. A tall column of magenta fire erupted from her body and flashed the room with burning heat, making both Eden and the trappers stumble back in pain. The fire continued upward to scorch the ceiling, and the column lifted up from the floor to reveal a whole new being of pure flame. What once was white fur was now black as coal. What once was her mane was now a hearth atop her head. Her eyes were voidless spaces. Her teeth were fangs. A form of pure anger and hatred had manifested before Eden’s eyes, and she couldn’t look away.

“Nirik! Nirik!” the trappers cried out in a rare moment of lucidity, but it was too late to run for help.

The new creature’s horn ignited, and half of the trapper’s guns were yanked out of their grasps and pulled towards her. The heat of her presence disintegrated the weapons into ash once they got close, and with a bestial scream, she leapt into action. Eden watched as she zig-zagged through the lobby in a blaze of heat, leaving a trail of flame in her wake that steadily burnt atop the tiled floor. Trappers boiled from the heat or fell with chunks torn out of their flesh from her sharp fangs; she was too fast for any of them to flee. The ones who still had their rifles fired blindly into the chaos, but the nirik was not dissuaded by any bullets. She was an unstoppable machine of death, leaving corpses and fire behind. The air smelled of charred flesh and was soon joined by the crackling of the wooden walls of the atrium.

In that instant, Eden was back in Salt Lick City, watching the world burn before her. Wood, steel, and bodies all burning and crumbling together along with her hopes and dreams. She could do nothing but stare, hooves locked to the burning tile, horror reflected in her wide eyes.

Only once every trapper had fallen did the nirik stop. Standing in the middle amongst fire and death, she snarled and panted for breath while daring any of the corpses to attack her again. None rose to the challenge. Only then did the flames raging in her mane die down, and Halcyon was returned to the world.

The kirin gasped as she regained her senses, standing in the middle of destruction while the building continued to burn. However, she didn’t return as pure as she had left; bullet holes riddled her scale-covered body, turning her white fur red from oozing blood. She looked down at her injuries with a squeak of surprise before looking up at the other two companions.

“Eden?...” was all Halcyon could get out before she collapsed in a puddle of her own blood, surrounded by a ring of fire.