Fallout Equestria: Stella Royale

I checked the map on my PipBuck again as we neared the Clinic. The other signal seemed to be coming from the Residential District. But given that I seemed to be the only newcomer here, she had likely survived the Royale for a while. I adjusted my spear on my back again for a moment, and looked forward towards the neon sign that marked the clinic.

“There.” Solstice said as she pushed past me, pushing the door opens with her hooves before drawing what looked to be a knife not too dissimilar to the one mounted to my spear. “Keep your head on a swivel in here, Ghosts like to jump out when and where they can.”

“And given that my EFS doesn’t seem to be working here…” I muttered as I checked the compass again to no avail. Glancing around I noticed a book on the table and brushed it off. It had a mark that I recognized as belonging to the Ministry of Peace. Mostly out of curiosity I slid it into my bags and looked back at the others when I noticed a terminal on the wall. “What’s that for over there?”

“We have not the slightest, would appear rather out of place in our opinion.” Silver said, starting to trot over to it.

“Maybe a medical log terminal? Y’know, the kind of place where doctors and nurses would store reports for the events of the day?” Solstice added, quickly joining Silver over by the terminal. “Darn, it’s locked - uh… any chance either of you have the password? I can’t hack”

“Here, let me give it a try, the Propoli taught me a few things as part of my training,” I said as I headed over to the terminal. I pulled up the hacking screen and ran my hooves along the keyboard for a minute, finally getting through on the last try. “There we go, it was Diamond. Let’s see what we have here, might give us some clues.”

I opened up the screen and frowned a little. This wasn’t any data, instead it showed a screen with options for some sort of hologram system.

“Interesting… this seems to be for a security hologram system,” I said as I looked at it. “Think it might distract the Ghosts?”

“Not a good idea, the cloud messes with Electrical systems, these holograms are likely to kill us as much as they are to kill the ghosts.” Solstice said with a shake of her head. “I think it’s best to leave it off - Ghosts aren’t really much of a problem once you know how to deal with them.”

“We agree, You cannot kill what is not real.” Silver added. “Ghosts are a problem, but what happens if the holograms attack and make it impossible for us to shut them off?”

“Alright, we’ll leave it there for now,” I said as I walked away from it. “By the looks of the outside this place has two levels. Maybe three if it has a basement. We should search the ground floor first.”

“What exactly are we searching for?” Solstice asked, chuckling a bit “If you’re looking for your chem fix, I probably have some in my bag you can have.”

“Medical supplies, terminals, notes from before and during the Pink Cloud outbreak,” I commented as I looked around the room. I spotted a second white hoofprint and knelt down next to it to find a suitcase. “It’s one of those weird caches I found one near the Police Station. It’ll give us some supplies at least.”

I opened it and found more rounds, food, water, and healing potions. I noticed there were some larger rounds that looked like they belonged to a high caliber rifle and tossed them to Solstice.

“Here, these might work with your Anti-Machine rifle.”

Solstice took them from me with her magic, levitating them over and looking them over for a few moments before she dropped them on the floor. “Old rounds like that will mess my rifle up, ever wonder why wasteland weapons only last a few hundred shots? It’s the old powder, doesn’t burn right.”

“Fair enough,” I said with a shrug. “Levitate them back over, I might as well leave them here if you can’t use them. Maybe if we don’t get out of this somepony else can. The food and potions should still be good at least.”

“They are as good on the floor as they are in that box.” Solstice said with a shrug, “So unless you know how to ammo craft, I’m not bothering.”

“I only know so much, I’m afraid,” I said with a shake of my head. “Alright, that should be everything we need right now. Might be worth seeing if we can find any others while we’re here, it could come in handy. Let’s check out the hallway over there, room to room search, we all know what we’re looking for.”

“And if we find something we’re not looking for? Is it ours to keep?” Solstice said, chuckling a little to herself. “Like say, if we find a statuette or something?”

“If we find anything of use, I guess including a statuette, we can grab them too,” I replied. “But not too much, we can’t afford to be weighed down by too much here.”

“So… it’s not yours if you find it” Solstice said, frowning a bit. “Great, so any treasures I find that aren’t on the list aren’t mine.”

“That is, quite selfish of you.” Silver said, glaring at Solstice for a moment. “We understand, there are a lot of treasures and secrets here, but without all of us being aware - it could be a risk for us to have something and hide it.”

“Agreed, and we’re supposed to be working together here,” I reminded the two of them. “We need to pool our resources. But, yes I suppose some of the treasures that aren’t immediately helpful to our situation would be yours.”

“So, my statuette is mine still?” Solstice said, cheering up a little as she pulled a small purple alicorn statuette from her pocket. “I.. I technically found it before you showed up, but if we’re supposed to pool everything..”

I blinked a little at that and sighed a little. “Don’t worry, from what I’ve heard Statuettes only work on the pony holding it. You can keep it, mostly I’m talking about food, water, medicine, and ammo. We need to survive this place together and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here.”

Solstice stuffed the statuette back into her bag, and smiled a little at me. “That, means a lot.”

“Ministry Mare Twilight was an Inspirational mare, no wonder you would wish to keep her statuette.” Silver said with a smile. “We had the opportunity to know her personally, in a sense.”

“Right… Twilight was part of the Goddess,” I said as I remembered what I had read as we started down the hallway. “So, should we split up or stay together? Given the situation we probably should stay together. But then again we also would get it done faster if we did. Maybe we should clear the area and then search?”

“If there was a ghost on this floor, it’d already be on us.” Solstice said, looking around for a moment. “There might be one trapped on the upper floor, but one isn’t exactly a difficult thing to handle.”

“We are unsure there is even a basement in this building, the floor feels solid, usually it’d be hollow.” Silver added. “We believe staying together may be the best option.”

“Agreed,” I said as I glanced at the doors down the hall from us. “Alright, first room on the right first. If it’s like other pre-war hospitals or clinics I’ve seen, this is probably treatment rooms for the most part. Not sure how much data we’ll get, but we should be able to find potions and everything. We also need to be careful, there might be Pink Cloud in the Clinic based on the note I found.”

“Most likely going to be pink cloud in here, It’s a clinic, where do you think they took exposed ponies?” Solstice said, chuckling a little. “Also, you ever been told you talk too much?”

“We told her that earlier.” Silver said with a chuckle.

“Yes, I’ve heard that several times,” I groaned before addressing the other point. “I found a note that said they had to abandon the clinic due to the Pink Cloud entering it. Though it also tends to settle in the lower parts of buildings like this, so we might be fine up here if there is a basement. Look, I don’t know if it is here, but we should be careful anyway.”

We headed into the room I had gestured towards and I nearly emptied the contents of my stomach on the floor. Lying on the stretchers were mutilated bodies of ponies with their heads cut off. I stumbled back out of the room, breathing heavily as I tried not to think about who or what might have done that.

“Spirits… what is wrong with this place…” I said weakly as I slumped against the wall. “Maybe this was a mistake. What were they doing in there?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Solstice said, walking past me. “Look at the corpses, how preserved they are, they were ghosts.”

“Right… sorry, I’m not used to walking into rooms of mutilated corpses,” I said as I took a deep breath. “I swear if I ever actually get used to that, I’m submitting myself for psychiatric screening back in Carthage.”

“Guess you’ve never been to war.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “I walked the streets in the aftermath of the last war - you realize this… this is tame compared to what war can do to a body.”

“I wasn’t involved in the fighting with the Legion or the… uh, rogue Enclave soldiers under Stardust,” I replied as I straightened myself up. “I’m a diplomat, not a soldier. Even with Roamani training, I can’t be ready for everything.”

“The best diplomats are born on the battlefield.” Solstice said, checking one of the bodies over. “Because they know the costs of their actions.”

“We have seen many battlefields in our time with Unity, it can be quite gruesome and hard to look at.” Silver said, shaking her head. “It is a cost we wish not to see, but know all too well, even more so since we have arrived here.”

“Look, I’m sorry, I just…” I said as I shook my head a little. “Maybe Ranith was right. We’re storytellers not soldiers, I shouldn’t be out here…”

“Bit late there sugarcube” Solstice said with a chuckle. “Not to mention, others like you have done great things on the battlefield, and have gone on to tell the horror stories of the battlefield so its lesson can reach more than the soldiers.”

I nodded a little and look around. “Okay, let’s see if we can find anything in here. You’re right, I can’t let this get to me, not right now. I have a duty to perform to my country and to you. We’re all going to get out of here.”

“Yeah, it’d really suck if you went off and lost your head.” Solstice said, snickering a little “Figuratively and Literally.”

“Yeah…” I said as I checked around for anything. I found two healing potions and put them in my bags as I glanced back at the others. “Solstice, Silver, I, uh… I wanted to say thank you. I was not in a good place a moment ago. I’m new to this, Seaddle and the Federation was supposed to be my first assignment outside of the FRA. I got stuck in the middle of this spirits be damned situation. You gave me a lot to think about and put things in perspective for me. So, thank you, both of you.”

“We are most welcome” Silver said with a small bow.

“Thanks for what? Being brutally honest? If I got thanks for that I’d probably be a nicer pony.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “But no problem, If we didn’t keep you grounded who knows how far you’d float.”

“Yeah,” I said as I slid the last of the potions into my bags. “Did you two find anything?”

“Corpses. But you already knew that.” Solstice said with another chuckle.

“We have found a small cache of purified water.” Silver said with a cheery smile.

“Okay good,” I said as I checked the terminal but it was broken. That figured, I wasn’t going to get any data out of that. “Alright, unless there’s anything else we should move on. Put the purified water away, it’ll be good to have.”

We headed back out of the room together. We checked a few more, but there wasn’t much more than just a few more potions and purified water. It wasn’t until the fifth room in the hallway that we found and I blinked in surprise.

Sitting in front of us was a large machine that had a pod attached to it. The pod was open to the air with a terminal attached to the side of it. I walked over to it carefully, gripping the spear in my hooves for a moment. But when I looked into it, it was only a pile of bones inside.

“It’s clear,” I said as I let out a sigh of relief. “Though, what is this thing? I’ve never seen anything like it before…”

Though something about this felt familiar. As if I had heard of this in a story somewhere. I looked at it for a long moment, trying to think of where I had heard of it. This was weird, why was this in this place?

I went over to the terminal and activated it. A few moments passed as text scrolled across the screen. Finally the information popped up on it.

STASIS AUTO DOC INFORMATION
STATUS: ERROR IN STASIS SYSTEM.
PLEASE CALL MINISTRY OF ARCANE SCIENCE TECHNICIAN.

I facehooved at that, but somehow this made even less sense. “An S.A.D. pod, these things saved Scootaloo after the apocalypse. I heard about it from Riva… but, what’s it doing in the Stella Royale?”

“I wish I could come up with a way to explain that one.” Solstice said with a shrug. “Auto-Docs are pretty wide spread, but a Stasis one? Those were experimental at best.”

“We never trusted such technology. We have seen what it can do to some ponies.” Silver said with a frown. “We believe it would be smart to leave, immediately.”

“Agreed, I don’t think we’re going to find much else in here,” I replied. “Let’s get out of here, we can keep looking around elsewhere.”

“Not to mention we think it would be an obvious choice to check out a clinic if you are in need of medical supplies, we would be better off looking for medicine cabinets and boxes in bathrooms rather than staying here.” Silver said, quickly turning and moving away from the room

“You’re freaked out by that thing, aren’t you.” Solstice said with a chuckle.

“Would you not be if you had seen what those can do to a pony? It is not pretty, not in the least, a fate worse than death to those who have been forced into one.” Silver said, sighing and shaking her head.

“Sometimes it works, I’ve heard the stories from the Enclave War, but yeah, we should probably get out of here,” I commented. “We’ll head back to the fountain at the plaza. Our last stop is the Residential District.”

“Our last patzee?” Solstice said, sheathing her knife and adjusting her rifle.

“What is with you and name calling?” Silver said with a frown.

“What is with you and speaking in plural.” Solstice shot back

“I swear it’s like I’m babysitting foals,” I groaned. “It’s like dealing with tribal leaders only you two are more mature and do less name calling.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment” Solstice said with a laugh

“Speak for yourself.” Silver said with a huff. “It is not every day we, being almost two hundred years old, get compared to foals.”

“I compared you to tribal politics back home, and that’s what you were insulted by?” I said with a laugh as we started back down the hallway. “Come on, we can’t just stand around talking and something tells me the Ghost ponies are waiting for us out there.”

“Of course we can, as long as they are out there and we’re in here, we have all eternity.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “For some of us that may be longer than others.”

“Alright, then let’s be ready for anything,” I said as I slid my knife spear off my back. “We don’t know how many we’re dealing with so stay on your guard. Solstice, how much ammo do you have in that thing?”

“How much you want?” Solstice said with a snicker.

“Unless you’ve somehow made a weapon with infinite ammunition, we need to make sure we keep track of how much we have,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “And a reload time may put you in the line of fire. We’ve seen the territory, this is street based close quarters combat not sniping them from a perch. Are you going to be able to deal with them?”

“One word for you darling, Unicorn.” Solstice said, horn glowing and lifting not just her rifle but her knife from its sheath. “Combine magic with SATS, I can hit the freckle on your left flank from a mile, or from an inch.”

“Alright, then let’s do this,” I said as we reached the entrance. “You two provide covering fire if there are any Ghosts out there. You know where to aim, I’ll get what’s left with my spear. Unless you two have a better plan.”

“Try to not get shot.” Solstice said with a snicker. “Though like I said, I doubt there is going to be a horde of them - if you’re so concerned the second floor balcony can offer a vantage point.”

“Sorry, it’s my combat training kicking in,” I said as I adjusted my spear. “I think we’ll be fine if we’re careful. Unless you’d rather have a vantage point, but we need to be able to move fast, so it might be better not to.”

Solstice just stared at me blankly for a moment. “Am I a joke to you?” She said, chuckling a little. “Say it with me U-Ni-Corn, Teleportation is a thing, you know. I’ll probably be out of danger before you two can blink.”

“Right, sorry, I’m used to working with Zebras,” I said with a shake of my head. “So, should we just teleport there or is something going to get in the way of that too?”

“Teleportation to an unseen location is possible, but it is not very recommended - Teleportation into a room full of enemies, or perhaps even into an unseen wall is a possibility.” Silver said with a sigh. “As much as we wish it was that easy - Teleportation is good as a retreat, not as an advance”

“Alright then,” I said as I nodded to the door. “Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more.”

“Was that an attempt to be poetic?” Solstice said, pausing and looking at me for a moment.

“We aren’t going to war, you do know that, right?” Silver added, staring at me as well.

“First lesson I learned from the Roamani, life in the Wasteland is a war,” I said with a chuckle as I moved towards the door. “This kind of situation is a war for survival. And unless you want to lose it, I’d stop commenting on my attempts to be poetic and be ready to make a move.”

“I promise you, on my Stable’s honor, there is not going to be a horde of ghosts outside that door, I’ve killed most of them, only the ones not drawn out by my lures are left, so they’re probably deaf.” Solstice said with a frown.

“Better to be prepared for nothing than to be caught unprepared,” I said with a shrug as I pushed the door open and stepped out into the Chateau itself.

“That’s a great way to kill yourself.” Solstice said, pushing past me and walking out into the open. “See, not a single ghost.”

Right after she said that, a knife spear flew past her head just barely missing her. I quickly spun around to see four Ghosts heading towards us, one of them preparing to throw another spear as they did.

“You were saying?” I shouted as I ran forward at the nearest Ghost, swinging my spear at it as I ducked out of the way of another spear.

“Oh for celestia’s sake” Solstice said as she recovered from the near miss, lifting her rifle and aiming at the nearest ghost “I suggest you cover your ears.”

Without hesitation, Silver quickly covered her ears as she ducked down some. “Sani, These rifles will make you deaf if you don’t protect your ears!” She called out to me.

I nodded as I impaled the Ghost I had targeted through the head and fell back as I covered my ears to protect them from the sound. “Do it fast!”

What followed was three shots, each pull of the trigger thumping our chests like we had been bucked square in the ribs. The three remaining ghosts falling over, each one having had its head blown open by a high caliber round.

“Take that you bitches!” Solstice shouted as she stood up and put her rifle down. “You get one free shot, ONE, you better not miss next time!”

As if to answer her, there was the sudden sound of something bouncing across the ground as it landed at her hooves. Gas was released by the small projectile as it surrounded us, cloaking the area in fog.

“Come on… where are you…” I muttered as I looked around quickly, holding my spear in my hooves.

Suddenly there was an unusual noise as something seemed to move through the smoke. There was a whooshing sound as it stabbed at Solstice with its spear and I started to raise my own, trying to get a look at where the Ghost was.

Solstice was in a panic, forgetting to just teleport away like she bragged before.

“That is enough” Silver yelled, and started to beat her wings, easily moving enough air to blow the smoke away and reveal the ghost, and solstice to us. “Solstice, you should have just teleported.”

I quickly grabbed a spear and threw it as hard as I could at the Ghost, catching it in the head as it crumpled to the ground. “Are you okay, Solstice?”

“Since when do they throw things?!” She said in her panic “They’ve never thrown things before!”

“Apparently they’re smarter than we give them credit, this might be a problem,” I said as I picked up the spear I had used to impale the first one. I flinched a little as it had become cracked and sighed a little. “Well, that was bound to happen eventually.”

“I don’t want to do this anymore” Solstice said, still visibly shaken. “They’ve never done this before, I’ve taken them on hoof to hoof, at range, they’ve never thrown anything at me before… are they learning? Trying to adapt to the more skilled foes?..”

“They might be honestly,” I admitted as I picked up another spear from one of the Ghosts and slid it into the slot. “Is it possible that they have more than a rudimentary intelligence? The fact that these spears exist alone suggests they’re capable of tool making. And that gas bomb, that was sophisticated.”

“I was always told that they found the weapons on those they killed, or had them when they turned… they’re feral ghouls under it all, they shouldn’t have any brain left, should just be a puddle in their melon, to suggest that they are still intelligent just… it makes no sense!” Solstice said, starting to shift from fear to frustration. “Everything we have ever known about ghouls is that when they go feral; they don’t have a brain anymore”

“I know, this doesn’t make sense to me either…” I said as I shook my head a little. “Look, we need to get moving. We’ll figure it out when we get back to the Fountain. Right now we need to get there, clear our heads, and plan our next move.”

We headed back to the Fountain in silence. The Ghosts didn’t bother us again, what had happened had scared them off. But still, we had a lot to think about.

I just had to hope we’d be able to figure it out.

00000

“Well, meet me mother and father, meet me on the river road.
And momma you know that I’ll be there when I check my load.
Ain’t no grave can hold my body down.
There ain’t no grave that can hold my body down.
There ain’t no grave that can hold my body down.”

I was seated on the stone of the fountain as I wrote the events that had happened so far. It turned out the book that I had found in the Clinic was a blank journal. I was chronicling everything that had happened while it was fresh in my mind so I could bring the story back with me to the Zebra Lands.

If I made it back to the Zebra lands at least.

I glanced up at the hologram of the singing mare for a moment. She was a Pegasus mare dressed in a pre-war formal outfit. She was singing another song as I wrote the last words about the events in the medical district as I looked up at my companions for a moment.

“Do either of you know who she was?” I mused as I pointed my pencil up at the hologram.

“If the stories are true, she was the partner to the pony that built this place.” Solstice said, stretching a bit as she sat beside me.

“Few know her name, even fewer knew much of anything about her. Just that she was from a far away township.” Silver added.

“Interesting, I wonder what her name was, what her story was…” I commented as I stared at her for a moment longer. “Well, wherever she is now I hope she’s at peace. It certainly can’t be worse than where we are.”

“That depends on what line of events you believe.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “Some say she was a crook, just played Solace in this venture so that she could steal his business and become filthy rich overnight.”

“Others say the two were madly in love and would do anything for eachother, that Solace built this place as a gift to her.” Silver added. “We have heard other stories about her, but we are unsure who or what to believe.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” I said as I put the journal back into my bags. “She has a lovely voice at least. So, whoever we’re looking for next is in the Residential District. Do either of you know anything about that area?”

“Pretty much like the medical district.” Solstice said with a shrug. “Most of the ghosts there have moved on though, hell some reports say they’ve gone into the casino itself, something about higher concentration of cloud in there.”

“Interesting,” I commented as I adjusted my spear for a moment. “We apparently can’t just walk into the casino. Though this does imply that there is an easier way to get in there. Just we don’t know what it is. So for now, like pretty much everything else, we have to trust that Father Quasar’s plan won’t get us killed. Spirits, this is not the best place to be in either literally or figuratively.”

I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky for a moment. The pink cloud swirled around the towering casino above us. “Let’s assume for a moment that there are still Ghosts in there. What supplies do we have that we can use? How many bullets do you two have? I need a number this time, we need to know how much we’ve got after what happened last time.”

“If I could give you a definitive number I would, but packing ammo literally everywhere it can fit tends to lead to a few misplaced rounds and surprises later on.” Solstice said with a shrug. “If I had to guess, Probably around 115, maybe 120 rounds for the AM Rifle.”

“Given that our rifle is not well suited for ghosts, we fear that any amount of ammunition we may have is inadequate if we are to find ourselves in a large gathering.” Silver said with a sigh. “If we had our own rifle, this would not be the case… We are afraid the most we can offer is support, our secondary job to unity was shield projection, we are concerned however, as we worked in pairs and my partner is… no longer with us.”

“I’m sorry... “ I said softly. “But I’m sure your shields will help. We could always use a good defense against these things. And let’s try not to tempt fate again, okay? I swear it’s like Discord or something put a curse on this world to cause stuff to happen when you tempt fate.”

“Our shields are nigh unbreakable… when we work in pairs.” Silver said, almost proud of herself for a moment. “Alone, they are by far tougher than most Unicorns of old, but not permanent, they can be easily collapsed from too much exertion.”

“Don’t worry, if we get into a position where we need your shielding, they aren’t going to last long enough to break through it.” Solstice said, smirking to herself a little. “I really can’t wait to show you both what I can really do.”

“Alright, well if there are no other plans as to what we should do next, we’re going into the Residential District,” I said as I adjusted my weapons one last time. I glanced back up towards the casino for a long moment as I watched the pink cloud shift and swirl around it. “No one back home is going to believe any of this you know.”

“If they don’t believe you, then they are fools.” Solstice said, checking her rifle over one more time. “The thing I’m more worried about is this rifle is due for a cleaning, I might get ten, maybe twenty rounds out of it before it’s just too likely to jam, and trust me - this rifle jamming is a bad time for the shooter, and everyone within a few feet.”

“I’ve got a revolver I picked up from one of those stashes, it will at least slow them down,” I offered. “And we can look around to see if we can find anything else.”

“Not needed.” Solstice said, motioning to her side, using her magic to lift the covering to her bags, revealing what looked to be a collapsed blade. “You know how Enclave have wing-blades? Well, no wings - but they made a set just for me that can be used like swords instead.”

“That works,” I said with a nod as I looked at Silver. “What about you? Are you hiding anything or should we find you another option?”

“It may be wise to look for alternative methods of attack.” Silver said with a shake of her head and sigh. “If not for their resistance, we would be able to defeat them with our magic alone, alas we are not one of our stronger sisters.”

“The three of us are working together on this,” I commented as I looked between the two of them for a moment. “We’re a team right now, even if we were forced into it. Hopefully, whoever we’re looking for will be able to help us figure out how to get us out of this crazy situation. So, I guess we should get going.”

As we started towards the residential district, the haunting voice of the old world mare kept singing.

“It keeps creeping over me,
The more it gives, the less I am.
It keeps on screaming for release,
Yells with my voice, tears with my hooves.”

00000

“It’s so quiet here…” I commented out loud as we pushed through the door to the Residential District. “I mean, I’ve been in silent places before. But this place, it’s… it’s a silence like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I’m not sure I like it, maybe that’s why I keep talking too much… am I talking too much now? I never thought about that before.”

I slapped myself a little. I really needed to stop talking so much, it was just going to give away our position to the Ghosts.

“I really need to work on that…” I groaned as I checked the map again. “Alright, it looks like the signal is coming from the south end of the district.”

“So, we just get there, make contact, tell them to get off their lazy flanks and come with us?” Solstice said with a chuckle. “Y’know, there used to be a lot more ghosts in this area, I get the feeling that whoever they left here for you to find - might be a bit more dangerous than me.”

“Yeah… I don’t like this,” I said as I looked up for a moment. “Let’s approach carefully. Who knows what’s waiting for us in here if they’re more dangerous than you. The Ghosts may be the least of our problems.”

I glanced towards a set of stairs and off to the side. I could see wisps of the pink gas in the distance from here. I nodded that way and pointed up the stairs.

“We should head upstairs,” I finally said. “I don’t like the look of the ground route right now. The stairs should be slightly safer.”

“Sure, the stairs.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “And let’s just hope they don’t collapse out from under our hooves from age and neglect, right?”

“I’m not worried about that, Pink Cloud preserves things like that very well and its not made of wood,” I replied. “I’m more worried about what could be waiting for us. If there’s somepony that dangerous here, then the first thing I’d do is set up traps on routes close to the Pink Cloud to... dissuade anypony from getting close.”

“Unless they are aware that they need three others, and would not want the three to end up dead or injured - because, you know, if they are smart they don’t want to get blown up, or have dead weight.” Solstice pointed out with a chuckle. “There are two sides to every coin stripes, don’t forget that not everything is as it immediately appears.”

“Right… but still I’d keep an eye out,” I added. “I’d still put traps in this kind of area. And we don’t exactly know what kind of pony we’re dealing with here. Just, let’s be careful, okay?”

“If any pony, we are not sure if they are still here… perhaps the marker is wrong?” Silver said, gently leaning to look at my pipbuck. “The EFS is messing up… why not the marking system?”

“Yeah… that’s also possible,” I commented as I looked at the mark for a moment. “But given that we don’t have any other clues, we should at least give it a shot. Unless one of you has a better idea.”

“I personally prefer the ideas that do not result in horrible death,” Solstice said with a chuckle. “It’s not like we can just reload an earlier save or something.”

“That would’ve been useful while learning how to hack,” I commented with a light chuckle. “We’ll be careful then. But I’d rather not go through the Pink Cloud or figure out a way around it that way. And you just know that Quasar will ask if we checked, and if it turns out he or she is actually there… yeah, we need to check. Just be careful, I’m not entirely convinced that we won’t have to deal with some sort of traps.”

“The cloud really isn’t a big deal, a part of Enclave training teaches you how to handle small pockets of it. I think it has something to do with the idea of storming Canterlot, before you know, they blew it up.” Solstice said with a shrug. “Hold your breath, close your eyes, and sprint as quick as possible, spend almost no time in it, it’ll do basically nothing to you.”

“Okay, fair,” I said as I glanced back towards the Pink Cloud area for a moment. “Alright, that should probably cut some time out of our trip. This is the Spirits getting back at the FRA for not sending us into the Old City for training, I just know it.”

“If your… Spirits would do such a thing, perhaps they are not worth mentioning?” Silver said with a chuckle. “Sounds much like how many ponies will say goddesses or the like, some goddesses, died and left the world to ruin, they did not deserve it.”

“I can think of another ‘Goddess’ that didn’t deserve the title.” Solstice said with a snicker.

“The Spirits are real,” I snorted. “We work with them and they aid us and our shamans. Though, the Spirits have long abandoned this place. We’re on our own here.”

“Religions are a load of…” Solstice said, chuckling and shaking her head. “Maybe to you they are, but to everypony else, they are nothing more than smoke and mirrors”

“I find it interesting that our two nations can have such similar ideals but differ on that one point,” I commented as we started walking again. “Perhaps if you ever wind up in Crusader Town you should ask about the Dealer. And our Shamans have interacted with Spirits for centuries. But, you are still free to have your view of things.”

“As you are to have yours, even if they’re wrong and misguided.” Solstice said with a shrug.

I facehooved at that, but I was not about to get into a debate with this mare. She wasn’t a Shaman, I had never met a Pony Shaman (though I had heard rumors about one from Hoofington that came to our lands). She would never completely understand unless she could actually see some sort of evidence, so I let it go.

“Well, we’re not going to get anything done if we just keep arguing about our respective views on religion,” I said as we reached the area where the pink cloud had collected. “Alright, hopefully this will get us to where we need to go. Are you two ready?”

We quickly made our way through the pink cloud section. For a moment it felt almost like we wouldn’t reach the end of it, I almost felt like I was going to give in and breathe in the horrible gas. Mentally I was cursing the old Imperial spellcrafters who had made this horrifying creation and whoever had put it in the Stella Royale.

Finally we pushed through the pink cloud and I let out a breath that I had been holding. We found ourselves through a hole in the wall and a door that we pushed open. It lead into a small kitchen with stairs that lead upstairs and a desk with a terminal against the wall.

“I’m going to check the terminal, you two see if you can find anything in here,” I said as I trotted over to the terminal. This one wasn’t password protected as I pulled up the data on the screen.

Doctor Magenta’s Notes.
Log Entries.

Interesting, this belonged to one of the Doctors who worked in the Medical District. Looking over the notes confirmed that, it was mostly just notes of treatments from before the last day. I loaded up the log entries, and clicked on one that was dated a year before the bombs fell.

What I noted that the information had been partially corrupted. The name of the patient had been cut out, leaving just the initials V.K.

“V.K. again…” I muttered as I looked at the entry. “Interesting… probably a coincidence though.”

I saw V.K again today. She came down from the Casino to meet with me in the Clinic, these visits seem to be getting more and more frequent lately. She’s doing worse I’m afraid, I’ve given her what Med-X I can spare. I put in a requisition to have one of the experimental S.A.D. systems be moved into the Casino’s medical center in the event that she needs it.

I’m still confused by her insistence on a [REDACTED], or why she had been so secretive about it.

That was where the file ended however. It was just another mystery to pile on top of the numerous mysteries of this place including V.K. For now, I didn’t have time to wonder about that, I scanned through the rest of the log entries. They were more reports of what had happened after the bombs fell and the ensuing chaos followed by the Clinic being abandoned.

I pulled up the last log entry on the terminal. I was going to get answers about this.

The Triage center we set up is gone.

I don’t know how many ponies are left in the Chateau anymore. I wasn’t trained for this kind of thing. The lucky ones die quickly from the exposure to the pink cloud, the unlucky ones suffer a long and painful death. Or worse, they don’t die at all. I found a stash of hazard suits that we’re starting to pass out to ponies that need to get into the affected areas. But it’s not doing any good, whatever this thing is, it gets into the suits anyway.

Now at least we know what happened to the Deputy from before. The Pink Cloud does it, it made her that, thing. I’ve never experienced something as horrible as a pony rising up after seemingly dying and attacking their former friends and family. The Cloud, it makes them no better than animals.

We sent a team to try and get the gate open, but the Cloud had already breached that area. And there were ponies… dressed in hazard suits there. They attacked the team, with only a single survivor barely escaping. He mentioned that they seemed enraptured by the hologram of V.K. at the center of the fountain before succumbing to his wounds.

Its spreading further over the Chateau, I don’t know how much longer we’re going to last at this point. If anypony ever finds this, get out of here. There’s nothing left of us here, we’re all just living on borrowed time at this point.

My name is Doctor Magenta, I’m the last of the medical staff here at the Stella Royale. And I have failed in my duty to keep these ponies alive. For that, I am truly sorry.

“Sani?” I heard Silver call out. “We have found something you may want to see.”

“What is it?” I asked, finally being able to tear myself away from the screen. I headed over towards where the other two were standing to see what was going on.

“We warn that this may be very disturbing, based on previous reactions.” Silver said, looking over her shoulder for a moment. Just now noticing that she had been shielding a hallway with her wings to block my view. “Are you absolutely sure you want to see this?”

“You just said I may want to see it,” I pointed out and sighed. “Look, I lost my composure back at the Clinic I know. But if I need to see this, then I’ll come see it and try to avoid freaking out or throwing up.”

Silver nodded and lifted her wings, letting me see a hallway littered with bodies, most of them very well preserved, but at the far end of the hallway stood a furniture barricade, behind it skeletons of ponies, young and old, one of them draped in a tattered and torn white lab coat.

“It would appear, this was their final stand.” Silver said, looking away with a sigh.

I stood there in silence for a long moment as I looked at the skeletons of the ponies. Part of me wished that we could give them a proper burial, but the rest of me knew that there was no way we would be able to find a place for them.

The silence around us was deafening, as if there was nothing else any of us could either do or say. I couldn’t look away, it was like looking away would do these ponies a disservice. I finally couldn’t help it any longer, I broke down crying.

“I’m sorry…” I finally said, not to Silver, but to them. “This is all our fault. We developed that horrible weapon and let it be used. Everything that happened here, it’s our fault…”

I felt a hoof gently grasping at my back, pulling me back until I was enveloped in darkness, a slight light shining, only to grow brighter, Silver smiling there, having wrapped me in her wings.

“The sins of the father weigh heavily on this one’s back, but the father did not intend for his sins to fall to his children.” Silver said softly. “You need not apologize for them, or for what the fathers of time past have done, but honor their memory, and ensure that something like this may never happen again.”

“It’s still not easy you know…” I admitted. “How much have we really changed since then? We still fight wars with one another. We still kill one another. Not long ago Equestria was embroiled in the biggest war it had seen in years. Ponies were willing to use Megaspells on each other, and they did once. All because nopony was willing to do what they should have done to begin with, sit down and talk.”

“This is true, however do not take the lessons learned from this last great war and let them be forgotten.” Silver said, smiling at me. “Weapons of mass destruction will always be a part of our history, but the marks of times changing is when we learn that these weapons are not our way, and decide that perhaps it would be best to dismantle them and let them be relics of the past rather than embrace them and use them to only deepen the wastes.”

“This place would be better off destroyed, never thought I’d agree with the old Enclave on that kind of thing,” I sighed. I looked at the skeletons one last time and muttered a soft prayer. “The only thing we can do now is remember. I’m going back to the terminal to download the files to my PipBuck. If we get out of this, I think both our species need to see what we’ve learned here.”

“Do what you must to be at peace.” Silver said, lifting her wings and standing, her gaze turning back to the bodies that littered the hallway. “May the goddess -” she paused, looked at me for a moment “And the spirits, guide your souls to rest.”

I went to the terminal and downloaded the files in silence. I was going to make sure that these stories were remembered. I took a deep breath as I made sure they were downloaded. This place was horrible, but I had to make sure they survived.

When I turned from the terminal I saw Silver still in the hallway, she had moved each body - every skeleton to be in a line along a wall, each one draped in a clean white sheet. Resting on each a single, glowing other-worldly flower. A part of me wondered where she was getting them, only to watch her levitate up a dirty one in her magic, seeing as it bleached white, and was capped with the conjured flower.

“Requiem aeternam dona eis.” she said, before turning to face me with a soft smile. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Thank you, it’s beautiful,” I said as I admired her work and gave her a nod. “Let’s get Solstice and go. We shouldn’t be too far away from our goal.”

We headed upstairs and found a balcony that would lead us away from the Pink Cloud. I checked my map again as we started heading along the rooftops towards our goal.

00000

As we neared the building where the signal was coming from, we heard a familiar sound as more Ghosts came into view. I was about to raise my spear to fight them again when there was a sudden clicking sound as they stepped on something.

“Down!” I shouted as we ducked down and there was an explosion followed by the unnatural cries of the Ghosts. When we looked up again, most of them had been blown to pieces with the last one stumbling around from the shock as I threw my spear at its head, impaling it. “I told you there were traps around here. That is why we keep a close eye out.”

I checked over the bodies as I pulled the spear out again. There wasn’t much to find, just a few random items and weapons. I found another note on one body however, and when I opened it, all that was on it was a drawing of two ponies against a background with words written under it that were crossed out and replaced with “There is no light left in the world.”

“Well, that’s not ominous at all…” I said as I stared at the paper for a moment before sliding it into my bags.

“Okay, so, traps,” Solstice said, tapping at her chin. “Those were obvious, we just weren’t looking… maybe they are meant to be seen by us, but the ghosts aren’t coordinated enough to avoid them.”

“Or you tempting fate once more has put us all at risk.” Silver said with a frown. “From this point forward, if we survive - You are no longer allowed to tempt fate.”

“Oh come on, It can’t happen every time!” Solstice said, sputtering and looking a little offended.

“Then I wouldn’t move your left foreleg an inch to your left,” I commented as I glanced down at the ground. “Because there’s a pressure plate right where you were about to step.”

Silver sighed and rolled her eyes, horn starting to glow and a solid platform made of her magic appeared just above the ground.

“All aboard.” Silver said, slightly glaring at Solstice. “You’re lucky that if you die we die, else we would leave you here to work yourself out of your own mistake.”

Solstice just puffed her cheeks for a moment before stepping onto the platform of magic. “Yeah… well… I’ll remember that when you nearly get yourself killed by a poor choice.”

“I’m here because of a poor choice if that helps any,” I commented as we started for the stairs, keeping an eye out for any more traps. “Well, I’m pretty sure whoever we’re looking for knows we’re here at this point. So, we might as well…”

I stopped in mid-sentence when we reached the destroyed floor where the signal was coming from. There was nothing there except for two chairs and a desk with a terminal on it.

“Oh… you have got to be kidding me,” I commented as I looked around. “Where is that signal coming from?”

“Perhaps the drawers?” Silver said, motioning to the desk.

“And what if whoever put it there expected Quasar to come check it out? It could be trapped.” Solstice said with a huff.

“Oh, now we’re worried about traps we see.” Silver said, shooting Solstice a look.

“Yeah…” I said as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“We swear, it is almost like there are not two magic users here.” Silver said, rolling her eyes as she placed a shield between us and the desk. “Use your magic, open the drawers, if they are trapped, it’ll go off, and we’ll be fine.”

“Shell shock is a thing you know.” Solstice said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes in reply. Horn glowing and started to gently pull each drawer out.

And absolutely nothing happened as each of them opened. “Well, that was a waste of time,” I commented. “But better safe than sorry I suppose. Well, let’s see if the terminal offers anything.”

I headed over to the terminal and typed on it, keeping an eye out for anything for a moment but nothing happened. I let out a sigh of relief as I pulled up the terminal information.

Signal Broadcast: On.
Message for Quasar.

“Okay, well that explains why we were led here, this terminal is broadcasting the signal,” I said as I shut off the signal and it vanished from my EFS. “So… what does this mean?”

I opened up the other entry and narrowed my eyes, it was only a short message.

“See you soon,” I read out loud. “What do you two suggest we do now? This didn’t exactly pan out. Should we go back to the Fountain and report?”

“Father Quasar needs us, correct?” Silver said, looking at me for a moment. “We say he can contact us, we need not be his puppets.”

“He could decide that’s enough to kill us and start again?” Solstice pointed out.

“We doubt this, we have been here before Father Quasar was here - we have seen all his past attempts fail, but each got farther than the last - He would not let us live when those attempts failed, if he did not need us.” Silver said, slowly shaking her head. “We believe that he needs us, and you.” pointing to Solstice. “We are unsure why he has roped Sani into this, there is more here than meets the eye, however we are confident he would not risk killing us.”

“I agree,” I said. “But this isn’t the safest place to be right now. The Fountain is our fallback point, we should return there and either contact him or figure out what to do next. We don’t have to contact him yet.”

“We disagree, but we will follow your lead.” Silver said with a sigh. “There are many buildings, each have been untouched for decades, if not longer, with caches scattered around there is no telling what we could be leaving behind.”

“Well, we can always come back and check it out after we’ve cleared the Casino.” Solstice said with a shrug. “And with no worry about losing our heads.”

“Or before we go into the Casino,” I suggested as we started down the stairs again. “Keep an eye out while we’re here as well. I don’t like this any more than you do. But… I don’t like this place, it feels like we’re walking over graves.”

As we headed back to the entrance to the Residential district, I spotted another white hoofprint. I found the suitcase and gathered up what we could, spotting another identical letter at the bottom of it. I stared at the name on it for the longest moment.

“V.K… who are you…” I commented out loud as I looked at it. “Why did you leave these caches out…”

“We will find out in due time, however we do believe there is a fair chance that this cache may have been guarded.” Silver said, motioning to a nearby pile of bones and unidentifiable meat, “It may be wise to move quicker.”

“Agreed,” I said as we started walking again, this time much faster. Something about this still bothered me though. It felt so much like we were being set up for something.

And I didn’t like it one bit.

00000

“World on fire with a smoking sun,
Stops everything and everyone.
Brace yourself for all will pay,
Help is on the way.”

“If they weren’t in the Residential District, where did they go?” I asked as I paced in front of the fountain. “There are only two other locations we haven’t searched. Lever du Soleil and Coucher du Soleil. What is that anyway, Prench?”

“We believe so.” Silver said, tapping her chin for a moment. “We have a theory, but we are unsure if the possibility is… well, a possibility.”

“There is something off about all of this, like we’ve all been led in circles and believed something to be truth and fact when it was just a single lie by a very skilled liar.” Solstice said, sighing and shaking her head. “This is giving me a headache, and that gosh darn singing isn’t helping!”

“Tell me about it…” I muttered as I closed my eyes. Something about that singing suddenly bothered me. “Why is that thing still running anyway? It should have run out of power years ago or something. Or does it have a limitless power source? Why am I wondering about this kind of thing? We have more important things to deal with like what we’re supposed to do now.”

“Question.” Solstice said, holding her hoof up. “Where is Father Quasar after all? I mean - He’s here, somewhere… he can’t be too far, the cloud messes with electronics too much”

“Perhaps we should contact him, as much as we would desire any other choice than this.” Silver added, sighing and sitting down while shaking her head. “This one stallion has… many answers we feel.”

“Yes, I agree, give me a second,” I said as I went back over to the fountain and input commands into a terminal. After a moment, the holographic projection of Father Quasar appeared before us.

“Well, I see you’ve found two of them at least, I hope you’re not here to waste my time,” Quasar commented as he stared the three of us down. “Do you have any questions or should I just wait until you actually find the last member of our little team?”

“We went to the location of the signal from the last member,” I told him. “He or she apparently rigged a terminal to broadcast the signal. They’re in the wind.”

“That is troubling, but not unexpected,” Quasar commented. “I will run a scan for the signal again. Without that interfering, it should be easy enough to track down their actual location within the Chateau. If you’ll give me a moment I’ll…”

He paused a moment as if he was listening to something. Then the hologram flickered before shutting off.

“Okay, that wasn’t weird at all…” I commented as I looked back at the others. “What do you two think?”

“Perhaps he discovered that our last member has made an escape without his noticing?” Solstice said with a shrug. “It’d be what I’d do if I had the ability to take off my collar and spoof my signal.”

“Yeah… maybe,” I said as I looked thoughtful for a moment. Something was wrong about all of this, I couldn’t put my hoof on it, but something felt wrong.

“We did not find a collar with the terminal, it is possible that the collar was not removed and that our last member is somewhere in the villa, or perhaps even the casino.” Silver pointed out. “You see… we have a feeling that our last member is… much more familiar with this place, perhaps has been here far longer than all of us combined.”

“Yeah, I agree,” I said as I shifted again. Something really felt off, like there was something missing all of a sudden. “They’re smart, and very dangerous. If they’re up to something, we have to…”

I stopped in mid sentence when I realized what was missing. There was a silence, a very familiar silence that was native to the Royale.

“What happened to the music?” I asked. I turned around quickly and saw the hologram of the mare was still there. However now she was staring at the three of us with sharp eyes and a smile on her lips. “You have got to be kidding me…”

“Well, it’s about time you figured it out,” the mare laughed. “I was expecting Quasar to send smarter ponies than this.”

Silver jumped to her hooves and stared at that hologram for a few moments. “We knew it, V.K. Right? We knew you must have been the last, Let us guess, used VIP access to get into the Casino without the Gala event?”

“There were rumors of a connection between the theater and the Chateau to allow for, psuedo-live performances.” Solstice said, chuckling a little. “Never thought a pony would sit there singing for hours on end to no crowd.”

“I only sing when you’re here, it keeps up appearances,” V.K. replied. She raised a cigarette to her lips and lit it. “And yes, I am V.K., I’m sure you’ve found my caches around the Chateau I assume. If you want to call me anything, call me Velvet Kiss. I must say, Quasar certainly has gathered up a motley crew.”

“Where is our rifle” Silver said, walking up to that hologram. “What have you done with it.”

“Oh, this is yours?” Velvet asked as she reached over and picked up a rifle. “I simply found it in the armory at the Police Station. I felt it might come in handy, nothing more. But it may have some uses.”

“Well, Velvet,” I said as I eyed her. “You clearly know what we’re doing here. You know we’re after the treasure of the Stella Royale.”

“Yes, I do, and I also know things about Father Quasar,” Velvet replied and took a drag on her cigarette. “You know parts of it I’m sure. Former Steel Ranger Elder, out of San Prancisco I think it was. I wonder if you know that for a time some years back he was in Seaddle before the little civil war broke out. Way I hear it, Elder Mandrake himself excommunicated the not-so good Father and sent his operatives after him.”

“Mandrake?” I asked. “The Seaddle Elder that waged war against Applejack’s Rangers?”

“Yes, and if the likes of him didn’t like Quasar, you can only imagine how dangerous this stallion is,” Velvet snorted.

“You are a liar.” Silver said, scowling at that hologram. “We have sat and talked with this stallion, he has never once mentioned this to us, nor have we seen it when we entered his mind.”

“You really think it’s that simple?” Velvet asked. “This isn’t the first time he’s crossed paths with your kind. I’m sure he has defenses against it. He’s tried to use other Alicorns over the years, and none of them could pierce his defenses either. Tell me, did he tell you the trick to these things?”

She adjusted the hologram and a collar appeared around her neck which she tapped.

“If one of us dies, we all die,” she continued. “Beep… beep… BOOM!”

“Indeed he did.” Silver said, her horn starting to glow, aura appearing around her own collar. “If what we have been told is true, Unity is gone, we no longer have a purpose - We could end this charade right here, right now, and end all of us before Quasar gets what he desires. Dare us.”

“Yes, but imagine what you can do with the treasures lying in this place,” Velvet said as she smiled. “You could use the treasure to find yourself a new purpose in life. Or perhaps convince other Alicorns to build a new Unity. Sani, you’re from the Free Roam Alliance. Your nation is still recovering from the last war, imagine what that much gold could do for the people of Zebrica. And not to mention how much you could all get personally. You’re in luck because I’m still going to help you get into the Casino.”

“You talk too much.” Solstice said, walking up next to Silver. “See, the thing here is - Maybe that kind of thinking could appeal to you, and possibly Sani, but Big Green here? She has no interest in Wealth, and my goal is to see Quasar in a puddle of blood, so why don’t you stop with the theatrics and cut to the chase.”

“Alright then, I’ll cut to the chase as you said,” Velvet said. “We can all get what we want out of this. Quasar is in a well protected location, the only way to lure him out is to play his game. You want to kill him, then we have to work together. As for you Silver, you want your gun back I’m guessing. I’ll give you your gun back upon delivery of your side of the deal. And after that, well, you’re free to do whatever you want. Kill yourself, go out and walk Equestria. Maybe find a pony and have little Alicorn babies, whatever you want to do. I don’t really care at this point, all I care about is getting into that vault, and the three of you are the only way we’re going to do it. So, what do you say?”

“We do not make deals with thieves.” Silver said, scowling at that hologram all the more. “You fail to realize, we hold the cards. You will be here, at this fountain in no less than five minutes, you will return our rifle, and then you will stay with us and assist in triggering the Gala event, failure to comply will result in immediate removal of our collar, and thus the termination of this so called game. What do you say.”

“Oh, you’re under the impression that I’m under the same restrictions as you, how cute,” Velvet giggled. “See, I’m capable of doing more things than you three are. I removed the bomb on my collar a long time ago. However, it’s still linked so all I have to do is remove one, little, clasp. And then, like I said… boom.”

“That explains how you survived the previous games.” Silver said with a frown “However, this time is different is it not? You need us, elsewise you will not survive the pink cloud in the vault. You need Solstice to open the lock to get into the vault, We are not sure what Sani is meant to do - but we are certain, you disabled your collar, but our deaths would be irreplaceable in your ability to enter the vault unharmed.”

“Oh, such a party pooper,” Velvet said with a pout. “To answer your question, the Zebra would not have been my first choice. However I suppose that Quasar believed that she would be good to keep us from killing one another. Well, since you put it that way, I suppose I can comply with your request. But one wrong move, and all three of you will blow up, I have infinite patience at this point, I can find more ponies if I have to.”

“We beg to differ.” Silver said, starting to smirk. “The wasteland grows sparse in particular departments. If what was said is true, Unity is gone, which means many of our sisters will have gone with it, no alicorns, no shield. On top of which we can sense the potential of this unicorn, she is one in a million, kill her there is no promise of another being of her caliber being born in a millenia. Not to mention with your defiance, Quasar is likely to try and kill you himself.”

“Well then, I might as well play your game,” Velvet said. “Very well, I will be at the fountain shortly.”

And with that the hologram shut off completely.

“I swear, she’s going to get us all killed,” I groaned as I looked back at Silver and Solstice. “What do you two make of her? She doesn’t exactly strike me as the most stable of ponies.”

“Buh dun tiss.” Solstice said with a chuckle. “But in all things considered and full seriousness - I think she’s a few screws short. Though I believe we just witnessed a rare unmovable object colliding with an unstoppable force.”

Silver, through this all was standing there, collar still held in her magic, staring at the gates that lead to the casino.

“Agreed,” I said as I looked at the gates again. “You know, I once heard a story about a hero who was faced with that supposedly unanswerable question by a Sphinx.”

“What was his answer?”

“They surrender.”

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Mare of Steel.
Details: Your time in the Stella Royale has strengthened your resolve and strength. Your durability and bones have increased in strength. You take less damage from physical attacks and your bones break less often.