Fallout Equestria: Fractured Memories

Chapters

Chapter 1: Fate throws fortune, but not everyone catches. (Rewritten Story)
Chapter 2: Adversity makes strange bedfellows. (Rewritten Story)
Chapter 3: Can't see the forest through the trees. (Rewritten Story)
Chapter 4: Social minefield — Running gets you through it faster, right? (Part 1)
Chapter 5: Social minefield — Running gets you through it faster, right? (Part 2)
Chapter 6: Actions speak louder than words — Who hears them, though?

Chapter 1: Fate throws fortune, but not everyone catches. (Rewritten Story)

I wake up in a groggy state lying on my side. I shift quickly to my feet to stand, and then stumble down to a quadrupedal stance. Slowly, I get my bearings and realize that I am supposed to be standing on all fours: I am still in pony form. I try to focus to remember what happened when I hear a crack and immediately feel a sharp searing pain in my . . . front shoulder? Hurts too much to try to think of the proper term.

Instinctively, I drop lower to the ground and turn to look in what I think is the direction from where the sound came from. Immediately, I see a pony with a horn, the horn glowing and holding onto something that looks slightly like a cannon, barrel smoking. Taking a glance at my mana pool, I wince before focusing and creating a low-powered shield between the unicorn and myself. The unicorn gives a short lived facial expression I cannot read before narrowing its eyes and refocusing its weapon on me.

Hoping my shield is strong enough, I look about, searching around to find something I can use as a weapon. I hear another crack, and look up to see my shield spark and crack. It only will take one more shot.

I find what looks like a rusty pipe half buried in the ground. The unicorn is not dumb, and after wasting a shot into the shield, it takes a few steps to the side, giving it a clear shot, which it takes, narrowly missing my head when I bent down to grab the pipe. Once I have the pipe, I rush into what looks like a decaying group of trees to use as cover.

I hear some kind of burst of static before barely hearing the unicorn say, "This is Nighty. We have a weird intruder. I heard a teleportation pop before I located it and engaged. It looks like an earthpony but appears to be capable of preforming some basic magic. Over."

After some static again, "Intruder is in the Grove. Permission to pursue?"

After again more static, "Understood. Returning to Post."

Letting go a breath I didn't realize I was holding, I start to realize that this is not a good thing. If they are unconcerned about a singular intruder, than they likely have enough defenses to deal with one without much concern. Quickly glancing at my shoulder, I realize that it was just a glancing blow, not a direct hit, although it definitely hurt! After healing myself with my mana pool, I quickly realize I don't have much mana left for combat.

Taking a look at what I have, I have enough mana for maybe four more shields like the last one, could squeeze out maybe six if I don't worry about having food in the near future, or can recycle the shields. My spell casting matrix is active, and contains the base matrix of my shield spell and the spell keeping me in pony form. I don't have two hours to make another matrix for another spell, so that is out. Finally, I have this weird weapon in my mouth.

Spitting it out, I examine it and find it is not a simple pipe, but has some kind of mechanism behind it to, well do something, likely something similar to the weapon Nightly was wielding. It has seen much better days, given the rust and dirt on the weapon, and seems to be missing some kind of rectangular device that slots into the bottom. It has a trigger similar to a crossbow, but in a sideways orientation? It might fire like a crossbow, but when I try it, nothing happens. Maybe it needs the rectangular device to fire. I don't know so I just again grab it to use as a club.

I move away from the Grove towards my shield, crouching and moving as stealthily as I can in a quadruped form. As I pass my shield, I tap it to recycle some power from it to my mana pool. After crawling for fifteen or so minutes, I stop and think, 'Stupid. You have no reason to be here, why not just leave?'

As I slowly turn around, I hear a burst of static before I hear Nighty's voice again, "It's time to change posts?" A pause before she says, "No need to involve the boss, you bitch, especially with him breaking in the new slave. I'll head in immediately."

'These ponies are slavers!?' I totally forget about my plan to leave. Instead, I move stealthily towards where I heard Nighty's voice, and spot Nighty in the distance, maybe thirty feet, looking away from me. Not wasting this opportunity, I rush forward and bash their head with the pipe weapon in my mouth, dropping them to the ground.

I quickly strip them of their armor after realizing that they and I have a very similarly colored coat. When I compare our two physical sizes, we are close enough that I can probably use her armor. I don the armor that covers most of my body, and then take her equipment and put it on. I don't know enough to know if Nightly is dead, but I drag her out of the light and into grass on the side. As I drag her, I cannot help but shudder at the cat-o'-nine tails mark on her backside. When I am done, I continue down the path she was headed.

The path takes me to a two story building and when I get to the gate, I hear a voice say, "Stop where you are." Almost laughing, the voice says, "Come in Nightly." As soon as I enter the gate, I hear a voice from behind me say, "Not that smart are ya'. Nightly's a horny bastard, not a earth pony, ya' stupid bitch." I start to react, but instead I pass out as I take a blow on the head.

When I come to, I am chained beside a yellow-tan unicorn inside what looks like the remains of a seriously damaged male bathroom. Our forelegs are chained to the pipes above urinals. Ignoring the possible meanings of that, I refocus on inspecting the unicorn. She sports a heavily damaged and stained mane, tail, and coat. She has a mark on her rump that looks like a cross between a sunset and the yin-yang symbol. She has been bruised and beaten and shows the signs and scars courtesy of being whipped. She also noticeably was unable to sit down without squirming with discomfort.

I am interrupted at this inspection of my fellow captive by the door being slammed shut, revealing Nightly. She is carrying a cat-o'-nine tails, and I now have a sinking suspicion as to why she has that particular mark.

More acting than thinking, I use my back legs to push off the floor and use my forelegs to balance on the top of the urinal. I may have banged my head on the pipe, judging from the new pain, but I avoided her first and second swipe of the tails.

Having difficulty keeping my balance, and seeing Nightly go for another swing, I use a low-power shield to shield my lower half and to keep myself on the top of the urinal. I also take a closer look at the pipe I was chained to. Her second swipe gets me, and causes me to howl in pain.

Luck was with me however, as the pipe was only barely holding on due to age. In one quick motion, I pull the pipe out of the urinal and wall and absorb my shield, dropping to the ground with a new weapon in my mouth. It was disgusting, but the necessity of using it got me to avoid spitting it back out. My forelegs were still chained, after all. Nightly was not inactive, and made two more strikes at me. Her first strike mostly missed again, but her second bit deep into my flesh.

I slam the new weapon into her head, cracking the pipe and dropping her to the ground. Nightly screamed in pain before collapsing.

I place another low-power shield against the door and, still panting from the exertion, I turn to my fellow captive. "So. I am Auburn Knight. Who are you?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer. Do you have someway to get the inhibitor off of me?"

Not truly understanding what she is saying, I just ask, "Inhibitor?" She just looks up towards her horn, and I barely make out a small ring around her horn.

"Oh. Let me get a look at it." I say as I approach. Narrowing my eyes, I focus on the ring to see any spell matrices stored on it. It is not a complicated matrix, simply one that redirects focused magic from a spell into the horn attempting to craft the spell. Attempt to cast a spell with it on causes the spell to rebound, damaging the horn and ruining concentration. Shuddering, I realized the spell does not have a cap for rebounded damage. Attempt a powerful enough spell, and it will destroy the horn. There is apparently no matrix to keep the ring on the horn, so I take a closer look at the ring.

I gasp, as the interior of the ring is full of barbed needles. If I attempt to remove the ring physically, it will cut deep into her horn and might even cause permanent damage. It also was already bloody, implying that Sunset had attempted removal before. Or, the slavers did it as a form of torture. . . No. Stop thinking of that for now.

"Sunset. I am going to need to use a shield to keep these barbs from cutting into your horn. I will need to focus for a while, around 45 minutes, to get the dimensions of the shield as close to your horn's size as possible." I pause, considering, "How long do you think we have to get out of this room?"

"Definitely don't have that long. Get me off of this urinal, and we'll worry about the inhibitor later. I'll need it off to take care of the chains, unless you have a way to take care of them?"

Thinking quickly, I have a way to remove the chains: A high-power shield could break the chains; but it would cost quite a bit of my remaining mana pool. I am not entirely sure it is worth it at the moment.

While I try to reason this out, I give the pipe above her urinal a sharp kick, giving us just enough space to slip her chains out from around it. Eventually, I settle on being somewhat honest with Sunset, "I have a way to break the chains, but it would limit the mana I have access to for our escape. I would rather save it for an emergency."

She looks at me oddly before she looks at my forehead, "Wait. . . You're an earthpony! How can you cast magic?"

We are interrupted from our planning by the sound of the door being knocked on and a voice saying, "Nightly, you need to finish up in there."

"No time. And we need to be out of here," Glancing again at my mana pool, I sigh. "Get your chain as close to mine as you can. I am going to separate them."

Hoping that it doesn't take a lot of mana, despite knowing otherwise, I create a small high-power shield bisecting our two chains. I wince at the expenditure, but it was either that or getting trapped again. The shield shatters immediately as it splits the chains. Sunset wastes no time to finish pulling the pipe out of the wall above her urinal as I kick another pipe free from one of the heavily damaged sinks.

Now rearmed, I go up to the door and tap my shield, recycling its energy. Right as I recycle the shield, the door is slammed open, similarly slamming me against the wall.

Sunset's eyes narrow as she rushes forward with the pipe, slamming the head of the pony at the door with a sickening crack. She drops the now useless pipe and pulls the other pony into the room. She quickly snaps his neck and grabs the weapon from him as I pull myself out from against the wall.

It is another thing that seems similar to a cannon. She turns it over, opening up the side of it, and nods to herself. She also grabs the holster from the other pony and a small circular device. "Twelve Shots," she comments. Nine shots, eight more slavers dead, and after clearing this building, I understand how lucky I was that Nightly was not a good shot.

I was able to locate a single well-crafted dirk that I could throw and use fairly effectively, but I think I only took out one slaver to her eight. She located what she commented was a better weapon, a 'pistol' as she called them, and 'four clips' according to her, but was still using the 'revolver' until she ran out of ammo. We also each grabbed a saddlebag.

Once we were done with the building, she said that we need to get out of here. I asked about the other slaves, and she stated, upset, "There are somewhere close to sixty slavers in this complex, not including those attempting to grab more slaves. We try to take them out, in our injured states like this, we are likely to fail. If we are to have a chance, we need to locate better equipment, take some time to heal, and come up with a better plan than being enslaved."

I cough as she mentions my plan, and she just shoots me a look that seems to be some degree of pity and humor.

"Okay then. Ms. Shimmer, how do you expect us to get out of this complex."

"There is a small shack off to the edge of this complex. It is left alone most of the time, and so it should be a safe place for you to remove my inhibitor. Once that is done, I can get us to a better temporary safe spot."

It takes us a good hour to carefully sneak into the shack. It only took ten or so minutes before the whole complex started searching for us, making it extremely difficult to remain undetected. I took my time creating the shield spell before casting it and taking off her inhibitor. I slip it into my saddlebags before she says through gritted teeth, "Step through the gate."

Her use of a dimensional gate caught me off guard, as they are not exactly easy to create, even for temporary ones. We both walk through the gate, and she quickly closes it.

She looked at me using a curious expression and then sighs, saying, "This place will be safe for the night. I only have one bed. . ."

"I'll take the floor. You sure this place is safe?"

She sighs with relief and nods her head, "Sleep where you want. We'll talk in the morning."

Author's Note

Footnote: Level Up (?)
New Trait Added -- A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.

You run into people with something that needs to be done and you naturally want to provide assistance. You receive bonus experience and affinity while helping out with these tasks. You receive heavy experience penalties and affinity losses when failing to complete or abandoning such tasks.

Quest Perk Added -- Not From Around Here

You are not as it seems. You can cast magic despite not being a unicorn. You can hold magic within yourself and can absorb it from the environment and other sources. You must consume magical energy as a food source, and you do not heal naturally over time, instead needing to use magic to heal yourself.

New Perk Added: Magical Sight (1/5)

Rank 1: You can see the magical matrices of spells around you as well as their basic effects. This knowledge gives you extra dialogue and interact options.

Chapter 2: Adversity makes strange bedfellows. (Rewritten Story)

I wake up after banging my head against the wall. Sunset was already up and was looking amused at my rude awakening. She looked much better than she did yesterday. She had apparently healed herself with something in this place.

I stand up and then go to sit in a chair near her. When I sit down, she starts to pass me a prepackaged meal.

I take it and set it down on the table. I ask her, "You had some questions for me, right?"

"Yes," she says, "You appear to be an earthpony. How do you cast magic?"

"To answer that, first I am not what I appear to be. . ."

She rapidly stands up and backs away from me, saying just above a whisper, 'Changeling'. I pause at the word and ask, "Sunset, what is a changeling?"

She looks shocked and confused before she relaxes slightly but remains distant from me. She contemplates my question before saying, "Changelings are a group of creatures that absorb emotional energy as food. They had a tendency to replace people and absorb love from the people who love the people they replaced."

I chuckle, causing Sunset to start charging her horn for some kind of combat spell, before saying quickly, "I am not a changeling, Sunset. I am what is known as an Argaroth from where I am from. I absorb magical energy, not emotional energy. I use that energy to cast spells in addition to eating it. My race has no natural ability to reshape ourselves into other forms, I am using a spell created by my mentor that enables me to alter my form to better fit within other societies."

"Let's say I believe you," Sunset starts, she mummers something, but I only make out, 'saved . . . benefit . . . doubt,' "You didn't answer my question: How do you cast magic?"

I stammer before saying quickly, "My race uses runic structures, or spell matrices, to cast spells. I, in particular, use a mobile framework to store and quickly use spells I have defined within the framework. It takes me time to assemble a spell in my framework."

Sunset nods with understanding, still maintaining that spell in her horn, "So, you use this framework like a unicorn would use their horn, as a focal point for the magical energy. How did you get here and where are you from?"

I close my eyes and try to relax over a few minutes. Sunset gets impatient and says, "You said you are not a changeling. The only creatures I know of that can cast magic while being an earthpony is changelings. Where. Are. You. From?"

I huff and open my eyes, meeting Sunset's gaze as I rise from my seat, my voice steady and composed as I explain, "I am not certain you would believe me, but I am from an alternate universe. I can only guess it is very remote from this one, as where I am from, humanoids are the normal intelligent life, not equines."

As I begin pacing the floor, I maintain my composure, despite my voice becoming strained by emotion, "The world I came from is, or was, being slowly taken over by the human race, and I don't know what they called it, but my race named it 'Monah,' or 'mother' in your tongue. A great and cruel power tore my dimension apart and cast the parts into other realities. I was spared only because I was in the middle of being teleported by my mentor. I don't know if there is any other survivors."

"I reappeared in the void between dimensions, and there was a sense of . . . well, I guess you could say I felt my . . . existence slipping away. Then, an unexplainable force tugged me into another reality. Once I find the part or parts of my dimension within another dimension, I feel a tugging slowly pull me out of that reality and into another. I don't really understand it."

I pause briefly, my expression contemplative, "I eventually came to this reality after finding the parts of my dimension in a few other realities, and was confronted by your princess of the night when I arrived."

I pause, reaching a large blank in my memory. "Um. . . That is strange." I say, as I tap my head repeatedly and more forcefully several times.

Sunset looks at me with increasing concern before she says, "What is strange?"

Her question gets me to stop tapping my head and I say, "Um. I don't remember what happened after that. There is like this huge blank space from the night of my arrival to my arrival in that slaver encampment. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

She looks at me as if debating before saying with a huff, "Go ahead."

"Where are we?"

"We are in my safe house. I worked to secure and hide it over at least the last year and a half. It is nearly inaccessible without the use of a Gate or the knowledge of its exact location to teleport."

"This is an awfully well made structure for a year and a half of work," I point out dryly.

She sighs and says, "Like you, I am also from a different, alternative universe. When I arrived here, I was . . . troubled by what I found. I went to my old home and found . . . clues that led me to this safe house that my doppelganger here created. The pony me that lived here was apparently a very careful doomsday planner, and this place held enough food and supplies to last a single pony almost a decade."

"They had also carefully gathered reading material for themselves, given the amount of books stored here. All I had to do was make small repairs to the stonework and security of this place, and . . . well, clean up." She seemed to shudder at that last statement, and I could guess that cleaning up was not as simple as cleaning up dust and dirt.

Sunset paused a bit before asking, "You mentioned a mentor. Does that mean you attended a school for magic?"

I answer simply, "Yes, I did attend a school for magic. However, I was mentored in magic before I attended such a school. I am particularly gifted with abjuration and enchantment spells."

I pause, seeing the confusion in Sunset's face, and elaborate. "In my understanding of magic, magic is broken down into eight devotions, fields, schools, or whatever term you care to use. Each devotion has a different approach to its use of magical energies. My fields correspond to protection and security spells and placing spells within objects, areas, or creatures. Have you attended a school for magic?"

"Yes. I studied under Princess Celestia in her school of magic in Canterlot. My special talent covers most forms of magic in general, although I have been most interested in translocation and elemental magics. This is actually somewhat related to what I have been working on in this safe house. You wouldn't happen to have knowledge about traveling between dimensions? I am trying to make something to get me back home."

"Well. . . I have traveled to and from several dimensions so far. The issue is that I have not controlled these movements, they have occurred almost at random. Trying to get to a specific place is beyond what I know. However, I have a good amount of experience looking over magical spells to improve efficiency. If you want to show me what you have, I can look over it. But, first I need to find a source of magical energy so that I can eat. I don't really want to accidentally absorb something you don't want absorbed."

She . . . whinnies, I guess? . . . and then heads away. She comes back with three cylindrical devices and some bandages. "These are called Spark Batteries. They are used in some sort of energy weapon. Perhaps you can use them as a source of energy? Also, these are magic bandages. I figured I could use them to help with that bump on your head you made much worse by hitting."

I look at the batteries. They have some sort of port on the top that enables access to the magic. I tap one against my leg, I mean foreleg, and feel a short jolt of magical energy. I then press the battery ports hard into my skin and properly drain the battery after a few minutes of time before putting the other two into my bag. "Yep. Each battery looks to hold enough energy to last me a couple of days. If you want to use the bandages, sure, but I can use some of the magic from this battery to heal myself. You may want to save them."

"Okay. I'll just put them back then." she says. Once she leaves, I use a small amount of magic to heal my throbbing head. I have learned that sometimes using my magic to heal is not a pleasant sight, and so I try to avoid doing it in front of people.

When she comes back, she brings a large sheet of paper rolled up in with her. She motions me over to the table; She rolls it out, revealing an extremely complicated mess of a spell. I take several hours to look over it before I say, "Hot damn Sunset, that is a spell. I may not deal typically with translocation, but abjuration magic can construct a banishment spell. Wouldn't that be easier?"

She sets me with a hard glare before she says, "Banishment spells require a large amount of energy to use, are typically detrimental to the recipient of them, fall outside of my typical spell range, and, well, technically I am not trying to get back to my original dimension, so a banishment spell would not have the same end result."

"Well that explains a good portion of the placeholders and relations involving the creature the spell is cast onto. For combining what appears to be twenty-six different spells, it doesn't look unstable. . . well, too unstable, given the number of spells. Given enough time with the spell, I could probably knock off about 6% of the total cost in mana from the spell, and might lower the chance of it failing by a small fraction."

"Whoever is planning to cast this spell would need to be powerful. I would need to be close to my maximum amount of stored mana to even attempt a casting. And even then, I don't think I could sustain a magical construct containing the spell, or spell matrix, of that size without external help."

Sunset just started staring at me when I mentioned casting it. Her pupils apparently narrowed down to pinpricks, although I didn't catch the change until about a quarter of the way through calculating the mana required to cast the spell. "What?"

"YOU COULD CAST IT!?" she explodes.

Holding a hoof up, I finish my calculations before responding. "No. Right now it is a fair bit above the maximum amount of mana I can store safely, and even with my adjustments, I still would not be able to do so. I would need to be able to store an extra quarter of my maximum mana to be able to cast it directly."

Confused at her reaction, I ask, "What were you intending on doing if not having the spell cast?"

"I thought I would have to build a machine to be able to cast it for me. My doppelganger was doing research with creating hand-held weaponry that casts specific offensive spells with those spark batteries in this universe, and I figured with some tweaking on mana supply and the focusing crystal, I could get a machine to cast a specific spell."

"That makes sense. If you use a crystal, the spell is unlikely to be inadvertently miscast or to require an insanely large casting time. Even then, the conditions would have to be almost perfect and I still am not sure the spell would function as it is intended. I only understand dimensional mechanics as far as its part in banishment, and your spell goes much farther than that."

She tilts her head and asks, "You talked earlier as though it is hard for your mana pool to reach your mana threshold. Unicorns like myself steadily regain our mana through rest and avoiding straining our bodies. Wouldn't whatever you are do the same?"

"I am an Argaroth. Argaroths are . . . well, our normal body is only semisolid and is flexible due to the amount of magic present in our body. Most of our mana is devoted to preserving this body. Although I look like an earth pony, it really is only a surface level modification: I still need to consume enough mana to preserve my normal form. As such, while I can absorb energy from the background magical field of this universe, that absorption is not even high enough to sustain my diet."

"I need to locate enough sources of energy to absorb to get to my maximum threshold: I don't naturally regenerate mana. Unless we can find hundreds, or even thousands, of these batteries, I cannot use them to get to my maximum threshold in enough time to still have the energy necessary to power the spell. And, based on the conditions here, I would say anyone with a significant source of energy would not be willing to part with it easily."

After a few more moments of thought, I add, "I'd be happy to help you do this, as I have skill in enchantments and it is wrong for you to be trapped away from your home. We find a pure enough crystal, I can set the spell matrix up within it, and help with tweaking mana supply lines so that enough mana is flowing into the crystal to support the spell casting. And two is better than one to locate these materials. . ."

It was just then that it dawned on me why she was there, "Wait. One of these materials is somewhere in that slaver encampment. That is why you were there."

Sunset just sighs before answering, "Yes and No. That's why I initially gated into the complex, but I can't be certain that the material is still there. This slaver complex was originally a noble's manor and grounds, specifically owned by somepony named Lady Albite. What's surprising is that she appears to have been a very studious earthpony noble — some of the books I found were written by her."

"I thought, at the time, that it would be at worst looted, not that it would become a home to those... monsters. It just so happened that the first stop on my search led me to that place!"

Chapter 3: Can't see the forest through the trees. (Rewritten Story)

She got out her carefully folded map from her table and showed it to me. It was next to useless about building locations: It just had the site blocked off and marked 'Albite Manor.' Around the heavily aged map were other marked off areas with names that were illegible at best. The only symbols on the map that were legible, other than the named manor, were various collections of six symbols. Curious, I asked Sunset, "What are those symbols?"

"Those symbols represent destinations for gate spells. Some locations have gate receptors, flat disks with an enchantment to allow someone who is able to initiate a gate spell to directly access the enchanted locations. They have a set of enchanted symbols engraved in them to make it easier to identify the receptor."

"That seems very insecure, Sunset, especially given this place was affected by a war."

"It takes a unique unicorn to be able to create such a gate receptor, and it takes an inordinate amount of skill to correctly initiate a gate. I am one of the few unicorns from my world who is particularly gifted with gate spells, and I can count with my hooves how many others I knew during my education at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. In my experience, as long as these symbols are kept hidden, and the gate receptor guarded, it can be considered to be very secure."

Sunset and I talked for a few more hours, understanding each other's theories and understandings of magic. I went in depth with the eight types of magics, while she discussed the way her people divided up magic based on where the energy is drawn from.

When I brought up the weave of magic and briefly mentioned a god controlling it, she got angry and told me their was no such thing as a 'god of magic' and that magic is provided by the interaction between multiple overlapping dimensions.

We almost got into blows over this, but after we calmed down and continued discussing, we reached an understanding that our two approaches towards this are different ways of explaining the same concepts, and we agreed to disagree as to their origins.

We finished talking as we began to prepare for going back to the manor and rescuing the slaves. She had me try to use the revolver on random targets in her . . . home? . . . No, I'll call it her base. Let's just say I was so bad with the weapon, she took the weapon away from me, claiming that I would be more of a threat with the weapon at her side than the slavers.

Huffing at the insult, I moved over and sat by the table as I absorbed the remaining batteries she gave me, as I did not want to take the nearly fifteen minutes to drain them in a hostile zone. While I drained them, somehow Sunset finished making a holster for my dirk, a holster for her new revolver and her new pistol, and efficiently repaired the two of them at a nearby workbench. I still don't know how she did that so quickly, but whatever.

As I slipped the holster over my neck, I noticed Sunset was grabbing some bandages, potions, and a few things that had needles on them and tossed them into a pair of saddle bags. Into one bag she slipped a few black rectangular objects into, a couple of ring-like objects that contained bullets in a circular pattern, and what looked like two blue potions rather than red ones.

She slipped one of the saddle bags on me, quipping "You put it on backwards last time," as she slipped her own on her back, put on the two holsters for her pistol and revolver, and strapped a long two-barreled weapon onto her back. Seeing me glance at the weapon, she says, "Its called a shotgun. If I pull it out, be prepared to run."

"Sunset, what is our plan here?"

"We don't really know how many opponents we have, so I am thinking our primary goal is some stealth scouting, and then we will come up with an attack. I'll redirect the gate from the gate receptor to that small side building, so that we can arrive without immediately being discovered." She seemed to unconsciously shutter at that statement, but I didn't press her for why.

As she focused on her gate spell, I carefully observed the structure she was making. It was an elegant system, although well beyond my understanding of alteration magics. I saw the target symbols, and then noticed her carefully implement an offset before initiating the gate connection. The gate ended up directly inside the small building, and we quickly walked through as she closed the gate.

Looking through the broken wooden slats, we were able to make out three intact buildings, the main building and two side buildings; a collection of thick cages in a large fenced off clearing; and the edges of the so called 'grove' on the other side of the main building. It looked like two or more buildings were also collapsed due to age or damage. It was good to have a few moments to actually pay attention to the surroundings this time rather than being concerned with being seen.

Keeping my voice down, I ask, "What defenses do they have around the cages? All I see is a fence and the cages that are a bit off the ground."

Sunset shook, er, shuddered a bit before replying, "Zombie Ponies. They have whole herds of zombie ponies under and around the cages. The outer fences have turrets to keep the zombie ponies within the area. The slavers use shock batons to keep the zombies off of themselves when they are grabbing slaves to sell."

"Troublemakers are taken to one of the two side buildings and tortured until they submit or die. Unicorn slaves are stored inside a cage with some kind of magic sensor that electrifies the whole cage when triggered. I was warned about it by the other slaves. The main building is used by the slavers as their living quarters and sleeping areas. Don't go into the Grove unless you have to. Bad things happen in there."

"Do you think it will be okay to take out the slavers before attempting to rescue the slaves? I don't want a bunch of prior slaves getting injured during a fight to save them."

"I didn't see anything that suggests that the slavers have a way to quickly take out the slaves in the cages if fighting starts, so I guess we could leave them in the cages. I don't like it though, as they are trapped if the slavers decide to shoot them."

I nod, but then explain, "Slavers are generally protective of their . . . goods. I doubt they will start randomly shooting slaves unless they realize they are loosing."

Sunset looks at me with a guarded expression before nodding. With a careful motion, we open the door to the shed and carefully move into the grounds, keeping our bodies close to the ground.

Sunset and I split in different directions. Sunset carefully maneuvers towards the center of the manor grounds as I circle around the outside just about five or six yards from the outer walls. We then carefully made our way around the grounds of the manor, getting a good view around the main manor house and the side buildings.

The main manor house had four stories, three balconies, a glass observatory, steep roofs, and had two primary entrances, one in the rear and one in the front. The main entry way had two 'turrets', while the rear entrance had just one and a ruined hulk, partially melted by what looked like extremely hot, probably magical, fire.

The outer buildings seemed . . . well, bland, compared to the manor house. They were likely used for servants before the war. I barely got behind cover as a set of three guards approached the outer building nearest me. I risked a glance, and saw that they were switching with three other guards. It looks like they buffed security from when we were last here. Great.

Curious, I took a glance for magical protections. Sunset said the Lady was an earth pony, so maybe it wouldn't have a lot of magical defenses, but it is a good idea to check anyway. Let's just say that I was nearly blinded when I looked at the manor house. 'So much for that logic,' I thought to myself.

As I was examining the defenses, squinting to see specific matrices, Sunset came up next to me. She tried to whisper something, but I didn't quite make it out as I was focused. I carefully was able to make out a few common protective spells and some general teleportation defenses.

As I further examined these teleportation protections, I happened to glance over to Sunset as she was preparing to teleport. I nearly jumped up in panic and quickly tapped her horn. My unexpected action caused her eyes to shrink to pinpricks. She quickly lost her concentration as I drained a bit of her mana from the momentary contact. She immediately shoved me away from her as she wobbled slightly from the drain. She started glaring at me, narrowing her eyes as she took a sip from a blue potion she got out of her bag.

I crouched back down and started to explain, "The manor is protected. You were about to try to teleport inside it. If you did that, you would have ended up right over there," I continue, gesturing over to the front door and between the two turrets.

The silence of the night was shattered as a bullet whizzed between Sunset and me, embedding itself in the grass followed by the sound of the gun shot. Startled, we both jumped up, only to be met with the sounds of more gunfire. We were unmistakably spotted.

Reacting swiftly, Sunset shoved me with her behind a nearby crumbling wall, seeking cover as the grounds filled with slavers pouring out of the side buildings, clearly prepared for intruders. We started to head towards the shed carefully when the shed was impacted with a fast moving object and exploded into shards of wood.

Our path of escape closed, I started leading us towards the grove, reasoning that guards might not want to head in there to follow us. As we began to move again, a trio of guards showed up out of the darkness around us with guns pointing outward, as if they were a scouting party looking for us. Sunset carefully moved up to one of them, but immediately paused before backing back towards me.

"These guys are friendly," she assured, her voice low but urgent. "They're trying to mislead the others. Keep moving towards the Grove."

Inside our makeshift guard party, we stayed low and kept moving towards the grove. As we got close, the guard party moved together around the grove as we moved into it. "Ponies." We heard a snort and clack and turned to face what looked like a heavily damaged bird-creature, missing half of their feathers and staring at us, staying mostly in the shadows.

"Follow." Came the gruff voice as the bird-creature slipped into a well in the middle of the grove. Having no good option, Sunset and I carefully held onto the rope of the well as we slipped slowly into it. After about thirty feet down the well, a pair of hooves and claws grasped us and pulled us onto a ledge with a very low ceiling within the well.

The same gruff voice and bird-creature said "Ponies," in a disbelieving tone before heading deeper into the tunnel.

The hoofed creature looked like an emaciated looking pony. . . or, at least a quadruped creature. It was challenging to discern its true form through the decaying skin, patches of missing fur, and a motley, ragged appearance. Actively rotting flesh exposed several large gashes, creating a grotesque image that defied the boundaries of life. Honestly, it seemed impossible that this creature could still be alive.

Sunset recoiled in horror at the sight of the creature's appalling condition. Without hesitation, I rushed forward, retrieving a healing potion from my bag. Surprisingly agile, the creature met my approach with a mixture of shock and suspicion, quickly brandishing a knife in response. However, upon noticing the healing potion in my hand, it let out a raspy laugh and slowly sheathed the knife.

As I stood about three feet away, holding the healing potion forward, I couldn't help but study the creature's form. Its pale, decaying flesh seemed almost translucent in places, emphasizing the ghastly nature of its existence. Despite the shocking appearance, it remained strangely animated. The creature spoke, somehow still chuckling, "Now, filly, I know I look ragged, but don't bother with your potion. This isn't that bad. Like an old movie once said, 'Tis only a flesh wound'."

It paused a bit before continuing, "It seems that you and your friend are in a tight spot." The rattling chuckle that followed made me recoil slightly. "Do you have anypony else coming to support your rescue attempt?" it asked, directing the question toward both of us.

Sunset and I nearly simultaneously say, "No."

The new creature seems to sigh and says "Ponies and their illusions of grandeur. . ." She seemed to think the last part was said in a way that we wouldn't hear, under her breath. She pressed her hoof to a small device in her ear and says "They are alone. Shade, Vex, and Mirage: Go back to your normal positions."

Sunset seemed more offended by the creature's speech and says angrily, "How can we trust you, mule?"

The creature just sighs and looks at the ceiling and murmurs "Nine decades. . ." She then exhales slowly before staring right at Sunset. "First and foremost, you are currently within my Lady's manor. As such, you must follow her rules of conduct, and the use of slurs to describe her staff is forbidden. Failure to comply with this rule will result in temporary expulsion from the manor. This will be your first, last, and only warning, phallic horse."

Sunset looked as if she was physically slapped and stood up quickly, clearly upset, only to slap her horn and head roughly against the ceiling and collapse in a daze.

The creature just nodded primly and turned to face me. I stammered a bit before asking, "Not to be a bother, but what are you? I have never seen anyone like you."

The creature paused and gave me an odd expression: "Anyone?" it asked under its breath before responding with, "I was a Donkey before the war, and now I am what is called a Ghoul. My name, however, is Rose Quartz. Please call me that." Rose turns around and says, "Follow me, we need to talk somewhere more secure."

Helping Sunset to her hooves, I couldn't ignore the slight wince as she rubbed her head and checked her horn for damage from the collision with the low ceiling. 'You okay?' I asked quietly. Sunset glares at Rose before saying, "I am fine," and taking a short sip from her blue potion and a similar sip from a red healing potion before we continued down the tunnel together.

Author's Note

Footnote: Level Up (?)
Companion Perk: Sunset's Insight
With Sunset nearby serving as a reference, you can interpret nearby spells cast by unicorns to predict their outcome, with accuracy relative to your Perception. You can act before such spells resolve as long as the caster and Sunset are within 30 feet of you.

Chapter 4: Social minefield — Running gets you through it faster, right? (Part 1)

As we follow Rose Quartz down the winding passage, the air becomes noticeably cooler, and the faint scent of something I can't quite place lingers in the air. Eventually, we arrive at what appears to be a concealed door seamlessly integrated into the stone at the end of the passage. The bird-like creature from before stands in front of it, as Rose, with practiced ease, opens a door about two body lengths from the end of the passage. It slides open noiselessly, revealing a short passage.

As we travel the short distance down the passage, the bird-like creature behind us now, we step into a large room with a ceiling much more comfortable in height. The chamber has the occasional column, and archways to provide support, I assume, to a larger structure above. As I look around, I see three other exits from this chamber: one that apparently leads to a thin stairwell, and two that lead to longer passages than the one we used to enter. I then notice what it is that I am looking over to view these exits: ponies.

On one side of the chamber, cots were tightly arranged, practically touching, creating a labyrinth that required occupants to step over each other. My quick estimate counted around 50 cots, but I couldn't be sure. The remainder of the space, save for a few narrow walk paths approximately three feet across, had additional cots, spaced a more comfortable six inches apart to allow for cautious movement between them.

Off to one side of the room is a boarded up section between two columns and archway with a simple makeshift door. It stands out like a sore thumb in the room mostly made of stone. A similar section stands on the opposite side, but its walls seem to be made out of rusted metal instead of wood.

Rose and the bird-like creature escort Sunset and me to the boarded up room, revealing a worn-down, but well maintained, solid wood desk, two chairs in front of it, and two chairs behind it. Rose gestures us to sit in the chairs in front of it. She and the bird-creature sit on the other chairs, although the bird-creature closes the door before heading to its seat.

A fairly large bookshelf sits behind the desk against the wall, nearest the seat the bird-creature took. On the opposite side, nearest Rose, lays a table with some kind of map or diagram sitting underneath a locked strongbox.

Rose slowly opens up a drawer and pulls out something that looks a bit like a orrery, although instead of planets, it has a collection of precisely cut crystals on it. She fiddles with a few dials on it before taking what appears to be two miniature versions of the batteries Sunset gave me earlier and slips them in the center of the device.

Once she finishes that, she gives a measured, nearly-inaudible sigh before flipping a switch on the side, encasing the room in a bubble of magic.

She gives a hard to place facial expression before saying flatly, "Now we can talk without disturbing the others."

Rose then immediately turns on Sunset, quickly exclaiming, "Unicorn, why in the name of Celestia's withered corpse would you want to come back to this place after getting out of it?"

Sunset seems to physically recoil at the crude and crass reference to. . . Wait. . . that was the name of her teacher! No wonder she recoiled. I am used to such statements related to various gods and deities, so I ignore the phrase and answer for Sunset, "There were more slaves here. Did you honestly expect us to leave them in such a state?"

Rose Quartz gives me a wide eyed stare before forcefully slamming her head against the desk, causing a whole section of her head and skull to begin to bulge and undulate in a gross and disgusting way.

I hear mumbling from Rose while she has her face against the table, before she lifts her head to stare at me in bewilderment. "I would expect such a statement from one of those brats that pretend to be heroes around this fucked up place, not an earth-pony, like yourself."

She pauses a bit before asking, eyes narrowing, "You're not from one of those fucked-up stables, are you?"

I shudder as one of her eyes bulges in a deformed manner as she narrows her eyes. When I look at her with unabashed confusion, she answers for me. "No, if you were, you wouldn't be looking at me as if wanting an explanation."

She gives an exasperated sigh before saying to both of us, "You lot ever take a moment and THINK, surely someone else is trying to address this issue, not just ignoring the damn world that is around them?"

Sunset finally gets the nerve to speak up again, and quickly accuses, "There were an awful lot of slaves being sold for someone not just ignoring the DAMN problem, Rose."

Rose growls and says, in a low dangerous tone, "Really? And how many of those slaves were fighting their captivity, unicorn! Out of the 60 slaves you were around, how many of them were actively fighting their captors? You, and what, one other slave? Who quickly changed his mind after a few days, I might add. You didn't find that in the least bit suspicious?"

Sunset was preparing to retort when the bird-creature gave an audible grunt and dropped a huge book on the desk between Rose and Sunset. The surprising noise and action caused all of us except the bird-creature to jump. Rose nodded and took a few breaths to calm herself, before pointing at one of the pages in the opened book. The book appeared to be some kind of ledger. I couldn't make sense of the writing, but Sunset's eyes seemed to bulge, and then she narrowed them.

Taking the opportunity to try to derail the coming argument, I quickly cut them off by saying, "Okay, so you are not ignoring the problem. You obviously are not working with the slavers, or you would have turned us over to them. You also do not want us to disrupt their operation. Why don't you want them taken care of?" The bird creature gives me a face that I sincerely hope is supposed to be a smile, and not a threat.

Sunset then immediately added, "And how are you replacing that many slaves out from underneath the noses of the slavers?" At Sunset's question, Rose smiled broadly.

Rose gives a rue smile and a sly chuckle before cryptically answering, "Unicorn, I assume you remember the zombie pit, right?"

Sunset shudders and looks away quickly, hoof at her mouth and nearly gagging at her apparent memories before she calms down enough to say, "Kind of hard not to remember, you . . . you ghoul. Wait just a minute. . ." Sunset leans forward, examines Rose closer, and immediately sighs in disgust. "You're the zombie who bit me that first day, weren't you!"

The ghoul actually looks somewhat . . . sheepish, or maybe apologetic? Its still hard to read her. "Yep. Not my favorite thing to do, but we got to keep up appearances for those damned Slavers. We do it to one pony per enslavement, and you were the only one in your group."

She rubs two hoof marks near her forehead. "Nice fore-hoof kicks, for a unicorn. Definitely shook me up afterwords. Most of you lot go immediately for magical retaliation, usually some kind of 'kenesis."

Continuing with her original line of thought, Rose says, "None of those ghouls are mindless. I have us taking staggered shifts in the pit to avoid overt movements on our part, and mental fatigue from pretending to be mindless. We try to 'persuade' slaves not to fight so that we can replace them. Only Grimfeathers here is exempt, as he kind of stands out in a crowd."

While she is on the topic, I interrupt. "Might I ask what kind of creature Grimfeathers is? I have never seen something like him."

Grimfeathers puts a wing full of moldy decrepit feathers over his face in what looks like an expression of disgust, or maybe that is exasperation? Beaks are hard to try to read. Rose just starts with a gravelly chuckle until she bursts out laughing, as if I said something funny. Sunset just facepalm... face-hoofs and groans as she says, "Grimfeathers is a griffon, Auburn."

Rose just continues laughing until she finally wipes tears from her eyes and sits back up in her chair, still giving her crooked smile. "Thank you, I really needed a good laugh."

"Anyway, so us ghouls use the cover of the zombie pit to remove slaves and replace them with friends of ours with strong disguise abilities willing to take the place of these slaves. Normally we use the cover of a large slave sale to help the slaves we rescued escape the manor grounds."

"Based on the conditions outside this room, I guess you haven't had one of those sales in a while," Sunset hazards a guess.

Rose gives a wry smirk and then sighs. "Bingo. Our friends can't really get us exactly what happened about that. It seems like the leaders of this slaver group can't preform basic logistics."

I glance over at Sunset and notice she seems upset . . . or frustrated. . . something like that. I instinctively put a hoof on her shoulder, attempting to calm her down, but she shrugs me off. She manages to gather herself and she speaks slowly and deliberately, directing her focus to Rose, "How long do you have before it becomes critical here? And how are those large sales orchestrated?"

Rose's expression softens a bit as she considers Sunset's question. She looks at Grimfeathers for a moment, who places a decaying wing on his beak for a few moments before motioning with a few wing gestures to Rose, who just nods. "We should have about three weeks before things start getting dire here, less if the slavers get more slaves."

"As for the large sales, they are preformed by a team of about twenty slavers using a large modified passenger wagon for slave transport. Why do you ask?"

Sunset looks at me, and I have a sinking suspicion she wants us to do something crazy.

I speak up with a sly grin, "I think I get where she is going with this. . . Do your allies have access to an old wagon we could modify for this purpose? You said yourself that the slave trade supply lines are being highly disorganized. We could pretend to be slave traders to serve as a distraction for you guys to escape. We just would need a few of your 'friends with strong disguise abilities' to fill out the team of slavers."

Rose smirks, finding a flaw in the plan: "I think we can get you an old wagon, but why would they believe the former slaves of this place would actually be slave traders, Hmm?"

Sunset smirks and retorts, "Well, only one or two of them actually saw Auburn here, and they should be dead." Sunset falters for a bit and says, "But, I don't know how to excuse myself."

"Um," I butt in, giving a sly grin, "Why do you need to hide?" I finish, looking right at Sunset.

I look back to Rose who looks at me with a puzzled expression. "If I'm not mistaken, you will need a very significant distraction to get the slaves away from this place. Not just a minor sale, but a prolonged, attention grabbing scenario that will draw the entire place into the distraction. What better distraction would serve to do this than a pissed-off father seeking justice for his daughter while also trying to build the slave trade back up?"

Rose narrows her eyes at me. Sunset narrows her eyes at me. Grimfeathers narrows his eyes at me. I look at them all, my face starting to flush, "What?"

Rose points at me with a hoof. "You're female, you mud pony! How will you be able to act as a father!?"

Sunset face-hoofs hard and says, "And why in Tartarus would I have come here in the first place in this 'scenario'?!"

Grimfeathers just looks expectantly at me, a . . . grin on his face?

Easy question first: "Sunset, I would have sent you ahead due to your ability to gate to try to negotiate trade with the slavers. I assume that they refused to talk to you before immediately attacking you, am I correct? You reacted in self defense, they took you, and then enslaved you. They put you through the wringer shortly after you were enslaved. Did they bother attempting parlay? Or did they just go straight into the whole enslavement routine?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed at my question, a mix of disbelief and disgust flashing across her face. She scoffed and answered with a resentful sneer at me. "Attempt parlay? Enslavement Routine?! Really Auburn!? They didn't bother with negotiations! Talking was the last thing on their fucking minds!"

I placed a comforting hoof on Sunset's shoulder, but she recoiled, scowling at me in a mix of a hurt and angry expression. As she stood up, I asked, "What's wrong?" Sunset grunted dismissively, stomping hard on the ground as she ignored my question and walked out. I didn't know what to say or what to do, so I just watched her as she left, feeling regret for how I answered her 'easy' question.

Grimfeathers shook his head disapprovingly, his beak twitching in what I could only assume was disbelief and shock. His eyes briefly met mine before he turned away, staring off into the corner with his head lowered as he obviously was lost in thought.

Rose glares at me. A slow, guttural breath escaped her before she spoke through gritted teeth, "That was a terrible way to talk about what happened to her, Auburn." Slamming her hoof against the desk, she added stiffly, "Do you have any idea what those fuckers do to disobedient slaves?"

Head hung low, I stared at the ground between my hooves. I felt myself wishing I had taken my time to try to answer Sunsets question rather than rushing through it. Hell, I would have loved to go back and ask what actually happened to her rather than assuming anything! "No, Rose . . . I . . . don't."

Rose looks at me with disgust, spitting her words out like poison, "You stay the fuck here and think about what you just did. I'll go talk to her myself."

Grimfeathers says a single word, looking at Rose and ignoring me, "No." He then walks out to follow Sunset, ignoring my presence entirely. Rose looks at him with shock before staring at me expectantly.

I remain seated, grappling with the weight of my words. What had I said wrong? I know I was hasty. Heck, I was flippant about what happened, sure. They had hurt her, that much was blatantly obvious. I mentally picture her state when I first saw her in that rusty, disgusting bathroom. Her body was injured, yes. But she's a strong... mare is the proper term, I guess. She shouldn't be holding that much anger over mere injuries, right? Right?

I look over at Rose and ask in a slow, regretful tone. "Do you know what happened to her? All I saw were bruises, cuts, scrapes, a terrible set of scratches at the base of her horn, and a particularly tender . . . rump. Her coat was also stained in places. . ." I trail off, my question answering itself. Fuck my naivete! My race might not have . . . that kind of physical intimacy, having only one gender. But, how many races have I worked with that had multiple genders? I should have seen it earlier, recognized it earlier! Those. . . monsters! They hadn't simply hurt her flesh, but they. . .

I look at my hooves, seeing the 'easy' answer to her question leaving them covered in blood as if I struck her myself. I slam my head on the desk with enough force that the flesh covering my 'skull' indents several inches, rupturing the skin in a wide gash. I go to slam my head again when Rose grabs me and holds me tight against my chair, keeping me from leaning forward to hit the desk once more. I was screaming in rage and anger at those . . . those . . .!

After what feels like... Actually, I don't know how long and I don't really care. With a strained voice, my rage barely contained, I manage to speak. "Please tell me I am wrong. They couldn't have corrupted. . . that act with violence."

Rose says from behind me, still holding me to the chair. She snarks at me, "Oh? Now you're fucking upset? You just now figured out what they did, did you?"

I say with a warning tone, "Rose."

"No Auburn!" she hisses into my ear. "You're not getting out of this free and clear!"

I shrug her off of me and turn to face her, my blue blood running over my right eye as I stare at her with narrowed eyes. She immediately pales and backs away, face slowly morphing into one of fear and trepidation rather than her previous angry and disgusted look. She reaches her hoof into her desk and retrieves. . . something? It looks vaguely like an apple with some kind of faded colored band on it, maybe violet?

With a shaky, uncertain voice she says slowly, "What the fuck are you? What the fuck kind of creature has blue glowing blood?"

"I am an Argaroth. I am a creature that survives by absorbing magical energy and eating it." I say with a dismissive tone. "That is not fucking important at the moment, Rose Quartz." The image of Sunset's battered form flickers in my mind, haunting me with its stark reality.

These Ghouls might be replacing and rescuing slaves that they can, but what about the ones they can't easily help, like Sunset? I can't change what happened to her, but I can damn well make sure it doesn't happen again. But first, I need to know how fucked up this place is. With a sharp intake of breath, I continue: "How many, Ms. Quartz? How many fucking slaves have been missed! How many ponies have slipped through the cracks to be abused like this!"

Rose pales even further, her gaunt flesh tensing as she attempts to speak, only to falter. She lets out a slow, ragged breath, her voice trembling with what clearly was an attempt to hold back a sob. Without a glance towards the ledger, she finally finds her words and speaks in a low, strained tone: "Thirty... in the last year," she utters, each word heavy with sorrow. "It's been getting worse every year."

Chapter 5: Social minefield — Running gets you through it faster, right? (Part 2)

Still seething in rage, I carefully hold my torn skin together and use magical energy to heal the gash. I feel a bit of perverse humor in watching Rose look a bit sick as I heal myself, the skin slowly bubbling until it fuses back together into what it should look like. I stand up slowly to grab a length of cloth from my saddlebags, a remnant from Sunset's work on my holsters for my daggers. I then use the rag to clean the remaining blood off my face and her desk, before touching it and causing it to evaporate as I take the magic from within it.

I take a deep breath to continue talking with Rose, only for the door to slam back open, and Sunset to walk in and glance at Rose before glaring at me.

"Auburn," she growls out. "I leave you alone with Rose for two minutes, and you already caused her to cry!? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"I-I-I" I stutter like an idiot. My first reaction is to lash out at her... Wait... Is that what I am doing? Am I lashing out to avoid confronting my mistakes myself? I look between the two of them, my eyes going to pinpricks as I realize what it is I am doing.

"I am... sorry, Rose. I was... angry at myself for making a mistake with Sunset, and when you decided to rub my nose in it, I lashed out at you. I know I gave you a warning, but it does not excuse my actions towards you, especially using such a blatant disregard for the good you are doing here, trying to save enslaved ponies. Please, forgive me."

Rose looks up at me, wiping away grimy tears from her eyes and nods slowly, giving me only the barest hint of a smile before slipping her apple-shaped object back inside the desk.

I turn towards Sunset, but she immediately holds up a hoof and says, heading off my apology. "Can it, Auburn. I don't want or need your pity for what happened to me, or your remorse about what you said. Let's move forward and get these slaves saved, and then, maybe, we can talk about it. But don't count on it, deal?"

I gave her a nod of acknowledgement for her honesty, and I put my hoof out. She just smirks and slaps the hoof back to the ground. "Don't be silly. This isn't that kind of agreement, Auburn."

I say with a sigh and the remnants of a grimace, "So, Rose, you guys need a distraction to get these almost rescued slaves out of this place. You refuse to let us kill the slavers, but you admit that they are becoming more... depraved over the last years. Why can't we kill the slavers? Slavery is seen as evil in most places, Rose, right?"

"Why do ponies in this Luna-damned day and age immediately come to the conclusion that killing the problems solves them?" Rose grumbles aloud. "This is bigger than a single slave camp. It is bigger than even my group, let alone you two."

She seems to look at both Sunset and I with an appraising, apprehensive expression before letting out a long sigh of resignation. "Auburn. Sunset. I can't tell you why. I... I do not have the authority to disclose that to you both. I am only in charge of this one node of the underground, mainly because of my knowledge of this manor house and its grounds. And, before you ask, Grimfeathers is my protection detail, he gave me his contract after we were unable to find Lady Albite."

Seeing both Sunset's and my confused expressions, she elaborates: "Griffons are very much a mercenary race. They work for whoever owns their contract. Grimfeathers was Lady Albite's bodyguard and legal advisor. He currently serves as my protector and bookkeeper."

Interesting to know, and it seems to alleviate both Sunset's and my confusion.

"If you cannot tell us, can you ask someone with the proper authority to tell us?" Sunset asks hesitantly. I think she is not sure if she really wants to know or not, judging from her expression, but unwilling to have the question go unasked.

Rose's gaze hardens as she looks over Sunset after she asks her question. Rose seems to mull over her reply slowly and methodically. Rose then carefully inspects me as well, continuing to think about her answer. It takes her several minutes to decide how to answer.

"I might be able to pull something like that off. BUT, I don't trust you two yet. You both have secrets that I don't like not knowing before I try to do something like that. Answer my questions, and I might try to see what I can do. Is that a deal?"

With a gaze that seemingly tries to bore into Sunset, she asks pointedly, "How in Tartarus did you get Lady Albite's manor gate coordinates, Sunset Shimmer? Those were not published anywhere during or before the war, and sure as my tail is bald, they weren't shared after the Last Day."

Sunset goes to say something before Rose cuts her off with a warning. "You try to lie to me, Mrs. Shimmer, and I ain't gonna remain this civil."

Sunset gulps and deliberates how to answer for a bit before seeing Rose's eyes narrow dangerously at her deliberation. "I... am not from this place. I ended up here after a mishap with an artifact. I found my... corpse where I used to live, and found clues that eventually led to my doppelganger's bunker. My doppelganger's bunker happened to have this old map." She carefully pulls out the map and sets it on the desk. "Your Lady Albite's manor is the only named set of gate coordinates on this map."

Rose studies the map for a bit, pulling out a pair of old silver-framed glasses to do so. "Thank Celestia, you fucking idiot, that you chose to use the named coordinates, Ms. Shimmer. This one is at the bottom of a collapsed iron mine. This one is beneath a lake of still-molten rock. This one is close to 1500 meters in the air because of a balefire bomb. Damn near roast you like a marshmallow in a bonfire, even if you did survive the fall. Tartarus, every one of these except Lady Albite's manor is a death trap! Wait... Every one of these was part of the manufacturing process for..."

She glares at Sunset for a few moments before letting out a deep and slow exhale of breath. Despite her deep breathing, she still clenches her teeth tight enough I thought I heard a crack. "The only reason I believe you, Sunset, is because I knew your doppelganger, as you put it. Let's just say you don't look like the skeletal pony I saw a few years after the Last Day.".

Rose dug around in her desk for a bit before pulling out a waxy green spherical mineral and squeezing it repeatedly until she calmed down a bit to ask another question. "And what are you looking for, Ms. Shimmer?"

Sunset stammers at the unexpected question. "Oh, I am not dumb, Sunset. The only reason you would have risked using a dimensional gate was if you were seriously looking for something. Anyone with the skill to use a gate would understand the risks involved with using coordinates without knowing where they would end up. What are you looking for?"

Sunset looks at me with a pleading look for suggestions. "Sunset, we might as well be honest with her. We want her help to understand the truth of the situation, and she needs our help to get these slaves to safety. Trust me," I say with a gulp, "I am not looking forward to her questions for me, but I will answer them." I say to her in a barely hidden whisper, clearly audible to Rose. "To be honest, she scares me too."

"Fine." She says, with a roll of her eyes. "I am looking for a crystal, Rose. I need one capable of storing a grade 12 spell matrix in a stable environment so that I can use it to use a device to cast a spell to get me home."

Her direct answer seems to shock Rose and she drops her mineral on the ground with a clatter. "A grade 12 spell matrix, you say? one-two? Um... That is a high grade matrix to hold in a crystal. I only know of a few crystals that could have been used for that back in the day." Rose smirks slightly and adds, "I might even know where one could be, if you succeed in helping us rescue these slaves."

Rose groans and looks away from Sunset, as her pupils somehow dilated impossibly wide. "Don't give me those fucking eyes. I don't give a shit how much you beg me. I will only agree to give you the location if you help us rescue those slaves."

"Auburn." I give a slight yelp as Rose calls my name, cowering in my seat at her precise tone of voice. I quickly compose myself, embarrassed at my reaction. "You called yourself an Argaroth. What in Tartarus is that?"

I try to give her the simple explanation I gave Sunset, but Rose just smirks. "Oh, so you eat magical energy, use it to cast spells, and are using one such spell to look like a pony? That seems like you don't want to get answers from me, Auburn."

My ears unconsciously droop onto my head, and I sigh. "Okay. Fine. I got it, you don't want the bare bones answer, you want the meat."

Both Rose and Sunset shiver at my analogy, but I'm so lost in thought, staring at my hooves, I don't react to their discomfort. "I am an Argaroth. We were a race of hominids... bipedal creatures made up of a thickly-congealed blue interior with a translucent white 'skin.' We don't have organs as you would understand them. I'd offer to show you my normal form, but my spell takes a while to recast to change back into pony form, so I'd rather not do so. I have a limited mana pool to cast spells with, based on my input of magical energy and a maximum threshold. I also must eat magic instead of eating normal food."

I sigh and look at Sunset with a slight curl of a smile barely crossing my lips. "Normal food does not provide me with any sort of sustenance, save for inherent magical energy within the ingredients. This is why I didn't eat your ration you gave me in your bunker."

"I can use magic to heal myself from most wounds, as you both have seen before." I gulp and press my forehooves tightly together. "My magical knowledge extends primarily to magical theory, including various types of spell matrices, enchantments, and most any kind of magical barrier you can think of. I am most skilled with Abjuration magic, or magic used to protect areas, and Enchantment magic, magic used to create a lingering magical effect within an object or creature. I can absorb most forms of direct offensive magic, and I can slowly disassemble most kinds of defensive or obstructive magic." I pause, and then add as an afterthought, "Oh, I can also see, read, and eventually understand spell matrices and most enchantments given enough time to study the magic's energy."

I gulp again and blush slightly as I explain the next concept. It's not strictly necessary, but given my mistake with Sunset, I think it needs to be said. "My race is genderless, the act of procreation done through collaborative effort to create a new pupa through joint magic expenditure. This pupa travels and absorbs magic, oftentimes following a wizard around to consume their extra magical energies. Upon absorbing enough magical energy, this pupa physically explodes, and then they reform at a junction of at least... 4?... leylines as a baby Argaroth."

I sigh as I start to discuss our learning cycle, a cycle I never had the opportunity to complete. "We typically start learning how to gather energy for the clan at such a young age before learning magic, and we show particular promise in typically one field of magic, the one we absorbed the most of in our pupa stage. I, instead, was immediately placed into a guard role for our town --" I snort in frustration before I ask softly, "Do you really want me to go on, Rose? This... I really don't like talking about this."

Rose looks at me with a small sigh. "You definitely answered my first question. But, well, you started to answer my second question: How did you get here? Please do continue."

I pause, grinding my teeth before sighing and slumping into the chair. "Do you mind if I... do something as I explain. I need something to focus on..." I trail off as I try to find the right words to explain what I need.

Rose looks at me warily before nodding yes. With a sigh in relief, I use magic to create a spherical shield the size of an orange, holding it between my forehooves and press against it as I continue. "I was put into a guard role for my town, rather than as a gatherer. Oh, sure, I technically learned the role of gatherer as I was learning to be a guard, but I was not told to focus on that part of my learning. As I said, we typically have skill in only one field of magic. I have skill in two. My mentor was rushing my teaching so that I could be a functional guard for the town, as..."

I grind my teeth audibly, "Humans." My hooves crush my spherical shield, consuming its magical energy. I let out a snort of disgust before generating a new shield, this time a cube. "Were using my kind to create a kind of magical item. A kind of item that stored magic so that they could recall it to use later. In the end, it wasn't them that took out my village." I give out a shaky, mirthless laugh before continuing. "A magical entity, I guess one might call it a god, but no god would ever do what it did." My hooves crush the new shield and I sigh, unable to create another shield because of how much I am shaking.

I suddenly growl out in rage, "You know how you both have a fucking dimension? One you live in, or desire to return to!" I stare right at Rose and then Sunset as I say what they have, ignoring their fearful gaze at me and their sudden recoil from my outburst.

"But do you understand what it's like to lose everything you've ever known?" My voice trembles with a mixture of anger and bitterness. "To watch your world crumble before your eyes, to see your home reduced to ashes and rubble?"

Rose goes to interrupt me, clear indignation on her face. "Oh, please." I sneer, slamming my hoof on the floor in a stomp hard enough that I feel the sting of the impact. "This destruction... The ruins of your civilization. By the Nine Hells, it's not even a scratch on what could happen to a universe. Your world can still repair itself, life will continue to grow and thrive." She looks at me, eyes widening in horror as if she could somehow see what I have seen.

I close my eyes, and take deep inhales and exhales as I slowly create the formula for a dodecahedral shield in my mind. Some small part of me hesitates to continue, wanting to hold back my explanation, but after my outburst, I can't do that. They need to know why I am so upset at... I force my emotions back down to calm myself, focusing entirely on the spell I am crafting in my mind. When I finish and cast it, I hold my eyes firmly shut.

In a much lower tone, I say, "Mine isn't intact any more. The entity destroyed it, shattered it into pieces right before my eyes."

I pause, my voice breaking as the vivid recollection of the laughter echoes in my mind."I can still hear its laughter, mocking and cruel, haunting me."

I speak softly, my voice barely above a whisper, "My master barely got me out with a teleport, timing it right for when the entity attacked, somehow he knew, and of all of my kind, he saved me." The gratitude mixed with confusion still lingers within me. "But I saw my dimension shatter right before my eyes, unable to stop it from happening."

I look at Rose with bloodshot eyes and barely contained rage, my hooves shattering the shield in my hooves once again. "You ask me how I got here, Rose. There is at least one shard of my dimension in this one, and it called me here, pulling me from other dimensions once I collected those shards from those other universes."

I close my eyes tightly and say, "And I got here before this world turned to this fucking wasteland. My memories are gone from between then and now, and I cannot help but wonder one thing: What would these fucking ponies have done with a shard of my world if they found it?" With a tiny frail voice, I add, "Just look at what they were willing to do to their own." I cover my head in my hooves and curl up in my chair, trying very hard not to cry, and failing.

Chapter 6: Actions speak louder than words — Who hears them, though?

With surprising swiftness, Rose Quartz crossed the room and lifted me up on my rear hooves against the wall.

"Auburn, ordinarily I dislike ponies... however, I do not blame them all for what happened. Have you ever lived through a war? An honest-to-Celestia war between nations of beings where the lives of not only yourself and your fellow fighters are on the lines, but every last individual who is a member of your culture and species?"

Looking at her slightly manic expression, I gulp and shake my head no. I really had never experienced anything other than a fight at an individual level. Her words... they carried more than curiosity; they carried a weight I couldn't fully understand.

Rose set me back down but did not back away, her face losing part of her mania and gaining more stability. I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. "You said your village was attacked by an entity. If you had known they were going to do what they did, what would you have done? Would you have paused and asked, 'Should we actually do this?' Or would you have just done what you felt you needed to do, excusing your actions with 'we're doing this to protect ourselves.'"

Rose’s words hung in the air, thick and heavy. Sunset shifted beside me, clearly trying to digest the gravity of what Rose had just said. As for me... I was left... reeling. It was the first time I might possibly understand even a tiny amount of Rose's perspective. I was hard pressed to think of something I would not do to have saved my village. And... well, the thought of how far down the rabbit hole I would go absolutely terrified me.

As Rose spoke, her voice lost its earlier sharpness, growing steadier but harder, bracing herself for the weight of her memories. "My people were miners. We mined the iron and other metallic ores to supply for the war effort. Our lands were absolutely filthy with metals, and we weren't ponies like those folks near Hoofington with their coal, so we had almost no legal protection. At the start of the war, we were being requested to produce an extra 20% metal ores. Not even 3 years later, we were expected to produce double our baseline. And you know what? We did it; And not for those pony assholes who demanded it of us."

Rose seemed to unconsciously gesture at Sunset as she says this, but I cannot bring myself to look away from Rose. This was the first time she had talked about her past. I wasn’t about to interrupt.

I noticed Rose's shoulders stiffen, as though she were bracing herself for the weight of the memories. "We did it as an alternative to our people being conscripted as cannon fodder, or worse. We saw what they were doing to the diamond dogs, the buffalo, even the zony hybrids! We gave those damned ponies no reason to evict us from our lands for the ore, because there was no way in Tartarus they could mine the ores more efficiently than we could." It is clear that the topic infuriates her, but... she seems more proud of her people than spiteful to the ponies.

She pauses for a long time after this, and I want to say something, but cannot seem to get the nerve to say anything. Eventually, she sighs and says, "Our lands still exist, but they are a far cry from what they used to be." As she spoke, her eyes flickered with a strength that had survived the weight of war. It was clear — this strength had kept her going all these years.

Sunset speaks up gently. She seems to have lost the attitude towards Rose after hearing her explanation: Rose's story had clearly gotten to her. "Why are you helping ponies escape slavery after being treated so badly by the ponies here?"

Rose scoffs, dismissive of the question, "Because, despite their treatment, not every pony is a monster. Lady Albite showed me this."

Rose sighs, looking into the corner with a far-off glare. "I was her financial advisor during the war. Lady Albite was a social elite Earthpony who could trace her family back to when Puddinghead was in charge of the tribe. She had millions of bits of resources to her name. At the end of the war, she could barely afford food after paying her servants."

Rose then looks right at Sunset with an unreadable expression. "She never quivered, she never faltered. She advocated for the minor races, demonstrating their capabilities to bolster and improve our society even before the war. During the war she petitioned, fought, and did everything in her power to try to help."

Rose looks down at the ground and says with a hard, unwavering voice, "She is the only reason I give a shit about the ponies out here, and the reason why I refuse to let them die in shackles."

I cannot help but reflect on her words as she lets her words linger for a few long moments. She then spits out, not roughly, but not kindly either: "Now enough talk about the past. How can you help us get these slaves out of here?"

I pause, an idea beginning to form, but not yet clear. There was a way I could buy us time. I could feel it. The slavers wouldn’t be expecting a direct disruption. Still, something nagged at me. The thought of Sunset going up against them again felt... wrong.

She could open a gate for the slaves to leave, I knew that much. Beyond that, I still didn’t know how we could make this work. Distracting the guards, though—that was something I could handle. I just needed more details to pull it together.

I glanced over at her, a grin starting to tug at my lips. "How many ponies can you get through a gate? And what do you need to set one up?"

Sunset smirks momentarily before explaining, both to Rose and myself, "I can hold a gate for two ponies to pass at a time. It'll take me a few hours, and some kind of magical conduit for some runes to stabilize the entrance, to set up a relatively safe one for such a long-term use. I'll also need a target for the other side of the gate to open to. If we had a stable gate conduit as a target, it would be safe for more ponies."

Her smile fades as she thinks a bit, then adds with some hesitation, "I can probably hold one open for about forty minutes before I burn out, provided I can stabilize it on this end. With two conduits, I could hold it for two hours."

I then turn to Rose, and question her: "How many ponies need to get out of here?"

Rose frowns in concentration and I could see her counting in her head. "... 112 ponies. We just might be able to get them all out in 40 minutes." She flicked an ear back while frowning, "It would be close though."

"How... obvious would it be for you to make a gate? The spell seems highly complex, and easy to be detected." I ask Sunset.

"The gate is easy to detect, especially with me needing to make a long-term gate with a focal point here." Sunset says plainly. Sunset then looks to Rose, "Any of the slavers really good with magic? Or detecting it?"

Rose winces, looking away slightly, "Well, you know about Nighty. She... isn't quite dead from your... escape. And she is pissed."

Before I could fully realize what Rose was saying, Sunset quickly rounded on me and hissed: "You didn't make sure that bitch was dead?!"

I hesitantly answer, trying to keep my gaze steady on her, "I... I was kinda preoccupied with escape. My first thought is not to take out a downed opponent, Sunset." I swallowed hard. I may kill in self-defense, or when the opponent poses a clear threat to myself or others, but... this wasn’t one of those times. Nighty had been knocked out, unable to fight.

Sunset had been... more violent in escaping. I know why now, but she seemed clearly more upset that I hadn't taken Nighty out than I expected. Was this related to what they did to her? I didn’t know the whole story, but I knew enough to recognize that her anger came from something much deeper than Nighty just still being alive.

I started to ask, "Was she—" The facial expression on Sunset moved from disbelief to downright anger in an instant.

"NO, AUBURN—" Sunset shouts, ears folded back, stomping her hoof onto the ground. She looks downward, snorts, and then growls out, "She wasn’t the one. But she did... she helped." Sunset clenched her teeth, struggling to get the words out. "She was involved."

Sunset takes a deep breath, her body trembling for a moment before she steadies herself. "Let’s leave it at that."

I flicked my ears down and lowered my gaze to the ground, hoping it would show I understood—at least, as much as I could. Maybe I couldn’t fix what had happened to her, but I could show I was listening. I think that was the right thing to do, as she started to calm down when she finally noticed my expression.

Rose clops her hooves together in a sharp crack. "Girls, let's get back to the topic at hand? Planning these poor pony survivors' escape?"

Sunset and I exchanged a glance, a temporary truce settling between us as we refocused on the mission. Rose’s voice was firm, cutting through the tension. "Good. So, we need to figure out how to distract the slavers from the gate being activated, and for roughly forty minutes afterward."

"I have enough mana to support about twenty to thirty minutes of drawn-out combat," I said, the memory of the explosion making me shudder. "I can probably survive that long—assuming they don’t have another one of those things they shot at the supply shed."

Sunset smiled wryly. "That was a missile, Auburn. They shot a missile at us."

I nodded, taking the clarification in stride. "Right. Well, I could appear to 'teleport' near the front gate. You know, mimic a transportation spell to divert attention away from the gate spell and onto me?"

I glanced at her. "I’d need someone else to teleport me, though. I can’t do that."

Sunset rolled her eyes with exaggerated annoyance. "I can’t teleport you and activate the gate at the same time. That’s stretching myself way too thin. I’m already betting I can manage with this horn injury."

She smirked, then turned to Rose. "And when does that bitch have guard duty at the front gate? She’d be the perfect one to distract—she’s the only one who can detect the gate spell."

Rose nodded, her tone steady. "I’ll get that information. I know some people who could handle the teleport."

I let out a slow breath, offering a half-hearted grin. "So, all I have to do is hold the guard’s attention for ten to twenty minutes until it devolves into combat. How hard could that be?"

Sunset’s grin turned good-natured, though there was a spark of mischief in her eyes. "You’re forgetting something, Auburn. She saw you. You’re going to need to redo your pony form, just like you said earlier."

I muttered some choice words under my breath. "Yeah, I forgot. I’ll need time to redo my disguise spell, and that might cut down my combat time a little."

Smirking, I added, "Besides, I need to look more like Sunset for the father-daughter plan to work... though..." I slumped slightly, thinking. "Wait—you’re matriarchal, right? A mother looking for her daughter would probably sell better."

Rose chuckled, her eyes lighting up with amusement. "Yeah, the ponies are still matriarchal, to some degree. Instinctual, at least. A mother-daughter angle would feel less... out of place."

Author's Note

Footnote: Level Up (?)
New Perk Added: Silver-Edged Tongue
You get a +50% bonus to your speech skill when interacting with individuals whose goals oppose yours. However, perceived allies are more likely to react with hostility to your attempts to persuade or intimidate them.