Fallout Equestria: Mothership Eta

“Rusty… you came back for me!”

Dew’s voice was weak and wavering, but I could sense the gratitude coming through. I loosened my grasp. “Dew? Are you ok?” Wait, scratch that. Asking that right after her ordeal finished? Sweet Celestia, I really was an asshole. “Sorry. I mean, can you move?”

I felt her stir beneath me. Right, letting go of her would definitely improve matters. I released my embrace and jumped down from the table.

“I’m really stiff, but I think I can at least stand,” she said as she did so. Shakily. “Is there someplace I can wash off?”

No kidding she’d want to wash off, her hindquarters really were a mess. Wait, why was that the first thing I looked at? What was wrong with me? I pulled my gaze away and looked around the room, making special effort to keep from meeting her eyes. I could tell we both were huge messes of emotions right now, and the last thing we needed was awkward eye contact. I spotted a sliding glass door, beyond which was a room coated in ceramic tiles, with metal sprayers mounted high on the walls. “Looks like there might be showers over there,” I told her as I pointed at the adjoining room.

“Thanks, Rusty.” Her head and tail hung low as she stumbled in the direction I had indicated. Poor mare. I turned my eyes away from her to keep watch on the door I had entered from. With how abandoned the hallway had been, I wasn’t expecting any humans to come by, but considering there were piles of former human cooling on the floor, being surprised by one of their friends was something I wanted to avoid.

My guard duty was, thankfully, uneventful. It didn’t sound like anyhuman had raised the alarm, but I was not looking forward to a repeat of our adventures with the Guros should one of them spot their dead comrades. After an understandably long time, I heard the water shut off and the door behind me slide open. Then came Dew’s voice: “Rusty? Why are you still here?” She sounded surprised.

My heart sank. “Sorry, Dew. I can go now if you want.”

“No, don’t go!” I turned to her, eyes wide, optimism starting to build inside me. Really, she wanted me to stay? Even after all I did?

She continued. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting you to still be here, not after I told you off when we got to this level. I’m glad you decided to stay.” She approached me and gave me a shy smile. “Seeing a friendly face really helps after… all that…” And there went my heart again, shooting right over to sympathy town.

“I know what you mean.”

She stepped back, looking quizzically at me. “You know what I mean? Did you go through this too?”

“Something like that. I can give you the details later, but right now we need to figure out what we’re going to do.”

“We?” The excitement in her voice was unmistakable. “Do you mean you want to stick together again?”

“I do, Dewdrop. Seeing you in that state reminded me of the time I watched somepony I care about go through the same thing, and I was powerless to help.” Sympathy was melting into determination now. “Now that I’m able to help, I want to make up for what I wasn’t able to do for her. I think she’d be happy to know I was comforting someone who’d gone through the same thing.” Now arriving: heartbreak city. What an emotional ride.

“Rusty, just… thank you. Whatever happens next, I want you to know I’m grateful for what you did for me.”

“Of course, Dew. Now I think it’s time we got some answers. My experience here was a damn sight better than yours was, and I want to know why. We need to get back to Ema -- my translator -- and lock her in a room until she tells us what’s going on. You up for some walking?”

“Give me a minute, Rusty. Those… bastards threw my clothes all over the place and I don’t want to be walking around completely exposed!”

Understandable. I averted my eyes as she picked up her shirt and overalls and slid them on. Give the mare a bit of privacy, Celestia knows she deserved it. I’ll just stare at the wall for a minute...

“Okay, I think I’m ready to go.”

I turned to look at her, and noticed a bright blue badge staring at me from her top. Something told me it was significant, there had to be a reason they stuck it on her before they started sticking their... yeah. Let's not bring up those intrusive thoughts again. “Dew, what’s that badge?” I asked her, inwardly hoping this would steer our conversation away from the recent events.

She looked down. “That? It’s something the aliens put on me before they brought me here. Any idea what it means?”

I tried to think back to the ponies I had passed during my explorations. I had done my best to ignore them, but I could remember a few despite my efforts at the time. I racked my memory, but I didn’t remember seeing anything bright blue on them. Of course, I didn’t remember the badge color they were wearing. Dammit, why did my perception have to be such shit?

Wait, the griffon! There was a bright red badge on his chest! With the way it stood out from his jet black feathers, there’s no way even I could have missed it!

“I can’t be completely sure, but Ema told me this badge meant I was a friend or something,” I said, indicating the red marker in question. “And I, and this griffon I passed, both of us were wearing one. I’m thinking badge color might have something to do with how you’ll be treated, which means we need to get that thing off you and find you a red one! Definitely don’t want you to get spotted with a badge that means ‘I don’t belong here!’” Or, more likely, meaning 'rape me now!'

I made my way over to one of the piles of former human. There had been times when I came across the remnants of a battle where energy weapons were used, and there was almost always loot that had survived the incineration. I just prayed the same rule applied to human guns. I sifted through the ashes, hoping to find something more substantial than just dust. And there! Right at the bottom, a solid red badge!

“Bingo! Let’s get that badge swapped out!” I said with a grin. “Those humans won’t be any the wiser!”

“Humans?” Dew asked as she removed the blue badge and substituted the red. “Is that what those aliens are called?”

“I guess you didn’t get the story from them.” Made sense, no need to share much information with a pony you’re planning to… fuck me, was I always this callous? “Short version: they’re called humans, they're split into factions that hate each other, and each faction controls different parts of the ship.”

I stepped towards the hallway and motioned for Dew to follow me. “I probably shouldn’t be spilling human secrets when we could run into one at any moment. The full story will have to wait until later.”

“Okay, that makes sense,” Dew replied.

We walked in silence for a bit before Dew spoke up again. “Rusty, if you don’t mind, what were you saying earlier about knowing what… it… was like?”

Oof, this again. I supposed it would have to come out sooner or later, given that we were partnered up again and trust was once more a valued commodity. I just had to hope I could depend on her to keep my own secrets.

“It’s not the most pleasant story, Dew, but I don’t think it’ll raise any alarms if parts of it get overheard by humans. You sure you want to know?”

She nodded. “If you don’t mind.”

I sighed, then began.

“You’ve probably gathered by now that the wasteland is a terrible place to grow up. If you were lucky enough to live in a settlement, you could avoid the worst of it, but my mom and I were never able to afford it. We were barely able to scavenge enough to afford food. I know my mom would have been a lot better off if I wasn’t in the picture, but she was determined to keep me around. There were plenty of slavers she could have sold me to, but no matter how bad things got for us, that was one thing she would never do.”

“Hold on,” Dew interjected. “Mothers didn’t actually sell their foals as slaves, right?”

"I told you the wasteland was terrible," I sighed. "I was actually lucky; I met plenty of foals whose parents sold them. Shit, there were rumors some mares used that as their main source of income. They’d get knocked up again as soon as their latest foal was born, raise their foals to the age where slavers would want them, and immediately sell them. They were basically slave factories."

“Skies above… that’s even worse than what they said back in the Enclave! Being a mindless cannibal is one thing, but choosing to do that to your own family?!”

“Keep in mind, Dew, that this was just a rumor. Still, it’s not completely out of the question. Slavery involved a lot of caps, and a desperate pony is capable of just about anything.”

“Wait, caps?”

“Money. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, on the subject of slavery, that was one thing mom and I actively worked to avoid. Scavvers were easy pickings for slaver gangs, at least compared to town ponies. So there was constant talk among scavvers, keeping each other updated on where the gangs were hunting. It worked out really well for us, except for one time.

“One of the gangs must have finally gotten somepony with half a brain in charge. They figured out that they could plant a fake rumor and have the scavvers come to them, instead of chasing us around. And they were smart about it. Instead of a rumor about a new place to loot, which we were naturally wary of anyway, they found a way to spread a rumor about where they were hunting. And one of the places that was supposed to be safe? That was right where their camp was. Mom and I walked right up to them.

“So we thought that was it. They took our weapons and armor, put us in chains, and marched us along with all the other scavvers they tricked to a town called Appleloosa. Mom and I got tossed in a cage with maybe twenty other slaves.

“The thing about slavers, though, is they liked to ‘sample the merchandise’ before they sold us. It was probably their way to break our spirits and make us more valuable. A submissive slave is worth a lot more than one with fight left in them. And the first slave they decided to sample… it was my mom.”

Tears were threatening to form in the corners of my eyes while I spoke. Dew was the first pony I had ever told this story to. The memory had been stored deep in the back of my mind, and now all the emotions connected to it were rushing to the surface.

“They brought her out of the cage, and tied her to the old railroad tracks that ran right in front of it. It was less than ten feet away. And all the stallions took turns. Every one of them. I could hear everything. I could only bear to look once. And what I saw… She was looking right at me, and I knew exactly what she was feeling. Just the agony, and the helplessness… I couldn’t look anymore. And when I saw you, Dew, it was just like looking into her eyes again. I wasn’t able to rescue her then, but there was no fucking way I was going to let you go through the same thing.”

“My stars… Rusty, I... That's terrible!" Dew stammered, shocked.

“It was terrible for both of us, Dew, no doubt about that. But as bad as I felt seeing it, I knew it was even worse for her. They threw her back in the cage when they were finally finished, and the only thing she did was collapse on the ground and cry. I didn’t know what I could say, so I didn’t say anything. All I could do was embrace her as she cried herself out.

“She told me later that was the best thing I could have done for her. She needed to know somepony was there for her, and words would have just gotten in the way. They might have succeeded in breaking her that day if I hadn’t been there to comfort her.”

Behind me, I heard Dew’s hoofbeats slow to a stop. I turned around to check on her. She looked absolutely devastated. Shit, maybe that wasn’t the best story to lay on her right away. She hadn’t asked, but I had to share the rest of it and hope that was enough to cheer her up. I walked back to her and laid a gentle hoof on her shoulder before continuing.

“It started out as one of the worst days of my life, Dew, but the ending wasn’t quite so bad. The gang that had captured us was pretty smart, but the ones holding us at Appleloosa were a particular breed of stupid. Not only did they leave us overnight without a guard, the cage they kept us in had a powered down terminal on one of the walls! They must have thought the terminal was busted, but all it needed was power, which they had running behind the wall! So I had a bunch of my cellmates crowd around to block the glow of the screen, powered it on, and opened the cage door from the terminal! And that was it, every one of us got out of the cell! We snuck out of town, without any of the slavers noticing. They lost a small fortune that night! And the best part? That was the night I got my cutie mark!”

I smiled at Dew, who managed to return it halfheartedly. “I’m glad it worked out, Rusty. I just wish there had been some justice for you and your mom.”

I nodded. “I think there was, in a way. We don’t have courts and jails in the wasteland like there were in prewar Equestria. But our escape was a form of justice by itself. Like I said, a small fortune walked out of Appleloosa right under their noses. And that wasted effort was its own punishment. What’s more, I’d bet anything the ponies ‘guarding’ us were absolutely reamed by the other slavers. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear they were the next slaves locked in that cell! That’s the most satisfying justice I can think of.”

“I suppose. It’s a lot to take in, Rusty.”

“It’s the wasteland, Dew. Trust me when I say that was the best outcome we could have hoped for. At the end of the day, we were all free and the bad guys lost. As much as I wish I could have murdered the bastards that hurt my mom, I was in no position to back then. But it feels just as good to have taken out the ones that hurt you.”

“Thanks, Rusty. That means a lot.”

“Of course, hon. Let’s keep going, I think we’re close.” She was obviously feeling much better. Thank Celestia. Even if it would have helped, there was no way I was ready to share that other story about my mom.

“Rusty, what in Equestria are you doing?”

“I’m hacking the terminal, what does it look like?”

We were back in Ema’s room. The smell of our earlier encounter was faint, but still present if you were looking for it. I hoped it wouldn’t be too distressing for Dew, but fortunately she didn’t seem to notice. Telling her what I had learned about the humans must have been a good enough distraction.

This room seemed to be the best place to wait for Ema. There was only one entrance; a decent defensive position if the Cloppers discovered my earlier killing spree. This was her own room, so I knew she’d be back here eventually. And since she never gave me a way to contact her, waiting was our only real option. Might as well be here.

“I know you’re hacking it, the question is why? Don’t you think she’d be mad if you broke into her stuff?”

“Three reasons. First, I’m bored. Second, she’s not going to notice a hacked terminal once we start questioning her. Third, I want to see if there’s any dirt I can dig up on the Cloppers before she shows up. Now shush, I’m almost in.”

Dew stepped up beside me and watched as I closed in on the password. “Still, she’s going to find out you broke in eventually, right? Why risk that if you don’t know if there’s anything worthwhile in there?”

“Forewarned is forearmed.” There, access granted. “And I guarantee you they’ve got something hidden. Their ‘love all creatures’ act is way too disgustingly wholesome to be anything but a cover. Now let’s take a look.”

I was disappointed by what showed up. The only networked function had to do with their security system. Everything else was local to the terminal. It looked like the only files available were created by Ema. Some sort of calendar with her work schedule, a couple of personal notes, and then nothing but corrupted garbage. I scrolled through the nonsensical file names just in case.

“That was certainly a waste.”

“Not a complete waste, Dew,” I grinned. “I’m no longer bored.”

Then, right in the middle of the gibberish symbols, my cursor stopped on a legible file. Project Kinder Enrollment Interview: Subject CX-3, Striking Summit.

“Hey, take a look at this.” I angled my hoof terminal so she could better see it. “Ema said something about these recordings being a lost history of the humans. Think it’s worth a listen?”

“Not much else to do, I guess. Let’s hear it.”

I selected the file and an oddly accented voice began to speak…

“Final confirmation interview, subject Striking Summit, unicorn. First off, do you mind if I call you Summit?”

“Not at all, practically everypony back home calls me that.”

A second voice? Male, apparently a unicorn from what the first speaker said. This must be a different type of recording from the others we’d heard; there’d never been a human talking on one before!

“Well, Summit, this final interview is mostly a formality. Everyone here is quite happy with your qualifications. Do you have any questions you need resolved before moving forward?”

“Bro, I’m chomping at the bit to get at my mares! I’m not going to waste any time if I don’t have to!”

“I know you’re excited. Hell, I would be too if I was in your position. But I need to make sure you’re ready for everything this job requires.”

“I’m ready for the secrecy part, I had plenty of practice with that in MWT.”

“It’s not just secrecy, Summit. You remember the part about never being allowed back to Equestria?”

“As much as I’d love to come back from the dead and brag to my old unit about my literal harem, I’m perfectly happy to say goodbye to Equestria. Here I’ll have more willing mares than Casaneighva!”

“Variably willing. We’re still seeing some resistance among the pegasi.”

“What? You said you’d have that fixed!”

“We said we thought we’d have it fixed. It’s not going to be a problem, is it?”

“Ugh. Look, I’m not turning this opportunity down just because you humans can’t get your shit together. I just want it on the record that I’m not happy.”

“Noted. In any event, the initial demand is projected to be primarily for unicorn foals, so we’ll have some time to concoct an effective drug before you’ll be required to mate with any pegasi. And worst case, we can have our contact in Xeno-Psych tweak the mind control she’s been working on. You’ll have your harem. Pegasi and all.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“Just remember: not a word of this to anyone outside the Kinder program.”

“Yeah, I got it. Don't talk to any ponies, and be extra careful around humans.”

“Wonderful. Welcome to the team, Summit.”

Oh, shit. This was definitely not the best thing for Dew to be hearing right now. I looked over to her. Her expression was shocked, but it was swiftly transitioning to enraged.

“She knew. That slut of yours knew. She’s dead! I’ll bucking kill her!”

“Whoa there, Dew, we can’t do anything rash!”

“Don’t try to defend her just because you got your rocks off with her! You think I didn’t smell that funk as soon as we walked in? She’s in on it, the whole bucking ship’s in on it!”

Dew began stomping towards the exit. I quickly turned my attention to the terminal and activated the door locks.

She must have heard the click. “Rusty? Unlock the damn door!”

I logged out and disconnected my hoof device. “Sorry, Dew, I can’t let you out like this.”

She whirled around to face me, her horn lighting up as her expression darkened. “Rusty. Let. Me. Out.”

Reasoning with her was clearly out of the question; I’d be hard pressed to convince myself in the same situation. I’d have to phrase it as a trade.

“Ok, Dew, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll unlock the door, but first you have to listen to what I have to say. And I mean really listen, not just blow me off. Then I’ll let you do whatever you want.”

Her eyes narrowed at me, rage boiling just under the surface. “Rusty, if you think I’m just going to calm down after hearing those… savages!”

“I’m not expecting you to calm down. I just want you to direct your anger at the ones who deserve it. There have to be other Cloppers that know what was going on, but we don’t know if Ema is one of them.”

“Rusty, that recording was on her terminal!”

“And I had to scroll through pages and pages of garbage to get to it. She probably only used that terminal for writing notes and never bothered looking for anything else! And did you hear what Summit was talking about? His unit, and the Ministry of Wartime Technology? Dew, that recording was almost two hundred years old! Everypony involved in that Kinder project is long dead. So even if Ema knew about the recording, she’d have no reason to think there was anything going on now. If we find out she does know about what those assholes did to you, we can deal with her then. Not before. Get it?”

“...Kenneth.”

“Pardon?”

“Kenneth. The translator I was with. He brought me to that room and got the others. They’re the assholes who did that.”

“Okay. Well, Kenneth and the others are dead, and as far as we know Ema wasn’t involved. Are you still going to kill her?”

“Not right away. She better have a damn good story though.”

“Agreed. Damn good.” I disengaged the locks, and we settled in, waiting for Ema to arrive.

Ema was taking quite a long time to return. As minutes dragged into hours, Dew and I started to fill the time with conversation. It was incredibly awkward at first. Considering my preference to avoid socializing, and the intense emotions Dew was keeping just under wraps, I'm surprised we even started talking at all. I don't remember who spoke first, or even what the subject was. But over the course of our wait, our conversation shifted from awkward, to familiar, to friendly. It felt like Dew was starting to return to her old, earnest self. I, for the first time, was truly feeling grateful for her company. Was this what a friendship was like?

“So tell me, Dew, what exactly would you have done once you found Ema and realized you didn’t have your weapons?”

“Right, right, that wasn’t my smartest moment. But I was pissed off, can you blame me?”

“Not a chance! Shit, I would’ve done the same thing back in Appleloosa if there wasn’t a unicorn literally holding me off the ground!”

"Ha! I would have loved to see that!"

"I'm sure it was incredible. I was just a few inches from the ground, legs pumping at the air as fast as I could move them, all while hissing at that unicorn to put me the fuck down!"

We were so engrossed in our conversation that we almost missed Ema's entrance. "Ah, Rusty," came a voice from beside me, "it is good to see you back here. And is this your companion from earlier?"

I looked over to the door as Ema stepped through and it closed behind her. "Ema, meet Dewdrop. Dew for short. Though I guess you met before."

"Briefly." Dew chimed in.

Ema's eyes swung over to Dew. "Yes, I certainly remember. Kenneth was the translator assigned to accompany you, correct?" Dew nodded in response. I noticed Ema's eyes glance down to Dew's badge, then immediately back up. "And I see you have been designated as a Konfidulo class. I am glad; I was suspicious that Kenneth's ultimate intentions with you may not have been fully honorable."

Oh, Ema. That was the wrong thing to say.

Dew's eyes narrowed, but she remained where she was, tense but unmoving. We had talked through this possibility. I toggled the command on my hoof device, covertly connected to Ema's terminal, that activated the door locks. Her expression grew puzzled as she spun around to examine the exit. "Odd, I believe there is something the matter with the door."

"Ema, turn around."

She did so, taking a couple seconds to realize I had drawn my pistol and was pointing it directly at her chest. "Rusty? What is going on?"

Dew answered instead. "You are going to explain exactly what is going on with you Cloppers, and how much you knew about what Kenneth was going to do to me. And don't try to run. That pistol will disintegrate you before you reach the door."

"I do not understand! Your badge; he could not have fulfilled his aims and still named you confidant! You would be malcerta, at most!"

"Malcerta? With the blue badge? That’s exactly what he named me. But Rusty gave me a promotion. Pulled that red one right off Kenneth's corpse. At least I assume it was Kenneth, could have been any of the four others that were in there."

A flash of primal fear across her face; Ema's expression showed she finally realized what kind of situation she was trapped in. Her life could end at the tongue of a trigger, and the only way she'd survive was if she kept us happy.

"Very well. I suppose I cannot plead ignorance to Kenneth's activities. What is it you wish to know?"

I had to give her credit, she was keeping remarkably calm, given the circumstances. Dew began the questioning:

"How common is what I went through?”

“That is a complicated question to answer. As far as the specifics of what you went through, your experience was unique.”

“You mean it’s never happened before and you still let him do it?!” Wow, and I thought Dew had been pissed off before… She looked like she was ready to tear Ema’s throat out with her teeth!

“That is not what I meant by unique, Dewdrop. I was referring to your arrival within our territory. It has been decades at least since we had to concern ourselves with the unexpected appearance of a pony at our borders. What was unique was the procedure of welcoming ponies we had not anticipated.”

“Some welcome,” I muttered.

Ema continued: “The actions Kenneth and -- I assume -- his company committed upon yourself are not infrequent. I personally do not approve of such a drastic act…” Dew scoffed at this. “...but there is a substantial portion of our faction who think nothing of forcing themselves upon a less-than-willing victim.”

“‘Less-than-willing?’ That’s the worst euphemism I’ve ever bucking heard! Even from the Enclave politicians!”

“There are nuances I am trying to explain, Dewdrop, if you would let me.” Ema sounded like she was getting mouthy. I cleared my throat to get her attention and pointed my pistol directly at her face. “We don’t need your lip, Ema,” I said around the mouthgrip. “Just answer our damn questions!”

“I apologize. Dewdrop, your experience appears to be unique in yet another way. When newly-arrived ponies are not amenable to our proposals, their compliance is frequently achieved through the use of mind-altering substances. Your current state indicates this was not the case. I had assumed Kenneth would follow standard procedures, but it appears he was tempted by the allure of an unwilling pony free from chemical influence. I am sorry for this; your experience would not have been nearly as traumatic had he followed standard policy.”

“You’re telling me you bucking drug ponies before you rape them? And everyhuman here is okay with this?! Rusty, I’ve heard enough. Shoot this bitch.”

Dew’s words barely registered with me. The implications of what Ema had just told us were coursing through my mind at lightning speed. I hadn’t considered it before, but now… why hadn’t I questioned Ema’s advances? After that… other incident… I was sure I’d never have sex again! And Ema had confessed to giving me stamina enhancing drugs… sweet Celestia!

“Rusty!” Dew yelled. “Did you hear me?”

“Ema.” I put as much force behind my words as my shocked state could allow. “Did you give me those drugs?”

“A small amount, Rusty. They were administered to counteract any loss of libido you would have suffered due to your medical treatment.”

“Rusty!” Dew was livid. “Kill her already!”

The horror of what Ema had admitted to me was just starting to hit. It felt like I was back in that campsite, the still-warm body lying next to me, the violation still fresh in my mind…

“Dammit, Rusty!! Give me the gun and I’ll do it myself!”

“If I may interject,” Ema said shakily, “that may not be the best course of action for you.”

The glow and force of Dew’s magic trying to yank the pistol out of my mouth snapped me out of my stupor. “Hang on a second, Dew.” I turned my focus to Ema. "What do you mean, the 'best course of action?'"

“What I mean.” Ema replied, “is that you are currently in no danger from the Clopper community. The precedent for a pony that fights back against and kills her attackers states that her punishment shall be exile. In your current situation, you would be expelled from our territory with all your belongings. We would not attempt to harm you unless you attempted to return. However, should you kill me now, the entirety of the Clopper community would hunt you down and execute you.”

“I’m not worried about a bunch of wussy medics,” Dew stated bluntly. “Rusty, would you just shoot her already?”

“That is not the only effect of killing me.” It was actually kind of impressive how calm Ema was when talking about her own death. “My comrades would gladly invite the Guros across our borders to assist in hunting you down. Our mutual hatred would be put aside in the interest of punishing a murder taking place in our territory.”

“Like we care about that,” Dew spat. “Rusty’s got your security system hacked. We’ll let the turrets kill the whole lot of you!”

I wasn’t expecting the level of disbelief evident in Ema’s reply: “That’s impossible! The entire security system has been offline since the great rending!” That was an odd thing to say; I’d had no problem accessing the system after hacking in. But speaking of...

“Um, actually, Dew? I only have access to the turret in this room and the one just outside. We’d be screwed if we had to fight off two factions from here.” I probably should have let her know about that beforehoof. Oops.

“Are you bucking serious, Rusty?” I nodded sheepishly. “Dammit. All right, Ema. You win. Grab my gear and you can bring us to the exile point. I assume there’s somewhere we can go that isn’t Guro territory?”

“Indeed, Dewdrop. The physicists are the other faction whose borders meet ours. I will gladly show you to them.”

Physicists? “That actually doesn’t sound too bad,” I told Dew. “Nice straightforward name, don’t think we could go too wrong with that.”

“Quite right, Rusty. They are quite insular, but our interactions indicate they are simply interested in understanding the natural state of Equestria.”

“Good enough for me,” I said. “Dew, you ready to go?”

Ema was as good as her word. It was a short trot to where Dew’s equipment was stored. Then down several flights of stairs, ending in a room almost identical to the one we had used to enter Clopper territory.

“Rusty, Dewdrop, this is your destination,” Ema told us as we all stepped through the sliding glass door. “Beyond this room lie the physicists. I have informed them of your impending arrival; they shall not be surprised as I was when you entered our territory.”

“So are we in their territory now?” asked Dew.

“Not quite,” Ema responded. “We are standing in neutral territory. No faction controls this room.”

“Good enough.” In a flash, Dew’s horn lit up, levitating her pistol. KRACKOW! She stowed the pistol back in her clothing before the ashes of Ema’s body had even started to crumble.

“Dew?!” I yelled. “What the fuck was that?”

“That,” Dew said in the coldest voice I had ever heard from her, “was a killing taking place outside Clopper territory. Nothing for them to get pissed about.”

She turned away from me and strolled nonchalantly past Ema’s ash pile. “Come on, Rusty, let’s see what these physicists are like.”

I trailed behind her as I tried to process what I had just seen. Could this really be the same scared mare who had been following me all this time? Was there anything else she was willing to do that I thought had been beyond her? And most importantly, what kind of pony was she turning into?