Was it selfish to have done what she tried to do? To only save one. Again, Stern was weighed down by guilt. She'd ended up too focused on trying to keep the peace, she'd forgotten about making sure Murky was actually okay after the riots. Come to think of it, he could be anywhere.

Stern shook off the worry and set a logical search pattern, she needed to be on her game and not fretting feathers. Prediction. By what little she knew of Murky, Stern built a profile. He was small and dealt with bullying so probably shy and likely to avoid conflict and stay away from the more dangerous areas. She didn't know where he was when the riots broke out so he may have bunkered down somewhere near the pit. However, there has been an extensive round-up, so he likely was sent back to the Fun Farm in the moderate possibility he was found. The best route of action was to start at the petting zoo and work back to the pit.

Deep down, Stern was still worried he'd been hurt without her there to guard him. The buildings grew closer as Stern's flight path became a low and shallow glide across the rooftop of the oversized barn. Gazing down across the pens, Stern spotted the outcropped shed. Murky was not there, but there was a small notebook. Tempting as it was, Stern dared not invade someone's privacy like that. Stern lurked around the upper catwalks of the Fun Farm, keeping an eye out for the little green pony who just hadn't resurfaced much to Stern's dismay.

She'd hoped to have seen Murky return, and was reluctant to trace back to the pit in case she missed him. Stern would be in ruins if Murky was injured, or worse, during the riots. Looking for a needle in a haystack would have been a simpler task than this. Despite Stern's keen eye, there simply was far too much detail to sift through to pick out for a single pony.

It was by sheer luck that on the way back to the pit, three ponies caught Stern's attention. Purely because, while most of Fillydelphia was hit with a new wave of somber sobriety following a failed escape riot and were slowly cleaning or walking back to their enclosures, these three ponies were chasing something she'd yet to see. She saw a tiny figure slip into an equally tiny alleyway between two buildings. Stern's heart raced with excitement and worry, for having possibly found Murky and for how he seemed to have gotten himself into trouble.

Stern's wings tucked in as two of the ponies split up, circling around the buildings, she wasn't able to get a good view and dropped down onto the rooftops. The ancient wood and metal construction was awful for grip, making her come to a very loud, skidding halt as her talons dug into the corrugated sheet metal. The noise was just enough to stop them in their tracks long enough for the pony they were chasing to disappear over the fence and into the nearby junkyard.

Stern took off back into the air again, more interested in the pony they were chasing. The tight turns and numerous piles of junk and scrap metal made aerial surveillance difficult, Stern slipped down to the ground and stalked after the beating of tiny hooves on compacted ground.

She turned a corner, the little blur of dim color slipping under her legs and sliding to a stop. Stern leapt, old combat instincts kicking in the same as when she'd helped New Apploosa deal with a few mutant snakes. She never found out where they were coming from though.

A quick look told Stern everything she needed to know. Green coat, yellow mane, vest, undersize- no. Horribly, horribly malnourished. She dared not touch him for fear of breaking him.

"Y-you're..." Murky stared, fear turning to recognition, "From this morning. Th-the pit!"

"Hello again, Murky." Stern says, calming herself.

An astonished silence hung between them, interrupted only by the distant whine of machinery.

Murky Number Seven stares up at Stern, the viscerally terrifying second-in-command to Red Eye, the one that slavers cowered in the presence of, probably the most merciless killer in all of Fillydelphia whose machine-like, ruthless efficiency scared even the most deranged sadists sober enough to stay on her good side, and he felt strangely safe. Or maybe he'd accepted this was the moment he was about to die and gave up on being afraid.

Stern was unsure of what to say from here, she wanted to be friendly, to extend some form of kindness, to make a friend, but she didn't know how anymore. The circumstances were far too different, other Talons were willing to accept the state of Fillydelphia, thinking all the ponies to be deranged tribals, they were too afraid of Stern to be anything but professional. Slavers were, put shortly, evil. Stern would only extend them a talon to gut them for making this city so tainted.

Red Eye himself was a tolerable presence, but a clear psychopath. His charm was superficial, but his plan to stop the Goddess made him necessary. Stern would have killed him if she thought she could take over, but the power vaccuum would collapse quickly in that event.

But this little slave, he was something different. The first pony she'd met in this city that wasn't evil. She found herself needing to protect him. Stern didn't know why these memories and emotions resurfaced when they did, they made her alive again. Like she'd just died when she came to Fillydelphia and had been a shambling corpse until yesterday.

Murky lunged forward, almost causing Stern to jump as he latched onto her forelimb. "Th-thank you! Thank you so much!" the little pony squeals, clinging tightly to Stern.

He smelled like he'd been in a sewer, looked halfway to becoming a ghoul, but Stern pulled him into a gentle hug whch was probably the first one either of them had in years. A reciprocated show of affection took Murky by surprise, who seemed to tense up for a moment, thinking that he was about to be reprimanded.

The awkward pause that fell when both seemed to know a hug shouldn't last this long yet neither wanted to let go was interrupted by shouting that grew closer with the heavy pounding of hooves.

It appeared the three ponies chasing Murky were not deterred for long by Stern's observation, they rounded the corner just in time to see Stern turn to face them, the hug already broken. It would only take one wrong word to the wrong pony for information to travel upstream through the slaves and slavers who already hated Stern and reach Red Eye. Information wouldn't travel through the Talons fortunately, as Stern held all their contracts and could terminate them at will.

"Where'd ya go r-" a dirty brown stallion with a yellow mane paled to a ghostly white and came to a stop in front of Stern, his two followers ran into his rump and caused a three-pony collision.

Hiding Murky behind her legs, Stern narrowed hr eyes, "What the hell are you doing out of your enclosure, slaves?" she hated the word now, but it helped to be able to exude the slaver mentality when needed.

"W-we're, uh, lookin' for a pony we saw run off this way." the mare spoke up, Stern noticed upon her flank was a familiarly looped bit of rope.

"Get back to your enclosure before I have you three dumped into the parasprite pits!" Stern had barely finished her order before they took off.

Alone again, Stern saw that she'd scared Murky off as well. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Murk?" Stern spoke aloud, "You still there?" she asked to silence in the junkyard. Crestfallen, she continued to search around the scraps for her friend to no avail. He must have been scared off by the gangers, hopefully not by her shouting. Stern had been angry, loud, and violent for so long, could she be someone's friend at this point?

The evening was growing into twilight and Stern needed to be present for the Talon debriefing regarding the riots today. After that, she was invited to dinner with the higher-ups of Red Eyes ranks. She hoped Murky would be safe until she found him next. He needed medication among many things, like being out of Fillydelphia entirely.

"I'll... See you later I guess..." Stern took off, heading back to the Alpha-Omega.

Stern got a story from all her Talons on their work through the day, tracing when and how they'd been able to respond to the riots. Her original system of lights on the wall only accounted for incidents near the border, leaving central areas up to word of mouth. Her next change in the emergency operations would now include a red and green flare. A green flare meant only a few Talons were needed and they could approach with caution. A red flare would alert the walls and put the city on lockdown with emergency procedures Stern then discussed.

She grew to dislike security and logistical work. This would be so much easier if they could be issued radio communication devices.

Following the debrief, Stern was requested for a banquet with Red Eye and his guest of honor, Littlepip. She could empathize, Red Eye certainly appeared to know what he was doing in regards to running this city. After all, he was the figurehead of this entire regime.

Rather than dress up, Stern simply removed her Talon armor and traded for a lighter leather holster to carry a knife and 10mm pistol she kept for times when the anti-machine rifle was too much.

"Stern, I'm certain you remember the stabledweller Littlepip." Red Eye greets her as she entered the banquet hall, followed by the gray mare herself. She wore clean Stable 101 barding while Red Eye dressed in a clean pre-war coat. All three of his students, all unicorns, overdressed for the occasion by wearing suits.

Littlepip's smile was familiar yet awkward, as if she'd met on friendly terms with someone who'd attacked her before. "I wish we'd met differently." she joked, extending a hoof for Stern to shake.

Dinner was, well it was the better foods taken from the stockpiles. Stern looked down at the reconstituted meat and wondered why her soil purification research was snubbed. Would Red Eye rather this garbage than admit Stern had a good idea outside of how to keep productivity up? Stern focused on listening in to Littlepip being introduced into Red Eye's inner circle.

She made quick friends with the group of them, but it appeared Littlepip was in on Red Eye's plan far more than even his students were. She danced around some of their more intimate questions, prying to hear what Red Eye had planned.

Stern's observant nature caught something interesting; a nervous twitch of Littlepip's hoof, her wide eyes, the way her eyes darted quickly as she spoke circles around some of the most asute ponies in the city without them realizing she was avoiding their questions. She was on something.

Certainly was stampede, buck, or rage. Maybe dash, but probably mint-als. Stern wondered why she'd need chems, an addiction maybe? Or was she less intelligent than Red Eye made her out to be? Couldn't be that. Red Eye wouldn't feed her addiction to keep her around, would he? Had he actually convinced her to join him?

"Stern, you've been quiet all evening." One of his students, Protegé interrupts her train of thought, "Would you care to ask our new friend anything?"

Stern almost laughed - 'friend' how could these say that and ignore the entirety of what happens below? "So, you grew up in a Stable? I hear most of them have some horrible experiment go wrong in them, how'd you survive that?"

Littlepip nodded, "Yep, Stable 2 actually. I guess we got lucky, never had anything go wrong except occasional leaks and breaks."

Dinner felt like it dragged on for hours, though it wasa rather small affair. There was music and drinks following the meal. Stern cut out of the event shortly after, mentioning some business to take care of to Red Eye.

Exiting the middle levels of the hotel, Stern stood on the rooftop as a few alicorns descended. Like always, they paid her no mind unless they were directly looking for her. Must be one of the disadvantages of only having one mind to share between hundreds of bodies. Stern wanted to go out and find Murky again, but maybe it would be too soon? She was risking a lot every time she interacted directly with him. Still, she could observe without much problem.

While the ponies of the petting oo enclosure slept, Stern sat in the dark catwalks above watching. She'd noticed the remains of the pigsty had been destroyed some time today. This meant Murky was somewhere else nearby, probably hidden.

Silently, Stern traversed overhead where the spritebots never looked. The technology that kept them aloft didn't allow for hovering more than a few feet over the ground nor did it allow for upward scanning. In fact, a few years back Stern had some of their operating parameters changed solely to focus on ground-level movement to keep her Talons off of the security network because they kept setting off alerts on the old Ministry of Morale network whenever they flew overhead. Not sure who previously used the spritebots, but they were set mainly to detect pegasi when Red Eye took over Fillydelphia.

This was pointless, Stern couldn't seem to find her friend, and even if she did she wouldn't want to interrupt his precious few hours of sleep. She needed sleep herself, too.

Back in her office, Stern dug through her personal supplies. Whatever Murky was ailed by, she had to have something to remedy it. In her closet hidden inside a little hooflocker was an huge and dusty Ministry of Peace saddlebag. There was a time when she'd been prepared for anything and everything. Some of the Talons she first deployed with called it her 'mobile hospital' because it had everything from miles of surgical thread on big spools, to poles to set up curtains, a foldable overhead light and a wide array of various medical supplies she'd sold everything she had to purchase before deploying.

Time had rendered most of her emergency medicines expired or otherwise unusable aside from the magical wasteland staples that never seemed to expire. It happened to be that those were what she'd been looking for. The faint glow of what was once a super restoration potion indicated that exposure to the higher radiation of Fillydelphia had weakened it to near worthlessness over the decade. Her supply of radaway had blackened because it wasn't kept in one of thoe Ministry of Peace extended storage medical boxes. Seriously, medicine left in those things never went bad even after 200 years.

Swearing under her breath, Stern continued to dig through her old saddlebag. Maybe she could make a concentrate of her whole supply?

Taking everything into the next room, her hidden lab, made when a hotel room adjacent to Stern's had it's entrance built over as that section of the hall turned into a tactical barricade. Stern watched as all the weak potions she possessed boiled down to a half of a single container. She understood why medical supplies were so scarce in Fillydelphia, they needed to be imported or made locally. Stern cursed, looking at the half-full bottle of fiercely glowing hot pink liquid. She'd have to get some from the hospital or maybe the merchants who kept the slavers supplied.

Nearby Stern's workstation sat a small book she'd been making on the purification of soil. It had limited use and needed to be protected from the environment but if done properly with sanitized crops, non-mutated foods could be grown. Maybe Red Eye hadn't considered the slaves here worth that kind of effort. Stern set the health potion back near her bed, she'd find Murky tomorrow and give it to him. Enough to keep him alive until she could get another supply.

The next morning, Stern awoke to chills. Filydelphia usually kept itself warm under a thick cloud of smog and industrial heat, but it was winter and yesterday's lack of activity allowed a cold front to roll across the city bringing stiff winds with it. Her morning went as they usually did, with an exchange of shifts from night to morning as Talons relieved others of their patrol zones or posts. If slavers followed their guidebooks, they'd be changing shifts in an hour as well. If Red Eye needed her presence he'd send one of... those things to find her. But it seemed he was out of Fillydelphia again, heading back with Littlepip to oversee his schools and whatever was being done out at the cathedral. Stern had only been a few a times to meet the students on some 'field trip at home'. They'd never seen a griffon before, which made for some interesting reactions. Mainly they just wanted to see her beak and wings.

She stopped by her quarters once more to prepare a thermos of vegetable soup. By noon, Stern had slipped around most of Fillydelphia looking for the little green pony. The hospital was a difficult place for Stern to be, even when she thought she could push off the more moral side of her, being there just flipped a switch and she sort of fell in line trying to help those who were injured. She couldn't help it and just stayed away from the hospital because of it. She'd focus and go by there later to get some medicine for him.

Work had begun again in Fillydelphia, the sound of machines present again in the echoing chorus above the city. Shortly after her very late lunch, Stern spotted something glowing in the air above where the airport was. A green flare!

While it was nice to see the Talons taking to her operating procedures already, it meant a riot was underway. Again! Oh come on, there was just one yesterday! Stern banked her wings and diverted from her course to the hospital. Her flight path was much higher than normal on approach, Stern was trying to get a look at the action but it seemed most of the riot was happening inside the terminal.

However, movement caught Stern's eye as she moved over the control tower. A pony small enough to make Stern roll in mid-flight and climb up through the air to double check. Stern's blood ran cold as Murky stepped off the edge of the control tower. She rushed across the rooftop, turning the corner down after him. With her size and armor, Stern dropped much faster than he could fall, grabbing the little pony in her arms halfway down. She brought Murky back up to the rooftop, scowling at him with teary eyes, "What in the hell were you thinking?" her voice choked up, "Y-you..." Stern swallowed and brought back her composure, "Sit down and calm down."

Murky looked worse than usual, covered in bruises and cuts, something had given him a black eye and a busted lip. Stern cradled Murky for a few seconds, "What were you thinking?" she asks in a barely audible voice, setting him down on his hooves.

Stern didn't say anything, setting him down and undoing the little side bag for Murky. She set it down and walked over to again hug the quivering little pony. "Are you okay? What happened?" she asks, sitting down to hold Murky against herself. He felt cold.

The question didn't help, as Murky began to bawl into her chest, blubbering a barely-coherent string of the day's events through her feathers. From Wicked Slit threatening him to the slave market to the gangers again to Sooty Moraas trying to use him to the mean doctor telling him he was going to die to... Murky went quiet. "I don't want you to hate me too."

Given everything he'd been through, Stern couldn't think of any reason she would hate him. "I promise I won't."

Murky went silent, trying to gauge Stern's absence of prejudice. He must have decided in her favor, slowly, he took off the torn vest, revealing tiny wings fitting a tiny pony.

While it seemed pegasi were universally loathed, even among griffons who hated them for their recent ransacking of Griffonstone and other mountainous lands, Stern no longer found such blind hatred in her heart. Murky winced in anticipation as Stern lifted a wing from Murky's side with an uncharacteristically gentle talon.

"Now why in the world would I hate you for these?" Stern feels a pulse of magic coming from her bag. Be Kind. That statuette had to be cursed or something.

Tearing up once more, Murky stared at the first one in this city to be kind to him, the first one who didn't hate him for his wings. The griffon who suddenly always seemed to be there when he needed some help. Murky watched as Stern opened up her bag. The griffon who just showed up with a meal and free medicine just for him after what was arguably the worst day he'd ever experienced trying to solve his own problems only to realize they'd all been using him. All of them except Stern hopefully.

"I brought you something." Stern says, carefully setting up the thermos of still-warm soup for him. Murky had no words for the waves of relief that washed over him after the bit of healing potion, but also for the fact he'd been pulled from death's door in more ways than one.

Stern took note of Murky's story, 'Sooty Moraas'. Given the conditions of Fillydelphia, she could excuse a lot of morally-questionable behavior but something about the way he intended to indenture Murky through withholding medicine just upset her in a way that not even the medic would talk her down. She'd pay him a visit.

The smog of rage lifted as soon as she noticed Murky having gotten soup across his muzzle, their impromptu picnic turning the rooftop into a happier place. It brought Stern an untold level of joy to see him happy. She still didn't understand why, she just did. "I'll find you tomorrow with another round of healing potions, I had to make due with what I had for that one."

"Could I..." Murky paused, clearly worried about asking for too much, "Could you bring me radaway? Th-the doctor said my lung infection was irradiated."

Stern nods, "I'll find some."

It felt so different, Artery had called him an 'irradiated little shit' and told him to go die because he had nothing to trade, but Stern was going to find what he'd asked for and asked for nothing in return. It brought a sense of foreboding, like she was going to hold this over his head at some point. She'd never do that, right?

Murky had one more question for Stern, he didn't want to go back. Wicked Slit, the gangers, all the ponies who'd seen his wings, it filled Murky with terror that made him shiver. "Stern?" he speaks up, "I-I..." the words caught in Murky's throat, he was afraid this would be too much to ask. "I don't want to be here any longer..."

Stern's face saddened, she knew what he was about to ask. "Please? Can you take me away from here?"

She sighed, "I can't leave Fillydelphia, we're all contracted to Red Eye. Breaching contract is punishable by death. If I took you away from here, he'd never stop hunting for me." Stern never thought about her life like this before, she'd always seen herself as in charge of this city, but she was...

"You're a slave too?" Murky asks, his own mood dampened.

"Mhmm..."

"Oh... I thought all the griffons were just hired."

"The contracts are slated to end a long time from now, when Red Eye says he'll bring back peace to the world and we don't need to fight anymore. The contract is cancelled only if the holder chooses to cancel. I can release all the other Talons, but only Red Eye can release me."

Stern's wing extends and blankets over Murky, whose head hung lower, "If I could, I'd take you far from here. To the eastern edge of Griffonia where I grew up seeing the sun."

Murky's ears perked up curiously, "What's it like?"

"Bright, warm. Almost like being near a campfire, but far more gentle a heat."

The rest of the evening went along peacefully, Murky and Stern talked the hours away until it got dark, the orange smudge of sunset slowly disappearing in the distance. "I really should get back to the petting zoo. I-I think I'll have to explain to Wicked Slit that Sooty wouldn't help me out." Murky says, worrying about the slavers.

Stern's wing shifted, scooting Murky up against Stern's side, "Don't worry about any of them, okay? I said I'd protect you."

Murky's concern still worn apparently on his face, "I-I gotta go... Thank you, Stern."

Stern leaned in, her face closer to Murky's, then...

Boop!

Murky smiled once more as her beak touched to his nose, "Before I go, can I ask you one more thing?"

Stern nods, "Anything, Murk."

"Why are you protecting me? Every time I needed you, you just appeared. Earlier when I tried to... I saw you really cared, I saw it in your eyes. But I don't understand why you care. Nopony has ever cared about me like this but my mom. Why are you doing all this for me?"

That was a lot more than just one question, Stern rubs the back of her head, trying to think of a good reason. "I don't really know why exactly, I just do. I can tell you don't deserve to be here, and when I look at you I want to take you somewhere safe." It hardly felt like a good explanation, but Stern was still coming to terms with this sudden access to a range of emotions she'd shut away a long time ago when she began working in Fillydelphia.

With Murky flown back to the petting zoo with a promise of medicine and food the next day, Stern needed to reevaluate her list of ponies. Murky's most immediate threat was the three gangers who could not be allowed to make it back to the petting zoo tonight. The ponies of the airport terminal were currently on lockdown following the riots, according to Murky's story the gangers started that riot and were likely still there.

The guards at the terminal knew to get out of Stern's way while the Talons were performing an investigation. Ponies were put in chains and detained while they got sorted and the culprits were found out.

"Hey you three." Stern chirps, spotting the three ponies in the far corner of the terminal, "You're late for your shift in the parasprite pits!"

Ponies don't usually survive parasprite clearing operations, but no one survives hurting Murky. Was it wrong to force those ponies to their deaths? Maybe, but if Stern didn't look out for him, she couldn't trust they wouldn't kill him. Regardless, they were some of the only ones at the terminal who could provide a positive ID of Murky. This was just cleaning up loose ends to protect him.

The slaver camps were quiet in the dead of night, Stern stopped by the guards at the gate, briefly mentioning she needed to speak with Wicked Slit about tomorrow's operations. She located the right tent and found Wicked Slit asleep soundly in her bed. From her pack, Stern pulled several needles. It was six syringes of Med-X, the powerful painkiller chem. One full syringe would make a pony out of commission. Three ran a risk of killing a pony. Six would kill anything.

Stern roughly woke Wicked, pinning her in bed with one hand grabbing her horn and the other jamming the Med-X syringe into her neck. Wicked Slit thrashed and struggled for a few seconds before relaxing. Stern poked her with a second needle.

"H-hey... Don't..." Wicked Slit seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open, making very minimal efforts to block Stern from poking her with the third needle. Wicked slowed down further, unable to put together full words. Stern left two more doses of Med-X in her flank before Wicked Slit stopped breathing.

Stern waited several minutes to make sure she didn't start up again and walked back out to the guards. "Get a doctor out here, I think Wicked Slit overdosed." Stern grumbled with the feigned annoyance of someone realizing a coworker was drunk again.

The guards headed over to Wicked's tent and then ran off to get a doctor. Almost an hour later, she was pronounced dead. Just another slaver idiot who went through the 'Fillydelphia withdrawals' a term given to the way some slavers accidentally killed themselves by overdosing as soon as they get any amount of chems after being forcefully sobered by the lack of drugs available within the city.

The gangers were most likely dead, Wicked Slit would probably not survive long in her coma, that was it for ponies who were threats to Murky's safety. All that remained for tonight was the merchant who held the medical supplies she'd need for Murky. Stern let herself in through the back entrance of his shop and found Sooty asleep, the tall earth pony wasn't corded with muscle nor was he lanky and thin. He sat with an average build which was quite unusual given the consistent lack of food in the city. Stern gave the sleeping pony a good punch to the back of the head that threw him onto his side and put him in a much deeper sleep while she grabbed what she needed from his supply. She also picked up what appeared to be the same leather bound sketchbook she'd seen at the petting zoo before. The book's contents were none of her business, it had to belong to Murky! It was the same tantalizing tome of secrets she'd never look at unless he allowed. Sooty was a rather nasty pony, but he hadn't directly tried to hurt Murky which is why Stern didn't gut him. It would probably teach Sooty some humility to start again from the bottom. Though, if he ever became a threat he wouldn't even live long enough to regret it.

Unaware to Stern, back at the petting zoo, Murky had been noticed by a different slaver.

Author's Note

NEW PERK

Slaver's Touch
+10% damage when using melee weapons against unarmored or lightly armored foes.

Be Kind
That Fluttershy statuette has gotta be cursed or something. A new sense of empathy unlocks new dialogue options.