Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 3: Outside the Realm of Normality

Ooh! So many fun breakables!

Bleak. Dark. Gray. I had forgotten what the world used to look like before the casting of Gardens. The Badlands were a grim reminder of that. They were also a reminder that Gardens had stopped solely at Equestria’s borders, almost certainly intentionally by design of one Twilight Sparkle. For the so-called Princess of Friendship, she sure needed a few lessons in the subject.

I found myself really hating her once more.

I flew above the caravan and off to the side, bleeding off what radiation I could from the Nirik’s attack. It had been quite some time since I had felt the surge of radiation that I had taken in from the creature. I had been passed some RadAway to help bleed off the radiation, but it was really going to just take more time.

Upon further investigation into the Nirik’s body I had discovered that the thing was also a ghoul, which is why it could handle that much radiation. It was a frightening thing to behold.

We had crossed into the Badlands proper, the shifting rock beneath our hooves going cold and dark. A chill wind blew across us as we continued down the rail line. I could see from my vantage point that it went on for what looked like forever. It seemed incredibly well constructed. When ponies built something, they built it to last. Below, the dogs from Ponyville stalked on each side of the caravan, having switched to more conventional firearms. If there were more Nirik out there, it seemed prudent given the fact that the magical energy rifles seemed to do nothing against them.

I kept going back to what Trick Shot had shown me with that memory. Tempest Shadow was real, which gave credence to our quest for whatever this weapon was. I didn’t know much about the dark and broody mare, but Trick had said their relationship was pretty complicated. I found myself wondering if that was why Tempest left the service. I made a note to ask him later.

Around mid day I was able to rejoin my friends next to the wagon, the radiation having bled off enough to be normal. I gave Violet a hug, pulling her close.

“Are you both doing alright?” I asked.

“Honestly I’m doing better than I was worried sick about you,” Violet said with a grin. “Radiation all gone?”

“Yeah, I’m safe now,” I said with a chuckle. “I just hope we don’t run into any more of those things.”

“I’ve been through a bunch of the different writings I downloaded to my PipBuck and have been unable to really find a thorough description of that creature, the Nirik,” Sunshine said with a grimace. “I might ask Trick Shot later on what he knows about them.”

“He seemed surprised that one was up this far out,” I said. “Sounds like maybe this particular run has encountered them before?”

“Perhaps,” Sunshine said. “Violet, don’t forget to do your exercises. I’m going to go chat with Trick Shot about this.”

Violet nodded. “Star can help me, right?”

“Sure. I’ll keep you company,” I said as Sunshine walked off towards the head of the caravan.

Violet and I returned to our wagon holding our gear, sitting next to an open book that Violet had been reading from.

“Vi… I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to help you with this,” I said, realizing that Sunshine had been helping Violet this entire time. I had been busy doing other things. “I.. I have no excuse.”

Violet rolled her eyes. “Star. We’re not high school fillies. I’m not going to get mad at you over something stupid like that. You’re fine.”

“Okay,” I said with a soft smile. “How does this work then? Have you felt anything more?”

“Well. I’m supposed to be trying to focus on the pages of the book and the words on the page,” Violet said, turning her attention to the book. “But I haven’t felt much more than that tingle.”

“Just have to keep trying, Violet. You got this, and I got your back,” I said, putting my foreleg around her.

Violet nodded, turning to the book. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply before opening them to focus on the words. She read aloud over and over, focused intently on only the words on the page.

My eyes widened. A small green spark, barely visible, appeared on Violet’s horn. Just enough to coat the page in a soft green light that immediately flickered out. The green spark disappeared. Violet looked up at me.

“I… I felt something more,” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “Star… I…”

“You’re on your way to recovery, my love,” I said, reaching in and kissing her on the forehead.

The wagons slowly pulled to a stop. I heard activity outside as Sunshine pushed her head in.

“You two have gotta come see this,” she said with a grin.

I looked at Violet and grimaced. “What now?”

* * *

The caravan had slowed next to a gully that the rail line ran over. Down in the gully was what appeared to be buildings built from old boxcars and scrap metal. It was like a ghost town. Nothing lived down there. A path went from beside the rail line down into the gully. In the center of the town was a deep lake, putrid and green. My eyes widened as I realized that floating in the middle of the lake was a large round glowing object.

“Is… is that what I think that is?” I asked aloud.

“That… that is an undetonated megaspell device, just laying around,” Violet confirmed for me. “How does something like that even happen?”

“It’s… complicated,” a gravelly voice said from behind us. Trick Shot had walked up to meet us. “Based on what we could find in the town’s records, the balefire bomb there had a glitch and never detonated. It’s been sitting there soaking into the lake, and the town just kind of built up around it.”

“What happened to the town?” I asked, fearing the worst.

“When the radiation started drying up in Equestria and Ditzy started gathering Aqua Cura, we found this place. It’s one of the best places to gather up the material,” Trick replied. “The ponies that lived here heard that there was a better place to live, so they packed up and moved on. Ditzy bought the rights to everything here from them in order to scavenge the water. We can only get so much here though. There’s some sort of underground spring that feeds it up so it’s a stop we hit every time.”

I watched silently as several of the wagons were unhitched and carefully brought down the path towards the small gully town. Large metal barrels sat on the backs of each of the wagons. Already, other ghoul unicorns in the employ of Absolutely Everything were floating them down to the side of the lake and filling them with irradiated water. Some of the dogs followed, keeping a fair distance away from the water and fanning out to ensure nothing could get at the barrels.

“How many stops do you normally make on this run?” I said, turning to Trick.

“We’ve got two more stops after this one before the caravan turns back for Equestria, one of which is a newly scouted location,” the unicorn said. “At which point, I have an offer for you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “An offer?”

“I would like to come with you,” Trick said. “You could use somepony who knows something about the Badlands.”

“Won’t Ditzy be expecting you back in Equestria?” Sunshine asked.

“I got that covered. I don’t even do a ton of stuff on these runs anymore. Just maintenance shit, and that’s only because I want to. Only reason I even come is because otherwise I’d have to paperwork and I fucking hate paperwork,” Trick explained.

“This is about Tempest Shadow, isn’t it?” I stated more than I asked. I knew exactly why he was offering this.

Trick grimaced. “I… I would like to know more about this journal and why she was involved in it,” he admitted. “But you know I’m right. I can guide you through the Badlands along the rail line to Mount Aris.”

I scowled. The unicorn ghoul was right about that. I hadn’t wanted to bring much more than I already had to deal with, but I couldn’t argue with that kind of logic. We needed somepony who could help us identify the dangers of this area.

“Deal,” I said.

We watched as the rest of the crew came up with the wagons, the unicorns using their magic to lighten the loads of barrels before rejoining the wagons to the rest of the caravan. Trick nodded at us and went to his spot at the head of the procession. With a sharp yell, everything began moving forward yet again.

We continued across the rail line over the gully in silence. Even the wind was still. After what seemed like hours we were across the natural bridge formed by the rail line and had moved further into the Badlands than I had ever personally seen before. Sloping hills and large plateaus littered the landscape. Dead trees poked up here or there. I thought that in the distance I could see something large moving, but it ended up being just the sun playing tricks on us.

Several hours of walking later we stopped to rest next to the rail line in a very canyon area. High cavern walls extended up into the sky all around us, making us feel very boxed in. There was no sound besides the sounds of the brahmin and the caravan settling in for a rest. Trick Shot stepped down from his position at the head and motioned to us to follow him.

“There’s a facility just around the corner of the canyon here,” he said. “I wasn’t going to check it out, but with the dogs guarding the caravan…”

“You want us to do it,” I said bluntly.

“I scoped it out on the last run we made down this way from afar. There’s a large pool of water in a tank on the property, but it looks abandoned,” Trick said with a nod. “Some sort of water processing plant. Could be some good water there.”

“Alright,” I replied. I looked down at both Sunshine and Violet. “What do you two think?”

“I think it’s only fair since he’s going to act as a guide for us,” Sunshine said. “I’ll grab the gear.”

Sunshine headed over to the caravan, pulling out her barding and Violet’s battle saddle. Once we had her fitted and her weaponry in place we made our way to where Trick Shot waited. The rest of the caravan was getting ready to hunker down in case of any attacks.

We walked across the hard stone into the canyon proper. A chill wind blew through the dreary gray stone, causing me to shiver slightly. The canyon was winding and I could almost make out a cobblestone road beneath the dust left by the eroding rock around us. We rounded a corner in the canyon and there it was. A large sign stood out front of the facility claiming it to be Hippocampus Energy - Hydroelectric Plant #25. There were two buildings to the structure, one of which was large enough to house an entire Enclave Raptor inside. It had connections out to two large tanks of putrid looking water outside of the building, fed from a large lake of equally murky water. I surmised that this was where the generators were actually generating the energy. The other building was smaller but had two floors. An office? I thought to myself. Why would Hippocampus have a plant all the way out here?

I voiced my concern to the others as we approached.

“Who knows? What could they have been powering all the way out here is the question?” Sunshine said.

“I think we should stick together and go through the office building first. Clear anything out that could be lurking,” I said. “Just because it looks abandoned, doesn’t mean it is abandoned. Steer clear of the water tanks for now.”

The others nodded as we made our way around to the entrance to the office. Two large sliding double doors led into the building, but the power had long been out so they just sort of sat slightly open. I used my magic and slid one in, making a creaking sound that made my ears hurt. If something did live here, it probably knew we were here now too.

I brought up my E.F.S. as we stepped inside the dilapidated office, but saw no red signals. That didn’t mean much to me, I’d had things be able to mask from the spell before. The lobby was bare except a single skeleton sitting at the receptionist’s terminal. It took me a brief moment to remember that we simply weren’t in Equestria anymore and that we would most likely find skeletons. What struck me as odd about this one is that it wasn’t a pony. It looked like a pony in theory, but it had a long curved branching horn coming up from its skull instead of the typical straight tapered unicorn horn.

The terminal was broken, flickering in and out. Beyond the desk was a waiting area and a Sparkle Cola machine that looked like it had already been broken into. It was empty. On the other side of the machine was a coffee maker that looked like it had been filled with pure sludge. A door on the other end led to the rest of the complex.

“What is this thing?” Violet said, inspecting the skeleton. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“If you ask me… it looks like the skeleton of a Nirik,” Trick Shot said as he walked over to look at it. “Well… when we can find one that is. Their explosion on death usually evaporates the skeleton.”

I scowled. Something was not right about this place at all. I felt it in the air. I pushed open the door that led into the office hallway. The others followed closely behind as the hallway opened up on an open air cubicle farm. Whatever work Hippocampus was doing here they needed a lot of ponies to get it done.

As soon as I stepped into the cubicles, my E.F.S. began alerting me of red blips. A rasping sound followed as the first pony ghoul stood up from one of the cubicles. It leapt over the cubicle, slobbering and howling as several more popped up. I growled under my breath, forming my blade as quickly as I could. One of the zombies got close before it liquidated into glowing goop. I turned and nodded at Violet and finished fashioning my blade. A shard came to bear across the other ghoul running at me, tearing its head from its body in one fell swoop.

A sharp retort from Trick Shot’s rifle took down another charging ghoul, while Violet’s energy rifles strapped to her battle saddle disintegrated two more. Behind Violet, Sunshine kept her horn aglow, wrapping all of us in a soft glow that shielded us from harm. In minutes all of the ghouls in the room had been either dismembered or turned to glowing goop.

“So odd. If the skeleton out front was a Nirik, then why were there ponies here?” I voiced my concern as I riffled through the desks in the cubicle farm. I didn’t find much of anything good except some ammo for a gun we didn’t use and dirty bottles of water. I passed those to Trick Shot. Even in small amounts maybe the water would be good for the ghouls.

“Maybe they had different species working together in the company?” Sunshine replied from across the hall. She had managed to push in a door on an office filled with debris. She grimaced as she closed it again. “I’m not seeing much down on this level. Think there’s more ghouls in here?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Trick Shot said. “They like to hide until you’re right up on them usually, but we pretty well announced our presence to the building with all that firepower.”

“Regardless, we should be careful,” Violet said. “I am detecting hostiles above us somewhere with my E.F.S.”

I flipped mine on again, noting the same thing. We crept carefully across the cubicle farm, finding not much more that explained anything that was going on here and no terminals that were in working operation. There was an elevator and a stairwell to the next floor, both of which seemed intact. Rather than take the elevator though we chose the stairwell. As much as I hated stairs it was the safest and quietest option.

We shuffled up the stairs as quietly as we could, considering that it was just more ghouls and we could easily pin them in one section as a kill box. It was the simplest tactic and made it pretty easy to get rid of them. As we stepped onto the landing however and peered through the door I realized this was not going to be as easy as I expected.

Several large brain bots patrolled back and forth in front of a door at the far end of the floor, while a row of magical energy turrets protruded from the ceiling above it. There were other red blips on the E.F.S. too but I couldn’t tell where they were. There was very little cover, except for a large overturned oak desk.

“So definitely not ghouls,” Sunshine said with a grimace.

“This is going to have to be my expertise,” I said.

“You can hack terminals and stuff?” Trick Shot said, an eyebrow raised at me. “No offense, but you don’t look like the science type.”

“Hacking? Yeah I can do that. Hacking and slashing that is,” I said with a grin, my horn glowing as my blade formed in the air in front of me. “Just… stay safe. I’ll be right back.”

I stepped into the room, turning myself invisible. It was only going to last until I actually started attacking, but it would give me an edge of surprise. At least I hoped. I was more than surprised to note that as soon as I was in the threat range the turrets began firing, forcing me to abandon that plan and bring up a shield spell instead. Shining Armor’s shield spell held against the barrage from the turrets as the brain bots closed in. With a growl I launched half of my blade at each one, tearing apart the brains in their enclosed heads and forcing them to shut off. I turned my attention to the turrets, sending my blade across the room and into each one. They all exploded in unison. I had barely broken a sweat. But why in the world was there still red on the E.F.S.…

An explosion of magical energy rocked my shield and dissipated it. I looked down to see several crab-like bots crawling towards me with immense speed. They each carried what appeared to be a magical energy mine that started beeping as they got closer to me.

I really hated prewar tech.

Two more exploded within range of me, sending me flying back into the wall next to the stairwell door. I groaned loudly, feeling copper on my tongue. I lifted a hoof and pulled away blood. There was no more red. The crab bots had blown themselves all up.

“Well… at least I… I…” I said as I slumped down to my side and passed out.

* * *

Dreams were starting to get old. Especially since I kept having the same fucking dream over and over. The same eyes, the thunder and lightning. The laughter. I hated every moment of it. The storm tore at every inch of my body, daggering me over and over while I screamed.

The lightning flashed and I came to, my eyes jolting awake as I tried to take in what was around me. I was still in the Hippocampus office. Violet was sitting next to me.

“Star!” she said as she wrapped her hooves around me before pulling back and practically slugging me in the shoulder with her forehoof. “You… you stupid filly you!”

“Vi?! I’m okay, I just got knocked out,” I said with a squeamish smile.

“You were practically catatonic,” Violet said. “You’ve been out for several hours.”

I blinked. I hadn’t experienced this level of time displacement since… since Twilight. Were these dreams trying to tell me something? Was I seeing some sort of vision of the future? I groaned and pushed myself up to my hooves. I still hurt all over but I felt at least a little better. I blinked as I realized we were alone.

“Where’s Sunshine and Trick?” I asked.

“Checking out the plant to see if there’s any usable water. Everything else is clean here, so they’re trying to see if they can get it working,” Violet replied. “The office those turrets were defending is still locked though. None of us have the kind of telekinetic power like you do to bust through, and the door seems resistant to weaponry. It’s almost like it’s reinforced somehow.”

“I suppose I’ll see what I can do,” I said, turning towards the smoldering rubble of robots and turret debris. I stepped over to the door, focusing my magic on it. It began to glow brightly as I poured more of my power into the telekinesis. With a groan, the door finally began to give way, the stress of the magical power wearing on whatever was keeping it rooted into place.

The door wrenched free, falling outward and smashing up some more pieces of turret as it struck the ground. I stepped into the office, keeping an eye out for any further possible defenses but there seemed to be none. The center of the office held a single wooden desk with a terminal sitting on top of it, with several cabinets lining each side of the walls. A soft green glow came from its screen. A safe embedded in the wall peeked out from behind a fallen framed painting on the ground. A skeleton sat in the chair in front of the desk, charred and black. I carefully moved it off to the side.

Violet sat and began poking at the terminal while I moved the painting out of the way. It took her several tries to open, but she finally managed to do so. With a hiss, the safe clicked open at a press of a button. Inside was several old ledgers of financial stuff, some healing potions and a memory orb. I pulled the orb out carefully and put it in my saddlebags and floated the potions into Violet’s bags.

“Anything interesting?” I asked as I stepped over to the terminal next to her.

“Schematics. This is so weird. This place was an energy station, but the energy it was supplying doesn’t feed back into Equestria’s grid. It goes… south. Somewhere else,” Violet said, pointing at a graphic on the screen. “Who were they supplying energy to?”

“Can’t have been the zebra,” I said. “Hippocampus was clean as far as I am aware from my history readings.”

“These schematics are wild. Whatever this thing was sending power to, it’s huge. Like… really huge,” Violet said, tapping at the keys. “I wonder if there are more of these plants throughout the Badlands. It’s the only way this makes any amount of sense.”

“Download them? It’s definitely odd, but if there’s a whole power infrastructure down here south of Equestria, maybe the Followers could retrofit it for use,” I offered with a soft smile.

Violet nodded, copying what she could to her PipBuck. Within minutes she copied the contents over to mine as well for safekeeping. There was also an encrypted audio file in the data dump. It looked like it was going to take time to decrypt, so I set my PipBuck to start working on it. As we stepped back into the hallway, I heard gunshots and shouting from outside followed by a loud roaring sound.

I leaped to the nearest window, my eyes widening as I saw the thing rising out of the lake near the tanks. It had four heads stemming from its body and was covered in ruddy gold scales. Its eyes glowed deep green as it roared, twisting two of its heads to try to snap at what looked like two hellhounds. They were protecting Sunshine Sky and Trick Shot, who was trying to fire at the thing with his rifle.

“It’s a hydra,” Violet said, her eyes wide. “Star, you gotta get out there.”

I nodded, turning to the window with my magic. I grunted, exerting magical force into my horn, disappearing in a flash and reappearing on the other side, leaving Violet to exit Hippocampus on her own. The hydra had already wrapped its jaws around one of the dogs with one of its heads, snapping down on it in a shower of gore. The other heads were surprised at my appearance, whipping around to attack me in unison. I growled under my breath, bringing to bear Shining Armor’s shield spell. Two gaping maws struck the energy shield at once, angry at being unable to penetrate past it.

A vine wrapped itself around one of the heads attacking me, bringing it down into the ground and slamming it repeatedly into the rock. The hydra snapped off the vine with a tug, snarling and snapping as it looked for the source. Sunshine Sky’s horn glowed again, bringing two more vines into existence that wrapped around the thrashing head.

“We have to get everypony out of here!” she called out. “Hydras can regrow body parts. If we kill one of the heads it will just grow two more in its place!”

I scowled. Killing these things was pretty difficult, and my particular method of attack was no good against something that could regrow body parts. The only appropriate tactic was to run, but with the caravan so near we needed a way to stop it from following us. My eyes went up to the canyon walls leading out of the Hippocampus Energy Plant and back towards the rail line. Maybe if I could keep the beast busy, some explosives would keep it trapped in here. I didn’t have any explosives, but I had magic.

“I have an idea! I’ll keep it preoccupied,” I called down to Trick and Sunshine. “Get everyone out of here!”

Sunshine scowled as Violet joined her side. “What’s your idea?!” she shouted.

“No time! Just go!” I called back. My horn glowed, grabbing a hole of the hydra’s four heads simultaneously with my magic.

I grinned as it tried to struggle its way out of my grip. I couldn’t hold it very long but I could hold it long enough. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the others running out of the canyon. As soon as they were relatively clear, I released the hydra’s heads and raised my shields before they could snap down on me.

“Come and get me you big motherfucker!” I shouted before teleporting to the entrance to the canyon.

The hydra stopped for a moment, it’s heads whipping around to glare pure unadulterated death my way. My horn glowed, pushing hard on the rocks on each side of the canyon walls. The hydra pulled itself fully out of the lake on stubby legs, slowly walking towards where I was. Its heads had much greater reach as I was forced to raise a shield to deflect one of them as it snapped at me. There wasn’t going to be enough time. I wasn’t going to make it, and other ponies were going to die.

Violet… Violet was going to die.

“NO!” I shouted, bringing the full weight of magical talent to bear. I may have been a slouch, but I would never let my friends down. I would fight to the ends of Equestria to save them.

The rocks from the canyon walls began to tumble over, a massive one hitting a stray hydra head that ventured in a little too far. It reeled back and hissed loudly, coming in for another attempt to kill me. The entire canyon shuddered as rocks piled down from each side, slamming into the hydra’s four heads all at once. It couldn’t escape this time. My eyes widened as the thing was buried in rubble. It struggled to move but couldn’t under the weight of the debris. After several long moments of trying to escape, it expired.

“Well, I wasn’t really expecting to… to kill it,” I said aloud and to myself. I looked down at my coat, feeling the dust and dirt on me. “Now I need a shower.”

“Star!” I heard from behind me. It was Violet. She rushed back to my side, pulling me close with a hoof. “You’re alright!”

“Can’t say the same for old four head there, though,” I said, nuzzling her cheek. “My plan may have been a little too effective.”

“I’m glad you’re on our side,” Trick Shot said as he wandered back up. “I’m not going to chance going back in there though. Even if it looks dead, a hydra is bad news.”

“You think it might reanimate itself?” I asked.

“Don’t know. But it doesn’t look like the energy plant is going to work out anyways. Couldn’t turn on any of the equipment,” Trick Shot said with a grimace. “We have more important matters to discuss anyways. With that other dog gone, I can’t rightly keep the caravan going further into the Badlands. I’m turning them back immediately with what haul they’ve got so far.”

“That means…?” Violet said, looking over at him.

“That means we continue on towards Mount Aris, yes,” Trick said.

I nodded. “The caravan will be fine, right?” I asked.

“Considering that they’re going to be heading right back towards Equestria without any stops, I’d say they’ll be fine. Avira in Ponyville will certainly help the ghouls get their deliveries back on track,” the ghoul replied.

“Alright. I guess let’s get going then,” I said with a grimace.

Onward to Mount Aris? I wasn’t so sure about this trip at this point. Things were not going the way I had expected, and we weren’t even to Mount Aris yet in the first place.

Also, I still really needed a shower.

* * *

We watched briefly as the caravan got turned around and started heading back towards Equestria along the rail line. Then we turned and started walking. I tried flipping on my radio but all I could get was static on it. No DJ-PON3 out here in the Badlands, it seemed. I even found myself missing the Minotaur, the robotic DJ that ran the airwaves in Chicacolt.

The landscape beyond the canyons turned even rockier before slowly giving way to an immense burning desert. Before long we passed into what looked like an old station situated next to some massive plateau bluffs. The rail line ran through a tunnel that appeared to be blocked off.

“Looks like we’re going to have to go around,” I said with a grimace.

“This is new. The tunnel used to be clear,” Trick Shot said. “We should be careful. The desert and bluffs here are dangerous.”

“How far around do you think this range runs?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t be that far,” Trick replied. “There’s a lot of old ruins out here though. Opportunities for scavengers.”

“Sounds like places for bad things to hide,” Sunshine scoffed as we started walking off the rail line.

“That too,” Trick said with a sigh. “That too.”

We walked on for several hours, keeping to the mountain range to look for a path through to the south. Multiple times I thought I saw something in the desert beyond. In the distance I could see ruins of buildings. I wondered if any intelligent life actually lived out in this harsh environment. I also began to wonder how many more Hippocampus plants there were down here. The data recovered at the other plant seemed to insinuate that there was a much larger power structure down south than previously acknowledged. If we could utilize that power infrastructure it would do a lot for Equestria. Still, what was it used for?

The desert below us turned rocky, but not the mountainous kind of rock. It was cobblestone. What appeared to be a road peeled away from us and turned south into a wide valley through the mountains. What stopped me in my tracks was what was down there.

“It’s a town?” I said aloud, my eyes unable to believe what I was seeing.

A massive set of structures littered the valley, filled with towering buildings and windmills all over. It spread out for what seemed like miles with large factories dotting the perimeter. A thick smog permeated the air above it. I couldn’t tell from our vantage point if it was inhabited or not.

“Fuck,” Trick muttered. “I’ve heard rumors about this place. Klugetown.”

“Klugetown?” Violet asked.

“It’s a ghost town. The rumor mill is big. Caravans claim they’ve seen ponies go in and never come out,” Trick said. “There’s no way other than through the mountains, and I don’t think we want to go that route. Who knows what is lurking up in those fucking things.”

“But the ghost town is absolutely fine?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s probably just feral ghouls. I’d rather face ferals than face something like a Roc or a fucking dragon,” Trick replied. “Unless you think that’s a great idea.”

I shuddered. I’d definitely met dragons before and I did not relish happening upon another one anytime soon. Except for Spike, I guess, but even Spike could be scary when he wanted to be.

“I think he has a point,” Sunshine said, stepping forward. She reached into her bag with her magic and pulled out a pair of binoculars. “Thankfully for you, I came prepared.”

I took the binoculars from her and lifted them to my eyes. From what I could see there was nopony around the dirty town. It looked completely and utterly abandoned. Yet, I had a bad feeling about it. Something wasn’t right. There weren’t even any bodies that suggested a death from the megaspells. It was cold. Empty. Forbidding.

We started down into the valley and I pulled up my E.F.S. immediately, wondering if it would even be useful. Nothing came up on the device of consequence, but I kept it running just in case. We edged closer to the entrance to the town and I began to understand the full grasp of Klugetown. The cages filled with ash, the wagons. This was a slaver town. Or at least it used to be before whatever… whatever happened to it. The cobblestone road led right through a large set of gates that lay open. A chill went up my spine as we walked through them into the town.

The heavy smog that sat above the town insinuated itself into every little breath we took as we trudged into an open air plaza. The buildings around sat empty, dark. For a brief moment I was beginning to get the idea that maybe Klugetown really was just an old ghost story, that there was actually nothing of consequence here.

The plaza had a fountain in the middle, long dried up and rusted. Several road signs lay overturned on the road, but that was the only real indication that anything had ever happened to this place. It was as if the entire inhabitants of the town woke up one day and disappeared into nothingness.

“This architecture… it’s definitely pre-war,” Sunshine whispered. “Possibly even pre-pre-war. The older buildings that is. The factories… those are wartime.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

Sunshine scowled, pointing off in the distance at one of the factories. It bore a very familiar crest on it. Hippocampus Energy. Another one nearby had the signature marking of Ironshod Firearms.

“Those are Equestrian companies,” Violet said. “Why would Equestrian companies have factories here?”

“Cheaper labor, most likely,” Trick said. “It was probably cheaper for them to build here… and under the radar of the Ministries.”

“Let’s keep moving,” I said. “I have a really bad feeling about this place.”

My eyes darted back and forth as the smog continued to settle on the town. There was definitely something wrong with this place. I could feel it in my bones. Something just wasn’t right. I felt like we were being watched from the buildings, but I couldn’t see anything and I had nothing on my E.F.S. Regardless, I kept going back to look up at the buildings as we kept walking.

The town itself was filthy, but there was still no sign of the inhabitants the deeper we got into town. The place felt like a maze, like I was looking for some way out but not finding it. It felt like it was constricting deeper and deeper.

I looked to the others for support but they all looked as lost as I was. I couldn’t tell what was going through their minds. Trick especially was a wild card to me. I hadn’t known him very long, but he had proven himself dependable. His eyes looked glazed over and he kept mumbling to himself.

“Star… something’s… something’s not right,” I heard Violet say from somewhere far away. “Star! Where are you?!”

“Vi, I’m right here, I didn’t go any…” I started to say as soon as I realized I couldn’t hear her anymore. They were gone. They were all gone. I turned about, trying to figure out how we could have gotten separated, but it was the same in all directions. Endless dirty streets of dust and grime that spread out for miles. I was alone.

I started screaming, shouting for any of them. My vision became hazy, filled with the smog that settled over the town.

The smog! My brain managed to sound out in a single lucid thought. The smog was doing this. It was making us see things, think things, feel things. It was making us afraid, paranoid. It was separating us, dividing us. The smog was alive somehow and it was going to kill us one by one.

I struggled to shrug it off, feeling the weight of the smog on my brain. I flipped up my E.F.S. I needed to find the others. Eventually I settled on the three indicators showing up. I stopped and turned down another street, circling back towards the first of them. I needed to get to my friends and then we either needed to get inside or out of this town. Staying in the open any longer only invited death.

I rounded another corner to find Trick Shot standing in front of a wall. He was mumbling to himself again.

“Trick,” I said hoarsely. “Trick, come on you gotta listen to me. The smog… it’s.. It’s…”

Trick turned his head, his eyes glowing a deep red. He made a rasping sound that I’d come to associate only with one thing: a feral ghoul. The smog had not only wormed its way into his mind but it had triggered him into turning feral! I needed to figure out a way to get him to stop. While I was pondering this, Trick moved quickly and rushed at me, howling and slobbering as if to try to bite me. I jumped out of the way and growled.

“Trick! It’s me! It’s Star! You’ve gotta snap out of this! It’s just the smog!” I shouted, using my magic to grab hold of him. “Come on Trick!”

I only knew one such spell that could possibly get through to him, and the smog was trying to rest heavily on my brain as well, telling me to let go, to let the friendly ghoul give me a hug. I shrugged it off, forcing my mind to locate the spell I was looking for. It had to work, I had to get through to him before he… before he…

Trick managed to brute force his way through my telekinesis somehow, lashing out to grab onto my shoulder with his mouth. He bit down hard, and I howled in pain. The smog’s effect cleared almost instantly, the pain simply overriding it. I reached out with my magic, pulling Trick away so that I could see his eyes. My horn glowed intensely and I connected a single thread of magic to his horn, unleashing the memory spell.

The sensation was brief and intense on every level of existence. I staggered backwards, hoping it was enough. Trick dropped to the ground and groaned as he stirred. His eyes fluttered open, having returned to their natural state. He looked confused.

“What… what happened?” he said.

“This place. We’ve gotta get out of the smog,” I said. “It’s doing something to us. It nearly turned you feral.”

Trick cursed under his breath. “Shit. I’m sorry, Star. I don’t know what came over me.”

“I’m just glad you’re alright. We have to find Violet and Sunshine. Who knows what this shit is doing to them,” I said frantically.

“What if… if it happens again?” Trick asked.

“It shouldn’t. The memory spell I cast should keep you safe,” I said, helping the ghoul to his hooves. “Honestly I should thank you. If it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t have been able to cast it.”

“I… what?” Trick said as we started back into the streets of Klugetown. “How did I help you?”

“You bit me.”

“Oh.”

“It was a good thing, I promise,” I said with a smile. “It gave me the push I needed to override the effects of the smog.”

I looked to my E.F.S., spotting another friendly just up ahead. We rounded the next corner, seeing Violet standing there. She was moving back and forth, frantically searching for something.

“Star!” She called out. She sounded hoarse. “Star, where are you?!”

She turned, taking in both Trick and I, her eyes widening. “What have you done with her?! I’ll fucking kill you!”

I barely had seconds to raise Shining Armor’s shield spell before a blazing bolt of magical energy sped across the street and smacked right into it. Violet was shooting at us! She clearly didn’t recognize me or Trick. I scowled. I needed to get close enough to her to cast the memory spell. I didn’t know if I had it in me to perform it again, but I had to. I had to get through to Violet.

“Violet, it’s me!” I shouted. “It’s Star!”

“Liar! You aren’t her!” Violet retorted, her energy rifles on her battle saddle swinging back my way.

Two more bolts of energy flew at me, deflected by Shining Armor’s signature spell. This would get me nowhere though. To cast the memory spell, I needed to be right up next to her. I had to drop my shield.

“Trick, take cover, I’m about to do something incredibly stupid,” I said fervently.

The unicorn ghoul nodded, ducking behind an old iron cart. I grimaced, facing down Violet. She was preparing to take another shot at me. I had to be quick. She fired again and I began to count down the moments before she could fire again. I dropped the shield, teleporting across the space right in front of Violet, my horn flaring. Before she could react I connected the magic to her broken horn and cast the memory spell.

The space between us imploded, sending me flying backwards into the iron cart. I groaned as I struck, feeling something inside crack. Probably a rib. A lancing pain shot through my shoulder and barrel. Definitely a rib. I struggled to stand. My eyes widened as I saw Violet. Electrical green energy arced across her forehead, her broken horn blazing with magical power. Her eyes were open and she teared up as she saw me. The spell had worked, but it had done something more than that. What it was… I didn’t know.

The energy from her horn dissipated entirely and Violet slumped to her haunches. I stood and painfully shuffled across the street to her, pulling her close in a hug.

“I thought…” she said, starting to cry.

“Shh… it’s okay,” I said. “You’re okay. We don’t have much time. We need to find Sunshine and find someplace safe inside.”

She nodded, clearing her tears as her gaze went to my side. “You’re hurt, Star. You need medical attention.”

“Going to have to wait,” I said, wincing as I stood. “Who knows what this smog shit is going to do to her if we don’t find her.”

I flipped my E.F.S. back on, looking for wherever Sunshine could have disappeared to. I didn’t have to look far. A literal massive fucking vine grew out of the town two streets over. I blinked. How did I miss that?! I thought to myself.

I helped Violet up and returned to Trick. The unicorn was no worse for wear and still doing alright, so he helped Violet along while I tried to walk behind them. I worried about Sunshine. If this shit was interfering with her magic… we could all be dead. Sunshine’s magic was very powerful, but she was prone to magical burnout over brief periods of time if she really pushed it. I suspected the device she had used against the airship was the product of her trying to figure out how to circumvent that.

We stepped onto the street in front of the vine and I realized something immediately was wrong. Sunshine was nowhere to be seen, but the vine itself was a pale sickly pink color. My mind rushed to the worst possible conclusion. Sunshine was the vine! I didn’t even know that was possible. I tried to figure out how I was going to cast the memory spell when I finally saw her. She seemed to be unconscious, held in place by the vine.

I took a step forward, the pain keeping me going through the smog. A tentacle-like vine lashed out from the base of the larger vine and slapped at me, hitting me on the neck and knocking me down. I growled under my breath, the spot where it struck me stinging.

“Star! Are you alright?” Violet said.

“I’m okay,” I said angrily. “I have to get up there and get to Sunshine.”

I pushed myself to my hooves, readying my magic for a teleport. My entire body was wracked in pain, but I tried to push through it. I unleashed the teleportation spell, disappearing in a flash and appearing directly in front of Sunshine. As soon as I appeared, two vines tried to wrap around me. I disappeared and reappeared back on the ground. It was apparent I was going to need to be ultra level sneaky if I was going to do this properly. Still… my body was rejecting nearly every attempt to use multiple magical spells at the same time. Could I leverage my invisibility and the memory spell? My body was saying no.

I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t leave Sunshine like this. I had to save her, I just had to! I flickered out of existence, my invisibility taking hold. Testing my wings and feeling like I was going to drop out of the sky at any moment, I propelled myself directly into the area in front of Sunshine. Still holding my invisibility in check and feeling utterly nauseous at the effort, I reached out with my magic to latch onto Sunshine with the memory spell. The spell flared brightly as it went off.

A moment of intense pain later I fell and hit the ground, groaning as pieces of vine fell all around me. Sunshine came tearing down, shrieking. Another magical aura reached out to catch her. It wasn’t Trick or even Violet. Sunshine slowed to a crawl and hit the ground beside me. I heard shouting and a shadow loomed over us. The pain in my body crawled all over my insides and I passed out from the overexertion.

* * *

I awoke on what felt like a bed. My eyes tried to adjust to the room surrounding me, the darkness keeping me from focusing on anything. I winced as I tried to move, still feeling rather tender on my side. I was wrapped up in places across my body with magical bandages. I finally pushed myself to my hooves, trying to take in the room around me.

It was a drab room, looking like it had been long abandoned by someone. Any windows were boarded up, keeping any light out. However, it seemed that it was also keeping the smog out as well. I stepped towards the door, pushing it open and peering down the stairs beyond. It led into a wide open room filled with garbage and knick-knacks. My eyes widened as I took in the others, resting comfortably on a pile of old pillows. Violet rose.

“Star, you’re awake,” she said. “You need to be resting.”

“She’s right,” Sunshine said, getting to her hooves as well. “Your injuries were pretty extensive. You shouldn’t be up and about.”

“How… how did we get here? All I remember is saving you and then…” I stammered. I didn’t care about my injuries. I was just glad my friends were safe.

“I saved them,” a voice echoed into the room.

I looked around, unable to find the source of the voice. “And who might you be?” I called out.

“Just someone who lives here,” the voice replied.

“Why can’t you show yourself?” Violet asked. “You had no issues knocking us all out to bring us here. What do you want?”

“I don’t want any trouble. I’ve left some protective gear in the wardrobe. You can leave with it,” the voice said.

“Was it you who bandaged me up?” I asked, wincing as a sharp pain ran through my side.

“You were badly injured. I felt bad leaving you that way,” the voice said.

“Then why can’t you come out so we can properly discuss thanking you?” I said angrily.

“Like I said… I don’t want any trouble. When you’re like me… it’s much easier dealing with people from afar,” the voice said anxiously.

The voice didn’t have a magical twinge to it at all, so I figured it must have been coming from somewhere inside the room. I glanced around until my eyes settled on what must have been a trap door in the center of the room. With a tug of my magic, I started to pull on the latch.

“Wait!” the voice cried out.

“Found you,” I said with a grin as the latch flew open and a dark figure rose out the room below.

He was covered in black material, a hood concealing his head. As he turned to look at me pensively I could see the bony antler-like horn in the center of his face as the hood came down. His coat was a pale orange, the antler-like horn a deep crimson red. A tousled mane of brown surrounded his face almost like a lion. His pale blue eyes pierced into my very soul. A long tale with a tuft of brown hair at the end came from his cloak.

“Please, you must let me be. It isn’t safe to be around me!” he cried out. “I saved you because you needed saving, now please respect my wishes and leave!”

“Calm down, it’s okay,” I said. “We’re not going to hurt you. You saved our lives.”

“You don’t understand. I live here alone because I can hurt others,” the creature replied. “Please, I can’t control it well.”

“You’re a Nirik,” Trick Shot said suddenly, his eyes widening. “That horn structure. The mane. It all lines up.”

I blinked, realizing that Trick was right. Nearly every little detail lined up to the creature that had attacked the caravan. But something wasn’t right. This creature was more like the skeleton we had found. Docile and certainly not glowing with radioactive fire.

“N-n-n-no,” the creature stuttered. “Nirik are.. They’re what we become when we get angry or overstimulated. I’m… I’m a Kirin.”

My mind cracked for a moment, putting two and two together on the names Kirin and Nirik. Reverse opposites of each other. The very idea of such a sweet looking creature turning into something angry and deadly was very very odd to me.

I found the words finally. “So… you’re saying that… you’ll turn into a thing of… radioactive fire if you get angry?”

The Kirin nodded solemnly. “It’s why most of our kind don’t live near each other. We find solitary places to live so we don’t… don’t lash out,” he said. “But I couldn’t let you die out there in the smog. I’ve watched so many bad ponies die out there. You didn’t look… look bad.”

“You saved us and that’s all that matters,” I said with a soft smile. “It’s our fault for intruding on your privacy. We’re just trying to get further south to Mount Aris.”

The Kirin’s eyes widened for a brief moment at the mention of the name. “Mount Aris is impossible to reach. Everything south of here is a glowing slog of radiation. By product of Klugetown’s impact on the environment. The end of the war made it worse,” he said succinctly. “The only way through is potentially through Abyssinia and then to the south around it.”

“Abyssinia? I’ve never heard of this place,” Sunshine said.

“There’s… there’s lots of places outside of Equestria most ponies have never heard of,” the Kirin replied eagerly.

“Klugetown doesn’t seem to be one of those,” I said, grinning. Perhaps this was an opportunity for a new friendship after all. “Equestrian companies left their mark here after all. So… what’s the deal with the smog outside? You’ve lived here long enough, right…?”

“Bright… Bright Ember,” the Kirin said. “The… the smog is alive. Or at least I think it is. It nearly got to me when I came here originally, but it leaves me alone. I think it fears my Nirik.”

“You talk about it as if you turn into somepony else entirely,” Violet said.

“I… I don’t want to talk about it. Now you should leave. The gear I left you should protect you from the smog,” Ember said hesitantly. “As long as you don’t breathe it in, it can’t get inside your mind.”

I looked at the wardrobe he had been talking about, opening it up with my magic to reveal several gas-mask rebreather devices and some protective gear for our eyes. I took them out and passed them to the others.

“Do you know much about this Abyssinia place?” I asked Trick.

“Nothing really at all. I’ve never heard of the place either,” he said.

I grimaced, turning to Ember. “Do you know how we’re supposed to get to Mount Aris then through Abyssinia? If the route south is blocked, we can’t go that way.”

“Abyssinia lies in the east,” Ember replied with a sigh. “It's a dangerous country. You’re better off going back home, but if you insist on going there…you should be able to reroute south around the conflagration and go around onto the coast.”

“How dangerous?” I asked.

“I’ve been through that country a few times while I was trying to find a new home,” Ember said. “There’s a fair amount of hazards from the jungles there. Monstrous plants, dangerous beasts. They tend to stay away from my kind at least. No… it’s the other things in Abyssinia that are far more dangerous.”

“Other things?” Sunshine said. “What other things?”

“As you said yourself… it seems that Equestrian companies indeed had their hooves in everything down here.”

“What does that mean?” Sunshine said.

“It means that many of the companies in this very town had connections all over the Badlands and even Abyssinia. The by-products of their experiments and security systems roam the country, having broken free long ago. Things that kill indiscriminately,” Ember said.

“Equestrian companies were operating facilities of that nature outside of Equestria? None of that makes sense,” Violet said. “Wouldn’t the Princess have shut them down if she knew what they were doing?”

“Not always,” I said with a sigh. “A lot happened inside Equestria that even Luna knew about and let slide. Twilight’s entire Ministry for example did a lot of off the books stuff, not to mention Rainbow Dash.”

“There must be a way to get through the country and to the South though, right?” Sunshine interjected.

“There might be a way… One of the most common buildings I saw in my time in that country was…” Ember started to say.

“Hippocampus Energy,” I finished for him. I knew instinctively what he was going to say. The schematics we’d read in the other plant confirmed it. There was a whole other network of plants down here and in Abyssinia as well.

Ember nodded. “There’s an entire line of power plants that go right through into the capital city of Panthera there. I’m sure there’s more down the line that would lead you south and to the coast line. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful to you, but you really must go. This is the longest I’ve been able to go without changing, and I really don’t want to ruin things with you or try to kill you. You seem… nice.”

“You’ve helped enough, Bright Ember. I… I wish we could help you,” I said softly. I locked eyes with him and smiled as he turned to leave.

I watched as he made his way up to the bedroom before turning to the others. Quietly we donned the gear, making us look like bug-eyed monsters before heading to the door. As I reached for the latches locking us in I heard a loud grinding noise from somewhere below us. The building began to shudder as several boards in the center of the room began to break away. We began to move, pitched forward as the entire building started to tip over.

“Star!” I heard both Sunshine and Violet call out in unison.

We were falling and before I knew it or could even do anything about it, everything had gone black.

Author's Note

And now things get even more interesting!

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