Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

by volrathxp

Rating: mature
Tags: Original Character, Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Crossover, Sex, Fallout, My Little Pony: The Movie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Death
Length: 92145

Radiant Star sets out on a journey into the unknown beyond the borders of Equestria to face an ancient evil.

The Gardens of Equestria. The Legacy of Twilight Sparkle, made possible by the Spark of Sacrifice. The world is healing, guided once more by the Elements of Harmony. Despite this, danger still looms in the world. An ancient evil, brought forth by the invigorating magic, lies deep in lands beyond the borders of Equestria. From there it commands an army that has begun attacking Equestrian settlements.

Once known as the Ministry Mare, the alicorn Radiant Star has lived an easy life since her glory days as a heroine of Equestria. Now, she and her trusted partner Violet Iris must traverse into the unknown, and in doing so discover the true Heart of Equestrian Magic.

Yes... This is a new sequel featuring the protagonist of Fallout: Equestria - Starlight, Radiant Star, as well as Violet Iris!

Cover art by the amazing Adriano Kitani! Really go check his work out, it's all amazing stuff!

Published 2022-03-03 21:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-03-19 14:24:45 UTC

Chapter 1: Storm Clouds Rising

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 1: Storm Clouds Rising

“Ooh! I bet those are the clowns I ordered! Or definitely not the clowns I ordered.”

The sun rose, glaring over the plateau. Bits of green foliage could be seen here or there, indicating some measure of growth. It had taken over two hundred years, but finally the land of Equestria was beginning to heal, to grow, to live. The land no longer felt dead. It felt alive and thriving. It felt like nothing could stop it, not even the Wasteland.

I stood at the top of the plateau looking down at the settlement below. The ponies called it Hope Hollow, a place where ponies and creatures of any race or creed could come and coexist. It was a small settlement, still filled with old stone and wood buildings and none of the fancy technology of the old world. Even so, the ponies here still boasted an airship tower, although it looked rather unused at the moment. Just outside of the settlement was a set of makeshift tents, emblazoned with the symbol of the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group dedicated to making Equestria a better place through medicine and assistance to those in need.

Behind me, my friends were coming to the top of the plateau to join me. On one side was the love of my life. Violet Iris. She and I had been through it all together, thick and thin, and we had been bonded together for life. This small green unicorn had been my rock for as long as my memories had existed in this world.

Much of my journey across Equestria had been at her side. Violet’s cutie mark was a purple dragon eye wreathed in dragon fire. She had gotten it after staring down a dragon right in the face. It was weirdly abstract, but we ended up figuring out that Violet was a dragon in her own right, willing to fight to the last to protect what was special to her.

Violet brushed back her green mane with a hoof and smiled up at me. Celestia… I could get lost in those eyes of hers for days.

Focus, filly! I thought to myself. Right, focus. Where was I? Oh, right. The mission.

Violet was technically in charge of this mission as head strategist. For several days now we had been out here patrolling the area surrounding Hope Hollow for any dangers that might prevent the Followers from settling into the town’s population. The plan was to build up and expand out from here, building a true settlement with doctors and medical knowledge. The Followers often turned to us because we were the most combat capable members of our division. They knew me by name and what I had done, and sought me out because of it.

On the other side, Sunshine Sky looked out over the town. Sunshine was also a unicorn, a pink one to be precise. She had journeyed with myself and Violet for a long time now, and was settling into a role as a lead medical officer. She had knowledge of many different aspects of plant and earth based magic, and she used that knowledge to apply healing methodologies involving natural herb based magic. Thus, her cutie mark was a sun and some plants. At least that one was easy to figure out for me. She was technically the other lead of this mission, at least the scientific lead. She also wore a pair of pretty cute fancy glasses on her snout.

“Looks like things are coming together finally,” Sunshine said softly as we continued to look down at the town. “Hope Hollow is going to be a beacon of love and friendship, a place where the old can become new again. It’s all thanks to you two that we could make this happen.”

“You don’t really need to thank us, Sunshine,” I said with a shrug. “Just doing our job, after all.”

“It’s still important, Star. What we’re doing here matters. It gives ponies hope. We can begin returning to real life here in Equestria. One where it doesn’t matter who or what you are. One where anyone is accepted,” Sunshine replied.

“I think Star gets that, she’s just trying to be humble,” Violet interjected. “We appreciate the thanks, Sunshine, we really do. We’re just a little… too used to it is all.”

Sunshine smiled. “Sorry, I’m just really passionate about what we’re doing here. I was hoping that we would be ahead of schedule before Velvet Remedy arrived to check on our progress, and with your help it seems like we’ll make that goal.”

I stepped to the side as the two mares talked further. Sunshine did have a point. Our work was important and we were helping ponies and many other species of creatures by building up settlements and providing protection to them. Excitement was short lived these days however. Life felt bland and dull when there wasn’t a raider coming in to kill you and eat your entrails. I even missed their colorful language. Sure, there was the occasional mutated creature still, but for the most part… these protection gigs were performatory at best.

I felt like I shouldn’t complain too much. Life was good. I had Violet and we had a good thing going between us. Life was pretty sweet. It was just… boring. I wanted more. I needed more.

“Star?” I heard Violet say from beside me.

“Yes, my dear?” I asked, turning to realize Sunshine had left and was already going back down to the town. “Did I… did I miss something?”

“Well, you’ve been staring off into space for about five minutes, so I’d probably say yes?” Violet said with a snicker. “We’ve got at least one more job to do today. There’s an old rock quarry roughly two to three miles or so outside of town to the west. Initial reports say there’s nothing there, but Sunshine asked us to go out and scout it out to be sure. Perhaps we might even be able to start using it for the town.”

“Well it’s something at least,” I said. “Do you want to fly?”

“I was thinking maybe we could walk. Probably best in case something is there, we don’t just advertise ourselves from the sky,” Violet said.

I nodded and followed in line behind her as we made our way down from the plateau to ground level. Violet was often generally right in her plan-making skills. She was much better at a tactical level than I was at formulating these kinds of strategies. I often followed her lead on an expedition knowing that she could come up with the best way to approach any sort of situation.

We moved across the forest, still picking our way through some dead foliage amidst all the newer and greener stuff. The Wasteland wasn’t truly gone just yet. It still clung to the new world like a virus, desperate to keep itself alive. No one really knew just how extensive the magic of Gardens was and how long the death of the Wasteland would take.

The Gardens spell was an actively moving magic, eradicating the disease of radiation wherever it took hold. It had become enough that many of the remaining sentient ghouls had left Equestria, seeking a new home outside of its borders where the radiation still existed. Some had seen it as being forced from their homes. Others, like the Element of Laughter Ditzy Doo (I still couldn’t get over that one) had taken it as a business opportunity, providing transport services into and out of Equestria to collect irradiated water for ghouls to function off of.

I let my thoughts drift as we walked through the forest. The soft light of the sun above filtered through the trees and a nice breeze wafted across my coat. It felt… nice. There were a lot of positives about the world starting to return to normal. One of those was wind and fresh air that didn’t smell like somepony vomited all over. The one caveat to that was the fact that the area surrounding Hope Hollow seemed to have a bit wilder weather than what we were used to. Sunshine had noted this had something to do with the closest Ministry of Awesome tower being quite far away from the area and that there was still a long way to go for the pegasi who had come down from above the cloud cover.

In fact, as we walked the sky grew a bit cloudier than I had thought, and it started to rain. At least the rain didn’t sting anymore with twinges of acidic radiation. The counterpoint here was that it was wet, and I chafe when wet. Catch twenty-two. I quickly raised a small shield with my magic, extending it over Violet to keep us dry.

“How much farther?” I asked over the soft drizzling of the rain.

“Should be just over this next ridge,” Violet said. “Not seeing anything on my E.F.S., so be sharp.”

I nodded and accessed my magic, compressing it deep in my mind until it produced a glowing set of magical shards in the air next to me. The shards rearranged and further compressed upon themselves, forming a crystalline looking blade. I’d honed and used this talent for a long time, a magic known as “bladecasting” that had actually been taught to me by one of the Elements of Harmony themselves, namely Generosity. It was an elegant art that required precision skill, skill I had acquired as the magic and strength of Twilight Sparkle had worked through me. Each blade consisted of a number of crystal shards which could be broken apart at a response and directed at an enemy. It was deadly and silent, the latter of which was never my strong suit, but I was reasonable at utilizing my blade effectively.

We crested over the ridge and peered down into the rock quarry. It appeared deserted, the rain coming down across the dusty rocks creating a small fog as the dust propelled itself into the air. Several large rock crushing machines lay on their sides at the far end of the quarry. The quarry office sat at the top of the far end, accessible by a stairway carved out of the rock.

“Doesn’t look like much,” I said in a low voice. “Definitely could repurpose it somehow. Give Hope Hollow some industry.”

“As long as it’s clear,” Violet said. “I don’t see anything yet. Still nothing on my E.F.S.”

Eyes-Forward-Sparkle, or E.F.S. for short, was a function of the PipBuck that showed hostile and friendly units in a specified range. It was one of the many wondrous things that a PipBuck did.

I pulled up my own E.F.S. and scanned what I could see and got nothing back other than Violet and myself. “Maybe it’s just deserted?”

“Maybe. I don’t want to get ahead of myself though. Something doesn’t feel right,” Violet replied. “There’s something in the air. You feel it?”

I paused for a moment. Violet was right. Something was wrong here. I couldn’t put a hoof on it, but something here nagged at me.

“I feel it. What is that?”

“I don’t know, and that freaks me out just a little,” Violet said. “We’re going to have to be careful.”

“You know me, Violet. Careful is what I do,” I said with a grin.

Violet rolled her eyes. “Careful like that raider nest outside of Whinnyapolis?”

“You and I remember Whinnyapolis quite differently.”

“I remember you rushing in and nearly getting us both killed,” Violet said. “But enough about that. Focus on the task at hand.”

I grimaced and nodded. Violet was right. She was always right. She had a way with words like that. I walked closely beside her as we made our way down into the quarry. The persistent feeling like we were somehow being watched arose in the back of my mind. Something was here, and it knew we were here.

The rain didn’t help. I felt like a drowned rat, having to douse my shield in order to kill the light as much as possible. The only soft glow came from my blade, and that did nothing to keep me from getting wet. I could feel the chafing beginning already.

Still, I was tense. Not because Violet was with me, she could take care of herself easily in a fight. I was tense because if something was here, that meant it was very close to Hope Hollow and the ponies there. Letting ponies get hurt… that frightened me the most.

We moved through the abandoned quarry, seeing nothing but dust and rain. I scowled. If there was something out here, did it recognize us as enough of a threat that it opted not to show itself? Or was it busy sizing us up to figure out the best way to take us down? I hated the waiting.

A shadow slipped in my peripheral vision. I spun to my left, seeing nothing.

“Star?” Violet whispered.

“I thought I…” I said softly. “It was nothing.”

Something very large decided that moment was the best to tackle me from behind. A roar echoed throughout the quarry as the massive creature, whatever it was, slammed into me and sent me sprawling to the ground.

“Star!” Violet shouted. I heard the distinct firing of her energy rifle as I moved to get up.

“I’m okay,” I said, grimacing. “Just a little banged up.”

“Good, because I could use a little help!”

My eyes focused in the rain on the thing dodging Violet’s fire. It was quite large, with two blue eyes set on each side of its head. It opened its mouth, roaring loudly and revealing many rows of sharp teeth, almost like a shark. It was shaggy and had large claws with razor barbs tipping the ends of its hands, which seemed oversized. It’s body was disproportionate to itself, as its legs were much smaller and lighter looking.

What in holy Twilight’s plot is this thing? I thought. I had never seen anything like it ever, and believe me when I say I had seen some shit.

The monster ducked and weaved unnaturally, dodging each blast of Violet’s rifle. I skirted off to its side, trying to flank it. I raised my blade and mentally dispersed several shards from it to immobilize the beast.

Before the shards could stick, the creature completely vanished in a cloud of smoke, reappearing behind us. It snarled loudly as it rushed towards me.

“Shit!” I shouted as I moved to dodge.

The beast crashed into my side, scraping me with one of its clawed hands. I felt a rake of pain shoot across me as I unleashed a magical blast of energy to push myself away from the creature.

“Star! Are you alright?” Violet called out as she fired another blast at the creature. It dodged away, giving me a brief reprieve.

“Been through worse,” I said, pushing myself to my hooves. “This thing is fast. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The creature pulled another disappearing act after dodging another blast of fire. It reappeared directly behind Violet, intent on bringing its claws right down onto her back. I shouted loudly, directing my magic and my blade across the clearing. The shards of my blade compressed, sharper than diamond as they cut across the creature’s nearest arm, shearing it right off. Violet rolled out of the way as the creature tumbled backward, black misty blood spurting from the stump where its arm had been.

The thing howled as Violet used the opportunity to fire directly into its chest at near point blank. The magical energy rocked the creature back onto the ground. It lay there, unmoving.

“Is it… it is dead?” I asked hesitantly as I moved to Violet.

The creature’s chest suddenly rose and it reached out to grab Violet. I instinctively reacted, pushing her out of the way. The creature snarled and disappeared again. The rain pelted all around us, but it did not reappear. I waited several long moments before realizing it must have run off.

“It’s gone,” Violet said. Her horn lit up, wrapping the creature’s arm in her magic. “I suspect we scared it enough that it decided to flee, but it still worries me that it’s here.”

“Agreed,” I said with a grimace. “Mark it off as unsafe?”

Violet scowled. “Probably. I just wish I knew what this thing was. It was some sort of beast, but it didn’t look mutated,” she said.

I stepped over closer to her, examining the arm held aloft in her magic. It was definitely nothing like I’d ever seen before. The barbed claws were razor sharp, and I could still feel the sting of them along my side. Thankfully I had been stabbed, shot, and maimed just enough to not care too much about a few little cuts. Still, something was off. The creature seemed to be very strong, strong enough to take both of us on and still be alive. Why would it run? How intelligent was it?

A crackle of lightning took me from my thoughts as I glanced up into the rock quarry. My eyes widened.

“Vi… you might want to see this,” I said, pointing with a hoof.

Violet’s head turned and gasped softly. On the ridge of the quarry stood not one, but five more of the creatures. The one we’d fought stood in the middle, the only one missing an arm. The others though, they carried weapons. Long sleek pikes with barbed ends. This wasn’t just some creature out in the middle of nowhere.

Another crackle of lightning appeared, and beyond those creatures I began to see not just more of the creatures, but ponies and griffons. Raiders. They all wore sashes with some symbol on them. Two pointed blue lines. Behind them, what appeared to be some form of Raptor or airship floated silently in the storm.

This wasn’t a single thing. This was an army.

“We have to warn Hope Hollow,” I said.

“We’ve gotta get out of here alive first,” Violet said. “With this rain you can’t fly very easily.”

“We’d be sitting ducks anyways,” I replied. “No. Flying is definitely out of the question. But I can teleport short distances.”

A blast of gunfire erupted across the quarry, tearing into the ground in front of us. A few more feet and we’d have been swiss cheese. I growled, wishing that perhaps if I had a bigger gun I’d have fired back, but that wasn’t my way anymore. My horn flared to life as Violet and I simply disappeared into nothingness.

We reappeared in a clearing further outside of the quarry. The rain continued to pelt us as we took up running. I heard shouts from behind us and gunshots. Trees all around us took the brunt of the hits, crackling loudly through the thunder and rain.

We ran as hard as we could through the rain, dodging and weaving in and out of the trees as I used my teleportation spell to push us further away from the raiders. Finally we made it to the edge of the storm system, just outside of Hope Hollow’s perimeter. Nothing was chasing us yet, but we were definitely soaked to the bone.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’ve been better, but we shouldn’t dilly-dally. We need to warn the town,” Violet said. She took off ahead of me.

I glanced back at the storm behind us. I just hoped we had enough time.

* * *

“Raiders? We haven’t seen actual raiders in months,” Sunshine said with a scowl. “This is problematic.”

“It’s far worse than that,” Violet said. “Those… those creatures. They’re very powerful. It took the two of us to even injure one, and I’m not even sure we managed to really do that.”

“Yes… based on your account of these things, I’m definitely concerned,” Sunshine said. “We have no real choice. We must make plans to evacuate the settlement.”

One of the other doctors at the table, the aptly named Neigh Sayer, cleared his throat to speak.

“Excuse me, Doctor Sky, but are you saying that we have to abandon this settlement? All the work we’ve put in here?” he said.

“I’m sorry, Neigh, but we don’t really have a choice. We don’t have the kind of firepower to stand against this kind of force. It upsets me too, but we can come back when we have proper New Canterlot Republic support,” Sunshine said. “Make ready preparations immediately and inform the ponies in town. I want to be ready to go as soon as possible.”

“Understood, Doctor Sky,” Neigh Sayer replied, motioning to the others.

The Followers dispersed to their tasks as a brisk wind began to pick up. I grimaced, looking out on the horizon. Dark storm clouds rumbled and swirled in the sky not too far from the edge of Hope Hollow.

“We’d better move quickly. That storm is looking like it’s coming right this way,” I said.

Violet’s eyes suddenly widened. “They can’t be,” she said under her breath. “It’s not possible… unless…”

“What, Violet? What is it?”

“The storm, Star. What if they’re controlling the storm with pegasi?” Violet said, pointing at the clouds. “Remember that airship we saw? What if there’s more hiding in the storm clouds?”

I realized rather quickly that Violet was right. I turned to Sunshine. “Our timetable just moved up by a lot. How fast do you think we can get things ready to go?”

The pink unicorn grimaced, looking down at her figures. “Probably an hour at best. We have to get the townsponies onto the transports out of here, and try to salvage what we can of the medical equipment.”

“You do what you can. But if you have to leave something behind to save ponies, do it. We can’t let lives be lost here,” I said. “Violet and I will do what we do best.”

A crackle of lightning burst across the sky. I knew deep down that we would probably be too late. Ponies were going to die. I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Got it, Star. I’ll get them out,” Sunshine said. “Be careful out there and come back to us.”

* * *

The clouds in the sky darkened as the storm neared closer to Hope Hollow. Violet and I stared intently at it. It hung in the sky like an omen, black and heavy. The wind began to pick up as the rain inched closer.

I glanced back at Hope Hollow. The ponies there were moving as fast as they could with Sunshine directing them as best as she was able to. It was understandable that ponies didn’t want to leave their homes or part with their possessions, but the town didn’t really have a choice. I wasn’t sure myself if we could turn the tide against these things, and that was saying something. Two ponies versus what was functionally an army? Even being composed of raiders, that was a hard sell.

We needed an angle that would give us enough time for the ponies to get on their way in the transports. While they were bulky, the transports could move quick enough onto the plains above Hope Hollow to escape. The unicorns maneuvering them were powerful enough to get them going that fast at least. We just had to give them that chance.

I looked down at Violet and we both nodded. We were in this for as long as we could stay, hoping to prove enough of a threat to draw the army’s attention away from the town. Basically, a lot of that hinged on the fact that I was an alicorn and automatically considered to be a threat.

“The storm’s getting closer,” I said aloud over the whipping wind. “It’s going to impact the ponies on the transports once it reaches the town.”

“Let’s not keep our new friends waiting then,” Violet said with a grin. On each side of her in the air hung two sleek black energy rifles, plasma rifles to be exact. Violet had jokingly named them “Des” and “Troy” because when put together, they “destroy.” I had advised her that bad puns were never to be used in weapon naming, but she didn’t listen. She engaged both weapons, firing them up. “Come on.”

I followed alongside her as we stepped right into the line of the storm and into the pelting rain. Well, I was dry at least for a little bit, I thought to myself as the rain came down hard over us. It made it hard to see, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we would come across the first wave of the raider army. I didn’t know how exactly their pegasi were controlling this storm, but I knew if we could disable them somehow it would slow the army down immensely.

As expected, the first line of raider ponies appeared in the misty rain, their eyes widening as they saw us approaching. One enterprising pony swung out his battle saddle, murderous glee in his eyes. I grinned as Violet’s energy weapons cut him down into a pile of glowing goop.

“I think that got their attention,” I said as the raiders howled in anger. “You ready?”

“Ready, just watch my back,” Violet said, her horn glowing.

I nodded, bringing forth my own magic in a flare of brilliance that blinded two of the approaching raiders. They had been carrying pikes in their mouths, but dropped them as my magic hit them. My blade came forth into existence, swirling around as it cut their throats. Even more of the raiders, these ones unicorns, attempted to fire at either myself or Violet with their pitiful looking guns. A quick flare of a shield spell, one that I’d learned from Twilight’s memories of her brother Shining Armor, made quick work of that. Violet retorted by taking off their heads with several well placed shots.

More of the crazed raiders appeared, this time flanked by two of the black creatures. They carried razor barbed pikes that looked incredibly sharp. Violet and I took out the raiders quickly, but the two creatures ducked out of the way of our attacks. In the air in front of us, I saw the airship looming in the dark clouds, electrical energy crackling along it from the storm.

“We’ve got a problem if the airship is this close already!” I shouted, dodging backwards from an attack by one of the creatures.

Violet glanced upward. “Shit shit shit! Star, can you get up there and see if you can take out those pegasi and their ship?”

“And leave you here by yourself with these fuckers?” I called back. I brought my blade to bear, blocking and deflecting another strike by one of those wicked pikes.

“If you don’t then that airship is guaranteed to destroy the town! I’ll be fine, Star, you know me!” Violet shouted over the thunder and rain. She lifted her weapons into the air, firing in multiple directions at the creatures, clipping one on the side.

I grimaced. She was right about one thing. I needed to disable that ship somehow. I dodged another blow and slipped backwards on my hooves, nearly hitting the ground. I moved to try to get out of the way but one of the creatures was definitely capitalizing on my klutziness by moving in to try to pike me in the face.

It never made it close. A warm aura and several magical vines wrapped around the beast’s weapon, pulling it around and using it to impale the creature with its own pike. The creature slumped to the ground, unmoving.

“I figured you two could use some assistance,” I heard somepony call out.

I glanced back as I pushed myself to my hooves and saw Sunshine Sky standing there. She grinned as her horn lit up once more, bringing to bear more vines that wrapped themselves around the creature fighting Violet. It didn’t expect to be grounded so easily that Violet’s energy weapons found purchase in its face.

“What about the town?” I said.

“They’re moving, but it’s slow. Some of the raiders have already broken through the defenses, but the other unicorns are defending well enough,” Sunshine said. She pointed at the airship. “That however, is a big fucking problem.”

“If you two can hold things down here well enough, maybe we can salvage this and I can get that airship out of commission,” I said, flaring my wings out.

“Oh, I think we can handle it,” Sunshine said. “Just don’t get yourself killed up there.”

I saluted with a grin and turned to look up at the airship. I kicked off the ground and into the rain, trying my best to fly while being pelted. Heavy rain wasn’t very optimal for flying especially with my natural bulkiness as an alicorn. I used my magic to compensate, teleporting through the rain to make it closer to the airship.

A crackle of lightning zipped past me, nearly knocking me out of the sky. I realized rather quickly that it was coming from the airship itself. They were firing at me! Those fuckers! I weaved in and out as another lightning strike arced across the sky, using my teleportation magic to stay out of its path. The airship wasn’t huge, but it was large enough to be imposing. I just needed to get onto its flight deck.

Another crackle of lightning seared past me, just barely missing one of my wings. I growled under my breath and with a final burst of magic, I appeared just above the craft, plummeting downward onto its flight deck. Several pegasus ponies decked out in what appeared to be Enclave power armor appeared on deck before me.

“Halt!” the lead pegasus shouted. “Stand down and you won’t be killed.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” I asked. “Sorry flyboys, but I’ve got more important things to do.”

My horn glowed softly and I disappeared, dodging out of the way of their energy weapons as I did so. My invisibility spell was not something I used too often but it was very good at deceiving ponies.

“Where is she? Find her immediately. The Master will not be pleased,” the lead pegasus ordered. The two other pegasi took to the sky and began circling the ship looking for me.

The Master? I thought. Who was this Master? How did they manage to corral together not only raiders but what looked like Enclave Remnant pegasi? None of this made much sense to me. How did a force this large go unnoticed by anypony? Where did they come from?

There were too many questions. Questions that I couldn’t answer right then. I needed to prioritize getting this airship out of the sky. To do that I needed to find the engine and disrupt it without being seen.

I stalked along the flight deck, sneaking behind the pegasi searching for me. I was thankful that the deck was pretty clear. My invisibility spell only did so much for me in terms of sound, so I had to be maximum sneaky. I quickly got the layout of the ship, realizing that the command deck was at the front and the engine was at the rear. I made my way slowly towards the rear of the ship. It was clear that the pegasi hadn’t found me just yet, and for that I was thankful. I needed every advantage I had.

I waited a few moments for the coast to be clear and slipped inside the engine room. A large crystalline powered engine sat in the middle of the space, protected by glass. Several pegasi moved to and fro tending the cloud terminals around the engine. Two of the big black creatures sat at the far end, watching over everything.

I grimaced. Were the pegasi here under duress? They didn’t seem too happy to be here. I had to try to get them out of here if I could. I had to start with the engine though, otherwise there would be no point in all of this.

One of the creatures stopped what it was doing and grunted at one of the pegasi in a language I didn’t understand. The pegasi nodded and started walking towards me and the door. I nearly shouted. There wasn’t much room and in any second they’d run right into me. I had to do something and I had to do it now.

My invisibility spell unraveled, startling the pegasi in front of me. The two creatures were taken aback as well, but quickly moved to intercept me.

“Howdy kids,” I said with a grin. “Ready for a fun ride? I promise it’ll be great.”

My horn glowed brightly, assembling my blade. Shards of the crystalline blade flew out at the glass protecting shield, piercing it and the energy gemstone behind it. The gemstone began to wink out, its glow dissipating quickly. I felt the ship lurch underneath my hooves and the two creatures running over to me faltered as they fell to the ground.

“This ship is going down, anypony who wants off of this ride is more than welcome to follow me!” I called out.

An energy blast was the retort from one of the pegasi who’d been working at the terminals. I scowled, deflecting it with my magic.

“Okay, fine, suit yourself. I’m out of here,” I said, turning to leave.

Several pegasi in Enclave power armor stood right outside the engine room door, energy rifles from their armor trained right on me. I grinned sheepishly.

“Okay, so maybe not the best plan. Parlay?” I said.

“Sir, the ship’s engine. It’s starting to fail,” one of the pegasi next to the leader said.

“See if you can get the engine back online. We’ll be set back for a while if we have to set down the ship,” the lead pegasus replied. “As for the intruder, take her to the command deck. I’m sure the Master will want a word with her before she dies.”

“What about the two fighting back on the ground?” the other asked.

“They’re a pain in the ass. Have a squad sent out and take care of them,” the leader said.

“You’d better not. My marefriend will kick your ass,” I said jokingly. “She’s a much better shot with her energy rifles than you are with yours.”

“Somepony do me a favor and shut this one up? We’ve got a schedule to keep to if we want to keep the Master happy,” the leader said. “What about the settlement?”

“They’re evacuating, sir. I’ve got squads of the raiders headed out to try to catch their transports,” the other pegasus replied.

“Excellent. See to it that they take the Storm Guards, they make for excellent muscle,” the lead pegasus said. “Now then. Come along.”

Several energy rifles lifted up right into my face. I grimaced, nodding silently. Fine, I thought to myself. Let’s get some answers on who this Master is first, and then after that… you’re all going to eat shit for attacking innocent ponies.

I walked behind the pegasi, feeling the ship continue to lurch beneath my hooves. I had to hope Violet and Sunshine were okay and they’d been smart and gotten away. I knew deep down that Violet would do what needed to be done, because she had done it for me so many times before, but I was still worried. I had a plan though at least. It was a stupid plan, but sofar my plan had gone off pretty well. Injure the ship, get captured, find out who the boss is, and then kill them if possible. Seemed like a smart idea. If anything I could cause the ship more damage from the command deck now that the engine was cracked.

The door opened up to the command deck. Several of what the leader pegasus had referred to as Storm Guards stood along each wall of the deck. In the center of the deck was a brazier. One of the pegasi took a bottle of something glowing and dumped it onto the brazier. Dark blue flames erupted from it. A pair of dark glowing blue eyes appeared in the smoke and haze. They were… haunting. Angry. Frightening.

“Commander Breeze,” a gravelly voice said suddenly. I realized quickly it was coming from the smoke. It must have been some sort of communication spell. “What is the situation?”

“Master, we’ve hit a bit of a snag,” Commander Breeze said. “The ship is damaged and we’re likely going to have to set down outside of Hope Hollow.”

“Damaged? I cannot afford delays, Commander,” the voice said, a hint of anger in its tone.

“I am aware, Master. We should be back up in the air in a day or so,” the Commander replied. “We caught the perpetrator. I thought you would like to see it.”

The group of pegasi pushed me next to the Commander so that the eyes in the brazier’s smoke could see me. If there was any reaction to me, I didn’t see it. There was a pause in the air. Nopony spoke. Finally the eyes flared intensely.

“Kill it,” it said.

“As you wish, Master. I will contact you again once we are back on schedule,” Commander Breeze said.

“Do not fail me again, Commander. I have killed for less,” the dark voice said. The eyes flickered into nothingness and the flames died down to mere embers inside the brazier.

“You heard the Master. Execute the prisoner at once,” Commander Breeze ordered. I felt a bunch of energy rifles train themselves on my position.

“Yeah, sorry new friends. I hate to cut and run, but you forgot one key thing about me. Alicorn, remember?” I said with a grin as I engaged Shining Armor’s shield spell.

Magical energy pummeled the shield, but it held nicely. Scratch one off for old Shining Armor, he certainly knew the best spells for shields. I needed a plan that involved making sure this ship couldn’t get back up in the air.

“Sir! We have a problem, it’s…” one of the pegasi started to shout over the firing of energy weapons.

My plans went to shit as the entire ship shuddered from an impact from below. Something massive and green crashed up through the ship and into the command deck. A massive… vine?!

The ship groaned as everypony on the command deck was thrown about, myself included. My shield spell dissipated and I quickly jumped to my hooves to deflect a bolt from an energy rifle. I growled, unleashing my blade into its source. Several shards of pure diamond magic slashed through the pegasus pony’s power armor, rendering them inert.

What the fuck is going on? I thought to myself as I teleported away from another bolt of energy.

“Star!” a familiar voice shouted from above. A twin set of magical energy beams soared over the top of me and into a pegasus who was coming up behind me. The power armor held, but I could hear the sizzling of the energy as it fell to the ground.

I looked up and smiled. Violet Iris to the rescue. My marefriend had her legs wrapped around one of the vines hanging off the massive trunk vine. Her energy rifles were floating in the air beside her.

“What the actual fuck, Violet? What happened down there?” I shouted as I deflected another bolt and sliced with my blade into another set of power armor.

“When you didn’t come back immediately, Sunshine got pretty pissed,” Violet called back. “She unleashed some sort of magical tech she’s been working on. Supposed to enhance her powers for a bit. We don’t have much time.”

“What about the army below?” I asked as Violet dropped to the ground next to me. The ship shuddered again under her added weight.

“Being held off. The unicorns from the Followers all returned to shield them off while Sunshine did her thing, backed up by a few of the alicorns who could fight. But I gotta tell you Star… only half the transports made it out,” Violet said with a grimace.

Half. Fuck! I shouted in my mind. So many ponies… dead. Innocent ponies. I hated it. It was pointless. I growled under my breath.

“The Commander was here, where’d he go? He has a lot to pay for,” I said angrily.

“He’s gone, and most of the other pegasi are fleeing the ship,” Violet said. “I don’t think this thing is flying any time soon. Sunshine’s spell fucking wrecked it.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s get back down to Sunshine. I have some bad news.”

“Probably should before this thing – Star, look out!” Violet started to say before suddenly shouting. She jumped forward, bringing her rifles to bear as something slammed right into her. It was Commander Breeze. He hit Violet directly in the face, knocking her backwards into me. She cried out in immense pain.

I reacted instinctively, using my magic as a shield that repelled the pegasus away. I growled under my breath and turned my magic into a spear that slammed into him, sending him flying away through a hole in the ship.

“Violet!” I shouted, moving to pick up my love. My eyes widened.

Violet’s horn. Her horn was broken, the top tip of it hanging by a thread of flesh. She groaned in pain, barely conscious. My heart broke in half. I wanted so very badly to find Breeze and put him six feet under, but I had more important things to deal with at that moment. Revenge could come later. Violet came first.

“Violet, hang on, you’re going to be okay!” I shouted, wrapping her in my magic and teleporting away.

* * *

I looked back from the transport as we left Hope Hollow. The airship was broken in half, falling to the ground in shambles and the storm it carried had dissipated entirely. The army had been routed… for now. How many more were there? Who was this Master? There were too many questions. Too many injuries. Too many deaths.

Violet was resting comfortably. The doctors had been able to sedate her until we could make it to Fort Knowledge. The tip of her horn still hung off by a gross looking thread. The initial prognosis wasn’t good. I had no idea how an injury like this would affect her magic usage.

“How many ponies?” I asked Sunshine before looking back at her.

“Too many. Hundred and fifty,” she said softly. “Two hundred made it out alive and are on their way to Followers camps within the New Canterlot Republic. Still a lot of injuries. We lost two other alicorns.”

“Fuck,” I said, looking down at my hooves.

“It’s not your –” Sunshine started to say. I put a hoof up.

“I know, I know. It’s not my fault. We’ve got bigger problems to worry about. Whoever was directing this army… he was not there. The pegasus commander, somepony named Breeze, he used a communication spell of some sort,” I explained. “This isn’t over. Once the army is back up and running… who knows where they’ll head next?”

“What concerns me is that those ponies were Renmant Enclave soldiers,” Sunshine said. “Ones that were somehow working with raiders… and those things.”

“Breeze called them Storm Guards,” I said. “I don’t know much more about them than that.”

“All I know is that they’re pretty fast and scary,” Sunshine said. “We’re just lucky my magic tech worked.”

“Are you alright? I thought that a big burst of magic like that would burn you out?” I asked.

“That’s one of the nice things about the tech is that it helps with the magic output. I feel just fine,” Sunshine said with a sad smile. “I’m sorry about Violet. We’ll make sure she receives the best care once we get to Fort Knowledge.”

I looked down at my sleeping marefriend next to me. “She was just protecting me from Breeze,” I said softly. “She didn’t deserve this. We have to stop this army, Sunshine. Stop more ponies from being hurt and killed.”

“I know, Star. That’s why I sent a missive ahead via the communications array,” Sunshine said. “Velvet Remedy’s going to meet us at Fort Knowledge to discuss the situation. Your first hoof account of this thing is important. If this thing, whatever it is, can pull together Enclave Remnants and Raiders, then it’s a danger to the NCR.”

I nodded. Velvet Remedy would have some idea of what to do. I had to trust in that much at least. The transport moved silently across the land and soon we were out of view of Hope Hollow and the ponies that had perished there. I said a silent prayer for the ponies that had died there and looked ahead.

Next stop: Fort Knowledge. I slipped into sleep next to Violet, awaiting what would come next.

* * *

I rarely dream these days. A side effect of having once had the memories and dreams of another pony fill my mind. Still, when I do dream, it usually means something. I dreamed of something terrible. A fear that those eyes had instilled inside me. Whatever was behind them… it scared me. And I was rarely scared of anything.

I awoke several hours later being nudged by Sunshine. We had arrived at Fort Knowledge. Our home away from home. Fort Knowledge had arisen around several stores of books that Twilight Sparkle had secreted away, so it was full of hidden knowledge and encyclopedic stuff. Turns out, if there was a topic to be researched, Twilight had a book for that. The only problem was categorizing what was there and knowing where to find it.

We stepped off the transport and walked along to the city center where one of the largest stores of books was at. Violet was taken immediately by the doctors to the care center set up for medical treatment. I was loath to leave her side for even a moment, but I had to talk to Velvet Remedy about what was coming.

Sunshine and I passed by several large warehouses on the way to the primary center. Fort Knowledge impressively had uncovered not one, but ten different warehouses of books that Twilight had secured. The Followers here had used that knowledge to better understand medicine, science, and many other topics of understanding such as philosophy and even romance.

The primary center had been mostly indexed and had been cleaned and retrofitted to serve as a meeting center for the Followers. We walked by many of the town’s inhabitants, mostly alicorns and unicorns who had come to support the effort as we made our way to the center. Many of them waved and smiled as we passed. Violet and I had lived here for so long, and still returned when we weren’t out undertaking missions for the cause.

I found myself worrying suddenly about what would happen if that army came here. What would be lost? The ponies here were more important than any old book. I had friends here. I needed them to be safe. I needed Violet to be safe most of all. Celestia, I needed to be with her.

Sunshine opened the door for us to the center and we made our way to the central meeting room. As we walked in, a beautiful unicorn mare decked in a stunning dress stood up to greet us. Every time I have seen Velvet Remedy, I was floored. She was not only beautiful but she was inspiring to us all, giving Kindness to everypony that needed it and caring for all, enemy or friend.

“Radiant Star, Sunshine Sky. Please, sit. It seems we have a lot to discuss,” she said, her voice melodic and pure. “I heard about what happened to Violet, Star. I’m very sorry. We’ll do the best we can for her to make sure she’s okay.”

“Thank you, Velvet,” I said softly. “I wish she could be here to speak with you.”

Velvet smiled and nodded. A soft mewling sound erupted from the corner of the room behind her. Violet sighed. “Forgive me, I had to bring Pyrelight with me. It’s one of her burning weeks and well, she’s a bit melodramatic,” she said.

In the corner behind a radiation shield, a balefire phoenix that looked like it might expire any moment appeared to be acting out some sort of strangely extended death scene from an old movie. I blinked. It definitely wasn’t the weirdest thing I had ever seen.

“She doesn’t care for the shield, but she knows that she has to have it in order to burn out. The energy she provides can power entire settlements so she helps us by collecting it,” Velvet said wistfully. “Personally I think she just enjoys the attention.”

“Madam Remedy,” Sunshine said. “Star has some important news to discuss with you.”

“Sunshine, I’ve told you a million times to call me Velvet, you know that,” Velvet replied with a giggle. Her eyes narrowed as she looked over me. “Yes, I got your message. It’s very concerning. Sit and tell me what you saw.”

We each took a seat and I began to explain what had happened, from the attack in the rock quarry to the decimation of Hope Hollow, and the thing in the smoke. When I finished, Velvet sat back and grimaced.

“I thought maybe for once we could make some progress, but the Wasteland can’t ever let go,” she said with a sigh. “This army. We don’t know where it’s going yet, but we know it’s slowed down. That means we can mobilize a response.”

“You think we have enough firepower to defend Equestria?” I asked.

“I think we have enough to scare them back into whatever hole they came from,” Velvet said, grimacing again. “I hate this fighting. It’s so pointless. But we have to protect our home. I’ll pass along this information to the NCR and my husband. They’ll do what they can on that end. But we have time. The ship you described sounded Enclave, but it wasn’t an Enclave ship. It came from somewhere else. I think that’s as good a place as any to start researching.”

“Researching what?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“If we can’t defend ourselves against this force, we’ll need something to protect us. Perhaps there’s something in one of these dusty old books that we can use. I don’t know,” Velvet replied. “Twilight Sparkle had a billion books on various subjects, including magical symbols. If you can find the symbol you saw, or the ship itself in one of those books, we might be onto something that would give us an edge against this army.”

“You want us to… do research,” I said.

Velvet chuckled softly. “Yes, I am giving you an official mission to find out more about this army. We need to know more about what we’re up against.”

“Don’t worry, Velvet. We’ll figure this one out and be back home in time for dinner,” I replied.

“Excellent. Now then, I must tend to Pyrelight before we head back. If you need anything from me, please let me know,” Velvet said with a beaming smile. “Also, please take a moment to go stop in and check on Violet before you get started. We have time for that much, at least.”

Celestia I wish I had her endless positivity, I thought to myself. And those teeth. Wow. They really are shiny.

“Star, come on. Let’s go,” Sunshine said, tugging on my barding.

“Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry,” I said as we left the room and onward to see Violet.

* * *

I sat by Violet’s side until she stirred. I had been right about one thing. The prognosis wasn’t great. The thread of the horn had to be severed off completely. The doctors still didn’t know if magical ability was possible at this point. Violet needed to wake up to find out what the next steps were, and even then she was going to need to heal up better before trying to access her magic.

Violet’s eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me.

“Violet?” I said softly.

“Star? What happened? Where are we?” Violet asked softly.

“We’re in Fort Knowledge,” I said. “Home. We’re home, Vi. How are you feeling?”

“My… my head hurts a little,” Violet replied, slowly pushing up into a sitting position. She groaned a bit.

“Take it easy, Violet. You got hit pretty hard,” I said with a sad tinge in my voice. “What do you remember?”

“The ship. I was trying to fire at that pegasus… and then nothing but pain,” Violet said. “What happened to me?”

“There’s no easy way to sugarcoat any of this, Vi,” I started to say. Violet put a hoof on my side.

“Please. Just tell me,” she said.

“It’s… it’s your horn,” I said with a nod. “They had to cut off a portion of it. It was broken. Goddess, Violet, I’m so sorry.”

Violet’s eyes widened slightly and she reached up to the bandages over her horn. I could tell she was piecing things together in her head. She grimaced and let herself lay back against the pillow.

“I should have been able to protect you better,” she said.

“No, no, no,” I said, moving closer so that I could rest my head against her. “You did what you thought was best. Nopony could ask for anything else from such a wonderful marefriend.”

Violet sighed and booped me on the nose with her hoof. “Please tell me that you at least fucked that pegasus up?” she said with a small grin.

I grimaced. “Not quite. He got away. We came to Fort Knowledge to get you help and to advise Velvet Remedy on the situation. That army… they’re serving something dark. And it’s coming to Equestria proper soon.”

“What does Velvet plan to do about it?”

“She’s in the process of contacting the NCR. But in the meantime, she asked us… well I guess Sunshine and I, to research something that could give us a better understanding of the enemy or a way to protect Equestria,” I said.

“I want to help too,” Violet said, shifting her weight. “When can we start?”

“Violet, you have to rest. The damage to your horn needs to properly heal and the doctors don’t even know yet if you’ll be able to access your magic,” I said, feeling utterly dejected at having to keep her here.

“Never stopped you before,” Violet said with a small grin.

“Do as I say, not as I do. Remember, I’m not the smart one here. You are,” I said, reaching in to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I promise. If we find anything, you’ll be right there with us when we go look for it. We’ll get our shot at that Breeze fucker.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Author's Note

Let's go! A new macguffin, a new bad guy, and same old Radiant Star. Looking forward to getting this going!

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Chapter 2: Into the Past

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 2: Into the Past

I've heard they're surprisingly graceful for their size. Huh, but they're always hungry.

Despite being surrounded by them my entire life, I actively hated books of all kinds. It was one of the odd things that separated me from the fact that I had been created to once house the spirit of an alicorn who absolutely and thoroughly loved them so much she devoted entire warehouses to their storage and care. Maybe it was because I liked being a rebel, I wasn’t sure. Regardless, I found books to be the most tedious things ever. I didn’t abhor knowledge itself, obviously. There was merit in knowing things, I just hated the reading portion of gaining knowledge.

Diving into the books in the primary center, despite being indexed, was a massive challenge in itself. With Violet out of commission and still healing, it was up to Sunshine and myself to start poring through the tomes. The primary center had been chosen first because it was considered to be the prime site on any text that dealt primarily with Equestrian politics before the end of the War as well as any items on magical artifacts specifically referenced in old Equestrian texts.

Twilight was meticulous but it was clear she probably never knew what kind of care the books had actually been given by the Ministry she entrusted it to. Every book in Fort Knowledge had been haphazardly thrown into the various warehouses without regard to what they were or what they were for, but for some reason the primary center, which we’d come to call Site A, had seen a level of care not seen in the other sites. This alone made us question whether whatever answer we were looking for was here or not.

I groaned as I floated several books into the air before me. Even if these books had been well cared for, the age of time had not been kind to many of them, making a good portion of them highly illegible. I dug through several of the tomes, trying my best to use my magic to clean them up, but it was proving fruitless.

“This is useless!” I cried out in frustration. “There’s nothing here! This is just a waste of time when we could be going out and cleaning up that army.”

“Velvet has her reasons,” Sunshine said as she stepped up next to me. She had a cute little pair of glasses on the bridge of her snout. “Besides, she’s already got a recon unit from the NCR headed out to Hope Hollow. Word is, Calamity himself is leading it.”

“We should be there. We saw it all first hoof,” I said with a grimace. “Not here, poring through books that we can’t even read.”

“It’s true that Twilight Sparkle’s penchant for books upon books is going to make this difficult, but we have to try,” Sunshine said, lifting a few other tomes with her magic. “I do agree though that I wish I was out there with you. But we all have our parts to play.”

“I just hope my part ends with ripping that fucking Breeze’s wings off,” I muttered to myself before clearing my throat.

“I heard that,” Sunshine said as she walked to the table next to mine. “How is Violet doing?”

“A little better. Still not sure about her magic. I’m supposed to go be with her to try some simple tests later here,” I said, pushing aside the books I had been looking at. “She’s worried, but the doctors are hopeful that she may still have some magical ability.”

“Even if she doesn't, that doesn’t make her any less of a pony, or any less my friend,” Sunshine said. “Celestia knows I’ve had my own issues with my lack of magical ability during burnout sessions. Violet is blessed to have you and the rest of the Followers behind her.”

“Yeah… I just worry what will happen,” I said. “I mostly just wish she was okay, but I know she’ll be okay.”

I rooted through another grouping of books, looking for something or anything that might give us some clue or something that would be able to protect us. Nothing. Just more useless political bullshit. Minutes recorded of five hour long meetings at the Ministry of Arcane Science. FIVE HOURS! I couldn’t sit still for that long, personally.

My eyes drifted across the room to a book laying on Sunshine’s table. There was a symbol on the front of it that looked rather familiar. I stood, walking across to Sunshine’s table so I could get a better look.

The symbol was rough and faded, but it stirred a memory from Hope Hollow. Every pony and Storm Guard was wearing this symbol. Every single, fucking one of them. I picked up the book with my magic.

“There’s not much in that one, I checked it already,” Sunshine said without looking up from the book she was nose deep into.

“Sunshine. The symbol on the cover,” I said. “Look at it. It’s the same symbol as the raiders and pegasi wore.”

Sunshine glanced over. “Wait, where did that come from? That wasn’t there a second ago? Where’d the other book that was there go?” she asked, a bewildered look in her eyes.

“Clearly somepony wanted us to see this particular book,” I said, lifting it up and opening it.

The pages inside were tattered and I could barely make out some words here or there. What I could make out caught my immediate attention. As best as I could tell this was some historical account of an attack on the capital of Canterlot. The book didn’t say who the attacker was, as most of that had either disintegrated due to time or just was simply illegible. I did catch one important thing though. The word “King” was in several places. Was that who this shadowy figure was? Some sort of King?

“I don’t know how this helps us,” I said, turning a few more pages. The rest of the pages were filled with various maps and drawings. One of the drawings stood out. A massive towering island fortress. Below it the words “Mount Aris” had been written.

“What is Mount Aris?” Sunshine said.

“It looks like a place. But where?” I replied as I continued to skim the drawings. A map showing a vague location of the island, south and far outside the borders of Equestria. “Far. Very far.”

“Whoah,” Sunshine said. “Why would Twilight have something like this?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “It seems like at some point, Canterlot was attacked by some force bearing the symbol on the cover. But I can’t read most of it, so I can’t say who that force was or why they attacked.”

“Does it say how they stopped them?” Sunshine said, taking the book from me and flipping through the pages with her magic. “Wait. What’s this?”

She flipped the book back around and pointed at one of the drawings. It was of some sort of spherical shaped object. I couldn’t make out most of the words except one.

“Weapon,” I said aloud. “They used a weapon to repel the force?”

“It would appear so,” Sunshine said. “But it doesn’t say what it even does or how it works. The real question of the century is…”

“Is it still there?” I finished for her. “This Mount Aris place seems pretty far out there, but if we can go there and find this weapon… maybe we can use it here.”

“Seems pretty far-fetched,” Sunshine said with a sigh. “It’s riding on a lot of unknowns. What if it isn’t even there in the first place?”

“It’s like you said, Sunshine. We owe it to the others to try,” I said with a small smile.

Sunshine grimaced for a second and then nodded. “You’re right. We should investigate any avenue possible. I’ll make sure this information is delivered to Velvet Remedy. You should go see your marefriend.”

I nodded, handing the book back over to Sunshine. As I did, my eyes glanced briefly at the name of the author on the cover. It was pretty illegible overall, but I could just barely make it out.

The name was Tempest Shadow.

* * *

I walked along the street of Fort Knowledge towards the care center, that name stuck in the back of my head. Why did that name bug me? What did it mean? Who was Tempest Shadow?

I was lost in my thoughts as I made it to the care center with moments to spare. My brain kept trying to reconcile the identity of whoever this Tempest Shadow was with the feeling in my head that whoever it was, I felt like I knew them somehow. I didn’t like that feeling.

I shook it off and continued to the care center, my stomach knotting itself into pretzels as I found my way to Violet’s side. She was sitting up and eating and even smiling as I entered.

“Find anything in your research?” she said, sipping on a thing of juice with a straw. I have to admit, it was pretty cute despite the big white bandage covering her head.

“Maybe. It’s kind of a longshot, but we found some reference to a weapon, but it’s far away,” I said, plopping down to sit next to her. “Vi you wouldn’t believe how much reading we had to do.”

“I’m sure it’s good for you, sweetie,” Violet replied casually before giggling.

“Are you trying to imply that I’m not smart?” I asked with a sly grin. “Somepony must be feeling better.”

“A little better, but I’m still pretty nervous about getting the bandages off,” my marefriend said, looking down at her forehooves. “What if I don’t have any magic?”

“Then you’ll still be my Violet,” I said, reaching over and snuggling her shoulder. “No matter what happens.”

A knock at the door broke us from our snuggle session. One of the doctors was standing at the door, floating a clipboard alongside him.

“Should I come back?” he said with a smirk.

“No, you’re fine, Doctor…?” I asked. I didn’t actually know this pony’s name.

“Oh. I’m Doctor Redmane,” the unicorn replied. “I’ve been placed in charge of Miss Violet’s care. I have a lot of experience with these kinds of cases.”

I blinked, my eyes drifting upward. Doctor Redmane’s horn had been neatly severed right at the tip. And yet, it still glowed and still had magical ability. I must have been staring because I heard a cough come from him.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly.

“No worries,” Doctor Redmane said. “I get this a lot actually, so I’m used to it. I was attacked by a group of raiders and tortured. The horn is the worst of the scars I bear because of that day.”

“But you can still use magic?” Violet said, her eyes and ears perking up.

“I can, but this isn’t going to be easy for you, Violet. Gaining access back to magic after such a traumatic injury is hard. It took me quite a while to get my own magical ability back. I’ve studied numerous unicorns who’ve had injuries quite like yourself since then, and everyone's a little different,” Redmane replied, setting the clipboard down on the desk next to the bed. “Now then, let’s see how things are healing up, shall we?”

Violet nodded, sitting still as Redmane used his magic to carefully remove the bandages. I tried not to react as they fell away, but I couldn’t keep my eyes from tearing up a little bit. The surgeons had done an immaculate job with separating the piece of horn that had been hanging off. It was clean and didn’t actually look all that bad. Looking at it just reminded me of what happened, and I didn’t like that. But I had to be strong for Violet. She would have done the same for me.

“Well. This looks pretty good,” Redmane said. “Good enough that I think another day and you’ll be able to be discharged. Do you have any feeling in it? Any conscious desire to utilize magic?”

Violet thought for a moment, looking down at her hooves before looking back up at the doctor. “I don’t feel much. Maybe a tingle,” she said. “Is that bad?”

“Not at all. Actually that’s a good sign. I would not expect you to be able to utilize your magic immediately after all. It’s going to take time, and I want you to not rush yourself either. Too fast and the healing process will become overpowered by your magical ability and that can lead to some very powerful outbursts of raw magic,” Redmane explained. “The horn is a very vital organ when it comes to magical power, much like how the wings of a pegasi are important to their magic. The horn refines the raw magical power into a functioning energy that we can shape and direct. Without that regulator, raw magic can destroy a pony.”

“So what can we actually do?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

“Well. I’ll give you a book of mental exercises to go through. Once per day if you can. They should help you strengthen your mind, which is the most important part of caring for your horn. Don’t try to use any magic yet, at least actively. As time wears on you will be able to feel it again. The damage to your horn was not so great, and I don’t believe you have lost your magical ability. You will use your magic once more, just be patient.”

Violet nodded, smiling softly. “Thank you. I actually feel a little better,” she said.

“Good. Now get some more rest. I believe we should have your discharge ready by this evening,” Redmane said. He picked up the clipboard in his magic and walked out.

I glanced over at Violet. “Well I mean… that’s good, right? Good news?”

Violet smiled and nodded. “Now tell me more about this whole weapon business? I want to hear everything you found.”

* * *

Darkness settled on Fort Knowledge as Violet and I walked out of the care center and into the town. As we walked, the hustle and bustle of Fort Knowledge made me feel a bit better now that I had Violet again and that she was going to be alright.

Still, everything wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Violet’s recovery was still a long way off, and to make matters even worse a runner had been sent to the care center to fetch me to speak to Sunshine and Velvet Remedy. Something had come up. It was urgent.

We moved through the crowd, accepting thanks and greetings from the ponies of Fort Knowledge that were simply happy enough to see Violet back on her hooves. The runner guided us over to Site A where the others were waiting. As we entered, I took stock of the room. Several guards stood around the room while a rust colored pegasus wearing a PipBuck adorned with the Element of Loyalty and metal on his wings. It was Velvet’s husband, the one and only Deadshot Calamity, Velvet Remedy, and Sunshine Sky sat at the table. Velvet looked up as we entered, and Calamity tipped his hat in greeting.

“Radiant Star, Violet Iris,” she said with a smile. “It’s good to see you back among the living, Violet.”

“Thank you, Velvet,” Violet said, nodding.

“You both know my husband, I assume?” Velvet said.

“We haven’t formally met, no. I know who you are, of course,” I said, lifting a hoof. “Radiant Star.”

Calamity grinned widely. “Howdy! Nice t’ meet you,” he said. “Velvet’s told me quite a bit about you.”

“Good things, I hope,” I said with a chuckle.

“Let’s get to business,” Velvet said. “Calamity arrived just an hour ago from the camp outside Hope Hollow with an NCR Recon Squad.”

My eyes narrowed as I sat. “What’s the situation out there?”

“Not good,” Calamity said. “Ah’ve seen some mighty big forces in my travels, but whatever this army is… it’s headed for th’ other settlements on th’ ground already.”

“The airship?” I asked.

“Still broke in’ta pieces. Don’t look like any Enclave tech ah know about,” Calamity continued. “The pegasi ya described certainly are ex-Enclave, though. Commander Gusty Breeze was in command of one of the Raptors that attacked during the Enclave’s incursion.”

“You knew him?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“By reputation only. He used t’ compete in the Best Young Sharpshooter’s competition before ah left,” Calamity explained. “He was an asshole then, prob’ly an asshole now, but at least he’s a shit shot. Never won a damn thing the entire time.”

“Based on the intel we’ve received from Calamity’s team and the information you discovered with Sunshine, we have a clear course of action,” Velvet Remedy interjected. “The NCR is prepared to deploy units to stall this army and deal with the remains of the airship.”

“What if they’re not good enough?” I asked, already fearing the answer to come.

“Then we’ll need something else. I believe this so-called weapon merits some looking into. As much as I abhor weaponry and prefer to help ponies, we must protect the settlements we are building out there,” Velvet said. “This so-called weapon may be the only way to do so.”

“So let me guess… you want us to go find this weapon and bring it back?” Violet said shrewdly.

“Correct. Except I would greatly prefer the team that goes to consist of Star and Sunshine Sky. Violet… with your recent injury, it would be preferable if you remained behind,” Velvet said.

“No dice,” I said immediately. “Violet comes with me.”

“Star. You have to understand. We have care physicians here who can continue to help Violet’s recovery. There could be dangers.”

“I can take care of her,” I said very firmly. “You have to trust me.”

Velvet scowled and looked down at her forehooves. “This is against my better judgment, you know that right? What sort of pony would I be if I just let you go?”

“Star’s right though. I want to go,” Violet said. “I have a measure of technical knowledge that Star and Sunshine might need, and I’m the only pony who knows both ponies well enough to understand their tactics in battle should the need arise.”

Velvet nodded silently before speaking. “I hate to agree with you on this, because you are still healing. Celestia, you both are nearly as stubborn as Littlepip,” she said with a loud sigh. “Fine. But only because if I remain firm on it you’ll just figure out a way to leave the camp with them anyways.”

Sunshine looked over at us. “This trip is going to take us out of Equestria and through the Badlands. We can get far enough via a train line that exits out of Ponyville towards where the map says Mount Aris is. Based on the records I’ve managed to locate, the train line was built there before the war.”

I grimaced. Leaving Equestria when it would need me the most was not something I wished to be doing, but it was something I needed to do. I just hoped when we got to Mount Aris, that this weapon… whatever it was… was still there.

* * *

I lay dreaming once more. A rare occasion as always, I found myself soaring among the stars of an endless plane of ocean. I flew silently over the still waters, not knowing what I was even looking for. There was nothing as far as the eye could see in any direction. I began to tire, my wings burning for rest, but I couldn’t set down upon the water.

The water below began to ripple and surge as two massively blue eyes appeared in the water. A laughter could be heard from below the waves as they roiled upwards, catching my wings. I began to fall towards the torrential waves as everything went black.

I awoke in a cold sweat, breathing hard as I looked over at Violet. She was still asleep, breathing soundly. I sat up, trying to process the dream. What was the thing behind the veil? It seemed like I was being told something in my dreams, but I couldn’t place what it was. Either that or I was really fucked up with all of the stress of caring for Violet and this mission. Probably the latter.

I groaned, pushing myself to my hooves as I walked over to look out the window of our boxcar. Building proper homes had not really been a thing for a while. Ponies had adapted to their surroundings like we always had, but there was hearsay about some of the production factories being able to make actual building material for the first time in forever. Until then, it was the boxcar life for the both of us.

Violet stirred, yawning loudly. “Star? You alright? What time is it?”

“Still pretty early,” I replied softly. “I couldn’t sleep. Bad dream.”

“That’s rare for you. Are you feeling okay?” Violet said, snapping to attention. She moved next to me, placing a hoof on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I feel fine,” I said. “I think it’s just stress. I’m a little frightened, Violet. I hate leaving this place when it could need us the most. I hate what happened to you. I just… I hate all of it.”

“Hey, it’s okay to be a little frightened. I’m absolutely fucking terrified of what comes next,” Violet said with a small smile. “I may never get my magic back. That scares me.”

I smiled back at her. If there was ever a time I needed Violet, it was at that moment. She continued to be my rock, and I would do whatever it took to see her restored to her full capability.

“We should probably get back to sleep,” I said softly. “We don’t meet up with Sunshine for another three hours.”

We both moved to our bed and I pulled Violet close to me, snuggling her as hard as I could without potentially injuring her, and fell back asleep. No more dreams plagued my thoughts, but in the back of my mind I couldn’t unsee those eyes.

* * *

We trotted to the edge of Fort Knowledge where we were met by both Velvet Remedy and Calamity. They both assured us that the NCR would manage to keep things well in hoof while we were gone, and Calamity even promised if he had the opportunity to shove as many bullets up Commander Breeze’s ass as he could.

I had to make do with that promise if I couldn’t deliver it on my own later. I owed that pegasus a world of hurt, but I had to do what I could to save others, and it was the stupidest idea in the world to try to go after him alone. As Violet would say, I was getting wiser. We had to go to Mount Aris to find this… this weapon, whatever it was.

Part of that bugged me as Sunshine, Violet, and I set out from Fort Knowledge. What was this weapon? What did it even do? The book detailing everything was riding in my saddlebags and I thought of the name on the cover. Tempest Shadow. Who were they? Were they a pony? So many questions swirled through my brain. So many things I needed to know.

Violet had been outfitted with a special battle saddle to assist with her weaponry, one that would hold her energy rifles and allow her to at least fire them. We still weren’t sure whether her magic would return in full, but at the very least she’d continued feeling the tingling sensation that Doctor Redmane claimed was good. The mental exercises given to her were tedious, but she had begun them in earnest. It was actually uplifting to see how positive she was being about the whole thing. Sunshine had been helping to pitch in to help her with it, being familiar with magical burnout herself and the knowledge of not pushing one’s self to recover from such a thing.

The day was bright and clear, so I took the opportunity to fly both Sunshine and Violet over the rolling hills of the new Equestrian Wasteland. We passed over several farms along the way, ponies just simply trying to get by in growing crops for food. Sunshine did not quite appreciate the gesture of flying, much to the point where I had to use my telekinesis to hold her in place as we moved. It was something that she had definitely never grown accustomed to in our time as friends.

We set down in the rolling hills just outside of Ponyville. Ponyville was once raider territory, but after the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, it had been taken over by a different breed of creature: hellhounds. Descended from their original species of creature known as Diamond Dogs, hellhounds were large predatory creatures that could tear a pony apart in mere seconds with their razor sharp claws. They were also incredibly intelligent and capable of using pony weapons with practiced ease.

In the aftermath of all that had happened however, the hellhounds, spurred on by the kindness shown to them by Velvet Remedy, had become peaceful and capable of trade. They regularly sent their kind out into the Wasteland beyond the Wasteland alongside ghouls, using their fierce presence and sharp senses to guard caravans.

It also helped that they knew who I was. Mainly because one of our friends from my adventure across Equestria was one of them. I was one of the few ponies outside of Velvet Remedy who were respected enough to set foot in Ponyville.

We crossed the bridge into Ponyville proper, still feeling the stare of the hellhound guards standing watch. I only had eyes for one of them though.

The hellhound standing at the end of the bridge grinned widely as we walked across. He stood tall, one of his arms made of prosthetic plastic and metal, a product of an attack by a gross taint monster. Despite his glowing yellow eyes and fearsome presence, Nixis was one of the best friends I had ever known and one of the most intelligent creatures I had ever met.

“Radiant Star,” he said softly. “The scouts spotted you a few miles out and informed me of your arrival. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Nixis. It’s good to see you. Unfortunately we can’t stay very long,” I said. “We are passing through to the rail line that leads south.”

“You’re going outside of Equestria?” Nixis said, his eyes narrowing. He glanced past me at Violet and Sunshine. “What happened to you, Miss Violet?”

Violet grimaced. “Long story,” she said. “I’ll be fine though.”

Nixis nodded and motioned for us to follow him. “The rail line is dangerous territory once you’re outside of Equestria proper. Many of our scouts go that way with the Ghoul caravans to seek out radiated water,” he said as we walked through the town. “If you’re going down that way, it would make sense to go with one of the caravans with some extra protection.”

“We plan to go a lot farther than the caravan can take us,” I said. “But if it’s as dangerous as you say it is, then you may be right.”

Our path wound through the town proper to the Ponyville Library. Once a haven for disgusting raiders, the place had been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt and now served as both home and business for Nixis and his life mate, Avira. Nixis motioned for us to enter. As we did we were beset upon by three very exuberant young hellhounds. They jumped and barked and giggled loudly. One of them was a marble coloring, while the other two were black with white facial markings. It was very hard to tell the difference between those two.

“Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire! Down from our guests at once!” a female voice said from behind them. A beautiful white hellhound stood at the far end of the main library room. “Remember your manners, young ones!”

“Sorry, Mother,” all three hellhounds said in unison, sitting down in front of us. It was immensely cute as they all three wagged their tails.

“Hello there, Avira,” I said, bowing slightly to the hellhound. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Radiant Star,” Avira said. “You grace us with your presence here.”

“It’s really nothing,” I said. “We’re just passing through.”

Violet and Sunshine giggled as the three young hellhounds started playing with each other. They bounded out of the room, clearly bored of the new ponies in the room. Avira smiled softly.

“To be young and full of energy,” she said with a sigh.

Avira stepped forward, inspecting each of us in turn. She gave condolences to Violet over the loss of her horn before returning to her position. Violet blushed and nodded. Nixis stepped in, explaining our predicament. Avira smiled a toothy grin and motioned for us to come upstairs.

“Please. I insist that you spend the night and tell us of what has happened in the outside world since we last spoke. The next caravan doesn’t leave until the morning anyways,” she said. “It would make sense for you to have some rest before setting out.”

I looked over at Sunshine and Violet. They both nodded. “Okay. You’ve got it. We appreciate your hospitality.”

“Nixis, my love,” Avira said. “Please inform the caravan masters of their extra protection, would you please? And then come back and join us for dinner.”

Nixis nodded, exiting the library. We walked up the stairs to our rooms behind Avira and deposited our gear in the room she had set aside for us.

“The children all share a room, so we have one set aside that should fit all of you,” she said.

While the others got situated, Avira and I walked out onto the balcony, looking out at Ponyville below. Things were getting better all the time it seemed. Much of the filth that had existed pre-Gardens had been cleaned up by the spell and I could see patches of growing fields throughout the town. The hellhounds had even cleaned up the building that used to be Carousel Boutique and were using it as a center of trade. Young hellhounds ran through the streets and the sounds of laughter and playfulness filled the air.

“You’ve done well here, Avira,” I said.

“It was the kindness given to us that allowed us to grow and become better,” the hellhound replied softly. “I suppose you ponies would call it the magic of friendship.”

“You just needed a little space to call your own,” I said, grimacing. I only wished that Ponyville would survive what was coming. I expected they would. Nopony would be crazy enough to mess with an entire town of hellhounds.

“Something is wrong. I can feel it in the way you carry yourself,” Avira said. “Is it about what happened to Violet?”

“It’s… it’s complicated. Violet got injured trying to help save me from an attack,” I said wistfully. “But that’s not even the crux of it. There’s an army blazing a trail through the outer rim of Equestria, devouring settlements there.”

Avira scowled, her teeth clenched and gleaming. “Do you think this army may come here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I should be out there, facing them, but we found this reference to some sort of weapon that could aid our battle, and now… now I’m here.”

“You worry about not being able to protect ponies,” Avira said with a nod. “I feel this every day with my children and the dogs who go to protect the caravans. We can only do what we can and we must trust in others to do their part.”

I sighed, but Avira was right. We all had to play our part. I would play mine and do whatever was necessary to help protect Equestria. Even if it meant giving up personal revenge.

* * *

After a lovely dinner with Nixis and his family, I stepped out onto the balcony once more while Violet performed her exercises with Sunshine, looking down at the town. In the distance I could see the ruins of Canterlot. Despite how good things had been as of late in Equestria, Canterlot was still in pretty bad shape. Much of the efforts to actually clean up the place had been slow. I think ponies still associated the place with a lot of pain and didn’t really want to address that. After all, it was where Princess Luna had perished.

I gazed back down upon the town. The hellhounds slowly had dissipated back in the darkness to their homes, built out of the existing structures of Ponyville. The town was quiet. Outside of the town proper was a caravan camp, their fires burning into the night.

I sighed loudly and walked back inside, settling into bed beside Violet and Sunshine. Before I realized it, sleep overtook me.

I dreamed once more. It was the same dream as before, but it somehow felt more real. The drenching water, the laughter, those eyes. All of it felt so incredibly real. I felt paralyzed with fear, tossing and turning until I simply gave up.

I awoke the next morning drenched in sweat and feeling like shit. I wished I could understand why these dreams were happening. The others were still asleep, so I stood and stepped outside to dry off. When I felt I was ready to go back in, I went in to get Violet and Sunshine up.

Nixis and Avira led us out of the town over to where the caravan camp was parked. The caravan was a flurry of activity as the ghouls running the camp started packing up and getting their brahmin ready for the journey ahead. At the head of the operation was a unicorn ghoul that Nixis had said was named Trick Shot. He noticed our arrival immediately and came to meet us.

“You’re the three that are joining us?” he said, his gravelly voice gruff and tired sounding.

“Radiant Star,” I said, lifting a hoof in greeting. “These are my friends, Violet Iris and Sunshine Sky. We’re with the Followers of the Apocalypse.”

“Trick Shot,” the unicorn replied. “I handle the Ponyville to the Badlands run of Absolutely Everything’s operations down here. We make the run and acquire irradiated water to use for Aqua Cura.”

I nodded. I was fairly familiar with Ditzy’s business operations. After the casting of Gardens, the ghouls of Equestria needed a source of radiation to sustain their bodies. Aqua Cura was a repackaged product that Ditzy came up with to provide that. It required a lot of dangerous work into places beyond Equestria, however.

“We’re headed down the same railway,” I said. “But we’re not coming back to Equestria with you. We have a destination further south.”

“Further south? You’re fucking insane,” Trick Shot replied. “Do you know how dangerous it is down there? If the irradiated creatures don’t get you, those fucking Nirik will.”

“Nirik?” Sunshine interjected. “What’s a Nirik?”

“The reason we only go down as far as the edge of the Peaks of Peril,” Trick Shot said. “That mountain range is full of those things. They look like flaming ponies but they’re wicked and they spit fire from their mouths.”

Flaming ponies, I thought to myself. What the fuck.

“Don’t worry, Trick. I think Star and her friends are more than capable of taking care of themselves. I know from experience,” Nixis said. “Besides, you’ll still have a complement of dogs to watch over the caravan while you work.”

Trick grimaced. “Okay. I don’t feel right about letting some fillies run off to their deaths, but if you say you can handle it, then I’ll believe you. We leave within the hour. Be ready,” he said before running off to help get the camp packed up. Sunshine followed behind to see if she could help.

“Trick is a good pony. He’s got a lot on his plate, but he’ll see you to where you need to be,” Nixis said. “Go with blessings, Star. It was very good to see you. Hopefully you can visit with us when the fate of Equestria doesn’t hang in the balance.”

I chuckled softly. “It was good to see both of you,” I said.

“Yes, thank you for taking us in for the night,” Violet said. “We really appreciated it. Your children are absolutely adorable.”

“It was no problem,” Avira said with a smile. “I am sorry for what has happened to you, but I can see you are surrounded by much love and support, Violet. Go with blessings.”

Violet nodded, blushing. “I know.”

“You two had best catch up with Sunshine. The caravan is gearing up to go. Should you need assistance during your journey, talk to the dogs guarding. They are smart and experienced with these runs,” Nixis said. “Their leader is a fierce warrior named Rover.”

“Bit of a cliche name don’t you think?” I said with a snort. “A dog named Rover.”

“Oh he changed his name to that. It was a bit… friendlier than his birth name,” Nixis said. “Trust me… you don’t want to know what it was.”

“Before we go… Nixis. Do you think you could send a contingent of dogs to Fort Knowledge? The NCR there may need all the help they can get if this army gains traction again.” I asked.

Nixis nodded. “I’ll take them myself,” he said, glancing over at Avira. She nodded in affirmation.

“If this is as dangerous as you say it is, we must play our parts as well in protecting our home,” Avira said. “I agree with your assertion. Nixis will lead the finest contingent of dogs we have.”

“I’ll make it up to you both,” I said, reaching out and pulling both of the hulking hellhounds into a hug.

We left Nixis and Avira and headed to join Sunshine at the head of the caravan. The contingent of hellhounds guarding the caravan walked alongside the brahmin carts, spread out tactically to cover as much ground as possible. We soon found ourselves walking next to an old rail station and line.

The rail line was an old line it seemed. It didn’t have quite the technology invested into it that some of the stations we had seen in cities like Manehattan. It seemed positively ancient by comparable standards.

I found myself walking alongside where Trick Shot was commanding the caravan while Violet and Sunshine took up residence in the passenger wagons. The ghouls running the operation still needed to rest, so they had a specific set of wagons for this purpose.

“Trick,” I said from my position next to the wagon. “You mentioned before that you don’t go past the Peaks of Peril. Have you ever heard of a place called Mount Aris?”

Trick scowled, his glowing eyes narrowing at me. “That’s where this rail line goes,” he said. “But that was a long time ago.”

“Really? Do you remember anything about it?” I asked.

“Not a whole lot, unfortunately,” Trick said. “I lived in Fillydelphia, so it was quite a ways away from Ponyville. I remember reading in one of the papers about this rail line being opened up to provide service to Mount Aris.”

“Do you know why?”

“The citizens of Mount Aris were allies to Equestria. Not every race was against us. They helped us during the War,” Trick said with a sigh.

“What do you mean?”

“They were hippogriffs,” Trick said. “Powerful creatures. Part pony, part eagle. Intelligent too. Very scientific.”

“What happened to them? What happened to Mount Aris?” I asked, needing to know more and more about what we were running into.

“Don’t rightly know actually. Like I said, I lived in Fillydelphia. I was there when the megaspells came down,” the unicorn replied. “Is that where you’re going? Mount Aris?”

I nodded, floating out the journal from my saddlebags. “There’s something there that I have been tasked to acquire. At least, I hope there is something there,” I said.

Trick took the journal out of the air with his own magic and looked it over. “Huh. I’ll be damned,” he said.

“What is it?” I said.

“Tempest Shadow,” Trick replied with a surprised tone.

“You know who that is?” I said, my heart pounding in my chest. Somepony who actually knew who this pony or whatever was?

“She was a unicorn. One of the Equestrian Generals. Trusted by the Ministries and even Luna herself. I honestly don’t know where she came from,” Trick said. “Again, fuzzy memory and all. But I do know that partway through the war she left the Equestrian Army and became a freelance mercenary.”

Trick flipped through the book quickly and grimaced before speaking again. “I remember something about what this book is talking about. Some years before the War there was an attack on Canterlot, but I was too young to know anything about it at the time. I know it had to do with Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight. Of course she would be involved in something like this. The former Ministry Mare of Magic had her hooves in a lot of things during the War, so I wasn’t actually all that surprised. I took the journal back from Trick Shot and thanked him again for his assistance before dropping back to see Violet and Sunshine. I quietly relayed the same information back to them.

“If this Tempest Shadow was a unicorn, and this book was in Twilight’s libraries, does it stand to reason they knew each other?” Sunshine said, looking back over the journal. “I’ve never heard this name in any of my research into Equestrian military history.”

“I’d say that’s pretty reasonable,” Violet said. “I’ve never seen any reference to her either. Trick said she was a mercenary?”

“Before that she was an Equestrian General,” I said. “She knew all of the Ministry Mares, it seemed. But how is it that we have never heard of her before?”

“Maybe she went under an assumed name,” Sunshine muttered, catching our attention. “I mean, what if Tempest Shadow was just a made up name she used in private communication?”

“Why use it in this book then?” I asked.

“She probably had her reasons,” Sunshine said. “Maybe she didn’t want to be tied back to something about this situation, I don’t know.”

“But then, how does Trick know that she was a unicorn?” I asked.

We had no answers for that… yet.

* * *

Night fell as we made our first stop just outside the border of Equestria. Trick explained that after we crossed the border the chances to actually rest were slimmer than normal, so we would need as much rest as possible.

I wasn’t really planning on resting. I needed to talk to Trick again about Tempest Shadow. While Violet and Sunshine were getting ready for bed, I moved up towards the head of the caravan to locate Trick. The unicorn was busy fixing one of the wheels on the front wagon.

“We need to talk,” I said, stepping out of the shadows.

“And what exactly do we need to talk about?” Trick said, floating a spanner into the air.

“Tempest Shadow,” I said. “You said she was a unicorn general. There’s no record of that in any of the books on the Equestrian military forces. Believe me. Sunshine’s read all the books.”

Trick froze, putting the spanner back into his bag. “There wouldn’t be,” he said. “That wasn’t her real name.”

“You knew her,” I stated.

“I did. She was a friend,” Trick said softly. “I used to serve in the military. She was my commanding officer until she defected. First class marksman Trick Shot.”

My eyes widened at this revelation. “Who was she then? Why would she write this book?”

“That… I don’t actually know. Tempest was a code name she used. She never used it anywhere else,” Trick said with a grimace. “And only privately with us in the squad. It was sort of a nickname. Her real name was Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

I blinked. “That’s a bit of a mouthful. I can see why she preferred Tempest.”

Trick chuckled. “Yes well, she was always pretty stern about anypony that made fun of her name,” he said with a sigh. “After she left the military, we lost touch. I don’t know what happened to her after that.”

I looked down at my hooves and sighed. Despite this new information it didn’t really tell us anymore than we already knew. We didn’t know why Tempest had written this book or what her connection to the symbol the army bore as its standard was. It was like we were back to square one in looking to find Mount Aris and this weapon, whatever it was.

“I know this probably doesn’t help you too much,” Trick Shot said, floating an object out of his saddlebag. “But I keep plenty of reminders of the old days and my squad. We were… close. This particular one, well it was of her.”

It was a memory orb. I looked quizzically at Trick.

“I want it back, obviously, but you’re more than welcome to view it,” he said with a grin. “Of course, I would prefer you do it on the wagon in case we need to move. I do not want to have to lift you with my magic.”

“Are you saying I’m fat?” I asked off-beat, taking the memory orb carefully and placing it into my own bag.

Trick chuckled softly. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work. Keeping these caravans going like a well oiled machine is a full time job, and ghouls in Equestria are counting on our deliveries.”

“Of course. Thank you,” I said, walking back along the caravan to the wagon where Violet and Sunshine were waiting. They perked up as soon as I entered.

“Did you find anything out?” Sunshine asked.

“It turns out… Tempest Shadow was indeed a code name for a mare named Fizzlepop Berrytwist,” I said, floating out the memory orb. “Trick Shot… served under her in the Equestrian military. Until she defected at least.”

“But he doesn’t know anything about the journal?” Violet said.

I shook my head. “He was young when this situation occurred. This Tempest was apparently a very private pony.”

“Interesting,” Sunshine said. “I’ll have to dig back into the saved records on my PipBuck and figure out if I can locate this Fizzlepop. Maybe it's worth looking into.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to watch this memory orb,” I said. “Trick gave it to me to watch, so I have to give it back when I’m done with it.”

Violet nodded. “We’ve got your back in case anything happens,” she said.

I reached in and nuzzled her cheek and smiled. “I know you do, my love. Just be careful if something does happen,” I replied. I turned and laid down at the far end of the passenger wagon. With a swish of magic I lifted the orb and focused upon it, feeling my world spin away into the darkness.

oooOOOooo

The familiar feeling of riding inside a pony’s body came to me quickly. It was something I knew pretty intimately. Memory orbs and memories in general were a thing I knew quite well. I took stock of my immediate surroundings as the memory began to play out. I was sitting in what appeared to be an armored skywagon. Several other unicorns also sat along the one side of the wagon, dressed in a ragtag assortment of Equestrian military gear. Something felt off with this group. They felt rough around the edges, not quite like a fine tuned machine the Equestrian military supposedly had been. The skywagon itself was in motion, but I couldn’t easily see where we were.

Light conversation could be heard amongst the soldiers as we flew. Talks about who was waiting back home for them. Of when we may be going home if at all. There was a palpable sense of anger and fear. Everypony felt it. Even I felt it through Trick Shot’s body. Whatever this mission was… there was a chance of nopony making it out alive.

And then she stepped up in front of everypony. I knew immediately it was her. Tempest Shadow. Her coat was a deep purple with a brilliant mane of magenta hues. Her blue eyes pierced the room with their intensity, a thin scar set over her right eye. She wore body armor that concealed much of her body, including her cutie mark. What amazed me the most was her horn. Her horn… was broken. Much like how Violet’s horn had been cut off, Tempest’s horn was craggly and gnarled but clearly broken.

Then it lit up with the intensity of a thousand moons, creating a flash of light that got everypony’s immediate attention. My host’s eyes cut through the flash of light, only focused on the mare beneath it. I had the distinct impression that he was staring at her, not at his commanding officer.

“Alright then,” Tempest said, narrowing her eyes. “Now that I have your attention. Let’s begin the briefing.”

Her broken horn glowed again, a map appearing in midair.

“This is a Special OPs mission. You know the drill. You do the work, you get ten years off your sentence,” Tempest began, drawing several lines on the map. “Our objective is to infiltrate and extract the prisoners. Nothing else. Do not engage the enemy unless they engage you.”

“Whatever happened to having a little fun, Commander Berrytwist?” one of the unicorns, a large round stallion said with a chuckle.

“Anypony, and I mean anypony, who steps out of line and does not follow orders under my command will face my judgment,” Tempest said, anger clear in her voice as she stepped up to the unicorn’s position in line. “Furthermore, while we are on the ground you are to use the codenames provided to you in your briefing instructions on your PipBuck, is that perfectly clear to you?”

The unicorn stallion straightened up immediately and saluted. “Yes, ma’am. I mean, Commander Shadow, ma’am,” he said, a twinge of fear in his voice.

“Good. Keep it that way. Now the rest of you, we’re splitting up into two teams. One team will be under my command. The other team will answer to Captain Trick Shot. You are to treat him as your commanding officer, is that clear?”

The crowd of unicorns shouted in unison. “Yes, ma'am!”

“Excellent. Remember we are behind enemy lines, and if we get caught your existence will be completely disavowed. We operate outside of the Equestrian military’s normal protocols,” Tempest said. She turned and walked over to where my host waited. My host followed her every move. Wait, is he checking her out? I thought as my host’s gaze drifted down the flanks of Tempest’s body armor. He is!

“I don’t like our odds,” my host said softly. “This mission is insane, Commander.”

“They’re not the best soldiers,” Tempest replied. “But they’ll have to do. Just keep an eye on them. Our true objective is still in place.”

My host nodded. “Understood, Commander.”

The memory began to fade to white signifying that I was coming out of it.

ooooOOOOoooo

I came out of the memory feeling amazed at how in control Tempest Shadow had seemed. Despite her injury she seemed confident and powerful. The memory still didn’t answer many of the questions I still had about the mare. How had she come to write this journal? What did she know about Mount Aris?

I thought about the hippogriffs, a race of creatures that hadn’t been seen in modern Equestria in quite some time. I wondered. Did they all perish at Mount Aris?

Violet nudged me, and I smiled at her as I pushed myself up. Sunshine lay snoozing a few feet away in the wagon. It was still dark out and the caravan was not moving.

“Well? See anything interesting inside the memory?” Violet asked.

“Nothing that answers any of our pressing questions,” I said. “You, however, would be interested to know that Tempest Shadow… her horn was broken. She could still use her magic, and she was brilliant.”

Violet’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Really,” I said, nuzzling her. “Keep at your exercises. You’ll get there. Trust me.”

Violet nodded and smiled again. I picked up the memory orb and placed it into my bag.

“Get some sleep. I’m going to return this to Trick Shot,” I said, turning to exit the wagon.

“Star?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” Violet said. “I… I needed that.”

I nodded and winked at her, stepping out onto the ground. As I made my way towards the front of the caravan, I felt something incredibly wrong in the air. I wasn’t the only one either. The dogs were up and about too, sniffing at the air. I stopped and headed back to the lead dog, Rover.

“You can sense it too, can’t you?” I said urgently.

“Ministry Mare,” Rover said, his voice sounding like a cheese grater being run across two rocks. “Yes… Something doesn’t smell right.”

One of the other dogs lifted their magical energy rifle. It growled under its breath. Out of the darkness something appeared several feet away from the caravan. It’s body was pony-like, but it’s head and hooves were wreathed in green flames and its skin was leathery, cracked. Instead of a regular pony’s tail, it had a long skeletal tail that ended in a ball of green fire. It roared a raspy throaty roar before charging at the dog with the rifle.

The hellhound didn’t have a chance to even fire before the creature was upon it. The thing dipped into its space and breathed on it, setting the dog on fire in a blaze of green flame. My PipBuck began to click wildly at the amount of radiation the thing was putting off.

As an alicorn, radiation didn’t really bother me that much. In fact, it empowered my body, and strengthened me, but it wasn’t so hot for my friends. By the time I managed to pull another dog out of the way of the thing with my telekinesis, the thing had killed one more dog the same way it brought down the first one.

“Light it up!” Rover shouted, lifting his own rifle and firing at the thing.

The shots seemed to do nothing to the creature. It actually seemed to relish and absorb them. And since all of the dogs on duty had magical energy weapons at the ready, it seemed like they were all doomed before they could switch to something more traditional. I didn’t even think a hellhound’s claws could get close enough to the thing to do any damage before the radiation did the rest.

From behind us, a shot rang out, taking the creature’s brains out of its head with a single shot. It slumped to the ground and burned out right there as the hellhounds closest to it backed off from the increasing radiation.

“Move!” Trick Shot’s voice rang out. “It’s going to blow!”

I scowled, using my magic to pull back as many dogs and ghouls nearby as I possibly could. The radiation was empowering my magic too, so I could manage multiple targets at one time very easily. I threw myself over the dead thing as it glowed even brighter. My PipBuck was clicking so fast it couldn’t keep up with itself.

Then the thing blew, spewing radioactive sludge all over me in a shower of gore. I nearly lost my lunch as I groaned and slumped onto the ground next to it.

“Fuck,” Trick Shot said, climbing down from his vantage point. The others had exited their wagons, roused by the shooting. “Radiant Star! Are you alright!”

I nodded woozily as the radiation continued to do its work throughout my system. Any damage done by the physical act of the blast had begun to subside thanks to the radiation. “I’m okay,” I said, lifting a hoof. “Just a little lit up.”

“Star!” Violet shouted, held back by one of the caravan ghouls.

“Vi, don’t come close. You know what I’m like when there’s radiation in me,” I said, pushing myself to my hooves. “Going to have to bleed it off.”

“You’re lucky you’re an alicorn,” Trick Shot said, stepping up next to me. “And you’re lucky you’re surrounded by ghouls.”

I chuckled. “What the fuck was that thing?”

“That… that was a Nirik. I’ve never seen one this close to Equestria’s borders,” Trick said. “That doesn’t bode well at all.”

My eyes widened. That thing was a Nirik?! It was like a ghoul had set itself on fire and was able to set other shit on fire just by breathing on them.

“Are the… the dogs okay?” I asked.

Trick nodded. “We lost two of them, but Rover said the other ones will recover just fine with a nice amount of Rad-Away and Rad-X,” he said. “You did good.”

I looked down at my saddlebag. It was ripped to shreds, but thankfully the only thing inside of it had been the memory orb. The downside of this was that it was turned to slag.

“Fuck… I was coming to bring this back to you,” I said, lifting the molten orb out of the bag with my magic. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Trick said, taking it in his magic and chucking it into the bushes nearby. “I just appreciate you stopping that thing from blowing up onto the caravan. Could have cost us days in travel time to get the wagons back together from that kind of attack.”

“Are you sure? I… I saw in that memory how you looked at her,” I said softly. “You loved her didn’t you?”

Trick grimaced. “It was… complicated. I’ll tell you later. For now get some rest and try to bleed off some of that radiation. Tomorrow, we leave Equestria proper.”

Author's Note

A wild Nirik appears! Let's get into the Badlands and get on the way to Mount Aris!

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Chapter 3: Outside the Realm of Normality

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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Chapter 4: Dark Revelations

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 4: Dark Revelations

Oh, boy. I hate epic adventures.

It was the same dream, but at the same time it was different. I drifted listlessly, pelted by the raging storm. All around me, dark laughter echoed across the skies. A raging torrent of water rushed at me from all directions. I tried as hard as I could to escape it, my wings flapping as hard as they could. The water crashed over me, dragging me down to the dark depths below.

Usually by that point, the dream had ended. It didn’t this time. I floundered in the water, struggling to breathe. My lungs were on fire. I began to pass out. A bright light washed over me, filling every inch of the water with its brilliance.

I began to hear a voice in the distance calling my name. It was almost… familiar. Was I dead? I remembered being thrown forward into the void in Klugetown, but not much more after that.

The voice called out again and I struggled to listen. It was calling my name. It was calling for me to… wake up? I strained to see where the voice was coming from.

All I could see was a brilliant blur of purple. And then nothing more.

* * *

“Star, dammit wake up!” I heard Violet shouting from above me. “Star, come on…”

“V… Vi?” I weakly uttered, coughing up some dust. I tried to get a sense of what was going on, but couldn’t see much beyond my marefriend’s face.

I ignited my horn, giving us some light, but not much. All around us was rubble. Wood and concrete rubble. Above us was nothing but dark cold stone. The building must have collapsed on its side. My mind raced as I glanced over at Violet.

“You’re… you’re okay,” I coughed out. “Where…?”

“Trick and Sunshine are fine,” Violet said. “They’re trying to find a way out that isn’t going to bring down this entire structure on top of us. We got lucky. At the very least we only lost our anti-smog gear, it got busted on the trip down.”

“What about…?” I asked, groaning again.

“Bright Ember. We could hear him, at least until about thirty minutes ago. He’s trapped behind some fallen stone,” Violet said. “You were pretty banged up still from before so you were out cold for a few hours.”

I winced. My rib still felt very tender. I moved to push myself to a sitting position, grimacing as I did so. “What happened?”

“Something hit the building,” Violet said.

“The rest of the city was uninhabited except for that smog shit,” I said. “And that certainly didn’t do this.”

Sunshine reappeared out of the darkness, her horn glowing brightly. “Oh good, she’s awake. We think we can free Bright Ember, but we’re going to need Star’s magic.”

“She’s still all sorts of fucked up here,” Violet said, raising an eyebrow. “There’s no way she can…”

“Vi… I have to try,” I said, panting hard as I stood. “We can’t just stick around here. We’ll die if we lose too much air.”

Violet sighed loudly and looked down at her hooves. “You’re right,” she said. “I hate when you’re right.”

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t happen that often,” I said with a small smirk before looking at Sunshine. “Lead me to him.”

We carefully walked across the broken overturned building to another section where Trick Shot was waiting. He looked a little beaten up himself, but otherwise fine. He was standing in front of a pile of stone blocking the wall next to him.

“We think we can move some of the stone,” he said as we made our way to him. “But we can’t move enough of it to get through without possibly compromising the stone above.”

“What can I do?”

“We need you to focus your magic on the ceiling and keep it steady while we work,” Sunshine said. “You’re the strongest telekinetic here. If you can keep it up until we can build a proper brace then we should be okay.”

I nodded. If Bright Ember was in trouble, I felt compelled to help as best as I could. I reached out with my magic, wrapping the stone above us in a cold pale blue light. I strained as I held it in place. Sunshine and Trick took no time at all, each of them beginning to move stones and pieces of wood away from the wall. I felt the ceiling shift several times, and I struggled to keep my magic in place. Sunshine moved some of the rubble to each side, turning it into braces that wedged up into the ceiling, adding a bit of her own magic to the mix with some vines to strengthen them.

In the void beyond, Bright Ember lay on his side. Trick quickly pulled him from the dark space and out. Violet moved to his side and checked his vitals as I released the ceiling onto the braces that Sunshine had fashioned.

“He’s unconscious,” she said. “He must have lost a lot of air in there calling for help. I think he’s going to be fine though, but somepony is going to have to carry him.”

“Strap him to me,” I said, grimacing. “I’m the only one physically capable of carrying him, and we’re going to need all of our magic to get out of here.”

“Getting out of here is going to be an even crazier proposition,” Sunshine said, scowling. “We don’t know how far the building fell. It’s possible we’re not even above ground. There isn’t much light. Our only way out is directly upwards.”

“And we don’t know how much rubble is directly above us,” I said. “Or what state this building will be in when we cut through.”

Sunshine nodded. I growled under my breath.

“I could try to teleport out,” I said. “I can reasonably teleport to places I’ve been, and I’ve certainly been outside in this stupid city.”

“You’re in no shape to be teleporting anywhere, and we still don’t know what hit the building,” Violet chided. “That would be a very bad idea in general.”

I cursed out loud and put my head against the cold stone wall. Violet was right. If something was out there, and it hit the building, then chances were it was still out there.

“T-t-t-tunnels…” a voice croaked from below us. It was Bright Ember. He groaned and pushed himself up before falling back. He managed to croak out one last thing before passing out again. “There’s… there’s tunnels below the city.”

“Tunnels?” Sunshine said. “I think I like the idea of being outside much better.”

A grinding sound erupted from somewhere above us, and I could hear the thundering sound of hooves. Whatever had hit the building was still out there and it was directly above our location. I listened closely trying to get a sense of what it was.

“We should move,” I said. “The tunnels are probably safer than whatever’s up there, but we need to head towards where the building is separated to move down safely.”

“You don’t think it’s…?” Violet started to say.

My mind flashed back to Hope Hollow. Was it the raiders from there? Did they follow us all the way here? What kind of reach did this Master of their have? I was sure I was going to find out sooner or later. In the meantime, we needed to move. I fastened Bright Ember to me as best as I could and we started to make our way through the maze of the ruined building. The grinding noises continued above us and I could have sworn at some point I heard shouting. We were running out of time and we needed to find a way down below if there was one.

The area that must have been directly below us but was now in front of us was a ruined stairwell, the stairs themselves rotted out and broken up from the crash. We maneuvered through the field of sharp metal as carefully as we could for what felt like forever, feeling the building shift every so often as it settled. We finally made our way to what looked like where the building broke off before seeing the outside. It was dark out. The haze of the smog permeated the air above us but thankfully remained there as we stepped onto the ruined ground floor. The grinding noises were louder now that we could hear them without the stone muffling them.

As we moved into the darkness towards a door leading down into a basement, something big and black moved to intercept us. My eyes widened as I took in what it was. It was another one of those things that Breeze had called a Storm Guard. It held a long pike in one hand and a shield in the other. It’s eyes pierced into my very soul and held me there for a second.

“Star! Come on, we’ve got to move!” Violet shouted, unleashing two bolts of magical energy from her battle saddle mounted rifles.

The creature moved to dodge the bolts of energy, lowering its pike to fire a bolt of energy from the tip. I growled under my breath and lifted a shield to deflect the bolt away. It sizzled and dissipated against my shield instead, making me feel rather queasy as the magic fell away.

Trick Shot fired as well, hitting the thing in its shoulder. Blackened blood spurted from it, knocking it to the ground.

“Run! Down!” he shouted.

I nodded and moved past him as he continued to fire shot after shot into the creature. It didn’t have time to dodge them, so great was Trick’s skill with a rifle. It dropped back to the ground, howling in pain as it struggled to move. Trick grimaced and lowered his rifle, moving to follow us down the stairs.

“I put it down but there’s sure to be more,” he said. “We need to hope this isn’t a dead end or we’re digging in to fight.”

Sunshine threw open the door at the bottom of the stairs with a flash of her horn, vines forming to rip it apart. The basement was wide open, having survived the crash of the building above intact. At the far end through the rotted debris was another door that looked like it led downward still. We’d gotten lucky, but only just so.

We made it halfway across the basement before there was shouting behind us and gunfire. I quickly tried to make a shield, but only just barely got it up before it dissipated again. Whatever energy that Storm Guard’s bolts had transferred combined with my own healing injuries was affecting my magic.

*BLAM* *BLAM*

Trick Shot’s rifle came up again and the two raiders that had been following us lost their lives along with pieces of their skull. Sunshine and Violet had continued moving forward, reaching the door in no time at all. Sunshine began working on the door as fast as she could, pulling it open to reveal a darkened tunnel deep into the ground below. We funneled in, closing the door behind us.

“Sunshine, can you seal it behind us?” I called out.

“What if we trap ourselves down here?” she asked, panting heavily. She was absolutely drenched in sweat.

“I’m willing to take that shot,” I said. “We have to do something to slow them down.”

Sunshine nodded, grimacing as she shimmied past me towards the door. With a flare of her horn, magical vines sprung into existence, closing the gap and bathing us in darkness. From the other side I could hear more shouting.

“That oughta hold them over until we can get deeper in the tunnels,” she said as she ignited her horn, giving us a bright pinkish light to go by. “Now, let’s see where we are.”

We moved down the steps carefully, going deeper and deeper until we found ourselves in a larger tunnel. It smelled rotten down here, like death. I didn’t care for it, especially in my condition. I looked back at Bright Ember, strapped to my body. He was still unconscious, but he was breathing. I counted small blessings from the Goddess for that. I still couldn’t believe that someone seemingly as nice as he was could turn into such a dangerous creature.

“It looks like this tunnel loops around and branches off multiple paths,” Sunshine said, returning from walking ahead a little bit. “It’s hard to tell which way is the right path.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “I really wish Bright Ember was awake. He might actually know where to go.”

“We can’t sit for too long. Sooner or later, they’re going to get through if they’re resourceful enough. Shit, what the fuck was that thing I shot anyway?” Trick Shot said. “Does this have something to do with that army you were talking about?”

I nodded. “The pegasi in charge of the army called them Storm Guards. Vicious and deadly. Fast. But not faster than you it seems,” I said.

“I wasn’t at the top of my class in marksmanship for nothing,” Trick Shot replied.

“Trick is right. We shouldn’t dally too long,” Violet said, panting. “We’re all tired as hell, but we have to keep moving.”

“Stick close then. We’re just going to have to pick a route and double back if it’s a dead end,” I said with a grimace. “We can’t split up down here.”

We started walking deeper into the tunnel, coming across the openings that led into three different paths. I stepped up to each one, trying to visualize the city above as best as I could. Violet stepped up next to me, doing the same. We both arrived at the tunnel on the left.

“You sure about this?” I asked Violet.

“Pretty sure,” Violet said with a nod.

I motioned for the others to follow behind us as we filed into the tunnel. It opened up into a much wider tunnel that looked like more worked stone. Something had built this up. My eyes widened as the wide tunnel turned into an open air cavern system. Gemstones gleamed all around the walls. Large pieces of mining equipment lay here or there, long abandoned.

“Whoah,” Sunshine said. “Who set this up?”

I scowled, glancing at one of the drills. It bore a symbol I was becoming increasingly frustrated with. “Hippocampus Energy,” I said. “What were they doing down here? They’ve been everywhere since we left Equestria.”

“Star, look,” Violet said, pointing up at the cavern ceiling.

I glanced up. Power cabling ran across the ceiling, held in place with massive brackets bolted into the stone. It went back and forth across the cavern, ending in a large terminal on a cliff in the distance. A large elevator led up to the terminal, and a door sat in the stone beyond the terminal on the cliff.

“That’s our way out,” I said. “Everypony head for the elevator. I have a sneaking suspicion where that door goes.”

“I’m going to guess Hippocampus Energy for a hundred caps,” Sunshine said.

We started walking across the cavern heading for the elevator and had nearly made it three fourths of the way there when I heard shouting from behind us. I quickly dove behind one of the large drilling tanks, grabbing Violet. Sunshine and Trick Shot followed suit.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered as I heard the grunts and growls of Storm Guards in the room. I glanced back up at the elevator. “Can’t really make a break for it.”

“Then we dig in,” Trick Shot said. “How’s your magic?”

My horn glowed softly. “Feeling a little better. Sunshine?”

“I’m good,” the pink unicorn said with a grin. “Let’s dig in and show these fuckers who they’re dealing with.”

I nodded, pulling Bright Ember off my back and settling him behind some debris so that they couldn’t see him. I was going to need to be able to move if I was going to fight. I accessed my magic again, trying to form my blade. My body was still healing but I was able to form at least a passable blade. It would have to suffice.

We positioned ourselves behind some of the nearby drilling tanks and I glanced out. There were at least three Storm Guards combing the room, spurred on by two floating pegasi and three raiders. Eight in total. I scowled.

“Okay, Trick. Your bullets seemed to catch the Storm Guards unaware. Keep them busy and keep them guessing where you are,” I said softly. “I’m going to deal with the pegasi, but I’m going to need a little help from Sunshine.”

“Got it,” Sunshine said.

“Violet, I want you to focus on the raiders. They have the worst looking armor, so your energy weapons should make quick work of them,” I said to my marefriend.

“I can do that,” she said.

“Good. Now get ready, because Trick… you’re going to kick things off as soon as I fly out,” I said.

The ghoulicorn nodded and floated his rifle out next to him. He glanced up and climbed up slowly onto the tank, positioning himself so he could see out throughout the cavern. I took the cue and launched myself in the air, allowing the pegasi to see me.

“Yo, feather brains!” I shouted. “Looking for me?”

“Get her!” one of the pegasi shouted as several beams of energy came my way.

I dodged to the side as quickly as I could, still taking a grazing shot along my side that hurt like hell. Chaos erupted and several things happened all at once. Trick Shot’s rifle blared to life in the cavern, filling the air with raucous sound as his bullets tore into the Storm Guards. They appeared to be disoriented and fell backwards, bleeding profusely from several wounds. At the same time, Violet’s energy rifle also broke the silence, smacking into the raiders. They dove behind some cover and Violet kept them pinned down.

As for the pegasi, they got close enough to try to hit me again before two large vines erupted out of the ground below them and latched onto their legs, pulling them down and swinging them about to collide with one another. I took the opportunity and brought my blade to bear, using it to sever their armor’s power matrix with a well placed blow to the panel where it was located. Both fell stone cold to the ground, unmoving.

The Storm Guards were recuperating, but they didn’t seem to be pressing the attack. Instead, they retreated out of the room entirely. Something didn’t fill me with hope that this was all they had sent. As I turned my attention to the raiders I saw three glowing puddles of silver goop, Violet standing triumphantly over them.

“That was a lot easier than I expected,” she said, panting.

“They were testing us,” Trick Shot said as he climbed down from his vantage point.

At that I heard rumbling coming from the tunnel beyond. What emerged was the most insane thing I’d ever seen. It looked like a Storm Guard, but it was much bigger and silvery instead of black. It was covered in bristly spiked armor and looked to be enhanced with cybernetics, complete with what appeared to be a breathing apparatus attached to its face. It held a massive pike in both hands, covered in spikes. It roared in challenge, a garbled mess of sounds that didn’t sound pleasant.

“Fuuuuuuuuuck,” I said to myself. “All of you, get to the elevator! I’m going to try to hold this thing off to give you time.”

“You’re still tired, Star!” Violet said. “That thing will crush you in ten seconds flat.”

“Honey, I beat Wrath. I can beat this thing,” I said with a grin.

Violet stopped for a moment and smiled back at me. She nodded and grabbed Sunshine and Trick, pulling them back to where we’d stashed Bright Ember. She looked up at me as she uncovered where he’d been hidden and there was… nothing? Where had he gone?

“Just go! I’ll find him!” I shouted before Violet could come back. “GO!”

Violet and the others quickly scampered away, heading towards the elevator. I heard it begin to creak as I turned back to the monster at hoof. It roared again, lowering its pike as if to charge. Its spikes gleamed in the low light of the cavern as it launched itself across at me. I yelped loudly, teleporting away into mid air as its cruel weapon struck down where I’d been. The creature wasted no time, glancing up at me with its deep blue eyes. It leaped into the air at me and I barely had time to engage Shining Armor’s shield spell before it slammed into it, falling back to the ground.

The creature stood, watching me carefully, gauging my strength. Somehow I knew it was figuring out just how long I could maintain my shield. The pinkish bubble winked out of existence and the creature leaped into the air at me. I brought my blade to bear, slicing at the beast, but it wasn’t enough. The blunt force of its body struck me, sending a spike right into my shoulder. I howled in pain and dropped like a stone. I struck the ground and groaned, struggling to get up. I spat blood. I needed to move or I was going to die.

You’re probably going to die anyway from that much blood loss, I thought to myself as I watched the creature approach from my peripheral vision. Fuck… I’m sorry, Violet. I couldn’t pull myself out of this one after all.

The creature kept inching forward closer, trying to determine if this was some trick. If I could have talked without coughing up blood I’d have told it that there was no trick. I was really bleeding out here.

The creature raised its pike over my head, intent on bringing it down through my skull. It growled and for a brief second I really thought this was the end. I coughed blood and prepared to die.

Then something slammed into the creature so hard that it went flying backwards into one of the cavern walls. A roaring green flame erupted in the space before me and I felt my wounds begin to close up, the byproduct of magical radiation filling me with intense warmth. Standing above me was a glowing figure with a resplendent mane of fiery green. It took my eyes a few seconds to realize it was Bright Ember.

His eyes glowed fiercely with green fire and he uttered a roar that reminded me of the Nirik we’d taken down just outside of the Badlands. He didn’t even look at me, instead focused on the creature in front of him. The other thing appeared to be sizing up Ember, not understanding clearly what kind of creature the Nirik was. It lowered its pike for a charge and started towards the Nirik.

Ember shifted, turning his tail around in a blaze of green flame that wrapped itself around the pike as it came within range. I heard a hissing sound of metal as it vaporized under the intense radioactive flames. The creature fell backwards, its weapon reduced to nothing more than slag. It studied the Nirik for a few more seconds, and then started pulling away as if to retreat. Ember made to move towards it.

“Wait,” I coughed out, finally able to speak as my wounds slowly dissipated. “Let it go.”

Ember seemed to stop for a second, growling under his breath. The creature took the opportunity to scamper away, headed for the tunnels. It disappeared.

I grunted, pushing myself to my hooves. Bright Ember seemed taken aback by just a smidge at the fact that I could move, but I was feeling stronger with each passing moment spent in the area of the Nirik’s radioactive glow.

Bright Ember growled again as I reached out to him with a hoof. He moved to lash out at me and I moved in closer, pulling him towards me in an embrace. With a flash of powerful magic, the radiation in the air died away in a steam cloud and I felt nothing but fur and mane.

“It… it happened again,” Bright Ember said finally after several long moments of silence. “You see what I have to deal with. I’m dangerous to everyone else but myself.”

“You also saved my life,” I said, the glow subsiding from my own body. “Your transformation healed me, and you stood up to that thing.”

“I couldn’t let you… let you die,” Bright Ember said. “You risked your own lives to save mine. I… I had forgotten what it felt like.”

“Caring for another?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bright Ember nodded. “Positive emotions keep the Kirin in control,” he explained. “Powerful negative emotions… they cause us to transform. I was angry and hurt. I wanted that thing dead.”

“You would have probably killed it if we hadn’t let it go,” I stated matter of factly. I tested my limb strength as we stood there. I felt good, cleaner than I had all day. The excess radiation had already managed to bleed away and I was in tip top shape.

“Why did you… let it go?” Bright Ember asked.

“Because… you’re not a monster,” I said softly. “I was afraid you might never come back from something like that. It was defeated, that was enough.”

“I… I… Thank you,” Bright Ember said in reply.

“You’re welcome. Now let’s go find the others,” I said, pulling up the PipBuck tag for Violet’s PipBuck. The indicator showed that she was up, possibly out of the elevator. She wasn’t moving. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not yet. I glanced up at the terminal and door. The door was open. “I think you’ll find Klugetown less than hospitable at this point.”

“I think you’re right,” Bright Ember said. “Besides… I think perhaps I could show you the way to Abyssinia. Help you find your way to Mount Aris.”

“You aren’t afraid of transforming again?” I asked as we walked towards the elevator shaft. I pushed the button once we got there and heard the cranking as the elevator started to come down.

“I’m always afraid of that,” Bright Ember said. “But maybe… maybe I can learn to control it. I did just use it to help you. Maybe there’s something good about my Nirik side.”

I smiled to myself as the elevator dropped into place in front of us. We stepped onto it and I pressed the button, pulling us upwards. The elevator stopped after several moments, depositing us in front of the terminal and metal door. I stepped outside, breathing a sigh of relief as Violet and the others reappeared from just inside the door.

“Star! You’re okay!” Violet squealed, rushing into my waiting embrace. “We thought…”

“I’m fine… thanks to our new friend here,” I said, motioning to Bright Ember, who waved meekly.

“Ember! You’re okay!” Sunshine exclaimed. “We thought one of those things had gotten you.”

“Ember saved my life,” I said with a grin. “Stood up to that thing.”

“I saw it all from up here through my scope,” Trick Shot grunted. “You managed to control the Nirik.”

Ember grimaced. “I did what I had to do… you all showed me kindness when you didn’t need to. I’m going to guide you to Abyssinia, help you get to where you’re going. Besides.. It’s not like I can stay here.”

Trick Shot looked a little pissed, and I had an inkling why. Niriks had been dangerous creatures that had attacked his caravans. The dangers of traveling with one were apparent. If Bright Ember got angry or something happened that triggered his state, Sunshine and Violet could be cooked alive by the resulting flare in radiation.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” I said hurriedly to clear the air. “That thing got away, which means it’s probably reporting to its superiors what it saw. We’re still in danger here as long as we stay put. We’ve gotta get out of Klugetown and fast.”

“Well then it’s a good thing I scouted ahead,” Sunshine said with a wry grin. “This tunnel goes up right into Hippocampus Energy’s offices here.”

“Good. Let’s get the flipping fuck out of here,” I said as we started up the tunnel and out of the darkness.

* * *

It seemed that nopony had thought to even go into Hippocampus Energy, because the main floor of the office was seemingly deserted. A thick layer of dust showed that nopony had touched this place in a very long time. There weren't even any security robots to speak of. In fact, the whole place was kind of creepy if you really sat down to think about it.

I was trying not to think about it.

We made our way across the office quietly, keeping our eyes on the doors. Klugetown outside was quiet. I wondered how many of the ponies sent here were affected by the smog. I wondered if the Storm Guards could even be affected by it. I wondered if we were going to get out of this place alive.

I tried not to think about that as well.

It was still dark outside. I grimaced. Moving in the dark would help us not be able to be seen, but the way these things attacked seemed to utilize the darkness well. Perhaps waiting until the morning came was correct. Perhaps even, they would assume us to be lost in the tunnel system, and would move on.

I didn’t think anything I thought was true.

I communicated my reasoning to the others, a reasoning born not only out of safety but also out of curiosity. Hippocampus Energy seemed to be at the center of something big in the Badlands. Some sort of massive power infrastructure. If Equestria could harness that kind of infrastructure it would be incredibly helpful to the ponies there. In order to do that, I had to understand what the infrastructure was being used for.

That meant my least favorite thing to do… research. If this was a main campus, there had to be something here on the company’s presence in the Badlands and to a greater extent Klugetown. The others agreed and we began to move as one through the facility, checking drawers and terminals. For the most part, everything was empty, and most of the terminals had been broken beyond repair. The fact that there was zero security here made me wonder. What exactly had Hippocampus been doing here? Wouldn’t they have had the same near paranoia held by most Equestrian companies over their secrets? Something didn’t add up.

We made our way to the facility’s second floor where the executive offices seemed to be located. A massive doorway sat smack dab in the center of the floor, the lights in front of it pulsing with glowing energy. We moved past it carefully and found ourselves in front of what we assumed to be the executive suite.

A single terminal sat inside the room on a beautiful oak desk, untouched by time. The terminal glowed softly, still functioning. It sat at a login. While Violet sat and did her thing, I looked around the rest of the room. A bookshelf held several books on various scientific subjects including power conversion through magic, and there was a safe peeking out from behind a long destroyed piece of art along the back wall.

The other thing that caught my eye was a corkboard on the other side of the wall, filled with sheets and sheets of decayed paper. It didn’t take long for me to realize that these were schematics though, as bits of the printings bled through.

“Whatever they were working on down here was massive,” I said aloud.

“But for what purpose?” Trick Shot said from next to me.

I glanced back at Ember and Sunshine. They were keeping watch over Violet and were out of earshot. I looked back down at Trick.

“I know you don’t like this,” I said under my breath. “But I think he can really help us.”

Trick Shot scowled. “He’s a liability and dangerous… but he did save your life,” he whispered back. “If he thinks he can control the Nirik… then he can stay. But the first outburst that he can’t control and I’ll put the bullet in his head myself.”

I nodded with a grimace. I had other plans for that situation. Mostly they involved lots of hugging and RadAway. I suspected that Ember’s transformation was rooted mainly in pain and anger, and that by taking away those emotions one could control the transformation and return back to their normal Kirin form. This was merely speculation though, so hugging it was. It was the only way I could think that I could get Ember to stop being angry.

“We’re in,” Violet said. “Check the safe. It should be open now.”

I nodded, walking over to the safe. I floated away the painting and pulled it open. Inside was a bag of Equestrian bits, several data discs labeled “Minerva Project” and a memory orb. I carefully pulled the memory orb out and then floated the data discs over to where Violet was sitting.

“What’s Minerva Project?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with these schematics? This power infrastructure?” I asked aloud. “Can you read them with the terminal?”

Violet picked one up and put it inside the data receptacle on the terminal. A flashing red light came up on the screen.

“They’re encrypted with a password,” she said with a groan. “I don’t know if I can break it or not.”

“See what you can do. I’m going to go take a look at this memory orb,” I said, producing the memory orb so that she could see it. “Perhaps it can help us out.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Violet replied. “I’ll keep toying with the terminal, see if I can find anything else on it while the decryption program tries its thing.”

I nodded, turning around and settling in next to her. I lowered my horn to the memory orb and the world fell away into nothing.

oooOOOoooOOOooo

Dust kicked up all around my host as I became aware of the fact that I was inside the body of a unicorn. My eyes adjusted to the desert sun as I glanced up at the dirty town all around me. Klugetown hadn’t really changed all that much it seemed since the end of the war. Well, except for the mind-fucking smog that littered the streets. At least this smog seemed to be regular old smelly ass smog.

I walked alongside several other ponies, all decked out in Equestrian military gear. The streets of Klugetown were full of a wide variety of races from fish people to even several Kirin I could see. Several cat-like creatures prowled the alleyways, watching intently as my entourage passed through.

Our destination was expected. Hippocampus Energy. I watched from the mind’s eye as my host stepped into the main office. The receptionist earth pony working the front desk looked up, her eyes wide.

“G-G-G-General?” she stammered. “We were not expecting your visit so soon.”

“Get Clover for me,” my host said, her voice cool and calm. For some reason, it sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “We need to talk.”

“Of course, General. Right away,” the mare at the desk said, pulling a device up and placing it in her ear. “Sir? Yes, she’s here. Oh, you know? I’ll send her right up.”

My host nodded slightly at the mare as she was pointed to an elevator. My entourage moved along into the elevator, waiting patiently as it moved up to the second floor. Within moments we were standing in this very office. A male earth pony, decked out in a fancy suit, sat at the same desk that Violet was attempting to crack the decryption on.

“General, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company on this fine day in Klugetown?” the earth stallion said, giving a small grin.

“You can drop the act, Clover. I’m not a General, and you know it. You know why I’m here,” my host said urgently.

The earth pony named Clover grimaced, his entire mood seeming to change right before my very eyes. He nodded, and pulled a set of papers out of his desk. “Everything related to the current state of Minerva,” he said. “This is an ambitious project. What does the Princess want out of this?”

“Everything,” my host said. “If this project works… it will mean an end to the war. But we need the power grid to boost the facility at Mount Aris in order to make it work. That’s where Minerva comes in.”

“Yes, yes, I get the power aspect of all of this. The grid across the Badlands will suffice. It’s been up and running for weeks now. So why do you need the info on Minerva?” Clover asked.

“I’ve been asked to secure the information on the project and take it into Abyssinia for safekeeping. It’ll only be a stone’s throw away from Mount Aris,” my host said, a green glowing magic reaching out and pulling the documents into her bags at her side. I caught a mere glimpse of my host’s hoof as she did. She was a deep purplish maroon color. “Minerva is the function that ties the power grid to the shield wall protecting Mount Aris. The zebra must not know about the existence of the facility there. If they did… the results would be catastrophic. The only way in and out is through the portal in Abyssinia’s capital of Panthera.”

“Do you really think that zebra saboteurs could be here in Klugetown?” Clover asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” my host said. “What matters is the security of this project.”

Clover sighed and looked down at his hooves. “I gotta tell ya, Fizzy, this whole thing is pretty fucking crazy. First you come down here and tell us we need to build some power grid, and now we’re expected to build a system that provides power to something massive you won’t even tell me about? What’s down there in Mount Aris? What needs protecting so badly?”

“If I told you that, Clover, I’d have to kill you. You know that. Also, while we’re here, you need to use my codename. I’ve told you that numerous times,” my host said.

“Of course… my apologies General Shadow,” Clover said.

Tempest Shadow?! I was in Tempest Shadow’s body?? How was she connected to what was going on with Hippocampus Energy? What exactly was Minerva? I didn’t understand any of this other than the fact that I understood that the only way into Mount Aris was through a portal in Abyssinia’s capital city of Panthera. It wasn’t because of the radiation to the south. It was because someone had constructed a massive wall around the island that was impossible to break through. I had to wonder if such a thing was still functional today, but I had seen much of the infrastructure down here already, and it was still quite intact and providing power across this massive grid. I let my mind wander as I realized my hosts were still talking.

“...I’m slated to arrive at the Mount Aris facility within the next two weeks,” my host continued. “Once I’m there I’ll send a message to start up Minerva. Be ready for it.”

“Of course, Tempest. We’ll make sure that everything is on schedule,” Clover said. “Are you sure that this is a good idea? We haven’t even really told Hippocampus main offices back home what is going on down here. They just think we’re establishing power conversion facilities.”

“You’re operating under the orders of Princess Luna, Clover,” my host replied. “Once this is all over, you’ll probably get a medal. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have a journey to Abyssinia to prepare for.”

“Good luck, Tempest… and Goddess be with you,” Clover said, as my host stepped towards the door.

My host scoffed slightly. “I don’t believe in the Goddess,” she said more to herself than anything. “I do believe in myself.”

oooOOOoooOOOooo

The world returned to normal and I shook myself out of the haze of the memory. Whatever Hippocampus had been doing down here was tied directly to whatever this project that Tempest Shadow had been working on for the Princess. Was that why she left the military service?

I looked up at Violet, sitting at the same desk that Clover had sat at hundreds of years ago. Beyond her, Trick Shot stood guard at the doorway while Bright Ember and Sunshine Sky sat off to the side quietly talking.

I stood and walked over to Violet, who was still hard at work on the decryption. It appeared to be almost done.

“Anything interesting in the memory?” Violet asked. “This decryption routine has been decidedly… uninteresting.”

“Well, I didn’t learn much about this so-called Minerva Project, but I did learn that Tempest Shadow was a part of it,” I said softly. “She was working on something for Princess Luna. This entire power grid was part of it.”

“Goddess,” Violet said to herself. “What could have been so important that it required so much secrecy?”

“Mount Aris,” I said. “We’re on the right track, Violet. Something is hidden at Mount Aris. But we’ve got another problem.”

“Which is…?”

“There is a wall around Mount Aris or at least, there was during Tempest’s time. She mentioned that there is a portal in the capital city of Abyssinia called Panthera,” I said with a grimace.

The terminal softly made a sound indicating that the decryption routine had finished, interrupting our conversation. Violet scowled and pulled up the contents of the data disc. Schematics, hundreds of them, of not just the power grid that we’d already ascertained we’d find more hints of on the way down, but also of some vast communications array in the city of Panthera. It was labeled Minerva.

“Minerva was a communications protocol? What were they using it for?” Violet said as she tapped at the keyboard. “Star… this is extensive. This is talking about using communications arrays as magical devices to transport matter.”

“The portal device in Panthera,” I said matter of factly. “It has to be. Does it say where it is?”

“Based on these schematics, the portal was installed in the royal palace of the Abyssinian rulers, right in the center of the city,” Violet said.

“It’s a death trap,” Bright Ember said as he and Sunshine walked over to us. Trick Shot joined shortly after, convinced it seemed that there was no immediate danger to us here. “The palace is very dangerous.”

“More of those Equestrian experiments?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Possibly, but no one knows for sure,” Bright Ember said. “Anyone who goes into that place… never comes back out. Whatever is inside of there… you can hear the grating, the gnawing sounds as you travel around the outskirts of the palace. Nothing living exists there, for certain.”

“Great, so we’ve got a real problem then. Because that’s exactly where we need to go,” I said. “You were right about one thing, Ember. The path to Mount Aris is in Abyssinia, but it’s not a way we can just go around the radiation. There’s a portal in the palace that will take us right there.”

“A portal? Why…?” Trick Shot started to say before I put a hoof up to explain.

“Whatever they were doing down here in the Badlands, it was all connected to whatever Tempest Shadow did after she left the military service,” I said, noting Trick’s surprise. “She was in charge of some project down here, and it involved this device known as Minerva that transported matter. They built a shield around Mount Aris. Some sort of super top secret thing that they didn’t want the zebra to know about.”

“Is this what you ponies do all the time, rush blindly into danger?” Bright Ember whispered loudly enough that we could all hear it to Sunshine.

I chuckled, the joke actually somewhat breaking up my serious mood before turning to the terminal. “We don’t really have a choice, but first things first, we have to get out Klugetown before these Storm Guards and their friends find us. I can only imagine that they’re probably looking for whatever it is we’re looking for, which means we were right. There is something powerful inside Mount Aris, and it’s something we can use against these creatures.”

“The tunnels won’t take us back out of the city. We’ll have to brave the streets from here, and unfortunately I don’t have any more gas masks to keep the smog out of your nostrils,” Bright Ember said.

“I should be able to help with that,” I said. “I’m feeling much stronger now, and now that I know what it is, I should be able to use my shield spell to keep us all safe from the smog. At least until we can clear the city.”

“You can do that?” Bright Ember asked with awe.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure? I was technically supposed to be the conduit for the spirit of Twilight Sparkle after all. The magic’s there, for sure,” I said, not feeling super confident in being called out on my ability to manage this.

“Sweetie, you’ll do fine,” Violet said, patting me on the shoulder. “I believe in you.”

“If we’re going to move, we should move,” Trick said. “The sun is coming up. I have a feeling our friends haven’t left the town just yet.”

I nodded, motioning to Violet to collect the data discs up from the terminal. There would hopefully be time later to review them further once we got out of Klugetown. I also scooped the memory orb into my bag to give to Trick later to look at. He deserved to see this mare he obviously had affection for.

We made our way cautiously back down to the main floor and towards the entrance back onto the streets of Klugetown. Nothing but the haze of the smog hung around the slowly brightening plaza in front of the building. It seemed quiet. Possibly a little too quiet.

I carefully accessed my magic, bringing forth Shining Armor’s shield spell into existence around each of us individually, except for Bright Ember who had said the smog seemed to just ignore him. It was rough to maintain it while we walked, but it was necessary to stay alive long enough to get clear of the smog. We stepped outside into the hot morning air, glancing about to see if the coast was clear.

A loud grinding noise indicated that the coast was most assuredly not very clear as a massive tank looking thing with two large grinders on the front came right out from the ground in front of us. I scowled. They knew we were here and they were just waiting for us to come back out. The hatch on the grinder opened up and an earth pony wearing a suit of black armor popped his head out. I could only see his eyes through the gas mask that protected him from the smog’s effects. Several Storm Guards appeared on each side of the grinder tank.

“You are surrounded,” he called out. “Surrender and things will go much better for you.”

“Things will go much better for you if you just turn around and walk away,” I called back angrily. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with here.”

“Radiant Star. Former Ministry Mare, now simply a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse,” the earth pony said matter of factly. “An alicorn of some renown. We know exactly who you are.”

“You have me at a disadvantage then. I have no idea who you are,” I said with a scoff. “Or why you’re so interested in me and my friends.”

“That isn’t information I’m authorized to give you,” the earth pony replied casually, almost as if we weren’t being surrounded by ponies trying to kill us. “My name however is Captain Swift Step.”

“That isn’t very helpful,” I said angrily, continuing to hold the shield in place as best as I could. We needed to move and we needed to move fast. “Why should we come with you? Your Master tried to have me killed at Hope Hollow.”

Swift Step shrugged, offering little else. “Unfortunately, I can’t give much more. Surrender your arms and yourself now, or you will be destroyed.”

“So… Do you want to be destroyed now or destroyed later?” I said with a grin to the others. “I can’t decide.”

“I can probably take that cheeky son of a bitch out in a few seconds,” Trick Shot replied, his gravelly voice giving off a little bit of humor.

“It would be helpful if we could get our hooves on some of that protective gear,” I whispered. “Sunshine, any tricks up your sleeve?”

“Oh, I’ve got a good one. They came from the underground. I rule the underground,” the pink unicorn said with dark glee.

“She… she scares me just a little,” Bright Ember admitted. The Kirin looked sheepish as Sunshine grinned at him.

“We’ve got to make it to Mount Aris,” Violet said. “We’ve got your back, Star.”

I grinned widely, turning back to Swift Step. “You’re going to have to inform your forces that unfortunately, my friends and I are about to kick your asses back to your Master.”

Swift Step’s eyes narrowed and he said nothing, lowering himself back into the grinder tank, which started to whine loudly as it started up. I hoped and prayed I had made the right decision here, but the decision was made. The grinder tank started to move forward and then immediately began to lurch as something grabbed hold of it. I glanced back at Sunshine, her horn glowing fiercely as several vines came up from the hole that the grinder tank had come out of and had latched onto its treads.

“Take out the Storm Guards,” I said to Trick Shot as all hell broke loose.

Shots rang out from the buildings around us, striking the shields I had erected around the others and dissipating as they hit. I lifted a wing to deflect a stray shot headed towards Bright Ember, and went ahead and extended a shield around him as well.

Trick Shot leaped out to the side, pulling his rifle out and laying into the approaching Storm Guards with sheer precision. He focused on their mobility first, by removing their ability to get around via putting bullets right through their kneecaps. One of them glowed a bright orange color before dissolving into a pile of goo. Violet grinned as she continued to fire in every direction as best as she could.

The grinder tank was starting to loosen up from the vines as Sunshine’s strength began to wane. Her control over the vines faltered and it pulled away, rumbling along right for me. Swift Step had correctly identified me as the primary threat, but with needing to maintain the shield spell I couldn’t do much else. I dodged to the side as the grinder sped at me, narrowly missing having a wing clipped by the front grinders. We had to do something to take it out.

The thing turned on a dime, roaring back around at me. Where in the wide world of Equestria had these supposed Raiders gotten this kind of tech? None of this made much sense at all. Several shots rang out behind me and I heard more sizzling coming from Violet’s energy rifles. In the midst of it all, Bright Ember clung to me desperately, trying to find a place to stay safe.

“Ember, go to Sunshine, make sure she’s okay and get her to safety,” I shouted.

The Kirin nodded meekly and detached himself from me, heading across the battlefield to grab onto Sunshine. Both the Unicorn and the Kirin made a break for it, heading past Violet and Trick to a place of safety.

“Trick, get after them!” I called out as I dodged another roar of the grinder’s engines. For as quick as this thing was, it was pretty easy to dodge.

Trick nodded, letting loose another barrage of bullets into the buildings around us. The shooting stopped temporarily as the sharpshooters there either died or needed to reload before beginning again. Trick scowled and followed after the other two.

“Violet, you need to get going too,” I said as I ended up next to her. “Once you’re free of the smog, I can lower the shields. It won’t affect me anymore.”

“You are crazy, you can’t take all of these ponies on, let alone those things. No… I’m staying with you and we’re getting out of here together,” Violet said angrily.

“But… Vi…” I started to say. My eyes went wide.

“Don’t you but me!” Violet said, her cracked horn glowing a blazing green. It crackled with energy. It was angry energy, but it was beautiful and intense on every level. “I’m not letting you face anything alone ever again, Star. I’m with you to the end.”

And just like that, her horn exploded, sending a blaze of green crackling energy into the air that consumed everything it touched. The grinder tank struggled against the wave of powerful magic before faltering just enough to run right into the side of one of the buildings. It stopped entirely. I felt Violet grab my hoof and pull me towards the road where the others waited. As we watched, the building the grinder had run into had started to collapse down under the weight of itself as the grinder tore away its support systems.

The building came down in spectacular fashion, and any shred of resistance from the Storm Guards chasing after us melted away as it hit, completely decimating the entire city block. We kept moving until we were far out of the city and I was able to let the shields down. I stopped, breathing heavy from the exertion.

“Holy shit did you see what I did, Star?!” Violet exclaimed loudly. “I used magic! I actually did it!”

I slumped over next to her and smiled. “You did. You saved us all. I can’t believe we made it through that.”

“Again I have to ask if this is normal for you ponies,” Bright Ember said. “Do you spend all your time running around and getting shot at?”

“Not always,” Trick Shot said with a laugh. “Sometimes it’s ghouls.”

“I hate ghouls,” Ember said, shuddering.

“Sunshine, you alright?” I asked, remembering the pink unicorn’s faltering of her spell.

“I’ll be okay. Burnt out a little. Haven’t had that happen in a while. Must have been taxing to use the vine spell through the shield spell,” she said, slumping next to us.

“We can’t stay here,” I said with a loud groan and pushing myself to my hooves. “We’re too close. We have to get to cover.”

“You really think they’re going to come after us after what just happened?” Violet asked.

“I do,” I said. “They’re after the same thing we are. Which means we have to get to it first. Thankfully, I don’t think they know about the portal.”

“That gives us a head start then, let’s get going,” Trick said with a grin.

* * *

We trudged on, the desert eventually giving way to a forest at its edge. Thankful to be out of the heat of the day and under some shade, we set about putting together a camp. As the fire roared and we sat resting, I floated out the memory orb and handed it over to Trick.

“What’s this?” he asked. “The memory orb you picked up at the Hippocampus Office?”

I nodded. “The host of this memory is Tempest Shadow,” I said. “I thought you would want to see it.”

Trick hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and smiled, thanking me. I sat nearby while he watched the memory and when he came out of it he looked… morose.

“So… she quit the military to pursue some sort of special project directly for the Princess?” he asked quietly. The others around us had already started heading to sleep. “And she got Clover to do the dirty work.”

“You knew him?” I asked. I had sensed that there was a level of familiarity there with the pony named Clover in the memory and Tempest. I hadn’t imagined it extended beyond that.

“Clover was also ex-military. Army. Fizzy and I used to hang out with him. Our operations were staged out of the same base near Canterlot,” he said. “Then he left to go work for Hippocampus. Now I kind of wonder…”

“If Tempest got him the job so that it would be easier to convince Hippocampus of this project?” I asked.

Trick Shot nodded. “What was so important about Mount Aris? The more we come across, the less sense any of this makes, Star.”

“I don’t know, but I suspect once we get through that portal… we’ll find out,” I said, looking up at the night sky.

Trick thanked me and headed to keep the first watch. I settled in next to Violet, amazed at the raw talent my love had shown earlier that day. She had proven that she would not let her magical ability disappear, just as it seemed Tempest Shadow had done.

Tempest Shadow. The mare was still an enigma to me. She was a fighter and a skilled tactician, not a project manager. Whatever she was working on, it had to be exceptionally important.

I just hoped whatever it was wouldn’t be the death of us all by the end of this.

Author's Note

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Interlude 1: Forces of Evil

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Interlude 1: Forces of Evil

Trusting strangers? Big mistake.

Commander Gusty Breeze walked down the hallway towards the bridge of the airship. The ship still wasn’t ready to fly, the damage done much more extensive than the pegasi repair crew had initially estimated. It was going to take more than a few more days to get it back to being sky worthy.

Breeze remembered when he’d first seen the ship. His crew of Enclave Remnants had been scattered across Equestria after the Day of Destruction. The cloud cover had been peeled away and the pegasi had been forced to witness the Wasteland in all of its hellish glory. They could no longer turn away from it. Still, those in power like Breeze still wished to retain their power.

So it was that Breeze took it upon himself to declare himself a leader among the Remnants, gathering them amidst tense battles before retreating into areas outside of Equestria to hide. It was on one of these runs that he first encountered his benefactor. His master. Breeze scoffed at the word. No one was his true master, but the being that he served under was persuasive and seemingly powerful. He had never seen the creature face to face, only through the spell that brought its voice to him.

The Storm King, it called itself. It seemed to sympathize with Breeze and the Enclave Remnant’s plight. Equestria was a wound upon the world, and it needed to be cauterized. Brought to heel. Breeze liked that analogy quite a bit.

He did not like having to work with raiders. But the Master had claimed them as his own and he had to adhere to his orders. His eyes were everywhere, thanks to the ever present Storm Guards that the Master had supplied them with.

Extensions of his will, he had called them. Creatures so vicious and deadly that they would aid the army he was creating to cauterize Equestria for good. Breeze and his people were offered a place in this new world as masters of their own lands. The Master only wanted the ruins of Canterlot for his own.

The ship was unearthed by the raiders and Storm Guards. A relic of a bygone era of Equestria. It was magnificent. And now it was in shambles.

“Lieutenant Rolling Thunder,” Breeze said as he arrived on the bridge. “Report.”

“Sir,” the pegasi mare standing at the console said, saluting with a wing. “Repair crews have indicated three days until we can be back in the air, ahead of schedule. The army on the ground is restless. We can’t hold back the raiders any longer. There’s already reports of in-fighting between them and the mercenaries.”

“Send a squad down and keep an eye on things. Remind them of who we work for. The Storm King will not brook failure here. We must press on if we are to pave the way for him to Canterlot,” Breeze said sternly.

“Of course, sir. I’ll have it taken care of right away,” Rolling Thunder replied. “Sir… if I may speak freely?”

“You may.”

“I still don’t understand why we tolerate the raiders. The mercenaries I get… but the raiders? It just doesn’t seem natural the way that they act,” the mare asked quietly.

“The raiders are the best at shock and awe on the battlefield,” Breeze said with a sigh. “We point them at a target and they do their best to kill it. We do what we must because of the Master’s orders, that is all. Once this is all over… we can purge the filth and restore our rightful place in Equestria.”

“Of course, sir,” Thunder said.

“Now, do we have any reports from the squad sent to Klugetown after the alicorn?” Breeze said, walking past Thunder to look out at the dead town of Hope Hollow.

“Commander Swift Step reports that there was some difficulty in acquiring the mare and her friends in Klugetown. They’ve fled east, likely towards Abyssinia, likely to the capital city of Panthera,” Thunder said.

“Oh… have they now? Interesting. Inform Swift Step to pull back his forces to the border for now. I expect that the Ministry Mare and her friends will be quite surprised by what they will find there,” Breeze said. “Now then… leave me. I will be above, speaking to the Master.”

Thunder nodded, moving to make good on the items she needed to get done. Breeze stopped for a moment and grimaced. The Master would not be pleased to hear that the alicorn had not been captured, but it would be fortuitous to report where they were headed to him.

Breeze flapped his wings and made his way up top to the Captain’s Office at the very pinnacle of the airship. The two Storm Guards standing there looked on impassively as he entered. Inside, a console sat in the middle of the room. Breeze stepped forward and pressed the button on it which enacted the magical spell that contacted his Master.

A pair of glowing blue eyes appeared in the middle of the room, surrounded by smoke.

“You are interrupting me. This had better be good,” a gravelly voice emitted from out of thin air.

“Good news and bad news,” Breeze said stiffly. “The alicorn eluded our capture in Klugetown. She is still running free.”

“Unfortunate. I need that mare if I am to accomplish my plans. Killing her was a mistake before, a mistake I will not order again. Locate her and bring her to me,” the voice said.

“Therein lies the good news… she’s headed right towards your city,” Breeze said with a grin. “She’s coming to Abyssinia for the portal.”

The two eyes narrowed at the pegasus. “I see,” the voice said. “I shall make the necessary preparations then for her arrival. You have done well, Commander. When this is over, you will be rewarded greatly…”

“Thank you, Master,” Breeze said as the eyes winked out of existence. “Thank you.”

Author's Note

Our first interlude and look at the invaders from their side of things.

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Chapter 5: Cat Scratch Fever

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 5: Cat Scratch Fever

You think that's natural? They're infected with "pastelis coloritis".

The forest stretched on for miles, interspersed with a rocky desert-like ground beneath us. It was a wonder anything actually grew out here, but it was good to be out of the heat of the sun at the very least. My map indicated we were still a few days away from the heart of Abyssinia and its capital city of Panthera. Silently we continued to walk through the forest, taking cues from Bright Ember as we did.

My thoughts turned to my companions and how they were doing with things since escaping Klugetown. Violet seemed to be holding up the best, rejoicing in her newfound ability to utilize magic despite the fact that the magic still seemed to be highly erratic. During the previous day, an attempt to levitate a rock resulted in it being turned into a frog. It screamed. Then it died. It was altogether quite frightening, but Violet seemed… happy about the progress, so I didn’t think to question too much the ethical issues behind converting inanimate life to animate life even if it was purely by accident.

Sunshine also appeared to be doing well, having experienced a bit of magical burnout again for the first time in forever. It hadn’t taken long for her magic to recover, but having something like that happen was always problematic. Still she seemed to be in good spirits, and had been spending most of her time getting to know Bright Ember better, which I suspected helped with the Kirin’s normally reclusive nature.

Trick Shot seemed rather morose since we escaped. The ghoul had watched the memory orb I’d given him several times more since we discussed it outside of the border of Klugetown, and I suspected he was feeling a bit lost in understanding Tempest’s motivations. He had known her personally, on a level I suspected was far closer than he liked to admit out loud. I desperately wished there was something I could do for him.

Of the others, Bright Ember seemed to be more alive once we got out of Klugetown. He spent most of his time chatting with Sunshine Sky, avidly asking questions about Equestria. I occasionally detected a hint of sadness inside of him and I felt maybe I might have to worry about a Nirik flare-up, but Ember seemed to be controlling the creature inside of him, at least for the time being. I suspected a lot of this had to do with having someone to talk to, personally. If there was anything I had learned about Twilight Sparkle it was that friendship was a solid way of helping others feel safe and comfortable, and Sunshine extending her hoof to Ember had done that in a way few could understand.

I felt for the most part… sore. My body had undertaken quite a bit during the excursion into Klugetown and while I was recovering thanks in part to Bright Ember’s intervention in the caverns beneath the town, I was still not a hundred percent. Between the smog, the building falling on top of us, and the draining use of my magic, I was thoroughly tired. Still, I couldn’t stop. If whatever was controlling that army knew where we were headed… the results could be catastrophic. The sheer fact alone that there could be something at Mount Aris that could help us kept me going. I had to hope that Equestria would be alright. That we would have something to go back to in order to save it.

I had to hope we could see this through to the end.

* * *

We crested over the next ridge, looking down at our first glimpse of Abyssinia from its supposed border. I quickly spotted and identified more Hippocampus Energy plants along the border. After realizing how extensive the power grid down here was, I really began to wonder just what was waiting for us in Mount Aris. What kind of weapon required that much power? Was it just Minerva? Teleportation combined with radio wave technology to utilize communications arrays as weapons? That didn’t seem to make much sense to me. There had to be more to it than that.

An ancient settlement, once inhabited but now seemingly lifeless sat just a stone’s throw away from the nearest energy facility. The architecture was far different than any Equestrian settlement I’d ever seen. Buildings of clay colored stone littered the desert-like plain the town sat upon. A large pyramid shaped temple sat in the center of the ghost town. As we came down the ridge closer to it, I could see the skeletons that lay unrested around the town. Strangely enough they didn’t look like ponies.

“Doesn’t quite look like a place for technological development,” I said aloud as we made our way onto the outskirts of town. “It looks a lot more tribalistic.”

“When I traveled through here in the past, I read some of the writings in the temples. The Abyssinians were very tribalistic in nature,” Bright Ember said. “They chose to live like this.”

Trick Shot scowled, looking down at one of the skeletons. “These aren’t ponies. I remember hearing about Abyssinia a little bit during the war. They were supposed to be feline creatures, right?”

“Feline?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “You mean they were…”

“Cats,” Bright Ember said with a sad smile. “They were cats. I don’t know if any actually survived the end of the war. They were quite reclusive.”

“Not reclusive enough if there are power plants built here. I wonder how Equestria managed that,” I said.

“Probably had something to do with whatever Project Minerva is and whatever is actually inside Mount Aris,” Violet interjected. “I keep reading over these schematics to make sense of it all. I suspect the Abyssinian’s in the towns had no say over what Equestria did here.”

“Based on what research I’ve been able to pull together on my PipBuck library, Abyssinia was beholden to a King and Queen. Perhaps they ordered the creation of these plants,” Sunshine said with a scowl. “There isn’t much further information than that, though.”

“We’d better keep moving,” I said, lifting my leg to look at my PipBuck. “Ember, do you remember which way the capital city is?”

Bright Ember walked over and looked at the mapping function on the PipBuck and then looked up around us. He pointed in a direction due east, slightly northeast. “There,” he said. “Panthera is in that direction. I’m sure of it.”

“Let’s get moving then,” I said. “I have a feeling that we shouldn’t be out here after dark.”

We started walking through the town and all I could feel was the sadness of it all. An entire civilization destroyed by the actions of Equestria. Even if they had not been directly attacked by the megaspells, the radioactive material would have washed over the Badlands and to Abyssinia. The damage would have been far more at the level of massive death than actual destruction.

I hated the prewar ponies even more.

We made our way past the temple in the center of town. It too looked deserted from the outside. Everything about the town felt a little too quiet. If I knew any better about the state of the world outside of Equestria, I would have wished it was just quiet because it was dead… but then I also knew nothing stayed dead forever.

I heard the keening sound before I saw what was making it. It was coming from inside of the temple. It started as a low wail before kicking up into a full high pitched screaming. I flipped on my E.F.S., seeing one large blob of red directly inside the temple. A large tentacle slipped out of the temple’s main doorway, followed by several more and a creature that had to be one of the most disgusting things I’d ever laid eyes on.

It was bulbous and slimy, with skin that appeared to have simply been stretched over the thing. It had no eyes that I could see, but it did have a large beak-like mouth protruding from it. Several tentacles extended from the main body of the creature, but it did not appear to have great mobility, using its tentacles to pull itself along.

The creature had a very strong psychological effect that I quickly began to identify, thanks to having been under the complete mind fuckery of a mind control smog in Klugetown. The creature wasn’t fast, but it could root its prey into one place using fear. It seemed to be working on the others, except for Trick Shot and myself. I took the opportunity, extending my magic outward into forming my blade. I sent several shards of it at a tentacle that started to extend towards Sunshine Sky, slicing it off in a bloody stump. Trick placed a careful shot into the things beak, impaling its bulbous body with the bullet and causing gore to spurt from it.

The shock of the thing’s cries was enough to dislodge the others from the thing’s control at least. I expected most of this thing’s prey was not strong enough to run away or fight back. Then the thing’s tentacle and body regrew in an instant and I blinked. What the actual fuck?! My mind screamed.

“We need to run,” I said, pulling the others back with my magic as a tentacle lashed out right where Sunshine had been standing just a moment before. “Now!”

We picked up the pace, keeping as much of a distance as we could from the slow moving thing. However, my E.F.S. suddenly began to light up all around me as several ghoulish figures stepped into the light of the day from the buildings on each side of us. They appeared to be ghouls, but they weren’t ponies. It was like Bright Ember had said. They were indeed cats.

Trick Shot scowled and fired several shots into the litter of cat-ghouls that approached on our left flank, taking down two of them. The remaining beasts hissed and rasped loudly. The slimy tentacle thing in the middle continued following us, seemingly unaware or uncaring about the ghouls around it. It moved slowly but with intent to kill. Violet spat hot fiery death with her rifles, keeping the things on the right flank contained while Sunshine and Ember huddled close to me. I sent more shards of magical blade energy outwards, slicing into the tentacle thing’s tentacles, hoping to slow it down. Indeed I did slow it down but only momentarily before the tentacles reattached themselves.

I glanced back and realized we were slowly running out of places to run in the town, the next road ending firmly in a dead end against the outer wall. The things had herded us to a favorable position to overwhelm us before swooping in for the kill. We needed a way out, but thankfully brittle walls couldn’t contain us.

“Sunshine,” I said, pointing to the wall. “Take Ember, see what you can do about busting us out of here.”

The pink mare nodded, grabbing onto Ember’s hoof and pulling him away. I hadn’t yet quite figured out what Ember could do in a fight and it seemed that every fight we’d been in had resulted in Ember functionally clinging to me in some fashion. I knew that he feared being put in a position where his Nirik side took over, and I feared that to an extent as well, but perhaps if we got out of this alive a little combat training wouldn’t hurt.

I turned my attention to Trick and Violet. They were both managing rather spectacularly, fending off ghoul after ghoul with their combined firepower. It still wasn’t going to be enough.

“Sunshine and Ember are finding us a way out through the wall,” I said. “We need to start pulling back so we can get through and drop the rubble back down on the way out.”

“Copy that,” Trick said, lifting his rifle into the air with his magic and taking another several shots at some of the cat-ghouls approaching on the left. He obliterated the legs of one and the arms or another, causing them to try to pull themselves along on the ground, snarling and biting at whatever they could. “Fuck! We might have to pull back sooner. Regeneration charm on my rifle is wearing itself thin.”

“Regeneration charm?” I said quizzically.

“Not really the time to discuss,” Trick said. “Let’s hope they can get down that wall!”

A loud crashing sound behind me indicated that in some part, Sunshine had been successful. A hole sat open in the wall, propped up by several vines. I shouted and grabbed onto Violet and Trick with my magic, dragging them along next to me as the tentacle creature lashed out right where they had been, followed by several cat-ghouls. I ran full bore through the hole as Sunshine let go of the vines, dropping the rubble back in place. One unlucky cat-ghoul managed to stick its head through the falling debris before getting splattered by rocks. The hole was sealed. I heard growls and pushing on the wall from beyond.

“Not out of this yet,” I said. “Come on, let’s move deeper into the forest. If they think we’re not around they may not follow.”

We moved as one, heading further in as we tried to locate a place to hunker down for the night. We managed to find a small clearing that seemed pretty defensible and stopped, listening for any sounds that we’d been followed. When there were none, I let out a massive sigh of relief. The others began walking around and setting up some defenses using some of the trees while Bright Ember sat down near me.

“How in the ever living fuck did you survive on your own out here?” I asked the Kirin quietly before slumping down onto my haunches next to him.

“I uh… mostly ran. Or turned into a Nirik. That always seemed to scare away any predators. After a while, the reputation of what I was…” he said, fidgeting with his hooves.

I nodded. “I know you still fear it, but you haven’t transformed since you joined up with us,” I said. “Perhaps there is something to the magic of Friendship after all. I know that Sunshine and you have been getting to know each other, and I think that’s helping you, you know that right?”

Ember looked down at his hooves again before nodding silently. “Sunshine has been… really nice to me. I haven’t felt the urge to transform. The rage, the pain…” he said. “But it’s there. I can still feel those things. That’s what scares me about it.”

“You’re scared of what might happen if something happened to one of us,” I said. “Or rather… to her?”

Ember blushed fiercely. “I… I don’t know what you’re… you’re talking about,” he stammered. “Sunshine has just been really nice to me and I think she smells pretty and… oh horseapples.”

I chuckled softly. “I’m not so good at picking up on a lot of things, but love and romance? Violet and I have been together long enough that I know that very well,” I said with a smile. “It’s okay. Sunshine is technically unattached. You’re cute together.”

“I… I… I…”

“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure. That being said… we do need to discuss something serious,” I said softly.

“We do?”

“I think you’ve noticed already that we tend to have a good idea of each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” I said. “We work well as a team because we all know each other, and even though Trick Shot is fairly new to working with Sunshine, Violet, and I, he is used to this kind of thing from his military training. I think it would make a lot of sense to learn a little combat training and how to utilize a firearm in combat.”

“I’ve never really fired a gun before,” Ember replied. “I get a little flustered in those situations, and then I get scared I might turn.”

“I know, and that’s something that’s going to be hard to work on,” I said. “But believe me… I’ve seen what you can do and I believe in you, Ember. I believe you can get past this, you just have to work hard and direct your fear into a positive and productive fashion.”

“You really think so?” Ember said.

“I do,” I said with a wink. “Plus, I don’t think it would hurt to show Sunshine that you can protect her in a pinch if you know what I mean.”

Bright Ember blushed again fiercely as the others came back to camp, having gathered some dead wood for a fire.

“Everything alright?” Sunshine asked. “Ember?”

“EVERYTHING’S FINE, I DON’T KNOW WHY I SHOUTED, I’M SORRY,” Ember said, before diving behind me. He looked past me meekly and grimaced. “Star and I were just discussing helping me learn some combat training so I could help in situations.”

“That’s probably a really good idea,” Trick Shot huffed. “I have a few spare firearms in my kit. You can borrow one of mine. We’ll talk it through as we go.”

My eyebrow raised. Trick was offering to help? That was interesting. I had been under the very real impression that Trick hated Niriks and only considered Ember to be a Nirik.

“I would… I would like that very much,” Ember replied.

I smiled softly to myself as Sunshine and Ember walked past and sat while Violet stoked the fire. She sat down next to me and smiled.

“Seems like we’re out of the woods, or well… in the woods I should say,” she said softly. “Everything about this journey has felt absolutely insane so far.”

“Yeah,” I said, watching Sunshine and Ember from across the way. “But you know what? Despite the insane things that have happened, and the supposed threat to Equestria… this is what I missed. Going on adventures. Seeking the truth of the past. Building friendships with others. Goddess, I’m starting to sound like Twilight Sparkle.”

“Honey, Twilight used far larger words than you do on average. I think you’re fine,” Violet said with a playful shove. “Besides, she was prettier too.”

“Oh you really think so?” I said, shoving back playfully as well. “I guess maybe I should have stayed purple then, huh?”

“Nah,” Violet said, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. “I like this you so much better, honestly. Because it’s you.”

I smiled and wrapped a wing around her. “I love you too,” I said. “How’s your horn doing?”

“I can still feel the tingling sensation. It’s gotten much stronger since that outbreak, but the magic is still irrational. I tried levitating one of the logs for the fire and it teleported away somewhere. I don’t actually know where,” Violet said.

“Remember what the Doctor said, don’t rush it,” I said. “You are getting there. I knew you would. You’re a fighter.”

“Well, I have something to fight for,” Violet replied, snuggling into my side and falling asleep.

I looked up at Trick from across the fire. He nodded solemnly, offering to keep the first watch. Already Sunshine and Ember had fallen asleep next to each other. I couldn’t help but be thankful for what seemed to be a beautiful friendship and possibly more. I let myself slip into slumber shortly after.

* * *

It was the dream again. The falling. The waves, everything. Except this time the voice I had heard before was practically shouting. I couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t grasp what was happening to me because it all felt too real.

The purple blur I had seen before reappeared. I could hear it calling to me. Saying my name. That part I began to hear more clearly. I lifted a hoof, tried to spread my wings to propel myself forward to it. I tried to call back, but couldn’t speak due to the water. I felt my mind beginning to slip away, when suddenly the water began to recede. I fell further into the void of blackness, finally hitting what felt like a hard surface but ended up being just more black. I groaned loudly and looked up at the purplish blur began to coalesce into something more concrete.

“Sweet fucking Celestia,” a voice said. “I’ve been trying to reach you here for days.”

My eyes widened as the winged purple blur became a carbon copy of me, or at least what I’d looked like when Spark and Twilight had invaded my body. Except this version of me looked… older. Wiser.

“Who…?” I said weakly.

“You really don’t know? I didn’t think you would forget me that easily, Star,” the purple alicorn said. “We spent a lot of time together after all.”

“Spark?” I said, pushing myself to my hooves to further take in the mare in front of me.

Upon further inspection, the alicorn was much more me than I had been during that time, and a crown of jewels adorned with Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark sat on her brow. It was her somehow.

“Now she gets it,” Spark replied with a chuckle. “I had to break you out of that dream spell to get you here.”

“Dream spell… What do you mean? Why are you here?” I asked, trying to parse just why in the world the very Element of Magic would come back to me.

“Yes, Star. You’ve been under the influence of some very powerful magic. I know this isn’t going to make sense yet, but you are walking into a trap. I came to warn you,” Spark said with a scowl.

“What about your bearer? Do they know…?” I said.

“They’re aware of what I had to do,” Spark replied. “The Elements are in danger, Star. This army… they’ve acquired something very dangerous, and their leader is even more dangerous than anything you’ve ever encountered. It’s the thing that casted the dream spell on you.”

My mind was fuzzy, but the memory of being on the airship, seeing those eyes in the smoke. How had it managed to put me under a spell? I voiced this concern to Spark, who sighed loudly.

“The thing controlling this army is an ancient evil, so much so that its name has been lost to time. However, that’s not the real problem here… where you’re headed is a trap,” Spark said frantically. “The city of Panthera. It’s been that thing’s hiding place since it reappeared. You’re walking right into the belly of the beast.”

“How did you find this out?” I said. “Is the portal to Mount Aris still active then?”

“The portal is under the control of the leader of the army,” Spark said. “As for how I know about this… how else do you think I know?”

“Velvet Remedy, Calamity, the other Elements,” I said, reasoning it out in my mind.

“Correct. We discovered some intelligence back home that suggests the army has been formed up outside of Equestria and made their way from somewhere to the east. Then we heard some transmissions about you and the others down here and about Abyssinia,” Spark explained. “We knew we had to warn you, but didn’t know how. It was actually sort of Kindness’ idea to use the Elements connection to you.”

“Connection? But I thought you had a bearer,” I said, feeling very confused.

“Sure, but loosely speaking you were created to bear Twilight’s spirit. There was always a connection to the Elements there, regardless of whether you were picked to be a bearer or not. Honestly, it’s probably for the best that you weren’t. No offense,” Spark said.

“None taken,” I replied. “So this portal… it’s under the control of this army. Why have they tried to stop us from reaching Mount Aris then?”

Spark scowled. “I believe the reason is because they can’t use it,” she said. “They have it, but it’s possibly turned off or keyed to a specific gene marker.”

“A Ministry Mare. I’m going to guess it was Twilight Sparkle,” I said with a groan. “I’m kind of getting super tired of cleaning up her shit, you know.”

“I’m sure,” Spark replied with a grin. “Still, you can’t press deeper into Abyssinia. I’ve been asked to recall you back to Equestria. This mission is too dangerous and quite frankly… we could use you back home.”

“What’s happening there?” I said.

“It’s only been minor skirmishes thus far between the invaders and the NCR, but more is coming. The airship that you and your friends damaged is close to being repaired, despite the NCR’s best efforts to keep it grounded,” Spark explained. “We need you, Star. You’re a strong fighter, and we can’t lose you.”

I looked down at my hooves. It would be easy enough to abandon this quest and head home, cut our losses and spend time defending my home. I wanted to do it badly. I wanted to leave and try my best to protect ponies. But at the same time… I also knew that where we were headed had an answer to all of this. We could stop the war with the power in Mount Aris. We just had to get there.

“I… I can’t,” I said finally. “We can’t. This mission, it’s important. What we will do will help save lives, I just know it deep down. I can’t abandon it.”

Spark scowled yet again. “Somehow I knew you would be stubborn as hell. Fine. But what do you plan to do about the trap? You’re walking right into their home base here. How do you mean to get to the portal?”

“I’ll figure that out,” I said. “Once I wake up and talk to the others. We’ll figure out a plan and do our best. I need to see this through.”

“I… I get it,” Spark said after a few moments of silence. “I was able to cut through the dream spell and hopefully disable it. You shouldn’t have this crazy fucking dream again… and I suspect I won’t be able to contact you again after this even with the connection to the Elements. The dream provided a loophole for us, so this was sort of a Hail Celestia on our part.”

“I understand,” I said. “Tell the others… tell Velvet that we’re going to do our part. We’ll find whatever it is in Mount Aris, and we’ll come back with it.”

“Of course,” Spark said before turning to go. “Star? Be careful. I wouldn’t want to hear that you went and died on us.”

“Sympathy? I’m shocked, Spark. You used to be so cold,” I said with a grin.

“You wouldn’t believe how much having a real family helps you,” Spark replied.

I thought of Violet, of Sunshine and Ember, of Trick Shot and smirked. “Yeah, I think I do know that.”

* * *

I awoke with a startle, trying to clear my head and remember the dream. Spark had warned us that we were headed into a trap, and I needed to come up with a plan to get to that portal. What worried me more is that the portal could contain some form of a bypass spell, a kind of magically keyed spell that only allowed certain ponies through an area or allowed them to interact with something. In many cases it was keyed to a genetic marker that the pony needed to have in their very DNA.

Twilight Sparkle. Even from beyond the grave she was having a chuckle fuck at me. I hated her with my very soul.

The others were stirring, beginning to wrap up the camp when I stepped in the middle of them and cleared my throat. Several pairs of eyes looked my way and I sighed.

“We’ve got a problem,” I said, launching into an explanation of what Spark had relayed to me in the dream world. By the time I was finished the others were scowling deeply.

“So, the only reason they let us go in Klugetown is because they knew we were headed right to them,” Violet said angrily. “We can’t go back to Equestria now. We have to see this through.”

“I agree with Violet,” Trick Shot said nonchalantly. “There’s a potential here to take out the head of this army. Even if they do know we’re coming, we know that they know and there’s an element of surprise there we didn’t have before.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to help,” Bright Ember said confidently, looking over at Sunshine, who merely smiled softly.

“Do we have a plan?” she said.

“We have to expect that they may consider us to cross the country due east to the capital,” I said, lifting the hastily scribbled map that Violet had been crafting as we moved. “If we know that, we can probably circumvent to the north and come in that way once we’re in sight of the city. That’s going to depend a lot on what the defenses of the city look like, though.”

“I can figure it out once we see it,” Trick Shot said. “Kind of my specialty when I ran special forces with Fizzy.”

I nodded. “We should take a moment and make sure we’re all physically ready for this. My biggest concern is that if we can get close to the portal that we might not be able to use it, so we’ll need something of an exit strategy. If the portal is locked to a genetic marker…”

“Then this might all be for nothing,” Violet finished for me.

I stared gravely at the ground. “Yeah,” I said. “We’d likely be sacrificing ourselves in the middle of enemy territory for no reason.”

“Not exactly for no reason,” Bright Ember said. “Like Trick Shot said, if we could take out whoever is leading this army… we could… what’s the phrase… cut off their head?”

“Possibly, but only if the opportunity presents itself,” I said frankly. “Our first objective should be the portal device.”

“I have an idea,” Sunshine said. “If they know we’re coming, why not use that? Take out some of their guards and gain access to their tech. We can figure out what’s going on inside then.”

“I like this idea,” Trick Shot said.

I nodded again, feeling slightly proud of the little family I’d cultivated here. I just had to hope that I wasn’t leading them to their deaths.

We packed up the rest of our camp and started out, heading towards the east and the city of Panthera. We passed by several other cities along the way, all of which were seemingly deserted. After our experience at the border we opted to take the time to go around them, fearful of whatever was left by the Abyssinians. We also saw more and more power nodes for Hippocampus Energy. They all seemed to be feeding right towards where we were headed. The kind of power needed to power this portal device and the shield at Mount Aris must have been incredibly massive.

As we walked along the rocky trail, I fell back from the others next to Violet.

“I’m scared,” I admitted under my breath. “What if we’re doing the wrong thing here? What if I’m just getting us all killed?”

“Star, since when has that fear ever prevented you from rushing headlong into danger?” Violet replied with a smirk. “You’ve always been the headstrong one, and I’ve been the smart one. What’s got you thinking like this?”

“I just… I don’t want to see anything else bad happen to… to you and to the others,” I said. “I fear that whatever we’re walking into is going to devour us alive.”

“Sweetie… I know you feel responsible for what happened to my horn,” Violet said, nuzzling my side. “But we know the risks. We also know what will happen if we fail. That keeps us going. Plus, we’re together. We can do anything together, you know that.”

I chuckled softly. “I guess I do know that,” I said. “Thank you. For being you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You’re welcome, Sweetie,” Violet said, smirking yet again. “Just… when the time comes… be brave. I know you can do it.”

I smiled and nodded, extending a wing around her side in a hug.

We continued onwards, taking short breaks to rest. During these breaks, Trick Shot would take Bright Ember aside and show him the basics of handling a firearm. Because the Kirin had a form of magical ability himself, it was quite easy for him to grasp manipulating the device with his magic, which in turn made it much easier for Trick Shot to teach him.

Bright Ember for the most part, picked it up and was able to hit most of the targets Trick provided, while I helped with a cone of silence around the group so that nothing in the wild could hear the shots. We didn’t really need to advertise our presence after all. Ember still seemed pretty shaky with it, but he was definitely getting better with each session.

Violet’s magic also continued some form of improvement, but it was still highly erratic. Still, she’d managed to be able to shed the battle saddle for the time being and was able to wield her energy rifles with levitation. Levitating or using telekinesis on other things however… well let’s just say that things got weird fast and not the good kind of weird.

According to Bright Ember’s estimations it was going to take at least another day to arrive at the outskirts of the city of Panthera. This meant locating some place to hunker down in the evening. I was struck by just how barren the country of Abyssinia really was. Despite the few tribalistic towns we’d seen and the Hippocampus Energy plants, there was very little wildlife and the plant life was either dying or already dead. It was like a grave the deeper we moved towards the capital.

It was one of those energy plants that we found that seemed like the best place to sit for the night and camp. We approached cautiously, knowing that these places tended to be pretty dangerous. Everything seemed pretty still except for the constant humming of the power station itself. The office attached to it was a small affair consisting of only one large room, so it was clear that this was just a way station and not a major operation. I pulled up by E.F.S. and scanned the building itself and found nothing of note except for the friendly blips belonging to my friends.

I pushed on the door and it opened stiffly to a dark room that slowly illuminated as the automatic lighting began to turn on. True to my E.F.S. was the fact that the room was indeed empty of anything hostile. Instead it was a room full of skeletons. Well, five skeletons to be exact. Not all of them were feline either. There were at least two ponies, two Abyssinians, and a Kirin skeleton all around the room in various positions. From the fact that there were a few rooms in the back with beds suggested that these creatures were workers here and lived here as well.

Along the side wall was a massive row of switches and monitoring devices for monitoring the power grid. They still appeared to be going, clicking every so lightly and beeping in the silence. A lone desk with a single terminal sat along the other wall. It too was still working.

“Well there’s no ghouls, no raiders, nothing absolutely insane. I’d say this is an absolute win,” I exclaimed. “It’s even got beds!”

“I guarantee you it is probably not a good idea to use those beds,” Violet said, striding across the room and peeking inside the bedrooms. “They look disgusting.”

“Probably fair. Well, at the very least we can help clean up and bury these poor souls. Give them a proper resting,” I said, using my magic to scoop up one skeleton at a time so as to not get them confused.

While the others prepared and Violet sat down to hack the terminal I took each one neatly outside and dug five holes. Once they were all placed in their graves, I covered them back up and used some nearby rocks to make rudimentary markers. As I finished the work it was beginning to get dark. I stepped back into the station to find that Violet had managed to crack into the computer system.

“Anything important?” I asked as I stepped up next to her.

“Well, we were right about one thing. This whole grid is connected to this Minerva Project. I’m guessing that’s what the portal is for,” Violet said.

“We kind of already guessed that though. Does it say anything about the power output to the east?” I said.

“Still going strong, which means that the portal device must have power of some sort,” Violet replied. “However, I did find something else that was interesting.”

“And that is…?”

Violet clicked over to an audio file and instructed the terminal to play it through the speaker. At first there was static, and then a mare’s voice came onto the terminal.

“We had a visit by Equestrian Special Forces today. They came to check on the relay power for Minerva. I’ll never forget the mare in charge. Her eyes pierced my very soul, and while she seemed like she was very nice, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her the entire time. It was like she was channeling some raw intensity that captivated me completely. Plus, she had this gnarly looking scar across one of her eyes.

She seemed to be interested in knowing how the power fed from here to the capital city of Panthera. Said it had something to do with Minerva. I explained to her matter of factly that there were three stations that fed directly into Panthera’s royal palace, along with a dual station track that replicated the structure for redundancy. It should provide all the power she needed for Minerva.

She then started asking several questions about something called the genetic bypass for Minerva. I told her it was above my pay grade and I didn’t even know what the flaming Celestia a genetic bypass was. She didn’t seem too pleased about that, but she accepted my answer nonetheless. Without another word, she left. I was able to finally take a deep breath after she had gone. It felt like I hadn’t breathed properly the entire time she was here. Celestia, she is scary.”

The audio flickered off and my eyes narrowed. There was indeed some sort of genetic bypass in place for Minerva. How did it work? The mare in the recording didn’t know, she was just a peon who worked for Hippocampus. But the mare who came to see her…

“Tempest,” Trick Shot said from beside the desk. “She came here?”

“It seems like it,” I said. “She was in charge of this Minerva project, whatever it was being used for. The other problem is that now we know there’s some sort of genetic bypass for it.”

“Which means we might not be able to go through the portal,” Violet said with a grimace.

“I don’t quite understand what that means,” Bright Ember said.

“Back in the day before the war, the Ministry of Arcane Sciences was investigating a spell known as a bypass. It could be used in numerous ways but one of the biggest was using it to seal off areas to genetic markers. Namely in those days, the Ministry Mares,” Violet continued to explain. “They weren’t widely used in a lot of places, only in high security areas. Based on what we know of it, there’s a bypass spell around the shield of the Single Pegasus Project that the Lightbringer Littlepip is inside that is keyed to a Ministry Mare.”

“I… I see,” Bright Ember said. “It sounds complicated.”

“Problematically, what if the only one who could use the portal was Tempest herself?” I voiced out loud. “And of course… she’s long dead. Maybe that’s why this army is not able to use the portal to get to Mount Aris?”

“You’re forgetting something crucial here, Star,” Sunshine interjected. “Even if Tempest was keyed to the bypass, this was a Ministry project right? It had to be. And that would mean…”

“That it’s possible that I can open the bypass,” I said with a grimace. “This could be a suicide mission for anypony who comes into the capitol.”

“Star,” Violet said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not coming with you. We stand a better chance of getting there and holding anything off together.”

“But…” I started to say.

“But nothing,” Violet said. “We’re doing this together. If only you can get through the portal… we’ll get out alive. I promise you that.”

I scowled. “Fine. But we have to get some rest first. It’ll take us another day to get to Panthera. Hopefully by then we’ll have something of a plan.”

The others nodded in agreement before moving about to rest in our makeshift shelter. I took the first watch, glaring outside as I tried to let the words of my friends sink in. After a moment of deep thought I smiled. Friendship, I thought. Makes ponies do some crazy shit.

* * *

The night passed without issues and no more bad dreams. Spark really had managed to remove the dream spell that had been cast upon me it seemed. I kept watch until Trick Shot arrived, while not needing actual rest the ghoul was busy taking inventory of our stuff before taking his watch.

We made our way out of the Hippocampus plant silently and started again eastward. My thoughts drifted to what lay ahead. If this really was the base of whatever thing was in charge of the army attacking Equestria… then maybe we could defeat it? I couldn’t keep the image of those eyes out of my head as I thought of it though. I knew deep down that was not why we were going to Panthera. It was for the portal. For Mount Aris and whatever was there.

It was late in the afternoon when we came over a ridge that gave us a long view of Panthera. The late capitol city of the Abyssinians was massive in scale with many buildings and temples. In the dead center of the city was a large palace that stretched upwards and outwards. As was expected, several large Hippocampus plants were ringed around the perimeter of the city, creating almost a wall of sorts between them.

What further drew my attention was the airships. There were two of them docked at a tower on the north end of the city. They didn’t appear to be moving.

“Star…” Violet uttered next to me. “That’s…”

“I know. They’re the same as the one that attacked Hope Hollow,” I said. “If there are more of those things then we better hurry before they’re fully airborne.”

“I spotted some hostiles,” I heard a voice say from nearby. Trick Shot was peering through his scope down at the land around and inside the city. “Camps. Raiders and Storm Guards.”

I took the scope from him as he offered it and looked down at the land. Sure enough there were multiple raider camps situated around the outskirts of the city. Storm Guards patrolled the entrances into the city.

“Curious,” I said aloud. “The raiders aren’t actually allowed into the city.”

“The Storm Guards are keeping them out for a reason. Which means if we can get inside, we might be able to move about rather freely,” Trick said.

“Did you see a way even in?” I asked.

“It’s crazy but it might work,” Trick said. “Take a look at the airship tower again through the scope.”

I lifted the scope and found the airship tower. My eyes widened. There were no guards, no workers, no pegasi? Something felt off. Why would they leave them unattended? Unless the guards were at the bottom of the tower. They wouldn’t expect….

“No,” I said with a grin. “You can’t be serious.”

Trick Shot grinned widely. “Think you can do it? It’s a straight shot to the back of the palace from there.”

“What? What’s she going to do?” Bright Ember asked.

A wilder grin formed on my face. We had a plan. It was insane, but it was something.

“How do you all feel about flying?” I asked.

Author's Note

Slightly shorter chapter here, but we're now getting close to some good action! Trust me the next chapter is pretty groovy.

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Chapter 6: The Looming Threat

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 6: The Looming Threat

Now, I'm gonna count to three, and if you don't tell me where they are, your ship is going down. One…

Darkness had fallen. Even the raiders needed their sleep, and the Storm Guards seemed content to watch from the perimeter. Quietly we made our way around the city’s outskirts, keeping out of sight and using what foliage there was to mask our presence as we moved towards the northern side of the city where the airship tower was. It loomed over us in the dark, an imposing monolith reminding us of what was at stake here.

As expected, there were no guards at that edge of the perimeter simply because there was a massive wall that butted up against the airship tower. No one would actually expect someone to come into the city from above it seemed. The problem would be if I could actually magically pull myself and four others up into the air. I quietly voiced my concerns to the others as to whether I could do it without being seen.

“Star,” Sunshine whispered next to me. “I have an idea that might make things a little easier.”

“Do tell,” I whispered back.

“Well… one of Twilight’s spells during her youth might be a big help,” she said, lifting her foreleg and opening one of her numerous tomes of knowledge stored on her PipBuck. “She knew a charm that would grant a pony the ability to walk on clouds for a short period of time.”

My eyes widened. “Sunshine, that’s… that’s brilliant,” I said quietly. “Can you do it?”

Sunshine perused the tomes for a few hushed seconds longer before finally nodding. “I think I can, yes. If I can cast the charm, you can wrangle up a cloud and we can just float across to the tower. No light and very little sound required. We can be in the city in moments.”

I looked up at the sky, glancing about for a cloud which thankfully there were quite a few in the air, cutting off the good amount of light from the moon. I motioned to the others to hide just in case I was seen and silently lifted into the sky. I reached out with my hooves and pulled two clouds together, making one large enough to bear everyone across.

I brought the cloud back to ground level, using whatever innate magic I had to keep it intact. I didn’t really understand how it worked. I just knew that as long as I held the cloud the magic would keep it together. I watched silently as Sunshine cast the cloud walking charm on the others. She stepped up to the cloud herself first and put a tentative hoof on it, smiling softly as it took hold.

She motioned to the others and they moved up onto the cloud themselves, snuggling comfortably into its folds. The charm seemed to be holding, so I tugged on the cloud and started pulling it upwards into the air. Despite all the weight on it, the cloud seemed almost weightless. I pushed slowly further into the air and began moving the cloud towards the airship tower. As we moved, Trick Shot peered out and kept an eye out for any movement.

“Take her down over on the airship itself, and then we can get down the tower from there after taking stock of things,” he whispered hoarsely.

I nodded, flapping slowly in the air and pushing the cloud just above the deck of the abandoned airship. Cautiously I set the cloud down and allowed the others to step off before letting the cloud float off and dissipate.

“It’s practically dead,” Violet said softly. “The entire airship isn’t even functional. It’s like it’s waiting to be powered on.”

“I wonder if they only could get one of them working,” Sunshine said. “If that’s the case why aren’t they working on it?”

“This feels too easy,” I said with a grimace. “Do you see anything, Trick?”

The ghoul peered over the edge of the ship with his scope, grimacing. “Nothing. It’s like they don’t even have guards posted here. I wonder why?”

I began to fear that we’d been anticipated and that any moment the guards were going to jump out and attack. Instinctively I pulled up E.F.S. and scanned the immediate area, but there were no red blips. It was just us. This felt too easy. There had to be a catch.

“Alright, let’s move then. The faster we’re in the quicker we get to Mount Aris,” I said, pointing toward the landing pad. A platform jutted out from the airship extending to the pad.

We made our way onto the pad and towards the tower’s massive stairwell down to the ground level. I stopped for a moment, feeling something tingling in the back of my head. Before the others could reach the door to the stairs I shouted.

“Stop!”

I was almost too late. Almost. A loud beeping noise echoed in the night air as the entire tower’s base exploded, rippling upwards in a blaze of fire. I thought as quickly as I could, wrapping my friends in a ball of shield energy that kept the flames back as the tower began to teeter and groan from the structural damage. My E.F.S. began lighting up red below as several Storm Guards appeared out of nearby buildings, all aiming their weapons at us. Everything was being whipped up into a frenzy even beyond the wall as the raiders amassed their forces outside of the city as well. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Are you all alright?!” I shouted as I reached my friends, ducking and weaving between energy blasts.

“Not burnt to a crisp if that’s what you’re asking,” Trick said. “Good thinking. I didn’t think they’d trap the place.”

“I just had a bad feeling,” I said, lifting a shield to deflect the bolts of energy coming from below. “We need to move though. That blaze just cut off our route to the ground.”

“I have an even worse idea than you taking us flying,” Violet proposed. “It involves dropping an airship on the guards below.”

“That sounds fucking crazy,” Sunshine said. “I’m in. I can help try to get its systems online enough to route power to get it to fall.”

I nodded. A crazy plan was still a plan, and we needed something. We couldn’t go either way, pinned down as we were. We needed a third option. We pulled back, our shields up as both the raiders and the Storm Guards opened fire again. The airship was taking some of the fire, but that would only serve its purpose of crashing it and then hoping to get off and into the city amidst the chaos.

“Star, keep them busy while Sunshine and I figure out the control system!” Violet shouted, using her rifles to return cover fire while she and the pink mare ran into the control booth.

“Got it,” I said. “Trick, find a good position and take care of business. Bright Ember, stick with me.”

Trick nodded, jaunting off to locate a profitable position for which he could perform his specialty brand of sniping. Ember stuck close to me, lifting his pistol he’d borrowed from Trick in the air next to him.

*CRACK*

Trick’s rifle echoed across the plaza, hitting several Storm Guards and dropping them to the ground. I used my magic where I could, sending my blade down and erecting a shield to protect us. It was more magic than I’d used in a while, at the very least since Klugetown. Keeping it all going at once was a bit much. I was straining to fight. From beside me, Bright Ember took several shots, but none were as blindingly effective as Trick Shot’s rifle.

The airship began to shudder as Violet and Sunshine struggled to get the thing going. It didn’t seem like they were having much luck. Either this thing genuinely didn’t work or it had been sabotaged intentionally to keep us stranded here. I had to think of something. My eyes darted back and forth, seeing the thick cabling securing the airship’s deck to the system that kept it aloft and I had an even crazier plan than just forcing the machine down with its control system.

“Ember, Trick… get in the cabin with the others,” I said, hearing them scramble off amidst the fire fight.

Summoning another set of shards from my blade, I held the shield and started sending shards across the breadth of the airship, slicing into and severing cable after cable. The airship began to shudder more with every cable I sliced into.

“Star, what the fuck are you…!? Oh…” Violet said as she poked her head out of the cabin. “Oh shit!”

“Find someplace to secure yourself!” I shouted, focusing all at once on the remaining cabling. I pushed my magic to its limits, angrily roaring as my horn burned from the sensation of channeling so many spells at once.

The remaining cabling snapped and the airship began to free fall, ripping away from the supports on the airship tower as it came down towards the wall and the ground below. I magically grounded my hooves, hoping it would be enough as I rode the wave of air rushing up around me. The Storm Guards and raiders both simply stopped as the airship hit the ground below and cracked in multiple places, sending debris flying everywhere. Smoke filled the air, the smell of death on the wind as much of the forces sent against us had been crushed under the weight of the ship.

I felt wobbly, still stuck to the deck of the airship with my spell. I quickly dismissed it and glanced through the smoke to find the cabin. I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed it was intact. The others were still inside as I rushed over, having managed to secure themselves to a side wall.

“Fucking warn us the next time you decide to do something like that!” Violet shouted as she extricated herself from the others. “That was crazy!”

“It worked, right?” I asked with a slight grin. “We got the airship down.”

“Can we do that again?” Bright Ember said, laughing out loud. “That was kind of fun.”

“Fun?! Fun?! Are you fucking kidding me?! THAT WAS AWESOME!” Sunshine shouted, giggling loudly as well.

The both of them pulled themselves out of their harnesses and helped Trick out of his. Realizing it wasn’t going to take too long for the raiders and Storm Guards to regroup, we made to move out of the cabin and escape into the city through the smoke.

It was a reasonable plan. Well, reasonable until well… it wasn’t anymore.

As soon as we stepped out, more fire erupted all around us. We moved as one through the smoke, but we couldn’t pinpoint where the fire was coming from. We had effectively blinded ourselves.

A stray bolt of energy soared through the air. I tried to raise a shield but found my magical reserves lacking in strength from all the overuse of power I had exhibited up above. The shield manifested for a brief moment before faltering, coming right through our defenses and right into the side of Bright Ember. The Kirin went slack, falling to the ground next to us, a deep searing burn along his side.

“Ember!” Sunshine shouted, dropping down to try to help the Kirin. “Ember, can you hear me?!”

*CRACK*

Trick Shot’s rifle came out and started firing in any direction he could see a bolt of energy coming from as Violet struggled to do the same. Their barding would protect them from most fire, but I knew that we were surrounded. We’d just simply exchanged battlefields for one where apparently they had the upper hoof.

“Star! He’s not breathing!” Sunshine cried out, her eyes filled with tears as she tried to bandage up the Kirin’s side. “I can’t… I can’t…”

My eyes drifted down to Ember’s face, his eyes ashen. He couldn’t be dead! He just couldn’t! Then my eyes widened as I realized what was happening. A subtle green glow started pulsing throughout his body.

“Sunshine… everypony, away. Back away!” I roared, grabbing onto the pink mare with my hoof.

“What are you…?” Sunshine started to say before realizing what was happening.

Bright Ember started to stand, his body pulsing with radioactive energies. The burn along his side began to heal almost instantly as his body changed. His lion-like mane burst into green flames, his tail as well. His hooves sharpened into claws. His teeth bared. He roared loudly and angrily. My PipBuck began clicking almost immediately. All around us there was quiet as the smoke began to dissipate, revealing multiple raiders and Storm Guards surrounding us.

“He’s putting off a ton of rads, we need to back off from him!” Trick Shot said. “Or else Sunshine and Violet are going to have a new limb or something even worse!”

“Keep them safe,” I said to him. “I’m the only one besides you who can stay with him.”

Trick Shot nodded, yanking back on the other two before they disappeared into the dark. I turned my attention back to Bright Ember, who had taken notice of the Storm Guards in front of him. Their eyes widened as he closed the distance between them, roaring hot flaming magical radiation right into their faces. Two of the creatures crumpled, dead on impact as their faces burned and melted away. More turned and tried to run from the Nirik, but faced its fiery justice anyways. Bright Ember growled, spewing fire from every part of his body as more fell before his fire. None were left to oppose him after mere minutes. None except for me.

“Ember! You gotta cool it off!” I shouted, daring to come closer to the Nirik. “You have to control it!”

Bright Ember roared at me, rushing at me with anger in his glowing eyes. He moved to attack with his clawed hooves, missing as I ducked to one side. My horn ignited, grabbing onto the Nirik with my telekinesis.

“Ember! Think of Sunshine! You need to protect her!” I said. “Remember your feelings for her!”

Bright Ember thrashed in the air, expelling flame to try and burn me. I raised a shield that deflected it to the side as the Nirik struggled to maintain control. After several long moments of thrashing, the fiery green eyes began to clear up and I could see through to Bright Ember. He howled with pain, unleashing one final burst of fire that cleared away from him as he reverted to his Kirin form.

I lowered him to the ground as he groaned loudly. The radiation had healed his injuries, something that I noted had persisted through the transformation back to his old self. A handy thing if you were seriously injured, just at the risk of nearly murdering everyone and everything around you. I could see why ponies feared Nirik’s. Their lack of control was… disturbing.

“Ember? Are you alright?” I cautiously asked, fearing the worst.

“I… What did I do…? Did I hurt…?” the confused Kirin started to say.

I shook my head. “Other than a bunch of Storm Guards, nopony else was injured. You tried to slash and burn me, obviously.”

“Goddess… Star. I’m so…” Ember struggled to say.

“Don’t think anything of it. I know it’s hard to control it. I’m the only one who can hold their own against you,” I said with a slight grin.

“Is it safe to come out yet?!” I heard Violet shout from the ruins of the airship.

I turned to notice that they had been holed up in the remains of the pilot box of the airship. I waved a hoof indicating it was safe. “You all might want to take some RadAway though. There still might be some residual radiation.”

A pink blur shot out of the pilot box and landed right next to Bright Ember, wrapping him in a fierce hug. “Oh my Goddess, are you alright? I thought… I thought we…” Sunshine Sky started to say, tears streaming from her eyes.

Ember looked up at me, wide-eyed. I nodded slightly as Trick and Violet stepped up next to me, my marefriend sucking on a RadAway pouch. Ember looked down at Sunshine and put a hoof on her back carefully.

“I’m okay,” he said softly. “It’s okay. We’re alright. I’m here.”

“Don’t you ever do that again to me!” Sunshine Sky said angrily, pushing herself back from his embrace. “You… you scared me.”

Ember’s ears drooped. “I… I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He too began to cry softly into Sunshine’s arms. “I don’t… I don’t ever want to do that again to you ever.”

“She’s going to need a lot of RadAway,” Violet said from beside me.

“Yup,” I said softly. “But let’s give them a moment to compose themselves before we worry about that.”

* * *

The streets of the capital city of Panthera were barren. The attack at the airship tower had flattened a huge chunk of the wall. Any Storm Guards that were left seemed to have retreated to the Palace in the center of the city.

We carefully crept along the dark streets, moving from shadow to shadow as we inched ever closer to the outer wall of the Palace. As expected, we could see several Storm Guards watching the gate. I looked up at the Palace itself. A pall was cast over the air around it. Clouds swirled and howled as the wind moved back and forth.

Without much of an option we hunkered down in one of the nearby Hippocampus Energy plant offices directly across from the Palace. It was unguarded, which was strange. The only thing I had to consider was that whatever controlled this army wasn’t totally in control of the overall city yet. Still, it felt like we were walking into a trap.

Sunshine and Bright Ember had been inseparable since we left the ruins of the airship tower. It had taken a bit to get them to move, but knowing that time was of the essence and still being inside enemy territory had convinced them to get up. They huddled closely together as I shut the door to the Hippocampus plant’s office. I looked out the window at the Palace with a scowl.

“Guards everywhere around the perimeter. I don’t know how we’re going to get in there… and even if we do…” I said.

“A full on assault would be rather suicidal, yes,” Violet replied. “But… I’m sure that word has already gotten back here about what happened at the airship tower. Perhaps they’re more afraid of us now?”

“I doubt it,” I said. “This feels too easy to me. I hate to say it, but we’re walking into a trap. We have to be. And there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I agree with Star,” Trick said. “A trap makes the most sense, but did you also notice just how out of it the Storm Guards appear to be the closer they are to the Palace?”

I peered out of the window, my eyes widening. “You’re right,” I said. “They look almost… robotic in nature.”

The Storm Guards watching the gate definitely seemed very off indeed. They shuffled about slowly and haphazardly, not really paying attention to what was in their way. Almost as if they were being interfered with by something more powerful. Probably by whatever was inside the Palace.

“If we make a break for the gate, we might be able to just bowl past them,” Trick said.

“We may not have to,” Violet said, grinning widely as she punched out a few ticks on the only terminal in the room. “There’s a tunnel.”

“A what?” Trick and I both said at the same time.

“I’ve been reviewing these schematics, and each office contains a different piece of the puzzle,” Violet said. “This network is massive, but it all feeds in somewhere, which means there is a tunnel that goes up underneath the city and right into the throne room. These schematics on this terminal prove it.”

“So we sneak into the tunnel and up into the throne room? What if there's a trap there as well?” I asked.

“It’s the best option we have available,” Violet said. “At least it’s one that doesn’t put us charging through Storm Guards.”

I grimaced. Violet had a point. The possibilities of a trap were high, but the weird behavior of the Storm Guards outside was very interesting, but I didn’t want to chance being wrong. The tunnels were indeed the best option.

“Where’s the entrance to the tunnel?” I said finally after several long moments of silence.

“That’s the good news. It’s right below these plants. The whole network feeds down there,” Violet replied. She tapped a few buttons on the terminal.

A loud scraping sound echoed throughout the room as a panel shifted away from the floor, revealing a set of stairs going down into the darkness. Violet stepped away from the terminal and smiled.

“Voila,” she said. “With the schematics downloaded to my PipBuck I should be able to get us through the tunnel network with ease.”

“Do you think there’s anything dangerous down there?” I said, glancing back at Sunshine and Ember. “We really need the time to rest if so.”

“There was nothing on the documentation of any security features. I guess they probably expected the only ponies down there to be maintenance or something. Who knows, prewar ponies were kind of fucking stupid,” Violet said.

“Alright. Here’s how we’re going to do this then. Violet, you’re with me on point. We need the schematics to find our way through and you’re our map pony. Trick, I want you to take up the rear and watch our backs. Sunshine, Ember, in the middle. Look out for what you can, and keep each other safe. Trick and I will keep our horns lit in case it’s too dark,” I explained to the others.

I received firm nods in affirmation. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going to lead everypony here to their deaths. I wondered if I was going to come out of this alive as well. But I had to, if not for my friends but for the ponies back in Equestria.

We took a few moments to compose ourselves before setting down the stairs into the tunnel. The primary entrance into the tunnel system was a little cramped, but we managed to make it through into the darkness. Both Trick and I lit our horns, seeing nothing but massive power cabling lining the ceilings and going off this way or that way as the tunnels intersected with each other.

We walked quietly, each of us on edge as we kept a lookout for anything dangerous. There was no sound outside of the slow hum of the power equipment. Transformer boxes jutted out from the walls at random intervals. This entire power grid was powering something truly absurd. I couldn’t figure out yet why Hippocampus agreed to this. I guess it made sense from a money standpoint. If they were the only power providers in this country, they could make a fortune off the billing. But who were they billing? The Ministries? Luna? I still hadn’t pieced together whose hooves were in this, but I had a pretty good feeling I already knew deep down. Twilight Sparkle. Only she could come up with something this complex and insane.

We made another turn down into another tunnel on the schematics. I kept my E.F.S. up and active, but the equipment down here must have been interfering with it because everything was fuzzy. I shut it off and peered ahead through the darkness. I couldn’t see much beyond the light radius of my magic, so I pushed a globe of light out ahead of us. My eyes widened as several red eyes appeared in the aftermath of the flash, and I caught sight of leathery cracked skin.

Something in the darkness roared, gutturally. Whatever it was, it wasn’t friendly.

“Everypony, around me!” I shouted, bringing up my shield as something slithered out of the dark, slamming into it with a set of thick looking claws. A toothy maw opened up, revealing numerous rows of sharpened teeth below a set of six glowing red eyes. Its body sat on several skittering legs on each side like a giant bug. It was like something out of a nightmare.

“What the fuck is that thing?!” Sunshine cried out as the creature slithered about, trying to break through my shield.

I had to give this thing some credit. It was persistent, but didn’t seem all that actually intelligent. More like an animal. I heard another cry behind us as another one of the things crashed into my shield from the back. I growled. I wasn’t going to be able to hold the shield for very long and these things were fast. I had to do something.

A very silly idea popped into my head. Using the shield as force, I began to expand it outwards, pushing the two creatures away into the concrete walls, the raw magical output forcing me to strain to do what I wanted with it. I pushed harder and harder until the things crunched into a bloody pulp from the raw force. With a groan, I dropped the shield, letting the bloody corpses of two big ass fucking bugs land on the ground.

“Star! Are you alright?” Violet said.

“I’m okay. That was a lot of exertion,” I said. “We need to move. There could be more of those…”

I was cut off by the screeching terror that was more red eyes behind us. Two more of the creatures darted out of the darkness into our light circle. One of them caught a blaze of energy rifle beams right in the face as it disintegrated into a pile of glowing goop. These things might have been fast, but they seemed to be fragile. I summoned my blade as best as I could, sending two strands out at the remaining creature. Cold magical blade sliced through chitin and flesh, cutting the thing into two halves that fell on the ground, wailing a final death cry.

“Violet, how much farther?” I asked. I could hear the cries of more of those things. I didn’t know how much more we could handle if we were overwhelmed.

“Uhh… There’s a substation just up ahead that leads up,” Violet replied.

“Good. Get us there,” I said. “Everypony else, stay close. Trick, I want you to cover me in case I can’t keep them off of us.”

“Got it,” Trick said, floating his rifle out.

As we started to move forward, two more creatures lunged out of the darkness. Trick’s rifle took one of them and a bit of fancy telekinesis grabbed the remaining one and slammed its head into mash on the concrete wall.

I couldn’t spend the time thinking about it, I just had to react as we started forward. All I could do was react on instinct, my magic burning deeply every time I used it to take out one of those things. One of them appeared in front of Violet at one point, her energy rifles blowing it into goopy bits. We moved slowly but surely, unsure how many of those things were down here. We finally made it to the substation door and my horn burned. I was panting loudly as I checked my E.F.S. for any more of those things. No more appeared. However, behind us was a cloud of red.

“There might be more inside on the way up. Have to be careful,” I said, pushing open the door to the substation.

My eyes widened as we stepped through. The substation itself was a large open room with several power converting units stretched across one half of it. What drew my attention however was the large thing attached to the power converters. It was practically growing on it. A smaller body that looked like the upper half of one of those things was attached to the overall thing, but it had a bulbous mass that clung to everything on the other half. It screeched and squealed loudly as it dropped what looked like an egg to the ground below it.

There were a lot of eggs below it, glowing in the soft light of the power converters.

“Oh. Oh fuck,” I said to myself.

It was a fucking Queen. And it was laying eggs. Eggs that were beginning to hatch. From behind us, the door to the substation was attacked, more of those things pounding on the door. Across the room I could see the stairs that led up and out of the tunnel system. We’d have to cross the room to get to it.

“I think we should run,” Violet said. “Yeah… running sounds like a really good idea right about now.”

“Running sounds good here too,” Trick Shot said as well. “You all good with running?”

“Running is probably the best idea you’ve all had in a long while,” Bright Ember said.

“I could do with some running,” Sunshine replied.

“Good, because we’re going to have to! Hurry!” I shouted as we poured into the room.

The walls became abuzz with activity as those things skittered down it. We didn’t have far to go but it felt like it took ages as we made our mad dash through the room. Eggs all around us began to hatch, spilling out baby versions of little nightmares. My horn seared with pain as I used my telekinesis to send eggs flying in every direction, hoping to cause enough chaos to get us through this. I roared, picking up the others with as much magic as I could muster, sending us flying through the air and onto the stairs. Problematically though, even if we did get up the stairs and out of here, those things would follow. I had to give them a reason not to.

“Everypony keep going,” I said. “I’m going to have a word with this Queen.”

“Star, no! They’ll be on you before…” Violet started to shout before I raised my shield to fend off an attack.

“No time, just go!” I called back.

I turned back as the others ran up the stairs, keeping a safe distance. I growled loudly, flaring my horn.

“Yo Queenie!” I shouted. “How do you like these apples?!”

With a grunt of effort, I ripped several long power cables from the power converters. They sparked with a massive amount of electricity as I redirected them into the bulbous sac that belonged to the Queen. Jolts of energy and power surged out of them and into the sac, making the Queen scream and shriek loudly. For a moment, the creatures advancing on us stopped as they turned to assist their ailing Queen.

My horn burned fiercely as I pulled the walls apart, dropping as much rubble as I could in front of me to block the path. I growled and thrashed as much as I could before finally passing out.

* * *

For once in a long time I dreamt but did not dream of darkness or death. Not even a bit of violence. Just a peaceful moonlit night and the stars on a hill overlooking a small valley. My friends sat with me, enjoying the silence and the calm.

I wondered for a moment if I had died and this was some sort of pony afterlife. It felt all too real as the wind blew across my coat. It was beautiful and mysterious. I wondered if this is how Princess Luna saw the world, full of wonder and majesty, before the war had turned her heart to stone. The sky above us was alive with color and magic.

“It is beautiful, is it not?” a voice said softly to my side.

I glanced over and my jaw dropped. The most beautiful of blue alicorns sat staring up at the sky next to me. A small black crown adorned her brow.

“Princess… Luna?” I asked, feeling very confused. “Aren’t you…?”

“Dead? Yes. Yes I am. You were thinking about me, and so here I am. A figment of your imagination as it were,” the alicorn replied with a smile. “I am Luna, but I am Not-Luna.”

“You mean I’m dreaming this?”

“Yes. I’m only as real as you make me out to be. You have captured the night perfectly,” Not-Luna said. “Your imagination is quite vivid.”

“I don’t understand. What is going on here? Why am I imagining you?” I asked.

“You went through a very traumatic magical burnout,” Not-Luna said. “You’re currently unconscious on a stairwell leading up into the Royal Palace of Abyssinia.”

“So I’m alive? Why this then? Why am I not waking up?”

“Magic works in very mysterious ways. You have stressed yours to its very limits. I’m sure you’ve noticed that increasingly your magic is beginning to become harder to use,” Not-Luna said.

“I guess I have noticed that, yeah,” I said. “It’s certainly taken a lot of effort to access magical reserves. So what are you, some sort of imaginary friend I cooked up to cope?”

“I am not sure. You called me here after all. I suspect I’m sort of a coping mechanism, but I’m not sure what you need to cope with. Honestly, I have no clue why I’m here,” Not-Luna said. “All I know is that you need to wake up.”

“What happens if I don’t wake up?”

“You and your friends will die. Wake up, Star! Wake up!”

…

“... dammit, wake up!”

A voice from above me stirred me awake as the dreamscape floated off into darkness, Not-Luna included. My eyes fluttered open to Violet above me.

“Star! Celestia’s plot, you’re awake! We thought…” she started to say, tears forming in her eyes.

“I’m okay, I think. I had a blackout due to all that magic I used,” I managed to get out. “I’ll be fine.”

“Star… it’s not fine. Your horn… it’s blackened,” Violet said.

I looked down immediately at my PipBuck, trying to use its reflective screen as a mirror. Sure enough, my horn appeared to be blackened and dark. It wasn’t broken, but it was damaged. I scowled, trying to access my magic. It was there, but it was very weak. I struggled for a moment simply trying to light my horn, only achieving a small light before I gave up.

“My magic. It’s weaker than before,” I said. “Something has happened to me. I don’t know what, but it’s been building for a while now.”

“We’ll figure it out, but for now we need to move. We’re sitting ducks down here if somepony comes to investigate all that noise,” Violet said. “Trick went up to keep an eye out with Sunshine and Ember, but he says things are pretty quiet up there.”

I nodded, pushing myself to my hooves shakily. I wobbled a bit but finally managed to remain stable. I looked back down the stairwell. Rubble blocked the stairs for good, bits and pieces of mangled bug-things and greenish blood poking out from the rocks. I did all of this? I thought, unable to remember just how much power I had poured into that spell.

I glanced at Violet and smiled softly, following her up the stairwell to where the others were waiting. I was met with a hug by both Ember and Sunshine and a nod by Trick.

“Good to see you up and about,” Trick said. “We were concerned. Your horn…”

“I’m not giving up now,” I said. “We’re too close. I’ll worry about my horn once we get to Mount Aris. Where are we?”

“One of the Palace hallways is where this station opens up into. They might have used it at some point for maintenance as well,” Trick said. “There’s nobody up here though. It’s eerie as shit if you ask me.”

“Nothing on any of our E.F.S. either,” Violet said. “It’s like it’s a ghost town up here.”

“Any idea on where the throne room is or the portal?” I asked.

“Based on the schematics from the Hippocampus station, we’re on the Western side of the Palace. The throne room is in the center,” Violet said, pulling up the diagram on her PipBuck. “We should be able to move towards there directly. I hope.”

“And what if we can’t get through the portal?” I said.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Sunshine said. “Together, like we have been. We’re here with you.”

I nodded, taking the first step up out of the stairwell and into the ancient Palace hallway. A cool breeze fluttered across us as we took stock of the situation. The Palace seemed to be completely barren, devoid of any guards or any life whatsoever. But there was a presence here. I could feel it in the wind. It was palpable and real. I knew deep down that whatever it was, it was behind those eyes I had seen at the battle of Hope Hollow.

“Alright. Violet, lead the way,” I said.

Violet moved ahead of me, her PipBuck up with the schematics as we walked carefully down the hallway and left into the next one. The Palace walls had not aged well, their golden sheen now dull and cracked. Gold flaked off parts of the walls, revealing rotted wood and stone. There was an occasional statue or broken vase, all feline in nature. The Abyssinians were pragmatic and not overly opulent it seemed, focusing more on raw design and reverence of whatever Gods or Goddesses they prayed to. It all felt very religious in nature with every new piece we walked by. Pale lights dotted the hallways, giving some semblance of light that still persisted even two hundred years after the end of the world. I had to give some credit to Hippocampus. What they built seemed to last.

Another hallway jutted off, leading deeper into the complex. It was like a maze of sorts, but every intersecting hallway seemed to lead directly to the center where the throne room was. I wondered briefly if this was deliberate of the Abyssinians, whether they knew this or not. The closer we got down the hallway, the more I could see a large set of doors leading into the massive throne room. They sat ajar, but the dim light would not let me see much farther beyond them. The pressure in my mind continued to build. We were getting closer to it. I could feel it.

“The throne room is just ahead. According to the schematics, the power sources all feed into that room,” Violet whispered. “This feels too easy with all the guards outside. Why aren’t they here? Something isn’t right.”

“I agree with Violet,” Bright Ember said. “Something feels off.”

“Just keep your eyes peeled,” I said with a grimace. “If we’re lucky, we can get to the portal and get through before nopony is the wiser.”

I poked my head just inside the throne room, scanning the room for any potential dangers. The throne room itself was large and stately, with a dais in the middle of the room leading up a set of stairs to where two golden thrones sat. Behind the thrones was a massive device that could only be the portal device. It appeared to be inactive.

Furthermore, the throne room appeared to be empty. Completely and utterly deserted. Perhaps we’d lucked out after all. I pushed the door open further quietly, motioning for the others to join me as we made our way inside. I pointed up at the thrones themselves and beyond them.

As I walked across towards the dais, I felt the pressure building inside my mind. It was unbearable. When I reached the dais, I stopped. I could feel it all around me. It was there somewhere, watching us.

“Star, are you alright?” I heard Violet ask.

“This was a mistake,” I uttered. “We have to… have to…”

“You’re right about one thing,” a voice rumbled out of the darkness of the room. “This was a mistake… for you.”

A storm cloud built in the center of the room above us, my eyes widening as it began to form into a more solid mass. Two piercing blue eyes appeared in the mass, complete with a gleaming set of razor sharp teeth. Two massive horns jutted out from each side of the thing’s head as it arose out of the cloud. Its body was malformed, broken. In fact the cloud stopped forming at the base of the thing’s torso, and only one of its arms had fully formed, ending in sharp claws. The same blue lines that adorned the Storm Guards were embedded in the thing’s chest plate. The cloud it emanated from spread all over the ceiling, spewing miniature bolts of lightning and thunder every so often.

“What… what are you?” I said. “You’ve been in my head this whole time, haven’t you?”

“Yes… Radiant Star. My magic infected you, slowly building in strength the closer you came to my prison,” the thing said, its voice hungry and low. “You have noticed, haven't you? The strength at which your magic comes to you? It is weak.”

“What do you want with Star?” Violet interjected angrily. “How did we even make it here alive? You have your army. You could have killed us at any time. So why?”

My mind raced with possibilities, coming to the only conclusion that made sense as to why we had gotten here as easily as we had. Well, as easy as we could have with all the obstacles to getting here. Whatever this creature was. It wanted one thing. It had specifically said the word “prison” which meant it couldn’t leave this place. I looked up and grimaced.

“You want us to go into the portal. Because you can’t,” I said suddenly.

“Perceptive… I knew I was right to leave you alive after that unfortunate business in Hope Hollow,” the creature said, rumbling. “My powers return… slowly. But I am bound to this place, and I cannot leave except for extensions of my will. The creatures you call Storm Guards.”

“What’s to stop us from leaving right now?” Sunshine said. “You’re stuck here.”

“Because, my little pony, you can’t leave. My army waits on the other side of the gates. You will never escape, and I will find someone else,” the creature rumbled.

“You’re bluffing,” I said. “I know why you need me. There’s a genetic bypass on the portal controls.”

“Intelligent, too! I dare say, pony. You surprise me. Yes… there is something preventing me from accessing the gateway,” the creature replied. “You are going to open it.”

“Whatever’s on the other side of that portal must be pretty powerful if this thing wants it,” Trick Shot said. “What are we going to do?”

I scowled deeply. I had to come up with a plan and fast. Getting out of here was only ever going to happen through the portal. This creature had planned for everything. It was intelligent for sure, and devious. Cunning. It had maneuvered us here from the get go. I looked down at the others. I brought them here. They joined me of their own accord, of course, but I was the reason. There was really only one option here.

“What do you want me to do?” I said finally.

“What, Star, you can’t do that!” Violet said. The others protested too.

I lifted a hoof for a moment, winking at her and her alone. “There’s nothing we can do. He’s got us caught. So… what do you want me to do?”

“You are smarter than your friends are,” the creature rumbled. “You will open the portal and go through and discover what has become of the pearl. You will bring it back to me. In return, I shall let you live. I shall remove the enchantment weakening your magic.”

My mind raced. The pearl?! The object in the journal. It had to exist then. It was the only reason that the creature wanted to get the portal active.

“It’s a trap, Star,” Violet urged quietly.

“I know,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth. “But it’s the only way out of this that I know of. We can’t escape guns blazing.”

Violet nodded, grimacing. I looked back at the others and somehow I felt that they understood what I was doing. I turned to the creature.

“Okay,” I said, taking a step up the stairs. “I’ll do it.”

The creature laughed, a mad cackle that echoed throughout the chamber. “Excellent…” it said. “You may proceed.”

I started up the stairs towards the thrones, alone at first, but soon joined by the others. If the creature cared at all, it did not protest. I suspect it considered the others to not be a threat, or possibly to not even be able to access the portal in the first place. I wasn’t sure. All I know is I had one shot at this and if it didn’t work…

The portal device was a large archway with a pylon next to it containing a terminal. If I was right, the genetic marker preventing the terminal from activating the portal had to have been keyed to a Ministry Mare. And not just any Ministry Mare, but Twilight Sparkle. I stepped up to it as the creature watched silently. Could he attempt to come through the portal once it was active? My suspicions led me to believe no. He could not. He was stuck here, at least until… what? I realized that his malformed body had given me some sort of clue. He was stuck here because he was not powerful enough to break the bonds of his prison. He was stuck here because he needed the power of the pearl to set him free.

I didn’t intend to keep up my end of the deal. I hadn’t really thought about what would happen once we got to Mount Aris, but I knew that we weren’t coming back this way. The question was whether I could shut down the portal from the other side. With my magic weakened, I wasn’t sure if it was possible or not. The creature had claimed proximity to his magic had caused my weakness. I wasn’t sure if I could break through it or not if I was far away. My eyes settled on the terminal and the pylon it was connected to. If it was broken somehow… would it shut down the portal? It was possibly my only option.

I touched the terminal, reaching out with what magic I had to activate it. The screen illuminated after a short moment and a message appeared. I was surprised at how simple it was. The genetic bypass must have been specifically keyed to the magic inside of me, in essence Twilight’s magical ability.

Welcome… Twilight Sparkle. Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.

MINERVA Transport System to Mount Aris is online.

Would you like to commence? (Y/N)

I pressed the Y key, not really knowing what to expect next. The archway began to crackle and glow. The portal began to hum to life, and whatever lay beyond the arches in the throne room simply disappeared, replaced with a rainy and slick road in the darkness. I could feel the spray of rain coming through the portal. It was hard to see through the rain.

“Mount Aris…” the creature rumbled. “It’s there. I can feel it. Do as I ask, Radiant Star… and I will restore your magic. I will let you live…”

The others stepped through quickly, drenched in the downpour on the other side. I turned back to the creature and flashed a grin. I couldn’t believe it had been this easy to fool the creature. Still, something in the back of my mind told me that we were still playing into his game somehow. I couldn’t shake the feeling, but I had to do what I had to do.

“Yeah… about that. You want what’s on Mount Aris? Come and get it yourself, you piece of shit,” I said angrily as I bucked the terminal off the pylon entirely, causing the power pylon to completely fall apart, sparking and crackling with electrical energy. As I had hoped, the portal began to shimmer and crackle as the power control system began to fail. The portal was failing, and even if this thing could repair it, we would be long gone before they could use it again. At least… I hoped so.

“What?!” the creature roared, lunging towards me. The storm clouds surrounding it hummed and crackled with anger. The doors to the throne room flung open, filling with Storm Guards as they awaited their master’s bidding. “You have doomed Equestria, Radiant Star! There is no escaping Mount Aris! My full strength will return on its own and I will rule this pathetic excuse for a world!”

“Sorry, can’t hear you, I think I hear my plane arriving,” I said, pushing myself through the fading portal before it could dissipate entirely. I had to hope my plan would work and I would be able to make it through to the others.

The magic wracked my body painfully as I made my way through the unstable connection, but it was working! I was getting through! I landed on the other side in the rain, groaning loudly as I slumped to the ground.

The portal behind me winked out of existence as the creature lunged towards me, growling angrily. I groaned again. My body felt like a million pins and needles had been pushed into it simultaneously. My eyes drifted up to the others and beyond to a massive spire jutting out of the rock in the rain.

Mount Aris. It was the last thing I saw before I passed out again.

* * *

The creature watched carefully as the portal device sparked lifelessly, a sharp grin on his face. He turned to the throne room where the Storm Guards were setting up the communications device that had been used to contact Commander Breeze. The Commander’s face appeared on the screen.

“Commander,” the creature said. “Thank you for your intelligence and service.”

“The mare is out of the way?” Breeze replied.

“Yes. Begin your operations at once. We shall cauterize Equestria… and Radiant Star will be unable to save her precious ponies. She will be trapped in Mount Aris forever,” the creature replied, a cruel laughter escaping his lips.

“Understood, my King.”

The screen winked out, and the creature floated into the air over his subjects. His beloved Storm Guards, extensions of his pure will. They robotically kneeled as he bade them to, the cruelest of grins forming on his face.

“Let all of Equestria tremble! There is nothing that can face me now! Soon, all of existence shall bear the wrath of the one, the only… Storm King!”

Author's Note

Oh ho! The Storm King's triumphant entrance! What wonders lay in store for Star and company in Mount Aris? FIND OUT NEXT CHAPTER!

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Chapter 7: Mount Aris

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 7: Mount Aris

We need to find the Hippogriffs. Do you know what happened to them?

I am no stranger to pain. I’ve experienced so much pain in my short life. The pain of a mare long gone, the pain of losing friends, the pain of losing family. Pain transcends our very existence. It defines us. It refines us. It empowers us.

I needed to go through my pain, to come out the other side and be better for it. My pain made me stronger, and it was never ending. I was never going to stop experiencing the pain. But I would not let it end me. I would push through. I would not stop. I would live.

* * *

My eyes flashed open and I breathed deeply, my head pounding as I struggled to get up. The first thing I became acutely aware of is that I was utterly drenched from mane to tail. The second thing was that Violet was next to me, also drenched from mane to tail. The third thing was the others standing behind her, also completely drenched. The rain above us pounded down, and there was little shelter to speak of in the immediate vicinity.

“Star!” Violet shouted, her voice soft against the pouring rain. “Star, can you hear me?!”

I nodded, groaning loudly as I moved to situate myself. From what I could tell, my body was protesting against literally every possible movement I could make and my head was protesting against every possible thought that popped into my head. It made for a disorienting state of affairs as I tried to get to my hooves.

I managed to somehow do so, but felt shaky and queasy. I could still feel my horn’s injury, the blackness having settled there. I didn’t even think I could eat anything, my stomach feeling like it was going to revolt and leap out of my chest at any moment. In fact, whatever stomach contents I did have ended up on the ground in front of me.

“Sunshine!” Violet called back behind her. “Do we have any healing potions?!”

“One left!” Sunshine shouted over the rain and thunder. “We should get inside somewhere, though!”

Violet nodded, turning to me. “Star, we need to move you. Can you walk?” she whispered in my ear.

I looked down at her and took a small step, nodding. I let her lead me forward as we made our way up a desolate hill where what looked like a guard shack waited in the darkness. I stumbled a few times getting up the hill, but between Violet and Sunshine helping me along we finally made it into the somewhat dryer shelter of the guard shack. I slumped down in the corner of the room and groaned.

“She took a nasty hit from that exploding portal,” Sunshine said, reaching into her saddlebag and pulling out a bottle. “I’m a little surprised she’s even alive right now.”

“Alicorns are hardier than regular ponies are,” Violet said, taking the healing potion from her. “Star’s taken some hits, you know that. She’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah but are we? You heard what that thing said. We’re trapped here? There’s no way to get out?” Sunshine asked. “Did we make the right decision?”

“It was… the only way…” I slurred, dipping my head as Violet caught me, forcing the healing potion down my throat.

The pain in my head began to clear up slightly along with the pain along my body. A subtle warmth filled my chest, but I was still a relatively hot mess. After all the potion had gone down, Violet pulled the bottle out and I coughed a bit.

“I’m… I’ll be okay,” I said weakly. “Just need to rest.”

“Star, what if we can’t get home? What if this entire expedition was for nothing?” Sunshine said angrily. “What if this was the trap?”

I looked up at her and grimaced. “We’ll get home, Sunshine. We have to have hope,” I said softly.

“Can you see anything out there?” I heard Bright Ember ask Trick Shot. “I have a very bad feeling about this place. It feels off.”

“It feels dead,” Trick Shot uttered. “Nopony has been here for a long time.”

Sunshine sighed, looking back at me. “It just feels like this whole thing has been one giant clusterfuck since we left Klugetown, Star. Like we’ve been led here to get us out of the way,” she said.

I put a hoof up, weak and shaking, on her shoulder. “We’re together. We’ll get through this together. I know we will,” I said with a weaker smile. “Now… I need to get some sleep. We’ve got some time here and it seems like there’s nothing here. Trick?”

“You got it. I’m on watch. If anything moves out there, we’ll wake you,” Trick replied without missing a beat. A soldier to the bitter end.

I nodded, laying my head back down onto the cold wet ground. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing, but it would do. I let my eyes slip away and into the realm of dreams.

My dreams were fraught with visions of Tempest Shadow, of the route she had taken to get here. What was it that she sought to do here? The creature mentioned the pearl, which had to be the object in the journal. Is that why Tempest came here? Is that why the Ministries and Luna set all of this up? To do what… study it? What even was it? The text suggested it was some form of powerful artifact, but what did it do?

I awoke a few hours later, feeling stronger than I had been. The others had managed to build a fire, having noted that the rain had stopped and they had been able to find something inside the guard shack that would burn. Old papers stuffed in a drawer that hadn’t gotten wet served as fuel for the impromptu fire. While the fire wasn’t that big, it was still some amount of warmth.

We huddled about the fire for a while and looked out the window. There was still very little light, but the rain seemed to have calmed down. A chill wind blew across the island and I began to make out some features of the structures above us. A massive tower extended out of the middle of the island itself, surrounded by what looked to have been an old settlement.

“There isn’t much we can make out of the journal about this place,” Sunshine said, scowling as he pulled the old book out. “It’s almost like it’s in a different language or something.”

“Or a cipher,” Trick Shot offered. “Tempest was the type to keep secrets. She probably didn’t want anypony finding out what she knew about this place. So she probably codified her journal on it.”

“But without a key, we can’t easily decipher it,” Sunshine said. “We’re going to have to just go up to that tower and see what’s up there, aren’t we?”

“That seems like the most logical place for something like this pearl to be stored,” I said. I turned to Trick. “Do you remember anything about this pearl? Or any stories possibly about it?”

The ghoul shook his head. “I think that had to have been while I was growing up or something, I’m not really sure,” he said. “Tempest never said anything about it, for sure.”

“You knew this Tempest pony?” Bright Ember asked. “The one who wrote the journal?”

Trick nodded. “I lived through the end of the war,” he said with a sigh. “I was a sharpshooter in her Special Forces division. She was… was my friend.”

“You do not know what happened to her?” Ember said softly. “I am sorry. I did not know.”

“It’s alright kid,” Trick said, giving the kirin a soft smile. “Had a lot of time to come to peace with that one.”

I shifted my weight and pushed to my hooves. I was already starting to feel so much better, and even my horn pulsed softly with latent magic. I took a few steps towards the window and looked up at the tower, imposing itself on the skyline above us.

Violet stepped up next to me and smiled softly as she nuzzled into me. I looked down at her and my eyes watered for a moment as I caught sight of her horn. It was still partially broken, but I could see new material poking through the breakage. I realized we had all come into this situation broken, and we were finding out how to repair ourselves with each other as friends. Even though I hated her guts, Twilight probably would have been pretty proud of us. I looked back up at the tower. There was just one thing left. One final journey and then we could go home.

“We’d better get going,” I said. “We still need to find a way out of here as well.”

“The entrance to the tower is up the hill just past the settlement. We’ll have to cross it to get there,” Violet said.

“Let’s go then. No time to waste.”

* * *

The hill up to the settlement was dark and cold, winding around the mountainous terrain of the island. One thing I found incredibly strange was how I could still see the ocean surrounding the island. Still, the darkness obscured anything in the distance other than a faint glow on the horizon. It was very weird that the sun hadn’t come up yet. Thunder rumbled overhead, painting a picture of a world perpetually drenched by torrential rain.

The path up was a stretch of paved cobblestone that had long been unused. Cracks throughout the road snaked back and forth. Nothing grew up out of the cold hard ground here. It was as if this island hadn’t seen a lick of sunlight in ages. The other interesting thing was the utter lack of any bodies or skeletones. There was absolutely nothing. Even the guard station had been completely empty of any remains. What happened to everyone here? I thought as we looped around a bend and back up towards the entrance to the settlement.

We crested the ridge finally and got our first real look at the settlement before us. It was a ghost town. However the creatures here lived, they lived in interesting dwellings set on the faces of the cliffs and hills throughout the settlement. Old dead trees littered the main plaza, complete with broken buildings hanging off the sides of them. Open air market stalls sat here or there, empty as well. The whole place felt simply wrong.

“This place is… dead,” Bright Ember said softly, echoing what we were all thinking.

“Something really wrong happened here,” Sunshine said, stepping up to one of the buildings on a side wall across the way. “I can feel it in my bones.”

“It’s like everypony just disappeared,” Violet confirmed. “What happened here?”

“I don’t know, but we have to make it to the tower. That is the only place here that could have the answers we’re seeking,” I said, narrowing my eyes as I took in the tower looming over the settlement. It sat there, looking imposing and dark. A shadow across this broken land.

“Shouldn’t it be morning by now?” Violet said, stepping up to me as we walked across the grand plaza. “Like… I feel like we’ve been here for hours.”

I glanced at my PipBuck out of sheer curiosity. According to its internal clock it was still somehow in the middle of the night. But then… the clock also wasn’t moving at all. I scowled deeply.

“The clock on my PipBuck is stuck,” I said. “But you’re right. It should be morning. What is going on here?”

“Huh… mine is stuck too,” Violet said. “Some sort of electrical interference?”

“I don’t know, but so far I’m taking no chances with this place,” I said. “I’ve had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach since we got here.”

“How is your horn feeling?” my marefriend asked casually as we walked.

“I can feel a pulse of magic now. I’m guessing the distance from that creature is weakening the spell he put on me. I still don’t know how that happened,” I said. “And you? How are you doing?”

“Cold. Wet. Tired. Probably hungry, I’m not sure,” Violet said with a soft smile. “But I can feel some amount of magic again. At least it’s not all super wonky like before. It’s just very strong feeling, almost overpowering when I try to use it.”

I nodded, looking away from Violet for a second. “Was I wrong in bringing everyone here? What if that creature was right? What if we are stuck here?”

“Star, you can’t let that thing get inside your head,” Violet replied. “We’ll find a way out of here. We always do, don’t we?”

“Sort of. It feels like our entire journey has been nothing but true blind luck sometimes,” I said. “The only reason we got here is because there’s still enough of Twilight inside me to trigger the genetic bypasses keyed to her. What are the odds of that?”

“I don’t know, but trust me when I say… I know you’ll get us home safely,” Violet said, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “I trust you, my love.”

I sighed before nodding. “You’re right, you’re right. I gotta focus on the positive here. We made it to Mount Aris… despite the fact that it’s a cold cesspool out in the middle of nowhere.”

We both laughed at that and continued on in silence through the plaza. The hippogriffs hadn’t left much behind. Many of the stalls that presumably had been for market were completely and utterly empty. The domiciles were also completely empty save for furniture and those were intact, outside of the domiciles that had broken off the trees.

Something had led to the abandonment of this place. Whatever happened here, it stunk of bad.

We made it across the plaza in one piece, the tower looming ever over us as we discovered the road that led up to it. Another guard station sat at the base of the road, leading through a tunnel that went up in front of the entrance of the massive monolith. A wall surrounded the base of the tower, but it didn’t look very protective and was more decorative in nature.

“Oh yay, more upward walking,” I said aloud as we passed the guard station and up the road. I hated hills almost as much as I hated stairs.

The hill was quite steep as it continued upwards into the tunnel. We were bathed in black, our horns the only source of light as we pushed through to the other side. The shadow of the tower loomed even more over as we reached its base. I noted once we made it past the wall that there were magical energy defenses everywhere. Turrets set in the side of the building combined with standalone defense systems. Even the wall itself had multiple cannons extending from it. It’s almost as if this base was expecting an attack at any moment. Whatever was here must have been extremely important. For now though, all of these defenses were completely inactive. Dead. Just like this place was.

At the end of the tower courtyard sat a door leading into the complex. It was like a tomb, dark and gray. The door appeared to be closed tightly as we got closer to it. With my magic at the strength it was, opening it would prove difficult. Even so, I tried to reach out and tug on it, feeling my magic completely slip away as it touched it.

“Well that’s weird, it’s like it’s repelling my magic,” I said.

“Let me try,” Sunshine said, stepping up next to me, her horn glowing softly. After a few seconds it dissipated as well. “Yeah.. it’s almost as if the magic is just slipping off the door. Maybe to prevent unicorns from getting in easily?”

“The terminal here is still active, but it’s flashing a power symbol. I think this place just needs power,” Violet said from the side. She pulled up her PipBuck, connecting to the cabling hanging out just below the terminal. “But where’s the feed? Did we miss something?”

“Over there,” Trick Shot said gruffly, pointing across the courtyard.

My eyes followed, seeing a large power converter in the midst of the area surrounding the base of the tower. It sat silently. I let my gaze wander down the line of its connections, finding a break in the cabling that led outside of the compound.

“Something broke the connection,” I said. “There’s just no power. That’s why the door isn’t working.”

“So we need to restore the power to get inside?” Bright Ember said. “That sounds easy enough.”

My eyes drifted to all of the artillery adorning every inch of this place. “Easy… yeah…” I said to myself. “Just so long as none of those defense systems activate.”

“I’ll stay here and try to get the door open,” Violet offered. “Do you and Trick want to go get the power back on?”

I grimaced, but finally nodded. “That sounds like the best plan. Just be ready in case something happens.”

We moved silently across the courtyard towards the power converter, inching closer every second to where the break in the cabling lay. From best as I could tell, the cabling hadn’t fully broken, just had become disconnected from each other. It was some form of modular cabling that allowed for multiple connections.

Hoping I was wrong, I lifted the two cables in the air with my magic. “Alright, folks. Let’s hope nothing goes to shit.”

The two cables came together with a click, a spark of electrical energy passing through the air before they came together. Behind me, the power converter began to hum to life, energy crackling the air all around it as it settled into its power on routine.

“That did it!” I heard Violet call from the entrance. “Come on back!”

I started to move, warily watching the towers and the walls of this place. I didn’t hear Trick’s call until he had tackled me to the ground, a magical energy blast from one of them just missing my head.

All Tartarus broke loose. Magical energy turrets flared to life, firing their death bolts our way as we picked ourselves up and dodged through what had become a minefield. I reached for my magic, finding a shield that was weak but still reasonable enough to deflect some of the bolts away from us as we scrambled across the courtyard back to the entrance. I was thankful I heard Violet shout in happiness as the door opened and with a burst of energy we were through behind them as the door closed.

“That… that was close. Trick, you okay?” I asked.

“Peachy, if a little singed,” the ghoul replied. “Sounds like we woke this place up alright.”

“In more ways than one,” Violet said, looking up the facility we’d walked into. “Look at this…”

The facility was massive, extending upwards into the darkness above us. A spiral staircase with steps that glowed a soft blue went up the center of the facility. Large terminal screens were mounted to the walls around the central room we found ourselves in, each of them displaying some sort of metrics that the computers were tracking. I couldn’t quite understand exactly what the machines were keeping tabs on.

The primary section in front of us was lit up like a Hearth’s Warming tree, lights flashing back and forth. Off to one side, I could see an armory built into the outer wall. Several suits of what appeared to be power armor were standing inside, but they didn’t appear to be made for ponies. Wings and spaces for claws could be seen built into the suits. These definitely weren’t the work of Applejack’s Ministry. This had the Ministry of Awesome written all over it.

The other striking thing I noticed immediately was that this was the first time we’d seen any remains. Several skeletons with wings and claws for feet were present in the room next to the terminals, along with multiple piles of ash. These had been the hippogriffs, I theorized in the back of my mind. The only race that would have had this combination of physical features.

“What the fuck is this place?” Trick Shot said. “It’s like some sort of massive research facility.”

“Whatever it was… this is where they died,” Sunshine said. “What could have possibly killed them here? In this secure facility?”

My eyes narrowed. “That’s a good question. Maybe the power shut them in? They couldn’t escape,” I reasoned. “Starved to death.”

“Possibly,” Violet said, stepping over to one of the terminals. “Whatever killed them may be a mystery, but they left behind this entire facility… untouched by anypony since the end of the war.”

“Those are often the worst kind in my experience,” Trick Shot said gruffly. “Prewar ponies didn’t know when to quit poking at the inevitable.”

“There are pony skeletons here too,” Bright Ember said, poking his head into the armory. “If this was a joint operation, it makes quite a bit of sense to have ponies working alongside the hippogriffs.”

“Exactly what were they working on though?” I said aloud, turning to Violet. “The pearl that creature mentioned. Is there any reference to it in these databanks?”

“I’ll see what I can find before we head up further. Might be a good idea to see if there’s any additional security as well,” Violet replied, connecting her PipBuck to the central terminal. “At least the software is all the same. Stable-Tec built these systems, so they too had their hooves in this.”

“How did nopony not know about this? About the hippogriffs? None of this makes any sense,” I said, before remembering that somehow Rarity had tricked the entirety of Equestrian civilization into believing Twilight Sparkle was a regular unicorn through sheer marketing. I knew the answer to that question as soon as I said it. Ponies were dumb and gullible.

“If this was as black ops as it gets, only the highest of the high knew what was going on here,” Violet said, her eyes widening. “I think I found something. There’s a… a life support tank at the top of the facility. The systems here are monitoring it. Star… there’s a life form inside of it. The system is reading it as stable.”

“A life form? That makes even less sense. Is there any information on it? What about the pearl?” I asked frantically, stepping up next to her.

Violet skimmed through the terminal’s contents, arriving at what appeared to be a video file stored in the system. She hit play and the mainframes center console shifted to show a group of hippogriff scientists. They were examining an object in the center of a room. It glowed brightly with magical energy.

The camera shifted again to a pale bluish green unicorn dressed in a lab coat. She wore goggles. It was sort of cute, to be honest.

“Chief Scientist Glitter Drops reporting. I can’t really tell what day it is because of the shield, so we’ll just go with Tuesday. Not like anypony’s ever going to watch this. Well, maybe Fizzy will, but that’s besides the point. She’s here and not out there with the rest of the world. Maybe nopony will ever realize we were even here. Certainly not the zebra. They would never think to look here for a secret Equestrian facility.

Anyways, we just got done with the latest tests on the pearl. It’s incredible the kind of power source this thing is. It’s almost as if it is powered by magic itself! Harnessing its power however is another story. Queen Novo can do it, but she’s royalty and ancient.

We did find that shaving a sliver off the pearl and wearing it as a pendant does allow the user access to a small bit of the magic latent to the artifact, but that’s impractical. This allows the user to transform from their primary race into a seapony and back. That’s hardly useful and not really what we’re going for here.

Interestingly enough, placing the sliver back on the pearl does force it to reabsorb the piece. This does make this function much more interesting in that the artifact can break pieces off and still reabsorb itself to stay intact.

The idea I had to spread the load of utilizing the pearl’s magical abilities while not overloading the pony using it was to build it into a suit of power armor. Our first test with one of the hippogriff volunteers was last… uh… carry the four… Wednesday? We’ll go with Wednesday. It didn’t pan out so well. The poor thing was crushed inside of the armor by the sheer power and weight of the pearl’s magic.

Suffice to say, Queen Novo has been very tight-lipped on the origins of the pearl, so that we may understand it better in the long run. I think she doesn’t care for this project personally, even more so now that Fizzy is here and in charge of everything for the Princess and Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle. I suspect Novo still holds a grudge against Twilight for attempting to steal the pearl during the invasion by the Storm King. She doesn’t really have a choice though. Fizzy has seen to that.

I’ll make another status update probably next… Thursday. Sure, we’ll go with that. I don’t know why I bother making these anyways. I think I’m going to go get a drink.

The image shimmered and disappeared and I gawked in awe. The pearl was some form of magical artifact that seemed to enhance transformation capabilities? They were experimenting with magic on the highest end of magic possible in all of Equestria. What they were doing here was… it was revolutionary.

“I guess we know what the power armor was for,” Violet said after a few moments of silence. “This explains the weather and the weirdness outside, too.”

“What do you mean?” Ember said.

“This entire place is supposed to be shielded from the outside world. If anything, I’d guess from the outside the shield makes this place look abandoned to outside viewers. They built a fucking weather filter into the inside of this place just to keep things going,” Violet explained, tapping a few more keys on the keyboard. “See? It’s all here.”

A visual diagram of the shield system outside the island of Mount Aris appeared on the screen. It extended all the way around the island itself and even down into the waters below where there was an even larger structure. A massive set of power cabling along the ocean floor fed directly into the island itself. Hippocampus’ power network was even greater than any of us ever realized.

“Is that… a city?” I said, pointing at the structure on the screen.

“Holy shit,” Sunset said. “It’s an underwater city. Maybe that’s where all the hippogriffs went? You heard the recording. They turned from hippogriffs into seaponies.”

“The Queen hid her subjects away while they worked up here, trying to figure out how to use the pearl as what… a weapon? A form of protection? What exactly was their end game here?” I mused out loud, glancing over at Violet. “Are there any more recordings?”

Violet tapped a few more keys, frowning. “Most of the system is pretty heavily corrupted, but I was able to find one more recording. It looks like it’s the last one in the system,” she said.

The screen glimmered to life again, this time showing both Glitter Drops and another mare I knew all too well from seeing her in a memory orb. Tempest Shadow. I heard Trick Shot’s breath tighten as he saw the mare he once thought he loved. The two ponies were standing on a platform. Tempest appeared to be wearing some form of power armor, but it was sleeker in design than the bulky ones stored down in the armory.

“Fizzy, you don’t have to do this,” Glitter Drops said. “We can do more tests. We don’t know what will happen to you if…”

“Glitter. I told you. We’re out of time. We’ve already lost contact with Canterlot. The future of Equestria may ride on what we do here today. We have to try or all is lost,” Tempest replied coolly. She broke her calm demeanor and lifted a hoof around the other mare’s shoulder. “I know you’re worried about me, and I’m sorry to make you have to worry. I’m just glad you’re here.”

“I… me too,” Glitter Drops said. “The… the suit is ready to receive the injective whenever you are. The rest of the staff have fled below to Seaquestria, but there’s no guarantee that the bunkers there will keep them safe. Stable-Tec didn’t build them after all. It’s just you and me.”

“I know, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Tempest said, moving to stand in the middle of the platform. “Signal me when you’re ready to go.”

“Will do,” Glitter said, moving out of the image entirely. Her voice came through an intercom next. “All levels look good. I’m going to start the process now.”

“Glitter?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about not coming for you sooner,” Tempest said softly. “I’m sorry I let hate poison my heart. But most of all… I’m sorry for what I did as a foal to you.”

“Fizzy… you’re my best friend in the entire world. I’ll always be there for you,” Glitter responded. A sniffle followed on the intercom. “Starting injective now. You shouldn’t feel a thing.”

A gleaming set of injectors descended upon the platform, each one filled with a glowing, shining substance. They attached to the various points around Tempest’s power armor and each one made a hissing sound as they locked into place. The glowing substance started to empty out of the injectors, pushing into the power armor’s receptacles.

Tempest began to groan wildly, lowering her head as she struggled with some invisible force unseen in the image.

“Fizzy?! Fizzy are you…” Glitter Drops started to say.

Tempest Shadow exploded in a massive wave of energy that extended outwards from herself, causing the feed to go static for a brief second before it reappeared, showing the mare standing on the platform. The power armor had completely disintegrated. Glowing lines appeared along the mare’s body. For a moment, she stood. And then she fell over unconscious.

“FIZZY!!!” Glitter Drops’ voice roared through the intercom. Heavy hoofsteps pounded into the room as Glitter Drops came into view once more, cradling her fallen friend’s head in her lap. “Computer! Ready the stasis pod! We need to stabilize her!”

“Scan suggests possible brain damage and extensive organ failure. The stasis pod will not heal these injuries. Do you wish to proceed?” a robotic voice said from somewhere off screen.

“Yes, dammit! Yes! Do it now!” Glitter shouted, tears streaming down her face. “It’s going to be okay, Fizzy. It’s going to be okay. I’ll be here with you. As long as it takes. I’ll be here…”

The recording stopped. All of us stayed silent for several long moments as we tried to process what we’d just watched. I looked at Trick, noting he was trying to remain as stoic as possible. Sunshine began crying into Ember’s shoulder, and Violet just looked on impassively at the screen. After several seconds she began tapping on the keyboard some more.

“Holy shit,” she muttered. “Holy fucking shit.”

“Violet? What is it?” I asked, stepping up to the terminal next to her.

“The life form in the pod above us,” Violet said. “It’s her. Star… it’s actually her.”

My eyes widened as I realized what she meant. “No… it can’t be. The stasis pod… it couldn’t have possibly lasted that long.”

“What if it did?” Violet asked, staring at me hard. “What if it did?”

“Are you seriously suggesting that she is alive inside that pod?” Trick Shot said, stepping over to us. “She’d be over two hundred years old. How would she survive?”

I grimaced, moving over to Sunshine and Ember. “Sunshine, I know that was… emotional, but we need your expertise here. Is it possible she’s alive?” I asked.

Sunshine pulled herself away from Ember, sniffling. She nodded and cleared her tears before starting to choke out some words. As she spoke they came more confidently. “With our current technology… unlikely. But this place? The things they were doing here? It was more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s very likely whatever tech they had here for that kind of medical treatment… it could have saved her.”

I looked up above at the spiraling staircase. “Their primary lab for studying the pearl was up above. I’m pretty sure that was what they were injecting her power armor with. The question becomes… what did it do to her?” I asked aloud.

“I can’t believe Glitter Drops was here,” Trick Shot said with a grimace.

“You knew her?” Violet asked.

Trick Shot nodded. “She was one of Fizzy’s oldest friends. Well, sort of. Fizzy always said there was something between them when they were younger. Something that happened between them. I’m not really sure what. They seemed to be good friends whenever we would hang out. Guess she got a job working for the Ministries.”

“It’s hard to believe this place was a Ministry project. Luna and Twilight… I suspect even Rainbow Dash was involved in this project as well. It screams Ministry of Awesome for how convoluted it is,” I said. “All this to hide this pearl from the zebra? Why?”

“Because they thought they could make themselves better,” Bright Ember said softly. “They were trying to use its magic to make themselves impervious to the zebra weaponry.”

“Imagine an Equestrian army bolstered by transformative magic so powerful that it negated enemy fire? Imagine granting that ability to the citizens of Equestria? We would have survived the balefire with nary a scratch,” Violet said. “The zebra would have never stood a chance.”

“Insane… no wonder the Queen didn’t like this research,” I said. “She used it only to protect her subjects, based on what the recording sounded like. She didn’t want it to be used as a weapon.”

“Well, despite all that… it looks like it failed anyways,” Sunshine interjected. “But the pearl itself may still be here. Just… not where we thought it would be.”

“What do you mean?” Violet said.

“I mean… it’s here. It’s just inside of Tempest’s body,” Sunshine said with a sniffle. “You saw the recording. Something happened to her.”

My mind exploded. The pearl was inside Tempest? I couldn’t even begin to fathom how that was even possible. While I was struggling to understand such a thing, Violet spoke for me.

“We don’t really know what happened in that recording. The only way we’re going to know at all is to go up there and find out,” she said.

“What if she’s… she’s…” Bright Ember said. “You know… dead?”

“According to the system, she’s stable,” Violet said, bringing up the monitoring program yet again. “She’s alive. I won’t know more until we go up there. With Sunshine’s help we should be able to find out more information.”

“So just so we’re clear. We’re going to go upstairs and potentially wake up a pony who has been in stasis for over two hundred years who may or may not have a magical pearl inside of their body?” I asked aloud, just to make sure I wasn’t sounding overtly crazy.

“Sounds about right,” Trick Shot said.

I stood, looking up the stairwell. There was no other way but forward. With the shielding around Mount Aris, we needed to do what we came here to do and figure out how to get off this island. That started with going up those stairs.

I took the first step, heading towards the base of the stairs. I walked upwards in silence as the others followed behind me. I felt Violet next to me at some point, her presence giving me strength to continue on. We passed by several levels of research laboratories and testing labs, all of which lay empty. No security systems remained to challenge us.

We reached the top level and everything changed. A wide open space filled the very top floor of the tower, in its center a glowing stasis pod. My gaze drifted to what appeared to be somepony’s living quarters near the stairs. A bed, a couch, and even a refrigeration unit had been moved up here. A vase sat empty on an end table next to the bed, its flowers long dead. On the bed lay a skeleton of a unicorn. A book sat next to one of her skeletal hooves. I picked it up with my magic. It read The Journal of Glitter Drops on the cover. My eyes widened as I realized it was Glitter Drops’ skeleton here. She had stayed to the very end, loyal to her friend. I deposited the book into my saddlebags for later, before turning to the pod in the middle.

The glowing pod was hooked up to all sorts of machinery, pulsing a gentle blue as the fluid inside bubbled up every so often. Several large terminal screens sat connected to a maneframe system attached to the pod device.

And then… I saw her. Tempest Shadow. She was in the center of the pod, hovering in the liquid. Her mouth was covered with a breathing apparatus, and several diodes connected to her body to read her conditions with. Her eyes were closed. She looked… serene.

“It’s really her,” Trick Shot uttered from next to me. “It’s actually her. I can’t believe it.”

“I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I wasn’t seeing it for real,” Sunshine echoed. She moved across to the terminal. “Violet, come here and help me with this.”

Violet nodded and walked over to help Sunshine. I moved about the other side of the pod, studying the mare closely. Her cutie mark was that of a strawberry sundae topped with a bright red cherry, ringed with firework explosions. Her horn was cracked and jagged.

“She always hated her cutie mark. She claimed that she didn’t believe in the destiny it represented,” Trick Shot said from beside me. “She told me once her special talent was magical in nature, but I suspect it was making sundaes myself.”

“She didn’t believe in the magic it represented?” I asked.

“Not sure. I think she always felt that she was allowed to make her own destiny. That she didn’t need to follow her cutie mark to be her own pony,” Trick replied. “It was her way of being herself.”

I could relate to that. I had been born to be nothing but a shell for an insane Princess-Goddess figure, but I’d found my own way. I’d become my own pony, for my own reasons and nopony else. I stared hard into this mare’s face, wondering what she had gone through. Why was she here? And what did the pearl’s magic do to her?

“She’s alive,” Sunshine said from around the pod. “She’s alive! And in stable condition. Like, stable enough that we could wake her.”

“Wait, you mean…?” I started to ask.

“Star, she’s been in this pod for over two hundred years,” Violet said, interrupting. “According to these logs, the final healing magic that the pod was delivering to her finished the process around one hundred years ago. Glitter Drops would have been long dead by then.”

“We can actually wake her up?” Trick Shot said. “But won’t her body just disintegrate from age?”

“Okay, how many horror movies have you been watching?” Sunshine said, raising an eyebrow. “This stasis technology doesn’t work like that. She has been perfectly preserved for two hundred years plus, and the only reason she’s able to get out of here is because we’re here. It’ll be just like the day she entered the pod, without all the life threatening injuries she received at the end.”

“Do it,” I said. “This isn’t living. She is owed the chance to live.”

Sunshine nodded, moving over to the terminal. After a few long moments of nothing but clatters on the keyboard, something began to happen. The liquid in the pod began to fizz as it started to lower, draining into vents in the floor beneath it. Slowly, Tempest’s body began to lower to the ground. When all the liquid was drained, a flashing blue light emanated across the pod and the doors began to hiss, pulling apart.

The breathing apparatus pulled away from the mare, revealing her full face. Her eyes remained closed, but her barrel rose and fell as if she was sleeping. The blue light had apparently dried the inside of the pod, because there was no liquid to be found, not even on her.

Then she coughed. Her eyes opened, pools of teal as they tried to analyze what was going on before her. With cold steel in her eyes she locked eyes with me. Then she spoke, very weakly, but with firmness in her voice.

“Who… who are you? Where’s Glitter?”

Author's Note

DUN DUN DUN!

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Chapter 8: Under the Dark Sea

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 8: Under the Dark Sea

Princess Skystar, whatta you done?! You know surface dwellers are forbidden here! Guards!

I’ve struggled with loss before. I’ve seen firsthoof the effect loss has on us all. Ponies losing their lives to senseless violence in a Wasteland that cares nothing for them. It came for me when Steeljack died. I felt a profound emptiness deep in my very soul that day. I wanted to give up the Good Fight, to let the Wasteland hollow me out from the inside.

I knew as I watched what was coming next that there would be that profound emptiness once more. That the mare in front of me would feel it intensely, perhaps even more than any of us could ever understand.

All I needed to do was be there to help her.

* * *

“I’m going to assume you aren’t deaf, so I’m going to ask again,” Tempest said, her voice more forceful this time. “Where is Glitter Drops? What did you do to her?”

I scowled deeply, looking down for a brief moment. “There isn’t an easy way to say this, Miss Shadow… but you’ve been in stasis for over two hundred years.”

Tempest’s eyes widened as she struggled to take the news in and process it. I could see her working things out in her head. She pushed herself to a sitting position.

“You’re lying,” she said finally. “There’s no way that is even possible.”

“I’m afraid she is most assuredly not lying, Fizzy,” Trick Shot’s gruff voice said from next to me.

“My real name, who… who are you?” Tempest replied cautiously. “Do I know you?”

“I’m a little worse for wear so you probably don’t recognize me,” Trick Shot said. “It’s me, Trick Shot.”

“Trick? What… what happened to you?” Tempest said, scowling. She looked back at me. “Now I know you’re lying. If Trick was alive… then Glitter should be…”

“Star’s not lying to you. I’m alive only because I was pretty much cursed to live like this. It’s called being a ghoul. I’ve been alive for over two hundred years,” Trick Shot said softly. He looked up at me. “Star, she probably needs to see for herself.”

“See what? What should I see here?” Tempest asked angrily.

I nodded, moving aside so that Tempest could clearly see the bed at the edge of the room and the unicorn skeleton it contained. The broken-horned mare pushed herself to her hooves and made a beeline right for the bed. She sat by the bed, placing a hoof on the skeleton there.

“She stayed with you, it looked like,” I said softly as I walked up behind her. “Until she died, likely of old age. We don’t know how long that was.”

“I… I should have saved her, should have been there for her,” Tempest muttered mostly to herself. Tears streamed out of her eyes. “She shouldn’t have… that stupid filly! She shouldn’t have sacrificed herself for me!”

“Knowing what we know about this complex, it’s likely she was unable to leave here,” Violet said, stepping up next to me. “At least not without exposing herself to massive magical radiation levels.”

“What… what do you mean?” Tempest asked, stifling away the tears. “Magical radiation?”

“What’s the last thing that you remember?” I asked. “We can get into the messy details later, but first we need to know what you know.”

“Glitter and I were working on a final experiment with the pearl. She thought she’d cracked it, but it came too late. We lost contact with Canterlot and even the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had gone dark,” Tempest worked out with her words. “Something went wrong with the experiment. I don’t remember much after that.”

“Glitter had you placed in stasis while the medical programs here corrected whatever damage had been done to your body,” Violet explained. “I’m guessing that once she realized she couldn’t leave, she chose to stay to watch over you.”

“Then why didn’t she do what you did? Wake me up? Why? Why did she leave me in that thing?! TELL ME!” Tempest shouted angrily, her horn growing an angry blue. “Why did I have to wake up and lose my best friend?!”

“She couldn’t!” Sunshine interjected, catching the mare off guard. “She couldn’t. The process of healing whatever happened to you took a very, very long time. Glitter stayed with you as long as she could, but she was not immortal. She died long before the healing magic finished on you. By then… you were already alone.”

Tempest scowled angrily and turned to the skeleton once more. A book floated in the air next to her as I levitated out her journal and set it in front of her.

“She left this though,” I said. “Perhaps there’s something here… something that might explain.”

Tempest glanced back at me, her eyes red and puffy. Her gaze hardened intensely before picking the book up in her own magic. “There’s a note inside the cover,” she said.

Fizzy,

I know when you finally wake up you’re going to hate me. I’ll probably be long dead by the time it happens, but don’t worry about me. I’ve lived a good life here being taken care of by the maintenance bots. We have a food replicator and an underground orchard. I have had to be careful when I go down there though… the ghouls from Seaquestria have tried to attack me more than once.

I’m old, Fizzy. Older than you look inside that tank. I may only have a few days at most before I die. I’m currently stuck in my bed, looking at you. I wish you could see what I see. How amazing you are, and how much I miss you. You’re a good friend, Fizzy. No matter what happened in the past, you came back to me.

Do you remember that night with the Ursa? When you first came back after that nasty business with the Storm King? We were so cold with one another. So much hate and hurt and old memories getting dredged up. But we made it through that night and every night after that, knowing we could do anything together.

The war made it hard, but the war is over now. Has been for years. I still can’t go home though. I’m not even sure if my home exists anymore. The radiation and megaspells destroyed Equestria, and I can only hope one day things will be fixed. Unfortunately, I won’t be alive to see it.

I left you this journal. Much of it is simple musings of a lonely mare, but I wasn’t lying around the whole time either. I used my time wisely, studying the effects that the pearl had on you. It’s still there, inside your body. I suspect it’s what allowed the healing spells to work as well as they have so far, even if they are glacially slow.

The magic of the pearl is beyond anything I’ve ever studied. It can change the world. You can change the world, Fizzy. I know you can.

I believe in you.

Love,

Glitter Drops

Tempest closed the book and set it down. Silence reigned for several long moments before she shifted and looked up at me.

“She’s really gone, isn’t she?” she asked softly.

I nodded, offering the best smile that I could muster. “She’s gone physically… but she’s not gone entirely. She’s still right here.” I lifted a hoof and placed it on Tempest’s chest. “She’s always going to be with you. She gave you the greatest gift of all. She gave you her friendship.”

Tempest looked down for a moment and nodded in turn. “I… I’m going to miss her. Glitter was… she was my best friend. Even when things got really bad, she still cared for me,” she said, her eyes hardening once more to the steely gaze I remembered in the memory orbs. “I won’t let her sacrifice be in vain.”

“I think she would approve of that,” I said, standing. “I suppose introductions are in order. I feel like we probably didn’t have much time for that, and we all know who you are… but you don’t know any of us… well most of us, I should say.”

“Yes… Trick Shot,” Tempest said softly. “It… it surprises me to see him here. I have a lot to catch up on I suppose.”

“Indeed. My name is Radiant Star, and well, it might shock you to find out that I’m an alicorn,” I said with a deep grin.

“I gathered that much already,” Tempest replied wryly. “I’m sure you’re going to explain that as well? The only alicorns I know were the four Princesses.”

“Yeah, I can bring you up to speed on a lot of stuff, for sure,” I said, motioning to the others. “The pale green unicorn is Violet Iris, my partner in life. The pink unicorn is Sunshine Sky, a friend of ours and a fellow member of an organization called the Followers of the Apocalypse. You already know Trick Shot of course, and our kirin friend’s name is Bright Ember.”

Tempest smiled sheepishly and bowed her head in turn to each of them. When she locked eyes with Trick, she scowled. “I’m sorry,” she said suddenly.

“For what?” Trick said, looking surprised.

“For not telling you what I was doing for the Princesses. It was necessary to keep the entire project an absolute secret. I couldn’t tell anyone what I was doing,” Tempest explained. “Only very few ponies knew the scope of the entire project.”

Trick looked down and sighed. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything, Fizzy. I didn’t know why you left the service, but now I know. It doesn’t change anything at all,” he said. “You were the finest commanding officer I ever had the pleasure of serving under, and you were my friend. Besides, in the end… this project seemed to work out somehow it seems.”

“I’m still not sure what really happened, but yes, it seems so,” Tempest said.

“This project was attempting to harness the magic of this pearl,” I said, interjecting. “A magical artifact, based on my understanding of it.”

“Correct. The pearl was an artifact that had been harnessed by Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs during an attack by a creature known as the Storm King,” Tempest explained. “They used it and transformed themselves into creatures known as seaponies before retreating into the depths below the island.”

“The pearl had the power to transform living matter into other forms?” Sunshine said. “That is… is incredible. We had no idea what it did based on the journal.”

“Journal?” Tempest said quizzically.

I pulled the book out of my saddlebags and floated it over to her. “There’s a lot we couldn’t make out in it, but it says it was authored by you.”

Tempest’s eyes widened before softening again. “I wrote much of this in code. The only ponies who knew of the ciphers were the Princesses. Where did you find this?”

“In a warehouse that was once used by Twilight Sparkle to store her books,” Violet said. “There’s a series of them in a town we call Fort Knowledge. It’s a base for the Followers of the Apocalypse.”

“I guess I’m not surprised that Princess Twilight would keep a book,” Tempest said with a chuckle. “This is what led you here? A book?”

“Sort of… do you recognize the symbol on the cover?” I asked hesitantly. “It’s extremely important.”

Tempest scowled. “Of course I do. It’s the symbol of the Storm King,” she said. “Why?”

“Weeks ago, one of our outposts on the edge of Equestria in Hope Hollow was attacked by an army. An army wearing this symbol,” Sunshine said. “We ran into more of them on our way here… and possibly their leader.”

“He was a monster half-formed out of a storm cloud,” I said flatly.

“He couldn’t… he couldn’t be alive…” Tempest said, looking down at the symbol in the book. “I am missing a lot of context now. I think you’d better start at the beginning.”

* * *

After a few hours of discussion and move back downstairs to the main console room, we had finally managed to bring Tempest up to date on the state of Equestrian civilization at the end of the war and what had happened when Littlepip had brought back the sun to the ponies across the land. Tempest had stayed silent for most of the tale, asking the occasional question but for the most part letting us share what we knew.

When we were finished, Tempest sighed and began her own tale.

“When I was young, my friends and I went into a cave belonging to an Ursa. Glitter Drops was one of those ponies. The circumstances of this journey are meaningless at this point. Suffice to say, the danger was very real, and I suffered because of it. I lost my horn and received this scar on my eye. I became… disillusioned with Equestria. My friends no longer wanted anything to do with me, or so I had thought until I finally reunited with Glitter Drops,” she explained. “At the time however, I felt real hatred in my heart, and I left Equestria to find something to restore my power. I had felt that as long as my horn was broken, I too was broken and I needed that magic to be myself again.”

Tempest shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “He found me. I had stolen a magical item that he had coveted from one of his crashed airships. He offered me a job, a job which I accepted as his second in command. His name was the Storm King. He offered me the very thing I desired in exchange for my loyalty. He was… powerful and persuasive. He had a plan to invade the very heart of Equestria and steal the magic from the Princesses there. He almost succeeded.”

Tempest sighed before continuing. “We identified a celebration known as the Friendship Festival. An event that would have every Princess in attendance. I acquired another item for him, known as the Staff of Sacanas, which would allow him to absorb the magic from the Princesses. I led the attack myself, but a certain purple pony Princess and her friends escaped our grasp.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” I said knowingly.

Tempest nodded. “Twilight and her friends were crafty, seeking the Hippogriffs for their power and assistance against the Storm King. I followed them to the very shores before Mount Aris and I captured Twilight. Twilight… she changed me. She showed me how much friendship mattered. During the struggle, the Storm King betrayed me after taking the magic. He cast me aside, denying me the very thing I wanted. When Twilight and her friends stopped him, he was petrified and broken by one of his own magical items. I nearly was lost to the petrification myself, but Twilight saved me.”

“With the Storm King gone, the Hippogriffs, whom Twilight and her friends had met during their journey, returned to Equestrian civilization. Their Queen was quite wise and forgiving, and I spent much time with her after that in my journey to spread the word of the Storm King’s defeat,” Tempest continued. “But… as we all know… things changed. The war started. I thought my place was as a soldier. It was what I had always known in my life, but Twilight thought differently.”

“She approached me with the idea of harnessing the power of Queen Novo’s magical pearl. A project that could potentially save millions of lives. She had also arranged for Glitter Drops, who at that time had become my best friend once more, to work on the project. That helped my decision,” she said. “I wrote the journal as a way to remember what had happened and shared it with Twilight and the other Princesses. It was a reminder of who I once was and what I would not let myself become again.”

“And now you think he has returned,” Sunshine said. “This… Storm King.”

“If what you describe is correct… yes. I don’t know how he returned, but he has. And it seems he has his heart set on conquering Equestria once more,” Tempest said, scowling. She lifted the journal. “You said that Twilight had created a megaspell to fix the magical radiation?”

“Gardens of Equestria,” I said. “It was finally used when all of the Bearers of Harmony were assembled.”

“What if… what if that is what brought him back to life?” Tempest said, putting a hoof up to her chin. “He had been frozen, petrified. What if…?”

“What if the magic provided by Gardens was a boost enough to bring him back?” Violet finished for her. “We still don’t know one hundred percent what the ramifications of Gardens was, so it’s thoroughly possible. If that is the case… can the magic of the pearl help us here? We came looking for it because the journal led us to believe its power could stop this threat.”

Tempest rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “That might be problematic. Glitter’s notes are very haphazard. It’s going to take time to piece things together. I don’t feel any different than I did before, so I can’t access any of the pearl’s magic.”

“And we don’t have the time to stay here and wait for that,” I said. “Perhaps we should rest and find a way off this island?”

“With the teleport device disabled, it might be difficult to leave,” Tempest said, moving to one of the consoles in the room. “It might be possible to go through the old Seaquestrian capital below and out that way, but we’d need gear to breathe down there.”

“Maybe we could retrofit some of these power armor helmets to act as rebreathers,” Violet said, walking over towards the armory section. “Would that work?”

“As it happens, there is a full stock of rebreather devices in this very facility,” Tempest offered. “We needed them as a way to be able to go down to Seaquestria in case we had to run any tests there with Queen Novo.”

“She didn’t approve of your project,” I stated matter of factly.

Tempest started to respond, but the alarm began to go off all around us. Sunshine looked up from the main control panel. Her eyes widened.

“We have a real problem here,” she said, pointing at the screens.

Storm Guards appeared on the screens, huddling around where we’d come through the teleporter, which appeared to be working just fine. The portal closed behind them. Mixed in with them were raider forces and ex-Enclave pegasi. The lead Storm Guard pointed at the tower and they started marching.

“Seems like the Storm King tricked you,” Tempest said coolly. “He wanted you to come here. He must have known somehow that I was here.”

“The teleport device had a genetic bypass on it though,” I said, growling under my breath.

Tempest scowled. “Unfortunately, it did not. It was supposed to, but it never got installed in time, and then well… Twilight was gone,” she said. “The Storm King is a liar and a thief. We must get out of here.”

“What are the chances of getting back through the portal?” Bright Ember said.

“And go right back into the Storm King’s clutches? I doubt that is the best idea,” Trick Shot replied. “Will this facility hold up to an attack?”

“Doubtful,” Tempest said. “We need to find those rebreathers and get down to the tunnel to Seaquestria. It’s the only way out.”

“They’re going to be here in minutes,” Trick said. “I’ll hold them off so you all can find the rebreathers. I’ll be right behind you.”

“But what about your rebreather?” Tempest asked frantically.

“Ghoul, remember? Don’t need one,” he said, pulling up his rifle into the air with his magic. “Fizzy, I’ll be fine. I’ve had a lot of time to practice over the past two hundred years.”

Tempest scowled deeply and nodded. “I expect you to be right on our tail, soldier,” she said. “That’s an order.”

“Sure thing, mum,” Trick Shot replied with a toothy grin. He headed off towards the nearest balcony exit up the stairs to find a vantage point to fire from.

“Okay, everypony else, look out for those rebreathers!” I said, using my magic to pull apart boxes and crates of supplies as quickly as I could without breaking the contents.

I heard gunshots from up above. Trick had engaged the enemy. I could see on the screens the raiders and pegasi taking the fire and many of them dropping like flies, but the Storm Guards marched on. It took far more to deal with these things than a bullet. I rumbled under my breath, continuing my search for the rebreathers while trying to rack my brain if I knew any spells that could conjure up a breathing apparatus. Even digging into the magical reserve of knowledge left behind by Twilight, I couldn’t find anything.

“Found them!” Sunshine shouted, lifting a box of multiple rebreathers, enough for all of us. Small capsules of oxygen accompanied each one.

“I certainly hope there is enough oxygen there,” Violet said. “If not… we’re dead.”

Large pounding came from the walls, and the gunshots kept going. “If we don’t move, we’re also dead,” I said. “Not much of a choice.”

“Come on, follow me,” Tempest said, her horn igniting as a large hidden door slid open in the far corner. A set of stairs led downward into what appeared to be a large cavern.

We moved down into the cavern itself as the tunnel opened up into a much larger structure. In the center of the room was a massive pool of water, swirling about in the form of a whirlpool. It was pulling the water down into the depths below. A rocky cliff sat over the top of the pool.

“Everypony, take a rebreather and prepare to jump,” Tempest said. “This is the fast track down to Seaquestria.”

I started to grab one of the rebreathers from the box Sunshine was carrying when something fell out of the air onto the box. It was a pony. It was not just any pony.

It was Trick.

The ghoulicorn appeared to be breathing still, but just barely. Black ichor streamed from his sides, his ghoulish blood spilling all over the floor. He groaned loudly.

“Trick!” Tempest shouted, kneeling by his side. “Trick, can you hear me! This is your commanding officer! You need to listen to me!”

Trick tried to mumble something, but I couldn’t hear what it was. My eyes were solely on the creature walking down into the tunnel. It was the massive Storm Guard from Klugetown. The one that Bright Ember had driven off. Its red eyes regarded us carefully, settling on Tempest. Below her, I could see that Trick wasn’t doing so hot. In fact, he appeared to stop breathing. Tempest’s eyes watered and she looked up, glaring hot white murder at the Storm Guard.

“You son of a bitch,” Tempest uttered angrily, standing up over Trick’s form. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

The mare’s horn lit up brightly, sending an explosive blast of magical energy across the room at the creature. It tried to dodge, but the magic tore into its body, ripping one of its arms clean off. The thing howled in pain. All around us, the tower began to shudder as stray bolts of magic struck the concrete foundation. The large Storm Guard stood once more, blood spewing from where its arm should have been. It gurgled loudly, its other hand lifting a device that it tossed onto the ground.

An image shimmered into existence, revealing the creature we’d met in the Abyssinian capitol. The Storm King himself. His blue eyes pierced the veil and narrowed in on Tempest.

“Well now… isn’t this a pleasant surprise… hello… Tempest,” he said, his voice modulating through the image.

“You…” Tempest snarled. “I’m going to make you pay. You’re going to die this time.”

“I very much doubt that, my hornless friend. You see, I have the upper hand here,” the Storm King said. “You are surrounded, and your magic won’t outlast the power of my minions. Be a good little pony, and give up.”

Tempest looked down at Trick, tears flowing freely from her eyes. “Never!” she shouted. “I will end you.”

Sunshine moved over to Trick’s side, reaching out to verify the ghoul’s status while Tempest stared down the Storm King. Her eyes closed and she looked at me, shaking her head. The little pony inside my head screamed. Trick didn’t deserve this. He never deserved to die. I stepped up next to Tempest, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“I’ll help,” I said angrily. “I’ll destroy you, Storm King. Not just for Equestria, but for Trick.”

“Ah but consider this, Ministry Mare,” the creature said with a chuckle. “I have the firepower.”

The device began to beep loudly and my eyes widened. I pulled Tempest back away from it as the thing exploded, dislodging the cliff and sending us all tumbling through the air into the water below. I tried to shout before I hit the water, the impact stealing my breath away as I struggled to wrap my friends in a magical shield to protect them from falling rubble.

The water was freezing and dark, the whirlpool pulling us down. My vision grew hazy as I struggled to hold my breath and keep my magic extended around the others.

It wasn’t enough. My shields began to fail, exposing the others to the freezing water. There was no end to this. We were going to die. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness already.

Then a bright light emanated from the darkness. It was every color of the rainbow, and it seemed to be coming from Tempest herself, floating in the center of the group. Tendrils of magical power ripped out of her body and extended to each of us in turn.

Then I passed out.

* * *

“Star! Wake up! Star!” I heard a voice calling from a distance.

“Five more minutes…” I mumbled. I was cold, so very very cold, but yet… It felt natural. Why was that? Was I dead? Had I finally shuffled off this mortal coil?

“STAR!” Violet shouted in my ear.

My eyes jolted open and I struggled to gain my vision. Bubbles floated in the water around us and I couldn’t figure out what had happened. All I knew is I couldn’t feel my legs. I looked over at Violet and my eyes widened.

Instead of hind legs, Violet’s body had been replaced by a long tail with a beautiful green fin. I glanced over at Sunshine. She was the same, except her fin was a bright pink and shimmering. Bright Ember was the strangest of all, with multiple fins and a split tail. Tempest shined brightest of all with a brilliant deep magenta body running into a razor sharp tail streaking with a fin the color of her mane.

I glanced back. My own body had been changed too. A tail of beautiful blues and streaks of white and black flowed from my fin. My mind couldn’t process it all at once.

“We’re… we’re alive,” I said finally.

“It seems as if the magic of the pearl is active inside of Tempest after all,” Sunshine said. “It saved our lives.”

“I don’t… I don’t even know how…” Tempest stammered, closing her eyes. “I don’t know how I did it though.”

I flexed my tail, attempting to swim over to the other mare. It seemed much easier than I thought it would have been to get accustomed to. I placed one of my forehooves on her shoulder blade.

“We’re safe. That’s all that matters…” I said, sighing. “I’m sorry about Trick. He didn’t deserve to die.”

Tempest’s eyes drifted downward. “I… I loved him, before the war ended, that is. I couldn’t have ever been with him while I was still in command. Those sorts of relationships earned you dishonorable discharges in the service… It was one of the reasons I took the job from Twilight. It let me quit my command so that after everything was all said and done… I could have been with him.”

“You never got to tell him that,” I said quietly.

Tempest shook her head. “It was such a shock seeing him. I…”

“It’s okay,” I said, giving her a smile. “I know Trick felt the same way as you. He wanted to find you, and he did. He didn’t deserve his fate, but we’ll honor him like a hero, because that’s what he was.”

“The Storm King will pay for what he did. He just made it personal,” Tempest said, glaring at me, anger in her piercing stare.

“The important thing here is to get out of this place. Find our way back to Equestria,” Sunshine said. “If the Storm King wanted us out of the way, it means he’s afraid of what our presence there might mean. We have to get home any way possible.”

“That is odd, isn’t it? If he wanted the pearl’s magic, why didn’t he just take it?” Violet asked. “He could have taken Tempest at any time just now. He chose to try to kill us.”

“He doesn’t want the power of the pearl. He can’t touch it. It’s anathema to him,” Tempest said. “Its power is too strong for a foul creature like him.”

“Well, we aren’t getting anywhere just floating here,” I said. “We should be moving. The question is… where to?”

“The castle,” Tempest said. “There was a backup portal there. Not sure where it went though. They never told us. If it’s still working, it could be a way out.”

I nodded, grimacing. All around us the pressing darkness of water gave no indication as to which way was which. I lit my horn, providing what I could in the murky foul depths we found ourselves in. A tunnel led away into the darkness. It was the only way forward. Tempest nodded silently and started swimming towards it.

Shadows fluttered at the edge of my eyesight as we made our way through the bleak underwater tunnel. More than once I felt like we were being watched by something. My PipBuck appeared to still be intact, warning me that there was a low level of magical radiation in the water. It didn’t seem to be affecting anypony though. Perhaps some side effects of the pearl’s magic? I wasn’t sure.

The tunnel opened up to reveal a massive cavern, lit only by ambient light provided by what appeared to be sea anemones. In the center of the cavern was a massive purple structure set into the ceiling. Buildings littered the floor of the cavern, making up what looked to be a proper town. There was a very clear undersea motif to everything, with structures built from shells and coral reef. A deathly pallor was cast over the whole area. The palace above seemed to pulse with energy.

“Wow…” Bright Ember said as he floated up behind us.

“Wow doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Violet said.

“Seaquestria. The shared capital of the hippogriffs and the seaponies,” Tempest said solemnly. “Also where the hippogriffs were supposed to escape before the end.”

“There’s nopony here,” Sunshine said. “Where’d they all go?”

“I don’t know, but everyone keep your eyes peeled. Just because it looks deserted…” I said before turning to Tempest. “The portal is in the palace?”

She nodded. “It was intended as a last resort plan in case the zebra caught wind of the installation,” she said. “To allow us to escape with the pearl and keep it out of their hooves.”

Through the murky waters I thought I saw movement. I blinked and it was gone. We needed to move as quickly as we could to the palace. I felt it in my bones. We were not alone here.

I motioned to the others to follow me upwards towards the palace, taking care to avoid the city below. If there were any survivors they would likely be in the palace. We swam up as I kept a close eye on my PipBuck. Nothing appeared, but the E.F.S. wasn’t perfect, and I had no idea how good it would work underwater.

The palace’s main hallway was simply open to all as we floated inside. The queen of the seaponies had held no secrets from her populace it seemed. The throne room lay barren, save for a lone skeleton sitting upon the throne itself. The bones had been preserved. Someone had taken care to make sure of it. All around it, groupings of coral had been placed, almost as if it was some sort of memorial.

The glass panes around the room depicted a struggle, the history of the hippogriffs and their transformation into seaponies to escape the Storm King. The final pane was broken in multiple pieces, leaving us unable to parse what it was supposed to depict.

“Queen Novo,” Tempest uttered finally. “They gave her a memorial. Enshrined in the one place she had served her ponies from. Even when the hippogriffs rejoined Equestrian civilization, Novo remained here. Look around, the portal has to be here somewhere.”

“She must have been well loved by her ponies,” I said, floating up to the memorial. As I scanned the coral surrounding the ancient Queen’s bones, I caught something glinting in the darkness. I reached out with my magic, and pulled it away from the coral. It was a disk-like device.

I pressed the button on the side of the disk and it suddenly flared to life. A massive image of the most regal looking seapony I had ever seen in my life appeared in the center of the throne room. Without a shadow of a doubt I knew that this had been Queen Novo, except I could tell she was wearing thin. This was taken near the end. After a few long seconds of silence, she began to speak.

“If you’re seeing this… my body is failing. The ambient radiation in the water from the megaspell fallout above the surface is finally getting to me and my ponies. The shields I’ve employed to help keep it at bay have steadily failed day by day. Food is growing scarce. We’re dying. I’m dying.

I fear the worst, that we will never be able to rejoin Equestria above. That Equestria is no more. Worst of all, I fear that the magic of the pearl has been lost forever. The pearl could have halted the radiation, its power is that great. I regret allowing the Equestrians to study it. I should have taken it when we fled below. But there was no time… the world was already dying. There are things I must impart before I die. In case somepony ever finds this place.

The magic of the pearl is one of the strongest pieces of magic the world has ever known, close in part to the Elements of Harmony themselves. Its magic is that of transformation. Not just on the surface, but at the very core of a creature’s existence. The magic infuses every bit of a creature, and not just ponies. This is the reason we used it to flee the Storm King. The pearl’s magic in that creature’s hand would have had the potential to be used for great evil.

I won’t lie. I don’t trust the Equestrians with it. They do not understand how powerful this magic truly is. They want to use it for their army, to keep the zebra at bay. I found myself caught in the political machinations of a government gone wrong, subservient to the more powerful Princess Luna. I had no choice but to go along with this program under threat of economic sanctions on my people, but I had my own reasons for going along with it.

It was a ruse. While I did allow the pearl to be studied, and yes I had to abandon it to flee here, the Equestrians will never know the true extent of the pearl’s magical capabilities. Its transformative capabilities are beyond anything ever found on this planet. The truth is that the pearl is not from this planet. Even Princess Luna is unaware of the pearl’s origins, as long lived as she is. The pearl fell to this planet a long time ago, creating a massive crater in Equestria. Its magic suffused the soil of the planet, forming a series of crystals that grew over the top of it. Eventually the mountain it sat on became the mountain where Canterlot was built by Celestia and Luna. Celestia knew the power that lay below her city, a place she came to refer to as the ‘Heart’.

The pearl did not remain in one location for very long. The dark mage Grogar attempted to steal it from the Heart, revealing its existence to Celestia. Celestia took the pearl and secreted it away, granting it to the Hippogriffs to protect. The Hippogriffs were a warlike society, feared throughout the land by many for their martial prowess. They were the perfect protectors.

Celestia is unaware that I know this much about the pearl’s origins. I used her and Luna to find out more about the pearl after the Storm King was defeated and the Equestrians demanded to study the pearl. Celestia’s archives revealed one very key thing about the pearl that I had not known during my time caring for and protecting it.

The longer the pearl is away from the Heart of Equestria, the power it contains seems to seep away. The more it is used the more that power dissipates. I don’t know what will happen when the pearl is fully used up, but it’s possible it may never be able to be used again. This is why the Equestrians have had such a hard time accessing the magic it contains. The pearl was used by the Hippogriffs many times over the years, and the magic is nearly spent.

The only way to save the pearl’s magic is to take it to the Heart of Equestria. I had planned to take the pearl myself there, but alas I am too late to do this. By the time this message is seen, if it is ever seen at all, the pearl will have likely completely died. I could not rest finally without talking about what I had seen. I could not sleep peacefully, the thought of this weighing deep in my mind.

If you are seeing this… I am sorry. I could not protect my people. I was cowardly. I did not do what was required of me as a leader to save them. Now… we are all dying.

No… we are already dead. We just don’t know it yet.”

The image flickered out of existence. My eyes widened as I looked down at Tempest. She had been eerily quiet while the recording had played. My mind started to put two and two together. If the pearl had been infused into her body and its magic was being used up every time it was used, what was going to happen to her when it expired?

I didn’t have time to think about it any further. My eyes caught just the barest glimpse of an increasingly dark shape forming outside of the palace. Out of the darkness a massive shark-like creature appeared, its many teeth glinting even in the murky depths. It rammed the side of the palace and everything shook. Silently the thing moved back around and struck again.

“It’s too big to get in so it’s trying to shake us loose!” Sunshine shouted. “Everypony, swim to the center!”

We huddled closer together, watching closely as the beast came back around for another pass. I tried to access my magic, finding it much more difficult in the sluggish underwater world to pull together enough magical power to create a substantial shield in front of the creature. It slammed into the purplish magic and shook its head. It must have considered the effort too great, because it suddenly turned away and swam off into the darkness. After several long seconds, I lowered the shield and let out a sigh of relief.

“What the fucking fuck was that thing?” Violet said. “It looked like a giant shark. It must live in the caves.”

“Why did it run away? Why just not continue ramming the palace?” Sunshine said. “It could have dislodged the whole thing.”

“I think it ran away because of them,” I said, pointing down across the throne room.

Several forms had appeared along the floor of the palace, floating slowly in the water. They appeared to be seaponies, but I knew from the pace of their swimming and the fact that their eyes were glowing a deep red that they weren’t just regular seaponies.

Ghouls. And it wasn’t just a couple. The whole city had come to call as my E.F.S. began to light up with red.

“We need to find that portal, fast,” I uttered softly.

Author's Note

SEAQUESTRIA. MORE TO COME.

Chapter 9: The Tragedy of Seaquestria

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 9: The Tragedy of Seaquestria

Hold on now. Lemme get this straight. When the Storm King came, you just abandoned your entire city and fled?

The gleaming red eyes of the seapony ghouls gazed upon us hungrily as they swam ever closer. They appeared from all angles, growling and snarling. Escape seemed impossible. We had very little weapons and very little understanding of our new bodies enough to fight underwater.

My thoughts turned to immediately trying to discover where the portal was before the first line of ghouls reached us. Queen Novo hadn’t mentioned the portal in her final recording. Did that mean something? If the seaponies had access to the portal, could they have used it without the pearl’s magic to transform them back into hippogriffs? The most likely outcome there would have been wherever the pearl put them would have possibly been certain death if it was inside of Equestria. The other outcome had to be that Queen Novo didn’t know about the existence of the portal at all.

“Tempest…” I whispered. “She didn’t know about the portal. Did she?”

Tempest looked up at me and nodded solemnly. “The seaponies weren’t told,” she said. “It was hidden in plain sight.”

My gaze drifted back to the throne where the queen’s bones lay. My eyes widened as I realized where the portal was. It was below the throne itself! The queen would have never known.

“The throne?” I said quizzically to Tempest.

“Yes, but we’ll never get it working before these things overtake us,” she replied. “We have to flee.”

“Fleeing might invoke that giant shark thing outside the palace,” Violet said. “We’re stuck.”

“We’ve been in worse situations, sweetie,” I said with a grin. “Tempest, you see if you can make the portal work. We’ll cover you.”

The other unicorn nodded succinctly, swimming up towards the throne. I turned as the first line of ghouls got ever closer to us, their gait speeding up slightly like an alligator launching itself at its prey. The first one lunged, growling and snapping. I reached out with my magic and took a hold of it, breaking its neck. There was no resistance and it simply sank out of view. Magic from the others appeared in my side-view, blasting away as many of the ghouls as they could. There were more coming, and we couldn’t fend them all off no matter how skilled we were. They would overrun us within seconds.

I pulled together as much magical power as I could, reaching into the recesses of my mind for Shining Armor’s shield spell. A massive bubble of pink shimmered into existence as a nearby grouping of ghouls lunged at us. One of them was cut in half by the shield, making a gurgling sound as it sank to the bottom of the shield.

“I don’t know how long I can hold this!” I shouted back to Tempest. I glanced up at her and saw the look on her face.

The other mare had shoved the throne off to the side, the bones of Queen Novo unceremoniously sinking to the steps below it. Her eyes looked fearful. Something was wrong.

“The portal device is here but there’s no power!” she cried out. “There’s no way to activate it!”

“Violet, see if you can help her!” I called over to my marefriend.

“On it!” Violet called back. She turned and swam up to where Tempest was trying to work. “Shit. She’s right. There’s absolutely no power to this system at all.”

All around us the ghouls swarmed the shield, wearing at it from every conceivable angle, so that I couldn’t even see the palace walls anymore. Once the shield failed, that was it. It was over. We were done for. No way out and no plan.

Violet swam back next to me. “The power to the device has been cut. The only way to possibly restore power is to do so at the source. Tempest says there is an energy plant in the city below,” she said.

“I don’t know if you noticed or not, sweetie, but I’m not sure this situation is better than I initially estimated,” I said, gritting my teeth against the pressure of holding the shield. “As soon as this shield comes down they’re all going to be on top of us.”

“What if… what if you teleport us?” Violet replied with a grin. “If you could get us down to the city below, it would give us a chance to hide from the ghouls.”

“Are you crazy? I’d have to drop the shield spell to cast it,” I said. “I don’t know if I can do it, Vi. I really don’t.”

Violet reached in and kissed me on the cheek. “I believe in you. Like you said, we’ve been in worse situations before,” she said before looking at the others. “Form up on Star! We’ve got a crazy ass plan!”

“All you ponies ever do is crazy plans, it seems,” Bright Ember said as he swam next to us. “It’s a wonder they don’t all fail.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said with a chuckle. “Tempest, come on. We’re going to blow this popsicle stand… I hope.”

The other mare nodded. “Start casting, I’ll do what I can to hold off the ghouls while you do,” she said, her horn sparking.

I replied by allowing my magical energies to let the shield dissipate and quickly began diving into charging up magic for casting a teleportation spell. The ghouls wasted no time, zeroing in on us. The first wave of these suddenly lit up in a sparking wave of magical energy that erupted from Tempest’s horn. It halted the ghouls just long enough that I was able to finish casting. In a pop we disappeared as the ghouls slammed into each other and reappeared at the bottom of the sea bed next to the city.

* * *

We hunkered down in a nearby building as several ghouls swam by. Several long moments of quiet silence passed by before they disappeared. My E.F.S. was still not picking up any of these creatures, and definitely wasn’t working on the creature swimming above throughout the cavern.

We’d picked it up here or there on the way through the ruined city, darting from building to building and trying to stay low. The giant shark weaved in and out of the crags of the cavern with great ease. The ghoul seaponies seemed to be aware of the fact that it was there, avoiding it like the plague. Any who strayed from the city were quickly picked off and devoured by the creature. The only thing that had kept it at bay from the city below it seemed had been the fact that it was intelligent enough to not provoke all of the seapony ghouls at once.

“They’re gone,” I said under my breath. “Let’s go. One more block until we are at the entrance to the plant.”

The others nodded. It had been hours since the escape from the palace throne room, and we were all feeling worse for wear. My horn screamed at the use of the magic needed to teleport us all and maintain Shining Armor’s shield spell. Whatever I’d been affected by had not fully worn off just yet.

Most of all I worried about Tempest. She appeared to be feeling the worst of it all, and I couldn’t blame her. She’d woken up out of nowhere over two hundred years after the end of everything and found out that her best friend was dead, and not to mention losing Trick Shot. On top of all of that, finding out that her ancient enemy had returned and that a magical pearl had been embedded inside of her body? I’d feel like shit.

Still, she soldiered on. It was what she had been trained to do by the military. She moved quickly with us, leading us towards the power plant. She knew instinctively where to go, presumably from having been here many many years before.

We had found ourselves deep in the city, having realized it was much larger than the cavern initially made it seem like. The city extended deep into the bowl shaped cavern, filled with buildings as tall as Equestrian skyscrapers from cities like Fillydelphia. It was almost as if there was an entire civilization down here, but it was in fact completely and utterly dead.

The power plant itself sat centrally within the city. We glanced up at it as we approached it, keeping an eye out for any ghouls as we did. The words HIPPOCAMPUS were proudly emblazoned on the side of the plant itself. I grimaced. Of course Hippocampus was involved here. They had created the entire power network in general feeding the power to the Mount Aris project, so it tracked that they had created the power grid down here as well.

“Come on, before anything sees us,” Tempest said, moving to the door to the plant. She pulled it open and motioned for us to go inside.

We swam through into the main lobby of the offices connected to the plant. It was incredibly interesting to see how Equestrian logistics had been applied to Seaquestrian technology. Or rather vice versa.

It turns out… lots of coral. Coral everywhere. And shells. Keyboards made of shells. Entire terminals made of shells. The cubicles themselves were made entirely out of coral and not only that they floated in the middle of the central room. There were no ghouls here. It was very curious that there weren’t even any bodies or skeletons, yet there were offices and terminals. None of them seemed to be functional.

“There’s nopony here,” Violet said, commenting on the obvious. “We have to find the main power controls.”

“Usually they’re in the power control office,” Sunshine said, pointing up to the center office in the middle of the array of cubicles above us. “That should be it.”

I swam up to the door and pulled it open. Inside was an array of terminal banks and a power terminal made entirely out of coral. A row of coral cabinets lined the back wall. A central terminal sat in the middle of the room on a coral desk, looking like it controlled the entire array. I moved up to it and tapped a key. A holographic image appeared in the center of the room above us… of a unicorn seapony?

“If you’re looking to turn on the power to the city… I’m sorry,” the mare in the hologram said. “I disabled all of the controls. Turning on the power could be catastrophic and release the creature trapped here into wider Equestrian waters.”

Tempest’s eyes widened. “Spring… Spring Rain?” she uttered.

“The creature is a creation by the seapony scientists here. It was intended to be used as a defensive mechanism for the city, but it got loose. In order to prevent it from escaping, the city was shut down at the source. I did what I could to help… but the water has grown sickly. Ponies are dying,” the mare said. “I tried contacting Glitter Drops up in the tower, but the comm system is out too. I hope she and Tempest survived whatever the fuck is happening above, because we sure aren’t. The beast seems to be held at bay by the city’s latent energy field, but who knows how long that will last.”

My heart sank into my chest as the hologram flickered out of existence. With the city powered off and the controls disabled, there was no way through the portal and out of the city. We were trapped, and who knows how long the magic of the pearl would keep the radiation at bay. I looked over at Tempest. It was clear by her reaction and the mare’s statement that this was another one of her friends. The other mare swam up to the terminal and began looking through the documents there.

“Well, you never did anything half assed in your life, did you Spring Rain?” Tempest muttered under her breath. “She’s right about one thing. The entire grid’s controls are completely disabled. There’s no way to bring the power back online.”

“So we’re stuck here?” Bright Ember said, his ears pinning back.

“Between a rock and a hard place, unfortunately,” Tempest replied, scowling. “Without the portal we’re left finding a different path out of the city… but if what Spring Rain said is correct the city itself is sealed shut from the rest of the ocean, and we can’t go back the way we came…”

“And the radiation in the water, despite being kept at bay by the pearl’s magic, will eventually kill us,” I said. “Well… it will kill everyone except me I guess. Yay.”

“There has to be a way to bring the power back online or some form of bypass,” Violet said. She lit her horn and began opening the cabinets in the room. Her eyes lit up when she pulled out a shiny transparent orb. “A memory orb? Maybe there’s something useful there. I’m going to keep looking through these. Star? Do you want to…?”

I grimaced, nodding. I had more experience with old memories than anypony here, and we seemed safe enough for the moment holed up in this power plant. I gingerly took the orb from her and reached out with my magic, letting the past take hold of me into blackness.

ooooOOOOooooOOOOoooo

My entire body felt… gross. I realized very quickly that I was a seapony and based on the office I was in I had to assume that I was Spring Rain. My host hovered in the water in front of one of the most glorious beings I had ever seen. Based on the images I’d seen of her… this was Queen Novo. The queen of the seaponies reclined regally against her throne. I could tell however that she was not doing well. Her eyes were baggy and her flesh looked pallid. The poisoned water was affecting her as well.

“Mother, you have to listen,” a seapony next to the queen was saying. She had a pale yellow coat with a brilliant blue mane. “It’s not safe down here anymore. We need to leave.”

“Skystar, this is our home and we must defend it,” Queen Novo said calmly. “We can’t leave. Where would we go? The poison is everywhere.”

“There has to be somepony who survived,” Skystar pleaded. “Spring Rain, can’t you talk some sense into her? If we stay here we will all die.”

“Your daughter does raise an interesting point,” my host replied. “But the comm devices aren’t getting through to anypony. I don’t know if anypony survived up above. We may be the sole survivors of Equestria down here.”

Queen Novo coughed. “The pearl survived,” she said solemnly. “I can feel its magic above on the island, but it’s diminished. If we could reach it… I could use it to save the others.”

“You know as well as I do that the possibility the facility was attacked is exceptionally high, your Majesty,” my host said with a scowl. “We may not be able to reach the pearl, and the poison could be greater up there.”

Queen Novo looked down at her fins, a deep sadness coming over here. She sighed loudly. “I guess there is no hope then,” she said.

Skystar grimaced. “Mother… there is always hope. I want to formally request a team to go up and investigate the ruins and see if we can locate the pearl. Even if you cannot go, I will,” she said.

Queen Novo locked eyes with my host. I could feel the intensity of that stare. Somehow I knew that even though it seemed utterly logical not to pursue this course of action that Queen Novo would allow it anyways. My host tried shaking her head, but the Queen had already decided.

“Agreed. Take two of your finest guardseaponies and head up the tunnel,” she said. “See if you can get through and… and be careful.”

Skystar smiled softly and floated towards her mother, giving her a hug and a kiss. “Thanks, Mom. I won’t let you down.” She swam off in search of her guards.

Spring Rain sighed loudly. “This is a fool’s errand,” she said. “Even if they can get back up the tunnel there’s no way they can breathe in the air without the pearl’s magic.”

“She needs something to do, Spring,” Novo said. “She needs hope. This is all I can give her.”

“We need to discuss what’s going to happen if things go even further south. We’re holding up, but this sickness in the water is eventually going to kill all of us,” my host said. “We need to discuss the project and what could happen if it gets out, and if we leave the city eventually that is going to happen.”

Queen Novo’s eyes closed and she groaned for a few moments audibly. “That creature was a mistake. It’s too dangerous and the chances of it getting free get higher by the day. The scientists designed it to be unkillable, but there has to be a way to dispose of it.”

“Theoretically, a massive electrical charge would do the trick… but the resulting charge would also fry every other seapony within the city,” my host said. “The only way we could do that is to overload the power grid.”

The power grid? But the power grid was completely disabled by Spring Rain herself. She did it intentionally to keep that thing in. My mind went wild trying to sort this one out.

“The amount of power needed to generate a charge that powerful would be massive,” Queen Novo said. “Even with our grid in the shape it is right now there’s no way we could ever kill that thing.”

“What if… what if we shut the power down? Turned the controls inward and started storing energy in the power coils? If we stored enough energy we could lure it into containment there and…” my host trailed off.

“We could fry it and the power plant would contain most of the electricity… but not sure how much that would affect the rest of the population,” Queen Novo said. “Interesting plan, but it could kill many ponies.”

“The chances are high that anypony inside their homes could be just fine,” my host replied instantly. “If we do nothing at all, we’ll never be able to leave here and we’ll all die. We have to take this chance.”

Queen Novo mulled over the decision for a few moments before nodding. “Put it into action immediately. I’ll notify the subjects of the loss of power. It will be hard, but we survived without electricity down here for many many years following the attacks by the Storm King, so we will get through this.”

“I’ll get on it right away,” my host said. “I’m going to have to be very thorough or else someone could just turn the power back on. I’ll have to completely disable all of the controls. We may never get it back.”

“I’m willing to accept that loss,” Queen Novo said. “We must be strong, Spring Rain. The next few days are going to be… trying.”

ooooOOOOooooOOOOoooo

I awoke from the memory orb, feeling quite disoriented, still floating inside of Spring Rain’s office. My mind immediately buzzed with what I’d witnessed. The plan to shut the power down hadn’t been implemented to keep the creature inside the cavern… it had been done to kill it. The beast must have gotten loose before then, but with no way to get out it just roamed the cavern instead. I reasoned inside my mind that it was more than likely the thing had been ghoulified in some fashion otherwise it would have not have survived as long as it had. A ghoulified super shark. Great. Just what I needed to ruin my day.

“Star? You alright? You’ve just been kind of staring for like two minutes now,” Bright Ember said from beside me.

I blinked. “Yeah… I’m fine. Well… sort of. We have a much bigger problem on our hooves now,” I said. “This whole place is functionally a bomb.”

“A what?!” Sunshine said.

I locked eyes with Tempest and scowled. “You were definitely right about Spring Rain not half-assing any of this. She did fully disable the entire power controls, but not to keep that thing in. They did it so they could store enough energy to kill it with a concentrated blast of electricity. It was apparently the only way they could dispose of it.”

“But the creature got out before they could implement the plan. Either that or…” Tempest started to puzzle out. “Or the seaponies became ghouls or outright died to the radiation in the water.”

“Regardless, this presents a real problem. If we can’t turn the power on, we can’t leave,” Sunshine said. “We have to figure out what to do here.”

I sighed. The plan I had fermenting in my mind was the absolute worst, but it would have to work in order for us to leave. It was the dumbest plan and could likely result in the imminent death of everypony.

“We uh… we have to kill the shark,” I said.

Violet’s eyes widened. “You want to try to kill the giant indestructible super shark? Are you absolutely fucking crazy?” she said, lifting a hoof before I could respond. “Wait, no don’t answer that. This is absolutely right in line with something you would say.”

I smiled softly. “You know me too well, sweetie,” I said before turning my head to the others. “We have to follow through on Spring Rain’s plan to electrocute the damn thing. If we can kill it, we can leave through the gate to the outside.”

“Didn’t Spring Rain say that it could potentially electrocute everypony in the city? Like… kill everypony here?” Tempest said, raising an eyebrow.

“She did say that, yes… that’s kind of the dumb part of the plan,” I said. “We’d need to create a space that’s completely dry somehow, and keep it that way. There’s no telling how well we would be able to breathe in that type of environment like this.”

“I suspect that won’t be an issue,” Tempest said. “The seaponies could easily move from water to land without breathing issues. Something to do with the magic inherent to their form.”

“So we should be able to breathe, but how can we create a space that’s dry that the water can’t reach?” Sunshine said, scowling. “The entire place is filled with water. We’d need a room that is somehow sealed from the rest of the place that can be drained.”

“Let’s start looking around. I think we’ve got some time here before the radiation really gets past the pearl’s magic, but we need to get back to Equestria soon,” I said. “If we can find some way, the plan would be to lure the creature into here and set off the power coils… and then we’d have to make sure everypony is inside the safe room. It’s crazy as fuck, I know.”

“It would kill the creature and then also probably fry all of the remaining ghouls in the city at the same time,” Ember replied.

“We’d be giving them mercy in a sense,” Violet said. “They’re feral now. They could finally rest.”

I grimaced, nodding. I didn’t enjoy the prospect of dooming potentially innocent lives to death, but Violet was right. The ghouls in this place had lost themselves to the feral nature that all ghouls eventually did, and we would be giving them a kindness in a sense. I swam away from the group intent on figuring out a way that we could contain some form of air pocket.

Utilizing the power plant made the most sense as a place to have a safe room in, but the construction of something like that would be difficult. Maybe Spring Rain had thought of that? It seemed like Queen Novo had been very hesitant that many of her ponies would die, but at that moment they were already dying anyway. Maybe she felt that to be an acceptable sacrifice. I wasn’t sure. Spring Rain had definitely pushed for the project though, so was she on the up and up?

I couldn’t help but think about Tempest’s statement about Spring Rain. She never did anything half-assed. She would have had a contingency plan. While the others swam about the office looking as well, I made my way into the central power grid chamber to check it out. Massive power coils extended across the entire room on each side, with a giant glowing battery array in the middle. Following the lines, the battery array would supply power to the coils, but how would the electricity be released?

Underwater power systems confused me. I made my way up towards the ceiling, scowling. This plan really was stupid. There was just no way we were going to get this to work. We were going to need a miracle.

A flicker caught my eye at the far end of the power chamber. Figuring that I had yet to cover the entire chamber, I swam over to that end. A tiny office sat embedded in the wall overlooking the entire power grid. Inside was a desk and a terminal that I could see through a tiny window. The door was locked. With a grin, I employed the lockpicking method I was best known for and used my magic to rip the lock apart. I smiled deeply because it felt like my magic was feeling better. Was that the influence of the pearl? I couldn’t be sure.

I sat down at the desk and tapped at the device and connected my PipBuck to it in order to find out the password, which happened to be coral. Very original. There were some audio files still left on the terminal. I tapped the first one to play and not very surprisingly heard Spring Rain’s voice come through.

“Queen Novo thinks we’re all dead, so she doesn’t care,” Spring Rain said, coughing. She seemed to breathe heavily for a second before continuing. “But I’m not going to die here. I’m going to get out. The trap is set for the creature. This terminal can be used to initiate the battery mechanism release into the city, it’s just getting the thing to chomp on it that’s going to be the problem. Well… at least it will be Queen Novo’s problem. Not mine. I’m going to be here because I have something the Queen doesn’t have…”

Spring Rain coughed some more before starting to speak again. “Damn cough. Radiation poisoning is really getting to me. I need to get out of this water soon. Where was I…? Oh right… the plan. Queen Novo is going to draw the creature out of its containment and lead it to the battery mechanism where I’m going to release it and the power coils connected to it. This is where things go a little sideways. The resulting electrical discharge will indeed kill everypony in Seaquestria. They’re all dead. There’s no saving them. I can’t even begin to say how sorry I am for that, but the Queen is more to blame. She led us down here when we should have stayed on Mount Aris. She’s a coward.”

There was a shuffling sound in the background. A stallion’s voice came through.

“Ma’am, the power controls are disabled like you asked,” a male voice said.

“Excellent, thank you. Could I get a moment alone? I have some work I need to do here,” Spring Rain said.

“Of course, ma’am,” the male voice replied.

“Those poor souls, they just don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said with a loud sigh. “Anyways… I have developed a safety mechanism, something that will keep the discharge away while the beast takes the bait. It’s ingenious really… once the battery mechanism is deployed, the entire facility will seal itself up and drain all of the water. Nopony will know. Once the dust has settled, I should be able to refill the facility and leave through the gates.”

Spring Rain’s voice flickered off as my eyes widened. She really didn’t half ass anything. She had an entire plan to escape Seaquestria that would have saved her and only her. It was then that my eyes settled on the one thing in the room I’d forgotten to check for… a skeleton. Sure enough, a skeleton of what appeared to be a seapony with a horn lay in the corner along the back wall.

Spring Rain hadn’t made it out of here of course. She had never gotten to put her plan into place, because something important had happened. What was it? What had put a kink into her plans to escape?

My eyes turned back to the terminal. Perhaps the second message would reveal something. I hit play. Spring Rain’s voice reappeared in my ears and instead of just audio… a video hologram appeared on the screen.

“The damn drainage mechanism is not functioning like I need it to. I can’t figure out why, but it seems like the mechanism itself is stuck and needs to be repaired. I wish I’d have been able to get an earth pony to do all this work. Having to do it myself sucks,” she said, with another cough. “Fuck, I just wish Tempest were here. She’d know what to do… or even Glitter Drops. I miss those two. I’m sure they’re dead by now… but still… I miss them.”

Spring Rain sighed heavily once more. “Alright, I’ve got to figure out how to make this mechanism work. Let me pull up the schematics again and see where I went wrong… well this says this should be functional. Why is this not working?”

“Spring Rain,” a voice came from in the background. A voice I knew all too well.

“Queen Novo? What are you doing here?”

“I found out about your little plan,” the Queen said softly. “Why would you do this? If you could save all of our subjects… why would you not do so?”

“It isn’t that simple,” Spring Rain replied. “You’ve said over and over that the radiation is too great. There’s no saving hundreds of ponies dealing with radiation sickness. It’s simple mathematics. Even if I did bring everypony into this facility, there wouldn’t be enough room for everypony, and then who would be chosen to leave out? Who would choose? If they did escape, who’s going to help heal hundreds of cases of sickness? How would we move everypony? There’s too many questions to be answered.”

“But you thought that you could survive, that you would betray the trust we placed in you,” Queen Novo said. I could hear the sadness in her voice. “You wanted to leave our city for dead.”

“Your city is already dead,” Spring Rain said bitingly. “Your daughter hasn’t been heard from since she left, and the ponies are barely holding on. The ones that are alive are becoming something different, something new. There’s no saving anypony. Wait… it was you wasn’t it? You broke the drainage mechanism.”

Silence passed between the two before Queen Novo spoke again.

“I… I didn’t want to believe it, but when I found out what your plan was… I had to stop you. Can’t you see what you’re doing is wrong? We have an opportunity here to fix this. We can bring the best and brightest and we can figure this out together. We don’t have to be at odds,” she said.

“You don’t understand,” Spring Rain said. “The drainage system can’t drain all the water that fast. It can only drain one room… a specialized safe room built into this very office. Only I have the key to get in. There’s no way that anypony can access it without me and it isn’t big enough for a hundred ponies.”

Queen Novo’s eyes flashed and she growled under her breath. “Foolish child. You have doomed an entire civilization to death or worse. No worry though, you will never enact your master plan at this point. Guards! Assist me!”

Two seapony guards decked out in coral armor appeared from either side, pointing sharp tridents towards Spring Rain. The unicorn seapony scowled.

“You take me out of the picture, then you will rot here,” she said, pulling a remote from behind her back. “I’m not letting that happen.”

“Stop –” Queen Novo started to say before Spring Rain pushed the button. A flash of light erupted in the room and the Queen’s guards were instantly vaporized.

Queen Novo herself was flung from the room into the main power grid room. Spring Rain herself stood at the edge of the doorway and the hologram’s edge. Her sides were slowly burning as an alarm began going off in the background.

“Look what you made me do… You’ve killed all of us,” Spring Rain said as she slumped backwards into the corner and died.

The video message flickered off and I couldn’t really believe what I had just seen. Spring Rain had likely been the cause of the Queen’s death, even if she had somehow survived the initial blast. All because Spring Rain could not figure out a way to save everyone else. It was an utterly terrifying concept to me, as somepony who sought to do all she could to save others.

Spring Rain however made some points that despite all her flaws… I found myself sort of agreeing with if only on basic principle. The amount of medicine and the amount of food to feed that many hungry ponies was fairly astronomical in nature and there was no guarantee that any of them could have been saved in the first place. I scowled and started digging into the terminal further. Schematics of what must have been the drainage mechanism populated on my screen. The design was rather straightforward, or would have been if I could actually read schematics well. I made a note to download them and give them to Sunshine to peruse.

The only other mystery at hoof here was the key to the secret room, and where the secret room was located. My first inkling was to go look through the skeletal remains in the back of the room. Spring Rain was certainly clever enough, as she had on her several small items and tools, but there was one that stood out. It looked a bit like a wrench with a six sided end. I glanced around the room, wondering if there was a hole that matched up to this.

After about several long minutes of searching, I found a hole that appeared to match. I took the wrench and inserted it as far as it would go and turned hard. A groan shuddered from in front of me and I glanced into Spring Rain’s safe room.

My first impression of the safe room is that it was ultimately designed to be just that. A shelf unit of food items was on the far side and what appeared to be a filtration system for water. Spring must have assumed that it was possible for the creature to either not die off or the electricity in the water to not leave as quickly. Perhaps this was merely her stocking up before she headed back out. There were two saddlebags floating around, so that seemed to track.

My second impression was that no matter what… I was not going to fit inside of this room.

“Fuck.”

* * *

“So… the drainage system exists, but it’s broken,” Sunshine said, a scowl on her face. “How extensive is the damage?”

“I swam down to where the system is embedded into the wall, and it looks fixable,” Violet replied. “We can make it work. The problem is the size of the room.”

“The room is not big enough for all of us,” Tempest said. Her eyes narrowed. “Spring Rain… she wasn’t planning on saving anypony. That’s not like her.”

“She knew that it was impossible to save the city,” I said sullenly. “She made a choice. Admittedly, it was a bad fucking choice, but it was the only decision she saw.”

Tempest scowled. “She doomed the entire city and lost her own life in the process. I can’t agree with that decision. It wasn’t right,” she argued. “And now… we have to what, sacrifice you to get out?”

“I was always going to be the logical decision to lure the thing here anyways,” I said with a grimace. “I can withstand the radiation better and my magic will protect me… I hope.”

“Do you really think you can generate a shield that will push back the electricity?” Violet said, looking up at me with sad eyes. “Your magic has been acting funny still.”

I sighed. Could I do it? Probably. Did I know that I could do it right then? Maybe not. Instead of trying to put on a brave face I shrugged and shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “But if we do nothing we’re stuck here. We have to try.”

“Try and hope that the electrical charge actually kills that thing,” Bright Ember interjected. “When you say it out loud, it sounds incredibly crazy.”

“Let’s focus on one thing at a time here, like getting the drainage system functional,” I said. “Once that’s finished, then we’ll work out a plan for luring that thing here. Spring Rain’s terminal should allow you to do everything we need right?” I glanced over at Sunshine.

The pink mare nodded. “She had everything all ready to go, including the release of the power grid batteries,” she said. “We can handle everything from there. In fact we can even move the terminal into the safe room and manage it there.”

“Good. Ember, work with Violet and Sunshine on the repairs of the drainage system if you could,” I said before moving to swim away. I felt movement to my left as Tempest appeared next to me.

“You saw much more than you let on,” she said softly. “I want to know everything.”

“Why? Spring Rain made a bad decision, just as you said,” I replied. “She fucked up.”

“Spring Rain was one of my close friends alongside Glitter Drops. She must have had a reason,” Tempest said. “I want to know. I need to know.”

I scowled for a moment, before motioning for her to follow me. I led her to Spring Rain’s terminal across from the safe room. I played the audio and hologram files for her, allowing Tempest to see everything that Spring Rain had done. Her eyes narrowed as Spring Rain expired on the hologram.

“Spring Rain was a fool,” she said after several long moments of silence. “She could have worked with Novo. It was stupid. She lost her way.”

“Could she have made any other decision? It seems like the Wasteland did what the Wasteland does best, even under the sea…” I said. “It forces you to make the worst possible decisions. To become jaded to the reality of the world.”

“Is that what happened to you?” Tempest asked.

“Almost,” I said softly. “I tried to rise above it as best as I could. It wasn’t pretty. But… I had good friends that brought me back from the brink.”

“You almost sound like Twilight,” Tempest said.

“Oh please. I don’t ever want to sound like her,” I said with a derisive snort. “Twilight was fucking crazy.”

“Maybe so, but her heart was always in the right place,” Tempest said. “She saved me, once. Showed me a better path. I was hurting, and she helped me find myself.”

“What was she like?” I asked.

“Nerdy… too into the friendship stuff. She was very awkward, even when she became a Ministry Mare. But she was…. She was nice. She brought out the best in others,” Tempest mused. “It was because of her guidance that I chose to join the effort to study the magic of the pearl. If Twilight thought it was worthwhile, then it was.”

“All of this jives with my own experience with her,” I said with a sigh. “Still… fucking crazy.”

Tempest chuckled softly. “I’ll take your word for it,” she said. “You know… it was Twilight and her friends that I first told my real name to. She encouraged me to use it more.”

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist?” I said with a soft laugh. “That’s one heck of a mouthful.”

“Kind of like Tempest Shadow and Radiant Star?” Tempest replied wryly.

“Point taken.”

A knock came at the door. I looked up to see Sunshine.

“It’s ready,” she said. “The drainage system should be functional now. We should probably test it first, but it should be working. The sabotage on it wasn’t that good.”

I nodded, grimacing. It was now or never, and there was only one way forward. It was the craziest fucking thing I had ever done, but it had to be done.

“Let’s test it, and then let’s get ready to go kill one big fucking shark, shall we?”

Author's Note

Let's get ready to kill a SHARK GOD.

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Chapter 10: The Destruction of Seaquestria

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 10: The Destruction of Seaquestria

Honey, I'm sorry about your home. I truly am. But my responsibility is to protect my subjects. The pearl... is not going anywhere.

The plan was set. Everything had fallen into place… somewhat. I gazed out into the dark murky waters and sighed. We only had one real shot at this and if we failed… we would likely die here. I shook my head to clear the thoughts. I didn’t need to think of failure, I needed to focus.

The others had already moved into the safe room and locked it. A magical communication between Sunshine and I confirmed that the room drained and that they were fine.

It was now up to me.

I was fucking scared as hell, but I needed to continue to focus on the magical energy needed to maintain a shield strong enough to repel the water around me. I’d been trying to enact it on a small scale with no such luck. I worried deeply I wouldn’t be able to do it and would be fried alongside the shark.

At least my friends would make it out alive. I could be content with that. The pearl’s magic could still be used to save Equestria. If I had to make the sacrifice play, I would.

The city itself was quiet. It was almost as if it knew what was about to happen. That sounded silly in my head. The seapony ghouls were likely watching to figure out the best time to attack. Even feral ghouls had some sort of a pack mentality, and they’d already seen what I could do. I couldn’t pick out where the shark was, so maybe they were just afraid of it showing up. I wasn’t sure.

Something moved in the darkness of the water, subtly shifting the bubbles directly in front of me. Two very deep glowing red eyes emanated out of nowhere, and it was only then that I was able to get a full breadth of understanding of what this thing was. It wasn’t just a shark. It was some sort of an amalgam of different sea creatures. Its white teeth glinted in the watery depths, and it made very loud groaning noises as it regarded me.

I must have seemed like a tiny snack to this beast right then as I quickly realized just how big this thing was. It hovered there for a very long time before it began to move.

My eyes widened as it sprung forth. This thing was incredibly fast and agile as I pulled up to dodge out of its direct path. Snapping teeth barely caught my tail as the creature whipped back around and moved its bulk like it was nothing. I noticed that it was not just shark-like with a massive fin, but it had arms and claws almost like a reptile. The tail that whipped behind it was barbed and spiky.

“What the fuck were the seaponies thinking, making you?” I said to myself as I pushed myself double time to get out of the way of the snapping and thrashing creature just behind me. “I think I succeeded in pissing you off!”

The creature roared in response and I couldn’t really fault it. It was definitely mad that it couldn’t catch me. Another near miss of teeth made me scowl however. I couldn’t keep this up forever and I still needed to lead it towards the power plant.

I dove downwards into the city proper, dodging and weaving between the buildings as the thing tried to keep up behind me. It didn’t even attempt to move around things, choosing instead to simply slam through any obstacle in its way.

Movement to my side forced me to speed up as best as I could. A seapony ghoul lunged out from nowhere directly into the path of the creature. With a swift snap of its jaws, the ghoul splattered into nothingness, its blackened blood staining the waters around us. I couldn’t keep this up forever. My body wouldn’t allow it at some point. I needed to make a stand somewhere and hope to possibly incapacitate it. My flittered up towards the palace above the city. It was crazy and way open, but maybe it would work.

I veered off to the left, deftly dodging yet another ghoul that decided that it was time for lunch. It too became lunch as the massive sea beast devoured it whole before slamming through a set of buildings, turning them to rubble. I pivoted upwards and snapped back towards the palace, the creature’s momentum carrying it into another grouping of buildings before it could begin to pivot with me. I had to give it credit that it was quite maneuverable. I sped full on towards the palace, knowing it was just behind me as I pushed through the opening.

“Star, what are you doing?” a voice in my earbud said. It was Tempest. “You’re leading it away from the power plant?”

“I can’t keep up with it chasing me, it’s too fast!” I shouted. “Plans off the rails, I need to try to trap this thing or stop it some other way.”

“I’m coming to join you,” Tempest said. “You can’t do this alone.”

I cursed under my breath as the creature zipped past me and struck the outer wall of the palace on the opposite side, cracking it. It temporarily stopped to shake its head.. “No, I’ve got this you don’t…” static. Shit, I thought to myself.

“Hey fucker,” I called out to the thing as it wheeled around, glaring hot icy death at me. “Yeah, you. Big fat fucker. Come and get me, you piece of shit!”

The creature gargled a roar and gathered all of its energy for a charge, springing forth like a destructive force of nature. I scowled, gathering all of the energy I could into my horn and formed the image in my mind of Shining Armor’s shield spell. The magic blossomed forth as the creature's jaws made to snap itself around me, finding purchase on the hard magical shell around me instead. I heard a few teeth crack on the shield and the creature roared yet again, trying to wrap its jaws around me to attempt to swallow me whole.

“How’s that for a jawbreaker?” I crowed in victory before gathering more magic in my horn. It was painful, but I felt the magic come easier and easier the more I pushed myself. In a flash I disappeared along with the shield, reappearing on the other side of the palace. The creature’s jaws, once held in place by the magical power, slammed shut immediately due to the force and the creature began to roar once more in pain. I could see blood filtering into the water around its mouth.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did that hurt? Good,” I said with a grin.

The creature shook off of its pain and turned around, glaring at me. Its eyes were filled with utter and absolute hatred. It pulled back to charge, launching itself across the space between us.

“Fuck!” I shouted, trying to move out of the way. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

The creature came within mere inches of me before a blast of magical energy struck it, sending it hurtling through the water into another pillar. Floating there, huffing and puffing, was Tempest Shadow.

“Motherfucker!” she shouted. “You are not hurting my friends!”

My eyes widened as Tempest swam up in front of me. Her horn ignited once more, the chaotic energies of the mare’s broken horn combined with a power I’d only seen her use once before this erupted forth, wrapping the massive sea creature in a shroud of power.

The magic spread across the creature, tiny electrical impulses slamming into it over and over as it roared and tried to escape. It was no longer concerned about attacking. It desired release. Tempest wasn’t letting it go. Her eyes flared with dark and terrible strength. I recoiled away from her as she swam up in front of the creature.

“No!” she cried out in great anguish. “This is for Glitter Drops. This is for Spring Rain. This is for Queen Novo. This… this is for Equestria! You belong to the old world… it’s time to return to it!”

Her horn flared once more and the magic exploded all around the creature, pulling on it from every which way. I could hear its bones ripping apart at the seams. Blood began to cloud the water as the seapony ghouls began to appear just outside the palace walls. They bit and clawed at the creature in its death throes as the magic continued to wrack its body.

“Tempest, that’s enough!” I shouted. “It’s dying!”

“No! It’s not enough!” Tempest snarled. “This power… it can save Equestria! I must use it!”

The magic paused briefly before the insides of the creature began to explode outward, flashes of magic coming from inside of it. The palace began to rumble all around us as the thing thrashed against the walls. Magic streaked up into the ceiling, laying waste to everything around us. Tempest growled angrily as the magic took hold of her.

“Tempest! You have to stop it!” I said as I moved to place a hoof on her shoulder.

The magic latched onto my hoof as it landed there for a brief second I felt a buzz of electrical power through my body before it ejected me into the water outside of the palace. All around me the palace began to break up in chunks, falling down to the city below. Buildings were crushed under the weight of the debris and the entire city began to shake.

She’s going to get herself killed! I thought. I have to do something!

I reached out with my magic, pulling as hard as I could. Something was pushing back against me, but I poured more of my strength into the spell to try to overpower it. The spell failed spectacularly, the magic dying at my horn. I growled under my breath. I had to get Tempest out of there before something bad really happened.

“Star, what’s going on out there? We’re hearing all sorts of rumbling,” a voice came through my communicator. It was Violet.

“Get out of there!” I called out. “Head for the door to the surface water. I’ll meet you there, I just have to collect Tempest.”

“We’re on it,” Violet replied. “Be careful, love?”

“You know me and ‘careful’, my dear,” I said with a grimace. “Now hurry!”

Another huge chunk of the palace pulled away from it, and in the midst of the destruction I could see Tempest hovering in the water there. A golden magical field surrounded her, holding her in place. I couldn’t pull her away from there, so I had to try something else.

I sped forward, swimming through the rubble and debris until I was within some form of a safe distance from Tempest. The mare didn’t even seem to register my presence.

“Tempest! Come on! You have to knock this off! Think of Glitter Drops! Think of Trick! They wouldn’t have wanted you to die here! If you keep this up, that’s what’s going to happen!” I shouted. “The pearl isn’t in control of you! You have control of it! Use that!”

Tempest slowly turned in my direction, her eyes glowing. “They deserve to burn. For how they treated me. Seaquestria deserves to die.”

“Okay… so not Tempest…” I muttered to myself. “Why? Why destroy it all?”

“I was used, abused by their Queen,” Tempest said, her voice very monotone in nature. “I was not given proper respect. They deserve to die.”

“They’ve been punished enough,” I said with a sigh. “This place is their grave. There’s nothing more you can do. Please… I just want my friend. Let her go. This place is dead already.”

Tempest paused for a moment before the glow began to fade from her eyes. She shook her head and looked up at me. “Star…? What… what happened?” she said.

“This is really more of a later conversation,” I said, pointing upwards at the crumbling palace all around us. “We need to get the hell out of here!”

Tempest nodded, grimacing deeply as she began to swim after me. We rushed through debris and bloody water as we managed to push out of the palace and back into the open sea above Seaquestria. I glanced down, looking at the destructive force wrought upon the underwater city.

“Did I… did I do all of this?” Tempest asked softly.

“The pearl did it,” I said. “It forced its magic through you, like it was alive.”

“I can feel its power inside me,” Tempest replied. “It wanted retribution for how Queen Novo… for how ponies treated its power.”

“I’d say it got what it wanted,” I said with a sigh. “Come on, we’d better meet up with the others.”

Tempest nodded once more, following behind me as we began to swim towards the upper regions of the cavern. The murkiness of the water began to resolve itself into the shapes of Violet, Bright Ember, and Sunshine Sky.

“Star! Tempest! You’re okay!” Violet said, rushing forward to embrace me.

“What happened down there? We got out just before the city began to crumble apart,” Sunshine asked.

“Doesn’t really matter,” I said. “The monster is dead… and Seaquestria is laid to rest. We’ve been here long enough. We need to get back and find the ‘Heart’ that Queen Novo spoke about.”

“How do we do that?” Bright Ember asked. “The door is sealed… and even then how do we change back to regular ponies… well Kirin in my case.”

I glanced up through the murky depths. At the upper end of the cavern was a massive steel door. It reminded me of a Stable door. In fact, it was almost exactly like a Stable door. It made sense. This place was a lot like an actual Stable in so many ways.

“I think we may be able to open it,” I said, floating upwards towards the door. Sure enough, floating on a platform nearby was what appeared to be a control console with a terminal made entirely out of… barnacles?

I looked around for an interface, finding one exactly like I expected. I connected my PipBuck to the terminal and almost immediately the startup program began to run, issuing the command to open the door. I vaguely recalled not seeing a PipBuck on any of the ghouls we saw under the sea, which made sense. It was locked by a PipBuck, so not allowing anypony to have one kept the door locked.

The door groaned, pulling away. Behind it was a tunnel leading up and out of the cavern.

“See? Easy as pie,” I said.

“That solves one problem, but what about when we reach the surface?” Bright Ember asked again.

“I’ll take care of that,” Tempest interjected. “The pearl’s magic will change us back.”

Before I could say anything the unicorn mare raised a hoof.

“I know, I know,” she said. “If you all must know, the pearl’s magic… it’s almost sentient. It took me over a little down there, but I can feel its power and I think I can tap into it enough to change us all back.”

I grimaced, nodding. “We should get going then,” I said.

* * *

The tunnel was fairly long, and I got the sense that Seaquestria was indeed at the very bottom of the ocean, but eventually light began to actually filter through the water as we found ourselves in the open seas, not far from the surface water.

I swam upwards and broke out of the water, getting my first glance at our surroundings as the others came up around me. Mount Aris loomed in the distance, not actually super far away, but far away enough that swimming there didn’t make much sense.

Not that it seemed like it was a good idea, really. Squinting, I could make out more of those Storm Guard things on the island itself. The Storm King was holding down fort there for some reason. My mind began to wonder why. Maybe trying to access the research on the pearl? Did he figure out specifically what had happened to Tempest? My mind raced.

“We’re going to have to make it to shore and out of sight,” Tempest said from beside me. “He’s going to know what happened there sooner or later.”

“And we’d better not be within spitting distance when he does,” Violet said.

“Right,” I said. “Let’s get closer to shore and hopefully we can change back without being noticed.”

We moved as one against the crashing waves, finding a secluded cove to rest in. I looked to Tempest as the unicorn began to focus, a soft pale light washing over her before extending out over the rest of us. The light began to brighten, and in an instant we regained our natural forms. I felt my legs extending into the water and sighed as the glow faded from Tempest. She looked woozy, nearly falling over into the water. Sunshine reached out and grabbed her before she fell.

“Whoah there, you’re okay,” she said. “That took a lot out of you.”

Tempest nodded, sweating profusely. “I don’t think there’s much of the pearl’s magic left after that,” she said. “I can feel its power waning. That power… I think it’s keeping me alive. If it fades…”

My eyes widened. “You would die,” I said. “We need to get to the Heart of Equestria.”

Tempest nodded, grunting as she pushed away from Sunshine onto her own hooves and onto the shore. “I think I’m okay for now, but you’re right. If we’re to rejuvenate the pearl’s magical powers and use it to stop the Storm King, we need to go to the Heart.”

“That means… Canterlot,” Violet said.

I grimaced. “Yeah…” I said aloud.

“What’s wrong with Canterlot?” Bright Ember said quizzically.

“It’s… it’s not a great place to go. Even when Gardens of Equestria was cast, it couldn’t fully clear away the shit in that place. There’s a settlement just near the city limits called Glyphmark. It belongs to the zebra,” Violet explained. “But they don’t go into the city limits proper. Despite having been cleared away by the Enclave, the city is still pretty dangerous and full of ruins. And not only that… we have to go underneath it, which may be more difficult than it sounds.”

“Glyphmark may be our best destination at this juncture,” I said. “The zebra there are superstitious, but they’re friendly to the alicorns as well as the Followers of the Apocalypse. We may be able to get some help there, provided the Storm King hasn’t taken over all of Equestria by the time we get back.”

“It’s going to certainly take us a while to get back to Equestria from here,” Sunshine said. “We should probably get moving before it gets dark and find a place to hunker down for the evening.”

“Preferably some place far away from Mount Aris, so we don’t tip off the Storm King’s army that we’re alive,” Tempest interjected. “Our only advantage here is surprise.”

I glanced down at my Pipbuck and then at the landscape around us. The terrain was rough, rocky, and a mountain range in the distance loomed. I stepped up to the edge of the cove, peering out for any possible patrols. Quiet. I turned back to the others.

“I agree with Tempest. Getting out of here and away from the Storm King’s army is first priority. We should make for those mountains. Bound to be some form of shelter there we can use,” I said, pointing outwards.

The others nodded, pulling themselves out of the cove waters onto the shore. We waited for a few moments longer and let ourselves dry off before we started to move. As we made our way across the rocky terrain I kept glancing about for any sign of the Storm King’s army. Thankfully none was to be found and we were able to continue on at a fairly brisk pace. Eventually the terrain gave way to actual rocks as we found purchase in the mountain range.

Frost littered the ground, creating a peppering of flakes of white that almost looked like a chess board. The temperature began to drop sharply as we trudged forward. I could tell already that the others were starting to feel the effects of sheer exhaustion, Tempest moreso than everypony else. The mare appeared as though she was going to fall over at any minute.

The mountain path wound up into the mountains proper as I searched desperately for somewhere we could bed down for the night. Eventually my search proved fruitful. An opening in the rock face revealed a small cave just large enough to allow us to take refuge from the cold. A quick search revealed that whatever animal had lived here had moved on from this shelter.

I set about making sure everypony was in reasonable shape before taking the first watch. As the others fell asleep, I let my gaze fall over the mountain range below us, pondering on the nature of all we’d gone through since starting this journey. Our next stop was supposedly the Heart of Equestria. What were we going to find out when we got there? Would it be enough to stop the Storm King?

A voice interrupted my thoughts.

Star? Are you there? The voice said as I struggled to see where it was coming from. Everypony else was fast asleep. Star… it’s Spark. Can you hear me?

Spark? I thought, hopefully projecting my words to the spirit attempting to contact me. What are you doing? I thought the connection didn’t work anymore?

Well, we’ve been trying a number of different ways to reach you, you big dummy, Spark replied. Unfortunately most of those ways have not worked until this one. Lot of power being directed just to get in touch with you.

I understand. What’s happening in Equestria? I asked.

It’s not good. The creature, who I assume to now be known as the Storm King from your thoughts, has moved out into the open. His army is terrifying… and well… we lost Fort Knowledge, Spark said, a tinge of sadness in her voice.

My eyes widened. How? I said. How is it that he was able to take a settlement defended by alicorns?

He has some sort of magic staff, Spark said. It has… powerful magic. The alicorns there did their best to defend the settlement, but it wasn’t enough. He has access to all of the knowledge stored in those vaults now.

He won’t stop until he has all of the power of Equestria, I thought aloud, grimacing. Spark, let the others know that we have a plan, but it’s kind of fucking crazy.

Your plans always generally devolve into crazy, Spark said wryly. But do go on.

While we were in Mount Aris… we found something. Or rather, someone. They are tied to some really powerful magic, but that magic is rooted in a place beneath Canterlot. Are you familiar at all with the crystal caverns below there? I asked.

Intimately, actually. Twilight spent some time down there with her sister-in-law, Princess Cadence, when Cadence was imprisoned there during the Royal Wedding in which the queen of the changelings was impersonating her, Spark said. I don’t quite understand though, what’s down there?

Apparently the place where this magic was born, the Heart of Equestrian Magic, I said. If I can get there, I might be able to end this war.

Where are you now? Spark asked.

In a mountain range off the coast of Mount Aris, I thought. It might take us some time to get there though.

Understood. Time is of the essence, but there’s nothing we can do about that, Spark replied. I’ll relay the message to the bearer. We’re in the process of pulling back to Junction R-7. It’s heavily fortified. Calamity and Velvet are handling things alongside the New Canterlot Republic.

I grimaced as Spark’s voice faded from my mind. I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I looked to my side and saw Tempest.

“Everything okay?” she asked. “Here to take over the next watch.”

“News from home, well… what’s left of my home. Fort Knowledge has been destroyed.”

I heard Violet gasp from nearby as she walked over. Apparently we had woken her as well. “What? How… how did you find out?” I could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

“Spark. She was able to reach me. The NCR forces are pulling back to Junction R-7. The Storm King attacked with some kind of staff,” I explained.

“It can’t be… the Staff of Sacanas,” Tempest said angrily. “How was he able to charge it back up? It required alicorn power to give it magic!”

“Well, I mean… there are certainly enough alicorns around that a few of them could have given it a big boost,” I said with a sigh, looking down at Violet. “I’m sorry, love. I wish I had better news.”

Violet wiped away the tears. “It’s okay. There’s nothing we can do from here besides continue our current course. We have a current course, right?”

I nodded. “Canterlot is still the destination. I just hope we can get there before the Storm King has wiped all of Equestria off the map. We have to be days away at least from there, possibly even a week.”

Violet and Tempest nodded, wandering back off to go back to get some sleep before I realized one of our other number was missing.

“About that,” a voice said from the darkness. Bright Ember appeared in the gloom. “I was doing some exploring while it was dark out.”

“That’s… dangerous.” I said. “What about Sunshine?” I craned my neck over to peer over at the pink unicorn. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully, snoring ever so slightly. It was sort of… cute. I turned back to Ember. “You have a good reason why you aren’t just getting some sleep?”

“I know, I shouldn’t have ran off, but I thought I saw something while I was helping Sunshine get ready for bed. My hunch was correct. There’s a Hippocampus power plant right near here,” Bright Ember said. “Furthermore… there appears to be a big wagon with a harness for somepony who can fly there?”

My eyes widened. “A skywagon? For real? That would… that would cut our travel time considerably, provided the Storm King’s forces aren’t watching the skies of the Badlands too closely.”

“I don’t know if it’s still working or not,” Bright Ember said. “I don’t really know what it needs to work, but it could help us get to where we need to faster.”

I smiled before turning stern. “That was still pretty irresponsible. Please don’t do that again. I… I’ve never seen Sunshine this happy before.”

Ember sighed and nodded. “I understand. I expected that my… nature would scare other creatures away, but I shouldn’t have done it. It won’t happen again.”

I lifted a hoof and placed it on his shoulder. “You had your heart in the right place, of course. I just hope this works out. Now go and get some sleep. I’ll keep watching. It’s not like I actually need to sleep really. I just like doing it.”

Bright Ember chuckled and headed back over to his bedroll next to Sunshine. As he curled in, I saw Sunshine snuggle closer inward to the Kirin. A smile formed on both of their faces. This is what I was fighting to protect. And despite the fact that my very home had been ripped apart while I wasn’t there to protect it, I felt no immediate responsibility there. I wasn’t there and there was no way I could have stopped it.

But I could get to the Heart of Equestria and stop all of this for good.

* * *

Morning came with little to do but pack up camp and get moving. I very quickly explained to the others about having seen the Hippocampus plant, leaving Bright Ember’s part out of it. I wasn’t sure if they actually believed me, but the prospect of finding faster travel overrode any real suspicion.

We walked out of the cave and back into the blistering cold as we skirted the mountain range towards the location that Ember had indicated to me when he’d woken up before the others. The cold blasted us as we found ourselves over a ridge looking down at a very nondescript building that appeared to be utterly resisting the frozen cold, in spite of the fact that it was jammed right up against the mountain like it was built right into it. A small airway extended off an icy platform, ending in a steep cliff straight down. Most of the cargo wagons in the airway were flattened, but one of the smaller skywagons appeared to be entirely intact, if a little frosty.

“Well, the major problem might be whether or not the thing’s too cold to get a battery going,” Violet said from beside me. “We’ll cross that bridge if we can find a battery.”

“Should hopefully be spares inside. Look at the building though,” I said, pointing.

“The power’s still on,” Sunshine said. “Hippocampus made everything to last, it seems. But why is this here?”

“It was part of the project,” Tempest said, starting down the ridge towards the plant, taking care not to slip. “The power needs for Mount Aris were immense. I didn’t know where all of these were myself, I just knew there were a lot of these plants scattered across southern Equestria and the Badlands to provide the power to the Mount Aris project.”

“Insane, if you think about it,” Violet said, following behind her. “All of that power to study the pearl.”

“The pearl’s magic was far stronger then when it was under the control of Novo,” Tempest added. “The amount of energy needed to contain it… it was too much.”

I allowed Sunshine and Bright Ember to walk behind the other two while I took up the rear, watching on as Tempest attempted to explain the functions of the power grid to the others. I found myself sorely missing Trick Shot and even moreso thinking of the ponies back home. I had to hope this skywagon would get us somewhere.

The slippery slope down to the plant leveled off to a gravelly path that led us up to the main doors just off the skyway. I flipped on my E.F.S., not seeing any sort of possible threat thankfully. I used my magic to push open the doors and after nothing happened we stepped inside.

Immediately, a blast of what I assumed was magical warmth washed over us, drying us off entirely. It was almost like stepping into a sauna from the very frigid temperatures outside. A bright and almost happy looking front lobby sat before us. Well, it would have been happy if not for all the skeletons piled off to one side.

“What the fuck happened here?” I asked aloud, remembering that I already knew the answer somewhat. It was war. War’s what happened here. “Don’t answer that.”

“No, I think you make a very valid point,” Sunshine said, grimacing. “If those ponies died at the end of the war… why are they all in a pile in the corner? Something doesn’t add up.”

“Maybe they were trying to get free and got caught up on one another?” Bright Ember offered.

“No… Hippocampus protocol was to man your station at all times,” Tempest said, walking forward into the lobby. Her eyes narrowed. “They shouldn’t have even left their terminals. Something put those skeletons there. Look at them… there’s bite marks on the bones!”

“Whatever it was, it’s not here now,” I said, flipping my E.F.S. back on. Nothing but the yellow blips of my friends appeared. “Not a single dot of red.”

“We should probably get looking to see if we can find a battery for that skywagon,” Sunshine said, grimacing. “If something does live here and it comes back while we’re still here…”

“Which means we had better be efficient,” I said, nodding.

We broke up quickly in teams of two and three, Violet and myself heading up the stairs from the lobby to the office space above. The entire floor was pretty barren of mostly anything. It became very clear that any skeletons or bodies had been moved downstairs to the pile. Granted, it seemed like this branch didn’t have many employees to begin with. Where did these ponies go when the end of the day came? Did they just live here? My mind swirled with questions.

At the far end of the floor was a large spacious open office with a title plate that had been scratched mostly away, at least in name. The title was still there, stating that this office belonged to the Chief Operating Office of Hippocampus Branch numbered 173. I poked my head inside and immediately the temperature got much much colder. My eyes widened.

A large gaping hole had been carved out of the back of the wall, opening up into a large mountainous cavern. A blast of cold air emanated from it, somehow stopping at the door to the office. A deep tunnel descended into darkness.

“Uh, Vi?” I said as I stepped back into the main office level. “I found something.”

Violet didn’t respond immediately as I lifted my gaze to scan. I found her quickly and growled under my breath. Two large, furry white bipedal creatures stood over her, spears leveled at her throat. Violet grimaced painfully. One of the creatures grunted loudly, its beady dark eyes staring right at me. Violet’s eyes were tearful, scared.

“You’re making a really grave mistake here,” I said quietly. “Let her go… now.”

The leader, or what I assumed to be the leader, barked loudly at me in a language I didn’t quite understand. From behind them, three others appeared, stringing along Tempest, Sunshine Sky, and Bright Ember, also with spears at their throats. They appeared strained but mostly unhurt. Tempest looked like she had a bit of a black eye from possibly fighting back.

“Do you really think you have a chance?” I asked. “I’m an alicorn. You can’t take me.”

The leader barked again, what almost sounded like a laugh. I considered these had to be the creatures that piled up the skeletons below. They seemed almost intelligent, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Still, they held my friends captive and I couldn’t stand for that.

“Again, I am not asking you. I am telling you. Let my friends go, or you will regret it,” I said sternly. “I will not allow you to hurt them.”

The sound that came next wasn’t from the creatures, but was instead behind me. A deep thunderous growling sound erupted from the cavernous tunnel in the office. The leader of the furry white creatures mewed and motioned for the others. They very quickly dropped their spears from my friends and moved to leave. I growled under my breath as soon as Violet was free, reaching out with my magic to grab a hold of the leader. The creature struggled, the dark and beady eyes wide and full of fear.

“What is that?” I asked. “What down there scares you?”

The creature shook its head, its eyes pleading. I let it go and it ran as another growl erupted from the cavern. The creature shrieked loudly and ran off.

“What the hell is that noise?” Sunshine said, covering her ears.

“I don’t know,” I said, looking back at the cavern tunnel. “Are you all okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“Other than getting sucker punched by one, we’re all fine,” Tempest said. “Got the drop on us.”

“We’re okay, just a bit shaken up,” Sunshine said. “More worried about… well, that.”

“Vi?”

“I’m… I’m okay,” Violet said, wiping her tears. She had yet to move from the spot where she had sat. “Really, I’m fine.”

I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, letting her sob quietly into my shoulder blade. Another growl came from the tunnel, followed by a large rumbling sound, forcing us to pull away.

“Something’s coming,” Tempest said, scowling. Her horn lit electric blue, sparks popping from it. From behind us, Sunshine’s horn glowed a supple green and Bright Ember sort of just… stood back away from her.

Violet wiped her face, lighting her own horn, green magical energy erupting from it. “Something… big.”

The rumbling got louder and louder as a silvery white large snout pushed through the hole, ice cold blue eyes piercing out of the darkness. My mind went blank. It can’t be, I thought. Dragon!

The head of the creature shoved its way out of the tunnel and into the space before us. It was a lot smaller than I initially imagined, but I could tell the tunnel was still very cramped for it. It seemed to grin, looking down at us as one would imagine a spider looked at a fly.

“I was asleep,” the beast rumbled. “But now I see I have guests. Ponies no less. I haven’t seen ponies in a long time.”

I decided very quickly to jump on a chance to talk. Dragons were intelligent. Maybe this one could be reasoned with?

“Hey there, we’re so very sorry about waking you up, we definitely didn’t mean to. In fact it was the white furry guys that did that,” I said. “We’ll just be out of your scales post haste, right guys?”

“Right…” Tempest said, focused on the dragon.

“Oh, I don’t really think so,” the dragon said, grinning widely. Rows of sharp teeth glinted in the low light. “After all, I have to have a snack after I wake up. And it has been so long since I’ve tasted pony.”

“Run!” Bright Ember shouted as he turned tail.

The dragon growled deeply, inhaling for a moment as I reached out with my magic to use telekinesis to force his head sharply to the side. A blast of frozen icy breath came out of the creature’s mouth, missing us and hitting the nearby wall.

Sunshine Sky snarled, her magic trying to pull life into existence as she made two magical vines appear that wrapped around the creature’s front legs, followed by a sparkling blast of electrical energy from Tempest Shadow. A flash of green from next to me heralded the arrival of an emerald green magical fire that struck the creature dead center in its chest, making it roar painfully.

“Bright Ember had a good idea, run!” I shouted as well as the others began to pull back. I managed to erect a shield spell just in time for the dragon to snap one of the vines and swipe out with its massive claw. The shield seemed to hold, preventing the claws from going any further as I followed behind the others.

The dragon growled and roared, pulling itself up and out of the cavern tunnel entirely, forcing the bulk of its body to exist within the small Hippocampus office. The entire building shook with the force of its body. My eyes widened as I took in the full majesty of this massive beast.

I turned and ran as we jetted down the stairs and out of the lobby back into the freezing cold and out onto the skyway. The Hippocampus office began to shake once more violently. The outer walls of the office began to crack, pieces falling away as the creature exploded out of the building, its wings flapping hard. It roared once more, expelling a blast of frozen air that struck the ground in front of us.

“Shit shit shit shit!” I yelled frantically. “Too close too close too close!”

“We’ve gotta get out of here!” Tempest called back.

“Where?! That thing can fly, where can we even run?” Sunshine said, sounding very panicked. “I’m not very equipped to fight a dragon, especially a full grown one!”

Violet grimaced, stepping up next to me. “I have an idea,” she said. “It’s fucking crazy, but you like crazy, so let’s do it, right?”

My eyes widened and I nodded. “I believe in you, Vi. I always have. Do it.”

Violet grinned, turning her attention to the frozen skyway beneath us. “Just keep him at bay if you can.”

“Got it,” I said, turning to the others. “Run interference for Violet. She’s got a plan.”

Tempest nodded, fanning out and sending magical sparks into the air at the dragon, who flew back and forth to dodge them. One set of sparks shot out from another and smacked into the dragon’s side, sending it soaring above us. I generated a magical shield once more, managing to deflect another icy breath.

Violet growled under her breath and her horn glowed a bright fiery green, expelling energy into the ground beneath her. Her growling turned to full on roaring as she poured more and more magic into it. I couldn’t quite see what she was doing as I launched another shield in the air as well as a bolt of magic at the dragon.

“Vi, sweetie? You might wanna hurry it along!” I shouted as a breath of frozen ice hit the ground just mere feet away from me.

Violet grunted and growled, her horn glowing fiercely. “Get him to land!” she cried out. “Do it now! I can only hold it so long!”

I grinned. That I could do. I waved a hoof up at the dragon. “Yo, silverado! You want me? Come down and eat me!” I shouted up at it.

The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “The food thinks it’s funny, does it? I’ll pick my teeth with your bones!” It roared and charged straight down at me from the air.

“What now?!” I called back to Violet.

“Get the others off the skyway!” she shouted back. “Wait for it to get close and teleport all of us!”

I nodded, charging my horn for just the right second. I had to time this right or we were all dead. Just within ten feet of the dragon’s hot breath bearing down on me, I released the spell as Violet did hers and we disappeared, reappearing further up the path that we’d taken to come down to the energy plant.

The dragon struck the ground of the skyway and something cracked as magical energy filled the air around it. Lacerating magical energy wrapped around the dragon’s wings as the entire skyway shattered into thousands of pieces of rubble and rock. The entire thing being situated on the edge of the cliff began to fall. The dragon, being held down by the glowing green fire magic, couldn’t even begin to break free. Several pieces of rubble struck it in the face and wings, sending it tumbling down the mountainside with the rest of the skyway.

Violet grinned and stood out on the path. “Go fuck yourself, asshole!” she shouted.

I blinked. “Vi… sweetie… how the flying fuck did you…?” I started to say.

Violet just turned and smiled. “I told you, I had a plan and that it was crazy. I didn’t know if that would work or not, but I had to try. I’m just glad my magic held out.”

I shared a glance with Tempest. She smiled softly. My mind immediately jumped to the pearl’s magic. Had it done something to Violet? Had it changed her? Violet had never been that powerful even before her injury.

Sunshine Sky and Bright Ember went over to peer over the cliff edge. Sunshine whistled softly.

“I think you did it, Violet. You killed a fucking dragon!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, but we are forgetting one very important thing,” Bright Ember said.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” Sunshine asked.

“The skywagon we were trying to use was on that skyway,” the kirin replied casually.

I groaned loudly, facehooving. “Oh, right. Well, we didn’t find a battery for it anyways, I guess,” I said aloud. “Still, I wonder if there might be something else down that tunnel. It was a dragon, yeah? Dragons hoard, don’t they?”

“Dragons absolutely do hoard,” Tempest said. “Even Spike hoarded.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve seen his hoard. Very interesting stuff,” Violet said.

Tempest’s eyes widened. “You have seen Spike’s hoard? How?”

“A story for when we’re warmer, I think,” I said, my teeth starting to chatter again. All the adrenaline had temporarily washed away some of the cold, but I was starting to feel it again. “Let’s go check out that dragon hoard, shall we? Then we can build a fire and try to figure out what to do next.”

The others nodded and I followed behind, watching Violet closely as she and Sunshine talked excitedly over what had just happened.

What had just happened?

Author's Note

Finally, a chapter! Almost a year later, but proof this story is not dead!

If you've seen any of my recent activity, you will know that I was in the process of working on this, and then mid-year I was recruited to help work on the Ponyville Ciderfest Interactive Storytelling Adventure project, so much of my writing time and effort was solely devoted to working on that, leaving not much time for this story.

But now we're back and wow, this chapter had some action to it. There was a lot I had to process, and we're starting to see some beginnings of how Tempest's actions are shaping our group of friends.

Will they get to Canterlot in time though?

I have to admit, this story is likely approaching something of a halfway point if we aren't there already. I wasn't expecting this to be Starlight length or possibly even Mending Hearts length, there was a very clear macguffin storyline here that I wanted to tell and unlike a lot of FoE there wasn't going to be a ton of sidequests. It's something I learned a lot on Starlight is that sometimes you can be leaner in your execution and not wander as much.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter! I hope to get another out very soon!

volrathxp

Interlude 2: The Valiant Heroes

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Interlude 2: The Valiant Heroes

That's it, right? We didn't make friends with anypony else?

Deadshot Calamity looked over the walls surrounding Junction R-7 and scowled deeply. It had been several days since the last attack by the Storm Guards and the Storm King’s raider army. Junction R-7 had barely held up against the assault. They were already repairing one of the walls.

His gaze drifted back over to the makeshift hospital. Velvet Remedy would be there now, assisting as best as she could in healing the injured. They’d managed to keep the enemy at bay, but he knew any moment could result in another battle. Unfortunately, he didn’t think they could withstand another attack.

Beyond the hospital rows of refugee tents from Fort Knowledge sat in rows. The alicorns from the Followers were going back and forth, making sure everypony had everything they needed.

“It’s too quiet,” one of the pegasi guarding the walls said softly.

“Eyup,” Calamity said succinctly. “Worries me just a bit.”

“The NCR isn’t even fully mobilized. What happens if they take Junction R-7?” the other pegasus asked.

“I don’t know, but we’ll have to figure out something,” Calamity said.

A flurry of yellow and pink landed on the wall next to him, nearly startling him before he realized who it was.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the yellow pegasus mare said softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Calamity.”

Calamity merely grinned. “Miss Fluttershy. To what do we owe your presence?” he said with a tip of his hat.

Fluttershy turned and dropped the saddlebags she was wearing. “I made your team some sandwiches,” she said. “I know you are probably not eating too well up here.”

“Velvet put you up to this, didn’t she?” Calamity said.

“Maybe,” Fluttershy said with a slight grin. “She said you needed to eat.”

Calamity chuckled. “Well, thanks,” he said. “Tell my wife I said thank you as well. Now, you should probably get back to the hospital. It’s not safe up here.”

Fluttershy merely smiled and nodded, taking back off towards the hospital. Calamity motioned at the small care package.

“Take shifts and eat if y’all can,” he said. “But keep an eye on that horizon.”

The rest of the day and into the evening went smoothly enough. Nothing attacked, nothing happened. It was a strange lull. Calamity didn’t like it one bit. He hated having to be on attention the entire time. They tried to take shifts, but if the attack came proper all hooves would need to be on deck.

The night was still and quiet as well. Calamity yawned slightly as he shuffled into his makeshift bed after his watch. Just as quickly as he closed his eyes he reopened them to find one of the other guards shaking him awake.

“What’s… going on?” he asked.

“Movement on the road,” one of the guards said. “Too foggy, not sure who it is.”

Calamity shot awake, placing his hat back on his head. “Well, you know what muh policy is,” he said. “Don’t let them get too close.”

The other guard nodded, moving to relay the instructions to the others along the wall. Calamity stood and watched solemnly as something shifted in the fog. A large tank rolled out of the mist. Calamity’s eyes widened and he grinned.

“Wait, don’t fire!” he shouted. “Forget muh policy! It’s the NCR!”

More troops began to pour out of fog, dressed in the fatigues common to the New Canterlot Republic. Calamity couldn’t believe how fast they’d arrived. They rolled right up to the gates of Junction R-7 and the brown pegasus soared down to land in front of them. A handsome looking but older unicorn stallion stepped off of the side of the tank.

“I understand you’re in need of some help,” he said.

“Dang tootin’ we do,” Calamity said. “I can’t believe y’all made it here so quickly.”

“We have our ways. I’m Commander Kirby,” the unicorn replied with a smile. “I think you and I should talk, so we can get our bearings on this enemy. We’ve only made mere skirmishes with them, but as I understand you’ve had some pretty direct confrontations.”

“Yeah… we uh, fought 'em at Fort Knowledge,” Calamity said. “And were forced to retreat.”

“I heard as much. Are the Followers from that settlement all here?” Kirby asked, following next to Calamity as the two walked into Junction R-7.

“The ones that survived, yeah. The alicorns tried their best to keep the army at bay, but that thing… the one they call the Storm King…” Calamity said, trailing off.

“He has a magical staff that allows him to take magic,” a new voice said as Velvet Remedy appeared before them. “Commander Kirby, I assume? New travels like lightning here.”

“Yes, you must be Velvet Remedy,” Kirby said. “I was hoping to speak with you as well. Come, let’s establish a command center of sorts.”

The unicorn turned to a grizzled earth pony who had been trailing behind. “Set up the perimeter and reinforce everything. No stone left unturned. We will protect this settlement and repel these invaders.”

“Yes, sir!” the earth pony said, heading off to do the work.

“Now then, let’s all have a chat and figure out where we all stand with things, yes? And where in the world is Radiant Star?”

Author's Note

Oh ho! We get another bonus of checking in on our heroes back home! Interludes are meant to be fun short little snippets. Not only do we get to see Calamity and Velvet, but also Kirby (now a COMMANDER) from FoE: Starlight!

The NCR has arrived back home! Will they give Star and her friends enough time to get to the Heart of Equestria?

I realized I established this to sort of "check in" on things, and I figured we might as well do another. I also will note we'll definitely get another soon checking in on the Storm King.

-volrathxp

Chapter 11: The Heist of the Millenium

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 11: The Heist of the Millenium

Friendship didn't fail me. I failed friendship.

We sat around the fire we managed to build, looking upon the hoard that had belonged to the dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon had frozen most of its treasures, probably under the pretenses of keeping them timeless. A few heat spells and a fire had managed to thaw some bits and bobs, but most of it was just useless junk.

I scowled as I sifted through the stuff we’d managed to get thawed, thinking absently about the events of the day. Surprisingly with the dragon gone, the cavern had managed to heat back up just enough for us to be comfortable and not freeze completely to death. My mind’s eye kept jumping back to what Violet had done. The magic required for such a feat was absolutely insane. The pearl had to be the cause. But how? Tempest had used her magic on us, but her magic was that of the pearl. Were we all going to undergo such transformatory magic?

My mind turned to more immediate matters. With the destruction of the skyway, the skywagon we’d come here for had likely been destroyed. At the very least I wasn’t going to fly down and check. Regardless, it had seemed like any batteries for the thing had pretty much been gone. It stood to reason that the skywagon was visiting at the time everything went to shit, so its battery had been obliterated from the get go.

I worried about back home and how the others were doing. We needed to get to Canterlot fast in order to use the power of the pearl to destroy the Storm King. A nagging feeling kept getting to me though that this was just a ploy for me to be out of the way when he attacked. If it was, it had definitely worked. Still, I knew deep down that the pearl could be used to defeat him. We just had to find the Heart of Equestria to do it.

Unfortunately we were still stranded many miles away from Equestria itself. And freezing cold. Fuck, I really hated life sometimes.

“Everything okay?” Violet said as she walked up to me.

“I’m fine,” I said absently. “Just thinking.”

“About back home?”

“A little bit. I’m worried, Vi. It seems like things are getting worse. Did we make the wrong decision coming here?” I asked softly.

Violet sighed, nuzzling me before taking a seat next to me. “I think we made the best decision we could have made at the time with the information we had available.”

I nodded. “I suppose you’re right, but still. Without a good way to get to Canterlot now, what are we going home to? If the alicorns of Fort Knowledge couldn’t stop the Storm King, how are we going to do it?”

“The Storm King is at his very heart, a coward,” Tempest interjected, sitting down in front of us. “He’s a child, playing with power he doesn’t fully understand. He didn’t even understand the Staff of Sacanas when I originally procured it for him.”

“Twilight had the staff, right? After he was defeated?” Violet asked.

“Yes, she placed it in the Canterlot vault for safe-keeping, but at some point during the war it disappeared. There was an investigation, but without alicorn magic the Staff was useless,” Tempest said, scowling. “Things sort of went by the wayside in the world of the Ministries. They had ponies working the case, but in the grand scheme of things…”

“It wasn’t worth the effort,” I finished for her. “It’s odd though, where would the Storm King have gotten alicorn magic to fuel the staff before attacking the Fort?”

“Sweetie… didn’t you say you were under some spell that impacted your magic?” Violet said, her eyes widening.

I blinked. “No… it can’t be. He fueled it with my power. At least just enough to make it strong enough to gain more. Dammit. I feel like a fool.”

“You couldn’t have known that was why the spell existed,” Tempest offered, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “The Storm King is also a trickster. He manipulates others, tricks them into doing what he wants.”

“Absolutely,” Violet said. “We didn’t even know the staff existed until recently. It’s not your fault, Star.”

I nodded, looking down at Violet. I smiled softly and nuzzled her. “Thanks. To both of you. I still have a lot to learn, I guess about putting myself down for every little thing.”

“Now that we have that out of the way,” Tempest said. “We still have a problem where we are stuck in the middle of nowhere. I may… have an idea as to how we can get to Canterlot quickly. It’s… it’s probably a lot crazier than that stunt Violet pulled. By about six thousand times.”

“Go on,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re still not too far from Mount Aris. The Storm King is gone, but his forces are still there attempting to secure the facility and its research. We saw them. They have an airship,” Tempest said.

My eyes widened. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“Yes. Let’s steal an airship.”

* * *

“You want to steal a what?” Sunshine Sky said, staring slack-jawed a bit at Tempest. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m not kidding. We need a way to get to Canterlot. The Storm King’s forces possibly have a way to get there. We take that way. It’s pretty simple really,” Tempest replied casually.

“Star, you can’t be entertaining this idea. We’re already a bit weakened from having lost Trick Shot, and doubling back to near Mount Aris would lose us precious time we have to get home,” Sunshine said, scowling. “I don’t like this idea one bit. I mean, what if they’re not even there still?”

“Sunshine’s concern is fairly realistic,” I said with a sigh. “We’d be wasting a bit more time to try to put this plan into motion, and there’s no guarantee that it would even work.”

“Perhaps we could send our scout?” Tempest said, her gaze falling on Bright Ember. “He had no problem going off last night to find this place.”

“Wait, what?” Sunshine said, looking over at Ember. “You didn’t.”

Ember looked down at his hooves. “I did. I was only meaning to check for danger, but then I found the skywagon and I… I was only trying to help.”

Sunshine sighed loudly. “You could have gotten hurt or killed. We don’t know these places, Ember. What if that dragon had attacked you by yourself? Wait…” She looked dead at me. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“I did. I’m sorry, Sunshine,” I said, averting my gaze. “We should have been more up front with everyone.”

Sunshine huffed in frustration before looking back at Ember. “How long would it take you to get there and back by yourself?” she asked.

Bright Ember looked surprised. “You aren’t mad?”

“Oh, I’m furious, but we’ll discuss that later. Right now, the mission comes first. Tempest is right about one thing. We need transportation of some sort. The Storm King’s army has that. We need to know if they’re still there or on the move,” Sunshine said. “So… how long will it take you?”

“Probably half a day at best,” Bright Ember replied. “There and back, I mean.”

“Fine,” Sunshine said. “Get your gear and get going then. We don’t really have time to waste.”

Ember nodded, moving to his pack. He gathered his things up as I watched Sunshine appear next to him. She hugged him and gave him a kiss before he walked off out of the cave and out of sight. She looked over at me and nodded before coming back to the group.

“So… next time someone I love does something that stupid without saying something, you tell me, alright?” she said, looking right at me.

I sighed and nodded. “Agreed. How did you know, Tempest? Bright Ember only came to me after you all had left.”

“Simple deduction. I noticed he was missing. Also, I saw him leave. I’m a soldier. Trained to have a good eye for things,” the other unicorn replied before addressing Sunshine. “If I hadn’t had that kind of training, I’d have never seen him. He’s incredibly talented. You should be proud of that.”

Sunshine blushed fiercely. “I know. I forget that he lived out here on his own before he met us,” she said. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“It’s hard to think of someone you love being in danger,” I said, smiling down at Violet. “Violet and I have for a long time recognized that we’re both strong and capable of surviving out here. I trust that she will do the right thing implicitly.”

Violet nodded. “I also trust that Star will soak up all the bullets and pass out when it’s convenient,” she said, giggling.

My eyes widened. “Oh, you totally did not just–”

“Anyway,” Sunshine interjected. “You’re right. I should give Ember more credit. He deserves that much. But… I would like to at least know what’s going on.”

“I will agree to that. Now, we should get some rest. I’ll keep watch until Ember gets back,” I said.

Sunshine begrudgingly agreed while Tempest and Violet both nestled in to rest quietly. The warmth of the fire kept us up in the dragon’s lair, dark and cold as it was beyond the confines of our camp. I sat and watched for what must have been hours before I heard movement at the entrance of the cave. I stood, gathering my thoughts together silently as I watched the form of Bright Ember move quietly into the gap.

He made his way to the fireside and smiled softly.

“They’re on the move,” he said quietly. “But I was able to trace their movement. The airship isn’t well guarded. This is doable.”

“Wake the others,” I said, gathering up all the materials. “We go now.”

* * *

The cold winds blew across my coat as we stared down the mountainside into the valley below. Bright Ember’s tracking had served us well, despite taking several hours to reach the location that he had figured the airship would be. Down below in the dark valley was a large skiff decked out in purples and silver, emblazoned with the crest of the Storm King. It was currently moored to the rocky terrain below.

“Even the bad guys need a break,” I said under my breath.

“They probably assume they’ve won this region, so there’s no reason to be in a hurry,” Sunshine said, peering through her scopes. “In fact, most of their forces are on the ground. Staff on the ship itself seems to be minimal.”

“What are their communication capabilities?” I asked, looking over at Tempest. “If we pull this off, can they warn other ships?”

“I have to imagine they have some form of radio communicators, akin to what you have told me about the Grand Pegasus Enclave, especially if some of the Storm King’s ranks include members of the former military,” Tempest said. “Still, it probably is prudent to approach the airship hopefully undetected. A stealth mission is the best way to sneak off without causing much of a ruckus.”

“What about the ground forces below?” Violet said.

“I may have an idea there,” Bright Ember said, looking up at me with a grin. “You can teleport others, right?”

“I probably can? It’s sort of theoretical. I’ve done it before but always by myself,” I said, putting a hoof up to my chin. “Why?”

“Their ground forces are going to be too busy chasing a Nirik,” Bright Ember said confidently before looking over at Sunshine. “Is that… acceptable?”

Sunshine smiled and playfully pecked him on the cheek. “I know you can do it,” she said. “I believe in you. Just come back to me alive, alright?”

Bright Ember nodded before looking back up to me. “So? What do you think? I get the ground forces to run off and then you teleport me away while they’re occupied. The others sneak onto the airship and take care of business.”

“It’s a good plan. I have an idea of how to handle the teleportation spell too,” I said, thinking hard. “If I’m there, invisible, I can teleport us away to safety and then we can assist the others.”

“I can handle leading Violet and Sunshine onto the ship. I’ll deal with any remaining crew members and then Sunshine can get the ship going, right?” Tempest said.

Sunshine nodded. “You cut it loose and I’ll take care of the rest. They don’t look too difficult to actually fly,” she said. “Might be a little rough with the reduced crew, but I think we can manage.”

“Excellent,” I said. “Bright Ember, with me. The rest of you, move once you see the ground forces move. We’ll reconvene aboard the ship. Just for clarification, this is crazy as fuck, but it’s the best option we have to get to Canterlot faster than walking. Just… don’t die, alright?”

“Star, seriously, after we just had the discussion about trust?” Violet said with a wink. She blew me a kiss. “It’s going to be fine, love.”

“I know… I just… you know,” I said softly, catching the kiss with my hoof.

Violet smiled knowingly as she and the others made their way down the mountainside, staying low to be stealthy. I sighed as I watched them disappear out of sight.

“Just… be safe,” I said under my breath.

* * *

Star

* * *

Immediately after the others left, Bright Ember and I made our own way down the mountainside, taking a far more direct route that would inevitably take us into the path of the Storm King’s forces.

I shifted my magic and used it to turn invisible. Bright Ember used his smaller stature beside me along with his natural colorations to blend into the surroundings. I respected his inherent ability to make himself unseen. I had to use magic to do that, and quite frankly I didn’t think I was very good at it.

We made our way down the mountainside into the valley below. I watched warily as Ember moved quietly through the fields, ever closer to where the Storm King’s forces lay. Up above, the airship sat, almost like it was a statue. A mooring line held it to an anchor that was embedded in the nearby rock formations. A ladder appearing to be made of black rope extended from the bottom of the airship to the camp below. In all reality, it was not as high off the ground as it appeared, using the natural ebb and flow of the hills in the valley to push the camp higher off the ground.

The camp itself was more or less just a group of Storm Guards and raiders, milling about around a fire in the center of the camp. The raiders were a mixture of unicorns and earth ponies, but none of them looked particularly military-ready or even happy to be there. It felt more like the Storm Guards drove the ponies more than the other way around. At the very least there were only three of the creatures watching over the group. My eyes drifted up to the airship again, briefly wondering how many were up there watching the ship.

I shook my thoughts away. I couldn’t worry about Violet and the others. I had to trust in Tempest’s ability to lead. Right now I needed to worry about Bright Ember and keeping him safe.

“Are you ready?” I whispered.

Bright Ember nodded. His eyes glowed slightly as he began the transformation, willingly this time. As the radioactive fires began to spill forth from his mane and tail, his face became feral in nature, his teeth sharpening into fangs and his eyes blazing with glowing flame. His hooves became claws, scraping at the rock as he walked into full view of the small camp. He roared loudly, gaining the attention of every member of the camp.

To Ember’s credit, he definitely got the drop on them and several of the group shrieked rather loudly and began to scramble away. The Storm Guards, however, ever watchful, only growled and started forward. This managed to galvanize some of the fleeing raiders into stopping just a bit. If the Storm Guards weren’t afraid…

Ember roared again, stomping one of his front hooves into the ground and scratching at it with his claws. A gout of flame erupted from his mouth, spraying forth at one of the Storm Guards who was charging forward. The monstrous guard screamed loudly as the fire caught its fur, setting it ablaze in greenish flame.

Now the whole camp was mobilized and shouting. I saw weapons being loaded and I shared a glance with Ember. It was time to move. Ember began to run as a blast of laser fire struck the ground where he’d been just moments before. The camp began to give chase.

I glanced once more up at the airship, hoping that the others could make it through okay before following behind Ember, ready to protect him at a moment’s notice.

* * *

Tempest

* * *

Tempest Shadow watched intensely as the camp began to mobilize, chasing after Bright Ember as the Nirik roared loudly. She grinned as she looked over to Violet and Sunshine.

“They’ve taken the bait,” she said. “Get ready to move.”

The other two unicorns nodded silently. Tempest scowled as she watched the camp give chase after the Nirik. Her eyes widened as the rope ladder up to the airship began to shift.

“They’re pulling up the ladder,” she said. “We have to go now.”

Tempest leaped forward, Violet and Sunshine right behind her as the group headed down the ridge towards the floating airship. The ladder began to rise as the group approached.

From behind Tempest, Sunshine Sky’s horn lit up, creating a set of vines that whipped out and lashed onto the ladder, wrapping around it.

“Grab on!” she shouted, tossing a vine each to Tempest and Violet.

Tempest snatched up the vine with her teeth as Sunshine’s magic caused the vine to pull each of them up to the ladder. Spitting the vine out of her mouth, Tempest pulled onto the ladder and held on tightly as it started to rise. Below her, Violet and Sunshine had done the same.

Tempest looked upwards at the base where the ladder was being pulled up to. A pegasus stood there, frantically working the device she assumed was the control panel for the ladder system. He seemed to not be paying attention to the three ponies on the ladder. He cursed loudly and hit the panel before looking straight down at Tempest.

“What the–” he started to shout.

Tempest’s horn ignited, sending a burst of electrical energy right into the pegasi’s face. The pegasi didn’t have much time to dodge the blast, taking the full force of it before slumping over on the console. The ladder stopped retracting immediately.

“Come on, we gotta move up,” Tempest said to the mares below her, pulling herself up towards the entry bay rung by rung. As she crested the entry, a blast of laser fire singed her hairs as it passed over her. Another pegasi stood across the way on the deck of the ship.

Tempest pulled herself up and out onto the deck swiftly, rolling behind the console to use the other pegasi’s dead body as a shield.

“Violet, Sunshine, incoming fire!” she shouted.

“I’m on it!” Sunshine called back from below. From below the pegasi’s hooves, a green glow emanated and several vines erupted, wrapping the pegasus before it could move to get away. The pegasus yelped loudly but then another vine wrapped around his neck. With a constriction and a jerk the pegasus went limp.

Violet and Sunshine pulled themselves up onto the deck as Tempest stepped out from the console. The rest of the deck appeared to be empty. Tempest walked over to the other pegasus, the vines slowly retracting from its corpse. She reached down with her magic, pulling away a belt of what appeared to be grenades.

“That was… dark,” Tempest said. “I did not know you could use your magic for that sort of offensive capability.”

“There’s a lot about my magic I’m constantly figuring out, but how to use it for offensive purposes is something I’ve definitely figured out,” Sunshine replied with a wink.

“Duly noted,” Tempest said with a grin before looking over at Violet. “Any hidden things I should know about you that I didn’t know before?”

Violet pulled out her laser rifle with her magic and smiled softly. “Nah. What you see is what you get,” she replied.

“I see why Star likes you,” Tempest said. “We should move. The bridge is our priority here. Let’s hope the others are doing okay.”

* * *

Star

* * *

I made my way over the next ridge as Bright Ember roared once more, coaxing the camp away from the airship into the nearby valley. In the distance, I saw a flash of green and three equine forms floating up towards the airship as the ladder retracted.

The raider group and the Storm Guards were not making it easy for us to get away, and now Violet and the others were on board a ship that was suddenly mobile. We needed to do something fast before this group realized they were duped.

Fortunately, I had a bit of a hat trick up my proverbial sleeve. Bright Ember rushed by and down into a bowl shaped quarry as the Storm King’s forces began to surround us. They lifted their weapons, preparing to fire.

A magical shield of purple energy flared into existence as I allowed myself to become visible once more. The raiders had already begun to fire, but their bullets and energy weapons fell on deaf ears against Shining Armor’s shield spell, which promptly disintegrated them. The presence of an alicorn must have severely shocked much of the Storm King’s army, because they did what any raider would do and kept firing.

“Are you doing alright?” I said down to Bright Ember.

“Yes, but I uh… I don’t know how much longer I can maintain the form,” the Nirik said, gritting his fangs. “I’ll burn myself out.”

“Can you expand it? Let it out around you?” I asked. “Out in a circle around you?”

“I can… I can try… but what about you?” Ember said.

“Remember what I said before? I can take it. I’m an alicorn. Radiation sort of… enhances us,” I said with a grin. I winced as one of the Storm Guards took several swipes at the shield. I could hold it, but more and more damage would take it out for good pretty soon. “When I say go, I’m going to drop the shield. I want you to let go all of your energy around you.”

“What if it doesn’t work?!” Ember shouted, growling as he struggled to keep aflame.

“It’ll work! You have to trust me. I believe in you, Ember. You got this,” I said. “Ready?”

“I…”

“Go!” I shouted, dropping the shield.

Bright Ember’s body flared as a pulsing wave of green flames expelled from him. The radiation washed over me in bright colors, making my body feel even better than it ever had before. I’d only ever felt this kind of magically irradiated healing a few times before. It felt rather amazing, honestly.

The raiders on the other hand, didn’t fare so well. The flames caught onto them immediately, burning them to cinders in mere moments. Bright Ember roared as more and more fire poured forth from his small form. The Storm Guards, initially unfazed by the radiation, also began to drop to the ground, melting into puddles of dark goo. The more energy he put out, the more it began to affect not just how I felt, but also my size. I felt myself growing a bit larger with the radiation. It was as if I was standing in the epicenter of an actual balefire bomb going off.

My eyes widened. The Storm King’s forces were completely decimated. At the center of it, Bright Ember shrieked in pain as the last bits of flame dissipated from his body and he became a Kirin once more. He slumped over, seemingly unconscious. I blinked. The ground all around us had basically turned to glass. Just like with Violet, the impossible had become possible.

The pearl’s magic is… it’s changing all of them. I don’t understand it, I thought to myself as I looked down at Ember. He groaned, his eyes still closed. That took a lot out of you, I thought once more. Of course… I’m going to be bleeding radiation for days at this rate. I’d better get him somewhere safe and hope the others are doing okay…

* * *

Tempest

* * *

Tempest scowled, looking through the glass into the bridge. Several pegasi moved to and fro, manning different cloud based stations. They had yet to notice any of the three unicorns skulking about, seeming to be more focused on keeping the airship afloat. One of them, a commander by the looks of his armor, was handling what looked like a large wheel.

The pegasi weren’t the problematic part. The bigger issue was not one, but two Storm Guards situated in different corners of the bridge. Tempest scowled. She knew that the Storm Guards weren’t very smart, but they were exceptionally strong and hard to put down.

“This is going to be awkward,” she said, lifting up the grenade belt. “Violet, I want you to focus on the pegasus commander. Sunshine, your job is going to be to delay those Storm Guards. I’ll handle the others. I’ll kick things off with a bit of a bang.”

“Are we worried that a grenade will damage the ship?” Sunshine whispered.

“Cloud terminals are generally much more resilient than they look to explosives,” Tempest replied. “Besides… these are energy grenades. They won’t won’t cause much of a bang, but it will be enough to give us cover. Got it?”

“Got it,” Violet said, lifting her laser rifle. “On your mark.”

Tempest nodded, creeping slowly towards the entrance to the bridge, the other two behind her. With a flourish, Tempest threw the door open and tossed one of the grenades directly into the path of the two pegasi fluttering back and forth. Their eyes widened as the grenade went off, spraying green plasma into the air. The two pegasi groaned, getting knocked back against the wall as Tempest unleashed a blast of magical energy at the third pegasus that was headed towards the doorway.

The pegasus growled, attempting to fire at Tempest. A vine appeared out of the frame beneath him, wrenching the battle saddle’s barrel upwards at the last minute, sending the bolt of energy into the ceiling. Another bolt of magical energy struck the pegasus in the face, rocking him back onto the deck. His entire body glowed briefly for a moment before suddenly disintegrating into a pile of goop.

“Fuck!” the pegasus in the back behind the wheel of the airship shouted. “You’re not getting this ship, you fucking ground pounders!”

With a flourish, the wheel turned sharply, rocking the ship as it began to turn onto its side with a massive groan. The pegasus laughed as Tempest and the others began to slip on the deck, the entire thing beginning to lean nearly sideways. The pegasus walked calmly, seemingly anchored to the floor via his power armor, aiming his battle saddle at the three unicorns.

“Got you right where I want you,” he said, grinning.

* * *

Star

* * *

My eyes widened as the airship began to shift, turning almost entirely on its side as I flew towards it. The others were in trouble! I growled under my breath, looking back to check on Bright Ember secured to my back. This was going to be a pain. I turned and flapped my wings, using the extra radiation powering my body to gain speed in order to get right up to the airship in a manner of seconds.

My eyes scanned, hunting for the bridge, finding it in the central back portion of the airship’s upper deck. Inside I could see three different colored blobs of unicorns, hanging on for dear life. An armored pegasus stood at a different angle on the actual floor, very nearly perpendicularly from the three unicorns. The pegasus appeared to be aiming some sort of weapon at the three off of a battle saddle.

My eyes widened. There was no way I could fly fast enough to shield the others. I had to dig deeper into my wells of power, my horn lighting up with arcane energy and be quick enough to be in and out before directly harming my friends. I released the intended spell, feeling my body suck through time and space as I reappeared directly in front of the armored pegasus. The bolt of energy from the battle saddle struck me but barely sizzled through the radiation emanating from my body as I latched onto the pegasus and teleported once more, taking him with me.

The pegasus screamed as I apparated in the air above the airship. I growled, pulling on his wings as he began to fight back, biting into his battle saddle bit and firing wildly all around us. I yanked hard with my magic, snapping the metal tissue of the pegasus power armor connecting one of their wings at its base. It went limp. The pegasus began to howl in pain.

With a snarl, I lifted the pegasus and threw hard, sending him soaring towards the ground below. The pegasus attempted to flap their other wing, slowing their descent as they drifted away.

I looked back at the airship. It was still lopsided… and heading towards a mountain in the distance.

* * *

Tempest

* * *

The blast of energy never came. A flash of white hot fire appeared in the space above Tempest and the others, disappearing just as quickly along with the pegasus. Tempest winced at the heat, her stomach feeling queasy.

“What the… fuck was that?” Violet asked, pulling herself up onto the railing she’d been hanging from. Her horn alit, pulling out three small orange bags from her saddlepack. “My PipBuck just registered a huge spike in rads. Better down some of this fast.”

Tempest and Sunshine had both pulled themselves up on the railing as well, taking the RadAway from Violet. Tempest ripped open the pouch and began slurping it out, tasting the tangy burnt orange that accompanied it. Immediately the hot flash of pain subsided.

“....mountain…” a crackle came to life on Violet’s PipBuck.

“Star?” Violet said, lifting the PipBuck. “Star, is that you?”

“MOUNTAIN!” Star’s voice came through the PipBuck’s tiny speaker.

Tempest craned her neck to look out from the bridge to the front of the airship. The airship was still lopsided, headed straight for the wall of a mountain.

“Oh… OH FUCK!” Tempest shouted, scrambling onto the railing. “Sunshine, I need to get to the wheel!”

Sunshine scowled and nodded, her horn glowing fiercely as several vines began to sprout from the floor, making a ladder for Tempest. The unicorn began to climb up towards the wheel as more vines appeared, giving her even more handholds. Tempest growled, reaching out with her magic to grab ahold of the wheel, turning it against the pressure being put on it.

Slowly it began to turn and the craft began to level out, returning things to normal. Tempest slumped and groaned.

“TEMPEST!” Violet shouted. “PULL UP PULL UP PULL UP!”

Tempest’s eyes snapped open. The airship had leveled out, but the airship was still heading towards the mountain. Tempest yelled and yanked on the wheel to start pulling up the airship. She felt the entire ship rise as it started upwards, but it was not going to be good enough. The ship was simply moving too slow.

*CRUNCH*

Tempest closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. It never came.

“YOU DID IT!” Sunshine yelled. “We’re free!”

Tempest’s eyes opened once more and she looked into the monitor. There was damage on the hull, but nothing major. They had barely scraped the top of the mountain. Tempest breathed a sigh of relief and then stood. She set the wheel for autopilot and stepped down onto the bridge.

“Violet?” Star’s voice crackled back to life on the PipBuck speaker.

“Star? Are you alright?” Violet said back. “Where are you?”

“Flying outside, you can see me a ways away,” Star’s voice replied. “Going to be a bit before I can come back in, unfortunately. I can drop Ember off, but you’re going to have to stay away from him for a bit.”

“Is he okay?” Sunshine asked.

“He’s alright, but he also sucked up a lot of radiation and he’s sleeping at the moment. I’m gonna drop him off on the front deck, probably best to leave some RadAway and Rad-X for him,” Star replied.

“I’m on it,” Sunshine said, grabbing those items and running out towards the front deck.

“Thought you all were goners there for a moment,” Star’s voice returned to the tiny speaker. “Sorry for butting in and taking your pegasus friend.”

“Not at all, we appreciate the assist,” Tempest said aloud. “Well… onto Canterlot, right?”

“Roger,” Star said. “I’ll drop back in as soon as I’m done bleeding off this radiation. Good job today. You all did good.”

Author's Note

I know, I know, it's been a bit! I've been slowly working on this chapter trying to get the escalation and feel right over time as well as switch between Star and Tempest throughout. I wanted to show each "team" doing their thing, as well continue the thread we started last chapter of the escalation of "power" since the group left Seaquestria and had been exposed to the pearl's magic.

That's going to come up again for sure.

Hope to start working on Chapter 12 soon! As I said in a comment, I don't expect chapters for this to be as big as Starlight's ever were and this is a good example of that, but I've packed a lot in to these chapters, and we're humming along. Not near the end yet though!

Interlude 3: Looming Threats

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Interlude 3: Looming Threats

Deliver the punchline, Tempest, because this has gotta be a joke!

“Explain something to me, Breeze. How does one lose an airship?” The shrewd and discerning eyes of the Storm King glared down at the pegasus commander.

“I apologize, Master,” Breeze said. “By all accounts, it must have been the alicorn. It seems she survived at Mount Aris.”

The Storm King glanced down at a pile of notes, notes that had been scavenged in the tower on Mount Aris, and scowled. “Of course she survived, you idiot. If what I believe happened in that tower, the pearl’s magic courses through Tempest Shadow’s veins. She is responsible for their survival. I need her and that magic if I’m ever to become fully whole again.”

Breeze nodded. The half-formed creature before him was something out of pure nightmare. It took everything Breeze had to keep a straight face looking at it. “I hope then, Master, you will appreciate the fact that we can easily track where they are going. All of our airships were outfitted with Enclave Nimbus-class communications arrays. We can trace their exact destination.”

The Storm King paused for a moment, considering the information before him. In all practicality, he should have been focusing on the war at hand, but with the NCR having fortified a number of the primary settlements and the looming potential threat that was Celestia One still needing to be taken care of, pulling back to the shadows was an appropriate military strategy. Keeping the enemy wondering when they would get hit again would eventually wear them out. No… the focus needed to be on finding Radiant Star and Tempest Shadow.

“Yes, excellent. Do what you can to find them,” he said. “I will be awaiting an update soon.”

“Of course, Master,” Breeze said as he turned to exit the room.

The pegasus scowled as he left, heading down towards the bridge. When he arrived, he found the rest of the crew waiting for his orders. His first in command saluted with a wing.

“Sir, what is our course?” he asked.

“Track the alicorn and the stolen airship. Find out where they are going,” Breeze replied. “Report to me once you have a heading.”

“Of course, Sir,” the other pegasus said. “It won’t take long.”

Breezed nodded as the first officer left him at the helm. He grimaced. He wished that they could have pursued the war against Junction R-7. The presence of the NCR hardly bothered him, given what they had accomplished already at Fort Knowledge. There had been alicorns there, but they had been unprepared for a real fight, choosing instead to run. Still, the Storm Guards and the airships had managed to destroy a number of them.

The Storm King was frightened of the alicorn known as Radiant Star, but moreso the one he called Tempest Shadow. There was history there between the two that Breeze could not guess at, and magic at work that frankly scared the ancient creature. Breeze knew not to question the King, however. Even at a fraction of his power, the thing was incredibly powerful and willing to do what it took to get what it wanted. If he was being cautious, there was likely a good reason.

Several long and tense moments passed before the first officer reappeared, handing Breeze a map. “We’ve identified their current course, Sir. They’re back in Equestria proper and headed for the ruins of Canterlot.”

Breeze’s eyes narrowed at the map. “Canterlot, you say? What could they be doing there? Set a course for interception. I shall inform the Master,” he said. “And good work. There will be a commendation for your service, I am sure.”

“Of course, Sir, thank you, Sir,” the first officer replied before scooting off to other duties.

Breeze scowled yet again. What was the Ministry Mare and her friends doing heading towards Canterlot, when all of the action had been centered around Fort Knowledge and Junction R-7? What was in Canterlot that was so important? It was a ruin.

Breeze grabbed the map and headed back up away from the bridge. It was time to inform the Master.

Author's Note

I know I know this is not a proper chapter, but I did say we have to check in on our bad guys, right?

I'll be updating again soon, I promise! This one deserves to be finished for sure. It has been an interesting ride, but it's taking me a while because I want to make sure I stick the landing right when we get there, so building up towards that is important.

Prologue: Beginning of a New Day

Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Prologue: Beginning of a New Day

“The Lightbringer’s Sacrifice has given us this chance. We won’t squander this gift.”

The world has changed greatly, given new life and a new purpose by that of the Lightbringer. She brought the Sunshine and Rainbows back to this world, but she was just the Spark of Sacrifice that kickstarted the whole thing. It was the Gardens of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle’s true legacy to this world, that began the process of healing.

Twilight’s Legacy was a little messy, and they say the road to Tartarus is paved with good intentions. I should know. I experienced more of Twilight’s messy life than any other pony currently alive. I saw the truth laid bare of an Equestrian Legend, of the sorrow and pain caused by a war that seemed so utterly pointless.

Twilight wasn’t perfect. No one is. We all make do with the life that we are given, and we all have to strive to be better each day than the day before. I know that we can do this. I’ve seen the resolve and strength of the Equestrian spirit. I’ve seen the good in every creature that walks this land.

I’m not perfect either. I’ve killed people. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve let friends, true friends, perish. I learned these lessons the hard way, and have continued to fight the Good Fight every day since then.

My name is Radiant Star, and I am an alicorn. I was once created by Twilight Sparkle to become her new vessel as a true Goddess of the Wasteland of Equestria, but I am a living, breathing, thinking pony, as true as any other. My friends and I forged a new path ahead in Equestria as the land itself shaped under our hooves.

Life since the casting of The Gardens of Equestria has been… well, actually sort of boring. There isn’t much in the way of adventure these days. Some would say that is a good thing, but I craved the thrill, the excitement. I missed the old days of fighting for what is right.

How little did I know then what new challenges life would continue to bring me…

Author's Note

IT BEGINS.

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