Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

Fair Smile gasped in pain upon being smashed onto the ground, and I stopped, horrified at what I had just done. My first friend, choking under my hoof, had already lost the grip on the rifle and was thrashing her forelegs against me. I recoiled back, freeing her as she rolled to her side, deeply inhaling and following that up with coughing.

Gradually the mare began calming down, wrapping her left wing around and feeling her throat with the feathers. Watching the pegasus struggle on the ground, after I came so close to beating her to injury or worse, filled me with guilt. I took a step back toward her, offering my right hoof out to my friend. Having recovered from my brief assault, she gave me a unreadable look out the side of her left eye, before reaching out with her own left hoof, wrapping it around my fetlock and letting me give a tug to pull her back onto all fours.

“Sorry.” I mumbled out, about the only thing I could get out. She had no words to say, instead lunging forward and throwing her forlegs around the back of my neck, her face leaning next to the right side of mine.

“We were so worried about you.” She mumbled into my neck.

“Me...me too.” I raised my forelegs as well, wrapping them around her neck and stroking the lower part of her mane. The shifting of my weight led us to both rear a bit higher, bringing us even closer together. The two of us just stood there, leaning against eachother for several moments and sharing joy in the knowledge of the other's safety.

“We didn't mean for any of that to happen.” She remarked as we came back onto all fours. She wiped away tears with her wingtips but still did her best to keep her eyes locked with mine.

“You didn't do anything Fair.” I remarked, sitting on my haunches.

“If we didn't have Soothing Constant give you your satchel back, you wouldn't have been assaulted by that outsider.”

I shook my head vigorously. “No. No.” I patted the satchel still slung on my side. “This meant more then anything else you could have done.” A large smile overtook her face, so bright that even in the dark of the night it was impossible to not see how much she was cheered up by it.

Another moment of silence passed, both of us awkwardly looking at each other. There was so much that had happened since my failed remarking. I wanted so badly to tell her about Amber and Spice, about the hidden cave I had found near the cloud cover, about the star-filled pre-dawn sky I had seen last night. But it all seemed so jumbled up in my throat and it left me wordless. “You first.” I finally managed to choke out.

She blinked, giving a small head shake. “Are you sure?” I gave her a silent nod. “Ok. Um” She raised a hoof to her chin. “After you were thrown into the prison, Mare Ether came out and personally talked with all three of us that night.” I assumed she was also referring to Pique and Margarine in addition to herself. “And she wanted to know if you had said anything strange or unusual.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing. Except that you weren't sure if you wanted to become one of us.” She shook her head again, now sitting down herself. “It didn't seem fair to tell her anything else. It's not like she would understand about that room.”

I nodded, thankful for that. Woe Tree obviously knew about the room buried in a rockslide and so would the rest of Our Town's leaders. However, it would be for the best if they weren't aware that Fair Smile knew of it.

“Everything continued as normal afterwards. Then the other morning, when we saw you and those other ponies being attacked, we were so scared.” She raised her hoof once more, to her chest this time. “You were our first friend in forever, and the thought of having to work in the fields, where you had first saved us, and then seeing you hanging from the Tree.” She trailed off, a deep frown overtaking her face.

“What about Pique or Margarine? Aren't they your friends?”

Her frown moved to a more neutral position. “Well...yes. But it's different. We're friends because we all live together. It's hard not to be friends with them. But they just don't...” Her frown twisted a bit. “It's just not the same.” Once more I nodded. “Anyway, when that pegasus came and attacked we were scared that you were going to be killed in the fighting. Then yesterday we got woken up by a commotion and saw those other two ponies you were with, apparently wanting to come back to the town. By the way, who are they? Your friends?”

I nodded. “They were the ponies who were in the prison cave with me.”

Satisfied with my answer she started up again. “Not long after that, those of us who were going to be on the guarding shift today were given new tasks. Normally Water Margin only does nightly guarding with his best. But now he's been bringing in as many ponies as he can and wants them guarding the town 24/7. We think he wants to catch more outsiders after you and all the others have shown up.”

“What were you doing there?” I pointed to the rock she had just been behind. “And not by the fire. You're the one with the gun.”

She looked down at the wartime rifle slung around her body. “Margin wants us to split up. One of us are supposed to be by the fire and act like bait. If an outsider comes to attack, we're supposed to shoot them and put out the fire by damaging the runes beneath it.”

I looked over my shoulder at the faint glow of fire. “Then what?”

Fair Smiles gave a shrug. “They didn't tell us anything else. We guess that we'd just stay here until they came to help us. But they want the fire going all night and all day. Apparently ponies would be sent to relieve us in the morning.”

A moment of silence as I thought for a moment. This sort of plan didn't make much sense if the goal was to stand against an invading army like what I and my friends had been pushing since we had first broken into Ether's home. But I remembered something that Ether had said to Iron while I was going through his diary. She wanted to thin out his guards. Maybe she was hoping that like this, outsiders, rather they be me or others, would thin their ranks out?

“What about you?” My pegasus friend broke my train of thought. “And your new friends?”

“Their names are Amber Swing and Spice Chaser. They come from a town called Manehattan, and wanted to try and establish trade.”

“Trade?” Her excitement led to her bouncing onto all fours and rapidly tapping her hooves on the ground. “Every since we talked about ponies beyond the mountains we've kept daydreaming about it. Maybe they have new books, or different kinds of food? Maybe even gold!”

“I'll have to ask Spice about that later then.” I smiled from her excitement. It was only one pony, but at the least, somepony sure showed willingness to trade with the outside world, which would bode well for the chance at my unicorn friend completing his established task. “But before they can do that, they're not leaving without getting their cutie marks back.”

Smile's excitement stopped there. “Oh no. No no no! You can't do that!” She shook her head. “Once you've been remarked you can't get your cutie mark back. In fact, it's forbidden to even look at it after your remarking!”

“I don't think so.” Now it was my turn to get up onto all fours. “We know some ponies outside the mountains, they might be able to help get them back.” Smile was silent for a bit, staring out after hearing that. “We might be able to get yours back as well.”

“We don't know.” She trailed off.

“Think about it.” I pushed a bit. “Your cutie mark is supposed to be your special talent. What you are good at.” The pegasus continued to awkwardly stare, as if battling herself about the offer. “Surely you remember what you got your cutie mark for?”

She frowned, sitting back down on all fours. “Yes. W-We don't want to think about it though. It hurts.”

I took a step toward her, offering a hoof once more. “It doesn't have to. If we find a way to get your cutie mark back, it won't have to hurt anymore.” I knew from my time with my friends and even Woe Tree how the remarking was actively depressing the pegasus mare before me. Smile slowly tilted her head to look at me, and put out her hoof once more, touching for another long moment.

But there was one other thing I wanted to share with her. “I remember my name. It's Stone Vane.”

She mouthed it to herself a few times. “Do you remember anything else?”

“A little. I think I remember my parents fighting. And at somepoint I saw the moon and stars beyond the clouds.”

“What was it like?”

“It was amazing. And not only did I see it in my memory. I saw them last night.” Her eyes widened again. “This morning the clouds came down really low, and I was hiding in the mountains. They went right below me, and I could see the stars. It was like a thousand dots of light with the moon as the bright centerpiece.”

“We wish we could have seen it with you.”

A moment of silence. It would be hard to get any of the members of Our Town up to the mountains with me, though it could be done. I recalled the cartographer's inscriptions sitting in my satchel and the writings of his marefriend in the village years ago. “You could leave with me.” I offered.

“What?” The pegasus recoiled back in shock. “How!? Why!?” She shook her head. “No. No! We have everything we need in Our Town. And outside is bad.”

“I'm not that bad. And I can promise you, neither is Amber or Spice.” Well, the earth pony mare still made me a bit nervous with her constant desire for violence, but she showed at least enough restraint to make friends with me and get romantically involved with the unicorn. “There's a whole world out there. And after I get my friends' cutie marks back, I intend to go out there and see it with them.” At this point I looked out toward the mountains on the other side of the valley, my eyes meeting the place where the very peaks were obscured by cloud cover. “And I'd like to have you come with me.”

“We have everything we need here. Food. Water. A place to sleep. And friends.” She spoke softly, almost whispering it to herself to convince herself.

“But what about what you want?” I turned my head back toward her as she looked up at me once more, the two of us staring into eachother's eyes. “I remember how excited you got at the concept of finding a room of treasure. What about a whole world of it?”

“We...” She trailed off, looking to the side as a blush could barely be seen on her cheeks. “We'll think about it.”

I leaned in toward her, this time taking the incentive to wrap my forelegs around the back of her neck and holding her close. “Whatever you choose, you'll still be my friend. And even if you want to stay here, I'll come back and visit you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“It's so creepy. Like the sky is rolling down the mountain at us.”

Crunched in a corner behind several old barrels that held potatoes, I couldn't help but listen into the remaining conversations from the last few townsponies finishing their communal dinner.

“Mare Ether hasn't said anything about it yet.”

“Mare Ether hasn't said anything about the cursed outsider. Or the pegasus.” The first stallion retorted against his higher-pitched conversation partner. “Of course she wouldn't say anything about those clouds rolling into Our Town.”

“Then it's not our place to know.” The clopping of hooves landing on the ground punctuated his statement.

“We live next to the house that burned down!” The first stallion now also jumped onto all fours, accompanying his partner toward the dining hall's exit, his fear-induced frustration and concern fading away until being punctuated by the shutting of the door.

The only other noise in the dining hall was that of Woe Tree, moving around in the dining hall and picking up the deposited bowls and utensils left over. Her hoofalls gradually came closer to me, before she peaked over the top of the barrels. “If you need to stretch, we suggest doing so now.”

I had been in this corner since before the pre-sunrise fog, having spent all of Fair Smile's shift talking with her and recounting memories, all of them hers, of growing up in Our Town. But after her and her partner were relieved from their shift, the incoming fog provided the perfect cover for me to sneak into the communal dining hall, curling up and sleeping most of the morning away, hidden in a one-room building that was only used once a day.

Crawling out from my hiding place, I stretched back and forth several times, my knees and hips popping from their first use in hours. “Water Margin will be coming shortly.” The unicorn remarked as she turned her back to me, returning to her job of taking care of the scattered dishes on the long wooden tables.

I looked around and out the windows, taking note of the sprinkling rain outside, just enough to make the ground damp without soaking it or creating puddles in any earthly depression like in my first few days awake. Sitting down under one of the long tables, I pulled Glimmers out of my satchel and began recording the afternoon weather.

This had been the first day of rain since I and my friends had snuck out of the prison caves. My records of what my first days awake seemed to be a cyclical pattern of light cloud cover rolling into heavier clouds, followed by rain, and then circling right back to light clouds. Fair Smile had been kind enough to try and record information as well during her short time of having my satchel, her records far less detailed then mine, but backing mine as well on the same cycle with rain falling nearly every day and a half. But now that cycle seemed to be coming undone. This burst of rain was way later then normal, and was in much smaller amounts then normal rain as well.

The sound of the door to the communal kitchen opening broke my train of thought. Quickly I folded my book shut and flattened myself on the ground beneath the table I was beside, ensure that I was completely out of line of sight of the entering pony.

“You look bad. Have you been sleeping?”

“It doesn't matter. You wanted to talk to me, so let's make it quick before I have to start up the next guards shift.” Water Margin had arrived, as the older unicorn had promised.

“Very well then.” Woe Tree responded. “We don't think that Glowing Ether should be the Ministry Mare.”

The pegasus sighed. “And we guess you want us to go ahead and hang her on the tree overnight, so you can take her place?”

“Stop being so assumptive.” The older unicorn remarked, slamming her hoof down on the table. Despite her outbreak I could hear Water Margin sipping the watery broth of his evening meal, apparently unfazed by her small outburst. “I've been helping lead Our Town nearly as long as you and Ether have been alive, young buck.”

“Funny.” The clang of the bowl sitting back on the old wooden table sounded. “When Gleaming Beam was on her death bed, she asked you if you had any qualms with Ether becoming the next Ministry Mare. And now here we are, just a year out, and now you have issues with her.”

“Things are changing Margin. Maybe you're too young to realize it. Aside from the individualist ponies, there hasn't been an outsider who has made contact with Our Town for years. And now in the span of two weeks, there have been four of them, one of them heavily armed and burning down a house while killing several of your best security ponies.”

“We have changed our security rounds as Ether has directed for that.” Once more the sound of him slurping broth could be heard.

“There is more to it then that. For two days in a row now, the clouds have come low. We fear the pegasi might attack us in the early morning through the haze of fog.”

A prolonged moment of silence followed. The sound of a utensil dropping into a now-empty bowl broke it.

“Your point?”

“Our Town cannot stay isolated forever. We were wrong to assume that the outside world was dead. And they're going come past the mountains eventually. Do you think Mare Ether has the fortitude to lead us in that circumstance? Do you think she would lead the ponies into the caves like Starlight before her?”

“It is not our place to judge the Ministry Mare.” Water Margin coolly responded. “How about you think for a moment what would happen if we wanted to overthrow her.” A moment of silence. “The ponies love her. Unlike Beam, who spent most of her days locked up in the tunnels beneath her house recording the happenings of Our Town, Ether is out with the ponies every day in the morning and evening.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Woe...” I could hear the pegasus stand up, the sound of all four of his hooves hitting the ground near simultaneously clearing it up. “...you are right that it is not like the days of old. Do you know of the tunnel beneath the home of the Ministry Mare?” My ears perked up. Could this be where my friend's cutie marks were?

“The lock to those doors are older then me.” I thought for a moment. Locked doors? The ones in the buried room that Woe had met with us at last night could be it. I hadn't thought to ask her about them, though it seems like even if I did ask her she couldn't have helped much.

“Pity. In the tunnel between are records written by every Ministry mare before Ether, all the way back to Starlight herself. Ether has taken me down there and showed me the records after Starlight died. Do you know what that was like? Chaos. IN the span of four harvests there were four different ponies that became Ministry Mare, one of them was driven out of the valley and the other three died from old age. The only reason Our Town didn't devolve into anarchy was because the guards ponies that Double Diamond has instituted refused to intervene, and so the younger ponies were able to bring Starlight's ideals back.” His voice swapped from cool to venomous. “You may be older, but age does not inherintely breed wisdom. We in the guard are not a toy to be tossed around by anyflank that fancies themselves a thinker. We answer only to ourselves, and the Ministry Mare herself.”

“Know your place and who keeps those of you in the guard fed.” Now it was Woe Tree's turn to get onto all fours, stomping with anger. “It would be good for you to remember that you were the one that Mare Ether accused of working with outsiders. She cares not for any loyalty you hold to her, and would throw you away in a heartbeat.”

“Then so be it.” Hoofsteps were now interspersed with him as he walked on. “The most important thing in Our Town is keeping everypony equal for friendship beneath the Ministry Mare.” The steps stopped and I could hear the door opening up. “And if this is some ploy for you to get your mark back, we strongly suggest that you focus on your actual job instead of falling to the temptation of oppressing others for more food,”

The sound of the door closing brought silence into the dining hall, the setting sun reducing the little light that was coming through the windows. I heard Woe Tree make a deep sigh, before turning around and sitting back at the bench.

“We assume you hear all that?” She spoke aloud after several moments in silence.

I crawled out from under the table but stayed at the far side, hidden in the shadows. “You said something about a tunnel?”

“It goes back to the days of Starlight Glimmer. When the bombs started falling she led the ponies of Our Town through her personal escape tunnel into the mountains, where they stayed hidden for over a year, protected from the fallout of the bombs. A few years later she built a printing press atop of the exit, and that's where we were last night. Most ponies have forgotten about it due to a rockslide before any of us were born, but those that lead Our Town know how to access it without the tunnel. But Water Margin has never been down there, and Iron is too large to fit through the hole that's been dug into the rockslide. Mare Ether's never been down there” Now it was her turn to walk toward the door. “So what's your plan now?”

“The tunnel is locked from our side.” It wasn't a direct response, but I was trying to form a new plan with what little new information I had just overheard.

“Figures. That would explain why you three broke down Mare Ether's door.”

“Would you be able to open that door from inside the tunnel?”

The vanishing sunlight made it hard to see any physical response beyond a slight tilt of her head. “Why? You want to charge in and hold her at gunpoint again?”

I shook my head, then remembering that I was hidden in the shadows I did it more vigorously to get the point across. “Not again. The only reason the three of us survived was because of an outside actor stress-testing the town.”

“Enclave...” She gritted through her teeth. I wasn't in any mood to change her assumption of the ghoul's loyalties.

“Water Margin said there were documents down there. History of this village. Maybe there's something there we can use?”

“To undo the remarking?” Woe Tree asked back.

I bit my tongue in silence. That would be an easy way out. Silver Sight should return in two days with a bit more food and the three of us would be able to leave based off of that alone. But that would leave Our Town unchanged with the same leader and same processes. That wasn't of upmost importance, but it would feel wrong to leave without changing this town. “No. Well, not all of it.” While I wouldn't complain about an easy 'undo spell here' method, I had more to do. “Maybe one of us can find something else in there that would get us what we want.”

“What we want, huh?” The older unicorn took another deep sigh. “We want our fellow ponies to be safe and fed. How did it get to working against the Ministry Mare?”

“Would you be able to do it?”

“No.” Her tone returned to that of cold neutrality. “We have never been down in the tunnels. Before this evening, we didn't even know that Mare Ether had let anypony else down there.”

I bit my tongue to hold back a curse. “It's locked from the inside of the tunnel. There's some sort of interior lock that's not accessible from our side.” Now it was my turn to sigh. Explaining the problem wasn't going to magically fix anything unless... “Do you think that you could use your magic to undo the lock from the outside?”

She shook her head. “Manipulating something with our magic is hard. I would have to see what the lock looked like from the backside, understand it on the inside and outside. Until you can do that, you're out of luck.” The older unicorn began slowly walking to the door. “Any other ideas?”

“'I'll think of something. When I have an idea, I'll talk to you.” I promised with a smile.

Woe Tree seemed convinced enough, and with a silent shrug she headed to the door, leaving me alone inside the communal dining hall. Alone with the series of dead ends preventing my friends and I from moving on.

The fog had returned. The cloud cover had began to drop in the last hour or so. I had pointed it out to my pegasus friend, who remarked about how chilly it was the prior mornings. Now with the descending cloud cover, there was a chance for me to attempt to resolve one other outstanding deed. The fog had not yet fallen to ground level, but I could see how it seemed to roll down the surrounding mountains, as if the edges of the clouds when pushed below the more central bulk, the lowered cloud cover creeping closer and closer to the village but not there yet.

Quietly I stepped around Doctor Constant's house, into the open main road. For the briefest of moments, I considered tossing a rock through a window and sneaking in through that, only to discard that option nearly as quickly as I thought of it. Not only might that wake up the doctor in his own house, it would leave visible evidence that someone had gone in and out. Crouching on my rear legs, I reached into my satchel and removed the screwdriver and box of ultra heavy bobby pins once more.

For the briefest of moments I looked down the road, my gaze lingering on Mare Ether's house. Her front door had been replaced with a large slab of metal, but internally I groaned at the memory of being unable to sneak through the door with Amber's piercing. Besides, Silver Sight would return soon, and in exchange for his help with food, I promised him that I would get him his medical book. And I had a strong hunch that the book was the same one that the town Doctor frequently referred back to. Carefully I bit into the open box, holding a trio of pins between my teeth and bringing them inline with the lock beneath the door handle, the screwdriver balanced between my forehooves. I used my tongue to push two of the pins to the side while one stuck straight out, and slowly I pushed it's tip in.

It took no time at all to find the first of several pins within. Carefully I pressed it upwards, adjusting the angle of my head to move toward the second pin in the row. This one slipped into position instantly, not even remotely fighting back. Bringing my muzzle even closer I found the third pin, only for it to give me significantly more fightback. Just as it began to slide upwards into place my pin bent, and my muzzle slammed into the door. “Phck.” I whispered to myself, pulling the pin out and spitting it aside, swapping to the second one in my mouth.

The first two pins had thankfully stayed in place, allowing me to immediately attack the third pin and alter my angle enough to force it into place. A single pin was left, and it complied much like the first two, giving no fightback. Smirking around the pin, I began turning the screwdriver with my hooves. Sure enough, the sound of the lock disengaging greeted my ears, allowing me to pull back and drop a hoof on the door handle, the door giving way and letting me have access once more to the house I had first woke up in several days ago.

Carefully I walked in, giving a slight kick with my left rear leg to shut the door behind me. Silence permeated the air inside the house as I looked back and forth. Taking a single solitary step at a time, I crept toward the familiar operating room, my eyes falling on the operating table.

Laying on it was a pony. Covered across nearly his entire face and upper body in bandages, he seemed to be asleep, judging by the slow breathing he was giving off. My head swung to the smaller table that I had once pinned the Doctor to in a fit of confusion, not seeing the prize.

I faintly cursed under my breath, turning around. The lone unbandaged eye of the Earth Pony on the table was open now, staring right at me. I could see him trembling, his legs and body shaking in fear. Once more I cursed, taking two steps toward him.

It would be so simple to kill him. He knew that I was down here, and I drew the screwdriver once more from my satchel. But much like the idea of breaking a window earlier, killing the observer would be a big red flag for 'someone broke in and did something horrendous.'. I weighed the possibility of leaving the entire village in a panic if I snuck in and out without any evidence beyond a corpse. The edge of the tool drew level, an inch away from the bandaged earth pony, as I brought one of my other hooves up and planted it on his sternum.

“Don't move.” I spoke around the tool. He was still shaking, but his light thrashing stopped, likely giving up the fight. “I don't want to kill you. Where's the Doctor?” The stallion carefully and gingerly raised a leg and pointed to the door, instead of the second floor I was expecting. “Good. I was never here.” I moved back onto all fours, turning around and walking toward the staircase, relying on memory to get me around the house in the thick darkness.

For the second time I crept up the stairs, doing my best to balance my weight on the edge right next to the wall. Just in case the patient below had lied to me I wanted to maintain the advantage of silence and surprise. Once ontop of the second floor I set my sights on the closed door to the Doctor's sleeping quarters. Thankfully this door, while it did have a lock, wasn't properly latched, allowing me to step push it open and step into the dark bedroom.

I sighed in annoyance. While my eyes had already adapted to the darkness, it was impossible to navigate around this room without even the slightest of light. Carefully I stepped forward, trying to make out the bed. If this room would be like the other second floor bedroom or even my room for the single night I had been living with Fair Smile, then there would be a hidden compartment beneath the bed, which would be the best place to keep a book of vast medical knowledge for a doctor.

With an annoying thud my right foreleg impacted the bed, just above the ankle. My brow furrowed in anger as I hissed in annoyance. I cautiously squatted on all fours and extended the now bruised leg underneath the bed, trying to feel for the telltale sign of a recession in the boards that would indicate a secret compartment.

My concentration was broken from a sound down below. The front door to the house opening and closing. I sprang back onto all fours, looking around for a place to hide. Two options seemed readily available, either climbing under the bed, or more riskily, sneaking back into the locked and dusty spare bedroom I had moved into before.

“We didn't expect you to be awake at this time of night.” Soothing Constant remarked from below. “Are the bandages chaffing your burns?” Settling on the riskier option, I quickly made several silent steps toward the door, biting on the handle and bringing it back to it's slightly-ajar state it had been in earlier, before creeping back to the lock I had busted through with a bent nail earlier.

“Don't you worry. I'll try to be quiet so you can go back to sleep.” I heard the doctor say from downstairs. Apparently the wounded pony hadn't blown my cover, or at least, hadn't blown it yet. Crouching to the lock, I once again fished out the screwdriver and a pair of bobby pins. Sliding one in, I realized to my horror that all of the pins were pushed into position.

Was it unlocked? Had I left it unlocked the night I went through here? Or had he opened the door himself for his own reasons? Quickly I reached my hoof up to the handle, jiggling it and feeling my blood go cold as the door swung open. I couldn't remember if this was because of me, or if the Doctor had gone through himself.

The sound of water splashing broke me from my concern. Not even looking inside the old room, I took a short pace to the top of the staircase, hoping the darkness would keep me invisible. The light of a candle could be seen in the kitchen, and I could see the edge of the barrel of water that the Doctor had kept in the kitchen, one of his off-blue hooves hanging over the edge. He must have been bathing after spending the night outside of his home. Once more I looked to the semi-open door, considering stepping back into his bedroom to search beneath his bed for the book.

In the end, I decided to wait the Doctor out. I crept back to the abandoned bedroom, or at least I thought it was abandoned. The bed was stripped of it's sheets, but a lone pony, this one a female unicorn with bandages wrapped around her eyes and horn, lay on her back, still sleeping. Two more ponies lay on the ground on the sides of the room, the sheets covering their bodies in full, leaving me to only assume that they were dead.

Silently I closed the door behind me, carefully latching it into place. My next step was to lean up to the door, putting my ear against the door and listening for the telltale sounds of the stallion leaving his barrel-bath and coming back upstairs. It would be tricky, but if he wasn't carrying his book with him, I might be able to sneak downstairs and check to see if he dropped his book off with the bandaged pony downstairs. There was just one more potential problem. What would I do if he decided to check on the sleeping patient in this room?

It was hard to tell just how much time passed, but it wasn't long until I heard the creaking of floorboards and telltale hoofsteps moving up the staircase. Preparing for him to step inside and check on the eye-bandaged mare I moved to side of the doorway, positioning myself to be hidden if he opened the door in. In addition I put all my weight on my rear legs, bracing the side of my body against the wall and using my forehooves to pull the pipe rifle out of my satchel. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to shooting and fleeing. Briefly I looked down to the firearm and frowned. It hadn't even been fired yet, for all I knew it would wake up everypony in the surrounding houses and leave me in a race to find the tome and vanish into the rolling fog.

The hoofsteps didn't stop at my door, and instead the doctor walked right by the occupied room, into his personal bedroom. I could hear the faint sound of the door squeaking open on it's hinges. Confused, I moved the pipe-rifle into my mouth, balancing it by the mouthguard trigger in my jaw as I silently crept toward the mare on the bed. She continued to sleep, but I could plainly see her breathing in and out calmly. Furrowing my brow, I turned back toward the closed door. Why would he not check on his second patient?

Clicking. For the briefest of moments I was transported to my second night in this house, hearing clicking above me but the sound ending before anything else. It was a risk, but now I had a personal interest in throwing the door open to see the cause. And even if the doctor's bedroom door was shut to me, it would give me at least a chance to sneak downstairs to see if he had set his medical book downstairs.

With a rough exhale, I pressed my hoof on the door handle and pulled it inward, stepping forward into the short second floor hallway. Candlelight illuminated the area, and I quickly turned my head to the right, looking at the host that had so kindly opened his adobe to me my first few nights in the village. He was hunched over a open box that was maybe four inches tall with a base of a roughly a square foot. I squinted just a bit, noticing what seemed like a series of dials sticking out and an antennae sticking straight upward.

A radio? It was the first piece of developed technology I had seen in this valley, and was the first evidence of contact that might be made with the outside world beyond these mountains. But who was he communicating with the outside world?

I broke my internal line of questioning with a look on the top of the bed and the floor around him. A very small pamphlet could be seen open by the radio-box. But no evidence of his important book. Silently I turned and placed myself against the wall as I descended the staircase once more. Surely his medical tome would be in the operating room.

Once more I poked my head inside the room, making eye contact with the still awake stallion. Not bothering with acknowledging him, I gave a quick sprint to the desk, a large book sitting on the desk nice and folded. In the darkness that was becoming even worse from incoming fog it was impossible to read it. But the tome was way bigger then any of the copies of Glimmers of Truth I had seen thus far. This had to be it.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Hoofsteps. From above. Without a moment of hesitation I bit into the book and spun around.

THUMP THUMP CRRNNN CRNNN

Already the hoofsteps were at the top of the staircase and descending. There was no way I could avoid being seen. I dropped the book and yanked the pipe-rifle out of my satchel once more. I took three steps toward the open doorway, watching the first floor as it became illuminated with candle-light. Quickly I wrapped my mouth around the mouthguard-trigger, twisting my neck to nestle the buttstock into my right shoulder and raising the same leg to balance it, aimed at the base of the staircase.

Soothing Constant leapt past the last two stairs, landing with the heaviest THUD yet, turning a harsh gaze to me, holding a small pan with burning wax in his mouth. His gaze didn't remotely linger on me or the weapon in my mouth, instead swinging to the bandaged patient behind me. The two of us stood their for a moment, both of our mouths occupied and unable to communicate.

His gaze met with mine once more, and he slowly bent forward, setting the wax-burning tray on the ground while never breaking eye contact with me. “If you harm even a hair on my patients...” He growled out. I shook my head, still keeping the weapon aimed at him. He took a few steps forward, still stomping as if to showcase his bulk against my own, though the size discrepancy between us wasn't anything close to what it was between Tempered Iron and myself.

He stopped alongside me, his focus once more on the bandaged patient behind me. “We guess this is why you woke up earlier. Sorry about that Pastel Oats.” The town doctor sighed. “We'll head upstairs so you can get a bit of rest.”

“Doctor!?” The female above us was awake, likely because of Soothing Constant's heavy hoof falls going right by the door and down the stairs. “Doctor? Is everything ok?” I could hear another set of hooves landing on the wooden floor above us.

“Coming Bounce!” The doctor shouted upstairs. “Just stay there!” He lowered his gaze back to me, still not caring about the rifle I had in my mouth, the end of the barrel just inches from his face. “Don't stand down here like a mute dolt. Come upstairs with us.” And with that, he turned around and approached the staircase.

Did the rifle I was holding not even remotely threaten him? I exchanged another gaze with the bandaged stallion laying on the bed, his lone eye betraying his sense of fear and confusion. I shrugged, sticking the rifle once more into my satchel, before biting down on the book and beginning to follow the doctor upstairs.

“You took off with such speed, and the shouting. Is the Enclave back?” The female Unicorn was on all fours, about her back turned toward the door as Soothing Constant was trying to guide her back to the bed she had been on. While I couldn't see the face of the blind mare, it was plain from the way she was walking not-quite-straight toward the bed that she didn't have a hint of vision.

“No, no. Don't worry about it. We mistook a friend for an enemy.”

“Ok. Will they be long?”

“We'll be talking up here for a while. Don't worry. We'll keep the doors shut and talk quietly so you can get some sleep.”

“We don't want to sleep Doctor.” She replied, though she did climb back into bed. “They still keep haunting me.”

“You know that Fetch wouldn't hold anything against you.”

“He still asks why we didn't stop them. We're supposed to be the best.” The mare lay onto her back once more, giving a slight sniffle.

“You two were the best for Our Town. And we can't get you to be the best again if you don't stay well rested.” The older stallion ran a hoof down her mane.

“We're scared doctor.”

“Try laying there and imagine something else. Dwelling on what happened will only stress you out.” The mare took another deep inhale, but didn't respond. “We'll check on the healing in the morning. Ok? But for now, try to sleep.”

The unicorn rolled on her side, turning her back to us. Content with that answer, the doctor turned around and picked up the candletray once more in his mouth. Getting the message I took several steps back into the hallway as the doctor followed me out, closing the door once more.

Both of us proceeded to sit down on the floor in his bedroom, my eyes bouncing between my host and the radio that he had open beside me. As he sat the small tray of burning wax on his small nightstand I used the illumination to gaze at the small pamphlet he had open. It was a codebook, letters being matched with a series of dots and dashes. “I know you have several questions. And frankly, so do we.” He remarked, sitting on his haunches and leveling his gaze with me. “And for starters, I want to know why you're here.”

I dropped his medical tome on the floor beside me. “You didn't say 'we'?” I asked, puzzled. “Only Ether says 'I' like that.”

The stallion sighed. “We grew up in this town. But we've had communication with the outside.” He motioned to the radio with a hoof. “Every now and then we let a bit of the outside lingo slip in. But you didn't answer our question.”

I placed my hoof on the book. “I came here for this.” Was the simplest answer.

“Your outside raider army struggling with injuries?” He frowned. “And still traveling the mountains in such a state.”

“There is no raider army.” I cut him off. “There never was. I still don't know who I am.” A moment of silence settled “Except for my name.” I cut in before the doctor opened his mouth. “Somepony from the outside seemed to know my name.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, before leaning forward and outstretching a hoof toward me. “Constant. Soothing Constant.”

The action seemed vaguely familiar, and I stretched my right forehoof forward as well, touching the undersides together. “Stone Vane.”

“What a peculiar name.” He remarked, leaning back. “We should have figured that when they said there was a favor that would be called in, it would either be that book, or the radio.”

“You knew?”

“Not exactly.” The stallion shook his head. “I send out radio messages only whenever something changes in the town. The old Ministry Mare dies, or one of her assistants die and get replaced. A disease sweeps through that Health and Recovery doesn't cover. Or a strange non-fearl pony shows up in one of the caves around here.” His eyes narrowed to meet mine. “There's always been somepony on the other end of that.” He motioned a hoof toward the radio. “That's been listening. For three generations of doctors. Over a hundred years. But my father never said that he or his father had to do a favor.”

“You don't look that old?” I remarked aloud. “Maybe older then some of the other ponies here. But only three generations in a hundred years?”

“We think it's more then that now. Closer to 130 or 140. But those contacts.” He pointed to the radio again. “Give us a small leg up over the rest of Our Town with living longer. I'm only 60 years old.” A frown overtook his face. “But with no foals of my own, I'll have to look to one of the upcoming youth in the next few years to replace us and keep our secret.”

“A leg up? But you're a doctor. Shouldn't you be able to live longer thanks to this book?” I tapped my hoof on the old wartime medical book again.

“Ha. No. That's a book for medical emergencies. Burns, cuts, amputations, skin grafts, internal bleeding? All in there, with information on how to counter it all.” Now he tapped his head. “And a perfect copy of it all in here. That book is my perfect cover.” I titled my head in confusion, only for him to slowly come up onto all fours, turning his body sideways. I gave the old stallion a quick glance before noticing the major difference from himself and everypony else in the village.

“You still have your cutie mark!?” I exclaimed. “But how!? I saw you!”

The stallion turned and gave his hip a slight tap. The image of a single white drop positioned over a roll of bandages was the first natural cutie mark I had seen on a pony, excluding myself “They did it for my father and I. I assume my grandfather as well.” He smiled contently. “When I grew up, a unicorn outsider met my father and I four nights after my remarking. In the middle of the night in the vault, she was able to undo it and restore my natural talent to me, but we were sworn to secrecy. In exchange, we were to continue keeping updates on the town via the radio. Anything out of the ordinary would be reported. My father showed me the way to cover it up.” He pointed to the pamphlet beside me. “Inside of that I keep a stencil, and there's more then enough graphite that we can turn into dust and sprinkle over our flank.”

“So you know how to undo the remarking? My friends-”

He held his hoof up, shaking his head. “Sorry. I'm not a unicorn. I'm a doctor, an earth pony doctor at that. Cutting, sowing, suturing, and foal delivery are my specialties.” He gave a sigh. “We've not seen anypony in this village reverse the remarking, except for one time when the last Ministry Mare let the last security pony get his back for a single night so he could hunt down an outsider suspected of living here. And we didn't even get to see that happen.” Once more the doctor took a seat.

“Curses.”

“You are a special pony, Stone Vane. We can't pretend to know why. You resisted the remarking. And your awakening was the first time that they-” Once more his eyes went to the radio and back. “-took an interest in you. They told me that they would send somepony to retrieve you, and said that they would be requiring something important from me.” My eyes went to the wartime book once more. “So now it's your turn. Obviously, you made contact with some pegasus outside. Your ponies gave Our Town more injuries in a day then what Iron and Margin do in a month, not to mention the deaths. And now they're messing with the weather.” His brow narrowed as his voice went cold. “Have I just been selling out my hometown, my fellow ponies, to the Enclave?”

I shook my head. “I don't think they're Enclave. Whoever they are.” I weighed my options. Did I really want to share what little information I knew? Constant was a complete outsider, and while he was possibly deeper into this hidden conspiracy then me, it seemed pretty obvious that he had no interest in leaving the village. “Do you know what a ghoul is?” The stallion frowned with confusion, giving me a starting point to control the narrative as much as I wanted. “Apparently in the rest of Equestria there were ponies that got changed by the bombs. They aren't quite dead, but not really alive. That pegasus that showed up had some old specialist wartime weapons. He said he was from Baltimare.” I bit the end of my tongue, expecting the good doctor to lash out and call my story a pile of trash. But when he didn't, I just went on. “At first he was insistent on bringing me back there. My friends told me that was a bad idea because of the radiation from the bombs. Then he shifted gears and told me to get this book.” Again I tapped the tome. “And he said he'd be back in roughly four days.”

Constant seemed content with that. “A not living and not dead pony. Our book never said anything about that.” He brought a hoof up and tapped it on the underside of his chin. “You know what we think?” I grunted in response. “We think that Equestria is still out there. That they rebuilt after the war. And somepony knew about this village before and after the war.” He smiled. “Is that why your stallion friend was hollering about trade? He and his mare being the trade organizers and you were to be the muscle?”

“They never saw me before I was thrown into that cave prison.”

“Well maybe they sent you here before hand? We've been privy to a few talks with the town leaders before. Did you know that these mountains are filled with caves?” I nodded. “Well the last Ministry Mare and Tempered Iron's predecessor were convinced that the old Equestrian military let this town exist as a social experiment, but it was with the explicit knowledge that some of the caves around here wouldn't be touched. Every-time that Our Town encounters a shortage of metal, it only lasts a week or two. And then suddenly overnight I get an increase of injures from exhaustion, and the metal deficiency is resolved.” He gave me a smile of pride, akin to that of unwrapping a massive mystery. “Those ponies wanted to keep tabs on us and see if we knew where that old wartime metal was! That's why they sent you and your friends.”

“I guess that makes sense.” It seemed like the doctor had conveniently forgotten that my friends were the ones who convinced me to not go to Baltimare, which would mean that they were trading with any ponies there.

“It makes perfect sense.” He leaned in towards me a bit. “So you know how we all talk about how Mare Glimmer led the ponies of Our Town into the caves to escape the bombs? Nopony ever asks how she knew about the bombs, or how she would keep an entire town fed in those caves for years. It's just chocked up to her great wisdom and resourcefulness. But if she had somepony from the old Equestrian military keeping her in the loop, that would explain everything. And now it's time to collect.” He leaned back into his old sitting position. “It's the book today, to test us. But tomorrow it will be the remaining caves with leftover metal.”

“Yeah.” It wasn't the craziest idea, except that the pegasus ghoul had never mentioned anything about metal, his focus was on me and this book. Neither did Spice Chaser, who only talked about the land's fertility and ability to grow food. Even if there was some elaborate communication between Spice's ponies in Manehattan and the ghoul's ponies in Baltimare, surely one of them would have mentioned the metal?

“Well, I don't know where that metal would be hidden.” He chuckled, standing up on all fours. “But I bet Mare Ether knows. And if she doesn't know, then some of those old books in the old escape tunnel would have the information!”

I was fine with leaving him with his hidden metal assumption. “How can we get in there?” I raised an eyebrow. “If the metal really is their reason for reaching out, they're probably going to want me to verify it's still safe.” The reasoning was actually still the same as before, find a way to upend the town's leaders and get information on how to get my friend's cutie marks back.

The doctor took the bait though. “There's a hidden passage in the floor of the Ministry Mare's home. But it's been so many years, I don't even remember how to get into it.” I did the best to steel off the crushing realization in my heart from hearing nothing more. “But I do know that it exited into a small building at the base of one of the mountains. We think it got covered up in a rockslide, and nopony's ever had any need to go back there.” He chuckled. “I'm probably the last pony who knows of it. But we guess if you were willing to spend enough time rooting around at the base of the mountains with enough unicorns to help move the rocks, you could find it and sneak in the backway.”

I rolled my eyes, hiding my disappointment from the stallion by shutting my eyelids all the while. Still back at square one. The doors inside were locked both by a handle and a deadbolt on the other end that I had no access to. The only option was to sneak right back into the mouth of the lion and the blindly search around for who knows how long. Doctor Constant made a bit of noise standing up and walking over toward the bed behind me, causing me to crack my eyelids and give him a sideeye stare as he crouched onto all fours, reaching out underneath the bed.

“When I was still a young stallion, we fantasized about going out at night and tunneling back into that building, sneaking in and reading anything besides Glimmers and Health and Recovery. Even if it was just going to be some dead mares bitching about not having enough food or something.” He pulled his hoof out, a piece of U-bent metal looped around his fetlock. “Thought maybe if we stuck this between the doors, and grabbed the handle and bolt on the other side we could open it.” The u-shaped piece of metal held more of a 'J' shape in all reality. The longer part of the loop held a mouthgrip, the teeth of a gear sticking out in the center of it. On the shorter end of the hook was a pair of thin metal prongs. But the most significant part of the entire tool was how thin it was. With the exception of the mouthgrip and gear, the entire tool was a fraction of an inch thick.

“Wha-” I squeaked out on my own as the earth pony pushed the J-Hook alongside me.

“If you're still hanging around now, you probably have more time to get into that old room then we do. But if you get in there, be sure to come back and tell us all about what was in there.”

“Where did you get this?” I gasped out, picking the tool up in my forehooves.

“A bunch of years back a wandering pony came out here, yammer on about wanting to do some map making. He left that thingy behind in a panicked rush out of here. We guess it's used to unlock doors.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at me. “That's how I was able to get back into that old bedroom after you broke the lock.”

I could feel a chill down the back of my neck, coursing down my spine and to the base of my tail. “That bad, huh?” Was all I could squeak out.

“Not only did you get me in trouble for disturbing that old Ministry Mare portrait, you decided to break into our house and damage it.” He sighed with frustration.

“The room didn't look like it had been touched for years.” Was my half-hearted defense.

“And it hadn't. Under Woe Tree's desire.”

The familiar name caught my attention. “Woe Tree?”

“Yep. It was a few days after her remarking. She didn't want anypony else to know that her mother had been a traitor, and demanded that the door stay shut forever.” The doctor gave a sad chuckle. “She was so convinced that once she lost her Cutie-mark that she would be accepted and everypony would forget about her mother's crimes.” Still staring errantly toward the long window, his eyebrows dropped into a more serious placement. “It was about ten years later that she came back. At that point she was in consideration for being appointed over food growth and the communal mess hall. With that type of influence it was only reasonable to answer her demands, though it helped that she reduced the demands to 'only in case of emergencies.”

“But why would she not-”

“Her mother committed a heinous crime, one that had never happened before in Our Town.” Soothing Constant's tone had dropped into straight grimness. “She fraternized with an outsider. Not just some wandering feral. An outsider that refused to join Our Town and give up his Cutie-mark. And it was an affair that lasted nearly a full year.” He turned to look at me. “That was the only time we ever heard of a town leader letting a pony get their cutie mark back, after a year of suspicion and strange behavior. And then mere days after he was captured and hung on the Tree of Woe, they came for her mother. In the middle of labor.”

The pall of the revelation hung over the candlelit room. “So that's where she got her name?”

He nodded. “There's a copy of Glimmers in there, you and your destructive nose probably already rifled through it. But in it there was her mother's personal writings. And despite all the doting she gave on her filly in the womb, that filly was the exact opposite of her mother in every way.” I could only stare, unable to give a response. “I'm sure if she was given even the smallest bit of love growing up from her mother, or even that selfish father, she would have been a much more rounded mare. Not so focused on culling the weak through starvation.” The doctor gave a huff. “And now in the very bed that she was born in, is a mare that for all intents and purposes, is perfectly healthy in every way except for permanent blindness. And when she's finally allowed to return to work, she will be starved day by day in the food court, for injuries beyond her control.”

I rose to all four hooves. “I should leave.”

The doctor nodded. “Sun will be rising soon, though with these clouds falling right over the town, you might have a bit more time to sneak out then usual.” I bent over and bit down on the spine of the medical tome once more. “Go ahead, take it. Like I said, every bit of what's in there...” He didn't finish the sentence verbally, simply relying on tapping on his forehead. “Besides, I bet things are going to change in this town real soon.”

Once more I stared at the pair of metal doors. After having spent the morning rushing back into the mountains so I could catch up on sleep in one of the marked hiding spots, the evening brought with it a quick recording of the weather once more, some of the thinnest cloud cover I had seen yet, and a silence return to the old rockslide and it's hidden storage room just as the sun set once more.

Once more, I flipped open the top of my satchel and began nosing through it. I ignored the screwdriver and set of pins this time, biting down on the J-hook instead. Finally, it was time to open this door, and take my first serious step in overturning this town and helping my friends. Deftly I slipped the J-hook, bend first, into the crack between the two doors. The short end of the hook caught on the edge of the crack, so I turned the gear in the mouthgrip, spinning it slowly until it aligned with the door, which was when it got slipped the rest of the way in.

Abruptly the j-hook spun freely in my mouth, the doors no longer keeping the hook in place. At this point I began bringing my head up, going until I could feel the part of the hook still between the doors tap against the bolt. Cranking my head I dragged the short prongs on the end back and forth across the bolt, eventually catching both of them around something, hopefully the bolt's handle. Once again I twisted my tongue on the gear, listening intently for a positive sound.

Click!

I raised my forehoof to the already unlocked door handle, slamming down on it. It gave, and with the slightest of tugs the door opposite of me swung open, the j-hook falling down and hanging out of my mouth. Spitting the unlocking tool to the side, I grabbed the other door with my hooves and yanked it open as rough as I could, despite the screech of metal hinges and the sound of grinding against the old concrete floor.

A gust of old wind billowed out of the chasm, the burning wax in the candle holder the only thing providing any light into the massive tunnel. Cobwebs and dust fell from the ceiling and walls of the large tunnel, some of it being picked by the exchange of old and fresh air, the wax flame flickering but not quite going out.

I couldn't help but smile in satisfaction after beating the door that had cursed me for so long. Stepping over to the table and biting down on the edge of the tray of burning wax, my eyes never leaving the dark abyss. It looked like it would be a straight shot to the village through here. A straight shot into Mare Ether's basement, and hopefully, some information regarding where my friend's cutie-marks would be, and how to upend the entirety of Our Town.

Achievement Unlocked –Ślepy – Behold the physical damage of conflict

Achievement Unlocked – Pony Express – Recover the medical tome