Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

“The enemy!” The light blue pegasus shouted boldly. “Is too divided to attack us! The Great Starlight Glimmer, in her unlimited wisdom, has bought us more time then we could ever thank her for!”

Water Margin took nothing but measured and disciplined steps as he walked infront of us. As the pony that commanded the defense of Our Town, his strict rigidity was something I had expected. His mannerisms were opposite of the outgoing Gleaming Ether who wanted to lead through conversation and personal engagement, or Tempered Iron's barely restrained sadism which demanded with fear, his style was much closer to Woe Tree's reserved stance, but with his energy focused outward rather then inward.

The discipline that he held while walking matched what he was expecting from us, and all 75 of us on our shift were standing in five orderly lines, unmoving as we listened to his day-opening speech. It took a bit of fumbling as I looked back and forth between myself and the ponies around me, but eventually even I had mimicked the rigid stance of those around me: All four legs locked, neck straight with head tilted back by the smallest of margins.

“The enemy beyond our mountains are all divided, pony against pony. But make no mistake of it, when they find us, they will rush us! So we must stay ready to defend ourselves from them!” Three other stallions stood at a distance behind him, one of each race and holding themselves in a similar fashion to the large group I was standing in.

“Today, the pegasi will return to the village and prepare the nests. The unicorns will organize a defense of the factory's exterior. And the earth ponies.” Water Margin turned his gaze right at me. “will stay here and go through physical training today.” He took a deep breath, turning his body directly toward us. “DISMISSED!”

The organized rows of ponies I had been standing in instantly lost all of their order, all of the groups mixing into a large congregation while slowly dividing into the races. “Good luck Strange Flank.” Slight Pique remarked as he briefly walked by me in the throng on ponies.

In a few moments I could see the group of pegasi and unicorns having already separated out, each being led by one of the trio that had just before been standing behind Water Margin. With a quick look around I could deduce there was about 20 of us left, not counting the commanding Pegasus or the earth pony that had been standing behind him.

“Pair up!” The dirty yellow earth pony remarked, finally stepping away from what had been his position behind Water Margin. He had a more shrill voice compared to the firm boldness the Pegasus had. I took a quick look around those of us who were left, only for Margarine Spread to come up to me first.

“Don't worry. I won't go too hard on you.” The bulky earth pony looked down on me with a smile on his face. “But I do expect half of your food tonight.” Of course. Fair Smiles had made it pretty clear last night that he was always willing to do a bit extra for some food. I merely gave a half smile and a faint nod. This situation made it feel like my mane was standing on edge.

“Purge your thoughts of any silly ideas. Do what comes naturally.” The earth pony remarked, stepping toward both of us. His voice was annoying and distracting me from the circumstance that had developed. I could faintly see other ponies in my peripherals, several of them raising up onto their back legs and striking with their forelegs. But my focus wasn't on that, or even the words that were still being spoken to me. Margarine was rearing up infront of me, looking down with hooves already beginning to approach me.

He was on the ground. My right rear leg had dug into his stomach, and I could feel the bottom of his ribcage against the side of my fetlock as I spun to face the other pony, just outside of my hoof's reach. His mouth hung open as he took a startled step back. Beside me. Behind me. No one else was approaching as I took a deep inhale, finally starting to paying attention to the sounds around me. The wheezing beneath me, shouts beside me-

“-off! Get off of them Strange Flank!” While I'm positive that isn't my name, the term had been directed at me so frequently in the last few days I still instinctively responded. I removed my leg from my opponent while turning to face the pony that had been directing our sparring session. His concern was toward the larger pony beneath me, who began to roll over onto his side, still wheezing, asking if they could continue to spar.

Calm and collected, I let a breath escape my mouth before sucking another deep one. It was instant. I had moved in, wrapped my right foreleg around his left one, and directed his momentum into the ground, with just the slightest of twists on the way down. He landed on his back, kept there by me stomping into his stomach. And it all happened so easily. So automatically.

“I-” Margarine took another deep breath. “I can go again.” He remarked, turning to face me once more.

I took another controlled breath, in a way that was so routine it was terrifying.

“Go again. Don't hold back.”

There was no rearing up this time. The large earth pony charged right at me, insistent on pressing in with his size advantage. I jumped to my right, my body alongside the left of the earth pony organizing this battle. My opponent turned his head at me, already following it up with a gradual shift of his acceleration towards me. I twisted my neck, still continuing my own momentum from the initial sidestep, and biting into the neck of the stallion beside me. He was caught completely off guard as I twisted his body in front of me, putting him at a right angle as Margarine smashed into his side the instant after I opened my mouth to let him go. The smaller pony found himself bowled over, the larger one reacting to the impact by jumping upward to avoid getting his legs tangle around the collapsing stallion. Darting forward, I stiffened my right foreleg and bounced myself off of it, slamming the side of my body into the flank of the larger stallion as he passed me by. The impact caused him to stumble sideways, his attempts to avoid trampling the smaller pony causing him to land awkwardly and fall onto his right side.

Back to all fours, my gaze fell on the grounded duo. Instinctively I brought my breathing back under control, the adrenaline still pumping through my veins. I found myself looking side to side for further threats, but all I could see were the other pairs of earth ponies, nearly all of which had stopped their own sparring to look at me.

The urge to flee was unbearable, as I took two steps back. Escape. Vanish. The urge to follow the two orders coursed through my skull like an automatic impulse. I turned around, only to come face to face to the pegasus orchestrating the entire thing.

Water Margin said nothing, his gaze coolly bypassing me to the two grounded ponies. After a few seconds of staring he shifted his head and locked eyes with me, never changing his facial expression the entire time. “Petunia. Scar. You two are up.” Two mares that had been sparring just a few yards from us trotting up. “Hold nothing back.” The pegasus spread his wings and opened the distance between us as I turned my focus toward the mares. Before either took charge of the situation a metal pipe was tossed from just out of my sight to the rightmost one, who grabbed it in her maw.

The two mares began walking away from each other, opening an angle between them with me at the center. They were trying to spread wider and flank me on both sides. I closed in towards the green mare armed with a metal pipe, keeping her in my periphery while staring the pink mare to my left down as I tried opening the gap against her. I had a very slight size advantage over both of the mares, and the armed one seemed more focused on looking intimidating with the pipe while closing on me rather then preparing an attack, but the other mare had stopped the circling motion to face right at me.

The farther mare leaned forward just slightly, preparing a charge. Confident that she wasn't going to abort, I took my focus off of her, headbutting the throat of the mare with the pipe, as she had crept so close to me that her pipe was too close to be useful. She gagged loudly over my ears, and I reached my right hoof up to seize control of the iron pipe. It made contact with the edge of my hoof, and I shifted my body around to face the now charging mare. Firmly ground my left foreleg into the ground, I threw my rear legs into the air to quickly shift my momentum, the pipe starting to roll down my angled right hoof. Just as the pipe was even with the center of my hoof I thrust my right leg forward, relying on instinct to send the weapon flying through the air.

It impacted my charging opponent in the nose, causing her to flinch and close her eyes just before it hit. The smack into her fleshy nostril stopped her charging, as she reared up to bring her forehooves up to protect her face. With all my legs back on the ground I pounced forward, dropping myself low and using my weight advantage to bowl into her exposed underside, aiming just a bit to her right lower rib cage with my top of my head, the impact forcing her body to roll away from me, and that roll becoming even more pronounced as my left shoulder hit her in the same spot my head had. With that, both were just as incapacitated as the stallions.

“Midnight, Arrow!”

This time a mare and stallion couple began walking towards me, every other earth pony on my shift had dropped any pretense of sparring, only caring to watch me now. Once again, the internal call to flee echoed powerfully in my head, but before I could even start consciously fighting with that internal call the fight mindset took control again.

The two began charging, and I could faintly hear the pegasus make another shout. I stomped my hindleg onto the edge of the metal bar that had been dropped earlier, flinging it into the air and catching it in my mouth. Before they could get to me I hopped to my left side, twisting my neck with as much speed as possible to hit the charging mare's neck with the pipe's edge. As she gagged and tumbled from the impact I could see movement from my left, and I quickly spun to focus on another rushing mare. Rearing up to get my forelegs into the air, I wrapped my right foreleg around the back of her neck just before her planned impact. With a single swift motion I brought my body back down onto all fours, in turn directing her momentum into the ground face-first, leaving her to crash right beside the first mare.

This allowed me enough time to re-focus on the stallion that I had sidestepped without striking. He was circling back towards me, preserving his momentum all the while as he barreled down toward me. This time I crouched down just a bit to solidify my stance. Just as he came within range I twisted my neck and raised my head, this bringing the edge of my pipe smashing into his head from beneath, the sound of his teeth clattering together as jaws slammed into each other confirming that my hit rang true.

The first pink mare I had struck was beginning to rise back up right beside me. Not letting her regain full awareness, I rushed back at her. Twisting my neck and head once more, the edge of the pipe drilled into the bridge of her nose right between her eyes with all the twisting force I could muster. She went stumbling backwards over her hooves, but stayed upright. Quickly, I finished her off with my right hoof, smashing into her face with enough force to send her straight back to the ground, knocked unconscious on impact.

No other ponies made any motion to come at me. My heart thudded incredibly loud in my chest, and if I didn't know better I'd swear every other pony in the valley could hear it. A half dozen ponies all either lay unconscious or slowly were recovering from a winded state, being very slower to get back onto all fours. The few dozen spectators began whispering silently among each other, all too far away from me for me to hear anything said.

“ORDER!” Water Margin called out loudly, and the gossiping I had sparked off abruptly stopped. “Everypony back to your partners.” Reluctantly the pairs began to form once more, while two of the mares I had subdued earlier began trying to wake another mare and the last stallion. Margarine was pulling the other stallion I had brought down back to all fours as well

Water Margin coldly swept his eyes over the fights in the valley, before locking eyes with mine and holding the same emotionless look, as if coldly calculating every move. Finally, he looked at the same Earth Pony that had initially tried guiding the session between myself and Margarine Spread. “Hoofstrong, Give me your rifle.” The response was a quick scurry to the discarded rifle a few meters off, speedy despite the beating I had given him earlier.

Water Margin turned his focus back towards me. While the adrenaline from the prolonged fights was finally wearing off, there was still that internal fear, screaming to shrink into the nearest shadows and wait until all awareness of me had passed. The last of the ponies I had assaulted were finally brought back to their hooves, obviously suffering bruises and maybe even a few concussions, but nothing that should be unbearable.

Upon getting the specified rifle, Water Margin took it and gave it a quick look. It was well worn from age but the metal was still rust free, the stock and barrel only showing slight nicks and scratches. Overall, it was preserved far better then what I expected from a gun that was probably 200 years old.

“Strip it.” He said, tossing it at me. I raised my right hoof and let the strap wrap around my leg, taking a closer look at it. “Now.”

It was instinctual. I didn't even have to think about a single move. In mere seconds it was laid out in about a dozen pieces on the ground, each piece still looking functional and sound enough to suggest that the rifle could be lethally used.

“Reassemble it.”

This took a bit longer, the smaller pieces around the bolt requiring a bit of kneeling so I could stabilize them between my mouth and hooves. Just like disassembly though, the process was automatic, instinctively knowing where and how every piece went back together, as if the information was buried in my hidden mess of long-lost memories and could only be retrieved by not consciously thinking about it.

Once reassembled, including reloading the single bullet that had been chambered back into the small magazine, I slung it over my shoulder, looking once more into the gaze of the pegasus. Margin held his hoof out and it became my turn to toss him the rifle, which he subsequently returned to the one who donated it.

“Hoofstrong, you keep the drills going.” He remarked to the stallion that had donated his rifle, never breaking his gaze from me. “We're heading back to the village with Strange Flank.”

“And then he brought the two of us back here.” I concluded my brief recap of what happened to Fair Smile, the pegasus holding a rifle similar to the one that was so easily disassembled and reassembled earlier.

“So did you find your special talent again? Maybe you were always meant to be a guardspony?”

“FIRE!” The shrill voice from the pegasus leading the town session called out. Smile sprung to all fours and leaned over the peak of the house we were ontop of, angling her weapon down into the main street on the village. She pulled the trigger several times in a row, the silence of internals hitting nothing easily overcome by my companion counting every trigger pull of her hoof.

“15” She called out, moving her shooting hoof off of the trigger and hitting the small button to eject an already empty magazine, sliding back behind the angle of the roof once more. Quickly I leaned over and caught it with one hoof, the other empty magazine I had been holding in my mouth replacing it. Satisfied with the replacement, she popped back over the top and began counting off imaginary shots again.

After going through a third magazine she settled in back behind the angle of the roof once more, rolling onto her back while spread her wings all the way open. “If not a guardspony, maybe an escort? Being forced to learn to fight with your hooves and guns interchangeably to protect rich and important ponies?” She turned her head to look at me, hoping to ease my concern.

“No. No I don't think so. That doesn't explain the desire to record the weather. And who would want to record that anyway?”

“Just a hobby maybe?”

I stretched my right hoof out to the cloud-covered sky above us. “I can look at the sky, tell you that the wind has shifted a bit over the last two days and that there will probably be some rain in the next two days. And nopony would care. From what you guys said, it's only ever been rainy or cloudy for 200 years. If it really is pure anarchy beyond the mountains, any pony that wanted to live would know how to care for their weapons, right?”

She gave a slight shrug. “What did Water Margin say about it?”

“Nothing.” A thought. “Unless...” I shifted my weight a bit, letting gravity pull me slowly down the roof to the edge.

Fair Smile leaned forward before rolling over and looking at me with confusion. “What?”

“This is Doctor Constant's house. I spent my first few nights here, and if they're sitting upstairs...I might be able to hear them talking.”

Fair smile gave a few gentle flaps and hovered next to me as I perilously stood on the edge of the roof, my head just leaning over the edge. “Guess it's a good thing we don't practice Our Town's defense with live ammunition.” I gave her a shush and motioned back to the top of the roof, hoping she would get the point to cover us by being ready to resume the faux-firing if called upon.

“-there were cuts near the base of his ears and we think we could follow the scaring from stitches down to his nose. Aside from that, most of the scars on their body and face are consistent with fighting wounds received from fighting, similar to what the Raider Mare and Stallion from yesterday had.” A brief pause from the doctor. “Well, ignoring the mare's extreme taste for piercings.”

“Are they connected?” That was Mare Ether. “After all, the two of them showed the first day he started working in the fields. They could have been sent an automatic warning when he was awoken.”

“Not likely.” And that was Water Margin. “The mountains take days to traverse to the nearest wartime city. There's no way that all three are related. And his skills are nothing like the raiders. The mare especially thought that she could swing a weapon at everything, no tact, just force and talent. His hoof-to-hoof combat skills were something different, as if they were well practiced, almost as good as our best.”

“Mare Ether, if we may?” That was the doctor again. “We may have exaggerated with saying he had the same scars on his body. They shared the same defensive and fighting wounds, sure. But the new stallion had a distinct difference, like you'll see in the book.” I could only assume he was referring to the large medical book he kept in the operating room I had slept in the first few days. “All of the newcomers' scars are like the ones pictured here. Nice. Clean. No signs of even a passing infection.”

“We are not a doctor, Constant. Please get to the point.”

“The pictures in the book are from the war, but most of them were taken in hospitals and colleges in the big cities, away from the frontlines. And hospitals are clean, everything is precise, which isn't something anypony could accomplish in the chaos of the wasteland beyond the mountains now. They rely on old healing potions or really poor sewing, and the risk of infection for any open wound is incredible, small infections would be incredibly common. The mare had signs of a bad infection that had long since passed, and the stallion had evidence of small infections as well. But our amnesiac stallion friend had none. Everything was clean. When you couple that with where he was being kept, it's reasonable to assume your original assumption is correct.” A prolonged moment of silence followed.

I leaned back, taking some of the stress off my forelegs. So I wasn't the first newcomer to the village, but considering how the entire population seemed to be split into rotating shifts of three it wasn't that surprising that the ponies on my shift wasn't made aware of it. But more importantly was the wording. Kept? There didn't seem to be anywhere nearby that I would have been kept like a prisoner, and this village sounded like it is a long distance from any civilization? Did this mean every-pony in the village was wrong, and that there was civilization beyond the mountains? Or perhaps in the mountains itself, kept close and as a silent secret. Could that be the origin of the stories of mysterious giant ponies wandering the surrounding mountains?

I looked back up to the sky. If the pegasi still lived in the clouds and were hostile, maybe other ponies survived by hiding in underground caves in the mountains. Maybe ponies did the same even in lands beyond the mountains?

And if the entire sky was locked up behind the clouds and maintained by the pegasi, how would those pegasi stay fed? It took the collective effort of the entire village to produce enough food to feed about 200 to 250 ponies in this valley, and while it was enough to survive for the two centuries, it was stretched to it's very limits. Clouds didn't have nutrients, they were water vapor that gathered around small particles of dust, a piece of information I knew to be true almost from the moment I woke up. You can't grow plants on dust!

I gave a small groan, which pulled Fair Smile's attention back toward me. The idea of food in the sky and ponies beyond the village was too taunting to just idly think of, and wasn't helping my dilemma. “I need to get out of this valley.” She raised an eyebrow and began to open her mouth to ask. “They don't know who I am either. But they're probably going to assume I'm from the outside with nothing good.”

“But you've been good to us.”

I shook my head. “I don't want to do the Remarking.” I leaned back down again.

“How would you get out of here?” She asked, briefly looking around at the mountains around us.

“They mentioned two raiders. Meaning that ponies from the outside can get here.” The mare's eyes widened with surprise at this. “Maybe I can get in contact with them and they'll tell me out to get out of the mountains here.” While she may have said something else in response, I leaned back down again.

“-settled then. We already know what their talent is, and it already worked with the Raiders. Either they accept and join us, or they waste away in the underground camp before going on the Tree of Woe.”

Time to go. I didn't have any idea how to get out of the mountains, but right now it would be a better choice then to be here a moment longer. I gave a long stare toward the mountains, immediately planning an escape. There was a moderate hill in the distance, just getting over that would get me out of sight from all but the pegasi quickest to react. The only problem was that the hill was nearly half a mile out, and I was surrounded by pegasi right now.

“What's wrong?” My concentration was shattered, and I gave Fair Smile a look. Whatever look I had on my face obviously stunned her, as she slid down the roof closer to me. “What did they say?”

“What's the underground camp?”

“The camp? Tempered Iron runs it. Back in Starlight's time some ponies didn't like her idea of friendship, so they were sent to the camps where they learned better through work.”

“I'm not going to the camp.” Again I looked out toward the hill. “And I need to leave now.”

“Why? You haven't done anything wrong!” She reached her hooves out toward me, putting them on my shoulders. “Is it because you pulled us out of the mud the other day? We know that Woe Tree is big on the weak dying, but we thought no one saw it!”

“No, no. It's not that.” I looked right at her. “What's the quickest way out of the valley?”

She gave a pensive look to the left toward the clouds above, crossing her forelegs while trying to remember. “W-we've never known anyone to leave. Except for guard patrols, but they just circle the mountains immediately around the valley and don't go too far away. And the path to where the Remarking is done is straight back and forth”

Now it was my turn to put my hooves on her shoulders. “Please, anything would work at this point.”

“O-ok. We think-”

“ALL CEASE!” That was Water Margin, having stepped back outside the house we were ontop of.

“Strange Flank, please come on down. This is a glorious day!” Mare Ether's voice rang clear at it's direction toward me.

My time to escape was up before it had even begun.

“Do you want some help down?” Fair Smile asked, a saddened smile on her face. It was a saccharine scene, the almost frail looking mare wanting to offer help me even when she knew my fears were likely to be realized.

My pegasus friend sat me on the ground infront of Mare Ether and Water Margin. Ether had a big smile on her face, no hint of the tension that she had in her voice while inside talking. Water Margin also was back to his emotionless face as well, as if the two of them slipped right back into their public roles, not wanting the other ponies to deduce what they had been talking about.

“Strange Flank, after hearing about how great the sparring went down, it seems pretty clear to us that you've discovered your special talent like all of us! And now, we offer you our hooves-” and with that she reached one out towards me. “-and welcome you in the greatest exchange of friendship there can ever be.”

“And if I say no?” I asked, my eyes locked with her but using my periphery to notice that the other pegasi that had been partaking in the open-castle defense practice had all been coming to the ground, inadvertently forming a semi-circle trapping me between the house to my back and their masses. My mere suggestion at rejecting the concept brought murmuring through the entire crowd.

“You won't want to.” The unicorn lowered her hoof and took two steps toward me, nearly right in my face. “Trust me.” She whispered.

It was a strange thing to notice, but this was the first time I had ever heard her, or anyone else, refer to themselves as one pony, and not as a group. IN fact, with the exception of referring to the long-dead Starlight Glimmer, every single time somepony in the town spoke there was no distinction made unless the talk was in private. It was a strange perversion of language, much like the perversion of body with everyone carrying the exact same cutie mark.

Glowing Ether turned around before looking over her shoulder, plainly expecting me to follow. I took a step forward, having no other reasonable options.

“Life's not so bad here.” Fair Smiles remarked, leaning next to me. “It's painful at first, the remarking. But the emptiness fades for the friendship.” Her words were unconvincing, to both myself and her.

Or do you just learn to ignore it? I thought in response, not willing to bring myself to answering aloud. Surrounded by the throng of Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns I had worked alongside the last two and a half days, all led by Mare Ether and Water Margin. We had all gone down a path into the mountains, already walking for a few miles and well out of sight of the village.

“There's a moment where you can...can feel...the others flow into you.” Her hesitation was a bit more bold now. “And you can tell that you won't hurt them.” And with that Smiles voice trailed off for good, as she continued to walk beside me, doing the best to keep her actual feelings hidden. When we had talked about it last night she was a bit somber about it, but now it seemed more like fear, fear and anxiety she was trying to talk herself through.

“Everypony in Our Town has this moment!” The head unicorn shouted with glee, leading us straight down the path into the entrance of a cave. “Inside here, we all make the choice to embody the elements of friendship!” The inside was utterly dark, and the unicorns in the group all lit their horns one after another, bring illumination to the interior.

For a moment I was reminded of what I had read in the forgotten copy of 'Glimmers of Truth' that had been in the Doctor's locked room. “The cave overlooking Our Town will hold the knowledge for you to make your final choice.” I took a look behind us, but we were deep enough in the mountain range that there was no view of the town. Maybe the passage was referring to a metaphorical looking down?

“Through our generosity, we give of ourselves all that we are.” She stepped around a large square box, chest high and reflecting light as if from a box. “ And through this choice, we find loyalty toward the ponies like us.” She turned to face me now, glass behind her similar reflecting the light from her horn. “We can then be truly honest with ourselves and those around us, and can share in the joys of laughter and the sorrow requiring kindness without any cruelty.” With this, the light from her horn flared brighter, illuminating the immediate area around and behind her.

Nothing that Fair Smile could have said would have made what I saw seem normal. A massive glass panel stood behind her, cracks splintering the edges. Behind the glass panel was rows upon rows of paper, all pressed behind the glass like photos in an album, a small number of the slots behind cracked glass empty. And on all but one of the sheets of paper were distinctly different images, each of them enshrined almost perfectly painted. Bread. Seeds. A rifle. Flowers. A giftwrapped box. Each one had been drawn impeccably perfect on the pieces of paper, each one unique and perfect. On the side of the giant box Ether's magic grabbed a object and brought it up next to her.

“And through this choice, we all share in the magic of true friendship!” She looked straight at me, still beaming a bold smile while using her telekinesis to raise up a long metallic rod, tipped with a large arrowhead shape that didn't hold a straight edge throughout, curving about midway down before tapering back to it's point. In the center of the arrowhead a faint light could be seen, a purple four-cornered star with two green wisps above it giving off a strong light after reacting to Mare Ether holding it in her telekinesis, a light that was distinctly different to Ether's own telekinesis.

Two similar lights appeared to both sides of me. I swung my head to the left, beholding Water Margin as he hovered in the air, holding in his hooves a much longer metal spear, twisted in the middle multiple times over until the twists straightened out into two parallel rods ending in tight tips. At the center of the wraps the same purple star and green wisps could be seen, overlaid and seared into the spear. Looking to the right, I beheld Tempered Iron, who I hadn't even seen join us in the march here. His spear was the same one he had used to assault one of the factory workers yesterday, two primary rods twisted around eachother from tip to tip except for the mouthgrip in the center.

“Here in Starlight's Shrine of Sacrifice, we ask of you to reject all that you are, and all that you can be.” The three spear wielders all took a simultaneous bow in the direction of the large box positioned just in front of Mare Ether and the giant glass album. I hesitantly took two steps forward, drawn by morbid curiosity of the glass topped box, the same turquoise tinted light now shining through the box as well.

Inside was a unicorn mare. Her mane and tail long faded to grey, eyes and mouth clinched shut as if hostage in a horrifying nightmare. Her forehooves were tightly drawn to her sides, and her body and rear legs were wrapped in a large white cloth, two large and faded grey parallel stripes running perpendicular to her body. The light came from the unicorn's horn, bright enough that it illuminated the corpse with a ghastly glow. Still dealing with the unease from seeing a corpse using magic, I then recognized the face. The same face that was on the large painting in the Doctor's house and my friend's own house, the village's first Ministry Mare.

I looked up at the village's current Minsitry Mare standing on the other side of the box, looking at me while bearing a grin of malice and depraved joy. “No.” I shook my head, taking a step back from the interred mare. “I don't know what you're holding, I don't know how you've kept a pony two hundred years dead from decaying, I don't know how you're using her magic, and I don't know how you forced everypony here to give up their cutie marks. But this is wrong. And I will not give my mark up.” I took two more steps back, shaking my head at the absurdity of the situation. “It's the only thing I have connecting me to my past!” I remarked, voice pitching higher.

I wanted to run. I wanted to run so badly. But the large throng of ponies that had come surrounded me were still all at the cave's enterance, blocking the way out, and there wasn't anywhere deeper to run anyway. Even knowing this, my eyes constantly scanned side to side for any way out of the predicament I found myself in, my heartbeat pounding in my ears loud enough to make it harder to hear the unicorn as she responded.

“Think about your Cutie Mark.” Mare Ether remarked, pointing the end of her spear directly at me as she trotted around the glass-topped coffin. “You don't have a choice in the matter.”

The glow emanated from inside the coffin grew stronger while maintaining it's turquoise coloring. The three spears joined it as their own illumination took on the same turquoise hue. I spun around, seeing the hordes of ponies that had accompanied us on our trip to this unnatural sight...and decided to run. Breaking into a gallop, I lowered my head and prepared to bowl over anypony in my way.

No sooner had I taken two steps then I felt the grip of magic wrapping around my body, heaving me off of the ground. The source of the magic was from the three spears, each drawing it's own perfect line from it's wielder to me. I could feel knives prying into my flanks, but as I looked down there were no such objects. The phantom stabbing made my entire body seized up, a cold chill deeper then my bone tearing through my body from nose to tail. As if it was echoing from the deepest parts of my body, a cacophony of pained wails echoed in my head, the nightmarish symphony full of pain not even coming from my ears, but the center of my head.

Finally, after what felt like innumerable minutes, the screams began to fade, as did the chilling pain. I felt exhausted, still cold from the touch that went beyond skin deep. The magic entrapping me began to fade, and I was dropped, falling nose-first into the packed dirt below me, heaving rapidly into the dust. Even while I automatically started routing my breathing through my nose and out my mouth to calm myself, it did nothing to stave off the terror of the experience. My stomach turned, and I fought hard not to vomit.

“WHAT!?” Tempered Iron shouted.

“Why didn't it work!?” Mare Ether shouted hoarsely at me, jabbing me in the flank with the sharp end of her spear. “Did you LIE!?”

“Wha-What do you mean?” I asked, rolling to my side while taking a look at my right flank. The same symbol, the upward knife with the half-spheres of a weather-vane as it's mouth guard still sat, defiantly imprinted on my body.

“LIAR!” She jabbed me again with the spear, this time cutting into the flesh just to the side of my tail. After the horrifying experience earlier, the cut almost didn't register with me, not even remotely as terrifying as the screaming and chill. “YOU! You lied to us about your Cutie Mark!”

I stumbled back onto all fours, turning my wounded flank away from her and walking backwards once more. “I never told you anything! I don't know what it represents either!”

“SEIZE THEM! We'll MAKE him give his mark up, or else make them DIE like the individualist SWINE you are!” She swung her spear at me once more, and I leapt back to avoid it. Hoof-falls sounded behind me, and I swung around to see one of the earth ponies I had been sparring with earlier rushing toward me. With no time to sidestep I ground my legs into the ground, lowering my body just enough to thrust it into the side of the charging pony, forcing him to roll off to the side. A unicorn's magic wrapped around my rear legs, and I twisted to look at the offending unicorn, my ears swiveling to the sound of wingbeats behind. Using my forelegs I leapt at the pony grabbing me with his magic, intentionally landing short as the pegasus collided into the unicorn. The impact broke the mare's concentration and I moved back on all fours, once more bringing my gaze to the throng of ponies standing between myself and the way out.

Just like before, I charged at the mass, eyes closed, head low, and prepared to bowl into any pony in the way. Running on pure fear-driven adrenaline and instinct, the head-first impact I had with the crowd resulted in a pair of loud 'oofs' as a mare-stallion duo collapsed to the ground. My hooves dug into their bodies and I leapt forward, trying to clear as many ponies as possible. Once more I felt my rear legs grabbed in a telekinetic grip, stalling my forward momentum. Momentum that was sent straight to the ground as a pegasus smashed herself into me, forcing me to the ground and pounding his hooves into my skull. The wind was summarily knocked out of me as a heavy earth pony tossed his entire weight onto the center of my back. The impact forced my eyes open, and I stretched out my right foreleg toward the outside light, only for the light to be cut off as another pony slammed their entire weight into my outstretched leg.

The pegasus continued tap-dancing on my skull as more and more weight was piled on me, my legs kept in a firm magical grip leaving me unable to even attempt to fight back. I could hear my ribs cracking from the force, forcing air out of my lungs, air I couldn't replenish in time. The magical illumination of the cave gradually faded away, blackness encroaching my entire vision. The last thing I heard was Fair Smile, though what she said I couldn't decipher from the ensuing unconsciousness.

Achievement Unlocked: Ah Sweet, Mare-Made Horrors Beyond My Comprehension – Visit the Mausoleum of Our Town's Original Ministry Mare, Starlight Glimmer. You know, you used to have to get directions from magical maps to see this kind of stuff, but thanks to the Wasteland now you just have to, it's everywhere...huh.