Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

“I wish I had my hammer and spikes.”

My eyes slowly opened up, consciousness finally coming back to me.

“Hey, calm down buddy.” A stallion with a unkempt blue-grey coat remarked, sitting a few inches away from my neck. “You took one hell of a beating back there. Must have really pissed the town off.”

I tried raising my neck to look at him, only for a hoof to be pressed solidly on my right temple and force it back on the ground.

“Hey, no moving. Be thankful that I don't have any spikes to keep you down.” I couldn't see this pony, but her gruff voice alone made it pretty obvious that she was way more interested in adding to my injuries rather then avoiding them.

“Amber, I told you. No.” The stallion firmly and curtly spoke at her.

She groaned a bit, taking her hoof back off my skull. “Danm it Spice. I came out here because there is no fun in Manehattan. But you know how many skulls I've bashed since leaving? Two. Two whole raiders, and they both were so far gone that they barely even reacted.”

“Ignore her.” He looked out of the corner of his eye for a moment while the sound of his magic hummed in the background.

I could hear her sit down behind me in a pout. “If I knew that we wouldn't be allowed to cut loose out here, I would have stayed back and found a way to smash some featherbrains.” She huffed.

The unicorn tending to me gave a defeated sigh. “They would have disintegrated you into dust the moment you stepped outside.”

“That would be better then taking my marks and my hammer!” She shouted, loud enough for her voice to reverberate off the cave's walls.

I looked at the stallion's flank. Just like the citizens of the village, he also had the same pair of grey lines in place of a normal cutie-mark.

“Why you? And-” I gave a slight wheeze, my ribs causing me pain from the mass beating earlier. “And not me?”

I winced a bit from a prick. Taking a look at the source in my side, it was obvious he was trying to use a safety pin to hold the bandages in place. Thankfully, it wasn't rusty looking, so I shouldn't have to worry about infection. “Sorry about that.” His face carried a sad smile, likely trying to minimize the pricking mistakes. “Oh, The marks? I was going to ask you the same thing. How do you still have your Cutie Mark?” He gave a pat on my side before standing up. “You should be good to move around, but don't put too much strain on your left foreleg or breathe too heavily. I'm no doctor, but when you've been in the Wastes for long enough, you pick up these things.”

I slowly rolled over to get my legs back under me, slight pain in both of my forelegs. Only for the entire room to start spinning just as I started standing up. Instinctively, I panicked and tried putting my hooves out to the sides, but a bit too much pressure and I went right back down onto the ground.

“He's good as dead. Can't I just have a little fun with him before he expires?”

“No. He probably has a concussion, he's not bleeding out from his brain.” The stallion leaned a forehoof out towards me, and using my good front leg I wrapped it around his as he helped pull me back onto all fours.

“The name's Spice Chaser. She's Amber Swing, my marefriend. What's your name?”

“I don't know.”

“Shitty name if I ever heard of one.” She called out, I gingerly turned my head toward her to get my first view of the mare. She had just bent down to grab a pick-axe off the ground, slowly walking to one of the earthen walls surrounding us. Her soft-colored pink coat was covered with scars, not to mention her tail had been hastily cut down to just a few inches off of her dock, which was pierced while sticking high up, and with every swing she took with the pick-axe on the wall it exposed her femininity.

I turned aside, ignoring her audacity out of...nervousness? “Where are we?” I asked, trying to shove her blatant display from my mind.

“Wow, hit so hard that you forgot your name? And you first question is where we are?” The unicorn walked infront of me, shaking his head.

“No, I already didn't know my name.” I gingerly took a step forward, favoring my left foreleg in a way that really wasn't comfortable. “I don't remember anything beyond a few days ago.”

“Really? Then count yourself lucky that you're hiding out in these mountains, rather then the rest of the wasteland.”

“So there are ponies out there. I knew it.”

“Not for long.” Once again his horn was set alight with magic as he picked up a pickaxe of his own, heading over to one of the other walls. In fact, the entire 'room' we were in just looked like a massive hollowed out cavern of rock and stone. “The Enclave decided to start coming down and wreak havoc just the other day, it's all out war in the wastes right now! We came here looking to secure some food, only a party of two because we figured they wouldn't waste airships with just a pair of us in the mountains.”

That was a lot of information to take in. Gingerly I took several more steps to follow him. “How bad is it out there?”

“Let me think here.” The light blue unicorn raise a hoof to his mouth in mock thought. “How does horrible sound? They came down to Friendship City and were barely fought off after trying to level the place, they took out Canterlot, good riddance to that hellhole though. They might have killed Red Eye's goons, but it's still a de-facto embargo on anything going in-or-out of Tenpony Tower.” He smacked the pick-axe into the side of the cave wall. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” His concluding statement had more anger put into it then the swings of the pick-axe.

“So if that's going on back home, what are you doing here?” He was easy enough to talk and get needed information from. While setting him up to give me my next info-dump, I twisted my body only to be met with the disappointing realization that my satchel and all of it's contents were gone, likely stripped from me by the villagers.

“He let the old ponies in the Tower convince him that there was some food out here.” The mare called out from the other side of the room. I turned to look at her once more, and now that she was facing me I could see the mare from the front, an Earth Pony with five large pieces of metal clamped onto her left ear and four more on her right, along with a thin stick of metal that glinted in the light that went through her nose. All of that, along with the completely careless dirty gold mane that was similar to her tail in the tight cut, made me confident that she was the craziest pony I had seen since waking up in Sooth Constant's home a few days ago. “Hornheads always believe any old written crap.”

“They aren't just some 'written crap' Amber. It was old Census data from before Luna took over. It's one of several towns that went totally off the map in the transition of power. I don't know how they got into Twilight's old library, but it's more potential food then anything else they'd get.”

Twilight? Records? Transition?

“Yeah, and you wanted to just stroll up and offer a trade with the crazy locals with the creepy smiles and the same cutie-marks.”

The unicorn stiffened up. “It's better then running in and smashing 250 ponies heads in with a hammer.” With how irrate he was, I could only guess that this oncoming argument had been retread several times over between the two.

She blew air out of her mouth at that. “Maybe for one pony, but you've got a horn and had more guns and ammo then one could throw a bloatfly at! We could have taken them, if you weren't such a pansy about getting kicked out!”

“Danm it Amber, we've had this talk before!” I instinctively winced from the sound of his pick-axe smashing deep into the side of the wall as he faced his crazy marefriend. The wooden handle continued to vibrate even after he dropped his telekenetic grasp on it. “You can't go in and smash everything to get what you want! I especially can't! If I go out there and start gunning down random ponies, that's a one-way-trip to the execution chair. And we had just spent so long getting into Tenpony Tower, I'm not going to throw it all away just a few days after moving in!”

“But you'll still have no problem letting me do all the smashing for you.”

“Nopony would recognize you outside of Tenpony Tower with those piercings or your armor.” He sighed and shook his head. “Look, if we get out of here, and you get your hammer back, feel free to smash and torment anypony you want.”

The grin on her face was pure glee, like the dark side of the glee that Fair Smile had shown at the thought of treasure. “The big grey one.” Excitement was woven all through her voice. “Between him and that bitch of a mare that runs this circus, I'm going to make them pray to Luna like nopony has in a 'undred years!”

“I'd like to see you try.” The familiar booming voice from above turned our collective attention simultaneously to a small wooden platform near the roof, the familiar sight of Shattered Iron looking down with a sneer.

“You soft fuckers wouldn't last 10 seconds in the wasteland, just like your filthy Swine Metal!” Amber shouted at him, full of impassioned malice.

“And you think that you could best our Iron factory? The pride and joy of Our Town? You fail to realize that the factory-” He narrowed his gaze directly at her as a smile enveloped his face. “-is me. Just like this prison. And just like every ache and pain you'll feel while hewing for us.”

“Your Iron is so weak that-that...” She trailed off, her enthusiasm abrutply falling off into an almost confused murmur. “that it's bad!”

“Strange Flank!” Obviously done taunting the mare, his attention was turned towards me as his face returned to a stoic one. “Consider this your lucky day. We have reasoned to mare Ether to give you one last chance. Either choose to spend the rest of your life hewing away down here for the glory of Our Town, or come clean and honest over what your Cutie-mark really is all about. And we recommend choosing fast.” He was a good 20 feet above us, but I could make out through the faint candlelight of the cave a smirk forming on his features.

“What if I don't want to stay here? Would you let me leave?”

“Starlight Glimmer made it plain many years ago that nopony would ever leave Our Town. Her vision was so perfect that to defect from it is laughable.”

“Iron!” Now it was the unicorn's turn to speak up. “I still wish for an audience with Woe Tree and Ministry Mare Ether! I'm sure that we could come to a reasonable compromise on trade!”

“Mare Ether has no interest in talking with you.” He turned his back to us, raising his hoof to the door right behind him. “And Strange Flank, we strongly recommend choosing fast.” With that he stepped out, the iron door slamming shut behind him, the clang quickly echoing down into the quiet ambiance of the cave.

“I'll fuck him in half. I'll fuck him in half. I'll fuck him in half.” The mare mumbled to herself almost psychotically, before biting down on the pick-axe once more before wailing at the wall.

“So that's all it took? Lying about your cutie-mark?” The blue unicorn turned his back to me and once more turned towards the wall. “Man, I wish I had thought of that.”

“I didn't lie. I don't know anything before waking up the other day.”

A rough electronic sqwuak sounded from above, and I turned up to look at a speaker hanging from the ceiling of the cave as it began broadcasting static and a message.

“In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your Cutie-mark and choose Equality over your special talent.” And then it began repeating the exact same thing, barely audible over the fluctuating static.

“How many loops until it cuts out this time? I'm betting 12.” The unicorn asked aloud.

“FifTmph!” Her answer was incredibly muffled by her mouth's grip on the pick-axe.

“Does that play often?” I asked, looking at an unused shovel laying on the ground.

“Every now and again, not super often. It does get a little annoying when it goes off in the middle of the night though.” Gingerly I sat my bandaged leg on the blade of the shovel, bringing the handle up nearer to my mouth so I wouldn't upset my horrible sense of balance too much. As long as I was down here, I might as well spend some time trying to help my new compatriots earn their food.

“Hey Strange Flank.” I turned my head from the Candlelit walls and wooden platform toward Spice Chaser, the Unicorn levitating an item beside his head. “Do you play?”

“My name's not Strange Flank.” Coming onto all fours, I took a few steps toward him. “At least I don't think so. And what do you mean by pla-” Cutting myself off, the question metamorphized into something more obvious. “Where did you get playing cards down here!?”

The Unicorn smirked, motioning his head to the side next to where Amber Swing was sitting, giving the two of us a careless gaze. Obviously he wanted me to join them. “Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.” Without further elaboration he tossed the plastic covering off the deck and dropped it on the ground beside him, sitting down adjacent to his marefriend. “Wanna try spades?”

“Spades?”

“It's an old card game from before the bombs.” The mare remarked while the unicorn shuffled the cards in midair.

“You split the cards evenly between all the players. Everypony then places down a card in counter-clockwise order, and whoever put down the highest-valued card takes that trick. Once all the cards and tricks are played the set is called. The Aces are above Celestia, Celestia is above Luna. Luna is above Cadence. And then it's all numbers down 10 through 2. A spade always trumps the other cards.”

“Don't forget the best part.” The mare raised and dropped her hoof ontop of each card. “Before you start the first round of trick taking, everypony needs to look at their cards and bet on how many tricks that they can take in that hoof, but only to the right of the dealer, then to the right of him, and so on.” She raised her gaze and locked her eyes with me. “You can either match the last pony's bet, or go as high as you want. But never any lower.” She narrowed her eyes as if trying to intimidate me. “At all.”

“If you pull your exact number of specified tricks, you get to take ten times the number you bet for your score. Any extras ontop of it are just a single digit bonus. So if I bet seven tricks and take eight, I'd take 71 points for that set.” Spice kept his visual focus on passing the last of the cards out. “But if you don't get the number you're going for, you lose that many points times ten. So if I bet eight and only took seven...”

“It's eight-tens in the hole.” Amber cut him off, leaning back into her more normal stance and going through her cards.

I looked down at the small pile of cards that had been pushed my way, putting one hoof on the back of the small pile while using the other hoof to push the edge closest to me up.

18 different cards looked back at me. Three of Hearts. Five of Hearts. Ace of Clovers, Four of Diamonds, five of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts, Nine of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, Ace of Diamonds, Three of Spades, Three of Clovers, Five of Spades, Eight of Spades, Seven of Clovers, Eight of Clovers, Nine of clovers, A very strange looking card, and a white alicorn with Spades.

“What is this furred snake with...” I trailed off for a bit. “Paws? A claw?”

“Discord?” She asked raising an eyebrow. “A joker. If you have three players instead of two or four, or you have even more, you get to add two jokers so everypony's has the same number of cards.” I nodded, looking back down at the design, with the character holding strings over ponies as if controlling marionettes. “Discord is the lesser joker, and he can trump even an Ace of Spades.” The unicorn gave her a quick disapproving glare, but she continued, ignorant of her partner's short and crude look. “There's also the Elements of Harmony. They're the biggest joker and will automatically take the entire trick, even over Discord.”

“Are you going to bet honey?”

She raised the edge of her stack up towards her, looking at the entire stack as each card flipped down from her hoof's edge. “Three tricks.”

The duo's gaze went toward me as I looked at my set again. “Three tricks?” My unfamiliarity with the game keeping me from being confident with any pull.

Spice Chaser held his stack spread out in his magical grip, pondering his stack for a moment. “Five Tricks.”

Rear leg thumping aggressively, Amber bit down on her tonuge, a wicked grin spread on her face. It seems like it didn't matter the circumstance, this mare always was holding back some type of deranged joy, even with just considering a higher bid. “Six tricks.” Now she began spreading the cards out in an array formation before her, all still facing down.

I looked at my stack once more. Remembering the rule that underbidding was impossible, I put my hope in Amber's hooves. “Six tricks.”

“Ten Tricks.” The unicorn looked at his partner, meeting her own psychotic gaze with a much more calm and restrained smile.

“You're going to be so sorry-” She pushed one of the cards forward, and it caught the air and flipped over face up in the middle of the stack. “-When you're down in the first round by ten tens.” And with that, our game was on.

He kept a neutral smile despite the Dark Blue Alicorn with hearts in the corners looking face up at us all.s It was my turn to put a card down, but there was no way that anything I had would take this round from her...unless?

The smile on her face faded as I placed the three of spades down.

“Usually we don't break Spades until the second hand.” He lay down a six of hearts while looking at me.

“Yeah, but that's never stopped us before back home! You're just angry that you couldn't cull first blood Spice!”

This was the second time he had not shared a rule. Was this some underhoofed trick to stack the game in his favor, try to catch me off guard and invalidate any strategies as we went along? If that was the case. “Do you want to reshuffle and start the game over?” I offered, placing my hoof on the trio of cards while locking my gaze with the unicorn.

“Ugh. Too long, and we've never cared before now.” Amber groaned out. “Spice forgets this shit all the time.” With the mare's confirmation, I slid the cards across the uneven ground and next to me, not breaking my gaze with the unicorn and what appeared to be guilt from being caught in his eyes.

“It's your turn. The pony that takes the last trick starts the next one.” He remarked, breaking our stare with a blink before looking at his mare-friend. Despite the guilt in his eyes, his tone suggested to me that forgetting to share the order of play was more of a personal mistake rather then something to intentionally undermine me.

Or at least that's what he wanted me to think. I put my Ace of Clubs went down, hoping that neither of the duo would commit to a spade yet. The card dealer played a five of clovers, while the mare among us played a two of clovers, apparently not even trying to take it from me. So the second trick went to me as well.

“I guess you two play this with others often?” While probing for anything else of value, either admission of guilt or omission of other rules, I began focusing on a new strategy that I was starting to piece together in my head. 18 tricks in total, and I had already taken the first two. But you add what we all predicted together and it was 21 total. At least one of my partners were overconfident...or intentionally hiding their actual ability. It depended on who it was that was pushing too hard. I sat down an Ace of Diamonds to kick off the next trick.

“From time to time. Sometimes if one of my orders take a long time to cook I'll play a few rounds with some customers.” While speaking with my Spice reacted to my play, taking it from me with a Six of Spades.

“It can be fun sometimes to watch those ponies squirm when they try to barter a better price if they win. Shame they stopped doing that so quickly.” Amber Swing waited until she finished speaking to finish the trio of cards, and she didn't deviate from the initial suit that had been played, playing a three of diamonds, in turn giving the unicorn his first trick.

A bright white Alicorn graced our faces next, her body and the edges of the cards emblazoned with diamonds. This was responded with a six of diamonds, and I wrapped up the trick with a five of spades.

“Orders?” I may have had some diamonds to use, but if I could burn all of my spades and his spades up as quickly as possible, then I should be able to pull off my required number of tricks while he would run out of spades before claiming his ten. Already I was halfway to my goal.

“Oh yeah, you haven't seen our cutie marks. Working out trades with hidden settlements isn't my full time job.” I had the dark blue alicorn, surrounded by diamonds, grace our presence. My rival's response was to stop midsentence and stare at his cards with a moment of contemplation, ending his stall with the play of a two of diamonds. “I work as a confectioner. Tenpony Tower is pretty much the only place that can afford my services.” The mare merely played an eight of the same suit. With that, I just needed two more tricks.

But as the game progressed, I noticed a potential problem. I had already burned through all but one of my Princess cards, and while Discord still stared at me, as did an eight of spades, neither of the cards were anything I'd feel comfortable playing. While all three of them gave me a high chance to get my two tricks, they all could be equally overcame with a better card.

“He doesn't only bake cupcakes.” Amber Swing picked up on his explanation. “Rather then let us be, we have to go out all the time to prove our worth. Tenpony Tower isn't content to just let us trade and work in peace. Some stallion or another always wants Spice to go and put his life on the line for some manebrained scheme. Not like I'm complaining though.”

Three of Clovers. If I couldn't take the hand by leading it, maybe I could circle around and take it from someone else a bit later. The response was the blue alicorn, now surrounded by the same set of clovers with several adorning her own regalia as well. Six of clovers was followed up, and the trick, and control of the following one, went to the Unicorn once more.

“Why don't you go out by yourself then?” I posited to the mare. She bit her tongue for a moment, and rubbed her left shoulder with the opposite hoof.

“The Wasteland is no place to be rummaging solo, unless you're some big named hero, like that Stable Dweller or that security-mercenary in the Hoof.” Spice chaser remarked, leading the next round with a Four of Clovers. “I'd rather be out here with Amber then by myself again.” His marefriend responded with the Pink Alicorn surrounded by clovers, turning and looking at him with a much more peaceful gaze then the scowl she had been wearing near-permanently the whole day.

I took my fifth needed trick with the eight of clubs I had. The two lovers were briefly distracted with each other, giving me a chance to better examine my stance in the game. Still with two of the highest four cards in my stack, the white Alicorn of Spades and the mishmashed creature known as 'Discord', it seemed to me a 50-50 chance that I could wrap it up early.

Perhaps if I went fishing a bit more for their personal lives, I could wrap up the game while they were distracted. “You don't seem like much of a baker though.” It was a bit of a risky thing to say to the mare who so often came off as unhinged and irate, but with the softer she had just showed to her unicorn partner, now seemed like the best chance to strike.

“I'm a Smithy.” The unicorn responded to my play with a ten of clovers, and Amber went silent, staring at the pair of played cards before looking back at her dwindling personal stack. She finally settled on a two of spades, the first time that she had played out of suit, and in turn, the first trick she would take.

“Like a blacksmith?” I asked.

She nodded, revealing to us the pink alicorn, her face gracing us for the second time, surrounded by diamonds this time. At this point I was pretty sure all the high-value diamonds had been played, and while it was tempting to use the remaining princess spade or the wildcard to steal it, that in turn would reduce my control over later tricks. “Lots of ponies trade in old pipe rifles and scrap metal for caps. I'm the one that turns it into something useful for the Tower, or for the scavenging ponies that want something more.”

It would be a gamble, foregoing immediate security for greater control, but I was significantly closer to my bet then either of them, and if I could turn both of them against each other in a late-game frenzy it might be possible to guarantee neither would hit their bets. So, I played the suit with a non-threatening four. “What do you mean by more?”

The other stallion, still behind on his goal, went for the throat, putting down a nine of spades, gaining the trick and resuming control. He kicked off the next round with another pink alicorn, this one surrounded by hearts that matched the ones adorning her regalia.

“Weapons.” She remarked with a wicked smile, one that didn't quite match the impact her mere two of hearts commanded.

“You do blacksmithing for guns?” I answered with a low three of hearts on my own.

Spice Chaser chuckled, though I was sure if it was at taking the hand or what I asked. “She couldn't shoot the broadside of a fillyfooler's door with a shotgun at 10 feet.” He was closing on his lofty goal of ten tricks.

I didn't have a Queen, King, or Ace, and was caught off guard by underestimating the lack of spades played by Amber without realizing that she didn't even try to confront him for the card. “Can't stand guns. Give me a spike through the knee or a smash to the skull anyday.” For whatever reason, Amber had always played to the suit with just a single exception thus far. Was she just holding a bunch of spades and the other wildcard, trying to rush to her number in the closing hands? I took a look at her face, studying her eyes as she still kept a loose bite on her tongue while the Ace of Hearts was now played. As if to change focus from the stress of the game she looked at me once more. “Thankfully there are plenty of ponies and griffons out there who respect the feel of rending flesh and shattering bone. And the Tower ponies can't care because everything can be marketed different then what it is.” Now she placed a four of hearts, still not trying to confront her collapsing place in the game. And no one had played the White Alicorn, Celestia, of the suit yet. There was no reason for her to be holding back, and I didn't have it either.

Something she said about 'marketed' difference caught my attention. “Different then what it is? So you don't sell them as weapons?” I did still have Celestia surrounded by Spades, and so I took this trick, simultaneously hitting my required number while also pushing to deny both of them the chance at hitting their marks at this point. I ran a short count in my head. She was still short five tricks, him six. While the exact number of spades that she had left was still up in the air, she had been consistent at playing the suit thus far.

“Hammers are tools for building, maces are for demolition. Even had a few metalheads from Bucklyn Cross have me make swords for awards back when I first moved to Friendship City.” At this point it seemed like she wasn't really focused on the game, a hint of smile grazing her face once more as she spent more time looking up as if reminiscing rather then playing the game.

“What do you sell the most weapons with?” I asked, playing a Five of Diamonds. It was a bit of a risk to try and bait her into seeing if she would fully focus back on the game, or if she even had any good cards left. If she played a spade like I anticipated, then it was reasonable leap to assume that she had no more Clovers or Diamonds.

“Spikes.”

“Spikes?'

“Railroad Spikes.” He muttered through gritted teeth, placing down the White alicorn surrounded by spades, trumping her own four and stealing the trick. But with that frustrated look, he must not have been planing to use it yet. If he was losing confidence, it would just be a question of how many spades she had...and spades that he wouldn't take. And I still had one more potentially useful card to upset one more round, useful if either of them got too close to their target. The White Alicorn graced our presence once more, Celestia surrounded by hearts.

“Some out of town ponies want to redo the entire Equestrian rail network. They pay well and there's more then enough scrap brought in to cover what they want.” A seven was brought out, apparently her stack's heart reserve was larger then the clovers or diamonds. “So I've been making a lot of cuts of rail and railroad spikes. And those...” She sighed and her entire conscious went dour. “I-I think they're easier then the spike knives? Or they're not fun, or something.” Her abrupt deflation mirrored that of when she was spatting with the Tempered Iron earlier.

“You ok?” Spice Chaser remarked, putting his cards on the ground and reaching his hoof out towards her.

“I'll be fine. I just want my mark and hammer back.” She responded with a muted tone and gritted teeth.

“We will. We will. We can find a way out of here soon, I promise.” While he was still distracted from the game by her moody downturn, I noticed he was still five tricks short, and there were only five more tricks after this one. I placed my final high card, the bizarre snake-shaped joker card coming down and stealing an extra trick for myself. Neither of the two reacted, sitting for a moment in silence as the unicorn gently rubbed his marefriend's upper back with a hoof as if to try and soothe her.

I took the moment to look at my remaining cards were numbered, none of them spades. It didn't matter now though, I had plundered so much from the pot early that unless one of them took all five of the remaining tricks, neither would get their totals and both would plunge into the hole.

Ready to end the game, I played a ten of hearts, and Spice responded with a card containing six large gemstones, each with distinctly different shapes. This must have been the strongest wildcard, the Elements of Harmony card. He took this hand by default, and the nine of hearts that his marefriend carelessly put down had no real bearing on the trick anyways.

The depressed silence killed the ongoing conversation for the remaining tricks. For the final time the White Alicorn graced the center of our makeshift circle, instantly trumped by a seven of spades, and my own five of hearts didn't contribute anything. But it was over, the mare taking this trick meant that neither of them would hit their numbers, and now it was just a matter of running the tricks down.

Ten of spades. My Nine of Diamonds. Nine of hearts. Hers.

Ace of Spades. Eight of Clubs. Seven of Diamonds. Also Hers. Too little too late.

Simultaneously we all tossed our final cards down, her final one locking this trick up as well, just one short. The dark blue Alicorn didn't grace our presence this time.

She was black, a cruel and sinister sneer adorning it's face with jagged teeth, looking less like a pony and more like a monstrosity, the spades surrounding the card also filling the mane behind her head admits smaller white dots. All of it was offset by a face shield covering her forehead and protecting the base of her horn as well. The very image left me feeling unsettled to my core, a chill creeping down my spine.

A chuckle. “You let a total newbie beat you on your first try? Must be going soft from all of your cookies Spice.” Amber Swing shot a cruel leer at the unicorn.

“If I thought he was going to take seven tricks I would have bet accordingly.” He sighed as the Amber gathered all the cards up with her hooves, preparing to do some earth pony shuffling. “I'm just too used to playing with you who's honest to a fault, and the few customers in Manehattan who don't have a ounce for thought in planning.”

“You know, sixty-one points aint' bad.” The earth pony leaned toward me and poked me in the ribs with the edge of her hoof. “But imagine how much better seventy could be.”

My focus wasn't on the game or any strategy blunders, I just barely processed her words. The image on that final card still haunted me, even now when she was lost in the deck.

“What was that final card?”

“Ten of Diamonds?”

“The Alicorn. That didn't look like the Blue one, Luna.”

The two of them looked at eachother, Amber taking a moment to stop shuffling. “You mean Nightmare Moon? Luna's alter-ego?”

The name seemed vaguely familiar, maybe having overheard it in some other pony's conversation in the communal dinners. I shook my head, a name alone not holding much meaning.

“Have you really never heard of the tale of Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony?” I shook my head no. “I'm no good with stories. You tell him Spice.” The mare now began passing out the cards, having completed her shuffling process.

The unicorn sighed, picking the cards up one at a time as they came to him. “A long time ago, some twelve hundred years ago by now, there were two pony sisters who became immortal beings of great power, one able to raise the sun and bring it across the heavens, and one able to do the same with the moon. After performing amazing feats in time of chaos and war, the three pony tribes made them their leaders, Princess Celestia, the Regal Keeper of the Sun, and Princess Luna, the Illustrious Guardian of the Night.” He stretched a hoof upwards as it reaching towards the sky, though in this dug out prison pit he was really only stretching in a direction vaguely pointing at the guard that was doodling in his plastic book.

“And that's when everything went wrong.”

“Amber-”

“What? You know it's true. Ponies are better on their own, just a few of them working together. None of them leading others, and none of this whole big bad nation crap.” The mare spat on the ground beside her, compiling her stack of cards together.

“You didn't have a problem moving in with me to Manehattan.”

“Well...” She scowled, only for the scrunched face to gradually fade. “I guess...” She trailed off and turned her head away from both us.

“Now do you want me to finish the story or not?” Even though the question was directed at her and not me, I still nodded with interest. I didn't know anything of the outside world beyond this town until meeting these two, anything that might give me a bit of insight into myself would be great.

“A few years after becoming the rulers of Equestria, the younger of the two, Princess Luna, felt that she wasn't being appreciated. She put all her effort into rearranging the stars in the night sky after they were torn asunder by Discord before they came to power, and frequently visited the dreams of the sleeping ponies. But she found that hardly any were awake to see her night sky, and she was never thanked or even recognized for guarding the dreams of the ponies of Equestria.”

“What do you need to protect dreams from?”

The unicorn shrugged, rearranging the cards in his magic. “I don't know. I'm just repeating it from what my parents told me, and what I heard from a few other tellings. It's been so long that there's inevitably been things lost between what actually happened and what we know now.”

“I'd rather fight off my own dream monsters myself. Ain't nothing that won't go down with some hardened steel to the face, in reality or my dreams.” Now both of us gave the mare a look, the silence setting in just enough to grab her attention, as she looked up at both of us. “What?”

Another sigh from the unicorn. “As the years passed Princess Luna fell deep into despair, and eventually rebelled against her sister and all of Equestria, saying that if the ponies were only going to love one Princess alone, it should be her, as she was angered at how the ponies were even beginning to treat her sister like a goddess rather then royalty, offering daily prayers to her for their crops and dealings. And so, Luna put on her royal armor, magically changed her body into that of Nightmare Moon, and raised a army to wage war against Celestia, fighting her directly on several occasions, their final battle taking place in the skies over Canterlot.”

“I heard it happened in a old castle where the location was long forgotten.”

He sighed again. “Can I please finish this without comment from the peanut gallery?” A nod and moment of silence. “Thank you. In the final battle Celestia took the Elements of Harmony that the two of them had used together to seal Discord, and she hoped that using them would free Luna from the madness that had seized her. But Celestia was not in harmony herself, stricken with grief over fighting with her sister like that, and instead of freeing her from the madness, it crippled her, nearly killing Nightmare Moon. And as Nightmare Moon cursed Celestia with her dying breaths, Celestia took pity on her sister and reached deep into her Alicorn magic, and sealed her mad sister in the Moon, locking her away for a thousand years, while Celestia took total control of the kingdom.”

He turned his head to look down at his cards. I took a brief look at my small pile, bending the side closest to me upwards a bit to start looking through my list. “Is that the whole tale?”

“No, I was just looking at my cards to prepare my bets. Anyways, about two hundred and twenty years ago, maybe more now that I think of it, Nightmare Moon broke out from her imprisonment from the moon, fully healed. And she in turn did the same back, banishing Celestia to the Moon. But lucky for all of Equestria, the Princess had taken on a student who had prepared for the return of Nightmare Moon, and this student along with her friends used the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon, forcefully purging her of her madness, in turn freeing Celestia as well.”

“The elements worked for the friends but not an Alicorn?”

“Unlike Celestia, who didn't have the heart to fight against her sister, the six friends did. Generosity, Loyalty, Kindess, Honesty, Joy, all tied together with Magic, all in balance with eachother.”

The quick listing of elements struck a memory in me, before I had even left the Doctor's home. He had went through the entire list of elements, key elements to making friends in the Town. His advice hadn't done me much good though, left in the belly of this prison-cave.

“You left out the part where it didn't really fix Nighmare Moon, and she only took back the form of Princess Luna to try a different way to take over Equestria.” The mare circled a hoof beside her face, elaborating with her limbs. “Or how she led Equestria to war and enslaved everypony to a death under bombs. Or how she deceived those same six friends and turned them all against each other to become the Ministry Mares, all of them fighting one another to become her second in command. Actually-” She whipped her head back at her partner. “You didn't even say anything about how she was going to plunge all of Equestria into darkness while burning the Zebra-lands alive under eternal sunlight, which is why the Zebras tried to kill all of the ponies in the first place!”

“I'm not going to mix fiction with reality. It's well documented that yes, Nightmare Moon wanted to be the sole ruler, but there's no way that she was mad enough that she would condemn Equestria to a cold death under starvation without the sun.”

“Like how we all struggle to feed ourselves without the Sun now?”

“There's a difference. That's just the Pegasi hiding out on mountaintops and in cloud cities to stay away from the radiation. Princess Luna might have led us in the war, but she didn't cause the cloud cover.”

“Yeah, or maybe she worked with one of the pegasus friends and settled on that rainbow one, and worked together with her to blanket Equestria in darkness, and now she's enslaved the Pegasi while leaving us down here to rot.”

The two of them continued to go back and forth on the topic, swinging between crazy theories and what Spice Chaser called out as historical inaccuracies. I picked up one card in the pile, the face of Luna's dark alter-ego self staring back at me, equally royal and terrifying.

Achievement Unlocked: Connections – Encounter the Wastelanders kept in the Camp. Now if only there was a way out of this dump!

Rare Achievement Unlocked: Servià i Imbers – Win your first game of Spades. With his pokerface ready, this gambler is ready to win big!