One Last Mission

Day 10

Underside, San Palomino

“So, to go back over everything you’ve laid at our hooves,” Sharpshot said, eyes never leaving the masked pony that now stood at the end of the motel room’s bed. “You two do, in fact, know each other, but we aren’t getting any more about you then that.”

Three nodded. “Shattered Moon only gave me permission to tell the counselor. I didn’t even know she’d be with grounders.”

“Oh hey, you call us that too!” Willow said. Three flinched, not the first time he had done so at the alicorn’s telepathic communications. Clearly having her in his head was far more upsetting than it was for anypony else here. “You two really do know each other!”

“It’s a common term used in the Enclave. Three using it reveals nothing,” I said.

“More a slur than anything, but I guess you don’t have the ability to think that separate from your precious Enclave yet,” Sharpshot replied. Three looked at me, brow raised as if to silently ask if this was really the company I’ve decided to keep. I let out a loud breath, and shrugged as a response. “Anyways, mister totally-doesn’t-know-soldier mare here supposedly knows of a pegasus bearing striking resemblance to one of her targets. It also happens that they are in cahoots with Our Haven.”

“Exactly, and we know where they’ve been operating out of, so we are going to neutralize them,” I told him. He gave me his own dissatisfied look, one he made very easy to read. “You call brahmin shit.”

“Of course I call brahmin shit!” He dialed up the exasperation in his voice, looking at me like I had a giant hole where my frontal lobe should be. He then looked and pointed to Three. “I don’t know you, and I don’t trust you.”

Three took a step forward, purposefully crossing both back and front hooves as he did. “Oh really? And why is that?”

“Why do you think? Anypony can be under that mask, none of us save Rhapsody was there, and overall this entire situation just feels shifty.” The ghoul nodded his head in my direction. “The moments I trust our “leader” the least is when her mind is so set on revenge that it doesn’t think of every other possibility.”

“Will agree. Pegasus has one track mind,” Gold added on.

Willow nodded confidently. “Not to mention rather emotional.”

“And very scary if you get her angry.” Gemini shrank as she added her own addition to the growing pile of jabs. “Like, she might want to kill us right now as an example, scary.”

Her statement was proven correct through a twitching eyelid, impatient hoof tap, and downright comical frown. The last of them was fake, but only because behind every ounce of anger their remarks left, my heart hurt just a little bit more. Gemini was joining in just cause everycreature else had done it, but the others? I had a lot to prove to them.

Simply saying I was wrong wouldn’t do anything.

“Seems you got a rep among your… friends here, councilor,” Three said, just a hint of a smirk evident in his voice.

“Saying friend too far. She's just part of contract,” Gold bluntly explained, putting yet another dagger into my heart. “Lot to prove, for friendship.”

“Well I think she’s a friend, so Three is still right!” Willow said, smiling wide. It is near-instantly shaped into something a bit more sheepish as she looks at me. “So, uh, no offense for the comment–“

“Offense still taken.”

Eyes were averted from me, ears folded back. “Fair enough.”

While the entire side conversation happened, Sharpshot’s hoof got closer and closer to his face. When quiet finally fell upon the room once again, he was less than an inch from a self-boop caused by disappointment. Instead, it fell back below him, and he settled for a resigned sigh.

“The point of what I was trying to say is that I feel any information gained from the featherbrain needs to be double checked,” he explained. “Soldier mare wants the pony dead. Pony tells soldier mare want she wants to hear. Soldier mare does that ponies dirty work. Who is to say she gets wise even after the fact.”

“So you think I’m using her,” Three replied.

Sharpshot nodded. “I’m sure it's not the preferred method of the Shattered Moon, but if you can keep your ponies safe you do. Throwing us to the wolves is a decent way of doing it.”

“I guess I can see why you would think that, but allow me to point out the obvious.” Three eyes the alicorn at Sharpshot’s side. “Why would I lie to you all with her standing right there?”

Sharpshot grew annoyed, and that was all anycreature needed to show the pegasus was right. Three knew about Willow from the night before; she was with us when we reported Amaryllis. If the purpose of this was to use me for Shattered Moon’s own benefit, then Willow’s mere presence next to me should have warded them off.

What Three said was the truth, though that didn’t mean Sharpshot wasn’t… somewhat correct. Considering the circumstances around how I received said information, calling it sketchy was accurate. No standard group of ponies blindfolded a pony, locked them in a room, and threatened them with death if they dared to leave before they were allowed to. Suspicion was rightly cast on an old friend of mine.

“You let us into Underside, you were comfortable dealing with us,” the ghoul shot back. “Just because killing her is harder than it is with most ponies doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Three glances between Willow and her husband. “Why would we risk that?”

“Better question: why we arguing?” Gold chimed in. After a firm stretch, he jumped off the other bed and made his way towards Sharpshot. “If we’re being used, we deal with it later. If not? Rhapsody gets what she wants.”

“Oh, I’m aware that’s an option,” Sharpshot replied with a roll of his eyes. “I just don’t want us to be the pawns in some grand game.”

“Rather be the puppet master than the puppet.”

Sharpshot clapped his hooves, then pointed them at Three. “Exactly! Having control is very… important…,” the barest sign of a smile showed through the latter’s mask, causing the form to narrow his eyes. “You sneaky….”

“You asked for control, I gave it to you.” A little amusement had worked its way into Three’s voice, barely holding in an actual vocal laugh. “I’m not surprised that it means so much to you, given how young you look. Forever stuck in our rebellious phase, huh?”

Sharpshot’s eyes went wide, mouth sputtering as he tried and failed to come up with a suitable comeback. Gold squawked loudly, filling the motel room with his laughter. He wrapped a talon around Three and pulled them close, giving a smug grin to the masked pegasus. As his mad cackling died down, Gold gave a playful punch in the shoulder to the pegasus.

“I like you. Got good jokes,” the old griffon said. He shoved himself away and turned to me. “Can deal with him easily. Pulls rug over our head? I kill him. Sounds good?”

I looked at Three, and he looked back at me. There was the slightest sign of tension and anxiousness that came with Gold’s declaration, but overall he seemed calm. I shifted my expression into concern for him, silently asking how he felt about the arrangement. After a long, sharp exhale, Three cave a small, mechanical nod to me. The same exact kind of exhale graced my lips moments later as I looked back to Gold.

“Only if I give the order,” I told him. While he didn’t seem quite satisfied with the arrangement, he nodded in agreement. With one companion dealt with, my attention turned back to Sharpshot. “If you don’t want to walk into what you believe is a trap, you and Willow can stay here.”

“And leave you to likely get yourself killed, no thank you,” Sharpshot replied, shaking his head. “Someone is going to need to patch you up. Whether Three is correct or not, you are going to get hurt.”

I frowned. “You have that little faith in me.”

“Rhapsody, how many times have you gotten injured in the time I’ve known you?” Willow asked. My muzzle opened in an attempt to answer her, but she beat me to it. “As far as I know, you’ve gotten stabbed with a horn, shot by Gemini,” the unicorn in question looked away in guilt, “broke your shoulder firing a sniper rifle, passed out from pain after teleportation, and that is within the span of just twenty-four hours.” A brief, if uncomfortable silence hung in the air, Willow’s eyes looking from pony to pony in confusion. “You need Sharpy, Singing. You need him, and you probably want me.”

“Having an alicorn certainly would help cutting off any escape attempts Lucky Shot makes,” Three said, giving a nod in my direction. “That and, well, if this little operation goes anything like how they did back home…”

My frown turned into a snarl. I hated how right both of them were, especially on the point of my luck at remaining uninjured. A single glance towards my still healing wing was enough to not just remind me, but the entire room of how fucked I’d be without him. It’s entirely possible that, without him and Willow, I’d be dead in the sandstorm right now from whatever Domino had attempted to do to me. He was the reason I hadn’t joined DH in the afterlife.

“I appreciate it, really,” I said in a more sullen tone. I shook the thoughts away immediately after. “Okay, we head out now then. Gemmy, you stay in here while the rest wait outside.”

“D-did I… did I do something wrong?” Gemini asked, ears folded.

I draped a wing not too high over her, shading the young mare but nothing more. “No. Three and I just need your help with a little something extra,” my head fell a bit. “I’m… sorry ahead of time.”

She blinked. “Sorry?”

I looked back to everycreature else, and they got the memo. Willow, Sharpshot, Three, and Gold all made their way to the door and exited, one by one. Each gave either a short nod or wave before they did, as if I wasn’t about to see them not too much later. When the room returned to silence, I hopped off one bed and jumped onto the other, allowing me to give the unicorn my undivided attention without needing to turn my neck.

She didn’t like it.

She had tucked her head into the base of her neck, avoiding eye contact with us and practically sinking into the mattress. It didn’t matter what my earlier words meant, she was scared that she had done something wrong. Either that or she thought I was going to get on her again for the alcohol she had partaken in the day prior. In an attempt to help her out a little bit I gave her a smile.

“DH, you there?”

“Yep!” Gemmy literally jumped at the sound of the ghost appearing next to her. Landing with her legs splayed out, one living unicorn looked to the dead one that had taken a seat right next to her. Dead Hooves giggled and laughed sheepishly at her. “I know you’ve technically seen me a few times by now but, well, hi. I’m Dead Hooves.”

After a series of blinks that no doubt coincided with her brain restarting. Once it had, she pulled herself into a more comfortable lying down position, eyes never moving from DH. “H-Hi there.”

“How long have you been able to see here?” I asked Gemmy. She tilted her head, confused. “Dead Hooves isn’t alive, same with the filly you addressed before we entered Underside, and the two griffons that appeared next to Gigi and Gideon. They’re… dead.”

I watched as realization dawned her features, eyes going wide, ears slightly back, mouth hung open. She looked at Dead Hooves, blinked wildly, shook her head, and I think she also bit the inside of her lip. Anything to try and dispel what she must have now thought was some wild dream. Yet she didn’t wake up, because she hadn’t been asleep.

With a heavy breath, her eyes looked DH up and down as if they were a statue. A mixture of amazement and horror was visible in her shaking irises. Everything was clicking together, and before long tears were starting to fall down her face. After a brief look down at the bedsheets under her, she focused back to me.

“I just thought… the disappearing and reappearing and… twisting.” She shuddered, the meaning of the last phrase lost on me. “I thought that was just something some ponies could do. You mean that- this entire time they-“

DH gave an innocent smile to the mare. “At least you know there is something after death.”

“Dead Hooves!” I growled at the ghost.

“Hey, just saying the truth,” she replied, simply giving me a shrug. “Better to let her know there is something after life, even if it isn’t the Everafter or Infinite or whatever. Granted, this wasn’t exactly what I expected death to be like myself.”

A hoof reached out to Dead Hooves cheek, Gemmy’s to be specific. Her first chosen physical contact with anyone happened right there, feeling DH’s face. While the subject of her feeling was clearly uncomfortable with the actions, she did nothing to stop them. Even as a shiver ran down her incorporeal form as Gemmy felt her horn, and a baffled “eep” escaped her mouth as a hoof booped her muzzle, she allowed the young mare to do as she pleased.

All this while Gemmy tried desperately to keep a single expression on her face for more than a few seconds. Confusion turned to horror, and fear, then sorrow, and a whole number of different feelings that may or may not have names. None did the sight before her justice. Was this how I looked when I saw Dead Hooves the first time? That was a week ago, but it felt like a lifetime.

For simplicity, I decided that this was indeed how I had looked.

“You… you’re… you're dead!” she stated as her hooves finally went back to herself. Dead Hooves nodded. “You types of ponies were the nicest to me. I felt safer around you than anyone else. I didn’t realize you were dead, I just thought you were strange.” Her pupils turned to pinpricks, and I felt my heart quicken from fear at whatever she had just thought up. “My mom. My mom. Th-they… they killed my mom!”

Dead Hooves read my mind, but stupidly choose to reach a hoof out. Gemmy, panicked and frightened, kicked up blankets at the mere sight of the outstretched limb. Leaping off the bed and rushing to the nearest corner.

As she just about reached one, her hindlegs got caught up in each other. With a yelp, she fell forward. Head first, her jaw met the carpet.

“Gemmy!” DH and I shouted simultaneously.

I got up and hurried to her side, DH doing the exact same. We reached her around the same time, and having learned nothing the latter tried to physically help her back up. I shoved her away, getting a look of astonishment and betrayal from her. After a nasty look, one I hoped got across to her, I laid down next to Gemmy.

She was crying badly. The pain may have started it, but there was another edge to her sudden outburst. Her face quickly became flooded with tear trails, her hooves trying and failing to hide them. Her chest heaved, quickly bordering on hyperventilating.

“Gemmy?” I called to her, softly.

“They killed her. They killed her!” She managed to say through her tears. “I thought… I thought she was just really hurt. Sh-she didn’t move for a time but then… but then….” she moved her hooves so I wasn’t able to see her eyes. “She seemed okay. I thought she had just gotten all better, and she said so too. I didn’t know I didn’t know.”

My heart twisted. She really didn’t know. “Gemini, I'm so sorry.”

“I… I always knew she was gone but… I thought it was later,” she continued on, acting as if she had never heard me. “I thought it was when she disappeared the last time. No. No, she was already gone. She had been dead for so long and she just… just pretended she wasn’t.”

“She hid the truth, in an attempt to give you a little happiness,” Dead Hooves said. She was keeping her distance from the both, likely more scared of me than anything. “I… think I understand why. Ignorance is bliss, right?”

She looked at me as she asked that question, my stomach twisting even further than before. A horribly time jab at my world view, one crumbling away the more I learned about the true Enclave. Of all the times to try and stick another nail in its coffin, this was not it. A stern glare was all she needed to figure out how she had misstepped.

A shameful glance down and a mouthed “sorry” was her response.

“Do you want to talk about it further?” I asked Gemmy. “I would like to hear more about her. You haven’t told me much about your mom.”

Her breath seemed to calm a bit at the thought of a casual conversation. She looked at me, then to the floor, and that back my direction. She nodded and, after a few seconds, raised a shaky hoof up my direction.

“H-help.”

After a long, stuttery breath of my own filled the air, I nodded. Gently grabbing her foreleg with my own, I aided her into a sitting position. A tear stained, dry eyed face looked at me, seeming ready to break down again at a moment's notice. I'm certain she would have, if her eyes hadn’t spent all their tears already. She quickly yanked her hoof away as soon as she felt capable of not falling back down.

“Th-thanks,” she said. “S-s-sorry for crying.”

“Don’t apologize. I sort of know how you feel,” I said, eyes briefly glancing back at the ghost behind her. “Dead Hooves probably understands the most though.”

Gemmy slowly turned to face her. “You… you lost your mom to bad ponies too?”

“It’s a… bit more complicated than that,” Dead Hooves replied, a dry laugh escaping her. “It wasn’t so much a bad pony as it was a bad… thing. A curse that made her no longer herself.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ve had decades to deal with it.” With a faux smile, DH motioned with her muzzle back to Gemmy. “This isn’t my time to talk, however. I think if I upset Rhaps again she is going to punch me through a wall.”

“Certainly a possibility, with that mouth of yours,” I said.

To both our surprises, that comment earned a sad, yet genuine, giggle from Gemmy. Another few tears manage to manifest, staining her face further. One foreleg reached to her cheek, and she pouted a little as she felt how many tear trails actually covered her face. She quickly attempted to wipe it away.

“So, your mom,” DH said, trotting around Gemmy till she was at my side, “what was she like.”

The young mare before us didn’t immediately speak. Instead, she points her hooves up to the ceiling. It was impossible to tell if she was smiling or not.

“Strong. She was strong,” she answered. “She kept them away from me, gave h-herself so that I didn’t. It… it didn’t always stop them.” Her expression became far more readable, a sorrowful frown on her face. “She taught me lots of things. I thought she knew everything at the time, but I know that isn’t true. She said nothing existed anymore outside the city. Anyone who said there was, was trying to kill me. I don’t believe that anymore.

“She showed me how to cast magic. She said it would make me useful, more than just a living toy. I think she was right, but not sure. They didn’t ever treat me well.” Her head fell with a slow shake. “I told you before, that they made it really real. She said that was good, that it may free me one day. It did, in a way.”

Her horn lit, and light and color started to shift around us. It bent and morphed till its shape became equine, but the lack of a gray coat immediately struck me. Instead it was a deep red, about the same color as the red in DH’s mane. The form was around my age, on the older side by wasteland standards, a unicorn. That and a messy sea green mane were all that they shared, and I felt a pang of guilt when I saw her stomach.

Pregnant. That was another piece of how Gemini remembered her mother. I remembered that one stallion’s words from all the way back, when I had first met Gemini. He had bargained life for the same, second head consuming his everything thought.

Something about it made me want to throw up, but it didn’t immediately hit me.

“Did you have siblings?” Dead Hooves asked, her own innocent question hiding its own darkness. Gemini tilted her head at the words. “Brothers, sisters. Were you your mom’s only foal?”

“Oh. No, there were others,” Gemini said. “Lots of others, both before and after me. They were more like the bad ponies. I wasn’t. Mom said it was because she was older. Apparently she wasn’t as useful to them anymore, but I was.”

…

No. No no no no. Oh goddesses no.

Bile attempted to rise to my throat, only held back by sheer will. It didn’t stop the sound of me dry heaving from disgust and fear. A wing covered the end of my muscle, my brain going into full panic as everything set in.

“Rhaps, you okay?”

I gave DH a sideways glance, my terror meeting her concern. My heart was attempting to burst from my chest, my stomach practically begging me to let it empty itself. I refused it, for both the sake of my dignity and to not draw attention completely away from Gemini.

Sweet, young, oblivious Gemini. A mare who didn’t know what consent was until days earlier. A mare whose captors wanted her to be…

To be…

…

“Rara?”

Words impossible to write, evils too horrible to be mentioned directly. Joy taken, twisted into some malformed horror. I saw her as a kindred soul, our pains and traumas familiar and horrible. I was right, and I was so, so wrong. How could such a kind mare be treated like such shit?

“R-Rara?” I finally looked at the mare in question, eyes trailing to her stomach. “Is everything okay?”

“G-Gem… Gemini,” I said. My words felt muffled and my muzzle numb. “Have you… h-have you…,” I gritted my teeth, pressing down on the carpet with both hooves. “Have you… carried a foal?”

She nodded without hesitation. “Twice.”

Gemmy didn't know what that simple nod was admitting to, but Dead Hooves and I did. Before us was a somepony likely between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, and she had given birth twice. Twice! If there was even a shred of regret, sympathy, or anything for those fucks who I had saved her from, after all this time, it died right there.

If anything, it made me wish Willow hadn’t killed most of them so quickly. They deserved to suffer.

“Gemmy, I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“It’s… it’s fine,” she lied, trying to smile despite the pain that filled her voice. “I mean, I’m away from them now. They can’t hurt me again… right?” She shifted uncomfortably. “Can we talk about something else.”

“Yeah, we can do that,” I said. DH gave her own nod of agreement to Gemmy’s request. I tried to swallow down all the bile still resting in my throat. It didn’t work. “I’m… I’m honestly not certain about asking you about this anymore. Three and I’s request, I mean. I don’t want you to possibly get hurt, but I don’t want to leave you here anymore.”

Her eyes went wide. “You were going to ask me to stay?”

“For a good reason, I promise.” I sighed. “That said, I will not force you. You have the choice here Gemmy, and I will not force you to stay or come with us.”

I wanted to tell her that I would highly prefer if she stayed, out of my own fear for what a firefight with Lucky Shot might lead to, but I kept my mouth shut. I had already influenced her enough with my own words, and she needed the chance to decide for herself. Years upon years without the ability to choose for herself, taken advantage of by terrible ponies. Free choice wasn’t something she had known long.

So giving her the option, allowing her to choose her path, was something important for her to learn.

Gemmy looked at the illusion of her mother. As if it was truly a separate, sapient entity, and not just a creation of magic, it smiled and nodded. It faded away moments later as the glow of Gemini’s horn faded away. She looked at me, determination clear on her face.

“I-I want to prove myself. I want to show I can do things on my own,” she said, doing everything in her power to hide her own fear behind a newborn fire in her eyes. “Willow was like me once, but she is her own pony now. I can be like her.”

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, a sight that comforted me greatly. She had grown a lot in just a week’s worth of freedom, no doubt all formed from the hope my companions and I had given her. I wasn’t about to squash such growth, especially when it seems positive . With that in mind, I knew what her answer was before she said it.

“What do I need to do?”

Gemmy stayed behind, as was needed of her by Shattered Moon.

There was undoubtedly some worry lodged in my throat at the idea of somepony who had been through as much as her being left alone. A week’s worth of independence isn’t exactly enough time for a former slave, one with no real education or knowledge of the world, to be safe by themselves after all. Under most circumstances I wouldn’t have given her the option to stay. Three made it clear that her friends in Shattered Moon would keep her safe.

I trust Three more than most of the ponies around me. If he said Gemmy was safe, then I believed him.

After having our weapons returned to us upon leaving Underside, the masked pony took the lead. He didn’t need to, given Sharpshot and I had a map on us at all times via PipBuck and MentaBuck, but his insistence won out. Some things about ponies truly never changed.

He was the reason we drank those Sparkle-cola’s back in the Fillydelphia mission after all. That stubbornness was also what led him back to the military after his contract was up, putting off the start of his transition for a few more years. While I personally don’t agree with his choice, along with the Enclave’s stance on not allowing transitioning while in the military, it was ultimately his choice.

Travel through the desert was long and tiring, but after a night’s rest in an actual bed it proved slightly more manageable. Willow was flying around above us, enjoying the clear sky and making me more than a little jealous. The desire to fly was overwhelming, but like for much of my time on the surface I had been bound to solid ground. Besides, I’m damn near certain Sharpshot would have some choice words for me if I did.

Gold was right next to Three for much of it. There was a hushed conversation between them, the topic unknown to everyone but them. There was a smile on the old griffon’s face, however, and I considered that a good thing.

“Anything on your E.F.S?” Sharpshot asked me, seemingly out of the blue. “Besides us, I mean?”

I raised a brow, but nonetheless checked. Four dots, all green, each corresponding to the location of a companion.

“Negative. All clear here,” I told him. I tilted my head slightly. “Worried about wildlife?”

“More concerned about being followed,” he explained. He closed his eyes, and let out a deep sigh. “Yet, if neither of us are seeing anything, that means I was somewhat wrong. Still don’t trust him, but I was wrong about the ambush.”

“Fucks sake Sharpshot,” I replied, growling slight. “Have a little faith in me. I’m not going to invite somepony to journey with us if they would rather have us dead.”

“I’ve seen enough broken promises and backstabs in my near century and a half of life to know you're wrong.” He nodded in Gold’s direction. “For example, just as a heads up, the geezer has orders to kill you when you either prove to no longer be useful or step out of line.”

“Since the research lab, I assume?”

“Since the shit that happened in Sandstone,” he leered at me. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, by the by. Consider that a sign that, despite my doubts in your leadership ability, I do trust you.”

My eyes went wide, jaw dropping at Sharpshot’s words. Did he, of all ponies, just say he trusted me? Maybe the desert heat was messing with my head, because I must have been hearing things. There was no way in Tartarus Sharpshot would ever admit to trusting somepony.

Right?

“Funny way of showing trust,” I said. “Willing to tell me shit that can get you or Gold killed, but not about to trust me with who I surround myself with.”

“Well I wouldn’t call you the most mentally stable pony around, and given your background…,” he looked up at the sky, catching Willow just as she did a loop in the air, “there is a difference between trust and blind faith. I know you will watch my flank, but you're also a bit of an idiot and too proud to admit it. Just like Dead Hooves, if I’m being honest.”

“I resent that remark.”

I briefly glanced right. The ghost mare had quite the way of sneaking up on ponies without them realizing.

“She resents your remark.”

It was Sharpshot’s turn to growl. “Luna fuck me sideways, this isn’t your conversation Dead.”

“I know, but I got a translator, and I’m going to use it to fuck with yeah.” She wrapped a hoof around my back, sticking out her tongue as a show of her maturity. “Gotta remind you of the good old times, right?”

“They weren’t really that good,” he muttered, a hint of pain making it through his voice. “Soldier mare?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t translate for the cripple.”

“Roger that.”

Dead Hooves pouted, but didn’t say anything. At least, nothing that could be counted as a coherent phrase anyway.

Plains of sand morphed into something more rocky and mountainous as the sun started to fall. Level elevation became a near constant ascending and descending. Turns out deserts aren’t quite as barren as they seemed at first, just mostly barren. It was possible to make out the occasional small surface creature scurrying past, searching for either a meal or place to burrow for the night.

That included scorpions, and I’m proud to say that I dealt with them significantly better this time around. By that, I of course mean that I wasn’t screaming at the top of my lungs from the sight of them. I just jumped around and squeaked a bit… and perhaps latched onto the closest pony or griffon when they got too close.

Apparently Three finds my ‘arachnophobia’ as Sharpshot calls it, ‘funny’. Traitor.

If the setting sun wasn’t enough reason to find a place to rest for the night, Gold’s wheezing proved more than sufficient. For as good of a shape as he was in, it was impossible to not see the damage his smoking had done to him. It got tiring to listen very quickly. I’m certain that Willow was probably figuring out the best way to puncture his lung as some form of lesson to the old griffon.

A lesson shortly followed by death, but that was very much the alicorn’s style.

“There is an abandoned mining camp not too far away. That should be a good place to spend the night,” Three explained, having slowed down to make up for the fact Gold was progressively getting slower and slower. “Better than sleeping out in the open, at least.”

“Pegasus planned this?” Gold managed to ask through his wheezing. Three looked at him, and then tilted his head. “Route, I mean. Expected to make it here, around this time.”

“Won’t deny that I had some help figuring out the exact path to the test site,” Three explained, giving a nod. “Haven’t been out this direction myself. Had to ask creatures with more knowledge on San Palomino.”

Willow, still airborn up to this point, landed at the masked pony’s side. “You sure nopony is going to be there?”

Three gave yet a nod. “There isn’t reason for us to have a mining operation stationed here; Veins are completely tapped, lots of the mines have caved in, that stuff.”

“So… it’s like a ghost town?” Willow asked. Before Three could give what I’m certain would be another nod, the alicorn turned to me with a gigantic grin. “Hear that Singing and Deady? You might find some ghosts here.”

“I never said it was a bonafide ghost town, just abandoned,” Three replied. “And who is Deady?”

Everycreature but Three stopped, the stallion taking a few more steps before stopping himself. His eyes flicked from Gold to Willow to Sharpshot, and then finally where each of them were looking, and that was at me. Either none of them knew how to address this topic, or they thought I should explain the new, supernatural elements in my life. I felt a pat on the back, and looked to see Dead Hooves had reappeared at my side. Her smile made finding the words to explain everything slightly easier, but finding something that seemed convincing was another matter.

The lack of an immediate answer was more than enough to scare Three. “Councilor, is something wrong?”

“No, sorry, just trying to find a way to describe what my life has become.” I looked him dead in the eyes, ready for every possible response he might have for what likely sounded unbelievable. “Three, I can see spirits, dead ponies to be specific. To my side right now, invisible to everycreature but myself, is a mare named Dead Hooves. She traveled with Willow and Sharpshot a long, long time ago.”

…

Nothing. Complete and utter silence from my old squadmate. His pupils darted around, the only sign I had that he was trying his best to think put together what I had just said. The words had been simple, but to somepony who didn’t live the experience I was living now, it probably sounded like the ramblings of a crazy mare. Not to say I’m not crazy – I’ve accepted that now, given all of the shit that has happened to me – but I wasn’t “rambling old mare” levels of crazy yet.

By Celestia I hope that, even now, I haven’t reached that point.

With Three completely silent, Sharpshot took a step forward. A clearing of his throat was all he needed for everycreature’s attention to be fixated on himself.

“Just to be clear, she is telling the truth about this. She knows things that she shouldn’t have been able to with what Willow or I have told her. Things only Dead Hooves can possibly know,” he explained. He looked at his wife. “She knew about Maripony, Willow. I had a full conversation with Dead Hooves through her a few nights ago, and the way she spoke, the words she used ....”

“Just like Deady?”

He snorted, the faintest sign of a smile peeking out from under his rags. “Yeah, just like her. Bitch was as cocky as ever.”

“Lack of good memories?” Gold asked.

“Sharpy and Deady never got along. Always at each other's throats over who was right or wrong, and they never budged,” Willow explained as she trotted over to her husband. She dragged him in for a hug with her wing, giving a small, lustful smile that instantly made him red in the face. “I was the uniting factor, I think. I had sworn Deady I would protect her, and Sharpy was… I think he was my second real friend. The first pony to see past “the bloody angel” at the very least.”

“Second there too,” Dead Hooves muttered at my side. I frowned as I looked at her, noticing the heartbroken expression on her face at hearing this.

“I found out what love was through this mare, and I guess that much I do have to thank you for, Dead Hooves,” Sharpshot said, the couple lost in each other’s gazes. DH, having no wish to hear it, closed her eyes, turned around, and vanished. “Brash and dumb as she was, she gave me Willow. I have that much to thank her for at least.”

“I… see,” Three finally said, managing to find his voice after what was no doubt far more trouble than he expected. He rubbed his temple with his remaining wing, sighing. “So ghosts are real.”

“Yes. Ghosts, spirits, maybe gods, all real,” Gold summed up. He motioned with a talon back to me. “She can see the first.”

“And I, to some degree, the second,” Sharpshot added. Gold’s eyes lit up like he was a foal at a skyball game, looking to the ghoul with extreme interest. They shrugged at him. “As I told soldier mare, some pile of dusty bones likes to show his face around me. Sometimes to laugh at my expense, sometimes to read cards.”

Gold tapped his beak. “Huh. Not familiar with them.”

“Not expecting you to.” Sharpshot leaned into his wife’s chest, half of his face practically disappearing in his fluff. No, I’m not jealous of her. Why would I be? “Nopony else has told me who he is. All I know is he calls himself the Dealer, and he finds my life amusing.”

“Is this… is this some elaborate joke?”

All eyes were back on Three, who was holding his head as if it was suddenly twice as heavy. His eyes were squinted, not in the angry or unbelieving way, but more akin to having a migraine. Overthinking had sent him in circles.

“Lieutenant Colonel, is this a bit of revenge or… something like it?” Day Glow had snuck out, the one-winged pegasus so overwhelmed by the idea of ghosts and spirits that we had managed to break through his Shattered Moon styles mask. “For some of those pranks and practical jokes I pulled back home, I mean. For the workaholic list I made, possibly?”

The ghoul chuckled, crossing forelegs. “So you two do know each other.”

Day Glow’s ears flattened, the slightest sign of fear making its way into his face. It didn’t take a scientist to figure out what was wrong; Shattered Moon valued anonymity, and my companions had just learned a little bit too much about the trans stallion before me. I glared at Sharpshot, getting a slightly amused look back from him in turn. All I needed to do was raise my hoof, and two more plus a talon followed suit.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” we said as one, sealing yet another deal with the Discord-spawn known as Pinkie Pie.

“Your secret is safe, Three,” I told him, giving a friendly little smirk his direction. A shiver went down his spine, one that told me he now knew full well the power such a foalish incantation had. “Also, no, I’m not fucking with you. I can see ghosts, though when I started being able to see them is something I’m not quite sure of. I wish there was a way to prove it but….”

I went silent, hoping the rest was self explanatory. What I didn’t expect was the ghost right next to me to speak up.

“There actually might be a way.”

I looked at DH, interest piqued and ears perked. There was a great deal of uncertainty in her expression. Whatever she was about to tell me was an untested theory and nothing more, but I was willing to listen. Anything to make me seem less like I belonged in a mental health center.

“Do I… have your permission to use magic?” DH asked, looking slightly more pleading as she spoke. “Won’t be on anyone. Just the loose rocks around us.”

After some quick contemplation, I came to the conclusion that there was no harm in what she was asking. I nodded, took a step back, and motioned for everycreature to do the same. They all did, Three with a bit more hesitance than the rest of us.

Then, DH got to work.

Her horn lit, and there was an immediate gasp from the masked stallion before me. A red aura surrounded various pebbles and rocks of differing sizes, and lifted them up. The same color that matched DH’s horn. Neither Sharpshot or Willow had their own lit, and there was nopony but us on the E.F.S., which left no room for any other immediate interpretation.

“What the fuck?” Day Glow had come out again, foal-like wonder filling his eyes. I gave him a huge grin in response. “How? How are you doing that?”

I snorted at her, not noticing the concerned looks of the others around me. “I’m not, it’s all DH.”

“Then… why… your head,” he pointed at me. My grin falls slightly, brow rising in confusion. “How is that… is she doing it through you?”

It rose higher. “Through me?”

“Hun, that's new, right?” Willow asked. Her eyes seemed to be focused directly above me, for what reason I didn’t know.

“Yep. Brand new, fresh out of the box in fact,” he answered. “Soldier mare, have you had any interaction with taint or anything like it the last few days? Possibly in large amounts?”

“Wouldn’t touch that shit with a ten foot pool,” I replied. “Besides, where in tartarus could we have found that stuff? Didn’t seem that prevalent in Troston.”

“Is not. Very clean city. Cleaner than other places,” Gold replied, his voice the slightest bit colder than usual. One might even say it sounded threatening. “Still, taint not work like this. Too early if encountered in Trotson. Other oddities should have occurred. Makes this… interesting. Very interesting.”

His words raised both my own concern and my frustration. The fact nopony around me was explaining anything, acting like I knew what they did, was aggravating beyond reason. I decided to vocalize it with a long groan and the stomp of a hoof.

“One of you, please, just fucking say it!” I demanded, dropping into a fighting stance. “Whatever you all see, I don’t see it, okay? What the fuck is on me.” I tensed up. “Is it another one of those scorpion things?”

“Lieutenant Colonel,” Day Glow spoke up, tapping a hoof to her forehead. “Check… up here.”

Once again, my brow rose, but it was the closest thing I had gotten to an answer. I certainly didn’t feel a scorpion on my face, which meant that I was at least safe from those things. The earlier tension in my muscles left with that acknowledged. With some idea of where to turn, I extended a wing and brought it to the same place that Day Glow had.

The tension returned in an instant.

There was both something and yet nothing on my head at the same time. A point, extended and connected to my head, but invisible for all to see. I knew it was there, I felt it, and trying to move my wing inside it brought a horrible feeling of discomfort. With more than a little worry, I looked up, and that is when I saw it.

A red glow in the shape of a horn, exactly the same to DH’s own. Her horn was on my head.

A horn was on my head.

A… horn.

Heart skipped a beat, pupils shrank, and jaw hung. I slowly turned to DH, the ghost mare looking at her, no, our horn in wonder. Its form was on her physically, that much hadn’t changed, but now that I was consciously aware of it I felt a weight on my head. It was small, insignificant really, but fuck if it wasn’t noticeable. The best way I can describe it is… like two .50 rounds were tapped to my head when I wasn’t looking.

That wasn’t the strangest thing though, not by a long shot. The thing that I realized, after a few seconds, was that while I was now aware of its weight nothing about it felt unnatural. It was like it had always been there, a part of myself from the moment I had left the womb. The horn was as much Singing Rhapsody as my wings, and as much as that same horn was Dead Hooves. That was the thing that scared me the most.

Outside of, you know, the question that literally everycreature around me, including myself, wanted to ask.

“Am I an alicorn now?” I asked.

“Are you an… that is the question you are asking?!” Sharpshot shouted, trying to lean forward to emphasize his shock. Willow immediately pulled him back to her chest. “Soldier mare, there is an invisible horn on your head. That shouldn’t be there!”

“I mean, yeah, but I’m not certain I can actually use it,” I said. I turned my attention to Dead Hooves. “Right?”

“We can try and swap, if you want,” DH replied, shrugging.

Focus briefly turned towards the ghost mare’s attempts at explaining the basics of magic. The living, unable to see her, continued to ask questions for understandable reasons. Day Glow specifically was looking at my puzzled, hoof tapping his muzzle at the sight.

“You’re taking this far better than I expected you to.”

“Our fault, probably,” Gold answered, the smallest of smirks on his beak. “Travel with strange company. Angsty undead teen, crazy alicorn wife, and me. Gemini most normal friend.”

Willow nodded in agreement. “And I think we can all agree Gemini isn’t the picture of mental health, as nice as she is.”

“So you all broke my old LT… again.” Day Glow sighed. “At least she is in a better state than after the sandstorm incident.”

“The… sandstorm incident?”

I froze up as I heard Willow’s telepathic words. I looked at Day Glow, and he met my gaze immediately. Without a single word between us, I understood that he was asking for permission. That day, five years ago, it was a day I didn’t want any of these ponies to know about.

So I gave a shake of my head. No arguing, for he was a good, loyal soldier. He took his answer, knew what he was allowed, and acted accordingly.

“Classified. It's that bad,” he explained.

“So, traveling through the storm with us wasn’t the worst experience she has had in one,” Sharpshot scoffed. He rolled his eyes, pupils landing on me after it all. “How am I not surprised?”

“Okay, enough talk about that!” I shouted, getting everponies attention. I briefly looked at DH. “Think I know enough?”

“Yeah. More than most unicorns do, I think,” she replied.

I nodded to her and then cleared my throat as I looked back to my living companions. “Okay, Dead Hooves and I are going to attempt to swap places with magic, see if I have control of this thing.”

“Think you're a prodigy?” Gold asked, a slight tilt of his head.

I snorted at his words, noting the cold, collective look in his eyes wasn't completely gone. “Hardly, but if our mental link works like we think it does, then this won’t be difficult. Now, step away in case this goes wrong.”

Everycreature complied without issue, stepping away from the floating pile of rocks and pebbles that was now directly in front of me. It was DH’s way of making things easier, collecting everything she had lifted individually into a single place. A part of me understood the insanity of this situation. A pegasus thinking she could do unicorn magic was certainly not a normal thing, but nothing about it felt impossible.

It was like our horn; new but feeling perfectly normal. Something in me felt expected to do magic, that it was just another part of who I was. I needed to succeed at this, for myself more than anything else.

So, with a simultaneous sigh between us two, DH let go of the rocks and–

“Come on Dead, you almost have it,” dad said, a protective and supportive hoof on my back. I looked at him and mom, a frustrated scowl seemingly duck taped to my face. “One more try, you’re almost there.”

“You’ve said that four times though now!” I whined, dramatically rolling over. An attempt was made to look at my useless, no good horn, but it was too small to see back then. “I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. That damn can should be floating by now!”

“Language, Dead Hooves,” mom said as she laid down next to me, giving me a disapproving look. All I did in response was let out an annoyed groan “No unicorn ever did it on their first try. Your father most certainly didn’t, and look at him now, a magic casting pro.” She pressed a hoof to my chest. “You just need to take a deep breath, focus, and have some patience.”

I scrunched my muzzle as she said that last word. “But I hate waiting. I do it all the time and it's boring.”

“If you do it all the time, then you know how to be patient,” she countered. She got back onto her hooves and rolled me back onto my stomach, facing my head towards the empty metal can they had placed in front of me. “Come on, my little gem, you got this.”

I pouted, trying to hide the fact that her words had actually encouraged me a little bit. As she moved behind me, I found that the only thing within my field of vision was now that stupid fucking can. The ticking clock in my head grew louder, reminding me of just how fragile my life was. Even back then, when mom was still living with us, I was painfully aware of how low my odds of surviving on my own was.

That, more than anything, drove me forward. It made me aware of what I wanted, or rather needed to do. I needed that can to move, to rise off the ground as if possessed by a phantom. Any way to increase the timer in my head, to give me a longer life, was something I desperately needed.

Dad placed his hoof back on me, and I briefly looked at him. He smiled at me, giving that look that said “you got this” and a small nod. Determined, afraid, and wanting to prove myself to him, I focused back on the can. Closing my eyes, I focused all of my attention on getting my horn to work.

I needed it to do something.

I need it to do anything but just sit there, poking out of my head.

“Please,” I whispered in an almost inaudible tone. “Please, please, please, please–”

“Please, please, please.”

I didn’t recognize the identical, one word chant between DH and I at the time, with a similar begging tone as well. All I know is that I felt something unexplainable in me wake up in that moment, a piece of me that hadn’t existed until some short time ago. Raising my head, I stopped chanting, and opened eyes that I hadn’t realized were closed. Eyes glued towards what laid in front of me…

And then beamed like a foal who had just managed to fly for the first time.

The rocks had hit the ground, that much I had failed at, but the rest was a pure success. No longer did DH’s crimson red surround the pebbles, but a vibrant yellow that was the same color as my eyes. Not all the pebbles lifted off the ground at my command, only one or two, but the fact I was even able to lift that much was astonishing.

I, a pegasus, was doing unicorn magic. An impossibility had been made possible through whatever mindfuckery DH had done to me. For the first time, I was happy about it.

“I’m proud of you, Dead! Great job.”

Something about hearing her father congratulate the ghostly unicorn in my head, after I had just managed my own first spell, choked me up a little. My beaming smile turned into something softer, more sympathetic. Something about the praise felt like it was meant for me, so I took it. It was impossible to not imagine the small, loving family holding each other in elation for what Dead Hooves had done, and replace the unicorn with a younger me.

I envied her for that love, and I always will. The idea of parents from the wasteland being more caring than my own was soul crushing. Even feeling what she felt, in those memories, was not enough to dispel that jealousy.

Day Glow, who had been trying to figure out some way to pick his jaw off the floor, turned from the floating pebbles to me. “How are you–”

“Congrats Singing!” Willow screamed. I have no idea how she got behind us or when she had left her husband's side, but I suddenly found myself getting picked up and squeezed by an alicorn. The horn light cut out, pebbles dropping to the ground. “This is awesome! I’m no longer the only pegasus who's ever done magic! Oh Celestia, this is so exciting.”

“Hun, you're crushing her.”

Willow looked to Sharpshot, and then down to me, gasping for any breath I could achieve. She loosened her grip, closed wings that had been trying to flap for freedom, and straightened my forelegs. With all that done, Willow placed me back on the ground, and slowly removed her hooves.

I promptly fell forward, colliding muzzle first into the rocky terrain below me.

“LT!”

Day Glow’s shout, along with the sudden pain lacing through my body, woke me from whatever spell Willow’s hug had put me in. I quickly pulled myself back up, stumbling a little and blinking rapidly. With a shake of my head, I tried to dispel the awkward, seemingly traumatized look that I had been put into from a simple hug. Judging by a certain griffon’s snickers, I had failed.

“Rhap– Lieutenant Colonel, are you okay?” Day Glow asked, having made their way up to me.

I ushered him back with a hoof. “Fine. Fine. Just… had an incredible experience ruined slightly.”

My focus turned to Willow, the alicorn giving me a sheepish smile in return. “Sorry Singing. I was trying to congratulate you and kind of… forgot you aren’t as used to my hugs as Sharpy.”

“Please try and hold back next time,” I responded. She nodded, looking away in embarrassment. After a moment, I smiled and chuckled at what she had done to me. “Thanks though. Is this how you felt, when you did a spell for the first time?”

“Hard to say. I can’t really remember.” She looked at Sharpshot. “You remember, hun?”

“We were more concerned about other things, like how pissed off I had made the Goddess,” the ghoul said, eyes elsewhere. He was the only one around who seemed to have little to no interest in both what I had just accomplished or the current situation. “Damn impressive feat, eh? I feel certain the only reason we made it out of there is due to the aforementioned collection of dusty bones. Only a few others I know have ever hit her nerves as badly as we did.” He snorted. “One of them is still “alive” I guess you can say. Bastard has been alive longer than me, can you believe it?”

“Ditzy.” Willow and Gold said near simultaneously, equally deadpan.

“You can just say yes, for fucks sake,” he grumbled. His eyes trailed to the pile of pebbles in the middle of us all. “ Though, getting back to an earlier question, you got your answer, soldier mare.”

I blinked. “Which one?”

“About whether you are an alicorn now.” There was the tiniest bit of a smirk poking out from his rags. He let his own horn glow, raising every single pebble in the pile just like DH had before as he started to walk once again. “You are… the least impressive alicorn I've ever seen. Congrats, now go die in a cage match to one and see how weak you still are compared to the Goddess’ posse.”

Underneath the insult and harmful remarks, he gave me a wink. The wink and smirk were clear enough indicators that he wanted me to prove him wrong on this. Wasn’t going to get an answer out of him, and he wasn’t going to give me the opportunity to even attempt it. The ghoul was already marching off from us, Gold and Willow following suit. He fidgeted briefly with his PipBuck, probably setting some waypoint for the ghost town Day Glow had mentioned.

That left the mask stallion, DH, and myself. There was no fear of them getting too far ahead; I had the MentaBuck, and it seemed to know the exact location of places we would speak about in passing. Day Glow watched all of them as they got farther from us, before gently tapping me on the neck. The message was clear: time to move.

“I’ll admit, Lieutenant Colonel. These aren’t the kind of ponies I thought you’d be hanging out with,” he told me.

“That makes two of us,” I replied. “They’re not the easiest group to be around, and I wouldn’t call any of us good ponies. Willow is basically a trained killer in Celestia’s body, Sharpshot is an arrogant prick who can’t keep his mouth shut,” I allowed a little more anger as I looked at Gold, “and he wasn’t my pick. Had the bastard forced on me, not sure how much he can be trusted.”

“And Gemini?”

My ears lowered slightly, anger fading into sadness as I reflected on the conversation DH and I had with the young mare this morning. “Not my choice, but she’s different from Gold. I look into her eyes, listen to her fears and life, and I see myself staring back.”

“Which version of you?” He asked quietly. I ruffle my feathers in discomfort at the question. He winced at my reaction and looked away. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” I replied.

Silence reigned afterwards, both of us a bit too scared to broach the subject I had led us to. DH had read the mood perfectly, and decided to make herself scarce before she said something stupid.

There is something comical about a ghost town being named Nowhere. It was even more comical to think it had been called that before the end of the world, when one could reasonably say it was something different. Before we arrived, that name was the only factor of this old mining area that I knew. To the standard traveler entering it, the place probably just seemed like a collection of old wooden houses and rusting iron tools.

It was… a bit more to me. A figurative ghost town to most, was a quite literal one through the eyes of a medium.

There weren't a whole lot of them around, Nowhere is a small community even on the dead’s side. It was so far from any major city that the magical radiation hadn’t done anything, and that meant these ghosts were all here from kinder, more natural reasons. At least, that was the hope.

It was easy to tell what the nail had been in the living society’s coffin: lack of viable farm land. Nowhere was located in an exceptionally rocky area, what had once been a well connected to an underground river being the only source of water for several dozen miles. Even then, the well had not withstood the test of time; it had fallen inwards, blocking access to what lies underneath.

Combine an ungrowable terrain, disconnection from water, and lack of other reasons to stay, and you get a doomed community. Everypony either left, or was too stubborn and died because of it. A small scale example of how societies rise and fall in the world of the living.

More than a few of the ghosts turned to look at us as we walked into their haunting grounds, the sun having just finished its descent. There were whispers among them, a few fillies and colts watching us in excitement, probably the first living soul they’ve seen in a long time. Only I was aware of their presence, my companion’s sight met with something far more chilling.

“It’s so creepy here,” Willow said, the cheery voice and elated shudder passing through her body giving the words a very different meaning. “Nothing but the creaking of wood and roaring of wind. No living soul for miles and miles. It’s absolutely perfect.”

“You enjoy these places?” Day Glow asked. He had kept a decent distance between himself and the alicorn since he had seen her nearly crush me with a hug.

Willow gave her best approximation of an innocent smile to the stallion. “You don’t?”

“I tolerate them, but I prefer being in someplace that feels more… functional,” he replied, eyes one particularly rickety house as we passed by it. “I may have spoken too soon about us finding shelter.”

“No. Cave mouth… still open,” Gold wheezed, pointing towards our east.

Following his talon led us to an entrance to the mine the little settlement had been built around years ago. As he said, the boards holding the entrance up still held. In fact, they seemed in remarkably good condition. It seemed strange at first, but as we got closer a shiny blue gem could be seen lodged in its top.

A talisman, perhaps similar to the one back in Alibi Street Theater. Certainly made sense, in my mind.

“Ah yes, perfect,” Sharpshot said, rolling his eyes. “Get trapped behind some boulders instead of under a hundred planks of wood. Sounds like a great idea.”

Day Glow let out an exasperated groan. “Do you have an off switch, hornhead?”

“If I did, the soldier mare would have used it a long time ago,” he leaned his head in my direction. “Right?”

I snorted for my answer, and turned my attention back to the ghosts. Not entirely sure what the others were saying during that time, but it seemed the mine entrance had won as our resting place for the night. Nearly as soon as we had turned to make towards, I saw a few of the ghosts offering us concerned looks. One had their forehooves to their chest in prayer.

I ignored the odd behavior, turning towards the mine as we came upon its entrance. I had lagged behind the others during my time watching the ghosts. Everycreature had already stepped inside, Gold and Willow setting our supplies down. I picked up the pace to join them, and as soon as a hoof crossed past the under the beams…

I screamed.

Explaining exactly what made me scream is hard. It's like the moment I had tried to step into the mine, every cell in my body was begging me to get back out. No pain, no horrific sights, just the flight part of my fight or flight response activating for seemingly no reason. Except, even that doesn’t do the feeling justice. It was more than just being frightened, more than just some out-of-nowhere panic attack.

It was almost like… a fatal wound. I’ve felt more than a few of those from ghosts I’ve met, whether they be soldiers, mercs, or unlucky wastelanders. The fear of knowing you are about to die, that there is no way to stop it, who does a living pony describe that? Some would say that I should know, I’m a soldier that has seen friend and foe alike go through it after all. To that, I have but one statement.

The fear of knowing you are about to die, and the fear of knowing somepony you care about is going to die, are two entirely different things.

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. I fell on my flank, forehooves going up to my chest as I sucked in as much air as possible, vision unfocused. The objects around me seemed like incomprehensible blurs, companions blending into each other. Not that I was even able to register them. My mind felt so much louder than the world around me, and it screamed at me to get away. Somepony shook me. Who it was remained unclear for a while, until everything started to settle down.

“Stay with me LT. Stay with me,” Day Glow ordered, voice firm but soft. It was far better than Sharpshot having kicked me several times when this had happened in the sandstorm. I managed to look in his direction. His sole wing, outstretched in panic, relaxed me to some extent. “Thank the winds. You okay, LT?”

No immediate response came from me, my brain too scattered to stay focused on him for long. They trailed the wooden cross beams on the mine’s entrance like they were some holy relic, perhaps hoping for an answer. My frantic, nonsensical state of mind came up with jackshit. All my mind was able to reaffirm me was a truth it had seemingly accepted as fact.

I was about to die. I was going to die. Any second now, I would join DH in the afterlife, and there was nothing that could help me.

Without thinking, I grasped Day Glow and forced his head to cover my lower chest. It was less a hug and more akin to me trying to cover a horrid wound with a rag. Anything to stop a death that I was certain laid before me. I was more than aware that it was a pony I was using as said rag, but I didn’t care. How could I, when so many more fallacies had suddenly been placed within my brain.

“H-h-h-help,” I pleaded to the one-winged pegasus I was pressing against me. “H-h-h-h-help me. P-p-please help m-me.”

Suddenly, a burst of light flooded my vision. My mind finally started to rest, but alongside it was an overwhelming exhaustion. My body felt heavy. I flopped onto my side, Day Glow managing to wiggle free from my grasp as I did. He placed a hoof on my shoulder, calling out to me.

His words did not reach me. My consciousness faded.

Message on secure terminal found
…
…

Lady Hash has asked me, with my expertise, to check an abandoned town recently. See if the mines were safe and worth getting back into working order. I’m not her typical choice – she usually has teams dedicated for this – but I understand why she asked now. This wasn’t truly about the mine, not entirely.

After a thorough examination and nearly having my life taken from me, I deemed it unfit for mining. I also advised that, unless necessary, she and her soldiers avoid the area. While, yes, it would prove faster if heading north for the sake of towns like Underside, it isn’t a safe place for the living.

For the traveler unfortunate enough to spend the night, I have done all I can to keep them alive. The siren’s call is theirs to avoid.