One Last Mission

Day 10

Nowhere, San Palomino

When the world returned to me, the moon was comfortably set high in the sky. My back hurt like Tartarus, and my head was pounding like I had just woken up from a night of drinking. I rolled onto my left side, grumbling like an old stallion woken up from a midday nap. Certainly felt like one, minus the stallion part.

I opened my eyes and looked up above. A natural rock ceiling greeted me, a surefire sign we were inside the mine. Tilting my head back led me to see the entrance to said mine not too far away. The pale glow of moonlight left very little illuminated, but the howling wind of the desert made it clear what support beams those were.

“Finally woke up, huh?” Sharpshot’s rough voice sliced through the peaceful night like a buzzsaw. Looking back towards the cave's innards, I found him, alongside Willow and Gold, still awake in front of me. “Had a nasty little episode there. Trauma response, perhaps?”

I was not ready to talk, not with most of my body hurting in one way or another. Wings were stiff, legs didn’t want to cooperate, head aching, the full “everything sucks” experience. Only thing I was missing was a tied up pony and several guns pointed at my head. The pony in question being me, if we wanted worst case circumstances.

I looked back towards the mine entrance. Only now was I aware of Day Glow standing guard at its front. Must have been the current pony on watch, if I was guessing correctly. That meant the others had every reason to be asleep. Why weren't they? I don’t know.

Pushing through the pounding in my head, I got my forelegs under me and pushed up. One immediately went to the side of my forehead, grimacing at how such a simple movement made the aching significantly worse. With a groan, I attempted to look at the three relaxing inside the cave. Must have seemed pathetic at the moment.

“Pegasus all right in head?” Gold asked, tapping his temple.

It took a few seconds but I finally managed to get my muzzle working fully. “What… happened?”

“Fuck if we know. Wouldn’t be asking you these questions if we did,” Sharpshot answered, head pressed against Willow’s neck. “As far as we all understand, you just started screaming your head off. Dead Hooves kind of kept us from getting any answers for the time being.”

“Dead Hooves stopped you?” I asked, full body tilting to the side instead of just my head.

“Your horn lit up, there was a small flash, and you fell to the ground unconscious,” Willow explained. “When we first brought you inside the mine after that, you just started flapping and kicking in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?”

“I don’t think I dreamed about anything,” I explained, foreleg rubbing my eyes. “Unfortunately, I can’t really say what happened. All I recall is stepping into here and just getting some uncontrollable… feeling? I don’t know.” I lowered my leg and shook my head. “It’s like I was suffering a fatal injury. I just… I was scared, and I needed help, but also like nopony can help.”

Gold squinted at me, scratching the top of his beak. Without any explanation, he suddenly stood up and made his way past us, back outside. He looked around, as if searching for something. Day Glow walked up to him, the two sharing a few words before the one-winged pegasus pointed him up to the top of the mine. Gold followed where his hoof pointed, and the corners of his beak turned downwards.

“What is talisman for?” he thought out loud. He looked to Willow, Sharpshot, and myself immediately after that was said. “Not seen type before.”

“It’s a stasis one, right?” I asked, forcing myself onto all four hooves. “I mean, they wouldn’t want the roof falling in.”

I went to make a step, but a white wing blocked my vision. I have no idea how Willow managed to move that fast at times, and considering her background I was a bit afraid to know the answer. She pushed me down, making me sit against my will. She smiled at me, and I didn’t have much choice but to just pout at the moment.

“If the mine entrance is the problem, you probably shouldn’t go through it till we figure out what is wrong,” she said.

Incorrect or not, wasn’t about to argue with an alicorn as scary as Willow. She looked behind me, motioning towards said entrance. With that she pranced her way towards Gold and Day Glow, Sharpshot making his way past me and joining them. This was an uncomfortably familiar case of deja vu. Only difference was that I was stuck doing jackshit after passing out instead of beforehoof.

With a sigh, I laid back down, head on my forelegs. With nothing else to do, I checked out the inside of the mine a bit more thoroughly, in case that held any answers. It didn’t, our group having set up to the right side away from the minecart tracks. It was the only thing of note nearby, stopping just a bit before the mouth of the mine while its other half descended into darkness.

No minecart, no safety beams, the top of the mine must have been either incredibly sturdy or those supports had been spared time’s cruel passage. There were plenty of small pebbles and the like around, not to mention sand that had been pushed inside by the wind. Deciding to see if what I had done earlier in the day was nothing but a flook, I concentrated on some of them and channeled DH and I’s horn.

Same yellow glow as before, same result. The pebble was brought into the air with ease, levitating before me. There was that same foalish excitement in my eyes at something so mundane and simple for any grown unicorn. It was something though, and that little something was a sign that there was more within me. What was I capable of now, with this newest twist in my life? How much more unicorn magic was I actually capable of? The little filly that resided underneath the soldier facade was giddy at all of this, and I wanted an answer for her.

“DH, do you have anything more than telekinesis for me to maybe try?” I asked the air. I was greeted by silence, much to my confusion. “DH?”

“Over here, Rhaps,” she called out, voice far more timid than normal.

Dead Hooves was standing outside of the mine with everypony else, looking at me with a great amount of concern. I motioned for her to come in, but she took a step back instead. I repeated the motion, she took another step back and shook her head. She might have gone back further, but that ethereal line from nights earlier returned. It was like a rope attached to her chest, refusing to let her get too far away.

“DH, get the fuck over here!” I ordered, my grouchy mood returning in an instant.

“I can’t. Something… something won’t let me,” she said, eyes darting up above. She shook her head again. “No, better way to put it: I don’t want to go in. There is something telling me that going inside is a very, very bad idea. It’s like the closer I get the farther away I want to be.”

Her words caught my attention. Knowing full well Willow wouldn’t be happy I stood back up. The mine wasn’t just screwing around with me, but DH too. Given everything that was happening to the two of us in, and how nocreature else was affected, it was clear she was the reason I had gone through that episode. She knew it too, I was certain.

She couldn’t talk to the living though, which is why she had told me as much as she had. I had to explain the rest, and that meant getting closer so I didn’t have to yell. Sharpshot noticed me pretty quick and pointed in my general direction. Willow’s eyes went wide at the sight of me walking and was over in a flash.

“Singing, you might get hurt if–“

“Dead Hooves knows something,” I told her, looking the alicorn directly in the eyes. “I’m the only one that can hear her, and that means I can’t sit on my ass doing nothing.”

Willow’s expression became conflicted, looking back and forth from the mine’s mouth to me. I understood why she wanted me to relax, and she understood why I needed to talk. With a sigh, confliction turned into disapproval, and her wing shot up before my face again.

“Just… don’t step outside. Not until we know what went wrong,” she said a slight pleading quality in her expression, only visible in her eyes. I gave her a nod. “Thanks Singing. I’m sorry about this, but you are one of the few ponies I really don’t want to see get hurt.”

“Let me guess, that list only includes Sharpshot and I,” I replied, trying to joke a little.

The disapproval fell away from her face, transforming into a soft, not-so-innocent smile. “The list isn’t entirely made of ponies I like, silly little pega. There are some others too, like Gemini for instance, that are just good friends.”

At first, I chuckled at her words. Then, after a bit more thought, I froze up and looked back up at the alicorn. Willow’s only respomse was to lick her lips and give me a wink. As she walked back up to everyone else, I felt my face grow as hot as the desert sun. Thank Luna my coat was red enough to hide most of, if not all, my blush.

With slightly stiff steps, and fidgety wings, I trotted up until the outdoors was mere inches away. Dead Hooves stretched out a hoof, telling me to stop without needing to say so. She blinked, and then smirked at my flustered look Willow had left on my face.

“Just tell her you aren’t up for it. Worked for me, all those years ago,” she said casually. Her words only made my face redder, wings unfurling slightly. DH gave me a goofy smirk, hoofing up to her muzzle as if attempting to hold in laughter. “Oh, I see. Well if you are interested just make sure the insufferable bitch she has for a husband is aware first. They got this agreement about–“

“T-topic change, please?” I begged, glancing to the side at everycreature else.

“Oh, gotcha. Have fun when you do it though, or rather when she does you.” DH’s teasing had done it, wings popping out awkward and stiff. She winced, reaching back to rub a wing that didn’t exist. There was a rather sheepish grin on her face. “Worth it.”

It took far too much strength to get a single word out of my mouth. “DH. Now!”

“Sorry, sorry. Just, I haven’t really been able to get far from the entrance because of this thing.” She tugged on the line connecting her to me. “Not fun, being on a leash.”

With her words, the smirk fell, and the earlier concern came back. She took a few more hasty steps back, as if a strong wind was blowing her away from the entrance. The ghost unicorn closed her eyes, straightened her stance, and then opened them again. She bit her lip near immediately upon doing so.

“When you tried to walk into the mine, I felt a tug at my mind,” DH explained. “At least, that is the closest thing I can explain it as. I realized I don’t want to go inside, that it wasn’t safe to, but I also am aware those thoughts aren’t mine.” She shrugged, huffing in annoyance. “Not entirely sure how to explain. What happened to you? It was like some amplified version of what happened to me.”

I mimicked her words to the others, exactly as she had said them. It was what Sharpshot would have wanted, and left no room for misinterpretation. Gold snapped his talons, and stepped closer so that he may take part in the conversation. It made sense he would be the first one to speak up; he was most familiar with there being something on the other side.

“So pegasus experienced something similar to dead mare?” He asked. DH and I both nodded at him. “I see. Some spirit-bond clear between you two. Pegasus use unicorns horn. Maybe unicorn can fly?”

“Not time for that question,” I deadpanned.

He sat down, waving his talons in front of him. “Right. Right. Observation leads to questions though. This ghost town in figurative sense. How about literal?”

I looked at DH, and she motioned behind her. Glancing past her, I saw that we living ponies had gained quite the crowd. The dead were watching us, though for what reason they were doing so I had no idea. What was clear, is that they held the same concern Dead Hooves had for me. The amount of eyes, both so live yet very clearly dead, was more than enough to put me on edge.

An earth pony stallion, coat light brown and mane slightly darker, cutie mark of a beer mug, trotted towards us. His gait was marked with nervous uncertainty, and the closer he got the more it grew. He wasn’t able to make it as far as DH has, the stallion sitting down with a good three or so yards between us. He forced a smile, and saluted me.

“Name’s Malt. I was a bartender in this little community a long time ago, back when the carts still came up and down and the megaspells hadn’t blown everything up,” the stallion said, a twangy note in his voice. It slightly reminded me of a higher pitch Calamity. “Miss Dead Hooves called you Rhaps. Is that right?”

“Singing Rhapsody. Rhaps is for ponies who know me better,” I responded. The stallion beamed as I confirmed I was indeed speaking to him. As he did I turned to Gold. “Answer is yes. A decent number of them too.”

“Ah, I see. Perfect,” the griffon replied, shifting a bit so he faced more towards the outside. “Introduction from pegasus means ghost did same. What is name?”

“Malt.”

“Got it. Am I allowed to ask them questions?”

I turned back to Malt, the stallion having a rather discontent expression on his face. After a couple of seconds, he sighed.

“I would prefer to not answer the questions of a non-equestrian, but at least he ain’t a stripe,” he answered. “As long as it all goes to getting you out of there. Dead Hooves mentioned it, but the place isn’t safe.”

I translated for Gold, and he nodded before looking in the general direction Malt is located. “Won’t waste time. Time is money. Words take time. Therefore less money if speaking more. What is in mine?”

“Tartarus, I don’t know, but y’all gotta feel it, right?” He asked back. Gold tilted his head at the question. “That… impulse feeling. The mine ain’t safe, I know that but don’t understand why. Surely it ain’t just us on the other side.”

“Afraid it is. You confirmed it,” Gold responded.

Malt sneered, then spat on the ground. “Fucking stripes. Of course they are the ones responsible.”

“Stripes?” Dead Hooves asked, ears perking up. “Zebras have been here recently?”

“Recently? This one bloodline of them has been coming and going over nearly two fucking centuries.” He rolled his eyes, staring up at the support beams. “They’ve been putting those talismans on the mine for a long time. Surprised whatever civilization has formed hasn’t gone and put them all back in camps after all this time.”

Dead Hooves gritted her teeth, clearly holding back the urge to punch the stallion before her. Considering both her impulsiveness and what he had said, I was surprised that she was even trying. She looked to me, an inferno looking ready to break out from inside of her. With a nod I decided to heavily edit that last bit of information, given how much of it wasn’t actually useful.

Sharpshot clearly knew my version was edited, but he kept his muzzle shut.

“The zebra put talisman up. That when strange feeling start?” Gold questioned.

“Right on the money,” Malt replied, throwing his forelegs in the air. “What purpose does that serve? None of us here are alive, we ain’t able to use it. They are definitely the reason Miss Rhapsody was feeling like she was earlier.” He tilted his head at me, confused. “Not sure why… though you can see us, just like the stripes were able to. You a half-breed, missy?”

Dead Hooves and I shared another brief glance at each other before I answered Malt. “Half-unicorn. No zebra in my blood.”

That was a lie, of course, considering what I had learned from that damn heritage test back in Trotson. There was the tiniest bit of zebra in me, but he didn’t need to know that. Doubt he would answer our questions if I said the truth. We did get some information out of his little outburst though; the zebras responsible for this were mediums, just like I was.

“Then I can’t guess why you felt it as well,” he replied, shrugging. “Sorry you had to deal with their magic Rhapsody.”

I didn’t bother with a response, instead looking at Fold. The old griff stood up and walked out of the cave, beckoning Sharpshot and Willow over. The two complied, and as soon as they were close enough he pointed a talon up at the support beam. To be exact, the gemstone that had been crammed inside of it.

“That is culprit,” he explained.

I tiled my head. “So it’s not a stasis talisman?”

“Would be surprised if it was, you need more than just a gem in most circumstances,” Sharpshot said. “Under normal circumstances, talismans draw magic through the gem to power something, I know that from the many Stables and other places I’ve visited. Smacking a powered up gemstone into a plank of wood wouldn’t work for a talisman like that.”

His horn lit up, and he floated over the zebra sniper rifle he had carried with him since we had first met. Malt blanched at the item, but Sharpshot caressed it like one would their significant other. There was a deep level of care for that particular weapon, a story behind it.

“Flash Fire here has a flame talisman powering it,” he explained, lifting it slightly before giving a light smack with his hooves, “but you can’t just shove one into a rifle and think it’ll work fine. A bit more complicated than that.” He looked back to the unknown talisman. “There is also the matter of why a still functional talisman would be here. Mine is empty, right? No reason to keep the entrance up.”

“Empty? Who in Tartarus told you that?!” Malt shouted. I looked to him, hoping for an explanation for his outburst. “The mine is still operational, we all know that. Even after the megaspells, we would still go in and out. Society is going to need ores and shit to rebuild after all.”

Sharpshot leered in Day Glow’s direction, the stallion doing the same back. “Empty, huh?”

“Hey, in my defense, what other reason do you expect a mine to be empty?”

Gold shook his head, turning back in the direction of Malt. “If mine still functional, why stop using it?”

Malt’s disgust fell away, sorrow and pain taking him over as he hung his head. “Because ponies started to disappear when they went in.”

As soon as I said that, all focus was on him. Didn’t matter that none of the living – excluding myself – couldn’t see him, Gold had given a general idea of where he was. All the pressure was on him, and in that moment the hateful grounder before me fell away.

“They started to disappear,” Day Glow repeated as he stepped forward, joining the rest of us. “What does that mean? Did they get lost?”

“No. Not possible, since the eastern tunnels collapsed,” he explained. That only seemed to make the constant stares his direction more impactful, and he grew even more sheepish. “We didn’t have to worry a lot about the mega spells but… San Palomino has a fault line, running through part of it. We are very close to said fault line, same as Trotson, and when the spells went off, there was an earthquake.

“Ponies were in the mine at the time. Some got out but others got stuck behind a cave in. We didn’t have the tools to dig them out so we radioed for help, that’s how we learned the world had ended.” He gritted his teeth, shaking his head as he got more choked up. “I had a brother, Cinnamon. He was one of the ones who got trapped. He died there, because we had nothing to save him.”

Willow and Sharpshot shared a glance, the latter clearing his throat afterwards. “You all made the decision to send ponies back in still.”

“Of course! We wanted to help those still left,” Malt answered, looking at the ghoul with a slight faux anger. He didn’t fool me; in his state, there was no way he really cared that we may have association with zebras. “After a time, though, they started to go missing. Some packed up and headed into San Palomino, looking for others. The rest of us? We stayed here for one reason or another.”

Gold, Willow, Sharpshot, and myself all looked at each other. There was a wordless understanding, a secret acknowledgment of exactly what had transpired. More than anything else, it also explained why DH and myself had reacted in such strange ways to the mine’s entrance.

The type of talisman had been revealed to us: a warding talisman. That was the reason the talisman had hurt me; my bond with Dead Hooves had somehow registered me as a spirit, and not a living pony. The zebras who had put them up must have had a reason, but it wasn’t for these spirits before us. Hateful as they were, they were also harmless. Malt hadn’t done more than make insulting comments or weird looks at their mentions.

So, if the ward was not meant to keep something out… then something was inside. Willow had reached the conclusion earliest of us all, maniacal glee warping her features. Before any of us was able to stop her, her horn lit and she vanished.

“Fuck, hun get back here!” Sharpshot shouted, running off into the mine after her.

“Sharpshot!” I called out. He didn’t listen, disappearing into the darkness of the mine. After a moment, I turned to Gold and Day Glow. “Break the talisman. We head after them.”

“Break the….” Day Glow looked up at the support beams, and then back to me. “Lieutenant Colonel, if we do that then whatever is inside–”

“I know, but DH is attached to me. We can’t get too far from each other,” I replied, horn lighting up and grabbing my novasurge rifle from our equipment pile. I heard more than a few gasps of shock from the crowd of ghosts from seeing the yellow glow above my forehead. “I’m not putting her through what I did.”

I saw a bit of uncertainty in his eyes, but saluted despite that. Gold simply gave me a nod, taking out Roche Limit and aiming it upwards. Holding it by the frame, he flapped his wings and gained just enough height where he was level with the gem. He swiftly rammed the grip of the energy pistol into the gem.

With the sound of a crack, I felt a bit of unknown stress suddenly dissipate. The same happened with Dead Hooves, the former letting her head hang as a forehoof went to her chest. Malt was probably no different, but he was too focused on the yellow glow surrounding my energy rifle. His mouth moved, no sounds coming out but the intended word abundantly clear.

“Alicorn.”

“Are you good to go now?” I asked the ghost unicorn. She gave me a confident nod. With that done, I took a few steps forward and focused on the Gold and Day Glow. “Double time everycreature. Move it!”

The inside of the mine, under most circumstances, wouldn’t have been possible to navigate if not for Dead Hooves’ presence. Her horn glowed brightly on my head, filling the surroundings with enough light to see wall to wall. The space for us to walk was quite decent, given they had needed room not just for ponies but for the minecart that ran down the middle of the cave. We stayed side to side, checking each other’s flanks every once in a while as we did.

I only had my novasurge rifle for this; no way was bringing the Atomizer into a close space a good idea. Gold had Roche Limit ready, a talon comfortably sitting on the safety in wait for whatever comes next. Day Glow? He wielded something that I had not seen before that point, an early griffon fire arm known as a lever action rifle. The sights on it were non-existent, the trigger guard seemed oddly long, but outside of that he had kept it well maintained.

There was also the fact that it, along with the snubnose revolver holstered on his shoulder, somehow gave off a certain vibe. It fits the desert, though I still don’t completely understand why.

The clop of hooves and tap of talon claws were the only thing in our ears. Everything was silent, and that either meant we were alone or this mine’s prisoners were somehow keeping out of sight. Worst case scenario must always be taken in a life or death situation, and that meant believing the latter. A good military knows that better than any common civilian would.

“Oh shit.”

Day Glow’s sudden expletive led us to look in the same direction he had. Before us, to what my E.F.S declared as east, was a nearly blocked mining passage. The top of the cave had fallen in creating a wall of rubble that would be impossible to move with pony hooves in any timely manner. With what Malt had told us, this was likely the mine shaft that had collapsed on the last day.

I tilted my head up to get a better look at the cave roof, see if it looked anything different. There was a hole, small though it may have been, near the left most side. Wasn’t big enough for a grown adult, about the size of a hoof if the skeletal one hanging from it was any indication. It was impossible to question who that was, but I damn well knew what they had been trying to do. With where they had died, it meant one of either two things: they had died of exhaustion, trying to break free, or they had been reaching out for somepony in fear.

Given what we knew, the second seemed the most in line with what we knew. Ultimately they had failed at both, as unfortunate as it was.

“Hole too small. Alicorn not fit inside.” Gold said, motioning forward. I snorted at his choice of words, loud enough to echo loudly off the mine’s walls. He had to force himself not to facepalm, given the weapon in his talon, but was unable to hold back the eye roll. “Really?”

“You said it, not me,” I replied. “You’re correct though. Willow and Sharpshot didn’t go this way.”

“We continue on the path we were already on, then?” Day Glow asked.

He got a nod for his response. I took the lead since DH and I were the main source of light for our group. The cave is slowly disappearing into shadows behind us, leaving us once again to follow a straight path down. It was like walking down a hallway at midnight, nothing but the sound of your own hoofsteps to accompany you. A recruit would go mad in an environment like this, all by themselves.

The amount of nothing around us made everycreature tense. We had thought the monsters that laid inside the mines had broken through the cave-in. With that now impossible, the uncomfortable question of where they had gotten free took over the mind. The ground, the wall, the ceiling, none seemed safe anymore. At what point did we find the hole that had led to their freedom? All we knew was that at some point, our answer would come.

“Concerning your early question, regarding spells and the like,” DH said, finally breaking the silence. Her voice didn’t bounce off the mine’s walls, a small but unnerving detail concerning ghosts that never really sat right with me. “Most I can teach is some simple things. Outside of mind magic that is all I ever learned.”

“Yeah, and considering what good that has done for me, I’d prefer to not mess with the minds of other ponies,” I whispered, allowing the slightest sign of a frown to appear. “Sharpshot said he isn’t that familiar with magic as well, so that option is out.”

“Which would leave Willow but, uh,” DH chuckled, wearing a goofy grin on her face, “I don’t think learning from a pony who practically only knows advanced magic is a good idea.”

“So I’m shit out of luck.”

“Yeah. Sorry Rhaps.”

“Hey, you still said you could teach me the basics. I’ll take that at least.”

The further down we went, the more time seemed to blend together. A half hour without any sign of Sharpshot or Willow turned into what felt like several mores. While the talk with DH had given me the time to think about what spells I truly had an interest in learning, it couldn’t remain my focus. Anything could be lying ahead, and I needed to focus on keeping my ass alive far before anything else.

It led to pure relief when an unmistakable mix of green light suddenly met our eyes. I motioned with a hoof to pick up the pace as I broke into a brisk gallop towards it. Pupils looked back and forth, searching for anything that might try and catch us off guard. Nothing showed as we grew closer and closer towards the green light of a PipBuck. Bright and brighter it grew until two forms finally showed themselves, both familiar, but only one alive.

It was with a breath of relief that it turned out the living one was Sharpshot, though he certainly didn’t seem in a good mood. Something had tried to take a bite out of him, the tissue that connected his neck to his head looking like it had been pierced by a carnivore. Blood pooled and slid down his front, back against the mine wall as his magic effortlessly moved both needle and string through skin.

Day Glow and I held no subtlety in our approach, and Sharpshot noticed us just as quickly as we noticed him. The rags covering his mouth were down, allowing us to see the pain-laced grimace that took over his expression. He tried to hide it, give us a cheeky grin and some witty comments. All he was able to do instead was grit his teeth as he brought the needle back out of his skin.

“Watch the darkness, make sure nothing gets the jump on us,” I ordered the pegasus and griffon at my side. They did just that, Day Glow watching our flank while Gold aimed Rocke Limit into the darkness we had yet to travel. Meanwhile, I sat down right in front of Sharpshot. “You okay?”

“The fuck does it look like?” He spat back, the rhetorical question emphasized by another harsh wince from the ghoul before me. “Bite is likely infected but I can’t do shit about that now. Left any way of cleaning it with everything else, only have what’s usually on me.”

My attention drifted to his attacker, dead on the ground about a foot away. The creature was equine, or at least it seemed like it at a cursory glance. It was like some alien had heard about a pony and tried to recreate it from a vague description. Sure it was quadruped, had a muzzle, a few strands of hair to make up a mane and tail, and the basics but everything else about it was wrong.

That face for instance, there was absolutely nothing correct about it. Jagged, dirty, and excessively sharp teeth laid inside its maw. Their lips were plain gone, the signs of tearing and pulling visible where they should have been. Sharpshot’s blood dripped from the end of its muzzle and down its chin. Its eyes were glossy, wrong in a way I do not know how to describe other than saying they didn’t look right. The cartilage that made up a pony’s outer ears didn’t exist on it, and no fur to be seen.

The last didn’t just apply to its head, but the rest of the creature’s body. No fur coat, just pale, sickly skin on a body so thin that it looked uncanny. Its hooves were chipped and cracked horribly, but more wrong than that was the way they split. Ponies weren’t kirins or deers, we didn’t have cloven hooves, but just like how the metaphorical alien had fucked everything else up it had gotten that wrong. Tartarus, even calling them cloven feels like an insult. It was like they were clumsy, weird talons like one would see on a griffon or bird.

The only side this had once been an actual, sentient pony was its flank. There was a cutie mark there, but what it represented had faded into something indecipherable. This had once been one of the trapped miners, who in some vague hope at staying alive had turned to means that could only be described as monstrous.

Their means of freedom came in the form of five rounds to the chest and one more to the neck. Somehow the dark ichor that was the creature’s blood seemed to be the most pony thing about it. There was the sign of burning as well, no doubt a result of Flash Fire, where the shots impacted the torso. It wasn’t the bonfire that one stallion back in Trotson had been – the creature shone from some form of wet surface – but it was there.

Dead Hooves stepped towards the beast, eyeing it with a look that is best described as lost. Her gaze was both on the dead monstrosity before her, and somewhere else. It was the same look I had worn when Anchor finally woke me from my stupor, days after the mission in Trotson had gone awry.

“Just like you,” she whispered to nopony. “Just like… mom.”

Her words solidified what I had expected this creature was. This was what Gold had referred to as a craven, the end result of the Gluttonous One’s curse upon those who fed on flesh. The only salivation for anypony at this point was death. Perhaps not even that, for no spirit had arisen from the body after death. It was gone, as utterly destroyed as the body now was.

Inside, I knew exactly what DH was thinking. She had once been destined to fall to this same exact fate. The only thing that saved her was an early death.

“That used to be a pony?” I muttered, more out of shock than anything else.

“Surprising, I know,” Sharpshot replied, similarly quiet. “The Gluttonous One isn’t like the Dealer, he made that clear when I asked him about it. Only time I’ve ever seen him pissed at me, I think.” He snipped the thread he was using for his stitches, then tapped a hoof on Flash Fire. “More durable than your average pony under most circumstances, but don’t like fire. Wasn’t in any real danger.”

I looked back at him, face deadpan. “It bit you.”

“Yeah. I’m sure Anchor bit you a few times too, and you’re still standing,” he replied, smirking at me. If we weren’t in danger, that might have gotten more than just a frustrated scowl out of me. “Eh, worth a try. Seriously though, I’ll be fine. This is nowhere close to the worst I’ve been through.”

“Do I want to know what the worst was?” Day Glow quipped, taking a few steps back so he could look at us a bit easier.

The ghoul’s smirk grew. “Run in with some alicorns about half a century back. Yes, they were around back then, though not the public nuisance they are considered now. Nearly died, would have if I wasn’t a ghoul.” He looked at me, his expression falling into stoicism. “There are a few things that would make me not fit to fight, but this ain’t it. I’m good to go.”

With Sharpshot declaring himself fit to fight, I turned my attention back in the direction of the dead Craven. DH was still standing over it, staring down at something unseen with dilated pupils. I stretched a wing out, gently laying it on her back. That woke her up from whatever memory she was trapped in, eyes returning to normal.

“Thinking about mom, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah. About her, and about what I was supposed to become.” She turned to me, half-fallen ears and a down-cast look making her seem exceptionally vulnerable. “It’s hard to look at any of them and not think how this… this was her fate. She deserved so much better.”

A wing was not enough. I wrapped a hoof around her, giving the ghost mare as much comfort as I was able to offer. She returned it instantly, both forelegs pressing lightly on the back of my neck. Somehow this still didn’t feel like enough, but it was all that a pony like me was capable of.

“Thanks,” she replied.

“Don’t sweat it,” I responded, ruffling her mane slightly. It was an odd feeling, but it got a faint smile out of her. That made it all worth it. “Just think of it like this: whoever this pony was, they are free now.”

DH looked at the craven’s body, a brief note of contemplation on her features. She believed it as little as I really did, but nonetheless the smile returned. Somehow, fooling ourselves in moments like this always made things just a little bit easier.

“I… I like the sound of that,” she said, before looking back down. “There are others who need freeing.”

I nodded before turning back to Sharpshot. “Ready to get moving?”

“Possibly. You're done talking to dead ponies?”

He smirked, I scowled, and Gold snorted in amusement. With a dramatic roll of my eyes, I looked away from the ghoul and down into the darkness. All it took was a motion of my hoof, and we were all moving again.

We did eventually find out how the craven had gotten free, but the reason proved to be a bit more shocking than what any of us would have originally believed. A section of the mine's wall had been blasted away, most likely by dynamite, allowing access to a natural cave. It wasn’t exactly spacious, and the far end of the area was practically a cliff. There was a path, however, uneven but traversable up ahead if the pony watched their step.

Sharpshot took the lead as we made our way into a more natural part of the mine. His horn and PipBuck added to DH and I’s own light, perfectly illuminating the surrounding area. The dripping of water alerted us to how far underground we now were. The stream that connected to the well was somewhere above us. It made the cave walls shine from moisture, and the environment feel colder than it really was. It also made sense why the craven Sharpshot had killed shined like it did; the creature had recently taken a dip in that exact same stream.

“They didn’t open this up to the craven,” Sharpshot said, focusing the light to one specific corner. Old, musty, and rusted mining equipment laid in a far alcove, making up a small camp not far away. “They must have mined into the other tunnel.”

“Most likely situation,” Gold replied. “Watch darkness, stay together. We separate, we die.”

“Should we be worried about Willow, then?” Day Glow asked. His hoove tested the ground beneath us, shining from the moisture dripping from the ceiling. “I don’t trust the surface under us. Really wish I could fly.”

“Consider mechanical wing? Know ponies who can make one,” the griffon said, a slight curve upwards at the ends of his beak. “Pegasus doesn’t deserve being grounded.”

Sharpshot and I both looked to Day Glow, waiting to see how she would handle this. His eyes immediately flitted to his remaining wing, giving it a flap. There was pain visible in what little could be seen of his face. He longed to fly, like all pegasi were born to. Gold was right about none of us wanting to be grounded.

Yet an ArcanaTech-made wing, with what I had experienced from their leadership? There were better ponies to get a prosthetic from, who respected privacy far more. Sure, it might take longer and may not allow for flight, but the phantom limb sensation was dealt with. Somehow, perhaps due to the part of me that was more unicorn than pegasus, I felt that was a decent compromise.

Whether it was a decent enough compromise for Day Glow, however…

A lump formed in my throat as we waited for an answer. I saw ArcanaTech as the wrong choice, and I prayed that he saw the same. I won’t deny soundless prayers leaving my mouth, hoping he did what was right.

As a pegasus looked at a griffon, we received our answer. “Shattered Moon requires its numbers to have complete anonymity in public. You all know I have a history with the councilor. That is already too far in Lady Hash’s eyes. For that reason, I’ll have to decline.”

“Right. Will respect wish,” Gold replied, giving a respectful bow to the pegasus.

He started to move again, taking the front and paying little attention to us. Sharpshot and I shared a look, neither of us feeling safe with the answer. He was probably considering what it meant for Goldms loyalty but I? I was thinking about the loyalty Day Glow had just shown to the Shattered Moon.

His transition mattered more than anything else to him. It was understandable, but it meant I needed to watch what I did. If the Shattered Moon came to consider me a threat – and therefore a danger to his happiness – I would have another pony to keep an eye on. It was unfortunate and I didn’t want to consider it, but as long as my family wasn’t safe I had to consider every possible threat.

I’m sorry, Day Glow. With all you have been through, I didn’t want to consider you a possible threat but… I had no choice.

We trotted along the walls of the cave, eyes scanning the surrounding for activity. Our every step was careful, calculated, making sure not to slip. Our enemy was too deadly for us to make mistakes, anycreature falling an easy target for them. That was unaffordable.

A red dot suddenly appeared on the E.F.S., both Sharpshot and myself raising weapons. It moved around quick, too quick for a normal pony. Left and right across the compass it went, keeping distance. That’s what it seemed like, but as time went on the dot got more erratic. It was getting closer, but nothing appeared in front of us.

Which meant the enemy was up above.

All it took was a simple glance up to see the source of the dot. A craven stared down at me, growling. Teeth ready to sink into flesh, ‘hooves’ clenching the rocky ceiling, its hindlegs coiled. It was about to jump.

“Above us!”

The shout echoed off the walls, likely alerting any craven in the immediate area. That didn’t matter; stealth had been broken the moment red appeared on the E.F.S.

Shots filled my ears as we tried to hit the monster. The only one who did was Day Glow, and that was because he was the craven’s target. Two rounds went into its skull as it lunged at him, the audibly crack of bones reaching out ears. That would have killed a normal pony, but the craven didn’t care.

With what little time he had, Day Glow brought his hooves up to his face. It didn’t care; flesh was flesh, and as the momentum from its leap brought both enemy and ally to the ground it sank its fangs into her foreleg. Day Glow tried to kick it off him, hind hooves beating against the craven’s stomach. It only succeeded at lurching their lower body upwards.

Dashing up to his side, flipped the gun around in my hooves, and slammed the stock into the monster’s head. All it did was jolt their head a bit to the side, eliciting a pained grunt from Day Glow. I wound up again, timing synced to Day’s hindleg getting ready to buck again. Then, with all the power we had, his hoof and my gun slammed into the beast with full force.

The kick made it dry heave, and ramming the stock into their head sent the craven reeling away. Day had more than enough strength to then completely shove it off him, wing pushing the lever action close enough for them to hastily grab. He had just enough time to aim and fire.

One round immediately went into the target’s shoulder, blowing it open to reveal muscle tissue and bone marrow. The craven let out a haunting, pony-like screech as it stumbled into the cave wall. Day Glow merely chambered another round and sent a bullet into its neck.

By all means that should have been a killing blow, but it didn’t. It merely howled again, before leaping away with speed nopony was ever able to rival. As such, Day Glow’s next shot hit nothing but rock, a small dent appearing where it landed.

That was where the rest of us stepped in. With my fellow pegasus still lying on the floor, Sharpshot, Gold, and I quickly raised our weapons and fired. The craven leaped and ducked under fire, unable to dodge every round but refusing to die. Roche Limit ripped apart part of its flank, a blast from my novasurge hit it dead in the chest, Day Glow’s lever action continued to take chunks out of the beast. It still refused to die.

It finally stopped moving when an eardrum shattering bang drowned out every other shot, a single bullet landing right in the craven’s left eye. It screamed, and then suddenly went alight with all the speed and fury of a dead tree. Pony-like screams of terror and agony filled the air as we watched it twist and turn, the monster’s skin burning away like it was paper. It collapsed to the ground, rolling in what moisture remained on the cavern floor. The struggle to put out the blaze was futile, and soon it stopped squirming.

I swore that, as it took its final breath, an appendage similar to a hellhound’s paws was visible. Something reaching out to the air, possibly trying to escape. That was the closest I had ever seen to the Gluttonous One’s actual form; not even DH’s memories had that.

Wishing to think of thoughts far less frightening, I reached a hoof down to Day Glow. He grabbed it immediately, and I pulled him back up. There was the brief sign of a smile before looking down to the foreleg the craven had bit, a deep red visible through the trench coat that made up part of his uniform. He refused to put it on the ground, the tiniest grimace visible on his muzzle.

“Hurts like Tartarus,” he explained with a small chuckle. “Those teeth are practically knives.”

“Jaws of steel to match,” Sharpshot replied, Flash Fire rested telekinetically against his shoulder. He wasn’t fooling anypony; we all saw the fresh blood that trailed down his front. He had reopened his wound. “I’ll take a look, you two keep your eyes out for trouble. Other craven definitely would have heard us.”

He levitated Flash Fire to me, which I grabbed ahold of with my own magic. That was something DH and I had tested out on our way to Nowhere. Apparently we were both able to use magic at the same exact time. Was certainly a helpful trick, even if it merely went as far as making things float for now

With the only weapon that seemed to do any real harm to the craven temporarily in my hooves, I scanned the surroundings. Going from a storm of gunfire to near nothing left things eerie. The craven had proven to be perfectly silent in the dark, despite their speed and twisted hooves. The only indication to their approach was the E.F.S.

It remained blank, much to my annoyance. The lack of red did nothing but made me anxious for what might come.

“Roll it up,” Sharpshot ordered. Looking back, I saw he was pointing to Day Glow’s jacket sleeve. The one the craven had chewed through with ease.

“I’m… not sure if I should.”

“Oh yeah, sure, you get bit by what is basically a wild animal and you think that is fine to just walk off.”

“That isn’t what I mean. Did you not hear what I told Gold?”

There was a small pause, followed by an annoyed howl. “You might have an infected wound and anonymity is your concern.”

“The price for breaking said rules aren’t light. If anypony in the Shattered Moon learn that–“

“There is nopony else in your dumbass organization here! Keep your mouth shut, and you’ll be fine!”

The two looked at each other with something bordering on hostile intent. A placed on hind leg back a bit, ready to intercept what I thought might be a hoof fight. I was all too thankful when Day Glow backed down, rolling up his sleeve, and closed his eyes. He opened them moments later, and let out a sigh of relief for what appeared to be nothing. It didn’t erase the sudden fear that took over his eyes.

If that was the only thing that happened at that moment, I might have asked him if something was wrong. A more pressing matter came to my ears, however. A distance sound, close in resemblance to a voice, had barely made it our way. It was deep, feminine, in pain, the tiniest bit familiar.

Willow Wisp?

“Don’t fall for it.”

I looked at Dead Hooves, the ghost mare shaking her head at me. Fall for… what? The voice I had heard? I gave her a reassuring smile before turning back out towards the rest of the case. No way was I going to investigate something all by myself, especially after how hard it had been to kill just one craven.

“That’ll have to do. Once we get back up top I’ll give it a bit more work,” Sharpshot said, taking a few steps back. Day Glow glared at him. “What?”

“You’re a cunt,” the pegasus stated, face expressionless.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“I’m trans.”

“I said something I don’t know. I’m a doctor, I figured that out pretty damn quickly.” He patted Day Glow on the back. Flash Fire was ripped from my telekinetic grip with pure ease. “Now get your ass up, I need to find my wife before she does anything stupid.”

“She ran into mine with no weapon,” Gold shot back, the slightest sign of a smirk on face. “Dumb already happened.”

All the ghoul did was huff in annoyance.

Day Glow got to their hooves, and we started moving towards the source of the earlier sound. If DH’s earlier warning was anything to go by, that was the mimicry of a craven. If one of those was further down the tunnel, we would find Willow there. It made the most sense, given how her mind seemed to work.

The closer we got, the more we heard the cries. It was hard to tell if it was one or two voices we heard, given the uncanny valley said cries fit into. Just pony enough to be believed, but also wrong enough for a clever mare or stallion to question it. For those in a state of distress or lowered guard, or for the curious mind too eager to satiate themselves, it was a siren song.

Like a siren, death would no doubt follow.

Across rock and mineral, vanishing darkness with each step, we went on. My ears were peeled for any oddities in the craven’s banshee screams. The scurrying of hooves could be heard, quieter but still echoing through the tunnel. It was only when we had gotten close enough did I hear everything else.

Not sure how to describe the sounds I heard outside of sounding like they hurt. Impacts and the sound of hoove striking flesh, if I was correct. One particularly nasty snap, and the roar of cravens got slightly quieter. These sounds caused Sharpshot to pick up his pace, no doubt believing Willow was half responsible.

Suddenly, Dead Hooves cut her horn light, shroud us living ponies in darkness. Even through the sudden pitch black of the world, I felt eyes on me. Not that of the craven close by, but Sharpshot leering at me with a look of ‘what the fuck’ on his face. He probably would have said something to me, but the reason for turning the lights off quickly became clear.

Before us were three craven, two alive and one dead. I saw the latter first, a shiver running down my spine as I saw how its body bent. It was like the creature had been turned into a bad art piece, limbs going this way and that. The way the back bent was unnatural, folded up like a sheet of paper. The obvious thing to point hooves at, in terms of a cause of death, was its fellow monsters right in front of it.

I wasn’t entirely sure what they were fighting over, given that I could barely see. What I did know was that they had every intention of killing each other. Stomping, biting, kicking, and as one was a unicorn spearing became another option for their battle. We watched it all, keeping quiet and out of the way.

As the unicorn craven threw the earth pony across the cavern, I noticed somepony in the darkness. They would have been impossible to make out, if not for the horn and wings they bared. Willow raised a hoof to her lips, and then vanished like a ghost. She didn’t need to tell me twice.

I watched the craven fight, waiting for whatever signal the alicorn was about to give me. The earth pony craven, having recovered from being thrown, charged at the unicorn craven. A heavy thud sounded as they clashed again, hooves grappling, attempting to overpower one another. Pure instinctive hatred, no sign of higher thought whatsoever.

The earth pony craven, expectantly, won the battle through force. All it needed was to get a hoof on the other's head to force it to the ground. Many animals would simply make a show of power and be done with it. Craven, however? They’re always hungry, always starving, and an animal in that condition doesn’t care. It just wants food.

I had to hold in a gasp of horror as, with the unicorn craven still below it, the earth pony bit into its neck. A sickening wail allowed me to at least let out a shuddered breath, one shared by traumatized looking DH. She took a step back, only to flinch as she saw the monster before us tear flesh and muscle from bone. It quickly chewed and swallowed, heaving from the speed of it all, before biting down again.

Dead Hooves remembered this feeling. It was one she had fought against in life, and failed to control.

I dared to extend the wing around the ghost in some hope of comfort. Her eyes briefly zipped to me, and then to the cavern floor. No smile, no words, all regret from a pony who wished they were still able to cry. It pained me just as much as it pained her now, given how closely intertwined he had become. We could both be happy with the knowledge that these ponies before us were about to finally get their rest.

If only it came from a pony more sane than Willow.

The earth pony craven continued to tear flesh and meat from the unicorn one. The latter never ceased its struggle, refusing to die even as it bled more and more. I didn’t have time earlier to realize the horror of that, but with us all simply watching this thing get mauled alive…

Imagine being on the verge of death, barely able to do anything, yet not being allowed your rest. It was the closest thing to this that came to mind, terrifying yet still inaccurate. The unicorn craven could still fight, but any resistance it put up was futile.

It would die at some point, right? Fire couldn’t be the only way to kill a craven.

The answer came with the earth pony craven getting lifted into the air by Willow, still invisible to all. Its anger never faded, but there was a hint of confusion. The unicorn sluggishly got back onto its hooves, trying to limp away. A blue aura stopped that, dragging them by the hindlegs back towards the pool of blood that marked the places they had been eaten from.

Both craven struggled under the magical and physical might of the currently invisible alicorn. While the unicorn wreathed in its own blood, the earth pony was carried over to the cavern walls. Willow slammed the latter into the rocky surface, and finally revealed herself. Bloodlust in her eyes, smile far too natural for what she was about to do, hoof on the craven’s neck. With the twisting and turning of her toe, she put more and more pressure onto the cannibal monster, screams of rage turning into gasps for air. The sound only excited the alicorn more.

“Knock knock, anypony home?” She asked, tilting her head slowly.

All she got was a craven choking under her hoof. Willow dared to place her muzzle closer and closer to the beast’s own. It did its best to snap at her through what little it could breathe. That amount became zero as the pressure on its neck increased. It was a miracle their neck hadn’t snapped under Willow’s strength.

“Anypony? Anything at all?” She asked again. When nothing came, a snap filled the air, and the craven went limp. “Thought so.”

The craven’s body fell to the ground with a thud. No breathing, spasming, or anything else. There was something nearly comical about how easily Willow had killed it, compared to us. After a gentle caress of the dead body, she turned to us.

“You can turn the lights on. This one isn’t going to harm us,” she explained, trotting over to the unicorn craven.

DH barely got the spell up before Sharpshot rushed towards his wife. He stood between her and her prey, the only pony out of all of us brave enough to stand between her and a kill. Even more surprisingly, Willow didn’t just weave around him. She stopped, looked down at her husband, and then pawed the rocky ground under her.

“I-I needed to kill something, okay?”

Sharpshot merely shook his head. Raising up Flash Fire, he set five rounds into the craven behind him. Its inside’s lit up like an old world fireplace, organs and muscle tissue taking the place of tinder and logs. Both husband and wife stayed quiet as the beast let out its final screams of life.

They sounded less beastlike and more like normal speech. To this day I swear the word “help” came out of its mouth in those final moments.

“That’ll have to be enough,” he said, voice cold and face expressionless. He couldn’t keep that up, relief flooding his facial features as he wrapped his forelegs best he could around Willow. “For fucks sake hun, don’t just take off like that. You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry, Sharpy. Sorry,” she replied, hugging him back with a single foreleg. The blood craze in her had died down, leaving melancholy in its wake. “It’s just… it’s been days since I’ve bloodied my hooves. I needed this.”

“We were going to kill some bugs tomorrow. You could have waited till then, I know it,” Sharpshot replied. Willow nodded her head, and the ghoul turned his head to us. “Can you three give us some time? I would like to talk to her in private.”

We spent their conversation out of ears reach, meant going quite a ways back. Through the hole the miners had made into the natural cave, and back up some ways. No danger, so we made ourselves cozy and sat down. Day Glow has a fair number of questions, mainly concerning exactly what he had just killed. The horror that filled the young soldier's eyes as I told him of the Gluttonous One, the cannibal curse, and the slow transformation into a monster, left him temporarily speechless.

Trying to explain how I had lived the experience, through DH’s memories, didn’t make things better. The curiosity Day had was staggering, and against his better judgment he inquired further about what had happened to me in the past few weeks. I hid nothing, explained everything, including that which might forever alter his feelings on me.

That included the truth of my ancestry.

Gold just grinned at me, that alone saying everything. He had already known, of course he had. Saw clear through me like Sharpshot and Willow had, though without knowing about my ties to DH. Either way he wasn’t shocked.

Day Glow’s reaction, however, gave me a major case of deja vu. The sudden silence, the betrayed expression, the stare. It was exactly like how I had been when Angel Hair had told me of her origins. Being on the receiving end of it… it was like a knife I had used a thousand times correctly suddenly piercing my heart. It was awful; I never wanted to see it again.

“Lieuten– Counci– how in the–“ Day Glow’s constant stop and start only made that feeling worse. One foreleg covered his muzzle, the other his chest. “You’re sure? Like, sure sure. They weren’t… I mean the test had to be wrong, right?” He turned to Gold, only to look back when the griffon ignored his question. “Right?”

“Considering they are probably the best minds in the entire wasteland,” I replied, eyes focused on my own hooves, “no. They got it right.”

“You’re part-grounder. You are part grounder.” His words hurt nearly as much as his earlier look. The foreleg covering his muzzle went up to his head. “I can’t. I mean, how did… I voted for you!”

That struck more than just my heart. Pain turned to anger, brow furrowed. He shuffled back as I got up and sped-trot up to them. I didn’t stop moving till we were muzzle to muzzle, forehead to forehead, eye to eye.

“Yes, and I did everything I could to help the Enclave,” I growled. “I served alongside you I fought for everypega’s safety from what we saw as a threat. I didn’t know I was half-unicorn, and just like you or my husband and so many others.”

I paused, taking notice of the sudden fear in Day’s eyes, and took a step back. With a deep breath, I did my best to calm myself to an understandable degree. The anger was still there when I was done, but I had a little more control over it. With a look to my foreleg, I considered everything I had just felt.

This is how Angel Hair felt, wasn’t it? When I had told her to forget her heritage. Only thing that kept her from cursing me out then and there was being in an Enclave bar, and being a commissioned officer.

“Day Glow, listen to me,” I ordered. His ears swiveled manually to show he was. “My name is Lieutenant Colonel Singing Rhapsody, member of the Enclave High Council, a proud protector of pegasus-kind, and mother of two amazing little fillies. This is who I was, who I am, and who I will continue to be. That won’t change just because I’m half-unicorn.” I placed a hoof on his shoulder. “I took your induction into the Shattered Moon with no trouble. I ask you to do the same, for something like this.”

It was clear I had hit a chord the moment he hung his head. Shame colored his eyes, a sign that he realized how he had just screwed up. He closed his eyes, steadied his breath, and then lifted his head up to look at me.

“The Enclave was wrong then, about half-grou–” a hardened expression was all it took to redirect his words, “I mean, they are wrong about only purebloods being good officers.”

I nodded and sat down. “It would seem so.”

“Sorry LT.”

“A simple sorry doesn’t cut it with me, you know that,” I replied. “Even in the Enclave, such discourse during deployment would see punishment. It was lenient, yes, but purebloods needed to remember that, in the heat of battle, that shit doesn’t matter. Break orders simply because it involves interacting with a half-breed means punishment.”

“What are you getting at?” Day Glow asked. All I did was smirk, and her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “Um, ma’am, you aren’t going to–”

“Hey, Gold,” I called out. The griffon blinked, and then tilted his head in my direction. “You have an interest in culture, right? How would you like to witness the standard training regimen of an Enclave recruit.”

He briefly looked away and tapped the bottom of his beak, then nodded. “Would be interested. Fought Enclave before, but never studied.”

“You heard him, Day Glow,” I said, playfully nudging my old squadmate. “Gonna put you through the ringer tomorrow, just like old times. Oh, and no complaining about your legs either.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, saluting. Despite the show, it was impossible to not see the way his eyes slanted slightly. “Whatever you say, ma’am.”

As the faint echo of hooves hit our ears, eyes turned into the depths of the mine. Gold had gripped Roche Limit, likely for the off chance it was a craven. I followed suit, raising my weapon down into the darkness of the cavern. It proved unnecessary when a familiar white and blue mane came into view.

“Wouldn’t recommend firing. Any bullet that hit me would coincide with the snap of a neck,” Willow said, an innocent smile capping off her threat. “Nopony wants that.”

“Nopony likes being threatened too,” Sharpshot replied, rolling his eyes. The two stopped before us, smiles on their faces. “What did we miss?”

“Nothing important,” I answered. Gold and Day Glow both nodded in solidarity at my statement. “Are we all done with this little impromptu adventure? I'm more than ready to hit the hay.”

“Almost. One more problem on list to fix,” Gold said. “Talisman blocking cave down. Can’t fix, but need to keep craven in here.”

“Yeah, most aren’t as prepared for them like we are,” Sharpshot said, nodding. “Thankfully that shouldn’t be too hard.”

Day Glow leaned forward. “You got some way to fix that.”

Sharpshot walked over to the mine walls and tapped them with the toe of his hoof. “Depends. How pissed will your higher ups be if we cause another cave in.”

“You’re going to what?!”

“Destroy the entrance to the mine, and make sure nopony in it can get hurt,” I explained to Malt, watching my companions as they lined up dynamite across the mine’s mouth. “It’s for the best. What we saw down there needs to be sealed away.”

“But my brother’s spirit! He’a still down there!” The earth pony ghost moved right in front of me, anger having overwhelmed all his facial features. Didn’t blame him, considering how little he knew. “You can’t just lock him down there. If you do, the stripes win.”

I looked him in the eyes, meeting his rage as head on as possible. “You’re brother isn’t coming out of there. His spirit is gone, eaten by a thing that hungers for pony flesh. I’m making sure that creature has less chance of hurting others.”

We stared at each other, Malt’s anger faltering while I remained calm and stoic. He wanted some sign that I was lying about this all, that my claims of cannibal spirits were fraudulent. He was probably hoping it would give him some reason to call me a zebra sympathizer, given our short interaction earlier that night. Easier to point hooves than face the truth.

Yet as we stared, he started to falter more and more. Rage was replaced by horror, realization, and gloom. Finally he took one step back, then another, and then finally sat down. Only then did I allow myself to move, closing my eyes and lower my head.

“I’m sorry, Malt. I wish it wasn’t true, but it is,” I said, voice low and quiet. Opening my eyes, I saw the poor ghost shivering in fright, having finally accepted my words as fact. “You’re brother, along with the other miners, turned to darker means when no help appeared just to live a little longer. They didn’t know of the evil they were letting in.”

“Malt?” Attention shifted to our left, DH sitting down with us after a short disappearance upon leaving the mine. Apparently the amount of magic we had both used had led to a slight horn ache. “My mother died because of the same spirit, and I nearly followed her. The best we can do for them, at the stage they were at down their, was put them in a position where they couldn’t hurt anypony.”

Malt’s head jerked downward once, then twice. He let out a reluctant huff of ethereal breath, the scowl on his face taking on a moodier form. He looked back to the mind entrance, lifted one foreleg to reach out to no one, but stopped midway. Hesitantly, he let that hoof meet the sand yet again.

“Over a dozen lives were lost from that cave in. Too many for you anypony alive to free in a place so large and dark,” he stated, speaking more to himself than DH or I. He looked back to us, a melancholic acceptance clear to everypony. “This will keep them from hurting anyone, right?”

I nodded. “As long as the dynamite we gathered from your village still works.”

“It will,” he said. “Celestia and Luna as my witness, it will do what nopony else here can. What that… zebra had been firmly aware of.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Guess there is one good family of ‘em out there. You ever meet him, tell him thanks for not telling us shit… and trying to keep ponies safe.”

“Not much of a thanks if you ask me,” DH replied, muzzle scrunched up in displeasure.

“More than you’d see most of us Equestrians ever give ‘em,” Malt spat back. “He’ll have to take it. Not giving them more for what they did to Equestria. Tartarus, as far as we can tell Trotson is just a giant ball of dust because of them.”

“Can we at least have their name?” I asked. “Hard to give your ‘thanks’ without knowing if we were giving it to the correct zebra.”

“Fair enough. They go by Liberty, not exactly the most stripe-sounding name I’ve heard but that’s what it is.” He briefly looked behind us, and then back to me. “Oh, uh, I know your none spirit-seeing friends won’t care but you’re all welcome to make yourselves at home. Seeing other Equestrians around has been nice.”

Malt made off after that, joining the rest of his ghostly brethren who were all murmuring in worry at what everyone was doing at the mine entrance. DH and I watched him, the former never really able to get rid of the disgusted look on her face. No need to guess why; even in thanking the zebra responsible for warding the mines, Malt had thrown half her heritage under the bus. The end of the world had done nothing but strengthen his hatred. To those like him, the Zebrican Empire had won.

“Fuck him, am I right?” I asked jokingly, trying to distract her a bit.

Her response was a snort and grin. “Pot calling the kettle black there, Rhaps.”

“Well the pot is trying to clean its act up,” I responded. “Let’s just say what Day Glow said at the end there, back in the mine? Opened my eyes up a bit.”

“So you were fed your own medicine, and found that it does nothing good.”

My ears folded back at the cruel, if incredibly accurate, statement. My growing sheepishness was swiftly dispersed by Dead Hooves throwing a foreleg around my withers. She was now the one wearing a disarming smile, though less smug and more sympathetic.

“If it hurts to hear, that's a good sign. It tells me you care,” she said.

“I guess I’ve become rather easy for you to read,” I replied. My attention turned back to the mine; they seemed about done setting up the dynamite. “Hey DH?”

“Yeah?”

“Our we one or two?”

DH tilted her head. “One or two what?”

“Ponies. Are we still separate ponies, or the same one?” My eyes drifted to her. “You can feel my wings, I can feel your horn. We share each other's memories, and therefore have lived each other's experiences. Your mom and dad feel like they are just as much family as my own.” I frowned. “More family than them, in many ways.”

She blinked, and then tilted her head up to the sky. “Weird question. Kind of… existential, I think?”

“Yeah, existential.” I sighed. “It’s scary, and I’d rather not think too hard about it but… my life feels so different now. It’s like the surface has brought pieces out of me that I’d never known existed.”

Dead Hooves opened her mouth to reply, only for a certain ghoul’s voice to cut through the air like a dull knife.

“Everything is set up. Everypony alive, get back!”

Three groups of hooves and one pair of griffon talons galloped away from the mine. I trotted backwards till we were at a point considered safe. Many ghosts were still asking Malt if this truly needed to be done. He never turned to argue with DH and I, so we never changed course.

Willow, the speedy mare that she is reached my side first. Day Glow and Sharpshot followed, with Gold just slightly behind. We stood in a line, side by side, and each took a look over the dynamite placement. If Gold was correct, we placed them just inside enough where not a single beam of light would make it through the closed off entrance. No craven would make it out into the darkness of night.

All our shit had been moved out already, so one final step laid before us. Sharpshot lifted Flash Fire, took a brief glance through the scope, and then floated it over to Day Glow. The one winged pegasus tilted his head in confusion.

“Safer for you to do it then me,” he explained. “Besides, this would probably look better for the Shattered Moon if you do it, right?”

Day Glow leered at me. “You say that like ponies are going to learn about this.”

“Better safe than sorry,” he replied. “You’re kind is the authority here, after all.”

Day Glow snagged the enchanted zebrican sniper rifle from mid air and immediately set it down on the desert floor. He laid down with it, checked to make sure the scope was zeroed, and lastly made sure it had a round in the chamber. With everything set, her shoulder went up against the stock, hoof teasing the trigger.

With a press, a shot rang out, followed by a thunderous boom. A cacophony of dust, sand, shattered rock and otherwise burst from where there used to be a mine’s entrance. There were shrieks and gasps only I was able to hear, coming from the ghosts who called this mining camp home. More than a few pleaded that our plan wouldn’t work.

The wasteland responded by tossed dust and sand parting to reveal a heap of rock and wood. We stood there and took it all in, waiting for the wind to be the only thing in most everyone’s ears. When that was done, Sharpshot let out an impressive whistle. Gold clicked his beak, the closest thing he had to copying the ghoul.

“There we go. As long as no idiots try to clean this up nopony will be hurt,” Sharpshot explained, turning to Day Glow. “You make sure word gets out about this, okay?”

Day Glow nodded.

“I’m still sad you wouldn’t let me kill more of them,” Willow said. “Killing craven always made me feel good.”

“We’ll likely be killing some bugs tomorrow hun. Just hold on till then,” Sharpshot replied, patting one of her forelegs with a hoof. He took some steps backwards to give himself space to turn around, and then headed towards Nowhere. “Well, I don’t know about you all but I’ve had enough excitement for one night. Catch ya in the morning.”

Our group slowly dispersed, everyone following suit until it was the ghost villagers, DH, and myself looking over the rubble. The question I had asked Dead Hooves just moments earlier climbed back to the surface. I hadn’t gotten an answer, and I needed one.

“The ward believed I was dead.”

The spectral mare looked at me, eyes wide. “Huh?”

“The talisman that kept you from originally going in the mine. We are so closely tied together that it considered me a spirit, and not a living pony,” I explained. I brought one of my hooves up to my face, examining as much of it as possible. “It’s just… shouldn’t we be worried about that? What if the line continues to blur, and I start thinking I’m you?”

“I… haven’t considered that,” she said. Her eyes flitting to her back, no doubt to the phantom wings she had begun to recently feel. “It’s happening fast.”

“Yeah.” I swallowed, bit my lower lip hard, and lowered my hoof. “Am I dying?”

“Are you…,” her attention was immediately back on me, “you think you’re….”

“I mean, it’s a possibility, right? You’re dead and everything that is happening to it doesn't seem normal for a spirit medium. Gold seemed surprised when I managed to do telekinesis like it was second nature.”

“So you think I might….”

DH couldn’t get the words out of her mouth, hanging her head due to an invisible weight. She wanted me to die as little as I wanted to, and yet neither of us were able to say ‘no’. How could we? This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“If I’m not dying, then we’re blending together,” I said. DH jolted up. “I mean, maybe it's the same thing as dying but that sounds better right?”

Dead Hooves opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head and looked away. “I’d rather not think about it. Everything will be fine, Rhaps, I’m sure.”

I frowned at the deflection, and then sighed. My eyes trailed down to my forelegs, as if they or the sand beneath them would give me an answer. I got nothing of course, and that just lead to the question repeating over and over again in my head.

Am I dying? I’d rather not know. Perhaps it was best to just let that day come, and never have to worry about it all again.