Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Tuesday, 10/25/2287
POV: Twilight Sparkle
Stable 27

“Rainbow!” Twilight screamed as she realized what Kamikaze was about to do, racing into the reactor chamber after her.

By the time Twilight got a good look at the enormous reactor, she had to duck to dodge a smoldering metal wing as it flew out and clattered across the floor behind her, followed by the busted remains of Kamikaze’s gun. She turned to make sure it didn’t hit anypony else, just in time to see what remained of Midnight’s reforming body collapse and twitch to a stop. If her emotions hadn't gotten the better of her logic, she would have thought to go for the head herself.

'Celestia, what am I even thinking?' Twilight wasn't used to having thoughts about killing things in general, much less herself. Kamikaze's sudden sacrifice snapped her back enough to realize how very uncharacteristic this was for her, but this wasn't pressure she was equipped to handle.

“We need to decontaminate the ventral trans-dimensional resonance deflector!” Solar was screaming. “Starlight! Twilight! Any help you could lend might be useful!”

“There is no possibility that even half of those words meant something,” observed Maud as she trotted into the reactor room and looked up at the unstable sphere of energy pulsating in the midst of it.

“The pegaslut makes up words to sound smart!” Pinkie said as she moved to sit next to Maud. She looked somewhat cross at the impending disaster, but didn’t panic. “Pinkie needs marshmallows! Very large marshmallows to roast and feast upon during her imminent demise! Yes.”

Twilight did not understand how to help Solar or what she was talking about. It was hard to admit, but that tramp was smarter than she was, at least with this strange new magitech. It'd take more than a few all-nighters to catch up on all the advancements of the last 200 years.

But she didn’t care about that now. All Twilight could think about was that another friend of hers had leapt to their death to protect her due to her own rash actions. It didn’t matter how little of Twilight’s Rainbow was in Kamikaze; Twilight couldn’t let her die like this.

“No, no, no, that isn’t helping!” Solar called after Twilight as she took off and flew along the same line as Kamikaze had entered. “By Breaker’s giant fiery plot! Is this how all ponies acted back then? It’s no wonder you blew up the world!”

Twilight’s horn glowed as she cast a spell to clear her field of vision, searching for life signatures within the inferno of the reactor. She located Kamikaze’s body falling toward the floor, her metal limbs detached and her remaining flesh limbs torn off by the violent blasts of energy. It left only a plummeting torso that thankfully still had a head. It was hard to tell with the interference, but given how the torso thrashed, she was still alive.

In her desperation, Twilight didn’t even consider what damage the jolts of energy might cause to her own body. Since she was more magically attuned than Kamikaze, Twilight anticipated most, avoiding several as she flew inside.

She thought she’d make it through without further incident, but as she neared Kamikaze, one finally struck Twilight's head, sending a surge of agony through her. She'd never felt such an intense stinging rattling through her head before, but forced herself onward, wiping the blood from her eyes.

She grasped hold of Kamikaze’s form, banked, and headed back, holding the pegasus close to protect her from more jolts. She felt her magic fading fast, the intense pain in her head increasing by the second. For a moment, she feared she wouldn't make it out of the energy storm, but was afraid to try a teleport within such interference.

Twilight landed the best she could, barrel rolling so that she hit the floor first and cushioned Kamikaze’s fall. She wished she hadn't when her head impacted the floor and doubled the firestorm of agony already rattling through it.

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried out, rolling over to lay Kamikaze carefully on the floor and still ignoring her own injury. “No, no, don’t die! You better bucking stay with me or I swear I’ll do a seance just to give you a piece of my mind!”

Twilight instinctively cast a healing spell, or tried, only for the pain in her head to increase exponentially. That wasn’t right. Her healing factor was sealing up the wound on her head, albeit slowly, but the pain wasn't subsiding at all.

She lifted a hoof to feel for her horn, only to experience another surge of pain as she felt nothing but a stump. Her blurry eyes focused, finally noticing her horn on the floor, having broken off on impact and landing several hoofsteps from Kamikaze. It was a unicorn’s worst nightmare; Twilight knew no healing magic that could fix a broken horn.

“Twilight, your horn!” Starlight ran up to her, catching Twilight before she collapsed again.

“Starlight, heal Rainbow!” Twilight begged.

“I’m trying to remember how!” Starlight stammered.”Right, I think I got it.”

Twilight tried to remain conscious, but her head felt as if it’d been split open. She blacked out for a moment, time blurred as she tried to hold onto herself, but snapping back to when a wave of healing washed over her as well. It dulled the pain at least some, but there was no fixing what was really broken.

For a long moment, Twilight focused on her horn on the floor and stared in abject horror. Her horn, her talent, shattered on the floor. She'd never properly cast or use telekinesis again, and certainly wouldn't be casting any time spells. The most she could ever do was channel raw energy into attacks, and then only with excruciating pain.

Twilight pulled herself back together, forcing herself to sit up and looking at Kamikaze. Starlight wasn’t a master of healing magic at her best, so the pegasus’ wounds weren’t completely closed. The bleeding had slowed enough to keep her from immediate danger though. Whatever unnatural healing factor Kamikaze had before must have fried, because it wasn't getting any better.

Kamikaze’s mane and fur was completely seared off, and she now lacked any intact limbs. Her head casing cracked and her cybernetic eye shattered. The stable suit she’d had on had completely incinerated. She was a mess, but alive and stable.

“Twilight,” Starlight took Twilight’s hoof and helped her up. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t know any way to fix your horn.”

“It was worth it,” Twilight said, trying to stagger to her hooves, then collapsing again when a wave of dizziness hit her. She didn't bother crying, her emotions flat-lined once again. “It was my fault she was put in danger anyway. You helped save her life, so I owe you too.”

“Twilight…” Starlight started.

“Others will need help,” Twilight cut her off, uncomfortable at the way she was staring at the horn stump.

“Of course,” Starlight said, reluctantly turning and running back down the path that Midnight had taken to get there.

“Will she be okay?” Maud asked as she approached. Her eyes widened ever so slightly when she realized Twilight was injured too. “Will you be okay?”

“I think not, on both counts, but we’ll remain alive a bit longer at least,” Twilight said, brushing her mane slightly to hide the stump, tensing sharply as even the touch of mane hair sent slivers of pain through it.

“You are even crazier than I anticipated,” Maud said as she looked down at Kamikaze. Twilight resisted the urge to scold her since it was probably meant as a compliment.

“The daredevil lives up to her name, yes,” Pinkie added.

“You two should help with the cleanup,” Twilight suggested.

As the two silently turned to head off, Twilight looked down at Kamikaze again. The pegasus opened her good eye, staring upward.

“Aw, horse apples,” Kamikaze groaned. Her head twitched as she looked up at Twilight, stuttering a few times before she said more. “You didn’t have to do that for me. I deserved to die there.”

“No you didn't, and I wanted to save you either way,” Twilight sighed, “It was worth it. Are you still in pain?”

“No, for once,” Kamikaze chuckled weakly. “I think most of my… whatsit relied on my… what do you call it… I don’t know. I’m not all here but at least it doesn’t… fluff it. I don't remember talking or thinking being this hard.”

Kamikaze seemed to have lost access to any heightened cognizance granted by her implants, which would hopefully be temporary. Twilight gave her time to form more words, but Kamikaze's good eye shifted to Twilight’s horn laying on the floor.

"A rainbow..." Kamikaze said dreamily as if hallucinating.

“Your circuits are fried,” Twilight sighed. “Maybe Solar can look at you when she’s free.”

“I… wait there it is, I think I'm rebooting now,” Kamikaze said, then suddenly clenched her face in pain. “Bucking ouch… Things are coming back online; I wish they hadn’t.”

“Where does it hurt?” Twilight asked, forcing herself to ignore her own pain.

“Everywhere,” Kamikaze groaned, “Even my memories hurt, but at least I’m symmetrical now, right? You may have to throw me in like a buckball the next time a crisis hits though.”

“That you are,” Twilight forced a smile. “I'm glad you're better enough to make inappropriate jokes, but let’s hope for fewer crises.”

“In this world?” Kamikaze shook her head, “I imagine we’ll have at least several a week. Are my best bits intact at least? If those got burned out, just put me down already.”

Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a flirt attempt or not, but obliged. She slid her hooves down to Kamikaze’s lower portions to make sure she wasn’t burned inside. She was medical about the whole thing, but Kamikaze still twitched in slight appreciation.

That differed greatly from Twilight’s Rainbow; Twilight’s Rainbow would have taken offense if a non-Wonderbolt touched her intimately. She’d once jokingly told Twilight that her orientation was ‘Wonderboltisexual’.

“It looks okay,” Twilight smiled, pulling her hooves back.

“Want to keep doing that?” Kamikaze asked.

“I think Solar is rubbing off on you,” Twilight shook her head.

“I wish,” Solar said from behind Twilight. “Also: The reactor is stable now, no thanks to crazy ponies jumping into it. Are you two okay?... you are not okay.”

Solar stepped up beside them, looking at Kamikaze, then over to Twilight.

“We’re both alive,” sighed Twilight, “That makes us luckier than many.”

“That it does,” Solar said gravely. “I haven’t looked closely at the list of confirmed dead yet. I'm sort of afraid to, but it was long. Really long.”

“Where’s Mercury? She coping?” asked Kamikaze.

It was an odd concern, but Twilight respected her for having it. Even enraged as Twilight had been, she heard Kamikaze giving Mercury pointers to calm her earlier. It was a marked improvement from the Kamikaze she’d first met when she arrived here, so maybe the memory loss had shorted out at least some of Midnight’s influence on her.

“She’s helping with chemical spills,” Solar said. “I’d go help too, but I should stay here. Can’t risk the reactor going haywire again and have to keep an eye on you nutters in case you dive back in for funsies.”

“Twilight,” Kamikaze stared upwards as if into space. “I was… I heard someone. When I was unconscious, I think I had a dream, except it wasn’t a dream. I don’t know, I heard a voice.”

“Who’s voice?” Twilight’s interest focused back on Kamikaze. “Was it Luna’s?”

“Luna’s?” Kamikaze creased her forehead with thought, taking a moment to form a response. “You mean Nightmare Moon? I don’t know, I don’t remember what she sounded like. Whoever it was, she called you Paradox and demanded to know what we were doing here.”

“What else?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know,” Kamikaze shook her head, “I think I was too busy being awesome to form proper memories.”

“Is everypony here in one piece?” Chrome’s voice spoke, then trailed off as she got a good look at them. “Sweet Crimson hot dogs, I’m so sorry… for both of you… I wish I could have done more, I really do.”

"Well I'm learning some new swears laying here," said Kamikaze. "So that's something."

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry too, I feel like it was our fault we brought this to you… so many dead.”

“You won’t have to worry about Midnight any longer, at least,” Kamikaze tried to put a silver lining on the whole thing.

“You couldn’t have known,” Chrome shook her head. “And you’re right, Midnight seems to be staying down." She paused, having trouble maintaining eye contact. "I don’t want you to think for a second that we’re not thankful for what you’ve done, and what you gave up, though I wish I’d gotten more information on… nevermind, anyway…”

“Anyway what?” Solar asked, arching one eyebrow and peering at Chrome.

“Come on, Solar, you know it as well as I do,” Chrome sighed, then looked back at Twilight. “You killed Midnight, yes, but she isn’t the only devil. The others know that we’re here now, and any one of them could come to take revenge. I’m sorry… but we lost around 5% of our population. We can’t risk losing more.”

“What are you saying?” Twilight was confused.

“Our best bet for survival,” Chrome said, taking a deep breath. “Is to offer Midnight’s killers to the others when they inevitably show up for revenge. Like you said, even though you saved us, she was here for your group and found us by tracking you. If we hoof you over, maybe they’ll leave us be.”

“You can’t!” Solar spit out the words. “They doomed themselves to a fate worse than death to save us! They’re heroes! And we’re just going to hoof them over like a sacrifice?”

“I don’t disagree, Solar!” Chrome shook her head, “That’s not the point! Solar. Dozens are dead…”

“And hundreds are still alive!” Solar cut her off. “We’d all be dead if not for them! We need their help to form a plan for when the others arrive. Do you really think they’re going to just let us be after we hoof them over?”

“They might,” Chrome said. “Crimson told us they wanted to destroy all life, but Crimson told us a lot of things. Look, it’s what we have to do. I hope you will understand one day.”

“Solar, it’s okay,” Twilight raised a hoof to Solar’s shoulder and shook her head. “Chrome is doing what she thinks is best, I don’t blame her.”

“I… appreciate that,” Chrome said with no small amount of shame in her voice. “You’re more understanding about it than I’d be. Please just… have faith, things will work out better than you think.”

“I don’t imagine Starlight will be so understanding,” Twilight pointed out, then tilted her head at the odd if appreciated bit of encouragement from Chrome. “As much as I hate to admit it, she is your rightful ruler.”

“Yeah,” Solar grumbled. “She’s out there right now helping to heal her subjects.”

“Oh, stop pretending you put any faith in that,” Chrome shook her head at Solar. “No one here believes that her showing up is going to magically revive a long dead kingdom. You’re just-”

“Overmare,” a weak voice called from behind Chrome. They turned to see a guard, wearing a bloody stable suit, her front right leg reduced to a bandaged stump. Apparently, they were short hooved enough that even a mare so injured needed to keep working.

“Trigger?” Chrome asked, “You shouldn’t be up.”

“It’s Crimson,” Trigger said, “She’s gone.”

“What?” Solar asked.

“Aaand there it is,” sighed Chrome, almost like she’d expected it.

“According to the security feed,” panted Trigger, “As soon as cryonics was empty, her pod opened and she just walked out, then used a secret passage to get to the exit. She must have programmed a backdoor into the system. The whole time we thought she was starting her rehabilitation, she'd been waiting for an opportunity to leave.”

“She left the stable, like the other one?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, like Tranquil,” Trigger nodded.

“Good riddance,” Chrome said, then turned to walk off. “We have bigger things to worry about now, but once we’re done with it, I’m having her precious soul recycler smashed and the unuseful parts incinerated. We have no need for it or her.”

“I’ll leave too,” Solar threatened. “I can’t be part of this place anymore if we betray our own saviors.”

“I’d rather you didn’t Solar,” Chrome sighed, looking at the floor. “We could use your help fixing all her changes to the systems, and who knows what she might have timed to happen if she’s left. We’ll be removing the chemicals from the water supply that prevent male births eventually too, assuming I can get the population to accept that.”

“I didn’t know you had been told better yet,” Twilight mentioned. “I suppose Starlight must have told you…”

“Something like that…” Chrome trailed off quietly.

“Y-you can’t convince me to stay,” Solar shook her head, but bit her lip as if the last bit almost convinced her otherwise.

“Probably not,” Chrome gave up pretty quickly considering. “I suppose if you do go, be careful out there.”

“Don’t,” Twilight told Solar. “They need your genius in this stable, especially now.”

Solar shook her head, galloping off, probably to find Mercury. Twilight sighed as she watched her go.

“Could be worse,” pointed out Kamikaze. “Nightmare Moon is a devil, and she’s my dream pal now apparently, right? Just got to hope she comes for us first.”

“I don’t think she’s capable of doing that,” Twilight said. “She told me she was caught between life and death.”

“Well that’s overly dramatic,” grunted Kamikaze. “I suppose it suits her.”

If Luna wasn’t capable of showing up, Sombra and this ‘Eris’ that they had mentioned, might also be out of commission. With any luck, they’d wait in a cage for a week or two before being allowed back into the stable or released. Either way, Twilight couldn’t blame them. Giving them up was a bad idea, but not an illogical one to frightened ponies that had just lost family and friends.

Assuming that was really Chrome’s reason for putting them out. With Crimson gone, Starlight could take over the leadership of Stable 27 with barely any effort. Chrome probably knew that. Additionally, she got the impression that Chrome might not quite believe that fiends would come for them at all; Twilight hoped that she wouldn't toss them out due to a fear of power loss.

But there was nothing that Twilight could do about that but to wait and see how it turned out.

POV: Starlight Glimmer
Canterlot Cathedral

Starlight didn’t know what other devils were in the Ashlands, but she knew that Midnight had a military. She would also have a second-in-command and officers, and somewhere in the Ashlands might even be somepony that cared if she died. The bottom line was that even if these mythical devils didn’t show up, somepony would when Midnight didn’t return to her castle.

Luckily, Starlight attracted Solar and Mercury to the cause. Despite being easy and naïve respectively, they might be the two most intelligent ponies in the stable. Solar was head of engineering, operating a reactor that Starlight was ashamed to admit she didn’t understand, and Mercury was head of alchemy, which involved everything from medical to hydroponics. She’d have hired either of them into the Ministry of Magitech without question.

Mercury claimed she was leaving to find her friends that left, and Solar in turn claimed she wanted to protect Mercury. Starlight didn't understand that reasoning for leaving, especially when the friends that left were likely murderers, but would go with it.

But for now, Starlight felt like a zoo animal. They had them in a cage, a more traditional one with steel bars, sitting in the hall of stained glass where they could all be entertained by the images of Starlight’s failures in the windows. They had cleared out the bodies as Starlight had asked at least, even if that order was more of a guilt-trip than something she cared about.

Chrome gave them Stable 27 blinder suits to wear over their stable suits, with the armor they had on when they arrived stacked inside a cart outside of the locked cage door. Their weapons and supplies were in the same container, just out of their reach. To make sure she couldn’t just swipe them with her magic, they fitted Starlight with a magic dampener ring around her horn.

They’d even fitted Twilight with one, locked around her horn stump. Twilight couldn't even use telekinesis, and even an alicorn of her stature would have to practice a long time to focus raw magic into an attack with a broken horn. It highlighted the irrational fear that these ponies still had for Midnight even with her dead.

Maybe dead. Starlight had doubts after speaking to Kamikaze, the way ‘Midnight’s head’ referred to Midnight as if she were another pony, and the bats they first met had mentioned Midnight’s ‘likenesses’. She had suspicions about what that might mean, but hoped it didn’t.

She suspected Twilight had doubts too but wasn’t sure. Twilight had been on an emotional roller coaster between depression and rage since Spike’s death, and atop that the alicorn didn’t seem susceptible to Starlight’s influence as many others were. That was always a double-edged sword with Starlight’s psionic ability; the most useful ponies were the least susceptible to influence.

Twilight was in one corner of the cage, sitting by herself. They had given her Spike’s body, which they stitched together well, considering its condition, and wrapped in funerary linens. Now she sat on her haunches, rocking back and forth as she held him in her lap, staring at the floor in front of her. Starlight let her cope as she needed; she doubted she’d be doing as well under that stress.

The only plus side with Twilight was that they’d let her keep the pipbuck. Not that they had a choice now that she had it on, and they wouldn’t go so far as to remove her leg to get it.

Speaking of hacked-off limbs, Kamikaze was with them too despite her condition. Her limbs were beyond repair, and Maud had volunteered to carry the poor pegasus in a bundle on her back, wearing a blinder suit like the others, unused sleeves wrapped and tied around her to keep them from hanging. Kamikaze had continued her carefree facade despite her helpless state, but now stared at the cage ceiling as if unsure of what to do with herself. It was another experience Starlight couldn’t imagine.

Around Kamikaze’s neck she now wore a rather odd necklace. She’d asked Solar to make her one from a strand of leather and Twilight’s shattered horn. Kamikaze claimed it was to remind her of a lesson she learned, which was sentimental but harmless nonsense.

Three stable security ponies guarded them, though they stayed near the ruined entrance, as if taking cover behind the cage from whatever ‘devil’ showed.

‘Starlight,’ Solar’s voice echoed in her head over PCB. Fortunately, Chrome Keys never caught on that they had the comms. ‘We got most of it, but the armory is guarded.’

‘Try and talk your way in if you can easily,’ Starlight advised.

‘I could try a pax potion,’ suggested Mercury. ‘I got my syringer rifle from my lab. It shoots potions like darts and…’

‘Negative,’ responded Starlight. ‘I don’t want to risk you being arrested before you even get out here. Get what you can without drawing attention. We still have our weapons and armor out here.’

‘Flirt my way in, got it!’ Solar responded, hearing what she wanted. ‘Plot waggling commencing!’ Starlight was glad she didn’t have to see that.

“I am having doubts about their combat abilities,” commented Maud, aloud.

“They’re trying their best,” Starlight defended them in a whisper. “Mercury and Solar aren’t soldiers, but they’ll be useful in other ways once we get a base of operations.”

“This zombie is familiar,” Pinkie said out of nowhere. “Yes.”

“What’s that?” Starlight quirked her ears and looked to Pinkie, then looked to where she pointed.

At the great hall’s entrance stood a familiar figure. It was the same figure from the memory they’d watched. She wore a similar uniform to what the other Pies arrived in, though with higher ranking emblems of a general and had taken a lot more damage. The ghoul glowed pink from within as Starlight remembered from the orb.

The ghoul stared with a mix of confusion and amazement on her disfigured face, but it morphed into a look of surreal glee. She sneaked forward, though after a few steps she was almost at a full gallop.

The gallop was short-lived as a shot rang out, the guards from the stable door firing at her. A shot hit her square in the chest, knocking her backward. She yelped like a dog getting shot by its trusted owner for no reason, then hissed as she turned and fled back out the front door.

“Why did you do that?” Maud looked to the guards, voice calm, but griping the bars so hard that they creaked.

“Hey, we’re just protecting you,” a guard defended. “That thing was charging!”

“Protecting us so you can hoof us over like a sacrifice?” asked Starlight.

“I…” stammered another guard, but then shook her head as if clearing it. “Chrome says we shouldn’t talk to you.” Of course she did. If they talked enough, Starlight would talk her way out of the cage.

“I will break you,” Maud narrowed her eyes. If Starlight were the guards, the threat would terrify her, despite the bars that separated them, but they didn’t seem as amused.

“Damn creepy thing,” the first guard commented to her comrades. “I hear she drags another corpse around with her sometimes.”

“Yeah, she knocked the other week for like an hour,” the second said. “Guess we need a new stable door for her to scrape on so she doesn’t sneak in and crack open somepony’s head.”

“Does the system identify her?” asked Starlight. “It identified us when we came. Answer. Now.”

The guards didn’t look like they wanted to but liked Starlight staring at them less.

“It says she’s General Limestone Pie,” said the first guard. “The Overmare said she registered at Stable 11, far south of here. We’d have let her in if she wasn’t irradiated and, you know, already dead.”

“Stable 11?” Starlight asked. “How far south?”

“Only the Overmare knows the exact location of the other stables,” shrugged the guard, still unwilling to look at Starlight when she talked. “I mean the old Overmare that ran off. I heard it was beneath a ‘rock farm’ or something. If whoever comes for you lets you go, and you really want to find it, just follow those weird arrows painted on the floor. The zombie made them, so they probably lead to wherever she lives... exists... whatever.”

"Probably won't be anyone at Stable 11 though," said another. "The other stables were overrun or destroyed."

"If the Overmare was honest about that," said the first. "Not that it matters now. Even if we fix the system, we no longer have contact codes for any of the other stables to check and see. We'd have to go there to get their code to reconnect."

“So they knew she was out here as well,” Maud clenched her jaw.

‘We’ll find her,’ Starlight said on the PCB to Maud and Pinkie alone. ‘As soon as we’re free, I swear.’

‘Pinkie remembers now,’ Pinkie responded to the whole group. ‘The farm of rocks is home.’

‘If Stable 11 survived, they may be more reasonable,’ Starlight surmised.

By reasonable she meant more likely to obey the Empress without question. Her memory was spotty why two Pies guarded her on the day the vortex sent them here, but it implied the Pie family was loyal to her. Perhaps their descendants would be loyal too.

‘Starlight?’ Solar’s voice came over the comms again. ‘Tried our best, couldn’t get extra guns. Sorry.’

‘It’s fine,’ Starlight just wanted to go at this point. ‘You have food, water, medical supplies, sleeping bags, everything else on the list aside from weapons?’

‘All that and our fine plots too,’ responded Solar. ‘We’re around the corner inside the stable with the supply wagon. We already got our blinder suits on.’

‘Good,’ said Starlight. ‘You’ll probably want to take care of the guards without killing them. There are three and…’

A familiar, ear-splitting bang sound broke her thoughts into pieces. Two of the guards, who had been standing roughly in a line, crumpled to the floor from a burst of blue that shot through the wall between two of the stained-glass windows. One head exploded, the second gagging as the shot ripped through her neck. The projectile didn’t stop, penetrating the wall on the other side and hitting who knew what else on the other side.

They knew who did that.

The third guard probably saved her own life when her reaction to this was to shriek and drop her weapon, diving for cover behind the cage.

‘Was that a gun shot?’ asked Solar on the PCB.

‘Wait. Stay inside,’ ordered Starlight.

But Mercury was already running out the stable door, Solar behind pulling their cart of supplies.

“Stop!” yelled Starlight. “Right bucking now, STOP!”

Solar stopped, looking at Starlight in confusion, but Mercury wouldn’t. Mercury focused on the still-living guard shot through the neck, who struggled and reached for her. There was no way to talk her down, so Starlight hoped that Limestone didn’t think Mercury was an enemy for assisting one.

Starlight sighed, “Solar. Get the keys from the guards and unlock us. Quick as you can!”

“They won’t have them,” Solar looked sick, trying not to look at the bloody mess. She galloped around to the cage door and unhitched herself from her cart. “They were supposed to call in and have it unlocked remotely by the guards inside, but I hacked their recording so it’s playing a loop. They won’t notice until we’re gone.”

“You said you could unlock us, though?” Starlight asked, not dropping her fake smile.

“Sure, with these!” Solar pulled a screwdriver and a bobby pin from the cart. She rammed the screwdriver into the cage lock, twisting it and pushing the bobby pin inside to wriggle it around.

“You… what?” Starlight’s expression faltered. “Solar, that’s a remotely operated magical lock. You can’t just pick it.”

“H-how do we protect the other guard?” Twilight asked

‘Thinking about the least important aspect as she often does,’ Starlight thought to herself, but wanted to keep cohesion all the same, so turned to Maud. “Motion for Limestone to leave that one.”

The soldier shivered and covered her head as Maud trotted over to that side of the cage. Maud looked in the direction the shots came from and waved. She then pointed at the soldier, shaking her head. She then turned to the mare.

“Make no aggressive moves and she will not fire on you,” Maud instructed them simply.

The mare nodded and whimpered, and Starlight doubted she’d cause further issues before they left. Maybe that’d give them time to get the cage open, since there was no way Solar could-

“Got it!” Solar said, the door clicking open. She tossed the tools back into the cart as the door swung open. “I can remove those magic restraints, but it might take longer.”

“Later, then,” Starlight nodded, deciding not to question Solar’s weird lockpicking screwdriver.

"Will removing them involve ramming a screwdriver into her head?" Maud asked, though whether from concern or interest was another thing.

“Pinkie, pull our cart," Starlight ignored the comment but hoped not. "Solar, keep pulling yours. We leave now before they come out to stop us, and before any 'devils' show."

"Pinkie would rather stay and fight monsters!" Pinkie said, trotting to the cart with a slightly scrunched face. "But she will pull this cart. Yes."

Starlight looked back at Mercury. "Mercury? We have to go. Now.”

Mercury was still assisting the pony, trying to stabilize them before they left at least. She seemed to have her breathing again, albeit through a hole in her neck.

“We don’t have time,” Starlight said. “Maud, finish that one so she’ll come.”

“Unwise,” Maud said. “They are not an enemy and we should not burn bridges.”

“Pinkie disagrees with not burning things in general!” Pinkie said. “But agrees this once. She will not attack a civilian that can be saved.”

“True enough,” Starlight said, pushing down the annoyance of them offering advice rather than obeying immediately. “But we need to leave now.”

Maud nodded matter-of-factually, grabbing the hiding one by the neck and dragging her to her comrade.

“Tell her what to do,” Maud said simply to Mercury.

“W-what?” Mercury looked up, then nodded as her voice quivered. “Hold your hoof here, but don’t block the breathing passage. Call inside for help… tell them I’m sorry.”

“R-right,” the soldier said, doing as she instructed. The medics inside were probably busy, but they’d notice the pipbuck signals from the dead and injured guard and come out to help soon. It was a little odd that nopony had come out already, actually. If Starlight didn’t know better, she’d think they were being allowed to leave.

Twilight rose from her own spot, but looked more than a little dizzy still. Starlight came close to help her up, but Twilight pulled away, placing Spike on her own back and remaining distant from the others.

“I’m less sure than I was,” Mercury’s voice quivered, suit already bloody as she turned to the others.”But we need to find them…”

“Come on, Mercury,” Solar said, eyes wide as if barely holding it together and not looking at the mess. “Come walk by me, I’ll keep you safe… from Crimson and Tranquil too if I have to.”

“Solar,” warned Mercury.

The poor naïve mare still thought Crimson and Tranquil were innocent, but Starlight doubted as much. Either way, Starlight had promised that they’d take in the pair if they found them out here. Starlight hoped they’d already booked it so she didn’t have to keep that promise, though at the same time Crimson might have knowledge that would help them, especially since the guards mentioned she knew the location of other stables.

There was no time to consider further though. The surviving guard was already radioing in for help, so they had to leave.

Starlight took the lead, Solar and Mercury close behind her, with the Pie Sisters taking up the rear. Kamikaze remained on Maud’s back as Pinkie pulled the cart with their original weapons and supplies. Twilight tried to walk briefly, but quickly gave up due to dizziness. She crawled into the extra cart that Solar was pulling, curling up with Spike’s body in the space where the extra guns and ammo would have gone if they had gotten any.

As they trotted out of the hall, Starlight looked to the sky. The Sun and Moon remained as they were when they arrived around twelve hours earlier, and where they were during the flashback memories they'd seen in the sphere. The air was still stuffy; it would have been unbearably hot if not for the blanket of fog.

But even with the extra cover of clouds, it should have been hotter. Not to mention, the Sun still looked wrong. It was red and swollen, unnatural looking. If the Sun stopped over Canterlot, it would get colder the further away from Canterlot they traveled. How cold would it be at Stable 11? Or maybe it would be the same if they didn’t have the same cloud cover.

Focused on the sky, Starlight forgot who they expected to see as they left. She jumped when a figure galloped past her and turned in time to see Limestone tackle Maud and Pinkie in a hug. Maud and Pinkie’s return hug looked so firm that Limestone might have been in trouble if she weren’t already dead. They showed no hint of shying away from their dilapidated sister.

Well at least somepony got good news today.