Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Tuesday, 10/25/?
POV: Twilight Sparkle
Canterlot Archives

It was pleasantly warm when Twilight woke. For a moment, she thought she'd wake in her bed with the morning Sun shining into the window. Then her sense of touch returned enough to feel the hard marble floor. She soon found the warmth more sweltering than pleasant.

Spike was wrapped in her wing, stirring but unconscious. Her vision returned, and she found much of the area intact, as were the ponies inside. Everyone had collapsed, Maud in front of Twilight, Kamikaze and Pinkie to Twilight's right, and Starlight crumpled in the room's corner. Though shelves toppled and books and scrolls littered the floor, their immediate vicinity was relatively unharmed as if dragged through the overcharged vortex with them.

Unfortunately, the spell that Starlight cast didn’t escape harm. Twilight watched the ashes of the scroll blow away, incinerated by the energy the spell absorbed from the blasts. This had been for nothing.

Or perhaps not. There were four ponies alive that might not be without Twilight’s meddling, even if they'd kill each other when they awoke.

The rest of the room was anything but undamaged. The shelves and the priceless books and scrolls occupying them had burned and decayed. They lost their last bit of cohesiveness from the gush of air created by the group’s arrival, priceless information disappearing into a flurry of burned paper swirling about the room. The roof above them had almost caved in, and the walls and floor had cracked and weathered until there was barely a cohesive structure.

How much time had passed?

The wall around the entrance to the room had collapsed, as had the wall beyond it, which let Twilight see more of the city. Many of the buildings closest to them still stood but looked as if they could topple at any moment. Further out, entire city blocks had shattered like fragile ceramic. It had reduced a quarter of Canterlot to a crater, much of the city melted into the layer of shimmering radioactive glass within or around it.

Pink mist filled the crater, thickened into a liquid lake within. A stream of the mist trickled from a crevice near the base of the palace, though from the channel worn into the pavement, that trickle used to be a stream. Twilight could only imagine what leaked that.

Twilight’s hearing recovered a few seconds later, and she expected a deafening silence, but wait? … music? The Crystal Empire anthem? Where was that coming from…

“They’re here! Open fire!”

Twilight dove to the floor and behind a shelf as soon as she heard the voice, covering Spike as he awoke. The sound of gunshots, sparks, and shattering metal filled the room. Twilight rolled behind a bookcase with Spike and peered out.

Five ponies had rushed into the room seconds after their arrival, as if they’d been waiting. They were bat ponies, or appeared to be at least given the shape of their wings beneath the wing-coverings on their armor. Anypony in enchanted Lunar Guard armor looked like a bat, but the armor they sported looked Celestial, similar to traditional guard armor, if more form-covering. The armor looked decades if not centuries old, so it must have already been old at the time of the previous battle.

But if they were in Canterlot armor, why did they attack everypony? Why not just Twilight and Kamikaze? In fact, they centered their attention on Starlight without even seeming to notice Twilight.

Twilight realized where the music came from though. A small flock of mechanical parasprites dove between them and their assailants, blocking the first volley of bullets. The music was no more, the tiny hovering robots in pieces on the floor. Their reason for rescuing Starlight and the others remained as mysterious as the bat ponies’ reason for attacking them, but it left the bats with nothing to show for their surprise attack aside from a need to reload.

As the other ponies awoke, they weren’t content to jump behind cover. As Twilight tried to pull her mind together enough to cast again, they leapt into battle.

Kamikaze flew into action so instinctively that her own movement seemed to surprise her; Twilight wondered if her cybernetics responded automagically to danger. The enhanced pony laid a four-hooved kick into a bat guard, slamming into her chest, collapsing the heavy armor chest plate like a jackhammer. The guard sounded as if she vomited into her helmet as she flew backward into another guard behind her.

Maud surged forward into one Kamikaze missed, wrecking him with a somersault kick to the chin. His helmet sparked, flying off his head and clattering across the floor as he flew upward into what remained of the ceiling. His head slammed through the decayed roof, his body hanging there as he struggled and flapped his wings to get loose.

With practiced movements, Maud leapt upwards, grabbed hold of his hind leg, and spun on him like a playground rope. He grunted in pain as Maud used the momentum to launch a flying kick into the guard behind him. That stallion flew out the decayed door and tumbled into the collapsed outer wall, limp and groaning.

Pinkie’s mini-gun blazed to life with a mechanical whir, bursts of bright energy tearing into the pony that Kamikaze had kicked, and through her. It didn't immediately disintegrate her like the green energy weapons might, but it took a mere second before the chest plate flew off completely.

The pony behind that one fell back against the wall, his helmet jarred loose. As soon as it came free, he took a hail of energy to the face as it shot right through the perforated pony in front of him. The energy weapons must have only occasionally dissolved ponies, because the one that Pinkie shot through stayed otherwise intact while the second one dissolved into a pile of gray ash.

“Enough!” shrieked Twilight as she finally managed the energy to cast again. “FREEZE!”

Twilight’s energy expanded through the room as she launched her signature spell, enemy and ally alike freezing in place where they were. She loosened her hold around their muzzles so they could breathe and speak, then carefully removed their weapons. She pulled trigger mechanisms from mouths and pried off guns, setting them aside out of reach. She didn’t miss Maud's hammer, pulling it out of reach as Maud had been about to grab for it.

Only then did she stagger from behind the bookcase, straining hard to keep the spell in place in her weakened state.

“This stops now!” Twilight demanded. “Who are you, and how did you know we’d be here?”

“What?” asked the one guard that hadn’t been attacked, a mare frozen half-way into diving for cover. “Divine Shadow, why are you here?... and so short? I-I mean I wasn’t being cowardly I swear!”

“Her divine what now?” asked Kamikaze.

“You know, I don’t mean to sound rude, but I don’t seem to remember why we’re fighting,” Starlight commented, using that cheery voice she used when Twilight first met her. “Or who anypony here is, including myself.”

“What?” Twilight looked at Starlight. “You have amnesia? Do all of you?”

“I’m still me,” muttered Spike from behind Twilight. “But I hope I’m dreaming.”

“Don’t look, Spike,” Twilight covered Spike’s face with a wing, but he must have gotten an eye-full already. She heard him dry heaving behind her, fresh out of anything to throw up. Twilight was still in too much shock to vomit, or maybe she already did so during their trip here. She was so out of it she could barely tell the order of events.

A round of muttered confirmation from the Pies and Rainbow followed on the memory loss. Well, that explained why they were fighting together as a team; they assumed they were on the same side since the bats attacked them all. Twilight and Spike may have avoided amnesia from being more used to time travel, or maybe the shield she instinctively cast did some good.

It didn’t matter why, because it was a positive thing. Twilight could get them closer so they wouldn’t murder one another when their memories returned.

But none of that answered why Canterlot soldiers attacked, or how the soldiers knew they’d be here, or even why bat ponies wanted to be solar guards. Most bat ponies worshiped Luna and would have even flocked to Nightmare Moon had she remained Nightmare Moon. In this timeline, they had likely done just that.

“You know me?” Twilight asked the first mare that gave her the odd title, but she only looked at Twilight in horror, unable to answer.

“You sent us here,” the lithe stallion that had been kicked into a wall answered, “To execute your enemy when she manifested, but she was supposed to only have guards with her. You shouldn't be here. Neither should… wait, are you Kamikaze?”

“I might be,” Kamikaze grinned. “That’s an awesome name, so probably!”

“There are paintings of you in Midnight Castle,” The braver stallion said, and then turned back to Twilight. “You said your wife died early in the War... at the Battle of Canterlot, I don’t understand.”

"It can't be her," said the stallion that had been hanging from the ceiling, flinching as Twilight gently tugged him down. "It's gotta be a changeling."

So they knew what those were now, at least.

"I don’t think a changeling could use that ‘freeze’ spell," said the braver stallion . "And to use it so soon after being that close to an opening time vortex? That takes serious power."

So they knew about the vortex too, even if they didn’t seem sure if Twilight had arrived with it or had just been there.

“Early in the War?” asked Twilight. “So it’s not over?” Twilight would have thought the last two major cities blowing up would be pretty final.

“They don’t call it the Ceaseless Conflict for nothing, but…” the mare trailed off, seeming to relax if only slightly. “Are you not Her Divine Shadow? Are you a Divine Likeness?”

"This has gotta be a trick," said the hanging guard. "She doesn't FEEL like Her Divine Shadow. I've never been this close to her and not felt her aura, but she doesn't have a verbal tic like a Likeness either."

"But the Trinity can't maintain control over a changeling this far from her territory," said the braver stallion . They may as well have all been babbling nonsense. "If it doesn't feel like her Divine Shadow, she has to be at least a Divine Likeness."

"But why would a Likeness be helping them?" asked the mare.

"This will take major sorting," Twilight groaned. "And not the kind I like to do."

After the sudden time shift, the spell drained Twilight a great deal more than usual. She felt it about to give out, so to conserve power, Twilight released the ponies on ‘her side’. In her naiveté, she didn't expect that to be a problem, but several of her new ‘friends’ had some murder left in them.

As soon as Twilight released her, Pinkie surged forward, giggling insanely as she grasped the pony that had been hanging around his neck. She spun his head around so effortlessly as she might have torn off a doll's head, snapping it grotesquely as his body convulsed.

“No! Wait! Don’t!” pleaded the bat that spoke to Twilight first, seconds before Maud followed the example of her sister, picking up a large chunk of stone and preparing to smash her head with it.

“I didn’t want to hurt any of you I swear!” the mare screeched as Maud raised the rock.

"Stop!" Twilight ordered, trying to expand the spell again or otherwise stop them, but it was hard to focus at all. The spell gave out completely.

"I got it!" Kamikaze followed orders at least, surging forward to grab hold of Maud with both forelegs, even if all that did was slow down the strike enough for it not to be fatal.

Unfortunately, Kamikaze's automagic body had other ideas, the metal wing flaring out, burning hot as it sliced through the neck of the very pony she had been trying to save. The mare's shriek was cut off half way as her head popped off like a poorly made bobble-head, the cauterized stump smoking as she hit the floor. Her eyes shot open and looked around in fear much like the griffon’s had before, burning into Twilight’s horrified mind. She’d never forget those looks as long as she lived.

"Whoa, nice!" Kamikaze giggled, reaching to the head and seeming about to play with it, but she paused. "Uh, I mean, oops? Didn't remember I could do that... awesome though, right?!"

"No, Blinding!" shrieked the remaining stallion in the back, breaking out into tears over the death of the most recent comrade in a way he hadn’t for the others. “You don’t understand, she was innocent…”

A moment later it occurred to him that he might be next, so he tried to fly. His wing had been wrenched in the combat though, so he flailed headlong into the remains of the same stone wall he’d been tossed into before. This was not his day.

Starlight tried to grasp the remaining bat with her telekinesis, but seemed to have even more trouble than Twilight recovering her magic. Twilight managed to hold the stallion down instead, forming a shield around him alone before anyone else went for the kill and hoping it would hold in her weakened state.

“Those ponies were helpless!” Twilight screeched, the survivor’s pleas sending a new surge of anger through her. What kind of life had these ponies lived that made them so violent?

“Why did you do that?” Starlight agreed, but Twilight felt less good about the agreement when Starlight continued. “We need to question them properly before execution!”

“Sorry. We got excited,” Maud explained blandly. “We do that sometimes. I assume.”

“Better helpless than ready to attack,” Pinkie agreed, peering at Maud. “The unreasonably attractive mare is wise. Yes.”

"Please…" the final stallion dried his eyes, staring at his headless comrade as if breaking inside. "I-I have to let her family know she didn’t die a coward.”

Twilight's heart ached. It was easy to forget that even villains had those they loved, if this bat was even a villain. For all Twilight knew, her new friends were the villains. Even if they let this bat live to question him, they'd want to kill him soon after.

"Please calm down," Twilight staggered to place herself between her group and the bat. "I swear I won’t kill you. What’s your name?”

None of her allies protested her logic, probably mistaking it for a trick.

"Y-you won't?" the bat asked. Despite having no reason to believe Twilight, he seemed to trust her easily. "You do look like a Likeness so... I’m Gloomy Shade. I was in command until… oh buck, Midnight is gonna be angry I lost another team.”

“I’m sorry about your friends, I truly am,” Twilight tried to sound reassuring. “Can you explain why you’re here, Gloomy Shade?”

“We were sent to kill Her Divine Shadow's enemy before she had time to join forces with the Trinity." Gloomy stammered.

"And the Trinity is?" asked Starlight.

"You really don't know?" Gloomy asked. "She created the super-mutants, then later took over the Hive. We’ll all end up as her experiments if she has her way."

"No one here will do that to you," Twilight assured again. “Nor will we harm you.”

Gloomy peered for a few moments before nodding, again believing with unusual ease.

“What was that?” Maud asked suddenly. She'd found her rocket hammer and put her ear to it. “Hello Mite, you say my name is Maud? Have we met before?"

“Pinkie Die and Gummy said they know Pinkie too,” Pinkie observed, apparently referring to her minigun and the rocket launcher. “They say no more because they claim they want it to be a surprise. Suspicious!”

The Pies talking to inanimate objects was the most normal thing since Twilight got to this timeline. The break in the conversation was a slight relief.

"You might not kill me, but they will," Gloomy whimpered as Twilight turned back to him, not so relieved by their antics. "Even if I tell you everything I know, which I already did!... they're gonna kill me. Look, I’ll prove what I said… There's a memory sphere in my bag. I recorded the mission logs on it.”

Twilight dragged over a set of saddlebags that had been deposited near the exit, which Gloomy had motioned to. She carefully analyzed it for any traps before slowly opening it, but had no idea what most of the equipment inside was.

"I won't let them kill you," Twilight assured again, but then tilted her head. "Why do you trust me, Gloomy? Not that I think you shouldn’t, but..."

"We're out of the range of Trinity's hive," said Gloomy. "So you have to be a Likeness. Even if you've malfunctioned and aren't following Her Shadow, the inability to lie is one of their base directives."

"An evil organization created honest minions?" Spike asked snidely, but had a good point. That didn't make sense for a 'villain', and Twilight had more doubts about whose side she should be on. It didn’t help that she really wanted Midnight to be good.

"We won't kill you either," smiled Starlight, then turned to Twilight. "She can vouch for us,"

Twilight clenched her teeth, knowing Starlight’s assurance was almost certainly a lie. She knew this was stupid, but she couldn't let another die. They wouldn't understand, and she knew she was being naïve, but there had been too much death. Twilight sighed, releasing the shield and telekinetic grasp and nodded to Gloomy.

The confused bat nodded in return. He quickly rushed to his beheaded friend’s body, grabbing the remains of an amulet she had worn as if intending to return it to her family. He turned, and before any of the others stopped him, he booked it around the corner and through the ruins. He probably knew the ruins well, so it'd be nigh impossible to catch him.

Kamikaze started to take off, instinctively reacting to the fleeing enemy, but Twilight magicked her wings closed. The pegasus grumbled, but stayed put. Twilight hoped their condition and perception of her as an authority figure would be enough for them to trust her.

“Foalish,” an electronic voice suddenly spoke. “We should be delaying your inevitable discovery by Midnight.”

Twilight blinked and looked upwards, spotting another of the hovering robots there that had protected them earlier. It looked as if a single one had stayed higher to observe the results.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, holding up a hoof to the others so they didn’t attack. “Why did you protect us?”

“That will wait for later,” said the hovering bot. “First, I must clean up your mess.”

“No!” Twilight called after the bot as it turned to buzz off, but was too exhausted to grab it in time with her magic. She couldn’t take off into the ruins without the others, so had to hope for the best.

For a moment there was silence before Starlight finally broke it.

“Well then,” Starlight continued to sound friendly, but it felt like a mask to Twilight. “You have your memories, so could you kindly let us know who we are?”

“Right,” Twilight said. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, this is Spike, then you guys… Starlight Glimmer, sisters Pinkie and Maud Pie, and Rainbow Dash… who goes by Kamikaze. I’m sorry, I could only shield myself and Spike when we went through a… time vortex.”

“Indeed so,” Starlight smiled, calmly stepping over a corpse as if it were insignificant to approach Twilight. “Forgive my bluntness, but I’m assuming it’s ‘Princess’ Twilight Sparkle? One thing I do remember is that alicorns are special.”

"Oh, for Celestia’s sake, not this again," Twilight said, then quickly smiled in return. "Yes, but 'Twilight' is fine."

"Twilight is indeed 'fine'," Pinkie leered at Twilight.

"I’m not sure about the title they gave me," Twilight ignored Pinkie but silently hoped she’d not be sharing sleeping quarters with her. "I think there’s an alternate version of me they follow. It’s… complicated. I can’t explain without sounding insane.”

“I wish I was insane,” said Spike. “Then I might be enjoying myself.”

"I don't have to wish that," Pinkie said with a chuckle, followed by sudden aggression, "But the fine pegacorn released our prisoner!"

"Please," Twilight sighed. "It's part of my plan, or something."

"Your plan does not make sense," said Maud, but added. "But the best plans probably do not make sense. I am ‘in’."

"But the Starlighted horn-head did not lift a hoof to help!" Pinkie blurted out, determined to accuse somepony of something. "She cannot be trusted! Yes."

“I assure you, there’s no need for distrust,” Starlight casually trotted behind Twilight, chuckling awkwardly. Starlight seeking protection behind Twilight was unwelcome irony.

“I’ll be honest,” Twilight said. “I don't know if any of you can be trusted, but if nothing else we have a common enemy.” She tried to word it so they’d understand. “We were in the battle when this city was destroyed. Due to… unforeseeable spell interactions... we were sent forward in time, but I don’t know exactly why or how far.”

“So, we’re from another timeline?” Starlight asked, as if analyzing both the situation and Twilight’s sanity. “Like you said you were?”

“Not exactly,” Twilight said. “You are all from the past in this world. Me and Spike are from another timeline… a pony in my timeline misused time travel and created this alternate timeline. It was on accident, but… it didn’t go well.”

“I’m not sure I believe you,” Starlight peered.

“That’s probably best,” admitted Twilight. “We should concentrate on what’s next.”

“We should go before the sole survivor brings reinforcements,” advised Maud.

“Right,” Twilight groaned, putting a hoof on her forehead.

“The naked ones should put on the spare armor,” pointed out Pinkie. “Though it is a shame to cover the sexyful pegacorn, yes?”

“Whoa, we can’t steal from the dead,” protested Spike, adding in a brotherly tone. “Stop flirting with Twilight.”

“Why can’t we?” asked Kamikaze, leaning against a wall and holding her head for a moment. “Take their stuff I mean, not flirt. It’s not like their next-of-kin are available to take their belongings.”

“I assume that I would be compelled to murder them if they were,” Maud pointed out, her tone stating a fact rather than making a threat.

“It would be a preemptive strike against their inevitable revenge!” agreed Pinkie, sounding far more on the ‘threat’ side of things.

“I would use the hammer,” Maud added, again less like a threat and more like she was informing them what flavor of tea she wanted. “He is sad he did not get used on the fruits.”

A brief squeal from Starlight made them all jump, but when Twilight looked over, it seemed it was only because the glowing screen projection had suddenly formed in front of her eyes again. If she hadn’t expected it, it must have been reacting to her need. Starlight looked at the readout after calming.

“The radiation in our immediate area is low,” said Starlight, awkwardly playing off her surprise with another nervous chuckle. “But we’re on the edge, much of the city is higher. It’d be better to wear armor than waste magic keeping a shield over the group. And that pink cloud in the crater… that’s giving odd readings. We should steer clear of it.”

The projected screen in front of Starlight morphed into a 3D projection, again looking like a small holographic ‘cutie map’ of Canterlot, their cutie marks displaying their positions. In the upper corner it had the brand ‘Stable-Tec’ with the seeming brand name ‘Eyes Forward Glimmer’ projected beneath it.

Their cutie mark symbols were still color-coded by threat level, but the colors changed. Everyone here registered as allies, though Kamikaze’s as slightly yellow. Twilight suspected that this didn’t go unnoticed by Starlight, who visibly kept an eye on Kamikaze after seeing the map.

The map wasn’t up to date with the ruins, but was slowly updating. It also showed other bright signals in the ruins. Mostly red, but Twilight saw one that was green. Odd, but there was little time to check it out.

Everyone looked at Twilight, and she realized they expected the royalty to make a ruling. She sometimes forgot she had authority in situations like this.

“I hate it too, Spike,” Twilight said. “But we need everything we can get. Me and Starlight will put on the most intact uniforms. Pinkie, Maud, find yourself a helmet if you can. We need to conserve magic by needing as little magical shielding as possible.”

Twilight pulled the armor loose from the soldier that had hung from the ceiling as respectfully as she could. She laid him on the floor in a more dignified manner with his legs folded. Twilight felt queasy as she tugged the armor loose from his sweaty flesh, trying to keep herself from crying. Twilight had never handled a corpse, shivering as she manipulated the cooling flesh with her magic and cleaned out the armor, holding her nose to avoid the smell.

The soldiers didn't seem affected, but Twilight couldn’t think of these ponies as enemies. They were real ponies with real lives and families. Those family members would shed real tears when told their loved ones didn't return, as would their friend who escaped should he avoid the strange sprite-bot.

When she pieced the armor onto herself, she folded her wings beneath the armor rather than sticking them through the slots. If they feared the Twilight in this world, she didn’t want to be mistaken for her. She assumed that the other Twilight succeeded in gaining wings since the bats got a good look at her and didn't seem surprised.

Starlight put one on too, though she left out the helmet, choosing her own head-piece instead. Maud and Pinkie found helmets that were reasonably undamaged. Unfortunately for Spike, nothing fit him, so Twilight let him ride her back. He wrapped himself in the loose wing coverings on her armor and she formed a smaller forcefield around him.

“Is this the thing the fruit offered you?” Starlight’s voice broke the hurried silence as she pulled a contraption from the saddlebag. “It’s the only thing in here that looks like a sphere or a log file.”

Starlight held the device in front of Twilight as if expecting her to know what it was. It was a glass orb about the size of Twilight’s hoof, a rainbow shimmering mist swirling about inside. There was a small panel on one side that displayed a list of dates and times as if they were log entries.

The two-digit year display on the entries was '87', which implied it'd been ten years since 2077 when they left. Had it been? These ruins seemed older than that, and Twilight assumed from the memory damage that it’d been a long trip.

“We should get somewhere else first before reading it,” Twilight nodded.

“Hm, my readout is telling me it would only take a few seconds to view,” Starlight said, the screen popping up in front of her face again, reaching her hoof to swipe to another window within it. “And it might tell us where to go. Just… hm, my screen only detects three devices networked to it. Who doesn’t have one?”

“I… don’t have one on me,” Twilight responded. “Neither does Spike.”

“I don’t…” said Kamikaze, but before she continued, a small beep from her own head cut her off. A screen flashed upon the inside of her cybernetic eye. “Oh, I do, it’s internal… I am so bucking awesome!”

“You can probably connect me with magic,” said Twilight. “But I don't think we need to look now to know where to go. Prior to our time jump, I saw civilians heading for a shelter. It may have survived the blast and is probably our best bet for finding ponies loyal to Canterlot.”

That assumed they didn’t attack Twilight and Rainbow on sight, but it was still their best bet. At least they wouldn’t attack Spike, since they’d believe him to be Starlight’s Spike.

“Lead the way, Princess,” Starlight smiled, pocketing the memory orb in her own saddle bag.

Twilight couldn’t tell if the smile was sincere or an ‘I’m watching you’ smile. She could never get a read on that mare. Not only that, but that smile felt like it was trying to get into her head, like this Starlight had a more psionic charisma. It was like a less powerful version of Discord trying to alter her mind, and Twilight was unsure if it was intentional on Starlight’s part.

Twilight guided them into the ruins, moving quickly before their escaped friend returned with backup. It wasn’t far from the archives to Canterlot Tower and the grand hall at its base, but much of the path was in the open.

Once outside, Twilight had a better view of the sky. She saw both the Sun and Moon behind the haze. The Moon was still in the same shape as she had observed before, stationary and in pieces. Twilight doubted that they could control it with the same magic as before.

The Sun differed from before, however. The oddity of being up with the Moon aside, it looked wrong. It was swollen, a deeper red than the healthy yellow it normally shone. It looked strangely unmoving, and Twilight wondered if it was as stuck in the sky as the Moon was.

But that was a silly thought since it should move on its own if nopony enacted control over it. It’d be awkward and inaccurate, creating days of somewhat random length and couldn’t be adjusted to avoid extreme seasons, but it’d move. For the moment, Twilight dismissed the idea; she had enough to think of already.

They encountered more old bodies along the way, and though Twilight tried not to look at them, it was difficult. For a while she kept her emotions in check, trying not to think of all the death that occurred here, but eventually that became impossible.

One particular scene shattered her resolve: a filly guide cart near the entrance to Canterlot Tower. It was torn apart with gunfire then weathered nearly beyond recognition. Another ten hooves further were bodies of two uniformed filly guides. One had dragged herself as far as she could, hind legs missing. Weather washed away the blood stain, but her body looked freakishly fresh.

Yet, it couldn’t be fresh because the top was worn as if weathered by wind. The body hadn’t rotted, but it was obviously old. The poison of the city might have killed microbes that would make it rot, but could a body wear like that in ten years?

The real oddity was the second filly guide, which hugged atop the first. The first body weathered prior to the second laying atop her, and the second wasn’t weathered at all.

Starlight drew close when Twilight teared up, gently placing a hoof upon Twilight’s shoulder. She said nothing, though Twilight saw tears in her eyes. The others were hardened beyond such emotions and only stood nearby, strategically surrounding Twilight as if guarding their perceived authority figure. Spike wrapped himself up and hid from the view. She didn’t blame him.

Despite not wanting to look any longer, Twilight couldn’t stop her curiosity. She magically scanned the second filly to make sure she was dead, but there was no doubt. She leaned down to figure how the first had weathered with the second atop it. Had it been put there later?

Nothing could have prepared Twilight when the top filly moved. Suddenly on her hooves, the little one charged Twilight with alarming speed. Twilight stumbled back, telekinetically grabbing the little one about a hoofstep away from her. The filly reached her cracked hooves at Twilight, dry muzzle snarling like a rabid dog. A puff of decrepit dust emitted from her lungs as she screeched.

“W-wait,” stammered Twilight. “We won't hurt you. Please calm down.”

But the little one didn’t seem to hear. Starlight stepped closer, her own horn lighting up as she scanned the foal.

"She's stone dead," Starlight gasped in shock, but her eyes dried up too. Unlike Twilight, her curiosity seemed to completely negate the emotion of the moment. "Like some kind of... accidental flesh golem. Did the radiation do this?"

“We have to put her to rest,” Maud said, spoken coldly but with good intent.

“But she’s just a foal…” Twilight shook her head, but knew that Maud was right. They had to free the filly's soul from this state. “Take care of it quickly.”

Twilight closed her eyes and held the filly so that her head lay flat against the hard worn pavement. Maud hesitated for a moment, seeming less used to putting down sick civilians than killing enemies. When she recovered, there was a woosh and a crack that sounded like smashing a rotten cantaloupe. As the snarls ceased, Twilight released the body from her magic and turned her head away before opening her eyes again.

How many ponies shambled around Canterlot in that horrifying state? Twilight tried to get the idea out of her head as she turned to continue. All those ponies… standing vigil over their dead friends and families… or with them.

They passed the ‘Stable 27’ sign upon entering the grand hall, the faded image of the brothers still overseeing them. On one side of the entrance sat the corpses of a pegasus couple, which Twilight recognized as the ones she’d seen trying to gain entry before. They were hugging, cradling a photo of a foal between them. Twilight felt a small twinge of relief at the implication they found somepony to sneak their little one inside, but it was a drop of sweetness in a cold, salty sea.

"We should watch the log orb before we knock," Starlight said. "Even if it was a shelter, it might now be the hideout of our attackers."

"That is a good point," sighed Twilight. She was so used to giving ponies the benefit of a doubt that the thought hadn't occurred to her. "Knowing is half the battle, as they say."

“The other half is extreme violence,” added Maud.

They found an alcove nearby, a small structure that looked like it was some kind of admittance office. There was a desk, filing cabinets, paperwork, and no sign anypony had set hoof here since the big day. At least there were no corpses.

"I think I remember more about these memory orbs now," said Starlight. "Anyway, I think I can connect Twilight with magic; I don’t know how to connect Spike without a device though."

"Well, dragons are resistant to most pony magic," nodded Twilight. "So you might be left out, Spike, sorry."

“Typical,” huffed Spike.

Twilight sighed, “Given what we’ve seen though, it’s probably things you’d rather not see.”

“Good point,” Spike said, then hopped off her back and faced the door. “I’ll keep watch and shake you if anypony else shows up!”

"Thanks Spike," Twilight smiled at his determination. He always found a way to help.

Starlight trotted up to Twilight and leaned in to touch horns, but Twilight hesitated. Touching horns was a good way to cut through another unicorn’s defenses, but she forced herself to trust this Starlight. She reminded herself that this wasn’t her enemy. Maybe.

"I’ll flip through the most recent log entries," Starlight said as her horn brightened. "I should be able to tell which are most important by the recording intensity."

Twilight seated herself, not knowing what to expect, but tried to expand her mind to observe. The effect hit her suddenly, disorienting her until she barely knew where she was. Twilight expected to be observing something akin to a video screen or audio recording in her mind, but this was altogether different.

It took her a moment to realize that she was observing from somepony else’s eyes now, and that she didn’t have control over the body she inhabited. She was watching a memory from Gloomy’s view, which was frightful magitech. Twilight wouldn’t have thought this possible, but maybe now was a good time to break the habit of assuming things were impossible.

Not only did she see through Gloomy’s eyes, but Twilight could hear his thoughts echo through her head. It felt amazing… and horribly intrusive. She was watching another pony’s memories, and there was no telling what she would see.