The Depths of Discovery

by Seamserb

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Profanity, Violence, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Narcotics, Main 6, Applejack, Trixie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Adventure
Length: 58916

Aspirant Twilight Sparkle is desperate to make a name for herself within the Erudite Enclave. However, she may discover more than she bargained for...

A thousand years ago, a long-forgotten disaster wracked Equestria, rendering its surface inhospitable to all but the most foolhardy of creatures. In the millennia since, the once unified and prosperous races and societies have devolved into fractured and competing tribes and factions, all trying to carve out their own piece of the Underworld for themselves.

Aspirant Twilight Sparkle is desperate for a chance to make a name for herself -- to become a full fledged Pathfinder, which would finally allow her to be free from the limits of Charlie Compound permanently. And if she manages to discover something that no other pony in the Erudite Enclave has, she'll be set for life.

However, in her quest for discovery, she may come across more than she bargained for. Unlikely allies, unforeseen enemies, and heretofore untold truths of the Underworld itself.

Unbeknownst to her, though -- that may be exactly what she's looking for. After all, the depths of discovery knows no bounds.

Published 2024-03-17 18:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-04-05 19:00:20 UTC

Chapter 1 - The Erudite Enclave

Twilight holds her breath. She barely can think straight at a time like this.

She faces down the beast in front of her. Its presence looms over her, blocking her from advancing forward. This is the last thing that stands between her and becoming a full-fledged Pathfinder.

Her trusty tool in hoof, she gets to work. From side to side, and up to down. She slashes away at it, mincing at what little she has left to finish. She can see her foe nearing its end, but it refuses to go down quietly.

Suddenly, it comes to her. Her finishing move. With a final swipe..!

Her quill slides against the parchment ineffectually and blankly.

She pauses, looking down at it. Out of ink.

After a few quick dips into her ink-well, and some few extra strokes—

"And... done!"

Twilight smiles as she inspects her finally finished paper, feeling content about her work. She's been struggling with it for weeks, but it's finally finished now.

"An expansive guide to Moss Crawler feeding behaviors (Volume Three). The boys down at the Epistery are gonna love this one."

Grabbing the small stack of papers in-front of her, straightening them against the table, and carefully placing them into her satchel, Twilight wastes no time. Leaving her quarters, she takes her descent down a rather long spiral staircase. After a few more twists and turns through the stone halls, she eventually reaches a massive and open area; the Nexus Point of the compound, its main chamber connecting every wing.

As Twilight walks, she takes a moment to look at the structure around her. Metal and stone intertwine seamlessly, arcing upwards towards a ceiling like a dome. Various patches of greenery and trees adorn the walls of buildings and some parts of the ground as well.

Looking in any direction, she sees the various Wings of the compound expanding in their own respective directions, along with their personnel, various ponies of all different roles and jobs milling about.

Twilight can’t help but feel a little bit of pride. Just like the cogs of a well-oiled machine, or the heart of a strong and dutiful pony, every single member of the Erudite Enclave has a set purpose to accomplish and fulfill. The honest acts of many can lead to rewards just as plentiful, for all.

She takes a deep breath, smelling the familiar metallic and misty scent of the compound.

She feels a brief sense of nostalgia; afterall, she grew up here for most of her life. But she honestly can’t say she’ll miss it that much. Even if she did, she wouldn’t let it get between her task – the Great Task of the Enclave.

As Twilight continues towards the Epistrey, she spots a pair of stylish mares. She recognizes their uniforms immediately. Full fledged pathfinders. She can’t hear exactly about what they’re talking about, but she can only assume it’s about one of their probably many expeditions.

Normally, Twilight would probably be full of fan-girling right now. Even the most basic and lowest ranked Pathfinder would make her squeal – they’re a somewhat rare sight in Charlie Compound.

But she manages to hold herself back, barely holding back a crooked smile. She knows she’ll be just like them, soon…

After a bit more walking, she finally reaches the Epistrey. She cranes her head up to take in the full glory of the metallic and stone structure.

Twilight smirks, smugly.

Your average Mule-Jule probably wouldn't really understand what all the fuss is about. They’re essentially just glorified libraries. But those ponies who REALLY get it (like Twilight herself, of course…) know that it represents far more than even just its admittedly impressive physical presence.

Every single Compound has an Epistrey at its center – It’s always the first structure built after all – regardless of how impractical that may seem. To the Enclave, the Epistrey is as crucial as a building block to any settlement as having food or soldiers.

Each one is a bastion and testament to The Great Task; the acquisition, maintaining, and cataloging of all knowledge and information possible, in the pursuit of making a better Underworld for all.

It’s almost representative of the Enclave as a whole. Nearly shining like Sol himself, its figure pierces through the dark and dull surroundings, providing a respite and refuge against the darkness that surrounds–!

“Hey! No loitering, Missy!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she snaps back to reality. She sees two armored guards at both sides of the Epistrey’s entrance, slightly glaring at her.

“O-oh. My bad. I’m actually here to deliver this—”

She’s about to unlatch her satchel, but the guard cuts her off.

“Get on with it, then.” He says, gesturing to the door. The other guard continues glaring.

Twilight hurriedly enters the Epistrey, a bit flustered. As she walks further in, she hears a bit of chuckling from behind her.

The Epistrey’s interior is even more impressive than its exterior, but certainly reflects how large it looked. Elegantly patterned mosaic and metal walls contrast with a dark hard-wood floor. Various statues, paintings, and other similar artifacts are spread out across the main chamber.

Looking above, she sees various rafters and shelves of endless amounts of information collected over probably hundreds of years. The impression of size given off by the outside was certainly accurate. She can barely even see the ceiling.

Twilight feels a bit giddy. She loves being here, although she unfortunately isn’t allowed to stay long without having a proper reason. As the guard said, no loitering.

She sees other ponies moving about. Some hold documents or other papers with them, while others simply congregate with their peers. She also notices multiple Pathfinders heading in and out of smaller chambers in the distance she’s never been before. Hopefully she gets to see what's in them, soon.

Twilight looks forward once more, breathing a sigh of relief. The path to the front desk is completely clear. Usually it has an absurdly long waiting line.

She approaches the front desk with a smile, spotting a stallion sitting behind it, writing something with a quill.

“Hello!”, she says, cheerfully.

The clerk doesn’t even turn or look up at all, instead continuing to write with his quill.

Twilight waits for a few seconds, frowning a little.

“Uh.. Hel—’

The clerk raises his non-writing hoof like a ‘shush’, but still doesn’t look up at her at all. After a bit more scribbling, he finally glances towards her.

“How may I help you?” He says, monotonically.

Twilight can feel her initial happiness die a little, but presses on.

“Hello. I’ve come to deliver my fifth report!” She says, recovering a bit of her lost cheer.

The clerk stares at her for a second or two, before pressing a button. A small slit opens up on Twilight’s side of the front desk, just wide enough to slip a paper in, or a few at once.

Twilight knows the routine by now, and slips her stack of papers in, sliding into a small trench in front of the Clerk. He picks it up, inspecting it briefly. Twilight looks like she’s expecting a compliment.

The clerk simply gestures for a nearby assistant, who he hooves it off to. Twilight looks as he takes it away to a further chamber. Twilight feels proud, knowing it’ll soon join the momentous catalogs.

The clerk clears his throat and smacks his lips.

“Twinkle Spar—”

Twilight’s smile nearly cracks.

“Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.” She corrects, slightly annoyed.

The clerk squints slightly.

“Twilight Sparkle.” He says with an equal slight amount of annoyance.

“Congratulations. You have successfully delivered your fifth paper, meaning you are now in the final step to becoming a Pathfinder.”

He delivers it with a cadence that only somepony who has said that dozens of times could have done, only changing out the name.

“Yes!” Twilight says, a bit subdued. Normally, she would probably have jumped up or pumped her hoof, but in a place this proper, she holds back.

The clerk raises an eyebrow, but continues.

“In order to be—’

“When can I take my first expedition?!” Twilight asks, a bit giddy. She already knows the process to a tee.

The clerk pauses after being cut off. He clears his throat again.

“We have an expedition leaving today, act—”

“Really really?! Yes!” Twilight actually does a little jump now. A few ponies glance over briefly, but Twilight doesn’t notice.

“When does it leave?! What do I need to prepare?! What—”

“Please stop cutting me off.” The clerk says, a tinge of anger in his voice.

“Sorry. Just... a bit excited.” Twilight says, a crooked half-grin on her face.

The clerk gives a forced smile and squints. “I can tell.”

He leans back in his chair.

“Ill put you into the queue system, you’ll be able to—”

Twilight’s eyes widen. “The what now?” She asks, confused. She’s somehow never heard of that in her entire career of Pathfinder obsession.

The clerk looks at her with a bit of bewilderment.

“The queue system. There’s a queue system for Aspirants such as yourself to get picked for Expeditions. You queue up, and whomever is in front gets to go first.”

Twilight is slightly shocked, but shakes it off.

“U-uh… Okay. Where am I on the list?” Twilight asks, curious but still confident. Surely she’s like second or third… Even fourth wouldn't—"

“Sixth. You are sixth in line. When it is time, you will be called—” The clerk says.

Twilight’s jaw nearly drops.

“WHA—” She puts a hoof to her mouth. More ponies last time glance over with some disapproving looks, especially the clerk.

Twilight clears her throat.

“Sorry about that. But, sixth in the queue? I’m supposed to wait for six expeditions?! I didn’t even know there were six Aspirants in Charlie Compound total!” Twilight says, in shock.

The clerk doesn’t miss a beat. “Well, there are. And there's five of them ahead of you.”

“Wait, why did you even tell me there was an expedition today if you knew I was sixth in the queue???” Twilight asks, clearly annoyed.

The clerk shrugs.

Twilight approaches the desk, touching the counter.

“Surely there has to be somet—”

“Please remove your hooves from the counter.” The clerk orders. Twilight quickly pulls them back.

“Surely there has to be something that I can do to get further in the queue, right?”

There has to be. The Pathfinders value initiative and haste. Surely there—

“No.” The clerk says.

Twilight feels like she’s about to have an aneurysm.

“Please! There HAS to be something! Anything! I’ll—”

“The queue system is set in stone. There is nothing you, me, or anypony, except maybe the Commander, could do. Life is dictated by order and lists. You have to wait your turn like anyone else.”

His mouth opens like he’s about to say ‘Next’, but Twilight gets in between his view.

“You don’t understand! I need to—”

“Ma’am. I assure you that causing a scene will NOT put you ahead of the queue. And I’m sure having a recorded outburst is the last thing you’d want on your future Pathfinder log, right?” He says, squinting.

Twilight notices some ponies staring at her now. She also sees a line behind her.

She almost turns red from embarrassment. She quickly pulls back, defeated.

“Okay. Okay. I get it. I’ll… wait until I’m called.”

The clerk eyes her. “Yes, that was the plan… farewell, Miss Twilight. You’ll just have to stay in the Compound for now… like the rest of us.”

Twilight’s sadness is replaced with confusion, briefly. Before she can even register what that last part meant, the clerk punctuates it with a loud ‘NEXT!’.

Twilight slumps back into a bench at one of the smaller common areas – somewhere personnel can reside when not on—duty, but also not as chaotic or crowded as the Nexus Point.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you see it), Twilight doesn’t have a conventional job per se — that being becoming a Pathfinder. This gives her a lot of free time. Unfortunately for Twilight, she HATES having nothing to do.

What is she even going to do in the meantime? She was banking on being able to start an expedition at least this week… the most entertaining thing she can imagine is the Troupe coming back, but last time they were here they accidentally flooded the lower levels with sewage, so it’s unlikely they’ll be allowed back again.

She stares blankly at the ceiling, staring at the metal reinforced enclosed ceiling of the Compound. Her eyes may look up, but they sure as heck aren’t focused on anything.

Where did it go so wrong? Is this her fault? It has to be her fault. Should she have written her papers about something easier, faster, or smaller? She KNEW she should've made The Various Forms Of Granite (Volume 3). If only she actually learnt about the queue system earlier! It’s all her fault. Stupid… stupid..!

“Twilight?” A gentle voice calls.

Twilight quickly snaps out of her stupor, sitting up. She looks towards the voice.

It’s Golden Harvest.

“You okay there?” She asks, looking worried.

Twilight’s shoulders droop a little.

“Oh. Hey, Gold… yeah. I’m fine.” she says, trying to not worry Golden too much.

Golden takes a seat next to her on the bench.

“Really? Cause it looks like you were just staring off into the void to me…” She says.

“Well I mean— I kind of was staring at the ceiling but—”

Twilight scoffs and slightly mumbles, incoherently.

“I just turned in my fifth paper and got queued up for my future Expedition.” Twilight says, with none of the enthusiasm she most certainly should've had after saying that.

“Nice!” Golden says, cheerfully.

“No, not nice! I’m sixth in the queue!” Twilight exclaims.

“Oh. Is that… bad?” Golden tilts her head, unsure.

Twilight nearly looks at her like she screamed bloody murder.

“Yes, that's ‘bad’.” Twilight says, clearly shocked a little.

“Really? Sounds like you get to spend more time at the Compound, though!” Golden says, with a positive tone.

Now Twilight looks at her like she did scream bloody murder. She almost sputters and trips over her words.

“Wh— NO! That’s not what I want to do!” Twilight says, bewildered.

Golden frowns. “Why not?”

Twilight feels like ripping her own mane off.

“ ‘Why not…’ “ She repeats to herself, almost chuckling. Golden doesn’t understand.

“Golden. Don’t you ever get tired of doing the same repetitive routine here? In the same place? Forever? With no respite?” Twilight asks.

As an Aspirant, Twilight has a relatively high amount of freedom to do as she pleases, as long as she’s actually progressing. But more basic and simple workers like Golden are essentially forced into the same grind forever.

“Nope! I love the routine!” Golden says, cheerfully.

Twilight face-hooves.

“Don’t you ever wonder what lies outside the Compound? What lies outside the other pockets? Think about how much we don't know… how much we don't know we don't know!” Twilight exclaims, extravagantly.

Golden puts a hoof to her chin, tilting her head.

“Hmmm… sometimes I do think about that kinda stuff… but then I think about hey if I wasn’t in the Compound I’d probably starve or be eaten or be beaten or get lost or fall into a chasm—”

Twilight glares at her with a frown.

“—yeah. You get the idea. I don’t get it Twilight, what's wrong with being safe and happy?”

Twilight scoffs. “Safe… happy… If people never did things because it wasn’t safe, or because it could make them not happy, they wouldn’t have ever discovered or figured out the technology to MAKE the Compounds. Then where would the safety and happiness be?”

The paradox throws Golden for a little loop, but she shakes it off.

“Yeah, but why think about it like that when it DID happen anyways? That was the past – this is the present. Besides, as long as I have a purpose, I'm satisfied.”

Twilight rolls her eyes.

“And that purpose is..?”

“Producing corn! Duh! Charlie Compound is the leading provider of corn in the whole Enclave, Twilight! Isn’t that a-maze-ing?”

Twilight groans, putting a hoof to her face. Not only at the horrible pun, but the statement about Charlie Compound itself.

Following a conventional ordering system, Charlie Compound was the third compound to be founded in the Enclaves thousand year-long history, after the destroyed Alpha Compound and retired Bravo Compound.

While most societies would probably have continued to upgrade and expand something so old into one of their greatest settlements, it turns out when your entire worldview is based around progression and ditching the old, you aren’t exactly keen on sticking around a relatively primitive base anymore. The Compound has been largely retrofitted into one of agricultural production, mainly corn.

Twilight HATES corn. It's wet and gross and irritating and it gets everywhere. The amount of times she's had to pick individual kernels out of her satchel is too many to count.

“Some purpose, huh…” Twilight says, uncharacteristically cynical.

Golden tenses up a little, squinting slightly.

“Got something you wanna say?” not as cheerily as before.

Twilight glances over with an annoyed expression, barely moving her head.

She feels like the damn clerk now.

“Oh nothing… just that I wouldn’t be content with something as redundant as farming corn my whole freaking life.” Twilight says, offhandedly.

Golden is really on the defensive now. She holds her head high, eyes closed.

“I didn’t take two years at Corn College to be disrespected like this…”

Twilight grumbles. That place seems like a diploma mill to her, anyways.

The unicorn doesn't appear to notice Golden having moved a bit closer, a slight glare on her face.

“I’m so sorry that us non-pathfinders chumps apparently aren't good enough to make you feel 'content' or that you have a 'purpose'. That we're just soooo bad that you want to leave as soon as possible."

She’s about to retort with something, when she just now notices the angry farm-hand staring her down. The larger and much bulkier earthen looms over her slightly.

Twilight gulps, slightly scooting away and holding her hooves forward appealingly.

“Woah woah! Hey! Come on! I think we’re getting a bit too heated here, yeah?” She nervously says, trying to defuse the situation.

Golden shrinks back a little, sighing.

“...sorry.” she says.

Twilight can’t help but feel bad. She glances at the now slightly-sullen earthen, just staring ahead.

Despite Golden being her closest friend, there's always been a strange divide between the two of them. A dissimilarity.

All of Twilight's original peers either fell out of their 'Pathfinding phase' early on, like most do, or actually made it and became Pathfinders… which comes with the ability of leaving your home Compound.

Which they all did. Only a few of them even bothered to say a goodbye.

The experiences crushed her.

As Twilight broods, her eyes widen. She realizes something.

All this time, she's been telling Golden how much she wanted to leave and be 'free' from the Compound. The exact same things that her previous 'friends' did to her. Leaving her in the dust.

After a brief pause, Twilight looks over at Golden once more.

“I’m sorry, Golden."

Golden glances over, with a more neutral and curious expression.

"I just... I let my emotions get the better of me. Today was just so horrible and I didn't mean anything I said about you or anyone else being—"

Golden just slightly raises a hoof. Twilight stops.

"It's fine... Can't blame you for having a bad day, right?" She says with a cheery smile.

Twilight lightly smiles back.

The two continue sitting on the bench, looking out into the distance.

“Ahhhh…”

The clerk exhales a fine smoke as he leans against the wall.

“Why did I even take this job… oh right I DIDN'T and I was assigned to it by force.” He grumbles.

“Wah… sixth place queue! Wah… help me I can't find my baby! Wah… you called that fat mare a mule… bah!” he taps his hoof.

“One more shift and I'm finally free of this crap. I finally got to move up the line… Now I'LL be the one chewing out the front desk guy! Haha!”

The clerk blows another puff in his ‘break room’, also known as one of the Epistrey storage depots.

Smoking is officially banned in the Enclave, with its health hazards known all too-well, yet some partake anyway. It’s a wonder that ponies within the Enclave can even obtain the death sticks, yet some do anyways.

If he was discovered smoking, especially IN the Epistrey – he’d likely be executed. But to him, that would be preferable to working another shift as the clerk.

Hearing a beep from his pocket, he pulls out a small timer, and groans.

Break’s over. He takes one last smoke from his cig, before tossing it at a wall, towards an empty container.

Or, what he ASSUMED was an empty container.

Unbeknownst to him, that same day, an equally moronic pony incorrectly delivered an ammunition shipment there instead of the Exchange Wing.

The cigarette flies into the box, and…

“Don’t think I’d forget the time you tried to use a shovel to chop that wood!” Golden says.

Twilight laughs, wiping off tears. “In my defense, it was a really sharp shovel! It almost worked, too!” Twilight says.

Golden snickers. “Almost.” She mocks.

The two friends easily made up after their heated moment, sharing some laughs.

Twilight breaths a little sigh of relief, but then sighs and stands up.

“Ah… that was nice, Golden, but I should probably get going. I need to move my stuff into the Aspirant Wing now that I’m actually at that step now.”

Golden stands up as well. “Oh! I can help with that. I wouldn’t mind.”

“Thanks, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. I mean, it’s right there—”

BOOOOOM!

The two ponies instinctually hit the deck as they hear and feel the explosion in the near distance, air rushing over them and noise rushing into their ears. A blast bursts out of the side of the Epistrey.

Both ponies flip around, and look with complete shock, as do other nearby civilians and workers. Guards, soldiers, and Pathfinders rush the scene. Some think they’re under attack, but those fears are quickly quelled.

After some brief moments of chaos, the situation stabilizes and calms down a little.

The explosion, thankfully, erupted from a wing nearby the Epistrey, and not the core Epistrey itself. That would've been a disaster. But it still hit was in the near vicinity of it,

Twilight’s eyes widen as she realizes the explosion happened closer to the Aspirant wing, which is right next to the Epistrey for convenience.

As the two join the crowd that formed quickly around, they see people being lifted out of some of the rubble. There’s multiple workers and pathfinders in various states of injury, but thankfully nopony died.

Twilight notices the clerk from the Epistrey. He’s charred and burnt, but alive. He groans and coughs smoke as he’s taken away on a stretcher. Some other ponies are brought out as well.

She slowly begins to make a realization, seeing the injured. A nearby soldier spells it out for her, though.

“Sir! The Aspirant’s Wing took the main hit! None of them are in any state for today’s expedition!”, a nearby soldier says to his CO, a grizzled and grey-maned earthen.

“Was that all of them?! We REQUIRE one of them for the operation today…!” he barks.

Twilight’s face of shock and horror slowly morphs into a smirk. Obviously the explosion is bad and people were hurt and yadda yadda whatever but she’s not one to let an opportunity go to waste like this.

She turns to Golden.

“Guess who just moved up the queue.”

Twilight says her goodbyes to Golden, but promises to come back. Golden gives her a little-too-tight of a hug.

She strolls into the Exchange Wing of the Compound – a massive, tunnel-like chamber. It’s similar in shape to one of the wings, but without most of the applications for permanent residence such as rooms and whatnot.

Like giant airlocks side to side, various gates adorn the exit and entrance of the wing. It’s the only way in or out of the compound, at least the only one noticeable.

She’s almost immediately accosted by a guard, but she smirks and shows him her (temporary) Pathfinder credential. He backs off.

Logically, it would make the most sense to use a full Pathfinder in place of an Aspirant if there are no Aspirants (besides Twilight) available, right? That’s the thing, though.

Pathfinders are given an even larger degree of freedom compared to their Aspirant predecessors; they can pick and choose to join or not join any Expedition they please.

Strangely, despite a few Pathfinders being present at Charlie Compound none of them volunteered to join this one – something Twilight wasted no time in signing up for, although she does slightly wonder why none of the Pathfinders did.

Due to the volatility of the moment, that being a completely random explosion that happened to clear out the queue, Twilight didn’t have much time to prepare for or learn about the expedition, but she’s confident in her abilities to adapt and deal with whatever comes her way.

She certainly looks a bit out of place, the cheery, slim, and young unicorn in the middle of a large amount of gruff and large soldiers, workers, and guards all hastily making preparations to receive or send out materials or things into the Compound. Some flash her weird looks, but she ignores the few that she is able to detect on her own.

After some more waiting, she notices a small trolley being wheeled in nearby, with a large crate inside. She wonders if it's being sent in or out. There’s a strange amount of soldiers and guards nearby it, though.

Twilight thinks about what it could be… Maybe it's something from the outside she’s never seen before? Maybe some rare artifact? What else would prompt that much security? Maybe she could get a peek or even examine-

Something inside the cage begins to move. A tall figure. There’s something, no… somePONY inside of it. .

A guard nearby the cage unlatches its multiple locks, swinging its door open. The figure slowly steps out into the fluorescent light of the Wing.

Her yellow mane is a frazzled and mangy mess, and her clothing is little more than rags and a prisoner jumpsuit. Twilight surmises they’re an earthen, judging from the lack of wings or horn, and she certainly lacks any of the elegance associated with either.

She’s covered in various chains and restraints, even a muzzle.

What little of the orange body she can make out through the chains and restraints, she looks like she’s covered with various scars, bruises, and cuts. Some of them look fresh.

One guard roughly pulls on the chain, causing the prisoner to nearly trip as she’s forced forward.

Is all that really necessary? How much more dangerous can you be after the first few sets of restraints –

Suddenly, the prisoner yanks on her own chain, pulling the guard who yanked it towards her, before headbutting him. His body sprawls away on the floor. Immediately multiple guards and soldiers descend on her, with a few strikes here and there. She chuckles while being hit, looking down at the fallen guard.

“Serves ya right…” she mutters.

Twilight gulps. Ok, maybe all that is necessary. But why is that thing even here? Twilight can tell they’re one of those Hovels… those backward and violent savages who want nothing more than to keep the Underworld in a perpetual state of ignorance.

A few soldiers arrive around the prisoner and her guards. Their CO, the superior from earlier, pulls out a small form and squints at it.

“Twilight Sparkle! Is there a Twilight Sparkle?” He yells into the wing.

Twilight quickly gets to attention, and rushes over. “Here! I am that Twilight Sparkle.” She says.

The superior eyes her up and down, looking from above. He completely dwarfs her. His eyes lock onto her horn.

“Unicorn, huh…” he says.

Twilight feels a bit off-put. “...yes?” She says, unsure how to respond.

The superior clears his throat.

“How proficient are you at combat magic? Any notable spells you got?” He asks.

Twilight feels taken aback. “U-uh… Sir… I’m just an Aspirant. I only know basic telekinesis and barriers. Magic isn’t my profession.”

Why is he asking this?

The superior seems similarly taken aback. He shares some glances with his soldiers.

“Hm… proficient with any kind of weaponry?” He asks.

“...no?” She asks. She’s definitely getting weirded out now. Why is she being asked these things for just a mere expedition? Sure, the outside of the Compound can be dangerous, but she’s not entering a freaking war!

The superior raises a hoof and pulls back to his soldiers. They have a quick exchange of words. Twilight makes out the words “Only one”, “explosion”, “required.”

The superior bends over a little to get to eye level with Twilight. She moves back ever so slightly.

“Miss, uh… Twilight. Were you informed of the nature of this here… expedition?” He asks.

Twilight shakes her head slightly, looking confused.

The superior closes his eyes briefly and takes a deep breath.

“This isn’t a regular expedition. This is more like an operation.” He points over to the prisoner, staring off into the void.

“That Hovel over there is our POW, and also our one-and-only guide for today. She’s gonna be leading us to her kin so we can ‘pacify’ them…” He says, with a fiery determination.

Twilight feels more shocked than she did after the explosion. Thoughts rush her head.

This is why none of the Pathfinders wanted to join this ‘expedition’! This is a death trap! And they’re bringing that thing with them?!

Twilight raises her hooves and shakes them.

“H-hey, woah! I didn’t sign up for… this! There… there has to be some mistake.” She says.

The superior raises an eyebrow.

“According to this form, you DID.” He raises it to her face, showing her the signature she clearly signed.

She face hooves.

“Okay yes I did sign it but— I can't do this! I’m not a soldier or anything like that..!” Twilight says, a bit panicked.

The superior sighs slightly.

“You know, we don’t exactly want to bring a non-combative into this either, but we don’t have a choice. It's mandatory for every expedition to have an assigned Aspirant or Pathfinder, and you’re ours for this one.”

That last part was pretty much how it was, but it sure sounded a bit wrong to Twilight. The Superior didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care.

“There is no backing out of this. Doing so would be TREASON.” He says, a bit sternly. Twilight doesn’t even attempt to go there. She nods her head quickly, biting her lip.

The superior raises an eyebrow, but turns away, satisfied with his prep-talk.

“We leave in five, at vehicle bay three. Be there.” He says.

She notices them wheeling off the Prisoner towards said vehicle bay. Twilight just looks blankly ahead with dread as various soldiers and workers continue to move around her.

What has she gotten herself into?

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 2 - SPAV Ride

One of the Enclave's greatest inventions is the SPAV (Self Propelled Armored Vehicle) line.

While not being anywhere near the levels of the most advanced creations of the Magus Clade, Terminus Guild, or ESPECIALLY the Cybernautics, the SPAV has three main benefits over the latter. They’re reliable, cheap to produce, and most importantly, are TRUE machines, working solely off of their mechanical parts and physics, and not requiring ANY magic input to use or operate.

This advantage gives the Enclave the ability to quickly, safely, and easily transport things and ponies between any and all of their Compounds, and their few trading partners, although this isn’t ignoring the SPAV’s created solely for battle.

What could spears and swords do against such a large machine?

In her whole life, Twilight has only personally seen a few come or leave the Compound – the one she remembers the most is the one that brought her there as a filly. Despite not being very interested in machines or the like, she always gets giddy when she sees one, respecting them as a pinnacle and epitome of what knowledge can do.

She never thought she’d see the interior of one, let alone be one that was in motion. But here she is doing both right now. Unfortunately, the experience is being shared with two armed soldiers and a violent prisoner.

Sitting in her seat, she’s barely able to hold herself together — but this time not because of giddiness.

Twilight and the prisoner sit across at either wall of the SPAV, their natural view forward being the other. A soldier sits next to both of them.

Getting a closer view of the prisoner right in front of her, she can see that they certainly have the frame befitting of an earthen, looking even larger and bulkier than Golden Harvest. Twilight could not even imagine what would happen if they managed to get ahold of her.

The distance between the two is plenty to be safe, but Twilight still feels like they're right up in her face due to their grim stare.

Twilight can’t help but stare back, looking into the prisoner's surprisingly clear, emerald eyes — the most visible part of her face with the muzzle and all.

If Twilight was looking at only her face, she might have been fooled into thinking they were a real pony. But Twilight knows better. They're a Hovel, those dirty and savage earthen marauders infesting Compound Charlie's Pocket.

The hovel raises an eyebrow.

“See somethin' you like?” she asks, jokingly.

The soldiers share a glance with each other then go back to looking straight.

Twilight tries her hardest to look away. She’s never been best at talking with people she doesn’t know, especially not this violent fiend.

The Hovel huffs.

“I overheard back at that big metal place’ about how you were one of them… ‘pathfinders’? You sure don’t look it… you look more like you’d be eaten alive out here.”

The soldiers know they should probably have done something, but they can't help but agree a little with the sentiment.

The Hovel uses her head to gesture to one of the side-windows.

Twilight peeks out, seeing the convoy traveling along a rocky trail. A cliff edge lies next to them, along with a large slanted wall on the opposite end. The whole formation is like a giant staircase, going continuously downward on in one direction and upwards in the other. There's also a small amount of foliage and bushes around.

Compound Charlie glows in the visible distance, being rather out of place with the cavernous surroundings. They’re close enough to be in sight, but FAR beyond what could reasonably be described as ‘protected’.

At best, they’re in range for reinforcements if something goes awry and they have time to react.

There's a pause as they just continue their bumpy ride.

The prisoner yawns, pulling her head back as far as her restraints can manage.

“Honestly, them bringin' you out here was bad. You look easily victimable.”

Twilight has enough. She can't stand for that, both the diss to herself, and also that terrible grammar.

“Ok, first of all, ‘victamable’ isn’t a real word. Second of all, I’m here to provide information and document this expedition. Do you even know what words things mean, Hovel?” Twilight says, annoyed.

The prisoner puts her hooves in the air as far as her restraints allow her, pretending to be afraid.

“Ohhhhh. You're here to document. Cool – And by the way, I have a name you know. Jack. Not 'Hovel'. I don't know why everypony calls me 'Hovel'..” She says.

“Quiet down, Hovel!”, the soldier next to her exclaims.

Jack gestures her head over towards him and waggles her eyebrows twice.

Twilight is about to respond, but suddenly the SPAV comes to a stop jostling her a little.

One of the soldiers immediately gets to their feet. “What’s wrong?” He exclaims towards the front.

The driver turns back. “There’s some obstruction in front of us… it’s like a… giant bush?” The co-driver begins to talk on the radio.

There’s some noises outside, both from the nearby soldiers, and of something rustling in front of them. Even Jack is looking towards the front, or as much as she can manage.

Twilight perks up. She quickly gets to her feet and runs to the cabin. The soldier next to her doesn’t react in time to wrangle her back to her seat.

Looking out the front window, her eyes widen.

“Moss Crawlers!” She says.

“You know what these things are?” the driver asks. The soldier behind Twilight was about to tackle her, but stopped after the inquiry.

Twilight nods. She turns back to one of the side doors of the SPAV, trying to open it, clearly struggling.

The soldier next to her raises an eyebrow and easily turns the handwheel for her, the door opening with a hiss. Jack rolls her eyes.

Twilight, a little embarrassed, quickly exits.

Outside, the cool, natural air hits Twilight. It's an unfamiliar but pleasant feeling. There’s some soldiers moving about, with most of them congregating around the CO in the distance, all of them standing in front of the obstruction.

Twilight quickly walks up to the CO, ignoring surprised soldiers trying to stop her.

She taps on the CO’s shoulder, making him turn around. His eyes nearly come out of his head as he looks at her.

“Wha— Miss Twilight! You aren’t supposed to be outside of the SPAV right now! Someone get her back insi—”

“Wait! I know how to deal with the Moss Crawler’s up ahead. I wrote a few of my papers about them. I probably know them better than you all know each other.”

The CO pauses mid-command, a bit curious as to where this is going. The other soldiers are looking at her as well now. Twilight wasn’t expecting to be the center of attention, but continues, gesturing towards the green rustling mass ahead.

“This behavior is known as ‘balling’. They do this when they’re running low on body temperature, and need to warm themselves and each other up.”

He raises an eyebrow. “How long do they usually do this?”

“Until the temperature of their surroundings increases, or if they’re disturbed by external stimuli.” She says.

He listens closely to that last part. “External stimuli… someone get to the Driver, tell him full speed ah—”

“What?! No! You can’t run them over!” Twilight exclaims, shocked.

The CO glares at her slightly. “And why is that?”

Twilight feels a bit red as she’s put on the spot.

“Uhm… their leaves… will muck up the tracks. They’ll get inside the cogs and stuff and it’ll just be a big mess…” lying through her teeth.

The SPAV could totally run them over, but that would be so needlessly cruel.

The CO rubs his chin. He doesn’t look fully convinced, but doesn’t have any other source of information about it. Twilight continues.

“Alright… without doing… that. The best way to dislodge them from the path would probably be with some beets, their favorite foods. I don't know what type of rations you guys have, but maybe—”

The CO suddenly pulls out his flintlock and fires into the group of Moss Crawlers. There's unified screeches as they scatter and flee the scene into various crevices and cracks around the area. Once the dust settles, a few of them lie on the ground, completely destroyed.

Twilight nearly screams from the suddenness of the shot. “Why would you do that?!” She says, both angry at the surprise but also the act itself.

“It made them go away. Problem solved. Now, back inside the SPAV, please.” He says, glancing at her.

Some soldiers ‘assist’ Twilight back to her seat, before re-sealing the SPAV. She looks around, still in shock.

The soldier next to Jack is asleep.

She then glances over to the driver and co-driver.

“Man, I’m just saying, I’d TOTALLY beat a Hovel in a hoof-fight. Those malnourished freaks don’t stand a chance.” Jack squints slightly from her seat.

None of them even care.

Twilight just sits quietly, feeling defeated.

So much for providing information.

The ride continues smoothly, or at least as smooth as a tracked vehicle can be over a rocky trail.

Twilight frowns. She’s starting to feel less as a member of the ‘expedition’, and more like a prisoner. She couldn’t even go to the bathroom without a soldier standing outside the door.

She’s attempted to make small-talk with the soldiers, but they seem disinterested at best, and annoyed at worst. She simply can’t relate to them about anything besides them all being a part of the Enclave, but their jobs are so different that they might as well be entirely unrelated at all.

Why couldn’t they have sent a second Aspirant with her? Oh right, the rest blew up.

Not seeing many other options, Twilight decides to get something worthwhile out of this.

She slowly looks over at the Hovel. It wouldn’t hurt to learn more about the bogey-pony’s in her life. As the saying goes, ‘know thine enemy.’

Twilight clears her throat. The two soldier’s eyes move over to her slightly.

“I’d like to… do a little ‘interview’ with the prisoner if that’s alright? Strictly in the name of gathering information, of course.”

Jack glances over, raising an eyebrow.

One of the soldiers speaks up. “What for? Trust me missy, we drilled everything we could out of that Hovel. Doubt you’d be able to get anything else useful.”

“Not everything…” Jack says with a smirk. The soldiers quickly turn to her. They’re about to say something, when Jack cuts them off.

“I wouldn’t mind doing a bit more talkin’. But only to her.” She says, staring at Twilight.

The soldiers are about to radio in the CO, when Jack cuts them off again.

“If you call em’ then I wont say a peep at all.” She says.

The soldiers share a look with each other, then at Jack, then back to Twilight. She’s giving them a wide eyed stare and flicking her neck and eyes away towards one of the back compartments. She mouths ‘do it’.

They know they shouldn’t be doing this, but this could be an opportunity. Reluctantly, they stand up and go towards the back of the SPAV, entering a room and closing the door behind them. Jack follows them closely as they do so.

Once they’re gone, the two stare at each other. Jack smiles.

“Now what question could be so important that you’d make those dogs get out?” She asks.

“Questions, actually. Not question.” Twilight responds.

Jack chuckles. “Go ahead, Pathfinder.” She’s a bit impressed with the courage.

Twilight unlatches her satchel and fumbles for a quill, ink, and paper, She accidentally spills some over her jacket, eyes going wide.

“Ack—”

Jack frowns.

There goes the impressment.

After getting herself in order, Twilight readjusts her sitting position real quick, feeling ready.

“So… Jack, was it?” She says, grimacing a bit. It feels wrong to address a Hovel by a name, but
studies show that people are more amenable if you address them as respectfully and properly as possible – and she’s gonna need as much amenity as she can manage here.

“Mhm.”

“I just need to ask… why do your people do the things you do?”

Jack squints.

“ ‘my people?’ “ she asks, with a tinge of annoyance.

“Yes. The Hovel. You—”

Jack cuts her off.

“I said’ earlier. We ain’t the ‘hovel’ you guys keep talkin' about. My people are the ‘Anuui’. If you want any more answers, call us that.” Jack says, leaning back a little.

Twilight frowns.

“Okaay… the 'Annui'. Why does the 'Annui' do the things they do to the Enclave?” she inquires.

Jack’s expression doesn’t change one bit. “You’re gonna need to be a bit more specific. We do a lot of different things to different people.”

“Like kill them? Just a week ago, a Enclave convoy in this area was set upon by marauders and scalped. What did they do to deserve that?”

“Nope. Wasn’t us. That was the Scalpers.” Jack replies.

Twilight blinks.

“Okay… what about last month, when a soldier was lured away from a Compound and had his legs smashed open? That poor mare is still in rehab right now…”

“Still nope. That was the Bonecrushers.” Jack replies, even more nonchalant than the last time.

Twilight is starting to see a pattern.

“Then what DO you guys do? Please enlighten me.” Twilight says, starting to get a bit frustrated.

“We definitely’ don’t just go around bashin’ people's heads open or something like you think. Why would we get into conflicts for no reason? Maybe it's cause’... we’re defending ourselves from a group who attacked us first?”

Twilight looks shocked, but not due to any empathetic revelation.

“That’s a lie. The Enclave never harms people when there’s no reason to do so. That’s completely illogical!” She says.

Jack can’t help but laugh. “Then why do they beat me? Do you think I got all of these bruises from tripping over rocks? You’ve seen it with your own eyes.”

“You mean when you headbutt that soldier doing his job? No, I don’t believe I've seen any unjustified punishments so far.” Twilight says, squinting.

“If someone's job was to kill your family, would you not try to fight back once they tried to ‘do their job’?” Jack asks, mockingly.

“That’s a completely irrational hypothetical. I’m not gonna bother answering that.” She says, crossing her arms.

“I don’t know what either of those words mean, but I’m gonna assume’ you don’t wanna’ answer cause you know that's the situation i'm in.” Jack responds, yawning.

Twilight leans forward. “The only situation you’re in is being a rightful prisoner of war after you did something deserving of this.” She says, gritting her teeth.

Jack glares back at her. “You really have no idea of what goes on out here, do you? Outside of your cushy ‘compounds’... We fight just to make it to the next day… fight people like you who destroy our homes, kill our families, and ruin our lives… the fact that’ y’all can't even tell us apart tells me all I need to know about you disgusting—”

The soldiers suddenly burst out of the back room, with angry expressions. Jack and Twilight glance over, a bit surprised.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH, RAT!” One soldier shouts. He runs up to Jack and begins to strike her.

Twilight looks shocked at suddenness. How did they even—

Her eyes dart down, and then widen. There's a radio on the floor near Jack. It’s very clearly on.

Those fucking snakes!

After both of them get their beating in, Jack groans in pain. “...See..?” She coughs out, with a weak smile. She’s rewarded with a punch to the gut.

One of the soldiers turns to Twilight. “Don’t listen to this vermin. Everything just said was a clear lie.”

Twilight feels a bit off-put by that seemingly over-the-top reaction. “If it was a lie, then why did you do… all that?” She asks.

The soldier looks at her with bewilderment. “...because it’s a dirty lie? Don’t tell me you actually listened to anything it said.” the Soldier exclaims, sussing her out.

Twilight blinks. “What? I didn't—”

“You better not have. Cooperating with Hovels is a one-way trip to some mandatory ‘education’ lessons.” The other says, glaring at her as well.

Twilight can't believe her ears. “I literally just said I didn't!”

“Good. Keep it that way.”

Twilight face-hooves. Are these guys for real?

Jack coughs some more. The three glance over at her.

“I got somethin’ else…” she says with a groan. Her breathing is slightly ragged.

The soldiers are about to stop her, but she beats them to the (literal) punch.

“The Annui don’t attack people for no reason… but savin’ one of their own is a good enough reason to justify a fight.” she says, with a slight smirk.

After a little bit, the SPAV suddenly lurches to a stop. Twilight almost is lifted off of her seat.

The soldiers pause. “What’s happening up there?!” One yells to the front.

“I don't know! There’s like.. A boulder blocking ahead..?” The driver says.

“We’re gonna need more than a flintlock for this one…” The co-driver says.

There's commotion outside. Twilight hears soldiers talking about how this path was cleared for travel just a day ago.

After some more discussion, there’s suddenly a very audible horn. It sounds close. Very close. Everyone stops talking.

One of the soldiers grits his teeth and immediately begins striking Jack.

“WHAT'S HAPPENING?! WHAT IS GOING ON.” He orders, angrily.

Twilight looks over, but her eyes widen. Jack, who was heaving and coughing mere moments ago, now looks as solid as a wall. She doesn’t even budge from the strikes, simply giving a death glare to the soldier, while tilting her head down slightly.

Twilight feels a cold sweat.

The soldier feels it as well, but shakes it off. He goes to strike her again, but…

CRASH.

One of the front windows of the SPAV breaks. A spear has flown into the cockpit, hitting the driver in the torso. He’s out.

The soldiers and Twilight look to the front with horror. Jack just smirks.

The co-driver shrieks in terror. Flipping a panel, and hitting a button, the SPAV begins to make alert sounds. The interior locks itself down.

“AMBUSH!” he yells.

There’s screams and shouts outside as soldiers attempt to rally themselves, but their voices are drowned out by new hollers and cries.

War cries.

The SPAV begins to get pelted with various projectiles like rocks and spears. They don’t break anything, but the thumping sounds scare the heck out of Twilight. She ducks for cover.

Outside, the scene has erupted into total chaos. Various Annui warriors descend on the group, literally, sliding down the cliffside next to them.

They’re worse armed than the relatively higher tech Enclave soldiers, but they’re physically superior and have sheer numbers.

Twilight hears the sounds of battle outside, the damned screams of the dying, and the vicious ones of the killers.

The CO bangs on the doors of the SPAV, demanding to be let inside, trying to open the sealed door.

Annui warriors suddenly surround him, slowly approaching.

He glares at them, pulling out dual flintlocks.

“Come and get it, Hovels.” he says, sickeningly calm.

Inside the SPAV, while the soldiers are still in shock, Jack suddenly jumps into the air as far as her restraints can manage.

She’s chained to the floor, but still has some space to maneuver. She rotates her body on its side, thrusting her legs outwards, drop-bucking the guard closet to her. The blow crushes into his helmet, slightly denting it. He goes flying into the wall, landing limply next to Twilight.

Multiple gunshots ring outside the SPAV.

The other soldier, now scared shitless, wields his sword and points it at Jack, who simply sits up and glares back at him.

“Sorry bout’ your friend.” she says, jokingly.

The soldier leaps at her wildly, sword drawn. Jack manages to position her chains to act as a sort of wire, catching the sword. She wraps it around the sword, pulling it away from him, but he refuses to let go.

Unfortunately, this brings him right into her range.

Using the momentum he has from being pulled forward, Jack bucks off the wall, pushing herself forward. Still being moved forward from the momentum, the Soldier’s head collides with Jack’s shoulder. There’s a sickening crack as he flips onto his back, like he just got shoulder checked by a Timber Bear. His face bleeds profusely.

Quickly pulling his body closer, Jack manages to retrieve keys from his belt. Putting them between her bound hooves, she first gets the chains on her legs, then torso, then the hooves themselves. Finally, she rips off the muzzle without even unlocking it.

She stands up fully, stretching and groaning a little. She pops the shoulder she just used to bash the soldier, with a relieved grunt.

Without being bound by the restraints anymore, she looks even larger than before.

She glances over at Twilight. She’s curdled into a ball on the floor nearby. The unicorn’s eyes widen fearfully.

“Who knew you’d last longer than the Enclave dogs?” She says, smirking.

Twilight just looks frozen.

“Ah well, you won’t outlive em’ for long.” Jack says, sauntering towards her.

The terror Twilight feels would probably be enough to petrify a lesser pony. Unfortunately, she is a lesser pony.

Twilight immediately tries to cast some magic, her horn glowing. Jack pauses and squints, preparing herself for whatever happens.

Nothing.

She’s too nervous. Anything she could cast, even in her best scenario, probably wouldn’t stop this beast anyways.

Jack raises an eyebrow, but continues forward.

Twilight curses under her breath.

“W-wait! What about n-not hurting people for no reason..? What did I do to you?!” She yells.

Jack pauses, putting a hoof to her chin.

“Well… YOU might have done nothing, but the Enclave sure has. And also you’re kinda’ annoying.” She says nonchalantly, continuing to move towards the unicorn.

Twilights can feel her heart sink. She stammers incoherently, trying to think of something, anything. But right now, her mindset of rationality has been replaced with one of pure instinct — Survival.

Her body taking a mind of its own, she snatches the side-dagger of the guard who was drop-bucked next to her. She scrambles backwards, eventually reaching the back of the SPAV.

“STAY BACK!” Twilight shrieks, waving the dagger.

Jack can't help but feel a little entertained.

“Daw… look at you playin’ soldier.” she says, still continuing forward.

Twilight keeps holding up the dagger. Her eyes slowly turn from one of fear to focus, her breathing slowing. She props herself up against the back doors.

The earthen suddenly slows to a stop, seeing this display.

The Annui are no stranger to how animals can react when cornered and afraid… Even the smallest Rock Mite can make you bleed if you push it too far.

Jack thinks to herself. She would definitely win this fight, but...

If little-miss-stabby got a clean hit, that could be the end of her. The Annui aren't exactly known for their riveting healthcare.

As she weighs her options, Twilight suddenly shrieks like a banshee, lunging forward with the dagger.

Jack barely backs off in time, as Twilight falls on her front. Still screaming, the unicorn lunges again. Jack blocks the slash with a cut to her arm, grabbing Twilight’s dagger hoof with her free hoof.

There’s a brief struggle for it. Twilight feels an unholy amount of pressure on her wrist, but she thrashes around like a maniac. Jack gets a hoof in the face, although it seems like the punch hurt Twilight more.

Jack manages to wrest the knife away, and clamp onto Twilight’s throat.

The unicorn puts her hooves on Jack’s arm, but she can’t even budge it. She scratches at it uselessly while choking.

Twilight hears noises outside. Battle cheers and cries. The soldiers are all but gone, nopony but Annui are left.

Jack casually inspects the fresh cut on her arm while choking the life out of Twilight. New scar to add to the collection, she guesses.

Looking back at the slowly-turning-blue Unicorn, she feels a mixture of shock and anger, but also a strange sense of being impressed.

“Didn’t expect ya had it in you, to be honest. But that’s about as good—”

The entire SPAV suddenly lurches to its side. Jack’s eyes widen as she's thrown against the wall. The collision makes her drop Twilight, who also collides with the wall. She gasps for air, coughing and holding her neck. The two lie on the floor in pain.

Jack gets to her feet first. Instead of finishing off the fallen Unicorn, she rushes to one of the side windows

“HEY! WHAT ARE Y'ALL IDIOTS DOIN?!” she yells, banging on the nearby sealed door.

Twilight, still in a daze from being strangled and thrown against a metal wall, barely can make out the voices.

"They're sealed! We can't open em’!” one voice says.

“The ground is startin’' to collapse under the wagon!" another chimes in.

Jack tries to twist the handwheel on the door with all her strength, but they don't budge. She curses under her breath.

Twilight comes to her senses, and looks outside the window opposite to Jack’s. Her eyes widen, seeing nothing but the darkness below. The SPAV is falling off the edge.

She scampers for the dagger, grabbing it once more. She can’t believe she’s about to do this.

Twilight lunges with the dagger towards Jack. Jack turns around, and doesn’t react in time…

Instead of going for Jack, Twilight instead plunges her dagger into pipes near the door. Steam suddenly begins to spray out. Jack has no idea what this means, but assumes the unicorn did it for a reason.

She suddenly feels the handwheel beginning to give way. The sealing mechanism is breaking apart.

Twilight nearly leaps onto it, pulling in the direction to open it. Jack looks bewildered.

“OPEN IT!” Twilight shouts.

The two give it their all. Twilight peeks out the window, seeing multiple Annui trying to stop the SPAV from falling. One particular giant red stallion looks like he’s about to burst from the effort.

Just as they’re making progress, the SPAV lurches hard once more. Twilight is thrown aside, as Jack continues to hold onto the handwheel, but can’t get the leverage to twist it anymore.

"NO! NONONO!!!!” Jack yells.

She knows it's a lost cause. But she won’t go out without taking a Enclave dog with her. She glares at Twilight like a demon.

Twilight barely has time to look back at her, before the Annui leaps at her, dagger in hoof and screeching. Twilight screams in terror.

At that moment, the cliffside gives way.

The Annui scatter from the edge, as the entire SPAV falls into the abyss.

“NO!” The red stallion yells.

Mid-leap, Jack’s eyes widen as she is suddenly accelerated rapidly into the wall, this time landing straight on her face. She’s out cold.

Twilight screams as she plummets into the darkness below, alone.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 3 - Send Off

Legends tell of an undiscovered pocket within the Underworld – Gaia's Grove. A supposed utopia full of plant life, fuzzy animals, and rarest of all, peace.

Some see it as a sort of heaven, somewhere they’ll go after they pass. Others see it as something that could be found, or even… conquered. But alas, neither have happened yet.

The followers who condone to the idea of Gaia’s Grove are known as the Earth Family. Many believe if they dedicate their life to one of kindness, happiness, and peace, they too may go to the Grove once their time comes

Unfortunately for those who would seek to follow the gospel of the Grove — pacifism is exceedingly difficult to maintain within the Underworld.

In a green and lush field, a yellow pegasus peacefully sleeps atop her ‘bed’, a large collection of leaves and plant life. Her dreams are just as vibrant as her surroundings.

Suddenly, a small bird lands on a nearby rock, beginning to chirp.

The pegasus slowly stirs awake, shuffling slightly. She sits up, gently patting the bird to make it stop chirping; which it does without problem.

“Good morning, Sweetpea.” she says, a bit groggily. Sweetpea chirps once more, before flying off.

After a bit of yawning and stretching, the pegasus gets out of bed. She puts on her ‘clothes’ – similarly to her bed, it’s a large collection of leaves, roots, and vines tied together. They make a surprisingly fashionable and elegant dress.

She makes sure to fix it as tidily as she can. Today is a big day, after all.

Every one-hundred years, a single pony of Gaia’s Grove is chosen to be sent to the Outside, the rest of the pockets of the world. There, they will help its native peoples prosper by promoting peace, hospitality, and equality, in the hopes of becoming a utopia like Gaia’s Grove itself.

This will be the tenth send-off, the one thousandth year of the ceremony.

The pegasus happily trots into town, a small but cozy collection of various huts, grottos, and houses built into trees and caves. Multiple ponies with similar garments and demeanors to her drift about, some flying between trees. Many tend to various animals or plants.

One of them, a stallion earthen, spots the yellow pegasus. “Ah. sister Fluttershy. Good morning.” he says, with a slight bow.

Fluttershy back. “As to you, brother Clover.”

“Will you be attending the ceremony today? I know you are not one for gatherings usually, but I would highly suggest coming to this one. It’s quite literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us all… well, except old Grapevine.”

The pegasus knew what she was gonna say half-way through his sentence, but she let him finish anyway.

“Of course! I would never dare miss the send-off.”

She turns away, biting her lip slightly. "Although… I am a bit nervous.”

Clover tilts his head. “Oh, why so? You don't think that you could b—”

Fluttershy quickly hushes him. “We are not supposed to talk about who could be getting sent off! Such an honor must not be treated like that.” she hastily responds.

Clover puts a hoof to his mouth. “My apologies.” he says.

The pegasus sighs a little. “I’m just nervous about what it really is like on the other side. Do you think they’re like us?” Fluttershy asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, do you think they do the same things we do? Care for animals and plants… practice peace and love… don’t cut in front of lines.”

Clover looks a bit bewildered. “Of course! I mean, we ARE on the tenth send-off. Surely the previous nine members should have done enough. At this point, they must be like a spitting image of us!” he says, assuredly.

He continues. “It would take an active effort for them NOT to practice peace. What even would there be strife about? We all are the same, and we share everything with each other. Just like the different parts of a tree; we are all one organism.”

Fluttershy smiles. “I guess you’re right. I just hope whoever the send-off is feels right at-home on the other side. I couldn’t imagine being taken away from all of us here.”

Clover nods. “Indeed. It must be sad to be taken away from the family… but thankfully, the other side must have a much larger one.”

Their talk is interrupted by the sounds of a small bell in the far distance. The ceremony is beginning.

In a grass clearing surrounded by tall rock walls, a circular stone structure lies atop a base.

A gateway, one of the fastest known ways of traversing between pockets in the Underworld, via means that few ponies can even begin to understand.

This gateway is a special case, though. It is the only known connection between the Pocket of Gaia's Grove and the rest of the Underworld, with no other physical path being assumed to exist. Additionally, nothing that has ever left Gaia's Grove through the gateway has ever come back.

It's a one way trip.

The gateway itself looks to be in a state of complete damage, bordering on ruin. Plants grow within its crevices and cracks, even pushing its stone pieces apart. However, it has still functioned each time it has been used throughout the Millenia.

An extremely elderly pony stands near the base of the gateway, ringing a bell. Every pony in the grove quickly assemble in a small crowd in front of him, probably a hundred or so.

“My children! Today is the day many of us…especially myself… have been waiting for. On this day, we shall send the tenth member of our family off to the other side, where they will help spread the good gospel of the Earth Mother.”

Many of the ponies there, especially the elderly one himself, Grapevine, know at this point it's basically just a tradition. Hundreds of years is plenty of enough time to create a utopia such as their own; any ponies sent now are just superfluous really. But who are they to reject or scoff at the old ways?

The crowd waits, eagerly. Some are anxious, others are worried, some are happy, and a few just look stoically.

Grapevine is handed a scroll by another pony, and he slowly opens it, reading its content.

Fluttershy sits near the back of the crowd. She secretly hopes that the one picked isn’t one of her friends… she would hate to lose Clover. Well, she could always make more friends. It's just-

“Fluttershy.” Grapevine says, with a gentle tone.

Fluttershy, still mid-thought, can barely register what was just said. Her expression slowly turns from one of light-hearted anxiousness, to one a slow realization.

What?

She looks around to see the entire village staring at her with elation.

However, she notices one face standing out. Clover looks at her with an uncommon emotion. Horror.

Is this for real?

“Fluttershy. Fluttershy, come on up!” Grapevine says.

Fluttershy unconsciously gets up and walks towards the stage. Her body may move forward, but her mind still feels like she’s back where she was sitting, barely able to register what was said.

Fluttershy gets up on the stage, next to Grapevine, mouth slightly agape looking back at the crowd.

She knows this should be an amazing moment for her. But for some reason it feels wrong.

She leans into Grapevine's ear, slightly surprising the elder.

“C-can you check it again? I wouldn’t want to take away this… reward from another pony.” Fluttershy meekly asks.

Grapevine simply flips the scroll around for her to see for herself.

It’s literally just a single word; “FLUTTERSHY”. It’s even colored yellow and pink.

Fluttershy leans in again. “I-is there another Fluttershy in the village I never knew about?” she asks, sounding a bit more desperate.

“Is there another Fluttershy here?” Grapevine asks. There’s no noise from the crowd except crickets.

“I suppose not.” Grapevine says, as honestly as possible.

Fluttershy can feel her heart beat harder than it ever has before. It feels like it’s about to jump out of her chest. She begins to sweat a little, even slightly panting.

The crowd looks a bit worried, as does Grapevine.

“Is this how the send-off usually reacts?” One pony asks an older one, who shrugs.

Grapevine is about to ask Fluttershy if she’s alright, when Fluttershy suddenly spells it out.

“I… I can’t do this!” she yells, pained. Grapevine simply frowns.

She begins to babble. “I know this is supposed to be super good and all that but I don't know if I’m ready for this I mean I never even thought that I would be the one to do this and—” She’s crying.

Grapevine extends a hoof out, placing it on her shoulder, with a solemn look.

Fluttershy cringes. She’s expecting the worst. Is she going to be punished??? Ostracized??? BANISHED???

Grapevine simply sighs.

“You know, the last send-off reacted like this too.” he responds, gently.

Fluttershy is a bit surprised at the tone, stopping her tears.

“A hundred years ago, and about one minute ago. A young stallion, younger than you. He reacted in this exact same way. He didn’t want to leave his family. And you know what we did? For the first time in our history… we gave him a choice. To stay or leave. And upon being given that choice… the freedom to decide for himself… he decided to leave.”

Grapevine chuckles.

“Some say that it’s easier to perform a difficult act when you’re actually given the choice of doing it or not.”

Fluttershy wipes the tears off of her face, and looks back to the crowd. Instead of outrage or shock, they look equally as solemn – but not out of pity or woe. Out of respect. Some of them pray, others close their eyes. Even Clover can’t help but bow his head.

She turns back to Grapevine.

“ Fluttershy. I… we will not force you to do this, if that is how you truly feel. But know that we will not pick somepony to replace you, either. Whether or not you want to do this is up to you.” he says, lowering his hoof off of her.

Fluttershy feels like she wants to cry again, but not out of sadness.

She needs to do this. She has to do this. Gaia picked her for a reason.

“A-alright… I’ll do it.” she says, trying to muster up some courage.

Grapevine slowly lifts his head. “And you’re sure?” he asks.

“Yes.” she says, nodding slowly.

Grapevine nods as well. He gestures over to some nearby unicorns. They begin to activate the gateway, its center beginning to crackle with blue energy. Eventually, a wall of light forms, illuminating the air around them.

Fluttershy looks towards the gateway. She can’t see anything besides the light.

Taking a deep breath, she’s about to enter it, when she suddenly turns back to Grapevine.

“Can you give me some parting pointers at least?” She asks, hurriedly.

Grapevine puts a hoof to his chin.

“Hmm… just the main tenets here, really. Always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, always say ‘bless you’ when somepony sneezes, and also never cut in-front of lines. especially don’t cut in-front of lines. That’s all you’ll need to know, really.” he responds.

Fluttershy bites her lip, but sighs.

“Goodbye, everyone.” she says, turning back to the crowd. They silently give their support.

She sees Clover mouth her something, but she can’t tell what it is. Something about “I” and “you”?

With a final deep breath, she walks forward into the gateway.

The feeling is like nothing she’s ever felt before – like her very soul is being sucked up and away. It feels a bit scary at first, but then it’s pure calm. Like she’s asleep, but somehow conscious at the same time…

The other ponies see Fluttershy's body slowly disappear into the portal, before vanishing entirely. The unicorns let go of the spell, the gateway falling back to inactivity.

Grapevine looks at the direction of the portal, and up slightly.

“Good luck, young one.” he says.

Fluttershy zips through the darkness for a little while. She hopes that the other side doesn’t have TOO crazy of a receiving for her. That would be far too embarrassing. If there was 999 years of progress before her, then—

She suddenly screams as she feels herself get pulled straight down. She falls onto a hard surface, groaning with seldom-felt pain.

After a few seconds of lying on the ground, she lifts her head slowly. Looking around her surroundings, she seems to be in some kind of... large hole. Not like a pit, more like a dip or depress below. It's quite desolate and bare compared to what she's used to, though. Pure rock and stone, no plants at all.

She can barely see herself in the darkness, let alone anything or anypony nearby.

“H-hello?” she asks into the darkness.

No response.

She suddenly feels anxious again. She didn’t want some huge receival on the other side, but she didn’t want nothing !

What if the gateway spit her out somewhere wrong? Oh Gaia… how is she going to find the right way?

Fluttershy notices something poking out of the ground nearby. Its color and texture contrasts with the rest of the ditch.

She crawls over towards it, curiously reaching towards it and begins to pull off the dirt. Some kind of buried tool? Or plant?

Scraping some dirt up, she sees what appears to be a white rock. It's somewhat spherical in shape, with a tall part ridging down towards a flatter area. There's three holes, two large circular ones, along with a smaller one in the middle, slightly below the two big ones.

There's a collection of smaller rocks sitting near the bottom, in two rows, like a corn in the cob.

She picks it up, tilting her head as she inspects it. For some reason, the lower part appears to hinge downwards, smacking the ground with a small thump.

She shrugs, setting the stone back down.

Inspecting the area out of the ditch, it's not as bad, but still not very good. There's only a sparse amount of foliage, but a little is better than nothing.

Large stone pillars and walls jut upwards, forming various paths throughout the area. She doesn't recognize this type of terrain.

Her first thoughts gravitate towards food; the elders taught that a healthy pony requires three meals a day. But she isn’t sure what can be found around here.

Surely the other send-offs must have cultivated something into the Underworld.

After a bit of searching, she spots something orange and green lying on the ground ahead. It looks like the largest carrot she’s ever seen!

She runs over to it, getting up close.

As she reaches for it, she notices there's a super long vine tied to it, going behind a large nearby rock. Maybe she could use it for repairing her clothes later if need be? Maybe this place isn’t so bad after all!

The moment she picks up the carrot, the ‘vine’ goes taut. She yelps as a cage falls around her, trapping her in place. She barely curls her wings inwards to prevent the cage from smashing them.

“OOH!” A voice says.

A pony runs out from behind the rock, excitedly. “Guys! Get over here! Judging from that pull, I just caught myself the Underworlds largest rabbit—”

He stops in his tracks when he notices there’s something a bit bigger than a rabbit in his cage.

“Uhm… hello?” Fluttershy asks, a bit worried by her current predicament.

“Dude. What the heck is this?”

“Uh… some mare? Duh.”

“Really? No way! Dumbass! I’m asking why is there some mare in my Rabbit Catcher 9000?”

A trio of dirty-looking earthen surround the shoddy cage, staring at Fluttershy. The middle has a cool hat. Fluttershy stares back, confused.

The gray stallion on the left shrugs. “Dunno. You wanted me to catch somethin’, I caught somethin’.”

The black stallion in the middle glares at him. “Yeah I meant’ like a bunny or whatever not a freakin pony!”

The white stallion on the right chips in. “Well think about it. She must weigh like… I dunno, thirty bunnies? That’s gotta be worth something, right?”

"No way. I'd say like, twenty. Tops." the gray one says.

As the three bicker, Fluttershy just looks at them blankly.

“Uhm… are you guys with the Earth Family?” Fluttershy asks, unsure.

The three stop arguing and turn back to her.

“ ‘Earth Family’? Girly, the only ‘earth’ and ‘family’ I know is the ditch that I buried my daddy in.”

“Woah! I never knew you were gay, Hook!” the gray pony says.

Hook snaps towards him with frightening speed. “I’m not gay, you nitwit! daddy is a very common word for someones dad. What else do I say??? ‘Father’? I’m not eighty!” He yells.

“I say father.” The white one says.

“You’re an orphan, Sinker! Shut up!” Hook retorts.

“Still know my father more than Line does!” Sinker says with a laugh.

Line gets up at him. “You little—”

The three begin bickering again, as Fluttershy just continues watching and listening.

Is this what the Outside is like?

“Can you guys tell me what is going on, please..?” Fluttershy asks, still unsure.

Hook turns to her with a scowl. “Oh, you know. We were out trappin’ like any self respecting trappers, only to suddenly see some stupid broad got in our cage somehow!” he yells.

Fluttershy seems shocked at the language and tone.

“Hang on man. Isn’t the Earth Family that hippie cult thing? What if she’s one of em?” Sinker asks.

Hook grumbles. “I guess that’d line up with whatever the heck she’s wearin and how she somehow managed to get stuck in our trap.”

“Maybe she threw herself in there on purpose so we couldn’t catch anythin else!” Line says with a laugh.

Fluttershy snaps to attention.

“Wait… you guys do know about the Earth Family… but you AREN'T a part of it?”

She can’t believe how that’s possible. The Earth Family is meant to encompass all ponies!

Hook looks bewildered.

“Uh… yeah. We ‘know’ about it. Most ponies ‘know’ about it… a little too well. Those annoying freaks are always comin to my house and bein like “come accept gaya into your heart or you’ll be—” blah blah! So annoying!”

“And who would even wanna be a part of them? That’s a one way street to getting your ass kicked!” Line laughs.

Fluttershy can’t even fathom what she’s hearing. Freaks??? ‘Gaya’??? Ass kicking??? What the heck is this nightmare!

“Uhm… I don’t want my ass to be… kicked? Could you let me out please… I promise I won't be annoying.” Fluttershy says, trying to make sense of it.

“You’re already being annoying. Hearing your whispery voice makes me wanna jump off a cliff.” Hook says, not even looking at her.

He glances towards Line. "Get her out of the cage. We're going to need to actually get something soon."

Line reaches towards the cage to unlatch it.

“Wait!” Sinker yells. Line pauses.

“WHAT!” Hook yells, clearly angry.

“Our guy said he would buy anything we caught... right? What if he... you know." Sinker gestures towards the caged pegasus.

Hook raises an eyebrow.

"You sure he won't freak out or somethin?"

"Trust me. He has some ties with the Syndicate. He'll find somewhere to sell her off to."

Hook and Line share a glance.

"Might as well get some cash outta this, yeah?" Hook says with a sneer.

“I already got what I wanted to get out of this. It proved the ‘fake carrot’ trick isn’t a total failure!” Line responds.

“Yeah, and it only worked on this moron pegasus. I've seen literal rabbits avoid it.” Hook retorts.

Fluttershy quickly looks down at the ‘carrot’, seeing that it's actually just a painted wooden stake.

She frowns.

“Alright… load her into the cart. Let's hope Switch doesn't mind we brought in something a bit bigger than some rabbits." Hook says with a snicker.

“Why the heck am I the one pulling the cart??? This was my idea!” Sinker groans, with the cart’s harness on his back.

“Yeah. That’s exactly why. It was your idea, so you’re the one who’ll take us.” Hook responds offhandedly, leaning back on his seat.

Fluttershy sits in her cage, looking around at the wagon around her. It’s quite a bit larger than anything she’s ever seen back at the grove. Instead of the teeny ones meant to help crippled ponies, this one is large enough to hold multiple people and even various tools. She sees all sorts of weird and unfamiliar, yet scary looking pieces of equipment around her.

They’re traveling on a small trail, with the saving grace being that the area appears to be getting more forested and lively.

“Uh… where are we going?” Fluttershy asks.

“Some nice field where we’ll let you go, and you’ll be able to frolic with small animals.” Hook responds.

Fluttershy perks up. “Really?!” she says.

“NO!” The three yell in unison. She frowns.

“You’re what we call an ‘indentured servant’ now. You belong to us. And soon, you’ll belong to some other dude that Sinker knows.” Line responds.

The pegasus looks shocked. “What?! Y-you can’t do that! You can’t just… ‘own’ people!” She says.

Hook turns back. “Oh? Says who. You?” he asks, rhetorically.

“Yes..?” Fluttershy responds, not getting it.

The black stallion glares at her. “I dunno if you’ve noticed, but you’re not really in a position to be arguing anything.” he says. He smacks her cage, causing it to vibrate and make noise. Fluttershy recoils in fear.

Her eyes jostle a little, but she shakes it off. “I don’t understand! I never did anything to you! Please, just let me go!” she pleads, starting to understand the situation.

Hook turns back forward. “Please just be a good indentured servant and stop—”

CRICK!

Hook nearly gets tossed off the wagon as it lurches to the side, barely catching his hat from flying away. He scampers back to his feet, angrily.

“SINKER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“It wasn't me! Something snagged on the cart!” Sinker yells back.

Hook and Line quickly look down the edge of the cart, seeing that one of the wheels has been ensnared by a strangely thick vine.

“What in the…”

Jumping off the cart, he quickly stomps and tears the vine away. Fluttershy’s appalled at the brutality, even if it is just a plant.

He leaps back onto the cart. “Hurry up!” he yells towards Sinker. Sinker grumbles, but continues walking.

Hook slowly turns back to Fluttershy.

“As I was saying… we own you. Now please stop talking and let us relax.” Hook says with a yawn, tilting his hat over his face.

Sinker grumbles, definitely not getting to relax right now.

Fluttershy is far too shocked and afraid to think of anything else to say. She also doesn’t wanna risk angering them any further. She tries to find a comfortable position in the cage, and lies down.

After some time, Sinker is completely gassed. He pants, splatting on the ground. Hook looks over, and rolls his eyes.

“Can’t go any more…” Sinker pants.

“Such a baby.” Hook says with a groan. “Alright… let's set up camp here for tonight.”

Line and Hook dismount the cart, beginning to pull off various items and objects. Sinker still lies face-first in the dirt.

Fluttershy looks at them as they do. The items look unfamiliar to her, but vaguely resemble things she does recognize. One of them looks like a shiny version of an axe, and another like a big wrinkly bed.

After a while, Sinker manages to get himself up. The trio begin setting up camp. Fluttershy watches them clumsily and roughly begin to tear up the area around them. They sloppily chop apart trees, rip apart bushes, and shake nearby fruits off from their branches. Most of the stuff they destroy isn’t even used, simply tossed away out of sight. These ponies are monsters.

As Sinker is clinging onto a tree to shake some of its fruits off, a random branch suddenly smacks into him. He yells as he falls to the ground in pain.

“What the heck happened?!” Hook asks, running over.

“Hah… Sinker got beaten up by a tree!” Line laughs.

“Shut up!” Sinker says, pained.

Hook looks up at the tree, seeing its fruits above. He most definitely isn’t gonna try to climb it like Sinker did, but he has a better idea.

Holding up an axe, he begins to violently hack it at the base. Fluttershy closes her eyes like she’s watching somepony be butchered.

Not being a complete idiot, Hook has the wherewithal to chop the tree AWAY from where they are, so that it won’t fall towards them. Eventually, the tree’s base is barely a fourth of its original size, with the only piece left being in their direction, meaning gravity should pull it to the other side.

He gives it a light shove, and turns around as he hears it cracking, satisfied.

Inexplicably, the tree begins to fall the correct way, before suddenly lifting itself up in the other direction and falling back towards Hook.

He’s confused as he hears the sound of cracking approaching him. He turns around just in the knick of time to see the log hurtling towards him.

“WHA—”

He barely jumps out of the way as it hits the ground next to him.

“Dude! What happened!” Line asks, running over.

“The damn tree somehow fell towards me!” he says.

He notices Fluttershy looking at him blankly. He glares back. Her face completely lacks any malice whatsoever. But Hook still feels off.

Into the night, The trio have a fire set up. Fluttershy’s fast asleep in her cage.

Hook feigns sleeping by having his hat over his face, but lifts it slowly when he notices Fluttershy being asleep

He crawls over to the other two trappers, shaking them awake.

“Wuh? Mommy?” Line says.

“What? No, idiot! It's me.”

“Five more minutes…’ Sinker says. Hook smacks him awake.

“Ow! What was that for!?” He says, jolting up. Hook shushes him.

“Listen.” he says, leaning towards the other two, who confusedly and reluctantly lean in as well.

“First the wheel of the wagon is grabbed by some vine… then a branch suddenly hits Sinker… and now a tree is defying physics to try and hit me? Don’t you guys think it’s strange how all this weird plant stuff is happening only AFTER we found her?

“Could be just coincidences.” Line chips.

“No damn way. You know the saying… Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice… well I forgot the rest, but there’s something cool about fooling somepony thrice. Either way, I don’t buy that this is just chance.”

“Yeah but… she ain’t a unicorn… and there isn’t even such a thing as plant magic, right..?” Sinker says, a bit unsure.

“I dunno'. But I’m still not convinced that she’s as innocent as she looks.”

“What do we do then? Let her go?” Line inquires.

“No way. The last thing I want is this demon coming back with her entire earth family or whatever.”

“...kill her?” Sinker asks.

“Still no. If this broad really is something, then we could get so much more for selling her. I’m just telling y’all, to keep your heads up.” he says.

Line seems a bit unnerved. “I dunno… now that you got me thinking, I don’t want her near me… whatever she is.” He says.

Hook grimaces.

“It’s gonna take a bit more than some stupid vines or branches to get rid of us.” He says, holding his axe with a smirk.

His show of bravado gets the other two a bit more confident. As they begin to chuckle, they suddenly hear some rustling behind them. Some very loud, and quickly approaching rustling.

Hook turns around to see a giant figure suddenly erupt from the tree-line.

ROAAAAAARRRR!

The trio screams in fear.

Within Fluttershy’s dreams, she happily frolics around a field, pushing past a few bushes. She sees a small group of bunnies. Her favorite animal!

She wastes no time going over to them, beginning to play with them.

Sinker yells in terror as he’s thrown through the air, smacking into a tree. Hook and Line look back at the monster in horror. It looks like a giant mass of plants, in the vague shape of a living creature.

Fluttershy giggles as she boops one of the bunnies on the noise.

Line screams as he gets punched by the monster's giant fist, sending him hurtling into a tree next to Sinker. Hook grips his axe like a sword and backs away.

Fluttershy notices one of the rabbits pawing at her. A show of affection! She gently grabs it by the paws and begins to make it do a little dance.

Hook attempts to cleave into the monster with his axe, but any damage he does is immediately filled in with more plants. It suddenly grabs him by his legs, repeatedly smashing him into the ground.

While Fluttershy continues playing with the third bunny, the first two come hopping back, pawing against her back. She’s a bit surprised, but they clearly want to play some more.

Line and Sinker come up from behind the monster with tools of their own. They aim for the legs, managing to stumble it briefly. It suddenly whips around, smacking both of them with its arm and sending them to the ground.

Fluttershy decides to give all three bunnies an equal amount of love. She scoops them up in a hug with a smile on her face.

She plays with them for what feels like hours.

The trio scream as the monster scoops them up, and then in pain. There isn’t exactly much pressure, but it feels like they’re being repeatedly scraped into a thorny bush or rough wood.

“MOMMMY!!” Line cries.

Fluttershy wakes up some-time in the afternoon, realizing she slept longer than usual without her usual bird. Slowly coming to, she looks around. The camp-site is destroyed and abandoned.

“Hello?” She asks, a bit fearfully, to nopony in particular.

It looks like something tore the place up…

Two ponies walk on a trail. They look quite similar to the trappers, yet a bit more clean and older.

“What are we even doing, Switch? He was supposed to come to US, right?”

“He WAS. But in the case that something went wrong, he told me that they would be traveling on this trail, and to try and find em’. Sinker has never been wrong before.” Switch says.

The other pony scoffs. “Sinker. What a stupid name. Who would call a pony ‘Sinker’.” Bait says.

Suddenly, Switch lifts a hoof upwards, squinting. The two stop in their tracks.

Turning a curve, they see a small clearing. It looks like a tornado ran through the place. They spot Sinker’s cart with a cage atop it, and a pony inside. The two look confused, but approach with caution.

There’s a note near the base of the cage, facing away from where the pony inside could see. It’s hastily scribbled.

“Just take her. Please.”

The two look up with bewilderment.

The pony inside simply glances back at them.

“Hi?”

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 4 - Light It Up

Twilight’s eyes flutter open partly. The unicorn grumbles.

She just had the strangest dream… her head also hurts a little.

She instinctively reaches over for her stuffed animal, Smarty Pants. The few people who know that she still has it always told her to get rid of it, but personally she thinks—

Instead of the fabric and fluff, Twilight feels something else next to her…

Slowly rotating her body over, she comes face to face with a bloody pony’s face.

Twilight jolts up, screaming and scampering backwards. She feels the cold around her.

Snapping fully awake, she remembers everything that happened. The ambush, the fight… the crash. The pain rushes back to her as well.

She immediately checks her horn, something most unicorns do if they get injured. Thankfully, it's not harmed. Besides that, she has a splitting headache, a few bruises, along with a pained wrist. But she’ll live.

She looks at the SPAV around her — or at least, what remains of it. It looks like it’s been utterly torn apart, with large gashes and even not being in one piece anymore. Both the immediate front and back are gone, leaving the remaining body more like a tube than a cabin. The whole thing is slightly tilted, lying on uneven ground below.

Her eyes focus on two specific figures. The soldier who was sitting next to Jack, as well as Jack herself both lie on the floor at different parts of the SPAV. She can’t tell if they’re dead or unconscious at a glance. Looking around in a full 360 degrees, she can’t seem to find any other of the bodies. They must've been thrown away somewhere else from the violence of the tumble.

She takes a deep breath.

Twilight seems visibly strained as her horn glows. The soldier's body is covered with a purple shimmer as it is slowly pulled outside of the SPAV, where she stands.

She grunts. She’s mainly used her magic to do stuff like grab small things at a distance. Rarely she could give herself a boost when reaching for something high. This is certainly more demanding.

His body flops out the broken back of the SPAV, face-planting the ground. Twilight cringes. Maybe she should've checked his pulse first?

She does so, and fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the soldier is dead.

Twilight puts that aside right now, still trying to move him somewhere else. She grimaces as the task gets harder now that he’s on rough ground. Eventually though, she moves him to a secluded spot away from the SPAV, and flips him on his back.

Twilight just stares blankly as the corpse. Thankfully, his eyes are already closed, but the rest of his body is like a tapestry of horror. He has multiple broken limbs, his body is full of gashes, and his face is swollen and sunken.

She’s seen dead bodies before… but in sanitated scenarios like dissections or the morgue. This… is something else.

Trying to stop herself from gagging at the morbid sight, she quickly levitates over a tarp from the SPAV to cover him.

A bit relieved, she then walks over to the other body. Jack.

From a distance, she looks pretty messed up as well, but not as much as the Soldier. Dried blood looks like it’s streamed down from her nose, and she has some fresh bruises. Her most grievous wound looks to be one of her front legs, which looks a bit bent up.

Before Twilight even dares to get closer, she checks the hovel’s pulse from a safe distance using her magic.

After a few seconds…

Thump… Thump... Thump.

A small, but steady pulse.

Twilight feels a cold sweat.

Jack is still alive.

Twilight grits her teeth, straining even more than before as she tries to slide Jack out of the SPAV. She’s actually lighter than the soldier, but the problem is the distance. She levitated the soldier just because she didn’t wanna touch her, but now she has to keep a far distance away from the very much alive Jack.

This time, she set up another tarp below the SPAV’s ledge, as to hopefully cushion the fall slightly, and also give her a sort of sled to slide Jack towards where she wants her to be.

Reaching the edge, Jack’s body gets taken away by gravity and completely misses the tarp, smacking into the ground right next to it. Twilight face-hooves.

She painstakingly slides the tarp under the body, before then pulling the tarp along with her as intended.

Twilight moves Jack a moderate distance away, not to the same level of distance as the soldier’s corpse, but still a respectable amount away from the SPAV.

Finding a relatively flat area, she moves a couple of stones away and releases the tarp. She just looks over the unconscious Hovel, unsure of how to proceed from here.

Is she going to have to kill her?

Enclave doctrine says in an emergency, captives, prisoners, and other hostiles of the such should almost always to be disposed of, as they could pose unnecessary and unneeded risks and complexity to rescue or survival situations.

She looks at the hovel’s damaged leg. It’s one of her back ones, meaning she probably won’t be able to move around very easily. But if she does somehow get a hold of her, it might be over. Twilight doesn’t doubt that she could crawl at her like a demon or something.

She then looks over at her bleeding head. Maybe she’s in a coma or something..? Hopefully she just doesn’t wake up.

But no, no… both of those are too unreliable for her right now. Pure chance. She has to take action.

Her first thought gravitates to the dagger. Quickly retrieving it from the SPAV, she just holds it a bit shakily, looking towards Jack. Even from afar, it would be far too gruesome. She just imagines herself being covered in blood like some mad-pony. She also can’t risk her coming to and grabbing the dagger away.

She looks around, seeing some large rocks around. Levitating them, she grunts a bit from the weight, but it’s manageable. She drops it on the ground once or twice purposefully.

Maybe she could just get a good drop on her head or chest?

No… the chances of inflicting lethal damage to somepony with a rock of this weight and whatever height she can manage is far too unlikely. It would probably just maim her, which would make the situation even worse.

Finally, she looks in the distance. There’s another large chasm, just like the one the SPAV fell in.

Is this entire place just a large series of chasms?!

She figures that maybe she could just push her off the ledge or something. She’ll either die from the impact instantly, or live but be out of her hair. A win-win?

Twilight’s about to go through with the plan, beginning to levitate the tarp, but she pauses.

Even with the ‘best’ method in mind, she struggles to go through with it. She glances down towards the comatose hovel.

Regardless of them trying to kill her, and no matter what she may have done before this moment, even if they deserve this...

Twilight can’t bring herself to do it.

She isn’t prepared for THIS! She never even thought she’d be in a situation where she’d have to take a life before, especially not one that technically did not pose an immediate threat.

Despite thinking that Hovel's are unintelligent and savage creatures...

Twilight can’t help but see another fellow pony within Jack.

Twilight groans, releasing the tarp from her magical grasp and beginning to walk away. She’ll need to find an alternate solution here.

As she's turned away, the Hovel's eye opens ever so slightly, before going back to being closed.

Her hoof slowly reaches for a nearby rock.

Within Charlie Compound, a room full of different devices buzzes and whirs. Quite a few ponies, mainly unicorns, sit around at various desks and panels. A few quickly move around carrying papers or documents, and whispering in other ponies ears.

This is the control room, the ‘brain’ of the Compound, located within the Epistrey itself. The beeping of telegraphs coincide with the crackling of radios, along with the alien noises of unfamiliar communicators.

In a private room, a stallion watches another screen as the main one in-front of him suddenly begins rapidly blinking red and alerting him.

Immediately noticing it, he looks at the situation. SPAV-3 appears to have activated its emergency alarm.

He tries to radio in. “SPAV-3? Come in, SPAV-3. This is Charlie Control. Hello?”

He pauses.

“Hello? Come in, SPAV-3. SPAV-3 do you copy?”

Still no response.

“SPAV-3. Do—”

“Radio troubles?” A voice says from behind him.

He nearly yelps, before realizing who it is. He quickly snaps to attention.

“C-Commander Raven!” He stutters

“At ease.” The unicorn orders, as she approaches the desk.

He’s about to fill her in, when she simply moves him and his rolling chair aside, squinting at the screen for herself, the SPAV’s icon and screen still flashing red.

“Pull up the visual recorders. Now.” The stallion wastes no time hitting some buttons, as a video is pulled on-screen.

From the interior of the SPAV, they see a few presumably dead soldiers, along with a small purple and big orange pony struggling over what appears to be a knife. Video recording from the outside shows about a dozen dead soldiers with Hovel warriors standing over them.

Raven’s eyes sharpen. “Hovels.” She mutters under her breath.

Inside the SPAV, the orange pony overpowers the purple one, and after choking her for a little bit, the entire SPAV suddenly lurches to its side. From the camera’s tilted angle, the two watch as both the orange and purple pony try to open the door, before the SPAV suddenly goes into free-fall, the camera cutting out. Raven raises an eyebrow at seeing the brief, but desperate teamwork.

The stallion looks completely horrified from the grizzly scene, but Raven looks with a stern but calm expression.

“Send out an Enforcer Squad to its location, now. Two if necessary. Get them there as soon as possible.” She orders, before turning away.

The stallion seems flabbergasted. “But ma’am! It’s unlikely that anything survived that fall! And

Raven barely turns her head back to him.

“Survive, didn’t survive, doesn’t matter. It’s a recovery mission now. I want to know what happened.”

He gulps.

“...It’s uncharted territory. It could take days to find the wreck.” he responds, nervously.

This time, Raven fully turns her head to him.

“Then take days. I want it found eventually.” She takes her leave.

The stallion pauses for a moment, before hurriedly contacting another team elsewhere.

Twilight wipes her brow, looking around her. She just finished unloading anything useful she could find from the SPAV.

A few tools, some rations, and probably most importantly, a first-aid kit. She also found a flintlock, but dreads the thought of having to use it. She decides to hide it under some of the other items.

Unfortunately, it seems like most of the SPAV’s contents were thrown away from the crash, but thankfully what remains isn’t too shoddy either. She just hopes it’s enough for the time being.

Popping open the first aid-kid, she begins to clean some of her scratches and bruises, before bandaging them up. She also cleans up some blood on her face – It’s not her blood.

She notices what appears to be some kind of injection pen in the kit. There’s no label, so she doesn’t even risk using it right now.

Finishing cleaning herself up, she then looks towards the much more injured pony present.

Jack’s body still lies on the tarp, not having moved whatsoever since she laid her there.

Twilight approaches her with the kit in tow. This is going to be difficult.

Doing something as delicate as wrapping gauze or cleaning wounds on something with levitation is already a difficult task for even experienced unicorns such as doctors – let alone for someone inexperienced like Twilight. It's also complicated when you're trying to keep a safe distance from said something.

She clumsily pats down and away some of the visible wounds, along with wrapping them up, mainly on Jack’s head. That should hopefully stop any possible infections.

Her eyes drift towards the damaged leg. It looks slightly bent in the wrong direction. Not much she can do about that one.

After finishing cleaning Jack up, Twilight thinks about what to do now.

Her best bet would probably be to restrain or tie her up somehow, but she couldn’t manage to find any of the original restraints in the SPAV. She does have some ropes and zipties, but she doubts anything she can manage to cobble together could reasonably restrain Jack safely.

As she thinks, her eyes drift towards the area around Jack.

It looks... different. Like some of the rocks are in different spots.

Before she can even think about what that implies, Jack’s upper body suddenly springs upwards, yelling as she throws a rock at Twilight like a cannonball.

Twilight screams, barely ducking the projectile that whizzes past her at an absurd speed. Looking back at Jack, Twilight sees the hovel on her feet, and about to pounce.

The unicorn scampers backwards as Jack attempts to do so.

However, the moment Jack attempts to put pressure on her bad foreleg, it gives out under her. One of her eyes scrunches up as she yelps in pain, falling flat on her stomach with a groan.

Twilight stops back-pedaling, slowly getting back up after seeing the failure. She’s about to approach, when Jack begins to crawl towards her with a scowl on her face, gnashing her teeth like a psycho.

Twilight levitates the knife in front of her, trying to daunt her away.

“Hey! Stop!” Twilight yells.

Jack immediately grabs the knife out of the air with her good leg, now using it like a pick to keep crawling forward.

Twilight face-hooves looking at the display.

Jack isn’t moving particularly fast, and Twilight could probably just walk away at a brisk pace, but she isn’t gonna be dealing with this cryptid the entire time.

“Can you stop?” Twilight asks, annoyed.

“You did this to me! I'll kill you!" Jack yells.

“How did I—”

She face-hooves again.

Is she seriously using Twilight like a stand-in for the entire Enclave?

Twilight quickly recovers the flintlock from the ration pile, and points it straight at Jack. This gets the Hovels attention and she comes to an immediate stop.

Jack eyes the flintlock, before chuckling.

“You don’t even know how to use that thing.” she says, beginning to inch forward again.

Twilight raises an eyebrow, cocking the flintlocks safety off. Jack’s eyes widen a little.

Internally, Twilight is barely holding herself together. She does indeed know how to use these things, as all Enclave citizens do, yet she’s only fired it a few times, and at stationary range targets no less.

But she knows that the best way of resolving this situation without having to shoot Jack is by intimidating her.

Jack slightly recovers her bearings, before smirking again.

“I bet it ain’t even loaded.”

Twilight taps the gun while tilting the muzzle down, as some gunpowder visibly comes out the end. Jack watches it fall out.

She yells, tossing the dagger uselessly in front of her.

“Just do it already!” She yells, closing her eyes and waiting for the shot.

Twilight frowns, cocking the flintlock’s safety back on.

“Why would I? I have no reason to kill someone who isn’t a threat.” Twilight says as calmly as possible, bluffing.

Jack looks shocked. “Not a thr— I tried to kill you multiple times!” she roars.

Twilight shrugs. “Tried and failed. I’m not gonna waste a bullet on you.” she says, putting away the flintlock and barely changing her expression. She metaphorically pats herself on the back for that cool line.

Jack just looks bewildered. She can’t fathom why she would be getting spared.

She tries to get to her feet, but winces. She rolls onto her back, before looking at her damaged leg.

“You need to stop moving. You aren’t going to get better from trying to come at me like a mad-pony.” Twilight responds.

Jack grumbles, but relents, laying on the ground.

If she’s gonna get a chance at killing this unicorn, she’s going to need to conserve her energy.

The rest of the day is about as awkward as could be expected. Twilight keeps a safe distance away from the Hovel, as the two occasionally shoot stares at the other when they aren’t looking. At one point, they do it at the same time, and Twilight breaks away first, with Jack sneering.

Twilight tries to make sense of the area they’re in. The original route the SPAV took wasn’t very well lit, but after they fell into what appeared to be pitch darkness, now they’re somewhere that has a somewhat greater level of light.

Scientifically, it doesn’t make sense for most of the Underworld to even have light in the first place, considering they’re all… well, underground. Besides things like bioluminescence or pony-made lights, everything else should be pitch darkness. But she doesn’t dwell too long on it considering literal magic exists.

Their immediate surroundings look like some sort of basin, with a large sloped cliff in the same direction the SPAV came down, presumably the same ledge that they fell off from. There's various tunnels and small valleys branching off from the area, but exploring them would probably be a death-wish. Her best bet is probably to hunker down near the SPAV and wait for a rescue.

Thankfully, there’s some foliage around the area, even a few trees. She could maybe go gathering later. Key word; later.

It’s starting to get dark.

Twilight comes to the realization that she’s going to have to sleep out here…

With Jack nearby.

She glances over to see Jack picking at her teeth, disinterestedly staring off elsewhere. Twilight grimaces when she sees her teeth are somewhat sharp. She isn’t gonna dwell on that thought right now.

Right now, Twilight needs to devise a sleeping strategy.

She briefly pauses, realizing how absurd that sounds, before shakes it off.

The wreck of the SPAV is probably the best shelter she could manage here, with a bit of furnishing to make an impromptu bed, and maaaaybe some sort of noise trap, it wouldn’t be so bad.

Twilight quickly piles together random soft materials like a few tarps, some bushes, and even some loose clothing. She props up some boxes to stop the entire thing from sliding away. The entire SPAV is slightly tilted, meaning she’s gonna have to sleep diagonally.

She crudely sets up a sort of tripwire on the ledge of the SPAV, attaching it to some nearby boxes to fall. Hopefully, this should be enough to wake her if Jack tries anything.

Looking back towards the elevated front of the SPAV, she grimaces. Jack could maybe get in from the top, and slide down straight onto her. Although if the three-legged crawling pony manages to get that high up in the first place without making any audible noise, then she probably didn’t stand a chance anyways.

At this point, it’s become dark enough for Twilight to say it’s 'night'. Getting into her ‘bed’, she tries her best to sleep. She made sure to give herself a clear view of Jack from her resting position, seeing the hovel’s strewn out body across the floor.

Twilight can’t help but feel suspicious. She already managed to trick her into being unconscious before… what if she’s waiting for –

Her thoughts are cut off by Jack’s loud snoring. She frowns. Is she going to have to hear this all night?

She sighs, curling a tarp blanket around herself.

At least she knows for certain that Jack is asleep.

Jack isn’t asleep.

With one eye barely open, she can see Twilight in the distance inside her little pillow fort. Her eyes are much better at seeing in the darkness than the unicorns.

Twilight and her stare straight at each other, but judging by the unicorns only somewhat suspicious face, Jack assumes Twilight can't actually see the hovel looking back towards her.

Jack begins to loudly and obnoxiously ‘snore’, causing Twilight’s expression to go from one of suspicion to mild annoyance, before curling herself up.

Jack smirks. Too easy.

Of course, her mind drifts to getting up there immediately and getting rid of her once and for all, but the unicorn did have a point. Her leg needs to get better before she tries anything.

Twilight shuffles around some more, clearly not able to get comfortable.

Jack uses the principle of endurance hunting here.

She’ll continue getting her energy back and more well-rested, while the unicorn just gets more tired and paranoid.

Eventually, she’ll make her move.

BA-BUM.

Twilight nearly jumps awake in the middle of the night. Something triggered her noise trap. Immediately, she throws off the tarp and pulls out the flintlock she had nearby. She shakily and wildly points it in the direction of Jack. She doesn’t see anything.

Before she starts running around like a psycho, she illuminates the area slightly with a beam of light from her horn. Sure enough, Jack is still lying in the exact same position.

Twilight squints even more so than she already was due to the sudden awakening. She knows she already got tricked by Jack once, but in order to trigger the trap without moving from her position would require a perfect rock throw aimed in near pitch darkness. She also doesn’t see any rocks inside the SPAV.

Looking down, she slightly scampers backwards as she sees the culprit.

A hoof-sized, nocturnal leech lies on the floor. A Dusk Sucker.

It slowly slides around near the rope and downed pile of boxes.

Twilight angrily slaps it away. It hits the ground with a wet smack, quickly skittering off. She painstakingly and poorly re-sets the box pile, before getting back into her sleeping position.

She covers her ears as she tries to fall asleep again, Jack still snoring loudly

Natural light breaches through both open sides of the SPAV. Twilight’s eyes open once again.

She feels like crap. Between Jack’s snoring and the false alarm, she barely got any meaningful sleep.

Trying to shake it off, Twilight slowly gets to her feet, proceeding towards the edge of the SPAV. As she walks forward, she suddenly plummets straight down, forgetting about the elevation between the end of the SPAV and the ground below.

“Watch out for the step by the way.” Jack says from the distance, already awake.

Twilight curses under her breath as she slowly gets to her feet, and dusts herself off. She’s about to give her a squinted scowl, when she suddenly realizes Jack has crawled a short distance away to a nearby tree, pulling off a few branches and some vines, fashioning what appears to be a walking stick.

Jack notices the stares and smirks.

“Oh don’t worry, I know how to make one of these things. My granny’ uses one.” She says, continuing to shave away at one of the sticks.

Twilight bites her lip.

Should she try to stop her? What is she even supposed to say? ‘Hey, you! crippled pony! Don’t make that walking stick or else I'll shoot you!'”

She notices Jack is excessively sharpening one side of the stick, which seems a bit counter-intuitive regardless of which side of the walking stick it’s meant to be. But it would be perfect for say… a spear.

Twilight sighs. Just another reason to keep her distance. Sure, Jack could throw it, but then she’d be down a walking stick so it's a win-win for her… sorta.

She starts thinking about more practical problems. Going over to the pile of rations, she begins rummaging through the various packages and bags. There’s a lot of regular and junk food, but no water to be found. What the heck do these soldiers bother packing???

She puts a hoof to her brow. Ponies can survive for weeks without food, but three or four days without water and they’re done for. She didn’t drink much on the day the expedition left, nor yesterday. She already feels weaker and lamer than usual, in addition to the tiredness from the poor sleep.

Reservoirs are a common occurrence within this Pocket, but she’s honestly worried to go anywhere past the immediate vicinity of the SPAV. Getting lost or falling further into the chasms would certainly mean death. If only there was someone who knew the wilderness better than her…

She sighs, looking back towards Jack. The hovel whistles as she continues whittling away.

“Water. We need water.”

Jack’s eyes become focused, looking back at Twilight.

“Hm?” She asks, still shaving the stick away.

“We are going to need to find water, or else we are going to die.” Twilight says, plainly.

“Don’t y’all got water in your little metal wagon?”

Twilight groans. Even the hovel has more common sense than the soldiers.

“No. There isn’t any. We need to find water ourselves.”

Jack chuckles.

“We? You mean you'll find water on your own, and I’ll find my water on my own.”

Twilight isn’t in the mood for games. She cocks the flintlock again.

“No, I mean we.”

Jack rolls her eyes. “Fine.”

Using the walking stick to prop herself up, she slowly gets to her feet, finding a good balance for her weight. She begins to walk around slowly. Twilight watches with caution.

She limbers over to another tree, inspecting its branches. After finding one that she’s looking for, she yanks it off. It looks like a V shape, with a short curve on either side along with a point sticking out past where both curves meet. She holds it in both hooves, facing forward.

Twilight looks confused for a moment, before she realizes what she’s doing.

“Are you seriously trying to use a dowsing rod..?"

“ ‘trying’? I am usin’ a dowsing rod. They’re one of the most legendary tools of the Annui. The knowledge has been passed down for generations." Jack begins to walk away.

Twilight puts both hooves to her face.

She’s going to die out here.

The two have walked for quite some time, the wreck being completely out of sight. Twilight made a painful effort to make sure she remembers the way back, as to not get lost out here.

Jack leads the way, still using her dowsing rod, while Twilight follows behind, the duo traveling near a ledge. Jack is moving at a snail's pace, either to mess with Twilight or because that’s actually how slow she is with her bad leg. She hums to herself as she does so.

“You do know those things don't work, right..?” Twilight asks.

“Then why are ya following me?”

“Because! Picking any direction and walking in it has a chance of finding us water. Might as well go the same way you are.”

“Sounds like you’re sayin’ that it works.”

“If I thought it worked then why wouldn’t I have tried using it myself already?!” Twilight retorts.

“Cause you don’t know how.” Jack says with a shrug.

Twilight nearly face-hooves.

“You don’t need to know how to hold a stupid stick out and let your body naturally and randomly move it in different directions!” She yells.

“Then why don't you do it?” Jack asks, turning around suddenly, now walking backwards. Twilight back-pedals slightly. Jack holds the dowsing rod towards her.

Twilight still doesn’t think it’ll work, but she’s fed up at this point.

She reaches towards it, not realizing how close she’s getting towards Jack. She fails to notice Jack slowly pulling her walking stick back, like preparing for a strike.

Twilight is almost in range, and then…

Jack accidentally takes a backwards step too far, losing her footing. Her eyes widen as her body slips off the edge. For the first time, Twilight hears a scream of terror from her.

Out of instinct, Twilight leaps forward, grabbing Jack’s hooves to stop her from falling. In her current state, heck, even in the best conditions, she wouldn’t be strong enough to pull Jack back up, but she stops her from falling further.

“Don't let go!” Twilight cries.

Jack looks over the edge, seeing nothing below her. She desperately kicks her back legs forward repeatedly, trying to grab ahold of the ledge. Twilight winces from the pressure of Jack’s hooves, but still holds on to her as well.

Twilight leans back to use her body-weight to her advantage, while also using her magic to levitate Jack’s lower half upwards.

Eventually, Jack’s back legs get a grip, and manages to pull herself to safe ground. The two fall backwards side by side, panting out of fear and exhaustion.

Jack rolls over slightly, looking at Twilight. Jack could easily bludgeon or stab her right now, but the Hovel just stares with pure shock and confusion.

The damn unicorn just saved her life!

Twilight is equally surprised about putting herself on the line.

Twilight glances over, her eyes widening as she realizes the lapse judgment about the ‘safe distance’ thing, quickly side-rolling away.

After a moment, the two regain their bearings and get to their feet. They share an awkward glance.

“L-let’s keep lookin’.” Jack says, clearing her throat.

Twilight just nods.

With Twilight now using the dowsing rod, the two continue their search. Jack’s stoicness has somewhat faded, and she looks just as weary as Twilight does. The near-death experience presumably didn’t help.

Twilight is desperate at this point, her eyes barely open. She can't even imagine what will happen if—

She pauses.

She hears the sound of ripples in the distance. Her and Jack share a brief glance, before nearly tripping over each other as they run towards it. Or in Jack’s case, hobbles.

Turning a corner, they see it. A fresh running stream of water.

“I told ya it worked!” Jack says, quickly scampering towards the stream. She sticks her head into it like an ostrich, drinking to her heart's content.

Twilight immediately tosses away the dowsing rod, not interested in the question of if it actually works or not. Quickly kneeling next to the stream. She begins to take out and fill various containers from her satchel. Hopefully, this should tide them over for the next few days if need be.

Back near the wreck, the two sit around. The area is starting to get cold, the flat and rocky terrain not giving much insulation.

Twilight attempts to start a fire by making a small pit of rocks and sticks. She’s never done it before, but she’s seen others do so. Jack watches with a bit of interest.

The unicorn attempts to light the pit using her horn, blasting it with small beams. This does nothing except repeatedly throw small pieces of sticks and tiny rocks away. Jack frowns.

After a minute or two of watching the pathetic display, she groans and begins to hobble over.

“Move. Let me show you how it’s done.” Jack says.

Twilight backs up a little as the hovel grabs one of the sticks from the piles, and begins to rapidly rub her hooves together with it in-between. After a while, a small spark happens, and the kindle begins.

“There. So simple a filly could do it.” she says with a smirk.

“You know that technique is somewhere around hundreds of years old, right?” Twilight asks, raising an eyebrow.

“So? Still works.” Jack flicks a few leaves and sticks onto the kindle while blowing on it.

After a while, they have a full fledged fire going. Jack sighs as she stares into it, perhaps a bit too passionately.

Twilight decides now’s as good a time as any to actually eat something. While they technically don't NEED to eat, no harm in doing so considering they have more food than they even know what to do with.

Twilight rummages through the ration pile, picking one for herself, before levitating a few over towards Jack.
She eyes them with suspicion and caution. Not for some stupid reason like thinking they’re trapped or something, more so that she’s unfamiliar with food in this sort of fashion.

She squints at one of the labels.

“Uhhh…”

Twilight, currently preparing her own pack, glances over.

“I can’t read.” Jack says, grimacing a bit.

Twilight gives her the thousand-yard stare, literally rubbing her eyes with her hooves like she's wiping down some glass.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T READ?!" She yells.

Jack recoils a bit from the overly loud scream.

“...no? Why would I be able to? What would I even read out here? Hieroglyphics?”

Twilight face-hooves.

“You guys know what Hieroglyphics are… but can’t read.” She says, in total shock.

“I thought every-pony knew what Hieroglyphics were.”

"Yeah, well, I thought every pony knew how to read in general.” Twilight retorts.

Jack shrugs. “Just tell me what this one is, miss reader.” Jack says, flipping around one of the packages and showing it to Twilight.

Twilight rolls her eyes at its contents. “Corn and squash stew.”

“Is it good?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t like corn.”

“Well if you don’t like it, then I probably will.” Jack says with a snicker.

She fumbles around with the bag a little, and at one point tries to brute force it open.

Twilight’s eyes widen. “Hey. Hey! You’re supposed to put it over the fire. It’ll open by itself.”

Jack looks at her with some confusion. She doesn’t appear to understand.

“Just… put it over the fire.” Twilight says again.

Jack does so, unsure. She watches with surprise as the bag slowly expands, before opening itself into the shape of a small bowl.

“Literal magic.” Jack says, carefully fishing the bowl out of the fire.

“No, it's science. Both the rations and the bag itself are designed to be put into any kind of heat, as so they—”

Jack is already eating into the stew with nothing but her mouth, clearly not listening. Twilight sighs, going back to eating her dish with a fork.

The two eat in silence for some-time.

Although neither really notice it, they're sitting much closer than the previous nights, partly due to wanting to be near the fire.

Getting a closer and more clear and relaxed view of Jack, Twilight can't help but notice how different she looks from any other pony she's ever seen in her life. Theres a unique air around her.

The curiosity gnaws at Twilight a little.

"Jack?"

Jack looks up slightly, face still inside the stew.

"I never bothered asking before but... what are your people like? The... Annui?"

The question somewhat reminds her of what she asked Jack back in the SPAV.

Jack lowers the bowl, wiping some soup off her face.

"Hm. Well. For one, we're nomads. We move around alot."

"Why so?"

Jack puts a hoof to her chin. "Foraging, mainly. There's only so much stuff' you can gather before somewhere runs out. But we also believe stayin' in one place for too long can bring misfortune."

Twilight frowns. According to the Enclave, the only reasons the Hovel move around is to cause more trouble, constantly avoiding detection or finding new places and routes to pillage or raid.

Jack continues. "We were actually gettin' prepared to begin moving to the next pocket over, when we got ambushed by some of those armored gun guys." she says, squinting slightly.

"Wait, what? You guys were moving to another pocket?"

Jack looks confused. "...yes? Did y'all not know that we do that?"

"I've always been told that you guys purposefully stayed in this pocket. That you even avoided going elsewhere just to keep causing problems."

Jack blows her lips. "The whole reason we keep movin' around is to avoid trouble. Why would we purposefully stay?"

Twilight puts her hooves up defensively. "That's only what I heard... relax."

Theres a brief silence.

"If the Annui really are peaceful, then how-come you don't make attempts to amend with the Enclave?" Twilight asks, genuine.

Jack scoffs. "I said' we don't go out of our way for trouble. Not that we're peaceful. And besides... a few believers tried doing that long ago. We never heard from them again, nor did anythin' change. Now, every time we get within view of any of y'all, they either react with fear or aggression immediately."

Twilight feels a little uncomfortable. "Maybe they think you guys are like... some other bad group?" She's honestly amiss at what to say.

Jack rolls her eyes. "Ya. Because nothing screams bad guy like just sitting around and then randomly being shot from afar."

Twilight feels a little bad, but she can't help but remember the SPAV ambush. Jack notices her face.

"What about the ambush??? The—"

Jack was waiting for it.

"Oh don't give me that crap. They were trying to rescue me. If they had never captured me, then that woulda' never happened. You really think your people wouldn't have done the same thing to us if you got captured or somethin'?"

Twilight can't help but admit that she's right. But Jack is a bit too fired up right now.

"How many of those soldiers you think killed some innocent Annui? One? Two? All of em'?"

Twilight unconsciously begins to sit forward a bit, getting angry herself.

"Just because some of them may have been horrible murderers doesn't mean you should feel justified killing ALL of them!" she yells.

Jack sits back, chuckling.

"I wish the Enclave thought like that. Imagine if they were somehow the stupidest ponies ever and think we're some bad cult or something.. They still have no problem killin' everypony. The elderly. The fillies. They punish collectively for the acts of a few, against ponies they cant even' tell apart. YOU couldn't even tell us apart from the bad ones."

Jack turns away, clearly frustrated.

Twilight frowns.

She huffs. It's honestly quite sad.

Back when everypony first entered into the Underworld, the earthen were hit the hardest out of the three kinds. Lack of easily available natural light, plants, and livestock meant their natural farming talents were all but useless.

Most of them fell back on their natural traits to survive — strength and resilience. A sizable amount of many modern-day outlaws, criminals, and all of the Hovel are earthen, descending from those desperate ponies centuries ago.

There' a few seconds of silence.

"I'm... sorry." Twilight says.

Jacks's ears and back perk up slightly, as she turns her head back somewhat.

"I'm sorry for everything the Enclave has done to the Annui. I'm sorry for what I treated you like before, and the assumptions I made about you and your people. I had no idea."

Jack looks bewildered. Never did she think she'd get said that by a Enclave pony before.

She hunches over a little, rubbing her mane, nearly stammering.

"U-uhm... I'm... sorry too? For blaming you for everything. And also trying to kill you... and stuff." She says, a bit awkwardly.

Twilight deadpans. Sort of blunt, but better than nothing.

The two awkwardly glance at each other, with not much else to say. They go back to eating.

After sometime, Twilight begins to think.

What if there's hope for this. What if... she could somehow bridge the gap. It's likely that the Annui have never had someone who could stick up for them. If she can prove that the Annui aren't like the other Hovel, she could—

“I thought stew was supposed to have meat in it.” Jack says, looking at her empty bowl.

Twilight's train of thought proceeds to crash and burn. She slowly looks up with horror.

“C-come again?”

“Meat. All the stew’s that I’m familiar with had meat in em'.” Jack says, plainly.

What.

“You eat meat???” Twilight says, shocked.

“Uh… yeah? What’s wrong with that?” Jack asks.

“What's wro— Ponies are herbivores!” Twilight yells.

Jack shrugs.

“Speak for yourself. The Annui are omnivores. Meat has so much nutritional efficiency over vegetables or fruits, it's also digested way easier."

She speaks with an unusual efficacy on the topic. Twilight nearly gags.

“W-what kind of m-meat?” Twilight asks. She’s afraid of whatever Jack is gonna respond with.

“Oh you know. Fish.”

Twilight relaxes a little. That wasn’t too bad of an answer.

“Well, sorry. None of these food packs have meat in them. That’s not a… component of our diets.” Twilight says, somewhat regaining her bearings.

Jack shrugs. “No biggie. I see some meat over there, anyways.” she says, hoofing behind Twilight.

Twilight looks confused.

What is she talki—

Turning around, she sees the covered corpse of the soldier.

Twilight feels a pit form in her stomach.

She’s nearly about to vomit at the idea, when Jack quickly stops it.

“Kidding! That was just a joke.” She says, with a smirk.

Twilight wipes her mouth, glancing lightly at Jack.

Okay. Maybe it'll be harder than she thought to make something work here.

The two finish their meals, with Twilight pouring out the fire. Returning to their respective sleeping spots, Twilight offers to furnish a bed for Jack similar to one her own, but Jack declines, preferring to sleep on the bare ground.

Twilight thinks about the last hour or two as she slides into her 'bed'.

Sure, there were some ups and downs, one very gross one in particular, but she feels...

Strangely better.

She isn't seeing Jack like some violent monster anymore. More like an — at worst — somewhat crude and rough individual.

But still an individual.

A pony, like herself.

Deciding to think more on it tomorrow, she slowly drifts asleep.

Twilight awakens to the sound of gurgling and squelching.

“W-wuh?” She says, eyes slowly opening.

She immediately illuminates the direction of Jack, although this time not preparing the flintlock.

To her horror, Jack is missing from her spot.

Twilight’s mind begins to race and her heart begins to pound. The paranoia of the past few days is setting in.

Is she about to ambush her??? Did she get taken away by something??? Was everything said before a lie???

She’s distracted by the sounds of squelching once more. She slowly turns, seeing them coming from the direction of the soldier’s corpse. Illuminating the direction, she sees the tarp visibly moving, something beneath it.

Twilight’s heart sinks.

She immediately grips the flintlock, slowly approaching.

She swears to Sol. If Jack is eating that corpse, she’ll shoot her dead. Screw everything she thought yesterday. No hesitation.

Twilight levitates throws the tarp off with levitation, flintlock at the ready.

Her eyes widen.

It’s not Jack, but... something else.

The Dusk Sucker from the night before. The creature has almost completely consumed the corpse, its body growing to gargantuan proportions. Parts of its amorphous mass even seep into the extremities of the soldier, like his body is seeping a black goo.

The tarp hid how truly big the Sucker actually became, with its body extending both long and wide past the soldier's body. It has to be at least six feet tall by now.

Twilight freezes with shock and fear.

What does she do??? Should she run???

Unfortunately, the Dusk Sucker doesn’t give her much time to react.

One of its beady black eyes locks onto her, its pupil dilating at the light. Its full body violently erupts from the corpse, completely annihilating it. It screeches as it runs slithers towards Twilight.

She screams as she fires the flintlock at it. It hits it dead-center, making a part of its body jiggle, but it’s nowhere near enough.

Twilight immediately sprints away, with the Sucker giving pursuit. She jumps back into the wreck of the SPAV, hoping the height can buy her some time, but it doesn’t take long for the Sucker to start climbing into the wreck as-well.

She begins to kick and throw nearby things at it with her levitation. Random boxes, rations, supplies, even her bed. They smack into the Sucker, but it continues on, barely deterred.

Twilight attempts to run away further, but the weight of the Sucker makes the entire wreck move. It tilts at a sharper angle, causing Twilight to lose her footing and get put on her back-side. She isn’t moving towards the Sucker, but she’s unable to easily get away now.

Getting a good look at its ‘face’, two large black eyes flank a horrifying mouth, multiple layers and rows of jagged, sharp, and bloody teeth. It gnashes them as it tries to get further into the wreck.

She tries to levitate herself up, or levitate the Sucker away, but she isn't strong enough to do either.

Twilight screams for help.

Jack slowly hobbles away from the site of the wreck.

She’s honestly surprised at how things went. But, even if things were briefly and strangely nice, she can’t stay there. Her people are probably waiting, and still looking for her. Sitting at the camp-site with some Enclave pony won’t do her—

She freezes as she hears a scream coming from behind.

It’s the unicorn.

Jack knows she shouldn’t care. She tried to kill the unicorn herself multiple times. Heck, she literally just abandoned her right now!

But... something inside Jack feels off.

With only a brief pause, she turns tail and runs back towards the wreck as fast as her bad leg can manage.

Twilight continues screaming as the wreck shifts more and more at a harsher angle. Now, she’s actually sliding towards the Sucker slowly.

It doesn’t even attempt to get up, seeing the prey approaching its mouth for it. It just sits at the base of the edge, waiting.

Twilight desperately tries to get traction on the metal floor, but it’s too slippery.

Just as her leg is about to touch the Suckers mouth…

“Hey!”

A rock smacks into the back of the Suckers head. It slowly turns around.

From her elevated angle, Twilight can see who it is clearly.

“Jack! Help!” Twilight cries.

Seeing that the newcomer would be a more worth-while meal, the Sucker begins to slither towards Jack. Jack immediately brandishes her walking stick like a spear, propping the sharp side forward with both of her front legs. The sucker doesn’t know any better, and charges at her anyways.

She stabs it straight into the mouth, making it screech. It thrashes around violently. Jack still holding onto the lodged stick, is thrown away a short distance, tumbling on the ground.

Twilight jumps out of the SPAV, running to Jack's side.

“Jack! We need to run away!” Twilight yells.

“You need to run away. I can’t run like this.” Jack says, looking at her still bad leg. The tumble wasn’t doing her any favors.

The unicorn notices Jack look at the Sucker with a fiery intensity. She’s intending to fight this thing to the death.

Twilight knows this is incredibly stupid, and she isn’t just gonna watch it happen. She runs off back towards the wreck.

“Just distract it for now! I have a plan!” Twilight says, running off.

Jack glances at her, before turning back to the Sucker. Its circular mouth finally manages to shred up the stick, vomiting out the wooden shards in front of it with a roar.

Unable to move much, Jack does the only thing she can think of.

She immediately begins to throw rocks towards the Sucker, hitting it in the face repeatedly, and even getting a few in its mouth. It very clearly is causing discomfort, but it isn’t enough to stop it.

Back at the SPAV, Twilight throws multiple items on the ground in front of her, including some sticks, cloth, gunpowder, a food packet, the flintlock, knife and the first aid kit. She rapidly begins to cut, stitch, and pour. She's so desperate that she even uses her levitation in conjunction with her hooves.

“Come on… come on!” She repeatedly looks back at the Sucker closing the distance to Jack.

Jack crawls away as fast as she can, but the Sucker is ever so slightly faster, beginning to catch up to her. She eventually hits a corner, and can’t turn herself away in time. She puts up her hooves, ready to fight it out to the end.

But suddenly…

A flaming bundle of sticks lands in front of Jack, between her and the Sucker. Jack sees Twilight threw it over from a distance, holding a bunch of other things like a mad-mare. The Sucker screeches, turning away from the light and heat. Jack immediately notices this, kicking the burning wood towards the Sucker, causing it to rapidly back away.

Twilight runs over to Jack's side, now with a bit of breathing room. The two see the Sucker orbiting around the fire, trying to get a clear path.

“Got any more of those flamin’ things? Let's just make a ring around ourselves!” Jack says.

“Nice plan, but no. I’m not gonna be dealing with this thing all night.” Twilight says.

Jack frowns. “Then what are we gonna do? And what’s all that stuff ya got?” She says, pointing towards all the things Twilight is carrying.

Twilight suddenly points in another direction. “Look! It’s your grandma!” She says.

Jack immediately turns to the direction. “WHERE?!” She shouts.

Her pupils shrink as she feels a prick. She looks back and sees Twilight pricked her with something.

“Ow! What in the—?!”

She’s about to instinctively punch Twilight, when she suddenly feels… better.

Stronger.

“I found a shot in the first-aid kit. It’s a combat stim. It should—”

Jack immediately jumps to her feet, bad leg be damned. It’s like it isn’t even there. She’s very clearly amped up.

“Alright! Let's kill this thing!” She roars.

Twilight simply hands her a food pack. Jack looks at her with confusion.

“Are we trying to feed it to death?” She asks.

“Just get this inside its mouth, however you can.” Twilight says, immediately beginning to reload the flintlock.

Jack grabs the food pack from her a bit confused, before nearly bounding over the fire and towards the Sucker.

It seemed to have wisened up by now, not keeping its mouth as open as before. It even spits out one of the rocks it swallowed earlier.

But in her heightened state, Jack is running circles around it. Literally. She rapidly approaches and backs away, baiting it to strike. At one point she even gets a punch on one of its eyes, making it screech and charge at her.

She quickly tosses the food pack into the Suckers mouth. It’s immediately torn to shreds, and Jack barely gets a glimpse of what its contents are. A black powder.

“Get back!” Twilight yells from a short distance away. She’s finished loading the flintlock, pointing it straight at the Sucker. Jack gets the hint, and makes distance as fast as possible.

The sucker charges straight at Twilight.

She carefully steadies her aim, even using levitation to make it perfect.

With a pull of the trigger...

BANG!

The bullet whizzes straight into the Sucker’s mouth, igniting the gunpowder. Within moments, its body turns a bright orange as it begins to burn from the inside, screeching and flailing.

Jack watches with shock and awe. She can’t help but laugh, looking back at the relieved Twilight.

She stops laughing when she notices the burning beginning to fizzle out, with the Sucker still moving.

She glances back at Twilight, who looks equally as worried.

The Sucker lets out a guttural screech, spewing out parts of its own melted insides. Jack and Twilight both back away slowly.

“Is there a plan B..?” Jack asks, now next to Twilight.

“That was plan B!”

The two watch in horror as it charges them once more.

But then…

A brilliant blue light shines from above. It’s like the area suddenly became daytime. The Sucker obviously backs away, but even Jack and Twilight have to cover their eyes from the intense shine.

A flare.

Jack quickly realizes that she probably shouldn’t stick around for whatever is about to happen, and runs off to a nearby crevice of foliage to hide. With perfect timing, the stim begins to wear off, and she winces from the pain coming back.

Multiple heavily armed ponies suddenly descend around the cliff-side. Their bodies are almost entirely concealed with bulky armor, save for some hair, tails, and a few wings.

Twilight recognizes them almost immediately. Elite troopers of the Enclave – Enforcers.

She hits the deck in the nick of time, as the Enforcers proceed to light up the Sucker.

As opposed to the somewhat primitive gunpowder weapons the soldiers and Twilight had, the Enforcers use relatively more advanced guns like breech loaders, revolvers, and double barreled shotguns.

The Suckers already damaged body is rapidly chunked and torn apart as it screeches and writhes.

After a few seconds of significant firepower, there’s a brief pause. The Sucker makes a gurgling noise, causing the Enforcers to open fire on it again.

One of the Enforcers wields some tube-like weapon which Twilight cant make out.

He fires a rocket straight at the Sucker, completely blowing it to bits. Twilight covers her face from the blast as she's covered in black goo and red blood.

As even more Enforcers drop into the wreck site to secure it, a pair immediately approach Twilight.

“PATHFINDER TWILIGHT SPARKLE. YOU ARE BEING RESCUED. DO NOT RESIST.”

She complies as they put a bag on her head, before whisking her away.

Jack watches from her hiding place with a mixture of awe, fear, and confusion.

After a few minutes, the Enforcers completely extract from the location, repelling back up the cliffside they came from. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice her.

Jack carefully comes out of the foliage, approaching the now obliterated remains of the Sucker.

She grabs a little piece of it, and takes a small bite.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Little burnt, though.

Finishing her exotic taste test, she looks around at the impromptu battle-site that just happened.

Now she needs to find a way to get the heck out of here.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 5 - Indentured Servants

By the side of a small path, a blue unicorn poses dramatically.

“Come one, come all… come and see the most amazing magician in all of the Underworld… the great and powerful Trixie!”

She looks around, expecting some reactions.

A few ponies walk about the trail, clearly not interested with the magician's attempts at garnering attention.

She sighs.

One dull-looking stallion suddenly approaches her, a bit curious.

“Aight'. I’ll bite. What do ya' got?”

Trixie lights up with a smile

“Ahah! You, my friend, are in for the best showing of your life!” Trixie says, giddy.

She takes off her hat, holding it out towards the stallion. He glances down at it.

“Please put in one bit, my good sir.” the unicorn says with a smile.

The pony raises his eyebrow. “You ain’t even done a trick yet and you’re already asking for money?”

Trixie frowns. “I’m not ASKING for money, this is a part of the show. I need a bit to do the act.”

“Do you not have a bit of your own?” he asks.

“Do YOU not want to see the greatest show ever?” she retorts.

The stallion grumbles a little, but pulls out a small bag out of his pocket.

Reaching into it, he pulls out one bit with a scratch on it, before putting the bag away. Trixie looks at which pocket he put it into.

He appears to toss a coin into the hat.

Trixie smiles. She puts the hat back on her head.

“Alright!” she says. She immediately begins to do some weird motions and movements with her legs and eyes, while also humming. The stallion looks a bit unimpressed.

She then reaches into his ear, and pulls out a bit.

“Is THIS your bit?” She asks, with a smirk.

“Nope.”

He shows his hoof. The bit with the scratch is still right there.

Trixie seems confused.

“Wait then what did you put into the—”

She takes off her hat, but feels some resistance.

“Wha—”

She feels her mane, immediately touching something sticky. She recoils in shock and surprise.

The oaf threw a piece of gum in there!

“AH! What is wrong with you?!” She yells, trying to get the gum out of her hair. The stallion chuckles.

Trixie looks back at him with a fury. “You little—”

A laughter suddenly gets both their attention. On the other side of the trail, sitting against a shack, lies a pink pony wearing a beret to cover her eyes, along with a bag to her side. She looks up, still laughing.

“That’s way funnier than any of your actual tricks!” the pony says, smirking.

Trixie glares at the pink pony, looking even angrier than before.

“Pinkie Pie…”

The stallion looks confused. “You two’ know each other?”

Trixie snaps back at her. “Know her? This clown is my rival. She thinks that she’s a better street performer than me.” The unicorn says with a venomous tone.

Pinkie just smiles back. “I KNOW I’m the better one. You just can't accept it!” She laughs, tauntingly.

The stallion is a bit invested now.

“What can ya do?” he asks Pinkie.

Pinkie feigns bewilderment.

“What can I do??? More like what CAN'T I do? Tell me something to do, and I’ll do it baby!” She says with a smirk.

The stallion thinks of something to say, but Trixie beats him to it.

“Juggle.” She says with a smirk. Trixie knows Pinkie isn’t good at juggling.

Pinkie grimaces a little.

“O-okay…” She says, a bit shakily.

Pinkie reaches into her bag, pulling out a few small rubber balls.

“I was hoping to do some cool bouncing stuff with these… but oh well.” she sighs.

Trixie and the stallion both look at her, Trixie with anticipation for failure, and the stallion with investment.

Pinkie hesitates for a moment, and then throws the first ball into the air…

Immediately, she throws all the balls into the air at once, and begins to juggle them easily.

The two spectators look shocked.

“Aw, what?!” Trixie exclaims. She got played!

The stallion looks amazed. “Woah.” he says, getting a bit closer to look.

Some more ponies nearby begin to see the spectacle, also stopping to take a gander. Eventually there's somewhat of a tiny crowd.

Pinkie hums as she does progressively more complex juggling patterns. At one point she even balances a ball on her nose, and at another she stands on only one hoof.

Finally, she throws them all into the air directly above, and quickly opens her bag while holding it in front of her. All the balls fall in perfectly.

She takes a bow as some of the spectators clap or cheer. She takes off her beret and slides it in front of her.

“I take cash or credit – just kidding. Nopony uses credit out here!” She jokes. A few bits are thrown into the hat. Trixie grumbles.

The stallion reaches to find his coin-bag, but he suddenly notices it’s gone.

“What?!” He says. He looks behind him to see Trixie has completely disappeared. He looks back at Pinkie, only to see she has disappeared too.

Pinkie and Trixie reconvene near an empty building, snickering to themselves. They lay out their plunder in front of them.

A few dozen bits, some small purses and bags, and even a small piece of gem jewelry. The two high-hoof.

“Told you the ‘bad at juggling’ thing would work!” Pinkie says.

Trixie smirks. “I didn’t doubt that it would, but not to this level! This is probably our biggest haul this whole month! I mean, look at this thing…” Trixie says, looking at the gem. “Who knows how much it's worth?”

Pinkie puts a hoof to her chin. “Maybe we should bring it back to the Troupe?” she asks. Policy says that anything like jewelry or gold and such should be returned ASAP.

Trixie eyes around briefly. “Orrrr…” she says, glancing at Pinkie.

Pinkie glances back. “Orrrr..?” She responds, somewhat confused.

“I know a guy who could get this appraised for us. Maybe even buy it. If it’s really good, who knows how many bits we could spend?!” She asks.

Pinkie frowns. “But that’s against the rules!”

“Rules-smooles. We just robbed like, five ponies. Besides, look at your hat. Or my mane!” Trixie says.

Pinkie glances over to her beaten and old beret. Its age is starting to show. Meanwhile, Trixie still picks the gum out of her mane.

“Alright… but you promise it’s not somewhere dangerous, right..?” Pinkie asks, relenting.

Trixie smiles. “Of course not. I would NEVER take us somewhere like that.”

Trixie and Pinkie overlook a large, flat gulch. On top of it, a hastily set up ‘flea market’ is established — emphasis on the ‘flea’ part.

The place looks more like a shanty town than anything. The duo can see various unscrupulous looking figures at a distance.

Pinkie turns to Trixie slowly, a bit worried. “This place looks dangerous to me.” she says.

“Well, it’s not. Just keep to yourself and nothing will happen.” the unicorn instructs.

“But keeping to myself is hard!”

“You know what will be harder if you dont? Eating without a feeding tube. Now let’s go.” Trixie says, proceeding towards the market.

Pinkie frowns, but follows.

The inside of the market is just as expected from afar. Tons of different ponies of all different creeds mingle, wearing outfits that look like they just came out of a bad crossover. Pinkie sees ponies wearing too much armor, not ENOUGH clothes, and a few cult-looking dudes. There’s even one guy who looks like a pirate.

Pinkie stays as close to Trixie as possible, who strolls through like nothing’s amiss. Pinkie notices that they AREN’T getting any looks or glares, strangely.

“How come anyone isn’t looking at us funny? I thought outlaws always did bad stuff like that!”

“First of all; outlaw is an outdated and bigoted term. They prefer ‘Unlawful Citizen’. Secondly, like I said; keep to yourself, and nothing will go wrong. Besides, there’s a lot more interesting folk here than you or I.” She subtly gestures to somepony in the distance.

Pinkie's eyes follow the gesture, and then widen. The pony is very clearly unnatural looking. His pupils are small, barely visible, and his scleras are dark. His body has a weird texture, and even has fangs.

“I-is that a mutant?” Pinkie whispers. She’s heard of them before, but never seen one in-person.

Trixie looks shocked. “Pinkie! No! That’s a very cruel term. The proper term nowadays is ‘Mutaquine’ You’d probably get smacked silly if they hear you use ‘mutant’ around here.”

“Wouldn’t that only apply to ponies, though? What if they’re like… something else..?”

Trixie shrugs. “Think of it like how everypony calls guns ‘guns’ regardless of if they’re a musket or flintlock or whatever. Better to be safe than sorry.” she explains.

Pinkie is about to respond, when Trixie spots somepony in the distance, leaning against a small tent. It’s noticeably a bit secluded from the rest of the dense market.

“Found my guy. I’ll make it quick.” She says, beginning to walk off.

Pinkie follows, but Trixie stops her.

“Wait. He’s one of those… skittish types. He’ll probably get cold feet if he sees me coming with somepony else.”

“What about-”

“Just stay… like, here. Don’t start anything, don't use the terms ‘outlaw’, ‘mutant’, or ‘slave’, and you should be good!” Trixie says, backwards walking with a smile, before fully turning off.

Pinkie frowns as she tries to stand still. She can feel her hoof begin to tap.

After a little while, Pinkie is about to start wandering, but stops when she notices Trixie coming back. The unicorn has a strangely disheartened expression, and glances back at the tent a few times, but once she notices Pinkie looking at her it quickly changes to a more expected expression of excitement.

“Okay. My guy was able to appraise AND buy it from me. I had to haggle a little bit, but we settled on… 50,000 bits!” she says, gleefully.

Pinkie’s jaw nearly drops. “WOAH! We’re rich!” She says.

The unicorn nods. “Mhm. Now we—”

“Who is your guy, anyways?”

Trixie frowns slightly. “An old friend. Don’t worry about it.” She says, a bit dismissively.

“Okay!” Pinkie isn’t fully satisfied with that expression, but her mind is on the money right now.

Trixie begins to feel the weight of the bag, along with metaphorical weight of the eyes of a few other ponies looking at them.

“We should probably get out of here before something stupid happens.” the unicorn says, shifting the weight on her back.

“Agreed!”

As the two walk away, they pass by what appears to be a shoddily made stage, with an auction in progress. Various cages sit to the side in a line, presumably to be pulled up one by one.

Pinkie walks past the line-up, only to suddenly back-pedal rapidly and turn her head. Trixie looks back, surprised at Pinkie’s sudden motion.

“What is it?” she asks.

“Trixie, are you seeing this?” Pinkie whispers, hoofing towards one of the cages.

Trixie glances over, tilting her head. “What’s wrong? It's just a Leper.” she says, looking over at a cage with a large and spindly frog-like creature.

Pinkie quickly turns back towards Trixie. “What? No, I meant the one to the left of that one.”

The two look towards the left slightly and see a small yellow pegasus with a pink mane. She’s curled up and shaking, visibly scared. Her ‘clothes’ look like they’re made up of leaves and vines.

She curls up further as the Leper in the next-cage over coughs towards her.

“What the heck are they doing? Are they selling her like some kind of animal??” Pinkie asks, a bit worried.

“Seems like it.”

“Isn’t that like slave—”

Trixie glances over at Pinkie with a neutral expression.

“Just tell me the proper term already!” Pinkie exclaims.

“ ‘Indentured Servant.’ ‘Slave’ stopped being used by Slavers for PR reasons.”

“But it’s the same thing right??”

“Yeah but now it’s ‘indentured servitude’ instead of slavery so—”

Pinkie cuts her off. “Whatever whatever instead of this and that whatever! I want to help her.”

Trixie looks bewildered. “The only way you’re gonna help her is if you can buy her before somepony else does."

“Well I guess it's lucky that I know a pony who has just gotten 50,000 bits!”

Trixie’s eyes widen, realizing what Pinkie is implying.

“No. Nope. We are not doing that. Don’t even think about it.”

Trixie and Pinkie stand in the crowd alongside other ponies, auction already underway. The auctioneer, a stallion wearing a flat red hat and the Underworld's most obvious evil mustache talks so fast that they can barely understand him.

“This is so stupid.” Trixie says with a sigh.

“Shh!” another pony says to her. Trixie glares at them, before looking forward again.

Various creatures and other items are auctioned off rapidly. There’s a fight or two, along with some curses said, but that’s as smooth as you’ll get for an unlawful citizen flea market.

Eventually, the final cage is dragged in, the crowd ‘oohhs’, seeing its content.

Instead of some strange creature like the rest, it’s an unusually dressed pegasus mare.

The crowd murmurs amongst itself. Most aren’t surprised at the presence of a pony as one of the auctions, but rather the nature of this one. She looks mystical, at least as mystical as a quivering and scared captive can be. She wears a dress that looks like it's made of leaves, vines, and roots.

Trixie looks completely unamused, while Pinkie looks with some determination.

The auctioneer smirks, seeing the good reactions.

“Now thisahere pegasus says she's from the mythical ‘Gaia’s Grove’ thatsa right we gotta exotic plant pegasus right here! Starting price is 5000 bits canna get 5000 bits?”

Pinkie and Trixie have an equal amount of appalment when they hear the price – Trixie more so because she couldn’t believe a seemingly regular pegasus would be selling for this much. Is it because of the dress? Heck, she should start doing this if ponies will pay that much for a fancy looking slave...

Some figures in the crowd raise their hooves.

“6000 bits!” One shouts.

“8000 bits!” Another.

Pinkie stares back at Trixie with some puppy eyes.

Trixie sighs.

“15,000 bits!” She shouts, reluctantly. The crowd ‘ooohs’. The auctioneer smiles harder.

There. It may have been a big chunk of their new change, but surely—

“20,000 bits!” Another pony yells. Trixie’s eyes shoot over to their direction with shock.

WHAT?!

“40,000 bits.”

Everyone looks over to see a very clearly conspicuous robed pony. Trixie notices the robes look like they're from the Clade. Anypony bold enough to wear those in public surely has something about them.

Nopony even cares about that right now though, with them all being flabbergasted by the heights of which the bid is reaching. Even the auctioneer looks shocked.

Trixie quickly leans over to Pinkie. “Okay, it’s clear that we picked the wrong day to bid! I’m not spending the entire purse on this random pegasus we don’t even know!”

“We’re in too deep now!” Pinkie responds.

Pinkie Pie stands up on her tippy-hooves, and hollers “50,000!”

The crowd once again ‘ooohs’. The robed pony glances over to them silently.

This has to be it. There’s no way.

“80,000 BITS!” the robed pony yells, raspy voice and all.

Trixie looks in complete shock, but glances over to see Pinkie looking even more determined.

“We literally have nothing else to bid with, Pinkie! Unless you happen to secretly have another 50,000 bits lying around!”

Pinkie Pie takes a deep breath, preparing herself.

“200,000 BITS!!!!” she screams, jumping into the air. It’s almost like the entire market goes quiet hearing this absurd number.

Trixie feels like she’s about to faint.

The auctioneer is almost blown off his feet from the metaphorical power of the number. Even the robed pony relents, silently backing off.

After a few moments of waiting, nopony even attempts to match or surpass that number. The auctioneer quickly points Pinkie out.

“You there! Fine pink mare! Come on up here!” he says, giddily.

Pinkie quickly does so, scampering onto the stage next to the cage. The crowd mutters at this unusually clean and normal looking pony, out-of-place compared to the rest of the individuals here. Even the captive pegasus pauses her quivering, a bit confused.

The auctioneer swings open the cage, letting the pegasus shakily walk out. She has a chain on one of her legs, which the auctioneer hands to Pinkie with a smile.

Pinkie stands there for a moment holding the chain.

Now what?

She’s brought back to attention when the auctioneer clears his throat, gesturing with his hoof. The money.

“Oh. Right… the bits.” she says, slowly trailing off.

The auctioneer raises an eyebrow.

There's an awkwardly long pause. Trixie bites her lip.

Suddenly, Pinkie takes off sprinting, pulling the pegasus with her. “RUN!” she yells to the captive, who does.

The auctioneer is stunned.

“THIEF!” he screams, his auction accent completely gone.

One pony speaks up in the crowd. “Like half of us are thieves, man.”

The auctioneer turns to him with a snap. “Okay but she’s stealing from me! And by extension you all! That’s like— ok you know what—”

He takes a deep breath.

“WHOEVER CATCHES THOSE RUNAWAYS GETS 100,000 BITS” he roars.

That certainly gets the crowd's attention. They all turn towards the direction of the duo.

Trixie gulps. This can't end well.

Pinkie and the pegasus sprint away as fast as they can, but unfortunately for them, the bidding stage was near the center of the market. Even with a good head-start, they’re still deep within it before they hear rapidly approaching noises behind them.

Thankfully, it seems like the general chaos of the market is doing a good job at concealing the situation. Only the ponies behind them seem to know—

“STOP THEM AND GET MONEY!” a pegasus from above yells from above. Ponies ahead look up, and then towards the duo.

Crap.

Pinkie takes a sharp 90 degrees turn along a shack as a wave of ponies charge past into original direction, crashing into the ponies coming from behind. They hear loud crashes as various stands fall over and break.

“What’s going on?! Who are you?!” The pegasus shouts, still running behind Pinkie.

“Not important right now! Just run!” Pinkie yells back.

The duo continue to run through the market, swerving as needed to avoid groups whenever they try to pincer or flank them.

Pinkie sees a pony ahead pointing a gun, specifically a flintlock straight at them. Her eyes widen.

She sees the auctioneer suddenly punch him across the face, sending him to the ground.

“Don’t shoot them, fool!” he yells, turning to them. His stare meets their eyes.

“I want them alive. Both of them.”

Pinkie gulps.

Wait.

If the auctioneer is in front of them…

Pinkie smacks her forehead. She realized they accidentally did a U-turn during the swerving. This is quickly validated when she sees a huge mob coming from straight ahead, and behind the auctioneer.

The auctioneer laughs, but then the pony he punched suddenly gets up and grabs him by the collar. The auctioneer stops laughing and glares down, as the two begin to scuffle.

“Other way! Other way!!” Pinkie yells, flipping around with the pegasus in tow and taking off again.

Pinkie is starting to feel the heat from the chase, literally and metaphorically. She was never one for endurance running.

“Can you fly?!” Pinkie asks.

“They bound my wings!” the pegasus cries.

Pinkie briefly glances back, seeing the pegasi’s wings are indeed tied together with some crude rope.

Before Pinkie can even think about how messed up that is, she sees a pony standing on the edge of some sort of make-shift tower ahead of them. He looks like he’s about to perform the underworlds nastiest 'Pony’s Elbow'.

Suddenly, one of the legs of the tower is smacked aside by a blue energy. The pony yelps as the tower falls, safely smashing out of the path of the two.

Trixie?!

The pair briefly stops to see Trixie keeping up with them from the side. “Keep going!” She yells. Pinkie sees her telekinetically hitting a few of the pursuers with various objects, and knocking over stands.

Trixie grimaces. She’s definitely being banned from this year's Unlawful-con.

The help from Trixie is nice, but unfortunately it’s just getting more ponies involved in the chase, reasonably mad at their stands getting trashed.

Pinkie looks ahead.

“Black tar! Come get your black tar!” One vendor yells.

Pinkie kicks out the leg of the table as she runs, causing it to spill out behind her.

A few particularly fast pursuers from behind get caught up in the slick, uncontrollable sliding forward.

“Feathers! Come get your feathers!” Another vendor yells.

Pinkie kicks out of the leg of this table as well, obviously.

The pursuers slip straight into the cloud of feathers in front of them, making them look like imitation griffons.

Pinkie looks back briefly, and can’t help but laugh. “Ahaha!”

She turns back forward, only to see a pegasus swooping straight towards her.

“Ahaha— AHHHHH” She barely ducks it.

The captive pegasus has the intuition to duck as well. The pursuing pegasus stops at the other side in the air, and is about to swoop again when he gets hit with a small rock flung by Trixie, being enough to knock him away.

Pinkie looks back to see where he fell, but sees something else.

Strangely, some of their pursuers are inexplicably freaking out. They look like they’re reacting to things that aren’t actually there, like one of them stopping, dropping, and rolling. Another one desperately tries to reach for something on his back, spinning around while screaming.

This place is a freak show.

Eventually, the duo manage to ‘escape’ the market, coming into a completely empty area – however, it’s empty for a good reason. They’re right next to a giant cliff.

Pinkie bites her lip. This was NOT the way they came in from.

She turns around, only to see a small army has congregated behind her, spilling out of the market’s various crevices.

Trixie manages to get through the crowd, and joins the duo.

The auctioneer shoves his way to the front, some fresh bruises on his face along with a dented hat, but he still locks his eyes on the trio.

“It was fun, but this is the end of the line.” he barks. “I hope you’re prepared to serve as indentured servants for the rest of your lives!”

Pinkie and Trixie scan their surroundings. Every possible path is blocked.

Except… maybe for one.

The crowd approaches slowly.

“There’s nowhere to run!” one of them says.

Pinkie looks behind her. There’s no other option.

“Except for one!”

Without hesitation, she grabs the bonds tying up the pegasus’s wings, and manages to pull them off. The pegasus quickly looks back, her freed wings spreading out.

Trixie’s eyes widen.

“Pinkie! What are you— AHHHHHHHH!!!”

Pinkie grabs both of them tightly, before jumping off the cliff. The bag of bits slips off of Trixies back.

“NO!” She yells, as they fall.

The three disappear past the edge.

There’s a pause.

The crowd is flabbergasted. They run up to the edge of the cliff. After quickly tearing apart the bag and pillaging its contents, they look off the edge, trying to see where the three splatted. But instead, they see a strange and tall shape in the distance.

Sure enough, they see something tall flying – no, gliding away.

The pegasus keeps her wings as taut as possible, scared out of her mind. Pinkie holds onto one of the pegasus’s legs, while also holding onto one of Trixies fore-legs below her. The three look like a monkey chain.

Trixie’s horn glows, using her magic to lessen the weight she and Pinkie inflict on the poor pegasus. It’s shoddy, but the three are safely floating off. The Unicorns face is one of anguish due to losing the money, but she keeps them afloat anyways.

The auctioneer is the first to react to the absurd display.

“WHAT!”

He snatches a flintlock from a nearby pony, and aims it at the trio. Pinkie looks back, her eyes nearly bulging out her head. They’re screwed now.

The auctioneer aims a bit shakily… but he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger.

He groans, throwing the weapon aside, before turning around and walking away from the cliff.

Perhaps he had a change of heart?

With the trio out of reach for all but the bravest of pegasi, and the main instigator having given up, the crowd slowly deteriorates, sulking back towards the damaged market.

Pinkie, still looking back, notices the same robed pony from before still looking at them, now alone at the edge. He looks like he’s laughing, but she can’t hear anything from this distance.

What a creep.

Turning back around, they have much bigger problems ahead of them. That being that there appears to be nothing ahead of them.

“D-do you know where we’re going… Trixie..?” Pinkie asks, a bit worried.

“No, Pinkie. We’re literally floating off into literal darkness. I do NOT know where we are going.”

The pegasus just whimpers.

The three simply glide off into the unknown.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 6 - Pathfinding

Incident Report 1/4/00
EN/R/E/C

EXTREME CONFIDENTIALITY. ANY NON-AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ACCESSING THIS FILE WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED AND SUBJECT TO MANDATORY RE-EDUCATION.

SPAV-3 and Escort travel through planned route of Charlie Compound outer zone. Operational objective is to clear out Hovel Tribe involved in previous incident (See: Incident - 12/29/99 - EN/R/H/C).

SPAV-3 and Escort are stopped by obstruction on the path. Indeterminate but sizable quantity of Hovel warriors ambush SPAV-3 and Escort from nearby cliffsides. Ground below and around SPAV-3 and escort begins to collapse, presumably from excess of rapidly moving weight above. Ground fully collapses. SPAV-3 and deceased members of Escort descend off the cliffside.

Within SPAV-3, unidentified Hovel POW (Earthen, mare, orange haircoat, yellow mane, muscular build) renders two Enclave combative-personnel unconscious, before being engaged by Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle. POW begins to strangle Pathfinder. Sudden lurching of SPAV-3 throwing both POW and Pathfinder off balance. POW and Pathfinder briefly work together to try and open the emergency sealed side-door. POW and Pathfinder rendered unconscious from SPAV-3’s descent off the cliffside. No more footage available.

Crew Log
Major Pane (CO, MIA)
Driver Hitte Brakes (KIA)
Co-Driver Flore Ret (KIA)
Combative Cran Eyter (KIA)
Combative Jare Head (KIA)
Combative Nay Palm (KIA)
Combative Urey Nator (KIA)
Combative Stew Bid (KIA)
Combative I.P Freely (KIA)
Combative Deyz Nats (KIA)
Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle (Recovered)

Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle recovered at SPAV-3 wreck-site exactly three days after descent. Minor injuries present, but mainly unharmed.

POW's body has not yet been found as of 1/4/00. POW Presence within SPAV-3 presumed to be the reason for Incident - 1/4/00 - EN/R/E/C.

Tracking and recovery of POW is considered a top priority as of 1/4/00.

Twilight silently sits at one side of a small table. A ceiling lamp shines above her head, with a small droning.

While being interrogated wasn’t her first thought of what would happen when being returned to the Compound, she honestly can’t say she’s very surprised. She’s heard before that this sort of thing happens during ‘incidents’ to most ponies involved, even if they’re the victims or something similar. They even confiscated her satchel for the time being.

After being extracted by the Enforcers, she was sent to the medical wing for a brief check-up. Thankfully, nothing was wrong with her besides some superficial scrapes and bruises. However, they barely gave her a few minutes to rest before they plopped her down here. Her bandages still feel fresh on her face and head.

Twilight looks at the room around her.

It’s sterilized and flat, little more than a metal box with a table and chairs. She scans around the walls and ceilings a little, not able to spot a camera or anything like that; but she doesn’t doubt that there’s one anyways.

Her eyes have trouble staying open. She wishes they gave her a few hours to sleep on an actual bed.

She isn’t sure what questions they’re going to ask, nor what she should expect. Answering as truthfully as possible should hopefully minimize any potential issues. Although she does wonder who is going to be doing the interrogating.

Right on time, the reinforced door swings open. Twilight slightly leans over, seeing a figure emerge from it. Her tired eyes widen a little.

A tall and sharply dressed unicorn comes into view, with a gentle looking demeanor. Her silvery coat and purple mane contrast against her black uniform.

“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. I’ve heard quite a bit about your escapade.” The commander says with a smile.

Twilight immediately recognizes her as Commander Moonlight Raven — the leader of Charlie Compound.

She’s seen or heard her before through means such as posters or broadcasts, but she’s only ever witnessed her in-person once or twice, and only through impersonal speeches addressed to the entire Compound at-large.

It’s almost surreal seeing her so close.

She stares at the commander with a bit of a deadpan face, unsure of what to say or do. Should she salute or something? She’s not a soldier, though. What should she—

Raven interrupts her train of thought, magically pulling out the chair for herself before taking a seat.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, with a tinge of care.

“Fine, I guess. Kinda tired.”

Raven nods slightly.

“I can imagine. Why, for an Aspirant such as yourself, it’s honestly a miracle that you survived relatively unharmed.”

Twilight’s face goes blank. She completely forgot.

If an Aspirant in the final step isn’t able to complete their first expedition for whatever reason, it won’t count towards becoming a Pathfinder. Is Raven seriously saying that she had to deal with all that crap and it didn’t even matter?!

Twilight probably would've screamed if she wasn’t face to face with the most powerful person in the entire Compound — and also that she’s probably being recorded.

She shakes a little, trying to compose herself.

“Y-yes… a miracle…” she croaks.

The commander lightly smirks.

“I’d like to discuss some of the events of the past few days, if that’s alright with you?” Raven asks, phrasing the question like Twilight has a choice in the matter. But the unicorn has a feeling that she doesn't.

“Okay.”

Raven wastes no time getting into the meat of things.

“When Co-Driver Flore Ret hit SPAV-3’s panic button, it began the emergency recording log. I saw in the footage how a few soldiers were apparently physically striking the Hovel prisoner, but not what led to that occurring. Do you know what happened before that moment?”

Twilight thinks. She remembers the soldiers telling her how she’d be ‘re-educated’ for ‘sympathizing’, with no reason besides listening to Jack’s story.

Should she tell Raven what Jack told her? There’s a chance that Raven is bluffing her, and actually has the full video log. If she doesn’t answer fully or truthfully then that could bring her under suspicion.

“Due to feeling like my presence in the expedition was unreceptive by the soldiers, I decided to want a one-on-one ‘interview’ with the prisoner, with the soldiers leaving me and her alone—”

“That’s against protocol, though.” Raven interrupts.

Twilight blinks. “Well, I didn’t know that.” She lies. “Surely it should've been the soldiers responsibility to know, though?”

Raven squints slightly.

“Go on.”

“After the soldiers left us, the prisoner began to tell me some crazy story about how the Enclave was the aggressors, and how they were the victims. I didn’t believe it one bit.”

Regardless of how Twilight actually feels, she decides she shouldn’t even be tempting fate about the Hovel stuff, especially when she doesn’t know how Raven personally feels about the matter.

Raven chuckles slightly.

“A classic Hovel lie. They always claim that they’re innocent, instead of the bloodthirsty barbarians they actually are.”

Well, at least Twilight knows where she lies on this subject now.

“During the ‘interview’, the soldiers were actually secretly listening in using a discarded radio, and burst out of a back room of the SPAV when they heard something they didn’t like. That’s when they began beating the prisoner. A little after that, a spear flew into the cabin and hit the pilot, and that’s when the emergency button was hit.”

Raven shakes her head slightly at the incompetence of the soldiers, but appears to condone Twilight’s retelling of events.

“During the attack, I saw that you and the Hovel appeared to get into some sort of fight. After she got the upper hand, it appeared that the two of you briefly worked together to try and escape the falling SPAV.”

Raven leans in slightly.

“Care to explain why you did so instead of continuing to try and incapacitate the prisoner?” she asks, a bit more serious.

Twilight sweats a bit. She needs a compelling and reasonable answer.

“I decided that the information I gained from the interview was worth getting back to the Epistrey at any cost. Even if it required working together with an enemy to ensure my survival. Of course, I planned to get away or kill the Hovel if we managed to escape from the immediate danger.”

“Hm.”

Raven leans back, expression softening slightly. Twilight can’t tell if she was fully convinced, but at least she came up with something.

“During the crash, the recording systems were shut offline, I assume from damage to the SPAV itself. This means we were unable to see what happened during the two days you were stuck at the bottom of the cliff-side. When the Enforcer teams actually did reach the cliff-side, we found that the Hovel was nowhere to be seen, alive or otherwise.”

Raven narrows her eyes.

“I noticed that the Hovel appeared to sustain much more serious damage during the tumble than you, and I presume that you managed to regain consciousness before she did.”

Twilight internally groans. Did Raven seriously think about that off of pure intuition alone?!

“If you DID regain consciousness before the Hovel… why did you not kill them? A few Enforcers spotted you using a flintlock against that… what was it… Dust Sucker. Surely you could've just strolled over to the Hovel and executed them, yes?” She asks, a bit suspicious.

Twilight gets nervous again.

She could try to say that Jack actually woke up before she did, but then it wouldn’t make sense why she wasn’t killed while defenseless. Regardless of what Raven claims the Enforcers did or didn’t see during the extraction, she’s sure that if they did spot Jack, they would've killed her immediately, making her think they never saw Jack at all.

But there’s one more piece — the camera.

Raven says the camera went out, but she doesn’t have any idea how true this is either. Twilight also doesn’t know WHERE the camera was positioned within the SPAV. Assuming it was still active the entire time, and also located somewhere at the front of the SPAV and facing towards the back, it would've seen everything she did with Jack.

The talks, the meals, the entire fight against the Dusk Sucker.

Twilight banks on the camera being in one of the corners, presuming that since both the back and front were ripped off during the tumble, this means the camera, whichever corner it was, would've likely been torn off too. If she’s wrong about this, then she’s screwed.

“I woke up before the Hovel did, yes, but they woke up shortly after, and began being aggressive. I decided to not fight it out, and instead used the flintlock to scare them off from the wreck.”

Raven raises an eyebrow.

“And you let them leave instead of… disposing of them, why?”

Twilight internally curses under her breath. She misstepped. She needs to recover this somehow.

“I was worried I would miss the shot. If I did, I would have surely been an easy victim to the prisoner. While I do know how to reload the flintlock, I’m afraid that I don’t have the practice to reload it in time to deal with a charging assailant.”

Raven, albeit seemingly a bit disapproving, seems content with this explanation. She pushes out her chair and gets to her feet.

“Alright. This concludes our discussion. After this talk is properly logged, you will be free to go.”

Twilight knew this entire discussion would be recorded, but still grimaces internally. She needs to tread lightly to avoid poking holes in her own story now.

As she turns to depart, she suddenly stops for a moment, before smirking.

“Oh, and by the way. Due to your extraordinary bravery in light of this experience, I’ve decided to go out on a limb for you. I’ve put a personal commendation on your log… Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle.”

She turns back to the door, before leaving the room.

Twilight perks up a little, mouth agape.

Twilight groans in relief as she enters her new Pathfinder quarters, dropping a few of her moving bags. Finally, she can wind down.

She immediately throws herself onto her new bed, sinking into the mattress a little. She hasn’t slept in an actual bed in… well, three days. Which isn’t really that long when you think about it, but still!

She rolls on her back, head on a pillow.

She honestly wishes she could fall asleep right now for somewhere between twenty and thirty hours, but the interrogation is still fresh on her mind.

Did she answer the best she could? Was Raven being nice just to lull her into something, or is she actually like that? Was Raven being truthful about what she did or did not know?

Her mind racing, one thought suddenly pops to the front of the rest. A sudden realization.

Why would Commander Raven specifically point out her being an ‘Aspirant’, if she personally promoted Twilight to being a Pathfinder? Did she only do it because of how she answered during the interrogation?

Did she do it on purpose?

Twilight can’t imagine why she would do that. It made have unneeded stress, and she feels like she could have answered better without it.

Unless… making her stressed was the point.

What if Raven wanted her to slip up about something?

Twilight still can’t imagine why she would do that either. To her knowledge at least, she hasn’t done anything to draw any suspicion.

She tries to shake it off.

For all she knows, she could be overthinking it. Maybe the opposite is true, and Raven only told her she was a Pathfinder at the end in order to prevent anything like giddiness getting in the way of concise answers.

Besides, if the Commander of the compound thought she was a Hovel sympathizer or traitor or something of the like, she’d probably have Enforcers banging on her door right now.

Trying to shut out the thoughts, Twilight retrieves Smarty Pants from one of her bags, before wrapping herself up in some covers. She manages to fall asleep surprisingly quickly.

BUM BUM BUM BUM

An indeterminate amount of time later, Twilight’s eyes shoot open to the sound of banging on her door. The blood vessels in her eyes are clearly visible.

Half awake, but her mind racing as twice as fast as before, she begins to panic.

Is this it??? Is she going to be taken away for re-education?!

In auto-pilot mode, she leaps out of bed. She’s about to jump out of her window, before a shred of sane thought pulls her back.

She decides to at least see who it is before deciding to jump out a five story building.

Scampering to the door like a ghoul, she creaks open the door, looking out a bit fearfully.

Instead of being met with the Enclave Army, she sees Golden Harvest standing there, looking worried.

Twilight feels a bit bewildered.

“Wha— Gold? What are you doing here? How are you even at the Pathfinder Wing—”

Golden nearly sends Twilight flying with the speed at which she throws open the door, immediately scooping Twilight up in a hug.

“OH TWILIGHT YOU’REACTUALLY ALRIGHT I THOUGHTSOMETHING SUPERBAD HAPPENED TOYOU—”

“Too.. tight.” Twilight gurgles.

Golden isn’t even squeezing that hard, it’s more like Twilight herself feels like a loose bag of bones and skin right now.

Golden quickly lets go with a ‘sorry’, letting Twilight step back a little in confusion.

Sure, she and Golden are close friends, but they’re not really on ‘hugging’ terms. She’s not really sure why Golden did that.

“Why are you here, Gold..?”

She realizes after she said it that it sounds a bit rude, but she’s a bit too tired to make herself sound pleasant right now. Golden doesn’t seem to notice, or care, though.

“Once it got noticed that your expedition didn’t return on time, everyone started to get worried! I thought you died or something!” Golden says, a bit relieved.

Twilight looks a bit bewildered.

“How do you even know about that? Aren’t you a farmer? No offense, but I thought they kept stuff like that under wraps.”

“Believe it or not, the agricultural wing actually has a very elaborate gossip network. We probably hear things earlier than most of the other wings.” she says with a wink. “But don’t tell anypony told you that.”

“Oh. Thanks, I guess? I’m uh… glad you’re… okay too?” Twilight isn’t really sure how to respond, really just thinking about going back to bed.

She begins to slowly and awkwardly close the door, but Golden gently grabs it, stopping her.

“Do you think you could tell me what happened?” she asks, curiously.

Twilight frowns.

She wasn’t explicitly told to not tell any other pony about what happened, although it was probably implied. And the last thing she wants to do is have to recount her somewhat-false version of events again, and possibly mess something up.

Twilight imagines Golden might be the type of pony who couldn’t keep something secret very well.

“Uh… I can’t. I signed an NDA—”

“A what?”

“Basically I just signed a form that says I can't tell anyone about what happened. At least, not right now. Sorry.” Twilight lies.

Golden frowns a little, but can't argue with that. Her eyes widen a little.

“Oh! Almost forgot. Brought something for you!” She says, pulling out a small basket and handing it to Twilight.

A bundle of corn bread and a small smiley face note.

“Greaaaat. Thanks…” Twilight says, trying not to visibly grit her teeth.

“Well, anyways, I’m glad you’re back, safe and sound. See you around, Twilight.” she says, fully closing the door.

Twilight waits a few seconds, making sure Golden isn’t about to bust down her door a third time or something.

After the coast looks clear, she sighs loudly and jumps back on her bed, again.

She feels a bit bad for lying to Golden, but that small feeling of guilt is immediately drowned out by a much stronger one of exhaustion, with Twilight falling back asleep.

Twilight wakes up with the artificial lighting of the Compound shining on her face.

Now that she’s well rested, she’s able to think clearly. And think she does.

She honestly should be elated that she’s finally become a Pathfinder. The Twilight from a week or two ago would've been jumping for joy. But right now, it feels bittersweet.

It's unbelievable that just a few days could have shaken up her worldview so much – her perception of the Enclave. The way the soldiers treated her on the SPAV. What Jack told her. The possible mind-games Raven had going on.

The Enclave has always leaned on the authoritarian side. Something something small price to pay to maintain order or whatever.

But the things Jack said… that’s going way too far. That’s basically genocide.

Twilight knows that Jack isn’t even a reliable source. Of course she would say that the Enclave are the aggressors in everything, just like how the Enclave says the Hovel are the aggressors in everything. It would be completely irrational to base anything on her word.

But there was just something about the way it all happened.

Maybe it’s because Jack actually came to help her.

Or maybe it’s because she was finally able to pin a face to the actual pony, instead of just seeing some nebulous stereotypical barbarian in her mind when she heard the word 'Hovel'.

Twilight realizes she won’t get anywhere or anything done simply brooding on this. She needs concrete facts. Information. Knowledge.

Luckily, she’s just been granted the ability to access things that might help her.

Twilight gently removes various bandages, cleans and washes her face and mane, and generally just freshens up a little. She’s looked like a complete wreck these past few days, but she can finally look presentable now.

She dons her new Pathfinder outfit, a sleek gray and black jacket, and white under-shirt. The insignia of the Enclave lies on the side of one of the leg sleeves, a white three-pointed star.

Twilight can’t help but smile a little as she inspects herself in the mirror. She’s never been the vain type, but she admits that she looks good.

(Possible) Atrocities be damned, the Enclave sure knows how to dress.

She slips on her trusty satchel, before leaving.

Twilight immediately takes notice of the differences between the other wings and the Pathfinder one. While the other ones are by no means ‘bad’, the Pathfinder wing blows them out of the water. As opposed to wood and stone, Twilight can see the various halls and tunnels are instead mainly metallic, and even nicely decorated somewhat similar to the Epistrey.

Speaking of the Epistrey, it really is just right there.

Looking over a balcony on her floor, she sees the Epistrey merely a block or two away from the exit of the Pathfinder wing. Very convenient.

She glances at the wing on the opposite side of the Epistrey, the Aspirant wing. The damage from the explosion a few days ago is all but repaired by now.

As she continues to move through the wing, generally just exploring what it has to offer, she passes by some other Pathfinders here and there. A few give her some noticing looks.

Can they tell that she’s new? Or maybe do they know what happened with SPAV-3? Probably no point to dwell on it right now.

She eventually enters some sort of large chamber, sort of like a smaller version of the Compounds main nexus, but for the Pathfinder wing in specific. Every wing has one, but just like the previous areas, it’s much more elegant and high-quality than the other common areas.

Twilight passes by more Pathfinders still just relaxing about and talking with each other. Should she talk to them?

Aside from her regular social anxiety, she doesn’t want to risk possibly saying or doing something potentially wrong. She’ll hold off on that part until she gets some more experience. Besides, nothing wrong with a bit of looking around.

She suddenly notices one smallish structure a short distance away. It’s built into the wall itself, with a small currently—opened shutter at its top. There’s various tools and other items on counters and hanging behind on walls.

Some sort of equipment store?

Twilight frowns. She’s never been one for fighting, but it’s clear that being a Pathfinder might be a bit more dangerous than originally entailed… her mind drifts back to the various fights she had with Jack and the horrific encounter with the Dusk Sucker.

Something small wouldn’t hurt. Nothing wrong with self defense.

Twilight approaches the counter. An earthen stallion sits on the other side, leaning back with a tooth-pick in his mouth. He doesn’t look like a Pathfinder, which would check out considering he’s working the desk.

He notices her coming over with a small glance of his eyes, sitting up and taking the tooth-pick out, somewhat casually.

“Greetings, miss. What can I do for you?” He has a relaxed, but still focused tone.

“Hello. I’m looking for something I could use for self defense. Do you have anything in store?”

The shopkeeper nearly laughs.

“Anything in store? EVERYTHING is in store. Everything here is dedicated to making your life easier, and making the lives of whoever would oppose the Enclave harder. Or non-existent.” he heartily exclaims.

Someone certainly enjoys their job.

“Hm. What about a firearm?”

The shopkeeper raises an eyebrow.

“A unicorn looking for a gun? Never seen that before.”

Twilight frowns. Is he talking about her horn?

She rolls her eyes slightly. Non-unicorns don’t get how hard it is to actually do stuff like that. It’s a classic case of survivorship-bias, where the best unicorns are also the ones with the best magic, and also the most famous, and now every random pony thinks every unicorn can shoot lasers out of their eyes or summon hellfire or something.

The shopkeeper just shrugs.

“Alright. How’s this?”

He pulls out an obscenely large gun, nearly the size of the table itself.

“This here is the Ravager Mark 9. Breech loader. 3000 Joules of stopping power. Pierces plate armor like butter.”

Twilight’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head looking at the massive firearm.

“How exactly is this something for ‘self defense’?” she asks, a bit bewildered.

“Well. You point it at whatever is making you need to defend yourself, pull the trigger, and now there’s nothing you need to defend from.”

Twilight frowns. “Yeah… how about something more conservative?”

The shopkeeper nods, and puts the gun away. He takes out a moderate sized case, something the perfect size Twilight is looking for.

He opens it, revealing a comically small gun which takes up nearly none of the actual case. It’s smaller than a hoof.

“This here is the Pinner. Reliable, very easy to hide.”

Is he messing with her?

“How about something… LESS conservative?” Twilight asks, starting to get a bit annoyed.

But the shopkeeper looks as genuine as he did at the start.

“Hm. Alright. Here.”

He pulls out a moderately sized pistol

“This here is a special import from the Terminus Guild, a Ritt. Single-shot. They love these damn things. Personally I think they’re sort of a bust, but whatever.”

“How do you reload it?”

The shopkeeper seems a bit surprised at Twilight’s intrigue, but compiles. He pops open the cylinder, or more accurately, the square. Within the four-sided chamber, there's a single slot for a bullet. He mimics putting one in, closing it, and then pulling the hammer.

“Loaded.” he says.

Twilight’s impressed at the speed compared to a flintlock. Those things take forever to reload.

“I’ll buy it.” Twilight says.

The shopkeeper smirks.

“Aight. That’ll be 3500 bits.”

Twilight nearly chokes on air. That’s way more than she was expecting.

She groans slightly, but pays the bits. The shopkeeper takes it with a smile.

“Here. I’ll even throw in a free holster, some ammo and the Pinner for you.”

Twilight accepts the holster and ammo, but looks at the Pinner with some slight confusion. Is this actually a gun and not some gag? She just takes it anyway.

“Pleasure doing business with you, miss. Come again whenever you have a problem that needs dealin’ with.” He says with a smirk.

Twilight dons the holster under her jacket and slides the Ritt inside. She honestly feels a bit awkward. Hopefully she can improve her magic in the near future to not have to carry a gun everywhere like a cow-pony.

Deciding she’s seen enough of the Pathfinder wing, at least for now, she heads back to the Epistrey. She’s still curious what those rooms past the front desk are like.

After a very brief walk, she’s back inside the interior of the Epistrey. She recognizes the same clerk from there. Half of his face is bandaged up, with some visibly severely burned skin around them. The other half looks miserable, but less like he's sad and more like he's angry.

He notices Twilight approaching him, and just looks at her. The two stare at each other for a second or two.

“Hey. I was wondering if I could go over—”

“Pathfinders can freely enter or leave the back chambers as they please. You don’t need to ask.” he bluntly says, seemingly noticing her position.

Twilight just nods, and walks past him.

Poor guy. He probably didn't deserve whatever happened to him.

The back chambers are less impressive than Twilight expected, although she isn’t really sure what she was expecting to be honest. It looks very similar to the common area of the Pathfinder wing, just way smaller, much more refined, and a bit more… focused?

Nopony is really lounging around, they’re all doing something or going somewhere. Most of them are also Pathfinders as well.

As she’s looking around, a trio of Pathfinders suddenly approach her. She’s taken a bit off guard.

“O-oh! Hello.” Twilight says.

“Greetings. I take it you’re new, here?” A stallion unicorn says.

Twilight’s heart sinks a little.

“How did you know?” She asks, deciding to rip off the bandage fast.

“Quite a few of us heard about the SPAV-3 Incident. We recognized you from some of the recording logs.” the same unicorn says.

Twilight internally groans. Great. The first Pathfinders she meets personally have seen her scream and fight with a knife like a psycho.

“We were just wondering if—”

Another one of the ponies, a mare Pegasus, suddenly gets in the way.

“Did you win the fight?” She asks.

Twilight looks a bit surprised.

“Flitter! That’s not the proper thing to ask!” The stallion unicorn says.

“Whaaat? I don't see a problem with wanting to know the full picture, Comet!”

“I'm curious too.” the third pony says, another unicorn.

Comet Tail groans.

“Please excuse my friends. They’re just wondering what happened after the recording log went out… about the same time the SPAV began to fall fully.” he says.

Twilight slightly raises an eyebrow. Surely these ponies couldn’t be something like secret spies probing her for information or something… right?

“Well… after the SPAV fell off the ledge, the Hovel and I were sent flying and hit the wall, hard. Jack’s face wasn’t looking—”

“Who’s Jack?” Flitter asks.

Twilight eyes widen.

She misspoke.

“Er… I meant smack. The Hovel smacked face-first into the wall and got knocked out cold.”

“So you won?” Flitter asks.

“I… guess?” Twilight says, unsure.

“Yes! I told you, Rare!” Flitter says, poking the other unicorn.

Rare find grumbles as he hands Flitter some bits.

“So rigged.” He says.

Comet Tail flicks both of them magically. They both let out an ‘ouch’ as they rub their chins.

“Anyways. You seemed to hold yourself pretty well during all that. We’d like to know if you’d want to join our squad?” Comet asks.

“Squad?” Twilight asks, unfamiliar. She knows what the word means, but not the exact context in regards to Pathfinders.

“Team, basically. You’ll work with us, and we’ll work with you. It’s a co-operative effort.” Comet says. The other two ponies nod.

Twilight thinks on it. Having some more friends wouldn’t hurt, nor would having some more experienced Pathfinders helping her learn the ropes.

She just hopes these guys aren’t secretly really bad at being Pathfinders and are only recruiting her because nobody else wants to join them. That would be way too cliché.

“Sure. Why not?” Twilight asks. The trio smiles.

“Great! If you need any help you can come find us. We’ll look for you if we need you. My quarters are room 401 in the Pathfinder Wing, and I know where Flitter and Rare, in case you need them.” Flitter and Rare Find nod.

“Will do.” Twilight says, with a smile.

As the trio leave, Twilight bites her lip. She can’t slip up like that again. Hopefully none of them think anything of it besides a simple mistake.

She tries to get back on track. Using some convenient signs placed around, she navigates to the ‘Information Registry’. She was expecting something similar to the clerk, or even something like a library, but she’s rather confused and surprised at what it actually looks like.

There’s multiple secluded chambers connected together, each only looking like they’re large enough for a single pony. Some of them appear closed and sealed.

She eventually finds one that’s open, and quickly realizes they actually ARE only for one pony. Inside is a small room with a chair, table, and some strange device attached to a screen.

She sees some instructions on the side, reading them out.

“Close and seal door… take seat… channel magic into the receiver to navig—” She squints further at the words. “What.”

She has to channel magic into this machine?

Cautiously, she does so. Her horn glows as a light stream flows towards the machine. Suddenly, the screen turns on. Twilight metaphorically feels around for a little bit. She can’t explain it well, but she somehow inherently knows how to control the screen's contents. It’s like an entire library of closed books has been funneled into her mind, and she just has to open them with her thoughts.

It’s a strange feeling – having all the information in your head, but only being able to actually access it by looking and reading at a screen like normal.

She briefly wonders how non-unicorns would even access this, but decides that isn't important right now.

After combing through some categories and subcategories, she finds what she’s looking for. Information about Hovels.

Surprisingly, they’re actually separated based on different tribes. Twilight somewhat expected them to all be lumped together into one generalized blob.

Near the top of the alphabetical list, she sees it.

‘The Annui’

Opening up their file and reading their dossier, she notices many vague and threatening statements.

‘Kill on sight.’

‘Incredibly dangerous.’

‘Cannot be reasoned with.’

Attached to the file are dozens, possibly HUNDREDS of related Incidents. Skimming a few of those, she sees that most, if not all of them are incredibly gruesome or violent. And the Annui are the aggressors.

Twilight just looks in disbelief. Jack told her the Annui only ever attacked for serious reasons, or in self-defense. This tells a different picture, though.

There has to be a reason. What if Jack just didn’t know about these??? Or what if she didn’t know the full extent? Most of these are dated quite a while before Jack likely was alive.

No matter the case, whether or not Jack was lying about the Annui being innocent or not, this does corroborate Jack's claims that they’re always attacked. Although, she sees that maybe there's a reason why…

Hopefully, she can get to the bottom of this, eventually.

Commander Raven sits alone in her personal quarters, in near total darkness. The only light in the room comes from a large screen in-front of her. She glares at it with a deathly intensity.

On-screen appears to be various still-images of Annui ponies.

In the center lies the largest image by far, the face capture of an orange haired and yellow maned mare.

She can’t help but chuckle to herself, a bit manically.

Soon enough, she’ll finally have her long awaited revenge on that entire clan of deplorable scum. The Annui will know her wrath.

And she knows just the new Pathfinder, also wronged by the Annui, who will surely join her...

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 7 - Dirty Thieving Ponies

Pinkie looks forward. Still nothing.

They’ve been flying for what feels like ten minutes, and they still are gliding over a seemingly bottomless abyss below.

Thankfully, Trixie is able to illuminate the area around them, but all that does is let them see clearly how much they’re in the middle of nowhere.

“...Maybe there’s ground all the way down there?” Pinkie asks, trying to stay optimistic.

Trixie simply reaches into her pocket and pulls out one of her last remaining bits. She tosses it away.

The bit quickly disappears into the darkness below, and they don’t hear any sound whatsoever, even after about ten seconds.

“Or maybe not.” Pinkie says, dejected.

She begins to feel tired from her position in this ‘pony chain’, with her having to hold onto both the pegasus and Trixie with one leg each.

Even with above-average strength, and Trixie helping lighten the load with her magic, Pinkie is starting to feel the burn from having to essentially carry both her and Trixie’s weights with only one leg.

In hindsight it probably would've been a better idea to grab onto two of the pegasi's legs with both her forelegs, and Trixie could grab Pinkie’s hindlegs.

But considering she essentially pulled them both off the cliff with no warning, it’s a miracle that none of them fell to begin with.

Looking up at the pegasus, she isn’t looking too hot as well. Her being quite a bit slimmer than most pegasi isn’t doing anypony favors either.

She wants to talk to her, but distracting her right now might not be the best idea.

“You think you can levitate us more, Trixie..?” Pinkie asks, a bit weary.

Trixie glances up a little. “I could, but it’s awkward. Any more force I apply might begin to interfere with our hang-gliders wings.” Trixie says, sardonically referring to the pegasus.

Pinke puts her free hoof to her chin. “Hm… what if you dropped off and then flew yourself?”

Trixie snaps up. “Are you crazy? I can’t levitate for that long!”

“Well what else do you have in mind?” Pinkie asks, a bit desperately.

Trixie shrugs, at least as much as she can manage with only one free foreleg.

Pinkie bites her lip. She doesn’t know how much longer she can manage this… they might have to-

“Look!” The pegasus shouts.

Trixie and Pinkie quickly look forward, seeing a rocky cliffside in the distance, similar to the one they came from.

The trio give a collective sigh of relief. Pinkie hopes they somehow didn't make a U-turn on accident again, though.

After a minute or two, they’re finally close enough for the land to be below them, but it’s a bit too far below them. Definitely not a safe height to just drop down from.

“Okay! Can you uh… go down?” Pinkie asks towards the pegasus.

“I-I… can’t… my wings are… stuck.”

Pinkie looks confused. “What? What do you mean stuck?? Can’t you just descend?” She asks.

Trixie clicks her tongue.

“Pegasus wings can sometimes get ‘locked up’, making them stuck in whatever position they were at the time... but it only happens to inexperienced fliers, usually foals.”

The two look up at the pegasus, who looks down with a face of embarrassment and worry.

“I’m not a good flier, okay?” She says.

Pinkie tries to not groan.

“Uh… okay… so how do we get down?” Pinkie asks. They’re going further into land.

“I could try to control her wings, but it might be difficult from this position.” Trixie says. “And also it might hurt.”

“What?!” The pegasus says.

“Just relax! It’ll be fine.” Pinkie says. She truthfully has no idea how it will go, but better to keep her calm.

The pegasus sighs.

“Just do it.”

Her wings are enveloped in Trixies blue magic, and begin to bend a little. The pegasi's eyes immediately shoot wide.

“OW! Hey!” She yells.

“I literally told you it might hurt!” Trixie says, still trying.

“And it does hurt! Stop!” The pegasus says.

The two fight over the wings, making all three of them begin to dangerously rock in the air, rapidly decreasing and gaining in height. Pinkie just tries to keep everypony together, literally.

During the struggle, they hear a few pops from the wings. Trixie quickly stops her magic, cringing a little.

Pinkie expects the worst, looking up with one eye, but the pegasus doesn’t look pained, in fact she looks relieved. Her wings also look like they’re moving freely again.

“My wings aren’t stuck anymore!” the pegasus says, looking down with glee.

Pinkie sighs with relief. “Great! Now lets—”

The three yelp as a large stalactite whizzes past them. As they look ahead, they see they’re flying into a giant field of stalactites, and are high enough to hit them.

The pegasus tries to come to a stop as fast as she can, but veers dangerously close to one of the rocky obstacles. Trixie gives them a telekinetic shove away, moving them safely away, but accidentally causing them to lose control, death spiraling downwards.

The three scream. The motion doesn’t let the pegasus easily regain height, nor let Trixie keep doing her magic on her or Pinkie, meaning they’re falling even faster.

Pinkie looks down, seeing the ground coming closer. She bites her lip.

She lets go of the pegasus and trixie, the three splitting apart in the air. The pegasus immediately corrects herself in the air, beginning to safely float down, while Pinkie and Trixie plummet.

Trixie manages to slow her fall using her levitation. She wipes her brow as she floats to the ground safely.

She turns back upwards. She needs to help Pink—

Pinkie on top of her, the larger pony splatting Trixie onto the ground.

The earthen opens one of her eyes. She expected the landing to hurt a lot more.

“Trixie? Trixie, where are you!”

She feels a tap on her back-side. Pinkie turns around and sees the flattened Trixie looking back at her with mild annoyance and pain.

“Oh! My bad!” Pinkie says, quickly getting off the unicorn with a look of worry.

Trixie sits up with a groan. “Okay… that could've gone worse I guess. Where's the pegasu—”

The pegasus also lands on top of her, splatting her back onto the ground with another groan. Thankfully, she isn’t as large as Pinkie.

“Sorry… I got nervous while landing...” the pegasus says.

Trixie shakily raises a crooked leg in response.

The three dust themselves off. After a quick check, none of them are seriously injured, besides a few bruises and scrapes, almost all of which belong to Trixie.

Pinkie is about to say something, when the pegasus beats her to it.

“Can you now tell me who you two are?” she asks.

Pinkie remembers telling her ‘not important right now!’ in response to that question during the chase. Now’s a better time than any.

Trixie looks a bit hesitant for some reason, but Pinkie scoops her closer with her foreleg around the unicorn's shoulder.

“I’m Pinkie Pie, and this is Trixie. We’re a part of the Travelers Troupe!” Pinkie exclaims.

The pegasus looks confused.

“What is that?”

Pinkie’s jaw nearly hits the floor.

“YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF THE TROUPE?!”

The pegasus closes her eyes and leans back a little from the shout.

“No..?” she says, slowly opening one eye.

“It’s just the most popular and known traveling group in all of the Underworld! Nearly everypony knows about us!” Pinkie says, with glee.

Trixie frowns. “Yeah. They know about the Troupe. Usually for the wrong reasons.” she corrects.

“Not our fault if some ponies don’t know how to have fun!” Pinkie says, undaunted.

She turns back to the pegasus, who still looks confused.

“Now you! What’s your story? I assume you gotta have something good judging by your crazy clothes…” Pinkie says, pointing at the pegasi's strange plant-like dress.

“Uhm… my name is Fluttershy. I’m from Gaia’s Grove, birthplace of the Earth Family.”

Pinkie blinks a few times, slightly confused.

“Isn’t that like the mythical Earth Family promised land?” Trixie asks.

“Mythical..? It’s not a myth. I came here from there.”

“You sure you aren’t talking about The Stem? That’s where most of the Earth Family—” Trixie gets cut off.

“I don’t know any ‘stem’ besides the ones plants have. I said I came from Gaia’s Grove.” Fluttershy says, reaffirming her position. I'm the send-off for this century, and the tenth one over-all over the millenia." she says, as serious as possible.

There’s an awkward pause.

“Can you give us one second, Fluttershy?” Trixie says, pulling Pinkie about twenty feet away and turning away from the pegasus.

“Okay. This mare is very clearly crazy. I was already suspicious when she said she was in the Earth Family, but this is next level. She’s like crazy squared or something.” Trixie says to Pinkie.

“What if she’s just like… really enthusiastic about it all? They say religion has good morals, right? That’s good!” Pinkie says, trying to keep it positive.

Trixie gives her an unapproving look. “It’ll be positive until she starts trying to cut us open and sacrificing us to Gaia or whatever.”

“Well what do you suggest then doing then?”

“We could like, sneak away?”

“We just risked our lives to get her out of that auction and you wanna ditch her as soon as it gets a little weird?” Pinkie asks, bewildered.

“YOU risked our lives to save her. Maybe there’s a reason why she was in that cage! I mean look at her!”

The two glance back to see Fluttershy simply sitting and staring into the distance. She scratches one of her eyes.

“See? She has to be hiding something from us!” Trixie says.

“Oh come on! You’re just being a mean mule. Even if she’s a bit weird and or crazy, I promise you nothing will go wrong.”

Trixie remembers that’s exactly what she told Pinkie before everything went wrong at the market.

“Fine. But don’t complain once we’re having to fight some giant tree monster or something stupid like that.”

The two turn and walk back to Fluttershy, who just looks at them with a blank expression.

“Okay, Fluttershy. Let’s not talk about ourselves for now, alright? First thing we need to do is find a way back to civilization.” Pinkie says.

They look at the area around them. It looks like a somewhat mountainous area, with large mounds of rock jutting towards the ‘sky’, some of the largest ones even meeting the rocky ceiling above. There’s a few natural trails going in various directions.

“What’s wrong with staying here? It looks pretty similar to Gaia's Grove…” Fluttershy says, pointing towards the untamed wilderness ahead.

Pinkie glances over to see Trixie twirling her hoof around her own temple while making a stupid face, gesturing towards Fluttershy afterwards. Pinkie rolls her eyes.

“Uh… we cant because... someponies already live in that forest."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind some more friends." Fluttershy responds.

"They dont want more friends! We need to... leave." Pinkie coughs a few times.

Despite her light hearted demeanor, Pinkie is starting to lose her patience a little. The last place she wants to be right now is in the middle of nowhere when it turns night.

Fluttershy doesn’t seem fully convinced, but obliges.

After a few minutes of walking, they come across a three-way split in the trail.

One path goes higher up into the mountains, another goes straight ahead, and the final one veers off into the woods.

“We should take the mountain path. It’ll get us a better vantage point of the area ahead.” Trixie says.

“No way! Let’s keep moving forward. It’ll be way easier than having to trek up the mountain too!”

“What do you care about it being easier or not? You’re an earthen, you could probably walk up a 90 degree incline.”

“Wouldn’t that just be a wall?”

Before the two can even begin to seriously bicker, they see Fluttershy beginning to walk towards the woods alone.

Pinkie nearly trips over herself running up to the pegasus, before flipping around and walking backwards at her side.

“Woah! Hey! Where are you going?”

“Into the forest. I know its embrace and warmth will protect me.” she says, not even looking at Pinkie.

“Erm… I know you have your whole Earth Family belief thing going on, but that looks like a completely untamed and wild forest to me. I wouldn’t—

Fluttershy gives her a side-eye.

“Are you going to put me in a cage if I refuse to stop?” Fluttershy says, clearly a bit agitated.

“...no?”

“Okay then.” Fluttershy says, continuing further towards the tree-line.

Trixie walks up next to Pinkie with an unsurprised expression.

“We can’t just let her go by herself, Trixie! Something bad will happen!” Pinkie cries.

Trixie shrugs. “If she wants to go, then let her go. At least she’s out of our mane, and we didn’t even have to do any morally questionable actions.”

She turns back towards the two other paths.

“Now then, as I was saying, the vantage point we could—”

Glancing back, she sees Pinkie running to catch up with Fluttershy.

“Oh, come on!” Trixie yells. She runs up to catch up with the duo as well.

As the trio walk through the forest, Pinkie is a little surprised at how it actually doesn’t seem so bad. It’s actually sort of nice!

Some good light, fresh air, and even the chirping of birds. Maybe she was just overreacting?

Her original thoughts are quickly validated as eventually the forest begins to take a turn for the worse.

The foliage becomes thicker and begins to wrap upwards, obstructing the visible light. The gentle grass and nice trees begin to become more dense and packed, and the chirpings of birds are replaced with both an eerie silence, and occasional unknown noises. Pinkie can’t tell which is worse.

Even the previously confident Fluttershy begins to look a bit worried. This isn’t similar to Gaia’s Grove anymore.

“S-should we turn back?” She asks, a bit fearful.

Trixie raises an eyebrow. “And get misdirected and lost? No thank you. We’ll keep moving forward, like you wanted, right?”

Fluttershy gulps. “Can we at least find some food?” she asks.

“Are you planning to eat rocks or something? There isn’t anything edible out here.” Trixie responds.

“What? There’s supposed to be all sorts of fruits and vegetables growing everywhere!”

Fluttershy lowers herself closer to the ground and begins to search around rocks and dirt, a bit desperately.

Pinkie and Trixie share a worried glance. Pinkie approaches Fluttershy slightly.

“Fluttershy, we can—”

Fluttershy suddenly screams in fear, suddenly scampering backwards. One of the rocks she lifted up has some black centipede-like bug underneath.

Pinkie, also surprised by the bug, immediately squashes it. She cringes as she wipes the bottom of her hoof clean.

Fluttershy looks appalled.

“Why did you do that!” Fluttershy cries.

“Wha—look at it! That thing is scary! Or at least, was.” she says, looking down at the now-crumpled bug.

“That doesn’t mean you should kill it!”

Pinkie looks bewildered. “You literally screamed because of it!”

“Because I was surprised! Should you destroy everything that surprises you?!" Fluttershy asks, noticeably heated up.

Pinkie looks over to Trixie. The unicorn looks equally as appalled.

“Pinkie… you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I thought you said the Earth Family was stupid like five seconds ago! Are you gonna lecture me about stomping on bugs too?”

“It’s not that you stomped on a bug, idiot! It’s what bug! That was a baby Death Crawler! Do you know how the adults find their prey??? Take a big sniff!”

The three smell the air. There’s a very powerful and pungent smell coming from the baby's crushed body.

They barely have a few seconds before they hear a large amount of rustling and skittering coming from behind them. It doesn’t take a genius to realize what that means.

“Run! Again!” Pinkie yells.

A gigantic black centipede bursts out of the tree-line, screeching. The three take off as fast as possible.

“What the heck is that thing?! Bug’s aren’t supposed to be that big!” Fluttershy screams in terror.

“Nothing is supposed to be that big!” Pinkie responds, equally scared.

Trixie tries to look around for something that could help them escape, but there's nothing except vines and trees around. Nothing to throw in the monster's way or anything like that.

“Can we fly out of here?!” Pinkie yells.

“I don’t think I can get high enough to get away in time with all three of us!” Fluttershy cries.

“Then fly away by yourself!” Pinkie says.

Fluttershy looks at Pinkie briefly, who just nods. Fluttershy whimpers a little, but does so. With a few gusts of her wings, she’s safely in the air.

Trixie looks at Pinkie with a scowl.

“Great! We’re gonna die while she gets away safe and sound!” She yells.

“Would you rather all three of us die?!” Pinkie retorts, still running.

“Well I would've at least liked to draw straws or something about who gets to live!” Trixie yells.

Her eyes widen as she sees the centipede charging at Pinkie.

“Watch out!” Trixie cries.

She flings Pinkie with her telekinesis, sending the pink pony tumbling safely away from the path of centipede. This, however, causes the beast to loop around and come back at Trixie herself.

Trixie gasps as she creates a protective bubble. The centipede slams into it like a train. She struggles to hold it. She’s never been the best at making barriers in specific, especially not now when a gigantic monster is trying to break through it.

Getting back up from the tumble, Pinkie sees the centipede wrapping its body around Trixie’s bubble like a snake, slowly adding more of its body-weight.

Trixie slowly makes the bubble smaller to try and conserve energy, but she’s slowly being crushed from the lack of space.

Pinkie looks in horror. She desperately reaches through her bag, for something, anything that could help.

The protective bubble, barely a pony-sized membrane now, begins to crack further. Trixie can’t hold it for much longer.

Suddenly…

POP!

The centipede shrieks in pain and writhes, body loosening away from Trixie. She looks up to see Pinkie threw a confetti bomb at one of its eyes. Besides covering the eye itself, tiny pieces of glitter slip into the various crevices in its carapace, causing agitation.

Pinkie frowns. She was planning to use that later…

The centipede, still writhing, is still a hazard due to its sheer size. Pinkie narrowly dodges being smacked by a part of its body, as Trixie levitates herself away to avoid being stabbed by one of its legs.

After some more writhing, it eventually re-focuses on the duo.

Fluttershy watches from above in terror, hooves in her face. This is all her fault! She can’t even bear to look.

The centipede shrieks once more, before charging at Trixie and Pinkie. Out of options, the two can do nothing but prepare for whatever happens next, bracing themselves while looking away.

After a few seconds, nothing.

They look back in surprise.

Not only did the centipede not attack them, but it looks like it's… fighting something else? Something in the trees?

No… it’s fighting the trees themselves.

Large vines and stalks begin to creep on and around the centipede from the nearby foliage and tree-line. It thrashes around, breaking many of them, but more come to replace the destroyed ones. They begin to wrap around the various parts of the beast, restraining it fully. It shrieks as it’s dragged away deeper into the forest from whence it came, out of sight and out of mind.

Trixie and Pinkie look completely flabbergasted.

Fluttershy descends from the air next to them, looking equally confused and also still scared, even babbling a little bit.

“I'm so sorry! I didn’t know any of this would happen! I made you guys—”

Trixie cuts her off.

“Apologies later. Let’s get out of here now before something even worse shows up.”

Pinkie and Fluttershy are all too eager to agree.

The three eventually escape the forest, coming back into a terrain Pinkie and Trixie are more familiar with, flat and rocky.

Fluttershy doesn’t click with it much, but she relents that this unfamiliar landscape is much better than whatever that ‘forest’ had going on. She still looks a bit shaken up, though.

Their whole days worth of mishaps has taken its toll. The three of them are exhausted and tired, and it’s even starting to become dark as well.

“We’re going to need to find somewhere to rest. Unless Fluttershy wants to go sleep in the forest?” Trixie says, glancing back the pegasus, who quickly shakes her head.

“Hey! Lay off. It was a simple mistake.” Pinkie says.

Trixie shrugs.

“Fluttershy, do you think you could fly up and see if there’s any sort of like… buildings or something?”

“You know, going up the mountain path and getting a good vantage point would've—”

“Shaddup.”

Fluttershy lightly nods, flapping up into the air. She looks around, squinting off into the distance, before spotting something and flying back to the ground.

“There’s like a… big… shack?” She doesn’t really know the right word. “It looks like it's… inside a cliff?”

Pinkie and Trixie raise their eyebrows. They assume there is some kind of building in the distance, but that Fluttershy doesn’t know exactly how to describe it or what it even is.

The trio cross over a small ridge ahead. Trixie's and Pinkie’s face light up.

It’s a tavern! Surely they can get some food and rest there.

Fluttershy doesn’t seem to have the same enthusiasm though, unfamiliar with the structure.

“What is th—”

She’s cut off by Pinkie and Trixie quickly trotting towards it. Fluttershy’s eyes widen as she rushes to catch up with the duo.

As they approach closer, they seem to realize what Fluttershy meant by ‘inside a cliff’. A sizable portion of the tavern lies within a carved out section of a cliff-side above the tavern itself. It’s sort of nestled into the wall.

They get to the door without much fuss, and enter it. Pinkie notices Fluttershy standing outside with a look of apprehension.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m… not familiar with this kind of place. What is it?”

“It’s a tavern, Fluttershy. You just hang out and relax and eat and drink and it’s nice!” Pinkie says.

That description seems to warm up Fluttershy a little bit, but she still doesn’t look fully convinced.

“Come on Pinkie, you’re letting the hot air out!” Trixie says from inside.

Pinkie grumbles at the remark.

“Just coooome on and you’ll see for yourself!” Pinkie says, pulling Fluttershy inside with an ‘eep’.

The trio look at the tavern around them. Tons of ponies sit at various tables or counters, with a few of them serving the whole mass. There even looks to be some sort of performing stage.

Fluttershy’s heart sinks at the sight of the stage.

“Am I going to be put into another cage?!” Fluttershy cries, a bit loudly. Some ponies give some strange looks.

Pinkie puts a hoof over her mouth quickly, chuckling awkwardly.

“Calm down! Whatever happened back at the other place was a super bad thing. I promise you it’s not like that here.” Pinkie says.

Fluttershy just looks at her, Pinkie's hoof still on her mouth. She simply nods a little. Pinkie removes her hoof with a small ‘pop’ sound.

Trixie scans the crowd, seeing a few unscrupulous looking characters sitting at further spots away from the door. Pinkie and Fluttershy don't seem to notice, but maybe letting them relax is for the better.

The three find a table for themselves, with Pinkie and Trixie pulling out some chairs and taking a seat.

Fluttershy looks at the chair on her side with some confusion, unfamiliar with the object. She looks at what the other two did, awkwardly and loudly pulling her chair away from the table, and carefully taking a seat. She then tries to scoot back to the table, just as loudly.

Trixie face-hooves, and levitates the chair slightly back to the table, with a bit of surprise from Fluttershy’s part.

An attendant brings them some menus.

Pinkie seems impressed. “This place must be nice! Usually they just make you have to guess what’s available!” She says, inspecting the options.

There’s various dishes like salads, pizza, vegetables, and pies. Pinkie licks her lips looking at some delicious and nutritious looking pear fritters.

Fluttershy tries to figure out what the correct alignment of the menu is, but also looks confused at the drawings of the food, even trying to grab one of the dishes at one point.

Trixie’s scans the options lazily for a little, before her eyes widen.

“Pinkie, do you see this? Look at the bottom.”

Both their eyes drift down, looking at a nestled away option.

Fish.

It’s apparently some sort of ‘dare’ item — “The Devil’s Catch”, fit with over-the-top red and orange streaks and visuals attached to it, like some scary face.

Trixie gags a little, but Pinkie looks slightly intrigued.

“Why not? Let’s try it!” she says.

Trixie looks at her like she’s insane.

“Ew! No! Why would you even suggest that?!”

“Come on Trixie, live a little! Try new things!”

“Yeah I’d like to live a little not die a little.”

“You’re just overreacting. You’ve probably eaten a fish in your life anyways! Experts say ponies eat one fish a year in their sleep.”

“That’s not true!”

“Ok yes, it isn’t, but still! Just tryyyyyy it come on.” Pinkie says.

Trixie groans.

“Fine. But you’re paying for it.”

The two realize the elephant in the room, or the pegasus more accurately. They look at Fluttershy still fumbling with the menu.

“What about her? No way she’s going to do it.” Trixie says.

“We’ll buy her a salad or something.”

“What if she freaks out about the fish?”

“Well let’s hope she doesn’t.”

Trixie can’t argue with that logic, so she simply shrugs.

Eventually, the attendant comes back to them.

“Hey, we’d like two of ' The Devil’s Catch's, one Mushroom Salad, and three waters please.”

The waiter looks at them with a sly grin and chuckle.

“Couple of dare-ponies, huh? I see…” he says, taking away the menus. Fluttershy, who finally figured out the correct alignment, frowns as it gets pulled away.

After a bit of waiting, the attendant brings back the dishes.

Pinkie and Trixie look at their plates with some worry, even with Pinkie being the one who wanted to try it.

It certainly doesn’t look like any fish they’ve ever seen, being entirely featureless, having no visible fins or extremities, and being a golden color. It looks a bit sandy. They do admit that it makes it a bit less intimidating considering they can’t even tell it was a fish, though.

Pinkie is the first one to take the plunge, taking a piece off and eating it cautiously.

Trixie looks with anticipation and a bit of fear. For all she knows, Pinkie could turn into some flesh-eating monster any second now!

The earthen chews cautiously, but she’s surprised. The meat is soft and actually pretty clean, being a shiny white instead of some bloody red. It’s a hard flavor to describe

“Hm… it tastes kinda like… ‘juicy’ bread? Bit salty.”

This description is enough to tempt Trixie, who takes a bite out of her own, cringing a little. She’s also pleasantly surprised.

“Hey, this isn’t half bad!” Trixie says. Pinkie nods, already taking more bites out of hers.

Fluttershy sitting on the other side of the table silently eats her salad, pretty content. Although she is curious what that weird yellow and white food the other two are eating…

As the three eat, Pinkie’s attention suddenly gets caught up by the stage in a further part of the tavern. She taps on Trixie's shoulder and hooves in the direction, both of them glancing over.

There’s some stage pony giving a stand-up routine, or at least trying to. He looks nervous, and the crowd around him doesn’t look very pleased either.

“S-so this one time I was over at the Terminus Guild right… man those guys love their trains. I was—”

“What’s a train?” Someone in the crowd asks.

“It’s like a big metal wagon thing that’s not important right now!” The stage pony snaps slightly, gulping his own tone.

“So I was on one of their trains, right… and they had like this little kiosk IN the train selling food? So I’m just like… hey! What’s the deal with railway food?”

There’s a horrible silence from every pony watching the routine, the only noise coming from the other ponies further away.

“Boooo!” One pony says, throwing a tomato. Other ponies join in pelting the performer who quickly gets ran off.

Pinkie blows her lips.

“That guy sucked! I could totally do that, easy peasy!” She says.

Trixie rolls her eyes. “Probably. But why bother? We should get out of here soon, I’m already feeling stuffed.”

Looking back towards her dish, her eyes widen as she sees Fluttershy nibbling on the fish. Fluttershy glances up awkwardly, noticing Trixie looking back at her.

“Fluttershy! What the heck!” Trixie says.

Fluttershy immediately recoils, looking embarrassed. “S-sorry! Was I not supposed to do that??? I thought we could eat each other's food…”

Trixie isn’t very mad about the food being eaten, more like what the food was.

Her and Pinkie share an equally worried glance.

“Fluttershy, do you know what that dish was?” Trixie asks.

“...no.”

“It was fish, Fluttershy.”

The two expect Fluttershy to react horribly, but surprisingly she doesn’t even blink.

“Oh. Okay. I haven’t heard of that before. Is it a fruit or vegetable?” She innocently asks.

“Its meat, Fluttershy. Meat.” Trixie says.

Fluttershy STILL doesn’t react.

“...is that a fruit?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

The two can’t tell if Fluttershy is messing with them, but they’re probably too deep anyway.

“Fluttershy. Meat is food that comes from a dead animal. It’s not a plant. You ate an animal.”

Fluttershy looks at the two of them calmly and blankly for a few seconds, the only change in her expression being her eye pupils unnaturally constricting slowly.

She suddenly begins to retch a little, like a cat with a hairball. Her eyes begins to tear up.

“Why did you tell her!” Pinkie says.

“What if we didn’t tell her and she kept going?!” Trixie says.

Pinkie tries to calm Fluttershy down, but she looks like she’s nearing a breakdown, even smacking at her tongue to try and get the residue off.

Pinkie physically has to grab her to stop her from making more of a scene. She’s about to put a hoof on her mouth again, when suddenly an attendant comes over with a small bill, putting it on the table. Fluttershy briefly pauses her break-down to look over at it, alongside Trixie and Pinkie.

“Wh—”

The Devil’s Catch x2 - 280 Bits
Mushroom Salad - 20 Bits

Trixie shoots Pinkie a death glare. Fluttershy doesn’t understand what the problem is, but the glare itself is intense enough to make her stop freaking out.

“Ah… my bad…” Pinkie says, with a light but nervous chuckle.

“Pinkie! What are we going to do! We only have like, fifty bits combined!” Trixie says.

Both their thoughts immediately drift to ‘dine and dashing’, but after an entire day full of walking and running, the last thing they want to do is get chased by an angry mob again.

They wrack their brains for ideas. Pinkie lights up.

“Oh! Maybe I can do a performance and ask for them to wipe off the bill! Surely if I can do a good one, they’ll do it!”

Trixie grumbles. It’s an unlikely plan, but better than nothing.

“Just hurry up. Last thing I want to do is tell the attendants we’re a couple of bums.”

Pinkie runs off to find someone who she could make that deal with, while Trixie just awkwardly sits next to the still quaking Fluttershy.

“W-what… what was its name…” she croaks.

“It’s name??? Wha— Fluttershy. It’s a fish. Those things barely have brains.”

The explanation didn’t seem to do much to help, though. Fluttershy keeps shivering.

Trixie groans. “Just look, here.” She makes sure nopony around her is paying attention.

With a poof of blue energy, a fish appears in-front of Fluttershy, on the table. It flops around, but doesn’t appear to actually interact with anything around itself for some reason.

Fluttershy pauses her breakdown, looking at the fish with a mixture of confusion and intrigue. After a little while, she seems to calm down somewhat.

She can't "feel" anything from the fish. Not like the other animals at Gaia’s Grove.

Fluttershy still feels nasty for eating an animal, but at least it appears to not be like the ones that she knows and cares about.

With another poof of blue energy, the fish disappears.

Fluttershy looks at where the fish was with a bit of confusion. “How did you do that?”

“Just magic stuff." She pauses. "But please don’t tell Pinkie I can do that.”

Fluttershy gives a strange nod.

“Oh… kay?”

Pinkie goes towards the back rooms of the Tavern to try and find the owner or manager or something.

She passes by one room with a door slightly creaked. She unintentionally overhears a conversation inside.

“When is the shipments gettin’ here?” one voice says.

“Just wait on dude. Have patience, or else.” another responds, with some venom at the end.

Pinkie quickly walks away from whatever was happening there, not interested in getting wrapped up in something else new already. After turning a few doors, she finds someone who looks like the owner.

He looks back at her. “Hello? Who are you?”

“Hey I’m just gonna give it straight. Me and some friends came here to eat but we can’t afford the bill.”

The owner raises an eyebrow.

“Oh so you’re saying you’re some dine and dashers?” He says, reaching for a bat.

Pinkie holds her hooves up defensively.

“WAIT! No! I want to ask if I could… do some work?”

The owner looks skeptical,

“As in?”

“There was some pony on the stage doing a horrible stand-up routine. He literally got tomatoed off of it!”

The owner bites his lip.

“Bah! I knew I should've stopped selling tomatoes during the routine… Anyways, what's your point though?”

“I’ll do a free show for you. On the condition that if I do good, you’ll remove my bill.” Pinkie offers.

The owner looks amused. “Really? You’ll do a whole routine just to strike off a few orders?”

Pinkie doesn’t blink.

“Alright. Sure. You’ll be up in ten.” he says, waving his hoof.

Pinkie looks surprised that it actually worked, but then at the incredibly short time.

“Ten minutes?! I can’t—”

“You offered it, now do it.” The owner says, turning away to do something else.

Maybe she didn’t think this through fully.

Trixie and Fluttershy sit at their table, waiting. They see the stage being cleaned up from all the tomatoes.

“Why did they throw all those perfectly good tomatoes?” Fluttershy asks.

Trixie glances over.

“Oh. Uh. Ponies do that when they don’t like someone, usually on like a stage or something.”

Fluttershy looks confused. “Does it hurt?” She’s never been hit by a tomato, so she doesn’t know.

“Not… really? It’s more like a sudden and easy way to show everypony you think something sucks. It also stains your clothes really badly. Try cleaning out the whites when they’re covered by red. That's how you get a bunch of pinks.”

Fluttershy has no clue what those last two sentences meant, but nods anyways.

Trixie looks back at the stage. She assumes Pinkie managed to get the deal going considering she didn’t come back and make the three of them jump off another cliff or something.

After a few minutes, there's a small horn from the stage, a few ponies going up to watch. The owner sits at a distance as well. That’s presumably the sign that a new act is about to start.

A few seconds later, Pinkie comes from the side of the stage with a stool on her back, eventually placing it down and sitting atop it. She waves at Trixie with a smile.

A confused Trixie waves back slightly.

“What’s going on y’all? My name is Pinkie Pie! Nice crowd we got here!”

The group of ponies watching don’t react one bit. One of them does a dry cough.

“So. Back from where I came from, me and my folk used to farm rocks. They still do, though. It’s a pretty sedentary job. Me, myself? I’m more of a rolling stone. I don’t like to stay in one place.”

There’s a few murmurs.

“I honestly gotta admit I never understood the point of rock farming. Like… we’re in the underworld! There’s rocks everywhere. Although I guess it’d be like comparing a farmer's crop to just eating random roots in the ground or something. Ponies can get really particular about their rocks. When a customer gave us their preferences, it was basically set in stone. Trying to argue with them would get you nowhere besides rock bottom.”

There's a few chuckles, mainly from some earthen ponies. Most of the crowd doesn’t seem very convinced, though.

“This one time my father was trying to teach me the cut and dry ways of pitching a sale. I really was a chip off the old block of that old man. Steady as a boulder, but he did have a heart of stone sometimes. Thankfully, I was able to chip away at it throughout my years. Anyways, while we were trying to sell one of the rocks, the thing nearly grew a mind of its own and started to roll down a nearby hill! I Immediately ran after it, but there wasn’t exactly a rock-solid foundation below me. I tripped and took a bad tumble, getting buried in a big pile of mud. Family was only able to find me from my pink mane sticking out, said it was like a ‘diamond in the rough’.”

There’s a few more laughs in the crowd. Even Trixie gives a small smile.

“Me and one of my cousins’ were out exploring a cave. I will say though, that stallion was overweight. Looking at him without a good light you could confuse him for a boulder. Anyways, we reached a tight squeeze. I went in first, figuring that if he got stuck, I would be able to keep going anyways. Unfortunately, the squeeze ended up being a dead end. When I turned to go back out, I saw my cousin got wedged in anyways! You can call that being stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

There’s a good amount of laughing now. Trixie chuckles a bit.

Pinkie is about to keep going, when suddenly the doors to the tavern burst open.

“THERE SHE IS!” A familiar voice shouts. Everypony turns over to look from where it came from.

The auctioneer from the flea market, alongside a few lackeys.

Ok, maybe he didn't have a change of heart.

“That pink pony stole from me!” He yells, pointing a hoof.

“Proof?!” Pinkie yells.

The auctioneer stammers a bit.

“Wha— what?! You want me to have a lease or something? You stole from me!” He says again.

His lackeys all agree with murmurs.

“Hmm… did I steal from him, anyone?”

“Nope.” Trixie

“No she did not.” Fluttershy agrees.

The auctioneer growls, recognizing the two of them as well.

Pinkie gets off the stool.

“Okay well, I assume we’re done here—”

“Hold on there missy." The owner says, watching from a distance. "Show isn’t over.”

“Dude, I told like… fifteen jokes or something.”

“Yeah, not enough. Get back on stage.” he says, clapping his front hooves. A few of his own lackeys appear around the tavern, menacingly.

A few of the more normal-looking ponies begin to move away from the scene, some even leaving the tavern. A few of the dirty looking ones in the back begin to get intrigued though.

Pinkie is about to respond, when suddenly another group bursts through the doors, next to the auctioneer and his guys.

“There she is! That’s the pony that stole from me!” A stallion says, followed by a few other ponies

Pinkie and Trixie recognize them as the ponies they pickpocketed at the trail.

The auctioneer turns to the stallion.

“They stole from you, too?” he asks.

The stallion turns with a bit of surprise. “Huh? Yeah.”

“Oh come on! I'm willing to bet like at least half of you guys are thieves.” Pinkie says, hooving at the tavern now full of various suspicious characters.

“Yeah, but… you stole from ME. That’s by extension all of us.” The stallion says.

The auctioneer smacks his forehead. “THANK you! See! This guy gets it!”

The owner watches all of this with an eyebrow raise, but sees an opportunity for some entertainment.

“Well… it looks like we got ourselves some dirty thieving ponies! And what do we say to them?” he tells his goons.

“All dirty thieving ponies will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the tavern.” They say in unison.

Pinkie gulps. She tries to run for the door, but the auctioneer and his guys block her, throwing her back. She stumbles back to Trixie and Fluttershy, who have also gotten up and tried to move away.

From all sides, the crowd surrounds them, slowly approaching.

Pinkie reaches into her bag and pulls out a prop gun, waving it around like a real one.

A few ponies in the crowd pull out actual guns, now pointing it at the trio. Trixie and Pinkie put their hooves up, along with making a confused and scared Fluttershy do the same.

“Well that backfired.”

The crowd makes an impromptu circle around the three, hovering like wolves on the prowl.

“Okay. Gimme the pink and yellow one and I’ll be out of y’alls hair.” The auctioneer says.

“No way. The pink one is mine!” The stallion says.

“This is my tavern, you morons! The pink one has an unpaid debt!” the owner yells.

During the bickering, Pinkie suddenly lunges forward at one of the gun-ponies, striking him away and grabbing his gun. She now points the real gun towards everypony.

There’s a few shouts as even more ponies pull out guns, some even using silly things like bows or slingshots.

She glances over at the owner who has a double barreled shotgun.

“Wh— Hey! Why do you have a gun that good?!” She yells.

“I got it from a pawn shop, girl. There's a discount for owners of businesses. Now give up!”

Trixie and Fluttershy look at Pinkie fearfully, who shakily holds the gun around her.

One of the thugs suddenly looks somewhere else strangely. His eyes widen.

“What the fuck!” he yells, pointing his gun at another side of the crowd. The thugs on the other side point their gun back at him instinctively.

“Hey! Woah! Bob?! What are you doing?!” one of them yells.

“T-the pink pony is over there..! Oh god! Why is there multiple of them?!” he yells.

He waves his gun around crazily, as thugs react in kind. Some more of them scream out similarly, apparently seeing different versions of Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Trixie all over the place. Eventually the entire tavern is pointing guns at each other.

During the confusion, Pinkie glances at Trixie. Her horn doesn’t glow one bit, however she’s slowly but surely moving her hoof around in a specific motion on the floor. Dry-casting.

“Trixie! I thought casting spells like that was something super hard that only super strong ponies could do?!” Pinkie hurriedly whispers.

Trixie seemingly grimaces due to Pinkie noticing, but relents. “Not important right now! We need to get—”

Her whisper is cut off by a sound outside.

WHOOOOP

An amplified voice pierces through the tavern's walls.

“THIS IS THE JUDICAR ORDER. YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST. DO NOT RESIST.”

Everypony freezes, mortified.

“SCATTER!” One thug says, trying to run for the door.

The door gets broken down by a large fully armored stallion pegasus, staring him down. Before he can even react, he gets smashed into the floor

The entire tavern erupts into chaos as people try to escape or fight. Multiple windows break as Judicar ponies charge in, some walls even exploding as more fill into the building, and some gunshots ring out.

Pinkie, Trixie, and Fluttershy hit the ground, covering their heads. Pinkie rapidly looks around.

Trixie looks especially horrified. “I-I can’t be seen here… I’m sorry!” She yells to Pinkie.

Pinkie looks back at her. “What?! Trix-”

Trixie has completely vanished. But not like in the way they do their little pick-pocketing, she actually just has completely disappeared.

“Trixie!?” Pinkie yells.

She barely has time to react as she dodges out of somepony thrown her direction, the thug crumpling on the ground next to her.

Getting to her feet, she narrowly dodges being striked by another one of the thugs. She responds with a hoof to the face, before being tackled by multiple Judicar ponies, pony-piling on top of her.

Fluttershy meanwhile, still cowers on the floor from the chaos above. She notices the auctioneer crawling on the floor towards her with a crazed look.

“YOU!” he shouts. He pulls out a flintlock, aiming it at her in close range.

“IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU ALIVE, I'LL HAVE YOU DEAD!” He shouts.

Fluttershy can only watch with horror as he’s about to pull the trigger…

Suddenly, a gray blur whizzes between them.

An armored pegasus grabs ahold of the gun, wrestling it away from the auctioneer. He barely has time to look confused before he’s rapidly pummeled by a barrage of punches, being finished off with a spinning kick that sends him smashing into a table.

Fluttershy looks completely shocked at this display of violence. It was so fast she could barely even see what happened.

Her shock slowly turns into fear as the pegasus turns around, looking at her.

Fluttershy expects to see some scary looking stallion…

But she instead sees a… somewhat gentle face.

A light blue coat, and purple eyes. Underneath her helmet, Fluttershy can barely make out what looks like a rainbow mane.

The two make eye contact with their stares.

Inexplicably, Fluttershy feels some sort of… connection. It’s like the chaos around them has slowed down to a crawl.

Fluttershy looks and sees the pegasus putting her hooves on her, beginning to pull her closer…

What is she doing? Is she—

The pegasus suddenly spins around while holding Fluttershy, throwing her onto the wooden floor.

“GET ON THE GROUND!” She yells.

Fluttershy barely looks up, confused. “What?! I—”

“GET ON THE GROUNNNDDD!” The pegasus yells again, jumping on her and pinning her forelegs behind her back.

Fluttershy screams in pain and fear.

After the dust settles, the tavern is a complete wreck. Basically every window is broken, as are multiple walls. It looks like a mosh pit happened.

Outside, a large amount of armored soldiers stand around, patrolling the area. A few metal-reinforced wagons are parked around as well.

Everypony is brought out in chains and having sustained various injuries. The auctioneer in particular looks like he got hit by a truck, needing to be dragged away by two guards.

Pinkie Pie looks around, curiously. Some distance away, near a torn out portion of one of the outer walls, a few soldiers appear to be investigating some mysterious crates and packages. One of them tears a package open, a fine purple powder spilling out.

“Knew it. This place was a Syndicate loading depot.” A soldier says.

The owner of the tavern face-hooves as he’s led away.

Pinkie and Fluttershy get tossed into the same wagon, luckily. The back is sealed behind them. As they look around, they see multiple other prisoners in the wagon as well.

Fluttershy huddles next to Pinkie fearfully, as Pinkie extends a leg over the pegasus, ready to protect her for whatever is about to happen.

Besides a few short glances, the prisoners don't seem to care whatsoever. They simply close their eyes or stare blankly in front of themselves.

Pinkie lowers her guard, a little surprised. Fluttershy still quakes.

"W-why are we being taken?" She's asks, shakily. She's a bit bruised and scratched up.

Pinkie sighs.

"We were just at the wrong place at the wrong time." She says with a shrug.

With that, the wagon wheels away.

After maybe an hour or two of wagon travel, they come to a stop. There's some chatter outside.

Pinkie perks up a little, expecting for the ride to be over, and for them to be taken off.

However, instead, there's some more chatting, followed by what sounds like rocks moving and a moderate hum.

Pinkie and Fluttershy's eyes wden. They both recognize that noise.

A gateway is being turned on.

The hum turns into a full on storm-like cacophony, as the wagon begins to move forward once more. Other prisoners begin to look distressed or scared.

Pinkie looks worried as well, not due to anything relating to the gateway itself, but...

They're being taken to a different Pocket of the Underworld.

The whole wagon is bathed in light, and then everything disappears into darkness.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 8 - Out Sick

Twilight really didn’t expect being a Pathfinder to have the amount of freedom that it does.

She always knew they were somewhat ‘above’ the all-too present restrictions and routines most other Enclave personnel had to live their lives by, but at this point she wishes there were specific tasks for her to do or something.

For the past few days, her pattern has been pretty set.

Comb through the information registry, hang out with acquaintances, write papers, repeat.

Sure, she always has the option of doing an Expedition, or joining another Pathfinders expedition, but she’s naturally a little apprehensive about leaving Charlie Compound after what happened with SPAV-3, at least for now.

It hasn’t been all bad, though. Her paper ‘To Kill a Dusk Sucker’ was a big hit. She’s also been able to give a nice amount of cash to Golden Harvest to help spruce up her quarters.

Twilight honestly has so many bits she doesn’t even know what to do with them. At first she wondered why the Pathfinder wage was so high, but then she realized she’s being paid by the Enclave and also buying stuff from the Enclave so she supposes it's more like a cycle or whatever.

One unexpected boon appears to be that using the magical interface of the Information Registry day-in and day-out has somewhat strengthened Twilight's magical ability. It’s not huge, but it’s still noticeable.

Twilight frowns as she looks through the Registry. She’s gotten quite proficient at maneuvering around it, but all this has done is let her see more negative things at a faster rate. There’s been a handful of Hovel attacks in the past week, more than half of which belonged to the Annui.

Severing her connection with the registry, Twilight groans. Simply surfing these files and incidents won’t do anything good in the long-run.

She reaches into her satchel, pulling out some sort of device. A communicator.

Maybe it's time for an actual expedition.

Flitter lays back on an extended chair, sunglasses on. Her front hooves are tucked behind her head, giving her a bit of an incline.

“Ahh… nothing like some good ol’ basking.”

Sitting a few feet away, Rare Find tilts slightly towards her. “You know the lighting here is artificial, right?”

“So what? Still relaxing.” she responds, flipping her turquoise mane.

Comet Tail just rests his forelegs on the edge of the balcony, watching ponies down below.

Twilight sits a bit away from the rest, looking slightly nervous. She’s about to speak up a few times, but relents every time.

Comet notices this after the third or fourth time, glancing over to the purple unicorn.

“Something on your mind?” He asks, curiously.

Twilight’s eyes widen a little, not expecting anypony to pick up what she was trying to do. The question makes Flitter and Rare Find turn towards her as well, also curious.

“U-uh… well… I know we’re just chilling right now, but I was wondering if you guys wanted to do an Expedition sometime?” Twilight asks.

Comet wastes no time getting into the details.

“Where? Why?”

Twilight recoils a little. This guy’s analyticism is giving her’s a run for its money.

“Somewhere in the Outskirts. There’s a few locations I want to check out, mainly regarding their Hovel presence.”

The three share an awkward glance.

“Uh… you sure about that, Twilight? Flitter asks.

“Yeah… uhm… wouldn’t you rather do something a bit less… risky right now?” Rare chips in.

Comet doesn’t say anything but he shares their expression of worry.

Twilight does her best to quell their fears. She waves a hoof dismissively.

“Come on guys, it’s been like, what? A week since the SPAV-3 thing! I’m good to go now.”

Truthfully, she’s just as worried as they are, maybe even more so. But she won’t get any better from just sitting around in the Compound all day.

Flitter shrugs. “If you’re really up to it, sure.”

Rare Find nods.

The three look towards Comet, who doesn’t look so convinced. But seeing that he’s outnumbered, he sighs.

“Alright. When do you want to go?” he asks towards Twilight.

“I was hoping later today, maybe?”

The other three look shocked. Flitter lifts her sunglasses with a bit of a laugh.

“And you guys call me impulsive.” She says, nudging Rare and Comet.

Twilight frowns. Should she have said a later date? Maybe she can—

“It’s a bit sudden, but sure. We’ll need to begin preparing now, though.” Comet says.

Twilight blinks a few times.

Okay then.

Twilight isn’t going to take any chances. She was woefully underprepared last time.

She dons a few pieces of weaved armor, a lighter version of the armor that combatives use. Hopefully this should help mitigate any possible injuries that could arise, or other more mundane things like falling a significant height.

She also packs a respectable sized first-aid kid. Bandages, cloth, antiseptic wipes, some painkillers, and last but not least a special medi-shot. That last item costed a small fortune, but it should be worth it if push comes to shove

As Twilight packs, her eyes drift over to her holster lying on her bed, with the Ritt still in it.

She picks it up, looking at it for a few moments. The goal of this is supposed to be about peace, but…

Just in case.

She equips the holster, sliding it underneath her jacket and weaved armor. Hopefully she doesn’t need to use it.

After traveling down to the Exchange wing, she looks around for the designated meeting spot with her squad. Unlike last time, no guard tries to accost her, noticing her attire.

She catches a glimpse of herself in a piece of reflective metal. She could probably be mistaken for a soldier like this.

A rather small and lightly armored one, but still a soldier nonetheless.

Looking around, she spots Flitter arriving in the wing as well. Her outfit is quite similar to Twilights, but even lighter. It almost looks casual.

“Hey Twilight!” She says, waving and walking towards the unicorn.

“Hey, Flitter. Do you know where the others are?”

Flitter puts a hoof to her chin.

“Hm… Don’t know about Rare, but Comet said he would be doing all the required paperwork and things before we could leave. Also known as the lame stuff.”

Right on cue, Comet arrives next. He’s a bit more armored than either Twilight or Flitter, but still not as much as an average combative.

“Sorry I was a bit late guys. Just had to finish doing the required documentation for our departion. Also known as the lame stuff.”

Twilight frowns.

“My bad. If I knew about that, I probably could have helped—”

“It's fine, it's fine. Consider this a freebie from me, next time it's your job, though.” He says with a laugh.

Twilight laughs too, but doesn’t know how serious he is about that last part.

“Do you know where Rare is?” Flitter asks.

“Apparently he came down with something. A little bit of me thought he was faking it for whatever reason, but when I went to see him, he was actually in the Medical wing. Might be something serious.”

“What? Aw. I hope he gets better.” Flitter says.

Twilight nods.

Comet doesn’t seem very worried though. “He’ll be fine. Enclave medical care is the best in the entire Underworld!” He says, reassuringly.

Twilight is about to ask something when she’s interrupted by a large amount of rhythmic footsteps. The others seem to notice as well.

Near the other side of the Exchange wings giant hall, a thick column of Enforcers walk towards one of the vehicle bays.

Flitter perks up, surprised. “Woah! Where are those guys going?”

It’s unusual to see such a large amount of them all on the move like that. Usually that size is only reserved for things like rallies or literal war.

“Apparently those guys are going to Kilo Compound. They’re really hemorrhaging ponypower against the Hivelings.” Comet says with a pause.

Twilight barely has time to ask any questions before Comet beats her to it again. “So, are you guys ready to leave?”

"Mhm." Twilight says.

Flitter nods in agreement.

“Alright. Let’s go.” the stallion unicorn says.

The trio head towards one of the exit points, one designed for a small group such as themselves.

After being identified and getting it confirmed that they are indeed the ponies they claim they are, they’re let in through a few segmented doors, like an airlock. There’s one more security checkpoint on the outside, before they’re finally released outside the Compound.

They all look generally a bit pleased by the change in scenery, but especially Flitter, the pegasus immediately flying into the air happily.

Comet chuckles. “What’s the matter? Couldn’t fly inside the Compound?”

Flitter sticks her tongue out. “It’s different out here, man! The outside air feels so much nicer… something only a pegasus would get.”

Comet raises an eyebrow. His horn begins to glow as Flitter’s wings begin to contort somewhat. She doesn’t feel any pain whatsoever, but she slowly begins to drift downwards even as she tries to stop herself.

“Hey! Comet! Quit it!” She says, trying to regain altitude, but continuing to float down until she lands back on the ground. She grumbles, looking unamused.

“What happened?” Twilight asks.

“This donkey just used his evil voodoo magic to control my wings against my will!” Flitter says, exaggerating her anger a little.

Twilight looks at Comet with a shocked but also confused expression.

He chuckles dismissively. “It’s just a little thing I learnt by combining an old skill with telekinesis.” he says.

“Elaborate?” Twilight says, intrigued but still confused.

“I used to be a chiropractor before I became a pathfinder. Turns out, many of the same principles there can be brought over to telekinesis… if you know them well enough.”

Twilight scratches her chin, confused.

But then her eyes suddenly widen.

She didn’t make her hoof do that.

“Oh the horror! Now the evil puppeteer has claimed another victim! Does his evil know no bounds!?” Flitter says, slapping at Comet’s shoulder a few times.

Twilight shudders a little. She gets they’re jokes, but still.

“That’s kind of creepy.”

Comet shrugs.

“Maybe. But I find it a great tool for practical jokes. Like can you imagine the classic hoof-cream prank but without needing a feather? You can just make ponies slap their own face while they sleep! It’s hilarious.” He says.

Twilight still feels a bit off, but ignores it for now.

Maybe she could even learn how to do it herself, later…

The trio travel through the outskirts for a bit. Flitter is able to scout ahead and spot open routes for them to take, while Comet and Twilight are able to combine their levitation to get rid of some pretty sizable obstructions here and there.

Although it does feel like Comet is the one doing most of the work.

After some continued walking, the group are in a sort of rocky crossroads, with multiple paths intersecting with various walls blocking vision and movement around.

Comet slightly turns to Twilight.

“Say… Twilight. Did you have any specific locations you had in mind?” he inquires.

Twilight thinks for a moment. Her plan was sort of just to walk around for a bit and see what they can find.

“Uh… I was hoping we could just explore for a bit?” She says, unsure.

Comet frowns.

“I’m not sure about wandering around without any destination as a goal. Moving about aimlessly this far from the Compound is just asking for problems. For all we know—”

They hear what sounds like footsteps nearby.

Flitter picks up on it first, flying up into the air to get a better view of anything or anyone nearby.

“Hm… I don’t see anyth— AH!”

She narrowly dodges in mid-air what looks like a hand-axe thrown at her. Comet’s eyes widen.

“FLITTER! GET DOWN HERE!” He yells, urgently. She immediately lands.

Comet creates a yellow dome of magic around the group, as they all look around frantically.

Eventually, the perpetrators show themselves.

A handful of Hovels, maybe numbering four or five. They’re armed with stone spears and axes. They slowly creep towards the dome like predators on the prowl.

Twilight is a bit shocked, but also sees her opportunity. She approaches the semi-transparent wall of the dome, one hoof out appealingly.

“Twilight, what are you doing?! Get away from the edge!” Comet yells.

She continues walking towards the Hovels, though.

“Peace! We come in peace! I need to see the Annui!” Twilight says, slow and steadily.

The Hovels look surprised and lower their guard a little bit.

Twilight beams. Is this actually working?

But then… they begin to… laugh?

Twilight squints as she looks closer at them.

They have distinct markings on their body, and much different clothes than the ones that the Annui warriors had in the SPAV-3 attack.

But her heart skips a beat when she looks at their faces, more specifically their mouths.

They have sharp teeth. Not like Jack's that were just a little pointed, these look like full blown fangs.

These aren’t Annui.

Immediately, the Hovels begin to slam and pound against the dome, making Comet visibly struggle.

Twilight scampers back, surprised. She fumbles for her Ritt.

“Can't… hold it for much… longer!” Comet yells.

Flitter pulls out some sharp objects out of her bag, tightening them onto her hooves. They look like claws.

She nods at Comet, who nods back. Twilight just stays near the two of them.

“NOW!” he yells.

He pushes out the dome with all the strength he can manage, sending the hovels tumbling back.

The first one to recover their footing charges at Twilight, but they’re tackled by Flitter. Leading with her clawed gauntlets, the Hovel is gouged like he got shot with a pony-sized arrow.

Twilight’s surprised at the damage she inflicts with her small frame.

She doesn’t have much time to be shocked, though. Another Hovel comes charging at her again.

She points the Ritt at them, trying to make the Hovel back off, but they don't. She flinches somewhat as she fires into them, leaving a nasty wound in their torso and sending them to the ground.

Two charge at Comet at once from different sides. Twilight quickly attempts to reload the Ritt, but she can't in time.

Comet steps back a little, letting the two smack into each other, but they’re already upon him again.

He uses a blast of telekinesis to send one sprawling away, while the other keeps charging at him. His eyes focus as he glares on the remaining one.

The hovel's face of maniacal cheer quickly becomes one of contorted pain. One of his legs suddenly snaps back at an unnatural angle with a loud crunch, definitely broken. Comet runs up and knees him in the face, breaking something there as well.

The other Hovel appears undaunted from what happened, or at least unaware. He charges straight at Comet as well. However, he steps near the body of his fallen comrade.

The fallen hovel’s leg shoots out towards his still-standing compatriot, spear in hoof. The charging hovel gets stabbed through the side and screams in pain. Comet forces the Hovels mouth to close so hard that his sharp teeth stab into his own face.

Twilight looks completely shocked at what she just witnessed in the span of a few seconds.

Don’t mess with chiropractors, apparently.

Flitter flies back around, looking around rapidly for any other hostiles. She doesn't manage to spot a Bola net thrown straight at her. She’s wacked multiple times by the stones impacting against her body, while one of her wings gets caught up and she quickly falls, screaming.

Comet barely stops her fall with levitation, but a Hovel comes from behind and wacks him over the head with a club. Twilight isn’t able to reach him in time as the Hovel lifts his weapon for another strike…

THWACK.

Flitter looks back at Comet with surprise. She heard a noise, but he wasn't the one hit.

The hovel looks completely shocked. He holds his throat with one hoof. All he can do is gurgle incoherently as he slumps dead on the ground.

Flitter quickly frees herself, and she and Twilight run over to Comet’s side. He’s dazed, but it’s nothing serious.

They look over at the Hovel’s corpse barely a foot away.

There’s an arrow through his neck.

It barely takes a few seconds for another wave of Hovels to appear, surrounding the area. There looks to be nearly a dozen of them.

“Oh come on!” Flitter says.

Twilight recognizes these Hovels as being the Annui. She immediately can tell one of them was also at the SPAV-3 attack, that giant red guy.

Twilight quickly throws her hooves up.

“We surrender! We come in peace! We want to see Jack! I know you can speak, so please do!” She yells.

Comet and Flitter look completely shocked and confused at what Twilight just said.

“What?! Who is Jack?!” Comet says, a tinge of anger in his voice.

The Annui look equally confused. The red one steps up though. He points at Twilight.

“She. Purple’ Unicorn. That’s who Jack talked' about.” He says.

Twilight feels a little relieved. Jack told them about her. They should be fine.

Her relief quickly disappears when the red pony immediately begins to charge at her with a fury in his eyes. Twilight scampers back as Comet immediately seizes him with his magic.

The red stallion is taken aback, feeling one of his limbs beginning to contort against his will. His glare sharpens though, and he keeps moving towards Comet like he’s in a wind chamber.

Comet’s eyes widen with fear and surprise.

The red pony punches him across the face, knocking him out cold in a single strike. Flitter and Twilight look with terror as the other Hovels begin to move in on them.

Flitter looks like she’s about to go full kamikaze on them all, but Twilight manages to hold her back.

The red pony yanks Twilight away, with a face of fury. Twilight expects the worst, but she instead has a bag thrown over her head, and is grabbed into the air, over the shoulder of the red pony.

He takes a deep breath of restraint.

“Grab both of em’ and load em’ up.” he orders to a few other Hovels, gesturing at Comet and Flitter.

Flitter has the wherewithal to surrender, being bagged similarly to Twilight. Comet’s unconscious body is simply picked up as well.

The three of them are thrown into a cart-like cage, and are wheeled away, with the red pony himself pulling it away.

The normally bubbly Flitter looks at Twilight with a dark face of pure anger and shock.

“Twilight... what did you do?" She asks.

It’s almost poetic. Now Twilight is the POW being transported.

She’d probably not feel as bad pondering about it if she didn’t have a pissed off Flitter and a knocked out Comet next to her as well.

Twilight wants to explain to Flitter what she was thinking, but decides maybe it isn’t a good idea within earshot of all the other Hovels.

The red guy in particular didn’t look very happy when he saw Twilight.

The group are transported through crevices and cracks of the Outskirts that Twilight never even knew existed. It’s like an entire secret part of the Pocket.

Eventually, they reach something that could only be described like a wooden fort.

Shoddily made wooden and scrap structures work together alongside the natural terrain to create something which can only barely be described as ‘livable’. The whole thing looks like the slightest force would bring it all down, but it appears its inhabitants are careful enough, somehow.

The three are thrown out of the cart and carried towards a deeper part of the whole construct. Various hovels aside from the group taking them in appear to follow or jeer at them, some even getting dangerously close.

At one point, the red pony even has to toss somepony out of their way for being too aggressive, ironic when looking at the out-cold Comet.

Eventually, the following Hovels are shaved off, and the group thins as they get further in as well, until they’re only a handful along with the red pony, and the trio themselves.

They enter some sort of deeper chamber, one that appears to actually be structurally sound. Twilight can see some sort of robed figure sitting at the end. Twilight can only assume this has to be the tribe's elder or something of the like.

Her and Flitter are thrown down and forced onto their knees, facing the figure. Comet’s body just slumps down next to them.

“Ah… you found em’. I assume” She says, in a light and raspy voice.

At closer glance, elder might have been understating it. This pony looks older than everypony in the room combined!

She approaches the actually conscious duo. Her skin is a light green, thin as can be. A long and white mane is visible under a hood, but most notably is her eyes.

They’re completely glazed over. She’s blind.

“Yes gran’. That purple’ one is the pony Jack talked’ about.”

Twilight sits up, at least as much as she can without looking like she’s trying to make a move.

“What did Jack say about me? I need—”

“Quiet!” The old pony snaps. Twilight does so, not wanting to aggravate anypony here.

She licks her lips, coughing a little.

“I don’t know’ how you know about Jack, but I’ll entertain you. We found her barely alive in the outskirts, with a broken leg and a sky-high sickness, ramblin’ about nothing except a purple unicorn and some sort of ‘fighting shot’. Got any clue?” She says.

Twilight freezes. Did Jack have some sort of bad reaction to the combat shot she injected into her? She didn’t even think that was a possibility.

“There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding. I didn’t—”

“Misunderstanding? How about you see her for yourself, eh?”

She gestures to the red pony, who goes over to another side of the chamber. He pulls back a stitched sheet, and sure enough, Jack lies on an impromptu bed of furs and grass. She looks terrible. Her eyes are barely open, she’s twitching a little bit, and also making occasional gasps.

Twilight looks shocked. Flitter looks surprised as well, but doesn’t know who this pony is whatsoever.

The old pony continues. “Yes, yes… we tried everythin’ we could. The best practices we got’ available… bloodletting… leeching… mudskinning… none worked.”

Twilight’s mouth is agape. “Of course none of them worked! You’re making it worse!” She yells.

The old pony snaps at her.

“Makin’ it worse? You’re why she’s like that in the first place!” She yells, hoofing at Jack's direction. The red pony covers the mare once more.

The old pony is about to say something, when Comet suddenly comes to. He groans, slowly awakening.

Some of the hovels get to attention, weapons ready, but the old pony simply waves them down.

Comet’s eyes widen seeing the scene around him. He immediately attempts to do his magic on the red pony again.

But… nothing happens.

His eyes widen further as he notices. “What’s happening… what did you do to me?!” He yells.

The old pony smirks.

“Nothing… permanent, at least. As-long as I will it, you won’t be doing any unicorn magic around here.”

Twilight briefly saw this sort of thing in the information registry. Something about Hovel ‘mystics’ and unnatural powers. Can this pony really disable magic?

Either way, it definitely seems to be working on Comet. He futilely tries to cast something, anything, but not even a single spark from his horn comes out. He slumps down, defeated

“Back on topic… the Enclave kidnapping my Jack is why this happened in the first place… so I might as well return the favor.”

“I don't understand! What are you gaining out of this?!” Twilight says.

The old pony feigns shock.

“Gaining? Nothing. Think of it more like… insurance?”

She coughs.

“As much as I hate to admit, the only place I can see gettin’ a cure for her is the Enclave. But why would I trust any of you dogs? They would be amazing fools to try and play me if I have you all in my hold, though… and if they still do, then that’ll be four Enclaves for the price of one Annui.”

Twilight is about to speak up, when Flitter cuts her off.

“Four? You said four?” She says.

The old pony gestures again. After about a minute, another pony is thrown into the room. Twilight recognizes him immediately.

It’s the CO from the SPAV-3 attack. What was his name again? Major Pane?

He appears to be alive, but he looks like he’s been ran over by a cart multiple times. He’s almost entirely covered with bruises and gashes, and part of his face is swollen. He’s also missing a significant chunk of one of his legs. He’s completely out of it.

“What the heck did you do to him?!” Comet yells. He has no idea who the pony is, but recognizes him as a Enclave officer.

“We beat him with various blunt objects and then pushed him down a flight of stairs a few times.” The old pony says, nonchalantly.

“Wait, you guys have stairs?” Flitter asks.

The old pony looks at her like she’s crazy. “Of course we have stairs! They’re an amazin’ invention, really. You push a pony down the top, and they’ll tumble’ all the way to the bottom and get super beaten’ up. That’s about as close to automation as we’ll get. Let gravity do the work for us, ya know?” She says.

“Do you guys like… have other floors to this place?” Flitter asks.

“What’s a ‘floor’.”

“Nevermind.”

“Okay. So. You’re just going to keep us hostage until… Jack gets better?” Twilight asks, trying to get back to something relevant.

“Yes.”

“And what if Jack dies?”

“Then you die.”

Twilight nods a little, trying to not scream out of frustration.

She suddenly remembers one of the things she brought in her first aid kit. The medi-shot!

Twilight reaches into her bag. “Look, I have this device which I think can cure her, but—”

The red pony yanks her satchel away, tearing it off its handle. Twilight looks with shock.

“Do you think I’m stupid, girl? As if I would allow you to inject her with ANOTHER one of your poison sticks!” The old pony barks.

She steps away from her seat.

“You’re lucky that I’m even being lenient enough to let you remain alive… my forefathers would have cut you down before you even would have had time to know what happened to you. That’s all you dirty Enclave dogs deserve. A slow death wouldn’t even be good, as it would make us have to waste more time not cleaning you filth from this underworld. You—”

“Er. Granny. You’re facing a wall.” The red pony says.

Granny blankly stares towards one of the stone walls.

“Oh.”

She turns to the trio. “You’re luck—”

“Okay we got it. Can you just send us to your prison or something already?” Flitter asks.

Granny scoffs. “Tch! So impatient, you youngsters. Yes. Throw them into the hold.” She says.

Flitter and Twilight are grabbed by the red pony and slung over his back, while some others grab Comet and the unconscious Major Pane.

The four of them are tossed into some sort of gigantic cell made of vines and logs. They land with a splatter of mud and small rocks.

Immediately, Flitter and Comet turn to Twilight, glaring at the unicorn.

“Okay so maybe I wasn’t being entirely honest with you guys about what happened.” Twilight says, nervously.

“You think?” Flitter says.

Twilight explains the run-down of events. The full wreck, the fights with Jack, her saving her from falling, the talks they had, Jack saving her from the Dusk Sucker, everything.

They seem skeptical, especially at the idea of a Hovel being able to act anything like Jack was at the wreck, even more so considering how they’ve just been captured and tossed around silly by the same group of Hovels.

Notably, though, they’re also upset at Twilight in particular for not only holding out the truth on them, but lying to them and getting them into this situation. If not for the literal cage surrounding them, they probably would've ditched her already.

The most they can settle for is sitting in a different corner and turning away.

Twilight feels bad for a little while, but her expression hardens.

“Come on guys. Are we really just going to rot away here because you’re mad at me?” She asks.

“Perhaps.” Flitter says.

Twilight face-hooves.

“How was I supposed to know how you guys would react if I told you the truth?! I didn’t—”

“Maybe we could have helped you. But no. You decided to get us wrapped into this with us being none the wiser. Thanks.” Comet says.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? But can we at least save the moping until AFTER we manage to get out of here?” Twilight asks.

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Comet asks, still not looking her way.

“I have a plan. I brought with me a medi-shot. If we can deliver it to Jack—”

“Amazing plan. Heal her up. What’s she gonna do next? Beat us up as well?” Comet asks, pretty bruised up.

Twilight frowns. “You heard the old pony. If she’s healed, then we can leave.”

“And you trust her?” Flitter asks, in disbelief.

“Do we have a choice? If she wanted to, she’d have killed us already.” Twilight retorts.

Comet sighs.

“You know, I still don’t like how you got us into this mess. At least if we fail, we probably won’t have to deal with being here forever on account of being killed. What’s your plan?” He asks, reluctantly.

Flitter looks shocked, but turns over as well.

Twilight crouches a little.

“Okay. So…”

Twilight, Flitter, and Comet lay on the floor, unmoving.

Suddenly, Major Pane springs to life. He begins to bang on the logs of the prison, loudly. Some hovels show up to investigate the ruckus.

“Quit it!” One shouts.

The other hovel pokes at his fellow. “Hey look. The dog doesn’t wanna be in the cage! Bwahaha!”

The other hovel is about to laugh, when they hear a crack. The major is literally breaking through the cage with his bare hooves. The two hovels feel a shiver down their spine.

How strong is this guy?!

Before long, the major breaks through the logs, and begins to wildly stumble and strike around. The hovels attempt to subdue him, but they feel like they’re trying to wrestle a rabid animal. He throws them around with nothing but his movements.

He shambles off, literally charging through one of the wooden walls. The two shocked Hovels chase after him, with more Hovels in the distance noticing the escape as well.

Flitter slowly opens one eye, seeing the coast is clear. After nudging the others, they get up as well.

“How long will that spell last?” Twilight asks Comet, horn glowing from controlling the major.

“A few minutes. Let’s just hope they don’t kill him.”

The three try to navigate their way through the fort without being spotted. They come across an impassable room with two Hovels standing around.

Flitter has an idea.

“Do you ever wonder why we never use guns?” One hovel asks.

“Guns are for losers, man. Besides, where would we even get the shooty powder from?” Another hovel responds.

“Good point.” The first hovel says, sipping from a small cup of water.

He spits out the water when he sees the trio casually enter the room. Their clothes are all torn up, and they’re covered in mud.

"How do you do, fellow... ponies?" Flitter asks.

“The dogs are escaping!” He yells.

“Dammit! I thought this always worked!” Flitter groans.

Both Hovels are telekinetically thrown together by Comet, falling to the ground dazed. The trio quickly run over them.

Flitter briefly stops to kick the head of the Hovel who spotted them out of revenge.

“This way! I remember the path!” Comet says, running through some more passages. They come across a dead end.

“Or not.”

Twilight groans.

“What are we even doing? This entire place is made of wood!” She says.

She blasts a hole in one of the nearby walls, large enough for them to access.

Unfortunately, they must've blasted into Hovel-Con or something because the adjacent room had somewhere around ten of them, now all looking at them.

“Crap.”

They take off running as they’re pursued by the mob behind.

A couple block their passage in a hallway in front of them. Twilight pulls on the ceiling with her magic hard, causing a cave-in to block the Hovels' access to them.

Comet does the same behind them, giving them some breathing room. After a brief pause, they continue blasting through various rooms, having to beat up the occasional hovel. Eventually, they find the hallway leading to Jack’s chamber.

As they run for it, the red pony comes out from ahead of them, blocking their path. He almost takes up the entire hallway.

Comet and Twilight immediately think about blasting a hole in the side of the walls, but these walls are stone. No do.

The red pony charges at them like a bull.

Comet glances at Twilight. “Get the medi-shot to her. You’re right there.” Twilight nods cautiously.

He gestures to Flitter. “Come on. Let’s do a little cow tipping.” he says, gesturing at the furious charging giant.

Flitter feels a bit afraid, but she isn’t gonna let herself be out-done by Comet of all ponies. Comet flings himself straight into the red ponies path, taking him off-guard, beginning to pummel his face. He grabs onto Comet with one of his giant hooves, but Flitter latches onto his shoulder and begins to claw at him like a cat, causing him to yell and fall backwards with both ponies still attacking him.

The path opens up just enough for Twilight to squeeze through, bursting into the chamber.

Between her and Jack’s bed, is nothing except the elderly pony. She has a small knife, holding it with an uncanny stillness against the unicorn.

Twilight tries to levitate her away or something, but she forgets the pony can disable her magical ability.

She face-hooves.

“Come on. I don’t want to beat up an old lady.” She says.

Granny yells as she charges at her. At a snail's pace.

Twilight calmly grabs the knife away, picks up the old pony, and sets her on her side a few meters away.

“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” She cries.

Twilight rolls her eyes, and runs for Jack. She rips off the blanket, and immediately injects the mare with the medi-shot.

Applejack’s foggy eyes immediately come back into focus, widening slightly. She sits up with a gasp. Within seconds her face is beginning to clear up, her gasping having stopped entirely.

She looks with complete shock at Twilight right in front of her face.

“Eh?! What are you doin’ here?!” She says. Granny looks at her with bewilderment

Before Twilight can say anything, Flitter and Comet are literally thrown through the wooden doors to the room. They sprawl on the floor, both beaten but still alive.

The red pony bursts in after them, covered in small bruises and scratches, and furious. Dozens more hovels erupt into the room as well, having found the end destination. Jack quickly pieces together what's happening.

They’re about to descend on the trio, when a voice pierces the room.

“STOP!”

Jack yells, nearly jumping out of bed, dwarfing the smaller Twilight by a fair amount.

Everyone in the room freezes, especially the red pony who looks at Jack like he saw a ghost.

“Wh-wha? How?!” The Granny says, scrambling to her feet.

“I told you I could heal her!” Twilight says, annoyed.

Jack looks confused. “Heal me? What exactly happened?!” she yells.

“We found you in the outskirts… you were sick and babblin’ about this purple unicorn and how she injected you with something. We only could assume that the—”

Jack cuts her off.

“This purple unicorn injected me with some combat drug or something that let us fight off a monster that was trying to kill us! I got sick because I accidentally ate some poison berries!”

Granny face-hooves.

“We got kidnapped. We were gonna be used as hostage chips to secure a cure for you.” Twilight says.

Jack looks at Granny with a fury. Granny just gives a nervous chuckle back.

“Really?”

“We couldn’t think of any other way!” Granny retorts.

“You guys rescue me and the first thing you wanna do is kidnap some Enclave ponies? What was the plan if they came lookin’ for them? Get nearly wiped out again???” Jack yells.

Granny is silent.

“Let these ponies go.” She says, approaching Granny. Granny looks shocked. Wanting to avoid encounters with Enclave ponies is one thing, but this is like… something more.

Twilight tries to chip in. “We didn’t want any of this. I came looking for peace! We—”

The parade is quickly rained on by the arrival of the Major. The LUCID Major. He looks like a used piñata from the sheer amount of beating he’s taken, but he’s somehow conscious and found his way over here.

“YOU! IT WAS YOU! YU’RE THE RESON THE AMBUSH HAPPEN!” He slurs, holding a shaky hoof to Twilight.

Everyone glances over, confused.

“I NEW YOU WER BAD NEWS! THEY KNEW WHERE WE WE BECUSE OF YOU!” He slurs again, cackling slightly.

He notices the three standing with Hovels and not immediately killing each other.

“wHAT’S THIS? COOPING WITH THE HOVEL MENACE? TTHAT IS TRESON! YOU’LL ALL BE EXECUTED! DO YOU HEAR—”

Jack rapidly closes the gap with the major, striking him in the face with a powerful punch, and an audible crunch. He’s out cold.

“Hopefully that knocked that dumbasses' memories out of his brain.” She says, shaking her hoof a little.

Nobody attempts to contest Jack’s order of letting the group leave after that display. Even the trio feel afraid, and she’s technically on their side.

Granny grumbles.

“Let the Enclave ponies leave.” She orders.

The group is safely accosted out of the fort by Jack. As she’s about to shoo them off, Twilight quickly runs up to her.

“Wait. We’re going to leave right now, but... just... take this. Please." Twilight pulls out some small object.

Jack hesitantly takes it from her, pocketing it.

"If you hear this thing make noise, find somewhere private and press the green circle thing."

"Oh... kay?" Jack says, not really sure what to say.

Afterwards, she proceeds to shove the three far and out away of the passages, back on the main trail towards the Compound.

Flitter and Comet look at Twilight with confusion.

"What did you give her?" Flitter asks.

"Just a gift."

After getting their story straight, the three agree to not get into some of the more… specific details of what happened.

Comet and Flitter are a bit salty at it all, but can’t help but respect Twilight for managing to get them out of that situation, and are most of all surprised at seeing and experiencing possibly the first instance of peace with Hovels. Assuming you only looked at the ending of the whole mess.

They promise to keep everything related to Jack a secret to the best of their ability.

After arriving back at the compound with the presumed dead Major Pane, the three were given a commendation, especially Twilight for surviving ANOTHER encounter with Hovels.

Upon awakening, the Major said he couldn’t remember anything from the past few days. He reasons he must've fallen off a cliff or something similar.

Twilight tries to hold back a chuckle.

Twilight relaxes in her quarters. She’s aching both mentally and physically from the day's events. But she got what she wanted.

The Annui seemed much more… placable than what the reports would suggest. A bit ironic considering they all got the snot beaten out of them, but they weren't the bloodthirsty savages that the Registry claimed they were.

As Twilight ponders, there’s a knock on her door. She looks out the peep-hole and her heart nearly drops. She immediately swings the door open.

“Commander Raven! What brings.. you here?” She says, stepping aside for the Commander.

Raven quickly enters the room, a neutral expression on her face.

“I’m not gonna mince words. I have a proposition for you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight holds her breath.

“I’m assembling a special team, meant specifically for counter-Hovel actions. I’ve noticed an up-tick in Hovel activity, and decided that enough is enough. It’s about time we take the problem to its roots. And based on your track record, you seem perfect for this.”

She continues. “A rookie Pathfinder not only surviving but THRIVING against two Hovel incidents? You’re a prodigy. We could really use someone like you with us. What do you say?”

Twilight doesn’t know whether or not this is a good thing.

What if Raven figured out what happened, and is messing with her?

Or testing her?

Even not, this seems counterproductive for what she’s trying to do… Jack probably won't take it well seeing her mowing down Annui like they're pests.

She bites the bullet.

“Sorry but… I can’t. I’ve already made too many dedications to my squad to just leave them like that. I’m sure you could fill me in with like… an Enforcer or something?” Twilight asks, uneasy.

Raven gives her a disapproving look.

“Are you sure?” She asks.

Twilight just nods slowly.

Raven simply turns away, walking out of the still open door.

“If you ever change your mind, please come see me.” She says, tactfully. She closes it behind her with telekinesis.

Twilight takes a deep exhale of relief.

She hopes Raven doesn't take it too badly.

Raven hits a button in the wall, activating a complete lock-down of her private quarters. The windows and doors are covered with solid metal shutters.

She retreats into a further private room, some sort of secret compartment.

Taking a seat, she looks at the large screen in front of her.

There's a camera feed, displaying what appears to be some Hovels fighting with some Enclave personnel. Twilight's squad.

But the footage is being recorded from the Hovel's perspectives.

She squints her eyes. Twilight's story was that they simply 'found' Major Pane somewhere in the outskirts. She didn't believe it one bit, but now she knows for sure.

Raven pulls out some kind of transponder. One far too advanced for even the Enclave to have produced.

Pressing a button, a magical vertical interface appears above, with nothing on it besides a single simplistic eye shape.

"VERIFY IDENTITY."

Raven appears to grab something on her face. There's some hissing and clicks. She lifts the device to one of her eyes, her horn glowing at the same time.

"[MOONLIGHT RAVEN] VERIFIED."

The eye is replaced with a view into some barely visible room and figure. Raven lowers it back to her face at a distance.

"Ah. Moonlight. Back so soon?" A modulated voice says from the darkness.

"I need another shipment of Neurals. Now."

Before the voice can respond, she quickly closes the device, the interface disappearing.

Raven grabs her face again, the hissing and clicking resuming. Afterwards, she leans back in her seat, clasping her hooves lightly.

It appears Twilight Sparkle is forcing her hand.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 9 - The Big Stall

Pinkie and Fluttershy sit in the wagon for what feels like hours. The light outside constantly changes between bright and dark, but it’s more likely they’re traveling through things like tunnels and whatnot.

Pinkie frowns. Not only did they get whisked away to a new Pocket, but now they’re traveling super far away. Finding their way back is gonna be a pain, even IF they’re in a Pocket she can recognize.

At this point, nearly all of the prisoners are asleep, having nothing else to do.

Fluttershy herself begins to doze off slightly, blinking one squinted eye at a time.

Pinke nudges Fluttershy a few times to keep her awake.

“...h-huh?” She says, barely able to look back at Pinkie.

“Important tip. Never fall asleep inside of wagons! The shaking and rocking motions make the Night Terrors much worse.”

“the wha?”

Before Pinkie can elaborate, the wagon comes to a sudden stop. Pinkie gets worried they might be getting transported to another Pocket, but her fears are quelled after they don’t hear the familiar noises of a gateway happening.

Instead, there’s a few clunks on the back door. It’s swung open, causing light to flood the interior of the wagon.

“EVERYPONY OUT!” One armored pony hollers, banging on the side of the wagon wall.

Fluttershy jolts up out of surprise and fear, hooves rapidly skittering around to try and get her footing.

Prisoners begin to get up and shuffle out. Pinkie helps the groggy Fluttershy do so as well. Once they're all out, there's about a fourty or fifty of them in total.

The two look around. They look like they’re in some kind of large stone fort, with the wagon having passed through a large wooden gate. There’s multiple wagons behind them too, forming a sort of convoy.

Pinkie looks up at the cavern ceiling, trying to gauge its features. Doing so is one of the most reliable ways of figuring out what Pocket you’re in. It’s a smooth and light-grey colored wave-like pattern, as opposed to their previous Pocket’s ceiling of jagged stalactites and jagged rocks, and a dark brown.

There also appears to be some kind of ‘cage’ covering the top of the fort, like a big net. Maybe they're for pegasi would-be escapees?

Her ceiling gazing session is interrupted by one prisoner attempting to make a run for it. He’s immediately set upon by multiple armored guards, being beaten into the ground.

Fluttershy covers one of her hooves with a look of worry.

One of the armored ponies approaches the crowd, flanked by two subordinates. Their entire body including their face is concealed. They speak out with a modulated voice.

“YOU ARE NOW PRISONERS AT JUSTICE-2. YOU WILL REMAIN HERE UNTIL YOUR SENTENCES ARE DONE. YOU WILL NOW BE SORTED BASED ON YOUR KINDS. RESISTANCE WILL PUNISHED AND INCUR ADDITIONS TO YOUR SENTENCES.”

Pinkie and Fluttershy’s eyes widen as they look at each other.

They’re about to get separated.

There’s a small amount of chaos as formations of guards encroach on the crowd, forcefully pulling and shoving ponies into creating three smaller groups. A few prisoners try to fight back for whatever reason, getting promptly pummeled.

Fluttershy holds onto Pinkie, scared. She barely knows the pony, but she’s all she has right now.

“What's going on! Why are they separating us?!” She whimpers.

Pinkie tries to calm her down.

“Don't worry! Just… stay strong! I’ll get us out of this one way or another. Just do everything the metal guys tell you to do!”

Fluttershy nods a little, still afraid.

The two get pulled apart by guards and accosted towards their respective groups. Their light shackles are removed, and replaced with kind-specific ones.

Unicorns get some sort of metallic cone placed atop their horns, along with neck restraints that limit how far they can move their heads in any direction. Pegasi get some straps that tie their wings to their sides along with their legs to prevent full movement, and earthen simply get oversized chains connecting all their legs.

Pinkie feels like she got the better end of the stick than the torture-trap unicorns or the pegasi’ have going on.

As the groups are taken in different directions, Fluttershy and Pinkie look back at each other from a distance, before going out of sight.

A long line of prisoners wait within a hall, appearing to be some kind of queue. Eventually, Pinkie is the next one up. A few guards lead the pony through a few doors, before entering a large chamber.

There’s a table with some chairs, two of which have unicorns sitting in them. At one wall there is a black-robed pegasus mare on an elevated podium, presumably a judge, and a few guards scattered around as well.

Pinkie looks confused. She thought they were going to go straight to the cells.

A chair on her side is magically pulled out for her. She takes a seat, a bit awkwardly due to her chains.

“Erm… is this a... trial?” She asks, unsure.

The judge simply stares at her. “Do not attempt to touch the fixture or the unicorns, or move during the process.”

Pinkie barely has time to register what the ‘process’ is before some device lowers from the ceiling, attached to some cables. The unicorn's eyes close and their horns glow as the device is levitated towards her and placed atop her head.

She begins to feel weird as the device begins to whir to life, glowing slightly. It doesn’t appear to hurt, but it makes her head feel ‘tingly’.

After a minute or two, the device is lifted off and the unicorns stop their concentration. One approaches the judge who leans towards them, and gets something whispered into her ear.

She sits back upright.

“Pinkie Pie. You are being charged with petty theft, assault, property damage, burglary, kidnapping, and associating with criminals. How do you plead?”

Pinkie Pie looks flabbergasted. “What?! How could you even know any of that! I also only did like half of those things to my knowledge, by the way.”

“This device scans recent memories and events. It is approximately 105% accurate.”

“I’m not sure that's how percentages work.”

“It does not matter. How do you plead?”

“Guilty, I guess? What am I supposed to say? You guys can apparently read my mi— wait aren’t I supposed to have a lawyer or something???”

The judge sighs and gesture towards one of the armored ponies. They leave the room and come back with a pony in a suit and a briefcase.

“I am Pinkie Pie’s lawyer. My client pleads guilty.” He says, beginning to walk away.

Pinkie Pie groans.

The judge watches the lawyer leave, and then continues . “You will be out on bond for 50000 Bits.”

Pinkie nearly jumps out of her chair. “What?! I don’t have that money on me!” She exclaims.

“Then find somepony who does. Until then, you’ll be doing labor until you can pay that amount off.”

The judge hits a gavel. “Session adjourned. Next!”

She is quickly accosted out of the room by some of the armored ponies. On the way out, Pinkie sees another prisoner being put in the same chair.

Pinkie smiles widely for her mugshot like it’s a yearbook photo, even fixing her mane to look good.

Afterwards, her clothes and belongings are confiscated and she’s given a prison jumpsuit to wear.

She sits down next to a telegraph machine for her one granted contact.

“Okay… let’s see if I still remember how to use one of these.”

Pinke begins to tap, hold, and release on the machine, her chains rattling the whole time. After the sequence is done, the operator looks at the output with some confusion.

“You’re looking to buy a tupae?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

Pixie face-hooves.

“Can I just tell you what I wanna say like a normal-pony and you do your little tapping stuff?”

The operator shrugs. Pinkie tells him her message and to whom it’s being sent to.

Pinkie gets led to her cell by two armored ponies and pushed inside.

“You know you guys don’t gotta shove everypony everywhere! Words exist!” She yells. They simply close the door behind her.

Pinkie looks around the cell. There's two bunk beds, one on each side of the cell.

There’s three ponies already in the cell. Sure enough, they’re all earthen.

“Hi?” Pinkie asks, raising a hoof.

“Ey.” One of them says, a small mare. The other two don’t seem very interested.

“I assume you’ll be bunkin’ with me?” she continues, hoofing to the empty bed below her.

Pinkie trots over and takes an awkward seat.

The ‘bed’ feels more like a solid mass of hay and wood rather than anything you could actually sleep on. It itches the crap out of her almost immediately.

The mare above her chuckles a little.

“Pretty bad beds, yeah? You’ll get used to them, eventually.”

“Hopefully I don’t stay here long enough to.” Pinkie responds, dryly.

The mare laughs again. “You’re funny. What’s your name? Mines Marcy.”

“Pinkie Pie.”

Marcy snorts. “Bit on the nose, huh?”

One of the ponies on the other side, an orange stallion rolls over towards the wall.

“Can yall shut it? I’m tryin to sleep.” he groans. The stallion below him just stares up at the bottom of the bed above.

Marcy tosses some of her bed mulch at the top stallion's face, causing him to growl.

“You shit!” He says.

Marcy laughs. “What’s the problem, Slick? I’m just giving you more bed to sleep on!” She says with a smirk.

The two begin to bicker, but the stallion below Slick huffs loudly, making them stop. One of his eyes drifts towards Marcy and stares at her directly, before looking back above.

Pinkie just sits there awkwardly, trying to figure out the dynamic here. The four just lie in their beds silently for a little while.

She can already feel the boredom setting in.

“So… what are you guys in for? Is that like what people say in prison?”

Marcy chuckles. “Yea. I suppose.”

She leans over the edge of the bed, looking at Pinkie while upside down, her mane flipping down as well.

“Arson.” She says with a flipped smirk.

“Oh” Pinkie says, a bit troubled.

“Ah, don't worry about it. Some twat was hurting one of my friends, so I took a torch to his place. Unfortunately he seemed to have connections with the Order, so… they pulled their strings against me.”

“Ah! Okay.”

She glances towards the other side of the cell.

“What about you… slick, was it?” She asks.

Slick barely turns over. “Murder.”

“Oh.”

“The guy deserved it, though. He was my brother-in-law. Found him beatin’ my sister. She convinced me to turn myself in after the deed was done, but honestly I’m starting to regret that decision...”

“Erm… alright.”

She looks directly across to the big stallion. At a closer inspection he nearly takes up the entire bed. Pinkie is a bit worried about what he did in particular. He has a uneasy aura to him.

She’s about to ask something, when Marcy cuts her off.

“That’s Terry. He’s dont talk much.”

“Uh. Okay. Do you know what he’s in for?” Pinkie asks, cringing a little.

“Jaywalking.”

Pinkie sits back forward. “Really? I thought he would've—”

“He illegally crossed a street to set some guy on fire and then kill him. They put ‘Jaywalking’ as his main offense, as a joke.”

Pinkie pauses.

“Well surely he must've had a reason?”

“Nope. He just felt like doing that.”

Pinkie blinks a few times.

“I see.”

Fluttershy nervously looks around as she’s brought into some large room. There’s some weird wooden platform and a few of those 'chairs’ around it, along with a few unicorns. Some scary looking ponies wearing metal clothing stand around the place as well.

Near the end of the room, some pony wearing long black robes stands on some big wooden thing.

One of the chairs is levitated outwards for her. She awkwardly takes a seat, still a bit unfamiliar with them.

The black robed pony and her stare at each other.

“U-Uhm. Hello?” Fluttershy says.

“Do not attempt to touch the fixture or the unicorns, or move during the process.”

“Huh?”

Her eyes widen as some weird shiny disc-like thing begins floating towards her.

Fluttershy immediately begins to freak out, getting to her feet. The two unicorns stop their channeling and step back, as guards quickly descend on her, some drawing weapons.

“WAIT WHAT IS THAT THING DON’T HURT ME!” She cries.

The guards appear to stop from this act of fear.

The black robed pony sighs.

“This device will simply scan your mind for recent events and thoughts, as to let us see what crimes you have committed.”

“But I haven’t committed any crimes!” She exclaims.

“We’ll be the judge of that. Now sit down. Another outburst like that and you’re going straight to solitary.” the judge says.

Fluttershy sits back in the chair, still uneasy. The unicorns begin the process again. Fluttershy whimpers a little but manages to keep herself somewhat calm as the device is placed above her.

It feels like her head is being poked with tiny little pricks.

As the unicorns concentrate with their eyes closed, their faces begin to contort a little. Not out of pain, but more like confusion.

The judge raises an eyebrow.

After an unusual amount of time, one of the unicorns, looking somewhat shocked, goes up to the judge and whispers into their ear.

The judge’s face is suddenly one of bewilderment.

“That… that can’t be possible. What range did you set it to?”

“Last few days. Scanner came back completely blank.”

The judges eyes narrow.

“Do it again. Clearly, there must be something wrong with the device.” she says, while sitting forward.

Fluttershy gulps. All eyes are on her as the device comes back for a second round.

Pinkie and other prisoners are lined up in some sort of court-yard, tied together in a chain gang. All around the yard, tons of rocks lie in various spots.

A single armored pony with a helmet a tad too big for his head, covering the front of his eyes, walks parallel to them back and forth.

“Listen up, Maggots! You are about to indulge in one of the greatest acts that this Underworld can give you… rock smashing!”

Other guards come near the group and drop various tools, such as sledgehammers and pickaxes.

Pinkie raises a hoof as far as the chains can allow.

“Uh. Yes, hi. Why are we smashing rocks when there’s literally rocks everywhere?” She asks.

The helmet pony walks up to her, staring her in the face.

“Ohhhh?? We got a funny pony here, don’t we?”

“Well I don't mean to brag but, but I would say—”

“SHUT UP, MAGGOT!” He shouts in her face.

Pinkie blinks a few times.

“We smash rocks because people want smaller rocks! Tiny rocks are one of the Judicar Order’s greatest exports! Without them, where would people get all those small rocks to put in playgrounds or in their front yards or at beaches?! YOU CAN’T HAVE A BEACH WITHOUT TINY ROCKS EVERYWHERE POKING INTO PONIES HOOVES WHEN THEY TRY TO WALK AROUND!” He bellows.

With a bit of corralling, the chain gang shuffles nearby one of the fields of rocks, and begin getting to work.

Everypony visible struggles. Even Terry has trouble with his rock, which is smaller than him by a comical degree.

Pinkie snickers a bit looking at her rock.

“You serious? This tiny thing?” She asks, in disbelief.

The helmet pony almost takes flight from how fast he runs up in front of her, face red.

“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, MAGGOT? YOU BETTER START CUTTING AWAY AT THAT THING OR THE ONLY THING YOU’LL BE CUTTING IS THE POUNDS WHEN YOU’RE STARVED IN SOLITA—”

SMASH!

Pinkie breaks the rock in two with a single strike of her pickaxe. The helmet pony’s eyes bulge.

“W-what..?”

The other prisoners look with similar amounts of surprise.

“Woah! How’d ya do that???” Marcy asks, being positioned right next to her.

“I used to break apart boulders. It’s actually pretty easy! You just gotta go with the grain, find the right spot… and…”

With another strike, one of the rocks halves is split once more.

Marcy looks back at her rock, trying what Pinkie said. After a few seconds of aiming, she gets a similar result.

Her face slowly turns into a smile. “Oh ho ho!”

She begins to go ham and beginning to smash the rock apart into tinier pieces.

The technique slowly gets passed down in both directions of the chain gang, until everypony is destroying rocks like crazy.

The helmet pony backs up, looking at the scene.

“Mother of Sol…”

The judge wipes their brow.

“Are you kidding me? Fourth time and still nothing?”

The unicorns look visibly tired. There’s even an extra unicorn or two brought in to help, who similarly look tired.

“Nothing, your honor. This pegasus hasn’t committed a single crime in the past few weeks, at least. She hasn’t even hurt a fly, nothing.”

Fluttershy sits in her chair, looking confused at the chatter some distance away.

“Okay… we need—”

A guard pokes out from behind the door. “Your honor, we need to keep going with the prisoners, this—”

“Shut it! Send them somewhere else or something! I’m trying to get to the bottom of this!” The judge snaps. The guard gulps and quickly goes away.

The judge takes a deep breath, wiping their brow.

“Okay. Go get every available unicorn. Even the auxiliary staff ones who aren’t that good at magic. This pegasus has to have something about her!”

The helmet pony watches in horror as the prisoners stand in giant containers full of fruits.

While fruit stomping is usually a boring, deponyizing, and mundane task, this pink pony has somehow turned it into some kind of fun event.

All the prisoners jump and bounce in the containers in sync, easily crushing and pulping the fruit into juice below. A few of them are even laughing, including the pink one.

He bites his hooves.

At this rate, they’re going to run out of menial labor for the prisoners to do!

A small crowd of unicorns are assembled inside the chamber, easily at least two dozen. At this point, the doors are shut, the room not being used for the normal operations whatsoever anymore.

“Listen up, ponies. We’re going to be scanning this pegasus’s entire life.” The judge instructs to the crowd.

“But, your honor! The scanners can’t handle that kind of strain!”

“I don’t care! It’ll work! Now, get to it!” the judge orders, hoofing at Fluttershy, still sitting in her chair.

The device is lowered onto Fluttershy’s head once more, as the entire group of unicorns begin to channel their magic into it.

Fluttershy begins to feel a bit of pain, unlike the other times, having to hold onto the chair to keep herself still.

The twenty years of her life are scanned and analyzed within seconds by all the unicorns, seeing literally nothing except her just playing with animals, eating fruits and vegetables, and sleeping.

The unicorns begin to feel pain as well from the flood of information.

The device itself begins to whir loudly, and begin to shake.

“Your honor! The scanner is starting to break apart!” The whirring and shaking gets worse.

“It's going to blow!” Another yells, pointing at the device.

Fluttershy has the intuition to shake the device off her head, and toss it away into one empty corner of the room. Everypony takes cover as the device explodes, sending small metal fragments everywhere.

The judge slowly raises her head back over the podium. All the unicorns look dizzy or sick, as does Fluttershy.

“What… what did you see…” The judge says, towards one of the few lucid unicorns.

The unicorn rubs their temple.

“Nothing… this pony… is a blank slate. A saint.” they say.

Other unicorns corroborate the claim.

The judge screams into her hooves, before taking a deep breath.

“Alright. Fine, fine. This pony either is incredibly lucky, or literally an angel. Take her out of the prison.”

One of the guards looks at her with confusion. “But your honor, they can’t be let—”

“I said let her go. She’s free. No charges.”

The judge throws off their robes.

“I quit, by the way.” she says, leaving the room nonchalantly.

Fluttershy slowly lifts her head up, eyes rattling a little.

“My head hurts…” she says with a groan.

Pinkie and the other prisoners easily run atop a large spinning treadmill, having figured out that if they sync their movements it’s much easier for everypony.

The helmet pony approaches Pinkie with two other guards at their flanks. He looks upset.

Pinkie briefly glances back, still running.

“What? Am I going to solitary for being too good at all this stuff?” She asks, sarcastically.

“I wish, but sadly, no. You’ve made bond.”

Pinkie immediately stops, accidentally tumbling off the treadmill.

Marcy and Slick glance over, hearing what was said. Even Terry looks over a bit.

“Well, that sure was fast. See ya, pink.” Marcy says, still running on the treadmill.

“Woot! Stick it to the Order!” Slick chips in.

The helmet guard rolls his eyes, leading Pinkie away. She smirks and waves as she’s taken further.

“Good… bye.” Terry croaks.

Marcy and Slick look at him with surprise.

Pinkie is led towards some kind of reception area, freed from her chains. The first thing she does is scratch some parts of her legs she couldn't reach before.

Besides that, she wonders who from the Troupe got sent over to pay her bond.

Her question is quickly answered when she looks ahead and sees an utterly gigantic pony sitting in a chair far too small for his frame. She has to look nearly straight up to get a look at his face.

“Trouble Shoes?”

The humongous brown pony simply looks down at her, dwarfing even Terry with his height. A few guards around look a bit nervous at his presence, even though he’s just a visitor.

“Yep. Ello’ Pinkie.”

Pinkie raises an eyebrow.

“Uh… don’t mean to be rude, but why exactly did they send you? You’re somewhat of a… large presence, if you catch my drift.”

“I was the closest pony in the area that Yacci could get ahold’ of after your telegraph.”

Pinkie shrugs.

“Well, thanks. Can we get out of here now?” She says, heading for the door. Trouble Shoes follows her, bonking his head on the top of the door on the way out.

Trouble Shoes leads her towards his wagon.

“Alright, get in. We should get goin’—”

“Hang on! There’s another pony we need to get. A yellow pegasus with pink hair. But I have no idea where she is, she could be anywh—”

“Like that one?” Trouble Shoes says, pointing in the distance.

Fluttershy sits on a bench, feeding a few birds, like nothing even happened.

Pinkie runs over to her.

“Fluttershy! You’re okay— wait, how are you even out of the prison?” Pinkie asks, confused.

“Oh! Uhm… they put me in some ‘scanner’ thing and said I had apparently not committed any crime… ever? So they just let me go.”

Pinkie doesn’t doubt that idea whatsoever.

“Okay then. But still, we need to get going!” Pinkie says, beginning to walk back to the wagon.

“Get going where? This place is nice!” Fluttershy says, gesturing around. Outside the gigantic prison fort, the town surrounding it isn’t that bad looking. A bit simplistic, but certainly cozy.

Pinkie pauses.

“What if I said I could take you somewhere nicer than here?”

Fluttershy thinks for a moment.

“Promise?” She asks.

“Promise.” Pinkie assures.

Fluttershy relents, and follows Pinkie back towards the wagon. Entering it and glancing at the pony pulling it, she's shocked at his sheer size. He dwarfs her even more than he does to Pinkie, due to her smaller size.

“Hi there, tiny pegasus.” He says, with a surprisingly gentle tone.

“...hi.” Fluttershy says, still a bit surprised.

After a few preparations, the three set out and away.

A few minutes pass of them travelling away from the town. Pinkie suddenly perks up, smacking her temple.

“Shoot! We forgot about Trixie! How are we even supposed to find her?!” She exclaims.

Trouble clears his throat and smacks his lips.

“There’s a latch in the corner. Open it.”

Pinkie, slightly confused, scoots over to one of the corners and sees a small handle. She pulls it out, revealing a hidden compartment underneath.

Trixie lies there, reading a book. She glances up, eyes widening a little at Pinkie's sudden apperance.

“Oh! Hey Pin-”

She’s yanked out of the floor and lightly throttled by the pink earthen.

“Trixxxie!!! Why did you ditch us?!” Pinkie yells. She’s less angry, more confused and hurt at the unicorns action.

Trixie tries to pry off her hooves in surprise.

"Pinkie! What are you doing?!" Fluttershy cries.

“Hey! No fighting back there!” Trouble says, shaking the wagon to break them up. All three of them fall around the wagon's floor.

Trixie gets up, a bit dizzy.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie! I couldn’t let myself get captured back there! The Judicar’s 110% accurate crime scanners would have ruined me…” She pleads.

Pinkie doesn’t look convinced.

“What could you have done so bad that you’d ditch us in order to not get arrested??? Petty theft?? Stealing the gem??”

Trixie looks away, a bit solemnly.

“I don't want to talk about it right now... Can we just relax, now that we’re all together again?” She says.

Fluttershy looks at Pinkie appealingly, clearly wanting to just chill out as well.

Pinkie sighs. “Fine. But you will explain to me how you're able to dry-cast, later.

Trixie grumbles a little.

They settle down in different spots around the wagon.

Trouble Hoof takes a deep breath for the long journey head.

“Next stop… Meridian Quay.” he says, beginning to walk once more.

The four head off, away from the Judicar fortress.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.

Chapter 10 - Dirty Bomb

Twilight takes a peek around the outside halls to her quarters, making sure nopony is around.

She closes and locks her door, doing the same with the shudders, before taking a seat.

Cautiously, she pulls out her communicator, pressing down on the green button, and placing it on a table in front of her.

Crk.

Crk.

A minute or two passes. She bites her lip.

Crk.

Crk.

Still nothing.

Just as she’s about to start losing hope…

Beep!

A small magical aura manifests above the communicator, slowly but surely starting to take shape.

Twilight breathes a sigh of relief, seeing the device get a response.

The aura eventually becomes the vague shape of a pony sitting in some kind of room, using simplistic black and white shapes and lines to create a crude image. The pony appears to be looking right back at her, albeit with some confusion.

“Hello?” Twilight asks.

“Yeah?” the other side responds.

It’s Jack.

“Oh thank Sol it worked! I was half-expecting you to not be able to turn it on…”

Jack grumbles. “Well thanks for believin’ in me...” She says, sarcastically.

“I didn’t mean it like that! I—”

“Can ya’ just say what you gave me this thing for??? It’s honestly a bit freaky…” Jack looks like she’s trying to poke Twilight through the feed or something.

Twilight looks around her quarters a few times, a bit paranoid.

“You’re somewhere safe and private, right?” The unicorn asks.

Jack nods. “Uh huh. Probably not a good idea to let anypony see me usin’ this.”

The unicorn takes a deep breath.

“I’ve been looking through the Enclave’s Information Registry and I need-”

“What’s that??”

Twilight pauses.

“Uh… it’s like a magical library. I need you-”

“I don’t know what that is either.”

“You don’t know what a library is???”

Twilight face-hooves. This feels like the talk at the wreck-site already.

“Listen! I was just looking through… stuff that happened recently, okay? And it says that there’s been a lot of attacks conducted by Hovels — oh, by the way — that's what we call all of you Earthen ponies living outside the Enclave, thought I should finally clear that up….”

Jack raises an eyebrow.

“Anyways, there’s apparently been quite a few attacks by the Annui in specific. Would you happen to know anything about this?”

Jack's avatar glitchily puts a low-res hoof to her chin.

“I know that theres’ been… Hovel attacks…” She sticks her tongue out a little after saying the word. “But the Annui? No. Besides the attack to rescue me, and that one pony we killed when ya' got captured, the Annui have not interacted with y’all recently. We’ve been tryin' to keep a low profile.”

Twilight frowns. She’s certainly a bit more inclined to believe Jack now than at the wreck-site, considering the earthen basically saving her, Flitter, and Comet's lives... and the majors...

But still. The attacks are listed on the registry, alongside undeniable proof.

“Has there ever been cases of other groups of Hovels disguising as or pretending to be the Annui?”

“Well, duh. It’s happened a few times. Heck, we’ve dressed up as other tribes, too. Everypony’ does it to everypony else. But I assume a ‘few times’ ain’t enough time to explain the amount of attacks you’re talkin’ about?”

“Mhm. I think there were somewhere around twenty recorded ones in the past two weeks?”

Jack looks completely shocked.

“Twenty?? Yeah, no. That is not us. We don’t even have the ponypower to do that.”

“I never bothered asking, but how many of you are there anyways? The Annui, I mean.”

Jack ponders for a moment.

“Probably… about thirty to forty of us. Including me.”

Twilight has trouble believing that such a small number of ponies could do what the Registry shows. Maybe if there were thirty to forty warriors in the tribe. But when the entire tribe is only thirty to forty, that’s implausible…

Jack suddenly interrupts her train of thought.

“I’ve been itchin’ to ask one of y’all some questions of my own, though.”

The unicorn looks surprised, but somewhat intrigued.

“I’m listening.”

“We’ve been having an uh… er… kidnapping problem.”

Twilight tilts her head somewhat while leaning forward, clearly confused.

Jack groans.

“A few Annui and ponies from other tribes have been seemingly getting whisked away. Nopony knows where they are. Some of us’ think it's the work of predators or monsters or the like’, but there’s never stuff like blood or even a body.”

Twilight puts a hoof over her mouth, shocked.

“That’s terrible! How long has this been going on??”

“Last two, three, months maybe. Nopony I knew personally has gotten taken… yet. But the threat is still there. I gotta ask, how often do you see others like me over there? Do y’all do stuff with Hovel prisoners like that all the time? That could explain it.”

“When I saw you getting released out of the cart, that was one of my first times ever being there. I can’t say how oft—”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she sees a large figure behind Jack poke their head into the feed’s frame.

“Jack! Behind you!” Twilight cries.

Jack immediately turns around, like she’s about to fight somepony. She pauses.

“Oh. Hey Mac.”

“Hey. What’s that?” He asks, hoofing towards the feed.

“I’m just talkin’ with that unicorn from yesterday.” Jack responds, very casually.

“Oh. Okay.” Mac responds, just as casually.

Twilight looks flabbergasted. “Wh- Jack! Who the heck is that?!” Twilight exclaims, thinking they’ve been exposed.

“That’s my brother. He’s the big red’ guy I think you met? Don’t worry, he’s chill.”

“He threw a bag over my head and tossed me into a cage!”

“Compared to what he could've done, that’s chill.”

There’s a pause.

“I-Is he okay with us talking like this right now?” Twilight asks, a bit unsure.

“If I’m okay with you, then he’s okay with you. He’s pretty easy-going.”

“Eeyup.” Mac responds.

Twilight blinks a few times. “Okay then… as I was saying—”

She’s interrupted by a knock on her door.

“Twilight? Hello?”

It’s Comet Tail.

“Shoot! I need to go right now!” Twilight says. Before Jack can say anything, she hits the communicator off before stashing it somewhere hidden.

The unicorn frantically tries to make her quarters look like she wasn’t just having a secret conversation.

From the outside of the door, Comet hears a lot of quick movements, crashes, and even something that sounded like a ‘splat’.

After a few seconds of silence, Twilight opens the door, slightly frazzled.

“Heeyyy Comet! What’s up?” She asks, leaning against the side of the doorframe.

“Twilight, are you okay? You sounded like you were talking to somepony…”

“Ah— well- I was just having using a communicator to talk with one of my friends… Golden Harvest.”

Out of all the things she could've said, why did she pick the one that can be easily proven false?!?

“Oh. Okay. Well, I came here to talk to you about Rare Find.”

Twilight stands up a bit more normally, and with a slight look of worry.

“What's wrong with him? Has he gotten worse?"

Comet shakes his head. “Quite the opposite, actually… he looks like he’s made a full recovery…”

Twilight looks surprised.

“Really? But wasn’t he sick just like—

“Yesterday. Two days ago he was so sick he had to be interred in the Medical wing. And now he’s just… perfectly fine.” Comet says, with a bit of disbelief.

“Is that supposed to be uncommon? What if they gave him some kind of medi-shot or something similar?”

“Medi-shots work for physical injuries and ailments. You can’t just use it to fix a head-ache or disease.”

Twilight puts a hoof to her chin, tilting her head somewhat.

“Didn’t we heal Jack with one, though?”

“The root cause there seemed to be the bad leg — once we fixed that, I assume everything else went back into order on its own.”

Twilight shrugs.

“It’s a bit weird, sure, but it could just be chalked up to some false positive, or super short-term disease I suppose.”

She pauses.

“Not to be rude, but why did you come to me, in specific?” Twilight asks. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, It’s just wouldn’t it have made more sense for you to tell Flitter and I together or something?”

“I’m not sure about telling Flitter right now… if there actually is something going on, there could be more problems roping her into it. I’ve always seen them as being ‘closer’ to each other than normal squadmates.”

“You mean like they’re dating?”

Comet Tail quickly shakes his head.

“Woah woah, I never said that! Don’t tell anyone you got that idea from me.”

He coughs dryly.

Twilight thinks for a moment.

If Comet Tail is able to confide something like this in her, then he probably trusts her. Hopefully. Maybe she can confide in him as well… she’s dying to tell someone, honestly.

“I need to tell you something too.” Twilight says.

Comet lifts his head slightly, a bit intrigued.

“Commander Raven approached me with a proposition. She wanted me to join some kind of elite task force…”

The stallion looks somewhat elated.

“That’s great! Only a few Pathfinders ever get an opportunity like that! Usually its just Combatives like Enfo-”

“I said no.”

Comet stammers a bit. “W-what? Why???”

“She said it would be for specifically counter-Hovel actions! I’m not exactly itching to fight Hovels right now… I’m trying to… make peace with them.”

Comet looks at her like she’s crazy. “Are you serious? Making peace with Hovels?” he asks, in disbelief.

Twilight stomps one of her hooves. “Come on! You’ve seen it’s possible! Back at the wooden fort... thing. Jack was able to get us out of there safely.”

Comet rolls his eyes.

“The main thing I saw possible was getting our asses kicked.” He points to a part of his face still bruised up from Mac’s strikes.

“But you at least saw that they’re more than mindless or feral monsters! They’re ponies, just like us. They’re capable of more than violence, and you saw it for yourself.”

The stallion grumbles, begrudgingly agreeing a little.

“Still. Rejecting her offer probably wasn’t the best idea. That’s going to definitely get her suspicious of you. And besides, wouldn’t it make more sense to try and get something done inside the task-force, instead of having to deal with being on the outside?”

Crap. Both of those points are pretty valid. Twilight didn’t think about them like that.

“Oh. Almost forgot. Rare Find said he uh… had something for you?”

“Come again?”

“He just told me that he had like a… package or something? He didn’t make it clear if it was for you, or if he wanted you to pick it up, but either way he wants you to go get it.”

The mare blinks a few times. Maybe Rare Find has the hots for her.

“Oh… kay? Kind of strange, but sure. Did he say where it was?” Twilight asks.

“He said it’d be in one of the drop-offs in the Exchange Wing.”

“Very helpful.”

“Hey! That’s all he told me. The personnel down there should hopefully help you find it.”

Comet sighs slightly.

“I’m going to head out, but please try to keep your Hovel… peace stuff on the low-key until we can approach it better, alright?”

Twilight nods. That was the plan, anyways.

At least now she knows she may have a deeper ally within Comet Tail.

Twilight looks around the Exchange Wing. She sometimes forget just how expansive this place is, looking at the dozens of ponies bustling around.

In the far distance she sees the vehicle bays side by side. SPAV-1 appears to be idle, and SPAV-3 is being replaced with a new rebuilt one, but SPAV-2 looks gone. Probably an expedition.

She begins to head towards one of the drop-off depots. There’s quite a few of them, although hopefully whatever pony that works there can help her find what she’s looking for.

Entering a designated striped area with a large amount of crates and packages around.

One worker pony wearing a hard-hat notices her and walks over.

“How may I help you, Ma’am?” He asks.

“I’m looking for an uh… package. I was told that there was one sent for me.”

“Do you have the verification number? Package ID? Deliverer?”

“...no.”

The worker slightly groans.

“Miss, I can’t help you unless you have at least one of those things.”

“Will my name help, at least? I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

The worker shakes his head. “That’s how we can confirm it’s for you, but it doesn’t do us much to actually find it. I’m sorry.”

Twilight feels a bit annoyed. Is she going to have to go all the way back to get the stuff, and then come back?

“Can I just take a look for myself?” Twilight asks, approaching some of the crates.

The worker quickly blocks her. “Sorry miss, even as a Pathfinder, you can’t simply mess with the crates.”

“Can you just let me check???” the unicorn pleads.

“No.”

Twilight squints her eyes. "Listen—"

The giant air-lock like gates of vehicle bay 2 opens. SPAV-2 slowly rolls in, coming to a stop at its designated location.

On a catwalk, a worker moves next to the driver side, peering through the front window.

“SPAV-2, please roll down your window for verification.” He speaks into a radio.

No response.

“SPAV-2, please roll down your window for verification...” He repeats.

Still no response.

“SPAV-2, do you copy?”

Nothing.

He proceeds to cautiously knock on the window with his hoof. Slowly, it rolls down.

Both the driver and co-driver are who they’re supposed to be, but… they look off.

The two of them stare straight ahead, eyes completely open, and legs rigid as can be. They don’t move a single muscle, nor even blink.

“Hello?” The worker asks, leaning in somewhat.

Ever so slightly, the driver turns his head towards him.

“H-Help… m-me…” He sputters.

The worker’s eyes widen when he hears a beeping within the SPAV.

“Just a peek! Come on! I’ll be quick!” Twilight pleads. The worker shakes his head adamantly.

“No, no! Please just drop this. Look, we can’t just—”

BOOOOOOOOOM

A massive explosion rings out from the other side of the Exchange wing. Twilight and the worker immediately look over with shock.

Compared to the explosion at the Epistrey, this one makes it look like a firecracker.

SPAV-2 completely explodeswith a giantic fire-ball. The explosion is so large that it leaks over into both SPAV-1 and the unfinished SPAV-3, damaging them as well.

Debris gets launched from all three SPAVs, colliding around various parts of the wing, smashing stone and denting metal.

It takes barely a second for the shockwave and air to hit ponies nearby, throwing them to the ground or in the air.

Twilight and the worker both get thrown into the crates behind them. Twilight manages to barely slow her impact with levitation, but the worker isn’t so lucky. His back slams into a corner of a crate with a sickening crunch.

The crackling of fire, screams of ponies, and blaring of alarms ring out all around the wing.

Twilight can barely hear it, her mind instead being filled with a high-pitched ring. She looks around, eyes wide but unfocused.

She turns to the worker, seeing him on the ground. The lower half of his body appears to be limp on the ground, his legs splaying out like noodles.

Suddenly, the ringing stops and her focus comes back to her. Twilight immediately dives next to his side.

The worker looks distressed and is tearing up.

“M-my hind-legs… I can’t feel my hind-legs…” he says, trying to pick himself up.

“Don’t! Don’t move! Just… lay down..!” Twilight instructs, trying to keep him calm.

She quickly takes off her jacket, rolling it up into a bundle and putting it below his chin. He lays his head on the ground, somewhat choking up.

Twilight puts a hoof to her head in panic. She needs to get someone for this guy. She looks around, only realizing the greater situation around her.

There’s tens of other ponies in similar situations, some of which have nopony to help them.

Without hesitation, Twilight runs to the nearest victim she sees, a stallion yelling in pain as one of his legs is trapped under a large piece of debris.

She immediately tries to levitate it off, but it’s far too heavy. Twilight looks around rapidly for something, anything that can help.

After dragging it over with significant effort, she wedges it below the debris, before grabbing the pony in the face.

“Hey! You want to get out of this?! Grab this and push down as hard as you can!” Twilight yells, pointing at the metallic wedge.

The stallion, still in pain, complies as best as he can. Twilight sits on it with her body weight while the stallion pulls down with all his strength. Along with the levitation, the combined forces are enough to roll the debris off of the poor stallion’s leg with a loud thump.

Looking around, Twilight sees more victims, but notices something worse in the distance.

The fire from the wreck is beginning to spread up and around, beginning to engulf the entire section of the transport wing. It’s also beginning to climb up the wall and towards support structures.

Twilight’s first instinct is to run. If this gets bad enough, the entire area can collapse.

But she stops. Painstakingly turning around to stare back at it, she sees there’s multiple downed ponies in the nearby vicinity to the fire.

They aren’t in it yet, but it’s spreading towards them.

Twilight thinks rapidly. She could probably get maybe one or two ponies out of there, but she would have to physically drag them away. And there’s no way she could get them all away by herself.

She looks around. There’s ponies fleeing the scene, but others like soldiers and workers running in to help.

Some of the ponies further away from the blast are helped away to safety, but nopony seems to want to get closer towards the fire.

Parts of the upper walls and ceilings above begin to creak, pieces falling down and crashing into the ground. Some narrowly miss some of the ponies.

“HEY! THERE’S UNCONSCIOUS PONIES IN DANGER!” Twilight yells to a nearby soldier, hoofing towards the fire.

“WE NEED TO EVACUATE THIS AREA, MISS!” he responds.

“SO GET THEM OUT!” Twilight yells back.

The soldier shakes his head fervently. “THEY’RE IN TOO FAR. YOU NEED TO LEAVE.”

Twilight looks at him like he’s crazy. Is he saying leave them to die?!

She takes one look back at the soldier, seeing ponies running to safety, and then another back at the ponies surrounded by fire and falling debris.

Twilight takes a deep breath.

Maybe she’s the crazy one.

She immediately sprints towards the unconscious ponies. The soldier yells after her, but she ignores it.

As fast as she can, she begin to drag and move the ponies together in a large group. There’s seven in total.

Just as she finishes dragging the last one together, the fire is a mere few yards away.

Twilight steels her nerves, and creates a dome around herself and the ponies.

She takes a few deep breaths, almost re-assuring herself that she can still actually breath with the smoke around.

Magical barriers are not air-tight, but she’s able to make a conscious effort to keep the smoke and flames out.

More debris falls. With the larger profile of her barrier compared to the ponies, a few pieces hit it. Thankfully, they aren’t massive, but Twilight feels the collisions.

She begins to sweat, not only from just the effort, but from the temperature as well. The inside of the barrier is heating up.

Twilight bites her lip. She didn’t think this part through.

She attempts to make the dome into more of an ovular shape, making the curve extend upwards more in order to hopefully let some of the hot air travel up. This, however, requires her to make the barrier thinner, along bring the actual fire closer to her and the ponies.

A particularly large piece of debris hits the top of the dome. Due to the new, weaker shape, it almost breaks through. Twilight clenches her teeth from the effort of preventing the dome from breaking immediately, her horn glowing harder than ever before.

She can feel herself getting exhausted both physically and mentally. She doesn’t know how much longer she can keep this u

The fire and smoke almost entirely surrounds her now, the outside of the dome becoming nothing but orange and gray.

Just as she’s about to give out…

Twilight suddenly feels much less heat around the dome. Looking through her purple barrier, she sees another barrier surrounding it, a very dark purple.

Commander Raven’s magic!

The outer barrier expands out in all directions, swatting away the flames in the immediate vicinity, and giving Twilight a view of the safe part of the wing once more.

She sees Raven with a group of soldiers, workers, and unicorns. Soldiers quickly extract anypony else in the vicinity, while the workers use water hoses and fire extinguishers, and the unicorns use levitation and barriers to physically extinguish fires by smothering or choking out their oxygen.

“Let your barrier down, Twilight!” Raven orders. Twilight sees Raven’s barrier still surrounds hers. Twilight does so, allowing Raven to create a hole through her own. Multiple soldiers, unicorns and Raven rush in to pull the ponies out.

Twilight lays on her back, feeling like she’s about to collapse. However, as she looks up, her eyes widen.

“LOOK OUT!” She yells.

A humongous piece of the ceiling falls from straight above, towards Raven’s barrier with all of them inside of it.

The horns of multiple unicorns along with Raven glow extremely bright, the barrier seemingly being reinforced. Twilight puts the last energy she can manage into it as well.

With a loud BOOM, the metal chunk smacks straight into it. The barrier slightly shakes, along with causing the unicorns to grimace briefly, but it’s safely deflected into the fire.

That last blow was enough to send Twilight out of it.

As her eyes close and vision goes blurry, she sees Raven standing over her, a concerned look on her face.

Twilight wakes up with a bright light above her.

Her eyes dilate from the brightness, as she looks around. It looks like one of the rooms of the Medical Wing.

Around her she sees Golden Harvest, her squad, and Raven all looking at her, some of their expressions changing slightly, seemingly from Twilight's awakening.

“Oh, Twilight! You’re awake!” Golden says.

Twilight sits up somewhat, a bit pained. It’s not really physical, though. More like a bad head-ache and some dizziness.

“Is… everypony okay?” Twilight croaks. The first thing she thinks about is the Ponies back at the Exchange wing.

Raven frowns. “There were some casualties… but they were instant when the explosion first occurred. Unpreventable.” Her expression softens somewhat. “But rest assured, everypony you protected made it out safely.”

“The Commander told us what you did, Twilight. That was pretty hardcore!” Flitter says.

“I’m honestly surprised you had that courage in you… we heard soldiers and other Pathfinders at the scene didn’t even dare get half as close as you did.” Comet says.

Twilight grumbles a little. “Yeah. I noticed that too.”

“Well, it sure was a good thing that the Commander was there to help.” Rare Find says.

Twilight frowns somewhat, looking towards Raven.

“Not to sound rude, but why were you at the Exchange wing, anyways?” She wonders.

“Oh, I was simply going there for an impromptu inspection of how the re-construction of SPAV-3 was coming along. Although, as you can imagine, the attack set it back quite a bit.”

Twilight blinks a few times. “Attack..?” She asks. The other ponies look over towards the Commander with some sorrowful looks, but not ones of surprise. They already know something.

“That explosion was no mere accident or happenstance. It was a precise and deliberate strike against us by our enemies.” Raven explains.

“W-what??? By who? The Syndicate? The Cartel?”

Raven shakes her head.

“Forensics are still… inconclusive. But in time, we will get the answers.”

Comet and Golden look a bit uncomfortable, meanwhile Flitter and Rare Find look somewhat angry.

Twilight has a lot of questions to ask, but Raven cuts her off.

“I apologize, but I need to depart right now. The rest of the Compound is naturally in a buzz after this tragedy. I hope you recover well, Twilight… we may need all hooves on deck soon.”

With that, she takes her leave.

The other ponies just look at eachother with varying emotions, however all are negative.

Twilight just stares forward with a neutral expression.

An hour or two later, Twilight still lays in the medical bed.

They’re keeping her for a little longer just to make sure they didn’t miss anything with their initial check-ups and diagnostics.

Golden sleeps on a nearby chair, insisting to stay with the unicorn. Comet Tail, Flitter, and Rare Find reluctantly had to leave in order to help with the aftermath.

A nearby transmitter in the wall suddenly begins to crackle to life.

“Attention, my fellow citizens and personnel of Charlie Compound.” It’s Commander Raven.

“Just mere hours ago, an attack occurred which wracked the very fabric of what we stand for. Within the Exchange Wing, SPAV-2 was sabotaged, causing a massive detonation which claimed the lives of many ponies, and injured dozens more. But know that the perpetrators will not be able to hide… for we have found them. They are the Hovel tribe known as the ‘Annui’.”

Twilight tilts her head a little.

Huh?

“In recent weeks, there has been a troubling pattern of an up-tick in Hovel activity, particularly this ‘Annui’ tribe. Raids and attacks on our beloved Pathfinders and crucial expeditions have ceased to no end, and we have let it go on for far too long. But rest assured. Starting today, we are going on the offensive. I am initiating Operation Outstrike, in order to finally rid us of this menace once and for all. No longer will we need to live in fear of those who reject the proper way of life. Glory to the Enclave.”

The speech ends, cutting out with some more crackles.

Twilight sits still for a few moments, before beginning to hyperventilate.

What??? How??? Why??? This seems impossible.

She has no definitive proof of if the Annui actually did the attack or not, but that’s not the problem. Raven is saying that they did. This is going to make peace impossible, and if the Annui somehow find out about this, it’ll be even worse!

Twilight simply covers her face with her hooves and rocks back and forth.

Author's Note

Criticism, advice, and feedback would be GREATLY appreciated. Please beat me up about anything.

Also please beat me up if you see any typo's, errors, or excessive repeats of phrases/words.

Everything may be subject to change.