Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapters

Chapter Two: In the Forests of the Night
Chapter One: All cooped up
Chapter Three: Not like them.
Chapter Four: Ghouls and Griffons
Chapter Five: Punkfac’s End
Chapter Six: Welcome to Freesaddle
Chapter Seven: Goldwood
Chapter Eight: The Celestial Bar
Chapter Nine: Dreaming
Chapter Ten: Departure
Chapter Eleven: A lighthearted story
Chapter Twelve: The monster of 134
Chapter Thirteen: I can't do this any more
Chapter Fourteen: Anything good on that tape?

Chapter Two: In the Forests of the Night

Once her stable-adjusted eyes had finally ceased their blinking against the harsh light of an unknown world, she was able to contemplate her other senses. The wind was all around her now. That was the first thing she noticed. Gone was the stench of charred pony meat and burned hair, now she was smelling…what was it, fresh air?
The clicking from her pipbuck told her that the air was far from fresh, but she ignored it for now, choosing instead to look around, rather than at her foreleg.
Stable-126 had been dug into the side of a mountain, facing a city far off in the distance. It was massive, encompassing most of the horizon.
The horizon!
Sterling had to do a double take at the scene. Beyond the mangled corpses of once-tall trees and the burned out wrecks of pre-war carts, far past the weathered bones of a family of Ponies that had tried their very hardest to get to the Stable in time and a few dilapidated tin shacks was a magnificence she’d never known. She’d always been told the outside world was bigger, of course, but she’d had no way to comprehend the sheer size of Equestria beyond the stable door. It was breathtaking, and Sterling had a sudden realisation that nopony else in the stable had ever seen something like this. An ember of pride sparked in her chest.

But what now? Where would she go? Were there any settlements? Was anypony even alive out here?
She heard a ‘blip’ from her pip-buck and looked down at it to see a new map, a map of the Equestrian wasteland. Her position on the map was marked out by an arrow that currently situated her next to an icon that read ‘Stable-126’. Further along on the map, she saw the big city, and a number of other places, all of which were unmarked. On top of this new map, Sterling received a notification; ‘New radio frequencies received’.
Guess somepony was alive out here after all.
The nearby road drew her attention. She spread open her stiff wings again. Here goes nothing.

Sterling jumped, flapping her wings madly, feeling the lift they created made her feel more free than she’d ever been before. Her feathers caught the wind, the reason her breed had evolved so clear to her now. She yipped feebly as she felt herself pull a muscle in her wing, and crashed back down to the ground. She hadn’t been airborne for more than a few seconds.
Wincing, she sat up, her pip-buck notified her of muscle atrophy present in her wings.
How kind of you to let me know that. She thought, and the true weight of what the stable had done to her finally began to trickle in.
Not only had they tried to take away her free will, not only had they essentially enslaved her, not only had the ponies of Stable-126 drummed into her mind again and again that she was inferior to them.
They had even removed her ability to fly.

Sterling began to panic. Something she had never cared about much now became something she so desperately wanted. The pegasus had spent her whole life in that place, never having the space to use her wings, and when she had ever tried to, she had been scolded, told that she wasn’t allowed to. Now here she was, outside for the first time, and she couldn’t even use them. Sterling couldn’t fly.
What if I'll never be able to?

The thought echoed through her mind. What use was a flightless pegasus? How would she survive in this harsh wasteland without her single advantage? Suddenly she felt trapped again, as trapped and worthless as the ponies in the stable had made her seem, but this time, she was trapped in her own mind. The questions kept bouncing around, she realised that her hoof was nervously scraping at the ground, a habit she’d picked up sometime during her cruel life in the stable. She forced herself to keep it still.
No. she thought. It doesn’t matter. Stop panicking like a filly.
She took a deep breath, and stood up properly. It didn’t matter whether or not she could fly right now. If she practised, she’d surely be able to eventually. All it would take was a little time.
She switched to a random radio signal in the list, and tuned in, she needed something to take her mind off of her wings.

Sterling had never tuned in to a radio broadcast before. The only times she had ever heard music was through the radios other ponies had owned in the stable, and the few service announcements the Overmare had forced everypony’s pip-bucks to play when she needed to get a stable-wide message across. When she switched to the broadcast she was greeted with the sounds of a young sounding stallion, his charisma intrigued her almost immediately, and for the first time, she found herself listening to somepony that didn’t have it out for her.

“...kids, that’s right, it’s your old pal, DJ-Pon3, bringing you the hottest hits of two hundred years ago! In about an hour’s time, i’ll be giving you all the news from around the wasteland, but for now, here’s Sweetie Belle, here to tell us that sometimes, you just need somepony to treat you right.”

The dulcet tones of a young mare echoed around Sterling as she clip-clopped down the road, taking in her surroundings. To say the wasteland was a bleak picture would be an understatement, and when she looked up the sky was no better. The sky. Sterling had always been taught it was a bright blue colour during the day. Nopony in her stable had ever seen the sky of course, so maybe they were wrong. Or maybe something had happened to the sky itself, the clouds being dragged across to choke out the blue like the ash that choked the ground.
This place would be a whole lot less threatening if I could see past those clouds. The young mare mused, Although, it wouldn’t be very fitti-
“Hi there! I’m Mulberry Sweets, from the Mulberry Juice Company!”
She froze. Somepony was addressing her. Nervously, she began scraping her hoof along the ground again.
“Hi there! I’m- Hi there! I’m- Hi there! I’m-”
She realised that the sound was coming from underneath her. She scraped the ground again, this time deliberately.
“Hi there! I’m Mulberry Sweets, from the Mulberry Juice Company!”

She had stood on a button. An old Equestrian advertisement sign had fallen on to the road, the button barely hidden under some leaf litter. She swiped the pile away to reveal the stained, smiling face of a purple pegasus mare. She was quite good-looking. In fact, Sterling couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a pegasus portrayed in such a positive way. She broke off from her stare, realising that she was replicating the same, infectious smile worn by Mulberry Sweets on the advertisement. She relaxed her face and respectfully stepped off of the rotting sign of the long-dead mare.

Sterling had never walked this far before. She’d never done nothing but walk for a whole day. She’d done chores, of course, everything around the stable. And she was definitely fitter than most of the ponies that got to sit around and do nothing all day as their pegasi servants rushed around for them, but still, she was tired. As the sun began to set, or, well, she assumed that was what it was doing since she couldn’t see it anyway, the pegasus could make out more of the city. It still seemed so very far away.
Plodding along until she had to switch on her pip-buck’s light for guidance, Sterling had decided that enough was enough. She would have to sleep soon, and she was growing quite hungry too.
A run-down shack greeted her just off of the road. I suppose it’s as good a place as any. She mused. It had been a nice day, all things considered. She hadn’t seen a single living creature all day, and she wondered whether or not this was a good thing. It was difficult to be out of sight of somepony else in the stable. The only times she had really had to herself were during lunch times in the shower block and brig time. She had always welcomed the silence, the lack of other ponies around her in those moments. It gave her time to think.

Now she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be alone.
Sterling had never considered herself much fun to be around, nor had she wanted to be around the other ponies of the stable. But as she lay on the damp floor of the pre-war shack, idly listening to DJ-Pon3’s broadcast, she found herself wishing that the stallion was here in person-or rather, that anypony was here. She needed somepony else to converse with. No…not converse with… To give her purpose, to tell her what to do. She had always had that in the stable.
Not anymore. You don’t need that anymore Sterling, you don’t need them, or anyone to tell you what to do.
She had almost forgotten why she’d left in the first place. Those other ponies were awful, but they weren’t out here now-they couldn’t be. She had to remind herself that she was free.
This is my life. I will decide what I do.
Yes. yes that was it. That was her goal. She needed to find her own way out here, find out who she really was.
But what will happen then?
Not for the last time that night, Sterling wished again that she had somepony to tell her how to do that.

Sterling had always been a light sleeper, and a restless one at that. She had drifted off hungry, resigning herself to find something to eat in the morning. After about another hour, lost in her own thoughts, she had sunk into a shallow sleep. It wasn’t long before she woke to the sound of a ‘crack’ in the woods around her. There was something there.
Slowly and silently, Sterling began to rise from her resting spot. She dared not turn on her pip-buck’s lamp for fear of being spotted. After a few minutes of gazing out into the dark, she shivered, and began to lower her head. She was just unused to sleeping outside. Maybe snapping noises just happen in forests, maybe-

BLAM!
A ringing. Her right ear went completely numb. Slowly, Sterling raised a hoof to it, collecting a warm, sticky substance in the dark.
“Did I get her?” asked a gruff mare’s voice
She didn’t need to hear any more, the eagerness in her tone spoke of a delight that frightened her.
She turned tail and ran, colliding into something warm and fuzzy. She and the other pony-for that had to have been what it was-tumbled over each other in the blackness, she yelped as a hoof met her ribs, and the other pony started to shout.
“Ah’ have ‘er! She’s over here!” Came the voice of a young stallion. She bucked and kicked, earning a hearty ‘oof!’ as she drove her hoof into what she thought was his stomach, inadvertently throwing the two of them apart.
She fell out through the doorway to the shack, tumbling down the three concrete stairs that led to the patio.
Scrambling to her hooves and accidentally turning on her pip-buck’s lamp, Sterling turned but stopped when she heard a ‘click!’
Slowly turning back towards the doorway, she could see the faint glow of Unicorn magic, magic that was holding a revolver, pointed straight at Sterling’s muzzle.

“That’s enough, pegasus.” Sneered the mare. In the green glow of her pip-buck, Sterling could finally make out the face of one of her attackers.
She couldn’t quite believe what she was looking at. Here was a pony, her face completely covered in scars. She had covered herself in makeshift armour-a mess of scrap metal plates that had been crudely bolted together, how this mare wasn’t worried about getting tetanus, Sterling didn’t know.
“Wait!” Came a wheezing stallion’s voice from inside. He sounded as though he was thoroughly winded. “There ain’t no chems in here!”
The Mare grunted. “We want your stuff, where is it?”
Sterling blinked, they were robbers? So why did they just try to shoot me?
“I-I don’t-” She stammered. “I don’t have anything, please don’t kill me!”
This time, the Mare groaned. “Busko! This is the last time I let you pick who we’re gonna steal from!”
“Don’t say mah’ name!” Hissed the other pony. “Ah’ told you not ta’-”
“Alright, alright sorry! Looks like we’ve gotta take this little mare back to camp!” Said the Unicorn, a hint of irritation in her voice.

Sterling stood still for a moment, wondering if the mare was thoroughly distracted enough for her to try and make a break for it.
“Alright you, since you didn’t have anything worth stealing, you’re coming with us” The mare ordered, flicking the gun in the direction of the road. “Maybe we can make a pretty cap off of you.”
The pegasus had no idea what a cap was-probably a form of currency, judging by the mare’s bastardisation of the phrase ‘A pretty bit’.
“Wh-where are you gonna take me?” She coughed out, still not quite catching on to what was really happening.
“That’s for us to decide, now move it!” Snarled the Unicorn. Sterling slowly began to trot towards the road, the mare in tow…And a scowling Earth Pony stallion limping behind them.
In her pip-buck’s light, she felt her still-numb ear again, more gobbets of warmth appeared on her hoof, and she could finally make out the redness of her own blood.

Chapter One: All cooped up

Chapter one: All Cooped Up

Stable-tec had a sick sense of humour.

Sterling had always thought of the company this way. From the first time in her youth that she had been mistreated for having wings to now, locked in the stable’s brig, the mare had always figured that the pre-war higher-ups at Stable-tec must have thought putting a breed of pony thats primary feature was its ability to fly in an underground box for several generations was nothing short of the peak of old Equestrian comedy.

She massaged her bruised wing, still sore from the previous day’s brawl with an Earth Pony Stallion and his two Unicorn friends. He’d hit her first, not that the Overmare cared much. Her Father and Brother hadn’t been very bothered by the sight of her when she’d returned to their stable-home, battered and bleeding, nor had they put up a fuss when a pair of stable-guards came to take her away to the brig for the night. Feeling the familiar groove she’d worn in the cell’s table from her previous incarcerations brought a slim smile to her face. This wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“You know your kind ain’t allowed to eat in here”
She’d heard the phrase before. She wasn’t allowed to eat, to relax, or even speak longer than a sentence without the express permission of a pony that wasn’t a pegasus. From a young age, Sterling and all other pegasi were taught that the pegasus breed of pony was not equal to the Unicorn or Earth Pony breeds. Unicorns were smarter and able to use their magical abilities to help the stable, and Earth Ponies were strong, and could do all the heavy lifting required to keep their society going. Pegasi, on the other hand, were essentially second-class citizens. Forced into an existence of servitude and used as a bartering item. In fact, some ponies would even try to have a pegasus foal for the sole purpose of having somepony who would cook and clean for their family without pay-that was why she had been born, after all.

The locking mechanism chunked as it turned, Sterling blinked herself out of her thoughts. Time to pretend she’d learned her lesson.
“You, out here, now.” Came the gruff voice of one of the stable guards, he was older than her, and she didn’t know his name.
Slowly, but not reluctantly, she trotted out of the cramped holding room, and followed the guard.
She knew where he would be taking her.
“You made quite a mess in the cafeteria yesterday. Since you left Stormy Seas in the medical wing, he’s not here to help you clean up, so, the Overmare has decided that’ll be your first job for today.”
Sterling practically had to bite her tongue to stop herself from telling him that Stormy Seas hadn’t cleaned a single mess in his life and would likely not have been made to hold a mop even if he was capable, but she suddenly decided that she’d had enough time in the brig for one day.
As the guard trotted away, Sterling sank down to floor level amongst the bloodstains and the mashed-up food. With a sigh, she grabbed the soaked towel she’d been thrown, and got to work.

Earth Ponies and Unicorns in stables made sense. The Earth Ponies were used to being grounded, and had a long and hard history of working in the deep, claustrophobic Equestrian mines. The Unicorns had an affinity for technology, able to use their magic to fiddle with advanced and intricate circuitry, having the mental faculties and dexterity to adequately control all the machines required to keep the stable up and running. Pegasi, on the other hoof, were not suited to stable life at all. Sterling had always figured that the higher-ups at Stable-tec must have thought stuffing a bunch of pegasi into an underground stable would make for a good joke. She could see the reasoning in that, and at times she had to admit that she did see the lighter side of things, but the simple fact that pegasi were not generally as physically strong as an Earth Pony, nor anywhere near as magically capable as a Unicorn meant that they did not have much of a place in stable life given the fact that the stable did not have the room for a pegasus to spread their wings.

Stable-126 contained Unicorns, pegasi and Earth Ponies, the residents of this stable were taught from a young age that a stable containing all three pony races was a very rare thing indeed-a point of pride for all those that lived in 126.
For most of its life, the stable had been a place of harmony, every mare and stallion knew their place and for the most part, they had been content. That was until the Schism.
Three generations ago, an ex-security pegasus named Blackberry Punch had been put in charge of the stable as overmare in a rigged vote, something that had never occurred in all the stable’s life. Blackberry Punch’s reign was harsh, ending with an uprising that caused her two closest confidants (one Unicorn mare and an Earth Pony stallion) to rise up against her. Once the overmare had been overthrown, the two could not decide who would be placed in charge of the vault, and more fighting had ensued. It was not until the first peace trade was conducted that the two sides had eventually decided to split the stable in two and live separately, but in peace with each other.

Pegasi had been in charge of controlling the weather around Equestria, something Sterling had been taught by her dad when she was just a filly. Since there was no real weather inside a stable, the pegasi had been repurposed to different roles. Some were given trivial positions in stable security, but after the Schism three generations ago, the pegasi had instead been given as offerings, as trade items between the two stable groups. This was, of course, why Sterling was being married to a Unicorn stallion she had only ever seen twice in her life.

The first peace trade was made by both sides. Each side would send a pony to the other to live and learn their ways as a mark of solidarity between the two factions. Earth ponies were strong, able to do the heavy lifting around the stable. Unicorns were, of course, valuable in their magical ways. So when the time came to perform the trade, the logical pony to give up would of course, be the least useful to the stable. The ponies traded were pegasi.
As soon as this realisation had been made, the three pony breeds were no longer equal. A pegasus mare’s job was to create foals for future stable life, and a stallion’s job was to cook, clean, look after the stable’s foals, and perform any tasks the other ponies didn’t want to do.

Sterling was a brown-coated pegasus, with an even darker-brown mane and tail which she almost always wore in a ponytail. Her eyes were a bright green, and she prided herself on being able to use small devices more deftly than most Unicorns on their side of the stable. A pride that she rarely let be known in case she received even more time in the brig for being better than anypony who wasn’t a pegasus.

She had not been allowed to throw a Cute-ceañera when she had received her cutie-mark, nor had she ever been invited to one. During music and arts class in her primary school, she had excelled at playing the piano as well as reading and understanding music. She had received her cutie-mark during one of these music classes. Lucky for her-most pegasi that lived in the vault never received their cutie marks. Unfortunately, she was never allowed to play music outside of these classes.
She had been given a pip-buck when she became an adult pony, even though she was just a pegasus, everypony had to have one. It definitely made things easier when she was asked to fix something technological, but she knew that it was mainly given to her so that the Overmare would always know where she was in the Stable, at all times.

She heard the cafeteria doors grind open. “Hey, featherbrain, nice to see you where you belong!”
Sterling began to rise, only to feel a hoof punch down on the back of her head, pushing it hard into the floor and the puddle of puke one of the Unicorns had left behind when she’d bucked him hard in the gut. Her eyes swam as she scrambled on the floor for a second. Some of the vomit had found its way into her nose. Get used to smelling that for a while.
“Don’t try getting up Sterling, we all know you’re better suited to being below everypony else, or did you forget that today’s supposed to be the day you get sent to the other side?” The hoof finally came off the back of her head, and this time, she didn’t attempt to rise.
Blinking one stinging eye, she looked around the room. It was at this moment that she realised there was more than one other pony in the room. The first was her assailant-one of the Unicorns she’d fought with yesterday, and the other was another security guard, standing next to the door.
If she fought back, she’d be prodded with a shock-baton this time, she wasn’t fond of those.

He was right, of course. She’d be sent to the other side of the stable today. She would be married to a Unicorn who’s name she did not know-probably one of many of his pegasus-wives, and would be forced to bear offspring for him. If they were born a Unicorn, they would have a future for themselves. If they were a pegasus, they’d live a life of servitude. All of this was normal, this was a common practice, after all. She didn’t know who her mother had been, nopony did, not even her father. He’d had too many wives in his hay-day.
Female Unicorns and Earth Ponies were no better. She knew many of the classmates she’d had growing up now had their own group of pegasus stallion husbands that followed their every beck and call. It must be nice not being the servant.
Kicking over the bucket of slop she’d just cleaned up, the Unicorn snorted, and trotted out of the Cafeteria. The guard approached her. “Finish cleaning up this mess and take a shower, the other side isn’t gonna want a filthy pegasus as a gift.”

Sterling hated showers.
She had to have them of course, she’d get in trouble otherwise. Being hosed down in the brig whilst a crowd of stallions jeered at you was something you only let happen once.
Every housing unit the stable had to offer featured a bathroom with a shower. Unfortunately, these showers were not meant for pegasi. The pegasus population of the stable were only allowed to shower in the old ‘public’ showers. Here, there was little privacy, and you could never tell when the Overmare’s cameras were watching. As the shower head began its freezing downpour upon Sterling’s back, she looked around, making sure she was the only one in the shower block. Satisfied she was alone, Sterling sat down and began to silently cry.

Her life had been a series of upsets. Since she’d been born, Sterling had always been looked down upon by the ‘better’ breeds. She’d never known her mother. Her father didn’t care about her. Sterling’s brother Brighthoof used her as a scapegoat whenever he got in trouble. She really was life’s punching bag. But she tried not to let it get to her. Sterling had always stood up for herself, no matter how much trouble she got in. Other pegasi were just like her, why should she be treated any differently?

Sterling sighed again. Shifting uncomfortably in her two-sizes-too-small stable suit. She glared at her pip-buck, the device that had randomly been chosen as the one that would be sent to the other side, and was at least thankful that she had been selected when she was a full-grown mare.
Sitting on a bed across from her, growling, was her brother. The Unicorn had not been happy to hear the news of his sister being traded away, although he would not let anypony else know about this-Unicorns didn’t worry about the lives of lowly pegasi.
“It’s not fair.” he grunted, loosely stomping at the floor’s metal grating with a hoof. “They get to have you, it’s just not fair.” he shook his head, his well-trimmed black mane shimmering in the fluorescent light.

Sterling was unmoved by her brother’s show. She knew that he only wanted her around to clean up after him, as she had for most of her stable-dwelling life. “It has to happen, i’m sorry Brighthoof, I really wish I could stay and wouldn’t have to get married to a Stallion i’ve never even had a conversation with while you stay here at home.” She said, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. Did this have to happen? Who said so, the Overmares? What if she didn’t want to get married? What if she took a stand and-
She stopped herself before she could put a voice to her thoughts. This was her one potential ticket away from these awful ponies and her awful life, she couldn’t risk it by being locked up in the brig again.

Deftly, she tied her damp mane into a ponytail as two guards trotted up to the door, more and more had been moving past the windows towards the door to the Other Side, but she knew why these two had stopped here now. Stretching her wings, she stood, as did her brother.
With the touch of a hoof to the button, the hydraulic door hissed open. “You” said the Stallion, pointing a hoof at Sterling. She knew his name, as he did hers, they had grown up together, played games and learned in class with each other. The only difference between them was that she had been born with wings, and Skyblue hadn’t. She moved to give her brother a somewhat heartfelt goodbye, but he growled and she stopped. How foolish of her to think he’d willingly let her show affection towards him as other ponies watched.

She would miss this place. The familiar posters on the walls drifted past her, as did the thoughts of her few friends and family. Most of these memories were not nice ones. She had always envied the other ponies who got to have birthday parties, hearthswarming gifts, real jobs and lives they chose for themselves, perhaps her new life would be more to her liking. Although she doubted it, maybe the ponies beyond those doors she’d never been past would accept her, anything had to be better than this.
Nopony came to farewell her, something she both didn’t mind, and hadn’t expected would happen anyway. A few of the colts and fillies she had been placed in charge of looking after had clustered around the windows as she trotted past before they had been dragged away by their parents. Although they never spoke of it, the Mares and Stallions who had children-especially pegasi children must have seen the Exchange as a nightmare to them. Sterling believed that deep down, the ponies of the stable did care about their foals, no matter if they had wings or horns. Some would just receive more…preferential treatment from their parents.

They stopped before the doors that divided the stable in two, the decontamination chamber. “In here.” barked the stallion. But she was already moving towards her fate. She wondered about her life, how it would be now that she would be moving to somewhere else. It couldn’t get much worse than the one she already had.
With a hiss, the doors opened again, to say that she was apprehensive was an understatement, a slap on her flank and a “move it” was enough to snap her out of it and begin trotting into the decontamination chamber.

She had never been in this room before, and the silent fear inside her was only exacerbated when the doors slid shut behind her.
“Move to the centre of the room.” said the firm voice of Skyblue over the intercom. She could see him and the other guard through the glass on one side of the room, the other side’s control room was empty, the lights off.
“Where’s the other control team?” the other guard asked, a slight edge to her voice.
“I’m sure it’s nothing, we can proceed.” Came the drawl of Skyblue’s response.
What Sterling was more worried about was the notable lack of another pegasus in the chamber, a pegasus from their side. “Uhh, Skyblue? Where’s the-”
“Quiet!” Skyblue bristled at his name coming out of her mouth. “There’s nothing to worry about, the other side must be running a bit late, that’s all, proceeding to the decontamination stage.”
“But-” The room was filled with a bitter mist that landed on Sterling’s tongue, she sneezed, her face scrunching up at the foul taste and her coat grew damp with disinfectant. The misty spray stopped, and through stinging, watery eyes she blinked rapidly. “Ugh, what’s the point of all of this, neither side is gonna be carrying any outside germs.”
“Proceed to the opposite door.”

She was used to being ignored. “Alright, well, see you never, I guess.” The door before her began sliding smoothly, then got stuck, juddering upwards the rest of the way, she gasped, sitting down hard on her rump at what lay ahead of her.
The lights weren’t just out in the other control room, the entire side of the vault had no power. The walls, floors, and skeletons of the ponies that used to live here had been charred beyond recognition. But past it all, past the bodies, the charred remnants of living quarters and food, there was a single light source.

“What-what happened?” came the voice of the guard over the intercom, knocking Sterling from her thoughts. Skyblue seemed as nonplussed as ever. “Must have been a gas leak or something, I don’t know, ask the overmare. Come back over to the centre of the room, we’re going to seal the doors.”

A faint clicking could be heard from Sterling’s pip-buck. Radiation. That meant the outside could be seeping in, that meant…
Sterling’s entire life had been a certainty. She was born in the stable to a family that needed a servant, an item to trade. She’d been ridiculed and bullied all her life for the way she was born. When she was a filly, Sterling had tried to conceal her wings as much as possible for fear of them reminding the other children of what she really was-something that became more difficult as they grew. They had taken away the one thing she really cared about, her music. They’d locked her up Celestia knows how many times in her life for speaking out about her mistreatment, and today was the day she was set to spend the rest of her life as a servant of the Other Side. Her entire life leading up to this moment had been planned by those that wanted to keep her below them, to keep her head down, to keep her and her life under control.
But for the first time in her life, nopony had planned this for her. The choice truly was hers to make.
She took a single, tentative step forward.

“Hey, pegasus, I told you to come back into the middle of the decontamination chamber!” Skyblue’s voice had grown somewhat agitated. “Unless of course, you want to receive another night in the brig!”
Sterling did not want to spend another night in the brig, in fact, she quickly realised that she didn’t want to spend another day in the stable again. Cooped up in here, nowhere to fly, she was growing claustrophobic just thinking about it. Was the only difference between the brig and the outer Stable the fact that one of them was larger?
Risk possible and probable death at the radiation levels outside the Stable with a slim chance of escape, or return to the metal walls, the servitude, the bullying, and the brig within a larger prison.
She took another step forward, and heard the button being pressed to shut the door. It got caught halfway down again and this time, she didn’t need another moment to think about what her decision would be.
“Get back here! The radiation will kill you! Sterling!” Yelled Skyblue through the intercom as she dived under the door. It slammed shut behind her and she yelped as it sliced off a chunk of her tail hair. Then she was in the dark.
What the hell did I just do?
At that exact moment, Sterling’s whole world was nothing but the source of light ahead, the clicking from her pip-buck, and the grinding of the bones under her hooves as she rose from the charred floor she had thrown herself to. She may as well have been on another planet.
They were right, i’m an idiot. Here I am, locked outside of my only home, in a burned tomb. I should have gone back when Skyblue told me to.

And then she paused to make herself remember why she’d taken the leap. What kind of a life was even left for her in the stable? What sort of a life could she possibly lead? The same life that generations of pegasi had lived. Eat, sleep, do chores, have foals, repeat? That was the way the Overmare wanted Sterling to live, but now, Sterling could decide how she wanted to live her life.
She slowly shuffled forward. “Sorry.” she whispered to the bones of another pony she stepped in. “Sorry.”
She went on down the corridors, twisting and turning, apologising profusely the entire way, always following the light, the call of the light, and then she felt something strange. Something was pushing against her, not hard, but enough to ruffle her coat and mane, she blinked through it. Whatever it was appeared completely invisible to her, until her mind drifted back to the classes of her youth. Wind. She was feeling a breeze. It took her a moment to realise that she’d instinctively spread her wings, the faint winds ruffling the tips of her brown feathers. Her pace quickened, and she stopped apologising. She had to reach the source of the light and the wind, she needed to get out of this tomb that she’d spent her whole life in. She couldn’t breathe, but started galloping anyway, it was so stuffy and dark inside, if only she could reach-

There it was.
She was in the main entrance, standing before a rusted stable door, cracked open very slightly. Clearly it hadn’t been opened the way stable-tec had designed it to. Numbly, she stepped towards it, her hooves carrying her while her mind did a 180, telling her to run back, to beg for forgiveness through the decontamination room’s door. Her body didn’t listen, drawing her closer and closer to the crack, and its searing, blinding light. She didn’t even notice the burned leg of a technician she crushed under a hoof. Her father, her brother, the Overmare…none of them would miss her. At most, they’d be irritated that she managed to get out at all. Taking one last breath of charred stable air, she squeezed herself through the gap.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Wild Wasteland – The most silly and bizarre elements of the Equestrian Wasteland always seem to find their way to you, no matter if you want them to or not.

Chapter Three: Not like them.

“Friendship is magic, and magic is power. But if you take that power, you need neither…”

What in Celestia’s name is going on?
Sterling could hardly believe what was happening to her. Here she was, outside, free from her cage in the stable, and yet she was a prisoner once more.
They had walked to a makeshift camp that night, a camp where her wings were bound and a rope tied around her neck. The raiders had not brought chains with them-they had not expected to be bringing any survivors.

Busko the stallion was still limping from their short tussle. It turned out Sterling had not put all her force into a back hoof to his stomach, but to somewhere else, a far more tender spot.
He glowered at her, and would take every chance he could to try and hit her with a hoof before Stitches (the Unicorn mare) would scold him for ‘damaging the merchandise.’
Yeah, because losing that chunk of my ear wasn’t damaging at all.
As they trotted along, Sterling would gaze around in foal-like wonder-an action Stitches found to be a great source of amusement to her. Whenever something new appeared on the horizon, the raider-mare would condescendingly describe precisely what Sterling was looking at (even if she already knew what it was) as though she were teaching a filly. A filly with a gun to the back of her head.

Although the bleeding had long-ceased, the numbness in Sterling’s ear had dissipated, replaced with a throbbing pain. She could feel that a chunk had been taken out by the bullet Stitches had fired at her.
The pegasus didn’t like that they were travelling west now, moving in the opposite direction of her original goal-the big city. As they had walked, she had asked them where they were taking her a few times, but each time she had only received a “Shut it” from Busko in response.
Her pip-buck would give her a notification every now and then as they walked, and she would give it a sly glance when the raiders weren’t looking. A few markers had popped up on her map.
‘Hornton shacks’, ‘Phoenix junkyard’...
Their destination appeared to her as her pip-buck hit 12:02 pm. She had to look twice when she saw the name.
“Foal factory?!” Exclaimed Sterling as they approached the doors to a dark, grey building. Crested near the top of the wall was the face of a pink, smiling filly. A few of the teeth in her grin had fallen out, an eye was missing, and overall, she looked quite bleak. The fallout hadn’t done her any favours.
Below the image of the grinning filly were the words ‘Pinkie’s Foal Factory’, or rather, that’s what it used to say. Since the sign was last serviced (presumably a few centuries ago), many of the letters had fallen off, leaving only their backings and gaps as evidence of their existence; the factory sign now said ‘P-nk-Fac’.

What lay behind those doors? Sterling could only imagine a mess of pony body parts, trolleys of hooves and muzzles, drawers of manes and jars of eyes. She shuddered.
“Ah told ya to stop talking, now get yer ass in there ‘afore ah lose mah good mood!” Busko snapped, smacking her on the flank (not for the first time since they had met) and eliciting a gasp from her. Sterling quickly started forward, practically crashing through the heavy double doors. Cruelly, Stitches had let go of the rope, ensuring that she stumbled down, flailing in the dark. Slowly, her eyes began to adjust to the sight of the many campfires that dotted the factory floor.
The factory was not filled with the body parts of foals, something Sterling was very glad to see. Instead, it was filled with old machinery, bins of ruined stuffed toys and conveyors. Long-unplayable board games sat in one corner, a pipe in the ceiling dribbling an unknowable liquid over the two-centuries old paper and cardboard. That’s when the smell finally hit her.

To say that the factory stank would be an understatement. Something hadn’t just died in here, something had gotten sick, laid down in their own excrement, had breathed their last, raspy breath, finally died a few days later, had begun to rot and then had finally wasted away. This process must surely have then been repeated a hundred times, and had to be happening at this very moment.

Then, there, across the room, jeering at her as she was roughly hauled to her hooves by the Unicorn mare, was a group of ponies-well, a group of monsters, really. There were four of them, sitting by a campfire. Scrap iron plates had been bolted to their leather armour barding. A fifth was perched by a window, keeping a lookout, and the sixth, an Earth Pony Mare, was sitting atop some kind of…throne?
Celestia’s blood, it was made of bones. She knew raiders were supposed to be bad news, but literally sitting on a bone throne wasn’t exactly the level of ‘obviously evil’ Sterling had been hoping for.
The enthroned mare was a sight of her own. Matted, red and blue locks of her mane had little bones tied in them. Upon closer inspection, the pegasus realised that the red in the pony’s mane was a reddish-brown that betrayed dried blood. Why she willingly allowed another pony’s blood to stay caked all over her, Sterling couldn’t figure out. Her pip-buck had always warned her of infection risks whenever she’d been bleeding after a stable-brawl, and she’d always made sure to clean herself up as soon as she could. Hygiene is important when you’re stuck in a tin can with a bunch of other ponies, after all.
She had a scar that ran down the side of one cheek, until it stopped halfway down her neck. A severed hoof cutie mark caught Sterling’s attention, as the mare’s own hoof raised in silence, the other raiders immediately falling still, and quiet.

“I see your hunt went well.” The mare’s voice was oddly pleasant, a slight gravelly edge, but warm, and inviting. She was of course addressing the two raiders that had brought her in. Busko and Stitches didn’t look very pleased at their appraisal, in fact, they looked like they were about to bolt at any moment. It did not take long for Sterling to realise why.
“So. where’s the stuff?”
The stuff?
Stitches was able to keep her composure. Busko’s face, on the other hand, visibly fell.
“Oh dear, you don’t have my Dash, do you?”
The Stallion, once so strong, was visibly shaking. “We-We’re real sorry-like Bluebe-”
“Ah. I see. And I take it…this…” She gestured with a hoof towards the pegasus. “Is some form of…repayment for the fact that, because of your incompetence, i’m not going to be getting high tonight.”
Oh. Dash is a drug. That makes sense.

Even though they had tied her up, held a gun to her head, shot her, and had taken her back to their camp to be sold as a slave, Sterling couldn’t help but feel a little bad for them. Clearly what this mare was capable of was not something these two wanted to have done to them. Although considering how awfully charming this mare appeared (despite the whole bone-fixation she had), Sterling couldn’t imagine it could be that bad.

“So. Which of you had the idea to attack this poor pony?”
Well, Sterling knew the answer to that, but she wasn’t being spoken to, and so it wasn’t her place to speak. Wait. Poor pony? Since when did anypony feel sorry for me?
Reluctantly, Busko raised a shaking hoof, looking away.
“I should have expected. You three. Come here.”
Four heads began to track the raiders and their prisoner as they slowly shuffled towards the throne. Busko was visibly shaking now.
“Look at me, Busko.” The mare spoke, calmly. The stallion hesitated for a moment, then looked up. All of a sudden, his shaking stopped. The mare (whom Sterling could only assume was named Blueberry, or something along those lines) had Busko transfixed. She was emanating a level of warmth and protectiveness that the pegasus had never known. It was like magic, this motherly figure. Although they were not directed at her, looking into those eyes immediately calmed her, despite her predicament. She was right where she should be.
Maybe these raiders would accept me into their fold…

Suddenly, Busko was on the floor, screaming. His back leg was broken. Whilst she had been transfixed, Sterling hadn’t even noticed the leader stepping off her throne, walking towards the stallion, and swinging a sort of makeshift mace at him, held in her teeth. Apparently, Busko hadn’t noticed either.
Well, he certainly had now.
He tried to crawl away, but a Unicorn’s magical aura engulfed his tail, and dragged him back to the waiting mace. On his back, he took another blow that cracked his ribs and winded him. Gasping now, he tried to fend off the mace’s next swing with one of his hooves, but all that got him was another broken limb.
Sterling had seen beatings before-she had been the target of many herself, but never had she seen anything like the subtle anger and lack of compassion on show for her now. She longed to cry out, longed to try and save his life, to beg Blueberry to stop it, but when she started forward, Stitches held her back with a tug from the rope around her neck, a grief-stricken look on her face. Why wasn’t she doing anything about this? At this rate, the stallion would be dead. Stitches must care about him, maybe, if the two of them were to band together, they might have a chance to-
“You.”

Sterling froze in her tracks. Clearly, her slight forward step had not just been noticed by Stitches. She glanced back.
On the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood, still slowly gurgling, was the mess that had once been Busko. The mace had been dropped from the raider leader’s jaws, blood pooling off of its spiked end, and dripping off the muzzle of its wielder.
“What is your name?” Asked the mare. Somehow still calm and inviting, despite her newly bloodstained appearance. It took Sterling a moment to realise that it was her that was being addressed. Of course she’s talking to you…well? Say something!
“M-my name is S-Sterling, ma’am” she stammered out, shakily. Should I have come up with a fake name? Why did this mare care?
“Sterling, that’s a nice name. I’m Bluebear Rockthorn, leader of the Pnkfac renegades. Welcome to our home!”
She was cheerful, far too cheerful for what was going on right now. The raspy breaths of that Luna-damned stallion on the floor was all Sterling could hear in the silence. That was, until Bluebear spoke again.
“Kill him for me, will you?”

Sterling’s eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “I-I’m sorry, I think I may have misheard-”
“Kill Busko. Now please.” She cut her off, the mare’s smile grew a little stiffer. Impatient.
Sterling had never killed a pony before.
In fact, she had never really wanted to hurt anypony before. Even through all of the hate, and the bullying, the beatings, and incarcerations, she’d never really wanted to physically damage somepony. Sterling had always defended herself, that much was true, but she hadn’t ever actually chosen to be in a fight.
“...Sterling.”
She snapped back to her senses, and quickly scrambled over to the faintly breathing puddle that was Busko.
The mace was on the floor next to her, she gestured towards it, looking for Bluebear’s reaction. She nodded, reassuringly. A nod that said ‘Yes, you’re allowed to use it, just this once.’

She didn’t want to use it, of course. It had just been in the jaws of this mare, and that was quite unsanitary. Oh, and the entire thing was coated with Busko’s blood, including the handle. But she craned her neck down, and picked it up with her teeth anyway.
Sterling could taste the coppery tang of the stallion’s blood in her mouth as she raised it. She didn’t want to do this. She really didn’t want to do this. She couldn’t do this.
But why shouldn’t I?
What was that? Who said that?
He tried to kill you, beat you several times over the course of a night and half a day, tied you up and brought you to a raider camp. He’s the one that picked you to be Stiches’ target. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be in this situation. In fact, he wouldn’t be here on the floor either.
The more Sterling thought about it, the more she realised she had no real reason not to kill him.
She gritted her teeth hard around the handle. Getting ready to strike. A few of the raider ponies began to laugh and jeer at Busko’s already dying form. It would just be so easy to let go of her stable-wrought sensibilities and truly give herself up to the wasteland. This had to be some kind of raider initiation ceremony, after all. All she had to do to pass was to just end the life of this awful raider. Maybe they would let her go, or maybe, she could even join them.

And yet, she still paused.
No. I’m not like them. I’m a good pony. And I won't take Busko’s life.
The mace clattered to the ground. Sterling was disgusted by the ponies around her as they began to boo her for sparing him, as if this were some heinous show they had paid to see. She was disgusted by Stitches’ lack of care for her comrade, she was disgusted by Bluebear’s blatant disregard for the life of one of the raiders she led. But more than anything, she was disgusted at herself for even considering killing him. For trying to come up with excuses to justify her actions, for picking up the mace and almost going through with it.

Bluebear tutted, and smiled sadly. “That’s a shame.” She murmured.
“Why is it a shame?” Sterling spat. Surprising herself and the raiders around her. “Why is it a shame that I didn’t end the life of this pony? Why is it a shame that I didn’t stoop to your level, and murder this defenceless…this…” She gestured towards the broken stallion. Her bristling mane catching the light of the fires around her. Sterling couldn’t help herself. She was too angry and needed to vent her frustrations-something she had not often had the chance to do to anypony who would listen.

The words kept tumbling out. “You disregard the lives of everything, even the ponies you lead, shame on you Bluebear! And shame on you all for-”
Sterling received a strike on the muzzle. Stunned, she wheeled around to find her attacker, only to be met with Stitches. The scarred Unicorn still bore an emotionless mask, but was now shaking her head.
“Nopony speaks to Bluebear like that.” She murmured after a moment.
With a nod from the leader, Stitches yanked on the rope, and Sterling was pulled away from the group. The only thing she could hear as she was slowly led towards a back room was the crackle of the campfires, and the rasping breaths of blood, spat out from Busko’s ruined face.
Stitches’ face was cast in shadow as she led her, but Sterling could make out a single tear trailing down her face, tracing the ragged lines of her old scars.

Behind them, a whoosh, followed by a sickening, wet crunch.
Then, only the crackling sound of the campfires filled the space of the still factory.

Chapter Four: Ghouls and Griffons

Chapter four: Ghouls and Griffons

The pegasus’s ropes had finally been taken off of her, even the ones around her wings. Not that she would be able to use them properly even if there were some way to fly out of here. After being shoved in quite hastily, she took in the sights. Scattered around the room, quite badly bruised were a selection of varying breeds of pony, and a single griffon that sported a wing Sterling didn’t need to be a medical professional to see wasn’t meant to bend that way. On the wall next to the door was a monitor that buzzed just before a huge latching noise reverberated around the room. The door was locked.

Most of them ignored her as she entered.
Of course, Sterling had never seen a griffon before, but she didn’t pay it much heed, she was more focused on the living corpse. Before her was a young stallion-or rather, what had once been a young stallion. In his current state, his skull, his ribs, and in fact, most of his bones were visible through his flaking coat. The remains of said coat were a dull orange, his eyes were grey and bloodshot-one of them blind, and his red mane was practically nonexistent.
When he saw her horrified expression, he chuckled, and bared his few teeth in what Sterling could only assume was some putrid attempt at a smile.

“Never seen a ghoul-pony before, Stable-mare?” Snickered the griffon, who had somehow snuck up next to her.
She jumped back, gasping. She’d heard stories of the griffons before, but had never actually seen one. They had razor-sharp beaks and talons, and their favourite snack was pony meat!
“Please don’t eat me!” She yipped, addressing both the griffon and the ghoul, covering her face with her hooves and curling up into a ball on the floor in an attempt to shield herself from the inevitable blow that would be coming her way.
This was a nightmare. It had to be. Yes. That's what this was.
Okay, if I just take my hooves away from my face, i’ll wake up back in the stable! Yep, no getting shot, or being eaten by monsters, or watching ponies get beaten to death…
The blow never came, that was a good sign. Slowly, she moved her hooves away from her face, and opened her eyes.

As she had regrettingly suspected, she was not dreaming. The ghoul was still fixing her with that awful attempt at a smile-perhaps his jaw had locked in that position. The griffon, on the other hand, began to laugh.
“Eat you? Why in all of Equestria would I want to eat you?” He snickered, patting one of the fillies on the back. “This little one would make a much easier, tastier morsel!”
Sterling would have been horrified to hear that be said about herself, especially coming from a griffon, but the young one just started giggling.

Slowly, Sterling began to uncurl herself, and stood up from the floor. Great, i’ve just met these…creatures, and they probably think I'm a coward already. How are they in such good spirits?
A Unicorn trotted over to the griffon and the filly. “Gordo, please, don’t upset our new guest, and you, young missy…” She poked a hoof at the filly. “Don’t be so cheeky, the raiders don’t like that.” The mare was kind as she said it-a motherly figure. A helpful reminder.
This… wasn’t quite what Sterling had been expecting. This friendly, almost familial gathering was in stark contrast with the hell she'd seen outside. The mare took her away from the rest of the group. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but do you think you could…wipe the blood off your muzzle? I’m worried it will scare the colts and fillies.”
Sterling felt sick. Now that the Unicor had mentioned it, all she could smell and taste was Bosko’s blood. She nodded dumbly, starting to wipe her muzzle.
“Good, good.” Said the mare, suddenly taking on that mothering tone again, this time directed towards Sterling. The mare could tell something awful had happened outside, something the pegasus would need some time to get out of her mind. “Honey, maybe you should sit down.” Limply, Sterling sat, and only then did she realise just how awfully tired she was. She’d only gotten a few hours’ sleep the night before, and all the adrenaline she’d been fuelled with had finally left her.
“Th-thank you. I just…need a moment.”
“Of course. Pardon me for asking, but what is your name?”
“Sterling, miss…?”
“Nightlight”
“That’s a…nice…” Yawned the pegasus, lowering her head. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so afraid any more.

She blinked, suddenly awake, and stretched her sore limbs. She didn't know how long she'd slept for, but it was still dark. She even couldn't remember where she was.
“Hey, she’s awake” Came the voice of that griffon again, immediately reminding Sterling of her predicament. Nopony else had noticed that she’d even moved. Sterling supposed it made sense that griffons would have some ability to see in the dark.

“O-oh, hi, everypony, uhm, sorry about-” Sterling began to apologise, but was cut off by the mare-Nightlight, from earlier.
“Don’t be. Please, we know you were…upset about something, do you want to talk about it?”
“The…what about the-”
“They’re fine, they’re asleep.” Nightlight cut in again, clearly she possessed that mind-reading ability many mares acquire when they become mothers.
Sterling sighed. Better out than in. She flicked on her pip-buck’s lamp, causing everypony (including herself) to blink in the new light, and reluctantly began to inform them of what happened just outside that door.

By the end of her reliving of those events (she’d left out the parts where she almost followed through with murdering that stallion) most of them appeared quite undisturbed-Sterling could only surmise by their reactions that this must be a common occurrence in the wasteland. Nightlight looked at her grimly, and the ghoul scoffed, rasping. “What? never seen a pony die before?”
The Unicorn glanced over at him sharply. “Rattlehoof-”
Now, it was Sterling’s turn to cut her off. “It’s fine. And to answer the question, no. I have never seen a pony die before. And i’m sorry that whatever has happened to you has caused you to not see the value in the life of a pony, of anypony.”
Rattlehoof ‘hmmph’ed, and the old stallion looked down.
There was a pause, allowing Sterling time to collect herself, then;
“I’m sorry, I just…don’t like being cooped up. We have to get out of here.”
The pouring of those words from her muzzle was too sudden for her to stop. Yeah, I think they probably agree. The little pony in her head muttered, sarcastically. And would have escaped if they’d been given the chance
“Well, ain’t that the understatement of the century” Snapped Gordo, frustrated. In the light of her pip-buck, she could see the sheen of his white feathers. His eyes were reflecting the light oddly, making him look quite otherworldly, and Sterling had to remind herself that the griffon was, in fact, real, and that he probably would have eaten her by now if he had wanted to.

“There’s one less raider to worry about now.” Suggested Nightlight, trying not to catch sight of Sterling’s wince as she said it.
“They have guns, we have nothing.” Gordo retorted. “They’ll shoot us the second we try to leave. And it seems like the only one of us who’d be fast enough to stand a chance is sleeping beauty over here.” He pointed a talon at the pegasus, then gestured to his own, broken wing. They think I can fly. She didn’t have it in her to tell them that she couldn’t.
“Well…” Sterling began, then faltered as the gazes of three heads turned to look at her.
She gulped. The mare had never had to come up with a serious plan before, let alone tell it to anypony. “I think…Maybe Stitches would be willing to help us-or at least turn on Bluebear.”
She glanced back in Gordo's direction, but he'd vanished.
“The Unicorn? So we’re gonna put our lives in the hooves of one of the raiders that is currently holding us captive…great plan.” Rattlehoof slurred.
“At least she’s thinking of something.” Scolded Nightlight. Sterling was starting to like the mare, but concluded that the ghoul-pony was right. How in Equestria could they expect to trust a raider?

“Great, well, we’ve got Earth Ponies, Unicorn magic, and the strength, speed, and claws of a griffon. Surely we can find a way out of this.” Sterling didn’t want them to give up-not if it meant she’d spend the rest of her life as a slave…again.
“What about you?”
The pegasus turned back at Nightlight’s question.
“You can fly, you’re very brave, and I'm sure you’re very smart. Don’t count yourself out of our ‘dream team’ just yet!” She chuckled.
Sterling was taken aback, she’d never been so genuinely complimented before. It had to have been a sarcastic comment, a joke. “pegasi aren’t smart. That’s for Unicorns” She scoffed, and Nightlight’s expression faded. “What are you…who told you that?” The mare looked genuinely upset-no, she was sorry for her. Sterling couldn’t for the life of her imagine why.
“W-well, everypony knows that, right?” the pegasus responded, looking around at the others for validation. “That’s what I was taught…in the stable, I mean.”
The others looked at each other, then back at her, expressions of deep concern across their features. Even the old ghoul, Rattlehoof, looked quite upset.
“Is that true, miss?”
Sterling glanced down to her right. One of the fillies had awoken, and was gazing at her. So young. So innocent. Then the pegasus saw the wings on the child, and her heart broke.
“Are pegasus ponies not as smart as Unicorns?”
“I-N-no, you’re not, i mean-” She stammered. How could she say something like that in front of a child? Nightlight looked down at the filly, quite cross that she wasn’t still asleep. Sterling hoped she hadn’t heard her story.

“My name is Shimmerbud, what’s yours miss?”
Well? Don’t be rude to a filly, Sterling.
“My name is Sterling-” But the bubbling filly was already speaking again.
“You’re just like me!” She giggled, flapping her little wings. “Are you gonna help us get out of here?”
There was so much hope in her eyes. She simply couldn’t extinguish that hope, that bright light.
“Yes, I am.” She promised. Causing Nightlight to smile at her, and a recently reappearing Gordo to raise an eyebrow. “Now, go to bed, Shimmerbud. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.”

In the brief shafts of daylight (and without being so tired she was about to collapse). Sterling surveyed the room. It had once been a toilet block. One cubicle had been filled with pony skeletons (the pegasus could only assume this was for the sake of the younger ones present).
The shafts of light came from a boarded-up window, a window that Sterling had been informed, had already been pushed open by the prisoners, then hastily covered back up to make it look like it was still a functional barricade. That sniper pony was on the lookout through a window that could see their own boarded-up window at all times. It was a miracle he’d missed them pushing it open in the first place. If they wanted a chance to survive this, and get the foals out alive, they’d need to distract him.

Sterling placed her eye to the door, and peered out. Stitches was there, as she had been before, but she was slumped against the wall. Asleep in the early morning light. That was good. Her gun was in its holster. Nightlight could probably have taken the gun with her telekinesis, but Sterling didn’t want to risk her getting in trouble.
The plan was simple. They had to save the foals, they deserved a better life than this. Sterling would unlock the door, and they would creep over to the sleeping Stitches. Take her gun, then cause a ruckus with it in the main factory room. In the panic, the raiders (including their lookout with his rifle) would have their attention on team one. While the raiders were distracted, team two, consisting of Nightlight, two colts, and two fillies, would open up the ‘boarded up’ window. Nightlight would help them through the hole, and together they would flee to the nearest town that would take them. They would get help, and bring ponies back here that would free any survivors. The last part of the plan was a fantasy, they all knew that there probably wouldn’t be anypony left to save. But Sterling didn’t care about herself. She needed to save those kids, and the others wouldn’t let her do it alone.

Sterling moved up to the locking monitor, next to the door. The pegasus had only hacked a terminal once before. This was in the stable, when her brother had locked her out of the family terminal by changing the password. It had taken her some time, but with a little tenacity, and a great deal of patience, she’d managed to find out what the password had been changed to. Her brother had not been happy when he’d found out.
Clearly, these raiders had never owned a pip-buck, and hadn’t known of its capabilities or they would’ve taken it off her when she’d first been caught. Taking out one of the connector cables, she plugged her pip-buck into the door control terminal.

It had been a few years since the hacking of her family terminal. Matching words, symbols, hyphens and slashes, Sterling tried, failed, and tried again, until finally…
‘CLACK’
The pegasus jerked back, and the others suddenly stood. Their attention was drawn to the door.
It was unlocked.
Every creature in the room looked at each other, then to Sterling. Hope shining in their eyes. Apart from Gordo, who again, was nowhere to be seen.
Oh no, they’re starting to believe in you.
“Let’s do this,” said Sterling, before anypony could praise her.

Slowly, the door creaked open, and Sterling poked her head through.
Ow! A punch of a hoof to the nose. She reeled backwards into the room, and the others caught her.
“All of you, get back!” Growled Stitches as she stepped into the room, the gun levelled at Sterling’s face.

Chapter Five: Punkfac’s End

“I won’t say that you won’t regret it, because you will. But it’s what needs to be done...”

Sterling had grown quite used to the sight of this particular gun barrel over the last two days. Even so, this hadn’t meant she’d learned not to fear it.
The throbbing pain in her ear had suddenly returned, and all she could hear was a harsh ringing as Stitches continued waving the gun in her face.
“Why are you doing this?”
This seemed to catch the Unicorn off guard, it took the pegasus a moment to realise that she’d said it herself, the ringing suddenly stopping.
Stitches scoffed.
“Uhh, i’m a raider? We capture and kill ponies? We sell slaves for caps? You really are fresh from the stable, huh?”
Sterling growled in frustration, forgetting herself for a moment. “No, I mean, why are you still on Bluebear’s side? She killed Busko right in front of you! She literally beat him to death with a mace and made you watch!”
Stitches’ face regained that impassive look from before. Sterling didn’t like it.

“He was an idiot, he failed the leader, and he paid the price.” Stitches intoned.
The other ponies all looked back and forth between the two as they argued, as if watching the ball at a buckball match. Each looked terrified in their own way. Some pleased that Sterling was standing up for them, and others (mainly Nightlight) worried that she was going to have her head blown off if she kept this up.
“You don’t think that way, come on Stitches. I know you cared about him. You tried to hide it from the other ponies-and maybe you did. But you couldn’t hide it from me. And i think Bluebear knows it too. How long do you think it is before you’re the one lying in a puddle of blood at her hooves, huh? Come on, I thought you Unicorns were supposed to be smart.”

Another strike to the nose. This time Nightlight squeaked a protest, duly ignored by the one who’d done the damage. Sterling’s head jerked back again, and she surely would have fallen over if not for the helping hooves that were holding her up. She could feel something warm trickling down from one of her nostrils.
“Don’t you think I’ve realised that?” Hissed the Unicorn, pressing the cold barrel against Sterling’s forehead. “You know nothing about how I think, Pegasus. I know I don’t have long, but if-”
Something smashed down on her from the ceiling, Sterling looked around, surprised that she was already on her hooves. A moment later, the revolver clattered to the ground.
Gordo Griffon had apparently managed to make his way up and into the rafters above the doorway, and had waited for the opportune moment to strike. The others looked wearily at Sterling, who returned the look, then she glanced at Gordo.
The griffon was lying on top of the unconscious Unicorn, a satisfied grin on his face, like a cat returning home to its owner with a rat in its jaws. From the looks of her, she wouldn’t be getting back up for a while.

Sterling held the gun in her jaws as she creeped out of the doorway. She didn’t want to kill anypony, but she could definitely cause the distraction Nightlight would need to get the colts and fillies out.
Rattlehoof was at her side, Gordo followed close behind.
Silently peering around another doorway, the main factory floor came into view.
A few shafts of light punched through the damaged ceiling, illuminating the parts of the factory the fires couldn’t reach.

The raiders were all asleep on the floor-well, almost all of them. That lookout with his rifle was still there, gazing out the window, half-asleep. Gordo growled softly, and Sterling glared at him. It wasn’t time to give themselves up just yet.
They crept further forward. The gun in Sterling’s teeth was a little damp, but it clearly hadn’t been used by somepony without magic for a while. Gordo gestured to her for the gun, his eyes glued to the lookout, but Sterling shook her head. He’s too bloodthirsty, he’s gonna get us all killed.
Creeping just next to the bone throne, Sterling looked back, beckoning for the others to follow. Taking extra care not to jingle around the saddlebags she’d looted off of Stitches’ sleeping form. That’s when her right hoof came down into something squishy.
It was a bucket. A cursory glance at a few hairs sticking out of the mess told her it was a bucket full of Busko. She felt the ringing in her ears again, and hadn’t even noticed that she’d let the gun drop to the floor until it was already too late.

The lookout whipped around at the noise, spotted the prisoners. And brought his rifle up to bear “They’ve escaped! Get ‘em!”
Blinking themselves awake, the raider ponies soon became aware of the problem, and were quick to pull out weapons of their own. Snatching the gun back up in her teeth, Sterling and the others dove behind a wrought-iron machine frame. Bullets pinging off its thick, metal hull.
“Great job, you know, maybe you should have waited ‘til we were closer to the doors before letting them know we were here!” Gordo’s sarcastic comment was almost drowned out by the noise of the gunfire.She dropped the gun again, this time deliberately. “Oh yeah, you’re one to talk! Like you weren’t gonna do that anyway!” she retorted.
“Shut up! Give me that!” Groaned Rattlehoof, who took the gun in his teeth and began to return fire, halting the advancing ponies for a moment.
“Right, Sterling, we’ll distract them, if you can fly over this thing you can get outta here!” Growled the griffon. The pegasus was shocked by his sudden courage, but any pride in him was replaced by that sinking feeling in her stomach. She shook her head.
“No, look, I know that wasn’t part of the plan, and that you probably don’t want to leave us or whatever, but there’s no point in you dying here if-”
“Gordo.”
Sterling shifted her wings weakly and shook her head again, fixing him with a sad smile.
Realisation dawned on his feathered features. “Oh you… Sterling…” He groaned, leaning back. “How could you let us all think you could fly?”
“Look, I don’t care who can or can’t fly.” Growled the ghoul-pony, mouthing over the grip of the gun and taking a bullet to the shoulder that caused him to wince. “All I care about right now is more ammo. Cough it up.” Sterling emptied one of the saddlebags onto the floor. Fried rat, no. Collection of small stones, no. Hoof grenade, no. Ah, there it was, ammo for a-

She glanced at Gordo, who shot a look back at her, and dived for the grenade before she could snatch it away from him. “No, I don’t want to kill-”
“It’s them or us!” He shouted, deftly pulling out the pin and tossing it back over the machine frame.
The explosion was immense. One of the loudest sounds Sterling had ever heard. One of the raider ponies had yelled “grenade!” but by then it had been too late. It wasn’t so much the grenade’s explosion, but what the explosion caused.
Magically sealed containers of various chemicals and combustible items were caught in the explosion, and the ceiling in the middle of the factory floor caved in. The bone throne was shredded to pieces, flying around the room in a hail of shrapnel. Sterling could hear the screams as ponies were impaled, or set alight, or both.
Not only were there parts of the dead, but parts of living ponies were scattered about in the blast, and Sterling almost puked when she saw a fresh jaw land next to her.
There was no denying it. Punkfac was ablaze.
They had to move, there was too much smoke, and they were likely to be burned alive if they stayed put. Something all three of them simultaneously agreed on.
“Gordo!” Yelled the pegasus as they sprinted to the exit doors. That Luna-damned lookout was still there, taking pot shots at them despite everything. A few more shots from Rattlehoof dropped him, right as the ghoul fired his last bullet, and they burst through the exit doors, into the sunlight and out of the choking inferno.

Sterling breathed the fresh air deeply. It wasn’t smoke, and it wasn’t a mouldy, old bathroom. She was outside again! She sank to her haunches, taking in the scene.
The factory was burning down rapidly, the face of the filly on the front had finally caught, and it glared accusingly at Sterling as it went up. ‘Sorry’ she mouthed.
Then there was a horrible sound.
Smoking, coughing as she left, Bluebear burst through the factory doors. It took her a moment of coughing to clear her lungs, and that’s when she caught sight of them.
“You.” She hissed. Her calming demeanor now gone, replaced with a blind rage. “You destroyed the Punkfac! You killed my ponies!”
The irony of the leader being upset that somepony had killed her own was not lost on the pegasus, and she was about to turn and run, when Rattlehoof dropped the empty revolver.

“Celestia damn you and all your raider kind!” Rasped the old stallion, and he broke into a gallop, sprinting towards the mare, right as she readied her mace to strike.
“Rattlehoof! Don’t!” Yelled Sterling, but before she could react, Rattlehoof leapt at the Earth Pony..
He was quite spry, for an older stallion.
The mace struck one of his outstretched hooves, but that didn’t stop him. The two of them crashed back through the doors, back into the blazing inferno of the Punkfac. Sterling started to run forward, but Gordo stopped her with a talon to her chest. He shook his head, right as the roof of the building collapsed in on itself.
Sterling sat back down, dazed. Thoughts were swirling around in her head. “Why did he-why?” Was all she could stutter out. Gordo sat down next to her, the griffon wrapping his unbroken wing around her smaller form. “He’s lived a long life. And I'm sure you could understand that a life lived that long doesn’t come without its fair share of mistakes.”
The griffon paused.
“If it's any consolation, I think he wanted to go out that way.”
“Burning himself alive?” Sterling whimpered, tears beginning to stream down her face.
“Saving the ones he cared about.” The griffon sighed. “No matter the cost.”

Walking around to the back of the building, Sterling and Gordo spotted the open exit route, and a small gap in the bushes a few metres away. She smiled, wiping her tears away with a hoof. “At least they made it out.” Her expression fell as she realised that she’d just smeared more of Busko on to her face.
“I’m surprised we did, to be honest.” Replied the griffon, moving towards the gap between two bushes.
He paused at the edge of the clearing, the glowing of the burning building catching in his eyes.
“Well? You coming? We’ve gotta find those kids, and Nightlight.”
Sterling blinked out of her stupor. She kept zoning out. That wasn’t something she could afford to do in a world like this. “O-of course.”
She trotted up to him, in a daze. “If we get to a town, do me a favour and clean yourself up a little before you terrify the residents?” Gordo chuckled.
“Yeah.” Replied Sterling, absently. She had no idea how he could be cracking jokes at a time like this.

The pair of them walked in silence for some time, until they got to the road. “Where do you think they-”
That’s when she saw a flash of light. The pegasus dived for cover. A moment later, an audible ‘CRACK!’ rang out. Almost immediately, the pegasus felt something wet drip onto her hoof. Was she bleeding again?
Opening her eyes, there was no blood. Instead, it was a droplet of water.
Sterling had never seen rain before. She knew about it, of course. Although they never really covered it in class, she’d had a vested interest in it (being a pegasus who were supposed to have been able to control things like rain) and had taken to her own research in the stable’s library.
The two of them galloped to a nearby bus stop, taking shelter next to the skeletons of a pony and her long-dead foal in a pram. Sterling tried to avoid looking at them as much as possible.
“You need to step up.”
It took her a moment to realise that she was being talked to. It was Gordo, of course. And he did not look impressed. He looked like he’d been thinking about what he was going to say quite carefully.
“I…what?”
“You need to step. Up.” He growled again, poking a talon at the pegasus’ chest. “I don’t know how, or why, but those ponies in there trusted you, and believed in you. Rattlehoof believed in you, so did Nightlight, so did I.”
“Why are you saying this?” Cried the mare in dismay. “Haven’t we had enough for one-”
“No!” He snapped, wincing as his wings spread. “We thought you could fly! But you can’t!”
“I never said I-”
“You never said you couldn’t!” The griffon narrowed his eyes. “Omitting the truth is still lying, Sterling. And that’s not even the worst part. You couldn’t even kill a raider pony. You tried to stop me from throwing that grenade and saving our asses, and you wouldn’t even shoot them when you had the gun!”
Now it was her turn to get angry. “So what? I’m sorry that I didn’t want to kill somepony, no matter how awful they were! I’m not used to this place, I'm not like them, and I'm not like you.”

“I am not like them!” Shouted the griffon. A fork of lightning illuminated his eyes as he bore over her. She shrank down like a frightened filly. She didn’t need much to remember that the muscular griffon could easily tear her to shreds with those talons of his. He saw the terror in her eyes, and sighed, letting go of his rage.
“We’ve all done things we regret to survive out here.” Murmured the griffon, remembering himself and sitting back down. “It’s the way of the wasteland. And if you want to live, you’re gonna have to learn it.”
He looked away, clearly remembering something he wished he could forget.
There was a silence between them, broken up only by the ‘pitter-patter’ of the rain falling onto the tin-roof of their makeshift shelter.
“It’s why Rattlehoof threw himself into those flames. Maybe he saw it as a way to redeem himself.”
What the ghoul could possibly have done to immolate himself alive wasn’t something Sterling wished to muse upon.
“O-okay.” She said quietly. “I don’t want to, but if we’re going after Nightlight and those foals, I should probably start…” She didn’t want to say it, but Gordo smiled at her sadly.
“Atta girl.” He said, ruffling her mane.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Cherchez La Filly – +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.

Chapter Six: Welcome to Freesaddle

The downpour had, for the most part, stopped. Sterling had decided that they couldn’t let Nightlight and the foals get too far away, so they had to press on, even if it was still raining.
Sterling, not sure of what to say any more, had broken up the awkward silence between them with her pip-buck’s radio. Gordo’s eyebrow raised at her as the song played, but he said nothing.
“How did this happen? What have I done?”
The heartbreaking tones of the young mare echoed the thoughts in Sterling’s mind, something she didn’t much appreciate.
“I was only trying to help, but I caused so much pain.
I wish I could hide, I wish I could run.
I wish I could find a way to do it all over a-”
Sterling switched it off. She didn’t want to hear this.

The soft pattering of the rain on her face was more enjoyable than she’d thought it would be. It wasn’t as much of a downpour as it had been before, but it was still quite refreshing. The soot and blood washed off of her, she felt…re-energised, ready to take on the wasteland with Gordo at her side.
If either of them could fly, they could probably catch up to Nightlight relatively quickly. Unfortunately, the griffon and the pegasus didn’t have this option. Unable to use his uncanny sense of smell (Sterling was unsure if this was a griffon thing or a Gordo thing), they had taken to following muddy hoofprints, until they had been washed away from the roads by the rain. Now, they could only guess where they’d gone. Sterling chose a direction (her pip-buck told her the closest landmark was to the west, again, away from the big city she’d originally started her journey towards), and had followed the road that way.
“Those little-ones would have to stop” Gordo drawled as they trotted along, the light catching his white feathers in peculiar ways. “And Nightlight would probably listen to them. If we see any houses along the way, we should check them out.”
Sterling nodded, but didn’t say anything. The griffon gazed at her, a look of slight concern on his face, but he stayed quiet.

The following morning, the two of them crested a hill. Before them lay a town that an update ‘blip’ from her pip-buck told Sterling was the town of ‘Freesaddle’.
A huge, stone wall surrounded the town, a large steel gate lay open. Ponies and other creatures milled in and out of the main entrance. A few guards stood atop of the wall. Their wicked-looking guns caused a sense of unease in the Stable-mare. They did not stop them as they entered.
Sterling looked around in wonder. Behind the gates, in the safety of the walls was a set of ramshackle shops, some built on top of pre-existing ones from before the war. The place was…vibrant! A stark contrast to the rest of the world she’d seen. In fact, it was probably the most colourful place she’d ever been in. The main street was a bustling market, as she trotted past, Sterling saw stalls of guns and armour, technologies she recognised and technologies she didn’t. There was even a clothing store. When she saw some of the gowns-dresses she’d always dreamed of owning herself, she tossed up the idea of getting out of her damp, stained stable-barding.

Then she smelled something. Food!
Her stomach growled. Sterling hadn’t eaten anything in at least two days! She looked at the griffon next to her, a pleading look in her eyes. He sighed and nodded, eliciting a smile. She galloped over to the dining section of the market, Gordo hot on her heels, and looked for something to eat.
Not a single item of food here was something she was used to. No apples, no dehydrated peaches or strawberries. Here, it was all meat.
She’d never eaten meat before, in the stable, she’d been told ponies weren’t supposed to eat meat, and her sensibilities told her she really shouldn’t be considering it.
But her stomach was louder. She rooted through the other saddlebag, remembering the ‘caps’ Stitches had mentioned two days before, and slammed a hoof-full of them onto the counter of one of the vendors’ stalls.

The old stallion grunted, and lifted up a roasted rabbit on a stick, passing it over to her. She gazed at it apprehensively. Maybe she didn’t want to do this.
Her stomach growled again. I can’t take it any more! She shoved it in her mouth, as much as she could fit.
An explosion of exotic tastes hit her, and she almost had to take a seat to steady herself. She’d been missing out on meals like this her whole life?!
The stable-food had always been bland to her, even the fruit and vegetables they’d managed to grow inside had been so horribly genetically modified that they were virtually tasteless, but this? She almost wept, and Gordo chuckled. “You really haven’t eaten meat before? Us griffons have to eat meat. I can’t imagine a life lived without it.” He turned back to the stallion behind the stall, and slapped a few caps of his own to the wooden table. “Gimme some rats.”
Of course, he’s a bird of prey. Eating rats and other critters like that makes sense.

She looked around. The ponies sitting and eating around here looked happy. They looked content. Ponies were allowed to walk around with obvious guns on their hips, and yet there was no violence, no killing, this place was…perfect.
“Sterling!”
The pegasus’ head whipped around, galloping towards her, the foals at her heels, was Nightlight. Her deep purple mane, glossy in the sunlight. Sterling recognised that she looked good, unharmed. The colts and fillies did too.
She stood up, a muzzle full of rabbit, and Gordo ate his rat all in one go. “Well, i’ll be damned.” He grinned. “Yeah, I survived too.”
Nightlight faltered for a moment. “O-oh yeah, right, sorry!”
She wrapped the two of them into a tight hug, Sterling, squished inside was struggling for both her breath, and struggling to swallow the rabbit, whilst Gordo looked away, embarrassed.
“Where’s Rattlehoof?”

“I can’t believe he’d…throw himself into the fire like that.”
The three of them sat, the younger ponies playing around them in the market street.
Sterling laid her hoof on Nightlight’s shoulder, a reassuring touch.
“Trust me, neither could we. But he did it to save us from that monster. He was a real hero.”
When she looked back, Gordo was further down the street, keeping an eye on the foals.
Sterling of course, was not reassured herself, but she could at least make Nightlight happier. And making other ponies’ lives easier was a pegasus’ job, after all.
“You’re a hero, Sterling.”
The pegasus stopped, and her hoof fell away. “Wh-what?”
“I said, you’re a hero.” Now it was Nightlight’s time to be the reassuring one.
“N-no i’m-”
“You are.” She said again, more firmly. “You’re the one that got us out of there.”
“All you needed was a pip-buck-”
“You’re more than just a pip-buck. You’re the one that came up with the plan.”
“A plan that anypony could have come up with, you’re the one who got those fillies out-”
“And i’ve regretted staying with them ever since.”
Sterling was taken aback. “What? But you-”
“I know it was my job to get them out, I know that’s what you told me to do. But I could have helped. I mean, I'm a Unicorn. Sure, I’m not a fan of violence but I do know some spells. I could have been more useful. Maybe you should have sent Rattlehooves instead. Maybe he’d still be…” She trailed off.
“Nightlight. You had to be the one to take those foals. You care for them, they look up to you. And you saw them here safe! Rattlehoof-i’m not sure he would have even been able to get out that back window, but he could take a bullet like a champ, and Gordo…”
Sterling gestured down the street, to where the griffon was playing tag with the kids.
“He’s strong, and he’s deadly. No. It had to be you.”

“But what about you Sterling?” Nightlight intoned.
“Well, who cares about me?” replied the pegasus. “I literally met you yesterday. I was…inconsequential.”
“I care about you.” Scoffed the Unicorn. “And you were vital.”
On the verge of an emotion Sterling did not recognise, the pegasus turned away. Nightlight pressed on.
“You said some…Interesting things before. I get the feeling you might have problems with your own self-esteem.”
Well, isn’t that the understatement of the century?
“I am a pegasus, what else can you expect?”
“There, right there.” Snapped the Unicorn. “That’s it, you put yourself down, and you put all Pegasi down with you, who-by the way, are usually quite happy ponies. You need to stop doing that, Sterling, you’re worth more than you think.”
“Yeah, alright, thanks, didn’t know you were a therapist or whatever.” Sterling sarcastically replied. “Anything else doc?”
Nightlight muttered something about having a word with the Overmare of Sterling’s vault if she were given the chance, and that’s when the pegasus noticed it.

There, just in the corner of her eye, outside a large building, were a pair of ponies. One of them an armed guard, the other in a hood, clutching a bag in her teeth. She was desperately trying to get in and the guard was not having it. As Sterling crept away from Nightlight’s lecture, and towards the confrontation, it seemed like her knack for listening in on stable-gossip hadn’t left her.
“-told you that you can’t come in. I need to check your bag first!”
The mare whipped her head around, the bag falling around her neck and being slung over her back.
“Come on Stamptrot, you know me. Besides, I already told you, this is for the mayor’s eyes only!”
The mayor?
Sterling snuck closer, her eyes suddenly drawn to the bag. Now, she was curious. She seemed to recall the distant memory of her father telling her that one day, poking her nose into the business of other ponies would be the end of her.
Stamptrot snorted. The hell kind of a name is Stamptrot anyway? Look, I know that you know I know you-”
“What?”
“What? Look, just, no, I really can’t. The last time I let somepony in to see the mayor without an appointment, he almost fired me!”
Sterling quietly edged even closer, close enough to put her light wings to good use, and gently lifted up the flap of the bag. A glimmer of recognition lit in Stamptrot’s eyes, but he pretended she wasn’t there. It would seem he wanted to know what was in the bag as much as she did.

“Stamptrot, I hear you, but please. I need this. More than my job is on the line here. This could be life, or death.”
Her time spent sneaking around the stable and pinching other ponies’ belongings suddenly came in handy as she pulled something large from the bag. Immediately, she recognised a bundle of wires, some red sticks, and-
“Sweet Celestia! It’s a bomb!” Shouted the guard.
Her eyes widened, and ponies looked around for the source of the noise. Immediately the mare whipped around. “What are you-hey!”
She lunged for the bomb, held by Sterling’s wing, but the mare sidestepped, pushing her over as she sailed past. The hooded mare crashed to the ground, Stamptrot dove on top of her, and she was pinned.
Perfect, now I just have to get rid of this bomb.

She galloped away from the mayor’s office, away from Gordo and the young ponies, who were about to chase after her, but were stopped by the griffon.
In the corner of her eye, Sterling could see Nightlight galloping behind her, following. She called back at her to stay away, but didn’t stop.
Food stall there, no. Elderly ponies meeting there, no.
This was it. Her life would end here, running away with a bomb wrapped under her wing. She knew that the longer this went on, the more likely this thing was to-
Ah! That would do.
Sterling raced over to a stallion-hole cover and began to lift it with all her strength, flapping her free wing to generate more force, until finally, it shifted very slightly. She shut her eyes, straining with the effort. Come on, I have to save them! Suddenly, it popped off from the hole easily. Opening her eyes, she looked around and saw that Nightlight was helping, wrapping the thick, steel cover in her telekinesis. Quickly, she threw the bomb into the open sewer hole, and pushed the lid back on as she heard it clatter to the bottom, panting and sweating with effort.
A moment passed, then another. Sterling expected the explosion to happen at any second, and she slowly backed away from the hole.
“Sterling…”
She glanced up at the Unicorn. Her heart was racing.
“I don’t think it was armed.”
Sterling breathed a sigh of relief, and collapsed back on the cobbled street, out of breath, the adrenaline leaving her.
Of course it wasn’t armed. That mare wasn’t going to walk around with an armed bomb in her bag!
As she stared up at the sky, Nightlight’s soft features came into focus.
“Still think you’re not a hero?” She smirked.
Sterling glared at her. “It wasn’t even ar-” but was cut off as she was hauled to her hooves by a pair of guards.
“What are you-”
“The mayor wants to speak to you.” One of them, a male horse, boomed.
They escorted her towards the door to the mayor’s office without giving her a moment to catch her breath.
Nightlight and Gordo protested as she went, but were barred from entering. They heard a last, desperate cry before the door shut again.
“But It wasn’t me!”

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: PickPocketPony – Through legitimate (or illegitimate) practice, you’ve gotten quite deft at…relieving ponies of their belongings whilst those items are still on them. +10% success rate when it comes to pickpocketing ponies!

Chapter Seven: Goldwood

“And tonight folks, I hope to share with you a taste of the future. Just remember all those ponies that couldn’t make it. All of this, we’ve done for them.”

They clip-clopped their way across a marble room, up a flight of old wooden stairs, and down a long, carpeted corridor that held a distinct, mouldy odour. The two guards ponies were practically dragging Sterling along to the end of the hall, where a huge, wooden door stood. To say that it was all a bit intimidating to the poor pegasus was an understatement.
As they reached the end of the hall, the two guards stopped. One of them rapped a hoof on the old panelled wood of the massive door. “You. Go in now.” One of them snorted, it was not a request. The other creaked the door open a bit, and after a moment’s hesitation, Sterling was shoved through, the door slamming shut behind her.

The room was quite well-furnished. Bookcases and filing cabinets lined the walls, above which the portraits of long-dead ponies were hung.
A heavy mahogany (or so Sterling assumed, she’d never seen mahogany wood before) desk with carved flowers and filigree lay in the centre of the room. A few loose papers, a reading lamp, and a terminal were scattered around its surface haphazardly. An old leather chair (its back was to the mare) and its metal frame reflected light from the window, the desk lamp, and a fireplace at the far end of the room. Why a pony would need a fireplace going right now was the least of Sterling’s concerns.
Slowly, she stepped off the wooden planks of the floor, and onto the carpet, closer to the desk. “Uhm..Mister…Mayor?” She squeaked out. If they had wanted to scare her, they had certainly succeeded.
There was no response.
Eyeing a nameplate on the desk, she spoke again, more confidently.
“Mayor…Goldwood?”

With a squeak of old bearings, the chair turned around, and Sterling met the mayor of Freesaddle for the first time.
“I…huh? Is this a joke?”
She almost burst out laughing on the spot, partly relieved, partly angry at herself for getting so worked up about all of this.
Sitting on the seat in front of her was a colt. He couldn’t have been much older than Shimmerbud was-in fact, Sterling wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t finished his primary school education yet.
He flicked his ginger, bowl-cut mane out of his eyes with a tiny, cream hoof. “Gweetings, I am Mayow Gowldwood! Wewlcome to Fweesaddwle!”
This was, without a doubt, the last thing she had been expecting. With all the craziness the wasteland had thrown at her in the past few days (not to mention the way the guards had just carried her up here, and the whole bomb fiasco of about five minutes ago) she just couldn’t help herself.
Sterling erupted into uncontrollable laughter, her hoof coming to rest on the desk, just managing to hold herself upright as she wheezed.
“Do not waff at me, pegasus! I’m hewe to congwatuwlate you for saving my wife!”
He’s a bit young to have a-oh, his life.
She laughed even harder. Tears were beginning to form at the edges of her vision.
“I-I can’t, I’m sorry, I just-” She couldn’t even form a proper sentence. He sat there, glaring at her impatiently-clearly this wasn’t the first time somepony had reacted this way.
It took her another few minutes to regain her composure.
“Oh, oh that’s good, ah, ahem. Okay.” She giggled, but stopped herself, if she started laughing again, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
“Awe you quite done?” The colt intoned.
“Yeah, yeah no, i’m good. So, where’s the mayor.” She said through a smile.
“I alweady towld you, i’m the mayow!” He squealed, clearly he was getting quite annoyed.
“No, no I mean…” She saw his expression. “Wait, you’re serious?”
He fixed her with a bored expression, raising an eyebrow. Sweet Celestia, what the hell is Freesaddle?

“Yes, I am sewious. My fathew is out on the town, pwetending to be mayow. I’m the one who actuawly makes the decisions awound here!” He stated, matter-of-factly.
“So, what sort of decisions, a new water slide? Sparkle-cola in the fountains?” She snickered.
“Cuwwently, I’m deawling with the Pwincesses and a fwankly ludicwus incwease in expendituwes wegarding an expansion to ouw twade infwastructuwe with neighbowing towns.”
She was stunned. “How old are you? And, what do you mean, the Princesses? Like…Celestia and Luna?”
Now it was his turn to be sarcastic.
“Oh yeah, Cewestia and Woona themsewves awe cuwwently twying to kiwl me. Hence why they sent that bomb. What, were you bown yesterday?”
The irony of the question was not lost on her. This little…
“Listen here, you spoiled brat. I don’t care if you’re the ruler of Canterlot. Just because i’m a pegasus, doesn’t mean i’m going to stand for being talked to this way by somepony who can’t even get dressed by himself. So. You dragged me up here to congratulate me, thanks. Now, i’ve got some pals downstairs to get back to.” She turned, and began walking towards the door.

“I’m not finished with you yet!” cried the colt, galloping out of his seat and standing in between her and the door. “Pwease, ma’am, i’m sowwy about speaking that way.” Clearly he didn’t mean it, he was just putting on a show. She sighed. “What is it? I didn’t save you out of the kindness of my heart, you know.” I didn’t mean to save anypony at all, really, I was just being curious, but he doesn't know that.
“It doesn’t mattew why you saved me fwom that bomb! What mattews is that you did it!.” He spewed out. “And I need somepony on the outside, somepony new to town, with the skiwls to hewlp me out hewe! Twust me, I could make it wowth youw whiwe!”
She didn’t want to hear him attempt to say ‘worth your while’ again, but nodded. “Caps?” She questioned, but already knew the answer.
“Caps.” He nodded.

“So…let me get this straight. There’s a gang called the Princesses, who all think they’re Celestia because of a single wartime pinup poster, and they’re at war with the ‘Servants of Luna’, which are a group that are based in a pre-war bar that competed with the bar the Princesses have their own base of operations in, and both think you’re siding with the other group, and so both have been trying to secretly kill you?”
“Yes, pwetty much.” He said, sitting back in his chair. A ‘blip’ from his terminal broke the silence, and as he read the new message, he grew quite pale.
“Oh no.” He squeaked.
“What is it now?”
“M-my…” He looked like he was on the verge of tears. Immediately, Sterling remembered that she was dealing with a colt, and rushed over to his side.
“There, there, sorry. What’s wrong?” She murmured in a hushed tone to him. “Oh dear.”
A single message had been opened on the monitor. It was from one of Goldwood’s employees;

‘Mayor Goldwood.
It seems as though the failed attempt on your life this morning has caused quite a stir amongst the Princesses, and upon hearing that the plan to leave a bomb in your office had failed, the Princesses have kidnapped whom they think is the Mayor. Your father is currently being held captive in the Celestial Bar. We fear it is only a matter of time before he reveals your secret.
Use of guard ponies to storm the bar, not recommended.’

The colt was shaking, and all of a sudden, he burst into tears, crying into Sterling’s stable-suit.
“I’m gonna woose my Daaaaadddyyyyyy” He wailed. Sterling began to wonder if anypony outside that window would be able to hear him.
“Are you sure that maybe the Princesses could be convinced to give him back? Maybe If you sent somepony to talk to-”
“No, No you don’t undewstand.” He blubbered, pulling away from her. Sterling noticed the wet mark in her stable barding but neglected to comment.
“H-he’s gonna tewwl them, and awl my pwans…Then they’wwl k-kiwwl him!” He gasped, beginning to type away at the terminal.
“Are you…responding to the message?” She asked gently, a hoof on his shoulder.
“No, i’m going to kiwwl him first.” He replied, but didn’t sound happy about it.
“You’re…” She frowned. “You’re what?”
“Wewwl, either he tewwls them who I weawwly am, then tewwls them awwl my plans, and then they kiwwl him, or I kiwwl him first. Assuming of couwse, that they haven’t alweady gotten that infowmation out of him.”
She shook her head. This kid is in more than just shock, he’s delusional.
“If you hadn’t noticed, he’s not here. How are you going to get somepony in there to kill him?” She asked, smiling again, still trying to be reassuring.
“That’s what i’m typing now.”
His hoof was hovered over a key. On the green screen was the word ‘EXECUTE’ in all caps.
“I’m going to bwow up the bomb in his neck” He responded.

The what?!
“You put a bomb in his neck?! Why in all of Equestria would you-”
“I didn’t put it thewe, if it's any consowation.”
“How could you-but-why would?!”
“I have to.” He muttered, turning the chair back around to face her.
“He towd me to do it himsewf.”
This was crazy. Sterling had always had an…interesting relationship with her father, but this was taking it to the extreme.
She grabbed his hoof, stopping him from pressing the key.
“I’ll get him.” She was already cursing herself for saying this, but the words just started to tumble out.
“I’ll go get your dad, alive, and bring him back to you.”
“No you wo-”
“Yes I will.” She said, sounding more sure of herself. “Can you at least let me try?”
“But why? What wouwld you have to gain fwom this?” He asked, uncertain as to whether or not she was lying.
“Because it’ll put me in good favour with the real mayor of Freesaddle, it’ll put me in good favour with the ponies of Freesaddle, and…because I stopped the bomb, which caused him to get captured in the first place.”

He thought about this for a moment. “Okay, i’wwl give you an houw. Then i’m gonna push the button.”
“Merciful Celestia, alright, thank you for that…Can we make it two?” She asked hopefully.

The door to the Mayor’s hall slammed shut behind her as Sterling was thrust out into the bright light. Mayor Goldwood (quite coldly for a colt) had not, in fact, allowed her two hours to save his Dad. In fact, the argument had gotten so heated that she simply gave up, it was difficult to argue against somepony who spoke so poorly…and who was also a stubborn, young Colt. He had also mentioned that the time being spent now was time that could be spent saving his father, and she conceded that she had no time to waste. He had at least given her a parting gift.
“Oh goodness, you’re alive! And…you’ve got a revolver now? I take it the meeting must have gone well?”
The revolver was now in a holster that had been a part of Stitches’ saddlebag setup. It was a much nicer one than the cobbled-together mess of pipes that had belonged to the raider. Sterling hoped she wouldn’t have to use it. But the way Gordo had been talking the day before…She wasn’t so sure she’d have the choice.
Nightlight moved to wrap her up in a hug again, but she sidestepped. “I’ve got no time, sorry!” She began to trot away. I think I've had enough hugs for one week.

“How was the Mayor?” Gordo and Nightlight were trotting beside her. When did he get here?
“He was…not there.” She lied. “He’s actually being held captive right now by a gang called the Princesses, since they failed to plant a bomb in his office, but that doesn’t matter. Look,I’ve got an hour to save his life so I really do have to go. Sorry!”
She brushed past many market-going ponies, trying her best not to bump into any of them, but failing a few times.
She galloped away, towards the marker Goldwood had left on her pip-buck.
As she reached the outskirts of town, she skidded to a halt outside a pair of bars. One of them, the Celestial Bar, and the other, the Night’s Inn. She looked over her shoulder.
Gordo and Nightlight were still there. “I thought I said that this was something I had to do, why are you two still here?”
Nightlight looked quite appalled at the pegasus' mindset. “Hold on now, I took part in that bomb-disposal we attempted earlier, and besides. I will go where I please.” She sniffed, raising her nose. What a drama-queen. “I’ve got your back, Sterling.” She smiled, warmly. Alright, I guess she has her moments.
“And you?” Sterling pointed a hoof to Gordo.
“I’m bored, and I've got nothing better to do.” Snorted the Griffon.
“Great, that’s, that’s great, you two. Now three of us are gonna die for the Mayor.”
Sterling turned back towards the main entrance. “I take it the plan isn’t to talk our way in there, and then back out with the mayor?” Asked the Unicorn.
“Not exactly.”
“I was hoping you’d say that” Muttered Gordo.
That’s not the right attit-wait…
Craning her neck up, she could just see a door on the roof. That meant there was a way up there-or at least, there had been once upon a time. If only either of them could fly.

A ladder!
Around the back of the building, was a ladder. Sure, it hadn’t seen much use in…a few centuries, but Sterling was sure it would take her weight. Whether or not it would be capable of bearing the heavier Unicorn or the much heavier griffon remained to be seen. She would just have to make sure she climbed up first.
The ladder was rusty underhoof, and it squeaked.
Slowly, so as not to rattle it off the wall too hard, Sterling slowly pulled herself up, rung by rung.
“You’re doing great!” Called Nightlight from down below.
“Be quiet!-w-wooah!” Swayed the pegasus, clutching the steel bars in front of her. She’d never been up somewhere high before. A pegasus with a fear of heights. I hope that goes away once I can fly again…
“Right. Sorry!” Nightlight whisper-shouted back up, Gordo stifled a laugh.
Those two are gonna be the death of me…
Almost at the top, Sterling paused. Something didn’t feel right.
Slowly, the ladder began to tilt back.
“Shit!” She yowled, scrabbling her way up the last few rungs. It collapsed fully, right as she reached the top, and she leapt off the ladder. Her top half made it over the lip of the roof. Her back legs didn’t.
A “Watch out!” from Gordo and a huge ‘CRASH!’ of steel on cobbled stone reverberated down the side alley, three storeys below her.
Flapping her wings and scrambling, she kicked up loose gravel and concrete, until she managed to find a hoofhold.
She pulled herself the rest of the way, and lay on her back, panting.
Is it too late to assume that maybe somepony might not have heard that? She asked herself hopefully.
Today was shaping up to be an interesting one for the mare. She checked her pip-buck, and gasped.
Half an hour?! Where had the time gone!

Chapter Eight: The Celestial Bar

Gordo’s keen senses were able to pick out Sterling’s hushed instructions from the alley, shortly before the two had to leave for fear of the Princesses coming to check out the noise caused by her clumsy ladder-climbing-skills.
According to her plan, they were to wait outside, if anything went wrong (or if they heard gunfire), Nightlight and Gordo would sneak in through the front of the building. Distracted, the Princesses inside would be too preoccupied with Sterling to notice them quickly enough for them to adequately fight the two of them as well. By splitting themselves up (as Sterling had obviously meant to do), they now stood a better chance at getting the Mayor’s dad out of there.
All according to plan.

The Door on the roof was locked-and likely had been for some time. The padlock itself was relatively new, but the latch it was locked to wasn’t. Sterling had taught herself some basic padlocking skills when she couldn’t get into somepony’s belongings in the Stable with her pip-buck alone, and she would have loved to brush up on her skills again now. Unfortunately, she had neither the time, nor the bobby pins to spare right now.
Hefting up a chunk of loose concrete from the crumbled roof, she decided that she’d just have to brute-force it.
Sterling struck the rusted latch once, twice, three times, and on the fourth strike it snapped off. Despite the ludicrous sound of metal crashing down three storeys that had been made by the ladder already, she still winced as the padlock came loose. She’d always been conscious about making too much noise if she didn’t have to.
She paused, expecting some resistance. There was no yelling, no rushing of hooves up a flight of stairs, and no gunfire.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Sterling shoved herself against the door. Over the years, rain and rot had swelled the wood of the door up so that it barely budged. It was a tremendous effort for the mare to push it open without resorting to bucking it with her back legs (once again, for fear of making too much noise). Finally, with a squeak of rusty hinges and old wood, it slid inwards. The darkness inside was uninviting, and the door now hung on a crooked angle, but there was nothing else for it.
The pegasus stepped into the damp stairwell.

Quietly stepping down the concrete stairs, Sterling made sure to avoid rustling as much litter as she possibly could.
Eventually, she came to a crumbled section of wall that she could squeeze through, onto a series of catwalks that oversaw a loading dock. The walls were made of a faded, red brick, crates of centuries old wine bottles and kegs of undrinkable ciders littered the place, and a sagging delivery cart stood in the middle of the loading bay just before a rusty old roller door. This place was a lot bigger than Sterling had imagined.
Through the catwalk’s metal grating she could see some movement. Shivering in the cold, the pegasus could just make out the sound of a complaining stallion, alerting Sterling to the Mayor’s position. The Mayor’s Dad’s position, I mean. She thought, correcting herself in her mind. Although she supposed it would probably be easier to speak to other ponies about him if she thought of him as being the Mayor as well.
A pair of armed guards stood outside the cart’s back door. It was open-topped, but that back door was the only way in or out. Unless he could fly, the Mayor wouldn’t be leaving the cart alive.
Unless he could fly…
She eyed the front of the carriage. The cart was clearly meant to be pulled by a pegasus, although, if she couldn’t even hold herself, she could hardly be expected to pull a cart like that. Despite this, Sterling stubbornly refused to come to terms with the fact that plan A (getting the Mayor out by herself) was probably out the window. She really did not want to have to resort to plan B, (The Gordo and Nightlight pincer move).
Still unsure that she wanted to bring the two of them into harm’s way, Sterling studied the cart. The side of the cart was emblazoned with the face of that pegasus mare, under which were the words ‘Mulberry Sweets Juice Co.’
Guess that company made ‘Juice’ for adult ponies too.

Recognising that she was getting distracted by pre-war Equestrian businesses (and by the good looks of that pretty mare) Sterling shook her head, focusing.
There were two guards visible to her from her vantage point. She couldn’t see if there were any more in other parts of the loading bay, and she assumed that a few had gone outside to check on the noise she’d made when the ladder fell. This just left the two she could see, and a few other stragglers that might be in the building to be an immediate threat.
Further down the length of the catwalk, she spied a rope with a hook on one end. If she could tie that to the railing, she might be able to slowly lower herself down…
Of course, if this didn’t work, and the Princesses noticed too quickly, she’d be dangling like that pegasus piñata at Paprika Buck’s cute-ceañera she’d had the pleasure of cleaning up after.
But it had to. She didn’t want to put her newfound friends in danger, after all.
Friends? She smiled. I suppose we must be. That’s a nice thought.

Sterling tied the rope to the hoofrail, and gently lowered it down.
It didn’t reach quite as far as she’d hoped it would, but with a little effort, she reckoned she’d be able to reach down off the end of it, and let the Mayor strain himself up to meet her hooves. She doubted she had the physical strength to pull him up herself, but it was the best plan she had that didn’t involve anypony else, so it was the one she would go with.
Dangling down the length of the rope, Sterling was given a bit of time to wonder just how her life had gotten to be this way. I suppose the right pony in the wrong place…
She placed a hoof on the hook at the bottom of the rope, and gently lowered herself down so that the hook was being squeezed in between her thighs.
Dangling upside down, she realised that this probably wasn’t the most flattering position anypony could find her in. No time to care about that now.
“Psst!” She hissed to the pony in the cart below her.
He looked around for a moment, then settled back to leaning against the wooden wall.
She stifled a groan of frustration.
“Psst! Mayor!”
This time, the Mayor looked up in confusion. His eyes widened. Sterling extended a hoof down to him.
He hesitated for a moment, and then slowly began to reach up. The guards had yet to be alerted to the pegasus’ presence.
Straining, she lowered herself as far down as she could, and their hooves brushed. He raised himself to the best of his ability, and then suddenly, he grabbed a hold. The Mayor’s father began to pull himself up with an impressive amount of upper body strength Sterling hadn’t realised the Earth Pony possessed.
On the other hoof, however (and unfortunately for the two of them) Sterling was not physically stronger than she looked.
The grip of her thighs gave way, and she crashed, head-first into the mayor, and the wooden floor of the cart.
“Oy, quiet down back there, or i’ll-HEY!” Shouted a stallion as he moved into the doorway.
Sterling rolled to her hooves, gun in her mouth already. She was shaking.
I don’t want to have to kill anypony…
“We’ve got trouble!” Yelled the stallion, pulling out a baton and holding it in his own muzzle.
She could see his friend peering over his shoulder behind him, he had a gun of his own.

The stallion took a step forward, an evil, almost pleased glint in his eye. Then another. Sterling shook her head, pushing her back against the mayor who had his own to the far end of the carriage.
Please don’t make me, I really don’t want to do this!
He paused for a moment, gauging the situation. Whether the Stallion was incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid, Sterling did not know.
His eyes narrowed.
Oh no.
The stallion had clearly seen weakness in her, thinking she wasn’t going to pull the trigger or he’d already be dead, because he lunged towards her, baton raised in a downwards stroke.
She fell backwards awkwardly, and time slowed down for Sterling.

Wh-what is this?
She could see the carriage around her. The Mayor’s cowering form, the sudden rush of the oncoming stallion that had been almost completely halted. She had received a notification from her pip-buck, which she wrestled out from under her;

‘You have activated the S.A.T.S. feature of your Pip-Buck!’

‘S.A.T.S (or the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell) is an advanced spell able to be activated by any breed of pony (so long as they’re wearing the Pip-Buck) to be used in combat. When activated, the spell will cause the user to see the world around them as if they are frozen in time, giving them the ability to properly gauge the situation. On top of this, the spell also presents the percent chance of scoring a successful hit on various parts of an enemy’s body, and the user is capable of switching between targets in this slowed state. When the spell is released, all attacks that were made in this state are carried out automatically. After use, S.A.T.S. must be given a few seconds to recharge before it can be activated again.’

She glanced up to the figure in front of her, and was surprised to find a green outline around his head. At this range, it would have been difficult for her not to miss.
The targeting spell estimated an 85% hit chance.
She peered over his shoulder. The form of another armed pony, this one with a pistol was attempting to storm into the room after him. The S.A.T.S. read a 55% chance to hit him. His face was horribly burned, and that was when she noticed the fact that pony in front of her also had a burnt face.
It was bleached, literally, with bleach. These ponies had both had their faces and coats bleached white. Why in Celestia’s name they would ever-
Oh, that’s horrible
They had given themselves chemical burns to render their coats white in some cruel homage to Princess Celestia’s own coat.
Sterling was filled with a burning inside. How could they do something like this? How could these ponies have possibly believed that Princess Celestia would want them to do this to themselves?
She looked back at the Mayor’s form behind her. She was all that stood in the way of him and another beating, which, by the looks of the bruises that covered him, he’d already received several of.
Sighing, she resolved herself. On the one hoof, killing ponies was wrong. It was immoral, and it was certainly not something she’d ever thought she’d have to do in her life.
On the other hoof, if Sterling didn’t kill these ponies, she would receive a beating, maybe would be killed, and the Mayor’s Dad would certainly die without her aid. There was only one logical choice really, no matter how much it pained her to come to that conclusion.
She looked back at the green outlines, confirmed her targets, and reluctantly ended the spell.
Sterling knew that she would never be the same pony again.

Time returned to its normal pace. A deafening ‘BANG’ rang out across the loading dock. The stallion’s head rocked backwards, the momentum throwing him off. He crashed into the floor, blood pooling out from the newly-formed hole in the centre of his head.
A second shot reverberated, before the second stallion could even react, a bullet hit him in the eye. He shot back, the gun in his mouth clattering to the floor.
Sterling almost dropped the revolver right there and then. Two shots fired. Six shots left.
What have I done?
She had just ended the lives of two ponies. Sterling blinked, and she could hear a ringing in her ears. She felt somepony shaking her.
“-ey, are you okay? I don’t know who you are, but we need to leave now!”
She turned back to the Mayor. His hoof was on her shoulder.
“Y-yeah, right.” Sterling said plainly. Tears began to form at the edges of her vision, but she blinked them away.
Think about it later, save this pony now.

She could hear yelling from somewhere in the building. Ponies were approaching. Angry ponies.
They wouldn’t be able to leave out that way now.
Sterling desperately looked around the room. The huge roller door was shut, right in front of the Mulberry Juice cart. A terminal in the loading bay’s office was on the far side of the room. With any luck, it would control that big door.
“Keep that entryway shut, I need time!” She yelled at the stallion, tossing the revolver over to him as she sprinted over to the control room. She was glad to not have it on her any more.
The mayor caught it and galloped towards the small door to the room. A few bullets pinged past him from approaching ponies, but after a few returning shots down the corridor, he managed to slam the door shut, pressing his back against it and digging his hooves in.

Panting, Sterling started up the terminal, wiping some of the dust off its display. Miraculously, the green text flickered into life on its ancient screen.

‘Welcome to the Celestial Bar loading dock control terminal.

Days since last boot-up sequence: 9999…’

She flickered off the home screen, and began searching through files, wincing as she heard the telltale sounds of pony hooves bucking against the outside of the locked door.
Focus. She willed herself.
Freight orders, no. Employee layoffs, no. Floor plan…maybe just a few seconds’ look wouldn’t hurt, right?
Opening the file, she studied the blueprint. They were on the second level of the building, the loading dock taking up one half of the floor, the other half, an employee lounge and staff offices.
She froze. Hold on a minute, if we’re on the second floor, that means that the cargo door opens to nothing!
She was knocked out of her thoughts by the yell of the Mayor. “Whatever you’re doing, hurry up! I can’t hold this door forever!”
“I need a minute!” Sterling yelled back at him, exiting the file. There wasn’t any time to come up with another plan. She could hear gunfire in the distance and she winced, this was exactly what she had been trying to avoid.
Flicking through the files at a renewed pace, she finally found it.

‘Loading dock roller door controls.’

‘Current door status: CLOSED. Would you like to OPEN?

‘YES’ ‘NO’

Hastily, Sterling slapped the ‘YES’ option.
A grinding of gears and a creaking of old mechanisms began to sound around the room. An old rusty chain started to spin. Cracking and shuddering, the roller door began to bang open.
Right, step one, done. Now for step two.
She sprinted back over to the cart, and began to strap herself into the pegasus harness at the front. Sterling didn’t like this plan, but it would have to work or they’d both be dead, and then so might Nightlight and Gordo if they fought on much longer. The pounding on the door stopped. Sterling looked up, confused. Had her friends managed to kill all the ponies that had been threatening her and the mayor? She could still hear gunfire, but maybe she wouldn’t have to try and fly him out of here, maybe she could-
A huge burst of magical light smashed into the old door, wrenching it off its hinges, sending the Mayor sprawling across the room.
A Unicorn, his horn glowing, stepped out through the smoke. He was larger than any other pony Sterling had ever seen. His coat was bleached white, just as the guards’ had been, and on his head was a crown.
“Enough of this.” He commanded, and a group of ponies formed up behind him, some with bats, others with guns. Sterling snuck a glance at her pip-buck. Seven minutes.
The gunfire in the distance was getting closer. Think. What can I do here…
“We are Celestia, and thou have caused quite a bit of trouble for us, and for the rest of the Princesses too.”
We? Us? Does this stallion really believe he’s royalty?
Sterling racked her brains for any school memories of how a Princess was supposed to speak, as the Mayor got to his hooves. He was slowly trying to inch his way towards the cart. She turned back, and realised that the roller door was stuck halfway open, the Unicorn’s telekinesis was holding it in place!
“Of-of course, your majesty.” She bowed, the gears in her head turning. “I am but a humble pegasus who wishes to know why royal beings such as you would trouble themselves with somepony as petty as the Mayor of a town of commonfolk.”
The mayor kept inching towards her, but shot her a confused look. She ignored it and kept going;

“The major powers of this town request that you give a royal pardon to this Mayor, and offer him another chance to better serve the rule of the Princesses. After all, when the time comes for you all to take your rightful places as rulers of Freesaddle, it would be much easier if you already had somepony in a position of power who already works for you.”
The Unicorn smirked in pompous amusement. “Eloquently spoken, for a ‘humble pegasus’. Although this does not tell us why thou hast killed two of our subjects.” Sterling winced, Celest-the Unicorn made a fair point.
“Who are you, pegasus? A ‘deliverer of justice?’ a mercenary? A soldier in somepony else’s war? Why hast thou taken such an interest in this Mayor? It cannot truly be because you care about this town. No, there is something more…”
Sterling resolved herself. The most frustrating thing about the situation was not the fact that the two of them were moments away from death, or the fact that Nightlight and Gordo were battling it out themselves just a few rooms away, it was the fact that not only was this pony attempting to speak in a royal manner-his speech would also slip up quite regularly.

“Speak, pegasus. Before we have our subjects execute you.” Sneered the Unicorn.
She didn’t like his attitude. Sterling dropped the act. “You’re not her.”
The Unicorn’s head jerked back, and his eyes widened. “What?! You dare-”
“You’re not her!” Snarled Sterling. She was still hooked up to the harnesses of the cart, and had been craning her neck around to have this conversation in the first place, but her indignation resonated around the room.
“You’re not our god, Celestia! We were taught to believe in her and Luna. Who in all of Equestria would believe you were her? What made you possibly think that-”
“She’s right!” Cried the mayor, waving a hoof at her in an attempt to get Sterling to shut up.
“How dare you, both of you! I will have you both shot!” Cried the Unicorn.
“What makes you Celestia?” Asked the Mayor. “How come none of these other ponies are Celestia, huh?”
The gang started looking at each other, then at their leader, then back to each other again. A few whispers echoed around the room. Sterling cottoned on to what the Mayor was saying.
Guess it pays to be good with words when you’re a politician.

“I have magic!” Roared the Unicorn, snapping the other ponies out of their whisperings. “I am the only one with-”
“You said I.” Sterling snapped.
“What?!”
“You said I” She repeated. “Not we. You can’t even keep up the royal voice, can you?”
Her ‘subjects’ began to whisper again, dissent was spreading.
“And everypony has magic, horn-for-brains.” She spat. “pegasi can fly and control the clouds, just as Unicorns can cast spells.”
She didn’t for one moment actually believe they were equal, right them she would have said anything to buy them more time.
“SILENCE!” bellowed the Unicorn again. This time cottoning on to what Sterling was doing.
“Enough stalling.” Began the Unicorn, regaining his composure. “Kill them.”
A bullet punched the Unicorn’s shoulder from behind, and he winced in pain, dropping his telekinesis spell and whirling around. “Leave her alone!” Shouted Gordo. Despite knowing her friends were in danger because of her, she couldn’t help but smile.
The doors rattled open further, and the Mayor dived into the back of the cart. “Go!” He yelled over the gunfire.
Some of the gang had given chase to him, and some had turned back with their Unicorn leader as he began firing spells down the corridor
Sterling, if there was ever a time to learn how to fly, now would be it.
“Get out of here Gordo!” She yelled over her shoulder, galloping, gaining momentum. If anypony would be able to hear it over the noise, it would be him.
Sterling sprinted forward, out through the open door, and flung herself, the cart (and by extension the Mayor) into the air.

The cart weighed much less than she’d thought it would, that was the first thing Sterling noticed.
The second, was that they were actually stable. Sterling was simply gliding for the moment, and had yet to actually flap her wings. Even this proved excessively difficult for her, and it was taking every bit of wing strength she had to stop her feathers from tilting too much in the wind.
She couldn’t afford to lose concentration now, but she had to know.
Sterling glanced at her pip-buck again. Five minutes. They wouldn’t be able to cover the distance to the Mayor’s office on hoof in that time. It was up to Sterling, her physical strength, and her focus to keep them in the air.
Keeping them in the air, of course, meant that she would have to raise their altitude.
The bullets and spells finally ceased whizzing past her as they glided out of range of the Celestial Bar’s loading dock.
Alright, don’t fail me now.
Sterling shut her eyes and flapped her wings once, almost twisting around in the air and losing her balance. She opened them again, and realised that they had actually gotten higher.
Something in her heart, a flame that had been snuffed out long ago rekindled. The stable hadn’t robbed her of her ability to fly after all!
She flapped again, still getting used to it, still trying to understand the weight distribution. She didn’t even want to think about air currents yet.

They juddered a little in the air, and she heard yelling from behind her. “Just set us down here!”
Sterling shook her head. “We need to get you to the Mayor’s office!” She called back over the wind. “Or your head is gonna explode!”
There was a pause. “What do you mean?” The Mayor sounded genuinely confused.
I thought he knew about the bomb! Didn’t his son say…
“You know, the bomb in your neck? The one you told your son to detonate if you ever got kidnapped?”
“There is no bomb in my neck! Right?” He shouted back. The Mayor sounded quite frantic.
That little…Liar!

Sterling’s concentration dipped, her left wing twitched a little too far, and they began to plummet.
She struggled to regain altitude through the tumult of her brain, but it just wouldn’t happen.
The pegasus flapped her wings frantically, and managed to give them a few more seconds of air, levelling them out a little and causing the nose-dive to become more of a rough landing. She crashed, and the harness snapped from the impact, sending her back up into the air, spinning.
A deep gouge in the earth formed up around the cart’s disintegrating form as it ploughed through the earth. The old wood gave way. Bits and pieces began to shave off, exploding and filling the street with smashed chips of wood.
The world careened around her and she tucked herself into a ball, shielding her face and closing her wings. She hit the ground, hard. Winded, Sterling rolled to a stop, the pieces of the harness still tied around her. She could feel a sharp pain in her back hoof, and as she felt it, the pegasus knew that there was a piece of wood shrapnel stuck in there.
Ponies dove out of the way, screaming, or clutching their young ones. As she stared in a daze from her spot on the ground, Sterling hoped to Celestia that she hadn’t accidentally killed anypony-although she could clearly see that the cart had certainly taken out a few market stalls.

The ringing in her ears was back, and she struggled to her hooves. The world spun around her and she fell back down. I think I should just lie here for a bit. That would be nice.
Galloping hooves approached her, and she lolled her head to the side. Sterling couldn’t tell if she was hallucinating or not, but it looked like Gordo and Nighlight were running towards her. She tried to speak, but she found that she couldn’t. Despite her injuries, the Unicorn looked quite distressed to see her. Gordo looked vaguely impressed.
“The-uhh. The…” She slurred, trying to remind herself how to speak.
“Don’t worry Sterling, you’re going to be okay.” Fussed Nightlight as she rolled her onto her back. The pegasus heard an audible gasp as the mare uncovered her injuries, although what the big deal was about, Sterling wasn’t sure. A wave of numbness washed over her, and it took a supreme effort to move her hoof and point it in the direction of the cart.
“Mayor…get to…his office. Now.” Muttered the pegasus.
A crowd of frightened ponies was gathering around the scene now. Ponies were whispering to each other, some were asking questions, others were inspecting the damage.
“But Sterling-”
“N-no!” She stuttered, feeling blackness creep around the edges of her vision.
“Mayor. Office. Now!”
“Okay Sterling, we’ll get the mayor to his office.” Gordo said carefully. Very kind of him to speak slowly. I can understand that.
The sound of hooves galloping to and from the scene filled her ears. She heard somepony call for a doctor. The echoing of the hoofsteps grew louder. The darkness grew, obscuring her vision further and further. The last thing she saw was Nightlight’s worried face beside her as she was lifted up off the ground.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Quiet Climber – What a Thrill! You can now climb surfaces in a faster, more sneaky way! Gain +5% climb speed, and produce 5% less noise when climbing!

Chapter Nine: Dreaming

“Waking nightmares are rare, but important. They can tell you a lot about your inner-most thoughts and feelings. Some ancient cultures believed that they were messages from those who had souls that hadn’t fully passed on. What if we could capture these messages? Many have tried, none have succeeded.”
____________________________________________________________________________

She fell. Out of the air, into the ground, through it.
Tumbling and flailing she kept falling, only stopping when she landed in a pool of blood.
She could make out the mangled face of a pony lying next to her. Something came to mind, a name. Busko.

The ground opened up again, and this time she was tumbling off a rope into a cart pulled by monsters. Her hooves were frozen to the ground, and all she could do was watch as the pleading faces of two white stallions went blank as she fired a single shot into both of them.
Then she stared down the barrel herself, and she could make out a shape.
It was a mare, a pegasus.
The pegasus was soaked in blood and gore, a fork of lightning illuminated her scarred features. She looked like a raider, and she was decorated in bones, like Bluebear had been.
At her feet were the bodies of a Unicorn and a Griffon.
The pegasus turned to look at her down the other end of the barrel, and their eyes locked.
She grinned evilly, and it took her a moment to realise why she was frightened.
She was afraid of herself.
A void chewed its way out of the gun, and wrapped itself around her. Smothering her. She fell again, weightless.
____________________________________________________________________________

“Hmm, I don’t know about this one. I suppose she’s the best i’m gonna get though.”
There was no space, no time. Just blackness.

“Yes. She’ll have to do.”

“I’m going to have to teach you an awful lot in a very short amount of time.”

“Know that i’m doing this because it must be done and we don't have a lot of time. And i’m very sorry, but your mind was full of enough self-doubt for me to form this connection. I don’t expect you to understand this, but you will, in time.”

The voice echoed around, its source impossible to find.

“You won’t remember most of what I teach you. But you’ll find yourself doing it. So do not be alarmed. You might not believe you can, but I know you can do this.”

“Now, this might hurt. Try not to wake up before i’m done.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Sterling winced, sensations flooding back to her. She was too tired to open her eyes, but she didn’t want to go back to her nightmares.
That’s when the pain in her head hit her.
It was excruciating. Sterling cried out all of a sudden, and tried to roll over, only to find that she couldn’t move.
Her eyes flew open. Light blinded her and she immediately squinted them. The ringing in her ears started its chorus again.

“Ah, you’re awake! Please, calm yourself…Sterling? Was it?”
She could barely make out the words. Her mouth felt dry.
“H-hurts…” she stuttered, working her mouth.
“Yes, i’m sure it does. I’m Doctor Healhorn, and I've been looking after you for the past few days.”
The image of a Unicorn stallion swam into view. He was spinning-as was the rest of the room. The darkness grew at the edges of her vision again. He was still talking, something about an operation they had performed on her. She figured it probably wasn’t important, and promptly fell asleep again.

____________________________________________________________________________

Sterling blinked awake. This time, the throbbing pain in her head had subsided. She could think clearly again-well, clearer than she had the last few times she’d woken up.
The black and white stallion hovered over her, tending to something on one of her legs she could feel, but couldn’t see in her current position. She tried to sit up, but found that she’d been strapped down.

“Mister, uhh, Doctor…” she started, realising that she couldn’t remember his name.
“Healhorn. And welcome back.”
“Why am I strapped down?”
“Oh, of course!” He chuckled to himself, and began undoing the straps. “You were kicking around in your sleep a lot. You said some…interesting things. Tell me, do you or your family have a history with nightmares?”
She shook her head, and regretted it immediately, the dull throb returning with a vengeance.
“No.” Winced the pegasus.

He chatted to her for a bit, telling her about her injuries, the state of the Mayor when she’d asked him, and how long she’d need to rest in order to recover. She tried her best to pay attention to most of it.
“Now, I've got to tell you, your friend was in quite the state when you were brought here. We practically had to drag her away from you to keep her out of the operating room! And that griffon…” The doctor sighed, and Sterling wondered what kind of trouble Gordo had given them. “Every time we threw him out, he’d find some way back in. Anyway, the Unicorn offered to pay any and all expenses for your stay here” Sterling’s eyes widened in alarm, but the Doctor held up a hoof to calm her. “Don’t worry it’s already taken care of. The mayor paid for it, as part of the payment for saving his life.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Nightlight was far too kind for her own good. She barely knew the mare, and she’d already been ready to fork out what probably would have been a small fortune for somepony living in the wasteland just to keep her comfortable in hospital. She’d have to make it up to her somehow.

“As a medical professional, I have to tell you that you should rest for a few more days or at the very least, don’t do any strenuous activities for a week, you don’t want to pull the stitches out of your leg.”
Sterling sat up, wondering who had left several bouquets of flowers and a series of cards on her bed-side table, maybe somepony got the wrong bed.
She had already slept for three days, although she still felt extremely tired. She shook her head. “No, sorry. I’ve got somepony I need to see.”
“I understand, but if you feel bad enough, do come right back here!”

Sterling limped out of the hospital entrance, slowly. No strenuous activity. At least she didn’t have too much to do for the moment. But she had to see the Mayor-the real one. She had a few choice words she’d need to impart on that little twerp for lying to her about the bomb, after all.
The market was long over, and the streets were oddly empty. Sterling felt a bit of a shiver pass through her at seeing the town so quiet.
In fact, there were more guards on the street than before. Some of them were quite beaten up as well. Had something happened when she’d been asleep?
This troubled her, and she picked up the pace, only to cry out as her back leg failed her. She almost fell, but was able to lean herself against a warm, feathered body.
“Glad to see you’re awake, troublemaker.”
It was Gordo. She was glad he didn’t squeeze her into a hug.
“Troublemaker?”
“Yeah, you’ve gotten this town all riled up now. It’s crazy. Somepony tried to mug me yesterday.” Sterling noticed his black eye and put a hoof to her mouth. The griffon laughed. “Don’t worry, you should have seen the other stallion.”
The pegasus rolled her eyes. “How’s Nightlight?”
“Oh she’s fine-been worried sick about you though. I doubt she’ll want to see you out of bed so soon, so i’d stay hidden if I were you.” He snickered. “Where are you off to, by the way?”
“The Mayor’s office, I’ve gotta speak to him.” She glowered, and Gordo raised an eyebrow.
“Yikes, wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of your irritation, you’ve made a bit of a reputation for yourself now, do-gooder!”

Sterling frowned. “Do-gooder?”
Gordo shrugged. “Nightlight told some other ponies about the whole Punkfac thing, and now with the way you saved the Mayor’s life, ponies are starting to believe you’re some unwavering force for good! It wasn’t me that left all those flowers and get-well-soon cards around your bed, after all.”
Sterling groaned, and a flash of concern passed Gordo’s features, but she waved him off. “It’s not the pain, it’s the fact that these ponies think i’m a hero now. I don’t want anypony to believe a pegasus like me could be somepony great. They should look up to you, or Nightlight!”
Gordo grinned. “Maybe they should, but where’s the fun in that?”

Sterling passed by a guard at the door to the Mayor’s offices. This time, they even let Gordo in, telling them both that the Mayor had been expecting them in his office for some time now.
She trotted up the stairs purposefully, not stopping for the griffon to admire the scenery, and moved to the carpeted hallway.
She pushed against the big door at its end, and stepped into the Mayor’s office.
The office was empty. The fireplace long burned away. Sterling cursed and Gordo looked at her quizzically.
“That little…oogh, when I get my hooves on him I’ll…” She started, and trotted around. Well, maybe a little poke-around wouldn’t hurt.
The filing cabinets were filled with…papers. Obviously. Tax collection notices, funding for different projects, all of these documents were carefully filed in alphabetical order, and Sterling had to wonder if the Mayor had done it, his son, or if they had some kind of assistant.

“Uhh, Ster? You looking for somethin’?” Asked the griffon, he was watching the door, expecting a guard to come in at any moment. Sterling shook her head. “No, i’m just gonna have a liiiiittle look…”
She went over to the desk. Pencils, quills, the terminal, a pack of mint-alls-
The terminal.
On the terminal was a flashing message. It was meant for her.

‘Sterling.
If you are reading this, it means that you have made it out of hospital. Congratulations. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to you and your friends for rescuing the Mayor.’
Sterling really did not like all these mental gymnastics she was having to play due to the nature of the true Mayor’s identity, but she read on.
‘Inside this desk is a small box containing three hundred caps. This is for your troubles. I have also included two smaller boxes of one hundred and fifty caps, one for each of your friends for aiding you in your escape.
As for why I or the Mayor cannot deliver these to you in the flesh, I believe that you may need some time to relax, and think over what you may do once you meet me again, as I have come to understand that you have discovered the true nature of the bomb in the Mayor’s neck. I will be out of town for a few days with the Mayor. We will be staying at a neighbouring village-forgive me for not informing you of which one. But once the situation has calmed, we will return.
We have also decided that it is unsafe for us to remain in Freesaddle at this time, due to the rampant gang violence that has erupted since your rescuing of the Mayor.
If we do not meet again, I wish you the very best on your ventures in the future, but because of the chaos you have caused, I will be forced to cut all ties with you here.

Best of luck,
-Goldwood Jr.’

She sat down on her haunches, and took a moment to stew on her thoughts. Gordo was wisely keeping his distance.
That cowardly, no-good, arrogant…aaaargh!
Sterling grabbed the desk lamp and was about to throw it across the room, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She sighed, putting it back down.
Gordo reached over and plucked the mint-alls up, putting them into his own saddlebags. When Sterling looked at him oddly, he shrugged. “You clearly don’t like him, and I want these. That’s a good enough reason to take them for me.”

She stood up again, and opened one of the drawers. Inside were three boxes. She took them out, and Gordo took one of the smaller ones. Sterling was about to offer him the larger one, but he held up a claw. “Oh no, you risked your life way more than I did, you get to keep those.”
“But you might actually need these, I don’t want-”
“I might be a bit of a bird-brain, but I can read Sterling.” He snickered at his own pun, and Sterling barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes again. “The Mayor clearly wanted you to have the 300, so you’re gonna get the 300. And don’t you even think about giving it to Nightlight, alright?”
“Okay, okay. Thank you Gordo. Speaking of, we should probably find Nightlight so I can give her these caps.”

In the quiet outdoors, Sterling and Gordo walked back towards the town square. They heard a commotion up ahead, and saw a pony burst out through the hospital doors. “Sterling! Sterling where-” The pony turned her head and saw her, it was Nightlight. Of course it was.
She galloped towards her, and Gordo stepped back. He’d clearly learned from last time.
Nightlight pulled Sterling into a crushing hug, and she yipped a little as her already sore bones got pulled tight against the Unicorn. She had absolutely no idea why Nightlight was always so happy to see her.
“You’re okay…mostly. Should you be out of bed yet?” Murmured the Unicorn, casting a worried eye over the many cuts and bruises the pegasus’ coat now bore.
“I’m fine, please, can you let me go?” Sterling wheezed, and breathed deeply when she was finally released from the bear hug.
There was an awkward pause, and the Sterling remembered. “Oh right, here. The mayor wanted me to give you this.”
Sterling passed the small cap box over to Nightlight, and she wrapped it in her horn’s aura.
“Thank you, Sterling. You know, the ponies of this town really like you.”
Sterling shook her head. “Yeah, of course they do, you’ve told them all I'm some big hero.”

Gordo stifled a laugh and Nightlight shot him a look. “You are one, Sterling. Anyway, where are we gonna go next?”
“We?”
Nightlight put a hoof over her shoulder. “Yes, we. We’re friends now. We’re gonna travel together. Where do you want to go?”
Sterling shrugged. “I have no-”
Wait. I do know. How do I know?
“West. We’re going to go West.”

Chapter Ten: Departure

Sterling felt her bandaged ear as they gathered their supplies. It was still a little painful, but she was sure it would pass in time. It had been very kind of Doctor Healhorn to treat it for infection-and, (she reluctantly had to admit) it was nice of the Mayor to pay for the treatment as well. Nightlight and Gordo were both fine, save for the black eye the griffon gained a day after their storming of the Celestial Bar.
Gordo’s wing was now in a splint given to him by Healhorn, during a medical checkup Nightlight had practically dragged him to.
Sterling had no real idea why she knew they had to go West, or what awaited them there. All she knew was that she’d never felt more sure about something in her life.
When Nightlight and Gordo had asked her why, Sterling had just shrugged. They had looked at each other, wondering if Sterling might have hit her head harder than they had imagined in the crash, but they hadn’t said anything. The pegasus had liked that.

The three of them spent the rest of the day shopping. With the caps they had earned from their hard days’ work, the two ponies and their griffon friend had hit the town, with various levels of success. Gordo and Nightlight could easily navigate Freesaddle, had found the weapons and food they had needed, and had already returned to the town centre by the time Sterling had even left her first store. The pegasus had run into some trouble-in the form of ponies that wanted to speak to her. Many such ponies had lined up outside the General’s Store after they had seen her enter. Overwhelmed, she had been forced to barge past a small crowd, all wishing her well, thanking her for saving one of their own, and really sticking it to ‘those gangers’.

Eventually, she had given up trying to tell them she hadn’t meant to stick it to anypony, and had resolved that she would try to sneak out of town. That was when a familiar filly gave a tug to the back of her tail.
“Shimmerbud! You’re…still here?” She asked, quickly leading the bouncing pegasus away from the crowd.
“Of course! I live here now, silly!” Shimmerbud giggled, and Sterling smiled, a little confused.
“What about the others?”
“We’re all in the orphanage, Nightlight sent us there, she’s been visiting us every day!”
Sterling felt a pang of sadness creep into her heart as she heard those words. It made sense that the raiders would have killed their parents, of course. But that didn’t make it any better to hear from the filly.
“You saved the Mayor!” She quickly added, and Sterling shrugged. “I had help from Nightlight and…what?” Again, the filly giggled, and she wondered just how a ray of sunshine like her could exist in a world like this.
“Nightlight said you would say that! She talked about you a lot, you know.”
Sterling rolled her eyes. “Go on, what did she say about me?” She had said that in a sarcastic tone, but she really did want to know what the Unicorn thought of her.
“She said you worry about others a lot, and that you always try to be the best pony you can be, and that all of us should strive to be like that, and that-”
“Woah, okay, okay, slow down, little missy!” chuckled the mare. That mare has a very different perception of who I am. She hasn’t even known me for a week!
“Tell me, how many other ponies has she spoken about to you, I mean, i’m sure Gordo has some qualities you could all pick up on too! He’s pretty selfless, after all.”
Shimmerbud looked at her as though she were speaking another language the filly didn’t understand. “Gordo?”

An explosion rang out across the clearing. Ponies started to run around, screaming. Bullets flew across the scene. Quick as a flash, Sterling had Shimmerbud wrapped under a hoof, and was galloping towards the nearest store.
Bullets pattered against the wood near her hooves as she dove through the door to a bar. Ponies were in here, sheltering, cowering. “Keep your head down, and stay quiet.” Hissed the pegasus to the filly as she hid with her against the wall.
There was a moment of stillness, of tension. Like a fuse was forever an inch away from reaching its explosive payload.
“WE SEEK THE PEGASUS” Roared a voice from outside. “BRING HER OUT HERE, NOW!”
Sterling winced, and peeked out the window, just for a split second.
It was that Unicorn from the Celestial Bar. The leader of the Princesses. He was here now, and he didn’t look happy.
Shit.
There were seven of them. Six Earth Ponies, all with guns, and the Unicorn. Why In all of Equestria did she think they wouldn’t leave the bar? Why did she think they wouldn’t come after her?

“ANYPONY THAT HELPS US TO FIND THE PEGASUS THAT KILLED TWO OF OUR PONIES WILL BE REWARDED HANDSOMELY.” He drawled out, looking around the street. Ponies in store windows flinched away from his gaze as it passed over them. Why the hell aren’t the guardsponies doing anything? We’re literally just across the street from the Mayor’s residence!
“ANYPONY THAT HELPS HER TO HIDE, OR TO ESCAPE US…” He trailed off. Sterling didn’t need him to finish his sentence, she could already imagine what the punishment for that would be.
All Sterling felt in that moment was a sense of hopelessness. She looked around the room and saw a series of expectant eyes watching her. They, on the other hoof, were hopeful. They want me to turn myself in. I would too.
Then she looked down, and she locked eyes with Shimmerbud. The pegasus filly was looking up at her, a determined look on her face. Oh no, they don’t think I should turn myself in, they think I'm going to fight him!
The hopelessness in her changed. She couldn’t help it. It changed, not into hope, but into rage. Rage for the ponies of this town and their way of lives being threatened by these ponies. Rage at herself for bringing this town down into the mire of chaos. But the strongest rage she felt was that this Unicorn was threatening the very lives of those colts and fillies from Punkfac. He was threatening Shimmerbud.

The door squeaked on its hinges as Sterling pushed her way through it. She had firmly ordered Shimmerbud and the other ponies to stay put. If she was going to die here, she’d rather die facing her death than hiding in some shop, putting others’ lives at risk.
Slowly, Sterling clopped her way out into the main street. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest. She’d stood up to a lot of bullies in the past, but none of them had actually wanted to kill her.
None of them had threatened the sanctity of a town before either. But maybe it didn’t have to end in a fight.

“Here I am, and my name is Sterling. Are you here to kill me?” She asked aloud. Perhaps her final words could inspire other ponies to be brave. Celestia (the real one) knew she didn’t feel brave right then, in fact, she was positively terrified.
“Of course.” Replied the Unicorn, so surely that it was as if he’d been asked if the sun rose or not. “And our name is Celestia.”
Sterling snorted. “Of course. Your parents pick that out for you or..?”
The Unicorn rolled his eyes.
“We see that thou still speaketh like a petulant child. We were considering giving thou an honourable death, but you are not deserving of such respect.”
He was right, of course. She was acting like a child. She should be trying to placate the Unicorn. Instead she’d been making jokes and sarcastic remarks. In times of stress, she’d often used comedy to mask her true feelings and to buy herself more time. Sterling had always disliked that about herself.

“Is this what she would have wanted? Is this what you want?” Asked the pegasus, simply. Come on, think of something, fast.
“Celestia would not want this! She would want-”
“I-WE ARE CELESTIA!” exclaimed the stallion. So much for calming him down.
“WE ARE NOT TOLD WHAT WE WANT. WE SIMPLY WANT, AND WE HAVE IT!”
The Unicorn’s horn began to glow again. His voice grew low and he snarled.
“We see you fight with words, pegasus. That may work on lesser creatures, but it will not work on your goddess!”
A burst of white energy leapt from the Unicorn’s horn, and Sterling had to throw herself to the dirt road of the street to avoid being struck.
This Unicorn is crazy!
She scrabbled to her hooves, and sprinted over to a nearby cart, diving behind it just as another bolt whizzed past her tail.
Magic was something the pegasus was well-versed with. At least, she was well-versed with being on the receiving end of spells, and knew that summoned magic of most kinds required focus to work. What else…what else…
A hole burst through the side of the wood she’d been hiding behind, and light dissipated away through it. Whatever her plan was going to be, she would have to make it fast.
He didn’t like it when she acted ‘childish’. Here goes nothing…
“So, were you trying to hit me just then? Or were those warning shots?” She called back over the cart. She heard a growl from the Stallion, and another beam of light punched through the wooden cart a few inches away from her head, singing some of her mane hairs.

She laughed, both at her own stupidity for getting herself into this situation, and at the Unicorn. “Nope! Gotta try harder than that! A little to the left, maybe!”
“Shut up!” Cried the Stallion. “Your petulant whining is very irritating to our ears!”
“Petulant my hoof! You should drop the magic, it’s clearly not working out for you!”
There was another blast of energy, this time it started a small fire on the wooden cart.
With her cover rapidly deteriorating and the Unicorn slowly approaching, she desperately called out. “Fight me like a princess! Have some honour, your majesty!”
The Unicorn stopped. Peeking through a hole in the burning cart, Sterling could make out a fire in his eyes-a pair of eyes that continuously whizzed between her location and the group of ponies he had come with. They looked like they agreed with what Sterling was saying. Typical Unicorn pride…
“Fine. Come out to us, coward.”
Slowly, Sterling raised herself up, peeking her head over the flames. His horn was no longer glowing.
A beam of magic struck him in the side, and he grimaced in pain. The Unicorn reflexively cast a shield in the direction of the pink blast of energy, something the shooter had anticipated. It went through the anti-magic shield, and struck the Unicorn in the back leg.

Gordo and Nightlight stood on the other end of the street, the Unicorn mare was galloping over, whilst the griffon was slinging a smoking rifle back on to his shoulder.
“You again!” growled the Unicorn. “Deal with-”
Sterling had flown over and bucked the Unicorn with all her might in the nose. He roared in anger, and struck at her with a hoof, knocking her from the sky. As he reeled back, the other Princesses opened fire on her two friends. Sterling watched the crown clatter to the ground. The Unicorn stood back up. “That was a cheap shot, and it is all we will allow you to get!”
As he regained his hooves, Sterling realised just how much bigger than her he was. She gulped, and dodged out of the way of one of his strikes. What she had in speed, the Unicorn more than made up for in size and power. He did have a bullet hole in him at least. That was good.
As she dodged around another one of his hooves she struck at the wound, causing him to scream again, and grab her tail with his telekinetic power. Oh right. He’s a gang leader, why did I expect him to actually stick to the rules?
Using his magical might, he lifted her up and slammed her into a nearby crate. The box splintered around her, and the stitches on her back leg tore open again. So much for ‘no strenuous activity’.
He threw her up again, and pulled her down with his magic, right into his back hooves. The massive Unicorn bucked her right in the stomach, sending her flying across the street. She landed on some bins next to the Mayor’s office, bleeding from…well, it would be easier to list the places she wasn’t bleeding from.
I should be dead. She thought as she watched the Unicorn rear up-only for him to get hit with another of Nightlight’s magical strikes. This time, he almost fell over. He snorted and turned away from her, blasting at Gordo and Nightlight down the street.
Sterling groaned and shakily rose to her hooves. That’s when it hit her.
I know where we are.

Sterling splashed down into the sewer, losing herself and getting soaked before she could stand properly again. She could hear the fight raging overhead, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Gotta find it…
Turning the lamp on her pip-buck on, she shone it down the wet pipes. Thankfully the only liquid that had passed through here in the last few hundred years had been rainwater. That didn’t mean there weren’t any giant roaches around, though.
After a few minutes of scrambling around in the dark, followed by a few more minutes of checking and re-checking her pip-buck, her hoof struck something hard in the shallow waters. It moved when she kicked it.
Despite the circumstances, she grinned to herself. Who needs magic? I don’t!

To say that Gordo and Nightlight were taking heavy fire would be an understatement.
They were hiding out in a small alleyway, taking pot shots at the figures of the approaching Princesses. Before they had a chance-in fact, they had taken out two of the gang members. With the Unicorn’s shield in the way however, their bullets and spells were practically useless.
Nightlight was concerned, Sterling hadn’t gotten back up, in fact, she was nowhere to be seen.
“I hope she’s alright…” She muttered to herself, right as something caught her eye.
Behind the unicorn, flapping her wings a little shakily, was a small, brown figure. Nightlight smiled.

Sterling dove upon the unicorn, the bomb clutched under a hoof. At the last moment, she reared back, her wings slowing her descent drastically, until she was right above his head. She plunged the explosives down onto his horn, and he looked around in alarm. “Over here, Celestia!” growled Sterling, punching him across the muzzle with a hoof to distract him and the rest of his gang from her friends.
The Stallion didn’t know what she’d put on his horn-he couldn’t see it. All he knew was that whatever it was, he needed to blast it off.
There you go again Sterling, doing something without thinking it through properly…
The Unicorn cast a magical blast from his horn. It wasn’t point-blank, the bomb was closer than point-blank. It was attached to him.
The world erupted in flame.

Sterling went barrelling up into the sky, then back down again into the smoke. She flapped her wings, barely slowing herself down and she hit the ground with a sickening thud, landing on something soft.
It was the Stallion.
His head was completely gone, a chunk of bone and meat jutting out from his neck. Bits of him were falling all around her, onto his gang members that had been blown off their hooves. Onto her.
If Sterling could reel backwards in disgust at that moment, she would have. Unfortunately, her vision was spinning too much for her to try and stand at that point in time.
Her ears were ringing. It was loud, deafeningly loud. She had the thought that all these gunshots and explosions that were suddenly in her life would probably cause long-term hearing damage if she didn’t-
“-ling! Sterling! Can you hear me?” Cried Nightlight as she galloped into her field of vision. Or at least, that’s what she thought the Unicorn had said. Sterling was lip-reading.
The pegasus blinked, and shook her head.
“You can’t?”

Oh wait, no, I’m not deaf. I heard that.
The ringing was still there, but it made way for other sounds now. The soft pitter-patter of the fountain of blood, the galloping of more sets of approaching hooves, and Nightlight’s voice.
“I can, don’t worry!” She quickly said, and Nightlight sighed in relief.
Sterling tried to stand, and failed, sitting back down in the corpse of the brute she’d just killed.
“That was some stunt you pulled there, Ster!” Gordo grinned, punching her on the shoulder. She winced in pain and he pulled back. “I think…you might have overdone it.”
“No, no i’m fine, I just…need a minute for the world to stop spinning, thanks. I don’t think the explosion really did much to me. I might just-wait, the uhh…” She racked her rattled brain, trying to think about what was on the tip of her tongue. “Oh, the other gang members!”
Sterling twisted her head around. Ow.
Four of them were dead. Two of them were still moving, but didn’t look like they’d be getting up any time soon. Sterling grimaced as she saw that one of them was missing a hoof.

Another visit to Doctor Healhorn later (this time, not one that lasted three days), and the three of them were finally leaving Freesaddle.
Shimmerbud had not minded the blood that had coated the mare when she ran up and hugged Sterling. But the pegasus did not like the way it stuck to the filly, and had demanded that she find somewhere to wash herself as soon as possible.
With many cheers from the townsponies and cries of thanks for ‘wiping out the Princesses’, the trio were clip-clopping down the street to the West. Sterling felt bad for her two companions; they often had to wait for her to catch up due to the nasty limp she’d gained after her tussle with the massive Unicorn, but if they were annoyed by it, they kept it to themselves.

____________________________________________________________________________

A breeze rustled the leaves of the trees in the morning light as they trotted along the worn road. It had been a week since she’d left the Stable, and she’d already grown accustomed to the way the wind worked. She couldn’t imagine how she could have possibly spent all those years stuck underground, it simply wasn’t right for a pegasus to be locked indoors all their life.
A part of her wished she could show the others from her Stable what life was really like out here-but would they even want to know?
“Sterling? What’s wrong?” Asked Nightlight, ever worried for her wellbeing. The pegasus realised a frown had crept across her face, and she forced herself to smile. “Oh, nothing, I've just been thinking.”
“Please, enlighten us.” Gordo replied dryly, and once again, Nightlight shot him a look that promptly got him to shut up.

She sighed. Okay, ponies that actually want to hear what you have to say for once. Better make it count.
“I’m not sure if I did the right thing back there.”
Gordo groaned in exasperation.
Yep, you blew it in the first sentence. Maybe you can save it in the next-
“What do you mean? You saved the Mayor’s life! You killed that awful Unicorn and you rid the town of a violent gang!” Exclaimed the Unicorn, and Sterling’s eyes widened. The pegasus shut her mouth.
“Sorry!” Nightlight caught herself, and smiled. “Sorry for butting in. You’re allowed to talk, you know.”
“Oh, of course, n-no I mean, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have started talking if you hadn’t had something to say!” Spluttered Sterling, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down.
Gordo walked over to her, and raised her chin up. She couldn’t have flinched away if she’d tried. “Hey. You.” He began, stern. This was quite unlike how she’d known the griffon up until this point. “You’re a pony, and you deserve to be treated as one.” He barked into her face, and she nodded quickly. He let go of her, and backed away, as if remembering he was supposed to keep up his uncaring mask. This got a chuckle out of Nightlight. “Aww, you care about her, don’t you Gord?”
“Gord?” He bristled, but calmed himself. “Since when were we at the nickname stage?”

As the two of them bickered, Sterling cursed herself and her sensibilities. This was a world in which she was now a part of. She couldn’t afford to box herself into the same headspace as she’d had in her old life.
“I don’t think I did the right thing, saving the Mayor.” She said again, and her friends stopped their argument.
“But why in Equestria do you think that?” Asked Nightlight, softly.
“Sure I saved the Mayor’s life, but he almost died in the process. On top of that, because of my actions, the Princesses attacked and… ponies died.”
Gordo looked away, guilt written all over his face.
“Sterling…” the Unicorn began, tentatively, but Sterling had already started to vent her frustrations. There was little that could stop her now.
“I’ve never flown before-I couldn’t fly, did you know that?” Nightlight gasped. “Then why did you-”
“I didn’t want to put you two in danger.” She replied flatly. “I didn’t think about myself or the Mayor. Because of my choices, I crashed that cart and probably injured some poor bystanders, and I threw that town into chaos. Me. I did that. And it didn’t even keep you two out of harm’s way! Those Princesses turned up in the middle of town and started blowing the place up!”

“You don’t need to worry about us, Sterling.” Gordo intoned. His face was an expression she couldn’t quite recognise.
“But I do, you’re my friends, and I need to keep you-”
All of a sudden, there was a rush of movement, and Sterling felt hooves around her. A crying Nightlight had pulled her into another hug. That’s odd. Thought Sterling.
“Look, I don’t know what kind of twisted place you grew up in to make you feel like you’re not worth as much as other ponies, but you are Sterling!” She sobbed into her coat, and the pegasus could feel tears of her own starting to form.
“You barely know me Nightlight, I haven’t done anything to deserve your love and-”
“Oh shut up!” She wailed. “You’re a hero, and a better pony than I’ll ever be. You’re the first realfriend I’ve had in a long time, and I won’t let you die for me. I can’t take that again!”
Sterling returned the embrace, but didn’t say anything. This was a lot to take in, clearly Nightlight had seen her fair share of horrors out here.
“Okay, Nightlight, okay.” She breathed, holding back tears of her own and stroking the top of her head with a hoof. “I’ll…I’ll work on it. Okay? And I'm not going anywhere. Alright?”
Sterling glanced up, looking for Gordo to try and help her out here, but he’d managed to sneak away again.

Eventually, Nightlight lifted her head, and stared into Sterling’s eyes. “My…I knew somepony just like you. You and her would have gotten along so well. I wish you could meet her.”
Then she let go, sitting down on the road.
“Who is she? Where is she now?” Sterling asked, but she already knew one of those answers. Nightlight stiffened, and Sterling got the impression she had opened up an old wound with that question. “I-I’m sorry if you don’t want to answer that, i’ve never had a conversation like this with-”
“Her name was Strawberry Fizzle. She was my sister.” She said bluntly. “Now she’s dead.”
Nightlight stood back up, wiped her tears away with a smile, and continued trotting down the road. Sterling watched her leave for a moment, then sighed and got moving again.

“This is DJ-Pon3, and you’re tuned in to our no-commercial morning show!” Came the voice from Sterling’s pip-buck. The awkward silence between the three of them had remained until the pegasus had had enough of it, and had tuned in to the station.
“This morning, we’ll be hearing a few numbers from everypony’s favourite, Sweetie-Belle, and some other artists of Old Equestria!”
The daylight trickled through the branches above them. Sterling could hear a twittering in the trees-birds, Nightlight had told her. Of course, the pegasus knew what birds were. She just hadn’t known that they made noises like that.
“But first, your Pal DJ has some exciting news! A raider encampment my sources tell me was known as ‘Punkfac’ was burned down a few days ago by a Stable-dweller, fresh from underground! Talk about making an impactful first impression! Yes my children, it seems this new pegasus mare has taken the wasteland by the reins, and has already saved the life of a pony that had been kidnapped by a gang! That’s right, the ponies of Freesaddle have reportedly had their one-and-only Mayor saved by this winged wonder, and despite a few injuries, the mare has made a full recove-”
The pegasus clicked a dial, cutting off the broadcast.
Gordo burst out laughing, Nightlight grinned. Sterling, on the other hoof, groaned and slumped to the ground.
“Niiiightliiiight!” She cried, and the Unicorn returned a sheepish look. “How the hell does the DJ know me? And why in Equestria’s name is he reporting on it!”
“W-well Sterling, DJ-Pon3 has a lot of sources around the wasteland.” She began, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “I guess word about your good deeds has spread a lot faster than I'd thought!”

Sterling thought back to the hospital, back to the cards and the flowers that had been left at her bedside, as well as the crowd of ponies that had seen them off. “This can’t be happening.”
“The DJ usually latches on to stories of heroes.” Gordo said quietly, and the other two turned to him, Nightlight’s beaming visage contrasting with Sterling’s agitated expression.
“He spreads the word of good deeds around the wasteland, to give hope to those who need it, to get ponies to notice the little lights in the darkness. I believe he has decided that you are one of those lights, Sterling.”
“But i’m n-”
“It doesn’t matter whether you think you are or not.” He said, sternly. “What matters is that you’re a good pony, with honest intentions. Ponies need something to believe in, and even if you’re not a hero, you are to them. So start acting like one.” He finished, holding her gaze for a moment, before cracking a smile.
Start acting like one… Easier said than done, bird-brain.
Sterling said nothing, and kept walking.

Footnote: Level up.
New Trait: Bloody Mess – By some strange twist of fate, ponies around you often die violently. In combat, you tend to see the most gruesome ways a pony can die.

Chapter Eleven: A lighthearted story

A storm was rolling in. Sterling didn’t like how frequent they were, the novelty of rainfall had been thoroughly washed away by now, and the pegasus understood why shelter was so important to ponies out here. She supposed that a pony never really appreciates what they’ve got until they’ve lost it.
They had been walking along the road as the clouds had grown darker. Gordo looked up at them and grimaced as Sterling checked her pip-buck, a new notification blip sounding. A marker had been placed just off of the road through a clump of thickets. Her eyes widened as she read the flashing words ‘Stable-134’.
Another Stable! She was almost overcome with joy at the prospect of showing her friends around someplace they were unfamiliar with, and not the other way around as it had been up until this point.
Then she paused. The ponies inside…won’t treat me well. And they’ll probably be afraid of Gordo. Assuming, of course, they let us in at all!
As if Celestia herself were giving her a sign, a crack of lightning exploded overhead, and she gestured to the other two over to the clump of bushes. “This way! There’s shelter here!”
Sterling wasn’t certain, of course. On one hoof, she had been told that many of the stables had been built, hidden inside pre-existing structures. On the other hoof, she wasn’t certain she could trust a lot of the things she’d been taught during her time in Stable School, and she couldn’t be sure that even if there was a structure around the entrance to the stable, it would still be standing after these few hundred years. As she felt the beginnings of a slight drizzle on her coat, she figured that there was only one way they would find anything out.

Pushing their way through the undergrowth, the three of them came to a hole in the ruins of an old house. The cottage’s roof had caved in, leaving the moss-covered bones of the ancient building glistening in the rainfall. Sterling sprinted around in the cottage ruins, trying to find a place to shelter herself and her friends from the rain, when her hoof went through a floorboard. The old, rotten wood caved in and she tumbled down a set of stone stairs with a yelp. As she readjusted herself, Nightlight and Gordo poked their heads through the old wooden trapdoor she’d fallen through. “You alright Ster?”
“Yeah...I’m fine.” She grumbled, standing up, then turned back. “Woah.”
The other two descended into the damp underground. It was an old wine cellar. Bottles of aged and ruined alcohol lined the walls, some smashed, some crates had been turned into makeshift nests by creatures the likes of which Sterling couldn’t possibly imagine.
But wine and nests weren’t what had gotten Sterling’s attention.
A huge Stable door had been built into the cut stone wall on the other side of the cellar, the numbers ‘134’ visible in the central circle of its cog-like design.
The door was open.
It hadn’t been ripped open, like the door to Stable-126, nor was it open just a crack. No. This door had been properly opened by the door mechanism, controlled by a terminal presumably operated by a certified Stable-tec technician.

Gordo and Nightlight looked quite perturbed by the sight of the black, yawning entrance to the stable. Flicking on her pip-buck’s lamp, Sterling smiled at the two of them. “Well, we’re out of the rain. You two can stay here if you want, but I know i’m curious.”
Nightlight returned the smile, and Gordo rolled his eyes. “I ain’t scared…”
Sterling frowned as she trotted towards the door. She hadn’t thought for a moment that Gordo would have been frightened by the stable. Is he claustrophobic or something?
Now that she thought about it, going back underground was the last thing she wanted to do. Immediately, the pegasus understood the griffon’s apprehension, but she had already come this far, had already braved a lot of things out here, and had brought these two to this place. She put on a brave face, and stepped through the entrance to Stable-134.

The place was pitch-black, any lights that should have been on weren’t. Even the emergency lighting wasn’t on. Sterling supposed that perhaps the generators had failed, which was why the ponies inside had opened the door to the stable.You couldn’t live underground without any power, after all.
There was a very faint, eerie growl that Sterling couldn’t quite place. As if the Stable itself was alive. She looked back to her friends, and they nodded. Sterling was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to show them a proper stable at its peak. Still, the place was dark-there was nothing wrong with that, right?
They ventured further in, their hooves and claws clipping against the steel walkway, sending echoes down the quiet corridor. The noise of the storm outside gradually faded away, leaving them with little to listen to. It was so quiet, Sterling found herself not even wanting to speak to break the oppressive silence.

There was a glow coming from the end of the corridor-if her memory served her correctly, that should be approximately where the overmare’s office was. She moved towards it, eyeing Gordo all the while. He didn’t look very happy.
Sterling had never been in her own stable’s Overmare office-it was a place a pony could only enter with the express permission of the Overmare herself, after all. Although this was not her stable, It still felt wrong to even look through the doorway.
She peered through nonetheless, and in the darkness was the illuminated screen of a terminal.
Nightlight raised an eyebrow at her, and began to trot off in another direction.
“Where are you going?” Sterling asked, immediately alarmed by the idea of splitting up.
Nightlight smiled. “Afraid of the dark?”
Sterling glowered at her. “I’ve seen enough pre-war films to know that splitting up somewhere dark and spooky is never a good idea.”
Of course, Sterling hadn’t actually been allowed to see any recreational films-only educational ones at school. There was one time she’d managed to steal one from the recreation centre at random and she watched the whole thing alone through the small screen of her pip-buck. Despite everything being tiny and tinted green, and having little to no sound, the pegasus had still been scarred from a young age by the horror film. She hadn’t tried to steal another one after that.

“Well…I’ve never seen one of those.” Nightlight winked, lit up her horn with a spell, and disappeared through a doorway.
Sterling sighed and made to follow her, when Gordo’s claw landed on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.
“Don’t worry, i’ll go with her.” He grinned, and stopped her before she could tell him that wasn’t what she had an issue with. “You stay here and…do terminal stuff. You’re good at that.”
As he disappeared into the darkness himself, Sterling rolled her eyes. Sometimes I hate those two…

‘Welcome to the Overmare’s terminal!

If you are reading this and are not the Overmare of Stable-134, please report to the security office where you will be properly reprimanded!’

Sterling felt weird about prying into this random pony’s personal terminal, but curiosity had always been one of her vices. Besides, it didn’t look like the mare (or anypony else) was going to catch her in the act.
She flicked her way through a few files. Some boring messages, maintenance reports, food and water stores, stable morale, then personal notes. Hmm, this ought to be good…
A clicking filled Sterling’s ears, and she froze, but calmed down as she realised it was coming from her pip-buck. The rad-meter was going off. Sterling supposed that there was probably quite a bit of radiation around her in the wasteland at all times, and went back to the monitor as it died down again.

‘Greetings. I am Overmare Lightheart. I was once a scientist at the SP, as are many of the other ponies in Stable-134. I am keeping this log for my own mental stability, as has been suggested by the stable’s Counselor and Psychiatrist, Doctor Underhoof.’

Realising properly that she was reading the writings of a pony from two hundred years ago, Sterling shivered, but didn’t know why.

‘I have been asked to type about my childhood. As a filly I was decently gifted in the ways of magic and arcane sciences. My parents had been artists, and had tried to steer me in the direction of stage performance-they had wanted me to be a comedian. Hence the name they chose for me.’

The clicking from her pip-buck started up again, but Sterling ignored it this time. Pre-war ponies are so odd. Imagine your parents trying to give you a name that told you what you were supposed to be! Did they not know cutie-marks are supposed to do that?

‘Thankfully, my younger self decided to pursue my own interests, and I enrolled myself in as many arcane science courses as I could by the time I got to University. Upon seeing my portfolio, Stable-Tec University gladly offered me a position, and I took it without a moment’s hesitation. There were few brighter minds in all of Equestria than the minds that worked for Stable-Tec, after all. If only I had known then what would have happened because of that choice.’

Intrigued, Sterling opened the next log.

‘Stable-Tec offered many advanced courses, but one I was most certainly interested in was translation studies. I am not entirely sure why they named the course that-it was not about languages at all.

I was not long into my course when the War started.

The head of the Ministry for Arcane Sciences, Twilight Sparkle herself came to our class, and personally assigned us to a secret project-one that I am not allowed to write down, even after all that has happened since. At the time I had been appalled. I had joined the world’s Scientists to better help all of Equestria, not to create weapons!

I remember Twilight being beautiful and smart, just like they had always said she was, and I had been too awestruck to complain to her. When I looked into her eyes though, I saw great sadness. She was smarter than anypony I knew, and I suppose that in itself was quite depressing. Of course she wouldn’t want a war either, none of us did. But we all had to do what we were paid to do, such is the burden of the scientist.’

Twilight Sparkle…Sterling had heard about her in some of her classes years ago. She cursed herself for not paying them much attention at the time.

‘I am sorry to myself for not writing too many of these. This may be the last log I enter for some time. I’ve gotten so busy as Overmare, I barely have time for myself any more, and what with all the new experiments and all.

Sometimes I wish the chief scientist was here. But she’s dead, she has to be. She didn’t make it into the stable, in fact, I don’t think she even left the SP. Silver Thread has taken over the science lab in her absence and is driving everypony nuts-myself included. She keeps talking about trying to create some sort of serum to protect us from radiation-I think she has the idea that we’re not going to be spending the rest of our lives underground. Nopony wants to mess with her right now because she lost Sidewinder, but I will. I’m the Overmare, Celestia dammit!’

Sterling went to the next log, this one had been automatically sorted into another category-Sterling assumed there must have been a time-jump between logs, an assumption that was immediately proven right once she read the first sentence.

‘It has been three years since my last log post. I have only started typing again because the situation has grown quite dire.

Silver Thread spent all of last night drunkenly parading around the stable, stating that she had solved the issues with the serum, and it was ready for pony trials. When we asked her if we could see proof before she actually tested it on anypony, she locked herself in one of the labs and didn’t come out until this morning!

She looks quite ill now, and is spending some time in the infirmary. Poor mare must have had a little too much to drink last night-I guess she never really got over her husband being taken away like that. Celestia knows I value loyalty, but he’s been dead for almost four years now! Maybe she should move on. It would certainly save me a lot of extra headaches, and the rest of us a lot of booze…’

The low clicking started up again. In annoyance, she shifted the gauge to make sure it only detected higher levels of radiation.

‘It’s been two days and Silver Thread’s condition has gotten worse, I’m starting to think she isn’t just hungover any more. What’s worse is that now everypony in the infirmary is starting to come down with something, what in Equestria is going on here?’

The ticking stopped echoing around her.

‘I had a suspicion and ended up revisiting the lab yesterday. Now, i’m no expert in biology or the medical sciences, but there were used needles all over the floor with the residue of some weird, green substance left in them, and I don’t think they were somepony’s daily dose of antibiotics! I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I think Silver might have injected herself with something she shouldn’t have. I went to the infirmary to confront her about it, (don’t worry, I was wearing appropriate protection) and I swear I saw a piece of her cheek just…drip down off her face! She acted like it was no big deal, but the whole time she kept talking about going outside soon to find Sidewinder. She’s clearly delirious, and even offered me a hug, one that I vehemently refused.’

Sterling glanced around her, clearly something awful had happened here, leading to the disappearance of the Stable’s inhabitants. Maybe they had been forced to leave by this virus.
There was one final log left on the terminal. With a shaky hoof, Sterling opened the file.

‘I don’t know if anypony will read this, but if you do, you need to get out of here, right away.

Myself and a few others who haven’t caught it are about to make a break for the Stable door, we can’t stay here any more. The ponies that got sick, one day they all just, started hugging each other. I watched the security footage back, the doctor couldn’t pull them away from each other before he too was stuck in their embrace. The ponies just…melted together! With their amalgamated unicorn magic and earth pony strength they were able to break down the locked infirmary doors and have started to assimilate anypony they catch. We’re opening up the Stable door to try and escape, but I don’t like our chances. If you’re reading this, don’t end up like them. You need to leave Stable-134 and if you can, shut the door again. So far we’ve managed to keep the mass of ponies back by using light to our advantage. They don’t like light, so stay in the light. As for us, we’ve gathered some supplies and we’re going to try to head West if we can. We’ll leave in the daytime so it can’t follow us out of the stable. Anyway, we have to leave. This has been Overmare Lightheart of Stable-134. May Celestia have mercy on all our souls.’

Sterling’s veins ran cold. Stay in the light…
She heard gunshots echoing from somewhere nearby, the clicking had resumed on her pip-buck despite the higher setting she had set it to. Suddenly, the Pegasus had some idea as to why it had come and gone despite her being in the same place.
The mass of radiation, wherever it was in the stable, had been moving and now it had found its prey.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Egghead – You will add +2 skill points each time you gain a new experience level.

Chapter Twelve: The monster of 134

Sterling galloped through the dark corridors, towards the sounds of the gunshots up ahead.
She had to reach her friends, whatever was in here, it was after her friends, and despite the very deepening feeling of fear that was now setting in, she kept running straight for the danger.
Sterling sprinted past rows of doors, recognising a few places, a storage room, a security office, a mess hall, and then going past places that hadn’t been in stable-126. A laboratory, an executive office, a server room.
She felt a sharp pain in her skull, and heard a voice. A voice she remembered, but not a voice she could tie to a pony’s face.
Turn left. It said softly.
She reached a T-junction at the end of the corridor. On the right were the sound of gunshots. Her friends were surely that way.
Go left. Said the voice again, harsher this time, demanding.
Was it her conscious? Was it some cowardly part of her, trying to remove her from potential danger?
She didn’t want to go left, she wanted to help her friends, there was something here that was attacking them, and she needed to-
Left. Now.
Sterling turned left.

She didn’t know why she was galloping this way. All she knew was that something was telling her to go this way. The pain rescinded as she looked to the doorway at the end of the hall, and returned whenever she looked anywhere else. Clearly, whatever it was in her mind wanted her to go through that door. What the hell is my life?
She slammed the button at the end of the hall, and the door to the lab shifted open.
Tables and chairs were strewn across the floor-save for a desk that was still upright. Health and safety posters had been torn off the walls, and shattered glass covered the ground. Carefully, she picked her way across the room towards the single standing desk.
Shining her pip-buck’s lamp onto the desk, she opened a drawer. Inside was a few loose papers, a pen, and-
The pain in her head stopped completely. She was staring at a holotape.
She breathed a sigh of relief as the stabbing left her mind, and picked it up, contemplating it. After a moment’s hesitation, she placed it in one of her saddlebags. I don’t have time to play it now.
She turned, and galloped towards the gunshots.

The pegasus skidded to a halt, just outside the room. Gordo was with her. When did he-
“What in Celestia’s name have you been doing?” He snapped, and Sterling shrank down.
“I-I’ve been at the terminal, I read that-”
“Oh It doesn’t matter!” He squawked, and the two of them peered around the doorway.
The gunfire had stopped, and Sterling had wondered for a moment, if they had been too late to save the Unicorn. Then she saw her, hiding behind an overturned lab bench, and almost called her name when one of Gordo’s paws clamped her mouth shut. “Look!” He hissed, and turned her head further around the corner, revealing to Sterling just what Nightlight was hiding from.
A huge, amorphous blob was sliding its way around the room, checking the corners, searching for Nightlight. The mass was huge, tortured faces of dozens of ponies were crying out their raspy bleats. It made a sickening, slurping noise as it glided around the room, too fast for something that size. Its front was covered in rows of mushy Unicorn horns, its sides and back layered with yellow, unblinking eyes.
Scraggly bits of multicoloured hair was clumped in random spots all over it, and an amalgamation of cutie-marks had all been melded together on its flank.
Sterling’s rad-meter was going crazy, and she quickly switched it off. This was what had been setting it off this whole time. This was the monster of Stable-134.

The room spun around her, and she blinked tears from her eyes at the horrible odour of this beast. This was what she’d read about, this was what Lightheart had warned her about, what Silver Thread had wrought-now, that scientist was somewhere in there, as were all of the denizens of the stable who hadn’t managed to escape.
As she watched, a piece of it flecked off, only to worm its way back towards the rest of itself, she recalled a series of words she’d just read.
‘The ponies just…melted together!’
How was this thing still alive? What did it feed on? How could something like this possibly have been created?
Those questions didn’t matter to her now. She had to help Nightlight, and they all had to leave the stable.
Sterling stepped out, into the room, away from the protesting Gordo.

Straight away, the beast locked twenty sets of eyes on the pegasus. She narrowed her own in response.
Galloping across the room (away from Nightlight), Sterling suddenly realised just how bad an idea this all was. If this thing touched her once she could get absorbed into its mass. She wasn’t even sure it could die. Twisting her neck around with a gun in her muzzle, she figured she’d find out.
Sterling fired two shots from her revolver, one of them missed horribly, the other caught it in the side of one of its many heads. The head reared backwards and the beast shrieked, a deafening screech that caused her and Nightlight to cry out. Behind the creature, she saw Nightlight stand up. “Get out of here!” yelled the Pegasus before she could attract the beast’s attention again. “I have a plan!”
Reluctantly, Nightlight nodded, and passed through the doorway.
Great. Now all I gotta do is get away from this thing too.

To be honest, Sterling’s plan hadn’t actually extended any further than getting Nightlight out of danger. Now she was trapped in the room with this amalgamation between her and the exit. The creature began to cautiously move again towards her, it clearly hadn’t been a fan of her shooting it like that.
She backed up against the wall and heard the ‘clack!’ of her back hoof striking something loose.
She glanced down at the wall vent. There’s always another way…
Sterling bucked back with all her might, and the rusty metal vent covering gave way. Had she been her old self, back in her old stable, she wouldn’t have risked cutting herself with something rusty. Now, contracting tetanus was the least of her concerns.
She had always been a smaller pegasus, able to squeeze into little gaps and hide whenever and wherever she could, so when Sterling pressed herself through the broken vent cover (feeling a dash of pain against her front hoof), she was able to worm her way into the vent with relative ease.

Bumping her way though, she heard that voice again. Faster!
Why would she need to go faster? It wasn’t like that creature would be able to fit in-
She heard a thumping noise and a horrible groan, followed by a squishy, oozing noise.
Sterling cranked her neck around, beaming her pip-buck’s lamp over to the way she’d crawled into the vent.
The creature was pressing itself up to the font, a series of drooling mouths somehow pushing their way through, sliming in and after her. Somehow, this monster was oozing itself through the vent.

Sterling quickened her crawling pace, hoping at every turn that she wouldn’t come to a dead end and have to double back. Left.
Trusting that this voice would hopefully have her best interests in mind, Sterling followed its directions, crawling through as the beast squished further and further in, forcing her to always move. She was cramped, sweating, and a few times she’d been on the very verge of being touched by it.
It was, without a doubt, the most horrifying experience of her life.
Sterling suddenly felt quite claustrophobic, and started to hyperventilate. This wasn’t good, this wouldn’t be helpful. Calm down. She heard, and wasn’t sure if it was her thinking it to herself or if it was that voice.
That was when she hit it. Another grate, another opening. She gasped in relief, and attempted to push it open. It wouldn’t budge. Trying a little harder now, she punched a hoof in front of her, and still the grate wouldn’t even buckle. She began to panic, unable to give herself proper purchase against the shiny, metal walls of the aluminium air duct in order to properly kick the grille open. Desperately, she shone her light back down the vent, craning back around, only to see the mound of eyes moving towards her, squealing all the way.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this, she couldn’t die, trapped underground in some rusty old air vent!
“No, No!” She yelled, banging harder and harder against the metal. “Please don’t!”
“Sterling?!” Yelled Gordo from the other side of the vent. “Is that you?”
“Gordo! I need h-help!” She could barely speak, tears were streaming down her face. “It’s gonna get me, I'm gonna end up like S-Silver Thread!” She whimpered, still banging against the metal, she was bleeding even more now, but she didn’t care. From behind her, Sterling heard an odd noise that the creature hadn’t made before.

Shakily, she turned her head back. The monster had stopped, just shy of three inches from her back hoof. She instinctively recoiled herself into a smaller ball to get away from its oozing mass.
She saw something then, in its animalistic eyes. Was that…a hint of recognition?

A magical glow wrapped around the vent cover behind her and there was a screech of metal as NightLight tore it off its bolts. Sterling was dragged clear from the vent-half scrabbling herself, as the beast lost its sentience once more and screeched, trying to push its way through, trying to reach her.
Sterling didn’t need to think about it, she ran. And so did the others.
Shivering uncontrollably, the pegasus ran all the way out of the stable, not even checking to see if her companions were with her. All she knew was that she had to get away, she had to leave this place. Gasping for breath, she burst out through the broken cellar door, and kept running, only stopping when she felt a tug on her tail.
“Let go of me!” She screamed, her eyes shut. She felt something wrap around her, and she desperately tried to free herself. After a moment, she caught a glimpse of the outside world.
They were out of the stable, the rain had stopped. The damp grass was flattened beneath their hooves, the ruin was off behind some trees.
Nightlight had wrapped her into a hug, shakily, the pegasus went limp, no longer fighting in the Unicorn’s grip. Instead, Sterling buried her face into the mare’s purple mane, and began to weep.

Footnote: Level Up.

Chapter Thirteen: I can't do this any more

Chapter Thirteen: I can’t do this any more

“Perhaps it was fate that put all these brilliant minds in one room-well, the realist-and admittedly boring pony in me says it was Princess Celestia herself, but... All I know is that I am very proud to announce the official beginning of this project, a sentiment shared by the head of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. Although she could not be here tonight, she wishes all of you the best of luck. A toast now, to these two lovely ponies, their passion project, and to the betterment of all ponykind!”
“Now, play us something sweet, fellas!”
____________________________________________________________________________

Sterling hadn’t said a word since Nightlight had let her go, and the unicorn had respectfully not tried to converse with her. Although Sterling was clearly not in any kind of mood to talk, the same could not be said for Gordo.
“Well, I can tell you need somepony to lighten the mood.”
Sterling shot him a glare, but didn’t say anything.
“Seems like you found some info in there, you yelled the name… ‘Silver Thread’, is that right?”
He was annoying her, trying to goad her into a response. Why was he like this? Why did he insist on being so sarcastic all the time? And why wasn’t Nightlight telling him off right now?

She turned to the Unicorn, and raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to let this slide?”
Nighlight returned the look, curious. “Let what slide?”
“Him, Gordo, what he’s saying. He’s obviously trying to piss me off.”
The mare’s look returned to its natural, concerned state, and the pegasus rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

They walked for a few more hours, with barely a passing comment between them. Nightlight was humming a tune now, and it touched a part of her mind she couldn’t quite grasp.
“Wait, what song is that again?” Asked the pegasus, stopping outside an old convenience store.
“Hm? Oh, it’s called ‘The mare with a star in her eye.’ why, have you heard it?”
Sterling paused. “Yeah I…I don’t remember where from, but I think I have.”
“Oh, I know that one!” Gordo squawked, and promptly deepened his voice.
“Just yesterday I saw that mare. When our eyes met, I lost all of my cares”
Sterling rolled her eyes and smiled. “I don’t remember it being so corny!”
“Except for her, that unicorn girl, she’s just the one for me…”
This time, Nightlight started up, and although she mumbled a few of the words, Sterling was surprised to find that she was singing-along.

“Perhaps it’s the way she walks her walk, or maybe the way she talks her talk.”
“All that I know is that unicorn girl, she’s just the one for me”
“In the springtime i’ll ask her to marry me, a cute flash of teal in her mane.
“If she chooses ‘yes’ then I know that my life will never be the same.
“I’m not much of a handsome stallion, and I know that she is smarter than I”
“But that won’t stop me from wanting her love, that mare with a star in her eye!”

As they reached the end of the song, the three of them exchanged gleeful glances. Sterling didn’t know where she’d heard that song before, but music had always given her a warm feeling inside. A ‘click!’ was enough to immediately evaporate that feeling.

The three of them swung around, to be met with a wall of rifles.
Seven ponies, all wearing farmer’s hats, all wielding rifles had managed to sneak their way up behind them.
“Stick ‘em up, raider filth!” growled one of them. Sterling frowned. They didn’t look like raiders, did they?
Despite her apparent luck up until this point, it didn’t take a genius to realise that the three of them wouldn’t survive a firefight with these ponies, and she quickly sat down, holding her hooves up. “ We’re not raiders! Please don’t shoot us!”
Nightlight followed her example, sticking up her hooves, Gordo begrudgingly did the same with his claws.

“You sher look like raiders ta’ me!” Rasped an old, one-eyed stallion. His shotgun was levelled squarely at the pegasus-it looked like he was a heartbeat away from firing.
“What in Equestria are you talking about? We don’t-” And then Sterling looked down.
Her mane and coat were bedraggled, and she was covered in bandages and scars. Her stable-suit was ripped in a dozen different places, her raider-stolen saddlebags were soaked in blood and caked in soot, and as she looked at her hooves, she could see they were shaking.
“I-I…” Sterling spluttered out, then slowly began to drop her hooves back down.
“Hey! I said stick em up!” Warned the old stallion again, but Sterling wasn’t listening.
The mood that song had put her in had been destroyed by this interaction. Now the pegasus was back in her own mind. Now she saw that raider again-herself, with bones in her mane and that horrible smile.
Nighlight gave her a worried look, but the pegasus didn’t return it. Instead, Sterling stood, a weary expression on her face as she felt tears well up at the corners of her vision.
“I can’t do this any more.” She said, flatly.

It was as if a weight had washed over her. Sterling shut her eyes and waited for the shots to hit their marks. If these ponies killed her now, she wouldn’t bring any more death to the few good creatures left in the wastes. She wouldn’t be given the chance to become that daemon.
Sterling’s life since she had left the stable had been a series of highs and lows so extreme that she couldn’t understand how any pony could carry on. How could somepony live like this? She was used to a monotonous existence of servitude, and had been thrust out into a world of free-thought and violence. She’d made friends, enemies, she’d saved and ended lives. Sterling had been beaten, blown up, and shot so often that it had already numbed her. What she was experiencing now had to be the last embers of her sanity fading away.

The guns never fired. Sterling realised she was on the ground, shaking. Nightlight was holding her-of course she was. Gordo was speaking to the others, but they didn’t look like they were paying much attention to him.
The old stallion shuffled up to her. “We’re real sorry-like ma’am. We thought y’all were raiders, see?”
He looked at her, pity in his eyes. Sterling made to croak out a response, but no sound would leave her throat. Instead, Nightlight spoke for her. “It’s okay, she just…needs to rest, you wouldn’t happen to be from a nearby town, would you?”
Yes, I need to relax. I need a break.
“As a matter of fact, we are ma’am.” Began the elderly pony. “We make an honest livin’ on tha’ farms, and go out huntin’ the raiders that live around Flanksburg. It’s not far from here, just over that hill” He gestured in some direction Sterling couldn’t see, and Nightlight nodded. “Perfect. We’ll head that way.”
“B-but we c-can’t! Well, I can’t!” Sterling forced out, still lying on the floor. “Last time I went to a town, ponies-”
She felt Nightlight place a hoof over her muzzle, and the pegasus flushed, embarrassed. “Shush, Sterling. You’re in no fit state to be going anywhere else, and I need a break too. You know I'll go wherever you do.”
She wanted to lie to her. To tell Nighlight that she was fine, that she’d spent enough time in Saddlehoof and was fully rested after her days of sleep at the hospital, but she couldn’t. Sterling knew she needed this, and Nightlight knew it too.
It took Nightlight a few more minutes of convincing, but eventually Sterling relented. There was no arguing with the Unicorn if she thought it was for your own good. When Nightlight had brought up the argument that she too needed a break (although Sterling doubted this), she sighed and nodded.

Flanksburg was a small village of old houses and streets that had been patched up by a town of around a hundred ponies. Each house had their own vegetable patch, growing fruits and vegetables Sterling didn’t recognise, and the whole place was surrounded by farmland.
Her head drooping low, Sterling trod into the town on shaky hooves. After a few minutes of chatting with that old stallion again, Nightlight guided the barely awake pegasus towards a form of hostel that had once been one of the larger houses in town.
“Ah, how are ya’ darlings?” began the mare behind the front desk before seeing Sterling. “Yikes, that answers that question.” Nightlight glared at her but the mare calmed her down. “Sorry, Sorry, I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, honest!” She chuckled, and the Unicorn’s visage seemed to relax again. “My name is Gooseberry, but for some reason, the folks ‘round here call me ‘Aunty Goose.’ Welcome to the Flanksburg Hostel!”
“Ah, yes, thank you…Aunty Goose…” Nightlight replied awkwardly “We’d like to-”
“Pay for a room? Golly, ah’ve only got the one left! I suppose you two could share, if you’d like.”
Sterling slowly lifted her head in confusion. “What do you mean, what about-” But she stopped herself before she looked around. The pegasus already knew Gordo must have done that disappearing trick he liked to do. She wondered just when it was that he’d vanished.

Half-trotting, half-being carried, Sterling was ushered into their room by the Unicorn. It was small, cozy, and…warm. She could see rain begin to fall outside the window again. Something seemed…
“There’s only one bed.” Sterling said, bluntly.
“Glad you’re still able to tell” giggled Nightlight. “Don’t worry, I don’t snore.”
Her heart rate increasing, the pegasus moved towards the bed, only to be stopped by a hoof on her tail that sent shockwaves down her body.
“What do you think you’re doing? You’ll make it all dirty! Take off your clothes and get into that shower, missy!” Nightlight’s mothering tone took over, and she gestured to the small, frosted glass shower in the corner. Where there had once been a dividing wall, there now was a crumbled hole that had been mostly cleared. Great…
Flushing red now, Sterling slowly began to peel the blood and sweat-soaked stable barding off of herself. Dumping the pile of blue rags on a bench on the far side of the room, she stepped into the shower.
Sterling hated showers.
But not this one.
The public showers in her stable had always been cold and lonely. The only place she could afford to let her true feelings show. This one was…unlike any shower she had ever experienced before! Far smaller, of course, but as the mare scrubbed the complementary soap into her fur, she watched the grease and grime visibly mingle with the water and pour through the drainage grate. As she created a lather in her mane, she watched red mix into the flowing waters. Sterling shut her eyes. She didn’t want to think about that. Instead, she focused on the shower. How nice it felt. How safe shefelt. The pain and brutality of the world that had clinged to her was being washed away as easily as if it were the mud caked around her hooves. She smiled.

“Enjoying ourselves, are we?”
Sterling jolted and yipped, slipping over but being caught in the hooves of her Unicorn friend.
She blushed heavily. “N-Nightlight! I-I didn’t-”
She shushed the pegasus again and smiled. “You’re using up all the hot water, and I don’t wanna pay for more, darling.”
We’re paying for this shower? Sterling supposed it made sense why the public showers had always been cold. In her head, she now assumed that the Earth Ponies and Unicorns simply hadn’t wanted to spend money on warm showers for the pegasi.
“I’m s-sorry but-i’ll get out now!” She squeaked, but Nightlight was blocking the shower door.
“Not so fast, Pegasus.” Snickered the Unicorn. “You’ve missed a bit, behind the ears. Let me help you.”
Before she could interject, Sterling found herself sitting with her back turned to the mare. As the water from the shower head trickled down their backs, she felt the gentle hooves of her friend massage the back of her head. Sterling closed her eyes and shivered. This felt good.
In the dim light of the room, Sterling finally relaxed. She didn’t cry, she didn’t utter a single word. All she could focus on was the gentle caress of the mare and the warm water.
And she could finally forget, just for a moment.

Her eyes involuntarily closing, Sterling stepped over to the bed. She pushed down on it with a hoof, only to be met with unfamiliarity. It was so…soft. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in a real bed-was it the hospital? No, that one was too thin, as had been her old one in the stable-but then, all of them had been thin. Did ponies really own beds like these?
“Go on, hurry up, you need to sleep!” Nightlight nudged her forwards, and she gently wriggled her way under the covers. It was as soft as she had always been sure a cloud would be.
“Wow.” Was all she could say. Nightlight giggled and squeezed her way in herself. Feeling a little hot under her now nonexistent collar, Sterling tried to scootch away to the opposite end as much as possible, but found that this bed was just barely big enough for the both of them.
“Hm, It’ll be tight, but it will do.” The Unicorn smiled, using her magic to dim the gaslamp in the corner of the room. “H-hey if you want” Sterling said shakily. She was sure that with the way their bodies were pressed together that the Unicorn could hear her pounding heartbeat. “I could always sleep on the f-floor, I mean this bed clearly wasn’t designed for-”
“No way!” Scolded the Unicorn, and Sterling promptly shut up. “You need this more than I do, you look exhausted!”
As Nightlight spoke those words, it was as if a wave came over her. Sterling suddenly remembered why they were in this town, why it was that they were in a bed now. She gazed out the window and watched the pitter-patter of the rain in the dim moonlight. Closing her eyes, she almost immediately passed out.

Feeling her breathing slow and relax, Nightlight grinned. Mission accomplished.
“Goodnight, little hero.” She spoke softly.

Chapter Fourteen: Anything good on that tape?

“-n’t much time! Hey! Sterling!” Said that voice again, the one from her dreams before, the one that had told her to turn left instead of towards her friends. A flare of red filled her vision-but only for a moment.
“Who-Who are you?” She croaked. Her mouth was dry, as if she’d been stranded in a desert for a week. Or was it her mouth? Was that her voice? Someone was speaking beside her, and it sounded like her, or were they on the other side?
The blackness returned to the room. Could this even be called a room?
“You’re on the right track, Sterling.” Again, she-for some reason the pegasus knew it was a she knew her name.
“There it was again. Wait, Am I saying my thoughts, or am I thoughtsing my say?”
It was supremely difficult to figure out what to make of any of this.
“I cannot tell you much, I apologise, but you know my name already.”
She wracked her brains for the name. Every time she thought she’d found it, it would slip through her nonexistent hooves again. A sad smile echoed around the room for all but a moment, booming, deafening.
“You will know-it is my tape you hold.”
“That…Tape you told me to turn left for in that stable?:
There was a pause, then the faint sound of cracking. When the voice spoke again it had returned to its original, urgent tone; “Keep heading West! Enter the bowl. Stop the clocks! Things are not as they seem!”
Then the red returned.
____________________________________________________________________________

Pain. Flaring up in the base of her neck. Sterling jolted upright, panting, sweating heavily. Nightlight groaned in her sleep and nuzzled closer, but the pegasus barely registered this. It was still dark outside. The rain had stopped.
Numbers swam across her vision. Cyphers. Codes. She could only recognise them as such, not what they were for.
Gently she lifted the Unicorn’s hoof off of her, and slipped out of bed and over to her saddlebags. There was but one thing on her mind now.
After a quiet moment of searching, she found the holotape, and plugged it into her pip-buck.
“Anything good on that tape?”
Sterling gasped at the figure of the Griffon. She had no idea just how long he’d been in the room. The thought of him watching the two of them sleep made her shiver.
“What the hell is wrong with you?! And keep your voice down!” Hissed the pegasus, constantly glancing over at Nightlight to make sure she was still asleep.
“Hey, you two left me out in the rain, what was I supposed to do?” He chuckled for a moment. “Don’t worry, I only came in a few minutes ago, I didn’t see if the two of you were…getting to know each other better.” He tapped the side of his beak twice, and Sterling was glad the room was too dark to see her blush.
“I-it’s not like that!” Sterling stammered. “Nightlight and I are friends, nothing more, okay! We see each other every day, do you know how awkward that would be?”
“Yeah, and now you’ve seen almost all of her.” Gordo snickered.

After a bit more arguing and teasing, Sterling managed to shoo the griffon out the door.
Sighing, she peered back over to Nightlight. Her horn was gently sparking in a dream. Oh Celestia, she’s adorable! I-I mean…ugh, dammit Gordo!
She shook herself out of her thoughts and without any further interruptions, Sterling loaded up the tape.

‘C-tape backup drive. Folders:’

‘SP work stuff’

‘STAR THESE ARE PERSONAL REMINDERS READ THEM OR ELSE!!!’

‘Desktop Clutter’

Sterling’s eyes narrowed against the light of her pip-buck’s display. SP. There was that phrase again.
Wait…Star?
A flash of pain, teal, purple. That echoing smile. Sterling winced.
Unconsciously she skipped the first folder, and opened the second. It was full of little notes:

‘Turn off the Arcane Aura Projector five minutes before you start the shutdown sequence’

‘Get rid of all traces of that fucking poster Sidewinder found of you from when you did that one Sparkle-Cola thing’

‘Visit the craft store for some canvas and string and stuff DON’T FORGET THE RIBBONS’

‘Get ready for that chief scientist meeting dinner thing with Twilight’

Sterling paused for a moment, and remembered the messages Lightheart had left on the terminal back in 134.
That Chief Scientist… This is her drive, she’s Star?
Now she knew that this…Star pony, was also the Chief Scientist of the SP. But this left the question. What was the SP?
“Yes, Star, that is me” A whisper. A voice in the dark. It sounded like…like two voices-one which sounded far more sure of its words than the other.
“Hello?” Breathed the pegasus. But when she looked around she saw nothing. Great, I'm really going crazy now…

She exited the notes folder, and navigated her way to the first one again. She didn’t quite know why she'd skipped it, but by now she wasn’t quite sure she could trust her own thoughts about anything.
There were many documents in this folder, most of them receipts or taxation notices. She scrolled through it at random, and settled on a series of a few she thought looked interesting.

‘SP Overview visitors guided tour [scrapped]’

‘Government grant and budget papers’

‘Cafeteria menus and allergy allocations’

‘East Wing expansion planning proposal’

‘Staff and volunteer roster’

‘Annual Arcane Readings report’

‘Wartime planning doc’

‘SP breakthroughs report’

Whew, there was a lot here. Clearly the SP had been some special project that was funded by the government before the war.
Maybe that’s what SP stands for?
The first one appeared to be a pamphlet that would be handed to visitors to the SP. She opened it up.

“Welcome visitors, to the Ministry of Arcane Science’s very own think tank! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m proud to present to you the forefront of Equestrian magical technologies!”
She blanched. Twilight Sparkle? That name again…i’m listening to the voice of a 200-years-dead pony!
“As head of the Ministry Of Arcane Sciences, and one of the six Ministry Mares, I have been given an amount of power lesser only to the Princesses themselves. This has allowed Equestria as a whole to advance our magic far beyond anything we had previously thought capable. And it’s all thanks to the hard workers and magical geniuses I've brought together in places such as this one. We call this specific location: The Silverside Project!”
Sterling was silent. She didn’t know why this was affecting her so much. She now knew what ‘SP’ actually stood for, and that feeling of understanding…she wanted-no, she needed to learn more.

In the recording, somepony opened a door. Then, a stallion spoke. “Nopony actually calls it that around here, we actually switched it to ‘Project Silverside’.”
Twilight’s cheerful tone dropped dramatically. “Why in Celestia’s name would you switch the words around?” She sounded irritated. Like a pony who’d filled out a lot of forms and had had a nightmare with the marketing and branding team only to be told it would all have to be switched around again.
“Do you know how many orders of hats and bookbags i’ve filled out already? We’re going to have to recall them and-”
“Hey, don’t worry, it's fine-we just thought it sounded better. I’ll chat to the others, we’ll just call it the Silverside Project again, sorry for the trouble.”
Twilight sighed and audibly sipped something. “This whole thing has been such a nightmare. If I have to talk to one more logo designer i’ll…”
There was a pause, and she heard the booth’s door being pulled shut. Then she cleared her throat. “Should I just start from the top again or-”
A pause.
“Oh, uhh, okay then i’ll just keep going”. Sterling could vividly imagine a pony waving to her through the glass of the recording booth. It was odd to hear the voices of dead ponies-even odder still to hear them speak in such a casual, normal way.

“Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s called Project-shit, it’s in my head now.” She grumbled, and Sterling couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “I’ll take that again.”
“Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s called the Silverside Project. Well, dear listener, we decided to name it after the two ponies who first thought up the idea of this wonderful place: Silver Thread, and her husband, Sidewinder!”
As she heard those names, it was as if a stallion had gotten his back leg and used it to kick her in the gut. She saw flashes of that amalgamation of ponies from the last stable she’d been in. The dripping of their flesh, the terrible events in Lightheart’s logs, the horrible screeches…
She sat back and collected herself. It’s just a recording, Sterling, it’s not gonna hurt you.
“A few years back, the two of them came to me and proposed the idea of a place where scientists from all over Equestria could work together, a place where wielders of the arcane could create fantastical technologies that could better shape our lives, and the lives of every creature! This place.” She said, fondly.
“As you walk around these halls, you might just see a few of our lab-technicians, all busy at work on new and innovative technologies. They’re not to be disturbed from their work, however! Remember, you’re here as observers, and maybe future applicants. Please direct all questions to your tour guides!”
There was a blipping noise that Sterling recognised as a pip-buck notification, and the Ministry Mare sighed. “Oh, sorry guys, I’ve gotta go-i’ve got a…meeting in Canterlot. Yes, yes I know but i’ll come back as soon as I can.”
Sterling could hear muffled protests as Twilight opened the booth’s door and left. Then, the recording ended.

Wow. The pegasus thought, marvelling at what she had uncovered, what she now understood…and the flood of questions she now had gushing through her mind.
Hold on a second, let’s take a step back and think. She said, trying to calm her thoughts and piece some things together.
SP stands for ‘Silverside Project’. Okay. Next.
Twilight Sparkle, the head of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, was approached by Silver Thread and Sidewinder, and together they created the think tank. The place was named after them. Next.
The SP’s main purpose was to create technologies that served to better the lives of all Equestrians. Yes. Next.
She hadn’t thought in such an analytical way since she’d left her stable, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she hadn’t lost her ability to.

Star worked there, and was in charge of the place-presumably appointed by Twilight herself. Next.
The place was open for the public to visit… She thought about Lightheart’s log messages once more. …At least, it was until the war broke out, when it was turned into a research facility for inventing weapons. Next.
The scientists had their own designated stable to go to in case of catastrophe. Someplace they could be safe whilst continuing their work…This is true, but then that begs the question, how close is the SP to Stable-134? Not only that, but Star is somehow in my head. She failed to reach Stable-134 and probably never even left the SP. Somehow, she still lives. She now wants me to go back to the place she used to run, so that I can…
She was stumped on that part.

Opening up the ‘Government grant and budget papers’ document, she blanked.
Woah, that’s a lot of numbers…and tables…and graphs.
She tried not to lose interest too quickly, but what she was reading didn’t make much sense to her.
Digging through a sea of bills and expenses, she spotted a few keywords that had been shortened to fit the document’s format-project names, she guessed:

‘‘Elmnt’: $172,000,000’

‘‘EPS’: $20,000,000’

‘‘CFuel: $12,000,000’

‘‘ShySp’: $10,000,000’

‘‘Purfr’: $7,500,000’

The document went on, and on. Listing more projects in descending order of their budget. She wondered exactly what each of these shortenings meant, what projects they pertained to, and if any of them were actually completed. She supposed the only way to truly find out would be to visit the Silverside Project herself.
“What’s next?’ she whispered, totally engrossed in nothing but her Pip-Buck’s screen.

‘Cafeteria menus and allergy allocations’

“Oh, great…” She rolled her eyes, expecting to be met with a boring table of cafeteria budgetary expenses and a list of dietary requirements that must be met by the kitchen staff. What she was met with once the page had loaded, was quite the opposite.

‘Hey Star, bet you didn’t think i’d hide a copy of this poster on your own computer, did you!

Personally, I think you look great in that outfit, everypony else agrees too!

-Sidewinder’.

Sterling frowned, confused, and scrolled further down the page.
Her eyes widened.
On her Pip-Buck’s screen was a poster of…well…Star. But not the kind of poster she’d expected the Chief Scientist of Project Silverside to have been a part of.

A cursive font at the top of the page spelt out: ‘She wants a taste…’
Below the text was Star. The Unicorn mare was giving a sexy, can-do action pose. In one hoof was a bottle of Sparkle Cola, which fit in perfectly with her outfit-a spacemare’s suit. A bubble helmet attached to an oxygen supply accompanied the revealing top with its bare midriff. She was sat-well, sat on nothing. Her tail had been styled and pulled out so it did not interfere with the view of her flank-and what a view it was. Her back legs were pulled up and in towards herself-one black booted hoof trailing a third of the way up the other. This combination allowed for the bottom half of the suit to fully accentuate her curves-leaving very little to the imagination

Despite the grainy image being nothing more than a collection of black and green pixels, she could feel herself growing hot under the collar. Star had been quite a looker, it seemed. Guess this explains why she’d be embarrassed about Sidewinder finding this…
Just then, she felt a bite on her ear. She winced and was about to lash out with a hoof when she realised that she’d woken up Nightlight.
“You need sleep, Sterling. I can’t have you up all night, staring at pinup mares!”
“Night, I wasn’t! Well, I-I was but, it’s a tape I found in that stable, it’s got some really cool stuff on it!”
Despite her protests, the Unicorn’s jaws did not loosen, and so Sterling relented, half-walking, half being dragged back to bed.
Finally, the Unicorn let go of her ear. “I can’t get that thing off your leg without making more of a fuss than it’s worth, so i’m just gonna have to keep you from using it.” She muttered, wrapping Sterling in a hug as they laid together. Sterling’s heart felt as though it might explode. She tried to pry herself away, attempting to bring her hoof up, but they’d been pinned at her sides. She sighed, relenting, and relaxed.
“Good girl.” Nightlight whispered into her ear. A shiver rushed down her spine, and it took every ounce of strength she had left in her to keep herself from whimpering.
I know she means well, but how the hell does she expect me to fall asleep like this?!

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Bookworm – You pay much closer attention to the smaller details when reading. You gain 50% more skill points when reading books.