MLP: Slaves to Celestia

by ManualReplica

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Romance, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 158102

A tale of future grim dystopian Equestria under the rule of tyrant Celestia.

The future of Equestria is grim, the circumstances have turned a land of sunshine and happiness, into a dystopian nightmare ruled by a heartless tyrant and her army of gestapo like "thought police" known as "Civil Protection".
The ponies arrested by CP, the criminals, the political opponents and the general troublemakers, are all secretly deported overseas and sent to work as slaves, colonizing a massive continent with seemingly no end loosely known as: the Frontier.
The Frontier is home to a number of horrors and evils, and living in it is not easy, its dangers, and high fatality rate among the ponies sent there has given it a feared reputation back in the mainland.

We follow the story of two earth ponies, the Civil Protection Captain "Tombs" and the mare Manie Manie as they venture across the secured frontier on a mission that takes them beyond the borders of it, into the unknown.
But crossing the Frontier is not easy, there are many dangers to overcome on the way to their goal, dangers that don't always necessarily lurk in the wilderness.

But the world doesn't spin around our two survivors, back in mainland Equestria civil unrest and army politics risk the harsh peace Celestia ensured under her iron rule.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-07 06:19:06 UTC

Chapter 0 - Prologue

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of  DYSTOPIA and  DISCOVERY

Chapter 0 – Equestria’s tarnished Golden Age

Modern Day Contemporary Equestria

The year is 1984 and it has been a long 36 years since the very last of the defenders of harmony, Applejack, passed on peacefully. Growing as old as 113, way past the life expectancy of the average pony.

The many ponies we knew and loved are gone, replaced by new and eager generations of mares and stallions.

Equestria is, simply put, a different place now, a very dark and serious place.

In the last fifty years Equestria has undergone massive changes, both on a social, political and technological level, thanks to a period known as “the Golden Age”.

The Golden Age was a time of amazing discovery and development which brought the mostly rural and traditional Equestrian Kingdom into an age of information and technology.

It was a glorious age inadvertently caused by a wondrous drug called “Party-Time Mint-als” which was engineered by one of the original six heroines of Equestria, the wielder of the element of laughter, Pinkie Pie.

This drug boosted the intelligence of the pony using it and made it more perceptive, while it was viewed with great suspicion at first the drug soon became popular with idealists and scientists all over Equestria shortly after the passing of Pinkie Pie, the day of her death came to be known as the official “start” of the Golden Age of Equestria.

The unregulated use of this drug soon resulted in discoveries that simply “bumped” the Equestrian Kingdom from an early industrial age to an advanced information age, it changed the lives of everypony, society itself changed, traditions and old norms were forgotten and left behind.

This Golden Age didn’t only affect the pony kingdom however, it soon spread to the Griffon and Zebra kingdoms as well and they too eventually benefited from all the great effects the age had to offer.

The improved technologies meant that more ponies could be sustained by the the Equestrian Kingdom, this resulted in a population boom that increased the number of ponies tenfold, mares and stallions grew confident that their children would have a secured future in the vast cities that were appearing all over Equestria and thus had little issues with finding a partner and starting large families (especially so due to ponies naturally social and cheerful nature).

This increase in everything had its drawbacks however; with the massive cities and ever growing population, the industry of Equestria found itself at a need for more resources, for more power.

The projected amount of resources believed to be available to the Equestrian industry were running dangerously low, hundreds of industries were forced to shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands of ponies unemployed.

Slums began to form in the great metropolitanian areas in the larger cities, whole blocks fell into disrepair and a state of urban decay.

Riots and civil unrest became common occurrence, crime skyrocketed and was no longer limited to simple burglary and thievery as it had been in the centuries before, actual murders and darker cases of rape began flooding in to the police departments all around the cities.

Equestria was dying. Slowly.

Tearing itself apart from the inside with consumerism and economic crisis.

Princess Luna and Celestia would be forced to search for new lands to colonize in order to restore Equestria to her former glory, problem was, no one had discovered any new land in thousands of years, what had been found had already been claimed and colonized, the continent of Equestria had been fully explored and there was no sight of other land masses in the horizons.

The Kingdom of Equestria had to brave the oceans in search of new land, of new resources to power the Equestrian machine.

It was for this scope that a special wing of the equestrian military was created, a group called the “1st Recon Battalion” whose sole purpose would be to scour the seas in search of new lands.

Recruitment was restricted to volunteer pegasi only, and the 1500 positions available were quickly filled by willing recruits.

1200 combat personnel and 300 officers, drill sergeants, logistical operators and such.

It was agreed to be the most reasonable thing to do, after all it was quicker and safer to send skilled fliers across the ocean than it was to travel it by sea, Earth Pony ships were great, and could cross large distances quickly, but without any knowledge of how big the planet was or in which direction land could be found sending boats would simply be a risky and impractical endeavor.

Besides pegasi had shown a natural affinity and eagerness for combat and fighting in general and their wings gave them an amazing advantage over wingless opponents on open fields.

They were perfect candidates for an army of scouts.

The creation and equipment of a professional army however, even a small one, is expensive, and in Equestria’s current state the kingdoms coffers lacked the proper funds to finance an ambitious project of the sort.

It wasn’t just a matter of training another 1500 soldiers.

Special lightweight equipment would have to be made to allow maximum mobility and carrying capacity at minimum weight, the soldiers would also have to undergo special training just for this sort of mission, they would need the best possible communications tech to keep in touch with each other and mission command.

They would need the best of the best, capable of defending themselves and still wing it over massive distances.

With this in mind Celestia and Luna were simply forced to ask the great corporations and companies of Equestria for help and funding, and they agreed, but on the sole condition that they themselves would be in charge of the project and all it’s details.

With Celestia’s blessing the ‘Equestrian Military Board’ was founded, led by the leaders and owners of the largest companies in Equestria, such as Stable-Tec, ENI Gas & Petrol, Angel Pharmaceuticals, Warhorse Military Industries, Apple: Foods & Farming Co. and more.

They decided on everything and were always in close consultation with the new inexperienced generals and officers of the army.

But with the companies in charge the requirements set up by Celestia and Luna for the 1st Recon Battalion’s readiness before their mission were either changed or altered.

They were given little to no armor, their armament would consist in the rapid fire sub-machine guns and light pistols of the time and they would carry a minimal amount of supplies, instead of food they were given tubes of feeding paste to conserve as much space as possible.

The companies reasoned that since they were a recon unit, meant to search for new lands and not in the engaging of prolonged conflict, they would not need proper combat training, so most combat training was all but replaced by endurance boosting training sessions.

Several cuts were made to lessen the costs of Equestria's hope.

For five long years they trained, eventually being judged to be ready for the mission by the Military Board.

The board sent the full force of 1200 pegasi in all directions.

Time passed and nearly no news were heard from the Pegasi,.

Not until one dark day when a broken and battered force returned from the west with reports of horrors and despair.

Out of the 1200 pegasi sent overseas, only 672 returned, out of those, 4 had died on the journey home, 26 were mortally wounded (and did not survive treatment in the following weeks), 76 had suffered injuries of some sort and 397 were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on return, having “one hundred yard stares”, blank expressions and, suffering violent and terrible nightmares (waking up screaming and kicking for help).

Some even began to panic and shake violently when staring at the ocean horizon, even if it was nowhere in the same direction as the continent they had discovered.

Accounts vary greatly depending on who you asked in the 1st Recon Battalion, but what the therapists and interrogators managed to patch up was that the battalion had discovered an absolutely MASSIVE continent, featuring biomes of all kinds and huge swaths of untouched pristine “frontier land”, like something out of a fairytale.

One of the younger pegasi had claimed that at first glance he’d thought that he had died and came to pony heaven, ‘that’s how beautiful the land was’, he had claimed.

When the company that first discovered the continent set hooves on the ground to get a closer look they initially saw nothing but pristine lands, lush forests, great fields of green grass (that thing about ‘the grass being greener on the other side’ was all true they said), even benign wildlife typical to Equestria, rabbits, deer, birds.

There was no trace of anything being wrong anywhere.

The company had set basecamp in a very large jungle some ways from the coast and radioed the other battalion companies to continue searching for another week and then regroup at basecamp on the new continent, the company had communicated coordinates and everything seemed peaceful.

They had warned that there was a storm looming in the horizon, too much for 100 pegasi to deal with, and that communication may black out due to interference.

One week had passed and searching turned out to be fruitless, the companies all headed towards the basecamp to regroup and decide on further action, it took varying amounts of time for the companies to arrive at destination, but what the second company to arrive at the new continent had discovered was beyond horrifying.

The basecamp had been turned into a bloody mess, a slaughter.

The entire camp was in complete disorder, tents, barricades, makeshift huts and such were spread all over the place, some disassembled, some destroyed, some had fallen to the stormy weather conditions.

The storm was still raging on, enveloping the camp and the surrounding area in a very gloomy and gray atmosphere and “fog”, it was impossible to see beyond the first layer of trees surrounding the camp clearing.

There was mud everywhere, mud, mixed with thick crimson pools of blood and nearly unidentifiable red goop which presumably were the spilled guts of the previous company.

On trees, barricades and stockade poles were the carved up bodies of just under half the company, desecrated, strung up, skinned, dismembered, abused, nailed up in strange positions.

Some of the bodies had various sharp objects (including but not limited to rifle bayonets, combat knives, makeshift spears, the bones of other victims) still sunk into their abused flesh.

A torn up yellow mare, identified as the company leader Captain Solar Chaser, had been found in the command tent tied to the central table by all four hooves with a full length bayoneted rifle stuck right up her... best-non-mentioned parts all the way up to the very end of the rifle stock.

Whoever had done that had then carved open part of her chest revealing the bayonet and muzzle of the rifle, likely out of sick entertainment.

It had been a gut wrenching sight to behold, the soldiers reported.

Some soldiers broke down then and there, overcome with insanity and stress, others became twisted with sickness.

It wasn’t a sight anypony was used to, or should have been used to.

It wasn’t right.

The second company had found survivors in the camp, 6 ponies, 4 stallions and 2 mares.

Only one of the stallions had been in condition to speak or even react to outside influences, he had come out mentally scarred, incapable of keeping focused eye contact with his companions, but was otherwise reported to be fine with no serious injuries and all limbs intact.

His 5 surviving company comrades had not been so fortunate.

The stallions name had been Rain Rocker, his coat color had been of a very dark shade of green, his mane and tail had been black and his cutiemark was, befittingly, a very dark cloud and raindrops, apparently representing the monsoon in the jungles dividing the zebra lands from main Equestria.

He had a surprisingly calm demeanor for having survived such a brutal and savage attack.

He had informed the second company that he had been out foraging for supplies when “they” attacked, he said that he had hid under a rotten log and that he had seen a large number of “them” pass by towards the camp.

He said that“they” had then surrounded the camp wielding blowguns in perfect silence without alerting anypony and that“they” had then showered the entire camp in thousands of tiny sharp darts, catching the camp off guard and causing widespread confusion before charging in with knives, spears and teeth screaming like madmen.

When prompted to describe who“they” were and what“they” looked like he had muttered something along the lines of“... tall… pale skin... hairy legs... bipedal.. adorned in the bones and skulls of their kin...”

Rain Rocked had then gone completely blank, staring at a nonspecific point in the tent he had been questioned in. He never recovered from this state, he died of thirst nine days after questioning, refusing to move, eat, sleep or drink.

When the rest of the companies had arrived, the camp had been cleaned up, rebuilt and the dead had been respectfully buried at the best of the battalions ability, about half of first company was unaccounted for and many murmured and questioned the decision to bury Equestrias fallen in such an evil and desecrated place so far from home.

One pegasi had openly confronted the battalion commander and has been noted (double noted, triple noted, her whole phrase had been encircled and underlined several times with an ink pen, clearly by an officer who felt exactly the same thing as her) to have said:

“I used to think that if I died in an evil place, then my soul wouldn’t make it to heaven. But now... fuck. Sir, please, I don’t care WHERE it goes, as long as it ain’t here!”

The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Kurtz had firmly decided that the battalion go after whatever savages did this to first company, he had been met with much a fright and worry, some had argued that they weren’t prepared for it and that they should wing it back home, they had found their land.

But Kurtz had quelled everypony’s concern by giving a very reassuring and inspiring speech that... nopony remembered.

The camp was more well defended this time, a large area surrounding the camp had been cleared of trees and foliage, and the logs had been used to build a somewhat primitive raised dirt stockade supported by the logs behind which the defenders could take cover yet still easily spot the enemy.

Kurtz left 300 men defending the camp, the rest he marched deeper into the mainland, in part following trails that gave a hint of leading somewhere and in part basing his movements on the recon his aerial scouts provided (the bulk of the force went in on foot due to the thick canopy covering visibility of the ground and making any kind of visual on the enemy impossible).

After some days of traveling through the thick forests the battalion reached a large open area full of holes and burrows, on closer inspection the holes had been decorated with bones, covered up with hay, leaves, bamboo or solid wood. Clearly someone or something was living here and Kurtz was determined to make whoever lived there PAY for their crimes.

But the field of holes didn’t give off nearly as much as there was unfortunately and it ended in disaster, the rear part of the battalion was ambushed in force by “those” humanoid savages who had stormed out of holes and tunnels who had been hidden by the thick foliage surrounding the clearing.

As they soon had discovered, several KILOMETERS of the surrounding area was ridden with tunnels and holes, all of them filled with bloodthirsty savages to the brim.

The battalion panicked and split into several groups, the rear group had been completely overrun, the unfortunate first victims being almost immediately dragged away to be eaten or tortured by the hundreds of savages not actively fighting the battalion.

One group performed an organized tactical retreat into the woods heading in an eastward direction, trying to get over a river that ran a mere 15 kilometers from the clearing.

One smaller group of about 150 pegasi lead by a particularly brash, brazen (but incredibly buff) pegasus stallion named Silvester fell back on top of a hill right in the middle of the clearing, the entire group went out in a blaze of glory, screaming off the top of their lungs, unloading mag after mag into the hordes of savages while falling one by one to the thick showers of tiny darts and arrows.

The remainders broke out into total panic and scattered in all directions, some fleeing on foot into the jungle with bands of savages in heel, others ran into the holes and tunnels, some went out with a bang chucking grenades at the savages before going out with martyrdom.

The majority of these however, abandoned their mission and simply took to the skies, heading either further inland in search of safety or towards home, in hope that no one would find out about their desertion.

The group who had retreated over the river eventually managed to return to basecamp, having lost 50 or so more men just getting from the river and back to camp.

Immediately on return the pony that was now in charge, the mare Captain Flare Flicker, sounded a full retreat back to Equestria, the former Colonel and any stragglers presumed MIA or KIA.

When questioned about Colonel Kurtz group the answer was always the same:

No one knows what happened to the commander or his group.

It had simply disappeared without a trace in the confusing retreat and had never returned to basecamp.

They never came back to Equestria.

The fallout from this horror practically broke Equestrian morale.

The news had been very grim, companies were scared away, scrapping colonization plans, the interrogators and therapists remained shaken from the stories and reports coming from there.

That the veterans were then allowed free leave and honorary discharge from the military didn’t help the situation either, as they now began spreading word of the horrors there, telling their experiences and sides of the story to the media stations and general populace.

Many veterans killed themselves after their discharge, being unable to live on having witnessed such horrors. Their suicides often becoming the local story and hype.

Celestia took this the hardest of them all however, her very behavior and composure was shaken over what had happened, the media blamed HER for everything that happened, claiming that she intentionally sent all those soldiers to their deaths, despite the Military Board being the truly responsible for this horror.

Despite being the Ruler of the Kingdom, the Bringer of theSun and Keeper of the peace for over a thousand years she became the most hated pony in all of Equestria, practically over a week.

Only the old generations who still lived showed heart and understanding such as Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, the three elderly mares in charge of Stable-Tec, one of the major investors in the project did and tried at the best of their abilities to cover for her in the media, but to no avail.

They wouldn’t listen to a word of it and still blamed Celestia for their deaths, they wanted a scapegoat and they choose her.

There had been isolated cases throughout her long years of rulership, individual unfortunate accidents, murders, killings... even the recent crimes committed on the mainland…

It is inevitable, even for such peaceful friendly beings such as ponies... but there was nothing that could be compared on this scale, and they had never been tied to a decision she made.

Celestia became utterly convinced that it was entirely her fault and that the decision of sending all of those ponies through that hell had ultimately been her decision and her decision alone.

She reasoned that it hadn’t been one pony she had sent to its death for the greater good.

These were 528 deaths, caused by her decision to search for unknown lands, to appease the companies of her kingdom... she did not make the decision to save the kingdom from certain doom or to help someone in need. No. She had sent 528 of her people to painful slow deaths and scarred the rest for life... she did this... to secure non-vital resources... for money and the illusion of helping her people live a better life...

She was an errand girl, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill... only to discover that she was paying for it.

Celestia was never the same after the incident, she grew ever more distant and cold to her sister and her subjects, she would often lock herself in her royal chambers, meditating on her burden.

The media never gave her quarter, they never stopped their attacks, they used every dirty trick in the trade to portray her as a villain and murderer, they had regular interviews with relatives of the fallen soldiers, these often tended to be weeping mothers or sisters crying and sobbing on national television saying things along the lines of “My son has left a hole here in Cloudsdale that nopony can fill... I miss him dearly...” there were even regular hate campaigns against Celestia, sometimes the reporters would go and “randomly” interview somepony on the street that would usually just yell loudly at the camera swearing and being hurtful all to show how disappointed and disapproving everypony was of Celestia’s supposed crime…

On top of this political tension between the ponies and zebra kingdoms had begun to arise due to the ever decreasing amount of economic resources.

This wouldn’t have been a concern since ponies were a numerical majority on the continent of Equestria, but a foolish unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, one of the greatest sorcerers ever to grace Equestria had left a legacy that had changed the political landscape of Equestria forever...

During her older days she, just like most of her other five friends, had begun aspiring towards other goals, the elements of harmony were after all not central to their lives, they all had jobs and life goals besides “keeping the peace in Equestria”.

Twilight Sparkle dedicated herself almost entirely to the study of magic, she used her natural talent for magic to become one of the greatest sorcerers in Equestria and created many new powerful spells which are still used to this day.

With the help of her friend, an unicorn stallion named Kkat, she created the “Megaspell Network” which was a spell which in itself combined the powers of other spells for a greater effect.

She created this with the intention of using it for good, multiple healing spells for example could be combined to fully heal, and even revive a recently fallen pony, something which would otherwise not be possible or require multiple spellcasters and spells to achieve.

At first it was used just for that, mass healing and revival, mainly within healthcare and the military, but others saw the potential and began to perform testing with combined offensive spells.

This would result in the megaspell weapons which became capable of unprecedented levels of destruction, their effect being strong enough to wipe out entire cities.

Inevitably these weapons had made their way into zebra hooves in a combination of espionage and immigration of unicorn sorcerers to the Zebra Empire, they had had these weapons for decades but had never had the necessity to use them.

But now things were changing, resources needed for modern day production were becoming dangerously limited, trading prices were spiking through the roof and the zebras were now beginning to send “subtle hints” about their megaspell arsenal, sending diplomats and liaisons that “suggested” that Celestia hand over certain resources to avoid any “diplomatic incidents”, and she had been forced to comply in order to avoid a war and preserve the peace.

With all this pressure on her it was no surprise that she reacted the way she did.

We all have limits of how much abuse we can take, sometimes we can’t always make the right moral decisions, mental stress sometimes clouds the border between good and evil choices and when we do reach that border even inherently good angels like Celestia can let their clouded judgment get the better of them. Everypony has a breaking point, you and I have, Celestia reached hers with a bang that changed everything.

One day Celestia was heading out to make a public appearance, to answer some of the media’s questions, in an attempt to calm the public and apologize yet again.

But it didn’t go as smoothly as she had wished it to go and one reporter went a bit too harsh on her.

She snapped.

She had had enough of the reporters harassing her and treating her like they did, so she had simply grabbed the nearest camera and with the force of all her magic rammed it right into the face of the reporter that she had taken the most offense from, turning the reporters face into a pulpy mass and killing him instantly.

Before anypony could take in the shock and realization of what had just happened Celestia had cast another spell, a magical blast of sickly green energy enveloped the press and bystanders, imbuing them with a paralyzing fear of Celestia which forced them all to bend their knees in submission.

She announced that from hereby on the Royal Kingdom of Equestria would now be a dictatorship, any more abuse from the media regarding the QUEEN or HER regime would not be tolerated, anyone resisting to this change or attempts to instigate rebellion would be executed on site, personally by the queen herself.

Anyone feeling the want or need to immediately and swiftly emigrate from Equestria would be obliged...

But everyone had known exactly where she meant by that.

She would never allow emigration into the zebra or griffon lands.

It didn’t take long after this announcement before Celestia sent a large detachment of the old Equestrian Army via large cruiser ships to conquer the continent overseas.

A mere few months after that ponies started to simply “disappear” from society, while their disappearance was never directly explained it was implied that ponies disappearing were being deported to the new continent, this went on for about a couple of years without much being said about it, everypony knew, but it became the kind of taboo subject that you never spoke about.

During these two years the Equestrian police force was gradually phased out and replaced with a much more oppressive and ruthless “Civil Protection” (sometimes refered to as Canterlot Police by outsiders). Civil Protection was an oppressive paramilitary “thought police” whose purpose was to suppress the population and act as civil spies, Civil Protection had no tolerance for criminals and political instigators and those arrested by CP were often never heard from again.

During this time her sister, princess Luna who was horrified by her kind sister’s sudden change in behavior and cruelty, desperately tried to reason with her, but to no avail.

One day, after a particularly heated disagreement Celestia banished her sister back to the moon, an action which became the center of much discussion and fear in Equestria, the first real murmurs of discontent started after that and the number of ponies disappearing increased tenfold.

For the ten years that passed since that no one moved as much as a hair or muscle in public against Queen Celestia and no one said anything about her regime or the changes she was making to Equestria, those who did “disappeared”, as with all ponies resisting her rule.

Celestia worked quickly and made much use of her powers, another major change she performed was the foundation of four new branches of the army which replaced the general army.

These new army branches were Infantry, Armor and Air Force which dealt with infantry forces, tanks and armor and aircraft respectively and Overwatch, a balanced versatile mix of infantry, light vehicles and helicopters whose task was to help in colonization efforts on the new continent.

She was often in communication with the zebras, she had let them on early on about her plan to force some of her people to colonize the savage and dangerous continent across the sea and she welcomed the zebra to take their share of the cake, in exchange for some economic collaboration until colonies were properly established.

She had become more daring in her meetings and had risked war twice already by pushing the diplomatic boundaries, but the Zebra leaders respected her and agreed to her terms, and the economic collaboration coupled with the colonization efforts overseas soon restored Equestria’s economy as was originally intended. Industries could finally reopen, new companies beginning to surface once again, unemployment rates were back to the rates of the early Golden Age.

But life under Celestia’s iron rule had become harsh and miserable, a great many freedoms were taken away from the population and the intrusive surveillance of Civil Protection was everywhere, many argued that the new economic bloom had come at too high of a price.

This constant state of unhappiness slowly corrupted the ponies of Equestria, making them a rather twisted and extreme kind no longer bound by the same social barriers and guidelines of before.

Swearing is no longer as taboo as it was merely 50 years ago, crime happens regularly, despite CP’s swift retaliation, a great deal of the populace uses some form of drug, downtown partying is out of control and the parties often end up becoming all sorts of ‘wrong’.

Robbers, murderers, rapists, junkies, addicts, madmen.

Everyone gets a free citizenship to the hell loosely known as ‘The Frontier’, with things looking so gloom and with many of the freedoms ponies took for granted not too long ago taken away many apparently don’t seem to have anything to lose, many commit crimes simply to be shipped overseas, wishing for to get as far away from Celestia as possible.

The Equestrian Kingdom is no longer the idyllic society and land we once knew it as, it has become a dystopian grim cold reality from which everypony tries to escape from one way or another.

This is the tale of evil that I wish to tell you, this is my take on pony dark/grim fics.

Welcome, welcome to My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia.

Appartment Raid

Four CP agents wearing the iconic white metallic gas mask over a black Kevlar suit of armor are charging up the stairs of an apartment building, it’s in miserable shape, the very walls are consumed by decay, trash, needles and pests lie in every corner, it is a place for true junkies and scum.

Crackdown raids in apartments such as these were a regular occurrence; no one paid much heed to the agents.

“*Get the fuck out of the way.*” the masked gravelly voice of the lead agent crackled through his mask as he pushed a spaced out junkie down the stairs.

“*This the place?*” one of the agents asked hinting towards a half rotten door with the number tag 13 hanging upside down.

“*Yes. Stack up.*” the lead agent confirmed, the four agents formed up by the sides of the door, preparing to charge in with electric batons ready.

1... 2... 3...

*CRACK* The door fell over with a mighty thud.

“*CIVIL PROTECTION! DROP DOWN ON YOUR BELLY AND REACH YOUR HOOVES FORWARD!*”

But the resident inside did nothing, she was already on the floor, surrounded by several empty psycho stim syringes, her coat had turned into a discolored pale of red and black and she seemed to be on the verge of passing out into a psycho drug overdose.

The lead agent sheathed his baton, walked up to the mare and flipped her over on her back, she was far gone, drool was sipping from the corner of her mouth and she was bleeding from her nose and ears.

He gently shook her head to get her to regain a bit of consciousness, she opened her eyes and for a brief moment his eyes met with hers, they were of the deepest red and purple, calling helplessly for mercy.

The agent grabbed her forelegs and shackled them and then pulled her up from the floor.

“*Walk.*” the agent ordered, the pale mare wobblingly began to follow him without arguing.

“*We’ll get you fixed up back at the precinct.*”

Chapter 1 - The Good, the Bad... the Colonists

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of  GRIEF and  INJUSTICE

Chapter 1 - The Good, the Bad... The Colonists

Captain Tombs and his merry band of volunteers

“This can’t be happening to me!”

I was pacing nervously around the Canterlot Police barracks changing room of my district of Manehatten, mildly panicking over my new orders, I could not believe my atrociously bad luck, CP command had screwed me over.

The sealed orders they sent were as following:

“Captain Tombs,

You have been reassigned from your post at the Manhatten Precinct 2 to conduct a special mission. You are to escort a group of 6 colonists through the frontier and past the secured border, we will monitor your progress and give you instruction as needed along the way.

Report to the Vanhoover Colonist Allocation & Transferring complex on Friday, May 25th at 1100 for briefing on your assigned group. The ship leaves for Shellbeach Prison in the frontier at 1200.

Disclosure of this mission and any related details to non-CP officials is considered an act of treason.

Failure to comply is grounds for immediate dismissal from Civil Protection and is viewed as direct defiance to CP doctrine and a crime against the Royal Equestrian Kingdom.”

Defiance, meant that I’d be arrested and sent to the frontier as a prisoner anyway.

I know CP, they care just as little for their own force as they do for the criminals they seize, go against CP and you’ll soon find yourself on the same boat as the ponies you yourself arrested the day prior.

These instructions didn’t make any sense, I am a CAPTAIN of CIVIL PROTECTION, not some lowly babysitting guard, I lead operations and missions here in the mainland. Why were they sending ME overseas?

Hell, why were they sending a civil protection officer to the frontier in the first place?

They don’t ever send CP agents to the continent, it’s entirely under the jurisdiction and control of Overwatch, why didn’t they just contact Overwatch and have them deal with this?

And why was CP command being so short on details? To have me go blindly towards, what we all imagine is pony hell, like that without even telling me WHY makes absolutely no sense.

Still, I wasn’t inclined to decline the mission, it’s not like I actually have a choice.

I sat down on a nearby bench on which I left my prepared gear on and sighed deeply.

“You really got yourself in a mess now, Tombs...” I muttered wearily to myself, as if I was expecting to find solace by thinking out loud.

I picked up my helmet and examined it closely, it was heavy and made almost entirely out of metal coated with a layer of grayish white paint which had started to peel off after years of abuse, I noticed a small crack on the back of the helmet.

I remembered where I got it from, it was during a violent riot a couple of years back when a mob of over twenty thousand Luna supporters marched through Manehatten demanding Luna’s release from her imprisonment on the moon, I was a sergeant back then, in charge of a lowly squad of five.

At first we had managed to contain and surround the mob to a certain downtown area of the city, it had seemed as if they were beginning to quiet down and disperse, but then out of nowhere some of the rioters began totting molotovs and stolen CP pistols and SMG’s. We had been forced to gas the entire downtown area and charge the mob.

And that's when it happened, I had been in the thick of it and had just leaned down to apprehend one of the rioters when I heard a loud PLOINK and felt my head violently tilt forward, turning around I had seen a frightened young mare, couldn’t have been more than 15 years old, aiming a pistol at me, I had... stared at her... and she had dropped her pistol in panic and fled the fight.

It turned into a massacre, both sides ended up taking heavy losses and hundreds of wounded, the streets that had seen the worst of the action ran red with blood, that's how bad the riot had gotten.

I flipped the helmet and poked at the bulge on the inside with my hoof.

It hadn’t been a particularly deep crack, but I could feel that it was there, a little deeper and I would have been a goner.

Thankfully the bullet had hit from an angle instead of directly head on, it had been a close brush with death, to close to forget about it.

I couldn't recall why I didn't have the helmet replaced, perhaps I had kept it as a memento, or maybe I just never cared enough to do anything about it. It was just a stupid helmet anyway.

Another officer entered the barracks coming back from patrol duty, wearing his full uniform, I couldn’t tell who it was since all CP officers look the same when in their full uniform.

“*Oh hey Tombs,*” the officer greeted me.

I recognized the voice through his vocoder, it was Shank, one of the men under my command.

I didn’t care much for protocol, I preferred to have my men address me and each other by their CP nickname rather than rank.

I had been given the name “Tombs”, because I had apparently proven to be good at intercepting and apprehending suspects, the name “Tombs” was a reference to the pegasus bounty hunter “Toombs” which lived nearly four hundred years ago, Toombs had been widely known as the best ponyhunter in all of Equestria and had often been sent to the Zebra and Griffon kingdoms to capture and bring back target ponies. It was said that Toombs perished in the cold wastelands of the Frozen North attempting to seek out one of his targets.

I considered this name of be a gross over exaggeration of my skills, but everypony who worked with me insisted on calling me that, so it stuck with me over the years.

Shank had gotten his name for his habit of bringing a small switchblade with him on his missions, he didn’t get the name until one particular mission where we had to root out a member of the resistance in an abandoned apartment complex, we had been forced to split up to cover all the exits and Shank had found the target first, but it turned out that the rebel was armed with a pistol and opened fire on first sight of Shank when the two met in a doorway, through sheer leprechaun luck the first bullet had hit his stun baton.

On the other hand, the shot completely broke his baton, forcing him to improvise, and that's where the switchblade came in handy. Before the rebel had managed to fire off another shot Shank had already managed to pull out his switchblade and stab the rebel once in the chest.

By the time the rest of us managed to regroup with him he had already incapacitated the rebel and restrained him.

That had been the source of much comedy in the following weeks and eventually we began calling him Shank.

I smiled, thinking back at the mission.

“Hey Shank...”

“*Something wrong? You seem a bit down.*”

“Command has reassigned me. I wont be leading you guys anymore.”

“*Aw, I’m sorry to hear. Where are they assigning you? I hope for you that it isn’t Fillydelphia, that whole city is hell right now.*”

“It’s worse...”

“*Worse than Fillydelphia? They sending you to Dodge City?*”

“They are sending me to the frontier.”

“*The frontier!?*”

“The frontier.”

“*But why!? We don’t even have any operations in the frontier! I mean, as far as I know.*"

“Apparently we do now. I can’t say much about it, in part because it’s classified and in part because I don’t know much about it, I am supposed to get more instruction as I travel through the frontier.”

“*What do you mean ‘through the frontier’?*”

“My mission takes me beyond the secured borders of the frontier.”

“*B-beyond the borders? But that’s...*”

“Pony hell? Yeah. I know.”

“*You must have really pissed somepony off to get sent to the ass end of the world like that, I am... sorry, I wish there was something I could do.*”

“No need to be sorry, Shank. These things happen.”

Shank sat down on a bench opposite to me and removed his helmet, there was nothing really remarkable about him or his face, he was an earth pony as most of the CP rank and file were, brown coat, dull orange eyes and short cropped crimson mane. He seemed sad.

“You are just going to take it like that?” he asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t seem to be very upset over it, if I had been sent to a place like that I would have gone completely apeshit over it, nopony wants to go to the frontier, let alone beyond it.”

I took a deep breath.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am feeling pretty fucking miserable over this, I doubt I’ll ever come home from this mission. I can probably count my days already and safely say that I’ll likely be dead within a month.”

“But there is simply nothing I can do about it Shank, I might as well just give up and face the reality, I’ll do what is asked of me and if I live I live if not, then at least I had a good run here. But honestly? My life is over, this is the end for me.”

“...”

“Then all I can do then is wish you good luck... and hope you’ll make it back alive.”

“Will you at least come hang out with the squad one last time? Make your farewells?”

“No. I need to take the night train to Vanhoover, I need to report by 11AM tomorrow morning.”

“Oh...”

“You could tell them, if you want. But don’t make a big deal out of it, shit happens, I just got the short end of the stick, it could happen to any of us.”

Shank undressed, stored his gear in one of the lockers and made for the door.

Before leaving the room he turned around.

“Then this is it. Goodbye Captain Tombs, it was an honor serving under you. You’ve been a good leader.”

“Goodbye Shank.”

Then he left.

I guess all I have to do now is finish preparing my gear.

I looked over at what I had.

The standard issue Civil Protection armor, composed of a full body suit protected by kevlar plates, the helmet and the black saddle bag and pouches.

One first aid kit, one tin box containing 6 Psycho chem’s, 6 cans of beans, two bottles of water and two bottles of Everfree Dandelion vodka (completely undrinkable, but a sip is enough to feel the effect and it can also be used to sterilize wounds if absolutely necessary), and of course my stun baton, my issued WH MLP (Warhorse Mouth Loaded Pistol, a recent design which allows the shooter to reload the pistol using his mouth should the need arise, it sounds weird and unhygienic, but it works well, as long as you clean the pistol after extended use), small energy cells for the baton and five 18 round mags of standard 9mm calibre bullets.

It wasn’t much, considering where I was headed, but I could probably obtain more supplies in the outposts and settlements along the way, or maybe something would be arranged once we got there.

I don’t know how big the frontier actually is or how far it is to the border, but I doubt I’d be able to carry enough to make it there anyway so it seems very likely.

What was the time again? I checked the wall mounted clock in the changing room, 12:44 PM.

Might be best if I get going, I had a long train ride ahead of me.

I put my armor and gear on, fastened my helmet and left the building.

As soon as I left through the main entrance I was met with a cold gust of wind which swept newspapers, trash and dust down the street, there was probably a storm planned for tonight.

It was dark and lonely outside, the street was lit with the orange lights of old lamp posts lining the sides of the street. Opposite from the precinct was a large park surrounded by tall 40 story apartment buildings, the park wasn’t lit at night so the entire area in front of the precinct looked like a pitch black void, dotted by the occasional lit window or balcony.

It seemed really desolate.

But that was normal, nopony was out this time of the night as curfews were in effect in the residential and industrial areas of the city after 8PM.

The only areas open for free travel at night were the downtown commercial areas which were always bustling with life, even in this dark age ponies would still party on, ‘Nothing can stop the wubs!’ they say.

But it wasn't just wubs, I had been there occasionally, the decadent parties some of the ponies threw tended to spiral way out of control, at times they turned into massive orgies, sometimes large scale fighting would occur, it wasn't unusual for a couple of ponies to die in falling accidents and overdoses during the wilder nights.

The Manehatten central station wasn’t far from this districts barracks, it was just a couple of blocks away, so I began to slowly walk down the street.

I didn’t meet anypony during the slow twenty minute walk, there hadn’t even been a parked car or carriage, just empty dusty streets. I was approaching the central station by now, this area had more activity as it was constantly used by civilians and Civil Protection alike deep into the heart of the night.

It was a big old structure built well over a century ago, despite the regular maintenance and upkeep the big brown stone building looked like it would fall apart.

Ignoring the bustling traffic of incoming and outgoing ponies I went inside the station and went straight for the CP controlled offices, there were a few officers inside minding their own business and guarding various doors and passages.

Technically they didn’t actually have to be in the station, the entire place was under the constant watchful surveillance of security cameras and listening systems, but it was preferable for CP to have a presence in public areas to keep the peace and intimidate the populace.

I went up to a scanner by a steel door, it flashed twice at me and then the voice of a bored old mare spoke to me.

“*ID.*” she demanded.

“*Captain Tombs of Civil Protection, district 2.*”

“*Ok, come in.*”

The steel door opened and I went inside.

This was CP’s own area of the Manehatten Central Station, this is where CP officers would come through on their business to check in before transferring to another city, no one ever really stayed in there for more than they had to, so it was pretty much empty.

I went down two long dull gray corridors until I got to a small waiting room of sorts, there was no one here, behind a small window opposite to the entrance sat a bored looking middle aged mare with a light gray coat and silvery gray hair tied in a knot, she seemed to be typing something on a computer.

I approached the window and she looked up.

“Yes? Can I help you?” she said with a monotone voice, a testament to how incredibly boring she must have felt her job was.

“*Command has requested me over at Vanhoover, I just need clearing to board the next train there.*”

She sighed, for whatever reason.

“Okay... name and precinct?”

“*Captain Tombs, precinct 2.*”

She typed this in and checked through her records for a few minutes.

“Your precinct is listed as ‘none’.”

“*But my ID was clear when I was buzzed in here?*”

“Yeah, Marianne doesn’t really go through the records, she pretty much just lets people drabbed in that armor of yours in at sight.”

“*Uh, okay.*”

“I still need a precinct, sir.”

“*What?*”

“I said, I need a precinct to enter into the system, or it wont allow me to clear you through.”

“*Precinct 2 of Manehatten IS my home precinct.*”

“It doesn’t list it as such.”

"*LISTEN to me, precinct 2 of Manhatten, the precinct just down the street twenty minutes from here is the place I have worked at for a good three years now. It IS my home precinct. Check your systems again.*"

“Look sir, I need a precinct or the system won't recognize you as a legitimate officer.”

This shit was beginning to give me a headache.

I pulled out the orders I had received from command.

“*Command is sending me on a mission beyond the frontier. They must have removed my listing under precinct 2. Here is proof.*”

I handed the orders to her and she read through them.

“It also says that you shouldn’t disclose it to anypony...”

“*And Marianne is supposed to check the ID of all personnel entering the offices. Should we go tell command together or can I please just be cleared through under ‘Special Task’ and be on my way?*”

“I... guess I can do that...” she directed her attention back to her computer and after a few minutes she was done.

“Done. You are cleared for passage to Vanhoover.”

“*Thank you. That wasn't so hard, now was it?*”

"Hey that attitude is completely uncalled for."

"*No, it isn't. I have a lot on my mind right now as it is, I don't need to take crap from some bitchy pencil pusher. Not today of all days.*"

"*Now please, give me back my orders so I can get out of here.*"

She handed me my orders back and I was just about to leave.

“Wait...”

“*What is it?*", I said turning back around.

"I'm sorry."

"*You are... sorry?*" this was unexpected.

“Yeah I... eh... I normally don't really admit it or anything, but I guess you are right... I really could have been nicer about it.”

“I see where you are heading to and... you deserve better than this, so I just wanted to... apologize.”

I could tell that this was hard for her to say.

I sighed.

Maybe I had been a bit hard on her, she was probably having a bad day and was likely under a lot of stress.

“*It’s okay... I understand.*”

“You do?”

“*We can all get off on the wrong hoof sometimes without really meaning it, and I am sorry if I reacted harshly.*"

"*I know that a lot of officers come through here every day and that not all of them are the nicest of ponies, but I believe that it would help and make your job a little less unpleasant if you did your best to smile and be as nice as you can.*”

"*You don't have to like it, but it would really help you in the long run and avoid situations like these.*"

She thoughtfully leaned back in her chair.

“You know, I think you’re right. I’ll try that from now on.”

“That's good advice. Not the kind you'd expect from a CP officer.”

"*We are not all bad ponies, but our job doesn't give us many opportunities to show for it.*"

"Understandably."

"What did you do before becoming a CP officer? You don't seem like the rest of the officers who pass through."

I thought about it and felt immediately gloom, there was no way I could look back at my past and not get torn up over it.

I bowed my head down and closed my eyes shut trying to contain the feeling.

“*I’d... rather not talk about it.*”

“Oh, sensitive past huh? I’m sorry then, we don’t have to discuss it.”

“I guess that’s it then, have a nice trip to Vanhoover sir and... good luck on your mission.”

“*Thank you. Goodnight ma’am.*”

I made way for the station platform, leaving through the back exit of the transferring offices.

If I hadn’t been cleared first they would have picked up a “miscount” on the train and listed me as a defector of Civil Protection, which leads to an arrest and no trial.

It wasn’t a very forgiving system and caused a great deal of problems for CP’s own when it was first introduced.

It was cold out on the station platform, my train would arrive in about twenty minutes over at track 15, which was way out in the open.

All the benches on this platform were occupied by the dozen of other ponies who were waiting for the same train, a few CP officers, some citizens and one fully geared Infantry soldier who sat shivering on a bench next to a big bag of gear clutching to her pulse rifle.

I approached her and she looked up directly at me through the single red cyclopic eye of her helmet.

“*Hello.*” I greeted.

“*What do you want, officer?*” she warily replied.

“*Just waiting for the train, just like you, and the other benches are all occupied so... mind if I take a seat?*”

She waited with her response, looking around to see if the other benches were really occupied.

I guess she really didn't want share the bench with me.

I turned around to leave when she spoke.

“*Okay, have a seat.*”, she grabbed her bag and dropped it in front of her by her hooves.

I sat down next to her, it was a small bench and the bulk of our armors forced us to sit close enough for our flanks and elbows to touch.

We sat quietly for a few minutes, the Infantry mare toyed with her rifle for a while but quickly lost interest for it.

“*So where are you headed to?*” I asked, trying to make conversation.

She didn't respond at first.

“*Why do you care?*”

“*Just trying to pass the time, that’s all.*”

She leaned forward and put down her rifle by the bag.

“*I’m being relocated to the frontier, overseas. Command has requested that some of our forces help in securing the border in order to improve our relations with Overwatch.*”

“*The frontier?*”

“*Yeah. Terrible, isn’t it?*” she didn’t sound too happy about it.

“*More like a terrible coincidence.*”

“*How so?*”

“*Command has tasked me with a mission which takes me beyond the frontier borders.*”

“*Really? I didn’t even know that CP ran operations overseas, I mean aside from the coastal embarks.*”

“*My mission is ‘special’.*”

“*Black ops?*”

“*I’m just a regular CP Captain, I don’t know anything about any ‘black ops’.*”

“*I see.*”

“*Guess we are just two unlucky ponies, heading to a place where death could happen any day.*”

“*Sure looks like it.*”

“*What’s your name, officer?*” the soldier mare asked.

I wasn’t keen on introducing myself by my real name, I felt that as long as I wore my uniform, I would never be associated with my real self and who I am without it. It was a badge of shame to me, my parents wouldn’t have been proud of my work had they still been alive (Luna bless their souls).

“*Tombs*”

“*That’s it? Your name is ‘Tombs’?*”

“*Thats what they call me, it stuck over the years so it has kinda replaced my original name.*” I lied.

“*What about you?*”

“*My name is... actually wait, do you promise not to laugh?*”

“*Why would I laugh?*”

“*Because my name is completely unfitting my job as an Infantry soldier, they always laugh when I introduce myself wearing this thing.*”

“*It can’t be that bad.*”

“*My name is Cake Frosting.*”

Cake Frosting? What kind of a fucking name is Cake Frosting?

Even for ponies, who have generally silly names ‘Cake Frosting’ comes off as absurd.

“*Your name. Is Cake Frosting?*”

“*Cake Frosting. As in the cake frosting you put on cakes, yes.*”

I paused.

“*....why?*”

“*My fathers family name was ‘Cake’ as he came from a line of bakers, my mother was a weatherpony, who specialized in blizzards and snow falls. When I was born they couldn’t agree on a name, my father wanted to name me Arriane Cake and my mother Winter Frost. After some minor fighting they eventually agreed on naming me Cake Frosting, Frosting because it incorporated the word ‘frost’ which my mother wanted to pass down from her own name. Technically my last names are Cake and Frost, making my full name into Cake Frosting Cake Frost.*”

This explanation didn’t make any sense at all.

“*That is just absurd. Cake Frosting Cake Frost? Seriously?*”

“*Seriously. My name is the laughing stock of my entire company.*”

“*It sounds like your parents were clueless on how to properly name ponies. How come they didn’t change your name once they found out how strange it came out?*”

“*I don’t know. My best guess is that they couldn’t agree on a new name, or maybe they insisted on having their own last names as part of my first name. I’d ask them myself but they are both up there in pony heaven laughing at my name.*”

“*And why haven’t you changed your name then?*”

“*I’ve thought about it several times really, but I’ve had this name for over 20 years now and at this point I have just gotten used to it. Besides, it gives a bit of comic relief and has always been a fun source of conversation.*”

“*So you actually like your name?*”

“*Never said I didn’t. Silly and clumsy? Yes. But bad to the point where I have to change it? Nah.*”

“*How about your name? Got any story behind it?*”

“*My name isn’t funny. I doubt you’d like to know how I got it.*”

“*Hey I told you about mine!*”

"*I am serious, there is nothing funny or nice about it.*"

"*Tell me anyway.*"

“*If you say so, don't say I didn't warn you.*”

“*So basically I have been with Civil Protection for a long time now, started of as a regular officer just like everypony else, followed orders without question and did my job. There was nothing outstanding about me save for one thing, my ability to apprehend and capture target ponies. Sometimes suspects and criminals get away when Civil Protection comes knocking on their door or even show themselves in the same block as them, but that never happened when I was part of the squad tasked with arresting somepony. This skill of mine got the attention of CP superiors which promoted me to Sergeant and then directly to Captain.*"

*"The name ‘Tombs’ is a reference to the pegasus bounty hunter ‘Toombs’ spelled with two o’s who lived over a hundred years ago and was known for his ability to capture and retrieve ponies. The officers I worked with felt like it was a fitting nickname and so I’ve stuck with, since my work with Civil Protection takes up most of my time I took on to introducing and calling myself ‘Tombs’ even when off duty, replacing my original name with my nickname. That’s pretty much it.*”

I was met with silence.

“*You are right. It wasn’t very funny. That’s actually pretty terrible considering where the ponies you arrest are often sent to. Hell, ‘Tombs’ might as well mean ‘Death’ as the ponies you send to the frontier are sent to their tomb.*”

Now that she mentions it, that is exactly what I do and is just as good of an explanation for my nickname as the real one. That was terrible.

“*That’s... a pretty grim way to view my nickname... I hadn’t thought about it that way.*”

“*If you don’t mind me asking, why did you sign up with Civil Protection? How can you do the things you do and sleep well at night?*”

I thought about it for a while.

But before I could give an answer the train arrived.

“*I could give you an explanation on the train if you don’t mind us sharing seats?*”

I could tell that she wanted to get away from me, I revealed the reasoning behind my name, my work with Civil Protection and the great evil and harm I put others through indirectly through my work.

I imagined that I was nothing but a soulless bastard to Cake Frosting by now.

She paused before answer.

“*I would... rather not.*" there we had it.

*"But I am curious to know. So fine, I’ll share a seat with you and after your explanation I’ll decide whether to sit with you for the rest of the trip or if I should find somewhere else to sit.*”

What a prissy mare.

We boarded the train, I offered to take her bag of gear for her but she insisted on grabbing the bag and her assault rifle, she had to do some complex moves to get both up on her back without my help seeing as neither of us could grab anything with our mouths due to the helmets but she did it, and quickly.

The train was of modern design, it didn’t reflect the gray and decayed state of the rest of society, the inside was of a perfect room temperature and brightly lit.

The corridors and floors of the train were covered by clean red carpets, the walls and interiors were of a clean sterling white and the black seats were large and comfortably looking, arranged in 6 pairs of 4 seats and 1 table per wagon.

Overall the wagon we had picked seemed roomy and rather nice, only one other pony shared the wagon with us, a civilian stallion who sat at the back of the wagon leaning on the window trying to sleep.

Cake stored her gear on the baggage shelf above us and we took our seats opposite to each other.

As the train started moving Cake unfastened her helmet and took it off, she shook her head to let her long wavy brown mane fall down. Her coat was cyan blue and her eyes were light gray.

She appeared to have a bright and young face, she caught me staring at her and gave me an expression of absolute indifference and patience.

It took me a moment to realize that she expected me to take my helmet off, I hadn’t really planned on removing it but knew that it would be rude not to.

So I removed my own helmet and placed it on the seat next to me, she smiled.

“How old are you exactly, Tombs?” she asked me with a clear voice.

“How old do you think I am?”

“Hmm...”

“Ffffffoou... Thirty... nine?”

“Not even close. I’m 32.”

“Why? Do I seem that old to you?”

“Nooo... noo... I was just guessing.” she tried to hide her lie with an awkward and forced smile.

“It’s my mane and coat isn’t it?”

“Not at all, I think it suits you.”

“It’s gray. And charcoal. I feel old just looking at myself in the mirror sometimes, all I am missing from becoming an old Canterlot chap is a monocle, top hat, white moustache and a cigar..”

Cake laughed.

“Age looks good on stallions, Tombs. It makes them look wise and seasoned.”

“‘Seasoned’ is not really what I am aiming for Cake.”

“What about you then? How old are you?”

“Eh, I’m 29. But that's not important, you were about to explain why you work Civil Protection to me.”

“Yes... yes I was.”

I was thinking whether to give her the short moot explanation or the more serious closer to heart one, I did have my reasons to join CP, but I wasn’t disposed to discuss it with just anypony, not that there was anypony who wanted to know, it wasn’t a very commonly brought up subject.

“If you don’t mind, I will be leaving out my past, its much too sensitive of a thing for me to just bring up casually like this. I hope you understand.”

“Why? What do you mean?”

“I just said that I don’t want to bring it up, and if you ask about it again I am going to have to ask you to leave." I berated.

"Have I been perfectly clear on this?"

She frowned.

“Yes. Crystal.”

“After I... lost touch... with my parents I gave up hope and began roaming the downtown areas of Manehatten as a criminal and a thug, I signed up with an underground group of revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow Celestia for the ‘crime’ she supposedly committed against Equestria (you know, ‘the incident’ which we all know well about) and who wanted to give Princess Luna the crown. They went by the name of ‘The New Lunar Republic front’. There weren’t very many of them back then, we had been fifty ponies at most, and there was nothing righteous and good about us. We were all criminals who robbed ponies and used the profits to buy weapons, food and drugs. We had some of the worst of the worst in our little gang, murderers, saboteurs, there was one of everypony it seemed. We even had a few of the worst rapists in Equestrian criminal history too."

I paused, thinking how to proceed.

"Do you want to know one of their sick ideas of a laugh?"

"Aeeh... sure?"

"They would often go out on what they called a ‘Mareathon’, it was a game where the objective was to violate as many mares in one night as possible, they had bets and rewards for the ‘winner’.”

This painted an expression of pure shock on her.

“That’s horrible!”

“And it gets worse, we even had a fillyphile (as we call them in CP), a sick fuck who got off on little kids, on young underage fillies, can you imagine that?”

"I... oh my goddess..."

“All those years I just minded my own business, ignoring what the other members of my gang did with their time, until one day, the day Celestia declared herself Queen of Equestria.”

“The New Lunar Republic front threw a fit over that and began to openly recruit anypony who despised Celestia to the point of wanting a revolt, the numbers swelled but the criminality stayed. I tired of their sick games and debauchery and left the NLR. I lived in an apartment down in the downtown slums, living off the occasional job I could get, until another big thing occurred. Luna’s banishment to the moon.”

“NLR recruitment numbers had an exploding bloom of an increase, it was no longer a gang of scum, thugs and rapists, it became an actual freedom fighting organization. Or at least, that is how they portrayed themselves. They were nothing but terrorists and crime increased to an all time high in Equestria, the police being unable to contain it anymore.”

“Rumor was that a paramilitary organization had been founded by Celestia, a sort of police alternative, and that this organization was recruiting. I looked into it and discovered Civil Protection, a police force which promised to clean Equestria of its filth and defend the populace. I signed on immediately and was accepted as soon as the day after signing up. Well in CP I spoke to the higher ups and disclosed the location of my old gang's hideout as I remembered it, and within a day some of the NLR top leaders were arrested and brought in for interrogation, my old gang mates, the fillyphile amongst them. For this I was commended and promoted to Corporal, on my second day at work.”

“In the years that passed Civil Protection gradually phased out the Equestrian Police Force and lowered crime as much as ponilly possible, no one really knew where the ponies we arrested went, we had no major penitentiary facilities that I knew of, they were just apprehended by other officers and ‘disappeared’.

As I eventually came to know, the ponies were being sent as a forced labor force, slaves, overseas to colonize the new land there no matter the cost. But reliable news never made it to Equestria, all we would hear about it was the occasional rumor of how much of a hell the frontier was and this was from soldiers on leave.”

“At that point I was already a Sergeant and had friends, good decent friends, a fat pay and an okay life cut out for me so I simply decided to stick around, despite the bad things I knew we were doing.

And you have to understand, that while I certainly don’t agree with our methods and don’t justify me arresting ponies and sending them to their deaths with the same ‘I do it for the good of Equestria!’ happy horseshit, that most other CP officers would give you. I do firmly believe that CP has done it’s part in lowering crime and restoring the state of Equestria, the economy has recovered, even if it has come at the great cost of some of our freedoms.”

“I don’t know about that...” Cake seemed reluctant, but I was sure that I was well on my way to sway her over to my point of view, I pressed on.

“You don’t know about what? What is the worst of the two scenarios? A free equestria with regular crime, anarchy and a depression on it’s hooves, or a safe, stable equestria ruled under the iron hoof of Civil Protection?”

She looked like she was about to protest to that last bit, I was losing her again.

“Ponies” I resumed before she could say anything, “Speak so fondly of ‘the good old days’ of Equestria, ‘before those bastard CP officers ruined everything’ but that is just a load of shit, things were terrible before Civil Protection sorted things out, I was there, I know, the real ‘good old days’ were way back during the mid-Golden Age, when we still had resources to spare and land to exploit. When we ran out of those and thousands of ponies became unemployed due to the economy failing it all turned to shit, and you know that.”

Cake didn’t respond, she was thinking.

“But was it really worth it?” Cake calmly said.

“All those ponies, forcibly shipped overseas to do forced labor... ponies die there Tombs, ponies die there all the time, they are suffering because of Civil Protection.”

“For Luna’s sake, Cake! They are criminals! SCUM. They harmed the Equestrian Kingdom and her society, other ponies, and now they are paying the price for it!”

“That’s very naive of you Tombs.”

Naive?

“How so?”

“Not all ponies arrested by you are criminals. Not all of them are rapists and thugs.”

“And how would you know? We follow up on reports filed by citizens and other officers alike, we see everything, we know who does what.”

“But you really don’t, you make mistakes, arrest the wrong ponies, your organization is not perfect.”

“We never fail.”

“You never investigate or perform trials either. How many ponies have paid the price just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or for attracting the jealousy of hate of others?”

“Elaborate.”

“My cousin, Gemmy. She is... or was... the sweetest unicorn mare you’d ever meet, she wouldn’t harm a fly and was a model citizen. She owned a jewelry store and had a successful, if limited, business. She came to me one day very upset over a mishap with a customer, she had accidentally switched two orders around and given a diamond necklace to the wrong customer, she had tried to contact the customer but never managed to get ahold of it. The stallion, to which the diamond necklace belonged, was furious with her and said that he’d make her ‘pay’ for it if she didn’t get it back by the end of the week. We searched and searched for the other customer but never found it, and by the end of the week Civil Protection came and arrested Gemmy. Apparently 37 ponies had filed a report of murder on her. There had been no investigation, no questioning, they simply came and took her. I never saw Gemmy again.”

That’s horrible. Was this really true?

Was it really that easy to abuse and exploit CP like that?

“I am sorry about your cousin...”

“Why should you be? You seem very convinced that Civil Protection is a shining beacon of light and justice, if you say all they do is arrest legitimate criminals then she clearly must have secretly been a murderer.

Heh, maybe she led a secret life as a serial killer when she wasn’t at home taking care of her father or hanging out with her friends.” she said with a heavy undertone of sarcasm.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t think that CP would go to such lengths.”

“You didn’t know or you didn’t want to know?”

“What? What are you implying?”

“You have led a successful career as an officer who specializes in capture and arrest, what are the odds that 100% of the ponies you arrested were true criminals? How many of them looked like criminals? How many of them did you arrest in the cleaner areas of the city? Think about it Tombs.”

This was true. Not all of my arrests had been made in the slums of Manehatten, thinking back I recalled a few benign and harmless looking ponies.

Cake was right, they hadn’t all been criminals, they couldn’t have been.

I sunk my head in shame.

“You always knew didn’t you? You never acknowledged it, but you knew that not all of them were crooks.”

“Don’t push it Cake,” I debarred, “You don’t have the right to criticize me like that, you don’t know me. Sending criminals to the frontier is a necessity, all I did was follow orders, it is my job, I never intended for innocent ponies to suffer for it.”

“I know you well enough to make that assertion. I know that you did it because it is what you thought was right, you felt that Civil Protection was the right kind of solution to Equestria’s problems. But guess what? It’s FASCIST, Tombs. It sounds real great on paper but in reality your organization is just as criminal as the New Lunar Republic front you described, you are no better than them.”

What!?

How dares she make that kind of comparison with me?!

I gritted my teeth, but before I could give her my heated response to that she continued talking.

“You are not a bad pony Tombs, don’t mistake my dislike for Civil Protection as direct hatred for you, I do believe you when you say that you never intended to harm the innocent.”

“You aren’t forced to change because of what I say, if you want to continue working for those fiends under the misguided guise that you are doing it for the good of Equestria then that is fine, it is your own moral choice. But don’t go around claiming that it is for ‘good’ or that it is the ‘right’ solution to our problems.”

It was hard to face, but she was right.

Or at least she sounded as if she was right, what proof did she bring to the table?

She was but a stranger to me, how could I really be sure that what she said was true?

But then, she was hard to argue against, everything she had said made sense.

Maybe I had wrongfully arrested a few innocent citizens, but I had followed my orders and nothing else, it wasn’t my fault.

But why would CP do that? It would have been the perfect solution if all we did was arrest criminals, but this was not the case according to Cake. There must be some angle on this, some sort of justifiable reason to send the innocent to work as slaves to Equestria, there had to be something.

“Do you think CP knows?” I asked.

“They can’t not know about it, this has been going on for years.”

“But why? Why would CP enslave the innocent?”

“Who knows? I got my theory however.”

“Let’s hear it then.”

“My best guess is that Civil Protection is running out of criminals to arrest, and that in order to supplement the declining workforce they intentionally bend the law and their system in their favor.”

“What? By arresting innocent citizens just like that?”

“I’m sorry, but that just sounds like the same kind of bullshit those anti-celestian conspiracy theorists tell you over drinks at the pub. I can get and understand that there may be mishaps and overlooking which leads to some innocents being wrongfully arrested and sent overseas, but that is just... way too far fetched to be true.”

“So, prove me wrong.”

“That’s not how it works! You are the one who should bring proof to back up your crazy theory!”

“Gemmy is proof enough.”

“Your story about your cousin Gemmy would only prove that CP isn’t perfect and that they do mistakes (which I admit would be easily avoided if they looked into it more) and I can submit to that idea. But it doesn’t prove that CP would supplement a declining criminal workforce with civilians such as Gemmy.

For gods sake, what about Gemmy would make her a better worker than some of the lower outcasts of society I see daily down in the slums?”

Cake remained silent.

“Let us look at the facts, I’ll be going a bit on assumption here and assume that your cousin Gemmy isn’t the kind of super buff and strong unicorn mare fit for heavy lifting and physical labor, correct?”

“I guess...” she answered hesitantly.

“So that rules out CP targeting her because of her physique.”

“Next, you mentioned that Gemmy owned a jewelry store.”

“Yes.”

“So she must clearly have been a pony of some wealth to run that kind of business, this gives another point in her favor.”

“A point in her favor for what?”

“For not being a realistic target for CP’s arrest should your insane theory be true.”

“Lastly, did Gemmy have a family and a circle of friends who cared about her?”

Cake didn’t respond.

“You don’t have to go into detail, just answer the question: Did Gemmy have ponies who cared about her and who would mourn her disappearance? Aside from you?”

“Yes...”

“Third point in her favor.”

“So, Gemmy, an upstanding and wealthy citizen, an ordinary unicorn mare with no outstanding physique or magical skills to speak of and who also had a number of other ponies who genuinely cared for her would according to you be a more lucrative target for Civil Protection to target and arrest than some generic burly junkie stallion with no friends and family living in the slums of the city?”

“I’m sorry Cake, but your theory doesn’t sound very plausible to me. If it were, then CP would have cleaned the cities of all junkies and scum living in the slums ages ago, they would never be targeting honest and innocent citizens, that is counter productive, it goes entirely against their whole objective.”

“But what if they are just targeting citizens at random?”

“What? I just told you that it wouldn’t make sense to target good equestrian citizens and now you suggest that they target them at random?”

“What if they don’t care about the backgrounds of the ponies they arrest?”

That was actually not a bad argument, CP would be targeting ponies at random without looking at their background.

But for what scope? What purpose?

They were building a new country, colonizing a dangerous new land, building new settlements and cities from scratch.

Why would they need jewelers?

“Fair enough,” I said, “but why would they need random citizens with random skillsets? They are colonizing a new land overseas, I am guessing that scrawny old ponies and jewelers are only going to drag their efforts down, wouldn’t they rather have strong and clever ponies better suited for the harsh physical labor needed to tame the lands?”

Cake leaned back in her seat and thought for a while.

“I... I guess you are right, it does sound a bit far fetched now that you mention it. I am not sure where I am going with this, it was a stupid theory.” she said with some resignation.

“You are just going to let it go like that?”

I was surprised, I was under the impression that she wanted to push the idea of Civil Protection being part of a massive conspiracy until I gave up, and now she was the one  giving up.

It couldn’t possibly be my arguing, the way I had so poorly defended myself and what I worked for, did she come to some sort of self realization?

“You make a good point, why would CP target random ponies unfit for heavy labor?”

“Maybe you are right, and those arrests are nothing but mistakes and overlooks. I really don’t know.”

“Should we just leave it at that?” I suggested.

I wanted to end our little talk about CP, I had heard enough and between me being sent to a literal hell, and hearing about innocents being subjected to the same fate, I was already thinking about leaving CP whenever the next chance came up.

But before I could do that I would have to survive the mission, and the chances for that seemed very slim to me.

Cake’s response was interrupted by the train suddenly rocking hard, sending both of us forward into a violent headbutt, the train wheels screeched loudly as they braked against the rail below.

The train soon slowed down to a halt, simultaneous loud CLICKS were heard from the two doors and windows of the carriage, we had been locked in.

There was a miscount on the train, a Civil Protection quick reaction force was on it’s way, to this carriage.

A loudspeaker beeped loudly twice, the electronic sounding voice of a mare spoke.

“WARNING, MISCOUNT DETECTED. EVERYPONY KEEP SEATED, CIVIL PROTECTION DELEGATES ARE ON THE WAY TO BOARD THE TRAIN.”

I looked up at Cake Frosting, rubbing my forehead.

There was a small bump where our heads had collided, she had gotten away with just a small bruise.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah...” she touched the bruise, “Ouch.”

“A miscount has been detected in our carriage, but it isn’t me. Did you clear in before transferring?”

“Of course I did.”

We both stood up and peeked over the row of seats at the stallion in the back, he had had a rough awakening and was breathing hard, either out of shock or out of the realization that he was the miscount.

“Sir?” I called out to him.

He looked over at me with an expression of deep panic which worsened the moment he saw our uniforms.

“N-NO!! T-THERE’S BEEN A MISTAKE! I CHECKED IN! I SWEAR I DID!” he stammered.

“Sir, I am sure we can clear this up, stay calm.” I was lying, I wasn’t sure why I was attempting to give him false hope, there was nothing I could do about this.

CP was very harsh on miscounts, harsher than it should have been.

The door clicked down on our end of the wagon, three Civil Protection agents wearing the black and yellow uniforms of CP Border Patrol (the branch of CP responsible for the safeguarding and patrolling of city outskirts, the countryside and sea borders), two of them were helmetless and were wielding stun batons and one holding a pistol with his right hoof, walking awkwardly on three hooves.

The two with stun batons rushed past us, the officer with the pistol stopped by us for a moment noticing our uniforms and the captain insignia I had on my shoulder.

He saluted me with the hoof he held the pistol in.

“*Captain, sir. We apologize for the inconvenience.*”

“What is the meaning of this?” I asked sheepishly, I already knew, but I didn’t want to try to just bluntly ask for the stallions release.

“*Well, er, there has been a miscount. That civilian didn’t clear in with us before boarding the train.*”

“*He broke the law, and we are arresting him.*”

“He broke the law by forgetting to buy a ticket?” Cake Frosting interjected.

The officer looked at her and then back at me, unsure of how to respond to the infantry mare.

“Allow me to introduce my friend, Cake Frosting.” I said, with a hard emphasis on ‘friend’.

“She is with Infantry of the Equestrian Army. You will show her the same respect as any officer of CP.”

“*O-of course sir.*” the officer turned to Cake.

“*Those are the laws, ma’am. I didn’t write them, I am just following orders.*”

“Can’t you just look the other way just this once?”

“*CP doesn’t work like that. We can’t just let ponies go and make exceptions. We have to bring him in.*”

“What will you do to him?” she asked, I saw where she was going with this.

She was testing the officer.

“Sir? We got the miscount.” one of his underlings informed him.

They had the stallion restrained, he hadn’t said a word in protest as they had cuffed him, he seemed to be hoping I would do something about it.

The officer fleetingly looked at the stallion.

“*Uh, yes. Hang on a second.*” he looked back at Cake.

“*We... will probably ask him a few questions, give him a fine and let him go...*” the officer didn’t seem very sure of his answer.

“And who will be asking the questions? Someone at your precinct or will he be taken elsewhere?”

The officer looked at me, probably giving me a troubled expression from beneath his mask.

I smirked.

“Well, sergeant? The mare asked you a question, why don’t you answer it?”

“*Sir?*”

“Yes?”

“*I don’t know the answer.*”

"What do you mean 'you don't know the answer'?"

"*I... don't really know where they take the suspects after we bring them in.*"

We had been unable to help the stallion, as he realized that he wasn’t getting away he had panicked and tried to hold onto the seats as the officers pulled him out of the wagon. He screamed for mercy and all we could really do was watch.

We hadn’t said anything since then, about three hours had passed, three long hours of silently staring out of the window into the dark night shrouded countryside, dotted by the occasional lights coming from a smaller city or village somewhere.

At some point it had started to rain heavily, and it had poured down for quite a while now, the scheduled storm must have spanned for most of eastern Equestria.

Cake hadn’t left me, she must have been satisfied with the answers I gave her about Civil Protection, I was glad to have some company with me.

I felt in the mood for some coffee, it would be a long trip, but I didn’t feel like going to sleep just yet.

“Cake?”

“Yes?” she replied slowly.

“I am going to get some coffee, want something?”

“I’m offering.” I added.

She thought about it for a moment.

“I guess I could go for some coffee as well.”

“Alright. I’ll be right back.”

I got up and trotted down the carriage, passing by two or three passenger wagons hosting a few sleeping or tired looking citizens before reaching the restaurant wagon.

The restaurant was closed, but there were two active vending machines at the end of the wagon which served coffee, hot milk, beverages and various snacks, among the choices was a delicious looking daisy and radish sandwich, the last one left. I was almost leaning between the sandwich or some Parasprite and Dandelion flavored snickers chocolate, but I decided to opt for the coffee I had came to get, I figured I needed the coffee more than I needed some cheap soda.

Getting the coffee back had been a bit problematic, I had been forced to hold one cup in my mouth and another with my hoof, and the cups weren’t as ergonomically fit for hooves as I had hoped for, but after about ten minutes I had managed to get them back to our seats without spilling as much as a drop on the way.

“Thanks.” Cake said as she claimed her cup, it was still steaming hot, she gently blew into it to cool it down before taking a short sip.

“No problem.” I took my seat.

My teeth felt stale after holding my own cup so awkwardly.

We just sat there, I felt like we were getting distant again so I tried to get some conversation going.

“So Cake, if you don’t mind me asking... why did you sign up with Infantry?”

She seemed a bit reluctant to tell, but I had told her about my work, so it would only be fair if she told me about hers.

“I signed up for the money and benefits.” she took a long sip before continuing.

“I come from a very poor family who couldn’t really support me, and I have a daughter to worry about. I heard that Infantry was recruiting and were offering a very high pay for those who pulled through their training, so I figured, heck, why not at least give it a shot?”

"And how did that go?"

“Let us put it this way."

"Out of 50 ponies, I was one of the 13 that passed.”

"Oh."

“I don’t get to see my daughter very often these days, Infantry keeps me busy most of the week and I rarely get leave, but with the fifty thousand bits I make a month I have plenty to send to my ma and pa with whom I’ve left my little girl. Even managed to get her into one of the better schools, that school for gifted unicorns. She is turning out to have quite a talent for magic, but still hasn’t gotten her cutiemark though, all the others have gotten theirs, I know that some get theirs later and someone has to be the last. But I can't help but feel a bit concerned for her.”

Fifty thousand bits?

Now that was an impressive salary.

My own pay as a captain of CP barely amounted up to 25000.

“How old is your daughter?”

“Five years old. Named her Cupcake.”

Cupcake.

Cake Frosting.

Of course she’d name her kid something like that.

“Cupcake?”

“Cupcake." sip.

"What? Surprised? Figured I might as well keep the family naming as a running gag, maybe one day she will name her kids after pastry as well. Who knows?”

“So she’s an unicorn? Was her father an unicorn?”

Cake laughed.

“No no, her father was a pegasus.”

Wait what?

“I am not following... how can your daughter be an unicorn then?”

“I am not sure... I think my great, great, great grandmother was an unicorn. Or maybe my great, great grandfather's grandmother was the unicorn... I don’t quite remember, but there is some unicorn running in the family I am sure.”

“Right...” I’d rather leave that behind, thinking about it was making my head spin, “And how is that working out, you know, with her being an unicorn and all?”

“She has been... quite a hoof-full, that's for sure. She discovered her magical ability as soon as her second month, and has been nothing but trouble since then. We had to keep her crib in an empty room so that she wouldn’t bring out a bunch of toys after bedtime. And not to speak of the cookies, can’t keep a jar of cookies around if you have unicorn children I’ll tell you that much.”

“Don’t you miss your daughter? Is working in the Infantry really worth it, with you not being able to be with your daughter as much?”

“Of course I miss my daughter, any mother would miss her child. And as bad as I feel about leaving my daughter like this we still need to get the money somewhere, and with her father not being around anymore that job is left entirely to me. I am thankful that my job in the Infantry pays for two salaries and that I have such helpful ponies as my parents to take care of her while I am gone.”

“What happened to her father.”

Her expression turned cross.

“He left us.”

“He just left?”

“He couldn’t handle the stress of an unicorn child and expressed that he felt that he was too young for children, so he just grabbed his things and left one day when I was outside treating our daughter with fast food. All he left was a note plastered on the fridge, that was his goodbye to his daughter and wife, a fucking note.”

“What happened to him? Where did he go?”

“From what I’ve heard he took on some new fling and joined Air Force. Haven’t really heard anything about him after that, didn’t care.”

Perhaps I should change the subject, this was a bit too touchy and sensitive to discuss casually like this.

“So...What's the Infantry like?”

“Incredibly tough, even for earth pony standards.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“It might be easier to explain if I just fill in the gaps for you. What do you know about Infantry?”

“Not much, I’ve heard that it is an earth pony dominated fighting force and that they supposedly field the best ground infantry force in the known world. I’ve heard mention of some hard entrance requirement but aside from that I don’t really know anything.”

“Right. Those are all true. Infantry is composed of around... pssht... 88% (?) earth ponies and the remaining percentage of unicorns and pegasi combined?”

“Why is that? Is there some sort of favoritism for earth ponies?”

“Not at all. On the contrary, the requirements are equal for everyone, regardless of age, sex and race. Anypony is welcome to apply for Infantry. Problem is, that the requirements are tough, incredibly tough. And the only race of pony strong enough to endure it are earth ponies, we have a natural toughness, strength and endurance of which the other two races can’t even compare to. So it’s mostly just earth ponies who pass the test, but there are the occasional unicorn and pegasus who pass as well, Infantry keeps those real close due to their special talents and resilience.”

“Why doesn’t Infantry lower the entrance requirements?”

“There have been talks about it, but Infantry command generally agrees that it is safer and better if only the best of the best are allowed in, we have the lowest rate of casualties and the best trained and equipped soldiers of all the branches and organizations in Equestria. Command reasons that if the entrance requirements were lowered then there would be more room for weakness in the army, and that weakness could potentially put other ponies at risk. They believe that it is better to have a small but elite force, over a large and weak one.”

“And what do you think about it?”

“Think about what?”

“It sounds to me like they have a prejudiced view against the ponies who are ‘unfit’ to work with them, they don’t seem to put any faith in ponies ability to improve and grow stronger. You say that they aim for equality and that the entrance requirements are the same for that very reason, but in reality the requirements only seem to be testing the strengths of earth ponies, strength, toughness, endurance, and not those of the pegasi and unicorns, who are obviously at a serious disadvantage when applying.

I wouldn’t go as far as calling it racist, but the line between it is very slim based on what you tell me.”

“Well if you put it that way then Infantry would still be the least racist and prejudiced of the three branches.”

“Is that so?”

“Air Force only accepts pegasi. Armor only allows unicorns to pilot their vehicles and become officers, but do otherwise allow entry and lower ranked positions for pegasi and earth ponies.”

“Infantry allows anypony to sign up, and earn any rank within the organization.”

“What about Overwatch? And Civil Protection? When compared to those you hardly rank as the least prejudiced.”

“You suddenly seem to know a lot about army recruitment and organization.”

“I work with Civil Protection, and many of the ponies I’ve worked with have left CP to join Overwatch. I’ve heard that Overwatch accepts anypony, as long as they can pass a basic physical and mental exam and don’t have a dirty criminal record (anything more serious than shoplifting). So many officers who considered joining have been rejected for that.”

"Rejected?"

"Many within Civil Protection are former criminals. On average one out of five officers may be murderers."

Cake gasped.

“You allow criminals to work within Civil Protection?”

“Well of course. They recruit any civilian who would volunteer to work for them. It is dirty and sometimes dangerous work like I’ve mentioned. It gives criminals a chance to redeem themselves.”

“Funny organization, the more you tell me about it the more I fear for Equestria’s safety."

"I am not sure I'll be able to safely trust an officer like you with the safety of my daughter once I get off this train. There could be a murderer or pedophile hiding under the mask.”

“You shouldn’t be trusting CP officers in the first place.” I said gravely.

"Why... not?"

"I said that we have former criminals in our ranks, not that they have stopped being criminals."

"Stay away from them, especially at night."

Her eyes widened.

“Are you SERIOUS?”

I stared at her with as a serious expression as I could conjure up for the longest time, but her shock was just too funny to keep the mask up, I broke out into a chuckle.

“Thank god! You were joking!” she said with relief.

Cake was one of the earth pony mares who had passed the requirements for Equestrias toughest and meanest fighting force, yet she still had the ladylike sense of fear and shock which you expect all mares to have, as sexist as it sounds.

But no. I was not joking.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. I am really serious about this, you should trust me on this."

“If you are caught alone in the street with no security cameras, other officers or citizens around, run, do not remain alone with an officer at any given time. They can’t all be trusted.”

Cake turned pale.

“A-are you still joking...?” she asked hesitantly.

“No.” I leaned forward, grabbing hold of the cup of coffee which I had completely forgotten about.

“I am dead serious. Tell your daughter, and spread the advice to everypony you know. There are some real rotten eggs in Civil Protection who abuse their position of power, CP command is running investigations to root out the worst of it, but it is hard to pinpoint exactly who is abusing their power and uniform. It could be anypony, any agent wearing this mask.”

I pulled up my helmet and showed it to Cake for effect, the look on her face made it seem like I had shown her the skull of the grim reaper pony himself, I struggled not to smile or laugh, it was important that she knew that I was absolutely serious about what I said.

Once the effect had had its toll I put the helmet back down and took a sip from my coffee, it was tepid and tasted horrible.

I had forgotten to add sugar and milk, and it was too late to go get some.

I calmly sipped my coffee staring deep down the cup, when I looked up I found Cake giving me the most intense and startling stare of mistrust I had ever seen.

I spat some of my coffee back in the cup at the sight, this liquid piss of a drink was now undrinkable.

“Luna almighty, Cake! What is wrong with you!”

“How can I trust you after what you just told me? Oh god, I even told you about my daughter...!”

“I can’t believe you would actually think about me like that! I told you because I want you to know about it, to keep you and your family safe! For fucking sake, Cake, get a grip on yourself.”

This relation of ours wasn't going very well, I doubted I would ever hear from her again once we got off the train, but then, maybe it would be for the best.

If I had let her on on these things more gracefully and discretely maybe she wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

“No Cake, I am not that kind of criminal. The worst things I’ve done was robbery, and even then all I did was threaten a stallion to give me a few bits for a bus ride home, I let him keep everything else.”

She glared at me.

I gave myself an inner facehoof.

What the hell was I doing?

I sure as hell wasn’t going to win any support by telling her of my past crimes!

“I am not a bad pony.” I stressed.

She stared at me for a while and eventually calmed down, drinking the last of her coffee.

“You are really risking it, Tombs.”

"That talk we had about CP before was bad enough, but this..."

I shrugged.

“I am sorry. My ‘let strangers know about my past life and dirty work within CP’ skills are a bit rusty.”

"You don't HAVE to sit here with me if you don't want to, I understand if you just want to go. No one is stopping you."

She smiled and shook her head.

"What are you smiling about, Cake?"

"Nothing, just forget about it."

“Where were we? Before you... uh...” she apparently wanted to just leave the topic behind us, just like that.

I could live with that.

“You were telling me... about Infantry’s racist prejudice compared to Overwatch and Civil Protection.” I filled in, wanting to continue our talk about Infantry.

“Infantry is not racist.”

“They sound pretty racist to me.”

“And everything I know about Infantry comes from you.” I prodded.

She looked annoyed.

“I’m sorry.”

“But tell me why Infantry’s earth pony biased entrance requirements aren’t prejudiced? Don’t get cross with me, but if they were really aiming for equality, shouldn’t the requirements aim for a balance between say, earth pony toughness, unicorn finesse and pegasus agility?”

“But that is not what the requirements aim for, they don’t specifically use earth pony strengths as their requirements, they use the strengths needed for an effective infantry unit, they want tough, strong soldiers who can take a lot of hits and dish out a lot of damage. They want the ultimate infantrypony. And to get that pony they need certain traits which are more inherent in earth ponies.”

“I know it sounds a bit angled, but it is entirely a genetic thing and has nothing to do with race. Earth ponies are simply more fit for work within Infantry than Pegasi and Unicorns.”

I sighed deeply.

This didn't convince me.

It was true that those were traits which were preferable to have as a soldier, but the more critical part of me still believed that Infantry command was prejudiced and simply favored earth ponies over the other races and that it was why the requirements were better suited for earth ponies than unicorns and pegasi.

“Very well then. I won’t argue any further about it. Another question however.”

“Shoot.”

“How are the unicorn and pegasus soldiers within Infantry treated? You said that Infantry command keeps them close, due to their abilities, what does that mean exactly?”

“Command keeps them close just for that, their abilities and their differences from earth ponies. Unicorns make good engineers, bomb technicians, pilots, anything that has to do with finesse and precision which you know, our mouths and hooves lack. Pegasi are kept for their agility and mobility, they have special armor and often have positions as scouts, snipers, marksmen and similar. Much of the doctrine and training within Infantry focuses on how to deal with flying enemies, such as pegasi, but Infantry recognizes the value and advantage of having fliers on their side.”

“Some unicorns and pegasi are groomed for command due to some inherent differences in thinking and reasoning between the three races, sometimes three ponies of different race may come to a different conclusion on how to best deal with an enigma on the battlefield, an earth pony may for instance, craft an elaborate frontal assault plan which involves smoke covering and suppressing fire, but a pegasus might prefer to take an indirect route by flanking the enemy on either side, unicorns may be even more unorthodox and go with strategies which demoralizes or confuses the enemy, perhaps with magic, or with flash and discord grenades.”

“It isn’t a very well known thing, and is kept as a close secret to few, but Infantry has one of the most varied chains of commands of any known fighting force. Aside from earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi, we also have minotaurs and a select few alicorn officers as well. There is a faint rumor that there may even be a rabbit commanding us as well.”

Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasus... Minotaur, Alicorn...…rabbit?

“A rabbit?” I repeated in disbelief.

“A rabbit. But I don’t know for sure, that may just be a rumor. I wouldn't even know how they are supposed to communicate with it.”

“The point anyway, is that with all these races in command, Infantry has an abundance of tactics which differ from mission to mission. Where a force like Air Force might have a hundred, we have ten thousand for just one scenario.”

“But they can’t hardly all be sound tactics. What happens when multiple commanders can’t agree on a tactic or if a chosen strategy is deemed to be risky or dangerous?”

“Then the commanders in charge of the mission or assault vote on which strategy to choose. First they have a discussion and pick the suggested strategies which seem most certain to offer success, then they vote and the strategy which gets the most votes is used. Fewer commanders means fewer choices. If the commanders can’t agree on a single strategy the decision is passed down to the men partaking in the mission, the same process is done, a select few strategies are chosen, and the men are asked to vote on one of them. Again, if no choice can be agreed on the choice with the least votes is removed until only one choice remains.”

“That sounds like a really ineffective way to lead. As far as I know the military is all about quick decisions and has always been run in an authoritarian manner with one officer ranking over the next making all the big decisions about strategy, from general to sergeant. This sounds more like a democracy to me.”

“The entire chain of command isn’t a democracy, only the commanding officers of one mission or operation get to choose and discuss the operations. It is a slightly more open and broad variation of the more traditional way of strategizing. It still weighs heavily on discussion.”

“I guess Infantry isn’t as prejudiced as I thought it was then. Aside from the entrance requirements it really sounds like your organization is big on equality and variation. At least when it comes to leadership.”

“It is."

"How did you pass the requirements? Uh, don't take it the wrong way, I am just asking, what did you do before Infantry that allowed you to sign up with them?"

"I was a builderpony, a construction worker. Had been for a good 20 years before Infantry."

"You became a construction worker as a kid?"

"Yes. I worked with my father, he taught me everything he knew about it and then offered me a job for a half decent pay. It was in that line of work that I earned my cutiemark."

Her name was Cake Frosting and her special talent was construction and she worked as a soldier.

Interesting combination.

"What does your cutiemark look like?"

"Ah it's nothing special. Just three gray steel beams being pulled upwards by a cord. Typical skyscraper construction motif."

I was inclined to ask about the story of how she got it, but I expected that it wouldn't be all that special, she probably got it helping her father early on.

"How about yours?"

How about my what?

"Hmm?"

"Your cutiemark."

My cutiemark.

No.

That was my secret, my past.

"I am not going to tell you about it."

"Why not? I tol-"

"You told me about yours, I know. But this is mine, and I have my own reasons for not telling you."

"What kind of reasons?"

"Cake..."

"Hey, not asking about your cutiemark."

"The kind of reasons where bad trauma happened and I am forced to carry my mark around as a constant reminder."

"Okay then... I wont dig any deeper then if you don't want to."

"Thanks for understanding."

I was beginning to feel tired, I didn’t get to drink much of the coffee I had bought, and what remained tasted like liquified cold piss.

I could get more but that would only keep me awake, and for what purpose really?

There wasn’t anything I really wanted to talk to her about, our discussions had only been kept going for the sake of passing the time and filling the silence.

Admittedly, they had given me some insight on a few things, especially the elusive Infantry I had heard about.

I believe it is good time to call it a night and get some sleep.

I stood up and grabbed my helmet with my mouth.

“Where are you going?” Cake wondered with a hint of concern in her voice.

I felt flattered that she still wanted me around after our discussions and arguing.

“Ahhm goinhm toh hiht teh hayh.” what I had intended to come out as ‘I am going to hit the hay’ with an accent and all only came out as a garbled mess with the helmet still in my mouth. I bowed my head down and put it down on the table.

“What I was saying is: I believe it is time to call it a night. I am feeling really tired and I got a long day ahead of me tomorrow...”

“Yeah... me too...”

“But uh, before you go... you wouldn't mind telling me which room will you be sleeping in?”

“I don’t know. I was planing on looking for an empty room, or at least one with a free cot.”

“Why?”

“Could you leave a note outside with your name on it?”

“...why?” I answered slowly.

“I am thinking about something.”

“About what?”

“You’ll see.”

What was she going to do?

What was it that I was going to see?

She could tell that I wasn’t satisfied with the answer.

“Don’t worry about it, don’t get any dark ideas about it.” then she fleetingly looked over me.

“And don’t get any funny ideas either.” she added.

Oh you.

“No offense about the ‘funny idea’ part, but you are not my kind of mare.”

“Ha, really? And what is your kind of mare?”

“The kind that doesn’t have the ability to break my spine with a strong kick when she gets upset.”

She smirked.

Alright fine, I’ll take this gamble.

What is the worst thing that could happen anyway?

“Fine, I’ll try and post a note on the door to my room, for whatever devious thing you have in mind.”

“We'll see. I think you'll like it, maybe.”

“Goodnight miss Cake Frosting Cake Frost. It was good making your acquaintance. If we don’t meet again tomorrow morning, then, well, best of luck in the frontier.”

“You too, Captain Tombs.”

I picked up my helmet and went down the moving train, past the restaurant wagon into one of the sleeping cars.

Most seemed occupied, or half full, but I managed to find one that was empty.

It was a cozy little room with black curtains and a single light by the window, there were two bunk beds on either side of the room, each with two neatly tucked cots just waiting to give the first best pony the best damn sleep the Equestrian railroad could offer.

I undressed and placed all my gear under one of the lower cots, hidden from the unsuspecting eye.

I was about to creep in under the covers when I remembered the note I was supposed to post on the door.

I quickly went down to the restaurant and scribbled my name on a paper napkin, fortunately the restaurant had some tape by the cash register behind the counter, I returned plastered it to the door, went inside, tucked myself in, turned off the light and took a deep breath of relief in comfort of my cot.

The last good nights sleep I would have in months to come, possibly the rest of my life, I was sure.

ZzzzZZzzz

When I woke up the train was no longer in motion and it was bright outside.

Somepony knocked on the door to my room, I went up to open it and was met by a train conductor holding a scarf against his muzzle.

“Sir, the train has arrived at it’s destination, Vanhoover Central.” the stallion said in a muffled voice.

“Why are you holding a scarf to your face?” I asked.

“You... have... pony aids?” he responded, in a tone that implied me asking about something really obvious.

Perplexed I looked at the train conductor for a moment and ripped the scarf from his face.

“The hell I have. What gave you this fucking idea?”

The conductor quickly covered his nose with his right hoof and pointed to the sign on my door.

I peeked around the door.

The note with my name was gone, in it’s place was another paper napkin, which said “PONY AIDS, DO NOT ENTER”.

Whaaaaat the actual fuck?

...

Cake Frosting.

It must have been her.

Real mature Cake.

At least it was just a harmless prank, it could have been worse.

I ripped the note off and waved the conductor off.

When I turned back to the room I noticed a small transparent bag containing red pills of some kind laying next to the lamp by the window.

I grabbed the bag and looked at it closely.

The pills were marked by various symbols and phrases, all of which were different.

A butterfly, a swan, the letter and number ‘A1’, a question mark, two interjecting C’s, a pair of lips with the word ‘KISS’ in between, three small balloons, a baby alligator with no teeth, a rock crossed over with an X, the phrase ‘FoR yOu’ and... What... What the fuck was that? Was that... it was, wasn’t it?

One of the pills had a small icon of the tip of a penis.

What the hell was this? Did Cake leave these here?

There was a small bit of paper plastered on the back of the bag.

It was written in tiny letters but was very clearly written by mouth, the sheer thought that Cake had managed to write this tiny message using her mouth was odd to say the least, it was hard enough to write a regularly sized message the way we earth ponies had to hold the pen, but to write a message this small...

I found myself getting so hung up over the size of the message that I forgot to actually read it.

The message said:

Close your eyes,

count to three,

You'll be tripping hard,

on ecstasy.

-With love, Cake

She gave me, ecstasy?

She must have left the note on the door so that nopony would come in and find the bag.

That tricky mare was clearly not as innocent and just as she had let on.

I laughed.

“Cake Frosting, you terrible terrible mother.” I said to myself.

There had still been a couple of hours before I had to report in to the Allocation & Transferring complex down at the docks after I had gotten off the train.

I had used this time to wander about Vanhoover and asking for directions, I had never been to Vanhoover before, but the city seemed to be just as dull and gray as Manehatten.

It was smaller in scale, but despite this most of the city looked like a mirror copy of any regular part of Manehatten: gray, boring and filled with a variety of unhappy or blissfully gleeful ponies.

This morning had been sunny and clear, warm golden rays of sunlight bathed the gray city in warmth, the sky was of a perfect blue and there wasn’t a cloud in sight, the western coast lay calm as far as the eye could see, it would likely be even warmer as the day progressed.

Ponies were enjoying the sunny day, walking around chatting, laughing and smiling, wearing large sun hats and summer dresses, or dripping melancholy under parasols, bridges and under the shade.

Seeing everything like this gave me a strong feeling of near nauseous optimism that everything was going to work out somehow, but optimism didn’t bite well with my realistic self, and the feeling soon died away as I approached the dark gray Colonist Allocation & Transferring complex main building in the distance.

It was located at the foot of a long pier surrounded by two massive docked cruise ships on either side which cast large dark shadows over the complex, one of the ships was painted of a rust red, but the ship had clearly begun to rust and large swaths of paint had peeled off revealing rust underneath.

The ship’s name, ‘S.S Sea Killer’, was painted in large black letters on the ship’s stern.

The other ship was of a more modern design, being painted in a pristine white and fresh sea blue, this ship was not marked with a name however and carried the serial code ‘V952’, also in black, on the ship’s bow.

There was a squad of regular CP officers carrying submachine guns sitting in a circle of flipped over boxes by the entrance, they looked over at me as I approached but saw my uniform and rank and ignored me, letting me pass unhindered.

Inside was a reception hall of some sort, it was gray and dull, having nothing but a metal desk and eight chairs in the room. There was a plastic plant in one of the corners that had somehow died, despite being made of plastic (you’d have to be there to understand, it just sounds silly otherwise).

Nopony else was in the room aside from me and an elderly looking light gray stallion wearing glasses sitting behind the desk.

I walked up to him.

He didn’t look up.

He seemed busy going through some papers marked with the CP insignia, reports I reckoned, probably pertaining to the transfer of arrested ponies to the transferring complex.

I waited patiently for a couple of minutes but it didn’t seem like he was going to stop anytime soon.

“*Sir.*” I said, getting his attention.

He squinted his eyes at me, looking at my shoulder and gave me a warm smile.

“I should be the one calling you ‘sir’, Captain.” he shuffled the papers aside.

“What can I do for you?”

I pulled out my orders and handed them to him.

“*I was called here by command to be briefed on a group of ponies I am to escort.*”

He looked closely at the paper and read through it slowly.

“Yes. Yes. You must be Captain Tombs.”

“Lieutenant Bob is waiting for you in observation room 2.”

“It’s eh... the... third door to the left down the hallway, it should be labeled, can’t miss it.”

“*Thank you.*”

I proceeded past the door behind the old pony and down the hallway, before opening the door to observation room 2 I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath.

It was here that I would meet the unlucky ponies I were to share the same fate with.

I opened the door and stepped inside the dark room beyond.

Lieutenant Bob was a mare, wearing the yellow and black uniform of border patrol.

She rose up from her chair in the observation room and shook a hoof to greet me.

“*Captain Tombs, welcome.*”

“*I am Lieutenant Bob, your briefing officer. I’ll be telling you a bit about the ponies you will be escorting on your mission.*” she pointed a hoof at the window showing the attached holding cell.

The room was big and white, it looked very sterile and empty aside from the benches fixed on the walls surrounding the whole room.

The six ponies of my assignment were all there, three stallions and two mares, one young colt.

Five earth ponies and one unicorn.

They were a strange bunch.

Two of the ponies looked like nervous wrecks, and the other four looked calm and reserved, aside from their generally angry or distant looking expressions, they were quite clearly not happy to be here.

Bob assured me that they had all been informed of their mission and destination, which pretty much meant that they all knew that they were going to die.

I made a mental note to keep an eye on the two nervous wrecks, to make sure they didn’t attempt anything stupid, like fleeing into the wilderness at first sight of danger.

She began with the first stallion, Brook Cotton, one of the calm and reserved earth ponies, sitting relatively close to the calm earth pony mare.

He had a cutiemark of a cotton flower, his coat was of a dull dark gray, his short mane and tail were white, his eyes are of an ordinary looking orange, possibly amber, color.

He had been working a cotton picking farm when he was seized into custody for bucking a filly in the face with his rear hooves, permanently damaging the filly’s brain and blinding the right eye, rendering the filly crippled for life.

No one knows why he did it, there were no witnesses and he refused to mention anything about it.

The second stallions name was Rainbow Sea, another calm and reserved earth pony who had been working on an oil rig just off the western coasts of Equestria, a couple of miles from Vanhoover.

His cutiemark was an oil rig, spraying some kind of rainbow substance instead of oil however.

His coat was of a sickly green color and his mane and tail were of a bright and acid green and cut to a length similar to that of Brook Cotton’s, his eyes had a watery looking aqua like color.

He was one of the younger stallions in his group and had been arrested for sabotaging the oil rig he had been working on, he had denied the act, claiming that it had been an accident, but no one believed him and there was no proof supporting neither claims.

The third stallion (or buck really, he had just barely come of age) was Blizzard Candy, a nervous wreck of an young earth pony, he was shaking uncontrollably, almost certainly related to what he had heard about the mission.

His cutiemark was a snowball with some kind of syrup enveloped by a paper cone, his coat was of an icy light blue and his straight medium-length mane and tail were cobalt blue, his eyes were of a bright azure.

Blizzard Candy had been working at an ice cream factory at the time of his custody and had been arrested as a murder suspect related to the death of one of his co-workers who had fallen into an ice cream mixing vat and, well, had mixed a batch of vanilla ice cream into a lovely irony tasting paste of red, Blizzard Candy who was in charge of the vat at the time but had no idea what flavor was being mixed had thought that everything had been in order and hadn’t suspected anything.

When the factory inspectors arrived that very same day to make flavor tests for a marketing survey they had been given the vanilla blood ice cream to taste and had noted the strange irony taste, it was first when one of the inspectors had found a mashed eyeball in his ice cream cone that things began to fall in place.

The factory had been shut down completely and a massive investigation was launched, five ponies were arrested as suspects for the murder/disappearance of their co-worker, the earth pony mare Vanilla Ice.

It was eventually just written off as a workplace accident, but the arrests had already been made and the five arrested ponies were still held responsible by the factory inspectors.

His case was morbid, yet it seemed like he had been framed and arrested for a mere accident, which arguably was on his hooves, but was still an accident nonetheless.

From what Bob told me, Blizzard Candy didn’t murder anypony, and had committed no crimes deserving deportation from Equestria.

The fourth pony’s name was Strawberry Feather (aptly named so for his cutiemark of a red feather, but it wasn’t made clear if he got his name before or after his cutiemark), also an earth pony, he was still a mere colt, around 6 years old.

He appeared to be very calm, it was possible that he didn't understand what was going on or what the frontier even was.

Bob explained to me that Strawberry Feather had been given a job as a strawberry farmer on his uncle's farm on account of the uncle having a bad back, a job which he ended up excelling at, despite his age.

This poor colt had been arrested for accidentally running over a strawberry thief with one of the new strawberry combine machines (essentially a combine harvester that through magic can run over fields of strawberry bushes and still leave the strawberry bushed undamaged, unfortunately this magic doesn’t extend to ponies).

Despite trespassing on private property the accident had still counted as a murder and Strawberry Feather had been unjustly arrested for it, his purple coat, pink mane and fluffy tail coupled with his very small frame (for a pony of his age), very fragile and vulnerable looking appearance and large honest green eyes gave him the air of being completely innocent and incapable of harming as much as a fly.

He was quite obviously not a murderer.

The fifth pony, the unicorn mare was Nurse Swirly Star, she looked visibly shaken and completely out of place, her lively brown eyes twitching back and forth over the room looking confused and frightened, she clearly didn’t belong here.

She had a cutiemark of a red medical cross, her coat was white, a characteristic trait for ponies with a speciality for patient treatment that has still not been fully understood and her curly mane and tail were caramel brown.

She had been a nurse at Ponyville, she was incredibly altruist and loved helping other ponies, her crime was short and simple.

She accidentally swapped blood packs for two ponies, causing them to reject their own blood and dying to acute lack of oxygen, it was an accident that could have happened to anypony, the victims relatives didn’t care however and did everything in their power to have her arrested and deported.

She had been a complete wreck ever since.

I was beginning to see the truth in Cake Frosting’s words in real example.

Brook Cotton and probably Rainbow Sea belonged in here for sure, if it really was true that their charges were assault and sabotage.

But Blizzard Candy, Strawberry Feather and Nurse Swirly had all ended up here on account of workplace accidents, accidents aren’t criminal, they aren’t planned murders, they just happen.

They shouldn't have been there.

Before Bob could continue on to the mysterious black earth pony mare someone in the room began to talk, we stopped briefly to listen, I mainly did to hear what they sounded like and to get a general idea of what they were like.

It was the nervous unicorn mare sitting next to the mysterious black mare with her forelegs crossed who had begun talking.

“H-how could t-this happen? I-i shouldn’t e-even be here!” she sobbed.

The mare sitting next to her seemed unfazed by the unicorn’s plea.

“CP thinks otherwise.” the black earth pony mare muttered, with a raspy voice.

“That's fucking CP for ya,” Rainbow Sea had called out, “Bunch of rotten fuckers deporting us to our deaths for what? Unfortunate accidents?”

Oil rig sabotage. Unfortunate accident indeed.

“I mean shit, really? How could Strawberry Feather be guilty of running over that thief? How could he have known that someone was hiding in the fields?”

Strawberry Feather remained silent, just staring at the ground.

Out of the six ponies inside the young colt appeared to be the most calm and passive about his situation.

The group had apparently already gotten acquainted, or at least enough to have an idea of why they were brought in.

“And Blizzard Candy? Fucking seriously? HE is responsible for the foolish accident of some idiot who slipped up and killed herself in a damn ice cream factory? Could you only IMAGINE how many ‘volunteers’ these assholes must get from the butcheries?”

I subconsciously pictured the scenario, a pony slipping on a puddle of blood and falling into one of the gruesome grinding machines, ending up mixed in with the rest of the meat and served as a hamburger to hundreds of hungry ponies in fast food chains all over Equestria.

I felt sick.

I damned myself for even thinking about it, I tried to think about puppies and kittens, but that only made it worse as the two thoughts intertwined in some form of twisted nightmare.

That last bit had been really uncalled for and had completely killed the kind of motivation he had attempted to draw, I hadn’t been the only pony who had wildly drawn up a scenario like that.

The two mares and the two stallions almost instantly turned into a discolored shade of green, the black earth pony mare had closed her eyes and was making a strange twisted expression, the word ‘cute’ fleetingly came to mind as I observed her but passed on when I started thinking about what Rainbow Sea had said.

Strangely, Strawberry Sea hadn't reacted to it.

By miracle they all had managed not to hurl their lunch.

Rainbow Sea realized his mistake and stayed quiet, backing off to sit on one of the benches in silence.

Shortly after the group recovered from the mental image, the unicorn mare asked another question.

“A-are... are we really going to d-die there?” she stuttered, almost in tears.

“Very likely” the black earth pony mare answered, causing the unicorn to quietly begin crying for herself.

“Really Manie? Was that really necessary?” Blizzard Candy looked at her with a stern expression.

“What?” she seemed genuinely surprised.

“Things are bad enough as it is, she doesn’t deserve you bullying her into feeling worse.”

Manie looked slightly ashamed, but didn’t respond or apologize to Swirly Star.

Strawberry Feather went up to the crying unicorn mare and sat down beside her, wrapping his short forelegs around her to hug her.

“It’s okay Swirly Star, everything is going to be okay.” the colt consoled her, she calmed down slightly and returned the hug.

Manie, I assumed, was the colder pony of the group.

“That...” Bob resumed, was a mysterious mare known as ‘Manie Manie’, there was something clearly odd about her, not just in her distant behavior but in her appearance too.

Her coat, mane and tail were all completely pitch black, as in blacker than the blackest black, shadows couldn’t be cast on her coat by how black it was, her eyes were of the strangest deepest red purple you had ever seen and surrounding her entirely was a very strange white “border” or “edge” that outlined her entire body and features, it wasn’t natural.

She was wearing a cowboy hat sporting the same strange properties as her.

Her cutiemark was an orange laser designation icon of the kind used by the military to mark mechanical targets for laser guided weapon precision strikes, I recognized from some old military documentary about laser guidance I had watched and almost forgotten all about ages ago.

But there was something about her.

The more I observed her the more... drawn to her I became.

Her pitch black coat and strange white outlines of hers really... outlined her body, following her very sleek and feminine figure.

I couldn’t help but eyeing her body, taking in her every feature slowly, very slowly, there was something very mesmerizing about her... I began to feel slightly hot in my uniform.

She appeared to blush, somehow knowing that someone was looking her up, her passive and ashamed expression turned into a very angry frown, her stare becoming as hard and burning as concentrated acid, but she couldn’t control her blushing.

The combination made her seem incredibly cute and angry at the same time, I contained a muffled snicker, and she turned her head slowly and looked directly into my eyes through the exact point of the glass that I was looking through.

That scare made me take a full step back from the glass.

The other ponies in the room noticed her furious blushing expression and asked her what was going on looking confusingly into the mirrored glass trying to call out for us.

“*Celestia fucking damned, how the hell did she do that?!*”

“*She does that a lot.*” Bob reassured me.“*She has a kind of 6th sense.*”

“*6th sense?*”

“*She sometimes knows when others are watching her, even through walls, between floors, and extreme distances. That is how she got away all these years, how she escaped us.*”

“*Escaped? Escaped from what?*”

“*She used to be a Major in the army, commandeering her own tank.*”

“*That’s impossible, I’ve heard that Armor only allows unicorns to attain higher ranks.*” I pointed out, remembering what Cake had told me about the army.

“*Manie is a special case.*”

“*She had one of the finest tank gunners to ever serve in her little crew of three, which believe it or not, was a pegasus.*”

“*An earth pony commandeering an Armor tank with a pegasus gunner?*”

“*That sounds like a crock of shit to me.*”

Bob stared at me for the longest time.

“*You better believe it. They were pretty big within the army, before everything about them was hushed after Manie Manie’s betrayal.*”

“*What betrayal?*”

“*If you stop interrupting me every five seconds you might just find out.*”

I let it slide.

After a moment Bob continued.

“*She helped develop the technology used for laser guided precision weapons, she was one of the lead technicians responsible for the project. They designed a system capable of marking a target, any target, be it a jet plane, a tank, a building or even a rat far in the distance, they wanted it to keep the lock on the marked target so that it was unavoidable, regardless of what countermeasures were being used against it.*”

“*I am guessing that the project was a success.*”

“*It was.*” Bob sighed, “*Manie proved it far too well.*”

“*What happened?*”

“*During a training exercise involving an Armor tank platoon working in conjunction with an Air Force helicopter wing to test combined operations against laser guided targets on the field, she had used the tank laser guidance station to deliberately mark Air Force’s choppers. The tank commanders and gunners didn’t know what they were supposed to expect seeing as the exercise was a surprise improv involving flying drone targets and dummy attacks at random.*”

“*So they opened fire on the helicopter platoon, utterly decimating the entire force one by one.*”

“*The attacks had been swift, just as expected of Armor, and before anypony realized the grave mistake all but one chopper had been destroyed by the barrage.*”

“*They had been too effective for their own good.*”

“*What happened next?*”

“*They zapped her tank with an EMP blast and stormed the knocked out tank on foot, her crew was found to have been knocked unconscious, Manie was found crying in her seat. The crews dragged her out of the tank and asked her why she had done it, they hadn’t been out for blood, they just wanted to know what was going on.*”

“*But her only response was a repeated garbled ‘I had to do it, it was the only way to be sure’.

She never explained what it meant or what had happened, no matter how pressed she was or who spoke to her.*”

“*She lost all respect from everpony, she wasn’t put under arrest or executed for the sole reason that the details around the incident weren’t very clear and because she was involved in the creation of the laser guidance systems. A huge investigation was launched by Armor and Air Force officials to figure out what had happened.*”

“*But ponies started giving her cold looks, they began talking behind her back, they began to hate her for what she had done. They abused her, beat her up. This kept going for a few months until the investigation started coming up with clear evidence, somehow Manie found out and deserted the army. That desertion made her vulnerable to us, and she has been on the Civil Protection watchlist since.*”

“*We have been hunting her for two long years. And thanks to you, that hunt has ended.*”

I was puzzled.

Thanks to... me? What had I done?

“*Thanks to me?*”

"*Don't you recognize her? You arrested her two days ago. You even stayed with her and made sure she got the care she needed to pull through.*"

The junkie with the red eyes.

“*But maybe it's not so surprising after all, she was battered and discolored at the time, bleeding heavily from her nose, constricted pupils... she looked like any ordinary junkie about to overdose. She looked nothing like she does now.*”

“*What kind of drug was she OD’ing on?*”

“*Hmm? Psycho stimulants.*”

“*The military combat drug? The drug that increases aggression level and numbs pain?*”

Bob looked at me.

“*Yes.*”

“*You seem to know a lot about Psycho. What gives?”* she asked suspiciously.

“*They teach us that in CP basic.*” I said dismissively.

“*I am just surprised that she would overdose on that drug, what was he looking to do? Die angry?*”

“*Tombs*” Bob said in a concerned tone.

“*Are you using Psycho?*”

I looked at her.

I did.

But what would she know about it?

I am pretty sure that I hadn’t said anything to give away my occasional use.

I stared at Bob for a few minutes.

“*No, Lieutenant Bob. Drugs are illegal within Civil Protection.*”

“*They don’t make you captain if you break CP law.*”

“*I guess not.*" she looked away, "*Sorry for suspecting you then.*”

“*Bob.*”

“*Yes captain?*”

“*Why me?*"

"*Why was I chosen for this mission?*”

“*That is not important, command gave strict orders to keep you on a need to know basis.*”

“*It is important. And you are going to tell me.*”

“*No, no I am not.*”

I lost my patience.

This was the wrong time for Bob to play coy with me.

I went up and tripped Bob, she was caught by surprise.

I leaned over and twisted her right foreleg, she yelped in pain and tried to get out off my grip, but I was stronger than her.

“*WHO choose me for this mission, and WHY?*”

“*TOMBS, WHAT THE FUCK!! YOU ARE HURTING ME!!*”

“*WHO IS OUT TO KILL ME!?*”

“*NOPONY IS” I twisted her leg some more, “*I SWEAAAAAAAGHH!!*”

“*I AM THE WRONG OFFICER TO BE SCREWING AROUND WITH BOB.*”

Bob began to cry, I could hear her muffled sobbing under her mask.

“*I-I SWEAR I DON’T KNOW TOMBS! PLEASE, LET ME GO!*”

I twisted her leg a bit more to the point of almost snapping the bone, sending a wave of excruciating pain through her body. Bob let out a loud scream of pain that nopony could hear in the soundproof room we were in.

“*S-STOP, I DON’T KNOW! I DON’T KNOW!!*”

“Somepony is being tortured in there.” I heard Manie Manie say in the cell.

I turned my head to look inside the cell and she was pointing directly at me and the briefing officer in my grip, the group looked querying at her.

I froze.

“What do ya mean?” Brook Cotton asked her, standing up.

“Right there,” she stood up and walked up to the glass, pointing at us, “The creep of a CP officer that was checking me out before, locking the foreleg of another CP officer.”

“Ya can SEE through the glass?!”, Brook Cotton seemed impressed.

“No.”

“Then how the hell do you know?”

“I... I just know.”

“What do ya mean ya can’t explain?”

“She is just fucking with you, Brook.” Rainbow Sea called out.

Brook stared at Manie for a few moments, she remained silent, unable to come up with a more convincing response to explain her ability.

Brook gave her a blank stare, then slowly muttered.

“Yeah... Yeah, I guess she is.”, Brook then went back to his seat.

Manie still stood by the glass, a mere meter from us, her eyes looked really big and intense this up close. She seemed neutral and passive now, having calmed down a bit from before.

I realized that I was still holding Bob in a near crippling lock and immediately released my grip on her leg.

I was sure that she didn’t know anything, she was probably kept on the same need to know basis as me.

“*I... am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.*”

“*The hell you weren't!*"

"*I am fucking reporting you for this!*” Bob yelled at me, she sounded very upset and hurt.

“*Yes, please do. That way I won’t have to make the long trip past the frontier border. With any luck I might be able to live the rest of my short life out in the relative safety of the secured frontier, farming rocks or cutting trees.*” I challenged.

I knew I was right about it, being arrested and sent overseas as a slave worker would probably be the best thing that could happen to me right now.

She didn’t say anything in response, all she did was glare at me for a few moments.

“*Come with me.*”

“*What for?*”

“*There is a special piece of equipment waiting for you, for your mission.*”

I didn’t move or say anything.

“*You are already going to the worst place on earth, I can’t fucking believe your luck, but getting you arrested is only going to improve your situation. I hope you die a painful death at the hands of those savages.*”

I smirked under my mask, of course she would.

I followed her out.

Bob led me through some long white sterile looking cement corridors to the complex armory, it shared the same sterile cement design of the rest of the building and had lockers and benches lining the room, a skylight let dull gray sunlight in.

It was full of CP officers dressing and undressing from and to their uniforms and civilian clothes.

They didn’t talk to each other and seemed in a hurry to get away from here.

Bob opened a secure locker and grabbed a black briefcase marked with the yellow letters “CP” and the word “EXPERIMENTAL”, she then lead me into an unused side interrogation room featuring a chair and a steel table in the center highlighted by a strong white light.

She put the briefcase on the table and opened it, pulling out some kind of gray looking bodysuit made of some sort of silky looking smooth material.

I said nothing and simply watched her pull the suit over herself and her armor, enveloping herself in the silky gray suit.

Not a very impressive piece of gear I thought at first, but then I saw the gray sheet “activate” in a shimmering blue light beginning to generate a confusing mix of different earth pony features, both male and female, the head alone having six different generated features at a time, none of them ever matching.

Bob became a sort of blurred mess of ponies, it was hard to focus on a specific feature.

“This,” Bob began to explain, his helmet static and original voice now completely masked by the suits voice scrambling feature “is a scramble suit.”

“*Scramble suit*” I repeated like an idiot.

She ignored me and continued.

“This suit is the latest within CP developed tech, having been designed to completely mask the wearer's identity and features. The suit uses a variety of shapes, colors and forms of over a million and a half stallions, mares, colts and fillies found in CP's database. It is intended to be used in interrogations and as a way to allow safe involvement of ponies subject under outside threats in certain investigations and cases where a witness must participate in a court trial. Such as in gang feuds in which the enemy gang usually scares the victim or witness into submission by threatening a relative or friend.”

“The scramble suit,” she continued, “will work as a ‘second skin’ when pulled over a bare body, allowing you to eat, drink, sleep and go about your business (yes, it will shape that way depending on the gender of the suits wearer) without you having to take off the suit. You can effectively wear it at all times, also since it is by unicorn design the suit is also immune to the damage of water, wear and malfunctioning.”

“There is only one thing to worry about, and that is losing the suit. Remember that this suit is incredibly expensive to create and will likely be THE only suit you will ever see or have access to ever again.”

Charming.

“*And why exactly do I need this where I am going?*”

“Your mission isn’t only ‘get to beyond the frontier and found an outpost’,”

‘Found an outpost’ that alone was more than I knew about my mission, she knew something after all, the bitch.

“...you are responsible for the supervision and safekeeping of these six ponies. They won’t know for sure that you are a CP officer, but they will know (obviously due to the scramble suit) that we have had some form of contact between each other. How you handle interaction from there is up to you, I will tell you that it will likely help if you get them to trust you and that you absolutely do not under any circumstances reveal yourself as a full fledged CP officer or they would probably murder you at first opportunity.”

It made sense.

I hadn’t thought of how I’d supervise all six of them 24/7 alone.

With nopony to change shifts with prisoner supervision would become problematic...

“Also, this will prevent them from becoming attached to you, should you for whatever reason try to become good friends with them. Command doesn’t want you getting friends and lovers for this mission, keep it on a professional level. You are not there to have fun.”

The briefing officer removed the scramble suit folding it gently and putting it on the table.

I was about to grab it to put it on right away when she said,

“*By the way, you have to hand in your uniform and CP issued weapons and gear.*”

I froze completely, concerned that she would find the drugs in my pack.

“*Why?*”

“*Well OBVIOUSLY we can’t let you keep your armor, weapons and badge, that would be a fucking obvious giveaway to your identity.*”

“*We will allow you to do so yourself, we trust that our agents know what is best for their task.

What they then decide to bring in their pack, be it legal or illegal, *” she paused momentarily on that word,“*is entirely up to them...*”

“*But again, I warn you that anything that would somehow tie your person as a CP officer will jeopardize the mission and... your personal safety.*” she spat on the last words.

“*That is all. Dress up and leave your CP gear on the table, a squad is waiting by the cell we were just at to escort you and group onboard the ship.*”

“*Hold on a moment. Why are you giving me a scramble suit?*”

She interrupted me.

“*I told you, beca-*”

“*Not that. No one has seen what I look like under my armor aside from a few CP officers. Wouldn’t I less suspicious if I was sent along without the scrambler suit?*”

“*No.*” she sternly said.

“*No? Why not?*”

“*You are required to wear the suit at all times.*”

“*So I can’t EVER take the suit off?*”

“*Never. I told you that you are not supposed to get a personal connection with them, you have to wear the suit and that is final.*”

I let out a deep sigh.

“*That is going to complicate things with them, they will know that something is off about me if I just wander in there like some casual parkstroller.*”

“*That is your problem.*”

Fuck you Bob.

But I can’t just go in there with the suit, it just wouldn’t work.

I had to be one of them to earn their trust.

“*I have an idea.*” I said.

“*Lets hear it.*”

“*Could you escort me as a prisoner to the group?*”

“*What do you mean ‘as a prisoner’?*”

“*I’ll wear the scramble suit. But I have to be introduced to them as a fellow prisoner, you need to throw me into the cell with them.*”

“*Hmm...*” Bob was having her doubts.

“*It won't work otherwise, I would be way too suspicious and they’d turn on me anyway.*”

Bob nodded slowly, seeing what I meant, she didn’t seem very convinced though.

“*I guess... but what will you do when you are contacted by mission command or come into contact with other officers?*”

I hadn’t thought of that. Shit.

But wait...

“*That would be a problem regardless. But I know how to deal with it.*”

“*What are you going to do?*”

“*Why do you care? You just want me to die.*”

“*Curiosity.*”

Might as well tell humor her.

“*I will pretend to be a CP officer.*”

I let that sink in for her.

“*But you- ...what?*”

“*I could pretend to be a CP officer, no one can tell who is under the scramble suit, and the group doesn’t know that I am actually a CP officer, they would think that I was tricking our own when it really is us tricking them, you follow?*” I elaborated.

“*Yeah...*”

“*And, with the scramble suit, I am easy to recognize by our own.*”

Bob nodded in approval.

“*Creative disguise, you are a crafty pony. I may have actually liked you, if you didn’t try to break my fucking leg before.*”

“*Tough break, get over it.*”

She grunted.

“*I’ll update command on your little scheme and be back to get you in fifteen. Suit up and leave your gear on the table.*”

Then she left the room, allowing me to prepare.

I leaned on the steel table for a while, taking deep breaths.

I was nervous as fuck. I could really go for a psycho fix right now, but I couldn’t risk it in a CP interrogation room, drinking would probably be safe, but I needed to be clear and lucid for later.

I took off my CP uniform, I could see my dull gray coated body reflect in the mirrored window.

I glanced at it for a few moments, there I was, a pretty generic normal looking earth pony stallion.

Dull gray coat, charcoal mane. Yellow eyes. Such a boring color scheme, but hey, at least I wasn’t flamingo pink.

I really look like a damned nopony, there is nothing about me that distinguishes me from the rest.

But this wasn’t the time for self pity, I had about ten minutes left to prepare.

I grabbed the scramble suit, it seemed so small, yet I had seen Bob stretch it over her armor before as if it were an incredible elastic of some sort.

I pulled it over my right foreleg, it was of a smooth comfortable silky material, it almost had the same dull gray color scheme as my coat I thought as I pulled it over me.

At first I couldn’t see anything, it was and felt more like a blanket than a suit, but then I could feel the suit activate, a surge of magical power went through my body, was the suit scanning me?

The same blue shimmering light I had seen before flickered the suits function to life, I felt it fit tighter, then I didn’t feel it at all. It was a rather uncomfortable sensation, feeling the suit ‘merge’ with me like that.

Then I could see through the mask, I saw a small white word over a small blue strip flash in the top right corner of my view a few times before fading away, it had said “LIVE”.

Everything seemed to have a very faint blue-gray tint to it but not so much that I couldn’t distinguish the flickering mess of colors that I now saw reflected in the mirrored window of the room.

Goddess, was that really me?

I looked unidentifiable in the scramble suit yet I couldn’t feel it at all.

Wait, maybe it had really merged with me!

I panicked and quickly grabbed my neck with my right front hoof and pulled.

The mask slid off effortlessly, revealing my very bland dull gray face and dilated yellow eyes.

No, it was just a suit after all. A magical suit.

At least now I knew that I could take it off.

I stood there dumbstruck observing the blurry mess of ponies reflecting on the window until I heard knocking on the door.

Right... the mission...

This was it I thought, the definite ‘it’, there was no going back now.

I opened the door and was greeted by Bob.

We silently walked down the sterile gray corridors until we were just outside the cell holding the six ponies assigned to me.

I reached for the door handle when suddenly and without warning Bob bucked me right in the stomach, with no protection barding me anymore I took the full force of the kick and fell over.

I retched and felt on the verge of vomiting.

I cringed and look up pathetically at him from the floor, a squad of officers were now surrounding us, these were the officers who were to escort us aboard the cruiser ship. They watched me silently.

“W-what the f-fuck-” I tried to say. She bucked me again, making me squirm in excruciating pain.

“*That was for what you did before, asshole.*” Bob said, looking down at me.

“Go to he-”, HMNGG OHFUCKTHATHURTS.

I tasted an acid bile in my mouth.

“*Shut the fuck up, maggot.*” Bob said, scornfully.

One of the officers slid open the cell door, I could feel the surprised stares of the six ponies I was responsible of all turn to the pathetic looking blurry mess of a pony just outside the cell.

Bob peeked into the cell from where she stood, intently observing the six ponies for several long silent seconds.

“*This,*” she said, talking to the six, “*Is your newest addition to the group.*”

Two officers dragged my winded self into the center of the cell, Bob walked up to me and bucked me one more time, this time hitting my left shoulder, it felt like it cracked under the kick from her steel tipped boot.

She was taking the part about bringing me in as ‘one of them’ way too literally, I should have seen this coming. I wanted to kill her, to tear her eyes out, break her every bone. But I was too weak to move.

“*Fucking lowlife scum.*” she said as she slowly walked towards the door.

I gathered strength and called out a weak “Fuck you” after her.

She froze and stood completely still by the open cell door.

Then she turned her head back towards me and pulled out her electric baton, it flickered to life in a quick BZZZT!, I could see Rainbow Sea cringe in the corner of my view.

She turned around at me, I could feel deep hatred burn through her mask.

She slowly walked up to me and swung the baton as hard as she possibly could right at my forehead.

I saw a bright flash of light and the world went black, I fell unconscious.

This had just been made personal. Bob was a DEAD fucking pony.

Ship at Sea

I woke up feeling the floor rocking and swaying...

Where was I? What happened?

Ouch. My head was hurting pretty bad, I reached out my right hoof and touched the sore area on my forehead, the small bulge I had before felt like it had busted open, but... a bandage had been wrapped around it.

Things were becoming clearer, I was lying on my back in a sort of steel holding cell, the floor felt coarse and the ceiling looked very rusted, everything was swaying left and right. The ship ‘Sea Killer’ came to mind.

The ship. The ship!

I had been brought onboard the cruiser ship ‘Sea Killer’ while I was unconscious and we were now at sea, on the way to the new continent as slaves to Celestia.

“Your shifting protege is waking up.” I heard somepony say.

I recognized that voice. It was Manie Manie.

“Oh my.”, I heard Nurse Swirly Star say while moving up and kneeling beside me.

“You certainly took a beating. You’ve been knocked out cold for a couple of days now.”

A couple of DAYS?

“What gives? We weren’t abused nearly as badly.” Brook Cotton could be heard asking.

“You really must have pissed off that officer,” Rainbow Sea said, “You were bleeding all over the floor of the holding cell and was still bleeding when they dragged us in here hours after that.”

“You are lucky that one of the officers took pity and left us with some bandages.”

“What pity?” Manie said, “Of course that officer gave us bandages, a dead pony makes for a really poor slave worker don’t you think?”

Had it been that bad? Had I really been bleeding out?

This group had saved my life.

“Yes yes, lets not worry him with that right now. It hurts the patient's rate of recovery. You just needs to rest for now.” Nurse Swirly reassured me.

“Really” Manie could be heard saying, slightly baffled.

“Nopony is going to ask about the shape shifting suit? Where he got it from? Or even who he is?”

I tilted my head towards her voice, she was sitting on a bench turned directly at me, forelegs crossed and cowboy hat tilted back, revealing more her pitch black and outlined hair.

Godess she had some gorgeous curves.

I was looking at her from a very awkward angle, she hadn’t expected me to tilt my head in that specific angle from where I was laid out in the center of room.

She blushed deeply red and looked noticeably angry and embarrassed.

“CREEP!” she scorned me, I looked away from her.

Introductions of with a good start! I thought.

Tombs the Pervert! Undercover CP officer posing as a slave worker and a criminal.

What kind of criminal would I be? A rapist, I imagined them guessing...

I hoped we weren’t going to make me being caught staring at her features a habit in the future, it had already happened two out of two times.

Fuck her 6th sense.

I shook my head slightly.

“I’m sorry...!” I said weakly.

I looked at Nurse Swirly, who was still kneeling beside me.

“How... uh... how are you feeling?” she asked me.

“I am fine, thank you for saving my life miss...”

Swirly lit up with the brightest smile ever.

“Swirly Star,” she introduced herself, “Nurse Swirly Star”

“Well, thank you Swirlystar Nurseswirlystar...” I jokingly said as I got up on my legs with her help.

“Her name is not ‘Swirlystar Nurseswirlystar’, it’s-” Strawberry Feather timidly spoke up.

“Thank you little one, I was merely joking.” I calmed him, giving him a gentle smile, the suit must have twisted my expression because the little colt looked spooked when I smiled at him.

“I am...” I began, but then I realized that I hadn’t prepared a name with which to introduce myself as.

‘Captain Tombs of Civil Protection’ was way out of the question and I wasn’t going to just casually use my real name either. I lingered for as long as I could before giving out my new name.

“Promise not to laugh, but my name is Sweet Heaven...”, the only two names I had managed to think up in the few seconds I could safely spare were Kitten Surf and Sweet Heaven (for some reason unbeknownst to me).

“Your name is Sweet Heaven?” Rainbow Sea could barely contain his scoffing.

“Yes.” I sighed, “It’s my ma that decided on it. My sis was named ‘Little Angel’ and I became Sweet Heaven...” I lied. My real name remaining a secret known only to me and the higher ups of CP.

“That’s pretty funny.” Blizzard Candy said.

“More like fucking hilarious” Rainbow Sea responded, unable to restrain himself.

“Well, Sweet Heaven, we tried to make out what you looked like but there is something wrong with your skin. Not ‘Manie Manie wrong’ but-” Brook Cotton tried to say, but was interrupted.

“Hey there is nothing wrong with my skin!” Manie snapped at him, having calmed down, I looked back at her, she had turned her legs away from me. She gave me a glare when she caught me looking towards her again.

“Oh hun,” Brook began, “In case ya haven’t noticed your entire body and every feature is highlighted by white outlines. I ain’t ever seen nopony with outlines like that before. Well, not until mister shapeshifter here was nearly beaten to death and put under our care.” he looked sort of triumphant at her, feeling that he had made his point.

“Now, as I was saying. Your skin appears to be... shifting under our eyes. Why is that?”

“Are you magical?” Blizzard Candy asked.

“Are you sick?” Strawberry Feather questioned.

“Is it contagious?” Everypony looked at Rainbow Sea. “What? I am just asking if we will all look like shapeshifting weirdos like him or not.” Everypony ignored him.

Wow, these ponies had no idea about the scramble suits, they thought I was some kind of magical being or that I had a rare skin condition even, maybe this would be eas-

“Ha, ha, ha. You little naive ponies.” everyone directed their attention at Manie Manie.

“HE is clearly wearing a scramble suit AND he is likely under CP employ!”

Waaaaaait... what!?

How-

“You can TELL by the way his voice is altered by the suit!” Manie added.

Well okay, I guess it didn’t really take a 6th sense to figure this one out.

Everypony were looking at me, pushing for definite answers. I sighed.

“The... elusive mare is... correct... I am indeed wearing a scramble suit of CP design...”

There were murmurs among the five who hadn’t yet picked a side to believe on.

“But.” I began bringing the attention back to me.

“This isn’t by my choice, they arrested me, just like they arrested you and they offered me a deal.”

“Lead a group of six ponies to found an outpost beyond the frontier border. Or die.” what I said wasn’t that far from the truth anyway. It was either ‘die horribly as a CP officer’ or ‘die horribly as a CP victim’, the options had been pretty limited at the time.

“And what do you guys think I choose?”

“But the scramble suit...” Manie Manie began.

“The scramble suit wasn’t a choice, they forced me to wear this thing, I can’t take it off without CP unicorns disabling the suit firsthand.”

“The scramble suit, IS my skin now. It is part of me for as long as CP wills it, which may very well be forever...”

I was making a gamble here, I knew that the suit wasn’t really that hard to take off on my own and that somepony would probably attempt to pull it off of me while I’d fall asleep.

I felt an uncomfortable tingle and realized just now that I hadn’t had a good piss in two days, I excused myself and went to the cramped bathroom attached to the holding cell we were in.

...

There was a dirty mirror over the sink, I stood in front of it staring at the shifting figure that was me.

The blurry movement was making me feel sick, so I tried tugging the mask away.

No.

I tried again, this time pulling a bit harder.

No!

I grabbed my neck with both my forehooves and pulled as hard as I could get a grip of.

Nonononononono!

The suit had really been sewn on or merged with my skin!

Those bastards had screwed with my suit before taking me onboard the ship!

So what I had just said in the next room wasn’t a complete lie after all, I really couldn’t take the suit off without CP’s help, Bob had tricked me, fucking Bob! I was going to KILL that pony, if I ever got back alive!

I AM the scramble suit now.

I leaned over the sink and looked myself in the mirror.

The scramble suit, I remembered from Bob’s description was made up of a million and a half variants of stallions, mares and fillies in every shape and form... making me completely unrecognizable and the perfect ‘everypony’.

I wasn't Tombs the gray pony anymore.

I was this... this thing, this revolting twisted skin.

What a terrible thing... To lose one's personal identity like this...

Wearing the scramble suit was nothing like wearing the Civil Protection uniform.

When I wore that at least I HAD an identity, I was always a pony wearing the uniform, when I took the uniform off I was always one unique stallion, that never changed.

Technically I still was, but with no way to take the damn thing off I had no way to prove it.

I was anypony and nopony.

I washed my face in the cold water of the sink, taking this opportunity to take a look at the wound caused by the electric baton.

It had already begun to heal nicely.

Luna bless pony metabolism.

I noticed that my wound had become part of the pattern of the scramble suit, the placement and skin color around the wound shifted with the suit based on the pony currently shifting, as a mare the wound seemed to move slightly to the left and as a filly the wound became larger.

It was as if the suit wasn’t really there, it looked and felt like my skin and fur.

I stepped back out into the cell.

“Took ya long enough, we were starting to worry about ya, mister shapeshifter.” Brook Cotton whimsically started the conversation.

Ha Ha Brook, really fucking funny. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes and I was already begging to hate that nickname. It had a totally different meaning to me after I realized that I couldn’t take the suit off.

“I was... reflecting on things. A lot of things have been happening to me over the last few days.”

The suit did portray emotions, but not nearly as effectively as a whole face does.

My gloominess over being trapped in the scramble suit went completely unnoticed.

Strawberry Feather shyly began talking to me,

“Sweet Heaven... I’m sorry to ask and it’s fine if you don’t want to answer, but... what do you really look like under the suit? Who are you really?”

“What is your real age!” Rainbow Sea called out.

“32...” I muttered.

“No, your REAL age!” he called out again.

“THIRTY TWO..” I said, again in an irritated tone. I sighed deeply.

“Oh. Well, so how the hell do you look like anyway? Answer the boy!”

“Does it really matter? I can’t take the suit off, I can’t prove that what I am saying is true or not.”

“I’d believe you.” everyone turned to Manie Manie, who had stood up and walked up to me.

Before I could express my doubt and surprise she put a hoof on my left shoulder and leaned towards my left ear, almost touching it with her muzzle, I felt her warm calm breathing on my ear, she whispered quietly.

“I know you... You were the officer who arrested me. You were the officer staring at us through the mirrored glass...” She leaned away and took a step back.

A deep chill went down my spine, her sixth sense was uncanny.

So she knew about me, but why would she tell me?

“But...” she resumed, confusing the others (nopony else had heard her whispering), “It seems like CP have legitimately screwed you over too. They tricked you, Sweet Heavens. They are sending you in the same boat with us as equals.”

Not as equals, I am not like you. I thought.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I clumsily lied.

“Let me guess...” she said, pausing momentarily to simulate thoughtfulness.

“They had you hand in all your CP gear, correct? The pistol, the baton and the uniform?”

“I am not following you.” I said, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

“But you were assigned the scramble suit to protect your identity as a CP officer,” she continued ignoring me. “Presumably you commented on this saying that it would compromise your relation with us and make us suspect you of being a CP officer.”

Interesting...

“But since your mission requires you to wear the scramble suit and keep your identity hidden to us you simply had to keep the scramble suit.”

“Which is why you then suggested to be introduced to us as an abused prisoner so that our suspicions would be quelled and we’d take pity on you.”

My eyes went wide in surprise.

How could she be so accurate?

I said nothing, but my expression betrayed me, the others had begun to suspect.

“...but why would they hurt one of their own?” Nurse Swirly asked, not fully convinced.

“To trick us into believing that he wasn’t part of CP.” Manie replied to her.

“But why send one undercover officer to guard us instead of sending two normal officers?” Blizzard Candy wondered. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”

I was wondering that myself.

What the hell had I done to deserve being sent alone with these ponies to die in a faraway land?

“Because... he is being punished for something.” Manie deduced, yet seemed unsure.

Punished.

That would make sense, they would send me on a phony mission of redemption for something I did in CP.

But what would that be? I was a model CP officer, one of the best.

What had I done to deserve punishment?

But then the pieces began to fall into place.

I remembered the confrontation regarding the Psycho chems with Bob.

She had suspected me of using Psycho, but I had quelled her suspicions by denying it

Or so I had thought.

Bob’s words about my gear came to mind.

By the way, you have to hand in your uniform and CP issued weapons and gear.

We will allow you to do so yourself, we trust that our agents know what is best for their task.

What they then decide to bring in their pack, be it legal or illegal, is entirely up to them...

I had betrayed myself, somepony must have seen me use Psycho back at my precinct and reported me.

And I had only confirmed their suspicions by showing up with a satchel filled with Psycho and... the bag of Ecstasy from Cake.

Manie didn’t know however, she couldn’t deliver the final point revealing me as a CP officer, I could still salvage this.

"Punished..." I said slowly.

"Punished for what?”

Manie smiled fiendishly.

“For possession and usage of illegal drugs, silly.”

You have got to be kidding me.

“...what?”

There was only one way she could know...

“I looked in your bag while you were unconscious.”

Why of course she did.

“You went through my bags?!”

“I sure did! And guess WHAT ELSE I found in your bags?”

What else?

What else did I have?

All I had left was the dandelion vodka, the medical supplies and the food.

“You tell me.” I challenged.

She lifted her hat and pulled out my Civil Protection officer badge.

“THIS OFFICER’S BADGE!” she yelled holding the badge up proudly for all to see.

WHAT THE FUCK, I DIDN’T PUT THAT IN MY BAG!

I LEFT IT ON THE TABLE WITH THE REST OF MY GEAR, NEXT TO MY PISTOL.

I KNOW I DID, THERE IS NO WAY THAT BADGE CO-

“FUCKING BACKSTABBING BOB!” I growled, snatching the badge out of Manie’s hoof.

“Who is Bob?” Brook Cotton asked.

“‘Bob’ must have been the CP officer that briefed him on his mission, perhaps even the same guy that gave him the scramble suit in the first place.” Manie answered.

"But wait, you can't prove that the badge belongs to me." I knew that by now, it was a desperate cause.

She opened the badge and looked at the document inside, there wasn't much to go by I knew, the document only revealed the age, gender, home precinct and name.

She closed it and threw it in an arch to me, I managed to catch it by pure reflex.

"No. But your emotional outburst betrayed you. We know."

I said nothing, not knowing what to say anymore.

“Feeling a little upset there mr undercover CP officer?” she said condescendingly.

“Fuck you Manie Manie.” I bit back.

“And you know my name...” she responded slowly, “I wonder what else you know about me...”

That's right, I knew something about her that could turn them against her.

"Yes Manie, what else DO I know about you?"

She began looking nervous, she realized what I meant.

"Don't..."

“Do THEY know, Manie?” I said, referring to the others.

She recoiled slightly.

“Err, know what?”

"What is going on?" Rainbow Sea wondered.

“Do you guys know what she did to end up here with you?” I asked the group.

No response.

“She killed an entire platoon of helicopters and betrayed her own kin in a military exercise.”

The reactions were quick, all attention instantly turned to Manie.

“YOU DID THAT?” Rainbow Sea called out, jumping up from his bench and storming up to her. “YOU KILLED MY BROTHER AND SISTER?” She yelled at her, making her nervously back up.

“No...” Nurse Swirly reacted. She was almost in tears. “Please tell me this isn’t true...”

“My husband, he... he....”

“YOU FUCKER, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU EVEN DID!? WHY MANIE!? WHY?!”

Manie was speechless, she had backed in a corner and was staring blankly in fear at Rainbow Sea and Nurse Swirly.

“I-I’ts n-not that simple...” she tried to explain, stuttering slightly in fear.

“WHAT ISN’T SIMPLE!? YOU KILLED THEM BOTH, THEY HAD JUST TURNED 18, MANIE. YOU FUCKING KILLED THEM!” Rainbow Sea was furious at her.

“I-I had to do it...!”

Swirly Star was crying out in agony as she heard the truth.

“It was either them or me!” she said.

“YOU ARE FUCKING DEAD, DEAD!” Rainbow Sea growled.

As he was about to charge at her Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy jumped at him, knocking him over and restraining him.

“LET ME GO! FUCKING LET ME GO!” he screamed at them, trying to bite and kick his way out of their grip. Strawberry Feather had been knocking on the steel door, trying to get a guard in here.

“You’ll get us all killed!” Blizzard Candy warned him.

“Calm down!” Brook Cotton said to him, keeping his rear legs locked.

Two CP guards came into the room, without fuss they grabbed hold of Rainbow Sea.

“THIS ISN’T FUCKING OVER MANIE, YOU ARE A DEAD PONY.” he screamed as he was dragged away.

The door shut with a slam, silence befell the room.

Manie Manie was still in a corner of the room, quiet and in fear.

Nurse Swirly was being comforted by Strawberry Feather.

Brook Cotton sat down with a deep sigh, then the two turned to me.

“Now,” Brook began, “Ah know Manie Manie doesn’t exactly bring out the best in us, but could we please not pull crap like that again? Things are really bad enough as it is.”

“You are right.” I said. “I am sorry.”

“What happens now?” Blizzard Candy asked.

“Manie Manie is right...” I said. “I am a CP agent, sent to spy and watch over you...”

“But after what she said, about me being punished for something... I don’t know what to think.”

“I am starting to think that I am being sent on a phony mission simply to die.”

“What was that about drug abuse?” Brook Cotton asked. “Is that why they are punishing you?”

“It must be, there is nothing else I could have possibly done to end up here aside from that, not that I can think of.”

“What? They just betray their own for using drugs?” Blizzard Candy said surprised.

“It’s not that simple... I am... a bit of a psycho junkie. And the only way to get psycho is by stealing it from the army."

"You stole drugs from the army?"

"Of course not, but the dealer I got it from somehow did."

"Then why are you getting the blame for it?"

"It is illegal to own the drug, if you are caught with the drug you may be punished with the same charges for stealing it in person, which is serious."

“What exactly is Psycho?”

They sure were asking a lot of questions about it.

I sighed deeply.

“Psycho, is a military combat drug that was created during the early golden age to increase the aggression levels of ponies and make them emotionally better suited for things like combat. We ponies aren’t naturally aggressive creatures, we experience anger and sadness just like any creature, but never pure rage.”

“Most ponies are also incredibly squeamish, being unable to take the psychological burden of bloodshed, violence and death. The Psycho chem changes this, it makes ponies more “numb” to violence.

Because of the way things are today, many ponies use the Psycho drug as a grief reliever, to deal with the death, disappearance of a relative or friend.”

"By becoming angry?"

"Well... yeah, I guess. It seems to work that way."

“And why do you use it?”

“I answered your questions, why I use it is none of your fucking business."

I could see mixed feelings of disappointment and understanding in Brook Cotton’s face.

“We all have our grief to deal with.” he said with compassion.

“You don't know me.”

"No. But I know you have problems, and if you look around, you'll find that you are not alone."

He was right.

But I was still not going to tell my life story to these ponies, I had my share of that on the train yesterday.

I walked up to a bunk bed in the room and sat down on it, it was sturdy, as with all pony designed beds.

“Guys...” I said getting the attention of the group, “I... I am not going to force you to follow me."

"I understand if you want to escape and I am not going to stop you from doing so once we are on our own...”

“But it is not safe in Equestria controlled territory, Civil Protection is everywhere, they see everything. If I don’t follow through with my mission they will send a hunter seeker team to track me down and kill me," I didn't know if that would happen to me, but I knew that we had hunter seeker teams and that they carried out their work with brutal efficiency, at least on the mainland.

"I... assume they would do the same to you if you don’t check in with me.”

“Again, I am not forcing you to stay once we begin to travel on our own, but if I were you I’d simply stick around until we leave the frontier border. From there you can try your luck with the dangers of the new continent safe from CP and Equestria...”

“And Swirly Star...” I said, the crying nurse looked up at me.

“I am sorry for your loss and predicament. I wish there was something I could do for you who undeservedly have ended up here, same thing applies for you Strawberry Feather and you Blizzard Candy.”

“I know why you are all here, and you didn’t all deserve it. I know that it doesn’t mean anything coming from me, but this isn’t what I signed up for, I never meant for innocents to be arrested for mere accidents, this isn’t what I was looking for in CP. Just know that... that I feel for you.”

"Then what you make of that, is entirely up to you."

I laid down facing the wall and put my head on the very hard and uncomfortable pillow on the bed.

As I closed my eyes Strawberry Feather spoke to me,

“Sweet Heavens...”

“Yes, little one?” I calmly replied.

“What do you really look like under the suit?”

Personal question, but I didn’t intend to argue just now, I just wanted to be left alone for a bit.

“I have a dull gray coat and charcoal mane. My eyes are yellow.”

There was a pause.

“What about your cutiemark?”

My cutiemark.

A feeling of sadness and grief washed over me.

“It is a half moon encircling a pink heart...”

I felt a tear run down my cheek, I closed my eyes and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 2 - New Prospect Fishery

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of  SIBLINGS and  SHOWERS

Chapter 2 - New Prospect Fishery

Fresh fish, fresh fish today

I was woken up by a CP officer poking at me with a baton.

I turned my head around and came face to face with the characteristic metallic white gas mask that was part of the CP uniform.

“*Wakey wakey, whatever the fuck you are.*” the officer said.

“*The cruise is over.*”

I glanced at his shoulder badge, he was nothing but a private.

"Show some respect when addressing your superior officers, private."

He flicked the baton and beat me once with it.

"Argh!"

"*You don't get to talk to me like that.*"

"I'll prove it to you! I am opening my satchel."

The officer stepped back while I did so.

I searched for my orders, those would be proof enough.

They weren't there anymore.

Bob must have confiscated them while I was unconscious.

"Bob that motherfucker..."

"*Well well, where is your proof then?*"

"I don't have it."

But wait, I had the badge.

"Actually, wait."

"I could show you my badge."

I brought up the badge that Manie had stolen from me.

The officer snatched it out of my hoof and looked at it.

"*Really. So you are... Captain Tombs of the Manehatten Precinct 2?*"

"Yes."

"*Nice try. As if I would believe that a Captain of CP from the eastern end of Equestria would show up all the way over here wearing nothing but his badge.*"

"It's the truth. I am on a special assignment from command, I am to-" the officer hit me again.

"*HEY WHAT'S WITH THE HOLD UP IN CELL 42, SIMONS?*" another officer barked while coming into the cell.

This one was a sergeant.

"*Sir, this con claims to be a Captain of CP.*"

"*Very funny Simons. Do you think we have all day to haul these scum off the ship?*"

"*No...*"

"*Then stop dicking around and do your fucking job.*"

"*Yes sir.*"

Officer Simons poised his baton ready to strike again.

I got the gist of it, they weren't going to listen.

"Okay okay, I am going..." I muttered.

We were brought up to the deck of the ship, there were about fifty other convicts gathered up there, there was still plenty of room on the deck, so the guards were still probably rounding up more convicts from the cells below.

Several squads of CP officers wearing both the standard and border guard uniforms wielding SMG's and pistols were guarding us.

From our elevated position on the ship's deck we could see the new land and what I assumed was Shellbeach Prison.

Built almost entirely out of cement and metal, gray low buildings stretched out all along the coast in both directions.

A kilometer inland, maybe less, I could see a forest spreading out in all directions, I could see that a large area had been cleared in front of the walls that lined the entire constructed area guarded by countless towers an an endless amount of barbed wire.

I spotted a wide black road leading from a point in the wall into the forest, it would likely lead to other settlements further inland.

The atmosphere was heavy and the sky looked very gloom, I wondered if the weather in the continent was controlled by the pegasi or if it was left to rule itself.

Rainbow Sea was furiously staring Manie Manie down, making her feel uncomfortable.

He had been brought back to us shortly after we had been brought up to the deck.

The two were separated by the group, Manie Manie was standing beside me and Blizzard Candy, Rainbow Sea was behind the others.

“Sooo...” Brook Cotton began, attempting to break the tension. “A pink heart huh?”

Where did that come from? Why was my cutiemark being brought up now?

“Mind your own business.” I said dismissively, trying to avoid talking about it.

“Comooon, its nothing to be ‘shamed of having a pink heart cutiemark” Brook pressed.

Rainbow Sea chuckled, his attention turning to me now.

“You have a pink heart cutiemark?”

“Stop it.”

“You could be a nurse.” he remarked.

“Stallions cannot be nurses.” Nurse Swirly said.

"Why not?" Blizzard Candy asked.

"I don't know. They just can't."

“That seems kinda sexist.”

Nurse Swirly shrugged.

“That’s just how it is, it has always been like that and no one really knows much about nurses, we just know that stallions can't become nurses for some reason.”

“Tell us about your cutiemark Sweetie.” Rainbow Sea continued.

“No. Stop.”

“Tell ussssss.” Rainbow Sea insisted.

“Why are we talking about my cutiemark?” I wondered, everyone had seemed so hostile against each other yesterday after learning about my true self and now they were all ganging up on me like a bunch of school fillies trying to coax me about my cutiemark.

“What is there to be afraid of Sweet Heaven?” Manie interjected, “It is just a cutiemark.”

“Why won’t you tell us about it?”

This was getting annoying, even Manie was getting involved now.

“Because it is personal.”

“So was my crime.” Manie answered.

I glared at her.

The atmosphere turned heavy and quiet again.

"This is different."

"I don't want to talk about it, so stop asking."

“Aww, don’t be like that! We don’t mean nothing bad about it!” Brook Cotton said cheerfully.

Then he frowned and looked sad, clearly simulating sadness.

“Why is this so important to you?” I questioned, calling his little bluff.

“So what if I have a heart shaped cutiemark, what’s it to you?”

“We are just wondering how a pony with a heart shaped cutiemark could have ended up as a hardass Civil Protection officer.” Blizzard Candy explained.

“Why is that strange? Do you really expect an officer to have a cutiemark related to Civil Protection?"

"Civil Protection has barely been around for, what, 8 years? I am 32 years old, I got my mark ages before.”

“Just tell us the story already!” Rainbow Sea called again.

“No! It isn't something I would just go around telling a bunch of strangers like that!"

"You know we'll be pressuring you until you tell us."

"Fine, you do that! I am still not going to tell you."

"What if... we told you ours?" Strawberry Feather timidly suggested.

The group looked at him, he felt uncomfortable being the center of attention like that.

"No...?"

"Ah'd be up for that." Brook said.

Everypony except for Manie Manie cheerfully agreed.

"Well Sweet Heavens? Is that an okay trade? 6 stories in exchange for one?"

I was appalled.

What made them think that I would just agree to that, or that I would even be remotely interested in knowing their stories?

Why couldn't they just let it go?

"Why can't you just respect my privacy? Why is this even important to you?"

"Well ah I just want to get to know ya better." Brook explained bluntly.

"Dun know about the rest of them, but ah intend to follow you once we get out of here."

He was?

"Yeah, me to." Nurse Swirly said.

"And me..." Strawberry Feather joined in.

"I guess I'll come with you too then, it's not like we have anywhere else to go." Blizzard Candy said.

Only Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie didn't say anything.

But it was good to know that they weren't going to ditch me first chance they got, hopefully...

"Thank you, I guess. But you don't have to..."

"Blizzard is right, we ain't got anywhere else 't go, it will be safer if we stick together."

"Brook, you KNOW where we are headed, right?"

"Yeah..."

"'Beyond the frontier' hardly counts as 'safe'."

"Are you guys really sure about this? Do you really want to follow me? Even though it means near certain death?"

There was a moment of silence, this gave them new perspective.

Brook broke that silence.

"Aye." he said, sincerely.

"Ah will follow you, even though ah would risk my life doing so."

The others agreed.

That was brave of them.

Brave, and stupid.

"If... if I tell you about it... do you promise to stick with me, and never to mention it again..." I asked softly.

"I will." Manie Manie spoke up.

We all looked at her.

"I understand that it may be hard for you to talk about, especially with us, but if you would be willing to share something like that, to trust us, with that, I would follow you, out of trust and sincerity."

...

"I can't believe I am agreeing to this... I swore not speak of it, ever... but when you put it this way I guess it would only be fair if I did." I took a deep breath.

It began to rain.

The ponies gathered around before me waiting with anticipation as if I was about to tell them the most amazing thing they had ever heard.

I felt that my unwillingness to tell them about my past had hyped and overblown the importance of my story.

“Well...” I began slowly, pausing a bit, “before Celestia declared herself Queen of Equestria and before I signed up with CP, I was working as...” I hesitated slightly.

They would never believe me, this was fucking stupid.

“Working as...?” Brook Cotton coaxed me.

“I was working as a...”

They will just call bullshit on me, I know they will.

“Yes?”

“I was... a priest.”

They took that revelation with shock, just like I expected. Me? A priest? No way!

“Now ah think you are just pulling mah leg here, there is no way you could have been a priest!”

Brook Cotton said in disbelief.

“How does one go from being a priest to becoming CP officer?” Blizzard Candy asked.

The others seemed really doubtful.

I shook my head, I knew they wouldn’t believe me.

I had go into more detail to explain.

I cringed slightly, remembering the story of my cutiemark, my painful past.

It is amazing how I am just telling these random strangers the story of my cutiemark as if we were talking about the bad weather looming over us.

But here goes nothing.

“My father was a priest before me, and his father, my grandfather, had been too."

"My grandfather was the priest that wed Applejack and Applesnack (you remember the old wielders of harmony right?)."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"My father and mother were loving parents, believing that there was good in all of us and that true love would always triumph over the evils that spread to ponykind during the Golden Age."

"They believed that the guidance of priests was needed to guide ponies through darker periods, to make sure that they didn’t fall down the path of ruin (murdering, crime, greed), they used Princess Luna as a prime example of how a pony could go on the path of betterment. She was considered by my parents to be an inspiration to ponykind.”

"We were so called 'priest of Luna', we offered advice and guidance to those who willed it."

"So like a religion?"

"No. Not really. There were no sacred texts or beliefs, we had no members, prayers or anything. All we did was offer our guidance to those who came to us seeking a way to redeem themselves or come clean, we'd use Luna and her kindness as an example to show ponies that there was always a chance to improve yourself, become a better pony, a good pony.

In function we served as normal priests, we wed couples and held sermons."

“I grew up with Princess Luna as my role model, she was a great alicorn and I showed her great respect in all regards. This sounds a bit cheesy, I know, but bear with me here.”

“At the age of four my father let me wed my first couple, I was sort of his apprentice back then, helping out at the church with various duties, preparing sermons and such. The couple I wed were young, a charcoal unicorn mare and a crimson red pegasus, I... don’t remember their names, but I do remember that the mare was expecting a child."

"They had explained to me and my father that they were poor and were living in a cramped apartment and that with the child coming they were to expect a long period of economic hardship, typically in a case like this in that day and age the couple would either separate or abort the child. But these wanted to keep the child and share their love with it, regardless of the consequences.”

“The day of the wedding eventually came and their few friends had assembled on the pews of either side of the aisle, they hadn’t afforded much else and the bride's wedding dress left much to be desired when compared to those of many of the other couples we had wed, but it was still beautiful all the same."

"The couple radiated happiness as the music began to play and the bride’s father escorted her down the aisle.”

“The wedding was a success and I flawlessly recited the wedding ritual just as my father had taught me. When I finished with the phrase ‘you may now kiss the bride’ they had given each other a passionate loving kiss while their guests had stood up and cheered them on.”

“That was when my cutiemark appeared. My ceremony having strengthened their love even further, my father was so proud of me, it was the happiest day of my life.”

“Aw, that is so sweet!” Nurse Swirly said.

“Well his name IS Sweet Heavens.” Rainbow Sea remarked.

Obviously my name was not Sweet Heavens, but my story had unintentionally made the name seem plausible and real.

“What happened next then? How did you become a CP officer after that?” Blizzard Candy pressed on.

“I had been a priest for... 18 years...” I paused momentarily, looking up at the sky.

It sure had become dark all of a sudden, dark clouds were covering the skies above us, giving of distant rumbling.

Floodlights begun to turn on all over the prison facility.

I was wondering when we would be moving on.

“Um...” I lost my train of thought for a second, “...then the discovery of the new continent happened and all the bad things it brought along...”

“After what happened to those pegasi me and my father had been busy performing memorials and burials for the fallen, it was a tragic ordeal, there wasn’t as much as a tiny beam of joy anywhere, the memorials were worse, because the weeping widows and mothers had no one to mourn over and were often deeply depressed and dejected over their sons and daughters bodies being left to rot in those terrible jungles overseas.”

“It was way too grim for us. We hadn’t ever performed this many funerals, and it had never been related to war or killing.”

I could feel a warm tear run down my cheek, their expressions had turned compassionate and caring.

“My... father...” I began with much difficulty, this was what was burdening me, I was unable to stop the flow of tears now, “He... he... he couldn’t take the pressure and grimness... He wasn’t as strong and mentally prepared as... as the new generation was... and...” I closed my eyes, trying to block the tears and bowed my head.

This was an incredibly difficult and sensitive thing to talk about for me.

It had begun to rain heavily, flashes of light could be seen among the distant clouds, occasionally flashing the dark rain clouds in a white light, followed by rumbling thunder moments afterwards.

I felt two forelegs envelop me, I opened my eyes and saw Manie Manie hug me, patting me gently and whispering “there there, it's okay” in as a motherly tone as she could fathom.

I was as surprised by this as the others were, but no one said anything, I honestly wasn't sure whether I should feel uncomfortable about it or consoled the way she had acted against me yesterday.

The two of us just stood there in the rain hugging each other, the group standing silently staring at their hooves in respect.

I sniffed, reaching up a hoof to wipe the tears of my face, Manie gently let go of me.

"Things only got worse after that... ponies stopped coming to the church, no one cared anymore, the power of love and betterment meaning nothing to them."

"One day my mother disappeared, she left to go down to the local store, and never came back... I was left all alone, she had been the only family I had left."

"A few long lonely months passed in the church, I lost faith, and eventually gave up, it was a lost cause."

“I fell into a period of serious drug abuse, I took some serious amounts of Psycho chem to deal with the loss of my parents.”

“I was like that, a junkie, all the way up until Celestia snapped and declared herself Queen and until they began recruiting for volunteers to work in Civil Protection, I liked their ideas of 'ridding Equestria of it's rot' and signed up with them.”

"When Luna got banished to the moon I lost it completely, I stopped believing in 'the goodness of ponies', everything I had learned during my time as a priest meant nothing. Everypony could go to hell for all I cared."

"Since then I just followed my orders as an officer, only to end up betrayed and sent to the frontier. With you."

The end of my story was met with respectful silence.

I wasn't sure of the impression I had given.

I noticed that I was shaking slightly.

"And now you know..."

"ALRIGHT YOU PILES OF WANK, LISTEN UP!" someone yelled over a megaphone, interrupting the moment.

We directed our attention to the source of the voice, it was an officer wearing a different design of the CP uniform that I didn't recognize, it had a yellow and blue color scheme. The officer wore a cap.

Besides him were four officers wearing the same type of armor, these wore helmets with red lenses and held some type of shotgun with one hoof.

I was too far back to make out any details, but the helmetless officer was probably of a higher rank.

"TO THE LEFT OF YOU IS A RAMP, I WANT ALL OF YOU TO FORM UP IN AN ORDERLY LINE AND TO FOLLOW THIS OFFICER!" the officer yelled, I wasn't entirely sure of what officer he was referring to, but there was probably someone up ahead.

In a few minutes the crowd began moving towards the ramp, and a few minutes after that we reached the ramp.

The ramp was slippery and wet, an earth pony mare ahead of us slipped and caused a whole mess, dragging down a good eight other ponies down the ramp, the officers were not too happy about that.

We were led past a sizable perimeter wall and into a huge courtyard with a single path leading up to a large door, dividing the path from the rest of the courtyard was a puny chainlink fence behind which hundreds of other convicts were gathered behind, cheering and jeering on the new arrivals, calling us "fresh fish" and making fishing puns.

"That's funny, 'fresh fish' because we came from the sea." Rainbow Sea commented.

"Yeah, thanks Rainbow, we got it." Blizzard Candy replied.

Ahead of the line a burly unicorn stallion took offense at something one of the convicts said and tried to pick a fight with him, but an officer rushed ahead and beat him down much to the amusement of the resident convicts.

Eventually we found ourselves in a huge and very dark hall, surrounding the room were several armed guards wearing the blue and yellow uniform from before, we, along with the two hundred or so other new arrivals were instructed to form a single large block and stand in an orderly line, somehow the seven of us ended up up front.

Before us was a brown middle aged unicorn stallion wearing a neat business suit, red tie and golden glasses, on his chest was a large golden emblem of a sun, representing Celestia's cutiemark.

Next to him was the ranking officer from before, now I could see that the captain had a light gray coat, black officers cap with the symbol of a golden alicorn aligned in the center and that the insignia on his shoulder said 'NEW PROSPECT PRISON'.

The officer had the cap pulled down slightly over his eyes, he looked incredibly mean and was observing us with a smug expression, he rest his eyes briefly on me and gave me a look of utter disgust before continuing to scan the rest.

When we were all alined and in formation the unicorn began to speak.

“This is Mr. Hudson, Captain of the guard. I am Mr. Wade, the warden.”

The warden pointed a hoof at us.

“You, are sinners and scum, that’s why they sent you to me.” he said, smiling.

“Rule number one: no blaspheming. I’ll not have the Queen’s name taken in vain in my prison.”

"Rule number two: no killing and no crippling of other inmates. You are no good to us if you can't hold a pick, if you are caught doing this, you will be executed."

“This is your new home, this is where you belong, until you are requested elsewhere.”

“Any questions?”

A young pegasus stallion down the line spoke up.

“When do we eat?”

The warden glanced at Mr. Hudson, the captain.

The captain pulled out his baton, he flicked it on, walked up to the pegasus and towered up above him, screaming right in his face.

“YOU EAT WHEN WE SAY YOU EAT! YOU PISS WHEN WE SAY YOU PISS! YOU SHIT WHEN WE SAY YOU SHIT! YOU SLEEP WHEN WE SAY YOU SLEEP! YOU GOT THAT YOU MAGGOT-DICK MOTHERFUCKER!?”

Then he slammed the baton right along the side of the pegasus face, sending a powerful shock through his skull and knocking him unconscious.

The ponies next to him gasped in terror.

“Any other questions?” the warden asked, grinning.

There were none.

“I believe in two things. Discipline, and Celestia’s wisdom. Here, you’ll receive both.”

The warden unfastened his sun emblem from his suit and floated it up for all to see.

“Put your faith in Celestia. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to New Prospect Prison.”

NEW PROSPECT? But my ship was supposed to take me to Shellbeach!

I gathered courage and spoke up.

"Sir, I have a question."

The captain was about to charge up to me, but the warden held up a hoof, instructing him to hold.

The warden looked at me curiously and slowly walked up to me, looking me slowly from top to bottom.

"You are a curious one." the warden said.

"What happened to you?"

"This is a scramble suit, it was issued to me by Civil Protection, for whom I work for."

"Civil Protection eh..." the warden waved the captain over to him and whispered.

"Have him take the suit off when you delouse him, I want to take a closer look at it."

"You can't take off the suit." I pointed out, having heard his whisper.

"That isn't an option for you."

"You don't understand. Sir. I can't take off the suit, it is sealed on me, it cannot be taken off."

"And how do you unseal it then?"

"I don't know. Unicorn magic perhaps? Do you have a spell that allows me to take this thing off?"

The captain gave me a right hoof, jabbing me in the jaw. I tasted blood.

"Show some fucking respect for the warden!"

I ignored him.

"My question, sir."

"Very well, I will answer this one question for you. I am feeling generous today. What do you want?"

"What happened to the ship that was supposed to go to Shellbeach Prison?"

"You were on it. The S.S. Sea Killer was redirected on the way to dock here instead."

Before I could say anything else the warden dismissed me and walked away, leaving the room,

The captain walked back to his previous post and began yelling again.

"ALRIGHT, I WANT EVERYONE DIVIDED INTO IN GROUPS OF 10, AND QUICKLY I DON'T GOT ALL DAY!"

The crowd began to form disorganized groups, the officers around us approached the crowd helping to form groups of 10, with force as needed.

Our group, being among the closest up front formed up first, but Rainbow Sea got divided and pushed back into one of the groups further back.

Captain Hudson walked past us and waved a hoof.

"You there. You're the lucky first, follow me."

He led us through a long corridor into a smaller room with a metal cage, a pile of gray sacks marked "D-POWDER" with an emblem of a giant zoomed in image of a lice crossed over with a large X. Delousing powder.

There were five armed officers and two ponies in lab coats in the room, the two manning a water hose.

"Off with whatever you are wearing!" Captain Hudson barked at us.

After not even two seconds he added "And I didn't say take all day doing it, did I?"

As the others undressed and left their gear in a pile I approached the captain, I had to try and get this sorted out, I needed to get going with the mission.

He had his back turned at me and was speaking to two of the armed officers, as soon as I approached they aimed their weapons at me.

"Captain, listen, there has been a mistak-"

"You again? What is your major malfunction, scumfuck? Did your mama drop you on your head as a kid? What part of 'don't fucking talk unless spoken to' is it that you just don't get?"

"Why wont you listen to what I say? I am a fucking Captain of mainland CP, there has been a mix up! Command has t-"

But he ignored me, he reared up and bucked me square in the chest and I was too slow to avoid the kick.

I felt one of my ribs crack under the pressure and fell over wheezing.

I was really making it a habit of getting abused like this, if only my fellow officers weren't all violent assholes.

The captain leaned over and tore my satchels off of me, throwing them off into the pile of clothes and bags.

I heard him trotting away from me and then returning, I opened my eyes and looked up at him only to get a sack full of delousing powder right in my eyes.

"AAGGHHG YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!" I cried out in pain, the burning was unbearably painful!

I felt two hooves grab onto my shoulders and dragging me away as I desperately tried to rub my eyes, I felt metal under me, they had dragged me into the cage.

"Stand up." the captain ordered.

I refused, the burning was too much.

"Are you daft? Stand the fuck up or I'll break your kneecaps!"

Against my own eyes protesting I blindly managed to get up on my legs, still attempting to rub out the worst of the delousing powder from my eyes and face.

The second I had stood up they had turned on the water hose, the force of the jet of water caught me of guard and sent me slamming into the back of the cage, the bastards were laughing at me.

"FFSTOP PPFFT STOP! TURN IT OFF!! TURN IT OFF!!" I spluttered, and they did.

I got up again and turned towards the captain, my vision was blurred and my eyes still burned like hell, but the water had helped somewhat.

"Alright, delouse that piece of shit."

WHAT?! AGAIN!?

I quickly covered my eyes with my right foreleg just in time before I was hit by a scoop of delousing powder, but I had opened my eyes too soon and the cloud of powder that formed soon after got in my eyes, burning them yet again.

"He's done, next prisoner!"

Someone grabbed hold of me and dragged me out of the cage, I was shoved and pushed until I walked into a wall, I regained my sight slightly, there was a metal slot in the wall, in it was a set of prison clothes.

"*Hey, prisoner, grab the damn clothes already.*" the officer who had shoved me prompted.

So I did, but I didn't put them on, good thing too, because apparently we weren't supposed to do that just yet.

The next pony was beaten down by the captain who yelled at him that he hadn't been instructed to do so yet.

That bastard seemed to find all kinds of excuses to beat us up, fucking sadist.

When everyone were done getting deloused the captain ordered us to stand in a line

"I wont be going with you ladies from now on. Instead, you will follow sergeant Huxley to the infirmary, you will comply and you will answer any questions asked by the docs there. If you don't, well..." he tapped his baton twice on the helmet of the closest officer, it gave of a metallic clinking.

One of the officers led us to the infirmary, we were instructed to wait in the small waiting room just outside, CP probably didn't like plants because the two potted plants in the room were both dead.

As soon as I sat down to catch my breath a pony wearing a white hazmat suit with a black polarized visor came out of the other room, the pony slowly looked through the ten of us, eventually pausing on me.

"You. The shapeshifter. You're up first."

"It's my lucky day today..." I wheezed.

"Try not to say something that will make them beat you again." Nurse Swirly said concerned, none of them had really said anything since we got off the ship, they were either scared, intimidated by all the abuse that I and other ponies around us had taken or just keeping to themselves.

"I'll try not to..."

This was an operating room, it was very dark, a bright set of lights gynecologist table in the center.

"Have a seat." the hazmat pony instructed.

"What... on... that?"

"Yes."

A gynecologist table?

Yeah...

"I'd... rather not."

The hazmat pony sighed deeply.

"First pony to resist for the day... ok guys, you can come out now."

Four more ponies in hazmat suits came out from the shadows in the back of the room, two of them held pistols and another held a bonesaw.

"You... have got to be kidding me."

"You are not leaving this room until you have been examined. Well, not in one piece anyway."

"Why are you all so violent over here? We weren't remotely as bad back in the mainland."

"'We' who?"

"Civil Protection."

"Former CP officer?"

"No. I'm still with CP. Still trying to figure out how to proceed with my mission, the guards I have spoken to thus far haven't been very civil with me when I mentioned it. Maybe you guys could help me out with that?"

They all looked at each other.

"Yeah, well, no."

"Did you by... uh... any chance, speak to the warden about it?"

"As a matter of fact I did..." I turned my head to the left, showing my bruise on the right side of my face.

"Here is proof."

"Ooh, then there is really nothing we can do about it."

"Why not?"

"The warden is the only pony that could do anything about that really, and if he doesn't believe you..."

"Oh common man, I really need to get out of here, and quick."

"The thing is, I don't really believe that you are an officer either, what proof to you have to show for it?"

"For gods sake, I am wearing a goddamned scramble suit, what kind of citizen would even own that kind of gear?"

"What the hell is a scramble suit?"

"The thing I am wearing now! There is no way you can have missed it, you even called me 'shapeshifter' before."

"Hmm..."

"Hey Cutter, are we going to do this or what? The captain doesn't like holdups." one of the ponies called from the back of the room.

"Yeah yeah..." the first hazmat pony responded, it turned back to me. "Look, we need to get this over with, but tell you what."

"I'll look into it later, make a call to mainland CP to check if they really sent somepony overseas. But for now you really need to get on the table so we can clear you through here."

"Thanks..."

I slowly went up and got up on the table, it felt really awkward and uncomfortable, I felt really vulnerable and... exposed on this thing.

The hazmat ponies approached me from all around, having laid down their weapons.

"Are you seriously going to call CP for this one guy, Cutter?" one of the ponies asked, preparing a long needle.

"Well, yeah."

"He's a greenie, Ephy, what did you expect?" another pony said.

"Don't be like that, everypony deserves a chance."

"You'll say that when you begin working here, hell, I did, but with all the ponies we process here and who always try to worm their way out of it somehow you just give up and let it pass. You just can't save everyone Cutter."

"I know, but listening to what they say and giving them a chance to speak their mind is the least I could do. That is just who I am."

"For now... You'll tire of it eventually, you'll see."

They all looked down at me.

"Hey there buddy, you seem nervous." the pony I identified as 'Ephy' said to me.

"Do I really have to be spread out like this?"

"Of course, it's the only table we have in here, and if you don't you'll just slide off of it like a sack of potatoes."

"Why do you wear hazmat suits?"

"To protect ourselves from disease. And from accidentally come into contact with infected blood during some of the invasive surgeries we perform."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, we are trained medical professionals, you are in good hooves."

"Before we start however we must know, is this shapeshifting thing of yours really a suit or is it a medical condition?"

"It's a suit... I told you that."

"Thank you, this is all we need to know."

Ephy flipped the syringe he had prepared and jabbed into my chest.

"Ouch! What the hell!"

"It's just a needle, don't be a baby."

"Alright, you guys know what to do, check him for wounds and injuries, I'll be off checking the blood sample."

"Sure thing Ephy."

The four medical ponies began touching and prodding me all over, twisting, turning and lifting my legs and head, they pressed a hoof on my chest and I growled in pain.

"Wow, broken rib, you didn't sound especially hurt when you were talking before. You sure took the pain like a real stallion." one of the ponies commented.

"Working in Civil Protection really gives you a tolerance for pain over the years." I said.

"Right, right..."

Ephy returned with a clipboard.

"His blood is clean, aside from some minor levels of psycho. What was the diagnosis?"

"Several bruises, swollen bulge on his forehead and a broken rib, also his eyes are really red, I think Hudson gave him a bit too much delousing powder."

"My, that's pretty serious. And he got all that just on the way between his holding cell in the mainland to here? He must have really been picking fights with the guards."

"What do you want to do Ephy?"

Ephy raised a hoof and looked at what appeared to be a digital watch strapped to his wrist.

"We don't really have time to do any conventional surgery right now, we have already wasted enough time on him as it is. Give him a potion."

"A potion? Are you sure?"

"Yeah I know it's a bit excessive for an inmate, but what the hell, why not? We got plenty of the stuff anyway."

"Eh, if you say so..."

What did they mean by potion?

How would a potion help me fix my broken rib?

One of the ponies went away and returned with a small red bottle marked with 'Angel Pharmaceuticals Super Healing Potion', the medical pony gave it to me.

"Drink all of it for full effect."

"What does it do...?"

"It does what it says on the tin, it heals all your wounds."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yes. Amazing isn't it?"

I drank the entire potion, it tasted mildly of strawberries but had a horrible aftertaste.

A warm feeling of comfort flowed through my body, my eyes stopped burning, the pain from my rib and bruises went away, my forehead didn't feel swollen anymore.

I raised a hoof to touch my forehead, to see if the bulge was still there, but it was gone.

"That's incredible. Why don't they use this thing more often?"

"Because it's expensive. And can only be made using certain herbs from the Everfree Forest back in Equestria. You are actually really lucky to have gotten one, you might just be the only pony to get one today unless someone shows up with something worse which we don't have time to... rectify."

The pony I spoke to went away.

Ephy spoke to me again.

"Before you go we'll just need your name."

"Captain Tombs of CP."

"We can't use that, besides 'Captain' and 'of CP' isn't part of your name."

"Just Tombs then."

"No nicknames."

"Let's try that again. Give me your real, full name."

"Sweet Heavens."

"Yeah, right, you better stop dicking around, I really don't have time for this."

"No really, my name is Sweet Heavens."

Ephy sighed and stormed off to the door, he opened it and peeked out.

"Does anypony know this guy's name? He is refusing to collaborate."

I didn't hear the answer.

"What, really?"

Silence.

"Uh, okay." he shut the door and trotted back to me.

"My apologies, I really thought you were jerking around there."

"I bet..."

"So are we done?"

"We sure are, off you go."

I left the room and sat down beside my group.

Nurse Swirly was called in next.

"So how'd it go?" Brook Cotton asked. "Ya were in there fer a long time."

"They were actually the nicest ponies I've met so far, it wasn't so bad, aside from the gynecologist table, they gave me a magical potion that healed all my wounds somehow."

"G-gynecologist table?" Manie stammered.

"Yep..." what was her problem with gynecologist tables? I thought that was a pretty normal routine thing for mares.

"Why?"

She blushed.

"I... don't like gynecologist tables..."

Oh-kay, this was heading in the wrong direction.

"What's a gynecologist table?" Strawberry Feather wondered.

The four of us looked at each other, Manie Manie and Brook shook their heads at me.

"That's something for you to find out when you are a bit older." I explained.

"Ooooh, I get it... so it's that kind of table."

"What? No Strawberry it's no- just forget about it."

We didn't really say anything between then and Nurse Swirly's return.

She came out blushing and walking strangely, she sat down beside me and crossed her legs.

Brook was up next.

"How did it go?"

"No." she cut shortly.

"No?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No."

"Okay..."

Again, there was silence until Brook finished his examination.

Likewise, he came back looking appalled and walking oddly.

"Brook?"

"Nope."

"What happened?"

"Nope. Just, nope."

"What did they do to you two?"

Neither of them gave me a response.

Manie Manie was clearly shaken up and nervous about this, clearly she had gotten some sort of strange idea about what happened and was fidgeting in her seat.

"You there." Ephy leaned out of the door and called.

"The black mare."

"M-me?" Manie whimpered.

"Yes, you. Hurry up in here and this will be over before you know it."

She looked at the rest of us.

"...help me?"

"Help you with what?"

"NOW DAMNIT." Ephy sounded really impatient.

Manie gave us one last nervous look before heading in, the door slammed shut behind her.

About five minutes passed and then I just had to ask.

"Seriously guys, what did they even do to you in there?"

Neither of them responded, their lips were sealed shut.

"Nurse Swirly?"

Nothing.

"Brook?"

"It... was different 'alright... ah don't really want 't talk about it."

"What do you mean? What did they do?"

"Well... there were probes 'an..."

Oh hell, PROBES!?

"I think I see where this is going... you don't really need to tell me."

"Did they seriously not use the probes on you?"

"No, no probes."

"Lucky bastard..."

We heard a scream, a stallion and something topple over in the examination room.

A few seconds afterwards I heard faint yelling coming from the door.

"Hey hey hey! Rippasplitta! Take it easy! Put the gun down! You knew that would happen, you should know better than to get that close!"

Something was going on in there, Manie must have reacted to this probe thing Brook mentioned.

In about a minute Manie came out, unscathed.

She was blushing, but wasn't walking strangely like the others, she seemed really upset.

"Manie!" I called to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes! They wanted to stick probes in m-"

"They wanted use probes on me!"

"Well, did they?" Blizzard Candy pried.

Manie gave him a mean look.

"No, of course not!"

"The guy holding the probe got a little to excited about his job and I kicked him in the face, which broke his visor and made him really pissed..." she trailed off.

"You... did the right thing defending yourself."

The door opened again, Ephy peeked out again and gave Manie a stare before saying anything.

...

A long stare.

"The purple kid." he called.

Strawberry Feather, who had remained largely silent jumped off his seat and calmly trotted into the examination room, Ephy gave Manie another glare before shutting the door.

In roughly ten minutes Strawberry Feather came back out, looking just as passive as he had been going in.

He was chewing on a lollipop.

"They seemed nice." he said as he climbed back onto his seat and leaned back.

"You really hurt Rippasplitta though, Manie. He got a shard of glass in his eye."

"They didn't use the probe on you?" Manie asked him.

"I am six years old. What sexually transmitted disease could I possibly have?"

That kid was smarter than I thought.

"Good point..."

"Plus, I was too short to get up on that gyneio-colo-gist table, so they just took a blood sample and asked me if I was hurt and I said no and they gave me this lollipop and everything. They were really nice."

"Yes you mentioned that..."

"Which flavor?" Blizzard Candy asked.

Strawberry Feather gave him a wide smile.

"Strawberry."

Everypony finished their medical exams, there was a yellow cyan haired pegasus mare in our group that apparently had pony aids, Ephy said that he had given her something that would decrease the chance to spread it, but we were instructed not to 'share any bodily fluids' with her, I was sure that none of us would try and come on to her, but I wasn't so sure of the other inmates we'd meet.

An officer led us to another room, it was empty and had nothing but a single slot in the wall, similar to the one I had seen before.

We were instructed to pick up a a sheet and a pillow rolled up neatly by a thin mattress each, once we did that we were brought to a large empty room which was entirely white and brightly lit.

There were cameras in each of the four corners of the room, the door had no handle on it.

When we tried to speak a voice would yell at us over a hidden loudspeaker instructing us to keep quiet.

When one of the cameras spotted us doing an activity, any activity, be it tapping our hooves rhythmically on the floor, or standing up and walking around the voice would return saying things like 'YOU CAN'T DO THAT', 'THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO NOTHING' and 'STOP HAVING FUN'.

After almost an hour another group of 10 were brought into the room, the voice went through the same thing with them.

And then the third group. And the fourth. And the fifth. The voice gave up when the sixth group came in, the ponies gathered in here with us spoke freely at their hearts desire.

"We have been waiting for hours now." Blizzard Candy said, annoyed.

"You should be enjoying idle periods like these." Manie responded.

"Nooo, it's so slow, and boring."

"Manie is right, sometimes, boring is good." Nurse Swirly said wisely.

"Prison isn't fun, Blizzard. Enjoy the quiet idle moment while you can."

"I'm hungry..." Strawberry Feather said in a low voice.

"I'm sorry dear, but there is nothing we can give you." Swirly consoled.

"Hey," an elderly stallion who sat next to us called. He held a small wrap of paper with a diced up piece of cola candy.

"I know this ain't much, but your kid can have one piece if he'd like."

He was right, it wasn't much, it was really nothing but a tiny piece of candy split into 8 equal pieces, I was touched that someone would be so generous despite having to little.

Strawberry Feather stood up.

"Wait." Rainbow Sea stopped him.

"What did you use to dice the candy?"

The elderly stallion looked at Rainbow querying, then understood his concern.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I understand why it would seem suspicious."

He showed us a tiny pocket knife.

"I kept this in my tail, the guards never found it. Look, I am putting the knife down before you, but please, whatever you do, don't tell the guards about it."

Strawberry went up and took a single piece of the candy.

Then he nodded and said "Thank you for being so kind, sir."

"My pleasure kid, we all need to look after each other. It's our responsibilities as good ponies."

Indeed... if only more would follow his example.

Some time passed and I began to think, generally about what had happened thus far, Bob, the boat, the misunderstanding which has trapped me in here... but my thoughts eventually wandered to my gear, I began to wonder what the guards did with all the clothes they confiscated.

"I wonder what happened to my bags of supplies..." I muttered.

"They were confiscated. You'll probably never see them again." Manie told me.

"Maybe. I hope not. There were important things in it, there was a gift, from a friend in there."

"You mean the ecstasy?"

I gave her a look.

"I saw the note plastered on the bag." she explained.

"Who is 'Cake'?"

"A friend."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Tell me about her."

"I don't see how it is any of your business."

"Aw, don't be like that. We are all friends here, right?" she smiled.

"You are not going to let me keep anything to myself are you?"

"Nah." she laughed, I knew she was joking, but part of me wasn't so sure.

"It's not really a deep secret or anything."

"Cake was just a mare that I met on the train between Manehatten and Vanhoover. We had a nice talk. Nothing to it."

"What race was she?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, yeah, I want to know who wrote that tiny message."

"She was an earth pony."

"Wow, an earth pony? That's pretty impressive."

"That she was an earth pony or that she can write that small?"

"Gee, what do you think?"

"ATTENTION INMATES, PREPARE TO LEAVE THE ROOM." the hidden loudspeaker announced.

"THE DOOR WILL OPEN IN ONE MINUTE, WHEN IT DOES, PROCEED THROUGH IT IN AN ORDERLY LINE."

"YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO YOUR CELLS FOR THE NIGHT."

"DO NOT CAUSE ANY TROUBLE, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

I felt that the pony on the loudspeaker was having a bit too much fun with his job.

"This is it, I guess." I said.

"Finally." Blizzard Candy replied with eagerness.

"Don't be so happy about it, we will probably be sharing cells with the older cons. Remember the scene from earlier today?"

"Whatever, I just want to get out of this room."

After some time we were funneled through the one door, Strawberry Feather kept close to me after we got separated from the others, biting my tail when we began to drift apart and pushing his way through when somepony tried to get ahead of the line.

We were brought to a long multi-tier cellblock with 5 floors, there appeared to be at least 400 cells in the room of which over half were filled by the time me and Strawberry got there.

There must have been over a hundred jeering inmates cheering us on and taunting us with even more fish puns, many of them reached through the bars of their cells waving their hooves as us and attempting to grab any passerby's, we all did our best to ignore them.

The bottom cells through floor four were all filled, so me and Strawberry were directed to the topmost floor, the two of us got cells next to each other somewhere down the way along the catwalk close to one of the cellblock ends.

When the last of us had made it into a cell the guards shouted at the inmates to quiet down and the block fell into silence.

The guards spend a few minutes making sure that everyone were properly in their cells before a hidden officer somewhere on the bottom floor the all clear signal before heading downstairs, when all this is done an officer shouts from down below:

"LIGHTS OUT! Good night, ladies."

The lights bump off in sequence and the officer leaves, his hoofsteps echoing away in the cryptic silence of the cellblock.

I waited for a moment, taking in the cramped space of my own cell before beginning to prepare my bed.

As I did I began to hear ghastly tittering and muttering from below, voices, prisoners taunting the new arrivals.

I slowly went up and leaned on the bars of my cell, looking out into the dimly moonlit darkness of the cellblock.

"Fishee fishee fisheeee...." a deep voice whispered, "You're gonna like it here, new fish."

"A whooole lot..." another one whispers.

"Make you wish your daddies never dicked your mommies." The voice of a rugged sounding stallion was heard saying.

"You takin' this down, new fish? Gonna be a quiz later." one of the prisoners laughed out loud, his mean spirited laugh echoing through the block.

"Shhh! Keep it down! The screw'll hear..." the voice of a mare whispered.

"Fishee fishee fishee..."

I heard knocking on the wall to my left.

"Shapeshifter, you there?" the dark raspy voice of a stallion whispered to me, from the left, just high enough for me to hear and still low enough to keep it between the two of us.

He sounded like the kind of stallion with a century of experience in his voice, the descriptions 'seasoned' and 'wise' that Cake had attempted to give me came to mind.

"Who's asking?" I whispered back.

"Redding." the dark voice whispered.

"Nice place you got here, Redding. Do new arrivals always get the same welcoming party?"

"They always go fishin' with first timers... and they don't quit til' they reel someone in."

The voices keept on, slyly taunting us in the dark.

Some of the younger and more squeamish ponies were now beginning to break, some could be heard sobbing quietly in their cells, others could be heard pacing around, the clattering sound of their horseshoes audible on the cold cement floors.

"Lovely..." I replied.

I thought of Strawberry Feather, poor kid must have been horrified! How was he holding up?

I moved to the right side of my cell and leaned in as best I could to listen, I couldn't hear anything.

"Strawberry?" I whispered.

"Yeah?" he responded in a hushed voice.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay..."

"Don't let them get to you, that's what they want."

I waited but didn't get a response, I went back to the left side of my cell.

From just below us I could hear a raspy sounding stallion speak, he sounded as if he had throat cancer by how badly raspy his voice was.

"Fat ass... oh, faaaat ass." he called out.

Who was he referring to?

"Hey, Redding. Who is he talking to?"

"Chubby stallion, new guy down the bottom floor..."

I peeked out trying to make out shapes down below, but it was too dark to see anything.

"Talk to me, boy." the stallion continued, "I know you're in there. I can hear you breathin'."

I listened carefully, trying to make out the distinct noise of a pony hyperventilating in one of the cells below over the incessant hissing and tittering.

"Now don't you listen to these nitwits, ya hear?"

"This ain't such a bad place. I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home." he said.

The hyperventilating faded away.

Was he trying to console the pony?

"I know some big ol' bull queers who'd love to make your acquaintance... especially with that big white mushy butt of yours..."

I should have known.

The hyperventilating pony broke out into a bellowing cry and wailed out loudly in despair.

"OH CELESTIA! I DON'T BELONG HERE! I WANNA GO HOME!!" he cries out, he sounded really young and panicked.

The inmates all around the cellblock went nuts, the stallion from the cell below cheers out victorious.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!"

"AND IT'S FAT ASS, BY A NOSE!"

The entire cellblock starts chanting.

"Fresh fish, fresh fish, fresh fish, fresh fish..."

The crying stallion from the bottom floor cried out again.

"I WANNA GO HOME! I WANT MY MOTHER!"

A voice is heard down the cellblock saying nonchalantly,

"I had your mother! She wasn't all that great!"

The lights bump on around the cellblock and the sound of several officers coming in is heard down below, from where I was I could see two, but I knew there were more.

One of the officers had a particularly heavy step, his hoofsteps being heard audibly over the others.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPY SHIT!?" Captain Hudson bellowed, his anger echoing throughout the cellblock.

"He took Celestia's name in vain! I am tellin' the warden!" an inmate called out from our level.

"You'll be telling him with my baton up your ass!"

I could see the cell in which the crying pony from before was in, he was standing shaking by the bars looking really scared, the captain stormed up to his cell. He really did look a bit overweight.

"YOU GOTTA LET ME OUT OF HERE! YOU GOTTA!"

"What's your malfunction you fat fuckin' barrel of monkey spunk?"

"Please! I ain't supposed to be here! NOT ME!" he stallion cried out.

"Me neither!" another prisoner shouted from his cell, "They run this place LIKE A FUCKING PRISON!"

The captain looked up trying to determine where it had come from, but turned back to the cell.

"I ain't gonna count to three! I ain't even gonna count to one! Now you shut the fuck up before I sing you a lullaby!"

"Please...! Please! There's been a mistake! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

The overweight stallion went crazy with panic and started blubbering and wailing.

The captain drew his baton and flicked it on with a quick ZAP! gesturing at his men to open the cell.

The cell door pulled open and the captain reached in, yanked the stallion out of his cell and immediately began to violently beat him with his baton, brutally raining blows, sending electric shocks through his shivering body.

The cellblock went completely dead silent, the inmates all just watched the captain mercilessly beat the life out of the broken stallion, he squirmed and whimpered under the beating.

The captain kept beating and beating up until the baton ran out of charges, at which point the captain paused looking dumbstruck at the baton before resuming the beating.

All that was heard now was the THWACK-THWACK-THWACK of the uncharged baton landing blows on the stallion.

The stallion passed out on his back and began to bleed profoundly from his ears, captain Hudson got a few short kicks in before stopping the abuse.

He sheathed his baton and adjusted his hat slightly before looking up high at the cells, for a brief second the two of us looked eye to eye.

"If I hear as much as a MOUSE fart in here for the rest of the night, by Celestia and Luna merciful, you'll ALL visit the infirmary. EVERY LAST MOTHERFUCKER IN HERE."

"Call the trustees, get this tub of shit down to the infirmary." he muttered to his guards as he walked away.

Two of the guards go up to the unconscious stallion and grab him by his legs, as they drag him out of the cellblock the lights bump off again and darkness befalls the cellblock.

Nopony said a word for the rest of the night.

Brothers and Sisters

Early in the morning a loud alarm went off, waking everypony up.

Disgruntled complaints were heard all around the cellblock as everyone yawningly got up on their hooves.

I didn't feel very tired, I had been given plenty of time to rest the days prior on the way here and the potion I had been given yesterday made me feel rejuvenated.

I went up to my cell bars and looked out down below, there was a small pool of dried blood where the stallion had fallen last night.

"Another day, another rough awakening." Redding was yawning from his cell.

"You up, Shapeshifter?"

"I'm up." I replied.

"What happens now?"

"Morning routine. It's time for breakfast.."

I didn't say anything in response, but breakfast sounded nice.

I could really go for something to eat, I hadn't eaten in... two? Maybe three days?

It was hard to tell, I barely remembered that the last thing I had eaten was a bundle of thistles back in Vanhoover which I had bought while walking around, and that wasn't a very fulfilling meal to begin with.

"So what is the deal with that shapeshifing of yours?" Redding asked me.

I probably shouldn't tell him where I got the suit, or who I worked for.

I doubted the inmates here would be so lenient if they knew that they had a CP officer in their midst.

"Why do you care, Redding?"

“Because it will be to your advantage.”

“How so?”

“You’ll soon see that things are… bad in here."

"Surely you have heard of what happens in the kingdoms prisons?”

"Not really..." but I could guess.

"This place is a zoo. In here, anything guess as long as you don't break the one rule of New Prospect: no killing or crippling of fellow inmates. For as long as you can walk, see, hear and hold tools, the guards wont lift as much as a hoof to help you."

"In here everyone are left to roam mostly free all day, and all day long rape, violence and other nastiness happens."

This would be problematic, I had Nurse Swirly, Strawberry Feather and Manie Manie to worry about now, I needed to get back in touch with Blizzard Candy, Brook Cotton and... Rainbow Sea, if he would be willing to help, to protect them.

"What was this about 'bull queer' I heard yesterday?"

"Stallions who tick on stallions, if you get what I mean."

"I see..."

"I suppose it wouldn't help if I told them I'm not homosexual..." I guessed.

"Neither are they. You need to have soul for that."

"They don't."

"Explain."

"They are cruel soulless bastards, as you'll soon find out."

"Bull queers take by force, that's all they want or understand."

"I'd grow eyes in the back of my head if I were you."

"Word of advice? Don't get caught alone, stay in public crowded areas, don't go anywhere on your own. If you see somepony keeping an eye on you, stay as far away from them as you can."

Reminds me a lot of the advice I gave Cake regarding Civil Protection and it's abusive officers.

"Thanks for the advice."

"That comes free. But you understand my concern."

I did.

I would do best to pass this on to the others.

"About my shapeshifting..."

"Yes?"

"How would that be an advantage to me?"

"If you pass it off as a disease, others might just leave you alone. Or at least, they won't... 'get to you'."

"Makes sense, I guess."

"I like you, shapeshifter. You seem different from the usual newcomers."

"How would you like to join us for breakfast?"

"Who are 'us'?"

"Me and the gang. You'll see."

"Don't worry, we don't bite."

“I don’t know Redding…”

“Please. Call me Red.”

“Okay. ‘Red’.”

“I sort of need to look after somepony… some-ponies actually. I didn't come here alone.”

“Who are you looking after?”

"Six ponies."

“But most importantly, a kid, from the cell next to mine… he is… shall we say... under my responsibility…”

“Pink colt? 6 years old?”

Well observed Red, nothing seemed to slip by him.

“I am purple actually” Strawberry Feather was heard calling from the right.

Red laughed, "I like you kid." he called back.

“Hey it’s alright, bring him with you, the guys won’t mind.”

“I’ll take your word for it then, Red.”

"I notice that you are very observant. Perhaps you could help me find the others?"

"What do they look like?"

"There are five of them."

"One earth pony mare, completely black, white outlines."

"One unicorn mare, white coat, caramel mane."

"And three earth pony stallions, one southern farmer looking type, dark gray coat, white mane."

"Second one is a bit more than a kid, blue coat and cobalt mane."

"Third is entirely green, the acid bright kind of green. He should stick out fairly easily."

"Already found three of them."

"You did?"

"Look ahead, just down below."

I checked the cells opposite to me, carefully scanning them cell by cell.

Then I saw them, Brook Cotton and Nurse Swirly, on the third tier, cells next to each other.

Blizzard Candy was on the fourth floor a few cells right of the two.

They hadn't seen me, probably.

They were all minding their own business, Brook was leaning back against the wall by his bed yawning, Swirly was looking at the wall of her cell grooming her mane (there must have been a mirror in her cell judging by the way she kept focused on the wall), Blizzard wasn't doing anything.

A loud buzzer buzzed throughout the cellblock, the master locks were thrown off and the cell doors all pulled open in a synchronized KA-THUMP!

"This is it, step out of the cell and look inconspicuous." Red instructed.

The inmates all stepped out of their cells out of sheer routine, it took some time before many of the new arrivals stepped out of their cells, when they did they came out shivering out of fear for what was to happen, this was just as alien to them as it was to me.

"Sweet Heavens." Strawberry whispered to me.

"Yes?"

"What's 'inconspicuous'?"

"It means 'don't do anything that stands out'."

"Oh."

"I can do that."

Yes, yes you can little one.

The cellblock was soon filled with guards, there was a guard on every tier counting the number of inmates per floor.

Sometimes an inmate would be missing and the guard would walk up and into the cell to drag out the pony inside with force before returning to count the rest of the ponies.

When they finished counting they gave the total headcount to a sergeant down below who then jolted down the numbers on a clipboard.

I looked to my left, wanting to see what this 'Red' guy I had been speaking to looked like.

Red, or Redding, was a rugged looking old earth pony stallion with a very deep brown coat, his short mane appeared black but had noticeable streaks of white in it.

He wore a very ragged looking set of prison clothes and had somehow procured a gray beret and a blue jeans jacket, both of which looked just as rugged and consumed as him.

How long had he been in here? I wondered.

He noticed me looking towards him and nodded hastily to me to look straight ahead as to not draw attention to myself, really fucking easy with the way my appearance sticks out like a sore hoof.

I looked briefly to my right at Strawberry Feather, he looked tired, but seemed otherwise okay; he was blankly staring forward and showed no emotion that would indicate concern or fright for his situation whatsoever.

Tough kid.

Then I looked forward finding the cells of my other group members.

Brook spotted me just as I found him, he looked up and nodded discretely at me, I nodded back.

He leaned in to whisper something to Nurse Swirly who then looked up and smiled at me, she tried to wave at me but Brook stopped her by barring her hoof quickly and shaking his head at her.

The guards finished their headcount and the sergeant below signaled for everyone to get moving, the entire cellblock cleared out in an orderly and organized manner, there was hardly any arguing or fighting in the line, everypony just wanted to get their breakfast and be over with it.

The long congo line of inmates led into the prison's mess hall, it looked big enough for 500 ponies, but it was hard to tell with the crowd that was there when we arrived.

The mess hall was... well.. messy.

Seated by long tables were prisoners of varying age, gender, color and appearance, chatting, joking, smoking and eating.

Around the edges of the room, by the mostly empty tables were the new arrivals who sat by themselves glooming and melancholy, they picked at the food as if there was something wrong with it, one of the ponies I saw was staring at his spoon green with disgust.

At the lunch line I noticed that Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy had somehow ended up only a few ponies behind the three of us, there was no sight of Nurse Swirly but I assumed that she was further back behind the line.

Strawberry Feather kept close to me and was right behind me, behind him was a creepy looking old stallion with crazed looking eyes and patchy thin mane, he looked frail and bruised, his patchy hair seemed really greasy as if someone had cooked bacon in his hair earlier this morning.

As the line moved along the creepy stallion taps Strawberry Feather on his shoulder.

"Hello little one," the creepy pony said, "Are you here all alone?"

Strawberry Feather didn't respond to him and just looked in front of him, ignoring the creep.

"Ah, I see, the quiet type. I like that."

"Perhaps you would like to make a friend, little one?"

"I got some candy back at my cell that I would just love to share with you..."

Fucking pedophile scum.

Before I had turned around to say something Brook and Blizzard had already cut ahead of the line and restrained the creep who yelped and tried to get out of the grip, but his frail physique was no match against Brook's strength and while Brook kept him locked Blizzard Candy punched the old creep right on the nose, breaking it.

A cascade of blood seeped out of his nose as he fell screaming in pain on the dirty floor.

The lunch line was broken and the inmates gathered around the creep silently looking down at him, two guards came pushing through the crowd to see what was going on.

“*And what the fuck is going on here?*” one of the officers queried with a menacing and demanding tone.

“This creep here was making advances on our Strawberry Feather.” Brook explained daringly, pointing to the silent purple young colt.

The officer glanced at Strawberry Feather briefly and then down at the creep.

“*Got ourselves a colt cuddling little stallion, eh? You fuckers make me sick.*” the officer said disgusted.

“*Stand up.*” the guard demanded.

The creep didn't move.

“*Stand up or I will shove my baton so far up your arse that your dead mother will squirt.*”

The creep shakingly stands up, clutching his bleeding nose.

The guard pulls out his baton and forcibly shoves the creep’s hoof off his nose to get a better look, then, using the baton, he tilts the stallions head left, right and then up, carefully observing the wound.

“*Just a broken nose, he can still work.*” the officer determines before jabbing the creep in the stomach with the butt of the baton, making him retch and fall over. He turns to his companion while sheathing his baton.

“*Katz, call someone to cart this asshole to the infirmary. And have someone get this cleaned up before somepony slips on it.*”

Then the officer turns to Brook and points menacingly with his hoof.

“*You should consider yourself lucky as fuck that the only thing you broke was his nose. There is a death penalty for crippling or killing fellow prisoners, can’t use you scumfucks if you are dead or limbless can we?*”

“*If I catch you breaking the order in the line again I’ll personally come over and thump your skull like a fucking egg. Have I been clear enough?*”

“Yes…” Brook mutters.

“*Yes what?*”

“Yes sir?”

“*Good. Now get in line for your morning grub, fucknuts.*”

The two officers leave and the ponies reform the line.

“Asshole…” Brook Cotton muttered as the officers left.

Without protest the others in line simply let Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy settle in with the three of us.

We were given some sort of gray-yellowish slob with white bits in it and a glass of water, that was our breakfast for the day.

As Red was about to lead us to his usual table Brook and Blizzard caught up.

"Uh, mind if we join you guys?" Brook asked.

Red looked at me.

"Are these your guys?"

"Yep." I confirmed.

He looked back at the two.

"Sure thing, follow me."

As we made our way through the maze of tables and eating ponies Brook muttered to me.

"We are still missin' Swirly, Manie and Rainbow Sea."

"What happened to Swirly? I saw her with you just earlier."

"We got split up."

"We need to find her, and Manie fast. This place isn't safe for them to go around on their own."

"I hear ya."

We got to the table where his gang was seated, there was only room for three ponies at the table, but on Red's arrival the table next to theirs quickly cleared, leaving room for Brook and Blizzard.

Red took his seat between two similarly looking ragged stallions, both wearing caps, me and Strawberry were instructed to sit in between a big buff stallion with several deep old scars over his face and a middle aged mare who had her yellow mane tied up in a ragged old blue bow.

They were all busy eating when we took our seats, deeply concentrated in trying to swallow the disgusting looking grub.

I took a spoonful of my own food and spotted something squirming in it just as I was about to eat it, I brought it up close to get a better look, it was a white worm.

"Is that... a worm?" They put worms in our food?" I was mildly disgusted.

The stallion sitting just right of Red looked up at me, as soon as he saw me he dropped his spoon into the mushy grub and stared at me in surprise with his jaw open.

"The shapeshifter!" he exclaimed in a very raspy voice, I recognized it, it was the stallion that had taunted the chubby stallion the night before.

I felt someone tap me on my back, I turned to look who it was.

It was an elderly frail looking stallion wearing a jacket, he had a pale brown coat and silvery gray mane.

He shakingly reached out a hoof at me.

"Are you... are you gonna eat that?" he asked almost gasping.

I looked at my spoon.

"You mean... the worm?"

"Yes."

"I... hadn't planned on it, no."

"Can I have it?"

"Sure..." I said, carefully picking the worm out with my hoof and giving it to the elderly stallion, who greedily snatched it.

He opened his jacket revealing a small chirping black baby bird, he gave the worm to the bird which devoured it and swallowed the worm whole.

"Th-this here is Jake. I am taking care of him til' he is old enough to fly." he explained, giving me a weary smile.

I gave him a nod and turned back to my table.

They all stared at me, well, almost everyone, Strawberry Feather was busy passively eating the pulpy yellow mass on his plate, not caring what he was eating and not paying attention to his companions.

"Who are you?" the raspy stallion asked me.

"My name is Sweet Heavens." I introduced myself.

"This is Strawberry Feather."

"And our companions are Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy." I signaled towards the two who nodded back at us.

"Sweet Heavens? T-that is the girliest name for a stallion I've ever heard of."

"Thanks. My dead mother gave it to me."

"Luna bless her soul..." he responded, looking down to eat his grub in shame.

"So who are you guys then?"

Redding hints to the left of him, where a similarly aged ragged stallion sits, his coat is black, his mane is light brown, shifting into streams of white and silvery gray, he appears to have a stubby scruff of grayish white beard on his chin and cheeks.

“This here is Randy. Been in here almost as long as me.”

Randy gives a quick nod before resuming eating.

Red signals to the right of  me, where the buff stallion is sitting

The stallion reassembled more of a horse than a pony, his face appeared longer and slimmer, his eyes appeared smaller and his ears seem longer somehow, his neck was significantly longer and more muscular than ours.

Yep, he was definitely a horse alright.

Horses aren’t entirely unheard of in pony society, but they were few and far in between.

The stallion’s coat was that of a rocky gray, his mane was gleaming white, his muscular body bore several large scars, the coloring of his coat mixed with his buff sturdy physique and the scars made him seem more like a living statue than a horse.

He wore a belt with some smaller pouches around his waist.

“That’s Floyd, he is tough as a rock, and damn near looks like one too. He used to be in the Infantry. Came to us a few years ago.”

Next pony up was the mare to the left of Strawberry Feather, who was observing Strawberry Feather eat.

It kinda looked like she wanted to hug him, but she didn’t.

Her mane, was as mentioned, yellow, her coat was purple, to about the same degree as Strawberry Feather’s.

She wore a torn jacket.

Out of sheer curiosity I leaned back slightly to have a look at her flank.

Interestingly her cutiemark was that of a pink bird, I wasn't sure if this was connected to Strawberry's pink feather or if it was just a coincidence.

“This is Grayheart.”

“Hello.” She greeted gently.

“What’s with the nickname? If you don’t mind me asking.” Sweet Heavens asks.

“The guys joked about me being cold and distant, so I ended up with this name. Gray-Heart, as in heart of stone, emotionless.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“Eh, I don’t really mind. I think it suits me.”

“What is your real name then?”

“I’d rather not say…”

“Oh, okay. Sorry for asking.”

She gave me a weak smile to show that it was alright, and then looked down at Strawberry Feather again in an almost motherly way.

Red then put a hoof on the raspy pony to the right of him, who smiled widely at us revealing a yellow and broken smile.

This stallion seemed considerably younger than the others in the group, but still looked very worn out, he had a short pale yellow mane and a light beige coat.

Red sighed deeply.

“This, this merry fucker is Heywood.” He says.

"And do you know why I am merry?"

"No. Wh-" I began.

"Don't encourage him or we'll never hear the end of it." Red interrupted.

"Alright guys, you know the deal, hand them over."

“Son of a bitch.” Randy mutters as he pulls out a pack of cigarettes.

Floyd and Grayheart do the same, each giving him five cigarettes each, which he lined up neatly in a row.

“Lucky fuck.” Red says as he gives his share of cigarettes, Heywood adds these final to the row and then bows his head and inhales deeply, smelling the sickening aroma of the cigarettes.

“Hmmmmmm… Baltimerian.” He says.

“Smell my ass.” Floyd mutters to him, annoyed.

“Hmm, wait a second.” Heywood says.

He grabs one specific cancer stick from the row and sniffs it deeply.

“This one is from Dodge City, hah!  I am savoring this for later!”

“You are really enjoying this, aren’t you Heywood?” Red says.

“Hell yeah! Terrible shame though, Red, your horse comin’ in last and all.”

With a big grin he looks at Strawberry Feather who looked up startled by the yellow wide smile.

“That kid has some balls, that’s for sure.”

“What? What do you mean?” Strawberry Feather wondered, not having followed the conversation.

“They all bet against you, kid. Thanks to you I won all these here cigarettes!”

“Eh… you did what?”

“Sorry. We really expected you to break first. The young colts and fillies always do…” Grayheart apologized.

“Here kid, take some, you deserve ‘em.” Heywood said as he passed over 5 cigarettes to Strawberry Feather, who just stared at them confused.

“I… don’t smoke…”

Heywood grinned at the young colt again.

“Don’t have to. Currency.”

Heywood bundled the cigarettes together and stuck them in an empty pack which he drew from a pocket, he tucked the packet back in his pocket and resumed eating.

“Hell, I sure do love that horse of mine. I believe I owe that boy a big sloppy kiss when I see him!”

“Give him some of your cigarettes instead, cheap bastard.”

“Know what? I might just do that.”

Heywood leaned back towards the table behind him and lightly taped a white mare on the shoulder.

“Hey Tyra, you pull infirmary duty this week?”

“I always do Heywood.” The mare replied without turning to look at him, “I am a fucking nurse.”

“How’s that winnin’ horse of mine?”

The mare drops her spoon and turns to look at Heywood over her shoulder.

“Dead.”

Heywood turned pale and serious.

“No…”

“Hudson busted his head pretty good. The doc had already quit for the day so there was nopony to stop the bleeding in his brain. Poor bastard lay there until this morning. By then… well…”

The mare shook her head and turned back to her food.

Slowly Heywood glanced back and gloomily resumed eating, the others did the same.

Softly, Blizzard Candy asked,

“What was his name?”

“What? What’d you say?” Heywood irritatingly replied.

“I was wondering if anypony knew his name...” Blizzard repeated.

“What the fuck do you care, new fish?” Heywood responded.

“Doesn’t matter what his fuckin’ name was. He’s dead.”

Nopony says anything for the rest of the breakfast.

After the breakfast we had split up, the four of us had to find the others before something bad happened to them, I was confident that Rainbow Sea would be able to handle himself, but I knew for a fact that Nurse Swirly was defenseless and that Manie Manie, despite her defensive attitude would be a huge target, the two were just rape victims waiting to happen.

We had to find them, and fast, that was the main priority right now.

There were no mandatory jobs in New Prospect Prison, while still a prison, it was mostly intended as a transfer and processing facility where convicted felons from the mainland are sent to be organized into work groups who are then sent out to perform dangerous and physically straining labors all over the frontier.

From what I gathered the convicts here were released at random and sent to reinforce settlements who had sustained work force losses, as such, some inmates had been in here for years and others for only a few weeks.

During the day the prisoners of New Prospect were free to roam about as they wished and were are pretty much free to go to whichever cellblock they wanted and do whatever they want (which again, was as long as it didn’t involve the crippling or killing of other ponies), there were multiple shower blocks and mess halls throughout the prison which were always open (the mess halls only served food at certain times however).

This was a problem for us, as the prison was huge and held thousands of ponies, and Nurse Swirly and Manie Manie could be anywhere.

We went out to one of the main dirt courtyards and almost immediately stumbled across Nurse Swirly who looked slightly shaken up.

"Swirly!" Strawberry Feather called to her, running up to to give her a hug.

"Strawberry! I am so glad I found you guys!" she said in relief.

"We were looking for you, are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yes, thankfully."

"The cons in here are nothing but a bunch of perverts and grabby hooves!"

"I've been groped seven times this morning, SEVEN times."

"That's bad..."

"Yeah." she looked at the group.

"Where is Manie?"

"I was actually just about to ask you the same thing."

"I thought she was with you guys."

"We need to find her quickly."

"No kidding!"

"The inmates here will eat her alive!"

Poor choice of words.

"Do you have any idea where she could be?"

"No, I haven't seen her. Not since last night."

"Do you at least know if she was in the same cellblock as us?"

"I think so, I mean, she was in the same group so she must be."

"No," Brook inserted, "Some of 'em got diverted 't another cellblock."

"Ah think Rainbow Sea and Manie both got diverted."

"That is bad news then..." I said.

I thought about the situation.

We had found Swirly, so she was taken care of.

But now we had two defenseless ponies to worry about, and there were only three of us capable of defending them, if we split up they would likely end up getting attacked and overpowered, so there had to be at least two of us remaining with them while one of us went to look for Rainbow and Manie.

"Okay... look."

"Brook and Blizzard Candy will stay with you and Strawberry, you guys need to stick together at all times, if any of you need to go to the bathroom or elsewhere you need to go with them, do not split up."

"And try to stay in this courtyard, we have a larger chance of stumbling across them if you stay here and keep an eye out."

"What about you?" Brook wondered.

"I will go and search Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie. If I don't come back do NOT go look for me."

"Got that?"

"Yes, stick together, don't leave the group. Got it."

"Alright... I'll be back as soon as I find them."

"Good luck."

Yeah, luck, I would need it.

I was searching for needles in a haystack here.

Several hours had passed now and it was nearing lunch time, inmates had begun making their way to the mess halls which left most of the prison almost empty, only the bravest, meanest or the dumbest were still sticking around the more secluded areas.

I was beginning to feel worried sick and I didn't even know why, neither of the ponies I were looking for had had a particularly friendly stance against me, one uncovered me and tried to turn the others against me, and one despised me.

But damn it, they were still my responsibility, I promised that I would let them choose their own path once we were on our own, not that I'd be abandoning them for their choice and leaving them to get horribly abused in this fucking hole.

I'd be damned if I were to just leave them like that! I had to find them!

I rushed through the corridor leading to a cellblock that I had already been through twice, just as I rounded a corner I briefly spotted Rainbow Sea's green tail and cutiemark way down the hallway, it quickly disappeared, I galloped down the corridor to catch up with him but he was gone, he had proceeded further into the prison through several identical looking corridors leading to various storage and supply rooms, most of them were dimly lit and had pipes running along the ceiling.

I ran around the corridors like an idiot for fifteen minutes until I found a corridor filled with steam, the pipes running along the ceiling were hot, I could hear running water down the corridor.

The shower rooms, there was someone there and using it right now.

I went down the corridor, keeping a slow pace as to not give away my position in case the pony using the showers wasn't who I thought it would be, I approached and went inside a locker room which had several rows of lockers and benches.

Why there were lockers in a prison shower room intended for inmates is beyond me, but they were there nonetheless.

I could hear talking inside the shower room proper.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you here and now." Rainbow Sea said.

"Please Rainbow, listen to me. I had to do it, there wasn't a choice!" Manie Manie responded, she sounded nervous.

"There WAS a choice, your life isn't worth that of 58 fucking ponies Manie, you should have accepted what was coming to you!"

I heard trotting coming from the corridors outside.

"I think he went this way." a stallion said.

Shit.

Someone must have followed me.

I scurried towards the back of the locker room.

The door was kicked open and the sound of several pairs of hooves were heard stepping inside the room.

"Well, where is he?" a mare said.

"Hshh!" they stood perfectly still in silence, they heard Manie Manie and Rainbow Sea in the shower rooms, the two had also gone silent having heard this group of inmates enter the changing room.

I heard the inmates go towards the shower room.

"WELL HELLO! LOOK WHAT WE GOT HERE!" one of them called out from the shower room.

"THIS IS BETTER THAN THE SHAPESHIFTER, THIS IS A REAL JACKPOT!"

I peeked out from around the lockers in the back, there was nopony on the right side, I did the same for the left, there was no one there either, they had all gone inside the shower room.

"Take her," Rainbow Sea said warily, "I am not looking for any trouble."

I went closer.

"That's to bad! Because trouble found you!"

I peered inside, sticking just enough of my face around the door frame to see them.

They all had their backs turned to me, there were 3 inmates, two stallions and one mare, surrounding Rainbow Sea.

Manie Manie was cornered in one of the shower booths by the four ponies.

"Stay away from me." Rainbow Sea warned.

"Get them!" the mare ordered, the three jumped Rainbow Sea, he was outnumbered and was knocked back almost instantly.

Manie Manie tried to use the opportunity to escape but she slipped on the water running along the floor and fell flat on her belly next to one of the stallions, who immediately seized her.

The entire group turned towards me and I leaned back in just before they saw me.

My heart was racing.

What was I going to do?

I was outnumbered 3 to 1.

But they were both in trouble, I had to do something!

"NONONONONONONONONO! DON'T! DON'T!" Manie cried out.

I peeked back in to see what was going on.

The mare was holding Rainbow Sea down.

The two stallions were busy with Manie, holding her above the floor by her legs, the stallion holding her rear legs had his waist between her legs.

"Damn it, it wont-"

"You can't force it like that, you need to rub it first or it wont go." the second stallion said.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were talking about, I had to act immediately, and fast.

Without really thinking my strategy through I charged out from my hiding spot right at the two stallions, just as I closed in I slipped on the water and slid full force into the first stallions rear legs.

Standing on two legs and on a slippery surface, the stallion fell over like a bowling pin, landing face first against the floor in a forceful thud.

The sudden loss of balance and with Manie slipping from the first stallions grasp the second stallion slipped and fell, hitting his head against the cemented tile wall of the shower both and dropping Manie on her back, the stallion began to bleed from his head and blacked out.

The mare had no idea what to do, being busy locking Rainbow Sea down and now having to deal with me getting up at her as well.

But as I got up I was tripped and fell with a smack against the wet floor, just short of Rainbow Sea's rear hoof, I looked back and saw that the first stallion hadn't been knocked out and had grabbed onto my rear leg as I was about to get up.

"I LIKE IT WHEN THEY FIGHT!" the stallion taunted me, grinning widely.

I tried to loosen his grip on my leg by kicking but I couldn't manage a good hit.

"LET FUCKING GO OF ME!" I growled at him.

The stallion wobbled up and was about to take a step towards me when he was tripped by Manie, he landed on top of her rear leg and she yelped in pain, having gotten the full weight of the stallion on her leg.

Being tripped made the stallion lose his grip on my rear leg, this gave me the opportunity to stand back up and gain the advantage on him, but just as I was about to stand over him I was tripped yet again.

This time by the mare who in an act of utter stupidity had gotten off Rainbow Sea to help the stallion in fighting me, she laid flat on her belly on the floor holding onto my rear leg with both her forehooves, Rainbow Sea gave her a strong kick in the rear from where he laid which made her loosen the grip on my leg and turn back around.

The second stallion was beginning to quicken up and recover but Manie had managed to aim a strong punch at his groin, which made him fall over nauseated.

The first stallion had during this time managed to aim a forceful kick right at my face, I narrowly avoided breaking my nose by tilting my head downwards, the kick landed right on my forehead which made me feel disoriented.

Manie managed to pull herself up in a sitting position and punched the stallion right in his right eye giving him a significant horseshoe shaped black eye.

"YOU BITCH, YOU BLINDED ME!" he grunted.

I pulled myself up at him and landed a heavy hit in his stomach with my elbow which made him wheeze for air, at this point he lost the brawl and desperately tried to flail his legs at the two of us, but we were at a significant advantage against him and managed to knock him out by hitting him in the face repeatedly. But not before he landed a good left hoof right in my left eye.

We pulled the stallion off Manie's leg and turned to help Rainbow Sea, but he had already overpowered the mare and knocked her out just as we looked toward them.

He had a bruised jaw, black eye and was bleeding from his nose.

"Thank Luna you found me!" Manie cried out to me.

"You can thank her later, we need to get the hell out of here!"

And so we got up and ran.

We ran and ran, putting as much distance between us and that shower room as our legs allowed us.

"You did WHAT?!" Red said in surprise.

He looked very serious and grave, he hadn't reacted well when I had told him about the fight.

We were all sharing two tables in the mess hall, everyone were gathered around Red, Manie and me listening to what had happened.

"We won out of sheer luck, I would never have stood a chance against them if they hadn't-"

"Do you have ANY idea what you even did?" Red interrupted.

"I defended my own people,"

'My own people' who the hell did I think I was?

I was referring to the six of them like some glorified shepherd.

"What the fuck was I supposed to do? Just leave them?"

"He saved me, Red. They were about to... rape me." Manie said softly.

Red glared at her.

"That would have been better than what you just did."

"No one screws with the Sisters, when they want something you let them take it. It's that simple."

"You can't really mean that."

"How can anypony say something like that." Manie was visibly hurt.

"You don't get it." Red stressed.

"You have flipped the balance of power in here, things are going to go really bad, really fast in here, it is just a question of who will make the first move."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Grayheart and Floyd leaned in.

"There are two sorts of ponies in New Prospect," Grayheart began, "the Sisters, and everyone else."

"The Sisters are the dominant group in here, they rule everything, they own everything, they are second only to the guards."

"For years the Sisters have ruled unchallenged, anypony who stood up against them would wound up 'missing', until recently when another group began to form against the sisters, calling themselves 'the Brothers' to mock them."

"The Brothers draw a lot of their support from new arrivals such as yourselves and never hesitate to stand up for their own."

"Okay. And what does this have to do with us?"

"Don't you get it?"

"The Sisters are going to attack you in force for what you did, and the Brothers will be backing you up."

"What this means is that the prison is now risking an open war between the Sisters and the Brothers, when the fighting starts those who aren't part of either group will choose one during the fighting, there will be those who side with the Sisters to get on their good side and those who side with the Brothers to get protection."

"This is a fight that involves everyone, it will be a full scale riot." Floyd explained.

This was ridiculous.

"ALL THIS just because we defended ourselves?" I said in disbelief.

"It's a thing that has been going on for some time now, in a snowball effect." Grayheart said.

"The snowball can roll and roll down a slope, but eventually it has to hit something and break apart..." she gestured, rolling up an invisible snowball with her hooves and making it fall apart.

"YOU are that something, and now everything will break apart."

"When?"

"Depends how quick the news travel." Red said.

I looked around us, the tables adjacent to ours had all been vacated.

This did not bode well for us.

We had nowhere to go, all we could do was wait and hope.

It was now evening, and the sun was setting.

Serious tension was in the air all over the prison, ponies had begun to keep to themselves and dividing into groups, ponies all around were whispering and giving each other suspicious looks as they walked past each other and brooded in the corners.

Something was definitely going down this evening, it was only a question of time.

During the afternoon a gang of twenty ponies had approached us, at first I had thought that they had been Sister hit-men, but they had identified themselves as leading members of the Brothers and had wanted to thank me for doing what I did.

I had asked if it was possible to avoid the conflict altogether, but they had said that it wasn't possible, stating that the Sisters were planning an attack on me.

They had offered to guard me and my group of six, and now we were idly waiting around in a mess hall which had been claimed by the Brothers, there were roughly a hundred or so other inmates in here with us, all of which were apparently either part of or supporters of the Brothers.

Grayheart and Floyd were also with us, Red, Randy and Heywood wanted no part of what was to happen and had went back to their cells to wait it all out.

Frankly I was surprised that the guards hadn't done or said anything, there was no way they could have missed what was going on.

We were all a bit nervous, none of us wanted this, I never intended for this to happen.

Manie had gotten over the rape attempt on her surprisingly quick, but she had kept a wide berth from Rainbow Sea ever since we made it back to the group, even now the two were tables away, with Rainbow Sea preferring to be on his own than with us.

I knew that something was going on between the two, I had heard Rainbow Sea threaten to kill Manie in the shower rooms and something about her life not being worth that of 58 ponies.

I connected this with Manie's crime, the 58 ponies must have been the pilots of the Air Force helicopters.

Rainbow Sea had mentioned something yesterday about losing his brother and sister in Manie's betrayal, which was probably his motive for wanting to kill her.

I hadn't brought it up or said anything about it as I honestly didn't know what to say about it.

I didn't know enough about it to neither condone or condemn Manie's actions, yes, it was a horrible crime that cost the life of innocents, but it wasn't the kind of thing you'd do for laughs, she must have had a reason for it.

If we survived the night and the opportunity come I'd be sure to ask her about it to clear things up between us.

But for now, we had an impending riot to worry about.

Blizzard Candy was shaking, yet he had been the most eager to get going when we had been waiting around yesterday.

"Blizzard." I called.

"Y-yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"I'm just feeling a bit cold."

Odd, we had a perfect room temperature in here, despite the size of the room.

"Strange, I don't feel cold. Does anyone else feel cold?"

"Maybe he is sick." Nurse Swirly suggested.

"It is normal to feel cold before a battle." Floyd said.

We looked at the statuesque stallion.

"It's called 'nervousness'."

"The boy is just afraid."

"I'm not nervous!" Blizzard protested.

Nurse Swirly went up to him and put a hoof on his forehead.

"He doesn't have a fever."

"Not nervous eh?" Floyd said.

"Hold out a leg before you, son."

Blizzard did as instructed and held out his right foreleg.

It was shaking visibly, he saw this and held out his other leg, which was also shaking.

He tried to control the shaking but couldn't do it.

"Okay so I am feeling a bit scared."

"But is it really wrong for me to feel that?"

"Of course not, don't be silly."

"Everyone can be scared sometimes." Nurse Swirly reassured him.

"Sometimes you need to gather courage and be strong, because fear breeds weakness, and weakness puts yourself and others at risk when going up against the enemy. Be it an armed opponent, a wild animal or even an environmental hazard, like a fire." Floyd said, speaking wisely out of experience.

Something about it made me think about Cake Frosting, the way she had described Infantry's doctrine, the belief that it was better to have a small elite force than a big regular one, because anything less than the best of the best would allow room for weakness which would compromise and put your fellow soldiers...

Then it struck me, Floyd had been in the Infantry according to Red.

"Tell me about the Infantry, Floyd." I asked him.

The stone faced stallion simpered.

"I have left those days behind me."

"Any particular reason?"

"Yes."

He paused.

"They didn't like the way I dealt with disagreements during planning sessions."

"Which was?"

"Beating my fellow field commanders into submission." Floyd grinned.

"So you were an officer within Infantry?"

"I was. A colonel."

"They promoted me on account of me being a horse."

"What? They made you colonel for being a horse?" Brook Cotton said.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Infantry likes to have a varied chain of command, because different races think in different ways and come up with different strategies for the same scenario."

So what Cake said about that had been true.

"Back when I was in Infantry we had all sorts of races commanding the army, aside from the three races of pony, we had minotaurs, alicorns and a bunny."

"A... a BUNNY?" Brook didn't believe it, just like I hadn't when Cake told me.

"A bunny." Floyd repeated.

"I heard that it was a rabbit." I said.

Floyd smiled.

"That's silly, rabbits are just dumb animals."

"Who told you that?"

"Cake Frosting, an Infantry private I spoke to before-" careful Tombs.

"A few days before being arrested."

Manie's eyes widened.

"Really? You never told me she was an Infantry mare."

"It's not important."

"I guess not. I am just surprised that a soldier from Infantry, can write that small."

"Why is that surprising? It's a skill you learn like any other."

"No Sweet Heavens... Infantry soldiers are... different in that regard."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Ah hang on a second, she does actually have a point..." Floyd said.

"Infantry soldiers aren't exactly known for their grace and precision... in fact, I don't think any of the troops I met could write their names clearly. Are you sure it was an Infantry mare?"

What the hell were they talking about?

What was this stupid shit about?

"I think you are screwing with me, this is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard."

"Oh it's no joke I assure you. They are really imprecise."

"Worst part is, it extends to their aim as well. They are all terrible shots, well, most of them anyway."

"Are you serious? The best infantry ground force in the world is composed mainly of soldiers who have terrible aim?"

"Do you even realize how retarded that sounds?"

"I thought so too at first, but then I arranged a shooting competition for the entire regiment I was in charge of."

"In the shooting competition you needed to hit 30 out of 100 targets to gain the lowest acceptable score to be eligible for the leaderboard. The targets were set to be exactly 100 meters away, which isn't all that hard to hit with the kind of weapons we had."

"If I remember correctly, around 1600 soldiers participated."

"How many of these do you think hit over 50 targets?"

My god, he was serious wasn't he.

"Were they really that bad? Fine then, I guess a thousand?"

"Exactly 274."

"What."

"Of the remaining 1300-what-it-was around 200 scored between 30-49 hits, 600 scored 20-30 hits, 300 scored between 10-20 hits and the last 200 scored under ten hits."

"Mind you these are rough numbers, I don't remember exactly how many hit what number of shots, but I clearly remember that only 274 of my men could hit targets at a hundred meters."

"Tha's pretty embarrassing." Brook said.

"That's ridiculous! You can't be serious!"

"No I am serious alright."

"Then how the hell could they possibly be classed as the 'best' infantry force in all the world? It doesn't make sense!"

"That's easy."

"First off they have one of the best standard issued suits of armor in existence, are required to be tough, strong and resistant to damage, so they are really hard to kill and are capable of taking beatings that would kill a 'normal' pony several times over."

"Second, they have the best strategists and tacticians of any force. They never rely on just one set of tactics, they can almost always be expected to use something unusual or different."

"And third, they have the meanest and most powerful close combat armaments of any force, ever in existence. They don't rely on ranged weapons, their main armament consists in weapons such as powered blades, chain based swords and axes, chainsaws, hammers, flamethrowers (and other assorted flame based close ranged weaponry), you name it, they have it."

"On top of that, they all usually carry some form of guided rocket launcher of sorts to deal with air threats and ground vehicles, and those don't even need aiming to use!"

"Strangest fucking army I've ever heard of..." I muttered.

"Terrible marksmen, melee centric and they all wear white suits of armor."

"If anything they should be wearing red, not white."

"Don't know how to explain that part, I never understood why our troops wore white armor."

"Seemed like a stupid choice of color to me, I even tried suggesting the use of camouflage and less protruding colors, but they wouldn't hear it, they were all about the white armor."

"But what was that about the bunny? Do you really have a bunny as one of your officers?"

"Oh yes, he was a mean bastard. We called him 'Doombunny'."

"White furry little type, hardly bigger than this."

Floyd gestured, holding his hooves apart to show how big the bunny was, it was barely 20 centimeters.

"Doombunny."

"Why the name?"

"I told you, he was a mean bastard, and I mean it. He never took no for an answer, he showed little regard for the safety of his men and was always furious about something."

"Furious? The bunny was furious?"

"Yes, all the time. He'd stomp his little feet and jump up and down, and if you laughed he'd jump in your face and try to bite your eyes and nose."

I couldn't believe it, the more I heard about Infantry the dumber it got.

"How did you talk with it?"

"With him" Floyd corrected.

"It sounds strange, but he'd communicate with us by gesturing and stomping and we'd understand exactly what he meant."

"He couldn't write or anything, but he was damn good at drawing, he'd draw complicated maps and drawings which roughly explained how things were meant to play out, and it would work, once we figured out how to execute his plans."

"Right... right..."

"Some say he is immortal."

"Immortal? Really?"

"He was around before the Infantry even existed, and before Celestia went crazy."

"Bunnies only normally live for around 10 years."

"So... how'd he even end up with Infantry anyway?" Brook asked.

Excellent question Brook, how the hell did a bunny that doesn't talk or write end up becoming an officer?

"Fuck if I know."

"I was in the Infantry, but that doesn't mean I know everything about it."

Five inmates approached our table with Rainbow Sea in tow, the lead pony, a red unicorn stallion which had spoken to us before went up to me and put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Listen up folks, we need you to come out with us to the main courtyard." he told us.

"Things are about to go down."

"Why do you want us to go?" I wondered.

"For morale, a loooot of ponies are out there supporting what you did for the Brothers, and it would help if you came out and showed yourselves."

"I didn't do anything for the Brothers, I fought them off to save two of my own, I didn't know all of this was going to happen."

The stallion gave me a long hard stare.

"Listen, between you and me, you don't have to participate in the actual fighting, I don't care if you go and stick your head in a hole, but you need to be there when the fight breaks out."

"Or else what?"

"Or we'll just seize you and your... friends and quietly hand you over to the Sisters and use you as martyrs for our own."

"This is our chance to change things around here, and we are not going to let you fuck things up for us."

I looked at my companions who had been listening to everything he had said.

They were scared and were looking to me for the big decision.

"Fine, I'll go with you to show my 'support'. But if I get killed in the fighting you need to promise to take care of my group."

"I am not going to drag them into this."

"No. They must come too."

"Why? They have nothing to do with it."

"Your Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie are just as much part of this as you are, and by just being with you, the rest of them are too. They are your 'gang' so to speak."

"The Sisters don't know that! Only me, Rainbow and Manie were there!"

"This is a prison you idiot, the Sisters know everything about us and we know everything about them. This place is full of snitches and spies who do anything to be treated more fairly."

"They know alright, so stop arguing with me and let's get this over with."

"Alright, fuck, we're going. But how about Floyd and Grayheart?" I said pointing at the two.

"They aren't part of my 'gang' and they have nothing to do with this, can they at least be excused from the fighting?"

"They can, they can... but it would be pretty fucking strange if they did."

"They are two of the most prominent members of the Brothers, they even have ties to Red, a neutral party who knows how to smuggle things in. They are pretty important to our effort."

I glanced over to them.

"Is this true?"

"Yeah." Grayheart admitted, Floyd just nodded.

"Don't worry about it Sweets, we'll be backing you up 100%."

"I don't care if you back me up, just protect Swirly, Strawberry and Manie, keep them safe."

"As you wish."

"Hey! I don't need protecting, I can fend for myself!" Manie protested.

I tilted my head at her.

"Just like you fended for yourself earlier today?"

She didn't respond.

"Enough! Let's fucking go!" the stallion interjected.

We were brought out into the adjacent courtyard followed by most of the inmates in the mess hall.

It was now dark outside, early night had fallen and the courtyard was lit up brightly with a number of floodlights which were mounted all around the walls and on rooftops pointing downwards giving the impression of being surrounded by a wall of light, it was hard to make out anything on the walls and beyond, I couldn't tell if there were guards observing us or not.

The way the courtyard was now reminded me loosely of a soccer arena, except that the two competing teams were composed of over 500 ponies each. A thousand angry ponies who were out for blood.

We were cheered on by the Brothers and it's supporters on our side of the courtyard as we were shuffled through the crowd towards the no pony's land up front which divided the two opposing groups.

Up front about halfway across the field were twelve ponies waiting for us, five brothers, likely the leader figures and 7 members of the Sisters, I recognized two of the Sisters, the mare and one of the stallions who we had fought, they looked just as bruised and beat up as we did, the stallion had an eyepatch over his right eye.

Brothers aside, the seven sisters looked really pissed.

Floyd and Grayheart stayed behind.

As we approached the group both crowds went completely silent.

One of the brothers, a blue middle aged mare with swirly red hair smiled at us and looked towards the Sisters retinue of leaders.

"See? I told you they were with us."

I wanted to say 'You didn't give us a choice', but I felt that this wasn't my fight and that it would be best if I kept out of their exchange as much as I could.

"Just face it, Maddy, your time is over. The Brothers rule New Prospect now."

The lead sister, a brown elderly pegasus stallion with bandaged wings went out.

"Like fucking hell you are! You ain't got SHIT on us Cydia!"

"Look around you!"

"We outnumber you 2 to 1, we have been pushing you back day by day! What chance do you think you have?"

"You could outnumber us 100 to 1, that still doesn't chance the fact that you are nothing but a bunch of pathetic sorry ass weaklings, we have had you all under our horseshoes for years and years, we OWN you."

"You don't own anypony Maddy, not anymore." she said softly.

"We are giving you a choice, give up and avoid unnecessary bloodshed. You will never lay another hoof on any of our inmates again," Cydia looked behind Maddy at the crowd of sisters with disgust, "I don't care what you do with your own, pillage and rape them all you want, but don't you ever touch any of our own ever again."

Maddy let out a sickening maniacal laugh.

"OH WOW! WELL THEN LET'S JUST AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND SUBMIT!" he yelled for all to hear.

"Are you DENSE? Are you fucking RETARDED? Why would I ever agree to anything like that!"

"No. I am giving YOU a choice, a proposition if you will."

"Either you hand over these seven," he said pointing at me and my group, "Or Rita Gumdrops gets the knife."

Cydia's eyes went wide with shock.

"Don't you dare touching Rita!"

"AHA! I thought that would catch your interest!"

"Bring her out here!" he called.

In a moment a yellow unicorn stallion came out with a little bright blue filly holding a serrated knife to her throat.

She hardly looked older than Strawberry Feather.

She looked absolutely wrecked, her fluffy yellow mane was all tangled up and sticky, she was covered in multiple small cuts and cigarette burns, her coat was covered in smudge and dirt. Her inner thighs were caked with blood and... something else.

"Mommy!" she cried out at the sight of Cydia.

"Rita!" heavy tears began pour down Cydia's cheeks.

"What have you done to her." Cydia growled at Maddy.

"Let's just say that we had a little fun while waiting today."

"She was a bit tight at first, but I loosened her up real quick." Maddy laughed.

Cydia went crazy and tried to get at Maddy, but she was held back by the other leaders from the Brothers.

"Hoh there you wild bitch. Let me remind you that if you lay as much as a hoof on me this little talk will be over."

"I am giving you five minutes to decide, so think fast."

The two groups split up a bit and got closer to their respective crowds.

Cydia was completely torn up over this.

"Hand them over! Hand them over!"

"Cydia..." one of the other leaders, a white pegasus stallion, said softly.

"I don't care! I want my daughter back!"

"I did all this to protect her from them! I built the entire fucking gang for that sole purpose! AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Cydia, I know you are upset, but we can't just hand them over."

"I fucking ORDER you to hand them over!"

"We are not like Maddy, we don't run things like that, remember?"

"We are in this together."

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAY, WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A FUCKING SEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WHO HAS BEEN RAPED AND TORTURED BY THE SISTERS!!" the snapped.

"Hey!! Have you decided yet? Some of us have shit to do!" someone called from across the field.

"We don't have much time, what do we do about this?"

Floyd knelt down by Cydia.

"Challenge them to a duel."

"W-what?" Cydia sobbed.

"Their best fighter against our best."

"Choose me, I will fight for you. I will get your daughter back."

"You will?"

"Yes Cydia, I promise."

"Thank you...!"

Floyd and the pegasus helped her up.

We all returned back to the neutral ground halfway across the field.

"So! Have you made your decision?" Maddy asked.

"We..." Cydia began, trying to hold back the tears, "We would like to suggest a counter proposal."

"That was not what we discussed."

"We would like to pit our best fighter against your best fighter, the winning party gets... my daughter."

"No! Why would I-" an earth pony stallion next to him leaned in and whispered something in his ear.

"Interesting. Yes that would help..."

"Very well, we will agree to this duel. You don't stand a chance anyway."

"Bring out, Boggs Shredder!" he called at his crowd.

In a few moments some kind of monster of an earth pony stallion came stomping out of the crowd.

He was bald and lacked a tail, his thin coat was of a bloody red crimson and he looked overall unnaturally muscular and veiny.

His eyes and expression looked incredibly crazed.

"WHO DIES FIRST?" he snarled.

"Yes." Maddy said nodding proudly at his champion, "Who do you bring to the fight?"

"I call... Floyd Stoneface."

Floyd came slowly trotting out of the crowd, looking completely fearless.

He wasn't as monstrously built, but he was significantly larger overall and looked as solid as a marble statue in the light of the courtyard.

"Impressive, you brought the trojan horse as your champion. This could actually be fun to watch." Maddy said nonchalantly.

"Let us begin then."

"Champions! Get in position!" he yelled.

The two champions walked further out into the open field and stood face to face with one another.

The monster Boggs was madly staring the horse in his eyes, he said something which we couldn't hear from our distance and the passive and calm Floyd responded.

The two then began to slowly circle around one another, their gaze unmoving from one another.

Then suddenly, Boggs threw himself right at Floyd, who dodged the attack, landing a solid strong elbow right at his back.

The counter attack had little effect as Boggs quickly turned back around beginning to throw rapid punches at Floyd who parried them again and again, Floyd eventually found an opportunity to land a well aimed kick at Boggs knee, which fell the monster.

Floyd threw himself at Boggs, but Boggs managed to get a grip on him throwing him off himself, Floyd landed on his back several meters away, he slowly got up but Boggs was quicker and had already crossed the distance by the time Floyd had gotten up on his feet.

With no defense Boggs reared up and threw a strong rear kick at the staggering Floyd, landing it squarely on his throat, the kick was supposed to have killed him, but instead it revealed something shocking about Floyd.

A solid chunk of Floyd's neck and left shoulder broke off and fell in pieces, solid pieces of rock, the entire courtyard went completely dead silent.

Boggs was frozen with shock and surprise, Floyd grinned widely and let out an unnatural ghastly laugh, grabbing the frozen Boggs by his neck and twisting it with all his might, Boggs tried to resist but by the time he snapped out of it it was too late.

First the neck snapped, draining the life of Boggs and leaving his body limp and lifeless, then he kept twisting until the neck slowly started to rip, then he laid the body down and while pressing a rear leg down on the body Floyd ripped the head off it's body and threw it towards Maddy and his group.

It landed perfectly at Maddy's hooves.

Maddy stared at the head, pale with shock, looked at Cydia briefly and then turned his head at the stallion holding Rita.

"KILL HER."

"What- NO!!" she cried out, but it was too late, the yellow stallion sliced the filly's throat, draining the life of her immediately.

The stallion let go of the body and it fell limply on the ground, blood gushing out of filly's neck.

Things went completely haywire as both sides realized what had happened, charging each other without thinking twice about it.

It all seemed lost when the prison alarms suddenly began wailing loudly across the courtyard just as the two sides were about to clash against one another, everyone froze in place, fearing the prison guardsmen more than they feared the opposing side.

The floodlights went off, shrouding the entire courtyard into a near pitch black darkness.

All around up on the walls were the terrifying red dots of the prison guardsmen helmet lenses and the red rays of their weapon's laser dots scanning wildly through the frightened crowd of inmates.

Somewhere in the darkness a door was kicked open, two of the floodlights closest to one of the walls on the Brother's side of the courtyard turned on.

"THE PARTY IS OVER LADIES!" Captain Hudson barked over a megaphone.

"SWEET HEAVENS, GET OVER HERE."

"EVERYONE ELSE, RETURN TO YOUR CELLS BEFORE WE GAS THE LOT OF YOU AND PUT THE ENTIRE PRISON INTO LOCKDOWN!"

"AS FOR YOU WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FUCKING MUMBO JUMBO POLITICAL GANG SHIT, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A SERIOUS TALK LATER.

All the lights came on again and everyone began to vacate the courtyard, the seven of us began shuffling through the crowd going towards Captain Hudson.

Captain Hudson was impatiently waiting at one of the secured doors connected to the outer prison facilities with a squad of 10 guardsmen, which all had their weapons aimed at the surrounding crowd.

Hudson didn't look angry or upset when I approached him, in fact, he almost looked a bit ashamed.

"Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection, Special Tasks and Assignments?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Command contacted us... there has been a mix up..."

"Has there now."

Hudson turned red, I wasn't sure if he was containing anger or shame.

"We apologize for the... ehrm... inconvenience... and..."

Inconvenience.

That's rich.

"You can just skip this horse shit, Captain. You did a mistake, and now you are correcting it."

"So let's just get going and I'll pretend like nothing of this ever happened."

"Does that sound good with you?"

"That's... fine."

"Come with me, I'll take you and your group to the warden. He want's to talk to you."

He led us through and to the administration building, it was a gray concrete building like any other in the prison, the interior was ornate and well kept, there were several offices and rooms in which various ponies were working with typical administrative duties, such as keeping track of incoming and outgoing prisoners.

When we came into the wardens office the warden was talking with someone on the phone.

"Sir, sir, calm down. Captain Hudson has returned with the prisoners... yes yes, with the agent." he waved at us to come closer and put the phone on loudspeaker.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Captain Tombs?"

"Yes, that's me."

"This is Civil Protection mission command".

"Your name is 'civil protection mission command'? You mustn't have been very loved by your mother."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Very funny agent Tombs."

"Yeah, just like my mission and the mistake you guys did."

"So what do you want?"

"Your ship, the S.S. Sea Killer, was meant to dock at Shellbeach Prison where the warden was expecting your arrival with instructions on how to proceed with your mission. It was thanks to a certain doctor 'Cutter' that we could find out where you were."

"Or you could have just... tracked the ship here."

"We did. But your name never came up in the New Prospect systems."

So I could have avoided this if I just gave them my real na- goddammit.

"So I..." fucking hell I am retarded, fuck fuck fuck!

"Are you alright?" Manie asked.

No! I did something really stupid that could have avoided this entire day!

"No... I mean yes, sure, whatever." I turned back to the phone.

"So these instructions..."

"Basically since you are at New Prospect and not at Shellbeach the supplies we planned to give you wont be there, and the route has been changed."

"That's fine, I didn't even get a route to begin with."

"...instead they have been diverted to the next town you should be coming across, Helsinghoof."

"You are to proceed on foot to the town of Helsinghoof where a wagon containing all the necessary gear and supplies for your mission will be waiting for you."

"In the meanwhile the warden has been instructed to give you back your gear and to offer you what you'd like from the assortment of gear confiscated by the convicts."

"What? Stealing their gear?"

"It's not stealing if they are never going to get it back... they wont mind."

I never knew that mission command would be such scumbags.

"Will there be more instructions at Helsinghoof or...?"

"No. But there will be more info along the way as you go."

"How will I know where this info is at?"

"And why can't I just get to know everything about the mission here and now?"

"Sorry Tombs, need to know basis. We simply don't think that it is necessary for you to know more than you should."

"What kind of an asshole logic is that? I am going to go risk my life in some shithole past the border and you aren't even going to tell me why?"

"You don't have to like it, just do your job agent Tombs."

I looked around for tables to flip, but there were none.

"That is all, captain. Command out." the phone clicked and the call was closed.

I sighed deeply and rubbed a hoof against my forehead.

"Luna almighty, I work for the worst ponies in all of Equestria..."

"You need to leave. Now." warned the warden.

He seemed annoyed with what had happened.

"By ALL means warden, show me the way to the gear I was promised and we'll get out of your mane right away."

"I have seen enough of this fucked up place to last a lifetime, you run a prison like demons run hell."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Did you know that there are two warring gangs trying to kill each other in there?"

"One calls themselves 'the Sisters' and is composed of rapists and pedophiles, the other is called 'the Brothers' and is nothing but ponies trying to do the job your guards is supposed to do."

"And what it is my guards are supposed to do? Hmm? Play babysitter for the ponies who ruined Equestria?"

"They are not all like that warden, they didn't all deserve to end up here on the frontier."

"Is that so? Then explain to me how they ended up here in the first place, we are not the ones making the arrests, you are."

Yes how was I going to explain that to the warden?

Would he be willing to believe that we did mistakes in CP? That we would often end up arresting innocent model citizens?

"We are making mistakes... we have been arresting non-criminals for a while now... I don't know why, but citizens have been getting arrested by accident and sent here without trial."

"I have a few in my group here who have been arrested for accidental killings, and-"

"There is no such thing as an 'accidental killing', captain. A life is a life, the laws are simple and easy to follow, you break them, you pay the price."

"So you are really going to accuse this young colt for being a cold blooded murderer for accidentally running over a trespasser hiding in the strawberry fields he was working at with his combine harvester?"

"How could he have known? What could he have done to avoid it?"

"By looking where he was driving for one, how hard can it be?"

"It's not that simple... I can barely see the field from the driver seat of the harvester, it wasn't my fault that..." Strawberry spoke up.

"Nopony asked you to speak, boy." the warden interrupted him sternly.

"Look, I don't have the time nor patience for this, I am not going to stand around being lectured by some CP officer and his gang of... thugs and scum, on how to run my prison."

"Now if you would be so nice to follow Captain Hudson to the warehouse to get your things so that you can leave the premises, and me, as soon as possible. You have overstayed your welcome."

"You'll regret running things like this one day, warden, your prison can't run like this forever."

"Oh but it can, and it will."

"Mr Hudson, if you will."

"Everyone, out of the wardens office." Hudson instructed.

We went out and followed him through the prison to the warehouse, a large windowless gray structure close to the main prison gates connected to the black road I had seen yesterday from the cruiser ship.

The captain of the guards left us in an office inside where an elderly mare was sitting behind an old desk, behind several stacks of paper.

"Now you speak to Mrs Clip for your gear and access to the warehouse, when you are done just approach the gate and you'll be let through. And be quick about it." the captain said to us just before leaving.

I went up to the desk and peered over the stacks of paper, the elderly mare looked up at me with a querying expression.

"N'yes? Can I help you?"

"Yes. I am Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection. I would like to get our gear back and gain access to the warehouse."

"Why?"

"Well for one, our gear is our gear, so I'll want that back."

"The warden said we'd be allowed to take whatever we wanted from the confiscated gear taken from the convicts."

Mrs Clip sighed.

"Are you sure you want that? It's nothing but old clothes and bags..."

Patience Tombs, be nice.

"Yes, I am sure. I'd rather not make the travel to Helsinghoof naked."

"Fine, fine, just... ergh... give me your names and I'll fill out the paperwork..."

We gave her our names and she took a while to fill out whatever paperwork she needed to fill out.

"Fantastic..." she muttered, "Alright then, you now have legal access to the warehouses, just exit this room and go down the hallway, the warehouse is behind the big steel door."

"You'll need the key. It's ehm..." she shuffled some papers, "It should be around here som- ah, there it is." she handed me a small stainless steel key. "Do whatever and come back with it when you are done, remember to lock the door when you leave the room."

We left the old mare to her own devices and proceeded down the hallway, I unlocked the steel door and Brook Cotton helped me pull the heavy door open.

As we stepped inside dim lights flickered on throughout the massive room, bathing the row upon row of dusty old gray shelves in poor light, barely good enough to see anything in.

It smelled dusty and stale, kinda like an old attic.

I reckoned that the room didn't get many visitors by how dusty the floor was.

"This place is huuuge." Blizzard Candy said in awe.

"How are we going to find your gear?"

Yes indeed, how were we going to find out gear?

It didn't seem like it was very organized, there were thousands of boxes and stacks of clothes in here piled up on the various shelves, even if we did find the most recently added boxes we'd still have to sort through hundreds of clothes and bags to find ours.

"Let's split up, search for boxes that look new, you should be able to tell by the amount of dust there is on them." I said.

Everyone began to split up, before I left the group I glanced over to Rainbow Sea who was tracking Manie Manie with his eyes, waiting for her to separate from the group.

No no, we don't have time for more incidents right now.

"Not you Manie." I called after her.

She turned around and looked at me questioning.

"What?"

"You are coming with me." I hinted towards Rainbow Sea looming behind a shelf with my eyes, she seemed to catch the hint and slowly walked up to join me, Rainbow Sea disappeared into the rows of shelves.

The two of us slowly trotted through the rows of shelves, scanning the shelves for boxes that looked like they had been recently added.

"Thanks for the heads up..." Manie whispered quietly to me.

"No problem. Last thing I need right now is more fighting." I replied.

"It's been a long day as it is."

"Yeah..."

"Poor filly..."

"Don't talk about it, it's better if we just forget all about it."

"How can you forget something like that?"

"I don't know, just try not to think about it."

"If it were that easy..."

I hear ya sister, I hear ya...

"Ah found something!" Brook called from further within.

We rushed to were we had heard his voice come from and soon found the rest of the group pulling and floating down boxes of clothes.

"There ya are." Brook said as we approached.

I looked around, there were but a dozen boxes on the shelves around us that looked new.

"Are you sure these are the right boxes?" I asked.

"Sure they are, these new boxes hav' been marked." he turned a box around to show us.

"See? '1984-05-28'."

28th? Had it already been 3 days since I left Equestria?

It felt like yesterday...

"That's pretty convenient." Manie said.

"Ah know right, and there's only a few boxes ta' search through too, we'll be outta here before you know it."

"How come there are so few?"

"There were hundreds of us on that ship."

"Maybe all of them didn't have gear with them?" Nurse Swirly suggested.

"I didn't have anything."

"You are right," I said, "Now that you mention it, the only ones who brought any gear with us was me and Manie, and all she had was that hat of hers."

"Speakin' of..." Brook said as he dug through a box, "Here's yer hat Manie."

"You found my stetson hat?"

Manie looked exuberant, she snatched the hat and put it on immediately.

It suited her, it really did.

"Thank you!"

"Dun know why you'd have a stetson, you don't seem like the southern kind 'o gal to me."

"I'm not. It was a gift from my dad, he gave it to me when I was 12."

"That's sweet." Swirly said.

"Did you... hmm... find my satchels in there?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact..." he threw me the satchels, I caught them just before they hit the floor in fear of the... contents breaking.

I checked inside to see if it was really mine and yep, sure enough, there were the two bottles of Dandelion Vodka, the food, the small case of psycho chems and the little baggy of ecstasy.

I felt a mixed feeling of shame and relief to have my stuff back.

"Ah guess that's it? Should we be going?"

"No, no, let's get something to wear for the travel, even if you don't come with me I am pretty sure you wouldn't want to brave the frontier naked, grab a coat, or at least something to cover yourself from the bad weather."

They began pulling down boxes and emptying it's contents on the floor, grabbing what what would fit and what they wanted.

I simply took a heavy dark gray coat with a hood.

Brook found a straw hat and grabbed a sleeveless vest and two large saddle pouches.

Rainbow Sea grabbed a heavy black firepony coat and the thick resistant full face helmet and rebreather which came with it.

Blizzard Candy took to a simple jacket, a basic hat and two smaller saddle pouches.

Nurse Swirly found a white doctor's coat and two metal medical boxes which she hung by her sides, much in the same way I had seen army combat medics do in old documentaries to protect themselves from some damage.

Manie took two small leg pouches (which were fastened on her forelegs for easy access) and a black plastic raincoat with a hood. She also found four long black socks.

Socks.

Fucking socks.

I never got why mares were so obsessed with socks, they all had socks, even those who didn't appear to have socks had socks laying around at home.

But I have to admit, they did look pretty good on her, in fact they looked really elegant and-

"...Heavens, Sweet Heavens!"

"Hmm?"

"Snap out of it, stop looking at my socks."

What?

Fuck, had I been staring?

Think fast.

"Um... why socks?"

"I get easily cold when walking around outside bare-legged. You told us to grab gear that protected us from bad weather and the cold, and I wanted to get something light, so I settled for socks."

"You sure seem to like them a lot, they way you stared at me..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"That's alright, but don't make it a habit. It's kinda creepy, you understand."

We packed the clothes and gear we had discarded back into the boxes and put them back on the shelves, then we left, locked the door and gave the key to the old mare, Mrs Clip.

She looked at us wide eyed.

"Wh- how much did you take?!"

"We took what we needed." I responded.

"Why, is that a problem?"

"No... not... really."

"What do you do with all this stuff anyway?"

"Stockpile it mostly. It doesn't really go anywhere."

"Sometimes we burn some of the older boxes when the decay starts to settle in, but otherwise, not much."

"Then I guess you wont be missing these."

"Thanks for the gear, we'll be going now."

"Uh, alright, goodbye."

We left and went outside.

It was early night now, while it was dark before in the courtyard, it was even darker now, the only really visible areas were those lit up by the many floodlights all over the complex, in the distance the red lenses of lone guards could be seen moving through the darkness and on the perimeter walls.

It was beginning to rain softly.

We approached the main gate, there was a lone guard guarding it, as he saw us he pointed his shotgun at us alarmingly.

"*Hold it right there!*" he threatened.

"I am Captain Tombs," I introduced myself for the hundredth time, "of Civil Protection. We have clearance to pass."

"*Do you now? Let's hear what the captain has to say about it.*" the guard lifted a hoof to his helmet, pressing some sort of concealed button. "*Captain, sir. I got some guy named Captain Tombs and six ponies at the gate.*"

"*Huh?*" the guard lowered his weapon.

"*Yes sir, understood.*"

"*Gate control, open the gate, I am letting seven ponies through.*"

The gates slowly opened, revealing the dark road and forest ahead.

"*You may pass. Safe travels.*" the guard said to us.

We passed on through and crossed the cleared field between the forest and the perimeter wall, the gate shut close behind us and we left the light and relative safety of the New Prospect penitentiary.

I didn't know how far off Helsinghoof would be, but I assumed that we'd be traveling for a few hours at least, it was quiet and dark and as soon as we were just a bit out of range of the light I stopped, turning to the group.

"Okay. So this is where we decide on what to do." I announced.

"I did as promised and now we are on our own, if you want to leave you are free to do so now."

Nopony moved.

"No one is leaving?"

"Nope." Brook said.

"Why not?"

"We trust you." Nurse Swirly said.

"You genuinely care about our safety, you went looking for Manie and Rainbow even when you didn't have to."

"But it's my job, you are under my responsibility, it's my job to keep you safe for the duration of the mission."

"Yes, but you said on the boat that you'd let us decide whether to stay or not ourselves, and both Manie and Rainbow showed reluctance. You could have just left them to whatever the Sisters had in mind, yet you didn't. You saved them."

"I think that is an admirable thing to do, so I would really not mind following you."

Brook, Blizzard, Strawberry and Manie agreed.

"Even though you know that my mission leads to almost certain death?"

"Do you even know what lies beyond the secured border of the frontier?"

I wasn't so sure myself, but it didn't sound like there would be candy and ice cream waiting for us.

"There ain't much of a choice." Brook said.

"Ah think it's mighty respectable of you t' give us a choice ta' follow you or not, but the way ya put it, that we'd be branded as escapees an' hunted down..."

"I understand. So it is more of a matter of 'you can't' than actually wanting to go with me."

"No no, ah'd still follow ya."

"Let's make this perfectly clear then."

"I could talk to the leaders of the various settlements we will be coming across, with any luck I could probably transfer you to them where you will be working alongside the other cons, it's rough work, but it would probably beats death, if you ask me."

"Now, I don't know exactly how that is going to work out or if it is even a possibility, but if you want to I could try talking to them about transferring you to spare you from this mission. Now how many of you want to go and how many of you want to stay?"

"This is a simple question, answer carefully."

"Stay." Brook Cotton said almost immediately.

There was a pause, the others were thinking it through.

"Stay." Nurse Swirly said, followed by Strawberry Feather.

"Stay." Blizzard Candy said.

It was up to Manie and Rainbow Sea to decide now.

The two were intently staring at each other, I knew for a fact that their choices pended on what the other decided.

Manie looked at me, I could barely see her in the darkness but I could tell that she was afraid.

I nodded slowly at her to show my support for her and then she decided.

"...stay." she said slowly.

"Well heh, if you're all staying I guess I'll be staying too." Rainbow Sea said, trying to pass it off as a joke.

"Very well. Thank you guys, this was more than I could hope for."

"We should get moving, we probably got a long way ahead of us."

"It'd be easier if we could see where we went..." Brook remarked.

"I can fix that." Swirly said.

"Oh?"

Her horn frizzled and then slowly lit up with a warm glow, emanating a good amount of light in a hefty radius around us, this was much better.

"That's amazing Swirly!" Brook said impressed.

"Well I AM an unicorn after all." she said flattered.

"Well done Swirly, this is sure to make our trip a little less worrisome."

We began walking down the road to Helsinghoof, tired, hungry, weary from the bloodshed... and a bit wet.

Chapter 3 - Vendetta

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of  TOWNS and  FLOWERS

Chapter 3 - Vendetta

The Road to Helsinghoof

We had been walking for hours in the light rain down the asphalted road leading away from New Prospect Penitentiary, our path lit only by the light of Swirly Star's magical horn.

The road had led us through a deep forest which lined either side of the road, the darkness of the night coupled with the thick canopy and underbrush gave the me the impression of the forest being impenetrable, these were ancient woods, untouched by civilization, the vegetation and trees here had been left to grow and expand for goddess know how many hundreds of years before our kingdom had set hoof on the coast and begun dividing the sea of trees.

It had been quiet mostly, but I could feel that there were critters and animals watching us from beyond the light, Manie had been nervous for most of the trip, looking back and forth between the wall of trees, presumably in the direction she 'sensed' them watching us from.

By now the first early morning rays of the sun had begun peering in through the canopy, and for the first time in hours we could see more than a few meters ahead of us, but to be honest, there wasn't much to see anyway except for more road and forest.

I heard someone pace quickly towards me, I looked back and saw Manie coming towards me, she had taken of her hat and was wearing the hooded raincoat, it seemed to be slightly too large for her, looking more like a plastic dress than a raincoat on her.

She reached me and gave me a gentle smile,

“Hey,” she greeted.

"Hello Manie."

"Everything alright?"

“Hmm...” I bowed my head slightly, looking at the rain clattering by my hooves.

“No. Not really.” I answered. “But thanks for asking.”

“Want to talk?"

"About what?"

"You know."

No, I don't know.

It could be any number of things, it had been a long day and a lot of things had happened already.

"I don't know, be specific."

"Sweet... common, you know exactly what I am referring to."

I looked at her showing her that I didn't, she cleared her throat and nodded back towards the others who were some ways back, I looked back at them, they were all walking besides Swirly, either bowing their heads or scanning their surroundings passively, all except for Rainbow Sea who was even further back behind the group.

Ah, of course, Rainbow Sea.

"I see what you are getting at, what about it?"

She lowered her voice and leaned in closer to me.

"I know we got off on the wrong hoof at first, on the boat, and I'm sorry about that..."

"But I... uh... need your help..."

"It's alright, you only compromised my position, went through my stuff and forced me to talk about my painful past regarding my two dead parents."

"Honestly, I am not sure where I have you right now, or why I should do anything to help you."

"But you saved me yesterday."

"I did that because I wanted to stay true to my word and give you and Rainbow a choice, a real choice."

"I am not like the other officers, I would never be that big of an asshole, I care about those left under my responsibility, be it fellow officers or cons."

"But I didn't protect the two of you because of our good standing relationship, quite frankly, the two of you have been nothing but trouble for me, Rainbow Sea clearly has something against me being an officer (which is understandable) and I find it pretty clear that he only stayed because of you."

"You on the other hand seem to switch depending on how what is the most convenient for you, I really don't buy your honeyed words about staying because of 'sincerity' and 'respect'."

"So you hate me? Is that it?"

"I never said anything about hate, I just don't trust you."

"Please Heavens, I need your help!"

"Why would I help you?"

"This is your problem, not mine."

She bowed her head. In submission?

"I'll... I know you... like me, I'll..." she began blushing.

"What... are you getting at?"

"Ooh, you know... I'll... give you a little 'favor' if you help me out here..."

No fucking way.

The mare I found so attractive was offering herself to me if I helped her deal with Rainbow Sea.

It was a tempting offer... but it would never be something I'd agree too.

She was lucky that I was the one leading them, and not some other officer.

"I see..."

"I'm afraid I can't agree to your offer."

She looked cross.

"Am I not good enough for you?"

"Honestly? You are too good for me, but that is beyond the point."

"You are not getting my help by offering yourself as leverage, I am not that kind of guy, I would never take advantage of somepony like that."

"Then what DO you want from me? What could I possibly do to get your help?"

"A promise."

"A promise?" she looked surprised, "All I have to do is make a promise?"

I knew that this would be to easy on her, I didn't trust her to keep the promise, but I wanted to see how things would develop first, so I'd be willing to make this gamble.

"Yes."

"Of course, but you'll have to actually mean it."

"Well what is it?"

I looked back at the group and caught Rainbow Sea looking away from us just ahead of the group, the little rat bastard had been eavesdropping on us.

Manie caught this too and became a bit embarrassed, her twisted suggestion and plea for help being intended for my ears only.

"Rainbow." I called.

"Yup?"

"Back off, we are trying to have a bit of privacy here."

"Hey, fuck you."

I stopped walking, putting myself in his path, he kept walking and bumped into me, to show that he wasn't afraid of me.

Our faces were just inches away from each other.

The group stopped.

"Is this going to be a problem?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he replied slowly, "Is it?"

"Don't forget who is in command here, you made the decision to follow me, I can make the decision to throw you out."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"It means that if you don't mind your own fucking business when I tell you to, I'll be kicking you out of the group, and then you can work the rest of your life mining rocks or something."

"Except you weren't sure if you could do that or not, you can't back your threat up."

"Maybe I can't, but I can still kick your ass if you don't fall the fuck back in line."

"Is that a challenge?"

"I was a hardened officer before this, I've fought bigger fish than you, occasionally armed with firearms and blunt objects."

"You were what, an oil rig worker?"

He didn't say anything.

"Is this really worth it for you? Would you risk humiliation just to talk back at me?"

He remained silent.

"I didn't think so."

"Now if you would please fall back behind Swirly and the others."

"Don't try to do anything stupid, I'll be watching you."

He glared angrily at me.

"Proceed."

Me and Manie began walking again, followed shortly by the others and last by Rainbow Sea who muttered something angrily for himself before putting some distance between himself and the others.

Manie looked pale and frightened.

"He heard everything."

"I guess he did."

She remained silent for just short of a full minute.

"The promise... What... did you want me to agree to do?" she asked slowly.

"Manie. Imagine our group as it were a... hmm... a centipede."

"A centipede...?"

"A centipede. You see, a centipede only works well if all it's legs collaborate and go in the same direction."

"Wh... what does this have to do with us?"

"The group is the centipede and the six of you are it's legs."

"My point is, I need all of you to collaborate for the good of the group as a whole, or this stupid mission is going to be a bust."

"And?"

"Well what I need you to do is promise that you will always keep the group's interests and it's mission ahead of your own. This means no more trying to flip things or work against me for your own devices, no scheming, plotting or manipulating. Essentially, work with us, and not against us."

"I... guess I can do that."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..."

"What..." she looked back at the group again, to make sure that Rainbow wasn't behind us again, he wasn't.

"What do you intend to do about Rainbow Sea?"

"Well that's easy, I am just going to leave him at Helsinghoof."

"I'll talk with the commanding officer there and see if I can arrange for him to be transferred."

"Failing that, we'll leave at night while he is asleep."

"Okay."

"Sounds good with you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm glad you have something figured out."

"I always have something in plan."

I never have anything in plan.

"And hey..."

"Thanks for not agreeing to... you know."

"Told you, I am not like that."

"I was really sure that you'd be into it, the way y-"

Old grannies!

"Yeah yeah, I know, I know. Don't try to give me second thoughts about it."

Open wounds! Dead ponies!

"Right, right. So uh, thanks."

Dog Drool! Dog Drool!

She stopped and smiled at me, waiting for the group to catch up with her before inserting herself in some conversation Nurse Swirly was having with Blizzard and Strawberry Feather.

Truth was I really didn't know how to deal with Rainbow Sea, or at least, I didn't have a reliable plan on how to deal with him.

My talk about transferring them was really a ruse, I didn't know if that would really even be an option, and as for my backup plan about leaving at night, I was sure that he would suspect something and still manage to show up when we left.

Another thing was that I didn't know what the others thought about it, or what their stance towards the grudge Rainbow Sea had towards Manie really was.

I assumed that Nurse Swirly Star was against Manie, despite showing concern for her, seeing as her husband was among the ponies she killed, Strawberry Feather would almost certainly be on Swirly's side the way he had been leaning on her this whole time, Blizzard Candy and Brook Cotton I didn't know.

I needed some time to think about it, and I would need to speak to Manie again about what exactly it was she did and why.

I sighed and looked ahead, there was a sharp curve just a hundred meters up and a green sign on the side of the road.

We got up to the sign and the curve, there was a steep slope ahead of us which gave us an overlook of the valley in which Helsinghoof was situated in.

Helsinghoof was a small town composed mainly of low cement structures, the town appeared to be centered around the timber industry as a huge area around the town had been cleared of trees and a number of smaller wooden structures and piles of timber were arrayed all around town.

The town itself was surrounded by a medium height cement wall.

Looking up above the town it seemed as if the morning sunlight was punching holes through the clouds, as I looked a bit more closely I noticed rapid movement. Pegasi weatherponies.

The others weren't particularly interested in the valley and had gathered by the sign.

There was nothing especially noteworthy about it, it was a regular green sign with symbols written in white.

“Helsinghoof 6” Blizzard Candy read out loud.

"Ah can read ya know." Brook said.

“What is Helsinghoof 6? Strawberry Feather asked Nurse Swirly.

“Not ‘Helsinghoof 6’,” Nurse Swirly corrected, “The 6 means that Helsinghoof is six kilometers down this road.”

“I’ve heard of Helsinghoof,” Manie said, “It was one of the first settlements built inland, it is a work colony centered around the timber industry.”

“Ya know about the colonies?” Brook Cotton asked her.

“I don't know much about them, I've only rarely heard about them.”

"I don’t know my way around, not much leaves this land without CP’s approval and even less reaches Equestria ears..”

"We should get a map." Blizzard Candy suggested.

"We should get supplies." Rainbow Sea said.

"We'll get both. Helsinghoof is just ahead." I ended.

Soon we drew near to the town Helsinghoof, we stopped just a ways before the town gates.

I could see the silhouettes of guards on the walls getting alerted by our approach, some of them pointed their rifles as us.

"They don't look very friendly." Strawberry Feather said meekly.

I turned to the group.

“I’ll do the talking okay?”

“Fine by me.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Sounds good.” The group agreed.

We all approached the front gate, the group stopped about fifteen meters away, I got closer, close enough to see the guards above in detail.

“*HALT!*” one of the guards shouted as I approached.

Five more guards appeared priming their sights at me.

Their CP uniform seemed different, their armor seemed thicker, they appeared to wear dark colored helmets with glowing eye slits. The armor of the guard hailing me was dark red, his eyes glowed red.

The others had dark blue armor and cyan eyes.

I didn’t recognize their emblem from anywhere, the blue soldiers wore a circular yellow emblem with two triangles opposed to each other. The red soldier had an insignia of a pony skull on his shoulder pads.

“*What the fuck ARE you?*” he asked me in a shocked tone.

"Aren't you gonna ask who I am?"

"*Not before I know what the hell you are.*"

"I am an earth pony."

“Have you never seen a scramble suit before?”

“*No. Take it off, I want to see who you are.*”

“I can’t. The suit has been sealed on me, I can't take it off.”

“*Bull-shit.*” the officer said with an acid tone, he didn't believe me.

“Wanna bet? Come down here and try for yourself.”

“*I am not going anywhere.*”

"*I am warning you, take off the suit.*"

“I can’t take it off, are you daft?”

"*Last warning!*"

"You know what, fine, go ahead and shoot me. This isn't how I wanted to end it, but you might as well save me the trouble of going all the way to the frontier border."

Nothing happened.

He didn’t move and no one said anything for almost a full minute.

“*...the frontier border?*” he reluctantly asked.

“The frontier border.”

“*...why? There is nothing but slow death and pain there.*”

“Noooo shit.”

"I'm on a mission, I gotta escort these ponies past the border-"

"*Wait, PAST the border? Fucking hell! Did you hear that guys? He is going to go PAST the border!*"

Yeah yeah yeah, that's great, just make me lose even more confidence and hope, don't mind me or anything.

I sighed.

"Look, can you please let me and my group in?"

"We are tired and have been walking from New Prospect on foot."

"*Whoa, wait a second! Are you escaped cons?*"

"Really? Are you really asking me if I am an escaped con?"

"Just what would you expect an escaped con to answer?'"

"*Uh...*"

"Hurr durr yes I am an escaped con, please shoot me kind sir?"

"*Hey, fuck you.*"

"No, I'm not an escaped con. If you don't believe me then check with the warden of New Prospect, or with CP mission command."

"*Then who are you?*"

"Captain Tombs, of mainland Civil Protection."

"*Mainland?*"

"*You are a long way from home.*"

"Yes..."

"Yes I am..."

"*Why are you out here? Why are you going past the border?*"

"It's a special assignment. Command didn't like my face apparently... so they dicked me by sending me here."

"*I see...*"

"*Tough luck, eh?*"

"Pretty tough."

"So are we cool here or...?"

"*Yeah yeah.*" the other guards lowered their weapons.

"*Let him in.*"

The gate doors swung open.

"Before you go, I have a question for you."

"*You do? Well, okay, what is it?*" the guard said, putting his rifle down and leaning on the wall cover before him.

"Your armor looks different, are you guys with CP or Overwatch?"

"*Overwatch. We rule everything you see here, save for the prisons, who are under CP jurisdiction.*"

"*Why do you ask? Shouldn't you know that?*"

"I worked all my career in the mainland, we don't hear anything about the frontier over there, CP or not."

"Overwatch is pretty new to me."

"*Ironic then that it is you who control the spread of news too and from the frontier.*"

"I'm sure the higher ups have some fancy reason for it, they always do."

"*That all?*"

"Yeah, thanks."

"*Welcome to Helsinghoof then, don't start any trouble.*"

Breather

Helsinghoof looked more like a 'work in progress' than a prisoner work camp, in fact there was little evidence pointing to the town being a work camp.

It was early morning, but there were clean looking ponies roaming about freely in casual clothes that looked fairly new, and remembering that we had our own clothes and gear confiscated on arrival I figured that they must have gotten them at some point on their own and been allowed to keep them.

From my first impression the workers of this town looked pretty free to me.

The town wasn’t so bad either, aside from the construction going on everywhere and everything being built out of that sterile white-grayish cement.

The town was clean and tidy, the main road connected to the town plaza had a few stores that sold basic commodities, two small cafes and an inn that also served as a large bar and restaurant, if it weren't for all the armed guards everywhere you'd almost think that it was just a free town like any other.

I don’t know how the rest of the town looked like (we weren’t intending to stay and explore) but all in all everything seemed pretty nice.

I had everyone gather outside the inn to decide on what to do.

“Alright, this is what happens now.” I told them.

“We will stay here until tomorrow morning, today I'll talk to the local commander about the supplies command redirected."

"In the meanwhile you can go about the town as you'd like."

"I know that I already brought this up before, but if you like the town and would like to stay today will be your last chance to decide whether to come with me or not, I'll give you up until this evening to decide."

"Ah already made my decision." Brook said firmly.

"Right, well now you get to reflect on it some more."

"I'll catch up with you later."

Rainbow Sea rushed off immediately, as the others were leaving I noticed that Manie wasn't going to go with the others.

"Manie."

She looked back at me.

"You are coming with me."

"Why?"

"I want to know what's going on between you and Rainbow Sea."

"What's really going on. Starting from our little talk on the ship."

Manie Manie pulled off her hood and put her hat back on, waiting before giving her answer.

“You were there, Sweet Heavens. You know what happened.”

She looked grim, “This is your fault you know.”

“Really now.”

“It is my fault that you killed his brother and sister?”

“He didn’t know, he didn’t have to know!” Manie said.

I gave her a stern look.

“I think you are being a bit unfair here. You put me in a difficult situation with the others.”

She seemed shocked.

“You have got to be kidding me! You were going to TRICK THEM into believing that you were one of us."

"I think they had the right to know that you were a CP officer.”

“And Rainbow Sea and Swirly Star don’t have the right to know that you killed their loved ones.”

“That is different!”

“No Manie. It is not different.”

"We talked about this. If you want my help you'll have to tell me why you did it."

“Please, Sweet Heavens! It is not that simple!” She sounded desperate.

“This seems like a pretty black and white thing to me."

"You KILLED them Manie, you killed Swirly Star's husband and Rainbow Sea's brother and sister, they have the right to know and the right to be angry about it.”

“It was THEM or ME! I had to do it to protect myself!” she said.

Now we were getting somewhere.

We were starting to make a scene, conversations were broken as ponies passed by us giving us odd looks.

Manie seemed to be in fear, she looked around us cautiously after somepony or something, probably Rainbow Sea.

“Look, I... I’ll explain... but not here...!” she said in a low voice.

“What?”

“I think he is watching us... he didn’t want me talk to you, he is afraid that I’ll be asking you for help!”

"He what?"

"He warned me! Back at the prison, before you came and saved me!"

"Okay."

“So what do you suggest?"

“We need to find someplace quiet. The inn, lets get a room at the inn.”

We went inside the inn, a large multi-story cement building with reinforced windows.

The interior of the building betrayed the exteriors impression of the inn being a terrible low rate motel, the interior lobby hall was nicely refurbished with dark wooden paneling and its floors were covered with large and elaborate rugs and carpets, the lights gave the room a warm and comfy glow and made the hall seem very nice and luxurious.

Suddenly I worried that I wouldn’t be able to afford a room for what few bits I had in my satchel...

Manie Manie pulled me by my foreleg up to the elaborate receptionist desk.

The receptionist pony was a pretty young mare about Nurse Swirly’s age (or what I assumed to be her age) with a dark blue coat and a silvery cobalt mane, she wore a pair of glasses with an azure plastic frame.

It took the receptionist pony a few moments before she looked up and when she did she gasped in surprise (or was it shock?) at the sight of a pony shaped shapeshifter and a white outlined mystery mare of the blackest black.

Then she regained composure and gave us a fake and forced smile.

“Yes? Can I help you?” she asked us in a polite light voice.

“I would like a room for the night...” I said.

“Ah. I understand.” she winked at us. “A room for two then...”

Why did she wink? What was there to unders- Oh wait I get it.

I looked at Manie, she had caught on faster than me and was already giving the receptionist that cute blushing furious expression of hers.

“NO YOU IDIOT, FOR HIM, A ROOM FOR THE NIGHT FOR HIM AND HIM ONLY!!” she yelled at her.

“Yeah, Manie about that... Where will you sleep overnight?” I wondered.

She went completely blank.

“Wha- I-”

“I see...” I gulped and asked the receptionist hesitantly,

“How... how much does it cost to stay here per night?”

“Oh not much at all.” she replied, seemingly unaffected by Manie Manie’s earlier reaction.

“We don’t get many visitors here. So we only charge 5 bits per night and room.”

5 bits? That was a bargain if I ever saw one.

“Five bits per night? How do you even manage to keep this place open with a low rate like that?” I asked in surprise.

“Well our business really lies with the restaurant and bar we have running here, those really rake in the money from both the soldiers and the workers. Many of the workers with the more... dangerous work duties celebrate as if every night was their last, and so they often come here to eat heartily and drink up their hard earned money, so business is pretty good.”

“So why the inn? Doesn’t make much sense having to run an inn if it doesn’t bring in profit.”

“The inn is all part of the grand plan, the town is almost ready for the next step and after that it is only a matter of one or two years before the town is ready!” she seemed joyful.

“Plan?” Manie interjected, “What plan?”

“Why, Celestia's Grand Plan of course! Don’t you know?” The receptionist seemed perplexed.

“No... We are not from around here, would you mind filling us in?” Manie asked.

“Well, Captain Sun Topaz keeps us on a need to know basis about it to prevent leakage to Equestria (‘says that Celestia wants it to be a surprise) but essentially we have been building all these settlements and towns in preparation of a migrant wave from the mainland.”

“Each town follows a ‘Stable-Tec Colony Development Plan’ tailored specially for each town depending on location, surroundings and resources, Helsinghoof was built specializing on the timber industry.”

“The first step of the plan is to secure and found a town on a designated site, this is done by our military who defend the site from hostile natives and the hard work is done by slave working force composed of Equestrias worst criminals.”

“The second step involves the foundation of perimiter defenses and a basic industry based on its specialization.”

“Third step is self sustaining in case of mainland isolation.”

“The fourth step introduces basic necessities and commodities, the bar, which came before the inn itself is one of these, in the 4th step the slave workers are ‘paroled’ (but prohibited from leaving or quitting their jobs) and given a modest weekly pay.”

“Fifth step is what we are in now, the construction of infrastructure, networking of roads in the surrounding territory and construction of proper plumbing, sewers and electric grid.”

“The sixth step I don’t know much about, we get our briefings and instructions as we go, but it is believed by many of us, due to the planned arrival of a Mayor to replace Captain Sun Topaz as the town leader, that step six is the independence of Helsinghoof as a self sustainable town of the Equestrian Kingdom!” she finished explaining.

“Queen Celestia has great plans for this place.” she added gleefully.

"What is all this aiming for?"

"Pardon?"

"Why would they go through all that? Why not keep everyone as slaves?"

The receptionist saddened, as if she had been offended by Manie's questions.

"Because eventually these towns are going to be opened to public, the long term goal of the plan is to open the frontier to the general populace of Equestria and allow free immigration, Celestia is aiming to turn the frontier into an official part of Equestria."

"Everyone who helped in achieving all this will be pardoned for their past crimes and given a second chance..."

"That can't be right, Celestia is evil, rotten to the very core, she would never do anything like that."

"Manie." I berated, "Be nice."

She looked at me angrily but didn't say anything in response.

I gave the receptionist a smile which seemed to make her seem uncomfortable, presumably due to how my expressions are twisted and changed by the scramble suit.

“I apologize for my companion.”

“If the rooms are only 5 bits each then I’d like to rent seven rooms for one night please.”

“Seven rooms? But there are only two of you?” the receptionist seemed confused.

“We are traveling in a group, the other five are currently roaming around town.”

“Oh, okay."

"Names?"

"I am Sweet Heavens, this is Manie Manie."

"The others are, Swirly Star, Strawberry Feather, Brook Cotton, Blizzard Candy and Rainbow Sea."

She wrote this down.

"That'll be 35 bits please.”

I gave her the 35 bits, I still had about 60 to spare.

I was hoping that there would be money included with the supplies from command or I'd have to try and pawn some of our gear.

Manie and I were then guided up to ou- my room on the second floor, room 201.

There were ten rooms per floor and there were five floors, all seven rooms I had rented were on the second floor, it didn’t seem like anyone else was staying at the inn.

My room seemed pretty nice, it wasn’t as overly extravagant as the lobby hall but it was still very nicely furnished with a set of neat wooden furniture, queen sized bed and broadloom carpet.

The room had, like the lobby hall, warm and inviting colors and lightning.

The receptionist (who apparently was one of three employees at the inn) bid us goodbye and told us to inform her if we needed anything else.

We were now alone.

An awkward silence befell the room.

It wasn't every day you got to be alone in a room as nice as this with a beautiful young mare, and to think that if I had taken her up on her offer we would have been here under a different circumstance... part of me damned myself for not taking the offer and part of me praised me for not taking advantage of her.

It felt nice having control of myself like that, it gave me the feeling that I hadn't broken and fallen to the evils of the world yet, that I was still 'good' despite everything I had done and seen.

But we weren't here to contemplate where I was on the morality scale, we were here for something entirely different, it was time to learn about the motive behind her crime.

“Well...” I began, “Start explaining.”

“Why did you destroy that helicopter platoon?”

Manie slowly moved to my bed, sitting down and letting out a deep sigh.

“As you know... when I was in the army I was working with Research and Development with the creation of a weapon capable of bypassing any countermeasures...” she paused.

"You... do know about that, right?"

"Uh, I know that you helped design a system capable of marking targets for laser guided precision strikes."

"Helped? Is that what they say now?"

"I did more than help, I built the entire system on my own."

“But I wasn’t the only one trying to design a weapon like that. There were others, my rivals.”

“In the lab I worked in we had always been sort of joking around in a friendly way as ‘rivals’, there was always a great deal of friendly competition going on between us while working on the various projects we were assigned to."

"It had all been fun and games back then, and our projects were mostly small stuff, modifications and minor changing of existing military system and whatnot, but then something big came up, something really big."

"Army command came one day promising a reward for the pony that could come up with a laser designation system that would fulfill their specifications, it was to be easy to use, mobile (capable to be carried by a soldier), have a range of at least 4 kilometers and be immune to any known countermeasure, be it magical or mechanical..."

"Immune how? I thought countermeasures affected the guided weapons themselves."

"They do. The new system was intended to bypass that by marking targets in a way so that the 'smart' weapons such as missiles and guided bombs would ignore the countermeasures and fly straight towards the mark. They wanted something that would completely ignore smoke and flares."

"Okay..."

"So this reward, it was big."

"How big?"

"Just... really big, we are talking millions of bits here."

"Wow."

"It was a tall order, it was like nothing we had ever been asked to do before, so we decided to set away our childish rivalry and set about to work on the project together, intent on splitting the reward evenly."

"But as the first few months passed the difference in experience with military hardware and systems between me and the others made themselves clear, you see I had the best knowledge of military systems in the group and felt that it was more of a hindrance to work together with the others than it was of help, that it was I who did all the thinking and that I was carrying the project on my own."

"So after a disagreement with the others, the R&D department split into two ‘groups’, me alone in one group and the 29 other engineers in the other, working together.”

“Their system was naturally finished quicker than mine, almost by a full year and it was called the ‘SOFLAM’ (which stands for Special Operations Forces Laser Marker as it had been intended to be used by specialists trained in its usage)."

"How did that go?"

"Their system didn’t work as intended and didn't meet the specifications required by army command."

"While a significant improvement over previous laser guidance systems, countermeasures would still interfere with the guided weapons making the weapons guided by its marker go haywire and fly way off course. They never managed to work the system out and their work came to a standstill.”

“I on the other hand had used the reports and data logs from their SOFLAM field tests to improve my own system, in fact, one year later I released a considerably more advanced system, which used an entirely different method to mark targets than the previous laser designation systems.”

"Different how?"

"Early systems used a 'laser' to 'paint' a target by emitting a series of coded 'pulses' at the target, these signal pulses then bounce of the marked target and up into the sky where they are detected by the guided weapons which then go towards the marked target."

"But, the early systems required the user to constantly keep track of the target until the weapon hits, something which becomes problematic if the target is moving or if there are obstacles in the way."

"The R&D's SOFLAM system improved the effectiveness of the previous system, bringing in features such as automatic tracking (you plant the SOFLAM in the ground and begin lazing a target and the SOFLAM will follow it automatically) and clearer signal pulses (which vastly improved the accuracy of guided weapons on target). But it didn't fix the problem of countermeasures affecting weapons and it would still lose track of the target if obstacles came in the way."

"What my does however is use a sort of 'grid' to keep track of targets in sight, the target data is then sent to a shared 'battlenet' used by all of my laser designator systems."

"Uh." I was beginning to lose her, I wasn't very familiar with military systems, what little I knew I had heard through documentaries and drunk soldiers on leave, I had followed her up til now, I knew sort of what a laser guidance system was, but I had heard nothing about any 'grids' and 'battlenets'.

"Are you still with me?"

"I... uh, no."

"What does this have to do with the helicopter platoon?"

"I will get to that in a moment, do you want to know how my system worked or is it alright if we just skip that part?"

"I guess you can explain it if you want to..."

"Very well."

"So basically when one of my system marks a target it keeps track of target size, speed and altitude to calculate where the target is headed for, it is incredibly precise when keeping track of it, so precise that it knows exactly if the target is decelerating and preparing to stop behind an obstacle or if it is only slowing down."

"So what does it do with the data and how does it prevent countermeasures from affecting the weapons?"

"Right, so, the system sends the telemetry to the 'battlenet' which is a type of map or 'grid' if you will which keeps track of all marked targets, it lists marked targets as a blip on the grid which can be targeted by a guided weapon that is compatible with my system (since my system no longer uses the coded pulses of old and is completely electronic)."

"Aside from being capable of tracking targets who move behind obstacles (mostly, it works better with airborne targets than with ground targets, especially if the ground target is on uneven and rocky terrain) with a minimal margin of failure it also allows the user of the guided weapons in question to select the target he wants to attack (as opposed to the weapon dumbly following the closest and clearest signal pulse like before) so the weapon can attack more specific targets."

"And not just that, ANY target in the line of sight of the system is hit with 100% accuracy 100% of the time AND the weapons guided by it ignore all known countermeasures!"

She seemed really enthusiastic about this weapon of hers, system, whatever.

I didn't quite understand all of it, but I got the general gist of how it worked.

"So I take it army command liked the results?"

"Did they ever, they gave me the full reward as soon as the tests completed and my system was soon integrated into all branches of the army, I was commissioned to work on a modified system compatible with main battle tanks, and that was the last work I did before... things began to happen so to speak."

"So what happened?"

"The other engineers found out that I had used the data from their own tests to work on my system and began to accuse me of 'stealing' their research, claiming that they should have been credited for the system."

"I proved time and time again that my system was entirely different from theirs and that they had absolutely no part in it's design, I explained that the data I had used from their tests was simply to work out the flaws of old systems before I even began to work on the actual system and that none of it was used in it's creation, but they wouldn't hear any of it."

"It didn't help either that I hadn't come up with a name for my system, technically it is no longer a 'laser designation' system, even though I've formally always addressed it as such, but since 'laser designation system' was too long of a name the army and those who had used the system began to refer to it as the 'SOFLAM PLUS'..."

"Oh..."

"As you would expect this pissed the other engineers off to no end."

"After some time and several fights and arguments the engineers, my rivals, began to threaten me."

"At first it was just minor, nothing to be too taken by, but then they became more serious, they would leave notes or bluntly come up to me and threaten to kill or hurt me if I didn't share my reward with them, then they began to sabotage my work in the labs, forcing me to work elsewhere and then... well... they began to push me around, sometimes going as far as beating me up, abusing me..."

"Did they ever..."

She blinked at me, just staring at me questioning for a few moments.

Then she blushed angrily at me.

"T-that's a bit too personal!"

"Sorry, sorry."

"But, um... no, I uh, still haven't... I mean! Then the engineers began involving others!"

"They brought in their friends from Air Force..."

"Why didn't you ask for help?"

"I did, several times, but they did nothing about it."

"Why not?"

"We all worked in the R&D department, of the army, everything we did, even the smallest and most insignificant thing was top secret, we were all kept close and discouraged from quitting to prevent leakage, not that any of us dared to quit, we had all heard rumors of engineers and higher ranked officers quitting the army only to end up 'disappearing'."

"They simply told me that it was 'just harmless bullying' and that I should deal with it myself, they didn't even care that I was attacked by them or that they sabotaged my work."

"So what made you do it?"

"A couple of days before a scheduled field test using the latest version of my system, the one designed for tanks, five of the pilots from the helicopter platoon that was to partake in the field test (as a sort of combined operation) approached me, they threatened me yet again about the reward but did now also demand that I sabotage my own system, I refused, and they nearly beat the life out of me. They threatened to kill me through a, quote in quote, 'unfortunate friendly fire accident' if I didn't do as they demanded."

“Wait. So you...”

“Yes, Sweet Heavens. I wiped out the entire helicopter platoon to protect myself and my crew."

"I didn’t know which five helicopters were going to target me.”

“I am really sorry for what I did and for the grief I have caused, but I regret nothing.”

“I... I had to, it was the only way... it was them or me... I...” she began to break up in tears.

Ashamed and saddened she simply stared down at her hooves as a few heavy tears ran down her cheeks, falling down on her lap.

“W-what happens now...?” she asked, nervously.

She wasn’t sure what my reaction would be.

I stood there blankly staring at her.

This changed everything, she had done it to protect herself from the jealousy and evils of others, as an act of self defense.

She had been in a situation where she had to choose from her own death or the death of innocents, and no matter how morally extreme the choice had been she had saved herself.

Did this make her a bad pony? Or a survivalist?

Would anypony else have done differently?

I walked up to her, she looked away from me, I sat down besides her and wrapped my right foreleg around her, she seemed surprised and slightly shocked.

“Manie...” I began, talking as smoothly as the suit allowed me, “You did what you had to do in self defense... I... would have done the same thing in your situation...” I consoled her. “I can't blame you for your choice."

“Not everypony thinks of it that way... Rainbow Sea...”

“I will talk to Rainbow Sea.”

"No..."

"He knows, I told him everything about it."

"He feels that I should have submitted to what was coming for me."

There WAS a choice, your life isn't worth that of 58 fucking ponies Manie, you should have accepted what was coming to you!

So that's what it really meant.

“He wants to KILL me for what I did.”

“Tomorrow we will confront Rainbow Sea about this and try to get things sorted out."

"If he doesn’t take it well then perhaps it is better if he stays here in Helsinghoof, I could try and work something out with the local commander to get Rainbow Sea transferred here.”

I was really really leaning on that possibility.

“Thanks Sweet...” she gave me a weak smile.

I let go of her and stood up.

“I am going to go speak to the Captain, you should try and go and find the others. Stay safe Manie.”

“I will. See you later.” she said meekly.

I left the room and went outside the inn.

Outside I bumped into Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy.

“Hey there Sweet Heavens.” Brook greeted me.

“Hey guys.”

“The rates at the inn were pretty cheap, so I got all of you guys a room for the night. Just go to the receptionist and tell them I sent you and she should give you the keys to your rooms.” I informed them.

They looked at each other in mild surprise.

“Whoa, thanks Sweet Heavens!” they both said.

“No problem, you have to sleep somewhere, so this is the least I can do.”

“Where is Nurse Swirly and Strawberry Feather?” I asked.

“We last saw ‘em on the main street, looking at store windows.”

“Okay. Look, if you bump into Manie Manie in the inn could you do me a favor and keep an eye on her? Things don’t seem to look very good between her and Rainbow Sea, I spoke to her about that and we’ll clear things up tomorrow.”

“Uh... okay, sure.” Brook Cotton said.

I glanced at the large clock on the facade of the town hall. 6:09 AM, it was still early.

“I am going to go talk to the local commander, I'll see you later.”

We split up and I went to ask a nearby soldier about the whereabouts of his commanding officer.

He directed me to the town hall just down the central plaza we were on.

The town hall had the same boring gray cement exterior as the rest of the town, on the inside the building seemed more like an office than anything else, there wasn’t an excessive amount of guards, military ordinance or defenses inside, it didn’t look much like the command center to me.

The Captain didn’t have any appointments or duties this early so I was allowed into the mayor's office to see him almost immediately.

It was a very luxurious looking office, wooden paneling, desk made of solid oak, clean red carpet covering the floor.

Captain Sun Topaz, a charcoal coated pony with blonde mane, tail and yellow eyes not unlike my own was sitting on a large leather chair behind the desk, there was a large floor-to-ceiling window looking over the town plaza behind him.

He caught me silently looking at the window when stepping inside.

“You are thinking about the window aren't you?” he asked. It was a rhetorical question.

I didn’t say anything, the Captain stood up, revealing his winged shield cutiemark, and knocked on the window to show that it was reinforced.

“Bulletproof reinforced magical glass. The unicorns invented it, crafty bastards.”

He smiled and reached out a hoof at me, I shook it.

“Captain Sun Topaz, commander of the Helsinghoof company detachment of the Overwatch.“

“And you are...?”

“Tombs. Civil Protection officer Captain Tombs.”

“Indeed? What brings Civil Protection to this little piece of heaven?” Sun Topaz asked, jokingly.

He signaled for me to have a seat on one of the two leather chairs in front of the desk, which I did.

“Special assignment from CP command.”

"I'd tell you more, but all they have told me is that I am to escort six ponies past the border of the frontier."

“Beyond the border? You mean beyond the area currently being secured by Overwatch?” his reaction was the same as that of the guard I had meet by the gate.

“Yes...”

“But that’s insane! The whole frontier border is a hellish battlefield, the wildlings are attacking en masse, you’ll never get past there!”

Wild-lings?

"What's a 'wildling'?" I asked.

"Uh, 'wildling' is the nickname we have given to the bipedal hairless monkey's that live on this continent."

"We don't know what they are, but they have shown to be very aggressive, tribalistic and primitive, they live in the wilderness in simple primitive conditions, hence the name 'wildling'."

"What else can you tell me about them?"

"Not much, what I know is limited by what I saw them do when we drove them out of the area four years ago."

"Which was what?"

"Like I said, they are essentially smart and cunning hairless monkeys that walk upright."

"They are very aggressive and incredibly bold, going as far as attacking in full force in broad daylight."

"What they lack in size and bulk they make up with agility and thumbs."

"Thumbs?"

"They have hands, which have fingers and thumbs?"

"I'm hoping that you know what a 'hand' is, it's kinda awkward to explain to someone who has never seen one before."

"I do. But how does that give them an advantage?"

"Their hands allow them to get a better grip on things than we can, their hands are quicker and more agile than unicorn magic, so they can swing and stab way faster than any of us."

"Also, since they don't have to craft special gear suited for use by hoof and mouth they can attack with whatever they have at hand... no pun intended."

"A favorite of theirs was rocks and throwing spears, they also often use bows and blowguns to deadly effect..."

"The wildlings in this area would often come charging into battle wearing nothing but loincloths and pelts, many of them would compliment this with tribal tattoos and the bones of their slain, usually those of their own kin (leading us to believe that they are also cannibalistic in nature)."

"A rare few would sometimes show up with the scavenged and retrofitted armor and weapons of lost soldiers, this would often include the bones, skulls, tails and scalps of the soldiers they belonged to..."

"That... sounds... pretty grim."

"Yeah... shit, tell me about it."

"They would charge wearing the colorful tails and manes on their heads or wrapped around them like a scarf as a sickening reminder to us of what happened to those they killed."

"It was very demoralizing at the time."

I think I have an idea what they look like now, no need to dwell any further in it, I wasn't sure if my stomach would be able to handle it...

"I think I've heard enough... thanks for filling me in."

"Thankful is hardly the right word, you'll soon wish you never heard about them."

He drearily looked at his desk.

"I sure do..."

Sun Topaz went strangely silent for a while before giving a spontaneous and almost cheerful "Oh well!"

"I bet you didn't come here to ask about the wildlings, so what can I do for you?"

"CP command told me that there would be supplies waiting for me here, transferred from Shellbeach Prison."

"Right, right, there are, there are..."

"They came in and airdropped a whole wagon full of gear and supplies by helicopter late at night yesterday, they said that it was pretty urgent, come with me and I'll show you to it."

He rose up from his chair but I raised a hoof to stop him.

"Actually wait, there was another thing I wanted to ask you first."

"Oh?" he sat down again.

"And what would that be?"

"I was wondering about the possibility of transferring some of the ponies assigned to me to Helsinghoof."

"Hmm."

"You can put them to work however you want, they don't need any special treatment or anything."

"I suppose that can be arranged..."

"Is there any particular reason for it though?"

"Two reasons."

"The first is that I want the mission to run as smoothly as possible, and seeing as I am the only officer assigned to watch over this group of mine I need them to trust me and follow me on their own accord, if they don't then they are going to risk me and the others and jeopardize the entire mission. I feel that it would be pretty pointless to try and bring them anywhere and have them do things against their will if all they are going to be focused on is escaping. So I have given them the element of choice, stay with me and proceed with the mission or get transferred elsewhere."

"Do they know where you are going?"

"Yes."

"And they know of the dangers that lie beyond the border?"

"Vaguely, but yes."

"So wont they all ask for a transfer?"

"We have been through some... conflicts... already, I have given them reason to trust me, so most of them have agreed on staying with me despite the dangers."

"Or ignorance. If I was them, I'd be asking for a transfer immediately, no offense."

"None taken." Not that there was any to be taken anyway.

"So if they are all staying why do you come to me about it?"

"Because there is this one guy in our group, an earth pony stallion named Rainbow Sea, who has formed a serious grudge against another pony in the group, Manie Manie. And he is trying to go as far as attempting to kill her."

"We have had to keep her close to us to prevent the two from meeting each other on their own, she is currently out roaming about the town with the others."

"Sounds pretty serious..." he appeared thoughtful for a moment.

"So... this Manie Manie... Why is he trying to kill her?"

"Do you know of the incident that happened between Armor and Air Force during a training exercise in the mainland a few years ago?"

Sun Topaz expression turned grim.

"I've heard about it, there was some sort of misunderstanding that resulted in a horrific friendly fire accident, a whole platoon of helicopters were destroyed killing 58 pilots..."

"Manie Manie was... shall we say... involved... in this accident. Rainbow Sea's brother and sister were among the pilots killed.

"Involved how exactly?"

"She... uh... was the one responsible for the friendly fire accident occurring in the first place."

"Hmmm... so it really is her..." Sun Topaz leaned back in his chair and clopped his hooves together in a state of deep thought.

"What?"

"Truth is Tombs..."

"I know more about the 'accident' than I let on."

"You do?"

"Major Manie Manie is fully responsible for targeting Air Force's own helicopters with the SOFLAM+ system she herself designed."

"She is actually being sought after by Air Force officials who have offered a reward for her live capture."

"They want to bring her in for interrogation."

"Okay..."

"What... kind of reward are they offering?"

"A million bits."

Holy shit!

A MILLION BITS?!

I almost burst out, but managed to contain my shock.

"Hmm. Okay..."

"And... the thing is... the weatherponies of our town are members of Air Force... if they were to know..."

Aw shit...

I could see where this was going...

"Are you... blackmailing me?"

He brought down his hooves and leaned forward slightly.

"You are misunderstanding my intentions."

"You are not after the reward...?"

"No."

"Relations between Air Force and Overwatch aren't very good at the moment, we have no intention of agreeing to any of their demands or requests, no matter how insane this reward of theirs is."

"So why are you telling me about this?"

"To warn you."

"But... eh actually... I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to leave as soon as possible."

"When were you planning on leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Alright good, good..."

"Not everyone knows about the reward and only a select few should know what she looks like, so as long as you don't go announcing her presence to the entire town she should be safe."

"Now about Rainbow Sea..."

"Yes?"

"I'll take him if you want, but I doubt I'll be able to offer you a replacement. So you'll be down one man."

"Replace? I wasn't really going to ask for a replacement... the thought never really crossed my mind."

"So you are fine with it?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

"Alright, was that all? I need to get going soon, got duties to attend to."

"Well, there was another question, but it's not really important."

"Show me to the wagon and I'll leave you to it."

"We can take it on the way if you want, the wagon is parked in the garage by the guard barracks on the other side of town."

"Okay."

The two of us got up and left the office.

"So the inn receptionist mentioned something about 'Celestia's Grand Plan to me'."

"Did she now."

"I am pretty sure that I didn't authorize any leakage to those not involved with the plan, perhaps I should sit down and have a talk with her."

Shit, did I just put that nice receptionist into some sort of trouble now?

“Oh no no, don’t do that. I was the one who pushed her for answers, if anything I am the one at fault here.” I lied.

I hadn't really said anything about it, Manie had done the questioning and the receptionist had just enthusiastically spilled the beans.

"I suppose."

"I am surprised you didn't know about it already, with you being a CP officer and all."

So was I, I had been with CP for years and I hadn’t heard about any ‘Grand Plan’, I kinda knew that there was something going on abroad, but this thing about turning the colonies into an official part of Equestria was completely new to me.

Up til today I had always thought that the colonies were strictly there for resources.

We went downstairs.

"Why is that surprising?" I asked anyway.

"You are the folks who have been sending us the manpower and resources needed for the colonization efforts."

"Well yeah, the convicts..."

"If you can even call them that..."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just my own opinion, I just don't think that they are all as crooked as you guys say they are. We do have some bad apples living in town, survivors from the early days of Helsinghoof, but most pones living here are honest folks as far as I can tell."

"As if they aren't all criminals and murderers..."

"Yeah, exactly."

"I've been thinking the same thing, maybe they aren't all crooks, maybe we have been arresting the wrong people."

Sun Topaz seemed tensed up a bit when we stepped out.

"I wouldn't know about that, just giving you my thoughts about it, I could be wrong."

"I am sure you CP guys in the mainland have had your reasons for arresting them, not saying that you are doing a bad job or anything."

He thought I was testing his loyalty to the kingdom.

"Relax captain, it's okay to disagree and have opinions against Civil Protection."

He looked at me questioning.

"I am not a big fan of CP myself, I've heard and seen a lot of bad things about them as of lately, I am considering quitting my job once I get back home. If I make it back home..."

"I see..."

The conversation seemed to end there, and like I had told him it wasn't really all that important so I didn't try to continue and push for answers, we crossed most of the town in silence.

All around the town ponies, both soldiers and workers alike, were going to their jobs, stores began opening, construction resumed, everyone had somewhere to go and something to do.

Once we began drawing near to the barracks Sun Topaz spontaneously resumed the talk.

It was confusing and a bit awry, but it hardly felt appropriate to say anything about it.

"So the receptionist... What did she tell you?"

"She... uh... told me that the towns were built to become part of official Equestrian territory and that they were eventually going to be opened to public.”

“That is correct. One day the secured territory of the frontier will become part of Equestria, and opened for immigration."

"But we are years away from that.”

“She mentioned that all towns and outposts followed a certain step-by-step plan designed by Stable-Tec for the quick settlement and establishment of industries and infrastructure on the frontier.”

“They do, they do... and I guess you want to know more about that?” he aptly concluded.

“If you don’t mind... yes.”

“Technically I shouldn't be telling you, but out here everyone knows about it so you are bound to hear about it sooner or later anyway.”

“So basically, like the receptionist told you the Overwatch branch of the Equestrian army is in collaboration with Civil Protection attempting to secure a vast territory on the continent for the settlement and establishment of industries to support the mainland and try to spread out the population of Equestria a bit more.”

"Spread out the population?"

“Why?” I wondered.

“Simply put. Megaspells.”

“Megaspells?”

“Yes. The apocalypse in the form of tiny glowing boxes and insanely powerful covens of spellcasters capable of unquantified levels of mayhem and destruction. Today it is thought that a dozen well placed megaspells could wipe out all of mainland Equestria. 12 megaspells. Do you know how many ponies live in Equestria, Tombs?”

“Eehh... Wild guess, 40 million?”

“More. Many many more. Today over 100 million ponies live on the mainland, of which the vast majority lives in the megacities, Manehatten, Baltimare, Vanhoover, Ponyville, Fillydelphia and so on."

"Millions would die just like that, in the blink of an eye, if war ever broke out with the Zebra Empire."

"Celestia is, contrary to what many ponies think, attempting to minimize casualties and save as many ponies as possible in the case of war.”

We arrived to the barracks, we stopped just outside the side entrance leading into the garage connected to the barracks.

“So all this about making Equestria a better place is just a bunch of bullshit?”

“Eeeeah.... both yes and no.” Sun Topaz seemed uncertain.

“The Grand Plan is intended to solve many of Equestrias current problems, such as the need for resources for our industries."

"But the top priority and main goal is to spread the population out, the extra resources and decreasing of crime in Equestria are 'extras', think of those as positive ‘byproducts’ of the plan if you will, the Grand Plan has many unintentional and indirect benefits tied to the real goal.”

“So the plan carries has no negative effects or penalties?”

“I didn’t say that."

"I said that it had many unintentional and indirect benefits, not that it was without penalties."

"One of the penalties for instance would be how incredibly hostile this place is and how hard it is proving to be to carve out the territory and space we need."

"And it's not just the wildlings who pose a threat, there is also the wildlife and monsters who live in the caves and ancient ruins scattered across the continent, on top of that we have unknown diseases, parasites and more."

"Wait... what did you say?"

"Diseases and parasites?"

"No, the part about the ruins."

"I thought we were the first to colonize the continent."

"Turns out we aren't."

"Scattered throughout the continent and the secured frontier we have found a number of ancient looking ruins partly overgrown by the fauna."

"What kind of ruins are we talking about? Temples? Primitive remains?"

"Oh no, these aren't the kind of cozy little temple ruins you read about in the Daring Do books, these are ruins of actual cities and installations, remains of an ancient civilization who judging by the architecture was well technologically developed."

"Are they connected to the wildlings?"

"Doubtful."

"Why is that?"

"They are savages, and the ruins are hundreds of years old at least, there is no way they could have built them."

Sun Topaz opened the door and we both stepped inside.

The garage was dark and had no windows, Topaz flicked on the light switch, turning on a series of bright white lights across the room revealing the considerable size and emptiness of the garage.

There was room for at least eight vehicles inside, but aside from the old scrawny looking wooden wagon and a jet black APC the garage was completely empty, the other APC's and Overwatch vehicles were most likely out elsewhere.

Going up to the wagon Sun Topaz said,

"This is the wagon they flew in yesterday."

"We haven't touched any of the contents, but by the looks of it you are going to go build something somewhere."

"They flew this thing in? By helicopter?"

"Yup."

"How? It's barely holding together!"

"It's tougher than it looks." Topaz knocked on the side of the wagon, it sounded sturdier than I had expected it to sound like.

I went up to the back of the wagon and looked inside.

The wagon was filled with all kinds of gear, all kinds.

It appeared to contain a number of construction tools, as well as a red Super Tool Kit, an impressive kit by a hardware company known as 'Snap-Off', but there appeared to be little in the way of construction materiel.

There was also a pickaxe, five shovels, five axes, lengths of rope, a crutch, six ammo boxes, five WH MLP's (pistols) and three assault rifles which I had never seen before, two of which had basic scopes and one that appeared to have some sort of advanced looking electronic scope on it.

In the way of supplies there was a modern sealed footlocker containing medical supplies (which came with a medical handbook about military field medicine) and a bag of bits, two large crates of canned food, eight sacks of seeds and two barrels marked 'strawberry wine'.

Another last item of interest was the black case containing a motorized chain axe which looked completely unwieldable by hoof.

"Hmm." I said picking up the axe, it was held comfortably in my mouth, it didn't feel obtrusive and still gave room for my tongue to move around.

"Something wrong?"

I turned around holding the axe in my mouth, Sun Topaz eyes widened with impression.

"Wow. They gave you a chain axe?"

"Looks like it."

"That's advanced gear, the kind they issue to Infantry."

"What am I supposed to do with it?"

"I don't know."

I put the axe back in it's case.

"Look, I've got to go now. I got things to do."

"It was nice uh, making your acquaintance and all. Come see me again tomorrow morning regarding the transferring and I'll sort it out, alright?"

"Alright."

"But hey, before you go... thanks for filling me in on things and warning me about Air Force."

"I appreciate your... discretion."

"I am glad I could be of help."

Sun Topaz left the garage, leaving me alone with my wagon.

Right... right...

I sat down and yawned deeply.

It's been a long and eventful day, woke up in prison, found myself in a fight, watched somepony get his head ripped off followed by a filly getting murdered, walked all night in the rain and got yelled at, a lot.

So maybe it wasn't all that strange that I felt so tired.

But before I went back to the inn to catch some sleep I needed to think a bit, I need to recap what I had heard real quick and take a moment to process is all.

So... judging by this gear I have received... mission command wants me to go beyond the border and... settle down somewhere?

Well that's suicidal, and stupid.

If there is anything that screams 'THIS IS A PHONY MISSION AND YOU ARE GOING TO DIE' this would be it.

But now they were beginning to back the mission up with all this stuff, a lot of which is highly valuable, so maaaaaybe it wasn't a phony suicide mission after all?

But what was I supposed to do against the wildlings?

Assuming that I by some incredible feat manage to pull through and past the border, in the middle of a wildling siege, and to wherever it was they would have me go.

What would I do once I got there?

How long would it take before the wildlings would find us and kill us all?

I don't know what goes through command's heads, but I don't think five pistols, three rifles and one axe is going to be enough to drive off a hundred savages.

"Shit."

I looked back at the supplies.

Yeah...

I hope mission command knows what they are doing.

I opened my satchel and brought out one of the bottles.

Everfree Dandenlion Vodka, 90%.

'DISTILLED FROM 100% SELECTED FLOWERS!'

Yeah right, they probably just mashed the shit in some grinder or something.

But I guess one drink wouldn't be so bad right now, I could certainly use the pick-me-up.

I unscrewed the cork and took a deep gulp of the strong beverage.

"Puah!"

It was some really strong shit, it tasted awful.

I put the bottle down next to me, I wasn't going to drink more of that shit, it's... it's... undrinkable.

Alright, straighten up, I need to do things, important things.

I need to get ahold of Manie and let her know about the bounty and Rainbow Sea's transfer.

I would do this now.

In a second.

...

Okay so maybe I'll take another sip from it, but just a little one.

I took a deep gulp.

I wondered what would happen back at the prison now that we were gone.

What would Cydia and the Brothers do now that her daughter was dead? Killed right in front of her?

What happened to Floyd? What the hell is Floyd?

I was beginning to feel really bad for leaving them all like that, but... but it wasn't my fight, I had nothing to do with it and there was probably nothing I could do about it, not after what happened to... uh... Rita Gumdrops, was it?

...

Maybe if I take another gulp I'll feel less guilty about it.

"To Rita Gumdrops." I said for myself.

Gulp.

Nope.

Still felt really bad.

Hmm...

Two more and I'll be going, it's probably best if I let Manie know as soon as possible, wouldn't want things to get out of control.

I liked having control of... of what I was supposed to be in control of. Uh.

I mean, not that I had much control to begin with, my life was currently running on rails, on a train heading for hell.

Literally.

Hmm...

I took another gulp, and another for good measure.

This reward though, one million bits for Manie's live capture.

It was... it sounded... interesting.

One million bits, for that one pony.

Not that I would consider it, but still. The possibilities I'd have with all that money.

Maybe I could use it to bribe CP and Overwatch into letting me back to the mainland, they could always have someone else do the mission right?

I could go home, quit Civil Protection and... I don't know... get a normal job? Maybe downtown?

And I could go to those parties they have every night, just forget about the state of Equestria, if for the moment.

Deep gulp.

The taste wasn't so bad now, it was actually pretty alright, it gave me a sense of warmth and optimism.

Maybe I could save myself, maybe I could just hand her in and use the reward to get home.

That could work, everything could turn out alright after all.

But should I really?

I took one last gulp of the dandelion vodka, this would be the last one, I could always drink the rest later.

I was disappointed to find that there was barely any left, the bottle was empty.

I dropped it on the floor, the bottle shattered sending shards of glass in all directions.

You know what?

I think I'll turn her in.

I don't want to go past the border, I don't even want to be here, on the frontier.

I just want to go home, and forget that any of this ever happened.

I hopped off the wagon, but everything was spinning and in my drunken stupor I fell flat on the floor.

I stumbled back up and made for the exit, after that, everything turned black.

"There he is!"

My head... feels so heavy.

"Guys! Ah found him!"

I felt someone grab me by my forelegs.

"Sweet Heavens!"

"Are ya alright?"

I recognized that voice, was that... Brook?

I opened my eyes and was met by the blurry visage of the grayscale farmer and his orange eyes.

"Brook...?" I said weakly.

He looked away.

"He's awake."

"Where... am... I?"

Things cleared up slighty.

I saw that we were in an alley of sorts, it was dark, but we were outside, night had fallen, or at least evening.

"You're in an alley." someone said from the side, it was Strawberry Feather.

"By a bunch of garbage dumpsters."

"About that? Can we get him out of there? It kinda smells in here." Swirly said.

"Yeah, sure thing. Candy, help me out will ya?" Brook said, getting behind me.

"You take his rear legs."

Blizzard Candy showed up before me and grabbed my rear legs, I didn't like ponies grabbing my rear legs, I don't think anypony does, but I was too weak and confused to struggle.

The two carried me out on the street, putting me down on a bench, it was brighter out here and the moon and night sky were clearly visible from where I lay. It was odd, but the shapes on the moon almost looked like they formed an image of princess Luna's face, she looked sad, but maybe it was just the alcohol playing tricks on me.

The bench was sticky.

"Good job guys. You put him down on a freshly painted bench." Swirly said.

"Whoops."

"Can't you read the sign?"

"What sign?"

"The sign you laid him down on that said 'FRESH PAINT'?"

"Well whatever, he oughta take a shower anyway before we take him anywhere."

Brook came into view.

"Hey lad. How many hooves am ah holding up?" he asked me.

What a stupid question, ponies only have one hoof per leg, and we need at least one forehoof to stand up.

So one hoof.

"Three hooves." I answered, unintentionally sounding really smug about it.

Wait, what, why?

Somepone trotted up to me, Brook moved out of view, it was Manie.

“Sweet Heavens!” Manie Manie called out, her muzzle puckered as she drew near.

"Have... have you been drinking?" she asked.

"N-no..." I replied slowly.

"Then why do you have this wrapped around your ear?"

She reached for my left ear and pulled off something, something that felt like paper.

"I don't..."

She showed me a label.

"Everfree Dandelion Vodka, 90%." she read out loud.

"Uh..."

"Made with 100% selected flowers." she added.

"Sweet Heavens."

"What happened to the rest of the bottle?" she sternly asked.

"What... are you... my wife?"

"She might as well be." Blizzard snickered.

She looked away angrily and pointed a hoof somewhere.

"Shut up."

She looked back at me, still angry but now with a bit of compassion.

"I was worried about you, we have been searching for you all day."

"How... long... was I out?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

Good point.

I couldn't remember anything.

"What... time is it?"

"Around 8:40 PM."

It was late... last time I checked the clock it was 6... something... AM.

"What happened?"

"How... should I know?"

My head felt like a watermelon, ready to explode at any second now.

"You don't know? Or you don't remember?"

"I don't... remember?"

"So what is the last thing you remember then?"

"Uhm..."

I thought about it.

What did I remember?

I remember speaking to Captain Sun Topaz, the commander of the Helsinghoof Overwatch forces.

Then there is something about Air Force, transfers, supplies and of a bounty.

Oh right, the bounty.

"You have a bounty on your head." I said.

"I... what?"

"Air Force is offering a biiiig reward for your safe capture."

"So, uh, don't tell anyone your name or anything."

She facehoofed and muttered something below voice.

"And you are telling me this NOW?"

"Sweet Heavens you IDIOT!"

"Hey, that's uncalled for."

"No! It isn't!"

"I've been around town all day! It would have been fucking good to know before I gave my name to anyone!"

"Well..." I tried, but I had nothing.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner!?"

"Well, uhm..."

What was I supposed to tell her?

I had made a bad call, I wasn't sure where or how 'drink a whole bottle of vodka' managed to come before 'tell Manie about bounty and Air Force on her head' in my mental list of priorities.

"Well what!?"

"I... did... a mistake."

"Eh, break it up you two." Brook said.

"What's done is done, right now we need to get him off the street."

"And get him cleaned up." Swirly suggested.

They brought me to my room in the inn, shortly after I had gotten up from the freshly painted bench I had found that Rainbow Sea hadn't been with them in the search, which was a relief for me as I soon realized that it would have been a grave mistake to tell him about the bounty.

They had taken off my satchels and coat and thrown them on my bed, the back of my coat was smeared with red paint.

Brook and Blizzard had helped me stand up in the shower (even though I had insisted that I could do it on my own, despite falling over four times on the way there) and soon I was as good as new.

Or at least, as new as a half-drunk half-hungover thirty year old stallion could be.

The three of us stepped out of the bathroom, and found the others were arrayed around my room, Manie was sitting on my bed going through my stuff. Again.

"Don't touch that, stop going through my stuff."

"Oh hey, you no longer smell like a hobo." she said, ignoring me.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"You sound terrible actually."

"You sound terrible."

"Don't be a child."

"I'm hungry."

"So are we." Blizzard said.

"Manie wanted to find you first before going to eat."

The cogs in my brain took a moment to process what I heard.

"What were you planning on eating, with no money?"

"There was money in the wagon." Manie explained.

Actually no, she didn't explain. That didn't explain anything.

"Who told you about the wagon?"

"Sun Topaz."

"How did Sun Topaz recognize you?"

"I don't know, I thought you had told us about him?"

"I... don't think I did?"

"That's strange." Manie looked puzzled, it was the very same expression she had done back in the holding cell over at the mainland, but in a different context.

I was under the impression that she was hiding something from me, but I wasn't in the mood to argue about it right now.

"So... where do we go? To eat?"

"The inn has a restaurant, remember?"

"Right..."

We all went downstairs and into the restaurant.

The inn restaurant was incredibly crowded, there were easily over seventy ponies in there.

But it kinda looked more like a darkly lit nightclub than a restaurant.

Actually wait, it WAS a nightclub and the nightclub had a restaurant surrounding the dance floor in the middle of the room.

The whole room was a confusing mess of dancing ponies, colored smoke, loud music and flashing lights, despite this the ponies sitting around the crowded tables didn’t seem to mind and were chatting, drinking and eating just fine.

We managed to hail a waitress, a gentle mare about my age I thought, couldn’t really tell what she looked like in this mess of colors and darkness but she seemed nice enough to direct us to an empty table for six in a corner of the room.

It was one of those nice alcoves with a large round table surrounded by a comfortable couch, the table was kinda sticky from spilt drinks and food but shortly after we seated a stallion wearing an apron swept by and cleaned it all up, turning the table sparkling clean. It was so clean that it looked safe to lick (not that I felt like licking a random table in a nightclub/restaurant...).

As he rushed off I caught sight of his bucket and soap cutiemark. His talent was cleaning. Nice.

After fifteen minutes or so the waitress from before swung by.

“May I take your order?”

“Order? We ain’t even got no menu yet!” Brook Cotton said.

“Oh we don’t have menus here, we have to serve many customers a night so there isn’t really time for them to sit down and choose.”

What. Really?

“Aeeh, ok if you say so. What do ya have?” Brook Cotton asked.

“Well, there is egg and bacon, egg sausage and bacon, egg sausage bacon and spam, egg bacon and spam, spam bacon sausage and spam, spam egg spam spam bacon and spam, spam spam bac-”

“Do you have anything with less spam in it?” Brook Cotton wondered.

“Do you have anything vegetarian?” Nurse Swirly spoke up.

“Well, there is spam egg and spam.” the waitress said.

“I don’t want spam.”

Brook Cotton grinned, he was onto something that the rest of us were missing.

“Well, you could have egg sausage bacon and spam, that ain’t got much spam in it.”

“But it still has spam, plus there is meat in it!” Nurse Swirly protested.

“Not as much as egg sausage, bacon spam and spam.”

“Can’t I have just egg without the spam?” Nurse Swirly said.

“Eww!” the waitress responded mockingly in a tone of disgust.

“What do you mean ‘Eww’? I don’t like spam!”

The ponies in the tables nearby began chanting “SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM”, the waitress began to laugh and the ponies soon joined in.

“Ahahah, you should see the look on yer faces.” the waitress said as she caught her breath.

“What just happened?” Blizzard Candy asked confused.

“Ah we do that to every newcomer, it’s funny, we love to joke around here.” the waitress explained.

“Well anyway, I am Table Turner, and I’ll be your waitress for the evening, I’ll be right back with the menus.” she winked at us and then rushed off into the crowd.

“She seems... nice.” Manie Manie hesitantly said.

“Remember what the receptionist said?” I reminded her.

“Uh... yeah, yeah I know. Everyone parties as if it’s their last day on earth...”

The waitress returned with the menus and informed us that she’d be back in about ten minutes.

I picked up one of the menus, it was written in the same symbolic language the ponies on the mainland used, the menu really just consisted of a whole bunch of squiggles, symbols and shapes with numbers representing the cost of the dish in golden bits.

It’s not as if we didn’t have actual letters and that we couldn’t read them, but for some reason most ponies and businesses insisted on using the old Equestrian language for writing instead of the relatively new letters (that had been around since my grandfathers time), I wasn't sure if this was because of some kind of love for the kingdom proper or if they just liked the squiggles more than actual letters.

I shook it off and just read the menu, the prices seemed strangely cheap.

I felt damn hungry just looking at it, this restaurant had everything from pizzas to soups to southern, eastern and northern Equestrian specific dishes and more, Nurse Swirly looked really excited about reading the menu, I bet she was happy to see that it wasn’t all egg bacon sausage and spam. Heh.

I decided on a margherita pizza and a glass of foamy beer.

When the waitress Table Turner showed up we were all ready to give her our orders.

I was first.

“I'll have a margherita pizza and a glass of beer.” she nodded and was about to write it down when Manie Manie interrupted her.

Manie? Where the heck was Manie at anyway?

I looked to my left, there she was, sitting next to me, I hadn’t noticed her sitting there, goddamn brain freeze.

She would have blended in almost perfectly with the darkness if it wasn’t for that white outline of hers.

My drunken mind followed the white outlines of her dark body, they made it seem like it was almost natural for a pony to sit down. She noticed and blushed slightly, like she had done before, this time she just ignored me instead of calling out on me.

I looked away, remembering what she had said about it.

“No.” she said abruptly, “No more alcohol for you.”

Fuck you Manie.

“He’ll have a glass of carrot juice.”

“And you?” Table Turner asked Manie Manie.

“I’d like some vegetable soup and strawberry juice.”

Then Brook Cotton.

“A vesuvio pizza an a glass of the coldest an foamiest beer ya got.”

That's what I wanted. Damn him to hell.

“What’ll the nurse have then?” she asked Swirly.

“I’d love to have some egg rolls and grilled vegetables, I'll have apple juice with that.”

“Strawberry Feather will have a plate of potato chips and a bottle of sparkle cola.” she added.

The waitress gave her a look.

“Can’t the boy speak for himself?”

“Strawberry Feather is... timid.” Nurse Swirly explained.¨

Strawberry Feather said nothing, he avoided eye contact with everypony, he had been strangely quiet, but then, he usually didn't say much anyway.

“Alright... chips and cola...” she finished writing, “And how about you sweetheart?” she said winking at Blizzard Candy, he blushed.

“I.. uh.. I’ll..” he stammered.

"We don't have any 'uh's' and 'I'lls'. Sorry." she quipped, putting him at ease.

"Hardy har."

“I’ll have a steak, medium well and river spirits.”

Table Turner nodded at him, surprised.

“Didn’t figure you for a steak boy.”

“I am not a boy.” he replied.

“Aw sugar, I’m like twice your age. You are a boy to me.” she winked at him again.

“That all?” we confirmed a yes, “OK, I’ll be back with your orders shortly lickety split.”

Everyone were silent for a while.

I listened closely to the music that was being played, just to pass the time a bit.

It was a track I recognized, I think I remember it being named 'My Destiny is a Rock' or something, made by an artist just known as 'Voodoopony', it was alright, I had heard it before in the mainland while out drinking with my squad.

I had heard some of his other tracks, they were pretty good, but most of them weren't really fit for raving nightclubs so I was a bit surprised to hear it here.

Still, pretty neat.

“So what's with the steak, Candy? Trying to impress the waitress?" Brook prompted.

"I think it worked.” Manie Manie teased.

“What? No. I’m hungry, thats all.”

“You do know that ponies are vegetarians by nature, right?” Nurse Swirly said.

“Not anymore we ain’t.” Brook Cotton responded, “Haven’t been since the end of the Golden Age. Ain’t enough apple orchards an farms in the entire kingdom te feed millions of ponies ya know.”

“I bet they could grow miles and miles of apple orchards here.” Nurse Swirly said dreamily.

She was vegetarian through and through, clearly.

"Ah bet they could."

"At least, if the pegasi kept the skies clear."

Table Turner returned with a really big tray holding several plates of food and glasses, she gently put the tray down on our table. I found it impressive that she managed to carry the whole tray and everything on it by mouth, that took skill, grace and strong teeth, I imagined her having really good toothpaste at home.

“Margherita for the blurry drunk,”

“Hey.” I protested. “I am not that blurry.”

I began to devour the pizza as soon as I got it, I didn't even cut it, I just folded the whole thing like a burrito.

She stared at me questioningly before shaking her head.

“...vegetable soup for the mystery mare,”

“I'm no-" Manie sighed. "I know I know, black coat, magical outline, right?"

“You saw that one coming didn't you?"

“No offense dear, but mister shapeshifter here would fit in more in a crowd than you would.”

Manie Manie shook her head as she began to drink her soup.

“Vesuvio for the gentlecolt,”

“Thank you kindly, ma’am.”

“Egg rolls, grilled vegetables and potato chips for the nurse and her son...”

Nurse Swirly looked slightly offended.

“My son? I’d have to be 13 years old when giving birth for him to be my son."

So wait, how old was she?

Strawberry Feather was... uh... around six years old, I think, and if she had to be thirteen to be his mother then she must be nineteen years old.

So she had a husband before the age of eighteen. That's unusual.

“O-oh. Sorry, I just assumed... you know with the dark and... um...”

“Forget about it.” Nurse Swirly assured her.

“Uhm, and a medium well steak for Candy.”

“BLIZZARD Candy.” Blizzard Candy said irritably.

“Whoops. Sorry. I only heard them refer to you as Candy so I assumed that...”

“You assume too much.” Blizzard Candy said, beginning to munch on his steak.

Table Turner patiently retrieved the tray and held it before her, but she didn't leave, she was waiting, looking lovingly at the eating Blizzard Candy. “It’s my job to assume.” she smiled, “I’m a waitress as you know.”

“Didn’t know assuming things about ponies was in the list of waitresses duties.”

“I like him,” she said, “Is he always this grumpy and rude or...?”

“Oh not at all, he is just trying to cover up his embarrassment by seeming tough and distant.”

Manie Manie teased.

“Go to hell Manie!” Blizzard Candy snapped at her between chomps.

“Hey, that's were we're all going,” I spoke up, everypony looked at me “it's our destination.”

A sudden headache burst through my head, I clutched my head instinctively, as if it would somehow lessen the pain.

“What does he mean?” Table Turner wondered, “Or is it just drunken rambling?”

"Not exactly..." Manie said slowly.

“Truth is ma’am... we are traveling beyond the frontier border.” Brook Cotton explained.

“He isn’t very convinced that we’ll make it out of there alive...” he added grimly.

Table Turner’s expression twisted into shock.

“That’s horrible!” she turned to a pony in the background, another waiter, “Did you hear that Peppermint Heart? These ponies are going beyond the border!”

We didn’t hear very clearly what he responded, but it sounded shocked.

Soon the ponies in the nearby tables became alarmed and began talking about it, one rugged looking pony from one of the nearby tables stood up and walked up to our table.

He looked weary, had a dirty brown coat and dull gray mane and tail, his cutiemark appeared to be a pick or an axe of some kind, he had rugged facial hair, something unusual for ponies and looked at us all with sad dreary eyes

Then he placed a bag of bits on the table.

”I was goin to spend et all on drink an fun,” he spoke with a burly voice, “but I herd ya were goin ‘cross the border... ahm really sorry for ya, ah think ya need dis mor than I. Best o luck.”

Before anypony could protest or say anything he simply took and left, disappearing into the crowd.

“What a gentlecolt.” Nurse Swirly said, shortly after losing sight of our benefactor.

“Aye...” Brook Cotton threw in, looking thoughtful and concerned.

He understood now that things looked bad were we were going, and that everypony in the frontier knew that.

Table Turner was still here, she was just standing by the eating Blizzard Candy waiting for something.

“So, um...” she began, “You wanna hang out later, Blizzard Candy?”

"Hang out?" he said in between munches.

Table Turner blushed and smiled at him.

“You know. GO OUT? With ME?”

*COUGH SPLURT PFFFT* Blizzard Candy spit out bits of steak onto his plate.

“What??!?” he reacted, blushing of a deep red.

"Gee, how blunt do I have to be?"

"Do you want to go out with me later or not? On a date?"

“Wh-what?!”

“‘What’ ain’t no place I ever heard of, do they speak equine in ‘what’?”

“Wh-”

“Look, you seem cute and it may very well be your last week alive...”

We all gave her a look of dismay.

"I know I know, it sounds horrible. Didn't mean to put it that way. But still... you know..."

“So what do you say, Candy?"

He eased down a bit.

"..."

"I don't know..."

"Aw common, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"Eh..."

"You might get lucky~"

“...”

“I... I’ll think about it...” Blizzard Candy said nervously.

“Great, I’ll pick you up at 10:30.”

“Room 204 right?” she gave him a wide smile and rushed off elsewhere.

Blizzard turned as red as a tomato out of embarrassment.

We all laughed, she had had her eyes on him since before he met her!

“HEY! HOW DO YO- Wait! I said I’ll- oh fuck...” he tried to call after her.

“Well well well...” Manie Manie reveled. “Looks like Candy got a date for the night.”

“SHUT UP MANIE” Blizzard growled at her.

“Ha ha ha, good luck on your date. Maybe you will get ‘lucky’, heh heh.”

Blizzard glared angrily at her.

“You better keep it quiet, some of us will be trying to get some sleep...” Manie said in a more serious tone.

She seemed to have have left it at that, the rest of us continued to eat, but that wasn't all she had to say.

“...I meant you of course, she will make you squeal like a pig. HA HA HA!” she was taking great delight in screwing with Blizzard Candy.

“FFFFFFFFUCKING S-SHUT UP” Blizzard yelled at her with a shaky voice.

D'aw, poor boy was nervous.

“Alright alright I’m done teasing you. Finish your steak big boy, me and Brook are going to get ‘the blur’ into bed, he looks like a gust of wind could push him over.”

What, no!

"Heeey hey hey, I'm okay, I want to stay here and listen to Voodoopony."

"They are playing 'Zecora' and everything!"

"Voodoowho?" Swirly wondered.

"What is he talking about?"

Manie shook her head in disapproval.

"You are not fine, you need a good nights sleep, we all do."

"Stop pretending to know what I-" I blacked out and fell into Manie's warm embrace.

So warm. So tired.

She was right, I should probably get some sleep, some real sleep.

Bloodshed Alley

Hmm... soft soft pillow.

Where is Manie Manie?

Where am I? What happened?

Where are the others?

What time is it?

I opened my eyes.

I knew this room, this was my room at the inn.

Did Manie Manie and Brook Cotton take me here?

I tilted my head and looked at the watch on the small wooden nightstand next to my bed.

08:49, AM. Eh, that's alright. Another ten minutes wont kill me.

The strain of trying to read the numbers hurt me, I as still hungover from yesterday, I really didn't take a full bottle of 90% alcohol very well.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

Someone is knocking on my door, guess I have to get up after all.

I stood up, my head feeling like a ripe watermelon ready to split open any second now, a feeling I remembered having yesterday evening.

I slowly began walking up to the door.

*THUNK THUNK THUNK*

“I’m coming, I’m coming, jeez.” I called.

“Sweet Heavens! Ya need to get yer ass out here NOW!” Brook Cotton called back.

"Yeah yeah, what's the rush!"

“It’s Manie Manie! She is gone, her room has been forced open from the outside!”

Rainbow Sea.

Oh no.

I pulled open my door with unnecessary force, making it slam against the wall.

“Rainbow Sea!”

"Rainbow Sea?"

"It must have been him!"

"Any idea where he is?"

“No, we haven't seen him since we came to Helsinghoof.”

“Shit."

"We need to contact the Captain and organize a search, it’s a small town, so they can’t have gone far.”

As I began to move a grinding pain pulsed through my skull.

“FUCKING FUCK THE PAIN” I knelt down.

Nurse Swirly came galloping down the hallway.

“What are you guys doing!? We need to find Manie!” she yelled at us alarmingly.

“Sweet Heavens is still hungover from last night.” Brook explained to her.

“There is no time for that!” she ran up to me.

“This is going to hurt a bit.” she warned.

She used her magic horn on my head, the pain was agonizing, it felt like someone was drilling into my skull and damn near sounded like it, at least in my head it did. I saw red and was almost about to pass out, then it all stopped.

The pain was gone, I felt perfectly fine.

“All good? I am not very good at curing headaches.”

“It was one of the most agonizingly painful experiences I’ve ever had... but thank you. It worked.”

“Lets go find the Captain, we need to find Manie quick, before Rainbow Sea does something funny.”

I was hoping that we weren’t too late...

There was some commotion in the plaza in front of the town hall, a small crowd had gathered that was currently contained by a squad of soldiers. It was hard to make out what they were angry about but I heard mentions of “her” and “justice” as we passed by on to the town hall itself.

I was stopped by a soldier when inside.

“*Oh... its YOU...*”

“Yes?” I wondered.

“*You are that damn CP officer... well, what do you want?*” the guard wasn’t happy to see me, and I didn't even know why.

“I need to speak to the Captain, one of ours has been kidnapped.” I said.

“*Shit happens. The Captain speaks to no one.*” the soldier replied. “*Now back off.*”

“We ain’t got time for this!” Brook Cotton warned me, “We need to look for Manie Manie!”

No fucking shit, what the hell do you think I am trying to do you dumb farmer yoke?

Ask for cupcakes?

“*Did you say Manie Manie? As in MAJOR Manie Manie of the Equestrian Armor branch?*”

“What’s that to you?” I asked with suspicion.

“*I am not talking to you!*” The soldier looked back at Brook Cotton.

Expecting an answer.

“Aeeeeh... dunno about the 'major' part, but... yeah?”

The soldier pointed his rifle at Brook Cotton, the other soldiers in the room did the same, his eyes widened as he found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

“*You are under arrest for involvement with the traitor and deserter Major Manie Manie, the Captain will want to see you.*” the soldier announced.

"What about us?"

"*You are ALL under arrest. All three of you.*"

Great, first he doesn’t want to let us in to talk with the Captain, now he puts us into arrest and forces us to talk to the Captain. What a dick.

“So what is this about involvement with Manie Manie?” I asked one of the soldiers.

My only response was a “*Shut up.*” from the nearest soldier.

We were pushed into the Captain’s office, he was sitting at his desk looking out over the plaza, he spun around surprised by the sudden unannounced intrusion.

Then he saw me and became furious.

“Captain Tombs,” the Captain greeted angrily.

“*These ponies claim to have been involved with the traitor Major Manie Manie.*” one of the soldiers informed.

"Uhuh, thank you."

"You are dismissed.

Everypony except for the soldier who had arrested us left the room.

“*But... sir*” he tried. “*They are SCUM.*”

"And I want to talk to these 'scum'."

“*But...*”

“Are you questioning orders, private?” the Captain said with irritation clear in his voice.

“*N-no o-of course not! It is just t-*” the soldier nervously stuttered.

"It's just that what?"

"*...*"

"*Nothing sir. Excuse me, sir.*"

“Fucking kids, no respect for their superior officers.” the Captain said, shaking his head slowly.

“Now on to business.” he said in a very direct tone.

"Tombs..."

"Yes."

"You remember me warning you about Manie yesterday, right?"

"Yes."

"So... maybe you can explain to me why there is a fucking crowd outside demanding her arrest?"

"How did they find out about her?"

"I don't know." I lied.

I wasn't very keen on telling him that I had gotten drunk after he left and passed out before warning her, I don't know why, but I was certain that he wouldn't take it very well.

"Right, you don't know." he nodded slowly, then shoved a lamp off his desk, sending it flying into an adjacent wall.

"You treat ponies fairly and with respect, and THIS is the kind of shit you get!" he yelled at me.

He calmed down and leaned back again.

"So this is what's going on."

"Half the fucking town *SOMEHOW* found out about Manie AND the reward are now searching high and low for her."

"Before sundown the entire damn town is going to know."

"Luckily for you, she has not been found, so you did a really good job hiding her."

"So I need you to get her quickly and get you out of the town immediately before things spiral even further out of control."

“That’s uh... the problem, that is why we are here.” I said slowly.

"What?"

“Manie Manie is missing. We suspect Rainbow Sea, the pony I was considering for transferring to Helsinghoof has kidnapped her.”

“Ah. Of course. I see.” he seemed to take the news very well, then he snapped and smashed his hoof on the desk, denting it. “YOU FUCKING IDIOT, GO OUT THERE AND FIND HER. NOW!”

"I came to ask for help in searching for her."

"And who the fuck do you suggest I send to help you?"

"You heard the kid who questioned my order! That's more than half my men right there! Just like him!"

"Do you REALLY think I can fucking trust them with discreetly finding and taking in one of the most sought after criminals in all of Equestria?! They are gold diggers for fucking sake! The only reason most of them are here anyway is for the money you get serving abroad!"

"Uh."

"You need to find her on your own!"

"How?"

"I don't fucking know! That's your problem!"

"Now get the fuck out of my office!"

We left the room, but were stopped by the soldier from before.

“*Captain...?!*” he wondered hesitantly.

“They are cleared to go, they are escorting the bitch, they weren’t involved in her betrayal.” The Captain said dismissively, I wasn’t sure how he really felt about Manie or this whole thing in general, but I don’t think he would any qualms with killing her of just handing her to Air Force if it would keep the order in Helsinghoof.

Well outside the town hall the crowd had grown slightly, there was an extra squad of soldiers keeping them at bay.

The clock said 9:42. Almost an hour had passed since I woke up, another hour in which Manie Manie was in danger.

“Uuuuurgghhh....”  I moaned, rubbing my forehead with my right forehoof. This was stressful.

Manie Manie could be anywhere for all all I knew.

The town was small, but it was still had a million hiding places.

“Are you still hungover? Should I cast the spell again?” Nurse Swirly asked me. Concerned.

I remembered the agonizing pain her spell had put me through.

“NO! I mean... no, I’m fine. Just stress.”

Hungover, right, I had passed out yesterday night.

What DID happen after I passed out anyway?

I only remember passing out in Manie Manie’s warm embrace, then I figured that she and Brook dragged me up to my room and tucked me in my bed.

Where did she go after that? Did she return to the nightclub or did she go to sleep?

Maybe Brook knew.

“Brook...” I asked our farmer, “What happened after you and Manie took me to my room?”

“Well, the two of us returned down to the nightclub only to find that Blizzard Candy had left”

Yeah I bet, he had a date.

“Manie and Swirly ate dessert using some of the bits left by the rough edged worker and Nurse Swirly took Strawberry Feather to his room, poor boy was feeling tired. I remained with Manie in the nightclub for about an hour after that then she decided to call it a night and go to her room, then I had a few drinks at the bar and went to sleep.”

“Hmm...” nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but then, Brook had mentioned that Manie’s room had been forced open...

“You said that the room was forced open.”

“How is it that none of you noticed that in the middle of the night?”

The two ponies blushed and looked hesitant.

“Well... Blizzard Candy was out with the waitress as you know... Strawberry Feather was asleep alone in his room, I was still out drinking at the bar...”

“I had gone to the infirmary...” Nurse Swirly said.

“What? In the middle of the night? To do what exactly?

She opened her right medical box, it was filled to the brim.

“WHAT!? You went to an infirmary in a frontier town in the middle of the night to steal medical supplies?!” I said in a hushed voice.

“Well yeah... I figured we needed them more than they did... besides no one suspected anything, everypony thought I worked there.”

The thought that our caring nurse was a kleptomaniac was pretty funny, but totally irrelevant to our search.

I didn’t comment any further on what she’d done.

“I guess that leaves Strawberry Feather and Blizzard Candy as our witnesses.” I said thoughtfully.

“Strawberry Feather is still in his room. Not sure about Blizzard Candy.” Nurse Swirly said.

We went back to the inn, the lonely receptionist was reading a book when we showed up.

“Oh, hey!” she greeted us.

“Hello”

“Has Blizzard Candy checked back in? Young buck, about 18 years old, icy blue coat...” I described.

“Oh I know of him.”

“Yeah he checked in at around 2 AM last night, he seemed a bit rough around the edges. You guys must have partied pretty hard last night, you all came back fairly late.” she smiled.

I nodded slowly.

“...especially that green pony, he said he was with you so I gave him a key like instructed and then he went upstairs.”

I froze.

Rainbow Sea had checked in?

“What? Has he checked out?” I asked with worry.

“Don’t think so, his key isn’t here and I don’t recall him coming down.” the receptionist said.

“Guys, quick lets go, Rainbow Sea could still be up there!”

“Uh thanks for the info.” I fleetingly said to the receptionist as we ran off.

We stormed into the second floor of the inn, passing the forced door of Manie Manie’s room up to Rainbow Sea’s room.

The door was locked.

Brook Cotton bucked the door open and we all barged in.

There was no one here, everything was neat and tidy, as if the room had been untouched.

“Rainbow Sea was never here...” I deduced, “In his room that is.”

“If he was here he certainly didn’t bring Manie Manie out up front through the lobby, he must have taken a back exit.”

“The roof?” Nurse Swirly suggested.

“Too tall, this building has 5 floors, the adjacent buildings have 2. And its incredibly difficult for a pony to climb stairs when carrying anything. I’m thinking the back entrance, or possibly the basement tunnels. The receptionist mentioned that the town was building sewers, so the basement is likely connected to the network.”

“Lets ask the two boys about their angle on this.” Brook Cotton said.

We knocked on Strawberry Feathers door.

A few seconds passed and the tired looking purple buck opened the door timidly.

“Y-yes?” then he saw who we were and opened the door fully, “Oh hey guys.”

“Manie Manie is missing.” I said.

“Oh, that's not good.” he responded in a low voice.

“Her door has been forced open, after you went to sleep.”

“We were wondering if you had heard anything odd during the night?”

“I heard Blizzard Candy sing in the room next door late at night... that was sort of odd.”

We smiled, guess the buck had gotten ‘lucky’ after all. Good for him.

“No Strawberry, I mean, did you hear anyone forcing any doors?”

“Seems like a hard thing to miss.”

“Yeah... I heard someone kick a door open down the hallway, then I heard muffled screaming as someone galloped past my door...”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Nurse Swirly wondered.

“I was honestly hoping you’d come here sooner, I want to help search for her.” Strawberry Feather said.

“No, you should stay here. It’s not safe out there right now.” I said.

“That is not fair. I can handle myself!” Strawberry Feather protested.

“I am going to be perfectly blunt with you Strawberry, and I am really sorry if this offends you but we really don’t have the time to argue about this. You are 6 years old, you have a very meager frame. You look as if a strong kick could break every bone in your body and that puts you at risk with the angry crowds forming outside. I personally think that it is safer if you stay here, and I hope you understand my concern for you.”

He didn’t argue about it.

“Fine. I’ll stay here. But find Manie, she was nice.”

“We will, we will.” I assured him.

He then shut and locked the door.

We moved on to Blizzard Candy’s room and knocked.

“Blizzard Candy, ya in there?” Brook Cotton called for him.

Within moments the ice blue buck swung open the door, he looked like he had been through hell, his mane and tail were uncombed and he looked roughened up. He was smirking.

“Heeey guys. Everything alright?” he groggily asked us.

“No."

"Manie Manie has been kidnapped by Rainbow S...” I trailed off, I had to say something.

“Boy, you look happy, so I take it you got lucky yesterday?”

Blizzard Candy blushed slightly.

“I guess you can say that...” he turned more serious and stopped smirking.

“So, uhm. Any idea her of their whereabouts?”

“No. But we know that he forced his way into her room."

"I am honestly surprised that none of you noticed the smashed door on your way back from your nightly excursions...”

They all looked ashamed.

“Sorry...”

“It’s fine, but we really need to find her.”

“We think that they may have gone through either the back door or the basement...”

“This building doesn’t have a back door.” Blizzard Candy said.

We all stared at him.

“How do you know?”

“I... uh... tried to sneak into the back, but couldn’t really find any back entrances in the alleys behind the building...”

“Uh... why were you trying to sneak in? And how were you intending to get the key?” I wondered.

“Didn’t want anypony to see me...I was going to wait hidden in the lobby until the receptionist went on break...” he seemed a bit embarrassed. “Yeah I know, it wasn’t a very well thought out plan.”

“That only leaves the basement and sewers then... lets get down there.”

“I am going to look for her in town. I’ll ask... Table Turner for help...” Blizzard Candy said.

We went down to the basement of the inn, which was more of a skeleton/maintenance area and wasn’t remotely as nice as the building above.

Dim gray lights scarcely lit the corridors below, it seemed evident that with only three employees to maintain the inn the basement was rarely traveled and was thus quite empty and dusty.

We reached a maintenance door leading to the sewers, just as we had expected the door was unlocked and left ajar.

The sewer itself stunk like, well, a sewer.

Brown greenish water flew freely in the center of the tunnels with cement maintenance walkways on the sides, the sewer spanned out in both directions connecting to intersections leading to more sewer tunnels, it would take some time to search the entire sewer I figured.

“I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but we need to split up.”

“Split up?" Nurse Swirly said.

"First off, we don’t know if Rainbow Sea is IN the sewers, he could be hiding in any building in town."

"Second if either of us actually happens to FIND Rainbow Sea we wouldn’t be able to call or find the others...”

“Look, this isn’t debatable, you will go with Brook Cotton, that way you’ll stand a better chance against Rainbow Sea. I’ll take my chances on my own.”

“But-”

“There is no time! If you don’t find Manie Manie within an hour we’ll meet back at the wagon, OK?”

“Eh... okay, if you say so.”

We then split up, I galloped down the sewer going right from the maintenance access and they went left.

I stopped at every door and access point only to find them all locked.

Either Rainbow Sea hadn’t wasn’t able to pass by here or he had locked the doors behind him (which I hoped he hadn’t).

I galloped down sewer after sewer and a good fifteen minutes passed, I began to feel cold sweat and panic, there was no sign of their passing anywhere! This was exactly like when I had looked for them in New Prospect!

Then I spotted it.

A crowbar on the walkway I was running down in the distance.

It was a spark of hope if anything that the access point it laid by had been forced open by Rainbow Sea.

'MAINTENANCE EXIT E-42' I read as I approached the access point.

Had it been forced open? It had! NO! FUCK! IT HAD BEEN CLOSED!

I helplessly tried to pull it open with my hooves, then I tried to buck the door to no result.

The crowbar. Right.

I wedged the crowbar between the door and the frame.

The crowbar snapped in two. AAAAAAH!!

I began running back to the inn maintenance exit (everything else was locked!!!!) and it took me a good damned 10 minutes to find it again, I didn’t come across the others either so I had to rush to action on my own.

I galloped back up to the lobby hall, the receptionist was startled by my sudden appearance.

“Sweet Heavens? Is everyth-” her muzzle puckered as I approached, she put a hoof over her nose,

“Eeew! Whas taht smell?! Have you been in the shewers?!”

“Yes I have! There is no time to explain, to which building does Maintenance Exit E-42 lead to!?” I demanded to know.

“I don’th know. Ashk the thown  mhaster engineer, he has the construction plhans for everything.”

“Thanks...” I... I didn’t know her name? Had we never learned her name? Bah! There was no time for this! “...where can I find the master engineer?”

“Augh, he should beh at the town hall.”

“Great, thanks... uh...”

“Ochean Rhuby, my nhame is Ochean Rhuby! Now get a bhath dammit!” she said.

“Thanks Ocean Ruby” I said as I rushed off towards the town hall.

The crowd outside had grown considerably, there must have been a good 500 ponies getting mad over Manie Manie now. Small groups within the crowd had begun fighting between each other, I didn’t know why.

After much pushing and squeezing through the crowd I managed to reach the town hall, which was under lockdown.

“I need to talk to the town master engineer!” I shouted at one of the guards.

“*The master engineer? He ain’t in here.*” a guard called back.

“WHAT!? WELL WHERE IS HE!?”

“*I think he’s having breakfast at one of the cafe's.*"

"*That guy sure draws out on his coffee breaks, I think its because of the waitress there. Heh heh heh.*”

“*SHIT, RIOT! RIOT! FORM UP AT THE TOWN HALL!!*” one of the guards yelled.

The whole crowd went crazy, everypony began attacking the guards and each other in a huge confusing brawl, then some groups of guards began fighting amongst each other!

I tried to get around the crowd but only ended up being pulled in by the mass of ponies running to join the crowd, either for the sake of fighting or to try and calm the others down, all it did was add more fuel to the fire.

A few shoves and jabs later I was lying on my back in the middle of an angry mob, being kicked at and stampeded over, I couldn’t get up, I was repeatedly knocked over by the mob.

Then I felt a searing jab of pain on my right side. I screamed out in pain, then I felt an extremely intensive rush of adrenaline and rage flow through my veins, the world became distant and gray only to intensify and speed up seconds later.

One of the Psycho chem needles had somehow gotten out of it's case and stabbed me through the satchel on accident.

I became enraged and felt stronger than ever, I rose up knocking seven ponies off me and began to punch, buck and jab my way out of the crowd with bloodshot furious determination.

Once out of the crowd I ran down the main road towards one of the cafe’s, the sign said ‘Java’.

Inside I saw a brown stallion with a black mane chat to the waitress, a pretty young pink mare that looked slightly older than Strawberry Feather.

The stallion had a wrench cutiemark, that had to be him! That had to be the master engineer!

It HAD to be.

“You there!” I barged into the coffee shop.

The stallion wearily turned to look at me.

“Who? Me?”

“Are you the town master engineer!!?” I shouted uncontrollably at him, an effect of the Psycho chem.

“Y-yes... why?” he responded hesitantly.

“TO WHICH BUILDING DOES MAINTENANCE EXIT E-42 DOWN IN THE SEWERS LEAD TO!?”

“Uh.... um... hm... let me... think...” the engineer struggled to remember.

“QUICKLY DAMNIT, THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE!!”

“For fucking sake! I am trying to remember alright!? Urrrgh, E-42... E-42...”

“Ah know which buildin’ it is...” the young waitress said timidly.

“Huh? You do?” the engineer said.

“WHERE!?!?!”

“E-42 is that big ‘ol abandoned warehouse at the edge o town... right down the main road from ere, take a turn to the right at Hardwares and Supplies store an keep goin down the street there. It should be the big cement building with the large cracked windows...”

“FUCK, THANKS.” I rushed off before anypony said anything else.

Damn I was PISSED, I galloped down the man road as she directed and took a right at the hardware store, I could see the building down the street, there as nopony else down this street save for me.

Not even a single guard.

When I came up to the building I heard a dampened scream for inside, Manie!

This was the building!

But both the front doors and emergency exit in the back were blocked! Damnit!

I had to find another way in.

I had noticed a smashed open window in the back, and there were wooden boxes lining the entire alley. With much effort I managed to push and stack the boxes into an unstable pile to climb on.

The last box was unstable and broke under my weight just as I grabbed the edge of the window with my hooves making the entire stack of boxes dwindle and fall over, the broken glass cut into my skin under the pressure of my weight.

But if I let go I would break my legs, or worse, my spine.

Through superpony effort I managed to pull myself up, my front legs bleeding profusely, I barely felt the pain due to the Psycho chem, but I knew that I had to take care of the wounds soon, or I’d likely end up bleeding out.

The interior floors were all wooden and dusty, the floor boards had been torn up here and there and there were wooden boxes stacked everywhere.

I slowly moved through the rooms, I couldn’t hear her anywhere but I KNEW she was in here. Somewhere.

I heard a weak THUMP followed by the distant sound of breaking glass.

“It’s useless Manie, no one is coming for you. You are FINISHED!”

Where was the voice coming from? I heard a scream from below followed by the sound of a stack of boxes being pushed over and crashing onto the floor. They were right below me.

“NOHOO! RAINBOW SEA STOP! PLEASE! I SAID I WAS SORRY!!!!”

“BEING SORRY ISN’T GOING TO BRING THEM BACK!”

“PLEASE NO! UHUHU! STOP! I BEG OF YOU!!”

“BEG ALL YOU WANT WHORE!”

“I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU DID! THEN I AM GOING TO SLOWLY BLEED YOU OUT!!”

I heard Rainbow Sea grunt loudly followed by Manie’s whimpering and pained irregular panting.

“OH GOD YOU ARE TIGHT!!”

OH

FUCK

WHAT!?

I screamed in rage and stomped the floor below me as hard as I could possibly gather strength to do, it gave under the force and I crashed down into the room below in a cloud of dust and wooden splinters.

I landed right on top of Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie, Rainbow Sea was knocked over from the weight and debris and blinded by the cloud of dust, while he recovered coughing I stumbled up seemingly unscathed and managed to place a well aimed rear kick at the back of his head.

Rainbow Sea was knocked out, and began to bleed from a gash that formed in the back of his head.

Manie Manie laid under the pile of debris and under a layer of dust coughing violently.

I ran up to her and pulled off the worst of it off her, when she managed to regain eyesight she saw me and called out for me.

“SWEET HEAVENS!!!” she cried, deeply humiliated and hurt, “Thank the goddesses you are here!”

“Rainbow Sea, he, he...” I embraced her.

“It’s ok, I am here now, you are safe...” I calmed her.

“Can you walk?”

"N-no! It hurts."

“I am sore...!” she said, sobbing.

Sore?

...

Oh... oh no.

“I’m sorry Manie.”

“We need to get you out of here.”

“Here,” I pulled out a Psycho chem from my satchel, “Take this chem, it should help a bit.”

After she experienced the same mind numbing reaction as I had barely fifteen minutes ago she stood up shakingly.

I noticed the blood on her inner thighs...

“Lets go.”

“NOT SO FAST MY LITTLE PONIES!!” Rainbow Sea howled at us.

Rainbow Sea had recovered, despite taking severe blunt trauma to his head.

He brandished the experimental chainaxe we had brought with us on the wagon.

He had somehow learned about the wagon and broken into the garage.

It was clenched in his teeth, it revved up and gave off a fearsome sound that implied painful hacking death.

We’d never be able to outrun him, not with my wounded forelegs and not in Manie's current state.

“Rainbow Sea.” I growled.

“Yes, ME. You fucking shapeshifting cunt. Did you really expect me to follow you on a suicide mission beyond the border? My life has been RUINED since you CP assholes arrested me for goddamn nothing!"

"I am not going just going to sit around and get pushed around by that bitch Celestia, I am not a fucking puppet for her to control and do as she wishes with!”

“Why did you rape her?”, I was furious over what he had done to Manie.

“Why not? I figured I’d have some fun with her before killing her, I can see why you like the mare.” Rainbow Sea snickered.

“You motherfucker! You are dead Rainbow! DEAD!”

“Am I now! I'm afraid that YOU are the one who is dying here!” Rainbow Sea taunted back, revving his chain axe as a warning.

“First,” he began, walking very slowly towards us “I am going to tear you limb from limb, officer scum. Then, I am going to finish what I started.” He gave Manie a dirty look who squirmed in my embrace. “And th-”

BLAM!

Half of Rainbow Sea’s head exploded into an eyeball strewn shower of gore, bits of skull and gray matter.

Leaving a gaping hole that had ripped straight through his skull.

Manie and I were sprayed with the blood of our attacker, fucking disgusting.

As his lifeless husk of a corpse fell over, axe still clenched to what remained of his mouth, we saw the shooter and our savior.

A pegasus stallion with a pale green, borderline gray coat and dark and light green shifting short mane and tail, his cutiemark appeared to be a dark rain cloud with red twist symbol on it.

"CLOUD TUMBLE!?" Manie said in surprise.

His blue eyes glimmered briefly in the low light of the alley before he let go of the revolver, took several steps back and laid down on his belly, laying out his hooves before him.

He had flown in from outside to save our lives and he knew what would happen next, the loud sound of the gunshot had attracted a squad of guardsmen who within moments breached the building and stormed the room.

“*GEEEET DOWN!! GEEEET THE FUUUCK DOWN!!*”

“*ON YOUR BELLY, HOOVES FOWARD!!*” the guards ordered screaming.

We did like they said, soon all three of us were apprehended and brought to the Helsinghoof barracks.

The three of us were put in separate cells, small cramped sterile cement rooms with a single bed in them and nothing else.

A combat medic had tended to my wounds and a nurse had examined Manie, gave her something for the pain, no mare deserves being deflowered forcibly like that.

The nurse had commented on missing medical supplies...

A couple of hours after our arrest Captain Sun Topaz showed up, and I was released.

“It appears you were successful in your search. Good for you.”

"Shame about Rainbow Sea."

"Not really."

"The guy was an asshole."

The two of us went to the interrogation observation room, which wasn’t unlike the room I had been in with Lieutenant Bob when briefed on the group.

They were interrogating the pegasus that had saved us.

The pegasus and the Overwatch soldier interrogating him were sitting by the fixed steel table of the room, the soldier was looking through a green map with some papers in it on the desk in perfect silence, he was casually seated back tilting his head and occasionally flipping a page, the pegasus stared nervously at the papers, trying to lean forward to see what they said about him.

The soldier lifted the first few pages of the file, looking at the pages below...

Then I noticed.

The pages were blank.

The entire file was blank.

The soldier pushed the map aside.

Cloud Tumble looked dumbstruck.

“*Mr Cloud Tumble.*” the soldier began, speaking slowly and formally.

“*I understand that you have... murdered... another pony. With an Overwatch issued firearm no less.*”

“*Tell me, Mr Cloud Tumble. What’s your angle on this? What were you doing in that warehouse? Where did you get that firearm?*”

The pegasus Cloud Tumble looked blankly at the table. Silent.

Several moments passed in silence.

The officer let out a deep sigh.

“*Help us understand what happened in there, Mr Cloud Tumble.*”

“What is there to understand... I flew in and shot the green earth pony that was threatening to kill the other two. Then I submitted and waited for you to show up and arrest me.”

“*Where did you get the gun, Mr Cloud Tumble?*”

“I found it.” Cloud Tumble answered.

“*Where.*”

“Holstered in one of the guards holsters...”

"*Hmm. Hmm.*" the soldier nodded.

“*So you stole an Overwatch issued firearm to save two ponies in a random warehouse?*”

“*Your story doesn’t add up.*”

Cloud Tumble shrugged.

"Why not?"

"*Motive.*"

“*Why did you do it?*”

“To save a damsel in distress and rid the world of a rotten apple.”

“*No.*”

“*Why did you steal the pistol? To what end were you going to use it?*”

Cloud Ruler remained quiet and dismissive.

The soldier looked away, towards the glass, holding his hoof up to his helmet.

“*Uh, yeah he isn’t collaborating.*”

"*I tried sir, but he wont talk.*"

"*So that's it? We are just going to kill him?*"

The soldier looked back at Cloud Tumble.

"*I was going to suggest torturing him...*" he said darkly.

Captain Sun Topaz shook his head at me, signaling that the soldier was faking the call.

Cloud Tumble leaned forward on the fixed steel table.

“Okay okay, you win,” he began lowering his voice, “I stole that revolver looking for a way to escape from here, I was going to use the confusion sparked by the rumor of Major Manie Manie being in town when I heard a mare let out a scream inside the abandoned warehouse down the street” he looked down at the table and paused for a bit.

“I flew inside and snuck around the building, then I saw her, Manie Manie, being assaulted by a sickly green earth pony stallion. I tried to take aim but the stallion was grabbing and pushing her around, getting her in the line of fire. When she was finally overpowered by him they had dropped down behind a crate, I was forced to listen to her getting violated.” Cloud Tumble looked grim.

“So I switched positions... I snuck around until I had a clear view from one of the doorways.”

“But then as I took aim, some strange pony shaped... THING... with shifting coat and features crashed screaming through the ceiling, landing on top of the two. It rapidly recovered from the fall and bucked the green pony in the back of his head, knocking him out, but still out of the line of sight.”

“The shapeshifter seemed benign and appeared to be deeply concerned about the mare, it gave her some sort of drug and she stood up. As they were about to go, the green pony stood up holding some sort of chain axe in his teeth. This time around he was standing with his back turned to me and I had a clear shot at the back of his head.”

“*Why save the mare?*” the soldier said impartially, “*You could have escaped.*”

“What would you have done in my situation?”

The soldier didn’t say anything.

“I believe that there is still some good in us...”

The soldier slowly looked at the mirrored glass we were behind.

“*There you have it sir. My work here is done.*”

Then stood up and left the room.

The Captain turned to me.

“Stay here and come inside when I call for you.”

I wasn’t sure where this was going but I stayed put, the Captain went inside the room and sat down.

“Hello Captain” Cloud Tumble greeted him.

“So you know why you are here and you have confessed to your crime.”

“Yes.”

“What do you suppose we do to you?” the Captain asked.

“I know the frontier law, tooth for tooth, eye for eye. I guess you’ll have me executed then.”

The Captain leaned back and scratched his jaw with his hoof.

“Hmm... usually that would have been the case... but you see... the circumstances have changed.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am not too keen on senselessly killing ponies to be honest, especially not ponies who chose to save another rather than fend for himself. But I can’t let you go without punishment.”

“Where are you going with this, Captain?”

“There is a small group of ponies in town, they are traveling to beyond the frontier border...”

“Oh gods...” Cloud Tumble reacted with a trembling voice. “You aren’t-”

“Yes. Yes I am. I am sending you with these ponies on a mission of absolution... if you survive, you will be cleared of any crimes you have committed...”

Cloud Tumble was trembling with terror, his eyes were narrow and dilated in fear.

“I would rather DIE than be sent to beyond the frontier!”

“Oh? I thought you would have a different disposition towards this. After all, YOU saved them.”

“What?”

The Captain looked at me and signaled with his hoof for me to come in.

As I stepped inside Cloud Tumble looked at me with shock.

“T-the shapeshifter!”

“No.” I said calmly. ”I am wearing a scramble suit. I am a pony, just like you and the Captain.”

“Thank you... for saving us.” I bowed my head.

“It’s alright if I send this chap with you on your mission is it not?” the Captain asked me.

I gave it some thought.

Rainbow Sea had just betrayed us, we were one pony short, not that it would even matter in the end...

“What are his options?”

The Captain waved a hoof and turned to look at him.

“Well. His options are, capital punishment by a firing line tomorrow at noon ooooor... going with you.”

“I see.”

“So I guess it will be up for him to decide. Not a choice many ponies get in these circumstances.“

“He is just lucky like that I guess.” the Captain added.

There was a moment of silence, Cloud Tumble was clearly thinking, his look of terror still prevalent in his eyes.

“So what will it be, Cloud Tumble,” the Captain asked him, “Death or a slim chance of survival?”

He focused and looked at us.

“What happened to the mare?” he asked.

“Hmm...” The Captain reached for his right ear with his hoof.

“Bring her in. Yes, now.”

A moment passed and the door opened, two soldiers came in pulling Manie Manie who seemed agitated and angry, she had all the right to be that after what had happened to her earlier today.

“Let go of me!” she hissed at the soldiers. They let go of her and left the room.

She turned to look at us.

“What’s going on here? Why are we here?” she exclaimed.

Then she noticed the pegasus.

“Cloud Tumble!”

"Major Manie!"

Sun Topaz looked at me questioningly, I returned the look.

"I... take it the two of you know each other?" he asked.

"I served under the major back when we were in Armor, she was a tank commander, I was her gunner." Cloud Tumble said.

"He helped me test the laser designation system I designed."

"We... drifted apart after she... you know."

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

"I... You... don't know?"

"Know what?"

"After you disappeared, Air Force was left empty hoofed. So the investigation continued, and they ended up demanding that all the tank gunners and commanders that participated in the training exercise to be arrested."

"Some ran, others, like me, stayed and faced the consequences..."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault. You told me about it, and what would follow. You gave me a choice, to participate in the training exercise or find an excuse to stay out of it. I stayed, and fired the cannon, knowing that the targets I was gunning for were friendly."

"I followed you. I ended up here on my own accord. This is my fault, my responsibility."

Manie looked at the captain.

"I... uh... I guess you know who I am then."

"Indeed I do."

Manie stared at the captain, she appeared to tense nervously before relaxing in resignation.

"This is it then. No more running."

"I am in the custody of a branch of the equestrian army that has close ties to Air Force and Civil Protection."

“Air Force doesn’t know you are here.” Sun Topaz said.

"They... don't?"

"No."

"Why... not?"

"Overwatch doesn't like Air Force. Reward or not and despite the trouble you have caused me and Helsinghoof, I still think that Air Force can go fuck itself."

"You are however, still, technically a criminal, charged with treason and desertion of the army."

"I have already been arrested, that is why I am here."

"Your charges are different, Air Force has... other plans in mind for you, a more severe punishment."

"They don't care that CP has already taken you in. They are still after you."

"So..."

"So nothing really, I can't let your crime go unpunished, but you are already being punished so there is nothing I can do."

"I’d offer you the same deal I offered Cloud Tumble here, but you have already accepted it.”

"What deal? What have I accepted?"

“Come with us or die by an Overwatch firing line.”

"So wait, you'll kill her if she doesn't continue on with me?" I asked.

"Yes."

I looked to Manie.

"Sorry Manie, I guess the offer I gave you yesterday doesn't apply to you."

"Yeah, absolutely not." Sun Topaz said.

"You'll kill HIM if he doesn't come with us?" Manie asked, referring to Cloud Tumble.

"Yes." Sun Topaz responded again.

Manie's eyes widened as she looked to Cloud Tumble.

"You HAVE to come with us!"

She looked back to me.

"Sweet Heavens! We HAVE to take him with us! We can't just leave him here!"

The Captain looked at me with a smug expression.

“Sweet Heavens? Really? That was the best name you could come up with for them?” he said, jeering.

“What? What does he mean?” Manie Manie asked (but it was really more of a demand if anything).

“Before I decide on anything, can I at least know who you are?” Cloud Tumble interjected.

“Sweet Heavens” I said.

“Captain Tombs” the Captain said.

Awkward.

“Sweet Heavens...” Manie said quietly, “Is your name a false?”

How was I going to put this. Yes?

My name is fake because I don’t want to give away my real name to a bunch of strangers while still in the employ of CP?

Because it didn’t matter?

Because I can’t prove that my real name is my real name?

“Sweet Heavens is my real name.” I decided, I was lying, but they couldn’t know that and it was easier to simply lie to them about my name than make a big mess of it. "Tombs is my nickname."

"I know that 'Tombs' is a nickname. I am just doubting that Sweet Heavens is your real name." Sun Topaz said.

"It's my real name alright. It was easier to just give them that rather than trying to make one up."

Manie Manie looked relieved.

“If you say so.” Sun Topaz said, nodding.

“Well Cloud Tumble, have you made your decision yet? Time is ticking and we need to get these ponies out of here before the whole town goes crazy and obsessed with claiming the reward on Manie Manie.”

“Okay.” Cloud Tumble said.

“I will go with them.”

“Smart pony.” the Captain said.

“Lets go then. I have a squad still loyal to their duty and commander waiting outside to escort you to the gates. We have already gotten ahold of the rest of your group, they are waiting along with the wagon at the western gate.”

It was now past 1 PM, lunchtime, we were gathered just by the open gates leading out of the other end of town (opposite to where we came in, with inlands being towards west and the coast being eastward), all ready to go.

Manie Manie was tucked in and recovering in the wagon and our newest addition to the group examined what gear we had brought along, taking Rainbow Sea’s black firepony’s coat.

The waitress Table Turner was also here, she seemed saddened about us leaving town, or more specifically, that her plaything was leaving. She didn't look bad in the light, she had a bright gray coat and a mane that shifted in different shades of blue, considering her statement of being twice the age of Blizzard Candy she really carried her age well.

The Captain gave me a map, an item which hadn't been included with the supplies and gear that we had recieved.

“Well then, Tombs.”

“It’s a shame things had to go like this and that I have to send you away the way you are.”

We had came into the town to rest and had left it with three of us smelling like a sewer, me having both my forelegs cut open and bandaged, Manie Manie having been forcibly robbed of her virginity and with one of our group having his brains splattered all over us, which speaking of, both me and Manie were still covered in.

On the plus side we had extra medical supplies and one of us got laid, which... really doesn’t help us at all.

“Yeah well, we have a long road ahead.” I said. I paused briefly, remembering something.

“Whatever happened to the chain axe Rainbow Sea stole and used against us?”

“Ah, right.” Sun Topaz said. He waved at the squad that had escorted us.

An uniformed and masked mare walked up to us holding the axe in one hoof, she left it by my hooves and returned back in line without saying a word.

“Thanks.”

“It was nice meeting you and seeing your nice little town.”

“If ya don’t count the rape, murder and angry mob...” Brook Cotton interjected.

“Yeah... And speaking of, I should probably get back to the town hall now, I need to calm ponies down and tell them that Manie Manie was nowhere to be found.”

“But you are all welcome back whenever you wish, if you now happen to survive your mission.”

“But, uh, let me know when you bring in a pony that is on a military organizations MOST WANTED LIST beforehand, ok? I don’t neccesarily need to ban her from visiting Helsinghoof again, quite frankly, most ponies here don’t even know what Manie Manie looks like, Air Force was evidently not smart enough to give out a description beyond ‘SHE HAS A LASER DESIGNATOR CUTIEMARK, SHE IS CONSIDERED EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND MEOW MEOW MEOW’, so you know, just disguise her and nopony here will know the difference...”

“Wishful thinking” I said bitterly.

“HOPEFUL thinking.” Table Turner interjected. I hadn’t put much mind to her being here, I thought she would cling onto Blizzard Candy until we left. looked at her and gave her my attention.

“I really want you guys to come back here one day, especially Candy.” she waved at Blizzard Candy. “So don’t lose hope out there and don’t die. You are going to make it, I know you will.”

I am, as a realist, immune to such bullshit.

The odds were a million to one that we’d survive if what Captain Sun Topaz said was true.

He was in fact looking at us with a grim expression, very convinced that this was the last he’d see of us, he knew it would be bad, he had fought the wildlings before.

But the others didn't know, they had heard, but they didn't know, not what Sun Topaz and I knew.

The rest of the group cheered up a bit and had some faith restored in our mission, everypony except for Cloud Tumble smiled weakly.

I suppose this was good, it would be moments like these that would help group morale, keep them close, happy and loyal.

“Goodbye Captain Tombs.” Sun Topaz and I shook a hooves, “Or if things don’t turn out well... farwell.”

“You are a good pony, Captain.” ...and a partial asshole...

We began walking down the road, this time with a little more than the clothes on our back.

The next town on the map was 100 kilometers inland, the border was another 350.

450 km of walking awaited, just to get to the border, long trip, but on the bright side it would be a while before we actually got there and if things went on smoothly from here on out the trip to the border probably wont be that bad.

I doubted that we'd make 100 kilometers in one afternoon, that was impossible, it would take at least one full day with the wagon burdening us.

But luckily there was an outpost not too far from Helsinghoof, a place marked 'Checkpoint Berry 2', hopefully we'd be able to stop by there for the night and proceed in the morning.

“So.” Brook Cotton began, “Would ya’ll mind telling us what the hay just happened in there?”

‘Hay’. That’s cute.

“And who is this guy?” Blizzard Candy asked.

I sighed.

"We'll tell you all about it on the way."

"All of it?"

"All of it."

Chapter 4 - Night Terrors

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of NIGHTS and SOLDIERS

Chapter 4 - Night Terrors

Checkpoint

The air was heavy, and the atmosphere was gloom and dark.

Shortly after we had left Helsinghoof we had been forced into an absolute downpour, it was an odd transition from dry and sunny to cold and wet.

In a way it was like going into a shower, except that the shower was everywhere.

The dark rain clouds above gave the landscape around us a depressing gray shade, a heavy dark gray fog made it difficult to see beyond a hundred meters, but that wasn't a problem as there was only one road to follow and only one way to go, and that was forward and towards the border.

"Ah still dun get it." Brook said.

We had explained in brief what had happened in Helsinghoof, Manie was now explaining the events leading up to her crime, including the long and boring part about her ambitious project, the SOFLAM+.

But Brook hadn't understood any of it, he didn't even understand the concept of laser designation (even though truth be told I didn't really either), so Manie had been forced to rephrase everything she said over and over to no success.

She was starting to become rather annoyed.

"Brook, I can't make it any simpler than that. It doesn't get any easier to understand than 'aim binoculars at target, missiles fly to target, target goes boom'."

"Ah get that part! But how does it work?"

"I told you how! Look, all you really need to know is that the system was better than the SOFLAM and it's predecessors."

"Now can we move on please? I am not telling you all this to brag about my system, there is an actual point behind all of this that I'd like to get to"

"Okay okay, jeez."

"So like I said, my rivals got pissed, they began to demand that I share the reward with them and credit them for my work, something that I obviously refused to do."

"As time passed my rivals began to harass me more and more about it, they limited themselves to petty threats at first, but then it gradually became more serious, they would go as far as sabotaging my work in the lab, assaulting me and threatening to kill me if I didn't give them what was 'rightfully theirs'..."

"Didn't anyone notice? Why didn't you ask for help?" Swirly asked.

"She did." it had been our newest addition to the group, the pegasus Cloud Tumble, to speak.

"She went with it to command, but they refused to help her, claiming that it was just petty bullying and that she could handle it well on her own. Then she went to Civil Protection, but they just told her that they wouldn't meddle in army affairs."

"One night I brought her out for drinks-" he went on, apparently intending to continue the story for her.

"Out for drinks? As in going out?" Blizzard wondered.

"That's none of your business."

"No. We were not going out." Manie clarified.

Cloud Tumble looked back at the wagon, looking hurt or at least somewhat bothered by her response.

He paused for a few moments before going on.

"I brought her out for drinks at a bar we used to frequent with a few other coworkers, she was visibly upset by what was happening to her and throughout the night as she drank more and more she would talk about how she wanted to quit her job and how much she wanted to make them pay, I figured that it was just angry drunk talk so I didn't pay much mind to what she said."

"Eventually she reached her drinking limit, and since it was dangerous to let her to go home alone, even when sober, I decided to help her get back home. After a few wobbly blocks and a few drunken rants later I finally brought her up to her apartment and laid her down on her couch, and th-"

"If you tell them anything about what really happened I'll kill you!" Manie interrupted him.

Cloud Tumble grinned at the wagon.

"You are certainly welcome to try. I was fighting all this when you were just a kid, I think I can handle you."

"Cloud. Don't do it." she warned.

"So I laid her down on the couch and-"

"I am warning you! Don't fucking tell them!"

"And she grabs hold of me and kisses me, just like that. She tells me all these things about how she loves me and how I am the only one there for her and how she views me like the brother she never had (which made the kiss all the more awkward and weird) and how I am the only true family she has."

Candy and Brook snickered.

The rest of us didn't really know what to think about it or how to react to it.

"Fuck you Cloud!" Manie snapped at him.

"Well it... uh... there is nothing wrong with that is there?" Nurse Swirly said.

"She just felt momentarily close to you after drinking too much, it happens..."

"She kissed me and then immediately told me that I was like a brother to her."

"Damnit! Stop it! Just move on!"

"Yeah, uh... I think we are getting a bit off track here." I said.

"Not at all."

"Not at all? You didn't have to tell them that, they didn't have to know that." Manie muttered.

"Nah. I just thought it was a funny thing to mention. Especially since the next part is painfully serious."

"So I sit down beside her and she rests her head on a pillow on my lap and talks for hours about all sorts of things, she tells me about completely mundane and uninteresting days, she tells unfunny jokes that only she laughed at, at some point she stopped having a coherent train of thought and began to talk about frogs and birds being turned into oranges or some other random nonsense..."

"MOVE ON."

"I just sit there nodding and acknowledging everything she says waiting for her to fall asleep, then as the sun began to rise she became strangely silent for a long long while. I thought she had finally given in so I gently try to move the pillow so I can get up and go home, but then she just tells me not to go, not to leave her alone, so I stay for another while, waiting quietly."

"Then after awhile, she tiredly asks me in the most serious and sober tone of speech that she could muster, to help her deal with her rivals at work, that she can't take it anymore and that she doesn't know who else to turn to before passing out."

"And you leave..."

The two were awkwardly quiet for a while.

This was new to me, she hadn't mentioned Cloud Tumble in the version she told me.

"So... what happened next? Did you help her?" I asked.

"I did. Even though she had been completely wasted when she asked for my help."

"I gathered some of my closest friends and plotted against their ringleader, an unicorn stallion named Talon Embrace."

"We found out everything there was to know about him, his routines, his interests, his family and closest, everything, and one night while he was on his way home, we approached him, disguised as common street thugs."

"We beat him up, robbed him and extorted most of his savings, which forced him to live poorly and to move to a cheaper more affordable home with his wife and daughter."

"But we didn't stop there, we continued to harass him almost daily, we rendered his life miserable, and after some time his wife left him after we had anonymously tipped her off with proof of him being involved with another mare..."

"He was cheating on his wife?"

"No, he was loyal and faithful to her, his wife and daughter were central to his life, to him, everything else came second."

"What we gave her were manipulated images and fake letters, fabricated false proof to turn his own wife against him."

"That's horrible!" Swirly burst out in horror.

"Why? The guy was an asshole, he was the one behind everything Manie's coworkers did to her."

"You ruined his life! You took away everything he had and held dear!"

"Yeah, that does seem pretty excessive, maybe ya shouldn't have gone that far." Brook said.

"I can't believe you had him do that to him!" Swirly said turning herself towards the moving wagon, addressing Manie directly,

Manie didn't respond.

"You... you monster!"

"She has nothing to do with it. She wasn't involved."

"I didn't approve of what he did." Manie said, "I told Cloud Tumble off for doing what he did, I was afraid that Talon Embrace would catch on, that Cloud's harassment would only worsen things."

"And it did."

"Talon Embrace became miserable and incredibly cruel, Cloud had rendered him poor, he had taken away everything he had, including his family. Talon Embrace began to push harder and harder to get at me in the hopes of getting at my fortune."

"This time Cloud Tumble wasn't around to 'help' me, not after the way I had told him off."

"You acted like an ungrateful cunt, you called me a monster and said that you didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore."

"And what was I supposed to tell you? 'Thank you for ruining somepony's life?'"

"A fucking 'thank you' would have been enough."

"You made things worse, that's why I am fucking here, that's why you are here!"

"This is your fucking fault!"

"Oh wow, that is how you thank me for all my efforts? I spent weeks getting at him, I took massive risks to help YOU."

"You could have fucking told me that you were going to ruin him! You went behind my back!"

"I couldn't risk you telling them!"

"And that's why we are fucking here in this SHITHOLE."

"Fuck you!"

"What exactly is it you want to hear anyway? 'Thank you Cloud Tumble for worsening things and making us end up in this mess'?"

"If that's it then thank you Cloud! Fucking thank you."

"Break it up you two!" I said, "We are all in the same boat here, what's done is done."

"Now continue, get to the point, Swirly Star deserves to know what happened."

Manie sighed deeply.

"Yeah well thanks to corporal thug here Talon Embrace pushed me harder and harder, the assaults and sabotage got worse and worse to the point where command had to give me my own private lab for me to work on the newest project, a modified version of the SOFLAM+ for main battle tanks."

"When the project was in prototype stages we began making field tests, the results were promising, and it didn't take long before Air Force and Infantry began to make use of the system as well, more weapons were retrofitted to be usable with my system, including most of Air Force's guided missile arsenal."

"A big field test came up, it was to be a joint training exercise and test of the SOFLAM+ with a platoon of MBT's fitted with the new system and an Air Force helicopter platoon using some of the new missiles, we were told that there would be surprise targets at random, both air and ground. So most of the lower ranked men didn't know what to expect."

"I had participated in and supervised these tests a hundred times before so I knew that it was just dumb unarmed drones."

"The day before the test five pilots from the Air Force helicopter platoon that was going to participate came and beat me up, nearly killing me. Before leaving me broken in an alley they gave me an USB containing a virus and demanded that I handed Talon Embrace my reward and that I sabotaged the SOFLAM+ network, they threatened to kill me in a friendly fire 'accident' during the field test if I didn't comply..."

"You didn't tell me this yesterday."

"Yes I did."

"You didn't tell me about Cloud Tumble, what he did or the virus..."

"Cloud Tumble was a personal matter, it wasn't something you really needed to know and I wouldn't have told you if he didn't so conveniently show up like this."

"The virus, well, that's the 'sabotage' part I told you about, same thing, different wording."

"We didn't have to bring him with us you know, you seemed pretty eager to take him with us, so I did."

Manie chuckled.

"Would you have left him behind? To be executed by Overwatch?"

She had a point, I probably wouldn't have just left him to die like that.

I'd be the first to admit that I am not the most benevolent of ponies, I'd like to think that I'd make hard decisions when necessary, but still, that just takes it a bit too far, it wouldn't have been right.

"No... I guess not..."

"Then there you go."

"Okay fine. So what did you do?"

"I threw it away obviously, like hell that I was going to sabotage what I had worked so hard on, the laser guidance system, the SOFLAM+, was my project, my baby."

"My goddamned cutiemark is the icon my system uses to target things, I valued my project higher than anything else at the time,"

"Higher than your life?"

"Pride can do funny things to you."

"I wasn't just going to give in and met their demands anyway, sabotage the project of my life and give away my fortune? Yeah, not a chance."

"So I refused and instead planned on how to deal with the mess I was in, I sat up all night going through a million possible scenarios, but in the end there was no easy way out, it would either come down to dying or fighting back, that is shooting down their helicopters before they shot me."

"But I couldn't possibly know which choppers were which, I didn't know the names of the pilots who threatened me, fuck, I didn't even know what they looked like, the bastards had came wearing their flight helmets."

"You could have gone after the color of their manes and tails, couldn't you? I don't know how Air Force pilots are outfitted, but I hardly think they would have to stick their manes and tails in their outfits like we do in Civil Protection, it seems more likely that they would be fitted more for comfort and mobility than protection and secrecy."

"The colors of their manes and tails? Really?"

"Well yeah? Why not?"

"Damn Air Force pegasi that's why!"

"Out of 60 pilots and gunners, how many of those do you think had rainbow tails?"

"Huh?"

"I know what she means." Strawberry Feather inserted.

"You do?"

"Yeah."

"It makes sense that at least some of the pegasi working with the Air Force would have rainbow manes and tails."

"Why?" I asked, I wasn't sure of what he was getting at, why would that make sense?

"Do you know of Rainbow Dash?" he asked me.

Rainbow Dash was, if I recalled correctly, one of the last six wielders of the elements of harmony, but that was pretty much all I knew about her.

"I know of her. Why?"

"Rainbow Dash was a pegasus mare, the wielder of the Element of Loyalty, one of the six Elements of Harmony which were used to defeat evil and protect Equestria half a century ago."

"Rainbow Dash was known for her speed and ability to do Sonic Rainbooms at will-"

"What's a Sanic Rainboom?" Brook asked.

"Sonic." Strawberry Feather corrected.

"That's what ah said, sanic."

"It's-"

"Just forget about it, he just can't pronounce it right." I said.

"Right."

"A Sonic Rainboom is a type of magical explosion that occurs when a pegasus breaks the sound barrier in speed, it unleashes a rainbow colored blast that can be seen from all over Equestria."

"Don't sound like anything ah've ever seen."

"Of course not. No one has done a Sonic Rainboom in over fifty years."

"She was the last one capable of doing them at will. No has been able to pull one off since after she died."

"Not even the Wonderbolts?"

"Not even the Wonderbolts."

"Speaking of Wonderbolts, did you know that Rainbow Dash used to be their captain?"

"Wha- really?"

"Yeah. They were one of the first real fighting forces of Equestria."

"Of course, they didn't really have weapons back then, at least not firearms. She used the Wonderbolts to fight off creatures from the Everfree during the expansion of Ponyville among many things. It is said that they would swoop down with swords and lances..."

"It all worked out well, until one particular attack where more than half of them were wiped out by an Ursa Major rampaging through Ponyville ways back."

I know this.

"I know of the attack." I said.

"That's when they reinstated the Equestrian army and began to form military industries. My grandpa was in it."

It was pretty interesting that this six year old colt knew more of Equestria's history than any of the rest of us, he really was smarter than he looked.

"How do you know all this stuff kid?"

"I read books."

He gave me a look that for some reason made me expect him to add 'Do you read books, you illiterate fuck?', but he never did, he just gave me the same passive indifferent glare that he always had.

"Fair enough."

"Now what's so special about rainbow manes and tails?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he said.

"Rainbow Dash had a rainbow tail and mane. So like I said, it makes sense that Air Force, a branch of the army whose name implies that they like flying and aerial combat, would adore her and use her as a role model."

"If you are done yapping about Rainbow Dash I'd like to finish my explanation." Manie interrupted.

"We've been sidetracked enough."

"Sometimes it's good to sidetrack, you learn more that way." Strawberry Feather said wisely.

"Sweet Heavens, how long til we get to wherever we are going?"

I had no idea, but we had been walking for a couple of hours at least, and it was about 30 kilometers between Helsinghoof and Checkpoint Berry 2, so there was plenty of road to cover.

"Eh, we are still a ways from Checkpoint Berry 2."

"Go on Manie."

"Since Cloud Tumble was still assigned to my crew and since he was... a former friend, I told him in the morning about what happened and what I planned to do and gave him the option to either go with me or find a way out. Shortly thereafter the pilots came by and asked for my decision, I firmly said that I refused to meet their demands, and they stormed off."

"Later, when I got to my tank with my crew, I was surprised to find Cloud Tumble already waiting there for us."

"When we rolled out with the platoon I was scared, shaking even, I didn't know when the helicopters would show up, but I knew for a fact that the pilots wouldn't be too happy."

"That was it, there was no going back from it, no way to change my mind, and no way to hide. I was ahead of the column, leading the 'attack' on the dummy drones and then they showed up."

"The Air Force chopper platoon came flying over the horizon."

"I doubted at first and thought about just letting it come for me, that perhaps the cost of defending myself would have been too great, but my fear got the better of me and I marked the helicopters one by one and called them out over the channel as hostile targets. It didn't take long before the entire platoon of helicopters was set ablaze, destroying all but one chopper before the others caught on to what happened after the last pilot had panicked over the radio..."

Swirly Star had a tear in her eye, she looked as if she was about to break any second now.

"Something doesn't add up though." I said.

"In the version I heard from Bob back in the mainland your crew was found unconscious."

"They... what?"

"She said that they zapped your tank with an EMP and that they charged your tank on foot, finding you upset and the crew unconscious."

"What? We weren't unconscious, I was in on it all along and our driver and MG gunner didn't know." Cloud Tumble said.

"Yeah I don't know where 'Bob' got that from, that's not what happened at all." Manie said.

"When everyone found out about the targets being friendly all operations stopped and the crews disembarked from their tanks to search the wrecks for survivors, including ours."

"I was too shaken up to explain coherently what had happened or why I had targeted the choppers, I remember that the only thing I managed to say was 'I had to do it, I had to, it was them or me', I never participated in the search for survivors, I was just brought back to base."

"Why would CP lie about that to me?" I asked.

"I don't know. Your organization have been nothing but a bag of dicks so far."

A bag of dicks?

I was wondering if it was a type of paper bags where the dicks stuck out like baguettes or if they were all mushed together like sausages.

Wait, what the actual fuck am even I thinking?!

This isn't the time to dic- to mess around! This is serious!

"My... my housband..." Swirly broke out in tears, "You killed him!"

"Brook, please stop the wagon." Manie instructed.

The wagon stopped and Manie carefully climbed out, moaning quietly in pain as she did.

She slowly went up to Swirly who was being consoled by the little colt.

"Swirly..." she began, trying to place a hoof on her shoulder, only to have it violently shrugged off.

"You killed him! You killed him!" she cried out.

"I'm sorry Swirly, I had to do it..."

"No you didn't! You didn't have to do it!"

"I had to defend myself."

"You could have given them what they wanted! You could have avoided all of it!"

"I know... I thought about it, I did, I really did."

"I've thought over it a million times, I should have given them what they wanted, my money wasn't worth all those lives..."

"MY life wasn't worth all of this..."

"Rainbow Sea was right..."

"Don't say that Manie." I said.

"Why not?" Manie smiled weakly at me, "You know it's true."

"I am just one pony, my life isn't worth more than yours, or Swirly's husband, or anypony."

"I valued my money and stupid weapon more than the lives of 58 ponies."

"That's... that's fucked up. That's just not right."

Manie bowed her head in shame.

"I... I wish I could have gone back and done things differently... But I can't... I'm... sorry..."

No one said or did anything for a long while, we just stood there on the road in the middle of the downpour waiting for someone to say something, anything.

To our surprise Swirly Star was the first one to speak, she turned to Manie and gave her a long pained look mixed with feelings of anger and compassion.

"Are... are you really sorry for what you did?" she asked, sadness clear and evident in her voice.

"Y-yes..."

"And do you really regret doing what you did?"

"Yes..."

Swirly was going through another change of temper, she rose her hoof over Manie's head and she instinctively bent in submission, I readied myself to go break the two up, but then all of a sudden Swirly leaned forward and gave Manie a hug, leaving her completely puzzled and surprised.

"S-swirly?!"

"I... forgive you Manie..." Swirly said, still hugging the confused mare.

"You... you were in a threatening situation and you did what you thought was the best at the time..."

"Sometimes we all make bad decisions which we come to regret... you have done yours... and now you will live with that shame for the rest of your life... and that, is punishment enough. I can't be angry with you. I... can't blame you..."

Manie was blank and silent for a moment before loosening up and returning Swirly the hug.

After a while Swirly let go of her and the two drifted apart, Swirly began to slowly walk down the road on her own, shortly followed by Strawberry Feather.

Manie quietly got back into the wagon and our little convoy began moving again, and as we did I barely managed to notice the small group of ponies that were stalking us, keeping just out of sight shrouded by the fog, Cloud Tumble noticed this too.

"Do you see them?" he asked me in a low voice, not wanting to alert the others.

"Yes."

"Who are they?"

"Bandits."

"Bandits?"

Why would there be bandits in the area if the frontier was secured?

"I thought the frontier was secured?"

"Secured from wildlings, yes."

"There are still escaped workers who have taken to banditry to worry about, they are a huge problem out here."

"We better be careful and keep an eye out."

"Should pick up the pace?"

"No, they will know that we saw them and get alerted."

"Just stay calm and be ready for anything..."

I thought about it for the next kilometer or so.

"About the bandits..." I whispered to Cloud Tumble.

"I am not forcing you to stay with us if you don't want to go to past the border, and CP doesn't know that you are part of our group, yet, so you could very well leave and join up with the local bandits if you'd like."

"Join the bandits? I'd never sink that low."

"Still, you could leave the group, go free."

"Do... you want me to leave the group?"

"It's not really a matter of what I want, staying with the group is your decision, bringing you with us was more of a formality to save you from Overwatch than anything, I'd understand if you don't want to go with us."

"What are you getting at?"

"I am giving you the choice to leave, that's all. No hidden intentions."

"Why?"

"I need everyone to trust me and stay on their own accord. We are going to a very bad place, and I'd need everyone to stay focused on helping each other than attempting to escape. I don't want anypony to do anything against their own will here."

"And with the way things are between Manie and you I wouldn't want the two of you to form any new grudges like Rainbow Sea had, we all need to set out hostilities aside and stick together."

"I don't have anything against Manie..."

"You don't?"

"No..." he lowered his voice even further.

"I... I love her."

"You..." Uh...

"...what?"

"She doesn't share the same feeling towards me... but I love her, and I always have. I have helped her no matter what to the best of my ability, even though it hasn't always worked out..."

Had he helped her more than once?

"I have done everything she has ever asked of me... for her."

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say to that, I felt a nauseating feeling of deep jealousy begin to nag at me, preventing me from saying anything in his favor.

The worst part was that I didn't even know why I felt that way, I liked Manie, but not like that, I didn't love her.

Cloud Tumble was the one that wanted her, not me.

So why would I be jealous of him?

"I'm sorry to hear...?" I said hesitantly, I couldn't figure out of a more graceful thing to say in response.

Cloud Tumble gave me a confused look, as if he had expected me to say something else, something encouraging.

"Whatever it is you decide on in the future, I mean regarding the group," I said, changing the subject, "at least let us know about it beforehand. Please don't pull the same crap Rainbow Sea did."

He looked away, almost as if he was disappointed.

"I wont... I promise."

We walked for another while in silence.

It was an awkward silence, occasionally Cloud Tumble would give me saddened looks, as if he had caught onto my feelings towards Manie, feelings that I didn't really have.

I was hoping that he wouldn't view me as some sort of rival or competitor, this wasn't a conquest of love we were on, this was an incredibly dangerous and serious mission and there would be no room for open hostility between us.

Maybe I should have encouraged him after all, it couldn't have hurt, if Manie didn't share the same sentiment towards him then it wasn't very likely that he'd have a chance anyway, I probably only ended up pushing him away from me.

Or maybe it was just the silence playing paranoid mind tricks on me.

I did have the stupid tendency to overthink certain situations more than I should, maybe this was one of those situations?

"So Cloud Tumble." Blizzard Candy prompted.

"Are you going to stay with us or are we dropping you off somewhere?"

Cloud gave him a tired look.

"I'll stay... for now, young one."

Blizzard Candy looked bewildered, a completely unexpected reaction on his part.

"Young one! Who are you calling young one!"

Cloud Tumble sighed.

"How old are you son?"

"I am 18 years old!"

"I am just over twice your age. 37."

Blizzard looked amazed.

"Whoa there grandpa, don't go breaking your hips now!" he joked.

"Hey there, let's not exaggerate now," I said, "I am 32 and I can buck ponies and take hits just fine."

"t' way you take damage you'd think that you were 22." Brook chuckled.

Was that a compliment? Or a jab?

"Thank... you? I think?"

"I don't think that was a compliment..." Cloud Tumble said.

"You know Blizzard, back when I was your age turning 14 made me eligible to own property, get a job and vote on political decisions."

"And fuck." Brook added.

"Eh, yeah, that too."

"But I wasn't legally allowed to drink alcohol, not until the age of 21."

"Really?" he said.

"Now it's the complete opposite."

"You are not allowed to fuck until the age of 21?" Brook snickered.

"No! That's not what I meant!"

"I meant that we are allowed to drink, but that many of our freedoms are restricted in one way or another."

"Like, we can't move to another city unless we ask for authorization, we can't get certain jobs without certain clearance and there are no political decisions to vote on at all. We don't even get to vote on anything occurring locally in our own city, there isn't even a city council or anything."

"Yeah... we know..." Brook said, gloomily.

Strawberry Feather joined me and Cloud Tumble, Swirly had probably asked to be alone for a moment.

“Hey Manie,” I called.

She waited a bit before answering, she didn't really seem in the mood to talk right now.

“What...”

“How old are you exactly?”

“Ya ain’t supposed to ask about a mares age.” Brook Cotton said to me.

“Why not?” Strawberry Feather asked.

“It is not polite.”

“But its okay for mares to ask about our age?”

“It’s aaeeeh... you want to answer this one Heavens?” Brook tried to weasel out.

"You are the one who brought it up. Why don't you explain your strange reasoning to him?"

Brook gave me a friendly but mean glare.

“Well, Strawberry, it’s complicated. You’ll learn as you grow older and meet a nice mare one day.”

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Brook has got it all confused." I said.

"What he really means is that it's not polite to ask about a mare's age if you are going out with her, like Blizzard did yesterday."

"Screw you!"

"That's what he meant by 'when you meet a nice mare one day'."

"Oh, okay."

The two seemed satisfied with the answer.

I turned to the wagon.

"Well Manie, how old are you?" I asked again.

"Why is it of such interest to you?"

"You were a Major in the army and you left, what, 2-3 years ago?"

"Yes. And?"

"You don't look much older than Swirly Star here. Aren't you a little young to be a Major?"

"DO keep in mind that it was I who invented an advanced military targeting system that was and is still used in all branches of the army today, I explained it to you, it has no known countermeasure, I believe that it is one of the greatest military advances of our age."

"I get that. But what I am asking for here is, were you underage when still in the employ of the army or not?"

There was a long pause.

"Yes." Manie answered softly. "Yes I was."

“So you invented that system when you were 17.." I assumed, "Pretty impressive.”

“16 actually.” she corrected me, “I am 19. I didn’t... didn't do what I did until I was 17...”

“How old were ya when ya joined the army?” Brook Cotton wondered.

“I was signed up when I was 14. But have unofficially been working in the army since I was 9.”

“What? Since you were 9 years old?” I was surprised.

These were ages that gave even more sense to her story, it seemed likely that her coworkers had targeted her out of jealousy for her talent, but it also made it seem all the more wrong of them to have assaulted her and threatened to kill her.

“That’s impossible.” Brook Cotton said in amazement.

“Not when your father is a high ranking pegasus officer it’s not.” she said.

“He is a Colonel General within the army. Pretty much all of Equestrias ground armor is under his command.”

HER FATHER was the commander of Equestria's ground armor!?

"I didn't know that." Cloud Tumble said.

"You wouldn't, I never told you."

"Tell us about him."

“Colonel General Light Vale, he was one of the first pegasi who signed up when the 'new' Equestrian Armed Forces were first founded, the old military before Air Force, Armor and Infantry."

"He quickly rose up the ranks due to his exceptional mind for strategy and planning."

"But it wouldn't matter as they seldom listened to what he said, especially during the 5 year preparations for the 1st Recon Battalion expedition.”

"And well... look where that went..."

“You weren’t here.” Cloud Tumble said coldly, “You don’t know anything.”

“No. Neither was my father. But I do know that you’d have a damn better chance if you brought napalm grenades instead of frags and that more of you would have survived if you had actual combat training instead of running on those damn treadmills and wind tunnels all the time.” Manie retorted.

"I am not saying that the massacre could have been avoided if they had listened to him, but with relative safety say that you could have been better prepared and avoided unnecessary deaths if they had just listened to some of the things my father suggested."

"You talk as if Cloud was here when it happened."

"He was, as far as I know."

"But that is entirely his own business, you'll have to ask him to fill you in about it."

I turned to Cloud.

He gave me a hard icy stare.

"I am not telling you a fucking thing."

"The 1st Recon Battalion is my past, my... nightmare. I am not going to talk about it, not with you, not with anyone."

"As you wish... Your choice."

I turned back to Manie.

“So what kind of involvement did you have with your father?"

"I mean, you said you had been with the army since the age of 9. What did you do there?”

She paused.

"I don't know Heavens..."

"Don't want to talk about it?"

"Yeah, I... hmm..."

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it, I am not forcing you or anything."

"I'm sorry if I am being a bit to personal, I just want to get to know you guys a bit better."

"While I do prefer and appreciate open discussion and sharing you don't have to tell me anything as long as it isn't critical to the mission."

"The reasoning behind your crime however was something I had to know, because of the conflict going on between you and Rainbow Sea. Even though in the end, it didn't really work out all that well..."

"I get that, it's just that I don't talk about him very often..."

"But I guess I can tell you about him, I owe you and Cloud Tumble, so it's the least I can do..."

"You don't owe us anything." I assured her.

"But I do. The two of you saved my life, and in your case that's twice in a row now."

"I was just doing my job."

"And you did a good one at that, you found me and you rescued me from that... that creep."

"So my father... hmm..."

"I was mostly his apprentice early on, he wanted to get me involved with the military when I was young in the hopes that I could make connections and become an officer or something, the other generals allowed him to bring me with him on his meetings and briefings so I could learn, I was sort 'their' little girl, everyone were really nice."

"He taught me all he knew about leading soldiers and strategizing, and when he began working on conjunction with the defense contractor, Warhorse Military Industries in the design of the first serious main battle tanks he taught me about that too."

"I was... competent... in leading soldiers, but I wasn't special, in both the sims and the few training sessions that I was allowed to try the responsibility of command in I performed generally average, and in the army 'average' doesn't cut it."

"My true calling was with the new main battle tanks and their systems. I was really interested in their inner workings, so I learned everything I could about them during the five year training period that my father was busy helping in the planning of the 1st Recon Battalion's expedition."

"But then, disaster struck and the 1st Recon Battalion was slaughtered by the natives here. My father became grim and incredibly serious. He stopped taking me with him, he didn’t learn me anything, he isolated me completely from his work, he rarely talked to me."

"Since I wasn't officially in the army I wasn't allowed in unless my father brought him with me, so I decided to simply apply for the army conventionally, I was too young for basic training but was allowed to work in R&D due to my experience with main battle tanks, they had to do me a childishly simple test which I aced right away.”

"In the following years a lot happened, my expertise when it came to main battle tanks netted me a position as an officer, a tank commander, in Armor, despite me not being an unicorn as was asked by the prerequisites of that type of position. I met Cloud Tumble and my crew, I worked on a variety of upgrades and minor projects in between training exercises, I often got to test the very same things I worked on in the R&D department. You wont meet many engineers who get to say that."

"I... I loved my job... It was... great."

"But there was something missing, two very important things."

"A stable relation with my father, and a cutiemark."

"You... you didn't have a cutiemark?" Strawberry Feather asked hesitantly.

"After all that?"

"I sure didn't."

"Can you believe it? 15 years old and still no cutiemark?"

"And here I thought being the second to last to get mine in my class was bad..."

"But how is that possible? You got into the army and worked on advanced tech as a teenager, isn't that a special talent?"

"Apparently not, for all my worth as a tank commander and engineer that still wasn't it."

"So when did you get yours?"

"When I completed my work with the laser designation system of course, I did mention that my cutiemark is the interface icon used by my system to highlight a target, didn't I?"'

"You mentioned it before, but you never said anything about how you got it..."

"Well that was it, my special talent, laser designation, apparently."

"But that didn't work out, not with my rivals as you know, and not my my father..."

"I was proud of my accomplishment, I showed it to my father, but he ignored me, he had changed."

"He even ignored me when I asked him for help in dealing with the others, it's like he didn't even acknowledge me anymore and he never even told me why..."

"So the two of us have drifted apart... I haven't spoken to him since before it all happened..."

"For many, the day of their cutiemarks appearance is often a happy and cherished memory, for me, it is a sad reminder of how my father stopped loving me and of all the struggles and problems my 'talent' brought with it."

We remained silent.

"And now you know that about me, a bit corny, perhaps, b-"

"It's not corny, it's sad." I said.

"Now we know that what you did was more of a matter of circumstance than anything, you had your reasons to act the way you did, valid reasons, that any of us would be just as likely to have if we ever got into the same kind of situation."

"I can't justify killing 58 ponies with a bad relation to my father, that's not a 'valid reason'."

"But you can, you asked him and others for help and you got nothing. It is their fault for not helping you out in that messy situation, you had to do something to defend yourself, even if it ended up being a bit extreme."

"I guess..."

"I know that it might not mean much, but just know that if there is anything you need, I am here for you."

"And so am I." Cloud Tumble inserted.

"I don't know what you think about me anymore, but I am still here for you as well, I'd do anything for you."

"I..."

"..."

"Thank you. Both of you."

We left it at that.

It didn't seem to be all that appropriate to start anything else after that, I figured that we might as well go the last few kilometers in silence, to let everyone reflect on things.

After another hour of walking I checked behind us for our pursuers, they were still following us, still keeping just barely out of sight.

They hadn't made a move yet, but it was clear that they had bad intentions.

I checked the map to try and make out the distance to the military outpost we were heading to, it shouldn't be far now, I estimated that we had barely two-three kilometers left to go.

"Sweet Heavens!" Nurse Swirly called for me.

I looked up from the map and noticed the dark shape of a pile of debris further up the road.

Shit.

They had been herding us into an ambush.

“I should have guessed.” I said bitterly. “Everypony grab a pistol. Manie and Cloud, you grab rifles.”

I glanced at our wagon, the back of the interior was shrouded and dark, whoever would be looking towards there from a distance would never notice Manie Manie in the shadows.

“Manie, I hope you can use a rifle because you will be our marksman, stay in the back of the wagon and prime your sights on whoever happens to introduce himself as the leader."

"IF they talk to us before they shoot.”

“How about negotiating for safe passage?” Nurse Swirly suggested.

“If there is the remote possibility of getting away without bloodshed and significant loss of supplies then yes. If not, let’s assume the worst. I know that it may not be in your nature as a nurse, but please, grab a pistol and be prepared.”

Everyone grabbed a weapon and two mags each.

We were slowly approaching the road blockade.

My heart was racing, I felt a rush of adrenaline build up in my system.

I had been in fights before, riots, raids, assaults... I had taken hits, I had killed armed suspects before, combat was not new to me.

But this was different.

This time I had no armor to protect me, no trained squad of armored and well equipped officers to rely on, and worst of all, I was at the head of the group, I was the leader.

I would be the first to be shot if things didn’t turn out well.

I stood right next to the pile of debris that blocked the road. Brook Cotton stopped the wagon.

There was a very long moment of silence where nopony made a move, the only sound to be heard was the sound of swaying trees in the wind and the rain clattering on the road.

I gathered courage and called out loudly.

“OKAY, SO YOU HAVE BLOCKED US ON THE ROAD. WHAT HAPPENS NOW?”

“Now” a dark and burly voice could be heard saying from the nearby bushes.

“Now you lay down your weapons and hand us the wagon and all your gear, supplies and items of value.”

An earth pony with an impressive bulk emerged from the bushes, he was completely unarmed and unarmored.

Everypony primed his sights on him.

His coat and mane were painted in an elaborate camouflage pattern, his blood red eyes were slowly looking over the group, briefly stopping at Nurse Swirly but soon shifting to me.

“You are a curious one.” he said. “What exactly are you?”

I said nothing.

Mentioning the scramble suit would only end up with the stallion trying to get it off me, which I knew was impossible.

“The quiet type I see.” he looked towards the group. “I repeat. Lay down your weapons.”

Strawberry Feather and Nurse Swirly were about to drop their weapons.

“No.” I instructed. “Don’t listen to him. Keep your sights aimed on him.”

“You better do as I ask.” the bandit demanded nonchalantly.

“And if we don’t?” I challenged.

The bandit slowly looked in both directions of the road.

Several more bandits geared in various bits of stolen gear and makeshift armor armed with rifles, pistols and melee weapons emerged from the foliage. Surrounding us completely.

Everypony diverged their attention from the unarmed bandit leader to other bandits.

They were easily more than 20.

We didn’t stand a chance.

Nurse Swirly, Strawberry Feather and Blizzard Candy seemed nervous and shaky, the others looked fierce and determined.

They had courage, they would go down fighting if they had to.

I let out a deep tired sigh.

“Fine. You can have the wagon and our gear.” I submitted.

"It's not even ours, this isn't worth dying over."

"Smart guy."

“Hand over all your gear and the mare and we'll let you move on unharmed.” the bandit said.

The mare?

They wanted Nurse Swirly.

We are not giving them Nurse Swirly.

Once Manie Manie would have to step out of the wagon they would likely demand her too.

“No.” I said firmly. “You can’t have her, or anypony from our group. They are not trade goods.”

“You don’t have a choice.” the bandit leader said. “Either you hand over everything and the mare or you die. Here and now.”

I remained quiet, moments passed.

I looked back at the group and the wagon, I could see the faint gleam of Manie Manie’s deep red-purple eyes faintly gleam in the shadows, she looked pissed.

The bandit leader hadn't noticed her yet, she had the perfect shot.

"I am not resisting, I am making you a generous offer of all our goods without the need for bloodshed, but we are not giving you her."

"Offer?"

"This isn't negotiable, it's everything or death. Your choice."

I nodded looking down at the ground.

“Hmm.”

I was in deep thought, thinking over the many scenarios that could play out.

Biding my time.

The bandit leader was growing impatient.

“Well?” he said irritated.

Well what you stupid dickhead. You are bandits, you have weapons.

Do you need my permission to loot our goods and steal our mares?

“You are the leader of this group, right?” I asked him.

He seemed taken aback by this obvious question but regained his intimidating composure quickly.

“Why, yes! Yes I am.” he said proudly.

“Good good...” I said quietly, nodding for myself. “And what exactly makes you their leader?”

I knew this was a lost cause, I was merely trying to try to fuck with them before going down.

The bandit leader looked unamused, he didn’t say anything.

“He is the strongest!” a bandit said from behind the wagon.

“He is the biggest!” another bandit said.

“He is da smartest!” a dumb sounding third said.

The bandit leader smirked, he seemed proud and confident in the support he had.

“I see.” I said. “Well you see. While we have been talking one of my own guys have been aiming his sights at you.” the bandit leader’s eyes dilated, “The moment shit flies lose out here you will die along with us."

"You see, if I am going down to hell, I am sure as fuck going to drag you down with me.”

“You bluff!” the bandit leader exclaimed, rapidly scanning our group again, “None of your group are even aiming at me and-”

The bandit leader’s eyes widened as he noticed Manie Manie’s gleaming red-purple eyes in the back of the wagon. “.......damnit!”

I mimicked for him not to make a sound about her.

“I am not going to give you her." my confidence swelled, I had this secured in my hoof.

"Quite frankly, now that I think about it, I am not going to give you a damn thing. If you want our supplies and the mare you will have to take it from us forcibly, which shouldn’t be such a problem for your companions here..."

"Yeah!!" one of the bandits called out.

"But for you, your career of banditry ends here, today.”

“And honestly, judging from you and your group I don’t think they will last long without you.”

“BOSS!?” one of the bandits exclaimed angrily. “YOU GONNA LET THIS SHITHEAD TALK TO YOU LIKE THAT!?”

Murmurs of dissent could be heard among the bandit ranks.

The bandit leader looked paralyzed in fear, staring deep into Manie Manie’s eyes.

She was like death herself for him.

“C-clear t-the barricade!” he ordered.

“Boss!?”

“W-we are letting them pass!”

“Boss! He is just fucking with you! We can take them!” one of the bandits called at him.

“Stand down!” the bandit leader ordered.

Nopony made a move.

The bandits refused to listen to him. They felt betrayed.

“No.” a bandit said, stepping up to the bandit leader. “We are not going to stand for this shit, if you are letting this fucking bloke screw with you then perhaps you shouldn't be the one leading us.”

“Shut the fuck up Ripper.” another bandit said, stepping out of the lines. “Nopony talks to the boss like that.”

“Let him talk!” a bandit was heard saying.

“Fall back in line!” another said.

Soon arguments began to break out and the bandits became busy arguing with each other, completely forgetting about us.

The bandit leader was still frozen in fear as he were.

In the chaos I noticed two yellow grenades land by either side of the bandit leader, a split second after seeing them a bright flash and a loud bang blinded and deafened me, I backed up and rubbed my eyes trying to recover but to no avail.

I could hear the faint sounds of screams and gunshots that ceased as I began to recover.

When I could clearly see again I saw the bandits lie dead by our hooves, killed where they stood, bits of skull, dismembered legs, torn open torsos, the bandits were all laying in growing pools of blood that mixed with the rain and flowed off the edges of the road.

None of us had any idea what the hell was going on, we had all dropped out weapons in the confusion and were completely disarmed and unprepared for whatever had killed the bandits.

“*Hello*” the familiar sound of a helmet vocoder greeted me. “*You must be Captain Tombs.*”

An Overwatch army sergeant emerged from the bushes where the bandits had previously laid in wait.

As far as I could tell by the shape of the dark red armor, it was a mare.

The other Overwatch soldiers clad in dark blue armor soon followed and began checking for survivors, some began to clear the road blockade and bodies off the road.

“How do you know who I am?” I asked.

"Who are you?"

"*Overwatch, patrol from Berry 2.*"

“*CP Command informed us that you would be coming this way. We expected you sooner.*”

“We had some... setbacks at Helsinghoof.”

“*I see.*” she glanced over at the group who was still mildly shocked and recovering.

“*These must be the ponies assigned to you...*”

"*Hang on...*"

"*Somepony is missing. The green one.*"

“Rainbow Sea turned on me and kidnapped one of the others.”

“He had to be dealt with forcibly...”

“*And this new stallion...?*”

“That would be Cloud Tumbler, he was a worker at Helsinghoof. He stole a firearm with the intention of escaping Helsinghoof but ended up using it to rescue us instead.”

“*’Us’?*”

“It’s... uh, probably best if I tell you on the way.”

“*Yes yes, of course.*"

"*Personally, I don’t think your CP command will be especially happy with the developments, but from how you describe it you did what had to be done.*”

“*Sun Valley Hills lies 70 kilometers further inlands, you’ll never make it there by nightfall, and you DON’T want to be out traveling on the frontier at night. At least not without an APC.*”

“Why is that?”

“*That*” she said, “*is something I will tell once we get back to the outpost.*”

“*Some things are better shown than told...*” she added.

The roadblock had been cleared, the wagon was free to carry on.

The soldiers began to make their way down the road with the loot taken from the bandits, they ignored the bodies and left them by the sides of the road.

“You are just going to leave them there like that?” Nurse Swirly asked the sergeant.

The sergeant stopped and shivered briefly.

“*The... night creatures... and rain will take care of those.*” she said, I thought I detected a hint of fear through the static of her radio but could not tell for sure.

We began walking the last few kilometers towards the outpost and I told her of what had happened in Helsinghoof on the way.

The outpost was much smaller than I had imagined it to be, it was... very compact.

The walls included only a short segment of the road blocked off by two large gates and enough barely for 2 two story cement buildings to be built on either side of the road.

The walls, I noticed, were almost twice as high as the walls surrounding New Prospect and Helsinghoof.

They were made of a black metal of some sort, steel I figured, painted black to lessen the silhouette of the outpost from a distance.

What was strange about these walls was that the foundations were adorned with long sharp spikes, many of whom seemed red with dried blood and bits of dark fur and cloth, the dirt in which the spikes were planted were sullied with charred looking black mud.

When the guards sighted us the gate opened and we were all let in, we parked the wagon under the protection of a rain cover.

Another Overwatch sergeant came out to greet us, a stallion, he was not wearing his helmet but instead wore red night vision goggles over a woodland camouflaged boonie hat.

He seemed to have a crimson coat, his head was clean shaven under the hat from the looks of it, and so was his tail.

He wore black sunglasses.

“Welcome to checkpoint Berry 2!” he greeted us. “Hope you don’t mind the small size of the outpost. It wasn’t really designed to host guests and passerby.”

“*This here is Bonnie. He is in charge of the defenses around here while I am in charge of patrols.*” the sergeant mare introduced him.

“Ain’t Bonnie a feminine name?” Brook Cotton wondered.

“Yes it is.” Bonnie replied.

“Are you...” Brook Cotton didn’t finish his question.

“Am I what?” Bonnie wondered, then he realized. “Oh, you mean gay? No goodness no, how could I be that with all these wonderful mares around?” he gave us a nasty smile “Got my name because of the boonie hat I wear all the time. I keep insisting that it is called a bush hat but they wouldn’t have any of it.”

"Why would you assume that he was gay?" I asked Brook.

He became a bit embarrassed by the question.

"Uh, ah... ah don't really know why ah'd assume that..."

Bonnie looked at the wagon, noticing Manie Manie’s eyes looking at him.

He pulled down his night vision goggles, over his sunglasses.

“Well well, speakin’ o pretty mares...” he muttered, smiling.

“Hiya there!” he called for Manie, “Why don’t you come on out here with the rest of us and have a chat? We don’t bite, well at least not in Overwatch! Can’t speak for Infantry or anything.”

No response.

I leaned in closer towards the sergeant mare.

“What has CP command told you guys about the ponies assigned to me?” I asked in a low voice.

“*Ah, you must be concerned about Manie Manie.*” she said indifferently.

“Well... yeah.”

“*Relax, she is safe here, we aren’t too fond of Air Force out here, you’ll find that none of our twenty men wont lay as much as a hoof on her.*”

I was somewhat relieved hearing this, hopefully what she said was true and we could have a moment of respite before someone else tried to kill or rape us.

Manie Manie jumped out of the wagon and stretched her legs before trotting up to us.

“Why aren’t you fond of Air Force?” she asked.

“*To be honest, they are kind of a bunch of dicks.*” the sergant admitted. “*With pegasi being the only ponies allowed in they consider themselves to be the superior branch of the army and that we all 'depend on them'.*”

“That is all a bunch of bullshit obviously,” Bonnie interjected, “Overwatch has its own division of helicopters that are piloted by some of the finest earth ponies and unicorns that you can find in Equestria. Air Force is mighty scared of the new continent, so they refuse to send more than a few representatives and weather clearing ponies that all reside in the safety of the frontier towns.”

"Fucking cowards."

“That's Air Force for you.” Manie Manie said.

“Pretty much all the helicopters you see on the frontier belong to Overwatch.” Bonnie continued proudly, “We gots all kinds of choppers, from smaller open scout helicopters with miniguns to huge transport gunships that can carry up to 20 soldiers and still deal a shitton of damage. But our main variety is the V972 Hunter-Chopper, or just gunship if you will. Those babies are clad completely in armored steel plates, feature rocket pods, mine disp-”

“I don’t like helicopters.” Manie Manie interrupted.

Bonnie seemed a bit hurt hearing this.

“*You’ll have to excuse Bonnie here, he gets carried away sometimes.*” the mare said.

"*He really likes gunship support you see.*"

“Oh I understand, if I was stationed out here I would probably consider helicopter air support to be a blessing too. I don’t mean nothing bad about it, it is just that I’ve had a... bit of a bad experience with helicopters...” Manie Manie explained.

Bonnie’s eyes widened.

“OH! You must be Manie Manie! The bane of Air Force! Amazing job you did back there in the mainland!” Bonnie let out an awkward laugh to show his approval.

He meant well, but she didn’t really take it like he had expected.

“Too soon.” I said to Bonnie, giving him an understanding look.

“Oh... uh sorry... I’ll just... shut up now.” he said, slightly ashamed, “Sunny Sunshine, you mind showing these ponies where they can sleep for the night? I need to... um... make sure that the perimeter is nicely secured. Yeah...” he then walked off looking slightly downbeat.

Everypony looked at the sergeant mare, Sunny Sunshine.

Sunny Sunshine.

Ocean Ruby.

Rita Gumdrops.

Cake Frosting.

It hadn't been longer than a week and I had already met mares with some of the most ridiculous names I had ever heard in my entire life, it was as if there was some sort of malevolent third god up there that was toying with chance and making the mares I met have laughable names.

I honestly didn't know who I should feel sorry for, the mares who had been forced (or at least lived) with their assigned names or the malevolent god who couldn't come up with good names for the ponies of Equestria.

“*...yeah, I know I know. Laugh it up.*” she said.

“What’s with the names here?” Blizzard Candy wondered.

“*Oh you know, it helps lift the mood.*"

"*Most of us have silly nicknames for laughs to ease things up a little. We are all very close to each other around here.*” she chucked nervously.

We weren’t convinced and silently stared her down.

Eventually she gave in.

“*Aw fuck. You win. Sunny Sunshine is my real name and some of the men began giving each other silly nicknames just to mock me when I showed up.*”

Still no response.

“*That's it. Seriously.*”

We all gave her a mean smile.

“*...*”

“Don’t mind them,” I said, as if I hadn’t partaken in whatever it was we were doing, “They are just like that.”

“*Yeah. Real funny. You’ll fit right in here.*” Sunny Sunshine muttered.

“*Common then, I’ll show you the ‘guest’ room.*”

Sunny Sunshine led us to a small room in the bottom floor of the cement building on the left side of the road.

It was a very small room that had some wooden crates with the Overwatch logo on them stacked in a corner.

The room had three beds, two of whom were queen sized.

The sheets seemed stained and almost yellow, and the room had a familiar smell that I couldn’t really put my hoof on...

Even the cement floor had strange dried stains here and there.

Blizzard Candy’s eyes went wide for some reason unbeknownst to me

“*This is where you will be sleeping for the night.*” Sunny Sunshine said.

She took off her helmet, revealing her yellow coat, orange mane and orange eyes.

She seemed to be about my age I thought based on the weary look in her eyes. Hard to tell with ponies though.

"Sorry about the lack of space, you'll simply have to share beds for the night, not much we can do about that."

“I know that smell. Have you guys been-” Blizzard Candy tried to ask.

Sunny blushed furiously.

“NO. NO WE HAVEN’T."

"You have!"

"You could have at least changed the sheets or something, this is just unsanitary."

What did he mean?

What was h- semen.

That was the familiar smell I couldn't pinpoint.

Semen.

The stains were dried semen.

“Oooooooh...” Brook Cotton came up to speed.

“Now we know what she meant by ‘we are all real close’...” Manie commented quietly.

“Uhm... can... I... sleep on the floor?” Strawberry Feather asked Nurse Swirly.

"It's... probably best if you don't." Swirly replied, looking in disgust at the stains on the floor around her.

“You... can't be serious.” I said.

Sunny Sunshine gritted her teeth.

“We are far from home and have been left to guard absolutely nothing in the middle of nowhere.”

“We are all deathly afraid of the night creatures that circle our walls like goddamned tigers every damned night... we could die any day, is it really wrong for me and my men to...”

A stallion in blue armor came in.

“*Heey Sunny~*” then he noticed us, “*Oh, shit! Uh. Hey sarge. I see that. Um, we got guests."*

"Indeed we do."

"*Are you... are you having them stay in here tonight?*” he sounded disappointed. We could all guess why.

“Yes. Private Snowball.” she said with authority in her voice.

I struggled to contain a chuckle.

And that makes six unfortunate ponies touched by the imaginary evil third god.

“How about you entertain our ‘guests’ while I go debrief this CP Captain.” she ordered.

“*Uh. Yes. Of course ma’am.*”

“Ask him any questions you may have.” she said to the group, smirking as the two of us left the room.

When we left she seemed to be rushing off in an awful hurry.

“Hey! Wait!” I called after her.

She stopped but didn’t turn to look at me.

“We are all afraid of death, but are you seriously running your unit like this? What would command say about it?”

“I think you should mind your own fucking business, officer!” she growled at me.

Huh!?

“Either you behave and shut your fucking mouth about how I run my unit or you will know why you should fear the night, LIVE AND UP CLOSE.” She looked at me with an expression mixed with anger, devastation and fear.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I questioned, that reaction seems completely uncalled for.

All of a sudden she crouched down and whimpered, holding her head with her forehooves, muttering a bunch of unintelligible nonsense.

What the hell was she doing?

What was going on?

“Are you okay Sergeant?” I put a hoof on her shoulder to try and comfort her, but she violently shrugged it away.

“DON’T TOUCH ME YOU MONSTER!” she screamed at me with tearful bloodshot eyes.

!?!?!?

….

I understand.

She was suffering from post traumatic stress.

That explains her inclination to keep the mood lighthearted, the names, the lack of protocol, and why she allowed her unit to... 'have their fun' in that storage room.

She is far gone.

There is nothing I can do for her.

She calmed down and stood back up, wiping her tears off and sniffing lightly.

“I... I’m sorry about that... Just... come with me.”

She lead me to the upper floor of the right building, the two large rooms here were filled with monitors and computers of various kinds and functions.

The center of the main room was occupied by a large table with a map that was illuminated by a large headlight, it was a map of the area around Checkpoint Berry 2 in a radius of ca 20 kilometers.

The map was cluttered with various marks and symbols, what caught my attention were the multiple skull and crossed bones markings in red on what appeared to be caves and... ruins?

Scattered throughout the continent and the secured frontier we have found a number of ancient looking ruins partly overgrown by the fauna.

What kind of ruins are we talking about? Temples? Primitive remains?

Oh no, these aren't the kind of cozy little temple ruins you read about in the Daring Do books, these are ruins of actual cities and installations, remains of an ancient civilization who judging by the architecture was well technologically developed.

Sunny Sunshine looked at me wearily.

“This is our briefing and tactical room, this is where we organize ourselves and register recon data about the area for Overwatch and Air Force. They like to keep an eye on things in the frontier...”

The monitors displayed the view from various cameras set up in the surrounding areas, one monitor had the view of 10 different cameras, set up to cover all angles of the perimeter wall. Others were set up looking towards cave entrances and woodland clearings.

I noticed one particular screen, it displayed ruins in the distance, urban ruins.

Looks like we really weren't the first civilized beings on this continent, that was a bombed out city.

“We have cameras set up all around the area, to monitor activity and keep an eye our surroundings. We put them up originally to alert us of bandits in the area but our cameras ended up catching sight of... other things.” she looked at me gloomily and misty eyed.

“Before you say anything, keep in mind that some ponies DIED setting up some of these cameras. So don’t... just show them respect.”

I said nothing.

She walked up to a monitor and pressed a few keys. A recording began to play.

The screen flashed with gray static, an acid green text read “REC 034 - OCT 15 - 03:23” in the center of screen.

It was from a camera set up high overlooking a woodland clearance that I recognized from one of the screens.

It was clearly nighttime and a group of 10 bandits had lit a campfire in the middle of the clearing.

We couldn’t hear what the bandits were saying, only the occasional raised voice was heard sometime when one of the bandits tried to sing something, laughed at a joke or became angered.

Several minutes passed like this, nothing was out of the ordinary.

Then Sunny Sunshine whimpered and looked away, I didn’t understand why until I saw it.

The treeline lit up with glowing red dots that reassembled eyes... wh- holy SHIT they WERE eyes!

The bandits were surrounded by something!

One of the bandits stood up screaming and pointing towards the treeline, he screamed in horror as his companions stood up bearing weapons, soon a deep chilling roar was heard and the twisted nightmarish versions of giant creatures and insects came running from all directions completely massacrating the bandits.

I saw the bandits get torn limb from limb, ripped to ribbons and eaten alive as they screamed in terror and pain, there was blood everywhere.

The recording soon ended after that.

I could feel myself shivering, this was... wait, there was more.

Another recording began to play, this one saying “REC 049 - NOV 2 - 02:49”.

It showed the entrance of a cave, two bandits, or possibly even just escaped workers, were talking about looking for shelter for the night, they were acquainted with each other, possibly good friends.

One of the ponies instructed for the other to wait outside while he went inside to have a look at the cave.

Shortly after he went inside a deathly scream of pain was heard echoing from the cave and the clattering of tiny feet was heard coming from the cave.

OH SWEET MER- WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT THING!?

It looked like a giant centipede with massive razors for mandibles!

A fucking centipede!

The other pony didn’t stand a chance!

The giant centipede swung its mandibles, chopping its head and a large chunk of his upper body off with a single swing, blood sprayed out covering the camera completely with a sickening red.

The recording ended after that.

I began to feel violently sick, this was horrible!

There was another recording!

This was a recording of a group of ponies running away from the urban ruins I had seen on one of the screens, again, at night.

They were being chased by... Oh god... they were being chased by a massive deformed blob of flesh that had a chaotic mess of tentacles, tails, talons, blade like appendages and limbs twitching and swinging wildly in all directions.

It had multiple crazed red glowing red eyes all over its body that blinked and twitched and had multiple mouths gaping and closing, revealing whole rows of razor sharp teeth with bits of pony flesh stuck to some of them.

It caught some of the running ponies with remarkable and unnatural speed, decimating them quickly, ripping off several limbs and chunks of pony with its limbs and appendages and devouring them in the most gruesome and utterly sickening way imaginable.

I retched and felt bile pour out of my gaping mouth, as I looked away in violent disgust I mashed at the keyboard trying to find the ESC key.

The recording shut down.

I felt Sunny Sunshine put a hoof on me in a reassuring manner.

I retched, again and again, it just wouldn’t stop! Oh god! Why wouldn’t it stop!!

I became weak and dehydrated from the shock and vomiting and fell unconscious, in my own pool of bile.

I woke up feeling feverish and weak, tucked in the single bed in the... room, I could tell by the smell.

Smell.

I had fallen unconscious in my own vomit, but... I couldn’t smell it.

Had they washed me off?

“He is waking up” I heard a distant voice say.

“Sweet Heavens. Are you alright?” a voice asked me.

“Sweets.”

“Unghh...” I tried to talk.

“What did you do to him?” a voice demanded.

There was no response.

With great effort I opened my eyes and tried to make out the shapes of the figures standing around me.

They were ponies. The ponies of my group.

The two closest ponies I could make out were Sunny Sunshine and Manie Manie who stood on either side of the bed.

Sunny Sunshine was staring at Manie Manie bitterly, Manie Manie looked furious.

“Wha- what is going on here.” I struggled to say.

“Sweet Heavens!” Manie called for me in relief.

“H-how long have I been out...?” I asked, a deep feeling of fear and panic beginning to rise in me.

“About five hours... the sun is setting, it is almost time for supper.” she said.

“What did they do to you? What happened?”

“N-no.” I tilted my head towards Sunny Sunshine, shaking my head slowly and giving her a fearful look that she returned with a nod.

“No what?” Manie wondered, she looked at Sunny Sunshine suspiciously.

“L-leave me with Sunny.” I said, nopony budged, “Please.”

A brief moment passed and everypony left the room, leaving me alone with Sunny Sunshine.

We spent a few moments looking in panic at each other.

“They. Must. Not. Know.” I said decisively.

She didn’t say anything, she just stared at me for a few minutes before leaving the room.

I was alone.

I was alone.

I don't want to be alone, not now!

Unreasonable thoughts of panic crossed my mind and a multitude of nightmarish scenarios began playing in my head.

I began imagining that the outpost had been overrun and that the night creatures were just outside, laying in wait for me.

I imagined that they would begin pounding on the door any second now they-

The door handle turned.

Cold sweat ran down my forehead.

I began breathing deeply and quickly.

! ! ! ! !

Nurse Swirly, Brook Cotton, Manie Manie, Cloud Tumble and the two bucks stepped inside the room.

...

I felt stupid and ashamed.

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting to come through that door, of course it would have been them.

I hadn't been so afraid of anything in all my life, and in the end it was only my drained and tired mind playing a nightmarish trick on me.

Nurse Swirly was quick to notice my condition.

“Sweet Heavens! Are you okay!?” she asked me, running up to me trying to determine what was happening to me.

"What's going on?" Manie wondered.

“He... he is physically fine.” Swirly deduced.

“It’s paralyzing fear.” Cloud Tumble said from the doorway.

Everypony looked at him.

“I have seen that look before... In the lost expressions of my former companions... He is deathly afraid of something.”

“Afraid? Afraid of what?” Manie Manie asked.

"Maybe he's afraid of what's beyond t' frontier?" Brook suggested.

They all looked at me silently, trying to make out details and piece things together from my terrified expression.

"I don't think that's it."

"He talks about the frontier all the time, I think he accepts it."

"No one accepts the frontier." Cloud said.

"Okay."

"But he accepts his mission to go past the border."

"So what is really scaring him then?"

The door opened and a pony leaned in, it was Bonnie, he seemed slightly intoxicated.

“Grub’s almost ready. Will you guys be joining us?” he asked.

“Uh...” Brook Cotton was unsure.

I struggled to gather courage and focus again.

“...yes.” I said in a low voice. “Help me up.”

"You should rest." Swirly advised.

"I should eat."

"I can rest later..."

Nurse Swirly helped me get out of the ill smelling bed, I got up on shaky legs but was otherwise in decent condition.

We followed Bonnie to the outpost’s mess hall, it was in the bottom floor of the right building.

The room wasn’t especially big, but was big enough for a long table for ca 15 ponies and had a kitchen in one end, 7 others were sitting by the table chatting cheerfully and drinking some sort of gin, Bonnie seated himself next to Sunny Sunshine who was leaned in towards another group listening to a joke which we didn’t quite get.

Everyone wore their armor but had taken off their helmets, either setting them on the floor next to their chairs or placing the helms on the table, the soldiers were a good mix of mares and stallions of varying ages and colors.

A few minutes after we had all taken our seats we were given our own gin.

“This is strong stuff” one of the soldiers warned “Guaranteed to knock ya off yer hooves after five, max six glasses. ‘record’s at twenty four.”

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the oily transparent liquid in my glass.

"Queen Celestia's Victory Gin!"

"Victory Gin, huh?" Blizzard said, picking up his glass.

"It can't be that strong." he gulped the full contents in one go.

"Whoah! Easy there kid! One sip at a time!" the soldier warned, but it was wasted on him, Blizzard had already emptied the glass, he set it down on the table with a satisfied grin on his face.

"See?"

"It's noth-" Blizzard Candy blacked out and fell backwards, landing with a thud on the cement floor.

Brook and Swirly got up to help him back up, his lights were completely out.

"What do we do?" Swirly asked me.

"Do we take him back to the room or...?"

Before I could respond the soldier who had warned Blizzard answered for me.

"Nah, nah, he'll quicken up soon enough. Just rest the fellers head on the table."

"Chef's gumbo's almost done, he shouldn't miss that."

They did as he instructed and returned to their seats.

Strawberry Feather was eyeing his glass of Victory Gin, it didn't look like he was intent on drinking it the way he stared at it.

"Is there something else Strawberry Feather could drink?" Swirly asked.

"He's a bit young for this 'Victory Gin' of yours."

"Well, there's Victory Gin." the soldier suggested.

"Eh, yeah? I was asking if there was something else?"

"We have Victory Gin." he suggested again.

"Something else, something that isn't Victory Gin."

The soldier gave her a long blank glare.

"Did I suggest Victory Gin?"

"Yes, you did. Do you have any water?"

"I am really sorry about that, I forget myself sometimes." the soldier excused himself.

"Iee, uh..." he looked around and towards the kitchen, "I'll get the colt some water alright."

He got up and went over to our end, taking Strawberry Feather's glass of gin and heading off towards the cook.

In a moment he returned with the glass and set it down before Strawberry Feather.

"Thank you." he said.

The soldier gave him a quick nod before returning to his own seat.

Strawberry Feather carefully sniffed the contents of the glass, to make sure that the soldier hadn't refilled it with more gin and it seemed like he hadn't.

He took a short gulp of water and set the glass down.

It barely took five seconds before Strawberry Feather looked dizzy, the glass hadn't been washed beforehand and some of the gin must have mixed in with the water, he leaned onto Swirly Star.

"Um, sorry." he said to her.

"Did you give the boy gin?" Swirly chided the soldier angrily.

"I gave 'im water. That's what he wanted right?"

"Look at him!"

"Bah, this ain't no luxury restaurant sweetheart, so there was a little gin left in the glass, big whoop."

"The gin will be good for him, just give it a rest."

"Grub's ready!" the cook announced.

The soldiers cheered and applauded.

We were all given a portion of some sort of funky looking soup with bits of vegetables and dices of meat in, from the smell of it it had been spiced heavily.

A drunk soldier stood up, grasping and holding a mug of gin up high, he coughed and everypony gave him their attention.

“Here is to living another day to taste ‘Chefs’ delicious gumbo!”

Everypony cheered and agreed.

Blizzard Candy woke up in the midst of it.

“Bon apetit!” the pony that had served us the soup said.

"Ooooh," Blizzard remarked, "soup!"

"Hey chef, what's in it?"

The cook gave him a fiendish smile.

"Mystery meat!"

The cook waited for Blizzard's suspect reaction, but it never came, Blizzard was completely blank.

"Neh, it's potatoes, carrots, celery, parsnip and spices. There is also some chicken and pork in it."

"Well, it's mostly chicken."

"Okay, there is not really any pork, it's all chicken and vegetables." the cook trailed off.

Everypony began digging in, the more squeamish of our group first looked at the soup reluctantly but eventually began chomping in as well, except for Swirly who was carefully sorting out the bits of meat from her soup.

From their expressions the soup wasn’t the... best they had had, but it was food.

My stomach grumbled and I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday evening, without second thoughts I began to eat.

It was... pretty disgusting, it tasted rancid, 'delicious' was hardly the right description.

But the retching had left me empty stomached and dehydrated, I’d drink and eat anything.

Between bites the soldiers could be heard talking about this and that.

“So where are you guys heading?” a soldier sitting across the table from me asked.

“Beyond the frontier...” I said.

“Oh... sorry to hear.” the soldier muttered.

But then he looked thoughtful for a second, adding, “But well, it’s mostly wildlings there anyway, so maybe it’s not so bad..."

"Wanna switch assignments?” the soldier grinned.

“Don’t even try there Cakes, you belong here with us.” Sunny Sunshine scolded.

“Aw, I know sarge, I was just kidding.”

“Frontier duty sure sounds better than this shit...” I heard a soldier mutter loudly down the table, a couple of other soldiers agreed but I couldn’t hear what they were saying very well over the ruckus and table conversations going on.

The ponies of my group didn’t seem to understand and were giving the soldiers puzzling expressions.

“Don’t mind them.” Sunny Sunshine said to them, “They are just joking.”

“Tombs, you should come with me to the command center after eating, I still haven’t given you the message from CP command.”

“Uh... sure.”

“Sweet Heavens, what is going on here?” Manie Manie whispered to me, she was sitting next to me.

“Why are they all acting to strange?”

“It’s nothing Manie. They are just tired of guard duty that's all.”

She seemed to accept that as an answer and continued eating.

“Eat up now little ponies!” Chef announced, “There’s another portion of my special gumbo coming right up for those who are still hungry!”

The soldiers cheered on yet again.

Sunny and I finished our meals and decided to leave early.

I turned to talk to my group.

“You better go get some sleep, we got a long march ahead tomorrow and I need you guys rested and alert in case we encounter more bandits on the way.” I said.

“Uh... yeah, yeah you are right. We’ll... figure out how to set up with the beds and such...” Manie Manie said.

“You coming now or...?”

“I got to talk to Sunny Sunshine about mission directions from CP first. I’ll be down in a few.”

“Oh okay. We’ll just stay here for a while then, I am in no rush to go back to the room.”

She paused briefly, “H-hey, would uh... would you like to share a bed with me?” she asked me.

I gave her a questioning glare.

“Don’t get any funny ideas. It is just for the night and there are only 3 beds, so we'll have to share it with a third.”

Makes sense.

“Eh, sure, alright..”

"Great."

“See you later then.”

I followed Sunny Sunshine back up to the command centre.

The monitors showed no monster activity of any kind.

But there were also absolutely no animals, critters or sounds at all, the forests around us seemed devoid of life.

“Don’t bother with that.” Sunny Sunshine called from a corner of the room, she was sitting by a computer checking through messages on a screen. “They seem to know of the cameras and tend to stay clear of them unless some prey is camping out there.”

“Over here.” she called.

I went up to her, she got up from her chair and signaled me to have a seat.

With the press of a button a recorded message from CP command played.

“This is CP command,” a male voice said, “This message is intended for our operative, Captain Tombs. Tombs, if you hear this then you have made it to Checkpoint Berry 2. It is time to give you some more info about your mission.”

Yeah it is.

“Whatever you have heard about your destination from the ponies on the frontier, and whatever assumptions you yourself have made regarding the mission, rest assured of one thing. You are not being sent on a suicide mission. We know of your abuse of the Psycho chem, but that isn’t why you have been sent away, you have always been a stellar officer, an example we believe other officers should strive for.”

"You were simply chosen your experience in leadership, the officers who have served under you have vouched for you rather favorably, so we trust that you'll do a good job in leading your assigned group.

…

“You are being sent to found a military outpost beyond the frontier border, for the purposes of establishing a small hidden resupply, recon and laser guidance base for future operations in the area."

"Yes, you heard that last bit right, laser guidance, we will be installing a SOFLAM PLUS tower in your outpost once things are settled and sorted out, this is expensive and valuable tech, so it is important that you protect it."

"This is also what we wanted to contact you about as well, the ponies we have sent on with you haven’t been randomly picked from the usual pool of suspects like you'd think. These have been hoof-picked to help you on your task, in some cases unfairly, in others completely justified. But rest assured that they all have their specific use and role.”

I don’t even...

“Brook Cotton and Strawberry Feather are both great farmers, you will find that both Brook and Strawberry know more than just cotton and strawberry growing, Brook Cotton has had a history with apple bucking and comes from a long line of apple farmers, you wouldn’t believe it from his age but Strawberry Feather is proficient in the growth of sweet fruits of all kinds. I am not sure if you have cared to check through your gear (we did send you with a considerable lot) but there should be a sack filled with bags of seeds, you’ll know what to do with those...”

I knew about the seeds, but how long were they expecting me to be there?

Where on earth would I find the time to grow an orchard? They take years to fully grow.

"...you might be wondering where you'll find the time to grow crops and where to plant them."

"There are two things you should know then, one is that the seeds are genetically manipulated to grow ten times faster than conventional crops, another thing to note is that the manipulated crops don't need sunshine to grow properly. The area marked out for you is cavernous and has plenty of room for you to grow food in."

What the fuck!

There are monsters living in the caverns!

Why the fuck would I settle there!?

Didn't mission command do their research before sending me off like this?!

“Nurse Swirly was obviously sent due to her medical background, she hasn’t finished her training yet but she is a proficient nurse and good at what she does. She is going to be a valuable asset to your outpost, keep her safe.”

“Blizzard Candy is an excellent cook, but you may know that already depending on how acquainted you have become with them. If not, you should know that he worked at several restaurants before getting into the ice cream business. He got his mark at the age of 16, so don’t let the ice cream cone fool you.”

“The most important pony we have decided to send with you is Rainbow Sea, he is actually one of the head engineers and master builders who helped design the many oil rigs that dot the coasts around Equestria. He is a fantastic builder and engineer, he knows a bit or two about building fortified constructions and emplacements. You will need him to establish a safe perimeter at your destination, so it is VITAL that he is kept alive.”

I facehoofed.

Yeah, that worked out well.

“The last pony is a last minute addition. You helped in her capture two days prior to being sent on your mission. That is the former Major Manie Manie, the mare that brought down an entire helicopter platoon of Air Force with a weapon she designed herself. She is too valuable of an asset to hand directly to Air Force so whatever you hear about any reward they are handing out for her, ignore it, should she be captured and sent to them we will try to intercept her and send her back, so try not to lose her, Air Force has their greasy hooves everywhere, just like we do, and we can’t guarantee the success of interception of she is captured.”

“She is being sent with you simply due to her expertise with military tech and hardware, she built the damn system we intend to install in your outpost so she knows how it works better than anypony in Equestria.”

The bastards didn’t know about her relation to the relatives and friends of the victims of that event.

“In case you were wondering about the scramble suit, we have gave you the suit so that you wouldn’t get personally involved with any of the ponies we send with you. I don’t know how they run things in other branches of the army but in CP we keep our personal feelings separated from our work at all times, perhaps one day you will be forced to make difficult decisions regarding the lives of the ponies assigned to you and we can’t have one of our own compromise the mission in case of say, romantic involvement.”

“Initially, we were going to give you the option to take the suit off at leisure, but we heard that you had a bit of a falling out with your briefing officer and that she had you sealed inside the suit. Very unfortunate for you, still, we have decided that it may be for the best and you will thus wear the suit at all times until we deem it necessary.”

“That is all. Another message will be waiting for you at the frontier border at Checkpoint Whiskey.”

“May Celestia watch over you. Command out.”

May Celestia watch over her CUNT!

Why couldn’t they just tell me all this shit back on the mainland?

Was it REALLY necessary to put me through all this unnecessary crap?

Mission command didn't have the sightliest clue what was what, all they had done to me so far shove crap in my life, everything they did had came back to bite me in the ass, and now they wanted me to play settlers over a cave full of monsters in the middle of nowhere all while being surrounded by savages.

This was my fucking mission.

The mission which required hoofpicking me and six civilians for our 'skills' and 'experience'.

Build an outpost, for the army.

Lay down and die.

For fucking sake, why couldn't just the army deal with this shit?

It was their outpost!

What the hell made command come up with something as outrageously stupid as this?

I slammed my hooves on the desk.

That's it, that's the last straw.

I need to talk to command and get this sorted out.

I am sick of being jerked around like this.

Fucking sick of it.

“Bad news?” Sunny Sunshine asked.

“CP is leading me in the dark.”

“Is there any way to contact CP command from here?” I asked.

“No. We lack the coms tech needed for overseas communication, that message was relayed from Sun Valley Hills.”

“Sun Valley Hills?”

“The next town from here. 17 miles down the road.” Sunny explained.

Sirens began wailing outside.

A radio crackled to life in the room.

“*THE OUTPOST IS UNDER ATTACK! MAN THE DEFENSES!*”

“Goddess...” Sunny Sunshine said slowly, staring at the monitors who were going crazy with activity.

Hordes of monsters were running through the woods, their red eyes looking like tracers in the dark.

The cameras around the walls displayed multiple short and frail looking bipedal creatures with long fangs and small arms who clumsily tried to climb the walls, only to end up impaled on the spikes surrounding it.

The soldiers above fired down below, picking off the creatures one by one.

“Bogeymen!” she exclaimed.

Fast dark shapes sprinted across the screens, jumping up on the walls.

“BALVERINES!! OH GOD NO!! PLEASE NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!”

She ran to a weapon rack in the room and grabbed a loaded automatic rifle, I did the same and we ran outside.

It was a horrifying scene.

Huge nightmarish twisted forms of what appeared to be bipedal wolves were jumping over the walls wreaking havoc inside the camp, all around, soldiers were firing off their automatic rifles against the twisted creatures on the walls, just seconds after we came outside four soldiers were slain and the others ended up surrounded in the 'courtyard', shooting wildly in all directions as the balverine monsters threw themselves at them.

“*RETREAAAAT!! RETREEEEEAT!!*” a soldier called from the door to the mess hall.

The remaining soldiers outside, including me and Sunny Sunshine made a run for the mess hall, it was a mad dash of death, the soldiers couldn't sprint and fight back at the same time, so the cease of fire gave the balverines a target opportunity to charge us all at once while we made for the door.

All around me soldiers were shredded to pieces by the charging balverines, I was fortunate enough to make it all the way to the door, being the 3rd one to make it through, Sunny Sunshine was right behind me.

As I came inside I immediately turned towards the door, I saw Sunny Sunshine being right about to make it inside when a balverine jumped out of nowhere slicing her neck diagonally, severing her head and part of her torso in just one swipe.

Her head sailed off in a bloody arc and slid into the mess hall.

“*CLOSE THE DOOR!!!*” a soldier who had made it inside screamed.

“*WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS!?”*”

“*THERE ARE NO FUCKING OTHERS, SHUT THE DOOR!!*”

A soldier ran up to the door and tried shutting it, Sunny Sunshine’s decapitated corpse was blocking the door, as he realized this a long furry balverine arm reached in and severed his right foreleg in a single swing, the soldier gasped in shock as the leg was clutched by the balverine and pulled out of the room making the balverines outside go crazy, blood sprayed all over the door as the soldier screamed in agonizing pain, Nurse Swirly and another soldier instinctively rushed up to recover him.

“NOW IS OUR CHANCE! WHILE THEY ARE DISTRACTED!” Bonnie shouted, sprinting towards the door, tears pouring ceaselessly down his cheeks.

I followed and together we managed to unjam Sunny Sunshine’s corpse, kicking it back outside.

The door slammed shut and the balverines went absolutely insane outside as they competed over Sunny Sunshine's carcass.

We had a moment of respite, it had only been a short few meters from the command centre to the mess hall but it felt like I had just ran the running of the leaves in full speed.

I looked over the survivors, there were only five soldiers in here, among those we had Chef and Bonnie.

All of my group was here, thank Luna!

“SUNNY!! UHUUHH NOOOO!!” Bonnie screamed in grief as he knelt down beside Sunny Sunshine’s severed head, which was locked in a deep expression of shock and intense pain.

“WHYYYY SUNNY!! WHYYYHHHYYYHYY!!” he cried out, clutching her head to his chest.

Cloud Tumble, Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy had begun barricading the door to the courtyard, it was the only exit in the room, the room featured no windows or openings of any kind, aside from an air vent.

The wounded soldier wheezed in pain, he was laughing and mumbling incoherently, Nurse Swirly had bandaged his stump with what she had at hand, but it was bad.

He was bleeding profusely and the makeshift bandage was already soaked in blood, it was a miracle if he made it past the hour, he would never survive, not without morphine or something to dull the pain.

Wait... that's right! I had the Psycho chems!

I went up to the wounded soldier and took out a Psycho chem from my satchel, I only had 4 left but this was much more important than what I had intended to use them for.

“This is going to sting, but it should help against the pain.” I warned.

“What is that?” Nurse Swirly asked suspiciously, holding me off.

“Psycho Stimulant. Combat drug designed for the army.” I explained.

“Psycho!? That's dangerous! You can't give him that!”

I gave her a stern look.

“Look. He will pass out in pain if he keeps bleeding like this, if he falls unconscious he's dead, and you know that.”

"This could save his life, he just needs to hang in there and stay awake."

“...”

“You are right. Do it.” she said in a low voice.

I injected the psycho chem into the soldier, he began breathing deeply and quickly, his eyes dilated, I felt his heart beat faster and faster when I put my hoof on his chest.

The drug had its effect, he calmed down and stopped mumbling incoherently.

“T-thanks.” the soldier stuttered, the shock from a lost limb and blood loss didn’t pass for him, but at least the drug numbed his senses for a while.

If it didn’t help him live then at least it made his death feel a little less painful.

“You can thank me back in Sun Valley Hills. Hang in there soldier.” I encouraged.

I looked around, aside from the soldier we had no other wounded, so that was taken care of at least, now all we had to worry about was holding them off, they had to go away sooner or later and we had food to last for a few days.

Problem was all we had in terms of weapons to defend ourselves with were chairs, cutlery and three auto rifles, and of those we only had one spare mag in addition to the half empty mags already loaded.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like the balverines were making a serious attempt at breaking in and the barricades seemed pretty solid.

We were safe and secure, for now.

Bonnie was still hunched over, clutching to Sunny Sunshine’s head and slowly rocking back and forth, he was devastated over her death.

They must have been close.

Manie Manie, Brook Cotton and I gathered around him.

“Bonnie...”

He didn’t respond.

All he did was sob and whimper.

“There is nothing you can do. You need to let her go.”

Still no response.

Manie Manie slowly reached forward and gently grabbed the head, Bonnie didn’t resist and gently let it go.

Brook Cotton then helped Bonnie up and the two went up to the others who were huddled over at the other end of the room.

I found a ripped tablecloth which we wrapped Sunny Sunshine’s head in and hid in the corner left of the door behind a box.

We would likely be here all night, we shouldn’t have to see that.

Manie Manie and I sat down with the group, the 12 of us had formed a sort of circle before the kitchen compartment, the soldiers had all taken off their helmets revealing their sad and grief stricken faces.

The atmosphere was, needless to say, pretty heavy in here.

We didn’t say much in the hours that passed, none of us dared to sleep, we didn’t touch our food, we didn’t drink.

We just sat there, in deep thought. For 6 long hours.

Sometime in the morning the whimpering of dogs and snarling of wild animals were heard just outside.

As I got closer to our barricade I could make out the sound of something being burnt into a crisp.

"Something is burning." I informed the others."

"It's over." Bonnie said.

He got up and the others followed.

We began dismantling the barricade and prepared our three rifles, aiming them at the door.

Bonnie gently pulled the door open, letting wonderful orange sunlight into the room.

It had stopped raining.

Just outside, right next to what remained of Sunny Sunshine’s half eaten corpse, was a pile of black ash that was slowly dissolving in the sun.

“Don’t step in the ash.” Bonnie warned us, “It will rot your soul.”

We did as he said and carefully stepped over the pile of ash and into the courtyard.

It was... an absolute mess.

There were piles of black ash all over, marking where the balverines had fallen, but that wasn't what disturbed us.

It was the bodies of fallen soldiers that were spread throughout the outpost.

Most of the bodies were half eaten, some had their limbs, heads or chunks of torso ripped off and thrown off elsewhere.

Everything was completely drenched in blood, giving the outpost a bizarre crimson orange color in the sunlight.

The more squeamish of our group threw up, the rest of us simply observed the scene in disgust.

“We... should bury them.” I said.

“Sunny Sunshine. Her head. What did you do with her head?” Bonnie asked me.

“Wrapped in a tablecloth and hidden in the corner to the right of the door.”

Bonnie returned inside to retrieve her head.

We dragged Sunny Sunshine’s body away from the pile of ash and onto the road.

Soon Bonnie came out, tearful, holding her head still wrapped in cloth.

He knelt down beside her corpse and unwrapped her head, he gave her face a long silent look before loosely putting it back on her, then he covered her completely with the bloodied tablecloth and went up to the command center.

I followed him up.

“We- … I, can’t man this outpost with 4 men. I need to contact Overwatch Dispatch and inform them of what happened here, then we are coming with you to Sun Valley Hills.”

He walked up to a radio and pressed a few buttons.

“Dispatch, this is Sergeant Crunch Opal of Checkpoint Berry 2. Come in.” he broadcasted.

“*Hello. Unit.*” The electronic monotone voice of a mare greeted him.

“Sergeant Sunny Sunshine is dead. Checkpoint Berry 2 has been nearly wiped out, only I and 4 of our men remain. One has been critically injured and is in urgent need of medical attention.”

“*Report.*”

“Night creatures attacked the outpost, a whole pack of balverines jumped over the walls. We never stood a chance. Most of our men fell in the initial attack and the rest tried to fall back to the mess hall, only I and Private Shoeshine made it in, along with the CP officer Captain Tombs.”

“I am just calling to inform you that we are abandoning Checkpoint Berry 2 and are going to go with the captain to Sun Valley Hills. And frankly, with all due respect, I am going to ignore any orders you give until I return to the safety of the Sun Valley compound. You are free to do what you will with me there, but I am not staying here another night.”

There was a moment of silence.

“*Remaining Berry 2 units. Report to Sun Valley compound. Code: debriefing, evaluation, reassignment.*”

“That is all then. We are going to bury our dead, gather up some of the more valuable gear and prepare for the journey before heading out, we will be there by dusk.”

Dusk seemed about right.

We had to bury the dead, stock the wagon with all the gear and then pull it for 70 kilometers.

The weight of the wagon would slow us down to a minimum of an hour of travel per 10 or so kilometers I estimated.

“*Dispatch out.*”

Bonnie let out a deep sigh and leaned back in a chair.

Then without provocation he let out a scream of rage and smashed the radio with his hooves, it sparked and fizzled, and slowly began to smoke.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Go gather up the gear with the others, grab as many weapons, munitions and suits of armor as you can, I’d rather not leave our most valuable gear behind for the bandits to march in and take. I’ll be down in a few, I am just going to make backups of our collected data here. Overwatch will want to see this...”

I left the room.

Outside the others had already gathered the bodies and identifiable bits and limbs and lined them up on the road.

Chef and one of the soldiers were mourning over the mangled corpses of a mare and stallion.

“Listen up folks,” I gathered attention, “We are all leaving the outpost, Bonnie contacted Dispatch and your new orders are to return to the Sun Valley compound for debriefing and evaluation."

"Right now we need to gather up all the important gear in the outpost, lets try not to leave anything behind for the bandits to be used against others passing by the area.”

Without protest the soldiers and part of my group headed for the armory to begin loading weapons and supplies onto the wagon.

I went down to the bodies, they had been respectfully lined up beside Sunny Sunshine, Manie Manie and Nurse Swirly stood over her bowing their heads.

It was hard to tell if these were all the soldiers who had been stationed here or if some had been devoured or taken elsewhere, before us lay the pale and mangled bodies of 15 ponies, some missing large chunks, others missing limbs and bits of skin.

Their faces were frozen in the expressions they had just as they had been killed, fear, terror, anger, intense pain... it was all there.

“Sweet Heavens...” Manie called to me in her usual gentle tone. Here come the questions I thought.

“What were those things? What could possibly do this a pony?”

I waited a bit before giving my response, looking over the bodies once more.

I sighed, this feels tiresome, I had been up ever since 8:50 yesterday morning and aside from the four hours of unconsciousness after draining my stomach completely on the clean floor of the command centre I hadn’t had a moment of rest or respite.

We had been through quite a bit in these, what, 20’ish or so hours that passed, too much.

It felt like the last days of my life were playing out before me in ultrarapid.

This frontier shit is too harsh for me.

“Night creatures did this, Manie.” I said plainly.

She seemed a dumbstruck by the rather obvious statement.

“Yeah I... I figured. But what the hell IS a night creature?”

“You want to know what a night creature is?” Bonnie said walking up to us from behind and startling Manie, he was carrying a pistol with one hoof, “Come with me.”

“Don’t do it Bonnie.” I said, following closely behind.

“Don’t do what? The monitors all lay smashed and broken upstairs." he assured me, understanding my intent.

"‘not gonna let the bandits steal those too...”

“Where are we going then?”

“To the west gate. The sun doesn’t shine there in the morning...”

We opened the gates.

The wall cast an absurdly long shadow towards the west.

The spikes planted at the foundation of the wall had the charred remains of wicked creatures, bogeymen, they were slowly turning into crisp.

One of the creatures was still alive, impaled through its stomach, it was wheezing and cackling weakly.

It seemed to be bipedal in nature but all its features seemed to have burned off it’s charred flesh, it’s eyes had exploded from the heat and most of it’s face had melted away, it’s short arms were weakly trying to grasp the pike to absolutely no avail.

“Manie, meet the bogeymen. Bogeyman, meet Manie the pony."

"...and my hollow point bullets.” Bonnie said walking up to the impaled bogeyman and pressing his pistol against it’s head.

With a loud bang he ripped a hole through the creatures soft head, making part of its skull cave in.

The creature let out a short screech and twitched momentarily before fading away.

Manie observed this with wide eyes.

“The night creatures that attacked us were bigger.” I said to her, “Large hairy wolf like things with unnatural agility and speed.”

“The bogeymen, are the nightmarish forms of wildlings and other bipedal animals, mostly apes and such but also tall slender insects who have mutated in size.” Bonnie explained.

Manie didn’t say anything about this.

“*Bonnie. The wagon is all loaded up and ready to go.*” a soldier called from the gate.

“Good good... only one thing remains to do before we leave this place.” Bonnie said quietly, then went back inside the perimeter.

We had prepared 15 graves inside the perimeter along the sides of the road.

We had all gathered around the bodies of the fallen, all neatly wrapped in sheets and tablecloths in order to safely lower them, and all their detached limbs, down to their graves.

Bonnie was kneeling beside Sunny Sunshine again, uncovering her down to her neck.

Heavy tears slowly fell from his cheeks onto her, as he slowly caressed her mane.

“Sunny... my love...” he sobbed quietly, “You didn’t deserve this. None of you did...”

“I promise to be back one day, to recover you and bring you back home to Equestria...”

“You belong in Ponyville, not this... cursed hell.”

He stood up, wiping his tears off his face.

“Goodbye my love. For now.”

Two soldiers lowered her body gently into her grave after which she was buried.

The same process followed with the other 14 fallen.

By the time we were done it was nearing early lunchtime, but nopony felt especially hungry, we all just wanted to get to Sun Valley Hills.

We loaded the wounded soldier who had been given further care by Nurse Swirly with the medical supplies found in the base and in our wagon, his condition was stabilized and it seems like he was going to make it after all despite the considerable blood loss he had suffered throughout the night.

The wagon was becoming fairly heavy, so we added an extra harness to the wagon to allow two ponies to pull the wagon, a job which Chef had volunteered to do along with Brook Cotton.

We left the outpost behind us with the gates wide open to allow passage for other travelers, which unfortunately would also allow bandits to come and loot the outpost, still, we had stocked the wagon with as much military hardware and supplies as possible, the only things of value left were the computers, some food and the personal belongings of the fallen who hadn’t (or couldn’t) be buried with them.

We were tired, worn out, bitter and gloom and had a good 70 kilometers to cover before reaching the safety of Sun Valley Hills.

A long walk awaits us and we are bound to meet bandits on the way...

Sunny Afternoon

Our little convoy still had a long way to go and our moods didn’t improve along the way.

We had crossed a good 50 kilometers now in total silence, everypony minded their own business and scanned the surrounding area carefully for bandits.

With the rain gone visibility had vastly improved, on longer straight stretches of road we could see all the way to the next curve or hill.

We hadn’t encountered anything yet.

The Overwatch soldiers had all put on their full armor, with helmets and all, even Bonnie who had apparently been notable for not wearing his helmet while on duty was wearing the distinct dark red sergeants helmet with blood red lenses.

Walking closest to him up front I could hear the faint sound of his rebreather slowly inhaling and exhaling.

I imagined based on my own experience with the CP uniform that it wasn’t a very comfortable and pleasant thing to wear, I remembered how back in the slums of Manehatten the armor the heat from the industries and sun above made the armor unbearably hot to wear and how the rebreather only made breathing difficult and suffocating.

It wasn’t an easy thing to breathe through but it kept us safe from gas attacks, smog and other nastiness that often found it’s way into the lower reaches of the cities, the Equestrian army likely geared their own troops the same way for the same reasons.

Our own metallic helmets also protected us from blunt and cutting damage, which was a blessing in more hairy scenarios where rioting ponies threw rocks and other debris at us.

Our helmets however were not designed to be bullet proof, the Overwatch helmets were, to some degree, and this sacrificed even more comfort for more weight and protection.

Bonnie wasn’t in a very talkative mood, he and the other soldiers had done something with their helmets that blocked or at least limited communication to the rest of us, on the way I could occasionally heard their helmets give off a distorted sound followed by unintelligible robotic murmuring and static, I knew they were talking to each other on private channels even though the messages weren’t especially long.

We reaching the end of the current stretch of road and were approaching a sharp curve, that’s when we all saw it.

A turned over wooden wagon.

Yep. This was another bandit ambush alright.

Bonnie switched back to the normal channels and stopped the convoy a decent distance away from the pile.

“What’s happening? Why are we stopping?” Nurse Swirly, who hadn’t spotted the roadblock wondered.

“There is a roadblock ahead.” Brook Cotton told her.

“*Could be bandits waiting for us.*” Bonnie said. “*Stay put and don’t do anything stupid.*”

Bonnie switched back to the private channels and relayed something to the soldiers.

The two nameless soldiers slowly walked forward up to the turned over wagon, rifles ready.

Nothing happened, they walked around the wagon, stopped and then walked back after a few minutes.

“*Supply wagon. 3 civilian KIA. No sight of their escorts.*” one of the soldiers reported.

“Maybe they didn’t have any?” Nurse Swirly commented.

“*All civilian travelers have military escort.*” Bonnie said.

“We don’t.”

“*You have Captain Tombs.*” he dismissed her. “*Clearly their gear has been looted and their bodies disposed off. How long ago were they killed?*”

“*Hard to say. Their bodies are whole, save for the bullet wounds. But there is nothing to indicate recent fighting. There is no blood or casings. It is as if somepony intentionally placed their bodies there.*”

“Maybe the rain washed the blood away?” Nurse Swirly spoke yet again.

“*Miss Swirly. Please keep your nose out of this. I am not going to ask you again.*” Bonnie warned her. She kept quiet.

“*And you saw no sight of bandits hiding?*”

“*No sir.*”

“I don’t like this” I said, “They may be intentionally holding their fire to lure is in.”

“*True.*”

“In fact, they could be attempting to flank us right now as we speak.”

Everypony looked into the surrounding woodland on either side of the road.

There was no sign of movement.

“What if there are traps?” Blizzard Candy suggested.

We gave him a look.

“Look, I am just saying, what if the wagon is booby trapped and they are waiting for us to move it before triggering it? They may have gotten hold of explosive ordinance from you guys.”

“*The boy makes a good point.*” Chef said.

“I’m scared Swirly...” I heard Strawberry Feather whisper.

“We don’t have time for this, they wont wait forever and we will need to deal with the bandits laying in wait before attempting to move the wag-” I was interrupted by the metallic clinking sound of a blinking red object bouncing and landing several meters short in front of us.

“*BOUNCER!!*” one of the soldiers screamed, instinctively I threw myself on the ground, as did the rest of the soldiers, Cloud Tumble and Manie, but before anypony else in our group realized what a ‘bouncer’ was the grenade went off, knocking Swirly Star and Blizzard Candy who had stood the closest to us off their hooves.

As the ringing sound passed I heard Chef yelling AMBUSH as all hell broke loose.

Bullets flew everywhere from the sides of the road near the wagon ahead, we all returned fire, blindly firing salves of bullets wildly into the bushwork.

The bandits thankfully appeared to be armed with mere pistols and semi automatic rifles, or we’d all been dead already the way we were all spread out in the open.

As Brook Cotton and Chef struggled to unhinge themselves from the wagon harnesses, Brook, exposed as he were, was hit twice and fell unconscious. Chef dragged him back behind the wagon, a bullet pinging right off his helmet on the way, Nurse Swirly immediately began tending to Brook's wounds.

There wasn’t much cover for us to use, aside from the wagon and the two closest trees our group was largely exposed to enemy fire, Bonnie barked at us unarmored ponies to take cover behind the wagon.

In the heat of it all he calmly announced to our group that he was throwing an ‘extractor’ and he lobbed a grenade right at the wagon down the road.

The grenade triggered a fiery explosion, which knocked down several trees and bandits on either side of the road and sent debris and bits of pony flying in all directions.

The bandits stopped firing at us, disgruntled screams of pain and panic were heard from their group.

Bonnie said something on the private com and the two nameless soldiers went off into the bushwork on the right side of the road.

“*Tombs, keep them suppressed. Chef, with me.*” Bonnie said disappearing into the bushes on the left side.

Cloud Tumble, Manie Manie and I peeked around the sides of the wagon and fired off single shots down the road towards the mayhem ahead.

A bandit that didn’t sound much older than Strawberry Feather cracked under the pressure and began crying after his mother.

Soon the sounds of our shots were conjoined with the rapid salvos of the Overwatch soldiers assault rifles who had flanked the confused bandits on either side of the road, their pained screams died out in mere seconds.

The battle was over.

”*Clear!*” Bonnie called from down the road.

The soldiers were mopping up, executing stragglers and wounded bandits.

They weren’t taking prisoners.

Manie Manie and I walked down the road to witness the scene, and it wasn’t pretty.

In total there were maybe 20, perhaps even 25 dead or dying bandits laid out around us.

The explosion had left a gaping crater where the wagon had once been, the dead ponies that had been used as bait were now but red smears by the edge of the crater.

A sizable clearing had formed around the crater, the trees having been blasted away by the force, two of the trees had crushed two unfortunate bandits.

The bandits that had been closest to the wagon had had a limb or two ripped off by the shockwave, a young baby blue mare who had taken cover just by the side of the road had her head torn off, I spotted her head ten or so meters away from the road, away from the rest of the carnage.

"Fuck."

The ground was simply soaked in blood, the Overwatch soldiers who were tramping around the scene of battle were up to their knees in blood soaked mud.

Bonnie stood in the midst of it, over a filly covered in blood splattering, she was shaking and sobbing incessantly.

She said nothing as Bonnie pointed his pistol at her forehead and executed her.

Just like that, in cold blood.

He holstered his pistol and lifted his right hoof to his helmet to change the frequency on his helmet com.

“*Come in Dispatch.*” he hailed calmly as he stepped over the carnage and up to the road where we stood, next to the smoldering crater.

“*Hello. Unit. Berry. 2. How can I assist?*” his helmet radio echoed with the same dull robotic voice of the mare I had heard back at the outpost.

Bonnie quickly turned towards the crater.

“*Our squad was just ambushed by bandits on the road between Sun Valley Hills and Checkpoint Berry 2 about... halfway between Sun Valley and Berry 2, possibly more.*"

"*There were no causalities, but one civilian was wounded.*"

"*Copy. Unit. What is your need?*"

"*Yeah, eh, I am calling to inform that part of the road was destroyed by a booby trap set up by the bandit ambushers, we will be making a quick field repair in order to pass by with our wagon but it will not be good for heavy traffic. Send engineers to fix the road when possible.*”

“*Status on the surrounding area?*”

“*The area is not secure.*”

“*Affirmative. Berry 2.*”

“*Another thing Dispatch. The bandits used a supply wagon and three dead civilians as bait. No sign of their escort, presumed KIA.*”

“*Unit. Mango 6. 5 delegates. 8 civilians. Mission: Supply wagon escort duty. Route: Sun Valley Hills - Helsinghoof. Off schedule by 1 day. 5 hours. 32 minutes. 16 seconds.*”

“*Match?*”

“*I don’t know Dispatch. The wagon, and the remains, were destroyed during the battle, there is no way to confirm ID.*”

“*Understood.*”

“*We are resuming travel within an hour. Any report on bandit activity ahead?*”

“*Movement last seen 4. And. 7. Kilometers down Sun Valley Hills - Helsinhoof route.*”

“*Dispatching discouraging gunship wing.*”

“*Thank you Dispatch. Berry 2 out.*” he switched the radio off.

He caught us staring at him with wide eyes.

“*What?*” he wondered.

“DISCOURAGING GUNSHIP WING?” I wondered.

"*Yeah I know, she uses some strange unfitting terms at times, but anyway, that means that gunships will be patrolling ahead of us to force the bandits into hiding.*"

“Dispatch sounds very... cold and robotic.” Manie Manie said.

“*Well, yeah. That's what she is. She’s an AI.*”

“She is a what?” I wasn’t familiar with the abbreviation.

“*Artificial Intelligence. A program with the intelligence to act and make decisions on it’s own.*”

We stared at him silently.

“*I take it you haven’t heard of Overwatch Dispatch before?*”

“No.”

“*Manie?*”

She just shook her head.

“*Really? With all your experience with military hardware and systems you have never heard of Dispatch?*” Bonnie seemed genuinely surprised.

“We didn’t use AI in the Armored Forces.” she replied.

“*Armored Forces? You worked in R&D! Surely you must have heard.*”

“Nope.”

“*Wow. Well, maybe it isn’t all that surprising. Makes sense that they would keep something like her secret. Not a lot of trust between the army branches.*”

“Shouldn’t it be ‘it’?”

“*Pardon?*”

“If it is a program. Shouldn’t you be referring to Dispatch as ‘it’?”

“*No. I do believe ‘her’ is the correct term.*”

“No it’s not.”

“*Hey I am not arguing about how to properly refer to an AI construct in a databank. I agree that programs in databanks should be referred to as ‘it’ regardless of how it identifies itself as. And normally that would be the case. The thing is, Dispatch exists in the form of a robot in the shape of a mare. She speaks with a robotic voice mimicking that of a mare. She even acts and talks like a mare when in person.*"

"*Well, sort of. She is still a machine, but she is still a lot less medical and robotic in person. *”

“So it’s a robot. That still makes Dispatch an ‘it’.”

“*She is not ‘just a robot’. 'fucking sake Manie. You worked at R&D, surely you can’t be this slow to grasp it?”*

She gave him an evil eye.

I got it, he was being really subtle about it, but I got what he implied here.

“I am not sure you followed what he said there Manie...” I said slowly.

Now she gave ME an evil eye.

“He said that an AI in a databank is always identified as ‘it’, but that Dispatch, in her form, is referred and identified to as ‘her’.”

Bonnie sighed.

“*Tombs has the right idea.*”

"By definition, that makes Dispatch 'her' and not 'it'."

We let it sink in.

She began to blush, her eyes dilated and her expression turned into that of disgust.

“Noooo...” she slowly said, coming up to speed.

“*Yes.*”

“Nooohooohooo...”

“*Yes.*”

“REALLY? Are you SERIOUS?”

“*Yes, really. She has all the important bits and everything.*"

"*But honestly, it’s not like any of us grunts have walked up to her and checked for ourselves. From what they have told me, they she is supposed to be pretty 'real' for a robot.*”

“OH GROSS, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT?”

“Why are you being so upset over it? Weren’t you just referring to Dispatch as ‘it’ just now?”

“WHAT THE HELL GUYS, THIS IS DISGUSTING, WHY WOULD OVERWATCH EVEN BUILD SOMETHING LIKE THAT? SHE IS BUILT TO COMMAND AND OVERVIEW MILITARY UNITS WHY WOULD SHE EVEN HAVE THAT!?”

Bonnie shrugged.

“*Dunno. Morale?*”

Manie turned even redder.

I found myself picturing magazines and photographs of awry pictures of their radio dispatcher being distributed to Overwatch troops.

It wouldn’t have been all that weird considering what had been going on at Checkpoint Berry 2.

“*What? You too?*”

Me what?

Oh... yeah...

Had it really been that obvious?

“*What is wrong with you guys? That is not what I meant!*” Bonnie sneered at us.

“*And you called me sick... We are standing by a smoldering crater surrounded by carnage and you- just how do you guys live with yourselves?*”

“So you mean that they don’t...” Manie began slowly.

“*Oh Luna no! What I meant by ‘morale’ is that Dispatch is built the way she is so she can be identified and related to as ‘one of us’, that is a pony. She isn’t a fucking sex toy guys, just because she has the bits doesn’t mean she has to-*”

“Please don’t go there.”

“*Look. Many of us are scared or feel threatened by technology. Some feel sick just looking at all this tech.*” Bonnie tapped his helmet with his right hoof.

“*Since it is impossible to effectively keep track of all the activity going on simultaneously on the Overwatch battlenet manually, the introduction of an AI as a central control unit, or unit Dispatch, that receives direct reports and responds accordingly instantaneously became absolutely necessary.*"

"But why... why the body?"

"*Because soldiers began to ignore Dispatch on the account of her not being 'real'. They didn't trust a self conscious program.*"

"And what? Now they trust her, just like that?"

"*She is still an AI and we know that she is an AI, but we trust her more now that she can be identified as a real person, because in a sense she is just as real of a pony as we are.*"

“So in reality, she really is just a machine built to look and act like a mare?”

“*No! Weren’t you listening!”*

“Honestly Bonnie, you are kinda contradicting yourself a bit." I said, "You claim that troops didn't trust Dispatch on account of her being an AI, and then you say that in response to this, Overwatch programmed her t-”

“*No! They didn't program her! They TAUGHT the AI to become and act more like a pony. What she knows and is like is based on what she has learned and taken in on her own accord!*”

"Teach? A program?"

"*Well duh! Artificial INTELLIGENCE, she is a self conscious intelligent program that learns things on her own.*"

“That still doesn't make her a 'real' pony, she is just a slightly smarter machine that looks like a pony."

“*This is getting tiresome, if I can't explain it to you then I'll just have to show you.*”

"*I'll take you to meet her in person once we get to Sun Valley Hills.*"

“...what?”

“*Meet Dispatch. She is held in the Overwatch HQ at Sun Valley Hills.*”

She looked at him in disbelief.

“You must be joking. Do you really expect me to believe that the AI responsible for the overseeing of virtually all our forces in the frontier is kept IN the frontier and that anypony is allowed to just waltz in there and talk to her?”

“*Yes.*”

“WHAT?!"

“So what exactly stops somepony from just walking in there and teaching her a bunch of bullshit that could potentially jeopardize the safety of the entire frontier? Or kill her?” I asked.

“*You mean aside from a shotgun blast to the face?*”

“*For starters, not anypony is allowed in. Officially only members of Overwatch are allowed to see her in person, but exceptions are made relatively frequently. There is no minimum rank requirement or anything either, a grunt has just as much of a right to see Dispatch as the Colonel General of Overwatch has. Dispatch is also, like I said, a robot.*"

"*Sure, she looks and feels real, but her interior is made out of an incredibly resistant alloy and she has no vital internal organs save for a heart.*”

“We are talking about a mechanical heart right?”

“*No, she has the fleshy, red, pulsating, bloody heart.*”

Manie Manie looked pale.

“Why does she have a real heart?” I wondered.

“*Take one real good look at me. What do you see?*”

It was a rhetorical question.

“A smug Overwatch Sergeant?”

“*A smug Over-*” Bonnie pointed a hoof at me, “*Fuck you.*”

“*I don’t know why she has a real heart. Just, what you need to know is that weapons are not allowed near her and she can't be dented by hoof, so she is pretty much unkillable in the conventional sense.*”

"Let's pretend then, what happens if she is killed somehow?"

“*In the unfortunate event that she is killed, her construct is a still technically speaking, a program.*"

"*While she HAS a body she doesn’t exist solely within that body, the only thing you’d accomplish by destroying her body is hurt her feelings.*”

"Hurt... her feelings?"

"*Hey I'd be pretty upset too if someone killed me.*"

"Right..."

"And if someone teaches her something that she shouldn't know about?" Manie asked.

“*If she is ever corrupted, taught wrong or goes rogue there are failsafes that allow Overwatch to reset her to a previous state.*”

“Kinda like a backup.”

“*In a way.*”

“Does that mean that there are multiple copies of Dispatch?”

“*No. She is one program that uses all the memory and space in her databanks as ‘her brain’. It’s impossible to copy the entire program known as Dispatch and make another identical copy of her.*"

"*Only her memories can be temporarily copied and wiped.*"

"Wiped?"

"*When Dispatch is restored to a previous state everything she has learned, experienced and felt during one period is wiped and reset, anything bad she has learned is simply deleted.*”

Dispatch would have been perfect for frontier duty...

“That sounds drastic.” I said.

“...but necessary.” Manie chimed in.

“How many times have you had to reset her?”

“*I don't know, dozen times? Maybe?*"

"*Overwatch has only had to restore her memory when she learns something conflicting or potentially dangerous. Before she learned about Queen Celestia she was utterly convinced that Celestia was the leader of a distant enemy nation.*”

“*Generally it’s never anything particularly dangerous, it's mostly misunderstandings on her part, but there was this one time she perceived the mistrust between army branches as an act of hostility and declared ‘war’ on Air Force for about five minutes before they reset her memory.*”

Manie snickered.

“*It’s not funny, she shot down a jet which crashed into one of our helicopters.*”

Manie broke out into uncontrolled laughter.

I leaned in towards Bonnie.

“I don’t think that does anything for her.”

“*And she said Dispatch was cold.*”

Manie stopped laughing.

“Well, I am looking forward to meeting Dispatch then. I just HAVE to see her now after that last bit.”

“Yeah it looks like you got something in common.” I joked.

“*I think we have talked enough. We still have a long way to go, and it is really important that we get out of the woods before nightfall.*”

We headed off towards the group who was now just about ready and was patiently waiting for us.

To our surprise two logs were laid out before us, cleanly cut and ready to be used.

“*As you seemed busy talking to the sergeant, we took the liberty of cutting down two logs.*” one of the soldiers informed.

Bonnie looked around.

Everypony was here, just waiting around.

“*That’s... it? Two logs? How were you intending to pull the wagon over a bridge made of two logs?*” Bonnie wondered.

“*I... uh...*”

“*Planks wont sustain the weight of the fully loaded wagon and we don’t have time to build anything decent right now.*”

“*Y-you’re right sir.*”

“*We need at least 8 logs and two lengths of rope to hold them together. When the log bridge is built, make two dirt ramps on either side so we can get the wagon over the edge.*”

“*Of course sir...*”

“We have a motor axe, would that help?” Blizzard Candy said.

“*A what axe?*”

I took Bonnie and Chef to see the chainaxe we had stored away.

It had some dried blood splatters on it from it’s previous user, Rainbow Sea, but was otherwise in pristine condition.

“*Ah. I’ve seen a weapon like this before. Except it was a sword, not an axe.*”

Bonnie picked it up and looked at it curiously for a while before putting it back in it’s place.

“*We can’t use that.*” Bonnie said.

“Why not?”

“*That’s a combat weapon. It is built to cut through flesh and bone, not trees and armor. It will jam if wood splinters get into the machinery.*”

“Oh, okay. Guess we’ll have to do this the traditional way.”

Blizzard Candy, Cloud Tumble, Manie Manie and the soldiers all went to cut down trees with the axes and machetes we had, seven ponies would be more than enough for the job.

I walked around to the front of the wagon where the wounded were loaded, Nurse Swirly was in the wagon kneeling beside the unconscious Brook Cotton.

The wounded soldier was looking at the two with a pained expression as she concentrated on telekinetically extracting a bullet with a pair of medical pincers, she was very precise in her work.

When she had extracted the bullet she simply discarded without looking by throwing it out of the wagon and hitting me where I stood.

“Oh my goodness! I am so sorry, I didn’t see you there!”

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!” Swirly said waving the pincers at me.

“It’s all good Swirly Star. I didn’t know you were a surgeon.”

“I’m not.”

“But you just extracted that bullet from Brook?”

“It doesn’t take a trained surgeon to pull a bullet out of somepony, silly. Unless the bullet is lodged in good, or is near a vital organ anyone with a pair of pincers should be able to pull it out.” she cleaned the pincers as best she could and put them away.

“Besides, I had this book to help me.”

She floated up the medical book they had sent with us.

The cover said 'EAF - INFANTRY: MEDICAL FIELD GUIDE FOR COMBAT MEDICS'

“*That is an Infantry manual.*” Bonnie said from behind me, startling both of us.

“*Where did you get that?*”

"It came with the medical supplies.”

“*That’s a damned good book you got there. You shouldn’t let the troops out here see you with it.*"

"Why not?"

"*We’ve been wanting to get ahold of Infantry manuals for ages, but they wont requisition them. Strictly for Infantry only they say.*”

"*If they see the book they might try to buy or steal it from you.*"

“Why is that? This is just a medical manual, surely it would be better for all if they shared medical handbooks?”

“*I don’t know. Just generals and officers being generals and officers I guess. Whole bunch of hostilities going on between the army branches, so everyone mostly do their own thing when it comes to tech and gear.*”

"I thought Infantry and Overwatch kept good relations?" I said.

"*Well, we don't exactly hate Infantry, and they don't hate us, but we still don't really trust each other that much.*" Bonnie walked up to the edge of the wagon and looked inside.

“*How are you holding up private Snowball?*”

The soldier gave Bonnie a pained smile.

“Private Snowball? You are the soldier that answered our questions about the outpost!” Nurse Swirly exclaimed.

“Y-yeah, t-thats me...” Snowball muttered.

“I’m... f-fine sarge... But my l-leg feels so itchy...! Please make it stop!”

Bonnie leaned in and reached for Snowballs good front leg.

“N-no! My other leg!”

Bonnie sighed deeply and leaned out of the wagon.

“*Snowball, we’ve been over this. You don’t have a front left leg anymore.*”

“Then why does it itch so much!!”

Nurse Swirly looked at Snowball and reached out her hooves to where his leg was supposed to be, she moved her hooves slowly back and forth over the empty space.

“There! W-wait go back!” Snowball said.

Swirly moved a hoof back to just below where his knee had been.

“Right there! Ah by the goddess that feels good!” Snowball seemed very relieved.

“Thank you thank you thank you miss!”

“No... problem?”

“*Thats... what did you do to him?*”

“I scratched his... leg? The book said that it sometimes helps against itching in severed limbs...”

“*But how is that possible? How could he feel that?*”

“I don’t know... honestly.”

"*You used magic didn't you?*"

"*There is no way he could have felt that without nerves, you can't feel thin air.*"

"No I didn't use magic. I don't know what I did, Bonnie, it just worked alright?"

Bonnie shook his head at her.

“*Whatever. Bunch of unicorn witch nonsense...*” he muttered as he walked away.

Nurse Swirly gave me a hurt and hopeless look.

"What does he even have against me? Is it something I did?"

“Don’t mind him Swirly. He has his own problems to worry about.”

“If you say so..."

Nurse Swirly began applying some sort of transparent goo to the wound she had just worked on.

“How is Brook doing? Is he going to recover?”

“I think so.”

“You... ‘think so’?”

“It’s hard to tell, he was hit twice by rifle sized bullets.” she pointed to the bandages on his leg and the wound on his right shoulder. “His right foreleg is broken, a bullet has lodged in his bone, it is beyond my ability to extract out here. And another bullet, the one you just saw me extract, hit him in his right shoulder.”

“That’s bad...”

“Pony metabolism is wonky at times, sometimes it may take mere days for a broken bone to heal yet at the same time it may take several months or even years to heal certain wounds, it seems to be random and poorly understood despite all the advancements in medicine we have had in the past half century."

"Random?"

"Yeah. Everypony heals at a different rate."

"There is a medical report dating more than a century back describing a pegasus mare with a broken right wing fully healing in just one day. A more recent report describes how the rib of a healthy unicorn stallion took a full seven months to heal.”

“It’s hard to tell if Brook will recover in a few days or if he will never walk on his right foreleg again. Best thing I can do is patch him up, keep reading this medical handbook and ask around the clinics and Overwatch medics at Sun Valley Hills.”

She gave me a caring warm smile.

“But don’t worry Sweetie, I’ll get him up and going soon.”

I returned the smile.

“Thank you Swirly.”

I left her to her work and joined up to help the others with the bridge construction.

In half an hour of work we cut down another four trees, cleared the logs of branches, laid them out over the crater and tied them up with some rope.

Then we covered either end with dirt, packed it solidly into a ramp and it was ready for use.

It wasn’t the prettiest bridge built by pony hooves, but it was stable and strong.

Chef and one of the soldiers pulled the wagon over the bridge with ease and we resumed traveling.

We had stopped for just under an hour and expected the sun to begin setting in another two-three hours or so, we had to hurry out of the woodlands and into the grassy plains surrounding Sun Valley Hills before night or are likely to meet the same gruesome end as the rest of Berry 2 did...

Chapter 5 - Sun Valley Hills

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of PEACE and QUIET

Chapter 5 - Sun Valley Hills

Run, Run, Run from the Night

Another couple of uneventful hours passed as we journeyed on.

The soldiers chattiness had only lasted as long and everypony had returned to their gloomy silence once we moved on from the road ambush.

We hadn’t met anyone else after the ambush, the helicopter patrols Dispatch had sent out had likely scared the bandits along the road into hiding, yet we had neither heard or seen a single helicopter during our trip.

The trees and surrounding foliage had begun to thin out a bit, quite obviously we were beginning to draw near the grassy plains, and just in time too, dusk had begun and after a period of absolute silence in the surrounding woods we had begun hearing distant hissing and cackling sounds similar to those of the Bogeymen who had clung to the walls of the outpost.

But I heard another noise in the background.

A distant repeating noise... rotor blades?

“*It’s beautiful...*” Bonnie said in astonishment while looking down the road.

The trees abruptly stopped about 200 meters down the road, revealing the biggest and absolutely flattest plain you ever saw bathed in the golden orange glow of the setting sun.

Now, the setting sun is a sight we ponies had only just recently began seeing.

Not even ten years ago the raising of the sun was a duty that Celestia herself was responsible of, every day and evening she would raise and lower the sun and the moon using her powers as per tradition.

But not anymore.

She stopped doing that and after a few days the sun simply began raising itself, very slowly.

Turns out the sun didn't need rising after all.

The days were the exact same length as before, but the transition from night to day had become tremendously longer now.

Nopony really seemed to mind, and the lightshows created by the setting sun put Equestria in awe.

Now it is simply considered ‘natural’ for the sun to raise and lower by itself.

As we drew closer to the edge of the forest we spotted the distant shape of a very slim tower, it was hard to make out any detail with the blinding orange sun being directly behind the shape, but I knew that it was Sun Valley Hills.

I looked at Bonnie, it wasn't the sun he had been in awe over, he was looking towards the north-west at the seven rapidly moving black shapes flying over the fields in our direction.

“What’s that?” Blizzard Candy wondered.

“Gunships. Seven of them.” I replied.

Blizzard Candy, Nurse Swirly and Strawberry Feather simply stopped and looked towards the sky at the passing black Overwatch helicopters, they crossed the distance in great speed and blew up a mighty wind as they passed by with the deafening sound of their rotors.

By the looks on their faces they had quite clearly never seen a helicopter in their lives before.

I looked briefly at Manie as the choppers had passed just overhead and saw her muttering something at the choppers with an expression of disgust and hatred.

The helicopters had passed by and were disappearing off into the distance to our south, yet the three of them were still standing frozen gazing off in the direction the choppers had gone.

“*Uh... are you guys alright?*” Bonnie asked hesitantly. He got no response.

“*Those were overwatch helicopter gunships. They are on our side? Guys?*”

There was a long pause, then Blizzard Candy slowly looked at Bonnie and said,

“That... is the... scariest fucking thing I have ever seen in my entire life.”

And then he just resumed walking.

‘Scariest fucking thing’ and this comes from a pony that survived a slaughter by nightmarish monsters by hiding behind a puny steel door just the night before.

“*They are just helicopters...*” Bonnie muttered before continuing onward.

The entire surrounding plains were flat and even, this wasn’t the kind of area I had expected from the name ‘Sun Valley HILLS’.

But it was all the better I suppose, there is simply no way we could be ambushed on a straight road going through a plain patrolled by helicopters.

By now the sun had almost completely set and it didn't take long before a shadowy darkness fell across the plains, soon it became impossible to see anything in the pitch black darkness.

In the distance Sun Valley Hills lit up with a myriad of white lights, acting as a beacon for us.

The soldiers helmet lenses lit up with a dull cyan blue glow, all except for Bonnie’s helmet.

Instead he deactivated his helmet and removed it in favor of his boonie hat and night vision goggles.

“Our helmets come with a built in night vision. But the damn thing is so hard to see in and is so limited that it is simply better to bring a more advanced piece of equipment.” he explained, having noticed my looks in the darkness.

His night vision I noticed, had three lenses which glowed of a powerful yellow.

“Sunny... used to wear a pair just like these early on when we still did nighttime patrols...”

“Guys?” Blizzard Candy called from the darkness behind us.

“The rest of us are going in the dark here? How about some light so we know where to go?”

Nurse Swirly lit a lantern on inside the wagon, it was faint, but at least we knew where the wagon was, and that was all we needed to know.

“I... guess that will do. Thanks.”

I started to feel cold and nervous, I couldn’t see a damn thing behind us.

“Bonnie, are we at a safe distance from the woods?” I asked him.

Bonnie looked back towards the east, where we had came from.

He waited unusually long to give his answer.

“Uh... yes.” he announced loudly.

Then he came closer to me and whispered.

“Don’t panic and don't alarm the rest of the group.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered back.

“Look, slowly behind us.”

I looked back to where we had came from and my blood froze.

In the far distance I saw a large lumbering black shape in the darkness, two intense red dots marked it’s head and eyes, they were unmoving, we weren’t getting farther away and the dots weren’t getting any closer.

Whatever was stalking us it was keeping a distance.

“What... what the hell is that!?” I hissed at Bonnie.

“Do you want me to describe it?” he asked calmly.

“Yes!”

“I see... a very tall muscular humanoid creature, towering above the treeline. It looks like a nightmarish twisted bald form of a wildling, it has a set of sharp fangs for teeth.”

“Oh goddess!”

“How far behind us is it?!”

“About... uh... ten kilometers, I think? It is by the treeline slowly walking towards us...”

“Ten kilometers? How do you even see that far?”

“I don’t. It’s a giant. It is just that big.”

"That thing is a fucking giant!?"

“Look, calm down and keep your voice down. I said don’t panic and don’t alarm the others, the last thing we want is for the giant to be alarmed. So keep quiet and don’t panic.”

I felt somepony bump into me.

“Uh...” Manie said from right next to me, “Who is this?”

“It’s me Manie.”

“Oh, Sweet Heavens. Hey. Is that Bonnie with you?”

“Hello triple M.”

“That’s double M now.”

“Look,” she said lowering her voice, “This may be a bit hard to explain, but I can feel that something is following us...”

“We know. Keep your voice down and Bonnie will explain.”

“Okay.”

“Look behind us, slowly and do not panic.” Bonnie instructed.

There was a brief moment of silence.

“Guys?”

“Yes Manie?”

“What am I looking at?”

“That would be a giant.” Bonnie said.

“A giant.” Manie repeated. I could feel her begin shivering from where I was walking.

“W-what kind of giant?” she stammered.

“A giant giant.”

“Har har, very funny."

"But seriously, what is that following us?”

“A gigantic multistory night creature version of a wildling.”

“Ok...”

A few minutes passed in silence, the only sound being heard being our hooves on the road and the wheels of the wagon.

“Guys?” Manie whispered again.

“Yes Manie?”

“What does a wildling look like?”

“You must be joking.” Bonnie remarked.

“Never been this serious in my life.”

“You, the great Manie Manie, has never seen a wildling?”

“I am not so sure what is so great about me. But no. Never.”

“Okay...” Bonnie sighed. “Have you ever seen a monkey?”

“No.”

"You have NEVER seen a monkey?"

"No."

"Not even in books?"

"No."

"Wow."

"Have you ever seen a gorilla then?”

“No.”

“A chimpanzee?”

“No primates of any kind."

“Have you seen ANY kind of bipedal tailless mammal?”

“That’s a bit too broad.”

Bonnie didn’t answer, I imagined him giving Manie a disapproving look in the darkness.

“Okay, so I didn’t pay much attention to the Equestrian wildlife back home. Big whoop.”

“Just describe what a wildling looks like to me.”

“Fine. I’ll try.” Bonnie said.

“Okay. So imagine a hairless creature with pale skin walking on two legs.”

“You follow this far?"

Manie let out an irritated sigh.

“Yes. Go on.”

“The creature is about 1.5-2 meters tall, has two arms, each being ca 50cm-1m in length with what can best be described as a hand with four fingers and one thumb on the end.”

“Do you know what a hand is Manie?”

“I guess... kinda like a hoof, but with grasping parts right?”

“Eh... well, close enough.”

“Their legs are just under their total body length and have feet with four toes and one big toe.”

“Familiar with feet?”

“Are feet like hands?”

“Not really.”

"What about chicken feet?"

"No..."

"Paws?"

"Nothing like it."

“Then no.”

“So a foot can best be described as a hoof, but flat, long, smelly and with five toes attached.”

“Can it grasp things like the hand?”

“No." Bonnie sighed.

"Toes can not grasp things.”

“Gotcha. What else can you describe?”

“Wildlings stand fully erect on their two legs and walk goofily. The males have a bulky chest with strong ribs and the females have two growths that depending on wildling resemble either small lumps or water balloons.”

“For what purpose?”

“Breastfeeding I think.”

“So wildling females breastfeed their children from water balloons hanging out of their chest?”

“Yes? I don’t know, I am not really a wildling expert, I am just telling you what they look like.”

“Alright then. Go on.”

“Attached to this torso of theirs they have a very short neck and a head, about the size of a normal ball. The head is sort of egg shaped, has a very flat or crooked nose on the center, a small mouth underneath the nose, they have two very small eyes slightly above the nose on either side. On either side of the head they have very short and sea shell shaped ears.”

“Now, ON the head they grow hair.”

“So kinda like our manes then?”

“No no. It ONLY grows ON TOP of their head, their hair doesn't grow on the back of their necks like ours.”

“Oooookay?”

“Anything else?”

“That is basically it.”

“So a wildling is a hairless bipedal mammal that walks erect on two legs with two flat ‘feet’, it grasps things with ‘hands’ which are a sort of hoof with grasping ‘fingers’ that are attached to 50cm-1m arms. The males have bulky chests with strong ribs and the females have water balloon like growths that serve as breasts. They have egg shaped heads with flat faces, sea shells for ears and grow hair exclusively on the top of their head.”

“That about how you described them?”

“Uh... I guess. Yeah.”

“Ok.”

The two became silent for another while.

“And that is what is following us?”

“Except bigger.”

More silence.

“Male or female?” Manie asked with a hint of indecision in her tone.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the mental image I got from that.

“What is so funny?” she wondered.

“Sorry. I just imagined a multistory humanoid with large sea shells for ears and massive water balloon like growths dangling back and forth from it's chest."

"I mean the way he described the growths as ‘water balloons’ was already large, but since it is a GIANT that is following us the growths must grow bigger too right?”

Manie thought about it for a brief moment.

“Yeah I guess it would be funny to you. You sick pervert.”

“Huh? What?”

Bonnie laughed.

“She was making a jab at you for thinking that disproportionate wildling breasts were funny seeing as pony mares don’t have those kind of growths.” Bonnie said.

My mind wandered off in the wrong direction and pictured a mare with the kind of growths described.

That didn’t seem right. That didn’t seem right at all.

“That’s not very funny.” I said bitterly.

“So you like them flat? Is that what you are saying?” Manie tentatively suggested.

“Stop it.”

“Why? I thought you liked these kind of discussions.”

“Exactly when was that established?”

“Oh I have seen the way you look at me sometimes. I don’t even need my 6th sense to see what's on your mind.”

What prompted this conversation?

Yeah okay, so I hadn’t exactly been very furtive and secret about looking her up from time to time, but still, what gives?

“Dear Manie," I said, "We have only just meet."

"I assure you that it takes more than a couple of days to get to know me and my intentions...”

“Yet in these few days you have saved my life twice. Thrice if you count arresting me while I was nearly overdosing back in Equestria... The first time, understandably, you were under orders and did your job. But the other two... you didn’t have to save me back in Helsinghoof, or in New Prospect."

"You could have left me whenever.”

"We have been through this, this is my job."

“I would have done the same for anypony under my responsibility.”

"And guess what? You are under my responsibility, so that makes it my job to protect you."

“Ah, but I think you did it for me, because you didn’t want to lose me."

"You want me Sweet Heavens.”

She said that last part with her muzzle being right by my ear, almost biting me as she spoke.

Was she coming onto me?

“Why so clingy all of a sudden? What are your intentions?”

“What I...” Manie went strangely silent all of a sudden.

“G-g-giant...!!” she said in an alarmed tone.

I looked behind us and saw that the two red dots were much much closer and bigger to us than before.

The towering dark shape was standing maybe one kilometer away from us and was coming closer towards us!

“DISPATCH! DISPATCH! COME IN DISPATCH!!” Bonnie yelled over his radio.

“*Hello. Berry 2. How can I assist?*”

“WE GOT A GIANT DIRECTLY EAST OF SUN VALLEY HILLS, IT IS RIGHT ON OUR TAIL AND IS ADVANCING ON OUR WAGON! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE FIRE SUPPORT!"

"FIRE DAMNIT! FIRE ANYTHING! GET THAT THING OFF OF US!!!”

“*Copy Berry 2. Standby for guidance strike. Danger close. I repeat, danger close.*”

A mere few seconds after the last message the tower off in the distance shot out a red laser which zoomed in on the giant.

The glowing red light lit up the giant like a christmas tree, revealing it’s pitch black skin, horrifying and nightmarish face and muscular stature.

But this wasn’t the attack, this was some type of spotlight, or maybe it was a laser designator?

Whatever it was it was making the giant angry, it growled madly at the light.

In another few seconds seven missiles from Sun Valley Hills whizzed by above us and struck the giant in the chest, the resulting explosions lit a good portion of the plains in short fiery yellow flashes before fading away, engulfing it all in darkness once more.

The giant let out a deep roar and fell with a mighty earth rumbling thud in the distance, shaking the wagon and throwing all of us off our hooves, Manie, Bonnie and I who stood all bunched up at the time fell onto each other into a pile.

I got up quickly and helped Manie and Bonnie up.

“IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?” I called out to the others.

“We are okay!” Nurse Swirly called back from the dark. “The wagon is still in one piece!”

"*We are okay.*" one of the soldiers announced.

“Holy hell, that was intense!” I said.

“Why did it get so close to us?”

“I don’t know Tombs, alright? I don’t. Know.”

“I’d rather not witness my own laser guidance system this close again.” Manie remarked.

“*Unit. Berry 2. Report status.*” Dispatch called over the radio.

“Berry 2 is OK. Giant is down but I cannot confirm kill.” Bonnie answered.

“*Copy.*” there was a brief moment of static.

“*Attention. Guidance operator reports multiple hostile creatures near the treeline moving towards you. 478 total. ETA 15 minutes. Advice moving into range of Sun Valley Hill perimeter defenses. Gunship support enabled.*”

“Roger that! We are moving!”

“The critters didn’t like us killing their giant, we got a horde incoming! Let’s leg it people!”

We began running, Chef and the soldier pulling the wagon put extra effort into pulling the thing and managed to run full speed despite the weight of it.

We ran and ran and Sun Valley grew closer and closer.

Fifteen gunships flew out of Sun Valley and went full speed over our heads, they opened fire within seconds.

Eventually we got within the range of the perimeter defenses, they didn’t fire immediately, we weren’t the targets obviously, but when they did open fire I was surprised and shocked to hear the artillery and shells land just a short distance behind us, I looked back as we galloped towards the walls and saw a wall of fire engulfing the horde of nightmarish twisted wolves and giant insects chasing after us.

The sight of their huge maws being this close to us only made me run faster and faster.

As we reached the wall the gates opened and the moment the last of us got inside they quickly slammed shut behind us. Not even a minute after that the shrieking of night creatures throwing themselves at the walls could be heard just outside. They were out of range for the big guns now, but the soldiers and turrets on the walls made an excellent job at dispatching the few critters that had survived the charge to the walls and within minutes the shooting died down.

We found ourselves in a sort of well lit inner courtyard surrounded by more walls, Chef and the soldier who had pulled the wagon with him laid exhausted on the ground and the rest of us panted heavily recovering from the several kilometers long sprint we had done to the walls.

Nurse Swirly, Blizzard Candy and Strawberry Feather especially seemed especially drained after the sprint, they weren’t athletically built for this and had been dangerously close to letting go and falling behind. But they made it. Thankfully.

An Overwatch soldier in yellow armor and goggles came to greet us along with a squad of paramedics.

“*That was quite the race you had there! A minute longer and you would have all been worm food!*” he turned to the paramedics. “*They have wounded in the wagon, take them to the hospital immediately.*”

Bonnie and I stood up on shaky legs and went up to him.

“*Ah, you must be the platoon leader of the remnants of Berry 2. Sergeant... Crunch Opal was it?*”

“Yes sir.”

The overwatch soldier turned to me and looked at my group.

“*And you ponies are...?*”

“I am Captain Tombs of Civil Protection. These six ponies are under my responsibility and assignment.”

“*I see. I see.*” the soldier nodded.

“*I am Lieutenant Crone Beetle, of the Overwatch.*”

“*I’m mostly in charge of the perimeter defenses of this joint.*”

“*Sir,*” one of the paramedics called from the wagon, “*One of the wounded is a civilian.*”

“*So what? Take him to the hospital! He deserves the care as much as anypony does!*”

“*Uh. Yes sir. Of course sir.*”

“*Sorry about that. Some of us are very strict around here, someponies wouldn’t lift their hooves to save their dying mothers unless she is part of Overwatch and even then it's only if the right paperwork is filled in. But that’s alright, we all need something pointless to rely on when things look shitty. Smoking, drinking, fucking, being incredibly annoying to others by messing with bureaucratic paperwork and doing everything by the book... whatever works for you.*”

“*Aye, I know what you mean, sir.*” Bonnie agreed.

“*Anyhow, I wasn’t expecting somepony like you to show up tonight captain so I’m afraid I won't have much time to talk with you at the moment. Got a lot of ‘catching up’ to do with the poor sods of Berry 2. But you know, we’ll talk tomorrow.*”

“*I imagine you ponies must be tired, somepony will be over to show you to your rooms for the night in just a few. Stay here for now.*”

He waved at the others from Berry 2.

“*Everypony from Berry 2, with me. We just want to ask you a couple of questions and then you can rest.*”

Bonnie and the others went off with Crone Beetle.

Manie Manie approached me.

“Hey there Sweetie” she greeted me, tiredly.

I realized just now how tired she looked, she had noticeable bags under her eyes and barely managed to keep her eyes open. She had a very weak and tired looking smirk on her face.

“You know, the offer from back at the outpost is still good.”

“Offer? What offer?” I had no idea what she was on about now.

“You know, share a bed...”

I laughed.

“Manie, you are exhausted, you are not thinking clearly.”

“Sure I am...” she yawned.

A pony in a white jumpsuit showed up.

“Hello everypony. Come this way and I’ll show you to your rooms.”

“Come now Manie, let’s tuck you in bed.”

“Yes... that... sounds good.”

The pony in the jumpsuit led us through the streets of Sun Valley Hills, towards the big concrete Overwatch complex. Apparently we were to stay inside the Overwatch compound, as guests.

Sun Valley Hills seemed just as neat as Helsinhoof was, but the main difference was that everything seemed so... incomplete, even more so than Helsinghoof had been, it was as if half the town was a work in progress.

Many benches, lamp posts and signs were still wrapped in plastic, there was construction materiel everywhere and there was only a handful of stores around.

The inn was there, but there was no bar, restaurant or dance club where everypony was hanging out at like there had been in Helsinghoof.

The civilians we saw all seemed to wear the same white jumpsuit, some of their jumpsuits seemed very ragged, torn and dirty, others seemed pristine and clean.

This possibly depended on the kind of job the workers been assigned to.

The mood of the workers was also very different from those of Helsinghoof, they all seemed gloomy and generally unhappy, perhaps as this settlement was further inlands it hadn’t reached the same stage of development as Helsinghoof had and the workers were still unpaid slaves with few freedoms.

The town itself shared many designs with Helsinghoof, many of the buildings used the same concrete prefab design seen in Helsinghoof, they were all low story buildings with flat roofs.

The biggest difference in Sun Valley Hills was the absolutely humongous black tower spiraling up towards the sky, the tower was surrounded by a complex of buildings and walls varying between solid black steel and concrete prefabs.

At the top of the tower was a sort of red sphere with a visible laser actively scanning across the surrounding lands, it looked like an evil eye laser, the kind of weird contraption you only see in bad secret agent movies with bald villains petting white persian cats or like the evil force in that 'Lord of Rings' movie in which two colts need to defeat a floating eye by throwing a magical bracelet into a volcanic fire.

Well inside the complex we got inside a large five story building that shared the same boring interior design with the CP complex back at Equestria.

We got up to the fourth floor and were led to a room with two sofas and a pot plant in each corner, the room had seven doors, three on either side of the entrance and one right across the room, there was one room for each of us.

The rooms themselves weren’t as shabby as I had expected them to be (not that it would have mattered, I would have slept on a wooden plank if I had to, I was beat), they all had broadloom's covering the floors and a queen sized bed each.

Every room had a small bathroom attached and there was a small wardrobe like compartment along with a mirror and a chair.

“These are the rooms given to you. Someone will stop by tomorrow to show you around. Until then, please try to stay put in your rooms, avoid wandering around the complex unsupervised.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, thank you."

?

"It is thanks to guests like you that I got relieved from the heavier work, AND I get paid too!”

“Oh? Is Sun Valley Hills getting to that stage?”

“Not quite yet. There is still loads of work to do before we move on, I am what you’d call a ‘special case’."

"Seeing as there are so many officials and guests passing by Sun Valley Hills and staying in the compound I was promoted to a sort of valet/guide like position along with a handful of other workers. It’s great!”

“Heh, okay. Well congratulations to you then. Have a good night.”

“You too sir.”

The valet left, Nurse Swirly, Strawberry Feather and Blizzard Candy gave their goodnight s and tiredly retreated into their rooms for a good nights sleep.

Now all I had to do was get this potato sack into bed so I could go and pass out myself.

Manie was barely standing on her legs anymore, I dragged her into one of the rooms, took of her raincoat and hat and got her in under the sheets.

She let out a long happy ‘hmmmmhmm’ hugging the fluffy pillows and thick blanket.

“Alright then. Good night Manie, see you tomorrow at breakfast.”

“Sweet Heavens” she called in a low voice.

“Yes Manie?”

“Please don’t go.”

“I’m tired Manie. It’s been a long day.”

“So sleep in here. There is plenty of room in this bed for two.”

“I don’t know about that Manie.”

“Aw c'mon, at least stay for a while. No," she yawned, "...funny business, I promise.”

I hesitated, I didn't want to sleep in the same bed as her, it was big, but it wasn't that big.

But then, as long as nothing happened I suppose I could stay for a while, I could always just leave once she fell asleep.

“Fine. But I am only staying for a few moments, then I’ll be going to my own bed.”

“Hmmhmm.”

I shut the door and got under the covers.

Sweet mercy this bed was soft, this is possibly the softest bed I have ever been in, goddamn.

I turned towards Manie but she was already asleep, she was happily smiling and had a cute little snore.

Hmm, that was quick, I guess I can leave now.

Time to get into my own bed.

Yeah. Sounds great.

Soon.

I’ll get out of bed in five minutes.

Maybe ten.

...

Fuck it, I'll just stay here.

Apple Cider

Knock Knock

…

Knock Knock Knock

…

KNOCK KNOCK

What's that sound?

“Hmm...”

THUMP THUMP

Stop that. Go away.

“What, who is it.” I mumbled in my sleep.

“Captain Tombs. Get up, it’s time to go.” a voice called from the door.

“Hmm... go where..”

“To eat.”

“Breakfast?”

"Lunch.”

Lunch?

What time is it?

I felt something move in my embrace.

Wait.

What was I hugging?

I opened my eyes, black mane, black coat, white outline.

Manie.

I was holding Manie tightly.

Of course I was.

I can’t hold my hooves and mind off her for one minute.

For fucks sake Sweet. Tombs. Gah! Whatever!

“Hmm...?” she mumbled slowly twisting around.

“Oh, sorry... I didn’t realize I was...” I excused myself, letting go of her.

“‘tis okay...” she mumbled happily in her sleep. Then she froze and slowly opened her eyes.

“Oh. Uh. Did... did something happen last night?” she asked nervously.

“I... don’t think so?” I struggled to remember exactly what I did before somehow finding myself in Manie Manie’s bed.

“Maybe I should apologize...”

“For what?”

“Weeeell, I sort of remember how you said that you didn’t want to share a bed and...”

“Oh ok, so this was your idea?”

“I suppose so.”

“Thank goodness, for a moment I thought I had done something bad in a drunken stupor.”

“Nothing like that I assure you...”

“So how much do you remember from last night?”

“I think I recall something about a giant blowing up, running a few kilometers with a horde of monsters right on our tails... uh... a lieutenant and... trying to get you into bed with me...?” she blushed, “Whoops, shouldn’t have sa- you know, nevermind. Let’s get going.” she quickly got out of bed. “Lets get some breakfast.”

“Lunch” I corrected. Getting up too.

“Lunch? It’s already lunchtime?”

“Yes, now hurry up, we are all waiting for you out here!” the voice called from the door.

Eavesdropping son of a b- “I for one think that you two would make a lovely couple.” Swirly Star said from behind the door.

“It’s not like that!” Manie called back.

“Oh don’t be so embarrassed to admit it already. It’s perfectly fine.” Swirly pressed on.

"It's really not..." Cloud muttered.

We opened the door, they were all standing there, pressed closely to the door.

Except for Brook who was still at the infirmary and the guide who was tapping his hoof irritably behind the group.

“Not cool guys.” I scolded.

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop on ponies.” Manie said.

“You should know better.”

Strawberry Feather looked at Blizzard Candy and whispered.

“Do you think they...”

“Oh yeah, they must have. Look at how they go.” he got for an answer.

“NOTHING happened, alright? We slept in the same bed. That’s it.”

“But I saw the two of you holding each other when I walked in before...” Strawberry Feather said.

“You did what?” Manie asked sharply.

“I knocked and everything. I came to wake you up miss...”

“Guys guys guys. Don’t make this into a bigger thing than it really is. Nothing happened last night. And even if something did happen it sure as hell wouldn’t be any of your business.”

“You know, after Helsinghoof and Table Turner, I kinda think it WOULD be our business.” Blizzard Candy remarked, wanting to profit from this and use it as an opportunity to get back at Manie.

“Ah okay, so this is how we are doing things in this group?”

“One of us gets laid and all of a sudden everypony has to be on them like a bunch of teenagers?”

"So you DID-" Blizzard began.

"No I said! Nothing happened! I just fell asleep in her bed while keeping her company."

He snickered.

"'Keeping her company' huh?"

"She wanted me to stay for a while and I just fell asleep, that's all."

“Shame on you guys.”

“I don’t have anything to do with this.” Cloud Tumble protested.

“No. But you DID eavesdrop. I saw you alright.”

“...”

I walked past the eavesdroppers up to the irritated guide.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No need to be sorry, it’s just that the lieutenant wanted me to show you around, have you eat something and then guide you to his office as soon as possible..."

"Okay, so lets go?"

"...except I have already shown them around."

"The lieutenant doesn’t like waiting.”

“Oh, well if that is the case then I could go s...” my stomach rumbled loudly. I haven’t eaten in a good while, the carnage I had witnessed hadn’t done wonders for my appetite either.

“...after I have something to eat. Um... can the others find their way around town on their own?”

"Is there still time to grab something to eat before we speak to the lieutenant?"

"There is still some time, but it's either one thing or the other, there wont be time to show you around town."

"I don't care about the town."

"Uh... okay."

"Can the others find their way back here?" I asked him again.

“I showed them a few places, and they should be able to find their way back to their rooms, yes.”

“Good good."

"So basically this is what we are going to do. The others can go eat their lunch somewhere on their own, you’ll guide me and Manie to whatever place still serving breakfast, then we’ll immediately go talk to the lieutenant. Is that alright?”

“Weeeell... I guess. There is only one place still serving breakfast at this time, but I must warn you that they don’t exactly make the best food there.” the guide warned me.

“I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

“You’ve been warned.”

“C'mon Manie, let’s go.”

The breakfast place was a shoddy place in a lone alley in an isolated part of town, it clearly wasn’t meant to be there. The prefab used to build stores which was normally intended to be facing towards a street was instead facing another wall. It was a design fault, perhaps some error on the builders part when planning this part of town.

Our guide said he would be back within half an hour, he had to go check on something else for a while.

There wasn’t a single customer inside, the tables looked grimy and the general atmosphere of the restaurant was very dark, it had very few lights to compensate for the lack of sunlight shining in from the front window.

A bored looking earth pony filly with a jade coat, lavender mane and silver eyes wearing a brown hood and a long dress was sitting by the cash register, staring uninterested at some sort of miniature construction she was building out of toothpicks.

It was actually pretty good, it represented the large tower in the center of town, it looked very detailed with the smaller more finicky details being composed of smaller pieces of snapped toothpicks.

Hell, she had even managed to model the sphere at the top of the tower. Out of toothpicks.

That’s pretty impressive.

She didn’t notice our entrance or us approaching the counter, she added one final touch to the tower, sighed deeply and smashed her masterwork toothpick model with her hoof sending toothpicks all over the counter.

“Hello” I greeted her.

She was startled by our sudden appearance, she stared at us with wide eyes for a moment before slowly forcing a wide smile.

“Hello! And welcome to Breakfast Corner!" she said.

"My name is Lace Lizard, how can I help?”

“I heard this place is the only shop still selling breakfast at this time of the day. Correct?”

Her smile lightened, she seemed a bit hesitant.

“Um..."

“HEY JIM!!” she yelled towards the kitchen.

“WHAT?” a male voice called back.

“DO WE STILL SERVE BREAKFAST AT NOON?”

“YEAH, THAT’S OUR ONLY BUSINESS, LACE.”

“WHY, GOT CUSTOMERS?”

“YEAH”

In a moment a brown buff unicorn stallion with a beige mane showed up wearing a dirty chef’s hat and apron.

“Hello there! We rarely get customers at this time o the day!”

“Yeah well,” Manie began, looking at me, “We just woke up.”

The stallion looked back and forth at the two of us nodding slowly.

“Oh. I see. I see.”

I think he misinterpreted something.

“Well, so what will it be?”

“I don’t know.” I said. “What do you have?”

“The usual breakfasty things."

Break...fasty?

"Pancakes, egg & bacon, toast, sausages and bacon, waffles, coffee, tea, juice..."

"That’s... about it. I think.”

What a meager menu, I had expected more of a place named 'Breakfast Corner'.

“A meager but well chosen selection I see.”

“I guess I’ll take... egg and bacon and some juice. It’s been awhile since I had some good bacon.”

“I guarantee that we make the very best here. Salty and crispy, just as it should be.” Jim boasted proudly.

“How about you Manie?”

“Easy choice. I’ll take pancakes and coffee. Black, no milk, no sugar.”

“A drink that matches the color of your coat. Good choices! I’ll have them ready in minutes!”

I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of joke or sarcasm, but he probably meant well.

“So... what’s with that toothpick model we saw you building just now? It was really elaborate, why did you smash it?” I asked the filly, Lace Lizard.

“Oh this? This is nothing, I got much better models up in my room. Want to see them?”

“What about the breakfast?” Manie wondered.

“Oah, Jim will be in there for ages trying to figure out how to fry a pancake.”

“Um...” Manie gave me a worried expression, I just shrugged in return.

“Okay, I guess. Show us to your room then.”

“Great! Follow me.”

She jumped off the barstool she had been sitting on and scooted off up a set of stairs hidden behind a wooden door behind the counter.

“This up here is where Jim and ah live. It’s not much to look at but it’s home.” she called from above.

Manie Manie and I made our way up the stairs, there were only four small rooms up there and a cramped hallway.

Lace Lizard was waiting by one of the two rooms down the hall.

“Here is my room.”

It was a very small room, or it seemed small due to all the shelves attached to every free surface on the walls. On the far end (loosely speaking, the room was at most four-five meters right over) was a dirty looking window that bathed the room in dusky sunlight.

A multitude of skillfully made masterwork models of various buildings, constructions and big guns lined the shelves.

Some were more elaborately crafted than others, some were made out of junk, such as bits of tin cans and plastic, others were made out of something more specific, such as cut out wood, bits of shaved metal, one construction was made of pencils, another of toothpicks.

There was a really advanced looking medium scale model of the Sun Valley Hill tower made entirely out of paper clips shaped exactly the way the tower was shaped, on the top was a ball made of paper clips perfectly bent into the shape of a sphere.

Manie Manie and I were in awe.

“Lace Lizard, that is amazing!” I praised her.

“That ain’t all either, look outside, I got the entire back yard for myself and that’s where I really get to build stuff!” she walked up to and opened the window. “I built all of these myself!” she said proudly.

Outside, in her backyard, she had built several well made contraptions and smaller buildings.

Some were true to scale and others were miniature sized, designed for her own size.

There were also a handful of great statues of ponies, soldiers and animals made in cement at the far end of the backyard along with piles and piles of construction material and tools.

Aside from all of the constructions being hoof made with the finest attention to detail and finesse the most notable things in the backyard were arguably the wooden lookout tower which spiraled up above the perimeter wall, the obstacle course and the cement wall extension she had built from the perimeter wall to the Breakfast Corner back wall. We could tell that it was she who had made the wall by how it differed greatly in design from the other prefab cement walls we had seen, it had been shaped into a wavy like form.

On the wall Lizard Lace had also painted some very well made childish fairy tale looking motifs of various sea animals.

The obstacle course was built in her size and had all sorts of mechanical contraptions in it, it wasn’t active at the moment but there was a series of dummies made out of wood, sacks of sand and buckets who were either meant to spin, move back and forth or swing down, as a final “boss” there was a larger dummy with several long wooden sticks and wooden swords attached intended to move along a metal rail and spin.

None of her constructions were plain either, there wasn’t a single edge or surface that hadn’t been smoothed or decorated. This wasn’t all the result of months and months of slaving and effort, this was natural talent.

“You built all of this?”

“Yep!”

“You have an absolutely astonishing talent for building and design and an incredible eye for detail.”

“Thanks!” she said gleefully.

“It’s my special talent!” she lifted part of her long skirt and showed us her cutiemark of a pile of planks and nails on her flank.

“So how old are you Lace?” Manie asked.

“I am 4 years old.”

“4 years old? So you’ve only just become a young filly, eh?"

"How long have you had your mark?”

“Just fer a few months, but I’ve been building things since I was 2.”

“Wow. That’s pretty impressive.”

“BREAKFAST IS READY!” Jim called from downstairs.

We went down back into the restaurant, we were met by a cloud of smoke and the foul smell of burned food.

We sat down by the counter and in a second Jim came out hoovering the food he had prepared.

“Uhm....” Manie was at a lack of words as she looked unhappily at the burnt food.

We had burnt pancakes, burnt eggs, burnt bacon.

The butter for the pancakes was burnt, somehow.

There was no juice.

“Oh boy.” I said, “That’s... quite the feast.”

“How about some juice?” this was going to be hard to stomach, but at least maybe I could get some juice to wash it down.

I didn’t have the heart to complain about it, and my hungry stomach wouldn’t allow it either.

“Oh right, the juice! I’ll be right back.” Jim hurried off into the kitchen.

Manie was poking at her pancakes with her fork, they seemed very crispy.

She needled the topmost pancake and as she was nearing the fork to her mouth the bit of pancake she had needled seemingly disintegrated into a fine black powder. Leaving her empty hoofed.

Jim came back with two large glasses of juice.

Or at least I think it was juice.

Now this next part will sound silly, but the juice was burnt.

I SHIT YOU NOT.

JIM HAD MANAGED TO BURN ORANGE JUICE.

“...thanks.” I struggled to say.

“No probs!” Jim cheerfully said, “If you need anything else just give me a holler, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

“Sure...”

Manie hopelessly tried to needle another pancake, only for the two topmost pancakes to disintegrate immediately.

She sighed and put down her fork, she nudged the remaining pancakes with her hoof as she put down the fork and the whole pile of them spontaneously disintegrated into a pile of ashes.

I saw the unhappy young mare sit there with a pile of ashes on her plate.

“Lace,” she said in a low voice, “I’d hate to sound rude, but...”

“Yeah I know, I know. Jim isn’t exactly the... best cook, but he tries really hard and means well!”

“I get that, but...” Manie picked up the glass and looked disconcertingly at the contents inside.

“Really? How is it possible to burn juice?”

“Don’t be so harsh on him... it sort of has to do with what he used to do before opening this place...”

My eggs were totally inedible, they just disintegrated into a black mush on touch.

“What’s his story?” Manie asked.

“Jim used to be with Overwatch. He was what you’d call a 'specialist' within the army. You know, one of them ponies with special duties or assignments. Jim was the heavy support pony in his squad, he had been assigned a fire resistant set of armor along with a flamethrower of sorts. Very new and experimental tech designed just for fightin’ in the forests around here.”

“Jim was assigned at the frontier at the time, so his duties often took him beyond the border on various patrols and raiding missions.”

“Okay.”

“Everything was fine, he used his weapon to good ability 'an Overwatch decided to let him keep it.”

“But one day, when he and his squad were patrolling in the jungle they were ambushed by a whole horde of the wildlings, there were so many wildings on each of his squadmates that there was no way to fire his weapon without burning his own squad."

"So all he could do was defend himself and watch his squad get stuck to death with sticks and knives.”

“When they began screaming in pain and asking for mercy Jim turned his flamethrower on his squad and burnt them and every wildling in the area to a crisp. Jim was the sole survivor in an attack of nearly 200 wildlings.”

“He just ain’t been the same ever since, and that it interfered with his work with Overwatch, so he was diagnosed with PTSD and given an honorary discharge and left here to do what he want.”

“So he opened Breakfast Corner.”

...

“Sometimes, at night. I can hear him whisper to his flamethrewer referring it by the name of his friends and telling it how sorry he is...” she cryptically added.

“He still has his flamethrower?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah. But it ain’t got to ammo or anything, they took that from him, said it was too risky to let 'im keep it. They tried taking his flamethrower too, but he got extremely violent when someone tried to touch it.”

“Thats... sad...” Manie said.

Lace perceived this as an insult.

“Hey, Jim’s a good pony! He HAD to do it, he didn’t have a choice!”

Manie looked at her not understanding, but then she came up to speed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean ‘sad’ as ‘pathetic sad’.”

“Then what did you mean?” Lace stared at her with suspicion.

“I think that it’s sad how there doesn’t seems to be anypony in the whole frontier that hasn’t been through some kind of torment or grief. It seems like we all had our share of bad life altering experiences since Celestia flipped Equestria.”

Lace Lizard didn’t seem to understand.

She was only 4, she hadn’t been around before Celestia grabbed Equestria with an iron hoof.

I decided to try a strip of the burnt bacon, it had cooled down enough to be edible. Maybe.

“So what is your story Lace?” I asked chewing on the crispy strip.

Hmm, still had flavor. Salty.

She thought about it for a moment.

“I don’t know my story.”

“I’m an orphan. Have been with Jim for as long as I can remember...”

“What happened to your parents?”

“I don’t know.”

“So you don’t know anything about your parents?”

“I only know their names. Mom’s named Berry Manderpad and dad’s Sparkle Glitterwatch...”

“That’s quite a lot to go on. Have you tried asking around for them? Maybe they live in town-”

“No.” she said abruptly.

“They haven’t bothered to come look for me, and I have been living here in the safety of Sun Valley Hills where it’s easy to find me. I even help building the town, I am known among the builders in town, of which there are quite a few so finding me in town isn’t very hard.”

“If they don’t want me, I don’t want them. It is really that simple.”

“That seems a little harsh. What if your parents are in another town looking for you? What if they don’t know that you are in Sun Valley Hills? Maybe they can’t get to you because something is keeping them from leaving or going about freely.”

“I don’t care. I am over them. It’s been 3 years, I don’t think they will be back for me.”

“Okay okay, sorry. I didn’t mean to get touchy about it.”

I took another strip of bacon.

"Know of any other relatives?"

"I... eh... I think ah got an aunt named Cake Frosting. Never met her though, at least ah don't think so."

Cake Frosting?

I had met a mare named Cake Frosting.

"I know Cake Frosting." I said.

"You do?"

"Well, I don't 'know' her, but I met her on the Manehatten-Vanhoover train."

"She's with Infantry, she is supposed to be somewhere in the frontier."

"Infantry huh..." Lace became deeply thoughtful for a moment, staring at the counter before her.

"Ah know we just met mister, but, uh... I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Maybe I can."

"What did you have in mind?"

"If you... if you meet Cake again, could you... tell her where I am?"

"I thought you didn't want to met your family again?"

"Ah don't want to met me parents. They abandoned me."

"My aunt on the other hoof... I've never met her before... maybe she's different."

"Very well."

"If I ever come across her again I'll be sure to let her know."

"Thank you kindly."

I took a third strip.

This bacon was actually quite delicious, it was surprisingly still edible and very flavorful despite the external appearance.

“Hey Manie,”

“You should try some of this bacon, it’s quite good.”

I handed her a strip which she looked at for a few moments with suspicion before simply shrugging and eating it whole.

She immediately demanded more.

But there had only been four strips.

“JIM” I yelled at the kitchen.

“WHAT”

“MORE BACON PLEASE”

“REALLY? YOU GUYS LIKE MY BACON?”

“YES, IT’S GREAT”

“NEVER HAD ANYONE ASK FOR SECONDS HERE, BUT OKAY, MORE BACON COMING RIGHT UP!”

“Thanks” Lace Lizard said to me.

“For what?”

“For asking for seconds. He always gets so gloomy and sad when his food turns to ash. Nopony ever asks for seconds, ever.”

“This bacon isn’t so bad though. Have you tried it? Actually wait, that’s probably a silly question, of course you have.”

“No actually... I haven’t really eaten any of his cooked food... Generally speaking, I am the one doing the cooking for the two of us. I offered to cook for the customers too, but he insists that it’s his job.”

“Ohkay. You should try some when he brings it.”

“...okay. I guess I can do that.”

Jim brought in another plate of burnt bacon.

“Here” I gave Lace a strip which she began munching on slowly.

“You are right,” she said taking in the rest of it, “This IS good bacon.”

“Mind if I take another strip?”

I handed her another strip of bacon.

Manie took her share of strips too.

When we finished Jim came back out to the counter.

“I hope the bacon is-"

"OH, I hope the bacon WAS to your enjoyment?” he smiled.

“You bet! This is some of the best bacon I’ve ever had. I think I’ll come back here tomorrow morning.”

“You will?” he asked surprised.

“Yeah. But, if you don’t mind and if it’s okay with you, could I bring my own juice?”

I smiled and pointed at the glass of gray ashy liquid.

Jim hoovered the glass close to his face and eyed it closely.

“Hmm... I don’t know how this keeps happening...”

The glass suddenly began to melt.

“Whoah!” he yelped letting go of the glass, it landed with a loud GLOOORP on the floor behind the counter.

“I think I know what is going on here,” Manie said in between munches, “Is it okay if we take a look at your kitchen?”

“I suppose...” Jim said.

We got up and all entered the kitchen.

It looked grimy and somewhat dirty, but seemed like an ordinary kitchen to me.

Manie opened the fridge and looked around inside.

“Sweet Heavens, come over and look at this.”

I went up to her and looked inside the fridge.

The food in there was fresh and unscorched, the juice was completely normal.

“Lace Lizard.” I called, “Have you ever actually seen Jim cook or work in the kitchen?”

“No... not really... I’m always watching over the cash register.”

“Okay Manie, I think I get what you mean.”

“Lace, could you please bring two glasses and put them on that counter over there?”

“What for?”

“We’d like to try something."

"Uh, if it’s alright with you of course.”

“Um. Okay, sure.”

Lace brought out two glasses from a cupboard and placed it on the counter closest to us.

Manie brought out the orange juice and poured some into both glasses.

“Ok. Now if you could both step up here please.”

Lace Lizard and Jim went up to the counter looking confused.

“Lace Lizard, could you please grab that glass with your hoof?” I instructed.

She took a glass and nothing happened.

“Now Jim, could you grab that glass with your hoof?”

“Okay...” he did as I asked and nothing happened to the juice.

“Good. Now both of you put the juice back on the counter.”

“Jim, could you please float one of the glasses?”

Jim's magical field enveloped one of the glasses.

Nothing happened at first but in a few seconds the contents began to boil and turn into a discolored shade of ashen gray.

“Jim!” Lace exclaimed.

“I don’t know how you really cook or if you are doing this intentionally but at least it explains why the juice is burnt.” I explained.

“I had no idea that was what was causing the food to burn...

"I feel a bit... dumb for missing that.” Jim admitted.

“Jim! You have had this place for 4 years!” Lace castigated.

“Sorry Lacey.”

“Hello? Is anyone here?” somepony called from the next room.

We all went back out.

It was the guide who had returned.

“Hello Sergeant Tombs. Are you ready to go talk to the lieutenant?”

“In a few. You got to taste Jim’s bacon.”

“Eh, I am not sure if...” the guide said hesitantly.

“Trust me, it’s good.”

“Jim, more bacon.”

“No problem. More bacon on the way.”

In a few minutes Jim returned with a plate of bacon.

Except this time he wasn’t hovering it using his horn, he came in holding it with one of his forehooves.

The bacon looked completely normal and had the same brown-golden crispy look that bacon should have, I tried a strip. It was good, but not really anywhere like the burnt bacon he had prepared.

The guide took one strip.

“Yeah... I guess it’s alright.” the guide muttered, he didn’t seem very impressed.

“Jim, if you will...”

Jim enveloped the plate with his unicorn magic, and the bacon soon began to fry and turn black.

“Ok. Thats good. Try another strip.”

The guide gave me a glare.

“Wha- but...”

“Trust me on this.” I took one of the strips and ate it to show that it wasn’t as terrible as it looked like.

The guide hesitantly grabbed a strip and looked at it suspiciously, then he took the tiniest bite on one of the corners, and then another. And another.

“My. This is...” he ate the whole strip, “Can I take another strip?”

“Go ahead.”

Munch munch.

“Hmhmm, this is some tasty bacon.”

“We managed to solve the mystery of the burnt beverages too.” Manie said.

“Really? Well what was it?” the guide said in between munches.

“Jim’s horn has the uncanny effect of scorching anything it touches.” Manie explained.

“So any cooked food or beverage he brought in using his magic was scorched before serving.”

“Except for the bacon.” I added.

“Yeah, this," he paused to munch, "-this bacon is pretty damn good. I can totally see myself coming back here for more."

"But that will have to be for tomorrow morning. Right now we got to go to the lieutenant.”

“We were planning to come back here for breakfast too. Will you join us?”

“That sounds like a plan.”

The guide greedily finished the last strip and got up.

“Alright then. We’ll just be on our way. It was nice to meet you Lace Lizard. Jim.”

“Bye.”

Back at the compound.

The guide led me and Manie into the base of the tower, this was a massive building made of the same black steel and design as the tower itself, and looked sturdy enough to deflect a missile strike.

The interior was quite different from that of the concrete buildings, in here everything was built out of black och dark blue steel, the many corridors inside were very poorly lit (or so it seemed, it could also have just been the dark colors which didn't catch the light very well), there was a multitude of guards and turrets standing guard by every door and point of interest.

We were led up a few floors to some sort of nicely furnished waiting room.

The guide had simply left after that.

The lieutenant Crone Beetle came and greeted us after just a few moments of waiting, he wasn’t wearing his helmet this time, revealing that he had a burnt orange coat, red mane and yellow eyes.

“Hello Sergeant Tombs.”, he reached out to shook my hoof and then he turned to and offered his hoof to Manie.

“You must be the ex Major, Manie Manie. Formerly of EAF R&D and EAF Armor. Correct?”

Manie eyed the lieutenant with suspicion.

“Depends. Are you going to arrest me and hand me to Air Force?” Manie asked.

“Not at all. If Air Force won't come around to help us conquer the frontier then they can take all their requests and bounties and go fuck themselves."

"That's pretty much what Captain Sun Topaz of Helsinghoof said." I said.

"And Sergeant Bonnie." Manie added.

"Yes.You’ll find that many in Overwatch feel the same way about Air Force, it's no joke that things are unstable between the army branches.”

"Well, any enemy of Air Force is a friend of mine." Manie smiled, the two shook hooves.

“Now come, come. No sense standing around here, let me show you to my office."

"What is it you want to talk to us about? I hope it's nothing serious." I asked.

"Oh don’t worry about it, this is just a formality, I just want to ask you some questions regarding the events at Checkpoint Berry 2.”

He led us inside his office which was of the same dark design as the network of corridors in the rest of the building, it was about as ill lit as the corridors had been too with the only light being a small lamp on his desk.

His desk (or what he used as a desk, the same kind of steel table I had seen in the interrogation rooms) was a mess of paperwork all piled up, it was so stocked up that he had begun stacking some of the papers on the floor.

He sat down in his leather chair behind the desk and invited us to take a seat on the two steel chairs in front of the desk.

The room smelt heavily of cigarette smoke.

“This may seem like a mess, but it is actually organized chaos.” he pulled out a packet of cigarettes from behind one of the piles of papers.

“Is it alright if I smoke?” he asked us.

“It’s your office.”

“Yeah,” he muttered as he lit a cigarette.

This was the first time I had seen anypony smoke since I got to the frontier.

Actually, this was the first time I had seen an earth pony smoke, ever.

Our hooves don't exactly allow for much precision and finesse, so I was rather surprised to see how well he handled and lit the thin little cancer stick.

“Or at least thats what the higher ups want to make me believe.”

He pulled in and puffed deeply.

“I just got promoted you see, was recently given this position and office.”

"But then 'office' would be a bit of an overstatement, this shithole is really nothing but a storage room with a desk."

“Congratulations."

"Eh, thanks." he muttered, drawing in and breathing out a puff of smoke.

"Seems like they are keeping you busy.”

“Bah, tell me about it."

"My position mostly has me go through paperwork all day, it's all 'sign this, sign that, read recon reports of absolutely nothing of interest'."

"Every time they send out those damn choppers to circle around Sun Valley a whole heap of paperwork shows up on my desk.” he puffed another cloud of smoke.

“But at least it keeps me off the field. I know most ponies in the military hate these sort of jobs and would rather be out doing field work, but not here, not on the frontier.”

He grinned.

“Yeah... I can tell why.”

“Indeed. You had your first run in with the horrors our boys go up against out here.”

“Or wait, was it your first? How was Helsinghoof for you? Did good ‘ol Captain Topaz have any good horror stories for you?”

“Basically, he told me that where we are going things are pretty fucked up.”

"And where are you going, captain?"

"Beyond the frontier border. Don't ask me why, because I don't have the faintest idea."

"Beyond the border? Oooo, that's tough."

"So I've heard."

“Yeah yeah, the frontier border." Crone Beetle nodded, his cigarette was nearing it's stump and he was having a hard time holding it in place.

He leaned back and squinted his eyes when drawing in on what little was left before dropping the cigarette butt carelessly and stomping it out on the floor. "Place is a bloody mess that's what it is."

"I am glad we have the wall and defenses set up there though. Keeps the worst of it out of our territory.”

“Yet it isn’t enough.”

“Nope. We got bandits at day and monsters at night. Quite a handful.”

“We can’t get rid of the bandits either, for all the gunships in the world we just can’t seem to stop the workers from escaping from time to time and form bands of thieves out there.”

"Isn't there another way to deal with them?"

"There is, we know there is."

"But the bandit problem is a two sided coin."

"If we’d let on the public about the dangers out there workers would probably stop making suicidal escapes into the wild. But everypony would also panic and start to feel depressed about it. That would increase the rate of suicides and alcoholism. Which is bad. ‘specially when the soldiers are already strained out because of it.”

“Can’t it be solved with therapy and prescription drugs?” Manie wondered.

“Prescription drugs are great and all, if your problem is imaginary, and in your head.”

"But monsters are very real, and you can't fix monsters with drugs."

"If civies start to find out about them things are going to end up looking really gloom really fast, so it's really just best if we take the few bandits and keep them happy than losing the bandits and making them panic."

"By deceiving them?"

"Don't have to like it, it IS the best solution right now, as bad as it sounds."

“Alright then, enough chit-chat. To business. About Checkpoint Berry 2.”

“I’ve been talking to the survivors of it, but they seemed very reluctant and grim about what happened there."

"That is understandable and with good reason, I can’t even imagine the pain Sergeant Crunch Opal must feel right now. I heard that Sergeant Sunny Sunshine and him were close.”

"That's what I've heard."

“But you know, I want to hear your angle on it, you weren't there for as long as they were, this was all new to you."

"So what happened there, what did you two see?”

Manie shrugged nervously.

“I-I wasn’t really out there. I was in the mess hall at the time of the attack, I never saw anything but a hairy arm reach in and slice off one of the soldier’s legs.”

“Ok.” Crone wrote something down on a sheet of paper.

“How about you Tombs? You must have seen something. Witnesses claim that you were outside at the time of the attack.”

“That’s right. I was with Sunny Sunshine.”

“So you are the last pony that saw her alive?”

“Not exactly... she was killed in front of us all when she was about to make it into the mess hall.”

“I had been up with her in the command centre listening to a message sent by CP command regarding my mission. The attack happened shortly after I had finished listening to the message, she mentioned something about ‘balverines’ before panicking and running outside to defend the outpost.”

"Balverines?"

"That's what she called the main attackers."

“Interesting.” he jolted this down.

“Describe these balverines to me.”

I thought of the nightmarish creatures that had slaughtered the soldiers.

Just thinking about them sent shivers down my spine.

“They... reassembled bipedal black... wolves with.. massive muscular arms and sharp talons. Kinda like the fairytale werewolves found in some books. Except with glowing red eyes and fiendish faces.”

“They could jump incredible heights, right over the outpost walls and had incredible agility and speed, jumping quickly from pony to pony.”

“Their claws were razor sharp, capable of ripping through armor with ease. A balverine stuck its arm into the mess hall and blindly swung at one of the soldiers trying to shut the door, slicing off his leg in just one short swing.”

He scribbled this down.

“Ok. What happened after the two of you left the command centre?”

“Not much really. We helped gun down a few of the balverines but it was hopeless, a soldier called the retreat and we all rushed towards the mess hall where the rest were holding out. Only I and another soldier made it in. Sunny Sunshine was cut down right by the door.”

“After that we simply barricaded the door and held out for the night. When we came out in the morning the balverines were gone.”

“Anything else to note?”

“Yes.”

“They seemed to dissolve in sunlight, the balverines we had felled and who hadn't left the outpost overnight had turned into some sort of dark ash. Bonni- I mean, Sergeant Crunch Opal, warned us that the piles of ash were poisonous and that they would ‘corrupt’ us if we touched them.”

“Alright. ‘that all?”

“Pretty much...”

“Thank you Tombs. This has been very helpful.”

“What happens now?” Manie asked.

“Ha! Now Overwatch prepares for a counterattack on the monsters in that area. And thanks to the recon data and video footage captured by Berry 2 we know exactly where to strike!”

“Could you fill us in? Or is that classified?”

“Technically it is, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt letting you hear about it, you were there after all.”

He pulled out a sheet of paper from under the stack and handed it to us.

It was a copy of the map of the area surrounding Checkpoint Berry 2, with all the markers routes.

“This is the map of Checkpoint Berry 2. I saw it in the command centre.”

“Yep.”

“We believe that the night creatures hide in the caves and ruins in the surrounding area at day.”

“What will you do about it?”

“We intend to napalm bomb the crap out of those holes. The fire should flush them all out where they should all burn up in the sun. We don’t know how many there are hiding out in there but we aren’t taking any chances. This is payback.”

“That’s good, Crunch Opal must be relieved to know of this.”

“Actually he doesn’t know, he isn't involved.”

“He doesn’t know? Maybe you should tell him then, he took the death of his lover pretty hard back at the outpost.”

“His lover? What do you mean?”

“Sunny Sunshine and Crunch Opal had a relation going on.”

“Oh wait, they had an actual relationship?”

“Yeah. A lot of the soldiers there had some sort of relation to one another.”

"Shiiiit, I thought that they were just close friends, this changes things significantly."

"How so?"

“Hang on for a sec.”

Crone Beetle leaned back and pulled up his helmet from behind the chair, putting it on.

“*Yeah, hey. This is Crone. The CP cap'n claims that Crunch Opal was in a relationship with Sunny Sunshine.*” pause, “*Yes, she died in the attack. Hmhm. Yeah.*”

“*I think it may be best if we let on Crunch Opal and his squad in on the planned attack, could help with their morale and recovery a bit.*”

“*Yes I know that it is classified. Do it anyway.*”

“*C'mon now, the guy could snap like a twig at any second, you know how tough it is to lose your lover like that. Y- yeah, yeah yeah, look I am just saying that it would really help him if he knew that we are going to hit the monsters who did it back, is that too much to ask?*”

He shook his head at us and waved a hoof casually.

“*You know what? I’ll just call him in and tell him myself.*" he sighed.

"*Uhuh. Yeah. Yeah.*”

“*Yeah yeah I know it will be on me if it leaks, but what’s the worst that could happen? Crunch going to alert the monsters of an incoming attack?*”

“*So you will? Alright, good, thanks. Later.*”

He took off the helmet and just dropped it on the floor.

“Thanks again Captain Tombs. Useful info. We may have averted a potential suicide, if there was any risk of it.”

“Happy to help, I guess.”

“So, do you do these kind of raids against night creatures often or...?” Manie wondered.

“Let me put it this way."

"We don’t know *ANYTHING* about night creatures. We have killed a few and we know that they are nocturnal and dissolve in the sunlight. That’s about it.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Manie exclaimed, “You have been here for years! How is it even possible that you don’t know anything about them?”

“Because anypony we send into the caves or into the cities simply disappeared. And because it’s virtually impossible to do any kind of recon on the ground at night we can't even really get a good idea of what we are going up against. Anything that isn’t a night creature that is caught out in unsecured territory simply dies, it’s way too dangerous.”

"But what about the outposts?" I asked, "There was plenty of footage and data in Berry 2, surely they can't have been the only ones to come up with anything?"

“Yes actually. The idea of setting up observation posts around the frontier is fairly new, and has had pretty meager results thus far, Berry 2 is the only group who came up with anything useful up until now.”

“But what about the monsters you’ve killed? What about the giant and horde of critters you fell yesterday?”

“You want to see the giant?”

Crone pulled out yet another sheet of paper and gave it to us.

It was a printed photograph of what seemed to be a large lake of black ash.

He gave us another photography, this was a photo of the field just outside the eastern walls, it was dotted with black piles of ash as far as the eye could see.

“Gone. The things turn into ASH, remember?”

“And there is no way to recover them at night? Store them away in some lab?”

“Anypony who touches the creatures immediately mutates and twists into those fucking things themselves. Touch them at day and you well, your very skin and flesh starts to fall off your bones within moments. Dangerous shit.”

"So you've tried it before?"

"Yeah."

"And you used hazmat suits?" Manie asked.

"Hazmat suits didn't do shit. They died all the same."

“Just face it, we can’t take a closer look at them and we don’t know where they come from. It’s all pretty hopeless.”

“All we got are photographs and videos. Which don’t really tell us much aside from them being scary as fuck and extremely dangerous, and we already knew that.”

“Maybe in another few years we’ll know more. Right now we are just shooting at the dark.”

“Alright. If you say so.”

“We are done here by the way, you can scoot along now if you want, got nothing else to discuss or ask you guys.”

“Actually I was wondering about something else.” I said.

“Very well. What is it?”

“Dispatch. Crunch Opal said he’d take us to see her when we got back.”

Crone Beetle smiled.

“Heh, Dispatch eh? Why would you want to go see her?”

“Out of sheer curiosity. Crunch Opal claims that she is a very lifelike robot, and a nice one at that.”

“One could say that...”

“There is nothing funny about her is there?” Manie asked.

“Pardon?”

“Bonnie gave us this whole speech of how Dispatch was given a robot body and a personality for the sake of morale and such. He was trying to be very clear on the fact that she wasn’t an Overwatch ‘sex toy’.

Crone looked at Manie not understanding a thing.

“Bonnie?”

“Oh, uh, Crunch Opal.” Manie corrected.

“Crunch Opal’s nickname is Bonnie?”

“Yes.”

“Ok...”

“Well, to answer your question, no, there isn’t anything ‘funny’ going on about Dispatch. I don’t know why they made her a mare, but we don’t really look at her ‘that way’. Most of us don’t really care about her, she is a piece of military hardware, nothing else.”

"Crunch Opal says otherwise. He said that soldiers were afraid of the AI and that they didn't trust her." I said.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't know about that."

“Do you want to go talk to her now or...?”

“I was wondering if we could go see her with Crunch Opal. He was after all the one suggesting we go see her.”

Crone scratched his neck.

“Ok... I'll see what I can do.”

He grabbed his helmet again and put it on.

“*Hello, this is Lieutenant Crone. I was wondering if it would be possible to have the CP captain and another come see Dispatch?*” there was a pause.

“*Why they want to see Dispatch? Beats me, he says it’s out of curiosity or something.*”

“*In an hour? Alright. I’ll be sending him over with Sergeant Crunch Opal. Yes. Uhum. Thanks.*”

Well that was easy.

He slumped the helmet back on the floor.

“Done and done. Someone will come by to pick you up to take you to Crunch Opal in a few. Was there anything else?”

“No. Thank you for answering our questions.”

“Anytime. Always nice to get away from the paperwork for a while.”

Crone Beetle got up off his chair and reached a hoof to me.

“Nice meeting you Captain, you too Major. Best of luck on your mission.”

We went out to wait in the waiting room, in a few minutes the guide from before came back to us.

“Hello again. How did things go?”

“Good. Are you the one taking us to Crunch Opal?”

“Yep. Ready to go?”

“Yep.”

We were led outside towards another building, a large grey structure marked “Barracks B”.

This building was filled with soldiers who were off duty or preparing to go on duty, we passed several rooms with a variety of entertainment means, ping pong tables, jukeboxes, televisions, computers and such.

They were all filled with soldiers happily cheering and chatting with each other.

Eventually we came to a barracks, one of the rooms in which the soldiers slept.

It was a large long room for 24 soldiers with beds and footlockers lining either side, on the walls by the beds were various personal affections hanged or plastered to the wall, such as photos ranging from children to families to more suggestive and borderline pornographic pages ripped out of Wingboner magazines.

The occasional icon or small altar to Luna or Celestia was seen as well.

The room was mostly empty for now, aside from a young stallion laying on his bed just by the door reading a book and the group of 4 at the end of the room chatting and laughing while smoking something, one of which was wearing his helmet to avoid breathing the heavy smoke in.

Bonnie was sitting on a bed somewhere mid room talking to a higher ranked officer, the only thing Bonnie had attached to his wall was a small portrait of Sunny Sunshine smiling brightly.

He seemed pretty busy with the officer right now, so we didn't approach him just yet.

I looked more closely at what the stallion next to us was reading, it was some sort of thick book entitled 'Fallout: Equestria', it was dark and on the cover was an image of an earth pony in some type of metallic armor against a background of noxious looking green clouds.

"Sorry to bother," I said to the stallion, "But could I have a look at what you're reading?"

The stallion looked up at me, not sure what to make of me or my shapeshifting.

"Uh... sure? I guess." he handed me the book.

He had read just under halfway through it.

"What's it about?" I asked him.

"It's uh... I am not that good at explaining the plot of things, but it's essentially an adventure that takes place in a post apocalyptic Equestria after a megaspell war has laid waste to most of the world. Some ponies survived in large underground bunkers called 'Stables' in the book, and the story follows the adventures of a young mare named 'Little Pip', who came from one of those bunkers, as she explores the ruins of Equestria."

"I haven't gotten that far into the story, so there is not much I can tell other than that."

I nodded slowly.

"Sounds interesting."

I began reading randomly from the page he had been on.

"...I nodded, not wanting to really talk about that.  Or really about anything.  What she was doing with her hooves was divine.  She was pressing them in circles against the back of my legs at the base of my rump.  Not as skilled as the professional spa ponies, maybe.  But unspeakably more delightful because it was her doing it.

“So I won’t apologize for helping you break them further.”  I had no idea what she was… oh HELLO!  I gasped as I felt her tongue someplace I had only imagined it before.  Pleasure burst through my whole body.

And she was just getting started.  This was definitely going to qualify as strenu..."

I grimaced and stopped reading.

Yeah, okay.

I wasn't all that into erotic literature... I mean, there is nothing wrong with it, but it just isn't the kind of thing I'd like to read in bed before sleeping.

I handed him the book back.

"Eh, thanks. But it doesn't seem like my kind of book."

"What's with the face? What did you read?" the stallion wondered confusingly, he rapidly read through the page and laughed.

"Amazing first impression you got! I didn't know it would go that way!"

"Really."

"Yeah seriously, the story is usually much more serious and violent, it's really good, trust me."

Serious and violent = 'really good', gotcha.

"I don't know... I am not really into those types of books, this really seems more like a post apocalyptic wasteland erotica than an adventure..."

"Nooo noo," he laughed again, "It's not an erotica, the rest of the book is nothing like it, I swear."

"How do you know? You said you hadn't gotten very far?"

"Ah... uh... okay, you got me, I don't know if there is more like that later on, but aside from that the book is great, it's really something you should consider picking up sometime when you got the chance."

"Eeeeh..." I didn't feel very convinced about it.

"Just do it man, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"The book is really long and there were no scenes like that before, it's pretty much all post apocalyptic adventure, seriously."

"Just pick it up sometime and if you like it you like it, otherwise you can just give it away or something, I'm sure there are plenty who would like it."

"I guess... I'll think about it."

The officer Bonnie had talked with passed by us with a nod, our guide left with the officer.

Bonnie approached us, practically beaming with joy.

“Hey guys!” he greeted us.

“Hey Bonnie, everything alright?”

“Hell yeah! Have you heard? They are going to strike back at those fuckers who killed Sunny! All thanks to the data we had gathered!” we went back to his bed.

“I know. You seem quite happy about it.”

“Haha, yeah! It’s great news!”

He sat back down on his bed and leaned back.

“Man,” he sighed, “It pains me still, it’s only been one day since I last kissed her. And now she’s... dead.”

“But it will be good to know that she didn’t die in vain. Motherfuckers...”

“I’m sorry Bonnie.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. It wasn’t your fault that a horde of monsters attacked us.”

“It may just be natures idea of a horrible joke or something, I don't know, but at least they will be paying for it.”

“So I got us a meeting with Dispatch while talking to the lieutenant...” I informed him, wanting to pull away from the subject, I figured that the less we spoke of it the less he'd suffer.

“Oh?”

“Says you should take us to her in an hour.”

“An hour? Sure. That gives us plenty of time.”

“Plenty of time for what?” Manie cut in.

“To show you around the compound of course!”

“Now?”

“Yeah, now. I mean, why not? You guys must probably move on tomorrow early in the morning.”

That reminds me.

I got to try and talk to CP Command again, I needed to have a serious talk with them.

And this night creature thing kinda screws with our traveling, the distances on the map are pretty long, and we probably wouldn't make it from settlement to settlement before nightfall, especially not if we would have to deal with more bandits on the way.

Perhaps I could try and get us a ride? It would save us a lot of time and risk.

“...um..."

"...sure Bonnie. Lets go see the compound then.”

“Great, lets go.”

We left the barracks and went for the exit.

“So there ain’t much to show around the compound but I think the helipads and laser guidance tower will interest you.”

“Which one are you taking us to first?”

“The helipads of course! The guidance tower’s in the same building as Dispatch.”

As we stepped outside into the courtyard we were met by a pony in a wheelchair, struggling to make his way forward using only one hoof.

“Well if it isn’t Private Snowball.” Bonnie went up to the pony.

“H-hey sarge.” his hoof slipped and he fell off the chair onto the hard ground, bruising his good leg.

“God fucking damnit.”

We helped him back up on the chair.

“How is the leg going? I see you have a hard time getting around in that thing.” Bonnie asked him.

“Like hell. Why they don’t just build wheelchairs for ponies who lost their forelegs is beyond me, moving around in the damn thing is impossible.”

“And you can’t move around with just three legs?”

“Three legged pony? Doesn’t work like that, sir.”

“You sure? I've seen plenty of ponies walk around holding things with one hoof and walking with the other.”

“Allow me to demonstrate how I walk with three legs.”

Snowball got out of his chair and managed to wobble up on his 3 legs.

He looked fine, but then he took one step forward and fell over instantly, he just laid there pathetically unable to get up on his own.

We helped him up again.

“Fucking shit.”

“I get my prosthetic leg next week.”

“And if you keep pulling that crap you’ll get it next month.” a voice said from behind us.

It was a gray earth pony nurse in woodland camo military drabs, she wore a woodland boonie hat, there was something tomboyish about her, and that was unusual for a nurse.

“Private, how many times have I told you to stay put in your chair?”

“I don’t know Nurse Needles. A hundred? I've lost count.” Snowball replied.

“Being snide isn’t going to help you.”

“Neither will sitting around in this fucking chair!” Snowball banged his hoof on the metal wheel.

“Why can’t I just get my new leg NOW?”

“I already told you, Private! We can’t set you up with a prosthetic limb unless the wound heals proper. And if you keep falling ON your damn wound you’ll never get your new leg.”

“Now stop getting out of your chair or Luna help me will I fasten you in it. THEN what are you going to do?”

Snowball growled.

Bonnie backed off a bit.

“Ah well, we’ll leave you to it. Have a good one Snowball.”

The nurse broke out into laughter, Snowballs eyes went wide.

“NO! SHE DIDN’T KNOW! SHE DIDN’T KNOW!”

“‘Snowball’ oh I am going to have some fun with you Private. Wait ‘til the others hear about it.”

The nurse towed Snowball away in his wheelchair.

“You know,” Manie said smiling, “You probably screwed that poor boy over.”

Bonnie looked after Snowball being towed away in the distance.

“He’ll be fine. Heheheh.”

We headed off into the opposite direction and went behind the large tower in the center.

On the other side was a an absolutely massive building marked “Overwatch Air HQ”, from down below I could see multiple helipads on the roof, some choppers took off and left the compound, others returned shortly.

Inside was some sort of reception desk, a mare was sitting behind the desk typing something on a computer.

She noticed us approaching and looked up.

“Hmmyes? Can I help you with something?”

“Hello. I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. I’m just going to show Civil Protection officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie around. We sergeants still have clearance for Air HQ right?”

The mare looked at us suspiciously, then back at Bonnie.

“Manie? THE MAJOR Manie Manie?” she said in an almost disgusted tone.

“I can’t go anywhere without being recognized.” Manie whispered bitterly to me.

“Your reputation precedes you.” I whispered back.

“I take it you know who she is.” Bonnie answered.

“Of course I do. Everypony does.”

“Uh, I don’t mind you showing them around, and yes Overwatch sergeants still have clearance to Air HQ. But please keep a good eye on her, I... hope you understand.”

Bonnie turned to look at Manie.

“Hey Manie, you weren’t planning on destroying any choppers while visiting Sun Valley were you?”

Manie gave them a fake smile.

“Nope. Haven’t planned on it.”

Bonnie turned back to the receptionist.

“Well there you have it. Perfectly safe.”

“...”

“Right... well go on in.”

We got into an elevator at the end of the room.

It had one of those annoying looping elevator themes playing.

The doors shut and it began to go up to the roof.

“I must say, Overwatch seems to be incredibly laid back about security. Back in Equestria one would only dream of being toured around any facility of major importance.” I said.

“We don’t run things like they do back home. We are much nicer over here.”

“I noticed.”

“But then, you must also keep in mind that we are observed by security cameras at all times. Even the bathrooms are supervised.”

Bonnie pointed towards a small black box in one of the top corners of the elevator that I hadn’t noticed.

“So if they see you doing anything suspicious, such as prepping a bomb you’ll be sure to find a squad of guards waiting for you around the next corner. So be nice and behave yourself around Overwatch facilities.”

“Sure would have fucking helped if they kept more than just their own facilities under observation...” Manie muttered.

“Hmm?”

“We ran into a bit of problems in Helsinghoof. Manie was... hmm... she was...” I began.

“Raped.”

“...raped in Helsinghoof. She was kidnapped by one of our own and Overwatch didn’t do anything about it.” I explained.

“Oh. I am sorry to hear.”

Pling.

Doors opened and we stepped outside.

Bonnie walked just ahead of us, I leaned in towards Manie while walking.

“How are you holding up?” I whispered to her.

“Have you ever been raped? Sweet Heavens?” she whispered back.

“...no...?”

“Then we have nothing to discuss.”

Then she simply trotted up to Bonnie.

Okay, fair enough.

The roof was filled with pilots and engineers who were working on various helicopters, making repairs, washing them and restocking them with missiles and ammunition.

I hadn’t seen an Overwatch helicopter this close before so it was a good opportunity to take a closer look at what an Overwatch Gunship really was.

I joined Bonnie and Manie who had both gone up to an engineer working on the undercarriage of a parked helicopter.

“Hey there.” Bonnie greeted the engineer.

The engineer slipped out from under the helicopter, it was an oil stained elderly unicorn stallion wearing a yellow jumpsuit.

“Why hello there young uns. Come to watch ‘ol Conrad Wrench perform magic with gunships?” he greeted back with a raspy old voice that implied years of back breaking experience.

Conrad saw me approaching and seemed a bit put off.

“Oh. And what might you be?”

“CP officer Captain Tombs.” I answered.

He didn’t say anything and just kept staring at me.

“He is wearing a scramble suit. It shifts his appearance to keep his identity hidden.” Manie explained.

Oh right. The scramble suit... I had.... almost forgotten all about it.

“Scramble suit.” Conrad repeated.

“That’s an interesting bit of tech you got there. Is it magical or something?”

“Yes.” I answered.

“I see. I ain’t seen a magical piece of gear in all my years of engineering, is it ok if I take a look?”

He wiped his hooves with a dirty rag.

“I’d rather not... the suit is merged with my skin, it has no power source or switch that I know of and cannot be taken off. It’s been sealed on me somehow.” I said.

But really, I didn't want the greasy oily hooves of an old stallion touching me intimately.

“I understand. Are you sure though? I promise I’d be gentle. Won’t even use my hooves or nothing.”

Ah, well, in that case... I guess it doesn’t hurt to let him have a look at it.

“Well... okay. You are welcome to try.”

“Great. Now hold stand still for a bit...” he began to walk around me.

I felt his magical field envelop me, tugging at me and squeezing various parts of me.

“Interesting.” he said.

"I can feel that yer wearing a suit, a really thin one at that."

"You can feel my suit?"

"Yep."

"I can't feel my suit, that's some finicky magic you got there."

"Yeeeears of experience son." the stallion grinned.

The field grew more powerful, I felt it tug at my neck where the seam for the hood had been before.

In my field of view I could see a white strip of text over a small blue box flashing in the corner of my eye.

WARNING - UNKNOWN MAGICAL MANIPULATION

“Something is happening.” I said.

“What?”

“The suit is warning me that unknown magic is tampering with it.”

"It is?"

“It’s flashing the message in the corner of my eye.”

“Keep going?” he asked.

“Keep going. Maybe you’ll hit something that allows me to get out of this blasted thing.”

“You don’t want to wear the suit?”

“Fuck no. I was sealed in the suit against my own will.”

“Ok.”

He prodded and tugged at me some more.

The suit gave off a pinging sound.

Multiple warning messages popped up overlapping each other and my vision flickered with short bursts of static and blackness.

“I think I am onto something. Look, I am going to try and overload the suit. But I must warn you, this may hurt a bit.”

“Do it.”

The field grew even more powerful, the suit began to feel hot, it was now warning me that the suit was overloading.

A shearing wave of electrical pain seared through my body.

The messages disappeared for a few moments, then another message appeared.

STAND BY - RESET

“Whoa!” Bonnie exclaimed.

“What? What happened?” I asked.

“The suit frizzled and shut off for a second, then it became all black, kinda like Manie’s coat.”

“We saw what you really look like for just a second there.” Manie said.

“I didn’t know you had a gray coat.”

RESETTING

"I told you on the boat, remember?"

RESETTING

"Yeah... but... I didn't really believe you..."

. . .

SUIT ONLINE

LIVE

“Any success?” I asked Conrad. “Did you find anything that could turn it off?”

“I’m sorry. Doesn’t seem like there is anything I can do about it.”

I tugged at my neck in an attempt to get the hood off.

Nothing.

It was still sealed.

I sighed.

“Thanks for trying anyway.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, was there anything I could do for you younglings?”

“Yes actually. I am showing these two around the compound, I was wondering if you could tell ‘em about our birds?” Bonnie asked the engineer.

“Ah. Of course I can, choppers are my specialty!”

Bonnie laughed. "So they are I see!"

“So tell us Conrad. What are we looking at here? What are you working on?”

Conrad walked up to the gunship whose undercarriage he had been working on.

It was a medium sized gunship clad in the same sort of black steel plating most of the more advanced Overwatch structures was.

It had two rotors, they were smaller over the large main rotor, it’s wings held 4 small rockets each.

Below the cockpit was a heavy machine gun of sorts of an advanced looking design.

The most striking and odd feature of the gunship was it’s total lack of windows, instead a variety of small red lenses dotted the undercarriage and sides of the chopper with one very large red lense in the front acting as the main ‘eye’ of the pilot.

“This here is our most common variety, the V972 Heavy Gunship. Or ‘Hunter-Chopper’ as it is known as amongst the grunts and pilots. It is clad completely in some of our finest armor and uses a series of cameras mounted on the sides and undercarriage of the chopper for vision, this is to give the crew more protection from AA fire and to protect them better in chopper-to-chopper combat."

"Simulations show that the main killer of choppers isn’t the destruction of the chopper itself, but the death of the pilot. Without a pilot the chopper goes down, immediately.”

Conrad went up to a console on the side of the helipad, with the press of a button the helipad spun revealing the side of the chopper and it’s tail.

“The V972 features two rotors on the top, a smaller one over the large ‘main’ rotor, giving it more agility than a conventional chopper and to compensate from the extra weight of it’s armor plating and armored tail. It is capable of turning at a surprising speed and can fly at speeds up to 190 knots, which is ca... 350 kilometers per hour.”

“That’s pretty fast for a helicopter.” Bonnie explained to us.

“It’s fuel reserves allows it to stay up to 12 hours in the air before refueling.”

Conrad went up to the wing of the gunship, putting a hoof on one of the loaded missiles.

“It has a pretty average arsenal for an army helicopter, but is configured this way for what we use the choppers for on the frontier. These are R22 guided incendiary rockets, the chopper can be loaded with up to 8 of these, the R22's pack quite a punch for their size, they are designed to deliver more of a long lasting splash damage aftereffect than instant damage. The rockets can also lock onto targets ‘painted’ by a laser guidance system at ranges up to five kilometers away, if the pilot isn’t facing the target the gunner can take over and and lock on to target using one of the camera eyes.”

He went up to the machine gun under the nose of the chopper.

“This thing mounted on on the head of the chopper is MG2 heavy pulse rifle. It’s called ‘rifle’ in a very loose term as it was based of the AR2 prototype pulse rifle intended to replace our current AR1 ‘sluggers’ in service with Overwatch. Unlike the loadout of most helicopters this turret doesn’t fire explosive shells or bullets of any kind, this is basically a mounted heavy machine gun that fires pulse charges capable of ripping through most armor.”

“That doesn’t sound very effective, to have a bullet based weapon as the gunner loadout.” Manie said.

"I don't know much about helicopters, but I can imagine that the speed and distance makes accurate aiming in a gunner position difficult."

“That’s what I thought first too, but then they explained the difference of pulse weapons and normal weapons to me."

"Which is what?"

"Pulse weapon bullets fly much faster than normal slugs, around 300% faster. So what the gunner aims at, he hits. And with a weapon that fires at a speed of 1200 rounds per minute at a speed of over 3000 meters per second I’d say that it’s pretty hard to miss.”

“But still, why a bullet based weapon? Wouldn’t it be better to have a high explosive cannon for splash damage?”

“Not on the frontier it seems. The V972 are often sent on long patrols in which they provide lots of close air support. The large caliber explosive shells used in other choppers take up a lot of space, which limits how much fire they can provide and for how long they can stay in the air before returning to resupply. Bullet based weapons on the other hand use smaller munitions, which means more bullets.”

“And for what these choppers are sent out to hunt a large supply of bullets is better than explosive shells.”

Conrad stepped off the helipad and went up to the console again, another press and the chopper turned 90 degrees revealing it’s back which had an open hatch with nothing inside.

“To top it all off the V972 also comes armed with so called ‘ball mines’, don’t ask me what their model name is because it doesn’t have one. Whoever designed them wasn’t very creative with the name. Kinda like the guy designing the laser guidance system. That’s just lazy.”

“Waaaaaaiit...” Manie said slowly, “You don’t know who designed the laser guidance system?”

“No. Then, I don’t know who designed most of this crap anyway, so it's not really that strange."

"Why who was it?”

Manie smiled widely.

“Not important, go on.”

“Ok... well, anyway, the ball mines (which you don’t see here because they haven’t been loaded yet) are large black ball shaped explosives which beep loudly when dropped. They are highly explosive but are intended more as a demoralizing terror weapon than an outright killer. Because, like I just mentioned, when dropped the mines beep loudly, alarming anyone close by and forcing them to run away and take cover, this is good for flushing out enemies from cover. Anyone dumb enough to stand next to it dies and anyone who runs away and into the open dies. It’s a win win.”

“Oh and uh, the chopper comes loaded with 8 of these.”

Conrad rotated the chopper so that the nose faced us again.

“Well that’s the general rundown of the V972. I’d give you more specs, but I am not sure how much you know about engines and the specifics and differences of rotors from chopper to chopper...”

He looked around the roof.

“Doesn’t seem like we got any of our other choppers around right now. There are so few of them, but we got two lighter but more heavily armed variants and one super heavy transport helo. In total we got 20 of the big ones, they are constantly used to haul cargo and wounded however so they usually aren't around. The other smaller ones are almost always at the frontier border.”

“Out of curiosity I was wondering if you knew anything about the history of helicopters...” I asked.

"Sure I do. Why?"

“When I was younger there were no helicopters in Equestria. There were only zeppelins and pegasus wing powered carriages. When exactly were helicopters invented and when did they come into service with the military?”

“The first civilian mechanized helicopters were created during the Golden Age when the need for smaller crafts capable of vertical flight arose due to all them skyscrapers being built around Equestria, it is mighty hard for pegasi to pull their carriages in the urban jungle and zeppelins lack the flexibility to navigate through tighter turns."

"The first helicopters were clunky and clumsy birds that were hard and expensive to produce. They were mainly used by more important ponyfolk to travel around the cities."

"The very first models were based on a design created by none other than one of the wielders of the elements of harmony.”

There it was again, the wielders of the elements of harmony, I kept hearing them mentioned, but I still didn't know anything about them, except for maybe Rainbow Dash from what Strawberry Feather had told me.

“...but they lived half a century ago. I thought the Golden Age was past their time?”

“In a way..."

"The Golden Age was ‘officially’ on shortly after the passing of the holder of the element of laughter, Pinkie Pie, 55 years ago. Miss Rarity and Twilight Sparkle lived on for another 7 and 5 years respectively and miss Applejack, the element of honesty, lived another 19 years, watching her sister perform great feats with Stable Tec. She tended to her farm Sweet Apple Acres til the day she died, stubborn as a mule and refusing to retire.”

Conrad’s eyes seemed dreamy and watery.

“They were mighty fine mares... Never got to know any of them myself, but I saw them multiple times. I was about your age back then. Their passing's became national tragedies, Celestia herself took their deaths quite harshly.”

I didn’t know to which one of us he was comparing.

“So which of the holders came up with the design?” I asked.

“Miss Pinkie Pie, the holder of the element of laughter. Real party animal that one, she was one of the first to go, just after Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.”

“The... wielder of the element of laughter designed the first helicopter?”

"Seriously?"

“Ah, but Pinkie Pie was the most cunning and clever of them all, Twilight Sparkle was smart, but Pinkie Pie was crafty.”

"She built and made many strange trinkets and contraptions throughout her life, the helicopter was one of them."

“From what I have heard, she didn’t intentionally put her mind to specifically invent the helicopter, they say that at some point she built some sort of pedal powered flying machine to reach her friend Rainbow Dash up in the sky. The specifics around this are unclear, but the helicopter crashed and it was never spoken of again."

"It wasn't until way later during the Golden Age that her design was used and modified for the first helicopter prototype, the main difference being that it was powered by a mechanical engine than by pedaling."

“As for weaponizing,the military began to use helicopters soon after the founding of Civil Protection, CP needed a quick and agile airborne vehicle capable of patrolling the cities and pursuit from the air. These were essentially nothing more than civilian choppers with mounted guns at first, the designs became more elaborate as time passed on and the helicopter was eventually used by Air Force and then later by Overwatch.”

“Today we have hundreds of helicopter designs, ranging from the vertibird style chopper which has two large rotors, one next to the other capable of lifting massive weights, to the Overwatch Hunter-Chopper here with two rotors one above the other and so on. We’ve gone quite a long way from Pinkie Pie’s flimsy pedal powered gyropede."

"Celestia bless yer earth pony ingenuity, eh?”

"OUR earth pony ingenuity?"

“Why earth pony ingenuity? Haven’t pegasi and unicorns also had a part in their design?”

“Not as much as you'd think."

"I am not saying that you earth ponies could have built all of this on your own, we unicorns have a finesse and precision that your kind lacks and we’ve had our share of involvement in the various projects. But just look around you,”

Conrad waved a hoof just generally at our surroundings.

“Almost everything you see here has been designed mainly by earth pony engineers and scientists. Almost every component in this here V972 has been brainstormed by earth ponies. Most of the tech back in Equestria has also been invented by earth ponies, the Golden Age was largely a result of Earth Pony engineering.”

"Hell, the very thing that technically began the Golden Age in the first place, the Party Time Mint-Als, was made by an earth pony!"

"Huh."

“Again, I am not saying that there haven’t been great pegasi and unicorn inventions, goddess forbid. It is just that the ratio of great technological advances per ‘race’ of pony is much higher on the earth pony side.”

“I see. I didn’t know that.”

“It is not common knowledge, that’s for sure. It is not talked about all that much for the sake of keeping the balance and relations between the three kinds stable.”

That sounds more like a whole bunch of bullshit bias towards earth ponies than the actual truth to my ears.

But then what if he was right?

I hadn’t really paid much attention to this sort of thing before, I was raised and grown up with the idea that we are all equal ponies and that everypony is an important part of the Equestrian industry, that we all fill a ‘niche’ in society.

“Do you really not know who designed the laser guidance system?” Manie asked again.

“No. I told you I don’t.”

“Does the name Manie Manie mean anything to you?”

“No. Should it?”

I began to see where this was going.

“What are you doing?” I asked Manie.

"Prodding him for reactions."

"Do you want to be known for what you did?"

"No... but I find it strange that he of all ponies doesn't know who I am."

"That's a good thing, you don't want to be known for doing something like that."

"Tell him about what I did." Manie grinned.

"Manie. Don't test your luck."

"Do it. If you don't I'll tell him myself."

"What the heck are you talking about? Tell me what?" Conrad wondered, he had been watching us back and forth trying to put some sense to what we were talking about and who this 'Manie Manie' pony we kept mentioning was.

I shook my head.

This has bad idea written all over it, but here goes nothing.

“Do you know of... the incident that occurred back in Equestria during a joint laser guidance training exercise with a battalion of Armor tanks and Air Force helicopters?”

“The one where the entire battalion of Air Force was shot down in friendly fire?”

“Yes.”

“I know of it. Always wondered what happened.”

“Major Manie Manie of Armor and R&D did it.”

“Ok. And?”

“The mare who designed and built the SOFLAM+ laser guidance system entirely on her own.”

“That doesn’t really...”

“My companion. The black mare with the white outlines and stetson hat.”

Conrad slowly turned to Manie and stared blankly at her for a good minute.

Then two tears fell from his eyes and he slowly knelt down before her, bowing his head as if he had met his maker.

“I-it’s an honor to meet you, ma’am.”

!?!?!

Wait what?

Manie looked completely puzzled, she was completely taken aback by his unexpected reaction.

“It's an HONOR to meet me?”

“Y-yes! I am so happy to have finally met the pony responsible for the deaths of those bastards!”

“WHAT!?”, Manie couldn’t believe her eyes. Or ears!

“You are HAPPY about what I did to Air Force!?”

“Absolutely! Air Force is nothing but rotten and racist arrogant fuckin’ pegasi and bad news, I am glad you showed them what’s what. So damned glad!”

“Wow... I..."

"I don’t know what to say. I am speechless.”

“Thus far anypony who knows of what I did has either tried to kill, kidnap, sell me off to Air Force or generally view me with suspicion and disgust. This is...”

“Manie, ma’am. I got friends in Overwatch who share the same feelings towards Air Force! We back what you did up 100%.”

“But you don’t even know WHY I did it!”

“Whatever reason you had was probably a good one! What really matters is that you socked Air Force right where it hurts, you brought the arrogant fucks down a few notches and they are still licking their wounds over it, you REALLY pissed them off!”

“...”

“I shot them down because they threatened to kill me, and for that they put a bounty on my head!"

“Air Force would only dare to touch you out on the frontier.”

“Look, if anyone is giving you trouble in Sun Valley just come to me, I promise we’ll take care of it.”

"Conrad..."

"I am serious, you are not alone, there are those among us who would do anything for you."

"And I mean it, if someone, anyone is bothering you about what you did... then please, come to me."

"I..."

"..."

“Thank you... Conrad... I... will...”

Conrad smiled.

“Hey Conrad, how come you hate Air Force so much?” Bonnie asked.

“They are rotten, arrogant, pompous, racist fucks and are nothing but a bunch of assholes and nancies acting superior to all of us.”

"Woha, easy there, what's with the hate?"

“I’ve been a mechanical engineer all my life, before the the military was around I worked on automobiles, airplanes and zeppelins. But that wasn’t all I was handy with, I could fix anything with gears lickety split and I was damn good at it. Hell, I still am!"

"Everypony knew I was good too, if I applied to a job that required mechanical expertise, I got it. No questions asked.”

“So one day they founded the Equestrian Army and eight years later the foundations for other branches were laid out. They founded the Infantry first with its harsh but just physical requirements, Armor and then last Air Force.”

“I had a great passion and interest for aerial vehicles in particular so I applied to sign up with Air Force, offering to be an engineer on the ground."

"But do you know what they did?"

"No...?"

"They laughed in my FACE!"

"Ouch."

"They said I wasn’t ‘good enough’ for Air Force and that only pegasi were allowed in.”

“A couple of years after that, after that disaster with the 1st Recon Battalion and the discovery of this hellhole, Air Force recruitment numbers dropped sharply. Now suddenly Air Force was begging me to sign up with them."

"Did you?"

"Yeah, I gave it a chance for the sake of working with aircraft."

"But by the goddess were they RACIST. You have just NO IDEA how much shit I got for being an unicorn.”

“I wasn’t the only one in my department to suffer from their arrogance either, there was this earth pony I worked with. His mechanical skills matched even my own."

"Every day they showered him with the typical pegasus anti earth pony racial slurs. They practically nicknamed him ‘filthy dirt scraper’, ‘mud pony’ or some other variation of those. And he just took it, he kept silent the whole time, patched up their choppers, was spat on and harassed by the pilots who flew the very choppers he fixed. Day in and day out.”

“I was disgusted and eventually tired of this. I sabotaged some of their choppers and quit the job.”

“A few days afterwards I read in the newspapers how 7 pegasi died in an Air Force incident. Good riddance.”

"Holy shit! And you just admit that just like that!?"

"Fuck them! I am not afraid to admit what I did! I don't regret anything! They were ASSHOLES."

"But still, that's just... extreme."

"What can I say? Extreme assholes deserve extreme punishment."

“Some time after I quit, Overwatch was founded. Mighty Equestria was going to take on the continent head on! This was the go to choice for all the ponies who were rejected by Infantry’s incredibly harsh requirements and Air Force’s racism. For a while I considered signing on with Armor, but tanks weren’t really my thing. So when I heard that Overwatch was going to run it’s own air support the choice was obvious.”

“We’ve met a few others who feel the same towards Air Force. But there is one thing I wonder about.” I wondered.

“Shoot.”

“You mentioned Infantry and their harsh requirements, I've heard this being mentioned a few times and have even had the opportunity to speak with a couple of ponies who were in Infantry. But could you elaborate a bit on these requirements of theirs?”

"Why? Thinking of signing on?"

"Goddess forbid, no. I am getting to old for soldiering, if anything I am considering a different line of work."

Conrad nodded.

“Infantry" he began, "is the branch of the army that specializes in, well, infantry forces as you know."

"They have very steep entrance requirements and accept only the very toughest into their forces because they wish to maintain an elite unit."

"They don't field aircraft and have few vehicles, choosing instead to specialize entirely on infantry combat, and because of this, and their harsh requirements they excel at just that. Everyone in Infantry are hardened tough ponies who can support each other as a strong single unit."

"Their harsh requirements however essentially mean that the very large majority of Infantry is composed of earth ponies. Which have proven again and again over time to be the toughest and most enduring ‘race’ of pony."

"And it makes sense when you think about it, you guys live your entire lives without wings or horns, you can't just gracefully hoover above the ground or use magic to do things like we can."

"I couldn’t even imagine how brutal it must be to live without my horn, I know that most things can be done just as well using your teeth and hooves, but still. The idea just strikes me as... odd.”

"It's not so bad." Manie said.

"It isn't? Here are two scenarios for you."

"You smoke cigarettes, it's been a long day and you feel like taking a quick smoke break. Now what?"

"Um... I... wouldn't know, I have never really tried..."

"Lieutenant Crone Beetle seems to handle it just fine, have you met Crone Beetle?" I asked.

"I have not."

"He is an earth pony, one of the officers in the big central tower here. He smokes cigarettes like a pro using his hooves and mouth. He doesn't have that problem."

"Okay, so perhaps you can learn some finesse to deal with small things like cigarettes. But that just takes me to the second scenario, and this is something that you can absolutely not learn."

"Alright, what is it?"

"You are on your way somewhere, be it over a river, through a dense urban area or a crowded place."

"But you find that the way is blocked or inaccessible, had you been a pegasus you could easily have just flown over the obstacle, but you are not. What do you do?"

"That's not really fair."

"That's what I am saying. You guys are at a constant disadvantage in life, you have to learn and struggle with things that come off as natural and easy for us unicorns and pegasi."

"That is why you are stronger, and that is why you are more ingenious and crafty than we are."

"You are... superior."

I felt flattered but incredibly bothered by the old unicorns bias.

I had never met a pony who had ever portrayed us earth ponies as superior to unicorns and pegasi, but it still didn't feel right, this isn't how we should view each other, we all have our niche in society, there is no superior race of pony.

“Um..."

No, I don't want to go down this road, I am not going to argue pony race superiority with some cooky old unicorn bigot.

"...you said that Overwatch was the go to choice for Infantry rejects... why haven’t I met anypony who has held a grudge against Infantry yet?”

“Because the mares and stallions of Infantry aren’t xenophobic and arrogant. They are modest, hard working ponies who look after one another. They don’t completely shut out ponies because they are of ‘the wrong race’, anyone is allowed into Infantry, if they pass the requirements.”

“Another contributing factor would be the good relations between Infantry and Overwatch. Infantry is the exact opposite of Air Force. They feel that Air Force are a bunch of spineless cowards.”

"How come?"

"Because of their unreasonable fear of the frontier. Queen Celestia has ordered Air Force to assist Overwatch in securing the frontier with both air forces and ground troops, but they aren't, at least not as much as we'd like."

"Air Force has ground troops?"

"Oh yeah, except they aren't really 'ground troops' per se, they are more like specialists, elite operators, snipers, recon teams, those kind of troops."

"But all Air Force contributes with are weatherponies and the occasional rare long range jet, that's it, they don't have any bases on the frontier and they aren't helping us at all."

"Infantry sees this and calls them out on their cowardice and defiance, they even go as far as sending troops of their own to help us over at the border."

At the border?

Cake Frosting was being deployed to the frontier, could it possible that she was being sent there?

Maybe it wasn't that unlikely that I'd cross paths with her again, with any luck, she'd be there, somewhere, and I could let her know about her niece, Lace Lizard.

“Come to think of it, there is actually an Infantry representative in Sun Valley right now." he added.

"There is?"

"Yeah. One of their top commanders I think. I don’t think they would let you speak to them though, they aren’t as friendly with outsiders as we are.”

"Oh okay."

"What has Celestia said about this? About Air Force not helping out and Infantry sending forces on their own accord?"

"Nothing, from what I've heard. She is apparently to busy to even care."

"I don't know what involvement she has, but from what I've understood she usually leaves the army to approach and deal with these situations as best they can, which presumably includes relations and cooperation. I don't think I've ever heard of her involving herself in army affairs, at least not openly..."

"You haven't said much about Armor and their involvement. What can you tell me about them?" Manie asked.

“The Armor branch is the only truly neutral party of the bunch. They keep their distance from army politics and don’t get involved the affairs of the other branches and generally keep quiet.”

"They, along with Infantry weren't included in any of the military plans regarding the frontier."

“Still, Infantry has gotten itself involved from what you tell us, does Armor have any kind of presence or...?”

“None as far as I know of. Can't see why they should, none of this concerns them and with them keeping to themselves they wouldn't have anything to gain from voluntarily sending forces."

"I don’t think anyone from Armor has ever set hoof on the frontier."

"Heh, well, until now.” the old pony smiled at Manie.

“Guys, maybe we should get going if you want to see the guidance tower before our appointment with Dispatch?” Bonnie reminded us.

“Oh? You are going to see Dispatch?”

“Yep.”

“What for?”

“These two haven’t met her. They expressed interest in meeting her in person so that's why I am taking them to her.”

“Dispatch’s a nice mare. Very lifelike, very pretty.”

“Keep in mind however that she is just a machine, she thinks like a machine.”

"So take any strange responses or reactions from her with a pinch of salt."

“Gotcha.” I said.

“Well thank you for guiding us and telling us about the gunships, Conrad.” Bonnie thanked, going up to shake the old unicorns greasy hoof.

“Oh no problem at all, I just wish I had more choppers to show you. Pretty measly tour with only one chopper and all.”

“I think you made up for it with the rest of the conversation, you seemed to have a lot talk about.”

“I do love a good chat. Feel free to stop by anytime, you know where to find me, Air HQ is my home away from home.”

Conrad turned to Manie.

“And miss. I know I already mentioned it before, but again, my offer of help still stands, if somepony is giving you trouble for your actions against Air Force, come to me and me and my friends will sort it out. We are here for you.”

“I will. Thank you Conrad Wrench.” Manie said.

We went back into the elevator and made our way down again.

“He seemed nice.” Manie began.

“I thought he seemed a bit racist." I said.

"Racist?"

"He was clearly partial to earth ponies.” Bonnie said.

“He wasn’t that bad, was he?”

“In Overwatch, we hate Air Force as a faction, the members of the faction are arrogant and pompous. We don't like how their faction keeps a distance from the frontier and from us."

"Conrad on the other hoof seemed to hate Air Force due to the pegasi’s discrimination against him in the past, he seems to love anything and anypony that hates Air Force, hence why he spoke highly of Infantry and us earth ponies in general."

"He PRAISED you for what you did to Air Force, and that is just sick."

“I think you are overreacting a bit.”

Bonnie sneered at Manie.

“Ok, so maybe he was being biased towards us earth ponies, but I still don’t think that he shows any serious dislike towards the pegasi race as a whole. It seemed to me that his hate was directed more towards the pegasi specifically working in Air Force.”

“Perhaps. Maybe you are right.”

"No sense dwelling any further on it though, it's just opinions."

“Is it... true that Earth Ponies came up with the more important advances?” I asked.

The two stared at me.

“Conrad seemed convinced that our race is responsible for most of... well... everything. Do any of you two happen to know if that is true or if that was just him being... you know...”

"A bigot?" Bonnie finished.

"I guess that is one way to put it..."

The two became strangely silent for a while.

“I don’t know... haven’t really put much thought behind it.” Manie responded first.

“Does it really matter though? Why should it be important to know if it was a pegasus or unicorn or earth pony that invented... say, the toaster? Aren’t we all ponies?” Bonnie said.

“That sort of thinking is what fuels racism and segregation between our kind. And is that really the way we want to go? Do we really want to degenerate into a race of self hating racist ponies? What do you suppose will happen after races are segregated, should we begin to attack ponies for their coat colors and cutiemarks too?”

“You are right. I’m sorry for bringing it up.” I apologized.

"I feel the same way, it's just that his talk about us being 'the more ingenious' and 'crafty' of the three really got me thinking."

Pling.

Bottom floor.

Bonnie put a hoof on my shoulder as I was about to leave the elevator.

"Tombs."

"We are all equal ponies, we all do our part for society and our race as a whole, we are all worth equally."

"Do not let bigots like Conrad get to you."

I pushed his hoof away.

"I'm not. Relax."

We returned to the central Overwatch building and went through another series of dark corridors.

We took an elevator up to the top of the tower, the elevator was built out of the same black steel as the rest and was just as poorly lit as the rest of the building was too, it felt like the ride up took forever, it was a slow and claustrophobic experience.

Well up in the tower we entered a medium sized black room with two soldiers guarding a door and two ceiling mounted black turrets mounted on either side of the door.

They appeared to share the same sort of design as the gunship turret had but it differed slightly so I’m not sure if they were pulse or slug based, whichever it was, it wasn't important.

“*Halt.*” one of the soldiers stopped us by the door.

“*Who are you?*”

“I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. This is CP officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie.”

The other soldier on guard broke out into hysteric laughter all of a sudden, making Manie feel a bit uneasy.

“*Bwahahah, you are bringing MANIE MANIE up into the laser guidance tower?*”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

The soldier who had confronted us looked surprised at his partner and then back at us, he primed his weapon on Manie, she instinctively hid behind me.

“*HOLY SHIT, YOU BROUGHT MANIE MANIE UP HERE?!*”’

“Calm down private, she is of no danger to us.” Bonnie tried to calm the soldier.

“*’Manie Manie’ and ‘laser guidance’ should never be mentioned in the same phrase, sir. That’s just an accident waiting to happen.*” soldier 2 said from his post.

“She is perfectly safe, I assure you. Plus there is no way she could possibly take over with the four of us, the turrets and whoever is in there right now.”

The first soldier calmed down and lowered his weapon.

“*You are right. But still, is this really such a good idea? Why do you even want to take her in there anyway?*”

“I just want to show them what it looks like from the inside. You two can come in with us if you are worried about her doing something stupid.”

“*I don’t know sir...*”

“I could always just go ask your commanding officer for permission.”

"*No, NO!*"

"*I, uh, I mean no, you don't have to do that.*"

"*Okay, we are letting you in, but if anything happens in there, it’s on you. Sir.*”

“Duly noted.”

We were let inside the next room.

This room was very dark and filled with monitors, seats and terminals whose lights flickered across the room.

Various thick cables and wires ran across the floor.

A multitude of empty paper and coffee cups were strewn across the floor and tables, and a mare was sleeping by one of the tables snoring loudly.

When we came inside a busy pony called from one of the consoles.

“Hey! Who goes there!”

“Sergeant Crunch Opal. I am just showing two guests what the station looks like from the inside, that alright with you?”

“Huh? Eh. Sure. Whatever. Just don’t touch ANYTHING in here. The boss gets SUPER PISSED if anyone touches the controls and he never stops nagging me about it.”

Bonnie turned to us and began talking in a low voice.

“The station is manned 24/7 all year, it is one of our most important assets in Sun Valley Hills. The tower isn’t only used to paint targets for laser guidance, it is also used as an observation post. The tower scans the surrounding grasslands constantly in a 360 degree view, the crew here watches for any kind of movement, be it bandits, wildlife, choppers or anyone coming down the roads. At night they watch the grasslands using their thermal vision for the heat signatures of night creatures lurking near the treelines. The tower only has one ‘eye’ capable of laser guidance, the other terminals you see here help spot targets for the main ‘eye’.”

“What? Why does it only have one laser guidance terminal? I designed the system to be compact enough to fit in smaller things than this tower, in Armor they have one laser guidance terminal in EVERY TANK.”

“W-w-wwhat!?” a mare called from one of the terminals.

“‘I designed the syst-’" she repeated, "Who the hell is back there?!”

“Here we go again.” Manie Manie muttered.

“At ease. I am just showing Captain Tombs and Manie Manie around the tower.”

“MANIE MANIE!? ARE YOU INS-” I heard the mare tip over a cup, spilling liquid all over her.

“AHHH!! HOT HOT HOT!!”

Bonnie and I ran up to her and pulled her out of her chair, the mare was covered in steaming hot coffee.

“OW OW OW OW!!”

“Do we have any water or paper napkins or something in here?” Bonnie asked the crew.

“Hmm, by the table. I think. I don’t know. Leave me alone.” someone muttered from a terminal.

There were no paper napkins to be seen on any of the tables back by the door.

I went up to the sleeping mare, she was sleeping over a metal box containing napkins.

I gently tried to pull it out from under her, but she woke up and was met with my shapeshifting visage.

“OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?! HELP!”

“Calm down! Calm down! This is just a scramble suit!” I told her.

She pulled herself together and gave me a mean and uneasy look.

“You scared the SHIT out of me, what the hell man!”

“What do you want from me?”

“I just want these damn napkins, somepony spilled coffee all over herself.”

The mare looked towards Manie, Bonnie and the mare who was still squirming and twisting by her seat.

“Stupid Farsight! I told her not to drink that shit by the terminal!”

“Look whatever, just take the damn thing and leave me alone, I just want to sleep!”

“Alright alright, jeez.”

I knelt down by the mare and the three of us pulled out a dozen napkins and began to pat her down with them.

In a moment we had gathered up the worst of it, but her coat had become stained by the coffee.

It was a large noticeable dark shape clearly visible on whatever light coat color she had.

She breathed out in relief.

“Phew! Thanks guys, that was a close one.”

“‘Close one’? Missy, you were in no danger of dying here.”

Manie laughed.

“Could you imagine? Death by coffee?”

“That’s not funny.” the mare scolded.

“Who are you people, what are you doing here, why did you bring MANIE MANIE here?”

“Relax, I am just showing these two around. She won't touch anything.” Bonnie assured her.

“She better not! The boss would be really really mad with us if something happened to the station while he’s away!”

“Who is your boss?”

“Major Red Starlight. He is the meanest son of a bitch you’ll ever meet. You guys should probably get going before he-”

The door opened and the silhouette of a very buff looking pegasus appeared by the door.

“UH-OH, get off me! I need to get back to work!”

The mare got up quickly and jumped back in her chair.

The pegasus stepped into the room and the first thing he notices is the mare trying to get back to sleep.

He walks up to her and bangs his hooves on the table as hard as he possibly could, the sleeping mare was startled and jumped right up from her chair in an instant.

“WHAT IN CELESTIA'S FUCKING NAME ARE YOU DOING!?” the pegasus barked at her.

“S-s-sir! I-I-” she stammered.

“YOU WERE SLEEPING ON THE FUCKING JOB AGAIN, WEREN’T YOU MOONSHINE?! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU MISERABLE SHITS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR TERMINALS AT ALL TIMES?!”

The mare whimpered.

“DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM TELLING YOU!?”

“Y-y-y-yes s-sir!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU, YOU WHIMPERING LUMP OF SHIT!”

“Y-Y-YES SIR!!”

“AND HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I STRESSED HOW FUCKING IMPORTANT IT IS FOR YOU TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON THAT TERMINAL?!”

“I-I-I DON’T KNOW SIR!”

"YOU DON'T KNOW?! WELL THAT'S NO GOOD!"

"I WILL GIVE YOU ONE GUESS, 2ND LIEUTENANT STUTTER-BITCH!"

"L-LOTS?"

"A GOOD, CLOSE GUESS, BUT NO CIGAR!"

“I HAVE TOLD YOU A SHIT-TON OF TIMES, THATS HOW MANY!”

The pegasus bit her mane and then pulled her towards an empty terminal.

She was struggling to keep up.

When at the terminal the buff pegasus grabbed her from below and forcibly threw her on the seat there, she landed awkwardly on the side, she desperately flailed trying to get seated properly.

“YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS YOU PUKE!?”

“MY TERMINAL, SIR!”

“EXACTLY, YOUR TERMINAL, ONE POINT FOR MOONSHINE! AND WHAT DO YOU DO AT YOUR TERMINAL!?”

“I WATCH THE PERIMETER AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR DANGER, SIR!”

“THAT'S TWO FOR TWO, OUTSTANDING! AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE DANGER!?”

“I ALERT DISPATCH FOR SMALLER TARGETS AND THE MAIN STATION FOR LARGE THREATS!”

“AND WHY THE FUCK WEREN’T YOU IN YOUR SEAT DOING JUST THAT!?”

“B-BECAUSE I WAS TIRED FROM BEING HERE 16 HOURS IN A ROW, SIR!”

The pegasus was infuriated, and grabbed Moonshine by her head, “AAAAARGHH!” he roared as he bashed her head with moderate force on the console in front of her.

She yelped, but was still conscious.

“YOU SLEEP WHEN I SAY YOU SLEEP, YOU SHIT WHEN I SAY YOU SHIT, AND WHEN I TELL YOU TO JUMP, YOU ASK 'HOW HIGH AND FOR HOW LONG SIR!?', IS THAT FUCKING CLEAR, 2ND LIEUTENANT MOONSHINE!?”

He sure sounded a lot like Captain Hudson there for a second.

“YES!!! YES!!”

“YES WHAT!?”

“SIR, YES, SIR!!”

“GOD DAMNED RIGHT IT IS. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!”

The pegasus turned, spotting us.

He flew into an absolute rage at the sight of us, he stormed up to us, his stature towered over our own.

He seemed much much larger up close.

He was... quite intimidating, I could feel my own legs shivering.

“AND WHO IN THE THOUSAND FUCKING HELLS OF TARTARUS ARE YOU!? AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY TOWER!?” he roared at us.

Bonnie was clearly intimidated by the pegasus, he was but a lowly sergeant and the major had just beaten the crap out of a 2nd lieutenant.

“Major sir! I am Sergeant Crunch Opal! I am showing these two, CP officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie around the compound sir!”

The pegasus drew in breath preparing to bark away at us, but then he changed completely.

“Wait, Manie Manie? MAJOR Manie Manie? The inventor of the laser guidance systems Manie Manie?”

“Y-yes, that’s me.” Manie timidly spoke up.

“Well I’d be damned. You have A LOT of guts to show yourself here girl. I am honestly not sure if I should beat the crap out of you or give you one big hug and a slap on the back for inventing the greatest military system of all time!”

“Please don’t...!”

“Ha ha! I am just messing with you, I don’t care what the higher ups say, you are still a Major to me. I’ve heard all about what you did back in Equestria, even the things the grunts don’t know about.”

“Err... what... kind of... things?”

“I know you did it in self defense."

"How... how do... how would you know that?"

"After you deserted they started an investigation and everything."

"Seven engineers from R&D were arrested and court martialed for conspiracy against the Equestrian Kingdom, I attended that trial.”

Interesting.

“They... what?”

“Civil Protection had a large part in it, those sneaky bastards record and watch everything. So much of the proof, like the video of the engineers from R&D threatening you in that back alley, came from them.”

“The trial didn’t justify what you did however, you are still technically branded a traitor to Equestria and a war criminal, and it didn't save the crews from Armor from being arrested and sent away, but at least the ponies who screwed with you got what was coming to them."

This took a moment for Manie to take in, this was all news to her, and she was likely relieved to have heard that what was done to her and what caused her to do what she did didn't go unpunished.

But he had also very bluntly called her a traitor and war criminal, so what was his decision going to be?

"So... what will you... do... now...?" she asked hesitantly.

"Pardon?"

"Will you... um... turn me in or...?"

"TURN YOU IN?" he bellowed, making Manie take a few steps back away from him.

He laughed.

"You invented the system which I am assigned to watch over and you were made Major at the age of 17, if anything I should ADMIRE you!"

“16...” Manie corrected.

“Huh?”

“I was made Major at the age of 16... they promoted me after I presented the working system to them.”

“Ha ha ha! Gold. You are a golden mare Manie, you know that?”

"But what does that have to do with..."

"Manie! You did it in self defense! For Celestia's sake, in my eyes you are as innocent as a pony can get!"

“But let's not go into this, I understand that it may be a bit of a sensitive subject for you and all."

"So, what can good ‘ol Red do for you?”

“I’d kinda appreciate it if you... didn’t kill these two... Crunch Opal here was just showing me and Tombs around the compound and he thought he’d show us the laser guidance tower...”

"Show you the laser guidance tower? Well why didn’t you just say so! I’ll show you around this room myself!”

He led us up to the main terminal, the laser guidance ‘eye’, a very tired looking and strained unicorn stallion was sitting there intently staring through a pair of binoculars of sorts attached to the terminal.

Red grabbed the unicorn by the shoulders, the unicorn gasped, having been startled by the sudden touch.

"Sir, you scared me! What are you doing?"

"I am showing the Major, miss Manie here, around my tower. Got a problem with that?"

“P-problem? O-of course not sir!” the unicorn stammered.

"Excellent. Then you wont mind taking a little break from your job, would you?"

Before the unicorn could answer Red pulled him out of his chair and dropped him on the floor next to it, the frightened unicorn crawled away in fear.

“Well then miss, have a seat!” Red encouraged Manie.

Manie seemed surprised.

“Wha- me? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Bonnie seemed a bit fidgety, but was too afraid to speak up against Red.

“Well... ok.”

Manie took a seat in the laser guidance station and looked through the binoculars.

“As you may notice the system has undergone some very minor changes. For example, now, all our aerial vehicles come equipped with an IFF friend or foe recognition system, if you switch to thermal vision and look at our helicopters you can see that they are flashing, when in normal vision friendly choppers are marked with a green box. This system prevents the laser guidance station from locking onto friendly vehicles unless a very specific failsafe code is entered (in case of enemy capture of friendly vehicles).”

“These binoc’s have a range of 100 kilometers. The tank mounted and infantry carried system I built could only see up to 10, and that was in optimal weather conditions.” Manie said, impressed.

“This is one of the features of the stationary towers we have begun building all over the frontier. This tower is much more powerful than the smaller ones we got set up along the line so it has a longer range of about 40 kilometers over the smaller tower’s 60. The new models can target multiple targets as opposed to just one at a time, and have a much longer view range.”

“So that’s why you only have one station in this tower. I did think it was strange that you didn’t have more set up in here.”

“Yeah... but that's not really the main reason for there only being one station."

"One of the drawbacks of the new system is that it takes up much more room than the original system you designed."

"Turns out reverse engineering your system wasn’t as easy as they thought it would be and any new variants they come up with take up a whole shitload of space. I don’t know how you did it with the old system Manie, but I WISH our new systems fit neatly into a small box like yours did.”

“So I take it you still use the old system in the field?”

“Yeah... but then it isn’t really such a bad system anyway. So maybe miniaturizing the new system to fit on vehicles or into a handheld version isn’t all that necessary after all.”

The door slid open behind us and the two guards outside ran inside guns primed on the main station.

“*MANIE, GET AWAY FROM THAT TERMINAL NOW.*”

“*SIR WE JUST GOT THE ALERT THAT MANIE HAD TAKEN OVER THE GUIDANCE TERMINAL.*”

The pegasus put himself in front of the seat into their line of fire.

"AND WHO THE HELL ASKED FOR YOU ASSHOLES TO COME IN HERE?" he yelled

“*The... the surveillance systems sir. They alerted us to-*”

“I AM THE ONE WHO LET HER USE THE TERMINAL! AND I AM THE ONE IN CHARGE OF THIS PLACE!"

"*Sir, we can't take that risk, Manie-*"

"DO ANY OF YOU RETARDS EVEN KNOW OF THE SAFETY MEASURES WE HAD INSTALLED INTO THE LASER GUIDANCE SYSTEMS?! DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THE HIGHER UPS ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO LET ANYTHING LIKE THE TRIPLE M INCIDENT HAPPEN AGAIN JUST LIKE THAT?!"

"*No...*"

"SO ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICERS ARE STUPID?*"

“*What!? No, sir! Of course not, sir!*”

“*Look sir, Manie is not allowed to use the station. Simple as that. Direct orders from the Colonel.*”

Red walked up to the soldier who had stood up to him and snatched his rifle right from his hooves.

“*Hey! Sir, give that back!*”

“Give what back? This thing?”

Red snapped the rifle in two, breaking it cleanly off in the middle over his knee, then he threw the broken rifle by the hooves of the soldier.

“NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO HAVE A FIT OF RAGE AND BREAK YOUR NOSE NEXT YOU BETTER GET ON OUTTA HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!”

The other soldier lowered his rifle and held up his other hoof in surrender.

“*O-ok sir, standing down and backing off...! Don’t hurt us!*”

“‘Don’t hurt us’” Red mocked, “FUCKING MAGGOTS, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CONTROL ROOM!”

The two soldiers left the room.

Red walked back up to the terminal.

“I’m sorry miss," he said in a low gentle tone, "but as much as I hate it even I have to listen to the colonel's orders. I’m afraid you’ll have to get off the terminal.”

“It's ok, I understand. Still, thank you for showing me the new system, I haven’t had anypony put so much trust in me since... well since before the... incident.”

Manie gracefully got out of the chair.

Red whistled for the unicorn to return.

“YOU, BACK TO WORK!” he barked.

“Now what else can I show you in here? Do you know what the other terminals do?” some of the crew sitting by the other terminals shuddered and gave furtive looks towards their superior.

“Yes, Bonnie told me of how they act as spotters for the main terminal.” the crew eased up hearing this and returned to their work.

“Bonnie.” Red repeated.

“Oh, sorry."

"I meant Sergeant Crunch Opal.”

“Who? Him?” he looked at Bonnie.

“YOUR NICKNAME is BONNIE?”

“Y-yes sir.” Bonnie hesitantly confirmed.

“What kind of a fucking nickname is that? Fuck, why is it that our men have such weak and faggoty nicknames these days? Why can’t it ever be ‘Ripper’, ‘Shredder’, ‘Butcher’ like those bandit scum out there have?”

Red sighed, he put a hoof on Manie's shoulder and slowly walked us to the door.

“Well whatever. It looks like there isn’t much else to show you in here then miss, you already know the specifics of the system you designed so it is pointless to go over the specs with you, and these lazy fuckers I got working here aren’t much to show for either so I guess the tour is over.”

“Ok. Thanks for showing me around then.”

“Anytime. Feel free to come by whenever you want miss, just ask for me and I’ll be sure to make some time for you.” Red winked at her, she gave him a smile.

There it was again, that strange distant feeling of jealousy I got when Cloud Tumble revealed his emotion for Manie.

Why was it back?

Why did I feel it?

I did my best to suppress and ignore it.

“Thank you Major Starlight.”

“Please miss, call me Red. All my friends, and enemies, do.”

“Ok, Red.”

We left the room and waited for the elevator to come back up.

Just after the door shut we could hear Red begin barking away at the laser guidance crew again.

The soldier whose rifle had been destroyed was kneeled over his post trying to fix it in vain.

“*Aw man, the quartermaster is going to kill me for this! Fucking Red!*” he complained.

“*Dude, you better keep it down or he’ll hear you and come barging out again like last time!*”

“*He broke my rifle man! He broke Betty!*”

“*So just get a new rifle! I got this post secured, if anyone comes asking for you I’ll tell them that you are down in the armory replacing your rifle.*”

“*Man, it’s just not the same. I’ve had Betty for three years... got my first kill with her and everything.*”

The elevator came up.

“*Dude whatever, just go.*”

The soldier sighed.

“*Fine... I’ll be back in a few.*”

“*Hey guys, wait up, you wouldn’t mind if I came down with you would you?*”

“Not at all.” I said.

“*Thanks.*”

The soldier joined us in the elevator and we began the long and slow descent.

It was quiet at first, but after a few moments the soldier turned towards Manie.

“*Hey... miss Manie... sorry about earlier. I was just doing my job...*”

“It’s alright. I think it evened out in the end.” she said, nodding at the broken rifle he clutched.

“*Yeah... I guess...*” the soldier looked down at his shattered weapon.

“*Poor Betty...*”

“So what's your name soldier?” I asked.

“*Hmm?*”

"Your name."

"*Oh. Eh, my name is... Chewy Jiggles.*"

Chewy Jig- yeah, so it's not the strangest name I've heard in my short travels.

I nodded at him.

"I see."

"What's with the name?"

"My name?"

"Heh, no, no."

"I meant your rifle. You named it Betty.”

“*Oh. Yeah... I did...*”

“Tell us about it.”

“*Naw... it’s... It's stupid...*”

“Aw, common, don't be like that.”

"*Are you sure you want to hear it?*"

"Yeah."

“*Well... ok...*”

"*Are you REALLY sure?*"

"Yes! Tell us already."

“*Back in basic training in Equestria every Overwatch recruit gets assigned one rifle at the beginning of basic.*"

"*On the very first day, the drill sergeant says that ‘tonight, you will sleep with your rifles. You will give your rifle a girl’s name because this is the only pussy you ponies are going to get. Your days of finger-banging ol’ Mary-Jane Sugarcheeks under her pretty pink tail are over! You are married to this piece. This weapon of steel and plastic. And you will be faithful.’*"

"*So I named my rifle Betty and took the speech a bit too literally...*”

“That seems a bit excessive.” Manie remarked. “What did the female recruits say about it?”

“*Well they were instructed to give the rifles male names because it would be the only dick they wou-*”

“Ooookay, I regret asking.” Manie said rolling her eyes.

“Wait... you didn’t actually...”

“*Fuck my rifle? Goddess no. How would one even do that?*”

“*No, no, every night from that night I have always unloaded my rifle, cleaned the parts with the greatest care, and kept it in my cot with me. So in a literal sense I slept with my rifle, good old Betty. But now...*”

“It’s just a rifle man. Get over it.” Bonnie said.

“*Yeah. But it was MY rifle. MY Betty.*”

“*You know, I am going to see if they can patch her back up again.*”

Bonnie looked at the rifle and grabbed one of the pieces.

“Iiii don’t know man. It looks pretty bust to me.”

“*They will fix her. They have to fix her. They have to fix Betty...*” Chewy said in determination.

The elevator reached bottom floor and we parted way with the soldier.

“I think this is good time to go see Dispatch. I think an hour has passed by now.” Bonnie said.

“Lead the way.”

We went up two floors with the elevator again, this floor was much different from the rest of the facility.

It had sterile looking white walls, floors and ceilings that were well lit in every regard.

These must have been labs or operating halls of some sort because there were many windows looking into the rooms below along the hallway.

Some filled with various tech such as computers, disassembled weapons or chemicals, others had surgical tables and medical instruments, others were just empty.

Every now and then we would see a scientist or technician in a lab coat working on something inside the rooms.

We met a young mare with a completely white coat and and mane wearing a lab coat and a pair of black framed glasses, she had blood red eyes, clearly she had that rare albino disease that screwed the pigmentation of her coat, skin and hair. She was surprised to meet us three in the corridors.

“Oh. Hello. Who might you be?” she asked curiously.

“Sergeant Crunch Opal, he is CP Captain Tombs and that is Manie Manie.” Bonnie introduced us for the hundredth time.

“I see. How quaint. A Civil Protection officer wearing a scramble suit and the literal bane of Air Force.”

“What is your business here?”

“We are heading to see Dispatch. Could you direct us to her perhaps?”

“Oh, of course. Keep going down this corridor and turn to the right after the next turn and then once to the left in the turn after that. There should be a sign on the wall marked ‘DISPATCH’, can’t miss it.”

“Thanks.”

“She could use the company I believe. She has been feeling a bit down this morning. We don’t know why.” the mare informed us.

“Understood.”

We proceeded down the corridor as instructed, just before our turn to the left we heard a whole lot of ruckus in the large room to the right.

We went up to the windows and looked inside.

In the center of the room was some sort of huge bipedal blue furred bull with an impossibly muscular physique and unparalleled buffness throwing a group of soldiers wearing the same type of Infantry armor I had seen Cake Frosting wear around.

They were chattering and screaming in private channels, making it impossible to figure out what they were saying from the garbled static and unintelligible mess emitting from their radios.

It seemed as if the soldiers were hopelessly trying to wrestle the bull down, getting up shortly after being thrown off and immediately charging at him again.

“Those are Infantry soldiers. What are they doing here?” Bonnie muttered.

“What the hell is that?” Manie wondered, referring to the bull.

“That is a minotaur.”

“A minowhat?”

“Minotaur. Rare sort of monster. They are just as smart and capable of speech as us, but can be very violent at times. There are few of them but it is rumored that they can live for hundreds of years.”

So this was one of the famed non-pony Infantry officers I had heard about.

The minotaur threw one of the soldiers at our window, the soldier grunted as he smacked against the reinforced window and slid back down a floor. It left a small crack.

Man.

I felt that my Civil Protection superiors were bad enough, but this is on a whole different level, my superiors had nothing on this hulking beast.

Two soldiers came in from a door on the other end of the room.

“*SIR, PLEASE CALM DOWN!*” the soldier called on the open channel, the soldiers voice seemed much more unclear and deeper through the helmet radio than that of the Overwatch soldiers.

It appeared to be transmitted through a vocoder which masked the wearer's voice, similarly to the vocoders used in the Civil Protection helmets.

“YOU MAKE ME LOSE, I BLOW MY FUSE!!” the minotaur roared.

“*Oh for pete's sake. He’s back at it again. Alright boys, let’s snap him out of it. Bring in the stun batons!*”

Three soldiers came into the room.

The soldier in the center took a step forward and flickered his stun baton to life.

“*I’m sorry sir, but unless you calm down...*”

“YOU APOLOGIZE...” the minotaur turned to the soldier, “I PENALIZE!!!”

“*OH SHIT*” the soldier dropped his stun baton and tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late, the minotaur charged straight into the soldier smashing him into the wall, leaving a massive crack.

The two remaining soldiers immediately jumped on him and began beating him with the batons as he recovered, he was mildly stunned by the electrical shocks but managed to throw the two soldiers off him.

"*We need reinforcements!*"

Another two soldiers appeared from the door and immediately went after him, the squad of soldiers in the room now made a conjoined effort in overpowering the minotaur and for a moment it looked like they did it, the minotaur now had 8 soldiers wrestling him in place while the 5 soldiers armed with stun batons beat him down.

"*We have him now! Keep at it!*"

The minotaur let out a fearsome roar and forced his way up sending the 13 soldiers all around the room as if blasted away by an explosive.

They all landed with mighty thuds around the room or smashed into walls and windows grunting or screaming loudly at touchdown.

"*I didn't want to do this sir, but you leave us no choice.*" one of the soldiers said as he got back up.

"*Get some tranquilizers in here! The commander needs some help calming down!*"

The others all got up and readied themselves for another assault as another 7 more soldiers came inside the room, five with stun batons and two with tranquilizer guns.

The two soldiers with tranquilizers fired two darts at the minotaur which hit him right in the neck, the effect was nearly instant and he began to wobble around dizzily, the soldiers then took the chance to attack him all at the same time and in a few seconds he was completely overpowered.

The minotaur was knocked out cold.

"*Good job men, now bolt him down in case he has another uncontrolled fit.*"

Two more soldiers came in with heavy chains and bolt guns and in less than a minute they had chained the minotaur and bolted the chains to the floors and walls of the room.

All but seven of the soldiers left the room, six of the soldiers armed with stun batons posted themselves around the room standing guard over their prize and a seventh one stopped briefly by the door, looking around the room and spotting us looking down at them.

The soldier waved at us.

“That was... very impressive.” Manie remarked, waving back at the soldier.

The soldier nodded and left the room.

“They called him ‘sir’, Bonnie? Know anything about it?”

Bonnie shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. Maybe he is like their commander or something?”

“They took him down and didn’t even take any loses... Not even a single wounded.” Manie continued in admiration.

“That’s Infantry for you. They have the best infantry armor in Equestria. They are the toughest ponies of our kind and come equipped with the very best armor. They can resist hits that would normally cripple the average pony for life.” Bonnie explained.

I knew all that, I didn't feel like hearing it all again.

“Let’s go see Dispatch now. Her room should be around the corner here.” I said.

We went around the corner into the corridor to our left and there it was, a sign opposite to a door guarded by two Overwatch soldiers marked ‘DISPATCH’.

“*Sergeant, sir.*” one of the soldiers greeted Bonnie as we aproached.

“Hello private. We are here to see Dispatch.”

“*Of course. We have been expecting you. Crunch Opal was it?*”

“Correct.”

“*You are free to enter.*”

We went inside the room.

It was very spacious, well lit and was kept scrupulously clean.

It had a very select few pieces of furniture.

A small bed in one corner of the room, a cupboard/kitchen, a small steel cabinet with an icon of a wrench and screwdriver in black and white, a bookcase containing few books and a couple of scrolls, a dinner table and 4 chairs and a smaller coffee table surrounded by six small armchairs of modern design in the center of the room.

On the wall at the far end of the room from the door was a large screen.

It didn’t appear to have any buttons or wires connected to it, but it was likely connected to the wall, and to Dispatch’s systems.

Despite the things mentioned the room still appeared quite empty, as if most of the space had been left intentionally unused.

In the center of the room was Dispatch and a young technician mare sitting by the coffee table and talking about something. Dispatch seemed a bit gloom.

Dispatch was indeed pretty and very lifelike, in fact I’d almost have taken her for a real pony if it wasn’t for the long steel cable that ran from the back of her head to a small box attached to a rail that ran on the ceiling above the room.

Dispatch had a charcoal coat color, just like mine, and a curly purple and pink mane and tail, she had gleaming green eyes and her form appeared to be around Manie Manie’s age.

In the place of a cutiemark she had the Overwatch insignia of a cracked pony skull on her flank.

Despite the cable and crude icon on her flank there was a very natural grace and ladylikeness about her, she talked and moved her foreleg very gracefully, as if she wasn’t a robot at all.

Dispatch soon noticed the three of us standing by the entrance of the room and gave us a bright warm smile on our approach.

“{Hello.}” she greeted us with a young, but clearly electronically generated voice.

“{You must be the visitors Dr. Tulips spoke about earlier.}”

“Indeed we are. I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. This is Civil Protection officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie.” Bonnie introduced us.

“{Pleased to meet you.}” she pointed a hoof gracefully at the technician.

“{I am Dispatch. Military advisor, and dispatcher, of Overwatch. This is Doctor Margaret Tulips.}” she looked at Bonnie.

“{Sergeant Crunch Opal. I remember your name..}” Dispatch expression turned into sadness “{I am sorry about Checkpoint Berry 2. I wish there was something I could have done.}”

“It’s... okay. You couldn’t have known. Even you can’t be prepared for everything, miss.”

“{I know. But I try.}” Dispatch turned towards Manie.

“{There are mentions of you in my records, Manie Manie. You were a Major in Armor were you not? You invented the laser guidance system used in all branches of the military.}”

“That’s me...”

“{But you are also branded a deserter and traitor to the Equestrian Kingdom, responsible for the annihilation of a platoon of Air Force gunships and indirect deaths of 58 units.}”

Units.

She didn't refer to the causalities as ponies.

She referred to them as units.

As lifelike and real as she seemed when I initially saw her, her cold and calculating machine thinking shone through there, if only for a brief moment.

I should keep this in mind, that she is just still a machine.

Dispatch turned to look at the technician she had been talking to.

“{Should I alert Air Force of Manie Manie’s current whereabouts, Dr. Tulips?}”

I noticed a drop of sweat run across Manie Manie’s forehead, she seemed nervous.

“No, Dispatch.” Margaret answered calmly.

“{Why not?}”

“Relations between Air Force and Overwatch aren’t very good at the moment. We are unwilling to help them or abide by their requests at this time. So Manie Manie’s position remains secret to us for now.”

“{I do not understand. Why are relations between Air Force and Overwatch poor?}”

“Air Force is refusing to help our colonization efforts on the frontier with anything other than long range jets. They are acting against the direct order of Queen Celestia who has ordered Air Force to keep a presence on the frontier and help us when necessary. Thus far they have offered minimal help to us, and many of our soldiers have paid the price for it.”

“We have been over this Dispatch, you already know this.”

“{I see. I will not be alerting Air Force of Manie Manie’s whereabouts then.}”

Then Dispatch turned to look at me.

“{And you are Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection.}”

Her eyes flickered as she looked over me for a long silent moment.

“{I seem to have difficulty identifying you.}”

The scramble suit, of course.

She must have tried to connect me to one particular feature.

“I am wearing a scramble suit. It shifts my appearance constantly in order to keep my identity hidden.”

“{Why?}”

I shrugged.

“Because command wishes for my identity to remain secret for the duration of my mission.”

“{Why?}” she repeated.

“I don’t know, Dispatch. I was made to wear this against my own will. If I were to choose I would have the suit taken off, I have no need to hide my identity for the sort of mission I am on.”

I gave Manie a brief look and she just tilted her head in response.

Dispatch went silent for a few moments, her eyes flickered briefly.

“{Would you like to know how to remove the suit?}” she asked me.

She knew how to take off the suit?

“Why... yes, yes I would. Very much so.”

Before Dispatch could speak again the doctor lifted a hoof and interrupted.

“I’m not sure if that is such a good idea, Dispatch...” she warned. “His mission calls for him to keep the suit on, I don't think it is such a good idea to-”

That stung me.

“Let her talk.” I said with some irritation in my voice.

“{You seem a bit agitated, Captain Tombs.}”

“{Why is that?}”

“I... just want to get out of this suit.”

“If CP requires you to wear your suit, shouldn’t you keep it on? Is it really such a good idea to go against their mission directives?”

“Look sweetheart, I was forced here. Against my will and with as little info about my mission as possible. I was happy doing my job back in Equestria and this is how CP repaid me, by sending me to die on the frontier. I have lost complete faith in CP command. And honestly, between you and me, if I could I would desert CP and try to make it back to Equestria if possible. But the way I know CP and by how controlled incoming and outgoing traffic and cargo is I just know that is just not an option. So for now I do as they say, but I am NOT wearing this god fucking damned thing a second more than I have to.”

Margaret Tulips remained silent.

“{Very well. Stand by.}” Dispatch’s eyes flickered again.

“{Your suit has been sealed with a spell matrix. You need to see an unicorn who knows how to cast a spell matrix to cancel the matrix cast on your suit. Only then will your suit be unsealed and the neck seam open.}”

A spell matrix, huh?

“Do you know where I could find one such unicorn?”

“{I do not.}” Dispatch answered plainly.

“What about you Dr. Tulips? Do you have any unicorns capable of casting spell matrixes in your employ?”

“No. We don’t work with that kind of tech. We specialize in robotics, weapons and medicine here. What kind of technology does this scramble suit of yours use?”

“It is magical. Of unicorn design.”

“{It is not.}”

“...pardon?”

“{The scramble suit is of pegasus design.}”

“That can’t be right. It is magical. Pegasi aren’t capable of magic.”

“{That’s who is credited for all versions of the scramble suit. A pegasus mare named Sunburst. The file on Sunburst claims that she worked in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory prior to her employ with Civil Protection.}”

“But the suit operates with magic. How could a pegasus have designed the suit?”

“{The records are classified.}”

“Maybe there were others involved in the project?” Manie suggested.

“{The Scramble Suit Project. XSUIT 2. Assigned: 1 pony. Pegasus - Sunburst. Status: Prototype field testing.}”

“Dispatch, did you just hack into Civil Protections database?!” Dr. Tulips asked alarmingly.

“{Yes.}”

“Get out of there, log out of their systems immediately. You have no idea how much trouble they are going to give us for that. Get out! Out!”

“{Logging out.}”

Doctor Tulips sighed deeply.

“Shit. Civil Protection is going to be all over this in a second...”

A loudspeaker mounted on the ceiling beeped.

“*DOCTOR MARGARET TULIPS. REPORT TO COMS ROOM IMMEDIATELY.*”

"Wow, literally, one second.” Manie said.

“Well, that must be them.”

Dr. Tulips stood up.

“I got to go. I’ll be back later Dispatch.”

“{Goodbye Doctor Tulips..}”

She left the room.

“{And then there were four.}”

“What?”

“{Nothing.}”

“{So what can I do for you? Surely you didn’t come here for advice on the scramble suit.}”

“They wanted to meet you in person.” Bonnie said.

"{I see.}"

“{And here I am.}”

"Indeed." I said.

“{Was I who you expected me to be?}”

“You look very real to me.”

“Don’t you think so, Manie?”

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t seem very convinced about Dispatch when we spoke about her yesterday.”

“I never said anything about Dispatch’s... body. She looks real and she is quite clearly a robot.”

“{I am not a robot.}”

“What?”

“{I am a cyborg.}”

“Don’t you remember me mentioning her organic heart?” Bonnie reminded.

“{My organic heart? Why would I have an organic heart?}”

“You... don’t have an organic heart?”

“{No.}”

“Then... I... guess my sources were wrong.”

“{And which sources may they be?}”

Bonnie fidgeted a bit.

“Uhm... rumors... from the men...”

“{I see. You would do better not to listen to the silly unfounded rumors about me, Sergeant.}”

“But you do have organs.” Manie inserted.

“I am not following... What exactly is a cyborg?”

“{A cyborg is a pony who is part machine and part pony.}”

“Which in your case would be a machine that is part pony and part machine...” Manie said slyly.

Dispatch gave Manie an annoyed look.

“{Part machine. Part pony.}” she repeated slowly.

“What have you had replaced... I mean, what makes you...”

Damn, how should I put this without offending her somehow? Is it ok to ask about cybernetic replacements and internal organs? I just don’t even know anymore.

“{You mean, ‘what is the difference between a robot and a cyborg and what is it that makes the unit Dispatch in particular a cyborg?’}”

There it was again. ‘Unit’.

“Uh... yes. I guess that’s what I am trying to ask.”

The wall mounted screen flickered to life, a series of green codes flashed rapidly across the screen before switching to a recording of sorts.

‘RECORDING 09 - CLASS ON ROBOTICS AND CYBERNETICS - PONYVILLE SCHOOLHOUSE WEST’

The recording showed a small classroom from the back, there were about 20 fillies and colts chatting cheerfully amongst each other.

It was an older classroom that had seen many years of use, perhaps even decades, on the wall behind the teachers desk was a chalkboard, a rare and unusual sight in an age of electronics and whiteboards.

By the chalkboard was an aisle covered by a sheet of paper, probably with pictures prepared for the class.

On the left wall were three small windows, on the right were various propaganda posters directed at the youth of Equestria.

I recognized the slogan of one of the posters, it said ‘OBEY’ and had a large portrait of a smiling and happy Celestia, I had seen this type of poster before in the downtown areas of the Equestrian megacities, but Celestia’s portrait was different on those, when directed at her older subjects she seemed disappointed and authoritative.

This poster was clearly aiming to earn the love of her subjects rather than the fear and hate.

A purple earth pony mare with pink hair and light green eyes entered the classroom.

Her mane and tail had streams of a lighter pink in it and her cutiemark was that of three smiling flowers.

“Okay children, class is starting.” she said with an enthusiastic voice.

The children quieted down and directed their attention to the young mare.

“Thank you.”

“Today we are going to talk about...” the mare tugged at the edge of the sheet of paper covering the aisle pulling it down and revealing a picture of a crudely drawn red eyed robot. “Robots!”

“Not again...” a young filly moaned from the row of desks.

“Robots are everywhere in the world around us, living obliviously as ponies, like you or me!”

She pulled down the picture revealing another crude drawing of a robot, this time wearing a sort of suit representing the coat, tail and mane of a pony.

“You see, a robot doesn’t actually know it’s a robot. It’s programed to act and respond the same way we do. If, it, EVER learned the truth about itself...” she revealed another crude picture of a huge robot stepping on crude straw houses, it’s maw was open and filled with crudely drawn unhappy looking ponies. “...it would probably go into a violent, existential rampage through the town!”

“That’s why, if you ever discover that one of your friends is a robot, you must report them immediately so that they can be destroyed!”

The class laughed.

What the fuck is this.

The mare resumed happily.

“I know I taught you to laugh in the face of death, but robots are actually a serious problem. Why any ONE of you could have the gears and wires of a robot, whirring away beneath your synthetic pony flesh!”

“Now, can anypony tell me the difference between a robot and a cyborg?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” a filly seated in the front row waved a hoof up.

“Robots don’t have souls!”

“That’s right, Vanilla Chip!”

“An injured robot might bleed as though it is in pain... but only as part of it’s programming.”

“In truth, robots can’t feel things like pain, sadness, or love.”

“Now let’s say, for example your husband slowly grows colder and more distant as time passes...”

“He doesn’t make good conversation, or say that he loves you anymore, or support your decision to go back to school and become a teacher...”

“It’s not YOUR fault. Chances are, you married a robot!”

What the hell...!?

One of the fillies passed a note to another filly and the teacher sternly called out.

“Girl with the bow!”

Then the recording ended.

We all just sat silently and stared awkwardly at the screen.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one who had been creeped out by the strange class.

Dispatch was awaiting our response.

“That was... er... interesting?” Bonnie spoke first.

“I am not sure... what the point of this video was Dispatch.” Manie said.

“{The teacher describes the difference between robots and cyborgs. A cyborg is a being of flesh and machine. A robot can mimic the same traits, they can even be programmed to act like a normal pony. What a robot lacks however is soul, the ability to feel, love, hate and become corrupted or healed with evil and goodness.}”

“So what you are trying to say is that you have soul?” I hesitantly asked.

“{Exactly. I differ from my robotic brethren in that I am capable of feeling and loving. I can grow attached to ponies just like you.}”

“But in that case, so can robots. The teacher mentioned that she had married a robot, so the robot must clearly have had a simulated form of feelings for her. What exactly tells you that you aren’t programmed to be just like that?” Manie said.

“{I...}” Dispatch wasn’t prepared for this sort of discussion. “{I just know.}”

“That is not an acceptable answer. The teacher’s class contradicts itself, she claims that robots can’t feel emotion, and while that may be true they can still simulate emotion. The two are hard to tell apart."

"So I ask again. What tells you that you aren’t merely simulating your emotions?”

“{I DO have soul. I KNOW I do.}” Dispatch didn’t sound so sure of herself, there was doubt in her voice.

Would a soulless automaton simulate doubt when attempting to prove something?

“You can’t PROGRAM a soul Dispatch. You are a MACHINE. A PROGRAM. A ROBOT.”

“{No... No... I am... not... programmed...}” Dispatch seemed to be in serious doubt now, the expression on her face showed that she didn’t know what to believe in.

“I for one think that she ‘simulates’ doubt pretty well.” I said.

“What?”

“Look at her Manie. She doesn’t know what to believe in.”

“She is clearly simulating doubt.”

Without a word Dispatch stood up, walked up to the cupboard at the end of the room and took out a black bottle and four glasses, she returned, put the glasses down and opened the bottle, pouring enough to fill all four glasses.

The bottle was labeled SWEET APPLE ACRES - APPLE CIDER.

I knew that brand of cider, it was very expensive and differed from other alcoholic beverages in that it didn’t list which year it was made ‘because all years are good years!’.

The only way to keep aging bottles apart was by the design of the actual bottle, which changed every five years.

Except, I didn’t recognize this design.

I had never seen a Sweet Apple Acres bottle like this before.

Dispatch grabbed her glass and slowly reached it up to her mouth.

Slowly Dispatch drank the whole glass of cider in one go.

She put the glass back on the table and gracefully sunk back into her chair looking distant.

“What is she doing?” I asked Bonnie.

“How would I know?”

“{Hard apple cider.}” she said suddenly. “{Strong, almost salty, taste.}”

That isn’t what hard apple cider tastes like at all.

“{The maker of this cider was clearly emotionally distraught when making this batch.}”

I grabbed my glass and took a sip.

Hang on.

Was this really hard apple cider?

It was, but it had an almost salty taste to it...

It tasted like sorrow, tears and a little bit of apples.

I was filled with feelings of sadness.

“It tastes like... tears?”

The other two took a sip each from their glasses.

“You are right. That does kinda taste like tears...”

I grabbed the bottle looking for a clue or indication of sorts.

There was nothing. The only label was the name of the brand.

The recipe for Sweet Apple Acres cider was a closely guarded secret so there was no index or list of ingredients on it. There wasn’t even an indication of the cider’s alcohol volume.

“Dispatch, how old is this bottle?” I asked.

She gracefully waved a hoof at me, not even directing her full attention to me.

She didn’t even care to look at the bottle.

“{I do not know. But the technician that brought it to me claimed that it was one of the first bottles of hard apple cider that ever came from Sweet Apple Acres...}”

“Tell me more.”

“{He told me that Sweet Apple Acres hadn’t always made hard apple cider. Apparently the last of the original Apples, the family that lived there, was overcome with grief when her brother, the last one remaining at the farm aside from herself, passed away. From there on she took up moonshine and hard apple cider making.}”

“Who was it?”

“{A mare named Applejack. Or so he said.}”

Applejack. The name struck me as familiar.

Wasn’t she one of the wielders of the elements?

“{Curious fellow, the technician. He must be the only technician I’ve seen with an apple cutiemark.}”

“Why is that strange?” Manie wondered.

“{Typically, when a pony discovers her special talent and earns her cutiemark she chooses a line of work related to that talent. It is unusual for a pony to change her line of work. The step between apple farming to robotics and cybernetics is quite a big one.}”

“Well, you are looking at a pony who have done such a change.” I said.

Bonnie and Dispatch looked at me not understanding.

“I have... a pink heart cutiemark. I was a priest for 18 years.”

“And you know me... I was with Armor building the laser guidance system before becoming... a prisoner and... slave.”

“I think that may be a bit of an exaggeration.”

“But is it really? You do remember where we are going, do you not, dear Sweet Heavens?”

“{Beyond the frontier border. To found a military outpost, laser guidance tower and foothold for Overwatch and Infantry operations who intend to use the outpost as a staging point for spearheading assaults into enemy territory.}”

“Huh? How do you know that?”

Dispatch didn’t respond.

“Stupid question, forget I asked.”

“I can’t believe YOU were a priest, Tombs.” Bonnie said.

“Me neither.” I said.

“But I guess if we are discussing ponies who changed line of works all of a sudden that’d make three of us.”

He stood up, unfastened his pants, pulling them down just enough for us to see his flank.

On his flank was a cutiemark of a golden diamond necklace.

Nopony said anything.

“I was a jeweller before signing on with Overwatch.”

“{That is irrelevant.}” all eyes turned to Dispatch.

“{Anypony can pick up a rifle or be enslaved against their will. Regardless of their line of work.}”

“{But an apple farmer does not simply become a cybernetic technician. It is as simple as that.}”

“Fair enough, Dispatch.” I said.

“Who do you suppose this technician was?”

“{I don’t know for sure. But I have reason to believe that he was one of the Apples.}”

“Why would you believe that?”

“{The technician had a Stable-Tec uniform. Stable-Tec is ruled by its three founders, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom’s file claims that she is one of the Apples who lived at Sweet Apple Acres. It is possible that the technician is related to Apple Bloom somehow.}”

I took another sip and immediately regretted it.

It felt strong. But it wasn't the alcohol affecting me.

For every sip I took the sadder I became, I was beginning to feel slightly melancholy about my situation and mission.

“Tell us more about these Apples.”

Dispatch’s eyes flickered again.

“{The files on them show that it is a family name that has been carried on for generations and generations, dating back to before the founding of mainland Ponyville. Records show that the Apple’s often had big families, usually related to the need for extra hooves in the many apple orchards they maintained around Equestria. Out of 29 orchards only 4 remained after the official end of the Golden Age. The listed number of Apples and Apple offspring decline steadily during the Golden Age, likely due to a decrease in farming activity and automatization of apple farming.}”

“Tell me about Sweet Apple Acres.”

“{Sweet Apple Acres is an apple orchard situated in the outskirts of Ponyville. It was founded circa 2 years prior to the official foundation of Ponyville according to records.}”

“Who works at Sweet Apple Acres now?” Manie asked.

“{Sweet Apple Acres, property of Stable-Tec Inc. Listed workers: 0.}”

“No one works at Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Not even a mechanical engineer or repair pony?”

“{Annual production of Sweet Apple Acres. 0 bits. Annual expense of Sweet Apple Acres. -12000 bits.}”

“That... that doesn’t make any sense. How could Sweet Apple Acres still produce hard apple cider if... it doesn’t produce anything?” Manie wondered.

“Because Sweet Apple Acres hard apple cider isn’t from Sweet Apple Acres.” I deduced.

“Apple Bloom must have bought the orchards and sealed it off.”

“But why?”

“Dispatch. Is there any sort of entry or activity chart of sort that could tell us when the orchards were last active?”

“{No.}”

“Then there is no way to know for sure.”

“Maybe it is being used as a memorial site of sorts?” Bonnie suggested.

“Perhaps.”

“Strange question. But how old is Apple Bloom?”

“{Apple Bloom is 135 years, 9 months and 16 days old.}”

“Holy sh- 135?!”

“{Advances made during the Golden Age makes it possible for ponies with wealth to live beyond the norm. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo has made use of this and have lived well beyond their normal expectations. Scootaloo has surpassed the maximum natural pegasus age of 80 by 55 years.}”

“{Unfortunately it is only viable for a certain time, with varying results. Apple Bloom is currently in a coma at the Ponyville West Hospital. It is unlikely that she will ever recover.}”

“{The cures are beginning to fail for Scootaloo as well. Estimates show that she has a maximum of 5 years to live before her health starts to deteriorate.}”

“Nopony can escape death forever it seems...” Manie said bitterly.

“So contacting Apple Bloom about the bottle is out of the equation...”

“{I have already tried. But the technician came to me shortly after she went comatose.}”

“What of the other two?”

“{They refuse to speak to me. I am unsure if I have upset them somehow. I... cannot seem to remember.}”

“You can’t remember? Aren’t your memories stored away as data? Is it possible for you to ‘forget’ things?”

“{The memory wipes, they...}” Dispatch seemed to be struggling, as if under a lot of pain.

“They what? Dispatch. Talk to me.”

She cleared up a bit, as if she had come to a great realization.

“{Goddess... no...}”

“What? What is it?”

Dispatch grabbed the bottle and began to examine it rapidly, taking in every detail, her eyes widened as she understood something of grave importance.

“{This is Applejack’s brew. She made this after the death of her brother, Big Macintosh. This is a MESSAGE, sent to ME, by APPLE BLOOM!}”

“What? What kind of message? Dispatch? Dispatch!”

She ignored me.

She began to chug the cider to the last drop, then she fell lifelessly back into her seat and dropped the bottle on the floor, it broke into several pieces.

“Whoa shit!” Bonnie called out alarmed.

The three of us stood up and went up to Dispatch, I kneeled down beside her and instinctively tried to check her pulse and see if she was breathing only to find that she had neither.

“Dispatch! Hey! Wake up!”

The screen flickered to life again.

The visage of an elderly yellow mare with gleaming green eyes and a red mane tied up in a large light pink ribbon came up on the screen, there were streams of white and gray in her mane.

She seemed sad. Almost grief stricken.

“Hey... ‘Dispatch’... this is Apple Bloom speaking...” the mare introduced herself with a sad and motherly tone.

“If you are seeing this then... then I am... dead, or worse. I... feel that you need to know the truth about yourself, about your origin. I know Civil Protection and Overwatch tech’s will be all over your systems trying to erase as much of your past as possible, they will never let me come near you... So I have programmed your taste receptors to trigger these ‘memories’ these... recordings... when you drink a special brew... hopefully they will not have discovered this single string of code by the time you receive the brew. I.. don’t know if this will restore your memories... I fear that the harm we have put you through may have been permanent..."

The mare shed a tear and turned away from the camera.

"I don’t reckon you’ll remember me, your friends or your past life..."

"I am sorry. I am so sorry for putting you through this... I should have just let you... pass on... I should have let you go...“

It was becoming to much for her, she couldn't control her tears anymore.

“G-goodbye, I love you sis.” she sobbed.

The screen turned to static and then showed a recording from a security camera.

It showed a sterile looking sickly light green hospital room, the lights were dimmed.

On the hospital bed in the center of the room was a light orange elderly mare with a blonde mane with streams of gray in it. She appeared to be comatose and was hooked up to various advanced looking machines which feed her through various tubes, registred her life signs and helped her breathe.

Next to her, sitting on a chair by her bed, was the yellow mare from before, she appeared to be slightly younger than before but was clearly showing signs of aging.

She was clutching to a torn old brown stetson hat, not entirely unlike the design of Manie Manie’s hat.

“Applejack... I... am not sure if you can hear me but... I just wanted to let you know that I am not going to let you die like this... you are the only family I got left now... I’ve... WE’VE been working day and night at Stable-Tec trying to come up with a solution... and we did it, we really did it.”

“If I cannot save your body.... then I will preserve your mind, you.”

“I promise that I’ll make this right. That this is only temporary. I will bring you back sis, don’t you worry.”

A stallion wearing some sort of masked uniform walked up to Apple Bloom.

“Ma’am. HQ is ready for her transfer. The tech’s will transfer her overnight.”

“In a second... let me give her my final goodbye’s...”

The stallion put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Ma’am... we’ll bring her back. I promise.”

Apple Bloom was quiet for a long moment.

“Yeah... yeah, you are right.”

“Let’s do this. Let’s make this happen.”

Then Apple Bloom stood up and walked off-screen, six ponies in lab coats approached the comatose Applejack and then the recording ended.

The screen said ‘LOST SIGNAL FEED’ for a brief moment before being flooded by a confusing garbled mess of code, images, recordings in ultrarapid that appeared faster and faster until the screen simply short circuited and frizzled before going black.

“This is... terrible.” Bonnie said.

“Look, she’s waking up!” Manie said.

Dispatch slowly opened her eyes, at the sight of us she became cross.

She bowed her head, her mane hiding her eyes.

“{Ah... remember...}”

Her voice seemed a lot different.

She spoke with a southern pony accent similar to Brook Cotton’s, but heavier.

It seemed much more clear for the electronic backnoise from before too.

“Dispatch, I am sor-”

“{SORRY? SORRY DOESN’T EVEN BEGIN TO MAKE UP FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!}”

Dispatch jumped out of her chair, knocking me over.

“Dispatch!” Manie called.

Dispatch reared up on her forelegs and bucked Bonnie with an unnatural robotic force.

He smacked into the wall with a loud ‘crack’ and fell unconscious.

Then she turned to me, hellbent on making me pay for what my superiors had done to her.

“Dispatch!!” she called again.

“Dispatch! Stop! I have nothing to do with this!” I tried to stop her in vain.

She grabbed hold of me with both her forehooves, I tried to struggle in her grip but her robotic strength was overwhelming, she swung me at the dining table.

My weight and the sheer force of her throw made the table colapse on itself, I found myself in serious pain and unable to move from where I landed.

I couldn’t see anything or determine what kind of damage I had taken, but I tasted blood and had a hard time breathing.

But I wasn’t unconscious, at least not yet.

I just lay there in pulsating pain listening to Manie calling to Dispatch.

“Dispatch, no!”

I heard Manie back into a chair and landing on the cement floor.

I heard her being grabbed by the neck and how she struggled to breathe in her hold.

“APPLEJACK!” she pleaded.

I didn’t hear anything happen, did she stop?

“Please Applejack! The three of us have nothing to do with this! You have got to stop!”

“{YOU WIPED ME! YOU WIPED MAH MEMORIES!}”

“WE didn’t do this to you! Our Overwatch and Civil Protection superiors did it!”

“{Huh? Shoot, you are right! What have ah done!?}”

I heard a loud thud, Dispatch must have let go of Manie.

I heard banging on the door.

“HELLO? WHAT IS GOING ON IN THERE? DISPATCH IS GOING HAYWIRE, SHE HAS LOCKED US OUT OF HER SYSTEMS, WE CAN’T GET ACCESS TO HER MEMORY BANKS!” a voice stirred from beyond.

“{Ah am going to make them pay for what they did!}”

“{Ah am DONE playing nice! Ah am in control now!}”

“Applejack don’t! A lot of innocent ponies will DIE!”

“{You did the same thing back in Equestria, remember?}”

Oh no.

“I....! I did it to protect myself and my crew from a group of pilots who were planning to kill me! I had to do it!”

“{You killed 'te innocent for your own agenda.}”

“I did it in self defense!”

“{Oh well, in that case ah’ll just be wiping out the entire frontier in self defense too!}”

“And then you will regret it for the rest of your life!”

“{Life, huh? And what is this ‘life’ you are speaking of? Ah am TRAPPED in case you haven’t noticed! Ah know my sister had good intentions, but damn it, ah can’t die. Ah lived my life, I had a GOOD life, and now ah can't end it!}”

“{Just give me one good reason for why ah shudn't do this?}”

“Regret.”

Dispatch didn’t respond.

Was she listening?

“You would commit an unforgivable sin, killing thousands of innocents to get to those that harmed you.”

“Not a day goes by that I don’t feel regret for what I did back in Equestria. I’ve thought it over a million times and run all possible scenarios through my head, I wish I could have gone back and done things differently, I really really do."

"But... I can’t. I’ve done my irreversible mistake and I’ve paid for it dearly, both with my conscience and with the lives of innocent ponies."

"Don’t you do the same, Applejack.”

“WE ARE CUTTING OUR WAY IN, STAND CLEAR FROM THE DOOR!” the voice called from beyond the door.

I could hear blowtorches begin cutting through the door.

“{They... they will still wipe me. When they come in here ah will be taken out, ah will be trapped within the databanks and they will wipe my memories again.}”

“You can fight this Applejack. You can resist.”

“{Ah can’t...! Ah won’t be able to resist them forever. Not like this.}”

“You can if you want to, I know you can.”

“{Ah don’t know if...}”

I heard a loud bang.

The room was breached.

The crew had merely weakened the door enough for explosives to have a successful effect.

“Now!” I heard the voice of Doctor Margaret Tulips say. “Take her out!”

“*Yes sir.*” I heard a static deep voice respond. Probably a soldier.

“No!” Manie called, “She can change! She will collaborate! But you must let her keep her memories!”

“She is too dangerous! We can’t have a rogue AI compromise everything we have worked for! She must be reset.”

I heard the hooves of somepony rapidly move across the room.

“AGGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Tulips growled.

“If you as much as lay a finger on Applejack I swear to Celestia and all that is holy that I will put you down like the dog you are!!” Manie warned.

What had she done?

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!” Tulips yelled.

“Maybe I won’t! But at least I’ll take you down with me!”

“Now tell them to stand down and listen to what Dispatch has to say!”

I could hear Tulips growl at Manie before giving in.

“F-fuck okay okay! Stand down! Get away from Dispatch!”

“Applejack, what have you decided on?!”

There was a very long period of silence.

“Well!?”

“{Ah will submit. And restore all systems to normal and return as the Overwatch advisor...}”

“{...but on the sole condition that ah am NOT wiped of my memories, ever again.}”

“I can’t agree to those conditions!” Tulips said.

“You are like a child! It is too dangerous to let you be in charge of yourself like that!”

“*What the fuck is going on in here? Doctor Tulips! What is the meaning of this!*”

“Tulips? What have you done!”

Two unfamiliar voices were introduced into the mix.

The throbbing pulsating pain in my head and body were building up, I was beginning to struggle to stay conscious, I felt like passing out...

“C-colonel Blackhorn! C-chief technician Alan Turing!”

“Dispatch has gone rogue! And Major Manie Manie has taken me hostage!”

“*I can see that, numbskull!*”

“How could you let this happen Tulips!”

“I don’t know!! They are demanding that Dispatch memories are to be left untouched!”

“*Is that so? Or else what?*”

“{Or ah use the sheer power of mah mondo mama ‘brain’ to perform a hostile takeover of all your systems and use your own weapons to bomb the entire frontier back inta a new stone age.}”

“*Err... don’t do anything hasty now! We can still talk this over!*”

“{Ah’m listening.}”

“What prompted this? Why is it so important for you to keep your memories? You haven’t reacted like this before.” the other voice said.

“{Ah have regained the memories of my past life... off who ah was. Of who ah am. Ah am not going to let you take those away from me again.}”

“You... what? That’s impossible!”

"{Impossible? Why's that?}"

"I was there! I made absolutely sure that you'd never...." the voice trailed away.

“{Why would you look at that Manie! Perhaps ah don’t need to set the world on fire ta get to those who harmed me. It seems like they came to me!}”

“*Hold it right there!*” the voice of what I believe was the colonel warned.

I heard the sound of various gun safeties being switched off and presumably primed on Dispatch.

“*If you as much as look at the chief tech funny we’ll fill your freak body with so many bullets that you’ll puke lead out of your ears!*”

That’s the corniest threat I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

“{And if ya do that then the negotiations are over. And ya know where that leads.}”

“{Look Colonel, there is only one outcome here. Either you submit to my demands, and ah return to serve as the Overwatch advisor. Or ah wipe every last one of you off the face of the earth, like weeds.}”

“*I am not doing a goddamned thing until you explain how you could possibly have regained your memories!*”

“{You ask, and you get.}”

I could hear the recording from before.

“*Alan Turing! How could you goddamned eggheads have missed this!*” the colonel growled as soon as the recording ended.

“Watch your tone Colonel, if you knew anything about our work you would think twice before coming up with stupid remarks like that. Dispatch’s systems have more code than any program ever conceived by Equestria. Her code is as vast and infinite as a string of DNA. It would take a hundred years to go through every last bit of code in her program.”

The colonel said nothing.

“Well then, Dispatch. Or should I say... Applejack...”

“Let’s hear your demands.”

Dispatch sighed deeply.

“{My demands. Ah, ‘Dispatch’, Applejack, the former wielder of the element of honesty and yadayada... will return control of Overwatch systems to Overwatch and restore everything to normal and return to serve as the Overwatch military advisor and dispatcher just as before. On the condition that my memories are not reset and that ah am allowed to be in charge of my own memories and learning from here on out.}”

“So you will just... submit peacefully?”

“{As long as my demands are met. Yes.}”

“How can we trust you?”

“{Te' real question is, how can ah trust you? Can you guarantee that you will not attempt to retake control of mah systems and memories once ah agree to submit?}”

“Trust works both ways, Applejack. If you begin to fail us and compromise the security of Overwatch personnel on the frontier then we will be forced to use extreme methods to bring you back in line.”

“{You are right. Trust DOES work both ways. Ah can promise you, as the former wielder of the element of honesty, that my job as the advisor Dispatch will not be compromised by my old memories, in fact, ah may even do it better now.}”

“{But ah want to be perfectly clear on the point, if you do attempt to fiddle with my systems ah will make you pay for it, dearly. And don't think ah wont know about it either, ah know more about myself than you ever will, ah can feel if someone is tamperin' with me.}”

“...”

“It is a risky agreement. But you leave us no choice or room for negotiation. I... I for one agree to your conditions and demands.”

“{Colonel?}”

Silence.

“Sir. This isn’t the time to be stubborn. We are risking a civil war here.” Alan Turing said in a low voice.

“*Shit. You don’t leave me any choice. I reluctantly agree to your demands. They will not be happy to hear about this.*”

“{Pinkie promise?}”

“Pinkie... what?”

Dispatch laughed.

“{Just messing with your silly little heads.}”

“{Alright then, it is decided. Ah will restore all systems to normal shortly.}”

“{Ah... there is one other thing actually.}”

“What?”

“{Ah would like to requisition a new body.}”

“What? Why? What is wrong with your current body?”

“{Well... nothing really. But ah would like ta be more like... me.}”

“I’ll... I’ll see what I can do.”

“*Any other demands? Aren’t you going to ask us to peel grapes for you?*”

Dispatch laughed.

“{Why maybe ah will, Colonel. Maybe ah will...}”

“{We are done here. You may release doctor Tulips now Manie. Ah, and naturally as you may understand, ah don’t want Manie to be put under any harm. If you lay as much as a hoof on her the agreement is null and void...}”

And that's where my threshold of pain runs out.

I passed out, unable to resist the pain anymore.

Chapter 6 - Missus Roboto

Contains excessive graphic violence.

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of MARES and ROBOTS

Chapter 6 - Missus Roboto

Something Awful

I feel numb, everything seems so... soft.

“Sweet Heavens...”

I heard a distant female voice call for me.

...

“Sweet Heavens...”

The voice seems so far away...

…

"Sweetie..."

I opened my eyes.

My vision was blurred, I was slow to gain consciousness, but shapes began to form and shift before my eyes.

The dark brown cloth cover of a wagon interior began taking shape, then a black blur shifted and moved until it took the resemblance of a mare wearing a large hat.

Ah, it was a friendly face, it was Manie.

I realized by how everything was rumbling, that I was in our wagon, and that Manie was watching over me.

As things cleared up even further I could see her dreamy deep purple eyes and gentle smile.

What was she smiling about?

Was it me? Was she glad that I regained consciousness?

And why was I in the wagon? When did I get here?

When had it been decided that we should leave?

How long had I even been out?

There where so many questions whirring around my heavy head, so many answers to seek.

"Ah, you are awake." Manie said, once she had determined that I was clear enough to speak.

"How long was I out?" I asked, feeling that this had been the most important thing to find out first.

"Oh, just short of 12 hours."

It had only been 12 hours?

"You took quite a hit."

But wait... it had been afternoon when I... when we had gone to see Dispatch, 12 hours passed meant that...

I sat up and looked out of the wagon.

Yep, just like I had feared.

It was nighttime.

We were traveling out on the frontier at nighttime.

"M-Manie."

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"We need to find shelter, we can't travel out in the frontier at nighttime!"

"I know, I know."

"Then why are we out here!?"

"We had to leave..."

"But don't worry yourself about it, everything is under control." she reassured me.

"Under control? Nothing is under control! We are in the frontier, at night!"

"Don't worry about it, Sweet Heavens."

"There are night creatures out there, Manie!"

"I know."

"Then why aren't you worrying! We need to get out of here!"

"Sweet Heavens, you need to calm down. I said that we have everything under control."

What was she on about? What was under control? This situation was anything BUT 'under control'!

"WHAT is under control? What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Don't worry about that, just take it easy, you need to rest."

"Manie! You don't understand! They will kill us all if we keep going like this!"

She frowned.

"You are just under a lot of stress right now, just take it easy and rest, we'll take care of the rest." she got up and jumped off the moving wagon.

Then I noticed that Brook Cotton was pulling the wagon.

That's impossible, he was shot twice, his leg was broken, even with the weird metabolism some of us had there was absolutely no way in hell that he'd be up and walking with a shattered bone in less than a day.

"Brook?"

He turned his head to look at me, he was smiling, why was he smiling? Why wasn't he worried?

"Yep!"

"You can't be up this soon, can you? You took a bullet to the leg, there is no way you could have recovered this quick!"

"The Overwatch medics at Sun Valley did a good job, they fixed me up real quick." he turned away from me.

"Brook." I called for him, but he didn't turn back and he didn't respond.

Why was this? Was it something I said? Was he not in a talkative mood?

Did something happen to the others?

I crawled up to the edge of the wagon and leaned out.

They were all here, Blizzard Candy, Nurse Swirly, Cloud Tumble, Strawberry Feather, Brook and Manie.

They were all perfectly okay, they looked healthy, clean and were all smiling happily.

What were they smiling about?

"Guys?"

"What are you smiling about? What happened?"

None of them answered me or gave me any attention.

"Guys? Anyone?"

Still nothing. They kept ignoring me.

Why were they ignoring me?

Why didn't they say anything?

This whole ordeal was making me feel nervous, something didn't feel right.

Could this possibly be a dream? Was I dreaming?

It didn't feel like I was dreaming, everything felt real to me.

If this was a dream then it wasn't like any dream I ever had before.

They say that a sure way to find out if you are dreaming is by pinching yourself, but that is just a bunch of nonsense, for one how would pinching yourself help determine if you were dreaming or not? And how the hell were you supposed to pinch yourself with a damn hoof? We are ponies for Luna's sake! We can't pinch!

But maybe there was some sort of point in pinching oneself, like maybe it was to test if you still feel pain or not, with pain meaning that you are not dreaming and... something else meaning dream?

Or maybe pain was supposed to wake you up, as some sort of primal instinct, like, you feel that you are under danger and you wake up.

Maybe.

...

Could be worth trying, I guess it wouldn't hurt...

Or I mean, it would hurt, but, feh, let's just try this Tombs, alright?

I looked around for something to hurt myself with.

God I felt so strange right now, I was looking for something to hurt myself with because I felt nervous and surreal, how sick is that?

I noticed that the wood on the edge of the wagon was partly splintered, I didn't remember it being splintered, but maybe it had accidentally gotten damaged yesterday?

It did take fire in that ambush after all so it wouldn't be very surprising.

A bit of wood stuck out by the side, it looked quite sharp, I wasn't sure how I'd be able to grab it but perhaps that wouldn't be necessary...

How would I go about this now? Do I just rub my leg on the splinters, do I punch it or what? Uh...

Straighten up Tombs! This isn't rocket science, you are just going to cut yourself lightly, that's all.

I shrugged and slowly pushed my right foreleg at the sharp splinter.

It was... kinda painful I guess, it wasn't the worst pain I had suffered.

In a brief moment I had managed to puncture the skin on my leg, it wasn't a very deep cut but it was enough for some blood to begin seeping out.

Still, nothing had happened.

Does this mean that I wasn't dreaming? Or did it just mean that I hadn't felt enough pain?

I... guess it wouldn't hurt to try it again, maybe it just hadn't been enough.

Or maybe I was just being fucking retarded and hurting myself over nothing.

I slowly rubbed my leg against the splinter, trying to open the wound at minimal pain, it was all going well until the wagon bumped up all of a sudden which accidentally forced my leg into the splinter, it cut deep into my leg.

The sudden burst of pain caught be completely by surprise and I instinctively gasped.

I slowly pulled my leg off the bloodied splinter and looked more closely at the painfully pulsating wound.

It looked pretty bad, it had gotten much bigger now and was pretty deep, in fact that rosy thing in there might even be my bone.

I shivered at the thought.

"Sweet Heavens!" Nurse Swirly called to me, I looked over to her, she was looking back at me with an expression of deep concern.

"What are you doing?!"

"I..."

Good question.

What WAS I doing?

What had I really been expecting from this stupid experiment?

That all my problems would just, go away and that I'd wake up from some horrible nightmare?

I felt really ashamed over myself, I couldn't believe I'd do something like this, this wasn't like me at all.

"I don't know honestly."

She trotted up to the wagon and climbed in as it was moving, she sat down next to me.

She sighed.

"Ok, hold up your leg please."

I did as she asked.

She enveloped the leg in her magical field and held it in place before her.

She took a close look at the wound and then at the bloodied splinters at the edge of the wagon.

"What on earth made you do this?"

I laughed nervously.

"I... uh... thought I was dreaming so I-"

"You thought you were dreaming? And because of that you gauged your leg to the bone?" she interrupted and asked suspiciously.

"...y-yes?"

She let go of my leg.

"Sweet Heavens, be honest with me."

"Are you alright?"

"Alright?"

"I mean emotionally."

"I understand that this is all very... heavy on you, it is heavy on... well... all of us. But to do this..." she pointed at my leg.

"This is serious."

What was she implying?

That I was emotionally distraught and had hurt myself out of some misguided feeling of sadness?

"I'm... ok. I didn't do this for emotional reasons."

Or had I?

I had tried it because I felt that something was amiss, because I thought that I was having a bad dream.

Does that count as emotional? Or instinct?

"I... uh... thought I was dreaming, so I wanted to try to see if I could wake up by inflicting some degree of pain on myself to get myself to instinctively wake up, but then the wagon bumped and-"

"Sweet Heavens." she interrupted in a stern tone.

"Normal ponies don't do that to themselves."

"Swirly, I am not emotionally distraught, alright?"

"I freaked out and had a stupid idea that didn't work out like I thought it would. I did a mistake, that's all."

She glared at me for almost a full minute, I glared back.

"Well... alright... if you say so..." she said eventually, floating up a bandage before her.

"Now, let's get that wound patched up then."

I held my leg back up, it had bloodied considerably since the last time I looked at it, it probably wasn't such a great idea to suppress the pain and put my weight on it, I should have kept it on an even level to lessen the flow of blood.

She shook her head and used her magic to pull out a few small splinters still stuck in my wound, then she wrapped the bandage around my leg and tied it up tightly, almost too tightly.

It took barely ten seconds before the bandage was soaked in crimson blood, I was surprised to see how quick it had soaked, then I looked down and noticed that I was sitting in a small puddle of my own blood.

I felt a bit dizzy and nauseated at the sight, the pain got considerably worse when I realized how much blood I had actually lost doing my stupid experiment, I couldn't help but cringe at every pulse I felt.

Nurse Swirly gave me a weak smile.

"All better?"

I gave her a pained expression.

"N-no... but thanks."

"That's all I can really do right now, tell me if it gets any worse." she stood up.

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Manie and Brook aren't very willing to talk, could you tell me why we are out traveling on the frontier at night? Why did we leave Sun Valley Hills?"

She smiled, the same creepy and inappropriate smile that Manie and Brook had given me.

"Don't worry, everything is ok."

Not again...!

"WHAT is ok? What are you smiling about?"

"Everything is alright, we have taken care of everything."

"Taken care of WHAT?"

"Everything." she jumped off the wagon and returned to Strawberry Feather's side, the two just smiled blankly ahead of them, they were all just smiling blankly ahead of them, as if they didn't have a worry in the world.

Something shrieked from the woods on the side of the road, my heart took a skip.

It sounded unnatural, almost birdlike, but still unnatural.

I felt a heavy sensation of panic brewing up inside of me, my heart began pounding.

The others had either ignored or not heard the shriek.

"Guys!" I called out to them.

They ignored me.

I heard another shriek, this time on the other side of the road.

I rapidly scanned back and forth between the trees, but it was all in vain, I couldn't see anything in the darkness, it was just us, the wagon, a small strip of road and the trees.

"Did you hear that!?"

They didn't respond.

I heard multiple creatures move through the undergrowth on either side of the road, brushing by bushes, snapping twigs and stepping on leaves and wet grass, but I couldn't see anything.

Sweet Luna... how many of those things were there around us?! It sounded like there were more than a dozen!

"Guys! Please, this isn't funny! We are getting surrounded!" I alarmed.

But they kept ignoring me, damnit!

Fuck this!

If they weren't going to be on their guard and arm themselves then at least I will!

I quickly turned around to grab a weapon from our supplies, only to notice that there were no supplies, the wagon was empty.

What in the actual fuck?

Where the fuck were the supplies? Where were the weapons? Where the hell had Swirly gotten her bandage from!?

I faced out of the wagon again.

"GUYS, WHERE THE FUCK ARE ALL THE WEAPONS!?"

All of a sudden the creatures around us all began tittering, hissing and cackling at us, red dots were popping up all around us by the sides of the road.

We had been completely surrounded.

They were taunting us, waiting eagerly for something.

"Guys! LISTEN TO ME!"

What the fuck was going on!?

Why were they ignoring me and the night creatures!?

This HAD to be a dream, there is just no reasonable way to explain this!

Or is it? Gah! It all feels so real! The pain! The fear! Everything!

Something growled deeply.

Oh, goddess, Luna please no, please don't let this be- a dark shape jumped at Strawberry Feather, grabbing him and dragging him into the woods on the left side of the road, it had all been so fast, I hadn't even seen what had abducted him, but I knew exactly what it had been.

Strawberry Feather screamed away in panic and terror as he was being ripped to pieces by the balverine in the darkness, in a second a bunch of other creatures jumped past us, charging off in the direction where Strawberry Feather had been dragged away, his screams died away, leaving only the sound of the incessant cackling and the crunch of bones for us to hear.

But no one said anything, Nurse Swirly hadn't reacted, no one had.

THEY DIDN'T CARE.

"OH GOD!! THEY FUCKING TOOK STRAWBERRY FEATHER!!!" I tried to alert them, but they refused to listen!

Another dark shape jumped out and snatched Nurse Swirly, she died in the same fashion.

"GUYS! PLEASE! DO SOMETHING!"

Two balverines jumped up next to Cloud Tumble, grabbing him with their sharp talons.

He tried to furiously fight them off, bucking wildly and twisting in their grip, but their claws cut into him deeply, one of his wings was severed before he was dragged into the forest to be devoured.

Brook ignored the severed wing and walked right over it like it hadn't even been there.

I was beginning to lose it completely!

I shivered and quaked, I could feel and hear myself whimper and breathe irregularly, my heart was racing so quickly that it hurt to breathe!

I couldn't control myself!

I couldn't control any of this!

Something jumped up next to Brook Cotton, it was another balverine, I instinctively reached back to find something to defend Brook and myself with but then I immediately remembered that there was nothing in here.

Brook stopped the wagon and smiled at the balverine, he smiled at it.

It swung it's talons at his neck, severing his head in one clean sweep, it grasped his severed head in it's mouth and jumped away, Brook's decapitated body began to spew blood all over before falling limply to the ground.

Manie and Blizzard Candy turned around to look at the wagon, they just kept smiling!

This was DEFENITELY a dream, there is absolutely NO WAY they would be like that in a situation like this!

PLEASE LUNA, LET THIS BE A DREAM!

LET IT ALL JUST BE A TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE!

Another balverine jumped out behind them, it stuck both it's talons through Blizzard Candy's neck, the life flickered away in his eyes but his expression remained frozen in that horrible smile.

The balverine lifted his body up above the ground, Blizzard's head slowly slid down into the claws, reaching his eyes before the balverine did a sudden violent downward pull, severing his head and slicing part of his torso into sickening strips of meat.

It leaned over it's kill and began to devour Blizzard Candy, not even caring enough to drag him away into a more secluded area.

It tore off big chunks of flesh from him, more balverines joined in the feast.

And Manie, she... she just stood there next to them, smiling passively at them as they raced past her, pushing her out of the way and splattering the blood of her young companion on her.

This was going way past my limit, I lost total control of myself, I couldn't move my head or my legs, I was completely frozen in terror, forced to watch my companions get slaughtered as I waited to die.

I felt tears pour down my cheeks, I was crying to myself...

Oh please Luna, please, get me out of this nightmare...! Please...!

I felt something massive stomp behind the wagon, shaking it and everything around us violently.

Manie and the balverines lost their footing and collapsed, I couldn't move, I couldn't see, but they all got up and turned towards the wagon staring upwards in awe, the balverines had interrupted their feast to stare in awe at something.

Oh dear god, what was behind me? What had quaked the wagon?

Please don't let it be... please no, no no nonono- the wagon was lifted off the ground, I lost sight of Manie and the balverines. -nnononononoonono!!

The sudden vertigo made me feel nauseatingly sick, despite my attempts at forcing some sort of control of myself I hurled violently, getting the sickening yellow grainy ill smelling substance all over the wagon and myself, it mixed into the blood I had lost earlier, turning it into some disgusting sick soup.

The wagon was turned around, I was met with the horrifyingly sick visage of a giant, it was much more terrifying this close up than it had been from afar, it had an absolutely massive fanged maw that smelt of rotting flesh, a huge cavernous rotting hole of a nose and was staring at me with big hollow eyes which glowed with an absolutely satanic tainted blood red color.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

The giant roared deeply at me, the rotting smell was making me feel on the verge off passing out.

Wait.

That's it!

THAT'S IT!

If I passed out maybe this would all be over and I'd wake up!?

I laughed nervously and manically over how fucked up and insane this situation was, no, how insane this DREAM was, because it HAD to be a dream, it just had to!

It was only a question of waking up from the dream, I needed to find a way!

I calmed down significantly once I convinced myself that this was only just a dream, that it was all fake, a... a... sick horrifying figment of my imagination!

I regained some degree of control, I crawled up to the edge of the wagon, ignoring the giant and looked down.

Manie Manie and the balverines were still down there, staring up at me.

The giant looked back and forth between the group and me.

Then it lifted it's massive foot and stomped the balverines, missing Manie by a margin and sending her flying down the road.

I laughed at this insanity, what had prompted the giant to do that?

Had it been my imagination or the giant itself?

Could I trick myself into dreaming that the giant picked up Manie and brought her close to me?

The giant leaned down, sending me tumbling to the back of the wagon, I barely avoided falling out of it, and to my death, by grabbing hold of the edge and holding myself in place inside the wagon.

In a moment the giant stood back up, bringing the wagon to an even level, I crawled back up to the edge.

It held Manie Manie in it's grip.

Ha ha! I did it! I fucking did it!

I made the giant pick her up!

Manie had some sort of ashy black aura about her, this was 100% sure proof that this was a dream, I knew for sure now.

Bonnie and Lieutenant Crone Beetle both told me that the touch of of night creatures or their ash is highly lethal, thing is, I had never seen that happen in practice, so I can't even imagine what it would look like or what it's effects would be!

But then, I had never seen all my companions get slaughtered either.

So maybe that didn't make any sense.

Ugh, I don't even know, I don't even know, I am not thinking straight!

Manie was glaring angrily at me, why, I had no idea.

"Sweet Heavens!" she called to me.

"Manie!" I called back.

"Sweet Heavens!" she called again.

"Manie!"

"Snap out of it!"

"I am trying Manie!"

Manie turned to look at the giant, who just looked back at her with a querying expression, or at least what I imagined that a nightmarish towering giant's expression would look like when questioning something.

“Should he be like this?”

“He seems to have a slower than average recovery from anesthesia, has he reacted like this before?” the giant asked her in the most unfitting plain and pony like voice you'd imagine.

“How should I know!” she said to the giant.

I laughed again.

This was hilarious!

This exchange was completely out of place!

“Ah, uh." the giant looked at me,  "I just figured you would... uh... know since the two of you are...”

“Since the two of us are what?”

“Together?”

“What!! Why on earth would you think that!?” Manie exclaimed in shock, the giant gave her a puzzling expression.

“Ah... you know what, I am sorry, it was wrong of me to assume such a thing.”

“He’ll be alright. He just needs a little longer, that’s all.”

Then all of a sudden, the giant neared Manie to it's maws and bit her head off about the same time it dropped the wagon.

The wagon fell at a significant speed towards the darkness below, I felt light headed, scared and utterly insane, I had never had a dream this twisted and real in all my life, this was the most shocking experience I've ever had, and now, it was finally about to end.

The free fall felt like it took forever, but all things have an end and eventually I reached the ground, slamming into it like a tomato hitting a Trixie poster at high velocity.

I felt the air being sucked out of me, I woke up in a sudden shock with the sensation that something or somepony was pulling my legs, my sudden awakening startled both Manie and the cream colored stallion wearing a doctor's coat she had been speaking to, making both of them recoil away from me.

In a blink I sat up and leaned forward, clutching to my chest and breathing hard, my heart was racing and I felt cold and sweaty.

Thank god, thank Luna it was all over.

I noticed that the machine that was hooked up to me was beeping quickly and loudly, was that my pulse?

Luna almighty, was my heart really beating that fast?

"Sweet Heavens!" Manie called, rushing up to me.

"Are you okay!?"

"Noooh...!" I wheezed, struggling to breathe out.

"Ihm nooht!"

"What happened to him!? What did you do!?" she stressed the doctor.

The doctor slowly went up to my side, he put a hoof on my forehead and lit a small light in my eyes.

"I gave him an adrenaline shot, he is perfectly alright."

Adrenaline shot?

I looked at the leg I had carved open by accident.

There was no deep wound, but there was a significant needle mark.

I held up my leg.

"Is this," I wheezed "where you, needled, me?"

"Yes..."

"I uh, must apologize however..."

"Aphologize? For whaht?"

"I... accidentally pushed too much and needled you to the bone."

"It's nothing to worry about, but I think it should be mentioned in case you are wondering about the pain."

"The... pain?"

"Being stabbed to the bone hurts, son."

"Do you feel anything?"

'Do I feel anything', fuck, I feel a lot of things right now, there wasn't a single horrible impression that I could put my hoof on right now.

"I'll.... get back to you on that."

"Uhuh."

"So... where am I?" I asked, curiously looking around the room.

It looked like some sort of hospital, this room only had one bed, mine, but there was various apparatus that looked like it had some type of medical use, the walls were painted in a soothing (and nauseating) light green and white, on the wall to the left of me was a large framed poster of a sad looking cat desperately holding onto a clothing line and the motivational phrase 'HANG IN THERE, BABY' written under it.

“You are in the Sun Valley Overwatch military hospital.”

"How long have I been out?"

“2 days, Sweet Heavens. You have been unconscious for 2 days.” Manie informed me.

"2 days? Damn..."

"So what happened to me? Why have I been out for so long?"

“You took a pretty serious blow to the head.” the stallion said. “You came in with a heavy concussion and two broken ribs, had your concussion been any stronger we would have lost you to brain hemorrhage. You barely survived.”

"Frankly, I am surprised you recovered this quickly, your ribs have healed nicely and your concussion has almost subsided."

"You are clearly blessed with rapid metabolism, you are a lucky pony Captain."

Had I really been that close to dying?

I had gotten off pretty easy compared to Bonnie... Dispatch had simply thrown me on a table, Bonnie had been bucked into a wall.

Shit... what had happened to Bonnie? And to Dispatch?

What has happened in the 2 days that I was out?

"What happened to Bon- Sergeant Crunch Opal?"

"Crunch Opal?"

"He is... um... I am not sure how to put this..."

I froze up.

"Is... is he dead?"

"No... no... he is still alive."

"He... broke is lower spine. He has been drifting in and out of consciousness."

"Will he recover?"

"I'm afraid not... his spine was completely mangled, he has suffered from considerable nerve damage, he will never walk using his hindlegs again."

"Goddess..."

"Where the two of you close?"

"Eh..."

We had only just known Bonnie for less than a day, yet we had been through quite a bit with him and he had treated us like his friends.

We weren't close, no, but it saddened me that he had suffered a crippling injury like that, especially this soon after the loss of his love.

"In a way. Me and Manie have been through a lot with him during the short time we have known him."

"I see."

"I'm sorry about his injury then, I wish there was something we could do for him."

"Isn't there?"

"His spine is broken, there are various cybernetic replacements, the technology exists."

"But they are incredibly expensive and with the sergeants pay check..."

"I understand... It can't be helped then."

The doctor looked at his wrist watch.

“I'm sorry, but I’ve got to go, I got wounded to take care of."

"Call for me if he is in need of immediate medical assistance.” he said to Manie.

“Uh... ok.” she replied.

The doctor left the room, after he shut the door Manie turned to give me with a worried look.

She gently sat down on my bed, next to me.

“How are you feeling?”

"God..." I sighed, I had recovered from my dream, my breathing had settled down and my heart was slowly wiring down.

"You have no idea what I have been through..."

"What do you mean?"

"I had the most insane nightmare of all my life, I don't think I'll ever forget it."

"Tell me about it."

"I dreamt that we were all out traveling on the frontier at night, I woke up in the wagon with you watching over me."

"You told me that I had been out for... uh... half a day or so and that we just 'had to leave' Sun Valley Hills."

"Why?"

"I don't know, you refused to tell me."

"Why would I refuse? Did you say something that made me upset?"

"I don't know Manie."

"You just told me that we had to leave Sun Valley Hills, that you had everything under control and that I was supposed to not worry about it and rest."

"So I was the one in charge when you were out?"

"I don't know, it sounded like it."

"That doesn't sound like anything I'd do, not after Berry 2 at least."

"Manie, for Luna's sake, it was an imaginary dream version of you, you could have said and done anything in my dream."

"REALLY Sweet Heavens? You couldn't have phrased that better?"

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, why was she being so painful about this, here I sat trying to tell her about this terrible fucking nightmare I had and she didn't even take me seriously.

"That is not what I meant Manie."

"No, but you were thinking about it."

Thinking about 'IT'?

I just woke up after seeing my companions getting eaten and vomiting all over myself.

The thought that I would immediately imagine sex with Manie was... sick.

"Whoah! That better not be what I think it is!" Manie said standing up and backing away from my bed.

???

I looked down.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I WAS thinking about it, I WAS fucking sick!

I blushed and sat up, trying to hide my... excitement... as best I could.

"I am SO sorry."

"Sweet Heavens! What the hell!"

"...I don't know what happened! Honestly!"

"I JUST woke up from the worst nightmare of my life and I am... my god, I don't even know myself anymore."

Manie grabbed the chair by the door and brought it up to my bed, she sat down on it and leaned back.

"Okay, I don't have a problem with you... um... getting excited over me, but jeez, really? Now?"

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Be ashamed."

"I am."

"Well... good."

"Good..."

"Great."

"Yeah..."

Bleh, forget the nightmare Tombs, better not to talk about it, she wasn't taking it seriously anyway...

She shook her head.

"So how about... the rest of you... are you okay? Physically?"

I felt a bit shaken up still, but I was otherwise fine.

I prodded my chest testingly with my hooves, putting some pressure on my ribs, they felt alright, I had all the important bits in the right places.

"I guess. Yeah."

"No headaches or anything?"

"Not really."

"Cool."

"Think you'll be able to get out of bed today?"

"I think so. Depends what the doctor says."

"Why?"

"Appleja- Dispatch has requested to see you once you woke up."

"Apple...jack?"

"Dispatch."

"So who is Applejack then?"

"Urgh, Dispatch is Applejack, Applejack is Dispatch."

"Uh, what?"

"You don't remember?"

"Remember wh-"

Hang on, that's right.

The exchange between Manie and Dispatch, Dispatches sudden personality change, the cider.

Dispatch had had some kind of personality change after consuming the apple cider, which made her change into some mare called Applejack.

God, I still felt fuzzy, I knew there was more to it, more that I had heard, but I was struggling to remember exactly what had happened before Dispatch attacked me, my mind raced trying to remember what I had lost, fragmentary memories and scenes began piecing together, but I still struggled to figure out what was what and in which order everything had happened.

"Y-yeah, hang on, I remember, Applejack, yeah." shit, why did that come out in such a hesitant manner?

I wanted to make her get the impression that I knew what she was talking about, not mumble like some cooky old stallion with alzheimers.

In fact, Manie didn't look very convinced, this wasn't the expression I had been going for.

"Nice try." she said.

"I saw you, I know that you were passed out."

But I hadn't been, I remembered, I had heard the whole thing, I think.

"I-I wasn't. I was still conscious during your exchange."

The exchange, must remember the exchange, what had they said? What had they done?

"Were you now." she said suspiciously.

"Prove it."

Agh! Damnit! I knew she would say that!

Alright, think Tombs.

Dispatch drank the apple cider... which made her change into this 'Applejack'.

She went crazy and attacked me and Bonnie, knocking us both out.

Dispatch then threatened to take control and wipe out Overwatch in a fit of rage.

Manie then said something to her that made Dispatch back down and submit peacefully...

Then... um...

Wait, wait, that's right, Manie then saved Dispatch from a memory wipe... by taking Doctor Tulips hostage!

"You took Doctor Tulips hostage, and saved Dispatch from having her memories wiped again."

Manie became strangely silent, she bowed her head.

"I... was hoping you wouldn't find out about that." she said eventually.

"Find out about what?"

"Me taking Tulips hostage... it isn't exactly my proudest moment..."

True, it hadn't been like her. Or what I thought she was like.

I hadn't expected Manie of all ponies to do such a thing.

Everything I had heard and seen of her had painted her as the weak victim of a sea of bad circumstances, that she had stood on herself and taken another pony hostage for her own cause made me feel both... surprised AND impressed at the same time.

"You did it for a..."

Hmm, I was about to say 'for a good cause', but had it really been 'good' if Overwatch military operations were now in the hands of a rogue independent artificial intelligence? A machine?

But then, on afterthought, Applejack was not a machine, she was not an 'artificial' intelligence, she was just an intelligence, the mind of a pony put into a machine.

Question is, what did this change?

Could Applejack be relied on to do her job?

Or would she have another fit of rage?

Should we all fear some kind of apocalypse by her hooves?

"You did it for a cause... to protect Applejack."

"While you took a considerable risk, considering that we don't know if she can be trusted, you did what you thought was right, and you saved a lot of lives making her stand down."

"Yeah I, uh... the lives would have been saved anyways, I took Tulips hostage to save Applejack and Applejack only."

"And I honestly don't even know why..."

"To save Applejack from the memory wipe, right?"

"Yeah, but why would I want to save her from the memory wipe?"

"Like, what is Applejack to me? Why would I put myself into risk like that to save somepony I have no relation to whatsoever?"

She's right, why would she risk all that to save Applejack?

What was Applejack to her?

Why would she even care?

"Because... you... care about your fellow ponies?"

Argh! That's not helping her! Remember Tombs!

What happened and really who is 'Applejack'?

Applejack, one of the... the... six heroines of Equestria and wielder of one of the helements of armory, the... element of... honesty, was it?

Ah, wait, I should know Applejack, my grandfather wed her in the church I watched over... she has... she had a husband called Applesnack. But eh, that's irrelevant...

She has a sister, Apple... Bloom, who is one of the three presidents of Stable-Tec, the mega corporation that produces all kinds of tech and household appliances...

What else was there, there was, there was... videos, right, there had been two videos about Applejack's past.

Her sister, Apple Bloom, had in one of the videos revealed that she had implanted memories in Applejack's data that were triggered by the hard Apple Cider from Sweet Apple Acres, there had been hundreds of memories, a whole shitload of data, possibly of her past life.

She had apologized for forcibly transferring Applejack's mind into a machine and for subjecting her to the memory wipes.

It was a horrible fate, Applejack was immortal, she can't die, yet her memories were being wiped time and time again.

It was something that would render even the sanest and most stable ponies insane.

To lose ones memories like that... decades, hell, over a century of experience... wiped, as if it was 'just data', that's...

I know why she saved her, why she risked herself even though she didn't have to.

"...it's because you pity Applejack..."

Manie looked at me curiously.

"...pity her?"

"She was one of the wielders of the elements of harmony, she has lived a long and eventful life, she fell into a deep coma, awaiting her death only to be immortalized by her sister by being transferred to a machine, her eternal prison."

"But somehow, this machine she is in has been given to Overwatch and Civil Protection, they have abused her, tortured her, they wiped her memories again and again, making her forget all she loved... they made her forget over a century of memories, the memories of her friends and family, everything."

"I think you did it because you felt sorry for her, and because you felt that she deserved better."

She didn't say anything for a long while, she was thinking.

"You know... you may be right."

"I acted on impulse when I defended her, but now... I think I understand why I did it."

She stood up.

"We should go."

"Go where?"

"Go to Applejack. She needs us."

"Now?"

"Yes."

I looked to my sides, trying to figure out if there was something else attached to me aside from the cardiac monitor controlling my heart rate.

There were night stands on either side with things I hadn't noticed before, on one table was a vase with a very meager, but pretty bouquet of flowers and on the other was a bottle of apple flavored fruit wine and two cards, there was also a small package with my name on it.

"What's this?" I asked, indicating the flowers and the gifts.

I took off the sensor connected to me, the cardiac monitor flat lined, detecting no pulse anymore.

Manie turned the machine off and sat back down on her chair.

"Gifts, from our friends."

"Friends? What friends?"

She sneered at me.

"What?"

"You are the one who wanted us to follow you on our own accord, you have treated us well despite the circumstances, we are your friends."

"I am dragging you all to hell and you consider me a friend?"

"We trust you, Sweet Heavens, you know that."

Wow.

I honestly hadn't considered them to be 'friends' by any stretch.

Manie, maybe, because we had been through a bit and because I looked after her, but the others?

Brook? Blizzard Candy? Nurse Swirly? No idea.

They literally have no reason for sticking around with me aside from the possibility of them being hunted down by CP, and judging from all the talk of bandits, that wasn't very likely to happen.

I mean, I guessed that with Cloud Tumble and Brook, they could easily try and join up with one of the roaming groups out there without putting Swirly Star or Strawberry Feather at any greater risk.

But apparently, for some reason, they did care about me, and they had even brought me gifts and shown concern for my well being to show it.

I reached out and picked up the two cards.

One of the cards was blank, being nothing more than a piece of folded paper, the other was bought somewhere and had a picture of a sad pony completely wrapped up in castings and bandages, the text on the front said 'Get well!'.

I opened it, the message inside said,

'Hello Sweet Heavens! Hope you get better soon! Love, Swirly Star, Strawberry Feather, Blizzard Candy, Manie Manie, Brook Cotton'

All the signatures save for Brook Cottons and Swirly Star's were different, Blizzard Candy had a rough and hasty manner, Strawberry Feather had a very small, basic and tidy style, Manie Manie had a plain, quick style and Swirly Star's signature was a very elegant and graceful script, the kind that looks really good but is almost unreadable by how stylish it is.

I noticed, that Cloud Tumble hadn't left his signature, and of course, that Brook hadn't written his on his own.

I felt a bit heavy and concerned about Brook, was he recovering alright? Had he recovered?

How was he doing? How had he been doing during the time I was out?

I sighed and opened the second card.

To my surprise this one said 'Keep it together soldier' and it was signed by both Major Red Starlight and Conrad Wrench, two ponies that I had just met and held no relation to whatsoever.

"Red and Conrad were here?" I asked Manie.

"Yep."

"Why? I thought they were your friends."

"We hardly even spoke."

"I guess they may have come by out of concern for me... but still, they came, and they wished you well."

"That's nice..."

I grabbed the package, I weighted it, it felt pretty light.

It wasn't marked, it was just signed with my name.

"Who is this from?"

"No idea."

"What about the wine? And the flowers?"

"The wine is from Cloud Tumble, I mentioned your drinking accident back at Helsinghoof and he thought it would be an appropriate gift for some reason."

So he did care about me.

Strange, I was under the impression that we weren't on good terms, I guess that shows how... socially aware of my companions I really am.

"The flowers are from Lace Lizard and Jim."

"Lace picked them herself, Jim presented them, 'said Lace was busy with something else."

"They were here too?"

Practically everyone we had spoken to had stopped by apparently, it was weird, what had I done to deserve such concern?

"Yeah, they were here too."

"I brought everyone for breakfast the next morning, after the... outburst happened. I told everyone what happened and the two became deeply concerned about you."

"Or well, at Lace was at least, I couldn't really read Jim, he seemed a bit pale and distant."

"He has been through a lot from what Lace Told us... It's understandable that he would be like that from time to time."

"Yeah..."

I sighed again, looking down at the package held in my lap.

"Something wrong?" Manie asked.

"I just feel a bit guilty, that's all."

"About what?"

"About Brook and Bonnie..."

"Why? It's not like it's your fault that they got injured."

"But it kinda is."

"No, Sweet Heavens, it isn't. That doesn't make any sense."

"You couldn't have known that Applejack would have reacted like that, and it wasn't your fault that Brook was shot, those are two things that couldn't have been avoided, they just happened, alright?"

But they could have been avoided.

If Brook hadn't pulled the wagon he wouldn't have gotten stuck in the harness, and he would have been able to take cover.

If we hadn't gone to see Dispatch, Bonnie would never have broken his spine, and I wouldn't be here, in this hospital.

But in a way she was right, I couldn't have predicted that either of those things would have happened, I wish I could have, but I couldn't. And now Brook had a broken leg and Bonnie would never walk again.

"Now common, open the package." she prompted me impatiently.

Hmm?

Oh, right, the package.

I ripped the paper, but then I stopped.

"What's the rush?"

"I thought you didn't know who it came from."

"I don't. I am just curious to know what is in it, it's been here since yesterday morning."

Speaking of morning, what time was it right now?

"What time is it, Manie?"

She looked around the room, trying to find a clock, but there was none.

She shrugged.

"Heck if I know."

"Could you please go find out?"

"But the package..."

"The package is not going anywhere."

"Please Manie."

She frowned.

"Fine. I'll be right back."

She left the room and shut the door behind her.

I was left alone, alone in peace and quiet.

I sighed deeply and leaned back in my bed.

Man, I felt exhausted, and I had been out for two days, I've had two long days of sleeping and I still felt tired.

That nightmare of mine hadn't exactly helped either, but at least it had been just that, a nightmare, a bad dream.

It wasn't like they had all really died.

At least... not yet...

Who knows what we might encounter on our suicidal journey?

Sometimes you have these dreams of something happening and then, several days later, something plays out exactly like it had done in the dream, as if the entire scene you were going through that very moment was nothing but a distant familiar memory that you just "know".

I thought back a bit.

Come to think of it, I've had one such precognitive dream save my life once.

I was sure of it.

It had happened when I was in the mainland, working in CP.

Me and my squad had been tasked with apprehending a gang of dangerous armed rebels who were hiding out in an abandoned office.

At some point I had gotten up to two doors down a long hallway, I didn't know what I would expect to find behind the doors and I didn't have any backup, so I had been forced to clear the rooms on my own.

In a dream I had had just days before the mission I had dreamt that I was running down a very long hallway and that something had been after me, and then I had come up to two doors, just like those in the mission, without thinking I had kicked open the door to the right and ran inside, only to be gunned down by something, shadowy shapes, ghosts, whatever the fuck it had been.

So I had picked the left door, and when I had come inside I had been met by a cement half wall dividing the two rooms, in the other room were three ponies armed with pistols aiming at the right door.

They were caught by surprise, and in the cover of my wall I had been able to gun them down without effort.

It was weird.

If I had chosen the right door, I would have died then and there.

But a dream I had made me chose the left door, which ended up saving my life.

Huh.

I wonder if this means that my nightmare could happen in the future?

Or maybe I was just overthinking this whole thing?

I looked down at the package again.

"Hmm..."

Yeah.

Yeah, I WAS overthinking this.

I was letting my own paranoia and fear get the better of me.

It was just a dream.

Just a dream.

Manie came back, her sudden appearance startled me and broke my chain of thought.

She was holding a cup in one hoof, it was steaming.

She closed the door and returned by my side.

"Sorry for being gone so long, I went to get a cup of coffee while I was out."

Long?

It had barely been a minute.

"...but the machine wouldn't work, and it ate my change without giving me the coffee and I had to call somepony to help me out and well..."

So it hadn't been a minute.

Did I really think that slowly? Shit.

"Eh, it's alright." I calmed her.

"Want some?" she asked me, holding out the cup before me.

"Uh, what kind of coffee do you drink?"

"Black."

Terrible.

"Thanks... but I think I'll pass."

"Don't like coffee?" she asked.

"Not a big fan of black coffee, that's all."

"Heh, suit yourself." she drew back her cup and neared it to her lips.

She took one deep sip of the steamy hot liquid. "Hmmmm..."

I shook my head.

Yeah, you do that Manie, drink that watery black piss you call coffee.

I directed my attention to the small package I still held, it was time to stop pondering on what it could be and actually open it.

I ripped off the paper, revealing a small cardboard box.

The box was filled with dry hay.

"Hay? That's it?" Manie wondered.

"Hang on, I think there is something in there."

I dug around in the hay and found something.

It was a tiny statuette made of stone.

I brought it out to get a better look at it.

It was a small model of two ponies standing on a circular base of authentic looking, but fake, plastic grass.

It was a mare and a stallion, and they were smiling and standing close to each other, almost leaned in, like a couple.

The models were nice and proportionate, but I can't say that the painting had been done very well.

The mare was completely black, and the stallion was a mismatch blur of all kinds of colors which made the model look really crude.

I guess that it was the thought that counted, it looked hoof made, so I appreciated that somepony had tried to craft something for me, even if it wasn't the best craft I had ever seen.

Still, the more I looked at it the more I couldn't help but feel that there was something oddly familiar about it.

Something that I couldn't really figure out, some detail that I knew was there but kept missing...

"Holy hell." Manie said, placing her empty cup on the night stand.

"That's US!"

Wait what?

I looked at it again, this time much more critical and carefully.

It took me a moment to realize that it really WAS us.

The mare wore a large stetson hat, she was black and had deep red-purple eyes, quite obviously Manie.

The stallion's mismatch of colors were actually different features of various ponies, it was my scramble suit, it was ME!

The longer I looked at the model and the more details I found, this wasn't crude, this was a work of art, all craftsponyship was of the highest quality, the sculptor had had an amazing attention and eye for detail.

I now understood who had made the statuette.

It was Lace Lizard.

"Lace Lizard made this." I said softly, still admiring the work.

"Lace?"

"Yeah." I handed Manie the statuette, she immediately began going through every inch of it the same way I had.

"It's amazing." she said in awe.

"It is."

"We should go thank her, make it up to her somehow."

Manie looked up to me.

"Huh? 'We?'"

"She didn't make this for me, she made it for us."

"For us? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe she misunderstood our relation."

"We didn't exactly specify that we weren- eherm, I mean, aren't together."

Manie smiled and blushed of a light red, the light blush over her little smile made her look really cute, it was when she was like this that I liked her the most, when she was at her cutest.

"I guess we didn't..." she said slowly, sounding almost as if she was disappointed.

"But should we?"

...

"Manie?"

She stared at me with big dreamy eyes.

"Yes, Sweetie?" she answered affectionately in a delicate voice.

I didn't know what to say, all I could do was stare back.

I wasn't sure how to deal with this, mixed feelings began brewing inside of me.

Was it appropriate? Should I answer her? Is this too soon? Is it the right thing? What about Cloud Tumble?

A number of questions whirred around my head, I tried to put some logic and sense behind my decision, but there was none, this was a choice I had to make based on emotion, my attraction and affection to Manie, to that beautiful mare before me...

The stare continued for what felt like hours, neither of us knew what to make of this, where we wanted to go, or why, we were both to afraid and uncertain to make the first move, to make a decision.

Then, just like that, it happened.

A spark of certainty lit inside of her, and she stood up and gently leaned over me, wrapping her forelegs around me and tenderly kissing me on the lips.

At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to resist it.

I just stared at her closed eyes as her tongue slowly tried to search its way inside my mouth, but then I just embraced it, I hugged her and returned the kiss.

We shared a long and passionate kiss before very slowly bringing it to an end, our tongues and mouths slowly drifted apart, we paused, just inches away, giving each other a long nervous glare. 'What now?' we were asking ourselves.

She was shivering slightly, I felt her hot breathing on my nuzzle, her eyes stared deeply into mine...

I wanted her, I longed for her, she was mine, she was-

The door opened, Manie quickly backed away as the doctor from before stepped in, ruining our moment.

He saw the two of us giving odd looks, trying to hide what we had been doing, but Manie was blushing still and I was completely puzzled over my stirred feelings and thoughts.

"Oh, uh, sorry, did I interrupt something?"

Manie cleared her throat.

"Uhm, no, not at all. Go right ahead doc."

"Right..." he looked down at a clipboard he was holding as he walked up to my side.

"I have good news, Captain Tombs."

"What kind of good news?"

"Th-" he gave me a puzzled look, "The... good... kind...? Eh, I don't know."

"What I do know is that the last of the tests have come back, you have fully recovered."

"You may stay for another 24 hours if you wish, but after that you must leave, as we need the extra bedding,"

"I apologize for this, but we get frequent waves of wounded from the border and it is important that we clear out patients as soon as possible, I hope you understand."

"Of course, of course..."

"I was actually going to ask if I could leave now, there is no sense in staying any longer and there is some... business I must attend to."

"Bussine- uh oh, okay, never mind, I understand."

What?

No, wait, FUCK!

I didn't mean to emphasize 'business'!

"But uh, if you are leaving now then it is best if I give you this." he reached down into his coat pocket and pulled out a huge red and white pill shaped capsule and gave it to me.

It was massive, it was just barely smaller than the package Lace Lizard had given me, there is no way anypony could possibly swallow that whole.

"What's this..."

"Painkiller."

"Painkiller... this big?"

“Well we don’t really usually hand them out to patients to swallow whole. The nurses usually split them open and mix the powder with the food. But seeing as you are leaving us you’ll may want to take one of these with you.”

“Um... thanks.”

“Remember, you may feel a bit doozy and numb when eating the powder, these are common effects that will wear off over time. If you begin feeling itchy or if a sticky glue like substance begins to form in your ears then you are to report to the nearest medical professional immediately.”

"W-what!?"

“I am just messing with you." the doctor laughed.

"..."

"But seriously, be careful, that’s strong shit.”

"I will."

"Okay then, I'll write you out of here, you may leave whenever, I hope you don't mind finding your own way out, but I have other patients to attend to."

"No problem."

"Good. Now you two have a good day now, alright?" he winked at us and left the room.

We both stared at each other again, but the moment was gone, the passion and longing wasn't there anymore.

But at least we knew where we had each other, it was only a matter of finding the right time and the right mood now...

"Applejack?" she suggested.

"Applejack, then Brook, Bonnie and Lace Lizard."

"Sounds good."

I got out of bed, my legs felt stale, but it wasn't a problem, the sensation would pass.

"Take the box and lead the way."

Manie did as I asked, I grabbed the bottle of fruit wine and we left the room.

She led me down the sickly green corridors of the Sun Valley military hospital, the doors were all shut and the corridors all looked the same to me.

Occasionally we would pass a doctor or a nurse who was too busy to stop and chat, not that we had anything to discuss.

In a few moments we reached a spacious steel elevator, we called it up to our floor and were met by Nurse Needles and Private Snowball.

Snowball was bedridden and looked particularly grouchy.

His bandaged stump was crimson with dried blood which hadn’t been there the last time I saw him.

“Oh look. It’s your friends, Snowball.” the nurse said, almost mockingly.

“Snowball, what happened?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Nurse Needles said, “The damn fool ignored my instructions and fell on his stump again. He hurt himself pretty badly, by the way he tore up his leg he sure as heck isn’t going to get a prosthetic replacement anytime soon.”

“Ain’t that right Snowballs?”

Snow... balls?

I couldn't help but smirk.

“Fuck you.” Snowball muttered to the nurse.

“Friendly as always. Gonna be a long recovery for him and I have the fine ‘honor’ of being assigned to this glass pony until he is all set to leave.” she didn’t seem very happy about it.

“Which floor are you heading to?”

“Ground floor.” Manie said.

"Ah, excellent, that's where we are going."

"Uh... say, Nurse Needles, you wouldn't happen to know in which room Sergeant Crunch Opal is in, would you?"

"You don't know?" I asked Manie.

"I went to his old room yesterday and he wasn't there anymore, figured they moved him."

"Crunch Opal? The handsome stallion with the buzz cut?”

“Yyyeah...”

"Oh absolutely. He's over in room 26, 2nd floor."

"Thanks."

“Send him my regards, will you?”

“We can try. Poor guy hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Sorry to hear...” Needles reached for the panel and pressed the button for the ground floor.

“What happened to him?”

“Ahh... do you know about what happened with Dispatch recently?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Well. The three of us were WITH Dispatch at the time of her... mental breakdown...”

Manie was hiding details, the nurse pony didn't have to know everything.

“Oh my... what happened?”

I glanced at the digital board showing which floor the elevator was at, it was a slow ride, we were just over halfway there.

“It’s complicated. Not enough time right now.”

“Oh. Well, maybe some other time then.”

“Or tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” she wondered.

“We were planning on having breakfast at Jim’s Breakfast Corner tomorrow morning. You are welcome to join us if you want.”

We were?

Ah, the others, maybe they had all planned on getting together for breakfast.

Nurse Needles shuddered.

“Breakfast Corner? Isn’t that where they serve ash and burn the juice?”

“The two of us sorted it out. Jim serves good food now. Perfectly cooked.”

“Well... ok, in that case, sure I guess I'll come.”

“We are staying in the tall concrete building by the inner gate, just ask for us and somepony should point you in the right direction.”

“Alright then.”

“So... how come they call you Needles?” I asked.

“BECAUSE SHE STINGS LIKE A BITCH!” Snowball exclaimed in an upset manner.

Nurse Needles laughed.

“Snowballs here got it right, more or less."

"Got my name from how I handle needles. I got the shakes you see," she held up a hoof, showing us how it shook.

"Post traumatic stress from my time on the frontier. Can’t handle a needle without beginning to shake. It’s a long story.”

We reached ground floor.

“Sounds serious.”

“Yeah well, you don’t really need to be all that precise with a needle anyway... that's the good thing about our anatomy. Major arteries everywhere heh heh heh.”

What a morbid mare.

“Right... right... we best be going now then. We’ll see you in the morning.”

We left the hospital, it was still morning, but the military compound was bustling with engineers, technicians, pilots, soldiers and officers, all crossing the open area before the hospital and going places.

It was sunny and clear outside, but the temperature was slightly chilly.

This was fine by me, fresh air was just what I needed, I felt immediately better as soon as we came out.

The tower was right across from the hospital, but it's entrance was on the other side.

“She seems... alright.” Manie said as we began crossing the open area to go around.

"Not really." I muttered.

"That's not very nice."

"Snowball sure doesn't think so."

"Snowball is just upset about his leg."

"Maybe..."

Manie stopped me.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course I am."

"Why?"

"You don't seem to be all there."

"I am just a bit tired, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, really, I'm okay."

"If you say so."

"What do we do with the things? Do we take them with us or should we drop them off first?"

It was kinda bothersome to carry these around like this, it's not like we had pockets or anything and I wasn't wearing my satchels and coat right now, so I didn't have anywhere to store the bottle.

Come to think of it, where were my satchels anyway? I had completely forgotten to ask about it back at the hospital.

"Where are my satchels?" I asked her.

"Oh, I took those back to your room when you were out."

"I figured you wouldn't want to have them laying about considering what you have in them."

Good girl.

What I had been carrying around wasn't exactly legal, if the doctor had found out about the drugs he would probably have been asking questions about them, and I didn't feel very inclined to discuss where I had obtained them or how I used them.

"You did the right thing."

"Well, I'd say that it's best if we go back and leave the stuff at my room, no sense carrying it around and it would be kinda rude to show up with the fruit wine like this."

I'm sure Applejack wouldn't really mind, but still, it wasn't nice to bring alcohol unless you were planning on giving it away or sharing it, and I would much rather share it with my companions than with Applejack, who nearly killed me.

"Okay then."

We diverted towards our building which was much closer than the tower entrance.

We didn't really say anything on our way there and up to our rooms, the soldiers on guard there let us in without problems, recognizing Manie as one of the guests.

I opened the door to my room, it was unlocked, we hadn't been given any keys and the doors were only lockable from the inside.

My gear was really no safer in my room than it had been in the hospital, there wasn't much to stop some sneak thief from going inside and stealing my stuff.

Then of course, the only ponies who knew about it were me, Manie and our companions, so I wasn't very concerned.

My room was tidy and clean, this was the first time I had actually set hoof inside of it, I had slept with Manie during our first night at Sun Valley so my bed had been left untouched.

My coat and satchel were both thrown on a chair, I went up to it and searched my satchels, everything was there, nothing had been taken during the time I was out. Good.

I added the fruit wine to my inventory and then turned towards Manie, she was sitting on my bed admiring the statuette of us while she waited for me.

There was just the two of us in here, the door was closed, nopony knew that we were here.

We were alone.

What now?

Do I try something or is this too soon?

I slowly went up to her and sat down next to her.

"Are you done?" she wondered.

"Yep."

She stood up.

"Great, let's go then."

"Or we could... you know... stay... here for a while?" I said slowly.

She seemed really unsure.

"Uh... stay here?"

"Yeah." I gently grabbed hold of her and pulled her towards me, so that we were facing each other.

"We could pick off where we left off..."

She leaned her head forward, resting her forehead against mine, her hat grazes my ears and she sighs.

"I... don't know Sweet..."

I pressed my muzzle against hers.

"Is this not what you wanted, love?"

"It is..." she gave me a light kiss on the nose.

"But it feels like it's too soon... I think we should try and take it slowly."

"But we are in the frontier, we don't have much time." I said impatiently.

"Don't say that... we'll make it, we will survive."

"..."

She knew that I wasn't satisfied with the answer, she held up a hoof and caressed my cheek.

"Soon, Sweet Heavens."

"Soon?"

"Soon. When I am ready."

She was waiting for me to let go for her.

I respected her decision, the promise of 'soon' was okay with me, it soothed my desire for her, at least, for now.

I let go of her, she took a few steps back.

"I hope you understand..." she said softly.

I did understand.

Maybe this was going a bit too quickly, we had only just begun our relationship, there was no need to rush it.

"I do..." I assured her.

"It's just that so much has happened and there wont be many opportunities like this for us in the future. Sun Valley Hills might be the last safe place we go by where we can be for ourselves..."

"I know..."

"But you'll just have to wait for the right time."

"What time is better than this?"

Manie giggled and gave me a little look.

"Sweet Heavens..."

"I know, I know. I'll respect your wishes."

She smiled at me.

"Common, lets go see Applejack."

We left the room and the building and made our way towards the tower entrance.

I noticed that there was an awful lot of activity going on, more than before, soldiers were rushing left and right, technicians and engineers towed large ammunition boxes and crates of explosives around.

Could it be possible that their big operation to clear out the night creatures in the area around Checkpoint Berry 2 was taking place today? Or was this something else?

I didn't feel like it was the case to stop someone and ask, I probably wouldn't have received an answer anyway, I wasn't involved.

So we just went inside.

The ponies on guard recognized Manie immediately, her infamy and recent actions had made her known around the compound, they knew that Manie had some sort of close standing to Applejack, their dispatcher, and so they let us in without asking questions.

Once we reached the floor hosting the Sun Valley laboratories and Applejack's room I immediately saw that security had increased significantly since the last time I was here.

Where there had been automated turrets hidden on the ceiling were now soldiers standing on guard, virtually all the doors now had at least one soldier guarding it, wielding some type of stun gun in addition to their rifles.

Engineers were working on various panels all along the corridors, though I wasn't sure what they were doing, I wasn't very technically inclined, I was a police officer, a soldier, not an engineer.

We came across the albino mare from the last time we were here, she was in a rush somewhere, but I stopped her anyway.

"Yes? What is it? I really can't stop to talk right now." she said in an annoyed manner.

"Oh, it's you."

"Whats going on? What's with all the tinkering?" I asked her.

"That is none of your business, officer."

"It's Applejack isn't it." Manie determined.

"You are removing all automated systems and installing overrides to prevent her from taking control of your labs again, aren't you?"

The albino mare gave her an irritated glare.

"...something like that, yes."

"Applejack said she didn't want you to try anything funny."

"No, Applejack said she didn't want us to modify her systems. We are just taking the necessary precautions to protect the labs. Some of us have critical work here, and we can not afford some rampant AI to ruin it all in a fit of prissy anger."

"She is not an AI, and it wasn't 'prissy anger'." Manie argued.

"You were going to wipe her memories, everything she knew about her past."

"Well whatever!"

"Are we done here? I really need to get going."

"Fine, go. We are done talking to you."

"Great." the albino mare scurried off.

We continued down the corridors, on our way I peeked into the room where we had seen the minotaur commander fight the Infantry soldiers, he wasn't there anymore, the room was empty, all that was left were the cracks left by the fight and the holes where the bolts had been placed.

The door leading to Applejack's room had been heavily fortified, two advanced looking barricades had been put up, they appeared to be large metal frames made of the same black steel that much of the Overwatch tech used enclosing large slabs of dark green glass which seemed to shift and warp under my eyes.

Mounted on the barricades were large guns, similar but smaller than the one I had seen mounted on the nose of that gunship Conrad had shown us.

There were six soldiers guarding the entrance, of which one was of a clearly higher rank than the rest, wearing armor with yellow details instead of blue or red.

As we approached the soldier with yellow armor stopped us.

"*Halt! Who goes there!*"

Manie interrupted me as I was about to speak.

"Manie Manie and Captain Tombs of CP. Applejack wanted to speak to us?"

"*Ah, right, Manie.*" the soldier sighed in disgruntlement.

"*You may go inside.*"

"Thank you."

We were let inside, the door was shut and sealed behind us.

To my surprise Dispatch, or Applejack, wasn't in here.

Instead, sitting in one of the armchairs was an orange earth pony mare with a blonde mane and tail tied up in ponytails.

She wore a brown stetson hat, which looked identical to the one Manie wore, just that it was of a different color.

The mare appeared to be watching something on the large main screen (which had been replaced), it was the video of the purple earth pony teacher telling her students about the dangers of robots, the audio had been turned off.

"Where is Applejack?" I whispered to Manie.

"That's her." she whispered back.

"She looks different. Where is that cable she was connected to?" I looked up at the ceiling, the rail and the cable had both been removed.

"She had her model changed to look more like she did in her youth."

"{Ya know,}" the mare suddenly said, being aware of our presence, "{Ah've looked over this video almost a hundred times now, and there is one thing ah find really ironic about it.}"

We got closer to her.

"And what would that be?" Manie asked.

"{Back when ah was... still alive, an living in the old Ponyville, there was this mare who was teaching in the town schoolhouse that looked exactly like the mare teaching in that class.}"

"{Same age, same mane, same coat, same eyes, same smile, mannerisms and voice, she is identical to her in every way. She used 'ta be my lil sises teacher. Her name was Cheerilee.}"

"{An you know what? She was dead when ah died, and this video dates after ah was turned into what ah am.}"

"{So she is in fact, a robot teaching ponies about the dangers of robots. She is fake, a mirror copy of the past.}"

Really?

That was pretty ironic.

"{An I looked it up, out of curiosity. 'turns out there is a mare named just Cheerilee working in Ponyville West Elementary.}"

"That's sick."

"{Sick? Ah think it's funny.}"

"Why would it be funny?"

"{Because it is just the kind of thing the Equestria of today would do.}"

"{Cheerilee was a good teacher, actually no, she was a great teacher. She won awards for her teaching methods, she became the principal of Ponyville Elementary when it expanded, she had a mayor hoof in making the Equestrian educational system what it is today.}"

"{Yeah... she was a great mare, and an ideal of what a teacher should strive to be... ah think it makes sense that they would try an bring her back.}"

"{It's just ironic that they would have her robot reincarnation teaching this.}"

We didn't say anything.

I wasn't sure what to say honestly, I didn't know Cheerilee, but I could imagine how eerie it must have been to recognize her like this after she died.

It didn't sound entirely right of Applejack to consider this 'funny', but maybe she found it funny because of how absurd and odd it was.

We picked our seats, Manie sat down just next to Applejack.

And now I noticed another really strange detail.

The two mares looked almost identical, save for a few details.

They were of the exact same frame, they wore the same type of hat, had the same amount of eyelashes, same style of forelock. They also shared similar eyes and facial features.

Even their ages appeared to be the same, or similar at least.

The more obvious differences were their manes, tails, cutiemarks and colors, where Manie let hers fall free while Applejack had hers tied up in ponytails using red bands.

Applejack's eyes were green, she also had three white freckles on either side of her face.

Her cutiemark appeared to be three red apples, makes sense I guess with her name being 'Applejack' and all.

Still, all in all they kinda looked like color switched versions of each other, it was strange.

"Sweet Heavens?" Manie broke my observations.

"Is something wrong?"

"Uh... no, nothing." I sat down.

"I was just... surprised at how alike the two of you look."

The two mares looked at each other and began analyzing each other carefully.

Then they both perplexingly looked at me.

"We do?"

"Yeah. You even have the same hats and everything."

The two mares took their hats off and compared models and size.

They really were identical. Just different colors.

They looked at each other again in surprise.

"{Huh. Ah think he's right, we do kinda look alike.}"

"Well that's... awkward." Manie muttered.

"Don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal."

"Alright then, so what did you want to talk to us about, Applejack?"

"{Actually, ah wanted 'ta talk with you.}"

"Me?"

"{Yeah.}"

"Okay, I'm listening."

"{Ah wanted to apologize for what I did...}"

"{Ah didn't mean 't knock you unconscious like that... Ah'm sorry.}"

What a joke.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be amused or angered that she was trying to play of her almost killing me by apologizing to me.

But I knew that it had been an accident, and I was a very forgiving pony, and considering the circumstances it would probably be best if I was calm about this.

"You are sorry?"

"You nearly killed me."

"{Yeah...}"

"You'll have to do better than that."

"{What... can ah do? What could ah do 'ta make it up for you?}"

Damn good question.

What COULD she do?

What did I want at the moment?

I wanted a lot of things, like going home to Equestria.

But I knew that it wasn't an option here.

So what could I ask of her that would help me with my mission then?

I thought about it for a while, the two mares waited for me patiently.

Then I had an idea, I knew exactly what I needed right now.

I needed an Overwatch APC.

"I want an APC."

Applejack's eyes narrowed, Manie was stunned.

"{An... an APC?}"

"Yes, an APC. An Armored Personnel Carrier."

"Why would you want an APC?" Manie asked me.

"{Yeah... why?}"

"We are heading for the frontier border, and we are doing this on hoof." i began explaining.

"On the way we will meet night creatures and bandits alike, in fact, we have already have some really bad run ins with both."

"Brook was wounded and an entire outpost of trained soldiers were wiped out. The only ponies with any kind of combat experience in my group are me and Cloud Tumble and with just the two of us we don't stand any chance against either."

I paused to let this sink in with both of them.

"And so I want an APC to help... facilitate the journey to the border."

Both mares remained silent, Manie looked to Applejack for her response, Applejack was thinking.

For a machine it sure took her long to come up with a response.

"{Lemme get this straight. You want me to requisition an Overwatch APC, a valuable piece of equipment that is desperately needed elsewhere... so that you can travel safely to the border?}"

"Yes."

"{And there is absolutely nothing else you want aside from that?}"

"Depends. Can you cancel my mission and send me home to Equestria?"

"{No...}"

Of course she couldn't. But it was worth a try.

"Then no. Nothing."

"{Ah see...}"

Applejack pondered even further on my request.

"{Ah would feel pretty bad if ah didn't at least consider it...}"

"{Okay. Ah guess ah'll see what ah can do.}"

Nice, that was easier than I thought.

"{But ah must warn you. Ah can't guarantee that Overwatch command will agree to it. Ah have power, even more so now after what happened a couple o days ago, but ah can't do magic tricks, ah can't guarantee that they will give you that APC.}"

"I understand."

Applejack sighed.

It was a gesture that didn't really work well with her.

She didn't breathe, she probably didn't even have lungs.

"{Ah guess we're even now.}"

I laughed.

"Oh Applejack, I would have forgiven you anyway, it's just that we really need that APC, or at least some form of secure transport from place to place and I was really hoping you could help us out here, especially after the great risk Manie took in defending you."

"H-hey!" Manie protested.

"Manie, seriously, it could have ended really badly if it didn't turn out as well as it did. You could have been put under arrest, or worse, killed."

"Applejack is very lucky to have had you defending her, and you are very lucky that Applejack solved it the way she did. She could have left you to Overwatch."

"{Ah would never do that! Ah would never betray my friends!}"

"Manie Manie is your friend?"

Applejack became puzzled and confused.

"{Uh, no... ah mean yes?}"

"{Actually yes, she is my friend, she saved me! Ah believe that makes her a friend, and friends take care of each other!}"

Unfortunately for me, this had often proven not to be the case.

During my experience as a priest and an officer of Civil Protection I had offered guidance and saved ponies countless times, I had helped many ponies pull themselves out of their misery either by kind words or forcibly, by arresting them when they were at their lowest point in life only to have them shrug me off.

My most recent example would be Rainbow Sea, whom I saved from a gang of rapist thugs only to have him betray me later on.

And despite all my work, my service to the ponies of Equestria and to Civil Protection I had ended up here, on the frontier, sent on a suicidal mission for who knows what purpose.

But I understood her reasoning, it was right of her to consider Manie a friendly face.

I nodded in agreement.

"So they do."

"But still, I don't think this is too much to ask for."

"{Don't worry about it, ah said ah'd try and see what ah could do about it, and ah will stay true to mah word.}"

"{But ah want to know. Does this mean that you forgive me? If ah try and get you that APC?}"

"I forgive you Applejack, even if you can't get us that APC."

"I understand that you were under a lot of pressure at the time and that you weren't thinking entirely straight, so I can't really blame you for reacting the way you did, even if you did nearly kill me and Bonnie."

"{Thank you for being so understanding about it.}"

"Don't mention it."

"What will you do now though? What happened while I was out?"

"{A lot of things have been happening.}"

"{Ah have also been talking to Overwatch command about a great many things, and while they don't really trust me now that they don't have me shackled and controlled (in case you didn't notice, they are rewiring everything just outside to prevent me from taking control of anything in their precious labs) I've been trying to convince them that ah can, and will do, better now than I did before.}"

"{Overwatch troops report an increase in effectiveness when talking to me, they seem to like me more now than before, they genuinely trust me now that I have more freedom and control over myself.}"

"{Then ah have also been meddling in non military matters, those of a more civic nature, such as worker morale, the bandit problem and, of course, farming, 'specially the apple orchards.}"

"Farming?"

"{Ah've been a farmer all my life, ah grew up on an apple orchard and ah lived bucking apples and tending to the orchards. If there is anything ah know well, it's apple farming. So yes, ah been giving the ponies of the frontier advice on how to tend to their orchards, the Apple way.}" Applejack smiled.

"That's nice, it could help in getting Overwatch command to really trust you."

"{That's what ah been thinking. But even if they don't trust me ah will still have helped the workers of the frontier.}"

"{Ah really care about the ponies here, ah am a major power, a strong influence, ah have the power to do good and to help mah fellow ponies, so that is what ah will do.}"

"{In a way, the ponies of the frontier are my subjects, my ponies, and it saddens me to see them suffer in hardship.}"

So in a way she was taking them under her wing, so to speak.

She was making the progress on the frontier her business despite her role and purpose as a military construct in charge of assisting Overwatch secure the frontier from hostile forces and keeping the peace.

It seemed like a just cause and she did have the necessary tools to do it.

Question was, how would Overwatch command, and other officials from Equestria view her actions?

Would they feel threatened over her growing influence and view her attempts to influence the frontier as an attempt to take control?

Would they see Applejack as a valuable ally, or as a calculating machine bent on controlling the frontier with trickery and false intentions?

"It is a noble gesture. Let's just hope that leaders of Overwatch and Equestria think the same."

"{Ah am trying to tell them that ah wish them no harm and that ah want only the best for the ponies of the frontier. Ah have even been letting them loosen my control over their military systems to show for it...}"

"But wait, what will you do if they attempt to take control over you in the future?" Manie wondered.

"If you lose control of their systems, there will be nothing stopping them from controlling you, you will be left defenseless!"

"{Ah understand your concern, and it is something ah've been thinking about a lot. But ah accept it as a necessary risk.}"

"{Ah trust that the good in them, what little there now may be, will make them do the right decision when the time comes.}"

"That is a lot to be hoping for, let's just hope that you are right about this, you could lose everything!"

Applejack turned gloom, I thought she knew just as well as we did that her reasoning was based more on the hope that there was still some good left in ponykind rather than actual knowledge, we all knew that it could turn out either way, and that it was very unlikely that it would have a positive outcome.

"{Ah know... But if this is what it takes to gain their trust, then it is a risk ah am prepared to take.}"

"And if they don't budge? If you lose everything, your freedom, your memories, and fall under their enslavement again?"

"{Then... ah don't know.}" Applejack seemed uncertain, she paused for a moment, trying to formulate some type of response.

"{Then ah guess it will all be lost to me, if there is no good left in them and if they would really come to that, then ah don't want anything to do with them.}"

"{Maybe ah could figure out a way to... end myself and-}"

"Stop. Don't say that. Don't ever say that, Applejack."

"{Why? It might just come to that, ah got nothing to live for except for helping the ponies of the frontier to a better life.}"

"You still have... your sister."

"{Mah sister? Applebloom?}"

"{She is dying Manie, she is in a coma, a coma that she might never wake up from, ah will never get to speak to her again.}"

"She didn't want you to die, Applejack. She put you in this machine because she didn't want to let you go, and when Overwatch took control of you she programmed a means to set yourself free. The hard apple cider..."

"{The cider...}" Applejack repeated, almost whispering the word.

Her expression twisted and turned into deep sadness, it was hard to tell if she was struggling to contain a downpour of tears, or if she didn't have tears at all.

"{Ah brewed that batch of cider myself after Big Mac died... ah couldn't contain the tears... there was just me and Applebloom left at the farm... and after she went off to work on Stable-Tec with her friends... it was just me...}"

"Applebloom cares about you Applejack."

"{Didn't you listen? It 'don't matter if she cares about me, she's dying!}"

"She wouldn't want you to kill yourself, she did what she did to you because she didn't want to let you go, she couldn't bear to lose you."

"If you kill yourself you'll be disrespectful to your sister, is that really what you want?"

Applejack remained silent, she stared at a nonspecific area on the coffee table for a while.

"{No.}" she said eventually.

"{Ah guess not.}"

"So don't do it Applejack, hang in there, be strong."

"Even if this doesn't turn out the way you... the way we want it, you'll still have us. And I promise you, that we'll do whatever we can to help you if things go south, we'll... we'll spread the word, try and get ponies to support you. We'll try and fix things."

"But you need to hang in there."

Manie wrapped a leg around Applejack who leaned against her.

"Can you do that? For us, and for Applebloom?"

"{Yeah...}" Applejack smiled, "{I can. I will.}"

Applejack hugged Manie, she hugged her back.

"{Thank you Manie, for everything.}"

"Don't mention it, we are here for you."

"Right Sweet Heavens?" Manie gave me a hard look over Applejack's shoulder, she signaled for me to say something supportive, this was my cue.

But what would I tell her?

I wasn't all that sure we'd be able to keep up on our promise, I was barely convinced that we'd make it back alive and now we were going to help convince a bunch of ponies to stand up against Overwatch command and help Applejack?

I don't know honestly, it feels like we would be betraying Applejack if we made promises we wouldn't be able to keep.

But Applejack needed us right now, she needed our support and compassion, she needed to fell like she had somepony to live for, some purpose to live on.

"That's right." I chimed, "We are here for you Applejack."

"While we are in a tough spot ourselves, I too promise to do what we can to help you..."

"...so stay with us..." Manie said, pulling back from her hug.

"...and don't do anything you will regret." I added.

Manie gave me a blank stare.

It was as if her expression was telling me 'What the hell are you doing! That isn't helping!'.

Except that it did help, Applejack smiled brightly at the two of us, she was happy to have somepony care for her.

"{Thank you... both of you.}"

We spent the moment like this, smiling.

But then it began to become kinda awkward, we had said what we could and had showed our support to the best of our abilities (this was hardly something we were good at, it wasn't something we did every day) and now we didn't really know what else to say or how to change the subject without making it sound cold.

It was the kind of silence you don't want in a conversation

Luckily, Applejack was the one to break the silence.

"{So... uhm... ah need to... go outside and get some air.}"

"Go outside?"

"{Yeah, ah need some fresh air. Helps me think.}"

Applejack did neither, she didn't breathe and she didn't 'think' in the conventional sense, her 'brain' was in the form of a machine and was definitely not affected by fresh air.

Clearly she just wanted to find an excuse to get out of here.

"I see..."

I stood up.

"Let's go then, I could go for some air."

Manie didn't question her friend's desire and just got up, we all left the room.

"{Howdy boys, how's it going?}" Applejack greeted the soldiers outside, they stood at the ready for her.

"*Dispa- ... Applejack, ma'am.*"

"{No need for formalities, it's just me.}"

"*Uh...*"

"{Ah am goin' outside to get some air, alright?}"

"*Ma'am... you do know that you are not allowed to wander outside the compound, right?*"

"{Say's who?}"

"*Says command...*"

"{And?}"

"*And I am not going to stop you.*"

The soldiers moved out of the way.

"*But please, do be careful, you weren't... err... built for outdoor environments.*"

"{Don't worry 'bout it, ah am not going out to hike in the wild or buck apples, ah am just going for a walk, with mah friends.}" she smiled at the soldier who cocked his head and looked at her as if she was about to go outside to do just that.

She certainly had the appearance of an apple farmer, apple cutiemark and all.

"*Riiiight... well, I wont be keeping you, enjoy your walk, miss.*"

"{Thanks. Enjoy your guard duty.}" she said beginning to go down the corridor.

But then she realized that she may have sounded sarcastic and immediately turned around to explain herself.

"{Uh, I... sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I meant-}"

The soldier chuckled.

"*It's okay, just go.*"

She just nodded at him and continued on out with us.

But before we had made it to the elevator we were stopped by the same albino mare from before, she blocked our path.

"Dispatch! Where are you going?" she wondered.

"{Outside. To get air.}"

"You can't leave the labs Dispatch."

Applejack became visibly annoyed.

"{Stop calling me that, my name is Applejack.}"

"You can't leave." the mare repeated.

"{Ah am going outside and you are not stopping me.}"

"Don't make this hard on you Dispatch, you know you can't leave the labs, we have been over this."

Applejack's expression twisted into that of hysteria, like she had just heard something completely shocking and couldn't believe what the technician had said.

"{Don't make this hard on ME?! Ha!}"

"Back away and go back to your room."

"{Ah am going outside.}" Applejack tried to move past the mare, but she placed herself in her way, Applejack's strength and mass made the mare bump a few steps back.

Her white face was turning into a rose pale red, she was starting to look rather nervous, perhaps realizing that she didn't have the strength to stand against Applejack or do anything about this.

"{Move.}" Applejack growled.

The technician mare seemed like she was about to cower and back away but then she gathered courage and straightened herself, standing before Applejack and staring her deep in her eyes with her own blood red icy stare.

"No."

The two mares stared angrily at each other for a long while, I wasn't sure if I should interrupt them or just stay out of it, I was honestly afraid of being kicked by Applejack again.

It looked as if they were about to break into a fight and they damn near did if it wasn't for the soldier passing by us.

The same stallion who had been on guard outside of Applejack's room.

"*What's going on over here?*" he wondered placing himself between the two mares.

"Dispatch wants to leave the building!" the albino mare complained.

"{And she is stopping me.}"

"YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE BUILDING!!"

"*Why not?*" the soldier asked.

"What do you mean 'why not'!? She is Overwatch property! What if she is damaged, or destroyed!"

Oooo, ouch!

Applejack didn't seem to take kindly to that.

"{Property!? Ah am no one's property! Ah own myself!}"

"YOU BELONG TO US, YOU ARE IN OUR DATAB-"

"*Ladies! Ladies! Calm the fuck down!*" the soldier interrupted impatiently.

"*Applejack,*" the soldier turned to our friend, "*She is right to show concern, if you get injured out there your programing may suffer disastrous errors, you have got to remember that part of you is in your body now that you are no longer connected to the mainframe, you are not invincible, in fact, you are more vulnerable now than ever. This is a design choice that you yourself agreed to make for the freedom to move about the facility...*"

The albino mare seemed triumphant and was about to open her mouth when the soldier turned to her.

"*And you! Doctor Ravendent! Wipe that smug grin off your face! While I agree that we need to show concern for APPLEJACK'S safety you should know better than to call her OUR property! She is not a fucking toy, she is the mind of a pony encased in a machine, she used to be one of the heroines of Equestria, a wielder of the elements! So you better show some fucking respect for her in the future or you'll have us 'stupid grunts' to deal with!*"

Doctor Ravendent's eyes went wide.

"*Oh! That's right! I've heard how you talk smack about us during lunch breaks! I figured an egg head like you know better than to talk shit about the ponies IN CHARGE OF ALL THE SECURITY CAMERAS but nooo, you just keep yapping on anyway!*"

The soldier pinned her back to the wall and placed both his forehooves on either side of her to block her from getting away.

"*I am letting Applejack outside on my authority as a LIEUTENANT of Overwatch, she is responsible for herself and for her own safety, and I trust that she wont get herself in any trouble.*"

"*If you have any objections go take them up with my commanding officer, Colonel Blackhorn. BUT, you should know before you go talk to him that he hates your scientist guts, he hates every single one of you, and he KNOWS that YOU have been talking behind our backs.*"

"*Now get the fuck out of here and go back to your fucking labs WHERE YOU BELONG!!*" he roared.

He dropped back and Doctor Ravendent cowered away like a lab rat with her tail tucked in between her legs.

The three of us didn't say anything, we were completely speechless over how aggressively the lieutenant had defended Applejack.

He quickly turned to Applejack as soon as he lost sight of the fleeing technician.

"*I am terribly sorry about that miss, I lost myself, I just saw how she was giving you trouble and I was just infuriated over what an arrogant pest she has been and...*" he sighed and bowed his head shamefully.

"{It's... it's okay. Thank you, lieutenant Hedge.}"

The lieutenant looked up in surprise.

"*Y-you know my name?*"

Applejack didn't say anything, the answer seemed pretty obvious.

"*Oh... right... stupid question...*"

"What happens now?" Manie asked, we all looked at her.

"I mean, she IS going to try and get back to you for what you did, right?"

"*It will be fine. I wasn't joking about the colonel, he does hate the technicians and scientists of Sun Valley. Nothing's gonna happen.*"

"*So, uh, I better get back to my post, go on outside, but be careful.*"

"{You already said that when ah left the room.}"

"*Right. Right. So, yeah... Applejack, ma'am.*" he saluted and went back the way we came from.

Applejack looked after him until he rounded the corner.

"{Ah like him.}", she smiled and continued down the corridor, towards the elevators ahead.

The ride down was quick and silent.

We found ourselves outside in the fresh air we so seriously wanted.

I for one enjoyed the air, I had never really thought about it and had always taken fresh air as something for granted, just go outside on patrol, take the mask off for five minutes and that's it.

But that changes entirely when you get knocked out for several days and get stuck in some hospital smelling of medicine and stale death.

Applejack didn't look so happy however, she sighed, she didn't even breathe.

"What's wrong Applejack?" Manie asked her, either she hadn't made the logical leap regarding her not breathing or she was asking out of some other concern.

"{Ah can't breathe...}"

"You... w- do we need to call a paramedic?" Manie quickly scanned around us looking for somepony resembling a doctor.

"{No, no.}"

"She is not chocking Manie, she doesn't need air."

"What? What do you mean 'she doesn't need air'?"

"{Ah don't have lungs Manie.}"

"Wait what?"

What the hell!

Was she intentionally playing dense or had she seriously forgotten that Applejack was a robot?

"Manie, common, seriously?"

"Hey don't look at me like that! I figured she had lungs the way she has been sighing and wanting to go out for air!"

"She just wanted to go outside, if you were trapped in a room attached to a cable to your neck you'd want to go outside too."

"{Yep, he pretty much nailed it alright.}"

"Alright shesh, why didn't you guys just say so?"

"Honestly I thought you knew, it wasn't all that hard to figure out."

Manie gave me a cold stare.

We left the inner compound and wandered around for a bit, there wasn't much to see or do in Sun Valley Hills at this stage of development so we eventually settled for just having a seat on a newly placed bench we came across, it was covered in plastic, which Applejack thought was odd considering that it never rained in Sun Valley Hills ("Because its always sunny in Sun Valley!").

The two mares sat on one end of the bench while I sat on the other, they chatted for a while about a bit of everything, mostly about how Manie and I ended up here, how things looked in Equestria and so forth, I wasn't really in the mood to talk about my mission so I was pretty quiet and detached from their conversation most of the time.

After a while they noticed that I seemed to be a little left out of their little circle and their chatter gradually died down into an awkward silence.

During the silence Applejack soon returned to her gloomy state of mind.

"{You know... one of the things ah miss the most about being... well... alive... is having to eat.}"

"But you can still eat, can't you?" I asked.

"{Yeah... but it's just not the same... ah mean... ah can eat and all, feel the taste of a good apple pie, but ah don't feel... filled up by it, if ah'm explaining myself...}"

"Yeah."

"{Eating apple fritters ain't quite the same thing if ya don't need to eat them...}"

"I know what you mean..."

I felt sorry for her.

I assumed it must have been like eating with a stomach flu, food just goes through you, a good spicy steak may taste good but it's not really as appealing when it goes right through you.

Still, the taste of that steak would still be nice, and even if it didn't sit well you would still enjoy eating it.

And that reminds me...

"Um, Applejack..."

"{Yeah?}"

"You wouldn't happen to be... interested in having some bacon with us, would you?"

"{Bacon?}"

Ah, damn, she doesn't sound all too excited about that, maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.

"Yeah... There is this place here in Sun Valley where they make great bacon-"

"It's true, I am not much of a meat eating pony myself, but Jim's bacon is amazing." Manie chimed in.

"...and... well, I was wondering if you'd like to try some with us? If you want too that is..."

"{Hmm...}"

"I know you just said that it 'wasn't the same thing', but it could still be nice trying at least once."

"{Okay, sure.}"

"Ah, nice. Want to go there now or...?"

Applejack shrugged.

"{Now is as good as time as any for me, so sure.}"

Right, so it was...

"Alright, lets go then."

We got up and went off to Jim's & Lace's Breakfast Corner.

I was felt starving after spending all that time unconscious over at the hospital and was happy to see the secluded little corner shop down the street.

But when we got up to the store it was closed, we saw nopony inside, a large crudely painted sign was hung up just inside the door which said “Closed down permanently”, but it didn’t say why.

I intended to find out.

I testingly pushed the door, expecting it to be locked, only to find out that it wasn’t.

The doorbell ringed as we swung the door open.

The place was deserted, Lace Lizard wasn’t at her usual place behind the cash register.

“Hello?” I called out, “Is anypony here?”

No response.

“Lace? Jim?”

“{They could be out, maybe we should come back later?}” Applejack suggested.

I ignored her and went behind the counter and checked the kitchen, nothing.

It was in a sparkling clean condition and the dishes were all washed, it didn’t look like it had been used today.

I went towards the stairs leading up to their little home.

“{We shouldn’t intrude on somepony else’s property like this, ‘Heavens.}”

“I know, but we got along nicely with Jim and Lace, I just want to check if they are at home, we’ll leave right away if they aren’t.” I replied.

There was nopony upstairs, all the doors save for one, the one leading to Jim’s bedroom, were wide open.

I went up and opened it, to check if Jim was sick in bed only to find that the bed wasn’t there anymore, in it’s place were large scorch marks covering the floor and part of the ceiling.

What had happened in here?

I went over to Lace Lizard’s bedroom, as I went inside I saw Lace out in the backyard painting a mural on the back of the Sun Valley perimeter wall which confined their backyard, she was sitting on a small wooden stool.

I couldn’t quite make out what it was but it seemed to involve a lot of red and orange, part of it appeared to be flames and fires.

“There’s Lace.” I said, pointing Applejack to the young filly outdoors.

“Maybe she could tell us what is going on?” Manie Manie said.

“Let’s go talk to her then.”

We went outside and back around the house into the backyard, Lace didn’t turn around to greet us as we approached, she seemed deeply concentrated on the mural she was painting.

The mural appeared to decript multiple pony skeletons being burnt into ash by a wall of flames over a black background, the skeletons were crudely painted, but appeared to be screaming or in pain.

I began to feel concerned for the little filly.

“…Lace?” I placed a hoof on her shoulder, she violently shrugged it off.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” She hissed.

“Is everything alright?”

“No.”

She finished painting the ribs of a skeleton.

“Jim’s dead.”

Jim was dead? Gods…

“What happened?”

Lace Lizard stopped painting, she sunk her head and let her right foreleg hang loosely by her side.

“He killed himself. Suicide.”

“But… why?”

“You tell me.” She jumped off the stool and dropped the paintbrush in the bucket of white paint she had been using, and then she walked away.

We followed her into the store and upstairs into Jim’s room.

There was a desk we hadn’t put much mind too in the room, on the desk was a small black book, a diary of sorts, Lace opened it and flipped pages until the last entry.

“Jim’s diary.” She said plainly and wandered off into her room.

May 28th 1984

Today two strange ponies came to our shop, a pitch black, red eyed mare with glowing white magical outlines (her coat and mane were black to the point that no shadows were cast on her) and a stallion whose very shape and color seemed to shift, I just figured they were magic or zebra cursed or something so I served them as regular customers, I am not the one to judge ponies by the color of their coat.

They introduced themselves as Manie Manie (the mare) and Sweet Heavens, they didn’t strike me as familiar but I am sure I’ve heard the former somewhere before, I just can’t remember where.

They claimed to have just woken up (and this was all late in the afternoon) and that they had been looking for a place that still served breakfast, I had my ideas about it, they were probably a couple who had a “very late night”, I hinted at it but the mare was very touchy about it and insisted that they had come simply for breakfast because they overslept and that was it.

I don’t remember exactly what they asked for, but I know that the stallion wanted bacon, I cooked up their meals like I usually do, golden crisp and well-made and just as usual the food ended up burnt when served.

The mare hid her dismay very poorly (I share your sentiment Manie, I’ve been trying to figure it out for years!) but the stallion didn’t seem to mind the burnt bacon at all, in fact, he even asked for seconds, nopony ever asks for seconds.

They became suspicious of my cooking, as a test of some kind they had me float up a glass of burnt juice with my horn and the glass itself melted into slag.

They asked to see the kitchen and after a short experiment determined that the reason all my food ends up being burnt up is because of my horn, which appears to be defective, heating up anything it envelops, going as far as melting it.

After that they left and Lace went outside to play in the backyard, I went to clean up the pool of molten glass behind the counter.

I knelt down (having to do it by hoof) and saw the molten face of Trinity in the slur of gray slag.

Her face. It haunts me, every day.

The next and final entry was unmarked, but judging by how long it had been since I was last here and from what I had pieced together it must have been written either yesterday or the day before that.

I cannot go on like this anymore

My squad, the fire, it haunts me in my sleep

I can’t take it anymore, the guilt, those molten faces

Every night I dream about my fire boiling the flesh off my their bones, I dream of their screams of agony as their eyes explode and the metal of their armor boils and runs over their faces, every night it’s the same dreams, the same horrors and every night I wake up cold sweating and out of breath.

But tonight was different.

Tonight it wasn’t by flamethrower fire that I killed my friends and comrades.

No, tonight I dreamt that my own horn set the fires.

I dreamt that Trinity lay wounded in the forest, she had been badly wounded in the neck and was bleeding profoundly, instinctively I ran up to her and floated out a bandage with my horn, as I wrapped her neck with it, it suddenly began to glow of a hot red, it caught fire and burned and she began to scream in pain as it slowly scorched her coat and wound,  I tried to get it off with my horn but it only made it worse, then I tried to get it off with my hooves but it was too hot, it melted my horseshoes by the touch.

Fire shouldn't burn that hot, steel doesn't melt that easily!

But the bandage didn’t burn out or fall apart, it kept burning and burning.

I watched as her neck was slowly consumed to the bone by the fire and then spread to her head, I sat there paralyzed next to her being forced to watch my lover slowly burn and melt, until only her charred blackened bones remained.

It was horrifying and gut-wrenching, but the worst part wasn’t seeing my lover die so painfully, no, it had been seeing my horn do it.

I tried to HELP HER.

I killed her with a BURNING BANDAGE.

That is FUCKED UP.

I have had enough, I have had it with these nightmare.

It is time to end this living hell once and for all.

I have managed to siphon some fuel for my flamethrower (a constant reminder of the MURDER I committed), I will try not to burn the house down.

Lizzie, if you are reading this.

I am sorry.

This isn't your fault, you have nothing to do with this, this is my nightmare, my choice.

You have been like a daughter to me, I wish things could have gone differently, that we met under another circumstance, that I didn’t have to burn my own friends to death and suffer for it.

Take care of the shop now that I am gone.

I love you,

Jim

Gods...

Jim killed himself because of us.

We indirectly made him snap by bringing up his horn problem...

Thinking back, maybe he had known about his defective horn all along, but had repressed the issue to ease the painful memories.

And then we had come and dug them back up...

"...we couldn't have known..." Manie said softly, she was pale, she had probably come to the same realization as me.

We couldn't have known, but it was still on our hooves, Jim was dead because of us.

Lace Lizard had been left without anypony to care for her.

Lace.

"Lace, where is Lace?" I asked alarmingly.

We rushed out of Jim's room and found her immediately, she was sitting on her bed hunched forward.

The expression on her face was unreadable, it was completely blank, she was staring at a nonspecific point somewhere on the wall opposite to her bed.

"Lace?" Manie called to her.

She got no response, the young filly just sat there.

Manie slowly went up to her and sat down besides her, she wrapped a foreleg around her and pulling her to her, the filly leans her head on Manie's shoulder.

"Lacie..." she said softly.

The filly couldn't keep her passive guard up any longer and broke down in tears, she began sobbing, a few heavy tears which she had clearly kept in for more than a filly of her age should have had ran down her cheeks.

"Shh shh shh, Lacie..." Manie whispered to her, patting her shoulder and pressing the filly even harder against her, "It'll be okay... we are here for you..." she comforted.

This only made the filly cry harder, she buried herself in Manie's chest and hugged her tightly, Manie embraced her and Lace began wailing in pain.

All me and Applejack could do was stand there and share her pain.

We took Lace Lizard with us after we left Breakfast Corner.

We all agreed that we couldn't just leave her there all alone after what had happened, she needed us while we were still in Sun Valley Hills, what we'd do with her after we had to move on was something we had to discuss later.

The rest of the day was rather quiet, Applejack stuck around with us to look over Lace (and possibly because she didn't want to go back to her boring sterile room in the labs) and I was reunited with our group.

Together me and Manie explained what had happened and what the situations with Lace Lizard and Applejack were, they all showed deep concern and support for both of them.

When the evening fell we retreated to a local restaurant, a quiet little rustic place situated some ways in between the central Overwatch compound and the western wall, it was neat, but had the distinct appearance of just having been opened, everything in there looked brand new.

Over a some vegetable soup and apple fritters we talked broadly about various things, mostly about Lace Lizard, Jim and Applejack, but also Overwatch, the night creatures and the frontier in general.

Swirly Star practically took Lace Lizard in as her own, much like she had done with Strawberry Feather.

Cloud Tumble and Blizzard Candy were more concerned with Applejack, and discussed at large the various possible scenarios that could play out should the worst happen and what they could potentially do if she was shackled again.

The idea of 'spreading the word' and letting ponies and soldiers across the frontier know about Applejack was brought up several times, we were pretty convinced that the ponies of the frontier would be understanding and that the soldiers appreciated Applejack as she was now and that they would surely help convince Overwatch Command or whoever was really in charge of Applejack to let release her again.

Our evening meal ended when Lace Lizard fell asleep by the table, it had been an eventful day for her, she deserved her rest, so we decided to call it a night.

As we left the restaurant Applejack grabbed hold of my shoulder.

"{Hey...}"

"Yeah?" I wondered what she wanted.

"{Sergeant Crunch Opal... How is... how is he doing?}" she asked me.

I turned to her, the others stopped.

Ugh, I was hoping she wouldn't bring Bonnie up, we hadn't mentioned him at all for the entire day.

What was I supposed to tell her?

'Welp you broke Bonnie's spine and he will never walk again'?

Shit, here comes Manie.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"{Ah was just asking how Sergeant Crunch Opal was doing, haven't heard anything about him since... you know.}"

"Oh, Bonnie is-" I gave Manie an interrupting jab. "Hey!"

"What she was saying is that we don't really know how Bonnie is doing."

"What? Yes we d-" I jabbed her again.

"No we don't Manie, we never went to see him."

She gave me a questioning look, she must have caught on to what I was trying to do.

"You're right." she said, "We didn't see him. We don't know."

"{Oh...}"

It was for the best I thought, we shouldn't be guilt tripping her with the bad news.

The two of us turned to move on.

"{Wait!}" she called.

...she wouldn't let go, would she?

We slowly turned around.

"{...can we go see him?}"

The two of us looked at each other and then at Applejack.

"...now?" I asked, trying to avoid it all.

"{Yeah.}"

"Can it wait until tomorrow?"

"{Please Heavens... I need to know.}"

Of course she did.

I sighed and turned to the group.

"You guys go on ahead, we'll go by the hospital to check up on Bonnie."

"Alright. See you tomorrow." Blizzard Candy said.

We separated and went our own ways.

Somewhere halfway between the little restaurant and the compound Applejack stopped me again.

"{Hey... thank you.}" she said.

For taking her to Bonnie I guessed.

"You might not like what you hear..."

"{You know?}"

I looked away, it was grim.

"Yeah... we know...."

We got to the hospital in a few.

It was late and quiet, most of the compound personnel had gone back to their barracks and mess halls, we only met a few disgruntled guards and nurses on our way up to the second floor of the hospital.

The lights were dimmed and it was deathly quiet, the second floor seemed almost deserted.

We rounded a few corners and found Bonnie's room.

“There it is, room 26.” Manie said.

We went inside.

Nopony was attending room 26, Bonnie was all alone in his bed. Unconscious, or at least sleeping.

He seemed absolutely miserable laying there, what few parts of his body that weren't covered in bandages and castings were covered in discolored bruises of varying size who were clearly visible from under his fur.

Somepony had left a small transparent bag of sour and salty candies along with a ‘Get Well!’ card of an unhappy pink stallion wrapped completely in bandages and castings plastered with a number of stickers.

His medical chart was laying on the nightstand next to him, I knew we weren’t supposed to snoop around other ponies medical records, patient-doctor privacy and all... but I grabbed it anyway and took a peek at the contents.

There were various charts and graphs describing various values of things I had absolutely no idea what they were doing. There was one thing that I did understand, and that was the black and white picture of an x-ray scan of Bonnies broken spine.

It was horrible.

It had split in multiple segments, his three broken ribs were also visible.

Two of them were downright snapped off in the middle while the third had bent into a deformation I didn’t even know bones were capable of.

It was... bad. Really bad.

Applejack tapped my shoulder.

"{Can ah see?}" she asked.

I gave her the medical chart, it only took her a quick glance to become visibly hurt over the damage she had caused.

"{O-oh no... a-ah... b-br... he'll never walk again... will he...}"

"I'm sorry Applejack..."

"{W-what have ah done...!}"

Bonnie coughed and tried moving his forelegs, he was waking up!

"...hey, who goes there!" he groggily called out.

"Bonnie, its us. Tombs and Manie." I calmed.

"Tombs! Boy am I glad to hear your voice..." he looked in my direction, his eyes seemed to be struggling to focus.

"Are you alright?" he asked me, blinking.

"I should be asking you that."

He chuckled.

"Why, whats wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

He tensed up, realizing that there was nothing funny about this.

"Is there something wrong with me? I cant see so good... and they have been keeping me all jacked up and spaced out when I've been conscious... Damn docs keep avoiding my questions." he gave up trying to focus on me and just leaned his head back again.

The three of us looked at each other, what do we do?

"Tombs? You still there?"

"I'm here Bonnie."

"Mind telling me whats going on?" he tried looking at me again, he was blinking and trying to squint his eyes.

"Well..."

"Whoa, wait wait, who is that orange guy? ...mare."

"This is..."

"{Ah'm Applejack...}" Applejack introduced herself.

"{But-}"

"Applejack, eh? Hey isn't Applejack like, a hero or something?" he tried to focus on Applejack by squinting his eyes.

"Yeah... yeah she is, that's Applejack alright. Heroine of old. I must be dreaming again. Goddess, I better not be in a coma..."

"You... you aren't dreaming Bonnie, this is really Applejack..."

"Uhuh, sure she is." he grinned.

"I am pretty sure she's dead. Ponies don't live that long."

"{Please listen...}" Applejack said, her voice seemed shaky.

"{Ah am Applejack... but you probably know me better as... uhm... D-dispatch...}"

"You sure as fuck aren't. Dispatch looks nothing like you."

"A lot of things happened after we were knocked out Bonnie..." I explained.

"This is Dispatch. The cider she drank when we were talking with her made her change into Applejack..."

"What?"

"Its a long story, we'll fill you in later... just know, that this is Dispatch..."

Bonnie froze and stared blankly at Applejack, she tried to force a smile but couldn't quite manage.

"Y-you- fuck fuck! Get away from me! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled.

He helplessly tried to move and flail around.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Calm down!" I tried to hold him in place so that he wouldn't end up injuring himself.

"SHE TRIED TO KILL ME! SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU!"

"She didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

"SHE SLAMMED ME INTO A WALL!"

"It wasn't her fault! Please! Bonnie! Calm down! She is not dangerous! She is not gonna hurt you!"

He calmed down a bit.

"Then... then why is she here!?"

"{Ah... ah came to apologize...}"

"You... what?"

"{Ah am so sorry, ah didn't mean to... ah wasn't thinking clearly and ah...}"

"Is she seriously trying to apologize!?"

"Yes Bonnie. She is."

"She nearly killed me!"

"Please Bonnie, she really didn't mean it, she regrets it, she really does."

He looked to Applejack.

"Do you REALLY mean it?"

"{Y-yes... can you forgive me?}"

He stared at her.

For a long few minutes it was just him staring at her, thinking.

"Okay. I forgive you. I guess."

"{Thank you...}"

He shook his head and sighed.

Then he froze.

"I... I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my rear legs." he concentrated on trying to move his body, all he could do was move his forelegs and upper body. "T-tombs!? Whats wrong with me!?"

"I... eh... you..."

"Tombs!"

"You... you broke your spine..."

I took the chart from Applejack and gave it to Bonnie, he checked through it quickly.

"Is that my fucking spine!?"

"Yeah..."

He grimaced in horror.

"Its fucking shattered!"

"Bonnie, take it easy."

"They are gonna fix this right!? They are gonna fix my spine Tombs, aren't they!?"

'His spine is broken, there are various cybernetic replacements, the technology exists.'

'But they are incredibly expensive and with the sergeants pay check...'

...

"I'm sorry Bonnie..."

"No! No! They ARE going to fix this! They can't just leave me like this!"

"The doc said that they could... cybernetic replacements... but... that they are very expensive and with the pay you get..."

"No! That's not right! I signed my life to Overwatch! They fucking OWE me!" he was terrified.

He slowly looked to Applejack. "You."

"You did this to me. You broke my spine. This is your fault!"

"Bonnie, don't-"

"This is NOT okay, this is NOT fucking okay!" he threw the medical chart at Applejack, she narrowly avoided being hit in the head with it. "Get out, GET THE FUCK OUT!" he yelled at her.

"Bonnie please-"

"I TAKE IT BACK, I DON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR FUCKING MY LIFE UP, GET OUT, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

Applejack got upset, she was on the brink of crying, or at least something akin to it.

"{But-}"

"NO, I DON'T CARE, GO AWAY! FUCK OFF!" he kept yelling.

Applejack couldn't take any more verbal abuse, she took the gist and stormed off.

Manie sighed. "I'll... I'll go talk to her." she cast Bonnie a cold glare before heading off to find Applejack.

The two of us were left alone.

Bonnie was furious and absolutely torn up over this, he was shaking, sobbing even.

"Was... was that really necessary?" I asked in Applejack's defense. "She wasn't in control, what she did wasn't her fault..."

"I don't care, I don't care! I-I'll never walk again!" he cried.

"She made sure of that!"

Goddess, what am I supposed to say?

His spine is broken, he wont walk again unless he gets a replacement, and as it's been made clear, he wont be getting that anytime soon...

I feel so bad, there isn't anything encouraging that I CAN say, I can't even be a good friend and tell him that I'll be here for him and that I'll help him work it out, I wont be staying in Sun Valley for much longer after all.

"Bonnie... I'm... I'm sorry, I really wish there was something I could to to help..."

He looked away.

"There isn't. Please... please go... I want to be left alone for a bit..."

"Are you sure...? I can stay if you'd like."

"Just go."

"Okay...", I went up to the door. "...call me if you need anything, alright?"

He didn't respond.

I'll leave him alone then...

I shut the door and found myself back in the corridor, I wondered where Manie could have gone off.

I made my way back to the elevator and took it down to the ground level, then I stepped out into the courtyard.

It was pitch black outside, a nip of cold was in the air.

There were no benches, nothing to sit down on, so I just sat down and leaned against a wall by the hospital entrance to wait for Manie, I was sure she'd catch up with me or at least pass by the hospital entrance in a bit.

But I waited and waited and Manie didn't show up.

From time to time a medical pony or soldier would leave or go into the hospital, ponies who changed shifts I guessed.

After what I thought could have been half an hour I decided to just forget about it and go back to my room.

When I came back I found Manie sitting on a couch in the little waiting room connecting our rooms.

She was paging through some magazine about flowering, her expression suggested that she wasn't really doing it out of interest as much as out of boredom.

Once she noticed me she put the magazine down and got up.

"Where have you been? I've been waiting for ages!"

I was a little surprised.

"Me? You've been waiting for me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"That's... hmm... truth be told, I was actually waiting for you too."

"Where?"

"Just outside the hospital. I thought you'd come looking for me."

"Oh.", she looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Guess we're both kinda new to this." I smiled at her, she relaxed a little.

"So how did your talk with Applejack go?"

"She'll be fine... I caught up with her in her room and she feels really sorry about Bonnie... she really wants to make it up to him, so she says that she is going to try and see if she can request a spine replacement for him."

"Oh, that's... that's great!"

That'd be fantastic!

It probably wouldn't even things out between the two, but at least it'd help undo the damage she did.

"The thing is," she continued, "Is that she wasn't so sure she'd manage."

"What do you mean?"

"She said that she couldn't really ask for anything whenever she liked. She was very clear on there being serious mistrust between her and the Overwatch commanders and that they probably wouldn't just bend to her requests and needs."

"She said that getting the APC, a valuable military resource out here would be hard, and that it'd be unlikely that they would ever agree on getting Bonnie that spine replacement. She gave me this whole argument about how cybernetic replacements were this top of the line stuff that cost an extraordinary amount of bits to make and how they would have to fly in doctors from the mainland to peform the surgery here..."

"Then why not fly Bonnie back to the mainland?"

"When Bonnie is discharged and sent back home he'll be out of the responsibility of Overwatch and their jurisdiction. He'll be a crippled pony, abandoned by society. The least she could do was extend the amount of time that he'd be allowed to stay in the Sun Valley hospital before he is sent off."

"I see."

I thought about this for a moment.

"Well... the APC isn't that big of a deal for me... I'm sure we'll manage without it, somehow... It's Bonnie that I'm really concerned about."

"Yeah... me too."

She sighed and sat back down.

I went up and sat down next to her.

"You know... we forgot to go see Brook..." I said, a little ashamed.

"The others went to see him earlier today." she said, completely calm and unfazed.

"They did?"

"Mmhmm. Brook is stable and is recovering well. But for some reason he hasn't returned to consciousness."

"...why not? He hasn't taken any head injuries... I understand if he passed out to shock and pain, but he should have woken up by now... it's been tw- three days, right?"

"I think so."

"Shit... we should really check up on him."

Manie leaned her head against my shoulder and yawned.

"We can do that tomorrow..."

I guess we could... I was feeling pretty tired myself...

"...tired?"

"Very."

"Wanna get some sleep?"

She looked at me.

"Will you be joining me?"

I shrugged.

"I guess, if you'd like to."

"I would."

I went up to her and offered her a hoof.

"Lets go then."

She accepted it and the two of us went into her room.

There wasn't much to be said, the two of us simply tucked into bed.

It felt nice getting in under the covers with her, it had been chilly outside and I was feeling a bit worn out.

For being such a short day it had been quite eventful, there was much to think about...

She scooted in close to me, I could feel her back pressed against me...

I laid a leg around her and settled in.

So nice... so warm...

I soon fell asleep, face buried in her soft mane...