The noises of wood and mechanized parts at the blocked door grew louder and louder. Lollimint gripped Scythe closer as she began to shake. Powdered Sugar took stance as he watched the beams before the door creak from increased banging on the door. The whirs of cogs and clanks of wood on wood grew louder as the door began to crack and groan from incessant pounding. Lollimint quivered as her eyes grew as huge as dinner plates. Powdered Sugar gritted his teeth as he slowly advanced a bit further.

“Lolli, what is all that sound?” a sleepy foal voice said from the staircase close to the door.

Lollimint was horrified as Crisp Coat began to sleepily trot down the stairs. The door was now barely keeping the mechanized horrors at bay. She jumped from the couch and pelted towards him as fast as her hooves could carry her. Crisp cried in horror as the door exploded when Lollimint reached him. Adult-sized wooden ponies swarmed out of the previously blocked off room. Their vacant eye sockets pointed forwards as the stampeded out of their prison into a hail of machine gun fire. The peppering of Powdered Sugar’s guns began tearing many of the first wave to splintered parts. Eerily, the parts kept moving until their heads were busted wide open in the bullet spray.

The nightmarish whir of gears for whinnies erupted from the second wave as they kept coming. Lollimint held Crisp tightly as she watched them. Mixtures of wood and steel, these ponies were mechanical monsters. The more frightening sight was the array of pony body parts intermingled with their designs. Bones and hair from their pony life were secured to their mechanical forms. Unicorns had their true horns popping and fizzing to attempt to conjure spells. Pegasi had stubby wings bones mounted on steel framework, that flapped vainly to catch the air. All their manes and tail were pony hair of various shades and colors.

Powdered Sugar was forced to begin striking out with his hooves to keep the herd at bay. The living puppet ponies were returning his blows and trying to bite into his armor with their wooden jaws. One of the last ponies to leave, what they now assumed to be, the basement swiveled its sightless head towards Lollimint and Crisp. Its unearthly screech summoned a few others as it raced for Lollimint as she screamed bloody murder from the stairs.

Scythe found himself somewhere far from his home. The village he was in was run down. The buildings weren't more than shacks on the verge of falling over in one strong gust of wind. Shapes of ponies milled around the fog. Scythe walked closer to find these were no ponies. They were zebras. Zebras that were barely as old as him, and looked battered and broken; as he looked from one another one raised its head to look up at the mountainside. Scythe was shocked when he followed its gaze to see a medieval city covered in pink smog. That smog was so familiar to him. It was if he had seen it somewhere.

He then heard the clop of hooves trotting along towards the village and the sound of something large being dragged along the dirt and muck. The zebra from before began shuffling towards a large gap in the shacks. Many of the other older zebra followed this one to the gap. When Scythe reached it, he saw a shape begin to emerge from the fog. He sucked in the foul air as he saw a small adult pony mare casually dragging a huge fallen tree with the help of a yoke. Tendrils of the pink smog radiated from the tree and mare. The sound of flesh tearing came when she stopped to remove the yoke from her neck. The sickly green glow from rotten flesh regenerating her neck flesh made Scythe’s stomach churn as she casually pranced closer to her awaiting striped crowd.

The mare came closer into Scythe’s view as she approached them. Her red pelt was covered in rotten flesh patches. Bandages were wrapped and seemed to be fused to her barrel. The ends of the bandages flapped in the air as she pranced forward. The clink of old chains clattered as her hooves moved. These too were fused to her front hooves. Her cutie mark was scarred and patchy. Her long mane and tail was patchy and bedraggled. Then it hit Scythe when he saw her mane was tri-color and had glowing green eyes. This was All-mother Belldam.

One of the zebra spoke up, “Welcome back, Bell. It is so good to have someone around willing to scrounge the wasteland for us.”

“It is my pleasure, dear Angavu. I want to be part of this little town. It is only natural to try and help when I can,” Belldam said in a gentle voiced mixed with a light rasping.

The zebras parted their crowd for her as she walked past them, pink tendrils of smoke still came off her in a more faint amount. She smiled as she gave a side long glance to watch the zebras inch closer to the tree. A few braved the smog around it to toss out items she had placed in hollows. Scythe followed his goddess as she continued on down the road to the outskirts of town.

With the village occupied with braving the toxins of the smoke to get at her scavenged goods, she went unnoticed moving a large plank of wood up from a hidden pony-sized burrow. Scythe phased through the plank as it fell down behind Belldam entering the burrow. The glow of radioactive objects left a yellowish green glow to dimly light the burrow. Various bits of wood and discarded junk littered the earthen floor. The deepest part of the burrow had a small workstation and a bed of rags. On the bed was a wooden life-sized zebra. It even had stripes on its wooden body. The shine of the wood stain and lacquer made it a masterpiece. The Mohawk and tail of real zebra hair was a nice touch, along with the craved details for an emotionless face. The craved eyes were beautiful, even if they didn’t have any pupils or iris. It took Scythe’s breathe away at its beauty of craftsmanship.

Scythe jumped as the wooden zebra lifted its head. Belldam chuckled as she eyed the living doll. This was her first creation in a long time. Scythe was giddy at the idea his goddess was out there still practicing her craft on ponies.

“Well, Zordic the Thief, how do you like your new body? It took so very long to make you. Not a lot of good parts left in this wasteland. I had to risk going into the Canterlot ruins every few days to gather supplies and find enough strong wood to create your body. Well, worth the trouble though. It is time you began you penance for being a robber, let alone a robber foolish enough to enter my inner sanctum. From now on you serve me. Seeing as I have control on all those I craft, you have no choice in the matter. I didn’t give you a mechanized muzzle, so nopony can hear your words besides me. You. Are. Mine!” Belldam said as she lorded over the zebra.

Zordic merely hung his head in despair. Scythe felt his grin grow as he watched Belldam deal out her brand of justice. She had changed this thief into her personal servant. He would spend all eternity assisting her for choosing to steal from ponies that had very little. Belldam turns slowly to where Scythe was. There was no way she could see him, could she?

“My very name used to be able to stop even my son’s creations alongside mine. My will controls all of them,” Belldam said in a reminiscent voice, which rasped with strain.

Scythe bolted upright as he shouted, “Belldam!”

The living dolls froze in their assaults. One was frozen in place inches from Lollimint and Crisp, the herd on Powdered Sugar didn’t even resist against his efforts to escape their masses. Scythe soaked this in as he began to realize he had just received another vision from Belldam. This one gave him control of the current situation. He got to his hooves, placed the most authoritative gaze he could on the dolls.

“I am Scythe, direct descendant of Belldam. Look upon me and see the visage of your mistress!” he called out to the dolls.

The dolls began to inch away from their prey and approach him. They stared with their unseeing eyes at him, as if taking in every part of him that Belldam’s genetics had shown through. He made a silent prayer to the All-mother these creatures could see enough of her in him to obey his cease fire.

The whirs of gears and clank of wood slowed as they all stood in attention before him. The living doll herd took their time to look upon Scythe with their unseeing eyes. They did not move. They did not make a noise. They only looked upon him expectantly. Scythe felt a rush at having these nightmare creatures looking to him for guidance. He then cleared his throat before addressing them again.

“Belldam lives. As her descendant, she would not be pleased with harm coming to me or my companions. She will know what you did if you do. Leave us. Go about your lives as you wish, but leave us now,” Scythe said in a commanding voice.

The cogs and gears of the living doll herd began to sound as they turned to leave. Powdered Sugar tensed as they approached him again. This time, they did not look at him. They all just walked out of the house calmly. It was as if they no longer cared or saw them as they milled out into the ruins of Paintburg. Powdered Sugar looked to Scythe with a darken gaze. Scythe stood tall until the last living doll left, and deflated in front of him.

“What…was that,” Powdered Sugar asked.

“Living dolls. My ancestor and All-mother of my religion made them before the bombs fell. She was said to be executed back then too,” Scythe replied as he lay on the couch.

“You just said she lived. How can a pony that died then be alive now?” Powdered Sugar pressed.

“That. That was mostly a bluff. But, I have been having visions since we left the stable. The one I had before I woke up had her in it. She told me how to stop them. But, she looked like a rotting corpse. Her flesh ripped off and just regenerated. She was in a wasteland town…I think,” Scythe explained. He was more saying it aloud remembering his vision than really caring about telling Powdered Sugar.

“Sounds like she is a ghoul,” Powdered Sugar said offhandedly.

“A what,” Lollimint asked as she came out with Crisp Coat.

“Living dead pony. Ghouls mostly come from ponies that didn't exactly die during the bombings. Their bodies are dead, but they are still very much alive in some way. Most have gone crazy due to the longtime of isolation from other ponies, and being the living dead. Sounds like this Belldam mare did not die by execution. She must have lived until the bombs fell and became a ghoul. That is, unless your friend isn't just having some nightmares,” Powdered Sugar explained.

“Trust me. When it comes to his All-mother, Scythe doesn't count anything with her as a nightmare,” Lollimint grumbled.

They stood in silence for a moment before Lollimint asked, “Sir Sugar, why did your steel ranger group attack our stable? You seem so nice, for a pony that helped destroy all I knew.”

Powdered Sugar stood in silence as the stable ponies all looked at him. They all wanted to know why the steel ponies had attacked their stable. How could Powdered Sugar go on about being a good steel ranger and not address the huge moral hole in the whole situation.

“I…I don’t remember that night. Many of us don’t in my group. If it wasn't for the new technology and members of our group singing of the spoils of the battle, we probably never would have known. I feel so much guilt for my part in it. Our elder keep saying it was good to take from the stable. If that was true, why do so many of us rangers not recall ever being there? I would deny it, but Sharp Stone keeps praising me about my part in it. Part of why I am helping you is repentance for what happened in that stable,” Powdered Sugar explained.

“Then why won’t you leave them? Couldn't you just start a new group with the others that feel bad about what happened,” Lollimint pressed.

“No, I took an oath when I joined the rangers. I rather find out why my group has become corrupt and fix it. I can’t run away and pretend I never did anything wrong. It is my duty to my fellow rangers to at least try and make it right,” Powdered Sugar said as he turned to leave, “I am sorry if you dislike this answer, but I have my own priorities in life. One of those is my duties as a steel ranger.

“If you come to a point you can’t be with them any longer, look us up. I’m sure Scythe can take the stick out of his rump to allow another ally among us,” Lollimint said as he walked out the door.

Powdered Sugar turned his head and gave a short nod as he replied, “Thank you, Miss Mint. I will remember that.”

He was gone with the rest of the morning easing into being. The stable ponies watched from the window as he galloped out of the town. The living doll herd milling through the town was still paying him no mind. It was beginning to sink in what kind of world they now faced. They had made an ally, but it would take more than one steel ranger off doing his duty for them to survive around here. Slowly they all began to ready their things to travel from her on out.

Author's Note

Whoa, buddy. It has been a long time. good thing this chapter was mostly written around the time the last one was. I miss working on this story.